by Aneko Yusagi
“Fehh...”
I guess not yet. Oh well. If it were that easy, then everyone would know how to use it.
“I have to say, when Ms. Rishia ran to attack the Shield Hero, her speed was really something to behold.”
“You’re right. It really was.”
Eclair and Raphtalia both agreed.
I agreed too. If a bottle of life-force water and a stat-boosting spell could have such a dramatic effect, then we must have been dealing with something powerful.
“There’s more. She got in some effective attacks against me without even trying. When she hit me with her elbow, it really hurt.”
“Fehh! I’m so sorry!”
“I’m not mad, so don’t worry about it. I hope you learn how to control that energy, whatever it is.”
There was a limit to how much life-force water we could make, and it wouldn’t do us any good to use it awakening a power that we couldn’t even control. I checked her stats and there didn’t seem to be any change.
Was it just some sort of technical power-up?
“Ok, Raphtalia. You try it next.”
“Alright.”
If the training progressed faster by combining it with the medicine, then that was enough reason to use it.
I went ahead and cast support magic on Raphtalia, just as I had done with Rishia. Then we began to spar.
But unlike Rishia, Raphtalia didn’t seem to be as dramatically affected by the water as I had hoped.
Maybe she had come a little faster? Just a tiny bit? It was very hard to tell regardless, which meant that it probably wasn’t worth it.
“If we can use that medicine in her training, then perhaps disciple Rishia will be able to grasp the fundamentals of energy manipulations faster than I had expected.”
“Yes! I will do my best to meet your expectations!”
She certainly was calculating. Oh well. If she ended up stronger than she was, that was all I cared about.
I had to admit though, by taking the medicine and then training, it kind of looked like steroid abuse to me. If the life-force water turned out to be addictive, I’d have to cut her off.
“Naofumi! I’m . . . I’m going to try my best!”
Rishia was optimistic about devoting herself to her training. Seeing her like that made me feel like I needed to do my best as well.
The next day I brought the medicine to the other heroes and had them drink it.
It hadn’t had much of an effect on Raphtalia or I, so I wasn’t sure if it would do anything to the other heroes.
I had them all try drinking it, but as expected, it didn’t seem to do very much.
Apparently none of them were having much luck sticking their fingers into rocks either.
The next day, the other heroes began to sabotage the training.
Chapter Nine: What it Means to Train
On the fourth day of training, Ren didn’t show up.
I went looking for him, and when I found him he made his irritation clear, saying that if we had enough time to waste on impossible things, we should spend it looking for stronger weapons. It sounded like an excuse to me.
That same day, at around noontime, Motoyasu and Bitch used a portal to escape from the training session.
It wasn’t long before I notice that Itsuki had snuck off too.
The queen had already sent orders out to the borders, so they couldn’t leave the country. And the guilds had been notified to send them back to the castle. So all they did was go back to their rooms.
In all that had happened, a week had passed, leaving us with only one more week until the wave came.
Then one day I saw the other heroes running through a gate that led to the outer fringes of the castle town. I yelled for them to stop and got them to agree to, at the very least, assist the rest of us.
They agreed to go back to the castle training grounds to help Eclair, the old lady, Raphtalia, Filo, Keel, and Rishia in their practice.
But right from the start it was clear that there was a problem. I didn’t want them to ruin the training for everyone else, so I had to ask them to leave the field.
“Why are you bothering us?!”
“That’s what I’d like to ask you. Why don’t you take this seriously?
“Because there’s no point to any of it!”
“If you’re going to accept our help, don’t you think you need to do what’s asked of you? All we can do right now is practice and train!”
Did they think that fighting monsters and leveling up was all they had to do?
Did Itsuki just want to go on quests and pretend to be a secret champion of justice?
“Look, if you want weapons just ask the castle blacksmith to make them for you. As for your levels, they’re high enough.”
They only wanted new weapons because they wanted to entertain the notion that their weakness was because of those weapons. I felt like I was going to lose my mind if they kept talking about levels.
No matter how much I set things up for them and taught them how to power-up, they didn’t listen. Any time they ran into something they didn’t like they complained about it. They never thought of how we could work together.
At one point they gave up on trying to break the boulders like the old lady had said. Instead they went out into the woods and hunted dragons. They called it training, but all they were really doing was playing with skills they already knew how to use—things that they thought made them look cool.
When I tried to stop them, they looked really pissed too.
To tell the truth though, my role in all this hadn’t changed since the beginning. I was a shielder, and that wasn’t going to change.
But that was fine. The problem was that they didn’t plan their attacks with me, so we didn’t cooperate as a team. They were only capable of thinking of their own parties.
I thought that maybe they would try and justify it as a means to accrue a stockpile of good materials, but we already had stockpiles of the materials they were getting.
