by Aneko Yusagi
I wanted to shake him and ask if he was really so confident that he was right. What if he was just imagining all this justice?
The Records of the Four Holy Weapons had said that the Bow Hero had a strong sense of justice.
But Itsuki has misunderstood what justice was. Being “correct” and doing the right thing were not always the same.
Anyway, I don’t think Itsuki would hear me out if I tried to explain it all to him.
Besides, I didn’t expect very much from Itsuki to begin with—much less expect that he would be open to persuasion.
“We’re going deeper into the island. Naofumi, we’ll see you later.”
“Right, later. Try not to annoy the other adventurers.”
Itsuki’s party quickly packed up their lunches and left the area.
“I’d realized this when I tried speaking to them back at the castle, but they really are a difficult bunch, aren’t they?”
“Sure are.”
I’d rather not run into Itsuki again.
Moving between the islands was a little annoying, so if there were going to be four heroes here at the same time, it would have been smart to agree to level in different places before we set out.
Regardless, we couldn’t level on that island anymore. We made our way back to the main island.
“Hey, hey . . . if it isn’t Shield Kiddo? From the look of it, the monsters were too tough for you, so you came running back. Am I right?”
We got off the boat at the main island harbor and ran into L’Arc and Therese on the dock.
“The monsters were weak. No trouble at all. We do have our reasons for coming back so soon though.”
The real reason was that the heroes were not able to accumulate experience points when leveling in the same place because their weapons interfered with one another. But it would be a pain to try and explain that to him.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s lunchtime. That, and another hero showed up so we need to move to another island.”
We’d wasted plenty of time already, about two hours. Why did we have to sit and listen to Itsuki’s party brag about their master’s valorous deeds?
We could head out to another island now, but by the time we got there it would be getting late, and we’d just have to turn around and come right back.
The first step was to find out where the other heroes were leveling. Then I could make sure to avoid them.
“Well look at you! You’re really taking this hero-impersonation scheme of yours all the way, aren’t you? You mean about how their weapons interfere?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Are you and Therese heading out hunting now?” asked Raphtalia.
“Yeah. We just want to go and see what sort of monsters we’ll be dealing with. What was it like for you kiddos?”
“The monsters were not very strong, but they gave quite a lot of experience.”
“Pretty good.”
We were chatting about the monsters when Therese came over and spoke to me.
“May I call you Mr. Naofumi? Raphtalia was kind enough to tell me your name.”
“Huh? What now?”
“I hear that you are quite skilled with crafting?”
That came out of the blue.
L’Arc hadn’t shut up from the minute I met him, but Therese tended to keep quiet. I wasn’t really sure how to speak to her yet.
“I wouldn’t say I’m really skilled, but I learned from an expert and managed to get the basics under my belt.”
“If I provided the materials and the funds, could you make an item for me?”
“Probably . . . that is, if I had the time.”
“I’d love to purchase one.”
“Sure.”
I wasn’t about to turn down a job. I’d make sure I was paid well.
“So what kind of item were you thinking about?”
“I’d love a bracelet. I’ll let you pick the type and design.”
Those types of requests were the worst. I wished she would just make up her mind.
I decided to wait and see what materials she provided me with. Then I would just make whatever I could from them.
“Well, I can’t make anything without any materials.”
“Okay. L’Arc!”
“What’s up?”
She reached over and pointed to a small pouch synched at L’Arc’s waist. He opened it to show off a number of different ore fragments that were inside.
Many of them seemed to be rough gemstones.
“So what do you want?”
“Just pick the best thing out of that pouch and make a bracelet from it.”
“Fine.”
L’Arc passed me the pouch. I’d have to think of it as a side quest.
“Alright. I’ll bill you for the bracelet when it’s finished.”
“Awesome! Thanks, Shield Kiddo.”
“Whatever.”
I was starting to understand how the old guy must feel running that weapon shop. He must have felt this way when I stopped by and asked him to make me things.
Well, I’d accepted the job, so I was determined to make something good.
“Alright, we’re heading out.”
“Good luck, L’Arc. And you too, Therese.”
“Bye now!”
“Raphtalia and Filo waved them off. They climbed into small boat and rowed away from the dock.
It was so much easier to get along with these normal adventurers than it was to tolerate Itsuki. Something about that felt a little sad.
We hunted down a shadow and the earl, who had both come from the castle, and asked them to tell us where the other heroes were leveling.
The other heroes, Ren and Motoyasu, had planned where they were going and made sure not to overlap.
So they were all on different islands.
This was all turning into such a pain. Why did the legendary weapons have to interfere with each other like this? Up until now we’d only fought in the same place during the waves of destruction, so I hadn’t really been bothered by it.
