Chapter Nine: Ancient Siltran
I looked around to see plenty of human activity, but the building itself looked older than Melromarc and seemed to be under repair due to battle damage.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Siltran. This is the nation that summoned me,” Mamoru said.
“Ancient Siltran, right?” commented Melty, providing some useful additional information. “I’ve read about this in ancient texts. The country that came before ancient Siltvelt.” I wasn’t sure how to express it, but the castle seemed smaller . . . more cozy when compared to Melromarc and Siltvelt. It probably meant that Siltvelt had become more flashy and bigger as history continued. “So this is what it looked like. From what I can see here, it looks like Vanira construction . . . but hold on, something is a little different,” Melty continued, tilting her head. I wondered what she was thinking—and to be honest, I didn’t know what Vanira construction was.
“This castle isn’t here in the future?” Mamoru asked.
“Much has been lost to conflict,” Melty reported.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he eventually said. This was probably just the vanguards of the waves again, working behind the scenes to ensure such assets didn’t remain for future generations. I was getting sick of hearing such stories myself, but I also thought that maybe we shouldn’t be sharing such tales of a dark and gloomy future with these people. They were going to have trouble getting out of bed in the morning if they knew the nation they currently lived in wasn’t going to make it into the future.
“Still, there’s something about all this . . .” Even I wanted to pick my words carefully, which was a rare occurrence. It was just that the castle looked so bleak, and—for all the people—the town did too. There was a lot of rubble and destruction, likely from the waves. It all felt like something out of the Middle Ages, old and dated. But it was almost taking it too far. It felt old in a way that was different to L’Arc’s nation over in Kizuna’s world.
I had been to Siltvelt, and I also wasn’t seeing the same mix of Western and Chinese styles that I had experienced there. The town here was comprised of simple houses that mixed rough stone and wood.
“Do you have a dragon hourglass?” Melty asked.
“Yes, in that building over there,” Mamoru replied, pointing to a building in front of the castle. Placing the dragon hourglass in the vicinity of the castle was definitely a theme in this world. That would at least let me line this location up with the future.
“Naofumi, I think I know what you’re thinking, so let me tell you something. Just like how a river can change its course over a long period of time, a dragon hourglass can shift positions too. I don’t think its location will be much help as a reference point,” Melty explained. It was the first I was hearing of this—another arbitrary annoyance.
“Okay then, let’s see what else we’ve got,” I said and looked around. But I didn’t see anything that suggested further links with the future. The scenery in the distance did look a bit like what I had seen in Siltvelt, but if I had to say that this place would definitively become Siltvelt in the future . . . that was a tough call. There was a jungle close to the castle town in Siltvelt, but here I was only seeing what looked like barren plains. I mean, this was just from a quick glance around.
“Please start by coming to the castle,” Mamoru said. “I want to keep everything legit.”
“Okay,” I agreed. Mamoru let us into the castle of the nation of Siltran. Just like the exterior suggested, it was a pretty cramped place. Melty walked on as though it was the most natural thing in the world, however, and so I just followed her lead.
I wondered if this really was the nation that would later become Siltvelt again. The demi-humans I could see walking around didn’t look all that strong. When I had been in Siltvelt, I’d been exposed to a melting pot of savage-looking individuals. But everyone I was seeing here looked far more kind and gentle. The therianthropes were also smaller races such as kobolts; I wasn’t seeing any of the big guys. I saw some sheep therianthrope, and a lizard-man type too, like a muscular crocodile, not something I had encountered in Siltvelt. They looked pretty strong, but there wasn’t a large number of them. In any case, the races here seemed closer to those in Q’ten Lo. Taking the shape of the demi-human ears and tails into account, I noticed there were lots of mice and weasel types.
Then I noticed Raphtalia looking over at a demi-human with weasel features.
“Something up?” I asked her.
“No, it’s . . . it’s nothing,” she stammered.
“Raph,” said Raph-chan, leaping up onto Raphtalia’s shoulder and making more noises. She seemed to be saying that it was rude to stare.
We continued on and were allowed into the Siltran audience chamber.
“Welcome back, Hero Mamoru. Baah!” We were welcomed by a sheep therianthrope. It was wearing a coat and tails, making me want to make an impromptu crack about a mutton butler for some reason. I was also very distracted by the bleating noise, but I decided to let that one go. “Whatever is going on here, Hero? Who are these people with you? Baah!”
“It seems they are heroes from the future, sent to this age for as of yet undiscovered reasons,” Mamoru explained.
“What! Baah!” said the sheep.
“This is one of the ministers of Siltran,” Mamoru explained to us.
“What about the king?” I asked.
“He recently passed away, I’m afraid, due to the betrayal of our castle magician,” Mamoru said. “The king was a good man.” I frowned as soon as the word “betrayal” came up. I wondered why there was so much of that in the world. “So my friend here has taken on a lot more of the detailed public duties,” Mamoru continued.
