Chapter Four: Experts Know Best
It was the day after we encountered the moles.
“All right, should we head for the dragon hourglass now?” Father asked me.
“At once, Father!”
I activated Portal Spear and sent us to Siltvelt. We set out for the dragon hourglass. It was located in a big building that looked like a church, similar to where the dragon hourglass in Melromarc was. I recalled fondly how Father had helped Yuki and the filolials class up in the previous go-around. With heroes as their companions, filolials also shed marvelous large feathers. But unfortunately, we didn’t have any feathers this time around.
We entered the church with the dragon hourglass and went up to the reception area. It didn’t appear like the people inside were particularly religious or anything.
“Excuse me,” Father said. “We’d like to perform the class-up ceremony here.”
“Letter of permission?” the receptionist demanded.
How rude. I supposed Siltvelt was known for its discrimination against humans. For showing Father such blatant disrespect, swiftly murdering this impudent receptionist was not out of the question. Disrespect toward Father is a crime punishable by death, I say.
“Uh . . .” Father paused. He pulled what the Siltvelt emissary had given us out of his pocket and handed it over to the receptionist.
At first the receptionist mechanically glanced down at the forms but then stared back up at Father with disbelieving eyes.
“L-Lord . . . Lord Shield Hero?”
“Yeah, that’s me. Need proof?”
Father held up his shield and chanted Air Strike Shield.
“Will that do?”
“Of . . . of course! Then before the class-up, please, allow me to take you to the castle—”
“Sorry, but we’re traveling here in secret. The people over there are already aware of our plans.”
“Very . . . very well then, if you so command. It’s written here as well, but it seems that you are in the midst of attempting to change Melromarc from the inside.”
“Yup. That’s why no one can find out about what we’re doing. We can only head to the Siltvelt castle after we finish things on our end. Got it?”
We were here to level up in secret, I say. Of course, the top brass in Siltvelt would want to meet us if they found out we were here, but then we might get pulled into all sorts of avoidable trouble, so Father was smart to try to evade.
“U-understood.” The receptionist bowed. “I am here to serve, oh Mighty Spear Hero.”
“Sorry about that.”
“In that case, which of you needs to class up?”
“Okay, Keel.”
“Oink!”
At Father’s direction, Keel stepped forward and raised a hand without any hint of shyness.
“Please, this way,” the receptionist said, to which Keel responded with a few nervous oinks.
“Oh, you don’t understand the Siltvelt language?” Father asked Keel. “I forgot that my shield was automatically translating everything for me. He’s saying to come with him.”
Father translated the receptionist’s explanation to Keel. They went to the hourglass and Keel touched it. The hourglass faintly glimmered, and they commenced the class-up process.
“Once you close your eyes you should start to see it,” Father said. “I can’t decide your future for you, so think carefully and decide for yourself.”
Keel oinked once in contemplation and then triumphantly.
Father did always have the policy of leaving class-up decisions up to the individual. I remember Father giving me the freedom to class up as I wished.
So Keel’s class-up ended without incident, and we completed the ceremony for the filolials as well.
“So now you can all get even stronger, right?” Father said. “We have one week left until the wave of destruction . . . We’ll need to work hard, so keep at it!”
A chime of robust agreement rang out around the room.
With his newly classed-up comrades, Father decided to level up until we had to get back to the carriage. I went to collect more materials to power up Father’s shield and sell here in Siltvelt. Since Sakura had leveled up enough to help Father, I took Yuki with me.
It was important for us to save a lot of money, I say. There are power-ups that require an investment, for one, but more importantly, once we had finished cleaning up things here in Melromarc, I had to buy filolial eggs. A lot of filolial eggs.
There was a limit to how much money Siltvelt would just give me, after all. I needed as much money as humanly possible to have the best shot at finding my precious Filo-tan.
And then there was one big problem that I had forgotten about.
The next day, Keel and Yuki watched over the carriage while Kou went out with Lazy Pig to level up. We had just four days left until the wave of destruction.
But Keel was on all four knees in the carriage, groaning and focusing intensely.
“Yeah, like that!” Sakura chirped. “When I transform, I just focus really hard and get way stronger!”
“Sakura, I’m not sure if that’s a helpful explanation,” Father said.
“But Kou feels the same way!” Sakura said.
“What about Yuki?”
“That’s simply how it works,” called Yuki, who was pulling the carriage.
“What are you talking about, I say?” I inquired. I had been busy drawing a picture of Filo-tan.
Keel squealed and groaned about something or other.
“What is she saying?”
“She’s saying she wants to be able to transform so that you can understand her,” Father said.
That would certainly be the best possible solution, I say. She should’ve been able to transform by about now, but it seems like she couldn’t yet.
“Oink oink oink!”
Father shook his head. “Motoyasu said that you could transform into a dog. But maybe you actually can’t though.”
Lazy Pig and Kou had just gotten back. Lazy Pig grumbled a few exhausted oinks, to which Keel squealed back furiously.
“Hey, don’t start a fight, Elena,” Father said.
Apparently, Elena had said that even if Keel transformed, it didn’t mean that I would necessarily see her as a boy.
“I mean, I see your point,” Father said. “I’m trying to tell him that you’re a boy, Keel, so just keep at it.”
“How do you think we can get Keel to be able to transform?” Father asked.
