LN Tate no Yuusha CH 7 - 14 Vol 10 Bahasa Indonesia

Chapter Seven: Employing the Bioplant

“We’re back!”

The whole lot of them had smiles on their faces despite being covered in mud when they got back. They were definitely livelier than they had been yesterday. On the other hand, Rishia looked utterly exhausted. Raphtalia and Filo didn’t really show any signs of being worn out. Then again, they were both pretty strong even with the curse’s effects in place.

“I see that! Did you all do your best out there hunting again today?”

“Yeah!”

“That goes without saying!”

The adaptability of children really was an amazing thing. It was only the second day and they had already adjusted.

“Alright then. Dinner is ready, as promised.”

“Yaaaay!”

They shoveled the food I had prepared into their mouths.

“Now then, Raphtalia.”

“Yes?”

“After dinner, I’m going to do something . . . something that might make you mad.”

“Umm, and what is that?”

“It’s jungle time. It helped us out back in Kizuna’s world, too, right?”

Raphtalia seemed to understand what I meant. Her face turned pale.

“Are you going to plant that thing?”

“Yeah. This place is just a barren wasteland, anyway. It’s perfect, right?”

“But still . . .”

“It may very well cause problems with the soil down the road, but I did ask the slave trader to choose monsters that could be used to work the land.”

“Umm . . . Understood. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“Considering efficiency, it really is the only choice.”

Raphtalia was all about efficiency. But she also kind of worried about keeping up appearances. Now that I thought about it, L’Arc and the others had gotten on to me about her upbringing. She had picked up my habit of haggling over prices. Being told about it about it objectively like that did make me feel a little bad about it.

“I also wanted to take this chance to do a little bit of research. I’m thinking, maybe I can get it to grow some medicinal herbs, too.”

“Wait a minute. Don’t tell me you plan to modify it even further?!”

“I do. I want to grow something that can make us some money, if at all possible.”

That’s right. I needed money if my plans were going to succeed. Rebuilding a village with ten or so slaves just wasn’t possible. And that wouldn’t change much, even if the slave trader did manage to deliver more of the slaves I had asked for.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be making any crazy modifications that might make it difficult to manage. Producing food supplies is the priority until the slaves are grown up enough to handle problems on their own.”

“Sigh . . . Really, please do be careful.”

“I know!”

I couldn’t afford to do anything that might result in a radical failure, but beyond that, I had to do what I could. I planned to have the slaves help earn money, too—not just fight. And while I was mulling over such things, all the food I cooked vanished.

“Thank you for the meal!”

“You’re welcome.”

I could hear a clamor of voices as they all talked to each other excitedly. It had only been a few days since we had arrived, but they all seemed to have adjusted to their new life for the most part. And Keel and the other three from the village were already familiar with the area, having grown up here. I was sure this had to be better for their mental health than living the usual life of a slave, at least.

“Alright, everyone. I have something important to say, so listen up.”

“Huuuh?”

The slaves were listening with their heads cocked to the side, just like Filo did.

“Everyone come with me.”

I walked over to the garden and then checked to make sure they had all followed.

“I have a single seed here. It’s a seed from a plant that caused a bit of trouble in a village to the southwest of here.”

The castle soldiers seemed to be familiar with the story. They started whispering to each other.

“I made some improvements to that plant, and this seed is the result. You all got hungry last night and ended up eating in the middle of the night, right?”

“Umm, yeah . . .”

Keel nodded.

“You have to understand that I won’t be able cook every day like this forever.”

“But . . . the Shield Hero’s cooking is so good!”

“Yeah! I want to eat your cooking every day!”

“I can’t get any work done if I’m always cooking for you all. Of course, if you’ve worked hard enough to earn it, I’ll indulge you all and cook something up.”

When it came to development and reconstruction efforts like this, securing food supplies had to be the top priority. That meant that there was only one thing to do.

“Now then, starting tonight, when you get hungry and I’m not cooking, this is what you are going to do.”

I dropped the seed onto the soil and poured some water over it. It sprouted and began to shoot up right before everyone’s eyes. The bioplant grew to a height of around three meters tall and began to produce large fruit that resembled tomatoes.

“I’ve restricted the plant’s reproduction to a certain degree, but it should fill this garden before the night has ended. Your job is to manage this plant.”

“What . . . are we supposed to do?”

“If it grows beyond the specified area, you trim it. That said, I plan to set aside a good amount of land, so you won’t need to cut it for a while. It’s up to you to pick the fruit.”

“That fruit . . . is it edible?”

“Yeah. As far as I know, they’re still producing them in that village to the southwest.”

I had seen them being sold as a local specialty in the castle town. I’m fairly certain they were cooking with them, too.

“Feel free to eat some if you get hungry. But if you notice any kind of problem, find an adult and tell them. That’s all.”

I picked one of the huge tomato-looking fruit and tossed it to Filo. I could tell by her face that she was still hungry, and she gobbled it right up. Several of the slaves followed suit and started eating along with her.

“This is amazing!”

“Yeah!”

“I thought there was no way we were going to rebuild the village at first, but I’m starting to think that with this guy on our side, it might actually be possible!”

Was it just me or were they looking at me like I was some kind of strange being? If things went well managing this fruit, then our food supply issues would be taken care of. On the contrary, if we didn’t resolve those issues, it would be impossible to build any kind of useful combat unit in the short three and a half months we had. It was time for me to use all of the knowledge, connections, and tools that I had amassed in this world to see just how much I could accomplish.

It was finally here—the moment of truth!

The next morning came. I ignored the bioplant, which was covering most of the garden, and gave my orders for the morning.

“Oww . . .”

The slaves were complaining of aches and pains all over their bodies . . . growing pains, I was sure. Hmm . . . I checked everyone’s levels. Just as I had predicted yesterday, they’d all reached around level 20, more or less. I was excited to see how much more they would grow.

Chapter Eight: Children of the Sea

Several more days passed.

“Ahahaha!”

The slaves were climbing on the bioplant like it was a tree. They’d all reached around level 30, and their growth had begun to plateau a bit. The thing was . . . For whatever reason, almost all of them looked like they were around 14 or 15 years old. They still looked a bit younger than Raphtalia. Was this the age that they became fit for battle?

I thought they might end up being a bit more attractive, but they were all pretty average. Maybe compared to other kids . . . but none of them could hold a candle to Raphtalia. It almost made me wonder if maybe they weren’t getting enough to eat.

Keel was probably the only boy among them that you could call attractive. He almost looked a bit girlish, but I guess you could call him handsome. Actually, I suppose it was rude to say this about a boy, but if you imagined a cute girl with boyish looks, that would give you a good idea of his appearance.

That mole-type therianthrope—his name was Imiya or something like that—seemed to have come out of his shell a bit. He and Keel had been running around together and the two were getting along well.

“Hey, Bubba Shield! I’m tired of meat and vegetables. That’s all we’ve had to eat lately!”

“Stop acting spoiled!”

Keel was starting to act overly familiar with me lately. I could come down hard on him, but I didn’t feel right scolding him, since he wasn’t slacking off.

I guess it was because they felt more comfortable with me now, but more of the kids had started telling me all about their time as slaves. They always finished it up with a thank you. I was glad that morale was high, but still . . .

“We’ll go to the ocean and catch some fish, so you can cook them up for us, bubba!”

“I don’t remember ever becoming your bubba!”

Now Keel was just being plain cheeky. Maybe it was time for a good chewing out, after all. I could accept “Bubba Shield,” but just plain “bubba” wasn’t going to fly. But he showed no sign of stopping.

“Ahh . . . if only Sadeena were here, we could be having seafood every day!”

Oh? Raphtalia had mentioned that name before, too. I think she mentioned she was an aquatic therianthrope. She must have really taken care of everyone, because it wasn’t just Raphtalia—pretty much all of the kids originally from this village mentioned her from time to time. This was a good chance to find out what kind of character she was.

“Raphtalia. I know you mentioned her before, but just who is this Sadeena?”

“Sadeena was a fisher by trade. She also took first or second place for the strongest fighter in the village.”

“Oh? In that case, she must have fought in the wave and . . .”

My voice trailed off as I was about to say “died.” It made sense that she would have fought in the wave, and that meant the likelihood that she had died in battle was high.

“If Sadeena had been here, I’m sure we would have been able to fight off the enemies from the wave and the slave hunters, too, bubba.”

“Hold on, now. She’s that strong?”

“No doubt! I’ve never seen Sadeena lose a fight. From what I’ve seen, I’d say she’s stronger than that knight lady, too!”

Stronger than Eclair? That would make her a real force to be reckoned with. But if that were true, then it prompted a rather large question.

“Then why was your village destroyed when the wave came?”

“Well . . . Sadeena was far out at sea fishing with the other village fishers at the time.”

That made sense. So she wasn’t around when the wave hit. Not to mention, when the waves occurred, things got wild all over the place and I’m sure the ocean had been no exception. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but there was a good possibility she had died in the aftermath. Assuming someone that strong had survived, I’m sure they would have returned to the village.

Keel and the others may have enjoyed talking about Sadeena, but it was probably best not to continue this conversation, even though I was the one that started it.

“Come on, bubba! Can’t we go down to the ocean?”

“Hmm . . . Do you really want to eat fish that bad?”

Perfect—a chance to change the subject.

“I want to eat fish that you cook, bubba!”

“That’s what I want to eat, too!”

“Me too!”

It was like a bunch of Filos had been mass-produced. Thank goodness I hadn’t decided to hatch even more filolial eggs.

“Fine. We’ll go see what kind of seafood we can catch today. While we’re at it, Filo can go swimming and hunt some monsters.”

“Okaaay!”

And so I ended up taking the slaves to the ocean. It had gotten warmer lately anyway. So it was good weather for a dip in the ocean. The kids that had grown up here would be familiar with the ocean, so I was pretty sure they would know how to swim.

After walking for a bit, we arrived at the beach.

“Wheee!”

The slaves all took everything but their underwear off and started jumping into the ocean excitedly with fishing spears in hand.

“Rafu!”

Oh? There went Raph-chan, too, running toward the water excitedly. I wondered if I should use the familiar power-up function to raise her aquatic aptitude. I wouldn’t have minded seeing her spin her tail like a propeller to swim.

I was thinking about Raph-chan when I noticed we had a little problem.

“Filo! Grab Keel!”

“Huh? Okaaay!”

“Wha?! What are you doing?!”

Filo turned into her filolial form and grabbed Keel just as he was about to jump into the ocean. He was floundering about between Filo’s wings, having suddenly been snapped up unexpectedly.

“What’s the idea, bubba?!”

“We have a problem. We’re going to have to completely rethink how you should be handled.”

“What does that mean?!”

The other slaves noticed the commotion and were looking our way. It looked like they had caught on to what was happening. Imiya, who had Raph-chan on his shoulder, approached Keel and asked.

“Keel-kun . . . or should it be Keel-chan?”

“Rafufuuu?”

“Huh? What does that mean? I’m a boy!”

Keel’s chest was wrapped in a sarashi cloth, and down below he was wearing . . . a loincloth? Raphtalia walked over and reached her hand out toward Keel’s crotch, as if that were something normal to do. She was acting more and more unpredictable lately.

“Keel, do you know the difference between a boy and a girl?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you see . . . boys have . . .”

Raphtalia whispered something into Keel’s ear.

“That’s ridiculous. If I were god, I sure wouldn’t make being a boy or girl that complicated.”

“Look at the other boys. No, look at Mr. Naofumi. You see differences, right? His chest is flat, isn’t it?”

“What’s your point? That thing down there doesn’t grow out until you’re an adult, and my chest is just a bit swollen. It should heal soon.”

Grow out? The kid had quite the imagination. Just what kind of home environment had Keel grown up in before becoming a slave?

I started to envision one of those little girls who talks like a boy. And then an image of Kizuna popped into my head, raising her hand, saying, “You called?” “Sorry, but no one called for you,” I yelled back at the imaginary Kizuna and told her to go away. She disappeared after telling me how mean I was.

Kizuna was no doubt that type, but at least she knew that she was a girl. How on earth did Keel not notice during her time as a slave? Maybe it didn’t really matter either way? Or maybe the slave trader that sold her kept quiet about it to make her more appealing to a certain kind of twisted clientele?

This country was rotten, after all. There was certain to be plenty of trash with depraved fetishes. Those kinds of perverts would consider someone like Keel a rare find, so they’d probably be willing to pay a hefty fee. That despicable nobleman that we fought had apparently gotten off on abusing children. Then again, all the slaves showed signs of abuse. A sadistic streak was probably something that all of the slave owners shared.

“But . . . but dad used to say that if a boy considered himself a man, then he was a man no matter what anyone else said.”

He meant a man of the sea, right? Like a sailor or fisherman? So that’s how it was. Daughter wanted to be like daddy and ended up not knowing the difference between a boy and a girl. Actually, the fact that he even said something like that was probably his way of telling her she was a girl.

“I thought Keel was a really cool boy . . . but I guess she was a girl all along.”

“I still think she’s great. Gender doesn’t matter!”

The slave girls were whispering to each other excitedly. I knew girls really went for the whole pretty lady dressed like a man thing, but a girl that wanted to be a man of the sea?

“Come on . . . What’s the point in differentiating between boys and girls in the first place?! It doesn’t make any sense!”

Keel’s gender identity had been shaken to its foundations and she didn’t know how to react.

Hmm? Was that Filo jumping in . . . ? Why was she intervening now?

“Well, you see . . . the reason that animals are divided into males and females is so that they can mate. Also . . .”

Filo answered the confused Keel. She went on to eloquently describe the role of man and woman, dressing it all up in rich, luscious language—not as a simple fact of life, but as a sweet, romantic ritual that bordered on the realm of art.

I looked straight at Raphtalia, but she shook her head violently. Was it Rishia, then? I looked over at Rishia, and she screamed, “It wasn’t me!” Filo was terrible at explaining things, so the fact that she could go into so much detail meant that someone had to have told her all of this. That left Kizuna’s group. It must have been L’Arc, considering what a lecher he was.

“Why do you know so much about this? Did L’Arc tell you?”

“Nuh-uh. I’ve always known.”

Genetic memory? Surely not . . . I bet Filo had done the dirty with some wild male filolial. She must have learned about it then. Or maybe it was when she had been a humming fairy.

“Master’s thinking something weeeird!”

Filo protested, a tinge of mortification in her voice. Get over it. Anyway, I’d have to keep an eye out to see if she laid any eggs.

“Boo!”

Her complaining was getting annoying lately.

“Rafu?”

“You don’t need to worry about that kind of thing, Raph-chan. I’m not letting any boys run off with you.”

“Why are you talking to Raph-chan like you’re her father, Mr. Naofumi?”

“Say it to meeee, too!”

Ha! Not likely. You can run off and get hitched with Melty for all I care!

As we were going back and forth, I noticed that everyone still present, including Raphtalia, was turning red with embarrassment. The boys had all jumped into the ocean and still hadn’t returned. Were they okay?

“No . . . no way! There’s no way I’m going to do anything like that! I would never do that with bubba!”

“Why does it have to be me doing the doing?”

Stop making it sound like I bought and raised you to be a sex slave! God dammit. Now I was annoyed. This was why I hated little brats that thought about nothing but the opposite sex.

“Enough of this stupid conversation. We have a new rule now. Relationships are forbidden!”

“What?!”

The slaves protested. A rule is a rule, and nothing they said would change that. I needed fighting power, not a solution to declining birth rates. I didn’t have time to look after a bunch of new parents and all the little brats they were popping out. Besides, we only had three and a half months! There wasn’t even time to pop anything out!

“You can waste your time on that kind of rubbish when your world is peaceful and I’m gone.”

“Why?!”

“Why? You know why! Because I hate that kind of stuff! Plus, Raphtalia hates it, too!”

“Raphtalia does?!”

“What?!”

Now even Raphtalia was reacting for some reason. Ah . . . She didn’t want me bringing her up. Fine, I get it.

“I’m here to fight the waves, and I plan on taking any of you that are willing to come to fight them with me.”

“What?! You mean the waves of destruction?!”

“That’s right. I was summoned here to put an end to the same waves that stole your families from you. If you’re willing, I’ll take you to fight, too.”

I planned on getting more slaves, and I wanted to form several different divisions.

“But first we’ll have to face a monster called the Phoenix.”

After that had been taken care of, I would form a combat division consisting solely of those that wanted to fight, ideally. Not everyone was meant for battle, after all.

Keel grew quiet for a moment and then finally responded in a sulky manner.

“Well, apparently I’m a girl, so I guess that rules me out, doesn’t it?”

“Huh? Not even close. Take a look at the company I keep, why don’t you?”

I pointed to Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia.

“Huh . . . Now that I think about it, they’re all girls! That whole thing about hating relationships was a lie, wasn’t it?!” Keel snapped.

What was she so upset about?

“Seriously . . . Do you want to participate, or don’t you? Which is it?”

“Relationships are forbidden?! How can you say that when you’ve surrounded yourself with girls?!”

“It wouldn’t bother me a bit if Raphtalia were a guy.”

“Huh?!”

“What?!”

“What about meeee?”

“A male filolial would be just fine.”

“Boo!”

What were they getting upset about? I guess it was time this group of knuckleheads had a lecture.

“Gender equality means that you’re treated the same whether you’re a boy or a girl. If you can be of use, I’ll use you equally, regardless of which you are.”

“I get it. Bubba Shield swings both ways. Ultimately, you don’t even need to be human,” one of the slaves muttered quietly.

Where did they learn this stuff?

“Umm, no . . .”

“Huuuh? What does ‘swing both ways’ mean?”

So Filo didn’t know that one, eh? Maybe the whole genetic memory thing was possible, after all. Wait a second . . . you don’t need to be human? Was that supposed to mean Raph-chan and Filo?

“Umm . . . It’s something I heard when I was being sold.”

“We don’t need an explanation! In any case, I can’t have any of you starting relationships and ending up unable to fight. So relationships are forbidden!”

Aside from Keel, the slaves all nodded hesitantly, as if they weren’t quite convinced.

“Wait, so if I work hard then I can fight, too?”

“Yeah. But thinking about it down the road, after the fighting has ended . . . Actually, you’d probably be a hit with all the creeps that go for that kind of thing, so we’ll have you learn to peddle goods.”

“What?! Why!?”

