LN Tate no Yuusha CH 13 - Epilog Vol 8 Bahasa indonesia

Chapter Thirteen: The Hunting Hero’s Skills

“Ah—It’s so gooooood!”

That night, I cut up some monsters we killed and grilled them over a fire for Filo.

Raph-chan was eating a lot, too—and smiling the whole time.

The sun had gone down, and we were camping out for the night.

“Do you like that, Filo-chan?”

“Yeah!”

“Naofumi sure is a good cook.”

“I hate waiting for the blood to drain out, though.”

Monsters were full of blood when you killed them, which didn’t taste very good. They were very gamey meats, which I tried to hide with spices. It worked a little, but the meat still struck me as pretty stinky.

“Can’t you use some skills to get around it? I have some skills that help with breaking down monster corpses.”

“I guess...”

It was true. She had better skills when it came to butchering monsters. When she did it, we ended up with higher-quality meat.

. . . But it still tasted gamey.

I guess it didn’t matter, as long as Filo and Rishia didn’t mind—and they didn’t seem to.

Filo was definitely in the middle of a growth spurt, because her stomach was constantly rumbling. It reminded me a lot of when I’d first started to raise her back in Melromarc. She was a real pig back then.

However, she was gaining levels unexpectedly fast. She had already reached level 30.

That must be how the opening game functioned in this world.

As if to keep up with her rising levels and food intake, Filo’s monster form was changing, too.

I thought that her monster form might mature into something like a filolial, but instead she had grown into a falcon-like monster.

“What sort of monster is a humming fairy?”

“Oh, they’re birds that really like music. They turn into all sorts of different forms as they grow up.”

“That’s right! Master, lookie!” Filo said, tottering away from us.

Then she started to flap her wings.

Filolials can’t fly, though they can jump pretty well.

So even though Filo had wings on her back when in human form, they were basically just decorations. They didn’t move very much. She could use them in battle or open them up and catch the wind, though. That way she could dodge attacks quickly. So they weren’t useless, but she certainly couldn’t use them to fly.

But...

Filo lifted off of the ground.

What? But filolials can’t fly! But then again... I guess Filo was a humming fairy now, so maybe that meant that she could fly.

“What do you think? I can fly!”

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

Filo’s monster half changed somehow when we crossed between worlds.

“That might let you use a whole new fighting style when you’re in your human form.”

“Yeah! Flying is fun!”

Well, there was nothing wrong with that. If Filo could fly now, that sounded like good news to me.

“What forms of attack do humming fairies generally use?”

“Well, they are birds, so they normally attack like other birds—with their claws. They are also great singers and can manipulate sounds”

“Filo, can you use any of your skills from when you were a filolial?”

“Um... I’m not strong enough to use them now, but I think I might be able to when I get stronger!”

She could probably still use Haikuikku and Spiral Strike.

With a puff of smoke, she transformed back into a bird and perched on my shoulder. She had the same coloring as she did when she was in her filolial queen form, but she was now a sleek falcon-like monster—nothing like the plump penguin-owl hybrid shape of the filolial queen.

She was actually pretty cool and just large enough to fit on my shoulder. She was kind of cute, too.

“Is she fully matured now?”

“No.”

“I’m not?”

“She’s at the middle stage of growth, called a humming falcon. She still has a few more stages to go through as she matures.”

“Sounds pretty complicated. No more specifics?”

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I think the forms change as her levels go up. I also once heard a story about a legendary humming fairy...”

I didn’t like the sound of that. It made me wonder if I’d run into another version of Fitoria or something.

“Master!”

“Hey, she can talk in her monster form?”

“She must have learned? I hear they can learn to talk, the same way that parrots can.”

Ah, like Polly-want-a-cracker kind of stuff?

Everyone knows that birds can be pretty smelly. She was no exception.

“Rafu?”

Raph-chan, on the other hand, smelled great. She always kept herself clean, so she smelled way better than Filo.

“From what I’ve heard, they can mature into different forms depending on the circumstances. I wonder what Filo-chan will end up as?”

“I can turn small, too!” Filo chirped. With a flash of light, she turned back into a little chick.

That reminded me—when Filo was in her filolial form, she could still change back and forth between her filolial queen form and her normal filolial form. She might not be able to hold each form for a long time, but it would be convenient if she had a lot of different forms available. Filo could be a real handful.

“If she can fly with us on her back, it might be a good way to get around.”

“Back in the world I came from, there are flying dragons that get used that way. Do you have them here?”

“Yeah. Humming fairies can do that.”

That would be great! She had always been a bird that was basically a replacement for horses. If she could fly, that would be even better.

“Here we have European dragons and Asian dragons. If she can turn into different types of humming fairies, then she must be really talented!”

“Tee-hee!”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You’re amazing.”

We went back and forth like that for a little while, and then Rishia joined the conversation. “Filo, would you mind speaking with me for a little while? I’d like to learn as much about this world’s language as possible.”

Rishia waved Filo over and they started looking at some written letters closely. Had she really already figured out how to read the language? I was reliant on my shield to translate for me, so I hadn’t learned anything that would be of help to her.

“Okay! I... um... I guess I’ve picked up a little bit while I’ve been here!” Filo hopped over to Rishia and started explaining things. “Okay, so ‘hello’ is, um... ‘hello’! And ‘food’ is...”

The only problem was that Filo was terrible at explaining things. Rishia scowled in confusion and looked like she was trying really hard to listen.

With any luck they might figure it out. Who knows?

I looked up at the night sky and worried about Raphtalia.

I wasn’t very worried about Glass and her friends. They could take care of themselves. But Raphtalia...

I’d managed to meet up with all of my companions since we were split up crossing between worlds... everyone but her. I hoped she was alright. I hoped she wasn’t sitting somewhere alone, crying.

I pictured her that way, and then she grew angry in my imagination, indignantly shouting, “I’m not a child anymore!”

Filo turned into a little chick when we crossed over. What if Raphtalia was a child again? That would make the coming battles difficult.

Even worse—what if she had been transformed into a different kind of demi-human? She’d lose her characteristic tanuki ears and tail. That would make her face look different, too. What if I didn’t recognize her? Maybe the slave spell would still work...

We continued our journey.

Then, a little while later...

“Thank you very much!”

Rishia had used a little of our money to go to a shop that looked like a bookstore. She bought a book and came back to meet us, carrying it under her arm.

That was all that had happened, but it made me notice something.

“Rishia, you...”

“Hm? What? Is something wrong?”

“You understand the language here?”

“Oh, yes! I studied very hard, and then Filo helped me perfect my pronunciation!” Rishia proclaimed, looking very boastful.

She had learned a whole new language just by reading over some books for a few days? What was with this girl? Her stats were just as bad as they’d ever been, but I couldn’t deny that there was a genius sleeping inside her.

Back in the last world, she’d known other languages besides what they spoke in Melromarc. She could read other alphabets, too.

But she figured out how to read and speak this world’s language in only a week?

Rishia... you’ve got to get out more. She was obviously better suited to studying than to wielding a sword.

“It took me forever to learn the language here,” Kizuna said, wiping cold sweat from her forehead.

“Is it so difficult? Sure, there are some differences, but...” she looked puzzled by our confusion. Was she so smart that she couldn’t even understand why we would have trouble?

But wait... Her stats were so much lower than other people’s. That had to be a hint to the mystery. There must have been invisible stats, like intuition and intelligence, that all of her points had been allocated, to.

“You... You’re really wasting all your talent on something you’re not suited for.”

The poor thing. I kind of pitied her.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t be useful in battle, but she was definitely better suited to a back-line support position, somewhere that a hero could protect her while she contributed to the fight.

God, Itsuki was so stupid! She should have sat him down and taught him a foreign language. That would have shown him. Then he wouldn’t have been so rude to her—and to me.

Not that you could teach him or anything. He wouldn’t listen.

“Feh... Why are you looking at me like that? You look like you pity me...”

“Hm?”

Actually, Filo was smart. She learned to speak our human language, and it only took her three days! I hadn’t given it much thought until now, but it was actually pretty amazing.

Both of them seemed to have picked up most of the language in this world. There were two geniuses here that could learn languages really quickly, even without legendary weapons to translate for them!

“Rafu?”

“You don’t have to talk, Raph-chan.”

I had my hands full with Filo. I didn’t need two talking pets.

“Boooo! Master is thinking mean things!”

Whatever.

Anyway, I figured it was safe to assume that Rishia’s stats had been allocated to categories that weren’t listed in the stats menu. I’d known she had an excellent memory ever since I spoke with her back on the Cal Mira islands.

Back when Itsuki saved her from a nasty situation, she was immediately able to remember that Filo and I had happened to walk by them on that same day.

Viewed from that perspective, she was really impressive.

“Hey, Rishia.”

“What?”

“What did you study back in your world?”

Her family had been swindled out of all their money, so she must have done all her studying on her own.

“Until the waves came, I studied at a school in Faubrey.”

“Oh really?”

Hm? That reminded me. I think the queen had said that Bitch studied at a school in Faubrey, too. Rishia and Bitch were probably within a few years of each other, too.

“How were your grades?”

“Aside from gym, they were pretty good. I worried so much I was never able to pick a major, though...”

I don’t think I had ever seen Rishia respond to a question with so much confidence, so I assumed that her grades must have actually been fantastic. She looked like the kind of girl that would whine about how they hadn’t studied at all, only to get perfect scores on all the tests.

She wasn’t that great with magic, or with a sword, but if she was as smart as she seemed to be, then she would probably make a great scholar. Had she been born at the right place and time, she could have gotten a really good job. Poor Rishia.

Still, she was so indecisive that she hadn’t managed to choose a major. That didn’t bode well for her.

“Hey, Rishia,” Kizuna said. “Will you teach me, too? I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up, but I’ll try!”

“Of course, I’ll try.”

Kizuna quickly turned around.

What was wrong?

“Ah, so she’s so smart that she’ll ‘try’ to teach me? Did you hear that?”

“Fehhhhhhhh!” Rishia whimpered, caught in Kizuna’s trap.

“She must really be something?”

“Yeah, but it’s not who she wants to be. She wants to be a champion of justice, fierce on the battlefield.”

“That’s totally not where she should be spending her energy!”

“I feel the same way. But she made a promise—a promise to get stronger.”

“Naofumi-san...”

Kizuna and I went back and forth commenting on Rishia’s qualities for a little while longer.

Chapter Fourteen: Return Dragon Vein

“This just in! Come have a look!” a man shouted in the streets, waving what appeared to be a newspaper.

The townsfolk shuffled passed him, snapped up papers, and stared at them wide-eyed.

I grabbed one, too, and showed it to Kizuna.

“Can you read this?”

“Let’s see... It says that the holder of the katana of the vassal weapons was found but was able to escape. Now the whole country is searching for them.”

“There’s a katana vassal weapon here?”

A katana? Hm... Katana are pretty cool. I’d seen plenty of them in shonen manga over the years. They were probably one of the top three weapons used by protagonists.

Back in the world I came from, one of the holy weapons was a sword, but Ren used it, which kind of ruined the category’s appeal for me.

Anyone from this world that used a katana would probably be really condescending and boastful. I’m not sure why I pictured them that way, but I did.

We’d better keep an eye out to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

“I’d always heard that no one had been chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons. It’s stored under heavy security in an official government building in the capital. People can look at it, but apparently it’s very difficult to even be considered for selection to wield it.”

Considering how important the vassal weapons were, it only made sense that it would be carefully protected.

I didn’t know how Glass or L’Arc ended up getting their vassal weapons, but I imagined it was a pretty difficult process. I kept picturing it like the sword in the stone—only capable of being drawn by certain special people.

