Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Ocean Floor 

The next day, after completing my daily routine of feeding the monsters stabled in the village and making breakfast for everyone, I proceeded to make a declaration: “It’s time to get serious about raising my level.” 
Having given it some more thought, I’d come to the realization that my own weakness was why I hadn’t been able to withstand the self-destruct attack of the Phoenix. Of course, I hadn’t been slacking off in terms of leveling up. But I’d definitely been spending more time on the environment surrounding me. 
That arrogance had led to the loss of Atla. 
Not just her either. A considerable number had been killed by the reverberations of the self-destruct attack and the further attacks of the revived Phoenixes. 
“Oh, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia muttered quietly to herself as she looked over at me. I needed them to at least allow me this. 
“Ren, Itsuki, do you know a good hunting spot for grinding out some levels? Somewhere suited to me right now?” I asked the two of them. We couldn’t rely too much on their game knowledge, but it would at least provide a starting point. Motoyasu was apparently on the move, heading for Faubrey. There was always the possibility he would use a teleport skill to come back, so I’d left some food for him. 
“Good question,” Ren replied. 
“As far as I see it, your choices are to fight some violent monsters deep in the mountains or slowly push yourself upward with the experience-efficient monsters in Q’ten Lo,” Itsuki summarized. Both of them had slightly troubled expressions on their faces as they answered. 
“Oh, little Naofumi?” Sadeena took that moment to raise her hand. “Experience is great in the ocean. How’s about we start with a little hunting together?” She placed undue emphasis on the “start” part. 
“Hunting with sweet Naofumi? I want to go too.” Shildina was quick to ask to participate. Sadeena quickly told her it was fine, giving a nod. 
“Sadeena?” Raphtalia said. 
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to pull anything on little Naofumi at the moment. If you’re still worried, you come along too. That would actually be a big help,” Sadeena said. 
“Very well. That’s what I’ll do,” Raphtalia replied. It looked like my participation was being taken for granted. Well, no matter. I’d decided that I’d better get our underwater gear out from storage. In terms of shields, I had the Bubble Shield too. 
“I’d also like to—” S’yne started. 
“Master . . . would rather not get wet,” her familiar finished. I looked over to see S’yne and her familiar involved in a discussion. S’yne seemed to want to come along, but underwater battles also weren’t really her thing. 
“Very well—I’ll make something.” With that, S’yne started sewing at once, making an underwater doll. She already had a Sadeena doll, so I wondered what else she needed. 
 
“She needs more materials,” the familiar relayed. “Can you provide some aid?” “Yeah, sure. Use my name to collect whatever you need,” I told them. “Thank you,” the familiar returned. Hey, if S’yne wanted to come along, then I wasn’t going to stop her. “What about me?” Ruft asked. “Hmmm. You’ll be staying here, Ruft. It’s going to be far too dangerous for you,” I told him. “Ruft. Please sit this one out,” Shildina told him, quick to back me up. “Sure . . . but I do want to get stronger. I haven’t been here long, but I really do want that,” Ruft explained. “You’re getting stronger every day,” Shildina assured him, stroking his cheek with a smile. He seemed a little embarrassed at the contact. “Are you coming, Raph-chan?” I asked—no pressure. “Raph, raph, raph,” replied Raph-chan, crossing her arms in a pose of denial. Then she pointed at something . . . and then made a motion of swinging a pickax. “So you’ve got something else to do?” I asked. “Raph!” she replied. Looked like I was right. I guess it couldn’t be helped. “Sounds like that settles it!” Sadeena said excitedly. During these discussions, Melty arrived, riding Filo in her filolial form. “Naofumi, how are you feeling?” Melty asked. “Not sure how to reply to that,” I responded. 
 
