Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Wave Trauma

“Okay, Keel . . . anything you want to say?” I asked her.

“Well . . .” she started. We had retreated to a safe location, and after waiting for Keel to regain her composure, I’d decided to sit her down and ask her what was going on. To reach that point, it required Imiya and Raph-chan to soothe her and for me to prepare a tincture from sedative herbs. Cian, for her part, was seated on the wagon, yawning, like she’d just finished a big job. “We won, didn’t we?” Keel finally continued.

“That’s not the issue here. I’m more concerned with how you charged, half crazed, at that amber rose ultros,” I said.

“I took it too far! I’m sorry, Bubba!” Keel whined. I sighed. It was obvious she was trying to cover things up.

“Keel, if you don’t fess up, then there’s going to be trouble later . . . I shouldn’t need to tell you that, should I?” I said.

“That’s right, Keel,” Imiya backed me up. “You really weren’t yourself out there today.” She was proving herself, once again, to be a lot like Raphtalia. Although Imiya was a little more soft-spoken, they both took things too seriously. Raphtalia could come on pretty hard, but that was due to me as well. I felt like I was starting to overlap Imiya and Raphtalia in all sorts of ways.

“Uh . . . but Bubba! I fought hard, didn’t I?” Keel asked.

“If you mean charging into battle in a semi-crazed state, sure. Who knows what would have happened if Cian hadn’t been there?” I replied. It didn’t matter how high Keel’s level had become; she simply wasn’t as tough as someone like me. If she took a bad hit, then things might have been worse than a mere injury. “Cian, you really saved Keel’s tail back there. Thanks.”

“Keel has it worse than I do. I can tell even without understanding what she’s saying. She’s suffering from some kind of trauma,” Cian replied. Mamoru had told me that Cian had lost her parents in the fighting. Keel had also suffered due to the waves and the slave hunts, and those shared experiences were probably helping them bond. I recalled that, around the time we started restoring the village, Raphtalia had been responsible for the mental care of Keel and the others. I had thought by all working together it had allowed her to overcome those issues, but it seemed some of them still remained.

“Keel, you need to understand what happened out there. The moment you saw that amber rose ultros, you just lost it and charged in blindly,” I told her. She only moaned. Keel would normally just blow off past trauma with a burst of crazy energy. And this was a problem that anyone from the village could potentially face. Even if it wasn’t there at the moment, wasn’t on the surface yet, something could trigger it in the future. “Based on what Raphtalia told me . . .” I recalled what she had said. The boss monster for the first wave, a cerberus, had killed not only Raphtalia’s parents but also many others from her village. That meant it was highly likely the remaining villagers would fall into a panic when they saw any kind of multi-headed canine.

“I’m fine, okay? Fine!” Keel said, still trying to bluster her way through this.

“Raph?” Raph-chan said, tilting her head and moving in with concern in her voice. Keel seemed to nod in reply. “Raph!” With a puff of smoke, Raph-chan activated some illusion magic and suddenly became a pitch-black dog with three heads that were glaring down at Keel. I wondered if this was the same creature that had decimated Lurolona during the first wave. As soon as Keel saw the creature, her eyes widened, her face mixing hostility with fear, and she started to tremble on the spot.

“Raph!” Raph-chan ended the transformation and gave a hopeless little sigh.

“Keel, now do you understand?” I quietly asked her.

“Yeah, I think I do,” she replied, seeming to see the issue now. I had to wonder for a moment how Raph-chan had known exactly what to turn into to trigger Keel’s trauma. Maybe she had just worked from the description that Raphtalia had provided.

Putting that aside, I realized this could really be a big problem. If everyone in the village had this weakness when it came to multi-headed canines—not such a rare thing in a fantasy world—it could poke quite a hole in our defenses. Some of them probably really were close to getting over it by now, so it also seemed a bad idea to stir things up again. But on the other hand, we had no idea what might happen moving forward.

“You kept your cool, Imiya, because you didn’t start out in the village, right?” I asked her.

“That’s right . . .” she replied. She had still been a slave though, so she might well have her own trauma tucked away in there somewhere.

“If there is anything you think might trigger a similar event for you, Imiya, please let me know. We need to be ready for anything,” I told her.

“I don’t . . . don’t like Melromarc soldiers very much, but I’m fine. I’ve got over that,” she replied.

“And the reason you don’t like them . . . Ah, I won’t ask. No need to force yourself to remember anything you don’t want to,” I told her. When I was buying up the slaves from Lurolona, Raphtalia’s home village, I’d caused the price of them to rise and that had led to slave hunters attacking us. Keel had fought back, and Imiya had put up a good fight too, so I had thought she was over the worst of her trauma.

