Yari no Yuusha no Yarinaoshi (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Filolial Farmer 

It had been two days since we smashed through the border. We were currently making our way along the road that led from Melromarc to Siltvelt. According to Éclair, it was a blood-stained road that saw frequent use during times of war between the two countries. 
There were other towns and smaller countries interspersed along the road too. But our encounters with assassins had dropped drastically. I guess it was difficult for them to operate outside of Melromarc, after all. For the kind of scum trying to kill Father, it would be hard to make a move while we were in another country. 
Father stuck his head out the window of the carriage and asked a question. 
“How long does it take to get to Siltvelt by carriage?” 
“It normally takes at least three weeks with a horse pulling the carriage,” Éclair answered. 
“It must be really far away,” he muttered. 
“I’ve heard it only takes two weeks if a filolial pulls the carriage!” I said proudly. 
“Can filolials really go that much faster than horses? Either way, wouldn’t it be faster to just fly on a dragon?” Éclair asked. 
She was spouting off nonsense now. Dragons were natural enemies of filolials. That meant they were my natural enemies too. I would never be able to stomach riding on such a detestable thing. Just thinking about it disgusted me. I would rather crawl along the ground on my hands and knees than do that. 
That made me realize that I hadn’t seen any filolials for quite a while. I mean, I’d caught sight of several as we passed by, but I hadn’t touched or smelled any. Oh, how I yearned to breathe the scent of a majestic filolial! I had a filolial feather that I’d found on the ground in my pocket. I pulled it out and held it up to the tip of my nose. Ah, the lingering scent of a filolial! 
“I miss being with filolials!” 
“Y-you really do like filolials, don’t you?” Father asked. 
We continued chatting and making our way along the road when a farm came into sight. Oh?! It appeared to be a filolial farm too! I leaned over the fence and peered inside. 
“Gweh! Gweh!” 
I could see filolials loafing around leisurely in the distance! I sighed. 
“You really do like filolials, don’t you, Mr. Kitamura?” 
“Do they not have filolials for sale somewhere?” I wondered out loud. 
I was really starting to approach my limit. It was becoming unbearable, I say! Oh, filolials! I was itching to breathe their scent! 
“Hmm, if you really want one that bad, I’m sure it would be fine if you bought one while we’re on the road,” suggested Éclair. 
“Would that really be okay?!” 
“S-sure . . .” she replied. 
Éclair had made a fantastic suggestion! The Siltvelt emissary nodded too. He had a worried look on his face, though. 
“That sounds good and all, but . . . I’m exhausted from riding in this carriage for so long. All I’ve been doing is sitting around inside of here the whole time,” Father said. 
“Since we’ve come this far, we probably don’t need to worry about pursuers so much. How about stopping at a nearby town to restock our supplies and give the Shield Hero a break?” the emissary suggested. 
“You think that would be safe?” I asked. 
The Siltvelt emissary nodded. Relaxing our guard could be dangerous, but our efforts would be meaningless if they came at the expense of our well-being. Not to mention, Father was level 1. Spending a bit of time raising his level was probably a good idea, both ability-wise and from a physical health perspective as well. 
“There’s an establishment owned by a friend from Siltvelt. I believe it should be safe for us there,” the emissary explained. 
“Understood. In that case, I’m going to go and try to convince someone at this filolial farm to give me a filolial egg!” 
“Is there something wrong with a grown filolial?” Father asked. 
“It’s best if I hatch and raise it myself, I say!” 
“Really? Well, we can probably afford to set aside a little bit of time for that. Considering it’s you, I’m sure you’ll have no problem raising one.” 
“Of course! I’ll raise a mighty fine filolial! Okay then, I’ll go buy an egg and be right back!” 
I had Father and the others wait for me there and headed toward the little farm office building. I knocked on the door. There was no response. Maybe they were out. 
“Mr. Kitamura!” 
I heard Éclair shouting and turned around. She was pointing over at the filolial stable. No one was at the office, so it only made sense to go check there. 
“Gweh! Gweh!” 
The sounds of the filolials drew me instinctively toward the stable. Once there, I peeked inside. A well-built man who fit the rugged-farmer image perfectly was feeding the filolials some hay. I guessed he was the owner. 
