by Aneko Yusagi
“Of course. I will ensure that no guests are invited.”
The real problem would be if he had unlocked a curse series. Eclair had been able to get through to Ren, but there was no guarantee the same thing would work for Itsuki.
“Is it possible Itsuki might think the invitation seems too good to be true and not come?”
“I suppose it is possible. Yes sir.”
Still, it would be a good way to get him to talk. If he did show up, we could just make it look like a real match and then ask him what was going on . . . Right?
“What about the rules?”
“The Bow Hero seems to prefer one-on-one matches. Yes sir. There have been exceptions though. I’ve been told that he has fought alone in team-battle tournaments when the prize was large enough.”
Hmm . . . In that case, inviting him to a one-on-one fight in the underground coliseum would be our best bet. If we made it a team-battle tournament with a huge prize, it was possible that he would get suspicious. That would be risky. It would be completely pointless if he didn’t show up.
“Alright. Since you say you want to talk to him, Rishia, you’ll fight him in the first match. Then it’s our turn. I’ll take care of filling out the audience with fake onlookers.”
I’d just use the village slaves. We could put Sadeena or S’yne in the lineup of fighters, and that would make it all the more appealing.
“Understood! Thank you!”
Rishia thanked me. I gave her a small wave to say it was nothing.
“I hope you’re able to talk some sense into him and convince him to come with us,” I said.
“Me too!” she replied.
“What would you like us to do?” Raphtalia and Atla asked, looking at me questioningly.
“If Rishia happens to lose, you can go fight next and just pretend like it’s a coincidence.”
“Understood!” Atla exclaimed.
“Not you, Atla . . . You stay in the gallery,” I replied.
I was afraid she might end up killing Itsuki.
We went about setting up a fake tournament to lure Itsuki out into the underground coliseum. Itsuki was given a flyer along with his prize money, and we had someone follow him back to his place. That was a partial failure though, because his tail lost him in a crowd on the way. But we did have a general idea of where he was staying now.
The underground coliseum that the slave trader prepared for us was a cozy little arena in the basement of a small tavern. It felt like the kind of place where you might expect to see underground wrestling or something. There was nothing there but a barely adequate waiting room and a slightly cramped arena.
The slave trader had arranged for several magic users to cast a ceremonial magic spell called Sanctuary on the arena. That would make it impossible for Itsuki to flee using his portal skill. The invitation that Itsuki was given clearly specified that would be the case. If he noticed anything strange going on, he was likely to run. We needed to be extra careful about not making him suspicious.
Itsuki had showed up earlier that day, completely unsuspecting, and registered himself as a fighter. He was standing by in the waiting room now. Luring him there really had been so simple that it was almost disappointing.
“Luring him out was a success, but we still need to find out what he’s doing here and why he’s trying to make money,” I said.
“You really did find Itsuki?” Ren asked.
I’d returned to the village earlier and brought Ren back to Zeltoble with me. I figured there was a chance Itsuki would listen to Ren, even if he refused to listen to me. The two of them had been fairly close and talked with each other frequently before, apparently. Ren agreed to come without hesitation too.
“Yeah. Rishia is going to fight him in the first match. After that, I want you to go out there and try to talk to him, Ren.”
“Got it! I’m sure that Itsuki . . . is suffering just like I was.”
Ren was eager to do as I told him. I guess Itsuki was in the same type of situation he’d been in, after all. He probably wanted to do whatever he could to help out.
“You’ve got this, Rishia.”
Raphtalia was trying to encourage Rishia, who nodded enthusiastically in response.
“R . . . right! This time I really will do my besht!”
There she went with that annoying, cutesy pronunciation. I would’ve thought she’d be taking things seriously now, of all times. But maybe that’s just what made Rishia who she was.
“Rishia, go show Itsuki how strong you’ve become. Show him that you’re more than strong enough now.”
“I will!”
Rishia responded enthusiastically to my encouragement.
It was true. She was more than strong enough now. She’d really blossomed, both stats-wise and skill-wise. From joining our party at the Cal Mira islands, to training with the old Hengen Muso lady, and even taking on Kyo in her awakened state during the Spirit Tortoise incident, she had never given up on fighting. She’d gained self-confidence from everything that happened in Kizuna’s world, and she’d experienced a real life-and-death battle.
Rishia had changed. She wasn’t the same person that Itsuki had used as an errand girl. Now was her chance to show him that. The gong sounded and Rishia started walking to the arena. After seeing her off, Raphtalia, Atla, and I headed to some ringside seats with a good view.
“And now, a faceoff between Perfect Hidden Justice and Rishia Ivyred! Let the battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!”
The same announcer from when we fought Sadeena shouted out and gave the signal to start. I was surprised he’d agreed to take part in a fake tournament. My slaves all started clapping loudly. I’d ordered them to get out of there immediately if anything went wrong. Sadeena and S’yne were there to help guard them though. They would be able to buy them some time, even if things turned ugly.
“Mr. Itsuki!”
Rishia called out to Itsuki. He was mumbling to himself under his breath, but he stopped and looked up, his gaze fixed on Rishia.
