by Aneko Yusagi
“Maybe he’s a little too muscle-brained?” I suggested.
“Well—I think maybe it’s also my fault for beating the bushes a bit too hard,” Raphtalia sighed.
“This isn’t your fault, big sister!” Fohl blurted out.
“If we’re getting into ages, I’m younger than you!”
“That doesn’t matter!”
Hmmm. This might actually clear up the problems with Atla a bit. If I lectured her, she would be just happy to have me lecture her. It would definitely be better if Fohl could take over that role.
To be honest, she did need a bit more discipline.
Back when she was sick, Atla had appeared pretty disciplined. They do say love changes a person, but still.
“Everyone is tired, anyway, so I’m going to bed too,” Raphtalia announced and turned to go.
“Yeah, goodnight. Fohl, you’re watching Atla?” I asked.
“Yes. Not on your orders though.”
“Sure, yeah, yeah. If you can curtail your sister’s rampages, you won’t get any complaints from me. I’ll help out when I can.”
“Help out? What does that mean, exactly?! You don’t have designs on Atla—” he began, but I glared at Fohl so intently he promptly shut up.
“We’ve been together long enough now that you know what I meant. I’ll chat with her every now and then, nothing more,” I finished.
“O-okay.” He didn’t look especially happy, but Fohl left. Maybe he was going to check on where Atla was being held.
I was exhausted, anyway. Time to get some sleep.
So that’s how my day ended.
The next day.
We headed toward the old city during the day, reaching the point where tomorrow we’d be launching our attack. After finishing our meeting, we were in our lodgings. The houses were small here, so we were staying in the best lodgings in the town.
As a continuation of the day before, we were training prior to taking a bath.
I launched Air Strike Shield, experimenting with whether I could imbue magic into my skills. Then I looked closely at Air Strike Shield, seeing spots where the flow of magic was weak.
“Atla.”
“Yes?”
“Try destroying the magic shield I just created.”
“Of course.” Following my orders, Atla—as I had expected—struck where the magic was weak. With a splitting crack, the shield crumbled easily.
I knew it.
In which case . . . I tried activating the skill while concentrating the magic and life force in my body.
“Air Strike Shield!” Then Atla struck the new shield and destroyed it. I checked, and once again she was striking at a point where the magic flows were weak.
That settled it. She knew the spot to strike at.
“It didn’t change much,” she said.
“Yeah. Another failure,” I admitted. To be honest, this method wasn’t all that different from imbuing magic at the point of casting a spell.
“As the source of your power, the Shield Hero commands you. Read the truth once more and protect this soul! First Guard!” I focused my magic, and at the point of expenditure, I pushed in more prior to release. Hmmm, that took more magic than I expected. It had even decreased my SP.
That one looked like a success.
To be sure, I checked the effects using my own status. Yes, it was clearly more powerful than a normal First Guard.
I was right, then. I’d learnt from magical texts that adjusting the amount of magic when casting a spell could increase or decrease its strength. I’d always intended to be firing off the strongest possible spells, but it looked like there was a whole higher level.
Hmmm, I had the feeling this was going to be even harder than learning magic.
Combining the information from S’yne and Rishia, it seemed certain that life force was a different element from SP. But could it be something similar? If I could come to understand this feeling and imbue it into my magic, it felt like I’d further be able to enhance my skills. After all, simply defending enemy attacks using the defense value of my shield, as I had been until now, was eventually going to hit a limit. If there was some way to increase the strength of my magic, that was something to really be happy about.
“Like—” S’yne gave a practical example. What just happened? It looked like she was just gesturing with her hands, but the Keel doll pantomimed bumping into something.
“You mean like this?” Atla copied her and created something—something like a wall?—even more powerful than the one created by S’yne.
“This is like your power, Master Naofumi! I did it!” Atla beamed. At a glance, it could indeed be taken as a recreation of the Air Strike Shield.
“S’yne is pretty skilled, isn’t she?” Atla admitted.
