Chapter Fifteen: Form is Emptiness
It had been two days since my talk with Sadeena. I’d finished breakfast and was in the middle of training when I heard the clunking sounds of a carriage. A completely unexpected visitor rolled up into the village.
“Hmm? Oh, hey!” I called out.
The old guy from the weapon shop was sitting in the carriage. It looked like he’d grabbed a ride on a carriage transporting ore and other materials.
“Yo! I came to take a look at this village you’ve been building, kid.”
The old guy was looking around at the village.
“You sure have given the place a unique feel, haven’t you?”
That was his comment after catching sight of the bioplant field, the camping plant buildings, and the monster stable.
“There’s absolutely no denying that,” Raphtalia agreed.
I sensed a hint of bitterness in her voice.
“That’s just a reflection of Mr. Naofumi! You need to learn to accept that already, Raphtalia!” Atla retorted.
“I’m not so sure about that. But why are you always so eager to pick a fight, Atla?” I asked.
Hearing the old guy’s comment and taking a look around, I couldn’t deny that the village was turning out to look pretty strange. The bioplant field and the camping plant buildings were only a couple of the many oddities. The camping plant buildings, in particular, were a real one-of-a-kind. That was undeniable. No matter how you looked at it, the place stuck out among the other towns and villages in Melromarc. I was fully aware that I had some pretty crazy stuff going on there, and having it pointed out by the old guy didn’t make me feel any better about it.
“Did you just stop by while you were you out gathering ore or something?”
“There is that, but I have another reason for coming too.”
The old guy reached into a bag sitting on the carriage and pulled out an outfit. He handed it to Raphtalia. I immediately understood what it was. Even I knew that my eyes were twinkling as I stared at the outfit.
“Why do you look so excited?!” Raphtalia snapped.
She was standing there holding the clothes with an annoyed look on her face.
“Oh?”
I checked the stats on the miko outfit in Raphtalia’s hands.
White Tiger Miko Outfit (crude) defense up, impact resistance (small), power of the four holy beasts, magic defense processing
Crude? What was that all about? But actually, I hadn’t even been able to use my appraisal skill on the outfit before now.
“Hmm, the stats seem a bit low,” Raphtalia said.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry about that. This was the best I could manage,” said the old guy.
“Not at all. I think you did a good job, actually,” I replied.
“I’m perfectly happy with more normal armor,” Raphtalia said.
The old guy had humored my request and supposedly went through a lot of trial-and-error to make the outfit. There weren’t very many people in this world looking into how to raise the defenses of cloth, unlike in Kizuna’s world. The old guy had incorporated some exotic techniques and managed to pull it off to a certain degree, I guess.
“There’s a girl in your village that’s good with sewing equipment, right? She gave me a hand, and that made a big difference.”
Did he mean S’yne? I didn’t recall introducing her to the old guy. But then I remembered she was keeping an eye on me. Her vassal weapon was basically a sewing set. She probably shared some techniques from other worlds that helped the old guy out too.
“I see. Alright, Raphtalia, make sure you wear that from now on, starting today.”
“I don’t know why you feel so strongly about these clothes.”
A big grin crept across my face.
“Because they look so good on you. I’m sure the villagers will agree when they see you in them.”
“I didn’t want to hear that. Oh, whatever. The stats aren’t much different than those of the armor I’m wearing now, so it’s not like I’m against wearing them.”
“I’m prepared to give my full support to any ongoing research in this area, you know. Is there anything else you might need?”
I nudged the old guy to continue with his miko outfit research and development.
“Mr. Naofumi? Are you listening to me?”
Raphtalia tried to protest. She still had the miko outfit in her hands.
“I hear you. Anyway, go put that on and show the villagers.”
“You don’t have to sound so pushy.”
“I sure wish Mr. Naofumi would buy me clothes. I’m jealous!” Atla exclaimed.
I could feel some kind of intense aura of envy slowly emanating from her body.
“I’ll take those if you don’t want them,” she continued.
“They wouldn’t even fit you!” Raphtalia snapped.
“That doesn’t matter. I’ll wear them anyway and steal Mr. Naofumi’s heart.”
