[V7C27] The King of Monsters’ Obsession
Translated by Jodas 7: To the NorthSeated on the throne in the Darwock Royal Palace, King Valdemar of Darwock nervously glanced out of the window.
Thin droplets of rain were starting to fall like threads of silk against the grey sky.
“They’re late.”
Valdemar groaned, not bothering to hide his displeasure. His fingers drummed erratically against his armrest.
The hooded man standing beside him smiled faintly with just his mouth.
“They will arrive momentarily. Until then, have you completed the bible for your new religion?”
Valdemar scoffed, then ordered a minister standing by the door to “Bring that to me!”
The minister promptly returned with a large book.
This elegantly decorated volume was to be the bible of the new Darwock religion.
Valdemar had ordered his new archbishop to wipe away any passages that offended him and rewrite the bible.
Receiving the new bible, the hooded man made a show of expressing his surprise.
“What quick work! I’m certain my King will be thrilled! ……Oh?”
The hooded man shifted his eyes towards the window. Valdemar followed his gaze to see what he had.
With orange wings, a great bird — no, a bird-woman — flew towards them.
Hanging from her feet was a single young person.
The bird-woman flew up to the window, then the young person climbed over the windowsill and walked up before Valdemar.
They looked to be in their late teens, although he could not tell if they were a man or a woman.
They had a beautiful, neatly-proportioned face, white hair cut neatly at chin-length, and silver eyes that looked like a pool of melted metal.
(…So this is the King of Monsters.)
“Is that the man who is to become a god?”
Their voice was quiet; too high to be a man’s but too low to be a woman’s.
To the eyes of the wisened Valdemar, the young person before him looked no different from a child.
Yet, this here was a Monster.
That Monsters held far more strength than their appearances would belie had already been proven by the blond Monster known as Jill.
Valdemar responded to the King of Monsters without cowardice, yet taking care not to be too presumptuous, with the dignity befitting of a king.
“I am King Valdemar of Darwock. I am indeed the man who is to become the god of the new Darwock religion.”
The King of Monsters stood directly before Valdemar.
Just on cue, the hooded man approached, said “This is to be their holy book,” and handed over the bible.
Despite standing directly before Valdemar, the King of Monsters started flipping through the bible’s pages.
Then, with its eyes fixated on the pages, it spoke.
“I have a question for the one who is to become god.”
Valdemar silently tensed up.
Without a doubt, the King of Monsters was going to ask about how Monsters were to be treated under the new Darwock religion.
It went without saying that he had no intention of suppressing Monsters. He needed the Monsters’ power to defend his kingdom.
In order to maintain their cooperation, Valdemar had tried his best to meet all of the Monsters’ requests.
Even if the Monsters demanded that he hand over humans for them to consume, he was fully prepared to offer up some criminals.
Fortunately, there was no end to the people he wanted to purge, whether inside this palace or out. That Included his wife and the sons he’d had with her.
(So, King of Monsters, what are you going to ask?)
The King of Monsters asked as he read through the bible.
“What sort of place is the afterlife?”
“…Excuse me?”
“How does the new god treat the death of a Monster?”
Valdemar’s thoughts froze for a moment.
(What right does a mere Monster have to talk about that?)
The bible did touch on the topic of the afterlife where people would end up, but it did not necessarily address what happened to Monsters when they died.
The bible of the new Darwock religion was based on the texts of Lusterianism, the original state religion of Darwock. They had only done some minor adjustments, removing sections that prohibited polygamy and divorce, or described Monsters as evil, while adding details that treated the King of Darwock as a god.
The King of Monsters closed the bible and let out a long sigh.
“This bible. Its bindings are flawless, and the text is precise yet elaborate. It is truly a beautiful work.”
Beneath its white hair, silver eyes swayed back and forth.
“Yet, at its most important core… You, the god, lack persuasiveness.”
Its opposite hand, the one not holding the bible, reached under its robe and pulled something out.
A series of clinking sounds rang out as what looked like rivets made from crystals fell to the ground.
Valdemar found himself unable to peel his eyes away from the King of Monster’s robes. Peeking through the gaps in its robes was a black, black, black…
“You are not our god.”
When the fifth rivet fell, the world in Valdemar’s eyes suddenly changed.
“Ah, Aaahh… Aaaaahhh…”
Standing before him was fear itself. A humanoid embodiment of fear.
The face beneath that white hair now looked like a pit of blackness. Arising from that blackness, its silver eyes stared at Valdemar.
He wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He could’t look away.
“Augh, Aahh, aaaAAHHH….!”
