Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: On the Way to the Hunting Hero’s House 

Kizuna said this Ethnobalt person was going to help us with the search, so we had to wait until the next day before we could leave. 
“What should we do?” 
“Good question. I can use Return Transcript here, which makes getting back easy. Come with me.” 
“What is it? Where are we going?” Rishia asked, cowering. 
“Don’t take us anywhere... weird. I’ll use Portal Shield to escape if this is a trick.” 
“Oh, stop worrying. I can’t believe you still don’t trust me after all this time.” 
I guess she had a point. Maybe I was being overly cautious. 
Had Raphtalia been there with us, she would have had a stern word or two for me. 
Raphtalia... Where could she be? I was getting really worried. 
“Anyway, stick with me.” 
“Fine. Lead the way,” I said, following Kizuna. 
We left the town around the castle and followed the winding road through the countryside. The scenery reminded me of Melromarc. I found myself reminiscing as we cut down monsters that attacked us. They didn’t pose a threat, and we made fast progress. 
So we left the town and made our way down the road for a little while, but soon enough we came upon another large town. From the look of it, it seemed to be made mostly of businesses and houses. 
 
Looking back, I could still see the town around the castle in the distance. I guess this new town was a sort of satellite city. There were probably a lot of people that commuted to the castle from this town. It looked like there was a fishing harbor. 
We walked through the town for a little while before Kizuna stopped, indicating that we had arrived. We stood before a large mansion built of stone. 
“I had this house built. I wanted it to be large enough so that everyone could live here.” 
“Wow...” 
The door was locked, but Kizuna pulled a key from her pocket and opened the door. 
It creaked open slowly, and Kizuna waved us inside. 
The interior looked like what you’d expect from a house built of stone, but it looked very... cultured. 
The first floor seemed to be a parlor for guests. There was a table in the center, and I could see a kitchen in the back. 
“I’m home!” 
There was no answer. 

After entering the building, Kizuna carefully checked to see if anyone was there, and then she climbed the stairs to the second floor. I thought it might be best to wait for her downstairs, so I found a chair and sat down to wait. Rishia found a chair and plopped down, too—she must have been tired from the journey, because she immediately started nodding off. 

After a short while, Kizuna came back down the stairs. 
“We helped ourselves to some chairs. Hope that was alright.” 
“Of course.” 
“So? What were you up to?” 
“I guess I should have known, but... after coming back to my house, after being gone for so long, it’s strange that everything is just... the same.” 
“Is it?” 
Her own house... I had certainly never made a home for myself in any of these worlds, so I didn’t really understand how it must have felt. But for Kizuna, this building must have really felt like home. 
“There isn’t even any dust. I was stuck in the prison for so long that I’d started to think this house would be gone when I got out.” 
“Good thing it’s still here. You think someone came buy and cleaned up for you?” 
“Maybe Glass did it.” 
“She looks like she’d be particular about that sort of thing.” 
“Yeah...” 
I noticed photographs on a shelf in the corner of the parlor. Most of them were of Kizuna and Glass. A lot of them had L’Arc and Therese in them, too. There were other people that I didn’t recognize as well. Everyone looked cheerful and happy. The pictures were filled with a palpable sense of friendship. 
 
I didn’t have to wonder if Kizuna’s bonds with them were still intact—a glance at the well-kept state of the house was enough to confirm that they were still close. 
I felt a little strange looking at it. It was almost like... envy. I didn’t have many friends that I could take such joyful pictures with. Sure, I trusted Raphtalia, Filo, and maybe Melty with my life, but I couldn’t think of anyone else to add to that list. 
Rishia was really only with us because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. And Eclair, or the old Hengen Muso lady, had only teamed up with us recently. I wouldn’t consider them very close. And Raphtalia’s childhood friend Keel clearly didn’t trust me yet. 
Kizuna’s pictures made me wonder if I would ever have enough trusting relationships to take pictures of my own. A part of me thought that day would never come—that I’d never know that many people that would be happy to spend time with me. 
I’d always known it was true, but it was hard to admit to myself. 
I can’t trust the people in these worlds, anyway. I’d made up my mind about that a long time ago and had given up trying. 
When peace returned to the world and it was time for me to go back to Japan, I couldn’t picture myself posing with anyone for a commemorative photo. I just didn’t have that many friends. 
“Can I ask some questions?” 
“Sure.” 
“You told me a little bit about your life here, but can you tell me more specifics of how you came to know Glass and the others and about the life you spend together here? You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.” 
 
