Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The Alchemist 

I walked into the weapon shop. Imiya’s uncle was standing behind the counter. 
“Oh hello, Shield Hero.” 
“Hey. How’s it going?” 
“The weapons are selling as fast as I can make them. I’m setting aside a portion of the profits for your equipment, of course.” 
Oh! I liked hearing that! With everything I had going on, it seemed like I was always broke lately. I still didn’t have enough financial leeway to be spending money on equipment. If Imiya’s uncle working meant a reduction in equipment costs, that was a good thing. 
“Thanks. Imiya and the rest of you handy bunch are a real help.” 
“Don’t mention it! We can’t thank you enough for giving us such fulfilling work.” 
Imiya’s uncle was a type of therianthrope called a lumo. They looked like moles. Imiya was the first lumo that I had bought from the slave trader. She was good with her hands, so I decided to buy more lumo slaves. When I did, it turned out that one of them was her uncle, so I just referred to him as Imiya’s uncle in my head. He had a name, but . . . what was it, again? These lumos all seemed to have really long names. 
I asked the old guy to take on an apprentice so that I would have someone to make equipment back at the village. So I brought Imiya’s uncle to the shop and introduced him to the old guy, and it turned out the two already knew each other. Imiya’s uncle had studied blacksmithing together with the old guy a long time ago, and the two of them had been close. 
“We’re still trying to work out the peculiarities of that mountain of materials. We spend all of our time arguing about that lately. It even turned into a bit of fisticuffs just last night.” 
“That’s something I didn’t expect to hear.” 
He had gotten into an argument with the old guy that ended up getting physical, and yet here he was, acting completely normal and tending to the shop. I got the feeling those two really trusted each other. 
“What’s going on?” 
The old guy came strolling out from the back of the shop. He was holding a hammer in one hand. It looked like he had been in the middle of working on it. 
 
“Oh? It’s you, kid! How have things been lately?” 
“Not bad. Been doing a bit of training lately, among other things. How about you? How is that equipment coming along?” 
“A few days isn’t really enough time to make much progress with that stuff. Is that all you’re here for today?” 
The old guy responded cheerfully, so I mulled over whether there was anything else I needed for a moment. Then I slowly looked over toward Raphtalia and Atla, who I’d brought along with me. 
“Well . . .” 
I didn’t really have any money to spend, but I figured that Imiya’s uncle working there was kind of like having a line of credit. In that case, there was something I’d been considering asking the old guy to do for me. 
“It’s about that Siderite Shield you showed me before.” 
“Hmm? What about it? Do you need it to get stronger or something?” 
“No, nothing like that. Shooting Star Shield is already a lifesaver as it is.” 
Honestly, I had been using Shooting Star Shield in battles pretty much nonstop since I learned it. It was a versatile skill that would remain useful for a long time to come. My battles had made that clear. Plus, it would probably be even more effective if I used an accessory on that shield. 
“I was wondering if the Siderite Shield had some kind of special meaning for you and that’s why you were keeping it tucked away like that.” 
“Hmm . . . I just didn’t want to sell it because the material is so rare, so I’ve been keeping it in storage. Why?” 
“Oh, really? In that case, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” 
“What is it? Spit it out already, kid.” 
I shifted my gaze toward Raphtalia and told the old guy what I had in mind. 
“Do you think you could melt the Siderite Shield down and make a katana? A Siderite Katana?” 
The old guy and Raphtalia both nodded simultaneously, as if my suggestion made total sense. 
“I’d been wondering about that for a while now. I’m guessing the little miss’s weapon is similar to your shield.” 
Ah, that’s right. I still hadn’t told the old guy about Raphtalia’s katana. It was a vassal weapon from another world, which made it something like a seven star weapon. Raphtalia pulled her katana out and showed it to the old guy. 
 