“You’re one of the better-looking slaves here, and you’re not shy. You’d do well peddling stuff, I’m sure.”

“I . . . I would? No! I don’t wanna!”

“Don’t worry. Just be yourself. People are even tougher to deal with than monsters. You’ll enjoy it!”

“Coming from you, Bubba Shield, that only makes it scarier!”

Was it something I had done? Having Keel in the vending division seemed like a good idea. If I dressed her like a boy and had her sell accessories or something, I bet the female customers would love it. And then if I paired her with Raphtalia, we could take everyone’s money, man or woman.

“By the way, Keel . . .”

“What?”

“The reason you were being rebellious toward me in the beginning is because you had a thing for Raphtalia, right? It’s too bad you’re a girl. But then again, no one is going to end up pregnant and unable to fight if it’s a same-sex relationship, so maybe I should allow those?”

Before the Spirit Tortoise incident, Keel had been a bit on edge around me. She was always glaring at me and going on about Raphtalia this and Raphtalia that.

“Wh . . . what?! You’ve got it all wrong! Don’t be ridiculous!”

Keel started trembling for some reason. She was looking over at . . .

“Mr. Naofumi . . .”

Raphtalia was walking in my direction with a big smile on her face and eyes aflame with murderous intent. Hmm . . . I guess this kind of topic was off limits, after all.

“And that’s that. Now get out there and see what you can catch, everyone!”

“Okay!”

After it had been a while, Keel and the others returned.

“Bubba Shield! We caught all of this!”

An ecstatic-looking Keel came over with a net full of fish and shellfish in her hands.

“Yeah, yeah.”

I already had the griddle nice and hot. All that was left was to clean the fish and cook them up.

“I’ll make some sashimi, since I learned how in Kizuna’s world.”

Raphtalia started preparing sashimi to go with my cooking. Parasites could be a problem, but everything looked fine, as far as I could tell, using my appraisal skills. And so, just like that I ended up cooking again today. Seriously, enough with the cooking already!

Oh yeah! It was about time to hatch the monster eggs. We had built up a pretty good supply of food. That shouldn’t be a problem.

“We’re heading back after everyone finishes eating.”

“Okay!”

Just past noon, we all left the ocean behind and returned to the village. I wanted to hatch the monster eggs before anything else. I’d already finished binding them to myself yesterday, for the most part. I checked on the eggs, which were lined up in a row in the shed that we were using as a storeroom.

“What are you doing, bubba?”

“We’ve built up a reasonable stockpile of food, right? Now it’s time to get ready to move on to the next stage of my plans.”

“Oh.”

“The only thing I’m worried about is . . . the filolial.”

They were great for pulling carriages, but that appetite . . . Thinking about having two bottomless pits around made me uneasy.

“Meeee?”

Filo had her head cocked to the side while asking.

“Not you. The new filolial egg.”

“Filo’s going to have a new little brother or sister?”

“Yaaaaay!”

She was so boisterous. She looked like she could be in middle school, but she acted like a child. Then again, I guess she was.

“I guess that is how you would classify it . . .”

“Master, do you not want the new filolial to be like me?”

Filo had asked a difficult question. Depending on how I answered, she might think that she was unwanted.

“I want a monster that will pull a carriage and act as a means of transportation. I don’t want a bottomless pit.”

“Hmm . . . It should be okay, I think.”

Filo’s answer prompted me to look her way.

“If Master doesn’t want it to, I’m pretty sure it won’t be like me.”

Filo’s cowlick was pointing in the direction of the filolial egg, twitching. What was happening? Was she doing something?

“This will be one of my underlings, right?”

Underling!? Well . . . I guess from Filo’s perspective, all normal filolials were her underlings.

“Okay then. I’ll make it so that it doesn’t turn out like me. We can’t be certain, if we leave it up to you.”

“Can you do that?”

“Yup!”

Filo touched the filolial egg and channeled her magic into it.

“Now it won’t turn out like me unless I order it to.”

“Oh, umm . . . thanks.”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit like we had just snipped away at the potential of this soon-to-be-born life, but this place would never be quiet with more than one Filo around, so I guess it had to be done. Depending on how this little experiment went, I might be able to put Filo in charge of raising the filolial.

A few moments later, the eggs began to hatch.

“Peep!”

The first was a filolial chick. It looked kind of purplish. Next were two caterpillars. So these would be able to pull carriages when they got bigger, huh? They were called caterpillands. I tried absorbing a piece of the shell into my shield, but nothing happened. After that came three earthworm-looking monsters called dunes. Were these the ones that would work the land?

I set some basic restrictions for the monsters.

“There you have it. Now, all of you, take these things out and level them up!”

“Okay!”

They put the monsters in a big box and all carried it out to the carriage together, like a bunch of kids that had just gotten their parents to buy them pets. The filolial chick was sitting on top of Filo’s head and happily chirping away, despite having just been hatched.

How did I end up in another world playing daddy to a bunch of kids? I couldn’t let it get to me. I just had to keep telling myself that this was all an investment that would pay off when the waves came.

“Oh, another thing . . .”

“What?”

“I’ll be forming divisions to take care of cooking and other small tasks soon, so if any of you are interested in learning how to cook, speak up. Preferably, anyone that isn’t comfortable fighting and would rather avoid it.”

Raphtalia had started helping out with the cooking lately, but it was still just too much.

“I’d like to.”

“Me too.”

One of the girls and the therianthrope named Imiya got out of the carriage.

“You sure?”

I was pretty sure the girl was one of the slaves that Raphtalia had brought to ask for a midnight snack. As for Imiya, he was a therianthrope covered in fur from head to toe. I could just imagine someone complaining that his fur would get in the food. I couldn’t put him in the cooking division, but maybe I could assign him to some other task. He was supposed to be good with his hands. Maybe he had already figured out something else he wanted to do.

“Yeah. I . . . I like cooking. Fighting isn’t really . . . isn’t for me . . .”

“Okay then. It’ll be tough, but do your best.”

I looked at Imiya.

“Umm . . . Those small tasks . . . I . . . I want to do those . . .”

“Alright. I’ll train you both bit by bit, but you’ll still have to level up, too, so don’t think you can get out of that.”

“I know.”

Imiya and the girl nodded and stood by my side.

“We’ll be back.”

Raphtalia waved to us.

“Okay! Off you go!”

“Don’t worry about me, Raphtalia.”

“Huh?”

The girl that had joined the cooking division mumbled as she waved back. What was she saying?

“Okay?”

“I’m not worried!”

Huh? Oh, I get it. He might try to intimidate us, but I’m not scared, so don’t worry. That’s what she meant.

“Okay, we’ll be back!”

“Here we goooo!”

The carriage rattled off into the distance.

“Now then. You two give me a hand.”

“Okay!”

I set about teaching them how to cook and take care of other miscellaneous tasks.

“Bubba Shield, you’re good with your hands.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah! You’re really good at cutting up fish and monsters!”

Being told that didn’t feel bad at all.

“My shield has mysterious powers that make things taste better, so I can’t really take the credit. When you’re cooking, think about the flavor of your . . . parents’ cooking, and try to recreate that.”

“Okay! I’ll teach you how to make something I like, Bubba Shield.”

 Flavor of your parents’ cooking  . . . I kind of stepped on a landmine with that one, but she’d replied with a smile on her face. I guess it was fine as long as she was smiling.

All said and done, I ended up being the one being taught something new, but whatever.

“Is this how you’re supposed to cut the jewel?”

“Yeah. That’s pretty good for your first time.”

Considering that Imiya’s demi-human type made him naturally good with his hands, I decided to teach him what I knew about compounding medicines and making accessories.

Chapter Nine: Hanging Out the Shield

One week had passed since I’d begun governing the territory . . . or rather, looking after a bunch of brats. The repairs on the houses had been finished for the most part, and it was time to move on to the next stage.

Just like Filo had promised, the new filolial remained a cute little thing, happy just to pull a carriage. As I’d expected, it was nice having a filolial that wasn’t a chirpy little blabbermouth. One morning, while the slaves were still asleep, I tried playing a lighthearted game of fetch with the new filolial, like I had done with Filo in the past. But Filo intercepted the stick and ruined the game.

“Master! Filo is best!”

I was trying to build a rapport with the new recruit. Stay out of the way!

“Rafu!”

“Go long, Raph-chan!”

I feinted a throw and Raph-chan cast illusion magic on Filo.

“Ahh! Waaait!”

Filo sprinted off after a phantom stick that would probably go on flying forever.

The caterpillands had gotten bigger, too, and would be ready to pull their carriages soon. They were herbivores, so we fed them the stalks of the bioplant. This in turn allowed us to get rid of excess bioplant by feeding it to the monsters. They were proving useful in a variety of ways. I could kill two birds with one stone as they say. Plus, the monster trainer must have known what he was doing when he picked them, because they were really docile and easy to handle. The only problem was their speed. They weren’t very quick. So traveling around to the nearby towns and villages would be their limit.

The dunes had gotten relatively big, too, and they were already working the land here. They were really docile, too. I’d heard that wild dunes normally burrow into the ground and avoid fighting. Apparently domesticated dunes could be ordered to fight, but they weren’t very strong.

Alright, I figured it was time to start peddling goods.

“Well, what do you think?”

I’d prepared two different outfits for Keel. One was a masculine set of armor that suited her preference. The other was a frilly dress meant to throw customers off guard. It was a cheap, secondhand dress, but still . . . Keel had tried the dress on and was blushing slightly while waiting for my assessment.

“Nice! I want you to blush just like that and act like a klutz while you’re peddling.”

“Bubba! Why do I have to do this?!”

“For money, of course. We can’t round up your friends without money.”

“Oh yeah . . . But still, this is . . . embarrassing, bubba . . .”

For the first round of Keel’s peddling, I’d have Filo pull the carriage and I’d stay inside and observe. My plan was for Keel and Raphtalia to sell the medicine I’d made.

“Okay, Rishia, you’re in charge of leveling.”

“O . . . okay!”

Teaching the slaves to sell was priority number one. If we didn’t do this, making money would be practically impossible. I was sure people would start talking if we hung a Shield Hero sign on a carriage and traveled around the country for three days or so. I’d been making medicines daily so that we could do this, and I was pretty sure we could heal any illness—no matter how serious—as long as I was there.

“And we’re off!”

“Wai—bubba! I still get motion si—”

I ignored Keel and took off. We spent the day traveling around to several nearby towns, spending around an hour at each. With Filo running at top speed, that was possible. It had been a long time since I’d last been out hawking goods. Many of the same townspeople from before showed up, acting like they had missed me.

“So the saint was actually the Shield Hero!”

“Oh, uh . . . yeah. I figured I wouldn’t get any business if people knew who I really was.”

“Sorry for all you had to go through.”

“No worries.”

They were all just empty apologies, anyway. If I were to now cause a problem instead, there’s no doubt they would all be screaming, “So you were the Shield Demon, after all!” I didn’t go for the whole “customer is god” thing that Japanese people liked to push. The phrase originally came from something some Japanese folk singer said and wasn’t even supposed to mean what people think it does.

“I was given a territory, so I decided to peddle medicines and other goods more extensively to help with the country’s reconstruction and prepare for the coming waves. Your business is appreciated. Just look for the shield sign hanging from the carriage.”

That’s right. There was a sign shaped like a shield hanging on the outside of our carriage right now.

“So you’re doing it for the country and our people, I see!”

Making an impression like this would lead to more customers. It might have been a good idea to have Filo’s underling pull a carriage in filolial queen form, too. Then again, I didn’t want to deal with the racket that would come with it. It might be fine if there was someone else willing to look after the thing, but I’m sure that would never work out.

“You hear that?! Let’s give our business to the Shield Hero!”

“Yeah!”

Word of mouth sure was handy at times like these. Even good rumors spread before you knew it. I had no idea how they knew, but customers were showing up to meet us the moment we arrived at the next town.

“Hey bubba, did I do okay?”

After we finished selling our wares, Keel, looking ridiculously embarrassed, asked for my verdict.

“Yeah. Your smile can’t sell quite like Raphtalia’s can, but several of the customers were grinning because they thought your clumsiness was cute.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

It was the same no matter what world you were in. Seeing that kind of innocence just made people feel good inside. Raphtalia’s support role worked well, too. This setup should allow us to make a bundle. Even cheap, poor-quality medicinal herbs would end up being average quality if I used my shield to make the materials. Then, if I used those average-quality materials to make more advanced medicines by hand, the end product would turn out to be above average. We could expect to make a nice profit.

After vending for three days, we’d made pretty respectable earnings. We also bought up medicinal herbs along the way and I used my shield to make medicines out of them. Keel and several of the other slaves had observed our work and seemed to have the basics down, so things were going well. I’d delegate more carriages to peddling soon.

And that’s when it happened.

“Well, well . . . If it isn’t the Shield Hero!”

The slave trader’s carriage rolled up into the village. He’d been visiting a lot lately. I guess I couldn’t really complain, though, since I had him searching for the slaves from the village for me. I’d seen him talking to the slaves here, too, though. Would he even try to sell the slaves a slave of their own? I mean, I was giving them a small allowance, but come on . . .

“Did you bring me another slave from the village?”

“Unfortunately, I have brought no such thing. Yes sir.”

“Then why are you here?! Go away!”

Should I throw salt over my shoulder? If he tried saying he came to mooch food because he was bored I’d knock him off his carriage.

“Your response to my showing up without a purpose sends tingles of excitement down my spine!”

“I get the feeling you’re trying to turn me into your own personal chef lately.”

“That was just a joke. Yes sir.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?”

“Not at all. I’m actually here to extend an invitation to the Shield Hero.”

“An invitation?”

The slave trader threw his hands up into the air. Everything was theatrical with this guy. Whatever it was, it was sure to be a waste of time.

“Indeed. Since we’ve had so little luck finding any of the slaves here in Melromarc, I consulted a relative of mine, and I’ve been told that they are on the market in Zeltoble. Yes sir.”

“Ah, I see.”

In other words, the slave trader had found out where the slaves were, so he had come here in person to report his findings. What a bothersome guy.

“How long does it take to get there?”

“Let’s see . . . Travelling by boat would normally be fastest, but that precious filolial of yours should be able to make it there in around a week and a half, I think.”

A week and a half for Filo . . . That was a long way. Even so, it was closer than the Spirit Tortoise country. That reminded me of something. A while back, the other heroes had mentioned that the weapon shop in Zeltoble was really good. That meant they had traveled there. No wonder their levels weren’t as high as I expected them to be back then. Their weapons were top-class, though.

“How long by boat?”

“Two weeks.”

“Hmm . . .”

I glanced over at the others around the village. Everyone was busy doing his and her part to help with the reconstruction. Raphtalia was teaching some slaves the dos and don’ts of peddling, and Filo was taking a nap. The slaves that wanted to fight had been training with the old lady in the neighboring town during their free time, just like Keel.

Even if I did make the trip, I could use my portal to return to the village at night. With daily reports, things would still be manageable.

“I guess we might as well go, then.”

“I thought you might say that!”

“Raphtalia, Filo, and everyone else, too! Gather ’round over here for a minute.”

I called everyone, and they came swarming over.

“I’m going to be leaving for Zeltoble in just a bit, so I’ll be away from the village during the day. I’ll be taking Filo and . . .”

Honestly, if I just went with Filo at first, I could bring anyone else I needed afterward.

“Raphtalia, you’re in charge of the village during the daytime.”

“Huh? You’re leaving me behind?”

“Heh heh heh . . . big sis gets to house-sit!”

“Rafu!”

Before I knew it, I ended up taking Filo and Raph-chan with me. Well, I guess I wouldn’t have a means of transportation without Filo.

“It’s only for a week, and only during the daytime. So relax.”

“But still . . .”

“With how busy we’ve been, we’ve been split up more and more lately, right? I’m leaving things up to you because I know I can count on you.”

Or was it me that Raphtalia was worried about?

“Understood. If anything comes up, please return immediately.”

“If it really bugs you that much, then you can just come with us every now and then.”

“You’re right. With such a convenient teleportation skill, there’s no reason not to make use of it.”

I’d be coming back each night, so Raphtalia could either go with us or stay here, depending on the day.

“Alright, we’ll be back.”

“Safe travels, Mr. Naofumi!”

And so I accepted the slave trader’s invitation and we set out for Zeltoble.

Chapter Ten: Zeltoble

Our journey went smoothly, and we arrived at the capital city of Zeltoble.

“Pretty lively place.”

We made our way noisily through the city’s bustling streets. Even the Melromarc castle town wasn’t this lively. Once we arrived, I went back and fetched Raphtalia and Rishia, of course. There was plenty to be uncertain about, and I wanted to be able to fight if needed. It didn’t really feel so much like we had traveled to a faraway place, since we were returning to the village at night.

As for Zeltoble, how should I describe it? The country was full of stone coliseum-looking buildings that really stood out.

“What kind of country is Zeltoble, anyway? I don’t really know anything about it.”

“Well, then, allow me to explain! Yes sir!”

The slave trader began his explanation, full of excitement.

“Zeltoble is known as the country of merchants and mercenaries. Just like it sounds, the country runs on mercantilism and the mercenary business.”

“Yeah, I got that impression.”

“You know what mercenaries are, I take it. They’re people who earn money by fighting. The country also has strong ties with the guild that oversees all of the adventurer business. As a commercial hub, it single-handedly takes care of everything from distributing weapons and armor to supplying medicines and other consumables that the guild needs. Here money changes hands on a scale that is unheard of in other countries.”

Looking out of the carriage as we trotted along down the streets it wasn’t hard to believe. The Melromarc castle town was full of life, too, but this place felt like a real smorgasbord. The urban landscape seemed to continue on and on, alternating between bustling business districts and slums.

“The country has no king, by the way. It is administered by a council comprised of the most influential merchants.”

“Oh?”

So the country was more of a republic, then? It made sense for a country that touted itself as the country of mercenaries. Maybe it was a merit-based society.

“The country also has a profound dark side, as evidenced by the saying, ‘war is fought in the shadow of Zeltoble.’ Do be careful, Shield Hero.”

“I will.”

“My family is based out of Zeltoble. The country has treated our pockets well.”

“I thought that might be the case.”

That reminded me, I had a nightmare the night before. A whole crowd of creeps that looked just like the slave trader appeared out of nowhere and started trying to sell me slaves and monsters.

