by Aneko Yusagi
So she wanted to create a powerful monster. That was really simple and straightforward. I knew of games that had monster fusion and mixing systems, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand where she was coming from. But I guess if someone was actually trying to do something like that with real, living creatures, it was only natural that it would repulse some, just like it had in Faubrey.
“In order to do that, I need to analyze monsters and combine various alchemical techniques with magic. But those fools called my research evil and said it was beyond the forgiveness of the gods. They destroyed my lab and killed my research subjects. It was a real mess.”
“Umm . . . So in other words, you’re basically a monster tamer that was researching how to make monsters stronger using alchemy.”
“That’s more or less accurate.”
Heh. I’d said that assuming that she would argue, but I guess she was fine with being considered a monster tamer. I’d figured she was just loony, but she seemed to be able to look at things objectively too. Add a sense of purpose to the mix and the result is recklessness.
“Let’s look at this from a basic common-sense perspective. Eclair, I want to know what you think.”
“Huh? What I think?”
Eclair’s wary expression turned to one of confusion as she responded.
“Do you think the research she’s doing crosses any lines?”
“I don’t really know enough to say one way or the other, personally. However, having seen Filo in action, I do believe that monsters should be considered part of our offensive capabilities.”
It was an honest reply. But it didn’t answer the question. There was a high likelihood that the research wouldn’t be openly accepted. But I still wasn’t sure what to do.
“Rat, would your research include something like making Spirit Tortoise clones and using them to fight?”
“That does seem like something I would come up with. Shield Hero. What was your title of nobility again?”
“Mr. Iwatani is a Count,” replied Eclair.
“Well then, Count. It’s an interesting idea. Is that something you’re considering doing?”
“Let me continue. I’m guessing you heard rumors about us having gone to another world, right?”
“I did. I heard that you went chasing after the enemy and then returned after successfully defeating him.”
“In that other world, there was an alchemist that had created clones of a certain beast that was at least as powerful as the Spirit Tortoise.”
If someone was trying to do the same kind of thing here in this world, I couldn’t trust them. I was putting the idea out there to see how she responded. If she went for it, she was out.
“Well, that’s boring. I’m not interested in research that someone else has already done.”
Rat ran her hands through her hair. Her reply sounded like she was being completely honest.
“It was an intriguing idea at first. But if it’s already been done, it’s nothing more than reference material.”
Hmm . . . I thought she might just be a whacko, but she seemed to have her own personal philosophy. She wasn’t interested in mimicking others.
“I don’t really get it. Are we talking about monster taming, like in games?”
Ren tried to put it into game terms as he asked me and Rat.
“To be more specific, one of my objectives is filolials.”
Normal filolials weren’t really all that strong. She was probably referring to Fitoria or something. Fitoria was ridiculously strong, after all. She’s the one that had held the Spirit Tortoise back when things got tough. She had been considered a legend before that, but her involvement in the fight had proven her existence to the world.
“This is only what I’ve managed to figure out on my own, but there’s a theory that the heroes created the legendary filolial. The same bird god that is supposed to be as powerful as the infamous dragon emperor. I want to create a monster like that. One that will be remembered for generations to come. One that will fight for the people.”
That made sense. She wanted to create a legendary monster herself, in other words.
“We use filolials as transportation, so they can be found living in most regions. I want to create a monster that will benefit the people.”
“I can understand where you’re coming from,” I said.
I’d played my share of monster tamer games. I’d actually been wondering lately if there were some way I could upgrade Raph-chan to make her even more powerful. Raphtalia didn’t know that, of course. But if I gave Rat some freedom to do her thing and it turned out I could trust her, it might be worth asking for her help.
“I can’t stand liars. I’ll agree if you’re willing to become my slave so that I can ensure you can’t lie. Are you still interested?”
“Slave? That’s typical of you, Naofumi,” said Ren.
“It is indeed,” added Eclair.
“Sure. If that’s all it takes, I’m happy to have you take away my dignity,” Rat replied.
She’d breezily accepted my offer without batting an eye. But I didn’t like the way she said it. Regardless, I felt like I could trust her to some extent. As long as she was a slave, it would be easy to punish her if she lied.
“Hmm . . .”
So basically, if I brought her into the village, that meant she would be able to help power up all of the monsters. Having her on the team might not be a bad thing. If I had a slave curse put on her, I could always just force her to do my bidding if she started causing problems later.
There were also plenty of things she could help with in addition to taking care of the eggs that Keel and the others had brought back. That could work out nicely. Rat could make progress with her research, and our offensive capabilities would be bolstered to better handle the coming waves.
“I work my monsters hard. Does that bother you? I work them like slaves, literally. I’ll do the same with you too.”
“Human or demi-human, slaves are slaves. Treating them specially because you feel sorry for them is just another form of discrimination.”
