by Dojyomaru
At Hakuya’s words, the room calmed down a little. Thinking it would result in a scandal, he had decided not to include the fact that Jeanne, the younger sister of Empress Maria, had been one of the ones to eat it.
Continuing from where Hakuya left off, Ichiha resumed speaking, “I will address the matter of edible monsters later, so please listen. Now, in regards to the flying tsuchinoko’s wings, there are other monsters confirmed to have the exact same wings. Please, turn to page 5 of the booklet you were provided.”
Ichiha paused to give the audience time to navigate themselves before following up.
“The monster there is a dog with two heads. We will call it an orthrus. Now, for some reason, it and the flying tsuchinoko have the same part despite being two different types of monster. When I noticed this, I sorted my sketches by each monster’s body parts. It was then that I realized there were an unusually high number of cases where this same thing occurred. The orthrus has the same wings as the flying tsuchinoko. And I have found another monster with the body of a turtle and the same head as this orthrus, too.”
Then Ichiha moved to stand in front of the lizardman picture.
“It is the same with this lizardman. This is a monster that the Friedonian National Defense Force fought in the Kingdom of Lastania, and we have been able to obtain many dead samples for research. This lizardman’s upper body resembles a human, but the face and lower body have traits typical of a large, bipedal lizard. It has human elements, but its nature is strictly that of a wild beast. It seemed they had as much intelligence as a shoujou, and could divide labor among their pack, but not so much that we could communicate with them. Isn’t that right, Tomoe?”
When Ichiha asked her, Tomoe blurted out, “Y-Yes!” and rose to her feet.
“I saw a captive lizardman in the Kingdom of Lastania. I have the ability to speak to animals... to understand their hearts, but the lizardman only recognized me as ‘food’... or as ‘prey.’ It was actually creepy how it seemed to lack any other feelings. Normally, if an animal is captured, no matter how hungry it is, I would be able to feel anger and unease...”
Tomoe crossed her arms and clutched her elbows as she recounted the event. That terrifying memory of being seen as prey was seared into her mind.
Ichiha felt bad for her as he continued in a quiet voice, “Thank you. As Tomoe just said, it is interesting that they lack the emotions that they should have as living creatures.”
Checking that Tomoe had sat back down, Ichiha returned to the topic at hand.
“As you can see, monsters are a mix of elements from a variety of different creatures. Furthermore, there are zombies and skeletons, which seem to be existing creatures that have rotted or skeletonized. The reason monsters seem creepy to us compared to wild animals may be because, according to our preconceptions, they have unneeded body parts (parts from other creatures), or unneeded features (rot or skeletonization).”
“Makes sense...” said Souma.
He hadn’t used a loud voice, but the words caught everyone’s attention since they came from the king. When Souma realized everyone was looking at him, he felt awkward about holding up the presentation.
“...May I say a word?” Souma asked, raising his hand.
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“Being overly formal is too much trouble, so I’m just going to talk casually, but... I encountered four-legged ogres in the Republic of Turgis. Isn’t that right, Kuu?”
Souma turned towards Kuu, who was sitting at the table opposite his.
“Yeah,” Kuu said with a nod. “Those furry ogres, right? I remember they had big arms, and four legs. They came out of the dungeon, attacked villages, and ate people. Considering how vicious they were, I’ll bet they were the same as the lizardmen, and they only saw us as prey.”
Kuu was making his hatred for the ogres plain to see as he spoke, and Souma agreed with him.
“When I saw those ogres, I thought they were warped creatures. Thinking back now, they had ogre faces, but their bodies must have come from some other creature. The gorilla... That’s a large creature from my world that’s similar to the shoujou, and they resembled it.” Souma crossed his arms and groaned as he spoke. “When I remembered that, and heard what you were saying, Sir Ichiha, it made me feel like I understood why monsters are warped. Sorry. I seem to have ended up interrupting you.”
