by Aneko Yusagi
“Of course! No matter where we go, I’ll always be your friend.”
“Promise?”
“Promise!”
We hadn’t been traveling together for all that long, but Filo and Melty had really bonded. At the beginning, Filo had been selfish, a real hungry pig. But Mel had taught her what friendship really was—being there for someone else.
Filo had made a good friend. It was important—these friendships.
I decided that, when the waves were done and gone, I’d give Filo to Melty.
Melty would treat her well, and I knew that Filo would be good to Melty too.
They’d made good friends—both of them.
We were watching the two of them say goodbye when Raphtalia reached for my hand and squeezed it.
I didn’t say anything, but I squeezed her hand back. Everything was going well.
I felt like I’d finally made it to the starting line.
Thinking back on it all, after I’d been framed, expelled, and discriminated against… nothing had gone well for me at all.
But things were changing.
I’d be as involved in things as the other heroes… if not more so.
And I had one less enemy to worry about. But the real problem of the waves hadn’t changed at all.
Still, I had to believe that everything was better than it had been. I wanted to believe it was better.
“Well…”
—I did believe it.
Looking at my friends, I believed it.
Extra Bonus Chapter: The Fearful Filolial
“Whoa… That monster is STRONG!”
“…”
Fitoria was fighting back the monsters when they came surging from the wave.
“Should we retreat?!”
“Do you think we can?”
Fitoria reared back and kicked a monster as it appeared from the wave.
“Guuuah!”
She kicked it too hard. But the monster was really tough. It didn’t actually fall down but disappeared back into the wave.
Had it been a normal person, it would have died on the spot. But it seemed to have survived… I guess.
It seemed like it was formed from pure energy. Fitoria thought about using her weapon, but it wasn’t strong enough to handle her attacks.
The wave grew silent, and the rifts began to close.
This was one of the waves from the dragon hourglass that Fitoria was in charge of managing.
That was Fitoria’s duty, to face down the waves that happened in areas that humans were not able to enter.
It’s what the past heroes asked of her.
“Whew…”
“Fitoria! We’ve finished pushing back the monsters!”
One of her Filolial subordinates ran forward and saluted before declaring that all the monsters had been dealt with.
“Good work.”
Fitoria looked at the place where the wave had occurred.
Why didn’t the four Holy Heroes come to fight the waves?
Fitoria really needed to look into that… If she didn’t, how could she protect the world?
She’d heard from her subordinate that the Heroes had been summoned. But it didn’t seem like they were doing anything.
For the time being, Fitoria could just focus on keeping the monsters out of her own area, but if the Heroes weren’t going to stop the waves that happened in the human-controlled areas then she wouldn’t be able to do everything herself.
If they had been summoned, what were they doing?
Who knew?
“This isn’t good!”
“Hm?”
When Fitoria had travelled the world in secret, she’d met a strange young girl. The subordinate she’d entrusted the girl too had just come running up.
“Did you see her off safely?”
It had been a young girl that wanted to be friends with Fitoria so badly she’d walked right into a dragon nest. Fitoria had fought to protect her.
It was a very rare thing these days. Normally humans just wanted to control all the other living things around them.
They used Filolials like they were tools, and refused to acknowledge that there were forces out there more powerful than themselves.
Fitoria had gone through times in the past when she’d had to deal with them. It had been a real pain.
The Hero had said, with his dying breath, that they were all supposed to work together to protect the world. But the humans had forgotten, and they tried to do away with Fitoria and the others…
If there weren’t any Heroes, there was no point in protecting the humans.
“Ah, I… I forgot!”
Sigh… why didn’t any of Fitoria’s friends have good memories?
Fitoria put her head in her hands.
“What did you all leave for?”
“We… We…”
“We... what? What? If you can’t do your jobs, I’ll have to get rid of you.”
To be removed from Fitoria’s clan was like a death sentence to a Filolial.
Fitoria was in charge of all the wild Filolials.
If you were kicked out of Fitoria’s clan, you weren’t even a Filolial anymore.
All they could expect was a rough death. That’s how strong Fitoria’s protection was.
“N… No! Anything but that! Please forgive us!”
“… And? What isn’t good?”
“That’s right… We saw someone out there that looks like you!”
Fitoria felt the feather on her head move.
If a Filolial grew into a Filolial Queen form, like Fitoria, that meant a Hero had raised her.
It meant that there was proof that Fitoria’s successor had been born.
And it meant that the Heroes really had returned.
“What did she look like? What color was she?”
The first thing Fitoria had to figure out was what the Filolial looked like.
“Um… she was white! And there was water running out of her mouth.”
“That’s not it! She was kind of red! And she had a bunch of hands!”
“She was pink! And she had a bunch of heads all over.”
“Are you sure she was a Filolial?”
Fitoria tried to imagine the next Filolial Queen. She was red and white and pink and had a bunch of heads and a bunch of arms.
It would be scary to be attacked by such a thing.
“Uh…”
Fitoria held her head and slowly sat down.
This thing they had described didn’t sound like a Filolial at all!
But maybe such things could happen if a Hero had raised her. A Hero had raised Fitoria, and she looked different than the other normal Filolials did.
Did it mean that that was what the Hero wanted? Or maybe she was some kind of mixed breed.
Fitoria didn’t want to meet a Filolial Queen with a bunch of heads and a bunch of arms.
She didn’t want something like that to become queen either. She didn’t want that thing to take over her job.
And besides, Fitoria wasn’t scary like that.
If she was supposed to be like Fitoria, she would probably look like Fitoria. It would be weird if she was some other kind of creature.
“What should we do, Queeeeeen?”
