by Aneko Yusagi
I suddenly remembered the king referencing a boy. Could it be?
“Hey, boy,” I shouted.
L’Arc turned to me, wincing. “What? How do you know about that?!”
“I thought they were talking about you. You’re a pretty important person, aren’t you?”
“Not that I like it. I prefer my freedom!”
I had only heard a little from Kizuna, so I didn’t know how she ended up meeting L’Arc. His father was the king and probably died, and the country was given over to a less-than-worthy prince.
L’Arc seemed like the sort of person that the populace would rally behind.
The country seemed to be doing pretty well, so maybe his reign was going well for the country.
He probably had good people working for him. He was charismatic enough to attract good people. I wonder if Kizuna’s questing in the past had anything to do with it.
“So you see, boy, I’m going to keep calling you ‘boy’ as long as you call me ‘Kiddo’.”
“Fine, Nao... fu... mi.”
“Hm.”
He said my name, but looked really irritated by it.
Then he turned and whined, “No, it sounds all wrong! You’re Kiddo, not ‘Naofumi!’”
“That doesn’t make any sense, boy!”
“I don’t care, Kiddo! You guys take a load off for now. I’ll call for you when everything is ready. Kizuna and Glass, you two take the time to get reacquainted,” L’Arc barked, shuffling us out of the room.
Um... What next? I looked at Raphtalia.
“L’Arc likes to celebrate, doesn’t he?” Ethnobalt said. He had been silent all the way back to the castle, but now he smiled and spoke up. “And yet, I think he is right. We should enjoy ourselves tonight. Kizuna, welcome back.”
“... Thank you. It’s good to be back... with all of you,” Kizuna said, looking at everyone. She looked like she was about to start crying.
How long had she been trapped in that labyrinth? I didn’t know exactly, but it must have been a very long time. She’d returned to a place she thought she’d never see again. If I hadn’t been so lucky, I could have ended up trapped, just like she had.
“A party? I wanna siiiiing!” Filo yelled.
“Rafu!”
Filo and Raph-chan each happily jumped up onto my shoulders.
I let them. Then I turned to face Raphtalia and Rishia.
“They’re right. We should enjoy ourselves tonight. To be honest, I’m exhausted.”
“Feh... How wonderful to reunite with old friends!”
Yeah, they were right.
I hadn’t been separated from Raphtalia for very long, but I had felt her absence starting to take its toll, so I could understand how Kizuna must have felt.
Glass looked so happy to see Kizuna again. She was beaming like a little kid. I couldn’t help but smile, too.
“For now...”
“What is it?”
I looked at the unsheathed katana in Raphtalia’s hands.
“Kizuna, I know everyone is really happy right now, but don’t you think that Raphtalia should sheath the katana?”
“Oh yeah,” Kizuna said, turning around and stepping back toward us. When she did, she left Glass standing there with her hand outstretched. Glass made a very disappointed face—it looked weird on her.
I was starting to think she might be a lesbian.
“Then let’s go to a shop I know and get one made. They’re really good.”
Had we been in Melromarc, I would have had the old guy do it, but we were stuck in another world, so I decided to defer to Kizuna’s judgment.
“Okay.”
Kizuna led us out of the castle and into the town at its base.
“Well, if it isn’t Kizuna! How long has it been?!”
Kizuna took us to a bustling blacksmith in the middle of town.
It was run by a very muscular, masculine woman with a red gemstone in her chest. She must have been one of the crystal people.
Therese’s gemstone was in her forehead, so I guess different people had their gemstones in different places.
“I heard from Glass that you’d gone missing. I was worried about you! Now Glass can finally relax a bit. When you went missing, everyone had a rough time trying to console her.”
“Romina, maybe we can save that for later,” Glass quickly said, trying to shut down the conversation as fast as possible. I’d always thought Glass was cool and reserved, but she was starting to look more like a normal person.
“This is Romina. She’s the best blacksmith I know.”
“I’m Naofumi Iwatani.”
“My name is Raphtalia. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Filo!”
“Rafu!”
“I’m Rishia. Nice to make your acquaintance.”
“Always nice to meet new customers. Hope to see more of you!”
The blacksmith reminded me of the old guy at the weapon shop back in Melromarc.
“If we bring you materials and money, can you make us new stuff?”
“Pretty much—though I reserve the right to throw out obnoxious customers!”
“You think I’m obnoxious?”
“Hmm...” Romina scratched her chin and looked me over carefully. “Actually I think we’ll get along pretty well.”
“Good.”
There was something attractive to me about the profession—about the idea of finding potential in materials and then using them to make custom weapons and tools.
