Chapter Ten: The Egg Raffle
“Well, Ren’s out of here,” Father said. “What should we do now? I don’t think it’s a bad idea to just keep peddling until the right time comes. But how should we spend our money?”
It seemed like Father wanted to discuss our next steps now. But that would be better done back in the carriage.
“I’m going to find Filo-tan, I say,” I proclaimed.
“This Filo again? Well, if that’s what you want to do, I won’t stop you. So we’ll go looking for Filo, whoever she is.”
“Indeed. In the first go-around, I believe you bought Filo-tan with the money you got from Melromarc after the first wave of destruction.”
“So the problem is where and how I ended up with her?”
“Quite so,” I said. “In the previous go-around, I tried buying every single filolial from the monster trainer, but Filo-tan wasn’t there.”
“Every single one?” Father shook his head. “You do some pretty crazy stuff, Motoyasu. But that’s tricky, then. If there was some sort of sign or special characteristic that could help you recognize Filo . . .”
“She has the exact opposite coloring as Sakura,” I explained. Filo-tan was white with pink mixed in, while Sakura was pink with white mixed in.
“Oh yeah, didn’t you draw a picture of her before?”
“That was her angel form. She’s the same height as Yuki and Kou, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She is a beautiful, heavenly creature!”
“Sakura has blue eyes . . . but her hair is pink. It is pretty unusual that Filo-tan would look so different in her angel form, isn’t it? I remember that drawing you did.”
What an amazing memory! But he was right. Even among filolials, having different coloring depending on the form was extremely rare.
Even if Filo-tan had ended up in someone else’s possession, the best we could do was identify her based on what she looked like. We also know that she can’t turn into her queen form unless she is with one of the heroes.
The only way we had to find her was her appearance. And after that, her smell, but that would be trickier to verify.
“So you were talking about how in the first go-around I didn’t have anyone who would help me or that I could trust, right? So I needed to buy someone who seemed trustworthy and reliable. I have no doubt that I bought her from the slave trader. But I was frustrated, so it must’ve been an impulse purchase.”
“You bought her from that same slave trader?” Keel interjected.
“I just get that feeling,” Father said. “Thinking about this Filo . . . I think I wanted something that was worth my money, worth the investment, to give me strength.”
It was starting to make sense now. Since we now knew that the monster trainer had become Father’s ally in the first go-around, he must’ve wanted to help Father out behind the scenes.
I think that Father also met Big Sis through the monster trainer, if I’m not mistaken, and that she used all her effort to gather the other slaves from her village and restore it. She also made a lot of stuff happen in Zeltoble, or so I heard.
And then, as a consequence of our duel, Father released Big Sis from slavery. But wasn’t Big Sis still a slave when I met her the next time? Which meant that they might have gone back to the monster trainer to reapply the slave seal on Big Sis.
“I’m not really a big fan of the monster trainer’s tent, but if you really want to go, shouldn’t we head back there?”
“Thank you, Father. Thank you with all my heart!”
We would do everything we could to find Filo-tan, I say! So we set out to visit the monster trainer.
When we got there, the filolials hesitated to enter. The tent did have a gloomy atmosphere inside, so it only made sense that they would be reluctant. Lazy Pig seemed to say something about staying outside with the filolials because it was too annoying to go in.
As soon as we entered the tent, the monster trainer came to greet us and rubbed his hands together.
“Now what do we have here? It’s the heroes, yes sir!”
So, I faced Father and rubbed my hands together too, I say!
“Uh, Motoyasu, what are you doing?”
“Rubbing my hands together!” I declared.
Now, now. Show me my precious Filo-tan, I say!
This felt just like a capsule toy machine scenario. Father was going to be the lucky one who finds the ultra-rare Filo-tan!
“Hey, Spear Bro, maybe you should . . .” Keel started to say.
“Keel, there’s no need,” Father replied. “Let him do what he wants.”
“All right then.”
Keel seemed to be concerned about my mental well-being, but I didn’t care in the slightest. Sakura was looking absentmindedly around the inside of the tent.
“What do we have here?” The monster trainer was looking at Keel and tilted his head. “So you had the ability to transform into a therianthrope all along? Yes sir. I’m happy to buy back this one at a higher price.”
“What!? You’re not gonna sell me to buy filolials, are ya, Big Bro?” Keel shrieked.
“Hang on,” Father protested. “Why . . . why are you talking about buying Keel all of a sudden?”
