Chapter Twelve: Assassination
“Me, sleep in this piece of trash bed? Have you lost your mind?”
Smoked Human seemed to be dissatisfied with his bed and was shouting at the servants. Even before meeting Itsuki, he seemed like a real piece of work.
Should I do something about it? If I killed him now, would it have a big influence on future events?
Even when I reflected on my past mistakes, I doubted it would cause too much of an issue. Just like with Takt, perhaps getting rid of Smoked Human could even turn things to my advantage.
But if there was a witness, things could get sticky.
Just as I was thinking about it, after delivering his order for a new feather bed to the soldiers, Smoked Human walked out of the room. Where could he be going?
“As the source of your power, I, the Love Hunter, command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Hide my form in the shimmering heat! Drifa Fire Mirage X!”
I chanted the spell and used Cloaking Lance X to activate a stealth condition as I approached Smoked Human from behind. It worked just as well as it had back in Siltvelt, I say.
I didn’t see any witnesses in the garden.
“Pathetic! Not a single good wine in sight!” Smoked Human grumbled to himself as he set out for the castle wine cellars.
I remembered someone saying once that Smoked Human was from an aristocratic family of Melromarc. He seemed to be using his lineage as an excuse to strut around the castle as he pleased and get drunk, I say.
As he came outside and approached the garden on his way to the cellars, I hurried ahead of him. It would be easier to dispose of him outside. Even if I simply gave him a strong blow to the face, I might accidentally damage the castle building.
Smoked Human swaggered about with broad steps, raising a serious racket as he went. I double-checked to make sure there were no witnesses nearby.
Now was the time to strike!
I leapt out and gripped his collar.
“W-what in the—”
I yanked him closer, lifted him up in the air, and ran my spear right through him.
As he screamed maniacally, I checked to make sure that my spear had completely skewered through his body. I prepared to unleash a skill.
Brionac’s flash of light might’ve caused a scene, so that was out of the question. So was Shooting Star Spear.
Hmmmm . . . I wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to decide how to kill him, I say.
Ah, of course.
“Burst Lance X!”
It was the same skill I had used to kill the crimson swine in the last go-around. Smoked Human screeched and an explosion resounded throughout the garden.
“What’s going on?”
Soldiers came running out into the garden at all the noise, but I instantly scampered off into hiding, I say.
Without so much as a corpse remaining, it would be impossible for anyone to figure out what, if anything, had happened besides a loud bang. In fact, the soldiers probably didn’t suspect that anything had happened at all.
I strutted off, leaving them in the dust, chuckling pleasantly to myself. One more piece of trash eliminated from the world! It was best to destroy those repugnant pieces of trash so thoroughly that no traces remain, I say.
I had no idea I’d be able to get rid of him so quickly. It was a pleasant surprise.
Next up was the crimson swine, I supposed. But she had some work to do before I could take care of her.
At this rate, I’d be able to kill the crimson swine and completely change the course of the future.
Oh, my beloved filolials! I had taken a brief detour to throw out some trash, but now I was on my way!
“Gweh. Gweh.”
When I entered the filolial stables, I saw their sweet, sleeping faces. They were chirping gently in their filolial dreams, I say. I planned to feed the filolials and befriend them that way, just like I had done in the first go-around.
I fell asleep right there and then in the filolial cottage. When I woke up the next morning, I went to meet Father and the others.
“Where did you head off to in the middle of the night?” Father asked. “What’s that weird smell?”
Father, I regret to inform you that you are incorrect. The scent of Filolials is nothing short of heavenly.
“I went to meet my beloved filolials, I say,” I told him. “Your daughter, Filo-tan, is a filolial as well.”
“Filolials?”
“None other than the bird-like monsters that pull carriages in this world,” I declared.
I was giving them plenty of essential background information to work with, I say.
“Wait. So you’re telling me I get married to a bird monster!?”
My heart skipped a beat. Father believed what I had told him before! But the wrong reply here could finish me off. Just like I had finished off Smoked Human!
“Your jokes are a bit much, Kitamura,” Father said. “Getting married to a carriage-pulling bird . . . You may want to consider a hospital visit.”
