LN Tate no yuusha CH 11 - 15 Vol 12 bahasa indonesia

Chapter Eleven: Perfect Hidden Justice

It was the day after Filo and Melty set off on their journey to train. I gathered up the slaves from the village who had been making an earnest effort to level up, and I used my portal skill to teleport us all to Zeltoble. When the old lady had gotten back to the village, she told me that it would be good practice for them if they fought against some unfamiliar opponents, like mercenaries. She said they were at least strong enough to fight in the coliseums now.

“Bubba! Bubba! Do we get to fight here?!”

Keel was excited. We were watching a duel at a coliseum in Zeltoble.

“Yeah. This is the open coliseum, so it’s relatively safe. I want you all to fight hard, but do your best not to get injured too.”

“Sure thing, bubba!”

“Keel, do you really understand?” asked Raphtalia.

“Of course! I don’t want to get injured and get left behind!”

I was glad that Keel seemed to be in her usual good spirits.

“Besides, with Sadeena here, we’ll be fine no matter what happens!”

“Oh my!”

“Yeah, I’ve heard she used to rake in the money here in Zeltoble. Speaking of which, where’s S’yne?” I asked.

Apparently, S’yne hadn’t noticed that something was happening when we were dealing with the dragon incident recently. She had been asleep or something. Sheesh . . . She was never around when we needed her the most. Maybe she would have come if I’d called her though. I guess it was partially my fault for forgetting about her. She may not have even been able to teleport to that corrupted mountain in the first place.

“I hear little S’yne is busy in the underground coliseum,” Sadeena replied.

“Does she ever take a break?”

“And of course, she’s donating half of her profits to you, little Naofumi.”

“Nice! Keep it up, S’yne!”

“You prioritize profits too much, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said.

“An impressive attitude, Mr. Naofumi!” Atla exclaimed.

“What part of that is impressive?!” Raphtalia retorted.

The two of them went back and forth in their usual manner.

By the way, Fohl had realized just how weak he was and went out to train with the old lady. On top of that, he’d apparently asked for the no-holds-barred course and the old lady got really excited or something. The group of slaves with me now had nothing to do while the old lady was out, which is why I’d brought them to Zeltoble to fight in the coliseum.

We were at the coliseum that the slave trader managed. The bets here were on the small side, but we still had to pull some strings to participate, just like when we had fought Sadeena. My slaves had stat adjustments. They were far stronger than their levels would imply, and their histories had to be touched up a bit too. The Lurolona slave price bubble had burst, but they were still being traded on the high side.

“Fehhh . . .”

“Rishia, are you still making that pathetic sound after all of your training?”

“I . . . I can’t help it!”

Her talents had finally blossomed, but she was still the same useless Rishia. Sheesh . . . I’m sure we would have been able to defeat the Demon Dragon a lot easier if she had been there. Whenever faced with an opponent bent on world domination, Rishia’s true powers would awaken and she’d defeat the enemy like some kind of heroine saving the day.

“Alright, everyone. Be careful while you’re out there fighting,” I told the slaves.

“Okay!” they shouted back in unison.

I left the slaves with Sadeena and the rest of us made our way to the gallery seating.

The tournament that we’d entered was a short one that would only last one or two days. In general, the open coliseum was meant to entertain guests with straightforward fights. That’s why there was a greater emphasis on rules than in the underground coliseum. There were all kinds of restrictions, like level classes and only being able to use dulled weapons. Of course, you never knew what might happen since betting was still part of it. The current tournament had level classes, and killing opponents was strictly forbidden. It felt more like a sports tournament than underground fighting.

I considered having Raphtalia or Sadeena enter, but it was likely that someone would recognize them, so I decided to hold off on that. As for myself, this tournament was one-on-one matches only. I might have been able to win without breaking the rules, but you couldn’t win by forcing the opponent out of bounds, so I decided not to enter. Even though I couldn’t attack, I might be able to win by restraining the opponent, but that would be a real hassle. It made more sense to just have the slaves get some real-world fighting experience.

“Alright, we’ll be watching from the gallery. You all do your best!”

“This way, Shield Hero,” said the slave trader.

He had been silently standing nearby. He led us to our seats in the gallery. On the way to our seats, I caught sight of the other contestants getting ready for their matches. The majority of them looked like degenerates. Many of them had brutish or muscle-bound appearances too.

And then I saw it. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“I . . . Itsuki?!”

“Huh?!”

“Feh?!”

There was Itsuki, mingling with the other contestants like he was just another ordinary mercenary. When Raphtalia and Rishia heard my outburst, they looked over and saw him too. They both cried out in surprise.

“Is something wrong? Yes sir.”

“No, it’s just . . .”

I explained to the slave trader that Itsuki, the Bow Hero, was here in the coliseum. We needed to talk to Itsuki before we did anything else. S’yne’s adversaries were trying to kill the holy heroes. I wasn’t going to let Itsuki slip through my fingers here.

“Let’s see . . .”

A brawny man whose face was concealed by a piece of cloth brought the slave trader a list.

“Contestant #982. He’s registered as Perfect Hidden Justice.”

I almost fell over backward. Perfect Hidden Justice? That had to be a joke. That was so blatantly obvious that it would have sent even the most delusional escapist running back to reality. Even I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

“Can we talk to him?” I asked.

“Yes, I can grant you permission under my authority.”

The slave trader instructed his assistant to take us to the contestant waiting room. I didn’t want to alarm Itsuki, so I approached casually and greeted him.

“Hey. Long time no see,” I said.

“Mr. Itsuki!” exclaimed Rishia.

Itsuki just stood there vacantly and showed no sign of responding.

“I . . . Yes . . . Everyone . . .” he mumbled.

“Hey,” I repeated.

“Everyone is counting on me. Yes. Everyone . . . is counting on me. This prize money will help save people.”

“Are you listening?!” I shouted.

Itsuki just kept mumbling to himself quietly. It was hard to make out what he was saying. He had a vacant look in his eyes. I couldn’t even tell where he was looking.

“I . . . I’m not inferior. I’m . . . Actually . . .”

“Hey! Listen to me!” I shouted at him.

“Mr. Itsuki! Umm . . . I—” Rishia began.

I grabbed Itsuki by the shoulders and shook him back and forth, but he showed no response. I heard the sound of a gong echo throughout the coliseum.

“I . . . fight for justice!”

“Mr. Itsuki! Ahh!”

Itsuki shoved Rishia out of the way and sprinted off, as if he hadn’t heard a word we said.

“What’s up with that jerk?” I grumbled.

“Are you okay, Rishia?” asked Raphtalia.

She had caught Rishia before she fell.

“Fehhh . . .”

It was like we didn’t even exist to Itsuki.

“So . . . I looked into that contestant a bit more, and it seems he’s been making the rounds at all of the Zeltoble coliseums for a while now. Yes sir.”

“Really? This is the first I’ve heard of that.”

“Yes. I’ve been told that he started showing up a day or two after you left Zeltoble.”

We’d just missed each other! That put me in a mood to complain.

Still, I don’t know what had happened to him, but something was clearly wrong with Itsuki. It probably had something to do with losing to the Spirit Tortoise coming back to haunt him though. That was easy enough to guess. That reminded me, the queen had mentioned receiving several eyewitness reports from when he fought the Spirit Tortoise. Going by those and what Kyo had mentioned, Itsuki’s party had a falling out.

When the coliseum matches began, I focused on Itsuki’s match. I’d assumed that attacking from a distance would be much more advantageous for Itsuki than close combat. But the rules restricted combat to a small area. An opponent would be able to close the gap in a flash. That would make using a bow disadvantageous. Regardless, Itsuki was advancing through the tournament with ease. He actually seemed pretty skilled at one-on-one combat.

But there was something strange about his expression. And every time the audience cheered, he threw his hands into the air and howled ecstatically. Was that really Itsuki? The Itsuki I knew was a bit more reserved. He was a hypocrite who was always trying to act like a real man of character.

“Fehhh . . .”

My slaves were fighting in a separate tournament, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them getting hurt. But I still needed to figure out how to take him into custody. Also, something about the way his bow looked really bothered me.

“How can we take him in without letting him get away?” I wondered out loud.

We’d already figured out how to interfere with the portal skills. Magically generating a magnetic field in the area would cause the portal skills to malfunction. It would be possible to keep him from running if we used ceremonial magic, like Sanctuary or Judgment.

Luckily for us, this was Zeltoble, the country of merchants and mercenaries. If I gave the order, I could have the slave trader arrange to obstruct portal usage in the coliseum Itsuki was fighting in. But if we did something that went against the rules, it was likely that Itsuki would feel threatened and run away. And things could turn really bad if he took hostages from the audience and started getting violent.

Just as I expected, the slave trader wasn’t prepared to agree to a plan that might result in people getting injured in a coliseum full of visitors. He said we’d have to be extremely careful and make advance preparations if we were going to try anything.

“We can just knock him out, no questions asked, and then take him into custody,” Atla said.

“Why are you always so violent?! Jeez . . . We should at least try talking to him, right?” Raphtalia replied.

“Yeah. I’d like to take him in on amicable terms, if possible,” I said.

More of S’yne’s old enemies might have still been hiding out in this world. We couldn’t know when or where to expect them. I wanted to convince Itsuki to stick with us, if possible.

“Mr. Naofumi, perhaps we should try to find out what he’s after by talking with our fists. I’m sure we would be able to get through to him that way.”

“What are you, Atla? Some kind of martial arts master?”

It was hard to believe she was a sickly little girl not too long ago. Everything she said made it sound like she only knew how to think with her fists. At least her brother had a little common sense.

“Mr. Itsuki . . .”

Rishia was watching Itsuki fight with a really worried look on her face. Hmm . . .

“What do you think we should do, Rishia?” I asked.

“I . . . I . . .”

Rishia put her hands together like she was praying and spoke hesitatingly.

“Mr. Itsuki seems very troubled. I would like to help him resolve whatever is bothering him.”

“Even though he discarded you like a piece of trash?”

Incredible. Rishia must have been some kind of saint. Her devotion was unwavering. Itsuki sure was a lucky guy.

“Either way, it seems like Itsuki is fighting in the coliseums to earn money.”

I had the slave trader do a bit more digging. He confirmed that Itsuki had been fighting day after day to earn money in coliseums around Zeltoble, both open and underground. It was clear that he wanted money. But we still hadn’t been able to figure out where he was staying. It was probably a good idea to look into why he was trying to make all that money too. Knowing Itsuki, I’m sure he was fighting to fund some kind of hypocritical scheme or something.

Maybe I would tail him and see where he went after the tournament ended. Or maybe we could lure him out somehow later.

“Hey, Perfect . . . I’m going to beat you this time!”

Itsuki’s opponent spoke to Itsuki.

“No, the victory will be mine again.”

“Like hell it will! I’ve seen all of your attacks now!”

Oh? It seemed like Itsuki would respond to his opponents. So the reason he had ignored us earlier is because he had been focused on the tournament . . . perhaps. But I could tell that something was off by the look in his eyes, even from a distance. His bow looked strange too. It was an unnaturally pure white, and yet it had a really sinister design. I could sense a strange aura coming from it.

“So we can assume that he’ll respond during combat . . . I guess,” I wondered out loud.

“Naofumi!” Rishia called out to me.

“Umm . . . I . . . I want to talk to Mr. Itsuki. So please, let me fight in the coliseum!”

“I think that’s a good idea. I have a bad feeling about that weapon of his,” said Raphtalia.

She nodded in agreement with Rishia’s proposition.

“Isn’t that pretty much the same as Atla’s idea? Then again, it did work for Ren. I guess we should try it sooner than later this time.”

“In that case, I have a suggestion, Shield Hero.”

The slave trader seemed to have a plan.

“What’s that?”

“There’s an underground fight arena that isn’t being used tonight. You could lure the Bow Hero there and then capture him. Yes sir. I could give him a written invitation when I present him with the tournament prize money.”

Something seemed off. I couldn’t help but feel like there was some kind of ulterior motive at play here.

“Let me guess. The queen is offering a reward to anyone who assists with the capture of a hero or something, right?”

“Impressive! You understand our true intentions well. My hat’s off to you! Yes sir!”

“There’s nothing impressive about it . . .”

His intentions were painfully straightforward.

“You better not try to turn this into a hero-deathmatch spectacle or something. I can’t guarantee anyone in the audience will make it out alive.”

“Of course. I will ensure that no guests are invited.”

The real problem would be if he had unlocked a curse series. Eclair had been able to get through to Ren, but there was no guarantee the same thing would work for Itsuki.

“Is it possible Itsuki might think the invitation seems too good to be true and not come?”

“I suppose it is possible. Yes sir.”

Still, it would be a good way to get him to talk. If he did show up, we could just make it look like a real match and then ask him what was going on . . . Right?

“What about the rules?”

“The Bow Hero seems to prefer one-on-one matches. Yes sir. There have been exceptions though. I’ve been told that he has fought alone in team-battle tournaments when the prize was large enough.”

Hmm . . . In that case, inviting him to a one-on-one fight in the underground coliseum would be our best bet. If we made it a team-battle tournament with a huge prize, it was possible that he would get suspicious. That would be risky. It would be completely pointless if he didn’t show up.

“Alright. Since you say you want to talk to him, Rishia, you’ll fight him in the first match. Then it’s our turn. I’ll take care of filling out the audience with fake onlookers.”

I’d just use the village slaves. We could put Sadeena or S’yne in the lineup of fighters, and that would make it all the more appealing.

“Understood! Thank you!”

Rishia thanked me. I gave her a small wave to say it was nothing.

“I hope you’re able to talk some sense into him and convince him to come with us,” I said.

“Me too!” she replied.

“What would you like us to do?” Raphtalia and Atla asked, looking at me questioningly.

“If Rishia happens to lose, you can go fight next and just pretend like it’s a coincidence.”

“Understood!” Atla exclaimed.

“Not you, Atla . . . You stay in the gallery,” I replied.

I was afraid she might end up killing Itsuki.

We went about setting up a fake tournament to lure Itsuki out into the underground coliseum. Itsuki was given a flyer along with his prize money, and we had someone follow him back to his place. That was a partial failure though, because his tail lost him in a crowd on the way. But we did have a general idea of where he was staying now.

The underground coliseum that the slave trader prepared for us was a cozy little arena in the basement of a small tavern. It felt like the kind of place where you might expect to see underground wrestling or something. There was nothing there but a barely adequate waiting room and a slightly cramped arena.

The slave trader had arranged for several magic users to cast a ceremonial magic spell called Sanctuary on the arena. That would make it impossible for Itsuki to flee using his portal skill. The invitation that Itsuki was given clearly specified that would be the case. If he noticed anything strange going on, he was likely to run. We needed to be extra careful about not making him suspicious.

Itsuki had showed up earlier that day, completely unsuspecting, and registered himself as a fighter. He was standing by in the waiting room now. Luring him there really had been so simple that it was almost disappointing.

“Luring him out was a success, but we still need to find out what he’s doing here and why he’s trying to make money,” I said.

“You really did find Itsuki?” Ren asked.

I’d returned to the village earlier and brought Ren back to Zeltoble with me. I figured there was a chance Itsuki would listen to Ren, even if he refused to listen to me. The two of them had been fairly close and talked with each other frequently before, apparently. Ren agreed to come without hesitation too.

“Yeah. Rishia is going to fight him in the first match. After that, I want you to go out there and try to talk to him, Ren.”

“Got it! I’m sure that Itsuki . . . is suffering just like I was.”

Ren was eager to do as I told him. I guess Itsuki was in the same type of situation he’d been in, after all. He probably wanted to do whatever he could to help out.

“You’ve got this, Rishia.”

Raphtalia was trying to encourage Rishia, who nodded enthusiastically in response.

“R . . . right! This time I really will do my besht!”

There she went with that annoying, cutesy pronunciation. I would’ve thought she’d be taking things seriously now, of all times. But maybe that’s just what made Rishia who she was.

“Rishia, go show Itsuki how strong you’ve become. Show him that you’re more than strong enough now.”

“I will!”

Rishia responded enthusiastically to my encouragement.

It was true. She was more than strong enough now. She’d really blossomed, both stats-wise and skill-wise. From joining our party at the Cal Mira islands, to training with the old Hengen Muso lady, and even taking on Kyo in her awakened state during the Spirit Tortoise incident, she had never given up on fighting. She’d gained self-confidence from everything that happened in Kizuna’s world, and she’d experienced a real life-and-death battle.

Rishia had changed. She wasn’t the same person that Itsuki had used as an errand girl. Now was her chance to show him that. The gong sounded and Rishia started walking to the arena. After seeing her off, Raphtalia, Atla, and I headed to some ringside seats with a good view.

“And now, a faceoff between Perfect Hidden Justice and Rishia Ivyred! Let the battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!”

The same announcer from when we fought Sadeena shouted out and gave the signal to start. I was surprised he’d agreed to take part in a fake tournament. My slaves all started clapping loudly. I’d ordered them to get out of there immediately if anything went wrong. Sadeena and S’yne were there to help guard them though. They would be able to buy them some time, even if things turned ugly.

“Mr. Itsuki!”

Rishia called out to Itsuki. He was mumbling to himself under his breath, but he stopped and looked up, his gaze fixed on Rishia.

“Oh? So my opponent is Rishia? This will be an easy win.”

Rishia was clearly a nobody to Itsuki.

“Mr. Itsuki! Please listen to me! The situation is extremely serious! Your life is in danger! Please listen to what Naofumi and Ren have to say!”

