Chapter Four: The Legendary Bird God
The felled Tyrant Dragon Rex lay in bloody strips, and there was something shining among them. It appeared to be some kind of glowing ore. The Filolial Queen picked it up and then turned to us.
“Sorry I kept you waiting.”
“…”
We were all speechless.
Not even Filo had been able to deal damage to the massive monster, and this huge Filolial Queen had defeated it so easily!
“You’re so big…”
Melty’s eyes were shining as she looked up at the huge bird. She sure did switch moods quickly.
Whenever she spoke to me she bordered on hysterics, but she was polite when she spoke to others, and obsessively fawning when she spoke to Filo or other Filolials.
“You must be the Shield Hero.”
“Oh… Yeah.”
When something the size of a building speaks to you, you answer the best you can.
Had we been enemies, well, I don’t think I could beat her in a fight… I couldn’t see how that would be possible.
And if Melty had been right—if we really were enclosed in a force field —then we wouldn’t be able to run either.
I even thought about trying to escape on Filo, but if this was a Filolial Queen, she’d be at least as fast as Filo. There was no escape.
“Do you need something from me?”
“I have many things I wish to discuss with you. But it’s not polite to speak to you like this. Wait a moment please.”
The huge Filolial Queen closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating. As she did she began to shrink. Finally her large wings closed around her body completely.
When she opened them again, there was a young girl standing there, about the same height as Filo, with wings on her back.
Her hair was silver with thin streaks of light blue, and it was cut in a short bob.
But there were three tufts of hair standing up vertically from the crown of her head, like cowlicks.
Her eyes were red, and her gaze carried an air of authority about it.
Her face was small and well-composed. Quite beautiful, really.
She was dressed in a red and white gothic-style dress.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Fitoria, the Queen of the Filolials.”
She flicked her head and smirked, a rather child-like movement that stood in opposition to the air of power and authority that hung about her.
It’s hard to describe, but because she was in human form, I sort of got the impression that she was a small child trying to act like an adult.
“Fitoria?! But that’s the name of the Filolial in the legends!”
Melty was shocked.
“Really?”
“Yes. There is a legend saying that Fitoria was raised by four Legendary Heroes in the past… when they were summoned during a wave of destruction.”
“The past… Well, I don’t know how long ago you are referencing, but she might be the successor?”
I think I remembered that, back when Motoyasu and I were being summoned, they had said something about waves in the ancient past.
If we were talking about something that far back, then she couldn’t be the Filolial of the legends, could she?
It must have been a name that the current leader of the Filolials inherited or something.
If not… just how old was this girl?
“My name has always been Fitoria, and there has only ever been one.”
Fitoria turned her head to the side in confusion while she spoke.
She was very serious and powerful, but occasionally she displayed those very Filolial-like moments of animal stupidity.
“Are you saying that you’ve been alive since ancient times?”
“Yup.”
She said it very matter-of-factly. I looked at Filo, then back at Fitoria. I guess I could believe it.
Just think how fast Filo had grown.
If Filo had gotten that big, I don’t think we’d have been able to feed her though. We had enough trouble feeding her as it was. I didn’t want her getting any bigger. If she got too big to feed than we’d probably have to part ways. But then I remembered how much money I’d invested in Filo. I couldn’t let that go to waste. “Master, you’re thinking of weird stuff.” “You’re right. That face he’s making—it means he’s thinking of something unrelated.” “You can read him so well. I have no idea.” “You’ll figure it out.” Annoying brats. I wished they would stop trying to figure out what I was thinking. “You were thinking that if Filo got that big, you’d have to abandon her.” “Boo!” “Abandon her? How could you think such things?! To think, only minutes ago you’d asked her to try and get bigger!” “Oh relax. How would we feed something that big?!” “Mr. Naofumi… I don’t think she would get so large overnight…” “Sure, but think about how fast she grew to this size. If she had another growth spurt, she might end up like that!” “…” “Ms. Raphtalia! Why aren’t you saying anything?” Melty grabbed onto Raphtalia’s hands and shouted. The scary part was that it could really happen. Maybe.