“You seem more like your old self,” she bit back. She seemed to be acting cautiously. Did she really have so little trust in me? 
I guess that was the case. 
“Do you need something?” I asked. 
“Actually, I do. I thought it better to get your approval first,” Melty said. Then she gave a little cough. “I want to hold a festival to celebrate having defeated the Phoenix—a combined event between your village and the surrounding towns,” Melty explained. 
“Yay!” Filo gave an excited sound at Melty’s proposal. 
“I know great sacrifices were made. But even greater is the fact that the Phoenix that so threatened the people has been defeated by combining our strength with that of the heroes. I think that should be celebrated. A festival will help raise everyone’s morale too,” Melty continued. 
“A celebration, after everything we lost?” I asked. It sounded a bit improper to me. Melty replied with no signs of backing down, however. 
“Exactly because of what we’ve lost. We’ll also pray for the souls of the departed and thank them for giving their lives in battle to allow us to continue living,” Melty said. A celebration because of the hardships we’ve overcome. They had thrown a party in the castle before, after defeating one of the waves. This was the same principle as that. Considering the kind of world this was, maybe it was better to enjoy things while you could. 
“Why don’t we just let people do their own thing?” I asked. 
“You sure? I think we could turn quite the profit. Here’s an estimate. Might be useful for keeping the home fires burning, no?” The amount Melty presented me with was actually pretty insane. 
 
“Where’s that all coming from?” I asked, still a little incredulous. 
“We’ll be running all sorts of events and also running the books on all the gambling,” Melty explained. Gambling—I could certainly get behind that. 
That wasn’t the problem though. 
“Couldn’t that be dangerous?” I asked. 
“That won’t be a problem. Alongside the coliseum, we’re also planning some filolial races. And you’ve got some fast ones in your stable,” Melty responded. Filolials, huh? Motoyasu would probably be coming back by portal every now and then, so I thought maybe I’d ask him about it. “We’ve received challenges from likely associations too. We’re going to make a killing,” Melty assured me. 
“Hmmm. Okay. You go ahead,” I told her. She continued to look at me, wordlessly, with a thoughtful look on her face. Then, as though making up her mind, she changed the topic. 
“I’m also planning a singing performance by Filo,” Melty revealed. 
“Singing?” I asked. 
“That’s right. Before you went off to Siltvelt, I went traveling with Filo to raise her levels, remember? We did the rounds of various taverns, putting on a show. She even became known as the Bird God Diva,” she explained. 
“Heh!” Filo said proudly, puffing up her chest. She’d liked singing back when Motoyasu was around the first time, I recalled. She was good at it too. She could sing as well as the wandering bard, loved to dance, and was beautiful when in human form. 
 
She was like . . . a pop singer, basically. 
I’d thought the trauma of being put on display had made her dislike standing out, but it seemed she’d overcome that. 
“She has a lot of fans. When she sang in the tavern in town recently, the place was packed—standing room only,” Melty informed me. 
“She really is a pop idol,” I said. 
“Some people have even started visiting the town just to see her. We’ve also had loads of requests from artists for her to model for them. What do you think? I bet we could charge a good price,” Melty continued. 
“This is all a lot, coming from you, Melty. I thought you’d dislike the idea of using Filo to make money,” I said. 
“I mean . . .” she started but then trailed off. 
“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said. 
“Yeah, I know.” It was painfully obvious that everyone was still handling me with kid gloves. I just couldn’t take much more of it. 
“If Filo is okay with all this, go ahead,” I told Melty. That was the only answer I was capable of right now. Filo extended a single feather from one of her wings like an index finger and placed it against her mouth. 
“Very well then. If you’re going to watch me in action, Master, I’ll do my very best!” she enthused. 
“Hmmm. You’ve got a deal.” If Filo wanted me to watch her, then that was the least I could do. 
“Great! You’ll see what I can do!” she exclaimed. 
 
“Do your very best,” I replied. 
“I will!” she chirped. 
“Sounds good,” Melty confirmed. “The Merchant’s Union is already underway with preparations, so we’ll hold the event in three days’ time.” 
“That’s pretty soon,” I commented. 
“Everyone is excited for it. I’ve got people from all over helping out. We’ll even have folks from Q’ten Lo taking part,” Melty explained. 
“That’s right,” Raphtalia recalled. “Some of them volunteered for the Phoenix battle, didn’t they?” 
“Anyone from Q’ten Lo loves a good festival!” Sadeena commented. 
“You can say that again!” Shildina added, both sisters smiling broadly. Were they just happy to have a chance to drink, or were they really happy about all of this? 
“Very well. Everyone just do your own part to prepare for the festivities,” I told them. Everyone in the village seemed quite excited for the task, and there were general shouts of enthusiasm. 
“Bubba! I’ll do my best too!” Keel shouted. 
“Good, good. I’ll be counting on you,” I replied. And so everyone in the village started to prepare for the festival. 
“Should I be doing anything?” I asked. If we were going to be celebrating together, then as representative of the village I would clearly need to do something. 