Father seemed anxious to shut down the conversation as soon as possible.
“I should’ve expected nothing less of the Shield Hero,” the monster trainer said. “You’ve chosen and raised your slaves well. Your wisdom is peerless, yes sir.”
Somehow the monster trainer seemed to have figured out just how much stronger Keel had gotten.
“But still,” the monster trainer continued. “With that glossy fur, despite his frail physique, I do believe he would fetch a high price on the market as a pet, yes sir.”
The monster trainer was playing with some tool of his. An abacus, maybe?
“This is just my initial appraisal, but how about something to the tune of nine gold coins? And back in his demi-human form he would fetch even more. That lovely fur . . . with some grooming, I could go all the way to 17 gold coins. How about it?”
“Big bro!”
Keel was looking desperately at Father, like a filolial on the selling block.
Oho? I heard Yuki and Kou singing from outside the tent. They must’ve gotten bored. By some leap of association, they were singing that old song about the calf that got sold.
“What are they doing?” Father muttered, casting a glance toward where Yuki and Kou were outside of the tent. “Even if that was by accident, they should read the room.” He patted Keel on the head and continued. “Sorry. Even though he’s grown up a lot, I have no interest in selling him.”
The monster trainer frowned. “That is . . . quite a shame. But still . . .” The monster trainer looked Keel up, down, and all over. “I thought we had struck a marvelous deal before, but it seems that I was mistaken.”
Keel now was practically clinging to Father out of concern. Was this really that worrisome?
“You appear to misunderstand me,” Father said. “The job of a real slave owner is to increase the value of his slaves.”
Father appeared to have entered his negotiation mode. What was he trying to say? Was he talking about filolials? They should all be loved equally, I say!
Real job? Increase value?
Father must be trying to lay a trap! He knows that just like human children, whether they’re fast or slow, strong or weak, sharp or dull, filolials must all be raised and equally loved! This was no place to be talking about value!
Every filolial is special, I say! There was no need to make it a competition. They are all number one.
“To you, slaves are just to be used and thrown away,” Father continued. “But that’s just a waste of resources. My friends here, whether or not they are my slaves, swear an oath of loyalty to me and fight to the death on the battlefield. Is that not an impressive use of slaves?”
“Hee hee. Is that so? You’ve given me goosebumps!”
The monster trainer appeared to be satisfied with Father’s response.
Keel had gone sheet white.
“B-big Bro?”
There was the whole incident with Itsuki yesterday, after all.
Father glanced over his shoulder at Keel and raised his forefinger secretively as if to tell Keel that it was okay. Then he looked back at the monster trainer.
Keel nodded as if she understood.
“So what can I do for you today, yes sir?”
“Ah, yes. This time . . .” Father looked around the tent. “I was thinking about raising a new monster. I need strength on the battlefield.”
“A new monster, you say! And what type of creature do you desire?” The monster trainer huddled in close to Father, talking quickly. “Perhaps a flying dragon? They’re not cheap, but would you like to have a look? Yes sir.”
Father shrugged and returned the perfect response.
“A dragon . . . Well, that’s not bad, but I was thinking about a filolial as well. How about it?”
“So you’re undecided, I see? Well, what do you think about taking your chances on an egg lottery? Yes sir.”
“A monster egg lottery, huh?”
The monster trainer pointed at a wooden egg crate in the corner of the tent. It appeared that you could buy a random egg for 100 silver coins, but you couldn’t be sure of what was inside.
“So it’s a game of chance? That’s nothing better than a nasty sales trick.”
“What! You think that my operation is unfair, Shield Hero?”
“Am I wrong?”
“I take great pride in my merchandise!” the monster trainer declared. “Certainly, I don’t mind tricking a customer that is trying to take advantage of me, but I would never misrepresent my products!”
“You say you don’t mind tricking people but don’t misrepresent things . . . Anyway, tell me more,” Father said.
“To put things simply, they are knight’s dragons.”
“Hm, so you can ride them like a filolial or a horse, but they’re dragons?”
“Yes, and some of them can even fly—the flying-type dragons. They are quite popular, especially among nobles, yes sir.”
Father shrugged. It was a smart negotiation strategy to act disinterested. I kept quiet and watched the scene unfold.
“Maybe . . . maybe if I didn’t have Motoyasu here or only had a single slave . . .” Father muttered to himself. I could tell that he was thinking very carefully about the right move here.
Then Father raised his head and spoke up. “How much for a filolial?”
