Chapter Six: Use of Life Force
I’d recently been training a little each morning, but it had been a while since I’d gone about it so seriously. During the training, Itsuki and his party had also returned and so joined in.
I was reminded that Rishia had quite the mastery of Hengen Muso Style. Maybe I should have her oversee my training for a while? The old lady wasn’t here, and Rishia surely had enough knowledge to at least tutor me.
I was watching Atla and Raphtalia train. Sadeena was sparring with Filo. Filo had obeyed my orders and was in her filolial form, and Sadeena was in therianthrope too.
“Haah!” Atla used both hands to unleash a concentrated burst of magic at Raphtalia. Raphtalia repelled it. I had thought it was a ball of magic, but actually, something was different about it. It wasn’t magic. Life force? Could it be? Was the power flowing from Atla . . . life force?
“Come on!” Raphtalia imbued her wooden sword with power and created some kind of barrier, sending the whatever-it-was Atla unleashed flying. Wow. Why? Why, now, was I starting to get a feel for this life force stuff?
W-what was going on?
Could it be? I could get stronger just by watching other people fight?
Hah, and you’d be a dumbass, too, if you believed that. Just how many hits had I taken from Atla? That had to be the reason for this. The old lady had said that it would be faster if I trained with Atla. Was this what she meant? It did feel like watching her made it easier to understand.
Up until this point, I’d been learning various things for my shield, just like a game. However, obtaining abilities like this, though training, meant my own body was also developing along game-style lines, although it was a little concerning to be undergoing physical changes I didn’t really understand.
Anyway, while it didn’t look possible right away, with more training I should even be able to handle defense rating attacks. The important thing was to create a flow of power within myself. All this “soft” stuff was junk. I simply needed to get onto the flow of power before my opponent’s attacks went wild. Creating a soft part was for beginners, clearly. That old lady could have been a bit less obtuse about it!
“Atla. Raphtalia.”
“Yes?”
“What do you need?”
I called them both over and explained that I was starting to see life force. Strangely, it almost felt like I’d missed out on something. I wondered why. I’d hoped to acquire this skill through ascetic training, but now I was just seeing it, and it felt like I’d lost something.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Shall we have Rishia take a look?”
“That’s a good idea,” I remarked. Rishia had been given the full stamp of approval by the old lady, so having her check me over sounded like the best idea.
“Yes?” Rishia was helping Itsuki train. At that moment, he was repeatedly striking a large rock in the garden with his fingers. Yeah, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen him doing that. We’d secured plenty of life force water anyway, which I hoped would speed up the training.
“Oh? Have you finished little Raphtalia and Atla’s training?” Sadeena inquired.
“Haah!” Even in that moment, she dealt with an incoming kick from Filo.
“Yeah. It looks like I’ve started to see . . . something from the people around me.”
“Wow. Do you think I could learn that too?” Sadeena wondered.
“It would be pretty crazy if you did,” I noted.
“You might not see it,” Atla offered, “but you’re already unconsciously making use of it.”
“Oh my!” Sadeena beamed. That was pretty big information for Atla to just drop into the conversation! Was it true?
“If you could do it consciously, you’d be a formidable opponent. I definitely don’t want to teach that to you,” Atla remarked.
“Is that the right attitude to have here?” Raphtalia said.
“Would you teach me, little Raphtalia?”
“Ah, of course!” As this conversation progressed, Rishia came over to me.
“Right then. I’ll teach you what I can of the power control my master taught me. That said, you seem to have already picked a lot of it up from watching Atla.” With that, Rishia pointed a semi-transparent weapon at me. I tried my best to receive and divert the flow of power mixed into it.
“You’ve got evasion down, but not defense.” The Hengen Muso Style probably used this power for attack and detection. Even if it was used to avoid, life force wasn’t used to defend. The only method for dealing with defense rating attacks was to redirect them, not take them head-on—and if that happened, the focus was still on redirection, with no notion of standing your ground. To be honest, it looked like there were only a few techniques from this that I’d be able to incorporate into my fighting style. It could be applied to skills too, perhaps.
