Epilogue: Different Constellations
We had so many people to accommodate now. We invited Mamoru, his soldiers, and his other collaborators to come to the village for a large victory party. It was being held outside—more on the scale of a festival, to be honest.
“Wow! That tastes great!”
“What a strange plant. Is this edible too?”
“A tree that grows bread! Whatever will they think of next?”
Everyone seemed pretty impressed with the produce of our village and enjoyed the meat dishes—including some flavorful dragon—the village cooks and I prepared. It seemed celebrations in the past weren’t much different from those in the future, however; all the small-animal-type demi-humans and therianthropes running around created a bit of a different atmosphere. They also all had that look in their eyes that was unique to those who had come from regions that lacked food. Seeing people with a lingering hint of desperation in their eyes (the eat-now-or-I-might-not-survive look) tucking into this veritable feast gave me mixed feelings.
“Bring more in and get it cooked as quick as you can. Don’t worry too much about the taste. Just suck it in!” I said. All the food I had prepared in advance had been consumed in a flash, and now we were making barbeque from some newly defeated monsters. Roasting them whole might have seemed like one possible idea, but that was actually a pretty difficult, time-consuming process, and the resulting meat didn’t taste very good anyway. Get it wrong and you could end up eating meat that was still raw.
Still, running a party like this was great experience for the village cooks. Monster meat needed to be completely drained and the sinews cut before one could even consider eating it. The meat that hadn’t been prepared properly or that didn’t taste that nice could be used to feed our own monsters. Or it could be processed into fertilizer. It could also be used for shield compounding, so there was no waste—everything got used.
“Interesting. I had some knowledge of the skeletal structure and musculature, and I’ve performed some precursory examinations myself, but I’ve never done such a thorough dissection before. This is a great opportunity for me, so let me help out,” Holn said. She was very passionate about her research, I’d give her that.
“Oh? You don’t know the best places to cut them, ancestor? For this monster—” Rat was showing off, putting on her teacher face.
“Here, here, and here,” I finished for her. “If you cut it here, it can’t walk.”
“You have a good eye for observing monsters, Archduke. If you could swing a weapon in battle, I think you’d clean up quite nicely,” Rat observed.
“Maybe. Monsters will use magic to recover themselves even while you fight though, so you can’t count on just knowledge like this,” I said. They could often pull off unexpected movements too. Just another one of the rules you had to live with in an alternative world where healing magic was a thing. Healing magic went as far down the tree as you could imagine, right down to bizarre but useful stuff like healing tooth cavities. I took a moment to wonder how that worked—maybe gathering calcium from around the rest of the body. I wasn’t quite skilled enough with magic to understand something that complex. “There are ways you can defeat monsters to make them taste better. Would you like to know more?” I asked.
“You bet!” Holn replied. Her intellectual curiosity was clearly tingling. I didn’t see the harm in sharing this information.
“A hunter would tell you this too, but the secret is to finish your prey off without causing any undue stress. Any stress at the moment of death makes the meat taste worse. One blow, pop! You want to finish them quick,” I said.
“That sounds pretty fundamental to me,” Holn said.
“But the basics are important! It might be something unique to this world, or alternate worlds, or whatever, but I’ve also noticed that the monster seeming to accept its death makes it taste better too,” I said. A monster that put up a good struggle and went down fighting didn’t seem to degrade in flavor as much. Maybe it was a sentiment on their part of not wasting their death. Just like the quality of the blood provided by the Demon Dragon had been so high, the monster’s consciousness might have an effect on the quality of their meat. That was an aspect unthinkable back in Japan. The produce that we got from the monsters we kept as livestock, such as eggs and milk, might also fall into this category.
“I’ve heard some talk of a similar nature,” Holn admitted. “So there might be some truth to the idea that monster meat obtained from a close battle tastes better.”
