Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Wagon Travel with Keel and the Gang

“Okay. I think it’s time we swapped out the staff working the stalls,” I said. Keel and her team were doing well with trading too, so it seemed like a good idea to hand over the stalls in the castle town to some of the others from the village. They were pretty well-established by now, and if any trouble came up, they could report to Melty or someone else in command around here. The original intent had been to support the lumos who were helping repair the buildings. After returning to the village, we needed to meet back up with the traders. Just as Melty had instructed, we had to continue to enhance ourselves to be ready for when we finally did get home.

“Bubba, Bubba! Who are you taking this time?” Keel yipped excitedly.

“Good question . . . we’re planning to decide after chatting with Ren and Fohl.” I turned to Raphtalia. “When that happens, though, would you like to try leading your own party? As a way to increase the units we have in the field?” I asked her.

“Huh? I mean, if that’s what you want me to do, Mr. Naofumi, then I can give it a try . . . but do you think it’s the best idea?” she replied.

“Bubba, can’t you tell that Raphtalia wants to stay close to you?” Keel said cheekily. I wasn’t expecting her to be the one to shoot the idea down.

“You say that, but if I take Raphtalia with me, I bet you guys would be all joking around among yourselves about us being on a date and getting all romantic, wouldn’t you?” I retorted.

“You’re only just working that out? Bubba, seriously, you can be so dense sometimes!” Keel cackled. I hadn’t really paid attention to such chatter, it was true, but it sounded like it had just been business as usual for Keel and the others for a while now. “I think Raphtalia would prefer it if you actually did take her on a date!”

“Keel, please. Can you not bother Mr. Naofumi with any more of this? You might end up . . . creating the opposite of the desired effect, okay?” Raphtalia said.

“Why? This is your chance! Oh, but are you worried about Sadeena and the others at home all making their move once we get back? Don’t worry, we can keep our mouths shut. Or are S’yne and the others here the problem?” Keel continued cheerfully, still completely oblivious to the mood around her. The pressure on us from everyone else was really starting to get intense recently. Melty had always been one to comment, and now we had R’yne making clever little comments about me and Raphtalia too. It was none of their business, really.

Okay then, I thought. I needed to pay Keel back a little for all this.

“I’ve got an idea. This time, it’s me and you, Keel, out on a special date for ourselves. Raphtalia, you can gain some practice at command leading a separate unit, okay?” I asked.

“Huh? What are you talking about, Bubba?” Keel asked, shaking her head.

“Oh . . . very well. Please take care of Keel,” Raphtalia said, sighing as she agreed to the idea. She seemed to have some idea of what I was planning—at least that it wasn’t going to end up all flowery and romantic.

“Hold it, puppy-girl!” I grabbed Keel and tucked her under my arm so she couldn’t get away. She thrashed her limbs, but it didn’t do her any good. “You can’t get away. Try it and I’ll have to punish you,” I warned her.

“Raphtalia! Save me from Bubba!” Keel pleaded.

“Keel, my dear, you’ve brought this on yourself,” Raphtalia admonished. “You’ll just have to live with the consequences.”

“Raph!” Keel yipped. Was this some kind of final ploy, perhaps, or just a joke? Copying that cutie Raph-chan was not going to earn any leniency from me.

“Raph?” The real deal was tilting her head in puzzlement.

“Anyone else . . .” I asked, looking over at the cat girl, who was still watching from her hiding place. “Cian, you seem interested in what we’ve been doing. Do you want to come along too? Mamoru said it would be okay,” I told her.

“That’s right,” Mamoru backed me up. “I’m going to help a little, but I’ve got other things I need to do. Cian, I know you’ll get along well with Naofumi.”

“Sure, okay,” she said, still a little timidly. She looked exactly like a frightened cat, in fact. For all her shy watching from the sidelines, I knew Cian was very interested in everything around her. She had been out trading with Mamoru in the past and already got along pretty well with Keel and the others—even though she was too shy to say much more than hello to them. But with a little more experience, she would be able to protect herself or escape if anything happened, such as an enemy attack. How to enhance her would be Mamoru’s decision, of course, but there seemed to be no harm in spending some time together trading for the sake of friendship.

