LN Tate no Yuusha CH 15 - Epilog Vol 10 Bahasa indonesia

Chapter Fifteen: Surprise Attacks and Conspiracies

It’s not like I was planning on making a habit of it or anything, but I headed back to the tavern where I’d met the drunkard woman. Things were relatively lively there, but the matches were still going on, so the customers seemed to be mostly paying attention to the coliseum. Judging from the atmosphere, mercenaries and other participants with upcoming matches had gotten together there and were exchanging information.

“Oh?”

I grabbed a random seat and ordered a drink, and the same drunkard woman from before cheerfully made her way over to where I’d sat down. Damn! I’d been seen!

“You seem to be advancing in the tournament quite nicely. I saw your matches, you know.”

“You figured out it was me, huh?”

I’d gone to the trouble of wearing an iron mask so that no one would recognize me. But she had obviously figured it out.

“I could tell by your build and how you move.”

That made me think . . . When someone puts on a mask or something like that in an anime or manga, suddenly even their own family doesn’t recognize them. They’d probably be made in an instant in real life. I guess you could say the fact that they didn’t notice meant they must not have been very close. Had my plan been pointless?

“By the way, I never introduced myself, now did I? I’m Nadia.”

“. . .”

If I told her my real name, it might give my identity away. What should I do? Whatever. I would just use my ring name.

“I’m Rock.”

“That’s right, isn’t it, little Rock? Tell me, little Rock, have you gotten used to things at the tournament?”

“We haven’t been struggling as much as I thought we would.”

Fighting without revealing how powerful we really were was surprisingly difficult. In the end, we’d pretty much, halfway, given ourselves away. Itsuki liked to do things that way, apparently, but I just didn’t get it. We were only concealing our strength because it would cause problems for us if people found out. If there was no need to stay hidden, I’d happily send Filo on a rampage without hesitation.

“Everyone is paying attention to you, you know? You did finish those griffins off really quickly, after all.”

“So that was a standout fight card, after all . . .”

Nadia gave an affirmative response in her usual overly familiar style and then ordered a ridiculous number of drinks, just like last time, before continuing the conversation. Just how much did this woman love her alcohol, anyway?!

“Aahhh!”

Several mercenaries began to approach us, but the drunkard woman, a.k.a. Nadia, waved them away with a casual flick of her hand. She’d said that our fight had gotten us some attention, so maybe they just wanted to ask me some questions.

“Well then, little Rock . . . How about I give you part two of things to watch out for at the tournament, then?”

“Huh?”

You mean there was more?

“Well, it’s really more common sense—it’s not so much a problem that you’ll encounter at every tournament, but it’s something that participants should always be on the lookout for.”

“Oh, I see.”

“It’s an especially prevalent problem for the official coliseums, and you can even get disqualified for it in some cases, you know.”

“Spit it out already, why don’t you?”

Nadia responded by pouring a drink in a stein and passing it over to me. So she wanted me to drink it? Fine . . . whatever. I chugged whatever it was that she had filled the stein with. It was some kind of fruit wine. It even still had some of the fruit left in it. It had infused well, giving the wine a really fruity flavor. I had a feeling I’d drank something like it before.

“Aahh . . . So? Tell me already.”

I placed the empty stein back on the table.

“Hmm . . . Well . . .”

She had really played it up, whatever it was, but she didn’t seem like she was going to talk any time soon.

“Little Rock, you really hold your liquor well, don’t you?”

“It’s the same as water to me. I’ve never been drunk in my life.”

This Nadia woman’s eyes grew wide. She seemed genuinely surprised. What was that reaction supposed to mean?

“Well, then . . . I guess I should tell you, shouldn’t I? But it’ll be easier just to show you, so how about we get out of here and enjoy a little stroll in the night air.”

“What about the matches?”

“The next few matches are all teams that won’t be advancing much further in the tournament. I already checked them out yesterday, so don’t worry about them.”

Hmm . . . Nadia’s intuition had been right about who would win the other night. She might have been right about these, too. Plus, those mercenaries from earlier seemed strangely interested in us and kept glancing over in our direction. I had to admit, it was getting on my nerves. It probably wasn’t a bad idea to just leave the information gathering to the inconspicuous Rishia and head back early, myself. I didn’t think my identity had been revealed, but still . . .

Nadia stood up and I followed her out, leaving the coliseum behind.

The nighttime streets of Zeltoble were brimming with activity—the phrase “a city that never sleeps” fit perfectly. There seemed to be quite a few shops catering to debauchery lining the streets, as well. Judging from the shop signs there were places for humans, demi-humans, and other races, too. Taverns were all over the place, and you could hear the uproar of voices coming from within. That said, Nadia said she wanted to enjoy the night breeze and headed down a small back alley that ran alongside an irrigation canal.

Zeltoble was situated alongside a waterway that led to the ocean, so it was possible to travel there by boat. Perhaps that was why the smell of the night air reminded me of the sea. The intricate canals running alongside the back alleys made it feel kind of like you were in Venice. It actually seemed like a pretty nice area for a leisurely stroll.

“Now then, little Rock, continuing our earlier conversation . . .”

“Yeah?”

“It may be that it happens relatively more often when people start paying attention to you, but regardless of that . . . did you not notice a certain phenomenon occurring, starting around the first round?”

“Huh?”

I tried to recall the first-round standings that Rishia had compiled for us. I hadn’t really paid much attention, since I was only interested in our own results, but had there been anything odd about them?

Hmm . . . Now that I thought about it, our match had been moved up ahead of schedule. It did make me wonder why the previous match could have ended so quickly. They had been making more adjustments to the schedule just earlier, too. I thought about how all of that matched up with today’s standings.

“The number of wins by default is peculiarly high.”

I guess there would be fighters that signed up to participate and then just didn’t show up for the tournament, right? Or maybe it was because no one worried about staying on schedule? That would suck if you ended up being the one affected by it. I mean, come on . . . Just how poor was their time management?

I considered several of the more peaceful possibilities, but the answer had already appeared in the back of my mind.

“Exactly. You know why that is?”

“. . .”

Her suggestive phrasing sent beads of cold sweat running down my back. At that very moment, I heard the sound of a weapon being drawn, and a group of aggressive-looking men appeared in the alley and surrounded us. Damn . . . Had I fallen for a trap?

Under the circumstances, I had to consider myself on my own. Could I get away if I just defended against their attacks and ran to a crowded area? But wait! Surely I could drive them back if I used a shield with a counterattack, right?

This woman! To think she set me up! Just who the hell does she think she—

“Oh? You boys think this is all it will take to stop a girl like me, do you?”

“Can it, woman! You two are sitting ducks out here, and roast duck just happens to be our favorite! How could we pass up an opportunity like this?”

This guy acting like the boss of the belligerent bunch . . . Yeah, he’d been at the tavern. I guessed they were mercenaries. They looked like they had been in a few fights before.

“Nadia! And you, too, Rock Valley! Do us a favor and . . . die!”

The boss shouted out his rallying cry and the surrounding men all lunged at us. I held my shield out to defend against their attacks, but . . .

“Now, now . . . I’ve got nothing against children being a bit feisty, but you boys are just plain naughty, aren’t you?”

Nadia spoke quietly as she took the harpoon from her back and began to cast a spell.

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Lightning! Strike down and penetrate those before me!”

“All Drifa Chain Lightning!”

Several blindingly bright bolts of highly condensed lightning shot from the tip of Nadia’s harpoon, piercing right through the group of belligerents!

“Gahhhhhh!”

“Arrrghhh!”

She was fast! She moved like she had been in quite a few battles. And the flashes of crackling lightning moved as if they had a mind of their own, jumping from one belligerent to another and striking the whole bunch down.

“This piddling bunch is all that came? That’s no fun, now is it?”

The men stood there twitching with their heads thrown backward for several long moments. Finally, they fell to the ground, their eyes rolled back. The way they looked . . . I’d seen this before! That monster that they had been serving up at the coliseum back when I first met Nadia had the very same look!

“I’m not . . . finished!”

“Oh?”

One of the men that hadn’t been wounded as badly as the others stood up and rushed at Nadia. Was I being completely ignored? Well, I had no obligation to help Nadia, and as far as I could tell from the way she moved, it didn’t look like she needed my help, either. Nadia quickly spun her harpoon around and thrust it hard at the man’s chest while taking a firm step forward.

“Gah!”

It connected with a loud thud and the man went flying, disappearing into the darkness of the alley. Shortly afterward, the sound of his body smashing into a wall echoed out . . . followed by silence.

“I guess that’s it, isn’t it?”

As if to signify an easy victory, Nadia twirled her harpoon around before returning it to its place on her back.

“I guess that explains it, wouldn’t you say?”

“Pretty much.”

The reason for the wins by default was fighters were ambushing their opponents. The opponents would be rendered unable to fight . . . Some of them would probably end up incapacitated or even dead. There were probably cases of it backfiring on the attackers, but that meant that ambushes like this were common. There was a lot of money at stake in this tournament, not to mention the whole thing was shady to begin with, after all.

Ah, so that was why you could place early bets on who would advance in the tournament—there would be cases when participants were eliminated without even making it to their matches. Did people actually trust the tournament betting system? I was surprised anyone would be brave enough to place a bet at this competition.

“Your approach to the matches isn’t bad, little Rock, but making a display of strength that convinces opponents to just give up, because they can’t win, is another possibility, you know.”

“You mean, because otherwise, I’ll have to deal with pests like this coming after me?”

“Well, it’s not like eeeeeveryone will give up, since there is money involved, you know.”

But this woman . . . she was unexpectedly formidable. I guess she wasn’t just a drunkard, after all.

“They fight dirty and they’ll use every trick in the book, so watch your back. Hanging around spacing out in a place like that tavern is just asking for trouble. Even if it’s a girl like me giving you trouble.”

“Putting it like that must mean that you’re willing to fight dirty, too, if it means winning.”

“That’s right. I already made one attempt on your life, you know.”

What? What had she done? Had she used her magic to try to shock me along with those other guys? That’s too bad, because hitting me with a stray bullet wasn’t going to make me flinch. Or maybe she had poisoned my drink? I had a skill that detected poisons, though, so there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed. Realistically speaking, with all of the skills I had from my shield, it would be near impossible to assassinate me. And yet here she was saying she had done something to me.

I was puzzling over the issue when Nadia suddenly took my hand and placed it on her chest for some reason. She was rather well endowed. She probably had Raphtalia beat, by the looks of it. Now that I thought about it, this might have been the first time I’d touched a female’s chest.

“Boobies!” she suddenly exclaimed.

Was this woman some kind of half-wit? I was just starting to enjoy the moment and she had to go and ruin it. I jerked my hand away from her.

“Oh . . . ?”

“So what? What did you do to me?”

“Oh, that . . . Let me make up for it by confessing my love for you!”

“Stop screwing around or I’m leaving.”

“You’re too serious, little Rock!”

The drunkard woman cackled cheerfully when she responded. I wished she would stop playing games and just answer already . . .

“I mixed rucolu fruit into your drink, earlier.”

“Ohhh . . . that was it? Is that all?”

“It’s used to assassinate people, you know? Especially at taverns . . .”

Well, I guess it was supposed to be something you diluted with water before drinking. For various reasons, people had begun offering it to me at villages I visited while peddling, almost like a proof of identity. I see . . . So the shield wouldn’t react if it was something that I wouldn’t consider a poison.

But seriously, I hadn’t even considered that rucolu fruit might be used that way. The thing seemed like it would actually be great for assassinations—arsenic wouldn’t even compare. My body apparently didn’t react adversely to it, but still . . .

Nadia quickly wrapped her arms around me and kissed me lightly on the cheek.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Was she trying to come on to me? Give me a break! Nadia began walking away slowly. After she had taken several steps, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at me. She grinned when she spoke, but I wasn’t sure if the look in her eyes was cheerful, worried, or excited for what was to come.

“I really hope that we don’t meet in the coliseum, if at all possible.”

And then Nadia disappeared into the back alleys of Zeltoble, followed by the tapping of her footsteps.

“I really hope you give up before that, if at all possible . . .”

Those were her parting words. What was that supposed to mean? She had tried to poison me, and yet she still told me all about—and even showed me, in action—the risks of the underground coliseum, and then she disappears before I can figure out if she’s flirting with me or worried about me. Then, to top it all off, she tells me to give up? I’m sorry, but giving up wasn’t an option for me.

I left the back alley and headed back toward the slave market to meet up with Raphtalia and the others.

“Did you see any of the villagers?”

Raphtalia came out to meet me.

“There weren’t any today.”

“I see. That’s good.”

Rishia finally returned, accompanied by one of the slave trader’s assistants who had been acting as her bodyguard.

“Fehhhh . . . That was scary!”

“Rafu!”

“I hear it can be dangerous for you, if people think you’re involved. There are people out there who will do anything to win, apparently.”

“Fehhh!”

Keeping our safety in mind, I used my portal skill and we returned to the village after that. I don’t know if it was our scent or what, but Filo came running up immediately.

“Master! Welcome baaaack!”

“Thanks. It’s late already. Are the brats asleep?”

“Yup. I sang them a lullaby and they started saying they couldn’t eat any more.”

What a stereotypical dream . . .

“What about you, Raphtalia, did you have any problems? I found out that coliseum tournament participants apparently get targeted for attacks.”

