Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Visiting Town with the Dragon Child

I returned to the other room with Kei in tow.

“Welcome back, Master,” Lily greeted me with a wave of the hand. “Are you done talking?”

“Yeah. What have you been up to here?”

“We’ve been showing Lobivia the stuff Rose has been making.”

Lily looked to the window. Lobivia was observing the scenery outside through the telescope Rose had made. Thaddeus was next to her, and even though she was always so wary of his presence, she hadn’t noticed his approach. She must’ve been quite entranced.

“Lobivia,” I called.

She turned around with the most innocent of smiles.

“Takahiro! This is soooo cool!” she yelled. She was so excited that her usual thorniness was gone. “Is this magic?”

“No, it’s just a simple telescope. There’s no magic involved.”

“It makes things look bigger without magic? How mysterious.”

“From my perspective, magic is a lot more mysterious. A telescope’s mechanisms aren’t all that complicated or anything.”

I’d actually been a little surprised to learn how easy it was to make a telescope when Rose had created this one, so I couldn’t really act all high and mighty about it.

“Neat. How does it work?” Lobivia asked.

“Sorry to interrupt you while you’re so engrossed in this, but let’s stop here,” I said. “We should get going.”

Lobivia flipped the telescope around, looking into the other side, and patted its surface all over before looking up at me.

“Go? Go where?” she asked.

“I told you about taking a walk around town, didn’t I?”

“Oh yeah, you did...”

Lobivia looked bored, a complete change from her previous excitement. This was going to be her first time in a town, so the unfamiliar environment was evidently annoying her. The goal today, though, was to get her used to human society. I couldn’t spoil her.

“Do I hafta?” she asked.

“You want to leave the settlement, right? Then yeah, you have to.”

“That’s true, but ya know...”

“There are plenty of interesting things out there aside from this telescope. In fact, when I first took a walk around town, I had fun seeing all sorts of curiosities.”

“Even you?”

Lobivia looked just the slightest bit interested now.

“Yeah, I’m not from this world and all,” I said. “Just like you, I wasn’t used to the towns here. Didn’t you see anything interesting on our way to this inn?”

“Oh yeah, I guess there was a ton of stuff...”

“Just walking around and looking at things like that can be fun. Also, I talked with the others about this just now. After we finish our walk, I’m thinking of buying some sweets. You can look forward to that too.”

“Oh, that sounds great, Master,” Lily chimed in. She was all for it. Girls really did love sweets.

“What’re sweets, Lily?” Lobivia asked, pursing her lips.

“Oh, right. I guess you’ve never eaten any,” Lily said.

“It’s food?”

“Mhm. Super tasty food.”

“Super tasty...”

Lobivia was clearly very interested now. She loved eating. Even on our way back to Diospyro, she’d looked forward to every meal Lily made. She didn’t remember much about the time she’d spent locked up in her cave, but she’d told us of all the things she’d found tasty back in those days. In all likelihood, eating had been one of the few pleasures left to her.

“Okay, I’ll go.”

Lobivia looked totally enthusiastic now. She picked up the knapsack meant to hide her wings and started getting ready to head outside. Even though this was a lesson so that she could live out in the world, it worked better if we could also have fun at the same time.

As I got lost in my thoughts, I felt someone tugging on my clothes. I turned around as Kei pointed a meaningful gaze at me. I nodded to her, then turned back to Lobivia.

“Kei will be the one guiding us.”

Kei used that opportunity to peek out from behind me. Smiling brilliantly, she faced Lobivia and said, “Nice to meet you, Lobivia.”

In the next instant, Lobivia jumped back a great distance.

“H-Huh?”

Ignoring the bewildered elf, Lobivia quickly hid behind Lily, then stared at Kei intently.

“Um, Lobivia?” I said.

Lobivia’s face turned red. She had apparently run away on reflex because someone had approached her unexpectedly.

“I know... She’s our guide, yeah?” she said in a fluster. She pushed on Lily’s back. “Let’s go. It’s gonna get dark.”

Lobivia left the room with Lily and slammed the door shut.

Kei slumped. “Looks like she doesn’t like me...”