“I do whatever I can to aid the Shield Hero Mamoru in his defense of the nation of Siltran, in place of our departed king,” the sheep explained.
“You make it sound like Mamoru is basically the king now,” I commented.
“Not the king, but a representative, maybe. I’m supported by so many other people though. I’m just more like window dressing,” Mamoru said self-depreciatingly.
“Maybe a bit like the position you hold in Melromarc, Naofumi,” Melty said.
“You need anything, the minister here should be able to arrange it.” Mamoru turned back to the sheep. “How about we start with some maps? Our nation and others?” he suggested.
“Very well. I will arrange for them at once. Baah!” the minister said. Maps would be a big deal. Learning the terrain would be super useful for all sorts of reasons. If they were willing to show them to us, I wasn’t going to turn them down, but I wondered at their security. I wondered why they would give such information up so easily.
“Please, take a look, heroes from the future,” the mutton minister said, having ordered his underlings to bring in maps for us. I spread a few of them out. I had been paraded around inside Siltvelt, so I had some idea of the lay of the land. The nations had different names, the locations of towns and villages were different, and the actual size of the nation was smaller too. But I did recognize the mountains and general terrain. When I looked at the world map . . . there was something I had no idea about. It did feel similar in some places though. Melty was taking a look too and was looking just as baffled as I was. So this was the world prior to being fused by the waves. At some point in the future, then, the first world and second world would merge to create a third world.
There was an island called Q’ten Lo in the east, so that was a definite commonality, but on these maps, the shape of the island itself was not depicted; it was more just supposition that the island was located there.
“Something I’d like to ask about. This magician who betrayed you, tell me a little more about that,” I said.
“A worm who took the head of our king as a prize to our sworn enemy, the massive nation of Piensa,” Mamoru explained.
“I guess scum like that can be found in any age!” I raged.
“He asked me and the king to save the world from the waves, begged us, and then turned around with this betrayal. To be quite honest, I would love to find some way to punish him,” Mamoru admitted. It almost sounded like he was asking for my help with that. That was a topic I could actually get behind, but I also wasn’t in the market for another revenge quest at the moment. “The scariest part is that we don’t know when they will attack, just that it is coming,” Mamoru continued.
“We have you though, Mamoru, so we’ll be okay,” R’yne added. It sounded like his enemies thought quite a lot of his abilities then. “They are a big nation, and they try to solve everything with strength. They claim to be free from discrimination, but that’s just a claim. They believe that their national view of justice is the justice of the world.” That sounded a lot like Shieldfreeden. I’d only heard about it secondhand from Melty and Trash, but they talked about their ideals of freedom while wielding tight authority over their people. That made sense; it was the nation ruled by the aotatsu race, one of whom we had encountered as part of Takt’s retinue. She had been seriously warped as well, triggered so badly by defeat it had been difficult to watch.
“They have vast lands and yet always want more, believing that the hero is more suited to their own nation,” Mamoru explained.
“And they are now trying to wipe you out, after you wouldn’t do what they asked,” R’yne said.
“That’s right. They’ve sent assassins to try and kill me countless times,” Mamoru admitted. At that comment, Melty gave me a poke in the ribs with her elbow, telling me she needed to talk privately.
“Historically Piensa is described as a tyrannical nation that often attacked others. In the end they were defeated in a war with Siltvelt and wiped out,” she told me. Based on that final result, it didn’t sound like something we needed to get involved with.
“So what next? Are you going to let us use that spot for our village so long as we help you with your revenge?” I asked.
“I’ve no intention of asking you to help with our war efforts,” Mamoru replied.
“I hope that’s the truth,” I said, still not sure about the guy.
“Of course it is. However, you are going to need to be careful. If it gets out that we have a second Shield Hero now, that could bring trouble down on you and your friends, Naofumi. Your village is in a bit of a hotspot, to be honest,” Mamoru told us.
“Hot spot how?” I asked.
“We were in the region because we highly expect the enemy to attack from there,” he said. I took a moment to consider that. It sounded like our village had popped out right between Siltran and Piensa. If an all-out war did break out, we would probably need to evacuate the entire village. We could fight to protect it or run for the hills. “I just need you to be careful,” he reiterated.
“Okay. In light of that warning, can you allow us free passage through this country?” I asked.
“I’ll set that up,” he said, giving orders to the mutton minister to prepare the paperwork.
“We don’t want to rile up Piensa unnecessarily, do we? I’ll make sure everyone, Ren and Fohl included, doesn’t spread around the fact we are heroes. That should help to keep all this quiet,” I said.
“That’s a good idea,” Mamoru agreed.
“That does leave the question of exactly what we should be doing next though. I’d really like to find a way to get back to our time period, but I guess ideas for time travel aren’t going to just pop into my head,” I said. I could really use a time-traveling car around now. Over in Kizuna’s world, they had the Ancient Labyrinth Library, a really convenient resource at times like this. I almost wouldn’t be surprised if we found freaking DeLorean plans in there somewhere.