“Who are you?” 
“A customer, I say!” 
“And? What is it you’re after, Mr. Customer?” 
“I’d like you to give me a filolial egg, I say!” 
The filolials were looking at me. Their eyes were brimming with curiosity. There were plenty of ways to go about fostering an intimate relationship with them, but first impressions were always important! 
“Why do you want a filolial?” 
Why? I had no reason in particular. As long as filolials existed, I would raise them. Logic and reasoning had no place in the matter. If I had to come up with something, I’d say it was simply a rule of the universe. 
“Because filolials are precious and indispensable creatures, I say! Do you need a reason to breathe?” 
“What kind of nonsense is that? I’m asking what you’re going to use the filolial egg for.” 
“I love all filolials equally, I say! Indeed, I love them as if they were my own children. Whether they be fast or slow, strong or weak, clever or dull, I love them all equally!” 
“Like I said . . . Oh, hell. That’s not what I want to know.” 
The farmer rested his pitchfork on his shoulder and let out a frustrated sigh. Was there a reason to be frustrated? 
“Did I say something strange?” 
“Are you really fond of filolials? You’re not going to eat the egg or something, are you?” 
“Of course I’m fond of them! What kind of monster would eat filolial eggs?!” 
Just what was he thinking I wanted to use the filolial egg for? Did he think I was going to boil it just before it hatched and eat it like balut?! I had no interest in such hideousness, I say! 
“Okay, then. Can you tell me what species this — ” 
“A filitelt, right? No, wait. It’s a mix between that and a filobred. If you go back a generation further, there’s some fisauzan in there. I’m guessing there’s some fidermeo mixed in the paternal bloodline too.” 
The filolials in the stable were all species that were bred for their speed — the kinds that were common in Zeltoble’s filolial races. The farm apparently specialized in breeding thoroughbreds. 
“That one is quick, but it seems to be having some issues with its legs. Rather than simply trying to make a certain weight, you should focus more on quality nutrition to avoid injury,” I added. 
The filolial would fetch a high price if sold. 
“B-bingo. Being able to guess the lineage with a single glance is really something . . .” 
“That’s the power of love, I say!” 
I could tell that the filolials trusted the farmer from the way they looked at him. It made me want to trust him too. I reached out slowly and petted the filolial’s neck. Petting the neck always made them happy. 
“Gwehhhh . . .” 
“Oh? Not bad for a first encounter. You must not be a bad guy, after all.” 
The farmer grinned at me. Anyone passionate about filolials couldn’t be a bad person. I grinned back at the farmer. Oh, magnificent filolials! 
“I treasure all filolials equally, be they cheap or expensive. There’s nothing more to it, I say!” 
“I’m not really sure what to think, but your passion is clear. I’ve decided to give you an especially good egg.” 
“I want more than one, so I’d appreciate if you could also tell me where I can buy more eggs. I don’t mind if they’re cheap eggs!” 
“How many do you plan on raising?!” 
“As many as I can! All of them, I say!” 
The farmer facepalmed. 
“You’re fine with cheap eggs, huh?” 
“I don’t judge an egg by the price humans put on it!” 
“You’re an interesting fellow. How much money do you have to spend?” 
I showed the farmer all of the money I had on me. We hadn’t gotten any money from Trash this time, so it wasn’t that much. But we’d defeated numerous Melromarc soldiers and assassins along the way, and I had taken the money they had on them. I was sure it was enough to buy several eggs. 
“I’d like you to give me however many filolial eggs this will buy.” 
“Let’s see . . .” 
The farmer looked inside of the money pouch and nodded several times. 
“This should cover the premium egg, and then I’ll throw in two more cheap eggs that I was planning on passing off to the monster trainer. How does that sound?” 
“That will do just fine, I say!” 
The farmer took me to a nearby shed where he kept the filolial eggs. He chose one egg that was set aside from the others at the back of the shed, as if it were special, and then he picked the two extras from a pile near the entrance. He brought the eggs back to me. 
“I supply all the nearby farms with the eggs they resell anyway, so you’re lucky you came here first. I’ll throw the incubator in too. You take good care of these.” 