“My research also suggests that defeating a monster while imbuing it with some life force will keep the flesh almost in a living state for a short while, making it easier to dress and process,” I said. Maintaining a “live” state meant the blood would not seep into the flesh, meaning it could be drained completely and would taste and smell even better. Aging the meat still tasted the best, but it was a start.
“That’s because the cells are activated by the life force,” Rat theorized.
“Sounds right to me. We already know that not only in cooking, but when producing anything, using life force can improve the quality of it,” I said.
“Such wide applications. So much room for research,” Holn said.
“Please, try to stay focused on how to get us home,” I said.
“I know, I know,” she replied. I wasn’t sure that she did. Her reply felt too glib for my liking. Holn did seem to be in a very good mood though, maybe because we had struck such a blow to the dragon battalion. I got the impression that she didn’t like dragons much. Something there nagged at me, but I wasn’t going to pull too hard on that thread.
“There’s one final trick, but it’s only available to heroes. You can place the corpses of poor-quality monsters into the weapon, turn them into meat, and once the quality is normalized again, you can cover the rest with your cookery skills,” I explained.
“Wow. Such a cunning ploy, and only available to heroes! It’s not even a way to defeat them that makes them taste better—it’s a cheeky way to enhance them after you’ve defeated them,” Holn said.
“Just the kind of cunning I’d expect from you, Archduke. How much of today’s cooking relied on such methods?” Rat inquired.
“Enough! If it tastes good, that’s all that matters!” I replied.
“Okay then. Little old me is going to get back to my little old research,” Holn said. She started off back toward the lab like it was the most natural thing in the world. Rat started after her with suspicion in her eyes. “You want something?” Holn asked.
“I’ve seen you looking at my Mikey,” Rat replied. “Don’t try any funny business, okay?”
“That’s for him to decide for himself, isn’t it?” Holn responded. “You seem to have put a lot of work into him, but just what is that thing? I can’t back down until you let me know.”
“Mikey is my precious research sample! He’s clumsy but lovable and can’t come out from his tank due to a terrible accident, but one day I’ll let him emerge again!” Rat said. It almost looked like the two of them were fighting, but they seemed to be getting along, so I decided to leave them to their own devices. I’d let Wyndia know to report to me if either of our two resident crackpots tried anything too risky.
“This is the band of traders Naofumi leads. He is a collaborator with Shield Hero Mamoru. I hope we can all get along,” said Ruft, making introductions to some of the soldiers.
“Dafu,” said Raph-chan II. Ruft was different than Raphtalia in that he was politically minded and also had some understanding of trade, which was a big help. Our village had popped up from the future onto the border between two nations, which meant soldiers defending that border were likely to drop by often. We might not be in a bad spot, if this was peacetime—at least in terms of being able to obtain things from other nations. The soldiers Ruft was talking to only had good things to say.
“This is all such a big help.”
“I’ve heard the talk, but I’m so glad Hero Mamoru has found such powerful allies.”
“Now the people of our nation will surely survive into the future.”
“We have to come together and fight off the waves!” The Siltran soldiers had sublime looks on their faces. I wasn’t completely confident in the capabilities of demi-human therianthropes, but this had definitely boosted their morale.
“Bubba, Bubba! If we don’t cook more meat, everything is going to be gone in an instant! Hey, Fohl, you help out too! You can cook, right?” Keel yapped.
“Hold on! I’m not as good as Brother!” Fohl objected.
“But Bubba said the kind of flavors you like suit the taste buds of the people in this nation, so I bet you can make something delicious!” Keel said.
“You can do it!” I offered from the sidelines.
“Bah! Why do I have to cook for you all? Atla, is this also for the good of the village? I think I’m starting to lose my way. Should I continue to take Brother as my target?” Fohl asked, mainly to himself.
“Fohl seems to be struggling with something,” Keel said. She was sharp. The issue was that… Well, she was the issue.
We continued to process the bodies of the monsters, making sure nothing was wasted.
