Chapter Six: Cal Mira
The staff on the boat had implied that they wanted the heroes to gather and introduce themselves, so I was prepared to run to the meeting place.
But then it turned out that the other three heroes were all seasick.
“Seasick . . . ?”
I’d never gotten motion sickness of any kind, but it sure seemed like a lot of people around me got sick on any sort of vehicle.
Did they have any idea what sort of situation they had stuck me with by commandeering all the good rooms?
“Naofumi, how can you stand this rocking?
“I dunno—it’s never bothered me.”
Honestly, I didn’t feel like sitting around and being friendly with them. That would be their punishment for stealing the private rooms.
“Kyahoooo!”
Filo let out a triumphant shout and jumped from the deck into the water. She swam through the waves below like a fish.
“Ah . . . .”
I saw a large silhouette below the surface. It was catching up on Filo from behind.
“Filo! You better watch out!”
“Hmmm?”
Filo took her sweet time turning around to look, and by the time she did, a large, shark-like monster was bearing down on her. Its mouth opened wide —its teeth flashing.
“Take that!”
She did a quick flip and kicked the shark-like monster in the chin. The beast flew out of the water and flipped through the air.
Then she jumped and delivered another swift kick. The shark flew towards the boat and crashed on the deck. The staff and customers all screamed.
The large creature was thrashing about on the deck, so Filo jumped in and finished it off.
“If you think you can make a meal out of me that easily, you better think again!”
She stuck a claw out and slit the beast’s stomach open, spilling its guts out onto the deck.
“Stop making a mess.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Itsuki whispered. He was white as a sheet. I guess by most standards, Filo’s behavior was strange. But for Filo, all this was pretty normal.
By the way, this was the second shark she’d done this to. I broke down the first one and absorbed it into my shield.
And I unlocked something pretty interesting.
Blue Shark Shield conditions met. Shark Bite Shield conditions met.
Blue Shark Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: swimming skill 1
Shark Bite Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: naval combat skill 1
special effect: shark tooth
Swimming ability, huh? I could already swim well enough.
As for naval combat, would that somehow affect the movement of the ship?
If we ran into a situation that required combat, it might prove useful. If I had any spare time, I figured I might as well unlock it.
I’d already gotten the abilities I could from other sharks she’d killed, so I let Filo eat the new one.
“Are you really THAT sick? Just from riding on a boat?”
“You’re the weird one, Naofumi.”
“Oh hey, Shield Kiddo. What’s going on?”
“What?”
L’Arc came sauntering over. Raphtalia followed behind him.
“What’s going on? Nothing, I’m just talking with these people.”
“Those seasick losers over there? Give me break. We’ve only been at sea for a few hours.”
“Even though we’ll be arriving tomorrow morning. Seems a shame.”
Apparently L’Arc and Therese didn’t get seasick.
I sat down near the bow and watched the ocean. The waves were growing taller.
Raphtalia and the staff were whispering that it might turn into a storm.
“Hey, kiddo. What are you guys doing when we get to the island?”
“If Cal Mira is in the middle of an activation event, there’s really only one thing worth doing.”
Obviously, I was going there to level.
And of course I was also going to explore and look into any new items and monster drops that I encountered along the way.
“I figured as much.”
Also . . . I’d heard there were hot springs on the island. Apparently they were considered restorative for cursed people.
If that were true, I’d definitely stop by for a soak.
“Well if you’re going to be leveling, want to team up with us?”
“Huh? What are you after?”
“I figure there’s a reason we ended up roomies on the boat. Besides, Therese and I leveling alone gets a little lonely. I was thinking we could all team up.”
Hm . . . . Honestly, I didn’t really care one way or the other.
It sounded like L’Arc still didn’t believe I was the Shield Hero. So he wanted to team up with just any old adventurer that he thought was pretending to be the Shield Hero.
That was enough reason to trust his intentions.
I wonder what he was thinking? I looked over to Raphtalia.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t have a problem with it. Do we have anything to lose by letting them come along?”
If this world was like an MMO, I wondered if there was an upper limit on the number of party members that you could have at once.
It was possible to set reserve troops for assistance under the formation menu, but that was limited to the waves of destruction.
I had played games before that would let you form parties of up to 20 members, but I wasn’t sure what the rules were here.
I was ruminating over the issue when I suddenly remembered Itsuki’s party.
There were a whole bunch of them. I counted six members, and with Itsuki that made seven.
If he was able to have seven people in his party, then me, Raphtalia, Filo, L’Arc, and Therese made five. That shouldn’t be a problem.
