Chapter Two: Territory Reform
“If we’re going to be counting monsters as combat strength, this monster stable is going to start getting a bit cramped,” I announced. Having arrived back at the village, I checked over the monster stable.
“You’re going to add even more monsters? No more turning them into Raph species!” Raphtalia was adamant.
“I’ve discussed that with Wyndia already. If we did turn all monsters in the village into Raph species, it would definitely cause some diversification issues,” I explained.
“That’s the only problem?” Raphtalia asked, pointing. In one corner of the monster stable, the filolial, Filo’s Underling Filolial #1, was trembling in terror. On the other side, Gaelion was adopting the same pose. The entire village monster stable had been completely taken over by the Raph species. They weren’t unfamiliar with the Raphs, but those two still stood out.
Add Filo, and that made three, although Filo did have a room in my house in which she slept and ate—actually, she spent most of her time at Melty’s place.
Enough about Filo anyway. This was a problem with monsters.
After this, Wyndia had proposed keeping other types of monsters in the village for the sake of diversity. It seemed Rat was of a similar opinion. While the Raph species was an interesting subject to study, just that species alone wasn’t going to further her research.
Then, having discussed the cause of this turn of events, we decided it was apparently rooted in me caring for the monsters, although I’d only been doing that in the mornings . . . In any case, they had started to look jealous due to me doting on Raph-chan. And they all started wanting to become like her.
They’d also had sufficient latent strength, so it was two birds with one stone.
The dragon power-up, meanwhile, only had a weak effect unless the monster was already pretty strong. And just like the Raph species, in the case of monsters it could often lead to blending in some dragon elements. It was a bit like turning them into a vassal, I guessed.
“With that in mind, we’re going to have Ren, and maybe Itsuki, start caring for some monsters—registering monster crests,” I explained.
“Hmmm.” Raphtalia still didn’t sound completely onboard.
“We should also make a filolial monster stable,” I added. The stress from all these Raphs was going to drive the poor creature into the ground.
It was scared, right? That was what that meant.
At that moment, a soil maintenance worm-like monster called a dune popped up from the ground. It hadn’t taken part in the class-up bonanza so it was still just a normal dune.
Now it seemed like it was conversing with the Raph species.
“That’s not going to happen,” Raphtalia snapped, quick to shut that down too. She glared at the dune and it went back into the ground.
Then it headed over to Gaelion.
I asked Wyndia about it afterward and was told that dune types preferred dragons.
“Right now,” I said as I got things straight in my head. “I guess we’ll build a temporary monster stable at the bioplant.” The sun was starting to set, but we had to make the most of the time we had. There was no time to be managing materials. Then I had another thought. “Hold on . . .”
“What now? You’re not planning on using Raph-chan for something else weird, are you?” Raphtalia immediately turned suspicious eyes on me again. I was really going to have to cut back on the Raph-chan joking around for a while, or she might explode.
I was a jerk, sure, but I wasn’t a complete jerk.
I really wanted to explain that the reason I liked Raph-chan was that it was an expression of my feelings for treasuring Raphtalia like my own daughter.
“The Shield of the Beast King that I picked up in Siltvelt not only has beast transformation support, but it also has a skill called Territory Reform. I tried it out and a map appeared with the area around the village glowing. Is that strange?” I asked.
“Hmmm,” Raphtalia pondered as she took a moment to think about my question. This was totally different from the Raph-chan issues, after all.
“In either case, I guess the best thing we can do is just give it a try,” I suggested.
“I mean, sure. But what’s brought this on now?” Raphtalia inquired.
“I forgot about it, okay? We only dropped in on the village when we brought Ren back. After that, we went right back out to Siltvelt and then Q’ten Lo,” I reminded her.
“You’re right. There wasn’t really time to test it, was there?” she agreed.
“Of course I’m right. So let’s test it right now,” I proclaimed. In the instant I thought of it, my viewpoint was shifted up into the air. But I could still see normally too. It was like . . . double vision.
I reckon this could really bring on a case of motion sickness. It had never happened to me, but some people started feeling really ill while playing games that displayed images like this.