Mamoru and his allies had also brought his kids along to enjoy the victory celebration, and they were all eating their fill too.
“Mamoru, we need to do something to thank Naofumi for this,” R’yne said.
“Indeed. What can we give them though?” Mamoru replied. Siltran was struggling with recovery from all these attacks, after all. They weren’t going to be able to give me much.
“What about this Sanctuary that Piensa is after? Could we go and take a look around?” I asked.
“There’s not much there, to be honest . . . but if you want to go, I can arrange it for you soon. But that’s not really a reward.” Mamoru made a noise that let me know he was thinking. “We don’t have money, food, or resources. The best I can do is issue rights within our nation or passes for travel to other nations . . . and rank, I suppose.”
“I don’t need rank,” I quickly stated. This was the past, so rank might come in useful if we were going to be here a long time. But with Mamoru helping us out, I didn’t really feel the need for that. Maybe getting Melty a temporary position would make negotiations easier, but that was about the only use I could think for it. And again, with Mamoru helping us, it didn’t really feel needed.
“I didn’t think so. Then maybe helping Holn to work out how to get you home?” Mamoru suggested.
“She’s working on that well enough already. You’re doing plenty. No need to worry about it too much,” I said. Maintaining a sense of debt toward us might make future negotiations easier too. Having something to hold over them could be important, but we needed Mamoru to feel things were resolved too. “In which case, can you share any monster materials that you and the other Siltran forces have collected with us?” I asked. “I’m sure you know what I’m after.” The heroes could obtain new weapons from various materials coming from all around the world. Receiving such materials from one in authority could be more than enough of a reward.
“Very well. I will make the arrangements,” Mamoru agreed.
“We could always hit the hot springs together. No better way to get to know someone than in the buff,” said R’yne. I was starting to worry that she was getting a bit sexual with me.
“I can show you to a secret spot I found. That could be nice,” Mamoru said.
“That could be a good way to ensure you have good intentions,” I said, still keeping my cards close. Since I’d come here, it felt like I was bathing in hot springs even more than I had at home—like on the Cal Mira islands.
As I pondered these things, a strange look came over Mamoru’s face.
“Filolials, huh?” He was looking over at a bunch of the birds as they stuffed their beaks with food. They didn’t exist in this time from the sound of it, so maybe that was from where his interest stemmed. From his perspective, we were from the future. So we had access to futuristic technology. If we could share some of that with him, he might make new gear for facing off with the waves. I had to hope that Holn and Rat would work together and come up with something to compete with the bizarre inventions S’yne’s sister’s forces kept coming up with—something to really knock their socks off. Something a bit more exciting than that useful but boring bread tree!
“Mamoru. . .” R’yne was observing my conversation with Mamoru with a look of concern on her face that definitely caught my attention. Cian breathed his name as well, looking between him and me.
“You know now is the time to be happy everyone is still alive, right?” I said.
“That’s right. Well said. Cian, I want you to eat your fill and grow up big and strong too,” Mamoru told the girl.
“Okay! I’m going to get strong too and protect everyone from nasty wars!” Cian said with a look filled with conviction. It sounded like the villagers had started to influence her too.
As we chatted, I saw Ren eating with Wyndia and Eclair. The three of them seemed to spend a lot of time together now. I also got the impression that the two girls could be a little hard on Ren, but maybe that was just me. I found a point to depart the conversation with Mamoru and moved over to this other group.
“Please, stop trying to take care of me all the time!” Wyndia was just saying to Ren, looking quite upset about it. Ren stammered some kind of apology. “No need to play the guardian with me! I can make my way through life alone, and right now this is the place I belong! It’s the same for you, right, Ren?” It sounded like Wyndia was entering her rebellious phase—or maybe she was just pissed at Ren always trying to smother her. “That said . . . I know I said this before, but . . . thank you.”
“No problem,” Ren managed.
“I took a moment to think about it again, and I realized what has happened to us here really is quite insane. I wonder how my father would have reacted to all this,” Eclair pondered.