“No, I really am fine. I’m over it, thanks to everyone’s help. I also think . . . it might lighten the load for me if I talk about it,” Imiya said, continuing even though I assured her she didn’t need to. “Slave hunters came to my village . . . and killed my parents, right in front of me . . .”

“I see,” I managed.

“My mom was pregnant . . . I never even knew if it would be a boy or a girl. And the soldiers just laughed as they . . .” Imiya finally did trail off.

“I can’t imagine how hard that was. You did well to survive. That’s enough, that really is,” I told her. I stroked Imiya a little and gave her a hug. Everyone in the village was normally so hyper I tended to forget that they had all of these issues and injuries in their past. They had all lived their own difficult lives to get to this point—lives far harder than mine. All that had happened to me was being framed for something I didn’t do. Seeing your parents killed right in front of you, like Imiya had . . . I couldn’t even imagine that.

I wondered if thinking like this was an indicator of how much I had grown myself. There was nothing more arrogant than thinking you were the only one who was suffering. It was thanks to Raphtalia, Atla . . . and everyone else . . . that I’d managed to recover myself to the point I could worry about other people.

“Ah . . . Shield Hero . . .” I was probably hugging her too hard now, because Imiya made an embarrassed noise and curled up a bit. “You helped me find my uncle and other relatives, and I’m fine now. I’m through it,” she said.

“That’s fine, if that’s the case. If you are hurting, you let me know,” I told her.

“I’m very happy now. That’s the truth, and it’s thanks to you and everyone else,” she replied. She gave me a smile and moved back from my arms. I felt the weight of all this pressing onto me again in that moment. I’d made up my mind to end the fighting, for the sake of everyone in the village, and that was not a light burden to bear.

“In any case. We need to ask each individual in question if they want to try and overcome their trauma or try and avoid it,” I said. There was no pressing need to rip open old wounds. I wasn’t a monster. Those with trauma had as much right to live as anyone. Conquest or evasion, I didn’t mind which one they chose, so long as it allowed them to go forward.

“Bubba! I get it now! I want to become strong enough to protect everyone, no matter what happens! So I’m going to overcome this!” Keel said with a bark, which then became an interminably long howl. It sounded like she was up for the challenge.

“Cian, thanks for everything,” Keel said, offering her hand with a smile.

“Sure thing . . .” Cian replied, still a little timidly. She also seemed to understand what the handshake meant and gently took it.

“Bubba! I think we’ve become super friendly with Cian!” Keel yipped.

“Yep, we sure have,” I said with a smile. I was actually amazed at how much stronger Cian was than expected. How light she was on her feet too—she’d really been a big help. I wasn’t sure how Mamoru would react, but with proper training Cian could really be powerful. “We’ve got the materials and ingredients we needed, anyway . . . We should head back and discuss this problem at home.”

“Yes . . . okay,” Imiya replied. “I would have liked to mine for more minerals, but what do you think?”

“We’ve finished hunting. We can come and do some more mining if we can find the time later,” I told her. “When we do so, we’ll bring a party of lumos with us, maybe—people who can actually fight an amber rose ultros or two safely.” The lumo species were good with their hands and great at digging holes; they were pretty useful all around. In a fantasy setting you would normally think demi-humans like dwarves would be better at stuff like this, but the lumos were so good I was ready to give up such preconceptions entirely. There were actual dwarves in this world, but not many here; Kizuna’s world had more, if I recalled correctly. We definitely didn’t have any in the village.

We returned to the nearby village, helped out with the stalls, and then returned home.

“I see . . . That sounds so terrible,” Raphtalia sympathized. We had made it back to the village after dusk, ate our evening meal, and I was now explaining how Keel’s trauma had resurfaced. Those originally from Lurolona had looks on their faces like they thought it could maybe happen to them, while everyone else was looking on with gentle concern.

“Raphtalia, what about you? Do you think the same thing could happen?” I asked her.

“I think . . . I’m fine. I think so,” she replied. We’d fought some monsters that impinged on that zone—karma dogs immediately came to mind.

“Raph!” Raph-chan decided to use the same litmus test, triggering some illusion magic to become the cerberus again. She instantly got a reaction from about half of the slaves from Lurolona. I looked at Raphtalia, and she was frowning a little as she looked at Raph-chan, but I couldn’t tell exactly how to peg that reaction.

