by Aneko Yusagi
It was also odd to me that Sadeena didn’t have any ability.
“Sounds like a load of make-believe to me. Like, they drank too much, shook something loose in their head, and the magic just happened to work out,” I jabbed. Alcohol had properties to restore magic power. There were also those who could somehow slip into a type of rampage state, providing a conscious boost to their power.
“That all sounds very fishy to me too.” Raphtalia’s brow furrowed as she commented.
“Rafu?”
“I agree with Mr. Naofumi,” she went on. “Surely they’re just going off the rails after drinking too much.”
“Look at you two. You sound exactly like Raphtalia’s father,” Sadeena said.
“If someone of the bloodline of the Heavenly Emperor said so, then it sounds totally legit,” I replied.
“Hearing that does put my mind at ease,” she mentioned.
So what was she? The perfect miko, possessing some kind of suspicious power that Sadeena didn’t have? Still, listening to these leaders of Q’ten Lo talk about it, this new miko had apparently proven herself to be a match for Sadeena.
Something else was bothering me. Raphtalia. She’d started to become as suspicious as I was. That sort of made me happy and also sort of made me sad, as though I had sullied her somehow. In that moment, I understood exactly how Fohl felt.
“Why are you looking so sad, Mr. Naofumi?” she asked.
“Well, I guess this can also be considered progress?” I replied.
“Did I say something odd?” she said. I’d really brought her up to be suspicious. Maybe I need to reflect on that a little. Not that I believed things so easily myself.
“Anyway, these are the people we’re fighting against,” I stated.
“Yes. Please be careful.”
“I can’t wait!”
“I hope they’re willing to listen to reason,” I remarked. We could pray that the miko, at least, was actually aghast at the corruption consuming her nation and willing to help us. That she didn’t think the water dragon had betrayed her but rather was going along with it from the shadows.
“In any case, we just have to carry on. We just have to do this.” To be honest, there were simply too many people trying to join our forces, and even just making a list of them was proving close to impossible. We were really riding this tailwind—a wind only blowing, of course, due to how idiotic the opposing Heavenly Emperor’s forces continued to be.
“I was expecting to have to besiege some castles, things like that, but so many of them are just opening the gates for us after collapsing from the inside.” The people, and even the governors, didn’t want a war, and yet those above them were releasing sealed monsters—a tactic that was only losing the trust of those below them. How anyone could be so dumb, I really didn’t know.
All they had to do was hunker down, draw things out, and as we also had the waves to think about, it would have forced us to take far more risks than this.
“Anyway, at least for now, there doesn’t seem to be anyone among the enemy who can oppose the combination of Raphtalia and Filo. That might change if, for example, Sadeena’s sister shows up,” I declared.
“All well and good, little Naofumi, but it’s also true that things are going to get a lot harder up ahead,” Sadeena cautioned.
“I know. We can start by getting through this old city.”
“Indeed. There’s all sorts of places there, including spots dear to Raphtalia’s parents, so it’s definitely worth a visit.”
“That does sound worth seeing.” Raphtalia sounded unsure though. Yes, there might be trouble, but learning about Raphtalia’s roots could only be a good thing. This could all ultimately lead to Raphtalia taking charge of this nation, if she so desired, once the world was finally at peace.
“Right. We’re going to train until nighttime and then hold a night parade in order to further spread the glory of Raphtalia. Atla, once Fohl gets back, you go shopping with him. That’s an order.”
“Bah! I hope that blacksmith gives my brother the slip, forcing the poor fool to chase him into the night. Then I can have Master Naofumi all to myself,” she snapped. I didn’t like seeing a younger sibling wishing for the downfall of their elder. Definitely not as someone with a younger brother myself—even if he’d been pretty preoccupied with external appearances.
In any case, we ended the meeting and started our training.
Chapter Six: Use of Life Force
I’d recently been training a little each morning, but it had been a while since I’d gone about it so seriously. During the training, Itsuki and his party had also returned and so joined in.
I was reminded that Rishia had quite the mastery of Hengen Muso Style. Maybe I should have her oversee my training for a while? The old lady wasn’t here, and Rishia surely had enough knowledge to at least tutor me.
I was watching Atla and Raphtalia train. Sadeena was sparring with Filo. Filo had obeyed my orders and was in her filolial form, and Sadeena was in therianthrope too.
“Haah!” Atla used both hands to unleash a concentrated burst of magic at Raphtalia. Raphtalia repelled it. I had thought it was a ball of magic, but actually, something was different about it. It wasn’t magic. Life force? Could it be? Was the power flowing from Atla . . . life force?
“Come on!” Raphtalia imbued her wooden sword with power and created some kind of barrier, sending the whatever-it-was Atla unleashed flying. Wow. Why? Why, now, was I starting to get a feel for this life force stuff?
W-what was going on?
Could it be? I could get stronger just by watching other people fight?
Hah, and you’d be a dumbass, too, if you believed that. Just how many hits had I taken from Atla? That had to be the reason for this. The old lady had said that it would be faster if I trained with Atla. Was this what she meant? It did feel like watching her made it easier to understand.