“Sure, but try not to hold the rest of us back, will you?”
“Haha, I’d like to say the same thing.”
L’Arc kept his cool and laughed off my insult.
I didn’t really have any problem with people like him, but he did cause a ruckus.
“I don’t really know what’s up with that bird of yours, but once we figure her out I’m sure we will all get along fine.”
“I’m sure we will.
So I ended up agreeing to go hunting and leveling with two adventurers
I knew nothing about.
If I was able to do that, I guess I’d done a lot of personal introspection and healing since the days of being tricked and framed by Trash and Bitch.
I started to wonder what the other heroes’ party members were doing, but I had my answer within a second or two: they were all relaxing in the captain’s chambers.
Night fell, and we sailed through of storm of some kind—the boat rocked pretty aggressively in every direction you could imagine. But everything had cleared up by morning, and we arrived right on schedule.
Our room was small enough that we didn’t get thrown around too much. Filo was freaking out the whole time though, and Raphtalia was feeling pretty seasick.
Any adventurer that wasn’t a crew member . . . . Well, you can imagine how sick they all were.
Cal Mira was much larger than I had anticipated. It rose tall from the sea, a massive volcanic island.
I didn’t know if I could trust the measurements on the map I’d been given, but if I had to compare it to something back in my own world, Hawaii was probably pretty close.
It was an archipelago, of which Cal Mira was the largest island, so sometimes people just talked about the area as if it were only Cal Mira.
As you might expect from a tropical archipelago, I could see a number of other islands offshore.
The interior of the atoll was protected from the deep ocean, and so the waves were small and peaceful. When the tide was out, they say you could walk to some of the other islands. We’ll have to see about that.
I wondered if could I ride Filo to another island.
“Alright, kiddo, what do you say we head out in two days or so?”
“Sure. Whatever.”
We didn’t go through the formalities of figuring out how we were going to meet back up, but nevertheless we parted ways with L’Arc.
“Well, we made it to Cal Mira.”
I turned and saw the other heroes. They were clearly elated to be back on solid ground.
Having spent the night being flung around their stately room, the other heroes apparently hadn’t been able to get much sleep. They were dragging their feet down the pier, looking groggy and worn.
Bitch was pale and disheveled. She seemed right on the verge of throwing up.
“Aren’t you guys playing this up a little much? It was just a little boat ride.”
“Naofumi . . . you’re the weird one here.”
“I thought we were going to sink!”
Granted, there had been a few times throughout the night where it seemed like the ship really had slipped under the waves. But you couldn’t just keep freaking out about it.
I had gotten a little tired of being tossed about the room, though.
By the way, apparently storms very rarely got that big in these parts. I wondered if the strange weather was somehow related to the waves of destruction. Had we been back in my world, I’d have said that the storm was big enough to tip most ships of average size.
“I was a little worried that we’d have to start a new life on a deserted island. I’m glad we made it.”
“What are you blathering about?”
“I’m not kidding!”
“Anyway, let’s get to bed early tonight. We need to make the most of our time here.”
The queen had recommended an inn to us, but I recalled that before we retired for the day, we had to go introduce ourselves to the nobles in charge of governing the islands. We might have been in the middle of nowhere, but the place attracted a lot of travelers, so there were certain to be all sorts of people around.
“Welcome! Welcome! The Legendary Heroes and their retinues!”
I was waiting for the other heroes to recover from their seasickness down at the harbor, when someone who seemed to be leading a tour group (based on the little flag they were carrying) came running over.
He was dressed in a Melromarc military uniform and seemed to be just on the cusp of old age—the little flag didn’t suit him at all.
“I am the Earl of Habenburg, and the care of these islands has been entrusted to me.”
I was the only hero that wasn’t sick, so I stepped forward and met the visitor.
“Very pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Oh, um . . . . Yes. Pleasure.”
The other heroes all nodded to the Earl of Habenburg.
“Please allow me to tell you all a little bit about our lovely islands.”
Oh come on—he really WAS a tour guide? I hated sitting through this kind of thing.
“You know we really didn’t come as tourists . . . .”
We’d come to get our hands on the extra experience points and loot available during the activation event. And now we had to sit through a lecture on the oral traditions of the islanders? I wasn’t in the mood to play tourist.
“Yes, well—these oral traditions speak of Cal Mira long being a place special to the four heroes—for aeons they have trained here.”
He started his tour at the market and gesticulated and described the scene as we walked through it.