“For an adult, 200 silver coins at minimum. Their plumage has all sorts of uses. Yes sir.”
“So if that’s the price for an adult, a chick must be cheaper. And even more so for an egg. So raising filolials must be extremely expensive. Am I right?”
“Not at all,” the monster trainer said. “The eggs go for the same price.”
“So it’s a random lottery, like you said,” Father said, nodding. “How much for a flying dragon?”
“On the current market, a flying dragon is 20 gold coins.”
“What are the chances of drawing one in the raffle?”
“We currently have 250 eggs in the raffle,” the monster trainer said. “Among them is a single flying dragon egg.”
Father frowned and paused to think.
A 1-in-250 chance. Pretty tough.
Still, it’s not like we needed a dragon or anything.
“You can’t tell what kind of monsters are in each egg by the appearance or weight either. Be sure to buy with the expectation that it really is a 1-in-250 chance.”
“You’re a smart merchant,” Father said.
“I’ll be sure to publicize the name of the winner and use them in advertising as well,” the monster trainer said with a grin.
Father scratched his chin. “Still, the chance is just so low . . .”
“If you buy ten, you’ll almost definitely be giving yourself a fair shot and can choose from these lottery tickets,” the monster trainer said, gesturing. “Yes sir.”
“It’s like a game where you focus on buying stuff,” Father muttered to himself. “Is there really a knight’s dragon in there?”
“There is. In fact, every egg in there has a value of at least 300 silver coins.”
Father sighed, slumping his shoulders. He mumbled to himself about how it was like a capsule toy or something.
“Hmmmm . . .”
Father glanced over at me.
“Motoyasu,” he said, beckoning to me.
“What is it, Father?”
“You might not have heard it from me before, but I’m pretty sure that in the first go-around, I bought an egg lottery ticket here. Which means that I likely ended up with Filo-tan in the lottery.”
“How do you know?”
Would it really be possible to draw Filo-tan’s egg out of a random lottery? I didn’t understand in the slightest.
“Even if we don’t end up with her, we can always make an exchange with the monster trainer. I must’ve been thinking that even if I got a useless monster, I could always train it and sell it back here. Just like how the monster trainer told me about how Keel’s price had gone way up this time, he must’ve said something similar to me in the first go-around about another one of my slaves.”
And after a moment’s pause, Father pointed at one of the lottery tickets.
“And it would be hard on my other slaves if I buy a new one when they’re standing right there. So I must’ve decided that a monster I could train would be the best move.”
Hmm. So Father was saying that there was a high probability that he won Filo-tan in the lottery, it seemed.
When I bought up all the non-lottery eggs from the monster trainer the last time around, Filo-tan’s egg must have been among the lottery eggs, which would explain why I didn’t end up with Filo-tan then. But why didn’t the monster trainer tell me about the lottery in the last go-around? Had my timing been off?
For example, could someone else have played the lottery and gotten Filo-tan just before I had arrived?
“Then how about this?” Father said. “We’ll pay 200 silver coins rather than 100, and you remove all of the other eggs besides filolial and dragon eggs from the lottery.”
The monster trainer shook his head. “Even for the heroes, that I cannot do, yes sir.”
“Then let’s strike a deal.”
“Which is?”
Father leaned over and whispered in the monster trainer’s ear. Then he pointed at Sakura.
“Sakura, turn into your filolial form!”
Sakura looked around. “Right now? I don’t really wanna here . . . But just because you asked me to, Naofumi, I’ll do it.”
With a poof, Sakura transformed into her filolial queen form.
The monster trainer widened his eyes in amazement.
“What in the world . . . I do remember thinking that you had a strange companion the last time that you visited here, but I didn’t realize that she could do this!”
“So?” Father asked. “How about it? Take out everything besides the filolial and dragon eggs? No matter what we get, we’ll come back here to show you how it develops. Is that sort of information valuable enough to you?”
The monster trainer thought about it for a while and then nodded.
“Understood. I’ll take out all of the other eggs. Yes sir!”
“Okay, Sakura, you can switch back.”
“Got it!”
Sakura turned back into her angel form.
As always, Father had come up with the perfect strategy. Since he didn’t have the money, he offered information instead. I would have never come up with something like that on my own.
The monster trainer took out many of the eggs from the lottery crate.
“Now then, here is a lottery with only filolial and dragon eggs. Yes sir.”
