Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Subterranean Maze City 

We arrived in civilization—a town in a certain nation. The buildings had a definite Western style. Things were also a bit steampunky, with various machines on display. It seemed pretty rare in this world of mainly Japanese-styled nations. 
We decided to head into town after Raphtalia put some illusion magic on our faces, just enough to stop anyone from potentially being recognized. Checkpoints were a fixture in Kizuna’s world, but it looked like we were already inside. 
The gate at the entrance to the town looked like it had been left open. It didn’t look like there were many guards either. 
“There’s a guild that services this nation, right? Let’s find out exactly where we are,” Glass suggested. Then she headed with Ethnobalt toward the guild to check things out. They returned pretty quickly. 
“As expected, this is the country where the musical instrument vassal weapon holder is,” Glass revealed. 
“Incredible. It brought us to a town close to our destination,” L’Arc said. I mused for a moment about how great it would have been if we’d been moved to the closest town to Kizuna immediately after defeating the guy who stole L’Arc’s scythe. 
Anyway. I looked over at the killer whale sisters. 
“Sadeena, Shildina, make sure to look as close to human as possible. No going therianthrope when there are prying eyes around,” I warned them. 
 
“Oh my,” Sadeena said. “But prying eyes are the best!” 
“Why are you saying this?” Shildina asked. 
“Don’t you see? The demi-humans in this world and the demi-humans in our world are slightly different,” I said. The ones here were more like elves or dwarfs. Those like Raphtalia, with animal ears, were much rarer. “Make sure to keep your characteristic ears and tails hidden. Raphtalia, you’ve been undercover before, right? You know what to do,” I said. 
“True, but this miko outfit probably stands out,” she replied. 
“Good point. Can’t you use magic to make it look like you’re wearing normal armor?” I asked. 
“I don’t understand your obsession with this miko outfit, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said. 
“Raph,” said Raph-chan. 
“I’m sorry, dear lady Raphtalia, but I can see his point of view. Kiddo here has clearly taken quite a liking to that outfit of yours,” L’Arc said, providing some completely unexpected support. I mean, he wasn’t wrong. I was just a little embarrassed to admit it. 
“I do understand why you are asking, but if the magic is noticed by anyone and it puts them on guard, then it will have been pointless,” Raphtalia said. Maybe she was feeling a little embarrassed too, because her cheeks were flushed slightly red. 
“Oh my, we are quite jealous over here,” Sadeena said. 
“We have our own ethnic costumes we can wear!” Shildina added. 
 
“If you could stop that bickering, that would be great,” I told them. I was trying not to let it get to me, but talk about ethnic clothing always made me think of Atla. 
“Very well. Oh, little Shildina, how inconsiderate of you!” Sadeena chided. 
“Shut it! Okay then, sweet Naofumi, how about you tell us what to wear?” Shildina replied. 
“I mean . . . you two don’t look especially demi-human so long as you don’t go therianthrope, and your clothing probably won’t stand out much either,” I reflected. Maybe it was just that they had slightly different skin. It just looked like their hair was a tail, but that could be considered a strange fashion choice. 
“L’Arc, do you think we could explain it away by saying they have odd tattoos?” I asked. 
“Huh. Yeah, I guess so. If they want to keep exposing so much skin— something I’m all for, by the way—we can cover it easily by saying they are using a fashion accessory called an imitation jewel, which lets you become a Jewel,” L’Arc explained. There was a race called “Jewels.” They had all sorts of different gemstones as their cores. They probably came in all sorts of different colors. Saying that would be enough to cover up the appearance of the sisters though. It indicated some serious blind spots in my understanding of fashion in this other world. 
Then I recalled that there had been similar fashion in Siltvelt—fake tails, if I remembered correctly. Demi-humans who didn’t like the shape of their tail wore an accessory a bit like a wig to give it more volume. I also recalled thinking it might have been nice to give Raphtalia and Raph-chan fluffier tails. 
 
“Therese probably knows more about that. She’s a Jewel, after all,” L’Arc said. 
“Leave it to me. Yes . . . from their external appearance, I should think most people will presume them to be Jewels,” Therese explained. 
“Something else we definitely have to watch out for is language. Speaking an unknown tongue is definitely going to get eyes on you. Say as little as possible. Also, Shildina, you stick close to Sadeena at all times,” I said. 
“Why?” Shildina retorted. 
“Because your sense of direction sucks,” I reminded her. In just the last few days, Shildina had gotten lost in L’Arc’s castle numerous times. That was exactly the main reason why I had wanted to leave her behind. “If we get split up here, we’ll never be able to meet up again! Would you be okay with that?” 
“No!” she exclaimed. 
“So there you go. If you don’t want to stick with Sadeena, you can stay close to Filo instead,” I told her. 
“Filo? Okay!” Shildina replied. Filo had experienced all sorts of troubles when she found herself alone in this world. She knew the deal. She could also fly up and spot Shildina from the air if she had to. 
“Oh my,” Sadeena said. 
 
