by Aneko Yusagi
I walked to the front of the line and tried to overhear what people were saying inside of the building.
“Ya! Master! Mel-chan! Save Me!” I heard shouts of pain amidst the cracking of a whip.
She sounded like she was in a lot of pain. I’d never heard her voice sound that way.
“See what happens? Hurry up and cross the rope!”
“I... Ah!”
I could hear the shouts through the walls.
“What is that angel saying? I guess she’s pretty upset. I don’t like it...” I heard one of the customers mutter as they left the building.
That’s right—no one in this world would be able to understand Filo. Even still, did they really think it was okay to capture her and treat her like an animal? Sure, she might look like an angel now, but she was really a giant bird monster.
“Fehhh!”
“Rishia, be quiet! If they realize that you’re speaking the same language, they’ll probably try to grab you, too!”
“Feh...” She clapped her hands over her mouth and nodded silently.
“Is it really your friend?” Kizuna asked, her face serious. I nodded. “I know you want to help her, but that’s going to be tough for you and I. Do you think Chris, Raph-chan, and Rishia can handle it?”
“If they try to sell her in an auction, we could try to raise the funds to buy her. Or if we can’t get the money, we can get one of the town’s noblemen to buy her to at least keep her safe...” I muttered. It was all I could come up with for the moment.
If a nobleman bought her, then we might be able to use the soul-healing water as a bargaining chip to get Filo back. But there was no telling how much he would ask about where we got it and how we made it, which could cause trouble. There’s also the chance that they would just use Filo as a hostage to get whatever they wanted from us.
We couldn’t spend too long staying in one place, but we couldn’t do anything until we found out how Filo had been captured. If she had just been captured by normal adventurers, then we might be able to ingratiate ourselves with a nobleman and use his authority to get her back. On the other hand, if a nobleman had captured her to begin with, we’d be out of options. He could force us to do whatever he wanted in that case.
“What should we do? Should we hope for an auction?”
“We should avoid working with the nobility if at all possible. It would take a long time, and there’s no telling what kind of situation we’d be walking into,” Kizuna said. I could understand her caution. These people’s allies had thrown her into the labyrinth, after all.
It was easy to imagine this country having prejudices at least as strong as Melromarc. I couldn’t ignore the possibility that we might start conversations with a noblemen and then find ourselves thrown in a dungeon. We had just caused a ruckus in the next country over.
Luckily, judging from the reaction of the nobleman who’d bought the soul-healing water from us, we didn’t have to worry too much about that side of things. Still, there was no reason to stick around any longer than necessary.
“Is there any way we can find out who is running this show? There must be someone in charge.”
“Yeah, we can probably find out at the guild. With a line this long, it should be pretty simple to find out who is running it.”
So we went to the guild and looked into the proprietor of the show—that was enough to cancel our plans of ingratiating ourselves with the nobility.
That’s right. The nobility was already involved with the show’s management. That didn’t leave us with many options.
I motioned for Kizuna to come close, and I whispered in her ear, “Let’s wait until nighttime, when everyone is asleep, and then try to sneak in.”
Filo sounded like she was in a lot of pain, so there was no time to waste rescuing her. If we pulled it off, that would be that. If it didn’t work, we’d just have to move on to the next plan.
“Okay.”
“We need to secure an escape route. Better get moving.”
“Alright!”
We had to get started on our preparations to free Filo. We might end up in a tough battle, so I decided I’d better figure out my shield plan. I’d need to start with one of the stronger shields that I already had and then use whatever materials I had to power it up.
There was the Nue Shield... It wasn’t quite as powerful as the Chimera Viper Shield, so I would probably be able to use it. Out of the shields I could currently use, it was probably the best option.
Nue Shield (awakened) 0/35 C
abilities unlocked; equip bonus: defense 3
special effect lightning resistance; night terror; lightning shield (medium)
I decided to power up the Nue Shield and use it.
I thought the nue was a Japanese monster, and luckily the shield was still usable in this world. Also, when I powered it up, Lightning Shield (medium) became available. Before that, it was (very slight), which wasn’t really good for anything.
I still didn’t know what “Night Terror” was. It also appeared when I powered up the shield.
Regardless, rescuing Filo was now our highest priority.
Chapter Eleven: Rescuing the Angel
We waited for night to fall over the town before making our way back to the marketplace.
Kizuna and I crept lightly over the rooftops and approached the building where they were holding the show. I had to keep an eye on Rishia the whole time. I didn’t want her stumbling and screwing up the whole plan. On the other hand, Raph-chan was quite a bit more dexterous than I’d expected. I didn’t have to worry about her at all. She was just as light on her feet as Raphtalia.
“In this country, and in the next one over, there’s a law that you have to carry a light if you go out after dark.”
“It really feels like Edo-period Japan, doesn’t it?” It was strange, because the town and the people in it looked like they were in the midst of a modernization movement. Everything was all mixed up. Not that I was particularly nostalgic for the Edo era. The townsfolk made it feel like an imitation version of Edo.