Rishia pointed over to me and Ren at our ringside seats. I waved at him, just to let him know I was there. All of a sudden, Itsuki’s expression grew incredibly grim.

Chapter Twelve: Justice vs. Justice

“Naofumi . . .”

The malice in his eyes was unbelievable. Never before in all of my fights against other people had someone’s icy, murderous intent felt so tangible. But why was he glaring at me so menacingly?

“Your actions! They are absolutely unforgivable!”

“What are you going on about all of a sudden?”

Had I done something wrong?

“Then again, if you asked me to come up with something I’d done wrong . . . I could go on for hours.”

“I wish I could argue with that. I really do,” Raphtalia whispered with a sigh.

It was nothing to be ashamed of. I’d just done what was necessary to survive.

“Mr. Naofumi is the embodiment of justice. He can do no evil,” Atla replied.

“I’m not so sure about that . . .” I said.

I thought about what Atla said. Saying that I made the rules would put me on the same level as Itsuki. It was hard to tell whether he was under the effects of a curse or just showing his true colors now.

“Then let me spell it out for you. You’ve gathered up slaves, forced them into hard labor, and you’re keeping all of the profits for yourself! Am I wrong?”

“Isn’t that the whole point?”

That’s what slaves were for, right? Of course, it was only natural to compensate someone for their labor. But once you owned a slave, that was manpower that belonged to you. You didn’t have to pay them for every little job they did. Did I have any qualms about purchasing another human being? Sure I did, but I was just doing what needed to be done.

This was taking the argument to the extreme, but to put it in terms of modern society, slaves were kind of like vacuum cleaners. No one was going to look at a vacuum cleaner and feel sorry for it because it was sucking up dust every day. Slaves were a convenient tool, just like a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine.

“What is that guy with the bow talking about?”

“Hard labor? Has Bubba Shield ever made us work that hard?”

“He never orders us to do more than we can handle. On the contrary, it’s always just the right amount.”

The slaves started whispering among themselves. They sounded like a bunch of shills.

“More importantly, this popcorn stuff that you made for us is super good, bubba!” Keel shouted.

She was sitting in the gallery and chomping on some imitation popcorn that I’d cooked up to help set the mood for the match. It really wasn’t all that good.

“Let’s go do something fun after this is over!”

“Yeah, let’s do something fun!”

Oh, damn it! They were distracting me. I wished they would just shut up!

“Oh my, look at that unquestioning obedience, little Naofumi!”

That killer whale wench, Sadeena, needed to keep her mouth shut!

“The village children enjo———”

“She says that despite being slaves, the villagers enjoy the work that they do.”

S’yne weighed in and her stuffed-doll familiar translated for her.

Letting them get to me would be a waste of energy!

“You’re making them act like they enjoy laboring for you! That’s even worse! And I heard about how you gave a sickly young girl expensive medicine to force her older brother into hard labor! The same slave siblings that Princess Malty was trying to rescue!”

“There’s no way Witch would be trying to rescue anyone!”

I reflexively shouted back in anger. But it was the truth. Doing a good deed was impossible for that woman. That, I was sure of.

“Who is this ‘Witch’ you speak of? We must not be the only pair of siblings that you have rescued,” Atla said.

“No, you’re the only ones,” I replied.

Atla was sitting next to me looking confused, but I was pretty sure Itsuki was referring to her and her brother. I don’t know where he’d gotten his information, but he sure was spouting off nonsense. Witch rescuing a demi-human? Even if hell did freeze over, that still wasn’t going to happen.

But wait . . . Why the hell was he mentioning Witch?!

“Itsuki! You just said Witch’s name, didn’t you?! Why are you bringing her up?!”

I couldn’t even imagine how it all fit together. Surely Witch wasn’t pulling Itsuki’s strings now, was she? But Itsuki clearly wasn’t listening to me. He just continued on with the accusations.

“I also heard that you sold your medicines to rich nobles but did nothing for the poor!”

Was he talking about my peddling operations? Or did he mean before . . . when I was traveling around Melromarc as the supposed saint of the bird god?

“I’m no saint. No one expects a merchant to sell goods to someone with no money, do they?”

Every now and then, some entitled jerk would show up and demand that I grace them with some medicine, like it was their God-given right. Maybe he was referring to those people.

“I heard about the evil noble who had fallen ill and was destined to finally meet his end. Thanks to you sticking your nose where it didn’t belong, he escaped death and the people’s suffering was prolonged!”

“Now you’re really barking up the wrong tree. I only sell the stuff. It’s not up to me to decide how people use it. And anyway, refusing to sell someone medicine because they’re a bad person, or trying to say that someone is better off dead, would be even worse.”

What the hell? Since when was selling medicine to rich people wrong? Besides, even if I had refused to sell to those rich people, it would have just been them doing the badmouthing. In the end, I was the bad guy no matter what I did!

“As a hero, you have the power to save others, and yet I spoke with a lamenting mother who told me about how you refused to save her son!”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about . . .”

That wasn’t ringing any bells. I didn’t save someone? I always did my best to save anyone that was seriously ill. Just like I had done with the old Hengen Muso lady. That’s not to say I didn’t demand those people pay for it afterward with anything they owned, but still . . .

“The woman clung to me, crying and saying she could never forgive you!”

Who would still be holding a grudge against me after all that I did? Oh wait, I think I understood.

“That son that you mentioned . . . He was already dead, wasn’t he?”

“That’s right! She told me that your shield had the power to perform a miracle, and yet you still refused to help!”

“Are you even listening to yourself? There’s no way I could bring the dead back to life, even if I do have the legendary shield. The people that can do that kind of thing are from another world.”

I knew of people that could come back to life. Although, we had still managed to kill them. That was getting off topic though.

I had pretty much figured out who Itsuki was talking about. It was really rare, but people like that did show up every now and then in villages and towns. They would bring me a corpse and ask me to bring the person back to life. Based on the rumors that I was a saint, and my actual feats as the Shield Hero, they would insist that I should be able to do such a thing. They would come begging to me, expecting miracles.

“Please, bring this poor soul back to life!” they would plead.

Those kinds of people never listened to reason. It would be one thing if they just burst into tears and gave up after being told I could do no such thing. But so, so many of them would just get pissed off and start trying to attack me. That’s why I started putting up signs at the entrances of the towns and villages that said I couldn’t bring people back to life.

“It seems like you’re just going out in search of unjustified resentment based on misunderstandings, and then using that to condemn me as evil. Instead of wasting your time doing that, why don’t you just fix all of those problems yourself? You’re a hero too, right?”

“No, Princess Malty told me that these were special powers that only your shield possesses!”

I guess that Witch bitch really was telling Itsuki what he wanted to hear now. She was exactly what he needed to convince himself that I was evil. Itsuki was more close-minded than ever. He clearly wasn’t going to listen to me, no matter what I said.

But seriously, was it really necessary for Witch to go and deceive every single one of the heroes? It had been the same with Ren. She must have swooped down on Itsuki when he was in a bad place. Now I really wanted to capture Itsuki. We needed to make him tell us where Witch was. Actually, there was a good possibility she was lying low at the same place Itsuki had been hiding out. I’d just have to hope that the slave trader’s protégés could figure out where that was.

“Itsuki, that makes no sense. Naofumi and I spent some time comparing the abilities of our weapons. Some of the effects are different, but the type of skills they possess are basically the same. If Naofumi’s shield had such an ability, I’m sure that my sword would have an equivalent ability. Or are you claiming that your bow has some kind of unique ability that our weapons don’t?”

Ren interjected with a sound argument. Indeed, my shield was meant for defense and Ren’s sword was meant to attack, so there were fundamental differences. But in general, the weapon skills all worked the same. It was just as Ren had said.

Well, I couldn’t deny that some kind of resurrection skill might exist, but we still hadn’t confirmed the details. If one of the legendary weapons did possess such a skill, it probably would be the shield. But if I did have that kind of ability, you can bet I’d be using it. Hell, I’d be making a killing by charging people ridiculous prices to bring other people back from the dead. Actually, if I could resurrect people, I’d bring Ost back to fight on our side in a heartbeat. Waves or otherwise, I’m sure we could overcome pretty much any problem with the almighty Spirit Tortoise fighting for us.

“He has committed countless other crimes! I cannot forgive you, Naofumi!” Itsuki shouted.

“Nonsense. On the contrary, what about all the people you couldn’t save because you were too weak to defeat the Spirit Tortoise?” I asked.

He completely ignored his own failures and preached to me about justice. What a joke!

“That’s beside the point. If you’re not willing to repent, then I won’t go easy on you!”

Itsuki readied his bow.

“This is my new bow. It’s a truly superb piece of equipment. It’s called the Justice Bow. And now I’m going to use it to defeat you!”

Itsuki fired a barrage of arrows into the gallery. Was attacking innocent bystanders his idea of justice?!

“Like hell you will! Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield! Shooting Star Shield!”

I summoned my Float Shield, as well, and made sure none of the slaves in the gallery were harmed.

“We won’t let you,” said S’yne.

“Let’s do this!” Sadeena shouted.

The two of them used their skills and magic to knock the magic arrows out of the air.

“Itsuki! Stop this!” shouted Ren.

He was batting the arrows away with his sword to protect the slaves. Raphtalia and Atla sprang into action too. Fortunately, none of the slaves were injured. But that announcer, who always shouted so passionately, had been hit by one of the arrows.

“Urgh . . .”

“Are . . . are you okay?!”

The announcer fell to the ground with a thud, but then stood back up immediately.

“Mr. Naofumi, I felt some kind of sinister force swell up and shoot through that man. What was that?” Atla asked.

“I have no idea.”

He looked like he was okay.

“Mr. Itsuki, as announcer for the underground coliseum, I’ve aided the Shield Hero in his plot to deceive you. Please forgive me!”

Huh? What was the announcer up to? Did he have a change of heart and decide to turn on me? Something wasn’t right.

“You are forgiven. Reflect on your sins and wash your hands of this shady business.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Itsuki!”

The announcer had a crazy look in his eyes. It was as if he had been brainwashed.

“Itsuki . . . That bow of yours . . .” Ren muttered.

He pointed at the bow and Itsuki grinned happily.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it? By unlocking the power of this bow and shooting an opponent, I can liberate them from brainwashing so that they can finally understand me!”

Did he really think he was liberating people from brainwashing so that they could understand him? There’s no way people would sympathize with others so easily. Case in point, Itsuki was making zero effort to understand my side of the story. On the contrary, he was the one brainwashing people. Justice Bow, my ass.

“This bow that Princess Malty entrusted me with possesses divine power! With this weapon, I can rescue even irredeemable trash!”

I decided to try thinking about things from Itsuki’s point of view.

He was defeated by the Spirit Tortoise and lost everything. That’s when Witch showed up and instigated him, which awakened new powers in the form of a curse series. If it were a mecha anime, it would be like the excitement of switching to a new robot suit. And then, before Itsuki came down from that high, Witch had sent him out to earn money by fighting in the coliseums. But he was being careful about how he used the power since it was his trump card. Something like that.

Either way, it was clear that Itsuki had unlocked a curse series weapon.

“Itsuki, let me tell you how it really is. That bow may seem like a tool of justice to you, but things aren’t that simple. The truth is, that’s a sinister bow with the power to brainwash others.”

“You’re wrong! This bow . . . is the embodiment of justice!”

I’d seen anime and manga where the hero went around spouting off nonsense. The hero would defeat an enemy and that enemy would be forced to sympathize with the hero. It seemed reasonable at first, but thinking about it from another perspective, the whole idea of trying to make someone understand something by fighting them was pretty warped. If a little violence is all it took to make someone abandon their beliefs, then those weren’t worthy of being called beliefs in the first place.

“Everyone, fight me! Open your eyes to that which is just!”

He was on a completely different level than Ren had been. Ren had still been aware that he was in the wrong. But that wasn’t the case for Itsuki. Itsuki was charging forward, blindly following his own sense of justice to the very end.

In terms of the seven deadly sins, this would probably fall under pride. But that wasn’t a perfect fit either. Another possibility would be vainglory, which was one of the eight cardinal sins. Or maybe it was one of the eight deadly sins that popped up in anime or manga every now and then as an alternative take on the concept. This was getting into real escapist, nerd territory.

I’d seen two instances of an eighth deadly sin. The first was justice. It was a justice that had been taken too far, becoming cold and merciless. Even the slightest of sins was deemed unforgivable and had to be paid for with one’s life. The second was fanaticism—sticking to one’s beliefs no matter what. Even if it meant one’s own ruin.

Then there was also the possibility that it was all four of those. Ren had unlocked multiple curse series too. It had been gluttony and greed in his case. We’d only seen two at once so far, but three or four at once might be possible too. I felt like I was starting to understand what this “justice” was that Itsuki was chasing.

“You’re wrong!”

Rishia lashed out at Itsuki in a surprisingly loud voice.

“You misunderstand Naofumi, Mr. Itsuki!”

“Is that you, Rishia? You, too, have been brainwashed by Naofumi.”

“Mr. Itsuki, you said that Naofumi was forcing slaves into hard labor and keeping the profits for himself, right?”

Itsuki nodded with a look of disgust on his face.

“Then tell me. Why is everyone living in Naofumi’s village in good health? Have you heard from any slaves that were overworked? Have you talked with anyone who was nearly worked to death?”

“I don’t know about any of that. But there’s no way that Princess Malty or Mald would lie to me!”

“I’m asking if you verified any of this yourself!”

Uh oh. Rishia had switched into her justice mode. That hadn’t happened for a while now. Not since we fought Kyo. If they started fighting while she was like this, we’d get to see the awakened Rishia.

“I’ve been watching Naofumi rebuild the village from the very start, when he brought the slaves in. Do you have any idea how many people Naofumi has saved after they fell into a life of slavery? And you call that forcing them into hard labor and hoarding the profits? Hogwash!”

“She’s right! Not a single child in that village is being forced to do work they don’t want to do!” Ren shouted.

He jumped on the bandwagon and tried to help talk some sense into Itsuki.

“That’s right! We’re all living life to the fullest, thanks to bubba saving us!”

“We’re working hard to rebuild our village!”

The slaves all started to speak up in opposition to Itsuki.

“Despite what you all might say, Naofumi has openly confessed to his crimes. There is no denying it!”

“Confessed? Are you talking about when I said I work my slaves like horses? Sure, I confess to doing that.”

“Mr. Naofumi, that’s not helping your case at all. Besides, you went through all of that trouble to buy up the Lurolona slaves when the prices were skyrocketing, so there are no profits to speak of. You’re still in the red,” said Raphtalia.

She let out a deep sigh. But I did work the slaves like horses! There was nothing wrong with that.

“The children in Naofumi’s village aren’t normal slaves. They’re always having so much fun while they work. It doesn’t even make sense to call them slaves,” added Ren.

Umm, I was pretty sure they would be categorized as slaves, from a social status perspective, and considering that they all had slave curses.

“On the contrary, you would think that Naofumi was the villagers’ slave if you saw how hard he works for them!” Rishia shouted.

“Wha . . . ?!”

“Yeah! He stays up late every night and spends every last minute doing all that he can for the village and the neighboring town! And he still trains to better himself on top of that! He doesn’t even have time to level! Which of those sounds like a slave to you?!” Ren added.

“What the hell?! What are you trying to say, you bastards?!” I shouted.

I was on the verge of activating Rishia’s slave curse to punish her.

“Naofumi is the village foster parent,” Ren went on.

“Oh my . . . I guess he is. Little Naofumi is the village mommy,” Sadeena interjected.

“Not even close! I am not a mommy!”

These bastards had it all wrong! Especially Sadeena! Neither Ren nor Rishia were making any sense anymore!

“You’re absolutely wrong!” I shouted.

“Mr. Naofumi, I believe in you,” Atla said.

What the hell did that mean?! Bastards, all of them! I was going to chew the whole village out later.

“Despite what you may say, the truth speaks for itself! Naofumi is evil, and that’s that!”

Itsuki wasn’t budging. But Rishia continued on.

“Mr. Itsuki, what about yourself? Are you free of sin? I find that very hard to believe.”

“Enough of the theatrics. It’s repulsive. You make me want to puke!”

Itsuki glared at Rishia with a scowl on his face. Talk about verbal abuse. Did he really think it was okay to talk to her like that? He’d already forced her to try to kill herself by jumping into the ocean, and yet here he was still pretending like he was the good guy.

“There is only one thing for me to do, and that is to destroy all traces of evil in this world!”

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I said.

All traces of evil in this world? As long as there were people, there would be conflict. According to Itsuki’s standards, Ren and I counted as evil. Actually, I was sure anyone that didn’t bow to him would be considered evil in his book.

“I may possess very little power. But even so, I . . . I will not condone such injustice!” Itsuki shouted.

He was trying to sound like some kind of hero. He pointed his bow at me and drew the string. When he did, an arrow appeared.

“Naofumi! I will shoot clean through that injustice!”

I could hear the whistling sound of Itsuki’s arrow slicing through the air as it came hurtling toward me. I moved my Float Shield and blocked the arrow.

“Injustice, you say?”

That was my line. I got summoned here as the hero they didn’t like, so they created an elaborate conspiracy to persecute me. It didn’t get any more unjust than that. What the hell gave him the right to go on about injustice? Itsuki’s words themselves were a big, stinking pile of injustice.

“Mr. Itsuki, it seems you are not willing to listen.”

Rishia held her sword out and took a fighting stance.

“Mr. Itsuki, I cannot accept this justice of yours. My justice deems your actions to be unacceptable!”

