I turned the corner
and started to head back to my room, but I ran into someone on the way.
“Oh, um . . .
Feeeeeeh ...”
She was carrying a
large number of bags, apparently on her way home from shopping. She was wearing
a squirrel kigurumi and a Santa hat.
I recognized her.
It was Rishia, Itsuki’s party member.
“Hey, you alright?”
I spoke to her
without even thinking about it. She was walking slowly and planting her feet
carefully, looking like she might collapse at any moment.
“Feh?”
I reached out and
grabbed one of the bags that looked like it was about to fall, then I placed it
back on the stack of shopping bags, careful to keep the balance steady.
“You’re the Shield
Hero, aren’t you?”
“They sent you out
on errands for them?”
“N . . . No! I was
just out shopping for the team, but I . . . huff . . . huff ...”
She looked
exhausted. She was carrying an awful lot of shopping bags, after all.
She was a just a
young girl, and the way she was walking around in the squirrel kigurumi made it
look like she was being punished or bullied.
“Want some help?
You look like you’re going to drop something.”
A while back all
the heroes had introduced their party members to everyone else, so I’d met her
once or twice before.
So it wasn’t like I
didn’t know her. Besides, she’d been a big help during the battle with L’Arc.
We had survived, in
part, thanks to her. The least I could do was help carry her shopping bags.
“Feh . . . Bu . . .
but ...”
“You can take a
break and blame it on me if you want.”
“I could never!”
“Then let me help
you.”
“Oh, okay.”
I could have taken
the bags and helped her carry them all back, but I didn’t know how Itsuki would
react if I showed up with her. He should have just asked some of the soldiers
for help. Why did he have to make this girl do everything?
I helped her carry
the bags and felt a little conspicuous as I walked next to her.
“Feh ...”
I was surprised she
had stuck with them for as long as she had. From what I had seen so far, it
looked like a pretty hostile environment.
They were just
using her as their errand runner. They didn’t even bother to introduce her when
we’d all met.
Itsuki had
structured his little party of friends with himself at the top. That meant
there had to be someone on the bottom, and that someone was Rishia.
I’d been treated
like crap since I first arrived in this world too, so I felt like I could
empathize with her. I wanted to know more about her.
“Let’s have a chat
on our way back to Itsuki’s room. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
“Me? Well, I don’t
know if I’ll be able to answer them or not, but okay.”
“Then I’ll start
with a personal one. Why did you join his party?”
There’s no way that
she felt comfortable in an environment like that. Who could be comfortable with
a guy like Itsuki, with a guy that would stop at nothing to see his idea of
justice realized? I wasn’t about to ask her to join my party or anything, but
at the very least she would be happier traveling with Ren.
“Of course it’s
like this, I just joined the party.”
“That’s not what I
mean. I mean, if they treat you so badly, why don’t you leave?”
“Because Master
Itsuki saved me.”
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if I
ask what happened?”
“Feh?! Why would
you want to hear stories about someone like me? Let’s talk about something
else!”
“What kind of a
person do you take me for?! Just tell me already!”
“Oh, okay ...”
So Rishia started
to explain the events and circumstances that led to her joining up with Itsuki.
To sum it up,
Rishia came from a ruined noble family.
They had very
little money and were forced to live frugally.
A neighboring town
was ruled by a rich, rotten nobleman. To protect themselves, Rishia’s village
was forced to spend an increasing amount of their income on bulking up the
town’s defenses.
Doing so used up
all the remaining money they had. They were insulted by their fellow villagers
and accosted by the neighboring town. She cried herself to sleep at night.
One day, a terrible
plan was hatched. Unable to contribute additional funds to the village’s
defenses, it was decided that Rishia would be offered up to the barbaric
noblemen in the neighboring land. In the end, she was taken by force.
It was a situation
that Itsuki simply couldn’t ignore.
The rest went just
as you would expect. Itsuki stormed in and, wrangling all the power of the Bow
Hero, defeated the evil noblemen and saved Rishia from their clutches.
Rishia felt very
much indebted to him, so she turned her back on her family and village to join
his party.
It was a classic
love story.
But what was with
all the “feh” stuff? I felt like I’d heard it somewhere before.
Where was it? Oh! I
just remembered.
“Wasn’t that town
having trouble because the bad governor had increased the taxes so heavily?”
“Yes. The noblemen
that Master Itsuki defeated were enacting policies like that.”
Yup, that was it.
She was talking about the town that I’d passed through when I first heard about
Itsuki’s secret activities.
That would mean
that Rishia had been traveling with him since then.
But I’d seen Itsuki
in the tavern of that town, and she hadn’t been with him.
A little after that
though, I’d seen a young, pretty girl profusely thanking Itsuki in the street.
That must have been her.
“Weren’t you talking
out in the street? You were speaking very loudly.”
“How did you know
that? I remember that scene as if it were yesterday.”
“You said ‘it’s a
secret!’ didn’t you?”
“How did you know
that?”
