Chapter Eight: Children of the Sea
Several more days passed.
“Ahahaha!”
The slaves were climbing on the bioplant like it was a tree. They’d all reached around level 30, and their growth had begun to plateau a bit. The thing was . . . For whatever reason, almost all of them looked like they were around 14 or 15 years old. They still looked a bit younger than Raphtalia. Was this the age that they became fit for battle?
I thought they might end up being a bit more attractive, but they were all pretty average. Maybe compared to other kids . . . but none of them could hold a candle to Raphtalia. It almost made me wonder if maybe they weren’t getting enough to eat.
Keel was probably the only boy among them that you could call attractive. He almost looked a bit girlish, but I guess you could call him handsome. Actually, I suppose it was rude to say this about a boy, but if you imagined a cute girl with boyish looks, that would give you a good idea of his appearance.
That mole-type therianthrope—his name was Imiya or something like that—seemed to have come out of his shell a bit. He and Keel had been running around together and the two were getting along well.
“Hey, Bubba Shield! I’m tired of meat and vegetables. That’s all we’ve had to eat lately!”
“Stop acting spoiled!”
Keel was starting to act overly familiar with me lately. I could come down hard on him, but I didn’t feel right scolding him, since he wasn’t slacking off.
I guess it was because they felt more comfortable with me now, but more of the kids had started telling me all about their time as slaves. They always finished it up with a thank you. I was glad that morale was high, but still . . .
“We’ll go to the ocean and catch some fish, so you can cook them up for us, bubba!”
“I don’t remember ever becoming your bubba!”
Now Keel was just being plain cheeky. Maybe it was time for a good chewing out, after all. I could accept “Bubba Shield,” but just plain “bubba” wasn’t going to fly. But he showed no sign of stopping.
“Ahh . . . if only Sadeena were here, we could be having seafood every day!”
Oh? Raphtalia had mentioned that name before, too. I think she mentioned she was an aquatic therianthrope. She must have really taken care of everyone, because it wasn’t just Raphtalia—pretty much all of the kids originally from this village mentioned her from time to time. This was a good chance to find out what kind of character she was.
“Raphtalia. I know you mentioned her before, but just who is this Sadeena?”
“Sadeena was a fisher by trade. She also took first or second place for the strongest fighter in the village.”
“Oh? In that case, she must have fought in the wave and . . .”
My voice trailed off as I was about to say “died.” It made sense that she would have fought in the wave, and that meant the likelihood that she had died in battle was high.
“If Sadeena had been here, I’m sure we would have been able to fight off the enemies from the wave and the slave hunters, too, bubba.”
“Hold on, now. She’s that strong?”
“No doubt! I’ve never seen Sadeena lose a fight. From what I’ve seen, I’d say she’s stronger than that knight lady, too!”
Stronger than Eclair? That would make her a real force to be reckoned with. But if that were true, then it prompted a rather large question.
“Then why was your village destroyed when the wave came?”
“Well . . . Sadeena was far out at sea fishing with the other village fishers at the time.”
That made sense. So she wasn’t around when the wave hit. Not to mention, when the waves occurred, things got wild all over the place and I’m sure the ocean had been no exception. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but there was a good possibility she had died in the aftermath. Assuming someone that strong had survived, I’m sure they would have returned to the village.
Keel and the others may have enjoyed talking about Sadeena, but it was probably best not to continue this conversation, even though I was the one that started it.
“Come on, bubba! Can’t we go down to the ocean?”
“Hmm . . . Do you really want to eat fish that bad?”
Perfect—a chance to change the subject.
“I want to eat fish that you cook, bubba!”
“That’s what I want to eat, too!”
“Me too!”
It was like a bunch of Filos had been mass-produced. Thank goodness I hadn’t decided to hatch even more filolial eggs.
“Fine. We’ll go see what kind of seafood we can catch today. While we’re at it, Filo can go swimming and hunt some monsters.”
“Okaaay!”
And so I ended up taking the slaves to the ocean. It had gotten warmer lately anyway. So it was good weather for a dip in the ocean. The kids that had grown up here would be familiar with the ocean, so I was pretty sure they would know how to swim.