. . . ?

Weren’t the seven star heroes supposed to be just like the holders of the vassal weapons of this world? If there was an equivalent of the vassal weapons in our world, it was looking even more likely that it was the seven star heroes, especially because only chosen people were capable of wielding them.

Ost had said something about that.

It wasn’t like anyone could just walk up and use the weapons, but still, if someone on bad terms with the government got their hands on a vassal weapon, they could probably do a lot of damage. That was why the government had to protect them.

“The katana is also a symbol of national strength here. It sounds like they are hot on the trail of whoever has it.”

“Hm...”

Whoever it was, they must have been chosen to wield the weapon, so why would they run?

“Sounds strange to me.”

“How so?”

“It almost sounds like all the specific information about the person with the vassal weapon has been intentionally omitted. It doesn’t say if this person is alone or accompanied, if it’s a man or a women... It doesn’t say anything. Are there two men? Two women?”

What could explain the chase? Maybe the person who took the katana wasn’t from this country at all, so they were trying to bring it across the border to another country. It was the sort of incident that could trigger a war.

I remembered the queen of Melromarc saying how much international tension was caused by the summoning and management of the holy heroes. Any country that could manage to control the heroes, or get them on their side in a conflict, would be much more powerful as a result.

If anyone with nefarious or political intentions were to be chosen by the vassal weapon, it was only natural that they would try to escape with it.

“Hm?” Rishia and Filo both cocked their heads.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was holding Raph-chan, and she was constantly pointing in the direction we should go. She was so quiet and cute. We continued in the direction she indicated, and we came across a checkpoint.

“Stop right there! There are wanted criminals past this point. We apologize for the inconvenience, but please take a detour,” barked a samurai-like man who blocked the road with a spear.

I was taken aback for a second, but realizing that it would be best to avoid any unnecessary conflict, we did as we were told and took a detour. But when we did, Raph-chan started pointing in a different direction. That settled it—we must have been circling around the area where Raphtalia and the others were.

I was immediately relieved, but I started to worry just as quickly, because it sounded like they were stuck in a place with criminals—like they were caught in the eye of a storm. Worse, there was the possibility that Glass and her friends were caught up in conflict with the wielder of the katana of the vassal weapons.

My heart thumping in my chest, I turned to Kizuna and asked, “What should we do?”

“Do we have a choice? We sneak in over the rooftops.”

“Wait. There are other options.”

“Like what?”

“Filo.”

“What?”

Filo was a humming falcon now—that meant she could fly. Could there be a better way to scope out the situation?

She was riding on my shoulder at the moment, which was her new favorite place to sit. She seemed to prefer staying in monster form these days, probably because of the trauma she’d suffered while in human form.

When we went to a new town, she stayed in monster form and tried to never leave my shoulder. Between her on my shoulder and Raph-chan in my arms, I looked more like a monster trainer than a Shield Hero.

“Go fly around for a bit and see if you can’t find Raphtalia in there.”

“But... But what if they catch me?” she said, clearly scared.

Considering she looked like a normal bird, she probably did have reason to be worried. A hunter might just shoot her out of the sky with an arrow.

“You’ll be fine. You just look like any other bird in the sky. Besides, we left the country that captured you a while ago.”

“Promise? Promise I’ll be okay? If someone attacks me, you’ll save me?”

“Of course I will. Have I ever lied to you?”

“Um... Yup!”

“Okay, I guess I did. But I’m not lying now. Will you do it for me?”

She didn’t even have to go far. She could stay within sight of us. I just wanted her to fly up and look from a higher vantage point. There shouldn’t be any trouble.

Even if she were to be attacked, we’d know immediately.

“Okay!”

Before I sent her into the air, I decided to check on the slave spell one more time. I opened the menu, and I could hardly believe my eyes.

Raphtalia was no longer listed there.

What the hell was happening?

I broke out into a cold sweat, and a shiver ran up my spine. Something was wrong.

What if she... What if she was dead?

“Rafu?”

I hugged Raph-chan close and tried to calm my pounding heart.

No... I knew it wasn’t true. I could feel it. She was alive, and she was somewhere close by.

“Rafuuu...” Raph-chan put her paws on her cheeks as if she were embarrassed.

I patted her on the head.

“Master, what are you doing?”

“Nothing, it’s fine. Go on up and check things out. Raph-chan, you keep pointing us toward Raphtalia.”

“Rafu!” she barked, and pointed again in the same direction she had been before.

That meant... Right—Raphtalia was still alive. There had to be a different explanation for why she’d vanished from the slave spell menu. The spell must have been removed somehow.

Right. That’s the explanation I decided to stick with until I heard differently.

“Okay, Filo, head on up.”

“Okay!” she said, flapping her wings and soaring up into the sky above us. I watched her grow smaller as she pulled away from the ground.

She seemed safe. There were no arrows flying at her yet.

Eventually, she came fluttering back down to us.

“Um... It looks like some people are being chased!”

“Who? Who’s being chased?”

“They were wearing hoods, so I couldn’t see. I was going to get closer, but they were being chased by scary monsters, so I flew back here.”

“Scary monsters?”

What was going on? Were there monsters in this town? It was unlikely that they were wild. They were probably like Filo—serving at someone’s bidding.

“Then I guess we better get in there, at least to check that our friends aren’t the ones being chased.”

Kizuna flung her fishing lure and hooked it onto a nearby rooftop and then used the reel to pull herself up. It was a very quick process.

“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!”

As for myself, I used my skills to form a makeshift set of stairs and climbed on them to reach the rooftop.

“Come on, Rishia.”

“Feh...”

Once we were all up on the roof, we quickly and quietly moved away from the guards that blocked the way into town. As we made our way over the rooftops, Raph-chan and Chris slowly began pointing in a different direction. Finally, we came to an empty lot, where there was a fair distance we’d have to cross to get to the next roof over.

We decided to climb down first and then make our way back up the other side.

We jumped down to the ground and prepared to cross the lot, but there was a group of people in robes waiting for us.

“Damn...”

We were supposed to be finding Raphtalia! We didn’t have time to deal with these people. I didn’t want to end up meeting whoever was chasing these guys. At least we had covered our faces with masks before entering the town.

Maybe we should run away with Portal Shield until we could figure out a better plan.

I readied my shield and prepared for a fight, but then...

“Rafu!” Raph-chan chirped, pointing energetically to one of the people before us.

Chris was doing the same thing, thrusting his wing at the group of robed people.

“Naofumi, you don’t think...”

What?”

“Could it be?”

I slowly removed my mask to let them see my face. Kizuna and Rishia did the same things.

Then, as if the robed people had completely lost the will to fight, they lowered their weapons and stepped forward.

“Kiddo! Is that Kizuna with you?!” the tall man at the front of the group shouted as he removed his hood.

It was L’Arc.

Then he pulled off his robe to reveal clothes that looked like the Shinsengumi. He must have been trying to blend in with the rest of the people in this country.

Apparently the simple fabric clothes around here still had decent defense stats. The light-blue patterns on the haori actually suited him pretty well. He could get away with any fashion he wanted.

To think it was L’Arc and the others that were being chased! I mean, I knew it was a possibility, but I had tried not to think about it.

And we just ran into them in the street! What a coincidence!

A person behind L’Arc came running over to Kizuna and shouted, “Kizuna! Where have you been this whole time?! And what are you doing with Naofumi?!”

It was Glass. She pulled off her hood and robes to reveal tears in her eyes. Then she hugged Kizuna close.

It was unbelievable. Glass had always been so stern and cold. I’d never even imagined her making such an emotional display. Of course, everyone had someone or something they cared about, but it still felt weird to see such a cool person look so happy.

“I’m very glad to see you again, but our pursuers will be here soon. Be on the lookout!” Therese said, removing her robe. She was wearing a hakama covered in a pattern suggestive of gemstones.

Had it been made with aizome? Maybe not...

Whenever she moved, the pattern itself seemed to move as well. Was I just imagining it?

There was still one person wearing their hood. Was it Raphtalia?

The person came running toward me—and Raph-chan was pointing.

“Ra... Raphtalia?”

“Yes.”

She pulled off her robe to show me her face. It was her—Raphtalia.

She had rounded, fuzzy ears, long soft hair, deep eyes that you could lose yourself in, and a puffy tail that swayed beautifully.

I hadn’t seen her in so long—she was more beautiful than I remembered.

She must have been happy to see me, too, because she came running over with a big smile on her face. She was dressed like a miko, in red and white robes.

I felt something unexpected when I looked at her—something like an electric shock.

I looked at her again. The miko clothes were very simple. There was a white cloth around her shoulders, embroidered with red thread that almost seemed to form a bow. But the red didn’t interfere with the white cloth at all—it was so delicate that it somehow emphasized how white the white really was.

Below that she wore a deep red hakama. The outfit suited her very well.

It also seemed to have been specially made to accommodate her bushy tail.

She wore white socks and straw Japanese-style sandals.

Yeah... She looked really, really good in that outfit.

When we defeated Kyo and went back to our own world, I hoped she would still wear it.

I could hardly believe the way I was reacting. I didn’t like miko any more than your average otaku, but I could hardly take my eyes off of her.

“You’re finally here, Mr. Naofumi!”

“Sorry it took so long.”

“No... I know how hard it must have been... Were you alright? Was everything okay?”

“Mostly. A lot happened.”

We were thrown into an inescapable labyrinth. We got out to find ourselves behind enemy lines. Then we made our way to the capital, charged the security guards...

Yeah... a lot had happened.

“That outfit looks great on you.”

“A compliment? From you? It feels a little strange.”

Did I really not compliment her?

“You should keep dressing like that when we get back to where we came from.”

“Do you like it that much?”

“I think it looks good on you.”

She blushed. She must have been embarrassed.

I guess she was still a kid.

“Doesn’t it? I thought so, too!” L’Arc shouted. I wondered if he was the one that picked out her outfit. He clearly knew what he was doing—his perverted peeping had served him well.

We were so caught up in our reunion that it took the howl of an approaching beast to remind me where we were.

We’d relaxed for too long.

“Kizuna, use the ofuda.”

“Hold on,” she said, slapping an ofuda to her forehead and concentrating.

But...

“It won’t work. Something is blocking the signal. We’ll have to get out of here to call for him. And it doesn’t look like L’Arc and the others will be able to use Return Transcript, either.”

“Should we use Portal Shield?”

“Can we?”

“There might be too many people.”

I had never checked to see how many people could use Portal Shield at once. But this wasn’t the time to start worrying about it.

I sent Raphtalia a party invitation first.

“Portal...” Before I could finish saying it, something felt strange. And it wasn’t just me. Everyone else was feeling it, too.

An icon blinked in my field of view.

Teleportation not available.

What? This was the first time I’d been unable to use Portal Shield since I woke up in this world. There was only one other time that I’d felt this strange—when we were fighting the Spirit Tortoise.

“Well, well... Did you really think you were going to get away from me? Hm... Looks like there’s a few more of you than there was...”

I looked to the source of the voice to find who had been chasing Raphtalia and the horde of monsters he was controlling.

“You! It must be destiny that we’d meet here! I’ll make you pay for last time!”

Whoever it was spoke condescendingly to us.

I’d seen him before.

That’s right, it was the supposed genius scientist that we’d run into when we used the dragon hourglass to teleport out of the capital.

“Oh yeah, you were there, weren’t you? I can’t remember your name though...”

I’d rather have avoided meeting him again, but I was honestly starting to look forward to the fight.

He seemed to have more women following him than last time. Something about him really irked me. Maybe it was just that he reminded me of Motoyasu.

“I’ll get you back for last time!”

“Criminals! Come with us peacefully!”

