Chapter One: Carriage-Crafting
“Sakura?” I looked at her in surprise. That was strange. In the previous round Sakura was pretty much the same height as Yuki.
In terms of her figure, she was like Filo-tan’s big sister. What in the world had happened? How could there be such a big difference between this round and the previous one? The only familiar thing about her was her hair that stuck up in one place, a cowlick like a flower.
“Sakura, you got so big!” Yuki exclaimed.
“You think so?” Sakura yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Naofumi, what are we doing today? I’m hungry!”
“Uhhhh . . .” Naofumi faltered and turned to me. “Motoyasu! What should we do?”
I have seen one example of a filolial like Sakura before. That is, of course, Chick.
I do recall that when Chick turned into her angel form, she looked more like an adult woman. It was far from a common occurrence.
Perhaps Sakura had become this way to make Father like her even more. That may have made sense. Whatever the true reason, it wasn’t like there was no such thing as filolials that became adults in their angel form. Every filolial is different, I say, even when they take their angel form.
Still, I could hardly suppress my surprise. Since Sakura’s eye color was also different from the previous go-around, I realized that there could be all sorts of other differences that pop up. And with her pink hair, I almost felt like I was looking at Éclair standing next to Father. They looked to be about the same age and same height.
“Uh, Motoyasu, are you listening to me?”
“Most definitely,” I assured Father. “Yes, I too have absolutely no clue what’s happening here, I say.”
My only guess was that Sakura had become an adult in her angel form because some sort of condition was met.
Well, since there seemed like no reason to be concerned about it, I let it be.
“There’s no problem whatsoever!” I announced.
“Huh? No problem?”
“No problem at all! Sakura, you know what you have to do, don’t you?”
“Yeah! It’s my job to protect Naofumi!”
She still looked sleepy, but I could tell from her voice that she was determined.
“Oh, got it. Thanks,” Father said. Sakura came to stand next to Father and he patted her on the head. She closed her eyes and bowed her head happily.
“Oink! Oink!”
Keel looked upset about something. What could the problem be? Meanwhile, Sakura asked Father to keep petting her head and he complied.
“Well then, Sakura,” I declared, “now I must prepare clothes for you, I say!”
“Whaaaat? That’s boring.”
“Don’t be so selfish!” Yuki scolded. She twirled around, showing off the clothes I had made for her. “What do you think? Motoyasu made these marvelous clothes for me.”
“They look great,” Father said.
Oh, Father, your kindness knows no bounds!
“You’ve got good sense, Motoyasu,” he said. “You must’ve been popular back in Japan.”
“I also made clothes for you too, Keel,” I declared. I took out the outfit from my bag and gave it to Father. Father unfolded the clothes and showed them to Keel.
It was the perfect design for Keel. Back in the Japan where I come from, pigs dress up to serve customers at maid cafés. I had modeled the clothes based on those European maid outfits. It had stockings and a frilly skirt.
“Oink! Oink oink!” Keel blurted out a series of distressed squeals, clearly opposed to the clothes I had prepared.
“I know, but even if you don’t like them . . .” Father started to say.
“Oink oink oink! Oink oink oink!”
“Please, can you just try it? I think they’ll look really good on you.”
Keel continued to oink and squeal furiously.
“I keep telling him you’re a boy, but Motoyasu thinks that you’re a girl, and I don’t think there’s anything we can do to convince him.”
Keel oinked in response.
“Huh? Well, if Motoyasu could start understanding what you say, then I think that would mean that he sees you as male. He doesn’t seem to be able to understand any women other than the female filolials.”
For some reason, Keel came over and grabbed me by the arm.
I had no idea what was going on. Why couldn’t she just speak human language!
“Oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink!” Keel screamed in my face.
“I don’t have the slightest clue what you are saying,” I coolly returned.
“So you hate the clothes Motoyasu made for you that much?” Yuki asked, scowling.
Keel oinked quietly and looked like she didn’t know what to say. She took several steps back and lowered her head under Yuki’s glare.
“Anyways, Motoyasu,” Father said. “Look at Kou. Why is he looking at Keel like that?”
Kou was staring googly-eyed at Keel from behind. “Keel’s tail,” Kou whispered.
Keel yelped and rushed to Father’s side. Kou trotted after Keel, but Sakura came in between them.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sakura told Kou. “I’m going to protect Keel. Just like from that thief from yesterday.”
“Did something happen with a thief?” I inquired.
“Yeah,” Father said. “We were attacked while we were riding Sakura. It was probably a thief or some other criminal.”
“Yeah! And in that fight, I protected Naofumi and Keel!” Sakura said proudly.
I couldn’t help but notice that Sakura lit up whenever she talked about protecting Father. What a glorious sight! I felt especially happy that she took such pride in it.