It was like foreigners had built it, wanting to make it really EDO-PERIOD JAPAN! For a Japanese person, though, it was clear that something was off.
“Running over the roofs like this makes me feel like we’re going to run into a ninja or something.”
“I have a friend that’s a ninja, actually. I think you might have seen them in one of my pictures.”
I didn’t recall having seen any ninja. This girl had way too many weird friends—and that includes Glass and L’Arc. As for Therese, I hadn’t made up my mind yet.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ll introduce you some day.”
“I’ll pass.”
I couldn’t stop picturing the shadows from Melromarc and their strange, annoying way of speaking. You’d think they would try not to stand out, but the shadows had a very distinct way of speaking. They were like lazy ninja.
“Alright, that’s enough chat for now...” I said. We were getting close to the building. “You think she’s in there?”
“There’s no way to know for sure. Anyway, it looks like there are some rooms built over the showroom. If she’s here, that’s probably where she’ll be.”
That reminded me—if I was this close to Filo, shouldn’t I be able to use the monster spell to find out where she is? I tried using it to get an idea of where to go next. It hadn’t worked when we were in the labyrinth, and it hadn’t worked when I tried it after we escaped. That had led me to mostly give up on it, but now... it was working.
I turned around to make sure I was getting an accurate sense of where it was indicating, and sure enough, it looked like Filo was inside.
“Okay, great. I’ll use a skill to make us hard to see,” Kizuna said, pulling out her fishing rod and whispering.
“Invisible Hunter!”
There was a soft humming sound, and we were all suddenly covered in a thin film that made us invisible. I had nearly forgotten t
hat Kizuna was the Hunting Hero. I’d assumed that she’d been able to sneak up on monsters and beasts, but I hadn’t expected her to have such a useful skill.
Maybe it was because of the type of monsters I’d fought up until that point, but I had never learned a skill that could make me invisible.
Where would I even learn a skill like that? A Cloaking Shield? A Hiding Shield?
Raphtalia could probably do it.
“Raph-chan, can you use any stealthy magic?”
“Rafu?”
I guess not. She cocked her head to the side and looked confused. Still, she was made from Raphtalia, so I thought there might be a chance. I’d have to make a point of teaching her as many skills and techniques as possible.
“Should we get going?”
“Yeah. But how does this skill of yours work?”
“They won’t be able to see us unless they use magic to search us out. You have to be in our party to hear our voices and footsteps.”
“That’s great.”
“It took a long time to learn the ranged version of it, but I learned the simpler single-person version of it when I was still pretty low level.”
“I wouldn’t complain too much.”
“Should I cast a spell, too?” Rishia asked hesitantly.
She probably could cast it, technically. Too bad she was so bad at everything she tried.
“Maybe if you were Raphtalia, but it’s probably better that we leave it to someone who knows what they are doing.”
“But I...”
“I know how you feel, but let’s just leave it up to Kizuna’s for now.”
Kizuna hopped off of the roof and snuck off toward the building where Filo was imprisoned.
We jumped down after her and followed her to the building's back door.
“It’s locked. I should have known.”
“I don’t know how to pick locks...”
“Yeah, and this lock... It will set off an alarm if you break it.”
“They take security pretty seriously, don’t they?”
“A craftsman might be able to disable the alarm...”
She had mentioned that there were times when you needed a good craftsman on your side.
I reached out and touched the lock. It looked very old. It would trigger an alarm if we tried to pick it. I focused my magic power and touched it again, and I was able to get an idea of how the device worked. It was clear that something would happen if you were to just start fiddling with it.
But I had an idea.
It looked like it would just make a noise, not necessarily send a notification to anyone. If it was like a burglar alarm, then I might be able to find a way to disconnect it.
“If I can destroy the alarm it’s rigged to, do you think you can break the lock?”
“Hm... Yeah, probably. But can you do that?”
I focused my magic power into my hands and sent it all flowing into what looked like the most important part of the alarm.
“Beeeee...”
Just before the alarm could sound, the lock started sparking. The alarm sounded very quiet and low, like a rumbling hum in my hand, unable to make any more noise. Because I was holding the lock in my hands, the noise was concealed by Kizuna’s skill.
“See?”
“Wow! Okay...” Kizuna said. She whipped out her tuna knife and quickly sliced the lock in two. Everything happened in complete silence. If I covered the pieces with dirt, it would probably take care of any noise.
“You said that you made accessories, didn’t you? You’re quite the craftsman, aren’t you?”
“Back in the world I came from, maybe so. I can handle some simple magic-imbuing and that kind of thing. It’s not difficult.”
It wasn’t difficult, but it had taken a while to really get a handle on the feeling that goes along with drawing power out of gemstones and things like that. I’d failed quite a few times before I got the hang of it.
On the other hand, breaking things was much easier.