“What the hell are you even saying?”
Sometimes Atla’s enthusiasm was just a bit too much.
“Ugh . . . Fine. Understood. I’ll go put it on.”
Raphtalia gave up and went to change into the outfit. Several minutes later, she returned with the miko outfit on.
“Oh . . .”
The old guy and all of the villagers were staring at her. She was looking down at the ground and holding her katana sheath in her hands, clearly embarrassed.
“Now that’s really something. I see what you mean, kid.”
“Wow, Raphtalia! You look even cooler than usual!” Keel exclaimed.
She was staring at Raphtalia too. Right? Right?? I knew it. Raphtalia really did look best in a miko outfit!
“Cool?”
“She means cute, I’m sure. But wow!”
Everyone was staring at Raphtalia in awe, and her face just kept getting redder. Was she really embarrassed? She didn’t seem bothered at all when she wore the outfit back in Kizuna’s world.
“Now that is a sight for sore eyes,” I said.
I felt like a father seeing his precious, young daughter all dressed up in nice clothes for the first time. Okay, maybe that was going a bit too far, but Raphtalia really did look amazingly good in a miko outfit. I’d also seen her in a kimono and a hakama while we were in Kizuna’s world, but nothing could beat the miko outfit. It was uncanny. It’s like the clothes were made for her. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle. It made the more European-style leather armor she usually wore just look strange on her.
“Well, that settles that. We’re sticking with the miko outfit for you, Raphtalia.”
“I don’t get why you’re so set on having it that way, but fine. Understood.”
Raphtalia sighed faintly when she replied.
“What else do you have planned today? If you came to ask for the lumos’ help, I’d be happy to send them along with you,” I told the old guy.
“Oh, yeah? In that case, I guess I’ll take you up on your offer,” he replied.
And so, with Raphtalia wearing her new miko outfit, we got back to training and taking care of our business for the day. Other than that, Eclair started moaning about her duties as governor and requested my help, so I went over and spent some time in the neighboring town to give her a hand.
The old guy decided to stay the night in the village and agreed to do some maintenance work on the armor that the slaves had been using while he was there. He really was a generous guy. I could never thank him enough.
The sun set and it was almost time for dinner.
“Little Naofumi! I’m back!”
Sadeena had just gotten back to the village. I’d asked her to go do some salvaging in the nearby ocean, along with some fishing to help reinforce our food supplies. She must have made quite the catch, because the basket on her back was packed full of fish.
“I brought you your fish. We’re going to have a feast tonight!”
“Yeah, fine. Whatever. For now, I’ll just grill—”
I started talking to myself about how I should prepare the fish that Sadeena had caught.
“Oh hey, Sadeena. Welcome ba—”
Before Raphtalia could finish her sentence, Sadeena dropped the basket of fish on the ground with a loud thud.
“Hey, don’t drop that there!”
Sadeena completely ignored me and stumbled over to Raphtalia. She reached out and started trying to pull Raphtalia’s clothes off.
“Wh . . . what are you doing, Sadeena?!”
“What’s the idea, you drunkard?!”
“Little Naofumi! We have to get these clothes off of her immediately!”
“Stop screwing around! Why would she need to get undressed?!”
I’d had that miko outfit made specially just for her. Why did she need to take it off now? Raphtalia and Sadeena were struggling with each other and the slaves started making a commotion.
“Umm, Naofumi, is everything okay? Should we stop them?” Ren asked.
He looked alarmed.
“I guess so. We can’t have this screwball undressing Raphtalia in front of everyone. We’ll just have to put her down.”
I was starting to get angry when I noticed the look of urgency on Sadeena’s face.
“Hey, what are you so flustered about? Explain yourself.”
“Little Naofumi, don’t you remember what I said? About being prepared?”
Huh? The night before last, Sadeena had told me I should be prepared to commit if I wanted to marry Raphtalia—how it would likely cause some kind of family feud or something.
“What about it?”
“It’s related to that. We need to get these clothes off of her now!”
“Wh . . . what are you two talking about?!” Raphtalia asked.
She’d been passed out drunk at the time. It made sense that she wouldn’t know. But what did Raphtalia wearing a miko outfit have to do with any of that?
