Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 9 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Azure Hare Suppression

The next day, we pushed our way through the forest to begin suppressing the azure hares. Participating were myself, Lily, Rose, Shiran, Kei, Leah, and ten elves from Rapha who specialized in archery. Incidentally, Shiran’s childhood friend Helena was absent. She was somewhat capable with a sword, but not all that great with a bow.

Leah and the other elves guided us through the forest. We proceeded carefully as Shiran and Leah searched for enemies while Lily secretly added her nose to the effort.

“We should be coming up on them soon. Are you ready?” Shiran asked the three of us.

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

“Not a problem.”

Once we got close to our targets, the rest was up to the vanguard. Lily acted as lead scout as we closed the remaining distance with all due caution.

“Found them...” Lily said, keeping her voice down.

She pointed into the distance where we could see some azure hares. They were forty-centimeter-tall rabbits. Their olive brown fur was dotted with ragged blue stones, giving them a grotesque appearance.

There were four of them. Lily shot me a glance. I nodded, then dashed forth with Rose. At the same time, Lily’s mana built up behind us. The azure hares twitched. They’d sensed Lily’s mana, but it was too late. Her magic had already activated.

It was wind magic in the form of countless blades. She gave them no time to run away. A violent gale blew in, and shrieks filled the air with splashes of blood. Our preemptive attack had gone exactly as planned, but it wasn’t over yet.

Lily had focused on firing her magic as fast as possible, so it had only been grade 2. What’s more, she’d widened the area of effect to hit multiple targets, which had weakened the magic a little. An azure hare’s durability matched its small stature, yet not one had suffered a fatal wound. The wind died down, and the monsters regained their footing. Animosity flared in their eyes, but right before they could actually do anything, Rose and I struck.

“Oooh!”

“Hyaah!”

Lily’s magic had only been a diversion. Its goal was to buy time and create an opening so that we could close in and strike while they were off balance. Our true attack was still to come. The nature of our strategy required that we keep combat to a minimum and defeat our enemies in a single blow whenever possible. As we were now, we were strong enough to do that.

A sword flashed, and an ax howled. My blade decapitated an azure hare, while Rose’s hardy blow split one clean in two, blue stones and all. That left two more.

Naturally, our enemies didn’t just sit still and let themselves be killed. The two azure hares leapt back to get away, then turned their snouts at me and Rose respectively. In the next instant, the blue stones embedded in their bodies were glowing. Glyphs took shape, and grade 1 water magic activated, sending a water bullet soaring through the air at my face.

“G-Gh!”

I thrust my shield in front of me. I felt an impact along my left arm and heard a dull thud. The hit bent me backward, so I endured by twisting my waist and thrusting my right hand to the ground. The water bullet dispersed over my shield. I’d managed to withstand the attack, but now that I’d stopped my advance to defend myself, the azure hare was trying to take the opportunity to leap even farther away. However, in the next instant, a fist-sized rock smashed into its snout.

“Got it...”

The hand I had on the ground was equipped with Rose’s specially made Asarina Bracer. By channeling mana into the imitation earth runestone on it, I could fire rocks out of the ground. The azure hare I hit flipped over in the air, and I lunged forward to strike the vulnerable monster.

I immediately stopped, though. Rose had charged ahead of me and swung her ax. The other azure hare had tried to attack her earlier, and it was now dead. I’d seen it happen in the corner of my sight. When the monster fired a water bullet at her, Rose had ferociously swung her bardiche in a vertical stroke, cutting the projectile right out of the air. Then she’d moved to intercept both monsters in a flash. It was a dazzling display of valorous skill.

Rose could strike down any resistance head-on and charge in with astounding ability. She’d acquired these techniques thanks to Shiran’s guidance. Even if Rose wasn’t improving at Lily’s pace, she was growing steadily. I’d gotten to where I could put up a good fight during our sparring sessions, but I was still far weaker than her in actual combat.

“Forgive me for acting impetuously,” Rose said, swinging the blood off her bardiche and walking my way.

“It’s fine. We needed to finish them off definitively. I’d expect nothing less of you, Rose.”