“It would take a long time to grow to that size, so don’t worry about it.”
Fitoria seemed hesitant to intrude, but she raised her hand and answered my concerns.
“Normal Filolials have fixed life spans of a few decades.”
Well, that was a relief. I didn’t want her to have a growth spurt and turn into a mountain or something.
But then I realized that Fitoria’s phrasing implied that she had been alive for much longer.
“Now then, Shield Hero and friends, may I ask you to introduce yourselves?”
Well… she was right. If she had given us her name then I guess it was our turn.
“I’m Naofumi Iwatani. Iwatani is my last name, and Naofumi is my first name. It sounds like you already know I’m the Shield Hero.”
“Yup.”
Fitoria looked to Raphtalia next.
“My name is Raphtalia. Pleased to meet you.”
“Pleasure.”
“I’m Filo!”
Filo didn’t wait to be addressed before jumping in.
Fitoria stared at Filo for a moment then directed her gaze to Melty.
“We’ve met before, haven’t we? You love Filolials. You protected me then. Thank you for that.”
“Yes. My name is Melty Melromarc.”
“Okay. I’ll call you Mel-tan.”
Meltan? She didn’t have good taste in nicknames.
Back in my own world, I had a friend that used to add “tan” to everything. That just reminded me of it.
Being an Otaku myself, I was probably in the same category as people that did that though…
“Meltan… Please to formally meet you.”
See? Even Melty made a weird face when she heard it.
“Boo.”
Filo shifted her weight and stepped forward. It almost looked like she was trying to protect Melty from Fitoria.
Was she jealous? She looked like a jealous friend who was mad that their friend was talking to someone else.
I pictured Fitoria saying something like, “Filo, behavior like that will not win you any friends.”
Was I over thinking it? It reminded me of a traumatic scene from a famous game I’d once played.
If we all fell silent here, the conversation would take a weird turn. I decided to hurry things along.
“So? Of course I’ll thank you for defeating that huge monster, the Tyrant Dragon Rex, for us… but… what can we do for you now?”
“I’ll explain the details of it all, but this is not a good place to talk. I’ll show you where to go, so please follow me.”
Fitoria pointed to her carriage. Did she want us to ride in it while she took us somewhere?
“First, we should…”
“Should what?”
Fitoria turned her head to the side again.
I looked over at the Tyrant Dragon Rex’s corpse.
In response, Fitoria furrowed her brow.
“I would rather the Heroes did not use things from dragons to improve their weapons.”
Oh that’s right, Filolials and dragons didn’t get along. Apparently the Queen of the Filolials had the same way of thinking about them.
But that had nothing to do with me. I had to do whatever I could to get stronger.
Especially considering how powerful the Tyrant Dragon Rex had been… I couldn’t afford to ignore materials like that.
“Too bad.”
“Very well then. I’ll have my tribe bring it after us then. Please get into the carriage.
“Will you bring the organs too? Filolials sometimes can’t control their appetites, and I need more than the bones.”
“As you like.”
“Thank you.”
“Naofumi, you’re so petty.”
“Whatever.”
I went over to the shredded Tyrant Dragon Rex and let my shield absorb various parts of its body.
I let it absorb the flesh, bones, scales, horns, fangs, and organs. It unlocked a new shield.
…Or so I thought. Apparently I couldn’t completely unlock the shield without reaching a higher level.
Compared to our own strength, the Tyrant Dragon Rex had been much more powerful, so I suppose it only made sense. My level still wasn’t high enough to unlock the shield I’d gotten after defeating the Zombie Dragon anyway.
“Are you ready?”
Fitoria asked calmly.
“Sure…”
“Okay. And your name was Filo, right? Can you turn into a human and ride with them?”
“I could… but I’d rather pull the carriage.”
“That is my carriage, so you can’t pull it.”
I didn’t know if she really couldn’t let someone else pull it, or if she was childishly rebuffing Filo.
