by Aneko Yusagi
In reality, of course, she was actually a filolial transforming into a human.
“Come on, everyone! Show our support with everything we’ve got!” a crazed fan shouted. His suggestion was met with a roar of approval. The town square had been completely converted into the concert venue for an idol.
“Filo is incredibly popular, isn’t she?” Raphtalia said from behind me. I could only nod in agreement.
“Tell me about it. Melty is responsible for it all, and it looks like the merchandise is selling well too,” I commented. Saying she was sure they would sell like hotcakes, Melty had worked with the accessory dealer to create a line of official merchandise featuring images of Filo. The prices were set pretty high, but with this many fans in attendance, they looked sure to sell out.
If she was this popular, we could make a killing with a one-gold-coin-per-handshake event—not a bad idea.
“Master!” Filo was looking in my direction and waving her hand. She was singing to cheer me up. I could see that much. She’d promised that much.
I waved back.
Melty was also playing an instrument behind Filo. For all her complaining, Melty was capable in multiple arenas. She picked things up so quickly.
“Hold it right there!” Suddenly the three filolials who had just been with Motoyasu burst onto the stage dressed in their own idol costumes.
“This event,” Crimmy started.
“Now belongs,” Marine continued.
“To us!” Green concluded. It was like some crazy idol anime, playing out right in front of my eyes.
“Motty! Just you watch! We’re not going to let this bitch make us look bad!” Crimmy shouted while the others spewed similar garbage. Then they started to belt out their own love song for Motoyasu at full power.
“Hey! I’m only singing to make my master happy again!” Filo raged.
“Filo! Don’t back down now!” Melty encouraged.
“I won’t! I won’t let them show me up. I’ll sing a song I learnt while traveling with my master!” she replied. Then she took a deep breath in order to sing even more loudly than before.
“Charming Voice!” The spectators in the crowd gave a sigh, their eyes glazing over as they listened to her song.
“Ah! Filo-tan’s sweet voice is melting my brainstem!” one of them close to me said. Even Motoyasu looked a bit sick, swaying unsteadily on his feet.
“This could be really nasty!” Raphtalia warned me.
“Filo, stop! That song is dangerous! Don’t sing it!” I shouted.
“Oh bother!” Filo retorted.
“Raph!” Raph-chan proceeded to give a sharp whistle, calling in a horde of the Raph species to bring aid to the audience. “Raph!” Then she started to admonish Filo on stage. “Raph, raph, raph!”
“Oh . . . okay . . .” Filo backed down. Motoyasu’s three filolials were standing dejectedly at the side of the stage.
“Gah! You might have won this round, but we’ll get you next time!” Crimmy warned.
“That’s right! Next time!” Marine added.
“Girls, it looks like we need to practice singing as well as running!” said Green. They were a noisy bunch, completely caught up in their rivalry with Filo. At least they were keeping themselves busy.
In any case, Filo’s first major concert was a big hit.
Once the performance was over, Melty suggested I take a look around the rest of the festival. Filo was exhausted from her singing and taking a rest.
I took Raphtalia with me and walked through the town.
“Hey there, little Naofumi! Fancy a drink with two lovely ladies?” Sadeena called over to me from a venue that looked like little more than a pile of wine barrels. Sadeena and her sister Shildina were shacked up there and drinking—or more like bathing in—wine while waving me over.
“Why not drink and forget everything?” Shildina propositioned in her calm and collected mode, due to already being completely sloshed.
“Little Shildina, you drunken ninny, you can’t say things like that,” Sadeena chided, throwing in an elbow attack for good measure.
“Gah. I won’t let you show me up. Time to act!” Shildina only started waving harder. I still couldn’t tell if they got along or not.
“Please, ladies . . . just don’t drink too much,” Raphtalia managed, almost at a loss for words.
The villagers were also taking part, it seemed . . . and then I noticed a load of people gathered at the stall being run by Keel. I wondered what it was for a moment. Peering between the crowd, I saw a crepe stand.
Fohl was even helping out.
As soon as he saw my face, he went on guard.
“Hey, Bubba!” Keel said happily.
“You can make crepes now?” I asked.
“You bet I can!” she replied, so excited that she turned into her dog form for a moment. She was skillfully cooking crepes and then selling them alongside slaves who normally handled the cooking.
Hmmm. I thought I’d raised her into a combat-loving glutton, but she was turning into a glutton who loved cooking. She was developing her feminine side too.
“My own original recipes! I’ve added my ideas to your crepes, Bubba!” Keel exclaimed, taking out a grilled fish. Then she stripped off the flesh, making it into something like canned tuna, sliced up some other bioplant fruit, and wrapped it all in a crepe. “Crepes are more than just a dessert!”
“Looks like it,” I replied. They were also eaten this way in my world, so it wasn’t that surprising. It was certainly cooking suited to Keel though.
I felt someone looking at me and turned around. Close to Keel’s store, S’yne was selling things at the bazaar venue.
“Oh? S’yne?” Raphtalia said.
