Epilogue: The Girl Who Became a Shield
I had no idea how long I’d been out of it.
Raphtalia had been crying the entire time, while Fohl just wordlessly glared at me.
Atla’s life had ended. She wasn’t with us anymore.
“You can . . . hate me,” I managed. I’d failed to save his sister . . . someone he had loved and treasured more than anyone else. I could accept him hating me.
The moment I said that, Fohl grabbed the front of my clothes and his fist . . . stopped just in front of my face.
“I’m not going to hate you! I’m not going to hate you and make this any easier on you!” Fohl raged.
“What?” I could hardly comprehend.
“Let me tell you about Atla! Right up to the end, she was in love with you! She chose to sacrifice herself for you! So I can’t blame you . . . I can’t hate you! I didn’t save her either. If I’d stopped her, when she stepped forward, none of this would have happened!” Fohl said.
“But—” My words stopped as my head filled with possibilities. Things I could have done differently to stop Atla from dying—questioning myself as to why I didn’t respond to her feelings.
“If I’d never met Atla . . . then she wouldn’t have died like this.” In the moment I uttered these words, my whole head was rocked hard to the side.
I realized that Fohl had finally punched me.
“Don’t say that to me! Never say that to me!” he raged.
“But it’s the truth—” I managed around my aching jaw.
“If we hadn’t met you like that, Atla would have died long ago!” Fohl countered. “I didn’t have the money to buy the medicine we needed to keep Atla alive. If she had another episode, she would have simply died! Instead . . . she was able to walk around, even fight with me, which was all thanks to you! So I won’t forgive you if you ever say something like that!”
“But even so . . . this is just—” I stumbled.
“Don’t you dare defile Atla’s pride any further!” Fohl demanded, turning his back on me. His hands were bunched so tight they were bleeding.
I was as hard as metal and he’d punched me. That was going to do more than just hurt. Droplets of his blood dripped onto the ground.
“Atla told me that she wanted me to protect everyone from the village, just as though they were her. I have to stand by her final wishes! How can I hate you, the one who should have become my brother-in-law? I can’t hate you!” Fohl roared, his rage ringing out.
That shout . . . perhaps having awoken something, caused a blinding light to rise from the temple in the castle town. That light flew toward Fohl and enveloped him.
The eyeball-burning flash lasted for just an instant before vanishing . . . and then gauntlets appeared on Fohl’s hand.
“This is—” I’d seen these particular gauntlets before. Had the legendary gauntlets responded to the shout of Fohl’s heart? I would have mocked this all as simple contrived coincidence up until yesterday.
But right now, I didn’t have the leeway even to mock such tropes.
It was too late. Too late for anything . . .
“You’d better keep your promise to Atla! I’m going to go and do the same!” Fohl dashed away, tears streaming from his eyes.
To protect those fighting on the battlefield . . .
For my part . . . I tried to console the sobbing Raphtalia . . . and reflected on the final words of the departed girl who had so adored me.
“Can I have a moment alone?” I asked Raphtalia, Rat, and the healers, even as I held Atla’s remains in my arms.
“If that’s what you need. But don’t forget the battle is ongoing,” Rat said.
“Yes, I know,” I managed. Raphtalia just gave a sob, and then the two of them nodded and left. Still stunned . . . I thought back over my memories of Atla.
I remembered that night when she first came to sleep in my room.
“I’m the Shield Hero. All I can do is protect people,” I had said, playing down my own role.
“Looking at your village, Master Naofumi, it seems like everyone is being protected under your wing,” Atla replied.
“Wing, huh?” I hadn’t been convinced.
“I think you are protecting everyone, waiting for their moment to leave the nest,” Atla had continued.
“Leaving the nest is all very well, but I still need you to defend it. I’ll have to consider some punishment otherwise,” I had told her.
“Everyone in the village has told me about your great deeds, Master Naofumi. I think you’re doing a wonderful thing, something to be proud of. I respect you for overcoming such adversity, always carrying on,” she had replied.
“I mean . . . I guess so. I’m not trying to be humble, but I guess I’ve made something of myself,” I had admitted.
“One thing though . . . Who protects you, Master Naofumi?” she’d asked.
“Me?” I’d asked in surprise. Then I’d remembered Raphtalia saving me and the others. “I guess I do have some people.”
“I’ve had a thought. If Raphtalia is your sword, Master Naofumi, then I want to become your shield. I want to protect you,” Atla had said.
“A shield, huh? That might not be as glamorous as you think,” I’d told her.
And now that wish had been fulfilled at the cost of her life.
In that case, I had to respond to her final request. I hadn’t been able to protect her, so the least I could do was fulfill that final wish . . . or I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.