“It seems like being around the filolials as they transform isn’t enough,” I said. I recalled that Keel could already transform by the time I had arrived at Father’s village, so I had absolutely no idea how she had developed the skill.
“Experts know best,” I remarked. “Perhaps we should go ask some demi-humans in Siltvelt how they do it?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s try that.”
Keel oinked in agreement. So we took Portal Spear back to Siltvelt. This time, Yuki and Lazy Pig kept an eye on the carriage.
“On second thought . . .” Father trailed off. He then raised a good point. If the Shield Hero just went up to a random demi-human on the street and asked them, they might raise a ruckus and alert the Siltvelt leaders. Of course, Father always had a way to escape. But we didn’t want anyone to know we were here if we could help it. The word might always leak back out to Melromarc. So it would be better to figure this out after we fixed things in Melromarc.
In which case it would make the most sense to pretend to be ordinary travelers and ask around that way. But how many random demi-humans could transform in the first place?
“I guess we have no choice but to ask around and find out,” Father said. “Motoyasu, just keep quiet.”
“Anything for you, Father!”
Keel oinked and followed after Father.
A few minutes later, we called out to a passerby.
“Excuse me. We think he has the potential to transform into a therianthrope, but would you happen to know how to do that?”
But the demi-human just cast us a suspicious glance and walked away. These bigoted passersby didn’t realize who Father was and ignored us as a result, even gripping their weapons and assuming a fighting stance. But since Father had excellent defensive powers, I wasn’t particularly concerned.
We went on calling out to different people that we passed. One appeared to be a wolfman.
“Huh? How to transform?” He glanced at Keel. “So you can’t transform? That’s too bad.”
At the least he had done us the favor of responding, I say.
“Do you think you’d be able to teach him?” Father asked.
“All right, sure.”
“Oink!”
So that solved things pretty easily. But a bigger problem quickly emerged.
“Hey, so what language is that guy even speaking?” the wolfman asked Father.
“What?” Father looked confused for a moment. “Oh . . .”
“Oink?”
We had forgotten. Keel spoke Melromarc’s language.
“I can translate,” Father offered.
“Can you translate magical terms too?”
“Well . . .”
“Sorry, in that case, it’s a no go,” the friendly therianthrope said and disappeared like all the rest.
We were in quite a pickle, I say. It appeared that transformation required some complicated magic that could be difficult to translate. At the moment, Father couldn’t use magic at all. We had to somehow find a demi-human that could transform and also spoke Melromarc’s tongue.
“Motoyasu, do you have any other ideas about how we can get Keel to transform?”
“I’m sure Big Sis’s Big Sis would be able to solve things, but . . .” I paused. In Father’s village, how many demi-humans had there been that could transform? Keel, of course. I could remember her transforming a number of times, I say. After that, it was Big Sis’s Big Sis, the orca demi-human. And then the tiger guy.
Between the two, I’d have to lean toward Big Sis’s Big Sis. Filo-tan trusted her, for one, and she took care to look after everyone in the village. I remembered that she was kind to the filolials and a very reliable person.
Huh? All of a sudden, I remembered someone else, a person who was pretty similar to Big Sis’s Big Sis. It was a tanuki therianthrope, someone who had been pretty close to Father, if I was remembering correctly.
Who the heck was that?
“Oink?”
“Come up with anything?” Father prodded.
“Someone from the same village as Keel,” I said. “An orca-like therianthrope, a fisherwoman named Sadeena, I say.”
“Oink oink oink oink!”
“Her name is Sadeena? Do you know where she is?”
“I couldn’t even begin to guess,” I declared. I hadn’t the slightest clue where Big Sis’s Big Sis could possibly be. She had already been there when I had arrived at Father’s village, so I had no idea when she had met and joined up with Father.
“I suppose we have no choice but to put off Keel’s transformation a little longer.” Father sighed. Just as he said it, we could hear Keel’s stomach grumble.
And then I heard a loud rumble coming from Kou’s and Sakura’s bellies as well.
“Well, let’s go eat somewhere,” Father said.
“I’ll go slay some monsters, I say!”
“No, we can go to a tavern or something, and we’ll go ask around if anyone’s seen Sadeena while we’re at it,” Father said.
“Of course, Father!”
So we went straight to the nearest tavern. Siltvelt had plenty of nocturnal demi-humans, so places tended to get crowded at night, but even though the sun was still up, there was a decent number of people in the tavern. While everyone else started eating, Father surveyed the interior.
Keel oinked a few times.
“Don’t worry about it, Keel,” Father said. “My job is to figure out stuff like this for us.”
“Oink . . .”
Just as they were chatting, Father’s face lit up as he saw something. He tapped me on the shoulder and pointed.
“Motoyasu! Look—look!”
“Whatever could it be, I say?”
When I looked in the direction he was pointing, I saw a panda therianthrope heartily guzzling liquor.
“It’s a panda!” Father said excitedly. “So there are even panda therianthropes in this world!”
The panda grunted and turned to us with an unpleasant expression. “Huh? Whaddaya want?” It stood up and thudded toward us.
What in the world was happening?
If that panda intended to do harm to Father, I, Motoyasu Kitamura, would lay waste to its vile existence.
But that panda . . . I had the strange feeling that I had seen it somewhere before, I say.
I seemed to remember the panda speaking to Big Sis’s Big Sis at some point.
