by Aneko Yusagi
Having given it some more thought, I’d come to the realization that my own weakness was why I hadn’t been able to withstand the self-destruct attack of the Phoenix. Of course, I hadn’t been slacking off in terms of leveling up. But I’d definitely been spending more time on the environment surrounding me.
That arrogance had led to the loss of Atla.
Not just her either. A considerable number had been killed by the reverberations of the self-destruct attack and the further attacks of the revived Phoenixes.
“Oh, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia muttered quietly to herself as she looked over at me. I needed them to at least allow me this.
“Ren, Itsuki, do you know a good hunting spot for grinding out some levels? Somewhere suited to me right now?” I asked the two of them. We couldn’t rely too much on their game knowledge, but it would at least provide a starting point. Motoyasu was apparently on the move, heading for Faubrey. There was always the possibility he would use a teleport skill to come back, so I’d left some food for him.
“Good question,” Ren replied.
“As far as I see it, your choices are to fight some violent monsters deep in the mountains or slowly push yourself upward with the experience-efficient monsters in Q’ten Lo,” Itsuki summarized. Both of them had slightly troubled expressions on their faces as they answered.
“Oh, little Naofumi?” Sadeena took that moment to raise her hand. “Experience is great in the ocean. How’s about we start with a little hunting together?” She placed undue emphasis on the “start” part.
“Hunting with sweet Naofumi? I want to go too.” Shildina was quick to ask to participate. Sadeena quickly told her it was fine, giving a nod.
“Sadeena?” Raphtalia said.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to pull anything on little Naofumi at the moment. If you’re still worried, you come along too. That would actually be a big help,” Sadeena said.
“Very well. That’s what I’ll do,” Raphtalia replied. It looked like my participation was being taken for granted. Well, no matter. I’d decided that I’d better get our underwater gear out from storage. In terms of shields, I had the Bubble Shield too.
“I’d also like to—” S’yne started.
“Master . . . would rather not get wet,” her familiar finished. I looked over to see S’yne and her familiar involved in a discussion. S’yne seemed to want to come along, but underwater battles also weren’t really her thing.
“Very well—I’ll make something.” With that, S’yne started sewing at once, making an underwater doll. She already had a Sadeena doll, so I wondered what else she needed.
“She needs more materials,” the familiar relayed. “Can you provide some aid?”
“Yeah, sure. Use my name to collect whatever you need,” I told them.
“Thank you,” the familiar returned. Hey, if S’yne wanted to come along, then I wasn’t going to stop her.
“What about me?” Ruft asked.
“Hmmm. You’ll be staying here, Ruft. It’s going to be far too dangerous for you,” I told him.
“Ruft. Please sit this one out,” Shildina told him, quick to back me up.
“Sure . . . but I do want to get stronger. I haven’t been here long, but I really do want that,” Ruft explained.
“You’re getting stronger every day,” Shildina assured him, stroking his cheek with a smile. He seemed a little embarrassed at the contact.
“Are you coming, Raph-chan?” I asked—no pressure.
“Raph, raph, raph,” replied Raph-chan, crossing her arms in a pose of denial. Then she pointed at something . . . and then made a motion of swinging a pickax.
“So you’ve got something else to do?” I asked.
“Raph!” she replied. Looked like I was right. I guess it couldn’t be helped.
“Sounds like that settles it!” Sadeena said excitedly.
During these discussions, Melty arrived, riding Filo in her filolial form.
“Naofumi, how are you feeling?” Melty asked.
“Not sure how to reply to that,” I responded.
“You seem more like your old self,” she bit back. She seemed to be acting cautiously. Did she really have so little trust in me?
I guess that was the case.
“Do you need something?” I asked.
“Actually, I do. I thought it better to get your approval first,” Melty said. Then she gave a little cough. “I want to hold a festival to celebrate having defeated the Phoenix—a combined event between your village and the surrounding towns,” Melty explained.
