LN Tate noYuusha Prolog - CH 4 Vol 9 Bahasa Indonesia

Prologue: The Waves of Another World

“Pwaoooooo!”

The inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow roared and swung a weapon that looked like oversized Buddhist prayer beads at me.

“Heh!” I blocked the attack with my shield, then grabbed his prayer beads out of the air. His weapon immobilized, the monster raged and roared even louder than before.

“That was awesome! I guess that’s why they call you the Shield Hero, eh Kiddo?” L’Arc grunted next to me while he fought another ganesha.

“Awesome? I’m the Shield Hero. If I couldn’t block an attack like that, what good would I be?”

I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself to him, but it was true. Since I came to that new world , my main role in battle was to use my high defense rating to block the attacks of enemies. I guess I was sort of an exception.

I should mention that I was currently in yet another world, one that lay on the other side of the dimensional rifts that accompanied the waves of destruction.

“Don’t let your guard down! Pay attention, will you, Boy?”

“Hey Kiddo, you better stop calling me ‘Boy’!”

“If you keep calling me ‘Kiddo,’ I’m going to keep calling you ‘Boy’!” Just then I got an even better idea, based on what I knew about his background. “Maybe I should call you ‘Nobunaga’ instead?”

“Hey! How did you know that Kizuna used to call me that ?! ”

I guess it fit pretty well. I’d have to remember to compliment Kizuna on her nicknaming skills.

“Mr. Naofumi, maybe you should stop with all the nicknames.”

“Ahaha!”

“Don’t just laugh it off!”

“Then let me be more clear about it. Aren’t I the one who named a king and princess ‘Trash’ and ‘Bitch’?”

“You’re worse than I thought, Kiddo.”

“This is why you’re so often misunderstood . . .”

“It’s true though, isn’t it?”

“But you should tell him the circumstances around it, or he won’t understand.”

“I know, Kiddo, well enough, to figure that they had it coming.”

“You think you know everything!”

If he was going to understand something about me, I wished he’d start with something else. It was kind of depressing. Why did we have to talk about things like this?

We were enemies up until a short while ago, but now we were on the same team and already acting like old friends.

But we were getting too comfortable, and I had to make sure we didn’t forget the reason we were here in the first place. I’d better go over it all from the beginning.

My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I was a typical otaku, college student back in Japan. One day I went to the local library and found a book called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. I started reading it, only to find myself actually summoned to the world it depicted, as one of the characters in the book: The Shield Hero.

The people that summoned me asked me to lend them my strength to help save the world.

And, well, a whole lot of stuff happened after that.

“L’Arc, you understand Mr. Naofumi so well!”

“I know all sorts of people, so right from the get-go I could tell that he wasn’t a bad guy.”

“I’m the worst kind of guy!”

“Oh yeah, you think you’re really tough, don’t ya?”

“Shut up!”

What was WITH this guy?

By the way, the guy that was pretending to know all about me was L’Arc. That was short for L’Arc Berg. I still didn’t know his last name.

He was an experienced adventurer in his late twenties. Generally, he was a pretty charming guy. He knew how to get people on his side. Sometimes he was a little childish, but that was probably just part of his charm.

When we first met he was wearing a set of light armor, but when we met up again, in this new world, he was dressed—I don’t know why—like a member of the Shinsengumi. The style suited him, but I wondered which one was his usual look.

After all, Glass wore a kimono, and Kizuna wore a haori over a lolita-style dress.

He probably chose the clothes based on their effects. Maybe the Shinsengumi clothes he had picked up while sneaking around in this world were actually better than the light armor.

Why did I care so much about his clothes anyway? Alright , enough of that. Moving on.

“Just hurry up and kill the thing, will you? I’m tired of holding it down.”

I’d kept my grip on the inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow the entire time we’d been talking. It was one of the larger monsters in the area. It might have been a boss, but I wasn’t sure yet. Its attacks were intense, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The reason I was able to withstand its attacks so easily was related to the legendary shield I’d held since the moment I was summoned to the new world.

I couldn’t take the shield off. It was like a curse. But I could absorb all sorts of items and materials into it, and doing so unlocked different versions of the shield. And those new versions all came with new abilities.

I became stronger by unlocking those abilities.

All of that was well and fine, but it came with a significant drawback: I wasn’t able to deal any damage on my own. So, I needed party members that could handle all the offensive duties in battle.

“Mr. Naofumi! I’m going in!”

“Then I leave it to you.”

“Okay!”

The girl that just rushed forward to attack the monster I was restraining was Raphtalia, a demi-human girl that used to be a slave. Demi-humans looked like humans, except they tended to have animal-like features, too. Raphtalia was a raccoon-type demi-human, and she had ears and a tail that looked like a raccoon, or maybe a tanuki.

She was also my most trusted companion. She was sort of like a daughter to me.

At the moment she was dressed in a miko outfit, and it looked great on her. L’Arc had encouraged her to wear it. She looked so good in it, in fact, that I hoped she would keep wearing it after all the business in this world was behind us.

“Hya! Instant Blade: Mist!”

Raphtalia flashed by the inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow, her katana cutting deep into its flesh as she passed.

That was all it took to defeat the monster. It split into two pieces and disappeared.

“Alright! On to the next one! This wave’s monsters seem stronger than normal!”

“I agree! They seem stronger than the monsters in our world, too.”

Raphtalia was holding a special katana. Perhaps it was part of her mysterious destiny, but she had been chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons in the world on the other side of the wave’s dimensional rifts.

I’ll explain it all later, but it meant that she had become far more powerful than an ordinary person could ever hope to become.

“Watch out, master! Another monster is coming!” Filo called down from the sky above us.

She was a young monster-girl, and she loved to pull carriages. She used to also be a large, ostrich-like monster called a filolial. She had the ability to transform into a young girl with angel wings on her back, and she fought alongside me—or rather, under my leadership.

She was actually extremely powerful on the battlefield. Anyone deceived by her appearance would quickly come to regret it.

But, after we came to this other world, her monster form had changed. She was no longer a filolial, and that meant that her fighting style had changed too. In this world she was a humming fairy, a type of monster that turned into dramatically different things as it matured.

There was one point in particular that was very different between filolials and humming fairies—filolials can’t fly, but humming fairies can. So now that Filo could fly, she had taken to the skies to observe the movements of the battle.

Of course the wave’s monsters were throwing things at Filo and trying to hit her with magic, but she was very quick and had no trouble dodging whatever they threw at her.

“Let’s do this!”

“Feh . . .”

That was Rishia. She was running towards me with a horde of monsters in tow. That must have been what Filo was trying to warn me about. I thought Rishia went to join Glass and Kizuna.

Her full name was Rishia Ivyred, and she was a human girl. She came from a ruined noble family back in Melromarc. She used to be on the Bow Hero’s team. The Bow Hero was one of my fellow heroes, Itsuki Kawasumi. Then one day she did something in a wave battle that enraged him. Out of spite, he kicked her out of his party. That’s when I found her, in trouble. So, I put her in my party.

She was very timid, but she came from a good background and had received a good education. Had this been a game, I’d say she was the sort of character whose status points had all been assigned to a stat that I couldn’t see yet.

“Air Strike Shield!”

I used a skill that caused a shield to appear in mid-air, blocking the attacks of the monsters that were bearing down on Rishia as she ran.

Skills were a special kind of technique that only heroes like myself could use.

“Rishia! Are you alright ?! ”

“Feh? Y . . . Yes!”

“I thought you were with Kizuna! What happened ?! ”

“Kizuna and Glass are on the verge of being overrun by monsters, so they asked me to come get you!”

“Oh. Well, they are on the front lines, so I guess they need some help.”

I’d sent Rishia to fight with them, because I thought it would be good experience for her. I guess she’d been in a little over her head.

As for what I’d been up to? My team had been focused on evacuating anyone caught in the monsters’ path.

The wave had arrived close to a village, so we were very busy trying to save as many people as we could. Come to think of it, the waves always seemed to occur near villages. But, then again, I’d only fought in three waves so far. That probably wasn’t enough to start drawing conclusions.

Anyway, the other group of teammates on the front lines, at the moment, was led by Kizuna Kazayama, who was one of the four holy heroes of this world—another world separate from the one that had summoned me.

She was called the Hunting Hero, which wasn’t one of the four heroes back in the world that had summoned me. She fought with a wide variety of tools and weapons, all of which were loosely related to hunting or fishing in some way. She could use a wide variety of weapons, but she was also subject to a strict limitation: she was only able to fight against monsters and animals. She was useless in a battle against other people. Like myself, she probably also had some way to deal damage to people when she really had to, but it wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t something she could just make happen whenever she wanted.

She appeared to be a young girl who wore her hair pinned up on the side, and she wore a haori over a gothic, lolita-style dress. But she said that she was eighteen years old.

I met her just after we came to this new world. We chased our enemy, Kyo, through a dimensional rift, only to fall into his trap and find ourselves imprisoned in a never-ending labyrinth.

With Kizuna’s cooperation, we were eventually able to escape. After getting out of the labyrinth, we also found a way to sneak out of the enemy country that had imprisoned both of us in the labyrinth to begin with. Lots of things happened along the way.

It turned out that soul-healing water, a medicine that replenishes spent SP, didn’t exist in this world. So, we made some and sold it for a high price. We used the money to buy earth crystals, which were an ore that actually gave experience points to people from the world that summoned me. Finally, we ended up fighting and defeating an obnoxious guy that was trying to kill Raphtalia. He was trying to kill her because he didn’t like that the katana of the vassal weapons had chosen her over him.

Something about that guy had really reminded me of Kyo. He acted a lot like him. I guess this new world was full of jerks like that. No matter what world I found myself in, there was always trouble to deal with.

“Hey L’Arc, think Kizuna is having trouble? Is she asking for help because she can’t attack?”

“Hm . . . Good question. To be honest, I don’t really know.”

The enemy had the word “shadow” attached to their names, which made me think that they would still be considered monsters. But who knew if Kizuna’s weapons would agree with my judgement?

As for myself, it didn’t matter if I was attacking a person or a monster, because none of my attacks did any damage to begin with. I thought that I might be able to get around the issue by using a tool, so I once tried throwing a bomb at an enemy. It just bounced off of them and rolled harmlessly to the ground. And yet, I was able to use weed killer to kill a plant-type monster once, so the rules were sometimes confusing.

Kizuna had a similar problem. Her ability to deal damage to an enemy depended on whether or not it was considered a person or a monster, and sometimes that line was hard to distinguish.

“Let’s go then, quickly, L’Arc!”

“Right, I’m worried about Kizuna, too. Therese, let’s finish this!”

That was Therese Alexanderite who was fighting side by side with L’Arc. She was a crystal-person, a Jewel.  Jewels were a type of human that only existed in this new world on the other side of the wave’s dimensional rifts, which I’m going to start calling “Kizuna’s world” for the sake of brevity.

Jewels were a race of people that were born with a gemstone that served as a kind of magical core. They were skilled with magic, and were known for their dexterity. They were also known for being very sensitive, and based on the way that Therese had reacted to the bangle I made her, I agreed.

She had been hiding out with L’Arc, so she was wearing hakama, too.

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

“Shining Stones: Ruby Flame!”

“Fusion Technique! Ruby Disc!”

A spinning wheel of ruby flame shot from L’Arc’s scythe and slammed into the monsters that were chasing Rishia.

Skills could often be combined with the skills of other party members to make combo skills. I’d used them a few times with Raphtalia and Filo.

“Come on, Kiddo! Let’s go!”

“You make all the decisions now, do you? Fine, let’s go!”

“Although if Kizuna and Glass are fighting together, I’m pretty sure they’ll be just fine.”

I should tell you about Glass next. She looked like a ghost, wore a kimono, and fought with folding fans. Her hair was jet black, and her skin was so white it was nearly transparent . . . it actually might have been a bit transparent.

Her fans were one of the vassal weapons.

Kizuna was close friends with Glass, and she was really upset when she found out that Glass had been trying to kill me. Glass was very cold and sharp—she looked like she could kill you just by looking at you. But, she was different around Kizuna. She relaxed , she smiled .

Because of Kizuna’s mediation, Glass and I now fought together.

L’Arc and I ran to help Kizuna and Glass.

Monsters poured from the dimensional rifts in the wave. This time they looked like monsters straight out of Indian mythology. Wasn’t Ganesha basically an elephant-human hybrid?

There were also inter-dimensional ifrits, which looked like fire spirits. I saw some other monsters called inter-dimensonal nagaraja.

There were a lot of human-like monsters, too. They didn’t seem to understand language, so I figured they were probably monsters, not people—even accounting for the wide variety of human-like people in these other worlds. They were pretty powerful.

Most of the monsters were powerful, actually. This wave was quite a bit more difficult than any of the other waves I’d fought in.

Over the past few days of training I’d managed to get to level 75, and I had powered up my shields considerably, but the enemy still had attacks that nearly broke through my defenses. I still hadn’t recovered the sort of abilities I’d had in the last world, the world that had summoned me. It was a bit like playing an away game.

L’Arc had said the same thing.

“You don’t think someone with a vassal weapon came with this wave, do you? Like Glass did?”

“That’s not funny, Kiddo!”

“I wasn’t joking!”

We went on yelling back and forth as we held off the monsters. Eventually, the dimensional rifts closed.

High in the sky above our heads, an enormous ship hovered and was engaged in battle with flying monsters that looked like garudas. The battle was fierce.

A lot of people had joined us in our fight against the wave.

“Looks like it’s pretty much over.”

“There were tons of monsters this time. I guess it just took some time to get rid of them all.”

“Kiddo, you really had me worried there for a minute.”

“Well, it’s what you were doing. Don’t forget that.”

“I haven’t forgotten, but it isn’t something to make light of.”

He’d crossed over to another world to kill its heroes, but now he was afraid to even think of the same thing happening to him.

“Hey!” Kizuna shouted, running over to us. Glass was right behind her.

“You asked for help, but it doesn’t look like you needed it.”

“Yeah, well, I asked Rishia to get you, and a bunch of the monsters followed her when she left. We ended up handling the leftovers ourselves.”

I was impressed that Rishia had done as well as she had, especially considering how weak she was. Her stats never seemed to match her level, but at least she’d managed to stay alive this whole time.

“We were going to help her, but we had too many monsters to deal with ourselves. Besides, Rishia took off screaming and running.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I could picture it easily enough. What monster wouldn’t be drawn to that pathetic “fehhhh” of hers?”

“Rafu!”

“Feh ?! ”

The little creature sitting on Rishia’s shoulder was Raph-chan. Raph-chan was my shikigami; we made her out of Raphtalia’s hair. She was cute, a small little creature that looked something like a mix between a tanuki and a raccoon.

She looked like Raphtalia—if Raphtalia were turned into an animal.