Maybe she really was just like Filo but was pretending to be really important.
“Um…”
“Filo… don’t be selfish. Respect what Fitoria says.”
“Okay!”
Filo calmed down and turned into her human form.
What was with them? Whatever. We all climbed into Fitoria’s strangely gorgeous carriage.
The interior was more spacious than I’d expected. But… I guess we were going to start traveling by carriage.
We were surrounded by a vast herd of Filolials. If we weren’t careful, we’d be spotted soon enough.
I guess Fitoria had cast a force field over us though, so that should keep people away.
If Motoyasu realized that I was in the carriage, he’d come chasing after it—no doubt about that.
“Portal…”
Fitoria stepped in front of the carriage and took the reins before shouting something.
When she yelled, the scenery around us instantly changed.
“What?”
“Huh?!”
“Wh… What’s happening?!”
“W… wow…”
What the hell? This girl clearly had some impressive powers.
“Did we move?”
Games often provide the player with a magical form of transport that will allow them to teleport to places they have already been.
Most famous games seem to have them… I guess they were part of this world too.
And yet… If I hadn’t heard of it yet, then it must be pretty rare.
The Legendary Filolial… Yeah, maybe she did have reason to claim that title.
“We should be able to talk safely here.”
We climbed down from the carriage and took in our surroundings. It was dark, which made it hard to pick out much, but we seemed to be in the forest.
Was it some kind of village in the forest? No… Ruins?
It appeared to be a destroyed castle.
There were stones laid out in lines and buried in the dirt, and here and there stone houses poked out of the gloom. Plants had grown over everything, and the size and extent of the root systems meant that these things must have been here for a while.
Further out, and the forest had taken over.
There was a thick white fog over everything, which limited how far we could see. Vines and shrubbery covered everything, as far as I could see. I couldn’t discern a way out.
“Where are we?”
“This is the country that the original Heroes fought to protect, or the ruins of it anyway. That’s what they say.”
“That’s a vague answer.”
“Well, it’s been here since before I was born. I try to watch over it.”
“Do you live here, Fitoria?”
Melty’s eyes were sparkling again.
“About half the time. My real home is… well… I don’t take people there.”
“Huh…”
“Probably the forest.”
“Yup.”
“It’s so ooooold!”
“You can really feel the history.”
“Tell me how you really feel.”
Saying it’s old, or that you feel the history here… Filo and Raphtalia were apparently really sharing the experience. As for me, the fog was so thick that I really didn’t know.
She didn’t really “lead” us here, after all. She’d just transported us. How convenient. How were we supposed to get back?
“Hey, since you just transported us here, I was wondering if you could teleport us to a specific place when it’s time to leave.”
With any luck we could get Motoyasu off our tail for good. Or even better, we could find asylum in the demi-human kingdom without needing to rely on Melty’s mother.
“You just got here, and you’re asking about how to leave?”
“It doesn’t seem like the kind of place we should hang around.”
“What?!”
Melty shouted in disappointment.
What was that all about? Did she want to hang out with the Filolials THAT badly?
I wanted to keep this as short as we could. We were just visiting. That’s all.
“For the time being, you should try and get some rest.”
Fitoria raised her hand, and a Filolial appeared from the fog tugging a carriage loaded down with firewood. She set it on fire, making a large bonfire.
That was a good idea, and we probably didn’t need to worry about attracting enemies. The woods didn’t seem to be populated by anything more vicious than a Filolial.
Since the Filolials had invited us here and asked us to rest, there was probably nothing worth worrying about.
Night was falling too. We should probably talk while we rested.
“Okay. It’s definitely better to rest here than where we were before. C’mon everyone. Let’s rest up.”
“Okaaaay!”
“That was a long, tough day.”
“Yes, it was… I sure hope that Keel and the others are all right.”
“Worrying about it won’t help them. If we try to go back to the town they’ll catch us for sure.”
“Yes…”
We all sat down before the campfire and relaxed.