“The blacksmiths in this country aren’t very good,” Ren said, clearly relying on whatever he had learned in the game he had played.
By extension, it meant that he was speaking ill of the old guy at the weapon shop, which kind of irked me.
It didn’t really matter what he said now, but I felt like I wanted him to admit it.
“You know that, because of the game that you played? Have you ever actually used one of the Melromarc blacksmiths?”
“...”
I’d been right, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Lately he had taken this stance every time we spoke. He didn’t even listen to what I was saying.
It was like our relationship got a little bit worse every time we met.
Motoyasu and Itsuki nodded along with my line of questioning, but Ren wasn’t ready to admit to his delusions.
“I don’t have the materials that are needed to make the weapons I want yet!”
And in the end, all three of them used the same excuse. They didn’t want to let the blacksmiths from Melromarc make their weapons.
I had already given all my projects to the old guy at the weapon shop, so I wasn’t using the castle blacksmiths either. But by all accounts they were supposed to be very skilled craftsmen.
“What are you so dissatisfied with?”
“Dissatisfied? Fine, I’ll tell you! I can’t stand the idea of training with a cheater!”
Motoyasu jabbed his finger at me and shouted.
“You like watching us try and do impossible things? You like seeing us look stupid? You coward!”
Ren and Motoyasu nodded their agreement with Itsuki’s complaint. They were all glaring at me now.
“I think you hold a grudge against us for not believing you when you were framed, so now you’re trying to punish us. You just want to watch us suffer!”
They were really starting to get on my nerves.
Ren’s party members were looking around like they cou
ld hardly believe what they were hearing, but Motoyasu, Bitch, and the others, including Itsuki and his pompous crew, were staring at me like I was criminal. They pointed at me accusingly.
They’d all used their game knowledge and techniques to level up and gain their power, but when another person out-performed them they called him a cheater? Is that how it worked?
As far as they were concerned, they were special, but any other special person was a cheater. What a bunch of children!
And besides, even if I were cheating, what did it matter? As long as we defeated our enemies, what was the problem?
And hey—the enemies were at least as powerful as I was. Did that mean that they were cheating, too?
“I cannot stand behind a country that would support a cheating coward! I’m tired of this place! We’re going to do whatever we want from now on!”
Ren yelled, scowling, and turned to leave. Motoyasu agreed with him.
“Naofumi, you’ve been serving yourself selfishly ever since we defeated the high priest. I can’t continue to support that.”
Self-serving? The hypocrisy was nearly unbearable!
What was it they couldn’t support? They just didn’t want to put forth the effort necessary to get stronger.
“To tell the truth, I also cannot stand behind Naofumi or this country’s plan any longer.”
“Exactly! Well said, Master Itsuki! Let us depart for a new land, where we can further the cause of justice without obstruction!”
Armor shouted his agreement with an obnoxious smile before following Itsuki away.
“I agree. Everyone, the day will come when you will need me. Until then, let us go our separate ways.”
What was that all about? Did he think it made him sound cool? He just sounded like a sore loser to me.
Besides, they’d already admitted that I was more powerful than they were, so why did they think I was going to depend on them?
I couldn’t picture that ever happening.
But I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I had to say something.
“Ren, you’re so smug I can’t stand it. You haven’t thought about how to cooperate with anyone, not even your own party. If you keep acting like this, you’re going to end up dead.”
That much had been made perfectly clear in the time since he’d introduced his party to us. I’d watched the way he behaved in battles since then.
Judging from what I knew about games, Ren was the sort of player that would let weaker members of his party die.
“Motoyasu, are you just here to get a harem going? When you find yourself up against a powerful enemy, your harem won’t do you any good.”
Whenever he had a spare minute, he used it to chase after girls.
He was a hero, so there was a certain amount of strength he could rely on to keep people close. But when the time came to face an enemy stronger than he was, did he think the girls were going to stick with him?
“And you, Itsuki. What do you think justice is? Is it refusing to make an effort so that you can keep patting yourself on the back? Justice without power is worthless, but power without justice is simply violence. Be more objective about what you’ve decided justice is. You’re no better than Motoyasu.”
When he came face to face with an enemy he couldn’t overpower, his place at the top of the party hierarchy wasn’t going to last.
I could only imagine what his crazy party members would do then.
None of them bother to listen to what I had to say. They all took their parties with them and turned to leave the castle grounds.
“Now I see.”
The queen came over. She covered her mouth with her folding fan and nodded.
“Mr. Kitamura, I’m sure you are aware of this, but my daughter, Bitch, has a large outstanding debt to the kingdom. Therefore, I cannot allow you to simply leave.”
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
Bitch tried to run but tripped and fell. Motoyasu ran to her side.
