Epilogue: As a Shield…
“Yes, it’s a curse.” We returned to the village and rushed to the doctor to see if we could get treatment for Raphtalia. “It’s also very strong. The mountain dragon was in possession of such a
powerful curse?” “Well… No… Actually…” I wasn’t sure if I should be honest about what happened. I was at a loss. “Yes, I accidentally let the dragon’s meat touch me, and it burned me
like this…” Raphtalia spoke out and caught my eye as if to confirm that it would be
our secret. “Can you do anything for her? We can pay whatever you need.” Raphtalia was a girl. She didn’t deserve to go through life covered with
these dark, horrible scars. “Well, there is one thing…” The doctor went back into his room and returned with a bottle that was
filled with a clear liquid. “This is very strong… I don’t know if it will heal her though.” “What is it?” “Holy water. Curses are best removed by holy power…” “Oh…”
The Shield of Rage would not only hurt its victims, it would curse their wounds so that they wouldn't heal.
It was sounding more and more dangerous. It was imbued with a counter attack that didn’t distinguish between enemy and ally.
And I’d seen the shield’s tree, and it had not progressed at all.
It had only been for a short time, but now I knew that I couldn’t unlock that shield.
“We’ll soak these bandages in holy water for now…”
He did so, then took the sopping bandages and wrapped them around Raphtalia’s dark scars.
“I can’t say for sure if this will work… If you are able to, you should go to a large city and procure yourself some holy water made by the church.”
“How much would we need to heal her?”
“Honestly… the curse is very strong. I don’t know if you can cure it… how did the dragon…?”
It had been me… It was my fault. But apparently the curse was strong enough that people would believe that it was done by a dragon.
“Ok… How much medicine have you made?”
“I’ve just made a little. Beloved Saint, please help the sick.”
“Sure.”
I left Raphtalia with the doctor and went to the building that was filled with sick people.
You could tell that the medicine had been made by a professional.
It completely healed the disease that I had been unable to take care of with my own medicine.
I watched the patients there, sleeping soundly, and felt relieved.
I wanted strength… I wanted to be strong enough that I wouldn’t have to depend on that shield.
I wanted to be able to heal people, not curse them! It was because of my weakness. That was the root of it. I hated my weakness.
Filo had survived. She was fine. But there would be a time when she wasn’t, when she would need me. When she vanished from before my eyes, I completely lost myself.
I let the thought linger in my mind. This was no game.
If someone dies, they won’t come back to life. I found myself staring at the cemetery behind the building.
They’d betrayed me… tricked me! That was even more reason for me to… to protect the people who believed in me.
I went back to the doctor’s and found Raphtalia sitting there, wrapped in bandages. I apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“But I…”
“I was more afraid of you leaving… of you going somewhere far away from me.”
“What?”
“That power, it wants to take you somewhere far way. That’s what I felt, anyway. So if I was able to stop you, to keep you here, then these scrapes are a fair price to pay.”
She smiled, and I felt a sharp pang of emotion.
I had to protect her. I HAD to. I made up my mind never to lose myself to that shield.
And then… I realized that running from loss… That running from loss was a kind of loss itself.
“Raphtalia… You jumped into battle to prevent this, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“When we fought the dragon, I ordered you to retreat. But if you had, you couldn’t have protected me.”
I’d been wrong. Just protecting… just running… wouldn’t be enough.
All I could do was protect.
But… But as I protected them, I need to make sure the enemies were defeated… so that I wouldn’t lose my friends.
All this… all this pain was because I wanted to run from loss.
“You’re wrong! I … I ran ahead for you, to satisfy myself.”
Raphtalia leaned forward and forcefully rejected my theory.
“Courage and recklessness are not the same thing. I’ve been reckless, and you kept trying to reign me in to protect me… But I… But I…”
Without even thinking about it I reached out and touched her cheek. A tear raced over my fingers.
“Just like courage and recklessness are different, so are caution and cowardice. You’re no coward. No one can protect a coward.”
So I wanted to lead the charge. I wanted to stand at the front so that I might protect Filo and Raphtalia.
Back on the mountain, had I been at the front, I could have sent out an Air Strike Shield, and Filo could have used it as a springboard. Then the dragon wouldn’t have eaten her.