“No, it’s fine. Glass and I met a very long time ago,” Kizuna said slowly, as if reminiscing on happier times. 
When Kizuna first found herself in this world, she thought that she had just been teleported into a game, so she had spent her time leisurely fishing and thinking about leveling up. The crown had supplied her with plenty of funds, but the government was not very powerful, as it was in the middle of a battle for succession. 
Kizuna met Glass in a neighboring country. The disciples of a famous martial arts school were in the middle of a ceremony to decide who would inherent the responsibilities of the fan of the vassal weapons. Whoever was chosen would have to use the fan to defeat a dragon that hunted in nearby lands. 
Glass had been denied consideration at first because of her birth. But disciple after disciple was turned down until Glass was finally selected to wield the vassal weapon. 
“What do you mean she was denied because of her birth?” 
Glass looked very powerful and serious. You’d have to be a fool to not recognize her potential. Did she come from a strange family of something? Is that why people ignored her? 
I could sympathize with a predicament like that—after all, I’d been summoned to a country with a religious prejudice against the Shield Hero. 
 
“That’s Glass’s issue, and I don’t think I should tell you about it without her permission. So just pretend you didn’t hear it.” 
“Oh... Okay.” 
“So anyway... the disciples that were passed over were pretty resentful about it. So they got together and decided to cut ties with Glass. They told her not to come back when she left for her trial.” 
“Sounds like there are a lot of jerks in this world, too.” 
How petty can you get? Cutting ties with someone just because they were chosen over you? 
“Well, they probably thought that Glass would die in the trial, and then one of them would be chosen to succeed her. They ended up fighting among themselves, anyway.” 
“Okay, well enough of that. So how did you end up meeting Glass?” 
“She was fighting monsters out in the fields of that country, and I happened to walk by. We hit it off right away and decided to team up. That’s about it.” 
It was nothing like the start of my first partnership. 
I was stuck all alone with no way to deal damage to monsters. I had to buy Raphtalia as a slave... 
We’d had a totally different experience right from the start. 
I felt like I couldn’t have even-footed relationships with people. Raphtalia and I would probably never have the sort of relationship that Kizuna and Glass did. 

“We ended up meeting more people, and our party grew. It was a pretty wild ride, but we always had fun,” Kizuna said, pointing out different people in the photographs. 

She ended up pointing to so many people that I couldn’t help but feel how different we were and how special this home must have been to her. It must have felt irreplaceable. 
I was a little jealous. After all, I didn’t have anything like that. But I was fighting to get back to my own world. Being jealous of what she’d built here didn’t make any sense. 
At least that’s what I told myself. 
We decided to spend the night in Kizuna’s house. 
Luckily for us, there were a number of empty rooms, so we were able to really relax and get some rest. 
Soon enough, night was upon us. 
I was relaxing on the terrace of her house, looking out on the lights of the town, when I saw Kizuna leave. I wondered where she was going. 
I looked back inside, where Rishia was silently writing something. 
I guess it was fine. I could always use Portal Shield to escape if I needed to. 
Careful not to make a sound, I snuck out of the room to follow her. 
We made our way through the unfamiliar town, and soon enough I saw a beach in the distance. Kizuna held a lamp in one hand and walked toward the ocean. When she got there, she fit her rod with a new fishing lure and cast it out into the sea. 
 
She was fishing? 
I guess she really did love to fish. She fished whenever she had spare time. 
“Hm? Oh, it’s you, Naofumi.” 
“Is this a good fishing spot?” 
“Not really. You can only catch herring here.” 
“Herring, huh? Can you catch Japanese fish here, too?” 
When I was framed and exiled by the crown, I’d done some fishing. I hadn’t recognized any of the fish I caught. 
“Sometimes. If you really keep an eye out for them.” 
“Heh.” 
She finished reeling in the lure and then recast it. 
“Fishing here, in this spot, really makes me feel like I’m back home.” 
“I guess it would.” 
“You might feel the same way when you get back to the world you came from.” 
“Maybe. I haven’t really put down any roots there, though.” 
What was closest to my home? Melromarc castle? I didn’t like being there at all. It was uncomfortable. Then again, I could always use a portal to return to it, so I suppose it was convenient in some ways. 
I didn’t have a house like Kizuna did. The closest thing I had was probably Filo’s carriage—I guess I had spent a lot of time in there. 