“Your generosity is appreciated!” 
“I’d love to see how they turn out. Drop back by later if you have the time.” 
“Roger that! Once I’ve raised them to be legendary filolials, I’ll be back to show you!” 
I purchased the three filolial eggs from the farmer. Excellent! I really liked this farm. I decided to save it as a portal location. Also, I found this out later on, but this farmer was apparently the area’s filolial farm tycoon. He supplied people far and wide with filolials. He was a true paragon of a filolial farmer! 

“Oh, hey. You’re back.” 
After buying the filolials, I met back up with Father and the others. 
“How did it go? Were you able to buy a good egg?” Father asked. 
“There is no such thing as good or bad when it comes to filolials, I say!” 
I showed Father the filolial eggs. They all looked exactly the same. I wondered just what kind of filolials they would turn out to be. I couldn’t wait to find out! 
“Nice. So those are going to hatch into those bird-like monsters?” 
“They are, indeed!” 
“You bought three? I guess if they’re that fast, it won’t hurt to have a few. But it will probably take some time before they can be used,” said Éclair. 
“They haven’t even hatched yet, after all,” Father replied. 
“I’ll raise them in no time!” 
Éclair seemed to not really understand how filolials worked! It was true that raising them would take some time without my level adjustments, but I could raise them to be powerful, irreplaceable allies in only a matter of days! By the time three days had passed, they would probably be able to understand human language too. 
“How long will it take?” Father asked. 
“To use them for transportation? It would take an experienced soldier at least two weeks to raise one,” Éclair replied. 
“Once they’ve hatched, two days will be more than enough, I say!” 
“No way. Surely that’s too fast. Do heroes have some kind of special ability for that?” she asked. 
I nodded at Éclair. That’s right. Filolials —along with the rest of the monsters in this world —grew quite fast when they were leveled up rapidly. Father had verified this at the territory he’d managed. His monsters were impressively well-trained. 
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough. He already bought the eggs, after all,” Father said. 
“Just watch! You’ll see!” 
“Y-yeah. Okay, we should head to the town,” Éclair replied. 
We all headed to the nearest town. It seemed to be a merchant town. It felt like a trading post more than anything. It was in a neighboring country of Melromarc that I’d only been to a time or two. I think it was the country where there was supposedly a famine in the northern region. 
The Siltvelt emissary guided us down an alley and we stopped in front of a tavern. There was a sign out front with writing used in demi-human countries on it. 
“A demi-human tavern? Of course. It’s the perfect place to hide Mr. Iwatani since he’s the Shield Hero,” said Éclair. 
“Yes. There is a room in the back where he can feel free to relax.” 
“So I can get out now, right?” Father asked. 
He stepped down out of the carriage and stretched. 
“Phew! I don’t get motion sickness, but it’s still really cramped in there.” 
He had been sitting inside the carriage the whole time, after all. It was no surprise that he was exhausted. 
“This way, please.” 
The Siltvelt emissary went inside of the tavern and started talking with the owner. 
“We’ve come to an agreement. Please, make yourself at home.” 
The owner opened a door that led to the rear and stepped out of the way. The tavern was on the ground floor of a three-story stone building. We made our way to a room on the third floor. The building even had a secret room that was accessed using a hidden switch on the stone wall. There were supposedly similar facilities in all areas of the town. It was close to Melromarc, which was considered a hostile country, after all. 
Just to be safe, Father was instructed not to stand near the window. He was sitting on the bed and looked incredibly bored. 
“It’s not as cramped as the inside of that carriage, but I guess I’m still just stuck here hiding in the end,” he said. 
“That you are. If there’s anything you’d like, I’ll be happy to go buy it for you, I say!” 
“Hmm . . . They gave me something to eat already. If I had to say, I’d really like to take a bath.” 
“Do ordinary homes in this town have baths?” Éclair asked. 
“I’m afraid not, but it would be possible to improvise by filling a wooden barrel with hot water,” the emissary replied. 
“Kind of like an oil drum bath? That would be just fine,” Father said. 
“I’m sure some devout believers would be happy to buy your bathwater. It could be a source of extra funds while we’re on the road. What do you think?” asked the emissary. 