“I have what looks like an aerial view of the village,” I explained.
“Like what you’d see when riding on Gaelion, correct?” Raphtalia clarified.
“Yeah, like that,” I affirmed.
“The Bow Hero mentioned that he has a skill which allows him to scout out the surrounding area from a higher vantage point,” Raphtalia recalled. Itsuki said that? I mean, he was the Bow Hero. It wouldn’t be strange for him to have a skill that allowed him to search for distant targets. That sounded like quite a convenient skill too.
Maybe I’d have him make us a map.
“This is something else—a skill called Territory Reform,” I reminded her.
“That does sound different, doesn’t it?” she agreed.
“Yeah. This is coming from a shield found in the single nicest room in all of Siltvelt too, remember? Taking the shield power-up method into account, maybe it is influenced by faith too?” I pondered.
“I guess that’s a possibility . . .” Raphtalia didn’t sound entirely convinced. Anyway, I checked the items in my field of vision.
Move, Place, Remove, Create, Combine.
Offering Points.
What was all this? I tried moving the cursor that had appeared. It seemed I was able to select different buildings. If I could select them, did that mean I could move them? I gave it a quick try, but a warning message appeared: there are people inside the building. The “remove” command sounded dangerous too. And I was sure the same warning would appear.
In that case, I selected the command “place.”
Then a separate option appeared, but there was nothing I could select.
Hmmm. This was all very much like a game I’d played a bit in the past.
I tried selecting “create.”
That opened up a list of the possible buildings that I could create from the materials I possessed—the materials in my shield. It looked like creating stuff also consumed something called “offering points.” Meanwhile, “combine” looked like it was linked to building modification. I could also confirm links to skills.
Just what I thought.
I used some of the materials I had obtained to create and place a wooden bench in front of the monster stable. With a puff of smoke, the bench appeared.
“W-what’s going on now? A bench suddenly appeared!” Raphtalia squawked.
“It seems this is a skill that allows buildings and objects to be placed in villages within your territory,” I explained. It couldn’t have come at a better time either. We’d wanted to expand the monster stable, and this allowed for a more detailed setting than one simply produced by the bioplant. You could also make detailed adjustments, shifting things around after an initial placement, and even set an intended placement area.
What I needed to build was a generic building for filolial use—the kind a horse might use—like you’d see on a ranch. You could even set the room layout and indicate the number of them. I’d left the camping plant settings up to Rat, but this was super convenient.
Huh? There was even some flavor text.
Medium-sized terrestrial monster stable (bioplant produced).
A building used for raising monsters—may have to be adapted to suit specific types but can cover the basics for most surface-dwelling monsters.
With that, then, I placed a camping plant seed into my shield, and after selecting “create,” I created a monster stable. After that, I slapped it down next to me.
Huh? With a rumbling sound, the monster stable grew up from the ground. Okay. It was exactly where I placed it. Without getting too carried away, I put another one down too.
“I-it feels like you’re doing something pretty incredible here,” Raphtalia commented.
“I don’t think this shield can ever surprise me again,” I replied. After all, we were talking about a shield that could take bioplants and use plant manipulation to transform them, completely harmlessly, into completely beneficial things!
That said, placing too many things or moving too much stuff around was quickly going to use up all the offering points. I didn’t know how to get more of those yet either, so I had to be careful.
Thinking that, I checked the “combine” item to saw that plant manipulation and other skills were linked. The sakura lumina branch I had quietly placed inside the shield and the bioplant could be combined together. Rat had said that trying to plant them just caused them to wither right away. Combining them with bioplants, however, applied a growth modifier. Why not give it a try?
Modified sakura lumina (unbranded)
Sakura lumina with a boost in vitality provided by bioplant elements—can access the Dragon Vein, heighten the power of the Earth Vein, and create a defensive wall.
That was more like it! It looked like it had some really beneficial
abilities. I indicated a place in the village for it to grow.
Warning: it cannot be placed there.
But just as I started to think it was a plant restricted to Q’ten Lo after all, the warning text scrolled down.