“You just surprised her a bit, that’s all. Let’s get going too. Thaddeus, Fukatsu, would you like to come with us?”

“Of course,” Thaddeus replied. “You’ll come too, right, Aketora?”

“Whatever. I’ve got nothin’ better to do.”

With that, we all left the room and followed Lily and Lobivia.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Wooow...”

Once we started walking around town, Lobivia got more excited. Her usually sharp features were softened by curiosity, and her mouth was agape. Her chestnut eyes were wide open, staring at the crowd walking up and down the street.

“There are so many people...”

Completely taken in by the scenery before her, Lobivia walked around in a daze. It wasn’t much compared to an imperial city, but Diospyro was one of the distribution centers of eastern Aker, so it had a reasonably large population. Lobivia’s settlement only housed a couple dozen people, so this was on a totally different scale. We’d avoided the main street on the way to the inn, so this was her first time seeing such a wave of people.

“I didn’t know there were so many humans.”

“There are way more in bigger cities. You can’t even compare them to here,” I said.

“Even bigger...”

She knit her brows tightly. It looked like she was having problems imagining it.

“No point in standin’ around. Let’s go,” Fukatsu said.

“Right,” I agreed. “Okay Lobivia, I’m sure there’s a lot you’re curious to see, but make sure you stay close to me. It’ll be a big problem if you get lost.”

“Lost...” Lobivia muttered. Then she suddenly came to her senses and clung to my arm.

“H-Hey...”

It turned out that she really didn’t want to get separated from us. Her stiff expression was that of a frightened child. The fact that she would let us see her like this was also a sign of trust. It was a bit surprising, but if that meant she would stick close, then it was a relief.

“All right, then. Kei, please lead the way,” I said.

Kei smiled as she watched Lobivia, then nodded cheerfully. “Leave it to me.”

She took my hand and walked forth.

“H-Hm...?”

Unexpectedly, I ended up with a girl on each side. Lily and Rose would be one thing, but Kei and Lobivia were both young, so there was nothing romantic or erotic about the situation. To anyone looking our way, it totally looked like I was being led about by children.

Perhaps happy that we were relying on her, Kei guided us in high spirits. I found it hard to walk at first with Lobivia clinging to me, but it got easier as we went along. After her anxiety dissipated, Lobivia started to look around restlessly.

“So? How do you like the town, Lobivia?” Thaddeus asked from the back.

“There’s a ton of people and stuff everywhere. I’m gonna get dizzy.”

“Indeed. Such numbers are humanity’s strength,” Thaddeus said, sounding somewhat like a teacher. “In general, humans are frail, weak, and slight beings. However, by flocking together in one place and building a history together, they obtain great strength. The towns that humans built up over the long years don’t even budge from a half-hearted monster attack, and monsters that cannot be defeated by a single human are brought down by an army without any casualties. Honestly, they’re terrifying.”

I could sense that these were Thaddeus’s true feelings.

“I have considerable power among the clan,” Thaddeus continued. “However, when I leave the settlement, I’m on my own. Once in a while, I feel like everything around me is crushing me.”

Maybe Thaddeus was trying to teach Lobivia what it meant to leave the settlement. In the event that she got permission, she would be in the same position as him, after all. Yet there was one thing that Thaddeus had overlooked.

“You’re not on your own no more, right, Thaddeus?” Fukatsu said.

“Aketora?”

“No matter what happens, I ain’t abandonin’ you,” he said with determination, even though he seemed embarrassed. “I’ve got a one-sided debt to you anyway.”

After a brief pause, Thaddeus laughed. “Ha ha... You’re right. I guess I’m not alone.”

“The same goes for you, of course,” I said to Lobivia, giving her hand a light squeeze. “You’re not alone. I’ll go with you all the way to Draconia. Don’t worry.”

“Hmph. I’m not really, um...”

Lobivia pouted, but she continued to grip my hand. Actually, she squeezed it tightly, never saying anything about disliking the idea. Once I realized that she simply wasn’t honest with herself, she was very easy to read.

Lily watched us with a smile, then turned to Thaddeus. “You two really get along, huh?” she said.