“Itsuki! This isn’t who you are! If you give yourself up to that cursed power, it will only lead to your destruction!” Ren shouted.

“Do not interfere!”

Itsuki aimed his bow up into the air and drew the string. Another arrow went flying. It was headed toward me, of course.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Raphtalia called out to me, but I held my hand up to signal her not to worry. I snatched the arrow out of the air this time.

“Shining Arrow!”

Itsuki pulled the bowstring back even harder and a bright, shining arrow appeared. It would probably take some time to shoot that one.

“Mr. Itsuki, your intentions have become clear. I am your opponent now. I will fight you with everything I have!”

Rishia readied herself to face Itsuki. She held a hand to her blade.

“Muso Activation!”

The air around Rishia began swirling and created a vortex. Is that what Muso Activation was? This was on a completely different level than what Eclair had done. I knew it was the same skill thanks to Ren’s commentary, but this time I could clearly see something visibly jetting outward.

“She’s absorbing life force from her surroundings. I’ve seen the master do it too. Rishia’s doing it the same way,” Atla explained.

She was sensing the life force and trying to figure out how the technique worked. Atla could get stronger just by watching others fight. I was jealous. It made me feel bad for Fohl though. His little sister was a prodigy and yet he still had to prove himself stronger than her.

“Haaah!”

Rishia charged at Itsuki. Her speed was incredible.

“Hengen Muso Small Sword Technique! Spiral Slash!”

A flow of life force began spiraling out of Rishia’s sword.

“Argh!”

Itsuki must have realized that getting hit by that would have caused some damage, because he dodged by a hair’s breadth and then fired off his arrow. Why the hell did it curve around and come flying at me?!

“Shooting Star Shield!”

I cast Shooting Star Shield to generate a defensive barrier that would guard against Itsuki’s arrows. The shining arrow split into multiple arrows that rained down over me. Just to be safe, I held my shield up toward the arrows. I didn’t take any damage. I’d disabled any counterattack effects too.

Rishia was right in front of him! He was supposed to be fighting her! Why the hell was he still aiming at me?

“I won’t let you get away!” Rishia shouted.

Itsuki had managed to launch his skill while dodging Rishia’s first attack, but she immediately followed up with more. They all seemed to be that same Spiral Slash attack. It was pretty incredible that she could use it so many times in a row. But the base stats of Itsuki’s curse series weapon must have been pretty high. He didn’t seem to take much damage even when Rishia’s attacks hit him. Even worse, his wounds were slowly regenerating.

“If that’s all you’ve got you better not expect to be able to stop me!”

Cursed, toxic fumes erupted from Itsuki, sending Rishia flying into the air.

“Mr. Itsuki, you must not let that power consume you! I guarantee you will regret it!” Rishia yelled.

“You are the one who will regret it! Now open your eyes to justice! Arrow Squall!”

Itsuki’s arrow came flying in my direction. What a hassle. Judging by the name of the skill, it would probably turn into a rain of arrows.

“Air Strike Shield!”

I stopped the arrow before it multiplied.

“I may be outnumbered, but as long as I defeat you, Naofumi, the victory is mine!” he shouted.

Umm . . . He did know he was fighting Rishia one-on-one, right? On the contrary, he was the one choosing to attack the audience without provocation. Did he even feel like he was being driven back, in the first place? It wasn’t uncommon for the hero of a story to face countless enemies at once. Itsuki was probably imagining himself in a similar situation.

Maybe he thought of Rishia as a soldier that I had sent after him or something. I would have guessed he thought of her as some frightened, little animal that screamed a lot. Either way, she was the obstacle directly in front of him. It only made sense to defeat her before coming after me. Even so, I would be fine just grabbing his arrows out of the air or using Float Shield, along with Ren and Raphtalia intercepting his attacks.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what justice means since meeting you, Mr. Itsuki.”

“Evil has no place talking about justice!”

“Evil? What is evil? What is justice?”

Rishia continued trying to get through to Itsuki. I thought she was wasting her time, but it seemed important to her to try. I guess I’d just have to accept that and endure Itsuki’s vicious onslaught.

“The only thing you consider justice is that which satisfies you personally! Am I wrong, Mr. Itsuki?! Do you really think that using force to suppress others is true justice?!”

Rishia spoke from the heart. Her words moved Ren to join the conversation.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, ‘Justice without power is empty, but power without justice is merely violence.’ Itsuki, you’ve always aspired to fight for justice, right? You never really talked about yourself much, and I never really cared to ask before. But I want to get to know you better now. I want to know what it is that you’re after and what it is that makes you suffer. So please tell me!”

Itsuki continued to focus his attacks on me. It would be nice if Ren thought about my situation a little bit before giving a speech. Still, he did have a point. I had no idea what kind of person Itsuki was either. I understood his personality, but I had no idea what kind of life he had led before. What was it that made him go on and on about justice like this?

“Justice is power. It’s proof of what is right. Rescue the weak! Crush the strong!” Itsuki shouted.

Huh? Something suddenly hit me. I tried thinking about Itsuki’s behavior from the other way around. What if Itsuki had been filled with gloom and feelings of depression in his own world?

It was clear that Itsuki wanted to be a hero. A lot of fictional superheroes had ordinary alter egos, or maybe they were someone that got bullied a lot. But then they would transform or put on a disguise and go out to defeat bad guys. Anyway, that’s how it was for most of the famous superheroes, like Superman or that spider guy.

The more tyrannical types of players in online games were basically doing the same thing too. Itsuki was always trying dish out his justice in secret. So that was it. Fighting for justice did indeed mean using one’s power to save others. Put all of that together and you get the idea of rewarding the good and punishing the evil. Justice wins, and evil gets stomped out.

“I don’t care if you or anyone else tries to call me evil! I fight for justice!” Itsuki went on.

His thirst for recognition and his lofty ideals all added up to one conclusion.

“Itsuki, the way you treated Rishia is no different than the way you were treated. That’s why you can’t bring yourself to face her, right?” I told him.

“What?!”

“This is a coliseum tournament. You’re a fighter in this tournament. If you want to fight me, then you have to defeat Rishia first. Otherwise, you have no right to challenge me.”

I had to make the conditions clear now or Itsuki would just keep this up forever. If I was the evil that Itsuki wanted to defeat, then he could do that in our match. I’d seen this kind of thing happen in those battle-type anime and manga. Motoyasu had done something similar to me countless times since coming to this world too. He would challenge me to a fight after specifying conditions that made it completely one-sided. I didn’t have any reason to set conditions like that here, but I had promised to let Rishia handle this.

“Damn it!” he grumbled.

I knew it. This was just a guess, but Itsuki had most likely been bullied back in his own world. Rishia had the lowest status of his party members, and they had basically bullied her before running her off. In other words, Rishia’s very existence brought back unpleasant memories from the past for Itsuki. He thought he’d cut himself off from his past, but now the embodiment of who he was before was standing right there in his way. It created incontrovertible dissonance with his justice.

“I see. Rishia is clearly brainwashed by your evil, but if I must defeat her, then I will.”

Rishia turned to me and bowed her head deeply.

“Thank you, Naofumi. Leave the rest to me. I will get through to Mr. Itsuki. You’ll see.”

“No problem. That’s hard to believe, but I hope you do. You’ve come a long way, just like Eclair, so maybe you can pull it off like she did too.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more positive than that, but I actually thought pretty highly of Rishia. Everyone ridiculed her for being weak, but she never gave up. And she had the inner strength to stand up to an enemy even when they were far more powerful than her.

Either way, it looked like Itsuki was finally prepared to accept Rishia as his opponent. Now the problem was what to do if she lost. I wasn’t sure what our best course of action would be if Rishia was defeated. But for the time being . . .

“Let’s get the slaves out of here. They’ll just be in the way if we have to fight. Sadeena, S’yne, and Atla, I’m leaving the evacuation to you three.”

“Sure thing, little Naofumi.”

“Ok —— ”

“Leave it to us!”

I gave the order and had all of my shills removed. Itsuki, Rishia, Raphtalia, Ren, and I were the only ones left in the coliseum. But jeez, Rishia was hopeless. Did she really love Itsuki that much?

“Here I come! Haaaaah!”

Rishia closed in on Itsuki rapidly.

“Ugh! Saint Arrow Rain! Spread Strafing!”

Itsuki backstepped away from Rishia and shot several arrows at her. He carefully timed it so that the arrows he’d already shot up into the air came raining down toward her just as he shot another straight at her. It would be difficult to dodge them all.

“ Hengen Muso Small Sword Technique! Circle!”

Rishia spun her small sword around in a circle. A shrill noise rang out and all of the arrows were deflected. Both of them seemed to be holding back, but Rishia was holding her own, despite the fact that Itsuki was a hero. Was this the true power of the Hengen Muso style? Eclair mentioned that Rishia had mastered even more difficult techniques than she had. Rishia was definitely a force to be reckoned with now.

Seeing all of his arrows knocked out of the air, Itsuki glared at Rishia with an annoyed look on his face.

“Mr. Itsuki, I am your opponent right now. You’re getting distracted.”

Itsuki kept glancing over at me every now and then. He considered Rishia to be nothing more than a checkpoint he had to pass to fight me. But he wouldn’t be able to defeat her with that mindset. Rishia was one of my top fighters, whether we were talking about stats, technique, or resolve.

“Hmph . . . You’ve become quite brash, haven’t you, Rishia? But do you really think I’ve been fighting seriously?”

A sinister aura radiated from Itsuki as he raised his bow.

“Law Fanatic!”

I felt some kind of barrier develop around Itsuki abruptly. He let out a wild howl and his eyes began to glow an eerie red. The sinister aura condensed around him and transformed into a full suit of armor. At first glance, it looked like a holy set of armor meant to resemble a winged angel. But I could also see decorative elements of the design that looked like horns and demons in several places.

The skill boosted his own stats. There was no doubt about that. On top of that, it formed some kind of pseudo-armor. It was a full suit of battle armor like you’d see in Power Rangers or Kamen Rider.

Rishia just stood there silently, waiting for Itsuki to attack. Her expression couldn’t have been more serious. If anyone tried to interfere, I was sure Rishia would never forgive them. Ren was fidgeting and edging forward like he wanted to give her a hand, so I held my hand out to stop him.

“Here I come, Rishia. Once I’m finished, you will realize that I am right, and then we can defeat Naofumi together!”

“I will not. I will never accept you the way that you are now, Mr. Itsuki. Even if it costs me my life!”

Rishia thrust her small sword into the ground and crouched down low. What was she doing? She was gathering up so much life force from the earth that I could visibly see it. Her small sword was completely enshrouded in life force now.

“Hengen Muso . . . Secret Technique, First Form . . .”

Rishia plucked the small sword from the ground and dashed toward Itsuki.

“Sun!”

Rishia began radiating light as she thrust her small sword at Itsuki. Something about the technique . . . It seemed like some kind of divine ultra-power-up.

“Shooting Star Bow!”

Itsuki fired off his version of the Shooting Star skill that us heroes all loved so much. His was particularly annoying. When he used it, his arrows left a trail of stars flying around in the air behind them. It was safe to assume that the arrows themselves were pretty dangerous too.

“Second Form! Moon!”

The light that was surrounding Rishia intensified. It formed a crescent-moon shape that shot out and cut down Itsuki’s arrows. Itsuki had a look of disbelief on his face, having just seen his finishing move quashed.

“I’m not done! I still haven’t shown you everything I have!” he shouted.

Then what the hell are you waiting for?!

Ren had said something like that too. I reflexively glanced over at Ren and he averted his eyes in embarrassment.

“Third Form! Star!”

Rishia closed in on Itsuki rapidly. When she was mere inches away, she released a barrage of thrusts. Eclair’s Multistrike Demolition skill seemed to last forever, but Rishia’s string of attacks would give it a run for its money. With each single thrust, another piece of the armor protecting Itsuki broke away and disappeared.

“Argh . . .”

Rishia kept thrusting at Itsuki. It seemed like the attacks would never end. And I’m sure each one of them was fortified with life force. I couldn’t really tell just by watching, but the attacks made a distinct, sharp thwacking sound. Those attacks were no joke. I had no doubt about that, because I was the Shield Hero and just seeing them made me cringe.

“Enough!” Itsuki thundered.

His sinister aura exploded outward and sent Rishia flying through the air.

“Feh —I’m not finished!”

Rishia took a defensive stance while still in the air to soften her fall. After landing, she steadied her breathing and prepared to resume her attacks.

“There’s no way that someone like you could possibly thwart justice, Rishia! Don’t interfere with my finishing moves!”

What the hell? Was he seriously telling her not to fight back? This wasn’t a turn-based RPG, for crying out loud. On the contrary, overcoming the enemy’s finishing moves was the key to progressing in something like an action game.

Ah, that must have been it. In a superhero-type setting, the bad guys would always basically just wait for the superhero’s finishing move. Laser beams, a super kick, or five people combining their weapons to fire off a special attack, for example.

“Mr. Itsuki, stop this already. Your justice is flawed! Please, relinquish that power before it’s too late!”

Rishia’s sounded emotional as she forcefully admonished Itsuki. The battle did seem to be pretty one-sided in Rishia’s favor. It wasn’t like when Eclair fought Ren. Itsuki was actually taking damage.

“You’re wrong! I . . . will use this new power . . . to save . . . the world!”

Itsuki’s bow began to change shape. I could see the sinister aura around him change color in response. He’d most likely unlocked another curse series, just like Ren and Motoyasu had done. Even Rishia might be at a disadvantage against Itsuki if he’d powered up his weapon and unlocked multiple curse series. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem like he’d implemented all of the power-up methods like Motoyasu had, but I couldn’t say for sure.

“Are you going to be okay, Rishia?” I asked.

“Yes. I don’t need assistance.”

“Alright. Whatever works for you.”

Depending on the situation, I might have to step in. But if Rishia said she was fine, then I’d just keep watching for now. We were all on the edge of our seats as we watched the situation unfold.

The thing was, it seemed unlikely that Itsuki would pass out like Ren had. No matter how pathetic he had become, he was still a hero, I guess. But Rishia still lacked a decisive blow that could end the battle, just like Eclair had.

“Take this! Shadow Bind!”

Itsuki aimed at Rishia’s feet and shot his arrow. The name of the skill gave me a really bad feeling.

“Rishia—”

The arrow didn’t hit her. It landed behind her.

“My . . . my body!”

Before I could warn Rishia, she had been paralyzed. Just as I expected. If the arrow landed on an opponent’s shadow, the skill would restrict their movement.

“Bind Arrow!”

Rishia already couldn’t move, but Itsuki shot another binding skill at her. When the arrow reached her, it stitched her body to the ground.

“I . . . I still haven’t lost!”

“Wrong! You’re finished!”

“Let this foolish sinner pay for her transgressions with her being roasted to death in a brazen bull! Let her writhe in pain as her dying screams are converted into the cries of a raging bull!”

“Bull of Phalaris!”

It reminded me of my Iron Maiden. A bull-shaped statue appeared, and its belly opened up and closed around Rishia, trapping her inside. Then the belly was engulfed in raging flames.

“Rishia!” I screamed.

Itsuki was confident he had won. A grin crept across his face. There was no doubt about it. That skill was the equivalent of my Iron Maiden.

“Victory is mine. Now, Naofumi, prepare to meet your doom.”

Damn it. I’d thought Rishia might be able to win, but I guess I was being overly optimistic. I needed to figure out how to rescue Rishia before anything else. Ren took off running in her direction without hesitation. But then, all of a sudden, cracks began to form on the surface of the bull that Itsuki had summoned.

“Huh?”

Itsuki had a look of disbelief on his face. A sharp cracking sound rang out and the bull shattered. Rishia leapt out.

“Fourth Form! Demon!”

Rishia closed in on Itsuki again and swiped her small sword at him. What was that? The tip of her sword was glowing, but it left a trail of darkness in its path.

“Ugh . . . My . . . my eyes!”

Itsuki covered his face with both hands and started groaning. The attack must have had a blinding effect.

“Don’t think you’ve won just yet!” Rishia shouted.

She was breathing hard. Rishi had managed to surmount a skill named after an instrument of execution. Her growth was truly amazing. Incredible. I had no idea that someone who wasn’t a hero could become so strong. That pathetic, little Rishia who was ditched by Itsuki finally got to show him how much she had grown.

“How long . . . How long do you plan to stand in my way?!”

Itsuki screamed at Rishia while rubbing his eyes.

“This is absolutely unforgivable! I am justice! To think you would cause me this much trouble! You’re nothing but the opening act! You’ve overstepped your boundaries!”

Itsuki’s bow took on an even more bizarre form. What had been white wings turned into demonic-looking bat wings.

“Die . . . All who defy me . . . must die!”

“Mr. Itsuki, I’ll say it again. Relinquish that power before it’s too late. Return to your normal self. You must not rely on that power!”

Rishia was crying now. She was crying because the person she loved was being consumed by corruption and she was watching it happen. She believed she had enough power now to stop it, and that’s why she was fighting. But to Itsuki, she had become nothing more than another target of his hatred.

“For justice! Die! This world . . . is defiled by . . . your evil!”

Itsuki jerked the bowstring backward ridiculously hard and let go. A barrage of arrows went flying toward Rishia. She knocked them all out of the air, but then I suddenly heard a sound that I knew was bad.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted.

“I know!”

It was the sound of Rishia’s small sword—the Pekkul Rapier—snapping in two. She was still swinging the broken sword around . . . and using her life force to replace the missing piece of the blade. But the prolonged use of life force to replace a physical object like that was extremely difficult. I pulled a sword drop out of my shield and threw it to Rishia.

