by Aneko Yusagi
This should be an easy win. We had enough of a lead that I ventured a backward glance.
“What’s wrong with you! Run faster!”
Motoyasu was desperately shouting orders at his dragon. The dragon, not wanting to lose to Filo, put in more effort and started running harder. Even still, it couldn’t keep up.
Filo’s specs must have been higher.
It was like a motorcycle versus a motorized bicycle. Naturally, Filo was the motorcycle in this case whereas Motoyasu was stuck with a motorized bicycle. That’s how much faster we were.
“Gaaah!”
Filo shouted in joy, as if to show off how confident we were with our lead. It was like being on a motorcycle. We cut through the wind, and the village flew by, just strips of color in my periphery. We finished the first lap, and we must have been five body-lengths or more in the lead.
“Damn!”
The Bitch was cursing us in frustration.
Ahaha. It was all so easy—and it felt so good.
The villagers were gathering around the course to watch us when it happened.
“I am the source of all power, hear my words and understand them well. I command a hole to appear before me.”
“Earth Hole!”
I was watching to make sure that the castle knights didn’t step into the course, when a hole opened up right in front of me.
“Coward!”
The knights turned their faces away, apparently unaware of what they were being accused of.
Filo’s foot clipped the side of the hole, and we went down.
“Gah?!”
“There’s my chance!”
“What’s your chance?! Jerk!”
Motoyasu was unperturbed by my protests, and he spurred his dragon on.
But…
“I am the source of all power, hear my words and understand them well. I demand his speed be increased.”
“Fast Speed!”
So someone was casting support magic on Motoyasu. And whoever had done it had also caused Filo to trip on their hidden magic hole! What was wrong with the people in this country?!
“Filo, we can’t lose to people like this. Let’s go!”
“Gaaaaaah!”
Filo climbed to her feet, and she chirped, as if to say that now she was serious. She took off running, faster now even than she had been before.
Before long, we were running alongside Motoyasu again.
“What?!”
Like we’d lose, and let him cheat his way to victory!
Filo was running like she knew how I felt. Even though Motoyasu had been sped up, we still were able to make up the space between us by the time the second lap was over.
We were in sight of the villagers again, and I angrily thrust my finger at Motoyasu, taking care that they could all see my signal.
The villagers were pressing in to see what had changed.
“I am the source of all power, hear my words and understand them. Slow his speed!”
“Fast Speed Down!”
“Gah?”
Filo suddenly slowed down.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
The gathered knights all turned away, as if they had no idea what I was talking about.
Motoyasu caught up with us and then passed us.
Certainly he had to know that people were going to notice. How cowardly can a guy get?!
Dammit… If this kept up, we would lose. I couldn’t stand to think of it. There must have been something we could do!
“Gaaah!”
Filo must have been angry too. She cawed to make her dissatisfaction evident before dramatically opening her wings and leaning forward.
Hey now! She was running even faster, but it was harder to control her in the turns. When we went around a corner, she had to take the outside line.
But I still knew something about racing from games. In bike racing games, you could lean into the corners to make the bike turn quicker. I thought I should give it a try!
We came up on a corner, and I shifted my weight to help het her around it, I leaned towards the direction of the curve. It must have looked like I was hanging off of Filo’s stomach.
But it worked. Filo was able to turn the corner without lowering her speed.
Yes! We were starting the third lap and we’d overtaken Motoyasu once again.
All we could do now was run to the end.
The villagers had gathered around the knights and were watching them close to see that there were no further interruptions. That should have made victory as good as ours… But then the knights drew their swords, and the villagers scattered.
Everything was chaos. I could see someone among the knights beginning to chant yet another spell.
If that’s how they wanted to play, I had some tricks of my own.
“Air Strike Shield!”
They had called for another hole to appear in the racing lane, but I summoned my Shield to cover it.
“Go Filo! Let’s show these jerks how fast we can run!”
“Gaaah!”
Yes! Victory was as good as ours. But on our way to victory…
“Filo!”
“Gah!”
I spotted the knight that had been casting the spells… I stared him down.
“I… Um…”
From where he stood, I must have seemed like the supreme ruler of the century’s end.
Filo turned her back on the cheating knight, raised her leg, and kicked him. The fool fainted on the spot.
“Gah!!”
Filo called out her victory, and we sauntered over the goal line, far in the lead, and victorious.
”I… I lost…”
“It’s not fair! He cheated! I demand a rematch!” shouted the Bitch.
“Cheated? Who are you talking about? Who was the one casting spells?”
I pointed at the unconscious knight.
“What are you implying?”
“That guy was casting all sorts of spells to hinder our progress! That’s cheating!”
“Wait… was he really?”
Motoyasu chimed in, acting as if he had been unaware the whole time.
