Chapter Ten: New Awakening
They didn’t serve meals at the inn we were staying at, so we took Motoyasu and went to the tavern to get something to eat. As soon as we entered the tavern, Motoyasu sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. He sipped away at the drink and stared at the counter. I guess that was what happened when someone who only thought about women ended up losing those women.
A slutty-looking girl approached Motoyasu.
“Care to join me for a drink?”
“Sorry, but I’d prefer to drink alone. Please leave me be.”
Yeah, he was broken. Didn’t he realize Witch had been that way from the start? Had he really believed in her that much?
Raphtalia, Filo, and I ordered a few meals and ate dinner. The portions were generous, and it was pretty good food for the cheap price. From the looks of it, a lot of the dishes used that red tomato-looking fruit from that village to the southwest. Filo was in good spirits after having a reasonably tasty meal, and she started singing along with the tavern bard.
“Sing one more for us, little miss!” someone called out.
“Sure! Nooo problem!”
Filo started really getting into it and was putting on a real performance. She did have a nice voice. Filo and the bard really hit it off and started singing some strange song that sounded like the theme song from an anime or something. I wondered if maybe it was a song she’d learned in Kizuna’s world.
Maybe I was just imagining it, but . . . something seemed strange about the expressions on the faces of the people in front of the stage. Actually . . .
“Mr. Naofumi, I once heard of a type of monster that sings songs that deceive sailors, causing them to wreck their ships.”
“What a coincidence. I was just thinking about that same monster. Maybe this is some kind of strange magical song that she learned while she was a humming fairy.”
She’d given us a glimpse of something similar during our fight at the coliseum in Zeltoble. Filo knew all kinds of different songs, and she seemed to be able to combine them with the bard’s songs to create something new altogether. Anyway, harpies, sirens, and other similar monsters used their beautiful voices to deceive others. The way everyone seemed lost in her singing with dreamy eyes reminded me of those monsters.
Before long, Filo finished singing and the air filled with cheers. The audience called out for an encore, but Filo must have had enough because she yelled out “nooo!” and ran off the stage. People were giving her bouquets of flowers in appreciation of her performance. Someone gave her some kind of vegetable that looked like a carrot, too. When Filo reacted more favorably to the edible item, everyone started to give her food. With her hands full of gifts, Filo went and sat down next to Motoyasu for whatever insane reason.
“What’s wrong? You’re usually a lot more energetic. This isn’t like yooou.”
That reminded me. Appearance-wise, Filo was Motoyasu’s type, apparently. He’d been throwing himself at her all the time, before he’d disappeared. I remembered him saying something about having a thing for angels, too. I’m sure it had to do with some character in a game that he fantasized about or something. Although, he was the kind of guy who already tended to think of women as angels in the first place.
“. . .”
He seemed incredibly annoyed as he glanced over at Filo before returning his gaze to the counter. So he was going to ignore Filo, too . . . despite having a thing for the way she looked? Yeah, he was broken, alright.
“It happens to me when I’m hungry. I start feeling tired. I’ll sing you a song that will make you feel better.”
Filo got back up on the stage and started singing. What happened to her not wanting to sing anymore? The song had a nice rhythm. But that made me think . . .
“Filo sure knows a lot of songs. Is it just me, or has her repertoire not expanded since the time she was a humming fairy?”
“It’s because we’ve traveled to so many towns all over Melromarc. She’s always liked singing, I think. Whenever we went to taverns, she was always listening attentively to the bards and learning their songs.”
Now that I thought about it, Filo always sang when she was in a good mood.
“The children in the village enjoy her singing, too. She was singing them lullabies recently.”
“Oh yeah. She was, wasn’t she? I remember her singing back at the village when she wasn’t staying the night with Melty.”
Filo faced Motoyasu and danced while she sang. Watching her even made me start to feel better. But why did something about it remind me of a sci-fi anime about shapeshifting aircraft? Huh? Who taught Filo this song? Was it Kizuna? Kizuna was a gamer, and she seemed like the type who would watch anime, too, despite being obsessed with fishing.
When she finished singing, Filo went back over to Motoyasu.
“Come on, just leave me alone, okay? I hate women right now.”
“Okaaay!”
Filo started digging around through the vegetables and flowers she’d been given.
“Eat this! It’ll help you be true to your usual desires!”