“Welcome. Ah, Mr. Iwatani,” S’yne said. The inside of the store was lined with clothing that she had likely prepared especially for today. I used appraisal and saw they were all high quality. At the same time, they were very reasonably priced and were flying off the racks.
S’yne was sharing her store with someone else. Imiya, it looked like. She was selling accessories to be worn along with the clothes.
With a combination of S’yne’s fashion sense and Imiya’s abilities, they had put together a pretty stylish little store. Even Raphtalia was looking closely at some items, tempted by the cheap prices. However, the thing she was looking at . . . was underwear.
I knew what this was. The feeling a man got when he walks into a lingerie shop.
“Is there something you want?” I asked her.
“Maybe. Something using slightly better materials, to help maintain my defense,” she pondered.
“I’m sorry, but . . . do you need underwear to offer defense? I think this would be more suited to you, Raphtalia,” Imiya said, bringing out some bright red . . . serious, serious undergarments. They had holes in places that made me feel uncomfortable.
“Why the hell are you selling that?” I asked.
“This little number? S’yne said there would probably be a demand for it,” Imiya explained. S’yne heard us talking and threw up a peace sign.
“I wouldn’t be too proud of that decision,” I responded. Surely Sadeena had been angry about this.
“I’ll put it on hold for you, shall I?” Imiya asked.
“I guess . . .” It looked like Raphtalia wasn’t in the mood.
As we talked, I started to hear a commotion from outside the town. It sounded like it was coming from where Wyndia had hastily erected her racing circuit. Rat was also helping out, if I remembered correctly, giving consideration to the health of the filolials and other factors.
The noise sounded like a mixture of elation and anger—a spicy blend of the joy of victory and chagrin of defeat.
“Let’s go to the races,” I quipped.
“Ah, Mr. Naofumi, wait for me,” Raphtalia said.
We arrived at the filolial racetrack to see unfamiliar filolials and their trainers slumped in defeat, while filolials from my own village were giving s
quawks of victory. All of them were transformed into queens and kings. I also spotted Ren and Itsuki providing security for the event.
With additional squawks, the filolials spotted me and came rushing over. Their frenzied chattering and nuzzling seemed to be intended to tell me they had won, and they were asking for praise as a result.
“Yes, good, good for you,” I said. My past trauma of being trampled by these birds was now far below my depression at losing Atla and the others, so I could even bring myself to pet them. It looked like they were racing under the command of Filo’s Underling Filolial #1, Chick, so I gave her some special attention.
Among the audience, I could see some crying over losses.
“Impossible!” one exclaimed. “First Honor and White Swan can’t possibly have lost!” What were those names? Racehorses?
“Not to mention the legendary Shield Lion!” another opined. “What’s going on here?!” I guess in every world racing creatures ended up with similar-sounding names.
“Are you the trainer of these filolials?!” The trainers of the defeated filolials turned toward me now, seeing my own birds flock toward me.
“You are the Shield Hero, correct? The governor of this place?” one of the trainers asked me.
“That’s right. What of it?” I asked, a little prickly.
“All of your filolials are quite remarkable, Shield Hero. I would very much like to breed them with my own birds. Is that something you might be interested in?” My own filolials immediately gave some surprised squawks. Then they turned to look at the filolials belonging to the man who made the suggestion.
It felt like the defeated filolials were giving my birds some pretty steamy looks.
More squawking. My birds all vigorously shook their heads and then attempted to hide behind me. Of course, there were far too many to pull that off.
That said, being able to speak and yet not choosing to do so meant there was still some leeway here.
“I will pay you well for your troubles. Will you at least consider it?” The trainer used an abacus-like tool to show me how much he was willing to pay.
It was quite a lot.
The audience seemed excited by this development too. “Ah! Pairings with legendary filolials? A new legend will surely be born!” one of them enthused.
Then I took a glance behind me.
My filolials had their wings together, praying I would turn down the offer. Their eyes were round and moist like calves about to be sold for slaughter.
I looked at Rat, then Wyndia, and then Ruft.
Rat said, “I’ll leave that with you, Count,” with a shrug of her shoulders and little overall interest.
Wyndia seemed in agreement too and said, “If it leads to something good in the end, then it could be worthwhile?”
Ruft, suffering from his fear of filolials, stared off into the distance while sitting on the back of one of the Raph species.
“I mean . . . I am in charge, overall, but someone else actually raised them. I want to respect their own freedom too. This kind of thing should happen . . . naturally . . .” I faltered. I couldn’t just marry them off. They had been raised by Motoyasu, meaning I had no rights over them.
With more squawking, the birds clutched close to me. Melty had told me we were dealing with a pretty large organization though, so I needed to tread carefully.
“They don’t seem very keen on the idea,” I ventured. “How about we observe them together for a time, my filolials and yours, and see if they’re compatible? If it looks like it isn’t going to work out, will you then give up?” I proposed the compromise.
“Very well.” The man finally accepted. Applause rang out over the racetrack again. If this went well, it would likely mean some great races in the future.
The filolials continued to shake their heads, however, whimpering to themselves. I formed up a huddle and talked to them in a whisper, making sure the trainer couldn’t hear what I said.