That was the heart of this. No matter who might take exception with what I did next, or disparage me, having failed to protect someone else so badly, I had to keep this promise—this promise above all else!
I grit my teeth, determination flowing through me. I was about to step into forbidden territory. Then I scolded myself; I was a criminal, buying people’s lives, using them up, then discarding them, so what did I have to feel guilty about?
I looked at Atla’s body. It looked like it would crumble at a single touch. It was all because she chose to protect our lives with her own, small, fragile body. She had certainly helped keep our casualties down. When considering it pragmatically . . . I did understand.
If it was to save the heroes, if it was to save someone you loved, people might be willing to give their lives for such things. I’d considered making that choice myself, so I could sympathize with that thought process.
But then take a look at the reality. Look at what happened to her. The kind of death so horrible it could barely be put into words. And yet, right up until the end, she had still been thinking of me.
This girl had loved me, of all people, accepting everything about me, unconditionally.
And now I was going to put her inside my shield.
Fear, terror, despair, lamentation—all kinds of emotions whirled inside me. My body couldn’t stop shaking.
I still had to do this.
If nothing happened after all of my prayers, if they could just stand by and not see the injustice in this outcome . . . there surely were no gods.
No. There couldn’t be a god. I wouldn’t allow it! If any such god existed and allowed this to happen, I would never forgive them. I’d kill them, whatever it took.
It was all so messed up!
Everything had been going well. I’d been aware of everything, ready for anything. It was a battle we could have won without losing anyone!
If not for that light, that terrible flicker, Atla wouldn’t have had to die.
Heroes? Hah. Gods? Double hah! This world . . . this unreasonable world . . . who could stand it?!
“Atla . . . I think I understand a little about what you meant when you said you didn’t want to return to this world,” I whispered to her. Her body was so light—the body of a girl that I would never talk to again.
I was going to keep that promise.
I couldn’t possibly break it.
I wasn’t going to let this shitty world take Atla.
I grunted. I gasped. The body of the girl vanished into the shield.
It sparkled in exactly the same way as when I’d put a monster or item inside in the past.
Curse Series. Shield of Wrath, blessing! Bless Series. Shield of Compassion forcibly unlocked! Soul Shield conditions unlocked!
Demi-Human Series forcibly unlocked! Completed! Slave Master Series forcibly unlocked! Completed! Companion Series forcibly unlocked! Completed!
Bless Series
The Bless Series is a powerful series of weapons only obtained by those who have overcome a terrible curse. It exists as a default shield and imbues power into the weapon it changes into.
The equip bonus depends on the shield it is changed into.
Bless Series Shield of Compassion <abilities unlocked> equip bonus: skills: Change Shield (attack), Iron Maiden, Shooting Star Wall special effects: call of compassion, enchant, bless, all resist, spell support Hand in hand with a blind girl . . . the Shield of Compassion was created by the mercy in two hearts.
It was an incredibly simple and yet a gentle shield. It was like sunlight through the trees on a warm day. It also had the best effects of any shield I had collected so far. I knew that “enchantment” meant the effects of this shield could be overlaid on other shields. That alone provided a massive boost to my defensive capabilities.
On top of that, it had forcibly unlocked the Demi-Human Series, Slave Master Series, and Companion Series. It also had equipment bonuses. In other words, it provided a massive boost to the stats of slaves, demi-humans, and companions.
I switched to the Spirit Tortoise Shell.
Growth up due to growing power!
Changed to Spirit Tortoise Shell Shield!
Further boosts were being triggered. I didn’t have the time right now to look in detail at everything that was happening. Those who had been getting treatment had now all been treated too. The healers were clamoring about it being some kind of miracle.
I stepped out in front of the tent and looked at the twin Phoenixes whirling in the sky. They shrieked, as though taunting me. Just like Ost, I was here fighting these birds for the sake of the world. I understood the true nature of it, that I was simply a device completing my assigned role.
Ost had known that too . . . had fought, based on that understanding . . . meaning there was only one thing I could do.
“Filo!” I shouted, calling her over. She was putting up a good fight against the Phoenixes.
“What is it?” Filo approached, clearly worried about Atla and seeing the sad expression on my face. I glimpsed a kindness in Filo in that moment that I’d never seen in her before.
I couldn’t tell if that was Atla’s power or the power of the Shield of Compassion.
Conflicting emotions rose inside my chest. Not just sadness, but also kindness mixed in. However, I didn’t want to think this was just the influence of the shield.
“I know you won’t like this, but take me over to Gaelion,” I told her.
“Okay . . . we’re doing this then,” she replied.
“Yeah. Time to bring overtime to an end!” I stated. I climbed onto Filo’s back and sped back to the battle. When I gave a signal with my hand, Filo bunched her strength into her legs and then leapt up to Gaelion.