She had a point. I could feel how much time they’d spent together from their exchange. Lily had surely felt the same thing.

“Now that I think of it, how did you two end up traveling together?” I asked.

“Oh? I never told you?” Thaddeus said. “Aketora saved me when he was wandering through the forest. Well, you could also say he nearly killed me before letting me go, though.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

“I’d taken on my original form to travel over a long distance when I encountered Aketora in the forest. It came to battle, and I almost became his dinner.”

“What did you expect? Like hell I thought you could talk,” Fukatsu said. Their encounter had apparently been rather violent. “I thought you were game to eat. I ran outta food too... Everythin’ was a mess when I left the Colony, so I didn’t have none with me.”

I knew what he meant by that, and I turned around to look at him without thinking.

“Fukatsu...”

“Like I thought. You scrambled away from that chaos too, huh? The same goes for me.”

Fukatsu had also been there when the Colony was destroyed. His situation had been quite different from mine, seeing that I had no power at the time, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d witnessed the same thing. It made sense that he hated the other visitors after seeing that terrible spectacle.

“Meaning you came to Aker straight from the Colony?” I asked.

“Strictly speakin’, I went to Fergus, the next country over. That’s where I met Thaddeus. We traveled for a while after that, then this whole thing with the stray happened, and I followed Thaddeus back to Aker.”

It all made sense now. I’d thought it was strange for someone from the expeditionary force to come to Aker all the way from Fort Ebenus far to the east.

This was the first time Fukatsu had talked about himself, probably because we’d made sure not to probe into each other’s affairs. Maybe there had been some change in his mental state to make him open up like this now. Judging by how Lily was grinning, she probably knew why.

“I ended up meetin’ Thaddeus, while you met Lily and them. I thought life was utter shit when I got outta the Colony, but I guess it ain’t all that bad.”

Hearing Fukatsu being so uncharacteristically earnest, Lobivia turned around and stared at him.

“Lobivia?”

I called her name, and she suddenly came to her senses and looked forward again. I could feel the heat from her hand. She kept walking forward while deep in thought. Maybe she’d felt something from Fukatsu’s story.

After that, we walked around town a while longer. Having switched gears, Lobivia was now totally engrossed with the sights. Everything she saw was a mystery to her. She was particularly interested in all the armaments she saw.

With Woodlands covering half of its territory, Aker was constantly under threat of monster attacks. Everyone walked down the streets armed. There were many shops that dealt in armaments, and many blacksmiths accepted requests for repairs. When we entered the district where such shops were in abundance, the sounds around us changed. Hammers banged against steel, steam spewed from bellows, and craftsmen yelled angrily. We didn’t really have any business here, so we just walked by the shops.

Lobivia stretched her neck out like a turtle and peeked into the shops. Once in a while, her knapsack would shake even though nothing was touching it. Her wings were likely moving about inside. We were walking, so I didn’t think any bystanders would notice, but just in case, I warned her about it several times as we went.

After we finished a lap of the town, we decided it was time to buy some sweets, so we headed to a bakery. They called them sweets, but they weren’t what would come to mind for visitors like me. They were closer to flavored bread. They would make a dough from Aker’s staple potatoes, knead in fruits, and then bake it with salt and herbs. The nasis Kei had told me about happened to be slightly out of season, so right now they used dried nasis instead.

After we bought enough for Katou, Shiran, and Gerbera, we returned to the inn. The sweets could be preserved for a while, so we could keep some in our bags and give them to Shiran and Gerbera out of town when we met up with them tomorrow.

Once we got back to the inn, everyone decided to dig in immediately. We split up from Thaddeus and Fukatsu and prepared some tea in our own room.

“Mm... This is pretty good,” I said.

I took a bite, and the sweet and salty flavor, along with the characteristic taste of herbs, spread over my tongue. As someone who’d eaten sugary foods since I was a child, it was a little lacking to really be called a sweet. Still, it had been a long time since I’d had anything like it, so I could feel it seep into my core.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy it too. Lily was holding her hand to her cheek, a huge grin plastered on her face. Kei nibbled at the bread, holding it in both hands like a squirrel. Katou’s smile broadened in happiness. As for Lobivia...