“Rishia! You’re at a disadvantage like that! Use this sword!”

But Rishia ignored the sword I had thrown and continued her exchange with Itsuki.

“I’m sorry, Naofumi. That . . . would go against my sense of justice!”

Itsuki had a crazy look in his eyes. He smiled.

“What are you smiling about? Mr. Itsuki, I haven’t been defeated yet.”

“How can you say that? You’ve already lost.”

“No. You told me once, Mr. Itsuki, that justice never gives up.”

“Heh heh heh . . . Fool. You . . . are evil.”

“Mr. Itsuki, I will never give up, no matter how painful or hopeless things may become. You taught me that when you rescued me from despair, Mr. Itsuki. And Naofumi showed me the same thing too!”

Rishia calmed herself and steadied her breathing. I could tell from her stance that she was about to cast a spell. I guess she decided that she would use magic, since her sword was broken. She wasn’t going to cheat, and she wasn’t going to give up. That was the mindset she had. Her growth . . . I don’t know why, but it made me feel really proud that such a completely hopeless girl could change so much. It surprised even me. It reminded me of the saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“I’ll say it again. Mr. Itsuki, I beg of you, relinquish that power. Then you can start over and regain the trust of the people of this world by fighting for them!”

“Why should I relinquish this power?! I . . . I will use this power to save the world!”

“Mr. Itsuki! I can say with certainty that your justice is flawed! After being at Naofumi’s side and watching him fight, I am confident of that! Naofumi fights even to save the inhabitants of other worlds! He stands at the forefront to protect everyone, no matter what!”

“Silence, evil! Be gone!” Itsuki shouted.

And then it happened. None of us could believe our eyes. This was on a totally different level than anything like Rishia’s growth, strength, or Hengen Muso techniques.

Itsuki’s bow began to glow intensely. The brightness forced even Itsuki to close his eyes. I could see all of this because I was watching from a distance. And then the light sprang forward from the bow and flew at Rishia. It had happened too quickly for her to dodge. The light hit her. But she was completely uninjured. The light from Itsuki’s bow had leapt into the palm of Rishia’s hand.

And then, for whatever reason, Rishia’s slave curse icon shattered and disappeared from my status screen.

“What . . . was that?” I muttered.

“Mr. Naofumi.”

“Oh, hey, Atla. Is the evacuation complete?”

“Yes. But more importantly, Mr. Naofumi . . .”

Atla was gazing in Itsuki’s direction.

“Inside of that sinister aura was a bright, pure flow of power that leapt toward Rishia.”

“Pure? Do the legendary weapons have some kind of power that we still don’t know about?”

It was clear that some kind of power had jumped from the bow to Rishia. I guess that meant we could assume that Itsuki’s bow had lent Rishia its power.

“Rishia?”

Ren called out to Rishia.

“This is . . .”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Rishia was holding a knife in her hand. It was shaped like an ordinary knife, but it had a flashy jewel set in the handle. It was semi-transparent, and its form seemed to waver. Was it some kind of magically formed, unstable weapon? What was it?

Rishia held her other hand to the blade of the knife and it transformed into one of those kunai weapons that ninjas used. Then it turned into a boomerang. So it could change shape like the legendary weapons. What in the world was it?

“Wh . . . what in the world is happening?!” Itsuki shouted.

Even he had no idea what was going on. At the very least, Itsuki didn’t seem to be behind whatever had happened.

“I see now. I understand.”

A look of realization came across Rishia’s face. She pointed the boomerang at Itsuki and spoke confidently.

“Mr. Itsuki. Even the legendary bow can no longer accept your justice. It has lent me its power so that I may stop you!”

“Lies! That can’t be! My bow would never betray me!”

“I will use this power to stop you!”

“Stop screwing around!”

The sinister aura overflowing from Itsuki’s bow intensified. He drew the bowstring backward powerfully and an inordinate number of arrows launched toward Rishia. The fletchings of the arrows were shaped like angel and demon wings. The mass of arrows transformed into the shape of a bear as they shot through the air toward Rishia.

“Hengen Muso Throwing Technique! Rolling Spin!”

Rishia channeled her life force into the weapon and then threw it at Itsuki.

“Wha—Why?! I am absolute justice! Why do you still persist in defying me?! Gah!”

The boomerang spun around Itsuki and sliced at him.

“You’re wrong, Mr. Itsuki. You’re wrong, and your bow is trying to correct that.”

Rishia held her right hand up into the air and the boomerang returned to her. Then she transformed it into a chakram. She blinked slowly, and it looked like her eyes changed color ever so slightly. She was drawing life force into her eyes.

“I can see everything clearly now. I see the flow of power that is tightening around you, Mr. Itsuki. I see the parasitic power leeching off of your bow. And now that I can see it . . .”

Rishia threw the weapon at Itsuki.

“Air Strike Throw! Second Throw! Dritte Throw!”

Air Strike? I was pretty sure only the legendary weapons had skills that used that name. Did that mean she was using a legendary weapon? Or maybe it was a seven star hero weapon. Rishia had thrown a different weapon for each of her three skills. There was a knife, a hatchet, and a short spear.

Just what kind of weapon was it? Even assuming it was a seven star hero weapon, the spear belonged to Motoyasu. None of the three weapons she threw even belonged to the same category. Or maybe . . . She’d thrown them all, so maybe it was a throwing weapon.

“Tornado . . . Throw!”

The three weapons started spinning around Itsuki. They created a vortex that was blowing the sinister aura away from him.

“Gaaaahhhhh!”

The chakram appeared back in Rishia’s hand and she launched it at Itsuki’s bow.

“Mr. Itsuki, this proves that you are not justice. Now please, let’s start over and do things the right way.”

The chakram smashed into Itsuki’s bow and a loud cracking sound rang out. The chakram returned to Rishia’s hand. And then, with the sound of breaking glass, the armor-like outer layer of Itsuki’s bow shattered and fell away. When it did, the announcer that had been brainwashed by Itsuki crumpled to the ground, like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

“Gahhh! My . . . my new power . . . the power of salvation . . .”

“I’ll say it again. You’re mistaken. Mr. Itsuki, please try to understand. There is no one justice. There are as many ‘justices’ as there are people. The opposite of justice is not evil. It’s justice. The losing side is simply branded as evil. That is all.”

“No! I . . . I’m not evil! There’s no way I could be evil! It’s everyone else . . . It’s them!”

“Blaming others and rejecting others is easy, even without justice. But the important thing is to accept others. Anyone can change for the better, no matter what kind of person they might be. I believe that.”

Itsuki sounded like he was about to cry. The bizarre shape of his bow had dissolved away, and the bow returned to its usual . . . No, I could still see several of the odd designs on it.

“What do you think, Atla?”

“Well, Rishia used that power in her hand to eliminate the sinister aura. However, the roots of the sinister force remain.”

“I . . . I have to . . . for the people that believed in me . . .”

Itsuki hadn’t given up. He stood back up. He sure was stubborn. Just then, one of the slave trader’s assistants came and whispered something into my ear.

“I see . . . Itsuki, we figured out where you’ve been hiding. I’m going to leave you here and go check that out. There’s no reason I should have to waste my time fighting some noob that can’t even stand up to Rishia.”

I’d had the slave trader’s assistants and some people from Zeltoble’s underground guild work together to figure out where Itsuki was staying. They’d dug up enough evidence to be confident they’d found the place. Now all that was left was for me to barge in and capture Itsuki’s accomplices.

“I won’t let you!”

Hmm . . . This could be a good chance to show him how things really were.

“Itsuki, I guess I can show you a shred of mercy.”

“What?!”

“You say your companions are just. Then take me to them. I already know the location, but I want you to lead the way.”

“I’m not falling for that! That’s how you plan to capture Princess Malty, isn’t it?!”

“Itsuki! You’ll never know the truth if you only listen to one side of the story! Is that what you call justice?!” Ren interjected.

“I . . . That . . .”

Itsuki tried to reply but stumbled over his words. I’m sure he was in a state of emotional shock after losing to Rishia.

“Think about the games you played back in your world. I’m sure there was some kind of event where you had to decide which side was right and which was wrong, right?”

“. . .”

I was showing him that I was sincere. Itsuki seemed to be trying to decide whether he should compromise. Actually, deep down, he probably knew that I was right. Regardless, I guess it would still be hard to bring himself to just casually lead the enemy straight to his own base.

But why had Witch betrayed Motoyasu, deceived Ren, and then run away anyway? I still didn’t know what her motives were.

“Itsuki, Witch is a criminal. Shouldn’t she have to pay for her crimes? Or prove her innocence? Or are you going to say that winning a fight to the death is the only valid proof of justice?”

“No . . . That’s not it!”

“She can even have a trial or something. If Witch is really doing good on behalf of the country, I’m sure the queen will show tolerance.”

If Itsuki felt like he had been deceived and fell into despair, he’d most likely unlock another curse series and go on a rampage, like Ren did. I was pretty sure he hadn’t fired off a bunch of curse series skills yet. We needed to intervene before he really hurt himself.

I looked over at Rishia. Right now, there was still a chance that Itsuki would listen. She needed to save him before he completely lost all hope, like Ren had. That’s what I told Rishia with my eyes, and she nodded back at me.

“Fine then. I’ll prove Princess Malty and the rest of my companions’ innocence!”

Itsuki agreed to stop the fight and take us to his hideout.

Chapter Thirteen: Atonement

“No . . . no way . . .”

Itsuki led the way, and before long we arrived at his hideout, which was exactly where we thought it was. It was a residence in a relatively quiet area of Zeltoble. We took a look around inside, and apparently the building even had a secret passageway that led down into an underground tunnel.

Witch must have already made her escape by the time we got to the hideout. The place was deserted. All that was left was a bunch of garbage lying around. It looked like they had been getting drunk and partying every night or something. What a mess. And it stunk of alcohol too.

“I . . . I’m sure they’re just out at the moment. They probably sensed you were coming and made a run for it.”

“Are you really going to keep trying to ignore the truth? What’s this? There’s something on the desk here.”

Oh boy. This was the same penmanship I’d seen in Ren’s letter. I had a really bad feeling about this. Beneath the letter was a rather thick bundle of papers. I really, really did not want to read this.

“Itsuki, can you read the writing of this world?”

The letter was written in the official language of Melromarc. Every time I saw Witch’s writing, I couldn’t help but think how messy it was. She had a characteristic way of shaping her letters that was just plain ugly. The queen and Melty both had really nice writing, so why was that bitch’s writing so damned crude?

“No. I can’t, because you refuse to tell me where to get the skill to understand the languages of other worlds!”

“Not that again! Here, Ren. You read it. Or Rishia. I don’t care. And get Rishia to teach you to read already, Itsuki. That girl is a beast when it comes to learning stuff. It would put any hero to shame.”

“Fehhh?!”

Rishia let out a pathetic squeal when I called her a beast. It was hard to believe she had been fighting a fierce and heroic battle only moments earlier.

“Mr. Naofumi, I feel like you could have phrased that a bit more nicely . . .” said Raphtalia.

When she put it that way, I did feel like maybe I had been a bit harsh. But taking it back would be bad for my image.

“Umm . . .” Ren began to read.

“It was nice leeching off of you, but it seems we’ve just about sucked you dry, so we’re going to take our leave. Since we’re the poor victims here, we’ll be taking all of the tournament winnings you brought back every day. Yes, that’s right. Thanks to the Shield, we have become poor victims, forced to live hard lives, so your donation is appreciated.”

As Ren continued reading the letter out loud, the look of disgust on his face grew more and more apparent. It was pretty much the same letter she had left him, after all. But really, would it kill that bitch to not leave letters like this?

Ren started reading the second page of the letter.

“Mald and the others have had enough too. Do you really not realize that no one can stand the way you act all high-and-mighty and constantly order people around? You’re always going on about justice this and justice that, and yet you fell for my lies so easily. It was hard not to laugh every time I saw your face. ”

“Hey, Naofumi, I’m not misinterpreting this, am I?”

Ren looked incredibly annoyed, like it was all he could do to not rip the letter up into little pieces. He handed it to me.

“Just skimming over it, it seems your interpretation is fine. Some of the expressions are slightly off, but the meaning is the same.”

I took the third page from Ren to read it for him. He was all tense with anger. I wasn’t sure how long I would last without losing my cool, but it looked like there wasn’t much left of the letter.

“P.S. You’re weak, and neither your face, height, nor your personality are my type. If you have feelings for me, then defeat the Shield. We can meet again if you do that. Ha ha ha! Also, I’m leaving you a little gift. Thanks in advance for taking care of that! ”

“Damn, she’s annoying!”

I crumpled the letter up and threw it at the wall. I took the bundle of papers from the table and passed it to Itsuki. I was sure even he would be able to figure out what those were. He didn’t need to study the language to understand a bunch of numbers, after all.

“Itsuki, do you know what those are?”

“Wh . . . what are these?!”

“I’m sure you can tell just by looking. They’re promissory notes. And it looks like they’re all stamped with your seal.”

I’d ask the slave trader later how many merchants had lent money out based on these credentials. There were a bunch of the notes, and the totals were substantial too. Itsuki was red as could be. Financially speaking, that is. Honestly, paying all of those back would probably be impossible for him. Even with all of his earnings from the coliseum tournaments.

“No way . . . I . . . Mald, Princess Malty, and the others all said they wanted to help rescue people. That’s why I was working so hard to save up all that money.”

“Umm . . . According to information gathered at a nearby tavern, his companions were spending quite lavishly and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Yes sir. I’ve also been told that they spent quite a bit betting in various underground guild coliseum tournaments.”

The slave trader had come to deliver an update. He had the worst possible timing. There were several other merchants standing behind him too. Itsuki fell to his knees and huddled over in despair.

“You sure put your faith in the wrong place. I tried to tell you. Nothing good can come of trusting Witch,” I told Itsuki.

I figured I might as well pour some salt on his wounds. I looked over at the slave trader.

“Where are the people that actually created these debts? We should probably go after them if they’ve fled,” I said.

“It’s likely that they escaped into the underground tunnels of Zeltoble. Yes sir. The merchant guild is currently on high alert and an order for their capture has been issued to the mercenaries and adventurers. However . . .”

He wanted to say that it was unlikely that they would be found. They had probably prepared to make their escape beforehand. They would most likely get away. I let out a deep sigh and began to approach Itsuki, who was still doubled over in despair. It would just make things harder if he ended up unlocking another curse series now.

“Mr. Itsuki . . . Please, stand up. I . . . I believe in you, Mr. Itsuki. Fighting for justice means always standing up again, no matter how many times you fall, right?”

“Rishia . . . I . . .”

Rishia reached her hand out to the despondent Itsuki.

“This is a chance to start over again. As for the money . . . I’ll help you with that. We can work to pay it back together.”

“But . . . It’s not just that . . . I made an irreparable mistake . . .”

“Everyone makes mistakes. But you can always do something. If you give up now, it will only lead to the suffering of countless more people.”

“Countless more . . . people?”

“Yes. We went to another world. And we formed an alliance with the people of that world. They were our enemies. We thought they were evil, but we made peace with them. I’m sure you remember. One of them was the incredibly powerful woman with the folding fan who came out of the rifts during a wave.”

Rishia had gone to the other world with us. She’d spent time with Kizuna, who had been trapped in a never-ending labyrinth. She knew about our agreement with Glass and the others, who we had fought multiple times before that.

“I had no idea . . .”

“But we also fought against an unforgivable enemy.”

“There was an enemy that even you couldn’t forgive?”

“Yes. And right now, Naofumi is preparing to fight another unforgivable enemy. To do that, he needs you and all of the heroes, who give our world hope, to help him. So please, stand up.”

I couldn’t deny the fact that Itsuki was the Bow Hero. Just like with Ren and Motoyasu, if he powered up his weapon properly, having him on my side would make me feel a lot better.

Keep it up, Rishia! You’re getting through to him, just like Eclair did with Ren!

Itsuki started to make sobbing sounds. Rishia’s words must have been the final nail in the coffin for the curse, because the last of the sinister designs on his bow broke apart and disappeared. When they did, Itsuki collapsed and fell flat on his face.

“Mr. Itsuki!”

I took his pulse. He was still alive. Hopefully he wouldn’t have any consequences to pay for using the curse series.

The slave trader was holding the other merchants back. They were all discussing how Itsuki should be dealt with. Damn it. Witch sure knew how to leave a mess behind! I would kill her for sure the next time I saw her. Or no, maybe I would make her pay back this debt that she had forced on to Itsuki using her own two hands. Itsuki’s own party members had been in on it too, apparently. L’Arc had mentioned that they looked like nothing but trouble, and boy, was he right.

“I . . . I’ll—”

Rishia stepped forward to stand up for Itsuki, who was still collapsed on the floor. She was going to tell the merchants that she was prepared to take on Itsuki’s debts.

“Slave trader, have Itsuki’s debts transferred to my name,” I said.

I had some money from peddling our goods. If I rounded up all of my Elixir of Yggdrasil and whatnot, and sold that too, I was sure it would work out one way or another. If that still wasn’t enough, I’d just have to pay the rest back later. Surely it wouldn’t be any more than what I’d paid for the slaves at the peak of the price bubble.

“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia whispered.

She had a look of relief on her face. I looked at her and gave the orders to begin the search for Witch. Rishia looked like she was on the verge of tears. She bowed her head to me deeply.

“Rishia, it’s your job to give Itsuki a thorough re-education, just like Eclair has done for Ren. Make sure that he never loses control like this again.”