Up until this point, I’d been learning various things for my shield, just like a game. However, obtaining abilities like this, though training, meant my own body was also developing along game-style lines, although it was a little concerning to be undergoing physical changes I didn’t really understand.
Anyway, while it didn’t look possible right away, with more training I should even be able to handle defense rating attacks. The important thing was to create a flow of power within myself. All this “soft” stuff was junk. I simply needed to get onto the flow of power before my opponent’s attacks went wild. Creating a soft part was for beginners, clearly. That old lady could have been a bit less obtuse about it!
“Atla. Raphtalia.”
“Yes?”
“What do you need?”
I called them both over and explained that I was starting to see life force. Strangely, it almost felt like I’d missed out on something. I wondered why. I’d hoped to acquire this skill through ascetic training, but now I was just seeing it, and it felt like I’d lost something.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Shall we have Rishia take a look?”
“That’s a good idea,” I remarked. Rishia had been given the full stamp of approval by the old lady, so having her check me over sounded like the best idea.
“Yes?” Rishia was helping Itsuki train. At that moment, he was repeatedly striking a large rock in the garden with his fingers. Yeah, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen him doing that. We’d secured plenty of life force water anyway, which I hoped would speed up the training.
“Oh? Have you finished little Raphtalia and Atla’s training?” Sadeena inquired.
“Haah!” Even in that moment, she dealt with an incoming kick from Filo.
“Yeah. It looks like I’ve started to see . . . something from the people around me.”
“Wow. Do you think I could learn that too?” Sadeena wondered.
“It would be pretty crazy if you did,” I noted.
“You might not see it,” Atla offered, “but you’re already unconsciously makin
g use of it.”
“Oh my!” Sadeena beamed. That was pretty big information for Atla to just drop into the conversation! Was it true?
“If you could do it consciously, you’d be a formidable opponent. I definitely don’t want to teach that to you,” Atla remarked.
“Is that the right attitude to have here?” Raphtalia said.
“Would you teach me, little Raphtalia?”
“Ah, of course!” As this conversation progressed, Rishia came over to me.
“Right then. I’ll teach you what I can of the power control my master taught me. That said, you seem to have already picked a lot of it up from watching Atla.” With that, Rishia pointed a semi-transparent weapon at me. I tried my best to receive and divert the flow of power mixed into it.
“You’ve got evasion down, but not defense.” The Hengen Muso Style probably used this power for attack and detection. Even if it was used to avoid, life force wasn’t used to defend. The only method for dealing with defense rating attacks was to redirect them, not take them head-on—and if that happened, the focus was still on redirection, with no notion of standing your ground. To be honest, it looked like there were only a few techniques from this that I’d be able to incorporate into my fighting style. It could be applied to skills too, perhaps.
“Here I come. Keep a close eye on me! Air Strike Throw!” Rishia imbued a throwing weapon with power and tossed it at me. Ah! I could see the life force mixed inside it. When it hit my shield, it was conducted through it and flowed into my body. Seeing as I was still just a beginner, I used SP and magic to forcefully expel it from my body. The impact shook me. It was pretty rough.
Since starting to see the flow of life force, I’d also observed everyone around me, and there were people, other than me, who looked out of place.
One was the Bow Hero, Itsuki. Then there was Raphtalia and Rishia. Hmmm. Rishia, in particular, was really odd. To try and put it in words, she had no flow of life force. No, that wasn’t right. She had some, but it was . . . weak.
When Rishia was in Muso Activation, even before I could see life force, I could see something around her, but right now her life force looked so weak. That was a bit of a mystery. I guess maybe S’yne was similar?
No, thinking about it, in S’yne’s case, her weapon was weak, but she herself had the power.
So what was going on?
The old lady had been thrilled with Rishia, saying she was a great student, so what was the meaning of all this? She had Muso Activation to enhance her own abilities.
Now that I could see it myself, I would be able to also learn a bit from Raphtalia and Rishia. It also allowed me to discover that, perhaps because I was focused so totally on defense, the flow of my own life force was abnormal. My power was focused on protection, and if I pushed it down too hard, it could even tear itself apart. It was like asking the enemy to exploit it.
Life force, then. Or I guess it could also be called the flow of magic or of power. This was good! I was starting to see why Hengen Muso Style was said to be so strong. With further proficiency, it would be useful in the future. I was also painfully aware that I was still only starting out, however.
“I said that you had no defensive form, and that’s true. The Hengen Muso Style that I learned from my master has no defense, but just evasion and redirection,” Rishia explained.
“I guessed as much,” I retorted.
“Master said that such techniques did exist in the past, but they were not passed down. We’ll just have to create new techniques for you to use, Naofumi.”
“That’s pretty inconvenient.” So I’d finally become able to see life force, and yet it seemed I was also just getting started.
“Oh, it’s incredible. Now you’ll be able to try all sorts of things with Atla and Raphtalia. Mr. Itsuki should be able to do this too, one day,” she went on.
“Yes. I’ll do my best.” Itsuki was still talking in a monotone. I hoped we’d break that curse soon. Maybe there was something in Q’ten Lo that could work on curses? I’d have to ask later.
