Chapter Two: Return to the Village
“Alright, I’ll be taking you back to the village as we finish the registrations, so everyone line up.”
The slave registrations were going smoothly. I took the slaves back to the village in groups using my portal skill as they were completed. Of course, we had to wait for the cool down to expire each time, so we were sitting around twiddling our thumbs a lot.
“It’s too bad you don’t have a more convenient teleport skill, Raphtalia.”
“I could use Scroll of Return.”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t do much good to send people to the dragon hourglass. Although, I guess we could have Filo pick them up and take them to the village from there.”
It had a similar cool down time, though. The same was true for Kizuna’s Return Dragon Vein. That reminded me . . . I guess Raphtalia could use Return Dragon Vein, too.
“By the way, I wonder where that seven star hero that’s supposed to be in Zeltoble went,” I mumbled.
I figured meeting up with Zeltoble’s seven star hero would be no problem with the queen, the accessory dealer, and the slave traders all backing me. But the hero had gone off somewhere and was out of the country. Searching for the hero was too much trouble, so I’d had a message sent asking the hero to return. I wasn’t sure if the hero had been summoned from another world or if it was someone chosen from this world, but this hero obviously didn’t think much of the holy heroes. Then again, thanks to those other three idiots, people had come to the conclusion that I was the only one that wasn’t a fake or just damaged goods.
“Still, at least we got to bind you to the hourglass here so that you can use Dragon Return Vein.”
“Yes. But it would have been nice if we’d been able to meet and talk with the hero, too, for the sake of the world.”
“Yeah.”
Talking with the seven star heroes to learn about their power-up methods would boost my own stats, if nothing else. At least, that’s what I’d hoped to see happen.
“Hey, little Naofumi. We’ve got some spare time, so how about you and I—”
“Portal Shield!”
I didn’t feel like dealing with Sadeena, so I went ahead and sent her back to the village before the next group of slaves. Her flirting was getting out of hand and I didn’t have the energy to put up with it right now.
“I can never tell if she’s being serious or just messing around,” I said.
“Sadeena never seems to be too serious about anything,” Raphtalia replied.
“Yeah, I know. You have no interest in pursuing romantic affairs before this world is peaceful, right Raphtalia?”
“R . . . right . . .”
We went on chatting while sending people back with my portal each time the cool down expired.
And then, finally, it came time to send Fohl and Atla back. Atla was still recuperating, but Fohl brought her over and laid her near where we were all waiting. After he got her situated, he brought her a jug of water.
“Thank you, Brother.”
“No worries. Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes. I feel very comfortable.”
“That’s good.”
“Mr. Naofumi . . . When will we be departing?”
Atla turned in my direction when she addressed me.
“It’s almost time.”
“Understood.”
“We should probably go ahead and give you one more dose of medicine.”
I changed my shield to the Spirit Tortoise Sacred Tree Shield and gave Atla another dose of the remaining Elixir of Yggdrasil. She had already gotten a lot better, but her condition seemed to improve even more.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
I shot Fohl a patronizing look.
“Gununu . . .” he grumbled.
Hmm . . . Was it just me or did something about the way he said that sound just like someone else? Whatever. He was going to have to work hard to pay for this medicine. He was supposed to have some real potential, so I wasn’t going to go easy on him. I’d work him like . . . a slave.
“Mr. Naofumi . . .”
Atla gripped my hand in hers.
“Please try to get along with my brother.”
“We get along fine! Right?!”
Fohl threw his arm around my shoulder like we were good buddies. What was up with that attitude? I couldn’t have him getting the wrong idea about our relationship.
“You too, Brother. This man is an extraordinary person.”
“I . . . I know that!”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Atla seemed exhausted. She returned to her resting position. The medicine was working, but it was clear she was still sick. It only made sense she would be exhausted.
“I’m feeling a bit sleepy.”
“The trip back to the village will be over in an instant. Then you can get plenty of rest.”
“We’ll all go fwoooosh and then we’ll be there! I prefer running, but this is fun, too, so I’m sure you’ll like it!”
Like always, Filo was terrible at explaining things, but I guess that was her way of describing my portal skill.
“The bird that pulls carriages is full of energy and . . . I sense a pure, untainted power within her. This bird . . . Her strength rivals even your own, does it not, Mr. Naofumi?”
Atla pointed in Filo’s direction. Impressive. Her description of Filo was spot-on. She may have been blind, but it was clear that she was still sensing her surroundings somehow.
“What is it, Master?”
“This new slave that I just bought—Atla—is blind, but she says she can still tell that you’re strong.”
“Tee hee hee. I got a compliment!”
“It’s clear that you spared no kindness in raising her, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Yup!”
Filo puffed up her chest feathers proudly when she responded. Kindness? Me being kind to Filo? What was this girl going on about?
And then the time had come.
“Okay, my portal cool down has expired. It’s about time we head back.”
“Understood. We finally get to return at last,” said Raphtalia.
“Yeah. That said, I’m going to have the slave traders continue to search for Lurolona slaves, so we’ll probably end up coming back to Zeltoble from time to time.”
“The prices have stopped rising, but slaves . . . claiming to be from Lurolona are still being traded at high prices, after all.”
I liked to think we had recovered the vast majority of them, but I couldn’t say for certain that there were none left to be found. That’s why we were continuing to search. It wasn’t very likely, but it was always possible that a few had escaped slavery to become mercenaries or something. There could be other slaves out there that Sadeena hadn’t been able to acquire. I never imagined that making certain none were left would be so difficult.
“Portal Shield!”
I used my skill to teleport us back to the village. I recognized the smell of the village instantly. It smelled like the sea. It was partly a fishing village, after all.
“So this . . . is Mr. Naofumi’s village.”
Despite being blind, Atla looked around the village.
“Can you see now?” I asked.
“No. But I can sense things . . .”
Sense things, huh? It was pretty impressive how little she seemed to be inhibited by her blindness.
“Anyway, you’re still sick. We’ll have you stay at the village infirmary. Fohl, take her to that building over there.”
I pointed at the building that we were using for the infirmary. We’d built it so that we would have a place to treat the slaves’ wounds.
“G . . . got it.”
Fohl put Atla on his back and began walking away.
“I’d like to talk with you again, Mr. Naofumi.”
“I’ll come check on you later, so just rest for now.”
“Understood. Let’s go, Brother.”
“Okay.”
Fohl eyed his surroundings nervously as he walked off toward the building with Atla on his back.
“Oh! Imiya!”
“Uncle! And everyone else, too!”
Imiya hugged her uncle, clearly happy to be reunited with family. I’d heard that her parents had been killed, so it was nice that she got to be reunited with her uncle.
It looked like the new slaves had already begun rekindling old friendships on their own. We’d just kicked off a little party at the village to welcome the new slaves. I decided to treat them all to some of my cooking for a bit of extra motivation. Before I knew it, the day had ended.
We began training the new slaves and monsters the next day. For the first few days, we just did a minimal amount of leveling while they got used to the village. I’d put Keel, Rishia, and Raphtalia in charge of the new slaves, and they were keeping them all busy with various tasks. Sadeena was helping level them, too. Despite how I felt about her at times, she was still ridiculously strong, after all. I’d heard that her group had been attacked by a bunch of monsters once and Sadeena had swiftly wiped them out with a magical attack.
Two days had passed since our return.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login