by Aneko Yusagi
The looters climbed down from the carriage, wearing strange expressions of disappointment.
Ever since we started our search, we’d had to devote so much of our time to helping groups of helpless fools. It was starting to feel like we were never going to make headway on our actual mission.
The seven star heroes had been sent to investigate the lands where the Spirit Tortoise had originally been imprisoned. I’d been waiting for a chance to finally meet them, but it was going to be a while until that could happen.
“Have you noticed that the signs around here use a different writing system than Melromarc does?” Raphtalia asked, pointing to a nearby shop sign.
“You’re right.”
The shield had the wonderful ability to translate speech for me, but it didn’t do anything to make reading and writing any easier. So even though we were still in the same world, there were other languages we had to worry about, too. What a pain. I wanted to yell at them to hurry up and agree on a standard. Though, come to think of it, my own world hadn’t been able to do that either. Oh well, at least my shield made it possible to communicate.
“Let’s leave the carriage at the nearest adventurer’s guild and head back to the castle for the night.”
“Alright.”
We had a number of transport options available to us—including a teleportation skill called “portal.” The skill was only available to heroes like myself, and it enabled teleportation to any place that we had already been. However, the skill did have certain limitations. You could only teleport to a place you had already been, and it had to be a place that you remembered well. Furthermore, the number of places that you could choose from at any given time was limited. Finally, it was impossible to bring any large objects along, like our carriage.
We stopped by the adventurer’s guild and flashed an official-looking document that bore the queen’s signature. When the staff saw it, they agreed to store our carriage without charge.
“Portal Shield.”
A portal to Melromarc castle opened, and Filo, Raphtalia, and the others followed me through it.
“We’re back!”
The unfamiliar town around us vanished and was instantly replaced by a scene we were well accustomed to: the courtyard grounds of Melromarc castle.
Filo shouted excitedly as she jumped through the portal. Then she quickly took off running into the castle interior.
She must have been off to see her best friend, Melty. Whenever she had a second to spare, she spent it playing with Melty.
“Welcome back, Naofumi.”
“How’s it looking? Any updates?”
Eclair and Rishia came walking over from the training grounds.
Rishia’s full name was Rishia Ivyred, I think. Yeah, that was it.
She used to be a member of Itsuki’s justice squad, but the team ended up betraying her and framing her for a crime. It was just like what had happened to me. They did it to kick her off the team.
The reason she had joined his team in the first place was interesting, too. She was the oldest daughter of a ruined noble family. Itsuki swept in to save her from a particularly thorny situation. So even though they’d treated her badly in the end, she didn’t blame Itsuki or look down on him. If anything, she still admired him—maybe even worshiped him.
She was a strange girl. She normally prefaced everything she said with a pathetic whimper and tried to hide the depression evident on her face behind a kigurumi. She didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
“Feh? Did I, um . . . do something wrong?” She asked. At the moment, she was wearing a kigurumi that was based on Filo’s filolial queen form.
“No . . .”
According to the old lady, the master of Hengen Muso fighting style, this sad weakling of a girl had a natural talent for the martial arts. The old lady had taken it upon herself to personally train Rishia.
Sometimes—I mean every once in a great while—Rishia pulled off a set of graceful moves, but she hadn’t yet achieved any sort of consistency.
In my own opinion, she seemed more like an “indoor” type than an “outdoor” type of girl. I figured she would be better at magic than she was at combat.
But like I mentioned before, people had actual stats in this world, and Rishia’s stats were so low it was hard to believe. The first time I saw them, I nearly screamed. So I was really looking forward to the day that her abilities blossomed. If they didn’t, she wasn’t going to be able to participate in any battles.
As for how she looked, well, her face impressed even the lecherous Motoyasu.
She looked younger than she actually was, and her hair was pulled back into an intricate French braid. Even I had to admit that she was just as attractive as Raphtalia and Filo were.
“Master Iwatani? Judging from the look on your face, you didn’t get any good news today, did you?”
That was Eclair. Her full name was Eclair Seaetto.
She was from the noble family that had once ruled the region where Raphtalia’s village had been. She was a master swordsman, and she had agreed to help teach Raphtalia and Rishia to wield their weapons better. To sum up her personality, she seemed to have a stick up her ass. She had long strawberry blonde hair and eyes so sharp they seemed to look right through you. From the very first second you saw her, it was clear that she meant business.
After all, she was a knight of Melromarc.
I’d only met a bunch of jerks since I arrived in this country, but if there was anyone in the Melromarc army that actually behaved the way you’d expect a knight to behave, it was Eclair. While that meant sometimes she came off as too serious for her own good, it also meant that she had exceptional manners and carried herself well.
She never made allowances for others—which was a great thing about her but could also be grating at times. And she had a beautiful face. Between Eclair and Raphtalia, it was hard to say who was prettier. Her skin was white and clear . . . Actually, I guess everyone around me was really quite beautiful, weren’t they?
