by Aneko Yusagi
“Is that stuff really important? They have already existed in the past in this world, correct?” I confirmed.
“They have, but I need to confirm all the possible details or I won’t be able to create a strategy,” Trash said. With that, he proceeded to dig down as deep as possible into our knowledge on the subject, pressing for information so detailed I couldn’t imagine it would possibly be of any practical use. He also asked about guns too. Itsuki turned out to know a lot on that subject, including the names of the parts themselves.
So he came from a world with superpowers but was a military fanboy himself, I guess.
I wanted to make such a comment, but it wouldn’t help anything. I decided against it.
Thinking about it for a moment longer, I realized he would need a gun or a bow or something to use his Accuracy ability. So his knowledge of guns probably made sense.
“That’s still not enough,” Trash said once we were finished.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s still something that feels incomplete,” Trash clarified. After everything we’d already told him, he still pressed us with further questions. The other heroes, Melty, and I considered that attitude with suspicion to start with, but the other heads of state—especially those of around the same age as Trash—were all quietly smiling with reassured looks on their faces.
“Hey. What’s going on?” I asked one of them.
“That’s proof that the Wisest King of Wisdom is truly back with us. He continues to gather information until he has everything he needs. After all we’ve done to him, that’s how we know he can be relied upon now,” came the reply.
“Fair enough . . .” I managed.
“If he isn’t confident in his strategy yet, that means he still hasn’t received a piece of critical information from you. Please continue to aid him,” the man asked. I still didn’t understand where that faith was coming from, but I’d never seen Trash like this either. I decided to remain quietly optimistic.
“Hero Iwatani,” Trash said to me.
“Y-yes?” I responded. It still threw me off to no longer have him just call me “shield.” There was an incredible light in his eyes too. Like, I might get sucked into it and start spilling all my secrets, whatever they were.
“I will leave the leader of our enemies to you, Hero Iwatani. Is that acceptable?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m going to crush his face,” I responded.
“Naofumi, can you handle it? Your shield has been taken from you, right?” Ren asked, concern in his voice.
“I’m fine. Which reminds me . . .” In the same moment I had the thought, the weapons of the heroes who were present all started to faintly glow. The light moved from Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki, through the place where my own shield had been, and then out to Fohl and Trash.
“What’s this? ‘Convert?’” Trash queried.
“Release of the power-up method? An item I’ve never seen before popped up,” Fohl said. Both of them muttered to themselves while tracking something with their eyes.
That had done it, anyway. The synergy effect between my weapons and the heroes’ weapons had been further unlocked. The power-up method for the gauntlets had also been updated. Trash reverently offered his staff to me.
“The staff apparently wishes to make a special exception and lend its strength to you as one of your personal possessions, Hero Iwatani,” he explained.
“Are you okay with that?” I questioned.
“I am fundamentally a strategist. Weapons are not so important to me,” he clarified.
“I see,” I said. I gripped Trash’s staff. An item appeared, much like when I still had the shield. Then a system message popped up.
Possession by the Shield Hero permitted as a special exception!
Exception weapon unlocked!
Fenrir Rod conditions unlocked!
Fenrir Rod 0/90 C
special effect: gleipnir rope, rebellion against heaven
mastery level: 0
I proceeded to check my status. When compared to the status I was familiar with, quite a bit had changed. I was going to have to adapt my fighting style a little.
The rod itself was decorated with an engraving of a wolf biting it. It had chains wrapped around it, making it somewhat difficult to hold. When I checked the weapon book, quite a lot had been unlocked. It looked like the seven star fixed ability called Convert allowed the unlocked status of weapons from the trusted four holy heroes to be carried over.
That alone provided a pretty big boost in stats. However . . . they were lower than the shield values I remembered. This was likely because the seven stars were lower-ranking weapons than the four holy ones.
Next I looked at the staff power-up method.
“Fohl, share the power-up method in your help with us. We’ll tell you ours too. Then put them into practice,” I said.
“S-sure. I can see it now. I searched all around before and couldn’t find it at all,” Fohl reported.
“Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, you guys understand too, right? Powering up heroes is about trust. I’ll tell you the power-up method on this staff that Trash had, and Fohl will do the same with his gauntlets,” I said.
“Sure thing,” Ren said.
“Understood, I say!” Motoyasu chimed in.
“Okay,” Itsuki added. We proceeded to share our power-up methods among ourselves.
“Hold on a moment. Isn’t that one of the power-up methods that we tried before, and it didn’t work?” Ren asked.
“It’s used as the seven star power-up method,” I explained. “With the restriction of only getting stronger if the heroes work together.”
“Like we need another pain in the ass,” Ren grumbled. He wasn’t wrong, of course. This was also likely due to the hindrances caused by the wave enemies. At least I finally had an answer that maybe made sense.