Why was Father calling me by my last name? It’s like he was trying to distance himself from me.
Ugh. I was acting based on my carefully chosen strategy, but it just didn’t seem to be working.
“There’s something wrong with that guy,” Itsuki said to Father. “I think you’d be better off just ignoring him.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Ren agreed with Itsuki.
“Well, since we’re supposed to work together as heroes, I figure we should at least hear him out,” Father said. “Otherwise he’d be pretty pathetic.”
Father stepped in to defend my honor, I say. My eyes welled with tears at his boundless kindness!
“He’s crying a literal fountain!” Ren exclaimed. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m telling you, he’s a weirdo!” Itsuki said.
“He looks like a normal, handsome guy when he’s not saying anything,” Father said, “but there’s got to be something wrong with him.”
In the meantime, we made it to the throne room where some men and pigs were waiting for us, eleven of them in total.
“The heroes have arrived!” came an announcement.
That was new. It was the fruit of my labors, I say. Smoked Human wasn’t there, so they hadn’t found a replacement for him in time. This was a small difference but at the same time a tremendous one, I say.
“Yesterday, we requested companions for each of the heroes,” Trash said. “It seems that they have all gathered here today.”
“There are only eleven,” Father cupped his hand and whispered to Itsuki, Ren, and me. “So even if they do three per hero, one hero would be a companion short.”
Ren and Itsuki nodded. But I knew the truth! Even if they had gathered twelve, they didn’t plan for any of them to accompany Father!
So there was no need for me to be concerned. Did any of the original companions they gave us even last until the end of the first go-around? Unfortunately, I didn’t remember in the slightest.
Now that I thought about it, shouldn’t we be choosing our own companions? The heroes were summoned to this world to be its saviors, after all. Shouldn’t the country we were summoned to be showing us some good faith? This was all Trash’s devious scheme, I say.
“Well then, future heroes,” Trash called to the eleven gathered. “Go stand by the hero you want to work alongside!”
He was playing such a shameless game. Father and the others were watching with great anticipation. The eleven companions came up to us one at a time and stood by our sides.
Four for Ren. Three for Itsuki. Four for me.
And for Father, zero.
“Wait a second, my lord!” Father shouted out.
Very similar to what had happened the first go-around, I say. Father’s disappointment was entirely logical. While it probably would have been fine for me to express my outrage here, I remembered what Father had told me in the last go-around and I managed to hold myself back.
That Trash bastard had this all playacting planned from the start. With an exaggerated gesture, he wiped the sweat from his brow. If it’s so hot in here, I could make you break out in a cold sweat, you dastardly fiend!
“Of course, I wasn’t expecting this to happen either,” Trash began.
“You don’t seem to be very popular,” a Melromarc minister mumbled.
“Enough with the charade, here!” I declared. “Such blatant favoritism! I don’t like it at all!”
Saying that much surely wouldn’t cause things to go too haywire.
“No, of course, I’m terribly sorry,” Trash said.
A minister standing next to Trash, who appeared to be a magician, was whispering to himself. “I did hear a rumor . . .”
In the first go-around, I had asked politely why Father didn’t get any companions, but expressing my displeasure seemed to make an impact. Ren and Itsuki stepped forward.
“What did you hear?” Itsuki asked the magician.
Meanwhile, Father was just shaking his head, like he couldn’t even believe what was happening.
“Hmm, yes, yes, well, there has been a rumor circulating that the shield hero is the weakest of the heroes,” he said.
“What!?”
“According to legend, all the heroes should be strong, but there aren’t very many people who want to accompany the weakest one,” Trash said.
Oho? So in the first go-around he drove the heroes apart by using our lack of knowledge about the world. But this time would be different!
I was reaching the limit of my tolerance for this pathetic charade.
If Father was so weak, he wouldn’t have been able to defeat the high priest or the Spirit Tortoise, I say. In truth, Father was incredibly strong. The more I thought about it, the more Trash’s lies were riddled with inconsistencies.
“No way. That rumor . . . You’re saying that everyone heard it last night?” Father asked.
“We did hear something about how the shield hero was the weakest . . .” Itsuki started to say.