“Okay, fine. Raphtalia, go change your clothes. This drunkard is going to keep trying to undress you otherwise.”
“U . . . understood.”
Raphtalia went to change again. After that, Sadeena finally calmed down. She was staring at the house that Raphtalia had gone inside of to change.
“Seriously, what’s going on?”
“Listen, little Naofumi. Do you have any idea what having little Raphtalia wear that outfit means?”
“Hell if I know. It’s just a really nice piece of equipment that we brought back from the other world and had repaired.”
Sadeena acted like I’d stepped on a land mine, but how should I have known what the problem was? No one had told me anything about something like that! Sadeena covered her face with her hand, like she was getting frustrated. It was unlike her to be visibly irritated like this.
“Okay, little Naofumi, I’m going to explain. Having her wear that outfit has far greater significance than even what we talked about the other day. In that country, it signifies a right to the thro—”
All of a sudden, Sadeena took off running. Several seconds later, a column of flames suddenly shot up out of the house that Raphtalia had gone in to change clothes.
“What the hell?!”
“We were too late!”
Sadeena quickly switched to her therianthrope form and began to rapidly recite an incantation.
“Raphtalia!”
Raphtalia leapt out of the crumbling house and brandished her katana. She was still halfway undressed, and her miko outfit was spotted with ash. I heard a metallic sound echo out and something went flying toward Raphtalia! I squinted to get a better look. It looked like a kunai or some kind of iron spike. And then a group of people appeared from out of nowhere and attacked Raphtalia.
“Ugh . . .”
Raphtalia parried and then counterattacked, but her attack was dodged by a hair’s breadth.
“Prepare yourself!” the enemy shouted.
Fortunately, Raphtalia was slightly more skilled than her opponents, so she was able to dodge all of their attacks. What kind of weapons were they using? Was that a kodachi? One of the enemies blocked Raphtalia’s katana and locked blades with her. Immediately after, another enemy took advantage of the opening, appearing from behind and attacking. But Raphtalia swiftly drew her other katana and blocked the attack. She could dual-wield.
“Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!”
Raphtalia forced a skill off and tried to slice through the enemy, but her katana stopped just short of making contact and sparks shot into the air. Her opponents were pretty strong.
“Haaah!”
“Not so fast!”
Raphtalia used her illusion magic to confuse the attacker and then dodged the attack. She’d only changed her position ever so slightly, so it had appeared really dangerous. The enemies had managed to unleash such a fierce chain of attacks in the mere moments it had taken us to approach.
They must have been some seriously skilled fighters. Raphtalia had a vassal weapon! Levels were capped at 100 in this world. Even if Raphtalia’s stats were reduced by the effects of a curse, I was sure she wouldn’t be outclassed by someone of that level. She was at least that strong.
“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Shooting Star Shield!”
Raphtalia had only been able to focus on protecting herself. I hurried to the front to take over defense.
“Drifa Thunderbolt!”
Sadeena finished her incantation and thunderbolts rained down on the surrounding area, revealing several more enemies that seemed to have been hiding.
What was this? They appeared to be killer whale therianthropes and a rabbit therianthropes. They were wearing what looked like ninja outfits, and they had me, Raphtalia, and Sadeena surrounded.
“Who the hell are these people?” I asked.
Did that mean demi-humans and therianthropes had attacked Raphtalia? Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden were the demi-human countries. But if they’d been from there, I wouldn’t have expected them to be this hostile once I showed up.
“Are those enemies?!”
“Oh no! The house is on fire! We restored that house with bubba!”
“Kwa?!”
Ren, Keel, the other slaves, and even the monsters all started to make a lot of noise.
“Fehhh! Mr. Itsuki! Let’s join the fight!”
“Okay.”
Rishia and Itsuki showed up too, of course.
“What’s going on?!”
“What in the world happened here?”
Even Fohl and Atla were surprised by the unexpected state of affairs. The enemy showed no sign of retreating, despite our rapid increase in numbers. They were exchanging glances silently.