“I’ll test your
memory. When you were talking in the street, do you remember a giant pink
filolial walking by? That was Filo!”
“Fehhh?”
Rishia nodded to
herself.
“Fehhhhhh! I
remember! She was pulling a carriage!”
“You have an
awesome memory. I can’t believe you could remember that.”
Maybe she just
thought she was remembering it, because I’d painted the scene for her.
“You were there?!”
“Alright, alright.
Calm down already. I just happened to be passing through.”
She freaked out
over the littlest things. Her eyes were always darting this way and that, ready
to panic over anything that happened.
She looked really
on edge, but it was a little hard to tell what she was thinking underneath the
kigurumi.
“Oh, okay. I, well
. . . I feel like I need to pay my debt to him.”
From what I could
tell, everything that Itsuki did was only in the service of his own ego. But to
Rishia it must have looked as though he was behaving exactly as a hero would be
expected to. The way she spoke about him made it clear that she really did feel
indebted to him.
At the very least,
she was able to sit through Itsuki’s other party members’ boasting and not go
insane—that had to mean something.
“I see ... Sounds
like you’re in a pretty tough spot.”
“Yes. I don’t know
how well things are going.”
“From what I’ve
seen, it looks like you are suited to battling from the back line.”
“I’ve never been
very talented or skilled with weapons. If I’m good at anything, I guess it
would be magic. But Master Itsuki said that he needed front line fighters, so
when it came time to class up, I changed my stats to increase my skill in
melee.”
“Why would he ...
?”
He’d ignored her
strengths and forced her to focus on her weaknesses?
Granted, Itsuki
used a bow in battle, so he would need more frontline fighters. But if he
didn’t choose the right people for the job, then he was only going to make
everyone’s lives harder. If she’d been in my party, I’d have asked her to focus
on what she was already good at.
“Well, good luck
with everything. If you keep it up, nobody will say that you’re untalented.
You’ll impress them all yet, you’ll see.”
“Thank you!”
She was skittish,
but deep down she seemed to have a pretty strong heart. She was going to be
fine.
I’d fallen pretty
low myself before. But eventually, I found a way to make it work, and look
where I am now.
If Rishia kept
making an effort, I was sure she’d prove herself essential to Itsuki’s team.
“Sorry about all
the questions. Did I wear you out?”
“Not at all. I’m
fine!”
“Well, that’s good
...”
Just as the
conversation was trailing off, we turned a corner, and Itsuki’s room came into
view.
“Later.”
“Feh. Thank you.”
I handed the bags
I’d been carrying back to Rishia, turned, and went back the way I’d came. I was
heading for my room.
“Welcome back, Mr.
Naofumi.”
“Thanks,
Raphtalia.”
When I got back to
the room I found Raphtalia waiting for me.
“How was the
meeting with the other heroes?”
“Not so hot.
They’re set on believing that I cheated to get as powerful as I am. They won’t
believe anything that I tell them.”
“How will you get
them to come around?”
“Who knows? I’ve
tried all I can, but they don’t seem to want to listen.”
I’m the protagonist
of my very own game! That’s what they thought. They didn't want to believe that
someone they thought was weaker than them could somehow level up to overpower
them. That would break their fantasy rules! The protagonist never loses!
Besides, they came
into this world with tons of knowledge about it from the games they’d played.
How is that not cheating? It all sounded like sour grapes to me.
In the end, we were
all probably thinking of this world as if it were a game.
The weapon power-up
system and the leveling were definitely reinforcing that idea.
But that’s just the
sort of world that we were in. For modern Japanese people like us, of course it
was like a game.
In the end, it
didn’t matter whether it was a game or not; we needed to survive it.
Those three were
like children. They would do whatever it took to win. They would cheat and
steal to win, but they would always point their fingers and accuse everyone
else of being unfair.
If I didn’t get a
grip on their psychology, I was never going to be able to rein them in.
Honestly, as long
as they were strong enough to battle through the waves without dying, I didn't
care what they did after that.
If we were all
battling together, then I would probably survive this whole ordeal.
Why? I told them
how to power-up and demonstrated it right in front of them. So why? Why
wouldn't they believe me?
Because more than
they wanted to win, they wanted to be special.
I would probably have
thought the same thing, had I been transported to a world similar to a game I
was already familiar with.
“The other heroes
are too weak to be trusted, so it looks like we are going to be sent to another
country to battle in the next wave that appears there.”
“I guess we will be
pretty busy.”
“I guess so ...”
“I’m baaaack!”
Filo came skipping
into the room.
Had she gotten sick
of swimming already?
“What’s wrong,
master?”
“I guess I’ll tell
you about it. Remember how Fitoria said that we needed to get along with the
other heroes? Well, in order to get them to power-up a little more, it looks
like we’re going to have to put in some serious work.”
I didn’t think that
Filo was going to understand what I had to say, but I made an effort to explain
what we’d discussed during the meeting anyway.
“So when we are
training with the other heroes, you have to be honest with them about how
everything works.”