“Right. There’s still some time, so let’s carry on training,” I pointed out.
“Atla!” That was when Fohl turned up.
“Kwaaa!” Gaelion too. It looked like they’d finished the job I gave them.
“That old goat can find the slightest opening to slip away. It was tough to bring him back.”
“He sucks. Did you think about putting the hurt on him a little? Just to, you know, keep him in place,” I prodded. I could imagine that might be required.
“No, I’m pretty sure he’d still run away. Totally sure, actually.” I empathized with Fohl’s reply. Motoyasu II was fast on his feet and pretty strong too. Seeing him “take a break” by training with the old guy had certainly left an impression on me.
“Right, Atla, let’s go shopping!” he appealed.
“No, thank you, brother. We’re just at a good point with the training, so we can do that later.”
“Hey, Atla! That’s not the promise we made!” She was right though. The training was going well, and I wanted to continue it. But a promise was a promise. I’d make sure she went with him later.
“You should watch too, brother. Just master’s teachings alone won’t be enough to make you stronger.” Fohl’s face hardened for a moment, but then he silently sat down. All said and done, he liked fighting, too, and so didn’t seem to want to put a stop to the training either.
It might not be a perfect example, but there aren’t many adults who say, “Let’s go have some fun!” to a kid right when they’re in the middle of studying.
“Just a little more, then,” he accepted.
“A commendable attitude for you, brother. Come then, Master Naofumi!”
“I’m here! Bring it!”
“I most certainly will!” Atla’s thrust landed square in the center of my shield. There was a flow of life force, like a massive balloon exploding from the inside. Now I had to train to flow this through my body.
After repeated attempts, I became able to take the blow with almost no damage. Knowing how to handle it would expand the range of applications and also increase my precision with the technique.
With this, finally, we could consider me capable of nullifying the defense ignoring and rating attacks of L’Arc and Glass. What I needed next was a way to skillfully control the flow of power.
I tried experimenting with it as a means of attack, but my lack of attack power was baked into me, it seemed, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I tried launching concentrated magic into the body of the opponent, just like Atla did, but it proved meaningless. It looked highly likely that I wasn’t going to be able to use it for attacking.
The life force, or magic, of the Shield Hero likely just had those properties. So I tried all sorts of things when not in a combat state.
“That’s certainly an atypical style of fighting. I can’t see that with my master,” Rishia stated.
“Indeed. Mr. Naofumi can’t attack, so we’ll have to twist that power into defense,” Raphtalia acknowledged.
“Kwaaa!”
“Rafu.”
And so our training continued until the sun went down.
“Right, that looks like enough training,” I stated.
“Yes. I think Mr. Naofumi has a decent command of it now,” Raphtalia remarked.
“Not bad. Now I can put up a good fight, whatever happens.”
“Well done!”
I’d definitely earned something today, managing to acquire this.
“Come on then, Atal!” Fohl was still ready to go.
“Ah, Master Naofumi! Please, save me from the clutches of my brother!”
“Atla, if you run from Fohl today, then I’ll be angry if you come anywhere near me tomorrow. Okay?”
“No! Gah. Very well, brother. Whatever you need me to smash, I’ll smash it!”
“What are you talking about, Atla?!” She did walk off, led by Fohl, but I had to wonder why she was such a hot
head. I hoped, for once, they’d just do some normal sightseeing.
“Next, Raphtalia and the others. I think we’d better get you cleaned up first.” If there was going to be a parade that night, I needed to get Raphtalia and Filo ready to be put on show.
“Sorry, but we’ve been doing this every day already. We really have to do it again?” Raphtalia grumbled.
“That’s right. Raphtalia and Filo get priority bathing. Go wash yourselves off and get changed,” I commanded.
“No problem!” said Filo with a nod, turning back into human form. “Come on, Raphtalia.” She led her toward the bathhouse.
“I think I’ll tag along with them,” Sadeena offered.
“Sure, sure. Off you go.”
“Rafu.” Raph-chan also went with them while Itsuki and Rishia stayed to continue their training.
“Kwaa?”
“Gaelion, you too?” We had Gaelion along as well, treating him as a vassal of the water dragon to show that justice was on our side. He hadn’t been training though, and so there wasn’t any need to lavish time on him in the same way as Filo. Right? That said, Gaelion had probably cottoned on to what was happening and started to preen himself. Wyndia would probably have given him a hand, if she had been here.
Finally, S’yne. She was staring right at me.
What now?
“I see—”
“She is saying that she knows what you were trying to train. That you were attempting to open your inner eye,” her familiar translated. The inner eye? That did sound like a good way to describe it.
“S’yne can do it?” I inquired.
“Something similar—”
“Something similar, but a different power, yes.” Then S’yne took out her scissors and charged her life force. Hmmm? The power of the scissors was increasing, just a little. Were these the lengths she was going to keep using her weapon?
It looked like a lot of work.
The truth of the matter was, she was actually strong, but the regression of her weapon made her weaker.
“Do you want to—”
“She’s asking if you want to learn the defense forms.”