“Calm down, Motoyasu,” Father said. “He doesn’t look like he wants to hurt us.”
Father calmed me down before standing up and bowing politely to the panda.
“I apologize,” Father said. “Since I’m from the faraway countryside, I’d never seen a panda therianthrope before and got overly excited.”
“Hmmm,” the panda grumbled. “So that’s why you pointed at me?”
It had a high voice. Perhaps it was actually female.
“I’m truly sorry.”
Then Keel oinked at the panda.
“Huh? You’re the one who pointed at me!”
“Oink! Oink oink!”
“I was just enjoying myself, drinking, and then you went ahead and interrupted, with your weird fancy clothes.”
“Oink oink oink oink oink!”
“So you’re wearing those clothes even though you hate ’em? Just take ’em off. It looks pretty wimpy to me.”
Keel was about to stand up but Father held her down. Sakura stood up at the same time and Father had to calm her down as well.
“Stop it! Everyone, calm down!”
Father turned back to the panda. “I just noticed it now. But since you were able to talk with Keel, does that mean you’re able to speak the languages of both Siltvelt and Melromarc?”
“Huh? I am a mercenary, so I can pretty much get by.”
“A mercenary, of course. So you’ve gone around to fight for different countries, right?”
“That’s what a mercenary does, ain’t it? And I’m a mercenary, so that’s the life I’ve lived.”
“Got it,” Father said, nodding. “I just have one question for you then. It seemed like you noticed me pointing at you, so you came over here . . . But can you explain why even before that, you were looking at Keel the whole time?”
Oho? Now that Father mentioned it, she had been staring at Keel for a long while. Did something about Keel annoy her? Or was she staring at Keel longingly, like Kou, who wanted to eat her tail?
“Father,” I said.
“What is it?”
I leaned over and whispered in his ear—my personal opinion of course.
“Oh, definitely,” Father said, nodding. “That’s definitely possible.”
By the way, I had this strange memory of the panda in front of us doing sketch comedy of some sort with Big Sis’s Big Sis, I say.
“Thanks. Let’s see what happens,” Father said to me and turned back to the panda, brimming with confidence.
Flustered, the panda was trying to answer Father’s question. “W-well, you see . . . I hate wimpy-looking things, that’s why!”
“Is that really your answer?” Father asked.
“What are you trying to say!” roared the panda.
Father produced the ribbon that Keel typically wore on the job and tied it into a bow. Then he handed it to the panda.
“It isn’t because it caught your eye, is it? I mean, what he’s wearing, of course.”
“It caught my eye because I hate it!”
“So why did you accept the ribbon I just gave you?”
The panda grunted and shoved the ribbon back to Father.
“You’ve got it wrong! I wasn’t looking at the damn clothes!”
“Motoyasu, can you make some cute clothes to suit our friend here?”
“I certainly can,” I responded.
Sometimes there are filolials who want to wear cute clothes even in their filolial forms, I say. If I know what size to make it, I can make any clothes at all, I say!
“He’s the one who made that outfit,” Father said to the panda. “He’ll make you some if you want. We’ll make you something, so please forgive us.”
“S-stop joking around! I’d never wear those wimpy clothes! They’d look terrible on me!”
Father was smiling brightly. Thinking back on my experiences chasing pigs, I felt like I somehow understood what was happening here. There were some pigs that cultivated a rough-and-tumble image and pretended to hate anything pretty, but deep down they loved girly stuff and actually owned lots of cutesy accessories. I could hear the panda’s real intention with the last sentence that slipped off her tongue—that they wouldn’t look good on her. Which meant the jig was up.
My suspicions had been correct, and Father had managed to rein the panda in perfectly.
“Really? I think they would look just fine on you,” Father said.
“Shut up!” shouted the panda. “Everyone would just laugh at me if I put something like that on!”
Father approached the panda and put a hand on her shoulder. It was like Father was examining her closely.
“Your fur is stiffer than it looks,” Father remarked. “You should wash it with soap or soy to soften it up. Then that outfit will practically suit you.”
“What do you think you’re saying?!”
“I just think a cuter outfit would suit you much better than rock-hard armor,” Father said.
Dumbfounded, the panda took several steps back. I couldn’t read her expression. She just looked flustered.
“I—I—I’m telling you to stop what you’re saying!”
Then a group that appeared to be the panda’s underlings started to chatter. “Are they trying to make the lady do something?”
“They’re trying to make her become a mascot or something. It’s like they’re trying to get her to sell wares in the countryside!”
“Are you trying to make me some sorta toy to show off?” the panda demanded.
“I think you’d become a lot more than just that,” Father said.
The panda turned around as if she had nothing more to say and walked back over to her underlings. Maybe she got sick of the conversation.
Then, with her back turned to Father, the panda tied the ribbon to her head.
“Whoa! What are you doing?” called out one of the panda’s gang.
“I thought it looked nice.”
“No! It looks awful!”
“Really? It seems fine to me.”
I had absolutely no idea what was going on. The ribbon looked okay, I guess.
I supposed they were just playing around. But I noticed that the panda’s underlings, rather than looking angry or surprised, had strange expressions on their faces.
“Isn’t it a little too weird?” one of the underlings whispered.
“It’s just . . . unexpected.”
“Milady’s got a nice face, so it does kinda suit her.”
