Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 9 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Reclamation Village’s Crisis

The unexpected reunion surprised the two elves greatly, especially Kei, whose eyes were wide as saucers. In any case, standing around in shock wouldn’t help anything. The inn was nearby, and since Leah and her nieces likely had a lot to talk about, we decided to move over there. After we quickly got our rooms booked at the front desk, we popped by Fukatsu’s room, where Thaddeus parted ways with us, then headed to one of our own rooms.

“This is my aunt Leah,” Shiran explained after we’d settled down.

“So you’re Leah? I’ve heard a lot about you,” I said.

Since we were going to visit Shiran’s hometown, Shiran had told me a number of things beforehand. Leah was the wife of Rapha’s chief. Rapha was a reclamation village close to Shiran’s hometown of Kehdo. Leah was Shiran’s mother’s older sister, making her Kei’s great-aunt. She was relatively old, but elves had longer life spans than regular humans, so based on her appearance and demeanor, she looked to be in her twenties.

“This is Majima Takahiro and Katou Mana,” Shiran continued. “You may have heard the rumors on the wind already. Several months ago, an unprecedented number of saviors arrived at Fort Ebenus. These two are saviors who came to this world with them.”

In all the towns we’d visited until now, we concealed that we were visitors to avoid any trouble. Instead, we pretended to be descendants of visitors, those of blessed blood. However, we’d already discussed this exact situation beforehand, so Shiran introduced us as visitors to her aunt.

One reason she did so was because we were planning on staying in Kehdo for the time being. If we were only passing through and didn’t have many opportunities to interact with the locals, then we could probably get by acting as blessed blood without letting it slip. But during a prolonged stay, that would be difficult.

The far more important reason, though, considering the future, was that hiding our identities would hinder developing trust. After we heard about the past savior in Draconia, we’d decided to do everything we could to create a place in this world where we could be accepted.

That said, it would be unwise to let information that visitors were staying in Shiran’s hometown spread too far. Visitors were of utmost importance to this world. If we got caught up in some local dispute, it could take all we had to deal with it, making it more difficult to accomplish our goal.

Nevertheless, after discussing it with Shiran, we’d concluded that this was somewhat improbable. First, we weren’t going to recklessly announce that we were visitors more than necessary. The only places we planned on revealing our identities were Kehdo and the neighboring Rapha, which had extremely close relations to Kehdo.

Second, villagers normally didn’t encounter anyone outside of their own village. This world was rampant with monsters, so there was a striking number of people who’d never left the village they were born in. Towns were a different story, due to trade coming and going to match their increased scale, but such traffic was extremely limited in villages. That was to say nothing of reclamation villages tasked with clearing the most dangerous lands of this world. Trade was basically nonexistent in those.

And lastly, considering that the commander, a member of the beloved royal family, had invited us to stay here in secret, an information leak was pretty much impossible. That was Shiran’s opinion as a local of a reclamation village, and I agreed with her. If we were to fear taking any risks even with all these conditions in place, we wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.

“Yes. I’ve heard stories that a great many saviors have arrived,” Leah said with a nod, then turned my way. “I never thought I would get to meet any, though. Takahiro, Mana, it is an honor to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise,” I replied.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Katou added.

Now that our introductions were done, we moved on to the rest of my companions.

“This girl is serving as my attendant. Her name is Rose.”

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Leah,” Rose said.

We decided that all of my servants should be treated as my attendants. We couldn’t possibly tell the truth, so this was a passable way of getting by without really lying. I prayed the day would come when we could reveal everything as I finished the rest of the introductions.

“Anyway, I guess news of the visitors’ arrival has gotten all the way to Aker,” I said. “I thought it’d take longer.”

“It hasn’t reached all the villages yet, but an official notification was sent to all towns through the church,” Leah explained. “I had business here, so I came a few days ago, and I heard the stories then.”

“Is that so? That makes things quick, then.”

I started to recount our circumstances to Leah. I told her about our arrival at Fort Tilia and the fortress’s fall due to a certain incident. I told her about how the survivors, including Shiran and Kei, had had to abandon the fortress and go into the Woodlands. I told her about how the commander had invited us to Aker due to that connection and how she’d been delayed in returning to her country. Then I told her about our plans to stay in Shiran’s hometown in secret until the commander returned.

