Prologue: Peak Racing
“As long as I’m working on the clothes for the filolials, while I’m at it, I’ll make something for Keel as well,” I declared. “Father, can you tell me Keel’s size later?”
“Huh?” Father glanced at me. “While you’re at it? You make it sound like Keel is an afterthought.”
Father and I were in the midst of our peddling preparations with Keel. I really didn’t know anything about sizes, but I knew there would be no problem if I left it to Father’s judgment.
“And as for the style . . . how about a goth maid sort of look to help in the peddling?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Oink oink!?”
“Didn’t we talk about this before?” Father asked. “You’re going to be our salesman, peddling from a cart.”
“Oink oink oink!”
Keel shook her head like she didn’t approve.
“It’ll be fine,” Father said. “I know you’re not the shy type. It’ll be an easy job for you. And if you have any trouble, just let me know and I’ll teach you the ropes, so don’t worry about it.”
“Oink oink.”
Keel gave a slow, reluctant nod.
“Motoyasu, you’ll have to buy fabrics somewhere, won’t you?”
“I need a special type of material to make clothes for the filolials, I say!”
“What kind?”
“I use a special fabric that can expand or shrink when they transform!”
“So there are magical fabrics here,” Father said. “Do you know how to make clothes like that?”
“Of course,” I declared. “It’s used for therianthropes’ clothes for when they transform. You need to apply their magical power to a thread, and then once you make fabric out of that thread, you can create special clothes out of it!”
“It sounds expensive.”
“Not anything that I can’t handle.”
I could easily take care of it if I went to Siltvelt. I knew the perfect place over there. That night, I planned to take the filolials with me to that place and have them spin some special thread for me.
“Keel, do you want the same kind of special clothes?” Father asked.
“Oink oink!”
Keel was shaking her head back and forth, like she strongly disapproved.
I wondered if it was because she was still growing, afraid that it would be annoying if her size changed, since the clothes could only change when the wearer transforms, not if they grow in the normal sense. Now that I thought about it, once filolials reach a fixed size, they stop growing. So there would never be a situation in which their old clothes got too small.
“It’s because Keel is still growing,” I informed Father. “So I’ll just make some clothes for Keel out of normal fabric this time around.”
“Fine with me. I’ll let you take care of it,” Father said.
“Leave it to me, I say!”
After all, I’d made perfect clothes for Yuki and the other filolials countless times before. With all of my practice, making the goth maid outfit for Keel would be no problem at all.
So after Father told me Keel’s size, I went to a Melromarc dressmaker and bought some fabric. Then we started off to the Melromarc castle town to get a place to stay!
I climbed on Yuki’s back. Kou was waiting behind us. Father and Keel were riding on Sakura’s back.
“Okay, see you later,” Father said.
“Until next time!” I cried.
Since the Siltvelt emissary had promised to get us a peddling license within a few days, until then I figured it was up to me to take care of getting the carts for us to use. A carriage that a filolial could pull would be just what we needed.
I calculated that we needed to use our peddling to buy ourselves at least two months of time for training.
The filolials were plenty strong, so I could get us a sturdy carriage that could haul a heavy load.
And yet, I also believed in the importance of comfort, especially in a carriage. I needed something that would help Father and Keel get used to life in a carriage. And that meant that a normal carriage was the way to go!
A normal carriage would also conceal our true strength, so if it helped us hunt a few more bandits along the way, all the better, I say!
While I pondered such important matters, Yuki quickly went ahead, ignoring the monsters along the way and resisting her hunger.
I quickly got a room at an inn and then made clothes for Keel in the stables with Yuki and Kou.
“Kweh?” Yuki and Kou were playfully poking at the torn ends of the unused fabric with their beaks in amusement. What a magnificent scene!
“Well, almost time to go,” I declared.
I turned to Yuki and Kou as they continued to play and spoke to them.
“Filolials, transform into your angel form!”
Emitting a pale light from their feathers, Yuki and Kou changed into their angel forms. They looked the same as they had in the previous go-arounds. Yuki was silvery and white-haired. She just oozed refinement! Kou had yellow hair and a mischievous expression.
“Are we going to play a game, Motoyasu?” Yuki asked.
“A game! Let’s play!” shouted Kou.
“Let’s see. Well, first things first, can you put on these pajamas for the time being?”
“At once!”
“Yeah!”
“When you transform, they’ll tear apart, so be careful.”
It was still the middle of the day, but it would be smart to pretend like we were staying overnight at the inn. That way, I could take Yuki and Kou in the portal to Siltvelt with me.
“So what game should we play?” I asked them.
