Chapter One: Prisoner Transport
We mainly spent the days until our departure leveling up. As we gathered together just before setting out, Mald was brought to join us. He was a former underling of Itsuki’s, whom I called simply “Armor.” He had an ofuda attached to his face in order to prevent him from moving around. Apparently, it hadn’t taken much, in the end, to get him to start talking. Lyno had been present for the proceedings to see if he said anything she didn’t know or if she could catch him in a lie. Sadeena—a self-proclaimed specialist in torture and spotting lies—had also taken part. In the end, Armor didn’t really have much information of note anyway—maybe just that some former members of the Church of the Three Heroes had also teamed up with Bitch.
“He spilled his guts pretty quickly. Are you sure you don’t want to just execute him here and be done with it?” I asked.
“No, we need Mald to share more information with us over there before we finish him off,” Itsuki replied. Armor still wasn’t really seeing the reality of the situation, cycling between saying his friends should be coming for him at any moment, wondering why they hadn’t come for him yet, and then calling them traitors and scum. He had a slave ofuda slapped on his forehead, making him look like one of those Chinese hopping ghosts. Yomogi had been given the same treatment once, if I recalled correctly.
Unable to even move, let alone speak, Armor managed a few muffled grunts while desperately looking around to try and find some aid. But he was surrounded by our allies, who all knew just to ignore him. He would still try and fight back if given the opportunity though. It was exhausting, but I also had to ask myself if I would give up if I was in his position.
“Mald, Mald, Mald. There’s still no sign of your heroes, your so-called ‘allies of justice,’ coming to save you.” Itsuki picked his moment to kick Armor as the lump struggled on the floor. I wondered how this treatment of a prisoner fitted in with Itsuki’s own image of such “heroes.” I had thought he’d expanded his horizons a bit and was giving things a bit more thought, but this just exposed how deeply the darkness had taken root in him.
“Fehhh!” Rishia exclaimed. For once I wanted to make pretty much the same noise.
“Mr. Naofumi.” Raphtalia was quick to respond too, both girls letting me know I should be helping out. It didn’t really seem like my fault that Itsuki was beating up one of his former comrades.
“Are you awakening to the path of a dark hero? That sounds like fun,” I said.
“Even if he was some kind of hero, this guy has gone too far. That’s what I think, anyway,” Itsuki said.
“Fair enough,” I replied. Itsuki could still be diamond-hard when he had to be—but maybe not all the time.
“I also take exception with him putting all of that old responsibility onto you, Naofumi,” Itsuki added. This was something we had discussed when capturing Armor—back when they were working together. He and the other goons had swiped a reward intended for Itsuki. Armor was a traitor who had perverted the course of Itsuki’s justice, so I could see why Itsuki wouldn’t want to hold back against him now. “I have continued to struggle with the definition of ‘justice,’ but there is one thing I am certain about; there is no justice in you, Mald.” At Itsuki’s declaration, Armor struggled to shake off his bonds and speak out, but the pain was stopping him from doing anything. “Look at you! You can’t even escape from those bonds. In the same position, Naofumi would have chewed through his own arms to tell me I was wrong. That’s the difference between you two.”
“Don’t bring me into this,” I said, although I took it as a compliment.
“This is your punishment for giving everything up so easily when tortured and then saying you want to come back and join us again. Your ‘justice’ and ours are completely different. I cannot accept you,” Itsuki said.
“Me neither,” Sadeena admitted. “I’m amazed at some of the stuff he came out with.”
“It makes me sick,” Lyno agreed, following up on Sadeena’s comment. “He leeches onto the strong and powerful. I guess that might make him an ally of some kind of justice.” It sounded like Armor had been saying some pretty crazy stuff then—a certain kind of “justice” indeed. The justice of the resurrected. For them, justice simply equaled strength. Joining up with the strongest people who came along could be considered an ally of that kind of justice.
“I don’t care if you call me merciless,” Itsuki said. “Mercy is more suited to you, Naofumi.”
“Like I said, don’t bring me into this. I don’t have any mercy either,” I stated. Atla was the only one who had given me mercy, and that was all I had of it. Even Itsuki was starting to sound a lot like Ren now.
Itsuki kicked Armor while turning to look at me.
“Do you really believe that? Do you believe that the one who accepted us other fallen heroes isn’t capable of mercy?” Itsuki asked.
