Prologue: A Problem with Bandits
“You rabble! Fall in!”
“We’ll try!”
My name is Naofumi Iwatani. Originally from Japan, I was summoned here to this world to be the Shield Hero. As you might expect, that’s all a pretty long story, and right then I really didn’t have the time to reflect on all the details.
I’d just finished breakfast with the group from the village that was under my control and was about to lay my orders on them. We’d finally finished the cleanup from a series of events that had seemed to both take forever and be over in the blink of an eye. And so here we were.
The disturbance in Q’ten Lo coming to an end was all well and good, but that had then led to a smaller disturbance in Siltvelt involving the pain-in¬the-ass process of me having to display my authority as the Shield Hero. By which I mean it had taken longer than expected to get back to the village.
It had been tough, sure, but as a result, various problems were also actually on the road to improvement.
“Everyone take your regular posts and complete your duties as normal! That’s all!” I used my best commanding voice.
“Roger that!” The replies were full of energy. The residents of my village certainly had a lot of that. Too much, perhaps.
“Mr. Naofumi, what’s the policy for today?” This question was from Raphtalia, a girl who I treated much like my daughter. She was the official representative of the village, as well as the Heavenly Emperor—that is, queen —of Q’ten Lo, the nation we’d just been off invading. Going from being a slave to the ruler of her own nation? Talk about bettering yourself!
Not to mention, she was the holder of a very special weapon—a katana from another world—known as a “vassal weapon.”
Damn, I mean, taking in her entire history, she might even come out looking better than me.
Today, she was also wearing the miko outfit that served as the symbol of our invasion of Q’ten Lo, and it really was super soothing on the eyes.
“Yeah, about that. There was all that hassle in Siltvelt too, right? So I’m thinking of sorting through all the spoils from Q’ten Lo and Siltvelt,” I informed her.
“So we should just train on our own?” Raphtalia asked. That sounded like a pretty good idea, but I couldn’t help feeling I was forgetting something . . . In that moment, Ren, Itsuki, and Rishia, having finished their meal, came over.
“Naofumi!” Ren, the one calling my name, was the Sword Hero, summoned from a different Japan than the one I came from. His full name was Ren Amaki. The other guy with him, Itsuki, was the Bow Hero, and just like Ren and me, he too had been summoned here from a different Japan. His full name was Itsuki Kawasumi. Rishia was a heroine-level, emotional rollercoaster of a girl who always followed Itsuki around.
Ren continued, “Eclair said that she and Queen Melty have something they want to discuss with you, Naofumi.”
“What?” I didn’t have time for that.
“Sounds like there’s been some trouble with bandits recently,” Ren explained.
“Is that true?” First I was hearing of it.
“Yeah. While you were off invading Q’ten Lo, we carried out the trading that you ordered, Naofumi, so quite a lot of new information has come into the village,” Ren explained.
“That reminds me,” Keel reported, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “We met with quite a few bandit attacks while we were off trading.”
“Why haven’t these reports been reaching me?” I inquired.
“They’ve been fought off so far, so they haven’t really been a problem. And you’ve been busy yourself, Naofumi. Right?” Ren offered.
“Hmmm.” I guess that made sense.
“These attacks are starting to stand out though, so we’re wondering if you have any good ideas,” Ren continued.
It was true that our trading had really been taking off recently. Spirit Tortoise materials had become pretty trendy, and with me managing the trading of them, the economy of Melromarc was really starting to improve quite nicely. Seeing as I’d been away, everyone had likely been getting sloppy with making reports. These attackers had only just come to the village too.
This reminded me of the accessory merchant in Zeltoble. Always an excitable fellow, he had eagerly explained how, with the appearance of the Spirit Tortoise, people were now much more sensitive to the threat of the waves and much more keen to spend their money on protecting themselves. He’d sworn that getting in now was the route to quick money.
Perhaps it was only natural, then, that the success of merchants such as him would also give rise to bandits preying on them. Currently the Four Holy Pillars—the Adventurers’ Guild, Trade Union, Band of Knights, and the Church—supported each other and maintained the economy. Meanwhile, thugs and killers were banding together to attack merchants and villages for their own profit. Handling such violence was surely beyond the means of those operating the trade in slaves and accessories. They had power, perhaps, but at their core they were nothing more than black-hearted merchants, dynamically opposed to those who relied only on violence and would never listen to reason.
They likely had some plans in place, but still I’d have to act.