When creating a Dragon Vein defensive wall, please place multiple trees at the same time around the desired perimeter.
A defensive wall?
“Mr. Naofumi, what are you thinking? You placed the monster stable here, didn’t you?” Raphtalia, obviously, couldn’t see what I was doing.
“Yeah, now I’m trying to plant some sakura lumina,” I explained distractedly.
“They did have beautiful flowers. I wanted to bring some back myself, but you talked about it with Rat earlier, didn’t you? She said it failed,” Raphtalia continued.
Yeah, it was a good bet that this wasn’t going to work.
Still, I tried placing multiple trees surrounding the village, including near the graves for Raphtalia’s parents. Then light started to spill from the shield, and with a gentle glow, sakura lumina slowly started to appear.
“What’s going on? What is it?!” Keel and the other villagers emerged from the buildings with gasps of surprise.
“Don’t worry,” I calmed them. “I’m just testing some new powers.”
“Raph!” Raph-chan touched one of the growing trees. When she did that, light passed along the ground between Raph-chan and Raphtalia and the sakura lumina, which burst into blossom.
“So beautiful!”
“They’re shining!”
“Amazing!”
These and similar calls rose from among the villagers. Yeah. This had really brightened up the village.
I took a moment to check the sakura lumina that had grown.
Perhaps it was thanks to the bioplant influence. I’d only just planted them and yet they were already fully grown trees. It looked like I’d smoothed over the problem of getting them to grow. They were also emitting a barrier that seemed to protect the entire village.
“Count!” Rat dashed over amid the hubbub. “What’s going on now?”
“Well, I used a new ability,” I explained. “It looks like placing the sakura lumina to encircle a specific area allows them to grow like this.”
“Is that so?” Rat looked around. “You’ve made some pretty big changes in a single day.”
I couldn’t disagree. Now we had a monster stable full of Raph species and sakura lumina growing around the village. “These are all so significant. I’m not sure I can keep up,” Rat said with a sigh and then scurried back to her research.
“Right. As we first planned for today, we need to organize the materials we brought back from Q’ten Lo and Siltvelt,” I said.
“With all these distractions, it’s already night!” Raphtalia opined.
“Don’t be like that,” I said with a grin. And so, after preparing the evening meal, we set about sorting the materials.
After that, prior to bed, I conducted some accessory-making research in my room.
Thanks to the Raph species, our countermeasures for things like status effects were proceeding toward a resolution, but there was still a pile of other problems.
The principle facing me right then was how to enhance the accessories for Raphtalia, Ren, Itsuki, and myself. As I was working on the issue, I heard Raphtalia and the others battling with Atla outside.
“R-Raphtalia. Brother. I just want to go and see Master Naofumi! Move aside,” Atla stated.
“No,” Raphtalia replied.
“Never,” replied her brother.
“Raph!” barked a horde of Raphs.
“Raphtalia, what a cowardly move! Increasing the numbers of your race like that!” Atla was aghast.
“I’m not party to this increasing. Trust me!” Raphtalia retorted. She didn’t sound too broken up about it now though. “All of you Raph species, you know what to do, right?”
“Raph!” came a horde of Raph replies.
Although I also caught myself thinking that it sounded like fun too, it really was getting noisy out there.
As I had that thought, Raph-chan arrived in my room. Ruft was with her. Even among the large number of new Raph species, I knew this was the original Raph-chan right away.
“Raph.”
“Hey. What’s up?” I asked.
“Well, Shield Hero, I was thinking . . .” Ruft trailed off.
“Okay, I see what you want,” I said. It wasn’t hard. The kid was feeling lonely, and so he didn’t want to sleep alone. Also, he wanted to ask all sorts of questions about the Raph species. Heh, looked like my plan to draw Ruft into the Raph-chan alliance had achieved success.
“Raph,” Raph-chan cried. She had been asserting herself since her arrival. Was she holding something—a ball?
I cautiously took it from her, and she adopted a pose telling me to put it inside the shield. So I gave it a try.
Conditions for the Raph Shield were unlocked!
Conditions for the Tali Shield were unlocked!
Conditions for the Lia Shield were unlocked!