“I know.” She looked like such a natural, so why didn’t she pull some of this out when she fought us? Looking at the durability of the wall that she had created, maybe she would only make ones that weren’t all that reliable.
“Rishia, when will I be able to learn this?” Itsuki asked, watching the unfolding events.
“Have a little more patience,” Rishia replied.
“With this power, I might even surpass you and Raphtalia, brother.”
“I won’t allow that.” Raphtalia’s voice was hard.
“Me either! Stop me if you can! Atla!” Fohl and Raphtalia were both pushing hard at Atla. I didn’t think it was such a bad thing, but maybe I should stop it.
“Rafu!” Raph-chan jumped down from Raphtalia’s shoulder.
“That reminds me, S’yne, have you finished what I requested yet?”
“Right here—” With that, S’yne pulled out the item I ordered from her, a miko outfit for Raph-chan, and handed it over.
“Ah! Well done. Come on, Raph-chan. Put this on.”
“Rafu?” I put the miko outfit on Raph-chan and checked her over. Yeah. Just as it suited Raphtalia, it really suited Raph-chan too. The only issue perhaps was that Raph-chan didn’t normally wear clothing, so it looked a bit like cosplay.
“Rafu, rafu, rafu,” Raph-chan was copying Raphtalia, posing with a wooden stick.
“Yeah, perfect! Raph-chan. I bet people will find you just as appealing as Raphtalia in her miko gear!” I said.
“Rafu!” Here in Q’ten Lo, with their deep faith toward the Heavenly Emperor, there might be many who understood the appeal of Raph-chan. I wasn’t about to give up spreading the good word!
I gave Raph-chan a stroking that some might consider excessive. If I did that to the real Raphtalia in her miko outfit, she’d get real mad, that was for sure.
“Oh my.” Sadeena looked at us and smiled to herself. What was so funny?
“Kwaaa!”
“I want to wear that too!” chimed in Filo.
“Gaelion, I’ve already equipped you with a festoon. Isn’t that enough? Filo, well, I’m not sure it would suit you.” Putting a miko outfit on the Western-looking beauty like Filo felt like a bit of a mismatch. It definitely wouldn’t suit her as much as the one piece she was currently wearing. So I told her, “I don’t think it would suit you in human form.”
“What! Then I’ll do what Raph-chan does and wear it as a filolial,” pouted Filo. I considered that for a moment. Hmmm, it might suit her, but then I also considered what Filo would look like walking the streets of Q’ten Lo in her filolial form.
“In your filolial form, though, you wear that—what is it, bib-like thing, right?” Filo walked through the streets in her filolial form wearing a getup a bit like a Tosa dog. In that regard, she went well with Gaelion.
“But I still want to wear that.”
“Okay, sure, sure. Later. If you want to wear something different, maybe try a loincloth in your filolial form?” I thought that would go pretty well with her stocky form.
“That’s what Keel wears, right? Wouldn’t that be strange?”
“I reckon it would suit you more than a miko outfit.” Although Melty would probably h
ave something to say about it, it also sounded like a veiled way of calling Keel strange.
“You think so?”
“W-why is Raph-chan wearing a miko outfit!” Raphtalia raised her voice, finally noticing, but I decided to just ignore her.
Time passed, and the sun started to set.
We weren’t doing the night parade today. We’d basically already done one during the daytime.
“Ah, Master Naofumi. Today, at least, I will spend some quality time with you,” said Atla.
“We just trained together for ages,” I grumbled.
“That’s still not enough for me. I want to be with you forever and ever!”
“Even in the bath? That’s a bit much. Fohl, you do see where this is going?”
“Y-yes!” Atla was still trying to resist her now more-controlling brother, but the situation wasn’t great.
“I’m heading to the bath, anyway,” I announced.
“I’ve heard there are hot springs effective at soothing curses in the vicinity of the old city. The bath here is hot spring water too.” I nodded at this information from Raphtalia. Maybe there was a place like the hot springs on the Cal Mira islands?