“Definitely not! Please don’t sell it!” 
Oh? Could we really sell Father’s bathwater? That reminded me. There was a hot springs resort on the Cal Mira islands, where there was an event that offered increased experience points. The hot springs had become a major tourist destination after Father bathed there. 
“A bath? Who is going to guard Father while he bathes?” I asked. 
“Huh? I’ll keep watch, of course,” Éclair replied. 
“Y-you’re going to watch me bathe?!” 
Father’s face was bright red. Éclair realized what Father was thinking and scrambled to clarify herself. 
“T-that’s not what I meant, Mr. Iwatani! I’m simply going to keep an eye out for security purposes! I guarantee you I’m no pervert!” 
“Ha! Ha! Ha! I’ll take care of guarding Father while he bathes. Éclair, why don’t you take this opportunity to go out into the town and take a bath yourself, while I watch Father?” 
“Hmm . . . I certainly wouldn’t have to worry, knowing how strong you are. I’ll take you up on that offer. But don’t come looking for me, even if something happens and I don’t make it back.” 
“Don’t worry. My companions here will see to your safety, Miss Seaetto,” the emissary said. 
“Oink!” 
One of the pigs accompanying the Siltvelt emissary took a step forward and said something to Éclair. 
“I see. In that case, we’ll go clean up too while you’re bathing, Mr. Iwatani,” Éclair announced. 
“O-okay.” 
Father looked away from Éclair. He seemed to be having trouble deciding where to look. 
“Mr. Iwatani, you seem to have misunderstood my intentions. I’m not really . . .” Éclair stammered. 
What were they talking about? 
“Yeah, I get it now. Sorry. It’s just what popped into my head, but clearly I don’t need to worry about that,” Father corrected. 
“Right. Feel free to just think of me as a companion,” she said. 
“I will. You are a precious companion, after all. That kind of thing is something I’ll think about once things are more stable.” 
Hm? The pig that was standing next to Éclair seemed to be acting embarrassed for some reason. Éclair and the pig left the room. It was quieter now. The Siltvelt emissary had gone out to arrange for the hot water. 
“Oh, sorry about that, Motoyasu. It’s not like there’s anything between us. I was making that clear just in case. Because, well, you know . . .” Father started to explain. 
What had I missed? 
“Whether it’s Éclair or anyone else . . . People treat me special just because I’m the Shield Hero, right? That’s why I want to avoid romance, harems, and all of that. I want to be in a relationship with someone who really understands me and wants to be with me because of who I am.” 
Hmm . . . That wasn’t really the kind of response I would have expected from the Father I knew. I was pretty sure he was like me and hated pigs. There was even a ban on romantic relationships in his village. It was difficult for normal people to tell pigs and women apart, after all. 
“They were telling me that, when we get to Siltvelt, I’ll get lots of marriage proposals and I can marry a beautiful woman,” he said. 
I just stared at Father silently and he started talking about a bunch of different things. Apparently, the Siltvelt emissary and his companions had been trying to put all sorts of ideas into Father’s head. 
“That’s dangerous business,” I told him. 
“Yeah. The princess of Melromarc was really pretty too. I have to assume they have ulterior motives.” 
“I knew you’d understand, Father! You have to watch out for that crimson swine more than anyone, I say! But you should be wary of pigs that try to flirt with you in other countries too.” 
As far as I could remember, Father had mentioned almost getting caught up in a mess of marriage proposals when he went to Siltvelt in the first world. He told me his underlings fought valiantly and protected him honorably. That deserved respect. 
“I’ve never had a girlfriend before, so I was tempted to let myself get excited. But I know I have to be careful,” he went on. 
Father was impressive, as usual. I admired his ability to learn so quickly, I say! 
“From what you’ve said, this world is pretty dangerous. The same probably goes for Siltvelt too, right?” he asked. 
“Probably so.” 
From what I’d heard, when Siltvelt found out that Father only took slaves under his wing, they started arranging to have young girls from noble families sent to him as slaves. I think that was what happened anyway. 