I decided to stop comparing myself to Kizuna. It was starting to make me feel bad. 
 
“Hey! I caught something!” Kizuna shouted, yanking her pole and pulling up a splashing herring. 
Oh jeez. She was just making it worse. She could do everything. 
“So that’s how you would normally do it. Now let’s try my special method...” she said, attaching a new lure to the rod. It had a shining green jewel affixed to it. “If this goes well, I should be able to catch something pretty interesting.” 
“I thought you could only catch herring?” 
“Well, let’s just see what happens when I use the power of the holy weapon...” she muttered, casting and reeling and casting and reeling until the rod bent down sharply under the weight of something unseen. 
“It’s a hit!” she shouted, her eyes blazing while she rapidly reeled in the fish. The surface of the water started churning. 
“It’s huge!” 
As she continued to reel it in, I saw that it was an enormous... herring. 
She finished reeling it in. 
“What do you think? Is this a whole new world or what?” 
“That thing is a monster.” 
“Can’t argue with that.” 
I had a feeling I’d be seeing fish again on the breakfast table. The thing was huge, though—too big. It probably wouldn’t taste very good. Maybe it would be best boiled... Or maybe as sashimi. Then again, I’ve never heard of herring sashimi... 
“So you can catch these big ones by changing the lure?” 
 
“Yeah.” 
“Is it a skill? 
“Huh? No—it’s an accessory. Don’t you add them to your weapons?” 
“No.” 
“It’s pretty great. You should try it.” 
“To power them up?” 
The rationale behind Kizuna’s power-up methods didn’t seem to apply to my shield, so I didn’t have much hope for this new idea of attaching accessories to it. 
“It is a pretty broad system. I can’t catch large herring without using this lure, and when I check on my status, it says that there are changes to my fishing ability.” 
Hold on a second. I’d seen something like that 
A long time ago, the old guy at the weapon shop had given me an accessory to attach to my shield. When I used it, it formed a barrier similar to Shooting Star Shield, but then it broke. I wondered... Could I gain access to more protection—protective abilities that weren’t already innate in the shield —by attaching accessories to my shield? 
It was worth a shot. 
“I can use this lure in battle, too. I have to say, I really like it.” 
“Then maybe I should try it, too. Maybe I could even make it myself.” 
Thinking back on the accessory the old guy had given me, I hadn’t thought that it was something I’d be able to make on my own. But I was starting to think it was worth a shot. 
 
It would be ideal to ask the old guy how he made it, but at least I had Kizuna here to bounce ideas off of. “Do you need to do something special to make them? Like imbue them with magic power or something?’ 
“Hm... For that kind of thing you’d probably be better off talking to an imbue master or a professional craftsman. I hear the imbue masters need some sort of base to work from.” 
I guess the skills of a professional craftsman might come in handy. 
“Then again, I hear that the accessories have unusual effects when used with the holy weapons or the vassal weapons. It drives the imbue masters crazy.” 
Even if I got my hands on an accessory that worked well here, it might stop working altogether when I got back to the world I came from. That wouldn’t be good. It would be like using expensive and rare materials to imbue an item with special effects, only to have the pieces fail and end up with nothing. Still, it was worth a shot. 
“I think I’ll try it. I’ll make something and see if it works.” 
“You’re going to make it? You can make accessories? Want to make me a new lure?” 
“Why do I have to make stuff for you?” 
“Oh, you know... because of all we’ve been through together?” 
“I guess I could try it—just for practice, you know? But I think a lure might be more complicated than anything I’ve done yet. Like working on a complicated plastic model.” 
“There are wooden ones and metal ones, too.” 
 
Sure, and there were lots of different shapes. There were sparkling bits of jewelry you could use to deck everything out like a gaudy person who just inherited a bunch of money. I didn’t like that sort of thing. 
But fish were attracted to shiny objects, weren’t they? Without even intending to, I was already thinking hard about how to approach the lure project. 
What about my own accessory? 
I could just try to imitate what the old guy had made for me. 
It was a sort of cover for the jewel in my shield. It had clipped right on top of it. 
Besides, I didn’t have any other compounding projects lined up, so I had the time to try it. I decided to just give it a whirl and not worry too much about the outcome. 
Besides, the view from Kizuna’s fishing spot was too good to ignore.