What this meant overall, anyway, was that the chain of events since the appearance of the Spirit Tortoise had led to a fall in the general public safety of Melromarc.
“We’ll have to go big on this one. Wipe them all out,” I concluded.
“But how?” Ren asked.
“I do have one idea,” I said, and it brought a grin to my face.
That very same day, I visited the place I’d been thinking of—a farm set up for the rehabilitation of criminals. I took Ren, Raphtalia, and anyone else with me who looked like they might be useful in a negotiation.
“Now do you see? I’ve got a very special, very large job just for you,” I explained.
“N-no thanks! I’ve made up my mind. Once my dues have been paid, I’ll go back home and stick to the straight and narrow!” This from a bandit who, after numerous encounters with me, was now being managed here by Ren. I was trying to convince him to take pride of place as a key player in my plan. However, perhaps truly regretting his deeds from the past, the man continued to reject my offer.
“You actually don’t have the right to say no,” I pointed out.
“Whatever you may say, I’m working hard, right now, to make a go of a normal life! Please don’t mess things up for me!” The man was indeed making an effort. I couldn’t deny his desire to turn over a new leaf.
That said, I didn’t give up on trying to win him over.
“I won’t. Don’t worry. But at least listen to what I have to say. I’m not asking you to do anything crazy for me—nothing too insane. There’s plenty in this for you too.” Honestly, I had quite a lot of respect for this guy. He’d taken his licks, plenty of them, and still stuck it out as a robber.
He was unlucky for sure, but he was also lucky enough to have gotten away with his life.
“First,” I continued my pitch, “I’m going to let you class up, level up, and everything.” The punishment this guy had received from the state was a level reset and to work in developing the land. That meant he was currently level 1. With no means to fight he was just like a slave anyway, simply working off his sins.
Of course, seeing as he actually was a slave, if he ran his slave seal would activate and kill him. So he also had to live with that hanging over him.
All of this stuff certainly made keeping criminals in line easier than in my world.
“Next, and I don’t even know where you come from, but I’ll send some money to your family. Help them out a bit. You are being hired by the state, after all. Give your folks back home something to brag about, for once.”
“Gah!” That seemed to have worked, at least a little. He was paying more attention to me now. A thief with no abilities or connections had a chance to receive support from the state. Of course he was giving it some thought.
“This will be a good deed if it goes well.” I went for the kill. “I promise a significant reduction in your sentence.”
“Naofumi, you look positively maniacal,” Ren observed.
“Shut up. This is called plea bargaining!” I shot back.
“I don’t think that’s quite right,” Ren corrected me.
“Then what? A decoy investigation?” I retorted.
“He’s a decoy?” Ren still didn’t sound convinced, giving me a suspicious glance.
“I appreciate the offer, but still—” This bandit wasn’t having any of it.
“Come, come, don’t rush to a decision. You must be hungry. Here, let me feed you.” The dish I produced was, of course, a cutlet rice bowl famous in Japan for its use in interrogations. My recollection might have been fuzzy on that. Anyway, the exact ingredients couldn’t be obtained in this world, so I’d cobbled it together from stuff that looked the part.
The robber said nothing, but his stomach growled for him. Looking at the food—my trump card—he gave a swallow.
He’d been stealing things for a living, after all. He’d likely never really eaten nice food.
“It’s not poisoned,” I assured him. “Go ahead. I’ll have one of my slaves eat a little first, if you want.” I’d brought Keel along for just this reason, and I placed some of the almost-cutlet-and-rice onto a small dish and had her eat it.
“Bubba Shield! This is delicious! Give me more!” she yapped.
“Just wait,” I replied. “If he doesn’t give me the nod, you can have it all.”
“You’d better not nod, nasty, bad person!” Keel quickly quipped.
“Keel!” Raphtalia admonished. Yeah, I guess taunting the guy to get him to reject my offer just because Keel wanted to eat more herself was worthy of reprimand.
“You’ve twisted my arm then! I’ll eat! I’m eating!” Phew. With that, the robber started to eat the cutlet rice bowl I’d prepared for him.
“W-what is this?” He reacted at once. “It’s delicious! I can’t stop! Like mom used to make, but so much better—” Keel, the little puppy, looked on with jealous eyes as the robber, actual tears streaming from his eyes, greedily stuffed the food into his mouth.
Ren was looking at me with a really odd expression on his face. Like I cared.