“Zeltoble is famous for the coliseum events that are held all around the country.”

“Coliseum?”

He was talking about fighting arenas, right? They were probably pitting mercenaries against each other and betting on who would win.

“It’s one of Zeltoble’s top attractions. I am confident that attending one of the events would make your whole trip worth it, Shield Hero.”

“I’ll think about it. So where are we supposed to go now?”

“We need to get off of the main street. Turn down that back alley over there. That should work.”

“Got it. Filo.”

I guided Filo toward the back alley that the slave trader had pointed out. As soon as we entered the alley, a rope came flying toward Filo from out of nowhere.

“Heh heh heh . . . That sure is an unusual monster you have there, eh?”

A group of brutish-looking guys stepped out in front of us. Did these idiots not know who Filo was? Either way, they reminded me of another group of idiots I knew.

“Hiya!”

“Arghhhh!!!”

Filo kicked the fool that had recklessly tried to capture her with a lasso and sent him flying off into space.

“Huh?! What is this thing?! Stop struggling! Ugh!”

“This monster is a savage! Hurry up and wring its ne—arghhh!”

Ah, Filo had bitten down on the head of one of the idiots. He struggled for a few moments before going limp. I guess he’d passed out.

“M . . . monster!”

“Somebody save me!”

Filo spit the unconscious half-wit out and tore the rope from her neck.

“I prefer them a bit saltier. He didn’t taste very healthy!”

“. . .”

The thought that Filo might actually turn into a man-eating monster scared me. I had a feeling she was growing up to be a real basket case.

“Filo, people are not for eating.”

“Huh?”

She was just a filolial, after all. Maybe it was delayed intellectual development. What a bother. Considering what I needed her for, less intellect would be better.

“Filo. The thing about people is . . . it’s the children that taste best. They’re nice and tender.”

“Rafu! Rafu rafu!”

“Don’t tell her that, Mr. Naofumi! And don’t you encourage him, Raph-chan!”

I remembered there being a monster from some game or book that said something like that, so I tried repeating it to Filo, but she shook her head with revulsion.

“Nooo!”

“See, that kind of thing works better on Filo.”

“Oh, for crying out loud. I can’t tell if she actually gets it or not.”

“Look, Filo. Don’t go putting people in your mouth unless you’re trying to scare them. It’s for your own good.”

“Yup! I just did it because I figured it would make them run away!”

Oh? So she actually understood intimidation and that’s why she did it. I guess she was learning, after all. I couldn’t have her being too smart, but understanding that much should be fine.

“What was that about being salty?”

“The taste he left in my mouth.”

I just had to pray she didn’t acquire a taste for humans because of that.

We stopped the carriage in front of a shop owned by an acquaintance of the slave trader, and then we got out and followed the slave trader down the alley. When we came out of the other side, I could see a huge coliseum. It was a stone building that resembled a domed ballpark, and a brawny man stood guard at its entrance. It must have been a pretty popular place, because there was a long line of people waiting to get in.

“This way.”

The slave trader continued around to the back entrance and gave a quick nod to the man standing guard, who then stepped aside and let us through.

“This place is a coliseum on the surface, but underground is a black market where slaves are sold. Yes sir.”

“Oh?”

“Of course, the same is true for the vast majority of coliseums in this country. The wares offered vary with each guild. Yes sir.”

“What about yours?”

“Needless to say, we deal primarily in slaves. Even so, we don’t control the market exclusively.”

After continuing on for a few moments, we came to a stairway leading underground. As we walked down the steps, I could hear cheers coming from above. Business must have been good.

“Business seems good on the coliseum side of things. What kind of competitions go on up there?”

“Fights, for the most part, but sometimes there are other events, such as eating contests. Yes sir.”

“I’d like to get Filo in on one of those.”

I wouldn’t have minded seeing just how far that bottomless pit could go.

“Huh? I’m going to enter?”

“It’s a possibility.”

We could cut our food expenses and even make some extra cash. Then again, I was sure losing would carry significant risks.

“I’m sure that would turn out to be quite interesting. Yes sir.”

The slave trader made some kind of strange signal to the brawny man. He knew I was just running with the conversation he started, right?

“So? How much further?”

“We’re almost there.”

A few moments after he responded, we arrived at the bottom of the stairs. I could see countless cages at the end of a corridor lined with stone walls. There were more cages here than in the slave trader’s tent, and they were packed full of slaves with no regard for their race—human, demi-human, or otherwise. I could see a small room beyond the prison area. Inside, another slave trader stood waiting.

“Ohhh! If it isn’t Melromarc’s—”

“Ohhh! My dear uncle!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the man that the slave trader was hugging, evidently overjoyed to see him. The slave trader was an excessively obese, odd-looking gentleman who wore a tailcoat and spectacles, and this other merchant had the exact same figure. Even his face was nearly identical. The only difference between them was the design of their spectacles and tailcoats.

“Mr. Naofumi, I think there’s something wrong with my eyes.”

“What a coincidence. Me too.”

“Fehhh . . .”

He had said it was a family business, but these two were practically clones. Shit. My nightmare had become reality. I’d seen something similar in an anime about a girl at a family-run hospital, but this . . . You wouldn’t be able to tell them apart at all if they wore the same outfit.

“This is the man that invited you here, Shield Hero. My uncle. Yes sir.”

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Shield Hero. Pleasure to meet you. That look in your eyes is liable to steal my heart. Yes sir.”

“Just stop now!”

This was bad. I was getting goosebumps. I wanted to run away immediately. The thought of having come all that way for nothing pissed me off, though, so I resisted the urge to turn around and leave.

“Now that’s a voice fit for a slave driver! How thrilling! Can I interest you in taking my daughter’s hand in marriage?”

I imagined a female version of the slave trader.

“Oh god, spare me.”

“Spare us both! Did you call Mr. Naofumi here just to make such ridiculous remarks?!”

An angry Raphtalia rested her hand on the handle of her katana. We were searching for her friends and fellow villagers, so you couldn’t hold it against her for getting upset. Lash out, Raphtalia! It’ll confuse them.

“Ha ha ha! Just a joke!”

“You’re bad, uncle.”

“Ha ha ha! Not as bad as you are!”

The two were laughing together. I felt sick . . .

“Get back to the subject!”

“You want to talk business, already? I was hoping to develop a bit more camaraderie with the Shield Hero. Yes sir.”

“Whether that happens or not depends on how you behave, uncle. Yes sir.”

Yes sir! Yes sir! Yes sir! Was there no end to it? I’d seriously had enough. Could I leave yet? I didn’t get the slave trader one bit. I had no idea why, but he always agreed with me no matter what I said. It made me think he had a hidden agenda, so I was always on my guard.

“Heh heh heh . . . I fear his ominous aura may bewitch me. Yes sir.”

“What, am I supposed to be evil incarnate or something?”

“Oh, no. I’m simply referring to your special knack for using slaves. It’s something that we can sense.”

“The Shield Hero keeps his slaves squirming just the right amount and has a charisma that would make them happily leap into the jaws of death for his sake.”

 “Bubba! I’m hungry!”

 “Maaaster! I’m huuuungry!”

 “Shield Hero! I’m hungry!”

Why did I hear their cries for food playing in the back in my head? Was that charisma? I couldn’t let it get to me . . .

“Enough about that, slave trader. Tell me about those slaves I want.”

“Understood. Yes sir. Uncle, what is the status of those slaves I asked you about? Yes sir.”

The slave trader asked the other slave trader. The other slave trader . . . Okay, this is getting ridiculous! The Zeltoble slave trader wiped the sweat from his brow.

“About that . . . The situation has become a bit complicated. Yes sir.”

“What does that mean?”

“After receiving the request for slaves from Melromarc, I did make an attempt to search, but you’re looking specifically for slaves from the village of Lurolona in the Seaetto territory, are you not?”

“That’s right.”

The territory that I’d been given had originally belonged to Eclair, and . . . Wait, so Raphtalia’s village was called Lurolona? I didn’t know that.

“Is that a problem?”

“Very much so. Yes sir.”

“Wh . . . why is that?”

The color drained from Raphtalia’s face as she asked. I had a bad feeling about this. Or rather, I had a feeling something had happened that was going to cause us a lot of trouble.

“The thing is . . . Slaves from the village of Lurolona in Melromarc’s Seaetto territory are currently being traded for exorbitant prices in Zeltoble.”

“Why?”

Why in the world would the prices of the very slaves that I wanted to buy be skyrocketing? If this was thanks to some nonsense like fate, then I wanted to find whoever pushed that fate on me and beat them to death.

But no, something as ambiguous as fate had no place in business. There was certain to be a reason for the surge in prices. Was it because the slaves had been victims of the wave? No, that couldn’t be it. If that were the case, then the prices would have gone up a while back.

“When did the surge in prices begin?”

“Around one month ago, I would guess. That’s when I started hearing Lurolona and the territory being mentioned in several places. Yes sir.”

One month ago . . . We were still in Kizuna’s world then. Taking into account the difference in the rate at which time passed in this world, that would make it right around the time that the Spirit Tortoise was defeated.

“So it’s our fault?”

The Spirit Tortoise had destroyed multiple countries, and the commander-in-chief of the coalition army that defeated that Spirit Tortoise was me, the Shield Hero. The Shield Hero’s star slave, Raphtalia, was from Lurolona. It was only natural that the hero who had disappeared into another world in pursuit of the villain, and that hero’s slave, would gather attention. Since Raphtalia personally wasn’t as well-known as I was, the focus ended up on her village and the fact that she was a demi-human. This was the result. I might have been overthinking things, but it made sense.

“As to be expected of the Shield Hero! Yes sir.”

“Shit! I was right?”

“We can only speculate, but I believe the likelihood is quite high.”

Damn. To think our heroic deeds had backfired . . .

“If I remember correctly, it all began when a certain merchant offered a lofty reward for the delivery of the slaves. After that, talk of the Shield Hero and his Lurolona slave gradually began to spread. Before long, any slave said to be a Lurolona demi-human—despite being unable to tell whether they truly were or not—began to fetch a high price. Yes sir.”

So prices were skyrocketing now even though it had become difficult to tell whether the slaves being sold were actually from Raphtalia’s village. I’d seen this before. It wasn’t limited to slaves. This was what they referred to as a bubble in stock market terms. You could never know when it would crash.

It was easier to think of it in terms of Japanese yen. Every now and then, the price of yen would begin to rise for some mysterious reason, so everyone would start buying up yen. As a result, the value of the yen would rise even further. There would still be people selling yen, of course, but the majority of people would be buying, and so the price would continue to rise. Right now, the slaves from Raphtalia’s village, Lurolona, were that yen.

“Even so, demi-human slaves are everywhere you look. No matter how much of a hot item they are right now, there would just be too many fakes for that trend to continue, right?”

“Indeed. That’s why it has become a requirement that the slaves speak not only the official language of Melromarc, but also the unique dialect of the Seaetto territory. Yes sir.”

Surely that was something that they could just be taught. Then again, the language that you grew up speaking tended to be more deeply ingrained than most people realized. I had a friend once that was always speaking a certain regional dialect, even though he thought he was speaking standard Japanese. It would be obvious to anyone that knew the difference.

That probably had something to do with the rising prices, too. Since it was only slaves from Lurolona in Melromarc’s Seaetto territory, they were kind of like limited-edition products.

“I can’t believe this . . .”

Raphtalia seemed to grow dizzy. She stumbled backward a few steps and I reached out and held her in place.

“So what? Is the money that I prepared enough to buy them?”

“To be honest, that’s not likely. Yes sir.”

“The slaves should be appearing in the underground auctions shortly. Yes sir. I believe it would be best for the Shield Hero to go and observe the situation for himself. Yes sir.”

I couldn’t imagine a situation so bad that even the slave traders couldn’t afford to buy up the slaves. This place sure looked like whoever was running it was filthy rich.

“Fehhh . . .”

Even Rishia’s whimper sounded frustrated.

“Well let’s have a look, then.”

“Right this way. Yes sir.”

We put on our cloaks and followed the slave traders out into the Zeltoble night. We made our way through the back alleys, passing a variety of shops before arriving at a tavern. The slave trader approached the counter and spoke to the man standing behind it.

“We’ll have a bottle of Goodnight Binary.”

The tavern master furrowed his brow and cast a stern glance at us.

“Anything to mix that with?”

“Loose Winner Money. Yes sir.”

The tavern master stepped aside so that we could join him behind the counter and then signaled us to follow him. He led us to a door in the back, and we continued through the doorway and down a stairway leading to the basement. Was that some kind of secret password back there? Before long, we ended up in a large hall and were shown to our seats in what appeared to be a special section.

“This is the venue for tonight. Yes sir.”

“Ah . . . I see.”

So this was the underground arena where they showcased illegal fights? It looked more like a place where you might see the opera or something. Or maybe a concert by some Japanese idol was more likely.

“First, the Shield Hero should familiarize himself with the hand signals used to make a purchase during the auction.”

Ugh, what a hassle. The slave trader began to lecture me on the hand signals used to indicate different amounts of money. He started with the cues given to the auctioneer for increasing the current bid by one copper, silver, or gold, and then moved on to the cues for increasing the bid by two, five, and even ten times. The auction began before I could finish learning them all.

The races of the slaves that appeared on the stage varied from human to demi-human to therianthrope. The slaves were divided up into a range of categories—children, adults, the elderly, men, women, etc.—and even minute details, such as lineage, seemed to be treated as part of the product package. On top of that, a detailed introduction included things like place of birth, level, and aptitude for magic.

“Our next slave here has won seven out of ten fights in the coliseum.”

A rather well-built slave was standing in the spotlight.

“A coliseum record? So he’s a mercenary?”

That wasn’t a very impressive fight record. Just a bit above average, maybe.

“Yes sir. He amassed a sizable amount of debt and is participating in the coliseum as a slave in order to repay that debt.”

“Ah . . .”

I looked over at Raphtalia. She seemed to be looking over the slaves that were up on the stage.

“Next up is the showpiece of tonight’s auction! A demi-human slave from Lurolona!”

The spotlight suddenly moved to the next slave. That was the showpiece? The slave looked like a demi-human child and seemed to be trembling ever so slightly.

“No.”

Raphtalia shook her head.

“There was no such child in my village. One of the children did look similar, but that’s not her.”

“So it’s a fake . . .”

No one could tell the difference, anyway. Lurolona slaves were the hot item, so you could just dress it up as that. If you managed to fetch a hefty sum for it, that would be the end of it, even if they did find out otherwise afterward.

“We’ll start the bidding at 20 gold pieces!”

Twenty gold?! That high?!

“Twenty-five gold!”

“Thirty gold!”

The price continued to surge. I knew prices were up, but come on! And for a fake?! Even if we did find the real thing, there was no way I would be able to afford it.

“Fehhh . . .”

“Mr . . . Naofumi? I think your face is probably even paler than mine.”

“Uhhh . . . yeah . . .”

It got worse. The dud slave currently being bid on was considerably emaciated. We could try waiting until the trend had run its course and prices dropped, but if they were all in this kind of shape then the real Lurolona slaves might very well be dead by then.

But wait, this slave might have received special care thanks to the price surge, and yet it still looked frail. It wasn’t unthinkable that one of the real ones might be treated carelessly and end up dead. Not to mention, it was highly likely that they had been abused, considering the condition that Raphtalia, Keel, and the other slaves had been in.

In all honesty, the situation looked really bad. We probably needed to recover the slaves as quickly as possible. But damn . . . Solving this problem with the money we had just wasn’t realistic, and the queen of Melromarc made it clear that providing monetary aid wouldn’t be possible at the moment. With the reconstruction efforts after such extensive damage, the funds just weren’t there.

“Even if we can tell the real ones apart from the fakes . . . this . . .”

The thought of giving up crossed my mind, but Raphtalia and Raph-chan were both looking at me expectantly. I couldn’t say no to those eyes.

“We need to figure out a way to make some quick money and buy up the slaves fast.”

Should we buy them one at a time using the money we made from peddling? No, that would take too long. Besides, the amount of money we needed was on a completely different level. We’d also needed to be here at the underground auctions every night to look for the real slaves, and even if we went the route of negotiating with the merchants that purchased them, we would need to prepare enough money to match the purchasing price at the bare minimum.

Maybe I could take advantage of my position as the Shield Hero? No, that wouldn’t work. The prices were already skyrocketing. If news spread that someone famous wanted the slaves, prices would surge even higher. Perhaps we should break into the homes of the merchants that bought them and confiscate the slaves? That wouldn’t work, either. The slave curse could be set to kill, so that was too dangerous. What about crashing the bubble by spreading nasty rumors about the Lurolona slaves? That would take too long even if it did work.

I could go crying for help to the demi-human country of Siltvelt, or maybe Shieldfreeden, and have them purchase the slaves on my behalf. That would be a last resort, though. I wanted to avoid it if at all possible. They might end up holding the demi-human slaves ransom and force me to go to Siltvelt. I was in the middle of preparing for the next wave. The risk of getting caught up in some kind of mess with Siltvelt was just too high. Even worse, we might get caught up in some kind of big conspiracy that affected Raphtalia and the others, too.

I needed to make a ridiculous amount of money, and I needed to do it fast. Surely there had to be a way. We were in Zeltoble—the country of mercenaries and merchants . . . and underground auctions. Now that I thought about it, the slave trader had been whispering something about making money just a second ago.

“Hey, slave trader.”

“What is it? Yes sir.”

“How much money can you make fighting in the coliseum?”

We may have been temporarily weakened at the moment, but we were still a lot stronger than your average adventurer, knight, or warrior. I could conceal my identity as a hero and participate in a coliseum fight that allowed betting. Then, if I bet on myself . . . This wasn’t horse racing, but it would be like betting on a horse with 100 to 1 odds and winning.

“Payouts range from extravagant to insignificant. Yes sir.”

“I’m interested in that extravagant. If we concealed our true identities and fought in a coliseum that allowed betting . . . Let’s say we managed to win in the most dangerous one. Could we make enough money to buy the slaves at these inflated prices?”

“Hold on just a moment. Yes sir.”

The slave trader began whispering back and forth with his uncle. A few moments later . . .

“It’s not impossible. That said, I can’t guarantee you will make it out alive. It’s quite likely to prove rather dangerous.”

“Hmph . . . I’m not worried about that.”