“Yeah! How dare you embarrass us?” he smiled. Surrounded by his gaggle of women, he looked very pleased with himself.

These people were starting to really piss me off. Was I the only one that thought that these women might not really like him? What was he trying to compensate for by keeping them around all the time?

Actually, I probably looked the same way to him. Better to drop the subject altogether.

“You mean you’re in our country but you don’t know my name?!”

“You fools!”

“Then listen up! I’ll tell you whom you stand before. I am the hope of the people, the greatest alchemist in all the land...”

Okay, actually he wasn’t the same as Motoyasu. Women liked him for his affected sense of charm. I started to think that this guy was actually more like Itsuki. What made me feel that way?

The never-ending preface to announcing his name took so long that I actually missed his name when he finally said it.

“—THAT’S who I am! Now you will know true fear! There’s no reasoning with the likes of you!”

“Sure, whatever. Hey—what did you say your name was?” I couldn’t remember what he’d said.

Maybe it was because of all the things I’d been through with Itsuki, but even if I could remember these types of faces, I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to learn their names.

“You insolent fool! I’ll carve my name into your chest! You won’t forget it then!”

If he was so unimpressed with me, why did he want me to remember his name so badly? He made no sense.

A large white tiger prowled behind him and roared. The beast looked wild. A rope of drool dangled from its gaping mouth.

But something felt off about this whole thing. I’d spent so much time in this new world that my intuition had gotten sharper than it had been.

“It certainly looks like you are in cahoots with the thieves. It should come as no surprise that I find you repulsive.”

“Thieves? What are you talking about?”

“Mr. Naofumi...” Raphtalia said, looking at me with repentant eyes. Then she opened her robe and showed me the weapon she had hidden inside. She was holding an unsheathed katana.

Let’s see here—time to review the facts. Whoever had the katana of the vassal weapons was on the run... and Raphtalia had disappeared from the slave spell menu.

And the authorities were after whoever had the katana...

These jerks were probably the people chasing after it... but...

I knew what was going on, but I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself yet.

“Why did you run? Wouldn’t the citizens respect you? Greet you with open arms?”

Raphtalia was being pursued by the government. She was being treated like a thief—even though she was with people as powerful as Glass and L’Arc.

“You see...”

Chapter Fifteen: The Katana’s Choice

I’ll try to sum up Raphtalia’s story.

Raphtalia, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese found themselves in enemy lands. They were thrown into a prison that kept them from utilizing the power of their levels. It was even worse than the place where Kizuna and I had been locked up.

The prison constantly kept magic spells that limited the abilities of its prisoners and then gave an equal amount of power to the prison guards. At least their prison was theoretically escapable, though, unlike the labyrinth we were stuck in.

Anyway, cooperating with Glass and L’Arc, Raphtalia was able to escape by using her illusion magic. Even if her power was restrained, the wielder of the katana of the vassal weapons wasn’t going to lose so easily.

We’d relied so much on Raph-chan to find her that we completely ignored the information available to the public at the guilds. If Raphtalia and Glass escaped from prison and the whole country was after them, it would have been all over the news.

Why didn’t they travel in secret, like we’d been doing?

“How did you get the katana? Didn’t that just put a target on your back?”

“If our actions came to light, it would give the enemy an excuse to attack our country. We wanted to avoid that, so we tried to manipulate the news, which backfired on us,” explained Glass.

That would explain why we hadn’t been inundated with news about the escape.

They had to avoid it for political reasons. It wouldn’t look good to put up wanted posters of the heroes that were supposed to be protecting the world. The katana was a symbol of national strength here, so they would obviously want to secretly dispose of whoever had it and go back to boasting about controlling an unassigned vassal weapon.

Those weapons really made things complicated. Anyone that got their hands on one would become an instant symbol of power.

The holy heroes that were summoned didn’t have that problem, because the powers were limited to the person that had them. There was no competition involved.

The queen of Melromarc said that certain tools and items were necessary to summon the heroes, but procuring and managing those items must have been a lot easier than dealing with the vassal weapons.

Back in the world I’d come from, it was easy to check if the people who held the vassal weapons were alive or dead, which must have simplified some of the international diplomacy.

“Okay, so that’s why you were so hard to find. What happened after that?”

“Well, after we escaped from the prison...”

They decided that they had to get out of the country, so they concealed their identities and travelled to the capital, hoping to use the dragon hourglass to escape. They were very powerful, so they planned to force their way to the hourglass if necessary. It was basically the same plan that Kizuna and I had decided on.

Glass and Raphtalia did some leveling up on the way to the capital.

“This girl here was really tiny, you know? She looked like she was ten years old,” L’Arc explained.

“I thought her maturation might have reset. I guess I was right.”

At least she hadn’t turned into something else entirely, like Filo!

Maybe it would have been nice, if she could transform like Raph-chan, but I doubt Raphtalia would have been excited by that.

“Too bad she grew up so fast, eh, Kiddo? You probably wanted to see her as a child!”

“I’ve seen her like that before... Still, if I had the chance again, it would have been nice.”

And in a miko outfit? That would have looked so good on her! She would have been so cute.

I better watch out. I was getting way too excited about these miko clothes.

Whatever. I would just have to cherish the memories I already had of Raphtalia’s childhood. I made a mental note to ask L’Arc for details later.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted, her face red with anger.

“It wasn’t easy, you know. Growing up again. I had to go through all those growing pains all over again.”

“It’s not just growing pains, is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you were little, you used to eat as much as Filo.”

“I was growing!”

That was true. That was how demi-humans matured.

“Okay, so why do you have the katana?”

“When we got to the capital, they were in the middle of displaying the katana in the town square. A lot of people had arrived to compete for the nomination.”

“Even if we were in enemy lands, we realized that another wielder of a vassal weapon may appear, so we split up and mixed in with the crowd to observe the event,” Glass murmured softly. She looked upset. I was guessing the story didn’t end well.

They were in enemy lands, but they still wanted to see what kind of person was using the vassal weapon there. Considering how crazy the man with the book of the vassal weapon was, I could understand why. On the other hand, if the holder in this land was reasonable, it might have been useful.

“Yeah, and then you all took off running! The country was seriously about to entrust the katana to me, but you had to show up!” interjected the genius scientist guy.

Ugh. I was about to lose it with this guy.

Didn’t he care about avoiding war between the nations? If all he cared about was his own country, what were his thoughts about the waves?

“Then this guy came with a group of high-ranking officials and stood before the crowd. With everyone watching, he attempted to remove the sword...”

I tried to picture the scene in my mind. The obnoxious man before us looked at the katana where it sat, plunged deep into the heart of a boulder. The people in the crowd were on the edge of their seats, thinking they were about to witness the birth of a new hero. The guards were doing all they could to keep the crowd under control.

They guy walked forward slowly, one step at a time. He reached for the hilt...

But just before he could touch it, the blade flashed with blinding light and... flew from the stone and shot at the crowd like an arrow, only to land in Raphtalia’s outstretched hand!

“And that was how the katana came to choose me to wield it.”

“I should have predicted as much. After all, she was able to cross between worlds with myself and L’Arc. We are only able to do so because we have the fan and scythe of the vassal weapons,” explained Glass.

Raphtalia was very powerful.

She wasn’t a hero, but she’d gotten through plenty of hard times with me. I could think of a lot of rough spots that I couldn’t have survived without her.

“And?”

“This guy here didn’t like the fact that I was chosen, so he had me declared a thief! Then he brought out these vicious beasts to chase us down! We ran for a long while, but they never let up.”

“That katana was supposed to be mine! Therefore I will require its return!” the genius yelled at us again.

I looked over at Raphtalia, silently.

Honestly, I couldn’t see why a vassal weapon from Glass’s world had chosen Raphtalia to wield it. Aren’t the people with the vassal weapons supposed to cross over to other worlds and kill the four holy heroes in the previous world? Wouldn’t that mean that Raphtalia was now my enemy?

And why did it choose someone from another world?

It didn’t make sense.

But then again, I’d been summoned from another world to be the Shield Hero. I guess that didn’t make sense, either.

“I asked Therese and Glass to tell the katana that it had chosen incorrectly. I asked them may times, but the katana will not leave me,” Raphtalia said.

“Can’t you let it go? If I could let this shield go, I’d have dropped it a long time ago.”

What was this about talking to the weapons? If you talked to them, would they leave you alone? I wished I could be rid of the shield. Being stuck with no means of offense was no picnic.

Sure, I’d managed to put the shield to pretty good use, but I figure you should be able to protect people and also be able to do other things, too!

Fine.

“Shield, are you listening? Get out of here.”

“Don’t say that! You could lose everything!”

“I must kill you to reclaim my rightful place as the true owner of the katana!” the man screamed. The tiger behind him howled along with him.

“Oh please! Will you shut up for just a second?!” I yelled back at him.

I was getting really tired of listening to him complain. He was like a little kid that didn’t get his way. He reminded me of the other three heroes—idiots, all of them.

“Alright, I think I understand. Basically, this guy doesn’t like who the katana chose, so he’s mobilized the whole country to hunt you down.”

“Yes, that’s about it. We’ve been able to fend for ourselves for a long while, but they just keep coming. We escaped from the capital a short while ago, and now we’ve run into Kizuna and Naofumi.”

“Kizuna, Kiddo—you see the predicament we’re in. Think you can help us out?” L’Arc asked.

As if I were some kind of hero?! Not that we would be of much use—neither of us could fight well against other people.

Besides, once we defeated these people, the country would keep sending more and more people out against us. If it didn’t, then the government would look ineffectual and lose face. It couldn’t let that happen, so it’d come after us with everything it had.

“Why don’t you just show them what you’ve got? You’re all pretty strong, aren’t you?”

“They won’t back off. These guys are pretty high-level, too.”

“Heh. You may have vassal weapons, but no one from your country could ever hope to best us in battle. How foolish are you?”

“You’re the fool! Blathering on and on just because you didn’t get what you wanted!”

“What was that?!”

The vassal weapons were just like the holy weapons weren’t they? Didn’t they exist to protect the world? If the weapons were necessary to protect the world, how could this guy live with himself? He’d kill a hero just because he didn’t like them!

That alone should explain why the katana didn’t choose him.

“...”

Looking closer, I could that see Raphtalia, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese were all showing signs of exhaustion. Their journey must have been more difficult than ours had been.

I sighed and looked at Kizuna. She nodded.

“Fine. We can team up for a little while. I want to make Trash #2 pay for picking a fight with Raphtalia.”

“Trash #2?!”

“Yeah, that’s your name now. I know a piece of trash just like you back in the world I came from.”

“You haven’t changed a bit, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia remarked.

“Your nicknaming sensibilities are remarkable,” Trash #2 said.

“Shut up. The point is that I’ve had it with pieces of trash like you!”

I stepped ahead of Raphtalia to protect her.

The enemy... Trash #2... regarded my glare with condescension. He raised his hand.

. . . And two more tigers appeared behind him.

What was going on with these monsters? Were they the reason that I couldn’t use Portal Shield?

“Rafu!” Raph-chan chirped, jumping up onto my shoulder.

“Thanks for the help, but you’d better hang back. These guys mean business,” I said.

Raph-chan just wasn’t strong enough to join the battle. She did what I said and ran over to sit by Raphtalia’s feet.

“What is this little thing?”

“It’s a familiar—they call them shikigami here. They made her with a ceremony for us. She led us to you.”

“Rafu!”

“Oh... Is that so? Why does it... um... Why does it sound like it’s saying my name?”

“...”

“You won’t tell me?”

Oh jeez... But it wasn’t my fault! I had to use something that would help us find Raphtalia.