“Here I come. Keep a close eye on me! Air Strike Throw!” Rishia imbued a throwing weapon with power and tossed it at me. Ah! I could see the life force mixed inside it. When it hit my shield, it was conducted through it and flowed into my body. Seeing as I was still just a beginner, I used SP and magic to forcefully expel it from my body. The impact shook me. It was pretty rough.
Since starting to see the flow of life force, I’d also observed everyone around me, and there were people, other than me, who looked out of place.
One was the Bow Hero, Itsuki. Then there was Raphtalia and Rishia. Hmmm. Rishia, in particular, was really odd. To try and put it in words, she had no flow of life force. No, that wasn’t right. She had some, but it was . . . weak.
When Rishia was in Muso Activation, even before I could see life force, I could see something around her, but right now her life force looked so weak. That was a bit of a mystery. I guess maybe S’yne was similar?
No, thinking about it, in S’yne’s case, her weapon was weak, but she herself had the power.
So what was going on?
The old lady had been thrilled with Rishia, saying she was a great student, so what was the meaning of all this? She had Muso Activation to enhance her own abilities.
Now that I could see it myself, I would be able to also learn a bit from Raphtalia and Rishia. It also allowed me to discover that, perhaps because I was focused so totally on defense, the flow of my own life force was abnormal. My power was focused on protection, and if I pushed it down too hard, it could even tear itself apart. It was like asking the enemy to exploit it.
Life force, then. Or I guess it could also be called the flow of magic or of power. This was good! I was starting to see why Hengen Muso Style was said to be so strong. With further proficiency, it would be useful in the future. I was also painfully aware that I was still only starting out, however.
“I said that you had no defensive form, and that’s true. The Hengen Muso Style that I learned from my master has no defense, but just evasion and redirection,” Rishia explained.
“I guessed as much,” I retorted.
“Master said that such techniques did exist in the past, but they were not passed down. We’ll just have to create new techniques for you to use, Naofumi.”
“That’s pretty inconvenient.” So I’d finally become able to see life force, and yet it seemed I was also just getting started.
“Oh, it’s incredible. Now you’ll be able to try all sorts of things with Atla and Raphtalia. Mr. Itsuki should be able to do this too, one day,” she went on.
“Yes. I’ll do my best.” Itsuki was still talking in a monotone. I hoped we’d break that curse soon. Maybe there was something in Q’ten Lo that could work on curses? I’d have to ask later.
“Right. There’s still some time, so let’s carry on training,” I pointed out.
“Atla!” That was when Fohl turned up.
“Kwaaa!” Gaelion too. It looked like they’d finished the job I gave them.
“That old goat can find the slightest opening to slip away. It was tough to bring him back.”
“He sucks. Did you think about putting the hurt on him a little? Just to, you know, keep him in place,” I prodded. I could imagine that might be required.
“No, I’m pretty sure he’d still run away. Totally sure, actually.” I empathized with Fohl’s reply. Motoyasu II was fast on his feet and pretty strong too. Seeing him “take a break” by training with the old guy had certainly left an impression on me.
“Right, Atla, let’s go shopping!” he appealed.
“No, thank you, brother. We’re just at a good point with the training, so we can do that later.”
“Hey, Atla! That’s not the promise we made!” She was right though.
The training was going well, and I wanted to continue it. But a promise was a promise. I’d make sure she went with him later.
“You should watch too, brother. Just master’s teachings alone won’t be enough to make you stronger.” Fohl’s face hardened for a moment, but then he silently sat down. All said and done, he liked fighting, too, and so didn’t seem to want to put a stop to the training either.
It might not be a perfect example, but there aren’t many adults who say, “Let’s go have some fun!” to a kid right when they’re in the middle of studying.