“Daughter of the one who abandoned his inheritance of the seat of the Heavenly Emperor! You have made your intentions clear to us! We will do everything in our power to thwart your claim to the seat! Prepare yourself!”
“What?!”
What was that supposed to mean? I looked over at Raphtalia.
“What are you talking about? I have absolutely no idea!” she exclaimed.
“Little Naofumi, little Raphtalia, it’s too late. They won’t listen to us.”
Sadeena narrowed her eyes. She was radiating an aura of murderous intent as she pointed her harpoon at the group of ninja-looking enemies that had suddenly appeared.
What was going on? There were several killer whale therianthropes that looked a lot like Sadeena mixed in among them. I suddenly remembered what Sadeena had said recently. I got a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“Listen, little Naofumi. Those clothes that you had little Raphtalia put on—that you keep calling a miko outfit—are primarily what caused this. You understand, right?”
I had a pretty good idea of what Sadeena was getting at, judging from how she was reacting. I had no idea how in the world that outfit would lead to getting ambushed, but going by what she had told me, I assumed it had something to do with Raphtalia’s birth.
“Those clothes have special meaning in little Raphtalia’s case.”
“I can tell that much. I want to know the reason why.”
“Is that a holder of a spirit implement? Permission to draw weapons of judgment granted! And you! Take care of the water dragon’s former miko priestess!” shouted one of the enemies.
“Yes, sir!”
There were a bunch of clicking sounds and . . . What were those? The enemies drew strange weapons that were enshrouded in energy resembling pale flame. The enemies readied themselves to attack.
“I guess we don’t have time for explanations. We’ll just have to fight them off for now,” I said.
The group of killer whales that looked like Sadeena sprang into action. Before Sadeena could even move, they lunged at her at full speed and thrust their staffs at her, sending her flying through the air. The thrusts must have been incredibly powerful, because Sadeena was thrown high into the air, toward the cliff. The enemies leapt at her and latched on to her body in what appeared to be a suicide attack. They all went tumbling together over the cliff and down into the ocean.
“Sadeena!” Raphtalia screamed.
As if in response to her screams, the enemies raised their weapons high into the air.
“Haaaaah!”
The first attacker swung a maul, and I stepped forward to block it. He was really quick. Almost as quick as Sadeena was when we fought her in Zeltoble, after she’d become serious. I needed to watch out for defense rating attacks and defense ignoring attacks. But I didn’t know if the enemy could use either, so I decided to block the attack with Shooting Star Shield. There was a loud cracking sound, and the maul smashed through the barrier as easy as if it had been the crisp outer layer of a chocolate-dipped cone.
Was this a joke? Could it really be possible to destroy my Shooting Star Shield so effortlessly? I could have understood if it had been the Demon Dragon or another hero, but these were just normal people, as far as I could tell. Something seemed a bit different about the way it had been destroyed too. I wasn’t sure how to describe it. It had just kind of dissolved, like the barrier had been nullified.
“Ugh!”
I blocked the enemy’s sideways swing with my shield, and I felt the massive impact pass through the shield and into my arm.
I hadn’t taken any damage. It hadn’t been a defense rating or defense ignoring attack. And yet it had easily smashed through my Shooting Star Shield. On top of that, I had the Demon Dragon Shield equipped and the counterattack effect hadn’t activated. The accessory I had attached to my shield recently didn’t react either. None of my effects were functioning.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Another enemy attacked Raphtalia behind me. Damn it!
“Dritte Shield!”
I summoned my third shield to protect her.
“It’s no use.”
The enemy that had attacked Raphtalia was using a sword-breaker dagger. As expected, the enemy sliced through the shield that I had summoned with ease.
I had learned the Way of the Dragon Vein, and I could feel that I was becoming more and more sensitive toward magic recently. Surely I would be able to tell whether my stats had been reduced by magic. I took a quick look at my stats, just to make sure. There didn’t seem to be any kind of debuff magic at play. Did that mean the enemy had surpassed my defense with pure brute force? But our stats were higher than theirs.
“We have to protect bubba!”
“Wait! Be careful!” I shouted.
