Chapter Fifteen: Mirror
“The hero you believed in was an imposter! This is the proof!” L’Arc announced. With this announcement, and with Itsuki playing performance magic on the vassal musical instrument as we marched to the surface, unrest swelled among the soldiers of this hostile nation, and their desire to fight melted away.
Some of them still resisted for a while, but eventually the king realized their defeat was evident and ordered an end to all hostile action. L’Arc and Itsuki acted as representatives for the negotiations and managed to achieve an alliance with this nation. It was closer to an occupation, perhaps, but the negotiations had gone very well.
Thanks to L’Arc and Therese’s rampage, the entire area around the dragon hourglass was in a bit of a mess. In regard to the women who had been following Miyaji, some of them had gone missing, joining up with the moron woman. The rest of them had mostly been stripped of their privileges and then let go. It sounded about right for the handling of the losers. Miyaji had done some pretty heinous stuff though—a few were likely facing execution. The authority of the four holies and their role in this world was very much like our own, after all.
Killing them was serious stuff.
Not to mention kidnapping Kizuna from another nation. They didn’t have a leg left to stand on. It seemed their queen was missing though.
Perhaps she had also joined up with the moron woman’s faction.
As Itsuki and L’Arc dealt with these issues, we went to get Kizuna at long last.
“It’s this way,” Glass said, leading us toward Kizuna’s location. “She was first being held in a room with some kind of machinery, but Chris, Sadeena, and me worked together and freed her.”
“Pen!” We came in through a doorway to find Chris standing guard in big mode. After he confirmed it was Glass and the rest of us, he shrunk and came over.
“Why didn’t you just bring Kizuna with you?” I asked. If they were able to free her, they should have brought her along. But instead, Glass and Sadeena had come back to me alone. It did sound like something had happened. I just hadn’t confirmed it.
“Look over there.” Glass pointed. I looked . . . and there was something that looked like Kizuna.
Not someone. Something.
A statue of Kizuna, standing like some temple effigy, with a fishing rod out in front of her. Was this really Kizuna? Not just some carving? The fishing rod looked accurate, but I didn’t really like the design overall.
But think. This world had status and status effects, just like a video game. I combined my video game experience with the fact that Glass said this was Kizuna.
“Has she been petrified?” I asked.
“That’s right . . .” Glass confirmed. Wow, so there was a petrification status effect! Now that it came up, I remembered seeing resistance to it among the effects when a shield was unlocked. I’d never been attacked by it myself, but the proof of it was right in front of me.
“She isn’t dead, right? She can be turned back, right?” I asked.
“It should be possible. It will take a little time, but she can be restored,” Glass said.
“Fair enough. So we’ve recovered Kizuna, at least. I guess this counts,” I replied. She was in one piece—even if that was one big piece of stone—so we should just be happy at having been reunited with her.
“I can’t use much magic at the moment, so I can’t provide much healing magic. We’ll just have to hope we can resolve the petrification as quickly as possible,” I concluded. After defeating Miyaji and the others and driving the moron woman away, I’d thought I would be able to use the shield and my magic again, but they still weren’t working. Whatever trap they had set, it seemed to still be covering the whole world and was continuing to seal away our weapons and magic.
“Let’s carry her out then,” I said.
“Good idea. Thank you for your help,” Glass replied. We proceeded to carry out the petrified Kizuna. She was pretty heavy . . . but I had a high enough level to manage it.
“Let me help too.” Ethnobalt also lent a hand carrying the statue. There wasn’t much room for anyone else to help.
In any case, we’d successfully taken Kizuna back.
After that, thanks to having captured the dragon hourglass pretty easily, we used Return Dragon Vein and returned to L’Arc’s country.
“Looks like we got you back on your feet pretty quickly,” I said.
“You sure did. You’ve been a big help, kiddo,” L’Arc replied. We were talking in one of the facilities in his nation, watching Kizuna’s statue as she was gradually healed.
“You’ve still got that bad habit,” Ethnobalt noted.