“Just a little more, then,” he accepted.
“A commendable attitude for you, brother. Come then, Master Naofumi!”
“I’m here! Bring it!”
“I most certainly will!” Atla’s thrust landed square in the center of my shield. There was a flow of life force, like a massive balloon exploding from the inside. Now I had to train to flow this through my body.
After repeated attempts, I became able to take the blow with almost no damage. Knowing how to handle it would expand the range of applications and also increase my precision with the technique.
With this, finally, we could consider me capable of nullifying the defense ignoring and rating attacks of L’Arc and Glass. What I needed next was a way to skillfully control the flow of power.
I tried experimenting with it as a means of attack, but my lack of attack power was baked into me, it seemed, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I tried launching concentrated magic into the body of the opponent, just like Atla did, but it proved meaningless. It looked highly likely that I wasn’t going to be able to use it for attacking.
The life force, or magic, of the Shield Hero likely just had those properties. So I tried all sorts of things when not in a combat state.
“That’s certainly an atypical style of fighting. I can’t see that with my master,” Rishia stated.
“Indeed. Mr. Naofumi can’t attack, so we’ll have to twist that power into defense,” Raphtalia acknowledged.
“Kwaaa!”
“Rafu.”
And so our training continued until the sun went down.
“Right, that looks like enough training,” I stated.
“Yes. I think Mr. Naofumi has a decent command of it now,” Raphtalia remarked.
“Not bad. Now I can put up a good fight, whatever happens.”
“Well done!”
I’d definitely earned something today, managing to acquire this.
“Come on then, Atal!” Fohl was still ready to go.
“Ah, Master Naofumi! Please, save me from the clutches of my brother!”
“Atla, if you run from Fohl today, then I’ll be angry if you come anywhere near me tomorrow. Okay?”
“No! Gah. Very well, brother. Whatever you need me to smash, I’ll smash it!”
“What are you talking about, Atla?!” She did walk off, led by Fohl, but I had to wonder why she was such a hothead. I hoped, for once, they’d just do some normal sightseeing.
“Next, Raphtalia and the others. I think we’d better get you cleaned up first.” If there was going to be a parade that night, I needed to get Raphtalia and Filo ready to be put on show.
“Sorry, but we’ve been doing this every day already. We really have to do it again?” Raphtalia grumbled.
“That’s right. Raphtalia and Filo get priority bathing. Go wash yourselves off and get changed,” I commanded.
“No problem!” said Filo with a nod, turning back into human form. “Come on, Raphtalia.” She led her toward the bathhouse.
“I think I’ll tag along with them,” Sadeena offered.
“Sure, sure. Off you go.”
“Rafu.” Raph-chan also went with them while Itsuki and Rishia stayed to continue their training.
“Kwaa?”
“Gaelion, you too?” We had Gaelion along as well, treating him as a vassal of the water dragon to show that justice was on our side. He hadn’t been training though, and so there wasn’t any need to lavish time on him in the same way as Filo. Right? That said, Gaelion had probably cottoned on to what was happening and started to preen himself. Wyndia would probably have given him a hand, if she had been here.
Finally, S’yne. She was staring right at me.
What now?
“I see—”
“She is saying that she knows what you were trying to train. That you were attempting to open your inner eye,” her familiar translated. The inner eye? That did sound like a good way to describe it.
“S’yne can do it?” I inquired.
“Something similar—”
“Something similar, but a different power, yes.” Then S’yne took out her scissors and charged her life force. Hmmm? The power of the scissors was increasing, just a little. Were these the lengths she was going to keep using her weapon?
It looked like a lot of work.
The truth of the matter was, she was actually strong, but the regression of her weapon made her weaker.
“Do you want to—”
“She’s asking if you want to learn the defense forms.”
“She knows them?” S’yne nodded in response to my question.
“Like—” She lifted her scissors, as though defending. Hah, I was going to need a bit more than that.