It almost seemed like she was toying with Motoyasu as she offered him one of the carrot-looking vegetables and a flower. I guess she was just being true to her own curiosity, though. Motoyasu was almost never downcast like this, so seeing him like that probably sparked her interest. The village children had shown a similar lack of ambition in the beginning, too. I’d just assumed Filo had overheard me complaining about having to get Motoyasu on board with things, so now she was trying to help out in her own way.
At least, that’s what I was thinking when Motoyasu looked over at Filo and started quivering.
“Waaahhhhhhh!”
Motoyasu suddenly embraced Filo and started crying.
“Ahhhhh!”
Filo let out an ear-piercing shriek. She started trying to wriggle her way out of Motoyasu’s embrace, but he must have been stronger than expected because she couldn’t escape.
“Wahhh! Waaahhhhh!”
Motoyasu was bawling his eyes out.
“Maaaster! Heeeelp!”
Filo looked like she was about to cry, too, as she reached out to me and called for help. How had things ended up like this?
“What were you thinking . . .” I asked her.
I started to make my way over to help Filo, who was struggling as Motoyasu pressed his face up against her chest while sobbing. I guess if Witch was no longer an option he’d just settle for Filo. But then again, he had openly admitted that he had a thing for the way Filo looked in her human form a long time ago.
“If you switch back to your filolial form, maybe it will surprise him and he’ll let go,” I suggested.
“O . . . okay!”
Motoyasu had been traumatized by her filolial form, after all. He wouldn’t come anywhere near Filo when she was in her monster form. Just like I suggested, Filo switched back to her monster form. But . . .
Sniff! Sniff!
“It’s Filo-chan’s scent!” Motoyasu was still holding on to Filo in her filolial form and now he was sniffing at her. Whoa! Talk about creepy!
“He won’t let go! Maaaster! He won’t let goooo!”
This was Motoyasu we were talking about here. He wasn’t letting go of Filo in her filolial form?! What was going on?! Then again, I had a pretty good idea of why. I figured I might as well say it.
“You whispered sweet nothings into his ear when he was depressed, so what do you expect? Now accept the consequences and take care of him!”
“Wait just a minute. By that logic, wouldn’t you be treating me the same way, Mr. Naofumi?”
“What in the world are you talking about, Raphtalia?!”
Raphtalia was obviously pretty mixed up, too. But then again, I’d basically indirectly ordered Filo to cheer Motoyasu up, so pushing the responsibility off on her wasn’t really fair. Actually, I’d tried flattering Ren, too, but it didn’t work. The fact that Witch succeeded pissed me off. I guess I was mixed up, too.
“Stooop!”
“Filo-tan! Filo-tan!”
Motoyasu started rubbing his cheek up against Filo’s face. Filo tried to use her superhuman strength to pull herself away from Motoyasu, but he was hugging her with all his might and remained stuck to her like an octopus. Her feathers looked like they were about to be ripped right off of her body. The pain must have been preventing her from using her full strength. Filo had a surprisingly low pain tolerance, after all.
“Heeelp!”
Now Filo was bawling and crying out for help. I wasn’t really sure what to do.
“Umm . . . Motoyasu . . .”
“Filo-tan!”
It was no good. He wasn’t listening. He obviously wasn’t hearing Filo, either. Motoyasu had finally cracked. Or maybe he had just discovered a new fetish. I guess he was fine with Filo in her filolial form now. What happened to the trauma from being kicked in the nuts?
“Maaasteeer!”
We were supposed to be taking Motoyasu with us, but it looked like that was no longer an option.
“If you can’t take responsibility for him then give him a mouthful and go get rid of him somewhere.”
“Okay!”
“That’s terrible! He’s not some pet monster that you can just throw away,” Raphtalia snapped.
“Motoyasu, if you’re feeling better, then that’s good enough for now. Have faith in the power-up methods that I told you about and do your best to power up your weapon!”
“Got it! Filo-tan!”
Filo dashed out of the tavern with Motoyasu still glued to her.
“Wha . . .”
Raphtalia’s voice conveyed a sense of dull bewilderment.
“So yeah . . . we’ll just save taking Motoyasu in for another time. He sure did recover from his suffering fast, though.”
Motoyasu the man-whore. He’d gotten ditched by Witch and the others, but got right back in the saddle and went after Filo . . . Filo was kind of like a horse . . . so that saddle bit was pretty witty, right? Right? Yeah, that was terrible.
“I have a feeling he went right past suffering into a whole new level of despair,” Raphtalia replied.
“I’ll just have Filo act like a bitch and I’m sure he’ll go back to normal. Once he’s being a little more rational she can just tell him she only approached him because she thought she might get a meal out of it or something.”
