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Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 2




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Chapter Two: An Unhappy Girl 

I turned the corner and started to head back to my room, but I ran into someone on the way. 

“Oh, um . . . Feeeeeeh ...” 

She was carrying a large number of bags, apparently on her way home from shopping. She was wearing a squirrel kigurumi and a Santa hat. 

I recognized her. It was Rishia, Itsuki’s party member. 

“Hey, you alright?” 

I spoke to her without even thinking about it. She was walking slowly and planting her feet carefully, looking like she might collapse at any moment. 

“Feh?” 

I reached out and grabbed one of the bags that looked like it was about to fall, then I placed it back on the stack of shopping bags, careful to keep the balance steady. 

“You’re the Shield Hero, aren’t you?” 

“They sent you out on errands for them?” 

“N . . . No! I was just out shopping for the team, but I . . . huff . . . huff ...” 

She looked exhausted. She was carrying an awful lot of shopping bags, after all. 

She was a just a young girl, and the way she was walking around in the squirrel kigurumi made it look like she was being punished or bullied. 

“Want some help? You look like you’re going to drop something.” 

A while back all the heroes had introduced their party members to everyone else, so I’d met her once or twice before. 

So it wasn’t like I didn’t know her. Besides, she’d been a big help during the battle with L’Arc. 

We had survived, in part, thanks to her. The least I could do was help carry her shopping bags. 

“Feh . . . Bu . . . but ...” 

“You can take a break and blame it on me if you want.” 

“I could never!” 

“Then let me help you.” 

“Oh, okay.” 

I could have taken the bags and helped her carry them all back, but I didn’t know how Itsuki would react if I showed up with her. He should have just asked some of the soldiers for help. Why did he have to make this girl do everything? 

I helped her carry the bags and felt a little conspicuous as I walked next to her. 

“Feh ...” 

I was surprised she had stuck with them for as long as she had. From what I had seen so far, it looked like a pretty hostile environment. 

 

They were just using her as their errand runner. They didn’t even bother to introduce her when we’d all met. 

Itsuki had structured his little party of friends with himself at the top. That meant there had to be someone on the bottom, and that someone was Rishia. 

I’d been treated like crap since I first arrived in this world too, so I felt like I could empathize with her. I wanted to know more about her. 

“Let’s have a chat on our way back to Itsuki’s room. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” 

“Me? Well, I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer them or not, but okay.” 

“Then I’ll start with a personal one. Why did you join his party?” 

There’s no way that she felt comfortable in an environment like that. Who could be comfortable with a guy like Itsuki, with a guy that would stop at nothing to see his idea of justice realized? I wasn’t about to ask her to join my party or anything, but at the very least she would be happier traveling with Ren. 

“Of course it’s like this, I just joined the party.” 

“That’s not what I mean. I mean, if they treat you so badly, why don’t you leave?” 

“Because Master Itsuki saved me.” 

“He did?” 

“Yes.” 

“Do you mind if I ask what happened?” 

“Feh?! Why would you want to hear stories about someone like me? 

 

Let’s talk about something else!” 

“What kind of a person do you take me for?! Just tell me already!” 

“Oh, okay ...” 

So Rishia started to explain the events and circumstances that led to her joining up with Itsuki. 

To sum it up, Rishia came from a ruined noble family. 

They had very little money and were forced to live frugally. 

A neighboring town was ruled by a rich, rotten nobleman. To protect themselves, Rishia’s village was forced to spend an increasing amount of their income on bulking up the town’s defenses. 

Doing so used up all the remaining money they had. They were insulted by their fellow villagers and accosted by the neighboring town. She cried herself to sleep at night. 

One day, a terrible plan was hatched. Unable to contribute additional funds to the village’s defenses, it was decided that Rishia would be offered up to the barbaric noblemen in the neighboring land. In the end, she was taken by force. 

It was a situation that Itsuki simply couldn’t ignore. 

The rest went just as you would expect. Itsuki stormed in and, wrangling all the power of the Bow Hero, defeated the evil noblemen and saved Rishia from their clutches. 

Rishia felt very much indebted to him, so she turned her back on her family and village to join his party. 

It was a classic love story. 

 

But what was with all the “feh” stuff? I felt like I’d heard it somewhere before. 

Where was it? Oh! I just remembered. 

“Wasn’t that town having trouble because the bad governor had increased the taxes so heavily?” 

“Yes. The noblemen that Master Itsuki defeated were enacting policies like that.” 

Yup, that was it. She was talking about the town that I’d passed through when I first heard about Itsuki’s secret activities. 

That would mean that Rishia had been traveling with him since then. 

But I’d seen Itsuki in the tavern of that town, and she hadn’t been with him. 

A little after that though, I’d seen a young, pretty girl profusely thanking Itsuki in the street. That must have been her. 

“Weren’t you talking out in the street? You were speaking very loudly.” 

“How did you know that? I remember that scene as if it were yesterday.” 

“You said ‘it’s a secret!’ didn’t you?” 