And she was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. They say that God doesn’t give with both hands—but that’s a lie. Not that I cared. Raphtalia could have been the ugliest girl around, and I wouldn’t have treated her any differently.
“Mr. Naofumi? Are you thinking nasty thoughts again?”
“Of course not.”
Raphtalia was very good at reading my thoughts. Whenever I let my mind linger on something inappropriate, she could tell.
“Yes, well . . . Master Iwatani, I was asking if you had gathered any new information on this outing.”
“We heard some stuff, but nothing dependable.”
“That is too bad,” Eclair said, looking disappointed.
I could understand the feeling. After all the death and destruction that the land had experienced, how would it feel to know that the heroes summoned to save the world had gone missing?
“How many days has it been since we defeated the Spirit Tortoise?”
“About a week. Where ARE those losers?” We’d been looking for them for days. I could understand the difficulty if the Spirit Tortoise was still out there, but we’ve already taken care of that. I expected to know something about their whereabouts by now. Were they hiding in the mountains or something?
“We’ve widened our search area, but at the same time we’ve increased the number of looters and refugees we meet and have to assist. It doesn’t feel like we are making much headway.”
“I understand. If there is anything we can do, Rishia and I are ready to assist you. Just let us know.”
“I know, thanks. But I think it would be better if you helped the old lady train Rishia for now. Keel will be back on his feet pretty soon, and I’ll need your help getting him up to our level, too.”
“Very well. Though I must mention that, as the queen’s guardian, I often have to accompany her out to the Spirit Tortoise mountain.”
I already explained this, but the queen she referenced was the
queen of the country that originally summoned me to this world, Melromarc.
She was married to the piece-of-trash king who’d relentlessly persecuted me since my arrival, and she was the mother of the wretched bitch of a princess who framed me. But the queen genuinely wanted to cooperate with me on behalf of the country and for the future of the world. She was very knowledgeable about legends and folklore, and she was fascinated by the waves of destruction. Whenever the waves came, she did all that she could to support me in my battles against them. She’d saved me from certain death more than once, so I tended to leave the strategizing up to her.
She looked like she was only in her late twenties and was exceptionally beautiful. She had a habit of covering her mouth with a folding fan. From the look of her, you would never think it was possible for her to have already had two children.
Both her husband and one of her daughters were the very definition of stupidity. Of the royal family, only the queen and Melty were decent human beings.
“Well, whenever you head out with the queen, leave Rishia with the Hengen Muso lady.”
“Fehhhhhh!”
The Hengen Muso master was actually an old woman that I’d saved once when I was traveling around the countryside peddling wares for cash. Her son was nursing her back from the brink of death, but the medicine he had wasn’t effective enough to save her. I used one of my shield’s abilities to make the medicine better and she was cured. But once she was back on her feet, she was more energetic than I could handle. I started calling her “old lady” back then—and as far as I know, it’s the only name she’s got.
She seemed to know everyone in some way and had apparently participated in many illustrious battles in the past.
The fighting style she employed, Hengen Muso, was thought to have been lost years ago. It was a very wide ranging set of tactics and skills that could be applied to a diverse set of circumstances.
She insisted that Rishia had an innate talent to learn how to use those tactics and skills, so Rishia had been training with the old lady out in the mountains.
“Sounds good to me. I really think that Rishia has been improving lately.”
“R . . . Really?” Rishia asked, looking encouraged.
“Of course you still have a lot to learn. But if you continue to make a sincere effort, I think you will do very well for yourself.”
“Thank you! I will!”
“Yeah, keep it up,” I said, disinterested. I made for the nearest doorway so that I could go pay my respects to the queen. “I’m going to go speak with the queen. Raphtalia. Stick with the others and help them practice their fighting and magic.”
“Understood.”
A whole week had passed since we defeated the Spirit Tortoise. But we still hadn’t found the other heroes. Each evening, after we concluded our search for the day, we teleported back to the castle so I could make my report to the queen. In return, she filled me in on all the reports of the lingering troubles posed by the Spirit Tortoise familiars. From the way things sounded, we still had a long way to go before those troubles were put to rest. So that’s how things stood.
At the time, I had no way of knowing that the very next day would bring enormous changes. Even if I had known, I wouldn’t have looked forward to it.
Chapter Two: Spirit Tortoise Familiar (Human Type)
I expected the next day to be just like the last one—we’d spend all day looking for the heroes, but we wouldn’t end up with anything tangible. But after we finished our breakfast at the castle and teleported back to the town we’d visited the day before, it was immediately obvious that we’d arrived right in the middle of something significant. The streets teemed with a chaotic mass of screaming people.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Heeeeeelp!”
People rushed past us from all directions.
“What’s going on here?!”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Master!”
Raphtalia and Filo called out to me. They were pointing in the opposite direction that everyone was running.
