Chapter Sixteen: Bluff
“I believe this is a fair price,” the monster trainer was saying. “It is my personal motto to operate by the market price. Yes sir.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Father said.
I started to see what Father was doing here. He didn’t actually know about a cheaper store, but he was going for a bluff, I say! He had already set it up well with his comments about human slaves from before too! Father was as clever as ever.
“However, I must say that I’m surprised that the heroes are so interested in slaves. Yes sir.”
“I have no chance of making any companions of my own in this country,” Father said bluntly. “I need people who I can use. That’s all.” Then he swallowed and continued. “If I don’t have a companion I can work to the bone, I won’t get strong enough.”
At Father’s response, the monster trainer’s face lit up in excitement.
“Depending on the situation,” Father continued, “I might have the spear hero help me out . . . so if you need to eliminate someone, just say it. He’ll dispose of anyone for cheap. And in return, you can sell me a good slave for cheap.”
“If it is the command of Father, I, Motoyasu Kitamura, will assassinate any rival merchant you so desire!”
The monster trainer snickered. “You didn’t look like such good customers at first glance, but it seems that I misjudged you. Yes sir. This changes things. Yes sir.”
I never saw the monster trainer in this good of a mood before.
I only remembered him seeming uncomfortable. What had changed? Of course, Father had managed to hit the nail on the head with these negotiations.
“What kind of slave would you be looking for? If you can provide me with a price range, I can better assist. Yes sir.”
Father turned to me and whispered in my ear.
“What should we do? Should we buy his recommendation or ask for something in particular?”
Hmmm. It was a good question. For a seller, charm had to be the most important quality. If we bought an unfriendly slave, there’d be no point.
Perhaps there was something from the first go-around that I could use here. It would be logical to simply try to buy whichever slave had been in charge of the peddling in Father’s village.
. . . Which was who, exactly?
I tried to remember which slave had been especially good at selling. The filolials had been talking about one person in particular. Of course, since they had Father to guide them, I was sure all of Father’s slaves were successful peddlers, but I seemed to remember that there was one individual . . .
That’s right—it was a dog-like demi-human named Keel! She was a pig who could transform into a dog, if I wasn’t mistaken.
I whispered my answer back to Father.
Yes, I remembered her now! Like big sis, Keel was a demi-human who had been living on land that Father reclaimed as the village. The original population of that area had ended up in slavery due to the waves of destruction. The filolials and other slaves told me about it.
“Is there a slave named Keel here?” Father asked. “From one of the villages ruined by the wave?”
The monster trainer pulled out a list and inspected it.
A while later, he spoke up. “Unfortunately, that slave is not present. Yes sir.”
Oho? I had heard that Father got his slaves from this very monster trainer, but could that have been wrong? The same thing had happened with Filo-tan as well.
“Shall I send for a slave with the same profession? Yes sir.”
Father folded his arms and fell into thought.
“So you’re just trying to charge us the same price for a cheap copy?” he said. “That won’t do.”
“How dare you—we sell our products in good faith,” the monster trainer said. “Yes sir. However, thanks to the wave, there are plenty of new slaves available, and so I could try to find the one you are looking for. Yes sir. Of course, the price would have to increase for our efforts. What would you like to do?”
Father turned to me. “So how about silver?”
I confirmed the amount in the purse with Father.
“Up to 50 silver pieces,” Father told the monster trainer. “I wouldn’t go a cent above that. You better not try and stick us with a different one either. And if you try to up the bill later, when we’re settling it, don’t even think about it.”
“You heroes drive a frightening bargain. Yes sir.”
The monster trainer counted the money with a series of clinks, keeping one eye sharply trained on Father.
If the time loop reset again, I’d make sure I got to see Father’s remarkable bargaining ability on display again, I say!
“Please come back here again tomorrow,” the monster trainer said. “By tomorrow I should know how long it will take me to get the slave you requested. Yes sir.”
“Understood. All right, let’s go.”
Father tapped my shoulder and we walked out of the tent.
For a while, we stood in the back alley outside the tent. Father shuffled his feet nervously.
Eventually Father spoke up. “Even though I haven’t had anything to eat, I feel like I’m going to throw up,” he said. “To sell demi-humans, even human slaves . . . I’d seen it before in video games and novels, but in real life . . . it was just so depressing.” He shivered.
“Are you all right, Father?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to eat for a while.”
I supposed he was unhappy because Yuki and Kou were in gloomy moods after our visit to the monster trainer. That monster trainer’s tent was truly a terrible place.
“So if it goes smoothly, we’ll be able to meet Keel tomorrow, I suppose,” Father said.
“Yep.”
“So what do we do now?”
“If you’re not feeling well, Father, why don’t you take a rest?”
“No, I’m fine. If I stopped just because of that, well, I wouldn’t be able to make it very far in this world.”
What a remarkable attitude! I had caught a glimpse of the true strength of Father’s heart!
“So even if we try to make me as strong as we can under the current circumstances, we’d have to stay hidden, right?” Father asked. “In that case, can we even level me up now? It seems like it could be difficult to do.”