Sounded good after all the curses we’ve suffered recently!
“I’d love to join you for some coed bathing.” Atla’s words made me a little uncomfortable.
“I won’t allow that! Your nakedness will not be put on display!” So did her brother’s. I’d bathed with Raphtalia and Filo before, of course. Although Raphtalia was really like my daughter so there was no need to worry about that.
“I’d like to bathe with little Naofumi too,” chimed in Sadeena.
“Oh look, another pervert!”
“What? You don’t want to get naked together?” Sadeena proceeded to hug me from behind.
“Sorry, not interested.”
“Lots of the bathing in Q’ten Lo is coed,” Sadeena went on. I had seen at least one public bath. It looked pretty Edo-ish too.
Raphtalia explained, “There were places like that in Kizuna’s world. L’Arc wanted to go, but Glass got angry about it.”
“There was some talk about peeping with Motoyasu too, before he went wacky. What a pervert,” I commented. Anyone in L’Arc’s position could have all the women he wanted, although he seemed to prefer Therese the most.
Raphtalia continued. “He was good at compartmentalization, I’ll give him that.” Yeah, that sounded about right. I could almost see him starting to drool.
“Anyway, watch our own perverted ladies to make sure they don’t bother me in the bath.”
“Very well,” she said. Women trying to get into the men’s bath? That just didn’t sound right, but I decided to leave that topic well enough alone for the time being.
So I went off to bathe in the hot springs.
“Ah, Master Naofumi! Brother, I won’t forgive you for this!”
“You don’t have to. If you’re trying to crawl into a bath with some guy, I have to stop you! I’m not letting you be such a loose woman. I’ve hardened my heart in order to make you into a fine and upstanding young lady!”
“I’m already fine, thank you!” No, sorry, but he was right. There was something wrong if she wanted to charge into the men’s bath.
In any case, they were as crazy—and noisy—as ever. Kizuna . . . things were more lively now. I didn’t dislike it, just wished they’d keep it a little more under control.
Chapter Nine: The Miko Priestess of Carnage
“Phew.”
I entered the bath area at our lodgings and let out a sigh. The room was full of steam. I’d just wash myself and then get into the bath.
“Oh my!” I certainly didn’t like the sound of that voice. I looked in its direction, and for some inexplicable reason, Zodia was already there, in the bath, looking over at me.
She still had her clothes on, even! This was all a new one to me.
“Good evening, sweet Naofumi. What a coincidence, meeting you here.”
“Coincidence? In the men’s bath? And I told you, drop the ‘sweet.’”
“The men’s bath? I admit, I got totally lost and just ended up here.” Amazing. I’d known she had a terrible sense of direction, but coming into the men’s bath? By mistake?
Even more amazing, after what I saw yesterday, I could almost believe it was possible.
“This is hot water too. I thought it was cold.”
“Are you still drunk?”
“No, I’m not.”
“If you say so.” Zodia came out of the bathtub and closed in with me.
“I could wash your back, if you like?”
“This is the men’s bath. Out!”
“Oh dear. You don’t like me? But I’m so clean!” What was she talking about now? If any of those others saw me like this, the uproar would be unprecedented. Just having wandered in here because of her sense of direction clearly wasn’t going to cut it as an explanation.
I had to get Zodia out of here, right away.
“Not interested.”
“You’re so stiff! And not in a fun way. Can’t you be a bit softer?”
“No.”
“Come on. After a bath is a great time to play.”
“You’re talking about the promise from yesterday?” I said. Zodia nodded to my question. Maybe I should call in security and set a trap for her?
“If you lose, you have to strip,” she stated.
“Keep your clothes on! It’s a card game. Stop taking things in a weird direction!”
“Then we’ll just play cards,” she conceded. “But I want to play more types of games.” She really had believed in my promise and come to play with me. If she was Sadeena’s sister, this could end up getting pretty messy.
