by Aneko Yusagi
“That’s great, isn’t it?!” Ruft offered, whose own eyes had been as round as saucers when looking at the golden monster.
“Yeah!” Filo agreed.
“What an incredible wagon . . . It reminds me of one I had decorated with filolials that I received in tribute once,” Ruft admitted.
“There was a wagon like that,” I recalled.
“Yes, we saw it in the castle storeroom, didn’t we?” Raphtalia corroborated.
“Really?” Melty asked. “What did you think of it, Raphtalia?”
“A better design than this one. That’s for sure,” she replied.
“I bet,” Melty said. I’d never considered someone could make something so offensive to the eyes, honestly. Motoyasu wasn’t just a moron; he was terrifying to the extreme.
“In any case, that completes the request. Back to the village! Shall we portal it?” I asked.
“You want to leave this here?” Melty cut in.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” I replied.
“Hold on. If we do leave it here, what if someone else starts using it? Or some wild filolials come along and take it away?” Raphtalia made some good points, I had to admit.
I checked with Filo.
“Uhh . . . I don’t want to leave this thing here!” she responded.
“We could destroy it?” I just wanted this over with. “What do you think?”
“At least discuss it with that blacksmith you favor so much. He might be able to cheaply restore it to normal?” Melty suggested. Filo had a clear look of disgust on her face, this being something that Motoyasu had been touching. But as it had also originally been hers. She seemed to be having difficulty making a decision.
“In any case . . . looks like we should just cover it with a cloth and take it back with us. I really just want to get back. Filo, can you and Melty handle getting it back?” I asked.
“Hold on! No way! Just think what it’ll be like for us transporting this eyesore?” Melty complained. I mean, I could say the same thing, but . . . fair enough.
“It’s not like our wagon can really be called a wagon anymore. That’s true,” I conceded. “I guess we can make use of it.” And so that was what we decided to do—make use of the wagon that Motoyasu horribly modified.
Right away though, I noticed something strange. All kinds of work had been performed on the undercarriage so it hardly vibrated at all.
“It looks ugly, but he’s done a lot of work to make it easy to ride in,” Raphtalia conceded.
“Do you think he used his hero knowledge to do this?” Melty pondered.
“Considering how nice this all is, he may have put his money where his mouth is and got some merchant to hook him up,” I contemplated.
“I wonder . . . Anyway, if only it didn’t look like this, Filo could really make good use of it,” Melty commented.
“Uhh . . .” Filo didn’t sound convinced. She made an extremely displeased face as she pulled the wagon along and we made our way back to the village.
Chapter Seven: Filolial Terror
I took a look around the village. Good. Motoyasu hadn’t arrived yet. I didn’t know when that would be but thought it’d be best to set up a separate facility for him to use.
Motoyasu had talked about making preparations of some kind. I was still wondering what that might entail.
“Yaaaaawn . . . I’m wiped out,” Raphtalia moaned.
“You said it,” I agreed. “After all that, it’s almost time for the sun to come up.” After we arrived in the village, Filo’s cowlick started to twitch.
“Yes? Okay. Got it. Master!” Filo said.
“What now?” I was so tired.
“As reward for this, Fitoria has taught me some magic called ‘Sanctuary.’ It lets me create a zone that dragons don’t like being inside,” Filo reported.
“What’s that good for?” I asked.
“Hmmm . . . I’m not really sure, but she said she can make your village filolial territory and make it so that monsters can’t attack,” Filo explained.
“Raph?” Raph-chan and Filo both tilted their heads. It was Fitoria we were talking about, so there had to be something behind this.
“No thanks. If we’re talking monsters, this village is Raph-chan’s territory,” I replied.
“Mr. Naofumi, where did that come from?” Raphtalia, with the slumbering Atla on her back, posed this question with her eyes narrowed in a worried expression.
