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Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 3 - Chapter 25




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Monster no Goshujin-sama: Volume 3 Chapter 25: The One Answer That Madness Leads To

Translator: Ai-sama
Editor: iwCJ

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~Lily’s PoV~

――And with that, I woke up.

“Nn, u…Uu”

An incoherent groan came out.

My consciousness was muddy.
It was a feeling I remembered.

This is, right. This is the loss of consciousness that’s characteristic of when my mimicked brain is destroyed――…….

“Ah, you’ve woken up. Miho-nee-chan”
“……!?”

I jumped up――or rather, tried to, but I lost my balance.

“Waah!?”

There was the clanking sound of hard objects scraping into each other. For some reason, I couldn’t move my arms.
My body’s movement was unexpectedly obstructed, and my stance collapsed――

“Tto, that’s dangerous”

――Just as I was about to fall, someone held me up.

“Jeez. Be more careful. I am going to keep a close eye on nee-chan. But still, because something could happen in a one in ten thousand chance”

The boy’s voice, full of concern, entered my ears.
The moment he finished, he made me once again sit on the ground.

“Etto”

I was confused by what was happening as I woke up.
The first thing that came to my mind was――the very common sense thinking, that I should first give him my thanks, since he helped me when I was falling.

“Th, thank……”

However, I couldn’t finish giving him my words of gratitude.

“……What, is this?”

Because I realized, that I was currently in a state where multiple layers of chains were wrapped around my upper arms.

Reflexively, I put strength into my arms.
The ring parts of the chain made an annoying jingling sound.

That was it.
It wouldn’t break, nor would it warp, it didn’t even loosen.

“Th, then……!”

I tried to escape the binding of the chains by undoing the mimicry and turning back into the body of an amorphous slime.

I couldn’t do it.

“Wh, why?”

For some reason, I couldn’t do the things that I could usually do naturally.
Then, I realized, though a bit late.

“This chain……a magic tool?”

The effect is probably something like restraining and weakening the target bound by it.
Thinking back, I was strangely weak when I tried to tear off the chain.

I felt the blood drain from my face.
Because, I was able to understand through my body, that the me right now, was no different from an ordinary teenage girl.

“You are……”

I looked fearfully at the person who was the cause of all this.

“Nn? What’s wrong, Miho-nee-chan?”

The boy, who was wearing a tattered and worn uniform, looked down towards me.

At first glance, he looked like a vagrant, but he wasn’t dirty.
His rag-like uniform was neat, and the sword below his waist was obviously expensive, but it looked very out of place.

It seems that he usually wore a cloak on top of his clothes, but right now, my butt was sitting on top of that cloak, which had been spread out over the ground.

“You have a funny look on your face you know~. Could it be, that you forgot about me?”

The boy said with a joking tone.

In truth, it was a face I knew.
To be exact, it was a face from the memory of Mizushima Miho.

“……Takaya, Jun”

Mizashima Miho’s childhood friend, and a cheat holding Warrior.
He was the boy who, to ask for help from the first expedition force, trudged through the forest alone to reach Fort Ebenus.

“You, why……?”
“I don’t like that, nee-chan. That stranger-like treatment”1

Takaya said, scratching his cheek.

“Call me Jun, like how you usually do”
“……”

Of course, there was no way I could call him that.

Honestly, I couldn’t grasp the situation at all.

The muddiness of my consciousness, has already subsided. Even so, all I could remember was up to the moment when I was walking through the mountains and met up with Master.

I don’t know what happened after that. The next thing I noticed, I was being restrained here.

What in the world happened at that place?
What happened to my body?
And above all, is Master safe……?

“Ah! By any chance, nee-chan. Are you mad that I left you alone in that mountain hut?”

Takaya didn’t seem to notice my confusion and spoke to me.

“I’m sorry that I made you feel uneasy, but, still, I did my best”

His tone was that of one enjoying this conversation.
It was one backed with familiarity, with a hint of sulkiness mixed in.

It was like he couldn’t even see my chain-bound state.

