Chapter 42
I'm Quentin Agater, commander of the Fourth Monster Knight Order.
The Fourth Monster Knight Order is unlike any other knight order.
Our knights routinely fight alongside familiars, which sets them apart from knights in the other orders, who go into battle relying on their own bodies alone.
Familiars are a new technology developed within the past hundred years or so, and much about them remains unexplained.
As a result, we can't make monsters obey us completely in actual combat. Many times, we've been frustrated when we couldn't carry out the tactics we'd planned.
―――If only our familiar had held its ground for just one more moment.
―――If only our familiars had coordinated their attacks at that instant.
But things don't go according to plan. The familiars' movements are off by just a little, and the results fall short.
The ones who actually suffer that frustration are the knights of my order, who haven't been able to handle their familiars well.
They feel bitterly responsible when they can't properly command the familiars they've cared for and trained alongside every day, and end up damaging the familiars' reputation as a result.
And yet, knights from the other orders dismiss it all as a lack of ability on the part of the Fourth Monster Knight Order.
They don't care that familiars are a new technology, that much about them remains unknown, or that we're still experimenting and learning as we go.
―――Results are everything.
Combat can mean death, so I can't say that attitude is wrong. But our knights are looked down on as a level beneath the others and treated as failures. As a result, they've grown distrustful and suspicious of the other orders, and even hostile toward them.
The most hot-blooded among them is my deputy commander, Gidion.
He isn't a bad man at heart. He's simple, straightforward, and even a champion of justice. But he's far too impulsive and hasty. One misunderstanding is all it takes for his strengths to become weaknesses.
He only really functions well when I'm keeping him under control.
But I'd been assigned a special mission that would keep me away from the order for a long time.
I was worried about leaving Gidion in charge during my absence, so I assigned Patty to assist him.
I hoped they'd manage all right...
The special mission I received from the Commander was to capture the Black King.
Monsters have their own power structure. Half a year ago, we received word that one of the three great magical beasts ruling this continent might be gone.
A report came in that a Red Dragon had been spotted flying above Mount Kokugaku, at the northern edge of the continent.
Afterward, the Red Dragon descended to that place, stayed there for a while, and then took to the sky again.
Mount Kokugaku had long been ruled by a single Black King, whose absolute power had forbidden all other dragons from entering its territory.
For a dragon other than the Black King to fly overhead, descend to the mountain, and then take to the sky again alive—
―――That could only mean the Black King was absent.
"Had a thousand years passed before I knew it...?"
When I heard that, the words slipped out before I could stop them.
The span of a human life is too short to imagine it, but Black Dragons live for a thousand years.
An ancient species utterly unlike any other kind of dragon: the Black Dragon. That Black King lives for a thousand years, then is reborn.
Dragons are normally oviparous, but Black Dragons have a completely different biology. As death approaches, they give birth to themselves in the form of a juvenile. They pass on their name and memories, while their old body withers away.
To make a monster your familiar, you have to completely defeat and subdue it.
You can't do that by being merely as strong as the monster. You have to be powerful enough for it to believe it has no chance of winning, which means you need to be several levels stronger than it.
In other words, to subdue an SS-rank Black Dragon, you'd need to be a monster of even greater strength. Even with several knight orders working together, there would be no guarantee we could subdue it. It was hardly a realistic prospect.
However, the Black Dragon has one exception: its juvenile stage.
For about a year, until it reaches adulthood, the Black Dragon's body remains small and its abilities incomplete. Apparently, this is especially true shortly after it's born.
And since dragons are oviparous, there's a good chance that imprinting will work.
It's the idea that a creature will take the first thing it sees after birth as its parent and obey it.
Black Dragons reproduce through parthenogenesis, so it's unclear how effective this will be, but it's worth a try.
As shown on the royal crest, the Black Dragon is the guardian beast of our Kingdom of Narve.
In reality, it's a vicious monster on the level of a natural disaster. But after the royal family displayed it as their crest throughout the country, the people came to revere it as the kingdom's guardian beast.
The fact that the Black Dragon rarely leaves its lair, Mount Kokugaku, and that few people ever witness its ferocity must also play a part.
In any case, the Black Dragon enters its juvenile stage only once every thousand years. Now was a once-in-a-millennium chance to make this absolute monster our familiar.
As soon as I received the mission, I headed for Mount Kokugaku with the Eleventh Knight Order, which was responsible for protecting the north.
The land was in complete turmoil.
―――The sudden absence of the Absolute King.
Monsters aiming to become the new ruler of that land were packed together, and the region had become a battlefield of competing powers.
We finally made it to the cave at the deepest part of Mount Kokugaku, only to find it empty.
All that lay there was the enormous, beautiful, decaying corpse of a Black Dragon.
They say that just after being reborn, its memories and power haven't yet settled in.
Could it have wandered off in confusion?
Dragons generally dislike sunlight, so the Black Dragon was likely to be in one of the caves or some other dark place.
I was concerned about how the order was faring, but for the next six months I traveled around the continent with knights from various orders, searching caves for the Black Dragon's juvenile form.
But we couldn't find even a trace of the Black Dragon anywhere.
Just as another cave search ended in failure and I was feeling dejected, a messenger on a swift horse arrived from the royal castle.