“Archduke, I would like to take this opportunity to start surveying our surroundings, if you agree,” Rat said.
“Maybe check and see what materials you can find here in the castle first,” I suggested.
“Okay, good idea,” she replied.
“We have someone most talented here who might be able to help with that. I will make the introductions,” Mamoru said, looking over at the mutton minister again.
“A fine idea. I’m sure she will be a great help to them,” the sheep bleated. “I am afraid, however, that such a meeting will have to wait. She only just departed the castle. Baah.”
“Ah. We missed each other,” Mamoru said.
“Correct,” the sheep confirmed.
“Who are we talking about?” I asked. Someone “most talented,” huh. There was a phrase that tickled me the wrong way.
“An excellent researcher, most intelligent. Someone we could not do without,” Mamoru replied. “She’s also the Whip Hero.” That only made me think of Takt, which I really didn’t like. We had managed to save the whip seven star weapon from him in the end, and I was still hoping it would choose someone in the future.
“I guess she wouldn’t like it if we just go check out her lab,” I said somewhat hopefully. Before I got an answer, however—
“Mamoru! Welcome back!” A horde of demi-human kids poured into the throne room, all shouting happily. I did a double take just to confirm it, but yes, they were all kids. They all looked at us and started talking at once.
“Hey! Who are these people?”
“They look like humans!”
“This one looks a bit like Mamoru!”
“You think? He looks scary!”
“I think he looks kinder than Mamoru!” The kids were staring especially hard at me. It made me uncomfortable, to be honest. I lifted my chin a little to highlight my arrogance. I didn’t need more kids getting attached and annoying me all the time.
“Did he just say Naofumi looks kind?” Melty quipped, clearly unable to resist.
“Not overflowing with ambition?” Rat added.
“I am zurprised too.” Even the Shadow got in on it, all three of them looking at me with puzzled looks on their faces. I had to agree with them though—it was hard to understand why any of these kids would say I looked “kind.”
“He’s got Mr. Naofumi pegged already . . . I’m amazed he saw that so quickly!” Raphtalia said.
“Raph,” agreed Raph-chan. S’yne said nothing, but I could tell she was on their side in this. Unfortunately, it was the wrong side.
“Raphtalia, do I look kind to you? Really?” I asked.
“You don’t look kind. It’s more . . . your heart,” she replied. Her explanation only made me feel worse about the whole thing. I did have that side to me though—almost childish—to pay back whatever I got. I knew what this was, anyway—it had been the same in Siltvelt. The modifiers on the shield holy weapon had an effect that made demi-humans and therianthropes instinctively consider me their ally. A little girl with cat ears moved over to me, tilting her head.
“He has kind eyes,” she said.
“Kind eyes like a wild animal?” I asked. I didn’t need more annoying kids in my life!
“That must be true, if Cian is saying it! She doesn’t like anyone!” said another one of the kids. They all started to crowd toward me. I wanted to fend them off with a stick.
“You don’t even know me! Stay back!” I said.
“Look at him. He’s trying so hard to play tough!” One of them laughed.
“What was that, you little snot-nosed—” I started in on the kid.
“Mr. Naofumi, please don’t get so angry. They are just children,” Raphtalia chided me. It looked like even in the past I was going to have to deal with annoying children! I hated this!
“They have a point . . . I do see you trying so hard to be brash and tough when I actually spend time with you. I actually understand what they mean,” Melty said. I swore to myself that she would pay for that later!
“Raph?” said Raph-chan.
“Wow, what’s this little thing?” one of the kids said.
“It’s so cute and fluffy!” said another.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan happily, giving them a charming twirl. The kids immediately got a bit grabby with their stroking of her, but Raph-chan could take it. This was my chance to establish the cult of Raph-chan in the past so her name would truly go down in history!
“Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia said suspiciously. Any more thinking like that and she would definitely realize what I was up to, so I looked over at Mamoru instead.
“These kids lost their parents in the war. I’ve been taking care of them,” he told me. I gave a whistle. So he was charitable too! I couldn’t compare with that—actually, my village was pretty much the same thing. These kids would probably get along well with Keel and the others.
“I’ve seen this lady before. Oh? Are you someone else?” one of the kids said to Raphtalia. A few of them seemed to be mistaking her for someone else.
“Right, about that. I’ll need to make those introductions too—” Mamoru started.
“Of course. The one from Q’ten Lo who looks like Raphtalia. I’d very much like to meet with her,” I said.
“I know. We’ll have to track her down,” Mamoru replied.
“You can’t just call her here?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have such a close relationship. Quite a lot happened there too,” Mamoru said.