“Of course, it doesn’t have to be you. I’m sure there are some other faces here I recognize.” I put the pressure on as the robber finished off the meal. Now that his stomach was full, he’d probably be more inclined to listen to what I had to say. Now I just had to close the deal.
This kind of negotiation was fun. It looked like a good way to burn off some of my recent stress.
“If you do the job that I’m asking you,” I continued, “I can see my way to making you more food.” I held all the power in this particular negotiation, anyway. As I’d already alluded to, if this guy wouldn’t give me the nod, I could easily find someone else who would.
“Whatever you promise, I just can’t sell out my comrades—”
“Filo.” I called in my big gun. This particular robber had a specific trauma in his past of having been beaten black and blue by the so-called “bird god.”
Of course, she wasn’t actually here. Filo was currently with Melty, who had been posted over in the neighboring town.
“Okay, okay! You’ll set me free if I can pull this off, right?” Man, he caved quickly! Was he really that scared of Filo?
“Of course.” I was magnanimous in victory. “I think I can agree to that.” Of course, his freedom was contingent on him even wanting to leave this job behind once he got started.
“Naofumi.” Ren’s mouth hung open, as though he had something he wanted to say.
“What?” I didn’t have time for it. “If we fight all these bandits one group at a time, there’s only so much we can achieve, right? We need to rip them up from the roots.”
“I’m sorry, but . . .” Raphtalia, silent until now, finally spoke up. “You’re really going to make someone try to atone for his past by going back and doing more bad things?”
“I’m not sure I’d call them ‘bad,’ you know.” I smirked.
My plan was to use this individual to investigate the real reason why bandits were on the rise in this nation while at the same time improving public safety. If the heroes were going to increase the light, it stood to reason that they should also manage any darkness created by that light. How many people were there in this entire world? Who would guess that one of those heroes was pulling the strings on one of those bandits?
Even if some did, I had nothing to fear, with almost all of the four holy heroes now among my forces. Reflecting on it for a moment now, I realized that my standing had really changed dramatically.
“You can start by gathering those comrades you spoke of.” I started to outline the plan. “Then go on to expand your forces. Of course, I don’t want you attacking any of my merchants.”
“How are we meant to make a living if we don’t attack merchants? What do you think bandits do?!” There was desperation in his voice.
“Did I say don’t attack anyone? Actually, there’s quite a few merchants I’d love for you to attack.” I gave a wicked grin. There were numerous villainous merchants at work who didn’t belong to the Trade Union and happily ignored territories and regulations. Picking apart the causes of this bandit problem, I had been told on the way here that merchants like these were actually in league with the bandits. And behind both groups were a bunch of moderate anti-shield nobles. Thinking about it, I did recall a bunch of puffed-up peacocks giving me the eye.
“Harvest those evil merchants who ignore the rules,” I commanded. “Do that and I’ll provide you with financial support.”
I should mention that, before coming here, I went to Zeltoble via portal and completed negotiations with the accessory dealer. He’d been very excited and said that he’d definitely name me as his successor.
I really didn’t understand what made this guy tick.
“I can’t tell the difference!” he said, sounding desperate.
“I’ve got you covered,” I assured him. “I’ll keep you fully apprised of the routes taken by my own merchants and the others who you aren’t meant to attack. You select any other wagon to strike, and just take the cargo from evil merchants.”
And so bandits of justice were born—only stealing from evil men. Of course, in this equation “evil men” were determined by the Shield Hero.
This plan should maintain the peace for at least a little while.
“And then? What do we do with the stuff we steal?” my new bandit leader asked.
“Good question,” I pondered and stroked my chin. “You could bring it to me, but then again it would be a hassle if it gets traced back to me. Use half to pay your underlings and give the other half to poor people and villages. Then the world at large won’t see you as evil. As for the nation . . . well, just look at me.”
“Is this really something a hero should be doing?” he questioned. This from a bandit! There was always someone pulling the strings behind every large organization. That was just the way of the world. I’d join forces with the queen if I could and wipe out the trash trying to hide from me too.
“I’ll have the heroes patrol, making it look like we’re clearing the bandits out. You can emerge as a cunning boss with a good nose for a target. If any of your men oppose you or start causing trouble, have them attack one of my merchants. We’ll take them out for you, without it looking too suspicious,” I added.
“Your conditions aren’t bad. It’s not like I can turn you down either. Very well,” he replied.
“Then we have an agreement.” I grinned.