She was a happy, energetic little creature. For some reason, she was currently riding on Rishia’s back.

“Did you protect Rishia?”

“Rafu!” she barked and nodded.

Raph-chan was able to use the same illusion magic as Raphtalia.

When Raph-chan cast illusion magic on monsters, they weren’t able to land any attacks on Rishia.

“Good work, Raph-chan.”

“Rafu!”

“Pen!” chirped Chris. Chris was a penguin, and was Kizuna and Glass’s shikigami. It really looked exactly like a penguin. Chris has been around for longer than Raph-chan.

“You too, Chris. Thanks for protecting Rishia,” said Kizuna.

“You did an excellent job,” added Glass.

Raph-chan was the one who had really helped though—I made a point of rubbing her head in a way that everyone could see.

“Mr. Naofumi, what are you acting so competitive for? We have more important things to discuss,” Raphtalia said, grabbing my shoulder. Raphtalia didn’t seem to be very fond of Raph-chan.

“Kizuna, were you able to fight most of those monsters?”

“Most of them. I was a little concerned about the ones named after gods, but as it turns out, they were all just normal monsters.”

Ganesha, ifrits, the snake-like nagas, the half-snake-half-human nagarajas . . . there were plenty of different monsters.

“What was the boss monster like?”

“It was an inter-dimensional girimekhala, but there was a mode-change halfway through and it became an airavata.”

The boss was an elephant? How boring! I only knew what it was because I was such an otaku.

“Let’s absorb as many materials as we can, then head back to the castle.”

Kizuna called to Ethnobalt, who was waiting in the sky above us. He was from Kizuna’s world, and used the ship of the vassal weapons. When he came to battle, he usually hung back and offered support from a distance.

Apparently he didn’t like fighting.

He was a young boy that dressed like a wizard . . . or at least that’s how he appeared at first glance. His true form was a monster, like Filo. I knew that he was some kind of rabbit, but I didn’t know any more than that.

He was a skilled fortune teller , and he was the one that created Raph-chan for me. Judging from how useful Raph-chan had proven in the hunt for Raphtalia, Ethnobalt’s abilities were the real deal.

“But seriously—Why do I have to come all the way to this world and fight in your waves?”

“You’re asking that now?”

“Hey, I didn’t come here because I wanted to fight in more waves. I’m just helping out on the side, while I’ve got the time.”

“Yeah I know. And thank you for fighting on behalf of our world.”

“Yeah, yeah . . . Let’s head back and get ready for the next step. “

What did people in this world think the waves were? They happened all over the world, so it was hard to come up with one explanation that fit everything. Waves . . .

Back in the last world, the one that summoned me, I’d thought of them as a natural disaster. Now I knew that wasn’t quite right. I’d finally learned what they really were, and I’d never have known if I hadn’t crossed over to Kizuna’s world.

The waves were, supposedly, a phenomenon that happened when worlds fused together . I say “supposedly” because this was all just something I’d heard. I didn’t have proof one way or the other. In Kizuna’s world there were records of fusions that had happened in the distant past.

If the worlds fused any more than they already had, they would be destroyed . . . or so they said. According to the legend, the way to save your world from destruction was to cross over to another world during a wave event and kill the four holy heroes (the people who hold the holy weapons) of the other world. If you did that, then their world would be destroyed and the life of your own world would be extended.

That was why Glass had crossed over into our world and tried to kill me . . . or so she said.

When Kizuna learned what had happen she was livid. She resolved to find another way to save her world.

Furthermore, back in the other world there was a monster called the Spirit Tortoise, and it sacrificed people and used their souls to produce a magic barrier that would prevent waves from happening.

As you might have guessed, there were monsters in Kizuna’s world that could do the same thing.

Some of them had already been dealt with, like the White Tiger, but there were four holy beasts here. I’d also heard them called the Four Symbols.

There was a so-called genius scientist here, who I liked to call Trash #2, and he had found a way to make replicas of the defeated White Tiger, turning those copies into weapons of war.

“We can’t spend all our time thinking about the waves. There’s a limit to how much time we can stay here.”

“I know that! I’m doing all I can to help you,” Kizuna said.

We had our own mission to accomplish. We had to punish Kyo for what he’d done to our world, for what he’d done to Ost. We had to bring the Spirit Tortoise’s energy back to our world.

There was no time to waste.

Chapter One: Otherworldly Techniques

“Alright then . . .”

I went back to what I had been doing before the wave came.

L’Arc was a king . . . or boy, and had a castle. I worked in a small workshop in the surrounding town for a few days. The culture there was interesting, a kind of a reflection of L’Arc himself. It was a near perfect mix of east and west.

People wore Japanese-style kimonos, but with Western sets of armor over them. No one thought it was strange. The neighboring countries were very Japan-like, and I’d heard that the eastern influence came in over the borders.

I was borrowing Romina the blacksmith’s workshop to craft some accessories. Romina had made everyone’s equipment.

It was a good place to work. I could quickly respond to questions or requests that Romina had, and I could get to the castle easily if anything important came up. Going to Kizuna’s house every night was a little annoying because of the trek to the next town, so I was pretty content to borrow the workshop for a few days.

Raphtalia, Rishia, and Filo were all at the castle, training with L’Arc.

Raph-chan and Therese were both fascinated by my accessory crafting, so they stayed behind to watch me work. They were always interrupting me with stupid questions, so I did all that I could to ignore them. I couldn’t help but feel like we were getting a bit too comfortable, but it was all we could do at the moment ..

“So let’s make a plan . . . ” Kizuna said, walking in with Glass. She leaned on the counter and showed Romina the materials she’d gotten from the wave monsters, then asked for new equipment to be made.

They looked like they wanted to talk to me about strategy when they finished placing their equipment orders.

“Hey, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

“What?”

“If the waves occur so frequently, how do you deal with them all?”

“You should ask Glass about that.”

“Indeed, we are very careful about such things.”

“So? What do you do?”

“Romina, do you have one of those things here?”

“Yes. I get a lot of orders for them,” Romina said, producing a necklace from behind the counter. There was a large gemstone hanging from it.

There were a number of different designs from what I could tell, but they all incorporated a large gemstone.

Was it a crystal? The stone shone with a faint light.

“This is a special tool that instantly transports its user to the site of a wave occurrence.”

“Hey, that’s pretty impressive.”

The people in Kizuna’s world had apparently done quite a bit of research into the different functions of the heroes’ weapons. They invented ways to mimic the drop item functionality of them, which was impossible in the world that I came from. It required a special machine and the use of the dragon hourglass, but the technology was still very impressive.

“Yeah. The Jewels were the first people to make them.”

“Hm . . . And?”

“So our friends all have these, and they are posted around the world to battle the waves whenever and wherever they occur.”

“You certainly seem to know a lot of good people.”

Kizuna had been summoned to this world before the waves started coming, and after going on a number of adventures, she ended up being thrown into an inescapable labyrinth. Before that she had met quite a lot of people.

“The ones I know of are on sale in the marketplace. They sell them to normal adventurers who want to battle in the waves.”

“Just for the good of the world? There are so many noble people around here!”

Too bad there wasn’t anyone like that in the world that I’d come from. Some adventurers had actually volunteered to help during the wave on the Cal Mira islands, but we never would have won that battle had it not been for the heroes.

“A lot of people show up to battle in the waves. Turns out they are mostly after the rare materials they can get from the monsters.”

“Ah . . . Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

If they had the opportunity to get their hands on rare items and technologies, then a lot of people would probably show up—even if they had to put themselves at considerable risk. That must have been why some of the adventurers I’d met seemed to be used to handling themselves on the battlefield.

“I’m kind of jealous.”

Deep knowledge of the waves was very uncommon in the world that had summoned me, and perhaps because of that, it was very rare to get any help from anyone when the waves came. Granted, a few adventurers here and there would get caught up in a wave if it happened to occur where they were, but they didn’t help out very much when it came time to battle.

There were times when the waves would end even if the heroes didn’t come to battle, but now I wondered if that was because someone in the other world was closing the dimensional rifts from their side.

Theoretically, there was a way to confirm my suspicion, but I couldn’t think of a way to talk to whoever was on the other side of the rifts. There was also no way to know what sort of person we’d end up running into. What if they just attacked us? It was probably better to just leave them alone.

Back to the topic at hand—if there was an item that would automatically allow its user to participate in a wave battle, I wanted to get my hands on it. I figured it would prove useful once we finished up in this world and went back to the one that had summoned me.

Not only would it make my job as a hero easier, but I could probably make money if I found a way to mass produce it.

“I’d really like one of those.”

Kizuna and Romina nodded as if they understood exactly what I was thinking.

“Naofumi, you love that kind of thing, don’t you?”

“Alto makes that same face.”

They had figured that I wanted to sell the necklaces back in the previous world. I must have really gotten a reputation as a penny-pincher.

“I’m just not sure that anyone back in my world is serious about fighting the waves. Not even the seven star heroes or the four holy heroes.”

The other heroes, aside from myself, showed up in that world already knowing how things worked there. They used it to get ahead—but then they accused me of cheating when they realized my leveling and strength had outpaced them. They acted like everything was a game, even the waves. They weren’t serious about anything at all.

Besides, when the second wave came, they were barely able to survive the fight with the boss. Any wave that came now would be much more powerful than that, so I wasn’t sure how much I could count on them. A lot of the waves were left to Fitoria, the legendary filolial, to deal with. She was apparently very busy running around the world taking care of waves wherever they popped up.

I wonder how they were holding up without me.

I’d heard there were other heroes called the seven star heroes, but I’d never even met them. I didn’t know who they were, but it was best to prepare for the worst. If these necklaces would help me do that, then I wanted them.

“Oh, I almost forgot! I figured something out after speaking with Glass.”

“What?”

“She says that since I participated in the wave battle this time, the next wave will take longer to come to this area.”

“Oh yeah?”

Kizuna mentioned something about that before—she’d said that there was a reason the four holy heroes needed to battle against the waves.

There was a legend in her world that said the lifespan of the world itself could be extended if the four holy heroes of another world were killed. But even though Kizuna was a holy hero, she wasn’t able to do any damage to human opponents, which meant that she had practically nothing to gain from participating in the wave battles.

She could either change the way she was registered in the party, or . . . at the very worst, she could avoid the waves by making sure she was in an inescapable labyrinth when they came. At least one of these inconsistencies was cleared up now. If the four holy heroes helped battle the waves, it would increase the time until the next wave came . . . at least according to Glass.

That was certainly a good hypothesis. We’d just have to try it a few more times to confirm that it was true.

“If there are a lot of adventurers helping battle the waves when they come, are they pretty easy to deal with in this world?”

Just then a person ducked into the workshop and blurted out, “Not exactly.”

I turned to see who it was, and found myself looking at a person with blond hair, a man I think. His hair was pulled into a ponytail that hung over one of his shoulders. He reminded me a bit of Motoyasu Kitamura, only he didn’t look Japanese and seemed a lot more relaxed, nicer.

Maybe he was some kind of new and improved spear hero of this world?

Motoyasu only thought of women. They were all he talked about. This guy didn’t seem to have that obnoxious tendency. Was he an acquaintance of Kizuna? Kizuna was pretty attractive herself, but apparently so were all of her friends.

Judging from the way he dressed, I guessed he might be a merchant of some kind. His clothes were plain, but high quality.

“Alto!” Kizuna said, rushing over to hug the man.

So his name was “Alto.” I wasn’t sure if that was his real name or if it was a nickname.

“I heard from the guild that you were back. I walked away from a negotiation to come see you!”

“It’s been so long! How have you been?”

“There’s no point in asking that of a merchant.”

He was vague. That was how merchants were. They never let on to how much they were making, I guess. If they did, it was like a get-rich scheme or something. But, I always held that if you were doing well, just show people, and that’s how you attract more customers.

“Well, well. I heard a rumor that a holy hero from another world was here and also a savvy businessman. Guess it was true after all!”

He looked over at me and I met his gaze. Sparks were flying!

I suddenly realized that I could trust him as a businessman, but I probably couldn’t trust him as a person. He looked like the kind of person that would betray you when the timing suited him. But wherever profit was involved, he could be trusted to act in its best interest.

I suddenly realized that I’d heard his name before.

“His name is Altorese. We call him Alto for short. He’s a friend of mine. We used to run a shop together.”

“I deal in anything there’s a market for. Lately information has been fetching the highest price.”

I’d been worried that he was going to be like the slave trader back in Melromarc, but he seemed like the sort of guy I could at least see eye to eye with. That is, if he was the sort of person that he seemed to be.

“This is a holy hero of another world, the Shield Hero. His name is Naofumi Iwatani.”

He seemed a little soft-spoken, actually. That kind of reminded me of Itsuki. I wondered what he was really like—on the inside. If he was the merchant that everyone made him out to be, he probably wouldn’t have an obsession with championing justice everywhere he went.

If he understood money, then at least we’d have that much in common.

“Why do you look so relieved?”

“You’re the first person to ever look relieved at meeting Alto.”

Glass and Kizuna were apparently perplexed by my reaction, they cocked their heads in confusion. What was so strange?

“He seems like an alright guy. He doesn’t seem like some of the nasty merchants back where I come from.”

“You really think so? Alto can be pretty ruthless when it comes to business.”

“It we aren’t judging from appearances, then maybe I’m wrong. But, let me show you how merchants look where I’m from.”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, challenging him. Depending on the person, some people probably even saw light flashing in my eyes when I did that.

Alto looked almost worried! He immediately turned away.

He was good, sure—but it didn’t look like he’d learned how to put on an act so that other people wouldn’t be able to figure out how you really felt. And yet, if his timidity was actually an act, he’d really be impressive.

“So what was this? I thought waves would be easier with adventurers helping out, but you didn’t seem to agree.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. There are a lot of people willing to show you how brave they are, but aren’t really strong enough to do anything.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Adventurers usually can’t be as powerful as people with vassal weapons or the legendary heroes.”

“But that’s not what I meant. I mean there’s the country . . . and other people too.”

What was he talking about? There wasn’t enough information to even guess. Even Kizuna looked confused. Luckily, Glass looked like she knew what was going on.

I was starting to figure it out too. Glass and Kizuna and the others were serious about fighting the waves, but what about that Trash #2 guy we recently defeated, Kyo, the holder of the book vassal weapon, and others like them? They certainly didn’t seem to care about anything but themselves.

“The vassal weapons holders in enemy lands don’t care about the waves, do they?”

“Exactly—good instincts. Actually most people don’t seem to care, aside from the four holy heroes and the holders of vassal weapons that have aligned with them.”

“You mean there are holders of holy weapons besides me ?! ”

“Yes, they were summoned quite a while ago.”

Glass looked more pale than normal. Something must have gone wrong. If there were problems with the other heroes, I had plenty of sympathy. Just the idea of trying to convince the other stupid heroes of all this when I got back to the world I’d come from was exhausting.

