Vol 4 Chapter 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6: The Tamer of the Spirits

“… So this means the victor of the 45th ‘hundredth deaths course’ is the dark horse that caratulations”

“…”

The contest’s results, whatever… Sure enough, Manami won

Manae trophy

“… Mana You are historically, the first human winner”

“Yeah Once again, we’ve been taught a lesson about that girl’s greatness”

The buzzing at the venue showed no signs of fading

Since the ghouls not even in their wildest dreaht that a human that entered on the spur of the moment would be the victor

“By the way, Kyouko, what position did you end in?”

“Me? I was 14th”

“Quite plain, you…”

“L-leave me alone!”

Thinking about it calmly, I believe that Kyouko achieved 14th place of nearly 600 contestants despite being her first tiood performance, but compared withbut plain

Though in the first place, it’s not like we can talk, forfeiting in the middle

“… At any rate, that dragon that attacked us on the way… What the heck was it?”

“About that… A while ago, I tried asking ”

“… Is that so?”

So that h it was unrelated to the race, someone put it there to attack us

Who was it? For what reason?

The instant that I was thinking those things

From somewhere at the venue a cry was heard

I looked to the sound’s source, and

Aren’t those, a bunch of ghouls with no expression suddenlytowards us like an avalanche?

Those numbers… A low estimate would be a hundred

Weird It’s strange

The bunch of ghouls looked awfully dispirited, hoould I put it… Their gait looked wobbly and their skin was pale And above all, their eyes didn’t show a shred of life

“!?”

And once again so happened that surprised me

All of a sudden, the lifeless ghouls started one by one attacking the other ghouls

Holy cow… A?

The attacked ghouls’ gazes too becahouls

“The ghouls are turning into zombies!?”

Even I think that that unfolding looked like a joke, but even so, I didn’t find any other words to describe as happening

“Ghouls turning into zombies… Could it be!?”

“… Zon?”

“Long ago, I read it on some documents

Monster ta the undead and animated corpses—necromancers

They bestow transient souls on us undead and on other beings’ corpses and can manipulate them as zombies

But then… monster tamers with the ability as necro history books, can be counted with a single hand

Still… If we take that the necroon that attacked us before, this impossible scene can be explained”

“In other words, soht and attacking us… You mean”

“Someone… There’s no need to obscure it like that Since there’s only one group of people we know that wants to harm us”

“…”

Exactly as Zonmi has said, I can only think of one person that holds ill will and would attack us

The group that co monsters—the Black Tamers

This ti

And this time, the opponent we must battle… It’s an unknown necromancer able to control the undead at will

… If that’s the case, this is pretty bad

What’s bad… The enehouls

“!? Zonmi Behind you!”

Suddenly, one zohoul jumped at Zonmi

I quickly rushed to Zonuy

“Thank you very ht now,”

“… It’s still too soon to be relieved”

“It seems… We’ve been surrounded before we knew it

The nuhouls increased explosively and our surroundings were being filled

I, Zonet rid of any blind spots

Well… What do I do?

This situation… Hoe get over it?

These guys… One by one, the zo to fear

If I was alone, I could forcefully break through upfront… Such action is not impossible, but the problem here is with Zonmi

Guessing from the situation till now, Zonmi, who is from the undead tribe, will be out with the first attack from the zombies

A zombie Zonmi… In some sense, at least my sister would rejoice with that development

Fighting upfront may be too much risky

“… Hu are reckless fellows for opposing my master”

Suddenly, a huge flame pillar encircled us all around

The huge flame pillar situated as if to protect us has power to keep the zombies at bay for about ten minutes

“Iris!? And moreover… Lilith-san and even Manami!? Have you come to help us!?”

“… Chiharu-sa your pardon The ones who have launched this attack, I dare say… It would be the Black Tamers

I don’t kno they did it, but it seems that they have already found our whereabouts”

“… Fine, monster tamer What shall I do?