The once-full crate of eggs was full of holes. Father looked at the pile and beckoned me over. He was trying to figure out if Filo-tan was among the eggs, no doubt. But I couldn’t remember exactly what she smelled like as an egg.
I could tell there were all sorts of strong smells mixed together in the crate. But as I learned in the previous go-around, this mix of smells alone wouldn’t guarantee that Filo-tan was among the eggs. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it.
I eliminated some of the eggs that were obviously not Filo-tan, leaving a few remaining. I pointed at the ones I was considering, and after Father thought about it for some time, he pointed at an egg.
We’re not buying all of them?
I glanced over at Father in surprise, but he shook his head and whispered that it could cause problems for us if we got too many. I supposed he meant that we would stand out too much.
There was also the problem: filolials’ enormous appetite. While they could acquire their own food, that would end up impacting the local ecology, which Father in the first go-around had also been highly concerned about. With the bioplants, we eventually managed to put that problem behind us, but we didn’t have the same agricultural system in place yet.
Very well. I’d yield to Father’s decision.
“I’ll take this one,” Father said to the monster trainer. “But this one and this one . . . and the ones over here, I want you to save them for me. I’ll buy them later.”
“Of course. Yes sir.”
Once again, the perfect plan! I have never seen Father err, I say, not ever!
Certainly, things will turn out differently from the last time, where I simply bought every last filolial and still Filo-tan wasn’t among them. Since the monster trainer was keeping some of the eggs on hold for us, we also reduced the chances that someone else could buy Filo-tan and snatch her away, in case the first egg wasn’t Filo-tan.
“Since I see that you already have some filolials in your possession, I assume that you are already aware of the registration process, yes sir.”
Father placed the egg in the monster trainer’s incubator.
“If it doesn’t hatch properly, I’ll consider it a breach of contract and come for a remuneration,” Father said.
“I tip my hat to you, heroes!” the monster trainer said. “You never miss a beat when it comes to negotiating.”
Father definitely impressed the monster trainer. It was a completely different atmosphere compared to when I came last time.
But I could tell that Father was reaching his limit for playing along with the monster trainer. His tone had started to sound strange.
“I take verbal promises seriously,” Father said. “If you play dumb, the Spear Hero is my slave, and he’ll do whatever I tell him to do to you.”
“The Spear Hero is your slave? Surely heroes can’t become slaves!”
“Hmph. Well, there’s no binding magic on him. But he does whatever I tell him to. Right, Motoyasu?”
“That is 100% true,” I proclaimed. “If Father so commands it, I will see it through, no matter what!”
If Father so commanded, I, Motoyasu Kitamura, after stealing every last one of the monster trainer’s filolial eggs, would happily burn this tent to the ground, I say!
“Amazing! You are even better than I thought you were, Shield Hero. You even took another hero as a slave! Yes sir!”
Father paid the monster trainer the 200 silver coins. And now we had another filolial egg in our possession.
Father let out a long sigh after we left the tent. “Man, that’s always rough. I can talk on his level, but I don’t like the guy in the least.”
“You really made him like you, Big Bro,” Keel commented.
“He’s not difficult to play, but the longer I have to do it, the more I get scared about getting pulled into his world.”
“It is remarkable,” I said. “He was cold and reserved to me in the last go-around.”
Father shrugged and nodded knowingly. “Well, you’re you, Motoyasu.”
What exactly did he mean by that?
“He was nice to you, but he totally gives me the creeps!” Keel said.
“I feel the same,” Father said.
“I hate it in there,” Sakura said.
Nevertheless, just as Father had told me in the first go-around, there was no doubt that it was an amazing store. There were other good places to acquire filolials, but still . . .
“Now that you mention it, he’s pretty different from the other nasty merchants. He’s got his own kinda weird atmosphere,” Keel said.
“What do you mean?” said Father.
In Melromarc, there is a custom of enslaving demi-humans. In the first go-around, I visited other monster trainers as well, besides just the one that we just went to. If I had to put my finger on it, there was a clear difference in how this monster trainer and the rest of them treated their slaves.
“Before you bought me, there were even times when I got whipped by other demi-humans!” Keel snarled. “I don’t know if they wanted to keep me or I just didn’t sell, but they were laughing and smiling when they hit me!”
“That’s awful . . .”
That monster trainer, while he didn’t exactly treat his slaves well, at least saw them as valuable and would never whip them. He also had a few brawny guys as his workers, as opposed to the other monster trainers, who tended to use demi-humans to do the dirty work. Perhaps he was more moderate in some ways.