Conditions for the Attacking Raph Shield were unlocked!
. . . etc.
Just to see what it was like, I checked out the Raph Shield.
Raph Shield 0/20 C
<abilities locked> equip bonus: Raph species growth adjustment (small), Raph species attack order 1 (limited period), Raphtalia and Raph species abilities adjustment (small)
Mastery Level: 0
I’m not even sure where to start with this. “Limited period?” What was that supposed to mean? Not to mention raising the abilities of specific individuals. This thing was crazy!
Still, I relied on Raphtalia the most out of everyone, and so I was certainly not opposed to her getting stronger. It looked like unlocking them would be pretty quick too.
“What’s this? I feel a slight boost in my strength . . . and that gives me a bad feeling about this!” Raphtalia was already reacting from outside the house.
“Right. What do you want to talk about then?” I turned back to my visitor. “What do you want for Raph-chan?”
“Well, Shield Hero, do you think she could get bigger like you said before? Like those others that started out as different monsters?” Ruft asked.
“You’ve got a keen eye, kid. I like how you think. You’re right. We do want a massive Raph-chan, don’t we?” I’d requested S’yne make just such a thing, actually.
“Raph!” As the two of us stroked Raph-chan, and as though making our every wish come true, she suddenly grew bigger!
She was now around the size of Filo in her filolial form. About the same size as the former-caterpilland from earlier in the day. Then she relaxed on the floor, tapping happily on her chest to show off her new size.
What was this? Was I hallucinating? I didn’t care if I was. I just wanted to touch her.
“Uwah!” Ruft seemed to be in a similar position.
“Right, let’s stroke her,” I said.
“Yeah,” the kid agreed. As we proceeded to do so, I quickly began wanting to just snuggle up and sleep on her like a pillow.
“Raph.” Raph-chan happily returned our affection. Ah, what a strange sensation. Such reassuring relaxation! “Raph!” Raph-chan seemed to be enjoying it too.
“Mr. Naofumi! We’ve successfully captured Atla. The Raph species actually seems pretty useful! So I’m thinking—” The door clattered open and Raphtalia came in just as Ruft and I were hugging the now huge Raph-chan.
“What the hell is going on in here?!” Raphtalia glared at me, eyes squinting closed. I felt something like a cold gust of air.
“I was just talking about Raph-chan stuff with Ruft, and then Raph-chan went and turned into exactly what we asked for, so we were just enjoying the moment—” I explained.
“Being honest about it doesn’t get you off the hook!” Raphtalia exclaimed.
“Raph?” Raph-chan seemed puzzled.
Hahaha! Wow, this massive Raph-chan really was the best. I wanted to use her like a bed, sleeping on top of her tummy.
“When did you and Ruft become so friendly, anyway?” Raphtalia probed.
“You saw it, didn’t you? We bonded over Raph-chan,” I replied.
“The Shield Hero is nice to me and playing with Raph-chan is really fun,” Ruft added.
“We’re best buddies now, aren’t we?” I said.
“Yeah!” he agreed.
“You’re heading into this far too casually! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be friends with Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia scolded. What was her problem? It was almost as though she was suggesting he shouldn’t be my friend. We have the same interests. Of course we were going to be friends!
Ruft might have been our enemy during the ridiculous Heavenly Emperor ruckus, but he was also Raphtalia’s cousin. By talking to him we’d come to an understanding, which was why we were here together now. His so-called allies had only been using him. He was quick on the uptake. Being related to Raphtalia had also created a good first impression. Then, after introducing him to Raph-chan, he’d agreed with me about how cute she was after everyone else wouldn’t listen, however hard I talked her up!
People I could talk to about stuff like this, like a friend, rather than someone like Atla who worshipped me—these people were a precious commodity.
“Ah, you two. I was just starting to think the Raph species could be useful, and then I have to walk in on this. Please, stop treating Raph-chan like a big pillow,” Raphtalia said.
“If you’re willing to go that far, Raphtalia, very well,” I acquiesced. In the future we’d just have to cuddle with her when Raphtalia wasn’t around.
