by Aneko Yusagi
“Oh yeah, you did call it a lottery.”
So you could either hit or miss.
So if you pulled a loser, you would get nothing, and if you pulled a winner, you still ended up paying more than you would have in the first place.
“And I’m guessing there aren’t actually any real eggs in there?”
“How dare you? Are you accusing me of unjust business practices? My dear Hero…”
“Am I wrong?”
“I am very proud of my business. I might enjoy tricking a customer now and then, but I take no pleasure from misrepresenting my products.”
“You like tricking people, but not misrepresentation?”
I couldn’t follow his logic. I gave up on that for the time being.
“And what do you get if you pull the winning egg?”
“I’ll try to make it easy for you to understand, being a foreigner and all. Simply put: a Knight’s Dragon.”
Woah, a Knight’s Dragon? I wonder if that was a class of dragon that knights rode in battle?”
“Is that a dragon that people ride like a horse?”
“Not just that, this one can fly. They are very popular, so the game has been a hit with the nobility.”
“A flying dragon? It was like a dream!
“Mr. Naofumi?”
“To buy one on the market you’d need around 20 pieces of gold. They are one of the cheaper dragons. Yes sir.”
“What’s the probability? Just tell me the chances for the dragon egg.”
“There are 250 eggs in the crate, and only one of them is a dragon egg.”
So it was a one in 250 chance.
“I’ve compensated for differences in weight with a magical spell. You must agree to the possibility of drawing a losing egg before purchasing a ticket.”
“You’re quite the business man.”
“Yes, well. Whenever there is a winner I learn their name, and they tend to spread the word around for me.”
“Yeah, but those chances aren’t so great…”
“Well, there is this box over here, and if you buy ten tickets, you are guaranteed to win at least once. Yes sir.”
“Well, I assume there are no dragon eggs in that one?”
“Yes, that’s true, but the prize is definitely worth at least 300 pieces of silver.”
Hold on a second, isn’t this like some online slot machine? C’mon!
These games are set up to make profits for the businesses who make them. And he almost had me for a second there…
“Hmm…”
Thinking it over, I wondered how far I could progress with only Raphtalia in my party?
Would it be cheaper to buy another slave, or to buy a monster to travel with us?
Maybe I should try out my new slave user shield. Raphtalia was already at a pretty high level, so the maturation adjustment probably wouldn’t benefit her all that much.
But then again, I’d have to raise the monster. Traveling with Raphtalia, the major costs were updating her equipment. But there was a good chance that monsters could fight without having to use any equipment at all. I could use all the additional money we earned on Raphtalia.
“All right, I’ll try it once.”
“Thank you very much! As a show of good will, I’ll excuse the cost of the slave curse ceremony.”
“How generous of you. I like that kind of thing.”
“Mr. Naofumi?!”
“What is it?”
“Are you buying a monster egg?”
“Yeah, I thought we could probably use another party member. I could get a slave, but they would end up costing more money for equipment. I figured that investing in a monster might be a good way to go.”
“Yes, but monsters can be a real handful.”
“I know that. But don’t you kind of want a pet?”
“Are you sure that you aren’t trying to get a dragon egg?”
“Even if we got an Usapil, I’d be fine with that.”
I kind of liked little animals. MMORPGs often let you keep pets and use them in your party. At the very least, they could be relaxing to have around. And if I could give them orders, like a slave, then they could help out in battle.
We had a little extra money, and I could tell that it was loosening my purse strings. But still, it didn’t seem like a poor investment to me. Besides, if there was a Slave Shield, there should be one for monsters too.
“And if we raise it up and then sell it, we won’t feel as bad as if we’d done the same thing to a slave.”
“Oh okay, I think I understand now.”
Sure, we might get attached, but we needed money—there was no escaping that.
I think selling off a slave is difficult because you know that they are a person. Just like Raphtalia had come back to me of her own free will, if the next slave did the same thing, I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to sell another slave off at all. At least a monster wouldn’t talk. So, even if we did grow attached, I think I’d still be able to turn it over for a profit.
I could just pass it over, and sort of pray that it ends up with a good master. Something like that anyway.
“I’m sure you’d assist me in that, wouldn’t you?”
“The depth of your consideration never fails to impress, Hero. Yes sir!”
He was loving this conversation.
I looked over at all the eggs. He already said that there was a spell on them to make them indistinguishable, so I guess I should just choose one at random.
“I’ll take that one.”
I just followed my intuition and chose one from the right side of the line.
“Look at the symbol painted on the eggshell, and copy it onto the dish before you.”
I did as he said and painted the symbol onto the dish. When I did, the symbol glowed red, and a new icon appeared in my field of vision. It said monster training. Just like when the slave icon originally appeared, a window also showed up detailing various rules of usage that I could set for the monster.
