by Aneko Yusagi
If it did happen, it would be in the middle of a wave or some other horrible event.
We had to stop the waves. I didn ’t want L’Arc sitting around looking forward to them.
Therese sighed, “The gemstones you made for me are sad to see you go.”
She was all decked out in the accessories I ’d made for her, and they were all shining in the sun. She looked ridiculous! It was so bright! Stop flashing those things at me!
“L’Arc . . .”
L ’Arc nodded gravely.
“I will. If I don’t, Therese is likely to escape to your world the next time a wave comes.”
“I don’t think she’s that cold.”
I swear , this guy ’s girlfriend was really annoying.
Granted, she had helped us out plenty of times.
“Ms. Raphtalia, Filo, Ms. Rishia . . . I wish you all well.”
“Likewise. Please stay well,” Raphtalia replied.
“That reminds me . . . Boy.”
“You still calling me that, Kiddo?”
“You’re always talking about Raphtalia and the women as if they are little girls—did you ever notice that?”
“I guess you’ve got a point there.”
Kizuna nodded.
“Alright already! Geez! What can I say, I don’t like calling people younger than me by their names, alright ? There’re so many girls around here that it just makes it easier to call them the same thing! What’s the problem with that?”
I kind of did have a problem with it, actually—but it wasn’t worth fighting over.
“Besides, you’re one to talk, Kiddo! You’re always coming up with crazy nicknames for people!”
“So are you.”
“Yeah, yeah, well . . .”
“You finally understand, don’t you, L’Arc,” Ethnobalt said, floating over. “Thank you for everything. For all you did for Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese.”
I couldn ’t shake the feeling that he was acting a bit familiar with me. Was it my imagination? No. He was an attractive boy that was actually a giant rabbit. Just like Fitoria, he acted like we’d known each other for a long time.
Filo ran over and clung to me, and Raph-chan hopped up onto my shoulder.
“Muuuu!”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Filo. It’s nothing like that,” Ethnobalt said, smiling softly.
This guy looked like your typical scholar-type.
Maybe he had true powers, like Fitoria, but different, that he ’d awaken to soon.
“I won’t waste the experience that I earned while fighting with you.”
“I hope not. Good luck.”
He turned to Rishia next, “Ms. Rishia, I’ve heard about your amazing deeds in the recent battle. I will work hard to become more like you.”
“Feh . . .” she muttered and her face flushed red with embarrassment. She probably wasn’t used to getting compliments like that.
“Please take this book I found in the labyrinth library. I pray that it will be of use to you.”
“Okay! Thank you!”
If I knew Rishia, she ’d figure out how to read it.
“And . . .” he said, reaching out and taking off a small anchor-like accessory that was attached to the ship vassal weapon, passing it to me.
“What’s this?”
“This accessory was described in a book I found recently. Please take it with you. I think it will prove . . . useful.”
“Oh . . .”
If he was giving it away, there was no reason not to take it.
“If it’s being offered, you’ll take it, no? You’re a merchant, after all.”
“Good point. But if I get going on that, you’ll never get me to shut up.”
“Excuse me. Mr. Naofumi is not a merchant. He is a hero,” Raphtalia corrected Romina and Alto.
“Anyway, take this too—a going away present if you will,” Romina said handing me a bag. It was heavy, and seemed to have all kinds of different things in it.
I took a peek inside and saw that it contained accessories with this world ’s special technologies, such as emulated drop item functions and wave-site-teleporting.
There was a bunch of other stuff too.
These things didn ’t even exist back in our world—they were sure to come in handy.
“I know you threw some other things in there too.”
I guess Romina had me all figured out.
As for Alto, if he smiled and gave me something, I would feel weird about it.
“You seem to think I’m some kind of miser—but you’re wrong about that.”
“Liar.”
“Yeah, that’s a lie,” Kizuna and Glass both chimed in.
But Alto didn ’t back down.
“I was able to make a pretty profit with all the crazy things you’ve been up to. This is in thanks for that.”
“Ah, so that’s what you meant.”
He was like the slave-trader back in Melromarc. He’d eventually seen increased profits because of me. Alto had a reputation for being a miserly merchant, and it seemed to me that he’d earned that reputation.
“Ah, that’s right. Glass—”
I had a book of recipes written in Japanese. I gave it to Glass.
“What is this?”
“I wrote up a collection of recipes that you should be able to follow with the tools and ingredients you’ve got in this world. Have Kizuna read it to you.”
You see , I hadn ’t just been wandering around randomly in a world I couldn’t understand. A lot of the language in my status menu was garbled when we crossed between worlds, so I’d been taking meticulous notes on what effects had stopped working, and about the differences between the items we collected.
Things that I couldn ’t make in this world, because the necessary materials didn’t exist tended to show up garbled.
But we could use soul-healing water just like normal, and I could read it too.
That meant you could make it with materials from this world.
We were going to face tougher battles in the future . She’d need to drink soul-healing water like normal water. So I wrote down the recipe for it.
