Chapter Four: Tailwind
In the subsequent days, leaders and others in authority from the surrounding settlements came to ask to join our forces. It seemed they agreed that freeing a sealed monster in order to drive us out was indeed going too far.
Of course, those in power tried to explain it away by saying that the seal simply broke on its own due to our arrival. But due to the Heavenly Emperor placing blessings on the monsters, and his order not to harm living creatures, such claims were met with distrust.
Some did still believe them, however, and came looking for a fight. When they saw the filolial Filo at the head of the revolutionary forces, however, their morale drained away and they posed no threat.
“Master, they are all just running away again,” Filo said.
“I noticed.” I hadn’t been sure about it myself, to start with, but it seemed there were all sorts of myths and legends in Q’ten Lo, and we were taking good advantage of them. Filo’s presence seemed to act as some kind of test of faith.
“Rescue the divine bird from capture by the heathens!” some of them shouted.
“Oh? Looks like some of them have a bit of energy after all,” I commented.
“I’ll do my best!” Filo offered brightly.
“Let’s do this!” Some enemies still did charge in, but it also meant they were now divided between two purposes—to take Raphtalia’s life and to capture Filo.
For her part, Raphtalia was now capable of disposing most of the blessings relating to the sakura stones of destiny. When we did encounter those blessed with Astral Enchant, she was able to use her Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny and immediately shut them up. Looked like they’d give out blessings to any old weakling.
So things were going well. The revolutionary forces were expanding apace, made possible, most likely, by the ready acceptance of the people for a new Heavenly Emperor. It only helped matters that the reputation of the current Heavenly Emperor was in the dirt, what with continued releasing of monsters sealed close to points we advanced along. We had fought numerous other sealed monsters already. Defeating them always provided some kind of weapon. Of course, these weapons were also always cursed.
Taking stock, at that point in time, we’d already found the sword, some claws, a spear, and an ax. Just how many of these things had been sealed away, honestly! We’d even taken to sending scouts ahead to capture the ones trying to break the seals.
Things among the Heavenly Emperor’s forces were falling apart, seriously. It made me feel like asking whether they really cared. As for why the enemy was trying to capture Filo—
“Master. Why do they want to come for me?” she asked.
“Ah, that’s because one of the animals the Heavenly Emperor we’re facing wants to protect is the filolial, and the sakura lumina is a symbol of national power.”
“So?” That wasn’t enough for Filo to quite grasp the concept. I needed to try and explain things in more detail.
“So, Filo, both your race and the pattern on your body are important symbols to this country. Indeed, they have divine connotations. That means, the deeper the faith of those we fight, the harder it is for them to fight you.” Like the family crest animals from the Edo period in Japan—I was thinking of dogs, for some reason, but something like that. Yeah, my Japanese history sucked too.
What this meant overall, then, was that the more loyal our opponents were, the harder it was for them to try and hurt Filo.
“Hmmm. They want me? I don’t want to be put on display again!” It looked like Filo had finally worked it out, and the trauma from her experiences in Kizuna’s world was coming back to haunt her.
“It’s fine. Even if they do get you, they aren’t going to treat you badly. Not at all.”
“Really?”
“That said, if you do get captured, you won’t be able to see Melty.”
“No!”
“Anyway, Filo. Stay in filolial form for a while, if you can. In this nation, that’ll make almost as large a contribution as Raphtalia in her miko outfit.”
“Which means what?” Raphtalia asked.
Well, that we had to make use of it. No choice there. It would be interesting to see just how deep a grave the Heavenly Emperor would dig for himself. Apparently this whole protection order had started with his obsession with filolials. Dogs in Japan, bizarre bird creatures here. Seemed legit.
And so our progress continued. Until—
“Finally caught—”
“Hey, it’s been a while.”
S’yne joined up with us.
We had met S’yne in Zeltoble, the land of merchants and mercenaries. She was a vassal wielder from a different parallel world to this one. The world she originated from had apparently already been wiped out, and so she was now riding the waves, that terrible disaster that links all parallel worlds, from world to world. I had requested that she check out Siltvelt along with Wyndia and that group, because she had detected the scent of a certain force there with which S’yne was fatefully opposed.
I’d also left her in charge of the village, just in case.
I kind of remembered her mentioning she would come if we needed her —but she had likely been blocked by the barrier and unable to transfer in. I’d felt a bit bad about it myself.
Then S’yne grabbed onto me.
“W-what do you think you’re playing at?”
“Yes! Hands off! Hugging of Master Naofumi isn’t allowed!” Raphtalia and Atla both vented in surprise.