“It sounds like the filolials and dragons are about to start fighting over whose territory this village is, so I’m nipping it in the bud. If they are going to be a problem, Raph-chan can have the title and be done with it,” I declared.
“Raph!” Raph-chan sounded more than ready for the responsibility. Raphtalia looked completely at a loss for a moment and then gave a deep sigh.
“I guess you and Raph-chan have already created the Raph species, haven’t you?” she conceded.
“Yeah, I guess we have,” I agreed, somewhat smugly.
“That’s nothing to boast about,” Raphtalia shot back. “Anyway, I’m going to go and get Atla into her bed.”
“Sure thing,” I said. Raphtalia, with Atla still on her back, headed off toward Fohl and Atla’s house.
“First things first, let’s get this monstrosity into the village storehouse. Then I’ll get the old guy to take a look and try to restore it,” I decided. We all climbed into the wagon.
“I’m totally wiped out,” Melty commented. She looked it. I wouldn’t make it much longer without some sleep myself.
“Raph,” Raph-chan said.
“Is this the kind of work filolials and heroes do?” Ruft asked. I held my head for a moment, thinking. He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t sure how to answer him.
“A-anyway, Motoyasu will be here soon, so we’re going to get pretty busy. We’ll need to get a house ready for him, just like Ren and Itsuki.” I diverted the topic of conversation. I could sort that out using the shield, for sure.
“Huh?!” Filo spotted something.
“Huh? Filo?!” Melty barely had time to speak, and then Filo—who had been pulling the wagon with Melty on her back—leapt away from it like a frightened rabbit and bolted away.
“Where are you going, Filo?!” Melty managed to ask.
“Master! You take it from here!” Filo shouted back and then dashed off in a cloud of dust. What was going on there?
“Raph.” Raph-chan picked up the slack right away, turned large, and started to pull the wagon in place of Filo. We soon reached the warehouse.
Ruft and I climbed down from the wagon and watched as Raph-chan moved it inside. It was early morning and everyone else in the village was still sleeping.
Maybe Ren was awake, doing some practice swings for his early-morning training. That would be about it. In any case, this was early morning, with only a very few people awake . . . the kind of time I normally fed the monsters and cleaned the monster stable.
“Hey, Naofumi!” Ren, rather than perform his morning training swings, came over to me.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Not sure. I heard someone talking in the new monster stable that you set up. I was going to check it out. Then I saw you so I wondered if you knew who it was,” he explained.
“Talking?” I said.
“Yeah. I’m not totally sure, but it sounded like . . . Motoyasu? Have you managed to persuade him to join us?” Ren guessed. I didn’t reply right away. It had only been a few hours. He really had gotten ready that quickly and come right over? Was that possible?
So Filo had run off with Melty because she sensed Motoyasu’s presence. That sounded right. Well, if he was here, I was going to have to admonish him about leaving his nasty, trashy wagon behind.
“What should we do?” Ren gave a worried point at the spare monster stable, from which a different sound could be heard from the Raph species and other monsters.
“I’ll go and check it out,” I reassured him.
“Will you be okay?” Ruft asked, also worried. He even grabbed my clothing from between a gap in my armor.
“Should be fine,” I managed. Motoyasu should be listening to me now. I needed to find out what he was doing in the monster stable.
“I’m scared. It’s like there’s something in there,” Ruft said as we approached.
“That’s a coincidence. Me too,” I replied. Creeping timidly closer, I placed my hands on the massive doors.
There was definitely a commotion coming from inside.
I’d only placed one in here, if I remembered correctly—Filo’s underling. I’d been planning to increase that number eventually. Still, now there were far too many voices for just the three filolials that we’d seen Motoyasu with.
I tried to check the inside through one of the windows, but it was still too dark inside.
Just what was going on? My whole body had broken out in a nasty cold sweat. Some primal part of me was saying that this door should not be opened.
Kicking this problem down the road wasn’t going to solve it though.
I summoned up my courage and opened the door.