“She still doesn’t really trust Mamoru,” R’yne explained. “We are trying to be friendly with her, but there seems to be all sorts of reasons holding her back. She’s pretty serious about things and seems more stubborn than your own right hand, Naofumi.” Even as she talked, the kids were still buzzing around us.
“Kids, we can’t talk with you all here. Run along now,” Mamoru said.
“We just want to listen . . .” one of them said. Mamoru put his finger to his lips, paying no attention to their complaints. The kid called Cian had a clouded expression on her face. It felt like there was something else going on here, and I didn’t like it. More unwanted suspicions. Her expression looked like Keel’s when she was ready for a fight.
“Okay. See you later.” The kids finally accepted it and left, saying goodbye, all waving eagerly. I gave them a half-hearted wave in return, and then they were gone.
“Sorry if you think we’ve wasted your time. I’ll make sure to introduce you, if you can give me a little longer,” Mamoru said.
“No need to worry too much. We just turned up so suddenly. You can’t be expected to be ready for us. It looks like we’re going to be here for a while anyway,” I told him. We really had to find a way to get back to our time—and that wasn’t going to be easy. Sooner or later, we were going to find all sorts of information.
“Another reason for coming here is to register our weapons with the dragon hourglass. That will let us confirm the time before the next wave,” I said. The information I was seeing in my field of view was still unclear. “We’re here because of S’yne too,” I said, looking at R’yne. “You have the sewing kit vassal weapon, right? Can I ask you some questions?”
“Go ahead. What do you want to know? How I met Mamoru? Or about my own world? Maybe about what tastes good in this world?” she replied with a barrage of questions, making it hard for me to find the timing to reply. I also wondered why food was coming up.
“First, about your world. We need to confirm that it’s the same one S’yne came from. If you have vassal weapons, you must have holy weapons too. What are they?” I asked.
“Okay, good question. The holy weapons—if you can really call them that, in my world—are the armor holy weapon and the ring holy weapon,” she replied.
“Armor and ring?” I confirmed. They didn’t sound like weapons. Armor was defensive, and a ring was an accessory. I looked over at S’yne to see her twitch and turn away from me. “Looks like that’s a match,” I commented.
“Well, well. Not sure I like hearing that my world has been destroyed,” R’yne said, frowning, clearly distressed by S’yne not saying otherwise.
“I’ve heard others from your world say ‘well, well’ a lot,” I commented. “Is that a thing where you come from?”
“I don’t think so . . .” R’yne replied. Maybe it was just subconscious, a common speech pattern on their world. If they were related, I’d certainly had never seen S’yne pop out wings like that.
“What kind of weapons do armor and a ring make, then?” I asked. I thought for a moment about Itsuki’s former underling, who I already called “Armor.” That’s why he came to mind.
“The ring is a weapon compatible with pretty much any ring you can find, and it mainly specializes in magic. The armor is like the shield, for defense,” she said.
“The basics all sound the same,” I said.
“After exchanges—by which I mean fighting with various worlds due to various waves—the armor and shield seem to both go into the defense category,” R’yne said. “With more research, we might find out more details. That said, after seeing the Armor Hero out there on a metal-covered rampage, ‘defense’ might not be the best word for it.”
“A rampage?” I asked. Even if he was fully armored, completely protected from monsters or human attacks, I could only imagine him fighting in the same kind of way as me. I wondered how a guy in armor could go on a rampage.
“I think it’s a pretty convenient holy weapon. He can fire off the gauntlets and give foes a good whack too,” R’yne said. The armor immediately transformed into a robot in my mind. It sounded like some kind of rocket punch!
“I’ve never seen it do that,” S’yne said, shaking her head. The Armor Hero S’yne knew about probably didn’t use the rocket punch then. “They were the same as you, Naofumi,” she continued.
“Specializing purely in guarding,” I said. S’yne nodded.
“The shield is only for guarding? Why don’t you hit things?” Mamoru asked. Everyone from my side of the room looked at him in surprise. All his question did was give me questions for him.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I’m asking why you think the shield is only for guarding. You need to attack a little to keep the enemy focused on you, surely,” he said. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell Mamoru was talking about. I recalled the impact I had felt when we fought—maybe that’s what he meant.
“Naofumi, why don’t we just show them how powerless you are?” Melty said tauntingly. We had Raphtalia, Raph-chan, Melty, Rat, S’yne, and the Shadow here, so what was the best way to explain this to Mamoru and the others . . .
“How about we have the Shadow turn into someone else—say, Takt—and let me whack him,” I suggested.
“Oh my! You want to punch me?” the Shadow said.
“Why are you getting emotional now?” I asked him. “I’ll look like a real villain if I punch Melty.”
“Nope, nope, nope,” said the Shadow. I wondered where that came from. He should transform and let me hit him.
“Hah! Your attacks can’t even tickle me, Naofumi!” Melty taunted.
“Oh, you think so? I guess this will be easy to understand, anyway,” I admitted.