I mean, come on. If we were talking about a risk of death, that’s something we had faced countless times, and we were still here. I’d fought against the waves, against conspiracy, and against religion. I’d fought against the Spirit Tortoise, and I’d even fought in another world. I had been on the verge of death time and again, and that wasn’t going to stop any time soon. If that was the only problem, then I’d face that risk again fighting in the coliseum for the sake of Raphtalia’s village.

“. . .”

Raphtalia looked at me with a mix of expectation and apprehension on her face. Raph-chan was doing the same. Rishia was panicking over what my decision would be, and Filo had her head cocked to the side as if she had no idea what was going on.

“Don’t worry, Raphtalia. I’ll get your friends back, no matter what.”

“Mr. Naofumi . . .”

Raphtalia’s expression transformed into one of relief upon hearing my words. I knew this kind of behavior didn’t really fit my image, but I had plenty of reason to do this for Raphtalia.

“That said, the prices of the slaves have skyrocketed, and we don’t have enough money to buy them right now. I can’t say I like the thought of doing this, but we’ll just have to buy Raphtalia’s friends with money earned by fighting in the coliseum. I’m sorry it has to be dirty money, but it’s the only way.”

Raphtalia nodded decisively. And so it was settled—we would use the slave trader’s connections to take up the gauntlet and fight in the vicious coliseum.

Chapter Eleven: Slave Hunters

Before anything else, we needed to get the money for the wager. When it came to betting, the more money you could wager, the better. Also, if they figured out that I was the Shield Hero, the amount we could make would plummet. That said, I had to get the capital we would need to wager to win it all in one stroke . . .

I considered raising money by offering express transportation to Melromarc using my portal. That was one way to make money in an online game that I had played once. A one-way trip between Melromarc and Zeltoble took two weeks, so there were sure to be people who would jump on the chance to be able to make that same trip instantaneously.

The problem was pricing. Even if people were willing to spend more, you’d probably be lucky to charge somewhere between one and five gold pieces for the fare. Generating positive word of mouth would also be important for getting customers. Smuggling could end up being a problem, but that could be solved by working with whoever was responsible for inspections in Melromarc. Still, making money doing something like that would draw far too much attention. Another issue was only being able to send six people each hour. I wanted to avoid going that route, if possible.

We returned to the slave trader’s underground market. I shook my head slowly at a worried-looking Rishia.

“What’s up?”

“Fehh . . .”

“Relax, Rishia. I don’t plan on making you fight.”

“Hmm . . .”

I wasn’t sure if it was just poor air circulation or what, but Filo seemed to be less energetic than usual.

“Even if we tried making money by placing some of the stuff we got from Kizuna’s world on the black market, doing so in an efficient manner would take time.”

We would have to go through the trouble of demonstrating that the items were something worth getting excited about, like we had done with the spirit water. We had the Scroll of Return items, but there were only so many. Even if we talked up the fact that they allowed the user to teleport to the dragon hourglasses, and then set out to produce more, there were just too few to start with. There were the items that could check defeated monsters for drops, but those were still being analyzed. We would need to mass-produce them, and while we had figured out how to do that, it still wasn’t clear if they would function properly in this world.

“In that case, I will take care of entering you into the coliseum fights. Yes sir.”

“Alright. I don’t care if it’s dangerous or whatever—just make sure it’s the one we can make the most money off of.”

“I look forward to seeing what kind of performance a determined Shield Hero will give. Yes sir!”

“I’m in a bad mood right now. Get out of my sight before I decide to give you a piece of my mind.”

“The way your eyes suddenly fill with such sinister intent . . . It sends tingles of excitement down my spine!”

“I guess we should head back to the village for the time being.”

The situation had changed. Even if we had a plan now, we still needed to go back to the village first.

“Yes . . . I agree. We should probably explain the situation to Keel and the others.”

“That won’t be an easy talk . . .”

It wouldn’t be fun telling them that we needed to make a ridiculous amount of money to rescue their friends and there was no telling if we’d even be successful. Then again, only four of them were actually from Lurolona, and that was counting Keel. Regardless, the slaves’ eyes sparkled with pride for the hard work they were doing to rebuild their village.

“Either way, we need to go back. Later, slave trader.”

“I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Yes sir.”

Truthfully, I’d rather not see him again, but this was for the village. I gave him the obligatory wave while registering the portal location and then we teleported back to the village.

We arrived back in the village, and I was left speechless.

“What . . . the hell?!”

“What’s going on?!”

It wasn’t just me. Raphtalia, Filo, Rishia, and even Raph-chan were all at a loss for words. The first thing that jumped out at me was the sight of flames pouring out of a building as several soldiers, who had probably been on standby, shouted and ran out of the village with their weapons in hand.

“Hey! What’s going on?!”

“Oh! Shield Hero! It’s the slave hunters! They’re attacking the village!”

I could see a hint of relief in the soldiers’ faces when they saw me. Slave hunters?! Slave hunters had shown up at a time like this?! You’ve got to be shitting me! Like I told the slave trader, I was in a bad mood. And I was going to destroy these bastards.

“No way!”

“Raphtalia!”

Raphtalia gripped her katana and took off running toward the source of the commotion.

“Filo! You go with Raphtalia and annihilate the slave hunters! Rishia, you see to the wounded and protect anyone that can’t fight. You soldiers go report to Eclair in the neighboring town!”

“Okaaay!”

“Fehhh!”

“That’s already been taken care of!”

That was a relief. They were handling the situation better than I would have expected. I chased after Raphtalia, who had run off into the distance. That’s when I noticed that the village was completely surrounded by slave hunters. There were ten slaves in the village. A good number of soldiers were keeping guard over the village, too. There seemed to be quite a few slave hunters, but it was impossible to fully grasp the situation in the dark of the night. That didn’t matter . . . We would do what had to be done.

“Struggling is useless!” yelled one of the attackers.

“Hiya!” Raphtalia shouted as she cut down the attacking slave hunter in the blink of an eye.

“Arghhh!”

Blood erupted from the slave hunter’s body as he crumpled forward onto the ground with a thud. I was only guessing, but he probably hadn’t classed up yet. Or maybe going up against Raphtalia’s katana would have been an exercise in futility even if he had already classed up.

“Let’s protect the village! Come on!”

I could hear Keel’s voice. She was armed, and it looked like she was fighting off the slave hunters successfully, along with the other slaves from the village. I had been a little bit worried, but it seemed like the slaves were holding their own. Perhaps being raised as my slaves had paid off. They had gotten about as strong as Raphtalia had been before she classed up. I wanted to believe that they would have no problem standing up to the likes of slave hunters or bandits in terms of abilities.

“So you want to fight, eh?! Then I won’t hold back! Gahhh!”

The slave hunter pointed his sword at Keel and . . . suddenly a hole opened up in the ground below him and he fell in, leaving only his head exposed. Just as I was wondering what had happened, Imiya’s head popped up out of the dirt.

“Thanks, Imiya!”

Imiya gave Keel a thumbs-up. So that’s what it was . . . Imiya had dug a pit.

“Gweeeeeh!”

Filo Underling #1 was helping defend the slaves and gave the slave hunter a fierce kick. The other monsters seemed to be putting up a good fight, too.

“Now!”

Keel and Imiya had left themselves open to attack and the remaining slave hunters rushed at them.

“Air Strike Shield!”

I blocked their path with a shield.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

Then I cast a force field around us and stepped in between Keel and the slave hunters.

“Bubba!”

“Looks like you guys are putting up a pretty good fight.”

“You bet! This time we will protect the village!”

Keel’s eyes were filled with determination. That’s right. She was no longer a poor, helpless slave that had to rely on others to protect her. Now she had the strength to fight back and protect the others in the village against the injustice of the slave hunters.

“We can fight back now thanks to you, bubba!”

“That’s good to hear. I see you’re helping out, too, Imiya.”

“Oh . . . yeah . . .”

Imiya looked proud of himself.

“Hiyaaa!”

At that very moment, Raphtalia flew in like a bat out of hell and mowed down the attacking slave hunters. She was emanating an aura of bloodlust. The slave hunters weren’t dead, but their fighting days had come to an end.

“Rafuuu!”

Raph-chan’s fur was standing on end as she moved in sync with Raphtalia, assisting her in combat. She kept the enemy disoriented with her illusions while biting one here and batting another with her tail there.

“Alright! Everyone! Now that I’m here, you can all relax. Get out there and show these thieves that attacked your village what you’ve got!”

“Okay!”

Slaves and monsters alike all whooped together in response.

“Ugh . . . To think that the Shield Hero would show up now! Wasn’t he supposed to be gone?!”

One of the slave hunters mumbled to himself as he struggled against Raphtalia, their blades locked. He seemed to have some experience in combat—he used a combination of magic and swordsmanship and he was putting up a good fight. The guy was actually fairly strong.

“It sounds like you were waiting for me to be gone to make your move. Unfortunately for you, heroes have the ability to teleport.”

I guess they were foolish enough to think that I wouldn’t drop in to check on the village while I was away.

“Raphtalia!”

“What?”

“Can you produce a light bright enough to illuminate the whole village? I want to see how many slave hunters there are. It would also serve as a flare to signal the others in the neighboring town.”

“Leave it to me!”

Raphtalia thrust the slave hunter away from her and took several steps back to join me. She sheathed her katana and began to cast a spell.

“Filo!”

“Yup! I’ll protect everyone!”

While Raphtalia was casting her magic, Filo launched a flurry of kicks at the slave hunters. Keel and the other combat division slaves followed up, finishing off one slave hunter after another. Even so, it would take someone of Filo’s level to make such quick work of the more skilled slave hunters, so the slaves were slowly losing ground.

“Shooting Star Shield! Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Attack Support!”

I stood in front of everyone and took the brunt of the slave hunters’ attacks while casting skills to protect Filo and the other slaves. I grabbed the arm of one of the slave hunters and threw him toward Filo.

“Gah!”

Naturally, Filo finished the slave hunter off with a swift kick.

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan’s tail puffed up as she assisted with Raphtalia’s incantation.

“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Flood the area with light!”

“Drifa Light!”

Raphtalia conjured up a ball of light and hurled it up into the sky. The magical light lit up the village like a flare. That was sure to signal the soldiers in the neighboring village, who would then come to our aid.

As the light made its way high up into the sky, I counted how many slave hunters were in the village. One, two, three . . . There sure were a lot of them. Just counting the ones that had been hidden in the darkness, there were a lot of them. I was thinking maybe thirty, but that wasn’t even close. There had to be at least fifty just in the area surrounding the village.

There were only five slaves here—including Raphtalia—that were originally from this village. Just how many people did they round up to come capture them? I couldn’t believe the lengths that people would go to. Then again, it was safe to assume you could get at least 30 gold pieces per slave if you captured them and sold them off in Zeltoble. I guess the allure of making a quick fortune would attract numbers.

“Hiya!”

Raphtalia leapt forward and slashed at the slave hunters immediately upon finishing her incantation. It was almost scary, the way she was fighting. I guess it was to be expected, seeing as how this place was precious to her—a place worth protecting.

“Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!”

With a katana in each hand, Raphtalia relentlessly cut down one slave hunter after another. She moved gracefully, as if she were dancing on the battlefield. It really was a thing of beauty. Surely I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Raphtalia . . . You’re amazing . . .”

“She looks like she’s dancing!”

The villagers were all entranced by the sight of Raphtalia fighting.

“Keep your eyes on the enemy!”

I snapped back to reality upon being reprimanded by Raphtalia and struck back at the attacking slave hunters.

“Ugh . . .”

“What are you fools doing!”

A man who seemed to be the slave hunters’ boss appeared. I could see his armor had lost its sheen.

“That’s—”

Raphtalia, Keel, and the rest of the slaves from the village were all at a loss for words. What was it? Did they know this guy?

“How long do you idiots plan on fooling around?! You’ve turned our plan into a failure! You there! How many have you caught?”

“Umm . . . well, we . . .”

The subordinate slave hunter’s voice trailed off and the boss let out a loud click of the tongue in angry disapproval. Then more slave hunters that looked like they knew how to handle themselves came pouring in from outside of the village in droves.

“Tsk! To think that the Shield Hero would show up now . . . That wasn’t in the plan! Still, he may be a hero, but he’s only the Shield Hero. Just wait for him to let his guard down and then snatch up one or two of those brats!”

So this guy was like one of those bosses that always makes ridiculous demands, I guess. But forget about that . . . I was more concerned with the way that Raphtalia and the others had reacted.

“This guy . . . This is the guy . . .”

Keel’s face was more distorted with anger now than it was just a moment ago. Raphtalia remained calm, but I could still tell that she was absolutely furious. The fact that her tail was puffed up more than it ever had been before made that clear.

“Raphtalia. Keel. You know this guy?”

I turned to face the slave hunter boss and readied my shield.

“Yes. The Melromarc soldier that came to our village to capture us and sell us into slavery . . . and that killed the village’s remaining adults . . . That’s this man!”

“Well now! I never would have thought that the little raccoon brat who got away back then would end up with the Shield Hero!”

The slave hunter boss—the former Melromarc soldier—remembering Raphtalia, casually readied his sword. He probably had a pretty good idea how to use that thing, too. Keel and the others wouldn’t likely stand much of a chance against him at their current level.

“Mr. Iwatani! Are you okay?!”

Just then, Eclair and the Melromarc soldiers came running up.

“You?!”

“Raphtalia says they’re Melromarc soldiers. You know anything about that, Eclair?”

“Yes. They’re the soldiers that came here hunting for demi-humans after the territory was destroyed by the wave. I heard that they fled from the powers that be at the time, once they’d found out that you had proven your innocence.”

“I see. So basically, they’re former soldiers that fled the country before they got their punishment.”

The former soldiers turned slave hunters apparently didn’t appreciate my wording, because they were all glaring at me now.

So what to do? We had to be careful about Keel and the others that hadn’t classed up yet. Thankfully, no one had been caught by the slave hunters yet. But the enemy had come to attack in droves. Even if I had nothing to worry about myself, I couldn’t be sure that the others would make it out unscathed. It was only physically possible for me to grab maybe three or four enemies at one time. By my estimates, there were easily fifty or more slave hunters there, so it would be difficult to protect Keel and the others. That said, it seemed like only a select few of them had classed up and knew what they were doing. Those were the ones right here in front of me, so . . . maybe I could manage, after all?

This was also the perfect chance for Raphtalia and Keel. The very villains that had ruined their lives had rolled right up onto their doorstep. Some of the slave hunters had realized they were at a disadvantage and tried to run, but Keel and Raphtalia were not about to let that happen.

“Tsk! You’ve forgotten your place, shield! They’ll be after us now since you had to show up!”

“Like I care? Besides, I can’t imagine there having been a single good reason for you lowlifes to run around capturing territory residents just because the governor died.”

“Oh, but there was! Or do you not know?”

Huh? He was being serious. Ohhh . . . I get it.

“Are you referring to the dogma of the Church of the Three Heroes cult? Sorry, buddy, but that propaganda won’t fly anymore.”

“You bastard!”

He sure could yell, but he hadn’t tried to attack yet. Maybe he realized that it would be pointless to attack me? No, his eyes gave him away. He was planning something.

“Take this!”

The slave hunters shot flaming arrows at various buildings around the village. What a pain . . .

“Put out those fires immediately!”

Shit! So this is what people meant when they said fighting against the odds. But it wasn’t like we were just going to stand by and watch.

“Raphtalia! Keel! Can you handle that guy?”

“Yes . . .”

“We’ll protect everyone!”

Raphtalia nodded calmly, and Keel cried out with determination.

“Good. Then you two make those dirt bags pay!”

I quietly uttered an incantation and cast support magic on Raphtalia and Keel.

“Zweite Aura!”

With all of their stats boosted, Raphtalia and Keel charged at the slave hunter boss.

“Filo! You give any slave hunters you find around the village a good kick. Same goes for your underling!”

“Okaaay!”

“Gweh!”

I sent Filo and her Underling Filolial #1 to take care of the slave hunters that were still lingering around the village.

“Mr. Iwatani!”

“Eclair, don’t even think about holding back just because you used to serve together. Put an end to these traitors!”

“I plan to!”

Eclair and her soldiers nodded and took a fighting stance.

“It seems like you lowlifes thought this was going to be easy, but today is not your lucky day. You probably expected to crush the villagers, but the only thing getting crushed tonight is you!”

I dashed forward to provide Raphtalia with backup.

“Tsk! Everyone! Pull out!”

The boss raised his sword and ordered his men to withdraw, but Raphtalia and Keel both brandished their weapons and leapt at him. The boss warded off the attacks with his sword and locked blades with Raphtalia. He attempted to deliver a swift kick to Keel while he was struggling with Raphtalia, but Keel saw through the attack and dodged it by half a step.

“Hiiiyaaaaa!”

“Ugh!”

The boss guarded against Raphtalia’s katana with his own sword. He was nearly thrown backward but steadied himself just as Keel’s sword grazed his armor.

“Damn you! Don’t get cocky, you demi-human scum!”

There was a loud explosion that came from right where their blades were locked together. Magic!? Now they were getting fancy on us! Looking more closely, I could see that there was someone in the rear providing support by casting magic.

“I’m not done yet!”

Unfazed by the explosion, Raphtalia spun around and sliced sideways with her katana.

“Whoa!”

The guy had a good eye, if nothing else. But he was forgetting something important.

“Unfortunately for you, you picked the wrong opponent. You just might have lived a long life if you hadn’t gone and done something as stupid as attacking the village under the protection of the Shield Hero.”

That’s right. He was forgetting that I was here. I grabbed the boss by the collar and pulled him to me.

“Argh . . . Let go!”

“Yeah right! There’s no running from this, you coward! This is the Shield Hero’s fight!”

I signaled to Raphtalia and Keel with my eyes.

“Here I go!”

Raphtalia sheathed her katana momentarily before drawing it once again, as if she were about to perform a finishing move.

“Instant Blade! Mist!”

“This is for everyone you hurt!”

Keel swung her sword and landed a direct hit immediately following Raphtalia’s skill.

“Arggghhhhh!”

Blood splattered all over me, but I couldn’t have cared less. The guy got what he deserved. The boss went limp and his armor was in shreds. I shoved him away and he fell to the ground.

“Ahhh!”

Having finally realized that they had picked a fight with the wrong person, the other slave hunters began screaming in fear. I may not have been using the Shield of Wrath, but I probably still looked like a monster to them.