After walking for a bit, we arrived at the beach.
“Wheee!”
The slaves all took everything but their underwear off and started jumping into the ocean excitedly with fishing spears in hand.
“Rafu!”
Oh? There went Raph-chan, too, running toward the water excitedly. I wondered if I should use the familiar power-up function to raise her aquatic aptitude. I wouldn’t have minded seeing her spin her tail like a propeller to swim.
I was thinking about Raph-chan when I noticed we had a little problem.
“Filo! Grab Keel!”
“Huh? Okaaay!”
“Wha?! What are you doing?!”
Filo turned into her filolial form and grabbed Keel just as he was about to jump into the ocean. He was floundering about between Filo’s wings, having suddenly been snapped up unexpectedly.
“What’s the idea, bubba?!”
“We have a problem. We’re going to have to completely rethink how you should be handled.”
“What does that mean?!”
The other slaves noticed the commotion and were looking our way. It looked like they had caught on to what was happening. Imiya, who had Raph-chan on his shoulder, approached Keel and asked.
“Keel-kun . . . or should it be Keel-chan?”
“Rafufuuu?”
“Huh? What does that mean? I’m a boy!”
Keel’s chest was wrapped in a sarashi cloth, and down below he was wearing . . . a loincloth? Raphtalia walked over and reached her hand out toward Keel’s crotch, as if that were something normal to do. She was acting more and more unpredictable lately.
“Keel, do you know the difference between a boy and a girl?”
“Huh?”
“Well, you see . . . boys have . . .”
Raphtalia whispered something into Keel’s ear.
“That’s ridiculous. If I were god, I sure wouldn’t make being a boy or girl that complicated.”
“Look at the other boys. No, look at Mr. Naofumi. You see differences, right? His chest is flat, isn’t it?”
“What’s your point? That thing down there doesn’t grow out until you’re an adult, and my chest is just a bit swollen. It should heal soon.”
Grow out? The kid had quite the imagination. Just what kind of home environment had Keel grown up in before becoming a slave?
I started to envision one of those little girls who talks like a boy. And then an image of Kizuna popped into my head, raising her hand, saying, “You called?” “Sorry, but no one called for you,” I yelled back at the imaginary Kizuna and told her to go away. She disappeared after telling me how mean I was.
Kizuna was no doubt that type, but at least she knew that she was a girl. How on earth did Keel not notice during her time as a slave? Maybe it didn’t really matter either way? Or maybe the slave trader that sold her kept quiet about it to make her more appealing to a certain kind of twisted clientele?
This country was rotten, after all. There was certain to be plenty of trash with depraved fetishes. Those kinds of perverts would consider someone like Keel a rare find, so they’d probably be willing to pay a hefty fee. That despicable nobleman that we fought had apparently gotten off on abusing children. Then again, all the slaves showed signs of abuse. A sadistic streak was probably something that all of the slave owners shared.
“But . . . but dad used to say that if a boy considered himself a man, then he was a man no matter what anyone else said.”
He meant a man of the sea, right? Like a sailor or fisherman? So that’s how it was. Daughter wanted to be like daddy and ended up not knowing the difference between a boy and a girl. Actually, the fact that he even said something like that was probably his way of telling her she was a girl.
“I thought Keel was a really cool boy . . . but I guess she was a girl all along.”
“I still think she’s great. Gender doesn’t matter!”
The slave girls were whispering to each other excitedly. I knew girls really went for the whole pretty lady dressed like a man thing, but a girl that wanted to be a man of the sea?
“Come on . . . What’s the point in differentiating between boys and girls in the first place?! It doesn’t make any sense!”
Keel’s gender identity had been shaken to its foundations and she didn’t know how to react.
Hmm? Was that Filo jumping in . . . ? Why was she intervening now?
“Well, you see . . . the reason that animals are divided into males and females is so that they can mate. Also . . .”
Filo answered the confused Keel. She went on to eloquently describe the role of man and woman, dressing it all up in rich, luscious language—not as a simple fact of life, but as a sweet, romantic ritual that bordered on the realm of art.