“Huh? Oh, so that’s what that was? I did cut a few people down to protect myself . . .”

So she had already taken care of it. She had beaten them at their own game. I guess our match tomorrow would be a win by default. Even so, cut them down? I was a bit worried about the path Raphtalia was headed down.

“Did you polish them off?”

“That makes it sound so violent . . . I only injured them. They should be able to move again after two or three days.”

I had to wonder about that. After all, Raphtalia had grown up to be pretty tough.

“What about you, Mr. Naofumi?”

“Me? Umm . . . Someone I met at the tavern warned me to watch out for ambushes if I wanted to advance in the tournament. I didn’t really get any good info other than that. How did things go with you, Rishia?”

“Huh? Me?! Umm, I managed to get a look at some documents related to matches in the underground coliseum.”

“Oh . . .”

We could probably use that info to check which opponents to watch out for, like high-profile fighters that were always winning.

“There are all kinds of fighters, it seems, but there is one in particular competing in this tournament that we need to watch out for. If we end up facing this fighter, it’s almost certain to be a difficult battle.”

“Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, right?”

“Umm, right . . .”

Rishia had seen the kinds of battles we had faced with her own eyes. The underground coliseum tournaments might show you just how formidable people could be, but surely that was child’s play compared to something as dreadful as the Spirit Tortoise. Not to mention, having seen Kizuna, Glass, and their crew in action made even the strongest people seem weak. That’s the kind of company we had been doing battle alongside, so I sure wasn’t afraid.

“So? Who is the fighter?”

“Umm . . . The one we need to watch out for is a person who fights alone—even in team battle tournaments—and almost always wins, or at least places near the top. There was one other similar fighter, but that one isn’t participating in this tournament.”

Taking on a team battle tournament by yourself . . . Just what kind of hero was this? Maybe one of the seven star heroes was secretly participating in the underground coliseums? It was possible. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the other three holy heroes that had gone missing showed up in the tournament.

“So? Who is it?”

“Umm . . . The person goes by the ring name Nadia, apparently.”

Say what? It was that drunkard woman, in other words? You’ve got to be shitting me. Then again . . . I had only seen one of her attacks, but judging from her skill with magic and the way she moved, it kind of made sense. It had only been by coincidence, but to think I had become acquainted with someone like that.

“Is something wrong?”

“Nah, it’s nothing.”

Either way, if we ended up fighting her, we would have to be careful.

Chapter Sixteen: Nadia

After all was said and done, the coliseum schedule was changed so that we would fight twice per day, due to a relative decrease in the total number of matches. We had gone on to win for several days in a row now. The day after the ambush had been a win by default, as expected. It even made me consider the idea that going out and waiting around to be ambushed might be a surprisingly good strategy.

Under normal circumstances, our competitors and their backers would be using all kinds of dirty tricks to interfere with our advancement. But I had the accessory dealer and the family of slave traders backing me. Their support also came with their extensive connections throughout the Zeltoble underground.

Speaking of the accessory dealer, I’d dangled the topic of the materials we’d gotten from Kizuna’s world in front of him and he’d pounced on it. That guy could smell a profit from a mile away. I wanted to use him to my advantage and figure out a way to mass produce the items that emulated the drop functionality of the holy weapons and their ability to summon people to the waves.

The slave traders and the accessory dealer . . . Thanks to these two entities, the usual underhanded, roundabout efforts to get in our way had been nipped in the bud. Also, the slave trader had apparently heard some kind of strange rumor going around about everyone backing off of us, because we had ties to Nadia.

We had gotten a lot more recognition and ended up being considered one of the more notable teams. We did tend to end our matches pretty much as soon as they started, after all. The guy that threw in the morning star, that had become Filo’s new toy, started rooting for us at all of our matches. He’d thrown in a different weapon just recently, too, and Filo had been flinging that one at our opponents as well.

That pretty much summed up how we had been advancing in the tournament. Most of the competitors had already been eliminated, and with only a few fight cards left, we were now in the semifinals.

“Who’s our opponent for tomorrow’s match?”

“This is the featured fight card for tomorrow. Yes sir.”

The slave trader wiped the sweat off his forehead as he handed me a piece of paper. It had our opponent for the next day’s match written on it. The name on the paper was . . . Nadia. It looked like she had been placed in the bracket as a seed. I guess the time to fight that woman had finally come.

“Is that the participant that Rishia mentioned?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Huh? The person we fight tomorrow?”

Filo was staring intently at the paper in my hand, like she was really interested.

“She uses lightning magic, but she’s not a magic user, so to speak. She’s a formidable opponent that can handle herself in close combat, too. She’s been fighting her way through team battle tournaments all by herself.”

“I wonder just how strong she is.”

Then again . . . The way we had been fighting up until now was pretty atypical, too. Defeating the enemy as soon as the announcer screamed “begin” was the norm for us. That was pretty much how all of our matches went. It was only natural that we would end up becoming famous.

“If we can make it through this one, all that will be left is the championship match. The money to buy the village slaves back is almost within our reach!”

“Yes! But . . . lightning?”

“Fehhh . . .”

“You’ve done a lot to make this happen too, Rishia. You and Raph-chan better be rooting for us.”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan jumped up on Rishia’s shoulder and howled. There was no avoiding it. In the end, winning this match and advancing to the next round was our only option.

The next day, we were getting prepared for our fight in the waiting room at the coliseum. Outside it had been erupting into cheers all day. Our next opponent was an infamous freak of nature that had fought her way up through the team battle tournament all alone. Still, surely she couldn’t be stronger than Kyo or the Spirit Tortoise, right? Even so, there was no denying that letting our guard down for even a moment could prove to be fatal.

If we won today, tomorrow we would be fighting in the main event—the championship match. They publicized the event ahead of time. The schedule was ridiculous.

“Maaaster! Can we gooo yet?”

“I guess it is about time. Alright, let’s head out, then.”

“Yes, and then if we win tomorrow, we can finally rescue the village children.”

We had to be careful when facing our opponent today. There might be some kind of catch. I could think of several possibilities.

Here’s one . . . What if there was some kind of unspoken rule about who would win that was decided from the start? We hadn’t really had to deal with any interference so far, since we had a pretty powerful bunch backing us. But you never knew what kind of obstacles might show up during the middle of a match. Like . . . what if some kind of ceremonial-level support magic was cast on Nadia during the fight? It wasn’t unthinkable.

“Let’s not take any chances today. Let’s finish this . . . and let’s make it quick!”

“Agreed!”

“I’ll do my beeest!”

We dashed out into the arena, which was surrounded by hordes of nobility, who had come in search of stimulation. They burst out into a roar of cheers. Nadia was already waiting in the arena.

“Oh my, you ignored my advice and showed up anyway, now didn’t you?”

“Sorry, but there’s a reason that I have to win this match and move on to the finals.”

Before the match began, Nadia approached and extended her hand out as if to shake.

“I guess there’s no choice then, is there? I don’t plan on holding back, though, so you better show me what you’ve got.”

“I don’t plan on losing, even if it is you.”

We shook hands, and Nadia gave me a friendly hug and whispered in my ear.

“Might that reason be to buy the Lurolona slaves . . . I wonder.”

Huh?! This woman knew all about my plan! I couldn’t imagine how the information had been leaked, but that meant that she knew what we were after.

“This is the perfect chance if you’re looking to make a lot of money quick, isn’t it? I’m afraid I’m not going to let you win, though, darling.”

She seemed to be under the impression that I was planning on buying the slaves so that I could resell them and make a profit. There was no point in correcting her. In the end, we still needed the money to get Raphtalia’s fellow villagers back.

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

After I responded, Nadia gave me a quick nod and put some distance between us.

“And now, a faceoff between Roooooock Vaaalllleeeey’s Party . . . and . . . Naaaaadiiiiaaaaaaa! Are you ready?!”

The announcer was shouting like crazy. Every time it made me wonder if that screaming messed up his vocal cords.

“I expect a fair fight, you two! Let the semifinal battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

 Gooooonnngggg!

A huge gong sound echoed throughout the coliseum, taking the whole thing one more step over the top.

“Alright then, darling, here I come!”

Nadia held her harpoon up high out in front of her, about to cast her magic.

“We won’t let yooouuu!”

“That’s right!”

Raphtalia and Filo moved in to strike first, just like we had discussed beforehand. The two of them moved simultaneously, closing in on Nadia rapidly. Raphtalia lifted her katana up over her head and swung it down hard, while Filo struck from the side with both of her claws in an attempt to get inside Nadia’s guard.

“Careful now!”

Nadia took several steps backward and . . . she dodged that?! She evaded Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks by a hair’s width, as if she had seen right through them.

“We’re not finished!”

“Take thiiiis!”

Raphtalia followed through with her katana, continuing the swing upward while thrusting forward. Filo crouched down, slipping in another strike.

“Your swordsmanship sure is straightforward, isn’t it? Sorry, but swings like that won’t work on a girl like me!”

Nadia brushed Raphtalia’s katana off to the side with her harpoon and then used it to vault up into the air, dodging Filo’s attack before spinning around and leaping over her back.

“Wha . . .”

“Oooohhh!”

Raphtalia was at a loss for words, but Filo seemed genuinely impressed. The way Nadia responded to their attacks made it obvious that she was a highly skilled mercenary. There was a good reason she had become famous! She’d seen through all of our attacks so far. That was the only explanation for the way she moved.

“Wow! Woooow! Master! I’m gonna do that thiiing!”

“Go for it!”

Filo quickly jumped up on my shoulders and began preparing to use haikuikku. In the meantime, Raphtalia continued to attack Nadia.

“Hiyaaaaa!”

But Nadia continued to dodge every attack at the last moment, as if she could easily predict the path of Raphtalia’s katana.

“I can tell you’re not used to using a katana. Your lines are all too straight, like you’re fighting with a sword, you know? That poor katana is capable of so much more.”

Just how strong was this woman? Damn! Did that mean our stats were too low to defeat her head-on? I guess I had no choice, then. With Filo still on my shoulders, I quietly began reciting the incantation for my support magic, Zwiete Aura.

“As the source of your power, the Shield Hero commands you! Let the legends be revealed once more! Support her completely!”

“Zweite Aura!”

I would cast my support magic on Raphtalia to increase her stats and then wait for an opening to cast it on Filo, too, so that we could end this right away . . . or so I thought. I finished reciting the incantation and the instant the magic took its effect on Raphtalia . . . Nadia glanced my way and . . . cast a spell.

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the legends be revealed once more! Dispel the power that supports her!”

“Anti-Zweite Aura!”

“What?!”

I realized that the Zweite Aura support magic I’d cast on Raphtalia had been erased. That’s right . . . I conjured the magic myself and successfully cast it on Raphtalia, and yet it had been shattered into pieces.

Hold on now! I’d heard that even drifa-level magic could be obstructed, but to block zweite-level magic with such a short incantation . . . Just how skilled was this woman?!

Nadia had rendered my Zweite Aura ineffective. It took a few seconds before I fully understood what had happened, and Raphtalia had also made her attack under the assumption that her stats would be increased, so she ended up missing by a long shot.

“Wha . . .”

“You’re wide open!”

With her harpoon in hand, Nadia crouched low and thrust at Raphtalia. The attack was powerful and heavy, just like the one she had delivered to the mercenaries back when we got ambushed.

“Ugh! Ahhhh!”

The attack connected, and Raphtalia went flying and smashed into the arena wall, which let out a loud cracking sound.

“Ra—Shigaraki!”

That was close. If a monster skilled enough to nullify support magic figured out who we really were, there was no telling what kind of attacks she would come at us with.

“I . . . I’m okay.”

Raphtalia wobbled to her feet. She had her hand on her shoulder, where the harpoon had connected.

“Ugh . . .”

Nadia went right into casting another spell, as if to say she wouldn’t let an opening go to waste.

“Should I throw jingle-jangle?”

“Let’s not do that. It would be no joke if that weapon ended up getting used against us right now.”

We were already struggling against a single harpoon. We could end up forcing ourselves into a corner if we let her steal that morning star from us. Right now, we had to focus on making sure Raphtalia could continue fighting. I pulled some healing medicine out of my pocket and ran over to Raphtalia. I rubbed it on her wound while casting healing magic. Surely healing magic cast at point-blank range couldn’t be obstructed, right?

“Thank you, Mr. Nao . . . Mr. Rock.”

“No worries. Anyways, that woman is a monster!”

Our stats may have been lower than normal, but we were undoubtedly still far stronger than your average adventurer. And yet she had easily dodged all of Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks. She must have been ridiculously strong. I had expected the fight to end with Raphtalia’s and Filo’s opening attacks.

I checked my status screen and several sections were blurred out. I’d suspected this might be the case, but apparently the arena area was under the effect of some kind of magic. I wasn’t sure if it was Nadia’s doing, something paid for by the spectators, or if the organizers were secretly interfering, but I guess I was going to have to get out in front and restrain Nadia myself.

“Is it my tuuurn?”

Filo’s question signaled that she had finished preparing for her haikuikku-Spiral Strike combo.

“I guess so. It looks like we can’t afford to hold back with this one.”

I’d hoped to make it through this thing without revealing our secret, but this wasn’t the kind of opponent that would let us off that easy.

“Shigaraki, I’m going to use my shields to restrain the opponent. Once I do, you attack along with Humming. Got it?”

