Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 19 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue: A Visitor Late at Night 

After the celebrations died down, I had a chance to learn more about our enemies from Lyno. Now I needed to take some time and collate all the information. I still needed to look at them properly, but it seemed we had collected all the weapon power-up methods here before we even achieved that back on our world. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It was strange to think we were stronger on Kizuna’s world. I guess I was just overthinking things again. 

I stretched and gave a yawn. The celebrations were over and everyone had headed off to rest. I was preparing breakfast for tomorrow. I could have left this to someone else, tonight of all nights, but I was still a bit hyped up and couldn’t get to sleep. I’d made Raphtalia go on and go to bed. S’yne was still with me, but she was sleeping in a corner of the dining hall. Today had been a pretty packed one, after all. With that Demon Dragon blood pudding, I’m pretty sure I would have collapsed myself. 

“I thought as much . . . She had the adjustments for the energy transfer all wrong. That’s why everything she said was skipping like that.” I spun around at the voice to see S’yne’s sister standing there waving to make sure I spotted her. She had just put a blanket carefully over S’yne. I thought she had repaired her familiar and had him on watch . . . but it wasn’t moving, returned to nothing but a stuffed doll. 

“You!” I shouted, the first thing that came to my mind. 

“Well, well, well. Why don’t we let S’yne continue to rest?” S’yne’s sister said. 

“What have you done to her?” I asked. 

“Well, well, well. That makes me sound so nasty!” S’yne’s sister objected. “I haven’t done anything. I just don’t want her to wake up, so I’ve dulled her senses a little.” 

“So why are you here?!” I shouted. I couldn’t see why she would do this. We were on high alert. There didn’t seem to be anything she could achieve. I decided to wake up Raph-chan, who was also sleeping, and have her tell Raphtalia and the others what was going on. I just needed to buy a little time and we could launch a unified attack all at once. 

“Hmmm, that’s such a complicated question. So I have one for you first. Before we talk any more, tell me how much S’yne has told you,” S’yne’s sister said. 

“What do you mean? With all the sound skipping, we can hardly understand anything she says,” I replied. She could hardly talk to us at all anymore. I was starting to think that she might be easier to talk to if her vassal weapon was finally destroyed completely. 

“Well, well, well. It isn’t only due to the broken vassal weapon,” S’yne’s sister explained. “I think it’s also because anyone she has told about herself in the past, well . . . they all died.” It was some kind of jinx that caused anyone she shared such information with to die. If that was the case, her silence had been to protect us. 

No, that sounded crazy. 

“First things first, Iwatani, you should really give some thought to exactly why S’yne is so fixated on you,” S’yne’s sister said. 

“To say how much she hates you, maybe you know something about her fixations,” I replied. 

“No need to worry about me,” S’yne’s sister said deprecatingly. “If S’yne told you everything and you didn’t believe her, it would break her little heart. I’m sure she’s worried about you, you know, dying.” 

Worried about me not believing her, and worried about me dying . . . I gave it some thought and couldn’t really think of anything I had done for S’yne that would warrant such devotion from her. I had promised to aid with her revenge, but she had already been protective of me before that. “I’ll give you a hint. Have you seen S’yne with what looked like a small holy weapon core?” 

“Yes, I have.” When I was close to death, she had healed me using an item that looked like that. 

“That is the compressed energy from one of the holy weapon power-up methods in our—now-destroyed—world. It can lend that strength to others,” S’yne’s sister explained. 

“Okay . . .” I wondered why she had been able to heal me using it. More mysteries here to throw them on the pile. 

“I don’t want to interfere with S’yne’s policy for dealing with you, so I’d better not tell you anything more than that,” S’yne’s sister said. 

“So what do you want to say? There has to be something in this for you, a chatterbox coming all the way here,” I said. 

“Maybe,” S’yne’s sister replied, giving a small cough, and then answered normally. “To put it plainly, everyone you’ve seen from us so far—apart from the hangers-on we acquired locally—are part of the Third Army. I’m talking grunts, military worker ants here. We can lose as many as you can wipe out, and it doesn’t hurt us. They basically exist to test out the prototypes that are created by the technical department.” 