“I’ve met them, just one time. However . . .”

“What were they like?”

“They weren’t very serious about helping fight the wave. They made all kinds of excuses, something about ‘upping’ or ‘dates.’”

“They probably meant ‘update.’ It’s a word people use for patches to online games. If they’re Japanese people, like me, then that’s probably what it meant. It all sounds a bit familiar . . . do all these worlds work the same way?”

“I was about to ask the same thing, Naofumi.”

I suddenly felt a great deal of sympathy for Glass.

Kizuna was the only hero in this world that had her act together. In a way, I was probably pretty lucky to have met her.

“What’s with you guys, you look like you’re agreeing on something?”

“Do you understand that word too, Kizuna?”

“‘Update?’ Yeah, it’s a very game-like way of thinking, even though this is all a matter of life and death.”

“Yeah, but considering all the stats and power-ups, I can understand why people might think all of this is a game.”

Oftentimes the world really did seem like a game, but that didn’t mean I could treat the battles like one. If I did, the consequences would be dire. If you weren’t serious about mastering your skills and stats, then you would lose.

“The heroes back in my world are the same way.” They probably actually thought they were in a game. The way that they went to attack the Spirit Tortoise without waiting for me made it clear that they didn't take their responsibilities seriously.

“In the end they refused to do their duty, claiming they didn’t want to be controlled, and ran off to do their own thing. I don’t know where they are now.”

“You didn’t try to force them?” I asked Glass.

“They were from a country with whom we have poor diplomatic relations. Any attempt to force their hand would have caused a crisis, so there was nothing we could do.”

“I have a good idea where they are, but that doesn’t mean I can just head on over and interfere in their business. It wouldn’t be wise to get in a fight with the four holy heroes,” Alto whined, waving his hands.

Every world I went to seemed to have the same kind of problems. People came to new worlds and treated them like games. In some ways, the world that had summoned me might have been better. At least the queen of Melromarc was a skilled negotiator and diplomat. Thinking back on what she’d accomplished, I was even more impressed now than I had been then. Not only did she get all of the four holy heroes on her side, but she managed to avoid international conflict at the same time.

“From the way you describe them, Naofumi, it sounds like the heroes in your world need to learn to work together. You can’t let them die.”

“Yeah. We all have our problems to deal with.”

Fitoria was the one who had first explained the gravity of the situation to me. I had since explained it all to Kizuna. From what I could tell, the same rules were in effect in Kizuna’s world too, so it was safe to assume that we were dealing with the same threats.

For the time being I was busy in Kizuna’s world, so the plan was on hold, but when I got back to Melromarc, I still had to find a way to get the four holy heroes to join forces. It would be hard. Those three were stupid beyond belief—stupid enough to get captured by Kyo in the first place.

“The other problem with the vassal weapons holders is that they are always in competition with each other to command the rest of the fighting forces.”

Ah . . . yeah, that would be a problem. Even if there were a lot of adventurers that volunteered to fight, even if it was so they could get their hands on rare materials, they would still need to be organized and led by someone. If the heroes and holders of the vassal weapons weren’t serious about their battle strategy then they wouldn’t be much help anyway.

And if they didn’t share what they knew about powering up with each other, then they wouldn’t be very powerful either . . . although Kyo had certainly managed to get strong.

Maybe he was just very highly leveled, so he could get around the power up methods, or maybe he powered up in some other way. Whatever he’d done, he was powerful enough that Glass and L’Arc weren’t able to defeat him.

“For now, Kizuna’s friends have gone off to all corners of the world, and they are recruiting and training adventurers there. Other countries think that they are already dealing with the waves sufficiently, and therefore, aren’t very worried about them.”

So the leaders of other counties, most of the holders of the vassal weapons, and most of the holy heroes, were treating the waves as if they weren’t a significant problem.

“But the monsters are getting stronger and they are giving more experience when defeated,” Kizuna said.

“The countries just see that as a chance to gain more military power, they see profit in it for them. As far as they are concerned, all this talk of the end of the world is nothing but a fairy-tale,” Alto explained.

“So anyway,” Kizuna clipped. “Can I ask why you ran over to see me, Alto?”

“You don’t think I just wanted to see your face?”

“I doubt it. That doesn’t sound like the Alto I know.”

So she didn’t totally trust him. I could understand why. I didn’t trust the slave trader either.

“To tell you the truth, I heard a rumor that there was an adventurer selling something called ‘soul-healing water’ in a nearby country. I couldn’t suppress my fascination with this supposed item, so I came to see if I couldn’t find out more about it.”

Word travelled fast.

So he heard that someone was selling soul-healing water, figured out who it must have been, and came to meet us. If he were up against someone else, he might have had a chance—but against me? If he thought he was going to get knowledge, tools, or ingredients from me, he had another thing coming.

“So is it safe to assume that the person selling this soul-healing water was none other than Naofumi?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you any—or teach you how to make it.”

I learned how to make it from a book, so I was confident in my methodology. I was sure I could find the necessary tools and ingredients here if I needed them too. Still, I normally had my shield make it for me, so it had been a long time since I’d tried to make any from scratch.

“I guess I’m on my own then! It’s been a while since someone has been so upfront with me.”

“I enjoy negotiation. I’d teach you if you were willing to provide me with something of equal value.”

“Naofumi, you better be careful. Alto would do anything for money.”

“Maybe so, but you two seem to be friendly enough.”

“There’s still value in my relationship with Kizuna. It would cost me more to betray her.”

His response was surprisingly frank.

I was most comfortable around guys like him. I wanted to see how much control I could exercise over him. I wanted him in the palm of my hand.

Hey look at that—Alto looked like he had goosebumps. I could tell his intuition was sharp.

“Besides, if you’re the sort of guy that would do anything for money, I’d be doing myself a real disservice by teaching you how to make soul-healing water.”

Soul-healing water, by the way, was a medicine that had an incredible effect on Spirit people like Glass—it rapidly and massively raised all of their stats. A Spirit’s stats were all tied to their energy level, which was like other humans’ levels, except that it always fluctuated.

Soul-healing water had a different effect on heroes and holders of vassal weapons—it restored our SP. But when used on a Spirit, it restored their energy levels.

If medicine like that was released to the public and made common throughout the world, the Spirit people would become immeasurably powerful. It would probably lead to war. I wasn’t going to just hand out such important information, not without getting something equally valuable in return.

I looked over at Kizuna and tried to communicate all my thoughts with a glance. She must have understood, because she nodded.

“I guess you’re right. I bet I can get it out of L’Arc or Glass.”

“They won’t tell you!”

“Even though it would lead to a renaissance of skill development? We could make even more concentrated soul-healing water.”

“We still won’t tell you.”

What did he think he was trying to do anyway? I guess that was all he could do.

“Glass, you might want to get stronger, but don’t you dare tell him anything.”

Glass nodded. I’d have to keep an eye on her. I hadn’t known her for very long, and I’d always found her insufferably serious.

“Alto, do you think you could sell a bottle of soul-healing water for four and a half kinhan? Naofumi was able to do it, with a little bit of trickery, of course.”

“You think I can’t?”

“You shouldn’t challenge a real capitalist that way. If he says he can’t, then he’ll lose face.”

Kizuna liked to be involved with sales too, but she wasn’t an actual merchant, and there were things about it that she didn’t understand.

A real capitalist would use whatever tricks they had at their disposal to raise their profits. They’d tell their customers that they could do things they couldn’t really do—they’d do anything to affect the way that they were perceived. He had no choice but to answer a question like that in the affirmative.

“If you really want to see who’s best, we should get Romina to make us something and then start a price war over it.”

“Don’t you dare! This is MY workshop!” Romina snapped.

She was a blacksmith, after all. She probably knew all about how troublesome merchants could be. If I really got into bargaining, I could seriously drop the price of a product.

The old guy back at the weapon shop had realized long ago that he’d have to work for very low wages on any projects I requested.

“Okay, okay. I actually had another reason for coming over. Kizuna, I heard that you stopped the development of tools that could be used to identify heroes from other worlds. Do you really hope to protect the world without such things?” Alto asked Kizuna. His tone was slowly growing more reproachful.

They were trying to make a tool that could positively identify heroes? If they had actually managed to make it, the other three heroes back in my world would have been killed a long time ago.

“That’s right. I think it’s terrible. I’m going to find another way around it.”

“I understand why you feel that way, but you’re the only hero around that seems to care about anything at all. At this rate, our world is as good as destroyed. How do you plan to save it?”

“I’m not going to complain about how unfair the whole system sounds to me, but at the very least, I think it’s worth investigating other options.”

“I see. You haven’t changed a bit, Kizuna.”

“You look like you’ve got something to add.”

“And you’re as perceptive as ever. I do—it’s the reason I came to see you,” Alto said, pulling out a number of books and showing them to us. They seemed to contain the same information, as if they’d been copied from one another.

“I found this in the ancient labyrinth library.”

I looked at the book he was indicating. It included occasional illustrations, and many of them appeared to depict the waves. One of them showed two worlds intersecting, and the people at the intersection were bathed in the light of the legendary and vassal weapons.

There were also strange creatures in the picture, like genies, angels, and a monster that looked like a filolial.

There was a person that seemed to be made of light too. They were shining so brightly that I couldn’t make out their faces, but I could see that their hands were outstretched toward the world.

I had no idea what to make of it. It seemed to depict two worlds at war, but then, at a certain point, the heroes on either side appeared to be shaking hands instead of fighting. It likely depicted exactly what Kizuna was searching for.

“The illustration is very old, and it undoubtedly contains coded information that will require time and effort to uncover. I’ve brought this as a present for you and your friends.”

“Oh!”

“You have some impressive friends, don’t you?”

“I just found this book recently. Had Kizuna not returned when she did, I probably would have put it in storage.”

“If we can figure out what it means, it will probably be really useful.”

“I hope so. So? What did you want to do about the war?”

“I’d like to avoid it if possible, but I also don’t plan on bowing down. It seems likely now.”

That’s right, we were currently in the middle of preparations to go to war with the country that Kyo belonged to.

Kizuna and L’Arc implored the country to turn him over, but they refused to comply. And it turns out that Kyo’s country had also managed to absorb several neighboring lands while my friends and I were split up. I heard they captured the country that Trash #2 was from and the country of the holder of the mirror of the vassal weapons just at about the time we escaped.

Diplomacy had failed, and the current situation was tense. We had no choice but to prepare for war, and so we did. It felt like war might break out at any moment.

We thought about a sneaking across the border with a small party to take Kyo out in secret, but the border was very secure and it was unlikely that we’d get through it.

We didn’t know exactly where Kyo was either. So even if we did manage to sneak in, we’d have to find him without being found ourselves, which would be difficult. That left us with open war as our best option, so we were preparing for it.

If only we knew where Kyo was! We could have ended this so quickly!

“Naofumi-san! It’s rude to give these precious things anything less than your full attention!”

“Rafu ?! ”

Therese had started to voice her opinions on my accessory making. I wished she wouldn’t shout like that. She was scaring Raph-chan.

“Oh shut up already! Why don’t you go see L’Arc or something?”

“I can’t do that. I simply must observe the way you create these miracles with your hands!”

That’s right, Therese was standing over my shoulder and watching me work.

“Naofumi, how’s the work going?” Kizuna asked. They all had a look of unrestrained greed as they looked at the accessories I made.

What was with these people? Is that the real reason they wanted to meet and talk? Were they just after my crafting secrets? “As long as we are leaving the magic-imbuing process up to a specialist, then I’m making good progress.”

I had intended to make a sheath for Raphtalia’s katana and a cover for the gemstone in my shield. No one had any problems asking me to make things for them. Kizuna wanted a lure, Glass wanted decorations for her fans, and L’Arc wanted a plume. Who did they think I was, their servant?

I did what I could with the gemstones we had, and I’d managed to produce some attractive pieces, though I wasn’t sure what kind of effects to expect from them.

You see, they say that if an accessory is fitted to a hero’s weapon that it will cause special effects. Kizuna and I powered up our weapons in different ways, but we both seemed to have this in common.

Conceptually it was similar to wearing armor that granted the user special effects. It wasn’t the same as the power-up methods we used to actually change the stats and abilities of our weapons.

The plan for the moment was that I would attempt to make the accessories, but they’d be passed on to an imbuing specialist for imbuing. Then, we would see what kind of effects the accessories granted when they came back from the specialist.

“I just finished making Raphtalia’s. I wonder if Rishia would be able to read that book? I’m done here for now, so maybe I’ll take it over to her and see what she can figure out.”

“It was fascinating to see—the way you made that sheath, I mean.”

“I guess.”

Romina, one of Kizuna’s friends, had helped me make the sheath for Raphtalia’s katana.

I used a rare ore to form the sheath itself, and then inlayed the area where the blade enters the sheath with gemstones. I have to admit that it looked pretty cool.

I thought about adding a symbol to the center of the sheath, something to indicate ownership, but I wasn’t sure what would be appropriate. My best idea was to use Raph-chan’s face as a symbol, but I could see Raphtalia getting angry about that. I decided against it and left it plain.

I’d let Romina handle the lacquering.

All in all it came out great. As a set with the katana vassal weapon, it was great. But the sheath could hold its own in a beauty contest.

When that was done, I’d gone on to make a small cap that would fit over the gemstone in the center of my shield. I based it on a similar object that the old man at the weapon shop back in Melromarc had made for me. I didn’t know what sort of effect to expect from it, but I was excited to see what would happen.

“Hey Kizuna. Here’s the lure you wanted. Take it to the imbuing specialist if you want something else added to it.

“Oh!”

I’d made her a shiny, flashy—honestly quite gaudy—fishing lure.

“Is it a minnow? A popper? A crankbait?”

“How should I know? I just made, you know . . . whatever.”

“How fun! An original! I can’t wait to try it out!”

I passed Glass the decoration that I’d made for her fans. It was the sort of charm that hangs from a string near the fan’s handle. In this case, it was a circular jewel that the string passed through.

Oh jeez, she was smiling. She looked excited! Ugh! Couldn’t she just pretend not to be interested for my sake?

“You can go with Kizuna to have it imbued.”

“Understood.”

“It was wonderful watching you work!” Therese gasped, clasping her hands together in a fit of ecstasy.

That woman was starting to really creep me out. I don’t know what L’Arc saw in her.

“You really are a skilled accessory maker. I was surprised, to tell you the truth. Working with gemstones is quite difficult.”

“Yeah, well . . . I had a particularly obnoxious teacher back in the other world.”

It was a long time ago, but I’d learned these skills from a professional accessory maker.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was very difficult. And I had skills from my shield that would improve the overall quality of anything that I made, so it wasn’t stressful work.

But, I guess I did a good job, because everyone seemed really impressed.