“It’s from the other world. They called it a vassal weapon, which is most likely equivalent to what we call the seven star weapons here in this world,” I explained. 
“I see. In other words, you’re thinking that if I rework the Siderite Shield into a katana, the little miss will be able to gain some kind of powerful skill.” 
“Exactly. Do you think you could do that?” 
“Mr. Naofumi is ordering a weapon for you. I’m jealous! I want a weapon too.” 
I ignored Atla. She could fight just fine with her bare hands. She didn’t need a weapon. 
“I suppose it’s possible,” said the old guy. 
“Will you do it for me?” 
“Sure. It’s really just a collector’s item that’s taking up space anyway. I’m happy to do it if it will help you and the little miss out, kid.” 
“Should I move it to the forge later?” asked Imiya’s uncle. 
The old guy nodded. 
“But a katana . . .” 
The old guy looked off into the distance. He seemed to be lost in thought. 
“What is it?” I asked. 
The old guy and Imiya’s uncle both seemed to be reminiscing now. 
“Shield Hero, katanas were our master’s specialty,” replied Imiya’s uncle. 
“Yeah, the master was a swordsmith by trade, although he was still skilled at making other weapons too,” added the old guy. 
“I see.” 
I remembered having heard something about blacksmiths specializing in certain kinds of weapons. In Europe a really long time ago, back in my world, all of those details were decided by permits and stuff. Of course, this was a different world and things seemed to work differently here. The old guy seemed to be able to handle just about anything, so I made all kinds of requests. But it might have just been that the old guy and Imiya’s uncle were unusually well-rounded. 
“In the end, the master certified me in everything. Even so, I honestly don’t think I’ve come anywhere close to surpassing the master’s skill yet.” 
 
“I see.” 
I remembered them mentioning recently that their master was a womanizing troublemaker. He was the kind of craftsman that had impressive skills in spite of having a problematic personality. And his specialty was katanas. 
“I already have all of the materials, so it shouldn’t take long. Come check back again in two or three days.” 
“Got it. As for payment . . .” 
“It’s not like you’re going to buy it off of me, right? It’ll be good practice for me too. You don’t need to pay me for the little miss to just hold it.” 
That’s what I loved about the old guy. His generosity really made things easy on me. 
“Thanks. I’ll give you plenty of business when I order equipment for all of the villagers one of these days.” 
“Righto!” 
That’s why I wanted to pay the old guy back in whatever way I could. 
“And don’t hesitate to let me know if you’re looking for some rare ore or something. Alright, later then.” 
“Goodbye,” added Raphtalia. 
“Until next time,” said Atla. 
“Righto. It seems like things are getting livelier for you, kid. Even I can’t help but get excited.” 
We parted with the old guy and made haste back to the village. 
“Master! Big sis! Welcome baaack!” 
Oh? Filo was back at the village. She came trotting up to me in her filolial form. 
“Oh hey, Shield Hero. Welcome back.” 
One of the slaves that took a special interest in the monsters welcomed me back. That was unusual. 
“Shield Hero, we have a really stubborn visitor that we don’t know how to deal with,” the slave said. 
“Huh?” 
Eclair and Ren showed up a few moments after the monster-enthusiast slave. Eclair seemed a bit perturbed. I wondered just what was going on. 
 