“What the hell?!” The inside was pitch-black. No, it wasn’t. There were so many filolials that it just looked that way.
“Ah, the fragrance of filolials! Let me breathe deeply!” Right in front of my eyes, Motoyasu was hugging a filolial and smelling its plumage. In front of him was a veritable horde of filolials. All of them turned to look at the sound of our entrance. I suddenly felt so many eyes on me.
“Who’s that?” multiple voices asked.
“Ah, it must be that ‘master’ Moto was talking about,” someone replied.
“Yeah, I bet it is. He’s glaring a bit, but he looks kinda friendly,” another commented.
“Oh, I bet he is. That boy next to him . . . he smells nice too,” a third voice said.
“I know, right? Like, just looking at him fills me with energy. I wonder if he’d play with us?” a fourth filolial pondered.
“I’d much rather be with him than Motopy! He makes me want to be my best self,” a fifth espoused. Hold on. Motoyasu had more than three of them? Had he raised all of these filolials?!
I felt goosebumps across my entire body.
But there was no time for that!
“Waaaaaaaaaah!”
“Master! Play with us!” They spoke almost with one voice. Bang! I slammed the doors shut again.
“Run for it!” I told Ruft.
“You said it!” the kid quickly agreed. Then, together, we both screamed as though our throats were being ripped out.
“Someone! Help us!”
A few seconds later, the doors opened and the horde of filolials charged straight for us. There had been a faction of filolials that even Fitoria had been concerned about. She’d given us prior warning about them. Maybe this was my fault for not realizing this might happen. Seriously though, she could have explained properly!
“Gaaaaaaah!” Some filolials grabbed Ruft and he let out a scream. He was likely having flashbacks about that time I’d tricked him into thinking Filo was about to eat him. Ah, good times.
“W-what’s going on?!” Ren had clearly noticed the situation and gave a shout. Slowpoke! Hurry up and save us, I was thinking.
“Motoyasu! Aaaah! What the hell are you doing?! Gaaah!” My own screams rang out. The rampaging filolial crushed me, and that was when I passed out.
After that, apparently, S’yne, Raph-chan, and the Raph species all heard the commotion, came out to fight the filolials, and succeeded in rescuing both the unconscious Ruft and me.
When I eventually awoke, it appeared I’d been clinging to the large Raph-chan, totally out of it from the shock of the filolial attack.
“Raph.” That was the sound that awoke me, and I looked up to see Raph-chan’s fluffy fur. She was stroking me with a gentle look in her eyes.
“Uh . . . where am I?” I asked.
“Your room, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia replied, looking at me with worry in her eyes. I checked my surroundings. Much like me, Ruft was also trembling as Raph-chan was stroking him.
Finally, there was a gift from S’yne in the room—a large Raph-chan doll.
“My memory is a bit fuzzy,” I began. It felt like I’d had an experience too terrible to remember.
“I can imagine. After what I just saw, I’m not surprised you lost consciousness. The rest of us had to watch the filolials and Raph species fighting over the two of you. Clearly it’s my fault for leaving your side even for a moment to go and put Atla to bed,” Raphtalia lamented.
“Aah . . . so scary. Filolials are so scary!” Ruft sounded as though he might never recover from the shock. I looked at him and felt much the same.
“Why did it come to this? Why does the Spear Hero always distress you so much, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia wondered.
“I’d like to know that myself,” I concurred.
“He may not have meant any evil by it this time, but it all seems so messed up,” she continued.
“It was the same as before. Motoyasu doesn’t mean to do harm. I understand that, but still . . .” When Witch tricked him, his only mistake had been to trust her. He’d had no evil intent of his own. This time was the exact same thing.
“Still, in light of what we have coming up, we need to discuss things with the Spear Hero,” Raphtalia concluded.
“Not that I want anything to do with him,” I finished with a sigh. With that thought, I turned and looked at Raph-chan again. Ah, my healing oasis!