“You too, Ruft,” Raphtalia admonished.
“Yeah, okay.” He didn’t sound happy about it either. When Ruft and I moved away, Raph-chan turned back to her small size.
“We’ve managed to get Atla under control anyway, so you’re safe for tonight,” Raphtalia reported.
“Okay,” I replied. It seemed the Raph species had access to illusion magic. While illusions didn’t have much effect on Atla generally, it seemed that piling them on in numbers was enough to contain her. Was she now happily seeing illusions of being with me?
I was going to start feeling sorry for her if we used this too much.
“That said, it’s a scary thought that Atla may well soon learn to overcome the illusions,” Raphtalia commented.
“It is Atla we’re talking about, after all,” I agreed. Not only was she a genius, but she quickly adapted if the same attack was used against her repeatedly. Constant adaptation was therefore required; the only advantage was that pitting oneself against her naturally increased one’s own skills.
She would surely overcome the illusion attack, eventually.
“I need to put further efforts into our current, biggest problem—learning magic,” Raphtalia said.
“How about training the Raph species in magic at the same time? They seem to have the same magic qualities as you,” I suggested.
“Uwah. I’m not keen on that idea, but I guess that’s what we need for the future,” Raphtalia admitted.
“We could do with raising Ruft’s level a bit too,” I added.
“I have to defeat monsters?” Ruft looked a little troubled by that.
“Yeah. You were the Heavenly Emperor, so you understand this much, right? You can’t protect anyone without strength. So you need to learn what it means to fight,” I explained.
“Uwah . . .” Ruft looked at Raph-chan. He definitely had some resistance to defeating monsters.
“Monsters are living things too, but humans and monsters are in different groups. We’re part of the human group. I understand that you like monsters, but unfortunately we can’t prioritize them over humans,” I explained.
“Okay,” Ruft finally managed. “I’ll try . . . my best.” When I thought about what it had been like when Raphtalia was smaller, I knew it might be hard for him. But I wanted him to learn those same lessons—the gravity, the weight of life. Experiencing fighting for his life against monsters would definitely help him to mature.
“Once you reach level 40 I’ll perform a class-up on you too,” I promised.
“Sure! I want to try a class-up!” Ruft said eagerly. Heh, that hooked him. I guess it was due to his age. Keel and the other younger ones had been happy to hear about a possible class-up too.
As I thought about the future, Ruft looked at Raph-chan.
“Raph?”
Ah! So that was it!
“I want to do a Raph-chan class-up!” Ruft exclaimed.
“Hmmm. That sounds wonderful,” I replied.
“You’re planning something strange again, aren’t you?” Raphtalia interjected. “We don’t know what will happen if a human does that!”
“What? If Raph-chan performs my class-up, I might become like Shildina, able to turn into a therianthrope. Or maybe I could turn into something like Raph-chan!” Ruft postulated excitedly.
“That really does sound wonderful!” I exclaimed. Once we confirmed it worked with Ruft, then we could do the same thing with Raphtalia, although due to the katana vassal weapon, not only would a level reset be difficult, but it wasn’t clear if she could even class-up.
In any case, I was rightly impressed with our former Heavenly Emperor.
He had an eye for things that the common folk just couldn’t see.
“No, it isn’t! Stop it at once!” Raphtalia still wasn’t having any of it.
“Raphtalia,” I admonished. “I can’t condone you standing in the way of Ruft’s future.”
“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia shot back. “What will you do if Ruft ends up like a Raph-chan?”
“I’d love him and cuddle him to bits,” I replied without hesitation. “And then I’d ask if you can’t do the same thing.”
“I never should have asked, should I?” Raphtalia despaired. What was her problem, really?
“Right!” I just decided to ignore her. “This means I really need to put some time into leveling you up, Ruft!” I wasn’t planning on actually having him take part in the Phoenix battle, but I still felt like throwing my full support behind leveling him up as much as possible before it happened.
“I’ll do my best!” Ruft enthused.
“There’s no need for that! Ah, honestly . . . this is the point where Sadeena would normally step in. She always knows what to say to convince you,” Raphtalia lamented.