“Hey, what are you talking about?” Mamoru said. “It sounds like you’re about to punch her, Naofumi.”
“Just watch,” I said. Melty was offering her cheek to me, daring me to hit it. So I proceeded to do so. Mamoru and his allies watched open-mouthed.
“As toothless as ever, Naofumi,” Melty taunted. As expected, Melty didn’t have a scratch on her. Level would be a factor, but she really was uninjured.
“I’ll remember this, Melty!” I said as she continued to taunt me.
“I’ve still not forgiven you for all the mockery in the past!” she replied.
“I still can’t tell if they get along or not . . . That’s Mr. Naofumi and Melty, I guess,” Raphtalia said.
“I honestly feel bad for the archduke,” Rat commiserated. “I’m amazed he has survived this long.” I couldn’t believe it—someone driven out of their research by that punk Takt was taking pity on me!
“Shut up! Don’t look at me with pity in your eyes!” I said. I really didn’t need my allies feeling this way about me! I would make them pay for this somehow, that was for sure!
“I’m sorry, Mr. Naofumi, but just who are you fighting with?” Raphtalia asked.
“Anyone who would dare to look at me with pity!” I spat back.
“That’s a lot of folks to fight,” Melty chimed in. I didn’t need her feeling that way, especially not her! I needed everyone to stop looking at me with pity! I was not pitiful!
“Are you seriously telling me that the Shield Hero can’t attack in the future?” Mamoru asked.
“Yes, it’s as you just saw. Your reaction seems to suggest that things are different for you,” I said. Mamoru gave a nod. As I suspected. Those attacks he had performed on me could actually cause damage. “I did feel a bit of an impact. Is it limited to skills?” I asked.
“No. Just a big whack with the shield will cause damage. Nothing compared to the numbers my allies can put out, but still . . .” Mamoru responded.
“Mr. Naofumi, are you maybe just . . . doing it wrong?” Raphtalia asked.
“I definitely can’t cause damage,” I replied after a pause. That had been proven when I started out with Bitch, attacking that balloon. If I couldn’t fight with my hands, I thought, how about with the shield? I’d tried that too, of course. Even that didn’t cause any damage. Even recently, I would sometimes whack a monster with the shield, and I’d never seen it count as an attack. No matter how my attack value changed, it never made any difference. Any rare unlock bonuses only increased it by one or two points, nothing more. I’d been without the shield for a while too, meaning it had been a while since I had any chance to work on it.
I felt like rapping on the front of the shield. My predecessor Mamoru was allowed to attack, but I wasn’t!
“Should we have told them all of thiz?” the Shadow asked in a quiet voice. I knew what he meant, but it was fine. We had plenty of methods of attack. If they tried to pull something now because they knew I was unable to attack, we’d just show them the error of their ways. Melty had taunted me with an understanding of all these facts.
“Putting this in game terminology, I guess it’s like differences in build or status?” Mamoru said.
“Sounds about right. Could just be the shield spirit mucking us about,” I replied. Many online games allowed players to distribute their stats however they liked. Under those terms, I was a build specialized for defense, giving up on putting status on attack completely, while Mamoru was a balanced build also capable of attacking. I would ultimately win when it came to pure defense, but in terms of flexibility in battle, Mamoru’s build had its advantages too. Putting it honestly, I hadn’t chosen the tank role of my own volition and so I was pretty jealous of the setup Mamoru had running. If I could attack even just a little—especially without having to use skills—it would make my life a whole lot easier.
“Do you think there might be differences between now and the future?” Mamoru asked.
“In the future, the Bow Hero can use guns as well,” I said. The applicable range might expand over time, from bow to crossbow and then crossbow to guns. Ren’s sword could copy a katana too. Motoyasu could copy almost anything with a long handle—in fact, there were some staff and stick weapons he could copy too. When I considered things from that perspective, the shield had a pretty limited range. There were some great shields, of course, and I had made it through up until now, but a little more leeway would have been great. The best I had at the moment was being able to copy certain gloves and gauntlets—and even then, I could still only use them for defense.
“Guns, huh . . .” Mamoru muttered. “We’d better not let the Bow Hero hear that.”
“Why not? What’s up?” I asked.
“A few things,” R’yne admitted. “The Bow Hero and Shield Hero aren’t exactly allies in this time period. If the Bow Hero found out he could use guns as well . . .” she said, trailing off. Making peace with a Bow Hero could be hard—I knew that from my struggles with Itsuki. That had been a difficult problem to overcome. He didn’t listen and you couldn’t talk him down. And just bumping him off wasn’t an option either.
“You guys really are besieged on all sides,” I said.
“It’s hard to stay above water, I’ll give you that. The one behind the waves is interfering too,” Mamoru said.
“The one who assumes the name of God,” Raphtalia said.
