Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter Ep

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 again. 
“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. 
 
“We went all the way to another world on the other side of the dimensional rifts. That katana that Raphtalia has is one of that world’s . . . I guess it would be like one of the seven star heroes’ weapons in this world.” 
“Oh my . . .” 
Sadeena looked hard at Raphtalia. 
“Wh . . . what?!” 
“Is that true? Have you really only gone that far with little Naofumi?” 
“Y . . . yes!” 
“What’s going on here, Bubba Shield?” 
Keel called out to me. She was in a happy mood after being reunited with her fellow villagers. 
“It’s nothing, Keel.” 
“Oh really?” 
“Just tales of Raphtalia’s heroic exploits is all.” 
“Yes, your interpretation is just fine, Mr. Naofumi.” 
Huh? What was up with that wording? That almost made it sound like my first guess had been the correct. 
“Well, in that case . . . you won’t mind if I take little Naofumi for myself then, right, little Raphtalia?” 
“What are you saying?!” 
“What the hell, woman!” 

“Huh? I’m totally serious about making little Naofumi mine, you know.” 
 
Sadeena replied slowly in a flirtatious manner and then hooked her arm around mine. Stop that! I wanted to throw up. I tried to pull my arm away from her, but it felt useless as she just kept trying to hook her arm back around mine over and over. Damn it! This woman was persistent! 
“Don’t you want a girl like me to tend to your every need?” 
“Sadeena . . . Are you being serious?” 
“I sure am.” 
Sadeena responded without hesitation. Damn it. 
“Huh? You mean you like bubba? You’re not the only one! Everyone in the village loves bubba, you know!” 
“I’m a tyrannical moneygrubber! I’m not interested in making friends, and I’m not anybody’s bubba!” 

“Could you have come up with a line any less convincing?!” 
What was that, Keel?! I knew it . . . This kid was slow in the head. Sadeena was just making brazen sexual advances at me because she knew I hated that kind of thing! You could tell by the way that she was acting that she was just trying to mess with me. This was the same woman that put my hand on her chest and said, “boobies!” Taking her seriously would only wear you out. Raphtalia was the really serious type, and she tended to especially dislike that kind of talk. 
“Right? Okay then, little Keel, how about you and I go after little Naofumi together? I’m going to make little Naofumi my hubby!” 
“Like hell you will, you spaz!” 
Raphtalia’s face was growing paler by the moment. She looked my way. 
 
“Mr. Naofumi . . . Did you and Sadeena happen to . . . have a drinking contest?” 
“Drinking contest? The first time we met, she had been drinking like a fish and she still made me drink with her. We drank the next time we met, too, but she never drank enough to get drunk.” 
“Oh, come on, you. For all intents and purposes, you stood up to me and you won!” 
Raphtalia threw her head backward and covered her face with her hands, as if she had been completely horrified. What was going on? 
“Mr. Naofumi . . . For as long as I can remember, there was always something that Sadeena used to tell the villagers.” 
“Huh?” 
Keel was nodding knowingly. What the hell? 
“She would say, ‘My lifelong partner will be someone that can hold their liquor better than me! If I ever find someone like that, there’s no way I’m going to let him get away. You’ve all been warned!’” 
“No one else in the village could drink like Sadeena! There was even a rumor that she won a territory drinking contest and then went drinking after!” 
“Oh really . . .” 
“The fact that Sadeena says you’re going to be her future husband means that you must have beat her in a drinking contest, bubba. That’s what all the villagers will think!” 
“Huh?” 

Now that I thought about it, Sadeena had given me a drink with a rucolu fruit in it. I had a feeling she’d started acting even friendlier with me after that. Huh? So that was why she wanted me to be her husband? I figured she was just messing with me, but . . . I looked over at Sadeena. The woman switched back to her human form and started drawing on my arm with one hand, while holding her other hand to her cheek and blushing. It made me think . . . If this had been before Bitch tricked me, I’d probably be thinking “score!” thrilled that I was finally getting some attention from the opposite sex. 

“Hey bubba, how did you manage to beat Sadeena, anyways?” 
“I don’t know if I beat her, but she started getting real friendly after I ate a rucolu fruit.” 
“That’ll do it!” 
Keel and all of the Lurolona slaves nodded in agreement. I got the feeling that Sadeena had been like a big sister to the village children, so maybe they all knew her well? 
“People gave it to me every now and then, when we were peddling, right?” 
“Huh? That was rucolu fruit? I thought it was just a token to show you were welcome there.” 
Having me eat a piece of rucolu fruit had become a popular way of making sure I wasn’t just some fraud posing as the Shield Hero. Apparently, I was the only one out there who could eat rucolu fruit and be no worse for the wear. I liked to think of it as a sign of welcome that was also a punishment for imposters. 
 
“So now you know I’m being sincere! Thank you, little Naofumi!” 
“Blegh!” 
Sadeena pursed her lips and thrust them quickly at mine. I turned my head away in a flash. Still, Sadeena’s lips touched my cheek and she gave me a little smack. 
“Aww, that’s too bad. Next time it’ll be the lips!” 
“Go to hell!” 
That was close! She almost stole my first kiss! Sorry, but I had no intention of starting a family in this world. As soon as this world became peaceful, I’d be returning to Japan without hesitation, after all! 
Was it just me or had the air grown really tense? Raphtalia was glaring at me and Sadeena with a really aggravated look on her face. See! I told you that Raphtalia was serious and didn’t like this kind of thing. 
“Ra . . . Rafu . . .” 
“Fehhh . . .” 
“Sadeena!” 
“Oh my! This is so much fun! Is it okay for me to be this excited about the days to come, I wonder?” 
“As long as you behave yourself . . .” 
“I have an idea! Hey, bubba! You should cook for everyone!” 
“Cook for us!” 
“Yeah, cook!” 
“Coooook!” 
 
“Shut up!” 
Our plan to round up Raphtalia’s fellow villagers had made good progress, I think. I wasn’t sure if I could count them as part of our fighting potential yet, but I could still use the extra manpower. 
But . . . was it just me? The saying “out of the frying pan and into the fire” came to mind. Sadeena changed from her human form to her animal form and was trying hard to get her arms around me, while I tried to pacify Raphtalia, who was aggravated because she was hypersensitive to that kind of sexual behavior. I couldn’t help but think these two would be the death of me.