by Aneko Yusagi
Still, this girl sure was being blunt. Motoyasu was still a hero, after all.
“If you’ve got time to come looking for me, shouldn’t you be reporting back to the castle first?”
“Ugh . . .”
Motoyasu didn’t know how to respond.
“You’re a has-been now. If you want me to hang out with you, then go make something of yourself. Like the Shield Hero.”
Girl 1 dissed Motoyasu in the classic style of the woman I hated. It was like she was saying, “I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. This is all your fault.” If this were a dating sim or visual novel and she were the main character, this would be one of those parts that really pissed me off. But for some reason, I couldn’t help but be super excited when it was Motoyasu getting dumped on. That was what he got for calling me a cheater all the time!
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Raphtalia was getting mad at me. If I just stood here smiling any longer she might run off and leave me with Sadeena. I didn’t want that.
“Wh . . . what happened to you? You were a lot more fun before,” said Motoyasu.
“If you say so,” the girl replied.
Motoyasu was focused on their conversation and still hadn’t noticed us.
“Come on. You’re joking, right?” he prodded.
“I’m completely serious.”
Girl 1 noticed me approaching. She seemed to understand what was going on.
“Hey, Motoyasu,” I called out.
Motoyasu spun his head around abruptly when he heard me.
“N . . . Naofumi?!”
“Yo. I just got back from busting my ass in another world, sorting this whole Spirit Tortoise mess, and here you are looking nice and rested. Nice of you to let me handle all the hard work.”
Honestly, if even just one of the other heroes had actually listened to me, we wouldn’t have ended up in such a mess in the first place. How about taking a break from chasing booty every now and then to actually do your job as a hero?
“Ugh . . . Elena! You sold me out?!”
“Don’t try to make it sound like I’m the bad one. I’ll side with whoever is stronger. Always have, always will.”
“What a shitty thing to say. If I were Motoyasu, I’d forget about morals and laws and all of that and thrust my spear right through your black heart.”
We’d come to persuade Motoyasu, and yet here I was reprimanding Girl 1 and threatening her life. How did that happen?
“You’d what, Naofumi?! You leave Elena alone!”
What the hell? Did he not realize I was trying to stick up for him? It’d been a while since I’d talked to this buffoon, but he was just as ridiculous as always. Did he really care about women that much?
“Whatever. Why don’t you run off now and work on getting stronger, like the Shield Hero? You could learn a thing or two from the Shield Hero.”
“E . . . Elena . . .”
I couldn’t tell if she was actually more considerate than Bitch or not. Either way, she was a little shit. Motoyasu seemed to realize that he was at a disadvantage and readied his spear. Did he really intend to fight in a crowded place like this?
“Listen to me, Motoyasu.”
“Sorry, but it looks like I have to clear my name.”
“Clear your name? It’s not like I have any intention of killing you. On the contrary, not having you participate in the waves would be more of a problem than anything. I’ve said this a million times already, but my specialty is defense. I can’t attack worth a damn.”
“I’m not weak!”
“Are you listening?!”
“I’m going to regroup with my companions and save the world!”
“Like I said . . . Oh, goddammit, you’re annoying!”
All I was trying to say was that he needed to learn how to properly power up his weapon and become stronger, so that he wouldn’t cause any more trouble for me, Melromarc, or this world. Other than that, I could care less what he did with his time—as long as he helped out with the waves, of course.
“Anyway, I’m not interested in punishing you. I just want you to listen to me.”
“Pass!”
“You realize you said something similar to me before, right? Now that the situation is reversed, this is how you act? Or do you actually have a good reason, like I did?”
“I don’t!”
“Seriously?”
If that was the case . . . why was he so set on refusing to hear me out?
“Being captured here is not an option!”
“You’re not on any wanted lists! I’m just trying to talk to you!”
Trying to talk it out was getting us nowhere. I was just going to have to take him in by force. Would I be able to fight him with my stats reduced to a third of what they usually were? I had Raphtalia and Filo with me, though. I was sure we’d be fine. He’d only used his own power-up methods, so he’d still be slightly weaker than us, despite his higher level. He was alone as far as I could tell, so we wouldn’t have any problems, as long as he didn’t manage to escape.
“Please, remain calm and come with us,” Raphtalia said firmly.
“Hmm?”
Filo looked as confused as always in her filolial form, while Raphtalia unsheathed her katana.
“Raphtalia, sap his SP.”
The portal skills relied on SP to function. Normally we’d thwart his escape by other means, but right now that wasn’t an option. There were several ways to interfere with teleportation. Thinking back on the times I couldn’t teleport, I knew that aside from just being near a guardian beast, certain types of magic that affected the surrounding terrain could cause interference.
I had initially planned on setting a trap before Motoyasu arrived, so that we could interfere with his teleportation skill before I even tried to persuade him. But the prey had arrived before the trap was set. So we’d need to either knock him out clean in a single blow or sap his SP.
We started creeping forward toward Motoyasu, and he thrust his spear up high into the air.
“Portal Spear!”
Damn it! Motoyasu’s appearance started to waver and distort, and an instant later he had disappeared.