The panda silenced them with a vicious glare. Her subordinates glanced away uncomfortably.
Breathing a heavy sigh, the panda turned back to Father.
“Look, I’m sorry about that. What are you all doing here anyway?”
“No worries,” Father said. “We were looking for a therianthrope that could teach Keel how to transform. Since you’re a mercenary, would you happen to know someone like that?”
“Transform? You don’t know? Where did you guys even come from?”
“Uh, we came from Melromarc.”
“That’s pretty much the center of anti-demi-human racism, ain’t it? I get it now. That’s why he uses the language of human supremacists.” The panda walked over to Keel. “Watch carefully. I’ll show you how to transform.”
In an instant, the panda turned into a pig. Father widened his eyes in surprise. Had he been expecting something different?
“You are cute after all! Those clothes would definitely look great on you!” he exclaimed.
The ex-panda-now-pig oinked and slapped Father in the face but only hurt her own hand. Of course, it was pointless to try and hit the Shield Hero.
Unfortunately, the moment the panda transformed, I lost all ability to understand what she was saying.
“No one would laugh at you! I’m being serious!”
“Oink oink!”
The pig slapped Father again, to little effect, and transformed back into a panda.
“You need to think carefully about what you say!” the panda said. “I’m never going to wear clothes like that!”
The panda grabbed Father’s shoulder and attempted to lift him up, but now that Father had powered up, he didn’t move an inch. Keel oinked and squealed in protest.
“Shut up! This guy won’t stop screwing around!”
“Milady’s right! Get ’em!” cried one of her underlings.
“You all better scram! Or else I’ll have no choice but to punish all of you!”
“No chance,” said Sakura, quickly coming closer to protect Father.
“It’s okay, Sakura,” said Father. “You too, Motoyasu, just watch and listen.”
“Oh, you’re asking for it now, ain’t you?”
The panda now tried to tackle Father with what appeared to be a bear hug, but even that didn’t move him an inch.
“What the hell?! This guy’s hard as a rock!”
“Satisfied yet? Is it my turn now?” Father asked. He pulled out a cloth and wrapped it around the panda’s neck like a little scarf. And then he wrapped another one around the panda’s head.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
The panda took a step back and yanked off the scarf.
“How many times do I need to tell you to stop messing with me?”
“I’m not messing with you,” Father insisted. “Men’s clothes just don’t look great on you.”
“That’s not the point, damn it!”
“Am I wrong? I just think you’re cute . . . In a sort of imposing way, of course, but cute. You could really do well switching back and forth between your demi-human and therianthrope form.”
Father had an honest smile on his face. The panda looked taken aback and sighed.
“I’ve had enough. Just stop trying to make me wear those wimpy clothes.” Meanwhile, the panda slipped the cloth that Father had wrapped around her neck into her pocket.
Father had won a battle with words alone, I say! Impressive as ever.
The panda then transformed into her pig form and started teaching Keel. She put her hand on Keel’s head and chanted some sort of spell. After finishing, as if Keel had known deep down all along how to do it, she transformed into a puppy.
“I did it! I finally did it!” she cried.
“That’s amazing, Keel!” Father exclaimed.
“How do I look? Do I look cool?”
“More cute than cool, to be honest.”
“Still? No way. I want to be cool like her!” Keel glanced at the panda, who was watching Keel with a peculiar expression on her face.
In my personal opinion, I agree with Father that Keel was on the cute side of the cute-cool spectrum.
Of course, the cutest of them all was none other than my beloved Filo-tan, I say!
“Hey, hey,” Keel asked the panda. “How do I become cool like you? Teach me how!”
“Well, to become like me, first you gotta ditch that frilly skirt . . .” The panda glanced at Keel’s maid outfit she had torn off after becoming a dog. “Wear tough armor, and fight a lot! That’s what it takes.”
“Got it! I’m gonna do my best!”
“Motoyasu, do you understand Keel now?” Father asked me.
“I completely understand now, I say. She finally stopped being a pig.”
“From pig to dog, huh? You really are a weird one, Motoyasu.”
“Yes! Finally, I’m a guy!” Keel said. Father frowned.
“Keel, I’m not sure if that makes you a guy to him,” he said.
“Whaaat? Why not?”
The panda interrupted the conversation. “There must be some reason that we met each other here,” she said. “Things have been pretty boring around here lately anyway. How about going monster hunting together?” The panda seemed to have cheered up considerably, I say. Maybe Keel’s compliments had cheered her up.
“Yeah, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do that until evening,” he said, nodding.
“Great,” the panda said. “Let’s do it!”
So a monster hunt limited to Siltvelt. I remember doing stuff like this back in the games I used to play. I would go monster hunting with a group of friends. This wasn’t much different, I say.
“I have something I need to take care of, so Kou and I will go separately,” I informed Father.
“‘Something’? All right, fine with me. Sakura!”
“Yeah!”
Sakura turned into her filolial form. The panda and her underlings all gasped.
“All right, let’s get going,” Father said. “Until the sun sets, let’s take care of some monsters wherever you think is best.”
“What in the . . .” The panda still looked shocked at Sakura’s transformation.
“Oh yeah, I haven’t asked for your name yet,” Father said. “My name’s Naofumi.”
“Me? I’m Larsazusa, but I’m going by Lars nowadays.”