“Okay then. Let’s head on back and decide who we’re sending out with Ren and Fohl,” I suggested. The others voiced their agreement—including Raph-chan—and with her up on my shoulder we took a portal back to the village.

We returned to the village, discussed the issue at hand, and decided who to send.

This time I would take Keel, Cian, Raph-chan, Imiya—who had been making accessories in the village—and someone to handle our cooking, while Chick would pull the cart. She was one of Filo’s underlings. Except Cian, it felt like I had gathered major players from all the key groups in the village. After I made all the necessary substitutions, our cart had struck out for an area that we were told was remote, even for Siltran. We were headed for a village slightly removed from a rocky region where dangerous monsters were said to dwell. The wagon clattered along, moving quickly as filolial-pulled carts tended to do. With all the vibrations such speed engendered, this hardly felt like a pleasant trip out into the countryside.

“Bubba, please . . . forgive me!” Keel pleaded. We were sitting together up at the front of the wagon, with her in her dog form and still looking pretty uncomfortable. At least she was firmly seated, something that at a glance might even make her look cute—or at least well-trained. That could of course be on account of the maid-like outfit that S’yne had tailored for her to use when trading. It strangely suited her when she was in her dog form.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her. “You still got something on your mind?” I simply had her sitting in front of me, but she was all flustered and bothered by it.

“I’ll never be able to look Raphtalia in the eye again! Not after doing this!” Keel whined.

“I’m not sure what you expect Raphtalia to do to you, honestly,” I replied. Even Raphtalia wasn’t going to be jealous of something like this. She certainly wouldn’t punish Keel for it or pick on her when I wasn’t around. That wasn’t Raphtalia’s style at all. If she did, I’d lose a lot of respect for her. I had to believe Raphtalia was better than that. She’d sent Keel off on this adventure, saying it was her own doing—that hadn’t looked like an act to me.

“Sure, Raphtalia herself might not say anything or might not even actually be bothered, but this isn’t my place!” Keel replied. So I realized that’s what this was all about. Raphtalia had understood my position too. From my perspective, being too focused on a single person could potentially cause all sorts of issues. This was a difficult issue to resolve, that was for sure.

“Keel, you seem to be keeping your distance a little?” I said. Maybe this was something like the hierarchical instincts of a dog. For Keel, Raphtalia and I were higher up in the pack order than she was, and so she might even feel a little fear at being this close to me. She normally didn’t hold back at all, so I was surprised to see her looking so scared simply sitting in front of me. She’d been happy to mock me back in the village though. I needed to give her a little bit more of her own medicine first.

“What’s wrong, Keel? No need to hold back. You can snuggle right up to me, come on,” I said, drawing her toward me. She gave a yip as I ruffled her fur. She really did have a lovely coat, very pleasant to the touch. A different sensation from the softness of Raph-chan—a little harder, perhaps, but some would likely prefer it. She was definitely nicer to the touch than the dog my friend once let me pet. I started by stroking around her muzzle and then moved to her ears and throat. A real dog would love having its chest rubbed too, most likely, but I wondered about Keel. She was wearing her trading clothes at the moment . . . so probably best to skip it. Such attention could well be considered sexual harassment in this situation.

“Uuh . . . it feels nice to have you stroking me, Bubba, but I’m still scared of what happens next . . .” she whimpered.

“Raph?” Raph-chan was more than accustomed to me stroking her and seemed puzzled by Keel’s reaction.

“Keel, don’t be such a coward,” Imiya said, popping her face forward. “And, Shield Hero, can you please stop teasing her quite so much?” I had to do a double take to make sure we had actually left Raphtalia behind.

“Hey, Imiya. We don’t have to start right now, but I want to make some new accessories later. Can you help me out?” I asked her.

“Yes, of course. Whatever you need . . . Are you focusing on design? Or functionality? Or quality?” she asked.

“Like I said, I don’t want to get too caught up in that kind of thinking. I just want to make a bunch of accessories. If possible, I’m looking to pinpoint something that will have effects when attached to heroes’ weapons,” I told her. That would happen with just trial and error. If there was a way to just instantly get the effect we wanted, wouldn’t that be a wonderful world? If Therese were here, she definitely would have enjoyed getting involved in accessory making. “One of the reasons we’re heading to our current destination is for some mining,” I continued. “We need to find out what kind of minerals and gemstones you can obtain here in Siltran.”

