by Aneko Yusagi
And now the village was covered in green plant-houses, which was why Raphtalia was criticizing me.
“Sorry,” I told Raphtalia.
“About what?” she asked.
“You’re upset because I’m turning your village into a mysterious fantasy world where people don’t belong, right?” I answered.
“Well . . . I guess there’s no avoiding it. I understand the merits.”
Raphtalia aside, Rat had been really ecstatic about the modifications we’d made to the bioplant. She called it a “revolutionary” use of the plant.
I wasn’t sure about “revolutionary.” I’d just used the shield’s abilities to modify it. The shield had a strong effect on the outcome. I made the rough modifications, and then Rat tweaked the details. My next request was for her to develop a bioplant variation that could create medicinal herbs. I would have been happy with a bioplant that could make medicine, but she’d told me that would be too difficult.
We’d had several failures before arriving at the current camping plant, of course. The first prototype had been a man-eating house, for example. Rat told us it was dangerous and repeatedly said not to go inside, but Wyndia and Filo ignored her and excitedly ran in. The plant ate them. But Raphtalia and I destroyed the plant and managed to get them out safely. The faces of the villagers were full of mixed emotions when that happened.
Other than that, I’d had Rat take a look at the monster eggs. She noticed right away that my monsters exhibited extraordinary development. She came and asked me about it. When I told her about the maturation adjustment on my Monster User Shield, she got really excited and spent a while looking the shield over.
“Wow. I’d heard that monsters raised by heroes would be more advanced. I guess that explains why,” she said.
“Yeah, probably. Do the other heroes have something similar?” I asked.
Since Ren was at the village, I’d had him test it out before. He’d gotten a similar weapon.
“The hero I know never mentioned anything like that to me,” she replied.
“I see.”
Then again, she didn’t get along with Faubrey’s seven star hero very well, apparently. She’d mentioned the hero being really uptight. The hero really disliked unconventional research like monster modification or alchemy, which was her specialty. It seemed like she didn’t really want to go into the details, so I hadn’t asked her about what kind of person the hero was. Besides, I’d already requested that the hero get in touch with me so that we could talk. I really should have heard back long ago.
Anyway, research into using a bioplant variant to produce food was well underway too. The flavor of the food was already more than adequate, so I’d leave the rest up to Rat. She could work on creating some variation in the types of food produced. I had the slaves taking care of raising the monsters, so we would probably be able to really get serious about our peddling operations before long.
“This seed made building a laboratory for myself simple too. It’s done nothing but good for us,” said Rat.
Rat’s lab was a huge building that she’d built using the camping plant. She’d brought a massive test tube from who knows where and set it up in the lab. It was filled with bubbling liquid, and some kind of monster was floating in the liquid. It reminded me of some kind of mutant beast in a science-fiction film. When I first saw it, I couldn’t help but wonder if taking her in might have been a mistake.
All of this had happened over the past two days. That was a lot of change for two days. Too much, maybe. A huge laboratory had been added to the village in only two days . . .
Wyndia and Rat had become rivals when it came to the monsters, by the way. Wyndia thought it would be best to strengthen the monsters by having them fight. That clashed with Rat’s assertion that modifying them was the best way to make them stronger. They were both looking for ways to make the monsters stronger, so regardless, they couldn’t hate each other. The two of them were always busy discussing something or other. That said, Wyndia was obviously far less educated than Rat, so it seemed like Rat was just toying with her more often than not.
“Alright, I’m going to focus my research on the bioplant until I get tired of it. Let me know when you can provide some funding for other research.”
“I will. I want to start working on modifying the monsters directly too,” I told her.
The offensive capabilities of my subordinates were of paramount importance to me. There was no way around it. It had become clear from the fight with the Spirit Tortoise that I could never have too many allies. And having stronger monsters could only make things better.
Crack! Crack!
I heard cracking sounds coming from my back. I guess the egg was about to hatch.
“I can feel signs of new life,” said Atla.
“Yeah. You can sense that, huh?” I replied.
I took the egg off of my back and looked it over.
“Is the egg hatching?” asked Raphtalia.
“Looks that way.”
The egg was a lot bigger than Filo’s had been. A crack formed on its surface, and a baby dragon slowly began to emerge.
“What do dragons eat, anyway?” I asked.
“I’m guessing meat,” said Raphtalia.
“Do we even have any meat?” I wondered out loud.
We’d had some smoked meat and some dried meat in the village storehouse, but I wasn’t sure if there was any left.
“It depends on the type of dragon, but this one is an omnivore,” said Rat.
Thank goodness. We could feed him fruit from the bioplant. We had been harvesting more than we needed lately, and it was slowly becoming a key product of our peddling operations.
“Kwaaaa!”
The baby dragon peeked his head out of the egg and squeaked at us. Hatching a monster sure brought back memories. It was just like when Filo . . . No, she’d been a lot more energetic. The baby dragon was about as big as my head. He was definitely bigger than Filo had been when she hatched.
“The thing sure is shaped weird,” I said.