“Curse them. Anyone playing at God is going to piss me off,” I said. Even knowledge from games had been incorrectly incorporated as a trap, and they were active even this far back in the past! Of course, they were intrinsically linked to the waves, so that probably made sense.
“We just have to keep fighting until those who can oppose the one who assumes the name of God can reach us. That’s the same here in our world,” Mamoru stated.
“Which leads to my next question. Have you had any interactions at all with these ones who can oppose them? Or have you been building anything, leaving anything for the future?” I tried, just asking generally. Mamoru and the others seemed puzzled about what I was asking, so I took out some paper and drew an image of the creature we had seen on the wall in Fitoria’s ruins. “In our time, there are these ruins with a wall that has images of this cat-like therianthrope on them,” I explained.
“A cat therianthrope? And this is the creature who can oppose the one who assumes the name of God?” Mamoru asked. It didn’t sound like he knew anything, based on that response. There weren’t filolials here, which probably meant Fitoria was born further into the future than this. I wondered which hero had made those ruins, then—and if we were destined to search through all of time to find them. Still so many mysteries.
“Whatever this creature is, it seems it came at some point after this but before my own time. Maybe keep that in mind,” I suggested.
“Okay, yes. Good information,” Mamoru said.
“Anything else you want to ask, future Shield Hero?” R’yne asked.
“Actually, yes—to you. Why are you among Mamoru’s allies here? Or are you just helping out as a guest?” I asked. I could imagine her in the same kind of position as Glass or L’Arc, as someone who had visited our world to release unknown weapons and then fell into a collaboration due to that.
“There’s nothing that says the heroes aren’t allowed to get along, right? But we do seem to be pushed into fighting a lot,” R’yne admitted.
“Good point. Things are the same in the future there as well,” I said. The one who assumed the name of God had put all sorts of plans into action to make the heroes fight each other—like giving Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu incorrect game-based knowledge, boosting up their strength a little, and then making them think they had to beat everyone else.
“In my case, I ended up here after the waves brought my sister to this world. That eventually led me to becoming friends with Mamoru,” R’yne explained.
“So you have a sister,” I said, unable to stop myself from glancing over at S’yne. Her sister had a pretty crazy attitude and traveled between worlds herself. The sewing kit vassal weapon certainly seemed to have a type.
“Anything else? I want to talk with you more, Naofumi, if I can,” R’yne said.
“You really do like to talk,” I commented.
“You bet I do!” she replied. I would rather she didn’t sound so happy about that. “Say, Naofumi.”
“What now?” I asked with some trepidation.
“I bet sex with you doesn’t hurt at all,” she said.
“Where did that come from?!” I exploded, half in surprise, half in shock, as R’yne suddenly took a turn into dirty town. As if I would know about that!
“I mean, you don’t have any attack power, do you? Which suggests to me that you wouldn’t be able to make it hurt even if you wanted to. Doesn’t that mean it would only feel good?” she hypothesized. She asked so smoothly, so naturally, head tilted, seemingly so pure—almost naive—that it just made me want to throttle her all the more.
“Logically speaking, that makes sense,” Rat cut in from the sidelines, amazed at this new discovery.
“Not you too! Enough!” I said. If this hypothesis was proven, I’d become little more than a living sex toy. I was not going to allow that to happen! I never expected my lack of attack power to cause such a lewd question to arise at this juncture in time. This was even worse than them deciding to attack us because they thought I couldn’t fight back! I could not allow this idea to spread!
“Hold on, Naofumi. Don’t tell me that you’re still a . . .” R’yne said cheekily. In that moment, I decided what I would have called her if I didn’t know her name: Lewd Woman! She should be thankful that she gave me her name upfront, or she might have gone down in history with that name. R’yne was still pointing at me and looking at Raphtalia and the others. They all nodded, almost in unison, to confirm her unfinished supposition. “Aren’t you a serious little boy?” She chuckled.
“Shut it! None of your business!” I replied hotly. With so much else going on, I just didn’t have the time—or inclination—for activities of that type. First the Demon Dragon, and now all of this! There was no written rule that I had to sleep around. That was my business!
“Archduke, you really should just give it a try with Raphtalia. Then we’ll also find out if it hurts or not,” Rat suggested.
“I agree,” Melty said. “You’re still a bit too clean-cut for me in that regard.”
“Holding it in won’t do anyone any good,” the Shadow said. I didn’t ask what “it” was.
“Everyone, if you don’t mind . . . can you stop giving Mr. Naofumi any more ideas?” Raphtalia said.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan.
“Nope, not happening!” I said. I could not let this get out. Even if I asked Raphtalia to keep it quiet, who knew who might be listening in when we did the deed? I was also scared of the response from the killer whale sisters once we returned home and they found out I’d put the moves on Raphtalia. Not that I thought they would be angry—I was worried they would think it meant they could get in line.
I noticed S’yne looking over with a little interest on her face too. That was best ignored. All too complex.