“Do you really think Filo can pull off a performance like that?”
Who knows? I figured it should be possible if I told her exactly what to say, but . . . I did still have my doubts. I sat there in silence for a moment, thinking, before finally coming to a conclusion.
“I’m sure it will work out one way or the other,” I said.
“I wonder . . .”
“It will . . . probably.”
I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about it all, but I’d feel guilty if I didn’t tell myself it’d be alright. Motoyasu was in good spirits now. He’d be fine. I was sure he’d be back out chasing some tail by this time tomorrow.
Filo took Motoyasu and threw him off the side of some cliff before coming back, by the way. She was unforgiving. She had several patches of feathers missing, too. I guess she’d literally risked her own life to get rid of him. I figured that was the end of that . . . until the next morning.
“Alright, we’re putting Motoyasu on hold for now. Let’s go give the queen an update and then head back to the village.”
It was a glorious morning without the usual onslaught of the sexual harassment corps back at the village. My stress levels were down, and I felt like I’d slept really well. But we had a lot to do today, so we needed to get to work.
“That sounds good,” Raphtalia replied.
“Master, I want to hurry up and go home . . .”
Filo begged me with a terrified look in her eyes. I guess she’d been traumatized by Motoyasu. Well, she’d hated him in the first place, so I guess it was just an extension of that. If she hated him so much, why had she gotten involved, anyway?
“Why did you even try to cheer him up? I mean, I have a feeling you were trying to help out, but still . . .”
“He seemed down, so I tried to cheer him up like I did with the village children.”
Sheesh . . . It had worked all too well in Motoyasu’s case. He was going to be a real hassle.
“Next time we see him, you say exactly what I told you and then give him the cold shoulder.”
“Okaaay!”
“Alright, I still have to make breakfast so let’s hurry back. Filo, we’re going to use my portal to go back. You take the carriage and meet us there.”
“Noooo! That spear guy is gonna show uuuup!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Not even Motoyasu—”
I opened the door to the room.
“Good morning, Father.”
I immediately slammed the door shut. Why was Motoyasu standing guard in front of our room? And he was talking nonsense on top of that. Why was he calling me father all of a sudden? I was pretty sure I didn’t have a son that was older than me. Besides, this was Motoyasu. There was just no way I could possibly be his father. I looked down and held my hand to my forehead.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“What’s wrong?” replied Raphtalia.
“Umm . . .”
I’d just woken up and my brain was still half asleep. I didn’t feel like explaining it to Raphtalia, so I stepped aside and motioned for her to open the door. Raphtalia cocked her head to the side in confusion and opened the door.
“What’s a tanuki pig doing in Filo-tan’s room?! Unacceptable!”
Jab!
“Ugh!”
Raphtalia rapidly thrust the hilt of her katana into Motoyasu’s stomach and closed the door. Tanuki pig? That certainly wasn’t a word I was expecting to hear first thing in the morning. That was just plain verbal abuse.
“Umm . . .”
Raphtalia mimicked my pose and nodded.
“Now I understand. What should we do?”
“How long has he been out there, anyway?” I wondered out loud.
“I thought I heard someone making noises outside earlier, but I never imagined it would be him out there waiting this whole time,” she replied.
“I heard some noises, too, but I just figured it was adventurers walking down the hallway. So that was Motoyasu . . .”
He seemed to be doing well for someone that had been thrown off a cliff.
“Filo.”
“Noooo!”
“If you don’t tell him what I told you to, he’s going to chase after you forever. Go tell him to power up his weapon properly and prepare for the waves.”
“Boo . . .”
Filo wrinkled her eyebrows discontentedly and opened the door.
“Oh! Filo-tan!”
Motoyasu tried to leap at Filo, but Raphtalia grabbed him by the ear and held him back.
“Let go of me, tanuki pig! I need to give Filo-tan a loving embrace!”
“. . .”
Raphtalia had a smile on her face, but she was emitting a dark and menacing aura. She signaled Filo with her eyes. What the hell was Motoyasu saying, anyway?
“Umm . . . I just approached you because I thought I could get a meal out of it. I think you misunderstood.”
“Love begins with misunderstandings, Filo-tan! Don’t worry, I’m willing to accept your selfish motives!”
“Noooo!”
He wasn’t going to budge. Our plan had been a failure. As I was standing there unsure of how to respond to the absurdity of the situation, Motoyasu turned in my direction and stared at me with a look of complete seriousness on his face.
“Father, I would like to ask for your blessing to be with your daughter.”