“Nice to meet you, Lars.”
“Good to meet you too, Naofumi.”
Lars? That meant that Big Sis’s Big Sis did know her after all.
I approached the panda. “Don’t you go by Sasa?” I’m pretty sure that’s what they called her.
The panda gave me an ugly gaze that felt oddly familiar.
“I mean, maybe you could say it that way as well,” Father said.
“Oh? You don’t like Sasa?” I asked.
“Don’t you ever call me that again!” the panda demanded.
Hmm. I supposed that she hated being called that by anyone but people that she was really close with. It was a pretty cutesy nickname.
“Let’s get going,” Father called. With that, Father and the panda, now partners in crime, set out on their monster-hunting mission. Until they left, Keel kept excitedly asking me if I understood her, to which I repeatedly nodded yes.
After they left, I went monster hunting with Kou to level him up. I was glad that Father seemed to be enjoying the temporary company of the panda. The panda did seem like a reliable companion, I say.
When I got back, I found them all enjoying themselves at the tavern.
“Well, we better get going soon,” Father was saying.
“Next time we meet, let’s go monster hunting again sometime!” the panda said.
“Yep, it was a great time.”
“I had plenty of fun myself.”
“Thanks, Lars!” Keel called. “Next time keep teaching me how to be cool!”
“See ya!”
Father and the rest of them came over to me. Only Father would be able to build a great relationship with someone in such a short span of time!
“Well, back to Melromarc?” Father asked.
“At once, Father!”
Once we were out of sight, we went back to the carriage with Portal Spear.
“So what did you do, Motoyasu?”
“I was investigating how to grow a special type of bioplant in Siltvelt. You used them in the first go-around,” I explained.
“We were talking about that before, weren’t we?”
Lazy Pig glanced over in our direction and grumbled lazily.
How dare she interrupt our precious conversation! I strongly considered vaporizing her on the spot.
“Huh?” Father asked. “We can experiment with them on your family’s land, you say? I appreciate the suggestion, but we can’t afford anyone knowing what we’re up to. It might make us look bad.”
Father was right, I say. If we caused trouble, it would support the bad image that Melromarc was trying to project of Father. We had to avoid that at all costs.
“Oink oink!”
Lazy Pig appeared to be in agreement with whatever Father said as she oinked.
“So long as we succeed, it’ll be fine in the end. Well, I guess so . . . If you can guarantee us a place to grow it, then I suppose so long as we make good money, it’s fine.”
“Hey, Spear Bro! You understand what I’m saying now?” Keel asked me.
“How many times must I say it? I understand you, I say.”
“Keel, you must look even more tasty than before,” Father said. “Look at that drool coming out of Kou’s beak.”
“I’m not a piece of meat!” barked Keel at Kou.
“Kou, leave Keel alone,” said Sakura, squeezing Keel in a hug from behind. “I’ll protect him!”
Sakura had started to act like a big sister for everyone. You’d have expected that to be Yuki’s role, but maybe Sakura was better cut out for it?
“We’ve gotten off topic,” Father said. “So you grew a bioplant?”
“Yes, bioplants, I say! I took the letter of introduction we used at the dragon hourglass to a Siltvelt bioplant farm, and they gave me seeds.”
Those letters of introduction were really helping out, I say. Ordinarily, Father could just go himself to get them, but we were trying to keep him in disguise. Thinking back on what happened in the last go-around, I realized that people in Siltvelt gave Father far too much of a warm welcome. Caution never hurts.
Regardless, the next time we had some free time on our hands, we ought to go see if we could get some seeds. From my gaming experience, I had known that bioplants have been sealed in Melromarc since ancient times, so I had been able to get my hands on some. Ideally, we could harvest enough that we could use them as materials for our weapons, but I’m not sure how feasible that would be. With only one bioplant seed, you can’t unlock any new weapons or anything. We should experiment to find out how the weapons would respond.
“Did you remember something, Motoyasu?”
“Once you plant them, they grow extremely fast,” I said. “Besides that, I know pretty much nothing.”
“That sounds like we could make a ton of money selling them,” Father said.
“Indeed. That’s why we should experiment.”
I remember from previous go-arounds that because of the waves of destruction, food shortages had become a problem. I believe that’s the main reason Father was able to use the bioplants, since they allowed him to grow a tremendous quantity of food.
The problem of hunger is truly universal among all worlds, I say.
I had noticed that the price of goods was sharply on the rise at the moment. I recalled that in the first go-around, when Father first started cultivating the land for his village, the food shortage crisis was fairly severe. In the end, Father managed to solve the issue with his flourishing agricultural lands, of course. If we could get a bioplant into Father’s hands, it’d be nothing short of a money tree, I say!
It was no problem to go around selling medicine for cheap. That was as good as scattering Father’s graces around the land and boosting his reputation. Our top priority had to be gaining the trust of the people. I’m guessing that Father in the first go-around became such a popular figure in the same way.
“Why don’t you get some people from Siltvelt to help out and investigate bioplants, then?” Father said. “Do you want me to help too?”
“No need, Father. I merely sought your approval to move forward with this plan.”
“Well, sure . . . I have to say that the bioplants sound pretty interesting anyways.”
“All we have to do is regularly monitor their growth. We could always drop by to check things out when we leave Siltvelt.”
“So let’s just do that, then.”