Father turned to me. “Kitamura, didn’t you hear something different?” he pleaded.
Very well then. I, Motoyasu Kitamura, would help my beloved Father.
“The Shield Hero is not weak!” I loudly proclaimed.
“Yes, that’s right!” Father agreed.
“Including scavenging good hunting grounds for plenty of experience, I can teach Father the power-up method for his shield, making him the most powerful hero of us all!” I stepped forward. “Even if the heroes’ weapons repel one another, if I show him—”
Trash suddenly clapped his hands.
“This is a marvelous exchange of information among the heroes,” he sneered. “However, what about making your companions stronger? And that no companions want to work with the weakling shield hero is simply a matter of fact!”
Trash never listens to anyone. Father isn’t weak, I’d have him know.
I saw Father’s hand curl into a fist. I, too, was filled with frustration. The overwhelming urge to just end Trash here and now hit me hard.
But if I killed him, I wouldn’t be safeguarding my promise to Father. I had to restrain myself.
“Ren . . . and Motoyasu, since you both have four people, why don’t you let me have one of your companions?” Father asked.
The reserved group that had chosen Ren as their hero quickly hid behind him. Their faces told me that they were worried about what kind of sin it would be to make the shield hero their ally in this country.
“I don’t really care about companions,” Ren said. “You can have anyone who can’t keep up with me.”
Ren clearly wasn’t thinking properly about the situation.
“Itsuki, what about you? Isn’t this unfair?” Father pleaded.
What now? I figured Father would ask me first, but instead, he turned to Itsuki.
“Well, it is unfair . . .” Itsuki looked like he was having trouble refusing Father too.
I looked at the people who had been gathered to be my own companions. One of them was the crimson swine! I decided to kill her as soon as I got the chance.
I didn’t remember the other three at all. I must’ve left them in the dust pretty fast.
“It would be bad for morale if we just split up the group,” Itsuki said.
“So that means I have to go out by myself?” Father exclaimed.
This wouldn’t be a bad place to let things be, I supposed.
“All of my companions are at your service, Father,” I declared.
“Huh? Is that really okay? ‘At your service’ is a little creepy but . . .” Father trailed off.
“Oink!?”
One of the pigs started to oink noisily. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand it in the slightest.
At any rate, I would be able to use the crimson swine’s despicable plans to get Father to trust me. The fact that the crimson swine planned to use all of the heroes here would be my godsend. In this case, the pros and cons of sending the crimson swine to Father were one and the same, I say.
“Listen already! Join Father, you pig!”
I kicked the pig over toward Father.
“What’s your problem, Kitamura!?” Father was anxiously making sure that the pig was okay and scowled over at me.
Father tried to help the pig, but as if Father had done nothing for it at all, the pig broke away from Father and rushed back to me. It wrapped its slimy arms around me.
“What the . . .”
Father stared at me, dumbfounded. I caught a glimpse of anger in his eyes. Before Father’s eyes had been opened to love, I remember that he used to have this look on his face in the first go-around, I say.
I’ve seen this look from men before. They call it envy.
I begged with all my heart for Father not to feel that way. I was trying to protect him from the pain of being separated from his companions.
“Heroes, I must ask you to stop arbitrarily exchanging your companions,” Trash said calmly.
I started thinking in the back of my mind about how to kill him.
The crimson swine raised her hands and started to squeal about something or other.
“Really? Are you sure?” Father glanced over at the crimson swine.
The trap had been set off, I say.
Father had said the same thing the first go-around, I remembered. I restrained myself from telling Father to be careful as my teeth started unconsciously grinding with rage.
“Is there anyone else who would like to go with the Shield Hero?” Trash asked, but the room was silent. It appeared that the game had been fixed from the start. If things hadn’t gone as planned, I would’ve been in trouble.
Trash let out an exaggerated sigh and glanced over at Father.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” Trash said. “Maybe the Shield Hero can find more companions willing to join him by scouting them himself. We planned to provide all of the heroes with a monthly income allowance, but since the Shield Hero doesn’t have as many companions, let’s give him a larger allowance than the others, shall we?”
“Yes, my lord!” A soldier came out bearing the money.