“Oh? So my opponent is Rishia? This will be an easy win.”
Rishia was clearly a nobody to Itsuki.
“Mr. Itsuki! Please listen to me! The situation is extremely serious! Your life is in danger! Please listen to what Naofumi and Ren have to say!”
Rishia pointed over to me and Ren at our ringside seats. I waved at him, just to let him know I was there. All of a sudden, Itsuki’s expression grew incredibly grim.
Chapter Twelve: Justice vs. Justice
“Naofumi . . .”
The malice in his eyes was unbelievable. Never before in all of my fights against other people had someone’s icy, murderous intent felt so tangible. But why was he glaring at me so menacingly?
“Your actions! They are absolutely unforgivable!”
“What are you going on about all of a sudden?”
Had I done something wrong?
“Then again, if you asked me to come up with something I’d done wrong . . . I could go on for hours.”
“I wish I could argue with that. I really do,” Raphtalia whispered with a sigh.
It was nothing to be ashamed of. I’d just done what was necessary to survive.
“Mr. Naofumi is the embodiment of justice. He can do no evil,” Atla replied.
“I’m not so sure about that . . .” I said.
I thought about what Atla said. Saying that I made the rules would put me on the same level as Itsuki. It was hard to tell whether he was under the effects of a curse or just showing his true colors now.
“Then let me spell it out for you. You’ve gathered up slaves, forced them into hard labor, and you’re keeping all of the profits for yourself! Am I wrong?”
“Isn’t that the whole point?”
That’s what slaves were for, right? Of course, it was only natural to compensate someone for their labor. But once you owned a slave, that was manpower that belonged to you. You didn’t have to pay them for every little job they did. Did I have any
qualms about purchasing another human being? Sure I did, but I was just doing what needed to be done.
This was taking the argument to the extreme, but to put it in terms of modern society, slaves were kind of like vacuum cleaners. No one was going to look at a vacuum cleaner and feel sorry for it because it was sucking up dust every day. Slaves were a convenient tool, just like a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine.
“What is that guy with the bow talking about?”
“Hard labor? Has Bubba Shield ever made us work that hard?”
“He never orders us to do more than we can handle. On the contrary, it’s always just the right amount.”
The slaves started whispering among themselves. They sounded like a bunch of shills.
“More importantly, this popcorn stuff that you made for us is super good, bubba!” Keel shouted.
She was sitting in the gallery and chomping on some imitation popcorn that I’d cooked up to help set the mood for the match. It really wasn’t all that good.
“Let’s go do something fun after this is over!”
“Yeah, let’s do something fun!”
Oh, damn it! They were distracting me. I wished they would just shut up!
“Oh my, look at that unquestioning obedience, little Naofumi!”
That killer whale wench, Sadeena, needed to keep her mouth shut!
“The village children enjo———”
“She says that despite being slaves, the villagers enjoy the work that they do.”
S’yne weighed in and her stuffed-doll familiar translated for her.
Letting them get to me would be a waste of energy!
“You’re making them act like they enjoy laboring for you! That’s even worse! And I heard about how you gave a sickly young girl expensive medicine to force her older brother into hard labor! The same slave siblings that Princess Malty was trying to rescue!”
“There’s no way Witch would be trying to rescue anyone!”
I reflexively shouted back in anger. But it was the truth. Doing a good deed was impossible for that woman. That, I was sure of.
“Who is this ‘Witch’ you speak of? We must not be the only pair of siblings that you have rescued,” Atla said.
“No, you’re the only ones,” I replied.
Atla was sitting next to me looking confused, but I was pretty sure Itsuki was referring to her and her brother. I don’t know where he’d gotten his information, but he sure was spouting off nonsense. Witch rescuing a demi-human? Even if hell did freeze over, that still wasn’t going to happen.
But wait . . . Why the hell was he mentioning Witch?!
“Itsuki! You just said Witch’s name, didn’t you?! Why are you bringing her up?!”
I couldn’t even imagine how it all fit together. Surely Witch wasn’t pulling Itsuki’s strings now, was she? But Itsuki clearly wasn’t listening to me. He just continued on with the accusations.
“I also heard that you sold your medicines to rich nobles but did nothing for the poor!”
Was he talking about my peddling operations? Or did he mean before . . . when I was traveling around Melromarc as the supposed saint of the bird god?
“I’m no saint. No one expects a merchant to sell goods to someone with no money, do they?”
Every now and then, some entitled jerk would show up and demand that I grace them with some medicine, like it was their God-given right. Maybe he was referring to those people.
“I heard about the evil noble who had fallen ill and was destined to finally meet his end. Thanks to you sticking your nose where it didn’t belong, he escaped death and the people’s suffering was prolonged!”
“Now you’re really barking up the wrong tree. I only sell the stuff. It’s not up to me to decide how people use it. And anyway, refusing to sell someone medicine because they’re a bad person, or trying to say that someone is better off dead, would be even worse.”