We had piles of Tyrant Dragon Rex meat, and I started to prepare it for dinner.
Luckily enough, the well still seemed to be full of water. I checked to make sure it was safe then decided to prepare a stew.
“Let’s get some food in our bellies.”
I said to Raphtalia and the others as I cooked.
“…”
Filo stuck her index finger into her mouth and stared greedily at the bubbling pot.
There were less of them due to the teleportation, but the surrounding Filolials were looking on hungrily as well.
Dammit. It was hard to eat when everyone was staring at you.
“Um… Naofumi?”
“Mr. Naofumi. It’s hard to eat with everyone looking at us.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Huh? You think so?”
Raphtalia and Melty felt the same way I did. They cradled their bowls and looked around nervously.
Filo was just greedily slurping down her food without a thought.
“You want some food too?”
“May I?”
“Well, we don’t have enough food to feed you at the size you were earlier.”
“That’s all right.”
All I’d done is offer Fitoria some food, but the surrounding Filolials started gawking in response.
“Be quiet.”
All of them fell silent at Fitoria’s reproof but they kept staring on with oppressive determination.
“This is delicious!”
“It is.”
Ugh. Now Filo was staring at me with that look in her eyes. She and Fitoria were like two peas in a pod.
They were different colors though, so I suppose that was proof they weren’t related.
With Melty next to them, they could have all been sisters. They were pretty enough. I could have painted a picture of them.
“Very good.”
Raphtalia had better manners than any of them. She was more dignified.
Melty was dignified too, but she shared something with the ravenous Filolials that made me want to lump them all together.
“What?”
Melty made a face and glared at me.
“Nothing.”
“Were you thinking rude thoughts again?”
“No comment.”
“That means yes, doesn’t it?”
“I was thinking that those two make you look a little unrefined. You should pick your friends better.”
“What was that?!”
There she went again. She could be so noisy.
“Now, now… I was…”
Raphtalia paused in the middle of her sentence to look around at all the Filolials. They stared back.
I couldn’t ignore them either. I felt like the food was going to get caught in my throat. It was starting to get annoying.
“This is getting so annoying! Can’t we just make a really big pot of it? I’ll make whatever they want, just bring me some tools!”
In the end, I couldn’t endure their incessant stares, so I made a giant pot of soup and let them go at it.
All in all, it took a few hours.
Before they’d all finished eating, Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty had all fallen asleep. I was exhausted from all the cooking.
“Whew…”
I was cleaning up the dishes and complaining to myself about why I had to spend my time feeding a bunch of birds when Fitoria came over to me.
“What do you want? There isn’t any left.”
“I know that.”
“Oh. Okay then. What do you want? Can’t it wait until morning?”
I wanted to get some rest.
Huh? Melty and Filo were leaning against some fluffy Filolials and sleeping soundly.
How convenient. It must be nice to get some sleep while someone else does all the work. She was clearly accustomed to living the royal life.
“I was thinking the same thing. But the timing is right, so I’d like to talk a little.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to know how the sealed monster came to be released.”
“Huh? So you came without knowing that?”
“No… I came because I’d been given a report that a new queen candidate had appeared.”
“A queen candidate? You mean Filo?”
Fitoria nodded.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
“What?”
It was a suspicion that had been growing on me ever since Filo had hatched.
“Why does Filo grow so differently than other Filolials?”
Fitoria had said that she was a queen candidate.
That’s why I thought that she might have known the answer.
“Because she’s being raised by a Hero.”
I suspected as much. Filo clearly looked different from other Filolials, and she could even transform into a person. It was because I was raising her?
“I’ve answered your question. Now answer mine.”
I don’t know how much I can tell you. How much do you know about me?”
“I know that you are a Hero that was summoned here because of the waves. I know that you are considered the religious enemy of Melromarc, a human-supremacist nation.”
“Oh…”
Had she learned all of that through word-of-mouth from the other Filolials?
I didn’t know just how well Filolials were capable of communicating with one another, but I wouldn’t have guessed that they were so good at gathering and transmitting information.