I was afraid of losing her.
“So don’t worry about it. Look at how much practice we got, and we didn’t lose anyone. We can use what we’ve learned in the future. We’re stronger today then we were yesterday.”
Raphtalia’s eyes filled with tears, and she nodded along.
“Yes… Don’t rush too far ahead… Don’t hang too far back… It’s a difficult balance.”
“It is, but I think we can do it. Just remember that the Shield Hero, that’s me, stands at the front of the line. Protect yourself, and if you find yourself free, protect others. That’s easy.”
“When you put it that way, it does sound easy.”
“It will be easy.”
“Is Big-Sister okay?”
Filo had stuck her head into the room, and was looking over at Raphtalia nervously.
“I’m okay.”
This would be a day for Raphtalia to rest up. Filo and I went outside.
“Master!”
“What?”
“I used to think that I wished I could stay a human forever… because you and her are so close.”
She was in human form, and was smiling.
“But I couldn’t. It’s fun to pull the carriage, and I was just fooling myself because I wanted you to like me. Even if I pretend to be like you, I can’t do it!”
“…”
“But, Master? I’m the same Filo, no matter what shape I am.”
“That’s true.”
I’d been surprised when she’d turned into a human, but I don’t think I had treated her any differently. Even still, I did treat her like a child.
“I’m me, Master is Master, and Big-Sister is Big-Sister, right? You can’t be anyone but who you are, and I… I can’t be a real person. But even still, there’s no one out there that can replace me, is there?”
THAT’S why she’d turned into a person?
I nodded in response to her barrage of questions.
“But, you know what? I like you, Master! I like you just as much as Big-Sister does! I’m going to be the best Filo I can be!”
“That’s… good.”
Who would have thought Filo would lecture me on these things?
Protecting everyone was supposed to be MY job, but I noticed, with amazement, that I wasn’t upset with having the job stolen from me. I wonder why?
“You know what? For Master and Big-Sister, I’m going to do all I can! I’m gonna try real hard, yup!”
“You better. Protecting you is my job, after all.”
“Yup!”
We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the village.
The next day we worked hard to try and wipe out the disease for good.
The doctor asked me if I could do anything, and I set about making medicines. We ended up finishing earlier than we’d thought we could. I had thought that he could teach me something about medicine and healing, but I didn't’ know enough, and I didn’t want to be in the way.
“Thank you so much, Beloved Saint!”
A young girl from the sick house waved to me and said thank you.
Did I… protect them?
I made up my mind not to run. If I ran, I couldn’t protect the people I needed to protect, and I’d just save my own life—but make it not worth living.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
I was a parent to Raphtalia and Filo now, and I needed to do whatever I could to make the world better for them, to make it into a place where people could live out their lives in happiness.
“Mr. Naofumi?”
“Master!”
“Huh? What’s up?”
I’d been walking around the peaceful village when Raphtalia and Filo called out to me.
“You looked really… concerned?”
“Yeah!”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“But Master! You’re such a worrywart! Of course we worry.”
“A worrywart?”
“Yeah. These days all you ever say to us is, ‘Are you all right?’”
“She’s right. But you don’t need to worry anymore.”
“But I…”
“Don’t treat us like children anymore. We are thinking about our own affairs.”
“Yeah!”
“I know now that you care about us… but in the exact same way, we care about you too, Mr. Naofumi. We’ll be fine if we stick together.”
“Yeah!”
“You’re right.”
Raphtalia was growing. She had her own thoughts and her own feelings, like her inner maturity had caught up to her appearance. I couldn’t treat her like a child anymore.
We were a team now. I guess.
Worrying about things on my own wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
I couldn’t bring peace to the world by myself. One look at the waves of destruction made that immediately apparent, and it was even more true for me, the Shield Hero, who couldn’t even attack on his own.
If we wanted a world of peace, we’d have to make it together.
“All right. Let’s do this… together.”
“Oh! Master smiled!”
“She’s right. And it wasn’t some weird, fake smile, either. That was real.”
The two of them were smiling back at me.
Heh… Was that supposed to be me? Did I never smile?
Whatever.
I was smiling now.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
Because I had friends I could depend on.
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