S’yne had taken something of a liking to me.
However, perhaps due to the damage to her vassal weapon when her world was wiped out, her voice had strange skips mixed into it and so she couldn’t communicate well. So we had attached a tool with a translation function from one of her foes to a familiar doll and used that to converse with her.
Perhaps the familiar also contained a pseudo-personality, because it spoke pretty fluently.
The familiar had started out looking like Raph-chan and Sadeena in her therianthrope form, but after I complained that a Raph-chan that spoke normally was just freaking me out, it had been remade into a doll of Keel’s therianthrope form and now talked like that.
It was more polite than the girl it was based on too.
I wondered what that mischievous little puppy was getting up to back in the village.
The original Raph-doll, by the way, ended up in pride of place in my room. Just in case you were wondering.
In any case, S’yne just wanted to protect me, and she’d developed a habit of showing up even when the timing wasn’t that great.
“Calm down, both of you,” I offered to the still prickling girls before turning to S’yne. “But however did you get here?” Raphtalia was fastidious and Atla jealous, after all. I needed to calm them and then talk to S’yne. In the least, transfer-type skills couldn’t get into Q’ten Lo, this nation so closed off from the outside world, and I’d left Siltvelt and the village under her protection.
“You take so many risks—”
“You take so many risks, Mr. Iwatani, so we arranged for a ship in Siltvelt.”
“Ah, so the ship following ours arrived?”
“Yes.”
“This time—” “This time, she wishes to aid in defending you.”
“Somehow things have kept coming up, haven’t they?”
That said, it was thanks to S’yne that we made it close to Siltvelt using a transfer skill. That was a big point in her favor. Without that, we’d probably only just be rolling up into Siltvelt around now. That had saved us so much time. She’d really done more than enough, overall.
For S’yne, though, that clearly wasn’t enough.
“Well then, now S’yne has caught up—” The issue was, to be honest, we weren’t really having that tough a time of it anymore.
Raphtalia was now capable of shutting down the enemy’s blessings, after all, and the sakura stone of destiny weapons gave some leeway in nullifying their enhancements. We just needed to carry on like this and we were going to win.
“Yet she still wants to protect you.” Hmmm. She really was showing serious devotion. I guess I could keep her close until she was satisfied. Although she could only transfer herself, I’d taken advantage of her ability to get around so easily numerous times too.
“Okay, I’m sold. You can protect me for as long as you like.”
“Very well—”
“She offers her agreement.” I’d had this thought before, but even though she skipped, S’yne was quite the chatterbox. From her appearance, I first thought her more the brooding type, but it looks like I was wrong.
“Hmmm, the scent of a powerful enemy.”
“Are we about to get ambushed?” I turned to look at Atla, as it seemed she had sensed something.
“I’m talking about this new rival for your affections, Master Naofumi.”
“Who? S’yne” S’yne herself was tilting her head in puzzlement. Looked like that wasn’t the case.
In any case, we met back up with S’yne and continued our conquest of Q’ten Lo.
As we expanded our territory, we also found the time to go hunting.
Of course, our primary objective was, what? To increase public security, I guess?
“Q’ten Lo really does have a unique ecosystem. The experience from hunting here is pretty good,” I commented. Monsters seeking to do harm to the people were attacking villages, but they couldn’t be turned back. They were expanding their habitat, and that space also had to be reclaimed—but with the order against harming living creatures, it also wasn’t possible for people to hunt them. Talk about an illogical mess. Were they managing to hunt some of them away from the watchful eyes of those in charge? When I asked about that, I was told that a culture of informants and betrayal had been lovingly fostered, and taking the risk just wasn’t worth it.
Therefore, the forces that joined our side were being sent to hunt monsters and then providing some of the defeated monsters to us as materials. The monsters in Q’ten Lo were quite like traditional Japanese spirits: sickle-wielding kamaitachi and eldritch foxes. Stuff like that.
“You know, you’re right.” Sadeena’s lightning wiped them out in seconds, making this a smooth and simple process, but they did provide plenty of experience. In terms of strength, they could probably be beaten at around level 50 without hero enhancements, but the obtained experience was equal to that from much stronger monsters. In game terms, this was an efficient grinding spot.
“They aren’t that different from the monsters fought at sea,” Sadeena commented.
“Really?” I hadn’t done much offshore fighting, but that did remind me; after Sadeena’s level had been reset, she went alone to the sea and had raised her level considerably.
“If you want, I can give you some special tutelage, little Naofumi, just one on one. Not the first time I’ve made such an offer.”