“No, that was a valuable story you’ve just told us.” Ichiha bowed, then turned back to the crowd and resumed speaking, “It is exceptionally difficult to categorize monsters which are such a hodgepodge of different traits. That is why Mr. Hakuya and I came up with MPI, which sorts each monster into its constituent parts. I would now ask Mr. Hakuya to explain the reason for doing so.”
“Very well.”
Ichiha retreated from the lectern, and Hakuya came to take his place.
“I am Hakuya Kwonmin, the Prime Minister of this country. The Monster Encyclopedia is considered to be jointly authored by Sir Ichiha and me, but I merely made it look nice. The core of the material is in the sketches Sir Ichiha drew, and the method by which they were sorted. I feel bad, taking the lectern when that is the situation, but I would like to explain MPI on Sir Ichiha’s behalf.”
Turning to Ichiha, Hakuya gave a small nod.
“Now then... Normally, monsters are like evil spirits, and unless they form packs all of the same kind, it is difficult to sort them into species. They come in a multitude of forms, and it has been impossible to sort them into species based on their whole bodies. However, when I learned of Sir Ichiha’s system, which sorts the monsters based on their body parts, there were a variety of ways I found it could be applied.”
Hakuya pointed to the monster pictures behind him.
“As you can see, when monsters were sorted in this way, we are able to recognize those which share the same parts. This has made it possible to name monsters.”
“Ohh...” The was an exclamation of awe from some members of the crowd. Those must have been the ones who understood what Hakuya was trying to say.
However, most of the crowd simply went, “Name them? What’s the point?” and cocked their head to the side. Was it even possible to name monsters when they all looked so different?
Having anticipated that response, Hakuya explained, “In order for us to recognize a thing, we must first name it. Because when something has a name, we can take it as a subject, and research becomes possible. By sharing that with other people, it allows us to spread information about the subject of our research— To give a quick example, by giving ‘people’ the name ‘people,’ and sharing that word with others, I can communicate to them that I am studying people.”
He began to pace slowly towards one side of the stage as he spoke.
“Looking back in our conversation a little, we know that monsters have aberrant forms when compared with other creatures. Because of that, it is difficult to perfectly convey what we have seen about monsters to other people. How about the ‘flying tsuchinoko’ His Majesty named, for instance? If you were to communicate the existence of this monster to others, how would you describe it? ...You would say it is a fat-bodied snake-like monster with wings, or something similar, I suppose.”
With a slight pause, Hakuya turned and began pacing back towards the center of the stage.
“It would be nice if that sufficed, but there are monsters with a variety of traits like, ‘Has horns,’ ‘Has two heads,’ ‘Spits poison,’ and more. To name all of these species individually, and share a common understanding of them would be too daunting a task.”
Stopping at the board, he gestured towards the paper filled with sketches.
“This would serve as an impediment to sharing information on monsters. If we were studying them in detail, it would be tolerable. However, when a group of monsters that are a hodgepodge of different traits overflow from a dungeon, there’s no time for that. The situation must be addressed at once.”
Hakuya moved towards the lectern, and placed hi
s hands on it with a sigh.
“When the soldiers on-site contact the military for backup, they won’t have time to report every single one of those traits. The information from the scene will be limited to, ‘There is a monster attack,’ ‘There are around this many,’ and, ‘They do or do not fly.’ If the group is composed of a single race, like the lizardman pack we encountered in the Union of Eastern Nations, their abilities are clearly defined and countering them becomes easier.”
He raised his arm and pointed it toward the board.
“Lizardmen do not fly. However, they have the ability to jump. The green ones do not spit fire, but the red ones require caution... It’s easier because we can share these common understandings about them. Meanwhile, in the case of a horde composed of many species, it is not so simple. First of all, because there are monsters that take on warped forms, and it is hard to even communicate the enemy’s traits.”
Here Hakuya took a sip of the water left next to the lectern and paused for a breath.