“Hold on, surely it can wait. She’s being watched,” said Eclair. 
“But she’s almost gotten away several times already!” snapped Ren. 
“What’s going on?” I asked. 
I looked at Ren. 
“I don’t really know. Someone is here to see you, Naofumi.” 
“Surely you can deal with the visitor, Ren.” 
“Well . . . yeah, you’d think so, but . . .” 
Ren was acting oddly too. 
“This one is a bit of an oddball. She says she wants to see you immediately, Mr. Iwatani,” said Eclair. 
I sighed. 
“Who the hell is she?” 
“She’s some alchemist that supposedly caused all kinds of problems in Faubrey,” answered Eclair. 
Say what? Faubrey was the superpower that worshipped the four holy heroes. Why would an alchemist from Faubrey be here? 
“I received word from the queen several days ago. It appears as if the alchemist was deemed a heretic and thrown out of Faubrey. And then she showed up in Melromarc,” Eclair explained. 
Just what kind of alchemist was this? 
“If she’s that suspicious, then throw her the hell out, no questions asked!” 
“Well, the queen said something about poison becoming medicine in the right hands. So I figured we should ask you first, Naofumi,” said Ren. 
Hmm, he did have a point, I guess. 
“When she saw the monsters that you’ve been keeping, she started talking about wanting to inspect them and—” 
“Oh . . . So this is the infamous bird god!” 
An unfamiliar woman appeared from out of nowhere and started poking and prodding Filo. 
“Wh-wh-whaaat?!” 
“Whoa!” 
“When did she get here?! I didn’t even notice!” cried Raphtalia. 
“Impressive speed! Her approach rivals even that of my brother when he’s gone mad,” Atla commentated. 
“M . . . Maaasteeerrr!” 
Filo screamed out. Her response reminded me of when Motoyasu had grabbed her. 
 
“Oh, it seems to understand human language too. This must be the filolial queen variant that the legends speak of!” 
The woman had long, silvery blonde hair and dark brown skin. She appeared to be human. Probably in her mid-twenties. She had curves in all of the right places and she was wearing a lab coat. She seemed to fit the “hot older sister” role that was common back in my world. But any big sister role just made me think of Sadeena. 
“These feathers go really deep. I wonder if it has any unusual organs.” 
The alchemist (?) forcefully pried Filo’s mouth open and grabbed her tongue. Filo tried to struggle but was easily subdued. The alchemist seemed to be able to hold her down as effortlessly as if she were taking candy from a baby. 
“Mmmrrghhhh!” 
The alchemist stuck her head deep into Filo’s mouth, but Filo flapped her wings violently and spit the alchemist’s head out. 
“How am I supposed to inspect you if you struggle like that? Settle down.” 
Just before Filo could toss her away, the alchemist (?) pulled out a syringe and thrust it at Filo. Unable to dodge in time, the needle stabbed Filo right in the mouth. 
“Wha . . .” 
Filo flumped down onto the ground with a thud. 
“I . . . feel so weak . . .” 
“Umm, lady . . .” I said. 
“Wait just a moment. I’m right in the middle of inspecting this monster.” 
“Well, that monster is mine, and I can’t have you just doing whatever you want with her.” 
“Oh?” 
When she heard what I said, the alchemist (?) seemed to lose interest in Filo momentarily. 
“Does that mean you’re the Shield Hero?” 
“Umm, yeah . . . and who are you?” 
“Me? I’m Ratotille Anthreya. My friends call me Rat.” 
“Umm, I see. I’m Naofumi Iwatani. Just call me Naofumi.” 
“Nice to meet you, Naofumi.” 
 
 
Rat’s eyes were fixed on Filo, who was still slumped down on the ground. 
“So do you mind if I inspect this monster of yours?” 
“M . . . Master! Nooo!” 
Hmm . . . I had a feeling that the mystery that was Filo would be unraveled if I agreed, but I also couldn’t help but feel like there would be significant consequences for Filo. 
I sighed. 
“I’m going to have to refuse for now.” 
“Aww, that’s too bad.” 
Filo must have started to recover, because she stood up slowly. 
“Oh my, it looks like I’d need to use a stronger sedative to inspect her, anyway.” 
“Nooo! Save me! Mel-chaaaan!” 
Filo ran away and disappeared into the distance. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be coming back for a while. 
“So I guess you’re the person who wanted to see me. What do you want?” 
“That’s right. I took the liberty of checking out the monsters in this village and a certain plant.” 
“Okay . . . ?” 
“And I’m intrigued. I’d love to tinker around with things a bit, if you don’t mind.” 
“You say tinker . . .” 
What in the world did this lady plan on doing? It seemed like she already knew about the bioplant, so she must have done her homework before showing up. 
“You’re the alchemist that stirred up some trouble in Faubrey, right?” 
“Trouble? That wasn’t trouble. Those idiots don’t want to admit their own ignorance. They simply couldn’t understand my research.” 
She was clearly one of those mad-scientist types. 
“Those idiots referred to my research as ‘godless deeds,’ of all things. And then they exiled me. Their ‘gods’ are the four holy heroes and the seven star heroes, right?” 
“So what? You want one of those four holy heroes to acknowledge your work and that’s why you came here?” 
 