“Raph?” she quizzed me. Raphtalia even laid off of her normal warnings after everything I’d been through. In any case, it was carved again into my soul just how terrifying filolials could be.
Chapter Eight: The Third Hero Conference
It was a few days later in the evening and I’d come with Raphtalia and Filo to bathe in the hot springs on the Cal Mira islands. Raphtalia said that she couldn’t relax in Q’ten Lo. Itsuki and Rishia had returned too. So I’d brought them along as well.
After taking a bath, I checked the state of my own curse.
“The curse has lifted,” I said.
“Great,” Ren replied, who had bathed with me.
“I’m making good progress myself,” Itsuki commented. He’d be fine in combat at least. But he still didn’t talk much and was often just completely zoned out.
“I hear you, father-in-law!” Motoyasu arrived in the changing room. He had his retinue—just the main three, thank God—along with him.
“What do you want, Motoyasu?” I asked.
“Shall I wash your back for you?” he replied.
“No need. We’re just getting out anyway,” I told him, blowing off his suggestion. I just wanted to avoid him as much as possible.
“So, Ren, have you read the inscriptions yet?” I asked.
“About that. We need to have a serious discussion about the future and collate all of our information. After we get out of here, how about holding a hero conference?” he suggested. Not something we could discuss in the bath, was it?
“Hmmm . . . okay,” I agreed. “Motoyasu, you hurry up with your bathing too.”
“Understood, I say, father-in-law. I might mention that I have read the inscriptions too,” he added.
“What? You can read the language in this world now, Motoyasu?” I asked. As far as I knew, Motoyasu had been unable to read it.
“Yes, father-in-law. Your commands are absolute, I say! So I spent many days working hard, learning the language from the chart you left in Filo’s wagon,” he explained. Ah, right. I had made something like that a long time ago. He’d learned the language from that? That wasn’t really why I’d left it behind, but . . . putting him right would just give me a headache, I was sure. Best to just leave well enough alone.
“Everything I do, I do for Filo,” he stated proudly.
“Yeah, whatever,” I replied. It was the best I could manage. So he’d learned it so quickly because it was the language of F
ilo’s world. What wonders a fool with conviction might achieve. He had the drive, I’d give him that. “You just hurry up and join us,” I told him.
“Understood, I say!” he responded.
“Yahoo!” cried his three followers. Obeying my orders, they dashed off toward the hot springs. I decided not to bring up those three. Ren and Itsuki looked like they wanted to avoid the topic too.
“Now, I would like to bring to order the Third Hero Conference,” Ren declared, raising his hand. It had been a little while as we’d finished our bathing and we had gathered in the same room that we’d used for discussions back when we visited the islands before.
The others from the village, including Atla and Filo, were taking a break. Raphtalia was watching them in another room. I hoped Atla would maintain control of herself. I really needed Fohl to get back quickly.
“As we don’t have a moderator, I’ll handle the proceedings,” Ren stated.
“Sure,” I agreed. Ren had been pretty full of energy recently—burning with the desire to fulfill his duty and fight the waves.
I was just prioritizing making it out alive. I didn’t expect to get quite as serious as him about everything. I guess being so self-absorbed was just like Ren. Still, he was headed in a much better direction than he had been in the past.
“So? What do you want to talk about?” I prodded.
“We’re going to be taking on the Phoenix soon, right? I thought all the heroes should have a bit of a chat and discuss things like power-up methods and the progress we’ve been making,” Ren explained.
“Sure, I guess. But I explained all that already, didn’t I?” I asked. I had already explained to everyone, including Motoyasu, the things we had discovered in Q’ten Lo, such as sharing of power-up methods, all of which had been proven to work.
“That’s not all. We need to discuss any new weapons and skills we have obtained,” Ren went on.
“Hmmm. You might be right,” I acquiesced. No harm could come from it.
“First, just to confirm, you have already achieved the power-up, correct?” Ren asked.