“No need for you to worry yourself, Naofumi,” Melty replied. “Your job is just to enjoy yourself on the day.” 
 
“That’s right, little Naofumi. We’ve already put our oceanic hunting party together, so let’s go and do that,” Sadeena proposed. 
“I’m not sure this is the best time . . .” I replied. 
“Mr. Naofumi, how about we just let Melty and the others do their thing and go and see about raising your level, like we originally planned?” Raphtalia also gently suggested. 
“Okay,” I finally agreed, after a pause. It looked like I’d be taking Sadeena and the others along for a little fishing expedition. 
“The other issue is searching for ways to get stronger . . .” I muttered, turning my gaze to Fohl. He realized I was looking, and his back straightened as though he’d been zapped with lightning. 
He was really on his guard around me now. 
“What is it?” he asked. 
“Fohl, those gauntlets you obtained, they are definitely a seven star weapon, correct?” I confirmed with him. 
“Yes. I have SP displayed in my field of vision now. There’s no mistaking it,” he asserted. 
“Hmmm. Will you take a look and see if there’s a unique power-up method under help? Raphtalia’s weapon, a vassal weapon from another world, has something like that. I’m sure we can share the power-up methods between the four holy weapons and seven star weapons,” I told him. 
“I remember that from the argument with the fake seven star hero in Siltvelt,” Fohl recalled. In accordance with my request, his eyes started to dart around. 
 
“Is there such a thing?” he asked. “I can’t find it.” I wondered why he couldn’t find it. The only thing I could think of was that, just like my shield, we didn’t know the power-up method. 
“Naofumi, calm down! Fohl hasn’t done anything wrong!” Ren stepped in to stop me. I’d normally have something nasty to say in this situation, so he’d probably mistakenly thought I was angry. 
“I’m not angry. You’re the one who needs to calm down,” I said. Seriously, sure, in the past I might have bit back about how useless Fohl was, but I didn’t have the energy for that. 
Yet it was true that I wanted to become stronger. 
“There is a high probability that the situation is the same as when we didn’t understand the shield’s power-up method,” Itsuki intoned in his normal monotone way. 
“What should I do?” Fohl asked the three gathered heroes, putting his gauntlets together. 
“Maybe search around, like Naofumi did, to see if the power-up method is written down somewhere,” Ren suggested. 
“Good idea. Let’s search Q’ten Lo and the country where the Phoenix was sealed,” Itsuki suggested. 
“Sounds like a plan,” Ren replied. Thus, it was decided that Fohl would go with Ren and Itsuki to look for the power-up method. After Raphtalia sent Fohl and the others to Q’ten Lo using Scroll of Return, I got the underwater gear ready and we headed to the ocean. 

Sadeena and Shildina then turned into their killer whale therianthrope forms, and riding one each, Raphtalia and I headed into the water. 

“All set? Here we go!” Sadeena said. 
“I’m ready. I’m really looking forward to this hunting trip with sweet Naofumi. If I see my chance, I’m going to grab it with both hands,” Shildina replied. 
“You’d better hold on tight to Shildina, little Raphtalia,” Sadeena warned. 
“I-I will. It feels like I’d better keep an eye on you too though, Sadeena,” Raphtalia replied. That made Sadeena turn to look at Raphtalia. 
“Hold on there, little Raphtalia. I have a sense of time and place. Little Naofumi is in no place to enjoy adult pleasures, so I won’t be making any moves on him,” Sadeena replied. 
I didn’t have much experience with fighting underwater. In fact, fighting the wave at the Cal Mira islands was pretty much it. Considering the future battles we would be facing, I definitely needed to earn some more experience. 
“Little Naofumi,” Sadeena called. 
“Huh? What’s up? Sorry, I wasn’t listening to you at all,” I replied. 
“See? We can’t take our eyes off little Naofumi right now, so there’s no time for the hot stuff,” Sadeena pointed out. 
“Yes, I see what you mean. Very well,” Raphtalia acknowledged. 
“Let’s go then,” Sadeena said. With me on her back, we raced through the ocean. Being an aquatic therianthrope clearly gave her the advantage in terms of movement underwater. I’d felt it in Q’ten Lo, but she was definitely going even faster now. 
 