I selected the option that it would have to obey my orders or face punishment. I decided to make the punishment more severe than what I had set for Raphtalia. That seemed the obvious choice—this was a monster after all. I wasn’t sure if it understood language, so I would have to make sure to put a lot of emotion into my voice when I scolded it. The thing wasn’t even hatched yet though.
The slave trader wrung his hands in delight and brought over a machine that looked like some kind of incubator. I placed the egg inside.
“If it doesn’t hatch, I’ll be back for my money.”
“I tip my hat to you, Hero! Determined to get his money’s worth even if he pulled a losing egg.”
The slave trader seemed to be in a very good mood. Was he some sort of closeted masochist? Not that I wanted to make fun of another guy, but… actually, come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind seeing those other stupid heroes in a bit of pain.
“Even if it’s just a verbal agreement, I really will be back. If you act like this conversation never happened, my unstable slave here might just cause a ruckus.”
“Hey, what are you expecting me to do?”
“I’ll be waiting for you, yes sir!”
He was in a VERY good mood.
“Just when should I expect it to hatch?”
I passed him 100 pieces of silver as I asked.
“It’s written on the incubator.”
“Let’s see here…”
I saw something that looked like numbers of some kind, but I couldn’t read them.
“Raphtalia, can you read this?”
“Let’s see, just a little bit. It looks like the numbers will be gone sometime tomorrow.”
“That’s fast. Excellent.”
I was getting excited. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of monster hatched from the egg.
“I’m always glad when you pay me a visit. Yes sir.”
I took the egg in my arms, and we turned, leaving the tent behind us.
Chapter T
wo: Gratitude for Life
So what was next?
I was wondering that very thing when I remembered the extra medicine I had left over from the wave of destruction. I’d made a whole bunch, just to be safe, but at this point it probably made more sense to sell off what I didn’t need.
“Let’s stop by the apothecary and then head to the weapon shop.”
“Mr. Naofumi, take care that you don’t get too careless with your money. If you keep doing things like you just did, you’ll only make life harder on yourself.
“I know that”
“Our current equipment is just fine. Why bother thinking about it until you are sure that you need it?”
“…”
Well, I guess she had a point after all. But compared to the other heroes, we were using junk. I still thought that getting Raphtalia better equipment and then moving on to fight stronger monsters would be the best strategy…
“And besides, we just got new equipment a few days ago. Just imagine what the weapon shop owner would say.”
“Yeah…”
She was right, the old guy had given us a lot of help. And he’d given us new equipment while including the trade-in value of our older stuff too. Whatever we got from him now probably wouldn’t be substantially better than what we already had.
The weapon shop owner was the only person that had helped me out after those bastards framed me—I liked the guy. Everything we currently had equipped, Raphtalia’s weapons and my own armor, we’d purchased from him.
So I wanted to keep patronizing him, and I wanted to pay him back for all he’d done.
“Fine. Let’s save up for a while.”
“Okay!”
Granted, it wasn’t a BAD idea to buy new equipment after our wallets had gained a little weight.
“Okay, let’s head to the apothecary.”
I poked my head into the shop, and when the owner saw me, he let a smile play over his face.
“What? What is it?”
This guy normally looked pretty sullen, which I assumed was some kind of business strategy on his part. So what was he looking so happy for? It set my nerves on edge.
“Oh not much. I’ve been waiting for you to stop by. Waiting for a chance to say thanks, you know?”
“For what?”
I looked to Raphtalia. Neither of us knew what he was talking about.
“I have some family in Riyute. They say that you saved them. They asked me to help you out if I ever ran into you.”
“Hmm… You don’t say.”
The wave of destruction had occurred near a town called Riyute, where I’d based my operations for a time. In the midst of all the chaos, I’d dedicated my energies to the evacuation effort, and the town ended up fairing pretty well because of that. When the wave had passed, the Riyute villagers had all lined up and said thank you to me. Apparently this guy’s relatives had been among them.
“So anyway, in thanks I’d like to…”
The owner took a book off of the bookshelf behind him.
“What’s that?”
“You sold me some lower-level potions earlier, which leads me to believe that those were the only recipes you knew. This book has better recipes, for mid-level potions. I think you are probably ready to take them on.”
“…”
I hesitantly opened the book on the counter. It was pretty old, and the cover was well worn. Even still, I could only discern some of the characters written there.
But I couldn’t read them.
“Th…Thank you. I’ll do my best.”
He’d gone out of his way to be nice to me, so I didn’t want to let it go without at least saying thanks. The book probably contained recipes for medicines that would sell for a good price.
“I’m glad to hear you say that.”
Ugh… I hated the pressure of having to respond to people’s kindness. I’d given up on trying to read it since I didn’t understand the language they used to write things around here. I suppose I should make a more sincere effort.
“The owner of the magic shop wanted you to stop by too.”
“Magic shop?”