“Okay. A few adjustments to the illusion, and that could be a good test,” Raphtalia said. Then she muttered something quietly to herself about Raph-chan having borrowed this creature from her memories. That made more sense. I had my own troubles with parasites like Gaelion and the Demon Dragon peeking into my own mind, so maybe Raph-chan could do the same thing with Raphtalia. In any case, Raphtalia wasn’t having a strong reaction, so it did look like she was over it.

“How did you get over it, Raphtalia?” Keel asked Raphtalia, rubbing up to her.

“We talked about this when we first returned to the village, correct? I told you that I overcame my trauma a little at a time after Mr. Naofumi purchased me,” Raphtalia replied.

“I remember . . . but I thought I was over it too, and then look what happened! So now I’m not so sure!” Keel whined. Raphtalia had a serious look on her face too.

“A difficult question,” Ren chipped in, his arms folded as he tried to think of a solution. “Trauma earned in battle can sometimes be overcome through sheer bravery,” Fohl added. He had experience as a gladiator and seemed to be thinking of solutions relating to that. But the fundamental difference in the perception of combat might make that approach difficult. Even if the villagers understood this was a fight for brave warriors, that might not offer a solution to the issues in their minds. The hakuko and warriors of Siltvelt had a kind of Viking courage accompanied by muscles where their brains should be.

“I was thinking about this as we made our way back to the village,” I said. “I have a question for anyone still suffering trauma.” I looked over those who raised their hands in response. “I don’t think overcoming this, like Raphtalia has, is the answer for everyone. I want you to think individually about how you want to handle this trauma.” There had to be others with trauma similar to Keel’s and all of them suffered from different symptoms.

“What if we decide to try and face it down, Bubba?” Keel asked.

“The treatment will probably involve some pretty stressful training, mixed with an application of drugs,” I replied. I’d need to consult Rat on that. It wasn’t her specialty, but she would probably have a better idea than me—and getting the treatment wrong could easily have the opposite of the desired effect. “It’s like being boxed in by mental wounds that you thought were healed. You don’t have to try and resolve them if you don’t want to, and if it’s too hard you can stop along the way. These kinds of issues are normally resolved by the passage of time more than anything else.” We didn’t want to cause any more damage—or mental breakdowns, to be honest. Everyone whom my question seemed to apply to started to think, anyway.

“Hey, Naofumi,” Melty piped up as she watched the scene unfolding. “You’ve got your own trauma as well, haven’t you? Like filolials?” I grunted. That was a painfully astute observation. The cause had been getting trampled half to death by a horde of filolials that Motoyasu brought into the village. Ruft hadn’t seemed bothered by any of this until now, but as soon as he heard it, his face had started to look like that famous screaming painting. He and I shared the same trauma. Seeing a cluster of filolials together was still enough to make my eye twitch.

“If you want to overcome it or just let it be for now, you need to make your own decision and stand by it,” I said.

“I get it,” Keel replied. “But I want to overcome it!” She thrust her fist up into the air with this declaration. She was still in dog form though, so she looked more cute than decisive . . . but that was no reason to rain on her determination parade.

“Okay. But if your symptoms seem very bad, we may make the decision to stop treatment. Understand?” I asked.

“No worries! I’m going to overcome it, you’ll see!” she replied. Many of the other trauma sufferers joined her in a shout of conviction.

“Which brings me to you, Rat. You got any ideas about how best to treat this?” I asked.

“I thought you’d get to me eventually,” Rat replied.

“Of course. It’s the perfect chance for you to show off what you can do. Or maybe I should be asking your ancestor, Holn, to prove how much better she is than you?” I quipped. At that moment Holn came back with Mamoru. She didn’t stay here in my village all the time.

“As proactive as ever, Duke,” Rat said wryly. “I’ve read some papers on the subject, that’s about it, but if the alternative is asking Holn for help, then you can count me in.”

“Meaning you do have some ideas?” I asked.

“Dream therapy might be a good solution. If that doesn’t get results, we’ll try something closer to what you suggested,” Rat said.

“Dreams? Something like hypnosis?” I asked. I’d seen hypnosis in manga; it was a common trope.

“Not exactly. I’m talking about a treatment that uses magic,” Rat replied. I mean, duh, of course, we were in a magical world. Why wouldn’t there be mental treatments that used magic? “It mainly involves the use of illusion magic—something we aren’t short on around here.”

“Okay.” I looked over at our main illusion magic users: Raphtalia, Ruft, and the two Raph-chans.

“What exactly do you need us to do?” Raphtalia raised her hand and asked for the bunch of them.

“Basically, you cast some illusion magic on the trauma victim while they are sleeping and direct their dreams to the moment that caused that trauma. Then you prepare a more suitable end to that nightmare for them,” Rat explained. Illusion magic was definitely some convenient stuff.