“People that can understand Mr. Naofumi’s personality figure him out with a single glance. I’m a little jealous,” Raphtalia said.
“What are you talking about?” She should know by now that I liked custom tools.
“So? I’m sure you stopped by for something other than an introduction.”
“Naturally. We have a lot of materials that we’d like you to look at. Also, we need a scabbard for her katana,” Kizuna said, dropping a pile of drop items onto the counter.
“Ah, I see... Oh hey, this is pretty good stuff!” Romina said. Then she looked at Raphtalia’s katana. “Well, well... Would you look at that.”
“Yeah, it’s the katana of the vassal weapons.”
“I didn’t expect to ever see it! Alright then, I’ll make you a scabbard for it.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem, I’m thrilled just to see it. I’ve got new customers, new materials to work with... What more could a blacksmith want?”
“Thanks.”
Romina started measuring the katana and drawing up some quick sketches.
“Naofumi, why don’t you have Romina make you some shields or armor?”
“Good idea.”
“Hey, that reminds me. Didn’t you have some armor from your world? I bet Romina would love to see armor from another world.”
“Hm? Yeah, I’ve still got it...”
She was probably talking about the Barbarian Armor +1? that had gotten all beat up in the fight with the Spirit Tortoise.
I took out pieces of it I’d stored in my bag and dropped them on the counter.
“Maybe she could look at your stuff too, Rishia. Maybe she can make you something good,” I said, pulling out Rishia’s Filo kigurumi and putting it on the counter next to my things. “It must have been rough for you—coping without your kigurumi.”
“Feh...”
Raphtalia looked at Rishia and started to say, “It’s not like she was so dependent on it...”
She stopped and blinked.
“Okay, maybe she was.”
“Fehh?!”
It was hard to sympathize with her surprise. After all, Rishia was the one that said she wore it so that no one could see her cry.
“What are these? Do they do anything?” Romina said, holding up our old armor and regarding them with suspicion.
“Hey, Filo.”
“Whaaaat?”
“What happened to your claws?”
“They’re gone!”
I sighed... It wasn’t her fault. She’d been captured and turned into a sideshow.
She could have escaped if they left her with her claws—that is, if they were still in working condition.
I still had the Karma Dog Claws in my shield, so I took them out and put them on the counter, too. When they hit the counter, I discovered that I couldn’t read any of the information about them.
“These things might have stopped working when we crossed between the worlds. Think you can do anything about it?”
“I might be able to do something with the armor here, but I’ve never seen anything like what these kigurumi and claws are made of, so...” Romina muttered to herself as she turned the articles over in her hands. She found the gemstone set in the center of the barbarian armor chest plate and pointed to it. “Fascinating! This is a core stone from the Dragon Emperor.”
“Core stone? Dragon Emperor? What do you mean?”
“It looks just like the core from the Dragon Emperor that Kizuna defeated a long time ago. There must be a Dragon Emperor in your world, too.”
“I don’t know. I know that I got that when I defeated a Dragon Zombie, so maybe they are the same thing.”
Actually, when I first met Kizuna, she said that she had originally been summoned to defeat a powerful monster called the Dragon Emperor. She must have been successful.
“These have fantastic effects. You better take care of it.”
“Well, the armor is trash, so it isn’t any good to me now. That’s why I brought it to you.”
“An excellent point. What is this armor called? I can’t read it.”
“Barbarian Armor.”
“It certainly looks the part.”
I guess I had taken the parts from a bunch of bandits... I mean—hey!
“Stop that! That was made for me by a very talented man!”
The truth was that the armor was really good, but its name made it come off as worse than it really was.
“There’s potential here, so I’ll see what I can do.”
“How much will it cost? If you can’t do it then maybe we don’t need you.”
“Mr. Naofumi, we’re the ones making the request here. Please be a little more polite...”
“Who cares about that sort of thing? She’s friends with Kizuna, so we don’t need to stand on ceremony, do we? If she can’t do it, she’ll tell me so!”
“I... I suppose so...” Raphtalia sighed.
Romina burst out laughing. “You’re quite the business man, aren’t you?”
“Naofumi’s even better than Alto.”
“Really? That man is a monster when it comes to business.”
“I was starting to suspect the same, but do you really think so, Kizuna?” Glass asked, casting a suspicious glance at me.
“Yeah, he’s better. Alto takes the long way to a secure a sale, but Naofumi can sell the same thing in no time and no effort. He’s really got a knack for it.”
“Decide if you’re complimenting me or insulting me.”
