They didn’t serve meals
at the inn we were staying at, so we took Motoyasu and went to the tavern to
get something to eat. As soon as we entered the tavern, Motoyasu sat down at the bar and
ordered a drink. He sipped away at the drink and stared at the counter. I guess that was what
happened when someone who only thought about women ended up losing those women.
Yeah, he was broken. Didn’t he realize Witch
had been that way from the start? Had he really believed in
her that much?
Raphtalia, Filo, and I
ordered a few meals and ate dinner. The portions were
generous, and it was pretty good food for the cheap price. From the looks of it, a
lot of the dishes used that red tomato-looking fruit from that village to the
southwest. Filo
was in good spirits after having a reasonably tasty meal, and she started
singing along with the tavern bard.
Filo started really
getting into it and was putting on a real performance. She did have a nice voice. Filo and the bard really
hit it off and started singing some strange song that sounded like the theme
song from an anime or something. I wondered if maybe it
was a song she’d learned in Kizuna’s world.
Maybe I was just
imagining it, but . . . something seemed strange
about the expressions on the faces of the people in front of the stage. Actually . . .
“Mr.
Naofumi, I
once heard of a type of monster that sings songs that deceive sailors, causing
them to wreck their ships.”
“What a coincidence. I was just thinking about
that same monster. Maybe this is some kind of strange magical song that she learned while
she was a humming fairy.”
She’d given us a glimpse
of something similar during our fight at the coliseum in Zeltoble. Filo knew all kinds of
different songs, and she seemed to be able to combine them with the bard’s
songs to create something new altogether. Anyway, harpies, sirens,
and other similar monsters used their beautiful voices to deceive others. The way everyone seemed
lost in her singing with dreamy eyes reminded me of those monsters.
Before long, Filo
finished singing and the air filled with cheers. The audience called out
for an encore, but Filo must have had enough because she yelled out “nooo!” and ran off the stage. People were giving her
bouquets of flowers in appreciation of her performance. Someone gave her some
kind of vegetable that looked like a carrot, too. When Filo reacted more
favorably to the edible item, everyone started to give her food. With her hands full of
gifts, Filo went and sat down next to Motoyasu for whatever insane reason.
That reminded me. Appearance-wise, Filo was Motoyasu’s type, apparently. He’d been throwing
himself at her all the time, before he’d disappeared. I remembered him saying
something about having a thing for angels, too. I’m sure it had to do with
some character in a game that he fantasized about or something. Although, he was the kind
of guy who already tended to think of women as angels in the first place.
He seemed incredibly
annoyed as he glanced over at Filo before returning his gaze to the counter. So he was going to ignore
Filo, too . . . despite
having a thing for the way she looked? Yeah, he was broken, alright.
“It happens to me when
I’m hungry. I start
feeling tired. I’ll sing you a song that will make you feel better.”
Filo got back up on the
stage and started singing. What happened to her not wanting to sing anymore? The song had a nice rhythm. But that made me think . . .
“Filo sure knows a lot of
songs. Is
it just me, or has her repertoire not expanded since the time she was a humming
fairy?”
“It’s because we’ve
traveled to so many towns all over Melromarc. She’s always liked
singing, I think. Whenever we went to taverns, she was always listening attentively to
the bards and learning their songs.”
“Oh yeah. She
was, wasn’t she? I remember her singing back at the village when she wasn’t staying the
night with Melty.”
Filo faced Motoyasu and
danced while she sang. Watching her even made me start to feel better. But why did something
about it remind me of a sci-fi anime about shapeshifting aircraft? Huh? Who taught Filo this song? Was it Kizuna? Kizuna was a gamer, and she seemed like the type who would watch anime,
too, despite being obsessed with fishing.
It almost seemed like she
was toying with Motoyasu as she offered him one of the carrot-looking
vegetables and a flower. I guess she was just being true to her own curiosity, though. Motoyasu was almost never
downcast like this, so seeing him like that probably sparked her interest. The village children had
shown a similar lack of ambition in the beginning, too. I’d just assumed Filo had
overheard me complaining about having to get Motoyasu on board with things, so
now she was trying to help out in her own way.
Filo let out an
ear-piercing shriek. She started trying to wriggle her way out of Motoyasu’s embrace, but he
must have been stronger than expected because she couldn’t escape.
Filo looked like she was
about to cry, too, as she reached out to me and called for help. How had things ended up
like this?
I started to make my way
over to help Filo, who was struggling as Motoyasu pressed his face up against
her chest while sobbing. I guess if Witch was no longer an option he’d just settle for Filo. But then again, he had openly admitted that he
had a thing for the way Filo looked in her human form a long time ago.
Motoyasu had been
traumatized by her filolial form, after all. He wouldn’t come anywhere
near Filo when she was in her monster form. Just like I suggested,
Filo switched back to her monster form. But . . .
Motoyasu was still
holding on to Filo in her filolial form and now he was sniffing at her. Whoa! Talk about creepy!
This was Motoyasu we were
talking about here. He wasn’t letting go of Filo in her filolial form?! What was going on?! Then again, I had a pretty
good idea of why. I figured I might as well say it.
“You whispered sweet
nothings into his ear when he was depressed, so what do you expect? Now accept the
consequences and take care of him!”
Raphtalia was obviously
pretty mixed up, too. But then again, I’d basically indirectly ordered Filo to cheer Motoyasu
up, so pushing the responsibility off on her wasn’t really fair. Actually, I’d tried
flattering Ren, too, but it didn’t work. The fact that Witch
succeeded pissed me off. I guess I was mixed up, too.
Motoyasu started rubbing
his cheek up against Filo’s face. Filo tried to use her
superhuman strength to pull herself away from Motoyasu, but he was hugging her
with all his might and remained stuck to her like an octopus. Her feathers looked like
they were about to be ripped right off of her body. The pain must have been
preventing her from using her full strength. Filo had a surprisingly
low pain tolerance, after all.
It was no good. He
wasn’t listening. He obviously wasn’t hearing Filo, either. Motoyasu had finally cracked.
Or maybe he
had just discovered a new fetish. I guess he was fine with
Filo in her filolial form now. What happened to the
trauma from being kicked in the nuts?
“If you can’t take
responsibility for him then give him a mouthful and go get rid of him
somewhere.”
“Motoyasu, if you’re
feeling better, then that’s good enough for now. Have faith in the
power-up methods that I told you about and do your best to power up your
weapon!”
“So
yeah . . . we’ll
just save taking Motoyasu in for another time. He sure did recover from
his suffering fast, though.”
Motoyasu the man-whore. He’d gotten ditched by
Witch and the others, but got right back in the saddle and went after Filo . . . Filo was kind of like a
horse . . . so
that saddle bit was pretty witty, right? Right? Yeah,
that was terrible.
“I’ll just have Filo act
like a bitch and I’m sure he’ll go back to normal. Once he’s being a little
more rational she can just tell him she only approached him because she thought
she might get a meal out of it or something.”
Who knows? I figured it should be possible if I told her exactly what to say, but
. . . I did
still have my doubts. I sat there in silence for a moment, thinking, before finally coming to
a conclusion.
I couldn’t help but have
a bad feeling about it all, but I’d feel guilty if I didn’t tell myself it’d be
alright. Motoyasu
was in good spirits now. He’d
be fine. I
was sure he’d be back out chasing some tail by this time tomorrow.
Filo took Motoyasu and
threw him off the side of some cliff before coming back, by the way. She was unforgiving. She had several patches
of feathers missing, too. I guess she’d literally risked her own life to get rid of him. I figured that was the
end of that . . . until the next morning.
“Alright, we’re putting
Motoyasu on hold for now. Let’s go give the queen an update and then head back to the village.”
It was a glorious morning
without the usual onslaught of the sexual harassment corps back at the village.
My stress
levels were down, and I felt like I’d slept really well. But we had a lot to do
today, so we needed to get to work.
Filo begged me with a
terrified look in her eyes. I guess she’d been
traumatized by Motoyasu. Well, she’d hated him in the first place, so I guess it was just an
extension of that. If she hated him so much, why had she gotten involved, anyway?
“Why did you even try to
cheer him up? I mean, I have a feeling you were trying to help out, but still . . .”
“Alright, I still have to
make breakfast so let’s hurry back. Filo, we’re going to use
my portal to go back. You take the carriage and meet us there.”
I immediately slammed the
door shut. Why
was Motoyasu standing guard in front of our room? And he was talking nonsense
on top of that. Why was he calling me father all of a sudden? I was pretty sure I didn’t
have a son that was older than me. Besides, this was Motoyasu. There was just no way I
could possibly be his father. I looked down and held my
hand to my forehead.
I’d just woken up and my
brain was still half asleep. I didn’t feel like
explaining it to Raphtalia, so I stepped aside and motioned for her to open the
door. Raphtalia
cocked her head to the side in confusion and opened the door.
Raphtalia rapidly thrust
the hilt of her katana into Motoyasu’s stomach and closed the door. Tanuki pig? That certainly wasn’t a
word I was expecting to hear first thing in the morning. That was just plain
verbal abuse.
“I heard some noises,
too, but I just figured it was adventurers walking down the hallway. So that was Motoyasu . . .”
“If you don’t tell him
what I told you to, he’s going to chase after you forever. Go tell him to power up
his weapon properly and prepare for the waves.”
Raphtalia had a smile on
her face, but she was emitting a dark and menacing aura. She signaled Filo with her
eyes. What
the hell was Motoyasu saying, anyway?
“Umm
. . . I
just approached you because I thought I could get a meal out of it. I think you misunderstood.”
“Love begins with
misunderstandings, Filo-tan! Don’t worry, I’m willing
to accept your selfish motives!”
He wasn’t going to budge. Our plan had been a failure. As I was standing there
unsure of how to respond to the absurdity of the situation, Motoyasu turned in
my direction and stared at me with a look of complete seriousness on his face.
“Father, your daughter
rescued me. She
opened my eyes to true love. I promise to make her
happy, no matter what. Please! Give me her hand!”
“I’m telling you I’m not
her father! I may have raised her, but why should I have to give you her hand?!”
Raphtalia threw Motoyasu
out of the room and closed the door. He was in worse shape
than I’d imagined. He’d already cracked, but I had a feeling we’d gone and shattered him
beyond all repair.
Motoyasu was banging on
the door. My head was
killing me . . . It’d
been practically impossible to have a civilized conversation with Motoyasu
before, but now it was like something in his brain had snapped. Motoyasu had switched into
full-on stalker mode. Now what were we supposed to do?
As for the cause . . . it was undoubtedly because Filo had been kind to him. When people are driven
into a corner, it’s easier than you would imagine for them to become obsessed
with something or someone. It had been the same for me and Ren, too. I had no idea why the
incident from yesterday affected Motoyasu like it did, but the end result was
that Filo had saved him from a broken heart.
Now that I thought about
it, Motoyasu had always been the type to get fired up about love and romance. But wait, judging from
the way he was acting now, did that mean he was the kind of guy that liked to
chase after girls instead of being chased? Actually . . . I couldn’t have cared less. Thinking about that would
be a serious waste of time.
I heard the voice of some
female adventurer who had probably been trying to get some rest next door.
Motoyasu, the ladies’
man, was telling off a woman. She must have been pretty
damned ugly. I was curious, so I cracked the door and peeked outside.
Motoyasu was standing
there arguing with a fairly good-looking woman. I was pretty sure she was
a dancer from the tavern. I could never have imagined the Motoyasu I knew doing something like
this. Just
what was going on up there in that head of his? I wondered what he saw now
when he looked at Raphtalia or that woman. My curiosity had been piqued.
Maybe he
had been affected by some kind of curse.
“Let’s just go out the
window for now. We’ll explain the situation to the innkeeper and then run. As for the carriage . . .”
Filo must have understood
that, because her eyes were darting around worriedly. Motoyasu must have
seriously had some kind of mental deficiency. Why had things ended up
like this? It
didn’t make any sense. Why the hell were we running from Motoyasu? Hadn’t it been the other
way around yesterday?
“Motoyasu will notice if
we make too much noise, so just forget about the carriage for now. We’ll come back for it
when it seems safe!”
Filo’s disappointment was
apparent, but she nodded hesitantly. So she actually chose
getting away from Motoyasu over her carriage? She must have seriously
disliked him.
We used my portal and
made our way to the castle. I wanted to give the
queen an update on Witch. Filo was still looking around suspiciously.
I don’t think she could
have disliked him any more than she did now. Motoyasu going all gaga
over her had only made things worse.
Still, even Motoyasu
wouldn’t show up at the castle . . . probably.
People
would recognize him in the castle town, so it would be impossible to hide. He’d always relied on
crystal balls and never actually studied magic, so I was pretty sure he didn’t
have any new tricks up his sleeve. I doubt he could use
magic to hide himself like Raphtalia could. Even if he could,
Raphtalia would be able to sense him.
If he had a skill that
allowed him to hide himself, then we wouldn’t be able to do anything about
that. But
judging from how he’d been acting so far, I had no doubt he’d just come
charging at Filo like a naïve fool. Besides, he was probably
still standing guard back at the carriage.
We headed to the throne
room, where the queen was taking care of some official business. I told the queen about
what had happened yesterday.
“Can you not do something
about that witch daughter of yours? I wanted to kill her as
soon as I ran into her.”
“Even so . . . I would like to recommend
that she be brought in alive, if at all possible,” replied the queen.
“I wonder how that child
made it across the border. The Spear Hero’s other companions were accompanied by their parents, so
I can understand how they made it across, but her . . .”
I was sure someone would
recognize Witch if she tried to cross at a border checkpoint. She was a former princess
of Melromarc, after all. To get around that, she would have to . . . cross over the mountains,
I guess. But Witch? She wasn’t the type to do
anything that made her suffer. I couldn’t imagine her
returning to Melromarc by such a crude method. Maybe she smuggled herself
in. She
could have hidden among some cargo. That one seemed possible,
at least.
“I’m not sure how she’s
managed to interfere with the curse, but . . . I haven’t been able to. There is another problem,
as well.”
“The controlled area that
was functioning as a prison for the country was damaged by the Spirit Tortoise
attacks. I’ve
been informed that the vast majority of the criminals were killed by the
attacks, but . . .”
That meant the country’s
criminals could be alive and on the run. I guess that did sound
like a problem.
“This is just my
intuition, but I have a feeling there’s a connection with that child’s
shenanigans. Many of the government officials that had ties with the Church of the
Three Heroes were sent there after being dismissed following the incident with
you.”
Hold
on. That
meant that those people were on the run, right? That was a major problem. And now that scum was
hiding out in Melromarc, huh? I guess finding out about
it before anything major happened counted for something, though. It seemed like I was
always suddenly getting caught up in some nonsense without any warning, which
made it hard for me to keep up. It was nice to hear about
something ahead of time for once.
But yeah, there was
almost certainly a connection between that and Witch. The Church of the Three
Heroes was probably involved in getting her across the border.
Ah, that made sense. The person that had the
authority to punish them was no longer alive. What a mess.
“Specifically, I intended
to use her as a means to avoid war. Let’s just say it
involves choking back my tears and offering her as a sacrifice.”
A sacrifice, huh? I guess that was why Witch didn’t show up at the castle. But no . . . the queen wasn’t evil. If Witch hadn’t caused so
much trouble, I’m sure things could have been settled more amicably. That much was clear from
the way the queen was always humoring me.
“But succumbing to such a
fate is something that child hates the idea of from the bottom of her heart. Indeed, to avoid it, she
would thrash around in refusal, plead with me, and even run away without
looking back. Grouping with one of the heroes exempted her from that punishment.”
“The details would make
any noble female want to commit suicide. In other words, it’s a
punishment worse than death.”
Hmm
. . . I
kind of wanted to know what the punishment was, but at the same time I felt
like it was probably better not to know.
“This was the most
effective threat I had to use against that child. It looks like it will no
longer simply be a threat now, though.”
“Whatever. Fine, let’s make the bounty for ‘dead or alive,’ but you can specify
‘alive if possible’ and make the bounty bigger if they bring her in alive.”
“I suppose there is no
other choice. As you wish,
Mr. Iwatani. It’s the least I can do
as a mother, as well. We shall stop her before she causes any more trouble.”
The queen nodded and then
gave the order to one of her subordinates. And so Witch became a
criminal, wanted dead or alive. The problem was that she
was with Ren now. I just had to hope he didn’t go on a rampage and end up being made the
leader of some opposing power or something.
I could hardly believe my
eyes when a puppy in a loincloth with Keel’s voice ran up and welcomed me back.
It looked
like a Siberian Husky. The puppy had a fluffy coat of fur and stood at maybe a bit over two
and a half feet tall from head to toe. The reason I say it was a
puppy is because its face and several other features seemed too puppy-like for
it to be an adult. The puppy was wearing a loincloth and looked really proud of itself as
it walked around on its hind legs.
Keel puffed her chest out
proudly, but . . . the other villagers looked like they weren’t quite sure what to make of
it. Awesome? She’d turned into a cute
little pet. It was just too bad it had to be a puppy. I guess technically it
was a therianthrope form, but dog form was a more fitting description of the
way Keel looked now. Sadeena looked a little bit proud, too. She annoyed me. She seriously annoyed me.
Rishia, who had been
really lackluster lately, must have been taking a break from her training. She came over, picked
Keel up, and started petting her.
Rishia seemed to be
training with the old lady quite frequently lately. She had kept up her
training while we were fighting in the coliseum tournament whenever she wasn’t
busy gathering information. The old lady mentioned that our fights in the other world had hastened the
development of her abilities. She’d only been able to
use her awakened state against Kyo so far, but if she could learn to use it at
will, that would be something worth getting excited about.
Keel complained, but
Rishia didn’t stop petting him. I could totally understand. In short, I’d wanted to
pet puppy Keel when I saw her, too.
“And?
Is there
anyone else in the village that can use a therianthrope form like this? How does it affect her
stats, anyway?” I asked.
So Raphtalia could use a
therianthrope form . . . or maybe a Raph-chan form? If not that, those
stoneware tanuki statues came to mind. I stood there staring at
Raphtalia for a few moments, and then she got upset.
“You’re thinking about
something rude, aren’t you? That I would look like
Raph-chan if I used a therianthrope form or something, right?”
Keel seemed genuinely
curious. I
turned away and acted like I had no idea what they were talking about.
