by Aneko Yusagi
“Can you at least stop it from going on another rampage?” I asked.
“Me? Like I care.” The old guy’s master went to—what, put it back in the ground?—as though nothing had happened.
“Please, can’t you do something? If that monster appears again, it really will be terrible for all of us.” Reading the situation well, Raphtalia begged the old guy’s master, hands clasped in front of her.
“Very well, young lady. I will do whatever I can to prevent that,” he said. Goddammit, this guy!
“Old guy, can’t you do something about that sword? Like that letch did?” I asked.
“Sorry, kid. Looks like I’m just small fry. I do want to reach that same level one day.” For me, the old guy was already the very best. Anyway, it looked like it couldn’t be helped.
“We’re up, Erhard. We’ve been called on! Let’s reforge this sword so it has no problems!” Motoyasu II announced.
“I’m here with you, Master. Kid, you guys help as well. I think we’re going to need some pretty tough-to-find materials for this one.”
“Yeah, it does look pretty high spec. It’ll provide you experience for making weapons too, so we’ll help,” I added.
“Thanks, kid.” In the end, then, the sword that appeared upon defeating Orochi was placed in the care of the old guy and his master.
“What else, then? Any damage to the town or around there?” I asked.
“Part of the port was destroyed, but only a handful of people got hurt. That’s also thanks to the Heavenly Emperor, the Shield Hero, and your retinue,” Raluva replied while checking the town. Good, not many people hurt. That laid the foundations for inciting the people to join our cause further down the road. “However—in the vicinity of the burial mound, we’re looking at serious damage and some remaining pollutants, meaning it’ll take quite some time to return that to normal.”
“Then we’ll have to give up on it,” I said. It wasn’t as though it was an important location. “In any case, there’s no justice in a nation that would unleash a sealed monster on rebel forces. Don’t they have any idea of how much damage the people might have suffered?” Raluva and the others from the town nodded in hearty agreement at my words.
“We are going to impart these facts immediately, not just to neighboring settlements but the entire country. If we make good use of this, we should be able to rustle up some collaboration from others who take issue with the policies of our nation,” Raluva said. I looked over at Raphtalia. This was it, then. We’d come this far. Now we had to go through with it.
“Please, do so. It seems we’re the only ones who can hope to stop these people.” That was exactly what I might have expected Raphtalia to say, but it also wasn’t quite the push we needed—it was likely to leave some people decidedly unincited.
“She’s right! There’s no justice in a Heavenly Emperor who’d do something so heinous! He and his cronies couldn’t care less about the happiness of the regular people! You men, you women, are you really okay with that?” I continued to lay it on as thick as I could, and as loud as I could, firing up Raluva and the others. Perhaps hearing this steeled their resolve, because their eyes looked deadly serious and they replied with one voice: “As the Heavenly Emperor commands!”
Thus, Raluva and the other Q’ten Lo revolutionaries got over their hangovers and swore allegiance to our cause once again.
“I’m not going to be too harsh on you, but you like this kind of thing, don’t you, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia commented to me, somewhat exasperated, as she looked over Raluva and the others.
“When you’re doing something in the name of great justice, a little exaggeration feels good,” I admitted. We were justice, punishing evil. That kind of feeling was great for boosting morale. After all, everyone wanted to be the good guys, not the bad guys.
“A nation that worships Raphtalia! What a nightmare.” Ata couldn’t resist an opportunity for a smarmy comment.
“I’m not asking for any of this. For some reason, once I get this miko getup on, people pray to me, that’s all. If my father and mother weren’t involved, I would have run from this, I assure you.”
“Whatever.” There was no convincing Atla. “You did well though, brother!”
“Y-yeah, I did! Atla! I did my best!”
“Which also meant I was unable to do much for Master Naofumi. I won’t forgive you for that, brother!”
“Whaaaaaat! Atla!” She was even on his case when he did well. That was completely unreasonable. Fohl really didn’t have it easy. I almost felt sorry for him.
“One other thing, Shield Hero,” Raluva ventured.
“Yeah?” The revolutionaries were looking at Filo, who was currently in her filolial form. She was just coming back from collecting the morning star that she threw at Orochi.
“Huh?”
“Something I noticed when you went into battle—”
“Something about Filo?” I said.
“A talking filolial—that is, a girl with wings. She’s one of your companions, correct?”
“Yes! Filo’s name is Filo!” Filo chirped. It looked like Filo and Gaelion had been facing off again.
“Yeah, she’s a filolial. A race that develops in a unique way when raised by a hero. Why, do you need something from her?” I asked.
“Actually, yes. A white filolial with a cherry blossom pattern? We may well be able to use this to our greater advantage.” I looked at Filo too. In that moment, though, I had no idea what the Q’ten Lo contingent was talking about.
Chapter Four: Tailwind
In the subsequent days, leaders and others in authority from the surrounding settlements came to ask to join our forces. It seemed they agreed that freeing a sealed monster in order to drive us out was indeed going too far.