“Come now, it’s time to confess your sins . . . and pay the price, you scumbags!”

The rest of the fight was completely one-sided, and we captured a ton of the slave hunters. The boss that Raphtalia had defeated was still alive, although just barely. I thought they had killed him, but apparently they stopped just short of it.

“You’re not going to finish him?”

“No . . .”

Raphtalia and the others apparently wanted to hand him over to the authorities and have him punished.

“Now then . . .”

I looked at the hordes of slave hunters tied up and scattered all across the village square. To think they had rounded up and brought so many . . . and the whole lot of them were lowlife trash.

“Damn! They’re monsters!” yelled one of the slave hunters.

“You told us we would be able to handle them regardless of their level advantage!”

The slave hunter subordinates were spouting off begrudging complaints at their leaders. That’s a lowlife for you—blaming it on his superiors when he fails.

“That’s just too bad for you, scumbags. You want the heroes to protect your world? Well, this is part of that.”

“Hmph . . .”

“We won . . . Everybody! We won!”

Keel and the rest of the slaves from the village let out a big hurrah in celebration of our victory. Imiya and some kid, who seemed to like monsters, looked like they were getting in on the celebration as well. It didn’t matter if they were originally from the village or not—they’d all experienced a similar kind of trauma. Their victory against the vile slave hunters would be good for them.

“Yes, we won. I think that this time, for sure . . . we took back the flag we lost that day,” whispered Raphtalia, while gripping her katana firmly and staring off into the distance.

“Flag, huh? You really want a flag that bad?”

“That’s not what I meant . . .”

“Raphtalia, this flag . . .”

Eclair interrupted before I could finish, speaking to Raphtalia with a remorseful look on her face.

“I’m sorry. This should have never happened while I was here . . .”

“Don’t worry about it, Eclair. But tell me, do you know if there was a flag flying in this village?”

“Huh? Umm, yes, it was a flag presented as a gift to the village by my father.”

Aha, so that’s the flag that Raphtalia had been talking about.

“Eclair, why don’t you fly that flag again as a reward for their victory?” I suggested.

“Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia exclaimed in surprise.

“All of the hard work that everyone has put in since coming back has finally paid off. Raphtalia, this is a new beginning for your village, is it not?”

Raphtalia closed her eyes for a moment as if she were reminiscing about the past, and then she opened them again and nodded.

“You’re right. I’d like that.”

Besides, Keel seemed to be oddly fixated on that flag, too. I’d made her that kid’s lunch with the flag on it on a whim once, and she had been completely ecstatic. She held on to the flag like it was a piece of treasure. Now I could see that the flag had special meaning for them.

“Alright then.”

I put the conversation with Raphtalia and Eclair on hold and looked over at the slave hunters we’d gathered up.

“What should we do about these scumbags?”

“Ordinarily they would be taken to the castle, where they would then receive a fitting punishment.”

“Hmm . . . But with this many of them working together in a coordinated effort . . . ?”

“Of course, it is a grievous crime, in my opinion. Most likely they will have their levels reset and then be held in involuntary servitude.”

“Not executed?”

“Normally the principal offenders would be, but . . .”

Eclair looked long and hard at the faces of the former soldiers, who would likely be categorized as the principal offenders.

“These men come from some of Melromarc’s more respectable families. Even if they were sentenced to death, it would most likely be a very lengthy process.”

“Meaning that if the queen forced it, there would be backlash from the nobility, putting her position at stake?”

Eclair nodded in response. I guess even monarchies had to deal with annoyances like this. Maybe that was why the former soldiers seemed to be taking the whole thing rather lightly. Those scumbags . . . Did they not realize the situation they were in?

“A great deal of emphasis is placed on lineage. If worse comes to worst, the queen could be replaced with someone of the same bloodline favored by the nobility. It’s not unthinkable, considering that the country is currently in a weakened state due to the Spirit Tortoise incident.”

“Meaning . . . a distant relative?”

That was probably it. It’s not like the queen’s two daughters would be the only royal family. There would be the head family, and then there would be branches and all of that. The nobility could just pick one of the relatives that aligned with their purposes and have them lead a revolt, seizing the castle and replacing the queen.

“The nobility would probably come up with some kind of pretext like ‘our poor soldiers that went missing because the country was a mess finally show up only to be apprehended based on unfounded accusations!’”

“Yeah, they would, even though they’re as guilty as can be. What a pain. Should we just kill them off and say that they struggled?”

The mere fact that they were alive would be a hazard with trash like this. I had absolutely no doubt that it would come back to bite us later. In that case, it would make way more sense to just have them take their leave from this world.

“If you used your authority as a hero, that could probably work. However, I would personally prefer that you abide by the country’s rules.”

“Even if it means a long, drawn-out process that ends up getting them involuntary servitude instead of a death sentence?”

And for something that happened on Eclair’s father’s territory, their victims would be turning in their graves.

“I get what you’re saying. I agree that their actions are unforgivable, but even so . . .”

“You would think that the nobility in charge of the area where the crime happened would get to decide how it was dealt with.”

“They would . . . normally. We could indeed decide the punishment of their subordinates.”

“Execution, without question.”

There was no need to consult the queen.

“Why did so many slave hunters show up here in the first place? Death penalty or not, we need to make them talk—”

“About that . . . I needed to talk to the slaves, so this is the perfect chance. Everyone gather ’round!”

I went on to explain about how Lurolona slaves were being handled in Zeltoble.

“So in short . . . you’re saying that they were planning to capture the village slaves and sell them off in Zeltoble while the prices are high?!” Eclair was glaring at the slave hunters with an even more threatening look than before.

“No way . . . Does that mean that we can’t get everyone back?” Keel stared at me imploringly, with a look of worry in her eyes.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do whatever it takes to buy them back. The possibility of more of their kind showing up again is what we have to worry about.”

I guess problems like this came along with a sudden rise in prices. We had to figure out a way to put an end to the overvaluation of slaves from this village. I had a whole new set of annoyances to deal with now. In the meantime, I needed to prioritize toughening up the slaves. They still weren’t quite ready to class up.

“Bubba! If you’re going to compete in the coliseum, then let us compete, too!”

They must have been emboldened by their victory, because Keel and the other slaves who had shown a willingness to fight stepped forward.

“Hmm . . . We could have you compete, but it would be risky . . .”

That was a possibility. But taking them to Zeltoble and having someone figure out they were Lurolona slaves is what really worried me. If they ended up getting abducted in a crowded place like that, finding them would be difficult. Slaves could be tracked using the slave curse, but people weren’t stupid. They would probably overwrite the slave curses without hesitation.

I wanted to go all out—get the money and buy up all of the slaves in one fell swoop. This was a matter of urgency, and I had a feeling we were well past being able to raise the money by gradually working our way through the coliseum competitions. But we needed to gather enough money for a massive wager to make this plan work. There was no point if we couldn’t bet big.

Of course, it was a given that we wouldn’t lose, being a hero and his party. But too many wins would make the bet less lucrative. I had almost zero experience with horse racing or anything like that, but I knew that betting on a clear winner wouldn’t make you much money, because everyone else would be betting on it, too. That’s why you wanted to bet big and win big before the word spread.

We could sell something of value . . . If only we had a bunch of gold or something. As the thought crossed my mind, I looked at the slave hunters and suddenly it hit me.

“I just came up with a good idea.”

I had a big, mischievous grin on my face. Raphtalia must have noticed and had a good idea of what was coming, because she rolled her eyes.

“Mr. Naofumi, you’re going to try something crazy, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m going to go fetch a certain someone. I’ll be back in about an hour, so wait here.”

I used my portal to teleport back to Zeltoble on my own. And then . . .

“Oh? Shield Hero, I thought you returned to the village? Yes sir.”

“I did, but something came up. I want you to come with me.”

Around an hour later, after the cool down expired on my portal skill, I returned to the village again with the slave trader and his flunky.

“Mr. Naofumi? Umm . . . where did you . . .”

Raphtalia was looking at the slave trader with her head cocked to the side in confusion. The other villagers were also watching, curious as to what was about to happen. Eclair and the soldiers were looking at the slave trader with their brows furrowed.

“Eclair. The responsibility for these scumbags technically hasn’t been given to the authorities yet, right?”

“That’s true, but . . . What are you planning to do, Mr. Iwatani?”

“Just be quiet and watch. I came up with the perfect way to take care of this.”

“Be careful, Eclair. This is where Mr. Naofumi usually says something completely outrageous.”

Hey, what happened to Raphtalia believing in me? Then again, I was well aware of the fact that I tended to do crazy things at times like these. She had winced when she heard about how I sold the spirit water. Kizuna had been really proud of the whole thing, though, so she’d just acted normal and didn’t say anything.

“You know what will happen to you if you even think about touching us, right?”

The slave hunter boss was trying to intimidate me. The scumbag probably thought he would get off easy, and he certainly didn’t think he was in danger of dying or anything. Surely we wouldn’t do anything that would endanger the queen’s position, right?

“Relax. I’m going to let you all live, just like you want.”

The underlings all showed visible signs of relief when they heard that. The boss, on the other hand, seemed perplexed. I guess he wasn’t as dumb as he looked.

“Slave trader, can you make these scumbags my slaves?”

“I can. Yes sir.”

“Surely you don’t intend on turning them into slaves and forcing them to help develop the territory or protect it from other slave hunters, do you?” Eclair suddenly chimed in.

Did Eclair really think I would do something so lax? Then again, it wasn’t a bad idea. I could use the slave curse to set harsh restrictions that would kill them if they disobeyed orders. But there was a fatal flaw in that plan.

“And just let them wait for a chance to have someone they know remove the curse? I’m not that dumb.”

Several of the slave hunters must have been thinking about doing exactly that, because they had been grinning slyly, but now they were looking confused.

“The reason I’m making them my slaves is to force them into my party and to make the next part of my plan easier.”

“Wh . . . what are you going to do?” Rishia asked, looking at me nervously.

Rishia was here? She had just kind of faded into the background for a while there.

“I’m going to take them to Zeltoble. And then I’m going to sell them. As slaves, of course.”

“Wha—”

Eclair was at a loss for words. Raphtalia sighed in dismay. That’s right. What we needed right now was a huge sum of money so that we could go all in and win big at the coliseum. Every little bit counted.

Of course, if we sold the slave hunters off as slaves, there would likely be some Melromarc nobility ready to rescue them by buying them back. There was even a risk of them getting away before that, if we weren’t careful. The slave hunters probably knew that, because they still didn’t look too worried. They probably figured that they wouldn’t fetch a very good price anyway. But I wasn’t going to let them off that easy.

“Slave trader. Do you happen to have any relatives in Siltvelt?”

“Of course. Yes sir.”

“Good. In that case, I want to sell these scumbags to those relatives. Let’s see . . . Tell them that they’re being offered by the Shield Hero and that they’re the slave hunters that captured the demi-human slaves originally from the Seaetto territory.”

The slave hunters’ faces suddenly grew pale. The slave trader, on the other hand, was looking at me with the biggest smile on his face that I had seen so far. First there was the fact that they were being offered by the Shield Hero, which would raise their value, since the country worshipped the Shield Hero. Then there was the fact that they were notorious criminals that had slaughtered or enslaved countless demi-humans from the Seaetto territory, which was supposed to be a symbol of friendship between Melromarc and Siltvelt.

How would the Siltvelt demi-humans view such people? It would be infuriating. The living embodiment of evil to them, I’m sure. If such a person showed up on the slave market and was purchased . . . what would happen to them? It went without saying that they would be beaten and abused as a form of stress relief, just like Raphtalia and the other slaves from her village had been by the nobility in this country. This is what it meant to pay for something with your life.

“That . . . that’s not even funny! Selling us to Siltvelt?! That’s not something a hero would do!”

The slave hunter boss started raving.

“It’s not as bad as a country’s soldiers killing and selling off their own citizens. I’m sure you scumbags have a pretty good idea of the hell that these slaves have been through.”

“This is different! There’s no reason we should have to go through that!”

“So what . . . It’s okay to force it on them, but it’s not cool when it’s forced on you?”

I was at a loss for words. There’s always a chance that soldiers will die in war, yet the thought of being tortured and dying a painful death as a slave frightened these guys. Just how pathetic were they?

“Here’s a quote that I was relatively fond of back in my world, just for you scumbags: ‘Don’t shoot at people unless you’re ready to be shot.’”

It was something that some hard-boiled crime fiction detective had said. If you weren’t ready to suffer yourself, you had no place making anyone else suffer.

“Ridiculous! It only makes sense that demi-humans would suffer and die! You can’t compare civilized human beings like us to lowly demi-humans like—hrrmg!”

The guy was annoying me, so I gagged him to shut him up. The faces of these scumbags distorted with fear was a pretty glorious sight. It wasn’t quite as good as the time Trash and Bitch were forced to prostrate themselves before me, but still . . . These scumbags deserved at least this much. It was their fault that these demi-humans here ever became slaves in the first place. Now it was their turn to become slaves.

“Eclair, you’re a straight arrow, so you probably can’t condone this, but these scumbags need to be punished appropriately. And I’m going to use the money that I make from selling them to get the Lurolona villagers back.”

“Ugh . . .”

Eclair groaned ruefully but showed no signs of taking any further action. After all, she knew that if we turned them over to the authorities they might end up getting off easy.

“Another thing, Eclair. This will set an example. Slave hunters will know what to expect if they try to attack the village again.”

The attacks would never stop if there was no real punishment worth speaking of. There were likely those that would come even with the risk of execution. But what if it meant getting caught, enslaved, and being abused? If we showed them that there were punishments worse than death in this world, then any slave hunter still considering coming to the village were sure to give up. Not to mention, the village was being protected by the Shield Hero.

“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia began.

“I’m doing this no matter how absurd you think it is, Raphtalia. I’m going to do whatever it takes to rescue your friends.”

Maybe she wouldn’t like living in a place that was built using dirty money. Sure, I wanted to save the day with honest money like the gallant hero of some novel, if possible, but I didn’t have the leeway to choose my means. The lives of the Lurolona slaves might very well have been in danger while we were here wasting time with this mess. Raphtalia believed in me and this was for her, too. Standing around waiting wasn’t an option, even if Raphtalia didn’t like the alternative.

“Bubba . . .”

Keel called out to me with uncertainty in her voice.

“Do you think less of me now? Either way, I’m the boss here. I appreciate your willingness to come forward and volunteer to fight in the coliseum, but right now you need to forget about that and focus on becoming stronger. Leave the dirty work to me.”

I turned my back to the slaves and took a step forward. That’s right. They didn’t need to get their hands dirty. They could leave that to me.

“This isn’t the time for you to be taking risks. You’re going to protect the village, right?”

“Yeah . . .”

In any case, I could probably make a good amount of money if I sold off this many slave hunters. It had been an unexpected hassle, but it worked out in our favor in the end.

I stood there, staring silently at the portal cool down time hovering in my field of vision.

Chapter Twelve: The Department Store

Each hour, I transported another batch of the enslaved slave hunters to the slave trader’s place in Zeltoble, and by the time I finished it was around noon the following day. I’d taken a nap or two, but it had been light sleep, so I didn’t feel like I had slept at all.

“I will get in touch with my relative in Siltvelt. Yes sir!”

I’d taken the slave trader back with the first batch of slave hunters and he’d contacted his relative in Siltvelt right away.

“I’ve been told that the reaction is favorable. Yes sir. Reservations from local nobility for the slaves being offered by the Shield Hero have flooded in, and apparently they are already holding an advance auction.”

“Ohhh . . .”

“In which case, we can pay you for the slaves before the trading is actually completed.”

A money order, in other words. Then again, we had the technology to send and receive communications, so I guess it wasn’t quite the same.

“This went so well that I almost want to pat myself on the back.”

“The slaves you’ve provided should be transported to Siltvelt by some time tonight. Yes sir.”

It felt like throwing meat at a bunch of drooling wild dogs that hadn’t eaten for days. I knew Melromarc was full of trash, but apparently Siltvelt was just as shady. Then again, I’m not sure what that made me since I was taking advantage of that shadiness.

Raphtalia seemed a bit disappointed. She was sighing while I was talking with the slave trader, but the slave hunters were getting a fitting punishment. And I had even secretly cleared it with the queen. Melty had showed up that morning, appalled by the fact that the queen had given the plan her unofficial blessing. Apparently she was using it as a bargaining chip for negotiations, since traitors of Melromarc were being sent to Siltvelt, which of course made Siltvelt happy.

We returned to the slave trader’s underground slave market and went over everything one more time.

“In any case, it looks like we have enough money now to bet in the coliseum.”

It was time to get together with Raphtalia, Filo, Rishia, and Raph-chan and think about how to proceed, just like we had done yesterday.

“Despite how we got it . . . I guess you’re right.”

“If we want to really hit it big in one go, then we have to be prepared to accept the risks. We need to make sure we understand the rules and other details of the coliseum that we’ll be fighting in, too, right?”

If we were going to compete in the most dangerous of the coliseums, where the outcome was literally a matter of life or death, the consequences of leaving anything to chance were just too great. And there was no way I could compete on my own and expect to win. I was the Shield Hero, after all. All I could do was defend.

I’d approached the old Hengen Muso lady about participating, too, by the way. But she had built a reputation for herself in the coliseums before and had been banned from competing. That old lady’s past was riddled with mysteries.

“As a general rule, they’re elimination tournaments. Assuming the Shield Hero will be participating, I recommend competing as a team. Yes sir.”

“Obviously.”

“In that case, you can enter as a team of three or a team of five.”

Three people . . . I guess that would be me, Raphtalia, and Filo. I wasn’t planning on having Rishia participate in the first place, so that was pretty much the only way to go. I could have Raph-chan sub in for Filo depending on the situation, though.

If we went with five people, I could take Raph-chan and . . . maybe bring Keel or someone else. Even so . . . I wanted to avoid going with five people if possible. Raph-chan wasn’t all that strong, and while Keel and the others had gotten stronger, they still lacked experience. I couldn’t face Raphtalia if something went wrong and they ended up with the kind of injury that would leave a mark.

“Having your subordinates participate in a one-on-one coliseum might be good, too. Yes sir.”

“That’s the thing . . . How competitive is the one-on-one coliseum?”

