Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: On a Beautiful Starry Night ~Iino Yuna’s POV~

Having parted ways with my fellow exploration team members, I left Serrata to find out more about the fake savior. I figured it best to head directly to the site of the news, so I went east out of Lorenz County and toward the neighboring country of Viscum.

As one of the Three Eastern Kingdoms, Viscum was located north of Fort Ebenus. Back when the exploration team was still staying at the fortress, the members who’d withdrawn from our ranks had started their new journeys by entering this country. In other words, the fake savior could be here too.

I wandered from town to town asking about the fake savior and crossed into Viscum. For a normal human, even if they wasted no time and devoted themselves entirely to walking, it would take them a week to cross the border using the route I took. However, with the legs of the Skanda, I could run the same distance in the same number of days while also gathering information the entire time. I left the town first thing in the morning, covered a day’s worth of travel in under an hour, and gathered information while the sun was out. It was an extremely packed schedule, but it was entirely manageable.

I couldn’t get any useful information in Viscum on the fake savior, though. I was told that several saviors were staying with the royal family, but Viscum royalty had met the exploration team in person before at Fort Ebenus. It was hard to believe that the royal family could be tricked by a fake.

It was probably safe to assume that the fake hadn’t come here. My search ended in vain, but at least no one was being deceived. I moved on from Viscum into Coppard County of the Empire. I didn’t find the fake savior here either, but I did at least hear rumors of them.

“Bann Viscounty and Dickson Viscounty,” I muttered to myself. “Small territories to the north of Coppard County?”

I was in a room that I’d booked for the night at an inn, getting my thoughts in order as I unbuttoned my blazer.

“I’m glad I heard the rumors about the fake savior being spotted...but unfortunately, the rumors aren’t fixed to one location.”

I took off my blazer and placed it on the bed. Then I took off my skirt and shirt and folded them atop it.

“It’s not like they have trains or cars here, so it’s hard to believe that there’s only one fake. Criminals of the same kind all appearing at once? No, maybe they’re a group of criminals working together?”

Now naked, I picked up a moderately sized cloth. I used the runestone I had on hand to warm up a bucket of water I’d gotten from the inn’s staff. Soaking the cloth in the hot water, I used it to scrub myself down. The heat of the water prickled my skin, but it instantly cooled in the air, leaving my body feeling chilly instead. I thought of how nice it’d be to soak in a bath. I let out a sigh and scowled.

It had been two weeks since I parted with the exploration team. Well, even before that, I’d been running around nonstop from the moment I arrived in this world. Fatigue was starting to catch up with me. Even though my body was abnormally sturdy now, I still felt both physical and mental weariness. I’d gotten used to traveling on my own, but functioning in an unfamiliar land still wore me out.

I started to think back to when I’d last taken it easy, and a certain boy came to mind. Now I remembered. The few days I’d spent with them had been the first and last period of relaxation I’d had since we came to this world. Although, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call that a period of recuperation rather than relaxation.

I wonder what he’s up to now... He’d said that he needed to fix his broken vehicle first, so maybe he was in a town in Aker somewhere trying to get a runestone. As I thought about that, a flaxen-haired girl appeared next to his image. The two of them suited each other so well. Then even more people gathered around their images, each and every one indispensable to him. He was surely continuing his journey alongside all of them. Conversely, I was...

My body shuddered, bringing me back to my senses. I’d apparently zoned out, and my body had cooled down considerably. I shook my head and threw the cloth in my hand into the bucket. I put on the loose clothing I used as sleepwear and walked across the room to the window and opened it. I leaned on the windowsill and rested my chin on my hands, then looked up at the sky from my second-story room. A beautiful starry sky spread out above me.

Nobody could keep up with me. That was what he’d told me. There was probably some truth to it, but that was fine. If I could defeat evil like that, then I didn’t mind.

“Hey, Yu? Why do you find bad guys so irredeemable?”

Was my fatigue causing this? I spent the time thinking about that guy and other past events. That had also happened on a beautiful starry night. It was shortly after the high school entrance ceremony, during a sleepover at my place with my best friend since middle school, Todoroki Miya—Todo. She’d brought dango as a present.

After pulling me out to the veranda, she’d smiled and said, “Okay, Yu! Let’s watch the moon tonight!”

“Why this all of a sudden? It’s not moon viewing season yet. It’s still May,” I’d told her.

“Awww, come on. I brought dango and everything.”

