by Aneko Yusagi
I wasn’t sure if Murder Pierrot was supposed to be our enemy or an ally. But no . . . Ally wasn’t right. This was just a hunch, but there was something eerie about it all. It felt similar to when I first encountered Glass. I’d have to ask about that weird weapon next time we met.
But right now, we had to prioritize Raphtalia’s fellow villagers. We waved as if to announce our victory and then quickly headed back to the contestants’ waiting room.
Chapter Nineteen: Big Shots of the Underground
We asked the slave trader’s assistant to retrieve our fight purse for us and dashed out behind Sadeena into the streets of the Zeltoble markets. After all, Sadeena had gone and done something completely different than what she had been asked to do by the crooked merchant.
It was easy to imagine what I would have done if I had been the merchant. I would confiscate the skyrocketing authentic Lurolona slaves and call it compensation. Then again, that may have been the plan from the very start. It would be a huge headache if that actually happened, which is why we were running in such a hurry like this.
“That debuff magic was quite powerful, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was.”
After leaving the arena, my body felt light as a feather . . . so light that I almost flipped over at first.
“Little Rock, this way.”
We went in the direction that Sadeena was pointing toward. Finally, we arrived at a building in a residential quarter of Zeltoble that had a bunch of hostile-looking thugs standing guard outside. It looked just like the kind of stone-built house that a merchant would prepare. Something about it resembled Kizuna’s house. In front of the house, there were several carriages lined up that looked like the kind they used to escort prisoners. It looked like my guess turned out to be right on the mark.
“We’re currently in the process of collecting a debt inside of this building. Anyone not involved is unwelcome here!”
A group of mercenary types that were probably hired as protection were standing in front of the door to the house.
“Sorry, but we are involved, boys.”
Sadeena began casting a spell and the mercenaries realized who we were.
“It looks like that bunch showed up just like they said they would!”
“I’m afraid we can’t let you pass, lady. Be a good girl and come with us. Accept your punishment for going against the boss’ wishes!”
And then, from out of who knows where, a whole bunch of mercenaries and whatnot, around forty men in total, appeared from all around and rushed at us to attack. It looked like they were nice enough to bring a few magic users, too.
If they thought they could overpower us with numbers, they were in for a real surprise. Had they even considered who their enemy was? Even if they thought they could bombard us with debuffs, this wasn’t the arena. There was no way that Raphtalia and Filo were going to lose to a bunch of riffraff in a place that hadn’t been rigged up beforehand.
“Here I goooo! Jingle-jaaangle!”
“Ugh . . . Uwaaaahhh!!”
Filo changed into her filolial form, attached the morning star to her leg, and began swinging it around, mowing down the mercenaries.
“You’re in our way!”
“Gahhh!”
Raphtalia began cutting them down with her katana.
“Too bad, boys! Drifa Chain Lightning!”
Sadeena cast lightning magic that jumped from one enemy to the next, electrocuting the mercenaries as it went. They obviously didn’t bring enough magic users to interfere with our spells. And then, as if to add the finishing touch, Sadeena thrust her harpoon into the gut of one of the mercenaries as hard as she could. She sent him flying into the other few still standing, knocking them over like bowling pins.
And just like that, the whole lot outside of the building were put to rest.
“Heh. In an area this cramped, they wouldn’t stand a chance no matter how many they brought.”
There were also some archers or something attacking us from a distance, but I had cast Shooting Star Shield and the arrows were just bouncing off without ever getting near us.
“Sadeena, are the villagers’ slave curses not registered to the merchant, then?”
“Don’t worry, I paid to have the slave curses removed, and I told them ahead of time to run away if anything happened.”
“Wouldn’t that mean that they already ran away from here?”
Sadeena glanced over at the building when I asked.
“Hmm?”
Filo had her head cocked to the side for some reason.
“Umm . . . The new big sis just made some kind of noise.”
“Oh? I’m surprised you noticed. I was just checking to see how many people were in the building.”
Sonar? That must have been it. I’d heard that dolphins, whales, and killer whales could use sonar to locate objects in the ocean. I guess she had some kind of ability like that since she was a therianthrope. That sure must have been convenient.
“It’s okay. It looks like they got surrounded before they could run and are holed up inside.”
“And what part of that is okay? Oh, whatever . . . Let’s do this! Raphtalia!”
“Okay!”
The door had been locked from the outside to keep them from getting away. So Raphtalia cut the door down and stepped inside. I followed after her, and we made quick work of several thugs that were trying to capture the villagers.
“Gahhh!”
Behind them was the merchant that announced the exhibition match at the arena earlier. To think that he would go out of his way to show up at a place like this . . . That worked out just perfectly for us.
“Ugh . . . Nadia! You have a lot of nerve breaking your contract!” he screamed.
“What can a girl do? I got stuck with the wrong opponent. It’s not like I didn’t try, you know? Besides, this is something little Rock and I decided on together.”
“And that’s my cue. Thanks a lot for earlier. I’m not going to complain about that, since the match was decided by a vote, and you can never know what to expect at the underground coliseum. But this business here is different.”