“Okay. I’ll help however I can,” Imiya replied. I gave her a stroke too, seeing as I was already stroking Keel. That made her gasp, flush red, and stiffen up. Of course, Imiya had a thing for me too. I couldn’t keep them all straight, but I did need to be more careful about who I went around stroking.

I wondered for a moment how Raphtalia might react if I did the same thing to her. I couldn’t quite imagine stroking Raphtalia as casually as this, however. I might have soothed her a little when she was smaller, but I rarely touched her anymore. It felt like I’d almost taken to stroking Raph-chan as a substitute. This left me wondering why I was able to stroke Keel and Imiya so easily.

The answer came to me quickly, but it was a bit controversial. It was because they had fur over their entire bodies. I decided I would have to stroke Raphtalia once we were reunited. That would also likely shut up everyone around us for a while.

I made it seem really natural, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t rude . . . I’d been living in this other world for a while now, so I knew how things worked. Stroking children was not rude in Melromarc, I knew that much.

“Bubba! How long are you planning on stroking me for? And where exactly are you stroking now anyway?!” Keel yipped. I’d been focusing a little too much on Imiya and my hand had slipped down to unconsciously rub at her chest. It was fluffy there, but there was no suggestion of breasts.

“Ah, sorry. That’s your chest, isn’t it?” I said. Keel started barking and then growling too. I guess I’d pushed things too far, as I’d feared I might—not that she was threatening me at all.

Then I noticed Cian watching us with a cold look in her eyes.

“What’s up?” I asked her. “You’re not ready to play along with us yet?” Cian immediately looked away from me—but continued to glance back over, as though she was interested, really.

“Bubba, pay attention to me! I’m angry with you!” Keel insisted.

“Yes, I’m listening. Hah, you say you’re a boy but don’t like having your chest touched,” I replied.

“Bubba, that’s a low blow!” she replied.

“What do you expect? Low blows are my specialty,” I shot back.

“I think you specialize more in hitting back after you get hit,” Imiya chimed in. She really did sound like Raphtalia now.

“Imiya! Please, swap places with me! I can’t keep letting Bubba do this to me!” Keel pleaded. Imiya could only give a wry laugh in return. I was still more interested in Cian right now. She was still keeping her distance, like a cat who wanted to play but couldn’t commit yet. I wondered if I could use her innate catty instincts against her. I grabbed one of Chick’s loose feathers as it floated up and then waved it around in front of Cian’s face. The key was to make it look like weakened prey. Getting a cat interested in this kind of toy involved triggering their innate hunting instinct. Cian looked at the feather I was wielding, and then started to focus on it more intently. Imiya sensed what I was doing and went back inside the wagon. She was thoughtful and considerate at times like this. Keel, meanwhile, was watching with an expression that seemed completely oblivious to my intentions. I flicked the feather like it was weak and helpless prey just in front of Cian.

I saw the shift come over Cian’s eyes, like a cat sinking back into her base instincts for hunting. I started to move the feather faster, adding further stimulation. It only took a moment longer and Cian leapt forward and grabbed it with both hands. She was then right in front of me.

“Ah!” In the moment Cian was about to nibble the feather, she snapped back to herself and covered her face with her hands.

“No need to be shy. We all just want to get along,” I told her.

“Okay,” she eventually replied, but she did seem to have loosened up a little. She was looking at me with a much more relaxed expression than before.

“Why do you want to be friends with Cian too?” Keel wondered. “You’ve already got Raphtalia.”

“Keel, you really have mastered the art of saying too much,” I chided her.

“Bubba is touching me inappropriately again!” Keel squealed.

“This isn’t your chest. It’s your chest plate,” I explained.

“That sounds like my chest to me!” she retorted. Cian looked on and gave a chuckle. Then Chick started to squawk about something.

“Raph!” Raph-chan proceeded to take out an antidote from our things and offer it to Cian.