A subordinate was asking.
Better not look uncertain.
“Hm…”
Fitoria had just started wondering what the Heroes were up to, so this would be a good time to go see.
“I will go to meet with this Filolial Queen candidate. Let’s prepare!”
“Roger!”
And so Fitoria turned into a normal Filolial shape, and set off for Melromarc, which is where her subordinates said that they had seen the new Filolial Queen.
“What should we do?”
“People will be suspicious if they see us all together like this. Let’s all split up and look for the Hero.”
“OKAAAAAY!”
After giving orders to the subordinates, Fitoria began
to investigate.
The best idea she had was to just ask a domesticated Filolial.
Domesticated Filolials spent most of their time with humans, so they should know what the humans were up to.
They were different from wild Filolials.
So Fitoria went to a Filolial farm, stuck her head over the fence, and asked the closest Filolial.
The Filolial was very black, though, and had an evil look in its eyes.
Was that a name-tag around its neck? In human writing it said: BLACK THUNDER.
“Hey.”
“Huh? What the hell? You think you can just talk to Black Thunder?”
The black Filolial was fuming as he looked Fitoria up and down.
“You’re kind of cute, though. What do you say? If you want to stick with me I could have my master make you my concubine.”
It didn’t seem like the black Filolial really understood Filolial relations.
From the back of the pen another older Filolial came running over in a fluster.
Fitoria would have to show them their place.
She raised one leg and transformed only it, so it grew really big very quickly, slamming it into the other Filolial.
“Fube….”
“You shouldn’t speak to a nice lady that way. Keep that up, and it will be the end of you.”
Whoops. That hit had made a pretty good sound. She had better use restorative magic.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
Black Thunder ran off with his tail between his legs.
“You are the Queen! Please, clam your anger…”
The older Filolial bowed his head.
“Very well. I’m not that mad anyway. But I must point out that that Filolial is in dire need of an education.”
“I’m sure he is already reflecting on that.”
“Good…”
Fitoria received some food from the older Filolial. It wasn’t very good.
But it was food she hadn’t tasted in a long time, and it made her feel nostalgic.
Over the years she’d forgotten that the humans knew how to make some delicious food.
Fitoria’s old Hero master used to make her food all the time. It had been very good.
“I heard that a Hero came through here with a queen candidate. Have you heard about them or seen them?”
“About that…”
The old Filolial explained to Fitoria all that he had heard about the Heroes since they had been summoned.
The Shield Hero had committed crimes and was on the run? He had a blue-haired girl with him?
But all that was some kind of conspiracy?
Hm…
“And what does that have to do with the queen candidate?”
“Right now, the only Hero raising a Filolial is the Shield Hero. I’ve seen him myself. He seemed like a good person.”
“Really?”
“The Filolial was pink?”
“Did she have a lot of heads and arms?”
“No, just the normal amount of both.”
Those stupid subordinates had been wrong!
“Do you know where they went?”
“Not really.”
“Okay. Well, thank you.”
“Come by anytime!”
She left the old Filolial behind and met back up with her subordinates.
They had gathered information too. It sounded like the weirdoes were all on the run towards the southwest.
So Fitoria decided to go to the southwest too.
Where WAS the southwest?
She was thinking it over, when…
“GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Her feathers stood on end. Her instinct told her that it was the roar of a dragon.
She turned to see a vicious monster with the Dragon King’s Fragment crash through the wall of a human town.
Ahead of the monster was… a pink Filolial Queen. And a man with a shield was riding on her back.
She’d found them. Without stopping to think, Fitoria took off running after them.
Squinting to follow them, she was overcome with nostalgia.
Yes, it was the day she’d been born. The hero had looked down on her and smiled.
She almost felt that warm, that all-encompassing warmth, again.
There was no doubting it. That man with the Shield was a Hero.
But Fitoria could feel something else. He had a deep sadness and anger within himself. He must have used the Curse Series.
The curse from a Hero’s weapon was very powerful. Fitoria had seen it many times.
But they had to sacrifice much to use it. They ended up really hurting themselves.
There was no doubt in her mind. The deep sadness and pain that he harbored had unlocked the Curse Series.
She wanted to heal his pain. She wanted to help him.
For a moment, she’d gotten sentimental. She quickly blinked and snapped out of it. She was as cold as ice.
This world didn’t have time for sentiment.
She watched from a distance as the Shield Hero, his party, and his pink Filolial faced down the dragon monster.
That pink girl must have been the queen candidate.
Of course, she only had one head. They were different sizes and colors, but the candidate really did look like Fitoria.
But, watching her fight, Fitoria didn’t think that she looked very strong.
It made Fitoria nervous.
“Sanctuary.”
Fitoria cast a spell that would prevent anyone from leaving the battleground.
She had so many questions.
Why hadn’t he been helping fight the waves around the world? What were the other Heroes doing?
The world needed the Heroes. There wasn’t time for them to run around a single country.
In the worst case scenario… No, she didn’t want to do it—but she could. She could dirty her hands for the sake of the world.
Because Fitoria had promised… a long time ago, Fitoria had promised her Hero…
The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol. 4
© Aneko Yusagi 2013
First published by KADOKAWA in 2013 in Japan.
English translation rights arranged by One Peace Books
under the license from KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Japan
Every effort has been made to accurately present the work presented herein. The publisher and authors regret unintentional inaccuracies or omissions, and do not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the translation in this book. Neither the publishers nor the artists and authors of the information presented in herein shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.
Written by Aneko Yusagi
Character Design Seira Minami
Cover Design by Yusuke Koyama
English Edition Published by One Peace Books 2016
One Peace Books
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