“Mr. Naofumi? It’s a shop that sells books to teach magical spells.”
“Oh, I see.”
I’d seen the shop in town but had assumed it was a bookstore. Thinking back on it then, I remembered seeing a crystal ball in the back of the shop.
“Where’s the shop?”
“Right on the main street. You can’t miss it.”
Yes, I remember seeing it. It was the biggest, or second biggest bookstore in town—I mean magic shop.
“Excellent. So what can I do for you today?”
“I was hoping you would…”
He ended up buying the medicine off of me for a better price than I’d gotten yet.
I bought some new materials with the money, and went looking for the magic shop.
“Oh! The Shield Hero! I have to thank you for saving my grandchild.”
“Right…”
I didn’t actually know who she was talking about, but it must have been one of the villagers in Riyute. The old lady who ran the shop had run to politely greet me at the door.
I call her an old lady, but she was a pudgy woman dressed like a witch.
“I heard you wanted to see me?”
I looked around the shop I’d previous misconstrued as a bookstore. The shelves were lined with old, dusty books, and there were a number of crystal balls lined up behind the counter. There were some staves and wands around… pretty much what you would expect for a magic shop.
Come to think of it though, I had no idea how you were supposed to learn magic.
“Before that, is this young lady your only traveling companion?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
I caught Raphtalia’s gaze, and we both nodded.
“Then wait right there for a moment, please.”
She went behind the counter, took a crystal ball off of the shelf and began chanting a spell over it.
“Yes. Now then, Shield Hero, please look deep into the ball.”
“Um… Okay.”
I had no idea what to expect, but I looked deep into the ball.
Something was shining, but I couldn’t really see anything in particular.
“Yes, yes, it seems that you, Shield Hero, are suited to learning recovery and support magic.”
“Huh?”
Was she looking to see what kind of magic I was best suited to?
If only she’d told me earlier, I would have had some idea of what was going on… Oh well, it wasn’t like I had any room to complain, but she could have explained herself a little better.
“Next I’ll take a look at the nice young lady behind you.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Raphtalia stepped forward and looked deep into the crystal ball.
“Yes, yes, that only makes sense. The young raccoon girl seems best suited for light and shadow magic.”
“Why do you say that it only makes sense? Is that common knowledge?”
“Yes, the raccoon people are said to control phantoms that contain both the refractive properties of light and the indefinite properties of shadow.”
I was starting to understand. They were like the raccoons or tanuki of my own world. In my own Japan, people often said that tanuki were shapeshifting creatures that could take on human form. Apparently that way of thinking was something our universes had in common.
“Okay, so what is all this about?”
“Yes, well, this is what I was hoping to give you.”
The old lady said, and handed us three books.
More books! I couldn’t read them at all, not a single word, but everyone was showering me in books that day.
“I’d really like to give you a crystal ball, but if I did I would put myself out of business…”
“Why’s that?”
“Don’t you know, Shield Hero? If you can free the magic that is sealed in a crystal ball, you’ll l
earn it instantly.”
What?! So I could learn to use magic even if I wasn’t able to read the books?
“Quite a while ago, the country went ahead and ordered a large number of crystal balls for the four heroes. Haven’t you heard anything about this?”
“Not a word.”
Thanks to that Trash, no doubt. He must have given the crystal balls to the other heroes after I’d left.
He went out of his way to intentionally exclude me from everything… Ugh… Just thinking about it made me want to murder the man.
“The magic books are not an easy read—that’s for sure. But if you apply yourself, you’ll eventually be able to learn a good amount of spells from those.”
That was probably why there was only one crystal ball, but a wide variety of magic books. Of course, they were only worth something if you were capable of reading them.
“I’m sorry…”
“Oh don’t be! Just getting these books will be a huge help!”
Raphtalia smiled and answered. I nodded along.
“How much magic do you think we can learn from these?”
“Well, those are all books for beginners. For anything more advanced… Think I could ask you to purchase anything additional?”
“Oh, sure.”
“I could probably teach you the spells myself, but the Shield Hero is very busy, is he not? I suppose you can’t just hang around the castle town?”
“That’s true.”
She did have a business to run, after all. She was cutting into her own profits to give us these books, so it didn’t seem right to complain about it.
“Thank you.”
I said it in a rather difficult way, but we received the books she offered and left the magic shop.
“Geez…”
I sighed without thinking. I had never really liked studying, so what was I supposed to do now?
Anyone with half a brain knew that the best course of action would be to buckle down, learn to read, and then study the books to learn new recipes and magic.
Of course that’s what they would say.
I found myself wondering if there was some skill I could equip to make it easier, something like “other world language translation.” There might have been medicinal recipes stored in the shield somehow. If I looked for them, I might even find them. But what would end up taking more time? Learning to read or finding the shield that would give me the recipes directly?