Halfway through the market I spotted something strange. It was a statue, something like a totem pole, and it consisted of a penguin, rabbit, squirrel, and dog stacked one on top of the other. All of the animals were wearing Santa hats.
The penguin held a fishing-pole, the rabbit held a hoe, the squirrel a saw, and the dog a rope.
What was it supposed to mean?
“You have a sharp eye, Shield Hero. These are the four pioneers that brought prosperity to our island: Pekkul, Usauni, Risuka, and Inult.”
Those names all sounded Japanese. I wonder if previous heroes had named them.
“Just so you know, these were all named by a previous group of heroes. They named them after what these animals were called in their own language, in the land from which they came.”
Whatever their motivation had been—those were some ugly names. They could have tried a little harder.
“Are there animals like that on this island?”
“No. After developing the island, they moved on to other, unknown lands. They have not been seen since.”
So I guess they had died somewhere else. There wasn’t even a good reason to suspect that they had been historical figures. I mean, what sort of penguins and rabbits turn into frontier pioneers?
“Oh wow . . . . They look yummy!”
A thread of saliva dangled from Filo’s beak as she looked at the animal statues.
Come to think of it, here was a monster I knew personally that loved to pull carriages as a hobby. Maybe pioneering monsters weren’t such an oddity after all?
There was another strange object next to the statue of the animals. It was a stone pillar of some sort.
“What is that thing?”
“It is an inscription left to us from the Four Legendary Heroes.”
“Really . . . .”
There was a very good chance that the other heroes, like the four of us, had been Japanese.
Could they have left their phrase in Japanese?
It said something like . . . .
“Hey! This thing is fake!”
The other heroes came close to see if they could read it.
“Well that is strange . . . . It is said they left it here to guide the heroes that would come after them.”
“Is this some kind of joke? What is the deal with the magical writing of this world?”
Magical letters . . . those things were really starting to get annoying.
They weren’t the sort of writing that you could just learn how to read.
I’m not sure how to explain it. They sort of changed what they said based on the person reading them.
I’ll try to explain further. Raphtalia was skilled with light and shadow magic, so she could read books that were written about that magic because they shared an affinity—but if I tried to read the same book it wouldn’t say anything. If I translated what was written it was just gibberish. But Raphtalia could read it, understand it, and then perform magical spells based on what she’d read.
There were magical letters that were made for everyone to read too, but if you weren’t about to use the information written there, then it would become illegible. It was like they reacted to your innate magical ability. Of course you’d have to be able to read the letters they used in this world anyway.
“Hey, can you read that?”
“Well you guys were depending on that crystal ball, so I know that you can’t read it. I, on the other hand, had to make due for myself in the wake of all the trouble Trash put me through. If I didn’t learn to read, I would never have been able to use any magic.”
You could learn magic in one of two ways: either you had to read it out of a book, or you could automatically learn the spell through a magical crystal ball. If you learned from a ball then the spell was easy to learn but difficult to power up. Learning from a book took longer but was easier to adjust along the way.
“What’s it say?”
“Um . . . .”
I focused my magic and tried to read what was on the stone. It was written in simple language.
“I am the source of all power. The Shield Hero commands you. He has understood this inscription. Support him!”
“Zweite Aura . . . .”
I could choose a target for the spell. I guess I might as well start with Filo.
I held out my hand in Filo’s direction and a soft, transparent magic field appeared around her.
“Oh wow! I feel like I’m full of power!”
Filo started jumping up and down in place. She was in human form, but she could still jump pretty high.
I checked her stats and found that most of them had increased. “Aura . . . . It’s a spell that only the legendary heroes can use. It raises the target’s stats.” One of Itsuki’s teammates whispered. It was that Rishia girl. “Awesome! Let’s all learn it!” The prospect of learning ancient magic really excited the others, as it fit in perfectly with their game-like attitude. They all tried reading the words. But . . . . “Damn . . . I can’t read it.” “Maybe that’s because you guys never learned how to read the magic letters?” Sure, they’d learned their magic easily enough with the crystal balls, but if they never learned to read, they’d never be able to learn aura. “Naofumi.” Itsuki turned to me and spoke. “What?” “Where did you get the shield that taught you to read magic letters?” “I learned to read it myself! The weapon can’t do everything for you!” “Don’t be like that!” “Yeah! Teach us!” They had no shame at all. Soon they’d want me to teach them the whole language. They must have thought that their weapons had absolved them of the need to make any sort of effort.
“I learned a spell from this called ‘Aura,’ but that doesn’t mean that you guys are going to learn the same thing.”