“I talked you down because having you die would cause all sorts of problems, that’s all,” I said.
“I suppose that’s another way of looking at it,” Itsuki admitted. “We can leave it at that for now.”
“Sounds like you think we’ll be coming back to this,” I said.
“Not at all. I mean nothing by it. Everyone sees things, thinks about things, differently. That’s all,” Itsuki said. He was really saying stuff that pissed me off today. I even found myself wondering if he was somehow using his “accuracy” supernatural power on his mouth. I didn’t feel like walking further into the swamp of picking a fight with him, so I decided to just let him say his piece. “That’s the way I saw it, is all,” he finished.
“Sure thing, whatever.” I brushed him off.
“I’m sorry, but . . . it’s time,” Rishia let us know, looking very worried about interrupting us.
“Okay then,” I said.
“Well . . . that all got a bit weird just before you set out, but you’ve done so much to help Naofumi,” Kizuna said with a frown as she looked at Itsuki and Armor. We were dealing with a criminal coming over from our world, after all.
“Okay, Kizuna! Take care of things here. We’ll see you soon!” L’Arc gave a breezy farewell with Therese in tow. I was still wondering why he was coming, to be honest—and why Therese was naturally tagging along. It was so natural, in fact, that Kizuna and her allies didn’t even seem to question it. L’Arc was basically her guardian, now that I thought about it.
“Ah, Shield Hero. This is such a shame, truly,” the Demon Dragon said, looking at me with puppy dog eyes. But I ignored her. Three of the four heavenly kings were looking at the scene with highly suspect expressions on their faces. I could sense how they were struggling with this complicated situation, knowing that having me around made the Demon Dragon so much stronger. The dragon being stronger meant the four heavenly kings got stronger too.
“Filo! Our new heavenly king of the wind! Obey the orders of our Demon Dragon and protect this hero from another world for us all,” said one of the other heavenly kings.
“I didn’t ask to be made into a king of anything! Boo!” Filo rasped, obviously not happy to be ordered around. She had a point. She had been made into a king without her consent. In our last battle, that unexpected promotion had led to her being targeted aggressively by the enemy, so she was still a bit prickly about it. That said, she did love being able to fly around freely in this world, taking to the skies and singing whenever she had a spare moment.
“And you, katana vassal weapon holder. I have resolved your issues relating to the use of magic. If you study hard, you’ll be able to use magic at the same level as a hero. You can also use my own magical protection, so study them together,” the Demon Dragon said, looking at Raphtalia. I’d almost forgotten that Raphtalia couldn’t handle Way of the Dragon Vein very well.
“Okay . . . thank you. I’ll do what I can to learn it all,” she replied.
“Raph!” added Raph-chan.
“Ah, one last thing. Give this to your dragon emperor.” The Demon Dragon proceeded to spit something out, something that looked very much like a dragon emperor fragment, and tossed it over to me. It looked pretty horrible to have to carry around. “If your dragon emperor has any intelligence, he should be able to draw out the power of wrath in the same way as I can.”
“I don’t really want to have to rely on that . . . but it sounds like a good insurance policy,” I admitted. Being able to deploy the power of wrath and mercy at the same time would surely make me stronger. If I could access that power without any cost, it had to be worth a try.
“Not to mention . . .” This time, the words rang ominously inside my head. “I have a copy of my personality inside your shield. When you cast magic, I will be able to lend a hand wherever you are.” I was seriously, seriously starting to regret having let this genie out of the bottle. She’d help out when I was casting magic, sure . . . but I wasn’t sure I liked this arrangement. “This is one of my best features,” she said.
“Silence!” I silently raged back.
“I’m going to get into your good graces!” the dragon said, speaking aloud again. “Once the fighting ends, come and see me again!”
“Sure, whatever,” I said, brushing her off.
“Boo! I won’t let him!” Filo cut in, seemingly at the limit of her patience after this long discourse with the Demon Dragon.
“Isn’t that for the Shield Hero to decide?” the Demon Dragon countered.
“I won’t allow it! Boo!” Filo retorted petulantly. Her dislike of the dragon seemed very close to her dislike of Motoyasu. We didn’t have long left, anyway, so I decided to say what needed to be said to Kizuna.
“Hey, Kizuna,” I called to her.
“What?” she replied. I had a serious look on my face, and Kizuna waited for me to continue with a puzzled look of her own. I simply had to say this.