I looked straight at Raphtalia, but she shook her head violently. Was it Rishia, then? I looked over at Rishia, and she screamed, “It wasn’t me!” Filo was terrible at explaining things, so the fact that she could go into so much detail meant that someone had to have told her all of this. That left Kizuna’s group. It must have been L’Arc, considering what a lecher he was.
“Why do you know so much about this? Did L’Arc tell you?”
“Nuh-uh. I’ve always known.”
Genetic memory? Surely not . . . I bet Filo had done the dirty with some wild male filolial. She must have learned about it then. Or maybe it was when she had been a humming fairy.
“Master’s thinking something weeeird!”
Filo protested, a tinge of mortification in her voice. Get over it. Anyway, I’d have to keep an eye out to see if she laid any eggs.
“Boo!”
Her complaining was getting annoying lately.
“Rafu?”
“You don’t need to worry about that kind of thing, Raph-chan. I’m not letting any boys run off with you.”
“Why are you talking to Raph-chan like you’re her father, Mr. Naofumi?”
“Say it to meeee, too!”
Ha! Not likely. You can run off and get hitched with Melty for all I care!
As we were going back and forth, I noticed that everyone still present, including Raphtalia, was turning red with embarrassment. The boys had all jumped into the ocean and still hadn’t returned. Were they okay?
“No . . . no way! There’s no way I’m going to do anything like that! I would never do that with bubba!”
“Why does it have to be me doing the doing?”
Stop making it sound like I bought and raised you to be a sex slave! God dammit. Now I was annoyed. This was why I hated little brats that thought about nothing but the opposite sex.
“Enough of this stupid conversation. We have a new rule now. Relationships are forbidden!”
“What?!”
The slaves protested. A rule is a rule, and nothing they said would change that. I needed fighting power, not a solution to declining birth rates. I didn’t have time to look after a bunch of new parents and all the little brats they were popping out. Besides, we only had three and a half months! There wasn’t even time to pop anything out!
“You can waste your time on that kind of rubbish when your world is peaceful and I’m gone.”
“Why?!”
“Why? You know why! Because I hate that kind of stuff! Plus, Raphtalia hates it, too!”
“Raphtalia does?!”
“What?!”
Now even Raphtalia was reacting for some reason. Ah . . . She didn’t want me bringing her up. Fine, I get it.
“I’m here to fight the waves, and I plan on taking any of you that are willing to come to fight them with me.”
“What?! You mean the waves of destruction?!”
“That’s right. I was summoned here to put an end to the same waves that stole your families from you. If you’re willing, I’ll take you to fight, too.”
I planned on getting more slaves, and I wanted to form several different divisions.
“But first we’ll have to face a monster called the Phoenix.”
After that had been taken care of, I would form a combat division consisting solely of those that wanted to fight, ideally. Not everyone was meant for battle, after all.
Keel grew quiet for a moment and then finally responded in a sulky manner.
“Well, apparently I’m a girl, so I guess that rules me out, doesn’t it?”
“Huh? Not even close. Take a look at the company I keep, why don’t you?”
I pointed to Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia.
“Huh . . . Now that I think about it, they’re all girls! That whole thing about hating relationships was a lie, wasn’t it?!” Keel snapped.
What was she so upset about?
“Seriously . . . Do you want to participate, or don’t you? Which is it?”
“Relationships are forbidden?! How can you say that when you’ve surrounded yourself with girls?!”
“It wouldn’t bother me a bit if Raphtalia were a guy.”
“Huh?!”
“What?!”
“What about meeee?”
“A male filolial would be just fine.”
“Boo!”
What were they getting upset about? I guess it was time this group of knuckleheads had a lecture.
“Gender equality means that you’re treated the same whether you’re a boy or a girl. If you can be of use, I’ll use you equally, regardless of which you are.”
“I get it. Bubba Shield swings both ways. Ultimately, you don’t even need to be human,” one of the slaves muttered quietly.
Where did they learn this stuff?
“Umm, no . . .”
“Huuuh? What does ‘swing both ways’ mean?”
So Filo didn’t know that one, eh? Maybe the whole genetic memory thing was possible, after all. Wait a second . . . you don’t need to be human? Was that supposed to mean Raph-chan and Filo?