“There is a risk that information will be miscommunicated. ‘We neglected to understand the situation before rushing to the scene, and were not equipped to handle the monsters,’ or ‘We took too long carefully preparing, and the damage spread.’ I can imagine either of these situations arising. However, if we identify monsters by their body parts, and have a shared naming system, that time can be shortened considerably.”
Hakuya tapped the picture of the flying tsuchinoko with a pointer.
“Take this ‘flying tsuchinoko’ for instance. We will call monsters with this wing part ‘flying,’ and those with this short, fat snake part ‘tsuchinokos.’ Further, wolf monsters will be called ‘wolves,’ those that are rotting will be called, ‘zombies,’ those that are poisonous will be called, ‘poison,’ those with horns will be called, ‘horned,’ and those with two of a part will be called ‘twin-plus-the part name.’”
He paused again to allow the audience to absorb this information.
“Think of it like how we already call monsters with human parts ‘men.’ In doing this, a group that would once have been reported as containing, ‘fat snake monsters with horns and wings, two-headed wolves with poisonous fangs, and lizardmen whose bodies are rotting,’ can now be reported as, ‘A group of horned tsuchinoko, two-headed poison wolves, and zombie lizardmen,’ and the same information will be conveyed. We know in advance that if there are many flying monsters, it would be wise to send anti-air equipment, and if there are a lot of poison monsters, we should send antidotes and serum.”
“““Ohhh!””” The crowd cried out in awe. They finally understood the practicality of it.
As Hakuya was speaking, Souma thought, Hm... If they used a system of writing that represented ideas, not sounds, we could compress it even more, though...
What Souma was thinking of was ‘kanji,’ which had existed in the language of the country he once lived in. With kanji, those three monster names could be written, 角飛槌蛇, 双頭毒狼, and, 腐蜥蜴人.
However, Souma shook his head. Continental Standard uses an alphabet like English, so it’s not gonna be possible, huh... Maybe if I invented something like pictograms... Wait, those can’t be communicated verbally.
While Souma was thinking about that, Hakuya continued, “Now, MPI does more than just allow us to share information by naming monsters. This came up in the beginning, but it’s also relevant to the question of which monsters can be eaten. The flying tsuchinoko is edible. This has been proven by the cases of them having been eaten in the Empire, and consumed by the lizardmen. Flying tsuchinoko contain a snake part and a wing part, but both of them must be edible. It is probable that monsters made of all edible parts are edible.”
He pointed at the body and wings on the sketch for emphasis.
“Conversely, if they have even a single poisonous part in their bodies, there is a high possibility that those monsters are not suitable for consumption. However, due to the lack of trials at this point, this still remains just a prediction. If we feed the monsters we slay to animals and continue to experiment, we may be able to come to a more precise conclusion. I would like to ask you all to cooperate with demonstrating this.”
Hakuya bowed his head, and the crowd nodded at his reasonable suggestion. The memory of the food crisis was still fresh in this country.
“There are also monsters with human parts, and even if those parts are not toxic, I doubt anyone would want to eat them unless they were in a serious crisis. However, on the front line, if our men are starving for some reason, they could serve as a valuable source of food to keep them alive. It is important to address the legal and ethical implications of consuming meat from monsters with human-like parts. This is something on which I would like to proceed cautiously, taking into consideration the opinions of the state, and, of course, the religions which support our people’s spiritual well-being.”
There was a buzz of hushed voices from the crowd at Hakuya’s words. The researchers leaned towards those nearest them, whispering, “What do you think?” They were exchanging opinions, but the religious figures in the audience had harsh looks on their faces.
The Lunarian Orthodox bishop who had been suspicious of the idea of studying monsters to begin with was glaring at Hakuya unhappily. He must have thought consuming monsters was unthinkable. Even with the opinions of those looking at him so divided, Hakuya continued to speak.