I glanced over at Ren, but he shook his head. 
“That’s not it,” replied Rat. 
“Then why did you come here?” 
“I originally came to investigate the Spirit Tortoise. But my interests have already begun to shift.” 
Rat reached out to grab my hand with a look of passion in her eyes. I pulled my hand away. 
“Don’t touch me. I can’t stand women like you.” 
“Oh? Then I won’t touch you, but I’d still like to tinker with your monsters.” 

My monsters, huh? I didn’t think I really had that many yet. 
“Every one of them exhibits development like I’ve never seen before. I’d love to observe them.” 
I couldn’t deny that all of my monsters had begun to exhibit abnormal development. They were around level 25 on average, but I’d been told they were all bigger than usual. 
I looked over at the three caterpillands, which were caterpillar-like monsters. They were helping the slaves clear away stalks of the overgrown bioplant. Wait . . . three? I had only purchased two caterpillands. One . . . two . . . three . . . I counted them several times, and there was definitely one too many! What the hell?! There were only two this morning! 
“Who the hell got a new caterpilland without asking?!” 
“Uh oh!” 
The slave that had just been standing near us tried to hide one of the caterpillands in a hurry. 
“It’s too late!” I shouted. 
The slave must have been one of the culprits. And the caterpilland she hid was the biggest one too. Since I hadn’t seen it this morning, it was safe to assume they had been hiding it somewhere and raising it in secret. We had expanded the bioplant field. It was starting to look like a forest. Maybe that’s where they had been hiding it. On top of that, I could check its stats, which meant that it was registered to me! 
The monster-enthusiast slave was using her whole body to try to hide the caterpilland, but it wasn’t enough. And behind them was the bioplant. Something about the scene felt vaguely familiar. The fact that I was seeing it in a sepia tone was just my imagination, I’m sure. 
“I feel like I’ve seen this before . . . in an old anime . . .” said Ren. 
 
I guess they had something similar in his world too. But whatever. That was beside the point. 
“There’s no new caterpilland! There’s no new caterpilland here!” 
“It’s huge! I can still see it!” 
Was she seriously going to try to pretend it wasn’t there? What valley did this princess come from?! The caterpilland behind her was huge and looked just like one of those bugs! 
“I want you all to think about what you’ve done!” 
The slaves cast their eyes downward. And then Atla stepped forward, for whatever reason. 
“It’s time for your punishment. Each one of you will be severely punished, by order of Mr. Naofumi. We’ll start with—” 
“Umm . . . Atla, you stay out of this. I want them to tell me what’s going on.” 
What had Atla been planning on doing to them? I could easily imagine her choosing a punishment far worse than anything I would have done. 
“Alright, I want to know how this happened.” 
“Listen, it’s not like anyone wanted to upset you, bubba.” 
Keel stepped forward and spoke in defense of the monster enthusiast. 
“And how the hell did you manage to get it registered to me, anyway?!” 
“The man that sells slaves secretly did it for us.” 
“That damned slave trader!” 
When the hell did he do that?! 
“Why is the slave trader dealing with my slaves?!” 
“It was the first egg we all found together!” 
“Huh?” 
The slaves explained. They had taken an egg from a monster nest that they had found when they went out to level. Bringing it back to the village had been easy enough, but they had no idea how they would manage to raise it. 
“Did Raphtalia know about this?” I asked. 
“I did not!” 
“If we’d told Raphtalia, she would have told you, right?” said Keel. 
“Of course I would have! What were you thinking, Keel?!” Raphtalia snapped. 
Keel continued her explanation. Even the slaves recognized that hatching a monster egg without registering someone as the monster’s owner would be dangerous. They were trying to figure out what to do when the slave trader showed up. 
 