“You see... Remember back when you were little and I cut your hair? I still had some hair stored in the shield, so we used it as a medium to make her.”

“Oh, that’s right... You used the shield to clean up all the hair... How dare you!”

“It’s not my fault! They said that we had to use something of yours to make it work!”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan jumped up and down and chirped at us both. It was like she wanted us to stop the fighting.

“Oh well. I understand.”

“Rafu...” Raph-chan jumped up on Raphtalia’s shoulders and pressed her forehead against Raphtalia’s.

“Hm? What’s...”

“What is it?”

“Oh. Something just popped up saying that the shikigami has been registered to me.

Hm... Oh, that’s right. It must have been like how Glass and Kizuna made that penguin together.

“Um, Naofumi? We’re kind of preparing for battle here. Can you focus please?”

The tigers were continuing to take slow steps toward us.

“What are these things?”

“The White Tiger is one of the holy beasts in our world. This seems to be a replica of it. It’s like if someone made a replica of the Spirit Tortoise back in your world, Kiddo.”

“What?!”

This thing was one the protective beasts from Glass’s world?

What was it doing here? Weren’t they supposed to be suppressed for now—isn’t that what the blue hourglass was indicating?

“The White Tiger was defeated in the past, but they made a replica version of it to use in battle. They are considered a powerful weapon of war in this country. Kizuna—you better watch out.”

“A protective beast? You mean the ones in the legends? Glass and I have heard something about this country using them. We’ve already fought them, haven’t we?”

“Yes, and they were bigger. They aren’t too powerful, but with this many of them, we may have trouble.”

Even Kizuna knew about them, which meant that I was the only one in the dark!

“If you know all about them, will you tell me already?!”

“You didn’t seem to be interested.”

I guess she was right about that. I was really focused on trying to find Raphtalia. And if we had the time to sit and chat, I’d rather have used it on leveling up.

“Feh... We’re fighting now, right?”

“Oh yeah. Things might get rough. These things are supposed to be pretty strong.”

It would be great if she would awaken to her true power, like what had happened in the battle with Kyo. But I couldn’t count on that happening, and she’d be in danger in the meantime. I better make sure she understands the situation.

“Rishia, I’m sure you understand this, but the people we are about to fight are trying to kill Raphtalia and Glass. Don’t hold back.”

“Oh... Okay!” She drew her weapon and readied it.

She didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

I wasn’t going to place any bets on her. I’d just have to do what I could to make sure she didn’t get herself killed.

“Imma do my best!” Filo said, turning into human form with a puff of smoke. She prepared to cast a supportive spell. It looked like her fighting style had changed substantially when we crossed between worlds. Not that I was complaining.

“Don’t forget about us,” Glass said.

“Yes,” Therese echoed. They both readied themselves for battle.

We better choose our target.

“It looks like those White Tiger copies are preventing me from using Portal Shield. If we can get rid of them, I can teleport us out of here. Let’s do it.”

“Okay!”

“Hya!”

There were a lot of people in the fight, so we had to try to stay organized.

“Alright then. You may have the vassal weapon, but I’ll show you what true power looks like!” Trash #2 shouted, drawing a katana from his waist.

He was surrounded by women and tigers.

“Naofumi, you know that I can’t attack people, right? Can I leave the women up to you?”

“Got it. Kizuna, you focus on the tigers.”

“No problem. They’re my specialty.”

The tigers roared, and the battle began.

Chapter Sixteen: No Incantations

I had to get a handle on what we were working with.

Without taking any unnecessary risks, the strongest shield I had access to was the Nue Shield. It didn’t have the best counter-attacks. But I had used all the power-up methods I knew on it, so it had a very high defense rating. I hadn’t been forced to delay powering it up because of any lack of materials.

Listing my team members in order of strength, I’d start with Glass, then L’Arc, Kizuna, Raphtalia, Therese, Filo, and end with Rishia. I had no idea if I should consider Chris or Raph-chan as fighters or not.

Chris was standing at the front to protect Kizuna and was in a staring contest with the tigers. Raph-chan was standing next to Raphtalia, watching the fight with her fur all puffed up like she was ready to join in.

If these White Tiger copies were really like the Spirit Tortoise, if they were really copied from one of this world’s protective beasts... how strong should we expect them to be? Underestimating them would be a mistake, so I decided to think of them as opponents that even Glass would have trouble with.

As for their master, Trash #2... He had all those women with him, and if the battle dragged on for too long, reinforcements would probably show up. If we ran away, they would keep chasing us, and the number of our pursuers would only increase with time.

We had a chance at victory... but only if we started soon.

“Ha!”

“Grrrrr!”

One of the tigers flashed its claws and ran for Kizuna and Glass.

Glass snapped open a fan and blocked its attack.

“You’re form is all wrong!” Glass shouted, swinging the other fan to counter-attack. But the tiger was fast, and it leapt backwards to avoid being hit.

Its speed was impressive. These things were tiger-like monsters, right? Back in my world, I’d always heard the tigers were the strongest animals on land. That meant they were probably pretty strong in this world, too. And if they were copied from one of the world’s four holy beasts, then depending on the game, they might be one of the final bosses.

But—I had to remind myself—this wasn’t a game. Still, I expected them to be very powerful.

“Fehhh!”

“Rishia ne-chan! First Wind Cutter!”

A tiger leapt for Rishia, but I grabbed it by its back leg to stop it in time for Filo’s wind spell to slice it in the neck.

It didn’t do much damage. At least we stopped its attack.

Damn... Filo had always been one of my strongest attackers. If she wasn’t doing much damage, then this battle was going to be tough.

“Don’t move, Kiddo! Flying Circle!” L’Arc used a skill to send a disc of light flying at the tiger that I was still holding.

The disc slammed into the tiger and a spray of blood erupted from the wound, but it wasn’t enough to seriously hurt the monster. It’s white fur slowly turned red.

“Grrrrrr!” the White Tiger roared with anger.

“Naofumi! Shining Stones! Crimson Flame!” Therese shouted, sending a ball of red flame hurtling at the tiger and me. Therese’s balls of flame had a special property—they never burnt me.

“Grrrrr!”

The beast burst into flames and writhed in pain.

“Don’t forget about me!”

“I’m not! Air Strike Shield!”

A shield appeared in mid-air to stop Trash #2’s katana.

“What?!”

“I’m guessing you don’t know what this shield is capable of, so you’d better be careful. I thought you’d figured that out the last time we met!”

He probably didn’t realize that I wasn’t capable of attacking on my own, which was all the more reason to make him wonder what I could do.

“Arrggh!”

“What?!”

I dug my feet into the ground and summoned all my might to throw the tiger at Trash #2. It flew through the air and slammed into him.

“Aghhh!”

It didn’t do any damage to speak of, but it was enough to break an opening in his defenses—which was enough time for me to cast a spell.

I wanted to use the one that Ost had taught me—Liberation.

I had yet to cast it by myself, and I didn’t yet understand how to set the range of its effect. But I had to do whatever I could to help the others in the battle, so I chose the next best thing.

“Zweite Aura!”

First, I’d start with Glass, which would help her deal out damage as quickly as possible. I’d cast support spells on everyone in order of their strength, which should maximize the utility of the spells.

“Thank you!” Glass shouted. She matched her breathing with Kizuna’s, opened her fans, and used a spell so gracefully she looked like she was dancing.

“Circle Dance Zero Formation—Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”

The air filled with peels of flame, like dancing flower petals, which shot at the enemy. But they weren’t enough to kill the tiger, which grunted and snorted at the petals that stuck to its face.

The monster was covered in small lacerations, but they weren’t enough to turn the tide of battle.

“Shining Stones! Protection Powder!” Therese cast a spell that lowered the tiger’s defense.

L’Arc found an opening and dashed at the monster, swinging his scythe with all his might. It dug deep into the monster’s flesh, tearing through the skin and muscle and exposing the bone. The startled tiger leapt away.

I turned to Trash #2 and said, “Wish you hadn’t been so condescending?”

He scowled, “The thieves think quite highly of themselves. I’ll show you what I’m truly capable of!”

Trash #2 opened his hand and thrust his palm forward. Numerous balls of flame erupted from it and shot at us.

What? How did he do that? I never saw him cast a spell.

He probably knew that if he sent a big ball of flame at us, we’d block it and send it right back at him. That was why he opted to shoot a bunch of smaller ones.

“He didn’t even have to use an incantation?!” Therese gasped, unable to believe her eyes.

I understood her surprise. Casting a spell normally involved chanting some incantations. I’d once read a story about someone that could manipulate their magic power without having to chant anything.

“How’s that?”

“It’s okay,” I said, calmly blocking the balls of flame with my shield.

Based on what I’d seen so far, it was more powerful than a first-level spell but less powerful than a Zweite-level spell.

I guess they might have been difficult to defend against, which might have made them useful against someone with lower defenses than myself.

But the little balls of fire made me wonder what level the guy was at. Maybe he wasn’t very strong at all. Maybe he could do some damage if he got a hit in when I wasn’t expecting it, but from what I’d seen, I didn’t think he’d be able to defeat us.

“You mustn’t underestimate him. He has abilities worthy of one who holds a vassal weapon,” Glass said, worry evident on her face.

I guess their levels probably were pretty high then.

“Hyaaaaaaa!”

“I’ll make you pay!”

“Shooting Star Shield!”

Trash #2’s women came running at us with their swords, but I deployed my Shooting Star Shield barrier to block them. It would be easier to block them all with the force field than it would be to try to stop each of their attacks separately.

Their attacks clattered against the barrier. The barrier had broken last time, but I’d powered up the shield substantially since then, and it looked like it was going to hold.

If the barrier would hold, then...

I rushed forward, using the barrier to push the enemy back.

“I’m going in!” Raphtalia shouted. The barrier threw the women off balance, and she rushed forward to take advantage of the opening.

“It won’t work!” Trash #2 barked, sending a barrage of flames flying at Raphtalia to disrupt her attack.

She spun on her heels, swinging the katana around her to repel the balls of flame, and then jumped back behind me. She did it all in one fluid motion, and I have to say, she looked pretty cool doing it.

“Take this!” a woman shouted. She dropped the spear that the barrier had twisted in her hands, pulled a kodachi from her pocked, and leapt at me.

“Naofumi!” Rishia yelped, throwing the ofuda she’d received from Kizuna.

Probably because of the mysterious magic inside of it, the ofuda flew in a remarkable path across the battlefield and attached itself to the attacking woman’s hand, which then burst into flames.

“Argh!” she shouted, running back behind Trash #2.

Rishia was doing pretty well for herself! Maybe she had a knack for throwing ofuda.

Actually, that reminds me of our battle with Kyo. She’d thrown a sword at Kyo and hit him with it. Maybe she was suited for throwing weapons.

“We’re not finished with you yet!” Trash #2 shouted, shooting a number of magic spells at us quickly.

The first one was fire, then water, then wind, then light, and on and on. He kept throwing spell after spell at me, switching the element each time.

I didn’t get out of it unscathed, but it also didn’t hurt too much.

It was like I kept getting scratched or slapped.

“HA! Take that! And that! And that!”

The balls of magic were flying so fast that the air around us filled with dust, and it grew increasingly difficult to see.

“Zweite Aura!”

While the air was filled with dust and smoke, I took the opportunity to case boost spells on everyone, including myself. Once our stats were boosted, the already ineffectual spells raining down on us proved even less bothersome.

It was like walking in the rain without an umbrella.

“Grrrraw!” growled another tiger that leapt at us from the smoke.

The tigers were the enemy’s main offensive players. I wanted to think that Trash #2 was concealing his true power to surprise us, but it really looked like he was already throwing everything he had at us.

