by Aneko Yusagi
“Oh! Filo-tan!”
Motoyasu tried to leap at Filo, but Raphtalia grabbed him by the ear and held him back.
“Let go of me, tanuki pig! I need to give Filo-tan a loving embrace!”
“. . .”
Raphtalia had a smile on her face, but she was emitting a dark and menacing aura. She signaled Filo with her eyes. What the hell was Motoyasu saying, anyway?
“Umm . . . I just approached you because I thought I could get a meal out of it. I think you misunderstood.”
“Love begins with misunderstandings, Filo-tan! Don’t worry, I’m willing to accept your selfish motives!”
“Noooo!”
He wasn’t going to budge. Our plan had been a failure. As I was standing there unsure of how to respond to the absurdity of the situation, Motoyasu turned in my direction and stared at me with a look of complete seriousness on his face.
“Father, I would like to ask for your blessing to be with your daughter.”
“I’m not anyone’s father!”
While it might have been true that I’d raised Filo, I sure didn’t remember fathering a daughter that transformed into big bird.
“Father, your daughter rescued me. She opened my eyes to true love. I promise to make her happy, no matter what. Please! Give me her hand!”
“I’m telling you I’m not her father! I may have raised her, but why should I have to give you her hand?!”
“Noooo! Master! Heeelp! Mel-chaaan!”
Now Filo was getting mixed up, too! Unfortunately for her, Melty wasn’t here with us.
“Don’t be ridiculous! She’s your daughter! What you’re implying is a crime, Father!”
“Were you even listening to me?!”
“You can try to gloss over it however you want, but that kind of relationship between a father and daughter is unclean, Father!”
“Oh, shut up!”
Raphtalia threw Motoyasu out of the room and closed the door. He was in worse shape than I’d imagined. He’d already cracked, but I had a feeling we’d gone and shattered him beyond all repair.
“Let me in, you tanuki pig! Release Father and Filo-tan!”
“Get ahold of yourself!” I yelled.
Motoyasu was banging on the door. My head was killing me . . . It’d been practically impossible to have a civilized conversation with Motoyasu before, but now it was like something in his brain had snapped. Motoyasu had switched into full-on stalker mode. Now what were we supposed to do?
As for the cause . . . it was undoubtedly because Filo had been kind to him. When people are driven into a corner, it’s easier than you would imagine for them to become obsessed with something or someone. It had been the same for me and Ren, too. I had no idea why the incident from yesterday affected Motoyasu like it did, but the end result was that Filo had saved him from a broken heart.
Now that I thought about it, Motoyasu had always been the type to get fired up about love and romance. But wait, judging from the way he was acting now, did that mean he was the kind of guy that liked to chase after girls instead of being chased? Actually . . . I couldn’t have cared less. Thinking about that would be a serious waste of time.
“You sure are being loud!”
I heard the voice of some female adventurer who had probably been trying to get some rest next door.
“Quit your squealing, pig! Get lost!”
“P . . . pig?! What’s your problem?!”
Motoyasu, the ladies’ man, was telling off a woman. She must have been pretty damned ugly. I was curious, so I cracked the door and peeked outside.
Motoyasu was standing there arguing with a fairly good-looking woman. I was pretty sure she was a dancer from the tavern. I could never have imagined the Motoyasu I knew doing something like this. Just what was going on up there in that head of his? I wondered what he saw now when he looked at Raphtalia or that woman. My curiosity had been piqued. Maybe he had been affected by some kind of curse.
“What should we do? We can’t leave with him out there like that,” said Raphtalia.
“Filo. Take responsibility and go drag Motoyasu—”
“Noooo!”
I wondered what we should do. Motoyasu didn’t seem like he was going to give up easily.
“Let’s just go out the window for now. We’ll explain the situation to the innkeeper and then run. As for the carriage . . .”
“U . . . understood.”
If we tried to go to the shed where the carriage was parked, I had a feeling Motoyasu would be expecting it and get there before us.
“My carriaaaage . . .”
Filo must have understood that, because her eyes were darting around worriedly. Motoyasu must have seriously had some kind of mental deficiency. Why had things ended up like this? It didn’t make any sense. Why the hell were we running from Motoyasu? Hadn’t it been the other way around yesterday?
“Motoyasu will notice if we make too much noise, so just forget about the carriage for now. We’ll come back for it when it seems safe!”
“Okay . . .”
Filo’s disappointment was apparent, but she nodded hesitantly. So she actually chose getting away from Motoyasu over her carriage? She must have seriously disliked him.
And so, just like that, we made our escape from the inn.
We used my portal and made our way to the castle. I wanted to give the queen an update on Witch. Filo was still looking around suspiciously.
“I’m sure you’d know if Motoyasu were here. You’re overreacting.”
“I knooow, but still . . . it’s like I can feel him nearby! Yuck!”
I don’t think she could have disliked him any more than she did now. Motoyasu going all gaga over her had only made things worse.