Raphtalia’s katana was a vassal weapon from another world. I was sure she could win easily, even if it was the coliseum. Umm . . . was it just me? This was starting to feel a lot like the story from a popular old fighting manga where they ended up competing in a coliseum-style fighting tournament.

“The overall stakes and prize money are generally higher for the team competitions. Yes sir.”

“Team competition it is, then. Winning little by little is too much trouble.”

If I could participate, then teaming up with Raphtalia and Filo would be the safest bet . . . as long as the matches didn’t have any strange rules, that is.

“In that case . . . I’ll have you entered into an underground coliseum tournament that will be held soon. Yes sir.”

“Are there any special requirements to enter or anything else we need to worry about?”

“We’ll give the entry a little push to make sure it goes through. Yes sir.”

How dependable. Other than that, we just needed to make sure we didn’t do anything that wasn’t allowed.

“What about the rules? If they’re too complicated or the house takes the winnings or something, then I’m calling this off.”

“Three-on-three, no level classes, no race restrictions. That’s it. Yes sir.”

“Surprisingly simple.”

Simple was nice. Oh, and then there was the issue of how the winner was decided. I’m sure the slave trader had purposefully omitted this part. He handed me a pamphlet that appeared to be the coliseum rule book. It was written in the languages of all the different countries, including the official language of Melromarc. It said that a victory would be declared when an opponent died, lost consciousness, or admitted defeat. And then, below that . . .

“The key point is there at the end. Yes sir.”

“Participants are to provide their own weapons?”

“Yes sir! The sponsor of the next coliseum fight is the weapons merchant guild. Yes sir.”

So it was an underground coliseum backed by the weapons merchant guild . . . I could only imagine what kind of powerful weapons would show up at such a competition. Of course, we were using the legendary shield and a vassal weapon from another world, so we couldn’t really complain, regardless.

“If you like, perhaps you might consider observing the underground coliseum tournament that is currently being held. It may prove to be informative, I think. Yes sir. The tournament is being held at the same time as the slave auction. What would you like to do?”

Well, that did make sense. Seeing what went on would make it easier to come up with a strategy.

“In that case . . . Raphtalia, can you go to the auction tonight and keep an eye out for any Lurolona slaves?”

I could have gotten Keel and the others to help, but showing them that kind of thing probably wasn’t a good idea, since they had been traumatized and all. Then again, the same could be said about Raphtalia . . .

“Yes. That’s fine.”

“We really should make a complete list of everyone that was in the village. Can you do that, Raphtalia?”

I gave Raphtalia a pen and something to write on. It would be more efficient if we took full advantage of the slave trader’s connections, to search for the slaves, instead of just relying on Raphtalia’s eyes.

“Oh, umm . . . yes!”

Raphtalia started making a list on the piece of paper like I had asked. After all, not all of the slaves would be appearing in the auctions. I’m sure there were some slaves being held elsewhere, too. If we made it clear whom we were looking for beforehand, it would be possible to move straight to direct negotiations later.

“Fehhh . . .”

“Alright then. Since we’ll be competing in a dangerous coliseum fight, we should give some thought to how Raphtalia should approach offense.”

“Oh, umm . . . okay.”

Right now, the katanas Raphtalia had consisted of those she had gotten from monster materials and those that she had copied in Kizuna’s world, which still worked here. That meant there were a lot of gaps in what she could use, and her weapons hadn’t been adequately powered up, either.

Thankfully she could use the weapon she had gotten from the dragon emperor materials, but her stats still weren’t high enough to make much use of the katana she’d gotten from the four holy beast materials. That’s why she’d been making do with the dragon emperor katana for the time being.

The weapons made from the dragon emperor materials were exceptional pieces of equipment—Glass and the others favored them, as well. You could probably get by with relying solely on one of those weapons, but it was also better not to underestimate the importance of basic stat improvements and uncovering new skills. Not to mention, the katana still hadn’t been fully powered up, apparently.

“Slave trader. Are you familiar with any well-known weapon shops in Zeltoble?”

“I can have you taken to one, if you like. Yes sir.”

“Hmm . . . Yeah, let’s do that.”

It was a really busy city. So getting lost was a real possibility.

“I’ll have someone take you right away, then.”

A brawny man raised his hand, volunteering himself.

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

The slave trader’s assistant took us to the biggest shop in Zeltoble. It was a huge building that looked like a department store.

“Oh? If it isn’t the Shield Hero!”

I noticed a familiar face tending the shop on the first floor.

“You’re mistaken.”

That’s right. The accessory dealer that I met a while back was beckoning me over. I acted like I didn’t know him.

“This is my shop. I would absolutely love for you to take a look around.”

I couldn’t help but feel like he was telling me, “You’ll take this shop over, one day.” If I kept ignoring him he was likely to just interpret that as acceptance. I sighed and made eye contact.

“You’ve got a big shop here, eh.”

“I sure do. Can I help you find something, Shield Hero?”

“I came to look at weapons and armor.”

“That would be the second floor. Before that, can I interest you in any of the accessories here on the first floor?”

I looked around. There was an inordinate number of glittering accessories on display throughout the shop. Honestly, I felt like I was about to go blind.

“Not interested. I make my own.”

“I knew it! Tell me, have you been using what I taught you? There may come a time when you need to make something magnificent, and you won’t be able to do that if you let yourself get rusty.”

“From time to time. It’s saved my life more than once.”

That was the truth. I had made the cap for my shield and Raphtalia’s sheath just recently. The only problem was that I hadn’t been able to make any accessories that worked as well as the ones in Kizuna’s world. The haikuikku-like effect that triggered when Raphtalia unsheathed her katana didn’t work as well here, either. It only made her about as fast as Filo when she used the skill. Apparently the materials that I used to make the sheath didn’t exist in this world, so I had been mulling over whether I should try making her one with different specifications.

Other than that, I had been making accessories for the slaves using materials from monsters. Working with monster bones was my latest obsession. They were hard, and they gave higher stats than you would have expected. What was really nice was that imbuing them didn’t degrade the quality much. The downside was that the imbued effects weren’t that great.

“Here. It’s just a rough piece, but have a look.”

I showed him an accessory that I had been working on, albeit not very seriously.

“Oh! A bone accessory!”

“Is that not a thing?”

“Oh, you do see them from time to time, but . . . Hmm, yes. It’s a bit cheap, but it’s imbued with effects that a practical adventurer would appreciate.”

“It may be cheap material, but it’s still good for working on design, right?”

“By the way, I hear that you now have a territory of your own.”

“If you want to set up shop there then why don’t you come by?”

“I’m going to hold you to that!”

The accessory dealer’s eyes twinkled devilishly as he shouted. That just made me want to make things difficult for him. That’s the kind of person I was.

“You better not get in the way of development. Also, expect to be charged a fee for doing business there.”

“Of course! Heh heh heh . . .”

It seemed like the majority of the merchants I knew were a real depraved bunch. If he really did come to the territory, I’d have to keep close tabs on him.

“How is the accessory business treating you these days?”

“Business is good! We did just have quite the catastrophe, after all. Even the civilians seem to have realized that it’s up to them to protect themselves.”

The circumstances seemed to be treating his pockets well.

“Also, I’ve gotten in on the miraculous Cal Mira accessory business that you got started, as well.”

Oh yeah . . . He was talking about the advice I’d whispered to that fraudulent merchant back then. I’d seen those accessories show up every now and then, and it always surprised me.

“Anyways, I’m going to go look at the weapons.”

“I look forward to our next meeting!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Go easy on them at the underground coliseum tournament. Of course, I fully expect you will win, so I won’t be taking part this time.”

“—!”

Shivers ran down my spine. To think he’d already heard in such a short amount of time . . . Just how connected was this guy?!

“I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Thanks.”

Dealing with corrupt merchants always wore me out.

“Fehhh . . . That merchant is quite famous, you know.”

“I thought that might be the case.”

“They say he’ll put you out of business if you get on his bad side.”

“Don’t worry. He likes me.”

On the contrary, I was more afraid he’d try to force me to take over his shop. Rishia and I continued chatting as we climbed the stairs up to the second floor.

“Woooow, this is grreeeat! So shiiiiny!”

It looked like a showroom, with all kinds of weapons on display. Filo couldn’t take her eyes off all the shiny objects. She may have looked like a human, but she was a bird monster, after all.

Let’s see . . . A variety of siderite weapons, like swords and spears, were lined up in a row. Ahh, they were showroom products meant to attract attention and could only be handled and looked at in the showroom. Yeah, these were definitely the weapons that the other heroes had copied. Oh? There was some Spirit Tortoise gear, too. The materials were being sold to fund reconstruction efforts, after all. I’d heard about it while peddling goods, and apparently working with the materials was difficult.

It was all pretty much the same stuff that you could buy in Melromarc, but everything was priced super high. I was a bit surprised to see that a shop this big was full of weapons that didn’t seem to have much processing done to them. I guess it was different when they were made in other countries.

Hmm . . . I looked at the shields, too, but they were pretty much the same as what the old guy had in his shop. There did seem to be a few that I hadn’t seen before, so I figured I’d try picking them up.

“Excuse me. Is it okay if I hold this shield?”

“Go right ahead.”

After making sure it was okay with an employee, I went about picking up any shields I hadn’t seen at the old guy’s shop and activated weapon copy. Spike Shield, Frisbee Shield, Jewel Shield, Platinum Shield . . . I just copied them all.

“Raphtalia, did you find any katanas?”

“Umm, yes. They’re over here.”

Oh? I guess that was the country of merchants for you. There seemed to be a lot of imports from countries in the east. Raphtalia gripped the handles of all of the katanas on sale at the shop. Of course, there was no telling what the people at the shop would say if we told them we were copying all of their weapons, so we just kept quiet. It kind of felt like shoplifting, though.

“Hmm?”

I noticed a weapon on display in the shop that was labeled “not for sale.” It was one single-edged sword, and I could tell with one glance that it had been made from the Spirit Tortoise materials. I tried using my appraisal ability to analyze it.

 Spirit Tortoise Sword: quality: —

It was no use. My appraisal skill wasn’t high enough to fully analyze the sword. It was probably on the same level as the White Tiger Katana.

“By the way, Raphtalia . . .”

“What is it?”

“Will a normal sword work?”

“Umm, no. Unfortunately not.”

So it wouldn’t let her copy a normal sword, after all. This one was a job for Ren, the Sword Hero. That made me wonder . . . Could Ren use katanas? Now that I thought about it, Raphtalia’s fighting capabilities were similar to Ren’s since they both used a type of blade. I’d tell him about the sword whenever we finally found him and took him into custody.

In any case, it was obvious that this Spirit Tortoise Sword was a real masterpiece, and the display made it clear you weren’t supposed to touch it. It was probably going to be sold at an upcoming auction. Amazing. I guess there really were true masters of their craft out there, after all. I’d have to tell the old guy at the weapon shop all about it later.

“Maaaaster!”

Filo called out to me from the claws corner.

“What is it?”

“There are all kiiinds of claws!”

“Looks that way.”

The thing was, Filo used different sizes of claws depending on whether she was in her human form or filolial form. Judging from recent experiences, it would probably be fine to just go with a size that would work in her human form.

“It doesn’t look like there are any worth replacing your current claws.”

The Inult Claws had gotten lost, so I’d given Filo the Karma Dog Claws that I’d kept for backups. She’d gone ahead and given Melty the Filo Pajamas, so she didn’t have those, either. Of course, Filo didn’t need them anymore since it had really just been the performance-enhancing effects that triggered when she was with me that made them useful, and not their defenses.

Anyway, I didn’t see anything on par with the Karma Dog Claws in the claws corner. There was a set of magic silver claws that looked like they might have pretty high attack power, but not enough to make it worth replacing her current claws.

As for Rishia, the Pekkul Rapier was more than enough for her. Just as I’d expected, we were at a point where any weapon upgrades would need to be custom jobs. There was still armor . . . Replacing Raphtalia’s armor might not have been a bad idea, but . . .

“What is it?”

“Do you want to buy some expensive armor?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one doing that, Mr. Naofumi?”

“You do have a point . . .”

I was currently using some old magic silver armor that I’d gotten from the queen. The castle blacksmith had taken it upon himself to touch it up a bit to make it look like my beloved Barbarian Armor—the armor the old guy had made for me. It was only a backup, but apparently he really wanted me to keep this look. It had relatively good stats for standard-issue armor. Even if I did replace it, it wouldn’t have been much of an upgrade.

Rishia . . . Yeah, she didn’t need armor. It wasn’t like she was going to fight in the coliseum, after all. I had one last kigurumi, but I still wasn’t sure if I should have her wear it. She seemed okay wearing the old breastplate, so maybe she had finally gained some self-confidence at last.

“Rafuuu?”

Raph-chan? I would have loved to have her wear an iron pot or a tea kettle and a hood, but they didn’t seem to have anything like that for sale here. We came to look at weapons and armor, but it started to feel like this had been a waste of time.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s anything worth buying here, so we’re leaving.”

“Leaving alreeeaddyy??”

I looked out over the streets of Zeltoble from the window. If we went around visiting all of the shops in Zeltoble, we might have been able to find some hidden treasure. It was certainly conceivable that kind of thing might end up on sale in a place as crowded as this. The atmosphere of this city reminded me of something . . . It was the marketplace from an online game that I used to play. Still, I didn’t think that pointlessly wandering around the city was a good idea. Maybe we needed to get some inside information.

“Let’s head back to the slave trader’s place for now.”

“Yes, let’s.”

“Umm, okay.”

“This was fuuuun!”

“Rafuuu!”

And so we finished our little peek at the weapons and armor shop and headed back to the slave trader’s underground slave market.

Chapter Thirteen: The Underground Coliseum

Night fell, and the slave trader had me taken to the venue where the underground coliseum tournament was being held. I was the only one going. I’d sent Raphtalia and Raph-chan to the slave auction, and Rishia was off elsewhere gathering information. And I’d assigned Filo to be Rishia’s bodyguard.

I’d taken a peak at the coliseum the slave trader managed earlier that afternoon, and it felt kind of like going to a baseball stadium. But this one seemed to put more emphasis on drinking and just having a good time. The spectator seating was sectioned off like an outdoor food court area despite being underground, and the coliseum itself was one of those fighting rings with the tall fence like you might see in a good, old RPG. There were slot machines and poker tables, too, so it almost felt more like an underground casino than an underground coliseum. Still, the coliseum was obviously the highlight, so the arena was what stuck out most.

I wasn’t sure what the current match was, but they were going at it. Let’s see . . . The odds were posted. It looked like betting ticket sales had already closed and the spectators were just watching the match. The match was between . . . Oh? Ohhh?!

“A panda . . .”

A panda therianthrope was fighting in the coliseum tournament. The opponent was . . . an elephant therianthrope, it looked like. What a crazy fight.

“Ha! That oversized body is all you have going for you, just like usual!” the panda yelled out.

“Hmph! At least I’m not the one just rolling around and running away!” retorted the elephant.

I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like the elephant might have had a slight advantage. I could feel the ground shaking quite a bit even from pretty far away. Was it using magic or something? I could vaguely feel the flow of magic coming from that direction.

The panda therianthrope must have been using magic, too, because the area around it turned into a bamboo forest. It looked like it would be slow, but it was jumping gracefully from one bamboo stalk to another, moving all around. The elephant therianthrope went about mowing down the bamboo, clearly irritated.

I looked over at the spectators passionately cheering them on.

“Go for it! That’s it!”

“Get him, big sis Larsazusa!”

“There’s your chance, Elmelo! No! You missed it!”

They looked like armed adventurers . . . mercenaries, maybe? There were several groups like that here. Of course, they were outnumbered by spectators that looked more like nobility or merchants. That’s the type that was sitting near to where I was. The bar area seemed pretty lively, too. So we’d be fighting in a place like this, huh? It was a spectacle through and through. Then again, the open coliseum had been, too.

As I was just sitting there thinking to myself, I noticed some guy that looked like he might be the barkeep glaring at me. It looked like not drinking would draw attention, I guess.

“Give me a pint of whatever you’ve got.”

Nothing happened when I drank, anyway. I’d never been drunk in my life. I grabbed the pint and went back to watching the match. A few moments later, I heard a commotion coming from behind me.

“Gulp . . . gulp! Aahhh! Come on, finish your drink already!”

Someone sounded like they were in good spirits.

“Gulp . . . I’m not finished yet!”

I could hear onlookers oohing and aahing excitedly. Whatever it was, it seemed just about as lively as the match itself. I turned around to look and there was a group of people gathered around in a circle clapping and calling out, “Chug it! Chug it!”

“Nnn . . . Not bad, eh?! Ugh . . .”

And then a loud slam echoed out, followed by applause.

“Aww! The competition is weak, as usual! Is there no one here that can give a gal a run for her money?”

The voice I heard had a slightly provocative tone to it.

“There’s no way anyone could beat Nadia!” someone’s voice rang out.

“Yeah! Exactly!”

“Boy oh boy, that was quite the performance!”

“There you have it! I’ll be taking this money, boys. Oh, and the drinks are on you!” Nadia replied to the crowd’s cheers.

They finished the exchange and the crowd dispersed, carrying away the loser with them. What a petty game. I’d never understand what people found appealing about drinking contests. I had gone back to watching the match, still thinking about such absurdity, when I heard a voice that sounded like the woman from the drinking contest.

“Oh? Here’s a new face. First time here? You don’t look like you’re having much fun now, do you?”

I glanced in her direction without moving. Standing there was a beautiful woman that had a Japanese air about her. She had long black hair, and her skin and facial features were on par with Raphtalia. She was in her mid-twenties, maybe. Her hair and skin reminded me of Glass, but there was something different about her, too. Glass’s facial features and expression gave off an air of seriousness and grace, but not this woman. She looked more like . . . the cheerful, big sister type.

A human? No . . . Her arms and legs were black. Almost like they were wrapped in rubber. She was pretty much half-naked with the clothes she had on. Her chest was wrapped in sarashi cloth under a vest, and around her waist was a . . . I guess you’d call it a fauld? Depending on how you looked at it, you might call it a loincloth. She had a harpoon strapped to her back.

I remained silent and looked away from her. She didn’t seem like someone I needed to waste my time with.

“Oh? Were you watching the match?”

She helped herself to the seat next to me and tried talking to me again, but she must have noticed the leave-me-alone vibes I was sending her way, because after that she didn’t show any further sign of forcing the conversation. But then an audacious grin appeared on her face, and she rested her chin in her hands and began speaking slowly.