Astonishingly, the Black Dragon had appeared in Starfall Forest, near the royal castle.
I heard that the Black Dragon had appeared, splitting the sky, wreathed in a thunderstorm and black clouds.
These were the eyewitness accounts of several people who had been near the forest.
They all agreed that the dragon was black, beautiful, and noble—truly a Dragon King.
When I heard the report, my heart leaped with excitement, even as disappointment washed over me.
I was excited because I might actually get to see the legendary Black Dragon with my own eyes.
I was disappointed because it seemed to have grown far more than we expected, making capture impossible.
Though beset by conflicting feelings, I hurried back to the royal castle and went first to report my return to the Commander.
The Commander thanked me for my long expedition, and since I had nothing to show for it, all I could do was hang my head in shame.
Though exhausted, I headed for the familiar commander’s office of the Fourth Monster Knight Order.
Had Gidion managed all right?
With a little anxiety, I opened the door to the commander’s office...
What I saw were two disaster-class monsters.
"Give me a break. ...I've only been away for a little while, so why are there two disaster-class monsters in my office?"
I was tired, and the words came out exactly as I thought them.
...Ever since I was young, I could vaguely see the energy of other people.
It wasn't just their strength. I could also vaguely see certain abilities they possessed as energy. To give you an idea, it looked like smoke surrounding their bodies.
I gauged an opponent's strength by the amount of smoke, and so far, it had never been far off from their actual capabilities.
I think my ability was further refined after I joined the Monster Knight Order and encountered so many monsters, checking their energy.
And now, two masses of energy unlike anything I'd ever seen had appeared before me at once.
It was my first time experiencing anything like this, and I could feel my face twisting in spite of myself.
Then a tension that made my whole body stiffen washed over me, and I began sweating profusely in an instant.
I unconsciously took a step back to put some distance between us, then began observing them carefully.
The first monster was the blue creature poking its head out from the collar of someone who looked like a girl knight.
The first one, and yet...―――What is this thing?
Its size was small, but the pressure it gave off was extraordinary. The degree to which its energy was condensed was beyond all reason.
I'm sure this one alone could blow this entire building away without any trouble...
Ah... This is a problem.
I didn't want to figure out what this was, but I think... I have.
I've seen S-rank monsters several times, but none of them came anywhere close to this level.
I'd almost prefer to see several S-rank monsters at once. That would be less frightening.
I don't want to know, but... this is probably an SS-rank monster.
...And if it was here, so close to Starfall Forest, at this time of all times...could it be the Black Dragon?
Hahaha, what a problem.
Why is the Black Dragon I've been searching for in my office of all places?
As I stared at the monster that seemed to be the Black Dragon in despair, it popped out from the collar of the girl who looked like a knight, hopped onto her shoulder, and began frolicking there.
...Come to think of it, there was a picture book about searching for a blue bird, a symbol of happiness.
In the story, the characters searched for the blue bird, grew dejected, and returned home, only to find it inside their own house. It was a fairy tale suggesting that happiness is closer than you think.
Haha... Looking closely, this monster that seems to be the Black Dragon is modeled after a blue bird.
If it was modeled after that fairy tale, what a dark joke. It's as tasteless as they come.
The Black Dragon I'd been searching for was right in my office.
The knights, with no place to run in the cramped office, were wiped out by the Black Dragon.
The absolute death known as the Black Dragon was right beside me.
―――Ah, what a dark joke.
And if the second monster was the one who'd set up this dark joke...
I clenched my hands, which had gone cold as the blood drained from them, and turned to look at the other one—the one I didn't want to see.
At first glance, it looked like a girl knight wearing a blue uniform. But...
...This one really is... What in the world is it?
...Its energy is so vast that I can't even make out its outline.
How is everyone able to stand in the same room as this thing?
...There's no way. The shivers running down my spine and the pounding in my ears are so bad that I can barely stand.
I envy those who can only see what's physically there.
Everyone except me probably sees a girl knight with a small blue monster on her shoulder.
But the creature on her shoulder is an SS-rank Black Dragon, and the girl herself is a monster even greater than the Black Dragon.
What's more, the Black Dragon is frolicking like a tiny hatchling. Isn't that proof that this monster has overwhelming power, even compared to the Black Dragon?
...How am I supposed to deal with this?
To begin with, is there even a choice in how this ends?
With a future where we're all wiped out no matter what we do, is this monster here to laugh at us as we struggle?
A monster with the poor taste to play a dark joke on us by modeling a "Black Dragon" after a "Blue Bird" could certainly do that.
As I raked a trembling hand through my hair and kept searching for the best move available, the figure that looked like a girl knight carelessly closed the distance. Then it put on a delighted expression and opened its mouth.
"It's nice to meet you, Commander Quentin. I'm Fia Ruud of the First Knight Order. Hehe, you said there were two monsters, but actually, one of them is a puppet I made!"
As she spoke, she thrust forward the awkward bundle of cloth strapped to her left arm.
―――Is this a trap?
Is there a right answer, and will I be turned into a lump of meat the instant I say anything else?
A clammy sweat trickled down my back, and within minutes my uniform, which had been bone-dry, was drenched.
Was this some kind of high-level wordplay, concealed in an ordinary conversation, with our lives at stake?
―――That was the moment I was asked to make the most difficult statement of my life.