“How dare you!”
Motoyasu leveled his spear at the queen.
Damn. Had we really reached the point of no return?
“To those of you traveling with Mr. Kawasumi, your families will be saddened by the news of your deaths. Are you prepared for that?”
“Coward.”
Itsuki and his party grit their teeth and glared at the queen.
Then Itsuki readied his bow and turned to face me.
“Do you think we will give in to your threats?”
The queen ignored them both and turned to address Ren.
“I have informed the Melromarc border guards that they are not to let the heroes pass. I have also informed the guilds that they are not to issue any jobs or quests to the heroes. Knowing that, do you still plan on leaving?”
She was telling them that they would have nowhere to go.
If they left now, only death was waiting for them. It was probably safe to assume that any other country that had a connection with Melromarc wouldn’t admit them either.
If they wanted to be free to go and do what they wanted, they would have to find a place far, far removed from Melromarc, both geographically and diplomatically.
Ren wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword. He looked ready to explode.
The queen sighed deeply, relaxed, and then raised her face to speak.
“Very well. If you will agree to do two simple things for me, then I will revoke the orders I have issued and you will be free to travel as you wish.”
It was a compromise, a concession, and an effort to calm their nerves—a delay.
It was so many things at once that I didn’t know what to call it.
She was right that they were all too close to their limit, too dissatisfied to listen to what anyone had to say.
So how do you persuade people like that? All you can do is leave them alone and let them cool off.
The other three heroes all thought that they’d lost the last battle because their weapons weren’t good enough and their levels weren’t high enough.
So the best way to get what you wanted from them was to give them the breathing room they wanted. Give them a measure of freedom and then offer your assistance when they hit a wall. She wanted to give them freedom so that she’d eventually be able to rein them in. What else could she do?
I was at the end of my rope, too.
Day after day I taught them how to get stronger and provided them with the means to do it, and day after day they refused to listen. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
They would have to learn the hard way. They’d have to get themselves in deep trouble before they would understand.
I’d rather avoid that. If they ended up dying or unable to fight, then all of this would be for nothing.
“What?”
Motoyasu barked. He helped Bitch to her feet.
“For the last few days reports of a mysterious monsters have come in from many different countries.”
“Mysterious monsters?”
“Yes. I do not have dependable reports on the details, so I cannot tell you much more than that. They are monsters that no one has seen before.”
And they were showing up all over the world?
What did it mean? And was that a problem that really required the intervention of the heroes?
How could they show up in so many different places?
“My two requests are as follows: one, the eradication of these monsters, and two, participation in the wave next week. If you agree to follow through on both of these conditions, then I will guarantee your freedom.”
“What about Bitch?!”
“Mr. Kitamura, that is another matter. She has a heavy debt to repay. Still, I will permit her to travel with you.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
Motoyasu was very upset. But didn’t he realize that the country couldn’t just let a criminal go free without any repercussions?
“Bitch, please understand. You have committed serious crimes and also have incurred a mas
sive amount of debt to the kingdom. Those issues cannot simply be wished away.”
“Mama, why do you want me to suffer?!”
“You have no doubt heard that a lion will push its child into a bottomless ravine. If you wish to follow in my footsteps, you must find your own way out.”
Bitch stopped her fake crying and glared at her mother.
She really hadn’t repented of her actions at all. How could anyone sympathize with her? Only the most miserable group of heroes could.
“Heroes! Do we really want this mother of mine on the—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will revoke my offer. Is that what you really want?”
If I didn’t step in here, things might get even worse.
“Even if you killed the queen, would that solve any of our problems? Would it help us survive the next wave?”
I stepped between them and glared at the heroes.
Then I raised my right hand and spoke softly, but with evident provocation.
“Aren’t you trying to leave the country because you say you don’t have time to waste on this training? And now you want to waste time on something awful like killing the queen?”
I already knew from our time in the islands that they couldn’t defeat me in battle.
Granted, I wouldn’t be able to damage them either, but I could certainly stand there, deflect their attacks, and hold them off. If they were focused on trying to get through my defenses, the castle soldiers could pick them off one by one.
But that’s not what I wanted to happen, obviously.
All I was doing was putting the negotiation skills I’d learned through peddling to the test.
The most important things were to give the customer what they wanted and not take advantage of them.
The queen was going to give them what they wanted—freedom—in exchange for having certain conditions met.
But they weren’t listening and they were about to threaten her. To keep that from happening, I had to step in with a threat.
They were so upset and on edge that if I didn’t put the brakes on, they were going to explode and do something foolish.
To think it had only taken a week of training for them to get this upset. Just how impatient were these guys?
Bitch hadn’t come around though. She was staring at me with hatred burning in her eyes.