by Aneko Yusagi
“Stab this, and pop it.”
“Heee?!”
When I held out the balloon, she let out a shriek of surprise and seemed so taken aback that she nearly dropped her knife.
“I… uh…”
“That’s an order. Do it.”
“I… No.”
She obstinately shook her head. But she was a slave, and there was magic that would punish her for disobeying.
“Ugh…”
“See? If you don’t attack it, you’re the one who gets hurt.”
Cough! Cough!
Her face was twisted in pain, and her hands were shaking. She steadied her grip on the knife.
“You…” murmured the owner, looking down at us from the counter.
Raphtalia settled her nerves, braced herself, and stabbed at the balloon from behind.
“You’re weak! Try harder!”
“…?! But!”
She had bounced backwards from her last attack. Recovering, she steadied her footing and lunged forward for another attack.
The balloon burst with a loud pop.
EXP 1
Raphtalia EXP 1
The words appeared before me, telling me that a party member had defeated an enemy, which made me question something.
Her. She’d never actually joined my party, so apparently she’d never had any intention of actually helping me.
“Nice one.”
I rubbed her head. She shot me a confused look in response.
“All right, next one.”
The strongest balloon had been chewing on my arm for a whole week. I tore it off and held it out to her, just as before. It must have weakened somewhat, being stuck on my arm without food or drink for a whole week. Even a weak little girl, level 1, should have been able to break it.
She gave a determined nod and narrowed her eyes before attacking the balloon from behind.
EXP 1
Raphtalia EXP 1
Huh? An icon was flashing at the corner of my vision.
“Looks like you’re up to it. Let’s get started.”
“… Cough”
I told her to sheath her weapon, and she did as I asked.
“Oh, hey, I forgot.”
“What?”
The shop owner was still glaring at me.
“You’re gonna have a hard life, and die hard.”
“Thanks a bunch.”
I answered his sarcasm with sarcasm of my own.
We left the shop and made for the fields. Walking down the main street, Raphtalia seemed amazed at all the shops. She held my hand as we walked and threw glances to the left and right. On our way through town, we were both stopped in our tracks by a delicious smell in the air.
I still had… 3 pieces of silver. Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry.
I could hear Raphtalia’s stomach grumbling along with my own.
I looked over to her and…
“Ah!”
She quickly shook her head, denying her grumbling stomach. What was she trying so hard for?
I needed Raphtalia to be strong if I was going to make any money at all. There was no point to buying a knife if I didn’t keep it sharp. If she was hungry, she wouldn’t fight as well as she could. I looked around for a quick, cheap place to eat. I picked one, and as I entered…
“Come on in!”
The place was a little beat up, and the waitress seemed a little confused as she led us to our seat. On our way to the table, Raphtalia spotted a family eating across the room. She locked her gaze on them. The kids were eating a kid’s meal, and she was staring at it enviously.
So that’s what she wanted. We took our seats, and I ordered before the waitress had a chance to get away.
“I’ll have your cheapest lunch. This one’ll have whatever that kid over there is eating.”
“What?!”
Raphtalia turned on me in shock. I didn’t see what was so surprising about it.
“Very well sir. That will be 9 bronze pieces.”
“Sure.”
I gave her a piece of silver, and received the remainder in change.
We waited quietly for our food to arrive, and Raphtalia looked all around the restaurant. I noticed a few tables casting glances in my direction while they whispered among themselves.
I hated this whole world.
“W…Why?”
“Hm?”
Raphtalia said something, so I looked down at her. She was looking up at me with that confused look back on her face. I suppose she thought it odd that I’d feed her a real meal, considering that she was a slave.
“You looked like you wanted to eat it. You want something else?”
She shook her head.
“How come you’re… feeding me?”
“I already told you… you looked like you wanted to eat.”
“But…”
She sure was stubborn.
“Anyway, eat up, and get some strength. If you walk around all skinny like that, you’ll just die on me.”
Even if she did die, I could use the money we made to buy a new slave.
“Here you are,” said the waitress, bringing our meals. She set the kid’s lunch down before Raphtalia, and a lunch of bacon in front of me. It didn’t taste like anything. Was everyone playing some kind of trick on me? Why was all the food here so bland? Everyone else looked like they were enjoying their meals, but they must have had strange tastes.
“…”
Raphtalia was staring down at her meal.
“Aren’t you going to eat it?”
“… Can I?”
“Yes, you can. Hurry up.”
Upon hearing my order, she seemed to relax a bit.
“Okay.”
She hesitated for a moment before finally attacking her meal bare-handed.
Well, she was a slave, after all. I couldn’t expect her to have good table manners.