“Hold on a moment . . .” Imiya popped up again to explain. “She just licked one of Chick’s feathers, didn’t she? There might be some toxins on it, so Chick thinks she should take a little of this antidote, just in case.” I’d completely forgotten that Chick was a filolial who specialized in poison. She used all the poisonous tricks: poisonous claws, poison spit, even poison magic.

“Poison, huh? I remember Filo having a phase where she wanted to spit poison too,” I reminisced. “As if we didn’t have enough trouble with everything coming out of her mouth already.” I took the antidote from Raph-chan, mixed it with some honey on a plate so Cian could just lap it up, and then handed it to her. Cian seemed to understand that I’d made it sweeter for her and just quietly took some of it.

A moment later she’d licked the entire plate clean. It seemed she liked the taste. With Keel here too, I decided to whip up some desserts for them later.

“What do you mean about Filo’s mouth?” Imiya asked.

“Right, before Filo met Melty, she had a bit of a mouth on her, and just like Keel she didn’t know when to keep it shut either,” I explained. The turning point for the poisonous tongue—the moment when she learned to engage her bird brain prior to her beak was when a single comment from her had triggered Motoyasu and awoken his undying love for her. It was an issue we still wrestled with. She was still a bit of a featherhead, but she wasn’t without the capacity to learn too. Reflecting for a moment on her history, I realized Filo had been pretty unlucky, what with Motoyasu and the Demon Dragon too.

“You’re saying I’ve got a poison tongue too?!” Keel exclaimed.

“In your case, you just say one thing too many. With Filo, she would really go for the throat,” I explained.

“What’s the difference?” Keel asked.

“Well, for example, we heard that a nation to the north of Melromarc had overthrown their king due to intense poverty in the nation but that the poverty issue had not been resolved. What do you think Filo said?” I asked, rhetorically, before putting on my best Filo voice. “I feel so sorry for that poor king! So he really was just thinking about the people after all. Whose fault is it that you’re starving now, huh?”

“Okay, that’s pretty cold,” Keel replied, seemingly taken aback by the venom of this birdy-burn. Filo had come a long way since then, it was true.

“There are the things you think and then the things you should actually say. It’s like if you want me to make some cookies for you, but you can’t bring yourself to just come out and say it. Instead you make a fuss about being hungry. Then Filo comes in at the side and says, ‘Keel is only saying she’s hungry because she wants cookies.’ Do you see?” I asked.

“Yes, I think I get it. Is that why she wanted to use poison?” Keel asked.

“It was probably also because we were fighting the bioplants and the Dragon Zombie at the time, so poison looked like a powerful option,” I pondered.

“We have both those things in the village now,” Keel replied. “But Gaelion is still in the future.” The bioplants were something, but then there was Gaelion and the Dragon Zombie too. From the perspective of Keel and the others who joined after we defeated them, they probably weren’t all that frightening as creatures. I wasn’t scared of them either, especially when it came to dragons. These were meant to be proud beasts, the standard-bearer for fantasy plastered on every book cover, so I didn’t understand how things had turned out like this. The dragons here seemed like little more than eccentric oddballs.

“So Filo had a time she wanted to use poison, you see. So Chick, in a sense, could be considered the poison-wielding filolial that Filo once wanted to become,” I finished.

“Ooh, hear that, Chick?” Imiya said. The filolial made a bit of an odd noise in response though. Filo was her boss, basically, so it had to be strange to hear that she actually wanted to be like her. Time to change the topic.

“Cian, do you know anything about the place we’re headed to?” I asked.

“Nope,” she replied.

“Mamoru doesn’t take you out to places with him?” I inquired.

“We’ve been playing in the castle a lot recently,” she responded. From what I’d seen of Mamoru with the kids, it was clear he was keeping them safe in the castle. He was using it like some kind of orphanage, almost. From the damages we’d seen that were done to the castle town, it wasn’t hard to imagine the dangers of letting them outside. “He did take us out more often before, but then . . . She said. . .” Cian suddenly snapped back to herself, covering her mouth and shaking her head. It almost seemed like she thought she’d said too much, but I could only guess what she was talking about. Maybe the “she” was Holn, R’yne, or someone like that, warning Mamoru it was too dangerous to let the kids out. Or maybe some darker reason lurked there.