“Look what you’ve done. It just seemed like Mr. Naofumi was opening up about this stuff, and now he’s bottling it all up again,” Raphtalia said. I didn’t like that response either. I wondered if there was no way to move on from this topic. I hadn’t even given in to Atla on this!
I looked over at Mamoru, and he quickly glanced away. It didn’t look like I would be sharing my pain at being taunted over sex stuff by women with him, then. We were both Shield Heroes, but if he had “experience,” then that marked a major difference between us.
“R’yne, you’re making him uncomfortable. Maybe don’t push too hard,” Mamoru suggested.
“You think?” R’yne said. She had a look on her face, like she’d just found a new plaything. That really reminded me of S’yne’s sister. If she pushed any harder, I was going to have to push back! Don’t pity me, and don’t pick on me!
“Let’s change the subject,” Raphtalia suggested. “R’yne, you seemed to grow wings during our scuffle. What was that? Magic?” She didn’t have wings at the moment, but they had definitely been there in combat and seemed to have boosted her abilities.
“Ah, my optical wings? That’s a special ability belonging to my race,” she explained. She focused for a moment and wings formed from light appearing on her back. She even started to float up in the air. Flight would be a convenient power to have. “They demand a lot of stamina, magic, and life energy to maintain, so I can’t keep them out for any extended period of time.”
“Like demi-humans turning into their therianthrope form,” I suggested.
“Pretty much that, yes,” she replied. Another power I would never have guessed at.
“When you say ‘my race,’ does that mean you aren’t human?” I asked.
“That’s right. In my world, we call ourselves skywings. The humans call us angels though,” R’yne said.
“You look human at a glance, but you’re actually a demi-human,” I said. There sure were a lot of races out there. When I thought about it for a moment, I remembered both Glass and Therese looked pretty close to being human. All they did that was any different was turn transparent or get some jewels on.
“But your friend S’yne is a skywing, surely?” R’yne said.
“She is?” I asked, looking over at her. She shook her head vigorously, indicating that she had no idea about that herself.
“I don’t know anything about that,” S’yne said.
“I’m pretty sure . . .” R’yne continued, moving over and putting a hand on S’yne’s shoulder. Something like life force flowed from R’yne into her. “Yes. The flow of the power is a little weak, but you should be able to use the same abilities as me. I can teach you, if you like,” R’yne offered.
“Good idea. I’d very much like S’yne to learn that,” I said. To be quite honest about it, the sewing kit vassal weapon was pretty much on its last legs, and S’yne herself was suffering from clearly diminished capacity. She was still making it work with cooking power-ups and raising her level hard, but the limit of those approaches was close, it was clear. Facing all these issues, a way to enhance herself had just dropped into our laps, so she needed to learn it, if she could.
“Why don’t you know about yourself, S’yne?” R’yne wondered.
“Was there anyone in your world who could use powers like R’yne?” I asked her. S’yne shook her head at my question. Then pieces started to click into place inside my head. “This is just supposition,” I said, “but it seems to fit together. Let’s suppose that these optical wings were an inconvenience for the one who assumes the name of God. Maybe that means they sought to wipe your race from history, R’yne.” Just like how they tried to wipe out Hengen Muso Style, they would do whatever it took to remove threats to the waves. S’yne has somehow escaped that fate, however, and was now the last of the bloodline. “If we could trace back along her family tree, maybe we could find how some kind of incident occurred that sealed their powers away,” I suggested. That kind of thing was part of the story for games all the time. “In the other world, the country that equates to Q’ten Lo had been wiped out, meaning we couldn’t use the powers from there,” I added. Glass was a good example of this as well. “Whatever the case, S’yne, I want you to study under R’yne and learn whatever you can to help us fight . . . her in the future,” I told her. S’yne nodded in agreement at my orders. She seemed willing to give it a try. Finding any method we could to make S’yne stronger was a great idea and more than welcome.
The reason I had paused and then said “her” was because the enemy we faced was S’yne’s sister; S’yne’s sworn enemy was also her flesh and blood. I decided not to let our new allies know about this ongoing battle between sisters.
“An unknown race from another world . . . this all intrigues me too,” Rat said, watching the scene unfold. She specialized in monsters, but I guessed that bled over into this topic too.
I looked at R’yne again. She did look like S’yne—but perhaps more like S’yne’s sister, the way she carried herself. Their names were almost identical! She had to be S’yne’s ancestor!
A lot of people I had met recently seemed like someone I already knew. There was Fitoria as well. I wondered if that meant something.
“It sounds like you’ve visited quite a number of places,” Mamoru said.
“We do get around,” I replied. “What about you guys?”
“I’ve covered a lot of ground in this world, I’d like to think,” he replied. As I thought back over our own exploits, I realized it was true that we’d seen a lot. Not just Melromarc, but also Siltvelt, Q’ten Lo, Faubrey, and then a whole different world with Kizuna and her allies. How did you beat that? Go to the past!