“What kind of ending?” Raphtalia asked.

“You share the same injury, so surely you have some idea. The important thing is healing. The removal of the fear differs for each individual,” Rat said. So taking the moment of trauma and leading it to a better conclusion . . . like defeating the cerberus, or being saved by someone, or a reunion with the departed . . . something like that. I got what she was trying to say, but that sounded pretty hard to pull off.

“You’re a hero from another world yourself, aren’t you? You have access to far more powerful illusion magic than other people, so give it a try,” Rat suggested. Raphtalia tended to focus on physical fighting, but as a hero she also had access to some powerful Liberation-class magic. The blessing of the Demon Dragon also seemed to have unlocked restrictions she had been suffering under. This could actually be good magic practice for her.

“I’ll do the best I can,” she replied.

“Raphtalia, are you going to help us out with magic?” Keel asked.

“That’s right,” she replied kindly. “I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help, at least to start with, but I’ll do everything I can.”

“Okay!” Keel said happily. It sounded like Raphtalia was going to be working to heal the trauma of Keel and the others. They all trusted Raphtalia implicitly, so it sounded like a good arrangement. I just hoped it would work out.

However, this also raised a further issue for me.

“Hey, Rat. If you had this trick in your back pocket, why didn’t you use it on me?” I asked her.

“You made a more than sufficient recovery without it, Duke,” she replied. By sleeping huddled up with Raph-chan, perhaps! That wasn’t what I was talking about! “What kind of good ending would you desire to such a dream, Duke?” Rat inquired, one eyebrow lifted. Like me turning on the filolials and driving them off? Or maybe all of them suddenly turning into Raph species? But then I’d just wake up and realize it was all a dream, which seemed unlikely to cure anything. “There’s a big personal element in this kind of treatment. I didn’t think it would make much difference for you, Duke, and so I didn’t bother,” Rat explained. I wondered why we had been facing so many issues recently that I couldn’t do anything about or was completely ineffective against. I was really starting to feel useless.

“I’m not happy about that explanation,” I replied, “but very well. Anyone who wants to try and overcome their trauma, please focus on your healing!” I stated. There were general shouts of agreement. And so, from that very night, Raphtalia, Ruft, and the Raph species all started conducting trauma healing experiments.

“That gives us a lead on resolving Keel’s issues, anyway. Now then . . .” I muttered. It was time to address the stuff that had come up prior to when we went hunting. Luckily, we had countless witnesses all around us in that moment. I moved over toward Raphtalia, but for some reason she backed away when she saw me coming.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. There’s a very unpleasant aura coming off you right now, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia admitted. Was that another indicator of her instincts? Or maybe some kind of fighter’s premonition.

“You’re imagining things,” I told her.

“Not at all. That very reply you just gave me seems like you’re thinking something. If you’re not planning something or other, you normally just tell me I’m too tense and to relax a little,” she said. We did spend a lot of time together, so she could clearly read me like a book. It was a sign of the trust between us, which I liked, but I also didn’t need her giving me a lot of unwanted advice.

“I’m kinda in the corner here. Everyone is on my back recently. Just give me a break!” I told her. Raphtalia immediately blushed.

“Mr. Naofumi! Just because of pressure from other people, you’re going to do what, exactly?!” Raphtalia asked, adopting a light stance with her sword at the ready. I couldn’t believe she was ready to fight me off! Did she dislike me that much?!

“Hey, Ren. Do you think Hero Iwatani is having some kind of manic episode? Or has the pressure from everyone around him finally become too much to bear?” Eclair pondered on the sidelines. Ren didn’t seem to have an answer. Melty looked suitably aghast, Rift looked perplexed, and the Raph-chans were holding their breath. Wyndia had a cold look in her eyes.

“Bubba, now you’re acting weird!” Keel barked.

“Keel! Silence!” I commanded.

“Ah, Brother’s heart is in turmoil!” Fohl lamented. “Atla, what should I do for him in this situation?”

“Fohl!” I replied. “If Atla was alive she would be trying to get in on this—and you’d be looking at that with jealousy, wouldn’t you?”

“Right, of course! But hold on . . . this is like the time you tried to bed me! Brother, you are manic again indeed!” Fohl blustered.

“It’s nothing like that one specific time!” I replied. I was never going to live that down. I was also getting pretty pissed at the people I’d expected to be on my side here—the people who wanted this to happen—now all lining up to get in the way.

I continued to inch toward Raphtalia, almost as though I was expecting a fight.