“Keel,” I called. Then I proceeded to unceremoniously pick her up and place her down in front of Cian. Keel quickly picked up on what I was doing and started wagging her tail and licking Cian’s face.

“Cheer up, Cian! We’re out on the road with Bubba today. Who knows what fun we’ll have! The food is going to be great too, I promise!” she yipped and barked. She really did look exactly like an excitable puppy. Even the staunchest demi-human therianthrope would be hard-pressed not to crack a smile when confronted by this. Cian was laughing already.

“Hey, Keel, cut that out!” she giggled. The two of them descended into shared laughter, a cat and a dog playing together.

“Keel is saying that you need to enjoy this trip now that you’re finally out of the castle,” I explained for her. “And I agree with Keel. You need to have fun!”

“I will,” Cian said.

“Do you want to sit up here?” I asked, indicating the spot that Keel had just vacated—not entirely voluntarily, of course. The view was pretty good from the front of the wagon, and it was the best spot to sit to combat motion sickness.

“No, thanks . . . too scary for me,” she replied.

“Really? Then it sounds like it’s your turn, Imiya,” I said.

“What? Hold on?!” she exclaimed. She was standing right where I wanted her, so I picked her up and put her in front of me. Just swapping her with Keel—nothing suspicious about that. And yet Imiya stiffened up completely, just like Keel had, as soon as I put her down. Her moaning suggested she was suddenly feeling very nervous.

As our banter continued, I did have one thought: Keel and Cian weren’t the normal party members for me, and they were girls too. When I looked at this objectively from the outside, it might well appear that I had chosen to head off on the hunt with a party of women. That was a severe oversight on my part. I wondered why I didn’t realize it before now. It was simply the result of wanting to tease Keel a little and choosing members who could handle things optimally in our destination. I certainly hadn’t been thinking about the gender of Keel or Imiya in my selections. I might face some blowback for this, but I’d just have to face the music if that happened.

Maybe this was also because I put Raphtalia in a separate unit. I’d have to make sure to bring Ruft or Fohl along with me next time. Ruft was pretty confident in his own furry coat, and he was sure to let me stroke him. He wasn’t going to stiffen up like Keel or Imiya. Fohl, though . . . he might run a mile.

Our wagon proceeded to reach our destination without any real issues.

We started our trading and selling, while the slaves handling the cooking also started to sell some food. I decided to hold back Keel and deploy her a little later. We hadn’t encountered many monsters on the way to the village. We showed off our wares and got ready to do a little hunting and mining. I showed the special pass that Mamoru had provided us with to the village chief, and he had given us permission to proceed further inside. Our wagon was now moving again, clattering along deeper into the mountains. Chick couldn’t quite match Filo, but she was making good time nonetheless.

“Okay. We’ll have some time before sundown for some hunting and mining. Keel, use that nose of yours to locate some prey. Raph-chan and Chick, you back Keel up, and Imiya, you find us some ore. There are supposed to be holes around here for mining,” I said. Everyone shouted or squawked their agreement, but then Keel added an afterthought.

“Are you sure you aren’t pigeonholing me a little there? Being a dog and all?” she asked.

“Whatever are you talking about?! Freaking Motoyasu has an incredible sense of smell. He could locate Filo almost anywhere,” I told her.

“I’m not sure I like being compared to the Spear Hero,” Keel replied. But then she did start sniffing around for monsters. We had already encountered some on the way here. There was a large flower-like one called a “wisteria nature bind” and what looked like a clump of sand called a “rosepink sandwalker.” The wisteria nature bind would be a challenging one to cook with, but I probably could because it was a plant. But I didn’t really do salads. The stem was a bit like burdock, but there didn’t seem any reason to go out of our way to eat it. The rosepink sandwalker, meanwhile, was a magical monster, much like the balloons. The golem-like magic found in minerals could sometimes collect sand from the vicinity and become a monster. Rosepink sandwalkers could be defeated by causing a large enough impact—physically, or with magic—to the internal ore that contained their intrinsic magic. With my current party, having Imiya imbue her hand with magic and strike directly at their weak spot allowed us to quickly and safely defeat them. They looked very hard and annoying to fight normally. The ores collected from defeating them also had plenty of uses. We were definitely going to give them a try for making some accessories later.