“In any case, killer whale sisters, you must not become therianthropes when there are other people around,” I impressed upon them again. “Understood?” 
“Oh, little Naofumi.” Sadeena gave a laugh and a nod at my cautioning, like she did when she was messing about. “Women sometimes like to be restricted. If you wish to gaze upon our demi-human forms, I can resist my other urges.” 
“Yes, yes, whatever. You need to read the situation and keep a low profile, understand?” I told her. 
“I understand!” she replied. 
“Raphtalia, just keep your ears and tail hidden as much as possible,” I said. 
“Okay,” she agreed. There wasn’t much to worry about for Rishia and Itsuki . . . and then the rest of the group was originally from this world. 
“Do we have money to prepare everything we need for the infiltration?” I asked. 
“Naofumi, hold on.” With that, L’Arc took out a coin from inside his clothing. It reminded me of the silver coin-like currency I had seen when first being summoned. Then Glass and Ethnobalt also took out their own money. 
“It might be hard to buy really nice stuff for everyone, but we’ve got this much,” L’Arc said. 
“That’s right,” Glass added, both of them holding up silver coins with holes in the middle. 
“Why do you have that with you?” I asked. 
 
“Before the waves occurred . . . we visited many different nations and so carried various currencies with us,” Glass explained. 
“But we kept the cash away from Kizuna,” L’Arc commented. She sold things for cash whenever she needed it. Just taking her personality into account, I decided it was better to leave the money in the hands of her allies. She was probably pretty wasteful. 
“That said, we won’t be able to rent lodgings with this many people,” L’Arc clarified. 
“Just take a portal back. Anyway, getting back Kizuna is our priority. We’ll make some money when and if we need it. Okay?” I asked. 
We left the town without sticking out and headed toward the spot where Kizuna was being held. We had to follow Chris’s directions, but every now and then, Chris would tilt his head with a puzzled look on his face. Sometimes he seemed unsure of the way to go. 
Following the unsteady direction of Chris . . . after two days, we reached a hill from which the castle and accompanying town of the enemy country could be seen. 
I wondered what was going on with the castles in this country. They built a platform, like a steel frame using truss towers, beyond a massive castle gate and then built the castle elevated on that. They had a pretty cunning design, quite different from the architecture seen in Melromarc, Faubrey, or Siltvelt. Getting inside looked like it would be a real pain. 

“Why didn’t the mirror vassal weapon drop us closer to Kizuna?” I pondered aloud. 
 
“To avoid throwing us right into battle, maybe?” L’Arc responded. 
“Hmmm.” Not a bad answer. That said, with our current strength, we should have been able to handle it. Right? 
My shield arm had been tingling for a while now. I really just hoped it was because Kizuna was getting closer. 
I was also starting to get a nasty feeling about all this. I decided we had better stay even more alert. 
“Kiddo Naofumi,” L’Arc said. Now he was trying to apply his “kiddo” in the same way he often used “lady” for a woman. He really thought he could get away with it. 
For a moment, I thought about seriously trying to take Therese off him. 
“Naofumi?” he addressed me again. Having noticed the look in my eyes, he gave a gentle cough and adjusted his form of address. 
“Yes?” I finally replied. 
“After we save lady Kizuna, what then?” he asked. 
“What do you mean ‘what then’? Aren’t you planning on putting an end to this upstart of a vassal weapon holder?” I said. 
“Not that. I mean, how do we escape?” L’Arc asked. 
“Right, that,” I said. This might not be the same as the Takt situation, in which chopping off the head of the leader would necessarily cause the military of this nation to surrender. In Takt’s case, the coalition army led by Melromarc had already wiped out the Faubrey army. And even in the case of defeating the guy who stole the scythe, L’Arc’s forces had proceeded to wipe out any remaining resistance. There were all sorts of possible plays, including just muscling our way through or taking out their leadership and calling for a surrender. But there seemed a high possibility of something going wrong this time. 
 