I really wanted to be wrong about this. If I wasn’t, well, we’d just pile on and capture her alive.
“Anyway, just go and sit in a chair in the changing room.”
“Sure thing!”
“Just to confirm, why did you come here today?”
“To take a look at the Heavenly Emperor.”
“And you haven’t seen her yet?” Just how bad was her sense of direction, seriously! If I wasn’t reading this wrong, anyway, then after my bath I’d introduce her to Raphtalia and the others along with playing the game. As I considered all this, Zodia walked off toward the changing room. What a hassle . . . Then a breeze blew past me. She’d gone out, then?
Growing more concerned, I hurried through my bath.
“Phew. Here, I’m done. I’ll play with you now—” Zodia wasn’t there though. “Hey! Hello?” I called, but she didn’t appear. Maybe she’d wandered off into the women’s bath. We had the entire lodgings to ourselves, however, so I definitely would have heard a commotion if an unknown individual had been spotted wandering around.
“Ah, Master! You finished in the bath?” Filo chirped up.
“Rafu!” It was Filo and Raph-chan. I could still hear some background noise, suggesting the struggle with Atla was ongoing.
“Yeah, all done. One thing, Filo, Raph-chan, would you go and have a look in the women’s bath for me? There might be a woman called Zodia in there.”
“Really? Sure, okay.”
“Rafu.” The pair of them went to do as I asked and then came right back.
“No one there.”
“Rafu?”
“Hmmm. So where’s she gone?” That gust of wind wasn’t her wandering off again, was it? She must be lost again. We’d have words, if we met again. Of course, combining her random comings and goings with her sense of direction, who knew when that might be. I didn’t want her turning up in my bedroom.
“Master Naofumi!” Atla was yelling.
“They’re still going at it? Can’t they pipe down a little!” I shouted.
“She’s using the things S’yne taught to her to play with big sis and her brother,” Filo told me. Hmmm. Atla was definitely getting stronger. At least Raphtalia and Fohl were keeping up. “Sadeena is siding with Atla,
saying that looks like more fuuuun. She wants to enjoy bathing with Masteeer toooo!”
“That drunkard, stirring up trouble again.” The final battle was close. This wasn’t what they should be wasting their time on. “I’d better go and stop them, anyway.”
“Yeah. If they want to get in the bath with Master, they just have to jump over the fence,” Filo chirped.
“Rafu.” Filo hadn’t done that this time, but she’d clearly been getting some ideas. I’d have to be careful going forward. With that, I headed back to Atla, and that calmed everything down.
“Today was fun too, little Naofumi,” Sadeena remarked.
“That’s easy for you to say.” I looked over at Sadeena, who was fanning herself in the garden after her bath. Raphtalia and the others were tired and so they’d already gone to bed. Atla had been trussed up again and rolled out and was now sleeping under the watch of Fohl. She’d been on a real rampage recently. Hopefully this would help her cool off.
Sadeena had transitioned from bathing to drinking. With our forced march and all the training, Raphtalia and the rest of the gang were pretty worn out. It was strange, to be honest, that Sadeena still had any energy.
Me? I wasn’t as exhausted as I thought.
Maybe it was because I’d got a good handle on using life force, and being focused on defense, I didn’t have to move around too much. I should probably give out some nutritional supplements.
“So, little Naofumi, what do you need from me?” Sadeena went on.
“Well, there’s some stuff going on.”
“I’ll strip down and standby, then.”
“Where the hell did that come from!” Dammit. Why was I having so much trouble with people like this recently? I wasn’t looking to settle down in this world!
“Thinking about it, I’ve heard a fair bit about Raphtalia’s history, but there’s lots of other stuff I don’t know. I need to ask some additional questions, or problems may come up,” I explained.
“Oh, that’s all this is? Can’t you just ask the other revolutionaries about it?”
“That’s only going to get me fragments. Sadeena, this is about you too. There are too many holes in my knowledge of your past. Not to mention, it seems you have a sister now?”