“Here is the allowance we have prepared for you. Please use it wisely.”
Maybe I should buy something with the money. But no, if things went as they had in the first go-around, Father’s allowance would be revoked, so I had to save money for him as well.
Well, it is possible to earn plenty of money by getting a guild job or something like that. But if my actions were too obvious, I’d end up putting Father in danger, I say.
Above all else, I had to teach Father about power-up methods. I really was reflecting on everything that happened in the previous go-around, I say.
By the way, I noticed that rather than calling Father by his name, Trash was only calling him Shield Hero.
“We will provide the Shield Hero with 800 silver coins, and 600 silver coins each to the rest of the heroes,” Trash said. “Now that we’ve finished preparations, it would be best to set out on your journeys.”
“Yes, my lord!”
All the oinking was giving me a headache! I truly despised the squealing of pigs.
Once the meeting ended, I thought about approaching Father. In the first go-around, if I recall correctly, when I tried to talk to Father, my pig companions had gotten in the way. Even after I dismissed my companions, they had kept trying to follow me all day. What a pain.
Should I start off by monitoring Father and the other heroes’ actions from afar?
That pig was squealing in my face again. Speak human language, you vile swine! Pigs are truly the lowest of the low. There was no point in even speaking to them.
I’m not Ren, but I could take a page out of his book and pretend to be too cool for them. I decided to do that.
Without saying a word, I glanced back at my companions as if they were meaningless specks of dust and set out from the castle.
The pigs followed me silently. It seemed that they wouldn’t bother me unless I started acting friendly toward Father.
But that made the situation particularly dangerous. Their role seemed to be to keep watch and make sure that Father stayed isolated from the other heroes. Orders from the crimson swine, I supposed.
It didn’t matter. Even if I didn’t get rid of them, simply ignoring them didn’t seem to cause much of a problem.
Now, what to do?
I knew I had to protect Father. But I had to be careful about the timing. They would probably—no, definitely—summon us tomorrow. The crimson swine planned to make her move and come rushing to the pub tonight, if I recalled correctly.
Which meant that I had some time to visit a monster trainer!
Yes! The perfect plan!
I hurried back to the filolial cottage. Several filolials chirped upon my arrival.
“Hey, you’re the Spear Hero, right?” the manager of the stables, a refined-looking soldier, called out to me. “What are you planning to do with the castle filolials?”
“I love filolials,” I proclaimed, petting as many filolials as I could. “Therefore, I would like to take care of them, I say!”
Since I ended up sleeping here last night, the filolials were already plenty familiar with me.
“Umm . . .”
“Gweh! Gweh!”
Yes, the filolials were letting me take care of them, I say!
I started to relax. I knew that tomorrow Father would be driven out by Melromarc, essentially penniless. All I had to do was resist doing anything reckless. If I made a mistake, who knows what obstacles would appear?
I heard some annoying squealing from one of my pig companions. I couldn’t even shake them off for a moment. It’s no fun to pet filolials with a hand that reeks of pigs.
It’d be easy to give them the slip. I could just turn the corner ahead of them and use my portal skill. But they’d surely make a fuss if I escaped, causing all sorts of problems. Hmm . . . Maybe there was some other way I could trick them and escape.
Regardless, if these pigs wanted to stop me from telling Father the truth, I’d let them—for now.
Or I could just kill them all.
Either way, tomorrow would determine my victory or defeat. My top priority was holding on to my money so I would be able to protect Father starting tomorrow.
I couldn’t decide what to do. I thought about killing some monsters to get drop items like armor for Father, but I remembered that in the previous go-around it took Father some time to put on the armor properly.
On top of that, I had a feeling that I needed to think more about what Trash intended to do.
In the previous go-arounds, I didn’t bother to think about Melromarc’s plans until after rescuing Father. Of course, we had been safe at first, but then they started sending assassins. Which means that it was highly possible that this time they might try to assassinate Father as well.