Keel and the others paid no heed to my warning and rushed into the fray. Was I going to end up with dead villagers on my hands?! The thought flashed across my mind, but they were actually coordinating and maneuvering rather well. Their guard was tight. In that case, I would just cast Zweite Aura to reduce the damage they may take.
There seemed to be some highly skilled fighters mixed in among the enemies, but we had them outnumbered and they seemed to be struggling. But there was a different problem. Keel and the others were fighting back with weapons that had no edge.
“Naofumi! Ugh . . .”
Ren, Rishia, and Itsuki tried to join us, but the enemies blocked their path.
“Ren! Or Itsuki! Give us some backup!”
“Understood!”
“Naofumi, do your best to withstand this!”
Ren and Itsuki both fired off their skills.
“Hundred Swords!”
“Arrow Rain!”
When they did, I shoved the enemies away and held my shield up into the air.
“Shooting Star Shield!”
I generated a barrier and buckled down to protect Raphtalia and the others from Ren’s and Itsuki’s backup attacks.
“Ugh . . .”
The enemies that had been surrounding me groaned, and then went on to bat Ren’s and Itsuki’s skills out of the air with their weapons. Just what the hell were those weapons?! What was with these enemies?! Bastards!
“Why are you attacking us?!” Ren screamed angrily.
He was slicing at the enemies, but his attacks were too weak. No. His stats were clearly higher, because he did seem to be overpowering them slightly. But it was like the enemies were wearing chainmail or something. Even if Ren’s sword made contact, it was like he couldn’t surpass their defense.
“What’s with these guys?!”
“Lea———Spider Net!”
S’yne suddenly appeared and cast her spiderweb of thread over the area. The enemies were caught off guard by the surprise attack and got tangled up in the thread, slowing their movements. That would prove to be a mistake.
“Here I go! Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!”
“Hiyaaa!”
“Let’s do this, Mr. Itsuki!”
“Okay.”
All of our best fighters took advantage of the brief opening and attacked.
“Ugh . . . But we will not back down!” shouted one of the enemies.
“Their armor is ridiculously tough!”
“Yes.”
Raphtalia, Ren, and Itsuki just barely managed to cut through the enemies’ armor and chainmail, but none of them had even come close to causing a fatal wound.
The enemies’ skilled coordination and polished movements seemed almost supernatural, and they were what made their attacks so efficient. Our stats might have been higher than theirs, but they outdid us when it came to technique.
“Ugh . . .”
“Request for permission to employ the sakura stones of destiny!” yelled one of the fighters.
“We didn’t bring any for this operation! Be prepared to die an honorable death if you must!” replied another.
“Yes, sir!”
It sounded like they had another secret weapon. But now wasn’t the time to worry about that!
“You’re not welcome here!” Atla exclaimed.
She caught one of the enemies off guard and punched him in the chest.
“Ugh!”
Huh? Atla’s attack destroyed the enemy’s armor. But Ren and Itsuki were complaining about being unable to breach the enemies’ defenses. Raphtalia’s, Ren’s, and Itsuki’s attacks hadn’t been very effective. And my skill had been destroyed effortlessly. What was the common denominator?
Was it that we were all heroes?
But this wasn’t the time for pondering. We needed to do something and we needed to do it quick. Our enemies were incredibly skillful. S’yne’s web of threads had already been cut to pieces and rendered ineffective. Was there no way to finish this quickly?
“Raphtalia!”
It was sink or swim! I looked at Raphtalia and signaled with my eyes for her to begin focusing her mind. She nodded. I turned my back to her and began to recite an incantation while continuing to guard against the attacks of the enemies in front of us.
We’d just have to play it by ear and hope this worked. We were going to use illusion magic—Raphtalia’s specialty—to try to confuse the enemies. The puzzle pieces appeared, floating, in front of my eyes.
“Can you do this, Raphtalia?”
“I’ll try my best!”
The spell I’d cast as the base for our magic wasn’t an aura spell. It was a guard spell. It was a type of support magic that I’d learned a long time ago, but I stopped using it once I learned the aura spells. Being that it was her first time casting cooperative magic, Raphtalia seemed slightly unsure of herself. But she must have caught on faster than I had, because it was going pretty well for a couple of amateurs.