Atla walked over to us
with Fohl and was listening to Rishia with a confused look on her face. Even if Atla could sense
someone’s presence, I guess it only made sense that she couldn’t judge
appearances since she was blind.
Raph-chan noticed the
commotion and came over and stood next to Keel. It was perfect. We had our village
mascots taken care of now. Filo? Nah.
Keel’s usual girly looks
would’ve still classified her as cute, though. Sadeena was looking at
Keel and cackling before she dropped a real bomb.
“Yeah.
It’s a
little nickname I’ve been secretly using for him after something he said made
me think of it. You think we should make it stick?”
“You’ve been given a
nickname by Mr. Naofumi,
Brother. And
on top of that, you can learn how to transform into something cute. You intend to try to steal
Mr. Naofumi’s
heart, don’t you? I’m jealous.
Envious!”
I wasn’t even going to
go there. I
decided to ignore those two and check up on the levels of the village slaves. Oh? They had all leveled up a
pretty respectable amount.
Rishia was . . . Hmm? She was level 69, which
meant she’d hardly progressed at all. Back when we fought the
Spirit Tortoise . . . Itsuki had already gotten
her to level 68, and then we went to Kizuna’s world after that. Once we returned to this
world, she started helping out with the slaves, but still . . . her progress was
ridiculously slow.
Her progress had been
similarly slow in Kizuna’s world, too. She’d been stuck right at
the point where it seemed like she might turn 70 at any time. It was like she had
gotten to level 69 abnormally fast and then she hit a wall right before 70. It was as if she were
being forced to pay for getting to 69 so quickly. Was this a sign that she
was about to finally fulfill her potential? I’d have to keep an eye on
her.
I guess things were going
as expected. In any case, the village slaves that had shown an interest in fighting
had all reached around level 40. That meant it was almost
time for their class-ups. I figured we should probably just go take care of the ceremonies all at
once sometime soon.
“Yeah.
From the
looks of it, you and several of the other slaves need to class up soon. You do want to class up,
right?”
That reminded me. I’d talked with the old guy at the weapon shop about having him take
one of the slaves under his wing. It would have to be
someone good with his hands.
The lumos all gathered near
me. They
were good with their hands, and they really took the initiative to handle most
of the odd jobs around the village. The whole bunch had
settled in rather quickly at the village since we already had Imiya there. Right now, they were
working on digging a hole at the edge of the village to function as their
living quarters.
Imiya’s uncle answered
for the group. Imiya was working hard to make accessories, clothes, and other daily
necessities, so I was just letting her do her own thing.
“I
see. I want
one of you that’s willing to learn blacksmithing to come with me. I’m going to have someone
I know take you in and teach you the trade.”
“I’ll probably be looking
for someone to work in the coal mines before long. Is there anyone that can
do that?”
What a handy bunch. Little by little, I’d
have the slaves learn to handle new types of work to get this operation running
smoothly. That was my job. Just like Kizuna and the
others.
The soldier standing
guard yelped in surprise when we suddenly appeared. The soldiers over at the
castle seemed to have gotten used to it already, since we showed up there
fairly frequently.
Ultimately it wasn’t a
bad thing, since it resulted in an overall increase in stats, but not all of
the slaves might be happy with it. With that in mind, we
would have to pay attention to where Filo was during class-ups, since her
presence could interfere with the outcomes.
This trauma that bastard
Motoyasu had inflicted on Filo sure was a hassle . . . Anyway, it was time for
the class-ups.
“I might as well ask you all.
What we’re
about to perform here is the class-up ceremony. Do you know what that
entails?”
“Okay then. It’s my policy to have you all decide your own future. Of course, I’m talking
about something different than the reconstruction effort to prepare for the
waves that you’re all working on.”
“Those of you interested
in participating in the fight against the waves have been focusing on leveling
so far. But
at the same time, you need to think about what comes after the waves have
ended.”
Raphtalia stood there
silently, staring at me. That’s
right. The whole
idea of rebuilding the village had been for her sake. But regardless of that,
it was still important that the slaves decided their own future for themselves.
“The class-up that you’re
about to undergo will open up new possibilities for you, but it may close
others off at the same time. You realize that, right?”
“There’s a possibility
that something you weren’t expecting might happen. The class-up path that
results in the greatest increase in your stats might be automatically chosen
for you before you have a chance to make your own decision.”
“That cowlick . . . crest feather of Filo’s
is special. It will choose your class-up path without your permission. But the path that it
chooses will result in a huge increase in your stats.”
“Yeah, but you all have
long lives ahead of you and combat prowess isn’t everything. If there’s something in
particular you want to do with your life, then I believe, without a doubt, that
it’s worth it to choose for yourself and specialize in that thing.”
I didn’t want them
getting stronger at the expense of having any control over their lives. That’s why I wanted them
to decide if they were okay with having an irregular class-up.
“Of course, I’m pretty
sure that both Raphtalia and Filo would be able to do anything they wanted to
without a problem now. But there’s no guarantee it will be the same for you.”
It wasn’t like their
class-ups had made them impeccable superhumans. I was sure there was no
such thing as perfect in this world. That’s exactly why the
decision was important.
“I understand, bubba. I . . . I want to be the
strongest I can be. If there’s a chance it will make me stronger, then that’s the only
option for me.”
Keel spoke up first and
nodded. Keel
was in charge of teaching the slaves discipline. Suffering a major injury
from being attacked by a Spirit Tortoise familiar had turned out to be a good
experience for her. She didn’t act recklessly during battle anymore. I was looking forward to
seeing how things would change now that she could use a therianthrope form.
“Okay, Filo. We’ll start with those who are fine with not choosing. Once we move on to the
ones who want to choose, I want you to go outside.”
Keel raised his hand and
then reached out and touched the hourglass. She must have been
excited, because her tail was wagging. The magic circle appeared
below Keel and an icon popped up in my field of vision.
Filo’s cowlick popped out
and leapt at the icon, interfering with Keel’s class-up. The area filled with
smoke, and just like what had happened with Raphtalia, Keel’s stats all
skyrocketed. But . . . I had a feeling the
difference wasn’t quite as drastic as it had been for Raphtalia. Then again, Raphtalia was
always doing push-ups and exercising in her spare time, so it was probably just
a matter of her being more physically fit.
We continued on with the
class-ups for the slaves who didn’t care about choosing and just wanted to be
as strong as possible. Once we had finished those . . .
It was time to perform
the class-ups for the slaves who wanted to choose their own path, so I had Filo
leave the building. That would probably be enough to prevent the interference. Just as I thought, the
class-ups went normally.
“Bubba!
Bubba,
let’s see how strong I am now! Let’s go hunting and you
can see for yourself!” shouted
Keel.
She was so worried about
Motoyasu that she didn’t even want to go outdoors now . . . She was in critical
condition.
“It’s not like the Spear
Hero is a bad person, you know . . . You were the one that
kicked him every time you saw him, in the first place, Filo. I’m pretty sure that
makes you the bad one . . .”
“You’re standing up for
him after he called you a tanuki pig? I guess you turned out to
be a good kid, after all, Raphtalia.”
Did the fact that I was
getting a little bit sentimental mean that I’d softened up? Nah. It was probably more like
my interpretation of Raphtalia’s response as well-meaning was a result of me
being twisted. It made me happy that Raphtalia had turned out to be such an honest,
straightforward girl.
“In any case, Filo, if we
do run across Motoyasu, all you need to do is give him a good kick, just like
you always have. I’m
sure he’ll like that.”
“You’re not wrong about
that, Keel. If
the Spear Hero does show up, you help me control him, too, okay?” said Raphtalia.
“It’s not that I don’t
understand how you feel, but . . . I’m not sure that kicking
him is the answer,” she said.
“Oh?
You do
realize that it will only make things worse if I have her stop kicking him,
right? Are
you prepared to sacrifice an opportunity to hunt monsters?”
“Okay, Filo. Just pull the carriage like you always do. I’ll order a new carriage
for you later, so cheer up.”
Filo’s eyes sparkled. Well, a carriage that
hadn’t been used much, at least. Besides, I hadn’t said
that I’d buy a carriage that was any nicer than her previous one.
Once we were all loaded up
into the carriage Filo was pulling, we made our way to the weapon shop. When we arrived, I jumped
out quickly and popped into the old guy’s shop.
When I entered the weapon
shop, the old guy was standing behind the counter like always. There was always something
comforting about seeing the old guy. I guess I really did trust
him.
“It’s really difficult to
work with, so it’s a hot topic of research in several places right now. Take a look for yourself.”
I’d seen several in Zeltoble.
I remember
they were super expensive and looked really crude. The sword and spear
blades looked like tortoiseshell. I guess those blades had
just been carved into that shape, then.
“That said, I don’t feel
right about calling something like that a weapon. The skill of the
craftsman never even comes into play. Worse comes to worst,
we’ll end up seeing crude hammers on the market.”
“Well, I guess you could
say that about the weapons, since we’re talking about the skill of the
craftsman. But
that’s not the only problem when it comes to armor.”
Air wake processing? I was pretty sure that
was supposed to make heavy armor lighter. That reminded me of the
gravity field equip effect on several of my shields. The effect seemed to be
able to generate a gravitational field meant to alter gravity and it showed up
on a lot of the Spirit Tortoise series shields. Even if such a property
only affected the Spirit Tortoise materials a slight amount, it would make
sense that they might not respond to air wake processing. It was a nice feature to
have on a shield, but it wasn’t doing us any favors in the armor department.
The Spirit Tortoise’s
shell had to be pliant enough to be able to rebound attacks. But it would still need
to be heavy.
It was clearly a
difficult material to work with. I figured the old guy
still hadn’t managed to finish any pieces, but . . .
The old guy took me to the
back of the shop and showed me the prototypes. The first was
straightforward. It was a simple, no-frills shield made from the Spirit Tortoise’s
shell. The
problem was that it was huge and thick.
I went to give it a try,
but it was really heavy. I could lift it, but using it in battle would be tough. I couldn’t really swing
it around. It
made a huge thud when I sat it down. But there was an even
bigger problem. Weapon copy hadn’t activated. In other words, it wasn’t
even being recognized as a shield. I wasn’t really sure what
the criteria were, but it was probably more accurate to consider this . . . a wall, maybe. But I had felt something
like a little tingle, so it probably just barely fell short.
The old guy handed me an
ultra-thin, semi-transparent shield made out of tortoiseshell. It looked absolutely
gorgeous. I held it in
my hand. It
was light enough to carry comfortably. Swinging it around
shouldn’t be a problem, either. But . . . hmm? This one seemed more like
a shield, but nothing was happening.
“I went all out to make
that shield as light as possible. The tradeoff is that it
has zero defense. A single hit would shatter it.”
“I can’t really argue
with you there. Just after I finished making it, I saw practically the same thing for
sale at a souvenir shop. I
felt like crying.”
“I understand where
you’re coming from, but the stuff is hard to work with. Everything ends up being
really mediocre.”
Could we not do something
with it? The
materials were a parting gift from Ost. I wanted to make good use
of them. It
would be nice if my shield could modify the materials in some way, but that
didn’t seem likely. Was there nothing I could say to help?
I told the old guy about
the Spirit Tortoise Sword that I’d seen in Zeltoble. I mentioned that one
glance was enough to tell that it was a one-of-a-kind sword made by a real
master craftsman.
“It must have really been
something for you to say so, kid. I have a feeling I’d know
who made it and how, if I could get a look at it.”
“Are you trying to tell
me to go buy it? Give me a
break. There’s
no way I could buy a weapon that expensive.”
I might be able to get
the money by selling the weapons that the old guy had made for us, but that
would be defeating the purpose. That made me think . . . Selling rare and unique weapons dropped by monsters was an option, too.
They would
probably sell for a good price since they were so uncommon. I’d have to give that one
some more thought.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t
it? I see
you actually completed your apprenticeship with Master and opened your own
weapon shop.”
“That said . . . I ended up having to quit
halfway through due to various circumstances. Things were difficult at
home, and I had to help raise several nieces and nephews, including Imiya.”
Their master sounded like
Motoyasu. I’d
picture Motoyasu in my head any time I thought of the old guy’s master now. Although, the Motoyasu I
knew had turned into a Filo fanatic now.
I wondered just what kind
of life Imiya’s uncle had led. He and Imiya had both
become slaves, so I couldn’t really imagine how things had turned out the way
they had. I
was sure he would tell me if I asked, but forcing people to talk about their
own painful memories was something not even I was interested in doing.
“I guess that’s true, but . . . I certainly never
imagined my new blacksmithing master would be you,” said Imiya’s uncle.
“I’m surprised, too! But I did tell the kid I’d
take on an apprentice, so at least this will make things easier on me.”
“As a live-in apprentice,
right? I
don’t need you to pay me anything as long as I can work him like a horse.”
“What are you saying? You’re the kid’s slave! With you around, I should
be able to save money on mining, too.”
It wasn’t much, but with
my shield adjustments he should be tougher than your average demi-human or
therianthrope. I wondered if that meant the old guy would be a hard-ass teacher. Speaking of images,
Imiya’s uncle seemed like the kind of character that would always be puffing on
a pipe or cigar. But he
didn’t. He
just wore overalls like some country bumpkin.
The old guy and Imiya’s uncle
went about chatting as they got to work. It seemed like things
were going to work out just fine.
“I haven’t really given it
that much thought. Either way, I need to see what he can do now, before anything else.”
Imiya’s uncle was always
really polite when talking to me, but that wasn’t the case with the old guy. They acted just like you
would expect two reunited old friends to. It was kind of nice. Imiya’s uncle . . . Tollynemiya, was it? I’d call him Tolly.
“Alright, if I need
anything else I’ll drop back by again. If you need to get in
touch with me, just send word to the village or the castle.”
“Despite having lost both
of her parents, Imiya seems to be really enjoying herself. I want to do what I can to
help you out, too, Shield Hero. I’ll do my best to master
the trade.”
So we had departed, which
was all well and good, but . . . that certain someone showed up, after all.
I sighed as I watched
Motoyasu fly off into space for the third time today. He must have been using
his teleportation skill to get ahead of us somehow, but it was still pretty
impressive. Raphtalia
and all of the slaves had shrieked in unison the first time it happened. But I guess witnessing a
person being kicked off into space would get a shriek out of most.
Great, now Motoyasu was
traumatizing all of my slaves, too. Maybe it was my fault for
ordering Filo to kick him, though.
I had been wondering how
we should try to take the broken Motoyasu into custody, but if he was going to
keep showing up this frequently then we could just try to talk some sense into
him somewhere along the way. As we made our way further
away from human habitation and deeper into the mountains, I suddenly noticed
someone standing in our path.
Oh? Filo sure had good vision. She seemed to be
confident, even though the person was quite far away.
Filo continued running at
her normal speed. I had planned on just passing by, but the person spread their arms out
and blocked the way.
It could have been an
emergency or something. Filo must have read my thoughts, because she came to a stop in front of
the person.
There were people that
stopped our carriage like this every now and then when we were out peddling our
wares. It
was usually someone who had been injured or who had run into some monsters and
needed help.
The person looked like a man.
I wasn’t sure how old.
He was
rather small, but he looked older than his size let on. Maybe he was in his twenties.
It was hard to tell. His hair was brown. His face reminded me of
one of those comedians who are impossible to hate, despite being a bit of a
scoundrel and always telling dirty jokes. I guess he was a human,
but it seemed more appropriate to describe him as a mousy fellow. He was wearing a cloak
that hid his clothes underneath, and it looked like there was some kind of red
liquid spattered on it. Maybe he had been injured.
He sure was an arrogant
little bastard. Did he not realize that standing in front of a carriage and trying to
stop it might be a little dangerous?
The queen had been nice
enough to hang the Shield Hero sign on the carriage. That was supposed to be a
sign that I was on board.
Judging by the way things
were going, this is where he would ask for my help. But the man’s response
was completely unexpected. Suddenly, standing before us was . . . a new enemy.
The man threw his cloak
open and hurled a small ball of magic at me. What the hell? “Die”? Was he a member of the Church of the Three Heroes?
I cast a defensive
barrier centered on me and prepared to defend against the attack. It wasn’t that I was
being careless. There was only a handful of people in this world that could injure me,
since the curse hadn’t affected my defense. That was my only consolation.
But for
someone to even try to ambush me was just ludicrous.
At least that’s what I
wanted to think, but then Murder Pierrot popped up somewhere in the back of my
mind. It
was always possible that there might still be someone out there unlike anyone
else I’d encountered before. Just in case, I jumped on
Filo’s back and readied my shield. But I never thought that
this would actually turn out to be one of those cases.
The explosion was
centered on my shield and blew the roof of the carriage behind me right off. Hold on! Just how high was this
guy’s attack power?!
With me still on her back,
Filo did a flip and kicked at the man. But the man used his
sword to block her kick.
“Oh!
I heard the
hero with the holy weapon drags pretty little girls around with him, and it
looks like the rumors are true! Eeehehehe!
You are the
harem type, after all!”
This bastard seriously
pissed me off with his annoying laugh. The man appeared
completely unpressured as he drew another sword with his free hand and blocked
Raphtalia’s katana. No way! Her stats may have been
lower than usual, but I was pretty sure Raphtalia still had a huge amount of
attack power. Her strike would have sliced right through most blades with ease.
It was her finishing move
that used dual katanas to produce a cross-shaped strike. It would be really
something if he could block that.
Apparently blocking Filo’s
kick and Raphtalia’s finishing move at the same time was pushing his limits,
because the man took a step back. Not on my watch!
A wall shot up out of the
ground right in front of Raphtalia while she was still in mid-attack. She swung her katana
down, striking right through the wall at the enemy, but the man crouched down
and dodged the attack. I didn’t even think a dodge like that was possible! Producing shields
haphazardly was obviously pointless. The exchange had only
lasted a few moments so far, but I could already tell that the man knew how to
handle himself in combat.
The man rapidly formed a
hand seal and cast something that seemed like magic. He was fast! Then again, that wasn’t
really anything to get worked up about as there were people out there like
Trash #2, who had been so proud of his ability to cast magic without an
incantation.
Keel called out to me
when she and the others finally recovered from their state of shock, but this
was no time for chatting. A massive meteorite appeared above in the sky and was headed straight
for us. And it was
crazy fast! What
kind of magic was this?! I’d never seen anything like it. This was just a guess,
but I had a feeling this guy was from another world, just like Murder Pierrot. But I didn’t have time to
think about that at the moment. I had Keel and the other
slaves with me, and this guy was casting magical area of effect attacks on us.