“I guess he got away,” I said.
Things had gone pretty much exactly like I’d expected, but still . . . Catching a hero sure was a pain in the neck.
“I wonder where he went,” said Raphtalia.
“Who knows,” Girl 1 replied.
“Well then . . . long time no see. Or should I say nice to meet you?” I asked her.
“Either way.”
It was time to have a talk with Girl 1 . . . Elena, was it?
“I’m sure you’ve probably already explained everything to the people from the castle, but I’d like to ask you about what happened.”
“Yeah, okay. Fine.”
Elena let out a long, drawn-out sigh and then began to talk.
According to Elena, this was what had happened.
Just like Ren and Itsuki, Motoyasu had headed for the country where the Spirit Tortoise had been sealed away in an attempt to get the jump on me.
“This should be a breeze for anyone around level 60 or higher. That monster over there drops super nice weapons and materials.”
That’s what Motoyasu told Bitch and his other groupies while pointing at the Spirit Tortoise off in the distance. Of course, the beast was heading in their direction, so all of the locals were running away in the opposite direction Motoyasu and his party were headed.
“Ha, ha, ha! Commoners! You need not run! For I, the Spear Hero, shall make quick work of the Spirit Tortoise!”
Motoyasu’s declaration echoed out loudly as he held his spear up for everyone to see.
“Wha . . . the Spear . . . Hero?!”
“Sorry for showing up unannounced, but there just happens to be a little world event here that I plan to clear. I’ll show you all just how much stronger I am than the Shield Hero!”
And then the fool took off running toward the Sp
irit Tortoise, like Don Quixote charging at windmills. Torn between wanting to believe in Motoyasu and wanting to ensure their own safety, the people looked back over their shoulders from time to time as they continued to run about haphazardly, trying to escape.
“It may be huge, but don’t worry! It only looks scary! Let’s do this!”
“Okay!”
“Let’s go!”
Elena and the others took off toward the Spirit Tortoise along with Motoyasu. Everything went downhill from there. The Spirit Tortoise summoned its familiars and began to harvest the lives of any and every living thing in its vicinity. Motoyasu, Elena, and the rest of the party fought the familiars off as they continued running. Before long, they arrived at the foot of the Spirit Tortoise.
“Here I go! Thunder Spear!”
Motoyasu launched straight into his finishing move, but . . . it simply made the Spirit Tortoise screech and left nothing more than a scratch on its face. On top of that, the scratch regenerated and healed instantly.
“Wh . . . what?! Shooting Star Spear!”
The Spirit Tortoise familiars began to crowd around Motoyasu. He fought the familiars off but showed absolutely no sign of being able to defeat the Spirit Tortoise.
“Umm . . .”
“Don’t tell me . . .”
“No way . . .”
Bitch, Elena, and Girl 2 started whispering to each other. The last straw was when the Spirit Tortoise just ignored Motoyasu and continued walking. In other words, he wasn’t a threat. He was nothing.
When I’d fought the Spirit Tortoise . . . it’d been firing off finishing moves and casting gravity-altering magic like crazy. With Motoyasu, it must have just figured that the familiars would be able to take care of him on their own. Of course, going up against the Spirit Tortoise was kind of like telling someone to defeat a man with a toothpick. Even with the help of Raphtalia, Filo, Eclair, and the old lady, it’s a miracle we were able to damage it as much as we did. And even when we did manage to defeat it on the outside, it just regenerated. Kyo wasn’t wrong when he said it was our loss.
“A . . . alright! Everyone! I’m going to take this thing down, so back me up with your magic! Here I go!”
Motoyasu let out a battle cry and went charging at the Spirit Tortoise, but Elena turned her back on him and ran without hesitation. She had been completely focused on escaping and ended up getting separated from Bitch and Girl 2. Later, after she had gotten clear of the Spirit Tortoise and waited for all of the commotion to die down, she returned home.
Elena’s mother was just glad that her daughter was alive. She told her that the life of an adventurer was just too dangerous and demanded that she carry on the family business instead. She said that they could talk it over when her father came home, but for the time being all that mattered was keeping her daughter alive. If they had gone to the authorities, there was always the chance that she could be charged with a serious offense and end up being executed. And so they eventually came up with the plan to use her father’s connections to work out some kind of plea bargain that would involve luring Motoyasu out if he tried to get in contact with her.
And that was Elena’s story.
“I figured there was no way he could have survived fighting against that monster. Unbelievable.”
“You realize you’re saying that to the guy that defeated it, right?”
“Oh yeah. So that was you guys that downed it, huh? That’s pretty amazing. I really messed up. I never imagined you’d drag yourself out of the mud and actually make something of yourself . . . I sure picked the wrong hero to suck up to.”
Elena let out a deep sigh. Honestly, the level of bitchiness she was displaying made me want to punch her in the face, but there was something strangely refreshing about it, too.
“But whatever. Mr. Motoyasu did give me a bunch of gifts and leveled me up, so I guess it’s fine. Now I just have to put up with helping out with the family business.”
“Seriously?”