“The hell it is! Thanks to your little crew showing up, my profits are nonexistent! That’s why I’m going to confiscate the precious cash cow of that contract-violating . . . woman that doesn’t even bat an eyelash when her slave curse is activated!”
He seemed to realize that this wasn’t his lucky day. The crooked merchant actually tried to explain his actions, all while glaring at Sadeena, obviously infuriated. What was all that about not batting an eyelash at a slave curse, anyways? I looked over at Sadeena and she pointed at her chest.
“Boobies!”
“Shut up! Just show me!”
I removed the sarashi cloth that she had wrapped around her chest, and sure enough, there was a slave curse right there, fully activated and shining bright as the sun.
“That’s what you get for being stingy and using a cheap slave curse. A little thing like this isn’t going to do diddly to a girl like me, you know?”
Filo had deactivated her own monster seal once, now that I thought about it. Maybe these kinds of things weren’t as effective when the recipient was really good with magic?
“You should be writhing in pain with each step! How the hell are you able to stand there looking so smug?!”
“Obviously because it doesn’t hurt that bad, right?”
Huh? Did that mean it wasn’t actually fully disabled? Ahh, now that I thought about it, Filo’s monster seal never actually activated. But Sadeena’s slave curse was activated and running nonstop. So she was mitigating the effect, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt . . . She sure was something.
“You fools will regret this! Do you really think you’ll get out of this alive?! I won’t allow it! Even if you make it out of here, you’ll have the underground guild on your tail no matter where you run!”
“Weapons merchant . . . I’m afraid that won’t happen.”
Just then a voice came from behind us. I turned my head to look, and standing there were the accessory dealer and the slave trader. Rishia had come with them and seemed to be trembling a bit. Raph-chan was there, too.
“I was really nervous watching your match!”
“Rafu!”
“I bet you were. Honestly, the combat aspect of it might have been more of a hassle than when we faced Kyo.”
Sadeena did things like nullify magic and dodge skills and was a complete monster when it came to her sense of combat. I had plenty of questions for that Murder Pierrot clown, too, but . . . whatever.
“You . . . you’re the accessory—” exclaimed the crooked merchant.
“We thought our presence might be required, so here we are. Yes sir.”
The crooked merchant seemed to be genuinely shocked. He was pointing at the accessory dealer with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.
“Why?! Why are you here?! Still, that doesn’t matter! There’s no way that Zeltoble’s underground merchant guild will allow this!”
“No, I’m afraid he’s not someone the merchant guild can lay a hand on. If you had actually watched the fight at the coliseum earlier, weapons merchant, I’m sure you would have realized that.”
He’d just shown up when something unexpected happened and improvised without having actually checked the situation himself and then ran off to confiscate the slaves.
“I represent my family when I say that we feel the recent issue at the underground coliseum was trivial, and we declare our opposition to the penalization of Rock Valley’s Party. Yes sir.”
“The accessory guild that I oversee declares its opposition, as well.”
“What? Why?!”
“Because while you were working behind the scenes to decide who would win the competition, we were working behind the scenes as well. Yes sir.”
“What are you implying?!”
“Let’s see . . . First, you make a nice profit off of the tournament . . . and then you take the brats that Nadia was harboring and throw them into the auctions at the peak of the price bubble to make a nice profit there, too. Does that sound about right? After figuring out a way to kill off Nadia, of course.”
“Sounds just about right to me. That’s why I was being extra careful, you know. That’s also why I used my underground connections to have the children’s slave curses removed,” Nadia chimed in.
Seriously? I could never quite understand what this woman was thinking. If she already knew what was going to happen, why hadn’t she tried a little bit harder to do something about it?!
“Now then, let’s talk business. Umm . . . weapons merchant, is it? We’re going to win the tournament after winning tomorrow’s match. The money that we’ll get from that is pretty much equal to Nadia’s debt. I’m going to use that money to buy Nadia’s freedom, so the Lurolona slaves that you and Nadia were holding on to become mine.”
“Hell no! Why would anyone give up a cash cow like that?! Do you have any idea how much those slaves are trading for right now?!”
Meh. I was fully aware that he wasn’t going to agree to my terms, of course.
“How the hell did you get those two on your side, anyways?!”
Oh yeah . . . I hadn’t introduced myself, now that I thought about it. I guess it would be difficult to figure out who I was, considering the company the slave trader kept, and the shenanigans of the accessory dealer, after all.
“Everyone at the coliseum has already figured out who Rock Valley’s Party really is, you know? Whether they’re the real thing or not is another thing, of course.”
“Well, he might have heard and just laughed it off, figuring we were just imposters, so I’ll go ahead and tell him.”
I glared down at the crooked merchant with contempt in my eyes and jutted my thumb out in my own direction to accent my haughty self-introduction.
“I’m Naofumi Iwatani. I was summoned to this world as one of the four holy heroes—the Shield Hero. I entered your coliseum tournament for the express purpose of getting back the ridiculously overpriced Lurolona slaves.”