I know what I did remember. Attractiveness had played a part in determining a woman’s value since ancient times. Having a nice face meant a woman was well-liked. In other words, if a woman was physically attractive, you could expect a good-looking child as a result of a physical relationship with her. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d made a note that the same attitude was firmly ingrained in the people of this world. Having an attractive face was a good thing. 
But women that approached someone based on looks alone were pigs, I say! Similarly, there were a lot of pigs that approached someone based solely on that person’s success. I’d finally learned that after coming to this world — after the Spirit Tortoise incident. 
Back then, I was popular with the women because I was the Spear Hero. They stroked my ego and I let it go to my head. But then I found out just how cold and cruel this world was. I found out just how easily those pigs that I’d considered friends would betray me. I’ll never be able to forget how I felt when that happened. 
But when I was still full of myself, it was Filo-tan who harshly rebuked me, for my own sake. And when I fell into despair, after it became painfully clear to me how cruel this world was, it was again Filo-tan who cheered me up. When I finally realized that her berating had all been for my sake, the flame of true love was ignited in my heart, I say! Indeed, it was at that moment that I knew I could go on living as long as I had Filo-tan’s love! 
That’s right — not everything about this world was horrible, I say! 
“Father, unless it’s for that precious someone who means the world to you, you mustn’t spread your legs, I say!” 
“Spread my legs? I’m a guy, you know. But yeah. I understand what you’re trying to say. I have to be careful. People will try to use me just because I’m a hero. I have to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 
Father never ceased to impress. He’d thought about my words carefully and fully grasped their meaning! 

After a short while, the Siltvelt emissary returned to let us know that he’d secured some hot water. They’d partitioned off a section of the washing area and set up the wooden barrel there. Father was bathing in the barrel. 
“How is the water? I can warm it up with some magic if you like,” I offered. 
“No, it’s fine. Are you not going to get in?” 
“I’ll wait until you’ve finished. Here, let me wash your back!” 
“Oh, umm, okay.” 
I finished washing Father’s back and he got back in the bath. He sighed quietly. It sounded like he was a bit worn out. 
“I plan on teaching you how to get stronger now so that even if assassins come for you, you’ll be able to take care of them yourself.” 
“Yeah. Hopefully I can become as strong as you. I’ll do my best.” 
“That’s right! Then you won’t have to run and hide like this. You can face the assassins head-on and destroy them, I say!” 
“Yeah, that would be nice. So what’s the plan?” 
“It’s what we discussed earlier. We’ll set things in motion tomorrow, I say!” 
“???” 
Father didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. I realized later that the discussion I was referring to had occurred in the previous loop. 

“That was a nice bath. Now then . . .” 
Éclair started discussing something with the Siltvelt emissary. It was around sunset. Apparently, Éclair had sensed the presence of an assassin near the tavern, on the way back from her bath. There were demi-human adventurers standing guard out in front of the tavern and some burly demi-human adventurers staying at the tavern too. It was unlikely anyone would try to attack from the front. Still, it never hurt to be cautious. 
Father was in the kitchen cooking dinner. He said it was in return for the demi-humans’ hospitality. The tavern guests and I were all drooling as the dishes were placed before us. 
“This is really all I can do . . .” 
Father belittled himself. But seeing him make an effort got the demi-humans fired up. 
“Our mission is to protect the Shield Hero! Everyone! Protect the Shield Hero with your lives!” 
“Yeah!” 
Father was toiling away busily in the kitchen. He looked like he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the demi-humans’ cheers. All of his movements were executed with such skill. Impressive as always! Somebody had called him the Cooking Hero in the first world, and with movements like those, he lived up to the name. 
“I worked part-time at an izakaya once, so that helps,” he said. 
“You worked at lots of different jobs, didn’t you, Father?” 
I once overheard him saying he’d worked in a food court. He’d also mentioned working multiple jobs at once. 
“You could say that. Are you going to drink with the others, Motoyasu?” 
“I’ll pass. Speaking of which, I don’t remember you liking drinking, Father.” 
“Yeah. I’ve actually never been able to get drunk, so I don’t really like drinking. Everyone around you gets smashed and it turns into chaos. People always talk about the same things, and pretending like I’m interested just gets exhausting.” 