“Likewise, Master. That was a magnificent display,” she said with all sincerity, her eyes directed at the bracer on my hand. A gentle atmosphere enveloped us. “It seems you’ve mastered the use of the equipment I made for you.”

Her expression didn’t change much, but I could tell she was in a great mood. She was happy that the magic tool she’d made was useful. Rose’s pureness could be ever so adorable.

I gazed at her reserved smile, when suddenly, Rose noticed something.

“Oh? Master, your face...”

“Hm? Oh.”

I touched my cheek and felt a lukewarm wetness. A spray of blood had apparently splashed against me.

“Ah. Don’t. I shall wipe it off for you, so please don’t move,” Rose said, pulling a handkerchief from her apron’s front pocket and nimbly wiping my cheek. “Your hand, please.”

“Sure.”

Next, she wiped each of my fingers one by one, cleaning the blood I’d gotten on them from touching my cheek. Her meticulous work tickled a bit.

Once she was done, Lily called out in a half-teasing tone, “Come on, Master, Rose. Quit flirting. It’s time to withdraw.”

“Right. Let’s go,” I replied.

Lily was probably just trying to ease the tension from the aftermath of battle by joking around. It was a little embarrassing, but I was grateful for her consideration. However, the overly serious and awkward Rose took Lily’s words at face value.

“S-Sister! I-I wasn’t flirting!”

“Yeah, yeah, come on.”

Lily laughed and brushed off Rose’s protests. There was something suggestive about her smile, which made me a little curious.

“Hee hee. It’s okay to flirt, right?” she added.

“S-Sister...”

Rose stole a glance at me. She’d looked so heroic moments ago, but now she was restlessly fidgeting with her skirt. It was starting to make me feel a little weird. I casually averted my gaze and met Lily’s eyes.

I could tell she was in a good mood from her enormous grin. I was still curious, but withdrawing was our priority right now. We kept our hands moving as we talked and retrieved the dead azure hares. Their meat was edible, and the blue stones on their bodies could be refined into pigments for dyes. Once we were done, we quickly left the scene.

◆ ◆ ◆

After reuniting with the elves, we distanced ourselves a little from the azure hares’ breeding grounds and took a break.

“Takahiro. Here, have some water.”

Once I sat down, Kei brought me a canteen.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Good work out there,” she said, smiling gently. “It seems to be going well.”

“Yeah. I was a little worried when Shiran proposed I take part, so I’m glad I can actually keep up.”

“I wasn’t worried at all,” Kei said, giggling innocently. “I believe she left it to you because she trusts your strength.”

“Is that so? I’ll have to do my best to meet her expectations, then,” I replied with a smile of my own. “Watch my back, okay?”

“Of course.”

The way Kei clenched her fists was charming in its youthfulness. However, in contrast to her cute appearance, she was one of the stronger members of the group when it came to combat. As a squire for the Alliance Knights, she was on par with an average villager, and she’d also been sparring with Lobivia lately, so her skills were remarkable. Therefore, trusting her to watch my back wasn’t merely tokenistic.

“Please excuse me, then,” Kei said with a quick bow, then returned to where the other elves were resting.

Kei spoke with me as she always did, but the villagers were a little distant, as if they were overawed. It was unfortunate, but given my position, there wasn’t much that I could do about it. I hoped that working together like this would help them open up a little.

As I thought about the situation, I took a swig of water from the canteen Kei had brought me. It had just the slightest apple-like taste to it. A small amount of cider had apparently been mixed in to give it some flavor. It had also been cooled with magic, making it quite refreshing.

I’d heard during dinner the previous evening that reclamation villages in this area often nurtured a rare type of fruit tree that grew in the Woodlands. That was where nasis came from, the fruit used in the sweets we’d gotten in Diospyro. They were sometimes transported to town and eaten as is, and sometimes they were sent all the way to the Empire in the form of cider. They weren’t in season right now, but we would get the chance to try some raw nasis in the future.

I finished quenching my thirst and let out a satisfied sigh.