Once, a long time before any of this stuff happened with the Spirit Tortoise, we’d been forced to face the giant reanimated corpse of a Dragon Zombie in battle. The monster was huge, but it wasn’t anywhere near the imposing size of the Spirit Tortoise. So the tortoise was the largest opponent we’d ever faced. But the giant black shadow creature now bearing down on the town was pretty damn close.
I had to squint to make out the details as the beast moved closer to the town.
Spirit Tortoise familiar (amalgamated parasite type)
Gulp. It was one of the Spirit Tortoise’s servant creatures.
What did amalgamated parasite type mean?
The monster stood about eight meters tall—an imposing figure. Judging from the way it looked, it must have been a giant reptile of some kind—something like the dragons you see in fantasy games. It had the muscular, scaled body of a dragon, but the head of a lion, and scythe-like arms that reminded me of a praying mantis.
And it was heading straight for us.
Chimera—that was the word for it. A traditional chimera had the body of a lion with the head of a goat and a dragon stuck onto it. I’d fought one or two before, and those chimeras had snakes for tails.
But this new monster was different. It had the body of a dragon, the head of a lion, and the scythe-like arms of a praying mantis. As it approached, I saw that it had another head—the head of dragon—and that a giant tortoise-like shell covered its back. That shell had been the only consistent characteristic that the various servants of the Spirit Tortoise shared. But what the hell was it?
Just a second now . . . The monster seemed to be dragging something heavy behind it. I tried to make it out, but it was still too far away.
“We’re stopping that thing, now!”
“Yes!”
“Let’s go!”
Raphtalia and Filo shouted their agreement, and we took off running straight for the monster. Filo transformed into the filolial queen form and led the charge.
“Be careful!”
“I will!”
Between Filo, Raphtalia, and I, Filo was by far the fastest on her feet. She also had the strongest attacks. I put my life in her hands, but she wasn’t the most cautious person. She was rushing straight for the mysterious monster. We didn’t even know what sort of attacks it would use against us.
But she was on the beast in a flash, and before I could even blink, she had reared back and delivered a crushing kick to the monster’s dragon-like head. The moment her claws connected with the beast, a huge spray of blood burst from the head. It was torn to bloody ribbons that went flying from the creature’s body.
“Ew! Master! This thing is rotten!”
The Spirit Tortoise could infect dead bodies and use their abilities, which meant . . . it must have been controlling this corpse. We were facing a Chimera Zombie.
“But, um . . . Something’s weird about it!”
“What is it?”
Filo cocked her head to the side in thought, sidestepping a strike from the monster’s scythe-like arms. It was a good strike. The monster was fast on its feet.
“Air Strike Shield!”
I followed the movement of its arms and deployed a magic shield just at the point where the arms were weakest. The joint of the scythe slammed against the Air Strike Shield with a clang, and soft chunks of flesh flew into their air where the bone tore from the arm. The scythe fell to the ground with a loud slam.
“Ew.”
Raphtalia clapped her hands over her mouth. She looked sick.
I couldn’t blame her. It was a really disgusting sight.
“Oh, hey! I got it! Master!” Filo shouted, turning to face me.
“This little guy isn’t rotten! He’s all patched together!”
“What?”
As if it were trying to put my confusion to rest, string-like tendons appeared from the fallen scythe and head. With a crunching sound, the tendons str
etched out to the body they’d been torn from, pulled themselves back up, and reattached themselves to the creature.
What the hell was going on?
“This monster . . . I feel like it’s more than one thing! Like there’s more than one? I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep attacking it.”
“What do you mean by that?” Raphtalia shouted. She charged up for a powerful attack, swung her sword down hard, and cleaved the arm of the monster from its body.
At the moment, Raphtalia and Filo were both in the upper seventies, level-wise—so you can bet that their attacks carried considerable weight.
After participating in the class-up ceremony, the highest level limit was moved to 100. It was easy to see how much more powerful they’d become recently.
The arm hit the ground with a heavy thud and then quickly started to wiggle and writhe in the dirt. Raphtalia dashed forward and sliced through the string-like tendon.
I would have been thrilled if that were enough to stop the monster’s strange regeneration, but Filo’s outburst had me suspecting it wouldn’t be that easy.
“Um, you know? When you like, bam crash him, there’s, um . . . more!”
“Can you please do a better job explaining yourself?!”
Filo was unbelievably bad at explaining things to humans. When her friend Melty wasn’t around to translate Filo’s ramblings, it was nearly impossible to make heads or tails of the things she said.
Any attempt to parse Filo’s intentions from her mishmash of words required enormous stores of understanding, trust, and energy.
“Mr . . . Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted, pointing at the severed arm.
I was confused for a second, but then it all became clear. The arm wiggled and twitched, and then a tangled crowd of Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type) burst from the severed end of it.
Damn! Any attempt that we made to cut this monster down to size only resulted in making more and more of the familiars?! The monster’s name suddenly made perfect sense. It was a parasite amalgamation because the monsters had infected a giant corpse and were controlling it, even as future monsters festered inside!