“Would it have been better to come by boat?” I wondered. 
“You’ll teleport us back when we’re finished, correct? A boat would just get in the way,” Sadeena replied. 
“Yeah . . . I guess you’re right,” I responded. Heading into the offing, we made good progress with the small island that included Sadeena’s secret base in the distance. 
“Shildina, can you please keep your eyes to the front?” Raphtalia asked. 
“It’s okay. I can follow Sadeena underwater even without seeing her. She sends me sounds and weak lightning pulses with almost annoying persistence,” Shildina explained. 
“I’m sure you can . . . but it still makes me uneasy,” Raphtalia replied. I turned around to see Shildina sticking close to us at Raphtalia’s request. Of course, Shildina could get lost on her own doorstep. 
After a while, Sadeena stopped. 
“This looks like a decent place to start. Little Naofumi, I’m going to start diving. Let me know if it gets too much for you,” she told me. 
“No problem,” I replied. 
“You too, little Raphtalia,” Sadeena continued. “Little Shildina, don’t forget to maintain some air using wind magic.” 
Of course. Sadeena’s use of lightning had seemed convenient for fishy things, and then Shildina could use wind magic to maintain a supply of air. The two of them together really could make underwater activities a breeze. 
Led on by Sadeena, we started down into the depths. 
Being underwater was almost like being out in space. It was so beautiful, as though the sunlight was being drawn down to the seabed. 
 
I was also aware that the range I needed to protect was far wider than on land, with no ground beneath us and the possibility of being attacked from any direction. I had fought underwater before, but all I’d needed to do back then was concentrate on the boss of the wave. 
“Let’s find some monsters to fight!” Sadeena said cheerfully. First a blue shark noticed us and closed in. I deployed Shooting Star Shield and created a barrier. I was prepared for its attack, but Sadeena thrust forward with her harpoon and ran it through. 
“That’s the only kind of monster that shows up at this depth,” Sadeena explained. I almost felt sorry for the blue shark, which was skewered in a single attack. The ocean turned red with its blood, and I expected the smell to start bringing in all sorts of other monsters . . . but nothing of the sort happened. 
“All the monsters around here know how scary Sadeena is. None of them will come,” Shildina revealed. 
“Ah, I see,” I replied. 

“Things might be different this time. Bringing you along, little Naofumi, seems to have attracted more attention than normal,” Sadeena commented. 
“Now you mention it . . .” Raphtalia muttered, looking around from Shildina’s back. 
“Even so, hunting monsters at this depth isn’t going to earn you the kind of experience you want, little Naofumi. Just give me a moment.” Sadeena gave off some crackles of static electricity and the gathered monsters scattered. 
 
“We can breathe for a long time, but that’s no reason to fight them all. Let’s go deeper,” Sadeena suggested. 
“Count me in. Heavenly Emperor, hold on tightly please,” Shildina said. 
“O-okay,” Raphtalia replied. Sadeena and her sister dove down with us, deeper, deeper . . . so deep that we could hardly see any sunlight at all. 
“Little Raphtalia, my sister and I don’t need light, but maybe you could use magic to make some for yourself and little Naofumi?” Sadeena asked. 
“S-sure,” Raphtalia replied. She used some magic to create a ball of light to provide illumination. Just that considerably increased the range we could see. 
Eventually the continental shelf ended, and an even deeper place came into view. The view underwater was quite wonderful, very much like flying through the sky on Gaelion’s back. 
“Ah, there’s something there,” I indicated. 
“Yes, I see it. It’s a sunken ship. My sister has already checked it out, I’m afraid. Nothing there,” Shildina responded. Sadeena offered an apology. 
“I see,” I said. 
“There might be another one in the place we’re actually going to, so look forward to that,” Sadeena consoled me. 
“Okay,” I said. Deeper, deeper . . . We eventually reached the ocean floor. Even with the underwater gear equipped, I was aware of the limitations on my movement. Sadeena and her sister didn’t seem affected, of course, moving as smoothly as ever with the propulsion from their mighty tails. 
 