But why hadn’t they tried to assassinate Father in the first go-around? He had shabby, poor-quality equipment. He had been operating in a narrow radius as well, fighting low-level monsters near Melromarc castle town. Killing him would have been a piece of cake. Even assuming the heroes would level up quickly, and that they had level 20 companions guarding them, that was still 15 levels below that of any ordinary person here. Assassinating Father, who at the time was far weaker than any of the other heroes . . . Perhaps Melromarc had thought it wasn’t even necessary?
When Father had tried to save big sis, the crimson swine had played us off one another, resulting in our duel. Maybe they thought that I would end up killing Father in our duel. It wasn’t impossible.
A shiver ran up my spine as I thought about it all.
My reasoning was impeccable, I say! Assuming all my assumptions were correct . . . that left me with one course of action.
I had to move carefully, for Father’s sake. If we took on a dangerous commission from the adventurers guild to make money, they might suspect that Father had become too strong and send an assassin his way. However, I could always rescue Father from a situation like that to gain his trust.
Because Father had no friends he could trust in the first go-around, his personality had completely changed. I wouldn’t let any painful experiences like that happen to Father this time around, no matter what!
Which meant that it was essential that Father became strong enough to withstand any potential assassination attempts as quickly as possible.
My brain was practically overflowing with thoughts! I had never brought a plan like this to fruition before.
While I kept playing with the filolials, I pulled up my Portal Spear to confirm my registered locations. If I could obtain another Portal Spear power-up, I would be able to register even more places. That way, even if the time loop were to reset again, I’d have more options at my disposal.
The last go-around wasn’t for nothing, after all! I had registered Siltvelt, a country that worshipped Father. Melromarc was afraid of Father getting there for that exact reason.
But since Father had been kind enough to trust me in the last go-around, we had a whole world of possibilities at our disposal!
And yet a few things were evident. First, I had to avoid helping out Father publicly at all costs, or Melromarc would simply put more effort into driving us apart. Second, in order to avoid war, we had to stay in Melromarc for the foreseeable future.
So any plans involving helping Father or going to Siltvelt were actually pointless to even think about right now.
If only we could secretly collude with Siltvelt. I was so close to the answer!
It was easy for me to imagine what would happen next if I just let things play out. Father would do just as he had done in the first go-around—that is to say, get stronger. So perhaps I should simply do nothing at all.
Then all I had to do was find my beloved Filo-tan, I say!
How could I become her groom? The truth of how Father had acquired her was steeped in mystery.
Based purely on past events, supposedly I should be able to buy her from the monster trainer . . . but I wasn’t going to rely on blind faith this time around.
Above all, there was no way I was going to let anything else painful befall Father!
The only problem was that breathing under the same roof as the detestable crimson swine might cause me to go insane before I could achieve anything at all.
I had to search for Filo-tan like a gemstone dropped in a vast desert! Even if someone else ended up buying Filo-tan, I would still be able to find her somewhere. Her color was extremely particular, after all. Having just a single color was evidence of her high status and suggested that she might become a filolial king or queen. Yuki and Kou, Sakura, and then even Crim and Marine from before—they all had a base green color that covered more than half of their bodies. Then they had different colors mixed in.
Now that I thought about it, the filolial with the closest coloring to Filo-tan’s was Sakura.
Sakura was an underlying pink, with white mixed in. But Filo-tan had been an underlying white with some pink mixed in. Completely different, I say.
The color of their eyes was also different. It’s typical for filolial eyes to be the same color as the rest of the body, but Filo-tan had blue eyes. Which means that even if Filo-tan didn’t become a filolial queen, I’d still be able to tell her apart based on those two crucial characteristics.
I, Motoyasu Kitamura, would never give up on finding Filo-tan as long as I lived. Even if it took me weeks, months, lifetimes . . . I would find her, I say!
I finally settled on my plan.
“Gweh!”
I leapt up, startling the filolials. I went outside, greeted the filolial caretaker, and hurried off toward the shadows of the main castle buildings.
“Oink!!”
Still following me, eh? Let’s see just how far you chase me.
As soon as I entered the shadows of the castle, I used Portal Spear, and off I went.
Flipping through the options in my field of vision, I selected and teleported directly to the giant filolial ranch, I say!
“Excuuuuse me!” I called out to the farmer.
This time he was sitting in the pen.
“Who are you?”
“A customer!”