And that was how I successfully became a patron to a bunch of bandits.
“You’re black-hearted, truly,” Ren offered. “I don’t know what Itsuki will say about this once he returns to normal.”
“That’s why I left him in the village, so he wouldn’t see it,” I said smugly. “Seeing as you’re working with Eclair to keep the peace, Ren, you needed to see this stuff.”
“Very well,” he grumbled. “It isn’t easy making money, is it?”
“I’m not sure that’s the takeaway from all of this,” Raphtalia said, obviously not happy with this turn of events, the result of which was that a major new organization, the “Chivalrous Bandit Guild,” if you like, had now appeared in Melromarc.
If we could control the bandits at the state level, it would be best for everyone. It just meant another layer had been added to those shadows we couldn’t discuss with the common folk.
When our negotiations with the bandits finished, we returned to the village via portal.
Soon I would need to go and report to the queen of Melromarc. With everything that had been going on, I hadn’t visited her at all recently. As I considered these things, I looked over a ledger containing the profits and other details from the trade during our invasion of Q’ten Lo.
“Wow,” I exclaimed. Keel’s sales were incredible. The monster that pulled Keel’s wagon for trading—a large caterpilland—was looking over at me. Ah, whatever. I decided to offer Keel some praise.
“While we were away from the village, it seems you’ve been working very hard, Keel. Well done.”
“Bubba?” she asked.
“Mr. Naofumi has suddenly started to praise you. Be careful,” Raphtalia warned.
“I will,” Keel agreed. All it took was one compliment from me and Raphtalia immediately thought I was planning something.
You reap what you sow, I guess. I’m one dark individual most of the time.
“She’s been working hard, so I was just offering some praise. I’m even thinking of giving a reward,” I explained.
“Cook me a meal then, Bubba! Something even more delicious than the food back there!” Food was the reward she wanted from me? That was always what Filo went for too.
“Very well,” I agreed. “I’ll make you a delicious dessert, maybe.” I thought of a dessert because we’d achieved the production of honey using a mutant species from a bioplant I’d been researching with Rat. I could experiment a bit while cooking something up.
If that failed, I’d use some of the luxury sweeteners that Siltvelt had offered up. I’d given them a lick and found them to be a little unique, but definitely sweet.
I headed to the kitchen, and Keel came in to watch excitedly. Once I started cooking, everyone in the village got like this.
“That does smell good. It looks delicious,” Raphtalia offered.
“Bubba! What’cha making?” Keel asked excitedly.
“Just shut up and watch,” I barked. “Ah, I have to adjust the heat . . . I need it as low as possible.” I heated the hotplate and then created the batter by mixing wheat obtained through trade with monster milk from a ranch in the neighboring town managed by Melty. I’d also separated the fat from the milk to form cream and whipped it up. I added the honey to that to make it sweeter. Oh, and I needed some fruit too.
As I continued cooking, my slaves and even monsters started to gather, lured in by the smell.
Was there going to be enough?
“Right.” I spread the batter as thinly as I could across the hotplate, flipping it quickly to cook both sides. I placed the finished articles on a separate table, arranged them with fruit, topped them with cream, and then wrapped them up.
“All done,” I proclaimed.
“Right. I thought you were making crepes,” Ren muttered upon seeing the finished food.
“Yeah. I had a part-time job in a food court, so I know how to make them,” I explained.
“Part-time job, huh? There’s a concept that takes me back,” Ren mused.
“Have you ever had one?” I asked. He had been hooked on Internet games, after all, which meant that he’d probably needed all the money he could get his hands on for in-game purchases. Those kinds of games could cost money to play. That or you could make better progress if you paid. If things got serious, those weren’t the kind of charges you could cover with an allowance. You’d need to at least get a part-time job to raise funds.
“Nope,” was his flat reply. “Although I wanted one.” Ren was a high-schooler, after all. His school, or maybe his parents, probably didn’t let him work. My younger brother was already attending a school that didn’t allow the students to work.
Me? I’d been working my butt off since I was in high school, desperate for cash. I think you can guess why.
With that, I gave my first experiment to Ren. This was a popular dessert
in Japan, so Ren was probably best positioned to evaluate it for me.
“Delicious. A little different from what I’m used to, but not enough to bother me,” was Ren’s verdict.
“Ah, ah! Are they really good?” Keel’s eyes sparkled as she looked on.
“Here, this is a thing from my world called a crepe,” I said and gave the next one to Keel.