Still, even Motoyasu wouldn’t show up at the castle . . . probably. People would recognize him in the castle town, so it would be impossible to hide. He’d always relied on crystal balls and never actually studied magic, so I was pretty sure he didn’t have any new tricks up his sleeve. I doubt he could use magic to hide himself like Raphtalia could. Even if he could, Raphtalia would be able to sense him.
If he had a skill that allowed him to hide himself, then we wouldn’t be able to do anything about that. But judging from how he’d been acting so far, I had no doubt he’d just come charging at Filo like a naïve fool. Besides, he was probably still standing guard back at the carriage.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Boo . . .”
We headed to the throne room, where the queen was taking care of some official business. I told the queen about what had happened yesterday.
“Can you not do something about that witch daughter of yours? I wanted to kill her as soon as I ran into her.”
I was sure Witch was up to no good, so it was probably best to just put a bounty on her head and have her killed.
“Even so . . . I would like to recommend that she be brought in alive, if at all possible,” replied the queen.
Brought in alive after all of this? That didn’t seem fitting for someone with a bounty on her head.
“I wonder how that child made it across the border. The Spear Hero’s other companions were accompanied by their parents, so I can understand how they made it across, but her . . .”
“Considering what Elena and Motoyasu told us, there’s no doubt she crossed over from another country.”
I was sure someone would recognize Witch if she tried to cross at a border checkpoint. She was a former princess of Melromarc, after all. To get around that, she would have to . . . cross over the mountains, I guess. But Witch? She wasn’t the type to do anything that made her suffer. I couldn’t imagine her returning to Melromarc by such a crude method. Maybe she smuggled herself in. She could have hidden among some cargo. That one seemed possible, at least.
“Can you not use the slave curse to smoke her out?”
“I’m not sure how she’s managed to interfere with the curse, but . . . I haven’t been able to. There is another problem, as well.”
“What now?”
“The controlled area that was functioning as a prison for the country was damaged by the Spirit Tortoise attacks. I’ve been informed that the vast majority of the criminals were killed by the attacks, but . . .”
“But what?”
“It is possible that there were survivors.”
“Hmm . . .”
That meant the country’s criminals could be alive and on the run. I guess that did sound like a problem.
“This is just my intuition, but I have a feeling there’s a connection with that child’s shenanigans. Many of the government officials that had ties with the Church of the Three Heroes were sent there after being dismissed following the incident with you.”
Hold on. That meant that those people were on the run, right? That was a major problem. And now that scum was hiding out in Melromarc, huh? I guess finding out about it before anything major happened counted for something, though. It seemed like I was always suddenly getting caught up in some nonsense without any warning, which made it hard for me to keep up. It was nice to hear about something ahead of time for once.
But yeah, there was almost certainly a connection between that and Witch. The Church of the Three Heroes was probably involved in getting her across the border.
“Can we just kill that woman already, no questions asked?”
“I’d like to avoid that, if at all possible . . .”
The queen must have made the same connection I did.
“If we take her alive, we can force her to expose her connections with the remnants of the church,” she suggested.
“I see . . . Then get as much information as you can so that we can capture her.”
“Of course.”
“Are criminals not given slave curses?”
“They are, but the guard that had ownership died in the Spirit Tortoise attacks.”
Ah, that made sense. The person that had the authority to punish them was no longer alive. What a mess.
“There was another reason I wanted that child captured alive, originally.”
“What’s that?”
“Specifically, I intended to use her as a means to avoid war. Let’s just say it involves choking back my tears and offering her as a sacrifice.”
A sacrifice, huh? I guess that was why Witch didn’t show up at the castle. But no . . . the queen wasn’t evil. If Witch hadn’t caused so much trouble, I’m sure things could have been settled more amicably. That much was clear from the way the queen was always humoring me.
“But succumbing to such a fate is something that child hates the idea of from the bottom of her heart. Indeed, to avoid it, she would thrash around in refusal, plead with me, and even run away without looking back. Grouping with one of the heroes exempted her from that punishment.”
“Oh? In other words, she voided the exemption herself.”
What an idiot. She should have just stayed quiet and kept her fangs sunk into Motoyasu.
“The details would make any noble female want to commit suicide. In other words, it’s a punishment worse than death.”
Hmm . . . I kind of wanted to know what the punishment was, but at the same time I felt like it was probably better not to know.
“This was the most effective threat I had to use against that child. It looks like it will no longer simply be a threat now, though.”
“Whatever. Fine, let’s make the bounty for ‘dead or alive,’ but you can specify ‘alive if possible’ and make the bounty bigger if they bring her in alive.”
“I suppose there is no other choice. As you wish, Mr. Iwatani. It’s the least I can do as a mother, as well. We shall stop her before she causes any more trouble.”
The queen nodded and then gave the order to one of her subordinates. And so Witch became a criminal, wanted dead or alive. The problem was that she was with Ren now. I just had to hope he didn’t go on a rampage and end up being made the leader of some opposing power or something.
Chapter Eleven: Loincloth Pup
After finishing my talk with the queen and heading back to the village . . .
“Welcome back, bubba!”