“All of this is just some kind of experiment to you?!” I shouted. If the forces attacking this world were just the lab rats, that meant the boss had to still be far removed from them. Considering all the fighting we had come through so far and we’d caused no damage to them at all, it made me sick to hear it. 

“So yes, we use the holy weapons, the vassal weapons, and all sorts of toys, but we aren’t the main force. This is just another of the numerous worlds that the Third Army has attacked. The main force is off on some other world somewhere trying to track down and win over a certain young girl,” S’yne’s sister said. I didn’t need to hear that. “Taking this world is proving more difficult than anticipated, so you are being put on the back burner for a while. They are going to flash the holy weapons around a little to keep you on the hook in this world, making it easier for them to take their next target.” Those holy weapons being the jewels, blunt instrument, and ship vassal weapon. It did feel like the battle here wasn’t over yet. “Iwatani, they are heading to the world you came from next. All because you killed Bitch for the time being.” 

“Is Bitch really that important?” I asked. That would explain why S’yne’s sister had been trying to hamper Bitch’s efforts and made her fail though. But I was sure S’yne’s sister had more authority than Bitch anyway. 

“My point is, if you spend too long collecting holy and vassal weapons in this world, your own world is going to fall. That’s what I came to warn you about,” S’yne’s sister said. If Ren and Motoyasu were killed by a wave while Itsuki and I were away, leaving the world without heroes, it could indeed be wiped out. That was bad, of course . . . but it also raised another big question. 

“Why are you here explaining all this?” I asked. 

“Well, well, well, I thought you might have worked it out,” S’yne’s sister said. “Things are complicated over here too. We need to please our leader, and some among us think that means providing a challenge.” 

“Okay then.” I shook my head. So their leader liked to fight. I could understand that impulse, perhaps, but it was a pain in the ass right now. What was with these people using entire worlds like their playthings! 

“Well then, Iwatani. Next time we meet, it will be in your world. That is all I came to say. Bye-bye!” With that, S’yne’s sister vanished. Immediately afterward S’yne leapt up, turning her weapon into scissors and standing ready. 

“Just now! Was my sister here?” S’yne asked. That was odd—her voice wasn’t skipping. The movements of her familiars looked to have improved too. 

“Yes, she was here,” I replied. “She said they’re coming to our world next.” It was some nasty information from an almost one-sided conversation, and then she left again. In any case, right now I needed to talk to S’yne. 

“S’yne, your sister said something else—that if you talk about yourself, everyone you tell will die,” I said. S’yne gave a start at my words and looked away. Wow, so it seemed to be a real thing. S’yne’s sister had been telling the truth. “No need to worry about that now. We don’t need any more surprises, do we?” I reasoned with her. 

“No . . . you simply don’t need to know. My world is gone. My sister is nothing but a traitor, and I want nothing but to defeat her. You don’t need to probe too deeply, Naofumi. You will be fine without any of my knowledge—you saw me fight her, and I couldn’t win. If knowing will kill you, then not knowing will produce the better result.” Once she started talking, she talked a lot. 

“Then I’m not going to help you out,” I said, trying a different approach. 

“I’m still going with you. What I can tell you is that this enemy is so strong you will need to become much stronger yourself. Even with all the holy weapon and vassal weapon power-up methods, and raising your level super high, I’m not sure if you can win or not,” S’yne told me. She was stubborn, I’d give her that. 

“Just tell me one thing. Why me?” I asked. It could have been any of the holy weapon holders, surely, so long as she eventually got a shot at her sister. Rather than a twisted weirdo like me, she would have been far better off with a tried-and-tested hero type like Kizuna. Or maybe she had already tried lots of other times and just come to me last. 

“That’s because . . . you’re Naofumi,” S’yne replied. 

“Huh?” I said, puzzled, but she offered nothing more—even going so far as to squeeze her mouth shut. She really was stubborn. Even if she thought she was protecting me from this death-jinx business. 

I also realized she had used my first name. No “Mr.” or anything. 

A few moments later Raphtalia and the others charged in and the castle descended into a brief moment of uproar. That soon passed, but we were left with a very sticky situation indeed. 

Somewhere, right then, I was sure I could hear S’yne’s sister laughing.