“But that was all before I ended up at that guy’s shop,” Keel continued.
“So it sounds like that monster trainer doesn’t use a hierarchy of slaves to control one another,” Father said. “I get the sense that he would leave any abusive treatment to the customers.”
“He’s not the worst, but he sure is creepy,” Keel said.
“You’re not wrong there,” Father said.
“So what shall we do next?” I inquired.
“Shouldn’t we go back to Riyute to help with more of the cleanup?” Father suggested. “We ended up leaving yesterday just after everything finished, and there’s no way the soldiers would’ve done anything to help, right?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” I declared. “But since you say so, Father, I think it would be prudent to go and see.”
“That settles it, although since we’re not planning to come back to the Melromarc castle town anytime soon, why don’t we go visit the old guy first before we head over? I want to thank him for the weapons.”
“An excellent idea. Then let’s get going!”
We left the back alley and went to say hello to the old weapon shop guy. Father gently open the door and called out to him. The rest of us waited outside.
“Wouldn’t ya know! If it isn’t you kiddos! I heard you kids did some great deeds!”
“More or less,” Father said. “But it was only thanks to the weapons you made us.”
“I’m happy to hear it,” he said. “Anything I can do for you today?”
“Oh no, just stopping by to say hello . . .” Father trailed off. “Well, we did get some money from Melromarc, so it might not be a bad idea to get some more weapons made.”
“What kind of weapons this time?”
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it.” Father scratched his head. “I figured we wouldn’t be back for a while, so it made sense to say hi before we left. We’ll see you next time.”
“Wait now, wait now!” the old guy exclaimed. “I remembered something!”
As soon as Father turned to leave, the old guy stopped him. Whatever could it be?
“What is it?” Father asked.
“I have a colleague who wanted to thank you for what you did in the wave of destruction,” he said. “He wanted to at least see you.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Father said.
“He said that thanks to you kids, Riyute managed to avoid the worst of the damage. And he doesn’t want to get back to his merchandise without thanking you first.”
“He feels like he owes us something?” Father asked. “Well, that’s really not necessary. That would mean that we owe you something for all the help you’ve given us.”
“No, no, you’ve done plenty for me. There was the thing with Tolly, too, and all.”
“And you’ve already sold us so much good stuff for cheap,” Father said.
“All I want to do is do a good job. Favors don’t come into it.”
“All right. Fine with me.”
Father and the old guy were like fast friends. He was a good man. Father trusted him in the first go-around, after all.
“So who is the person who wants to thank us?”
“It’s the man who runs the apothecary and the woman who runs the magic shop,” the old guy said. “You been there?”
“The apothecary? Yeah, we went there a few times before we started our peddling. And we went to the magic shop when we got Sakura’s clothes. Okay, we’ll go there.”
We left the weapons shop and went over to the apothecary.
“Excuse me, the man from the weapons shop told us to come over here . . .” Father called out to the owner. I supposed Father was holding back since we had only come a few times before. But the owner had a kind expression, very different from what we had seen before.
“So you already heard?” he asked. “Well then, this won’t take long. You saved the life of one of my relatives in Riyute. He said he wanted to do something to help you.”
“Oh, no kidding.”
It seemed like the owner planned to give us some recipes for medicine. Father had mentioned that he had been practicing the Melromarc language and had just started to be able to read a little. I took a quick glance at what he gave us: a book chock-full of lists of medicinal ingredients and their uses, how to mix them properly together and in what ratios, the differences between different herbs, and much more.
“I’ll also give you some more advanced recipes,” the owner said.
“Wow, are you sure?” Father asked. “This seems . . . so valuable. Aren’t these secret recipes?”
“Aren’t you the ones who saved our village from being destroyed? For that, these recipes are fair payment.”
“Okay, if you insist.”
“Anyway, I’ve seen you taking a peek at us make our medicine. This is your chance to learn the recipes officially.”
Father looked taken aback. So he had been watching them make the medicine to learn how to make it himself. The apothecary owner must have heard that Father was selling medicine from the old weapons shop guy and figured out what was going on.
“Y-yes, of course! I’ll keep that in mind.”
“From what I’ve heard about your operation, I have no problem with it.”
The book would definitely be useful. When we made them by hand as opposed to with our weapons, there was a clear difference in quality. It would help pass the time in the carriage to learn to make the medicine from scratch. But since we were spending a lot of time leveling up in Siltvelt, we could always just let our weapons handle it in the end. Father was so fastidious, so he’d likely learn the recipes to perfection, I say.