“What is the reputation of this musical instrument vassal weapon holder in this nation?” I asked. “It will make a difference if the holder is the top of the food chain or a lower-ranking general or something like that.” 
“They hold a position known as the successor to the king, if that means anything,” Ethnobalt explained. That meant dishing out some punishment would probably cause others from the nation to retaliate in revenge. It wasn’t like we had a big party along. If they thought they could crush us with numbers, I mean, they were probably right. 
“L’Arc, do you want to occupy the nation of the musical instrument vassal weapon holder?” I asked him. 
“Doing that would definitely damage the trust placed in us by other nations. We just kind of restored that, but we’re still facing a lot of opposition, so I’d rather avoid that if I can,” L’Arc confirmed. They had Kizuna and a number of other vassal weapon holders, after all. That could definitely make them a threat, from the perspective of military force. If I took an example from my own modern society, it would be like trying to sue for peace by threatening an opponent—even if that did feel necessary in peace negotiations sometimes . . . 
“Why don’t you aim to unify the world?” I asked. 

“That’s the same idea as some of the problematic vassal weapon holders, Naofumi,” L’Arc said, an edge in his voice. 
 
“Yes . . . I guess that’s true,” I replied. We were acting to punish those attempting to achieve world domination. We weren’t about to go and try the exact same thing. The stance held by Kizuna and Glass was to punish these vassal weapon holders who prioritized their own greed at this time when everyone should be coming together to fight for the sake of the world. They wanted to take a route that would leave their nation unimpeachable. That seemed like a hard position to maintain in the face of the deaths among the four holy heroes. But humans were not simple enough creatures to just accept something in the face of such circumstances. 
“We don’t have time to be fighting amongst ourselves. If there is an issue, we may need to make threats to contain it or we will be defeated by the waves and wiped out,” Glass said. She seemed to have a better handle on that side of things. 
“Still, I’m just trying to make sure we can secure an escape route for this many people,” L’Arc said. 
“It’s a fair concern,” I conceded. “After the rescue though, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to get out with portals that Itsuki and I will provide.” There wasn’t going to be some annoying barrier like in Q’ten Lo. So long as we could use the portals, we’d be fine. 
“Before that though . . . Ethnobalt, what are you training for at a time like this?” I asked. He was using what looked like dumbbells to work on his arms. The other day, I had seen him doing circuits of the castle garden while walking on his hands. His training with Rishia was showing considerable results, and while not a hero, he was definitely awakened. 
 
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just become a habit,” he explained, abashed. Why was it that every intelligent friend I made slowly turned into a muscle-brain? It was an annoyance to have to caution him about it too. I decided to just prioritize the operational meeting with L’Arc and the others. 
“First things first, even if we want to take action, shouldn’t we start by investigating exactly where lady Kizuna is?” L’Arc reasoned. 
“I’d love to just charge in there head-on . . . but I guess that’s not an option,” I said. Once you experienced enough combat to truly believe being strong meant you could do whatever you liked, that was when you started to overlook the important details. I could see how the heroes often got self-conceited. I needed to be careful of that. 
If we just rushed in and Kizuna got killed, all of this would be for nothing. 
That might allow us to call in new heroes, but losing someone we knew was too painful. That had to be avoided at all costs. It sounded like Kizuna was in a pretty weakened state too. 
“So before instigating the main operation, we need to do some scouting. We don’t have any time to waste, so I’ll go locate the building where Kizuna is being held. L’Arc, you go and check out the dragon hourglass. Everyone not joining us, avoid being alone. Just pretend to be regular people and scout the region,” I ordered. 
“That works. I’ll go and take a look at the dragon hourglass first. Seeing as she doesn’t understand what people are saying, I’ll take a drinking sister along with me,” L’Arc said. 
 
“Oh my! I would rather go with little Naofumi, if possible,” Sadeena said. 
“This place is a key position. Sadeena, I really need you to use your sound waves to check out the defenses around the dragon hourglass,” I asked her. I was pretty sure we could escape via portal, but we also didn’t know what might happen. We needed as many options as possible. 
“If that’s what you want, little Naofumi, then no problem. You just keep little Raphtalia safe,” she told me. 
“I will,” I promised. Then Shildina put up her hand. 
“What about me?” she asked. 
“You want to get lost that badly?” I asked her. She slumped her head. 
“I’ll stick with her!” Filo said cheerfully. She was gripping the morning star that Romina had modified for her—it was now more of a bolas—and looked ready for action. I was willing to bet she could just charge into battle and smash her bolas into the enemies as she passed them. According to Romina, it was now a pretty convenient weapon, able to both be copied as a projectile by Rishia and by Kizuna’s weapon too. Three birds with one stone —now that was good work. 
“If anything happens, I will be there,” S’yne said. She stuck a small pin into my armor. She was suited to this, being able to both check out our escape and the enemy terrain. With that, then, L’Arc was going to take Therese, Sadeena, Shildina, Filo, and S’yne and go check out the dragon hourglass. 
“We’ll gather information around the taverns and guild,” offered Itsuki, taking Rishia and Ethnobalt along. That left me, Raphtalia, Glass, Chris, and Raph-chan. 
 
