Chapter Ten: The Katana of the Vassal Weapons
We climbed into Ethnobalt’s boat. I thought that the boat was going to fly through the sky, but when it started moving, it was more like a teleportation skill. The scenery around us quickly vanished and was replaced with a path of pale light, over which the boat proceeded.
If the boat could take us anywhere—even locations that we hadn’t registered beforehand—then it was a really powerful option to have!
“I’m impressed every time I ride on this thing. It would have taken forever to travel on foot.”
“How does it work?”
“It works by using the connections between the dragon hourglasses as currents.”
Hm... So the hourglasses were all connected by lines, and the boat had the ability to sail over those lines. Did that mean that the boat could go anywhere in the world, as long as the currents between the hourglasses went there as well?
The system was more complicated than I expected.
“You can sail over things high in the sky and use the boat to get the drop on unexpected enemies. We’ve done that a few times.”
“So Raphtalia and Glass are somewhere nearby?”
“Somewhat. There are many defenses to watch out for, so I can only get you close.”
“It’s a big help”
Depending on how we used it, the boat could prove very useful. As for Ethnobalt himself, he apparently wasn’t the strongest in battle.
“So we’ll switch to flying in the sky from here on out?”
“That’d draw too much attention.”
She was right. Sailing slowly through the sky was like asking the enemy to shoot us down. Maybe we could pull it off if we flew at a very high altitude... but then again, there were probably a lot of flying monsters in this world. We wouldn’t want to run into them.
“I could offer some support fire or bombs, but that would only draw even more attention. It would be best if you only thought of the boat as a way to escape, not to battle.”
“Okay. Then we will call for you after we meet up with Glass.”
“Very well. And good luck,” said Ethnobalt. At nearly the exact same second, the streaming pale light around us vanished, and we found ourselves standing on unfamiliar ground.
He said that we might run into trouble and that we couldn’t count on him for backup, either.
“Okay, Raph-chan, take us to Raphtalia.”
“Rafu!” she barked, pointing enthusiastically.
Kizuna’s penguin, Chris, was pointing the same way.
We stood before a thick forest. It seemed to be mostly composed of pine trees, but there were tall copses of bamboo here and there, which lent this new country a Japanese feel, too.
We held open a map to get a sense of our bearings and began the search in earnest.
“What sort of country is this, anyway?”
“It borders the country that you and I just escaped. The two countries share a similar culture. But this one reminds me more of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate.”
At first I didn’t really know what she meant, but it wasn’t long before we came out of the woods and found a town, and then I understood what she was trying to say.
The houses were all made of wood, but there were a lot of signs out in the streets, the sort you’d seen in Showa-era Japan. The language looked like it was written right to left, and the architecture made the town look like it was in the midst of a modernization effort.
I even thought I saw street lamps with electric light bulbs in them. The mishmash of so many different time periods was unnerving—it didn’t feel natural.
The adventurers walking in the street were dressed like the Shinsengumi. The rest of the villagers were also dressed in traditional Japanese clothes. I saw a lot of hakama.
“Is there some kind of checkpoint we have to get through?”
“I don’t think it’s that strict. I think the only checkpoints are on the border. It’s a lot like the last country, but not quite so secure.”
“You don’t say...”
There certainly were a variety of countries in this new world.
In comparison, the countries in the world I’d come from seemed to be based on nobility and the rule of monarchs. That was at least easy to understand—not that I necessarily had it all figured out.
“Won’t our clothes draw attention?”
“I don’t think so. They aren’t always on the lookout for foreigners here. They’ll just think we are adventurers passing through. Look around. There are plenty of people dressed like us,” Kizuna said, pointing.
She was right. There were plenty of other adventurers wearing armor similar to ours.
“That’s great. We better find Raphtalia fast. The minute we find the others, we need to get out of here.”
“I know what you mean... Chris, where’s Glass?”
“Pen,” the bird chirped, and pointed in the same direction that Raph¬chan was indicating. We followed their lead and continued the search.
We followed their lead to a new town and ran into a very long line of people there.
“What’s this?”
“I’ll see,” Kizuna said. She ran ahead to see what was going on. Then she came jogging back. “There’s some sort of show going on. Everyone seems really excited.”
“Hm...”
A show? I’d seen tents set up for a traveling show back in Melromarc, too. The proprietors would set up tents on the main drag in the marketplace. I never really cared for that sort of thing, though, so I’d never actually looked inside.
But there were so many people lined up it was hard not to be curious. There were more people lined up for this show than had attended my soul-healing water auction. The line seemed to snake through the whole town.
Could the show really be that impressive? Were the citizens just starved for entertainment because there was nothing else to do out here?
“Want to check it out?”
“I don’t care—and we don’t have the time.”
“Good point. We don’t have the time to waste waiting around in line.”
“Rafu, rafu!”
“What is it Raph-chan? Do you want to see the show?”
She seemed very interested. She nodded vigorously.
Raph-chan had been formed out of Raphtalia’s hair—if she wanted to see the show that badly, then I couldn’t help but be curious.
“What is this ‘show’ you keep mentioning?” Rishia asked.
Kizuna stood on her tiptoes to try to read the sign by the building.