Normally, I would be the one protecting Father, but we couldn’t be together too often at the moment.
“Whenever he started to speak, you just slapped him around. Is that because he was lying?” Father asked Sakura.
“Yeah! I couldn’t speak human language well at the time, so I just slapped him around because he was lying.”
“He did have a weird look in his eyes,” Father said. “So maybe he was disguised as a thief. Based on what Motoyasu told me, he was probably a follower of the Church of the Three Heroes. His clothes did look too nice for a thief, so maybe he was purposefully acting like a thief to try to trick us?”
Hmmm. I tried to remember if Father had ever been attacked by a thief at around this point in the story. But I didn’t know enough of the details. Perhaps the person claimed to be a thief so that Father wouldn’t suspect what he really was. If Father had found out who he was and told Siltvelt, a war might break out between the Church of the Three Heroes, so he was likely being careful to hide his true identity when he attacked.
I figured that they wanted to be able to attack but didn’t want to risk us attacking them. It all pretty much made sense.
Keel oinked a few times.
“Keel, I know you don’t have any experience, but you’d really be a great salesperson for us,” Father said. The topic appeared to have changed back to Keel’s clothing. “I get it, you’re a boy who looks feminine . . . Where I come from, we’d call you a bishonen. But either way, you still have an attractive face.”
Keel oinked softly.
“So you don't want to wear the outfit. You might not like it, but I know you can do it. Try it on, persevere through it. Remember, we’re doing all this to get revenge on the people who destroyed your village.”
Keel oinked and nodded.
“Thank you, Keel. Do your best.”
Father patted Keel’s head and turned back to Sakura.
“So what should we do about Sakura’s clothes? I’m thinking it would be best if you could make some for her soon, but . . .”
“In that case, I would need for her to come with me,” I informed Father.
“I want to protect Naofumi!” Sakura said. “I can’t leave his side.”
“But . . .” Father started.
“Well then, we’ll just have to make do with normal clothes for her for the time being,” I declared.
“Should we stop by the weapon shop to see if the old guy has any good clothes?”
“I also know that the monster tent should have some as well,” I said.
“Do they? Well, let’s check out the weapon shop first,” Father said.
“Of course!”
And so we went back to the Melromarc castle town. When we got to the weapon shop, the old guy looked curiously at Yuki, Kou, and Sakura.
“Wow, that’s incredible. Did your filolials transform into humans because you’re heroes?” the old guy asked.
“Motoyasu, is that how it works?”
“Just so,” I said. “When heroes raise filolials they achieve exceptional growth, I say!”
“So what can I help you with?” the old guy asked.
“That’s right,” Father said. “Well, we need some clothes that are made with magical power for Sakura here. I thought it was possible that you might have some. I know that they have those sorts of clothes in countries with a lot of demi-humans.”
The old guy shook his head. “I know about those sorts of clothes, ones that can expand or contract and that have exceptional defense. They’re out there, but not in my store. Stuff made out of magic is outside my area of expertise.”
Sakura was looking around at the swords on the shelves.
“I want to try using a weapon!” Sakura exclaimed.
“Huh? W-why?” Father asked.
“Well, I know there are times that I need to stay in my human form, like in the inn, and I want to be able to protect you even when I’m in my human form!”
“Can’t you just turn into a filolial when the time to fight comes?”
“Hmmm.” Sakura thought about it. “I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?”
“Well, a sword might be more effective than talons alone, if you asked me,” the old guy chimed in.
“Yeah! I wanna use a sword!”
“It’s great that you’re interested,” the old guy said, turning to Father and me. “So what are you going to do?”
It was certainly true that filolials tended to pick their own weapons, even if it was just a beak or talons. I was a believer in the individuality of each and every filolial. But in this situation, I was concerned about our money. We couldn’t just keep spending willy-nilly, I say.
Of course, we planned to make money via peddling sooner or later, and it was always possible to get money by going to Siltvelt as well.
“Regardless, after the attack yesterday, we need some new equipment,” Father said. Father glanced at Keel, who took out a spare sword and handed it over to Sakura.
“Do you know how to use it?” Father asked her.
“I learned by watching Keel!” Sakura said.
“Oh really?” Father turned back to the old guy. “So you really don’t know anything about clothes made out of magic thread?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said. “Maybe if you go to the magic shop you could find something.”
“The magic shop?”
“The biggest magic shop around is right in this area,” he said. “I thought that you kiddos might have seen it yourself.”
“Are you talking about that giant bookstore place?” Father asked.
“Probably the same place,” the old guy said.
“Got it. Thanks. We’ll try there.”
“If you tell them I sent you, you might get a little discount too,” the old guy said and handed Father a letter of introduction.