“Kizuna! There’s another tiger over here!”

“Yeah, there’s a bunch of them! Give me a minute! Can’t you hold them off?”

I’d have to make do with what I had for the moment—there were too many other enemies that Kizuna had to deal with.

The rain of spells continued, annoying as ever.

Trash #2’s cohorts weren’t rushing in to attack. They must have been vulnerable to the rain of spells. Instead, they hung back and cast spells. Sometimes they shot arrows or threw knives.

“Filo.”

“Whaaat?”

“What do you think?”

“Hm...” She pointed her finger at Trash #2. A blade of wind shot from her finger and sliced into his arm.

“Ah?! What?! How?!”

The blade had cut deep into his arm, and he was forced to stop casting spells, so he could tend to the wound.

“You seem to be proud of yourself for casting spells without an incantation... but aren’t you forgetting the most important thing?” Maybe I shouldn’t give the enemy advice, but I couldn’t hold myself back from addressing him as the smoke cleared. “I am the Shield Hero and the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them. Heal them!”

“Zweite Heal!”

The single spell was enough to heal all of the damage that his barrage of spells had caused, and we instantly recovered from any wounds we’d sustained.

“What was that magic? I’ve never seen anything like it!”

It was pretty impressive that he could cast spells without incantation, but Filo copied him without much effort.

I’d read something similar in a magic book once. It had said that experienced wizards could cast spells without an incantation but that the power of spells cast that way would be substantially lower. That much should have been obvious—it was like swinging a weapon without putting any effort into it.

If you swung a sword without putting any energy into the swing, it might break the skin but it wouldn’t do much more than that. The damage caused by an attack was proportional to the amount of power behind it. That was why his spells were so weak.

I guess they might have been useful as a quick follow-up attack to a throwing knife or something, but the main problem was that there wasn’t any power behind them to begin with.

“Answer me!”

“You want to know?”

Incantations were an essential step in giving shape to your magic power. They were the step where you focus your power so that you can use it. True, it did speak to his experience that he could command magic without an incantation, but skipping the incantation would definitely limit the level of magic he could use. It meant that he was skipping steps when giving shape to his power.

Maybe that was possible with simple spells, but as the spells grew more powerful and complex, it grew more difficult to shape the magic power without an incantation.

Anyway, we were in a different world now, so the magic seemed to work a little differently here—and judging by his reaction he’d never seen the spells that we were using.

“Um... Master? I don’t think I have enough magic power to do anything stronger than that!”

“Oh no? Do you think you could make it more powerful if you leveled up more?”

“Yeah! I can just charge it up and bam!”

I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say, but if genius Filo said she could do it, then I guess she could do it.

“But... if I could, um, chant the thing...”

“Filo, I know.”

“Oh!”

I cut her off. I didn’t want to give the enemy any more hints than I needed to.

She had a point. If someone was powerful enough to cast a spell without using an incantation, how strong would their spells be if they took the time to use one?

Timing was important in battle, but if he could make the time to chant an incantation without being interrupted, his spells would be much more powerful. Using spells without incantations would be good for catching the enemy off guard, but in general it was probably better to chant spells when you found the time in in the middle of battle.

That’s what Therese was doing. She chanted incantations while keeping an eye on the rest of the battle.

Was Trash #2 just trying to show off? Why would a wizard be chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons? He didn’t seem to have a solid grip on reality. He drew some other katana from a scabbard at his waist and came running at us.

“Taste my steel!”

He was much quicker on his feet than I expected. Maybe magic wasn’t his specialty after all.

The last time we’d met I didn’t get a good look at his skill level because I’d simply blocked his attack with my shield, but now I could see that his movements were studied and skilled.

After I put all the other heroes’ power-up methods to use, normal adventurers’ movements seemed slow and laborious to me. But this guy was very quick on his feet. I wasn’t sure I could keep up. Of course that was probably only because I was at a lower level now.

He was good on his feet. Now I could see why he’d wanted the katana. But that didn’t explain why he had the skill to use magic without incantation.

“Grrrrrrraw!” a tiger roared and leapt at me to join his attack.

Wait, no—it was after Raphtalia.

I couldn’t let it get to her! Its flapping tail brushed by me, and I reached out and grabbed it, stopping the cat in its tracks.

“Grrrraw!”

The tiger was furious, and it turned to attack me alongside Trash #2.

Good. As long as it wasn’t after Raphtalia.

“Mr. Naofumi!” she shouted, brandishing her katana and rushing at the tiger.

“Crescent Moon Sword!”

A flash of light like a crescent moon shot from her sword and tore the skin from the tiger’s back.

“... !”

I stopped Trash #2’s katana with my shield, and the Nue Shield’s counter-attack triggered, activating Lightning Shield (medium).

“Wha... Ahhhhh!”

Electrocuted, Trash #2 dropped his katana and jumped away from me.

“What the... ? What are you?! How did you stop my attack?!”

“You’re just now figuring this out?”

He must have thought I was a MOB.

MOB was a term we used in the online games I used to play to refer to weak or backup players.

He must have been shocked to discover that my defense was actually much higher than an MOB. Who’s a weak backup now!?

“It’s that freaky shield you’ve got! I know you’re friends with the thieves, but tell me your name!”

He was talking nonsense again. I ignored him and looked for Kizuna. She was struggling in a battle with one of Trash #2’s women.

“Kizuna, leave the humans up to Glass or me!”

“That’s what I was thinking! Do you mind?”

“I don’t like to receive orders from Naofumi, but he happens to be correct. L’Arc, Therese, come with me!” Glass announced.

“Got it!”

“Understood. It’s necessary so that Kizuna can best command her skills.”

“Great power in these stones, hear my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Lend me the power to destroy them!”

“Fusion Technique: Burning Disc!”

“Fusion Form: Reverse Burning Snow Moon Flower!”

Glass’s and L’Arc’s skills combined, forming a burning flame that sent the woman who was attacking Kizuna flying.

“Gyahhhhhh!”

But it wasn’t enough to kill her. She slowly tottered back to where Trash #2 was standing and started to cast healing magic on herself.

We just weren’t strong enough to finish them off.

“These guys are tougher than I thought. Don’t give up yet, Kiddo!”

“Who’s giving up? I’m taking care of the weak ones, so I guess I might get a bit careless.”

“What was that? I’ll show you!” Trash #2 complained. I didn’t care.

Even after seeing his skill with the sword, it was still clear to me that the White Tiger copies were the greater threat.

Glass and L’Arc held vassal weapons from this world, so they were really powerful. I’d seen their strength firsthand back in the Cal Mira islands. When we ran into them during the Spirit Tortoise incident, they’d had weakened somewhat. But they were definitely much stronger now that they were back in their own world.

“Tell me your name!” Trash #2 shouted angrily.

“Calm down a bit, will you? If you want to know that badly, I’ll tell you. I’m the Shield... Hero. I’ve got this shield, but all I can do with it is defend people. My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I’m from another world.” Hearing myself say it all felt strange... I was the Shield Hero from another world who came from another world... How many worlds were there now? Whatever—it was the truth.

“What? There’s no such thing as a holy shield! Stop with this drivel!”

"Then don't ask me!”

I didn’t care if he believed me. Actually, the less he knew about the Shield Hero, the better.

“Listen up! We’re focusing on this guy for now!”

“Okay!” the flock of women shouted in unison.

Well, well. Let’s see... Kizuna was dealing with the tigers.

He probably wanted to use the tigers to fight Glass and L’Arc, since they were the strongest. Then he would focus on killing me, since I was defending everyone. His ultimate goal was to kill Raphtalia and take back the katana she held. It was a decent plan, but he wasn’t going to get past me.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The barrier appeared around my party.

“Mr. Naofumi...”

“We’ll be fine. Rishia, Filo—watch out.”

“They won’t catch meeeee!”

“Good.”

“Feh...” Rishia whimpered, but she held an ofuda, ready to attack.

Everything looked good.

Actually, come to think of it, Trash #2 was really proud of himself for casting spells without incantations, but couldn’t anyone do that if they used ofuda?

“Heh! Now I’ll show you what I can really do!” he said, pulling out an ofuda.

Was he trying to pretend that he’d been holding back?

He obviously wasn’t as strong as Kyo—so why would he bother holding back?

I had Rishia, Filo, and the vassal weapons on my side. If he didn’t pull out all the stops, he was going to end up dead.

His reinforcements would show up before too long. It was time to end this.

“Let’s go!”

Trash #2 focused his magic power on the ofuda in his hand while he sent spells at us without chanting their incantations.

“Now! Air Strike Shield!”

Right before he could shoot a spell at us, I deployed Air Strike Shield directly in front of him. He always attacked so directly, throwing his spells in perfectly straight lines. I couldn’t wait to see how he reacted to this.

“Wh—”

The spell slammed into the shield and exploded in his face.

“Ahhhh!” Caught up in the flames, he screamed and jumped away.

Ha! It worked even better than I’d anticipated. Glass or L’Arc wouldn’t have had any trouble dodging it.

“You! You... fool!” Trash #2’s friends all brandished their weapons at us.

“Second Shield!”

I formed another shield to protect us and then quickly looked to Filo.

Knowing what I meant, she nodded and began to chant an incantation.

“I’m Filo, the source of all power! Hear my words and heed them. Wrap them in a fierce tornado and blow them away!”

“Zweite Tornado!”

The name of a newly available skill appeared in my field of vision. I’d used it before. It was a combo skill that had some offensive capability.

“Tornado Shield!”

A shield of howling wind appeared before the charging women, and when they recklessly attacked it, they triggered a counter-attack.

“Ahhhhhh!” they shouted.

A huge tornado spiraled out from the shield and pulled the women into it, and they went spiraling up into the sky.

“Mr. Naofumi! I’m going in!”

Just when I was about to suggest that Raphtalia cast an illusion spell, she charged straight for Trash #2.

“No matter how many times we have tried to reach an agreement, you continue to thirst greedily for this weapon. I cannot tolerate it any longer. This comes to an end now,” she yelled. She drew the katana, held it out horizontally, and then shouted a skill.

“Powder Snow!”

“Wha—”

The blade sliced and the impact exploded with blood.

She spun the sword to throw off the blood that clung to the blade. Then she turned it to face his crowd of supporters.

Trash #2 knocked backward at the waist after receiving such a skilled attack. But then the skill’s effect became clear.

“Ah?!”

A fine snowy powder erupted from the opening of the cut she’d made, filling the air and turning everything white.

What the... ? It was... snow?

The snow melted a moment later, and Trash #2 tottered back upright.

"That was... pretty good... You stole... stole the source of my magic power.”

The skill must have turned the magic power of whomever it cut into snow.

Trash #2 gripped an earth crystal that must have had restorative properties. He was trying to heal himself.

I wouldn’t let him. I walked over and grabbed the crystal from his hand.

“Don’t you touch that! I...”

He swung his sword at me, but I blocked it, and once again, Lightning Shield (medium) activated and electrocuted him.

His wound was... Yes, his wound was still open.

It hadn’t cut him too deeply. I guess the skill was more focused on robbing the enemy of magic power than on dealing damage directly.

“Master!”

The reinforcements had arrived and were starting to surround Filo and Rishia.

Glass and the others were slowly hacking through the White Tiger copies, but more and more of them kept appearing.

Amidst it all, one person was acting strangely—Kizuna.

She kept randomly swinging her fishing rod and hitting the tigers with the lure.

Glass and L’Arc weren’t focusing on attacking the tigers; they were clearly focusing on defense. The tigers appeared to be ignoring Kizuna for some reason.

I wondered if monsters had a kind of instinctual fear of the Hunting Hero.