“You’re not a very enthusiastic person, are you? You seemed a lot more excitable when we met before,” said Raphtalia.
“Oh, that’s right. We got into an argument at the castle before going to the Cal Mira islands, didn’t we? That was a real hassle, to be honest.”
So it was just an act? I couldn’t even imagine putting up with pretending to agree with Bitch all the time. Having to kiss the ass of a bitch like that would give me a stomach ulcer.
“Hmm?”
Filo had been responding that way a lot lately. Where did she pick that up?
“Anyway, if he shows up again I’ll let you know, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”
“Probably not. I guess you don’t happen to know where Bitch went, do you?”
“No idea. She’s not the type to die easily, though, so I’m guessing she’s still alive.”
Capturing Motoyasu was a real hassle and Bitch was nowhere to be found. Elena had cooperated with the queen and us in luring out Motoyasu, so I guess it wouldn’t be right to punish her now. Then again, it wouldn’t have been hard for her to get off the hook anyway. She could just say, “We were just doing what the hero told us to! We didn’t know any better!” Well, I guess we could still punish her even if she said that, but the queen probably wouldn’t go that far.
Motoyasu was the real problem. To put it in game terms, it’d be tough to capture him without inflicting some kind of silence-type status effect on him, to keep him from casting anything. Plus, we’d have to keep it active nonstop or he’d run the moment it wore off. I couldn’t persuade the bastard if he wasn’t willing to listen. Was there no way to stop him from teleporting? The Scroll of Return skill in Kizuna’s world could be disabled using the dragon hourglasses, but that wouldn’t work with our portal skills here.
Motoyasu didn’t want to listen. If we didn’t set a trap and ensure that he couldn’t escape before trying to talk with him, there was no doubt that he would run. We would be screwed if he ended up getting himself killed somewhere out there.
“Anyway, thanks for the help,” I said.
“No problem. Oh, by the way, I heard you started doing a lot of buying and selling. That’s the rumor.”
“I guess you could say that. Can’t do much without money, after all.”
“I might be heading that way to sell some of our goods before long. What a hassle.”
“I might be interested, depending on what you’ve got. You know, you sure don’t seem to want to do much of anything.”
“I just want to have an easy life.”
I had to wonder just what Motoyasu had seen in this woman. The same went for Bitch, of course. I couldn’t understand that guy.
“You sure are something,” Raphtalia told Elena after we’d wrapped up our conversation.
“You better not end up like that, Raphtalia.”
“I won’t!”
“I wanna run!” Filo shouted.
Well that came out of nowhere. It was like Filo hadn’t even noticed Elena or anything that happened. She must have been bored.
“Later, then,” I said.
“Yeah. Goodbye.”
Elena let out another deep sigh and then sat back down behind the counter with her chin in her hands, like she had nothing to do. What a lazy bum.
And so, just like that, our plan to capture Motoyasu had failed.
Chapter Eight: The Day the Game Ended
“Huh?”
We were making our way back to the village after failing to talk some sense into Motoyasu. I had Filo pulling her carriage since I’d figured we might as well sell some stuff while we were on the road. But when we came to the next town, someone was causing a commotion in front of the town’s vigilante corps guard station. I was about to ignore it and keep going, but . . .
“Why are you treating me like a suspect while this trash gets off scot-free?!”
I heard a familiar voice, so I stopped the carriage and went to have a look. I couldn’t see what was going on
because of the crowd that had gathered, so I asked someone standing nearby.
“What’s going on?”
“Apparently one of the heroes captured some bandits and brought them here, but something about it doesn’t add up.”
That scenario rang a bell. Although, in my case, I’d taken the bandits’ money and set them free.
“A . . . aren’t you the Shield Hero?!”
I’d been recognized. Of course, there was a huge carriage behind me with Filo pulling it, after all. The crowd parted in front of me and I saw who had been causing the commotion. The bandits were standing there grinning while Ren was arguing with some members of the vigilante corps. I had a pretty good idea of what had happened. These bandits had tried to pull the same stunt when I captured them before. I figured I should probably step in, so I made my way toward Ren through the opening in the crowd.
“Yo.”
Things might’ve gotten dangerous if he got any more worked up, so I tried to be nonchalant.
“Is that you, Naofumi?”
“Long time no see.”
Ren beckoned me over like he was glad to see me. I’d actually been talking to the bandits and not Ren, but . . . whatever. Running into Ren had been lucky for us, too. I couldn’t let him escape like Motoyasu had. I needed to be careful not to get him excited.
The bandits went pale the moment they saw me. Of course, I’d run into them twice already. This made three times. They couldn’t pretend like they didn’t know who I was. Besides, now I had enough authority to force the vigilante corps to take them in if I felt like it.
“You guys never learn, do you? Did you really think you could get off playing the victim just because your captor is a has-been?”
“Sh . . . shut up!” one of them shouted.
This could be a good little experiment. While it was true that I’d instigated Filo at the time, it was these idiots that had been the original source of her little human-eating act.
“Filo!”
“Whaaat?”
Filo leapt over the crowd and came to my side. The bandits grew even paler.
“Eat up,” I said.