“Next time you get captured, I’m changing your nickname to ‘princess.’”
“Where did that come from?!” she exclaimed.
“Every time something happens you manage to get yourself captured,” I told her. “I can’t stand for it a third time.”
“I’m not doing it on purpose!” Kizuna retorted.
“That’s just how things have turned out. You can’t blame Kizuna for it,” Glass said, seemingly coming to her rescue—but there was a look in her eyes! I could tell Glass was also troubled by Kizuna’s “damsel in distress” nature.
“I see,” the Demon Dragon cut in, never missing a chance to mock Kizuna. “If she is a princess, then that makes things easier to process. I will update my awareness of her from Hunting Tool Hero to helpless princess.”
“Enough! I’m not going to let that happen!” Kizuna shouted back. I hoped that would be enough to stop her from getting captured again while we were gone. I really hoped so.
“They are always such a lively group,” Ethnobalt said, waving goodbye to us with a smile on his face. He was accompanied by some of the other library rabbits and the old lady.
“Saint! You can leave this with me! I’ll make sure to teach them all Hengen Muso style!” the old lady shouted.
“Okay, good luck with that,” I encouraged her half-heartedly.
“It’s been a long road, but I finally get to return home,” Raphtalia said. She was right; we came over here simply to pick her up after the whole Takt debacle, and things had ballooned from there. I was happy to chalk it all up to being Bitch’s fault and leave it at that.
“We’re moving out, you rabble,” I told them. “Make sure you check your party registry carefully so you don’t get left behind.” It would be a bad joke if that happened to any of them.
“It all looks fine,” Itsuki reported, followed by Raphtalia and Rishia.
“We’ll be going then,” I said.
“And we’ll see you again?” Kizuna asked. I took a moment to think about everything that we were likely to face in the future.
“I think so,” I finally responded. “The situation has changed a lot since last time, and I’d like to settle things here as quickly as possible. You brush up on your skills and be ready for our return.”
“You bet,” Kizuna replied. “I need to be able to handle everything, just like you.”
“Yep, and I’m sure you can. Also, try and find that one thing that only you can do,” I advised her. That didn’t sound much like the normal me, apart perhaps from the arrogance with which I imparted it, and it made Kizuna look happy.
“Okay! Good luck to you too, Naofumi!” she replied.
“I make my own luck,” I replied. First “the one thing that only you can do,” and now this. I was on a cornball roll today.
“Departing now,” Rishia announced. “They should be in the middle of a wave over there, so please be ready for anything.” Even as she spoke, we waved at Kizuna and the others, and then we teleported away, back to our world.
You have returned to the world you are responsible for.
Changing from the mirror to the shield.
This text appeared in my field of vision, and my mirror weapon changed back to the shield. The trip over had been through a tunnel of light, but we had returned in the blink of an eye. Pondering this difference, I looked across at the familiar split caused by a wave. This looked like . . . the barren wastes in the vicinity of Zeltoble, perhaps.
Then I heard a loud shout, followed by, “Father! You have returned, I say!” Motoyasu was the first to exclaim our return. I’d been hoping to ease back into things a little more slowly. “Why are you back? Has the fighting in the other world concluded?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that. There are still issues to resolve, but we thought a visit home was warranted,” I explained.
“You’ll have to tell me more,” Motoyasu said.
“Maybe . . . but it can wait until this wave is finished,” I said. “Come on!” Everyone who had just teleported in with me gave a shout in reply, and without pause we headed directly into combat with the wave.
“Ah! Sweet Filo! We finally meet again!” Motoyasu shouted, his priorities as clear as ever.
“Boo! Get away from me!” she responded, equally as predictable. I decided to ignore them both. First things first, take care of the wave.
“Even a wave can’t withstand this number of people,” I commented as the fighting ended. We had all attacked the crack and closed it with ease. Now we were checking up on any damage it had done and regrouping to discuss everything that had happened on both sides during our absence.
“Hero Iwatani, your return is most welcome. How fared your endeavors?” Trash appeared with Melty in tow.
“Pretty well, actually. The reason we came back is because we got wind of something ominous on this side,” I explained.
“I see. Ominous how, exactly?” Trash asked.
“Before you get into that, I need to introduce myself,” said L’Arc, cutting into the conversation between Trash and me. “I am L’Arc Berg, the scythe hero over in the other world. This is Therese. Kiddo and his friends have helped us out a lot, so we came to say hello.”