Oh? Special treatment is discrimination, huh? She had some interesting ideas. That reminded me. Back in my world, I remembered hearing about women outside of Japan demanding equality and not wanting to be treated specially. In the bigger cities in Japan, they had cars on the trains reserved for women. People that wanted true equality disliked those. What Rat was saying was similar to that, I guess.
“I can’t stand the idea of protecting certain living creatures while just ignoring the rest.”
“Oh?”
“I refuse to believe the theory that monsters are a result of the waves. Monsters can fight against the waves just like the heroes, after all!”
Valley girl glared at Rat angrily. She obviously realized that they were different regardless of both having a thing for monsters.
“I think I understand what you want to do. You believe the monsters can make a big contribution to our fight against the waves.”
“I do!”
“Then how about this . . .”
I showed Rat one of the bioplant seeds.
“This is a plant. It can be turned into something like a monster, depending on how it’s modified. But altering it could also make it produce beneficial medicinal herbs. What do you think about that?”
“Something like that would be a piece of cake for me!”
Hmm . . . Her line of thinking seemed to match up pretty closely with what I wanted to do.
“Mr. Naofumi, are you really thinking of taking her in?”
Raphtalia was clearly skeptical. I couldn’t argue that Rat seemed suspicious. But that suspiciousness and her willingness to use whatever means necessary to gain my trust had earned her points in my book.
“We’ll start with a temporary trial period and see how it goes. That should be fine.”
We needed more specialists in the village. S’yne had been a similar case. It wouldn’t be fair to have accepted S’
yne, but not give Rat a chance.
I shook Rat’s hand.
“I’m looking forward to working with you,” Rat said.
Eclair suddenly spoke up.
“Pardon me, but if that settles the matter, there’s something else I’d like you to look at,” she told me.
“What now? There’s something else? Was this not what you wanted me to deal with?”
“Oh! That’s right, Bubba Shield! We have another problem!”
Valley girl jumped in and started trying to tell me something. Why was she still here?
“We found something while you were out, Naofumi,” added Ren.
Was there no end to it? I left the slaves behind and followed Eclair out of the village. Rat seemed curious and tagged along. Valley girl followed us too, without asking, of course.
Chapter Three: Filolials and Dragons
Outside of the village, there was a mountain of wooden crates. What the hell? Those weren’t there yesterday.
“Take a look inside,” said Eclair.
I opened several of the crates and looked inside. There were a variety of weapons and other supplies, as well as some monster eggs.
“What is this? Did you guys just decide to buy a bunch of stuff with the money I gave you? And someone just left it all here? Or is this all the stuff that you stole, Ren?”
Ren had been a bandit chief until just recently, after all. I looked over at Ren, but he was shaking his head.
“No. I don’t remember getting any of this stuff,” he replied.
So Ren had no idea what it was either. Maybe it was from Motoyasu. He could have left it here as a present for Filo. That seemed like something he would do.
“Read this,” said Eclair.
“What?”
I looked at the lid of the crate I currently had open. Upon closer inspection, the same thing seemed to be written on all of the crates. The writing was really messy. In large letters the following was written: “To the Shield Hero: Please give these gifts to the disadvantaged slaves.”
“What the hell?”
“The supplies appear to be some kind of donation. There are some fairly expensive items among the equipment. The supplies include quite a bit of rare medicinal herbs, ores, and wood too,” Eclair explained.
“Who in the world would do something like this?” I asked.
“Most likely Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden is responsible. Based on the way the characters are written and the type of ink used, I would say there’s no doubt about it,” she continued.
“Can we accept it?” I asked.
“It’s practically impossible to determine the original owner of any of it. They went to great lengths to carefully remove any type of identifying markings. Even if we found the person or persons responsible, it would be difficult to take any action against them,” she replied.
I suspected it might have been the people in Siltvelt who I sold the slave hunters to. There had been people doing similar things at the Zeltoble slave market. In other words, it was a donation to earn them brownie points, I guess. I sure hope they didn’t expect anything in return.
“Any riffraff causing trouble for Mr. Naofumi deserves certain death. Let us go execute them immediately!” Atla exclaimed.
“That’s going a bit far. It’s not like they’re really causing me any trouble.”
I figured I would just look the other way and accept the gifts.
“Having to deal with it is a hassle though,” said Ren.
“I guess so. What about the eggs? Rat, can you tell what they are?” I asked.
“Seems to be eggs from everything from usapils to some rarer breeds. Then there’s this . . .”
Oh? So she could tell with a single glance.
“This one could be a problem.”
Rat pointed at an egg in the crate that was larger than the others. What was it? Maybe it was the egg of some beast as powerful as the Spirit Tortoise or something.
“What is it?”
“It’s a dragon egg. A rather expensive and powerful one. Rare, I’m sure.”
Well, then . . . I guess they had left something troublesome, after all.
“A dragon, huh? That’s pretty cool,” Ren said.
“Yeah! I . . .”
Valley girl yelped in agreement, but then her voice trailed off and she looked away with a frown on her face. What was that? But she began smiling again soon after. Rat, on the other hand, didn’t look happy. Maybe she didn’t like dragons.