I felt like I was losing valuable time. I had to think of something.
“Raphtalia.”
“What is it?”
“Want to do some leveling at night? Then we could make up for lost time.”
She rubbed her chin and seriously considered it.
“Good idea. It might be a little dangerous, but we could use the leveling time.”
“Are we fighting at nighty-night?”
“Yeah.”
I could have used a soak in those curse-curing hot springs, but after all the time at sea I kind of wanted the exercise.
If we were going to make up for lost time, leveling at night would be our best bet.
Besides, who knew what time the next wave would come? There was no guarantee that they only occurred during the day.
And besides, Filo was like a wild animal, and we’d fought during the night plenty of times when we were on the run from that bounty.
And so we decided to go to an island where there were no other heroes and battle through the night.
“Whew . . . .”
“That should do it.”
“Yeah.”
We landed at the island and continued to battle monsters after the sun had dipped below the waves.
I soon discovered that the monsters in the Cal Mira islands dropped all sorts of items. They dropped plenty of medicinal herbs, but also magic waters and the materials you needed to make soul-healing water.
Once night fell, and it was dark, the monsters started to appear with greater frequency.
The more monsters we fought, the more experience points we were going to get. So by my estimation, we were accumulating a lot of points.
We eventually grew tired and built a bonfire. We needed a rest.
Filo’s eyes kept darting around the camp though. It didn’t look like she was ready to fall asleep.
There were a lot of different islands i
n the Cal Mira archipelago. Some were steep mountains, others were heavily forested, others were like jungles.
“There are so many monsters out tonight.”
“I know.”
The island we were camping on was more like a giant mountain.
I looked up to the peak. It stood out ruddy against the sky, a stark silhouette.
I wondered if the color had something to do with the activation event.
I think we were getting more experience points for battling at night. We had all managed to level up a bit.
When we’d arrived on the island I’d been at level 43, while Raphtalia was at level 40. Now I was at level 48, and Raphtalia and Filo had reached levels 50 and 51.
Raphtalia almost seemed bored. The monsters were not presenting much of a challenge for her.
Another thing I noticed was that the monsters had the same names, but some were bigger than others, and some gave more points than others.
We’d even run into a Magenta Frog that was as large as I was. Despite being so large, Filo had taken the beast down with a single kick.
They weren’t so strong. But they really were rewarding us with a lot of experience points, and they were appearing very frequently. All in all, it was good for us.
We’d managed to level up quite a lot in just a single day.
Raphtalia and Filo’s stats were rising quickly too. I was focused on trying to power up my shield—but I think I’d done all I could with the materials I currently had.
I’d managed to power up the Chimera Viper Shield pretty well, but it wasn’t like I didn’t use other shields. I didn’t want to have to depend on the dangerous Shield of Wrath either. So I wanted to find a weaker shield that I could power up.
“Hm . . . .”
“Mr. Naofumi, I worry that you might be pushing yourself too hard. I know you would have a hard time saying so yourself, but you must me tired. Your curse still has not healed. Why don’t you rest a little?”
My body did feel heavy. I don’t think I could make it through any long, drawn-out battles at this point.
Still, I’d hoped I could power up a shield to the point where it was so powerful that it didn’t really matter whether I was cursed or not.
“The monsters here hadn’t been able to damage me at all, so I figured it would be okay to keep going.”
I took her invitation to relax though. I stretched my legs out and started to recline when I heard footsteps approaching.
Who was it?
I was about to jump to my feet, when I realized it was L’Arc and Therese.
“Everyone is freaking out that you guys haven’t come back yet, so we decided to come looking for you!”
“What?”
“The boat manager at the docks was getting worried about you kiddos. He said that you left forever ago and hadn’t come back.”
“I’m sure adventurers die on the islands all the time. There’s no need to freak out over us.”
He thought that I was just a normal adventurer pretending to be the Shield Hero. Wouldn’t it be normal for a new adventurer to overestimate their abilities, run off into the wilderness, and end up dead?
Honestly I hadn’t spent much time speaking with other adventurers, so I didn’t really know for sure what they considered normal.
“That might be true. But we got a little worried.”
Hmm . . . so they were worried about us and took a boat out to an island in the middle of the night?
A part of me was thankful for that. A little part of me felt some affection for them.
The two of them must have been real worrywarts. They were less like adventurers and more like paladins, or something.
Even though the knights and paladins of Melromarc were a bunch of jerks.
“We wanted to make up for lost time, so we decided to battle through the night.”
“Anyway, come back to the hotel with us. You have everyone worried.”
“Fine.”
I had to take care of my curse anyway. That was probably enough night battling for today.
“Alright, let’s head back.”