“I’m not all-powerful, you know. I forget things a lot.”
“You said it, not me. So anyway…”
I explained everything about how the Tyrant Dragon Rex had come to be freed from the sealing stone.
Then I started telling her about myself. I told her how I’d been summoned, then framed and discriminated against. I told her about all the major events that had happened up until now.
“….Whew.”
Fitoria sighed deeply.
“What?”
“I just get exhausted when I hear of the stupid things the Heroes are occupying themselves with, considering that the waves of destruction are what they should be focusing on.”
“It’s not me. It’s them.”
“I don’t care about that. I just have to carry out the task entrusted to me by my old master… the Hero.”
“Huh…”
“From my perspective, the little fights between humans and demi¬humans are irrelevant. The world does not exist just for people. Even still, I cannot stand to see the Heroes quarrel. When the Heroes fight, I can’t achieve what my master entrusted to me.”
“And what is that?”
I guess she meant that a hero from the past had asked her to do something.
Based on what she’d just said, I guess I couldn’t expect Fitoria to intervene in the battle between humans and demi-humans any time soon.
“It sounds like you’re saying you don’t plan on teaming up, but that you feel like you have to help me because I’m a hero.”
“That’s right. Both the humans and I are in the midst of a very long conflict. A long time ago I decided not to participate. I decided that I would only associate with my tribe, the Filolials.”
What would a long-living monster like this Filolial think of humans? How would she use them?
For convenience? No—if there was a stronger power, a power they couldn't understand, they’d try to get rid of it.
At first they might try worshiping it or something.
Could it be that she’d grown tired of authority and renounced the world so that she could live with her Filolials in the woods? She might pretend to be a normal Filolial and just travel around.
Before Melty had fallen asleep, she kept talking about how she’d met Fitoria before. She was clearly very proud of herself.
It sounded like Fitoria was standing back to watch the way that normal Filolials interacted with humans—something like that anyway.
“Do the four Holy Heroes know? About the hourglasses? I’ve been covering the area entrusted to me, but the four Heroes aren’t doing their part elsewhere.”
“Hourglasses? I know about those.”
“Then why aren’t you participating in the waves?”
What was going on? I was getting a bad feeling. A strong one.
I knew that there were dragon hourglasses in other countries too.
Could it be… Was she saying that waves in other countries came at different times?
“What are you talking about?”
All I knew was that the waves came about once every month.
If they were happening all over the world, I don’t think I’d be able to do much about that.
You’d think that the other countries would try to build up their defenses, so that they wouldn’t need to depend on the heroes for protection. Oh well.
I assumed that one of the past heroes must have asked Fitoria to see to that.
But now she was upset that the summoned heroes weren’t fully devoting their energies to battling the waves?
“I’m not like the other heroes. I may have been summoned here, but I don’t know anything about anything. No one explained anything to me. I just found out there were hourglasses in other places the other day.”
“Very well. I understand. I have another question.”
“What?”
“I feel an ominous power coming from the Shield. Have you used the Curse Series?”
“You sure know your stuff.”
She really was the stuff of legends. She even knew about the Curse Series. She knew about the Shield of Rage.
“I understand that the Curse Series is very powerful, but it asks for much in return. Eventually it will consume you. You mustn’t use it.”
“But there are battles I cannot win without using it. I’ve been able to control it so far, so I think I’m okay.”
It was true. There had been a number of battles that I wouldn’t have been able to win if I hadn’t used the Shield of Rage. She was right that it asked for a lot in return, but I figured I’d be all right if I was able to control it.
As long as Raphtalia was with me, I should be able to fight off my rage.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Fitoria reached out and touched my shield. She shut her eyes.
“The cursed Shield will, one day, overpower the Shield Hero’s strength. The dragon’s consciousness entered the Shield when its core was absorbed. It must not be used near the person that killed a dragon—or the rage will become too powerful to control.”
The Shield of Rage had grown stronger after absorbing the dragon’s core.
