by Aneko Yusagi
His bow was magical. The arrows just appeared when he pulled the string back.
I just took one step after another towards him.
His arrows hit me, but clattered to the floor with an ineffectual clang.
“What?!”
“You monster!”
Itsuki’s party members couldn’t believe how ineffective the arrows were against my defense. They were already calling me a monster!
“You know that evil attacks don’t work against me, right?”
I continued walking towards Itsuki, and he kept backing away to keep his distance. Soon he was in a corner, shooting arrow after arrow at me.
“Eagle piercing shot!”
I couldn’t believe he was going to use a skill inside a small room like that.
I squinted at the arrow and steadied myself, then reached out and snatched the eagle-shaped arrow out of the air by its throat.
“You . . . You stopped my eagle piercing shot?”
“I’m sure it’s a defense ignoring attack, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not even worth it to defend myself against something so weak.”
I tensed, looked down at the magic eagle, and then I squeezed its throat and killed it.
It wasn’t an actual monster, so I was able to kill it with my own strength.
I dropped it and approached Itsuki until we were face-to-face.
“You say Rishia is weak? Ha! And you think you ’re strong?”
“. . . !?”
His face flushed red with anger.
I didn’t care. I know that Fitoria had warned me about it, but I no longer wanted anything to do with Itsuki.
I turned and left the room.
“I hope you enjoyed that! You won’t be able to boss us around for much longer!”
I didn’t care. Maybe he’d finally understand how substantial the difference in our strength was. Maybe it would inspire him to get stronger.
I chased after Rishia.
I’d seen her running off in the direction of the harbor, but when I got there she was nowhere to be seen. She wouldn’t...
Just as I was considering it, I saw Filo pulling Rishia out of the water.
There was a crowd of people standing around them.
“Hey, do you like swimming? It didn’t look like you were having very much fun though! And weren’t you sinking?”
“Let me go! Please, I . . . I...”
“Filo, you did good. I’ll get you a treat later.”
“I don’t know what you mean, but yay!”
“Tell me what happened.”
“This nice girl just fell into the ocean. But she started to sink, so I jumped in and pulled her out.”
“She jumped...”
She was sad enough to attempt suicide. It was horrible just thinking about it.
I suddenly understood why Motoyasu had been so freaked out.
Someone you liked might say terrible things to you, but why would you try to kill yourself over it?
“Good work, Filo.”
“Heh, heh, heh.”
I rubbed Filo’s head.
If Filo hadn’t been there, that might have been the end for Rishia. The harbor was very deep in places.
The spots where the large ships docked were especially deep. If you tried to drown there, you could do it.
We had just managed to avoid a real disaster.
“Ok, Rishia...”
Filo was still holding Rishia, who seemed to be very distraught. I took her hand and talked to her.
“Let’s just say that you succeeded, and that you’ve died here. Now what do you want to do with the life that was saved?”
“Let me die. Master Itsuki rejected me. I have no reason left to live. I’m not worth anything to anyone.”
“No one said that. You’re the one who decides what you are worth.”
“Then let me die.”
“You can do what you want, but I won’t forgive you!”
I couldn’t stand the thought of her being treated this way.
“Are you just going to accept that they’ve pinned a crime on you? Don’t you want to prove them wrong?”
“But I...”
“Don’t you want to make Itsuki say, ‘Please come back. We need you’?”
“I know that I’m weak. I know it!”
“Who says you’ll always be weak? Only Itsuki. But he’s wrong.”
They’d told me that I was the weakest hero too. They’d looked down on me.
That’s why . . . that’s why you can’t just accept the things that people say about you.
“Can I . . . Can I be stronger? Will he respect me someday?”
“I promise you that. We’ll show Itsuki just how strong you can be!”
We’d make him regret kicking her out of his team. The fool!
If we made Rishia stronger than any of his other teammates, then eventually Itsuki would have to believe the things I told him about the power-up system.
“Rishia, I’ll help you. I’ll help you until you are strong enough to help yourself. We can do it!”
That was how I really felt.
We’d been through the same things. We’d been framed, called weak, and condescended to. I saw myself in Rishia, and I was going to make sure that Itsuki understood how wrong he had been.
“Come with me!”
I reached out a hand to her. She hesitated, then took it.
“But I love Master Itsuki.”
“Fine. Love who you want. I don’t care what you think of me. I care what you think of yourself.”
It’s not like I was inviting her into my party because she was a girl.
I just couldn’t forgive Itsuki’s actions. He’d forced her to level like he wanted her to, then tossed her to the curb when she didn’t suit his needs.
And I felt like I’d been through the same things she had.
That’s why I knew what I was talking about.
“You’ll be strong. We’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
She was still sobbing when she accepted my party invitation.
So Rishia ended up joining my party, but...