“That might be true. We might learn something even better.”
Their condescension was becoming even more apparent. I couldn’t stand being talked down to like that.
They couldn’t even hold their own against the high priest. I caught myself getting upset and tried to calm down.
“Let’s move on. Is there anything else you wanted to show us?”
“Very well then, we will head for the inn—but I will make sure to introduce you to items and places of interest along the way.”
The earl interjected short explanations now and again as we walked to the inn.
The areas of Cal Mira that were filled with wildlife were in a veritable uproar now, thanks to the activation event. The life cycles of the monsters had all been accelerated.
The monsters would go on reproducing exponentially, and the island would find itself in dire straits if adventurers and heroes didn’t come to help cull the exploding population. Our immediate goal was to help beat back the monsters—and to level up substantially in the process.
The earl explained that it would help the island most if we completely eradicated any group of monsters we chanced upon.
There was no need for us to defer to other adventurers that were leveling there, but if we came across a battle underway, they asked that we avoid unnecessary conflict by not jumping in and taking other adventurers’ kills.
It sounded a lot like typical manners in an MMORPG.
If we wanted to move between the islands, there were small boats that we could use—but they wouldn’t shuttle us around. In the worst case, the earl said, it was possible to swim.
The inn that the queen had reserved from us was the nicest building on the island. In my world, it would have been equivalent to a high-class hotel.
I wondered if it used to be a castle or something.
Anyway, it was a huge, ornate place that felt very clean. The walls were formed of something like marble and were polished so they reflected the light.
There was a fountain that included statues of Pekkul and Risuka. All in all, the place made me feel like I was back in my own world, in a strange sort of way.
Had I just gone to a trip to the southern islands? Maybe I was back in Hawaii?
We were led down a hallway to our rooms, and there was a thick, plush carpet running the length of it.
The hotel insisted that they would see to our luggage, so we'd given them our things, as well as Filo’s carriage.
Opening the door to our room, we found that our luggage had already arrived, so we decided to head right out again and start hunting monsters.
We jumped in a small boat, picked another island at random, and shoved off.
“It’s been a while since we could battle monsters just to level up.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Once Filo had hatched we’d turned our attention to our merchant work. During that time we’d only really fought monsters that we happened to come across on the way, and not many people specifically asked that we battle for them.
Then we realized we couldn’t participate in the class-up ceremony, so we decided to head to another country—but then the crown put a bounty on my head.
Once we defeated the high priest, we ended up stuck on a long journey back to the castle, then we jumped right on the ship to Cal Mira. Sure, Filo had killed a few monsters on the way, but nothing that would count as intentional leveling.
Thinking back on it all, Raphtalia was right. It really had been a while.
When we were on the run, we didn’t have the time to be systematic about it—and instead of using them for materials, we’d had to eat most of them.
“We’ll be leveling up from now until the time we leave Cal Mira. Good luck everyone.”
“Yeah!”
“Yes.”
We climbed out of the small boat and stepped into the wild.
The area was infested with Bio Red Blobs, Magenta Frogs, Yellow
Beetles, and Cactus Worms.
None of those monsters sounded very strong to me. I was thinking over the names when a Magenta Frog came flying at us from some nearby bushes.
“Hey!”
I held my shield to block it, and its belly crashed into the shield.
There was a sucking and popping sound. I looked down to find the frog stuck to the outer edge of my shield.
“Haaa!”
Raphtalia flashed her sword at the frog.
Yes, she moved very quickly.
EXP 95
Hey, that was more experience points than I would have expected to get from such a weak monster.
Raphtalia had defeated it with one swing of her sword. Raphtalia was looking down at her sword, surprised.
“The monster was very weak, but we received quite a bit of experience points from it.”
“I wonder if that’s because of the activation event?”
“I hope so. Well, there’s no need to hold back.”
“Just make sure you don’t steal another adventurer’s mark.”
“I’ll be careful! Hya!”
“Take that!”
Raphtalia sliced a monster in two. Another monster was minced by Filo’s furious claws. If I wanted to absorb anything into the shield, they’d have to leave some scraps behind.
I realized that I was now powerful enough to take on a number of monsters at once. Actually, they weren’t damaging me at all, so eventually the monsters started to ignore me.
You had to give the monsters that much—they weren’t stupid. Something like a balloon might have just gone on attacking me forever. But these monsters were smarter. They realized they didn’t have a chance of injuring me, so they directed their attention at Raphtalia and Filo.