I could hardly believe my eyes when a puppy in a loincloth with Keel’s voice ran up and welcomed me back. It looked like a Siberian Husky. The puppy had a fluffy coat of fur and stood at maybe a bit over two and a half feet tall from head to toe. The reason I say it was a puppy is because its face and several other features seemed too puppy-like for it to be an adult. The puppy was wearing a loincloth and looked really proud of itself as it walked around on its hind legs.
“K . . . Keel?” Raphtalia muttered.
“You . . .”
“Heh, pretty awesome, huh? Sadeena taught me how.”
Keel puffed her chest out proudly, but . . . the other villagers looked like they weren’t quite sure what to make of it. Awesome? She’d turned into a cute little pet. It was just too bad it had to be a puppy. I guess technically it was a therianthrope form, but dog form was a more fitting description of the way Keel looked now. Sadeena looked a little bit proud, too. She annoyed me. She seriously annoyed me.
“I could tell little Keel had potential, so I showed her how to do it,” she said.
“Potential, huh?” I mumbled.
“Isn’t Keel so cute?!”
Rishia, who had been really lackluster lately, must have been taking a break from her training. She came over, picked Keel up, and started petting her.
Rishia seemed to be training with the old lady quite frequently lately. She had kept up her training while we were fighting in the coliseum tournament whenever she wasn’t busy gathering information. The old lady mentioned that our fights in the other world had hastened the development of her abilities. She’d only been able to use her awakened state against Kyo so far, but if she could learn to use it at will, that would be something worth getting excited about.
“Hey! Let go of me, Rishia!”
Keel complained, but Rishia didn’t stop petting him. I could totally understand. In short, I’d wanted to pet puppy Keel when I saw her, too.
“And? Is there anyone else in the village that can use a therianthrope form like this? How does it affect her stats, anyway?” I asked.
“It depends on race, but stats get boosted in most cases, like with me,” Sadeena replied.
“Hmm . . .”
“It’s extremely rare for someone to have potential, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up about the other villagers,” she said.
“I see. What about Raphtalia?”
“Little Raphtalia is an exception.”
So Raphtalia could use a therianthrope form . . . or maybe a Raph-chan form? If not that, those stoneware tanuki statues came to mind. I stood there staring at Raphtalia for a few moments, and then she got upset.
“You’re thinking about something rude, aren’t you? That I would look like Raph-chan if I used a therianthrope form or something, right?”
“Is that really what you were thinking, buddy?”
Keel seemed genuinely curious. I turned away and acted like I had no idea what they were talking about.
“Oh my, does she really look that lovely?” asked Atla.
“Yes. Keel is so cute!” Rishia squealed.
Atla walked over to us with Fohl and was listening to Rishia with a confused look on her face. Even if Atla could sense someone’s presence, I guess it only made sense that she couldn’t judge appearances since she was blind.
“Stop saying cute! You mean I look cool, right?”
“Cute definitely describes it better. You could give Raph-chan a run for her money,” I muttered.
Keel dropped her head in disappointment.
“Rafu rafu!”
Raph-chan noticed the commotion and came over and stood next to Keel. It was perfect. We had our village mascots taken care of now. Filo? Nah.
“No way . . . I thought I finally looked cool . . .”
“If anything, you’ve gotten further from it,” I said.
&n
bsp; Keel’s usual girly looks would’ve still classified her as cute, though. Sadeena was looking at Keel and cackling before she dropped a real bomb.
“By the way, little Fohl has potential, too.”
“Alps sure is talented.”
“What in the world is ‘Alps’?! Is that supposed to be referring to Fohl?” snapped Raphtalia.
“Yeah. It’s a little nickname I’ve been secretly using for him after something he said made me think of it. You think we should make it stick?”
“I’m sure the reasoning for it is something horrible,” Raphtalia retorted.
“I can’t argue with that.”
“No . . . way . . .” moaned Atla.
Huh? What was Atla upset about?
“A . . . Atla?”
“You’ve been given a nickname by Mr. Naofumi, Brother. And on top of that, you can learn how to transform into something cute. You intend to try to steal Mr. Naofumi’s heart, don’t you? I’m jealous. Envious!”
“Y . . . you’re wrong! I intend to do no such thing!”
I wasn’t even going to go there. I decided to ignore those two and check up on the levels of the village slaves. Oh? They had all leveled up a pretty respectable amount.
Rishia was . . . Hmm? She was level 69, which meant she’d hardly progressed at all. Back when we fought the Spirit Tortoise . . . Itsuki had already gotten her to level 68, and then we went to Kizuna’s world after that. Once we returned to this world, she started helping out with the slaves, but still . . . her progress was ridiculously slow.
Her progress had been similarly slow in Kizuna’s world, too. She’d been stuck right at the point where it seemed like she might turn 70 at any time. It was like she had gotten to level 69 abnormally fast and then she hit a wall right before 70. It was as if she were being forced to pay for getting to 69 so quickly. Was this a sign that she was about to finally fulfill her potential? I’d have to keep an eye on her.
I guess things were going as expected. In any case, the village slaves that had shown an interest in fighting had all reached around level 40. That meant it was almost time for their class-ups. I figured we should probably just go take care of the ceremonies all at once sometime soon.