“That’s no problem at all!” I declared.
I lowered my voice. You never knew who could be listening, I say.
“In order to level you up, we need Yuki and Kou’s help first,” I told him.
“Yeah, but . . .”
“Don’t worry about it. We can escape from any pursuer using my portal skill, which allows us to go anywhere I’ve registered before!”
“Right—I don’t think running away is the problem. In the last go-around we managed to escape to Siltvelt, right? But if we were to suddenly disappear now, it would be awfully suspicious to suddenly come back with powerful companions, wouldn’t it? We have to be really careful. We can’t afford to make a mistake.”
Father appeared lost in thought. I hadn’t thought that much about it, I say. I was focused on making sure Father was strong enough to prevent any assassination attempts. Of course, if Father suddenly got a lot stronger, it did mean that Melromarc might send stronger attacks against him. Compared to the first go-around, the reason why we had so many assassination attempts in the previous go-around is likely because I had shown off how strong I was.
“How about this? You act as if you only rescued me and wanted nothing else to do with me—” Father explained to me his plan.
It was a good idea. If we followed it, we just might be able to deceive whoever was watching us.
“So I’ll go steal some medicine from a well-to-do pharmacy in the castle town and run off into the countryside,” Father said. “The monsters are weak there, so I should be fine.”
“Very well,” I said. “Let’s get started then.”
Father nodded. “Yuki and Kou, do your best!”
They chirped on my shoulder, cheerful as ever.
“Thank you, Motoyasu!” Father called loudly, as if on purpose. “I’ll be fine alone, so go ahead and save this country!” He pushed me ahead.
I waved to him. “Goodbye! I hope we meet again someday!”
Yes, Father was right. Because we were working together, Melromarc would be suspicious of us. So for now, remaining separate was the best way to keep us safe. Father asked me to remember this plan in case the time loop reset again.
I couldn’t tell if Father’s plan would lead to good luck or bad, but nevertheless, we parted ways.
I left the castle town and went to the next village over. Yuki and Kou kept on chirping the whole way there.
Next up, procuring food!
Normally, I would start by feeding Yuki and Kou soft food and switch over to hard food as they started to level up.
The stomach of a filolial was like a black hole, I say. It was far past time to satisfy their empty stomachs!
But I couldn’t go too crazy with feeding them either.
I bought some soft food and started feeding it to them bit by bit.
“Chirp!”
I smiled, watching them as I slowly walked around the village. I had left the castle town a little after noon, so by the time I arrived at the second village outside the castle town, the sun was setting.
Because I hadn’t been too pushy in going to the guild or anything like that, I figured Melromarc was unlikely to send any assassins. I couldn’t go to Father directly as that would only cause him trouble, and he requested that we go separate ways, after all.
I took a room at an inn in the second village, ate, and went to bed. Yuki and Kou hadn’t grown much yet.
But they would soon!
I took a nap for a few hours.
“All right!”
I woke up in the middle of the night. I stuffed the bed with pillows so it looked like I was sleeping there. I then activated Cloaking Lance to hide myself and tucked Yuki and Kou into my pocket.
I slid the window open quietly, leapt outside, and shut it.
“Portal Spear!”
In an instant, I was flung to that castle town that never sleeps—none other than Siltvelt!
Now that I was there, there was no more need for all the precaution, I say! I gallantly dashed across the town!
I was headed to the heart of the surrounding mountains to fight the powerful monsters there. On the way there I attracted a number of strange looks, but who cares!
Once I got to the mountains, I declared my level to the surrounding monsters and lit up the night with a magic flame as I started to sprint toward them. All of the monsters here were different types from the ones in Melromarc.
I decided to clear the whole area for land to raise filolials in search of my beloved Filo-tan. Soon, this mountain would become a paradise!
“Shooting Star Spear!” I shouted, slaying monsters left and right. “Brionac! Gungnir! Aiming Lancer! Hahahaha, take that, weakling! Too weak, I say!”
The monsters roared, shrieked, screamed, and cried out in terror as I destroyed them all.
I looked up in excitement as an enormous dragon began to storm across the area, heading toward me with a vicious growl.
“No matter how strong you are, you’ll never stop me and my precious filolials, I say!” I proclaimed. “The weak are meat, the strong do eat! This is my mountain now!”
The dragon must have judged me as a threat, as it started breathing scorching flames and attacking me with all its might. I rushed toward it, waving my spear, and the dragon suddenly started to fly away as I chased after it. I spun my spear, aimed it carefully, and leapt straight for the dragon’s heart.
“Shooting Star Spear X! Die!”
I launched the attack, stabbed my spear through the dragon’s chest, and used Burst Lance. The dragon let out a long howl, unable to bear the might of the attack, and fell dead. As it crumpled to the ground, it looked like it died without regrets.
What a cowardly dragon. Fighting requires true resolve. And I would fight for Filo-tan, for Father, and for all filolials!
To air out my frustrations, I kept on fighting those monsters all night long.
Hm? The next dragon I took out dropped some flashy armor. But I had no need for it. Should I lend it to that weapon shop owner we visited to pay him back for his kindness?