“Un . . . understood.”

Thanks to the healing magic, Raphtalia was still able to fight. We had to make it through this or it was all for nothing. There was no other choice. I walked toward Nadia slowly.

“Oh? You’re changing your formation, I see. Is it finally time for you to make an appearance, little Rock?”

“I guess so. They say you’re supposed to save the main performance for last, but I’m going to make an exception and personally put on a show just for you.”

Up until now, Filo and Raphtalia had finished off all our opponents before I ever had to do anything, but that wasn’t going to work here, so I had no choice but to join the fight.

“In that case, I’ve got my magic ready to go, so . . . How about I give you a little performance, too?”

“Here I come!”

I took off running with Filo still on my shoulders. My stats had been reduced by the curse, but I was still pretty quick. It felt like the rest of the world was moving in slow motion as I sprinted toward Nadia. Nadia was considerably quick, too, as she pointed her harpoon at me and cast her spell. I had no idea just how powerful her magic could be, but I’d show her I could withstand anything she could dish out!

“You better not be thinking about taking this straight on, darling. You won’t survive!”

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Thunder and lightning! Eradicate those before me!”

“Drifa Thunder Burst!”

As I ran toward Nadia, she cast her magic and . . . an ultra-thick bolt of lightning came hurling right at me. The roar of the thunder and the flash of the lightning were so intense that I thought I might end up deaf and blind—that’s how highly condensed the magical power of her attack was.

There was a ceremonial magic spell called Judgement that brought lightning down from the sky. It was the same one that the high priest of the Church of the Three Heroes used on me in his surprise attack. All by herself, Nadia had just hurled a magical attack at me that was pretty much on the same level as Judgement. This monster of a woman blew my mind. She was so powerful it made me want to lecture her about not showing up to help when we were out fighting enemies like the Spirit Tortoise.

I hugged Filo close and protected her with my shield and cape as I kept running. The magic that Nadia had cast smashed into me with a loud crackle. Speed was everything when it came to lightning. Only an instant after I first laid my eyes on it, it was right there in front of my face. It was a formidable attack, and “burnt black” wouldn’t even begin to describe the damage it would have done to anyone other than me.

“Eat this! Our true joint attack!”

I could feel myself being electrocuted by the bolt of lightning, which I deflected with my shield, before hurling Filo with all my might.

“Un . . . unbelievableeeeee! Rock Valley just took Nadia’s finishing move head-on and launched a counterattack of his ownnnnnnn!”

The announcer was practically screaming at the top of his lungs, and the spectators erupted into cheers. Who cares about that! Right now, I needed to focus on defeating the enemy in front of me.

“Take thiiiiiissss!”

Filo channeled all the magic power she had stored and launched her haikuikku-Spiral Twist combo straight at Nadia.

“Oh my! Impressive! That was my finishing move, too, you know?”

Nadia shouted excitedly when she saw Filo flying at her at a speed even faster than her own lightning had been. I couldn’t tell if she was flustered or just happy. Surely there was no way she could outmaneuver Filo’s attack, right?

“From what I saw in your other matches, she can maintain that increased speed in her movements for three seconds. That means she’ll deliver a powerful attack during that time, right?”

“Yah!”

“In that case . . .”

She’d predicted that I would counterattack by throwing Filo? No, that wasn’t it. She must have realized that we would use the time she was casting her magic as our chance to launch an attack. Nadia hugged her harpoon close and began casting another spell. Yeah . . . She was practically announcing that she was going to reuse the thunderclouds that had appeared when she made her previous attack.

Her incantation was fast—too fast! I’d never seen anyone use magic like that!

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Lightning! Become the force that protects and supports me!”

“Drifa Lightning Speed!”

Magic . . . Such a profound art. There was a thunderous roar, and lightning rained down onto Nadia herself, but the lightning enveloped and electrified her body as if it were some kind of support magic. Rather than facing Filo’s charge head-on, Nadia made a large, yet swift, evasive maneuver.

This was bad. I was guessing Filo’s attack would continue on in a straight line. She could probably alter the path slightly, but haikuikku would wear off before she actually managed to connect with Nadia. It wasn’t likely that Spiral Strike on its own would be enough for a decisive blow.

“Kyaahhhh!!”

Filo made some kind of noise that sounded like a shriek as she hurled toward Nadia. Crackling charges of lightning were jumping from the electrified Nadia to Filo, just like static electricity. Ouch . . . Filo was spinning around in what was basically a special, lethal move, but even so, I’m sure getting electrocuted would still be painful.

“Here I goooo!”

Filo still hadn’t given up. In that case, there was only one thing for me to do.

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

I made sure Nadia couldn’t dodge, by placing my shields behind her, at her feet, and beside her, leaving her with no escape. The shields would protect Filo from being electrocuted, while also restricting Nadia’s movement, to make sure Filo’s attack landed.

“Oh! That’s an interesting little trick you have there, isn’t it? You surprised little ol’ me!”

“I have a few of those up my sleeve.”

The only way she could go was to her other side or up. If possible, I wanted to keep her from moving sideways to help make sure Filo’s attack connected. As if to grant me my wish, Nadia crouched ever so slightly in preparation to jump to the side.

“Not happening! Shield Prison!”

I added my finishing touch by placing my Shield Prison to her side and sealing off her escape route! How did she like that! That was my shield interference combo that had cornered even L’Arc! My job may have been to protect, but I could still pull a trick like this off, too!

All that was left was for Filo’s Spiral Strike to connect, and then Raphtalia could attack.

“Oh my! You sure are impressive! But . . .”

Nadia thrust her harpoon into the ground hard and used it to swiftly propel herself up into a back flip over the shield that I had produced behind her.

“Waaahhhh!”

Filo charged smack dab into my shield, and along with a loud crunching sound, all of her speed and power vanished into thin air. Damn! But I still had Chain Shield!

“Cha—”

Before I could finish calling out the skill name, it felt almost like the air suddenly began to cling to us. It felt like air resistance . . . Just trying to move my arm felt cumbersome. What was happening?

As the question crossed my mind, I looked around and saw bubbles coming up out of the arena floor, as if we were at the bottom of the ocean or something. I could still breathe, so just what was this?!

“Oh? I guess our exchanges were too fast for their liking. It looks like they’ve used magic to alter the playing field and slow things down.”

What?! Hindering us at a time like this?! This coliseum allowed spectators to provide support by making a monetary offering. I guess this was just an extension of that.

“The thing is . . . This is cooperative magic known as The Great Deep, and it artificially creates an underwater environment, which just happens to be where I fight best! I guess I really can’t lose this one now, can I?”

“No way . . .”

Raphtalia had leapt in front of me, with her katana readied to strike in a follow-up attack, but she blurted out in surprise.

“Damn it! Chain—”

“Too bad! You’re one step too late.”

The situation felt like some kind of farce comedy, as Nadia used my shields to shield herself, while thrusting Filo away with her harpoon. She then used it to hold Raphtalia off after parrying her strike.

Just how many fights had this woman been in?! I’d played my shield skill trump card to block her escape route, and she still dealt with the situation in a flash. Interference from the audience and our stats might have had something to do with it, too. But I had a feeling she was probably our most formidable opponent yet, when it came to pure skill.

“Ughhh . . . That was ouchieeee . . . But!”

Filo had smashed into my shield. Not to mention, she’d also been electrocuted by the lighting surrounding Nadia. But she pulled herself together and went to attack again. She was starting to look pretty beat-up.

“We’re not done! Chain Shield!”

I wasn’t going to just stand back and watch. But damn, I guess it was because of the artificial underwater environment. Nadia’s lightning was fanning out over a wide area now. It would have been one thing if we could nullify it, but apparently that wasn’t possible. So Nadia was hitting all of us with her attacks—with that formidable lightning! It was no problem for me, but that wasn’t the case for Raphtalia and Filo. Still, if I could just subdue this woman then Raphtalia and Filo could attack unilaterally!

“Got you!”

Chains now linked my shields, which then closed in on Nadia. I used the shields to bind her body tightly, restraining her movement.

“Oh, little Rock! You naughty boy, you!”

“Oh, shut it!”

Despite being restrained, Nadia pointed a hand at Filo and quickly cast a spell.

“Zweite Thunder Bolt!”

“Again, not happening! E Float Shield! Change Shield!”

Her attacks were still fanning out and proving to be a real pain in the ass, but I had to do what I could. I cast E Float Shield and willed it to move to where it could protect Filo. Then I used Change Shield to change it to Iron Shield, since that was a metallic shield that seemed like it would be conductive and thus absorb electrical-type attacks.

“Oh my!”

Nadia’s thunder bolt smashed into the shield, electrifying the shield but nothing else.

“Don’t forget about me!”

Raphtalia had backed off so that I could trap Nadia with Chain Shield, and now she lunged forward with her katana held high over her head.

“You’re lively as usual, aren’t you? But you’re still full of openings!”

“Huh? Ahh!”

Paying no attention to the restraints I had placed on her, Nadia grabbed her harpoon with her free arm and used it to trip Raphtalia. Raphtalia attempted to regain her balance, but Nadia used that momentum against her as well and gave Raphtalia a light shove. It knocked her onto her bottom right in front of my eyes. Damn it. This underwater stage was nothing but trouble for us.

“I guess that means you’re next, little Rock.”

Even worse, the Chain Shield time limit had been reached and the effect wore off. It was just me versus Nadia now.

“Give it your best shot!”

I may have been cursed, but my defense rating was still the same as usual. There was hardly any magical attack that would leave me with more than a scratch.

“Drifa Thunder Guard!”

Nadia called the crackling lightning down onto herself. It seemed to be counteroffensive magic that would protect the user. That would work well in a situation like this, but it would take a lot more than that to hurt me.

“Oh? Did you come prepared to deal with my attacks, then?”

“You could say that.”

It’s not like I’d devised a special countermeasure. I was just confident that I could withstand her attacks with my defense rating.

“By the way, little Rock, are you not going to raise a hand against me?”

Nadia seemed to be suspicious of the fact that I was fighting against her barehanded. Sorry, but I couldn’t use a weapon even if I wanted to.

I wasn’t sure if it was more support for Nadia, but I felt magic flowing around the arena. We had been artificially placed underwater, and now thunderclouds began to appear overhead. Seeing clouds, while underwater, was the kind of peculiar sight that you could only experience in another world.

Just how much support were they going to give Nadia?!

“Ughhh . . . I can feel the sparklieeesssss . . .”

Even worse, the electrical output of Nadia’s Thunder Guard was so high that Raphtalia and Filo couldn’t even attempt to attack. Even if I used Change Shield to switch my Float Shield to a shield that would give the electricity somewhere to go again, there was just so much lightning surrounding us that it wouldn’t even matter!

“Ugh . . . Even for little ol’ me, this is a bit . . . much . . .”

I looked over at Nadia. She was still smiling, but I could see a sense of urgency in her expression. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was taking damage from her own lightning or if Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks had taken their toll.

“You’re not making this easy, you know.”

Nadia stabbed at my back forcefully with her harpoon, but it simply made a loud thud and showed no sign of penetrating. The fact that she couldn’t use defense rating attacks, like the old Hengen Muso lady, was my only consolation. Otherwise, even I would have been in some serious trouble.

“Here I go!”

“Me toooo!”

It wasn’t like Raphtalia and Filo had just been hanging out doing nothing, while staring at the wall of lightning—they had been preparing to use skills. They couldn’t really get close, so they would need to use either a ranged magical attack or a skill.

“Wind Blade! Vacuum!”

Raphtalia took a quick-draw stance before unsheathing her katana and hurling a blade of wind at Nadia.

“Drifa Wind Shot!”

Filo seemed to have fired off a highly condensed ball of wind. They were up against a dense wall of lightning, after all. It was obvious they had put some thought into choosing their attacks. Raphtalia’s skill made a loud cracking sound as it smashed through the wall, and Filo’s magic followed right behind.

“Yeah! Nice work! Attack Support!”

A dart appeared in my left hand and I stabbed Nadia with it. The stabbing itself had basically no effect, but the effect of the Attack Support skill would increase the damage of the following attack twofold. Would she be able to withstand that?

“Oh?”

Nadia raised her harpoon high overhead as if to strike down the oncoming attack, but apparently casting two spells at once was too much even for her. Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks were nothing to make light of, either.

“I guess I have no choice, do I?”

Nadia took her harpoon and . . . broke it in half?! When she did, the power inside of it . . . some kind of magical power came flooding out. I felt an explosion of magic power originating from the harpoon.

I’d seen something like this in a game. There was an attack that had been some kind of finishing move and could only be used once because it required you to sacrifice your weapon. The trade-off for the power was that your weapon would be destroyed, and you could never use it again. To think a weapon like that existed in this world!

“That could be dangerous if you let it hit you in the wrong spot, just so you know.”

Nadia threw the broken harpoon at Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks, and it smashed right into them. In the same instant, a blinding light flashed and the harpoon exploded.

“Kyaaaahhh!”

“Ahhh!”

Raphtalia and Filo were thrown backward by the force of the explosion. A protective membrane that must have been some form of support magic appeared around Nadia, and the explosion blew right by her like a strong breeze. I was standing by her side, and it was the same for me.

This support from outside the match was a real pain in the ass! Damn them! All of their support had been going straight to Nadia for a while now, too!