I tried to stand at the front of the party, defend against the attacks, and find openings in the monster’s defenses. But there were so many of them that I wasn’t doing much good. Luckily Raphtalia and Filo were quick and powerful enough to dodge the monsters’ attacks that had gotten past me.
But there was still a problem. If I wasn’t the one stopping their attacks, then there wasn’t really a need for me to be there.
“Mr. Naofumi, I feel like the monsters are a little too weak for us. Perhaps we should move on?”
“Hmm . . . .”
There must have been some way around the problem.
Maybe I could switch to a weaker shield.
Maybe they would realize that the shield was weaker, and so they would focus more of their attention on me—thinking that they stood a chance—and stop attacking Raphtalia and Filo. Besides, I could unlock a few shields in the process.
There was a limited amount of time until the next wave arrived. I wanted
to use the time we had in the most efficient way possible.
Yes, for the time being, I’d go with that plan.
Even still, Raphtalia and Filo were probably powerful enough to make it to the center of this particular island without too much help from me. They were defeating all the monsters with one hit.
We battled on like that for a short while, when I suddenly realized that I wasn’t receiving experience points any longer.
“Why?”
“What happened?”
“I stopped receiving experience points. What about you, Raphtalia?”
“I’m still getting points just like normal.”
I double-checked their points in my menu. Sure enough, they were both still getting experience—I was the only one who’d stopped accumulating points.
I was wondering what was going on, then it happened.
“You bastard! You stole my kill! Someone should kill you next!”
“What?!”
Itsuki, Armor, and their friends killed a monster that another adventurer had been battling.
Come on now! Hadn’t we JUST been warned not to steal other people’s kills?
I shot them all an annoyed glance, but then Itsuki looked confused, realizing that he wasn’t receiving experience, and he looked at me for help.
“Oh, Naofumi. I didn’t realize you were here. That probably explains why I’m not getting experience.”
“You mean because our weapons are interfering with each other?”
“Yes. If it’s not too much trouble, do you think you could go to another island?”
The idiot . . . . Why did I have to move? Was he incapable of moving himself? Was he incapable of considering the feelings of others?
I swear . . . everything Itsuki did these days irritated me.
“Yeah! Yeah! The Shield Hero is going to another island!”
“Oh SHUT UP already!”
Armor was getting really annoying.
What did he have against me? What did I do to make him think I was his enemy?
“Itsuki . . . . What was that all about?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you hear what the earl said? About not stealing other adventurers’ kills?”
“What do you mean? That was my kill. I started that battle.”
His eyes wandered off in the distance. Quite far away an adventurer was battling a monster. Itsuki drew his bow back and fired a killing shot.
“Um . . . .”
“What is it? We got the first attack.”
The adventurer and I clearly had the same concerns, but Itsuki didn’t seem worried by them. He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Maybe he wasn’t technically breaking the rules, but there was something wrong with that kind of behavior.
If this were an MMORPG, that was called target stealing, or fishing.
The behavior was prohibited or permitted depending on the game, so I couldn't be sure what the rules were here. But it was clearly annoying. It clearly bothered the other adventurers. And we’d been warned about it, in a way, so why behave that way?
That reminded me. Itsuki had said that this world reminded him of a console game that he’d played.
“Itsuki, you realize that behavior like that would get you in trouble if this were an online game.”
“What? Oh stop that now. We scored the first hit!”
“Only because you have a ranged weapon. Does that mean that only you have the right to hunt here?”
Itsuki was troubled by the question, but he slowly nodded. It gave me a headache to figure him out, but I was starting to understand.
In a console game, there was no need to worry about stuff like this.
The other characters weren’t really people, and so they weren’t actually in competition for the monsters. They didn’t steal from each other.
So I had to find the right way to approach the issue.
“Go ask Ren and Motoyasu about it. Or go ask the earl of the island. I think you’ll find that everyone is against disruptive behavior like that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Alright . . . see ya!”
I signaled to Filo with my eyes.
Itsuki had already leveled his bow at a monster that was poking around in the weeds.
“First wind!”
Filo sent a torrent of wind magic to hit the monster first. A second later, Itsuki’s arrow connected, and the monster died.
“You stole our kill! We were hunting that monster, and you stole it! How could you?!”
I shoved an accusatory finger at Itsuki and shouted to make my point.
When I did, Armor looked very upset, and he stepped forward.
“You fool! Despite being a hero yourself, you’d turn on Master Itsuki?!”
Itsuki looked troubled for a moment, then upset. I realized he had come to understand the situation.