Unlike me, Todo was an energetic and bubbly girl. She could be a little bit of an airhead and a little bit of an eccentric, and she sometimes did crazy things. This had been one such instance. As if to put her haphazard planning on display, the moon had been just a little larger than a half-moon—a very unimpressive showing. Still, the stars in the cloudless night sky had been very beautiful.

“You wanna do this at my place next time? Mattie and Nordy have gotten pretty big. You haven’t seen them for a bit, yeah? You might be in for a shock.”

As we chatted, Todo had started peering through a handmade telescope she’d made during an event she’d attended recently. She’d cheerfully talked about how they’d gotten cheap magnifying glasses from a thrift store and had taken them apart to make telescopes.

I’d also been invited to that event, but I hadn’t participated. It had overlapped with my regular kendo classes, so I’d turned Todo down. That was why this little moon viewing session had been a form of amends, in a sense.

All the same, I would’ve hung out with her regardless. Honestly, it never mattered what the pretext was. It could be a study session, a pajama party, or anything else. We would always clean off the garden chairs out on the cramped veranda, take a seat, and chat in hushed voices. Our conversations had been about silly things, but I’d always had fun.

“Oh yeah,” she’d said. “I studied up on lenses a bit, unrelated to watching the stars. Stuff like refraction and whatnot. I think we’re gonna study it in physics next year.”

“Hmm. I’ll be doing social sciences, though. I’m planning to go to law school after graduation and all.”

“Huh? I knew you were doing social sciences, but you’ve already decided on your major in university too?”

“I didn’t tell you?”

“Nope. Hmm. So you’ve already planned it out. You sure are organized when it comes to stuff like this.”

“I mean, we already have to pick between literature and science come fall, right? You should put some thought into this.”

“Aah, I guess we do. Law school, huh? Maybe I’ll do that too.”

“Decide on your career course on your own.”

“I suppose I should...”

I could never take my eyes off of Todo, what with her eccentric behavior and all. As for her... She must’ve had her own reasons for sticking around me. Or maybe she didn’t. Either way, she was my precious friend.

“Hey, Yu? Why do you find bad guys so irredeemable?”

This had come up during our moon viewing session.

“Yu, you’re gonna join the police force, right? Why exactly do you dislike people who do bad things so much?”

When she’d asked that, her usual cheery smile had disappeared and the atmosphere around her had changed completely. It was always a shock whenever she acted like that.

“What do you mean? Isn’t that normal?” I’d asked.

“So...in other words, you don’t really have a reason?”

I’d nodded back to her, and Todo’s usual smile had returned.

“Ha ha. That’s just like you.”

“What do you mean?”

Seeing me frown, Todo had replied with her usual bubbly attitude.

“I really, really love that part of you.”

“Wh-What are you saying?”

I’d started blushing, and she’d smiled at me affectionately.

“For example, say I did something bad. You’d come and stop me, right, Yu?”

“Todo...?”

“But I’m a little worried. Are you going to be able to stay that way?”

I had no idea what she’d meant.

“Just always be the Yu that I love, okay?”

Todo could be an airhead, but sometimes she was very sharp. What had she seen in me back then? After all this time, I still thought about that for some reason. I decided I would ask her when we next met. There was so much that I wanted to talk to her about.

As I sank deep into thoughts and memories, I fell asleep.

◆ ◆ ◆

“What happened here...?”

Unlike yesterday, gray clouds covered the early afternoon sky. Rain drizzled on top of me. I’d dropped by eastern Bann Viscounty, where the fake savior was rumored to be, and entered the first village I found. Or I suppose, what used to be a village.

It was in ruins. Trampled remnants of houses were smothered in mud. The fields had been devoured, and the roads had been torn up. Even the walls protecting the village had been totally demolished, only a shadow of their former glory.

“Was it monsters?”

Traces that looked like claw marks were visible on the rubble from the walls. Elsewhere, there were what looked like devoured monster corpses, so monsters were likely the cause of this damage. I walked around the village as rain drizzled on my overcoat. The entire area was dead silent, but perhaps this was appropriate for the scenery of a ravaged village.

“There aren’t any bodies...”

After walking a little more, I figured out why.

“Graves.”

Even though nearly all the buildings had been destroyed, the graveyard remained untouched, presumably made after whatever had happened here. The gravestones were simple markers made from thick branches; they had obviously been put together quickly.

I supposed they hadn’t had much choice. There were a great number of them, after all. I estimated somewhere around a hundred graves. Considering the scale of the village, that meant nearly all of its residents had died. By necessity, an outsider must have dug this vast number of graves.

“Were you the one to dig these?” I asked.