I used my Second Shield
as a platform to suspend me in the air and then cast my Dritte Shield up above
me. I used E
Float Shield for extra protection above and readied my shield. I had cast Zweite Aura on
Raphtalia to try to buy us a little time, but . . .
“Eeehehehe! Is this the first time you’ve had support magic nullified? Have you never been in a
real fight?”
I had a feeling the man
still wasn’t struggling. Damn it .
. . We’d
found ourselves hurled into the very predicament that I’d feared was a possibility.
Raphtalia cocked her
head to the side in confusion. But at that moment I had
to figure out what to do about this meteorite barreling toward us! The meteorite had smashed
through my Dritte Shield and Shield Prison up above, destroying them. E Float Shield finally
reached its limit and shattered, too. Now the meteorite was
coming straight for me.
I felt the massive impact
hit my shield and reverberate throughout my body. I’d just barely been able
to withstand it.
Raphtalia called out to Keel.
At the same
time, the man must have determined Keel to be a weak link, because he turned in
her direction and raised his shamshir. Raphtalia was doing
everything in her power to come between Keel and the attack, but it was
questionable whether she would be able to make it in time. It might have just been
my imagination, but it seemed like Raphtalia was moving quicker than just a
moment ago . . . but
it still didn’t look like she was going to make it.
Shit!
Keel and
the others still couldn’t keep up, even with their newly increased stats. They were nothing but a
hindrance right now. I began to see everything in slow motion, and just as the man’s
shamshir was about to pierce Keel’s chest, that’s when it happened! A loud clashing sound
rang out as a large pair of scissors appeared in front of Keel and guarded her
from the attack.
Just as Murder Pierrot
appeared in front of Keel to protect her, the meteorite that had been looming
overhead as it pressed against my shield exploded outward. Ugh . . . I’d been able to
withstand the impact, but it hurt pretty bad. My armor was damaged in
several places. I jumped down off of Second Shield, landing firmly on the ground, and
turned toward the man with my shield readied.
“Well if it isn’t the
vassal weapon holder from the destroyed world. I guess you’re still
alive, huh? Eeehehehe!”
“But yikes, the holy
heroes in this world sure are weak. I get to take it easy and
enjoy myself this time. Eeehehe!”
What was with this creep? The way he spoke implied
that he was from another world. But . . . the impression he gave
was unlike Kyo’s arrogance, Trash #2’s selfishness, or even L’Arc and Glass’s
sense of purpose.
Murder Pierrot tried to
explain. I
guess that meant that the enemy was in a position kind of like Keel or Filo. Kind of like Therese, maybe. Taking a better look at
the man, I noticed he was wearing a strange pendant that hung down over his
chest. Maybe
it was an accessory that was translating for him or something.
The man’s eyes were wide
with surprise. I was
surprised, too. Why was Raphtalia able to move that fast?
Mistake?
I hadn’t
noticed any miscalculations in the man’s attacks so far, but . . . Wait. If he had nullified my
support magic, that meant he had erased a beneficial buff. In other words, it was
highly possible that his spell could have similarly removed any lingering
detrimental effects.
Raphtalia swung her
katana at the enemy as he brought his hands forward to prepare to cast a spell.
He launched
his magical attack with an incantation that bordered on nonexistent, but it
failed to hit Raphtalia. She continued to swing and dodge, driving him further and further into
a corner. I
guess he hadn’t actually been that strong, after all. But something about the
fact that he wasn’t even a vassal weapon holder didn’t seem right.
Raphtalia snapped at him
as she continued to attack. Clearly not wanting to
pass up a good chance, Murder Pierrot set her sights on the man, too.
The man brushed his hand against
his pendant before forming a ball of magic and thrusting it into the ground. A bright flash of light
filled the air and blinded us for a brief moment. With abilities like this,
despite not being a hero . . . I guess he was kind of
like a powered-up version of Therese or something. Damn it! They always managed to
escape like this! Just as I was about to get pissed off—
Huh?
I blinked a
few times and looked over at where the man had been standing to see Murder
Pierrot holding her scissors buried into his chest.
Murder Pierrot jerked the
scissors from his chest. Blood spattered out and the man crumbled to the ground. He was dead . . . or was he? Murder Pierrot snipped
her scissors shut loudly, turned to face me, and stepped off to the side,
implying that I should inspect the man.
I took a close look at
the man that Murder Pierrot had killed. It was just a hunch, but
I figured I might learn something by inspecting the corpse, since he had been
from a different world. Just then, I noticed that there was a faint light seeping out of the
man’s body. What was that? Don’t tell me it still
hadn’t ended! And then, all of a sudden, the man’s corpse faded away as if it had
been a mirage.
Murder Pierrot tried to
explain, but the static was terrible and I had no idea what she was saying. After a brief moment,
Murder Pierrot seemed to give up on explaining and asked a simpler question.
“Yeah, but . . . wasn’t your timing just a
little bit too good? Are you sure you’re not in cahoots with that guy?”
Raphtalia and Keel spoke
up in defense of Murder Pierrot. I understood what they
were trying to say, and I wanted to trust her myself, too. But her timing had been
just too good. I couldn’t ignore the possibility that they had planned the encounter
in order to win my trust. I realized I was being overly skeptical, but there was just too much at
stake that I needed to protect. Allowing myself to trust
others easily just wasn’t an option.
Murder Pierrot reached her
hand out to my shoulder and plucked something from my armor. It looked like one of
those marking pins used when sewing.
I doubted we’d get that
lucky the next time. If there had been one enemy like this, there were bound to be others,
too. I
couldn’t afford to be running around with my stats lowered by a curse when
there were people out there looking to kill the holy heroes. Also, I needed to find
Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki fast or they were likely to get killed by these
creeps. I
wouldn’t have had to worry quite so much if those jerks would’ve just used the
power-up methods I’d told them about.
“Mr.
Naofumi,
it’s a fact that Murder Pierrot saved Keel and the others. Don’t you think we should
at least let her tag along?”
An expression of deep
regret came across her face as she mumbled quietly. I suddenly remembered the
legends we’d learned about in Kizuna’s world. Glass and the others had
been trying to kill the holy heroes of other worlds to protect their own world.
That meant . . . Murder Pierrot must have
been the survivor of a world that had been destroyed by that kind of fighting.
Maybe the reason Murder Pierrot’s
speech cut out is because her vassal weapon was beginning to malfunction, since
her world had been destroyed. Perhaps she had snuck
into another world and her own world had been destroyed while she was away. And then in order to stay
alive, she had been traveling to different worlds using the waves ever since. It made sense. When she showed up at the
village, she’d asked me to let her stay there until the next wave.
“Alright then. I wanted to see how strong you all have become after your class-up, but
it looks like that will have to wait until another time.”
I couldn’t imagine her
ring name being her real name. Murder Pierrot was a
mouthful, so I figured it would be best to find out her real name.
Hmm
. . . Her
first name was only one letter off from Witch’s adventurer alias. It was getting harder and
harder to trust her. Witch’s adventurer alias was originally Myne Suphia, by the way. It had been changed to
Whore now.
After we got back to the
village, S’yne wandered off to a little nook and started sewing. It was probably best to
just think of her vassal weapon as a sewing set. From the looks of it, she
seemed to be making a stuffed doll. What was she up to?
It had become apparent
that it was about time to really focus on finding Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki. I couldn’t imagine those
three winning a fight against an enemy like the one we’d faced earlier. Motoyasu had been
ambushing Filo repeatedly, but even he hadn’t shown up for close to a week now.
I’d been on
high alert watching out for new attackers from other worlds ever since our
encounter with that man. S’yne always seemed to be keeping an eye out at the village, too. The whole . . . not knowing when they
might show up thing was just creepy. I didn’t like it.
Other than that . . . bandits running wild
within my territory had become an issue, too. It wasn’t like I hadn’t
been doing anything for the past week. I’d been busy with
everything from training Keel and the other slaves to traveling around selling
our wares to make some money. I couldn’t just sit
around on the lookout all the time.
I was walking around
mulling over how to deal with all of these problems when I came across two
familiar characters. One was a nervous girl that gave off an aura of misfortune, and the
other was a stubborn woman in a plain set of armor. In other words, it was
Rishia and Eclair.
“I think Rishia and I are
supposed to be back to get some experience in actual battle. Our training is probably
going to continue after that.”
So the old lady sent them
to me to have them experience real combat before continuing. That made sense, but that
old lady sure wasn’t making things any easier on me. The real problem was
Eclair, though. What did she think her job was, anyway? She was supposed to be
deputy governor, but whenever she had a spare moment, she’d run off to train
with the old lady. It was so bad that even Melty had been complaining. I guess she just intended
to let me and Melty take care of all of her duties.
“Is that really okay? I’m afraid if you only
learn the style halfway, you’re just going to end up being the underdog that
gets bitten.”
“Ha!
Who do you think I am?
I was the
one who continued sparring with the teacher when Rishia here ran out of energy
and collapsed!”
“The style emphasizes
fundamental movement patterns and the flow of magic and life force over skills
or techniques. Getting the hang of it has been difficult,” Eclair explained.
The old lady was crazy
strong, so I trusted her skill, but I didn’t really understand the style very
well. You
could apparently cheat by using life force water to help you get the hang of it
more easily, though.
Rishia had a puzzled look
on her face. Was her awakened mode already her new normal or something? Was she one of those
characters that keeps powering up to ridiculous levels of strength? Maybe she could take me
out in one hit now. I knew a manga where something like that happened. That would suck if that
actually happened, though.
“What about you, Raphtalia? You haven’t been able to
train properly since you’re always running around with me, right?”
“Umm
. . . I
told you this when we were training with Glass, but I can already use the style
to a certain degree. I just can’t use the same kind of techniques that Eclair and Rishia can
because of the vassal weapon.”
So I guess Raphtalia
could already do something similar. I remember being just on
the verge of managing something similar, too. I think they had mentioned
Filo could already do it. That’s just what Raphtalia and Glass had told me, anyway.
“Right now, we can’t be
sure when there will be another attack. Of course, we’ll never
get anything done if we’re too busy watching our backs,” I replied.
Sending Raphtalia to
train might be an option, but it wasn’t one I could choose in our current
situation. I
really needed to spend some time training myself, too, but . . . I just didn’t have the time.
Having Raphtalia around
was a big help. We’d been together forever, too, which made coordinating with each
other easy. Still, spending some time training wasn’t a bad idea. For her, and for me, too. We had to be wary of
attacks, so I’d have to give the timing some thought.
“We can’t just stay
cooped up here watching our backs forever. We have an overgrowth of
dangerous monsters and they’ve started showing up near the villages, so I’m
thinking about going to take care of that. Melty asked me to do
something about the bandits that have been active in the area, so we can do
some bandit hunting, too, while we’re at it.”
“What’s that response? You realize both of those
are things you’re supposed to be taking care of, right?”
I’d hit the nail on the
head and Eclair fell silent. Oh well
. . . I’d
been thinking I should do some leveling of my own before long, and a periodic
monster cleanup could provide me with a regular source of experience. My stats may have been
decreased, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t raise my level.
So .
. . me,
Raphtalia, Rishia, Eclair, and . . . Filo for transportation. We should be able to face
pretty much any enemy with that lineup. If we did end up getting
defeated somehow, it’d be safe to assume we had no chance of winning to start
out with. Anyway,
S’yne would probably come running if anything did happen. She still had one of her
marking pins stuck to my armor, after all.
Atla showed up as soon as
I called her name. She’d been so quick that it made me wonder if she had just been hiding
somewhere waiting for me to call. To think she’d started
out as the token sickly girl . . .
Fohl glared at me with a
vexed look on his face. These two were actually pretty active around here. They were still far from
being able to class up, but I wanted to see what they could do. But what was up with
Fohl’s reply, anyway? All I’d done is call Atla’s name and that’s the response I get.
That was all it took for
Fohl to hug his stomach and fall to the ground. Huh? It seemed like Atla was the stronger of the two.
“Mr.
Iwatani,
according to the master, there is no need to teach Miss Atla here the Hengen
Muso style. Apparently, being blind has greatly increased her aptitude for the
art,” Eclair explained.
I guess that meant the old
lady had already taken a look at the new slaves of the village. She was kind of like my
combat adviser, so she did stay in the village, after all. Judging whether someone
had an aptitude for the style was supposed to be a specialty of hers. This was before I’d bought
Atla, but I remembered her mentioning that Filo and Sadeena were particularly
adept.
So Atla was adept, too, huh? Even more than her lively
big brother, Fohl? But I guess when I thought about it, she had been going about her daily
life normally, despite being blind. So she must have had a
good sense of life force and all that. She might have actually
been a better purchase than her brother.
“Umm
. . . I
guess she should be fine if that’s the case. I’m counting on you, Atla. Alright, let’s head out.”
I unfolded a map and
showed Eclair where the bandits had been active. It was a prime location
for ambushes.
Eclair seemed a bit creeped
out. Had my
expression really been that odd? Bandits were good about
stockpiling all kinds of valuables. They were perfect for
robbing. Plus,
this was an official request, so there would be a reward. It was killing two birds
with one stone.
“It’s a lucrative
venture, after all. And we get to make the territory a safer place at the same time.”
Eclair eyed me suspiciously. Whatever. Someone that prioritized
training over running the territory had no room to speak.
These new bandits were
supposedly well organized, which was going to be a hassle. I’d captured some bandits
yesterday while we were out selling some goods and I heard them whispering
about it.
“According to some of the
bandits we captured, the guy recently became the boss of a nearby group of
bandits. They
say he’s really combative.”
The slaves had been ambushed
while out vending but managed to turn the tables on their attackers. It was comforting knowing
that they had gotten a lot stronger.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know all the details, but apparently the boss is really
distrustful and rarely makes appearances. But he’s also supposed to
be strong enough to pick off even the toughest of adventurers one by one
without a problem.”
I couldn’t argue with that. It sure didn’t sound very
boss-like. You
could make it sound good by calling him a strategist, but you could also say he
was being petty. Either way, the type made for a really annoying enemy, and that’s
exactly why it’d fallen on us to get serious and go take care of him.
“The bandits do exactly
as the boss says. He targets a group and the bandits cause a disturbance. They force the members of
the group to separate in the confusion, and then the boss picks them off
himself, one by one. That’s
their strategy.”
Still
. . . why
were they using such troublesome tactics? It was hard to tell what
they were really after.
“That’s why even if they
manage to round up his subordinates, they can’t capture the boss. Our job is to catch that
chief.”
I couldn’t argue with
that, either. They were definitely troublesome. As long as the boss was
alive, he could always get more subordinates. And if they were using
such elaborate tactics, they would probably have more than one hideout, too. But that meant more
bandit hunting profits, too.
It’d been too long since
I’d last given Raph-chan a good petting. She was in charge of
keeping stress levels low among the slaves, so she hadn’t been spending any
time with me lately. Raph-chan kept her distance when Raphtalia was around, probably to try
to keep Raphtalia happy. That polite restraint was one of the things that made Raph-chan so
cute.
Raph-chan was so cute. She really was the best. I hadn’t had much time to
play with her lately, so if I had a chance to pet her, I wasn’t going to pass
it up.
Oh? It looked like she wanted
to come, too. I guess I would take her along. I was really starting to
look forward to this.
“Alright! Filo is over in the next town with Melty, so somebody go fetch her. We’re gonna go clean up
some monsters and hunt some bandits!”
Rishia took the lead and
went straight to stomping out monsters. It must have been a
result of the old lady’s training. Anyone that knew the old
Rishia would probably think they were seeing some kind of illusion. Actually, that’s exactly
how I felt.
She was using a short
sword—the Pekkul Rapier—as her primary weapon along with a whip and a throwing
knife with a rope attached to it. She would throw the knife
while using the whip to grab a monster at the same time. As soon as the knife hit
the target, she’d pull the monster in and skewer it with the Pekkul Rapier. That final stab was a
Hengen Muso attack known as Bound Thrust or something. The name of the skill was
a bit simplistic. It sounded like something made up by a teenage otaku stuck in their own
little fantasy world. Other than that, I was impressed.
Plus, she was fast. Even before, Rishia got
really strong when she got overly emotional, but she had surpassed that and
become even stronger now, as far as I could tell. She was really good at
throwing objects and hitting her targets, too. Add in some defense
penetration or something and she’d be hard to beat.
I really needed to start
taking my training seriously. I’d put it on the
backburner after establishing an amicable relationship with L’Arc and Glass,
but . . . considering
the kinds of enemies we were going to be facing from now on, it probably
wouldn’t hurt to be able to pull off some similar moves.
Rishia was level 70 now,
by the way. It looked like she would hit the next level quicker than she’d gone
from 69 to 70, but she still had a long way to go. I thought she might
experience some kind of awakening when she hit level 70, but there hadn’t been
any big change when it happened. Even so, she was a lot
stronger than her stats would have implied. I was really surprised,
honestly. This
was just a guess, but I bet if Itsuki saw Rishia now, he would ask her to come
back. Although,
he was an exceptionally proud person, so he probably wouldn’t actually say the
words.
So she hadn’t noticed the
difference. I guess even if she had gotten stronger, the fundamentals remained the
same. As I
mulled over the thought, I noticed Eclair cut down a monster. It was a pretty
impressive attack, although not quite as impressive as Rishia’s. She’d definitely become
stronger than before.
“I still can’t compare
with you, Raphtalia, but I am one step ahead when it comes to the Hengen Muso
style. You better
catch up soon.”
It seemed like Raphtalia
and Eclair had become friends. Completely disregarding
their exchange, Atla came over and called out to me.
Atla jabbed Fohl. He fell forward onto the ground and she climbed up and stood on top of
him. A huge
wild boar monster called a razorback was barreling toward them, but Atla
stopped its charge head-on with just one hand. All she had done is place
a single finger on the tip of the razorback’s nose. The razorback appeared to
be trying to charge forward with all its might, but it didn’t budge an inch. Huh? It was like she had
superhuman strength or something.
Atla leapt toward the
razorback and poked it in the forehead. That’s all she had done
and yet . . . the
razorback’s eyes rolled back into its head as it began foaming at the mouth and
fell over. Huh? Was it dead?