“I’m not anyone’s father!”
While it might have been true that I’d raised Filo, I sure didn’t remember fathering a daughter that transformed into big bird.
“Father, your daughter rescued me. She opened my eyes to true love. I promise to make her happy, no matter what. Please! Give me her hand!”
“I’m telling you I’m not her father! I may have raised her, but why should I have to give you her hand?!”
“Noooo! Master! Heeelp! Mel-chaaan!”
Now Filo was getting mixed up, too! Unfortunately for her, Melty wasn’t here with us.
“Don’t be ridiculous! She’s your daughter! What you’re implying is a crime, Father!”
“Were you even listening to me?!”
“You can try to gloss over it however you want, but that kind of relationship between a father and daughter is unclean, Father!”
“Oh, shut up!”
Raphtalia threw Motoyasu out of the room and closed the door. He was in worse shape than I’d imagined. He’d already cracked, but I had a feeling we’d gone and shattered him beyond all repair.
“Let me in, you tanuki pig! Release Father and Filo-tan!”
“Get ahold of yourself!” I yelled.
Motoyasu was banging on the door. My head was killing me . . . It’d been practically impossible to have a civilized conversation with Motoyasu before, but now it was like something in his brain had snapped. Motoyasu had switched into full-on stalker mode. Now what were we supposed to do?
As for the cause . . . it was undoubtedly because Filo had been kind to him. When people are driven into a corner, it’s easier than you would imagine for them to become obsessed with something or someone. It had been the same for me and Ren, too. I had no idea why the incident from yesterday affected Motoyasu like it did, but the end result was that Filo had saved him from a broken heart.
Now that I thought about it, Motoyasu had always been the type to get fired up about love and romance. But wait, judging from the way he was acting now, did that mean he was the kind of guy that liked to chase after girls instead of being chased? Actually . . . I couldn’t have cared less. Thinking about that would be a serious waste of time.
“You sure are being loud!”
I heard the voice of some female adventurer who had probably been trying to get some rest next door.
“Quit your squealing, pig! Get lost!”
“P . . . pig?! What’s your problem?!”
Motoyasu, the ladies’ man, was telling off a woman. She must have been pretty damned ugly. I was curious, so I cracked the door and peeked outside.
Motoyasu was standing there arguing with a fairly good-looking woman. I was pretty sure she was a dancer from the tavern. I could never have imagined the Motoyasu I knew doing something like this. Just what was going on up there in that head of his? I wondered what he saw now when he looked at Raphtalia or that woman. My curiosity had been piqued. Maybe he had been affected by some kind of curse.
“What should we do? We can’t leave with him out there like that,” said Raphtalia.
“Filo. Take responsibility and go drag Motoyasu—”
“Noooo!”
I wondered what we should do. Motoyasu didn’t seem like he was going to give up easily.
“Let’s just go out the window for now. We’ll explain the situation to the innkeeper and then run. As for the carriage . . .”
“U . . . understood.”
If we tried to go to the shed where the carriage was parked, I had a feeling Motoyasu would be expecting it and get there before us.
“My carriaaaage . . .”
Filo must have understood that, because her eyes were darting around worriedly. Motoyasu must have seriously had some kind of mental deficiency. Why had things ended up like this? It didn’t make any sense. Why the hell were we running from Motoyasu? Hadn’t it been the other way around yesterday?
“Motoyasu will notice if we make too much noise, so just forget about the carriage for now. We’ll come back for it when it seems safe!”
“Okay . . .”
Filo’s disappointment was apparent, but she nodded hesitantly. So she actually chose getting away from Motoyasu over her carriage? She must have seriously disliked him.
And so, just like that, we made our escape from the inn.
We used my portal and made our way to the castle. I wanted to give the queen an update on Witch. Filo was still looking around suspiciously.
“I’m sure you’d know if Motoyasu were here. You’re overreacting.”
“I knooow, but still . . . it’s like I can feel him nearby! Yuck!”
I don’t think she could have disliked him any more than she did now. Motoyasu going all gaga over her had only made things worse.
Still, even Motoyasu wouldn’t show up at the castle . . . probably. People would recognize him in the castle town, so it would be impossible to hide. He’d always relied on crystal balls and never actually studied magic, so I was pretty sure he didn’t have any new tricks up his sleeve. I doubt he could use magic to hide himself like Raphtalia could. Even if he could, Raphtalia would be able to sense him.