“She said she was going to show Shildina the oceans around here,” I recalled. “I bet they are holed up in her secret base, wherever that is, sharing some wine.” Anyway, Sadeena didn’t “convince” me at times like this so much as “persuade” with prejudice.
“She’s going to drink Shildina under the table again, I bet,” Raphtalia predicted. I couldn’t deny the likelihood. When the two sisters were together, Shildina was always trying to prove herself and always ending up with a terrible hangover the following day. Was it time to seriously think about separating them?
As we talked, there came a knock at the door. It was a bit late for a visit from anyone who wasn’t already here.
“Naofumi, we’re coming in.” That was Melty.
“Master, I’m home!” Which meant that was Filo. The two of them came in.
“Hey, if it isn’t Melty. Been a while!” I played it light.
“It really has been. You don’t come to see me at all either, Naofumi,” Melty complained.
“I’ve been pretty busy, you know,” I explained.
“I understand that much. Still, I wasn’t especially happy with your answer to the issue I had requested the Sword Hero to ask you about.” With that, Melty looked at Ruft.
“Good . . . evening,” the boy managed in the Melromarc tongue.
“So nice to see you,” Melty replied, a bit out of character for her. “So this is the kid with the connection to Raphtalia?”
“Yeah, this is Ruft,” I explained. “He doesn’t know much about the world yet, so I brought him to the village to learn more. Hey, this is the perfect opportunity. Melty, can you teach him everything he’d need to know as a leader? Like, how to be an emperor? Stuff like that?”
“Huh?” The boy seemed surprised.
“It’s important for you to play with monsters and make lots of friends, but among everyone I know, Melty here knows the most about the duties of royalty and the stuff they need to know. Thinking about the future, having Melty teach you that stuff seems like the best idea,” I explained to him.
“That’s what you think about me, Naofumi? Honestly! Not that I mind. He’ll have to learn the language first, of course,” Melty agreed.
“Okay. I understand.” What a good kid! “Thank you for agreeing,” he managed again in the Melromarc tongue and gave a bob of his head. Melty returned a smile, suggesting she wasn’t entirely unhappy about the situation.
“Well, if there’s anything you want to ask, just come and find me. I’ll make time to help. If you know the language of the demi-human nations, you can use that for now, until you get used to things here,” Melty told him. If I recalled correctly, she could speak all sorts of languages.
Ruft nodded, looking a little surprised.
“Anyway, Melty, did you just drop by to say hello?” I asked.
“That was part of it, but not all. My mother is very busy with preparations to fight the Phoenix, and so I’ve got a message from her for you,” Melty explained. “Even that’s not the main reason though.” With that, Melty and Filo looked at each other.
“Filo,” Melty prompted.
“Okay! You see, Fitoria is really mad, wondering how much longer you’re going to keep her waiting,” Filo revealed. Before our invasion of Q’ten Lo, and immediately prior to heading to Siltvelt, Fitoria, the queen of the filolials, had made a request of me via Filo and Melty. But I’d wanted to prioritize Raphtalia’s problems at the time, so I’d put it off until later.
Still, maybe it wasn’t wise to piss off one as selfish as the queen could be. I wasn’t sure we could beat her either, if it came down to a fight.
“Yeah, of course. With the Q’ten Lo invasion and everything, it kinda slipped my mind,” I admitted. “So that’s why you’re here?”
“Yeah,” Filo responded.
“I was coming to talk about that ahead of Filo. It has become a bit of a problem in Melromarc,” Melty added.
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“Well,” Filo started. “There have been some dangerous filolials around in your country recently, Master, who won’t do as they’re told.”
“Huh?” I was puzzled. What was she talking about? This was the request for me?
“I’ve heard similar stories myself, and so I thought maybe this is what Filo—I mean Fitoria—wanted you to solve, Naofumi,” Melty added.
“Hmmm.” I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but if our neighbors had also been hearing about this, they had to be creating quite a problem.