I thought that the whispers around us were growing more excited, but it was nothing to worry about.
Raphtalia pulled the small toothpick flag from her chicken and rice and held it gingerly as she attacked the rest of her food.
“How is it?”
“It’s great!”
I guess I was the only one that didn’t find the food very good. Or maybe she was in league with the rest of them? Slaves wouldn’t be able to get away with lying though… due to that spell she was under. But what if it was all fake? What if she wasn’t really a slave at all? I didn’t know how to even start looking into it.
Anyway, I had lunch with my slave and thought about where to go next.
Chapter Eleven: The Fruits of Slavery
We finished our meals, left the restaurant, and made for the fields.
Raphtalia was in a good mood, and she hummed a song as we walked. But once we left the town and arrived in the fields, she looked scared, and started shivering.
She must have been afraid of the monsters.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll protect you from the monsters.”
She looked confused again.
“Check it out. These things have been chewing on me for a while now. Doesn’t hurt a bit.”
I pulled back my cape to show Raphtalia all the balloons there, chewing on me. She jumped back in surprise.
“That doesn’t… hurt?”
“Not at all.”
“Really…”
“Let’s go.”
“Okay… cough!”
She had been coughing a lot, but it was probably nothing.
Picking the medicinal grasses along the way, we headed in the direction of the forest.
Hey, there’s one!
No… There were three. Three Red Balloons. They were in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I called out for Raphtalia to be careful and drew the balloons’ attention. Soon, they were biting me.
“Just like last time! Just stab them from the back.”
“… Okay!”
She lunged forward and sunk her knife into the balloon.
> Bang! Bang! Bang!
At the end of the fight, Raphtalia became level 2.
Red Small Shield: conditions met
Red Small Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: defense up 4
I immediately changed the shield into its newest form. Raphtalia was amazed by the process.
“How did you… Just what ARE you, Master?”
Didn’t she know I was the Shield Hero? Well, she was a demi-human, and a slave on top of that.
“I’m a hero. The Shield one.”
“Hero? You mean like one of the four Holy Things?”
“You know about it?”
She nodded.
“That’s right. I’m one of the summoned heroes. But I’m the weakest one!”
I chewed on my nails during my announcement. Just thinking of the others filled me with murderous rage.
Noticing my anger, Raphtalia was suddenly upset, so I decided not to continue the story any further.
“Anyway, the plan for today is to take on the monsters in these woods. I’ll hold them down, you stab them.”
“O…kay.”
Maybe she was getting used to me. She answered much quicker than usual.
We worked our way through the forest, and every time we encountered an enemy, I’d lure its attention, grab it, and Raphtalia would stab it from behind.
Soon enough, we came upon something besides balloons.
Loomush.
It was white, something like a mushroom, and hopped around. It had narrow, squinting eyes, and stood about as tall as a person.
I tried hitting it, but I had the same luck as I’d had with the balloon.
I had Raphtalia kill it.
We soon came across Bluemushes and Greenmushes.
Mush Shield: conditions met
Blue Mush Shield: conditions met
Green Mush Shield: conditions met
Mush Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: plant appraisal 1
Blue Mush Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: simple recipe 1
Green Mush Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: apprenticeship compounding
None of these abilities were status boosts. They all seemed to be new abilities.
Compounding… That would be useful once I used up my medicine stores.
By the end of the day Raphtalia was at level 3, and I had risen to level 5.
Evening fell, and we left the forest to walk along the riverbank.
“Cough…”
Raphtalia was silent, complained about nothing, and stuck with me the whole time.
We’d have to spend at least some time focusing on building up our finances.
We arrived at the river. I opened my bag, removed some firewood, and passed it to Raphtalia. She stacked the logs and set flame to them.
“Go wash up. If you get cold, you can warm up at the fire.”
“… Okay.”
Raphtalia undressed and jumped in the water. I started fishing and tried to secure some dinner for us. I tried to watch over her as I fished. But there were no balloons in the area, and everything seemed safe.
I started going over the loot we’d secured that day.
We had a pretty large pile of medicinal herbs and lots of herbs that you couldn’t find in the fields.
We had some balloon skins, quite a few, and a good amount of mushrooms too.
And I’d unlocked four new kinds of shields.
Yes, I was way more efficient working with her. Good thing I bought myself a slave.
I should try compounding.
I brought up an easy recipe.
I found one recipe that could be made with the herbs I had on hand.
As for materials… I should be able to make do with the rocks from the river. I could grind things up with them. I’d need a recipe for mortar and pestle.
There must have been some tricks to make it easier, but they were not noted in the recipe.