It was a piece of luck, anyway, that the gauntlets and staff had the same power-up method even though they were different types. I proceeded to perform various enhancements on the Fenrir Rod.
My status got a big boost as a result, even if it was still not enough to match the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield. It would be unfair to compare anything to that, what with the enhancements it had received from the Shield of Compassion that had unlocked thanks to Atla.
“I’ve unlocked it, but I can’t use the equip bonus yet,” Fohl reported to me.
“We don’t have long, but get it done. The state will provide any materials you need for enhancements. You can take anything you need from the storeroom in my village too,” I told him.
“Okay,” he replied.
“Does that conclude our hero business? Then it’s time to narrow down our strategy.” Trash sat in his chair and declared the continuation of the meeting. He then proceeded to continue to ask us for knowledge about our home worlds, digging down into the finest details—so deep that just that information alone might be enough for him to have some kind of revolutionary idea.
Before I realized it, the sun was starting to set.
“There’s still more you need?” I asked.
“I could use some more, but that should be enough for today.” Trash started to write on the board. The castle guards gathered and started to note everything down. The old genmu guy had ordered them to do so.
The other heroes and I couldn’t help but nod when we saw what he was writing. Even more surprisingly, he even had detailed potential new weapons the enemy might use and ways to combat them.
I wondered what he was planning to do with all the information we had given him.
“I think that covers initial proposals,” Trash said, finally finished. Ideas numbered one to twenty were written up on the board, and Trash ordered the soldiers to prepare them all.
“Looks pretty thorough,” I replied.
“I’d like you heroes to divide up and operate in separate units,” Trash explained.
“Yes. The Faubrey hero will surely attack on this date—because that’s exactly what I would do. If he comes any earlier than that, we can only mock his ignorance,” Trash said. That made sense, as it would indeed suck if they attacked on that day—the day of the next wave.
That would be the most effective strategy.
We had all registered the dragon hourglass in Melromarc, anyway.
“What’s the state of the waves in each nation?” I asked.
“The shortest is the Melromarc hourglass. The others have more leeway,” came the reply.
“Okay.” This was still a serious problem. We wouldn’t stand a chance if a wave was called during a war with Faubrey, but we also couldn’t ignore the waves completely.
Which meant we needed to divide up the heroes.
“We’ll need the heroes to prepare in advance, too, as quickly as possible. Make use of those fast filolials if you can,” Trash said.
“Very well! Let’s move, my angels!” Motoyasu almost dashed out of the room with his trio. No one knew where he thought he was going.
“Then I’ll place you in this unit, Spear Hero,” Trash said. Then he carried on, making some other designations.
“Something else. Trash, I’ve got some people to introduce to you as further sources of information,” I said.
“Very well. Who might they be?” Trash asked. One of them was a pure source of information. Filled with pent-up anger, she would surely cooperate with us. She was my slave, first and foremost. She couldn’t turn me down.
As for the others . . . it would be faster for him to see for himself. He’d probably seen them before, but he wouldn’t know the extent of their abilities.
We set out to make the introductions.
Evening was closing in, but we needed all the time we could get, so I’d decided to show Trash the situation . . . that was, those in my village who might prove to be useful. He had joined us with the queen in fighting the Phoenix, so he had some idea of what we were working with, but probably no details about our fighting strength.
“Hey, bubba!” As soon as we returned via Ren’s portal, Keel spotted us and came over. “Are you okay now?”
“Getting there. Any problems here?” I asked.
“Nope. This guy here is the one who was next to the queen, right?” she said.
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“This is our first time talking. Everyone in the nation knows my name, so I’m sure you do too. I’m Trash. Call me whatever you like,” he introduced himself.
“Bubba. Is this guy okay? He’s not another one like Bubba Spear, is he?” Keel asked.
“He should be okay . . .” I didn’t want him getting too masochistic either—although I was the one who named him.
“Bubba . . . where’s Raphtalia?” Keel asked.
“Staying alive, I can tell you that much. She’s fine. I’m going to bring her back, I promise,” I reassured her. Raphtalia’s vassal weapon had taken her to Kizuna’s world in order to keep her safe. Once everything here calmed down, I’d go and find her. I just needed her to hold on until then.
“Okay then, bubba! I’ll do what I can to help!” Keel enthused.
“Good girl!” I replied and was rewarded with some barks.
“I’m off to get stronger right away!” she yapped, turning into her puppy form and running off, likely going to raise her level. I’d leave her to it.
“Trash. Please come with me. Ren, you explain the situation to the others in the village,” I said.
“I’m on it,” Ren replied. Then I took Trash with me to make the introductions.
“Oh? Count, are you healed up already?” Rat asked.
“Getting there,” I repeated. I had arrived in Rat’s laboratory with Trash. There was something floating in the large culture tank. It looked a bit like a carriage. But it looked like it had a tail like Raph-chan. I wondered what the hell it was.