“Power of two, lend your strength to confuse the enemy with an illusion! Re-spin the threads of fate, and turn their defeat into a victory!”
Nice! The incantation was going well. There was something about it. It felt like we were able to combine our power more quickly than when I cast cooperative magic with Sadeena. Of course, the fact that I’d cast such a low-level spell probably had something to do with it. Whatever, we had to try!
I continued blocking the enemies’ attacks while we were reciting the incantation. All of the training I had done with Atla and Raphtalia lately was paying off now. Atla’s vicious attacks were driven by instinct. These enemies were skilled, but their movements were formulaic, which made them easy to deal with.
We finished fitting the puzzle pieces together to form the magic.
“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Show our enemies an illusion to confuse them!”
“Form is Emptiness!” The target icon popped up on my screen. The spell was set to cast on everyone that I recognized as an enemy. Without hesitation, I finalized the incantation and cast the spell. There was a loud pop, and the magic that Raphtalia and I had cast took its effect on every single enemy there!
“Haaaa!”
The enemies’ fierce attacks began to miss us, and they began moving in all of the wrong directions. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like our illusions were putting up a good fight.
“Wh . . . what happened?!”
“We cast some cooperative magic. These bastards are going to be full of holes for a bit!”
“It seems that we succeeded in creating sensory confusion with the illusions. But be careful! I’m sure you realize this, but attacking them will cancel the effect. They’ll figure out what’s going on soon!”
“Then what should we do?!”
“The effect won’t last long. In that case . . .”
Raphtalia took a stance that I’d seen her use before.
“It would seem they have some kind of powerful resistance against our weapon skills. I’m sure that Mr. Naofumi and the other heroes have noticed,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“We need your strength too, Ren and Itsuki. We need to make the absolute most of this chance!”
“Got it!”
“Okay.”
“Fehhh . . .”
“Don’t waste this opportunity,” I told them.
I started casting my aura on as many of us as I could, starting with the strongest fighters. It probably took less than a minute. Raphtalia finished recharging her magic power and gave everyone the signal to attack.
“Shooting Star Sword!”
“Eagle Piercing Shot!”
Ren and Itsuki led the attack, and everyone followed up with their biggest skills and most powerful techniques. Atla delivered a heavy blow to her opponent’s chest with her fist. But the enemy immediately took a defensive stance, perhaps because they sensed Atla’s hostility, or just as a result of combat experience.
“Here I go! Hiyaaaaa!”
The blade of Raphtalia’s katana began to glow and she unleashed something that wasn’t a weapon skill. It was an attack that would extend across the whole area.
“Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny!”
It was a quick-draw attack with incredible momentum, but everyone must have known it was coming, because we all crouched down and dodged the attack. A trail of light shot out and directly into almost all of the enemies who had been standing there confused. A yin-yang pattern appeared in the air briefly, and then the enemies were all sent flying through the air.
“Gaaaahhhh!”
The surprise attack incapacitated all of the enemies at once.
“An attack that combines magic power and life force, I see. As to be expected of the one that calls herself Mr. Naofumi’s sword. But I won’t lose to you!”
After adding her commentary, Atla climbed up onto one of the fallen enemies and threw her arms into the air to signal our victory. It must have been around that same time. Several massive lightning bolts rained down near the shore and Sadeena burst up out of the water.
“Now, now. If you think that’s all it takes to stop me, you’re gravely mistaken.”
“These people were super strong!”
Keel was poking one of the fallen enemies excitedly with the sheath of her short sword.
“Oh? Did you protect everyone, little Naofumi?”
“I guess you could say that. Actually, it was Raphtalia that finished them off.”
“Yeah! That was amazing.”
“Yes. By the way, our weapons and skills seemed rather ineffective against these people. Are they useless?” asked Itsuki.
He was still behaving as indecisively as ever.
“It’d be nice if we could get one of them to talk,” I said.
I kicked one of the fallen enemies over onto his back. His eyes snapped open and he started to get up, but I stomped him back down to the ground and pinned him there with my foot.
“You realize the fight is over, right? Now it’s time to make you talk!”
“Ha! We won’t tell you anything!”