“To be more accurate, they are filolials who act like mountain bandits, attacking wagons carrying off goods and stuff like that,” Melty continued. “We did tell the Sword Hero to tell you about it, but it seems it just got turned into an issue with mountain bandits . . . Robbers, basically.”
“I mean, that’s the short of it, isn’t it? Robbers based in the mountains, thus mountain bandits,” I surmised. Ren was pretty straitlaced, but from this description, it had just sounded like a problem with robbers.
“It seems they are robbers that only appear at night. They prey on merchants or adventurers who are using a wagon, challenging them to a fight and then taking that wagon if they lose,” Melty explained further.
“Taking their cargo? That does sound like a problem,” I sympathized.
“That’s not what I said,” Melty corrected me. “They leave the cargo. It seems they only want the wagons.”
“What?!” That did surprise me. What could they want just with wagons? More like “mountain wagon collectors.” Quite aside from anything else, what were people doing driving wagons around at night?
It was an issue involving filolials anyway. That explained why Fitoria would make this request.
“They’ve become pretty famous at being quite odd mountain bandits,” Melty continued. “In a few rare cases, the wagons have come back all beaten up, but also packed with treasure. Needless to say, the ‘victims’ have been quite happy about that. There are even some merchants who are now purposely looking to get targeted.”
“Hold on a moment. What the hell is going on then? And—” I finished my thought in my head. If this was the issue that Fitoria wanted help with, then . . . “You’re telling me filolials fight over wagons?”
“Yes. That’s what I’ve been told,” Melty confirmed. Uwah! So she wanted me to resolve some kind of turf war? If these were wild filolials, they weren’t going to go down without a fight.
“The loser has to give their wagon to the winner,” Melty explained. “Also, if it’s the season of love, they can only find love by defeating their opponent.” What were they, hermit crabs?
Hmmm, in any case, I made the promise, so I had to go. I just couldn’t help but feel there was something else to all this. Surely Fitoria could handle some filolials herself.
Or maybe she couldn’t. Not these particular ones.
When I thought about it, maybe there were other wild filolial queens apart from Fitoria. What if a second filolial queen was giving orders in her human form, seeking to expand her territory? Maybe, like the queen of Melromarc, there would be all sorts of problems if she reproached them herself. So she was trying to send in a hero to clean up for her. I had to review the situation.
“This sounds like getting involved in a turf war between Fitoria’s faction and another filolial queen, or something like that.” My assessment made Filo’s cowlick stick up on end.
“Yes, that’s pretty much it. But she said that you and I would be able to handle this quickly, Master. So that’s what she wants us to do,” Filo explained.
“What choice do I have then?” I groaned. “I’m tired, but if they only appear at night, maybe we should go right now.”
“It’s already late, so even if we leave right now, I’m not sure we’d encounter them tonight,” Filo said. “I should receive word soon with likely locations for them to appear too.”
“Tomorrow night then,” I replied. “Although I can’t help feeling we are going to get caught up in a whole pointless conflict.”
“Alright, alright. Filo did help out a lot in Q’ten Lo too,” Raphtalia pointed out.
“I guess,” I acquiesced. Ruft, meanwhile, was still a little scared of Filo, so he was sitting a little distance away, hugging Raph-chan while he listened to us talk.
Filo, perhaps aware of the distance he was still giving her, was looking at him with a slightly troubled expression on her face.
Maybe Melty could bridge that gap. Would the day come when the pure filolial-lover Melty finally became friends with Ruft, the boy who had pursued filolials purely in the world of books and pictures? Hah! Ruft already belonged to the clan of Raph-chan. Too late to try to convert him now, Melty!
“Mr. Naofumi, what are you thinking about? You’ve got that wicked smile on your face again,” Raphtalia commented. I ignored her.
“About this request from Fitoria,” I asked instead. “Are you coming too, Melty?”
“Huh? Well . . . it’s also a problem for Filo, so I think I’d better tag along,” she reasoned.
“Sure thing. Tomorrow, then. We’ll sort a time out later, but Melty, Filo, you two come along too,” I ordered.
“Okay,” Melty agreed.