“Today’s match goes to little Sasa. Little El hasn’t noticed yet, though.”

“Huh?”

The fighters were named Larsazusa and Elmelo. Sasa must have been some kind of nickname.

“Oh, could you not tell? Little Larsazusa is going to win today.”

From what I had seen, the elephant therianthrope—Elmelo—had been going all out rampaging around, and the panda therianthrope had been forced to go on the offensive. Honestly, taking strength and everything else into account, too, I couldn’t see how the elephant could lose, even if the odds were in favor of the elephant. But then . . .

“Hiyaaaa! Bamboo Claw!”

The panda thrust its claws into the ground while casting a spell and . . . the ground started shaking, and a massive stalk of bamboo shot up straight through the elephant and smashed into the ceiling of the coliseum.

“Gah!”

After a moment, the stalk of bamboo shattered and dissipated into the surrounding air. There was a loud crash and the whole venue shook. The elephant had fallen over onto the floor and lay there absolutely motionless as a pool of blood spread out from under it. Was it dead?

As the thought crossed my mind, a stretcher was brought out and a doctor began treating the elephant as attendants carried him away. Then the referee came over and raised the panda’s hand into the air.

“We have a winner! Larsazusa!”

The spectators cheered loudly, their oohs and aahs echoing throughout the venue. Considering the odds, anyone that bet on the panda would probably be really happy with the outcome. They seemed to be pretty competitive odds, too.

“Nice call.”

They began cleaning up the arena immediately and the panda went back to the waiting room.

“What can I say?”

I’d sensed that the panda recited some kind of magical incantation during the fight, but I’m sure the elephant had been on guard, too. In all actuality, the elephant had gotten off several whammies of its own.

“You didn’t bet on the fight then, did you?”

“Nah, I just came to do a bit of recon—see what this underground coliseum is all about.”

This woman . . . She seemed to know the coliseum pretty well. I got the feeling that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk with her a bit.

“Oh? So you’re interested in fighting in the coliseum, then?”

“I guess you could say that. Betting is a secondary goal.”

I wouldn’t worry about betting until our odds were set to make a big win.

“In that case, you should have come a bit earlier . . . The main event has been over for a while now.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. See that monster they’re cooking over there?”

I looked over in the direction that she was pointing. They were right in the middle of chopping up and cooking some monster that looked like a dinosaur. The dishes were being served to the nobility, who were eating it like it was fine dining. Was that part of the spectacle, too?

“They’re cooking up the monster that was killed in defeat at tonight’s main event.”

“Those kinds of things fight in the coliseum?”

“Yep. That’s the specialty here—dangerous matches with no guarantee of survival.”

I guessed people wanting to see that kind of sensation is the whole reason entertainment like the coliseum existed, after all.

As I thought about such things, I looked over at the monster. From what I could see . . . Hmm, I wonder. What was the cause of death? It didn’t look like it had been killed with a blade or anything like that. It might just have been hard to tell—it had already been chopped up by the cooks—but judging from the head and the whites of its eyes and skin, it seemed like the cause of death had been some kind of magic. Powerful fire magic, maybe? That didn’t seem quite right, either.

“So what kind of coliseum match are you looking to fight in? I’ll tell you everything you need to know, darling.”

The woman continued on, cheerfully. She got on my nerves a little bit.

“Hey! Keep the drinks coming over here, will you?”

She was ordering me drinks without even asking! There was a whole row of drinks lined up in front of my seat now.

“You’re paying.”

“Am I, then? So what do you want to know?”

“Let’s see . . . Things to watch out for here. I’m especially interested in the next big competition.”

“I see. I’ll tell you all about it then, darling. The next competition is a team-fight tournament. The rules are generally three-on-three, no level limit, and you can bring your own weapons.”

“I already know that much. What I want to know are the nitty-gritty details of what to watch out for and things to be careful of. Then again, it’s not like I can really believe what you say.”

I was asking a complete stranger in a place like this. It was just for reference and nothing more. The woman was refilling my cup, again without asking. She seemed to be implying that I’d need to drink up if I wanted her to talk. Fine. I chugged a drink.

“Ohh . . . Let’s see, then . . . You’ll probably want to watch out for participants that send in wild and vicious monsters that have no monster seal.”

“. . .”

What would be the point in sending wild monsters into the coliseum? And without a monster seal, there had to be some kind of catch. We’d have to be careful. I looked back over at the monster being cooked. She was probably referring to that thing.

I wondered what participants would consider a threat. I’d heard that the maximum level for people in this world was 100. Anyone fighting in the coliseum would be high-level, I assumed. Well, the open coliseum . . . The coliseum that the slave trader managed was split into classes by level, but this was one had no classes or restrictions.

Wild monsters—that’s what would provide an element of threat to a bunch of max-level fighters. I suddenly remembered watching Fitoria defeat the Tyrant Dragon Rex a while back. Honestly, just how powerful had that beast of a monster been? It’s not like we hadn’t been able to put up a fight, but from what I could tell, “tough battle” wouldn’t have even begun to describe it, if Fitoria hadn’t shown up. If there were ordinary adventurers out there that could defeat that thing, then there would be no need for evacuations.

“I get it. Wild monsters have no level limit, and that means there are monsters over level 100 that they can send in.”

It would probably be easier to think of it in game terms. If you had three level 100 fighters and they were faced with a level 200 monster, what would happen? We weren’t talking about a rough fight, here. But if they weren’t careful, none of them would survive. There were monster hunter games where you had to fight in a small coliseum, and those were the really tough ones.

Of course, I couldn’t imagine there being anything on the level of the Spirit Tortoise. What would be the required level to fight that thing, anyway? I’d been able to stand up to it as a hero around level 75, but that was only because my hero adjustments essentially made me about four times stronger at the time.

Not to mention, the reason Raphtalia and Filo were able to put up a good fight was because they had my growth adjustments and had gotten all kinds of special stat boosts during their class-ups. Still, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat it without me. That thing was on the same level as a castle siege or a raid boss. We had Ost’s help, too.

If I had to make a quick estimate of the level required for a normal adventurer to confront the Spirit Tortoise head-on and defeat only the outside body . . . I wasn’t really sure what kind of abilities normal adventurers had, but I’d say level 250 would have been the minimum.

Of course, that was if they fought it alone. It would probably drop a bit if there were several adventurers. Even so, the level would still need to be high. At least 200, I’d say. And if we were talking about a bunch of adventurers that weren’t much stronger than Rishia in her non-awakened state, then they’d lose no matter how many of them there were.

Even if the monster were only around level 120, a single adventurer—no, even with three adventurers—knowing whether they could win or not would still be unclear. All said and done, you really couldn’t underestimate differences in levels and basic stats. You might think that level 100 would be similar for a monster and a human, but just looking at Raphtalia and Filo made it clear that wasn’t the case. And if you were faced with three of those monsters, then what? It was the kind of risk you could only find at the no-holds-barred underground coliseum tournaments.

“Bingo! Nobility from some country or another will send in recreationally caught wild monsters for the enjoyment of seeing whether or not they can be defeated.”

The woman went on drinking cheerfully. It was hard to believe she had just been taking part in a drinking contest from the way she was knocking them back now.

“It was only one this time, but the next competition will be team battles. That means there will be three of those things.”

Hearing that made me realize just how scary these rules could be. So it was best not to assume that the opponent would be limited to humans or demi-humans. I would have to let Raphtalia and Filo know about this, too.

She refilled my cup again. I guess she had more to tell me.

“Other than that . . . Depending on the situation, there are times when they will change the terrain to make it more advantageous to the opponent.”

“Meaning?”

“When an opponent that can fly is sent in, sometimes they will prepare an iron cage around the arena so that the fight isn’t too one-sided.”

So the organizers would shift the odds in favor of one side or the other to keep the match interesting.

“That has to suck when that works against you.”

“Also, there is support from spectators. Spectators can pay to provide assistance to the opponent they bet on.”

In other words, spectators could shell out large amounts of money to help shift the outcome of the match in their favor and win big. What a pain in the ass. There was no such thing as foul play here. No fair matches. I guess competitive odds are what you got in exchange for that.

“The next competition is sponsored by the weapons merchant guild, so you can expect expensive weapons to be thrown at the fighters.”

So there are dangerous wild monsters and there is also the risk of opponents being able to swap the weapons they brought for even better ones.

“But hey, spectators attacking the fighters directly is strictly prohibited, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“What about indirect support magic?”

“It’s possible if someone pays the right amount.”

It was probably best not to entertain naïve ideas like all you needed to do during a match was focus on the opponent in front of you. Thinking it over, I chugged another drink that she had poured for me. But seriously, how much did she plan to make me drink? I could hear it all swishing around in my stomach.

“That will be in the rule book for the match you participate in, so make sure to look that over and you should be fine.”

I looked at the section where the rules were listed.

The following support will be permitted during this match—

There it was.

“You can drink, can’t you? This is starting to get fun!”

She seemed to be enjoying herself as she watched me chug drink after drink.

“Yeah, alright,” I said.

“Anyway, that pretty much covers what you need to watch out for.”

“Oh yeah?”

There was nothing left for me to do here. I stood up, ready to leave.

“Oh? Leaving already, are you? Let’s have a few more drinks!”

“No more for me. But you gave me some good info. I’ll pay for the drinks as a sign of my gratitude.”

It was obvious that she was planning to have me, the newbie, pick up the tab in exchange for some information. Then again, I was stingy. Normally there was no way I’d do something like picking up a tab, but it was a fact that the information had been helpful. Considering what lay ahead, I could just think of the money spent as part of an investment.

“That wasn’t what I was after, you know.”

“Whatever you say. One final question.”

“What might that be?”

The next match had started, and it looked like they were being given the support that she had been talking about.

“How did you know who would win in that last match?”

I’d thought that I couldn’t tell because I wasn’t familiar with the rules, but that still didn’t fully explain it. As far as I could tell, the fighters in the last match hadn’t received any assistance.

“Intuition, maybe?”

“Seriously? Intuition?”

Then again, I knew that intuition couldn’t be underestimated. Watching Filo made the power of wild instincts painfully clear, for example.

“If you think of anything else, just come see me again, darling. I’m here every night, and I’ll be happy to tell you what you want to know.”

Her response was curiously lighthearted. So she really hadn’t had any kind of ulterior motive when approaching me?

“Then again, I can’t really recommend participating in the underground coliseum, either.”

Her parting words left me strangely uneasy . . .

Chapter Fourteen: Ring Name

Anyway, keeping in mind what that drunkard woman had told me, we completed our entry into the underground coliseum tournament.

We had several days left before the event. Right now, I was at the slave trader’s place with Filo, waiting on Raphtalia to get back. Rishia was still in the middle of gathering information and looking over some documents.

The slave trader forced our entry through for us, so to the organizers we were still just some no-name mercenaries for the time being. Although, I had a feeling the accessory dealer must have been involved, too, or our entry probably wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. I guess this was the Zeltoble underground, where anything goes, so it was probably safe to assume that this level of foul play was practically expected.

Anyway, things would be slightly different than they had been for the matches I’d seen while talking to the drunkard woman. Instead of the competition being held only at night, matches would take place day and night for several days on end . . . or so I was told. It was because this competition was one of the biggest and there were a ton of fighters participating.

We would be fighting once per day. Personally, I thought they should just sift out all the weaklings in preliminaries, but the merchants wanted to move their money with each fight, since it was a lengthy tournament. This was all according to the slave trader’s explanation. He did say the number of times we fought each day was supposed to increase in the latter half of the tournament, at least. It made no sense from a Japanese person’s perspective.

Anyway, it would make things more difficult if they figured out who we were from the very start, so Raphtalia, Filo, and I planned to wear masks and other equipment that would hide our faces and conceal what our races were.

“By the way, higher-ranking fighters will be rewarded with money and other various goods. Yes sir.”

“That may be so, but . . .”

The grand prize was indeed impressive . . . 150 gold pieces was a pretty nice chunk of change. But the amount of money changing hands in this tournament was far greater. I had ordered the slave trader to place our bet on ourselves just before the advance betting ticket sales ended. We had to make sure we won big. The whole point of participating was to be a dark horse and come out on top.

Fighters would also receive a fight purse for each match they won. Of course, that would just be chickenfeed to us.

“Understood. I’ll make it a straight bet for the overall tournament. Yes sir.”

“So there are bets for each fight, too?”

“Some people do make money that way. Yes sir.”

That would actually be the better approach to betting. Deciding your bets all at once, in the very beginning, wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable. My bet was simply based on what I knew ahead of time.

“All that’s left is to gather more funds, I guess.”

We would be using the money we got from selling off the slave hunters, but that still might not be enough. We would need to pay attention to our odds in the first place.

“The open coliseum . . . You were saying they have eating competitions in Zeltoble, too, right? Should I have Filo compete in those?”

“Huh? Am I going to do something?”

Filo was a pig, so maybe we could use her as a competitive eater to win some money.

“There is a prize, but it’s not more than perhaps 20 silver pieces for the overall winner. Yes sir.”

“Not bad, but not great, either. Plus, we probably don’t want to have people recognizing her since I’m going to have her compete in the coliseum, too.”

“In that case, you might consider having her compete in the filolial races. Yes sir.”

“Filolial races? We’re pretty much talking horse racing, right?”

I had a feeling that would be more realistic. It seemed like people were always winning a lot at the horse races, so that might not have been a bad idea. Maybe we could aim for a big win like we were in the underground coliseum.

“The problem is that you have to compete in regional races several times before you can compete in the high-stakes races. Also, there’s still a month or so before it’s the season for the high-stakes races. Yes sir.”

“Ugh . . . I could consider having Filo compete if we could bet big in one go, but otherwise . . .”

“Due to how the betting works at a fundamental level, that probably won’t be possible. Yes sir.”

Let’s say I entered Filo in a tiny regional race as a no-name filolial and placed a straight bet on her. I wanted to bet big to win big, but as soon as I put the money down for the bet, the odds would swing in her favor a proportional amount. If there were no other attractive bets, or if there just weren’t many people betting in the first place, then the whole plan would be pointless.

This was true for most competitions, but according to the slave trader, winning bets wouldn’t be paid out until all of the betting money had been gathered from the betters. Regardless of how much we bet, if the overall pot wasn’t huge, then our winnings wouldn’t amount to much, either. On top of that, we’d be screwed if people figured out who we were, so we couldn’t really afford to make money by participating in the legit side of things.

“Sigh . . . Oh well. I guess for now, other than watching the slave auctions to see if any Lurolona slaves show up, we might as well head back to the village to do some peddling or training.”

“That would seem reasonable. Yes sir. By the way, Shield Hero . . .”

“What?”

The slave trader stopped filling out the tournament entry papers to ask a question.

“What should I put down for your ring name?”

“Hmm . . .”

Putting down something obvious like “The Shield Hero’s Party” would make concealing our identities pointless. The same would probably go for using my own name. The fact that the accessory dealer already knew we were participating in the first place made it feel like what we were doing was pretty reckless anyway, though. This was probably just one of those things. I needed to pick some random name that wouldn’t give me away.

“‘Rock Valley’s Party’ should do.”

“Where did that come from? Yes sir.”

“It’s my last name in English. It was my nickname in another world.”

Now that I thought about it, a lot of skill names and stuff were just English words . . . But I guess that was just because my shield was translating them for me. Raphtalia and Filo were actually using the Melromarc language when they were casting spells and stuff, after all. But it was easy to forget that.

It was unlikely anyone would make the connection with my last name, Iwatani, right? To do that, they would have to be someone from another world, like Ren, Itsuki, or Motoyasu. Still, it was scary to think that I had no idea what words really meant in this world. The slave trader looked confused, so I might have gotten the pronunciation wrong or something. Like maybe it would be translated differently if I pronounced it Lock Barley or something.

Just then, Raphtalia and Raph-chan walked in sighing, back from the underground auction.

“How did it go?”

“We saw one.”

“I see . . .”

So she had found a Lurolona slave.

“How high did the price go?”

Raphtalia cast her gaze downward when she replied.

“The bidding stopped at . . . 95 gold.”

Who knew just how high the prices would jump. I really wished this ridiculous bubble would burst already, but we had no choice but to deal with the situation as it was.

“I guess all we can do for now is head back to the village and train until the coliseum tournament starts.”

“Agreed. Let’s win this . . . no matter what!”

Raphtalia was looking at me with her eyes full of strong determination. That’s right. We’d been left with no choice but to fight to get her village back.

“Raphtalia, I’m thinking we should probably address each other using aliases during the matches. What do you think?”

“Umm, okay. What should they be?”

“Hmm . . . I’m going to go with Rock for my alias.”

I doubted anyone would associate that with the Shield Hero, but what about Raphtalia and Filo?

“Rafu?”

I wanted something with a twist. Raphtalia would probably get mad at me if I called her something like Raph-chan No. 2, though.

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

“Hmm . . . Alright then. Raphtalia will be Shigaraki, and Filo will be Yakitori.”

“Nooo!”

Filo had the nerve to complain. What was wrong with “Yakitori”? Did she not like grilled chicken? It would be easy to remember.

“Mr. Naofumi, that’s a bit mean even for you, don’t you think? Look. Filo doesn’t look very happy now, does she?”

Bah! I guess I had to pick something else if Raphtalia was going to complain.

“Fine. Raphtalia will be . . .”

“Hold on. So my name was something rude, too?”

I guess she didn’t get the tanuki reference and had only been complaining about Filo’s alias.

“Who knows? Filo will be . . . Humming should work.”

She had been a monster called a humming fairy in Kizuna’s world, after all. No one in this world would know that.

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

“Filo, you can call me master like usual during the matches. Just call Raphtalia big sis.”

“Okaaay!”

Master was just a general title and wouldn’t give away my name.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Right now, we needed to buy up the slaves from Raphtalia’s village as quickly as possible, so there was no turning back for me, no matter what.

We returned to the village, and it ended up being the day before the coliseum tournament, by the time all of us had gotten fully prepared. Filo spent her time playing with the slaves, and she must have recognized the village as something she wanted to protect, because she was looking forward to fighting now. Raphtalia apparently finished powering up the katana that she got from the dragon emperor materials to a sufficient level.