“The biggest problem is that if it becomes clear that you’re the Shield Hero, you’ll get summoned to the Siltvelt castle.”
“I mean, it sounds like they might listen to me if I just say that I don’t want to be summoned,” Father said. “Based on what you told me about the last go-around, they arrange marriage proposals and try to poison Sakura, right?”
I did not want Father to have to worry. I recall how he exploded with rage when they attempted to poison Sakura. He looked pretty upset when I told him about it, so I doubted he trusted Siltvelt in the slightest. For that reason, I wanted to avoid the Siltvelt castle altogether.
“We only have a few days left until the wave of destruction,” Father said. “At the very least, I’d like to discredit Melromarc’s false rumors and try to stop any war.”
“Agreed on all accounts, Father.”
“And I know this is more about what happened after we have to deal with that Takt guy, but how on earth can we stop full-out war from happening?”
Our largest challenge lay there. Since I have no ability to identify pigs, if we were to defeat Takt, the best I could do would be to count how many allies he had. The soundest course would be simply to kill every last one of them.
If we moved forward in such a manner, when Takt tried to catch us in a trap, I’d turn the tables on him by killing them all in one fell swoop, fleeing the country, and hence avoiding war. The other option would be to try following what Father did in the first go-around and publicly execute Takt.
I’m sure there were other ways to proceed, but we hardly had the time to test them out.
Regardless, if we spent too much time in Siltvelt, war was practically guaranteed.
I also wasn’t sure whether or not we should expose the Claw Hero as an imposter. The best-case scenario would be to do nothing and not have to worry about it. As much as possible, I wanted to take advantage of being able to go to Siltvelt without actually visiting the castle. By this point, the Siltvelt brass probably knew that Father had been there a few times. We just didn’t want any strange encounters. And if they tried to force us to come, then we could just flee.
Since our objective was taking out Melromarc, Siltvelt’s long-time enemy, I felt fairly confident that Siltvelt’s leaders would ultimately let us do what we wanted.
“We just need to make sure that we’re well trained for when we do have to head to Siltvelt castle,” Father said.
“Right as always!”
And we spent the day planning and discussing in such a manner.
With three days left until the wave of destruction, we headed to the Melromarc castle town in need of supplies.
With the money we had earned from our peddling, we went to the familiar weapon shop. Lazy Pig and Kou watched the carriage for us in the meantime.
“Hey, you kids are back! How’re ya doing?” It was the old guy.
“Same as ever,” Father said. “We need some new equipment.”
“Hey, Mister!” said Keel, running up to the old guy, eyes full of pride. “Spear Bro finally started understanding what I’m saying!”
The old guy looked Keel up and down. “By that voice, you must be the slave . . . You’re Keel, right? Congratulations! You’ve become a fine therianthrope!”
“How about it? I look pretty cool, right?”
“More like an adorable pet!”
“Whaaaat? Get out of here. I’m a cool kid!” Keel grunted in frustration and Father patted her on the head. She really was a puppy, I say.
“Come on bro, don’t treat me like a baby.” Keel broke away from Father.
“All right, all right. We all know you’re cool, Keel,” Father cooed.
“Whatever.”
“Just have fun with who you are!” the old guy said to Keel. He turned to Father. “So what can I do for you this time?”
“Well, we came to a weapons shop, so I’d say we’re after weapons,” Father said.
“Naturally. So what do you want and for what price? We could also trade in your old ones for something.”
“Well, to start off, we could sell you these weapons that we stole from a thief way back when we started peddling.”
“I could also create some order-made weapons for you if you have good materials.”
“Wow, you do that too?” Father asked with a surprised smile.
“Now that’s a happy smile, kiddo,” the old guy said.
“Yeah, that’s great. I mean, to have something made out of the raw materials that you collected, wouldn’t you be bound to grow attached to it?”
“I certainly know the feeling.”
“Although, now that I think about it, we might not have much left out of what we collected in between peddling . . .” Father trailed off. He showed the old guy the ingredients we had collected and still had left in his bag.
“Hmm, I think I can do something with this,” the old guy said. “In fact, good stuff, better than your average equipment.”
“That would be wonderful.”
“No problem. So weapons or armor, which are you doing?”
“We should probably strengthen Keel and Sakura’s equipment,” Father said.
“What do you mean?”
“I want something sharp! Like the ones in Siltvelt—” Keel started to exclaim.
“Keel, zip it,” Father advised. He was right, as always. We couldn’t tell anyone we were fighting over in Siltvelt while we were here. Father and I were purposefully making sure to use different weapons in each country, using weapons we found as drop items over in Siltvelt. They had great attacking power, so I understood why Keel wanted to bring it up here. But if we disclosed that in Melromarc, they might send assassins after us or try to pull something weird.
“So for now, strengthen the weapons for Keel and the young lady?”
Father turned to me. “Motoyasu, are Yuki and Kou really fine as is?”
“Yuki and Kou have a monster fighting style,” I told Father. “I’ll get some equipment for them from the monster trainer.”
“So we’ll go there later?”
Excellent question, Father. I wouldn’t say the situation for Yuki or Kou was particularly urgent. It would be good to get some monster claws, but we had to strengthen the equipment for Father and the others. Worst-case scenario, I could probably use a claw or two from the drop items I collected.
“No need to worry about it now, I say.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely not, Father.”
