Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Village Abnormality 

It was the day after we returned from the filolial sanctuary. We had gone to report our progress to the old guy and others at his workshop and then returned to our own house. 

“Ah, Naofumi. Welcome back.” We were greeted there by Melty, sounding for all the world like this was her place too and reclining on the sofa in the middle of the house where Raphtalia, Filo, and I lived. She was dangling her legs, looking totally relaxed. 

“Melty, just who do you think you are?” I asked her. 

“The queen of the largest nation in the world,” she replied. That was true. She was indeed the queen of what had become the largest nation in the world. But it also wasn’t what I had meant. 

“That might be your title . . .” Raphtalia started. 

“Indeed, it is. So go do some queen stuff,” I told her. 

“I have today off,” she said. 

“Do queens get the day off?” Raphtalia asked. “What’s going on? Are you okay, Melty?” 

“I’ve been through a lot as queen recently, so my father told me to come see you guys and spread my wings a little. Blow off some steam. This is about the only place I can do that,” she admitted. While I was away, Melty had been dealing with meetings and reports from all across the world. She was trying to hold together so many threads of disparate information I could actually understand where she was coming from. That didn’t excuse her acting like this in my house, of course. 

“He also wants me to report back on how things look here, what with the large collection of heroes you have now amassed,” Melty admitted. 

“That sounds more like Trash,” I replied. So Melty got a break from her punishing duties while being pushed almost forcibly onto me. It also displayed to the other nations how close the Melromarc royals were with the Shield Hero. All under the pretense of her duties as queen. Quite the cunning plan. Trash had proven himself one to watch out for since he came back to himself. Still, this could trigger advances on me from the Siltvelt side as well—marriage advances—so I wished they would back off a bit. Maybe he was handling that side of things via Fohl. 

“Okay, I understand why you are here now, but where’s Filo?” I asked. Melty was here but Filo was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t like she spent long here, even if this was her home, but it seemed far too quiet for her to be in another room. 

“Bubba Fohl! Eat this food I made!” came a voice from outside. 

“Why are you bothering me? Ask Brother to do that!” said a second voice. 

“There’s so much pressure in getting Bubba to eat it! I want to practice on you first!” 

“Why are you bothering me though? Go ask Sadeena!” 

“Sadeena and Shildina aren’t here! They are probably off drinking on the island until Bubba calls for them!” 

I was pretty sure I could put faces to the voices that I heard through the window. The village sure was a lively place. I tried not to concern myself with whatever it was they were discussing. Filo wasn’t out there, anyway. So she really wasn’t with Melty. That was rare. 

“Filo was spotted by the Spear Hero and had to go on the run. I tried to stop him, but you know how he is. We said we would meet up again here, so that’s what I’m waiting for,” Melty explained. 

“Okay, so that’s why she isn’t here,” I said. Motoyasu simply never gave up. Stalkers were scary. I could sympathize, having the Demon Dragon and Atla stalking me to some degree. I didn’t mind that they liked me; that wasn’t the issue. In Motoyasu’s case though . . . he was just sick. 

“So I’m just waiting for Filo to get back and enjoying my free time. I’ve had so many meetings and other official business recently. I’m worn out . . . and I don’t get any real freedom, with all the fear of assassination,” Melty complained. 

“Queen of the biggest nation in the world. That all comes with the territory,” I said. We had the Raph species here in the village, so assassins couldn’t get in. Just like Raphtalia, the Raph species could all use illusion-type magic. Any outsider trying to conceal themselves would be outed in an instant. That would make it very hard for assassins from other nations to get in here and kill Melty. Melty had also been going to train with Filo. That meant she could probably handle herself against anyone who wasn’t a hero anyway. The only thing that could cause any trouble was an attack by S’yne’s sister’s forces. 

“My father has created a firm foundation, but we are still in a dangerous time,” Melty said. Most everyone with connections to Takt had been executed, but some of them might have escaped or still be in hiding, which meant security was being kept tight. There were other groups who would profit from Melty’s demise too. But surely a fate worse than death awaited anyone attempting to harm the beloved daughter of the Wisest King of Wisdom. His other daughter was now a wanted criminal across the world, of course, but he likely didn’t consider her his daughter any longer. 

“You have your own burdens, don’t you, Melty?” Raphtalia sympathized. 

“You’re one to talk, Raphtalia. I think you should pay a visit to Q’ten Lo before they forget what you look like,” Melty said. 

“You have a point,” Raphtalia said unsteadily, “but I’d rather leave that to Ruft, if I can.” 

“Unfortunately for you, on paper Ruft is dead—executed,” I reminded her. “It’s going to be a few more years before we can pretend he’s a distant relative.” 

“That kid is something else, let me tell you,” Melty said. “He can speak the common Melromarc language already and knows far more of it than I taught him too. He’s definitely related to you, Raphtalia.” Melty went on to tell us how Ruft had been while we were away. He had been observing as Melty’s aide, but perhaps due to being former royalty himself, he had displayed an innate sense of anticipating what Melty and Trash wanted. He had been there to provide Trash and Melty with the correct documents just when they needed them. He had a fresh blackboard waiting before they even thought of asking. He could also respond to the approach of assassins and was able to spot attempts at reconnaissance from other nations. 

“I’m happy that you think so much of him, but that’s also complicated for me, emotionally,” Raphtalia admitted. 

“He’s very warm and loving, and he loves that therianthrope form of his. He’s always turning into it and playing with his fur any chance he gets,” Melty said. She seemed to be sympathizing with Raphtalia too. I wasn’t into that. This was Ruft growing up! The very reason he had come so far so quickly was because he was related to Raphtalia. 