What the hell? Since when was selling medicine to rich people wrong? Besides, even if I had refused to sell to those rich people, it would have just been them doing the badmouthing. In the end, I was the bad guy no matter what I did!
“As a hero, you have the power to save others, and yet I spoke with a lamenting mother who told me about how you refused to save her son!”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about . . .”
That wasn’t ringing any bells. I didn’t save someone? I always did my best to save anyone that was seriously ill. Just like I had done with the old Hengen Muso lady. That’s not to say I didn’t demand those people pay for it afterward with anything they owned, but still . . .
“The woman clung to me, crying and saying she could never forgive you!”
Who would still be holding a grudge against me after all that I did? Oh wait, I think I understood.
“That son that you mentioned . . . He was already dead, wasn’t he?”
“That’s right! She told me that your shield had the power to perform a miracle, and yet you still refused to help!”
“Are you even listening to yourself? There’s no way I could bring the dead back to life, even if I do have the legendary shield. The people that can do that kind of thing are from another world.”
I knew of people that could come back to life. Although, we had still managed to kill them. That was getting off topic though.
I had pretty much figured out who Itsuki was talking about. It was really rare, but people like that did show up every now and then in villages and towns. They would bring me a corpse and ask me to bring the person back to life. Based on the rumors that I was a saint, and my actual feats as the Shield Hero, they would insist that I should be able to do such a thing. They would come begging to me, expecting miracles.
“Please, bring this poor soul back to life!” they would plead.
Those kinds of people never listened to reason. It would be one thing if they just burst into tears and gave up after being told I could do no such thing. But so, so many of them would just get pissed off and start trying to attack me. That’s why I started putting up signs at the entrances of the towns and villages that said I couldn’t bring people back to life.
“It seems like you’re just going out in search of unjustified resentment based on misunderstandings, and then using that to condemn me as evil. Instead of wasting your time doing that, why don’t you just fix all of those problems yourself? You’re a hero too, right?”
“No, Princess Malty told me that these were special powers that only your shield possesses!”
I guess that Witch bitch really was telling Itsuki what he wanted to hear now. She was exactly what he needed to convince himself that I was evil. Itsuki was more close-minded than ever. He clearly wasn’t going to listen to me, no matter what I said.
But seriously, was it really necessary for Witch to go and deceive every single one of the heroes? It had been the same with Ren. She must have swooped down on Itsuki when he was in a bad place. Now I really wanted to capture Itsuki. We needed to make him tell us where Witch was. Actually, there was a good possibility she was lying low at the same place Itsuki had been hiding out. I’d just have to hope that the slave trader’s protégés could figure out where that was.
“Itsuki, that makes no sense. Naofumi and I spent some time comparing the abilities of our weapons. Some of the effects are different, but the type of skills they possess are basically the same. If Naofumi’s shield had such an ability, I’m sure that my sword would have an equivalent ability. Or are you claiming that your bow has some kind of unique ability that our weapons don’t?”
Ren interjected with a sound argument. Indeed, my shield was meant for defense and Ren’s sword was meant to attack, so there were fundamental differences. But in general, the weapon skills all worked the same. It was just as Ren had said.
Well, I couldn’t deny that some kind of resurrection skill might exist, but we still hadn’t confirmed the details. If one of the legendary weapons did possess such a skill, it probably would be the shield. B
ut if I did have that kind of ability, you can bet I’d be using it. Hell, I’d be making a killing by charging people ridiculous prices to bring other people back from the dead. Actually, if I could resurrect people, I’d bring Ost back to fight on our side in a heartbeat. Waves or otherwise, I’m sure we could overcome pretty much any problem with the almighty Spirit Tortoise fighting for us.
“He has committed countless other crimes! I cannot forgive you, Naofumi!” Itsuki shouted.
“Nonsense. On the contrary, what about all the people you couldn’t save because you were too weak to defeat the Spirit Tortoise?” I asked.
He completely ignored his own failures and preached to me about justice. What a joke!
“That’s beside the point. If you’re not willing to repent, then I won’t go easy on you!”
Itsuki readied his bow.
“This is my new bow. It’s a truly superb piece of equipment. It’s called the Justice Bow. And now I’m going to use it to defeat you!”
Itsuki fired a barrage of arrows into the gallery. Was attacking innocent bystanders his idea of justice?!
“Like hell you will! Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield! Shooting Star Shield!”
I summoned my Float Shield, as well, and made sure none of the slaves in the gallery were harmed.
“We won’t let you,” said S’yne.
“Let’s do this!” Sadeena shouted.
The two of them used their skills and magic to knock the magic arrows out of the air.
“Itsuki! Stop this!” shouted Ren.
He was batting the arrows away with his sword to protect the slaves. Raphtalia and Atla sprang into action too. Fortunately, none of the slaves were injured. But that announcer, who always shouted so passionately, had been hit by one of the arrows.
“Urgh . . .”
“Are . . . are you okay?!”
The announcer fell to the ground with a thud, but then stood back up immediately.
“Mr. Naofumi, I felt some kind of sinister force swell up and shoot through that man. What was that?” Atla asked.
“I have no idea.”