I’d gotten experience. It was like some kind of
assassination technique or something. For some reason, it seemed
like it would do more damage than defeating the monster normally. Had she gouged out its
brain or something? It hadn’t looked like she’d done anything but poked the thing.
Genius is a scary thing. Atla appeared light-years
stronger than Rishia or the lady knight. And barehanded?! I’d just realized I hadn’t given Atla a weapon. No, wait. I was sure I must have
given her one along with the rest of the slaves. I guess she just didn’t use
it.
The monsters here were . . . around level 40, on average. That was child’s play with
this group. I poked Fohl, who was still lying on the ground with Atla standing on
top of him. I felt kind of bad for the pitiful brother.
Filo was in her filolial
queen form jumping around and kicking monsters left and right. Like usual, it was clear
she knew how to handle herself in a fight.
Anyway, we were mowing
through monsters without any need for me to use my shield. I probably should have
been doing something, but I just felt redundant. Everyone had gotten so
strong . . . I
was starting to feel a bit alienated.
“Raphtalia, bring us some
more monsters so Mr. Iwatani has something to do. Otherwise, Sadeena is
likely to steal him away from you!” Eclair quipped.
I’d just use Hate
Reaction to draw nearby monsters to us as we made our way to a location with
monsters that were a bit tougher. We made our way deeper
into the mountains, and before long we started to see some monsters with
dragon-like characteristics.
Ah, that reminded me . . . Dragons lived in really
remote regions. I guess we had left the area the bandits had been active in. But that was fine since
it was a chance to see just how far we could go. Besides, I could absorb
the materials into my shield to get some nice little stat boosts. Or at least that’s what I
figured, but for some reason I hadn’t been able to unlock any dragon-related
shields. The
Demon Dragon Shield had been really slow to appear, too.
There was finally a
monster that they needed my help with. I held it down, and the
others attacked it. The rest of the monsters were weaklings, and everyone went about
clearing them out on their own. We’d all leveled up after
a while, but one person’s growth had been particularly remarkable. The instant her level
changed from 70 to 71, all her stats shot through the roof.
Was it because of her
training? No,
I was pretty sure increasing physical fitness wouldn’t affect status magic, so
that shouldn’t cause a sudden rise in stats. Since we hadn’t run into
any bandits that day and just ended up fighting monsters the whole time, Rishia
made it to level 72 and when she did her stats shot up another thirty percent
or so. Her
stats had already reached about half of what Raphtalia’s were before being
chosen by the vassal weapon.
That may not have seemed
like much since Rishia’s stats had been a measly one-third of that to start out
with. But if
Rishia kept improving at this pace, she should catch up to where Raphtalia was
by the time she hit level 75. Apparently the awakening
of Rishia’s abilities started when she hit level 71. I guess I could finally
really look forward to her making a significant contribution on the combat
front.
“Alright then, we got some
good leveling in, so let’s actually focus on finding those bandits now. We can do some more
leveling after we steal their loot.”
“What?
Are you
going to tell me to return them to their original owners when we have no way of
knowing who they are?”
Eclair groaned at my reply. She had said something
similar back when we were dealing with the Spirit Tortoise.
“If you can prove they
belong to someone, I’ll be happy to return them to that person. But do you think you can
do that?”
It was always possible
that I’d have a sudden need for money, like when I wanted to buy up the
Lurolona slaves recently. There was no such thing as having too much money.
Eclair was at a loss. What
happened? I’d
actually expected her to show a little more resistance, but . . . Oh well. That just meant less
trouble for me, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Oh? Raphtalia and Raph-chan
had both cocked their heads to the side in unison. It was beautiful! Now I was really getting
excited.
She had the cooperation
of Melty and some of the nobility, so the reconstruction of the town that
Eclair was overseeing had progressed a bit, too. There was still a
shortage of hands in my village, after all. It was nothing but a few
houses and some farm plots right now, so it was a long way from what you would
call a town.
Sheesh!
She had no
place envying me if she was going to be a training-obsessed musclebrain. She needed to decide
whether she wanted to be a martial artist or a politician.
“I’m sure you all know
this, but most of the bandits are going to be maybe level 40 at the highest. Just do your usual thing
and we’ll be fine.”
People couldn’t class up
if they weren’t trustworthy, so the levels of the bandits wouldn’t be that
high. Of
course, it was possible that there might be drifters who had classed up in
Zeltoble or something. We’d come across one once while out peddling wares a long time ago. Someone would probably
need to have a successful fighting record in the coliseums to do that. But it didn’t make much
sense for someone to become a bandit if they could make money fighting in the
coliseums. Whatever,
it wasn’t like I actually cared.
“For now, we’ll split up
into groups of two and go look for bandits or their hideouts. We need more intel before
we can worry about their boss.”
The quickest way to find
their hideouts would be to find some bandits and make them talk. We needed to round up
several bandits to really get started. As for groups . . . I’d just split everyone
into pairs based on who would get along or complement each other well.
“Let’s go with Fohl and
Atla, Raphtalia and Eclair, and Filo and Rishia. If you’d prefer a
different partner, then just split up however you like.”
“We should avoid moving
around in big groups. Based on what we know about the boss, I’m going to pair with Raph-chan
so that it looks like I’m on my own and see if our prey doesn’t take the bait. If anything happens,
Raph-chan will let you know, Raphtalia. Right, Raph-chan?”
Being a familiar,
Raph-chan was able to send Raphtalia a distress signal if needed. Since Raphtalia was one
of the more capable fighters among us, I wanted her to be able to move around
freely. Raph-chan
seemed eager to help out, too. Sure, if I ran into any
monsters I might have trouble killing them, but fleeing would be no problem. It wasn’t like there was a
rule that said I had to stand my ground and fight any monsters or attackers
that appeared. Worse comes to worst, I was sure S’yne would come if I called for her.
Raph-chan and I started
looking for the bandits and their hideouts, too. It wasn’t like the bandits
were going to be able to injure me, even if they took me by surprise. This was an easy mission
for me. I
was just walking down the mountain path enjoying a leisurely stroll, playing
with Raph-chan.
Raph-chan shrieked and
pointed her finger as if trying to warn me about something. What was it? I turned around, but no
one was there. But then, all of a sudden, a dark shadow appeared in front of me, so I
instinctively raised my shield.
Sparks flew from my shield. The weight of the impact
made it clear that it had been a powerful and determined attack. I wasn’t sure if anyone
else would have survived such an attack.
I swung my shield and
tossed the ambusher off to the side. I took a quick glance at
the person who had tried to stab me.
Even I couldn’t believe my
eyes. I
stood there looking at the attacker, speechless. The attacker’s face was
hidden behind a shady-looking black mask made to look like some kind of skull. But based on his build,
voice, and the way he held his weapon, I already knew exactly what his face
looked like. It was Ren
Amaki. The
Sword Hero readied himself, with a sinister, jet-black sword gripped tightly in
his hands.
It might have been my
imagination, but his equipment seemed even shabbier than before. From what I could see
through the openings in his mask, he had a gloomy expression and something
about his eyes just seemed off. No, I may not have been
one to talk, but it was well beyond off. His pupils were dilated
like his mind had snapped or something.
Ren began to shimmer like
a mirage and then disappeared. What the hell? Had he cast some kind of illusion magic on me that was making me see
things? Either
way, the fact that he was using a skill with “hide” in the name was plenty
suspicious, so I prepared myself for combat.
Rafu was telling me where
he was. What
was that about fighting fair and square, in the first place? He’d attacked me from
behind suddenly and then used a skill to make himself disappear. Just what kind of mental
state was Ren in? Was “fair and square” supposed to be according to some game’s fighting
system? Either
way, there was something oddly ambitionless about the way he spoke. But whatever, I needed to
focus on the enemy right now.
This skill attracted
monsters, but I’d figured out that it actually had an additional hidden effect
while we were at the Cal Mira islands. That was, it drew out and
exposed enemies that were using simple concealment magic or skills to hide
themselves. We’d noticed the effect when I’d used Hate Reaction at the same time
Raphtalia used her Illusion Blade skill. The concealment effect of
her skill was canceled out. So when something or
someone was hiding, I could use the skill to find them.
I guess Ren had been
trying to circle back around behind me again, because he was right in the
middle of moving toward my rear left. His stupidity was really
kind of silly, but that only pissed me off more. If he was going to use a
skill that lame, he should have taken the chance to withdraw temporarily. That probably wouldn’t
have worked against Raph-chan or Raphtalia.
It would have been nice if
this were only an illusion, but . . . I never imagined he would
be hiding out here. Could it be that Witch was the bandit chief? That would have suited
her perfectly. She certainly wasn’t the princess type. Something like a pirate
or a bandit was definitely a better fit.
Ren swung his sword at me
using the same motion he used for Shooting Star Sword. A cloud of black particles
that twinkled like stars shot out from the tip of his sword and rushed toward
me. I held
my shield out and blocked the attack. It hadn’t been that
strong, so I was able to block it with no problem. Ren was weak, like usual. I wished he would hurry
up and use the power-up methods already.
Ugh
. . . My
shield withstood the attacks, but I felt a slight dull pain run up my arm. I had Raph-chan to
protect, so that was close. Ren continued straight into the next skill.
“ Let this foolish sinner
pay for his transgressions with an execution by beheading! With nary the time to
scream, let his own head be separated from his torso and then he shall know
despair! ”
Chains suddenly shot up
from out of the ground and wrapped around my body before transforming into
something like barbed wire and piercing my skin. Then an instrument of
execution appeared from out of nowhere with a massive blade suspended above my
head.
This attack . . . Judging from the look of
it, the skill was the same type of attack as the Iron Maiden skill on my Shield
of Rage. Damn it! There was no way I was
going to eat that!
I tore the chains off and
stopped the falling blade with my hand. Damn, that hurt! I
could see blood. Had Ren finally broken through my defense? It was a bit depressing
that he had done it with a skill instead of using the power-up methods I’d shared
with him. My SP tanked.
Raphtalia had heard
Raph-chan’s warning and came running. She turned to Ren and
swung her katana at him. Good! Keep him occupied!
Before I could grab him,
Ren used his teleportation skill as he leapt away and disappeared. What the hell was that? Was it a monster or some
other person pretending to be Ren? But the attacker had
broken through my defense and that meant he was a real force to be reckoned
with. The
only other way that might happen is if someone could use defense ignoring or
defense rating attacks like the old lady.
The attacker had started
off hidden and used a skill called Assassinating Sword. Judging from the name and
the skill itself, it must have been a finishing move that had to be used while
concealed, in stealth mode, or hiding somehow. There were similar moves
in some games. In terms of classes, the skill would be used by something like an
assassin, ninja, or scout rather than the more orthodox warrior or knight. That wasn’t at all like
the Ren I knew. And he’d been using a sinister sword that screamed curse series.
But
. . . a sudden ambush . . . Was he trying to be a
player killer like in an online game or something? Don’t tell me Ren was the
bandit chief . . . His behavior matched up
exactly with what we already knew about how the chief operated. Well, I guess he had come
from playing some weird VRMMO game, after all. And to top it all off, he
had used an attack that screamed curse skill. If it had been anyone
other than me, not only would they have died instantly, but they’d have been
sliced clean in half. If Raph-chan hadn’t warned me, I might have been taken out from behind
with that first attack. The thought of it made me nauseous.
I cast some healing magic
to heal my wounds. Oh, and by the way, that Guillotine skill hurt like a bitch thanks to
the curse effects I was suffering from. Plus, my wounds took
longer to heal now. It had only been thirty minutes since we started our search for the
bandits, and I already had a really bad feeling about how this mission was
going to turn out.
We ended up finding the
bandits’ hideout, but we didn’t find Ren. That meant he was using a
cowardly strategy of only fighting people when they were alone, just like we’d
heard.
Witch hadn’t been in the
hideout, either. She was probably staying low somewhere else. I guess I’d start by
getting the bandits to spill . . . hmm?
I approached one of the
bandits that had been in charge of the hideout and looked at his face more
closely. I’d seen
this guy before. And
recently, too. Wait, wasn’t he one of the bandits that Ren had captured? What was he doing here?
He was one of the bandits
that was always there when I used Filo to threaten them. He’d been acting real
tough when we first showed up at the hideout, but his legs started shaking and
he started looking around nervously as soon as he saw me. So I’d pointed over to Filo.
Raph-chan had an evil
grin on her face. I just loved how she always played along so well. Raphtalia could’ve
learned a thing or two from her.
The bandit had given up
immediately, and that’s how we’d ended up here. Like always, the other
bandits had started calling our bandit friend names like “scaredy-cat.” Of course, I swiftly put
them in their place.
“We seem to be stuck in
an unfortunate relationship. Our first encounter was
before I’d cleared my name. I couldn’t take his group
of bandits to the vigilante corps, so I stole their loot. Then we ran into each
other again during the whole Melty abduction mess and I used his hideout as
lodging.”
“Pretty much. After that, I saw him again around a week ago when he’d been captured
by Ren, and now this makes the fourth time.”
My subordinates swiftly
took care of any bandits that still had some fight in them. There were more of us this
time, so things were going really smoothly.
Raphtalia was really on
top of her straight man game. I was starting to feel
like this was a comedy sketch.
When I thought about it,
nothing about this guy made sense. He should’ve been behind
bars in some prison or something by now.
What a mess. The carriage was ambushed while they were being transported . . . Did that mean a friend
had rescued them or something? The security measures in
this country were surprisingly lax. I should probably have a
word with the queen about that.
I screamed out
unintentionally. That idiot! What the hell was he
doing rescuing bandits?! Even worse, he’d rescued the very bandits that he had captured! What was he thinking?! Was this like that
sockpuppeting thing I’d heard about online? No, I guess that was
different.
Her voice was filled with
exasperation. I felt the
same way. Even
Eclair had been thrown off balance by the bandit’s reply.
That meant it was only
shortly after Ren had fled. Had Witch lured Ren in and then immediately organized the gang of
bandits?
“I see. In that case, the mastermind . . . probably isn’t Ren. Did the chief have a
skanky redhead chick with him?”
“I could say a thing or
two about your choice of description, Mr. Naofumi, but I can’t deny
that it does sum her up well.”
Ren was so pathetically
alone that even Raphtalia felt bad for him. But Witch was probably
still with him for the moment. Anyway, it didn’t seem
like the bandits were trying to hide Witch or anything. As far as I could tell,
they really didn’t know anything and hadn’t seen her. Did that mean Witch wasn’t
with Ren anymore?
Actually, I noticed that
his equipment seemed really beaten up. I’m sure he had plenty of
money since he was robbing adventurers. It wasn’t like he’d be
selling his better equipment to make ends meet or anything. Maybe he was giving all
the money to Witch to fund her extravagant lifestyle or something. Nah . . . That didn’t seem too
likely, judging by how much loot the bandits had piled up here.
Was Witch pulling the
strings from behind the curtain, or had she already abandoned Ren? I guess we could wait
until we caught him to find that out. Now that he had appeared,
we needed to make capturing Ren our top priority.
“Ren was using a sword
that I’m guessing is part of a curse series. Confronting him could be
dangerous, so we need to be careful.”
Based on the types of
skills he was using and how powerful they were, I had no doubt it belonged to a
curse series. If figuring out the details could help us predict his behavior, it was
worth giving it some thought. The question was: what
was the curse?
We already knew there was
wrath . . . Assuming
there were other curses, they might correspond with the seven deadly sins or
something similar. But the skill Ren had used was . . . Guillotine. It was similar to my
skill in that it used an instrument of torture or execution, but it still
wasn’t the same skill. If there were different curse series, then it would make sense that the
weapons would have different effects.
“My Shield of Wrath . . . Well, originally it was
called the Shield of Rage, but either way I’m guessing the naming comes from
the seven deadly sins. Does that concept exist in this world?”
Some previous hero that
had been from another world like I was had probably introduced the concept. After all, the heroes that
were summoned from other worlds were probably the kind of people who liked that
kind of thing.
“Let’s make sure we’re
talking about the same seven deadly sins. There’s pride, envy,
wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, right?”
My curse series had been
unlocked by the anger, or the wrath, that I had felt toward Witch, Trash, and
everyone else in this world. As
for Ren . . . We
could probably rule lust out. The remaining sins all
seemed possible, so there was no way to tell which it might have been.
If he changed his sword,
they wouldn’t know he was a hero. The Sword Hero running a
gang of bandits . . . I guess any rumor that
sounded that crazy would have been snuffed out before it ever made it to us.
“We were threatened and
told we’d be killed if we said anything. We kept quiet because he
would have killed us!”
Ah, yeah, Ren was really
secretive. That
was probably why he was trying to hide his face with a mask, too.
What in the world was Ren
thinking? I
mulled it over while we tied up the bandits and proceeded to steal their loot.
“That again? Once again, hell if I know. And anything you think you
know about how your dad ran the territory is hearsay, anyway.”
Eclair seemed to be
distressed about something. I guess I’d have
Raphtalia or Sadeena play therapist for her later.
“Anyway, we need to worry
about Ren right now. If we let him keep running wild, not only are more people going to get
hurt, but it’s possible that he’ll run into those people trying to kill the
heroes. We
have to capture him somehow.”
Ren was still acting like
this was all a game, and whenever things didn’t go his way he wouldn’t trust
anyone that didn’t sugarcoat things in his favor. He needed an attitude
adjustment. At least in my case, I was suspicious of even the smooth talkers. On the contrary, those
were the most suspicious people of all. We needed to figure out
who was pulling the strings. If not, who knew when it
would come back to bite us? Right now, that meant capturing Ren and making sure he didn’t get
killed.
“But
. . . capturing
someone that’s out of control and has a curse series weapon is going to be
really difficult,” I said.
“That is a tough one. We have to make sure he
doesn’t die, too. It wouldn’t be so bad if all we had to do was defeat him,” Raphtalia
replied.
Ren was the type that
would enjoy leveling up characters. If we assumed he’d been
consumed by that kind of desire, then he probably saw me as a sitting duck, since
I was walking alone, even if I did have Raph-chan with me.
“Then there’s greed . . . It could be that he wants
to own everything and so he’s using the bandits to gather up loot. So greed is a possibility,
too.”
I had to give Raphtalia
props for her impressive ability to guess what I was thinking. Were my expressions really
that easy to read?