Kizuna’s lure hit Trash #2 next, but nothing happened.

“Naofumi, don’t attack anything my lure has touched until I say so, okay?”

“Ah, alright. But...”

What was she up to? I was guessing it was a skill that lowered their defense or something, but I wasn’t sure.

“Grrrraaaw!”

A particularly large tiger appeared in the middle of the prowling pack of monsters.

Was it their leader? No... I’m sure that Trash #2 was controlling them, so that would make him the leader.

Regardless, there was no doubt that the strongest White Tiger copy yet had just joined the fight.

Chapter Seventeen: Blood Flower Strike

“Hey, that one looks pretty tough. Alright, let’s do this Glass.”

“Yes!”

“Right on! I haven’t seen Kizuna’s skills in a long time,” L’Arc added.

“Kizuna, it’s all in your hands now. Phantasm!” Glass shouted, slapping open her fans and using a skill that filled the air with dancing flower petals. Delicate cherry blossoms flit on the wind, making everything look pink and fantastical.

The tigers swayed on their feet, their eyes rolling around in their heads. The skill must have made them dizzy.

What was going on? What was the plan?

“Here I go!” L’Arc shouted, throwing his scythe. A tornado erupted from where it landed.

The howling winds appeared to make Glass’s skill even more effective.

“Oh power in these stones, here my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give me the strength to stop them!””

“Shining Stones! Paralysis Wing!”

Butterflies flapped out from her hands and joined the howling winds and flower petals.

The tigers lost their momentum, slowed, and then came to a complete stop.

“It’s a little tricky to stop so many of them at once. This would have been over a long time ago if there had only been one,” Kizuna said, turning her weapon into the tuna knife.

“But it’s the end now—and we have won. Behold the true power of the Hunting Hero,” Glass declared.

“Naofumi... Actually, Raphtalia, we’ll need your help, too. When the attack happens, you go after the strong one that Naofumi is holding.”

“Alright,” Raphtalia said, turning to face Trash #2. I still had him cornered.

Then Kizuna held her tuna knife like Raphtalia held her sword, took a breath, and ran for the tigers. In a flash, she was already done with them.

“Instant Blade: Mist!”

“Hunting Skill: Blood Flower Strike!”

Raphtalia held the katana in both hands and flew at Trash #2.

“What?!”

“What is it?”

“The blade... It feels strange—like it cut unnaturally deep.”

Trash #2 stopped trying to wiggle free from my grasp. I let him go.

He shook and shivered, and his face grew pale.

“Ugh...”

“Oh, it will hurt worse if you move. You should stay still,” Kizuna added, tapping the frozen White Tiger copy with the tip of her tuna knife before returning to where Glass and her friends were standing.

I hadn’t seen the attack at all, but suddenly all of the tigers collapsed, falling into bloody chunks.

The air was thick with the scent of blood.

The sprays of blood hung in the air, like red flower petals to match the pink ones.

Kizuna’s skill was aptly named—it really did look like flowers of blood.

Trash #2’s women and his backup troops stared at us speechlessly. They must have realized that if Trash #2 moved at all, he would fall apart into bloody chunks, just like what had happened to the tigers.

“I don’t believe it! How could you defeat our most powerful weapons so easily? It’s impossible! Impossible!”

One of the women pointed and shouted, “And by the weakest of the heroes, no less!”

Kizuna rolled her eyes.

I knew how she probably felt. I was used to people saying the same kind of things about me. I guess people only respected you if you could fight against other people.

“Do you even know anything about the Hunting Hero? I’m sure you realize that all the heroes have their specialties...”

That’s right. Kizuna had said something about that. She couldn’t attack people, but she made up for that with her special abilities against monsters.

“I may not be able to fight with other people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight. If you don’t learn to separate rumors from fact, you’ll end up dead.”

The crowd of reinforcements started to murmur among themselves.

It was amazing. Glass and her friends had been struggling against those tigers for the whole fight, and Kizuna took them all out with a single attack. She was terrifying!

Looking back on the time we’d spent together, I couldn’t think of a single time I’d seen her struggle in battle, except for when we were faced with human opponents. She had always defeated monsters without breaking a sweat.

I hadn’t realized how terrifying my travel companion really was!

I wonder if she felt the same way about me—after all, I was a holy hero, too.

I couldn’t do much by way of attack, but when it came to defense, I was far more impressive than anyone else I’d met.

I’d survived the Spirit Tortoise’s main attack—wasn’t that proof enough?

Just like me, Kizuna couldn’t attack humans, but when it came to attacking monsters, she was the most powerful person around. I was actually grateful that her specialty wasn’t the opposite... What if there was a holy hero out there that was specialized in fighting people? Wouldn’t that be terrifying?

“Alright then... You’ve seen how easily we defeated your commander and your strongest weapons. Don’t you think it would be best for you to let us go free?” Kizuna said, twisting her tuna knife so it flashed in the sun.

“Feh...”

“Rishia, Kizuna’s on our side. Don’t be scared.”

“Mr. Naofumi, your new friend is really something...”

“I guess so.”

“Rafu?”

Raph-chan had kept quiet during the battle. Or I guess she did try to protect Rishia.

That was fine. I had never expected her to be much use in battle.

On the other hand, I had seen Glass and Kizuna’s shikigami, Chris, doing all it could to protect them during the battle. I still didn’t have a firm grasp on what they could do, though—I’d been too occupied dealing with Trash #2.

“Raphtalia, your attack was really impressive, too. You must have gotten stronger since I saw you last.”

“Do you think so? I’ve been so busy since I got here that I haven’t had the time to stop and reflect on it.”

That attack of hers was really something. I was sure of it.

It was certainly strange that she’d been chosen by the katana, but it was starting to feel like destiny now. She’d really handled herself well in the battle.

She must have been through so much since we’d been split up, because she seemed more skilled than she had been. If we had to split up again, I wondered if she’d develop bulky muscles or something.

“You’re thinking about something rude again, aren’t you?”

“No. I was just thinking about how strong you’ve become and how dependable you’ve become.”

“Oh... Well... What should we do now?” Raphtalia asked, staring at the katana in her hands.

It was a good question. Once we got back to the world we’d come from, was it safe to walk around with such a valuable weapon?

“Naofumi? Aren’t you going to absorb some of these White Tiger parts?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. But I’ve got a hostage here, so I can’t move yet,” I said, looking back and forth between Trash #2 and his women and the backup troops.

He must have been a pretty important person, because everyone seemed stunned by his capture. They clearly had no idea what to do. They knew that if they tried anything funny, he’d split in two at the waist—Trash #2 seemed to realize that he couldn’t move at all.

“Take a good hard look at him. If you stay after us, you’ll end up the same way,” I said, squeezing in one last threat.

“Mr. Naofumi, you love doing that, don’t you? Threatening people.”

“If they don’t really feel scared, these underlings of his will never learn.”

“Sigh... I supposed you’re right. It seems there are people like him no matter where we go...” Raphtalia murmured.

She was right. He reminded me of the other heroes back in our world—or of Trash #1.

“Alright, we have your vassal weapon. This whole debacle is because of his foolish recklessness. Don’t forget that.”

Didn’t anyone in this world care about the holy heroes?

Didn’t they respect Kizuna at all?

I guess I’d been through something similar back in the last world. There must have been people that didn’t believe in, or trust, the heroes. You didn’t want to get captured by people like that.

I walked over and absorbed the White Tiger parts into my shield, keeping an eye on the soldiers that hesitantly ran over to rescue Trash #2. We had what we needed, so we left. On our way out, I saw the gaggle of women casting healing spells on him. He would be fine... maybe.

“Don’t let them get away! You must kill them all! Look at what they’ve done to me! The vassal weapon belongs to our country. We cannot allow them to escape—”

Raphtalia turned back to stop his tirade. “It’s too soon. If you move in the next ten seconds, you’ll still die. You’d better keep healing magic going for the next few days.” Raphtalia bowed deeply and then raised her face. “We didn’t pick this fight with you, and we do not wish for war. If you can consider the situation dispassionately, you will see that an alliance with Glass’s county is in your best interests. When you reach that conclusion yourself, please discuss it with your government.”

He didn’t give up. “Wait!”

“You mustn’t move!”

“Don’t believe her! I’ve already cast healing spells on myself! You’ll see!”

Slowly, the women and soldiers began walking after us. Trash #2 rose to his feet to join the fray, when...

“... How unfortunate. We truly wished to end this without any unnecessary bloodshed.”

“I agree. I had hoped that your nations could form an alliance that could usher in an new era of optimism for the future of this world...” Raphtalia sighed.

Glass nodded in agreement. “Naofumi, you had better not watch. I’ve seen Glass and L’Arc slaughter people like this before,” Kizuna said.

That just made me want to watch more.

Raphtalia seemed resigned to this outcome, reasoning that they had brought it upon themselves.

“Rishia, you’d better not look, either!”

“Rafu!”

“Feh... Why? What’s happening?”

Filo and Raph-chan were trying to keep Rishia from watching.

I actually didn’t need to watch to know what was going to happen. I’d seen it in anime before—that thing that happens when someone is instantly sliced up.

“What are you doing!? Hurry up and... ugh...”

First came a sickening, crushing sound. Then it was followed by the hiss of blood spraying into the air.

“Kyaaaaaaaa!” the women screamed.

“—Youuuuuuuu!”

I couldn’t make out what he was trying to say.

Too bad. I didn’t feel a bit of sympathy for him. I didn’t really care about his name, but I wonder what it was...

I could only think of one thing to say: “The world is rid of another piece of garbage, heh, heh, heh...”

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted, chastising me.

I didn’t see what was so wrong with what I said. This creep had been trying to kill her!

And he’d done everything he could to get in our way.

“Kiddo, I know you want to be cool, but I wouldn’t laugh. You wouldn’t want to see it by accident.”

“I wouldn’t mind... as long as it’s not too gross.”

I didn’t really want to turn and look at the splattering gore behind me, but I still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to gloat. There were plenty of people back in the world I came from that I’d like to die this way, but if they actually did, then it wouldn’t be a good thing.

Anyway, that’s how we won the battle and escaped.

We left the town over its rooftops.

“What kind of attack was that?”

It was so fast that I hadn’t actually been able to see what happened. It looked like she had just cut the monsters with her knife. But it couldn’t have been that simple—what was all that stuff she’d done with the fishing lure beforehand? That must have been setting up the killing move. It might have been a sequence of skills, like when I use Shield Prison and then Change Shield (attack) and follow those up with Iron Maiden.

“Hm? Oh, the skill connects all of the enemy’s weak points and then cuts through them. It doesn’t always kill them, though. Sometimes it just cuts very deep.”

So it was actually a really strong attack, and the enemy only fell apart if the attack was strong enough to kill them.

“What were you doing with your fishing lure beforehand?”

“It’s a skill called Lure Needle, and it multiplies damage. Anything hit with the lure will take double damage on the next attack.”

That was why she told everyone not to attack until she was ready. If someone had attacked, then it would have taken the multiplier off of her follow-up special attack.

“The effect only lasts a little while, so I was in a hurry. If the enemy figures out what’s happening too quickly, they can cancel the effect.”

“It was pretty nasty.”

So the lure lowered the enemy’s defense for the next attack.

An attack like that could really mess up my strategy.

“It’s not as simple as it looks. The lure only affects the area that it touches, so you have to make sure that you hit the enemy’s weak point. It probably wouldn’t do all that much against you.”

I had experience with something similar in some games I’d played. There was a skill that worked the same way—strengthening the next attack in a sequence. I normally used it as a trump card during tough boss fights. But if the boss’s defense rating was already really high, then it obviously didn’t help as much.