There were some facts I couldn’t mention, but I still managed to give a rough idea of why we’d come to Aker with Shiran.

After listening to our story, Leah stood up and walked over to Kei.

“Auntie...?”

“You’ve gone through so much.” Leah wrapped her arms around the bewildered little girl. She gently brushed her back, then turned to Shiran. Her eyes were fixed on the eyepatch hiding half of Shiran’s face. “I’m glad you made it back.”

“It is all thanks to Takahiro,” Shiran replied, smiling affectionately. “Especially for me. He saved me from great danger.”

“I see,” Leah said with a nod before bowing to me. “Thank you very much, sir. Because of you, I got to see my nieces again.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Shiran has saved me too.”

According to what Shiran had told me, Leah had lost three of her four children. Life in reclamation villages was always accompanied by danger. The death of a relative was, unfortunately, a familiar tragedy to them. That made Leah’s reunion with her nieces even more of a blessing. Her expression was filled with relief and gratitude from the bottom of her heart. It warmed my own heart to see it.

“By the way, auntie,” Shiran said after we reached a good stopping point and Leah returned to her seat, “why are you in Diospyro? Don’t tell me something happened to the village...” She looked both suspicious and concerned in equal measure.

Leah finished wiping the corners of her eyes, then straightened her posture before answering.

“Right. I came here to tell you about that, but...”

Leah gazed at me meaningfully.

I exchanged glances with Katou, then said, “Don’t mind us. Go ahead.”

“But...”

“What happened?” I urged her on in a slightly stronger tone.

With that, Leah began awkwardly explaining the situation.

“Actually, our village of Rapha and its neighbors are under threat by azure hares.”

I grimaced. Shiran had told me about these monsters before.

“If I recall, they’re native to the Woodlands in southern Aker, right?” I said. “They aren’t all that powerful, but they breed at fixed intervals, reproducing in great numbers that cause major damage.”

“You’re well informed, sir.”

“But auntie, what do you mean by ‘under threat’?” Shiran asked, looking dubious. “The azure hares’ breeding period is troublesome, but we know when the seasons for it are. The Order of National Defense and the Royal Army should be mobilizing to deal with it.”

Shiran’s suspicion was reasonable. Their breeding season was periodic, so they could predict when it would happen and prepare.

“About that,” Leah said gravely, “in a turn of horrible luck, with no relation to the azure hares, ruby bears have been causing a lot of damage lately.”

“That’s bad...” Shiran muttered, her expression now grim.

“Ruby bears are native to the Woodlands of southern Aker too, right?” I asked.

“Yes. They are considerably strong for the region,” Shiran answered, with a heavy nod. “If they’re on the rise, then the order and the army will have no choice but to prioritize them.”

“Now that you mention it, when we dropped by the army last time, we heard there were multiple eyewitness reports of monsters in the neighboring villages.”

We’d heard this from Shiran’s acquaintance Adolf, who worked for the army now. One of the eyewitness reports had been about the stray dragon, Lobivia, but the ruby bears were likely another reason that the army had been so busy as of late.

“At the time, Adolf didn’t seem to think things were too pressing,” I added.

“The situation may have worsened faster than expected. It seems I’ll have to inquire about the details,” Shiran said, looking serious. She then turned to Leah. “Even though it’s not the azure hares’ breeding season, the order and the army don’t have enough manpower to help. Did you come all the way to Diospyro to make a petition, then?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m here,” Leah answered. “Even now, there have been sightings of azure hares near the village. We residents of the reclamation villages need to go into the forest and clear the trees out, but we can’t do that now because we don’t know when the village will be attacked. I came to report that we can no longer postpone this matter.”

“What response did you get?” Shiran asked.

“They promised to send troops as soon as possible...but it’s questionable whether they’ll make it in time.”

Leah lowered her eyes and sighed gloomily. The situation must have been bothering her pretty badly. Darkness seeped into her expression.

“Having said that, this is all we can do,” she added. “Just as I was about to give up and return home, I heard rumors that you had returned to Aker, Shiran.”