Anyway, if the curse
series that were attainable differed with each weapon, we would never be able
to figure it out. Pride might have been possible, too. There were players in
online games that valued their level above all else and looked down on anyone
that was a lower level. Ren seemed really proud, or at least the way he seemed to romanticize
his lone-wolf tendencies spoke to a sense of pride. I guess Itsuki was a
better fit for that one.
“Eclair, aside from the
seven deadly sins, there’s also the eight cardinal sins. It’s possible that it
could coincide with one of those.”
Rishia spoke up while
raising her hand hesitantly. So those existed here, too? The previous heroes must
have really been into all this sin business. Probably some escapist
fanboys.
Anyway, the seven deadly
sins were a revised version of the older eight cardinal sins, which included
gluttony, lust, greed, sorrow, wrath, acedia, vainglory, and pride. So envy was missing, but
sorrow and vainglory were included. Acedia was basically the
same thing as sloth. Later on, sorrow and acedia were consolidated into sloth, vainglory was
merged with pride, and envy was tacked on, resulting in the seven deadly sins.
“Is the Sword Hero that
concerned with outward appearances? I can see the connection,
but it seems a bit weak.”
“Well, this is just based
on my understanding, or shall I say the unique understanding of someone from
another world. Let’s see if I can make it easier to understand . . . Eclair or Rishia, do
either of you know of a game where people play with cards on a table or
something to mimic battles with monsters?”
“Yes, I do. There are similar educational materials used to teach people how to
fight monsters and get stronger,” Rishia replied.
“Educational materials? Whatever, that will work. To put it simply, people
from worlds like Ren and I play with educational materials like that a lot. But just playing with
those educational materials doesn’t actually make a person stronger, does it?”
Itsuki had played a
console game back in his world. I hadn’t asked him about
the details, so I wasn’t sure if it had elements like those you would find in
online games.
“I see. Now I understand why the heroes are so knowledgeable about this world. The importance of prior
knowledge cannot be underestimated,” said Eclair.
The power obtained in
online games wasn’t true power, and it was vainglory that created attachment to
that power. Of course, the experiences gained from playing online games were real,
and I’m sure there was value in becoming powerful. Back in my world, there
were people that had gotten jobs as a result of relationships built in online
games. In
fact, someone I knew from online once offered to set me up with a full-time job
at his company after I’d graduated from university. It was a guy I’d met in
real life, too. He told me that his company could use someone fearless like me that had
the charisma I displayed as the guild leader. I’m not sure how honest
he was being, but it felt good to hear, anyway. Thinking back on it now,
he was probably just flattering me in an attempt to make me his errand boy or
something.
But judging from Ren’s
personality and relationships with others, I couldn’t even begin to imagine him
being able to build a relationship from which he could expect anything like
that. It
was easy to imagine him being the kind of solo player whose interactions with
others wouldn’t extend far beyond flaunting a rare drop he’d gotten from a boss
or something. Managing a guild had made it painfully clear that being the strongest
wasn’t everything and going around flaunting items like that was not only
pointless, but also super annoying. But there were people
that got off on that kind of thing in online games, and you could probably even
say those players were the reason the game companies did so well.
“If he persisted in
believing that transient power was true power and neglected his inner
development . . . That would be vain power,
right?”
Although, if we were
talking about vainglory, would Ren really be the best fit? It probably corresponded
to Itsuki more than anyone else.
“It’s hard to say one way
or the other, since the conditions required to trigger a curse are still a
mystery. And
I don’t know which sin it would be, but . . . he’s definitely guilty of
blatantly committing several of the sins.”
“Hmm
. . . So
the fact that you are guilty of several sins that haven’t appeared as a curse
series serves as counterevidence to the theory, making it even more difficult
to determine the curse,” Eclair replied.
She was right. If being a bad person was all it took, I’d committed plenty of sins. But wrath was the only
curse series that I had unlocked. If they triggered based
on behavior patterns, I’d have to be worried about greed more than anything
else. Even
I recognized just how greedy I was. I wasn’t afraid of the
wrath series, since I’d started to understand how to stay in control lately,
and I had companions that helped me do that.
Maybe the kind of
emotional outburst that almost shattered a person was a condition? Hmm . . . I probably needed to spend
some time determining the conditions that triggered a curse or I could end up
in trouble. But
the love of money was greed, right? Thinking about the pile
of treasure behind me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was just a big mass of
desire. And
then there was insatiable desire. But I hadn’t been
consumed by greed. There had to be a reason why.
Anyway, the curse series
most likely to have tainted Ren was probably gluttony, greed, pride, or
vainglory. We’d
narrowed it down to a certain degree, so now we could further refine our line
of thinking. I had a feeling that it could be dangerous if the curse remained
unchecked for too long. The curse series included skills that required the user to pay a price.
There had
to be a way to get Ren under control before he used those skills.
Raphtalia and Raph-chan
could use illusion magic, so they had increased resistances to the effects of
concealment skills and magic. Raph-chan had detected
Ren earlier, for instance. I guess it was because they had gotten stronger, but lately they had
even started to detect concealed shadow lookouts.
“I’m not sure. They were really well hidden, and I think they’d already fled by the
time we noticed.”
That meant that someone
had been watching us seize the hideout from the shadows. If it had been Ren, and
now he had fled to a completely different location, that would only make things
even more impossible for us.
It was a reasonable strategy.
Chasing him
would be pointless if he just used his portal skill to flee every time we found
him. He’d
gotten away this time, but if we found him again, we would need to jam his
portal skill before he could run. Seriously, it would have
been so simple if all we had to do was defeat him. Capturing him alive was a
real hassle. And then I suddenly remembered something that happened in Zeltoble.
I called out to Murder
Pierrot, a.k.a. S’yne. She was keeping tabs on
me, after all, so I figured she might come if I called. In the blink of an eye,
S’yne was standing before me.
Having a conversation
with her was difficult, but it seemed like she could hear what we were saying
reasonably well, so I guess that was all that really mattered. The real problem was that
I didn’t want to rely on her too much.
“You’ve seen me use
portal to teleport somewhere and appear out of nowhere, right? Don’t be so surprised. Just think of her as . . . my own personal shadow.”
I didn’t want to bother
with explaining about heroes from other worlds and all that mess. This explanation should
do for now.
Raphtalia told Eclair
what we knew about S’yne. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her, but I couldn’t deny that she seemed
to be trying to protect me. It probably wouldn’t hurt
to rely on her a bit. Hmm? There were two stuffed
dolls floating next to S’yne. One was a life-sized
replica of Raph-chan. The other one looked like it was based on Sadeena’s therianthrope form.
I stood
there staring at the stuffed dolls and S’yne pointed in their direction as if
to ask what I was staring at.
There was Raphtalia with
another sharp retort. What was wrong with wanting the doll? Just seeing it next to my
pillow at night would be sure to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
The Raph-chan stuffed doll
gave a quick bow. Aw, HELL naw.
Raph-chan
squealing “rafu!” is
what made her cute.
“Fail!
You don’t
understand what makes Raph-chan cute at all. A Raph-chan that speaks
human languages can’t be called a Raph-chan. Change the design.”
And the other doll was
Sadeena, of all people. S’yne tinkered with something for a moment and the Raph-chan stuffed
doll stopped moving.
“You better not kill him. Even if he has a cursed
weapon, I’m guessing he’s still so weak that he can’t even begin to compare to
us.”
He’d used a finishing
move on me in a surprise attack and it didn’t even scratch me. Then he used an attack
that was the equivalent of my Iron Maiden skill and the only reason it stung a
bit is because I was still weakened from a curse. Now I understood how Glass
felt when she fought us. The fact that Ren was weak hadn’t changed. It was just that
capturing him without killing him or allowing him to escape was a hassle. Things would be a lot
easier if this were a certain monster tamer RPG, where all we had to do to
capture him was weaken him and then throw a ball at him.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. He likes to use surprise
attacks, so I’m sure he’ll attack you if you just walk around by yourself for a
while. Will you be okay?”
Was he a ghost or something? No, he certainly looked
alive. Maybe
it had been a stand-in that S’yne had killed. He could have used some
spell to create a double or something. That would be really
troublesome.
The friend of the man we
killed was a large, tallish man that was carrying what looked like a
kusarigama, or chain sickle. Paired with the small
man, the two looked like a real odd couple. Judging from what he’d
said, they must have been searching for the bandit hideout to find and kill Ren
and ended up running into us by coincidence. But what the hell did
that dimwit mean by “revenge,” anyway? He’s the one who attacked us!
Impressive. It seemed like being blind had given Atla a really strong sixth sense
or something. To be honest, even I was probably going to have a tough time fighting
these enemies. If that was the case, Atla and Fohl joining the fray would more than
likely just drag me down.
“We’re not really
interested in killing the rest of you, but eeehehe . . . doing so shouldn’t be a
problem by the looks of it.”
Right now I had Raphtalia,
Filo, Raph-chan, Eclair, Rishia, and S’yne with me. I was genuinely thankful
that Atla and Fohl had backed down. That would make things a
little bit easier on me. We were only facing two enemies, so the odds seemed to be in our favor.
But that
man had used some peculiarly powerful magic. He’d also been able to
keep up with Raphtalia’s movements . .
. and now there were two of
them. I
would have preferred to be able to take care of them somehow with just me and
Raphtalia fighting, but . . .
If they were willing to
listen, we might be able to avoid fighting. We could form an alliance
of nonintervention to prevent fighting between our worlds, like we had done
with Kizuna . . . perhaps.
The taller man blocked
her scissors and then struck at her hard with his kusarigama. S’yne leapt backward and
dodged the attack, but the airborne kusarigama wrapped around her scissors.
Glass had come from
Kizuna’s world to try to kill us because of some legend she had believed. By my analysis, these guys
were sure to be after the same thing. I didn’t have a solution,
but surely it was still worth trying to talk it out with them. If nothing else, I could
get them to share some information that we didn’t already know.
“Delay the destruction? There’s no doubt our world
will be the one to survive. Or do you guys not know?”
“Eeehehehe! Well, I guess you’re going to die before the next wave comes, anyway,
so I might as well tell you. When you destroy another world, you get crazy amounts of experience and
all kinds of new abilities. The vassal weapon holders
back in our world call them bonuses.”
What a shitty excuse. The hell if I was going
to let someone destroy this world for an excuse like that. But it did pique my
curiosity.
“That’s enough small talk. There’s no point in
pretending like we’re going to be friends,” said the taller man.
Eclair was clearly confused. So were Raphtalia and Rishia.
But from
what these creeps were saying, it was clear that there were people
intentionally going around and destroying other worlds. Destroying other worlds
could get them huge bonuses. And these creeps weren’t
holy heroes or even vassal weapon holders. Now that I thought about
it, those bonus abilities were probably the reason Eclair and the others could
understand them.
Judging by the determined
expression on S’yne’s face, it was safe to assume that these creeps had
destroyed her world. In that case, settling things peacefully wasn’t going to be an option. Just like it was easier to
kill a person the second time around, if these guys had destroyed another world
before, they were probably going to do it again.
But with rewards like
resurrection, things were starting to sound exactly like an online game. What kind of impossible
game was this?! If we died that would be the end, but if we killed them they could just
resurrect! There
was a strategy in online games back in my world where people would just keep
resurrecting to slowly whittle away at a powerful boss. But the boss didn’t get
to resurrect, and right now we were the boss! This wasn’t really a
solution, but . . . going off of my knowledge
of games and our experience so far, there was probably some kind of save point
or something that we needed to destroy. Otherwise they would just
keep coming back.
It was undeniable that
these guys were even more of a hassle than Kyo had been. Actually, this is
probably exactly what Kyo, the other vassal weapon holders, and the supposed
genius scientist had been trying to achieve. Destroy another world to
get tons of new abilities. That sure sounded nice. It was immoral and not
something I wanted to do, but I might have to consider it an option,
considering the kind of battles we would be facing in the future. Only while the waves were
still occurring, of course.
S’yne was staring at me. I guess the reason she
had ended up being a drifter was because someone had destroyed her world for a
reason like that. “Look at her! There’s
no way you can say that’s acceptable!” I could hear Kizuna
saying it now. I had
to agree, though.
The small man pulled out
his shamshir and quickly leapt toward me, coming only inches from my chest.
He thrust the shamshir at
my throat. But
Raphtalia’s katana suddenly blocked the shamshir’s path as Eclair jabbed her
short sword at the small man.
The man dodged the attack
by a hair’s breadth and formed a seal with his hands. I grabbed his hands as
quickly as I could to thwart him, but he cast the spell immediately.
An explosion occurred
with the small man at its center. It must have been one of
those really convenient spells that didn’t harm the caster.
The blast from the
explosion sent a heavy shock wave coursing through my body. Raphtalia and Eclair were
both sent flying several meters backward from where they had been standing
behind me. Luckily
they managed to take a defensive stance and soften the blow, but they had still
suffered heavy damages. Mere moments into the battle and it was already vividly clear that our
enemies were adept fighters.
Meanwhile, Filo and Rishia
were helping S’yne fight the large man. Because of the man’s large
size, Filo was using her filolial queen form.
Filo’s movements sped up
and she was about to give the man a swift and powerful kick. Nice! I’d help her out with some
support magic.
Then Raph-chan backed her
up with some illusion magic that made it look like Filo had split into multiple
copies of herself. Only one of them was the real Filo, but would he be able to tell which?
When we first fought the
small man, he’d attempted to nullify the support magic I cast on Raphtalia and
ended up nullifying the effects of her curse along with it, after which she’d
backed him into a corner. He must have been referring to that.
Filo and Rishia both cried
out. What was
up with that defense? S’yne was trying to attack the man along with her familiars, but none
of the attacks were making it through. Were those familiars a redesign
of those creepy puppets she’d used at the coliseum? Talk about fancy! The Raph-chan look-alike
moved similarly to the real Raph-chan, swiping its tail and scratching at the
man, but without success. The Sadeena stuffed doll was swimming around in the air and charging at
the man repeatedly.
“Not even knowing what
blocked your attacks is just sad. This is Absolute Shield. It absorbed all of your
attacks.”
Damn it! These creeps sure had some convenient abilities. He was protecting himself
with a defensive barrier that absorbed attacks.
The small man held his
shamshir out and came charging at me while spinning around in an attack similar
to Filo’s Spiral Strike. Shit! This guy was an annoying
little bugger. I tried to grab him with all my might, but he kept spinning away in an
attempt to drill through my defense.
Like usual, I had my
Demon Dragon Shield equipped at the moment. It had a counterattack
effect called “demon bullet” that shot magical bullets at the enemy when the
shield was attacked. It must have been because the man had made contact with the shield so
many times, but a ridiculous number of bullets went flying at him. The barrage of bullets
shot out from my shield and straight into the small man while I held him firmly
in place.
Before I could catch him,
the small man skipped the laugh and tried to put some distance between us.
“They’re weak but they
have some skill, it seems. We shouldn’t underestimate them. The Shield Hero’s defense
seems pretty solid, too. Maybe we should call you-know-who to take care of them.”
“Eeehehe, that’s probably
a good idea. Someone with abilities to counter defensive heroes is just what we
need.”
Eclair caught the small
man off guard and . . . hmm? She launched an attack
that was far more powerful than any of her previous attacks and plunged her
sword into the man.
Eclair’s sword stabbed
deeply into the small man’s shoulder and he grimaced in pain . . . or at least I expected
him to, but the part of his shoulder that had been stabbed began to waver like
a mirage and the man stepped to the side. Was that part of being
able to resurrect? What
a pain in the ass!
Filo pulled out the
morning star that she’d been keeping hidden in her feathers and flung it at the
man. That was Filo’s
toy. We’d
gotten it while we were in Zeltoble! It made pillars of fire
wherever it hit. Where the hell had she been hiding that thing?! Did she not think that
would be dangerous?! I figured she’d lost it, since I hadn’t seen it lately. But apparently it had
been hidden in her feathers. That said, I couldn’t deny
that it was a pretty clever tactic. In fact, it sent a huge
wave across the watery surface of the large man’s barrier, causing it to burst
open.
“So you managed to break
through my shield, huh? You’re tougher than I thought. It’s been a while since
we got to really enjoy ourselves!”
What was with these guys? It was almost like they
felt no pain and were coming at us like it was all a game . . . but that wasn’t quite
right, either. It was more like they knew this was a real fight to the death, and yet
they were still completely relaxed. They were enjoying the
fight, and I could tell that they were confident they would win.
“Eeehehehe! Well, things are just slowly going downhill as it is. It looks like we’ll need
more people to get the job done properly.”
It was true that the
situation was gradually getting worse. But that didn’t mean that
our attacks were completely ineffective. Raphtalia had the most
powerful attacks among us. If she used her strongest attack along with my Attack Support, we might
be able to finish these creeps off.
I cast my support magic
on Raphtalia. I needed to concentrate so that I could cast multiple times. Our enemies were getting a
good idea of what we could do. We’d be at a disadvantage
if we didn’t finish them off before they figured out exactly what we were
capable of. There was a world where people wanted to kill holy heroes to get
stronger and they couldn’t be negotiated with. It was becoming clear that
this was a fact.
Raphtalia gave a big nod
and sheathed her katana. She was preparing to increase her speed and launch a powerful skill at
the enemy.
“Filo and Rishia. Sorry to split you two up, but when I give the signal, each of you
launch your most powerful attack at one of the enemies. Eclair, you follow up
Raphtalia’s attack. S’yne, you know what to do.”
With this many people,
carefully splitting up our attacks wouldn’t be necessary. The enemy had some really
annoying abilities, but it wasn’t like our attacks were ineffective. I didn’t know if they were
just impervious to pain or if it was because they were something similar to
Glass’s spirit race. But their bodies almost seemed to act like smoke at times. I was impressed that
S’yne had managed to kill one of them. I didn’t know what their
weak spots were, but we needed to finish them off either way. I didn’t really like the
thought of outright killing them, but they were trying to kill us, after all. There was no turning back
now.
Raphtalia’s katana went
straight through the opening toward the small man . . . but just before it hit,
the large man reached out to protect him. Blood sprayed out from his
arm.
Eclair’s short sword
flashed brightly as she struck at the enemy. The rippled barrier had
begun to regenerate, but her attack pierced through and hit both men! But they must have
realized that they wouldn’t be able to dodge it, because they both took
defensive stances to reduce the impact. Damn . . . This
was tough.
