by Aneko Yusagi
“I see what you mean. If the enemy we face is truly that powerful, then we have to put an end to this as soon as possible.”
“I agree.”
“Then perhaps it would be best if you heroes underwent some formal battle training.”
The other three heroes didn’t look too excited by the prospect of formal training.
Of course they would hate that. They just wanted to hang out and have fun and have the citizenry praise them for their deeds. They didn’t want to do anything as dry and boring as training .
“The next wave will be upon us before long. We must do all that we can to prepare for its arrival. Mr. Iwatani, I trust that you will assist the other heroes in their preparations?”
“...”
I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to make much progress with them, but at the very least we could get some practice sessions in.
If I just kept telling them the same things over and over, maybe they would eventually be able to wrap their little minds around it all. Maybe.
Regardless, my life would be harder if they died, so it was in my own self-interest to see that they were as strong as possible going into the next wave.
“In the meantime, I will gather as many knights and powerful adventurers as I can. Hopefully they will be able to assist in your efforts.”
“Thank you. You were a big help in the last battle against Glass and the others. If you hadn’t stepped in when you did, who knows what might have happened.”
In the middle of the battle, when Glass and the others were staring us down and planning their next move, the queen threw an exploding barrel of rucolu fruit at them. Rucolu were like very concentrated blobs of alcohol, and it really threw their game off, giving us the advantage we needed to survive.
“It was an excellent idea, but it wasn’t mine. It was one of Mr. Kawasumi’s party member’s ideas. Her name was Rishia. If it weren’t for Rishia, who knows where we’d all be now? We owe her a debt of gratitude.”
“Really?”
Itsuki nodded to himself. He seemed concerned.
“Rishia? Hm.”
“Mr. Kawasumi, please give her my thanks. We were only able to survive the wave because of her efforts.”
“Very well. I’ll tell her.”
Itsuki’s party members were forced to adhere to a hierarchy, and Rishia fit in right at the very bottom.
But she’d proven herself in the last battle. The bottom of the party meant that she was mostly treated like a slave. I hoped that this would help get her out of that situation.
“Excellent. Now then, until we are able to return to Melromarc, you are all free to do as you wish. Thank you for meeting with me today.”
We had a lot of problems, but at least we had been able to organize our thoughts a little.
As for the other heroes, they weren’t going to get much stronger unless they learned to level up their maturity first.
We would deal with their experience and leveling later. We had all probably leveled up sufficiently during our time on the islands.
“Mr. Iwatani? I have something I’d like to discuss. Do you mind staying for a little while?”
“Huh? Sure, what is it?”
The queen caught me on the way out of the room, just after the other heroes had filed out.
Was it something that she didn’t want to discuss in front of them?
“What is it?”
“I didn’t want to discuss this with the other heroes present. Honestly, I was planning on sending the other three heroes to another country to deal with the waves there.”
“Aren’t they too weak to entrust an important mission like that to them?”
“Indeed. That is why I was hoping to gain the assistance of the seven star heroes we were just talking about.”
“Well, I guess that would depend on how powerful these other heroes actually are.”
If they weren’t any more powerful than the other three heroes, then they wouldn’t be much help.
“But if I were to send you instead of them, you would have very little time to recuperate.”
“True.”
She was right. I could have gone by myself, but that was likely going to push me over the edge. My stats were still low from the last time I used blood sacrifice, and it cursed me. I didn’t like the idea of entrusting the other heroes with anything remotely important, but there probably wasn’t a better option.
“If the holy heroes are truly weaker than the seven star heroes, they will lose the respect of the people. Regardless, I cannot allow Melromarc to look like it sent fake heroes to assist another country.”
“Of course not.”
“And as for the seven star heroes, I have seen them before. And after what I witnessed during the last wave battle, I think it is safe to say that they are definitely more powerful than the other three holy heroes.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t really care about Melromarc’s political problems, but I would end up in trouble myself if the other three heroes died in battle. That made me nervous about sending them off on their own.
I could have gone myself, I guess. But it wouldn’t be easy.
But I was very curious about what was on the other side of those dimensional rifts.
“When is the next one coming?”
“It will arrive in a week. It will occur over here.”
She unrolled a map of the world that had the locations of the dragon hourglasses indicated on it.
Judging from the history of my own world, it looked like the sort of map that people made of the world when they thought it was flat.
The far edges of the map were obscured with ornate pictures—a way to indicate they didn’t have any information past the depicted areas.
“It will depend on the storm conditions, but if we were to travel by boat, I don’t think it would take very long to get there.”
“If we could teleport there then there won’t be a problem.”