“Yeah, I remember.” If I went out hunting on the ocean with Sadeena, I was pretty sure I’d get dragged off somewhere crazy. Just too scary to risk it.
“Sadeena, please keep your focus on fighting.”
“Well said. But if there’s any opening, they will strike at you, little Master Naofumi.”
“Is that for you to say? If you’ve got time to talk, keep hunting.”
It did feel like a while since we’d done this.
“That reminds me—”
“That reminds S’yne, she arranged in Siltvelt for Ratotille and Wyndia to collect monster materials for the Shield Hero,” S’yne’s familiar informed us.
“Wow, that’s a big help.” Developing the village was slowing down the work of releasing my shield. There was no reason not to accept these monster materials from Q’ten Lo. I’d have to give some of them to Itsuki and Ren later too. If I went hunting with Itsuki, the hero weapons would rebound off each other, so he was off with Rishia.
“This is the best they’ve got?” Fohl finished off another monster and looked over at me.
“You’re working harder than Atla. I’ll give you credit for that.”
“Huh.”
“Brother! Don’t get carried away just because Master Naofumi said something nice to you!”
“Wh—!” Now she was jealous because I praised him for doing his best? Completely unreasonable.
“Then I’ll just fight harder! I’m not losing to Raphtalia or my brother!” With that, Atla ran off.
“C-count me in!” Fohl sounded pretty happy. Was that really all I had to do? I think I was getting the hang of handling those two. If I gave a little praise to Fohl, that pushed Atla to try harder.
“What’s this? A hunting challenge? Then I won’t be left behind!” Sadeena announced.
“You’re doing fine. Including your use of magic, I think you’re hunting the most, Sadeena.” Perhaps due to originating here, Sadeena had defeated the majority of the monsters we faced.
Increasing general safety in the vicinity through hunting like this also purchased the gratitude of the towns and villages we had occupied.
“Thank you so much! The revolutionary Heavenly Emperor and her retinue are doing wonderful things, reducing the damage caused by monsters,” they would say.
“I don’t think we can change the entire ecosystem quite that easily, but you should be okay for a while,” I would offer in return. Turning a blind eye to the havoc caused by monsters and even punishing those humans who fought back? What was this moron thinking? Such actions had definitely given the people plenty to think about.
A few days passed in this fashion, and we were able to take control of a third of Q’ten Lo. It hadn’t even been long since we arrived, so I was surprised at this speed myself. It felt like we were making even better progress than the other plan, to just sneak in and take the head of the enemy Heavenly Emperor.
“It reminds me a bit of our escape journey in Kizuna’s world.” This being a Japan-like nation, there were a lot of similarities. “I mean, give or take the presence of the sakura lumina and whether or not it’s a Japanese-Raphtalia land.”
“Rafu!”
“You’re still going on about that?” Raphtalia grumbled.
“Hey, there are statues that look like Raph-chan everywhere! I can’t help it if this seems like a wild Raphtalia theme park!”
“You like what you like, little Naofumi, I’ll give you that,” Sadeena chimed in. I didn’t just like it. I was seriously thinking about taking at least one of those statues home as a souvenir.
“As we get closer to this old city, though, I’m seeing more that look like Filo.”
“Me too. Statues of this divine bird that the Heavenly Emperor has put up. That look like Filo.”
“They say her coloring doesn’t exist?” Was Filo really such a rare specimen? She’d only cost me 100 pieces of silver!
“She’s not completely unique,” Sadeena replied, looking at Filo, “but the legends and tales passed down in each region actually differ a little from real filolials. For that reason, Filo’s appearance and coloring are absolutely perfect.” She was a filolial raised by a hero, after all.
“Do you think maybe Fitoria came to this country in the past?” Not a bad guess on my part. If they’d been exposed to her in the past, pictures might still remain and were changed to white and pink due to the coloring of the sakura lumina flowers.
“I can’t hear Fitoria’s voice,” Filo chirped up. Sometimes Fitoria was watching us through Filo. It looked like that wasn’t happening at the moment though. Maybe due to the barrier around the country?
In any case, the form and coloring of Filo were definitely causing all sorts of problems for our opponents.
“It looks likely we won’t meet Kizuna and them again. If we do, though, it might be fun to bring them here.” Even Glass might show her face. It would be great to show them all a nation with Raphtalia in charge. Glass’s skill, Reverse Snow Moon Flower, would fit right in.
“The scenery is definitely worth seeing.” I did catch myself, sometimes, wondering if they were all doing okay.