“Hah! Stop bringing that up. It feels strange to call him ‘Naofumi,’ so you’ll all just have to put up with it,” L’Arc said. I gave a sigh. There was no putting him right. I was getting sick of constantly pointing it out too. I guess he could call me whatever he wanted.
“Stay on topic, please. How long will it take to return Kizuna to normal?” I asked.
“Good question. This is a dense, heavy case of petrification. We have Therese, others from my nation, and Ethnobalt doing all they can to heal her, so she should be back to normal in maybe two days,” L’Arc replied.
“Good to hear,” I said. Glass was looking at Kizuna and her treatment with sadness in her eyes. Just that was enough to reveal the powerful bond of trust between the two of them. I continued. “Onto other things, then. After these events, L’Arc, we’ve become more than just the visiting help. We need to increase our activities in this world in order to defeat the enemies at work here.” Once Kizuna was back with us, the situation would swing back in our favor. The main problem was that Itsuki and I still couldn’t use our original weapons and magic—oh, and Witch and Armor were also here and up to no good. This had started out as just having to defeat the presumed vanguard of the waves in this world, but now Witch, Armor, and S’yne’s enemies had been added to the equation.
If this had all been happening back in our world, we would have had more leeway to deal with it all. All sorts of stuff had happened over there, but cooperation between the nations was running pretty smoothly now, and most of the hostile countries had been dealt with. We’d at least eliminated those nations trying to pull some shady stuff.
But here in Kizuna’s world, they didn’t have that cohesion. And apart from Kizuna, all the holy heroes were dead. The moron woman had said their holy weapons had been rounded up too. It would be nice to do something about all of that, if we could. I also didn’t want Raphtalia to keep getting teleported over here each time this world was in trouble. Unless we gave up the katana vassal weapon completely, our fates were intertwined.
I had no intention of abandoning them. No plans to lose any more allies.
“S’yne’s enemies and Witch have a nasty habit of just popping up. I would guess they are likely working with someone in authority,” I said.
“Looking at the enemies we have left . . . the Harpoon Hero has the biggest force,” L’Arc said.
“Hmmm . . . and we’re going to have to fight them at some point, right? We should consider the harpoon vassal weapon holder as our next enemy,” I said. If our enemies were at work in this world, that should help draw them out. The one with the harpoon was likely the one who killed the holy heroes too. We’d need to try talking to them, but we should also probably presume that they are a vanguard of the waves—until proven otherwise.
“Still . . .” L’Arc muttered with one hand on his chin, looking me up and down.
“What?” I asked.
“Just never thought you’d get picked by the mirror vassal weapon, kiddo,” L’Arc responded.
“Hey, same here. It’s probably just a temporary thing, seeing as I can’t use the shield,” I said.
“The bow kiddo has the musical instrument too, so who knows what might happen next? There’s still so much stuff going on that we don’t know about,” L’Arc replied.
“Itsuki can play better than Miyaji could, so I think he’s well suited to the musical instrument. The book seems to suit Ethnobalt too,” I said.
“It even looked like the vassal weapons were fighting over you, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia commented. I nodded. I wouldn’t say they had been waiting for the right moment, but both vassal weapons had come pushing into me.
“I guess the book weapon felt indebted to you after the whole Kyo incident, kiddo. We had no idea where it was though,” L’Arc said. I remembered the two spirits circling around in the shield spirit world. Maybe it had been hiding close to me in order to avoid more people like Kyo, Miyaji, and the other vanguards of the waves. The mirror holder had been pretty suspicious too, so maybe being liberated from that situation also created some goodwill toward me.
“Still, now I’ve got a mirror,” I said. It looked like I could handle it much like a shield. Easy enough to use, but I would have liked some attack capabilities. It didn’t look like I could use Iron Maiden.
“If the choice was between the book and the mirror, I think the mirror suits you the best,” Raphtalia said, nodding to herself.
“Why do you say that? You think I’m some kind of narcissist?” I said.