“Umm . . . It’s something I heard when I was being sold.”
“We don’t need an explanation! In any case, I can’t have any of you starting relationships and ending up unable to fight. So relationships are forbidden!”
Aside from Keel, the slaves all nodded hesitantly, as if they weren’t quite convinced.
“Wait, so if I work hard then I can fight, too?”
“Yeah. But thinking about it down the road, after the fighting has ended . . . Actually, you’d probably be a hit with all the creeps that go for that kind of thing, so we’ll have you learn to peddle goods.”
“What?! Why!?”
“You’re one of the better-looking slaves here, and you’re not shy. You’d do well peddling stuff, I’m sure.”
“I . . . I would? No! I don’t wanna!”
“Don’t worry. Just be yourself. People are even tougher to deal with than monsters. You’ll enjoy it!”
“Coming from you, Bubba Shield, that only makes it scarier!”
Was it something I had done? Having Keel in the vending division seemed like a good idea. If I dressed her like a boy and had her sell accessories or something, I bet the female customers would love it. And then if I paired her with Raphtalia, we could take everyone’s money, man or woman.
“By the way, Keel . . .”
“What?”
“The reason you were being rebellious toward me in the beginning is because you had a thing for Raphtalia, right? It’s too bad you’re a girl. But then again, no one is going to end up pregnant and unable to fight if it’s a same-sex relationship, so maybe I should allow those?”
Before the Spirit Tortoise incident, Keel had been a bit on edge around me. She was always glaring at me and going on about Raphtalia this and Raphtalia that.
“Wh . . . what?! You’ve got it all wrong! Don’t be ridiculous!”
Keel started trembling for some reason. She was looking over at . . .
“Mr. Naofumi . . .”
Raphtalia was walking in my direction with a big smile on her face and eyes aflame with murderous intent. Hmm . . . I guess this kind of topic was off limits, after all.
“And that’s that. Now get out there and see what you can catch, everyone!”
“Okay!”
After it had been a while, Keel and the others returned. “Bubba Shield! We caught all of this!” An ecstatic-looking Keel came over with a net full of fish and shellfish in her hands.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I already had the griddle nice and hot. All that was left was to clean the fish and cook them up.
“I’ll make some sashimi, since I learned how in Kizuna’s world.”
Raphtalia started preparing sashimi to go with my cooking. Parasites could be a problem, but everything looked fine, as far as I could tell, using my appraisal skills. And so, just like that I ended up cooking again today. Seriously, enough with the cooking already!
Oh yeah! It was about time to hatch the monster eggs. We had built up a pretty good supply of food. That shouldn’t be a problem.
“We’re heading back after everyone finishes eating.”
“Okay!”
Just past noon, we all left the ocean behind and returned to the village. I wanted to hatch the monster eggs before anything else. I’d already finished binding them to myself yesterday, for the most part. I checked on the eggs, which were lined up in a row in the shed that we were using as a storeroom.
“What are you doing, bubba?”
“We’ve built up a reasonable stockpile of food, right? Now it’s time to get ready to move on to the next stage of my plans.”
“Oh.”
“The only thing I’m worried about is . . . the filolial.”
They were great for pulling carriages, but that appetite . . . Thinking about having two bottomless pits around made me uneasy.
“Meeee?”
Filo had her head cocked to the side while asking.
“Not you. The new filolial egg.”
“Filo’s going to have a new little brother or sister?”
“Yaaaaay!”
She was so boisterous. She looked like she could be in middle school, but she acted like a child. Then again, I guess she was.
“I guess that is how you would classify it . . .”
“Master, do you not want the new filolial to be like me?”
Filo had asked a difficult question. Depending on how I answered, she might think that she was unwanted.
“I want a monster that will pull a carriage and act as a means of transportation. I don’t want a bottomless pit.”
“Hmm . . . It should be okay, I think.”
Filo’s answer prompted me to look her way.
“If Master doesn’t want it to, I’m pretty sure it won’t be like me.”
Filo’s cowlick was pointing in the direction of the filolial egg, twitching. What was happening? Was she doing something?
“This will be one of my underlings, right?”