“How did you know that?” 

“I’ll test your memory. When you were talking in the street, do you remember a giant pink filolial walking by? That was Filo!” 

“Fehhh?” 

Rishia nodded to herself. 

“Fehhhhhh! I remember! She was pulling a carriage!” 

“You have an awesome memory. I can’t believe you could remember that.” 

 

Maybe she just thought she was remembering it, because I’d painted the scene for her. 

“You were there?!” 

“Alright, alright. Calm down already. I just happened to be passing through.” 

She freaked out over the littlest things. Her eyes were always darting this way and that, ready to panic over anything that happened. 

She looked really on edge, but it was a little hard to tell what she was thinking underneath the kigurumi. 

“Oh, okay. I, well . . . I feel like I need to pay my debt to him.” 

From what I could tell, everything that Itsuki did was only in the service of his own ego. But to Rishia it must have looked as though he was behaving exactly as a hero would be expected to. The way she spoke about him made it clear that she really did feel indebted to him. 

At the very least, she was able to sit through Itsuki’s other party members’ boasting and not go insane—that had to mean something. 

“I see ... Sounds like you’re in a pretty tough spot.” 

“Yes. I don’t know how well things are going.” 

“From what I’ve seen, it looks like you are suited to battling from the back line.” 

“I’ve never been very talented or skilled with weapons. If I’m good at anything, I guess it would be magic. But Master Itsuki said that he needed front line fighters, so when it came time to class up, I changed my stats to increase my skill in melee.” 

 

“Why would he ... ?” 

He’d ignored her strengths and forced her to focus on her weaknesses? 

Granted, Itsuki used a bow in battle, so he would need more frontline fighters. But if he didn’t choose the right people for the job, then he was only going to make everyone’s lives harder. If she’d been in my party, I’d have asked her to focus on what she was already good at. 

“Well, good luck with everything. If you keep it up, nobody will say that you’re untalented. You’ll impress them all yet, you’ll see.” 

“Thank you!” 

She was skittish, but deep down she seemed to have a pretty strong heart. She was going to be fine. 

I’d fallen pretty low myself before. But eventually, I found a way to make it work, and look where I am now. 

If Rishia kept making an effort, I was sure she’d prove herself essential to Itsuki’s team. 

“Sorry about all the questions. Did I wear you out?” 

“Not at all. I’m fine!” 

“Well, that’s good ...” 

Just as the conversation was trailing off, we turned a corner, and Itsuki’s room came into view. 

“Later.” 

“Feh. Thank you.” 

I handed the bags I’d been carrying back to Rishia, turned, and went back the way I’d came. I was heading for my room. 

 

“Welcome back, Mr. Naofumi.” 

“Thanks, Raphtalia.” 

When I got back to the room I found Raphtalia waiting for me. 

“How was the meeting with the other heroes?” 

“Not so hot. They’re set on believing that I cheated to get as powerful as I am. They won’t believe anything that I tell them.” 

“How will you get them to come around?” 

“Who knows? I’ve tried all I can, but they don’t seem to want to listen.” 

I’m the protagonist of my very own game! That’s what they thought. They didn't want to believe that someone they thought was weaker than them could somehow level up to overpower them. That would break their fantasy rules! The protagonist never loses! 

Besides, they came into this world with tons of knowledge about it from the games they’d played. How is that not cheating? It all sounded like sour grapes to me. 

In the end, we were all probably thinking of this world as if it were a game. 

The weapon power-up system and the leveling were definitely reinforcing that idea. 

But that’s just the sort of world that we were in. For modern Japanese people like us, of course it was like a game. 

In the end, it didn’t matter whether it was a game or not; we needed to survive it. 

 

Those three were like children. They would do whatever it took to win. They would cheat and steal to win, but they would always point their fingers and accuse everyone else of being unfair. 

If I didn’t get a grip on their psychology, I was never going to be able to rein them in. 

Honestly, as long as they were strong enough to battle through the waves without dying, I didn't care what they did after that. 

If we were all battling together, then I would probably survive this whole ordeal. 

Why? I told them how to power-up and demonstrated it right in front of them. So why? Why wouldn't they believe me? 

Because more than they wanted to win, they wanted to be special. 

I would probably have thought the same thing, had I been transported to a world similar to a game I was already familiar with. 

“The other heroes are too weak to be trusted, so it looks like we are going to be sent to another country to battle in the next wave that appears there.” 

“I guess we will be pretty busy.” 

“I guess so ...” 

“I’m baaaack!” 

Filo came skipping into the room. 

Had she gotten sick of swimming already? 

“What’s wrong, master?” 

“I guess I’ll tell you about it. Remember how Fitoria said that we needed to get along with the other heroes? Well, in order to get them to power-up a little more, it looks like we’re going to have to put in some serious work.” 

 

I didn’t think that Filo was going to understand what I had to say, but I made an effort to explain what we’d discussed during the meeting anyway. 