“Here we go,” Sadeena said. At her words, I readied myself for battle. First there was a chartreuse green mask fish, a monster a bit like an anglerfish with three lights dangling in front of its head. There was also an eel-like olive-green angola and a sahara lobster crab. I couldn’t tell if that one was meant to be a lobster or a crab. 
The chartreuse green mask fish fired an arrow of light toward us from its three balls of light. 
“Here it comes! You handle it, little Naofumi,” Sadeena prompted me. 
“I’ve got it,” I replied. I held my shield up in front of me. We’d be fine behind the Shooting Star Shield’s barrier. The arrow of light failed to pierce the barrier and was repelled. 
It looked like I could handle this one. 
“Yay! So convenient to have you along, little Naofumi. Those light arrows come out so quickly. Avoiding them is a pain,” Sadeena said. 
“They have some homing properties too,” Shildina added. “You have to be careful of the olive-green angola. They gradually use a mucus membrane to block our actions. The sahara lobster crab, meanwhile, is really hard.” 
“That’s about the sum of it. Let’s take the fight to them!” Sadeena moved at high speed up to the chartreuse green mask fish and thrust at it with her harpoon. It wriggled around much more powerfully when compared to the blue shark. 
“Zweite Chain Lightning!” While gripping her harpoon, Sadeena intoned some magic. The resulting lightning electrified the chartreuse green mask fish and then carried on toward the olive-green angola. While it wasn’t enough to finish it off, getting hit did make it fall back. 
 
Not missing the chance to attack, the sahara lobster crab kicked up some grit from the seabed and closed in, launching a smashing attack with its massive claws. I blocked it on the Shooting Star Shield. 
“Oh my! This is so much easier than normal!” Sadeena enthused. 
“Let me have a turn. Please join me, Heavenly Emperor,” Shildina said. 
“S-sure,” Raphtalia agreed. From inside the barrier, Shildina swept her katana down with incredible force and sliced off its claw. Raphtalia then tried a single slice across its body. 
“Easy win! Keep an eye on your remaining air,” Sadeena cautioned. 
“Worse comes to worst, I’ll use Bubble Shield to make some,” I replied. The shield skill had the ability to create oxygen underwater, just once. I could hopefully use that to extend our dive time. 
“How’s the experience looking, little Naofumi?” Sadeena asked. I checked it at her comment. Yes, it was good. I was getting bigger numbers than from Q’ten Lo. And even more from that trip deep into the mountains. For sure it was better than the strong monsters Ren and Itsuki had been talking about. These weren’t even that tough, and yet the experience was around the same as from a karma-type boss in the Cal Mira islands. That placed them over level 80. 
“If we go deeper, then we’ll encounter monsters worth even more experience. They get stronger too, of course,” Sadeena said. I gave her an unsettling smile. That’s right. If I got stronger, then maybe I wouldn’t have to lose anything ever again. 
 
“It’s going well so far. No reason to stop yet,” Raphtalia said. 
“I agree. Carry on, Sadeena,” I responded. 
“You can count on me,” she replied. We dove deeper, for as long as our air would last. 
Along the way, I put defeated monsters into my shield. Doing so rewarded me with some pretty convenient skills, such as an increase in diving time and underwater combat skills, making it progressively easier for me to fight. 
But I was still a step behind Sadeena, who was naturally suited to this environment. 
“Wow. We’ve got a big boy here,” Sadeena said. Having dived even deeper, a shark of comparable size to father Gaelion, called a slate-gray megalo shark, appeared. “I think even we four might have trouble fighting this,” she said. 
“I’ve got an idea about that,” I said, then proposed using magic. “You want to join in too?” 
“I think so. Once you mention magic, that means the two of us together, right?” she replied. 
“That’s right,” I told her. We synchronized our breathing and started to prepare Descent of the Thunder God. We could now use up to Liberation class. 
Using this magic would allow for a more efficient increase in our abilities. That was what I was hoping for, anyway, but with a fizzling sound, the cooperative magic failed. 
 