As we were making our way back, feeling pretty good, we happened upon that pervy moron Motoyasu II trying to pick up a girl.
“Ah! My lady, would you like to have some tea with me?” Seriously, just who was this guy?
“Geh!” As we closed in, the girl he was targeting bowed her head at us and made a run for it, and he turned to face us.
“Where’s the old guy?” I asked.
“Hah! You think I can’t shake Erhard off?”
“Look, if you go around wasting money, we’ll have to tie you up!” Motoyasu II just gave a cackle and flashed some Q’ten Lo currency. Showing off his wealth, was he? I snatched it out of his hands.
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“Only because you lifted it from the old guy’s coin purse, right?” This goat looked like he spent money fast and loose, meaning seeing him with such coin was certainly suspicious. He’d apparently worked up quite a series of tabs all across the port town. Indeed, to my comment at how he obtained these riches, he looked askance and started whistling. I knew it. I’d return the coin to the old guy later.
“Anyway—” I checked the party I had with me. He’d only get a kick out of it if I had women handle this. “Fohl, Gaelion, take him away.”
“Kwaa!” Gaelion gave a respectful nod at my orders.
“What!” Fohl sounded somewhat less pleased. As too did Motoyasu II.
“You won’t let me spend any time with one of these pretty faces you’ve got here?” he complained. At that response, however, Fohl realized what was going on and quickly nodded.
“Very well,” he conceded.
“You can go off and have some fun with Atla once you get back,” I said.
“We won’t be long.”
That reminded me, in a shop back there they were selling ornate hairpins, and he’d been eyeing them closely. He was planning on buying one, for sure. I’d given him enough spending money to afford at least one of them.
“Kwaa!”
Gaelion pinned Motoyasu II’s arms behind his back, placed his jaws onto his neck, and they started walking.
“Dammit! You let me go! I thought that even if that shield brat did catch me, at least he’d have some of the cuties he hangs around with dispose of me, but this is a total sausage fest! Don’t tell me, he swings both ways?”
“What are you rambling about!” Man, there was no helping Motoyasu
II. Did he really love women that much? “I’ll stay with you even after my brother comes back, Master Naofumi,”
Atla offered.
“No, you go and spend some time with Fohl.”
“I don’t want to.” She was a pain too, to be honest.
“Seriously—”
“Huh?” S’yne was pointing at Motoyasu II while showing off her weapon. Right, of course. She’d had sakura stone of destiny shears he made, right? They had a copy ability. They’d started out as two sakura stone of destiny swords, right? S’yne was looking at the shears, captivated.
“She says that he has real skill,” S’yne’s familiar translated.
“I never said he didn’t.” Just as the old guy had said, Motoyasu II did quality work at remarkable speed. His stock of sakura stones of destiny had been used up, meaning those we were using as shields were now the last of them.
“Rafu?”
“That reminds me—” S’yne began.
S’yne pointed at Raph-chan and said something. Recently the sound skipping had been getting even worse, meaning we couldn’t communicate at all without the stuffed toy. It made me worried that maybe her vassal weapon was breaking down too.
“She’s asking about what’s happening with the giant Raph-chan doll?”
“Hmmm—”
“Excuse me? Are you planning on making something? This is the first I’m hearing about it,” Raphtalia asked. Ah, right. I’d forgotten to say anything to Raphtalia about this.
“I’m hoping that maybe we can make Raph-chan a bit bigger. It came up that maybe S’yne can use one of her special attack skills to create an emergency familiar,” I explained. Apparently she had a skill that allowed for control of giant dolls. I was thinking of allowing it, with the condition of not allowing it to speak.
“I’m vetoing that one!” Raphtalia shouted.
“Rafu? Rafu, rafu!” Raph-chan was watching the conversation and cutely tilted her head.
“Enough hijinks, anyway.” I forcibly changed the subject. “Let’s turn to the HQ in town and plan our next move.”
We then returned to the largest building in the town.
“You need to train too, don’t you?” Raphtalia said. Yeah, don’t remind me. I hadn’t exactly mastered the Hengen Muso Style yet. I really wanted to buckle down and get some training done, but with all these problems popping up all the time, I just couldn’t find an opportunity.
“I think battles would go a lot more easily if you could acquire some Liberation-class magic,” she said. The one time I had pulled that off, with Ost, had also proven to be the only time. I felt so close it felt like it was right there, but something—something was still missing. I just needed to get closer to that feeling.
In any case, it was definitely magic that I wanted to obtain before the eventual Phoenix battle.
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