“You sure are tough, woman!”

“You think so?”

“We’re not done!”

“Yup! Take thiiis!”

Raphtalia and Filo sprung forward out of the cloud of dust, ready to strike.

“Oh! I like your spunk!”

Nadia use the remaining half of the harpoon—the piece that had been broken off by the lightning magic—to intercept Raphtalia’s katana.

“Argh . . .”

Raphtalia struggled against Nadia’s harpoon while being electrocuted, and Filo used that as her chance to attack. Nadia twisted around in an attempt to dodge the attack, but Filo’s claws dug into her skin.

“Oh my . . . Impressive!”

Nadia’s harpoon had taken on the form of a lightning bolt. But she changed it for just an instant, which was long enough for her to swipe at Filo and send her flying away.

“Kyahhh! Awww . . . I almost had heeerrrr!”

“That leaves one more now, doesn’t it?”

Raphtalia was still struggling with Nadia, who then used the remaining half of the broken harpoon to . . . deliver a swift jab to Raphtalia’s chest. The way she pulled off these ridiculous attacks, so casually, made it seem like it was all some kind of big joke or something.

“Huh? Uhh . . . ?! Ahhhhhh!”

A small explosion sent Raphtalia flying right in front of my eyes, as if she had been hit by a grenade. But Raphtalia broke her fall skillfully and sprung to her feet with her katana held out in front of her.

“I guess expecting to finish you off with that would be overly optimistic, now wouldn’t it? I already used the bigger explosion earlier, unfortunately. Taking that one point-blank might have been dangerous, even for a girl like me.”

To top it all off, Nadia had the nerve to use my cloak, of all things, to shield herself from the force of the explosion.

“Ugh . . . You’re so strong . . .”

Seriously! For a single person to be this strong, surely they would have to be some kind of monster, right?

And then, finally, someone threw a couple of robes into the arena as support for Raphtalia and Filo.

“What is this? I see! Fi—Humming! Put this on! It will nullify the lightning!”

“Woooow! Neeeaaat!”

Raphtalia and Filo threw on the robes that had been tossed into the arena.

“Little Rock, you can’t just keep hanging all over me like this, you know? Don’t you think you should approach our relationship a bit more strategically?”

“Shut up! I don’t have time for that kind of thing!”

Luckily, she no longer had a weapon, as far as I could tell. This was a chance I wasn’t going to pass up.

“Aww, that’s too bad. In that case, I guess I’ll make the first move.”

Once again, Nadia seized the chance to begin casting magic while Raphtalia and Filo were busy putting on the robes. Damn! Was there nothing I could do to stop her? The woman never really made much of an attempt to attack me, but even if she had, my counterattacks were pretty limited.

The Demon Dragon Shield had a counterattack effect called “C demon bullet,” but it didn’t seem like it would have much of an effect on Nadia. I don’t know if it was because it was categorized as a counterattack, but her Thunder Guard didn’t trigger it at all. I guess being able to counterattack counterattacks would just make things too easy.

At last, it looked like Nadia had finally decided to focus her attacks on me, perhaps because I was restricting her movement. I was sure it would just be some ranged magic attack. In that case, I would just surround us with shields and have them all fire off counterattacks at once.

Nadia began brazenly chanting her incantation.

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

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Lightning! Paralyze those before me!”

“Drifa Paralyzing Thunder!”

Wha?! She had cast a status effect-type spell that wouldn’t register as aggressive! I had completely miscalculated her intentions! I’d changed my shields expecting to produce a counterattack, but they showed absolutely no response.

“Ugh . . .”

The powerful paralysis magic loosened my grip on Nadia slightly.

“Oh! Impressive! That would have paralyzed a normal opponent and rendered them completely immobile, you know.”

While she was talking, Nadia took advantage of the tiny opening I had shown to escape from my grasp and put some distance between us.

“I’ve had to grow tough to survive.”

Thankfully I had increased my resistance to status effects. I’d figured I would never know what to expect in the underground coliseum, but . . . man, this fight was tough. Regardless of any differences in our stats, this Nadia woman was a ridiculously capable fighter. If we hadn’t been affected by the curse, winning wouldn’t have been a problem, but it still would’ve taken more than just brute force, most likely. She wasn’t the type of opponent that you could beat with lower or even equal stats.

Even so, it didn’t make sense that we were having this hard a time. There had to be something else going on. It made me wonder if . . . maybe some kind of spell had been cast on us to lower our stats, and some kind of support had been given to Nadia to raise hers? Whenever I tried to check my status screen, something just felt off.

Should I just use the Shield of Wrath and incinerate everything in sight? The thought suddenly crossed my mind. But I wanted to avoid relying on that shield, even for reasons other than reduced stats. Luckily, Raphtalia and Filo could still fight. Not to mention, robes that would nullify the lightning had been thrown into the arena to help them out. If I could get hold of and restrain Nadia again, surely things would go better this time.

And just then, a second harpoon was tossed into the arena toward Nadia. Damn it! Did their support have to have such perfect timing?!

“It’s been a while since I faced an opponent that pushed me this far, you know. I guess it’s time for little ol’ me to . . . get serious.”

Nadia switched her stance to a shallow squat and the surrounding spectators burst into cheers. They were expecting something interesting to happen.

“There it is! Nadia has finally decided to take off the gloves and turn into her animal form! Everyone! Feast your eyes on Nadia’s no-holds-barred coommmbbaaaatttttt!”

Animal form?! If I remember correctly, therianthropes were basically demi-humans whose animal element was more prominent. Just recently, the slave trader had also told me that there were types of demi-humans that could change into their animal form at will. And their stats would skyrocket upon changing. In other words, all this time, Nadia hadn’t been fighting seriously. This was bad . . .

Magic power began gathering around Nadia, forming something that resembled fog and making it difficult to see her. A black silhouette was probably a good description. Along with a bubbling sound, Nadia’s body began to swell up. I considered trying to stop the transformation, but it was happening too fast. It probably would have been over by the time I got anywhere close to her.

Moments later, Nadia’s transformation was complete. Her new form featured a vivid contrast of white on black. Her face had become streamlined, and she had the kind of forked tail that would help a fish move around in the water. Although, it looked far more powerful than what a fish would need. Her skin was glossy—you might have mistaken it for rubber at first glance. She had a dorsal fin on her back that looked like a shark fin, but she didn’t look scary like a shark would.

Well, I had seen this kind of animal used in foreign horror films, but not nearly as often as they used sharks. On the contrary, it was usually an animal that ended up forging friendships with young boys or something like that.

“Huh?”

Raphtalia uttered something that made it clear she was dumbfounded, but this wasn’t the time for that. We needed to pay close attention and be ready to respond.

This animal was one of the more popular attractions at aquariums in Japan. Of course, since Nadia was a therianthrope, she had two arms and two legs, unlike the actual animal. Yeah . . . The animal I was familiar with that most resembled Nadia’s new form belonged to the infraorder Cetacea, parvorder Odontoceti, family Delphinidae, genus Orcinus . . . In other words, it was a killer whale.

I had seen a variety of different therianthropes since coming to this world, but this was my first transforming killer whale. She looked like a real heavyweight that wouldn’t be able to move very quickly . . . but I was sure that probably wasn’t the case. She was about the same size as Filo in her filolial form. To be blunt, she was huge.

“Alright then . . . Here I come!”

Considering how powerful she was and the fact that she used lightning, I was imagining a therianthrope that was part raiju, nue, or some other magical creature. Or maybe a dragon? A tiger or something could have fit the image, too. But she ended up being an aquatic therianthrope.

More important than that was the fact that she had been holding back until now. It was safe to assume that all of her stats had increased. That was evident from the way she was moving around the artificial underwater environment so effortlessly, with just a tiny wave of her tail. Yeah, I was sure we would regret it if we let her appearance fool us. She was probably building up speed to prepare an attack.

Her strategy initially appeared to depend primarily on magic, but perhaps that was because she didn’t use brute force, until she had changed into her animal form. It was probably pretty rare for her to transform, so attacking in this form was something she saved for times when her opponent had some kind of equipment that enabled them to deal with her magic.

“Umm . . . uhh . . .”

Raphtalia was just standing there in a daze, staring at Nadia as she swam around.

“Stop just standing there! You want to die?!”

This wasn’t an opponent that we could finish off in one blow, you know!

“Ra—Shigaraki! Let’s do this!”

I tried to get her on board, but Raphtalia was in a complete stupor and had let her guard down entirely for some reason.

“Big sis!”

Filo tried getting her attention, too, but it was useless.

“Here I come!”

Nadia readied her harpoon, accelerated even more, and shot straight at us to deliver her attack. I jumped out in front to protect Raphtalia and put out multiple shields in front of us. Just as I was about to cast Shooting Star Shield . . .

“Sadeena?”

Chapter Seventeen: Farce

Huh? Raphtalia . . . was talking to Nadia? Nadia was closing in at a ridiculous speed, but when Raphtalia spoke to her, she came to a sudden halt directly in front of us.

“Oh?”

The audience broke out into a commotion upon seeing Nadia stop.

Hold on . . . Sadeena was supposed to be the fisher from Raphtalia’s village, right? The incredibly strong fisher that was . . . a therianthrope . . . They’d said an aquatic therianthrope, right? All of the details were matching up! Did that mean Nadia was actually Sadeena?! No way, a coincidence that huge—

“It really is you, isn’t it, Sadeena? What are you doing here in a place like this?!”

Raphtalia loosened her equipment to reveal her ears and tail.

“Hmm . . . I’m surprised at how big you’ve gotten, but you must be little Raphtalia, right?”

“Yes, it’s me, Sadeena.”

A coincidence that huge . . . was possible, apparently. This was a good thing, right? One of Raphtalia’s fellow villagers was standing right here in front of our eyes, after all. Nadia, or rather Sadeena, stared at me hard for a moment and then cocked her head to the side, like she was trying to figure something out. Then she smiled cheerfully for some reason.

“This sure is a surprise, isn’t it? Do me a favor and pretend like we’re fighting so we can talk for a bit, will you?”

“Sure.”

“So why are you here fighting in this tournament?”

Sadeena changed her target and came after me with her harpoon, pretending like we were struggling with each other. Raphtalia and Filo rushed in swinging, as if to engage in close combat, and then acted like they had been parried and thrown back.

“We needed to get our hands on some money quickly so that we could purchase the village children. We’re currently rebuilding the territory where the village used to be.”

Raphtalia spoke quietly as she explained the situation to Sadeena. The way everyone was looking at us was really starting to bother me. Up until just a few moments ago it had been all-out warfare, and now we were just kind of poking back and forth at each other.

“I guess it would probably take a while to explain how that happened, wouldn’t it? You’ve really become something, little Raphtalia . . .”

She seemed to be getting sentimental . . . Everyone was watching us!

“Hurry up and make some more of that lightning from earlier. Raphtalia and Filo, you two do some kind of showy attack that looks like a finishing move. I’ll use some flashy skills, too.”

“Understood.”

“Okaaay!”

Sadeena cast one of her more impressive-looking lightning attacks over a wide area. It spread out all the way to the arena walls with a thundering roar. I did my best to look like I was struggling and put out my shields to protect against her all-show-and-no-go attack. Then we waited for Raphtalia and Filo to attack. The two of them fired off their own flashy skills back to back.

The truth was, it was all just being staged, using illusion magic. In the meantime, we continued our conversation.

“Why couldn’t you have fought in your animal form from the start?”

If she had used that form from the beginning, Raphtalia probably would have recognized her right away . . . Apparently Raphtalia didn’t know about Sadeena’s human form, either. If she had, we wouldn’t have ended up in a mess like this.

“Oh? Take a look at yourself, little Rock. I could ask you the same basic thing, you know? Using my human form is like wearing a disguise for me.”

I could understand what she was trying to say. We were wearing kabuto helmets and other equipment to conceal our faces. For Sadeena, her human form wasn’t her everyday form, in other words. I was tempted to make a snide remark about how that must have felt. I’d have to ask her about it later.

“Well, what should we do about this, then?”

I returned my thoughts to the problem at hand. If Sadeena wasn’t our enemy, that meant we should be able to settle this battle by talking things over.

“We have a ton of money bet on ourselves. You figure out a way to lose on purpose.”

“As much as I’d like to, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I need the money, too, and I’ve already used quite a bit of it, actually.”

“Alcohol?”

“Oh shush. I’ve been buying up the village children, with a little help from a merchant who has a thing for me.”

Sadeena explained the whole situation briefly and . . . Well, basically, the skyrocketing prices of the Lurolona slaves was partially her fault. Sadeena said she’d bought several of the villagers and was harboring them somewhere in Zeltoble. It was the shady merchant, the one working for her, who had originally offered the reward for the Lurolona slaves to help find them more quickly. But that backfired and ended up causing the prices of the Lurolona slaves to soar. And so, in order to scrape up the funds to purchase the overpriced slaves herself, Sadeena had enlisted the help of another shady weapons merchant to get her into the underground coliseum, among other things.

Why didn’t she search for the slaves in Melromarc and buy them there to begin with? Jeez . . . That’s what I wanted to say, anyway, but then I realized that the stigma of being a therianthrope would have made that difficult, prior to the Church of the Three Heroes being dismantled. In that case, it would have been quicker to place the order in Zeltoble, where it would be a lot easier to make money, too.