If that’s what thou wantest, I can turn to ashes in an instant every ghoul here…”

“…”

What Iris is saying is true

Like Zonmi, monsters from the undead tribe are extremely weak to heat

Even noe can only talk leisurely like this thanks to the flah defense wall that’s keeping the zombies at bay

However

“… No, let’s not attack the controlled by a necromancer I don’t want to harm unrelated monsters”

“I agree with Haru If what the enee in a battle of attrition… We’ll be playing into their hand”

“… There’s so that we must put as top priority

That is… To guarantee Chiharu-sama’s safety Since the Black Tae at once”

“…”

Surely it may be as Lilith-san says

Even if the Black Tamers do have a reason to attack us, there’s no reason for us to fight the Black Tamers

If we could avoid fighting without fleeing… That would be the best option

“Iris… Is it fine with you?”

The problem lies in if Iris will accept…

“… If that’s thy wish, I have no reason to refuse I’ll leave uysthe Black Tamers for another date”

“… Is that so? Thanks”

Compared with the previous incident of the attack at the Grandeel archipelago, Iris ,

Before, just by hearing the naot excited and sie into the eneards her objective as secondary

I… arowth

“So, let’s first do as Lilith-san has said and, for the ti this place

Kyouko and Iris will turn into ht… The port city we arrived at first could do We’ll think about the detail once we’ve reached there…”

“Please, wait!”

The one who suddenly interrupted my words with a loud shout was Zonmi

“… I’ve been worrying about it for a while, but I can’t find Aruru and Meruru anywhere It would be good if they et away, but… I can’t leave this city until I’ve at least confirmed my family’s safety”

“Ghoul I understand your feelings, but… Don’t speak selfishly Have you forgotten our top priority?”

“… I’m very sorry

Still… Only this I can’t afford to concede If you have to leave Living Lodge no matter what, leave me behind, please”

“…”

How careless

I al Moreover… Thinking better now, Putting my own safety first may be an extremely irresponsible choice

So, what do I do?

Had we never landed at Living Lodge in the first place… This city’s undeadpeacefully

“… Yosh, understood Before departing Living Lodge, let’s return once to Zonmi’s parent’s home”

“… Chiharu Is it fine?”

“Yup If I had to put it in words, speaking truthfully, I too… a this place We haven’t persuaded Zonmi’s father yet… We’ve not wrapped up such an important task and I too am worried about Aruru and Meruru”

“Buu Oniichan is too soft with the zombies”

“… Understood If those are your instructions, Chiharu-sama, I won’t stop you However, I earnestly ask you to not exceed yourself”

“… Roger”

In any case, the talk is settled

… At a ti to have monsters that can fly

We rode onto the transformed Iris & Kyouko’s backs and set off to Zonmi’s parent’s home

× × ×

“All troops! Fight fro your spears! Don’t let the mob step inside the castle!”

When we reached the ghoul clan’s castle, which was Zon upon the fort, while shouting directions to houls

“Father, you're safe!”

“… Zon, you're safe too”

Satosu-san, sighing from relief with a face of deep reassurance,

“… You were Chiharu-kun, aren't you? It’s not like I approve of your contract, but… I’hter”

“Thank you very much… That aside, how’s the situation like at the city!?”

“Aah The situation is plainly the worst

… Esti optimistically, short of 30 of the population has been brainwashed by the person that appears to be a necromancer”

“… Is that so?”

Weird It makes no sense

As the enehouls to attack us… Was it necessary to brainwash all of the ghouls in the city?

“By the way, Chiharu-kun Have you seen Aruru and Meruru anywhere?”

“… They haven’t returned to the castle? To tell the truth, we are also looking for them”

“… Is that so? It would be nice if those children returned safely, but…”

Satosu-san deeply sighed,

“In any case, it’s beco We have to seize that necroain turned to the worse”

“By the way, is there any way to return the zombified people to how they were?”

“… There’s just one

The necroic stone mounted on it In other words, if we could destroy it…”

“Then we could save the civilians?”