“Indeed. My wife told me of the battles with the heroes from other worlds. My name is Trash Melromarc XXXII. I fight the waves in this world as the Staff Hero,” Trash replied. I knew his surname was Melromarc but didn’t realize his line had been continuing for such a long time. As Melromarc was led by the queen, the husband was the one who took the Melromarc name when he married into the family. Maybe that meant Trash was the thirty-second man to do so—hah, just more pointless trivia. I was itching to comment about him so proudly introducing himself as “Trash” though.
“So you’re in charge around here. Kiddo has explained about your name,” L’Arc said, a little bluntly.
“Good,” Trash responded, with far more pride than the situation really warranted. I was starting to wonder if sticking with the name I had given him was just another ploy from the Wisest King of Wisdom. L’Arc and Trash shook hands, anyway. “I nodded in recognition of my name, and I have been helping here in Hero Iwatani’s absence as a hero, but I am not actually the one in charge.” Trash proceeded to place his arm around Melty’s back and introduce her to L’Arc. “This is the queen of our nation of Melromarc, Her Majesty Melty Q Melromarc.”
“Hero from another world, welcome to our own. We have much to discuss on both sides, but for now please accept this brief greeting,” Melty said.
“Sure, sure thing . . .” L’Arc said, a bit surprised. That was probably understandable, considering Melty’s age, even though I had explained things to him beforehand.
“She hasn’t said much yet, but I can already tell she’s got her act together,” L’Arc muttered to me while leaning over, still looking at Melty.
“Kings and queens have been known to take the throne at a pretty young age here,” I told him. There was Melty, for one thing, then Ruft, who was former royalty, and the nation where the phoenix had been sealed had a kid for a king too. All of them had their own circumstances for why they had ascended to the throne, of course. It was rarer to find someone like L’Arc over here, to be honest.
“Mel-chan, I’m back! Help me!” Filo rushed into the scene.
“Filo!” Melty exclaimed as the filolial leapt onto her and started using her as a shield against Motoyasu. I was surprised at the speed she went from “I’m back” to “help me.” Melty had it rough too.
“Motoyasu, cool it,” I told him. “We’re in the middle of something here. Stop getting in the way.”
“But, Father!” he retorted. “I’ve finally been reunited with sweet Filo! Ah, Filo! Je t’aime!”
“Boo!” Filo replied—she clearly didn’t speak French either. Motoyasu was so broken. I shook my head.
“Queen Melty. Can you appease the Spear Hero, please? I will discuss things with the Scythe Hero while you do that,” Trash suggested.
“Of course, Father,” Melty agreed. “Filo, with me please.”
“Okay!” Filo immediately turned into her filolial form. Melty climbed onto her back . . . and then the pair of them flew away!
“Waaah! I can still fly!” Filo exclaimed.
“This is amazing! Filo!” Melty said back. For some reason Filo could still fly here in this world! Maybe it was some side effect of the Demon Dragon having made Filo into the heavenly king of the wind. It was impressive, nevertheless. A freaking flying filolial.
“My god, Filo has flown off into the sunset!” Motoyasu blabbered. “I must catch her! I’m coming!” Filo soared away with Melty on her back, and Motoyasu scurried off on foot after them. Behind him, his own three primal-colored filolials gave chase. I almost felt nostalgic, seeing them all again.
“Hey, kiddo. That guy with the spear is the same rowdy fellow who joined me in sneaking a peek in the baths on the Cal Mira islands, right?” L’Arc checked with me, poking me in the ribs as he watched the pursuit unfold.
“That’s right,” I told him.
“So what happened? Something shake a screw loose?” L’Arc asked.
“That’s a pretty astute observation. It was all Bitch. Bitch broke him too,” I replied.
“Same thing as Itsuki, huh? I remember you saying he caused a fuss when you last exchanged information with this side. Now I see what you meant,” L’Arc mused. He seemed to have accepted the situation a little easily, but it was the truth, so there wasn’t much we could do about that.
It was all Bitch’s fault.
“Our conversation has wandered off track. Now that we have introduced ourselves, Hero Iwatani, Scythe Hero, can you tell me exactly what brings you back?” Trash asked. I glanced at L’Arc, and he signaled for me to take this one. I proceeded to explain how we had managed to defeat most of the resurrected causing the problems in Kizuna’s world, but after the ominous proclamation from S’yne’s sister, we had decided to come and check things out. I also explained what had happened to Bitch and how L’Arc had come to meet those in charge of the forces he was now allied with.