“Don’t worry. You just need to reject their advances. If they needlessly pressure you, kick them away—without hurting them,” I told them. A few squawked at that comment. “It also seems some of you aren’t so opposed to the idea. Respect their feelings too, please.” There was a group that wanted to reject the offer and a group that wasn’t so concerned either way. “I’m not saying you should all reject them. I’m leaving the decision with you. Understand?” In respect to Atla’s final words, I wanted them to live without any regrets.
With energetic squawking, the filolials seemed to give their understanding. Motoyasu might cause some filolial-related commotion later . . . so for now I’d take this proposal under advisement.
It was a few hours later.
As though indicating the end of the festival, an evening campfire had taken over the town square. If there had been some popular music playing, or perhaps traditional festival music, then it would have been a familiar sight for me. However, this festival featured songs from Filo and the wandering bard.
“Hey, hold on. I do hear some festival music,” I realized, finishing my own thought verbally.
“This music . . . sounds like it’s being played by people from Q’ten Lo,” Raphtalia said. Waves of nostalgia flowed over me, making me feel the sadness for the end of these festivities.
The end was almost here.
After the campfire and the music, we returned to our village. Upon doing so, Raph-chan and the other Raph species all started raph-raphing.
“Huh? What’s going on?” I asked.
“Good question,” Raphtalia responded. We both looked toward the voices to see Raph-chan leading the other Raph species in slowly dancing in front of the largest of the sakura lumina trees in the village. Bringing this many of them together really gave off some whimsical tanuki-vibes. It was like a horde of them looking up at the moon while beating on their tummy drums.
“Raaph! Am I doing it right?” For some reason, Ruft was also in the circle.
“Raph!” Raph-chan told him.
“Whatever are they doing?” Raphtalia asked.
“Don’t ask me,” I answered. Raphtalia continued to watch, furrowing her brow. Sometimes Raph-chan and her little troupe just started doing weird stuff. What was this? Some kind of ritual? With those thoughts, I saw Raph-chan leading them . . . It looked like they were performing some kind of harvest dance for the village’s sakura lumina.
With further assorted cries of “Raph!” and its numerous variants, including Ruft’s own attempt, the dance seemed to be finally completed. Raph-chan struck a pose and pointed both palms at the sakura lumina . . . and a gentle light was emitted by Raph-chan and all the Raph species to be absorbed by the tree.
Then all the sakura lumina seemed to glow more brightly.
“I have such a bad feeling about this,” Raphtalia said.
“Hmmm.” I activated my Territory Reform skill to check things out. I had a feeling that the points required to make reforms had increased. Maybe all the activity from the festival had increased them. There were still lots of mysteries surrounding Raph-chan and the Raph species, after all.
However, the next day we had discovered that a single, large fruit had grown on the largest of the sakura lumina. Rat had performed an analysis but was unsure what it was. And when we had tried to actually pick the fruit, all the Raph species, including Raph-chan herself, prevented the harvesting. There was nothing else we could do.
As we watched Raph-chan and the others dancing, Filo turned up. She had Melty with her and looked very happy.
“Master, how was it?” she asked.
“Pretty good,” I admitted.
“Did my singing help cheer you up?” she continued.
“Oh yes, I’m totally cheered up now,” I replied. It was pretty rough having even Filo tiptoeing around me.
“Hmmm. Mel-chan, I don’t think it worked?” Filo said, quite crestfallen.
“Don’t worry too much about it now. With a little more time, I’m sure this will all become a fun memory for
him,” Melty explained.
“You think?” Filo wasn’t convinced.
“Yes. Naofumi, you get some rest. Filo! We’ve still got some tidying up to do!” Melty said, full of energy.
“Okay!” Filo looked at me again. “See you later, Master!”
“Sure, sure,” I managed. Filo headed off at a brisk pace toward the town, Melty on her back. A bit much for me right then, but that was still how I wanted the two of them to be—full of life.
With that, the festival Melty organized came to a successful conclusion.
Chapter Three: The Genius
It was one week and five days after the defeat of the Phoenix. Motoyasu had reached the vicinity of Faubrey, and now Naofumi and the others were getting ready to go and join him.
It was the morning of their departure.
With various calls of “Raph” in various styles, Raph-chan and all of the Raph species were praying in front of the biggest sakura lumina in the village. The fruit on the branch of the sakura lumina finally came free and dropped down to the ground, giving off a pale glow as it fell. After the fruit landed in front of the Raph species, it turned into pure light and changed shape.
“Dafu?” said a new voice.
I was headed outside with Raphtalia to prepare breakfast when she stopped and suddenly said, “Hold on?”
“What’s up?” I asked, but then I quickly noticed myself. “It’s gone.” The large fruit that had appeared on the sakura lumina after the festival had vanished.
“Indeed. I hope everything is okay,” Raphtalia said.
“Raph-chan and the others were practically worshipping that thing. It might have been stolen. Should we enhance security?” I wondered.
“Raph,” said Raph-chan as we reached her and the others. Behind her . . . there was a type of Raph species I’d never seen before?