Today was the fourth day of our efforts to suppress the azure hares. The plan was proceeding smoothly. In accordance with Shiran’s proposal, we repeatedly searched for safe openings to carry out our task and took plenty of breaks. Though we’d been going at a very careful pace, we’d still managed to take down somewhere around a hundred azure hares so far.

This was but a fraction of the entire herd, of course, but it was enough to push back a fair portion that had been overflowing toward the village. We’d actually accomplished all that was necessary yesterday. Any farther and we would have to enter the regions crowded with burrows, so our operation was scheduled to end today. Still, we had to remain vigilant until the very end.

Just as I fired myself up for this, someone called out to me.

“Good work out there, sir,” Leah said, walking my way with her spirit by her side. “Shiran has gone out for reconnaissance, so I came to inform you.”

“Got it. Is there something I can do?”

“Please just get some rest,” Leah answered, smiling bitterly. “Unlike us, you’ve been fighting the azure hares directly. You must be tired.”

During this operation, Shiran had been scouting for any azure hares that we could attack. Her spirit’s ability to detect things in general had some limitations, but when it came to simply detecting enemies, it was tremendously helpful. Also, even though Shiran had some problems with her body, she could still fight around Rose’s level, meaning she could act independently in the Woodlands.

Even though Shiran had decided not to participate in battle unless necessary—largely due to the deterioration of her abilities and her concerns with fighting a series of battles—she was doing more than enough on every other front. It was certainly impressive. Taking that into account, I couldn’t possibly answer that this was hard on me.

“I’m fine, so please take care of yourselves,” I said, grateful for Leah’s consideration. However, if pushed to say it, having lived in the Woodlands for a while myself, I was more worried about the villagers. “Just stepping foot in the Woodlands saps the spirit. If you’re feeling unwell, then please tell me right a... What’s wrong?”

“Oh. It’s nothing. I was just thinking that you’re exactly as Shiran and Kei described,” Leah said, putting her hand to her mouth and laughing.

I scratched my cheek awkwardly. “What did they say? Nothing bad, I hope.”

“Perish the thought. They praised you as a strong and kind man.”

“I’m always the one needing help, though...” I said, smiling bitterly.

Leah shook her head. “That’s not true. At the very least, those two don’t think so. Kei admires you, sir. She told me that the way you work to protect what is dear to you is dazzling. I believe that has had a positive influence on her.”

She looked off deep into the grove of trees.

“The same goes for Shiran,” she added. “I never thought she would meet the savior she was meant to devote her sword to.”

“Devote her sword...?”

I thought I’d heard that phrase somewhere before. I dug through my memories, and then I remembered. It was during our stay in that reclamation village close to Fort Tilia.

“Takahiro, do you know what manner of existence we knights are?”

That was what the commander had asked me at the inn.

“We devote our swords purely to the ideals of justice and the salvation of the weak. In a sense, we are much like the saviors who descend upon this world... There are those who prioritize fame, those who are corrupt, and recently, I’ve heard there are even those who are simply bloodthirsty for battle. Shiran is different from them, however. She is a knight. I’d like you to keep that in mind, Takahiro.”

Her face had been scarily serious at the time.

“Please continue to take care of Shiran, Takahiro.”

I remembered the commander’s faith in me...and I remembered my bewilderment.

There was no need to verify this after all this time. Shiran was a noble knight. She had unwavering conviction, and she kept her focus fixed on what she aspired to be. Her pride as a knight was a firm core that kept her standing strong.

The only time Shiran had ever shown weakness was when the commander was arrested, and even then, she had recovered soon after. Was there really anything I could do to help a girl like that? I wasn’t even a savior to begin with.

I was neither hero nor monster. Not that Leah had any way of knowing this, but I wasn’t worthy of such devotion. Still, that didn’t mean I’d forgotten what the commander had told me. Even if I wasn’t a savior, it didn’t change the fact that Shiran was my companion and precious to me.

“Oh?” Leah muttered, her body twitching a little. “It seems Shiran has returned.”

As a spiritualist much like Shiran, Leah had been keeping an eye on our surroundings while Shiran was away. A moment later, Shiran appeared.

“I found our next target. Please mobilize.”

With that, we immediately got to our feet.