The same principle seemed to apply here as anywhere else: the deeper we went into the mountains, the more powerful the monsters got. I really wanted to fight some that would make a good meal.

“What about me?” Cian asked. I had inquired if she wanted to stay back at the stall, but she had decided to come with us, so I brought her along. Having her in the party would earn her experience, so she really just had to hang out. But she had a look on her face like she actually wanted to make a contribution.

I realized that I didn’t even know what level she was. From her external appearance, she probably hadn’t received much training. Our trading was probably helping a little with that.

“Cian, we don’t want to put you in danger, so just stay behind me. You can fight once you get a little stronger,” I told her. She didn’t look happy about it, but this seemed like the best course of action. Mamoru talked about taking care of the kids, but he certainly wasn’t working on their levels.

“I can smell something coming from over here,” Keel yipped, heading off after the monsters. She was really dashing along. On a rocky mountain slope we encountered a scorpion monster called a “spring green stalcorpion” and a poisonous spider called a “frosty gray spideviper.” There was also a floaty eel-looking monster called a “graphite angrifo.” Chick was immediately on her guard concerning the scorpion and its poison, and she started fighting that.

“Raph!” Raph-chan was helping her out. I was pretty sure they could handle it together. The graphite angrifo, meanwhile, had electricity crackling all over it and used magnetism to lift ore from the vicinity to attack. It could also slip quickly under the ground to evade our attacks. I guess I should have expected this kind of thing from the nation that would eventually become Siltvelt. Ren and Rat had told me in the past that Siltvelt had a more unique slant on monsters than nations like Faubrey and Melromarc—a larger selection of monsters using annoying attacks like poison was what that meant.

“Hold on!” Keel barked.

“Got you!” Imiya joined in, the pair of them hammering whack-a-mole style at the ground as the graphite angrifo popped its face up. Keel was using a one-handed sword and Imiya was using a hammer. I had to take a moment to appreciate the mole therianthrope Imiya whacking at a mole-like monster—it was almost comical.

Putting that aside, we were taking down monsters one after another, but they kept on pouring down from the mountains toward us. The ruckus we were creating was just calling more of them to come and have a go. I was protecting my party in order to give Keel and the others some combat experience, but I wasn’t giving much in the way of orders. They needed some time in actual combat for themselves.

“Imiya, help me out! Get the one coming your way!” Keel shouted.

“I’ve got it!” Imiya replied. “As the source of your power, I implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more, and dig up everything around me! Drifa Earth Reverse!” She seemed to have realized there was no end to the supply of incoming monsters, and so she slammed her claws down into the ground and then ripped them upward again. In the next moment, it looked like all the earth under which the graphite angrifo was hiding just flipped up and rotated over in the air. Clumps of rock scattered all around for a moment and seemed like they were going to settle back down, but then they flew toward us instead.

“Shooting Star Wall!” I deployed a skill to protect all of my allies, stopping the incoming attacks. This was starting to get to be a bit much.

“They seem to have strong magic defenses. I can’t believe they’re attacking like that,” Imiya said.

“I guess we can’t clean these up as quickly as I hoped,” I replied. As we discussed the situation, I suddenly noticed that Cian had vanished from behind me. The graphite angrifo poked its head out to see how its counterattack had worked and the next thing I heard was Cian’s shout as she slashed at its throat with the knife she carried to protect herself. The graphite angrifo expired in short order, eyes popping out in surprise.

“That’s what you needed, correct?” Cian asked.

“Yeah . . . I guess it is,” I said. It looked like I needed to reassess my thinking on Cian’s combat experience.

“Keel had its attention, and I saw it peeking out,” she explained. She might have some aptitude for fighting after all. A little care and attention and she might be quite strong.

“Thanks, Cian! Bubba, we’ve got more incoming!” Keel shouted.

“Sure, I see them. Try and finish them yourself this time,” I told her.

“Of course! Imiya, get that hammer swinging!” she yipped.