“The third merit of MPI is that, by categorizing the body parts, we can determine just how many human parts are in a subject. This is still just a theory, but it seems that monsters with more human parts are more intelligent.”
He pointed at the flying tsuchinoko and lizardman pictures.
“The flying tsuchinoko acts on animal-like thoughts. The way it flies to attack its prey, then consumes its meat, is a purely instinctual pattern of action. No different from any wild animal. The lizardmen that the National Defense Force encountered, on the other hand, demonstrated the ability to learn. When we showed one lizardman how to cook and eat a flying tsuchinoko, that lizardman cooked and ate one when it was back among its pack. The other lizardmen that saw this imitated it, and they began attacking flying tsuchinokos. The key takeaway here is that lizardmen can learn.”
Hakuya looked out emphatically as the entire hall went quiet.
If there were monsters with the ability to learn, that made them that much more dangerous. It was said that the demons that lived on the northern end of the continent were intelligent. And those same demons had once destroyed the united forces of mankind that were led by the Empire.
Monsters were not intelligent like demons, so it was assumed they were simple to handle. However, if some of those monsters had the ability to learn, they couldn’t maintain an optimistic perspective. It’s harder to deal with a pack of wolves than one great bear. If the beasts were clever, that raised the threat to humanity.
Hakuya continued, “Intelligence is the greatest advantage we hold over the monsters. If they possess even a shred of what we do, that is a threat to us. However, can we not also say this? If those that possess even a small number of human parts are intelligent, then those with more parts will be more intelligent. Perhaps to the point that it may be possible for them to communicate with us.”
He stopped there and looked out at the crowd once more.
“I am sure you can all think of a group this applies to... The demons.”
With his words, the assembled people gulped once more. They had heard that the demons seemed to be intelligent, but they hadn’t thought they were so intelligent they could communicate with humans. An enemy with human-level intelligence was dangerous. It also opened the possibility for dialogue, but with some notable exception, almost no one had realized that yet. Those exceptions were the people who already knew about this.
“Have we finally come this far...?”
“It certainly took a while, huh?”
Up on stage, Souma and Liscia whispered to each other. Only a select few in th
e upper echelons of this country had been privy to the story of how the kobolds had contacted Tomoe. It was not simple to prove the communication that Tomoe’s power had made possible, though, and they risked condemnation from other countries for being in communication with demons.
If other countries found out and began trying to contact the demons independently, it would be chaos. None of the countries could tell the difference between monsters and demons at the time. Because of that, Souma had kept this fact a secret. But today, it was finally revealed for all to see.
With the advancement of the study of monsters and demons through Ichiha’s MPI, they had newly presented the objective potential that dialogue was possible. If it looked like that was objectively the case, the other countries couldn’t condemn them for it. Of course, there was only a potential at this stage, but the times were slowly catching up to the facts they had gleaned through Tomoe’s ability.
“If demons are intelligent like us, do you think they can understand monsters that have only meager intelligence?”
Hakuya’s words hung in the air.
“Think about it. If you were surrounded on the road by a pack of wild dogs, you would be frightened. What if you were a demon? Do you suppose you would be calm surrounded by monsters? Between monsters and demons, could there not be conflict between them? Do you suppose the terrifying demons and monsters have built a symbiotic relationship? Perhaps we need to think of demons and monsters separately... That is all. Thank you for listening.”
Hakuya bowed and stepped down. There was no applause. Everyone was busy thinking through the new possibilities that had just been presented to them.
Amidst the silence, Souma began clapping his hands. Liscia and Tomoe followed suit, and the crowd, brought back to their senses by that sound, gave a huge round of applause. When the clapping stopped, Souma rose and spoke.
“Now, with the explanation of Sir Ichiha and Hakuya’s MPI system finished, I would like to move on to the exchange of opinions that is the goal of this event. Taking into consideration what Sir Ichiha and Hakuya have explained, I would like to hear your frank opinions about monsters, researching monsters, and the MPI system.”