“Oh?” Sadeena questioned. The slate-gray megalo shark started charging toward us. I managed to block the attack itself, meaning we took no damage. But the impact sent us swirling away through the water. 
“M-Mr. Naofumi! Sadeena!” Raphtalia shouted. 
“What went wrong?” Shildina asked. 
“Little Naofumi, try again,” Sadeena prompted. 
“I’m with you,” I replied . . . but every subsequent attempt at cooperative magic also failed partway through. 
I didn’t know what was going on. 
“No choice then. I’ll use Liberation!” I concentrated and cast some magic on my own. “Liberation Aura!” I applied it to Sadeena, who could move the most efficiently. 
“I’m going in again!” she shouted. With me still on her back, Sadeena charged in once more, wreathed in the currents, and struck at the slate-gray megalo shark. Her piercing thrust successfully shaved a lot of the meat from her target . . . but she failed to finish it in a single attack. 
“Next . . . Drifa Thunderbolt!” Sadeena sent out a blast of lightning, shocking the slate-gray megalo shark. It reared backward and thrashed about. 
“Oh my!” Sadeena exclaimed. 
“Gah!” I grunted. Even Sadeena was knocked back hard as it continued to resist. 
“A real tough boy,” she commented. 
“Yeah. Scarily strong. I never thought there were monsters like this in the outside world. Maybe no match for the Water Dragon, but still incredible,” Shildina added. 
 
“W-what should we do?” Raphtalia asked. 
“We can take it,” Shildina replied. “Pile on. I’m not going to lose to Sadeena.” She proceeded to create a magic water tornado, slicing into the entire body of the slate-gray megalo shark. The attack wasn’t big enough to consume it all, however. 
“Haaah! Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny Formation Two!” Raphtalia had used that time to close the gap and unleashed a slicing attack into the fish. That was finally enough to slice the slate-gray megalo shark in two and finish it off. 
“Not up to the strength of the Phoenix,” Raphtalia commented. 
“Can’t compare to one of the four benevolent animals, surely,” I replied. I didn’t even want to go there. Regular enemies worse than the Spirit Tortoise or Phoenix? Of course, in a video game, later mobs generally ended up stronger than early bosses. 
“Things are going well. I wouldn’t have made it this far alone,” Sadeena said. 
“Really?” I asked. 
“Yes. Having you protect us has made all the difference. How was that, anyway? The experience,” she asked. 
“A decent amount, for sure. Sadeena, what about you? All of you?” I asked. 
“Oh, I’m maxed out,” she replied. Of course. Those like Sadeena, non-heroes, generally had a maximum level of 100. Crossing that threshold apparently required a second class-up, but we didn’t know how to do that yet. 
 
We had heard that the dragon king . . . Dragon Emperor fragments could provide a way to break the level cap. We just didn’t have any more information on that yet. 
Which led to the question of how to handle raising levels from this point on. 
It was a different story for the heroes and vassal weapon holders . . . For now Raphtalia would just have to keep doing her best as an attacker. 
“Our purpose at the moment is to increase your level, little Naofumi, and little Raphtalia too. So let’s just keep doing that,” Sadeena said. 
“Okay. Without taking too many risks . . . let’s do that,” I agreed. 
We continued our hunting in the sea. Along the way S’yne joined up with us too. 
It was the evening of the second day after we started hunting in the ocean. 
The old guy from the weapon shop, Imiya’s uncle . . . and Motoyasu II all showed up at the village. Ren had gone out to meet them as representative from the village, so he was with them when they arrived. He was kind of like the old guy’s apprentice. 
“Hey, kid. I heard what happened. That must have been tough,” the old guy sympathized. 
“You have my deepest condolences,” Imiya’s uncle also offered. Both had such empathy in their eyes. After the Phoenix battle, they had asked Raphtalia to bring them to Melromarc when she visited Q’ten Lo. As for Motoyasu II . . . 
 
“Yahoo! I’ll say one thing for this punk’s village: it’s always filled with pretty girls!” he crowed, seemingly as energetic as ever. 
“You sure it’s safe to bring him out of Q’ten Lo?” I asked. 
“I’ve got that in the bag, kid. No worries,” the old guy assured me. 
“I feel a bit sorry for him, almost, but it seems like the right move,” Imiya’s uncle added with a dry chuckle. 
“Damn you! Don’t remind me of that, Erhard! You jerk—” Motoyasu II was cut off by a painful grunt, putting his hand to his chest. I recognized that reaction. He had a slave seal. 
“I’ve set it so he can’t move too far away from me. For our trip here I added another condition too. It activates when he says something that might rile you up, kid,” the old guy explained. 
“Why do I have to suffer like this at the hands of my own student?!” Motoyasu II raged. 
“Because you’re a terrible philanderer and owe a whole bunch in debts you tried to cut out on,” the old guy curtly replied. 
“We have permission not only from Raphtalia, the Heavenly Emperor herself, but also the queen of Melromarc,” Imiya’s uncle added. I understood. I looked over at Raphtalia and she nodded. 
“Just keep off the kid’s back, you hear?” the old guy said. 
“Bah! If he was a real man that little cutie wouldn’t have had to—gah, dammit!” From his reaction, I could pretty much guess what he was going to say. He was right too. All I could do was defend, and yet I’d failed to defend so many people, Atla included. 
 
