by Aneko Yusagi
“Whatever!”
Yeah . . . Fohl was a rebellious little brat. There was no way he would want to stick around with me longer than he had to.
“How do you know about my grandfather?”
“I know because that man who was causing a commotion earlier is the one who killed him.”
“Wh . . . what?!”
Ah, now it made sense. Fohl and Atla were the grandchildren of Trash’s most despised enemy, and on top of that, he had realized that Atla was the orphaned child of his precious younger sister. No wonder he had left looking like that.
“Do you know much about your grandfather?”
“All my parents told me was that he was a really impressive man. Was he the king of Siltvelt, then?”
“That’s all they told you? Perhaps I’ve said too much, then.”
“. . .”
Fohl looked like he wasn’t sure what to think. I could see how it might bother him to find out about things his parents refused to tell him in a place like this. Still, the queen was being overly dramatic. Surely he would want to know more about his roots. That’s what I thought, anyway, but it didn’t seem like either Fohl or Atla had any intention of asking the queen for more details.
“. . .”
Fohl seemed to be lost in thought.
“None of that matters! My loyalty lies with Mr. Naofumi!”
Atla obviously wasn’t interested.
“My apologies for the trouble, Mr. Iwatani. How are things going?”
The queen changed the subject.
“Things are progressing well, I guess.”
“You’re referring to the territory, I assume. I’ve heard as much. You came at just the right time.”
“Did something happen?”
“Let us address your business first. What brings you here today?”
“Oh yeah. I want to reset the levels of a couple of my slaves so that I can level them up from scratch.”
I told the queen why we had come and she happily obliged.
“Understood. I will see to it that preparations begin at once. They should be complete by the time you and your companions reach the dragon hourglass.”
“Thanks. Now, what was the news that you mentioned earlier?”
The queen opened her folding fan and covered her mouth before speaking.
“There have been sightings of the holy heroes near Melromarc recently and we’ve been able to determine where one of the heroes is likely to appear sometime in the next few days.”
“What? Seriously?”
The queen nodded.
“Yes. We think that the Spear Hero—Mr. Kitamura—will be making an appearance.”
Motoyasu, huh? Motoyasu was the last of the three that I wanted to see, but this wasn’t the time to be picky.
“We managed to locate one of the Spear Hero’s companions.”
They found one of Motoyasu’s companions? Judging from the queen’s wording, she wasn’t talking about Bitch. That meant it was one of the other two girls that ran around with him. I’d just call them Girl 1 and Girl 2. I guess that might not make it clear which I was referring to, but I didn’t know their names and I’d hardly ever talked to either one. Trying to recall anything about them was a hassle. All I remembered was that they both seemed really annoying.
“You mean a corpse?”
“No. A member of Melromarc’s nobility, who is also a father, had expressed concern about his missing daughter. But then he returned home one day to find her helping her mother run the family business, as if nothing had happened.”
What the hell?! His missing daughter had just shown up and acted as if nothing had happened? It sounded like some kind of joke.
“And that daughter is one of the other two girls in the Spear Hero’s party?” asked Raphtalia.
“If she was one of Motoyasu’s companions and it’s not Bitch, then she must be,” I replied.
“Oh? Is that a friend of yours?” quipped Sadeena.
“Hell no,” I snapped.
“Bitch sure is one heck of a name,” said Fohl.
“Heh heh heh . . .”
Fohl’s comment brought a smile to my face. That was one of my greatest achievements.
“That’s nothing to be proud of, Mr. Naofumi,” chided Raphtalia.
“It’s a glorious achievement, Mr. Naofumi. I am certain she deserved the name.”
“Atla . . . I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but your way of looking at it is questionable . . .”
Raphtalia was always so serious. I continued my conversation with the queen.
“Did you not take her into custody?”
“We did question her. I was hoping that you would meet her and try to convince her to help lure the Spear Hero out of hiding.”
Now it made sense. The queen believed that Motoyasu might try to see the girl. It was a bit of a gamble, but if it meant possibly capturing Motoyasu, then it was worth a try.
“And you think she’ll cooperate? She could betray us and leak the details to Motoyasu.”
“I already have a shadow keeping an eye on her. She seems fully compliant so far.”
“Hmm . . .”
So she was basically trying to protect herself in a plea bargain. It made sense. The girls that ran around with Motoyasu had all seemed like scum.
“Fine. After we finish the level resets, we’ll return to the village and then head out to meet her.”
“I’ll show you her location.”
The queen unfolded a map and showed us where to find Motoyasu’s companion.
“Alright, let’s get these level resets over with and get back to the village. We have an important mission now,” I announced.
“Hopefully it all works out,” said Raphtalia.
“Sounds like wishful thinking to me, but whatever.”
I couldn’t help but be skeptical.
Chapter Six: The Fruits of Training
After that, we quickly headed to the dragon hourglass and exchanged greetings with the soldiers at the entrance. They must have already received the queen’s orders, because preparations for the ceremonies had already been completed.