“A crepe? I’ve never heard of this. A food from your world, Bubba?” she asked and sniffed at it, eyes wide. At the moment she was in human form. She’d been in dog form a lot recently. According to her, although it consumed magic while she was transformed, it heightened her senses and made her lighter on her feet (paws?), which was convenient for all sorts of things in daily life.
Keel took a big bite out of the crepe. “I’ve never tasted anything like this,” she managed to say around her stuffed cheeks. She kept on chewing, wagging her tail and wriggling her ears. “It’s delicious.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said. Thanks to Keel’s comments, the rest of the villagers and the monsters were all displaying a desire to try one.
I started to cook more, but then, “So delicious! crepes rule!” Keel started yapping while running around.
“Don’t fall over,” I warned her. Almost at that same moment, Keel took a tumble!
“Hey. I’ve seen that bit before, somewhere,” Ren commented.
“That’s a coincidence. Me too,” I realized. She spilled the crepe across the floor. “I think it was ice cream though.”
“It was shaved ice for me,” Ren said. “A bit dated now, but I definitely saw it.” Looks like classic comedy was the same even in a futuristic and otherworldly Japan with VRMMO games.
Keel. The life of the party.
“Uwah! The crepes Bubba made! Noooooooooo!” Clutching her head in her hands, Keel shouted and looked at the scattered crepes, tears in her eyes. If she wanted them so badly, I’d have to try and do something. But did I have the materials?
I wasn’t even sure there’d be enough for everyone else in the village.
Keel was looking intensely at the crepes on the floor. Another demi-human slave extended an arm to help her up, but it was like she couldn’t even see them.
A moment later . . . she ate one?!
Possessed by something perhaps, Keel turned into her dog form and started to gobble up the crepes from the floor.
“Keel! What are you doing?” Raphtalia dashed over and warned her to stop. Others from the village were pointing at her in surprise. “You’ll make yourself sick!” Raphtalia was almost wrestling with the dog.
“Let me go! Bubba made these for us to eat! I can’t let them go to waste!”
“Stop it!” Raphtalia wasn’t giving any ground. “He told you himself not to eat food from the ground!”
“I’m still going to eat them! Move! I need to eat these crepes! Uwaaaaaaah!” Even when she was pinned down, Keel’s feral eyes still scanned her surroundings as she reached for the scattered crepes.
Man. Did I slip something addictive into the batter by mistake? I’d have to let Rat know that the honey was a failure.
“Calm down! Here, you can have mine,” Ren offered.
“Really?!” Keel perked up at once.
“Sure.” Ren’s selfless act finally brought the situation to a close. I was still having trouble understanding why Keel had got so carried away. At least Ren seemed to be getting more comfortable in the village.
Eventually Ren returned to my side. “Naofumi, all the kids in the village really love you, don’t they?” he said with a slightly perplexed look on his face.
“Nah, that’s just the honey. It must have come out as a narcotic,” I explained. “I’ll stop us from making any more.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” Ren replied. “Please, don’t stop. Everyone is looking at you with such emotion in their eyes . . . Please, keep making it!” Ren said, flustered, looking at the slaves. They were all looking at me; that was true. I still suspected narcotics, but that wasn’t confirmed. Very well, then.
“Something smells nice.” Drawn by the smell, Raphtalia’s cousin came in, accompanied by Wyndia. Wyndia was the guardian of a dragon called Gaelion. She loved monsters. Alongside Rat, she was in charge of managing the monsters in the village.
To add a further note, she was also the daughter (well, step-daughter) of a dragon that Ren once defeated. But she didn’t exactly bear ill will toward Ren. Actually, if Ren started to get pessimistic, she wouldn’t hold back in trying to pep him up a bit.
Raphtalia’s cousin, meanwhile, was the kid who had been raised into the leader of the forces opposing us in Q’ten Lo, the nation we had recently visited—and then conquered. The same race as Raphtalia, he had a face that really reminded me of his cousin when she was younger.
Ostensibly, he had been executed. But in actual fact we’d brought him here to the village. One difficulty was that he hadn’t learned the Melromarc language yet, so he could only really talk to me, Raphtalia, the heroes, and those who knew the languages of the demi-human nations.
When he was Heavenly Emperor, he’d honestly been a bit of a fool, including putting out a dangerous proclamation against harming monsters. In the end though, the silly laws he had enacted actually helped us take Q’ten Lo far quicker than expected.