“Let’s actually put it into action,” the Keel doll said. And with that, the Keel doll flew at S’yne. She lifted her hand, pointing at the doll, and swept her arm sideways. That was all it took to hook the doll and change the course of its charge?
“That should be—”
“She is asking if that is the basic evasion form, as practiced by Raphtalia and the others and that you can apply your own powers to.”
“It sounds like what she said was quite different,” I mentioned. The idea was, what? Redirect attacks using just life force? I thought I’d seen Atla do that.
“Then—” This time the Keel doll launched its own life force attacks, in the same way as Atla but incredibly weak-looking. They were flying in completely the wrong directions too. S’yne wasn’t over there—and then the orbs of life force flew on a strange trajectory, adjusting themselves to fly close to S’yne. Once all of the orbs had gathered in one place, S’yne grabbed and threw them back, with the gathered single orb passing close to the side of the doll.
“Even magic—”
“Even magic can be gathered in the same way.”
“That’s quite something,” I admitted. I didn’t know this was a possibility. I’d definitely make use of it.
“There’s more—after learning this—” Hmmm, it looked like S’yne had quite a lot to teach me too. I was still at the beginner stage, but it felt like I’d taken a big step forward.
“Wow. You’ve shown me an unknown technique.” Rishia was looking over with surprise on her face. Yeah, you said it. It looked like S’yne knew quite a lot, even if she couldn’t do it all here in this world.
“Right, let’s get dinner before the parade tonight.” My suggestion was met with a growl from S’yne’s stomach. She was always hungry. When she came to the village, she’d been looking for a meal too. I gave a wry smile and headed toward the house myself.
Filo was taking part in the parade under the condition that I make her meals, and so recently I’d been doing a lot of the cooking—although, in all fairness, the basic preparations were being done by our servants in the house.
“We’ve got some wonderful fish today,” one of them commented, showing me fish still flipping in the bucket. It was big, like a grouper. There’d been something like red snapper the other day too. I could see Kizuna enjoying the fishing here. The fish looked ready to leap right out of the bucket. A little too lively for dinner!
“I’ll just shut him up.” A thrust through the head and the deed was done. Thinking about it, I could kill fish and stuff like that—although I didn’t get any experience for it. “Then drain the blood—” I tried to think of what to make with it. I had skills like appraisal and poison sensing, so I could tell this wasn’t dangerous. I knew the proper way to handle things like squid, as well.
Q’ten Lo was a Japanese-style nation, so the residents enjoyed things like simple sashimi. A fish this big, though, could be used for all sorts of things other than just raw slices. Some kind of stew might be good. I could broil the head whole. Steaming it might work too. I’d debone it with a kitchen knife and then boil the bones for a nice broth.
As I proceeded with the cooking, the kitchen staff in the house was all watching me closely exactly like the kitchen slaves back in the village. Raphtalia had said that they were watching my technique in order to try and copy me. Something like that.
Q’ten Lo was also a rice-eating nation, so I’d clean some rice and cook that. I checked the required flow and identified where I could leave certain tasks to my helpers. Having fire magic was convenient too.
Still, this wasn’t going to be especially interesting. I wanted to make something with a bit more flair, but what? Maybe I could use a deep pan to melt the fatty parts of some of the monster meat we had brought back with us and fry something up? Now that I had some command of life force, maybe I could use that for something? I imbued life force around the hand holding the knife and tried cutting some fish.
“Wah!” My observers let out a collective gasp. I guess they would. For some reason, I’d cut down into the chopping board. What was this, an infomercial for knives?
“Amazing. He’s even cooking with the chopping board!” someone exclaimed.
“As if! Think for a moment!” The hell? They seriously thought I was going to cook with wood? Filo sometimes looked ready to eat the dishes and the table, but I wasn’t going to take things that far.
Still, just a little cut and I’d used up quite a lot of life force and magic. Raphtalia, Atla, and Rishia were using this all the time. With her command of this, I was starting to see Rishia—and Éclair, for that matter—in quite a different light.