“Please calm down. I understand what you mean now.”
He smiled peacefully, but his eyes were not smiling at all. He could hide his discomfort with a mask of smiles, but I saw right through it.
We left. I don’t know if he continued to “understand” after we were gone though. I figured it was best to try our luck at another island.
“Should we have some lunch while we wait for my experience points to become available again?”
Itsuki signaled to his party that it was time to take a break.
I wasn’t very invested in his party members or their lunches, until . . . .
“Rishia! It’s lunchtime!”
“Oh . . . okay!”
Armor and the other party members all yelled at Rishia to get their meals ready.
They certainly thought highly of themselves, didn’t they? Who did they think they were? Why did she have to make their lunches?
“Why not make your own lunches?”
I whispered it to myself, but Armor heard me and came running over.
“What was that?! Rishia is the newest recruit here! These chores are her responsibility!”
“What?!”
I didn’t know what to say. Recruit?
What was this? Did he think he was running a company or something?
Rishia prepared to hand out the lunches. But apparently there was a prescribed order that they had to be handed out in. She looked carefully at each lunch, confirmed the name, then softly called the name out.
As she got further down in the list, the lunches became less impressive-looking.
Was Itsuki’s his own homemade lunch? She passed him a lunch box.
Armor was next. His lunch was a large piece of meat on the bone, plus a sandwich stacked high with meats.
Then came the soldiers. They got a sandwich and grilled fish. The next up was . . . . Well, it went on and on like that until only Rishia was left. Then she reached into a bag and pulled out one piece of fruit, which she began to eat in silence.
What was all that about? Why didn’t they eat the same things?
“What’s going on? You have different ranks in your party?”
“What are you watching us for? Naofumi, you’re becoming a bother, so please move on to the next island.”
“Are you kidding me? Itsuki, are you all right in the head?”
It might have made me a hypocrite to say so, but he was treating this girl, Rishia, like a slave!
Actually, Raphtalia and I ate the same meals. Itsuki was worse than that. He was treating her worse than a slave!
“Master, I’m hungry!”
“Filo! Shut up for a second!”
She’d been overtaken by hunger watching Itsuki and his party chow down. Now all she could think about was food.
Armor looked over at us triumphantly. He smiled and opened his mouth wide.
“Our rank is decided upon by the amount that Master Itsuki trusts us and by how much we have contributed to the group. What is the problem with that? Should we have a nice long chat? I could tell you all about Master Itsuki’s most impressive characteristics.”
“No thanks, I think I’ve heard enough.”
“Well I’ll tell you anyway. When I first met Master Itsuki, he opened my eyes to justice.”
Armor went on talking, then the rest of the party joined in. They recounted all of Itsuki’s most impressive achievements.
I’d rather not go over the crap they said. Most of the stories involved Itsuki hiding out, and then taking down bad guys in secret. From the way they talked about him, they really did seem to think that he was the sole hero in charge of saving the world.
It was like a religion of some kind. They were devotees of Itsuki, practitioners of Itsuki-ism.
Finally Itsuki was watching over us all, an expression of deep satisfaction plastered over his face.
That was it exactly—he was using them to brag about himself.
My analysis is as follows. Itsuki was always dealing with bad people in secret. Therefore Itsuki must be a savior of justice.
I’m pretty sure there was some kind of name for a disorder like that.
I’d seen an old movie about it. There was a police officer in some other country who fought for justice. He became stimulated by the fight against evil. They’d named a disorder after him. It was a disorder that often affected police officers.
I couldn’t remember what it was called, but they’d taken the name from the title of the movie. The character said that those that served evil had no right to live, and would punish all transgressions, regardless of their severity, with death. If someone tried to avoid punishment, they would be punished for that too with death.
The actual policeman in the movie never went quite that far, but the concept remained, an indelible portrait of the psychosis.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but bring that character to mind when I thought of Itsuki.
I wanted to shake him and ask if he was really so confident that he was right. What if he was just imagining all this justice?
The Records of the Four Holy Weapons had said that the Bow Hero had a strong sense of justice.
But Itsuki has misunderstood what justice was. Being “correct” and doing the right thing were not always the same.
Anyway, I don’t think Itsuki would hear me out if I tried to explain it all to him.
Besides, I didn’t expect very much from Itsuki to begin with—much less expect that he would be open to persuasion.
“We’re going deeper into the island. Naofumi, we’ll see you later.”
“Right, later. Try not to annoy the other adventurers.”