I had been giving them some spending money when they went out to peddle our wares. They all put together what they had left of that money and paid the slave trader to take care of the registration. Rather than registering it to one of them, the slave trader mentioned that registering it to me would make it stronger and more impressive, and the rest was history. 
Hmm . . . I had intentionally adjusted the caterpillands’ levels to keep them from getting too big, and yet this one was still huge. It was fifty percent bigger than the other caterpillands. I wasn’t sure what I should do. 
“Don’t kill it!” 
“Shut up, valley girl!” 
“What in the world is ‘valley’ supposed to mean, bubba?” asked Keel. 
“I’m guessing there’s a character from a story in Naofumi’s world that did something similar,” said Ren. 
He had seriously gone and just calmly explained my wisecrack. Oh well. I didn’t want to explain it, anyway, so whatever. But damn it, these brats just did whatever they wanted. The slave that kept spouting off valley princess lines was doing her best to stand up for the caterpilland. 
“Listen, if you just do whatever you want, you’re not only making trouble for others, you’re making trouble for me too! If you wanted to raise the monster so badly, you should have talked to me!” 
I already had my own transactions with the slave trader, so if they did things on their own it would most likely just double the effort involved. 
“And you better look after that thing properly. If I see you pushing the responsibility off on others, I’ll sell it off without a second thought.” 
“I . . . I will!” 
Sheesh . . . These brats just caused one problem after another. 
“It’s like you’re running a daycare, Naofumi,” Ren said. 
“What the hell?!” 
That bastard! What was he thinking saying that?! A daycare?! He couldn’t have been more wrong! I glared at Ren and was about to give him a piece of my mind, but Keel started shouting. 
“See, I told you! I told you bubba would forgive you!” 
“But you said Bubba Shield would sell it if he found out, Keel. You told me I had to keep it a secret. Because he’d sell it without hesitation, since he’s a money-grubber.” 
 
“I said penny-pincher, not money-grubber!” 
“You guys . . .” 
What a bunch of . . . Wait, did that brat not say it was the first egg they found? 
“Was this the only egg?” I asked. 
“Nope.” 
“What?!” 
The slaves were shaking their heads. They must have been really good at finding monster nests, because they started pulling out tons of eggs that they’d hidden away at their residences. 
“The slave trader is going to process them for us once we save up enough money.” 
“That’s a lot of eggs! What were you planning to do after hatching all of those without even asking?!” 
That would have been a complete disaster. Then again, I guess it would have been easy enough to dispose of a bunch of baby monsters. 
“We didn’t plan that far . . .” 
I’d never really thought about there being monster eggs in the wild. We could always use the extras to make food. I had a feeling they’d get mad at me if I said that though. 
“Are those all caterpillands?” 
“Who knows? We got them from lots of different places, so I have no idea.” 
Rat plopped her hand down on my shoulder. 
“What is it? I’m busy right now. We’ll talk later,” I told her. 
“I’ll analyze and take care of the eggs for free if you’ll let me do my research here.” 
Hmm . . . I was all about cost-benefit analysis, so “free” always got my attention. Then again, they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch too. I couldn’t make up my mind. 
“We decline!” 
The monster-enthusiast slave, a.k.a. valley girl, refused before I could even respond. The little brat seemed to become unusually aggressive whenever it came to anything dealing with the monsters. 
“Hold on now. Let me think about this,” I said. 
Keeping Rat around might not be a bad idea. She was an expert on monsters, after all. There were plenty of ways I could make use of her. I might have been expecting too much, but they did call her an alchemist. Maybe she could take over modifying the bioplant and monsters for me. That said, something about the timing of it all seemed just too perfect. 
 