“I . . . I will!”

“Aww . . . You really are a good guy, aren’t you, little Naofumi?” Sadeena said.

“That’s our Mr. Naofumi! Seeing him shoulder the responsibilities of the foolish Bow Hero . . . That’s how a real man behaves!” Atla exclaimed.

Foolish? She needed to be a bit more careful about her word choice. Itsuki was still a hero.

In the end, we weren’t able to figure out where Witch and Itsuki’s companions had run off to. But we had managed to successfully capture Itsuki. It had cost me a lot of money, but Itsuki probably wouldn’t try to cause any more problems now.

I’d gone ahead and invited Itsuki to my party before heading to their hideout, so I was able to use my portal skill to take him back to the village with us despite him being unconscious. I just hoped things would work out as well as they had with Ren.

It was around noon the following day. Our search for Witch had ended in failure, so I wasn’t in a very good mood. Itsuki finally came to. He had been sleeping in one of the camping plant houses. I figured it was about time for him to wake up, so I went to check on him and that’s when I heard Rishia call out to him.

“Mr. Itsuki!”

Itsuki stood up and got out of the bed. He looked around. I stood there with my arms crossed and watched as Rishia ran over to him worriedly. I had Filo, Atla, and Ren on standby outside just in case Itsuki decided to cause any trouble.

“Itsuki, you remember what happened yesterday, right? I shouldered all of your debt, but I still expect you to work to pay it all back,” I told him.

“. . .”

Expressionless and sleepy-eyed, Itsuki slowly turned his head to me and just stood there in silence.

“. . .”

The room was completely silent. Rishia was waiting for Itsuki to say something too, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

“Hey! Say something!” I said.

“Something . . .”

What the hell?! That bastard! He had the nerve to try to pick a fight with me at a time like this!

“Sorry, Rishia. It looks like I’m going to have to break my promise to you,” I said.

He obviously didn’t regret what he’d done at all. A guy like that didn’t deserve to live. I’d just sell him off to the Zeltoble merchants.

“Fehhh! Please, just wait a minute! Go on, Mr. Itsuki. Give him a sincere apology.”

“I’m sorry.”

Still expressionless, Itsuki obediently bowed his head and apologized. What the hell? Is this what kind of person he was?

“Itsuki, what happened to you?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Do you mean yesterday? Why was I so unhappy?”

“Umm . . . Itsuki, don’t tell me you don’t know who you are.”

Surely the consequence for using that ridiculous Justice Bow wasn’t amnesia, right? But considering what had happened to the other heroes, that wouldn’t have been all that strange. It was going to be a real headache if that were the case though.

“No, I’m Itsuki Kawasumi. I’m the Bow Hero. I aspired to fight for justice, but I was defeated. And I was deceived, on top of that.”

“So you don’t have amnesia, right?”

“I don’t know.”

How could he not know?

“You better not be hiding something. What are you up to?”

“Am I up to something?”

“How the hell should I know?! That’s why I’m asking you! Don’t answer a question with a question!”

What was wrong with him? It was like he’d lost all ambition. He was acting like a spaced-out junkie . . . No, this was different. Just a second ago, when I said, “say something,” he replied by saying, “something,” didn’t he?

“Itsuki, do a handstand and take your clothes off while upside down.”

“Okay.”

Just as I’d ordered, Itsuki did a handstand and started unbuttoning his shirt with one hand.

“Mr. Itsuki! Stop that!”

When Rishia told him to stop, he got back up on his feet and stood there motionless. Hold on. Did that mean he would do anything he was told to do?

“Itsuki, kill yourself.”

“Okay.”

Itsuki pulled a rope out of his bow . . . Not the bowstring, but a rope stored inside of the bow, like the one I had in my shield. He started looking for a place to tie the rope so that he could hang himself.

“Fehhhh! Don’t do that, Mr. Itsuki!”

“Okay.”

“Itsuki, what do you want to do?” I asked.

“What do I want to do? I don’t know.”

Oh, come on, Itsuki!

Also, Itsuki had always been so secretive and reserved that it was kind of creepy seeing him talk so readily.

“Itsuki, do you not have any idea what’s going on? There are all kinds of consequences for using cursed weapon skills. Is that what this is?”

I felt like I could sense some kind of inauspicious presence completely enshrouding Itsuki’s body.

“When I was fighting in the underground coliseums in Zeltoble I used some special skills several times when things got tough.”

Ugh. So now that Itsuki had been freed from the cursed weapon, the consequences had come crashing down on top of him, I guess. He was in bad shape.

“Well, Rishia is going to take care of you, so just take it easy for now.”

“Understood,” he replied.

Itsuki gazed at Rishia for several moments and then looked back at me.

“Should I be doing something?”

“Is there something you want to do?”

“Umm . . . I guess I should do something. Or maybe I should just stay still. If I move . . .”

Yeah, he had obviously become indecisive. The consequence of his curse was probably a loss of volition or something like that. Sheesh. Why did all of the heroes that showed up at my doorstep have to be under the effects of a curse? Motoyasu wasn’t here, but he had been pretty messed up too.

“Itsuki, spend some time thinking about what it is you want to do. And pay off your debts.”

“Understood. I’ll work to pay off my debts.”

“Mr. Itsuki, I’ll help you fight to atone for your mistakes,” Rishia said.

Itsuki nodded at her docilely. Good. She could work and help Itsuki pay off his debts too.

“Thank you, Rishia. I’ll do my best.”

Itsuki shook Rishia’s hand and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

“Mr. Itsuki?”

“Huh? Why am I crying? Rishia . . . I’m sorry . . . for everything,” Itsuki whispered.

And then he returned to being completely expressionless, as if he had finished letting out all of the feelings he had pent up inside.

“It’s . . . It’s okay . . . It’s okay, Mr. Itsuki . . .”

Rishia was crying. Of course she was. The guy sitting in front of us was a completely different person who only looked like Itsuki. He did exactly what anyone told him to do without complaint.

I sighed. It would be easy to get Itsuki to talk, but we had a whole pile of other problems now. I wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed like I was constantly worrying about something or other lately. For now, I’d hammer the power-up methods into his head. Then I’d have him go recuperate at the Cal Mira hot springs, since they helped speed up recovery from curses. That seemed like a good plan.

It wouldn’t be long before all four of the holy heroes had finally implemented all of the power-up methods.

Chapter Fourteen: Secret Base

“Alright, little Naofumi! You and I are going to have some fun tonight!”

“Like hell we are!”

One night, several days after Itsuki arrived at the village, I decided to have Sadeena teach me the Way of the Dragon Vein. The slaves had gotten over their trauma for the most part, so she didn’t have to spend so much time looking after them at night.

“He’s right, Sadeena! You need to stop fooling around so much!” Raphtalia snapped.

Raphtalia must have finally gotten her nights back to herself too, because she was sleeping at my house again. I’d asked her to fight Atla off if she showed up during the night.

“Oh, by the way, I figured it might be difficult for me to teach you all of the details by myself, so I asked little Gaelion to help out,” Sadeena said.

She stuck her hand out the window and made a beckoning motion. Gaelion came flying over in his baby dragon form and entered the room.

“Hmm . . . So you want to learn the Way of the Dragon Vein, do you? I sense that a divine blessing has already been bestowed upon you.”

“Did he just sp—”

Raphtalia was standing there dumbstruck after hearing Gaelion speak.

“I am Gaelion, the weakest of the emperor dragons. I was slain by the Sword Hero. Nice to meet you.”

Introducing oneself as “the weakest” was kind of strange, but whatever.

“He’s the dragon that raised Wyndia. The Demon Dragon took control of his core, and now he shares a body with baby Gaelion. I didn’t have time to explain before now,” I added.

“Normally I would have introduced myself right away, but I’ve had my hands full keeping my presence hidden from Wyndia, since she’s always around.”

“Little Gaelion can use the Way of the Dragon Vein too. With him helping out, you should be able to get the hang of it in no time.”

“That would be nice.”

I’d been studying a bit on my own, but it wasn’t going very well. Ren and Itsuki . . . Those two still couldn’t even use normal magic without relying on crystal balls or something. I was rushing them to master normal magic, while also trying to work on the Way of the Dragon Vein in my own time.

Then again, now that I had Sadeena and Gaelion with me, couldn’t they just fire off powerful support magic nonstop? I guess it would still be good for me to learn too.

“Mr. Naofumi! Huh?! Brother!”

“Atla! I’m not letting you get away tonight! I’ll show you the fruits of my training!”

“Ha! Do you really think someone like you could stop me, Brother?”

“I’ll stop you tonight for sure!”

I heard a loud commotion coming from outside of the house. I peeked outside and saw an imbecilic pair of siblings brawling while the rest of the slaves looked on excitedly. What were all of them still doing up?!

“I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to concentrate,” I mumbled.

“I think you’re right. Atla will probably be here shortly, so I doubt you’ll get to learn much magic tonight,” Raphtalia replied.

“It would be nice if there was a good place we could go. Should we use my portal and go find a place near the castle?”

“That could work. But if it were only as far as the castle, Atla might still show up riding Chick, for example.”

Who was that? Ah, that must have been Filo Underling #1’s name. I seemed to recall hearing the slaves call it that while petting it.

Zeltoble could work. But on second thought, Zeltoble wasn’t any quieter, and then I’d have to worry about accommodations and dealing with the slave trader. After staring out the window and enjoying the commotion for a few moments, Sadeena suddenly spoke up.

“How about I take us to my secret base then?”

“Secret base?” I asked.

“Yep. There’s a little island not far from the village, and my secret base is on that island. I doubt even little Atla could come after you there.”

“Hmm . . . If that hakuko girl is going to interfere with our training, then it does make sense to move to a quieter spot,” said Gaelion.

“Fine. Raphtalia, don’t leave my side, no matter what. You’re the only one I can trust,” I said.

I could only imagine what might happen to me if I ended up alone with Sadeena and Gaelion. Well, mainly Sadeena. But that would have been pretty much the same as being alone with her, so who knew what she might try to do.

“Mr. Naofumi, I think you’re a bit too scared,” Raphtalia replied.

“Oh? I wonder who he’s more afraid of? Me or you, little Raphtalia?” Sadeena poked.

Seriously? Raphtalia, of course! That went without saying! Raphtalia got really scary whenever Sadeena started hanging all over me.

“Should I swim, and you can all ride me? Or should we have Gaelion fly us out there?”

“Gaelion sounds good.”

If something happened, I could sick Gaelion on Sadeena. That should at least buy me enough time to get away.

We all climbed onto Gaelion and departed for the island where Sadeena’s secret base was located.

“Wow. So this is where your secret base is, huh?”

It had been around thirty minutes since we climbed on to Gaelion’s back. The island finally came into view. It was dark, so I couldn’t see well, but it wasn’t a very big island. It reminded me of one of those crescent-shaped atolls I’d seen in travel brochures. There didn’t seem to be any monsters on the island either. I didn’t want to sound like Motoyasu, but it seemed like a romantic little island floating there under the moon.

Once we landed, Sadeena took us to a cave near the edge of the island and lit a torch inside. The cave even had a little hole in the roof, like a skylight. The interior was crude—what I imagined a pirate cave would look like. There was a table made of haphazardly piled-up rocks and a chair that was really just a tree trunk that had been split down the middle. There seemed to be other rooms in the back, but it was dark, so I couldn’t really tell.

“Make yourselves at home.”

“You used to come here with mom and dad, right? When I was little, they told me they’d bring me when I grew up. I remember lying in bed unable to sleep because I was so excited,” Raphtalia said.

I could relate with that. I could remember being little and getting excited when relatives told me they would take me camping. But I had no recollection of ever actually going camping, by the way.

“Oh? So you already knew about this place then?” Sadeena asked.

“Yes,” replied Raphtalia.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure even Atla won’t show up all the way out here,” I said.

“Right?”

Then again, I couldn’t help but feel like she might actually try to swim or take a boat.

“Alright then, little Naofumi. How about we go ahead and get started with the Way of the Dragon Vein lessons?”

“Sounds good.”

“This isn’t the kind of thing you can learn without having a certain amount of aptitude, right? I’d like to be able to use it too, if possible,” said Raphtalia.

“It should be possible if I bestow my blessing upon you,” Gaelion replied.

“In that case, you should join us, Raphtalia. If we can learn it together, then that’s even better.”

Surely that would be a good thing if Raphtalia could use it too. But Sadeena stared at Raphtalia for a moment and then groaned.

“Hmm . . . Teaching little Raphtalia could be problematic.”

“She can’t learn?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

Gaelion placed his hand above Raphtalia’s head.

“Ah, I see. She already has some kind of blessing bestowed on her. It seems to be far too powerful for me to remove in my current state,” he said.

“R . . . really?” Raphtalia asked.

“Does it have to do with the vassal weapon or something?” I asked.

I guess this was a downside to having a vassal weapon from Kizuna’s world. How annoying. That reminded me, I’d forgotten to ask Kizuna and the others about what kind of magic they used in their world. I seemed to remember there being something about that in the manuscripts they gave us, but deciphering that stuff was such a hassle. I guess I’d just have Rishia figure it out. Then again, Rishia had been working on deciphering a different manuscript already and was having a hard time. I guess I shouldn’t expect much. Not to mention, she had to take care of Itsuki now too.

“If I absorbed the knowledge of that other world’s emperor dragon from the core you have, then I should be able to teach her, but . . .” Gaelion suggested.

“It’s all too easy to imagine you getting swallowed up instead,” I replied.

“I’m just lucky that he was a different class of emperor dragon, which is why he didn’t completely assimilate me. If that hadn’t been the case, that would have been the end of me.”

“I see . . .”

So there could be class differences, even if they were both emperor dragons. I guess that meant he could read some kind of basic information from the core stone, but there were fundamental incompatibilities at a deeper level. The Demon Dragon was the whole reason Kizuna got summoned to the other world in the first place. I’m sure the Demon Dragon that Kizuna fought was stronger than the one we had faced recently.

Gaelion pointed at some water in a jug.

“We’ll start by drawing power from that water over there. I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Gaelion placed his hand over the jug.

“I call upon the power of this water to come to me and take form. Earth Vein! Lend me your power!”

“Aqua Seal!”

Some kind of power shot up out of the water toward Gaelion and materialized in the form of magic. I’m pretty sure that spell was supposed to create a magic barrier. It would be effective against fire-based magic. That would come in handy at the scene of a fire.

“So there are no magical tomes or anything, I guess.”

“With the magic you normally use, you materialize your own power using a fixed process. This magic doesn’t work like that. You’re borrowing power from other sources,” Gaelion replied.

It seemed to employ the same basic system as the magic Therese used. She had told me once that she was borrowing the power of her jewels when she cast her spells.

“Dragons can call upon their own power to conjure the magic, but humans should stick to borrowing power from other sources,” he continued.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“We’re talking about your own life force, otherwise. If you overdo it, you’ll end up drawing out every last bit of your own power. You would die,” he replied.

Whoa! That was a risk I didn’t want to take.

“On the contrary, when it comes to materializing magic using your own inner resources, the magic you normally use is more than enough,” he said.

That was true. So normal magic drew from your own power, and the Way of the Dragon Vein borrowed power from other sources. I’d just remember it that way.

“I’m sure you realize this, little Naofumi, but once you are able to use the Way of the Dragon Vein, it’ll be easy to use counter-magic too. You’re reading the opponent’s power in order to interfere with their casting,” Sadeena said.

Oh? So that’s why the Way of the Dragon Vein made things like interference possible. Ceremonial magic and cooperative magic were difficult because you had to attune your power to that of others. This would simplify that process. I think that’s what she was saying.

Gaelion and Sadeena continued to give me pointers, and I spent the next two hours or so practicing using the Way of the Dragon Vein.

“I told you to stop injecting magic power! I can tell there’s some kind of strange magic power going into the water just by watching!” Gaelion lectured.

“You can see that?” I asked.

“The water is vibrating! Not to mention, it’s glowing!”

Ugh . . . Therese had scolded me about the same thing when I was practicing magic with her. They really did seem to be similar systems.

“It . . . It seems incredibly difficult,” Raphtalia commented.

She was watching me as I struggled to figure it out. She looked concerned.

“Hey, Raphtalia, maybe you remember. The magic back in Kizuna’s world was similar. Maybe you can use the same kind of magic that Therese used.”

“I’ll give it my best shot.”

“Little Naofumi, you have to avoid releasing magic power like you would when using normal magic. Instead, think of yourself as empty and let the power come to you from the water.”

“Yeah, that’s what’s so hard.”

It was a sensory type of thing, and those were always the most difficult.

Alright . . . Don’t use magic power to draw it out. Let the power come to me from the water.

Nothing was happening. The water didn’t respond.

Concentrate! Hey, water! Give me your power!

“Stop releasing magic power!” Gaelion thundered.

Goddammit! This was so annoying! I felt like I was starting to understand why Wyndia could only use the Way of the Dragon Vein. The fact that Sadeena could use both types of magic just meant that she was a bona fide freak. She was a prodigy. I wasn’t. I was just a hard worker.

I continued to struggle, and another two hours or so passed. I was starting to get the idea of how it worked. Since I’d developed the ability to see the flow of magic power, watching Gaelion and Sadeena cast spells and then mimicking their flow had done the trick. In other words, I just kept begging them to do it over and over.

While watching, I created an empty space in my own magic power. Then I carefully extended the magic power out until it just brushed the water’s surface, like reaching with my hand. A pristine flow of power was sucked up into my body by way of the magic.