“I’m here!” Imiya replied. Each member of my current party seemed to have a good understanding of the characteristics of each monster and was responding as required. Imiya took on a spring green stalcorpion, watching for the poison from the tail and smashing its pincers with her hammer. Then Keel slashed in to take the tail right off. They both attacked the body to finish the monster. For the frosty gray spideviper, Keel kept its attention on her while Imiya hammered at whatever she could hit—head, body—to immobilize and finish it off. As for the graphite angrifo, Keel yipped around, using her speed to leap and practically kick its head off before it could bury itself again.

Raph-chan and Chick were still fighting too. Raph-chan’s tail was all fluffed up as she created illusions in the vicinity. The target monster was left snapping at empty air, chasing its tail, and then Chick slashed in with claws to finish it off. Things suddenly seemed a lot simpler than I had expected.

“Hmmm. It’s all going smoothly, but still . . .” Something was tickling me. Monsters were continuing to appear, one after the other, and our transport wagon was getting pretty loaded down. “I think we’ve probably got all the ingredients we need—or can even carry.” There were so many monsters. It had to be due to the waves, but things didn’t seem any better here than in our time.

That was when a fresh horde of monsters appeared, coming down from the depths of the mountains as though lured by the smell of blood. Their leader was an “amber rose ultros,” a large two-headed lion-dog beast that was growling and snarling as it came at us. Keel was the closest and I was pretty sure she could handle this new threat.

In the next moment, though, I realized Keel was breathing hard. “I need to . . . need to . . .” she gasped.

“Keel! What’s wrong?” Imiya shouted. Keel continued to breathe hard, her shoulders heaving, and then she roared in rage and pumped herself up for further fighting. That was when Imiya dashed in, swinging her hammer around wildly as she headed right for the amber rose ultros. It didn’t matter how much higher her level was though; such an uncontrolled attack would easily be avoided.

“Keel! What’s wrong?” I shouted. She just continued to scream. She’d slipped into a complete panic! It reminded me for a moment of the trouble Raphtalia had experienced when she was smaller.

“Keel!” Imiya was still rushing in to try and offer some support, but the other monsters were all getting in the way.

“Gah! I had no idea Keel suffered from this kind of issue!” I cursed. Our formation had collapsed and so Shooting Star Wall had been stripped away. I was desperate to find a way to protect Keel and was about to give orders to Raph-chan and Chick to back her up . . . when something flitted overhead and leapt at blinding speed onto the back of the amber rose ultros. It was Cian. A moment later she had ripped out the throat of one of the heads. The beast roared, a rain of blood spraying out around us. Keel was still shouting wildly, swinging her weapon around, and it happened to stick into the amber rose ultros’s other head, finishing the beast off.

Keel was covered in blood, her shoulders heaving, while Cian landed with a cool look on her face. They were like . . . cat and dog, basically. But this was no time for fooling around.

“Retreat!” I signaled. Chick and Raph-chan returned calls of agreement. I kicked the monster corpses onto the wagon, hoping Chick was up to pulling all that weight, and then joined Raph-chan, Keel, and Cian.

“Raph!” Raph-chan was up on Imiya’s shoulder, and I signaled for her to use illusion magic to direct the horde in Chick’s direction.

“I did it! I got it!” Keel enthused, but she didn’t seem to know what was going on and was still covered in blood. I picked her up. Chick was fighting as a backstop, slashing claws and beak expelling a toxic purple haze of magic amid the horde of monsters—a haze that was forming into a ball. Then she stepped back toward us and shifted to haikuikku to come over to us. Immediately afterward, with a loud popping sound, that purple ball exploded amid the monsters. Any monsters covered in the resulting purple liquid started to burst too, causing a fatal chain reaction among the horde. I swallowed. That was a pretty nasty attack. Chick gave a squawk in celebration of her victory. Yeah, wow. I was very impressed.

“That’s Chick’s biggest attack. It’s called Venom Splash,” Imiya offered from the sidelines. “Any monsters defeated by it become a secondary poison bomb, causing further damage to other monsters around them.” A chain-reaction poison attack. That was clearly pretty powerful. “Some toxins should remain in the air for a while, so we can retreat now.”

“Okay. We need to concentrate on getting Keel calm down first,” I said.

“Yeah. Let’s fall back,” Imiya agreed. Cian nodded at the proposal too, and we all climbed into the wagon, then hurried away back down the mountain.