Raphtalia’s skill
generated three successive thrusts instantly, and she had skillfully launched
it from both hands. In other words, she’d fired off six rounds straight into the enemy. That is, if things went
our way.
The large man swung his
kusarigama adeptly and formed a large X-shape with the chains while taking a
defensive stance. Raphtalia’s attack was thwarted as it crashed into the chains and sparks
flew everywhere.
Damn it! That was not how I wanted things to end! Not to mention, this was
not where I wanted to run into them again!
“Judging from what S’yne
told us and what those creeps said, they’re basically assassins from another
world. On
top of that, they have ill-willed intentions to destroy this world.”
There were benefits to
destroying worlds. Glass and the others hadn’t actually succeeded, so they probably didn’t
know that. Destroying
a world could give someone powers that included the ability to resurrect . . . It was like the worlds
were practically being coerced into fighting with each other.
“It’s a clash between
worlds separate from the waves. Basically, the heroes
from different worlds can kill each other, and those creeps want to prove that
they’re the strongest.”
What a ridiculously lame
excuse. Not
to mention, they weren’t even vassal weapon holders or holy heroes, so it was
like my companions . . . it would have been like
Filo and Rishia sneaking into another world to fight, for instance. Considering how strong
those creeps were, if their boss—holy heroes couldn’t invade other worlds, so
it would probably have to be a vassal weapon holder—showed up, what then? There was no doubt someone
like that would probably be strong enough to kill us.
“In any case, we can’t
have Ren running around out there with people like that roaming around. We have to get him
somewhere safe.”
“I’d heard about the
truth behind the phenomenon of the waves, but to think there were enemies like
that, as well . . .” said
Eclair.
“It’s hard to wrap your
head around. On top of that, they can return from the dead, even if we do kill
them.”
“They almost seemed to be
fooling around, but they were incredibly strong. And now you’re telling me
they’re immortal, too? Mr. Iwatani, we need to
formulate a strategy quickly. We must figure out how
they’re returning from the dead.”
She might have been right. Judging from past
experience, I had a feeling they had probably crossed over to this world and
been in the middle of leveling up when they confronted us. So it was either smoke
them out in a hurry, figure out how their resurrections worked, and finish them
off. Or get
the heroes to safety first . . . It was a hard decision. It certainly seemed like
the longer we waited, the more we’d be at a disadvantage.
Raphtalia, Filo, and I
had reduced stats at the moment because of the curse, and we were still a long
way from complete recovery. S’yne wasn’t all that
strong, and Eclair had learned the Hengen Muso style, but I really didn’t know
how much potential she had. Rishia was still developing. It was hard to say before
we got her to level 100, but I had big expectations for her.
Even if we figured out
how the enemy’s resurrection abilities worked and came up with a plan to kill
them for good, it was unclear if we’d actually be able to pull it off. Either way, securing the
heroes had to be the priority. I wouldn’t have to worry
so much if we got them as strong as I was. And if we could get the
seven star heroes together, too, we’d be all set.
“You don’t need to worry
about that kind of thing, Atla! Leave the fighting to me!” Fohl interjected.
“We are far too weak to
fight at Mr. Naofumi’s side in our current condition. You say I don’t need to
fight, but right now you’re nothing but a hindrance to Mr. Naofumi. You need to think about
how you’re going to get stronger.”
Being told off by Atla
seemed to have gotten Fohl fired up. The hakuko were
considered to be superior, even among the demi-humans, and had the potential to
become incredibly strong. Considering what was coming, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to see them
develop quickly.
“Mr.
Iwatani,
I’ll do my best to be useful, as well. There is no way I’m going
to let someone like that destroy our world!”
“Good, that’s the spirit. Anyway, our task for the
time being is to get Ren to safety fast. S’yne, go see if you can
lure Ren out, just like we originally—”
And then it happened, just
as I was giving the order. I felt something rush by at incredible speed. Sheesh . . . It was just one problem
after another and it was starting to piss me off.
It had felt like some
kind of shock wave, but we hadn’t seemed to take any real damage. But a few of the others
were reacting strangely.
I turned around to see
everyone acting really odd. Umm . . . I was just going to
ignore the hakuko siblings. Rescuing Fohl would be a hassle, and rescuing Atla would probably be a
hassle, too. As for myself . . . I wasn’t really sure. Rishia and Eclair didn’t
seem to be affected all that much. They were squirming
around a bit, but that was about it. What had happened? There was too little to go off of to even begin to know how to respond.
Filo was, uhh . . . She was staring at me
with bloodshot eyes. I wasn’t sure if I should run. Judging from the way Fohl
and Filo were reacting, it must have been some kind of status effect.
Raph-chan jumped up onto
Filo’s head and started doing something. I’m sure she was creating
some kind of protective barrier or something. Raph-chan sure had some
convenient abilities.
Umm
. . . yeah,
I’d just leave them to their own thing. Considering their levels,
it was probably too dangerous for them, whatever it was. If it was those men, they
were after the lives of the heroes, so the siblings would be safer if they
weren’t near me.
I had a feeling Motoyasu
was sounding even stranger than before. He was pushing Ren’s sword
back with his spear while waving at me with a big toothy smile. Damn, he was annoying. Who the hell was he
calling “father”? And who waves in the middle of a fight?!
“Mr.
Naofumi! I think perhaps it was
the Spear Hero that was hiding outside of the bandit hideout earlier . . .” Raphtalia suggested.
So he heard us talking
about capturing Ren and went out ahead of us to try to give us a hand without
even asking! And just as we missed him, our new enemies showed up at the hideout. But anyway, did Motoyasu
not realize we were trying to capture him, too?! This was all starting to
make my head hurt.
Ren and I stood there staring
at each other silently. But his skill must have failed to activate, because nothing happened. Could it be that the
strange shock wave from earlier was interfering with his skill?
It must have been
Motoyasu’s doing, after all. But . . . Motoyasu’s spear seemed to
have some kind of black mosaic-like design on it now. Was I seeing things? Judging from the skill
name—and the way Fohl was responding earlier—it must have generated a field
that triggered some kind of allurement type of effect. That fit Motoyasu perfectly.
Huh?
What was that? Motoyasu was suddenly
looking really handsome. He was surrounded by brightly glittering strands of gold on a
background of pink. Oh lordy . . . what a hunk . . . I’d be happy to bend over
for a man that handsome . . .
I shook my head
vigorously and pulled myself back together. That was close. I’d been on the verge of passing a point of no return. This field produced a
truly formidable status effect.
Raphtalia didn’t seem to
be affected. Her resistances to illusion-type magic and skills were high, so she had
probably been able to block the allurement effect, too. That would have been
really depressing if Raphtalia had been attracted to Motoyasu, even if it was
because of a status effect. Thank goodness for her illusion resistance. I guess being a
racoon-type made her as tricky as a tanuki. Hooray for racoons!
Rishia was acting a bit
strange. It
seemed like the allurement skill was forcing her to decide between Itsuki and
Motoyasu.
Filo was only fine because
Raph-chan had been sitting on her shoulder. She must have already
forgotten that she was about to come at me with bloodshot eyes just a few
moments earlier. As for S’yne .
. .
She seemed fine. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about this field that triggered a
status effect, but Motoyasu had created an opportunity for us and passing that
up would be a waste.
I wasn’t really sure how
to respond, but Ren not being able to escape was a good thing. I’d just have to let the
whole freaky skill thing slide, since it seemed like Motoyasu was genuinely
trying to help.
Raph-chan was still
sitting on Filo’s shoulder . . . What the hell? Our numbers were dwindling fast. Right now, I had
Raphtalia, Eclair, Rishia, and S’yne with me. Capturing both Ren and
Motoyasu at the same time with this lineup was . . . still possible, maybe?
They’d already started
arguing without me, damn it. Well, it looked like
Motoyasu was cooperating, anyway, so that should make capturing Ren a lot
easier. Ren
was still refusing to face reality, like always.
Ren had gone off the deep
end. Everything
he did was right and everything anyone else did was wrong. He was talking and
behaving strangely, almost as if his unconscious mind had risen to the surface
or something. He
was acting kind of like . . . No, he was acting exactly like one of those people in online games that was completely obsessed
with being the absolute strongest player. Honestly, I wanted to rub
it in his face that having no friends was the whole reason he was a failure,
but it wasn’t like he’d actually listen.
I’d just block his attack
for now. Then
I could give Raphtalia and Eclair the order to attack. The two of them seemed to
understand, because they backed down. S’yne was using me as a
shield, too. Rishia was . . . still shaken up, damn it. Prepare to fight already! Jeez. I couldn’t help but be a
bit worried, but it looked like we would be able to coordinate well enough.
Ren raised his sword and
rushed at me . . . No,
wait. He
suddenly switched his target to Rishia and rushed at her. Oh, come on! Just like I thought, Ren
wasn’t right in the head. He lacked coherence. Or maybe direction was
more accurate.
Rishia squealed when Ren
suddenly changed the direction of his attack. If I had to guess, the
bastard was going after the person here that looked the weakest. Taking out the weak ones
first was a basic rule of warfare, but what the hell happened to “fair and
square”? The
thing is, Ren had made a big mistake. This wasn’t the same
Rishia he knew.
But Rishia instantly
shifted into a crouching position, and before I knew it she had launched her
throwing knife at a nearby tree and then used the attached rope to swiftly pull
herself out of Ren’s reach. When pulling herself
away, she had simultaneously launched four or five iron spike things in Ren’s
direction.
Talk about a speedy escape. What the hell was that
ninja evasion? Her reaction had basically been instantaneous. It’s like she was fighting
on a completely different level than the rest of us. But no, I could see her
moves, so it wasn’t like I wouldn’t be able to defend against them.
Right?
With moves
that flashy, of course even Raphtalia would be impressed. And where had she been
hiding those iron spikes in the first place? That was probably some
kind of Hengen Muso concealed weapon or something.
I couldn’t let Motoyasu
set the pace. I really wished he would just stand down, actually. I had several things I
wanted to ask Ren about right now while he couldn’t run. Like who was behind . . . behind Ren . . . No! I
wasn’t talking about Motoyasu!
Hmm
. . . I
guess asking the wrong questions would end up working against us. That would make getting
any information out of him tough. I wanted to find out where
that skank was off hiding, if nothing else.
“Anyway, Ren, I’m not
your enemy. Nothing good can come from taking orders from that bitch and playing
bandit chief—”
This guy was completely
off in his own world. He obviously didn’t realize it was him that was backed into a corner.
Stop
it! It hurts! I felt a chill run down
my spine. He
was taking the fantasy world geek performance to the next level.
Motoyasu raised his spear
in preparation to finish Ren off, but I stopped him. Ren’s sword smashed into
my shield with a loud clang. Hmm . . . Just like I expected, his
attack wasn’t very powerful. I probably could have
grabbed his sword with my bare hands. Should I try it? Maybe he would surrender if he saw just how big the gap between us was.
“I will become strongest
of them all! Yes! There is no limit to my
desire! I
shall awaken new strength in this very moment and defeat you! There is no limit to my
desire! My
desire feeds my rise to the top! I will awaken new power! I will triumph! I will get the best equipment, all of the money, and all of the power! I will become the
strongest across all worlds! I shall be the envy of
all worlds!”
Umm
. . . going
a bit bananas, aren’t we, Ren? He kept repeating the
same thing. Desire
this and desire that. It was
annoying. Awaken power? He’d already awakened as
the Sword Hero . . . I guess being consumed by
a curse would make someone that bonkers. He’d completely gone off
the deep end.
Thanks to those other two
we fought earlier, the whole thing about becoming the strongest across all
worlds really hit a nerve. But . . . I had a feeling I knew
which curse Ren had been consumed by.
But something seemed off. It felt so miserably
trivial for greed. I didn’t know if I could actually call that greed. Greed was supposed to be
insatiable desire, right? Limitless desire that made someone want anything and everything. But Ren was just focused
on becoming stronger. Of course, I wasn’t trying to say that wasn’t desire. But people that were
truly driven by greed were far more despicable, and they wanted to have
everything.
But in the end, all Ren
wanted was strength . . . Ah, so that was it. I finally understood why. If I had to spell it out,
I’d say it was the process that he was chasing. With greed, you desire
something, and so you obtain it. Once you have it, you
want something else, and so you obtain that, too. That’s the basic premise. But with Ren, his
objective was the act of getting stronger. It wasn’t that he wanted
to get stronger because he wanted some thing.
The process
and the result had swapped places.
It made all the more
sense having experienced something similar myself. Back when I was spending
a lot of time peddling wares, I’d originally set out to make money so that we
could get better equipment. But before I knew it, my
goal had become the act of making money itself.
So I guess even something
as petty as that could unlock a curse series. But that was also why he
wouldn’t be able to win against my wrath. No matter how much
stronger his curse grew, that pathetic greed of his could never overcome my
wrath. It
was transient, two-bit greed.
His weapon was part of a
curse series. I
was confident of that much. Which meant there had to
be a reason for the curse to trigger. For me, Witch interfering
with my duel against Motoyasu is what sparked it. The curse series hadn’t
actually triggered then, but later on when I thought Filo had died during our
fight with the dragon zombie, the Shield of Rage first appeared.
The weapon that Motoyasu
was using looked like part of a curse series, too. Hmm . . . Maybe the curse series
were something that triggered when a legendary weapon user experienced extreme
psychological stress or something. Motoyasu and I had both
been in really bad situations. Our psychological states
had been bad enough that suicide wouldn’t have been unthinkable. But the heroes couldn’t
be allowed to die in this world. If the heroes died, it
could mean the destruction of the world itself. Suicide was unacceptable.
I think I’d hit the nail
on the head. Put simply, the curse series was a defense mechanism that manifested
when a hero was suffering from some psychological issue. Still . .
. Even if that were true,
what was it that had driven Ren this far? At the very least, he had
still been calm enough to have a civilized conversation when we’d met before at
the tavern. Even if he had been making excuses like blaming his companions’ deaths
on their own weakness.
Ren’s words pissed me
off, interrupting my thoughts. All the bastard cared
about was something so insignificant! He needed to get a grip! I didn’t care about what
had caused the curse anymore. I just wanted to shut him up.
“Save the world? Then go save it, you goddamned fool! Do you really think
you’re going to save the world by running around playing bandit chief here?!”
The strongest? Save
the world? By
running around here playing bandit chief and ambushing anyone he didn’t like,
going on and on about who won or lost? If he could save this
rotten world by doing that, then he was welcome to keep it up! But that wasn’t going to
save the world, and it wasn’t going to stop the waves.
“I’m tired of listening
to you drivel on about being the strongest! I don’t have time to be
dealing with an insignificant brat trying to be king of the mountain out in the
middle of nowhere!”
Ren’s sword transformed
again. Had
it evolved to the next stage? My Shield of Rage had
transformed into the Shield of Wrath. It was safe to say that
Ren’s current situation was similar to the one I had been in when that
happened. In
that case, it was highly possible that Ren’s sword had just transformed into a
superior version of itself.
He’d used that on me last
time we fought! He was acting like he’d just come up with a skill that he’d been using
all along. Using
the same skill repeatedly wasn’t going to work even in the most cliché of
manga. Seriously,
what the hell?
“Let this foolish sinner
pay for his transgressions with his being crushed in the name of a god! Take my riches and
unleash a godly assault upon him!”
Ren raised his sword up
to the heavens and golden treasures began amassing from out of nowhere to form
a human image in the sky. It was a sinister and unbelievably gaudy sculpture made out of gold. Taking the attack head-on
would probably leave a scratch, but I had my companions with me, and I was
guessing that not all of them would be able to avoid it. Goddammit. I guess that meant I had
to eat this lame-ass attack. That would make anyone
want to sigh.
What happened to Maneater
Shooting Star Sword, anyway? This was obviously a
completely different skill. His tricks were becoming
more and more cowardly. Could this still be called greed for victory? That skill . . . I’m guessing it was the
equivalent of my Blood Sacrifice. There would most likely
be consequences for using it. Ah, so that must have
been why Ren’s equipment was so shabby.
Maybe we could have run
if one of us could fly or something. It would have been nice if
Filo could still fly like when we were in Kizuna’s world. She was big enough by the
time we’d left that I probably could have ridden her. I was imagining it as the
idol came crashing into me. It sent a heavy shock
wave reverberating through my body that felt like it might dislodge an organ. Damn . . . Being weakened by the
curse made me feel that one a bit, after all.
An exquisitely clean
whishing sound filled the air as Raphtalia drew her katana. She then landed firmly on
the ground and returned her katana to its sheath. A loud crash rang out and
a fissure tracing the path her blade had traveled began to open on the surface
of the statue before it crumbled away and disappeared.
If Eclair and the others
had been able to get away, then it would have made sense to just dodge an
attack like that. Even so, this was just part of the job. As the number of people
involved grew, our ability to respond swiftly would continue to decrease. I wanted us to be able to
respond just a bit more quickly. Looking at it from a
different perspective, though, you could take it as a sign that our military
power was increasing, like in Kizuna’s case.
“Grr
. . . It’s not over . . . I can still become stronger . . . I have to give more . . . I have to win, even if it
means sacrificing everything!”
Intent on cutting me
down, Ren raised his sword and struck from overhead, and thrust at my chest,
and made a diagonal downward cut . . . and just kept slashing
away using all sorts of attacks. I evaded, blocked, and
parried, and not a single one connected.
I didn’t have time for this. He would trust some bitch
that told him what he wanted to hear, but he wouldn’t trust me. And now he was in a place
like this, swinging around a cursed weapon and going on about getting stronger.
It had been
the same with the Spirit Tortoise. It was the same with
everything. It was
all a game to him! He gave up on the Hengen Muso training because it was boring. He didn’t even try to
believe what I told him about sharing power-up methods.
I was all out of patience. Maybe it would be best to
just cut off his limbs and keep him locked up somewhere, so that he didn’t end
up getting killed. It would only cause problems if he died, after all.
Motoyasu was really
itching to kill Ren. Or at least that’s the way he was making it sound. Why was he pretending to
be on our side, anyway?
“S’yne, you keep Ren from
being able to use any skills. The rest of us will
incapacitate him and then we can take him with us. And if he still won’t
cooperate after all of that . . .”
“It’s something that
occurred to me when we fought before. I have a feeling that we
may be able to use swordsmanship as a means to get through to the Sword Hero.”