With that, we headed over to the magic shop.
When we got to the magic shop, a middle-aged pig started oinking at us suspiciously. But the pig’s expression quickly softened and it started to oink in a friendly tone.
“Ah, hello there,” Father said. “We’re looking for some magic thread for special clothes. Can you help us with that?”
“Oink!”
“Your magic types are healing and support, Father!” I declared. There was no need for me to see any further since I already knew what Father could do in previous go-arounds. Father had mastered some first-rate protective spells back in the day!
The pig let out a series of oinks and squeals.
“Well, even if you let us take a look, we don’t exactly have a lot of money at the moment . . .” Father trailed off.
Yes, that was our problem. In order to make money, we needed to buy a bunch of stuff in order to complete our peddling preparations.
The pig continued to oink for several moments.
“A magical orb? What’s that?”
Oh, I remembered that, I say. After the false accusation was successfully launched against Father, Trash took the remaining heroes, including myself, and gave us a jewel that helped us acquire magic abilities. They were especially useful for beginners.
I remember back then when Melromarc would give me anything I wanted. Life was much easier back then.
Still, if you learn magic through a magic jewel, your power won’t be as strong as it would be if you had learned through a tome. You’d have much less control and it would probably be impossible to learn a Liberation-class spell with a jewel alone.
I explained to Father about the magic jewels.
“So you’re saying that they gave it to us back at the castle?”
“They gave out the magic jewels to the heroes after you left, Father,” I said.
Father frowned. “They really did try to screw me over every time they could.”
“Once we get some money, it will be better to just purchase some tomes, I say!”
The pig oinked at us. Keel was examining some of the crystal balls in the store. Sakura was clinging to Father like an escort. She really looked so different and mature!
“Oink!”
The pig appeared to be willing to show us around the store. After that, I started to look all over the store myself. After a while, I saw something that brought back memories.
It was a device like a spinning wheel. If I wasn’t mistaken, you could use it to make thread infused with magical power.
“But how much does it cost, Motoyasu?” Father asked after I pointed it out.
The pig chimed in with a series of oinks and squeals.
“Oh, you’ll give it to us for free?” Father asked. “Wow, thanks so much.”
It appeared that the old guy had made some arrangements to really help us. I wondered if this was in exchange for how I had given the old guy some free materials before.
“Thank you very much,” Father said.
“Do you think you might also be able to throw in a magic tome?” I inquired.
The pig oinked.
“Motoyasu, she wants us to buy that,” Father said.
Well, at least I tried.
I did want Father to learn some magic, but getting the hang of it was far from easy. I figured it would be best to take our time learning magic down the road.
The pig started oinking again.
“Okay! Just a moment!” Sakura said.
Then Sakura went into a corner of the store to take off her clothes and transformed into her filolial queen form. Father politely turned around when Sakura was getting changed.
Ahh, so close! It turns out she really did have a different coloring from Filo-tan, after all.
The shop owner looked very surprised for some reason.
Sakura slowly turned the spinning wheel to wind out thread and applied her magical power to it. Sakura was just as calm and relaxed as she had always been, so everyone got bored watching as she slowly spun the thread. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to get as sleepy as quickly as she had in previous go-arounds.
“Sakura, you’re too slow,” Yuki scolded.
“You think so?” Sakura whined.
“Everyone’s different, Yuki,” Father said. “Be patient.”
“But Sakura is . . .”
“Oh yeah,” Father interjected. “If you’re bored, why don’t you go with Motoyasu to get a carriage for us? Sakura will probably be done by the time you get back.”
“We should acquire one soon,” I agreed. I hadn’t forgotten about it, I say! But getting a carriage was bound to be annoying. You couldn’t really just buy a carriage without everyone seeing exactly what you were up to. In fact, it would be fastest to just make it yourself.
Even faster than that would be attacking a thief who had already procured a stolen carriage and just stealing theirs, I say! Hmm. Perhaps we should fix up an ordinary cart as a stopgap measure?
Ultimately, I decided it wouldn’t be too hard to get wood from the forest and make ourselves a carriage!
“We’ll build one, I say!” I declared.
“I’ll leave it to you,” Father said.
“Yes, sir, I say! How big should it be?”
“Well, we all have to fit in it, so it should be pretty big.”
“Understood, I say!” I turned to Yuki and Kou. “Let’s go!”
“At once!”
“Ooookay!”
Yuki, Kou, and I left the magic store to go about our carriage-crafting.
We set out for the woods in the mountains near Riyute. I cut down some trees with my spear. At my level of power, I can cut through trees like tofu. We quickly set about gathering wood and building a cart.
Filolials are creatures who simply love to pull carriages, I say.