“I hate medicine! It’s too bitter!” Kou said.
“Then all I need to do is rub medicine all over me so you’ll stop trying to eat me,” Keel said.
Father turned around to spot Kou and Keel sniffing the various medicines.
“What are you two doing?”
Yuki was smelling the perfume, and Sakura looked like she was about to fall asleep.
“What a marvelous perfume,” Yuki said.
“So you sell perfume as well?” Father asked the owner.
“The best of the best. The recipe’s in there as well, so give it a try if you’re interested.”
“Of course. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Did you visit the magic shop yet?”
“Not yet,” Father said. “We’re headed there next.”
“Be careful,” the owner said. “I never know what that cheapskate is up to.”
“I thought she seemed like a nice lady.”
“That’s just what she wants you to think,” he responded.
“G-got it . . .”
Dealing with the merchants and shop owners is Father’s specialty, I say. There’s no one who would be able to take advantage of him.
When we got to the magic shop, the pig who was apparently the owner appeared to call out to Father in a friendly manner.
“Oink oink!”
Unfortunately, I hadn’t the slightest idea what she was saying.
I hate dealing with pigs who have business smarts. I never understand what they’re saying. But was she really up to something here? All I could register was a bunch of snorting and squealing, as per usual.
“Thank you so much for your help with Sakura’s clothes,” Father said. “So did you need something from us?”
The pig oinked a few times.
“What about magic types?”
A few more oinks.
The pig was looking at Keel, I noticed.
“So you want to see what kind of magic Keel is capable of?”
“Huh? I can’t use magic,” Keel said.
“Oink oink oink!”
Father picked up Keel and held her up so that the pig could divine her magical potential with a crystal ball. After she was finished, Father looked over at me.
“Motoyasu, do you want to learn any magic?”
“I can already use magic, Father,” I declared.
Up to the powerful Liberation-class magic reserved for the heroes, I say! There was no need for me to pay any attention to what was going on at the moment.
The pig appeared to have oinked something else at Father.
“You want to see his magic?” Father asked. “Motoyasu, can you use some spell or something that is harmless?”
“No problem. Here it goes.”
My magic types were fire and healing. I couldn’t use the type of powerful healing magic that Father could, but I went ahead and chanted a high-level healing spell.
“Liberation Fireheal!”
The pig oinked and squealed and fell backward in shock.
“A-are you okay?” Father asked, rushing over to the fallen pig.
The pig stood up and crossed her arms, shaking her head.
“She says your magical power is incredible, Motoyasu,” Father said.
“Not nearly as amazing as your own magic, Father,” I said.
However, I must admit, I was the best when it came to offensive spells. But in terms of basic healing spells, I had a long way to go.
If some simple magic was this surprising, there wasn’t really any point in showing her anything else.
Lazy pig oinked at the other pig, who oinked back.
“Yes. Motoyasu and Elena here can both use magic, so we don’t really need to learn anything new at the moment.”
I forgot to mention that Lazy Pig had joined up with us again. As usual, she kept yawning.
The pig oinked and pointed at the filolials.
“Motoyasu, should Sakura and the others learn some magic?”
“They know magic by instinct, so I’d say there’s no need.”
Filolials even know powerful magic like Drifa-class spells naturally. Depending on the situation, you might want to teach them some other magic too, but I had never felt the need.
“Oink oink.”
“Yep, so just me and Keel. Why are you asking this?”
The magic shop owner gave a few books to Father.
“Is this what you recommended for us to buy before?”
“Oink oink.”
“I see. Thank you so much!”
From what Father told me later, it was her way of thanking us for protecting Riyute village.
Finally, the pig handed Father a crystal fragment. It caught a flash of light, and Father blinked, examining it.
“And what is this? It feels strange . . . I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
“Oink oink.”
“Oh, a fragment of a magic jewel? Thank you. So it’s useful for learning magic. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Oink oink oink!”
The pig clapped Father on the back enthusiastically. She seemed very informal.
“Uh, y-yeah, my bad!” Father stammered.
So we left the magic shop behind. We loaded the book. Father got into the carriage and wiped the sweat off his brow.
“They’re all so nice!” Keel said.
“Yep. It looks like we’ve really started to gain their trust. It feels good to help people, but also a bit weird that these people have gone so far out of their way to help us.”