Of course, those in power tried to explain it away by saying that the seal simply broke on its own due to our arrival. But due to the Heavenly Emperor placing blessings on the monsters, and his order not to harm living creatures, such claims were met with distrust.
Some did still believe them, however, and came looking for a fight. When they saw the filolial Filo at the head of the revolutionary forces, however, their morale drained away and they posed no threat.
“Master, they are all just running away again,” Filo said.
“I noticed.” I hadn’t been sure about it myself, to start with, but it seemed there were all sorts of myths and legends in Q’ten Lo, and we were taking good advantage of them. Filo’s presence seemed to act as some kind of test of faith.
“Rescue the divine bird from capture by the heathens!” some of them shouted.
“Oh? Looks like some of them have a bit of energy after all,” I commented.
“I’ll do my best!” Filo offered brightly.
“Let’s do this!” Some enemies still did charge in, but it also meant they were now divided between two purposes—to take Raphtalia’s life and to capture Filo.
For her part, Raphtalia was now capable of disposing most of the blessings relating to the sakura stones of destiny. When we did encounter those blessed with Astral Enchant, she was able to use her Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny and immediately shut them up. Looked like they’d give out blessings to any old weakling.
So things were going well. The revolutionary forces were expanding apace, made possible, most likely, by the ready acceptance of the people for a new Heavenly Emperor. It only helped matters that the reputation of the current Heavenly Emperor was in the dirt, what with continued releasing of monsters sealed close to points we advanced along. We had fought numerous other sealed monsters already. Defeating them always provided some kind of weapon. Of course, these weapons were also always cursed.
Taking stock, at that point in time, we’d already found the sword, some claws, a spear, and an ax. Just how many of these things had been sealed away, honestly! We’d even taken to sending scouts ahead to capture the ones trying to break the seals.
Things among the Heavenly Emperor’s
forces were falling apart, seriously. It made me feel like asking whether they really cared. As for why the enemy was trying to capture Filo—
“Master. Why do they want to come for me?” she asked.
“Ah, that’s because one of the animals the Heavenly Emperor we’re facing wants to protect is the filolial, and the sakura lumina is a symbol of national power.”
“So?” That wasn’t enough for Filo to quite grasp the concept. I needed to try and explain things in more detail.
“So, Filo, both your race and the pattern on your body are important symbols to this country. Indeed, they have divine connotations. That means, the deeper the faith of those we fight, the harder it is for them to fight you.” Like the family crest animals from the Edo period in Japan—I was thinking of dogs, for some reason, but something like that. Yeah, my Japanese history sucked too.
What this meant overall, then, was that the more loyal our opponents were, the harder it was for them to try and hurt Filo.
“Hmmm. They want me? I don’t want to be put on display again!” It looked like Filo had finally worked it out, and the trauma from her experiences in Kizuna’s world was coming back to haunt her.
“It’s fine. Even if they do get you, they aren’t going to treat you badly. Not at all.”
“Really?”
“That said, if you do get captured, you won’t be able to see Melty.”
“No!”
“Anyway, Filo. Stay in filolial form for a while, if you can. In this nation, that’ll make almost as large a contribution as Raphtalia in her miko outfit.”
“Which means what?” Raphtalia asked.
Well, that we had to make use of it. No choice there. It would be interesting to see just how deep a grave the Heavenly Emperor would dig for himself. Apparently this whole protection order had started with his obsession with filolials. Dogs in Japan, bizarre bird creatures here. Seemed legit.
And so our progress continued. Until—
“Finally caught—”
“Hey, it’s been a while.”
S’yne joined up with us.
We had met S’yne in Zeltoble, the land of merchants and mercenaries. She was a vassal wielder from a different parallel world to this one. The world she originated from had apparently already been wiped out, and so she was now riding the waves, that terrible disaster that links all parallel worlds, from world to world. I had requested that she check out Siltvelt along with Wyndia and that group, because she had detected the scent of a certain force there with which S’yne was fatefully opposed.
I’d also left her in charge of the village, just in case.
I kind of remembered her mentioning she would come if we needed her—but she had likely been blocked by the barrier and unable to transfer in. I’d felt a bit bad about it myself.
Then S’yne grabbed onto me.
“W-what do you think you’re playing at?”
“Yes! Hands off! Hugging of Master Naofumi isn’t allowed!” Raphtalia and Atla both vented in surprise.
S’yne had taken something of a liking to me.
However, perhaps due to the damage to her vassal weapon when her world was wiped out, her voice had strange skips mixed into it and so she couldn’t communicate well. So we had attached a tool with a translation function from one of her foes to a familiar doll and used that to converse with her.
Perhaps the familiar also contained a pseudo-personality, because it spoke pretty fluently.
The familiar had started out looking like Raph-chan and Sadeena in her therianthrope form, but after I complained that a Raph-chan that spoke normally was just freaking me out, it had been remade into a doll of Keel’s therianthrope form and now talked like that.
It was more polite than the girl it was based on too.
I wondered what that mischievous little puppy was getting up to back in the village.
The original Raph-doll, by the way, ended up in pride of place in my room. Just in case you were wondering.