Divided up into three parties, we headed into the capital of the enemy nation. 
“Pen!” Chris said. The entrance to the town looked . . . less guarded than expected, actually. The place looked like a peaceful castle town, totally free from the threat of the waves. I looked up at the big castle built on top of the iron towers. It definitely blocked the sunlight down here a bit. Having a castle on top of what was basically loads of Tokyo Towers was a pretty bizarre construction, all things considered. 
We proceeded through the town. Chris led the way with his Kizuna-detector ability. We had to be pretty careful not to attract any attention, but I was pretty sure we’d be okay. We were just using a peculiar shikigami, that was all. 
We made it through the main street and passed through the back alleys, then along a side street. Chris’s detection still cut off every now and then, but maybe because we were getting closer, he quickly picked the trail up again. 
“I was worried maybe she’d fallen into the never-ending labyrinth again, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case,” I said. 
“At least if that was the case, we would know she had a way out,” Raphtalia commented. 
“When you came here before, you found yourself in a bit of a tight spot, right?” I asked her. 

“I did. Thank you for reminding me,” she said, heavy on the irony. “My escape was pretty thrilling, I must admit.” 

“Seeing as we’re talking about Kizuna, she might be stuck there again,” I said. 
“I don’t know. The history of this nation does state that the town was built on top of an underground maze,” Ethnobalt explained. This sounded a lot like the nation that had sealed away the Spirit Tortoise. 
“I’ve heard that the underground maze was once a place that adventurers explored,” Glass added. From the way she phrased that, I guessed it had already been cleaned out. 
There was the never-ending labyrinth anyway and also the labyrinth library to which Ethnobalt belonged. So that suggested this world had its fair share of labyrinthine buildings. In our world, there were apparently a lot of old ruins called dungeons, or dragon’s nests, that had gradually been expanded in size. Wyndia, Rat, and Gaelion had told me about such places. 
“Itsuki and his party can check out those things. We need to locate where Kizuna is being held,” I reminded everyone. 
“Of course. Chris, what are you sensing?” Glass inquired. Chris proceeded to make a protracted “pen” noise, placing a flipper on his head and moaning before indicating the direction to take. 
Following the directions, we reached a block in the northwest of the town. It almost looked like a factory area. Everything was cramped in with lots of the metal supporting the castle above. There was lots of wire mesh too. It was almost making it hard to tell if I was in another world or my own modern one. The air looked pretty dirty, with smoke billowing from factory-like chimneys. 
 
“Raphtalia, how are you doing?” I asked her. She’d been sick in the past. Polluted air like this could cause her to cough. Now that she had recovered from the sickness itself, she would probably be okay. But it didn’t hurt to check in with her. 
“I’m okay, for now,” she replied. “This air looks horrible.” 
“Tell me about it. It doesn’t look like many people come through here either, which means soldiers might get suspicious if they see us hanging around,” I realized. 
“No need to worry about that. I also have concealment skills. With Raphtalia here, we should be able to perform a search without standing out.” Glass proceeded to spread her fan and then mutter the name of the skill. “Circle Dance: Mist Veil.” We were buffeted by the same feeling as when a concealment skill or magic was activated. I hoped this would be enough. These kinds of skills and magic often didn’t work very well on monsters— although with their level, or Raph-chan or Raph-chan II, it was possible to achieve complete concealment. 
We’d just have to proceed as cautiously as possible. 
We carefully pushed our way through the wire mesh and began poking around. It didn’t take long to find a suspicious-looking entrance to some kind of underground facility. There were guards on watch too. 
“Pen,” said Chris. His flipper was now pointing diagonally down at the ground. Looked like he wanted us to go down from here. 

“If we can determine the spot directly above Kizuna, it might be fastest if we all just dug down together,” I suggested. 