When we were on our way back to the room, we ran into Raphtalia.
“I heard you screaming. You sounded very angry! What happened?”
“Itsuki pissed me off.”
“But . . . Oh, isn’t that Rishia behind you?
So she knew about Rishia. Good. That would make explaining it easier on me.
“Oh, um . . . yes.”
“What happened to you?”
“I’ll explain when we get back to the room.”
“What about Rishia?”
“She’s in our party now.”
“R . . . Really? Okay.”
Raphtalia nodded. It looked like she had already run through the possible scenarios in her mind.
We went back to the room, and I told her what had happened.
Raphtalia reacted like I expected she would. She was half annoyed, half angry.
“Itsuki...”
“Please, don’t speak ill of Master Itsuki.”
“After all he did to you, you still want to defend him?”
Raphtalia looked like she couldn’t believe her ears.
I felt the same way.
“If Filo hadn’t stepped in, she would have drowned.”
“Did I do goooooood?”
“Yeah, you did great. I already told you that though.”
“Heh, heh.”
Apparently Filo hadn’t gotten enough praise yet, so I reached over and ruffled her hair.
Her cowlick was kind of annoying.
“Master Itsuki isn’t bad. It’s my fault for being weak.”
Rishia looked like she was about to burst into tears again. Raphtalia reached out and took her hand.
“You really care for him, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll come around someday. Until then, you and I just need to be patient.”
/> “You feel the same way then, don’t you? Very well.”
Huh? What were they talking about? I didn’t really understand, but the room felt a little claustrophobic all of a sudden.
What did she mean by “you and I”? Whatever, at least they weren’t being antagonistic with one another.
“Okay, first things first. Rishia, no stalking Itsuki, okay?”
“Oh . . . Okay.”
She was already well on her way to being a stalker, so I felt like I needed to nip that in the bud.
What she really needed now was distance and space to think.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Itsuki is pretty pissed off right now, so it’s best to keep your distance.”
I didn’t want to see him either. His whole self-satisfied attitude really got under my skin.
“So what role should Rishia take on in our party? What do you think she’s best at?”
“Oh no!”
“Calm down. We’re not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to.”
All I was saying was now that she was a member of our party, we needed to figure out what role she was going to play.
But she’d been in Itsuki’s party this whole time.
Which meant there was a good chance she thought I was a sexual predator or something like that.
“What are you good at? From what I’ve heard you’ve been a melee fighter?”
“Well, I was doing my best, but . . .”
“Everyone has things they are good at and things they are bad at. We’ll just have to practice different things to help you find your niche. My party really doesn’t have enough members, so there’s sure to be something perfect for you.”
Both Filo and Raphtalia were already excellent melee fighters, so I think we were going to be just fine on that front.
With melee taken care of, it probably made the most sense to have her focus on magic use, since we didn’t have any dedicated magic-users.
“What sort of magic can you use?”
“I don’t have a specialty. But that also means I can use all different kinds.”
“That sounds pretty useful.”
Filo, Raphtalia, and I were all limited to one particular type of magic. I could use support and restorative magic, Filo could use wind magic, and Raphtalia could use illusion magic.
But Rishia was saying that she wasn’t limited the way that we were.
Unfortunately, that probably meant that she wasn’t going to be very advanced with any particular type.
Regardless, it would be a big help.
If she could use any king of magic, then we would be able to adjust our battle plan on the fly, responding to whatever came up.
Strength wasn’t only about your level and your stats, after all.
If we thought our strategy through, we should be able to perform above what might be expected of someone at our level.
So this was a good opportunity for us to sit down and decide on the most strategic way to divide up the necessary roles in the party.
I was in charge of defense and healing, which made me the supporting player.
Raphtalia was an attacker that could offer support in a pinch: our version of a shortstop.
When she was attacking, she would follow up on Filo’s offense. In a pinch, she could use her illusion magic to give us an advantage.
Filo was a flat-out attacker.
She was strong and fast. She could use haikuikku to take out and decimate a range of monsters quickly.
So I needed to find a useful job for Rishia to perform and then adjust our strategy to accommodate her.
“Don’t worry, Rishia. Mr. Naofumi comes off as pretty rough and mean, but he’s actually not nearly as bad as you might think.”
“Maybe you and Rishia should have a long chat about it someday.”
What was that supposed to mean? Not as bad as you might think?
Oh well. It wasn’t who I really was, but I can imagine that people might be intimidated after hearing about my merchant life and association with slave traders.
“Oh, well . . . I...”
Rishia’s eyes flit over to me, and then she looked away again before nodding.
I guess she agreed with Raphtalia?
“Hey, what are you trying to say about me?”
“Nothing...”
“I don’t think it’s nothing. Tell me.”