I’ve made carriages from scratch before, I’ll have you know. Making the wheels is probably the most frustrating part. For the time being, a wooden cart should do the trick. If it becomes necessary later, we could always have the old guy at the weapon shop do it up in gold leaf, the type that Filo-tan always adored. I knew that the old guy was a real pro at gilding because he’d made a golden carriage for Filo-tan before, I say. He had skills.
“Let’s put on the wheels already!” Kou shouted.
“Kou, you need to shave them down more,” I said. “Otherwise, it’s going to be too uncomfortable to ride in.”
“Got it!”
“Let’s make them lustrous!” Yuki called.
Yuki and Kou were making a real effort at carriage-crafting! So we kept up the work, slowly polishing our creation.
I used magic to start a fire to heat up the wood and cut the pieces, allowing them to bend into a more flexible shape. “Yes, a little heat doesn’t hurt, I say!”
Of course, besides racing up mountains, we needed the cart to be able to withstand the bare minimum of being hauled around. We needed the structure to have a bit of bend to it.
At last, we finished making the cart. All we needed was a good canopy to cover it and we’d have ourselves a proper carriage!
“We did it!” Kou shouted.
“Everyone will be so glad,” Yuki said with a smile.
“Perfect, I say!” I declared.
It was just an ordinary carriage, but to me, it looked like it was sparkling with light.
I remembered the carriage that I decorated for Filo-tan with all of my passionate love! She kept it hidden away in the village storehouse, so I know that it was precious to Filo-tan.
When I glanced up at the sky, I saw that the sun was already starting to go down.
“Let’s hurry back to Father,” I called.
“Roger!” Kou said.
“I’ll go ahead and pull the carriage,” Yuki said.
“Hey, I wanna!”
Yuki and Kou scrambled for the reins.
“Yuki’s the leader, Kou,” I said. “So Yuki’s first. Then when we get to the castle town, we’ll switch to you!”
“Of course,” Yuki said.
“All right!” Kou said.
I boarded the carriage, and we set off to meet up with Father again.
When we got back to the magic shop, we found Father and the others waiting outside.
“Oh, welcome back.” Father yawned. “Wow, you really did get a new carriage. Wasn’t it expensive?”
“We made it ourselves, I say!”
“W-what? You made that? Amazing!”
“My spear can cut through wood no problem at all,” I explained.
“I didn’t know you could make carriages. Wow.”
Father went over to look at the carriage and placed his hand on it.
“So I guess we can finally get started,” he said.
Keel oinked in excitement, racing around the carriage and peering inside it. Sakura looked sleepy, as usual.
“Oh, about the thread,” Father said, nodding at Sakura. “We made it—but barely. That device that turns magical power into thread—Sakura kept turning slowly, but eventually the magical jewel that we were using as the pivot shattered! I was surprised.”
“Oho? It broke? In that case we ought to acquire another magic jewel to return to the magic shop, to make up for it,” I said.
“Yeah, good point,” Father said. “Oh, Motoyasu. They turned the magic thread into cloth for us, but what do you do now? We could just ask a tailor to do it.”
“I shall make it, I say! Sakura, what sort of design do you like?”
Just to be safe, I wanted to confirm with her. If I went with the same sort of clothing as last time with the current adult Sakura, it would have a very different impression.
“Hmm.” Sakura glanced at Kou and Yuki. “Weeeell, I can tell you that I really don’t like what Yuki’s wearing . . .”
“How dare you!” Yuki cried, glaring angrily at Sakura. Sakura hid behind Father.
“Sakura, do you like dresses?” I asked her.
“Weeeell . . . I don’t hate them, but I don’t like them either, I guess.”
Interesting. So her tastes had changed a bit from the previous round.
“So would you rather have something more like Kou?”
Kou was wearing overalls. It was a more boyish, rascally outfit. It was a good look, I say!
“I don’t know. I don’t really like that either.”
Then Sakura suddenly pointed at a passerby on the street. “That! I like that!”
So it was kind of like what Big Sis used to wear under her armor. I tried to imagine it on Sakura.
“Okay, I’ve got it,” I announced. “No problem, Yuki. Now, Father, everyone—it’s time to board the carriage!”
“Oh, yeah. We still need to go pick up the peddling permit from the Siltvelt emissary, don’t we?”
“But of course,” I agreed. “Shall we hurry to receive it, as promised?”
“Yup,” Father said. “All right, let’s get on with it!”
Following Father’s orders, Sakura and Keel got onto the carriage.
“Departure, I say!”
Kou took off with delight at the sound of my voice. Before the sun had even set, we had left the castle town at a galloping pace. I only hoped that Keel wouldn’t get carriage sickness or anything and force us to slow down.
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