“Hmm . . . I wanna ride on your shoulders!” Kou exclaimed.
“Go right ahead.”
“Hey, only Kou? That’s no fair,” Yuki said.
“You’re up next, Yuki,” I promised.
So I hung out with Yuki and Kou until night fell. By that time they had reverted back to their normal form, so I paid the innkeeper for a room and brought Yuki and Kou up with me. It was more expensive than just using the stables, but I wanted to make sure that no one found out that they had left.
“You understand what we’re doing, right?” I asked them.
“It’s as clear as day,” said Yuki.
“Yeah!” said Kou.
So Yuki and Kou pretended to sleep, and I prepared to activate the portal skill like I had done before. I suppose they already knew the deal because we had done it several times in the past. We had to get stronger without the evil Church of the Three Heroes knowing what we were up to, I say!
So we all got into bed and pretended to be sound asleep. Then we slowly, stealthily slipped out of bed.
Kou was snoring loudly.
“Kou, come on now. You’re not actually supposed to sleep!” Yuki shook Kou in exasperation.
Once we had pretended like we were asleep in bed, I activated the portal skill and sent us flying off to Siltvelt.
Suddenly, the world around us changed to the Siltvelt castle town. Siltvelt was a country of demi-humans, and no small number of them were nocturnal. So there were plenty of stores open late at night, unlike Melromarc. Some stores, of course, were only open in the day, but not nearly as many as in Melromarc.
I looked around the castle town for a good clothing store and went into a place that was able to turn magic into thread.
“I would like you to turn these filolials’ magical power into thread for me,” I declared to the storekeeper.
“If you please!” chimed in Yuki.
“Appreciated!” chirped Kou.
“Uh, umm . . .” The storekeeper looked puzzled to see a human alongside two filolials, but once he saw how lively Yuki and Kou were, he agreed. When Yuki and Kou transformed with a poof, the storekeeper gasped. Well, there didn’t seem to be any problem to me! And it turned out that you could get magical thread for cheap at a genuine store like that. So now I just had to turn the thread into fabric.
I couldn’t do it like Father could, but I had a thought: should we go ahead and find a trader to get some provisions and carriages?
No—for now, Yuki and Kou’s clothes had to take priority. I’d get that thread turned into fabric as soon as I could! It wasn’t that it took a particularly long time to do, but if I made the clothes themselves on top of getting the fabric, it would already be morning by the time I finished. Whatever! I would have plenty of time to finish. We’d have to figure out a plan for later while we were doing our peddling, so I’d be able to finish making the clothes then.
So once we got the fabrics prepared, we went back to the inn in the Melromarc castle town.
“Okay, now you can sleep for as much as you want,” I told Yuki and Kou.
“Motoyasu, aren’t you going to sleep?” Yuki let out a big yawn.
“Oh, I’m certainly going to sleep. But before that, I want to get the basting done for your clothes, I say!”
“In that case, is it okay if we watch you until you fall asleep?” Yuki asked.
“Of course, I say!”
As I started sewing the base of the fabrics together, I gradually heard Yuki and Kou breathe deeply and fall asleep. Kou started snoring again.
Since we were going monster hunting every day, too, we were all exhausted.
Sewing isn’t so bad if you get used to it, but I stopped a little early to get some rest.
But first I measured the fabrics against the sleeping Yuki and Kou. Yes! They fit perfectly.
I, Motoyasu Kitamura, can tell the clothing size of a filolial by a single glance, I say!
While thinking about such important matters, I climbed into bed alongside Yuki and Kou and fell asleep.
That night, I had an amazing dream about my reunion with Filo-tan.
Father was smiling at me brightly too.
I would walk through water, through fire, through hell itself and back for them, I say.
Father and I hadn’t planned to meet up the next day. But I realized that now was about the time that Sakura would turn into her angel form. Would it be okay for me to see them?
Well, it’s not like Father would get mad at me or anything.
“Motoyasu, what are we going to do today?” Yuki asked.
Nowadays we were going hunting at night. It was getting stressful to have to be sneaking around all the time.
But we couldn’t afford to let anyone see our true strength. Soon enough I’d be sure to put an end to Trash, the Crimson Swine, and the High Priest too. It wasn’t a half-bad idea to stealthily assassinate them like I had done to Smoked Human, but that might cause all sorts of strange differences in the time loop. I needed to do something to burn off my stress. But what?
Aha! I knew one surefire way.
“We’re going to the peak,” I told Yuki and Kou.
“What’s the peak?” Kou asked.
“Are we going mountain climbing or something?” Yuki said.