Now that he mentioned it, I remembered hearing that Father couldn’t get drunk. That brought back memories. There was this one time when I heard Father didn’t get drunk even if he ate rucolu fruit. I didn’t believe it was such a big deal, so I tried eating one and passed out. I felt like hell now even just thinking about how drunk I was after that. Add to that the nightmarish experience of being nursed back to health by a pig, and I started to feel like I would throw up. 
“Alright, I’ll throw together some snacks to go with the drinks. You all just enjoy yourselves in the meantime,” he said. 
I stayed and watched Father until he finished cooking. After that, we both went and joined Éclair, who was talking with the emissary. 
“How goes the meeting?” I asked. 
“Well, we’re thinking that using your portal skill might be the best option,” Éclair replied. 
“That seems reasonable. I was thinking about going out and leveling up the filolials tomorrow, so I’ll use that chance to save a portal location for us, I say.” 
“Please do, Mr. Kitamura.” 
“And so I shall!” 
“Also, after discussing things with the Siltvelt emissary, we decided that tomorrow we’ll use the sewers to switch our hideout to one of the other buildings in the town.” 
“We’re going through the sewers?” asked Father. 
“Yeah. They’ve already made the arrangements. We have to make sure the assassins have no chance of tracking us,” Éclair replied. 
She cast a wary gaze toward the window. We could hear the sounds of people fighting outside. 
“It’s the Church of the Three Heroes. I guess it only makes sense, but they apparently really don’t want you to go to Siltvelt, Mr. Iwatani.” 
“They’re trying to make it seem like random adventurers just being rambunctious, but we have no doubt it’s them,” said the emissary. 
Some demi-humans from the tavern and the town’s vigilante corps had quelled several disturbances involving seemingly drunk adventurers. They did seem to be occurring abnormally frequently. Three or four times now, I’d heard someone outside shout, “What’s with this tavern?! It stinks of demi-humans!” It was impossible not to notice when they kept doing it repeatedly. It would have been nice if they’d added a little variety to how they tried to pick a fight. 
On top of that, they must have paid someone in the vigilante corps off, because someone had apparently used a weird excuse to try to force their way into the back of the tavern. I guess even if we had left Melromarc, this was the kind of thing we could expect in a neighboring country. 
“Well, even if the assassins do attack him, I plan on making Father strong enough to take care of them himself,” I announced. 
“Can you do that?” asked Éclair. 
“The preparations to begin doing so will be complete by the day after tomorrow, I say!” 
“Understood. We’ll make the move to the new location after you head out tomorrow, then. It could be dangerous, but we have no choice.” 
In order to make Father stronger, I had to leave his side. How incredibly troublesome! But once we took care of that problem, piddling assassins would pose no threat to Father, I say! Having fought both against and alongside Father numerous times, that was something I could say with confidence! 
That evening, for the first time in a while, I got to fall asleep while relishing the scent of my filolial eggs. 

“Hey, Motoyasu. There’s a crack in one of the eggs. They’re probably going to hatch soon, don’t you think?” 
We’d been attacked four times during the night. They’d even resorted to arson in the end, before we drove them away. Now it was morning and the sun was shining bright. 
They really made me want to use my portal to head back to Melromarc and slaughter Trash and every last member of the Church of the Three Heroes. Father and Éclair wouldn’t let me, though, so I just had to restrain myself. 
I looked over at the eggs just as one of them began to hatch. I was pretty sure it was the one that the filolial farmer mentioned being expensive. 
“Chirp!” 
The egg hatched and the little filolial let out a spirited chirp! It was a white filolial. 
“Wow, it’s white as snow,” said Father. 
I picked the filolial up in the palm of my hand and looked it over. It was a female. Female filolials were slightly more common than males, by the way. 
“What shall we name her?” I asked. 
Actually, “Shiro” was the name that had popped into my head, but I’d named one of my filolials that before traveling back in time. I wasn’t sure if I should use the same name again. The Shiro I knew had been a male, so it couldn’t be the same filolial. I had a feeling that meant I shouldn’t use the name. 
“Well, it’s a filolial, so there’s ‘Filo.’ But that’s the name of your special someone,” Father said. 