As if an invisible hand burrowed through his skin and into his body, he felt a bitter chill, a fear, a despair brushing against his brain, tongue, and every other organ in his body.
His tears and sobs would not cease. In his blurring vision, the other Monsters kneeled down and bowed their heads towards their king.
Then the humans… The ministers and soldiers, one by one, began to walk off.
All of them headed for the open window.
Someone let out a shrill shriek and jumped from the window. That was only the beginning, as all the humans in the throne room began to jump one after another.
This was the top floor.
Crunch, crack, splash — He heard the sounds of flesh tearing, bone rending, and blood splattering.
“Ah, Aaahhh… AAAHHHH…”
With shaky legs, Valdemar stood up from the throne.
He was not being manipulated by the Monster. He moved of his own accord.
He moved in search of the one thing that would save him from this fear: death.
“GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!”
The old king screamed, his face soaked in tears, snot, and saliva, then he jumped from the windowsill.
Crunch.
There were no more humans in the throne room. All that was left were the King of Monsters and its retainers.
The Chancellor and Charonlala remained on their knees, heads bowed so as to not look at the King of Monsters.
Despite being Monsters themselves, they could not look it directly. That overwhelming fear.
The King of Monsters picked up the Crystal Rivets off of the floor and stabbed them back into its chest.
As there was no need for them to necessarily be in its chest, it stuck the second and onwards in arbitrary spots on its torso.
Eventually, once all the Crystal Rivets were replaced, the fear consuming the room finally abated.
“Very well, you may lift your faces.”
The Chancellor and Charonlala lifted their faces as told.
The King of Monsters then asked the Chancellor.
“Where is Jill?”
“He is currently admiring the artwork.”\
“I see. Once he is satisfied, inform him. We have no further business in this place.”
There was no god here.
But, it did like this bible. It wanted to bring this back home and read it thoroughly.
Once it was done with that, where should it look next?
Where would it have to go to find a god?
The King of Monsters stared at the bible as the Chancellor respectfully chimed in.
“My King, I already have an idea where to find the next god.”
“Then bring me there.”
“As you wish. Charonlala, deliver an urgent message for us.”
Charonlala grimaced in response to the Chancellor speaking to her.
Regardless, she swallowed her complaints and listened to what the Chancellor had to say.
On that day, the Wedge Tower Apprentice Sophie Schwarzenberg woke up a little earlier than usual and decided to take a walk around the gardens.
At the moment, her roommate Rukiye was off on the mission to retake Darwock, so Sophie functionally had the room to herself.
The other Apprentices worried if Sophie might not be able to wake up without Rukiye there, but she tried her best to wake up as early as possible every day.
That left her with a little extra time, so she tried doing her hair in a different way and felt mightily pleased with the way she looked. She just had to go on a walk and show off her new hairstyle.
Sophie had unruly black hair that stretched down to her shoulders. One lock of her hair on either side was purple — this was not dyed, but proof of her status as a shaman.
This purple hair stuck out too much when she was about town, so Sophie always wore a hood to hide her hair.
But nobody said anything about Sophie’s hair color in the Wedge Tower.
That was why she had tried her best to do up her hair in a way that accented her purple locks. She thought she did pretty well, with the end result looking as if she’d tied purple ribbons in her hair.
(I hope people walk past me going ‘Huh… That girl looks a little different than usual… How cute!’ or something like that~)
As she occupied herself with such thoughts, she caught sight of fuzzy red hair and black bangs that were far too long. That was her fellow Apprentices: Rose and Gerald.
Sophie straightened her back and fixed her stride as she approached the two of them.
“Good morning, guys~!”
With a cuter voice than usual, she tilted her head to show off the knots on the side of her head.
Rose was first to notice Sophie’s presence and greeted her cheerfully.
“Hey, Sophie, good morning! Your hairstyle today looks like a powerful snake! Badass!”
His loud voice boomed through the fresh morning air without a hint of tact or delicacy.
Sophie stomped on the ground.
“You’re the worst, Rose!”
“Huh? Do you like frogs more than snakes?”
“At times like this, you’re supposed to say it looks like a flower or a jewel, or something pretty and cuuute~! Gerald, compliment me!”
Unprepared for the conversation to shift to him so suddenly, Gerald let out a confused “Eh?” Under his bangs, his eyes were probably darting from side to side.
“I don’t really know much about those kinds of things, so…”
“Come on~~~~!”