Shiran had visited Adolf the last time we were in town. The Alliance Knights were already pretty popular in Aker, so very few people were unaware that the Third Company’s lieutenant had visited.

That was probably how Leah had heard of it. However, by the time she reached our inn, we’d already left for Draconia. This had discouraged her greatly, but just then, someone unexpected had called out to her. Fukatsu, who was staying in the same inn, had just happened to cross her path. He had told Leah that Shiran would be coming back, so Leah and her fellow villagers had decided to wait here for the past few days.

“I see. I understand the situation,” Shiran said as she glanced at me.

Right away, I knew what she wanted to say. I nodded and turned to Leah. She looked hesitant, but as she met my eyes, she resolved herself and said, “My apologies, sir. We’ve gone off—”

“Before that, Leah, I have a proposal. Will you hear me out?” I said, cutting her off. “We’re strong enough to fight monsters. We’re nowhere near the level of the other visitors, but I think we can be of assistance, at least for this. We might not be all you were hoping for, but I’d like to help. What do you think?”

“A-Are you sure?” Leah asked, astonishment written on her features.

“Yes. Seeing as we’re going to live in Shiran’s hometown, this concerns us too.”

I answered immediately because we’d already talked about this. We were planning on staying in Shiran’s hometown for a while, but we weren’t going to freeload the entire time. Well, in this world, perhaps a savior would be forgiven for doing so, but I didn’t want to be treated like that.

So what could we do? For one, Rose’s ability to make magic tools would be tremendously helpful. We could even start a business. But, then again, her works were a little too special in this world, so that might make us stand out too much. For now, at least, it was better to keep that hidden. Dealing with monsters was a pretty safe alternative.

During our brief encounter with the Skanda Iino Yuna, we’d heard that the exploration team had agreed to suppress the monsters around Fort Ebenus. In short, we would be doing the same thing. Just maybe, the exploration team’s leader Nakajima Kojirou had gone through a similar thought process. It made me feel a little sympathetic toward him.

We didn’t have the extraordinary power of the exploration team, but we’d still managed to survive in the Depths and had developed our strengths even to this day. We could help take on monsters from the Fringes. In truth, the reason I’d already heard about azure hares and ruby bears from Shiran was because I’d been considering how we could help with the monster suppression and the village’s defense.

Our chance to help had come with more urgency than expected, but it didn’t change what had to be done. We could be of use, and then we wouldn’t be freeloading. This would also help me find trustworthy allies.

I was a visitor, and visitors were treated like saviors here, so it was easy to gain trust. However, if the truth were to come to light, it would shake the foundation of that trust. If people knew that monsters accompanied me, there was no telling whether the label of a savior would be enough to maintain a relationship. We needed to make sure that their trust in us was a certainty before that happened.

“Th-Thank you very much, sir.”

Leah now looked so delighted that she was liable to leap with joy. And, just like that, we’d agreed to suppress the azure hares.

◆ ◆ ◆

We decided to stay in Diospyro for two days so that we could ask the army about the situation. Shiran had contacted Adolf on the day we arrived, and she went to speak with him the following day.

In the meantime, we said our farewells to Thaddeus.

“Since you’ll be staying in this country for a while, I will return to my journey as the clan’s explorer,” Thaddeus said.

The explorer’s role was to find land that the entire clan could move to in the unlikely event that their current settlement was discovered. Therefore, Thaddeus couldn’t stay with us for too long.

“Lobivia, you be a good girl now,” he said.

“Hmph.” Lobivia let out a curt snort, but once she saw Thaddeus’s sad expression, she panicked. “I-I ain’t gonna cause no trouble. I’ll do all I can so that I don’t.”

“I see. That’s good then.”

After hesitating a little, Thaddeus reached out and placed his hand atop Lobivia’s head. His usual gentle manner always gave the impression that he wasn’t very skilled at such things, but even taking that into account, his movements were still unexpectedly awkward. This was probably the first physical contact they’d had since Lobivia had managed to take a human form.

Even as Lobivia frowned, she kept still.

After pulling back his hand, Thaddeus turned my way.

“I plan on walking around the Five Northern Kingdoms for a while. Contact me if something happens. I might be able to be of help. I’ll teach you how to reach me.”