“Kizuna, you could do it too, if you tried. You have one of the legendary weapons, so you should have access to skills that would make it easier.”

“I guess so . . . But I like having other people make them! It makes it feel more. . . . special !”

“Don’t go thinking this is a present! You’d better learn to do it yourself! Where are you going to get your accessories once I go back to the world I came from?”

“Kizuna, please try to make Naofumi something that he would find useful,” Therese said. Why did she think I needed her support?

When Kizuna noticed how intensely Therese was staring at her, she turned her eyes away and let out a deep breath. She’d been a bit excited too, but seeing Therese’s excessive passion must have snapped her back to reality.

“You all seem to be having so much fun. It’s a joy just to watch!” Alto chimed in, laughing.

Looking back on it, I guess it had actually been a pretty good day. These would be fond memories soon. But, all this socializing was something I’d rather see in an anime or manga.

“Alright, I’m going to bring this over to Raphtalia. Romina, how’s that tool I ordered coming?”

“I’m still analyzing it. It should be ready before the battle.”

“I’m interested to see what happens, but I’m not expecting much. Okay then, I’m heading over to the castle.”

I took the sheath in hand and left for the castle where Raphtalia and the others were busy training.

Chapter Two: Quick Draw

A little while later, Alto said that he had something he wanted to discuss with L’Arc, so he left us and went off on his own.

“How’s progress?”

We went to the castle courtyard where . . . okay, so they were doing the same thing that we’d done back in Melromarc—training.

We were in a completely new world, but we were still training as hard as ever. There was no time to rest. When Rishia had the time, she joined Raphtalia and the others.

“It’s been going very well, I think.”

“Sounds like you’re pretty confident.”

“I am.”

After Raphtalia was chosen by the katana of the vassal weapons, she was forced to flee from her pursuers with L’Arc and Glass. They had seen to her training during that time. During that same period, I spent all of my time making money and raising my levels. I hadn’t done any real training to speak of. I hope she hadn’t gotten good enough to embarrass me.

“I was just showing Rishia all that I’ve learned about how to control energy.”

Yeah, I was pretty sure she’d pulled ahead of me.

“I just want to make sure we’re on the same page. You’re talking about the same thing that the old Hengen Muso lady was talking about, right?”

“Yes. Should I have avoided the topic?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Anyway, Rishia and Filo were . . .”

“Feh ?! ”

When I turned and looked at Rishia, she jumped as if I had startled her. Her eyes darted anxiously around the courtyard. Had I said anything that deserved a reaction like that? Maybe she was just afraid of me. Whatever the reason, I don’t think I’d ever seen her calm and relaxed.

“How’s Filo?”

“Excellent question, Mr. Naofumi. Filo seems to have completely mastered energy control.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. Raphtalia glanced over at Filo.

“Filo.”

“Whaaat?”

“Show us how you control that power that Fitoria taught you about.”

“I don’t wanna! I’m tired . . .”

Filo seemed to have lost a good deal of her previously impressive stamina when we crossed over to this new world. Now she tired very quickly.

She lost some stamina, but now she could fly. It wasn’t a bad trade, but she focused mainly on magic during battle nowadays.

“Just show us a little. Mr. Naofumi will be really impressed!”

“Okay!”

Filo snapped to attention and started to focus her power.

I wanted to see it, but I never agreed to be impressed or say anything nice. Oh well.

After Fitoria taught Filo how to fight, she became very quick on her feet. Her attacks were sharper too.

“Whew. I’m too tired, so I have to get some power first.”

She started gathering magic power around herself. It looked like the technique she’d used during our battle with the Spirit Tortoise’s heart.

“Glass also knew of a technique that uses energy in a similar way, so we shared our ideas with each other,” Raphtalia explained.

“Yes, the technique reminded me of my training in prana, a technique we use to gather, increase, and store our energy.”

The techniques sounded similar. But, I wasn’t sure to what extent the technique would line up with the energy theory the old lady had taught us. I guess we would find out.

“And yet, I have never seen such things performed so effectively. Therefore, I also have much to learn on this topic, and so, I have been training with Ms. Raphtalia for the last few days,” Glass informed me.

If that meant that Glass was going to get even more powerful than she already was, I almost felt like I didn’t want to teach her anything. She even said that after training with Raphtalia she had developed the ability to actually see energy. She was a force to be reckoned with. She watched Filo and analyzed her technique.

“This young girl has incredible potential.”

“So she’s using the same kind of energy?”

I’d had Filo assist Rishia with her training for a while now, but now that I think back on it, I’d never had Filo train with the old lady. Actually, I think the old lady had said that Filo didn’t need training.

I was starting to understand why she’d said that.

“It’s likely that we use the same kind of energy, though there may be some differences. With more training, I believe we can all improve.”

“Sounds good to me. Hear that, Filo?”

“Yup!”

I shot another glance at Rishia and said, “Raphtalia, Glass, how’s Rishia doing?”

“Not all that well, honestly.”

I should have assumed as much. From what I could tell she was making a concerted effort, but the training didn’t seem to be having much effect.

“The old lady says that she has potential—that a great strength slumbers within her. I’ve seen her.” I turned to Rishia, “I’ve seen glimpses of it myself. I’m still expecting a lot from you.”

“Feh . . .”

I wish Glass would teach her something.

“She has . . . talent? Really?” Glass looked her over with disbelief. “She can use energy? To my eyes, she seems to have less prana than normal.”

“So you’re saying she has no ability?”

“Mr. Naofumi, can’t you phrase that a bit more kindly?”

Rishia had plenty of use outside of battle. And besides, I’d seen her fight as if her abilities were suddenly awakened. I wasn’t ready to give up on her just yet.

“That’s not what I mean, it’s just difficult to explain. As far as ability, or potential, is concerned, I think you’re correct that she may have a propensity.”

“I’m getting confused.”

“Me too,” Kizuna said. “What do you mean?”

Glass scratched her chin and tried to explain. “It’s confusing for me too, but I’ve seen flashes of brilliance in her as well. Short flashes that quickly vanish.”

“Hm . . .”

“To be more specific, it’s a bit like what Filo was just doing, where she supplements her own prana with prana from her surroundings. As far as I understand it, she . . .”

Glass went on blabbing for a while. She used a lot of specialized vocabulary I’d never heard before, so most of it went right over my head.

The gist of it seemed to be that Rishia had far less prana than most people do, but that she had an exceptional gift for gathering and absorbing prana from her surroundings. That made sense to me, because of what had happened when she used a bottle of life-force water on herself back in Melromarc. She’d grown incredibly powerful and lost control over herself.

Glass had seen Rishia’s battle ability skyrocket during the fight with Kyo. Her theory was that this phenomenon occurred as Rishia became more emotional, and then she was able to better control her power.

“So she gets stronger the more effort she makes?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“You could have just said that. I didn’t need to hear the whole speech.”

“Don’t say that,” Kizuna said. “That’s mean.”

I wondered if Kizuna saw Glass’s face scrunch up when she defended her.

Anyway, if Glass agreed that Rishia had some kind of unrealized potential, then it must have been true. I still expected her to prove herself useful with her bookish knowledge.

“I’m almost jealous,” Ethnobalt said, entering the conversation.

What now? Why did he have to throw in his two cents?

Ethnobalt was always relegated to supporting the rest of us in battle. Even though he possessed a vassal weapon, he didn’t seem to be all that powerful—maybe that’s why he was jealous.

He had only muttered softly to himself, but Kizuna and Glass seemed to deflate upon hearing him.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Oh right,” Kizuna said. “You don’t know why Ethnobalt has to avoid the front lines, do you, Naofumi?”

“No.”

When I thought about it, I realized he did always support the group from a distance, and he hadn’t come with us when we went searching for Glass and the others.

I’d just assumed that he was the intellectual, magic-using type, and that he used the ship vassal weapon to get around. But, maybe it was more complicated than that. Because I don’t think he had really done anything during the wave battle either.

I thought maybe he was just taking it easy, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The vassal weapons typically conferred a duty in battle on those that held them. I’m not sure I’d ever really seen Ethnobalt fight. He always went out of his way to avoid battle, and no one ever asked him about it. There must have been an explanation for all of this.

Maybe the ship vassal weapon had limitations, like my shield, or Kizuna’s hunting tools.

“Members of my race generally do not gain power when their levels increase.”

What?

I stared at him in silence. Then I looked over at Rishia, but no one was paying any attention.

“That’s right. Back when I first got here, Ethnobalt used to go on adventures with me just like anyone else. He gained plenty of levels too, but . . .”

“I was shocked by how quickly Kizuna’s stats outpaced my own. It didn’t matter how many levels I gained, my stats only grew by insignificant amounts. The power difference between us grew and grew.”

“Can you make up for it by powering up your weapon?”

“A little bit. But it isn’t enough, not even close.”

He must have survived by status bonuses granted when new abilities are unlocked. But it wasn’t enough—he wasn’t strong enough to battle in this world. Admittedly, the monsters, people, and waves in this world were powerful by Melromarc standards. Little status bonuses could only take him so far.

“I have learned a large variety of magic spells, but my power didn’t grow with my knowledge, and it got to the point where I was clearly holding everyone back.”

He was saying that he wasn’t even good at supporting others in battle.

No doubt about it, he reminded me of Rishia.

“Everyone tried to protect me. If I was on the front lines, I would likely end up getting killed. It fell to others to protect me. But I’m a holder of a vassal weapon! I didn’t want to hold the others back.”

That’s why he was jealous. He wanted to protect others, not to be protected by them.

“That all sounds well and fine, but I don’t think your actions are as impressive as your intentions.”

“Mr. Naofumi, can’t you say something nicer than that?”

But it was true.

He wasn’t like me. I didn’t want to battle at all, but I was forced to protect other people. He had a choice in this. He could attack monsters and people if he wanted. He just hadn’t found a way to make it work.

He had the ship vassal weapon, after all. When we used it to fly through the sky, I noticed that it was equipped with cannons. If he could fire all those cannons at once, then he could probably do plenty of damage if he wanted to. Unless the cannon damage was dependent on his stats, which I suppose was actually a possibility.

But if he was convinced that everything came down to his stats, then he should stop asking for sympathy and being so dependent on them!

“Take a look at Rishia! Her stats are so low it’s not even funny! And you have the ship vassal weapon! What are you whining about?”

“Fehhh ?! ” Rishia yelped.

“Naofumi, isn’t that a little rude? Not just to Ethnobalt, but to Rishia?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’m talking about their motivation, about their effort.”

I waved Kizuna over and whispered Rishia’s stats in her ear, starting with the best ones.

Rishia had technically become my slave to gain the benefits of my slave maturation adjustment skill. That’s why I knew what her stats were. The more stats I listed, the more color drained from Kizuna’s face.

“No way! They’re really that low?”

“Yeah, normally. Aside from the battle with Kyo, that’s what her stats are like.”

“Wh . . . What do you mean?” Glass asked Kizuna, bewildered.

Then Glass dropped to her knees before Rishia and bowed until her head was on the floor.

“Forgive me. I hadn’t realized that you were so unfit for battle. I should never have put you in danger by bringing you into the battle against the wave.”

“Fehh ?! ”

“I don’t think you need to bow to her . . .”

Kizuna turned on me next, “Naofumi! We’ve brought Rishia into battle without a second thought, but knowing what I know now, we never should have done that! We put her in real danger!” she shouted angrily. Was it really that bad?

When you really think about it, wasn’t their reaction worse than anything I had done? Raphtalia looked troubled, like she wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Well, Rishia has always said that she wanted to get stronger, so isn’t it okay if she joins us in battle? I don’t see a problem with it.”

“Raphtalia, there is a difference between bravery and recklessness! With stats like that, Rishia’s going to get herself killed!”

What was going on? The conversation was clearly derailed. All I’d wanted to say to Ethnobalt was that he had no right to be jealous of Rishia, if he wasn’t going to make a real effort. Why was everyone mad at me?

“I see what you are driving at. I lack the level of decisiveness, or courage, that Ms. Rishia has. Is that it?” Ethnobalt said after realizing how devoted to battle Rishia was, in spite of her stats and abilities.

“There’s no way to know when talent will show itself, when your true strength will be revealed. You think you can wait for levels to do it for you? You can’t slack off and hope that everything will just change for you some day.”

He held a vassal weapon, after all.

I understand how discouraging it can be when you don’t seem to be making any progress. But, if Ethnobalt had enough free time to sit around lamenting how weak he was in comparison to others, then he should devote that time to training and self-improvement. That’s what Rishia did.

“If you’re satisfied with playing a back-up role, then that’s fine. But if you want to be stronger, then you have to put in the work. There’s more to power than stats, you know? If you think there’s nothing you can do, you’re just wrong.”

“Mr. Naofumi . . . ”

“You sound so cool, Naofumi. You talk a big game, especially considering that you’re subject to the same sort of limitations in battle that I am,” Kizuna said.

“Shut up.”

I’d attack if I could, I really would. But I was cursed with this stupid shield, so being an offensive fighter wasn’t an option—but I wasn’t giving up.

If Ethnobalt’s weapon allowed him to attack, then there was still hope for him.

And everyone kept saying that Rishia had potential. I believed it too, considering what she’d done in the battle with Kyo. She’d prove herself eventually, and she’d get there because she never gave up trying.

It’s better to regret trying and failing than to regret not trying at all.

As far as I was concerned, Ethnobalt didn’t have the right to complain until he had really made an effort.

“I understand. Very well then, Glass, may I participate in these training exercises?”

“Are . . . Are you sure?”

“Yes. I want to protect you all, so I must work as hard as I can to get to that point, just like Ms. Rishia.”

“We can do it!” Rishia chirped. They were really hitting it off.

Glass looked over at them and smiled, “I’m a tough teacher!”

Glass appeared to be filled with fresh determination. She looked tougher, taller than normal. “We’ll start by training the body! Let’s get going!”

“Okay!”

“Understood!”

The three of them took off running. Then Ethnobalt and Rishia tripped and fell.

They had a lot in common, those two. They were both so clumsy.

“Now then, Mr. Naofumi. Why did you come to see us today?”

“That’s right, I’d nearly forgotten.”

I got so wrapped up in talking about Rishia’s stats and strengths that I’d neglected the reason I came. I pulled out the katana sheath I’d made and gave it to Raphtalia.

“Thank you very much!” She smiled warmly. That was the face I’d come to see.

I had put a cheap sword into the sheath for the time being, but with the actual katana in it, the design was a perfect match. It made the katana look even more beautiful. When she slid the blade in, it sealed with a satisfying clack.

When the blade slipped all the way in, I thought I saw the sheath’s gemstone flash.

I turned to Kizuna, “You said that special effects can be triggered when vassal weapons, or one of the four holy weapons, are equipped with accessories, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what sort of effects they are.”