The real fools had been the corrupt politicians beneath him, anyway.
A selfish bitch called Makina, apparently originating from Siltvelt, had really held the reins of power in Q’ten Lo. But we’d successfully managed to take her down.
Anyway, to get back to Raphtalia’s cousin, he had also very much liked a certain type of monster—filolials. However, after learning the true terror of monsters, he came to regret his past actions. That said, he was still very curious about monsters and was very interested in Raph-chan in particular. I wondered if I could make effective use of Raph-chan to lure him over to my side.
“Hey. Do you want some too?” I asked them both.
“Yes.” Raphtalia’s cousin took a crepe and started eating. The expression on his face was just like when I gave Raphtalia food when she was small.
“Can I ask you why you’ve got such a gentle look in your eyes?” Raphtalia asked with the same tone she normally used for a snide comment at my expense. What did I say this time?
“I was just remembering when you were small,” I explained. “I felt a bit paternal for a moment there.”
“I’m not sure I like that reason . . . by the way, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia continued coolly and placed her hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “Seeing Wyndia just now reminded me of it. You do know my cousin’s name, don’t you?” From the look in her eyes, you’d think Raphtalia was interrogating me.
The reason for this was, for an extended period in the past, I had privately called Wyndia “valley girl.” I’d eventually had cause to mention this to Raphtalia and the others, and she’d made the same face that she was making now.
My answer to this question was as follows.
“No idea.”
The only information I had on the kid was that he was the former Heavenly Emperor of Q’ten Lo and Raphtalia’s cousin. I’d never heard his name and was getting along just fine without it.
“If you don’t tell him your real name, he’ll give you a silly nickname!” Raphtalia desperately explained to her cousin.
“That’s right!” Wyndia joined in. “I almost ended up being renamed ‘valley girl’!”
“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia rounded on me. “What do you currently call him in your head?”
“Raphtalia’s cousin,” I replied curtly.
“Look! He’s sinking to just describing you already! Hurry up or you’ll end up as nothing more than ‘cousin’!” Raphtalia was practically panicking.
“O-okay, I’m . . . Ruftmila,” the kid managed. His name sounded similar to “Raphtalia.” I guess they did come from the same country.
“Fair enough. I’ll call you Ruft,” I decided. I still thought “cousin” would be enough. “Should we use a totally different name when folks from Q’ten Lo are around?”
“No weird nicknames!” Raphtalia was adamant about that one point.
“Raph,” Raph-chan chirped. Ignoring Raphtalia, I passed Raph-chan my absolutely best-made crepe. And with that, my dessert-making was finished.
“Ah, I forgot. That woman and Gaelion were asking to talk to you, Shield Hero,” Wyndia announced.
“That woman” would be Ratotille, an alchemist well-versed in monster lore who had joined us from Faubrey. Gaelion was a dragon, as previously explained.
“Okay, no problem. I need to talk to them about managing supplies and other stuff anyway,” I replied. She might have completed her investigation into the unique ecosystem of Q’ten Lo and prepared materials on it in her lab here in the village.
“In that case, Naofumi, I’ll go and explain what’s been happening to Eclair and the others. Just give me a call if you need me,” Ren said.
“Sure thing. Have a word with Atla and those guys too. Tell them it looks like I’m going to be too busy to come and train today.” My duties piling up, there was no time for that stuff. So best to just shut that down right away.
“Sure thing. Although I can’t promise Atla won’t come charging after you,” Ren warned.
“I know how to handle her. Taunt her a little for me. Tell her to overcome that recent terrible performance with more training,” I suggested. In Siltvelt, Atla had caused a bit of trouble. They’d been completely tricked by illusions created by an enemy and hadn’t been much use. It seemed to be really getting to Atla in particular, and she was sticking to her training rather than perving on me. That should keep her off my back for a while anyway.
“It’s a shame we weren’t there,” Ren commented. He and his party had been on the move when the problems occurred. There hadn’t been time to call them back, but there was also nothing to be gained by worrying about that now.
“In either case, we need to take some steps to prevent that from happening again,” I said. “You and Itsuki not being there wasn’t the issue.” It was an issue that we’d let our attacker get away, but this wasn’t the place to say that. Other than the Shield Hero, the holy heroes could be pretty difficult to handle.
“I’ll go and see Rat right away,” I said. “I’ll catch you later.” Splitting
up from Ren, I followed Wyndia and Ruft toward Rat’s lab.
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