“……”

As before, I still didn’t understand the situation at all.

His reactions, his words, his attitude.
Could it be that Takaya doesn’t realize that I’m not Mizushima Miho?

If that’s the case……then this might be a chance.
I gulped with a ‘gokuri.’

If things go well, then I might be able to pull out some information from Takaya Jun about what happened during the time when I was unconscious.

I suppressed my inner turmoil, and opened my dry lips.

“……I have a small something I want to ask”
“Nn. What is it?”

Takaya smiled and tilted his head.
He had an open attitude, as if he was happy just being spoken to.

“……”

In my dismay, I momentarily lost sight of the words I should have continued from there with.

“Ask me anything, Miho-nee-chan”

The warmth of Takaya’s affection, wasn’t aimed towards me.
It was aimed at a girl who was already no longer in this world.

The happier he was, and the more cheerful he was, the more the hollow feeling of his affection, which had lost its target, made me lose my words.

“Nee-chan?”
“――ah”

The call of Takaya, who had a questioning expression, brought me back to my senses.

Stop. Right now wasn’t the place to think about unnecessary things.

There are a lot of things that I need to confirm.
I have to focus on what’s in front of me.

Shaking off my sentimentality, I turned my head.
I asked again.

“……Why am I here?”
“Ah. That? Well, I guess you’d be concerned about that”

Takaya Jun replied with an unchanging smile.

“I stabbed my sword into nee-chan’s head after all”
“Wha-……”

The confession of his crime, spoken as if it were nothing, left me at a loss for words.

“Did it hurt? But, I’m sorry, okay? I had to do that, because otherwise, the current nee-chan wouldn’t have fainted”

When I woke up, the one in front of me, who was bound, was Takaya Jun.
At that time, I was at least certain that he was the culprit who bound me, or was a part of the group that did so.

Also, the fact that I, a Mimic Slime, fainted, meant that I had most likely sustained severe damage that made it impossible for me to remain conscious.

If I think about it honestly, it means that I was surprise-attacked by Takaya Jun.

However, I more so thought that he did it by using some kind of special magic tool to bind me.
His attitude towards me was so full of affection that I immediately thought so.

“Do you, know……?”

I asked, still confused.

“I know, of course”

Takaya replied with a light tone.

“Nee-chan was eaten by a Slime. So, that body is that of the Slime”

As I stared at the boy in front of me, I couldn’t say another word.

――About that Mizushima Miho is dead.
――About how I took in her corpse.
――About that I’m a monster that has taken on the form of Mizushima Miho.

Takaya Jun knows all of that.
And yet, he still treats me as Mizushima Miho.

To have such a contradiction.
……He’s broken.

‘How did things end up like this’……is not what I thought.

Rather, it was something that I’m sure I could understand better than anyone else living in the world today.

Inside me, I have the memories of the dead Mizushima Miho.
Naturally, that includes the memories of her childhood friend Takaya Jun as well.

The album of memories has severely deteriorated because of the limitations of my mimicry abilities. The colors were blurred and the outlines were fuzzy, and several percent of the pages were missing.
Even so, I knew that Mizushima Miho had liked her childhood friend named Takaya Jun.

It was different from the faint, sweet feelings that the boy had come to have as he grew up.
But, there was a special kind of familiarity for the person who she had spent much of her childhood with.


In my opinion, Mizushima Miho was a wise girl.
She perceived that the faint feelings that Takaya Jun held in his heart were just a mixture of their special familiarity as childhood friends, and his longing for an older girl.

You could say that the fact that Takaya Jun didn’t make a confession was, in a way, proof that her guess was correct.

Takaya’s first love, wasn’t something heavy enough for him to even think of breaking their relationship as childhood friends. If his life had continued as it was, it might have eventually turned into a bittersweet memory of his first love.

However, that didn’t happen.

The transfer to another world, twisted their, like many others’, future.

They were never able to return home again.
Neither could they meet their families again.
Instead, they were being killed by the monsters that were attacking them, and weren’t even sure whether or not they’d live until tomorrow.