The person standing in front of one of the graves, wearing the dignified armor of a knight, turned around to face me. She was a young woman with smooth black hair who looked to be somewhere in her early twenties. For a moment, I thought she was a visitor like me, but her facial features were those of a local. Rather than just being a serious person, she gave the impression that she had a stiff personality. She somehow reminded me of our leader’s assistant, Kuriyama.

I recognized her armor’s design. “You’re a knight of the Holy Order, right?” I asked.

“That’s right. And you are?” she said with a quizzical look.

“I’m Iino Yuna, a visitor affiliated with the exploration team.”

“A visitor...?” The woman’s expression hardened and she went on guard.

I could immediately tell why, so I said, “Please wait. I’m not a fake.”

I’d called myself a visitor in a region where there were rumors of a fake savior. If this woman knew of these rumors, it was inevitable she’d believe I was trying to deceive her.

“Not a fake, you say?” she said, creasing her brows. “Are you capable of proving that?”

“P-Proof...? Are you telling me to show you?”

The woman nodded and reached for the hilt of her sword. The air was tense. The powers I’d obtained as a visitor warned me of the threat this woman posed. She was quite a skilled knight. The sensation was similar to what I’d felt when I first met Shiran.

Shiran could boost her strength using the contract she had with spirits, but even without that, she was among the best of the Alliance Knights. It was no small matter to be in the vicinity of that strength. It seemed the Holy Order’s reputation of being the elite who fought alongside saviors wasn’t a lie.

How troublesome... I thought. She could probably exchange a few blows against a regular warrior, but I had a nickname among the cheaters. What’s more, one-on-one close-quarters combat was my specialty. If it came to a fight, I could probably win in an instant. I didn’t want to aggravate the situation, though.

Seeing the bothered look on my face, the woman gripped her sword, her stern brow furrowing. “If you’re unable to give me proof...”

At this rate, she was going to take a swing at me. The only reason she didn’t was because someone stopped her.

“Wait, Eleanor,” a voice said from the side just as she narrowed her eyes to strike. “This lady here is a true savior.”

The voice belonged to a bald man with tightly packed muscles. He wore the same armor as the woman, but the color of his skin stood out beneath it. It was a dark shade that pretty much wasn’t seen in this world. Because of that, he’d left quite the impression on me.

“If I remember right...you were at Fort Ebenus?” I said.

“So you do remember me. It has been a long time.”

The man I’d once met in front of our leader’s room in Fort Ebenus bowed deeply before me, his face remaining as still as a rock.

◆ ◆ ◆

The man introduced himself as Sir Gordon Cavill. He was the vice marshal of the Holy Order and the commander of its Second Company. He’d been with the Holy Order’s marshal at Fort Ebenus, but he’d been dispatched here as the Second Company’s commander.

“So you came here to deal with the fake savior?” I asked. “And he’s the one responsible for this destruction?”

“Yes. That is the result of our investigation,” he answered.

Much like me, the Holy Order had assumed that monsters had attacked this village. Residents of the neighboring village had discovered the ruins two days ago, and according to Gordon’s investigation, a person calling himself a savior had visited a neighboring village three days before that and had received a warm welcome. The boy had been wearing peculiar clothes much like ours—in other words, a school uniform—and apparently had enough skill to at least defeat monsters. Well, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to pretend to be a savior. The problem was that he’d visited this village next.

“Considering the timing, it doesn’t sound like a coincidence,” I said.

“We believe the same.”

“But, if so...it makes me doubt something. Was the person who visited the neighboring village really just a fake?”

I had come here to verify the rumors of a fake savior, but from what I’d heard, another possibility came to mind.

“The fact that monsters were the ones who attacked this village bothers me,” I said, reminded of a similar incident. “Sir Gordon, do you know who Kudou Riku is?”

“So you know of him too...”

One of the culprits behind the attack on Fort Tilia, Kudou Riku, had the ability to manipulate monsters. He could make them attack a village if he wanted. If that boy, who’d claimed to be the Demon King, was behind this, then a lot of things made sense. Actually, if it wasn’t him, then I had no idea how the village had been so thoroughly destroyed. I was sure the Demon King was finally on the move.

“Hm...? Hang on, Kudou Riku’s ability isn’t suited for direct confrontation,” I noted. “In that case, how could he have the skills to defeat monsters on his own? No, it’s still possible.”

As I sank into thought, I was suddenly reminded of the incident when Shiran had returned to Fort Tilia with members of the home team under her protection. Several bull wrigglers had attacked them, and I’d dealt with the situation. Kudou had been manipulating those monsters to put on a show.