“He’s starting to ask more and more questions that I can’t answer and I have to tell him to ask my father. My father has started to take notice of him as a result. He even said he was going to talk to you, Naofumi, about whatever plans you might have for him,” Melty told me. I thought for a moment. 

“I really want him to choose for himself,” I said. He had been the ruler of a nation, true, but everyone under him had been self-serving scumbags. That wasn’t the case anymore. If Ruft learned how to be a proper king, it would probably be better than the current situation of Raphtalia acting as queen in pretty much name only. “I guess Raphtalia and Ruft should chat together and sort that out between themselves,” I concluded. 

“You mean, the future of Q’ten Lo?” Melty confirmed. 

“That’s right,” I said. Raphtalia gave a sigh. From my perspective, I was thinking of taking her back to Japan with me once the waves were finished. So if possible, I wanted Ruft to handle Q’ten Lo. This was all working toward setting that up. 

“Okay, Melty. You heard anything else from Trash? About S’yne’s sister or Bitch and her goons making their way back into this world?” I asked her. 

“At the moment, everything seems quiet. While you were away, the only real problem we faced was some small-scale resistance from forces displeased with me becoming queen,” Melty reported. Incidents too small to bother reporting to us. “There was a small scuffle in Faubrey yesterday, and Father did have his eye on that . . . I’m not sure if he’ll report it to you or not.” With everything going on in the world, it was impossible to tell which of our enemies might be involved. Often when reading a story or watching some movie, you would sit there in amazement, wondering why the dumb main characters couldn’t see what was right in front of their faces. I’d done that myself, back when such entertainment was available to me. Now, though, living in a more dynamic situation myself, I could see things differently; I could see how difficult it was to spot the smallest, but ultimately significant, change in your everyday life. Say there was a small pebble in front of your door that wasn’t there the day before. Would you even spot it, let alone think it was strange? If so, you would probably make a fantastic detective. 

Swing a stick and you’d probably hit trouble, especially in this world. But if I took the current size of Melromarc into account, it wasn’t going to be one or two hundred instances; it was going to be one or ten thousand. There was no way to know which of those was the one we needed to focus on. 

“If Trash is interested in it, then there’s likely something there,” I said. He had a habit of picking up on important things, like some incredible fictional tactician himself. 

“Still, Father wants you and your team to build your strength as much as possible,” Melty said. 

“I’m sure he does,” I commented. For all we knew the enemy was active in Kizuna’s world right now. We might have been tricked into coming back here. Kizuna and her gang might be fighting in full force now. 

In either case, we were going to hang out and keep an eye on things for about two weeks. We needed to use that time to raise our levels and improve ourselves as much as possible. 

“Hey, Melty. You’re going to be staying here tonight, right?” I said. 

“I guess so,” she replied. 

“How about we go hunting later?” I suggested. 

“I guess just lounging around is a bit much. What about Filo?” she asked. 

“We’ll invite her along if she can get away from Motoyasu,” I said. 

“That’s mean,” said Melty. 

“Raph!” As we were trying to plan our schedule for the day, Raph-chan started to look around, her fur standing up, suddenly on high alert. “Raph?!” I tilted my head, wondering what was going on, but everyone assembled took it as a warning to get ready for action. 

“Iwatani, get out of there at once!” It was S’yne’s sister’s voice, suddenly coming out of nowhere. “What?” I exclaimed in surprise, but in the same moment, a heavy feeling completely overtook my body. 

“Mr. Naofumi? Whatever is the matter?” Raphtalia asked. It seemed like none of the others had heard the warning. Then S’yne, who had been waiting at the doorway, basically kicked in the door and burst inside. There were crackling shafts of lightning running along the ground outside, making it obvious that something big was happening—like some kind of super-dense magical magnetic field. It was like a more powerful version of the magic that Gaelion, the Demon Dragon, or Filo used to create a sanctuary, swelling to fill the entire vicinity. Panicked voices rang out from the villagers, who were wondering what was going on and shouting to get back inside. I, meanwhile, rushed outside, turning my shield into something ready for combat and preparing myself for anything. I didn’t have a clue what was going on yet, but I was ready to defend Raphtalia and Melty as required. 

“Melty, be ready to get out of here!” I told her. 

“I am!” she replied, rushing out of the house alongside me. The next moment, lightning crashed down in the middle of the village. It was a blinding light covering everything in the vicinity. That was followed by an intense floating feeling. Sparks crackled off my shield as though it was protecting us from something. 

“What’s going on?” I shouted. S’yne’s sewing kit and Raphtalia’s katana weapons were giving off a similar response as my shield. I blinked a few times and then we all looked around. 

It didn’t look like anything much had happened. The same village scenery spread out around us. 

“What was that?” Fohl asked. “It was so bright!” 

“I saw it,” I replied. He was covering Keel and Imiya with his body to protect them, while the others in the village were looking around, blinking and shaking their heads. I checked again to see if anything had changed—everything seemed the same. 

Inside the village, at least. 

“Bubba, hey, was there a mountain like that outside the village before?” Keel asked. I looked where she was pointing, and that immediately told me something was seriously wrong. 

“What’s going on here?” I asked. The familiar scenery outside the village had now totally changed. There was a mountain I’d never seen before and a whole forest that spread out from the village. I immediately checked my Portal Shield to find that every location other than the village had vanished from it. In that moment, I had no idea what had happened or what new trials lay ahead.