Both Yuki and Kou had their heads tilted in confusion. Technically, Yuki was pretty close to being right. But the peak that I was referring to meant something different altogether.
“‘Peak’ refers to when filolials race to the top of a mountain,” I explained.
“No way!” exclaimed Kou. “So we can run as fast as we want?”
“Of course, I say!”
Kou’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Yuki, who valued refinement, frowned and fidgeted as if Kou had said something improper. But all filolials tend to love running. It’s the perfect way to release stress! And on top of that, it’s great exercise for a healthy body, I say.
But for me, the sweetest stress relief in the world is to simply ride on a filolial’s back as they race up a mountain!
“If we’re lucky, we might encounter some bandits too,” I said. “And if they come chasing after us for revenge from their hideout, we might be able to get a carriage and kill two birds with one stone.”
“Are bandits yummy?” Kou asked.
“You can’t eat humans, Kou,” I reminded him.
Father had told us so, after all. I personally didn’t see any problem with it, since their dead bodies would end up getting eaten by other birds if we just left them there.
“Keel’s tail looked so, so, soooo yummy,” Kou said. “Wagging back and forth, I just wanted to gobble it up.” Kou wobbled back and forth as if he were in a trance. Hmm . . . so Kou was a big fan of dog tails.
Now that I thought about it, Filo-tan was always watching Big Sis’s tail too. When Father wasn’t there, Filo-tan said, “I’ve been thinking this for a long time, but, Raphtalia, your tail is just so round and tasty-looking. Can I please eat it?” Big Sis smiled and said to her, “You can eat my tail, but only if you give your feathers to Naofumi for him to use in his cooking in exchange.” Filo-tan responded with a fearful yelp, and that was the end of that. I watched the whole exchange with my heart as full as a groom’s as he awaits his princess bride!
“If you eat her tail, Father won’t be happy,” I told Kou.
“Aw, man.”
“Today we’re going to let loose, I say!” I declared, and Yuki and Kou cheered with joy.
Oh Filo-tan, we weren’t necessarily searching for her yet. But now that I had prepared the clothes, I didn’t really have much else to do and needed to let out some stress. Pretty much all that was left was to find more herbs for Father that he could use to make his medicine.
The next day, after the filolials enjoyed their running, we set off to find more herbs for Father. We captured some dungeons to acquire the sealed plants within and then went to meet Father.
Well, here I am in Riyute, I thought. So where could Father be?
He might be helping the villagers here in some way, in typical Father fashion. So I went around the village looking for him and stopped by an inn that looked like a place Father would stop at for the night. And that’s where I found him, I say.
“Oh hey, Motoyasu! Nice timing. Come over here.”
As I was walking toward the inn, I heard his voice out the window.
“Whatever may it be?” I asked him.
“Hm, well, we’ve had an issue. I don’t want to say it out loud, so just come inside,” Father told me.
“At once!” I declared and rushed inside to Father’s room.
“So yesterday, Keel and Sakura and I were going around the area, taking care of some monsters and collecting herbs. Then, when we came back here, I thought Sakura would get lonely, so I got a room for us to stay together.”
My heart fluttered. What a wonderful glimpse of Father’s loving compassion! He was making Sakura a beloved companion, just as he had in the last go-around.
“But it’s what happened next that I want to tell you,” Father continued. “I was keeping a close eye on her because you told me about how she would change forms, right?”
“I deeply apologize for the interruption, but is it necessary for you to explain all that to me?” I inquired. From everything that had happened in the past, it was only a matter of time before Sakura changed into her angel form. So what was the problem?
“Yes, and that’s what happened in the end, but not quite the way you’d think,” Father said.
I had no idea what Father was talking about.
“Oink oink!” added Keel, but unfortunately, I could not understand a word she said.
“It’s kinda hard to explain,” Father continued. “I want you to see Sakura’s human form for yourself.”
“So she turned into her angel form!” I exclaimed.
“Wait, is that Yuki behind you?” I asked. “I mean, you did explain it to me before, but . . . she does look like a little child, doesn’t she?”
“Like a child, you say?” I asked.
I mean, they were pretty much the same size and height as Filo-tan was. I didn’t see any problem there. More than half of the filolials in angel form that I had seen were about that same height. But the way Father was speaking, I wondered if Sakura had turned out different.
“Sakura, can you come over here?” Father called.
“Huh? What’s up?”
I looked over in the direction of Sakura’s voice.
When I saw her, I noticed the same pink hair and wings growing out of her back . . . but it was in the body of a calm-looking angel who appeared to be around 17 years old.
She was wearing the same clothes as the local villagers.
Could Father have told her to become this way?
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