Indeed. That’s why I had to pick a different name. 
“A white filolial . . .” Éclair whispered to herself. 
She was staring at the freshly hatched filolial chick. 
“Does it make you imagine something romantic, like a prince on a white horse, Eclair? Or what would the trope be in this world?” Father asked. 
“A hero on a bird with white feathers. There’s also the hero on a white gryphon griffin and the hero on the white dragon,” she replied. 
“So it’s always a hero, huh?” 
“Pretty much. But now that dream is . . .” 
I got the feeling that Éclair was thinking something rude. I wondered if she wanted to say that Father was lacking in some way. 
“How rude. Father riding a filolial is a glorious sight, I say!” 
“That’s not it. I was thinking about you when I said that, Mr. Kitamura!” 
“Haha . . . Sorry, but I don’t think I can defend you, Motoyasu,” Father chuckled. 
We went on chatting and another one of the eggs started to crack. 
“Chirp!” 
The next one was a yellow filolial. They were all so cute! 
“Chirp!” 
Éclair picked it up and handed it to me. It was a male. 
“Hmm, what should we do about the names?” I wondered out loud. 
“Chirp! Chirp!” 
“Would naming him something like ‘Yellow’ be too lame?” I asked. 
“So he’s a male, then? I was thinking ‘Lemon’ because of the color, but I’d feel sorry for any guy named ‘Lemon,’” Father said. 

The final egg hatched while we were still discussing the names. 
“Chirp!” 
It was a pink filolial that kicked through the shell of the final egg. 
“Chirp!” 
Father picked up the pink filolial chick and handed it to me. It was a female. 
“I think you mentioned that I should absorb some of the eggshell into my shield, right?” 
“I did, indeed!” 
“Thanks. Ugh. It says my level isn’t high enough.” 
Only being level 1 had lots of disadvantages, after all. We needed to level him up soon. After watching Father clean up the broken eggshells, I looked at the three filolials. 
“I know you already asked this, but what should we name them?” Father asked. 
“What, indeed . . .” 
“Naming them based on their colors would make things simple. Do you have some kind of preference?” he asked. 
“Shiro and Lemon have been used already.” 
“Do you mean in the future? In that case, maybe something like ‘Blanc’ or ‘Haku’ could work for the white one.” 
Fantastic! I hadn’t used either of those names yet. That just left the other two. I held the pink filolial up and christened it. 
“Pink!” 
“Now you’re just using the exact name of the color! That’s no good. Plus, think about how ‘pink’ is used metaphorically. I’d feel bad for her if we named her that.” 
“Yeah. I think you should pick another name, Mr. Kitamura.” 
“Then I’d like you to choose, Father. I’m sure that would make Pink happy.” 
“Me? Umm, let’s see . . .” 
Father was looking at the filolials and thinking. Just like he had for Filo-tan, I was sure he would choose a sublime, lovely, fantastic name! 
“The white one is white as snow, so let’s use the Japanese word for snow and name her ‘Yuki.’ The yellow one looks like the stereotypical yellow chick, so we could go with ‘Chick’ for — ” 
“We can’t use ‘Chick.’” 
I was pretty sure that the second filolial Father had raised had been named Chick. She wasn’t my angel, but I still wasn’t willing to compromise on that one. 
“Umm . . . Well, the Japanese character for ‘yellow’ can be read ‘Kou,’ so we’ll go with that. As for the pink one . . . Either ‘Momo,’ from peach, or ‘Sakura.’” 
Fantabulous! Father had done it again! The names he chose were simply superb! I was worried he was going to say Filo-tan #2 or something. I remembered big sis complaining about how Father just added numbers to names he already knew, because he couldn’t be bothered to remember a new name. 
“I like the way ‘Sakura’ rolls off the tongue,” said Éclair. 
“Father has spoken! I christen thee Yuki, Kou, and Sakura!” 
“Chirp!” 
All three of the filolials responded in unison with a lively chirp. Now then, what else was there left to do? I placed a filolial on each shoulder and one on my head. 
“Okay! I’m going to go level the filolials and then I’ll be back, I say!” 
“See you later, Motoyasu.” 
And so I left the tavern and headed out.