“As a matter of fact, Kudou Riku can use his ability to put on any kind of act he wants.”

The doppelqueen Anton could pretend to be him too. Either way would work.

“Miss Iino, it seems you are more familiar than us with the Army of Darkness and its lord,” Gordon said.

“What’s that?”

“That is what we call the culprit behind the attack on Fort Tilia, the Lord of Darkness. If you happen to have detailed information on him, would you mind cooperating with us, madam?”

“Cooperating?”

“We are currently deployed throughout this region, though sparsely, following the tracks of the one claiming to be a savior. If you are chasing this same imposter, then it would be reassuring to have you with us, madam.”

“I see.”

If there was an organization chasing the fake savior, then I had no qualms with working alongside them. It wasn’t a certainty yet, but if the fake savior was indeed Kudou Riku, then I could offer a lot in terms of information. Plus, with my combat potential, my help would be of even greater significance.

Kudou Riku’s forces, made up of a huge army of monsters, were a substantial threat. Even among all the cheaters, Kudou was one of the strongest. The sheer mass of bodies would probably crush the exploration team’s common warriors. The only weakness I could think of was that Kudou tended to expend his forces in battle, so a series of fights would weaken him. Nonetheless, as a cheater and one of the exploration team’s strongest members, I should be able to confront him head-on.

There were personal benefits to cooperating with the Holy Order too. There was a limit to how much information I could gather running around on my own. It would be handy to have access to an organization’s intelligence network. Still, there was a reason I hadn’t agreed to this right away.

“Please, wait a moment,” I said. “Before that, I’d like to meet someone who has actually seen the fake savior. Is that possible?”

“You’d like to meet them?”

“Yes. I might be able to figure something out if I speak to them directly.”

This could also prevent me from getting overly eager like I had some time ago. Gordon appeared to be an honest man, but we could easily have a difference of opinion.

“Did any of the villagers survive?” I asked. “If so, I’d like to question them.”

Gordon shook his head. “No, unfortunately not...”

“I see... In that case, I’d like to go to the neighboring village. I should be able to learn something from the villagers there, right?”

I could make it to the closest village within the day if I ran, and it wouldn’t cost me much time. However, Gordon looked troubled by this idea.

“I can’t?” I asked.

“Of course you can, madam. But if you are going to the neighboring village, then I was thinking that one of us should accompany you.”

“You want to go with me?”

“We do not intend to get in the way, of course. It’s just that, in this situation where a fake savior is about, allowing you to go on your own...”

Gordon trailed off. It was clear what he was worried about.

“So you’re saying...I could be mistaken for the fake savior?”

“With all due respect, madam,” he said with a grave nod, “you may be suspected of being an impostor, just as Eleanor did earlier. We got by this time because I recognized you, but if not for that, things could have gotten dangerous.”

Even if Eleanor had attacked me, I could’ve suppressed her. Still, it would definitely have been inconvenient.

“Very well.”

I weighed my options and decided to agree with Gordon’s proposal. It was certainly going to affect my travel speed, but if I could make use of the Holy Order’s intelligence network, then it balanced out fine.

What’s more, I wanted to confirm for myself what kind of organization the Holy Order was. Louis had given me false information regarding Fort Tilia’s attack, but Travis had also been with him. I didn’t want to believe that it had been their intention, and I didn’t want to imagine that Travis was in league with this misinformation, but the situation didn’t foster absolute faith in the Holy Order.

I wanted to use this opportunity to confirm their intentions. Also...just in passing, I figured this would be a good chance to check if Travis was circulating unjust suspicions about Majima Takahiro through the Holy Order. If the misinformation had spread, I could possibly correct it.

Not that I wanted to help him or anything. He was an unpleasant guy. I hated him. Like, really hated him. But that had nothing to do with this. The mistake had to be corrected. That was all there was to it.

And after reconfirming that obvious truth in my heart, I got the conversation moving again.

“Okay, so who’s going with me?” I asked, figuring that it would be Eleanor, seeing as she was a woman.

“I will,” Gordon answered, contrary to my expectations.

“You’ll go personally?” I asked.

“This involves attending to an esteemed savior,” he said, nodding gravely. “The one to do it must be of appropriate status.”

“I see...”

It was a little surprising, but after I gave it some thought, I realized it was rather convenient for me. If I was going to be in contact with the Holy Order either way, it was better to have a person of standing with me. It’d also be faster to persuade someone important if I was to dispel the misunderstanding around that guy.

“Understood. I’ll be in your care, Sir Gordon.”

And just like that, I ended up working with the Holy Order.