So according to Sadeena, her job at the tournament was to the make it to the finals and then throw the championship match. It had been decided that her opponent in that match would be a dark horse, and her loss would ensure a big win. Apparently she had gone into debt purchasing the slaves, too . . . So in all actuality, the Lurolona slaves that she was harboring were essentially hostages!

“What should we do then, I wonder. If we’re not careful, I could have a price placed on my head and the slaves could end up being sold off, you know?”

“What kind of debt are we talking about?”

Sadeena told me the total amount of debt she’d incurred. Damn . . . It was a lot. Still, it was about even with what we were set to win on the championship. If the people who had lent her the money could wait until we got the payout . . . things might just work out.

Sadeena must have figured out what I was thinking, because she put a good amount of distance between us and then nodded. Alright! In that case, it was time to put on a farce.

“Chain Shield!”

Chains extended out as the Chain Shield skill linked the shields that had been scattered across the arena, and they all started spinning. The shields restrained Sadeena immediately, making it look like she had left herself open. If Sadeena had been serious, I’m sure she would have broken the chains or just dodged.

“Shigaraki! Humming! Use your finishing move!”

I yelled at them as loud as I could. They must have understood, because they both nodded and began preparing, building up magic power. Sadeena started trying to break free of her restrictions but made it look like she was having a hard time. A large crashing noise rang out.

“Hahaha! Those are no ordinary chains, you know? You’re not going to get out of those unless I let you!”

I threw in some contrived commentary to buy time for Raphtalia and Filo to finish their preparations. The audience was brimming with climactic tension. We would keep going until they had reached maximum satisfaction with the performance. Sadeena was grinning. This wasn’t the time to smile! What if they realized what was going on?!

“You’re in for a big surprise if you think these restraints will work on a girl like me!”

“Muhahaha! Go ahead and struggle all you want!”

We threw in a bit of back and forth like that, and then, finally, Raphtalia and Filo finished preparing their magic. At the very same instant, Sadeena used brute force to break free from the chains that had been restricting her, tearing them to pieces. I responded with a shriek.

“Whaaat?!”

If this had been for real, I probably would have just clicked my tongue in annoyance. Even I had to admit, the whole performance was pretty lame. But the audience seemed to really be getting into it, and they erupted into loud cheers.

“But it’s already too late! Let’s do this!”

“Let’s!”

“Okaaay!”

A huge tornado appeared. Did Filo really understand the concept of putting on a performance? I was a bit worried at first, but she’d produced a cyclone so massive that none of the Zweite Tornado spells she had cast before even came close. At first glance, it appeared to be a super, powered-up version of the magic she had been using so far. Raphtalia fired off a fake skill to go along with Filo’s magic.

“Illusion Blade!”

Immediately after she shouted the name, countless katanas appeared and began swirling around with the tornado. The whole thing was headed toward Sadeena. The katanas hit her dead-on, almost as if they were being sucked in toward her.

“Uuugggghhhhhh!”

She was putting on a real performance over there. I escaped from the chains, but the katanas landed a direct hit! That’s what she was acting out. And that scream sounded like it hurt! I almost thought she might really be in pain, but I couldn’t imagine Raphtalia actually hurting one of her fellow villagers. The tornado and katana onslaught continued for twenty or thirty seconds and then . . . stopped.

“. . .”

Sadeena was just standing there with a well-performed look of shock on her face. Several moments later, she fell backward onto the floor with a loud thud. Apparently that’s not what the spectators were expecting to see, because the whole coliseum fell silent.

“There’s no way I can win this one. I give up!”

Pretending that she had exhausted both spirit and technique, and lacked the physical strength to continue on, Sadeena admitted her defeat.

Chapter Eighteen: Exhibition Match

After a short pause, the audience burst into cheers.

“We win.”

It had turned out to be a pretty blatant farce, but we still had a lot to do after this. First, we would have to go work something out with the merchant that Sadeena was working for. Otherwise, there was a good chance that Raphtalia’s fellow villagers might end up being sold off as compensation for Sadeena’s debt, before we even got our hands on the prize money.

Either way . . . the next fight was sure to be a throwaway match. I didn’t even want to consider the possibility that our opponent could be as strong as Sadeena.

“Sheesh . . . You sure surprised me with that one.”

Sadeena offered us her insincere felicitations. Then again, the plan had been for her to throw a match from the very start, so surely an upset like this wouldn’t be a problem. At least that’s what I thought, but apparently the people running the tournament weren’t happy with how things turned out. A messenger ran up to the announcer and passed him something, which the announcer then read out.

“Ahem . . . The organizing committee would like to express their heartfelt appreciation for the excitement shown by our guests today. Furthermore, they would now like to conduct a quick survey in an attempt to provide our guests with an even more enjoyable experience.”

Even the announcer had a suspicious look in his eyes while reading the message. I had a good idea what was going on, but there was no point in complaining. The spectators broke out into a commotion. They hadn’t called it a disqualification or anything like that, since the underground coliseum basically had no rules to start out with. But they could still take action under the guise of providing additional entertainment. That was my guess. They probably couldn’t do anything to us directly, due to the involvement of the slave trader and the accessory dealer. So they had decided to deal with us right here like this.

“The members of the tournament organizing committee will now be making an appearance.”

After the announcer finished speaking, up near the top of the coliseum, near the seating area reserved for distinguished guests, several pudgy merchants appeared. The one that looked vile enough to be their representative raised both of his arms into the air, as if waiting for applause.

“Members of the audience! We, the organizing committee of this tournament, come before you now in an attempt to provide you with an even more enjoyable experience today.”

He spoke slowly in a loud voice to ensure that everyone in the audience could hear him. The match was already over, so what was he planning on doing?

But actually, I’d felt this kind of atmosphere before. I could sense that something really bad for us was about to happen. The whole thing about the tournament champion having been decided from the start annoyed me to begin with, and now they were trying to mess with us on top of that. It reminded me of the shit I’d had to put up with from the Church of the Three Heroes and friends.

They hung up some kind of banner behind the distinguished guest seating.

“How would you all like to see our fighters here compete once more in an exhibition match?! What say you!”

“Whaaat?!”

I tried to express my disapproval. Raphtalia, Filo, and Sadeena obviously felt the same, but they had been left speechless with shock.

“Oh my . . .”

Damn! So they could just deal with an unexpected result by obstructing the contestants and making it look like part of the entertainment. In stark contrast to our expressions of disapproval, the audience clapped in excitement. This was bad. If we tried to refuse, they would just declare it a loss by default or something.

“And noooooowwww! Their opponent!”

The merchant snapped his fingers and three figures appeared at the fighters’ entrance of the arena. Huh? What was up with them? Was the way they were walking supposed to look . . . natural? Some weirdo dressed like a clown came walking out along with two masked, life-sized puppets . . . or whatever they were. They looked like mannequins that had been dressed up. I had no idea what they actually were because of the masks.

“Little Rock, this could get a liiiittle bit dangerous, just so you know.”

“Why is that?”

“That fighter has gotten popular lately for going around and wreaking havoc at all of the tournaments in this area. She’s incredibly strong. I was under the impression she wouldn’t be participating in this tournament, though . . .”

Had they brought someone in that wasn’t even participating? Maybe they bribed her? I seem to remember Rishia saying something about watching out for this one. Regardless, surely we should be able to win with someone as strong as Sadeena on our side, right?

“That’s right! It’s Murrrdeeerrrr Pierrot!!!”

So it was some messed up clown? Talk about a creepy ring name. Of course, whatever her name really was, that was just how it had been translated so that I would understand. An earsplitting roar of applause came from the audience.

“An exhibition match featuring Rock Valley’s Party and Nadia versus Murder Pierrot! The survey results will be tallied in three minutes! Bets will be accepted for ten minutes following the beginning of the match! What say you?!”

The spectators all began noisily talking it over with each other, but the way they were looking at us . . . Their eyes were filled with bloodthirsty curiosity. Well, there you go. I guess we could give up on the possibility of the survey results being in opposition of the match.

“Furthermore! All bets made on the Rock Valley’s Party versus Nadia match will be refunded immediately! Everyone! Why not use that extra cash to bet big now and perhaps win big?! So tell me, yay or nay?! Those in favor, raise your hand!”

More than half of the spectators in the venue raised their hand in response to the merchant. Bah . . . They played right into his hands.

“But seriously, how can they get away with pulling something like this off?!”

“Little Rock, take a good look at what’s written on the banner behind the merchants . . .”

“Why? What does it say?”

It was written in several different languages, but it took me a while to find the only one I knew, which was Melromarc’s written language.

“It says that, as a special exception, all bets placed on Nadia will remain in effect at the predetermined odds, should Murder Pierrot win. Anyone that originally bet on me will be in favor of the match, since that means they haven’t lost anything yet. Did anyone bet on you prior to the match, little Rock?”

Ugh . . . I wanted to win big, so I’d gone out of my way to make sure my bet was placed anonymously. Aside from us, the slave trader, and the accessory dealer, there may not have been anyone else.

“Hold on! Can they really do that?! Surely they can’t just decide on a rule that ridiculous, even if it is the underground coliseum!”

“That’s why they took a vote, and the vote ruled in favor of it.”

The organizers were rotten, but this audience was no better! They all just improvised to get whatever they wanted, no matter how ridiculous it might have been!

Then again, if I thought of it from a merchant’s point of view, I did kind of understand. The organizers had sent Sadeena in as an assassin, but she ended up being defeated unexpectedly. They would have to make up for that loss somehow. But relying on their authority to interfere with the opponent would be difficult. In that case, the only real option would be to force their play by winning the support of the audience.

The announcer was averting his gaze. He wouldn’t be able to make things any more disadvantageous for us than they already were now. If they went too far, the spectators would become suspicious. In all actuality, some of them already seemed to be confused by the survey. It was a heavy-handed move, and if they took it any further than this, their true intentions would be exposed. That meant that winning this match would essentially be the same as winning the championship!

“Alright! Might as well use this time to cast some healing magic.”

I figured we should treat our wounds and recover our strength as much as possible, before the match started. I tried to cast healing magic on Raphtalia and Filo.

“Zweite Heal!”

But . . . What was going on? I felt the healing magic dissipate without ever actually taking hold, just like when Sadeena had blocked our magic earlier.

“Little Rock, there’s something you need to know, so listen to me for a second.”

“What is it?”

“The organizers are completely blocking our magic here inside of the arena.”

“Does that mean it wasn’t you that blocked the support magic I tried to cast?”

“No, that was me. But this is different. Right now, there are dozens of magic users all working together to completely obstruct our magic. They’re casting counter-magic nonstop from several areas around the arena.”

Their efforts to sabotage us just kept getting more and more annoying . . . Whatever, if we couldn’t use magic then I’d just apply the healing medicine I’d brought. We had two minutes left before the match started. We would just have to do what we could in that time. Besides, I had seen how strong Sadeena was. If she was fighting with us, we should be able to win easily.

“Another thing, little Rock.”

“What now?”

“I’m guessing you probably suspected this while we were fighting, but the organizers had debuff magic being secretly cast on your team nonstop, during the match. On top of that, they were buffing me.”

“What the hell?!”

“In other words, now that the organizers consider me an enemy, you shouldn’t expect me to be as strong as I was earlier, okay?”

Damn it! Things just kept getting worse and worse! They went so far as to interfere with us healing our wounds, so we had to settle with the bare minimum of treatment. On top of that, the buff that had been applied to Sadeena had now been switched to a debuff.

If I made a big fuss in protest right now, would they listen? Most likely, they would just think I was making excuses and ignore me. It was the underground coliseum, after all. Maybe the very nature of the place made it a mistake to try and make a quick fortune there. I was starting to regret letting the competitive odds lure me into competing.

Plus, our opponent would be buffed. It was safe to assume that the purpose of this three-minute interval was to apply the buff. I had a feeling that my body felt even heavier now than it had earlier, too.

“You three were pretty impressive yourselves. I was pretty surprised during our fight, you know?”

“Yeah, but . . .”

I was one of the four holy heroes that protects the world from the waves. Normally, my strength was worlds apart from that of ordinary people. Damn it! If my stats hadn’t been reduced by that curse, then a little debuff magic wouldn’t have made a difference in the world!

Hold on . . . I’d gotten my hands on a shield in Kizuna’s world that would probably be useful at a time like this. It had come from the White Tiger materials. I was pretty sure it had a support nullification special effect. That could be useful right now if a debuff counted as support magic.

I started messing with my shield but then paused. I didn’t have enough materials on hand to power it up adequately. I tried using what I had and then checked the status screen. Hmm . . . It was really iffy. Since it was only partially powered up, it was far inferior to the Demon Dragon Shield, which was fully powered up. The difference was big enough that it would be a step down, even if I took the debuff into consideration.

“Ra—Shigaraki.”

“Yes?”

“Weapons made out of the White Tiger materials may be able to nullify debuffs.”

This time Raphtalia checked her status screen.

“My stats aren’t high enough to handle the katana anyway, but there’s no support nullification effect on the weapon.”

Oh well. We would just have to keep using the same weapons we had been.

“In any case . . .”

Sadeena glanced over at the spectators and organizers before swinging her harpoon around lightheartedly and then giving me a wink.