“Huh?”
Of course she
didn’t understand. That’s Filo for you.
“Anyway, it looks
like we’re going to have to go to another country and fight in the wave battle
there.”
It happened just
when I said it: Filo’s cowlick started to twitch back and forth. Filo looked a
little confused.
“Huh? Oh . . . um
... You mean you’ll go for me?”
“What was that?”
“Oh, Fitoria was watching
our conversation. She can see what we are doing through my hair thing!”
“She’s spying on
us?”
I guess she needed
to keep an eye on how the situation was developing. I should have known better
than to think she would have just let us go with a verbal agreement.
Fitoria was the
legendary queen of the filolials.
She had a deep
understanding of the waves and seemed to know a lot about everything.
She was the one
that had told me the heroes could not tolerate infighting. She was the one who
had given Filo her cowlick.
“And she was saying
that if the weak heroes are going to battle against a wave, she could offer
them some back up.”
“So we don’t have
to go? She’ll do it for us?”
Filo nodded.
“She says it’s not
a problem, as long as we are trying to get along with the other heroes and grow
more powerful.”
“That’s a big help.
To tell the truth, the other heroes won’t listen to anything I say. It’s been a
real struggle. We were going to have to take on responsibility for everything.”
“Yeah, that’s why
she says she’ll help!”
That cowlick was
proving itself convenient, even if it had interfered with Filo’s class up
ceremony.
“Hey Fitoria. Do
you know anything about L’Arc and the others?”
“She’s um . . .
she’s thinking! Ok, she says that sometimes people like that come out of the
waves, but she doesn’t know what they are.”
That’s right. She’d
mentioned that she had forgotten a lot about the past. So I couldn’t expect her
to know everything.
But did that mean
she had fought against them herself?
“So she’s fought
against Glass and the others before?”
“No. She says it
was someone else.”
But that meant that
this had happened before. It meant that people lived on the other side of the
dimensional rifts. What did it all mean?
“Maybe it’s like
the other heroes? Heroes aside from the four holy heroes?”
“I thought so too,
but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.”
“Fitoria says that
she doesn’t really understand it either. She just says that things like this
happen sometimes during the waves.”
“Oh yeah?”
But what were the waves?
“An idea? Hm ...
She says that there might be a clue in the story of the four holy warriors.”
“That’s great. I’ll
tell the queen about it and see what she says.”
Personally, I
didn’t know very much about what the legends of the heroes said. All I knew was
what I had read in the Records of the Four Holy Weapons
. But maybe the queen, or a scholarly advisor of hers, would be able to find a
clue.
Fitoria would be a
historical witness if they needed one. If she was bringing it up, then there
had to be something to it.
“But . . . she says
that she wants you to take care of the waves that occur in the country that the
four heroes are currently in.”
“Fine. That’s still
a load off of my shoulders. I can handle that much.”
The biggest problem
would be facing off against Glass again before we understood the nature of her
existence. At least we had some time to figure it out.
I wasn’t very
confident we’d find a solution though.
“You know though,
honestly, I think we’d all be better off if you were the one to fight Glass.”
“She says that
she’ll beat them back if she ever runs into them!”
Filo’s cowlick
stopped twitching, indicating that our conversation was over for the time
being.
“Anyway, I’ll tell
the queen about all of that. At the very least, she just took a major job off
of our plates, which will be a big help.”
“How wonderful. I’m
glad that Ms. Fitoria wants to help us.”
“I wish she would
just take care of everything.”
“Mr. Naofumi, I
don’t think that ...”
“I know, I know.”
If a legendary
filolial could calm the waves on her own, she’d be unbelievably powerful.
My mood felt a
little lighter after that talk, like a load had been lifted from my shoulders.
Still, I didn’t know any more about the nature of the waves.
I sat by the window
and started to think as I watched the sun set over the ocean.
We would have to
get the other heroes to understand the power-up system. Then we’d have to
figure out some way to get around the defense rating and defense ignoring
attacks that Glass and the others had at their disposal.
Once the other
heroes were powered up, they would rely on my defenses to coordinate their
attacks.
After that, I
wanted to stop by the weapon shop in Melromarc to see the old guy there and
stock up for the next wave.
The weapons that
Raphtalia and Filo were using, the Karma Rabbit Sword and the Karma Dog Claws,
were new. They didn’t have a blood clean coating applied to them, which meant
that they would eventually get dirtied and blunt. I would have to keep
sharpening them.
If there were stronger,
more durable weapons that we could replace them with, that would probably be a
better option for us in the long run. I bet the queen would be willing to
provide us with whatever materials we need to craft new weapons. Or if we had
enough time, we could go find the materials ourselves, leveling up on the
monsters we encountered along the way.
Finally, I’d have
to make sure my shield was as powerful as possible. I still felt like there
were plenty of areas in need of improvement.
Besides, I still wanted
to see what sort of shields I could unlock with the materials I’d gotten from
the Inter-Dimensional Whale.
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