“Hey? Punk? Bah, this isn’t easy!” After looking at my face, Motoyasu II clicked his tongue and crossed his arms. “I can’t stand being around this loser. Hurry up with our business here and let’s go drinking in the next town over!” he grouched. 
“What business?” I asked. 
“You found that sword in Q’ten Lo, remember? He finished cleansing it,” Ren said. He showed me the cursed blade that we had obtained in Q’ten Lo, where it had formed the core of the Sealed Orochi. 
“Yeah, I managed to purify it. But I can’t see you chumps making use of it. The required stats are super high. You’d need to take all sorts of steps just to make use of it.” At Motoyasu II’s veiled taunts, I checked it out. As I feared, my appraisal wasn’t high enough to see anything. I really needed to find better skills in that arena to be ready for any possible circumstances. “On top of that, I reckon you’ll only be able to use it once. Swing it a second time and the purified curse will just well up again. After all that hard work!” Motoyasu II moaned. We could only use it once, he said. That wasn’t exactly efficient. The cutting edge did look pretty sharp though . . . 
“So? You copied this, Ren?” I asked. 
“I did . . . but the weapon that showed up was the Sealed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword. Check out the blade though.” With that, Ren changed his sword. The exterior did look the same, but it was also covered with a see-through coating, like a scabbard. He had to quickly change it to another sword too. “Just keeping it active causes all sorts of status effects, really piling on the pressure. It doesn’t have all that high an attack value either,” he explained. 
 
“So that’s what copying got you . . . a sealed weapon,” I pondered. So was it a cursed weapon that had the curse lowered to a point where it was usable, or had the curse just not been broken? My Shield of Rage had been blessed and turned into the Shield of Compassion thanks to Atla, after all. There was a chance that meeting certain conditions might break the curse. 
Thinking about shields reminded me of something. 
“In a game I played once, there was a shield that had only negative effects when it was equipped. But if you wore it for long enough the curse was broken and it became the ultimate shield,” I recalled. 
“I can’t deny that possibility. When I use it, a special item does appear as a number,” Ren described. 
“Sounds like either the curse will intensify or it will become blessed and useable,” I reasoned. 
“Yeah. I’d like to try it, but I’m worried it might mess with my head. If I do cause any problems, I want you to stop me. If that weapon starts to corrupt me, you can use the sakura stone of destiny series to contain me, right?” Ren asked both Raphtalia and me. 
“Right. For now, let’s do whatever we can do to get even a tiny bit stronger,” Raphtalia offered the both of us, nodding with her hand on her chest. 
“What about the remaining weapon?” Ren asked. 
 
“We can’t use that kind of single-use disposable weapon in actual combat. Apparently they are Dragon Emperor cores, so how about we feed them to Gaelion?” I suggested. 
“Some thanks for all that hard work I put into re-forging them!” Motoyasu II complained. In this case, his rage did seem justified. But making use of such finicky gear in battle seemed more trouble than it was worth. 
If someone other than a hero had used one of them—when the Phoenix had been about to explode—could they have defeated it? I wasn’t sure, but it sounded unlikely. No matter how strong they were, I couldn’t imagine they’d act as such a powerful trump card. Even when maxed-out using the heroes’ shared power-up method, we hadn’t managed to wipe the Phoenix out instantly, after all. 
“In any case. I’m going to be in the Melromarc weapon shop for a while, kid, researching the materials from the new monsters you’ve defeated. If anything else comes up, just come find me,” the old guy said. 
“I’m also about ready to finish my training and return to the village,” Imiya’s uncle reported. 
“Wouldn’t the three of you make the best gear if you all work together?” I posited. 
“I mean, you’re probably right!” the old man said with a wry grin. It looked like I’d hit the nail on the head. Taking this into account, we decided that Imiya’s uncle would only make periodic return visits to the village, and he would continue to work with the old man. 
With that, I requested new gear from the three of them. 
 
After that, I gave the purified core from the Cursed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword to Gaelion. It looked like it would still take a while to get some information from it though.