Underling!? Well . . . I guess from Filo’s perspective, all normal filolials were her underlings.
“Okay then. I’ll make it so that it doesn’t turn out like me. We can’t be certain, if we leave it up to you.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yup!”
Filo touched the filolial egg and channeled her magic into it.
“Now it won’t turn out like me unless I order it to.”
“Oh, umm . . . thanks.”
I couldn’t help but feel a bit like we had just snipped away at the potential of this soon-to-be-born life, but this place would never be quiet with more than one Filo around, so I guess it had to be done. Depending on how this little experiment went, I might be able to put Filo in charge of raising the filolial.
A few moments later, the eggs began to hatch.
“Peep!”
The first was a filolial chick. It looked kind of purplish. Next were two caterpillars. So these would be able to pull carriages when they got bigger, huh? They were called caterpillands. I tried absorbing a piece of the shell into my shield, but nothing happened. After that came three earthworm-looking monsters called dunes. Were these the ones that would work the land?
I set some basic restrictions for the monsters.
“There you have it. Now, all of you, take these things out and level them up!”
“Okay!”
They put the monsters in a big box and all carried it out to the carriage together, like a bunch of kids that had just gotten their parents to buy them pets. The filolial chick was sitting on top of Filo’s head and happily chirping away, despite having just been hatched.
How did I end up in another world playing daddy to a bunch of kids? I couldn’t let it get to me. I just had to keep telling myself that this was all an investment that would pay off when the waves came.
“Oh, another thing . . .”
“What?”
“I’ll be forming divisions to take care of cooking and other small tasks soon, so if any of you are interested in learning how to cook, speak up. Preferably, anyone that isn’t comfortable fighting and would rather avoid it.”
Raphtalia had started helping out with the cooking lately, but it was still just too much.
“I’d like to.”
“Me too.”
One of the girls and the therianthrope named Imiya got out of the carriage.
“You sure?”
I was pretty sure the girl was one of the slaves that Raphtalia had brought to ask for a midnight snack. As for Imiya, he was a therianthrope covered in fur from head to toe. I could just imagine someone complaining that his fur would get in the food. I couldn’t put him in the cooking division, but maybe I could assign him to some other task. He was supposed to be good with his hands. Maybe he had already figured out something else he wanted to do.
“Yeah. I . . . I like cooking. Fighting isn’t really . . . isn’t for me . . .”
“Okay then. It’ll be tough, but do your best.”
I looked at Imiya.
“Umm . . . Those small tasks . . . I . . . I want to do those . . .”
“Alright. I’ll train you both bit by bit, but you’ll still have to level up, too, so don’t think you can get out of that.”
“I know.”
Imiya and the girl nodded and stood by my side.
“We’ll be back.”
Raphtalia waved to us.
“Okay! Off you go!”
“Don’t worry about me, Raphtalia.”
“Huh?”
The girl that had joined the cooking division mumbled as she waved back. What was she saying?
“Okay?”
“I’m not worried!”
Huh? Oh, I get it. He might try to intimidate us, but I’m not scared, so don’t worry. That’s what she meant.
“Okay, we’ll be back!”
“Here we goooo!”
The carriage rattled off into the distance.
“Now then. You two give me a hand.”
“Okay!”
I set about teaching them how to cook and take care of other miscellaneous tasks.
“Bubba Shield, you’re good with your hands.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah! You’re really good at cutting up fish and monsters!”
Being told that didn’t feel bad at all.
“My shield has mysterious powers that make things taste better, so I can’t really take the credit. When you’re cooking, think about the flavor of your . . . parents’ cooking, and try to recreate that.”
“Okay! I’ll teach you how to make something I like, Bubba Shield.”
Flavor of your parents’ cooking . . . I kind of stepped on a landmine with that one, but she’d replied with a smile on her face. I guess it was fine as long as she was smiling.
All said and done, I ended up being the one being taught something new, but whatever.
“Is this how you’re supposed to cut the jewel?”
“Yeah. That’s pretty good for your first time.”
Considering that Imiya’s demi-human type made him naturally good with his hands, I decided to teach him what I knew about compounding medicines and making accessories.
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