“And? What is it you’re after, Mr. Customer?”
“I’d like you to give me a filolial egg, I say!”
The farmer glanced up at me, looking annoyed. He put a hand on his hip and stared at me. “Why do you want a filolial?” His responses were exactly the same as last time. He was wearing the same clothes too.
“Stop making that weird expression,” he added.
“I like your clothes,” I said.
“I didn’t choose them for you!”
Oho? This part of the conversation was different. But I knew how to convince this farmer to sell me eggs! I knew how much he really cared for filolials, so I had to prove myself to him.
“Anyways, I would like you to sell me a filolial egg,” I informed him.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I can’t split up the filolials here. They’re selling filolials other places,” he said.
“I cannot accept no for an answer,” I said. “Please sell them to me already.”
“Why do you want filolials so badly?”
I wondered if this was some sort of strange test that the farmer always administered. But I wouldn’t change my answer to his question—there was no particular reason. Filolials exist, so I raised them. You didn’t need any thesis or theory about it.
Rather, to love and raise filolials is simply one of the rules of life.
If I had to say it straight, filolials raised by the power of love are the closest beings to gods that we have. That’s why I cherish and raise filolials. They’re like my sons and daughters.
Of course, the one exception being Filo-tan, my love and devotion.
“A world without filolials is not worth living in,” I declared. “Yes! Filolials are the world’s greatest treasure. They’re like the air that I breathe. Without them, I’d simply choke and die.”
“What are you even—” The farmer cut himself off. “You think I’d let you buy one just by saying something so ridiculous?”
“I love all filolials,” I continued. “They’re like my children. Whether they’re fast or slow, strong or weak, smart or stupid . . . they’re the . . . the meaning of my life!” I burst into tears.
“So you like filolials that much?”
“Of course I do!” I wailed.
He watched me with narrowed eyes.
“Okay then. If you answer my questions correctly, I’ll sell to you.”
He stood up and walked over to me. I easily aced his quiz about identifying types of filolials. Identifying filolials is easier than taking candy from a baby for me!
“Wow. I’ve never met anyone who knows as much about filolials as you.”
“I’ve felt this way each time I’ve visited your farm, but I must say that it lacks key security components,” I told him. “I’m afraid your filolials might get hurt if you’re not careful.”
“Don’t start thinking that I’ll listen to any of your crazy ideas,” he said. “Okay then, you, just prove to me how well you raised them one day.”
“Most definitely!”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t show him how well I had raised Yuki and the others last time. But I, Motoyasu Kitamura, had every intention of keeping my promise.
“So?” the farmer asked. “How many filolials do you want, and what’s your budget?”
Since I had the funds Melromarc provided me, I had considerably more money than last time I had visited his farm. However, I did have to save money to give to Father.
I held up three fingers.
“Three? Okay then. How about one good one and two cheap ones?”
“That’s fine with me.”
I don’t discriminate between filolials, I say. But I did have the parental love for those that I already raised—so I would love to meet them again!
The farmer took me back to the shed where he kept the filolial eggs. Just like last time, he chose one egg from the back as if it were special and then two from a pile near the entrance.
“That’s no good,” I declared.
“What?”
According to my memory, he had chosen different filolial eggs than last time. That wouldn’t do!
“For the egg from the back, can you choose the one over to the right? And for the other ones, how about these two?” I pointed to the eggs that I recalled were those of Yuki, Sakura, and Kou.
“So does this combination work?”
“That’s perfect. I love any and all filolials, but this time, those eggs are the ones calling out to me, I say.”
The farmer handed me the filolial eggs. I stroked them gently and confirmed that they had the same texture as last time. There was no doubt that these eggs were Yuki, Kou, and Sakura!
“Thank you very much!” I proclaimed.
“Come back and show me them some time,” the farmer said.
“No doubt! I’ll show you the legendary filolials that I raise!”
Yes, I would show him the power of love! Even better, once I established myself, I’d come back to buy more.
“All right then. Your so-called legendary filolials . . . I’m looking forward to seeing them.”
“See you!”
And that’s how I got Yuki and the others back into my hands, I say. With that, I returned to Melromarc.
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