“That’s the kind of person he is.”
“I see.”
What did she see? I can’t understand the way that women think.
They were a mystery. They were way easier to understand in gyaruge.
“That reminds me of something.”
I looked Rishia over from head to foot.
She didn’t have very good equipment.
The squirrel kigurumi, I think it was called a Risuka Kigurumi? They probably forced her to wear that because she had been in the party for the least amount of time.
“Rishia, what level are you at?”
“Hm? 68.”
That was higher than I’d expected. I didn’t check on her stats directly, but if she were at level 68, then she would probably prove useful.
Rishia was going to be a jack-of-all-trades type of magic-user. Should I have her focus on healing and support magic?
If she were a magic-user though, I would have to worry about her defense rating. I had to realize that there were going to be times when I wouldn’t be able to completely protect her in battle.
If she were at level 68, then she would be a little behind Raphtalia and Filo, but she would still be able to participate in battles.
The only thing that really worried me was that Itsuki had gone out of his way to drop her. Could she really have been that weak? Granted, Itsuki wasn’t the smartest guy around.
“Um, Shield Hero? You used to have a Pekkul Kigurumi, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’ve got a couple of them. Oh, and don’t call me that. It’s too stuffy. Call me by my name.”
I’d gotten in a fight with Melty over this in the past, so I’d come to realize that calling each other by our names was important.
“Feh? Okay, um, Naofumi.”
“Good. Now what about the kigurumi?”
“I was wondering if you might let me wear it.”
“What?”
“Well, I had to beg them all to let me wear the Risuka Kigurumi, but eventually . . .”
“You mean they didn’t force you to wear that?”
“No, they didn’t.”
Oh, give me a break! And she was nodding along like she was saying the most obvious thing in the world.
She was so pathetic. She played right into their bullying and smiled about it the whole time!
“It’s an excellent piece of equipment. But when they kicked me out of the party I had to give it back.”
“Well...”
“It had a lot of special effects that made everything easier.”
“I guess so.”
The Risuka Kigurumi probably had magic-enhancing effects, which would have worked well with Rishia’s innate tendencies.
I pulled out the Pekkul Kigurumi and passed it to Rishia.
It did have a lot of equip effects and in many ways was better than Raphtalia’s armor.
“Mr. Naofumi, are you really going to make her wear that?”
“I’m not making her wear it. She requested it.”
If we’d just given her some cheap equipment we had lying around, it wouldn’t be much of an improvement over what she was already wearing.
And besides, we had three of them. We’d gotten them from the Karma Pengu bosses on Cal Mira.
The other karma series bosses we defeated hadn’t dropped any kigurumis though.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s very convenient. Even when I’m sad or depressed, no one can really tell when I’m wearing it.”
Well, that was a depressing thing to say. How badly had they bullied her?
&nbs
p; “Are you sure you want to wear it?”
“Yes!”
Yes?! Give me a break. She sounded pathetic.
This put me in a touchy spot. I wanted her to be herself, but if she didn’t truly want to get better, then she wasn’t going to.
And here she was asking to wear a kigurumi so that she could cry and it would go unnoticed?
“You can wear it for a little while, but eventually I’m going to have to ask you to move on.”
Sigh
Raphtalia looked concerned.
Were they going to be friends? Could Raphtalia stand it?
Personality-wise I’m sure we’d be able to get along, but it was too early to make a judgment call anyway.
“Let’s work together and get stronger, okay?”
“Yes!”
At least she could answer with some vigor. It seemed to me like she might get along with Ren’s party.
Slowly, but excitedly, Rishia unveiled how she looked in the Pekkul Kigurumi.
“How’s it look? Pen-Pen!”
“Um . . . yup.”
She seemed a little too excited about it. She reminded me of myself, before I was summoned to this world.
But now I’d met another person, besides Filo, who actually enjoyed wearing those things.
She didn’t seem to know how to make friends with humans, but she could probably make friends with monsters.
“Thanks for inviting me into your party.”
“No problem. Thanks for joining.”
“Yay! We can dress the saaaaame!”
“Pleasure to be traveling with you, Rishia.”
And so my friends welcomed her to the party.
Chapter Four: Custom Order
The offshore storms finally calmed down. The heroes and royal soldiers all prepared to leave the islands.
The activation event was going to continue for a few more days, but we had leveled all that we could, and we’d accumulated more drop items than we knew what to do with. So there was no reason to stay.
But I didn’t want to end up stuck on a ship with Itsuki and his friends, so I had the schedule changed to make sure we weren’t going to be traveling together.
Besides, I was just going to use a teleport skill to get back to the castle once we got in range.
I’d told the queen my plan, and she decided to travel with us.
The other heroes were also going to return to the castle.
And we were all going to start training to prepare for the next wave.