“Okay, you go first, Sadeena.”
“Okay! I won’t let you down!”
Hmm? There were people there to assist with the ceremonies just like when we had classed up, but this time they had a stretcher with them. It seemed strange, so I asked a nearby soldier about it.
“Resets often have repercussions. It will probably take several days to fully recuperate.”
I guess that made sense. I’d felt sluggish when the stats I had taken for granted suddenly dropped, too. But my level hadn’t changed. I could only imagine how restricted I might feel if I was suddenly back at level 1.
“There is individual variance, of course.”
The soldiers began the ceremony. The dragon hourglass began to glow as power flooded into the magic circle on the floor. It looked a lot like when we had done our class-ups.
“ The woman standing here before us has chosen to relinquish her own powers in order to walk a new path. Powers of the world! Grant her the chance to find that path! ”
Sadeena was standing in the middle of the magic circle and waving to me.
“Look, little Naofumi! It’s the moment of my rebirth!”
She seemed just a bit too relaxed. Moments later, something came rushing out of Sadeena and then scattered in all directions.
“The ceremony is complete. How do you feel?” asked one of the soldiers.
“My body feels pretty heavy, but I can still move.”
Sadeena trudged over to where I was standing. I guess that meant she was pretty tough.
“You’re next, Fohl.”
“Off you go, Brother! Do as Mr. Naofumi says!”
“A . . . Atla! Fine! I’m going!”
I was starting to feel a little bit sorry for Fohl. Regardless, he completed the level reset ceremony and seemed to have no trouble walking, just like Sadeena.
; “You guys just reset your levels, but you seem to be moving surprisingly well. Do you not need to use the stretcher?” I asked.
“Would you carry me if I couldn’t move, little Naofumi?”
“I’m no wimp!” shouted Fohl.
“You two aren’t normal,” I said.
I thought about giving Fohl a quick jab to the arm to see if he was really okay . . . but Atla beat me to it.
“Ow!”
Yeah, he was definitely feeling weaker.
“Hahaha! That tickles!”
I tried it on Sadeena, too, but she reacted the same as always. She seemed to be just fine. Maybe the repercussions would be minimized if the person was in good physical shape. Both of them were physically fit. Exercising and getting in shape certainly seemed to fall into a different category than leveling up. I guess staying in shape would make it easier to deal with not feeling so great, unlike some kind of stat boost that the person barely even had to work for. These two had that kind of self-discipline. Raphtalia made sure to keep herself in shape, too. A person’s stats would be reduced with a level reset, but the results of their physical training would stay. Other than that . . . the boosts from my shield might have been helping a bit.
So in other words, the people that needed the stretchers were probably people who mostly used magic, or people that had been power-leveled by someone stronger. For example, some spoiled kid from a noble family could pay an adventurer to level him up. That kind of thing was effective up to a certain point. It’s basically what I was doing with the slaves back at the village, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The problem was that once someone hit the level cap like that, the only way to further improve would be to get in better shape or train with someone like the old lady.
Heroes had no level cap, apparently, but even I probably should have been doing some kind of training. Things like levels and stats were the norm in this world, so it wasn’t unthinkable that training and honing your magic skills on a daily basis could raise some kind of limit, too. That would mean people like Fohl and Sadeena, who had been training hard since they were little, might be able to become that much stronger. I didn’t know how it actually worked and I wasn’t planning on sticking around in this world forever, so I’d just do my training until the waves were defeated and not worry about it. After all, my levels and stats would mean nothing when I returned to my own world.
The same went for this shield. This stupid shield that I couldn’t remove no matter what. Changing it to the Book Shield was the best I could even do to try to hide it. If this stupid thing followed me back to my own world, there’s no way it could be considered anything but a curse. A grown man walking around carrying some strange book all the time would be the laughing stock of the world.
It’d be better to just not think about that. There was no point in worrying about something that might not even happen. Even if the shield did happen to follow me back, that’s just something I’d have to deal with when the time came.
“Alright, let’s hurry back to the village and get ready to head out.”
We used my portal skill to return to the village.
“Sadeena, Fohl, and Atla, I want you three to get out there and level up. I’ll take the others and head out. Somebody go fetch Filo for me.”
“Will do! I won’t let you down, little Naofumi!”
Sadeena went walking off toward the ocean by herself, for whatever reason. Seriously? Was she going to be okay by herself?
“You don’t have to tell me! Come on, Atla. Let’s go. You can just watch.”
“No way! Mr. Naofumi! I want to go with you!”
“Sorry, but you need to stay and level up. Where we’re going, you’d need to be able to protect yourself at the very least.”
We were going to try to lure out Motoyasu. If things went wrong and he struggled, Atla might not make it out with just a scratch or two. I couldn’t take her with us.
“If I level up and surpass my brother, then I can have Mr. Naofumi all to myself. I’ll do my best!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.
“Come on! Stop being ridiculous!” Raphtalia snapped.