“Gaelion! A request from our master!” she shouted.
“Kwaa!” he replied. Gaelion, with Wyndia still on his back, caught me in midair as I launched myself off from Filo.
“One final push, Master!” Filo gave me a pseudo-thumbs-up with her wings as she plummeted back to the ground.
“I’ve got it!” I replied. As soon as Filo landed, she charged right back into battle with the low-altitude Phoenix.
With a shriek, the Phoenix turned its attention on me and came at us with its claws. I should have tried to retain my composure, perhaps. Just because my hated foe was before me, I couldn’t let it fill my heart with darkness. But I could understand the pain. I could understand how unfair this world was.
I understood the wounds we had taken . . . and the sadness of what we had lost.
It was exactly because I could understand it that I had to get angry.
“You shut the hell up.” I stopped the Phoenix’s incoming claws with a single hand and hurled the bird down toward the ground.
Its only shriek now was one of surprise.
Spinning dizzily, the Phoenix recovered in midair and flew back toward me. Its expression looked like . . . one of pain? Was it weak? Then this was the moment to strike.
I immediately leapt off Gaelion’s back and headed straight for the Phoenix.
“Kwaa!?” Gaelion squawked.
“Huh!?” Wyndia was surprised too, rider and steed both with shocked looks on their faces.
“I’m going to smash this overstuffed turkey into the ground. Pile on!” I shouted.
“S-sure thing,” Wyndia affirmed.
“Kwaa . . .” Gaelion growled too. I let them know my plans, with suitable gravitas in my voice. Then I activated gravity field.
It hadn’t had any effect when I’d tried it before, but now I could use it. I made it as heavy as I could, stopping the Phoenix from flying completely.
With more pathetic squawks, the Phoenix, unable to fly due to the weight, desperately flapped its wings. But it was completely unable to maintain its height.
It continued to fall down to where the low-altitude Phoenix was waiting below.
And then close to the ground, dust rising from the battle, I grabbed both Phoenixes and shouted a skill.
“Chain Shield!” Both birds were caught up in the chains that emerged from my shield and bound together. With those preparations in place, I shouted to everyone else in the vicinity.
“Everyone! Take them down!”
“Naofumi?!” Fohl was stunned.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. “Take them both out!”
“Okay! Tiger Break!” Fohl was also the first to act. I mean, he would be. I really felt like I could understand his feelings the best in that moment. That was how I felt. Maybe I didn’t understand what it was like to lose a family member like that. But I knew exactly what Atla had been like.
“Don’t worry about me. Just hurry up and defeat this thing! Make sure you kill them both at the same time!” I commanded. There were general shouts of agreement, and then special attacks started pounding in.
“Naofumi, what about Atla?” Ren asked me between attacks. I was unable to reply and just looked away. I didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Damn . . .” Realizing what it meant, Ren made a painful sound. He also applied more strength to his sword.
“I feel so . . . light!” With her sword in front of her, Keel charged forward just like Filo and attacked the Phoenix.
“Yeah. I feel, like . . . totally different from before.” The slaves and everyone else in my unit were definitely performing better, their attacks sharper, more on point. This was clearly a result of the boost from the Slave Series and Comrade Series being unlocked. I still hadn’t checked the details yet, but the effects were clearly pretty massive.
It was all thanks to Atla.
“Faster. Finish them off faster. All the unfairness, all the sadness here . . . we have to eradicate it as quickly as possible,” I shouted. Both Phoenixes were together now, attacking me one after the other, but I didn’t feel a single thing.
The claws, the breath, the feathers, none of it meant a thing.
Once we had them pinned in a single place, they were just prey. All we had to do was pile on and tear them down.
“Gravity Sword!”
“Brionac!”
“Bird Hunting!”
“Tornado Throw!”
“Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny Second Formation! Third Formation! Stardust Blade!”
“Spiral Strike!”
Everyone unleashed all of their highest-powered attacks, one after the other.
“I’m activating the Ritual Magic, Meteorite! Hero Iwatani!” the queen cautioned me, but I signaled with my eyes that she should just go ahead regardless of my position.
“Very well! Everyone other than Hero Iwatani, fall back!” she warned. As my other allies all put some distance between themselves and the target, a massive meteorite dropped from the sky to envelop both myself and the two chained birds.
A huge explosion swallowed the three of us, but I didn’t take any damage at all.
“Our turn, Shildina!” Now it was Sadeena.
“I’m ready!” Shildina replied. The two of them, located toward the back of the forces, promptly completed incanting ritual magic.
“Gale and Thunder Gods!” they shouted together. The ritual magic caused a thick blast of lightning, far more powerful than Judgment, to crash down onto the Phoenixes, combined with an air-shredding tornado.