“Yay!” Filo gave an excited sound at Melty’s proposal.
“I know great sacrifices were made. But even greater is the fact that the Phoenix that so threatened the people has been defeated by combining our strength with that of the heroes. I think that should be celebrated. A festival will help raise everyone’s morale too,” Melty continued.
“A celebration, after everything we lost?” I asked. It sounded a bit improper to me. Melty replied with no signs of backing down, however.
“Exactly because of what we’ve lost. We’ll also pray for the souls of the departed and thank them for giving their lives in battle to allow us to continue living,” Melty said. A celebration because of the hardships we’ve overcome. They had thrown a party in the castle before, after defeating one of the waves. This was the same principle as that. Considering the kind of world this was, maybe it was better to enjoy things while you could.
“Why don’t we just let people do their own thing?” I asked.
“You sure? I think we could turn quite the profit. Here’s an estimate. Might be useful for keeping the home fires burning, no?” The amount Melty presented me with was actually pretty insane.
“Where’s that all coming from?” I asked, still a little incredulous.
“We’ll be running all sorts of events and also running the books on all the gambling,” Melty explained. Gambling—I could certainly get behind that.
That wasn’t the problem though.
“Couldn’t that be dangerous?” I asked.
“That won’t be a problem. Alongside the coliseum, we’re also planning some filolial races. And you’ve got some fast ones in your stable,” Melty responded. Filolials, huh? Motoyasu would probably be coming back by portal every now and then, so I thought maybe I’d ask him about it. “We’ve received challenges from likely associations too. We’re going to make a killing,” Melty assured me.
“Hmmm. Okay. You go ahead,” I told her. She continued to look at me, wordlessly, with a thoughtful look on her face. Then, as though making up her mind, she changed the topic.
“I’m also planning a singing performance by Filo,” Melty revealed.
“Singing?” I asked.
“That’s right. Before you went off to Siltvelt, I went traveling with Filo to raise her levels, remember? We did the rounds of various taverns, putting on a show. She even became known as the Bird God Diva,” she explained.
“Heh!” Filo said proudly, puffing up her chest. She’d liked singing back when Motoyasu was around the first time, I recalled. She was good at it too. She could sing as well as the wandering bard, loved to dance, and was beautiful when in human form.
She was like . . . a pop singer, basically.
I’d thought the trauma of being put on display had made her dislike standing out, but it seemed she’d overcome that.
“She has a lot of fans. When she sang in the tavern in town recently, the place was packed—standing room only,” Melty informed me.
“She really is a pop idol,” I said.
“Some people have even started visiting the town just to see her. We’ve also had loads of requests from artists for her to model for them. What do you think? I bet we could charge a good price,” Melty continued.
“This is all a lot, coming from you, Melty. I thought you’d dislike the idea of using Filo to make money,” I said.
“I mean . . .” she started but then trailed off.
“Yeah, I know.” It was painfully obvious that everyone was still handling me with kid gloves. I just couldn’t take much more of it.
“If Filo is okay with all this, go ahead,” I told Melty. That was the only answer I was capable of right now. Filo extended a single feather from one of her wings like an index finger and placed it against her mouth.
“Very well then. If you’re going to watch me in action, Master, I’ll do my very best!” she enthused.
“Hmmm. You’ve got a deal.” If Filo wanted me to watch her, then that was the least I could do.
“Great! You’ll see what I can do!” she exclaimed.
“Do your very best,” I replied.
“I will!” she chirped.
“Sounds good,” Melty confirmed. “The Merchant’s Union is already underway with preparations, so we’ll hold the event in three days’ time.”
“That’s pretty soon,” I commented.
“Everyone is excited for it. I’ve got people from all over helping out. We’ll even have folks from Q’ten Lo taking part,” Melty explained.
“That’s right,” Raphtalia recalled. “Some of them volunteered for the Phoenix battle, didn’t they?”
“Anyone from Q’ten Lo loves a good festival!” Sadeena commented.