“You just need to repay kindness with kindness, I say!”
“You’re right. So after we go clean up Riyute, back to our selling, then.”
Keel grinned. “So we’re gonna go back to selling medicine and helping people?”
“That’s right. We’re going to keep at it, help as many people as we can, and, just like I told Ren, see if we can change this country from the inside!”
“Let’s go!”
A cheer of support rose up from everyone in the carriage, and we set off.
It seemed like everything was going well. There were some small differences from the first go-around, but I felt confident that we were headed in the right direction. As Father had said, we were off to help more people!
Just as we expected, the streets of Riyute were filled with the corpses of monsters. The villagers were in the middle of gathering the corpses and dragging them to one pile.
“Kou, you wanted to eat them, didn’t you?” Father asked. “Do you still want—” Father stopped suddenly and looked over at the remains of the chimera.
The remains were crumbling and missing a lot of parts—people appeared to have taken plenty more parts from the monster after I had finished with it.
“It looks pretty much taken apart at this point, but is that the boss?”
“Indeed,” I said.
“So you took the head, right? But it looks like the villagers are having trouble.”
Father got off the carriage and went over to meet them. He talked with them for a minute and then gestured to me.
“They’re having trouble getting rid of it, so let’s help out. Motoyasu, can you help me take this thing apart?”
“Leave it to me, I say!”
So Father and I quickly took the chimera remains and cut them up. My spear was so sharp that it easily cut through the chimera’s bone. And if necessary, we could’ve just added everything to our weapons. Like an interdimensional trash box.
“I want to give some remains to the villagers, so can you get the meat off the bones?” Father asked me.
“No problem,” I said.
I disemboweled the beast, added the organs to Father’s shield, and separated the meat. We put some of it into Father’s shield. But what should we do with the rest? Father looked conflicted.
“Can we really eat this stuff? It might be good for the new filolials’ feed.”
“Hmm . . . The meat is a little tough for filolials, I must say.”
“We can just process it, so there should be no problem.”
I supposed so. There were various kinds of monster meat, but they tended to be pretty chewy. It was remarkable that Father was able to figure out what to do with the remains of a monster he had never even seen before. Since chimeras were a combination of multiple beasts, I wondered if we would be able to eat it. Well, they did sell mixtures of ground beef and pork back in the Japan I’m from, so surely it wasn’t an impossibility.
“Oh Motoyasu, did you destroy the ranch fence? You should probably go apologize for that.”
“I’ll do that right now! Don’t worry about me!”
I certainly had destroyed the fence in order to save the lives of the filolials there. But no matter the reason, I ought to apologize. I got onto Yuki’s back and rode over toward the ranch.
“I came to apologize for breaking your fence yesterday,” I called over.
“Oh, it’s the Spear Hero!” The rancher came over with a warm expression.
“I did it to try to save the filolials, but nonetheless, I apologize from the bottom of my heart for destroying your fence with magic, I say!”
“I was so busy running to save my own life that I ended up forgetting about all my monsters here! But thanks to you, they’re unharmed. No need to apologize.”
“So all the filolials managed to escape unharmed?”
“Yes, as soon as the monsters were gone, they all came back here.”
Filolials were truly unmatched in terms of intelligence. They understood who their owners were.
“That is most important to me,” I said.
“Thank you,” the rancher said.
I laughed. “Filolials are the jewels of this world. I only did the right thing, I say!”
“Gweh! Gweh! Gweh!”
The filolials rushed up to the fence to greet me. Yuki raised her hand and saluted.
When I got back from the ranch, Father was scratching his head about how to load the rest of the chimera remains on to the carriage. I think that Father had given some of it to the villagers, but there was still just so much left.
“I can load that onto the cart that we got from the villagers,” I suggested.
“Oh really? That’d be great, I guess . . . Is one filolial going to be enough to pull both the carriage and this extra cart?”
“Oh, no problem. Even in angel form, a filolial could carry both the carriage and an extra cart easily.”
“Naturally!” Yuki said, and the filolials chirped their agreement.
The single carriage was actually more troublesome since it was almost too light for them.
“Great, then let’s go with that.”
So we loaded the rest of the chimera meat in a pile onto the cart.
A large group of villagers came over to us. “We cannot thank you enough,” one of them said to Father, bowing.
“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Father asked.
“Nothing,” he replied. “Our buildings escaped undamaged thanks to your efforts, and besides getting rid of the monster corpses, we’ve been able to return to normal life.”