One of the two birds gave a protracted scream, and the other started to pulse in a strange fashion. It was happening again.
Self-destruct.
Of course, we weren’t about to let that happen.
As the cacophony of ritual magic came to an end, my allies dashed back in.
“Attack Support!”
“Tiger Rampage!”
Fohl’s special attack thundered home after he had received support magic from pretty much everyone else, and the two birds were reduced to feathers at almost exactly the same time, proceeding to vanish into nothing.
A roar of victory echoed out across the field.
Feathers drifted down like snow. And amid the blizzard I just stood, quietly, simply existing.
“Atla . . . we did it,” I finally said. I lifted my shield high, reporting the victory.
We definitely could have won this without having to pay such a price.
Whoever was responsible for this . . . they would never find forgiveness from me.
“Ren! You know what needs to be done?” I shouted.
“Yeah!” he replied.
“Tell the queen too. Whoever it was who fired that flicker of light, we’re going to burn them at the stake! No forgiveness!” It might have been one of the suspicious Seven Star Heroes. Or it might have been S’yne’s enemies. I looked over at her, but she just shook her head, telling me that she didn’t know.
A cunning move, I’d give them that. If it had been S’yne’s enemies, they really had targeted the best single moment that could possibly kill the heroes.
S’yne had always warned us about that possibility.
If they were the ones, then . . . they were going to take full responsibility for everything that had happened as a result!
“Still . . . after the first explosion, the Phoenixes became a real pushover,” Ren commented. I ignored him, my anger still seething. Who cared about any of that now?!
“We’re moving!” I stated. I called over Filo and told her to head straight for where the light that had punched through the Phoenix had come from. Ren came too, riding Gaelion.
We searched for the remainder of the day until the sun went down but didn’t find anyone who could have been the culprit.
“Dammit! Where have they run off to?!” I roared.
“This search isn’t going to find anything now. Naofumi, you need to take a break.” Ren chose that moment to give me what sounded like an order.
“What are you talking about?!” I fired back.
“We’ll keep going and let you know if we find anything,” he said. “You need to rest until then. Please.”
“But—” I wanted to carry on.
“Please, Naofumi,” he repeated. I wanted to debate the point, but Ren wasn’t having it. His expression was a complex one, mixing sadness with anger. “You aren’t the only one who’s angry here. I’m filled with an incredible rage.”
“Okay,” I managed.
“I’m not going to forgive whoever did this either. But we need you to approach this a little more calmly,” he said, which was actually quite effective at calming me down.
When I became truly angry, completely incensed, it could feel as though I was actually completely calm. My feelings in that moment . . . couldn’t be easily described.
It felt like I was being controlled by a totally different type of anger from when Witch betrayed me. He was right. I should take a break. I needed to rest up well enough to be able to tell the difference again between those I needed to protect and those I needed to get angry with.
That was what my seemingly calm mind told me.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll leave this with you,” I told him.
I sat down beside the temple, the sun slipping away.
The search was ongoing.
As I rested as Ren had told me to, I realized that I had been angrier than I’d even been before. The Shield of Compassion helped to soothe that anger, which otherwise felt as though it might burn me away. Yet beyond that, I just couldn’t hope to find forgiveness for whoever had done this.
I understood the depth of the unfairness, sadness, and suffering this had caused.
As the anger faded though, I became aware of a feeling of loss, like a hole had opened in my chest. It swelled up to overtake me. Before I knew it, I was sitting in a temporary tent erected by the coalition army . . . with Raphtalia standing in front of me.
“That was a cowardly move on Atla’s part. I was hoping to get you to notice me, on my own merits, Mr. Naofumi,” she said.
“Okay . . . but . . . for now . . .” I could still barely speak.
“I know. I know, so please . . . stop crying.” Raphtalia said, who was crying more than I was. They were tears from her heart—tears that understood the pain of others.
“I’m not crying,” I replied and then realized something was running down my cheeks.
Were these . . . tears?
When I left the medical tent, I hadn’t been aware that I was crying at all. But everyone else must have seen it.
I was crying.
In the moment I realized that this a feeling of emptiness had started to overtake me.
“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia started. Without thinking, I grabbed onto her and started to sob.
After the battle in the castle, I’d decided I wasn’t going to cry anymore.
Now my tears wouldn’t stop.
The more I tried to stop them, the more they flowed out of me.
It was because I understood the sadness, suffering, and pain of others now. This wasn’t something to be ashamed of. It was the correct thing, the right thing to do. I understood that now. For now, I just wanted to quietly cry, thinking of the girl who became a shield and who was now closer to me than anyone else.
I also made a vow, however, deep in my heart, that those responsible for this, whoever they might be, were going to be made to pay.
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