“So when we are training with the other heroes, you have to be honest with them about how everything works.” 

“Huh?” 

Of course she didn’t understand. That’s Filo for you. 

“Anyway, it looks like we’re going to have to go to another country and fight in the wave battle there.” 

It happened just when I said it: Filo’s cowlick started to twitch back and forth. Filo looked a little confused. 

“Huh? Oh . . . um ... You mean you’ll go for me?” 

“What was that?” 

“Oh, Fitoria was watching our conversation. She can see what we are doing through my hair thing!” 

“She’s spying on us?” 

I guess she needed to keep an eye on how the situation was developing. I should have known better than to think she would have just let us go with a verbal agreement. 

Fitoria was the legendary queen of the filolials. 

She had a deep understanding of the waves and seemed to know a lot about everything. 

She was the one that had told me the heroes could not tolerate infighting. She was the one who had given Filo her cowlick. 

“And she was saying that if the weak heroes are going to battle against a wave, she could offer them some back up.” 

“So we don’t have to go? She’ll do it for us?” 

Filo nodded. 

“She says it’s not a problem, as long as we are trying to get along with the other heroes and grow more powerful.” 

“That’s a big help. To tell the truth, the other heroes won’t listen to anything I say. It’s been a real struggle. We were going to have to take on responsibility for everything.” 

“Yeah, that’s why she says she’ll help!” 

That cowlick was proving itself convenient, even if it had interfered with Filo’s class up ceremony. 

“Hey Fitoria. Do you know anything about L’Arc and the others?” 

“She’s um . . . she’s thinking! Ok, she says that sometimes people like that come out of the waves, but she doesn’t know what they are.” 

That’s right. She’d mentioned that she had forgotten a lot about the past. So I couldn’t expect her to know everything. 

But did that mean she had fought against them herself? 

“So she’s fought against Glass and the others before?” 

“No. She says it was someone else.” 

But that meant that this had happened before. It meant that people lived on the other side of the dimensional rifts. What did it all mean? 

“Maybe it’s like the other heroes? Heroes aside from the four holy heroes?” 

“I thought so too, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.” 

“Fitoria says that she doesn’t really understand it either. She just says that things like this happen sometimes during the waves.” 

“Oh yeah?” 

But what were the waves? 

“An idea? Hm ... She says that there might be a clue in the story of the four holy warriors.” 

“That’s great. I’ll tell the queen about it and see what she says.” 

Personally, I didn’t know very much about what the legends of the heroes said. All I knew was what I had read in the Records of the Four Holy Weapons . But maybe the queen, or a scholarly advisor of hers, would be able to find a clue. 

Fitoria would be a historical witness if they needed one. If she was bringing it up, then there had to be something to it. 

“But . . . she says that she wants you to take care of the waves that occur in the country that the four heroes are currently in.” 

“Fine. That’s still a load off of my shoulders. I can handle that much.” 

The biggest problem would be facing off against Glass again before we understood the nature of her existence. At least we had some time to figure it out. 

I wasn’t very confident we’d find a solution though.

 

“You know though, honestly, I think we’d all be better off if you were the one to fight Glass.” 

 

“She says that she’ll beat them back if she ever runs into them!” 

Filo’s cowlick stopped twitching, indicating that our conversation was over for the time being. 

“Anyway, I’ll tell the queen about all of that. At the very least, she just took a major job off of our plates, which will be a big help.” 

“How wonderful. I’m glad that Ms. Fitoria wants to help us.” 

“I wish she would just take care of everything.” 

“Mr. Naofumi, I don’t think that ...” 

“I know, I know.” 

If a legendary filolial could calm the waves on her own, she’d be unbelievably powerful. 

My mood felt a little lighter after that talk, like a load had been lifted from my shoulders. Still, I didn’t know any more about the nature of the waves. 

I sat by the window and started to think as I watched the sun set over the ocean. 

We would have to get the other heroes to understand the power-up system. Then we’d have to figure out some way to get around the defense rating and defense ignoring attacks that Glass and the others had at their disposal. 

Once the other heroes were powered up, they would rely on my defenses to coordinate their attacks. 

After that, I wanted to stop by the weapon shop in Melromarc to see the old guy there and stock up for the next wave. 

 

The weapons that Raphtalia and Filo were using, the Karma Rabbit Sword and the Karma Dog Claws, were new. They didn’t have a blood clean coating applied to them, which meant that they would eventually get dirtied and blunt. I would have to keep sharpening them. 

If there were stronger, more durable weapons that we could replace them with, that would probably be a better option for us in the long run. I bet the queen would be willing to provide us with whatever materials we need to craft new weapons. Or if we had enough time, we could go find the materials ourselves, leveling up on the monsters we encountered along the way. 

Finally, I’d have to make sure my shield was as powerful as possible. I still felt like there were plenty of areas in need of improvement. 

Besides, I still wanted to see what sort of shields I could unlock with the materials I’d gotten from the Inter-Dimensional Whale. 





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