Itsuki’s party quickly packed up their lunches and left the area.
“I’d realized this when I tried speaking to them back at the castle, but they really are a difficult bunch, aren’t they?”
“Sure are.”
I’d rather not run into Itsuki again.
Moving between the islands was a little annoying, so if there were going to be four heroes here at the same time, it would have been smart to agree to level in different places before we set out.
Regardless, we couldn’t level on that island anymore. We made our way back to the main island.
“Hey, hey . . . if it isn’t Shield Kiddo? From the look of it, the monsters were too tough for you, so you came running back. Am I right?”
We got off the boat at the main island harbor and ran into L’Arc and Therese on the dock.
“The monsters were weak. No trouble at all. We do have our reasons for coming back so soon though.”
The real reason was that the heroes were not able to accumulate experience points when leveling in the same place because their weapons interfered with one another. But it would be a pain to try and explain that to him.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s lunchtime. That, and another hero showed up so we need to move to another island.”
We’d wasted plenty of time already, about two hours. Why did we have to sit and listen to Itsuki’s party brag about their master’s valorous deeds?
We could head out to another island now, but by the time we got there it would be getting late, and we’d just have to turn around and come right back.
The first step was to find out where the other heroes were leveling. Then I could make sure to avoid them.
“Well look at you! You’re really taking this hero-impersonation scheme of yours all the way, aren’t you? You mean about how their weapons interfere?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Are you and Therese heading out hunting now?” asked Raphtalia.
“Yeah. We just want to go and see what sort of monsters we’ll be dealing with. What was it like for you kiddos?”
“The monsters were not very strong, but they gave quite a lot of experience.”
“Pretty good.”
We were chatting about the monsters when Therese came over and spoke to me.
“May I call you Mr. Naofumi? Raphtalia was kind enough to tell me your name.”
“Huh? What now?”
“I hear that you are quite skilled with crafting?”
That came out of the blue.
L’Arc hadn’t shut up from the minute I met him, but Therese tended to keep quiet. I wasn’t really sure how to speak to her yet.
“I wouldn’t say I’m really skilled, but I learned from an expert and managed to get the basics under my belt.”
“If I provided the materials and the funds, could you make an item for me?”
“Probably . . . that is, if I had the time.”
“I’d love to purchase one.”
“Sure.”
I wasn’t about to turn down a job. I’d make sure I was paid well.
“So what kind of item were you thinking about?”
“I’d love a bracelet. I’ll let you pick the type and design.”
Those types of requests were the worst. I wished she would just make up her mind.
I decided to wait and see what materials she provided me with. Then I would just make whatever I could from them.
“Well, I can’t make anything without any materials.”
“Okay. L’Arc!”
“What’s up?”
She reached over and pointed to a small pouch synched at L’Arc’s waist. He opened it to show off a number of different ore fragments that were inside.
Many of them seemed to be rough gemstones.
“So what do you want?”
“Just pick the best thing out of that pouch and make a bracelet from it.”
“Fine.”
L’Arc passed me the pouch. I’d have to think of it as a side quest.
“Alright. I’ll bill you for the bracelet when it’s finished.”
“Awesome! Thanks, Shield Kiddo.”
“Whatever.”
I was starting to understand how the old guy must feel running that weapon shop. He must have felt this way when I stopped by and asked him to make me things.
Well, I’d accepted the job, so I was determined to make something good.
“Alright, we’re heading out.”
“Good luck, L’Arc. And you too, Therese.”
“Bye now!”
“Raphtalia and Filo waved them off. They climbed into small boat and rowed away from the dock.
It was so much easier to get along with these normal adventurers than it was to tolerate Itsuki. Something about that felt a little sad.
We hunted down a shadow and the earl, who had both come from the castle, and asked them to tell us where the other heroes were leveling.
The other heroes, Ren and Motoyasu, had planned where they were going and made sure not to overlap.
So they were all on different islands.
This was all turning into such a pain. Why did the legendary weapons have to interfere with each other like this? Up until now we’d only fought in the same place during the waves of destruction, so I hadn’t really been bothered by it.
I felt like I was losing valuable time. I had to think of something.
“Raphtalia.”
“What is it?”
“Want to do some leveling at night? Then we could make up for lost time.”
She rubbed her chin and seriously considered it.
“Good idea. It might be a little dangerous, but we could use the leveling time.”
“Are we fighting at nighty-night?”
“Yeah.”
I could have used a soak in those curse-curing hot springs, but after all the time at sea I kind of wanted the exercise.