“No lasting harm is what matters most,” Father said, smiling. “We appreciate you putting in a good word for us at those stores over in the castle town.”
“Not at all. You’re the ones who protected us. I’m also glad that the Shield Hero and Spear Hero were different from the rumors that were spreading around. We’re the ones who should be doing whatever we can to thank you.”
“We gladly accept your thanks,” Father said. “All right then, stay safe!”
Another villager hurried up to Father just as we were about to leave.
“Excuse me, Shield Hero!”
“What is it?”
“Isn’t there anything else we can do to help?” he asked. “If you’re going to embark on a journey peddling, we could help you get a commercial bill of passage.”
“Thank you, but we already have one.”
“I see, that’s good to hear. Please take care. Thank you, Shield and Spear Hero!”
All of the Riyute villagers gathered to see us off, and we finally departed.
“So it seems like I probably got a peddling pass in the first go-around from the Riyute villagers here,” Father commented.
“You think so?”
“Most likely. It just kinda clicked for me. This is where we got it. I think there was more damage to the village then than this time around, so I probably stayed a while to help them repair their village, and eventually they gave me the peddling pass. Doesn’t that make sense?”
Perhaps. I remembered that now was about the time in the first go-around when I first met Filo-tan. To be precise, two or three days from now, I believe.
I can still remember it so vividly. The first time I laid my eyes on Filo-tan. That was when it all really started.
At the time, I had just gotten some land from Trash and was still cooperating with the Crimson Swine.
“Father, I do believe we’ll encounter Itsuki and the Crimson Swine tomorrow or the day after. He’ll have just gotten land from the king.”
“Huh? Does that mean Riyute?”
Indeed, it was a domain that included Riyute. And for the purpose of restoring the land, the Crimson Swine had decided to institute a heavy tax. That’s when we encountered Father and his companions. When the Crimson Swine realized things weren’t going to go her way, she made Filo-tan race against her knight’s dragon.
That’s when I first saw Filo-tan. Something came over me, and I just started laughing.
Even now I’m not quite sure why I laughed so much. It really was a mystery.
Most likely, I laughed so much because I had a totally incorrect image of filolials before meeting one. I had assumed that horses and knight’s dragons were superior, but the moment I saw a filolial—the moment I saw Filo’s beautiful color and shape—everything changed.
Before that, I had probably foolishly assumed that having a white dyed with pink as opposed to a monotone looked cheap.
Oh, my Filo-tan, how delightful your lovely colors are even in my mind!
Simply remembering her is the pinnacle of joy.
Filo-tan punished abusive, guffawing me with a hammer-strong kick straight into my nether region. I was sent flying like a mighty spaceship blasting off, and as the world drifted gently by, I felt as if my body had been seared by a mighty thunderbolt.
My beloved Filo-tan, wherever could you be?
“Is something wrong with Motoyasu? He doesn’t seem like he’s here,” Sakura said.
“He’s okay,” Father said. “He seems happy to me.”
“Spear Bro, what are you thinking about? Something tasty?”
“Why don’t we add some Keel sauce?” Father said with a grin.
“Hey, stop making that joke!” Keel shouted. “Arf! Arf!”
“Oink . . .”
Watching the conversation from across the carriage, Lazy Pig let out a long sigh.
“So Itsuki and the princess might be on their way here, huh?” Father mumbled to himself, deep in thought. “Based on Itsuki’s personality, I normally wouldn’t expect him to go along with a hefty tax, but you never know. Maybe we’d be better off just getting out of their way and let him oppose it. We’ll keep watch for two or three days, and if anything happens, we’ll just have to do what we can. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Got it!” I declared. “We’ll see if Itsuki is really on the side of justice!”
“I’m just hoping that Itsuki isn’t as dumb as he seems,” Father said. “By the way, Motoyasu, that new egg we got, who’s going to be the owner?”
“I despise dragons.”
“Okay, but I think it’s going to be a filolial. Do you want to raise it?”
A good question indeed . . .
“Understood! Then I shall register the egg, I say!”
“Maybe there’s a way to co-register it or something, but it’s probably safer for you to do it yourself.”
I went ahead and completed the registration, and we spent the rest of the day clattering down the road in the carriage.
We didn’t hear anything about Itsuki and the Crimson Swine taking over the domain. Maybe the Crimson Swine figured out Itsuki’s personality. The idea that her manipulation skills were getting even better was a nauseating thought.
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