I’d rate the necessity of claws for Yuki and Kou as precisely zero, in fact. If we were going to head someplace where they might need weapons to fight stronger enemies, I’d be able to take care of things regardless. After all, we were trying to stay out of dangerous situations in Melromarc, and it’d be good to have a bit more money to spare. So we didn’t need any weapons for Yuki or Kou after all! They had their claws and their beaks, as good as any weapon a human could ever wield!
“What would you like, young lady?” the old guy asked Sakura.
“Two swords, please.”
“Oh right, you also fight with two swords, don’t you?” Father said.
Now that he pointed it out, Sakura’s fighting style was totally different from the previous go-around. It meant that Sakura had to stay close to Father at all times for defense. But according to what Father told me, she could fight like a dancing breeze with two swords. In both angel form and filolial form alike, a powerful force, I say. I could hardly wait to see her and Father in action!
“With all that, I’ll also need some cash to finish the job,” the old guy said. “The trade-in won’t be enough.”
“We could also sell this sword we took from the thief,” Father said.
“What about you, Keel?” the old guy asked. “By doing something with a monster claw or fang, I could make something special for you. How about it?”
“I’m not some kinda monster! Sure, I bite, but not as my main weapon or anything!”
“So a human weapon, it is? What kind? I think anything light would work well for you.”
“Nowadays Keel has been using a dagger,” Father told the old guy.
“Yeah! Like one of Sakura’s swords, but shorter!”
“Kiddo, you’ve sure got a lively group here.” The old guy sighed.
So in the end the old guy was going to make four swords, two for Sakura and two for Keel. This was going to cut into our savings significantly. If Keel wanted two weapons, wouldn’t using a monster claw and a fang be the better option? I noticed that she tended to stay in her dog form nowadays, after all.
Father laughed. “I sure do. Oh, I just remembered.” He reached into his pockets. “We got this letter from someone for you. Do you happen to know him? It sounds like he also sells weapons here in Melromarc.” He handed over the letter we got from the axe-wielding mole.
The old guy examined the letter carefully.
“Beats me! Isn’t this from Tollynemiya?” And then the old guy let out a booming laugh and clapped Father on the shoulder. “I expected nothing less from you kids! I really appreciate you doing that for Tolly.”
“Which means that . . .”
“That’s right! They make the weapons that I sell! I owe you kids a little something extra.”
“But you’ve already done so much for us,” Father said.
“Don’t even think about it! I’ll get serious now. Don’t think about the price or worry about me. Just choose whatever you want to do with them. What do ya think?”
“Hmmmm.”
There was no need for indecision, I say! We also had the ingredients that I had collected for Father and that we had given to the old guy. A skilled craftsman could probably fool Father about the quality of a weapon. But the old guy was on our side here. He pulled out a blueprint of a sword design.
“I’ll use the materials you gave me to make swords for the young lady. For Keel . . . I’ll make one dagger and then give you another from my stock as a thanks.”
The old guy winked at me. It was my cue.
I responded by giving a thumbs-up.
“Last of all, we need to get you kids some armor,” he said.
“Motoyasu, don’t you think you should get some proper equipment?” Father asked me. I had some armor that we picked up as a drop item in Siltvelt, and we also had some that we got from the thief. The next step for my armor was to put together some gauntlets for my forearms, I say.
“Father, we must prioritize your armor,” I proclaimed.
“That’s it!” the old guy exclaimed. “Since you guys are around so many filolials, if you gather some filolial feathers for me, I can make great armor for you. I know it.”
“In fact, we’re already making careful use of them,” I told the old guy, showing him my creation: a beautiful cloak sewn out of filolial feathers! So long as I had my cloak, there was absolutely no further need for defensive armaments.
Naturally, I would much rather have made it out of Filo-tan’s feathers. But alas.
I made sure to ornament my armor with feathers from all of the filolials. Every time I put it on, I felt a spark of happiness.
It would be amazingly fun to have a feathered headdress, like something Native American, to put on and dash gallantly as the filolials pull the carriage across the plain, I say! Maybe the old guy could make me something as marvelous as that.
I proposed my idea.
“Well, I’m not sure if I could do something like that . . .”
“And why not? So long as you use filolial feathers, you can’t go wrong. And this is all that I have at the moment.”
In the first go-around, I gathered countless filolial feathers and made many different goods and spare pieces of equipment.
“Hey, Spear Bro, your eyes are really shining now!”
“Just like you, Keel, when it’s dinner time,” Father said.
“You’re telling me I look like that?”
“That’s exactly right. You look like the happiest person in the world.”
“My eyes don’t sparkle like that!”
Armor made from the feathers of filolials . . . there is nothing more beautiful in this world, I say.
If the old guy could make equipment out of filolial feathers, he was nothing short of a master craftsman.
That reminds me of how in the first go-around, Father had a pair of fluffy pajamas that closely resembled Filo-tan herself! I would love to get myself a pair of those. It would be the purest happiness to wear my very own Filo-tan draped around my body, I say! If only . . . if only . . . The problem was that I hadn’t the slightest clue where to get my hands on them.
“Uh, Motoyasu? I’m talking to you! Man, it’s hopeless. Once he gets into his own world there’s no coming back.”
“That’s just the way he is, huh? Well, with these ingredients, I could put together some rough barbarian armor.”