“Yes, but when I think about the training that will be done in Melromarc . . . Besides, things need to take place in different places at once; it will split up everyone that we need.”
What was the matter?
Originally the waves probably could have been dealt with by sending one of the heroes to each of the places where the waves occurred. That should have been enough to handle it, but then again, we were facing different enemies now.
“I do have some other optimistic news about the waves. It turns out that if you don’t take any action during the waves at all, the dimensional rifts will eventually close all on their own.”
“Really?”
“Yes. A great number of monsters will still come out of the rifts, and those monsters will have to be dealt with. But eventually the rifts will close on their own, so the waves can be ignored for a time.”
What did that mean?
“That’s an awful lot to put on my shoulders. The only plan that I can think of is to teleport while everyone is asleep and have Filo run us to the country where the wave is taking place. Then when morning comes we return to Melromarc to work on training.”
It was sounding like a pretty tough schedule.
All of this was happening because the other three heroes wouldn’t listen to me when I told them how to power-up. Just thinking about it made me irritated.
“I suppose we have no other choice.”
The queen agreed with me.
I guess she was right. It would be really tough, but if we wanted to survive—if we wanted the world to survive—then we had no choice but to fight the waves.
Fitoria’s words of warning were turning into a real headache for me.
“Thank you, Mr. Iwatani. Why don’t you get some rest until the storm passes?”
“I will. Call for me if you need me. Later.”
I finished my talk with the queen and left the room.
Chapter Two: An Unhappy Girl
I turned the cor
ner and started to head back to my room, but I ran into someone on the way.
“Oh, um . . . Feeeeeeh ...”
She was carrying a large number of bags, apparently on her way home from shopping. She was wearing a squirrel kigurumi and a Santa hat.
I recognized her. It was Rishia, Itsuki’s party member.
“Hey, you alright?”
I spoke to her without even thinking about it. She was walking slowly and planting her feet carefully, looking like she might collapse at any moment.
“Feh?”
I reached out and grabbed one of the bags that looked like it was about to fall, then I placed it back on the stack of shopping bags, careful to keep the balance steady.
“You’re the Shield Hero, aren’t you?”
“They sent you out on errands for them?”
“N . . . No! I was just out shopping for the team, but I . . . huff . . . huff ...”
She looked exhausted. She was carrying an awful lot of shopping bags, after all.
She was a just a young girl, and the way she was walking around in the squirrel kigurumi made it look like she was being punished or bullied.
“Want some help? You look like you’re going to drop something.”
A while back all the heroes had introduced their party members to everyone else, so I’d met her once or twice before.
So it wasn’t like I didn’t know her. Besides, she’d been a big help during the battle with L’Arc.
We had survived, in part, thanks to her. The least I could do was help carry her shopping bags.
“Feh . . . Bu . . . but ...”
“You can take a break and blame it on me if you want.”
“I could never!”
“Then let me help you.”
“Oh, okay.”
I could have taken the bags and helped her carry them all back, but I didn’t know how Itsuki would react if I showed up with her. He should have just asked some of the soldiers for help. Why did he have to make this girl do everything?
I helped her carry the bags and felt a little conspicuous as I walked next to her.
“Feh ...”
I was surprised she had stuck with them for as long as she had. From what I had seen so far, it looked like a pretty hostile environment.
They were just using her as their errand runner. They didn’t even bother to introduce her when we’d all met.
Itsuki had structured his little party of friends with himself at the top. That meant there had to be someone on the bottom, and that someone was Rishia.
I’d been treated like crap since I first arrived in this world too, so I felt like I could empathize with her. I wanted to know more about her.
“Let’s have a chat on our way back to Itsuki’s room. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
“Me? Well, I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer them or not, but okay.”
“Then I’ll start with a personal one. Why did you join his party?”
There’s no way that she felt comfortable in an environment like that. Who could be comfortable with a guy like Itsuki, with a guy that would stop at nothing to see his idea of justice realized? I wasn’t about to ask her to join my party or anything, but at the very least she would be happier traveling with Ren.
“Of course it’s like this, I just joined the party.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean, if they treat you so badly, why don’t you leave?”
“Because Master Itsuki saved me.”
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“Feh?! Why would you want to hear stories about someone like me? Let’s talk about something else!”
“What kind of a person do you take me for?! Just tell me already!”
“Oh, okay ...”
So Rishia started to explain the events and circumstances that led to her joining up with Itsuki.
To sum it up, Rishia came from a ruined noble family.
They had very little money and were forced to live frugally.