Everyone was cornered to some degree.
Takaya Jun too, was one of them.

The Takaya Jun that Mizushima Miho knew, was a childish and naughty boy, and therefore had a childish fragility.

Ultimately, he seeked for a spiritual pillar in his faint first love.

Mizushima Miho noticed this change in him, but she didn’t say anything.
Because she knew that it was necessary for him to do so.

He could persevere if it was for someone else’s sake.
It was the only way for him to stay sane.

It was because it was for the sake of the person he loved, that Takaya Jun could endure the loneliness and pain of traversing through the Sea of Trees alone.

So, when Mizushima Miho, the target of his affection, died a cruel death, his heart once again all too quickly lost all of its supports.

His eyes could no longer see anything but what he wanted to see.

“I won’t give away Miho-nee-chan. Never again, not to anyone”

His soliloquy-like murmur, was filled with a dark fervor.

“Be happy, nee-chan. The me of now has the strength to do that”

‘Kachari,’ a sound rose from the sword on Takaya’s hip.
Then, I suddenly smelled the faint smell of rust at the tip of my nose.

If it was as usual, I would have noticed the smell with the sense of smell of a Fire Fang right away.
The smell of blood and guts.

I turned back, breathless.

“Wh……no way”

A short distance from where we were, there was a scene that could be called a mountain of corpses with a river of blood.

The corpses of numerous monsters were strewn about.
I wondered how many there were. The Kittles Mountain Range was certainly a remote and monster-ridden land, but even so, there was an unusual number of dead.

As far as I could see, Takaya Jun had no notable injuries.
No matter how much of a cheat holding Warrior he was, it felt abnormal.

……By any chance, could it have been that sword?
If it’s some kind of special magic tool, then it’s possible……

“I’ve become stronger”

As I turned back around, Takaya Jun spoke to me.
His warmth for a single person, and the absolute-zero coldness for everything else, became the opposite sides of the same coin as he smiled.

“So, you can be relieved, nee-chan. Because no matter who comes, I won’t give nee-chan away”

I felt myself shudder as I heard the murderous intent in his voice.

……Master is in danger.

Because of the battle with [Idaten] just before, Master’s strength has been greatly reduced. Even so, since it’s Master, I’m sure that he would somehow come up with a winning strategy and chase after the captured me.

However, if he can’t properly estimate Takaya Jun’s strength, his chances of winning will be ruined. For example, if he doesn’t know about that sword, there’s a high chance that Master will have the tables turned on him.

“Wait. Takaya Jun”

I can’t allow such a thing to happen.
I glared grimly at the smiling boy.

“I am not Mizushima Miho. I am Lily. Your childhood friend, Mizushima Miho, is already dead”

I was aware of the fact that this was a dangerous statement.

First of all, I didn’t know if Takaya could admit to Mizushima Miho’s death.
And, even if he did accept it, this time, to him, I would be the monster who stole the form of a person precious to him. It wouldn’t be strange no matter what he did.

Even if he didn’t, I didn’t know what would become a fuse and explode, with the current him having a broken mental balance.

If I was only thinking about my own safety, this was a stupid statement.
Still, compared to putting Master in danger, this was much, much better.

“Died? Nee-chan did?”

Takaya Jun’s simile disappeared, and he stared at me.
I felt my skin crawl at the sight of his emotionless, wax-like flat gaze……but it didn’t matter. I continued.

“Yes. Mizushima Miho is gone. No matter how much you think about her, your wish to protect her won’t come true”

Never again, forever.
The boy named Takaya Jun will never be rewarded.

“……”

In the face of the cruel truth, what did he feel?
Or, did he not feel anything?

The time of silence felt long, but in reality, it was probably only ten seconds at most.

“……That’s right. Miho-nee-chan is already dead”

Takaya murmured to himself.

“The one here, is the monster that ate nee-chan’s corpse”

It was a hollow voice that sent a chill down my spine.

The moment I ceased to be Mizushima Miho in the eyes of the boy in front of me, I would be beheaded.
Takaya spoke to the me who was convinced of so.