If he had a skill that allowed him to hide himself, then we wouldn’t be able to do anything about that. But judging from how he’d been acting so far, I had no doubt he’d just come charging at Filo like a naïve fool. Besides, he was probably still standing guard back at the carriage.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Boo . . .”
We headed to the throne room, where the queen was taking care of some official business. I told the queen about what had happened yesterday.
“Can you not do something about that witch daughter of yours? I wanted to kill her as soon as I ran into her.”
I was sure Witch was up to no good, so it was probably best to just put a bounty on her head and have her killed.
“Even so . . . I would like to recommend that she be brought in alive, if at all possible,” replied the queen.
Brought in alive after all of this? That didn’t seem fitting for someone with a bounty on her head.
“I wonder how that child made it across the border. The Spear Hero’s other companions were accompanied by their parents, so I can understand how they made it across, but her . . .”
“Considering what Elena and Motoyasu told us, there’s no doubt she crossed over from another country.”
I was sure someone would recognize Witch if she tried to cross at a border checkpoint. She was a former princess of Melromarc, after all. To get around that, she would have to . . . cross over the mountains, I guess. But Witch? She wasn’t the type to do anything that made her suffer. I couldn’t imagine her returning to Melromarc by such a crude method. Maybe she smuggled herself in. She could have hidden among some cargo. That one seemed possible, at least.
“Can you not use the slave curse to smoke her out?”
“I’m not sure how she’s managed to interfere with the curse, but . . . I haven’t been able to. There is another problem, as well.”
“What now?”
“The controlled area that was functioning as a prison for the country was damaged by the Spirit Tortoise attacks. I’ve been informed that the vast majority of the criminals were killed by the attacks, but . . .”
“But what?”
“It is possible that there were survivors.”
“Hmm . . .”
That meant the country’s criminals could be alive and on the run. I guess that did sound like a problem.
“This is just my intuition, but I have a feeling there’s a connection with that child’s shenanigans. Many of the government officials that had ties with the Church of the Three Heroes were sent there after being dismissed following the incident with you.”
Hold on. That meant that those people were on the run, right? That was a major problem. And now that scum was hiding out in Melromarc, huh? I guess finding out about it before anything major happened counted for something, though. It seemed like I was always suddenly getting caught up in some nonsense without any warning, which made it hard for me to keep up. It was nice to hear about something ahead of time for once.
But yeah, there was almost certainly a connection between that and Witch. The Church of the Three Heroes was probably involved in getting her across the border.
“Can we just kill that woman already, no questions asked?”
“I’d like to avoid that, if at all possible . . .”
The queen must have made the same connection I did.
“If we take her alive, we can force her to expose her connections with the remnants of the church,” she suggested.
“I see . . . Then get as much information as you can so that we can capture her.”
“Of course.”
“Are criminals not given slave curses?”
“They are, but the guard that had ownership died in the Spirit Tortoise attacks.”
Ah, that made sense. The person that had the authority to punish them was no longer alive. What a mess.
“There was another reason I wanted that child captured alive, originally.”
“What’s that?”
“Specifically, I intended to use her as a means to avoid war. Let’s just say it involves choking back my tears and offering her as a sacrifice.”
A sacrifice, huh? I guess that was why Witch didn’t show up at the castle. But no . . . the queen wasn’t evil. If Witch hadn’t caused so much trouble, I’m sure things could have been settled more amicably. That much was clear from the way the queen was always humoring me.
“But succumbing to such a fate is something that child hates the idea of from the bottom of her heart. Indeed, to avoid it, she would thrash around in refusal, plead with me, and even run away without looking back. Grouping with one of the heroes exempted her from that punishment.”
“Oh? In other words, she voided the exemption herself.”
What an idiot. She should have just stayed quiet and kept her fangs sunk into Motoyasu.
“The details would make any noble female want to commit suicide. In other words, it’s a punishment worse than death.”
Hmm . . . I kind of wanted to know what the punishment was, but at the same time I felt like it was probably better not to know.
“This was the most effective threat I had to use against that child. It looks like it will no longer simply be a threat now, though.”
“Whatever. Fine, let’s make the bounty for ‘dead or alive,’ but you can specify ‘alive if possible’ and make the bounty bigger if they bring her in alive.”
“I suppose there is no other choice. As you wish, Mr. Iwatani. It’s the least I can do as a mother, as well. We shall stop her before she causes any more trouble.”
The queen nodded and then gave the order to one of her subordinates. And so Witch became a criminal, wanted dead or alive. The problem was that she was with Ren now. I just had to hope he didn’t go on a rampage and end up being made the leader of some opposing power or something.
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