“Yes, let’s. And we’re sorry to have worried you.”
“We’re going back?!”
Filo cocked her head to the side.
“Yeah.”
“Okaaaay! Let’s go go!”
We packed up our camp and went back to the main island.
The random people we met on the docks were becoming more entangled in our lives by the day.
Chapter Seven: The Tavern
“Sorry for the trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all, kiddo.”
We climbed back into our boats and returned to the main island.
It was very dark now, and all the lights had been lit in town. The businesses that had all been bustling during the day had all been shuttered.
All of them, that is, except for the tavern.
“Hey, kiddo! Why don’t we celebrate your safe return with a trip to the tavern?”
“I’d really been planning on hitting the hot springs and then getting to bed early . . . .”
“You’re no fun at all, are you?”
These two had worried about us and come looking for us. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stick around a little while longer.
“Fine. But just for a little.”
“Yeah!”
The tavern was cheerful and there was quite a raucous inside—adventurers were really cutting loose.
It sounded like most of them were discussing the best places to level.
It turned out that the queen had already arranged to cover the bar tabs of the heroes. I was planning on using the money that had been set aside for another purpose.
We found a table large enough to accommodate us all.
The old guy working the counter came over and started pouring us drinks.
“Filo, what will you do?”
“Huh?”
Filo hated the smell of alcohol. She wrinkled up her human nose and looked around at the loud tavern.
“It looks so fun, but it smells weird.”
“Well said.”
Filo was clearly too young to enjoy the bar.
She was just a child. Besides, who knew what would happen if you gave alcohol to a filolial? I didn’t want to be held accountable if anything crazy happened.
“So who’s going to win?”
Someone was shouting at a table across the room. A man clearly impressed with the size of his biceps was looking for arm wrestling challengers.
Another person sat down. They clapped their hands together and started pushing and straining to wrench the other’s arm down.
A crowd formed behind them and started betting on the outcome. I looked around the crowd and spotted Motoyasu leaning in on a girl, giving her more to drink. He never changed. He’d turn into a monster on the way home—no doubt about it.
A girl danced provocatively behind them. A group of musicians lined the wall next to her, plucking strings and singing. Looking over the scene, it really felt like a different world.
“Heeey! That looks fun!”
Filo was a bird monster, so she got really excited about music and songs.
“Go check it out then—but don’t bother anyone.”
“Okay!”
Filo tottered over in the direction of the dancing and song.
At the same time, our drinks arrived. I took a small sip.
Yup, alcohol tasted pretty much the same in this world.
“So THIS is alcohol . . . .”
Raphtalia was carefully inspecting her glass.
“Oh that’s right. You shouldn’t drink any of that.”
“Hm? Why not?”
I suddenly realized that Raphtalia was still a child.
But hadn’t her body already matured? In that case, was it technically okay to drink or not?
“Fine. Just don’t drink too much.”
“Okay!”
She looked like a child tiptoeing into
a pool—she approached the glass slowly and deliberately.
“It’s a little bitter.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Ahaha! Maybe Raphtalia-chan isn’t quite ready for it.”
L’Arc raised a huge stein and started chugging it.
Therese was slowly sipping her drink. The way they both drank seemed in encapsulate their personalities.
I didn’t think it was very different from drinking water or soda. I guess it’s because I don’t get drunk.
“Mr. Naofumi, what do you think about alcohol?”
“I don’t really think anything. It’s not a pastime of mine. Sometimes I drink with other people.”
“Oh, okay.”
“There are plenty of people back in my world that don’t drink—but that might be more rare here.”
Ren and Itsuki were underage back home, but they might have been drinking age in this world.
I spotted Itsuki. He was sitting outside of the tavern, part of some kind of party. He was definitely under age.
But I guess this was a different world. It wasn’t against the law here. If Itsuki was drinking, then Ren probably was too.
“It might be a good idea to keep an eye on how much you are drinking.”
“Oh . . . .”
Raphtalia held her cup up and downed it in one gulp.
“You mean like that?”
“Hey yeah! Look at her go!”
“Sure.”
It reminded me of parties back in my own world.
I certainly didn’t have a problem with girls drinking.
Since ancient times, people have used alcohol to relax after a hard day of work. If people had been doing it for so long, then it was safe to assume it was effective.
Raphtalia always behaved herself and acted proper. I kind of wondered what she would be like if she let her guard down.
“No need to be scared of it. Drink up.”
“Okay.”
I slid another cup over to Raphtalia, and as I did some sort of disturbance erupted over by the musicians.
I looked over to find Filo singing along with the group. She was kind of good at it.
At first the musicians were surprised and worried, but they quickly realized that she was actually pretty talented, and now they were all excited.