“No. What I mean is, if someone does something to you, you like to turn around and do it right back,” Raphtalia explained. I made a puzzled sound, so she continued. “When your name was raked through the mud after being framed for rape, you changed the name of the woman responsible and raked her name through the mud. When someone is unreasonable to you, you reply by being unreasonable yourself. You give as good as you get.” Hearing all that and thinking back on what had happened to me so far, I could only nod in agreement. I always repaid kindness with kindness, that much was for sure. In the case of Takt, I only did back to him what he did to me. “Don’t you think that sounds like a mirror, reflecting back your opponent?” she asked.
“I see. A real reflection of the life of the kiddo here,” L’Arc said with a cheeky grin. I wasn’t happy with them accepting this so easily . . . but if that was how they saw me, it couldn’t be helped. It was definitely true that if someone did something to me, I wasn’t satisfied until I got some payback.
In any case, Witch had to pay. She had to pay dearly.
She’d betrayed the trust of the queen, betrayed Trash’s feelings, and then sided with the scum who killed Atla—all with no sign of regret. Leaving her alive was simply not an option.
“Okay, okay. I get it. Good, bad, whatever. If someone does something, then I do it back, so the mirror suits me. Fair enough,” I said, finally accepting it. While one way of looking at this was that the shield was manifesting itself through the medium of the mirror, in terms of power-up methods, we had to work with the vassal weapons of this world. Once I got back to the world I was responsible for, the shield was likely to return to normal, but I couldn’t use it here.
We also didn’t know what weapons the moron woman and S’yne’s other enemies were holding. And we had to get the seven star weapons back. It was worth giving some thought to what the moron woman had said about our lack of enhancement. Various holes had also quickly been poked in the seemingly almighty Liberation Aura X, although I considered that a good thing in the long term.
Whatever happened, our fight here was going to be a complex one.
As I worried about what was coming, Filo and Raph-chan arrived.
“Master!” said Filo.
“Raph,” said Raph-chan.
“This is the Glutton God Tango, a skill that enhances digestion, it seems, so please relax and enjoy your meal,” he said.
“I can’t relax at all!” Rishia replied.
The musical instrument vassal weapon power-up method was very similar to the projectile power-up method in that they both used money. The projectile one mainly offered things like erasing failed enhancements or increasing the effects of other power-up methods, but in the case of the musical instrument, you could buy status for cash—like spending 100 yen to get +1 to magic. However, it was a bit more complicated than that, and after making one purchase, you had to buy a different item the second time. There were various prices for each item, such as magic +3 for 500 yen, and in some cases, you could even purchase increased maturation rates or magic recovery speed.
It was pretty convenient but also looked to be quite an outlay of cash. Maybe it was derived from the fact that musical instruments were normally so expensive.
I had to smile at the thought that even Itsuki’s power-up method was now like Rishia’s. He was certainly bound to her.
“Raph!” Raph-chan said, stuffed full and rolling on her side.
“Pen!” Chris agreed, right there with her. Raph-chan’s big tummy looked so fluffy. I just wanted to stroke it. Probably not the best idea right now though.
“I want more to drink!” Sadeena shouted.
“Me too!” Shildina agreed. The two of them were packing it away and drinking like fish. I guessed that being giant killer whale therianthropes meant they could eat quite a lot if they put their minds to it.
“Come on, Raphtalia. Tuck in, just like you used to!” I told her. Raphtalia’s face paled a little, and she started to eat the food in front of her.
“Do I really have to try and fit all this in?” she asked.
“I want you to eat as much as you can. Are you checking the status icon?” I asked her.
“I am, but still . . .” she said.
“Ah, another dish is ready. This is the fastest way to boost our combat power at the moment. I need you to eat and get strong!” I told her. I used the status icon to check the new dish. Hmmm, so adding some life force had improved the numbers considerably. It was definitely more effective than just cooking normally.
