Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 11

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. 
 
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. 
“Well, it looks like all of you are about ready for your class-ups.” 
“Ooh! Class-ups?!” 
Keel perked back up and responded excitedly. 
“Yeah. From the looks of it, you and several of the other slaves need to class up soon. You do want to class up, right?” 
“I do!” 
The other slaves started getting excited, too. 
“Alright, let’s take you all to class up then. Filo, you know what that means.” 
“Yup! But the spear guy . . .” 
“You don’t have to worry. I’m sure he’s not going to show up at the dragon hourglass.” 

We’d used my portal to leave, so I wanted to believe that Motoyasu was still back at the inn waiting for us to come out. 

That reminded me. I’d talked with the old guy at the weapon shop about having him take one of the slaves under his wing. It would have to be someone good with his hands. 

“Are the lumos around?” 
“What is it?” 
The lumos all gathered near me. They were good with their hands, and they really took the initiative to handle most of the odd jobs around the village. The whole bunch had settled in rather quickly at the village since we already had Imiya there. Right now, they were working on digging a hole at the edge of the village to function as their living quarters. 
“Have you all been leveling up, too?” 
“Yes. Those of us who had already leveled a bit previously have already reached level 30.” 
Imiya’s uncle answered for the group. Imiya was working hard to make accessories, clothes, and other daily necessities, so I was just letting her do her own thing. 
“I see. I want one of you that’s willing to learn blacksmithing to come with me. I’m going to have someone I know take you in and teach you the trade.” 
“Blacksmithing? In that case, I’ll go.” 
Imiya’s uncle raised his hand. Huh? Did he have experience or something? 
“I did some blacksmithing back at our village, so that should help.” 
 
“I see. Alright, you come with me.” 
“Understood.” 
“I’ll probably be looking for someone to work in the coal mines before long. Is there anyone that can do that?” 
“All of us excel at mining.” 
What a handy bunch. Little by little, I’d have the slaves learn to handle new types of work to get this operation running smoothly. That was my job. Just like Kizuna and the others. 
“Got it. The rest of you just keep at your tasks and leveling and don’t slack off.” 
“We will!” 
What an energetic bunch. 
“Alright, Raphtalia, use your Scroll of Return, will you?” 
“Sure. Your portal is still on cool down, isn’t it?” 
“Yeah. Besides, your skill will get us to the dragon hourglass quicker.” 
“Okay, once everyone has gathered we’ll head out.” 
And so, after waiting for a while, we teleported out.