“That’s it. That’s good enough. You’re progressing faster than I expected. I’m surprised,” said Gaelion.

“Yeah, not bad,” Sadeena added.

After that, a little puzzle popped up, like when I’d cast magic along with Ost or Sadeena. I was already familiar with how to do the rest.

“I call upon the power of this water to come to me and take form. Earth Vein! Lend me your power!”

“Aqua Seal!”

A target icon popped up on my screen. I chose myself and verified that the magic had successfully been cast.

“Hmph. You sure learned that quickly. I guess heroes really are different,” Gaelion said.

“Yeah, you must be a genius, little Naofumi,” Sadeena poked.

“Oh, shut up. You have no idea how much time I’ve spent studying on my own.”

Now that I had figured it out, it seemed like it had taken hardly any time at all. But they had no idea how hard I’d worked to get here. Ost had granted me the ability to use it, and I’d been practicing ever since getting Therese to teach me the basics! I’d been racking my brains and trying to figure it out forever now.

“All that’s left is to practice, practice, practice. Diligence is key,” said Gaelion.

“Yeah. Now that I can manage this much, I guess that’s really the only option,” I replied.

It was like learning to ride a bike. Being able to just barely pull it off would be pointless. I needed to shoot for becoming a pro cyclist. Well, they didn’t have those in this world, but still . . .

“Alright, I guess we should wrap things up and get some sleep,” I said.

“Good idea. I completely lost track of time,” Gaelion replied.

“You know what that means, little Naofumi. It’s time for you and me to have a drink!”

Sadeena brought a barrel of alcohol out from the back and plunked it down in front of us.

“Where the hell did you get that from?”

“I salvaged it from a shipwreck. It’s perfectly aged!”

As if I cared. Wherever she’d gotten it, I’m sure the circumstances had been shady. That’s probably why she was keeping it here.

“Salvaged it from a shipwreck, you say?”

“Yep.”

“Is keeping something like that for yourself allowed? In Melromarc?”

“It’s perfectly fine. This barrel falls outside of salvaging law jurisdiction.”

“Salvaging law?”

“Salvaging law says that someone who salvages something maintains seventy percent ownership, and the remaining thirty percent goes to Melromarc. It’s a pretty useless law actually. It only applies to the territorial waters of Melromarc. I salvaged this in international waters.”

Well, I guess it would be impossible to prove who had salvaged what. People could probably get away with it as long as they kept their mouths shut.

“The waves have been high lately, and the currents around Melromarc are strong. Now is the right time to be on the lookout.”

I guess the waves of destruction made the ocean waves more dangerous too. Now that she mentioned it, I did seem to recall the captain saying something similar when we were on the boat headed to the Cal Mira islands.

“Do you want me to do a bit of treasure hunting if I get some free time? That might be dangerous if I don’t level up some more first though.”

“You’ve already leveled up quite a bit. I could use some treasure right about now if you’re up to it.”

What I really wanted to know is how she leveled up so quickly. Maybe monsters gave more experience in the water. But underwater treasure sure sounded lucrative. I guess salvaging was kind of like a side job for Sadeena. That must have been how she’d made money before meeting me, apart from her fight purses and other funding from Zeltoble.

“Okay, let’s all get our drink on!” Sadeena exclaimed.

“Hmm . . . I could go for a stiff drink,” said Gaelion.

He leaned toward the barrel.

“Here! This is for you, little Gaelion!”

Sadeena pulled out a 1.8-liter glass bottle and handed it to Gaelion. Umm, was that Japanese sake? The bottle was shaped the same. I guess one of the previous heroes must have told someone how to make it like that.

“Cheers,” he said.

Gaelion starting drinking straight out of the bottle.

“Oh! This is the good stuff, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. It’s from the region where I grew up. It’s strong enough to satisfy even a dragon.”

“I see . . .”

Gaelion continued drinking. He seemed to be in high spirits.

“What about you, little Raphtalia? Your parents could really hold their alcohol, so I bet you can too.”

“Umm, sure.”

She could definitely drink a lot. L’Arc had been totally smashed by the time Raphtalia had only started getting tipsy.

“Drink up, you two. I have some rucolu fruit for you too, little Naofumi.”

Sadeena handed me and Raphtalia a drink. It wasn’t like I actually liked rucolu fruit that much. But whatever. Going on about that at a time like this would be tactless.

With a map of the sea in one hand, I discussed our plans, while we all went on drinking. Every time the conversation died down for a moment, Sadeena started prodding Raphtalia.

“Hey, little Raphtalia. What do you think about little Naofumi?”

“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Naofumi.”

Oh? She was always getting upset with my crude behavior, so her answer was a bit of a surprise to me. This probably wasn’t the kind of thing a person should admit, but I really did do a lot of terrible stuff.

“Is that really how you feel?”

“Yes.”

“So you don’t want to marry him or anything like that?”

“I . . . uhh . . .”

Huh? Marry me? Was she asking if Raphtalia thought of me in a romantic sense? It wouldn’t really bother me if she did say she liked me, but I’m pretty sure Raphtalia had other things much higher on her list of priorities. That was clear from how hard she was working to ensure that more children didn’t end up in the same unfortunate circumstances she had, as a result of the waves.

“I . . . That’s . . . Umm . . .”

Raphtalia’s face turned red. She was looking this way and that, avoiding eye contact. Chronologically speaking, Raphtalia was still pretty young. She probably shouldn’t have been drinking alcohol actually, and she wasn’t old enough to be thinking about things like love and romance. She only thought of me as a surrogate parent. Asking her to think about me in that way was probably just getting her worked up.

“I . . . Mishter Nawofoomee . . .”

Raphtalia was starting to slur her speech. I didn’t think she would be that drunk already.

“Oh? Little Raphtalia?”

“Whuud I’m shaying ish . . .”

Raphtalia’s face fell smack-dab into the table with a loud thud.

“Err . . . I, too . . . am feeling a bit . . .”

Gaelion shook his head back and forth and then lay down on his back.

Hmm . . . Raphtalia was no lightweight, and she was passed out drunk. Meanwhile, Sadeena and I were completely unfazed. Something about that was kind of depressing. I always felt out of place when I went out drinking with a group of people. That’s why I didn’t really like drinking very much. I just felt more and more alone as everyone else happily drunk themselves further into oblivion.

I had no idea what it felt like to be drunk. I’d never even gotten motion sickness, which was supposed to have symptoms similar to being hungover at least. I guess the closest I had ever come to being drunk was experiencing a state of euphoria. Well, that was an exaggeration, but I’d felt carefree while just having fun before. I guess I’d been drunk with success before, but that was obviously not the same thing.

I don’t remember who it was, but someone once told me I drank like a mutant fish. Mutant . . . Really?

“Well, look at that. Dragon Killer and Tanuki are both famous drinks where I come from, and it looks like they live up to their names. I guess they were a bit much for little Gaelion and little Raphtalia.”

What?! What was Sadeena implying?!

“You . . . This was your plan, wasn’t it?!”

This was bad. Sadeena had obviously intentionally chosen drinks that would be too much for Raphtalia and Gaelion. And now there was a chance that she would make a move on me. Worst-case scenario, I could use Shield Prison and then flee using my portal, maybe.

“Now then. Let’s have another drink!”

“No thanks. I’m going home.”

“Oh, come on. If you go home, what will happen to little Raphtalia and little Gaelion?”

“I’ll take them with me when I use my portal.”

“I’m sure you will. But I want to talk with you a bit before you do that.”

“Talk? Aren’t you planning some kind of rampant debauchery?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Sadeena cheerfully chugged the remainder of her drink. And then her demeanor changed instantaneously.

“Little Naofumi, I want to know what your true intentions are toward little Raphtalia.”

Sadeena completely dropped her usual playful attitude and changed into her demi-human form. She had a dead-serious look in her eyes when she asked.

“You got Raphtalia and Gaelion completely smashed just to ask me that?”

What did Raphtalia really mean to Sadeena anyway? I didn’t know what the deal was, but asking Sadeena about it always felt like crossing some kind of line. She never gave me a straightforward answer.

This was something that happened not too long ago.

We were right in the middle of getting the village set up and rebuilding the neighboring town. Having gotten wind of the fact that my most-trusted assistant was a racoon-type demi-human, a whole bunch of demi-humans, racoon-type demi-humans, showed up at the territory.

“Shield Hero, since your most-trusted assistant is a racoon-type demi-human, that makes us practically family. We rallied together and came as quickly as possible to help you with the reconstruction.”

When I saw the other racoon-types, I couldn’t believe how different they were from Raphtalia. I’m not sure if portly was the right word . . . Basically, they struck me as a bunch of pudgy country bumpkins. They didn’t seem very driven. It was more like they figured they could come latch on to me and live an easy life, so I wasn’t too keen on the idea of taking them in.

But seeing as they were racoon-types, I also found it really hard to refuse. Any time I met eyes with one of them, they started explaining all the details of how they were related by blood, probably in an attempt to pressure me. That really started getting on my nerves, and I was contemplating just telling them to leave.

That’s when Sadeena stepped forward. Unlike her usual cheerful self, she was seething with anger. She pointed her harpoon at them.

“I’m sorry, but any blood ties you might have with little Naofumi’s most-trusted assistant are so far separated that you’re as good as complete strangers. Don’t try to use that as an excuse to win his favor. Understood?”

Sensing her anger, the whole bunch of them were scared stiff.

“Well, if you really want to help out, then I guess you can give us a hand with the reconstruction over at the neighboring town. I’ll think about making you an official part of the team later,” I told them.

After wrapping up the discussion, I sent them to help with the town’s reconstruction. But not long after . . . Yeah, now I remember. I’m pretty sure almost all of them had fled during the night by the time three or so days had passed.

That wasn’t the only time Sadeena had acted strangely. Every now and then I would catch her glaring at something in the village, but there was never anybody there. She’d have a wary look in her eyes, as if there was someone hiding or something. But if someone were using concealment magic, I’m sure Raphtalia would have noticed. She never actually mentioned anything, so it was most likely just her imagination.

“Seriously, what’s the nature of your relationship with Raphtalia anyway?”

I don’t know, but . . . Even I’d been able to work out that finding Raphtalia had been Sadeena’s true motivation for buying up the slaves in Zeltoble. Of course, judging by how she interacted with the villagers, securing the slaves was still a big part of it, I’m sure.

“Little Naofumi, little Raphtalia and her parents were what gave my life meaning.”

“Gave your life meaning?”

What was her connection to them? That just made things even more confusing. Back in my world, cultural concepts like chivalry or the way of the samurai had existed in the past. Maybe it was something like that.

“When the first wave occurred here in this world, I wasn’t able to protect little Raphtalia’s parents. Well the truth is, I had been somewhere far away when it happened, and I couldn’t make it back in time. It was carelessness on my part.”

There was a hint of regret in Sadeena’s whispers. She took another drink. Judging from her demeanor, she definitely didn’t seem to be joking. Raphtalia was still out cold. Sadeena tucked her into a simple bed in the cave and then continued where she left off. Sadeena seemed to be serious, so there was no reason for me to be hard on her, even if it was just the two of us.

“But when I finally made it back to the village several days after the wave occurred, nobody was there,” she continued.

“I searched and searched. I was sure that they had survived. But I’m a demi-human, so I had to stay away from the shadier side of things in Melromarc. Zeltoble specializes in the slave trade, so I went there and continued my search as a combat slave. I had some big-name connections there, so I figured things would work out if I could save up some money.”

“You took quite the detour, huh?”

In reality, Raphtalia had been a dirt-cheap slave. Sadeena may have searched really hard, but she sure ended up a long way off target.

“Searching specifically for a slave named Raphtalia that looked like a racoon was just taking too much time. I did manage to find some of the other village children though.”

“Yeah, you were protecting the village slaves, right?”

“Yes. And then when I did finally come across little Raphtalia, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I never expected her to be fighting by your side, little Naofumi.”

“Talk about a life full of ups and downs. Raphtalia’s, that is.”

If possible, I wanted Raphtalia to live a comfortable, quiet life once this world had found peace. She’d believed in me, so I wanted her to be happy. That wasn’t going to change. Sometimes I just wanted this world to go up in flames, but as long as Raphtalia lived here, I had no qualms about doing my best to make it a peaceful place.

“You said, ‘looked like a racoon.’ Is Raphtalia not a racoon-type?”

“It’s kind of like how I get mistaken for an orca. She’s not exactly a racoon, but she’s something close.”

“I see. Well, Raphtalia is Raphtalia, regardless of her type.”

There were lots of animals that were similar, yet different species. Kind of like native and non-native species of the same animal.

“That’s what’s nice about you. Hey, little Naofumi, if you’re not ready to commit to sticking by little Raphtalia until the very end, I’d prefer if you’d just settle for me instead.”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking you to be prepared to commit before getting into a relationship with little Raphtalia. If you’re not prepared to commit, but you still feel the need to get intimate, then I’d rather you use me to get that out of your system.”

Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

“Do you think I’m some kind of savage or something?”

Well, I guess I did act like a savage. But I’d rather die than get intimate with a woman. I mean, I trusted Raphtalia. If you asked whether I liked her or not . . . Yeah, I liked her. I was certain about that much. If you told me to tell that to Raphtalia’s face, I could. Although I’d prefer not to. But was it in a romantic kind of way? I don’t know.

Raphtalia was my trusty sidekick. We were companions that had shared the good times and the bad. At the same time, she was like a daughter to me. In that sense, I considered myself her “father,” as Motoyasu liked to call me. As long as this world hadn’t found peace, I was sure Raphtalia would remain focused on her mission and wouldn’t be interested in things like love and romance. On the other hand, I loved her like a child. Wait a minute, I needed to slow down. I was getting caught up in Sadeena’s pace.

When Sadeena said “very end,” she probably meant until Raphtalia died, and not just until the waves ended. In manga and games, it wasn’t uncommon for the protagonist to settle down in another world. But . . . I wasn’t prepared to make that kind of commitment, I don’t think. I intended to return to my own world once this one had become peaceful.

Sadeena was probably worried I would try something with Raphtalia, and knowing my personality, that’s why she had been teasing me. Her advances seemed like harassment, but by keeping that up she probably figured it would keep me away from Raphtalia. Sadeena was always messing around, but the truth was, she had a knack for calmly observing people’s behavior and leading them to act in a certain way. She was the type that would be a real headache if you made an enemy out of her.

She was trying to sound playful, but her eyes were dead serious.

“You must have a good reason to keep pushing the issue.”

I wasn’t planning on doing anything with Raphtalia, but I wanted to get a better idea of what Sadeena was thinking.

“Oh, alright. I guess I can fill you in just a bit.”

Sadeena ran her hands through Raphtalia’s hair gently and then began her explanation.

“You might have suspected something like this, but little Raphtalia’s father belonged to an important family with a long lineage. I was a miko priestess that served that family.”

“Oh? Was this in Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden?”

“Nope. I can’t tell you exactly where. I’m already telling you way more than I should.”

So it wasn’t a demi-human country. And what kind of position was a miko priestess, anyway?

“Little Raphtalia’s father didn’t want to take over as the head of the family. He eloped with little Raphtalia’s mother. I went with them and we left the country.”

Hmm . . . So Raphtalia’s parents had been selfish. Or not, depending on how you looked at it. I wondered if there was some special reason they had come to Melromarc, seeing as how the country heavily discriminated against demi-humans.

“I lost a lot by leaving, but I gained even more. I don’t regret the decision.”

“Between her father’s lineage and the heroes, which would rank higher?”

“Raphtalia’s father would have been more important in the region we came from.”

“More than the holy heroes?”

“The legend of the heroes doesn’t exist there. Although, there are records of heroes visiting the region. But personally, I think they were just referred to by a different name.”

What kind of region was it? And referred to by a different name? Like . . . “holders of the holy weapons,” maybe? Either way, I had a feeling I was starting to understand what kind of family Raphtalia had come from. She was the descendant of a family line that was worshipped in some country because it was thought to trace back to the gods or something.

I decided to see if I could reason it out using what I already knew. There was the name and characteristics of the special finishing move that Raphtalia had created herself. And then there was the way Sadeena’s demi-human form looked. Both of those had a Japanese feel to them. That reminded me of what the old guy at the weapon shop had said about some place to the east.

“Does the country Raphtalia’s father was born in have a policy of isolation?”

Japan was like that a long time ago. It wasn’t like that made me special or anything, but being Japanese would make it easier to understand how a country might develop differently due to the effects of such a policy. Also, I’d heard that the country where the Spirit Tortoise had been sealed away had also been closed off. Perhaps there were more isolationist countries than I would have thought.

“Wow, you really are impressive, little Naofumi. That’s exactly right. It’s been that way since ancient times. There are a lot of countries like that, but ours is one of the most exclusionary of them.”

“Are you worried about the country trying something?”

It was an isolationist country in the east. So it was a country kind of like Japan, and Raphtalia was a descendant of an ancient and dignified bloodline there. If they found out about her, they might send someone to try to take her back or something. Maybe that was it.

“That’s part of it, but it wouldn’t really be an issue if that’s all it was. I guess you could say that Raphtalia’s happiness is what really concerns me.”

“Ugh . . .” Raphtalia moaned.

Sadeena wet a piece of cloth with cool water and placed it on Raphtalia’s forehead.

“She’ll be waking up soon. Is there anything else you wanted to ask?”

“Why don’t you tell Raphtalia any of this?”

“Her father didn’t want her to know.”

The last thing I wanted was to get dragged into some kind of family feud with Raphtalia’s relatives. People could waste time on that kind of thing once the world was at peace. The same went for the whole Church of the Three Heroes mess and the trouble with the nobility. That power struggle stuff was a real pain in the ass.