“But, what does it matter?”

The death sentence I resolved myself for――was not what it was.
Having said that, it wasn’t something that I understood either.

“You, are Miho-nee-chan”
“……eh?”

An absent-minded voice escaped from me as I looked up to Takaya.

There, he had a smile once again.
He had an unconditional affection.

And, he had a clear and pure conviction.

“……ah”

A breath leaked out of me, like a scream.
At this moment, for the first time, I felt not sadness, nor pity, but a clear fear towards the boy in front of me――towards the madness that dwelled in his eyes.

“No matter what form you take, I will recognize you”

Takaya’s eyes, which were looking down at me, were not focused on the existence known as me, even though they were reflecting my image.
But, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t see anything, that wasn’t it.

The eyes of a madman can only see what they want to see, so, could he have grasped what normally can’t be seen?
Takaya Jun was certainly seeing through into the depths of me, into the essence of me.

“Dead? Eaten? Like I said, what does it matter? Miho-nee-chan is definitely here. I know it”
“N-, no. I am……”
“You deny it? Then, give me an answer. If you’re not Miho-nee-chan, then what are you saying you are?”

The question that Takaya Jun asked me, was something very simple.
But, when I heard that, my lips unexpectedly froze.

What, am I?

I had never thought about it before.
It was a question that poked too much at the very essence of my existence.

***

My mimicking ability as a Mimic Slime, recreates the entirety of my target.

Even if there’s some deterioration, it’s almost equivalent to stripping the target of its very existence.

Master placed restrictions on the use of my ability.
At the same time, it also meant the erosion of myself.

However, in that case……what in the world is the [myself] that’s being eroded?

I’ve already eaten other people with a will.
Of course, it’s none other than Mizushima Miho.

The effects of that are evident here and there.

For example, I’ve been preparing meals for Master and the others since a long time ago.
Rose, who has the ability to make magic tools, had a lot of other things to do, and when I was suspicious of Katou-san, I couldn’t leave the cooking to her.

However, even now, after we’ve passed through the Sea of Trees and set foot into the human world, I’ve continued to voluntarily take charge of meals during our travels.

This is because I want Master to eat delicious food.
Because I find joy in the work of cooking.

But, this girlish sensibility……who does it really belong to?

There are other examples, like the conversation I had just before Iino Yuna’s attack.

For us in his family, Master is everyone’s Master. I can understand what Master is worried about, but I don’t want to be chosen as his only partner.

……But, to put it the other way around.

It means that, even though I have the senses of the family members, who by nature couldn’t understand Master’s view on love, I’m the only one who does understand.

Within me, there is definitely a part of Mizushima Miho.

But, if so, then where is myself?
In the first place, what is ‘myself’?

……I don’t know.
What I was, I didn’t know.

***

“……Looks like our break is over huh”

Takaya murmured something to me.
While I was thinking, he had carried me under his arm.

“Kyah”
“I thought you’d chase after me. I won’t give nee-chan to you”

As I closed my eyes unintentionally, I could hear Takaya Jun’s hostility, bare in his voice, in my ears.

When I opened my eyes, the scene beyond the mountain of rolling corpses entered my sight.

“……ah”

There, was a two-headed wolf.
And, mounted on its back, was a boy, dirty with mud and blood.

“I’ll be taking Lily back”

The sharp gaze of the boy who declared so, gently relaxed for a moment when it shifted to me.

“……Master”

My trembling lips and heart, called out to he who I held dear.

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Japanese has a bunch of different ways of speaking depending on familiarity, which is hard to translate into English.
So the author linked character art in this chapter, like this one of Rose:

Translation of notes (with my limited Japanese (I’m too lazy to write the kanji into DeepL or google translate to whatever(it’s been 4 hours lemme be lazy here))):

Top right: No clue (Something about her front being similar to Lily’s?).
Middle: Three strand braid (probably).
Top left: Rose.
Middle left: Character?
Bottom: Her eyes don’t actually have as much of a highlight (I think).





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