The baby dragon looked like a fat little gourd with pathetically tiny wings on its back. He had a fat tail and two horns, but still didn’t have scales yet. I scooped him up into my arms. His body was warm.
“Kwa!”
The dragon blinked several times and then looked me in the eyes.
“Kwaaa!”
He raised one of his hands when he squeaked, as if he were saying hello. That reminded me. I figured I should absorb a piece of the egg shell into my shield. I picked a piece up and held it up to the shield.
Zap!
What was that? The shield sparked. I recalled something similar happening while we were in Kizuna’s world. It had been the Demon Dragon Shield that time, I think. It had reacted similarly then.
“Tee hee . . . He sure is cute. It reminds me of when Filo was just a chick,” said Raphtalia.
She was poking at the baby dragon with her finger. The dragon was biting at her finger playfully. Was this creature really supposed to turn into a sex fiend?
“So this is a dragon. I can feel an incredibly warm life force stirring,” said Atla.
She gave the baby dragon a warm welcome too. Based on what I knew about dragons, I imagined they wouldn’t get along with white tigers. But that didn’t seem to be the case here.
“Alright, I should do a quick checkup,” said Rat.
She looked the baby dragon over carefully, poking him lightly here and there.
“Good. No major problems. Healthy, overall. Looks like a male. Everything went as planned,” she said.
“That’s good,” I said.
A male meant it shouldn’t be a problem even if it displayed an abnormal development pattern and ended up being able to use a human form like Filo. Then again, just being able to use a human form would be a problem in and of itself, but whatever.
When Rat let go of the baby dragon, it flew over to me and started climbing up my leg. What a little rascal.
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br /> “I guess you have a good idea of how to raise him, right?” Rat asked.
“Think so?”
“I recommend you start taking him out to hunt from early on. The amount of food growing dragons eat is just scary,” she said.
“You’re telling me?”
“Ah, that’s right. You’re surrounded by a bunch of kids that might even be able to out eat a dragon, aren’t you?” she replied.
Rat took my wisecrack in earnest and nodded. She’d stole the punch line, and hearing it come from her mouth just made me depressed.
“What kind of dragon is he?” I asked.
“It’s a wyr. They value devotion highly and are one of the most loyal types of dragons. They are a mix between purebloods and tyrellas.”
“Tyrellas?”
“A tyrella is a big lizard-type monster. They can’t fly, but they make for excellent transportation. They’re rare though.”
“I see.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. I’d never seen one. Then again, I hadn’t actually seen that many different kinds of dragons either.
“They aren’t found in Melromarc, so you might not be familiar with them. They’re not kept as pets around here either.”
“Oh really?”
“It’s a monster you’re more likely to see in Faubrey, Shieldfreeden, or Siltvelt.”
“I see.”
“Is this the dragon from that egg?!”
Wyndia came over and approached the hatched dragon excitedly.
“Kwa!”
The baby dragon wasn’t shy at all. It was acting cute to get as much attention as possible.
“Alright, I guess we’ll take him out to hunt later,” I said.
“Yeah! I don’t think Filo will be happy though.”
Wyndia nodded in agreement. She was playing with the baby dragon. All said and done, Wyndia was good about doing as she was told. She didn’t try to complain about killing poor monsters or anything like that. On the contrary, she usually got really excited about going hunting. She seemed to be all about the strong preying on the weak. I didn’t understand her at all. But she was probably right about Filo not being happy. Dragons and filolials were natural enemies, so there was nothing we could do about that.
“Your name is Gaelion,” she said.
“Who said you could name him?!”
“Mr. Naofumi, the village children all chose the name together,” said Raphtalia.
“Oh, really? In that case, I guess it’s okay.”
Coming up with a name was a hassle, anyway. I probably would have named it something lame like Dran. Considering that, Gaelion didn’t seem bad at all.
“I’m going to go show him to everyone!”
And so Wyndia took charge of Gaelion and we took him out to level with the other villagers. I hoped he would grow up and become a strong fighter quickly.
“I miss Raph-chan,” I said.
Raph-chan had been sitting on Filo’s head a lot the past couple of days. She seemed to really like it there and wouldn’t come to me when I called out to her. That made me kind of sad.
“Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Where did you find that monster?” asked Rat.
I glanced over at Raphtalia. She had a really bitter look on her face. I wondered what I should do. Giving a detailed explanation would probably just end up causing trouble. But Raph-chan was my favorite. I wanted to make her stronger so that she could help out even more than she already did. I decided to explain, after all.
“Raph-chan is a shikigami that I made in the other world. Shikigamis are the equivalent to what we call familiars in this world. I used a lock of Raphtalia’s hair as the base material and out came Raph-chan.”
“Mr. Naofumi! That’s your answer after pausing to think for so long?!” Raphtalia snapped.
Well, of course.
“I can use my shield’s abilities to enhance her various attributes, just like with the bioplant. Doing so seems to require different materials and consumes energy though.”