As soon as he finished speaking, light began to leak out of his body and the bodies of all of the other surrounding enemies.
“ Daughter of the one who abandoned his inheritance of the seat of the Heavenly Emperor! We have noted your declaration of war. Messengers have already been sent to inform our people. Our assassins will never stop coming for you. Your days of peace and quiet are over! Hahahaha!”
“Little Naofumi!”
“Everyone, get back!”
“Glory to the Heavenly Emperor!”
I gave the order and we all moved away from the fallen enemies. As we did, the enemies’ bodies exploded and went flying into the air.
“They blow themselves up as soon as they lose? What the hell?”
And talk about grotesque. There were corpses all over the place and it reeked of blood. It smelled like blasting powder too. Who the hell was going to clean this up?! Damn it! And to top it all off, now some of our buildings were on fire.
“Anyway, hurry up and put out those fires! Do what you can to minimize the damage!”
The battle was over. We went about putting out the fires and then regrouped later.
Fortunately, we’d managed to put out all of the fires quickly. After all, the camping plant was a plant, and it didn’t burn very well. Even if the camping plant buildings were destroyed, replacing them would be simple. I was thinking about how great the plants were when . . .
“This . . . This weapon is . . .”
The old guy from the weapon shop was at a loss for words. He was looking at one of the weapons that the enemies had been using. It had been broken by the suicide-bomb blast.
“What is it?”
“Umm, never mind. It’s nothing.”
“You sure?”
He was acting strange. But he wasn’t going to talk, so I didn’t push the issue.
“Sorry you got caught up in a mess like this on the night you finally came to see the village.”
The old guy had put up a good fight of his own a short distance from where we had been. But he deserved an apology more than my gratitude.
“No worries. By the way, kid, you mind if I hold on to this weapon and do some poking around?”
“Huh? Oh, sure. Those weapons had some strange abilities, so it’d be great if you could find anything out.”
They had been uncannily effective against us heroes. It’d be great if the old guy could study the weapon and figure out why. I couldn’t help but get my hopes up.
“Okay, Sadeena. Will you explain now?”
“I guess I should. We got interrupted when I tried to explain earlier. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to keep it a secret anymore either.”
Sadeena was back in her demi-human form now. She shrugged with resignation and began to explain.
“I was keeping this secret until now, little Raphtalia. But in a certain country, you are the equivalent of what would be royal family in Melromarc.”
“Huh?!”
Raphtalia pointed at herself with a look of surprise on her face.
“Is that right? And she’s one of Naofumi’s party members,” Ren mumbled.
“What a surprise. It’s a surprise, right? Rishia?” Itsuki asked.
“Yes, it is, Mr. Itsuki.”
Everyone around us started whispering among themselves.
“It’s nothing to be surprised about,” Atla said.
What did she mean? Had she sensed some kind of hint of nobility in Raphtalia or something?
“Raphtalia is an obstacle keeping me from having Mr. Naofumi all to myself. Nothing about that has changed.”
Several people shook their heads in disbelief. I did the same.
“You’re unshakeable,” I said.
Now that I thought about it, Fohl and Atla were related to Trash, and they had blood ties to the former leader of Siltvelt. They were basically royalty too.
“Back to what we were talking about. So what does a miko outfit have to do with any of that?” I asked.
Sadeena had a troubled look on her face. She was staring at Raphtalia, who was still wearing the miko outfit. After several moments, she ran her fingers through her hair and looked over at me.
“Well, those people we just fought mentioned the Heavenly Emperor, right? Think of him as the king.”
“Okay, got it.”
“Those clothes that you call a miko outfit, in the country Raphtalia’s parents were from—Q’ten Lo—that’s an outfit that only the Heavenly Empress is allowed to wear.”
Oh, so that was it. Ren, Itsuki, Rishia, Atla, Fohl, and pretty much everyone else there all seemed to finally start to understand.
“In other words, even from a lineage perspective, it’s only natural that the miko outfit would look so ridiculously good on her. And wearing it would signify that she’s the country’s ruler,” I said.
“That’s right.”
“And Raphtalia’s father didn’t want to become king, so he abandoned his royal status, eloped, and came to Melromarc,” I continued.