“‘Barbarian’? I suppose we can surprise everyone with how fierce I look.”
“That sounds rad!” Keel chimed in.
“I guess . . . I would really like to get some armor for you and Sakura.”
“I wanna breastplate!” Keel said.
Sakura shook her head. “That would be too tight on me,” she said.
“Too tight? Okay. Elena has her own weapons and armor so she’s fine for the time being.” Father turned to the old guy. “Okay, I’ll take that armor.”
“Got it. You’ve got the letter from Tolly, and you’re becoming reliable customers. Anytime.”
Father shook his depleted wallet. “After all of our hard work peddling, the money is gone so fast. Well, it’s all for the best!”
If Father was concerned about our finances, perhaps I ought to suggest raising the prices of our merchandise? Our current prices were far below market rate, I say.
We did have a potential solution on our hands with the bioplant idea. And we didn’t have all the time in the world after all. Our bigger goal was to stop Trash. The queen would be back in about six weeks, so we just had to stop him from taking over the whole world until then. After the second wave of destruction, he’ll come after us forcefully. But even if we get taken in for questioning, I could use Portal Spear to get to Siltvelt and bring back help.
“All right, I think this will make for a decent bargain,” Father said, concluding the order.
“Kids, I’m glad you could find reliable friends,” the old guy said.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Father said, nodding with a smile. It was a smile that shone like the sun, I say.
After we left the weapons shop, Father turned to me.
“So what should we do now?”
“How about going back to the dragon hourglass? We can get information about the coming wave of destruction there.”
“That makes sense.”
“The only thing is that I heard that in the first go-around, you went there the day before the wave,” I said.
“So I suppose we just went to confirm when the wave would arrive?”
Then I remembered something. “Aha, that’s when you met up with Ren and Itsuki. And myself, of course.”
The Crimson Swine and her lot had come to class up, I recalled. Ren and Itsuki probably came to class up their companions as well. As is a typical rule in MMO games, when players at low levels work only with other low-leveled players, it can take a while to get stronger. But when players work with people at much higher levels, they can power-level to speed up the process. Because I had leveled up Yuki and Kou so much, they and Father were already past level 40. I think I was also around level 40 by the first wave of destruction, but we had way more money and equipment this time around.
“I doubt we’d be able to really exchange information or anything, but wouldn’t it be good to meet up with them all just to see what Ren and Itsuki have been up to? Aren’t you curious?”
He raised a good point. Since I assassinated that vile Smoked Human, one of Itsuki’s companions, it would be wise to observe what kind of change might have occurred as a result. We could see if anything had changed due to Smoked Human’s absence or if maybe Itsuki himself was different this time around. I could only assume that he was working with the Crimson Swine. Surely, he wasn’t doing as much damage as I did with the Crimson Swine in the first go-around. Since the variable of Smoked Human was also a factor, I wanted to learn more.
I was also concerned about Ren. He would be far more inclined to distrust Melromarc in this go-around, and I had no idea what kind of differences that might create. Of course, in Ren’s case, the best scenario would be for things to stay exactly the same. If there were changes, we just had to respond accordingly. But I had definitely come to think that for the sake of gathering information alone, we had to meet up with Itsuki and Ren before the wave of destruction hit.
“Agreed,” I proclaimed. “So let’s slowly make our way over to the dragon hourglass, peddling along the way so that we arrive on the day before the wave of destruction.”
“I can also study reading the language,” Father said.
With that, we boarded the carriage and set off.
The day before the wave of destruction, we went back to the weapons shop. Father waved at the old guy, who was there waiting for us in the store.
“Hey! You’re back!”
“How’d it go?” Father asked. “Is everything ready?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “Check out the armor here.”
The old guy had done quite a number on the armor with the materials we had given him. He used them here and there to supplement and strengthen Father’s armor. With a base suit of armor already in place, the old guy could finish a custom set of armor in just a few days. He had also used the materials to strengthen Keel’s breastplate.
The new weapons glittered in the light. Keel and Sakura tried out their new swords, which, while appearing to be cheap, had peerless cutting ability.
“Thank you so much,” Father said.
“It really wasn’t a big deal,” the old guy replied. “Next time I’d love to make you a genuine set of custom armor.”
“Of course. We’ll need it at some point or another. When the time comes, I’m sure we’ll come back to place an order.”
“And I’ll be sure to fulfill that order!” The old guy laughed. “I heard the wave of destruction is coming tomorrow. Stay safe.”
“Don’t worry about us!” Keel barked. “I’ll crush ’em all with the swords you gave me! Thanks, bro!”
Keel was even more enthusiastic than Father, I say. Good for her, I supposed.
“Keel, don’t swing that in here. It’s dangerous!”
Sakura, meanwhile, was staring at her new swords blankly.
“This is sharp. I think?”
“Both of you need to be careful,” Father said, turning to them with a concerned expression. “If you lose focus, you’ll cut yourself wielding two swords.”
Sakura and Keel nodded.
“Don’t worry about it, bro!” Keel said.
I realized that Keel hadn’t changed back to her pig form even once lately. I supposed it was all better this way.
“All right, let’s get going, Motoyasu!”
“Yes, Father!”
“Come back again sometime, kids,” the old guy said.
“We’ll be back,” Father promised.
Next up, just as planned, we set out for the dragon hourglass.
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