“He was the original ruler of the territory that Naofumi now holds, wasn’t he?” Ren asked.
“That’s right. I want to become the same kind of ruler as he was, a wonderful man, trusted and loved by the people. But . . . I’m honestly not sure what I should be doing in this time,” Eclair admitted. Even before coming to the past, she had just been living in the village, operating with Ren. She was a guard for Melty as well, but she clearly wanted to achieve more than that. At least she was continuing with her Hengen Muso Style training. “I’ve said it before, haven’t I? I’ve seen the way Hero Iwatani and Queen Melty have worked to restore their territory . . . and I’m ashamed of myself for not being close to being able to do the same thing.”
“I know your best is good enough, Eclair. You can do it. I’ll help you,” Ren said firmly.
“If you help, Ren, we’ll just end up with a bunch of fanatics who want a piece of the Sword Hero,” Eclair bemoaned.
“You could say the same thing about Naofumi. What’s wrong with me, then?” Ren replied.
“This is a hard one,” she said, thinking. “Would it be wrong for me to use you like that, Ren? I mean, everyone uses everyone else to some extent at the top, don’t they? Hero Iwatani, Queen Melty, the former queen, the king . . . all of them have used each other. But I’m not sure I’m at that level . . .” Eclair crossed her arms and really started to think. She was a serious, straight-laced woman, but also more a warrior than a ruler. It was hard for her to understand that mindset. “Observing Hero Iwatani and the king—King Trash—I understand that sometimes you have to make decisions that cost you things that are important to you. I’m just not sure where to draw that line myself,” she continued.
“Those are exactly the times that you have me, Wyndia, Naofumi, and Queen Melty around for, right? You can discuss anything with us, anytime you need to,” Ren said.
“Yes, good point . . . In that case, Ren, I need to discuss something with you,” Eclair said.
“Sure. What is it?” he replied.
“Ruftmila, Raphtalia’s cousin, only really joined us fairly recently and yet I’m starting to feel like he’s beating me in all sorts of ways. In this last battle, look at everything he achieved . . . and it will only be the same in future battles, I’m sure. Can you tell me how to achieve the same kind of growth myself?” she asked. Ren gave a visible gulp. Eclair had really gone for the throat with her first question! Eclair had numerous points of contact with Ruft, and the two of them were close in terms of position. That might have given her an awareness of him as her rival. Furthermore, if that was the case, then it was true that Eclair was losing to Ruft at the moment. The combat side of things would need a stricter comparison, but if Ruft managed to learn life force, then Eclair was going to have trouble defeating him at anything. I had to have Ren tell her later that having a rival around could actually be a good way to grow stronger. Ruft was going to continue to make his own impressive progress, day after day, and she would have to try and keep up with that.
It made me wonder if I was really doing a good job of leading myself. It felt like the only real instructions I was giving were about trading. I did say things that I hoped would boost morale, and I had used my experience in a guild for an online game to create an environment favoring the villagers. In Q’ten Lo, Raphtalia had taken on the role of Heavenly Emperor. But all of this didn’t really feel like being a “ruler.”
I looked over at Mamoru. I could tell with a single glance at the soldiers gathered in the village that all the expectations of Siltran were focused on him. They had been willing to stand firm even in the face of the dragon battalion. Even if they weren’t the most highly suited demi-humans or therianthropes for combat, they had a willingness to go into battle. The same thing could be said about those in my village, even if they weren’t the strongest species either—Keel and the others would still fight without backing down. The fear of loss, losing those they loved or losing their homes, had been carved into the psyche of these slaves. We were both Shield Heroes, of course, meaning the trust people placed in us was also very important. Maybe I should tell Eclair not to study swinging her sword, but rather how to be a good ruler.
“I think maybe,” Wyndia suggested, “that the way you and Ruft watch Trash and Melty work, Eclair, is probably all a bit different. Eclair, you just let the operations Trash proposed kind of wash over you, but Ruft was watching everything closely.”