Sadeena kept nodding.
“So the way they see it, Raphtalia is a subordinate of the Shield Hero, also known as the god of the demi-humans and she’s off in some remote region wearing their royal garb. Clearly she intends to take the throne. That’s a declaration of war. She must be killed. Does that pretty much sum it up?”
“Little Naofumi, you sure are sharp. I’m impressed!”
“It’s blatantly obvious! And once the message gets back to the country, they’re going to just keep sending assassins after Raphtalia!” I barked.
Come on! Why did I always have to be inundated with such annoying problems?! Just when I’d finally managed to get Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu to implement the power-up methods! Well, Motoyasu was missing, but still . . . I wanted to hurry up and take care of the heroes’ curse effects and meet up with the seven star heroes, but then this happens! Give me a break already!
“I figured it wouldn’t be a problem as long as we didn’t provoke them. I never imagined you would have Raphtalia dress up in that outfit.”
Ugh . . . Why did things have to turn out like this? I’d just wanted to enjoy the sight of my cute little daughter dressed up all nice! Damn it!
“Sadeena, I noticed you staring at empty spots around the village every now and then before. That was because you could sense them hiding there, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was. They use their own unique concealment techniques that are difficult to detect, even for me.”
“How long had they been keeping watch?”
There was a slightly grim look in her eyes when she answered.
“Ever since little Raphtalia’s parents left the country.”
“Oh, really?”
In other words, that meant that the enemies we’d just fought had watched the village come under attack during the wave. They watched it get destroyed, and they watched Raphtalia’s parents die. The stood by and watched as Raphtalia almost died, and they watched her suffer as a slave. All that time, they stood by watching, silently, and never even tried to help.
Basically, they had absolutely no interest in anything other than their royal family issues. They didn’t care if Raphtalia was distressed over the loss of her parents. They didn’t care if she ended up a slave and got whipped. And they didn’t care about any of the countless hardships she’d been through thanks to me.
To hell with the Heavenly Emperor! They sure had a lot of nerve going on about their emperor when they were happy to just completely ignore his blood relatives. The fact that they had been keeping an eye on us this whole time just made me feel sick!
“Muhaha . . . muuuuhahahaha!”
I’d been pushed over the line.
“Mr. . . . Naofumi? Umm . . .”
“They have a lot of nerve. If they want to come invade my place and try to kill Raphtalia, then I’ll just have to make them pay. Sadeena, you told me I would need to be prepared to crush a country, right? Well, why not? I’ll do just that. I’m going to go to that country and I’m going to crush it with my own two hands!”
“Oh my!”
Why the hell was she looking at me like she was spellbound or something?
“You’re really going to?” asked Ren.
I nodded emphatically.
“I am. I absolutely hate trash like that. You understand that, right?”
“Yeah. I guess. If they’re going to fire at us, then we’ll fire right back. I can’t imagine anything good coming from ignoring the issue.”
“The only reason any of this happened is because you had Raphtalia wear that miko—hmrgm!”
I glared over at Itsuki and Raphtalia quickly covered his mouth with her hand. Hmph. I had a clear target for my anger for the time being, so I’d let that slide. In return, I expected him to get stronger so that he could help me make those bastards pay.
I looked over at Raphtalia. She was slouching and looked disappointed.
“You against this?” I asked her.
“No. I don’t think we have a choice if they’re just going to keep coming. It’s just . . . I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If this is the obstacle standing in the way of me being able to dress you in that miko outfit, then overcoming it is the only choice. If we can’t go around the obstacle, then we’ll just smash right through it at full speed!”
That’s right. If those bastards were going to attack the village I’d built, then fighting back was my only choice. This was a battle that couldn’t be avoided. I wasn’t going to sit around, scared, waiting for the enemy to come to us. I’d take the fight to them! No, fight wouldn’t do it justice. This was going to be all-out nuclear warfare!
“Now that that’s decided, let’s get straight to work. Sadeena, tell us the enemy’s location.”
“Sure thing!”
And so I made up my mind to invade Q’ten Lo, the isolationist country with ties to Raphtalia’s birth.
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