I was always tinkering around with Raph-chan’s attributes. Enhancing them required materials, so I was making progress slowly but steadily. On a fundamental level, it worked a lot like powering up my shield.
“I didn’t know there were familiars like that. I thought it was a new type of monster,” said Rat.
“Making a new type of monster like her is my goal,” I replied.
“That’s news to me! What are you thinking, Mr. Naofumi?!” exclaimed Raphtalia.
Oh, damn. I’d accidentally revealed my aspirations to Raphtalia.
“And I guess you’ve been secretly planning to do this for some time,” she said.
“Hmph. I won’t change my mind about this one, Raphtalia. I can’t let Raph-chan be the last of her kind.”
“I don’t understand why you’re so passionate about her.”
No matter how much two people trusted each other, there would always be things they couldn’t understand about each other. But I didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing. It wasn’t just because Raph-chan looked like Raphtalia. I really liked how she always played along with me too.
“What are you upset about, Raphtalia? If that’s what Mr. Naofumi desires, then it’s your duty to accept it as his retainer,” said Atla.
“I’m upset because it’s exactly the kind of thing I shouldn’t accept! Think about it, Atla. Would you want someone to make a monster out of your hair?”
“If it were a monster that Mr. Naofumi would adore, then I would happily offer a lock of my hair!”
I thought about making a shikigami or familiar from a lock of Atla’s hair. I pictured a little white tiger. If such a thing existed, I was sure it would be cute. But it was hard to imagine it being as cute as Raph-chan.
“Mr. Naofumi, I can tell what you’re thinking just by looking at your face. I don’t know why you like Raph-chan so much.”
Ugh . . . Raphtalia had read my mind again.
“I couldn’t tell what he was thinking this time. But I won’t let you win like that again,” said Atla.
What was she getting worked up about? Did Atla really want to read my face? Had she forgotten she was blind?
“In that case, Count, why not try raising the mutability of the familiar’s attributes?”
“After what happened with the bioplant, I really wanted to avoid doing that.”
“It’s not like mutation can’t produce favorable results too, you know. If you trust the familiar, then surely increasing the mutability just slightly is an option.”
Hmm . . . She had a point.
“The legends say that the heroes created the filolials. Since you like her so much, maybe a monster based on her could end up becoming the next filolial,” Rat continued.
What a glorious thought. And it wasn’t unrelated to Rat’s goal of creating a useful monster like the filolials. It would be killing two birds with one stone. I would get to make Raph-chan stronger. Rat would get to create the next filolial. That settled it. I’d try raising Raph-chan’s mutability just a bit. I’d turn my familiar into a monster.
“Please don’t do that, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia pleaded.
“I won’t let anyone take away Raph-chan’s future. Not even you, Raphtalia.”
“Oh, jeez . . .”
She must have sensed my strong sense of determination, because Raphtalia didn’t push the issue any further.
“Anyway . . . Enough about that. We still need to go visit the old guy at the weapon shop today.”
I decided to change the subject and avoid any more argument. The old guy was probably finishing up the katana I’d asked him to make right about now.
“Understood. Let’s go then.”
Raphtalia always let me run away from arguments in the end. That’s what I liked about her. And so we left Rat behind and used my portal to make our way to the old guy’s weapon shop.
Chapter Four: Stardust Blade
“There you are, kid.”
When I arrived at the weapon shop, the old guy came out to greet me like he had been waiting on me. Business seemed to be booming. The shelves appeared to be rather bare inside the shop. Surely it wasn’t just my imagination.
That reminded me. The supplies that had been left at the village two days earlier ended up taking care of a lot of my equipment needs. But getting rid of the equipment just to give the old guy work would have been a waste. If nothing else, I’d just have him reforge it.
“If you need help getting more materials, just let me know. The villagers will give you a hand if I tell them to.”
“That’s Tolly’s family at your village, right? I’d feel bad.”
“All the work I give them is really detailed. Digging holes might be a good way for them to destress.”
Imiya and most of the other lumos tended to be really quiet and submissive. I figured they were the type that would accumulate a lot of stress. They would need a way to blow off some steam. They always looked like they were having fun when they were digging in the dirt, so I was pretty sure they would consider mining to be a fulfilling task.
“If we had the queen set us up with a mine, I’m sure they would clean it out for you.”
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Shield Hero,” said Imiya’s uncle.
He bowed his head to me. I guess I was right about mining being a good way to destress for them. They would probably see it as an exciting event or something.
“Really? Well, if you two say so, then I might just take you up on that,” said the old guy.
“Going by our stock of supplies, you should probably take him up on it soon,” Imiya’s uncle replied.
So they were running low, after all. I’d make the arrangements and send them out mining later.
“I’ll get them on it and have the supplies delivered,” I said.
I’d have Filo or her Underling #1 deliver the supplies to the old guy’s shop.
“Thanks, kid. I’ll make a list of the ores I need for you.”
“It’s nothing. I’ve asked my fair share of favors too.”
“That’s right. I finished that last one up for you already.”