“I see what you are saying,” Eclair admitted. “Honestly, though . . . I couldn’t possibly remember all of those operations like that. Do you think I have to?”
“You’re the ruler, right?” I told her. “So you can leave that stuff to someone who can handle it.” I had to say that Eclair seemed more like a L’Arc type to me—throwing everything to skilled subordinates and then bearing the brunt when a tough decision had to be made. I wondered why so many people around me, like Rishia and Ethnobalt, were so keen to overextend themselves and push themselves to tackle challenges that seemed far beyond their skill sets. Looking at Eclair, I could kind of understand how Melty felt.
Having these thoughts, I looked over at Raphtalia and Melty, noticing them a little distance away and looking up at the sky. It reminded me of when we had to sleep outside during the Melty kidnapping thing. That was a long time ago now. Filo had been there, but she wasn’t here now.
We needed to get back to our own time, and quickly. If we took too long, the stress of dealing with Motoyasu was likely to bring poor Filo to her knees—like a certain Sword Hero before her.
“What’s up? Can you see something up there?” I asked Raphtalia.
“Oh, Mr. Naofumi. I was just looking at the stars with Melty,” Raphtalia explained.
“Okay. Did you see anything useful?” I asked.
“Actually, there are numerous famous constellations missing. There are others that I recognize, but I guess this is something that can happen too, isn’t it?” Raphtalia said. I looked up into the sky with them. I’d done the same thing in the hot springs on the Cal Mira islands, but I couldn’t remember any of the constellations from back then.
This was the world prior to the fusing . . . so it probably made sense that certain familiar constellations from the future wouldn’t be present now. That would suggest that entire universes were being merged together—but I guessed they all came as a package deal. It probably made some kind of bizarre sense to say we were talking about entire worlds being merged together.
“It feels like we’ve crossed a lot more distance than just hopping to another alternate world,” I commented.
“I know. I never thought we would come into the past . . . The world really is full of so many mysterious things,” Raphtalia agreed.
“I hope Filo is doing okay,” Melty muttered, looking up at the stars.
“We just have to hope she can give Motoyasu the slip,” I replied. Seeing Melty still worrying about Filo, even at a time like this, I was moved by how deep their friendship was.
“I thought I was going to be able to leave these trips to bizarre places to you and the others, Naofumi. I can’t believe I got caught up in this,” Melty said.
“It wasn’t exactly my choice to come here either. It was an enemy attack,” I reminded her.
“I know that. Complaining about it isn’t going to change anything either. You’ve fallen into enemy traps before, Naofumi, and you’ve survived. We need to learn from your example! Let’s pick up some incredible lost technology from the past and return to the future even better than before!” Melty said optimistically.
“Well said. We need to be just like Mr. Naofumi and return to our time as quickly as we possibly can,” Raphtalia said. I wasn’t sure about them trying to be like me, but they had the right idea for getting through this.
“You’re right, girls. We still don’t even really have any clues about how to get back yet, but we need to make whoever did this to us pay for it,” I said. Just like the magician we had caught today, we’d make them pay.
“I should have known that’s where your mind would go, Naofumi,” Melty said, shaking her head.
“Not to quote the Demon Dragon, but that’s one of my best features, right?” I joked.
“You think your bloodthirsty desire for revenge is a good thing?” Melty shot back.
“I guess you girls get to decide, in the end,” I replied.
“Things have worked out so far, so I can’t deny the effect it has had,” Melty admitted. “Let’s just keep working toward getting home.”
“Never giving up is very important, I will give you that. You can count on me,” Raphtalia said, neatly sidestepping the whole bloodthirsty bit. We might have been kicked into a new type of alternate world—right back into the past—but with the unfamiliar stars twinkling overhead, the three of us vowed more strongly than ever that we were going to make it back home.
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