“Is this some kind of conspiracy? Some kind of performance to get me to agree?” 
“It’s not!” shouted Keel. 
“Naofumi, I agree that it all seems a little bit too convenient, but I don’t think that’s the case,” said Ren. 
Hmm . . . So it wasn’t just me that thought it seemed convenient. But just saying so wasn’t going to accomplish anything. In that case, I’d try a different approach. 
“Rat, what is it that you hope to achieve? Depending on your answer, I might consider letting you stay.” 
“Achieve? I want to create a powerful monster.” 
“Oh?” 
So she wanted to create a powerful monster. That was really simple and straightforward. I knew of games that had monster fusion and mixing systems, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand where she was coming from. But I guess if someone was actually trying to do something like that with real, living creatures, it was only natural that it would repulse some, just like it had in Faubrey. 
“In order to do that, I need to analyze monsters and combine various alchemical techniques with magic. But those fools called my research evil and said it was beyond the forgiveness of the gods. They destroyed my lab and killed my research subjects. It was a real mess.” 
“Umm . . . So in other words, you’re basically a monster tamer that was researching how to make monsters stronger using alchemy.” 
“That’s more or less accurate.” 
Heh. I’d said that assuming that she would argue, but I guess she was fine with being considered a monster tamer. I’d figured she was just loony, but she seemed to be able to look at things objectively too. Add a sense of purpose to the mix and the result is recklessness. 
“Let’s look at this from a basic common-sense perspective. Eclair, I want to know what you think.” 
“Huh? What I think?” 
Eclair’s wary expression turned to one of confusion as she responded. 
“Do you think the research she’s doing crosses any lines?” 
 
“I don’t really know enough to say one way or the other, personally. However, having seen Filo in action, I do believe that monsters should be considered part of our offensive capabilities.” 
It was an honest reply. But it didn’t answer the question. There was a high likelihood that the research wouldn’t be openly accepted. But I still wasn’t sure what to do. 
“Rat, would your research include something like making Spirit Tortoise clones and using them to fight?” 
“That does seem like something I would come up with. Shield Hero. What was your title of nobility again?” 
“Mr. Iwatani is a Count,” replied Eclair. 
“Well then, Count. It’s an interesting idea. Is that something you’re considering doing?” 
“Let me continue. I’m guessing you heard rumors about us having gone to another world, right?” 
“I did. I heard that you went chasing after the enemy and then returned after successfully defeating him.” 
“In that other world, there was an alchemist that had created clones of a certain beast that was at least as powerful as the Spirit Tortoise.” 
If someone was trying to do the same kind of thing here in this world, I couldn’t trust them. I was putting the idea out there to see how she responded. If she went for it, she was out. 
“Well, that’s boring. I’m not interested in research that someone else has already done.” 
Rat ran her hands through her hair. Her reply sounded like she was being completely honest. 
“It was an intriguing idea at first. But if it’s already been done, it’s nothing more than reference material.” 
Hmm . . . I thought she might just be a whacko, but she seemed to have her own personal philosophy. She wasn’t interested in mimicking others. 
“I don’t really get it. Are we talking about monster taming, like in games?” 
Ren tried to put it into game terms as he asked me and Rat. 
“To be more specific, one of my objectives is filolials.” 
Normal filolials weren’t really all that strong. She was probably referring to Fitoria or something. Fitoria was ridiculously strong, after all. She’s the one that had held the Spirit Tortoise back when things got tough. 
 