We needed money, and we didn’t have any time, so what other choice did I have but to play a little dirty at the soul-healing water auction? She didn’t complain about it at the time.
Whatever. The truth was that I was pretty interested in meeting this monster of business they were talking about. If he looked anything like the slave trader, I’d take off running in the other direction.
Raphtalia sighed and looked disappointed in me—but I really didn’t do anything wrong!
“Well, don’t you worry yourself over the money too much. You’re friends with Kizuna, so I’ll do whatever I can to keep costs down. I get some money from the crown, too.”
“Glad to hear it. Also, try not to destroy it too much.”
I’d grown pretty attached to the armor. The old guy that made it for me was the first person to trust me.
“I know, I know. But enough about the armor—what’s with this crazy thing?” she asked, holding up the Filo kigurumi.
“Whatdya mean crazy?!” Filo flapped her wings, outraged at the implication. She must have thought she was being insulted. It wasn’t so surprising that she said that, though. No one in this world had ever seen a filolial queen, let alone a kigurumi that looked like one.
“What are you mad about?”
“Oh her? She transformed for some reason when we crossed over to this world. Back where we came from, she looks like the monster that kigurumi is based on.”
“Ah... I see. She looks so cute and funny, but you’re saying her real form is...” Romina smiled thinly and turned away.
I couldn’t blame her. Filo’s filolial queen form was a strange sight to behold. She was huge and imposing—far more than a normal filolial.
“Regardless, if this is equipment from another world, I’d like you to let me study it a little. With any luck, I can make you something good.”
“Got it. Good luck.”
I didn’t have anything to lose, considering we couldn’t use the equipment in the state it was in. If she could make something useful with it, it would probably raise our chances of survival from here on out.
A part of me still felt like I was helping the enemy grow stronger, but it was the best option I had.
“Need anything else?”
“I think that’s it for now—though I’d like to see what sort of shields you can make, too.”
I would just use Weapon Copy to get my own version of whatever shield she made, and then I could sell it to someone or give it to one of my party members.
“Sure, but with so many orders to work on, I can’t do them all at once. We should probably cut of this order here. Then I can work on other stuff when this is all done”
“That’s reasonable.”
“Great! I have to say I’m pretty thrilled to work on this stuff. I’ve been so bored with the projects I’ve had lately. This will really shake things up for me.”
Who knew that blacksmiths had so many things to worry about? When we got back to the world we came from, I’d have to go pay the old guy a visit at his weapon shop. Maybe he was bored, too. Besides, he’d definitely be interested in seeing the barbarian armor after Romina worked on it.
If she used gemstones from this world, he’d probably be thrilled just to see them.
Isn’t that the sort of thing that craftsmen got excited about?
We left our equipment with Romina and then left her shop.
“What should we do now?” I asked. Before anyone could answer, the air filled with crackling explosions. Fireworks burst in the air over the castle.
The townsfolk in the streets all looked up at the colorful bursts and smiled.
“For now, let’s just enjoy the celebration they’re throwing for my return. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Glass squeezed Kizuna’s hand, smiled, and bowed deeply to me.
“Thank you so very much for helping our missing Kizuna. We will do all that we can to assist you, but for now, please enjoy the celebration.”
I wasn’t going to argue. We had to enjoy ourselves sometimes, right?
It was hard to relax back in Melromarc, anyway, and it didn’t seem like anyone here was trying to take advantage of us.
“Alright then, let’s take the night off. Raphtalia, Filo, Raph-chan, and Rishia—let’s go!”
“Okay!”
“It looks so fuuuun!”
“Rafu!”
“Feh... What should we do first?”
“Look at all the food carts!”
“Fehhh!”
“What’s the matter?”
“Yay! Foooood!”
“RaFUUUUU!”
We walked toward the festival that was filling the streets of the town. Glass and Kizuna walked behind us, as if they were watching over us.
It would still take a while to accomplish what we’d set out to do—punish Kyo for his misdeeds. But for the moment, I tried to convince myself that there was nothing wrong with taking a night off.
The Rising
of the Shield Hero Vol. 8
© Aneko Yusagi 2014
First published by KADOKAWA in 2014 in Japan.
English translation rights arranged by One Peace Books
under the license from KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Japan
No part of this may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact One Peace Books. Every effort has been made to accurately present the work presented herein. The publisher and authors regret unintentional inaccuracies or omissions, and do not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the translation in this book. Neither the publishers nor the artists and authors of the information presented in herein shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.
Written by Aneko Yusagi
Character Design Seira Minami
Cover Design by Yusuke Koyama
English Edition Published by One Peace Books 2017
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