“I can’t believe you’d even suggest something so dumb,” Glass said, shaking her head. 
“You were trying to get us to agree to that?” Raphtalia added, looking appalled. What was wrong with that idea? At least I was making suggestions. 
“So? That place does look super suspicious. Are we going in there right away?” I asked. 
“We could . . . but it would be risky if we got spotted,” Glass reasoned. 
“If we get spotted, don’t underestimate the magic of Raphtalia and Raph-chan,” I told her. 
“I’m happy to hear of your faith in us, but I also feel that we need to be careful,” Raphtalia said. 
“You think?” I asked. 
“Yes. I just have a feeling that if we charge down there, we’re going to get caught,” she said. 
“Raph!” Raph-chan added, nodding, seemingly in agreement. With their transforming powers, I wondered if this was some kind of hunch unique to their talents. I did feel it would be dangerous to charge in there myself. If Raphtalia and Raph-chan felt the same, we should definitely fall back. 
“Gotcha. Let’s try this again when we’re all back together,” I decided. 
“I think that’s for the best,” Raphtalia agreed. 
“Still . . . you think we’re looking at an underground maze?” It did sound a bit adventurous, I had to admit. The gamer in me was excited by the prospect. We observed the enemies a little longer and then left. 
 
When we reached the meeting point, a tavern, L’Arc and the others were already there, waiting. 
“Naofumi, how was it? Did you find anything?” L’Arc asked. It looked like Sadeena had started drinking already. She’d been told not to speak much, so she looked pretty bored and listless. She was so cheerful when she talked. I was surprised by how much she looked like S’yne, with this new attitude. Did that suggest that S’yne was actually super talkative and we just couldn’t hear her? 
Soon after us, Itsuki and his party arrived too. 
“Shall we move?” I said. We proceeded to a place below something like an elevated bridge, where I hoped there wouldn’t be many people to potentially overhear us. Trolley-like conveyances were passing overhead. 
This all felt pretty modern. If the trolleys were running on electricity, I could almost mistake this for Japan. 
“Based on Chris’s directions, Kizuna is being held underground. The exit looks to be pretty heavily guarded,” I explained. What we really needed was some kind of rear entrance or somewhere else that was connected to the maze. 
“That does sound dangerous. I don’t have any better news either. The dragon hourglass has restrictions placed on it. They don’t even let people get close. We were saved by these two and their ability to check things out from outside the building,” L’Arc responded. 

“We were a vital part of the mission!” Sadeena said. Both she and Shildina looked pretty pleased with themselves. Surely, they needed to turn into therianthropes to use that ability. I wondered if that side of things had been okay. 

“They’ve got pretty tight security,” I said. 
“They want to stop the vassal weapon holders from other nations getting in here, of course. The information on how to replicate the Return Dragon Vein leaked out too,” L’Arc said. 
“From you guys?” I asked. 
“We have a filter, so we’re fine,” he replied. So they had that kind of ability too? That sounded pretty convenient to have around. “Lady Sadeena and her sister seemed to suggest the guards were in the middle of experimenting on the dragon hourglass. We collected some info from people living here, which suggested they’ve been up to something recently.” 
“I think you already know this, but we can’t check it out that deeply,” Sadeena said. 
“I wouldn’t have thought you could,” I replied. 
“For something involving digging, Imiya would be much better suited to helping out,” Sadeena commented. 
“No point in bringing up people who aren’t here,” I said. If she was here, of course, she would have been digging already. For sure. 
“S’yne says she casually attached a pin to someone entering the building,” her familiar revealed. 
“Should we try the same thing at the entrance we discovered?” I suggested. The problem was that we hadn’t seen anyone actually going in or out. The guards had been stationed at a smaller building on the ground level, and there was no one actually going inside. Security really was tight. 
 
Having Sadeena check the vicinity with her sound waves was another option. 
“However—” S’yne said. 
“Yes, I understand. She said that she did place a pin on someone entering the building but then experienced jamming at some point after that. She has a bad feeling about all this,” her familiar relayed. Jamming? That was strange. S’yne’s teleport skill had the effect of being able to check the state of the destination site. I hadn’t heard of her being unable to use it for anything other than physical interference at the site itself. There was a chance that S’yne’s skill was just incompatible with Kizuna’s world, but the fact that it was being jammed suggested something more sinister was at work. The whole situation made me think of all sorts of nasty possibilities. 
“Itsuki, how about you and your team? Did you find anything out?” I asked. 
“Some things, yes,” he replied. “The area you were investigating is top secret and so regular adventurers can’t find out anything about it. But we did obtain information on part of the underground maze,” he said. With that, Rishia and Ethnobalt brought out a copy of a map of the underground maze. 
“It appears there’s a maze below this town, with the layers closer to the surface having already been reasonably mapped,” Ethnobalt explained. 
“Hmmm. Based on the location of the castle town, I’m thinking around here . . .” I traced over the map. We also had to consider an infiltration through the maze . . . Then I noticed something. 
 