“I really would have rather you not introduced yourself. You’re going to hurt your reputation.”
Raphtalia was over there moaning.
“Reputation? Who cares about that? I didn’t have the luxury of being able to choose my methods if I wanted to get the overpriced Lurolona slaves back quickly.”
“What?! Hogwash!”
The crooked merchant blurted out in response, as if I had said something unbelievable. So what? A self-introduction wasn’t proof enough? What a hassle.
“If you think I’m lying, then how about I prove it for you? How about these? Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Chain Shield! Shield Prison!”
I continued to change my shield repeatedly while showing off my skills.
“Surely you’re not going to try to say I’m faking it with magic, since I haven’t made a single incantation.”
“In that case, allow me to provide irrefutable evidence. Yes sir.”
The slave trader passed me a cluster of rucolu fruits. I guess I was supposed to eat one? I plucked one of the fruits off, dangled it in front of the crooked merchant’s nose to show him that it was the real thing, and then gobbled it up.
“Oh my!”
For whatever reason, Sadeena placed a hand on her cheek with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“Do you still not believe me?”
“I can’t . . . ugh . . .”
The crooked merchant hung his head in despair and flopped down onto the floor. Apparently, eating rucolu fruit, as if it were nothing, had become indisputable proof of identification as the Shield Hero. Then again, the method had still only really caught on in and around Melromarc and among a select group of merchants. There would be people that hadn’t heard the rumors, but this merchant didn’t seem to be one of them.
“So there you are. You ready to give up, now? Oh, and don’t think that I’ve forgotten about your little stunt with the forced exhibition match, either.”
“Wh . . . what do you want from me?!”
“Hmm, let’s see . . . There may still be Lurolona villagers out there, so you’ll notify me if you happen to come across any authentic ones. Whether it’s installments or whatever, I’ll pay for them. That said, I expect you to hurry up and crush this bubble and get the prices back to where they should be.”
It was almost certain that this crook had exploited Sadeena’s request and intentionally pushed the prices of the village slaves up. In that case, if we took care of the ringleader, then the skyrocketing prices should settle back down, too. The phenomenon may have already gained some momentum of its own, but we had an all-star cast of underground merchants right here. Surely it wasn’t something they couldn’t handle.
“For example, you could use what happened here to go spread rumors about the Shield Hero sending assassins after people with Lurolona slaves.”
There were plenty of witnesses. I was sure the rumors would spread like wildfire.
“If you surrender and play nicely like those two merchants over there, you won’t regret it. So what do you say?”
“Fine . . . I surrender . . .”
And so, finally, the curtain fell on the underground coliseum incident. Of course, it goes without saying that the following day’s fight was essentially a throwaway match, and we ended it as soon as it started.
Epilogue: Come-On
There was a total of fifteen slaves that Sadeena had been harboring. It was questionable whether we would have been able to buy that many with the prize money from the coliseum. The Lurolona slave that Raphtalia had spotted at the slave auction turned out to be among them, too, by the way. The way they told it, Sadeena had been sending one of the Lurolona slaves to the auctions, with the merchant, to buy up the other villagers. You would have to be confident about being able to identify them for that plan to work, of course. Sadeena broke off her contract, too, and was happy to be free once ag
ain.
“Alright then. Did you finish talking to them, Raphtalia?”
“Yes. They all believed me. I also told them about your territory and how we’re right in the middle of rebuilding the village there.”
“Good, good. I guess all that’s left is asking whether they want to become my slaves or not.”
“About that . . . Would you mind waiting until we take them back to the village for that?”
Hmm . . . I guess she figured that Keel and the other slaves would serve as an example, and seeing them would make the new slaves decide they wanted to become stronger of their own accord. Raphtalia was pretty clever, after all.
“That’s fine. Alright then, just ask them to join our party for now. I’ll send them back to the village with my portal skill as it refreshes.”
Under the guidance of Sadeena and Raphtalia, the fifteen slaves spent their time enjoying each other’s company as I went about returning them to their home village with my portal skill. Experiencing the portal for the first time was quite a shock, but that soon wore off.
“How about we head back for now, too? I’m exhausted, to tell the truth.”
“Agreed.”
We used the portal to return to the village, and when we got back, all the original villagers—including Sadeena—seemed to be busy rekindling old friendships. Filo had gone to the neighboring town to tell Melty all about our heroic exploits in Zeltoble. I just hoped she didn’t go blabbering about things best left unsaid.
“So, little Rock, I guess your real name is little Naofumi, then?”
“I see you’re sticking with the ‘little.’”
Like always, Sadeena was overly familiar with me and talked to me like I was a child.
“So, little Naofumi, tell me . . . How far have you gone with little Raphtalia?”
“Gone?”
“Sadeena!”
What was “gone” supposed to mean there? Raphtalia didn’t like obscene jokes or topics related to that kind of stuff, and I was sure Sadeena knew that, too, since they were so close. In that case, she must have been asking how far away from here we had traveled.