“I guess we’ll just have to do this, won’t we?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes. Let’s overcome this obstacle and get the villagers back!”

“They won’t beat meeee!”

Raphtalia and Filo agreed with us. Right around that time, the survey tally was completed, and it was officially decided that the exhibition match would be held.

Realistically, it would be impossible for us to use magic. We had powerful debuff magic being cast on us, and the enemy was buffed. What kind of bastards would make us to fight under such conditions?! I mean, I knew what kind of people they were already, but give me a break!

Should I order the slave trader and accessory dealer to crush them later? They could do that, right? If I exerted my influence as a hero as well, surely we could end them for good. Either way, I needed to focus on winning the fight right now. I’d just look like a whining loser if I tried to pick a fight with them after being defeated.

Something bothered me about how the organizer merchants turned around and left before the results of the survey had even been announced. We needed to finish the match quick. I was sure they were up to no good.

“And noooowww! Let the baaaaattle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

The gong sound echoed out, and our fight with this Murder Pierrot freak began. Right now, our top priority was to quickly finish off this . . . puppeteer? The clickety-clack of the two puppets out in front as they quickly came running our way was just creepy.

“Let’s do this! Aim for the one controlling them in the back!”

“Understood!”

“Here I go!”

Since we couldn’t use magic under the circumstances, Sadeena didn’t even try to cast any spells and just took off after Raphtalia and Filo while still in her animal form. She was fast . . . but yeah, not that fast. She tended to lag just one step behind Raphtalia and Filo at her current speed. Watching Raphtalia and Filo dash out into the front made it obvious to me that she’d had support magic cast on her earlier.

My job was to stop these two puppet things!

“Ha!”

I leapt out in front and blocked the attacks of the puppets, which were brandishing swords and axes. I could feel the heavy impact travel through the shield and into my body. Still, it hadn’t been enough to surpass my defenses.

“. . .”

“. . .”

The way they jerked around while making clickety-clack noises was seriously creepy. Murder Pierrot was holding a ball of thread and seemed to be using it to control the puppets.

“I harbor no ill will toward you, but I want to end this ludicrous match as quick as possible, so please don’t hold it against me!”

“We’re gonna win!”

“I’m sure it’s no fun to get stuck cleaning up after a girl like me, is it? But we have our reasons, so don’t hold it against us!”

Before I could even tell them to, Raphtalia, Filo, and Sadeena all brandished their weapons and rushed in to attack. Our opponent was supposed to be strong, but . . . surely they weren’t strong enough to handle all of us. We’d gotten here by overcoming every obstacle that had been put in our way, no matter how great! Losing was not an option!

“Spider Net . . .”

“Wha—”

“Huuuh?”

“Oh?”

The three of them had tried to attack, but their weapons came to an unnatural halt right in front of Murder Pierrot. Huh? What was going on?!

“Something’s . . . stuck to my weapon . . . Thread?!”

“It’s stuuuuck!”

“Looks like things might get sticky, doesn’t it?”

The thread that their weapons had gotten tangled up in suddenly came into view, as it wrapped around the weapons tightly. And then, as if it were alive, thread after thread shot forth and began wrapping around their bodies, as well.

Was it an immobilization attack? Was there seriously an attack that worked like a spider web?! We must have been dealing with some kind of therianthrope or something that had insect-like characteristics. Or maybe it was actually a monster that was using a human form like Filo did.

Murder Pierrot held the ball of thread out.

“Bind Wire”

Thread shot out of the puppets that I was holding on to with a hissing sound and came straight for me.

“Damn it! Let go!”

I yanked at the thread forcefully as it tried to wrap around me, and it gave easily . . . but it wouldn’t break! I could have just written it off as being futile, since I wasn’t able to attack by nature. But regardless of that, this elasticity was just unreal. What in the world was this?!

“Ugh! This thread!”

“Ewww!”

“Little Ra—Shigaraki! Little Humming! Let go of your weapons!”

Filo and Sadeena each let go of their weapons, but Raphtalia was holding a vassal weapon that she couldn’t let go of if she wanted to.

“Little Shigaraki!”

“I know! But . . . Take this! Instant Blade! Mist!”

Raphtalia tried to force a skill to cut the thread, but it just resulted in sparks flying. No way! Just what kind of material was this stuff made out of to be able to take one of Raphtalia’s skills and still not break?! Or was that it? Could we not cut it because the gap between our stats had been made so massive that this was all futile? If that was the case, I might just have to incinerate everything with the Shield of Wrath.

Using brute force, I overpowered the thread that was binding me down and placed my hand on my shield.

 Due to interference, the shield may not be changed.

A message appeared in my field of vision. Huh?

“I won’t let you.”

Thread after thread wrapped around my shield. You couldn’t even tell whether it was a shield or just a big jumble of thread anymore.

“Change Seal Wire”

“Damn it . . . What the hell . . .”

I knew that our opponent was supposed to be crazy strong, but even so, something about this just wasn’t right! I couldn’t imagine attacks like this coming from anyone other than a hero!

“Fire Paralysis Wire”

The thread in the area surrounding me burst into flames and started reaching out for me. Damn it! The heat didn’t bother me, but the enemy was clearly trying to eliminate me, the leader of our team!

“Mr. Na—Mr. Rock!”

“Hurry up and put your katana away! Use your other weapon!”

“Un . . . understood!”

I needed to put some distance between us quick, while I could still move! That said . . . How could I do that? That’s it! I’d repel them with Shooting Star Shield!

“Shooting Star—”

“Skill Seal”

The thread wrapped around my throat. It wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. But . . .

“Wh . . . what?!”

I was trying to cast the skill, but for whatever reason I couldn’t say the name of the skill!

“What the hell is going on?!”

This made no sense! This Murder Pierrot freak was blocking my skills! Not even magic could explain that! The fact that she was using status effects on me, despite my resistance to them, must have meant . . . there was a good possibility that they were trap-type attacks. It depended on the game, but sometimes traps could apply status effects regardless of resistances. I couldn’t deny that such a thing might exist, and in all actuality, I must have been experiencing it right now.

“Take thiiiis!”

Filo ducked under the thread and rushed at Murder Pierrot to attack barehanded. I don’t know if it was underestimating Filo because she was barehanded, or just being focused on me and Raphtalia, but Murder Pierrot threw up a web of thread, in what appeared to be a really half-assed attempt to guard against Filo’s attack.

“How about thiiis!!”

Filo transformed into her filolial form with a loud boom and leapt high up and over the thread, kicking it as hard as she could. Murder Pierrot seemed surprised, turning to Filo and scattering several threads in her direction instantly.

“I’m not done!”

Murder Pierrot must have gotten careless after seeing how bulky Filo was in her filolial form, because the thread she’d scattered wasn’t dense at all. Regardless of the magic interference, Filo changed to her human form, went into the accelerated state that she had learned from Fitoria, and squeezed between the threads. The instant of the attack, she switched back to her filolial form and delivered a swift kick.

“Ugh!”

Murder Pierrot took the full brunt of Filo’s attack and was sent flying. But as if to dampen the force of the impact, the thread spread out and wrapped around Murder Pierrot. It formed a cocoon for an instant and then unraveled before Murder Pierrot landed on the ground, unscathed. The unraveled thread wrapped up into something like a cocoon and rolled off to the side of the arena.

“We’re not finished!”

Raphtalia brandished her katana and prepared to deliver a follow-up attack.

“Spirit Blade! Soul Slice!”

“Useless . . .”

“Oh really?”

Raphtalia’s katana passed right through the thread and cut into Murder Pierrot.

“—!?”

Murder Pierrot seemed to be saying something, but all I could hear was static. Why? What was that noise? Regardless, we had to keep going. Raphtalia had a katana that could be used to attack nonphysical entities, immaterial opponents like ghosts.

“Okay then . . . Next is . . .” continued Raphtalia.

“Mind Line”

Thread shot out rapidly, as if to protect against Raphtalia’s next attack. The new thread wrapped around the katana that had passed through the previous thread.

“I’m still here, toooo!”

Filo followed up and tried to deliver another kick, but thread shot out across the whole area . . . Wait! Those puppets that I thought were near me had now suddenly appeared in front of Filo. Damn! I could barely even move!

“Next——y turn. Needle Shot!”

Now there were needles coming out of the ball of thread?! The needles had thread attached to them. All of these attacks made me feel like I was watching an instructional video about sewing!

“Little Rock! You okay?!”

Sadeena came over to where I was to check on me. If we had no weapons and couldn’t use magic, we would have no way to fight . . . Was that it?

But wait, what happened to assistance being bought and weapons being thrown in to participants when the fight is too one-sided?! As the thought crossed my mind, I looked up and noticed that the thread had carefully intercepted all of the weapons that had been thrown in. The arena had turned into a mess of spider web and the weapons couldn’t make it down to us.

As for magical support, I couldn’t say definitively what was going on from here, but it was safe to assume that the organizers were blocking any attempts at that.

Damn it . . . If things kept going like this, Raphtalia and Filo could end up in trouble. I was being pulled by the thread, too. It was stuck to my limbs and was trying to force me to walk. Judging from the direction, it seemed like Murder Pierrot was trying to use me as a shield against Raphtalia’s attacks.

I’d thought that Sadeena was about as formidable as they came, but I guess there’s always going to be someone stronger. Then again, that’s just how it felt to me now, and this might not have been a problem for us if we could use magic and didn’t have the debuffs or curse effects.

“Big sis! Mmhem . . . Mmhem . . .”

Filo returned to her human form and took a few big steps back before clearing her throat several times. Then . . . for whatever reason, she began to sing.

“Why are you singing at a time like this?!”

I yelled at Filo. She looked at me and started signaling something to me with her hands. Umm . . . Judging from the hairdo and the way she posed with the imaginary weapon . . . Kizuna? And she was singing, so . . . Was it the ability she had gained in Kizuna’s world? I knew she could do that when she had been a Humming Fairy, but did that mean she could do it in this world, too?! Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure she had been saying something or other about lullabies earlier!

There was a pounding sound and the thread surrounding Filo began to shake. Moments later, the thread caught fire and quickly returned to the reel that Murder Pierrot was holding. I knew it! The thread must have been weak to magic-based attacks.

“Fire Sooong!”

I was pretty sure it was just Filo singing, but the song was echoing throughout the area. So it wasn’t magic, then? In that case, they wouldn’t be able to block it. After that, Filo took a deep breath, changed into her filolial form, and then held her wings up to her mouth like a megaphone and screamed.

“Air Block Voice!”

There was a loud boom, and then I saw something like a shock wave shoot out of Filo’s mouth and toward Murder Pierrot. She had some pretty ridiculous secret moves. Why hadn’t she used that on Kyo, for crying out loud?! Then again, I guess just using magic like normal might have been more effective.

“Thank you, Humming!”

Raphtalia was making her other katana appear and disappear as needed, while she slipped through Murder Pierrot’s obstacles, in what appeared to be a graceful dance, and then closed in to attack. We were overwhelming the opponent . . . but how long would that last?

Ugh . . . The weight of the debuff magic had become noticeably heavier. Raphtalia and Filo were moving more sluggishly now, too.

“Little Rock.”

Sadeena had been bound just like Filo, but she transformed to break free and came over to me. This thread I was wrapped up in had turned into a real flame war, but Sadeena reached out and touched me.

“What’s up?”

“It’s not that I forgot to mention this, but there is a way to use magic in a situation like this, you know?”

“Huh? How is that?”

“Have you not studied magic?”

I thought back to when I had been studying magic while we were peddling. Counter-magic was something that could only be used on an individual opponent, but it was possible for multiple people to cast counter-magic. But what if multiple people were performing a single incantation? Aha, so if it were several people casting cooperative magic, then it might just work. I remembered seeing Filo do it several times before.

Sadeena brought her mouth next to my ear and quietly explained.

“So you and I can work together to cast cooperative magic, little Rock.”

“But they’ll notice us chanting the incantation and just interfere, won’t they?”

“Leave that part up to me, darling. I won’t fail.”

Sadeena winked at me and started focusing on the incantation.

“You focus, too, little Rock. I’ll help you out. We’re going to cast support magic.”

Fine, whatever. I started to focus. I felt a flow of magic power coming from Sadeena . . . Strange. It was like the flow of power that I felt when casting magic with Ost . . . but something was different. I closed my eyes, and in my field of view, something that looked like a square block appeared. Next to it was a sculpture of some random shape? No, that wasn’t it. It was a puzzle piece. What was going on?

“Is this your first time casting cooperative magic? Basically, we form the magic power into predetermined shapes.”

Damn it. What she was asking me to do wasn’t easy.

“Power of two, lend your strength to support them! Re-spin the threads of fate and turn their defeat into a victory!”

I could feel Sadeena rapidly forming the pieces of the puzzle and converting each one into the language of magic.

“Here, let me see that, little Rock. I’ll help you with it.”

She started working on forming the block that I had been trying to shape. Although, it wasn’t going as smoothly as hers, since it was a section that would normally be up to me to complete. Still, what was this feeling? Something about what Sadeena was doing felt really similar to what Ost had done. When I thought about that aura, a blurry image of one of the pieces Ost had shown me came into sight for a split second.

“If you don’t stop getting distracted and finish this soon, little Raphtalia will be in trouble, you know?”