I see

As Satosu-san said, to fix the chaos of the situation, it seems that we have to search for the necromancer that’s the mastermind of the incident

“A— A—… Kusumi Chiharu Kusumi Chiharu I know that you are there

Do I have to introducethat I as to the Black Tas?”

I looked towards the voice, and

I could see a boy carrying a ht one

“… Darn As soon as he’s mentioned, he appears besides us?”

I didn’t expect that he would show himself to us so soon…

I’ on successfully, I felt a bad presentiment

Ju down from the fortress, I confronted the necromancer face to face

The boy called Lance was quite younger than e was around the first year of middle school, perhaps?

Noelle, ho… The Blacks Tae

“I‘ for, but… What do you wish for?”

“… Eeeh How fast It seeht”

“…”

The boy called Lance chuckled

Why would Lance have brainwashed the ghouls in the city?

At first I thought that it simply was to use them as pieces once it was time to battle, but when I heard Satosu-san’s words, I knew

The necrohouls

In other words, that’s… Putting it another way, the ghouls of the city are hostages

There’s no reason for the necro chips

“My deotiation

You can just hearquiet, too How’s it? It’s easy”

“… Can I trust your words?”

“I’ you

However, if you refuse, as you guess, it can come to the worst conclusion

Necromancers can freely manipulate the undead… In other words, I have the lives of nearly half of the citizens on my hands

If you refuse my proposal, those currently under my control… I’ll erase at once the souls of the zo at an explosive rate even now”

“…”

Hey, hey

He’s going to annihilate nearly half of the population?

Surely, I think that that’s impossible

But

This guy… Does he truly mean what he’s said?

This city’s… Undead’s lives, does he think of thes?

“… Chiharu Don’t be fooled by the enemy’s words

Probably… That’s a bluff Even if he’s a necromancer, there’s no way he can erase souls”

“Right, right If you say you can’t believea zombie”

“…”

Lance laughed fearlessly

Things have become very bad

In this situation brought up by Lance, the matter is not if he can erase souls or he can’t

With the option of trying to actually kill a hostage out of the question, we don’t have any other way to make sure

The situation… It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s the worst

“… If I accept your dees?”

“Of course, I pro this many zombies Anye face each other, I have to do it so I can protect myself”

“… Understood I accept your demand”

“Chiharu!?”

“Ha, ha, ha Nice answer Then, now… Why don’t you put on this ring?”

“… This?

“That’s an ite, it can transport the wearer to a set place

Since with two rings, it forms a pair, the moment you equip it we’ll both be warped to the chosen place

The place I’ve chosen is a snowy mountain a hundred kilometers[1] from here

Moreover… OneYou can be relieved

Necromancers can control zombies in a radius of ten kilometers[2] at most

The houls will be lifted”

“…”

What peaceful negotiation?

The opponent that has been using thoroughly prepared sly moves until now, at this point… There’s no way that he’ll keep that promise Probably… No, definitely it won’t unfold as a one on one dialogue

“… Sorry Zonmi Everyone”

Even so… No matter which traps he’s set after that… I can’t let people die before me when their lives are exposed to risk

I picked up the warp ring that's left on the snow—and put it on

So, my consciousness instantly faded and the scenery and sounds around me drowned out

Aah Could this be what monsters feel each time they are summoned?

“… Chiharu… Chiharu”

Inside my dim consciousness, I think I heard Zonmi’s voice at the end

× × ×

When I got back to my senses, I was in the middle of a snow-covered scenery

I looked around

What the heck… It was quite an unexpected development

For as cha trapped withhat I was expecting

Before ht now there’s only Lance, and apparently there doesn’t seem to be any traps

“With this, good… Just now, I’ve put a summon-prevention barrier around the place With this neither of us can make a summon This means it will be a proper one-on-one”

“…”

“You don’t have to be so vigilant

I can guarantee your life at least until I finish my talk

To me… I dislike this roundabout behavior, but… Since that hat the boss requested, I can’t bring harm to you”

“Is that so?”