Like I’d forget that he’d shouted, “Now’s my chance!”
“I don’t know anything about that. Even if he did cheat, what’s that got to do with us? We demand justice!”
So she only wants justice when SHE loses? Ha! Give me a break.
“It didn’t look that way to me.”
All of the villagers nodded in agreement with the governor’s announcement.
“Just as the Shield Hero was saying, there are marks on the course left by magical spells. We ran to chase off the knights, so the proof is still there.”
That’s right. We kicked that knight at the end so that he wouldn’t be able to cover up what he had done. The villagers now surrounded him. If we just went to see the huge hole still in the racing lane, anyone would know, right off the bat, who was to blame.
“The Shield Hero planted that to make us look bad!”
“No, he did not.”
What? The lady from the magic shop appeared from the crowd of villagers. Oh yeah, she had a grandchild here, she’d said.
“The Shield Hero can only use support and restorative magic. The girl with him can only use light and dark magic, and therefore neither of them could have formed these holes in the earth.
“Oh, great! The stupid magic shop lady thinks she knows everything now!”
Just as the Bitch shouted, the ninjas appeared again to surround her.
“It appears obvious that the Spear Hero was the recipient of unfair support. Please come with us.”
Motoyasu spoke softly, and tried to calm the Bitch down, “We’ve lost this one, and therefore, as promised, we relinquish control of this village.”
“Right. So get the hell out already.”
“I won’t lose next time.”
“You lose all the time. Coward.”
“I am not a coward!”
“Spear Hero, this is no time to fight. You neither, Shield Hero.”
The ninjas admonished the Motoyasu gang, and they all left together.
They left the dragon behind.
“We don’t need a dragon that lost to the Shield. Leave it. “
“Kyuuuu,” the dragon let out a pitiful cry, and was left behind.
The poor thing. It’s not like he had done anything wrong.
A group of villagers walked over and pet the dragon’s head before taking its reigns in hand.
“Let’s keep him in the village.”
“Good idea.”
The dragon walked beside the villagers, it’s head hung low.
“I won, so give me my prize.”
“Mr. Naofumi… just like that?”
“This village owes you so much, Shield Hero. Had they imposed a tax the likes of what they were discussing, it would have been the end of our village. Even still, can you wait a few days? If so, we can provide you with funds as well.”
“Don’t you need the money to make repairs?”
“You know us well.”
“What’s the point in digging into your repair funds just to pay me? That’s not good for anyone. No thanks, but I appreciate the offer.”
The last thing I wanted was to end up indebted to anyone. Besides, it would not have helped my bruised reputation. Everyone would think I shook the village down for money.
“Then we will provide you with something very convenient indeed. Tell me, Hero, do you have any interest in traveling sales?”
“Traveling sales?”
“Yes, like when you walk from village to village, town to town, and sell wares. It appears that you are supporting yourself by selling materials and medicines. If you have any interest, we could help you with such matters.”
“Huh.”
Did they mean a traveling merchant of some sort? In other words, instead of selling to apothecaries, I would sell directly to customers…
I’d have to give it some thought. Up until now, I’d been focused on the production side of things, but if I did what they suggested, I’d get in on the sales side of things too. That should make me a good profit.
“Not to mention, Hero, that you also happen to possess a Filolial. That will get you from place to place with relative ease and speed. If you had it pull a cart, then your business would be that much easier. If you’d like, we could provide you a commercial bill of passage.”
“Commercial bill of passage?”
“Yes. Normally, traveling merchants need to visit with the local governor when they first enter a village or town and pay him a certain sum to do business there. However, if you show them the commercial bill of passage, with my seal affixed, then you should not have to pay this fee. I think you would find it quite useful.”
I had to think. This farming town was very close to the Melromarc Kingdom, and it was situated conveniently close to trade routes. To be the governor of such a place must have entailed a level of authority and dignity. The villagers were aware that their village was saved during the wave due to my efforts. They must have also heard about my troubled reputation, and all about what the king was doing to me, using any method he could think of to suppress my freedom. They also knew that my reputation would make further business difficult for me, and therefore were offering cooperation.
“I believe it will help you conduct business in spite of your unsavory reputation. We’d like to remove obstacles from your path, and we think this will make life easier for you.”
They were accepting me and being kind. I felt sincere gratitude.
“Thank you. I accept your kind offer.”
In truth, it really was wonderful compensation, and it should make it easier to get some decent money. They even offered to build a carriage for Filo.
Great… that sure beat pushing a wheelbarrow.
“Well anyway, let’s get back to reconstruction, shall we?”
“Yes.”
The villagers nodded along with Raphtalia. We all went back to our own projects.
“Gah!”
Filo was on top of the world, excited to have her very own carriage.
“Great. Let’s head to the forest!”
“Okay!”