Raphtalia and Filo were still putting up a good fight, but it was probably only a matter of time before that changed. I could see Murder Pierrot reeling in the weapons that had been thrown at us and trying to swing them around with the thread. Right now, I needed to focus on this magic, and after that we’d just have to figure out a way to overcome this opponent, even if by brute force.

“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Give us the power to overcome the obstacles before us!”

Sadeena completed the cooperative magic and raised her left hand into the air. Dark clouds began to form above us, and the sound of thunder echoed throughout the arena.

“Oh? So this is the magic we ended up with, is it?”

“Descent of the Thunder God!”

Without even trying, the name of the spell came out of my mouth at the same time Sadeena shouted it. A target icon appeared in my field of vision.

“Little Rock, I’m sure you know who we should target with the magic, right?”

“Yeah . . .”

Without hesitating, I chose Raphtalia. Sadeena must have agreed, because she pointed her finger at Raphtalia. The thunderclouds moved over to the air above Raphtalia and lightning came crashing down.

“Ahh!”

Raphtalia shouted out in surprise.

“Now . . .”

She had left herself open, and Murder Pierrot’s thread shot out toward her. But the thread bounced off, unable to wrap around her. And that wasn’t all.

“Ugh!”

With a loud crackle, Murder Pierrot received a strong electrical shock and reeled back slightly.

“What . . . is this?”

Raphtalia was standing there with a shocked look on her face. I couldn’t blame her—I felt the same. Raphtalia’s whole body was surging with electricity, after all.

“My stats have all skyrocketed!”

“Little Ra—Shigaraki! That’s our powerful cooperative support magic, darling! Don’t waste it!”

“Un . . . understood!”

“I won’t lose.”

Not to be outdone, Murder Pierrot shot out a barrage of threaded needles, but Raphtalia repelled every one of them and closed in on Murder Pierrot at a speed that made her earlier sluggishness seem like nothing but a bad dream.

“I can withstand any attack!”

Murder Pierrot shot a web out of her ball of thread and tried to put some distance between them.

“We’ll see about that! Brave Blade! Mist!”

Raphtalia was dual wielding now. She faced Murder Pierrot and fired off her skill. Raphtalia’s blades followed a cross-shaped trajectory that cut right through the web of thread and into Murder Pierrot.

“Ahhhh!”

As if to follow up her attack, lightning shot from the blades into Murder Pierrot, who was sent flying. Still not ready to give up, Murder Pierrot broke the fall and sprang back up, ready to fight.

“You can’t beat ussss!”

Filo took a deep breath and fired off another Air Block Voice.

“Ughhhh . . .”

It hadn’t seemed that powerful this time, but apparently it was still more than enough to create a shock wave that did some damage to our opponent.

“Now to finish this! Combo Skill! Blade of the Thunder Emperor!”

Raphtalia swung one of her katanas down hard. When she did, the blade was enveloped in bluish-white lightning that radiated outward brightly, and a rain of thunderbolts fell on Murder Pierrot.

“Gaahhh!”

The violent impact shook the whole arena with a loud boom, leaving a large crater in the floor. It was almost as if the ceremonial magic spell Judgement had rained down from the sky. The only thing left standing inside of the crater was Raphtalia.

We won . . . I think? It sure seemed like we had won, but Murder Pierrot’s thread was still wrapped around me tightly. Raphtalia shook the blood from her blade and went to check to make sure that Murder Pierrot was incapacitated.

“. . . ?”

Raphtalia looked closely at her katana and then used the sheath to roll the fallen Murder Pierrot’s body over.

“This is . . .”

She poked at Murder Pierrot’s torso lightly with her sheath, and it made a hollow sound. It sounded just like . . . wood? And then the ball of thread that Murder Pierrot had been holding started to roll along the floor. That’s right. It went rolling off toward a pile of weapons that had been wound up in thread and tossed aside into a corner of the arena. I had a really bad feeling about this.

“Scape-Doll”

A pair of scissors appeared and cut open the cocoon of thread that had wrapped around the pile of weapons, and something came crawling out.

“I’m guessing that buff is——?”

A second Murder Pierrot was standing there right before us. Raphtalia raised her katana and readied herself.

“That won’t be enough to———me. You’re simply not strong enough.”

“Huh?”

Murder Pierrot spoke so softly that I could hardly hear what was being said!

“You have to———no one can stand up to you. Otherwise, you’ll be destroyed by other———. You shouldn’t be struggling against someone like me.”

What was this clown going on about?

“I’ve fought enough to earn my pay. Truthfully———fight———th. Eventually——ssshhsssaa . . .”

Was it just me or was I hearing static again? I kept hearing crackling and hissing noises when this clown was talking to us.

“You have to work harder, or you’ll die.”

I heard Murder Pierrot clearly that time. And then, after waving to me, there was a small explosion and Murder Pierrot disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of smoke.

So . . . a ninja? It was pretty much exactly how you would expect a ninja to disappear. At the same time, the thread that had been strewn out all over the arena disappeared, too, along with the puppets that Filo had been fighting.

“What the hell was that?!”

Not only did I have no idea who she had been, but the way she talked made it sound like she had been testing us. And then she just up and disappeared.

“Murder Pierrot has vanished! We have a winner! Rock Valley’s Party and Nadiaaaaaaa!”

What started out as just a few spectators clapping here and there quickly turned into a roar of cheers and applause. I guess they didn’t actually care which side won in the end.

“We did it, little Rock.”

“We won!”

“Filo wiiiins!”

“You mean Humming!”

I scolded Filo and all she had to say was “whoops!” Jeez . . . It was just in one ear and out the other with that bird!

“But . . . what was that? That Murder Pierrot freak . . . When did she even switch places in the first place?”

“When the cocoon was formed, I’m guessing. Something about it just didn’t feel right, you know?”

“But she hid it super-duper good, right! Soooo, it wasn’t magic, then?”

I had a feeling Sadeena and Filo were right. As far as I could tell, continuing the fight shouldn’t have been a problem, but it was as if our opponent had achieved what she came for and just left. And that was after telling us we needed to get stronger . . .

I wasn’t sure if Murder Pierrot was supposed to be our enemy or an ally. But no . . . Ally wasn’t right. This was just a hunch, but there was something eerie about it all. It felt similar to when I first encountered Glass. I’d have to ask about that weird weapon next time we met.

But right now, we had to prioritize Raphtalia’s fellow villagers. We waved as if to announce our victory and then quickly headed back to the contestants’ waiting room.

Chapter Nineteen: Big Shots of the Underground

We asked the slave trader’s assistant to retrieve our fight purse for us and dashed out behind Sadeena into the streets of the Zeltoble markets. After all, Sadeena had gone and done something completely different than what she had been asked to do by the crooked merchant.

It was easy to imagine what I would have done if I had been the merchant. I would confiscate the skyrocketing authentic Lurolona slaves and call it compensation. Then again, that may have been the plan from the very start. It would be a huge headache if that actually happened, which is why we were running in such a hurry like this.

“That debuff magic was quite powerful, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was.”

After leaving the arena, my body felt light as a feather . . . so light that I almost flipped over at first.

“Little Rock, this way.”

We went in the direction that Sadeena was pointing toward. Finally, we arrived at a building in a residential quarter of Zeltoble that had a bunch of hostile-looking thugs standing guard outside. It looked just like the kind of stone-built house that a merchant would prepare. Something about it resembled Kizuna’s house. In front of the house, there were several carriages lined up that looked like the kind they used to escort prisoners. It looked like my guess turned out to be right on the mark.

“We’re currently in the process of collecting a debt inside of this building. Anyone not involved is unwelcome here!”

A group of mercenary types that were probably hired as protection were standing in front of the door to the house.

“Sorry, but we are involved, boys.”

Sadeena began casting a spell and the mercenaries realized who we were.

“It looks like that bunch showed up just like they said they would!”

“I’m afraid we can’t let you pass, lady. Be a good girl and come with us. Accept your punishment for going against the boss’ wishes!”

And then, from out of who knows where, a whole bunch of mercenaries and whatnot, around forty men in total, appeared from all around and rushed at us to attack. It looked like they were nice enough to bring a few magic users, too.

If they thought they could overpower us with numbers, they were in for a real surprise. Had they even considered who their enemy was? Even if they thought they could bombard us with debuffs, this wasn’t the arena. There was no way that Raphtalia and Filo were going to lose to a bunch of riffraff in a place that hadn’t been rigged up beforehand.

“Here I goooo! Jingle-jaaangle!”

“Ugh . . . Uwaaaahhh!!”

Filo changed into her filolial form, attached the morning star to her leg, and began swinging it around, mowing down the mercenaries.

“You’re in our way!”

“Gahhh!”

Raphtalia began cutting them down with her katana.

“Too bad, boys! Drifa Chain Lightning!”

Sadeena cast lightning magic that jumped from one enemy to the next, electrocuting the mercenaries as it went. They obviously didn’t bring enough magic users to interfere with our spells. And then, as if to add the finishing touch, Sadeena thrust her harpoon into the gut of one of the mercenaries as hard as she could. She sent him flying into the other few still standing, knocking them over like bowling pins.

And just like that, the whole lot outside of the building were put to rest.

“Heh. In an area this cramped, they wouldn’t stand a chance no matter how many they brought.”

There were also some archers or something attacking us from a distance, but I had cast Shooting Star Shield and the arrows were just bouncing off without ever getting near us.

“Sadeena, are the villagers’ slave curses not registered to the merchant, then?”

“Don’t worry, I paid to have the slave curses removed, and I told them ahead of time to run away if anything happened.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that they already ran away from here?”

Sadeena glanced over at the building when I asked.

“Hmm?”

Filo had her head cocked to the side for some reason.

“Umm . . . The new big sis just made some kind of noise.”

“Oh? I’m surprised you noticed. I was just checking to see how many people were in the building.”

Sonar? That must have been it. I’d heard that dolphins, whales, and killer whales could use sonar to locate objects in the ocean. I guess she had some kind of ability like that since she was a therianthrope. That sure must have been convenient.

“It’s okay. It looks like they got surrounded before they could run and are holed up inside.”

“And what part of that is okay? Oh, whatever . . . Let’s do this! Raphtalia!”

“Okay!”

The door had been locked from the outside to keep them from getting away. So Raphtalia cut the door down and stepped inside. I followed after her, and we made quick work of several thugs that were trying to capture the villagers.

“Gahhh!”

Behind them was the merchant that announced the exhibition match at the arena earlier. To think that he would go out of his way to show up at a place like this . . . That worked out just perfectly for us.

“Ugh . . . Nadia! You have a lot of nerve breaking your contract!” he screamed.

“What can a girl do? I got stuck with the wrong opponent. It’s not like I didn’t try, you know? Besides, this is something little Rock and I decided on together.”

“And that’s my cue. Thanks a lot for earlier. I’m not going to complain about that, since the match was decided by a vote, and you can never know what to expect at the underground coliseum. But this business here is different.”

“The hell it is! Thanks to your little crew showing up, my profits are nonexistent! That’s why I’m going to confiscate the precious cash cow of that contract-violating . . . woman that doesn’t even bat an eyelash when her slave curse is activated!”

He seemed to realize that this wasn’t his lucky day. The crooked merchant actually tried to explain his actions, all while glaring at Sadeena, obviously infuriated. What was all that about not batting an eyelash at a slave curse, anyways? I looked over at Sadeena and she pointed at her chest.

“Boobies!”

“Shut up! Just show me!”

I removed the sarashi cloth that she had wrapped around her chest, and sure enough, there was a slave curse right there, fully activated and shining bright as the sun.

“That’s what you get for being stingy and using a cheap slave curse. A little thing like this isn’t going to do diddly to a girl like me, you know?”

Filo had deactivated her own monster seal once, now that I thought about it. Maybe these kinds of things weren’t as effective when the recipient was really good with magic?

“You should be writhing in pain with each step! How the hell are you able to stand there looking so smug?!”

“Obviously because it doesn’t hurt that bad, right?”

Huh? Did that mean it wasn’t actually fully disabled? Ahh, now that I thought about it, Filo’s monster seal never actually activated. But Sadeena’s slave curse was activated and running nonstop. So she was mitigating the effect, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt . . . She sure was something.

“You fools will regret this! Do you really think you’ll get out of this alive?! I won’t allow it! Even if you make it out of here, you’ll have the underground guild on your tail no matter where you run!”

“Weapons merchant . . . I’m afraid that won’t happen.”

Just then a voice came from behind us. I turned my head to look, and standing there were the accessory dealer and the slave trader. Rishia had come with them and seemed to be trembling a bit. Raph-chan was there, too.

“I was really nervous watching your match!”

“Rafu!”

“I bet you were. Honestly, the combat aspect of it might have been more of a hassle than when we faced Kyo.”

Sadeena did things like nullify magic and dodge skills and was a complete monster when it came to her sense of combat. I had plenty of questions for that Murder Pierrot clown, too, but . . . whatever.

“You . . . you’re the accessory—” exclaimed the crooked merchant.

“We thought our presence might be required, so here we are. Yes sir.”

The crooked merchant seemed to be genuinely shocked. He was pointing at the accessory dealer with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

“Why?! Why are you here?! Still, that doesn’t matter! There’s no way that Zeltoble’s underground merchant guild will allow this!”