“The first three levels have been significantly developed, creating an underground city. The state management block is not on the map, however,” Ethnobalt explained. 
“Control of information, huh? That sure sounds suspicious,” I said. 
“Shall I explain what else we discovered?” Itsuki asked. 
“You have more?” I asked. 
“Yes. Some other suspicious points,” Itsuki continued. Rishia and Ethnobalt looked at each other, seemingly unsure of what he was talking about. “First, I’ll tell you about the musical instrument vassal weapon holder. He is also from another world—apparently, he’s Japanese. His name is Hidemasa Miyaji.” 
“Okay. So he’s like one of your problematic holy hero types, huh?” I said. 
“I think so, but that isn’t the issue,” Itsuki replied. 
“So what is?” I responded. 
“I think the route by which he became a hero is strange. Please confirm this for me, Naofumi,” he said. 
“Go ahead,” I told him. Itsuki prompted Ethnobalt to take over. Among the gathered members, Ethnobalt was the one who could read the best. Rishia was almost genius-level smart—it was true—but not enough to even read a language after such a short time. 
“We found an article telling how the musical instrument vassal weapon holder Hidemasa came to be selected. According to this, he was just a regular person who got caught up in the summoning when the four holy heroes were called,” Ethnobalt explained. What did “caught up in it” mean? Did he get caught up when the heroes selected by the holy weapons were summoned? 
 
“Is that true?” I asked. 
“I can only say that it does appear to be the truth. However, he doesn’t appear to have any connection to the heroes of the holy weapons or anyone back on their original world. Various stories seem to back all this up,” Ethnobalt replied. There were all sorts of ways to get summoned to another world, that much was true. All I had to do was read a book, while Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu had all been about to die when they were summoned. Kizuna had just thought she was playing a game and ended up in a whole different world as a result. “He vanished the same day he was summoned,” Ethnobalt continued, “and the next time he appeared, he had the heavily guarded musical instrument vassal weapon. Then he pulled the musical instrument vassal weapon out in front of everyone. When he did that, he also explained that he was from another world.” 
“Still, this is all very odd,” I said. 
“Indeed . . . very odd.” Itsuki nodded at my comment. “When a hero is summoned, they obtain their weapon immediately after being summoned, correct?” That was right. That was how it had been for me and the other four holy heroes. It was how it had surely been for Kizuna. When people from another world were summoned, they already had their weapons by the time they arrived. Which meant this Hidemasa Miyaji character had not only been caught up in someone else’s summons but arrived without a weapon. 
 
The weapon was the thing that translated the language, right? Without a weapon, he wouldn’t have even been able to understand what the people here were saying. 
The order of events was all wrong. I hadn’t heard of a situation of someone getting caught up in a summons either. The weapons selected an individual and summoned them, right? So how was it possible for someone else to get caught up in that? 
I could see why Itsuki thought this was all a bit fishy. Hadn’t the people of this country thought the same? Still, he’d managed to pull out a weapon that normally you needed to be selected to use, so they had probably passed it off as just being a good result. 
“These sources on this story could be in error,” Ethnobalt stated, playing it carefully. “We cannot state for a fact that this happened.” 
“Still, do you think the guy can be reasoned with?” I asked. At my question, both Ethnobalt and L’Arc tilted their heads. After snatching Kizuna away from her original captives, he was now playing dumb about it. If he could be negotiated with, he wouldn’t be hiding the fact he had her. If we were going to have a discussion with him, we could do it after we got Kizuna back. 
We could also have Kizuna use her arbitration power to determine whether he was worthy as a vassal weapon holder. If he had been selected justly, then the vassal weapon should remain with him. If it departed . . . then something else was going on here—an increased likelihood of him being a vanguard of the waves, for sure. So after the genius, now we had someone from another world who had been caught up in a summoning? I really hoped he was someone we could talk to. 
 