If we were going to make up for lost time, leveling at night would be our best bet.
Besides, who knew what time the next wave would come? There was no guarantee that they only occurred during the day.
And besides, Filo was like a wild animal, and we’d fought during the night plenty of times when we were on the run from that bounty.
And so we decided to go to an island where there were no other heroes and battle through the night.
“Whew . . . .”
“That should do it.”
“Yeah.”
We landed at the island and continued to battle monsters after the sun had dipped below the waves.
I soon discovered that the monsters in the Cal Mira islands dropped all sorts of items. They dropped plenty of medicinal herbs, but also magic waters and the materials you needed to make soul-healing water.
Once night fell, and it was dark, the monsters started to appear with greater frequency.
The more monsters we fought, the more experience points we were going to get. So by my estimation, we were accumulating a lot of points.
We eventually grew tired and built a bonfire. We needed a rest.
Filo’s eyes kept darting around the camp though. It didn’t look like she was ready to fall asleep.
There were a lot of different islands in the Cal Mira archipelago. Some were steep mountains, others were heavily forested, others were like jungles.
“There are so many monsters out tonight.”
“I know.”
The island we were camping on was more like a giant mountain.
I looked up to the peak. It stood out ruddy against the sky, a stark silhouette.
I wondered if the color had something to do with the activation event.
I think we were getting more experience points for battling at night. We had all managed to level up a bit.
When we’d arrived on the island I’d been at level 43, while Raphtalia was at level 40. Now I was at level 48, and Raphtalia and Filo had reached levels 50 and 51.
Raphtalia almost seemed bored. The monsters were not presenting much of a challenge for her.
Another thing I noticed was that the monsters had the same names, but some were bigger than others, and some gave more points than others.
We’d even run into a Magenta Frog that was as large as I was. Despite being so large, Filo had taken the beast down with a single kick.
They weren’t so strong. But they really were rewarding us with a lot of experience points, and they were appearing very frequently. All in all, it was good for us.
We’d managed to level up quite a lot in just a single day.
Raphtalia and Filo’s stats were rising quickly too. I was focused on trying to power up my shield—but I think I’d done all I could with the materials I currently had.
I’d managed to power up the Chimera Viper Shield pretty well, but it wasn’t like I didn’t use other shields. I didn’t want to have to depend on the dangerous Shield of Wrath either. So I wanted to find a weaker shield that I could power up.
“Hm . . . .”
“Mr. Naofumi, I worry that you might be pushing yourself too hard. I know you would have a hard time saying so yourself, but you must me tired. Your curse still has not healed. Why don’t you rest a little?”
My body did feel heavy. I don’t think I could make it through any long, drawn-out battles at this point.
Still, I’d hoped I could power up a shield to the point where it was so powerful that it didn’t really matter whether I was cursed or not.
“The monsters here hadn’t been able to damage me at all, so I figured it would be okay to keep going.”
I took her invitation to relax though. I stretched my legs out and started to recline when I heard footsteps approaching.
Who was it?
I was about to jump to my feet, when I realized it was L’Arc and Therese.
“Everyone is freaking out that you guys haven’t come back yet, so we decided to come looking for you!”
“What?”
“The boat manager at the docks was getting worried about you kiddos. He said that you left forever ago and hadn’t come back.”
“I’m sure adventurers die on the islands all the time. There’s no need to freak out over us.”
He thought that I was just a normal adventurer pretending to be the Shield Hero. Wouldn’t it be normal for a new adventurer to overestimate their abilities, run off into the wilderness, and end up dead?
Honestly I hadn’t spent much time speaking with other adventurers, so I didn’t really know for sure what they considered normal.
“That might be true. But we got a little worried.”
Hmm . . . so they were worried about us and took a boat out to an island in the middle of the night?
A part of me was thankful for that. A little part of me felt some affection for them.
The two of them must have been real worrywarts. They were less like adventurers and more like paladins, or something.
Even though the knights and paladins of Melromarc were a bunch of jerks.
“We wanted to make up for lost time, so we decided to battle through the night.”
“Anyway, come back to the hotel with us. You have everyone worried.”
“Fine.”
I had to take care of my curse anyway. That was probably enough night battling for today.
“Alright, let’s head back.”
“Yes, let’s. And we’re sorry to have worried you.”
“We’re going back?!”
Filo cocked her head to the side.
“Yeah.”
“Okaaaay! Let’s go go!”
We packed up our camp and went back to the main island.
The random people we met on the docks were becoming more entangled in our lives by the day.
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