Did that mean that it absorbed the dragon’s anger too?
If that was why the shield had grown so powerful, then who was the person that it hated? Who was the person that had killed it?
Could it be Ren? The Sword Hero had killed the dragon.
So what Fitoria was saying was that I shouldn’t use the Shield of Rage when Ren was around? That, if I did, the power would get out of control?
I had fought with Ren recently, but I’d maintained plenty of distance. And Ren hadn’t really been trying to fight me anyway.
Was that why nothing had happened? Or could it be that the shield had tried to take over, but it wasn’t powerful enough to control me?
“But if I want to survive the battles to come, I might have to use it.”
I understood that it was dangerous. But if I wasn’t able to protect people without using it, then what choice did I really have?
After the waves ended and the world was restored to peace, I planned on going back to my own world.
It was easy to say that the shield was dangerous and that I shouldn’t use it—but there were times when I had no choice.
“Very well. Allow me to change the subject.”
“It doesn’t look like you agree with me.”
She nodded. I guess she didn’t agree but was ready to move the conversation to the next topic.
“The world is in great turmoil because of the waves. Why are the Heroes fighting among themselves?”
“It’s not my fault. It’s them—and the country. They framed me and are discriminating against me.”
“I’ve heard the basics. They are irrelevant. The Heroes do not have time to spend on such trivial matters.”
“Such high ideals.”
“I’ve been charged with the protection of the world. But I cannot do it alone. I cannot do it without the Heroes.”
After all the power she’d just showed off? Was she sure she couldn’t save the world from the waves?
From what I’d seen, she was already much more powerful than Itsuki, Ren, or Motoyasu.
She still wasn’t powerful enough to save the world.
Or maybe she was saying that she wouldn’t be able to do so forever.
Did that mean that the heroes could still become much more powerful? More powerful than she already was?
I guess they were still heroes, even if they were rotten to the core. If the heroes weren’t inherently useful, I supposed these countries wouldn’t go through all the trouble of summoning them from another world.
“Honestly, the affairs of humans do not concern me. How they fight… what they fight… But the Heroes are different.”
“Why?”
Fitoria silently shook her head.
“It happened… so long ago, so long ago that I can’t really remember. All I remember is that I cannot permit the Heroes to fight among themselves.”
She forgot the very thing she is so upset about?
Well, she was a Filolial, after all. I couldn’t expect her to be some kind of genius with a photographic memory. Just look at Filo.
But she still remembered it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something felt very wrong.
I had felt a strange pressure coming from Fitoria for a little while.
Something powerful, something… aggressive. It sent shivers down my spine.
“I remember. I was told… If the Heroes ever start to fight among themselves… then, for the good of the world I am to dispose of them so that new Heroes may be summoned.”
There it was. That’s what she’d wanted to tell me.
She was saying that if I didn’t play nice with the other heroes, she’d kill us all. That was the only way to defeat the waves.
That’s what the Legendary Filolial had to say. There must be a good reason.
It must have been an order from one of the heroes from the past.
But—
“It’s not my fault. They refuse to listen to reason. They refuse to play nice. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
Yes. Bitch framed me. Trash arrested and discriminated against me, and the other heroes turned on me without even considering my side of the story. There was nothing I could do about any of them.
And now… after I’d raised all that money and earned so many people’s trust… Now theyframed me for the abduction of Princess Melty and sent assassins to murder us.
And Fitoria wants us to get along? All I could do was get Melty to her mother. That would deal a fatal blow to the Church of the Three Heroes, and then I’d find sanctuary in another country when it all blew over.
Be friends with the other heroes? Impossible.
“…Well.”
Fitoria sighed, as if she were giving up. Then fire came into her eyes.
“Then I suppose there is no avoiding it.”
She stepped back then walked off into the night. It was a strange way to end the conversation.
I didn’t like where this was heading. I doubt she would just walk off and leave us alone.
But I… There was no way I could depend on the other heroes. It was impossible.
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