“It says, ‘A young angel with wings on her back—literally fell from the sky! See her for only 40 doumon!’ What do you think? A real angel?”
A girl with wings on her back? That sure sounded like Filo to me.
I was focused on finding Raphtalia, but I was going to have to find Filo, too.
“Hey Kizuna. Are there any races in this world that normally have wings on their backs? Does that sound like anything you’ve seen before?”
“Not particularly, no. What about in your world, Naofumi?”
“I’ve heard that there are harpy-type demi-humans, but I’ve never seen one. On the other hand, one of my party members is a girl with wings on her back. If you just got a glance at her, you might think she was an angel.”
She did match the description on the sign.
She certainly didn’t act like an angel—but you wouldn’t know that just from looking at her. She could trick you if she managed to keep her mouth shut.
“Rafu!”
“Feh! Do you think it could be Filo?”
It could be.
And what if it was? I was about to walk right by the show. I wouldn’t have stopped if Rishia hadn’t asked Kizuna what was going on. Now what was I supposed to do? Line up on a hunch?
I walked to the front of the line and tried to overhear what people were saying inside of the building.
“Ya! Master! Mel-chan! Save Me!” I heard shouts of pain amidst the cracking of a whip.
She sounded like she was in a lot of pain. I’d never heard her voice sound that way.
“See what happens? Hurry up and cross the rope!”
“I... Ah!”
I could hear the shouts through the walls.
“What is that angel saying? I guess she’s pretty upset. I don’t like it...” I heard one of the customers mutter as they left the building.
That’s right—no one in this world would be able to understand Filo. Even still, did they really think it was okay to capture her and treat her like an animal? Sure, she might look like an angel now, but she was really a giant bird monster.
“Fehhh!”
“Rishia, be quiet! If they realize that you’re speaking the same language, they’ll probably try to grab you, too!”
“Feh...” She clapped her hands over her mouth and nodded silently.
“Is it really your friend?” Kizuna asked, her face serious. I nodded. “I know you want to help her, but that’s going to be tough for you and I. Do you think Chris, Raph-chan, and Rishia can handle it?”
“If they try to sell her in an auction, we could try to raise the funds to buy her. Or if we can’t get the money, we can get one of the town’s noblemen to buy her to at least keep her safe...” I muttered. It was all I could come up with for the moment.
If a nobleman bought her, then we might be able to use the soul-healing water as a bargaining chip to get Filo back. But there was no telling how much he would ask about where we got it and how we made it, which could cause trouble. There’s also the chance that they would just use Filo as a hostage to get whatever they wanted from us.
We couldn’t spend too long staying in one place, but we couldn’t do anything until we found out how Filo had been captured. If she had just been captured by normal adventurers, then we might be able to ingratiate ourselves with a nobleman and use his authority to get her back. On the other hand, if a nobleman had captured her to begin with, we’d be out of options. He could force us to do whatever he wanted in that case.
“What should we do? Should we hope for an auction?”
“We should avoid working with the nobility if at all possible. It would take a long time, and there’s no telling what kind of situation we’d be walking into,” Kizuna said. I could understand her caution. These people’s allies had thrown her into the labyrinth, after all.
It was easy to imagine this country having prejudices at least as strong as Melromarc. I couldn’t ignore the possibility that we might start conversations with a noblemen and then find ourselves thrown in a dungeon. We had just caused a ruckus in the next country over.
Luckily, judging from the reaction of the nobleman who’d bought the soul-healing water from us, we didn’t have to worry too much about that side of things. Still, there was no reason to stick around any longer than necessary.
“Is there any way we can find out who is running this show? There must be someone in charge.”
“Yeah, we can probably find out at the guild. With a line this long, it should be pretty simple to find out who is running it.”
So we went to the guild and looked into the proprietor of the show—that was enough to cancel our plans of ingratiating ourselves with the nobility.
That’s right. The nobility was already involved with the show’s management. That didn’t leave us with many options.
I motioned for Kizuna to come close, and I whispered in her ear, “Let’s wait until nighttime, when everyone is asleep, and then try to sneak in.”
Filo sounded like she was in a lot of pain, so there was no time to waste rescuing her. If we pulled it off, that would be that. If it didn’t work, we’d just have to move on to the next plan.
“Okay.”
“We need to secure an escape route. Better get moving.”
“Alright!”
We had to get started on our preparations to free Filo. We might end up in a tough battle, so I decided I’d better figure out my shield plan. I’d need to start with one of the stronger shields that I already had and then use whatever materials I had to power it up.
There was the Nue Shield... It wasn’t quite as powerful as the Chimera Viper Shield, so I would probably be able to use it. Out of the shields I could currently use, it was probably the best option.
Nue Shield (awakened) 0/35 C
abilities unlocked; equip bonus: defense 3 special effect lightning resistance; night terror; lightning shield (medium)
I decided to power up the Nue Shield and use it.
I thought the nue was a Japanese monster, and luckily the shield was still usable in this world. Also, when I powered it up, Lightning Shield (medium) became available. Before that, it was (very slight), which wasn’t really good for anything.
I still didn’t know what “Night Terror” was. It also appeared when I powered up the shield.
Regardless, rescuing Filo was now our highest priority.
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