If it were possible, she wanted him to say something princes in the stories would say like ‘Hey, Sophie. Your gorgeous black hair brings out the mysterious beauty in those purple locks.’ But maybe it was asking too much to expect Gerald to suddenly come up with such a thing.
“At least say I’m cute or that it looks good on me or something~!”
“…If I said such words so flippantly to a girl of your age, would I not be challenged to a duel?”
“You won’t!? What era do you think we live in!?”
For goodness sake, all the Apprentice boys were such a headache.
Rose had no delicacy. Oliver couldn’t take a hint. Julius was always laughing creepily. Gerald was no good with words. Wren wouldn’t shut up about his pretty boy appeal… (Finn was the youngest and a little simple, so he got a pass.)
But she was also so glad to be able to talk casually like this with them.
As they chatted, Sophie looked behind Rose.
To the side of Rose’s garden, he’d planted some unfamiliar sprouts.
“Rose, what are those sprouts?”
“The folks from a village nearby gave them to me. They said these will bloom into fragrant flowers come wintertime.”
Rose seemed to enjoy raising plants and had established this garden on the Wedge Tower’s campus where he grew all sorts of things.
Every once in a while, apparently he’d go out to a nearby village in search of unusual seeds.
“Are you going to use that for your research too? You were trying to research imbuing mana into plants, right?”
“These sprouts aren’t for research… I guess you’d say they’re a present.”
“Hmm~. Is your research going okay~?”
“Yeah! Thanks to Gerald helping me with all sorts of things! Isn’t that right, Gerald!”
Rose patted Gerald on the shoulder, who whispered “You’re exaggerating.”
Gerald had the highest physical capabilities of the Apprentices, and it seemed like he used to be a swordsman. Even though he ‘seemed like’ one, Sophie had never actually seen him holding a sword before.
Lately, Gerald had been helping Rose with his gardening as well as helping out in the kitchen. She wondered if he’d decided what he wanted to do yet.
When it came to that, Sophie wanted to talk about herself as well.
Sophie was a shaman, but she was studying all kinds of things outside of cursecraft too.
“You know, today I’m supposed to start learning how to use the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’!”
Like sharing a secret, she put her hand against her mouth as she said that.
Rose reacted with a look of surprise. Beneath his fuzzy bangs, his eyes widened.
“Wasn’t Director Linke of the Library Office supposed to be managing that thing?”
“Yeah, yeah~! Apparently before Director Linke, Assistant Headmaster Miriam used it~!”
The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ was one of three Ancient Magical Artifacts in the Wedge Tower.
To be honest, the term ‘Ancient Magical Artifact’ encompassed a lot of different devices. The overwhelming majority of them were not actually made in the Ancient Era, but instead made in the Old Era using Ancient techniques. In the Modern Era, both categories were all wrapped up into the ‘Ancient Magical Artifact’ designation.
Both ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ and ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ were made towards the end of the Old Era, making them relatively new among Ancient Magical Artifacts.
To contrast, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ was properly made in the Ancient Era. It was said to be the oldest Ancient Magical Artifact to still exist.
And Sophie had been chosen to wield it.
As Sophie flushed with pride, Gerald hesitantly asked:
“I don’t know a lot about it, but… What kind of ability does that Ancient Magical Device have?”
“It lets you seal Monsters into books and control them~. Apparently that used to be common a long time ago, but these days there’s pretty much no way to do that any more~. They said ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ is the only way to do it~.”
Apparently Director Linke of the Library Office had used that ability during the Wedge Tower’s entrance exam to test the Apprentices — Sophie had passed immediately, so she hadn’t seen it in action, though.
“That’s why if a scary Monster ever attacks, your best friend Sophie here will seal them in a book and it’ll be all okay!”
Sophie winked and Rose responded with a laid back “Sounds great!”
Sophie’s mood had improved and, as she huffed with pride, she looked up towards the Northern sky.
At the moment, her fellow Apprentices were on their way to battle in order to save Darwock from the Monsters. By the time they came back, she wanted to be able to brag to them about the new things she could do.
“Hey, hey, when Rukiye and the others come back, let’s have another party~!”
“Good idea. You should try cooking next time, Gerald!”
“…Yes, I’ll think about it.”
Back when she was at home, she thought that curses were all that she could do.
She hated the Schwarzenberg Family curses that couldn’t do anything but curse people to death. Yet, much to her chagrin, that was the only thing she had to distinguish herself.
But now, things were different. Sophie could now do things that weren’t just curses.
She had friends whom she could talk to and fight alongside with.
Surely, the future brought more wonderful things. Sophie’s chest filled with a bright hope.