A neighboring town was ruled by a rich, rotten nobleman. To protect themselves, Rishia’s village was forced to spend an increasing amount of their income on bulking up the town’s defenses.
Doing so used up all the remaining money they had. They were insulted by their fellow villagers and accosted by the neighboring town. She cried herself to sleep at night.
One day, a terrible plan was hatched. Unable to contribute additional funds to the village’s defenses, it was decided that Rishia would be offered up to the barbaric noblemen in the neighboring land. In the end, she was taken by force.
It was a situation that Itsuki simply couldn’t ignore.
The rest went just as you would expect. Itsuki stormed in and, wrangling all the power of the Bow Hero, defeated the evil noblemen and saved Rishia from their clutches.
Rishia felt very much indebted to him, so she turned her back on her family and village to join his party.
It was a classic love story.
But what was with all the “feh” stuff? I felt like I’d heard it somewhere before.
Where was it? Oh! I just remembered.
“Wasn’t that town having trouble because the bad governor had increased the taxes so heavily?”
“Yes. The noblemen that Master Itsuki defeated were enacting policies like that.”
Yup, that was it. She was talking about the town that I’d passed through when I first heard about Itsuki’s secret activities.
That would mean that Rishia had been traveling with him since then.
But I’d seen Itsuki in the tavern of that town, and she hadn’t been with him.
A little after that though, I’d seen a young, pretty girl profusely thanking Itsuki in the street. That must have been her.
“Weren’t you talking out in the street? You were speaking very loudly.”
“How did you know that? I remember that scene as if it were yesterday.”
“You said ‘it’s a secret!’ didn’t you?”
“How did you know that?”
“I’ll test your memory. When you were talking in the street, do you remember a giant pink filolial walking by? That was Filo!”
“Fehhh?”
Rishia nodded to herself.
“Fehhhhhh! I remember! She was pulling a carriage!”
“You have an awesome memory. I can’t believe you could remember that.”
Maybe she just thought she was remembering it, because I’d painted the scene for her.
“You were there?!”
“Alright, alright. Calm down already. I just happened to be passing through.”
She freaked out over the littlest things. Her eyes were always darting this way and that, ready to panic over anything that happened.
She looked really on edge, but it was a little hard to tell what she was thinking underneath the kigurumi.
“Oh, okay. I, well . . . I feel like I need to pay my debt to him.”
From what I could tell, everything that Itsuki did was only in the service of his own ego. But to Rishia it must have looked as though he was behaving exactly as a hero would be expected to. The way she spoke about him made it clear that she really did feel indebted to him.
At the very least, she was able to sit through Itsuki’s other party members’ boasting and not go insane—that had to mean something.
“I see ... Sounds like you’re in a pretty tough spot.”
“Yes. I don’t know how well things are going.”
“From what I’ve seen, it looks like you are suited to battling from the back line.”
“I’ve never been very talented or skilled with weapons. If I’m good at anything, I guess it would be magic. But Master Itsuki said that he needed front line fighters, so when it came time to class up, I changed my stats to increase my skill in melee.”
“Why would he ... ?”
He’d ignored her strengths and forced her to focus on her weaknesses?
“Well, good luck with everything. If you keep it up, nobody will say that you’re untalented. You’ll impress them all yet, you’ll see.”
“Thank you!”
She was skittish, but deep down she seemed to have a pretty strong heart. She was going to be fine.
I’d fallen pretty low myself before. But eventually, I found a way to make it work, and look where I am now.
If Rishia kept making an effort, I was sure she’d prove herself essential to Itsuki’s team.
“Sorry about all the questions. Did I wear you out?”
“Not at all. I’m fine!”
“Well, that’s good ...”
Just as the conversation was trailing off, we turned a corner, and Itsuki’s room came into view.
“Later.”
“Feh. Thank you.”
I handed the bags I’d been carrying back to Rishia, turned, and went back the way I’d came. I was heading for my room.
“Welcome back, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Thanks, Raphtalia.”
When I got back to the room I found Raphtalia waiting for me.
“How was the meeting with the other heroes?”
“Not so hot. They’re set on believing that I cheated to get as powerful as I am. They won’t believe anything that I tell them.”
“How will you get them to come around?”
“Who knows? I’ve tried all I can, but they don’t seem to want to listen.”
I’m the protagonist of my very own game! That’s what they thought. They didn't want to believe that someone they thought was weaker than them could somehow level up to overpower them. That would break their fantasy rules! The protagonist never loses!
Besides, they came into this world with tons of knowledge about it from the games they’d played. How is that not cheating? It all sounded like sour grapes to me.
In the end, we were all probably thinking of this world as if it were a game.