The skill’s effect only lasted for a little while, which made it pretty fickle to use right. I often felt like I was relying on luck.

Kizuna was clearly very skilled with it, though. She must have been an amazing fighter.

She couldn’t do damage directly against human opponents, but she could probably use that lure skill to deal damage indirectly with the help of her teammates.

That was probably why Raphtalia’s attack had been more effective than she had anticipated. Maybe that was the reason she sliced him in half.

Could they have really saved him if they kept casting healing magic on him? To tell the truth, I didn't really care that he had died. The world was better off without him.

“Hey, can you get in touch with him now? I don’t know how many people I can take with me, but we could use my skill, too.”

“One second,” Kizuna said, holding an ofuda to her forehead and whispering to herself, “Yeah, I got him. He says he’ll meet us at the agreed place. You want to go back first?”

“Probably. You’ve got Glass and everyone with you, so you should be fine. I’m not sure how many people I can take with me through the portal.”

“You use the skill but don’t know its limitations?”

“I’ve never felt the need to test it out.”

Back in Melromarc, I didn’t have the need to—my only friends were Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia. I never tried to use the skill with Eclair and the old lady or Keel. I never tried to see how many people I could use it with. The cool-down time was pretty long, too, so I was careful not to waste it.

“Something tells me those women of his will be out for revenge...”

“I’m sure we can handle them—they don’t have the tigers anymore. Don’t you think, L’Arc?”

“Sure thing! With Kizuna on our side, we’ve got nothing to fear!”

Kizuna was like me in that she could handle herself fine, as long as she had teammates to work with. She’d be fine, as long as she was with Glass and the others.

On the other hand, all of our enemies were together again. If Kizuna turned on us, we’d never survive.

Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese... I suddenly imagined them scowling and attacking me. I didn’t think I could win.

How much did I really trust them?

“Alright then, we’ll use my portal to teleport back to your country, ahead of you.”

“Sounds fine to me. We should all be good. Let’s split up.”

“I’ll see you soon. Alright then, we’re going. Portal Shield!”

And so we left them behind and teleported back to the country they called home.

Epilogue: Together Again

We went back to the castle in the country that Kizuna called home and waited for the others to return. It didn’t take long to receive word that they were back.

“Okay, but Glass, you know what I’m trying to say, right?”

“Oh. Um...”

Glass was sitting seiza-style and, apparently, being lectured by Kizuna. L’Arc and Therese were kneeling behind her. It looked like everyone was in trouble.

“What’s going on?”

“Hm? Do you remember the stuff we heard about the waves a little while ago? I’m a little upset with Glass for just buying into it and going to your world to try and kill you,” Kizuna said, crossing her arms.

“Kizuna, it’s not that simple. I felt I had to do it for the sake of the world...”

“Of course you did. You heard a legend, assumed it was true, slipped through the dimensional rifts during a wave, and tried to kill the heroes you found. Is that right?”

“Yes...”

I could hardly believe my eyes. The stern, serious, samurai-like Glass turned her face to the floor in shame. I knew that her and Kizuna were close, but it sure looked like Kizuna was the boss.

“Kizuna. I know how you feel, but don’t you want to hear our side of the story? Huh?” L’Arc asked.

“Yes, we were only trying to protect this world that you hold so dear...” interjected Therese.

Kizuna wasn’t impressed. She narrowed her eyes and barked, “Fine then, answer me this. Can you think of a time when vassal weapons from another world came through the waves to kill the heroes here?”

“Well, um...”

“Can’t answer me?” Kizuna snapped. Everyone turned their eyes away.

They could have just lied. But they knew each other well enough that they probably couldn’t get away with it. Glass in particular looked like she’d be a terrible liar.

“No, no, I can’t think of a time that happened. Not in this country or in another—though we are not privy to what happens in other lands.”

Based on what I’d learned in this new world, I felt it was likely that whoever was in the world on the other side of the wave rifts was responsible for calming the waves.

“Wasn’t it you, Glass, that said you hated the idea of peace built on the sacrifices of others? How could you say that and then rush off to murder people?”

“I...”

Kizuna was really interrogating her. I liked the sound of it. But they must have enjoyed their time together before Kizuna disappeared. Kizuna’s house made that much clear.

“Okay, listen up. It’s true that protecting the world and extending its life is important, but that doesn’t mean you can kill other people to do it. I know that the legends are written that way, but don’t you think we should look for another option before we rush into something like that?”

“Yes, but we did all the research we could. And yet...”

“You couldn’t find another way, so you snuck off to murder the heroes? Is that it? If you can’t find a way, maybe you should keep looking! Even if vassal weapons from another world did come after us, that doesn’t give us an excuse to do the same thing!” Kizuna shouted. Glass looked intimidated.

I hadn’t pictured their relationship like this at all...

They looked like children being scolded by their mother. My cheeks flushed.

“Mr. Naofumi, you’re smiling.”

“What are you laughing at, Kiddo? Are you enjoying this that much?”

Raphtalia told me off, and L’Arc joined in—but Kizuna glared at him and he backed off.

“What’s wrong with that? You tried to kill me, and now you’re getting a lecture. What’s not to like?”

“Sigh... Glass is tough enough, but you’re something else, Naofumi,” Kizuna sighed, slapping her palm against her forehead. I didn’t disagree.

L’Arc nodded along with the lecture but kept stealing glances at me.

I could see where he was coming from, but there was no need to worry. I didn’t consider myself a champion of justice.

“At the very least, now that I’m back, I am firmly against this plan of yours to go to other worlds and kill their heroes!”

“Um...”

“Got it?!”

“Y... Yes!”

“That goes for L’Arc and Therese, too!”

“Right, yeah. Good—I didn’t really want to fight with Kiddo. Destroying another world to save your own isn’t really our style, anyway.”

“Very well. And luckily we reached this conclusion before we were actually able to defeat Naofumi,” Glass said.

L’Arc looked and Therese and then at me. They both looked happy.

If they were going to look at me like that, then there was only one thing to be said: “Then you shouldn’t have tried to kill me in the first place.”

“Shut up, Kiddo! Stop trying to act cool!”

“L’Arc!” Kizuna shouted, and L’Arc immediately closed his mouth.

Kizuna could really command a room.

We’d met by accident, but I was sort of jealous of her commanding presence. That’s how the holy heroes should be. Either that or she was too good for the job.

“And, Glass, please think about this. You know that I can fight monsters but not people. What do you think would happen if someone with a vassal weapon from another world came for me?”

“...”

Glass didn’t answer. I could see why.

Kizuna couldn’t fight people. If someone with a vassal weapon came after her, she’d have to fall back and depend on her friends. But the heroes were summoned to the waves. Was she really being summoned to her death?

“Glass, I think there’s a reason that the holy heroes are summoned to the waves.”

“A reason?”

“Yes. We’re summoned to the waves when we might be killed there. That makes me think that we might not need to fight in the waves at all. They summon us because they need us. If that’s true, then maybe it’s because the world gets more time until the next wave if the heroes stop it, or maybe they can stop the fusing of the worlds.”

“...”

“I don’t know if I’m right. But based on what you are saying, if the heroes exist to protect the world, then there shouldn’t be any reason for them to fight in the waves. And yet, isn’t it the heroes’ duty to do just that?”

Kizuna muttered that she hadn’t been fighting in the waves, because she’d been stuck in the labyrinth. Then she gripped Glass’s hand.

“They don’t write about it in the legends. But I don’t believe it. I don’t believe that we are supposed to protect our world by destroying another. We can’t do that.”

“... Understood. I apologize.”

Glass turned to me and lowered her head. I couldn’t think of a reason to stay mad at them. They were clearly doing what they thought was right, and they were leagues better than the jerks that summoned me to Melromarc, only to lead me into a trap.

I knew that they were good people. After Kizuna disappeared so long ago, the state of her house was enough to prove it. They protected their friends. It was clear that they cared.

I was even a little jealous of their relationship.

If Raphtalia had been chosen by a weapon back in our world and I had gone missing—would she have done the same thing for me?

I looked over at her. Raph-chan was climbing up onto her head from her shoulder.

“What is it?”

“I can understand how Glass feels, so I won’t say anymore.”

If it were possible, I wanted to have the sort of relationship that Kizuna had with her friends. It was nothing more than a wish, but I’d be happy if Raphtalia felt the same way about me as they did about Kizuna

“As long as you’re not going to try and kill me anymore, I certainly won’t pick a fight with you.”

“Kiddo...”

“Naofumi...”

“Great. So we can all be friends, right?” Kizuna said, holding out her hand to me.

I slapped it away. “I’m not into that sort of thing.” I wasn’t the type to get all misty-eyed over sentimental friendship. I mean I liked that sort of thing in games and manga, but I hadn’t had enough positive experiences in these worlds to justify taking the leap of faith that sort of relationship required.

“Anyway, we can certainly keep working together. I’ve got something I have to do, and I could certainly use the help.”

“That’s right. Didn’t you want to get back the power that was stolen from your world’s protective beast?”

“Exactly. That’s why we came here—to make the guy with the book of the vassal weapons, Kyo, pay for all the chaos he brought to our world.”

I hadn’t forgotten. I had to avenge the Spirit Tortoise—avenge Ost’s death.

Raphtalia nodded, and so did Rishia and Glass and then L’Arc and Therese. Everyone was very solemn.

“Kizuna, I can tell you this without doubt: Kyo is no longer fit to hold the book. The vassal weapons that we hold have begun to demand his defeat and subjugation,” Glass explained.

“Well, if he’s done all that you say, of course he needs to be taken care of. If your weapons are demanding it, then I won’t stand in the way. Naofumi, I’ll help you—so please, allow our cooperation to compensate for the harm that Glass and her friends tried to inflict upon you in the past.”

“What does it matter if I forgive them? Our goals are the same. If we don’t stop Kyo, this world will be in danger, too.”

There was a good chance that Kyo was up to something with the power he had taken from the Spirit Tortoise. He probably had to do something before he could use it as he pleased. We had to find him before he could pull it off.

Damn... We weren’t any closer to accomplishing our goal than we were when we first went through the portal.

“Got it, Kiddo? All that is well and fine, but look—everyone is here together for the first time in forever. Do you know how long Kizuna has been missing? Let’s go all out and celebrate tonight!” L’Arc clapped his hands, and the attendants mulling about the castle all started running around.

It looked like they were getting ready for a party.

The whole castle sprang into action when he clapped his hands. Just how much authority did L’Arc have here?

I suddenly remembered the king referencing a boy. Could it be?

“Hey, boy,” I shouted.

L’Arc turned to me, wincing. “What? How do you know about that?!”

“I thought they were talking about you. You’re a pretty important person, aren’t you?”

“Not that I like it. I prefer my freedom!”

I had only heard a little from Kizuna, so I didn’t know how she ended up meeting L’Arc. His father was the king and probably died, and the country was given over to a less-than-worthy prince.

L’Arc seemed like the sort of person that the populace would rally behind.

The country seemed to be doing pretty well, so maybe his reign was going well for the country.

He probably had good people working for him. He was charismatic enough to attract good people. I wonder if Kizuna’s questing in the past had anything to do with it.

“So you see, boy, I’m going to keep calling you ‘boy’ as long as you call me ‘Kiddo’.”

“Fine, Nao... fu... mi.”

“Hm.”

He said my name, but looked really irritated by it.

Then he turned and whined, “No, it sounds all wrong! You’re Kiddo, not ‘Naofumi!’”

“That doesn’t make any sense, boy!”

“I don’t care, Kiddo! You guys take a load off for now. I’ll call for you when everything is ready. Kizuna and Glass, you two take the time to get reacquainted,” L’Arc barked, shuffling us out of the room.