“Hmmm?!” Her eyes shot open with a soundless scream. “Takahiro! This is super tasty!”

Her wings spread wide open, and her tail stretched straight out. This startled Kei, nearly making her drop her snack, but she caught it in a hurry.

“Wow! Amazing! This is great!” Lobivia added.

“I get it, calm down,” I told her.

She was deeply moved. This on its own made it worth buying the sweets, but I still had to give her a warning.

“That’s bad manners,” I said in a strong tone. “Don’t flail about while you eat. You’re scattering dust everywhere. Understand?”

“Ugh... My bad,” Lobivia said, folding her wings up.

“I’m glad you like it,” I said, relaxing my expression.

“Mm... It’s tasty. It’s like it’s melting in my mouth. Humans are pretty amazing for being able to make something so delicious, huh?”

I felt like she was admiring the wrong thing here, but either way, her first taste of sweets was definitely a great success. Lobivia made short work of her portion, and when finished, she licked her lips with her little red tongue as if it wasn’t enough.

“You want this one too?” I asked.

I’d been watching everyone else and talking to Lobivia, so I’d only taken a single bite myself.

“Really?!” Lobivia exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.

“Yeah. I don’t really have a sweet tooth or anything.”

I wanted the people who loved sweets to enjoy such luxury goods. Perhaps it was because I had a little brother. This little exchange felt nostalgic, bringing a little smile to my face. I handed my portion to Lobivia, and she opened her mouth wide to take a bite. And then she came to a complete stop.

Kei was staring at Lobivia, seemingly unaware that she was doing it. The moment Lobivia stopped, Kei came back to her senses and started blinking.

“You...want it too?” Lobivia asked her.

“Huh? N-No! Not at all!” Kei waved her hands in a panic, her cheeks as red as an apple as she realized she’d been greedily staring.

Lobivia’s brows wrinkled. She looked down at the snack in her hands, then at Kei, and repeated the motion several times as she fought against something inside her. Then she took a deep breath and walked quickly over to Kei. Even though she looked like a child, she was a dragon by nature.

Overawed by her monstrous presence, Kei started in place and began trembling.

“U-Umm, Lobivia...?”

“Hm!” Lobivia growled as she held out the treat.

For a moment, Kei didn’t seem to understand. She looked bewildered. It was pretty clear that Lobivia’s curt attitude was obscuring her intentions.

The young dragon blushed and frowned deeply.

“Hm!”

She thrust out the food in her hand even farther. It was like she was picking a fight. Even though she didn’t mean it that way at all, her attitude was strangely overbearing, and it brought Kei’s thoughts to an utter halt.

Things weren’t going to get anywhere without some kind of intervention, so I decided to throw her a lifeline.

“Lobivia is saying you can have it,” I said.

“Umm... Really?” Kei asked, looking both blank and puzzled as Lobivia’s glare intensified. “T-Takahiro! She’s glowering at me really strongly!”

“It’s okay. She won’t bite.”

She was just bad at communicating with others. Considering how she’d run away when Kei had greeted her just a few hours ago, this was significant growth. The daylong walk around town must’ve had some kind of effect on her. Her progress was worthy of praise.

“Go ahead and take it,” I said, urging Kei on.

Kei held out her hand timidly, and Lobivia handed the sweet to her with a sigh of relief. Kei looked at the slightly crumbled bread, then broke into a bright smile.

“Thank you, Lobivia.”

“Whatever...”

“Okay, let’s go halfsies then.”

“Huh?”

Now it was Lobivia’s turn to stiffen up.

“I-I don’t want it. I gave you that. You eat it.”

“Huh? But it’s tastier if we go halfsies.”

Kei cocked her head. She’d understood that Lobivia’s crude behavior and language was only a facade, and she’d managed to bring things back to her own pace.

“Takahiro. Thank you,” Kei said, smiling.

“That’s my line. Thanks, Kei.”

“Huh?”

As I watched Lobivia nibble on the half Kei had given back to her, I truly believed the two of them would become good friends.