She had been considered a legend before that, but her involvement in the fight had proven her existence to the world. 
“This is only what I’ve managed to figure out on my own, but there’s a theory that the heroes created the legendary filolial. The same bird god that is supposed to be as powerful as the infamous dragon emperor. I want to create a monster like that. One that will be remembered for generations to come. One that will fight for the people.” 
That made sense. She wanted to create a legendary monster herself, in other words. 
“We use filolials as transportation, so they can be found living in most regions. I want to create a monster that will benefit the people.” 
“I can understand where you’re coming from,” I said. 
I’d played my share of monster tamer games. I’d actually been wondering lately if there were some way I could upgrade Raph-chan to make her even more powerful. Raphtalia didn’t know that, of course. But if I gave Rat some freedom to do her thing and it turned out I could trust her, it might be worth asking for her help. 
“I can’t stand liars. I’ll agree if you’re willing to become my slave so that I can ensure you can’t lie. Are you still interested?” 
“Slave? That’s typical of you, Naofumi,” said Ren. 
“It is indeed,” added Eclair. 
“Sure. If that’s all it takes, I’m happy to have you take away my dignity,” Rat replied. 
She’d breezily accepted my offer without batting an eye. But I didn’t like the way she said it. Regardless, I felt like I could trust her to some extent. As long as she was a slave, it would be easy to punish her if she lied. 
“Hmm . . .” 
So basically, if I brought her into the village, that meant she would be able to help power up all of the monsters. Having her on the team might not be a bad thing. If I had a slave curse put on her, I could always just force her to do my bidding if she started causing problems later. 
There were also plenty of things she could help with in addition to taking care of the eggs that Keel and the others had brought back. That could work out nicely. Rat could make progress with her research, and our offensive capabilities would be bolstered to better handle the coming waves. 
“I work my monsters hard. Does that bother you? I work them like slaves, literally. I’ll do the same with you too.” 
 
“Human or demi-human, slaves are slaves. Treating them specially because you feel sorry for them is just another form of discrimination.” 
Oh? Special treatment is discrimination, huh? She had some interesting ideas. That reminded me. Back in my world, I remembered hearing about women outside of Japan demanding equality and not wanting to be treated specially. In the bigger cities in Japan, they had cars on the trains reserved for women. People that wanted true equality disliked those. What Rat was saying was similar to that, I guess. 
“I can’t stand the idea of protecting certain living creatures while just ignoring the rest.” 
“Oh?” 
“I refuse to believe the theory that monsters are a result of the waves. Monsters can fight against the waves just like the heroes, after all!” 
Valley girl glared at Rat angrily. She obviously realized that they were different regardless of both having a thing for monsters. 
“I think I understand what you want to do. You believe the monsters can make a big contribution to our fight against the waves.” 
“I do!” 
“Then how about this . . .” 
I showed Rat one of the bioplant seeds. 
“This is a plant. It can be turned into something like a monster, depending on how it’s modified. But altering it could also make it produce beneficial medicinal herbs. What do you think about that?” 
“Something like that would be a piece of cake for me!” 
Hmm . . . Her line of thinking seemed to match up pretty closely with what I wanted to do. 
“Mr. Naofumi, are you really thinking of taking her in?” 
Raphtalia was clearly skeptical. I couldn’t argue that Rat seemed suspicious. But that suspiciousness and her willingness to use whatever means necessary to gain my trust had earned her points in my book. 
“We’ll start with a temporary trial period and see how it goes. That should be fine.” 
We needed more specialists in the village. S’yne had been a similar case. It wouldn’t be fair to have accepted S’yne, but not give Rat a chance. 
I shook Rat’s hand. 
“I’m looking forward to working with you,” Rat said. 
Eclair suddenly spoke up. 
 
“Pardon me, but if that settles the matter, there’s something else I’d like you to look at,” she told me. 
“What now? There’s something else? Was this not what you wanted me to deal with?” 
“Oh! That’s right, Bubba Shield! We have another problem!” 
Valley girl jumped in and started trying to tell me something. Why was she still here? 
“We found something while you were out, Naofumi,” added Ren. 
Was there no end to it? I left the slaves behind and followed Eclair out of the village. Rat seemed curious and tagged along. Valley girl followed us too, without asking, of course.