Thaddeus had made connections all over the world during his long vagabond life, so one could contact him by going through certain firms and the merchants associated with them, even if it would take some time. That was apparently how Draconia had contacted him about Lobivia.

After Thaddeus gave me the details, I took Lobivia and Kei to the marketplace so that we could restock the various goods that we’d used up during our journey. While we were at it, I decided we should get lunch too.

“There really is a lotta good food in town, huh?” Lobivia muttered while stuffing her cheeks with the chewy potato-based bread we’d eaten a lot of in Aker.

Whenever she ate, the sharpness of her features would soften somewhat, making her look like an innocent child.

“It was all potato and water plants in the settlement. The meat was good, though,” she added.

“Diospyro is one of the towns that supports the circulation of all goods in Aker,” I told her. “It can’t be compared to the settlement.”

“Our village isn’t all that different from the settlement,” Kei said, joining in. “But unlike the settlement, it’s even hard to get meat there.”

“That so...?” Lobivia looked a little disappointed, but then she stuffed the bread in her mouth again. “Tasty meat...” she mumbled miserably.

“Well, in that case, we can just hunt some ourselves,” I said, trying to cheer her up.

If we ended up being some kind of bodyguards for the village, we could simply hunt while we were at it.

Lobivia’s expression considerably brightened at the idea.

“I’ll hunt too!”

“No, you should probably refrain. It’ll be bad if you transform near the village.”

It would cause a huge fuss if a dragon suddenly appeared in the village’s vicinity. It was good that she was motivated, but we couldn’t afford to disturb the peace.

“Then...how ’bout I just hunt like this?” Lobivia asked.

“Can you fight like that? You don’t know how to use any weapons, right? Oh, your claws, fangs, and tail are a no go too.”

“Th-Then...barehanded?”

“That would be super conspicuous... Maybe we should give it some thought. Oh, I have an idea. Let’s ask Rose about it.”

As we talked, we finished our shopping and returned to the inn.

“Huh?”

“Yo, Majima.”

We bumped into Fukatsu Aketora in the hallway. Or rather, he seemed to be waiting for me to return.

“Got a sec to chat?” he asked.

“Sure...”

So I said, but this was pretty unexpected. Fukatsu had already apologized about the quarrel we’d gotten into before, and he hadn’t shown any animosity toward us lately. Still, that didn’t mean we’d had many opportunities to talk.

“Right on. This way.”

Fukatsu brought me to the room he was staying in. Kei and Lobivia followed along. Thaddeus seemed to be out, because I couldn’t spot him anywhere.

“There was somethin’ I thought I should tell you before we leave,” he started.

“What about?”

“The Colony. About the day it got destroyed, to be exact.”

“Aah...”

Fukatsu had been part of the exploration team, but not the first expeditionary force. I’d heard that he was in the Colony on that day. Our positions had been different, but we had both survived the Colony’s destruction. We’d never talked about the details of what transpired that day, though.

“How much do you know ’bout what happened?” he asked.

I smiled bitterly. “That’s pretty abrupt of you...”

Still, there was no telling when we could broach this topic again if we let this opportunity pass, so I could understand why he was bringing it up now. Besides, I had no reason to hold my tongue. Although, it was more that I didn’t have a good grasp on what had happened, so nothing I could say would become a hindrance to my group.

“In my case, before I knew what was going on, the stealing and killing had already started,” I answered. “The guys with power, those without it—they were all driven by fear. That’s all I remember. I was just a powerless member of the home team back then, so I didn’t have the time or the capacity to observe anything more than that.”

“I’m surprised you made it outta there...” Fukatsu said.

“I was just lucky.”

People driven by panic could turn into beasts. I’d been trampled on and nearly killed, and it was just a coincidence that I’d made it out alive. It still hurt my heart to think back on it. I felt blessed now and could accept what had happened in the past, but the pain itself wasn’t gone. It would probably stay with me for the rest of my life.

I took a breath and clenched my fists. A small finger touched my hand. It was Lobivia. She awkwardly pushed her fingers between mine. Her hand was warm and childish. Perhaps the pain I felt had been conveyed to her.