I thought back on what was for sale at the apothecary. The pharmacist had been working on something that looked like it could be made from the materials I had, so I took a crack at it, and just copied whatever I could remember.
Healing Medicine: fabricated
Healing Medicine: quality: bad to fair: effective when immediately applied to the surface of wounds
The information appeared directly before my eyes.
I guess it was a success.
The shield responded but didn’t absorb the medicine.
I thought it would be a good idea to try some other combinations, some things I didn’t have recipes for. I tried mixing a variety of things, and the majority of attempts ended in failure: typically a black pile of rubbish. It was pretty interesting though.
It reminded me of an online game, though that thought was immediately followed by the memory of the other heroes. I found myself quickly annoyed
I could hear the snapping of logs in a fire. Raphtalia had left the water and was already warming up near the flames.
“Warm yet?”
“Yes. Cough…”
She must have had a cold of some kind. The slave trader had mentioned that she was sick. Which reminded me… didn’t I just make some medicine? I couldn’t have her dying before I made back the money I’d spent on her. It might not be smart to give away some of my scarce resources, but I didn’t really have a choice.
Normal Medicine: quality: fair: effective on weak colds
“Here, take this.”
I didn’t know if her cold was “weak,” but it was all I had.
“… But it hurts, so… ugh…”
The dummy, she tried to say something selfish. She put her hand to her chest in pain.
“See?”
“Y…yes, okay.”
She took the medicine with trembling hands then quickly drank it all.
“Huff... Huff…”
“Nice. Good job.”
I rubbed her head, and she didn’t try to stop me.
Her raccoon ears were so fluffy. I looked at her tail, and her forehead furrowed, as if to say, “What are you looking at?” Her tail started batting around in irritation.
“All right, dinner time.”
I hooked a fish, skewered it on a stick, roasted it over the fire, and passed it to Raphtalia. I took a bite, but it didn’t taste like anything. It was like a crumbling, firm tofu, without any flavor.
I was surprised by how disgusting fish looked once you were unable to taste it. Whatever, no matter. It might have been gross, but Raphtalia was eating it up voraciously.
I decided to return to fabrication.
I’d always liked subtle work like this. The sun fell, and everything plunged into darkness. I continued working in the ring of light around the fire.
Apparently there were all kinds of things you could make.
After she finished eating, Raphtalia gazed at the fire, mesmerized. She looked like she was falling asleep.
“You can go to sleep, you know.”
She shook her head vigorously.
What now? She was acting just like a kid who didn’t want to go to sleep. But then again, I guess she WAS a kid. She’d fall asleep if I just left her alone. I wondered if the medicine was having any effect on her. She didn’t seem to be coughing as much.
I continued fabricating for a little while and started to get an idea of what I could make.
I took some of the poor materials I’d made and let the shield absorb them to see what I’d get.
Small Medicine Shield: conditions met
Small Poison Shield: conditions met
Small Medicine Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: medicine efficacy up
Small Poison Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: poison resistance up
Any of the shields could be equipped from the Leaf or Mushroom Shields. I didn’t really know how useful medicine efficacy would be. Did it mean that using medicine would work better? Or did it mean that I could fabricate more p
owerful medicines? It didn’t matter. We’d collected a lot of materials today, and that would help us.
Raphtalia had fallen asleep but suddenly started speaking.
“No… No… Help!
She was having a nightmare.
“Noo! Noooooo!”
Her voice rang in my ears, high-pitched and terrified.
This wasn’t good. What if her screams attracted monsters?
I ran over and put my hand over her mouth.
“N………!”
Still, her shouts made it through my fingers. I see what the slave trader meant when he said she had issues.
This could be a problem.
“Relax! Calm down!”
She was screaming, but still asleep. I hoisted her up and held her close to pacify her.
“Noo! Daddy… Mo…mmy.”
She called out for her parents. Tears were streaming down her face. She reached out a hand, calling for help.
I didn’t know what her situation was, but it looked like she was traumatized by her separation from her parents.
“You’re okay… You’re okay…”
I ran my hand over her head. I was trying to calm her down.
“Ugh…”
She kept crying. I held her close.
“ARRR!”
A balloon appeared, attracted by her screams.
“Geez…”
Of all the bad timing…
I held Raphtalia tight, and ran for the balloon.
“Arrrrggghhhh!”
Cheep! Cheep!
“Morning already?”
It had been a hard night. After I finished with the balloons, Raphtalia’s crying started to subside. It grew intense again if I backed away from her. And when it grew intense again, the balloons came back. I ended up getting very little sleep.
“Um…”
“You’re awake?”