This looked like a good chance to practice with the flow of life force through my body, anyway, and I experimented in various ways while cooking.
Once I was finally finished, I took the food to Filo and the others, who were waiting after taking their baths.
“Go ahead, eat,” I said.
“Thanks!”
“Time to tuck in!”
The food had been carried into a large room, and everyone there enjoyed it together. Once we were done eating, it would be time for the parade.
“Wow! Today’s food is so delicious!”
“Kwaa, kwaa!” Filo’s and Gaelion’s eyes sparkled as they complimented me.
“They’re right. This is more delicious than normal.” Even Raphtalia was in concert with them.
“I’d like a drink with it.”
“We’ve got a big event coming up. Don’t drink anything.”
“I know, I know!” Sadeena was clearly enjoying the meal too though.
“Delicious.” S’yne too. That one looked ready to burst into tears. Being able to hear her without the sound cutting out was rare too.
“You think so?” I asked.
“Yes. What did you do?”
“Just a few experiments. It’s pretty exhausting though. This stuff isn’t easy.”
“It looked like he was concentrating very hard,” one of those who had been watching reported to Raphtalia. “If I may be a little, well, rude—”
“It looks like he’s just messing around, right?” It sounded like Raphtalia was onto something. “And yet, when you observe more closely, he’s actually cooking very carefully. It seems simple at a glance, easy to replicate, but that’s actually very hard to do. That’s Mr. Naofumi’s cooking.”
“That’s because normally I slack off as much as possible.” That was definitely one of my defining characteristics.
“What you refer to in terms of ‘slacking off,’ when it comes to cooking, differs from our definition of that concept,” Raphtalia retorted.
“Indeed. I think Naofumi is quite an excellent chef.” Itsuki could barely speak around stuffing his mouth. Him too! Still, if he was sharing his opinions, maybe he was finally recovering a bit from the aftereffects of the curse.
“I’m sure he can at least tell the difference between times it’s okay to slack off and times it’s better not to,” he continued.
“I’m not sure he’s quite on that level—and anyway, that’s not the issue here. Imagine what he might be able to make if he actually did concentrate on it!” Raphtalia proclaimed.
“Hey, that’s not the kind of concentration we’re talking about,” I said. It didn’t change the fact I was slacking off either.
“What if he—”
Man, how would they react if I told them I’d put life force into it? Thinking about it now, it was like I’d poured something from my own body into the food. That could be nasty. Might even lead to food poisoning or something like that! Also, to be honest, it just didn’t sound very clean.
“W-what did you do?”
I couldn’t leave things like this though.
“Is there some kind of magic potion to make food taste better?” This from Rishia.
“I don’t know. Naofumi might have access to such a potion though. Well?” Itsuki turned the question back on me.
What choice did I have? I’d just have to come clean.
“I tried adding some life force,” I finally admitted.
“You’ve applied it to cooking?” Raphtalia immediately didn’t look impressed. That said, they were all still chowing down. I’d thought they’d immediately say they didn’t want to eat it.
“My chopsticks won’t stop moving. Just what kind of magic is this?” If this was the response I was getting, I was going to have to whip up another batch for Fohl and Atla.
“It would be nice if you just agreed that I’ve improved,” I stated.
“Delicious! Ah, that’s mine!”
“Kwaa, kwaa!” Filo and Gaelion had started fighting over whatever was left. There was never a quiet moment with these guys.
“Rafu.” It looked like even Raph-chan liked it, because she was eating more than normal.
Life force really was incredible.
After making it through another tumultuous mealtime, Raphtalia and Filo set off around the town at the head of a parade to reinforce their image as the leaders of the revolution. Filo had also been given a special outfit for a Q’ten Lo filolial and a carriage—a bit like a cattle cart, but different. Definitely different. Raphtalia then sat in the carriage and was pulled slowly along. Filo had been in a pretty good mood since that carriage showed up. Then Gaelion followed along behind while Raphtalia waved from the carriage’s windows.