For this alarm, all I did was focus on the part that emitted the sound and then poured my magic power onto it. It was sort of like dumping water on a computer motherboard. Had it been very sophisticated, it might not have worked. Luckily, it was a simple little thing, and it broke easily.
“And you can cook, too! You’re very talented.”
That’s enough of that. Let’s get going.”
“Raphtalia was very complimentary of you in that way. She always said that you were skilled with your hands, so she wanted to have you make her some accessories.”
That wasn’t a bad idea, actually—I could help Rishia out by giving her accessories with abilities imbued in them to make up for her poor battle skills.
Now that she mentioned it, I remembered having that conversation with Raphtalia. With all of the training, the searching for the other heroes, and the battles with the Spirit Tortoise... I’d completely forgotten.
We snuck inside and took in our surroundings. The interior looked like an old row house, and there was a stove near the back entrance. There was a place to remove your shoes and a staircase leading up to the second floor. At the back of the room there were a number of empty cages. They must have had a few different things to use for their show, but for the moment, it looked like they were focusing on Filo.
“That’s not the way,” I said, stopping Kizuna from continuing toward the front room.
“How do you know? She could be this way.”
“Now that she’s nearby, I can see what direction she’s in.”
An indicator in my field of vision pointed the way to Filo’s location, so the fastest way to find her was simply to follow it. The original use of the spell was probably to help owners track down escaped slaves—or monsters.
Either way, at least I could see where she was now. That made the search much easier.
We kept our shoes on and crept up the stairs to the second floor, where there was a hallway with a few rooms on either side. There were a few merchants, or maybe noblemen (I couldn’t tell), standing in the hallway watching over the rooms. They had drunk themselves to sleep and looked like they were passed out cold.
There weren’t very many rooms, so finding Filo should be a pretty simple matter.
I looked over at the drunk, sleeping guards. I guess there were drunks no matter what world you went to. It was pretty dark, but luckily I’d acquired an ability to see in dark places a long time ago.
“Feh... Naofumi. Please don’t let go of my hand!” Rishia murmured. It must have been too dark for her to make out her surroundings.
Kizuna, on the other hand, moved forward through the dark without hesitation.
As the Hunting Hero, she probably had no trouble at all seeing in the dark.
“Which way is she?”
The arrow in my field of view was pointing to the right, so I waved toward the closest door and we quietly slipped inside. Inside we found a futon laid out on the floor. There was a well-off-looking man sleeping in it.
Behind him, I could just make out... a sack of money?
He must have been making a pretty profit off of Filo’s show.
Seeing the money really pissed me off. I’d raised Filo from an egg—she was like my daughter! Hearing her pained shouts earlier that day had been bad enough.
I would have to make sure this creep paid for his crimes... but first we needed to free Filo. I turned back to the search, but I couldn’t see her. I looked around the room, but she wasn’t there.
I thought that I’d find her sleeping in her human form, maybe locked in a cage or something. I must have been wrong. Was she in her filolial form? I wasn’t sure the floor would be able to support her in that form. She was a very large filolial, and the floor would probably have broken under her weight.
The only other thing I saw was a small birdcage in the corner... and the arrow in my vision was pointing directly at it.
“Pii?!”
The little chick in the cage noticed us and started to
chirp and fly around the cage.
Damn... Wasn’t there any way to get this monster—or wild animal—to stay quiet?! The man would wake up if the bird kept making a racket.
“Naofumi! This guy is going to wake up!” Kizuna said, pulling out her tuna knife and pointing it at the birdcage. She wanted my confirmation before she killed the monster inside.
But...
“Kizuna, wait a second. Why is that little thing causing my monster spell to react as if Filo is here?”
“I don’t know, but that’s just a little chick. I think they call them humming fairies.”
A humming fairy, eh?
But why was my spell reacting to it?
“Pii! Pii!”
The humming fairy chick threw itself against the bars of the cage, extending its wings at me. The way it held its wings out... It reminded me of how Filo used to try to hug me when she first turned into a human.
“Could it be? Are you... Filo?”
The humming fairy chick nodded. That settles that.
“Well, be quiet. If you make too much noise, this guy will wake up.”
Filo (?) nodded and stopped making noise. She jumped up onto a perch and sat quietly.
What was going on? Why was Filo a different kind of monster? Why was she in a little birdcage?
There was an ofuda stuck on her back, and she looked gloomy and depressed.
Maybe the ofuda turned her into a different monster so this guy could keep her in a little cage.
“Should I break the birdcage?”
“Just a second. We don’t know if it’s rigged with an alarm.”
“Let’s check it out.”
I focused my magic power and reached out to touch the cage. It felt like there was some kind of amplifier inside, and it was resonating with the ofuda on Filo’s back.
“What does that ofuda do?
“It’s a servant ofuda. People use them to control monsters and use them as servants. When the monsters aren’t being used, the ofuda can be used to hold them prisoner, too. But this one is strange. Normally, the ofuda fuses with the monster’s skin.”