“I asked for the accessories to be imbued with effects that would increase Raphtalia’s agility, so she can move around the battlefield easier.”

That’s what I asked the official imbuing specialists to do. When the accessories came back, I checked them over, and from what I could tell, they appeared to have been imbued with the effects I requested.

I guess there was a chance that they had snuck something troublesome in there, but successfully imbuing a vassal weapon at all was difficult enough already, so I highly doubt they could have pulled that off.

“I wonder if it worked?” Raphtalia asked.

“Doesn’t it look like the sheath’s gemstone is shining?”

“Yeah. It actually looks like it’s slowly filling with light.”

“Hmm . . . I wonder what will happen when it’s full?”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“I don’t even know what the sheath would do, never mind the shining gemstone.”

“Me neither.”

“Maybe you should try to draw the katana and see what happens?” Kizuna asked.

She had a point. An effect might trigger when certain conditions are met. The accessory I got from the old guy at the weapon shop in Melromarc had been like that. Its effect might have triggered because I’d been blocking so many attacks at once. Something had triggered it, and it made a defensive barrier like the shooting star shield skill I have. It might have even been better than shooting star shield, because it had actually damaged enemies that touched it.

I hoped that the accessories I’d made would function the same way. Anyway . . . I was getting distracted. Back to the topic at hand.

“Good idea. Raphtalia, try drawing the sword.”

“Alright.”

She slid the blade out of the sheath, and the light drained out of the gemstone.

“The light went out.”

“Maybe you can’t draw the sword until the light is fully charged?”

“That might be it,” Raphtalia said, reinserting the sword. We waited until the gemstone was filled with light.

“Maybe you have to fight with the sword still in the sheath? Should I pull the blade out some?”

“Then what’s the point of the sheath?”

“That is a problem. We’ll need to try using it in all sorts of ways.”

“It takes a while for the gemstone to charge up, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe you should carry another, secondary sword to use while this one is charging.”

“I’m pretty sure that Glass’s fan can split into two separate fans. She dances with them, but it’s similar to fighting with two swords.”

“So you think if she learns a technique or a skill, she’ll be able to use more than one?”

“Maybe.”

“Um . . . Could you please stop staring at my sword and analyzing me?” Raphtalia muttered uncomfortably.

It wasn’t my fault that her accessory was finished first. We had to figure out how they worked somehow.

“It’s so shiny and pretty!”

“Rafu!”

Filo turned into her humming falcon form and perched on my shoulder while I inspected the katana sheath.

It was turning into a pretty weird scene.

Anyway, it felt like three minutes or so had passed by the time the gemstone was fully charged. A bright light flashed, and there was a sound like dropping coins into a piggy bank. The meaning was unmistakable.

“Great. Raphtalia, try drawing the katana again.”

“Alright.”

She held the sheath in her left hand, and used her right hand to slowly draw the blade.

Hm? Was I seeing double? It looked like there were two Raphtalias standing in front of me.

Kizuna cocked her head and blinked. She must have been seeing the same thing that I was.

It’s hard to explain what it looked like. If I tried really hard I could follow her with my eyes, but it was like she was moving faster than her body could keep up with. It looked just like Filo’s haikuikku attack, actually. Like she was moving so fast she was a flickering blur.

I was impressed that Kizuna and I were able to keep track of her.

Never mind Therese, who had been standing off to the side silently and watching with stars in her eyes.

A few seconds went by and then Raphtalia’s speed returned to normal.

“Huh? Mr. Naofumi?”

“What happened?”

“When I unsheathed the katana you all started moving in slow motion.”

“I bet. You started moving so fast that I could hardly tell where you were. It was like Filo’s haikuikku move.”

“If you attacked us at that speed, I don’t think I’d be able to block it.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

I’d have to be really lucky to block an attack that fast.

“It appears that if you keep the katana sheathed until the gemstone is charged, it will activate haikuikku upon drawing the blade.”

“That’s pretty amazing. You can slay monsters the moment you draw your sword! That’s so cool!”

“I’ve seen you kill monsters with one swipe of that tuna knife, so you must know what you’re talking about. I agree that it’s pretty cool.”

I had to mention that, because even if Raphtalia could fell monsters with one swipe, Kizuna could do the same thing. That much hadn’t changed. Actually, Kizuna’s attack was probably better, because Raphtalia’s skill only activated the first time she drew her sword. If she missed her chance the first time, she’d have to wait another three minutes or so without attacking to get another shot.

She could probably go after enemies with her bare hands in the meantime, but she wouldn’t be able to use her sword to fight, because then it wouldn’t charge the gemstone. Some of that could probably be mitigated with support magic, but it wouldn’t be wise to plan our battle strategy around those initial attacks of hers.

Anyway, the move had limitations, but I was certainly glad to have it.

“Again, I really wish you would stop inspecting me like that . . .”

“If she could learn to fight with two swords, like that technique that Glass uses, then maybe she could fight with one while the other one charges.”

“It could be limited to this one weapon though.”

“Maybe. It’s still pretty good.”

“Are you listening to me?”

“Oh, right—sorry. When Kizuna and I get talking, it’s hard to stop.”

Raphtalia looked irritated by our nonstop commentary.

Maybe she was . . . jealous?

I was sort of a father figure to her, so maybe she didn’t like that I was talking with another woman so much. Maybe she felt like she was going to lose her parent.

“I feel weird with you looking at me like that!”

“Alright already. Anyway, that ability is sure to come in handy when we are out hunting monsters.”

“Good point. We can probably end a lot of battles before they ever begin.”

Getting the first attack in was always an advantage.

Filo could move quickly too, but it was obvious when she was charging up for the attack, and that made the enemy extra cautious. But Raphtalia’s katana would retain the element of surprise, so the enemy would fall before they knew what hit them.

With any luck, this new attack would prove very useful.

“I wonder if there is a way that the stone can retain its charge. It’s a shame to lose all that progress just because you had to draw the sword.”

“I’ll ask the imbuing specialist about it. They’ll know more about those subtle particulars.”

“Good point. Let’s see what we can find out.”

Raphtalia frowned, “Enough already! Now you’re already trying to alter my weapon without asking me? What about your accessory, Mr. Naofumi?”

“It isn’t ready yet.”

I’d worked on it with a firm idea of how I wanted it to come out, but I wasn’t very confident that I was going to be successful.

“What about yours, Kizuna?”

“Thanks for asking! Check it out! Ta-da!” Kizuna smiled and pulled out the tacky lure that I’d made for her.

When she saw what it looked like, Raphtalia shot me a disappointed look.

“That’s what she wanted.”

“I’m going to bring it by the imbuing specialist to see what they can do, and then, I’ll use it to go fishing tonight!”

“You really enjoy fishing, don’t you Kizuna,” Raphtalia said.

“Of course I do! It’s my favorite pastime.”

It didn’t seem like anything to be proud of to me. That reminds me, a day or two ago Glass was whining about something related. When we got back to Kizuna’s house, we found the walls covered with gyotaku fish prints.

There were so many of them that it was hard to believe that Kizuna had really caught them all.

Some of them were strange looking creatures—I wasn’t even sure if they should be counted as fish.

“I’ll ask Ethnobalt to take me fishing on his boat!”

“We’ll be leaving in the morning, so don’t stay out too late.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

She’d probably be out until well past midnight.

“We’re going somewhere in the morning?”

“Yeah, we’re going through some monster hunting exercises with L’Arc. Try to take it easy tonight, will you?”

“Very well.”

I felt good about how the sheath had come out. Raphtalia would definitely benefit from that new attack.

“Hey! Rishiaaa!” I shouted to her as she ran. I’d completely forgotten something important.

“What is it?”

“This book is supposed to say something about the waves.”

Rishia started flipping through the book that I handed to her.

“I thought that you might be able to get some information out of it, since you’re so good with languages. Would you take a look at it for me?”

“Why me ?! ”

“Because you’re good with books and studying.”

“I like to read, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to understand it all.”

Humility was a good thing, but Rishia was starting to get on my nerves. She was naturally gifted when it came to books and studying, so it was kind of sad that she wanted to be an athletic warrior.

“Take it as an order, and do your best to see what you can get out of it. The more we figure out, the more weight we can take off of Itsuki’s shoulders.”

The book might detail the wave’s secrets. Rishia wasn’t usually much help at all, but this could be a great opportunity for her to contribute.

“I’ll see what I can do!” Rishia stuffed the book into her bag and ran off.

“Naofumi, what shall we do about today’s magic practice?” Therese asked. She’d been quiet this whole time, probably privately freaking out over accessories or something.

I forgot to mention that Therese was giving me lessons in magic use when I wasn’t busy crafting accessories .

I learned a new technique from Ost when I got the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield. It was called the Way of the Dragon Vein. It seemed to be a new way to use magic, but I didn’t understand it very well.

At the time she had walked me through a sort of magical puzzle, but now I couldn’t even figure out how to access it. It was supposed to be a type of magic that let me borrow power from something outside of myself.

I didn’t have any ideas, and I’d seen Therese do something similar once, so one day I just asked her. She said that she was familiar with a different system, and that her techniques might work for me too. So she started to teach me how to use magic.

I’d learned a lot from her over the last few days, but honestly it was pretty difficult. A lot of it went over my head.

“Let’s do it. I want to learn that support magic too.”

Thanks to Ost’s help, I’d been able to cast a very powerful support magic spell called “All Liberation Aura.” It substantially raised everyone’s stats.

We were going to need it to survive what was coming. Besides, I had a responsibility to Ost. I had to learn to command the power she’d entrusted to me. There was no time to relax or slack off.

So, in return for her help with magic training, I agreed to let Therese watch me when I worked on crafting accessories. This agreement had been in place for a few days now.

To learn from Therese, we needed gemstones to work with, so I was crafting those too. Therese was a Jewel, and so she didn’t actually need to use the gemstones I made. I needed them so I could borrow their power during our training.

“Then let’s start our training for the day, shall we?”

“Sure.”

I stood in the castle courtyard with a gemstone in one hand, and our training session began.

“Do your best, Mr. Naofumi! I’ll be training with Glass!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Thanks, good luck, Raphtalia. I want to learn how to use energy too, so I’ll join your training session later.”

I had to focus on magic first.

I needed to find a way to fight against enemies that were able to use a terrible technique called “defense rating attacks.” But more than anything else, I wanted to learn how to use the power that Ost had given me.

Chapter Three: Lure

The next morning, right when we were about to leave to meet up with L’Arc, Kizuna showed up with heavy bags under her eyes. I was so annoyed I couldn’t think of anything to say.

The night before, she had gone out to the ocean with the new lure I’d made for her. She must have stayed out really late with it.

“This lure is amazing! I just attached it to my fishing line and threw it in and the fish lined up to bite it! I catch something every time I cast it. I love it! Can we put off this trip until tomorrow?”

Was she insane?

Her pupils were wide and dilated, and she looked like she was about to run off and go fishing again. She looked like something out of a horror movie.

Glass looked like she understood what was going on, so she tried to calm Kizuna down a bit.

“Kizuna, you’re a little worn out, aren’t you? Why don’t we take a little break?”

“I don’t want to! If I take this lure to another place, I can catch even bigger fish! Don’t you want to eat something good? Don’t you? If you do, you better let me go!”

“Kizuna! That’s enough! Enough! Please calm down. You need to rest.”

“But . . .”

She was stuck between her duty and her love of fishing and the scales seemed to hang evenly.

I didn’t see what she was so obsessed with. Her eyes were freaking me out. I wished she’d stop looking at me.

“Fine. Alright . But you have to let me go fishing when we get back.”

“Very well,” Glass said, and Kizuna sat down with a humph .

She was already worn out by all the battles and training. Then she went fishing all night on top of that. She must have been exhausted.

How much fun can fishing really be?

“That lure must be cursed.”

“You’re the one that made it.”

“Are you trying to kill our Kizuna ?! ”

“This is my fault now?”

Kizuna was the one that was obsessed with the lure. It wasn’t my fault.

“Hey Alto, are you coming too?”

“Yeah, just to see what sort of materials I can get my hands on. I don’t enjoy fighting very much.”

He was a merchant, after all. He was competitive on a different battlefield. I assumed that he was coming along to see if he could find any interesting drop items.

“I’m coming along for the drops. I’m trying to buy some special powders, the sort that have ability names.”

“What’s that?”

“You know, like strength powder and magic powder.”

I’d never heard of anything like that, but the concept was intriguing. I felt the itch to start collecting and categorizing.

“They’re mostly used to make various medicines. Medicines made with those powders fetch a good price because they have fantastic ability-enhancing properties.”

“Hm . . .” I’d run into the concept before in older RPGs.

Heroes like myself didn’t need to depend on such things, because every material we found unlocked more weapons and abilities.

A trickle of water becomes a river—as insignificant as they may seem, adventurers that had reached their level cap would probably chase after materials like that, as they’d be the only way to continue raising their stats.

That explained something that had been bothering me. There were a lot of adventurers in this world that were very powerful, even without holding a legendary or vassal weapon. These powders must have had something to do with it.

“I’d rather use them than sell them.”

“They become less effective the more you use them, so most people sell them once the efficiency starts to drop off.”

I could understand that. That would explain how Trash #2’s friends had been able to break through my shooting star shield barrier. They looked like weak underlings, so I’d been surprised by how powerful they actually were.

Ethnobalt spoke next, directing us toward his ship, “Then shall we get going? Perhaps Kizuna could use our travel time to get some rest.”

I hadn’t realized that we were going to be traveling by his strange ship. I guess it made sense—ease of travel was probably the best part of having the ship vassal weapon. The ship was like a knock-off of my portal skills, and it worked by traveling over these things call “dragon veins,” which were currents of some kind. We’d used it once before, and it had been very fast.

We were moving very fast now, fast enough to ignore them, but I couldn’t help but notice how many monsters there were flying around up in the sky.

I guess flying monsters weren’t particularly rare, but I was surprised to see so many.

“There are quite a lot of them up here today. It’s crowded.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I think I’ll take a short detour.”

If we had to be in a mid-air battle aboard the ship, people with ranged attacks would fare better than anyone else.

Too bad our resident monster-hunting hero was busy taking a nap.

“I’m so glad to get away from all that boring diplomacy! Time for some action!” L’Arc shouted. I ignored him. If you ask me, he wasn’t the kind of guy who should be put in a position of authority over anyone.

We were flying through the air on Ethnobalt’s ship to go to an area with strong monsters. Ethnobalt may not be much use in battle, but his vassal weapon sure was convenient.

“Hey Ethnobalt, you’re a monster, aren’t you? What’s your species called?”

Was he a demi-human, like Raphtalia? He was a giant, talking rabbit, after all.

“In L’Arc’s country we are known as library rabbits.”

“There’s only one place they live naturally, and that’s in the labyrinth libraries,” L’Arc explained.

“I wonder if they are like the beast men in the world that I was summoned to.”