Right? Although . . . Raphtalia was mostly addressing me when she said that. But Atla sure was mentally tough. What happened to playing the part of the sickly young girl? Anyway, I got Fohl, Atla, and the other slaves loaded up in Filo Underling #1’s carriage and sent them off just as Filo came running up.
“Master! You called?”
“Yeah. There’s somewhere I need to go. Can you come with us right now?”
“Yup!”
I would take . . . Raphtalia and Filo should be plenty, I guess. Rishia was busy training under the old lady with Eclair. Nothing bad could come from having her master the Hengen Muso style. Besides, Rishia made Motoyasu uncomfortable. Taking her along would probably only make things more complicated, so I’d just leave her behind.
“Alright, it’s just going to be the three of us. It’s not like we’re going to be selling anything, so maybe we should just ride on Filo’s back.”
“Caaaarriage!” squawked Filo.
“Okay, yeah. Fine.”
“I finally get to pull my own carriage! My own caaaarriage!”
Ever since I started using my portal skill more often, most of the carriages we’d been riding in were rentals. Filo hadn’t had many chances to pull her own carriage lately. Peddling was about the only time she got to use it. Going by carriage would be fine, I guess. It didn’t really matter either way.
“On the way back . . . maybe we’ll see if we can’t sell a thing or two.”
Alright, we needed to hurry up and get to Motoyasu’s companion. Raphtalia and I loaded up into Filo’s carriage and we headed off in that direction.
Chapter Seven: The Plan to Capture the Spear Hero
“Elena! Thank goodness! You’re alive!”
After receiving the queen’s report, we rushed to the location of Motoyasu’s companion. But when we got there, the one and only Motoyasu was right in the middle of chatting up Girl 1 at the counter of a big shop where she was working. We were looking on from an alleyway a short distance away, by the way.
Damn it! Our prey had shown up before we even had time to talk strategy! With Motoyasu already here, we could forget about making any preparations.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Spear Hero,” Girl 1 responded coldly.
Hmm . . . If I wasn’t mistaken, she had been more of the loud and annoying, ditzy type, but that wasn’t how she was acting now. Even assuming she had decided to cut ties with Motoyasu, I would have expected her to be acting like much more of a bitch. Even so, Motoyasu still seemed surprised by the way she responded.
“Wh . . . what’s the matter?”
“Are you really asking me what’s the matter?”
“I was really worried about you!”
“You don’t need to worry about me. What’s more surprising is that you’re still alive.”
“Of course I am! There’s no way I could die with you and the other girls on my team!”
Motoyasu seemed to be enjoying the conversation now. Girl 1, on the other hand, remained icy cold. She looked at Motoyasu with a stony gaze. This must have been what people meant when they talked about looking at someone like they were trash.
“Mr. Naofumi? Are we not going to go talk with him?”
“I was hoping to enjoy their conversation a bit more, but I guess you’re right. We should probably go have a talk with him.”
“Umm?”
Filo was looking at Motoyasu and . . . making a kicking motion. I’d ordered her to kick him whenever she saw him a while back.
“What do you say? Let’s get back to saving the world!” Motoyasu went on.
“Sorry, but I’m being forced to take over the family business. I can’t run around with you anymore.”
She remained emotionless as she responded. It was clear she had absolutely no interest in accepting his offer.
Motoyasu seemed to realize that and had no idea how to respond. I’m sure everything had always gone his way up until now. But to be honest, I envied him. I’d been given the title of count and even had my own territory now, and yet here I was cooking meals for the slaves every day. Frankly, I felt like I was playing mommy to them. I’d even overheard the soldiers quietly referring to me as the Cooking Hero, recently. The conversation had gone like this:
“Man, the Cooking Hero really does make some delicious food!”
“You better be careful about what you say. That’s the Shield Hero you’re talking about.”
“Oh yeah, you’re right! It’s just that his shield reminds me of a pot lid . . .”
“You might want to go to the clinic and get your head checked out.”
“Hahaha!”
What the hell? Pot lid? I wasn’t going to forget those soldiers. I’d work them to the bone while I had them helping with the reconstruction. But whatever, that didn’t matter right now. I needed to focus on Motoyasu.
“Seriously, what’s the matter? You’re not acting like the Elena I know.”
“If you say so. It’s just that I know an opportunity when I see one.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, Mr. Moto . . . or rather, Spear Hero. I was already at my limit. I can’t stomach the thought of running around with you anymore.”
“Wh . . . what are—”
“Sure, you had money and you had fame. But that’s all in the past now. So what do you have to offer?”
“Huh? I’m a hero, you know!”
“Frankly, I’m exhausted. Being in a party with you is exhausting.”
“W . . . with me? What’s wrong with me?”
“You’re always hitting on girls everywhere you go, and you don’t even understand us in the slightest. We’re basically a status symbol to you.”
Motoyasu was growing pale. Ah, I bet he had never been dumped before. Oh shit, I found myself starting to smile at his misfortune.
“Are you smiling, Mr. Naofumi?”
“Can you blame me? Motoyasu is white as a ghost!”