This was all coming from the mirror’s power-up method. I still didn’t really understand why, but eating food now increased a new level that was separate from regular levels—it might be called the “food level.” It felt a bit like the system that Itsuki had described once. Eating food I had prepared caused experience to be earned and a separate level and status to increase. It looked like the type of food that was eaten changed the status that increased, but I still wasn’t sure how that all worked either.
Basically, I wanted to stuff them with high-quality, high-capability, highly efficient food and raise that food level as quickly as possible.
Even better, feeding vassal weapon holders with a careful eye to their enhancement would let me enhance them even without them being a hero. This was pretty convenient. I was up for anything that involved enhancing my allies. The mirror knew what I liked!
“I know this is enhancement . . . but it isn’t easy,” Ethnobalt said, finally finishing the plate in front of him.
“We should have some medicine on hand to aid with digestion,” I said.
“The people in your village would make short work of all this, I think,” Ethnobalt commented.
“Yeah, I bet they would.” If everyone at home could get a boost from eating like this, that would have been a great reason to cook for them. There would be some long faces at home when I told them about this feast.
“Hmmm. I’m going to have to experiment on everyone here in Kizuna’s world in order to feed them once I get back. Otherwise, they may defeat me,” I said.
“Defeat you at what, exactly?” Ethnobalt asked.
I took some of the food over to L’Arc too.
L’Arc and his table had been stuffing themselves to start with, but they were reaching their limit now. Therese was already tapped out. She liked jelly, so I’d made some for her that looked like gemstones—she’d like them so much she forgot about pacing herself and filled up too quickly.
“I’m stuffed and yet this flavor makes me want to keep on eating. That’s cheating, kiddo!” L’Arc complained.
“I’m really starting to have a good time,” Sadeena said. “My skin feels so lustrous.” She was being literal too—there was a strange glow coming off her. S’yne, meanwhile, was also stuffing her face! It probably wasn’t my place to comment, being the one stuffing her, but I had to wonder where she was fitting it all in that slender body of hers. Filo and Sadeena were big girls —in their original forms, at least—so that went some way to explaining it, but S’yne was positively petite. I had difficulty imagining her tucking quite so much away.
“Another helping,” she said. I recalled the first time I’d encountered S’yne in my village—she’d tried to eat my food then. She always showed up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the village too. Maybe she was actually something of a glutton.
Anyway, it was Filo, Sadeena, Shildina, and S’yne who were eating the most.
“Naofumi, kiddo, can I stop now?” L’Arc asked.
“Hmmm . . . I guess I can just feed you again in a bit. I’d better start making preparations,” I said. The quality of the food seemed to influence how much levels increased, so getting the ingredients ready now would help out a lot later. I didn’t want everyone getting sick of eating the same food either.
“Gah . . . that mirror of yours is starting to look more like a tray to me . . . You’re the Food Hero,” L’Arc said. I wasn’t going to let a comment like that slip by.
“Right! It sounds like you still need some more! I’ve got a deluxe-size riz a l’imperatrice here that I was going to feed to Filo and the others as dessert.” I slapped the dish—basically a cake made using rice—down in front of L’Arc.
“Hey! Hey?!” L’Arc protested.
“I want to see that dish clean, L’Arc. Eat all of it. This is so you become stronger and ultimately to protect this world. You’ve been watching your power-up methods closely, I’m sure, so you can see the experience and bonuses my food is giving you, correct?”
“Okay! I’ll eat it! That’s what you want, right?” L’Arc raged and then tucked in with a roar, stuffing his face with my food. Before long though, he collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Take that! Calling me “Food Hero”! It had reminded me of that soldier who once said my shield looked like a pot lid. Seriously!
“Filo, you take care of the rest of this!” I shouted.
“I’m on it!” Filo replied, heartily tucking in. Filo had already changed out of her humanoid form, and her bird tummy was looking pretty extended from all this eating. “Master, I’m actually starting to feel full! I’ve never felt this way before in my life!” Filo marveled. She had to be nearing her limits, as even her eating speed had fallen.
I continued the terrible-for-your-health food doping for a while longer.
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