“I
do. Regardless,
my patience is running thin, too. I’d like to give the
selfish Sword Hero a good shaking. Let me fight him one on one.”
“At least that excuse is
a little better. I’m going to intervene if things start to look dangerous, though. You good with that?”
That might not agree with
Eclair’s knightly ideals, but she was a valuable military asset . . . It didn’t sound right
coming out of my mouth, but she was a valuable companion that I couldn’t afford
to lose. I
wasn’t going to be naïve and say I wasn’t prepared to accept any sacrifices in
the fight for this world’s peace. But at the very least, her
life was not one I could afford to sacrifice for something as stupid as this. Plus, even if she did have
some skill, I didn’t really feel comfortable pitting Eclair against a hero.
“I’m going to cast my
support magic on you to make up for the fact that he has a legendary weapon. I’m not going to approve
of the duel unless you’re okay with that. It would be unfair,
otherwise.”
I cast Zweite Aura on Eclair.
If Sadeena
were here, we could cast Descent of the Thunder God on her, but whatever. This was as good as I
could do in these circumstances. After
all . . . casting
Sacrifice Aura on her would surely be going too far.
Once my support magic
took effect, Eclair turned to Ren and readied her short sword! Ren was already preparing
to chase after Rishia, but Eclair stepped in front of him and blocked his path.
“Our fight was interrupted
last time, so let’s finish it here! Sword Hero! My name is Eclair Seaetto, and with this sword presented to me by the
queen, I shall cure you of your selfish ways!”
The two clashed, and the
rest of us backed away to watch the duel. Motoyasu looked like he
was just waiting for a chance to stab Ren to death from behind.
He was being helpful for
the time being, but . . . it seemed like I still
needed to set him straight eventually. He did seem to be
listening to me, which was more than I could say about Ren, but he had a really
bad habit of running away.
Eclair’s sharp thrust
nailed Ren right in the shoulder. It hadn’t actually
pierced his skin, but that was a point for her.
“I
. . . will not lose. I . . . am the strongest and . . . to become stronger . . . I will .
. . gain all and . . . devour . . . all!”
Ren’s speech became
fragmented and his sword—what had been a sinister, single-handed sword—transformed
into a soot-black long sword. On top of that, the black
aura that it had already been emitting intensified.
Would Eclair really be okay? That sword . . . I wouldn’t have been
surprised if its stats had risen enough to overcome my defense now. Looking more closely, I
noticed that there were lots of little decorations on the sword. There was a dog-looking
animal on the guard . . . a
fox, maybe. I could see something that looked like a pig on the hilt, too.
But Ren’s speech had
gotten even stranger when the sword transformed. Gain all and . . . devour all? If he’d meant “devour” in
the literal sense, then it was possible that he’d awakened the curse of
gluttony, too.
“I
. . . will
become the strongest! Even now . . . in this very moment, I am
evolving and . . . I
will harness . . . an unfathomable amount of
strength . . . and defeat you
all . . . and
devour the experience!”
Ren swung the long sword
up into the air and dashed forward. His movements were
awkward, but they were also quite fast.
Ren began swinging the
long sword around furiously. There was absolutely no
rhyme or reason to his attacks. Eclair was crouching,
bending, and maneuvering her body to dodge all of the attacks.
“Your swordsmanship is
dull and simplistic. No matter how much your abilities increase, with swordsmanship like
that you wouldn’t be able to hit me, even if I hadn’t improved a single bit
since our last encounter!”
Oh,
nice! She was right. His movement was quick,
but it was also haphazard. I guess if someone had been swinging a sword around as long as Eclair,
they would be able to dodge that much. I had a feeling the
situation was similar to when Raphtalia and Sadeena had fought. Sadeena had completely
read all of Raphtalia’s attacks and dodged every one by a hair’s breadth. It was an incredible feat. So now Eclair had become
strong enough to do the same thing to Ren.
“Grr
. . . Stop missing! Each of my attacks should
be strong enough to destroy anything it touches!”
Stat and ability-wise,
Ren was most likely well ahead of Eclair. The reason he still
couldn’t hit her was probably due to a vast difference in the levels of their
swordsmanship.
“There’s no way you could
hit me. Not with
that languid blade. With haphazard attacks like that, it’s as if you’re not even trying to
hit me.”
I wondered how Raphtalia
or Filo would dodge if it were one of them fighting him. They probably wouldn’t
dodge by a hair’s breadth like that. They’d probably just use
pure speed. It
was probably because she had always fought by my side, but Raphtalia tended to
fight really aggressively. I guess that only made sense, though. In all of our battles,
her job had been to try to land the most fearsome attack possible while using
me as a shield instead of dodging. Perhaps it was time for
us to undergo some serious training, too.
“Fehh?
Umm, the
Sword Hero’s attacks are all rather monotonous. I’m sure anyone
experienced at combat would be able to dodge them.”
I guess so. Ren was fast, but even I would probably be able to dodge those attacks.
That’s how
repetitive and tedious his attacks were as he swung his sword around. For the most part, they
were either cuts straight down or slices to the side. Every now and then he
would make a right-angle turn or something, but it was always completely
obvious when he was going to change his path.
Technique-wise, L’Arc and
Glass were probably far more advanced. Compared to them, these
attacks of Ren’s were like a child’s sword-play. The strength gained from
a curse was basically a stat boost. I had a feeling Ren had
actually fought smarter and been stronger before he had been consumed by the
curse.
What a line. He was saying it was all about his attacks, and the opponent shouldn’t
even get to counterattack. Oh yeah, Ren had mentioned that shielders had died out in the VRMMO he
used to play. Maybe that’s why he was so caught up on defeating his enemies before
they could counterattack. He’d also said something about expecting them to evade, though. It didn’t add up.
Since even the earliest
online games, it was usually in PVP where the existence of defensive classes
really made a difference. It seemed to me like Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki were all total noobs
when it came to fighting against other people. Of course, things
probably worked just like they said in their own games. But that’s not how it
worked in this world. That much, I was sure of.
Ren swung his sword down
hard and recklessly. The instant the tip of his blade touched the ground, the earth shook
and split open. Oh man, so it was one of those earth-splitting attacks. It seemed pretty powerful.
Aiming for Ren’s
shoulder, Eclair unleashed a sharp jab just like the last time they had fought.
With a dull
thud, her jab bounced off of Ren’s shoulder, ineffective. It was clear that Ren’s
defense had risen even higher than it was several moments ago.
“Mu-ha-ha! The sword that I am currently using features the highest level of
automatic self-repair. Your measly attacks are meaningless. Quietly accept your defeat!”
Ren’s eyes twinkled as he
laughed sinisterly. I guess he was laughing because he’d realized that Eclair lacked a
decisive blow. But what was up with the explanatory narrative? Actually, the armor I’d
been wearing before had automatic self-repair functionality, too.
“Hmm
. . . So he’s
not as tough as Mr. Iwatani, but he rejuvenates as soon as I cut him. That makes things difficult.”
Eclair mumbled while
looking at the tip of her sword. She must have still been
pretty relaxed, because there wasn’t a single bead of sweat on her brow.
That skill again! I guess it’s because it was a long sword now, but the cloud of black
stars dispersed over an even larger area. Eclair’s appearance began to
. . . blur
as she went about dodging every single one.
“Rishia, stop playing the
narrator character. ‘What?! It was?!’ Is that what I’m supposed
to say? Because
you know I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well
. . . You’re
right about that much. But seeing Rishia and Eclair fight makes me think we need to do some
training, too,” Raphtalia said.
Raphtalia was absolutely
right. I
was starting to feel like I was lagging behind those two, from a technique
perspective. And it seemed like it was only recently that they had just suddenly
pulled ahead, too.
If it meant being able to
move like that, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to prioritize learning the
style. The
heroes’ weapons made mastering it more difficult, apparently. But it couldn’t hurt to
learn how anyway. Maybe we should go hole up deep in the mountains for a while. For the sake of being
able to survive what was coming.
“Just as I thought. Even strong chains or
tough defenses shatter easily if you take advantage of their weak point.”
Ren began to waver and
then disappeared. That idiot. He just kept using the
same attacks. What happened to Hundred Swords? Or Thunder Sword? It didn’t matter how many attacks he had. If he wasn’t going to put
some thought into how he was using them, he wouldn’t be able to beat Eclair.
Eclair swiped her sword
to the side. That’s all it took for Ren’s concealment skill to be canceled out, revealing
him once again. Nice one. That was pretty impressive.
I guess that would be
depressing if Ren had outdone her specialty magic. I’m sure I would have
been annoyed if he’d outdone my defense.
Eclair crouched down low
before springing toward Ren, thrusting her sword at him. Ren didn’t feel it
necessary to defend. No, he suddenly jumped backward away from Eclair.
Her short sword flashed
brightly as its path traced the form of a cross. It was one of those magic
sword techniques. Those were in a category separate from both skills and magic. Eclair had used that on
our enemies earlier, too.
Eclair’s attack was a
direct hit. I could see some kind of light cut through Ren’s body. But in the same instant he
took damage, the wound began to close. Ren stood there grinning
like nothing had happened.
“To think that one of
your attacks could actually touch me. Not too shabby. I guess you’re worthy of seeing what it looks like when I start to get
serious.”
What the hell was he saying? That bastard had been
having the struggle of his life, and now he was saying that it had all just
been an act? Get a grip! If we’d been serious, I’m
pretty sure defeating him would have been easy as pie.
And anyway, what happened
to the aftereffects of the curse series skills? Was he not feeling the
effects of the curse? He seemed to be moving around normally. I wanted to make a witty
remark about it, but I kept my mouth shut. I figured he’d just say
something like “no curse can touch me!” or “curses can only make
me stronger!”
“Hogwash!
Nothing is
more insulting than holding back against an opponent in actual warfare! Stop pretending like
you’re not struggling, you fool!”
Oh man, he went and made
Eclair mad again. These two were as incompatible as it got. Even so, Eclair had seen
right through Ren’s act. He was fast, but that’s all he was. Eclair could read his
every move. If that was the case, being fast was pointless.
That said, Eclair’s
attacks lacked power, too. Even if she’d mastered the old lady’s defense rating attacks, they
wouldn’t be very useful unless the opponent had an extremely high defense, like
I did. I’m
sure her swordsmanship was superb, but being pitted against a hero consumed by
a curse put the odds against her.
Those defense rating
attacks didn’t really make sense in the first place. It was almost as if they
were made to be used against the Shield Hero. I didn’t know where the
Hengen Muso style had originated, but if it was Melromarc, then it was possible
that hostility toward certain countries drove them to develop the technique for
exactly that purpose.
The fight had reached a
stalemate. Ren
couldn’t land any attacks, and Eclair’s attacks were ineffective. A long, drawn-out battle
would put Eclair at more of a disadvantage. Ren’s attacks weren’t
landing, but that didn’t mean they weren’t powerful. Judging by the way things
were now, there was a high probability Ren would win this fight.
“What do you want to do,
Eclair? If
this continues, things are just going to slowly go downhill until you lose,
don’t you think?”
Heart, huh? Maybe she was dealing with something I couldn’t understand, since I
could only use a shield. I mulled over it as Eclair asked Ren a question.
“Tell me, Sword Hero. What is your objective? Mr. Iwatani says he intends
to return to his own world.”
Ren was obsessed with
being the strongest, so she was just going to make him come after me! Sheesh . . . Oh? Ren didn’t seem to know how to respond. Hmm . . . Maybe this really was the
key to getting through to him.
Oh, come on. Asking him a question like that was only going to get an asinine
response. You
could see the crazy in Ren’s eyes. That guy wasn’t thinking
straight, or even at all.
“I have to become the
strongest or I won’t be able to bear it! I will become the
strongest across all worlds, all times, and all dimensions! This is my greed! This is my gluttony that
seeks and devours all experience points!”
Ren finished his spiel
and the pitch-black aura emanating from his body intensified. I could tell he was about
to use some skill.
“Let this foolish sinner
pay for her transgressions with her being preyed upon in the name of a god! Accept as an offering the
earth’s nourishment I have received—unleash its putrefaction upon her and let
her be devoured!”
Ren clenched his fist
tightly. His
whole body began to glow like a firefly and then the light seeped away into the
ground and disappeared. The ground began to shake and then suddenly split open beneath Eclair’s
feet. Ah, so
this must have been some kind of evolution of that other attack that had caused
a fissure earlier. The incantation had been similar to the one I used for Blood Sacrifice.
Fangs grew
up out of the fractures and were attempting to bite into Eclair.
Did it really look like
it would be fine? I guess it was just one of those things you had to be a martial artist
to understand. But if Raphtalia thought it would be fine, then I’d trust her.
Eclair had successfully
dodged Ren’s attack, by the way. It looked like it was
pretty much the exact same attack as Blood Sacrifice. No, wait, I guess it was
different after all. Some gray, foul-smelling substance started spraying up out of the
ground like a geyser. The golden idol earlier had been off-putting, but this was just
disgusting. Whatever that was, getting hit by it probably would have been bad, even
for me.
It had missed Eclair, though.
Just like
Blood Sacrifice, that meant that the user would have to pay the price of using
it without getting anything in return. In my case, that would
have been an utter tragedy, considering my current condition. Yeah, if I ever needed to
use it again, I’d have to make sure there was no way it would miss. I couldn’t let myself
forget that the reason it had worked on the high priest was because the queen
had kept him in place.
We were keeping our
distance, so I figured we weren’t in danger, but the ground near where the
attack had taken place started dissolving into a muddy mess. The surrounding area
looked like it had been devastated by fire, and an unbelievably rancid odor
filled the area as mushrooms and mold began to pop up out of the dirt. The rotten earth had
become a putrid sea, and creatures resembling monstrous flies started to form
in the muddy waters. That was a cursed skill if I ever saw one. Eclair seemed to be the
only target. Before long, the monster flies began to swoop down on Eclair.
“Take aim before attacking! Your attacks lack
determination! When Mr. Iwatani unleashed his
finishing attack while shouldering Ost’s final wishes, taking painstaking care
to ensure it would not be wasted, that was an attack that carried weight. I believe it is that
determination that is true strength.”
The cursed onslaught of
monster flies cannonballed toward Eclair . . . She swiftly leapt straight
over the creatures and landed directly in front of Ren. Having lost their target,
the monster flies continued to charge forward miserably before crumbling away
and disappearing moments later.
I sighed. I couldn’t help but feel like the whole area had been horribly
contaminated. There was seemingly no end to the damage this bastard did to others.
Ren didn’t know how to
respond. Ah,
so that was it, after all. Now I understood why something about Ren’s greed felt so weak. I’d already noticed that
the process and the goal had been swapped. But beyond that process
there was nothing more to Ren’s greed.
That might have been why I
hadn’t awakened the greed curse series. I greedily wanted to make
money. But
to me, the money of this world was simply something I needed to survive the
waves, and that was the extent of my interest in it. I would be returning to
my own world eventually. So when that time came, giving any leftover money to Raphtalia as
payment for everything she’d done was about all I could do with it. Of course, I would be
lying if I said I never thought about living a little more extravagantly. But if I had money to
spare I was going to spend it on equipment or invest it in facilities.
The same went for Ren’s
gluttony. It
had probably awakened as an extension of his desire to be stronger, but after
he’d consumed the experience points of an opponent, there was nothing left. Once he’d become the
strongest, he would be satisfied. His gluttony would be
satisfied once his stomach was full. It wasn’t the kind of
gluttony that came from insatiable hunger, where a person could eat and eat and
never be satisfied.
My curse was wrath. I was filled with a
borderline overwhelming sense of wrath toward injustice. The object of that wrath
was this whole world, starting with Witch. Of course, I had hopes
that my wrath might disappear when I returned to my own world, but . . . most likely, I would
still become unreasonably angry at times even after returning to my own
reality. I
would just have to do my best to control it.
So between being
constantly consumed by unremitting anger and an unfulfillable desire to be the
strongest, which would be more agonizing? Maybe the reason I had
been able to withstand my wrath increasingly more lately was because I had been
able to take revenge on Witch and Trash to a certain degree. It might have been that
the power of the curse series would change depending on the intensity of the
hero’s emotions.
“I don’t want to hear
about some mission you’ve been given by someone else! There’s nothing at all
convincing about that!”
Eclair discarded his
response without hesitation. His eyes and voice had
both completely lacked conviction, after all.
“If it’s so hard for you
to admit it, then let me spell it out for you directly. I’ll tell you exactly
what it is that you want.”
“Like a fool, you went
charging in thoughtlessly and you lost your companions, numerous others, and
the trust of the people. All you really want is to get all of that back and becoming the
strongest is simply a tangible goal that you think can make that happen! Nothing more!”
“But even if you were a god . . . No, as a hero you are a god. But even so, getting all
of that back is impossible. Do you really think
becoming the strongest is what you should be focusing on right now?!”
Ren swung his sword
wildly at Eclair. I wondered if I should step in. I started to take a step
forward, but Eclair held her hand out as a sign that I shouldn’t interfere. She then went about
reading and narrowly dodging each and every one of Ren’s attacks. Man, she was good.
“The truth is you already
know this. You
know you don’t have time to be rotting away in a place like this!”
“Your companions believed
in you until the very end, and for that they are but dust in the wind. It is on their behalf
that I now swing my blade!”
Eclair unleashed a string
of attacks that poured straight into Ren. I could see a flow of magic . . . or was that life force? I wasn’t really sure. It looked kind of like a
special effect, but I guess it was probably life force. Anyway, some kind of
light started swelling up inside of Ren. It was as if the
technique was destroying him from the inside out. It must have been one of
the old lady’s specialty defense rating attacks. It looked similar to one
she had used on me before. Taking a string of that many defense rating attacks would be hell. And since I was
particularly weak to such attacks, just watching sent shivers down my spine.
“The people that you lost
are never coming back. But starting now, you can live with enough purpose and fight with
enough vigor for yourself and all of them, too. I will assist you in any
way that I can.”
She was making herself
look good, but Ren hadn’t actually taken that much damage. But then again, he was a
hero, even if he was a lame one, and he had unlocked two curse series. For Eclair, that was
probably one hell of a close fight. If she had eaten even one
of Ren’s attacks, she’d probably be split clean in two right now.
And then Ren collapsed. Oh man, that kind of defeat
was straight out of an anime. I mean, come on, he’d
clearly had plenty of stamina left.