“Rat, you understand what we’re dealing with here? The upcoming war?” I asked.
“Yes. It was that seven star hero who injured you, Count, correct?” she confirmed.
“The one who cast you out?” I asked.
“Yes. He chose an alchemist, my rival, over me. Our research also overlapped, so it was a total mess,” Rat said. She’d talked about something like this before, but I hadn’t imagined them to be enemies.
It was an advantage to have someone who knew about our foes on our side, in any case. Takt had also made a mistake by letting someone with Rat’s skills get away.
“They have an alchemist too?” I asked.
“Yes—an alchemist who still looks like a young girl,” Rat confirmed.
“She specializes in machinery,” I guessed.
“That would be the seven star hero. There’s another one. She specializes in the creation of artificial life and, if I recall correctly, also has some skill in physical modification. I’m not sure how she pulled it off, but there’s a chance the special ability to steal hero weapons was somehow provided by her,” Rat theorized.
“Hmmm . . .” Itsuki had said he had probably been born with it, but there was the possibility it was an ability that was added later. Kyo had used an invention to steal the power of the Spirit Tortoise. Maybe this alchemist had given him that power.
The description kind of sounded like the one who had been tortured due to Raph-chan II’s trickery. Then there was talk of being the advance guard for the waves . . . so we still needed to get to the bottom of who was behind all this.
“If you ask me, a pretty average alchemist,” Rat went on. “More knowledge than most when it comes to artificial life perhaps, but not on my level. But I’m a specialist in monsters.” So now we had a young girl alchemist and a sexy woman alchemist—and when making a choice between them, he had chosen the young girl. She didn’t make as much of a strong impression as the one behind it all, however. “I’m still infuriated with her. She gave herself over to romance. I defeated her at alchemy. And he still chose her!”
It sounded like maybe Takt kicked Rat out once he realized she wasn’t going to fall for him.
“So you got kicked out for not getting along with her?” I asked.
“More like because the field the seven star hero himself was following and my own research had some overlap. Airplanes, wasn’t it? I remember debating with him that we should just use dragons and griffons,” Rat explained.
“I also recall that Faubrey are using heavily modified tanks in their invasions,” Trash commented.
“Is that so?” Rat replied. You only had to look at the culture tank to see that Rat’s current research was into carriage-like monsters. If I recalled correctly, these monsters had a long-range sniping function among their attacks.
Their areas of research clearly did overlap then. It was just that Rat used monsters and our new enemies used machines. It was unclear what kind of difference that would make. I thought about bringing the concept of levels into it. I guessed machines had the advantage of relying on the level of their pilot. But if they got damaged or destroyed, then a whole new machine was required. Living creatures had to be leveled up individually, but unless they were completely killed, they could then be kept in battle by using healing magic.
I guess Rat had just proven too technically competent a rival, leading to her being kicked out of Faubrey.
“Raph!” One of the Raph species popped up. Rat was proceeding with her precise investigations into them, and there were loads of them in the village.
“Good timing. Trash, this is a type of monster that I want to show to you. I think we can make use of them in the operation you came up with,” I said.
“My wife told me that these were monsters you brought here from another world,” Trash confirmed.
“That’s right. They started out with a shikigami—
a familiar from another world—but have now undergone their own unique evolution,” I explained. I recalled how much Raph-chan had grown before using a class-up to turn most of the village monsters into a totally new species. “We call them the Raph species.”
“I recall seeing them fighting the Phoenix. There’s a wide variety of types, correct?” Trash said.
“It’s a type of monster reached using a class-up, meaning many of them still have the original monster mixed in,” I confirmed.
“I see.” Trash nodded.
“Raph?” the newcomer asked.
“I’ll want to use these in the fighting too. We have a severe lack of numbers,” I said. To be brutally honest about it, the Melromarc soldiers were pretty under-leveled when compared to the horde from Faubrey. Hand-to-hand, I really thought we would be at a disadvantage. Of course, I planned on gathering volunteers from among my slaves, but that still wasn’t going to reach anything close to the numbers we needed. That was why I wanted to also use our monsters, including the Raph species.
“Tell me, then, what kind of abilities do these monsters have?” Trash asked. I turned to Rat.
“There’s a wide spread of abilities, depending on type. However, all of them can use illusion-type magic,” she explained. They were modeled after Raphtalia, after all, who was skilled at illusion magic herself. Under the category of light and dark, she was good at concealing herself or causing confusion.
That said, Raphtalia herself didn’t use magic all that much. She was more focused on use of sword techniques.
“Users of illusion magic, huh? They do sound useful for my strategy. I think we can expect much from them individually too,” Trash assessed.
“I’ve got some other firepower I can bring to the table. If there are any weapons we need before the war starts, some guys I know will be able to help make them,” I said. I’d be placing an order with the old guy, Imiya’s uncle, and their master Motoyasu II before long. They were skilled and trustworthy.