Um... What next? I looked at Raphtalia.

“L’Arc likes to celebrate, doesn’t he?” Ethnobalt said. He had been silent all the way back to the castle, but now he smiled and spoke up. “And yet, I think he is right. We should enjoy ourselves tonight. Kizuna, welcome back.”

“... Thank you. It’s good to be back... with all of you,” Kizuna said, looking at everyone. She looked like she was about to start crying.

How long had she been trapped in that labyrinth? I didn’t know exactly, but it must have been a very long time. She’d returned to a place she thought she’d never see again. If I hadn’t been so lucky, I could have ended up trapped, just like she had.

“A party? I wanna siiiiing!” Filo yelled.

“Rafu!”

Filo and Raph-chan each happily jumped up onto my shoulders.

I let them. Then I turned to face Raphtalia and Rishia.

“They’re right. We should enjoy ourselves tonight. To be honest, I’m exhausted.”

“Feh... How wonderful to reunite with old friends!”

Yeah, they were right.

I hadn’t been separated from Raphtalia for very long, but I had felt her absence starting to take its toll, so I could understand how Kizuna must have felt.

Glass looked so happy to see Kizuna again. She was beaming like a little kid. I couldn’t help but smile, too.

“For now...”

“What is it?”

I looked at the unsheathed katana in Raphtalia’s hands.

“Kizuna, I know everyone is really happy right now, but don’t you think that Raphtalia should sheath the katana?”

“Oh yeah,” Kizuna said, turning around and stepping back toward us. When she did, she left Glass standing there with her hand outstretched. Glass made a very disappointed face—it looked weird on her.

I was starting to think she might be a lesbian.

“Then let’s go to a shop I know and get one made. They’re really good.”

Had we been in Melromarc, I would have had the old guy do it, but we were stuck in another world, so I decided to defer to Kizuna’s judgment.

“Okay.”

Kizuna led us out of the castle and into the town at its base.

“Well, if it isn’t Kizuna! How long has it been?!”

Kizuna took us to a bustling blacksmith in the middle of town.

It was run by a very muscular, masculine woman with a red gemstone in her chest. She must have been one of the crystal people.

Therese’s gemstone was in her forehead, so I guess different people had their gemstones in different places.

“I heard from Glass that you’d gone missing. I was worried about you! Now Glass can finally relax a bit. When you went missing, everyone had a rough time trying to console her.”

“Romina, maybe we can save that for later,” Glass quickly said, trying to shut down the conversation as fast as possible. I’d always thought Glass was cool and reserved, but she was starting to look more like a normal person.

“This is Romina. She’s the best blacksmith I know.”

“I’m Naofumi Iwatani.”

“My name is Raphtalia. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Filo!”

“Rafu!”

“I’m Rishia. Nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Always nice to meet new customers. Hope to see more of you!”

The blacksmith reminded me of the old guy at the weapon shop back in Melromarc.

“If we bring you materials and money, can you make us new stuff?”

“Pretty much—though I reserve the right to throw out obnoxious customers!”

“You think I’m obnoxious?”

“Hmm...” Romina scratched her chin and looked me over carefully. “Actually I think we’ll get along pretty well.”

“Good.”

There was something attractive to me about the profession—about the idea of finding potential in materials and then using them to make custom weapons and tools.

“People that can understand Mr. Naofumi’s personality figure him out with a single glance. I’m a little jealous,” Raphtalia said.

“What are you talking about?” She should know by now that I liked custom tools.

“So? I’m sure you stopped by for something other than an introduction.”

“Naturally. We have a lot of materials that we’d like you to look at. Also, we need a scabbard for her katana,” Kizuna said, dropping a pile of drop items onto the counter.

“Ah, I see... Oh hey, this is pretty good stuff!” Romina said. Then she looked at Raphtalia’s katana. “Well, well... Would you look at that.”

“Yeah, it’s the katana of the vassal weapons.”

“I didn’t expect to ever see it! Alright then, I’ll make you a scabbard for it.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, I’m thrilled just to see it. I’ve got new customers, new materials to work with... What more could a blacksmith want?”

“Thanks.”

Romina started measuring the katana and drawing up some quick sketches.

“Naofumi, why don’t you have Romina make you some shields or armor?”

“Good idea.”

“Hey, that reminds me. Didn’t you have some armor from your world? I bet Romina would love to see armor from another world.”

“Hm? Yeah, I’ve still got it...”

She was probably talking about the Barbarian Armor +1? that had gotten all beat up in the fight with the Spirit Tortoise.

I took out pieces of it I’d stored in my bag and dropped them on the counter.

“Maybe she could look at your stuff too, Rishia. Maybe she can make you something good,” I said, pulling out Rishia’s Filo kigurumi and putting it on the counter next to my things. “It must have been rough for you—coping without your kigurumi.”

“Feh...”

Raphtalia looked at Rishia and started to say, “It’s not like she was so dependent on it...”

She stopped and blinked.

“Okay, maybe she was.”

“Fehh?!”

It was hard to sympathize with her surprise. After all, Rishia was the one that said she wore it so that no one could see her cry.

“What are these? Do they do anything?” Romina said, holding up our old armor and regarding them with suspicion.

“Hey, Filo.”

“Whaaaat?”

“What happened to your claws?”

“They’re gone!”

I sighed... It wasn’t her fault. She’d been captured and turned into a sideshow.

She could have escaped if they left her with her claws—that is, if they were still in working condition.

I still had the Karma Dog Claws in my shield, so I took them out and put them on the counter, too. When they hit the counter, I discovered that I couldn’t read any of the information about them.

“These things might have stopped working when we crossed between the worlds. Think you can do anything about it?”

“I might be able to do something with the armor here, but I’ve never seen anything like what these kigurumi and claws are made of, so...” Romina muttered to herself as she turned the articles over in her hands. She found the gemstone set in the center of the barbarian armor chest plate and pointed to it. “Fascinating! This is a core stone from the Dragon Emperor.”

“Core stone? Dragon Emperor? What do you mean?”

“It looks just like the core from the Dragon Emperor that Kizuna defeated a long time ago. There must be a Dragon Emperor in your world, too.”

“I don’t know. I know that I got that when I defeated a Dragon Zombie, so maybe they are the same thing.”

Actually, when I first met Kizuna, she said that she had originally been summoned to defeat a powerful monster called the Dragon Emperor. She must have been successful.

“These have fantastic effects. You better take care of it.”

“Well, the armor is trash, so it isn’t any good to me now. That’s why I brought it to you.”

“An excellent point. What is this armor called? I can’t read it.”

“Barbarian Armor.”

“It certainly looks the part.”

I guess I had taken the parts from a bunch of bandits... I mean—hey!

“Stop that! That was made for me by a very talented man!”

The truth was that the armor was really good, but its name made it come off as worse than it really was.

“There’s potential here, so I’ll see what I can do.”

“How much will it cost? If you can’t do it then maybe we don’t need you.”

“Mr. Naofumi, we’re the ones making the request here. Please be a little more polite...”

“Who cares about that sort of thing? She’s friends with Kizuna, so we don’t need to stand on ceremony, do we? If she can’t do it, she’ll tell me so!”

“I... I suppose so...” Raphtalia sighed.

Romina burst out laughing. “You’re quite the business man, aren’t you?”

“Naofumi’s even better than Alto.”

“Really? That man is a monster when it comes to business.”

“I was starting to suspect the same, but do you really think so, Kizuna?” Glass asked, casting a suspicious glance at me.

“Yeah, he’s better. Alto takes the long way to a secure a sale, but Naofumi can sell the same thing in no time and no effort. He’s really got a knack for it.”

“Decide if you’re complimenting me or insulting me.”

We needed money, and we didn’t have any time, so what other choice did I have but to play a little dirty at the soul-healing water auction? She didn’t complain about it at the time.

Whatever. The truth was that I was pretty interested in meeting this monster of business they were talking about. If he looked anything like the slave trader, I’d take off running in the other direction.

Raphtalia sighed and looked disappointed in me—but I really didn’t do anything wrong!

“Well, don’t you worry yourself over the money too much. You’re friends with Kizuna, so I’ll do whatever I can to keep costs down. I get some money from the crown, too.”

“Glad to hear it. Also, try not to destroy it too much.”

I’d grown pretty attached to the armor. The old guy that made it for me was the first person to trust me.

“I know, I know. But enough about the armor—what’s with this crazy thing?” she asked, holding up the Filo kigurumi.

“Whatdya mean crazy?!” Filo flapped her wings, outraged at the implication. She must have thought she was being insulted. It wasn’t so surprising that she said that, though. No one in this world had ever seen a filolial queen, let alone a kigurumi that looked like one.

“What are you mad about?”

“Oh her? She transformed for some reason when we crossed over to this world. Back where we came from, she looks like the monster that kigurumi is based on.”

“Ah... I see. She looks so cute and funny, but you’re saying her real form is...” Romina smiled thinly and turned away.

I couldn’t blame her. Filo’s filolial queen form was a strange sight to behold. She was huge and imposing—far more than a normal filolial.

“Regardless, if this is equipment from another world, I’d like you to let me study it a little. With any luck, I can make you something good.”

“Got it. Good luck.”

I didn’t have anything to lose, considering we couldn’t use the equipment in the state it was in. If she could make something useful with it, it would probably raise our chances of survival from here on out.

A part of me still felt like I was helping the enemy grow stronger, but it was the best option I had.

“Need anything else?”

“I think that’s it for now—though I’d like to see what sort of shields you can make, too.”

I would just use Weapon Copy to get my own version of whatever shield she made, and then I could sell it to someone or give it to one of my party members.

“Sure, but with so many orders to work on, I can’t do them all at once. We should probably cut of this order here. Then I can work on other stuff when this is all done”

“That’s reasonable.”

“Great! I have to say I’m pretty thrilled to work on this stuff. I’ve been so bored with the projects I’ve had lately. This will really shake things up for me.”

Who knew that blacksmiths had so many things to worry about? When we got back to the world we came from, I’d have to go pay the old guy a visit at his weapon shop. Maybe he was bored, too. Besides, he’d definitely be interested in seeing the barbarian armor after Romina worked on it.

If she used gemstones from this world, he’d probably be thrilled just to see them.

Isn’t that the sort of thing that craftsmen got excited about?

We left our equipment with Romina and then left her shop.

“What should we do now?” I asked. Before anyone could answer, the air filled with crackling explosions. Fireworks burst in the air over the castle.

The townsfolk in the streets all looked up at the colorful bursts and smiled.

“For now, let’s just enjoy the celebration they’re throwing for my return. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Glass squeezed Kizuna’s hand, smiled, and bowed deeply to me.

“Thank you so very much for helping our missing Kizuna. We will do all that we can to assist you, but for now, please enjoy the celebration.”

I wasn’t going to argue. We had to enjoy ourselves sometimes, right?

It was hard to relax back in Melromarc, anyway, and it didn’t seem like anyone here was trying to take advantage of us.

“Alright then, let’s take the night off. Raphtalia, Filo, Raph-chan, and Rishia—let’s go!”

“Okay!”

“It looks so fuuuun!”

“Rafu!”

“Feh... What should we do first?”

“Look at all the food carts!”

“Fehhh!”

“What’s the matter?”

“Yay! Foooood!”

“RaFUUUUU!”

We walked toward the festival that was filling the streets of the town. Glass and Kizuna walked behind us, as if they were watching over us.

It would still take a while to accomplish what we’d set out to do—punish Kyo for his misdeeds. But for the moment, I tried to convince myself that there was nothing wrong with taking a night off.

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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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