After giving her hand a squeeze, I asked, “What about you, Fukatsu?”

“It was pretty much the same for me. Before I knew it, it was already like that.”

Fukatsu grimaced. It was most likely an unpleasant memory for him too.

“It’s just...I heard somethin’ weird.”

“Something weird?”

“Yeah. I’m sure you already know, but the atmosphere in the Colony was messed up that day. It was pretty much a powder keg to begin with, so once our leader took the first expeditionary force away, everyone lost their restraints. Still, it’s not like they hadn’t taken steps to handle that.”

“Nicknamed cheaters, you mean,” I said. Iino had told me about this before. “The Beast of Darkness and the Absolute Blade stayed behind, right?”

“Yeah. Almost all the elites joined the expeditionary force, but a few stayed behind. With the Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya and the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji at its core, an emergency response force was put together so things would work out if anything happened. Well, by ‘anything,’ they meant monsters. Even so, at that point, they were definitely the strongest guys around.”

“So, what about it?”

“The weird part comes next. I dunno what spark blew the powder keg to hell and started it all. Kill or be killed—before I knew it, that idea dominated everything. At that time, I tried to report to the emergency response force. I thought they’d be able to do somethin’.”

Fukatsu paused, then violently shook his head before continuing.

“No. That’s a lie. There’s no point in actin’ cool. I was just pissed at ’em for not handlin’ it already. I wasn’t all that different from the rampagin’ assholes.”

“Fukatsu...”

He smiled cynically, but he quickly pulled it back.

“Well, enough of that. Either way, there was no point.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, scowling. “Are you saying they couldn’t have stopped it?”

“No, not that,” Fukatsu answered, shaking his head. “That ain’t it. I couldn’t even report to them. Before I could, someone offed the emergency response force.”

“They were killed...?”

“Yeah. Seems it wasn’t all of ’em, but they definitely couldn’t function as a group no more. In truth, we never saw ’em do nothin’ to try and control the panic.”

A dark shadow then fell over Fukatsu’s eyes.

“It was rough,” he spat out. “Even the guys who somehow held out got their spirits broken. After that...nothin’ could be done.”

I remembered the first time I met Fukatsu. He hated other visitors. That was surely because of the chain of events that came after this point in his story. Something had happened to him too. I wasn’t so cruel as to try digging any deeper, though.

“That’s why a thought came to mind,” he said. “The reason our Colony fell apart so fast was maybe ’cause somethin’ happened to the emergency response force from the get-go.”

“You’re saying they couldn’t stop things, not because of a lack of awareness, but because they were taken out before they could act?”

“Well, I’m just sayin’ it’s possible. I don’t got no proof,” Fukatsu replied with a casual shrug. His expression was nowhere near as light as his gesture. “I say someone offed ’em, but I dunno how many actually died. Also, the idea that they got taken out first is just my guess, based on findin’ out they’d kicked the bucket by the time I knew what was goin’ on. Maybe I just noticed too late. I didn’t see their bodies or nothin’ either, so thinkin’ back on it now, I don’t even know if they really died.”

“So it’s just a theory.”

“Yeah. That’s the gist of it.”

There was nothing certain about his story, but these were words from someone who’d been there. What’s more, they came from someone who hadn’t been entirely focused on running away and surviving like I had. It was worth hearing him out.

“The Colony’s destruction might not be as simple as we thought it was,” Fukatsu added. “There might still be somethin’ behind it. You’re gonna live on in this world, yeah? And...Katou too. If so, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to hear this.”

“I see... Thanks. That’s good to know.”

“No problem. I owe you for helpin’ Thaddeus and all.”

I could see that wasn’t his only reason, but Fukatsu didn’t mention anything else.

“I’m plannin’ on goin’ round the world with Thaddeus,” he said. “We might bump into each other again.”

With that, we parted ways with Fukatsu. If we got the chance to meet again, I thought maybe it would be good to talk with him some more.

The following day, Shiran returned with information from the army regarding monsters in the vicinity. They were also very worried about the state of things, so when Shiran visited Adolf, she’d stayed there overnight to participate in a meeting.

Now armed with the information we needed, we left Diospyro.