“Where is this Mr. Hidemasa to be found, anyway?” I asked. I hoped he was like Kyo, off doing something or other in the hinterlands or elsewhere in his territories. Maybe he was out fighting monsters and wouldn’t be back for a while. That would be nice. Still, it seemed unlikely he would capture Kizuna and then just waltz off somewhere else. 
“We have witnesses who place him in the castle today,” Ethnobalt responded. It looked like maybe we’d got unlucky with our timing. I really want to take care of things without bumping into the guy. 
“Something else . . . Ah, no, it’s nothing. Never mind. It’s impossible, after all,” Itsuki said. 
“Now you have to tell me,” I responded. 
“When we were searching a tavern back there, I thought I heard some familiar voices mixed in among the patrons,” he said. 
“Familiar voices?” I prompted. Itsuki looked over at Rishia for a moment. 
“Fehhh . . .” She just made her usual useless sound—so she probably hadn’t seen anything. 
“Who did you hear?” I asked again. 
“It sounded like Mald,” he finally replied. Who? I’d heard that name somewhere before . . . Had to be a friend of Itsuki’s and someone he was close to . . . from the way he said the name. Maybe it was that one guy he’d had under his command . . . Armor, right? Maybe “Mald” had been his real name. 
 
In any case, it definitely had to be Itsuki’s imagination. This was Kizuna’s world, after all. The worlds hadn’t been connected by the waves, so I couldn’t see any way he could possibly be here. All of those guys had been missing since they manipulated Itsuki in Zeltoble, anyway. 
Thinking about it now, they had sided with Witch and yet hadn’t been with Takt. It was far more likely they were still in that world, up to no good. But I also couldn’t really imagine Itsuki lying in his current state. 
“Maybe it was just, you know, someone who sounded like him,” I said. 
“Yes. I think that has to be it,” Itsuki agreed. I understood why he wouldn’t like it to be him. He did nothing but cause trouble. 
“Okay. We’ve collected quite a lot of information. Now we have to decide what to do with it,” I said. There were all sorts of ways to run away, but getting in there was going to be a lot harder. Raphtalia’s and Raph-chan’s instincts suggested that we’d still be spotted even if we used magic and concealment skills. That said, there was a limit to what we could do by just creeping along and hiding. 
“The sun is setting. Not a bad time for some sneaking,” I said. If we could use the cover of darkness to sneak into the secret facility where Kizuna was being held, steal her back, and then immediately portal away, that would be that. If things went smoothly, we could also “discuss” the matter of Kizuna’s abduction with the vassal weapon holder. And if we didn’t like what we heard, well, we’d take care of him too. 

I hoped it would all work out . . . but we couldn’t just stand here wringing our hands either. Ideally we would find a safe route and take back Kizuna without them even spotting us. The biggest threat was having the musical instrument vassal weapon holder spot us and take Kizuna hostage. If he brought her out in front of us, like Takt had done, then all sorts of problems to save her presented themselves. It was better not to presume he would be that stupid. That was definitely something to avoid. 

I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a trap here we just weren’t seeing. But I also felt that, whatever the trap was, we could break through it using Liberation Aura X. If these vanguards of the waves were all like Takt, unable to bring out the full power of their vassal weapons, then however hard they tried, we would still have the advantage. 
And yet . . . I was hardly the Wisest King of Wisdom, but I definitely had a bad feeling about this. I was scared of something happening like when we fought Kyo, with L’Arc and the others summoned away by a wave right in front of our eyes. Then there was the issue of Itsuki’s old comrades. All sorts of materials fanned the flames of my unrest. 
“Did you find out what weapon power-up methods the musical instrument vassal weapon holder knows?” I asked. 
“Well . . . when Kizuna made contact with the other three holy heroes, we sat down and had a chat . . . and found out quite a lot then,” Ethnobalt said. 
“Glass, what about you? And, Raphtalia, you too,” I asked. 
“The other three, apart from Kizuna, were pretty stingy, it seems . . .” Raphtalia said, giving a roundabout answer. It was true that Kizuna wasn’t the best type of person to be handling such negotiations. She’d probably offered up her own secrets in exchange, or something like that. 
 