Trash’s face stiffened as he took all of this in. It must have been hard on him, hearing that his daughter—Bitch—was planning more trouble here in this world. He had to be worried that even the Wisest King of Wisdom might find himself unconsciously holding back when it came to handling his own flesh and blood.
“That makes sense. I can see why such a thing would bring you back,” Trash concluded.
“Glad you agree. What about things here? Anything unsettling to report?” I asked.
“Everything has been most peaceable, most peaceable indeed,” Trash responded. “One can only hope that we are not within the calm before the storm.”
“You said it,” I agreed. If S’yne’s sister had been lying, that would be for the best all around. Trash excelled at correctly assessing a situation based on limited information. I had kept it brief, but he probably had a good handle on things.
“Something else. This is Lyno, one of the spies sent out by the previous queen,” I said, making the formal introduction. For her part, Lyno was looking at Trash with hints of suspicion in her eyes. She had probably only heard rumors about him, and not the good kind either. Trash had been pretty hard to stomach prior to his recent reform. She had to have detected the change in the air around him though.
“I am Lyno. I was acting as a spy, both on the orders of our dear deceased queen and out of my own personal rage,” Lyno explained.
“Indeed. You have my thanks for saving Hero Iwatani and his party from the clutches of my foolish daughter. Allow me to offer my own personal praise for the excellence of your actions. I wish to reward you, if there is anything you desire,” Trash stated.
“If you will forgive my impudence, the only thing that I desire—all who belong to the same unit of spies desire—is to see our target punished. That is the intent of all in the unit created by our now-deceased queen.” Lyno knew that Trash was Bitch’s father, and that he still held vast authority, and yet she did not flinch in the face of him.
“Very well. Your reward is the punishment of Bitch . . . I have heard you, loud and clear. I may find myself faltering when that moment comes. I give you more authority than I in this matter. Please continue your good work,” Trash commanded.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Lyno responded. From the look on Trash’s face, I saw he understood exactly what was going on.
In almost that same moment, the whip seven star weapon that Lyno had been temporarily holding onto turned into a ball of light, circled around us a few times, and then vanished.
“Don’t go getting captured by the enemy again,” I called after it. It appeared again and flickered as though to say it would be okay, then vanished a second time. It looked like it had chosen to hide itself, then, in the same way the mirror and book had done.
“That completes a simple exchange of information, at least,” Trash concluded. “This is not the kind of place we should talk for any length of time. Shall we get moving?”
“Good idea,” I agreed. We prepared to depart the scene and return to Melromarc Castle . . . when I looked around and noticed that someone important was missing.
“I don’t see Ren. Did a wave happen somewhere else and he’s off fighting that?” I inquired of Eclair, who was part of Trash’s honor guard. “Some kind of double operation?”
“No, not exactly . . .” Eclair said, seemingly struggling to explain further. I looked over at Trash, and he gave me a wry chuckle, also taking a moment to decide how to explain.
“Ren has been under a lot of pressure, from the Spear Hero, Gaelion, and others, and in the end it all proved a bit too much for him . . . and he collapsed. He’s resting up in the village,” Trash finally explained.
“What a moron,” I breathed, shaking my head. He had a strong sense of responsibility, that was for sure, but it was meaningless if it made him collapse! There was no need to even give Motoyasu the time of day. I had been worried about Ren, but I hadn’t expected him to collapse in such a short period of time.
“You leave large shoes to fill, Mr. Naofumi. I’m not surprised the pressure got to him,” Raphtalia said sympathetically. I wondered if it really was such a hard job. But I guess he couldn’t just dump it all on Trash, who was being kept busy enough by Melty. Motoyasu wasn’t any help—in fact, he was part of the problem. It made sense that everything was going to roll downhill to the only other holy hero left behind, poor old Ren. He could have at least relied on Fohl a little, surely, even if he was a bit difficult at times. I looked over at Fohl in that moment, but he glanced away uncomfortably. He was just as awkward as ever.
“I did what I could to help!” Fohl stated, reading my mind. So the pressure of responsibility on Ren and support from Fohl were two different issues.
“Very well.” I gave a sigh. “Let’s just head back to the castle.” We hurried away from the scene of the battle.
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