“You can say that again!” Shildina added, both sisters smiling broadly. Were they just happy to have a chance to drink, or were they really happy about all of this?
“Very well. Everyone just do your own part to prepare for the festivities,” I told them. Everyone in the village seemed quite excited for the task, and there were general shouts of enthusiasm.
“Bubba! I’ll do my best too!” Keel shouted.
“Good, good. I’ll be counting on you,” I replied. And so everyone in the village started to prepare for the festival.
“Should I be doing anything?” I asked. If we were going to be celebrating together, then as representative of the village I would clearly need to do something.
“No need for you to worry yourself, Naofumi,” Melty replied. “Your job is just to enjoy yourself on the day.”
“That’s right, little Naofumi. We’ve already put our oceanic hunting party together, so let’s go and do that,” Sadeena proposed.
“I’m not sure this is the best time . . .” I replied.
“Mr. Naofumi, how about we just let Melty and the others do their thing and go and see about raising your level, like we originally planned?” Raphtalia also gently suggested.
“Okay,” I finally agreed, after a pause. It looked like I’d be taking Sadeena and the others along for a little fishing expedition.
“The other issue is searching for ways to get stronger . . .” I muttered, turning my gaze to Fohl. He realized I was looking, and his back straightened as though he’d been zapped with lightning.
He was really on his guard around me now.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Fohl, those gauntlets you obtained, they are definitely a seven star weapon, correct?” I confirmed with him.
“Yes. I have SP displayed in my field of vision now. There’s no mistaking it,” he asserted.
“Hmmm. Will you take a look and see if there’s a unique power-up method under help? Raphtalia’s weapon, a vassal weapon from another world, has something like that. I’m sure we can share the power-up methods between the four holy weapons and seven star weapons,” I told him.
“I remember that from the argument with the fake seven star hero in Siltvelt,” Fohl recalled. In accordance with my request, his eyes started to dart around.
“Is there such a thing?” he asked. “I can’t find it.” I wondered why he couldn’t find it. The only thing I could think of was that, just like my shield, we didn’t know the power-up method.
“Naofumi, calm down! Fohl hasn’t done anything wrong!” Ren stepped in to stop me. I’d normally have something nasty to say in this situation, so he’d probably mistakenly thought I was angry.
“I’m not angry. You’re the one who needs to calm down,” I said. Seriously, sure, in the past I might have bit back about how useless Fohl was, but I didn’t have the energy for that.
Yet it was true that I wanted to become stronger.
“There is a high probability that the situation is the same as when we didn’t understand the shield’s power-up method,” Itsuki intoned in his normal monotone way.
“What should I do?” Fohl asked the three gathered heroes, putting his gauntlets together.
“Maybe search around, like Naofumi did, to see if the power-up method is written down somewhere,” Ren suggested.
“Good idea. Let’s search Q’ten Lo and the country where the Phoenix was sealed,” Itsuki suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” Ren replied. Thus, it was decided that Fohl would go with Ren and Itsuki to look for the power-up method. After Raphtalia sent Fohl and the others to Q’ten Lo using Scroll of Return, I got the underwater gear ready and we headed to the ocean.
Sadeena and Shildina then turned into their killer whale therianthrope forms, and riding one each, Raphtalia and I headed into the water.
“All set? Here we go!” Sadeena said.
“I’m ready. I’m really looking forward to this hunting trip with sweet Naofumi. If I see my chance, I’m going to grab it with both hands,” Shildina replied.
“You’d better hold on tight to Shildina, little Raphtalia,” Sadeena warned.
“I-I will. It feels like I’d better keep an eye on you too though, Sadeena,” Raphtalia replied. That made Sadeena turn to look at Raphtalia.
“Hold on there, little Raphtalia. I have a sense of time and place. Little Naofumi is in no place to enjoy adult pleasures, so I won’t be making any moves on him,” Sadeena replied.