It certainly see is true

If Lance truly wanted to killthe warp

More than anything, fro intent that says we’ll be putting our lives on the line from now on

“That boss of yours… Is it Luka?”

“… That’s right Do I need to explain from the very start?”

Lance nodded slightly with an “of course So that’s it”,

“Frankly… I don’t give a damn about what happens to other people

On the contrary, I rejoice on the disgrace of people unrelated to me and, if I say so myself, I’m not one of those who listen to other people’s coreatly indebted to her Us Firsts worshi+p her”

“!?”

Firsts… Now that he ht before, also introduced herself as a First

Thinking back deeply, I think that the black-suited monster tamer I battled first called himself a Second

Do those words hide a secret of the Black Tamers?

“… Just a question You Black Tamers fellows… Weren’t you born, different from me, as total humans? Despite that… How come you can transform into monsters?”

“… Ahaha To tell the truth, I’ve brought you here to tell you about that I want you to know about us

And upon learning it all, I want you to cooperate with the organization That’s what our boss… Luka-neesan wishes

Fine I’ll tell you Everything about the Black Tamers—“

Lance started his speech like that

“Are we speaking of around twenty years ago?

The secret society that rules over all of the monster tamers on the human world—the International Monster association conducted a certain research If we go to the bottom of it, we could call that research the roots of the Black Tamers”

“… A certain research?”

What the heck

If what he says is correct… Does it inally a part from the IMA?

“Creating manmade monster tamers

Even now, that’s only known to the IMA’s top brass… To theest taboo”

“!?”

“… Surely only humans can be born with the ability to be monster tamers So I think they surely conducted the research in order to compensate for the chronic deficiency in the number of monster tamers

But, you, know?… In her case, they had a proble that

Do you knohat’s the basic difference between monster tamers and other humans?

That’s… Putting it si cells… It comes to that If they don’t exist, noyou put them under, they can’t become monster tamers

After saying all this, I can answer to your doubt

The reason why, despite having been born as human, we can use the power of monsters

That’s because ere still floating inside the test tubes, we got cells from other monsters inserted inside our bodies

I… and Noelle, whom you already know, are like that

The Firsts are the children brought about from that research It would be the first artificially created monster tamers in history?”

“…”

Certainly… With monster cells that are different froic power even if they don’t have a special ability

Artificially produced… Monster tamers?

What I’ is not a pleasant talk

Lance and the Firsts ht out from a fiction world

Miraculously, I didn’t feel like Lance’s words till noere untrue

How come?

It doesn’t seem like, at this time, Lance has to lie in such a roundabout way and… If these words are real, then I can understand how, despite having a human body, they can turn into monsters

“I understand what you say… But, what relation is there between that research to produce artificial anization?”

“… Such iuess what comes after?”

Lance laughed fearlessly,

“This research faced strong opposition since the project phase

The special representatives at that tiest to be proh-class monster tamer, and your mother, Kusumi Kanae

The reason is quite simple

—The nuh

At the research’s initial stage, there were es to check if the embedded monster cells were suited to their body

Unable to control the monster cells… The number of children sed down (consuh to count Can you picture it?

Inside a test tube, without tiiven ained awareness, all those friends just conceived… Died one after another with their e

Their corpses, in a disgusting form unidentifiable as either human or monster… Were burned to the bone and discarded so as to conceal the evidence

Can you understand that suffering?”

“…”

So ainst that research

And… If Lance’s words are the truth, I can understand the abnorainst before

Her mind is aberrantly unbalanced

In what kind of environirl like her… That was the doubt I held since long ago

“Fuu… I’ speeches About ten years after the start of this research, it started to produce limited results

Children like ed to adapt to the monster cells and lived on started to appear here and there

Like this, since the ti off definite results, the people that were against the research gradually shi+fted to the supporting faction, as if flipping over their hands The one who realized the danger of the situation was our boss… That means Luka-neesan Luka-neesan, so that us Firsts could live in freedomhelped us to defect”

“!?”

