“Ah—It’s so gooooood!” That night, I cut up some monsters we killed and grilled them over a fire for Filo. Raph-chan was eating a lot, too—and smiling the whole time. The sun had gone down, and we were camping out for the night. “Do you like that, Filo-chan?” “Yeah!” “Naofumi sure is a good cook.” “I hate waiting for the blood to drain out, though.” Monsters were full of blood when you killed them, which didn’t taste very good. They were very gamey meats, which I tried to hide with spices. It worked a little, but the meat still struck me as pretty stinky. “Can’t you use some skills to get around it? I have some skills that help with breaking down monster corpses.” “I guess...” It was true. She had better skills when it came to butchering monsters. When she did it, we ended up with higher-quality meat. . . . But it still tasted gamey. I guess it didn’t matter, as long as Filo and Rishia didn’t mind—and they didn’t seem to. Filo was definitely in the middle of a growth spurt, because her stomach was constantly rumbling. It reminded me a lot of when I’d first started to raise her back in Melromarc. She was a real pig back then.
However, she was gaining levels unexpectedly fast. She had already reached level 30. That must be how the opening game functioned in this world. As if to keep up with her rising levels and food intake, Filo’s monster form was changing, too. I thought that her monster form might mature into something like a filolial, but instead she had grown into a falcon-like monster. “What sort of monster is a humming fairy?” “Oh, they’re birds that really like music. They turn into all sorts of different forms as they grow up.” “That’s right! Master, lookie!” Filo said, tottering away from us. Then she started to flap her wings. Filolials can’t fly, though they can jump pretty well. So even though Filo had wings on her back when in human form, they were basically just decorations. They didn’t move very much. She could use them in battle or open them up and catch the wind, though. That way she could dodge attacks quickly. So they weren’t useless, but she certainly couldn’t use them to fly. But... Filo lifted off of the ground.
What? But filolials can’t fly! But then again... I guess Filo was a humming fairy now, so maybe that meant that she could fly.
“What do you think? I can fly!” “Wow, that’s amazing.” Filo’s monster half changed somehow when we crossed between worlds. “That might let you use a whole new fighting style when you’re in your human form.” “Yeah! Flying is fun!” Well, there was nothing wrong with that. If Filo could fly now, that sounded like good news to me. “What forms of attack do humming fairies generally use?” “Well, they are birds, so they normally attack like other birds—with their claws. They are also great singers and can manipulate sounds” “Filo, can you use any of your skills from when you were a filolial?” “Um... I’m not strong enough to use them now, but I think I might be able to when I get stronger!” She could probably still use Haikuikku and Spiral Strike. With a puff of smoke, she transformed back into a bird and perched on my shoulder. She had the same coloring as she did when she was in her filolial queen form, but she was now a sleek falcon-like monster—nothing like the plump penguin-owl hybrid shape of the filolial queen. She was actually pretty cool and just large enough to fit on my shoulder. She was kind of cute, too. “Is she fully matured now?” “No.” “I’m not?”
“She’s at the middle stage of growth, called a humming falcon. She still has a few more stages to go through as she matures.” “Sounds pretty complicated. No more specifics?” “I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I think the forms change as her levels go up. I also once heard a story about a legendary humming fairy...” I didn’t like the sound of that. It made me wonder if I’d run into another version of Fitoria or something. “Master!” “Hey, she can talk in her monster form?” “She must have learned? I hear they can learn to talk, the same way that parrots can.” Ah, like Polly-want-a-cracker kind of stuff? Everyone knows that birds can be pretty smelly. She was no exception. “Rafu?” Raph-chan, on the other hand, smelled great. She always kept herself clean, so she smelled way better than Filo. “From what I’ve heard, they can mature into different forms depending on the circumstances. I wonder what Filo-chan will end up as?” “I can turn small, too!” Filo chirped. With a flash of light, she turned back into a little chick. That reminded me—when Filo was in her filolial form, she could still change back and forth between her filolial queen form and her normal filolial form. She might not be able to hold each form for a long time, but it would be convenient if she had a lot of different forms available. Filo could be a real handful.
“If she can fly with us on her back, it might be a good way to get around.” “Back in the world I came from, there are flying dragons that get used that way. Do you have them here?” “Yeah. Humming fairies can do that.” That would be great! She had always been a bird that was basically a replacement for horses. If she could fly, that would be even better. “Here we have European dragons and Asian dragons. If she can turn into different types of humming fairies, then she must be really talented!” “Tee-hee!” “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You’re amazing.” We went back and forth like that for a little while, and then Rishia joined the conversation. “Filo, would you mind speaking with me for a little while? I’d like to learn as much about this world’s language as possible.” Rishia waved Filo over and they started looking at some written letters closely. Had she really already figured out how to read the language? I was reliant on my shield to translate for me, so I hadn’t learned anything that would be of help to her.
“Okay! I... um... I guess I’ve picked up a little bit while I’ve been here!” Filo hopped over to Rishia and started explaining things. “Okay, so ‘hello’ is, um... ‘hello’! And ‘food’ is...” The only problem was that Filo was terrible at explaining things. Rishia scowled in confusion and looked like she was trying really hard to listen.