“Is this going to be a problem?”

“Probably not. They’ll probably stay away as long as we don’t do anything to upset them—something like you and little Raphtalia getting intimate.”

“Do you mean because that would cause internal family issues?”

Sadeena nodded silently. So that was it, after all. Hypothetically, let’s say I slept with Raphtalia and she got pregnant. I was worshipped as a god in another country, and Raphtalia would be pregnant with my child. Those relatives might suspect that Raphtalia was trying to take control of the family, which could prompt them to take action. And Sadeena was worried about that possibility.

“If you decide that you really want to have a child with little Raphtalia, do it after you crush that country and quash those family issues. Promise me.”

“Aren’t you a bit too worried?”

I couldn’t imagine that the country knew everything that was going on. Of course, it never hurt to be careful, but still . . .

“You’re probably right. But that country is full of miko priestesses and people that can use unique abilities. You shouldn’t underestimate them. Just imagine a bunch of people like me coming to try to kill little Raphtalia.”

“. . .”

A country full of Sadeenas . . . Why didn’t we just have them save the world? Still, Raphtalia was incredibly strong, so it wouldn’t be easy to kill her. That didn’t mean I was going to do anything irresponsible, of course.

“The truth is, it’s really up to you, little Naofumi. I just don’t want you to do anything that would make a little girl cry. But I’m an adult, and not a little girl, so I can handle it.”

“After all of those excuses, you go there?”

“Oh, stop it! You’re making me blush!”

Of course, lineage and all of that was probably an issue too, but Sadeena really just wanted to ask about my feelings for Raphtalia. That was clear now.

“Ugh . . . Mr. Naofumi?”

Raphtalia regained consciousness and sat up.

“You okay?”

“Umm, yes. I feel oddly refreshed.”

I demanded a lot of her. She might have been stressed about things too. In that respect, drinking might not actually be a bad way to blow off some steam.

“That’s good,” Sadeena said.

“Did anything happen while I was passed out?” Raphtalia asked.

“Nah . . .” I replied.

I was sure Sadeena would rather I didn’t tell the truth. There was no need to stir up any trouble. I’d just pretend I hadn’t heard any of it.

“Not really. I was just telling Sadeena about how you’re like a daughter to me.”

“What?!”

Raphtalia shouted out in surprise and her voice cracked. We went back and forth for a bit and she forgot about her initial question.

So I should be prepared to commit if I wanted to pursue a serious relationship with Raphtalia, huh? What a bunch of trouble. I wasn’t going to settle down in this world. I didn’t intend to, at least.

“Alright then. That’s enough drinking. Let’s head back and get some sleep,” I said.

“Aww . . .”

“He’s right, Sadeena. You’ve had more than enough.”

“Hm? Did I fall asleep?”

Gaelion finally woke up.

“Fill me up,” he said.

“Oh! I like that attitude, little Gaelion! How about you and I have a drinking contest?”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

Were these two going to be drinking buddies now? Gaelion was hungover the next day. I guess I’d just have to warn him not to drink too much next time.

Chapter Fifteen: Form is Emptiness

It had been two days since my talk with Sadeena. I’d finished breakfast and was in the middle of training when I heard the clunking sounds of a carriage. A completely unexpected visitor rolled up into the village.

“Hmm? Oh, hey!” I called out.

The old guy from the weapon shop was sitting in the carriage. It looked like he’d grabbed a ride on a carriage transporting ore and other materials.

“Yo! I came to take a look at this village you’ve been building, kid.”

The old guy was looking around at the village.

“You sure have given the place a unique feel, haven’t you?”

That was his comment after catching sight of the bioplant field, the camping plant buildings, and the monster stable.

“There’s absolutely no denying that,” Raphtalia agreed.

I sensed a hint of bitterness in her voice.

“That’s just a reflection of Mr. Naofumi! You need to learn to accept that already, Raphtalia!” Atla retorted.

“I’m not so sure about that. But why are you always so eager to pick a fight, Atla?” I asked.

Hearing the old guy’s comment and taking a look around, I couldn’t deny that the village was turning out to look pretty strange. The bioplant field and the camping plant buildings were only a couple of the many oddities. The camping plant buildings, in particular, were a real one-of-a-kind. That was undeniable. No matter how you looked at it, the place stuck out among the other towns and villages in Melromarc. I was fully aware that I had some pretty crazy stuff going on there, and having it pointed out by the old guy didn’t make me feel any better about it.

“Did you just stop by while you were you out gathering ore or something?”

“There is that, but I have another reason for coming too.”

The old guy reached into a bag sitting on the carriage and pulled out an outfit. He handed it to Raphtalia. I immediately understood what it was. Even I knew that my eyes were twinkling as I stared at the outfit.

“Why do you look so excited?!” Raphtalia snapped.

She was standing there holding the clothes with an annoyed look on her face.

“Oh?”

I checked the stats on the miko outfit in Raphtalia’s hands.

White Tiger Miko Outfit (crude)

defense up, impact resistance (small), power of the four holy beasts, magic defense processing

Crude? What was that all about? But actually, I hadn’t even been able to use my appraisal skill on the outfit before now.

“Hmm, the stats seem a bit low,” Raphtalia said.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry about that. This was the best I could manage,” said the old guy.

“Not at all. I think you did a good job, actually,” I replied.

“I’m perfectly happy with more normal armor,” Raphtalia said.

The old guy had humored my request and supposedly went through a lot of trial-and-error to make the outfit. There weren’t very many people in this world looking into how to raise the defenses of cloth, unlike in Kizuna’s world. The old guy had incorporated some exotic techniques and managed to pull it off to a certain degree, I guess.

“There’s a girl in your village that’s good with sewing equipment, right? She gave me a hand, and that made a big difference.”

Did he mean S’yne? I didn’t recall introducing her to the old guy. But then I remembered she was keeping an eye on me. Her vassal weapon was basically a sewing set. She probably shared some techniques from other worlds that helped the old guy out too.

“I see. Alright, Raphtalia, make sure you wear that from now on, starting today.”

“I don’t know why you feel so strongly about these clothes.”

A big grin crept across my face.

“Because they look so good on you. I’m sure the villagers will agree when they see you in them.”

“I didn’t want to hear that. Oh, whatever. The stats aren’t much different than those of the armor I’m wearing now, so it’s not like I’m against wearing them.”

“I’m prepared to give my full support to any ongoing research in this area, you know. Is there anything else you might need?”

I nudged the old guy to continue with his miko outfit research and development.

“Mr. Naofumi? Are you listening to me?”

Raphtalia tried to protest. She still had the miko outfit in her hands.

“I hear you. Anyway, go put that on and show the villagers.”

“You don’t have to sound so pushy.”

“I sure wish Mr. Naofumi would buy me clothes. I’m jealous!” Atla exclaimed.

I could feel some kind of intense aura of envy slowly emanating from her body.

“I’ll take those if you don’t want them,” she continued.

“They wouldn’t even fit you!” Raphtalia snapped.

“That doesn’t matter. I’ll wear them anyway and steal Mr. Naofumi’s heart.”

“What the hell are you even saying?”

Sometimes Atla’s enthusiasm was just a bit too much.

“Ugh . . . Fine. Understood. I’ll go put it on.”

Raphtalia gave up and went to change into the outfit. Several minutes later, she returned with the miko outfit on.

“Oh . . .”

The old guy and all of the villagers were staring at her. She was looking down at the ground and holding her katana sheath in her hands, clearly embarrassed.

“Now that’s really something. I see what you mean, kid.”

“Wow, Raphtalia! You look even cooler than usual!” Keel exclaimed.

She was staring at Raphtalia too. Right? Right?? I knew it. Raphtalia really did look best in a miko outfit!

“Cool?”

“She means cute, I’m sure. But wow!”

Everyone was staring at Raphtalia in awe, and her face just kept getting redder. Was she really embarrassed? She didn’t seem bothered at all when she wore the outfit back in Kizuna’s world.

“Now that is a sight for sore eyes,” I said.

I felt like a father seeing his precious, young daughter all dressed up in nice clothes for the first time. Okay, maybe that was going a bit too far, but Raphtalia really did look amazingly good in a miko outfit. I’d also seen her in a kimono and a hakama while we were in Kizuna’s world, but nothing could beat the miko outfit. It was uncanny. It’s like the clothes were made for her. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle. It made the more European-style leather armor she usually wore just look strange on her.

“Well, that settles that. We’re sticking with the miko outfit for you, Raphtalia.”

“I don’t get why you’re so set on having it that way, but fine. Understood.”

Raphtalia sighed faintly when she replied.

“What else do you have planned today? If you came to ask for the lumos’ help, I’d be happy to send them along with you,” I told the old guy.

“Oh, yeah? In that case, I guess I’ll take you up on your offer,” he replied.

And so, with Raphtalia wearing her new miko outfit, we got back to training and taking care of our business for the day. Other than that, Eclair started moaning about her duties as governor and requested my help, so I went over and spent some time in the neighboring town to give her a hand.

The old guy decided to stay the night in the village and agreed to do some maintenance work on the armor that the slaves had been using while he was there. He really was a generous guy. I could never thank him enough.

The sun set and it was almost time for dinner.

“Little Naofumi! I’m back!”

Sadeena had just gotten back to the village. I’d asked her to go do some salvaging in the nearby ocean, along with some fishing to help reinforce our food supplies. She must have made quite the catch, because the basket on her back was packed full of fish.

“I brought you your fish. We’re going to have a feast tonight!”

“Yeah, fine. Whatever. For now, I’ll just grill—”

I started talking to myself about how I should prepare the fish that Sadeena had caught.

“Oh hey, Sadeena. Welcome ba—”

Before Raphtalia could finish her sentence, Sadeena dropped the basket of fish on the ground with a loud thud.

“Hey, don’t drop that there!”

Sadeena completely ignored me and stumbled over to Raphtalia. She reached out and started trying to pull Raphtalia’s clothes off.

“Wh . . . what are you doing, Sadeena?!”

“What’s the idea, you drunkard?!”

“Little Naofumi! We have to get these clothes off of her immediately!”

“Stop screwing around! Why would she need to get undressed?!”

I’d had that miko outfit made specially just for her. Why did she need to take it off now? Raphtalia and Sadeena were struggling with each other and the slaves started making a commotion.

“Umm, Naofumi, is everything okay? Should we stop them?” Ren asked.

He looked alarmed.

“I guess so. We can’t have this screwball undressing Raphtalia in front of everyone. We’ll just have to put her down.”

I was starting to get angry when I noticed the look of urgency on Sadeena’s face.

“Hey, what are you so flustered about? Explain yourself.”

“Little Naofumi, don’t you remember what I said? About being prepared?”

Huh? The night before last, Sadeena had told me I should be prepared to commit if I wanted to marry Raphtalia—how it would likely cause some kind of family feud or something.

“What about it?”

“It’s related to that. We need to get these clothes off of her now!”

“Wh . . . what are you two talking about?!” Raphtalia asked.

She’d been passed out drunk at the time. It made sense that she wouldn’t know. But what did Raphtalia wearing a miko outfit have to do with any of that?

“Okay, fine. Raphtalia, go change your clothes. This drunkard is going to keep trying to undress you otherwise.”

“U . . . understood.”

Raphtalia went to change again. After that, Sadeena finally calmed down. She was staring at the house that Raphtalia had gone inside of to change.

“Seriously, what’s going on?”

“Listen, little Naofumi. Do you have any idea what having little Raphtalia wear that outfit means?”

“Hell if I know. It’s just a really nice piece of equipment that we brought back from the other world and had repaired.”

Sadeena acted like I’d stepped on a land mine, but how should I have known what the problem was? No one had told me anything about something like that! Sadeena covered her face with her hand, like she was getting frustrated. It was unlike her to be visibly irritated like this.

“Okay, little Naofumi, I’m going to explain. Having her wear that outfit has far greater significance than even what we talked about the other day. In that country, it signifies a right to the thro—”

All of a sudden, Sadeena took off running. Several seconds later, a column of flames suddenly shot up out of the house that Raphtalia had gone in to change clothes.

“What the hell?!”

“We were too late!”

Sadeena quickly switched to her therianthrope form and began to rapidly recite an incantation.

“Raphtalia!”

Raphtalia leapt out of the crumbling house and brandished her katana. She was still halfway undressed, and her miko outfit was spotted with ash. I heard a metallic sound echo out and something went flying toward Raphtalia! I squinted to get a better look. It looked like a kunai or some kind of iron spike. And then a group of people appeared from out of nowhere and attacked Raphtalia.

“Ugh . . .”

Raphtalia parried and then counterattacked, but her attack was dodged by a hair’s breadth.

“Prepare yourself!” the enemy shouted.

Fortunately, Raphtalia was slightly more skilled than her opponents, so she was able to dodge all of their attacks. What kind of weapons were they using? Was that a kodachi? One of the enemies blocked Raphtalia’s katana and locked blades with her. Immediately after, another enemy took advantage of the opening, appearing from behind and attacking. But Raphtalia swiftly drew her other katana and blocked the attack. She could dual-wield.

“Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!”

Raphtalia forced a skill off and tried to slice through the enemy, but her katana stopped just short of making contact and sparks shot into the air. Her opponents were pretty strong.

“Haaah!”

“Not so fast!”

Raphtalia used her illusion magic to confuse the attacker and then dodged the attack. She’d only changed her position ever so slightly, so it had appeared really dangerous. The enemies had managed to unleash such a fierce chain of attacks in the mere moments it had taken us to approach.

They must have been some seriously skilled fighters. Raphtalia had a vassal weapon! Levels were capped at 100 in this world. Even if Raphtalia’s stats were reduced by the effects of a curse, I was sure she wouldn’t be outclassed by someone of that level. She was at least that strong.

“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Shooting Star Shield!”

Raphtalia had only been able to focus on protecting herself. I hurried to the front to take over defense.

“Drifa Thunderbolt!”

Sadeena finished her incantation and thunderbolts rained down on the surrounding area, revealing several more enemies that seemed to have been hiding.

What was this? They appeared to be killer whale therianthropes and a rabbit therianthropes. They were wearing what looked like ninja outfits, and they had me, Raphtalia, and Sadeena surrounded.

“Who the hell are these people?” I asked.

Did that mean demi-humans and therianthropes had attacked Raphtalia? Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden were the demi-human countries. But if they’d been from there, I wouldn’t have expected them to be this hostile once I showed up.

“Are those enemies?!”

“Oh no! The house is on fire! We restored that house with bubba!”

“Kwa?!”

Ren, Keel, the other slaves, and even the monsters all started to make a lot of noise.

“Fehhh! Mr. Itsuki! Let’s join the fight!”

“Okay.”

Rishia and Itsuki showed up too, of course.

“What’s going on?!”

“What in the world happened here?”

Even Fohl and Atla were surprised by the unexpected state of affairs. The enemy showed no sign of retreating, despite our rapid increase in numbers. They were exchanging glances silently.

“Daughter of the one who abandoned his inheritance of the seat of the Heavenly Emperor! You have made your intentions clear to us! We will do everything in our power to thwart your claim to the seat! Prepare yourself!”

“What?!”

What was that supposed to mean? I looked over at Raphtalia.

“What are you talking about? I have absolutely no idea!” she exclaimed.

“Little Naofumi, little Raphtalia, it’s too late. They won’t listen to us.”

Sadeena narrowed her eyes. She was radiating an aura of murderous intent as she pointed her harpoon at the group of ninja-looking enemies that had suddenly appeared.

What was going on? There were several killer whale therianthropes that looked a lot like Sadeena mixed in among them. I suddenly remembered what Sadeena had said recently. I got a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“Listen, little Naofumi. Those clothes that you had little Raphtalia put on—that you keep calling a miko outfit—are primarily what caused this. You understand, right?”

I had a pretty good idea of what Sadeena was getting at, judging from how she was reacting. I had no idea how in the world that outfit would lead to getting ambushed, but going by what she had told me, I assumed it had something to do with Raphtalia’s birth.

“Those clothes have special meaning in little Raphtalia’s case.”

“I can tell that much. I want to know the reason why.”

“Is that a holder of a spirit implement? Permission to draw weapons of judgment granted! And you! Take care of the water dragon’s former miko priestess!” shouted one of the enemies.

“Yes, sir!”

There were a bunch of clicking sounds and . . . What were those? The enemies drew strange weapons that were enshrouded in energy resembling pale flame. The enemies readied themselves to attack.

“I guess we don’t have time for explanations. We’ll just have to fight them off for now,” I said.

The group of killer whales that looked like Sadeena sprang into action. Before Sadeena could even move, they lunged at her at full speed and thrust their staffs at her, sending her flying through the air. The thrusts must have been incredibly powerful, because Sadeena was thrown high into the air, toward the cliff. The enemies leapt at her and latched on to her body in what appeared to be a suicide attack. They all went tumbling together over the cliff and down into the ocean.

“Sadeena!” Raphtalia screamed.

As if in response to her screams, the enemies raised their weapons high into the air.

“Haaaaah!”

The first attacker swung a maul, and I stepped forward to block it. He was really quick. Almost as quick as Sadeena was when we fought her in Zeltoble, after she’d become serious. I needed to watch out for defense rating attacks and defense ignoring attacks. But I didn’t know if the enemy could use either, so I decided to block the attack with Shooting Star Shield. There was a loud cracking sound, and the maul smashed through the barrier as easy as if it had been the crisp outer layer of a chocolate-dipped cone.