“Don’t run from your sins. Every time you try, I
will be there standing in your way. For the sake of your
deceased companions.”
Ren was still collapsed on
the ground, but he was crying. Was it involuntarily? He was completely still
otherwise. His
long sword had changed back into a normal sword, and the sinister aura had
vanished. When
Eclair finally turned around, I called out to her.
Praising her too outright
would be out of character for me, so I masked the compliment as sarcasm. Putting it like that was
probably a safe bet.
“This was supposed to be
an emotionally moving scene! It was supposed to be a
communion of two hearts, via the sword, guiding a troubled soul to harmony. But you just completely
ruined it, Mr. Naofumi.”
And then with the worst
timing possible, the same pair that had fled only minutes earlier faded into
view. What
the hell were they doing here?! This was not the time for
them to show up again! They were supposed to be running away!
“We were going to run
away, but then we noticed a cloud of smoke and decided to check it out. Is that one of the other
heroes?”
This was bad. Ren and Motoyasu were so weak that they couldn’t even begin to compare
to me. Not
to mention, Ren had passed out and couldn’t even move.
For some reason, he was
over by Ren and Eclair just standing there looking confused. He obviously had no idea
what was going on.
“It wouldn’t make sense to
pass up an opportunity like this. We might as well finish
him off real quick.”
Eclair pointed her short
sword at the pair and readied herself to protect Ren. I couldn’t just let Ren
and Motoyasu be killed, either. That would only make
things a lot harder on me, after all.
Raphtalia and I swiftly
broke into a sprint, and Rishia threw her knife and was trying to obstruct the
men by getting them caught in the rope. Should I use Attack
Support and fire off a skill? I was almost close enough
for Ren to be in range of Air Strike Shield. The large man was headed
toward the collapsed Ren and it wouldn’t be long until he reached him. Neither Eclair nor
Motoyasu had an attack strong enough to deliver a decisive blow.
“Blast it! I didn’t want to use that technique before I had mastered it, but it
appears I have no choice!”
Eclair crouched down low
and readied herself to perform some kind of technique. What was she going to do?
“Mr.
Iwatani! I won’t be able to fight
after using this technique, but it will buy you some time. I leave it to you to
protect the Sword Hero!”
I guess she still had an
ace up her sleeve. Eclair was going to buy us some time so that I could protect Ren.
Rishia was focusing in
preparation to use some kind of technique, too. I wanted to jab her about
not waiting until the last second to play her trump card, but I guess this
wasn’t the time for that.
His efforts were
commendable, but frankly, him jumping into the fray would just make things
messier. What
the hell was I going to do if Ren and Motoyasu both died on me here?!
The large man grinned and
swung his kusarigama at Motoyasu and Ren, while the meteorite summoned by the
small man appeared in the sky above them. I just had to hope that
Eclair’s and Rishia’s attacks would make it in time. I was concentrating while
running to prepare to cast my support magic on Raphtalia and the rest of us.
Motoyasu thrust his spear
at the large man out from behind the shield that had appeared in front of him. The enemy had some
mysterious rippling defensive barrier. Motoyasu’s attack
wouldn’t be able to touch him! Even if he did have a
cursed weapon, just like Ren, his attacks wouldn’t be powerful enough to—
A sound like a balloon
popping echoed out. I’m pretty sure it was louder than when Filo and Rishia had just barely
managed to break through the barrier.
Motoyasu’s spear had
pierced through the barrier effortlessly and straight into the large man’s
chest. The
spear went clean through the large man, and Motoyasu started swinging the spear
around like it was a toy, with the large man still skewered on the end.
It was everything the
skewered man could do to squeeze out a response while he continued to struggle.
Blood spurted
out of his mouth. He had almost managed to pull the spear out of his chest.
Still stuck to the end of
Motoyasu’s spear, the large man exploded into pieces right before our eyes. Luckily it wasn’t one of
those disgusting scenes where chunks of flesh went flying. The explosion had reduced
him to atoms.
The small man was dumbstruck.
But he must
have pulled himself together quickly, because he flashed a vulgar grin before
making a comment.
He was laughing
flippantly about his own companion’s death. These creeps really did
have a game mindset. They were even worse than Ren.
“Translocating Light . . . doesn’t seem to be
usable, I guess. This has turned out to be a real hassle.”
The small man pulled
out his shamshir and readied himself to engage at any moment. Then he turned to
Motoyasu and just as he was about to dash forward . . . Motoyasu was already
standing directly in front of the man. When did that happen?! Aside from defense, all
my stats were currently reduced by more than half due to a curse, but even so,
surely he couldn’t move so fast that I couldn’t see him, right?!
Motoyasu had just blown a
man to smithereens and yet he was acting completely unaffected. Something about his
expression seemed crazy. Oh,
that’s right. Motoyasu was using a cursed weapon, too. I’d forgotten since he
had actually been listening to me, but Motoyasu obviously wasn’t in his right
mind.
Motoyasu swung his spear
to the side. It sliced clean through the small man’s shamshir . . . and his neck, too.
Blood spurted out all
over Motoyasu. Red had been one of his favorite colors to start with, and now he was
covered in blood. He was red from head to toe. Having just seen two
seemingly formidable enemies effortlessly killed in a single instant had left
us speechless.
Motoyasu nodded without
hesitation, as if to imply such a thing was only natural. That meant that the
Motoyasu here with us had implemented all of the power-up methods of the four
holy heroes. On top of that, he had probably powered up his curse series weapon, too.
It was
probably at stage IV, like my Shield of Wrath, or perhaps even stage V.
That shield had made a
huge difference when fighting the Spirit Tortoise and Kyo. It was ridiculously tough
and had some powerful abilities, but what about in Motoyasu’s case? It only made sense that
his weapon equivalent would have extraordinarily high attack power. In other words, Motoyasu
now possessed a colossal amount of power. It would be a far cry
from the mediocre strength that Ren had displayed. That was certainly reassuring.
Crazy.
To think
that he’d been able to so effortlessly and brutally annihilate enemies that I’d
had such a difficult time with.
The enemies had appeared
unexpectedly, but we’d narrowly managed to protect Ren, thanks to Motoyasu. The completely
unanticipated turn of events had thrown me for a loop, but now we needed to
focus on Ren.
Rishia was just now
noticing the state of things and making a commotion. Curious, I gave our
surroundings a quick once-over. Headless corpse. Putrefied
earth. It
would have been hard to describe the fierce battle that had occurred here in
only a few words.
But wait a minute, the
men’s corpses hadn’t turned into light. I wondered why. It would have been nice if they could give us a clue about how to prevent
our enemies from resurrecting.
I looked over to where I
expected Motoyasu to be standing, but there was no sign of him there. Then I heard a
high-pitched sound, so I looked over in that direction. A short distance away,
Motoyasu was walking off whistling, for some reason.
He was using a cursed weapon.
It would be
a problem if he just went and disappeared again at a time like this! I don’t know what the
consequences were for using it, but I was sure they wouldn’t be pretty! But before I could tell
him that, something came speeding toward Motoyasu from behind. Was that . . . Filo’s carriage?
Filo’s carriage was being
pulled by . . . huh? It was three . . . filolials—one red, one
blue, and one green.
“Filo-tan! Father! Should you ever find
yourselves in a predicament, know that I will come running!”
Filo went chasing after
Motoyasu with her cheeks puffed out and fury in her eyes. I sighed. But I guess I’d be mad,
too, if someone just went and used something of mine, like it belonged to them.
I could
understand how she felt.
She’d probably had a rough
time, with Filo carrying her off somewhere like that. Filo had gone chasing
after Motoyasu, so if everything worked out, maybe we would be able to capture
him, too. Although,
judging by the way he was now, that wasn’t going to be easy.
For some reason,
Raph-chan jumped up onto my head and pointed at something just like she had
done when pointing out Kyo’s soul before. I was suddenly able to
see the souls of the pair of men we’d just defeated.
“Oh yeah? Whatever,
that’s fine. We lost this time, but we’re going to kill you and your friends next
time! I’m
going to make you pay for doing this to us!”
Her speech was breaking up
like usual and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. But! I knew of an attack that
would likely be effective on an opponent like this. Indeed . . . The situation was exactly
like when we had defeated Kyo.
The pair’s voices cracked
when they cried out. They’d probably thought we wouldn’t be able to do anything to their
spirits, but they were wrong. We couldn’t be
sympathizing with enemies that were trying to kill the heroes. If we didn’t do anything
right now, they would just come back for revenge. We needed to take action
now while we had this chance. If we managed to kill
them, it’d be like hitting the jackpot. That would mean we had
figured out a way to keep enemies from resurrecting.
But in online games,
whenever you resurrected, you would return to some kind of save point. So why were their souls
just hovering around over there? And then I remembered
what had been going on here just a few moments ago. Now it made sense. Motoyasu and Ren had
destabilized the Earth’s magnetic field here. Their souls must have
been stuck here for the same reason teleportation skills couldn’t be used.
“Unfortunately for you,
I’m not willing to trust anyone that talks like that. Raphtalia, snuff ’em.”
Her soul-slicing skill
cut through the pair’s souls, which then dissipated and vanished. It would be a real feat if
they somehow still managed to resurrect. I looked back over at
their corpses, but they showed no sign of turning into light. I guess they were
honest-to-goodness dead now.
S’yne’s voice broke up as
she whispered. A look of relief was on her face. I wasn’t sure exactly
what she had tried to say, but I’m pretty sure I understood how she felt. We’d finally defeated an
enemy that kept coming back to life, no matter how many times they were killed.
Of course
she would be relieved.
“We ended up having to
take their lives. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” Raphtalia whispered as she
returned her katana to its sheath.
“The creeps were going on
about their world being the strongest. It wasn’t like the sense
of purpose that Glass and the others had. They were sickening. There’s no need to feel
sorry for them,” I told her.
I could tell they weren’t
the type that would listen to reason. It felt like we’d been
fighting against children in adult bodies. Mortal combat was a game
to them. I’m
sure the reason they had been talking like it was all a game while we were
fighting is because they were confident they would be fine even if they died. It was a setting where we
had one life, and they had infinite lives . . . No thanks.
I had the urge to complain
about how our problems always suddenly piled up all at once like this, but . . . I guess right now I should
just be happy that we had won.
“There might still be
some of their companions around. Let’s be cautious as we
head back. Don’t
let your guard down.”
By the way, Filo had gone
chasing after Motoyasu but ran out of steam before she could catch up with him.
Sheesh . . . Motoyasu was nothing but
trouble. Still,
I wanted to think that the fact he’d been acting on our behalf was a sign that
he’d changed. If he was that strong, I was sure he wouldn’t end up dying easily,
anyway.
“You’re awake. This is the village I’m overseeing. That area you were
causing trouble in is part of the territory the queen gave me.”
Upon awaking, Ren was calm. He was looking at me and
Eclair with regret in his eyes. Raphtalia was staring at
me like she was keeping watch, to make sure I didn’t try anything. Oh, and Fohl had returned
to normal as soon as Motoyasu left, by the way.
Ren remained calm and
listened to what I had to say without protest. It seemed like Eclair’s
chastening had been effective.
Ren began to tell his story. Apparently, the same day
the two of them fled, Witch told Ren she wanted to meet someone and took him to
a certain town. It had been near where Ren had teleported them to. There, Witch introduced
him to a man. He’d recognized the man’s face but couldn’t recall from where. The man had pulled out a
sword and asked Ren to teach him how to use it.
Ren happily obliged and
did some light sparring with the man. And then the man began
discussing something with Witch off to the side. It was hard to make out
what they were saying.
Ren made up his mind to
fight once again for the sake of the people that believed in him. He was fed up with the
people of this world and their sudden change of attitude, but even so he’d
fight for the people that believed in him.
That was, until the next
morning, when he realized that Witch had stolen everything except for his sword
and run away. She’d left a letter behind on the inn table.
Had he been holding on to
it as a keepsake? Ren
handed me the letter. It was full of wrinkles like he’d crumpled it up before, but I was
still able to read it.
“You’re no longer of any use to me, so I’m
taking everything that is and leaving. I’m grateful that you
helped me escape from the Shield and the Spear, but I’m afraid neither your
looks nor your personality is my type. I guess I’d be willing to
love you if you ever became strong enough to defeat the Shield. Of course, judging from
the way you are now, that will never happen. Ha ha ha!”
Damn, she was annoying! Without even thinking about
it, I ripped the letter up and threw it away. That Witch bitch! She was beyond redemption!
But to think she’d
already ditched Ren by the following day . . . Damn, she worked fast! Bloody hell. It made me wonder if the
real reason she’d approached him was to get her hands on his equipment and
money. But
I guess she probably just decided that keeping Ren in the dark for much longer
would be too much of a hassle.
“I think something
probably snapped inside of me at that point. Everything went black and
one of those curse series you’d told us about appeared on my status screen,”
Ren said.
He’d decided to believe
in someone again and they immediately betrayed his trust, after all. I could understand how he
must have felt. If Raphtalia had betrayed me the day after I’d realized she believed in
me, I’m sure my wrath curse series would have evolved much quicker, too.
“After that . . . things just went into a
tailspin. I
left the inn and walked around looking for anything of value . . . I decided if people were
going to steal from me, then I’d just steal back from them. But I didn’t want to
reveal my identity, so I got a mask and . . .” he went on.
I guess that was when he
ambushed the bandits’ carriage, made them his underlings, and formed his own
gang of bandits. It was a perfect example of a life spinning out of control.
“Naofumi . . . I know it probably sounds
disingenuous, but I hope you’ll forgive me for everything.”
“Yeah, whatever. Regardless of whether I forgive you or not, my objective has been to
protect you from the very start. I’ll let it go as long as
you don’t do anything like this again, so heed my advice and just focus on
getting a little stronger.”
There were people
sneaking around in this world that wanted to kill the holy heroes. Considering that and what
was coming, the heroes needed to get every bit as strong as they could. I was sure Ren had the
potential to be stronger than me at the very least, and that’s why I wanted him
to learn how to power up his weapons properly.
Ren had been a huge mass
of pride obsessed with maintaining his suave image, but now he was bowing his
head meekly and apologizing to me. He seemed genuinely
regretful. If
he was going to apologize this much, I felt like forgiving him might actually
be an option. Did
that make me a softy?
“I never imagined Witch
would be that horrible. I mean, I did have my doubts. But . . . she was kind to me, so I
made the mistake of trusting her. It was foolish and
unforgivable. I ruined what may have been your last chance to capture her!”
Ren got pretty fired up
as he badmouthed Witch. He’d gotten played, after all. He probably hated her
almost as much as I did. In that sense, I could sympathize with Ren. It felt kind of like . . . we were connected by a
common enemy now.
“You’re maligning the
former princess, now? Well, it’s not like I can’t understand how you feel, but . . .” Eclair mumbled while
scratching her head.
But where had that woman
run off to, anyway? Based on what Ren had said, she seemed to have an accomplice. A man that Ren had seen
before somewhere . . . That meant it was someone
that Ren had come into contact with at some point. Who in the world could it
have been?
I had no idea. Anyway, if we wanted to go after Witch, we probably needed to find
Itsuki. Witch
had targeted me, then Motoyasu, and then Ren. It was highly likely that
she would go after Itsuki next. I didn’t know what her
plans were, but they certainly didn’t seem to be well-intentioned. Seriously, that bitch
brought nothing but trouble. It was possible that there
were still more enemies like the pair Motoyasu had killed lurking around, too.
Now the question was whether
I should tell Ren how to get stronger again or not. He seemed genuinely
regretful, and it wouldn’t hurt to have him on our side. After all, the heroes
were supposed to work together to fight the waves, like Kizuna, Glass, and
their companions.
“You were using curse
skills one after another, so we need to figure out what kind of condition
you’re in right now. Other
than that . . . actually listen to what I
say and get stronger. It’s really not that hard.”
“Don’t worry about it. All I want is for you
three to get stronger. You need to recognize what kind of situation we’re in now, too.”
All I could do was defend. I had to rely on my
companions to attack. The reason I could put up such a good fight now was because Raphtalia
just happened to have been chosen by the katana vassal weapon. In other words, the other
three heroes were supposed to be the foundation of my offense. If I could get Ren on
board and if he really made an effort to get stronger, then that would be just
about the best companion I could ask for.
“I
. . . I’m
going to face up to what I’ve done. Welt, Bakta, Tersia, and
Farrie . . . My
companions died trying to bring peace to this world. I want to fight to make
sure they didn’t die in vain.”
It seemed like Ren was
finally ready to listen to what I had to say. I was still a little
worried, but it looked like things might work out.
“Sword Hero, try not to
worry about things too much. We . . . Me, Eclair, and the
village children that I grew up with are all here to help.”
Raphtalia was trying to
comfort Ren, perhaps because she sympathized with his newfound purpose. Ren nodded meekly in
response.
“Of course. I, too, will do everything I can to help. Let’s fight this battle
together. What do you say?”
“Certainly. If you ever start to go astray again, Mr. Amaki, I will be there
standing in your way, no matter how many times it happens.”
Wasn’t it a bit late for
that? But whatever. We’d both been tricked by
Witch. I
wasn’t looking for a support group or anything, but I felt like we could
sympathize with each other. Another member had joined
the Victims of the Witch Bitch Club.
“Yeah.
So far, our
force to fight the waves . . . and the next guardian
beast—the Phoenix—is steadily increasing.”
Other than that, we would
have to deal with those enemies looking to kill the holy heroes. I couldn’t imagine those
two men being the end of it. Thinking about the fact
that there may still have been others lurking out there somewhere just made me
feel sick. Kizuna’s
world had its share of problems, but we had heaps of our own here in this
world, too. Knocking
them out, even if only one at a time . . . was our only choice, I guess.
“Alright, Raphtalia. We’ve got plenty of
headaches ahead. We don’t have time to be taking it easy. We have to be ready to
deal with any enemy that stands in our path.”
“I
agree. Sadeena
keeps telling me I don’t know how to use a katana, so I’ve been feeling like my
technique is lacking lately.”
Our stats were reduced at
the moment. I could have just used that as an excuse, but I think we needed to go
back and do a thorough reassessment of our technique. Our enemies this time had
only been the vanguard. They weren’t holy heroes or even seven star heroes. They had been the
equivalent of hero companions. Struggling with enemies
like that was unacceptable. We would continue with
our usual tasks, but I was going to add training to the schedule, too.
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