“The allies of the other heroes were pretty vocal with their distrust. Kizuna shared hers, to try and win them over, but she was the only one. Then there are probably leaks from Yomogi’s old allies and the traitor who stole L’Arc’s scythe. We can’t be sure he hasn’t heard about some of them,” Ethnobalt analyzed. I guessed it was lucky that none of the other three holy heroes had shared their power-up methods. But there was always the chance they had been forced to talk before they were killed, of course. Perhaps it was through the use of more hostages. 
This all meant that the enemy might have knowledge of more power-up methods than we did. Even if that was the case, though, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be maximizing their potential. 
“Whatever the trap is, we aren’t going to make any progress until we spring it. Rather than sitting around waiting, we are better off charging in before we miss our chance completely. Even if the enemy does use Kizuna as a hostage, they can’t afford to kill her,” I reasoned. The ironic thing about hostages was that they only had value for both parties when they were alive. If Kizuna died, then we would surely just rip them to pieces. 
We weren’t dealing with a moron here. Takt hadn’t understood that at all. He had been a moron. 
“Leave the intimidation to me,” I said. 

“You are unpleasantly confident. With you on our side, Naofumi, it almost feels like we’re the bad guys,” Glass said. 
 
“If they use the hostage as a shield and won’t respond, I’ll intimidate them to make an opening. Then we grab Kizuna. We can think about classifications of good or bad after that,” I responded. I could be evil, and Kizuna could be good. I was only a guest in this world, after all. I could shoulder a negative persona. No worries about that. 
“I don’t like to rely on you so heavily, but if it comes down to it, I also think you can handle anything that comes up. Very well. Intimidate away, if you have to,” Glass said. 
“That said . . . sometimes I have to make cold, hard decisions. Don’t expect too much from me, Glass,” I added. We weren’t dealing with a foe who would respond to a diplomatic appeal to free the hostage. They wouldn’t go for anything we dangled in front of them, be it money or weapon power-up methods. If we shoved proof of their crimes right in their face, they would just fall back to using Kizuna as a hostage. I had real trouble understanding how they were being this selfish when the world was in such danger. 
Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu might have been wanting to have some fun using their game knowledge, but they hadn’t considered taking over the world. If we couldn’t settle this with discussion, we would have to use force. That was probably exactly what they wanted too. 
“I understand,” Glass replied. “I am prepared for that eventuality.” 
“Let me break down what I consider a good plan, then. First, Raphtalia, Rishia, and anyone else good at concealment will sneak into the facility to take back Kizuna. If that works out, we just escape right away,” I said. That was the first stage and the best possible operation. If Trash was here, maybe he would have a better proposal. “If whatever Raphtalia fears is what causes them to be discovered, we will charge in to help. If that happens, L’Arc will lead a team at the same time to attack the dragon hourglass and cause confusion among the enemy. This is a gray area—about as close to black as you can get. But if we can get evidence of their wrongdoing, we will be in the right. Don’t worry about the diplomacy side of things until afterward,” I said. 
 
“Sure thing! We just need to take them down, right?” L’Arc said. 
“Yeah. You’ll be acting as a diversion too, so make it as loud and noisy as you can,” I said. Even if the musical instrument hero appeared over there, that would still suit us. That could buy us the time we needed to save Kizuna. 
“Just to prepare for the worst . . . what if an enemy appears who can steal vassal weapons?” Therese asked. That was a good question. 
“As a pre-operation preventative measure, I’ll cast Liberation Aura X on everyone. That worked wonders against Takt. First use the element of surprise to quickly capture the dragon hourglass. If the effects of the aura run out, consider retreating, depending on the situation. Use Return Dragon Vein to escape if you have to, and go get reinforcements,” I said. There were no rules saying we couldn’t attempt the same moves that Kyo and Trash #2 had tried to use. L’Arc could use Return Dragon Vein to bring in a horde of his own soldiers, if he had to. There was a chance of weapons being taken. But with the boosted stats, L’Arc might be able to avoid having his weapon stolen. Or he might have gained some resistance to the attack after having experienced it once already. Since the increase to Liberation Aura X, the length the aura lasted had also significantly increased. If they couldn’t take the dragon hourglass before the effects ran out, then the operation would basically be a failure. 
 
The joint operation would be a good way to smash through enemy defenses. Even if one of the parties failed, success for the other one would still have a positive effect. 
“If anyone looks like they are going to pull such a move . . . Therese.” I drew my thumb across my throat. “Prove how much stronger that accessory has made you.” 
“I will! If you so order it, Master Craftsman. I will defend L’Arc and the others while defeating our enemies!” Therese even gave a salute as she responded. I wasn’t especially comfortable with that, and it didn’t look like L’Arc was either. 
“Oh my . . . I think we have our work cut out for us, little Raphtalia,” Sadeena quipped. 
“Indeed we do. We’ll have to up our game,” Raphtalia replied. 
“Let’s start the operation,” I said. Everyone started moving to put the operation into action.