And now we were on standby in the waiting room at the underground coliseum in Zeltoble. We would be fighting daily from here on out. Until we won the tournament, that is.

The Zeltoble coliseum was inherently secretive, so the careers of the fighters were packed full of fabrications. As a result, I’d heard the odds tended to favor the more well-known fighters. That meant that neither the nobility nor anyone else would be paying any attention to someone like a newcomer hoping to win big. I guess no matter what world you were in, there would still be those extravagant types who didn’t mind losing money, since they didn’t work for it anyway.

“This is our first match. Let’s try not to bring ourselves too much attention.”

According to the slave trader, the opening ceremony had been held earlier today around noon, and the tournament bracket had been announced. He said the teams that were lucky enough to be seeded wouldn’t be fighting until the latter half of the tournament. We were fighting in the very first round, so I already couldn’t help but feel like things were a bit unfair. Then again, this was nothing compared to being framed and left penniless mere days after being summoned to another world, and then being stigmatized on top of that.

The time for our match was drawing near. It was evening now. The tournament started sometime around noon, I think, so it had been going for a while now. Our opponent for this match was some mafia-sounding team called . . . the Topak Family. The odds had already been fixed, but if we came on full-force, practically screaming, “Actually, we have the Shield Hero!” then the opposing team would probably be flooded with support. They might end up with really nice weapons and equipment and huge amounts of support magic being cast on them nonstop, and that would really suck for us. Even worse, it was possible the organizers would force some kind of weird handicap on us.

I wanted to keep as low a profile as possible while still making people think our party was amazing. In that case, maybe we should finish them off with a single blow and not even leave anyone time to give them support. Or we could pretend to struggle and make it look like we just barely managed to win. Either way, we would have to see how strong they were first.

“For now, you lead the attack, Filo. Raphtalia, you provide support from behind. If you can show the spectators an illusion, then do that.”

“So it’s up to meeee?”

“Yeah.”

“What is the point of deceiving the spectators?”

“Make it so that we don’t stand out too much. For example, if you can make it look like we’re struggling, then do that.”

“I think it should be possible, but . . . Don’t you think that’s a bad idea?”

Hmm . . . It wasn’t against the rules, but then again, it could be problematic if the organizers stepped in. It was a risk we had to take.

“Even so, Raphtalia, at least make it look like I’m attacking the enemy. I don’t want anyone figuring out that I’m the Shield Hero.”

“Then what about your skills?”

“I’ll just have to avoid using them as much as possible. They’ll probably just think yours are special techniques you developed on your own.”

Up until now, I had been using my skills nonstop left and right, so I was a little bit worried. Regardless, it would be best to avoid being noticed if we wanted to advance through the tournament without having to face any unnecessary obstacles.

“Looks like it’s almost time. Come on, Raphtalia and Filo—cover your faces at the very least. Don’t forget to use our aliases.”

Filo put on a domino mask and tied a bandana around her head. Raphtalia was wearing a kabuto helmet to cover her face and ears so that people couldn’t tell what race she was. She had hidden her tail, too, of course. I was using an iron mask to cover my face, too.

A gong sound echoed throughout the air, and we headed out of the waiting room and toward the arena. Cheers filled the air. The venue was packed—there were far more spectators now than when I’d come to observe before. To think that there would be this many people at an underground coliseum . . . Oh, and nearly everyone in the audience was wearing masks, like maybe they were nobility that had come here in secret. It was a pretty unsettling sight, really. I bet all kinds of countries would have been in trouble if you killed off all these creeps.

As I was standing there thinking about such things, three muscle-bound mercenaries that looked like they knew how to fight came strolling out of the entrance on the opposite side.

“And now, a faceoff between Rock Valley’s Party and the Topak Family! Are you rrreeeaaddyyy?!”

The announcer was practically screaming as he stirred up the audience.

“Ha! This guy brought along a girl and some kid. Who let this bunch out of the show tent?”

“Hold up, the audience will love it if we do something brutal to that girl and kid right in front of this guy, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Alright, let’s start by beating this guy to a pulp and then that’s what we’ll do.”

What a vulgar bunch. Didn’t they know it was always the small fries that licked their chops like that before a fight? Actually . . . I wasn’t sure who was worse—these guys or the bandits we always ran into while peddling.

“You good?”

“Yup!”

It was probably best to assume we wouldn’t be receiving any support from the spectators. Then again, it was only our first match and wouldn’t be drawing much attention, so there was no need to worry about that . . . right?

The spectators were cheering a bit, but I could tell from their eyes that they were just hoping to see the kind of tragedy these creeps had mentioned. On the contrary, if the unquestionably weak-looking team with the girl and a child ended up winning, that might build some excitement, too. If we gained a certain amount of popularity, then we might be able to get some support, too.

“Let the battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

Another gong sound echoed out and the match began—and in the same instant, a blunt weapon that looked like a morning star was tossed down right next to where the Topak Family mercenaries were standing. From the look of it, it seemed like a pretty impressive weapon. Someone must have thrown it in, hoping the other team would use it to make a mockery of me.

“Zweite . . . Aura”

In a whisper, I cast support magic on Filo. Then I picked her up from behind and lifted her up onto my shoulders. She must have realized what I planned on doing, because she climbed onto my shoulders and held her claws up out in front of her.

There was a reason for putting her on my shoulders. I had a convenient little skill called “abilities increase while carrying (medium).” As long as someone was on my shoulders, they would receive an overall increase in abilities for a period of time. Filo was currently in her human form, so she wasn’t very heavy and wouldn’t slow me down.

“Master, what should I dooo?”

“Hmm . . . It’s probably best not to show all of our cards yet, I guess.”

Being too strong would make us stick out. We should probably just stick to a low-key strategy for this match. According to the slave trader, our opponents were relatively unknown, so there was no need for theatrics. Yeah, I’d even come up with a signature phrase to go with it.

“Alright! Make it hard, and make it quick!”

“Okaaay!”

Filo started focusing her attention like she did when preparing to use haikuikku.

“Huh? What’s that pose?! Is she getting ready to play a game?”

“This is going to be a piece of cake! Hahahahaha!” the opponents shouted. “It’s going to feel good celebrating tonight! And we even get to have some fun with a girl!”

The Topak Family mercenaries all grabbed their weapons and started running our way. One of them swung the morning star—the thing seemed like one of those special named weapons—and I blocked it with my shield. It struck with a heavy thud and flames burst from the tip of the morning star, engulfing me in hellfire. So it had a special effect, huh? I guess it was a nice weapon, after all. I deflected the flames with my cloak, but there was a pillar of fire rising up from under my feet. Although, with my high defenses, the flames were kind of just bouncing off.

“It’s hot!”

The heat was getting to Filo. Her arms and legs had extended just a bit outside of the area I had protected. The pillar of fire itself was still down there, although it wasn’t burning me. I flapped my cape and the remaining pillar of fire dissipated for a moment, but then it reappeared. So it even had a residual effect . . . That weapon was even better than I thought.

“Hahahaha! This thing is awesome!”

The mercenary was maintaining a bit of distance from me, as I stood there in the pillar of fire. He started whirling the morning star around like he was going to come after me, and then he swung it at me from the side. Paying attention to the path of the morning star, I reached my left hand out and grabbed it by the chain, bringing it to a sudden halt.

“What?!”

“Ah! Raising a hand to Chief? How dare you! Take this!”

“Hiyaaa!”

I held on tight and the Topak Family mercenaries all crowded around me, swinging at me with the weapons they had been given. Oh! How nice of them to gather up in a tidy little group for us!

“Humming, you ready?”

“Yup! All set!”

“Alright then!”

After jerking the chain and pulling the mercenaries closer, I grabbed Filo and . . . hurled her at them as hard as I could.

“Goooo!”

Filo activated haikuikku just as I threw her and then followed up with Spiral Strike, plowing into the Topak Family mercenaries.

“Uwaaaaa!!!”

Filo’s landing was showy, yet graceful. It was kind of like she had used a finishing move. She did look pretty cool. Her wings added to the elegance, too. Gasps were coming from the audience. Moments later, the Topak Family mercenaries fell to the ground, completely covered in lacerations.

That was Filo’s haikuikku-Spiral Strike combo, performed from my shoulders and bolstered by my Zweite Aura support magic. Even if our stats were only one-third of what they usually were, would they be able to withstand an attack like that?

“Huh? Is that all you’ve got? You must be a bunch of low-levels. This is what happens when you underestimate the coliseum.”

I flashed a cruel smile and made sure to speak loudly while trampling on the faces of our fallen enemies. The spectators had been speechless, but they must have liked that, because they erupted into cheers. I was still holding on to the bundle-of-fun morning star that created fire pillars.

That’s right . . . The only reason it ended so soon was because the opposing team lacked training. That’s the impression I was going for. Being high-level might have been a prerequisite, but what high-level meant would depend on the tournament. With no classes, the definition was unclear.

“Im . . . impossible . . .”

One of the enemies let out a groan.

“Shut him up.”

“Okaaay! Smash!”

“Ugh!”

Filo trampled on each of the Topak Family mercenaries, knocking them out cold. The match itself had gone smoother than I thought it would.

“We . . . we have a winner! Rock Valley’s Paaarrrtttyyyyyyyy!”

The announcer must have realized that the opponent’s team was done for, because he declared our victory. Just like I expected, being forced to either kill the opponent or render them unconscious sure was a hassle. I would have preferred knocking them out of bounds or something, but there was nothing like that in this tournament.

“Phew . . .”

Raphtalia finished casting magic from her position in the rear and whispered to me.

“I made it look like you finished them off, just like you asked, Mr. Naofumi.”

“Nice work. Thanks.”

That should clear up any suspicions of me being the Shield Hero, up to a point. I waved my hand as a declaration of our victory and then nonchalantly picked up the morning star that the Topak Family mercenary had dropped and headed back to the waiting room.

“Umm . . . Mr. Naofumi? What are planning to do with that weapon?”

“Huh? I figured it was ours to keep.”

No one had said anything, and this was a coliseum where people fought to the death. There was no rule against stealing an opponent’s weapon. The merchant-looking guy that had provided the support for the other team did seem a bit bitter, but he obviously wasn’t hurting for weapons.

“Make good use of that weapon!”

He may have looked bitter, but that’s what he yelled out at me. He was probably thinking that if we used the weapon and won, it would be lucrative for his shop or the merchant guild he belonged to. But I could only use my shield, and Raphtalia couldn’t use anything other than her katana, either. That left Filo, but Filo was fond of her claws. I figured I’d ask her anyway.

“Filo. You want to use this weapon?”

“Umm . . .”

She didn’t seem to like the idea. Besides, even if Filo went swinging the thing around violently, there was no guarantee she could actually make good use of the weapon.

“Alight, Filo, how about this . . . From now on, when a match starts, you fling this weapon at our opponents.”

“Okaaay!”

With Filo’s superhuman strength, if she flung the weapon at the opponent it would probably intimidate them a bit, at least. After that, who cares? Then we could just use it at the village or maybe sell it off. As long as we used any weapons we grabbed at least once in a match, it would be free advertising for the merchant guild that we took it from, and they might even decide to provide us support later on. Oh! That was a good idea, even if I do say so myself.

Anyways, there wasn’t much point in sticking around at the venue. The teams that would be fighting in the next match were already standing by, so we could either watch their match or just leave as soon as possible and get some rest. Being our first match, the fight purse was pretty insignificant. Filo must have thought that the morning star I gave her was a new toy, because she was having fun swinging it around in the air.

“Jingle-jaaaangleee!”

It was an adorable sight, but then again, that was a weapon she had in her hand.

“Be careful. That thing is dangerous. Make sure the ball doesn’t hit anything, at least.”

“Okaaay!”

In the end, Filo took the morning star with her back to the village and played with it like a toy together with the slaves. It was a fun weapon that made pillars of fire wherever it hit. The little brats even wanted to use the weapon to make a campfire. It wore me out just making sure they didn’t set any buildings on fire.

Our second match was the following day.

“Our next opponent is . . .”

I guess there was no point in checking our opponent’s team name or anything, really. Our objective was to win every match and come out on top, after all.

As I stood there thinking, the gong rang, and then we made our way into the arena, and . . . when we saw our opponents, we all immediately went on the defensive. There were three griffins inside of a cage.

“Kweeeeh!”

They were all riled up and ready to go. So these were those dangerous wild monsters, huh? We’d never fought a griffin before . . . griffin elite. The griffins’ monster name appeared in my field of vision. I guess they were some superior type of griffin, then. I had no idea what level a normal adventurer would need to be to defeat one, but apparently it was a relatively interesting fight card, because there were more spectators than yesterday.

We just had to get stuck with a troublesome opponent, didn’t we? This was exactly the kind of match that drunkard woman had warned me about.

“Grr . . .”

Filo started acting menacingly. That reminded me, filolials and griffins apparently didn’t like each other. I seemed to remember reading something about griffins regarding horses as enemies in some fantasy book once. I see . . . It must have had something to do with both taking pride in being used as a means of transportation and fighting over who was the best. Filolials didn’t get along with dragons, either. It sure seemed like were a lot of monsters filolials didn’t like. Oh well . . . At least it had gotten Filo motivated.

“Humming, are you going to be able to hold back?”

“Grr . . .”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. She was probably going to go all out.

“Alright, Humming. When the match starts, you fling that morning star I gave you at them. Whatever you do, don’t change into your filolial form.”

There were sure to be nobility and others among the spectators that would realize we were the Shield Hero and crew if they saw Filo, the bird god. Never mind the fact that a monster that could turn into a human would surely draw way too much attention. I wanted to defeat the enemy before that happened and without standing out, if at all possible.

I guess there was no choice. We’d have to give up on the “moderately strong dark horse rises to the top, out of nowhere” scenario. Still, I wanted to keep the fact that I was a hero hidden, if possible. There was just too much of a difference in the burden that would come with being a hero versus some powerful yet nameless fighters.

“Okaaay!”

What else?

“Ra . . . Shigaraki, can you handle those things?”

“I’ll try.”

“Let the battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

When the gong rang, the door of the cage that the griffins were in opened.

“Kweeeh!”

The griffins rushed out of the cage, glaring at us, and approached at a ridiculous speed. They were moving so swiftly that it seemed as if they might pounce upon us at any moment. Several of the masked nobility in the audience were whispering and watching us, their eyes brimming with curiosity. More than likely, these things had probably brutally murdered their opponents in a previous match or something. There was even still blood on the griffins’ claws.

“I’m going to end this in one blow.”

“Yeah, it would be a hassle if they ended up getting assistance.”

Raphtalia placed her hand on the handle of her katana.

“Zweite Aura”

Whispering once again, I cast support magic on Raphtalia, who then lunged forward into a sprint. She may have been suffering from the effects of a curse, but with her level adjustments, she could still be quick. The more I focused, the slower everything around me seemed to move. That was probably true for the griffin elites too, though.

“Take thiiissss!”

Filo flung the morning star at the griffin elites with all of her strength.

“Kweeh?!”

That must have caught them off guard, because the griffin elites started flapping their wings in an attempt to get out of the way. The morning star smashed straight into one of them and a pillar of fire shot up, engulfing it in flames.

“Hiyaaa!”

Raphtalia drew her katana and started moving even faster.

“Instant Blade! Mist! Thrusting Technique! Lethal Formation One! Lethal Formation Two!”

She delivered a strike to the alpha griffin elite that had been standing at the front and then quickly cut down the other slightly smaller ones behind. Sure, it might not have been Kizuna’s Blood Flower Strike, but she still cut through them pretty damn fast. Raphtalia spun her katana around, flinging the blood from the blade, and then returned it to its sheath.

“I’m sorry. I’m still a bit slow, unfortunately.”

The alpha griffin elite was practically split in two at the chest, and the other two griffins behind had splattered blood all over the place before falling flat on the ground. Was that a bit too much?

Well, I guess the nice thing about Raphtalia’s skills is that they didn’t appear so blatantly unusual, like my attacks did. Of course, they had skill-like elements to them, too, but at first sight, it just looked like she had swung her blade around really fast. I’m sure people would realize you were a hero immediately if you started making shields appear in mid-air. Or maybe they would think it was magic? Hmm . . . I still wasn’t sure where that line was drawn.

Both the spectators and the announcer were speechless.

“We . . . we have a winner! Rock Valley’s Paaarrrtttyyyyyyyy!”

The announcer screamed out, and after a brief delay, the spectators burst into cheers. We had finished the fight so quickly that they didn’t seem to know how to react.

“As expected, I still can’t fight at my normal level. I had to use a skill just to be able to defeat an opponent like that in one blow.”

“Yeah.”

“Jingle-jaaaangleee!”

Filo picked up her beloved morning star and came back over to us. I gave a perfunctory wave as we headed back to the waiting room.

“I wanted to avoid standing out, but it looks like that’s going to be difficult.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. You only did what I told you to do.”

We would just have to accept it. Perhaps it was being careless, but I didn’t want to force her to hold back, either.

“You want to go back to the village, Filo?”

“Yup! By the way, where is Rishia?”

“I’ve got her gathering info about the coliseum.”

Rishia was with Raph-chan gathering information on the more powerful teams. I wasn’t sure how much she’d actually be able to figure out, but she was knowledgeable about all kinds of things. I figured it might prove to be helpful one way or another.

“Bye-bye! I’ll be good, so don’t worry about meeee!”

That morning star was quickly becoming her new favorite toy, and lately she had been swinging it around everywhere she went . . . What part of that was being good? I was pretty sure good little girls didn’t go around creating pillars of fire. That was literally playing with fire and just asking for something bad to happen.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t play with that thing too much.”

“Okaaay!”

I used my portal to send Filo back to the village. She disappeared instantaneously, right before my eyes.

“Okay, Raphtalia. I’m counting on you again, tonight.”

“Understood. The time to be depressed has come, once again.”

“Yeah.”

We didn’t have the money, so we couldn’t buy the remaining Lurolona slaves. It was painful just watching them being bought off, but if we didn’t keep an eye on who they were being bought by, then we wouldn’t be able to purchase them when we finally did have the money.

“But it’s not like there’s no point. Just keep at it.”

“I know. Alright, then you keep at it, too, Mr. Naofumi.”

“Will do!”

I was going to go watch the remaining coliseum matches, like Rishia had been doing. I’m sure if Raph-chan had been in the audience rooting for me, it would’ve made me happy.

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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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