“It zounds like we are on the zame page at lazt,” the Shadow said.
“Is that really the line you want to use after practically trying to force me and Raphtalia into the sack?” I said pointedly. We were barely in the same book yet! There was so much more I needed to know!
“Mamoru, about our fight. Which shield did that Tri Barrier skill come from?” I asked. I already knew it was a chain skill leading off from Air Strike Shield. If I could use that myself, it could be pretty handy—but I already had Shooting Star Wall if I needed to defend my allies. Setting this Tri Barrier up had seemed to take a bit of work too.
“I should be asking you about your kit,” Mamoru said. “How did you learn that Chain Shield move?” It looked like there was a lot each Shield Hero was going to be able to teach the other.
“Chain Shield appeared when I added a monster called a White Tiger Clone to my shield. That fight took place in a different world to this one, however,” I said.
“Tri Barrier, which more accurately comes from a skill called Combo Barrier, is something I learned by raising my status using the bow holy weapon’s power-up method of job levels,” Mamoru reported. That sounded similar to how I learned Hate Reaction. Finding the right combination to unlock skills like that could be a real pain.
“I’ve done quite a lot of that myself, but I’ve never seen that skill,” I replied.
“Even when you use power-ups, Archduke, you never raise your attack, do you?” Rat commented. “Maybe that’s the missing condition.” Mamoru and I both fell silent at the observation. I felt like hitting the shield again. A little more support in these areas would have been nice! If attack power was a factor, there could be loads of skills I’d never have access to!
“A White Tiger Clone, you said . . .” Mamoru muttered. They didn’t have hakuko here, so I wasn’t sure how he could learn that one.
“At least you might be able to learn that one. Do you have any shields with skills I could actually use?” I asked.
“Very well. I have a certain shield that I created for a very specific purpose—a little inside joke, if you will—a while back. I’ll let you copy that,” Mamoru said.
“A joke? Is this going to do me any good?” I asked.
“You’ll have to see for yourself,” he replied. With that, Mamoru ordered the mutton minister to bring in this inside-joke shield.
What turned up was a painstakingly faithful re-creation of a shield from a game series with a character who wore green, including a trademark green cap—a youth from the bloodline of heroes, a taciturn chap who often ended up pulling a holy sword from a plinth somewhere, perhaps in a forest (after passing through a log). I’d guessed Mamoru was a gamer already, but he was more serious than I thought.
“This isn’t just an Iron Shield or something like that, right?” I confirmed with him.
“There’s a lot more to this than that, I assure you,” he replied. I gingerly lifted the shield and tried copying it.
Weapon copy activated.
Conditions for Otherworld Kingdom Shield unlocked.
Conditions for Otherworld Kingdom Mirror Shield unlocked.
Otherworld Kingdom Shield
<abilities locked> equip bonus: back defense boost (medium)
Otherworld Kingdom Mirror Shield
<abilities locked> equip bonus: light resilience boost (medium), skill “Shine Shield”
I didn’t have much good to say about this shield—I meant shields, actually. Copying one weapon seemed to have given me two, but I wasn’t sure how that worked either. Maybe it was something to do with the mirror vassal weapon, which didn’t seem to have left me. I changed to the Otherworld Kingdom Mirror Shield in order to try it out.
“Huh? That doesn’t look like the same shield,” Mamoru commented.
“I’m just trying something out,” I said. “Shine Shield!” Just like the name said, the shield started to shine . . . and a beam of light extended from it, like a torch. I pointed it at Mamoru, just to see what was going to happen.
“That’s pretty dazzling,” he said. That looked like the only effect it had. I turned it on the Shadow, perhaps looking for a little payback for his comments earlier.
“He’z right, very dazzling,” the Shadow said.
“It reminds me of Keel when she was playing with reflecting light with that mirror she picked up from a merchant,” Raphtalia said, gently casting some magic to adjust brightness.
“So I can’t even use it like Ren’s Flashing Sword,” I commented.
“It might work if you surprise someone with it,” Raphtalia said. It seemed like a lame-duck skill. I couldn’t imagine any use for this. It was basically a torch!
“If you could at least use a skill power-up . . .” Raphtalia said.
“Then do you think it might finally work like Flashing Sword?” I said with exasperation. This was a downgrade, nothing else. Raphtalia could use light magic, meaning she could dazzle foes with a wave of her hand. Raph-chan could do the same. This was going in with the other joke skills, then. Maybe I could find a use for it if I was locked in a scuffle with an enemy.
“Okay then. We’re going to be around for a while, so I hope we can get along,” I said.
“I feel the same. We’ll help however we can to get you back to your own time,” Mamoru said. After that, he gave the permission for our activities inside the country—his country, basically. We achieved an agreement. We would work together to help each other with our respective issues.
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