And what should I do with all these ingredients that I was collecting from the monsters? I supposed I’d give them to Father later, although I would have to be careful with the timing so no one would suspect us.
Or I could hide everything here in the mountains. It wasn’t a big deal even if someone stole it.
“Chirp!”
“Oho? Did you wake up now?”
“Chirp!”
Yuki and Kou had woken up and started to chirp and peck at the monster I had just killed. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them.
I must say, protecting Father while ensuring that there would be no war was incredibly annoying.
Couldn’t there be some way to just kill off the crimson swine, the high priest, and Trash?
While I thought about such matters, I went on hunting monsters all through the night.
“Phew! I almost forgot about the time difference.” I returned via portal to my Melromarc inn. Things could’ve gotten sticky if the pillows I left under my sheets had been uncovered, I say.
“Chirp!”
Yuki and Kou had evolved to their second stage. They were around level 28. As expected, leveling them up only at night would prove to be tricky. But if I was out fighting for too long, I would attract Melromarc’s attention, so this was the best and only way.
“Chirp! Chirp!”
“Are you hungry now? Leave it to me!”
At least Yuki and Kou were happy to feed on the monsters I had hunted.
In order to meet up with Father again, I headed back up the road toward the Melromarc castle town. Along the way, I found some more monsters to give to Yuki and Kou for another meal. I picked up their drop items and ingredients to pass along to Father as well.
“Oh, Motoyasu. What a coincidence!”
Just as we had planned, I found Father in front of the Melromarc castle town pharmacy.
“Chirp!”
“Wow! Are those the filolials from yesterday?” Father asked. “They got a lot bigger.”
“They have much more to grow,” I told him.
“I bet. They have to get pretty big to pull carriages.”
Father leaned in closer as we talked.
“So?” he asked. “Did it go well?”
“No problem at all,” I informed Father. “Yuki and Kou got to level 29.”
“Nice!”
“I also found some good armor for you. I can show you it later.”
“That’s great. Oh, also, by watching the pharmacy I learned a little bit about what kind of medicine they have here, so I went looking for materials out in the fields.”
Father showed me the herbs he had collected.
“Chirp!”
“You want some too, don’t you?” Father said to Yuki and Kou. He split off a little piece and fed it to them.
But Yuki quickly spit it out with an unhappy sneeze. Apparently, it didn’t taste very good. They do say that the best medicine tastes bitter, but chick filolials weren’t likely to understand that.
“They don’t mean it,” I said to Father.
“Oh, I get it. When I started collecting them in my shield, I boosted my harvesting skill and the quality of the herbs started to improve, so I ended up picking too many. Besides that, I was mostly hanging out and fishing at the river there. I’m going to try mixing the medicine later.”
“Did they send an assassin?” I asked.
“No, not yet. I’m being careful with what I eat though.”
We didn’t know how things might change this go-around, so it was good that he was being careful.
Then came another chirp.
“Oh, yeah. Look, it’s Sakura!”
Father pulled a little round filolial out from his breast pocket and showed me.
“She just hatched, a little before I got here. Take a look!”
“Of course!”
“Chirp!”
Father raised her up so I could get a better look as she chirped. Oho?
“Her eyes are blue, aren’t they?” I asked.
“Huh? Yeah, what’s wrong?”
Had I mistaken the color of Sakura’s eyes? They had definitely been pink, the same as the rest of her body. That’s why we had named her Sakura, after all. But the Sakura that Father showed me definitely had blue eyes. Was it a different filolial?
I did get a good whiff of the smell, and it was certainly Sakura’s. That same scent that was preciously close to my beloved Filo-tan’s!
Could the past somehow be influencing a different course of events here? I guessed that the fact that Father had hatched Sakura rather than me ended up changing the color of her eyes. But I had no idea how or why that had happened.
But if the eye color was different from that of the rest of the body, it meant that we had a different filolial on our hands here. Perhaps whoever hatched and raised a filolial really did influence what it became.
It was all very educational.
Well, whatever had ended up happening, Sakura still had the reverse coloring of Filo-tan—white on pink as opposed to pink on white. So I didn’t need to rush to figure this all out. If Father or I didn’t buy Filo-tan from the monster trainer, someone else would. She could only be on the market for a short period of time. I just had to keep visiting every once and a while and continue to collect more filolials, I say!
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong,” I said. “So anyways, leave her to me and I’ll level her up fast, I say! In the meantime, will you look after Kou, then?”
“That works,” Father said. “Okay, Sakura, I’m going to give you to Motoyasu for a little bit, so get stronger and come back!”
Sakura and Kou chirped. “Let’s do it,” they were saying!
Father tightened his expression. “All right, so should we go to the slave tent now?”
It was time. The monster trainer had said he would know by today how long it would take for him to find Keel.
I nodded. “But I don’t think the filolials like the monster trainer very much. So they can wait outside.”
“That’s fine. We can take our eyes off them for a moment.” Father seemed to brace himself. “Okay, let’s go in.”
I followed Father down the back alley, toward the monster trainer once more.
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