“This should do the same thing. Try it out.”
“Wow! You’re pretty impressive, Naofumi.”
“You could be too if you ever did anything besides fishing. But actually, you need fish to make that recipe, so she’ll need your help with that.”
To make the medicine that worked like soul-healing water from materials available in their world, they ’d need a certain type of rare fish.
I ’d found it by accident while analyzing a catch that Kizuna had been particularly proud of.
“Thanks! I’ll do what I can!”
“Don’t let this world’s other holy heroes die or anything.”
“Oh . . . right. Yeah, we’ll do what we can.”
We both had problems with our fellow holy heroes, so I knew how she felt. We shook hands.
“And watch out for Alto.”
He was sharp alright .
Who was left? Oh— Yomogi, Tsugumi, and the other women.
“Kyo did terrible things. Leave the rest to us.”
“Say that to Kizuna too. I made him pay for his crimes and his helper too. I even killed their souls.”
“Yeah.” Tsugumi said. She looked like she still harbored negative feelings about me, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been. “If you all hadn’t come, this never would have happened.”
“We won’t be back—feel free to hate us all you like.”
What was with her? Did she come just to whine about us? ”
“. . . Yet, you also saved us all. Thank you for setting———free. Kyo used him even after his death. Thank you.”
A wind blew through at just the wrong time, and—once again—I couldn’t catch Trash #2’s name. I decided to give up on trying to figure out what it was. Tsugumi would probably just get mad if I asked again. And besides, I probably wouldn’t catch it. I decided to just as
k Raphtalia about it some other day.
“I wonder if we’ll ever know why he was so obsessed with the katana of the vassal weapons.”
“Hey that reminds me. Did you say that there were some Spirits in your group that went missing?”
“. . .”
Tsugumi said nothing, but nodded.
Some of their bodies had been found in a basement room of Kyo ’s mansion.
Apparently Kyo had taken Trash #2 ’s soul from his body and used it to feed soul eaters.
The Spirits that had followed him around learned of the truth and were all killed for it.
So many people had died. Including Albert, the holder of the mirror vassal weapon, who met the same fate as the rest of them.
“The katana was essential to the wellbeing of the country. But there’s no way for us to know why he was so confident that it would choose him to wield it.”
Raphtalia drew the sword, then held it horizontally out to Kizuna and the others.
“I return this vassal weapon to you.”
Right, I guess she didn ’t have a choice. Even if it had chosen her, we couldn’t take this world’s vassal weapons with us.
We owed the weapon a lot though. It had helped us when we needed it most.
“It doesn’t look like it wants to leave you.”
“And for some reason, it didn’t summon her when the wave occurred.”
Glass and Therese, who was a Jewel, touched the blade and spoke to it, but it didn ’t respond to them.
Kizuna touched it too, and nothing happened.
“It’s no use. It’s hard to explain, but it has a sense of duty to her, and it seemed to have complex emotions. It will not answer to us.”
“Do you know what it wants? Is its will clear?”
“We only have a vague sense of its intention.”
Hmm . . . Did it mean that Raphtalia was going to be able to take it back to the previous world with her?
“Perhaps it feels responsible for Kyo’s actions against your world. Perhaps it wants to fight for the sake of your world—at least until this world really needs it,” Kizuna said.
The katana shimmered with light in response.
“Looks like Kizuna might be right.”
“Hm . . .”
We talked about a lot of things, but we were running out of time.
Soon enough, we ’d run out of time all together.
“Alright!” I barked, smiling wickedly. “We’ll take the katana vassal weapon with us then! You all can just wish you had it!”
“Aww, Naofumi’s pretending to be a bad guy again.”
“Kiddo’s always doing that.”
“He’s actually a really good person.”
Kizuna and her friends sighed as they analyzed me.
Raphtalia just shook her head. Filo looked confused.
Rishia was looking all around in nervous twitches. Raph-chan jumped up onto my shoulder and waved goodbye to everyone.
“I guess it’s really time to say goodbye.”
There were only a few more seconds on the timer.
When it ran out, we ’d be summoned back to our world automatically.
“Our weapons will probably keep us from seeing you again, but we had an alright time while it lasted. Later.”
“Yeah, goodbye. Naofumi, thank you for helping me. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d still be trapped in that labyrinth. We’ll be in different worlds, but we’re heroes on the same side.”
We were all waving goodbye now.
“Naofumi!” L’Arc shouted, loud and clear.
They all waved and shouted together in unison: “Thank you!”
Their words echoed in my ears, but before we could answer the counter ran out, and we were transported back to our world.
We passed through a tunnel with a strange light on the way, but it was over in a flash.
—And we were back in the world we came from.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol. 9
© Aneko Yusagi 2015
First published by KADOKAWA in 2015 in Japan.
English translation rights arranged by One Peace Books
under the license from KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Japan
Written by Aneko Yusagi
Character Design Seira Minami
Cover Design by Yusuke Koyama
English Edition Published by One Peace Books 2017
Printed in Canada
One Peace Books
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