I didn’t have much experience with fighting underwater. In fact, fighting the wave at the Cal Mira islands was pretty much it. Considering the future battles we would be facing, I definitely needed to earn some more experience.
“Little Naofumi,” Sadeena called.
“Huh? What’s up? Sorry, I wasn’t listening to you at all,” I replied.
“See? We can’t take our eyes off little Naofumi right now, so there’s no time for the hot stuff,” Sadeena pointed out.
“Yes, I see what you mean. Very well,” Raphtalia acknowledged.
“Let’s go then,” Sadeena said. With me on her back, we raced through the ocean. Being an aquatic therianthrope clearly gave her the advantage in terms of movement underwater. I’d felt it in Q’ten Lo, but she was definitely going even faster now.
“Would it have been better to come by boat?” I wondered.
“You’ll teleport us back when we’re finished, correct? A boat would just get in the way,” Sadeena replied.
“Yeah . . . I guess you’re right,” I responded. Heading into the offing, we made good progress with the small island that included Sadeena’s secret base in the distance.
“Shildina, can you please keep your eyes to the front?” Raphtalia asked.
“It’s okay. I can follow Sadeena underwater even without seeing her. She sends me sounds and weak lightning pulses with almost annoying persistence,” Shildina explained.
“I’m sure you can . . . but it still makes me uneasy,” Raphtalia replied. I turned around to see Shildina sticking close to us at Raphtalia’s request. Of course, Shildina could get lost on her own doorstep.
After a while, Sadeena stopped.
“This looks like a decent place to start. Little Naofumi, I’m going to start diving. Let me know if it gets too much for you,” she told me.
“No problem,” I replied.
“You too, little Raphtalia,” Sadeena continued. “Little Shildina, don’t forget to maintain some air using wind magic.”
Of course. Sadeena’s use of lightning had seemed convenient for fishy things, and then Shildina could use wind magic to maintain a supply of air. The two of them together really could make
underwater activities a breeze.
Led on by Sadeena, we started down into the depths.
Being underwater was almost like being out in space. It was so beautiful, as though the sunlight was being drawn down to the seabed.
I was also aware that the range I needed to protect was far wider than on land, with no ground beneath us and the possibility of being attacked from any direction. I had fought underwater before, but all I’d needed to do back then was concentrate on the boss of the wave.
“Let’s find some monsters to fight!” Sadeena said cheerfully. First a blue shark noticed us and closed in. I deployed Shooting Star Shield and created a barrier. I was prepared for its attack, but Sadeena thrust forward with her harpoon and ran it through.
“That’s the only kind of monster that shows up at this depth,” Sadeena explained. I almost felt sorry for the blue shark, which was skewered in a single attack. The ocean turned red with its blood, and I expected the smell to start bringing in all sorts of other monsters . . . but nothing of the sort happened.
“All the monsters around here know how scary Sadeena is. None of them will come,” Shildina revealed.
“Ah, I see,” I replied.
“Things might be different this time. Bringing you along, little Naofumi, seems to have attracted more attention than normal,” Sadeena commented.
“Now you mention it . . .” Raphtalia muttered, looking around from Shildina’s back.
“Even so, hunting monsters at this depth isn’t going to earn you the kind of experience you want, little Naofumi. Just give me a moment.” Sadeena gave off some crackles of static electricity and the gathered monsters scattered.
“We can breathe for a long time, but that’s no reason to fight them all. Let’s go deeper,” Sadeena suggested.
“Count me in. Heavenly Emperor, hold on tightly please,” Shildina said.
“O-okay,” Raphtalia replied. Sadeena and her sister dove down with us, deeper, deeper . . . so deep that we could hardly see any sunlight at all.
“Little Raphtalia, my sister and I don’t need light, but maybe you could use magic to make some for yourself and little Naofumi?” Sadeena asked.
“S-sure,” Raphtalia replied. She used some magic to create a ball of light to provide illumination. Just that considerably increased the range we could see.