“No, I’m afraid he’s not someone the merchant guild can lay a hand on. If you had actually watched the fight at the coliseum earlier, weapons merchant, I’m sure you would have realized that.”

He’d just shown up when something unexpected happened and improvised without having actually checked the situation himself and then ran off to confiscate the slaves.

“I represent my family when I say that we feel the recent issue at the underground coliseum was trivial, and we declare our opposition to the penalization of Rock Valley’s Party. Yes sir.”

“The accessory guild that I oversee declares its opposition, as well.”

“What? Why?!”

“Because while you were working behind the scenes to decide who would win the competition, we were working behind the scenes as well. Yes sir.”

“What are you implying?!”

“Let’s see . . . First, you make a nice profit off of the tournament . . . and then you take the brats that Nadia was harboring and throw them into the auctions at the peak of the price bubble to make a nice profit there, too. Does that sound about right? After figuring out a way to kill off Nadia, of course.”

“Sounds just about right to me. That’s why I was being extra careful, you know. That’s also why I used my underground connections to have the children’s slave curses removed,” Nadia chimed in.

Seriously? I could never quite understand what this woman was thinking. If she already knew what was going to happen, why hadn’t she tried a little bit harder to do something about it?!

“Now then, let’s talk business. Umm . . . weapons merchant, is it? We’re going to win the tournament after winning tomorrow’s match. The money that we’ll get from that is pretty much equal to Nadia’s debt. I’m going to use that money to buy Nadia’s freedom, so the Lurolona slaves that you and Nadia were holding on to become mine.”

“Hell no! Why would anyone give up a cash cow like that?! Do you have any idea how much those slaves are trading for right now?!”

Meh. I was fully aware that he wasn’t going to agree to my terms, of course.

“How the hell did you get those two on your side, anyways?!”

Oh yeah . . . I hadn’t introduced myself, now that I thought about it. I guess it would be difficult to figure out who I was, considering the company the slave trader kept, and the shenanigans of the accessory dealer, after all.

“Everyone at the coliseum has already figured out who Rock Valley’s Party really is, you know? Whether they’re the real thing or not is another thing, of course.”

“Well, he might have heard and just laughed it off, figuring we were just imposters, so I’ll go ahead and tell him.”

I glared down at the crooked merchant with contempt in my eyes and jutted my thumb out in my own direction to accent my haughty self-introduction.

“I’m Naofumi Iwatani. I was summoned to this world as one of the four holy heroes—the Shield Hero. I entered your coliseum tournament for the express purpose of getting back the ridiculously overpriced Lurolona slaves.”

“I really would have rather you not introduced yourself. You’re going to hurt your reputation.”

Raphtalia was over there moaning.

“Reputation? Who cares about that? I didn’t have the luxury of being able to choose my methods if I wanted to get the overpriced Lurolona slaves back quickly.”

“What?! Hogwash!”

The crooked merchant blurted out in response, as if I had said something unbelievable. So what? A self-introduction wasn’t proof enough? What a hassle.

“If you think I’m lying, then how about I prove it for you? How about these? Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Chain Shield! Shield Prison!”

I continued to change my shield repeatedly while showing off my skills.

“Surely you’re not going to try to say I’m faking it with magic, since I haven’t made a single incantation.”

“In that case, allow me to provide irrefutable evidence. Yes sir.”

The slave trader passed me a cluster of rucolu fruits. I guess I was supposed to eat one? I plucked one of the fruits off, dangled it in front of the crooked merchant’s nose to show him that it was the real thing, and then gobbled it up.

“Oh my!”

For whatever reason, Sadeena placed a hand on her cheek with a dreamy look in her eyes.

“Do you still not believe me?”

“I can’t . . . ugh . . .”

The crooked merchant hung his head in despair and flopped down onto the floor. Apparently, eating rucolu fruit, as if it were nothing, had become indisputable proof of identification as the Shield Hero. Then again, the method had still only really caught on in and around Melromarc and among a select group of merchants. There would be people that hadn’t heard the rumors, but this merchant didn’t seem to be one of them.

“So there you are. You ready to give up, now? Oh, and don’t think that I’ve forgotten about your little stunt with the forced exhibition match, either.”

“Wh . . . what do you want from me?!”

“Hmm, let’s see . . . There may still be Lurolona villagers out there, so you’ll notify me if you happen to come across any authentic ones. Whether it’s installments or whatever, I’ll pay for them. That said, I expect you to hurry up and crush this bubble and get the prices back to where they should be.”

It was almost certain that this crook had exploited Sadeena’s request and intentionally pushed the prices of the village slaves up. In that case, if we took care of the ringleader, then the skyrocketing prices should settle back down, too. The phenomenon may have already gained some momentum of its own, but we had an all-star cast of underground merchants right here. Surely it wasn’t something they couldn’t handle.

“For example, you could use what happened here to go spread rumors about the Shield Hero sending assassins after people with Lurolona slaves.”

There were plenty of witnesses. I was sure the rumors would spread like wildfire.

“If you surrender and play nicely like those two merchants over there, you won’t regret it. So what do you say?”

“Fine . . . I surrender . . .”

And so, finally, the curtain fell on the underground coliseum incident. Of course, it goes without saying that the following day’s fight was essentially a throwaway match, and we ended it as soon as it started.

Epilogue: Come-On

There was a total of fifteen slaves that Sadeena had been harboring. It was questionable whether we would have been able to buy that many with the prize money from the coliseum. The Lurolona slave that Raphtalia had spotted at the slave auction turned out to be among them, too, by the way. The way they told it, Sadeena had been sending one of the Lurolona slaves to the auctions, with the merchant, to buy up the other villagers. You would have to be confident about being able to identify them for that plan to work, of course. Sadeena broke off her contract, too, and was happy to be free once again.

“Alright then. Did you finish talking to them, Raphtalia?”

“Yes. They all believed me. I also told them about your territory and how we’re right in the middle of rebuilding the village there.”

“Good, good. I guess all that’s left is asking whether they want to become my slaves or not.”

“About that . . . Would you mind waiting until we take them back to the village for that?”

Hmm . . . I guess she figured that Keel and the other slaves would serve as an example, and seeing them would make the new slaves decide they wanted to become stronger of their own accord. Raphtalia was pretty clever, after all.

“That’s fine. Alright then, just ask them to join our party for now. I’ll send them back to the village with my portal skill as it refreshes.”

Under the guidance of Sadeena and Raphtalia, the fifteen slaves spent their time enjoying each other’s company as I went about returning them to their home village with my portal skill. Experiencing the portal for the first time was quite a shock, but that soon wore off.

“How about we head back for now, too? I’m exhausted, to tell the truth.”

“Agreed.”

We used the portal to return to the village, and when we got back, all the original villagers—including Sadeena—seemed to be busy rekindling old friendships. Filo had gone to the neighboring town to tell Melty all about our heroic exploits in Zeltoble. I just hoped she didn’t go blabbering about things best left unsaid.

“So, little Rock, I guess your real name is little Naofumi, then?”

“I see you’re sticking with the ‘little.’”

Like always, Sadeena was overly familiar with me and talked to me like I was a child.

“So, little Naofumi, tell me . . . How far have you gone with little Raphtalia?”

“Gone?”

“Sadeena!”

What was “gone” supposed to mean there? Raphtalia didn’t like obscene jokes or topics related to that kind of stuff, and I was sure Sadeena knew that, too, since they were so close. In that case, she must have been asking how far away from here we had traveled.

“We went all the way to another world on the other side of the dimensional rifts. That katana that Raphtalia has is one of that world’s . . . I guess it would be like one of the seven star heroes’ weapons in this world.”

“Oh my . . .”

Sadeena looked hard at Raphtalia.

“Wh . . . what?!”

“Is that true? Have you really only gone that far with little Naofumi?”

“Y . . . yes!”

“What’s going on here, Bubba Shield?”

Keel called out to me. She was in a happy mood after being reunited with her fellow villagers.

“It’s nothing, Keel.”

“Oh really?”

“Just tales of Raphtalia’s heroic exploits is all.”

“Yes, your interpretation is just fine, Mr. Naofumi.”

Huh? What was up with that wording? That almost made it sound like my first guess had been the correct.

“Well, in that case . . . you won’t mind if I take little Naofumi for myself then, right, little Raphtalia?”

“What are you saying?!”

“What the hell, woman!”

“Huh? I’m totally serious about making little Naofumi mine, you know.”

Sadeena replied slowly in a flirtatious manner and then hooked her arm around mine. Stop that! I wanted to throw up. I tried to pull my arm away from her, but it felt useless as she just kept trying to hook her arm back around mine over and over. Damn it! This woman was persistent!

“Don’t you want a girl like me to tend to your every need?”

“Sadeena . . . Are you being serious?”

“I sure am.”

Sadeena responded without hesitation. Damn it.

“Huh? You mean you like bubba? You’re not the only one! Everyone in the village loves bubba, you know!”

“I’m a tyrannical moneygrubber! I’m not interested in making friends, and I’m not anybody’s bubba!”

“Could you have come up with a line any less convincing?!”

What was that, Keel?! I knew it . . . This kid was slow in the head. Sadeena was just making brazen sexual advances at me because she knew I hated that kind of thing! You could tell by the way that she was acting that she was just trying to mess with me. This was the same woman that put my hand on her chest and said, “boobies!” Taking her seriously would only wear you out. Raphtalia was the really serious type, and she tended to especially dislike that kind of talk.

“Right? Okay then, little Keel, how about you and I go after little Naofumi together? I’m going to make little Naofumi my hubby!”

“Like hell you will, you spaz!”

Raphtalia’s face was growing paler by the moment. She looked my way.

“Mr. Naofumi . . . Did you and Sadeena happen to . . . have a drinking contest?”

“Drinking contest? The first time we met, she had been drinking like a fish and she still made me drink with her. We drank the next time we met, too, but she never drank enough to get drunk.”

“Oh, come on, you. For all intents and purposes, you stood up to me and you won!”

Raphtalia threw her head backward and covered her face with her hands, as if she had been completely horrified. What was going on?

“Mr. Naofumi . . . For as long as I can remember, there was always something that Sadeena used to tell the villagers.”

“Huh?”

Keel was nodding knowingly. What the hell?

“She would say, ‘My lifelong partner will be someone that can hold their liquor better than me! If I ever find someone like that, there’s no way I’m going to let him get away. You’ve all been warned!’”

“No one else in the village could drink like Sadeena! There was even a rumor that she won a territory drinking contest and then went drinking after!”

“Oh really . . .”

“The fact that Sadeena says you’re going to be her future husband means that you must have beat her in a drinking contest, bubba. That’s what all the villagers will think!”

“Huh?”

Now that I thought about it, Sadeena had given me a drink with a rucolu fruit in it. I had a feeling she’d started acting even friendlier with me after that. Huh? So that was why she wanted me to be her husband? I figured she was just messing with me, but . . .

I looked over at Sadeena. The woman switched back to her human form and started drawing on my arm with one hand, while holding her other hand to her cheek and blushing. It made me think . . . If this had been before Bitch tricked me, I’d probably be thinking “score!” thrilled that I was finally getting some attention from the opposite sex.

“Hey bubba, how did you manage to beat Sadeena, anyways?”

“I don’t know if I beat her, but she started getting real friendly after I ate a rucolu fruit.”

“That’ll do it!”

Keel and all of the Lurolona slaves nodded in agreement. I got the feeling that Sadeena had been like a big sister to the village children, so maybe they all knew her well?

“People gave it to me every now and then, when we were peddling, right?”

“Huh? That was rucolu fruit? I thought it was just a token to show you were welcome there.”

Having me eat a piece of rucolu fruit had become a popular way of making sure I wasn’t just some fraud posing as the Shield Hero. Apparently, I was the only one out there who could eat rucolu fruit and be no worse for the wear. I liked to think of it as a sign of welcome that was also a punishment for imposters.

“So now you know I’m being sincere! Thank you, little Naofumi!”

“Blegh!”

Sadeena pursed her lips and thrust them quickly at mine. I turned my head away in a flash. Still, Sadeena’s lips touched my cheek and she gave me a little smack.

“Aww, that’s too bad. Next time it’ll be the lips!”

“Go to hell!”

That was close! She almost stole my first kiss! Sorry, but I had no intention of starting a family in this world. As soon as this world became peaceful, I’d be returning to Japan without hesitation, after all!

Was it just me or had the air grown really tense? Raphtalia was glaring at me and Sadeena with a really aggravated look on her face. See! I told you that Raphtalia was serious and didn’t like this kind of thing.

“Ra . . . Rafu . . .”

“Fehhh . . .”

“Sadeena!”

“Oh my! This is so much fun! Is it okay for me to be this excited about the days to come, I wonder?”

“As long as you behave yourself . . .”

“I have an idea! Hey, bubba! You should cook for everyone!”

“Cook for us!”

“Yeah, cook!”

“Coooook!”

“Shut up!”

Our plan to round up Raphtalia’s fellow villagers had made good progress, I think. I wasn’t sure if I could count them as part of our fighting potential yet, but I could still use the extra manpower.

But . . . was it just me? The saying “out of the frying pan and into the fire” came to mind. Sadeena changed from her human form to her animal form and was trying hard to get her arms around me, while I tried to pacify Raphtalia, who was aggravated because she was hypersensitive to that kind of sexual behavior. I couldn’t help but think these two would be the death of me.

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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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