“Gah!”
I pointed in the direction I wanted to go, and Filo chirped in excitement and started pulling the carriage.
Rattle… Rattle…
Ahh… It was so peaceful, so pleasant.
Rattle, rattle, rattle! Clatter, clatter!
Filo started pulling faster and faster, and soon we were flying down the road.
“You’re too fast! Slow down!”
“I don’t feel so good…”
Raphtalia was laying down in the back of the carriage, suddenly sick. I guess she got motion sick.
“You all right?”
“Yes… but… try not to shake the carriage so much.”
“I guess you get motion sick, huh?”
“I guess I do. Are you all right, Mr. Naofumi?”
“I’ve never gotten sick yet.”
It wasn’t just that alcohol didn’t affect me. I’d never gotten seasick or carsick either.
Back in elementary school, we’d taken a bus to go on a field trip. I was reading some manga and light novels that I had in my backpack when the person next to me started complaining that they felt sick, and we had to switch seats. Also, I remember that whenever we went to visit my extended family, we had to take a boat. Everyone else in my family got seasick, but not me. I remember playing games on my phone the whole time.
“We’ll make sure you relax. Filo and I will make sure that we get to where we are going.”
“Thank you. I’ll take you up on that offer…”
“Gaaah!”
“Could you maybe go a little slower?”
Filo just kept on running, overjoyed, as though she couldn’t hear Raphtalia at all.
Afterwards, Raphtalia threw up on the side of the road. By the time we made it to the forest, she was doing all she could to suppress the nausea.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
Raphtalia’s pale face made me feel bad. Maybe I should have slowed the carriage down more.
“Sorry.”
“Gah…”
Filo, too, looked downcast, as though guilty.
“I’m… I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. Let’s find a place for you to rest.”
“Why hello there, Shield Hero.”
There was a small house over by the woods, and a villager who looked something like a lumberjack came out from it.
“Yeah, the villagers asked me to come pick up some wood here.”
“Um… Is your friend there all right?”
“I think… I dunno, probably not. I’d like to let her get some rest. Do you know of a good place?”
“There’s a place in my house she could rest for a while.”
The lumberjack led us over to his house, and I lent Raphtalia my shoulder to steady herself on the way. Once we were inside, we laid her down on the bed.
“Let’s find some enemies that are easy enough for Filo to take care of in this area. Then we’ll just focus on carrying the luggage.”
Raphtalia apparently got motion sick rather easily, so we’d have to slow the pace down a bit.
“Do me a favor and load the carriage up with the wood, if you will. We’ll be back in a little while.”
“Okay.”
I unhitched Filo from the carriage, and she looked at the house, then at me.
“Let’s go!”
“Gah!”
Considering how badly she had hurt Motoyasu, I was expecting a pretty impressive fight with her.
We went to go walk around the forest.
Once we were under the trees for a while, I was surprised at how few monsters we encountered. Filo and I just kept on walking through the silent forest.
People always talk about how peaceful and relaxing the silence of the forests is, but
I’d never understood what they meant until now.
That reminds me, ever since I’d come to this world, I don’t think I’d ever had the opportunity to just walk around and enjoy the scenery.
I felt so peaceful now. It must have been the look on Motoyasu’s face after he’d taken the brunt of Filo’s kick.
No, that’s not it.
It was because Raphtalia had believed in me.
And now she was back at that house, sick from the carriage ride.
I felt… lonely.
Thinking back on it all, we’d really only been together for two or three weeks. And yet it already felt so natural to be together. She was just a little kid back then, and I felt like it had been forever since she’d grown into the young woman she was now.
I’d decided to try and take over the role of her parents… but what, exactly, was I supposed to do? And the wave was still coming.
We still had over a month until the next wave came… and yet…
“If only there was some kind of medicine for motion sickness…”
Chapter Six: Wings
We finished our walk in the woods. Raphtalia still wasn’t feeling well, so we left her, resting, and made a run to the village to drop of the lumber. By the time we returned, she was feeling much better.
“How are you?”
“Better.”
“That was… fast!”
The lumberjack was shocked at how quickly we were able to get to the village and back.
“This one is pretty quick on its feet.” I answered, and ran my hand over Filo’s head.
“Gah!”
Filo gave an excited chirp. It’s true. She really was fast.
“So should we make a real try at this forest?”
“Yes.”
“Take it slow on the way back, okay Filo?”
“Gah!”
Piki…
What was that sound? I thought it was a bone growing, and yet, here she was, making those weird sounds again. I hope she wasn’t sick or anything like that.
We did pretty well for ourselves that day. Raphtalia was fighting at the top of her game, but I was surprised at how quick and strong Filo was turning out to be. Honestly, if you were only looking at speed, and the strength of a single attack, she probably could have beat Raphtalia.