In any case, S’yne just wanted to protect me, and she’d developed a habit of showing up even when the timing wasn’t that great.
“Calm down, both of you,” I offered to the still prickling girls before turning to S’yne. “But however did you get here?” Raphtalia was fastidious and Atla jealous, after all. I needed to calm them and then talk to S’yne. In the least, transfer-type skills couldn’t get into Q’ten Lo, this nation so closed off from the outside world, and I’d left Siltvelt and the village under her protection.
“You take so many risks—”
“You take so many risks, Mr. Iwatani, so we arranged for a ship in Siltvelt.”
“Ah, so the ship following ours arrived?”
“Yes.”
“This time—”
“This time, she wishes to aid in defending you.”
“Somehow things have kept coming up, haven’t they?”
That said, it was thanks to S’yne that we made it close to Siltvelt using a transfer skill. That was a big point in her favor. Without that, we’d probably only just be rolling up into Siltvelt around now. That had saved us so much time. She’d really done more than enough, overall.
For S’yne, though, that clearly wasn’t enough.
“Well then, now S’yne has caught up—” The issue was, to be honest, we weren’t really having that tough a time of it anymore.
Raphtalia was now capable of shutting down the enemy’s blessings, after all, and the sakura stone of destiny weapons gave some leeway in nullifying their enhancements. We just needed to carry on like this and we were going to win.
“Yet she still wants to protect you.” Hmmm. She really was showing serious devotion. I guess I could keep her close until she was satisfied. Although she could only transfer herself, I’d taken advantage of her ability to get around so easily numerous times too.
“Okay, I’m sold. You can protect me for as long as you like.”
“Very well—”
“She offers her agreement.” I’d had this thought before, but even though she skipped, S’yne was quite the chatterbox. From her appearance, I first thought her more the brooding type, but it looks like I was wrong.
“Hmmm, the scent of a powerful enemy.”
“Are we about to get ambushed?” I turned to look at Atla, as it seemed she had sensed something.
“I’m talking about this new rival for your affections, Master Naofumi.”
“Who? S’yne” S’yne herself was tilting her head in puzzlement. Looked like that wasn’t the case.
In any case, we met back up with S’yne and continued our conquest of Q’ten Lo.
As we expanded our territory, we also found the time to go hunting.
Of course, our primary objective was, what? To increase public security, I guess?
“Q’ten Lo really does have a unique ecosystem. The experience from hunting here is pretty good,” I commented. Monsters seeking to do harm to the people were attacking villages, but they couldn’t be turned back. They were expanding their habitat, and that space also had to be reclaimed—but with the order against harming living creatures, it also wasn’t possible for people to hunt them. Talk about an illogical mess. Were they managing to hunt some of them away from the watchful eyes of those in charge? When I asked about that, I was told that a culture of informants and betrayal had been lovingly fostered, and taking the risk just wasn’t worth it.
Therefore, the forces that joined our side were being sent to hunt monsters and then providing some of the defeated monsters to us as materials. The monsters in Q’ten Lo were quite like traditional Japanese spirits: sickle-wielding kamaitachi and eldritch foxes. Stuff like that.
“You know, you’re right.” Sadeena’s lightning wiped them out in seconds, making this a smooth and simple process, but they did provide plenty of experience. In terms of strength, they could probably be beaten at around level 50 without hero enhancements, but the obtained experience was equal to that from much stronger monsters. In game terms, this was an e
fficient grinding spot.
“They aren’t that different from the monsters fought at sea,” Sadeena commented.
“Really?” I hadn’t done much offshore fighting, but that did remind me; after Sadeena’s level had been reset, she went alone to the sea and had raised her level considerably.
“If you want, I can give you some special tutelage, little Naofumi, just one on one. Not the first time I’ve made such an offer.”
“Yeah, I remember.” If I went out hunting on the ocean with Sadeena, I was pretty sure I’d get dragged off somewhere crazy. Just too scary to risk it.
“Sadeena, please keep your focus on fighting.”
“Well said. But if there’s any opening, they will strike at you, little Master Naofumi.”
“Is that for you to say? If you’ve got time to talk, keep hunting.”
It did feel like a while since we’d done this.
“That reminds me—”
“That reminds S’yne, she arranged in Siltvelt for Ratotille and Wyndia to collect monster materials for the Shield Hero,” S’yne’s familiar informed us.
“Wow, that’s a big help.” Developing the village was slowing down the work of releasing my shield. There was no reason not to accept these monster materials from Q’ten Lo. I’d have to give some of them to Itsuki and Ren later too. If I went hunting with Itsuki, the hero weapons would rebound off each other, so he was off with Rishia.
“This is the best they’ve got?” Fohl finished off another monster and looked over at me.
“You’re working harder than Atla. I’ll give you credit for that.”
“Huh.”
“Brother! Don’t get carried away just because Master Naofumi said something nice to you!”
“Wh—!” Now she was jealous because I praised him for doing his best? Completely unreasonable.
“Then I’ll just fight harder! I’m not losing to Raphtalia or my brother!” With that, Atla ran off.