If they weren’t so different, then the definitions of human and monster were in need of an update.

“We’ll be passing my hometown shortly. Shall we stop by and have a look?” Ethnobalt said, turning the ship around into a wide detour that brought us up to a large, shrine-like building. A tall rabbit was walking nearby, and Ethnobalt called him over to us.

The rabbit came over and bowed to us before sniffing at the air in silence with its little nose.

“So that’s a library rabbit?”

“But when you’re in rabbit form, you must be twice as tall as this guy.”

Was Ethnobalt some kind of boss version?

“Yes, well. Do your best,” Ethnobalt said to the other rabbit, who just kept sniffing in response. Couldn’t the stupid thing talk?

Filo interjected. “He said, ‘Yes, our great chief.’”

Why did Filo understand him?

If they spoke in monster language, then I guess it was safe to categorize them as monsters? I mean, were they really talking? It just looked like sniffing to me. I guess the rabbit was more intelligent than it appeared.

“We are on our way to training grounds. I wish to become strong enough to help protect the world.”

Many more rabbits came hopping over and they started clapping, though their paws didn’t make very much noise.

It was a surreal sight to behold.

“Ethnobalt is the leader of this tribe. His people are fond of him, which is a sign of a good leader,” L’Arc said. He was a king himself. But I’d keep calling him Boy.

Kizuna had managed to surround herself with people in positions of authority.

Had I managed the same thing back in Melromarc? The only friend I had in a position of power was Melty. She was the princess, so if the queen were to die, then she would become monarch of Melromarc, just like L’Arc. Heh—when that happened, I would go on calling her Princess. I could see it now: her face turning bright red with anger. She’d probably stomp her feet and yell at me.

Anyway, ever since I met him, I felt that Ethnobalt had something in common with Fitoria—even if he was much weaker. I decided to act on my hunch and ask him directly.

“How old are you, Ethnobalt?”

“Me? I’m turning fifteen this year.”

Hm . . . that wasn’t what I was I expecting. I didn’t know how old Fitoria was, but she’s been alive since there were other heroes, so probably generations old.

So how could Ethnobalt be so young? Wasn’t he supposed to be the monster version of a hero?

“What are library rabbits like? How do they live?”

“Why do you care?”

“It’s not important, but I’m wondering if they’re anything like these filolials back in the world I came from. Filo here is one of them, and . . .” I explained all I knew about the filolials to Glass and L’Arc.

“Ah, do you mean the giant monster that appeared to assist us during the battle with the Spirit Tortoise? That thing was the same type of monster as Filo?”

“Yes. Apparently they gain unique abilities when they’re raised by heroes . That’s why Filo is such a strong fighter, but I don’t know if that’s how things work in this world.”

Ethnobalt pulled out a book and began flipping through it.

“There are tales of a legendary library rabbit . . . yes, here.” He showed us an illustration of a library rabbit wearing robes much like the clothes that Ethnobalt was wearing.

“They say that all library rabbits are descended from this individual, and that this legendary ancestor was killed in an ancient battle.”

So, this legendary rabbit had been killed. It looked very intellectual in the illustration.

“I was named after this legendary library rabbit. But, I am not yet worthy of the name. There is so much I do not know, but I hope to become like him in time.”

“Hm . . .”

Kizuna finally woke up.

“Wow! I guess all of worlds have these sorts of things in common.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far. But Ethnobalt, you say you want to get stronger . . .”

He held a vassal weapon. I wonder if that would prevent me from putting a monster spell on him and putting him under my control. There were ofuda in this world that lent people control over monsters. I think they were called “control ofuda.”

“Kizuna, why don’t you trying raising him with a control ofuda? It might change the way that he levels.”

Ethnobalt frowned, “Then I would have even less to show for myself.”

“Deal with it.”

Filo could grow to be stronger than Fitoria. So, you never know how things will end up.

“It’s long been said that the library rabbits are not suited for battle.”

Was that some kind of racial characteristic? Like a whole race, a whole species, of Rishia clones? How sad would that be?

“If they mature differently, based on whether or not they are under the control of a hero, then they are probably like the filolials back in my world.”

“I suppose we could try it,” Kizuna agreed.

“I . . . I will do what I must!” Ethnobalt replied.

Did he think that was impressive? As far as I could see, you couldn’t afford to slack off if you held a vassal weapon. He had a responsibility to the weapon.

“For now, just do all that you can in battle, and don’t push it too far. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“Alright.”

We finished talking and took off again. When we arrived at our destination, we found ourselves surrounded by angry monsters. They bared their fangs and attacked.

“Whoa!” I quickly used Shooting Star Shield to protect us.

“Ha!” Raphtalia drew her sword from the fully charged sheath and flew through the crowd of monsters, faster than the eye could see.

A few monsters fell to the ground defeated, but then even more appeared, drawn by all the sudden commotion.

“Hya!” Glass shouted, slapping open her fan and swiping at an approaching monster.

A bolt of light shot from it and slammed into the charging beast.

“What was . . . ” Glass muttered, looking at me and then at the fan in her hand.

“Was that a skill?”

“Something like that, but I didn’t do anything to make it happen. And it didn’t use any of my energy reserves.”

“I wonder if it’s an effect from the accessory that Naofumi made for your fan?”

“It must be. I’ve never seen an accessory with such a noticeable effect. The craftsmanship must be truly excellent,” Glass said, smiling. It was always exciting to get your hands on a new weapon.

She continued swiping left and right with her fan, sending out shockwaves through the waves of approaching monsters.

“Now it’s my turn to show off!” L’Arc shouted, swinging his scythe. The blade glowed with energy and sliced a nearby monster in two. “Nice! My scythe is even stronger than it was! That accessory you made is really something!”

I didn’t mind all the compliments. I even enjoyed them. But it did feel strange to think about how much I had done for these people, especially considering that we might end up having to fight them at the end of all this.

They had all grown so powerful. I was honestly shocked at how effective my accessories were.

But then, as L’Arc continued to swing his scythe, the accessory began to smoke.

“L’Arc, it looks like it will break if you keep on using it without giving it a rest. Better keep an eye on it.”

“Good idea. It must be the sort of thing that I should save. Only use it when I really need it.”

“I think so. But man, just look at all these monsters.”

Monsters had swarmed at us in endlessly since the moment we entered the labyrinth.

And because Kizuna and I were in the same place, we weren’t getting any experience points out of it. Holders of the vassal weapons were subject to the same issue, so Glass and the others weren’t gaining experience either. Only Rishia, Filo, and Therese were actually leveling in these battles.

“It’s quite strange,” Ethnobalt said, covering Rishia and the others from the back line.

“I’ve been here before, and even I think it’s weird!” I shouted.

L’Arc looked at the approaching hordes of monsters with confusion. He didn’t understand what was going on either.

The monsters weren’t so powerful that we couldn’t handle them, but their numbers were unbelievable. We’d eventually get worn down by the sheer number of them , if we didn’t come up with a plan. Otherwise, we’d have to find a way to escape.

“Ha!”

Kizuna switched between fighting with her knife for close battles and her fishing rod for ranged attacks. She had access to other tools besides those two things, so I don’t know why she didn’t use them more.

The lure I’d made for her hung from her weapon, no matter what form it took. I remembered her freaking out about the lure. What had she said? “This lure is amazing! I just attached it to my fishing line and threw it in and the fish lined up to bite it! I catch something every time I cast it. I love it! Can we put off this trip until tomorrow?”

“Kizuna, try removing that lure for a minute!”

“Huh? Okay!” she said, taking the lure off of her weapon. The moment she did, the waves of monsters stopped coming.

“I thought so.”

“What does it mean?”

“I think that lure is attracting the monsters.”

I had a skill that did the same thing. It was called Hate Reaction. It looked like Kizuna’s lure did that as long as she had it attached to her weapon.

“Looks like that thing I made had a really negative effect. I’ll get rid of it for you later.”

“No. You. Won’t!” Kizuna barked, clutching the lure like a string of pearls. “Do you have any idea how many fish I can catch with this thing? Who cares if it attracts monsters too?”

“Well, I guess as long as you choose when to use it there’s no problem.”

“Yes there is! Kizuna, give me that lure!” Glass shouted, holding out her hand expectantly.

Kizuna simply shook her head.

I understood why Glass felt the way she did, but she was overreacting a bit. Maybe there was something I didn’t know about.

“Kizuna. Listen to us. Give the accessory to Glass,” L’Arc said calmly. Everyone, including Therese and Ethnobalt, reacted the same way. They must have been aware of a risk that I wasn’t.

“Rafu?”

“What’s all this about?” Raphtalia and Rafu both looked as confused as I was.

I looked around and saw that Filo and Rishia were confused too.

“Kiddo, Kizuna’s a great girl, but she’s got some issues when it comes to fishing. She even tried to fish off of the ghost ship we were on that day,” L’Arc sighed heavily. “Of course we stopped her.”

“You mean she thinks about fishing even in the middle of battle?”

“Absolutely.”

“I do not!” Kizuna shouted.

“Then will you give me that lure?”

“I . . . Um . . .”

“Let her have it. We’ll just keep an eye on her.”

“You can’t. You’ll see. She’ll try fishing for mice the second she gets a break.”

Fishing for mice? Would she really do that? Even if she knew it would attract other monsters? Kizuna had never seemed like a careless person to me.

Ethnobalt nodded, as if he’d suddenly realized something, “That was why there were so many flying monsters today. We almost collided with some in the air.”

I remembered that he had mentioned there were more monsters than usual.

“Good point. Maybe you should hand it over to Glass. When you want to use it, Glass will let you,” I told her.

“But then I might miss my chance to catch the big one! What if Glass isn’t around when I need it ?! ”

“What do I care? Get over it already. I’m sure you can work this out amongst yourselves.”

“Mr. Naofumi, don’t give up so easily. We have to convince her.”

“I have a dream! I want to catch a fish bigger than anyone has ever seen!”

“Then go catch a whale!”

I regretted saying that. I didn’t want her leaving a wave battle to go fishing.

“Kiddo, you get her from the right, I’ll take her from the left. Glass and Raphtalia—you two make sure she doesn’t get away.”

“Fine.”

Everyone sprang to it immediately, and soon we had Kizuna surrounded.

“What are you doing? Leave me alone!”

She could resist if she wanted, but we were going to get that lure from her if we had to kill her to do it.

She could play with her lure after we defeated Kyo and went back to our world.

“Noooo! You stole it from me! My favorite accessory!” Kizuna whined. Her childish screams echoed in our ears.

She finally sounded her age.

“Alright then . . .” I turned to survey the area, ignoring Kizuna’s pouting and begging.

The monsters were tough, but nothing that we couldn’t handle.

We’d come out to this place to check the effects of the new accessories. All of them were more impressive than I had expected, and we weren’t having any trouble with the monsters. That wasn’t surprising, considering that most of our party was made up of people with vassal weapons, and the others were holy heroes from an assortment of worlds.

“There are monsters coming. Let’s do this.”

“Yes!”

“Right on! Let’s get some nice materials from them and see what Naofumi can make for us next!”

“Ask L’Arc or Romina to do it!” I snapped at Kizuna.

As for the battle itself, it wasn’t even worth describing. We won easily.

We pressed on, and the monsters we encountered slowly grew stronger.

We hadn’t yet met any that were strong enough to break through my defenses, though we had met a few that could get through the Shooting Star Shield.

Kizuna, L’Arc, and Glass were starting to get tired.

“Let’s take a break,” I said, and everyone agreed.

“It’ll be dark soon. Should we build a fire?”

“We’ll take turns keeping watch.”

“Sounds good, then I’ll . . .” Kizuna started.

“No fishing.”

“I wasn’t going to say that!”

We sat down to rest, taking turns keeping watch.

There would have been a time, long ago, when I’d found the idea of camping romantic. Now, the reality was less so. Someone had to stay awake and keep an eye out, and the whole thing was pretty exhausting. Still, I was used to it by now, and it wasn’t a problem.

I had some free time, so I decided to see what I could craft from the materials I had stored in the shield. Kizuna and the others spent their time doing the same thing.

Filo and Rafu snuggled up next to me and went to sleep.

Raphtalia took the time to practice with her sword. She was really invested in that new weapon. And as for Rishia, she hunched over a book and started to study. She was either trying to figure out how to read the writing in this world, or she already could and was just reading the book. Probably the latter. She was pretty amazing when it came to studying—keep it up!

Once I indicated what I wanted the shield to craft, I ended up with nothing to do. I was a little too wound up to sleep. I had time on my hands, so I decided to use it.

“Raph-chan.”

“Rafu?”

Raph-chan had been sleeping nearby, so I picked her up and set her on my knees. I called up the menu for the shikigami power-ups, and started looking through the list of materials I could use to power-up her abilities.

Shikigami didn’t have levels like other people and monsters did. Instead, their stats and abilities could be adjusted directly by using various objects and materials. It was a bit like adjusting the bioplant specifications, and it seemed like there was a lot to learn. It was even possible to adjust the shininess of her fur!

It was deeper than that too. There wasn’t just a single number to play with, but many. The stiffness, softness, fluffiness, sleekness, length, and other things could all be adjusted.

So, whenever I found myself with some free time on my hands, I’d take to fiddling with Raph-chan’s power-ups.

At the moment, I had gotten her to the point where she could use illusion magic to back us up in battle. Eventually, I hoped that she’d be able to take over some of Raphtalia’s role as my right hand in battle.

“Rafu!”

I was sitting there patting Raph-chan and mulling over the possibilities when I realized something large was nearby. I turned to see what it was and found Ethnobalt sitting behind me.

He was in his rabbit form, and was just large enough to make a perfect backrest.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just . . . this is the easiest place to relax.”

“Huh?”

“Naofumi, you’re so popular with monsters,” Kizuna smiled.

I had no idea what they were talking about.

“Mr. Naofumi is a very good caregiver. I am where I am today due to his kindness,” Raphtalia said. She probably thought she was saying something nice, but it didn’t make me happy.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were making fun of me.

“Master! Master is mine! Mine!”

“I don’t think so Filo. No one owns me—certainly not you.”

“Rafu?”

“Pen!”

“Filo and Chris sure have hit it off. They’re like old friends now,” Kizuna said.

I looked to see what she meant, only to discover myself surrounded by Filo, Raph-chan, Chris, and Ethnobalt.

Glass nodded, “Naofumi may be from another world, but he is the Shield Hero, is he not? Monsters must realize that he is not their enemy, but that he is here to protect them.”

“Yeah, and Naofumi’s side is probably the safest place to be.”

“I guess that could be it. But damn! It’s so hot with these things all around me!” I stood up and moved, carrying Raph-chan with me.