It would probably be fine with just that many, but a bit more muscle also wouldn’t go astray. Who to take though? If I called S’yne into action, she’d probably come . . . Ren would probably want to be with Eclair. If Melty was going to leave the town tomorrow night, it would be best to have Eclair act as governor in her place. In either case, Melty would have to teach her the ropes. It was best to place Eclair close to Ren.
Itsuki, meanwhile, came as a set with Rishia. Oh, and that reminded me, I still needed to send him to read the tablets on the Cal Mira islands. Okay, I’d have them go and do that. He also had lots of memories with Rishia there. That was where they had split up.
Now that their relationship had been renewed, a trip there could also be an indicator of a second chance.
Ah whatever. I’d just take along whoever was around at the time we set out.
And with that, we called it a night and everyone else returned to their respective bedchambers.
Before I got into bed, however, I continued with my accessory-making.
A short while after I got underway, there came another knock on the door.
Raphtalia should have been asleep by now, preparing for the long night tomorrow. So who else might be knocking at this time of night?
I opened the door to find Fohl standing there.
“What?” It was a few hours past pleasantries.
“I want to talk with you a little—just the two of us,” he explained. Hmmm. This sounded like nothing more than another massive pain in my ass.
We left the house and stood together in the village square.
“So? What’s this about?” I still didn’t have the patience for this.
“I need you to stop dragging Atla into your dangerous battles!” Fohl’s resolve was firm, and he even thrust his fist at me as he spoke. “I’ve been feeling this for a long time now! These battles are just too reckless!” The shame of it was I couldn’t deny it. Thinking back on everything that had happened since coming to this other world, I’d been caught up in all sorts of trouble and had many one-sided struggles forced upon me. I’d long been expecting someone to show up with the very complaints that Fohl was now voicing.
“I have to protect Atla with my life if necessary!” Fohl exclaimed.
“Your sister seems pretty fixated on me though. Can’t you help keep her under control?” I asked.
“You have no interest in Atla?” Fohl replied after a pause.
“However I answer that, you’re going to get mad. What answer could satisfy you, really?” Heh, I really got to the heart of that one.
“Uh . . .” Fohl had no reply.
“Why do I have to keep saying this? I’m not interested in romance. Atla is like . . . If I had to classify it . . . she’s like my child.” Just like I considered Raphtalia my daughter, I was starting to feel like Atla was an adopted child who just liked to chase around after me. I’d even started feeling the same thing about the village slaves, recently.
Romantic love? Nope, I certainly wasn’t feeling anything like that at the moment.
“I mean, I feel the same about you, I guess,” I continued. “You need to just fight hard and make sure to protect her yourself. If you can even keep up with her! Hah! As the one training you to fight the waves, maybe it’s not my place to say that.”
“I don’t need you to tell me to do that!” Fohl came back, still aggressive. “I’ll defeat the waves and whatever else you want me to, if it means Atla doesn’t have to fight. That’s a promise!”
“Fine, fine. You don’t want me having Atla fight the waves, is that it? Then that’s what we’ll do,” I conceded.
“Huh?” Fohl sounded dumbstruck.
“What’s so puzzling about that? I’m not going to drag people who don’t want to fight into battle any more than I’m going to ignore a plea to spare someone from having to fight. That’s just not me right now. You don’t want Atla involved in dangerous battles, right?” Sure, I’d put her in some pretty dangerous situations, but if this was what Fohl wanted, then I could choose to keep her out of the wave battles.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“If you can cover the gap she leaves, sure. And whatever Atla says, you’re the one who’s going to have to stop her. I’m not getting involved in that,” I asserted. Fohl looked down at the ground for a moment, thinking. Then he looked back up.
“Very well,” he accepted. A little easier than I expected. “I think I understand maybe a little what Atla sees in you. Not that I like you any more for it myself.”
“Whatever. Just keep your precious sister’s rampages under control, you hear?” I commanded.
“I will,” he managed after another long pause. “I’ll become strong enough to stop her. You’ll see. Until that time, I’ll be counting on you.” Hold it! Counting on me for what? I really didn’t like the sound of that last part.
Immediately after that, Fohl hurried away into the glooming darkness.
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