Was this a joke? Could it really be possible to destroy my Shooting Star Shield so effortlessly? I could have understood if it had been the Demon Dragon or another hero, but these were just normal people, as far as I could tell. Something seemed a bit different about the way it had been destroyed too. I wasn’t sure how to describe it. It had just kind of dissolved, like the barrier had been nullified.

“Ugh!”

I blocked the enemy’s sideways swing with my shield, and I felt the massive impact pass through the shield and into my arm.

I hadn’t taken any damage. It hadn’t been a defense rating or defense ignoring attack. And yet it had easily smashed through my Shooting Star Shield. On top of that, I had the Demon Dragon Shield equipped and the counterattack effect hadn’t activated. The accessory I had attached to my shield recently didn’t react either. None of my effects were functioning.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Another enemy attacked Raphtalia behind me. Damn it!

“Dritte Shield!”

I summoned my third shield to protect her.

“It’s no use.”

The enemy that had attacked Raphtalia was using a sword-breaker dagger. As expected, the enemy sliced through the shield that I had summoned with ease.

I had learned the Way of the Dragon Vein, and I could feel that I was becoming more and more sensitive toward magic recently. Surely I would be able to tell whether my stats had been reduced by magic. I took a quick look at my stats, just to make sure. There didn’t seem to be any kind of debuff magic at play. Did that mean the enemy had surpassed my defense with pure brute force? But our stats were higher than theirs.

“We have to protect bubba!”

“Wait! Be careful!” I shouted.

Keel and the others paid no heed to my warning and rushed into the fray. Was I going to end up with dead villagers on my hands?! The thought flashed across my mind, but they were actually coordinating and maneuvering rather well. Their guard was tight. In that case, I would just cast Zweite Aura to reduce the damage they may take.

There seemed to be some highly skilled fighters mixed in among the enemies, but we had them outnumbered and they seemed to be struggling. But there was a different problem. Keel and the others were fighting back with weapons that had no edge.

“Naofumi! Ugh . . .”

Ren, Rishia, and Itsuki tried to join us, but the enemies blocked their path.

“Ren! Or Itsuki! Give us some backup!”

“Understood!”

“Naofumi, do your best to withstand this!”

Ren and Itsuki both fired off their skills.

“Hundred Swords!”

“Arrow Rain!”

When they did, I shoved the enemies away and held my shield up into the air.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

I generated a barrier and buckled down to protect Raphtalia and the others from Ren’s and Itsuki’s backup attacks.

“Ugh . . .”

The enemies that had been surrounding me groaned, and then went on to bat Ren’s and Itsuki’s skills out of the air with their weapons. Just what the hell were those weapons?! What was with these enemies?! Bastards!

“Why are you attacking us?!” Ren screamed angrily.

He was slicing at the enemies, but his attacks were too weak. No. His stats were clearly higher, because he did seem to be overpowering them slightly. But it was like the enemies were wearing chainmail or something. Even if Ren’s sword made contact, it was like he couldn’t surpass their defense.

“What’s with these guys?!”

“Lea———Spider Net!”

S’yne suddenly appeared and cast her spiderweb of thread over the area. The enemies were caught off guard by the surprise attack and got tangled up in the thread, slowing their movements. That would prove to be a mistake.

“Here I go! Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!”

“Hiyaaa!”

“Let’s do this, Mr. Itsuki!”

“Okay.”

All of our best fighters took advantage of the brief opening and attacked.

“Ugh . . . But we will not back down!” shouted one of the enemies.

“Their armor is ridiculously tough!”

“Yes.”

Raphtalia, Ren, and Itsuki just barely managed to cut through the enemies’ armor and chainmail, but none of them had even come close to causing a fatal wound.

The enemies’ skilled coordination and polished movements seemed almost supernatural, and they were what made their attacks so efficient. Our stats might have been higher than theirs, but they outdid us when it came to technique.

“Ugh . . .”

“Request for permission to employ the sakura stones of destiny!” yelled one of the fighters.

“We didn’t bring any for this operation! Be prepared to die an honorable death if you must!” replied another.

“Yes, sir!”

It sounded like they had another secret weapon. But now wasn’t the time to worry about that!

“You’re not welcome here!” Atla exclaimed.

She caught one of the enemies off guard and punched him in the chest.

“Ugh!”

Huh? Atla’s attack destroyed the enemy’s armor. But Ren and Itsuki were complaining about being unable to breach the enemies’ defenses. Raphtalia’s, Ren’s, and Itsuki’s attacks hadn’t been very effective. And my skill had been destroyed effortlessly. What was the common denominator?

Was it that we were all heroes?

But this wasn’t the time for pondering. We needed to do something and we needed to do it quick. Our enemies were incredibly skillful. S’yne’s web of threads had already been cut to pieces and rendered ineffective. Was there no way to finish this quickly?

“Raphtalia!”

It was sink or swim! I looked at Raphtalia and signaled with my eyes for her to begin focusing her mind. She nodded. I turned my back to her and began to recite an incantation while continuing to guard against the attacks of the enemies in front of us.

We’d just have to play it by ear and hope this worked. We were going to use illusion magic—Raphtalia’s specialty—to try to confuse the enemies. The puzzle pieces appeared, floating, in front of my eyes.

“Can you do this, Raphtalia?”

“I’ll try my best!”

The spell I’d cast as the base for our magic wasn’t an aura spell. It was a guard spell. It was a type of support magic that I’d learned a long time ago, but I stopped using it once I learned the aura spells. Being that it was her first time casting cooperative magic, Raphtalia seemed slightly unsure of herself. But she must have caught on faster than I had, because it was going pretty well for a couple of amateurs.

“Power of two, lend your strength to confuse the enemy with an illusion! Re-spin the threads of fate, and turn their defeat into a victory!”

Nice! The incantation was going well. There was something about it. It felt like we were able to combine our power more quickly than when I cast cooperative magic with Sadeena. Of course, the fact that I’d cast such a low-level spell probably had something to do with it. Whatever, we had to try!

I continued blocking the enemies’ attacks while we were reciting the incantation. All of the training I had done with Atla and Raphtalia lately was paying off now. Atla’s vicious attacks were driven by instinct. These enemies were skilled, but their movements were formulaic, which made them easy to deal with.

We finished fitting the puzzle pieces together to form the magic.

“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Show our enemies an illusion to confuse them!”

“Form is Emptiness!”

The target icon popped up on my screen. The spell was set to cast on everyone that I recognized as an enemy. Without hesitation, I finalized the incantation and cast the spell. There was a loud pop, and the magic that Raphtalia and I had cast took its effect on every single enemy there!

“Haaaa!”

The enemies’ fierce attacks began to miss us, and they began moving in all of the wrong directions. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like our illusions were putting up a good fight.

“Wh . . . what happened?!”

“We cast some cooperative magic. These bastards are going to be full of holes for a bit!”

“It seems that we succeeded in creating sensory confusion with the illusions. But be careful! I’m sure you realize this, but attacking them will cancel the effect. They’ll figure out what’s going on soon!”

“Then what should we do?!”

“The effect won’t last long. In that case . . .”

Raphtalia took a stance that I’d seen her use before.

“It would seem they have some kind of powerful resistance against our weapon skills. I’m sure that Mr. Naofumi and the other heroes have noticed,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“We need your strength too, Ren and Itsuki. We need to make the absolute most of this chance!”

“Got it!”

“Okay.”

“Fehhh . . .”

“Don’t waste this opportunity,” I told them.

I started casting my aura on as many of us as I could, starting with the strongest fighters. It probably took less than a minute. Raphtalia finished recharging her magic power and gave everyone the signal to attack.

“Shooting Star Sword!”

“Eagle Piercing Shot!”

Ren and Itsuki led the attack, and everyone followed up with their biggest skills and most powerful techniques. Atla delivered a heavy blow to her opponent’s chest with her fist. But the enemy immediately took a defensive stance, perhaps because they sensed Atla’s hostility, or just as a result of combat experience.

“Here I go! Hiyaaaaa!”

The blade of Raphtalia’s katana began to glow and she unleashed something that wasn’t a weapon skill. It was an attack that would extend across the whole area.

“Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny!”

It was a quick-draw attack with incredible momentum, but everyone must have known it was coming, because we all crouched down and dodged the attack. A trail of light shot out and directly into almost all of the enemies who had been standing there confused. A yin-yang pattern appeared in the air briefly, and then the enemies were all sent flying through the air.

“Gaaaahhhh!”

The surprise attack incapacitated all of the enemies at once.

“An attack that combines magic power and life force, I see. As to be expected of the one that calls herself Mr. Naofumi’s sword. But I won’t lose to you!”

After adding her commentary, Atla climbed up onto one of the fallen enemies and threw her arms into the air to signal our victory. It must have been around that same time. Several massive lightning bolts rained down near the shore and Sadeena burst up out of the water.

“Now, now. If you think that’s all it takes to stop me, you’re gravely mistaken.”

“These people were super strong!”

Keel was poking one of the fallen enemies excitedly with the sheath of her short sword.

“Oh? Did you protect everyone, little Naofumi?”

“I guess you could say that. Actually, it was Raphtalia that finished them off.”

“Yeah! That was amazing.”

“Yes. By the way, our weapons and skills seemed rather ineffective against these people. Are they useless?” asked Itsuki.

He was still behaving as indecisively as ever.

“It’d be nice if we could get one of them to talk,” I said.

I kicked one of the fallen enemies over onto his back. His eyes snapped open and he started to get up, but I stomped him back down to the ground and pinned him there with my foot.

“You realize the fight is over, right? Now it’s time to make you talk!”

“Ha! We won’t tell you anything!”

As soon as he finished speaking, light began to leak out of his body and the bodies of all of the other surrounding enemies.

“ Daughter of the one who abandoned his inheritance of the seat of the Heavenly Emperor! We have noted your declaration of war. Messengers have already been sent to inform our people. Our assassins will never stop coming for you. Your days of peace and quiet are over! Hahahaha!”

“Little Naofumi!”

“Everyone, get back!”

“Glory to the Heavenly Emperor!”

I gave the order and we all moved away from the fallen enemies. As we did, the enemies’ bodies exploded and went flying into the air.

“They blow themselves up as soon as they lose? What the hell?”

And talk about grotesque. There were corpses all over the place and it reeked of blood. It smelled like blasting powder too. Who the hell was going to clean this up?! Damn it! And to top it all off, now some of our buildings were on fire.

“Anyway, hurry up and put out those fires! Do what you can to minimize the damage!”

The battle was over. We went about putting out the fires and then regrouped later.

Fortunately, we’d managed to put out all of the fires quickly. After all, the camping plant was a plant, and it didn’t burn very well. Even if the camping plant buildings were destroyed, replacing them would be simple. I was thinking about how great the plants were when . . .

“This . . . This weapon is . . .”

The old guy from the weapon shop was at a loss for words. He was looking at one of the weapons that the enemies had been using. It had been broken by the suicide-bomb blast.

“What is it?”

“Umm, never mind. It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

He was acting strange. But he wasn’t going to talk, so I didn’t push the issue.

“Sorry you got caught up in a mess like this on the night you finally came to see the village.”

The old guy had put up a good fight of his own a short distance from where we had been. But he deserved an apology more than my gratitude.

“No worries. By the way, kid, you mind if I hold on to this weapon and do some poking around?”

“Huh? Oh, sure. Those weapons had some strange abilities, so it’d be great if you could find anything out.”

They had been uncannily effective against us heroes. It’d be great if the old guy could study the weapon and figure out why. I couldn’t help but get my hopes up.

“Okay, Sadeena. Will you explain now?”

“I guess I should. We got interrupted when I tried to explain earlier. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to keep it a secret anymore either.”

Sadeena was back in her demi-human form now. She shrugged with resignation and began to explain.

“I was keeping this secret until now, little Raphtalia. But in a certain country, you are the equivalent of what would be royal family in Melromarc.”

“Huh?!”

Raphtalia pointed at herself with a look of surprise on her face.

“Is that right? And she’s one of Naofumi’s party members,” Ren mumbled.

“What a surprise. It’s a surprise, right? Rishia?” Itsuki asked.

“Yes, it is, Mr. Itsuki.”

Everyone around us started whispering among themselves.

“It’s nothing to be surprised about,” Atla said.

What did she mean? Had she sensed some kind of hint of nobility in Raphtalia or something?

“Raphtalia is an obstacle keeping me from having Mr. Naofumi all to myself. Nothing about that has changed.”

Several people shook their heads in disbelief. I did the same.

“You’re unshakeable,” I said.

Now that I thought about it, Fohl and Atla were related to Trash, and they had blood ties to the former leader of Siltvelt. They were basically royalty too.

“Back to what we were talking about. So what does a miko outfit have to do with any of that?” I asked.

Sadeena had a troubled look on her face. She was staring at Raphtalia, who was still wearing the miko outfit. After several moments, she ran her fingers through her hair and looked over at me.

“Well, those people we just fought mentioned the Heavenly Emperor, right? Think of him as the king.”

“Okay, got it.”

“Those clothes that you call a miko outfit, in the country Raphtalia’s parents were from—Q’ten Lo—that’s an outfit that only the Heavenly Empress is allowed to wear.”

Oh, so that was it. Ren, Itsuki, Rishia, Atla, Fohl, and pretty much everyone else there all seemed to finally start to understand.

“In other words, even from a lineage perspective, it’s only natural that the miko outfit would look so ridiculously good on her. And wearing it would signify that she’s the country’s ruler,” I said.

“That’s right.”

“And Raphtalia’s father didn’t want to become king, so he abandoned his royal status, eloped, and came to Melromarc,” I continued.

Sadeena kept nodding.

“So the way they see it, Raphtalia is a subordinate of the Shield Hero, also known as the god of the demi-humans and she’s off in some remote region wearing their royal garb. Clearly she intends to take the throne. That’s a declaration of war. She must be killed. Does that pretty much sum it up?”

“Little Naofumi, you sure are sharp. I’m impressed!”

“It’s blatantly obvious! And once the message gets back to the country, they’re going to just keep sending assassins after Raphtalia!” I barked.

Come on! Why did I always have to be inundated with such annoying problems?! Just when I’d finally managed to get Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu to implement the power-up methods! Well, Motoyasu was missing, but still . . . I wanted to hurry up and take care of the heroes’ curse effects and meet up with the seven star heroes, but then this happens! Give me a break already!

“I figured it wouldn’t be a problem as long as we didn’t provoke them. I never imagined you would have Raphtalia dress up in that outfit.”

Ugh . . . Why did things have to turn out like this? I’d just wanted to enjoy the sight of my cute little daughter dressed up all nice! Damn it!

“Sadeena, I noticed you staring at empty spots around the village every now and then before. That was because you could sense them hiding there, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was. They use their own unique concealment techniques that are difficult to detect, even for me.”

“How long had they been keeping watch?”

There was a slightly grim look in her eyes when she answered.

“Ever since little Raphtalia’s parents left the country.”

“Oh, really?”

In other words, that meant that the enemies we’d just fought had watched the village come under attack during the wave. They watched it get destroyed, and they watched Raphtalia’s parents die. The stood by and watched as Raphtalia almost died, and they watched her suffer as a slave. All that time, they stood by watching, silently, and never even tried to help.

Basically, they had absolutely no interest in anything other than their royal family issues. They didn’t care if Raphtalia was distressed over the loss of her parents. They didn’t care if she ended up a slave and got whipped. And they didn’t care about any of the countless hardships she’d been through thanks to me.

To hell with the Heavenly Emperor! They sure had a lot of nerve going on about their emperor when they were happy to just completely ignore his blood relatives. The fact that they had been keeping an eye on us this whole time just made me feel sick!

“Muhaha . . . muuuuhahahaha!”

I’d been pushed over the line.

“Mr. . . . Naofumi? Umm . . .”

“They have a lot of nerve. If they want to come invade my place and try to kill Raphtalia, then I’ll just have to make them pay. Sadeena, you told me I would need to be prepared to crush a country, right? Well, why not? I’ll do just that. I’m going to go to that country and I’m going to crush it with my own two hands!”

“Oh my!”

Why the hell was she looking at me like she was spellbound or something?

“You’re really going to?” asked Ren.

I nodded emphatically.

“I am. I absolutely hate trash like that. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah. I guess. If they’re going to fire at us, then we’ll fire right back. I can’t imagine anything good coming from ignoring the issue.”

“The only reason any of this happened is because you had Raphtalia wear that miko—hmrgm!”

I glared over at Itsuki and Raphtalia quickly covered his mouth with her hand. Hmph. I had a clear target for my anger for the time being, so I’d let that slide. In return, I expected him to get stronger so that he could help me make those bastards pay.

I looked over at Raphtalia. She was slouching and looked disappointed.

“You against this?” I asked her.

“No. I don’t think we have a choice if they’re just going to keep coming. It’s just . . . I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. If this is the obstacle standing in the way of me being able to dress you in that miko outfit, then overcoming it is the only choice. If we can’t go around the obstacle, then we’ll just smash right through it at full speed!”

That’s right. If those bastards were going to attack the village I’d built, then fighting back was my only choice. This was a battle that couldn’t be avoided. I wasn’t going to sit around, scared, waiting for the enemy to come to us. I’d take the fight to them! No, fight wouldn’t do it justice. This was going to be all-out nuclear warfare!

“Now that that’s decided, let’s get straight to work. Sadeena, tell us the enemy’s location.”

“Sure thing!”

And so I made up my mind to invade Q’ten Lo, the isolationist country with ties to Raphtalia’s birth.

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Siti Dara

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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