The minute I sat down, Filo, Chris, and Ethnobalt followed me and plopped down around me again. It was a little better than the last arrangement, but not by much. I could hardly understand humans, much less all these monsters. I guess that made sense in a way—they wanted to sleep somewhere they knew they would be protected. It was a natural instinct.

“I don’t have time to play with these things,” I said, flipping Raph-chan onto her back and rubbing her fluffy belly to see how her fur looked.

“That’s probably the least convincing thing you’ve ever said.”

“How so?”

“Rafuuuu . . .”

“Mr. Naofumi, don’t pet Raph-chan too much.”

“How come?”

Whenever I paid a lot of attention to Raph-chan, Raphtalia looked a little irritated.

“Well, Raph-chan was made from my hair, and . . . well, I feel a little embarrassed when you pet her like that.”

“Oh come on. You’re just a little kid yourself. I’ll pet Raph-chan if I want to.”

Raphtalia puffed out her cheeks, unimpressed with my answer, and went back to practicing with her sword. She looked like she was swinging it harder than she had been.

“That’s just like you, Naofumi . . .”

“Rafu!” Raph-chan raised her hand and shook her head.

Had I said something wrong?

Raphtalia was like my daughter, and Raph-chan reminded me of her, so of course I cared about Raph-chan too. I don’t understand what’s so weird about that.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh nothing. You should get some rest, don’t you think? L’Arc is already snoring over there.”

She was right. L’Arc was passed out and snoring. It was so loud I was afraid it would attract monsters.

Just when I started to wonder about it, Therese walked over and placed a blanket over him, then cast a spell that silenced his snoring. It didn’t bother me really, but something about it felt wrong.

Glass had been talking just a minute ago, but now she was asleep next to Kizuna.

“There’s still plenty of time. Raphtalia and I will keep watch, so why don’t you get some sleep?”

“Alright already.”

Ever since I was betrayed by Bitch , I had trouble getting in a deep sleep. I’d have to take the opportunity to rest while I had it.

I laid down to rest, thinking that the trip had turned into a training camp.

We finished our training around noon of the following day, and returned to the castle.

Filo leveled up a fair amount on our trip, so I should explain what happened there. When we crossed over into this world, Filo turned into a humming fairy, and humming fairies change into different forms as they level.

Perhaps because she was originally a filolial, Filo was able to change into any of her humming fairy forms at will.

“Master! Do you think I look more like how I used to look now?”

“Yeah, much closer.”

We were back in the castle courtyard, and Filo was changing into different forms to show off.

I was starting to hope that Raph-chan would be able to change forms, just like Filo could. If she was just a little bigger, she would be perfect for cuddling with when I sleep. Or if she got even bigger, I could lay down on her belly to sleep. I’d seen something like that in an anime once.

Sure, I could do that with Ethnobalt or Filo, but I’d rather snuggle with Raph-chan.

Ok, that was a bit of a digression.

Filo had currently taken the form of something Kizuna called a humming big owl, which looked exactly like you would expect from the name. She was the same size as she used to be when in her filolial queen form. She looked pretty similar, except for the area around her waist.

She could also turn into a humming emperor penguin, complete with a crest of feathers on her head. Kizuna’s shikigami, Chris, was also a penguin, and he looked over at Filo with jealousy.

“And you know what? I can sing really good now!” Filo yelled. Then she puffed up her throat and started to sing.

It almost sounded like there was back-up music. It made for an energized performance.

I couldn’t figure out how she was making so many different sounds at once, but it sounded like someone was playing a koto along with her song.

This world’s traditional music sounded pretty Japanese to me.

The country that Kizuna had established herself in was mostly Western-styled, but the clothing people wore looked like a fusion between Japanese and western elements.

We were in a bar once and I saw a musician playing a shamisen—it looked strange, to say the least. It wasn’t all bad though—I was certainly pleased with Raphtalia’s new miko outfit.

“Rafu!” Raph-chan jumped up and started dancing along with Filo’s song.

“Oh wow. Nice!” I shouted, disinterested, and went back to the magic practice I’d been doing. Filo had said it was a fun song that gave you energy. And I did sort of feel like my magic power replenished faster than usual. Raphtalia’s training went really well too.

Was it an effect of Filo’s song?

“I’m about ready to head home for the day.”

“Okay!”

So we spent our days preparing for the coming battle. But then, that night, when we were all asleep, something happened. Thinking back on it now, I’m surprised that we hadn’t been more on guard, especially considering how long it had been since Kyo had tried anything.

We paid for our lack of caution.

Chapter Four: Like a Charging Wild Boar

I woke up suddenly to the sound of explosions. The ground was shaking.

“What is that ?! ”

“Rafu ?! ”

“What’s going on?”

“Feh! Master Itsuki ?! ”

We were sleeping at Kizuna’s house in the neighboring town. We jumped out of bed and tried to get our bearings. I ran to the window to look outside. We were on the third floor, and there was a rush of noise coming from downstairs.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but it doesn’t sound good. Be careful.”

Everyone nodded.

We left the room and made for the first floor, where we found Kizuna, Glass, and Chris. Their weapons were drawn and they were facing the entrance.

Aside from those three, we were the only ones in the house.

L’Arc and Therese were at the castle, and Ethnobalt was working at the library.

I was currently using a shield I’d received after the battle with Trash #2, the White Tiger Clone Shield. I had finally reached a level that unlocked it, but I was surprised by how weak it was. The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield had a higher defense rating, but I hadn’t been able to unlock that shield since crossing over to this world.

White Tiger Clone Shield (awakened)

 abilities locked: equip bonus: skill: Chain Shield

 equip effect: agility up (medium), impact absorption (low), parry (low)

The abilities and effects were not very exciting. I suppose that’s all I could expect, since the enemy had only been a clone of the original White Tiger. The agility boost would be useful, but there was an issue with impact absorption and parry. If I were to be positive about it, I’d say that they might end up proving useful against defense rating attacks, like the kind that Glass and L’Arc used.

If only I could have gotten my hands on some of the real materials, things might have been different. But according to Romina, there were hardly any more left in the world, because so many different people and countries had used them. L’Arc managed the national storehouse, and there was practically none left.

But they had promised to find some for me before the final battle came.

L’Arc figured that my level wouldn’t be high enough to access whatever shield the materials unlocked for a while yet, and I couldn’t argue with his logic.

Anyway, this shield didn’t have any counter effects, so I didn’t really want to use it. Still, it could cover the gap between shields until I got to a level where I could access the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

I hadn’t used the Shield of Wrath in a very long time, so I figured I could always switch to that if I needed it. But then again, it had a powerful effect on Filo too, and because she had changed so much when we crossed between the worlds, I was a bit worried about how that shield would affect her now.

Fitoria’s feather had kept her from losing her mind, but I didn’t think it would work in this world.

So that’s why I was using this shield. Even though it didn’t have the best effects, I could at least depend on it for its defense rating.

Oh, and Chain Shield seemed to be a different version of Change Shield.

When I used Air Strike Shield, then Second Shield, and so on, I could use Chain Shield to link them all together in a chain. It was pretty useful because I could move them all at the same time. If I could figure out how to work with it, it would probably be a good skill to have in my arsenal, but as things stood now I wasn’t really sure how to use it.

“So you’ve got new friends. But they won’t save you now!” someone shouted. Whoever it was, Kizuna and Glass were facing her in the entrance, which, by the way, had been completely destroyed.

A woman in a hakama stood in the rubble.

Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She stood about as tall as Glass.

She had a nice face . . . you know, I feel like I’ve been saying this a whole lot lately. But anyway, she was beautiful.

“What the hell is going on? Kizuna, is she a friend of yours?”

I hadn’t seen her in any of Kizuna’s group pictures. Maybe she’d been sick that day?

She didn’t look like she’d just stopped by to pay her respects.

“Does she look like a friend?”

“We were about to turn in when she started banging on the door and causing a fuss.”

“You have no idea who she is?”

“Judging from her entrance, I don’t think she likes us.”

“Good point.”

Back in the world I came from, there were a lot of people who hated me, so many I couldn't count them if I tried. I seriously doubt I’d recognize them all if they showed up on my doorstep.

“Who are you !? ” Kizuna demanded of the attacker.

I wasn’t expecting an honest answer.

“My name is Yomogi Emarl! I come on behalf of Kyo to punish those who hold vassal and holy weapons!”

“. . .”

Huh. So she just told us the truth. It was all a bit confusing.

Kizuna didn’t flinch or let her guard down for a second, but she looked annoyed at the foolishness of her opponent.

I mean , I’m glad she was so forthcoming with the introduction, but how stupid can you be? Was she really an assassin that Kyo sent?

“I will defeat you! Come at me!” Yomogi shouted, drawing a strange looking sword and dashing across the room at us.

“I thought you wanted us to come to you? What the hell?”

This girl was seriously confusing.

“Hya!”

She was fast though! She was so fast that, had it not been for my recent training and level growth, I probably wouldn’t have been able to react in time.

I reflexively shot across the room, jumped before Kizuna and Glass, and got my shield up just in time to block her blade, which slammed into the shield. It shook in my hands.

“Ugh . . .”

She wasn’t powerful enough to cut through my defenses, but it took all I had to keep my footing.

I wasn’t sure if the White Tiger Clone Shield was going to be enough to make it through this fight.

“Thunder Sword!”

A crackling attack of lightning shot from her blade.

“I don’t think so!” Raphtalia shouted, drawing her katana from its fully charged sheath. Her speed attack activated, but . . .

“Your footing is all wrong!” Yomogi clipped, jumping back a step and parrying Raphtalia’s attack with her blade.

She’d been able to see where Raphtalia was going. Even though she had been in her haikuikku mode. Even though Kizuna and I had trouble seeing it.

“Raphtalia! Back down!” Glass shouted, opening her fan, “Circle Dance Attack Formation: Flower Wind!”

Glass spun on her heels and swiped at Yomogi with her fan. A flower made of pure light shot from the fan, and my accessory’s effect activated at the same time, sending out three of them. She’d used that skill before.

We were fighting in Kizuna’s house, which sort of made me want to hold back. You didn’t want to put years of work into making a house only to bust it up in a battle.

“Ugh!”

Yomogi had rushed to attack Raphtalia, but she had to pivot to dodge Glass’s attack.

“So, you’re all going to team up on me, are you? It’s just as Kyo said, you’re evil!”

“Are you kidding? You broke into our house in the middle of the night.”

“Ha ?! ” Yomogi glared at me. She was sweating. “That’s right! I had to give priority to my mission, so I chose the cowardly way!”

Huh? Was she joking? Was she an idiot?

She was genuinely confusing.

And yet, she could follow Raphtalia’s attack, dodge Glass’s attack, move really quickly, and her attacks were powerful.

That sword of hers was piquing my interest. Something about it was strange. The design reminded me of my Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

The shape of it was strange too. The gems in the hilt, the shape of the guard . . . Many things about it reminded me of Ren’s sword. And she seemed to be able to use skills too.

“But even if you team up against me, it won’t save you! I don’t care how many of you I have to face—I WILL emerge victorious!”

“You think you stand a chance against all of us together?” I laughed, sounding like a cheap pirate. Oh well.

“Naofumi, that’s what people say before they lose.”

“Shut up, Kizuna. You’re no good against a human opponent anyway. Back off and leave this one to the adults.”

“How dare you!”

Kizuna wasn’t able to fight against other humans, and I was pretty sure this Yomogi character was a human. She didn’t look like a Grass person, and she didn’t look like a Spirit person either.

“I’ll show you!” Yomogi barked, rushing at me with her sword.

I was the only guy in the group, and I was standing at the front, so it was only natural that she came at me first.

“Whoa! Air Strike Shield!”

The shield appeared in the air and Yomogi’s sword clanged against it.

“You’re up to something! But it’s not going to work!”

She’d rushed at me, but now she had decided to be cautious, and she started to back up.

I’d seen this kind of thing before. I wonder what Kyo had told her about the Shield Hero.

“Second Shield.”

Right before she could jump away, I sent out another shield, and it appeared in midair just behind her knees.

“Huh ?! ”

“Dritte Shield.”

Yomogi could hardly stay on her feet, so just to finish her off, I sent a third shield flying at her, and it appeared in the air by her chest. She had to twist herself into an unnatural position to avoid the shields. She wouldn’t be able to hold it for long, unless she was a professional contortionist or something.

Her knees were bent back over the shield behind her, and she couldn’t stand up to avoid it, because of the shield in front of her. She was stuck.

“You coward!”

She hadn’t fallen yet, but it seemed to take all of her energy to avoid collapsing.

“I’m impressed you’re still standing up.”

“L’Arc told me about when you did that to him. He said it was really hard to fight back,’ Glass said.

“That’s the Shield Hero for you,” added Kizuna.

“I appreciate the commentary, but will you please contribute to the fight now ?! ”

“Here I go!”

“Me tooo!”

“Feh . . . Should I help too?”

Raphtalia dashed forward to take advantage of Yomogi’s instability, while Filo started to chant an incantation.

Rishia was fumbling with an ofuda and getting ready to throw it.

I was reaching for Yomogi’s sword, just to make sure, but I wasn’t going to make it in time. So there was only one thing to do.

“Chain Shield!”

A chain appeared and linked the shields all together.

Because of their position, Yomogi found herself entangled in the chain. Then the shields began to spin and rotate around her.

“Ugh . . .”

It was a good combo. Perfect, really. I’d wrap her up and try to wring information about Kyo out of her.

“Ha!”

Yomogi thrust her sword into the ground. With an eruption of sparks the chain shattered, and all the shields vanished.

That was a mighty fine sword she had. If only a certain Sword Hero I knew was half as good with his sword . . .

. . . Not that this was the time or place to bring that up.

“You’re pretty good. But I’m not going to lose!” Yomogi shouted.

But Raphtalia was already flying at her. Kizuna used her Bait Lure attack—it would double the effect of the following attack.

“Instant Blade: Mist!”

With any luck, this should end the battle.

Raphtalia, with blinding speed, swung her sword across, right at Yomogi, ending the . . .

“Take this! Dragon Point Technique!”

Yomogi vanished in a flash, leaving behind an afterimage before appearing on the other side of Raphtalia’s attack, her sword drawn.

“Wha . . .”

Their swords clashed and showered the ground with sparks.

“Not yet!”

“Ugh!”

Yomogi parried Raphtalia’s katana to the side and thrust forward at the opening.

Not on my watch!

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The barrier appeared instantly. Yomogi’s sword clattered against it, protecting Raphtalia and repelling Yomogi. Filo rushed to counterattack.

“Zweite Wind Cutter!”

Filo flapped her arms and blade after blade of wind shot at Yomogi, who used her sword to defend herself from each one.

“Wow! Master! This lady is tough!”

“I know. Stay focused!”

“A strange attack indeed! Truly a style from another world!”

“Ha! I could say the same thing!”

“Naofumi, don’t you think there’s something odd about her sword?” Kizuna shouted.