“Having a dragon here in the village would be lovely!” valley girl exclaimed.
“I guess valley girl likes dragons, unlike Rat,” I said.
“Valley girl?!”
“That’s another one of Mr. Naofumi’s fabulous nicknames. I’m jealous,” replied Atla.
She sounded like a complete ditz. I decided to just ignore her. Actually, hadn’t I told her to shut up? That hadn’t lasted long. Valley girl glared at me when I called her that.
“What is with that name?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t know your real name,” I replied.
“I’m sure he got the nickname from some anime or something,” said Ren.
“Bingo,” I replied.
I’d chosen that name because she kept insisting the caterpillar wasn’t there earlier. She should have been thanking me, as far as I was concerned.
“If you don’t tell him your real name, Mr. Naofumi will almost certainly continue to think of you as ‘valley girl’ until the end of time. Hurry up and introduce yourself!” said Raphtalia.
She seemed to be in a rush to explain that to valley girl for some reason.
“I’m Wyndia.”
“I see. You’re fine with ‘valley girl,’ right?”
“No!”
“That’s just mean, Naofumi. Think of the poor girl,” Ren said.
He rolled his eyes. Ren was sticking up for valley girl, a.k.a. Wyndia, but now she was glaring at him.
“Oh, fine. Whatever,” I replied.
“We need to have everyone introduce themselves. Otherwise, you never know what Mr. Naofumi will end up calling them,” said Raphtalia.
“Is it really that big of a deal?” I asked.
Surely there was nothing wrong with giving people nicknames.
“We’re off topic. Back to the dragon egg,” I said.
“Everyone be careful. But you’re right. What should we do about that?” Raphtalia asked with a troubled look on her face.
A dragon, huh? I had a feeling Filo wouldn’t like that. It wasn’t like it was a special gift from someone I knew. Accepting it could end up causing a big fuss. Being given something so expensive just gave me more to worry about. Still, if there was no way to return it, I guess I would just have to accept it without complaining. Throwing it away would be a waste, after all.
“I guess we’ll keep it for now. If anyone makes an issue out of it, we’ll just feign ignorance. How do monster seals work with dragons, anyway?”
“You’ll have to apply a high-level monster seal. It looks like they were nice enough to leave all of the equipment required for the ceremony. I can take care of that if you’d like, Count,” Rat replied.
“Yeah, let’s do that. By the way, why do you seem to dislike dragons so much?”
Rat seemed a bit annoyed when I asked her.
“The upper class of dragons lose all sense of integrity once they go into heat.”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t know that? Regions where lots of dragons live are always dirty. They’re dangerous for all sorts of reasons.”
“Really?”
I thought about the regions I knew of where dragons lived. There was the village in the east where Ren defeated a dragon, and then the mountainous area where we had gone bandit hunting. There had been dragon corpses teeming with pathogenic germs in both areas. Describing the regions as dirty wouldn’t have been strange at all.
“Dragons have no integrity, so those areas end up full of half-dragon creatures in no ti
me.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
If it were a fantasy game, there would probably be a bunch of half-dragon or part-dragon subspecies coming out of the regions. I wondered if that was an actual problem here.
“Well, they have their territories and they stay within them. But they mess the ecosystems up without a second thought, so I don’t like them. And the dragons that people use are just half-breed dragons mixed with weaker monsters, really.”
Hmm . . . So it was like when an invasive foreign species messed with the ecosystem back in Japan. Native species had been pushed to the brink of extinction due to black bass being released in lakes there. There would be problems similar to that. Or issues with crossbreeding leading to native species being driven out or becoming extinct, I guess.
“The real problem is the pureblood dragons that refer to themselves as dragon emperors. Those dragons have zero regard for race. They’ll even try to mate with humans.”
They did sound like troublesome creatures.
Hmm? Wyndia seemed upset.
“They have manners!” she shouted.
Why was she talking like she knew about dragons? And seriously, she was really annoying when it came to monsters.
“There are even races of demi-human mixes, already. The aotatsu demi-humans are a well-known example,” Rat explained.
Aotatsu? “Ao” was “blue” in Japanese. “Tatsu” could mean “dragon,” so I guess “aotatsu” was supposed to be referring to the azure dragon. The white tiger race was called “hakuko,” so it made sense. I’m sure one of the past heroes must have chosen this name too.
“Although, the pureblood dragons do have manners and are well-behaved as long as they don’t go into heat.”
“And the reason you looked disgusted is because this egg is one of those vile dragons?”
“Pretty much. The high-level monster seal for dragons allows you to restrict reproductive activities, so make sure you check that box. Otherwise, all of the village monsters are going to be violated.”
It didn’t really make sense to me. I spent all of my time hunting dragon couples in the monster hunter game I’d played. It seemed strange that the dragons didn’t wipe out the humans and demi-humans if they reproduced so aggressively.
“The Dragon Emperor would never allow that!” shouted Wyndia angrily.