“Praise the new Heavenly Emperor!” and similar shouts were elicited from the ground. Everyone was excited to see Raphtalia. Merchants had informed me that a large volume of drawings of Raphtalia had been made and was selling well. That was one of the ways we were funding this revolution. For me, it was like I was seeing the success of my daughter every single day, and I couldn’t have been prouder.
Ah, but there was Raphtalia, giving me the stink eye again. She complained each and every time about being put on display. She didn’t see what was so appealing about her miko costume either.
Anyway, Sadeena and I were posted on each side of her, for her protection. The placement of Itsuki, Rishia, and S’yne was somewhat fluid, but they were always close to me.
Raphtalia was always at the head, and then Filo and Gaelion protected her. Sometimes those who had joined us from Siltvelt, Werner and the like, also took part, although they didn’t seem very happy with their placement.
Atla and Fohl weren’t back yet either, now that I thought of it. How long were they planning on shopping for?
We took a slow tour of the town, anyway, and then returned to the house.
Once we got back inside, Atla was there, sprawled out, a hairpin in her hair. Fohl, meanwhile, looked incredibly happy.
“We’re going back to those shops that were closed tomorrow!” Fohl announced.
“What! Not more shopping, brother!” I noticed that multiple outfits had already been purchased. He was almost using Atla as a doll to play dress up.
“Welcome back, you two,” I said.
“Gah! If this was Master Naofumi, not my stinking brother, then I’d happily do whatever he asked. I’ve no idea what pleasure you derive from all this!”
“Rare, but we agree for once. I feel exactly as you do. At least when it comes to clothing,” Raphtalia agreed. Raphtalia always had to find a way to barb her words. There was no helping it, anyway. It made them better fighters too.
“You’ve got it better than you know, Raphtalia. Having an outfit that Master Naofumi loves so much is something to be happy about,” Atla expressed. Ah! That comment only made Raphtalia sigh about as loud as I’d ever heard.
“Anyway. We’ve done more than enough training and work for today. Raphtalia, you rest up. Sadeena, you guard her. Atla, Fohl, eat,” I commanded.
“What about you, Mr. Naofumi?”
“I’ve got some things to do before bed, so I’m going out to see the old guy, places like that.” I just hoped I could avoid further entanglements with his master.
“Then I’ll go with you—”
“Me too!” Filo perked up.
“No, you can’t. Think of the fuss having both of you along would cause. I just need you to stay here.” To be honest, even though I was supposedly the leader of the revolution, everyone’s attention was so focused on Raphtalia that I kinda got ignored. That actually made it easier for me to get around.
“Kwaa.”
“You too, Gaelion.”
“Kwaa . . .” That said, if he was in baby mode I could probably handle taking him along. If I did take him, though, Filo would get all pissy, so better to have him stay behind as well.
“I’m so tired,” was her contribution. Good.
“So get some sleep. We’ve got an early start again tomorrow.”
“Okay! I wonder what Melty is doing right now?” Filo wondered.
“Fighting a mountain of documents, maybe?” I doubted there was any need to worry about Melty. I’d heaped plenty of praise on her before we set out, but . . . the effects of that had probably worn off by now.
“Then I’ll go with you, especially if Raphtalia is staying behind,” Atla announced.
“No. You eat your dinner, with your brother. You haven’t had a bath yet either, have you?!” “Spending some time with you, Master Naofumi, is far more important than that.” “What are you talking about!” Fohl was quick to step in. “Okay then, Raphtalia, Sadeena, Fohl, you all keep an eye on Atla.” “Very well. Come on, Atla. Settle down and take a rest, just as you’ve been told.” “Bah! I’ll slip out, I promise it!” And so Atla was reluctantly dragged away by Raphtalia and the others.
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