I took another hard look at it.

There was a gemstone set in the handle, but now it looked more like an eyeball.

It was swiveling and turning in its socket. What was that thing?

“More! More power! Kyo made this weapon, and I am worthy to wield it!”

The blade flashed red and seemed to sizzle with heat before crescent moons shot from its tip and flew at me.

“Ugh . . .” Even with the Shooting Star Shield barrier in place, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to block it.

I readied my shield just as the barrier shattered all around me. The sickles of light kept coming, and they slammed into my shield. Hard.

“Argh!”

I pressed forward with all my might and deflected the attack, sending it soaring off to the right.

It ripped right through the wall of the house and flew off into the sky.

I’d just been mocking the parrying ability of this shield, and now it had saved my life. Oh the irony!

“I’m amazed you survived that. Congratulations. But I will not allow myself to lose to villains like you!”

Was she going to use the same attack again?

Then I noticed something strange. A piece of the shattered barrier was still floating in the air. The barrier itself had shattered, but one of the pieces was still there, hovering in the air. Why? Did it have something to do with my new accessory? Is that all it did?

I didn’t have time to wonder too long, because the floating piece of the barrier suddenly accelerated and shot towards Yomogi.

“What ?! ”

Yomogi snapped to attention and used her sword to block the incoming barrier piece. She was able to stop it, but she left herself wide open.

I guess the accessory made it so that my shattered barrier would turn itself into a flying attack.

“First the strange attacks. Now it’s an attack that turns your defensive barrier into an offensive missile. You certainly are a strange one.”

There had to be a good way to put this new ability to use.

The best things about Shooting Star Shield were its short cool down time and its efficient SP use. And now it would turn itself into an attack after it broke—which was all the more useful, because my current shield didn’t have any counter abilities. I liked the sound of that!

But this battle was starting to stress me out. I was worried about Filo, but at the same time, I was also ready to use the Shield of Wrath to burn this girl to ash.

“Glass, if you don’t get into gear and end this thing, I’ll end it for you. But, I might take the house out with me.”

“Mr. Naofumi, you don’t mean . . .”

“That’s exactly what I mean. I don’t know what it will do to Filo though, so we better keep an eye on her.”

“I’ll do my best!” Filo chirped.

“Don’t do it!” Glass shouted, understanding what I meant, “Would you destroy the house that Kizuna and I built ?! ”

“If that’s what it takes to end this fight! Our attacks aren’t bothering her one bit!”

Hadn’t they been watching? She’d blocked every attack we’d thrown at her.

If Rishia didn’t watch out, she was going to get herself killed. And this girl might have had attacks that even I couldn’t block. To top it all off, Kizuna wasn’t any use in a battle against another human.

If the battle went on any longer, we’d probably draw the attention of the authorities, and maybe the castle would send backup.

Everyone was in the middle of scaling up for battle anyway. To jump into a situation like this wasn’t very smart.

Whatever happened, we were going to need an attack powerful enough to get rid of this stupid idiot.

Or . . .

“Raphtalia, can you use Illusion Sword?”

“I should be able to, but I’m sure she’ll notice.”

Raphtalia had about as much attack power as Filo had had in the previous world.

She’d been using a lot of skills, but none of them had been strong enough to end the match. Had she lost the ability to use those attacks she used to know?”

“What about Ying-Yang Sword, or Directional Blade of Heaven? Can you still use those?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Good. I’ll buy us some time. You slice this girl up.”

“Ah . . . Very well,” Raphtalia said, turning her blade horizontal and charging her magic power.

“An opening!” Yomogi yelled, thrusting.

“That’s not an opening, that’s charging up for an attack. I’ll be taking over until she’s ready.”

“Then I’ll just have to take care of you first!”

“Heh, what’s a weakling like you going to do?” I said condescendingly, trying to get her riled up.

Yomogi’s face turned bright red and she tightened her grip on her sword and said, “What did you say ?! ”

Yes. It was working. As long as she was paying more attention to me than to Raphtalia, my plan would work. I wasn’t relying entirely on Raphtalia’s attack. Filo and Glass and Kizuna all had attacks too.

I just had to make sure that this crazy woman’s attacks didn’t reach any of my teammates. I’d have to provoke her. I needed all her attention on me.

That’s when I came up with it. I laughed condescendingly and looked at Yomogi.

“What’s so funny?”

“Huh? Oh nothing. I was just thinking about how stupid Kyo looked. It made me laugh, that’s all.”

“How dare you!”

“How is that gloomy guy? He sure talked himself up, but if he sent you to take us out, he must be too scared to come himself. How did he ask you to come after us? ‘I’m too scared. Hewp mweeeee pweeease?’ Ahahaha!”

“You bastard!”

It worked! Her face went red with anger, and she glared at me spitefully. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to come after me.

“Naofumi, you sure are good at that sort of thing.”

“Yes, Kizuna, but it is also helpful,” Raphtalia offered.

“Yeah, I know.”

I wanted to yell, “Enough with the chit-chat already!” But I didn’t get a chance to before Yomogi thrust her sword at me and I blocked it with my shield. For a moment, we were locked in place, my shield against her sword, neither of us overpowering the other.

I suddenly realized that I had never tried to change my shield in a situation like that. It was as good a time as ever to try it. I decided to switch to a shield with a counter effect, so I chose a shield that I’d unlocked from the boss monster that Kizuna had fought during the last wave battle: the Demon Elephant Shield.

Of course, I had already leveled it up. Glass and the others had helped me gather the materials I needed to level it up, so the process had gone quickly.

Demon Elephant Shield C

 abilities locked: equip bonus: defense 30: shadow defense up while mounted: rickshaw skill up 4: abilities increase while carrying (medium): special effect: Demon Elephant Tusk (critical)

My filolial series had an ability adjustment while mounted (high) effect, so in order not to overlap that shield, this shield offered a defense boost instead.

I didn’t know anything about the other effects. Was I supposed to pull a rickshaw? I don’t think so! It might have meant that anyone I carried would get an ability boost, but I wasn’t going to carry anyone, so I guess I’ll never find out.

Was I supposed to carry Raphtalia on my shoulders in a battle? Ha!

I was distracted, imagining the absurdity for a second, but I quickly snapped back to the battle at hand, and I had just changed to a new shield.

The new shield appeared instantly in the place of the old one, and as Yomogi’s sword clattered against it, the counter effect Demon Elephant Tusk (critical) activated.

“What ?! ”

The elephant tusk relief on the exterior of the shield began to glow. It then fired a sphere of black light at Yomogi.

“Ugh! But . . . You haven’t got me yet.”

She’d been too close to dodge the attack, maybe because her sword was locked up against my shield. The effect activated a couple more times. The dark spheres of light slammed into her with satisfying power and sound.

“Ugh . . .”

Yomogi tried to thrust at me again, but she failed and was forced to jump back to get some distance. She was breathing hard, holding the shoulder that had been hit by the spheres of light. Had I managed to do some real damage?

“That was some trick. You managed to hurt me.”

It looked like the Demon Elephant Tusk (critical) made critical hits from time to time.

“Hey Master! I think I can do something!”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan and Filo, in her humming falcon form, hopped up onto my shoulders and started chanting incantations.

“Imma do it! Raph-chan, do it with me!”

“Rafu!”

They chanted so quickly! What were they doing?

I didn’t have time to wonder. They combined their powers for a new spell.

“Joint Magic! Pinwheel!”

When Filo and Raph-chan cast their spell all the lights around us started flashing on and off, and then the room was plunged into darkness. The light was so blinding I had trouble adjusting my eyes.

Then four blades made of wind, like throwing stars, shot at Yomogi from all directions.

“Fascinating! I’ve never heard of such an attack!” Yomogi shouted.

Was she enjoying herself?

“Glass! Hope you’re ready to help us out here!”

“Yes I am!” she shouted, opening her fan and dancing in the darkness, once again triggering Circle Dance Attack Formation: Flower Wind. Yomogi could hardly keep up. She was forced further back.

“You think you’ve got me, is that it ?! ” Yomogi yelled, thrusting her blade into the ground. Was she going to use that attack again?

No, she had other plans.

The eyeball-like decoration on the hilt of her sword opened its eyelid and shot a beam of light at us. I rushed forward to block the beam before it could hit anyone.

“Ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready!” Raphtalia shouted, jumping out from the shadows and slashing horizontally with her katana.

She looked really cool when she did it, appearing from the darkness behind Yomogi and brandishing her sword like that.

“Directional Blade of Heaven!”

Ying-yang patterned circles appeared around her. The swirling black and white pattern grew increasingly intricate and complex, then the spheres split in two. I hadn’t realized there were so many intricate details before. Had the attack changed? Or was this some kind of effect of the vassal weapon?

“Ya!”

Did she miss?

No—Yomogi used her sword to block the attack, filling the air around her with showers of sparks.

“Ugh . . . I’m not giving up so easily! If I give up now, I’ll never be able to face Kyo again!”

“Ew! Why would you even want to?”

“I’ll not have you insult Kyo!”

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Yomogi had been about to go after Raphtalia in retaliation, but my new insult had upset her so much that she turned to me instead, slicing at me with her sword. Of course, I blocked it with my shield, but something about her attacks felt different than last time.

“Hey, that sword of yours . . .”

The eyeball-like gemstone looked different than before. The eye was wide open. It looked wicked. I’m not saying that I had the abilities of a master craftsman, but something was definitely wrong. I felt like something terrible was coming, that we’d all be in serious trouble if we didn’t get rid of that sword as soon as possible.

“Your sword is going crazy! Get rid of it!”

“What? You suggest there are faults with Kyo’s masterful creation?”

I felt it when the blade was locked against my shield. It felt like a heartbeat. Was I imagining it? What was worse was it seemed to be speeding up. Faster and faster. It was like it was counting down to an explosion.

“I’m telling you—let that sword go!”

I didn’t care what happened to Yomogi, I just didn’t want to get caught up in an explosion.

“How stupid do you think I am? Put down my weapon when faced with enemies ?! ”

She was determined. She whipped around to dash at Raphtalia, ready to strike a killing blow. But then . . .

An ofuda flew across the room and hit her hand. Yomogi and I both looked down at it, then scanned the room to see where it had come from.

“Oh, I didn’t miss!”

Yes—Way to go Rishia! She sure was a good shot!

“What ?! ”

The ofuda stuck to her hand and burst into flames, forcing her to drop the sword.

Yomogi yelped, but it was too late. I ran to kick it across the room, but I was too late.

Something like a vine shot from the sword and wrapped itself around Yomogi’s arm.

“What the!” she shouted in shock, terrified, as if she hadn’t realized how strange her weapon had been until that very moment.

“Ughhhhh.”

The vine wrapped tighter around her wrist. It seemed to be sucking something out of her. Was it . . . Blood ? It must have been stealing her magic power too, and maybe even poisoning her as it did.

Yomogi glanced at me with bloodshot eyes, then hoisted the sword high over her head. “My body! It’s moving on its own!”

I raised my shield to block the attack, but she brought the blade down with so much power that the impact sent me sliding backwards.

Luckily, I was able to keep my footing, but if I hadn’t been lucky, she’d be slamming me into the ground by now.

The glowing light in the hilt of her sword was growing stronger.

“Drop it! Drop the sword!”

Realizing the danger, she used her free hand to try and pry her fingers from the handle. But the vines shot out and gripped her even tighter.

“Ugh . . .”

I didn’t like the look of this. It looked like it might explode at any minute.

I readied my shield to protect everyone from the coming blast. I thought about Yomogi too, but I couldn’t see a way to save her from what was coming. The only thing I could do was to protect my friends and try to limit the damage.

“Bait Lure!”

Kizuna hit the glowing sword with her lure and said, “Don’t give up yet!” as she turned her weapon into the tuna knife and prepared to attack.

“Blood Flower Strike!”

That was Kizuna’s favorite attack. It didn’t work against human opponents, but it was devastating for a monster. She sent the attack flying at the sword.

It was a powerful attack, but it wasn’t enough to destroy the sword, which was tougher than I had thought. Yomogi herself was unharmed, but the vines wrapped around her arm had been destroyed by Kizuna’s attack. She quickly dropped the sword.

“Yes! Good one!” I shouted, grabbing the sword where it lay.

It must have decided that I was its new target, because it shot more of its vine-like appendages at me.

Heh . . . I wasn’t dumb enough to fall for that. I wasn’t like Yomogi. I wouldn’t let myself be taken over by some kind of monster sword!

“Aaarrrggh!” I drew back and threw the sword with all my might. I sent it right out through the hole in the wall.

“I’ll follow up!” Glass shouted, sending another of her Circle Dance Attack Formation: Flower Wind attacks hurdling after the sword.

Her attack hit the sword while it was still in the air, and it went careening off into the sky.

That was a good hit. Did her attack have a homing ability?

Finally, the sword exploded in the air.

“I’m glad we got rid of it. It would have been bad if that thing had exploded in here.”

“I cannot believe that Kyo’s masterful invention would malfunction like this . . .” Yomogi muttered holding her wounded arm and wincing in pain.

“Well you don’t have a weapon anymore, so what are you thinking of doing now? It looks like that thing managed to sap a lot of your strength before we got rid of it.”

Did she think we were just going to let her run away?

“Before you think of running, I should let you know that we have the Hunting Hero with us, who is better at hunting than anyone. If you want to run, then go ahead. It will be hunting time.”

“You make me sound so evil when you put it that way,” Kizuna said.

“Don’t worry about it, Kizuna. He just enjoys threatening people,” Glass said.

I could go without her commentary, but she wasn’t exactly wrong either.

“Ahh . . . well, let’s leave that up to Mr. Naofumi, shall we?”

“Rafu.”

“That was some explosion. Oh look! The light is coming back to Master.

The light from the explosions fell like snow, slowly falling back toward me. What did it mean?

“So what’s next?”

We had better start by punishing this crazy person who came to kill us in the middle of the night. We could tie her up and torture her for information. She looked like she would just tell us the truth regardless though.

“Ugh . . . Kill me!” Yomogi shouted, raising her hands in the air.

“Fine, we’ll let that greasy old man take care of you. Raphtalia, wasn’t there a monster that looked like a pig demi-human around here? I think his name was Oak?”

“I’ll survive whatever torture you can think of!” she barked.

“Heh. Don’t go thinking that you’ll come out of this in one piece.”

“How do you ever think of these things?”

“Naofumi, you get all this from your otaku days, don’t you? Particularly from the ‘adult’ stuff,” Kizuna gave me the side eye. But, wasn’t that obvious?

Besides, it actually sounded like something Eclair would have said, like something she’d say to a prisoner.

“Anyway, your name is Yomogi, right? Well Yomogi, we’re going to tie you up now.”

And so we succeeded in capturing Kyo’s midnight assassin alive.

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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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