With any luck they might figure it out. Who knows? I looked up at the night sky and worried about Raphtalia. I wasn’t very worried about Glass and her friends. They could take care of themselves. But Raphtalia... I’d managed to meet up with all of my companions since we were split up crossing between worlds... everyone but her. I hoped she was alright. I hoped she wasn’t sitting somewhere alone, crying. I pictured her that way, and then she grew angry in my imagination, indignantly shouting, “I’m not a child anymore!” Filo turned into a little chick when we crossed over. What if Raphtalia was a child again? That would make the coming battles difficult. Even worse—what if she had been transformed into a different kind of demi-human? She’d lose her characteristic tanuki ears and tail. That would make her face look different, too. What if I didn’t recognize her? Maybe the slave spell would still work... We continued our journey. Then, a little while later... “Thank you very much!” Rishia had used a little of our money to go to a shop that looked like a bookstore. She bought a book and came back to meet us, carrying it under her arm. That was all that had happened, but it made me notice something. “Rishia, you...” “Hm? What? Is something wrong?”
“You understand the language here?” “Oh, yes! I studied very hard, and then Filo helped me perfect my pronunciation!” Rishia proclaimed, looking very boastful. She had learned a whole new language just by reading over some books for a few days? What was with this girl? Her stats were just as bad as they’d ever been, but I couldn’t deny that there was a genius sleeping inside her. Back in the last world, she’d known other languages besides what they spoke in Melromarc. She could read other alphabets, too. But she figured out how to read and speak this world’s language in only a week? Rishia... you’ve got to get out more. She was obviously better suited to studying than to wielding a sword. “It took me forever to learn the language here,” Kizuna said, wiping cold sweat from her forehead. “Is it so difficult? Sure, there are some differences, but...” she looked puzzled by our confusion. Was she so smart that she couldn’t even understand why we would have trouble? But wait... Her stats were so much lower than other people’s. That had to be a hint to the mystery. There must have been invisible stats, like intuition and intelligence, that all of her points had been allocated, to. “You... You’re really wasting all your talent on something you’re not suited for.” The poor thing. I kind of pitied her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t be useful in battle, but she was definitely better suited to a back-line support position, somewhere that a hero could protect her while she contributed to the fight.
God, Itsuki was so stupid! She should have sat him down and taught him a foreign language. That would have shown him. Then he wouldn’t have been so rude to her—and to me. Not that you could teach him or anything. He wouldn’t listen. “Feh... Why are you looking at me like that? You look like you pity me...” “Hm?” Actually, Filo was smart. She learned to speak our human language, and it only took her three days! I hadn’t given it much thought until now, but it was actually pretty amazing. Both of them seemed to have picked up most of the language in this world. There were two geniuses here that could learn languages really quickly, even without legendary weapons to translate for them! “Rafu?” “You don’t have to talk, Raph-chan.” I had my hands full with Filo. I didn’t need two talking pets. “Boooo! Master is thinking mean things!” Whatever. Anyway, I figured it was safe to assume that Rishia’s stats had been allocated to categories that weren’t listed in the stats menu. I’d known she had an excellent memory ever since I spoke with her back on the Cal Mira islands.
Back when Itsuki saved her from a nasty situation, she was immediately able to remember that Filo and I had happened to walk by them on that same day. Viewed from that perspective, she was really impressive. “Hey, Rishia.” “What?” “What did you study back in your world?” Her family had been swindled out of all their money, so she must have done all her studying on her own. “Until the waves came, I studied at a school in Faubrey.” “Oh really?” Hm? That reminded me. I think the queen had said that Bitch studied at a school in Faubrey, too. Rishia and Bitch were probably within a few years of each other, too. “How were your grades?” “Aside from gym, they were pretty good. I worried so much I was never able to pick a major, though...” I don’t think I had ever seen Rishia respond to a question with so much confidence, so I assumed that her grades must have actually been fantastic. She looked like the kind of girl that would whine about how they hadn’t studied at all, only to get perfect scores on all the tests. She wasn’t that great with magic, or with a sword, but if she was as smart as she seemed to be, then she would probably make a great scholar. Had she been born at the right place and time, she could have gotten a really good job. Poor Rishia.
Still, she was so indecisive that she hadn’t managed to choose a major. That didn’t bode well for her. “Hey, Rishia,” Kizuna said. “Will you teach me, too? I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up, but I’ll try!” “Of course, I’ll try.” Kizuna quickly turned around. What was wrong? “Ah, so she’s so smart that she’ll ‘try’ to teach me? Did you hear that?” “Fehhhhhhhh!” Rishia whimpered, caught in Kizuna’s trap. “She must really be something?” “Yeah, but it’s not who she wants to be. She wants to be a champion of justice, fierce on the battlefield.” “That’s totally not where she should be spending her energy!” “I feel the same way. But she made a promise—a promise to get stronger.” “Naofumi-san...” Kizuna and I went back and forth commenting on Rishia’s qualities for a little while longer.
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