Imiya stepped in and said, “Let me help here . . . From how the Shield Hero was acting earlier today, I think I can understand what he is going to do.”

“Earlier today?” Raphtalia asked. “I did have a terrible premonition at one point. What did he do to you?!” It almost sounded like she’d developed some kind of sixth sense.

“Raph!” Raph-chan gave a hopeless shrug.

“If you hear the whole story, I think you’ll understand,” Imiya said, “but the more people who know the truth, the less impact this will have . . .”

“Imiya, can you tell me what the situation is? What Mr. Naofumi is thinking? Please, just tell me,” Raphtalia suggested.

“Ah, okay. Here’s what happened.” Imiya moved over to Raphtalia and whispered quietly into her ear. Raphtalia had been standing with her face red and her sword ready to draw, but then her eyes narrowed, and she eventually changed to a look of typical mild disgust. She dropped her guard and came over, whispering in a quiet voice.

“Okay, Mr. Naofumi . . . just to confirm this, you weren’t planning on doing . . . something like what Sadeena wants from you, right here with me, in front of everyone, right?” Raphtalia asked.

“No, of course not. Do you really think that’s the kind of thing I’m into?” I replied. A little sex education for the masses? Only a real pervert would do that. Sure, the four holy heroes all came from different worlds, but that didn’t mean we were completely without morals. Raphtalia gave a sigh of relief at hearing this. She couldn’t have really thought I’d do something like that! Everyone was on my case the entire time about our relationship already. What would happen if we did something like that?

“I think I understand the situation,” Raphtalia said. “What exactly did you plan on doing?”

“Just this.” I reached up and stroked Raphtalia’s head. It did feel different from when I stroked her before. She’d been a child back then; now she was taller, and her hair was so smooth. Raphtalia had seemed a little hesitant about this to start with, but now her cheeks were starting to flush a little. She was even leaning in toward me.

“Oh boy! Hot couple alert!” Keel was getting carried away already.

“Really . . . what are you playing at . . .” Melty seemed to have realized what was going on too, and sighed, but seemed willing to let it slide.

“Seriously. It’s just some harmless stroking. Stop making it into such a big thing,” I muttered.

“It’s because you didn’t explain yourself properly, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia admonished me.

“This would be pointless if I had to explain it. I thought Keel, at least, would pick up on my intentions, like Imiya did,” I grated. This wasn’t a case of being dumb; she was reaching Motoyasu levels of obliviousness.

I continued to stroke Raphtalia as I thought the situation over. Of course, I couldn’t stroke her chest like I did with Keel. I mean, it was an option but would clearly be considered sexual harassment, and something inside me was putting the brakes on that. Stroking her chest in front of everyone would be a mistake. In Keel’s case, that had been the chest plate of a dog. Totally different. Sadeena’s tits—okay, I wasn’t going there. Stroking her throat like I did with the Raph-chans and Imiya felt kind of wrong too. That led my eyes down to her tail. It looked like there was plenty of easy stroking down there. Raphtalia noticed where I was looking and placed her hands over her tail.

“That might be a bit much . . . You can just stroke my head, thank you,” she said.

“Oh, okay,” I replied. Maybe demi-humans had a thing about getting their tails stroked. It might have been worse than copping a feel of her tits.

“What I mean is . . . that kind of thing . . . would be better when we are alone . . . together, I mean, but alone . . .” Raphtalia stammered, turning redder and redder. I had seen demi-humans winding their tails together, like human lovers might hold hands, back in Siltvelt. When I had been paraded around the city on that palanquin, I recalled one such couple looking at me and getting all gooey over the Shield Hero blessing their union. I think I’d almost thrown up. Those two had their tails entwined together, and they had been demi-humans. Maybe holding tails was like holding hands then—I just didn’t have a tail to do it with. A tail stroke could well be sexual harassment.

“Raph!” Raph-chan sensed that I still had more stroking to give and offered her tail toward me.

“Ah, okay. Thanks,” I replied, feeling like I was left with little choice but to stroke the offered tail. The soft fluffy feel of it reminded me of how Raphtalia used to be.

“I understand what you wanted to achieve with this, Mr. Naofumi . . . so let’s go home like this, shall we?” Raphtalia suggested. Incredibly, she took my hand, and the two of us headed back to our house like an intimate couple. Once we were alone in the room—though we kept our eyes peeled for Peeping Toms at the window—she also let me touch her tail a little. I hoped this would settle everyone down.

That night, before going to sleep, Keel and the others had bothered Raphtalia over and over to try and find out what the two of us had done together. We hadn’t done anything, beyond a little tail stuff, but Raphtalia managed to evade such questions.