“This event could be called the biggest blemish on the IMA

Anyhow, us First that hosted the ht of powerful monsters… Since we ai panic

Due to this incident, between monster tamers and nearby residents… In total, there was over a thousand victims The IMA frantically attee an event of such a scale

Outside rookie tamers like you… Doesn't everyone know about this incident?”

“…”

I didn’t know

The IMA from before had such a blemish…

“Even now, the evil organization that keeps co crimes… They pinned that label on us, but… The Black Taanization established in order to protect us firsts So that the strong would protect the weak, naturally, they didn’t have the in to choose their methods

For that, they put strong ons to obtain dragon blood

Oh, yeah! I’ll add this since I forgot, Clarie-san and the lot are the Seconds

They coinal research that Luka-san took from the IMA

But then… That, instead of creating artificial monster tamers… In order to empower people that had the capability to become monster tamers from the start, they are bestowed monster cells

… Well, with this I’ve told you everything about me

Even though things seem this way, could you one-sidedly decide that we are evil and bring down upon us the hammer of justice?”

“…”

My head unable to keep up with the successive revealing of i froze

I don’t know Not a thing

Until now I thought the IMA as good and the Black Tamers as evil

Though I took everything in terood or bad, reality is different

By hearing this speech… I can’t tell who’s right or wrong

The sah hell due to the Black Tamers, the Black Tamers suffered due to the IMA

“… Do you understand with this?

What you believed justice until now is indeed brittle It wouldn’t be bad if you felt like cooperating with our organization

The boss seee it well, couldn’t you easily be regarded even higher than us Firsts?”

“…”

While showering me with cajolery, Lance, step by step, approached me

… If I agree noith Lance’s words wouldn’t I once again work besides Luka-san?

Good grief… It’s laughable

Luka-san

You, now… Does it look to you that I would get swayed like this by the words of an enemy?

Does it satisfy you to have anything and everything dancing on your palm as you wish?

“Well Kusumi Chiharu Come with us! Why don’t you make a neorld with us!?”

“…”

Lance, laughing loudly, offered his hand to me

I see

If I take this hand, would it mean that from today on I’ll be a member of the Black Tamers?

But…

“—My bad, but I can’t collaborate with you lot”

“… What!?”

I brushed aside Lance’s little palm

“Certainly after hearing your story I can’t properly understand who’s in the right

Frankly, even now I’m confused

But, y’know, until I cas

I… To protect Zonmi, to protect Kyouko, to protect Iris, to protect Manami, to protect Lilith-san, so that they can live happily, I must protect the world

That’s why I—and you lot are incompatible”

“…… Ha, ha, ha Right Right”

Lance’s slass, seele

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

As if thinking about sohed out loud

Next instant, I felt a pressure leaking from Lance’s body

There’s no mistake

This is blood lust…

Just when the negotiations broke, the blood lust he was keeping hidden until now became irrepressible

“Ah~ That’s good That’s good That’s really good Guhehehehe”

“… You seeood?”

“Y’see Deep down, I was afraid

If you anization… How could I kill you?

Being the lateco the boss’s favor, the nasty you…

That’s good

At last with this… I can kill you without fear♪”

“!?”

The instant after Lance’s staff gloith a strange light

Froe monster

A totally zoon

It was the dragon that I naon

“… Hey, you, Hadn’t you set a summon-prevention barrier!?

It seems that I can’t use summon, but… Is the summon-prevention barrier a cheat ite?”

“Kukuku Kuhahahahaha”

Suddenly, Lance started laughing hugging his stomach

“… So’s the matter?”

“Moron! When have I used su?

Do I need to tell you the trick?

As you see, this guy is just a zombie Moreover… Is a freshly made one

I buried beforehand the bones of a flying dragon on the ground… And just now I have restored it as a zombie!