Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Thanks to the Assassin

It was a few days after Keel and the other villagers went into treatment.

“Hey!” Mamoru arrived at our village, with Cian in tow. Melty and Ruft were with them too.

“Huh? What’s up? Something going down?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Mamoru replied. “I told you about that person who looks like Raphtalia, right? We’ve finally pinned down her location. We’d like to take you to meet her. What do you say?” I did recall him mentioning such a person. She was likely to be an ancestor of Raphtalia. It certainly seemed worth going to meet her.

“Okay. We’ll get ready and move out,” I replied.

“We’ll need to be careful,” Mamoru warned. “She calls herself a pacifier, one here to observe the heroes. If things go badly, we could get killed.”

“I know. We’ve got one of her descendants here with us though,” I said. We’d also launched an attack on Q’ten Lo back in our time. We could handle it. “We’re just looking to have a chat, but still . . .” We’d need to take a big enough party to be able to handle things if she did turn hostile. From her perspective we were an irregular entity. When we explained ourselves to her, it would be important to keep her a little confused. The fact there were two Shield Heroes should help stimulate her curiosity. That was why Mamoru and I were going together.

Ren, meanwhile, might be mistaken as a Sword Hero from a completely different world, so I’d keep him on standby in case things fell apart completely. Raphtalia and Ruft, meanwhile, were perfectly suited to providing the biggest surprise we had. Both of them had been blessed as Heavenly Emperor, after all. That could end up stirring things up instead, but there were too many possible merits not to take them along. They’d even let us resist a Sakura Destiny Sphere created by a sakura stone of destiny. Things were going to work out in our favor.

That said, we didn’t want to take too many along. Just enough to put up a fight if things kicked off. Sending Shadow in to scout was also an option, but we were dealing with someone similar to Raphtalia here. We had to presume she’d be pretty good at spotting people trying to hide themselves.

“Melty, I’d like Raphtalia and Ruft to come along to negotiate, but what about you?” I asked the queen.

“Taking those two sounds like a good idea. If we are dealing with someone from the same island as Raphtalia, those two will likely be more effective than me. I’ll get involved if fighting starts, but I’m happy to stay in the background at first,” Melty said. It sounded like she pretty much shared my assessment. With that, we settled on obvious-but-safe party picks.

“Okay then. Let’s go meet with this pacifier,” I said. Obviously, we needed to search out every possible lead in terms of being able to get home, but even more than that, we needed to control any random elements that could potentially make trouble if further fighting started.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan.

“Dafu!” added Raph-chan II. They both seemed to want to come along.

“I’m not sure taking the Raph-chans along would be conducive to smooth negotiations,” Raphtalia said.

“But even if they go well, she’s going to see the Raph-chans at some point, which could ruin everything,” I replied. Trying to hide things that you couldn’t hide was a bad idea. If we did get along with this pacifier lady, we had to imagine what would happen if she came to our village. Showing her our hand to start with, hiding nothing, would make a better impression of us too. If we explained everything, we might be able to avoid a confrontation. We could at least explain the Raph species, preventing a breakdown of things later. They could also be useful to confuse and disorient her. When I recalled how Raphtalia had reacted when she first saw Raph-chan, it convinced me that it could work.

“Do you think we’ll be able to make this work?” Raphtalia wondered.

“We have to,” I replied. With that, the decision was made for me. Mamoru, Raphtalia, Ruft, and the two Raph-chans would act as the main diplomatic unit. A second unit of Ren, Fohl, and some others would be stationed a short distance away, ready to rush in if we needed more numbers.

“Fohl, thank you,” Cian said, showing no reservation in talking with him. She had wanted to stay close to Mamoru, and so we’d added her to Fohl’s unit.

“Sure, you’re welcome,” he replied, knitting his eyes a bit. She normally wasn’t that friendly, but she was closer to Fohl than me already. Fohl seemed to have noticed it himself, because he was tilting his head in puzzlement. S’yne and R’yne could leap over whenever they were needed, so they’d be keeping tabs on things with us while also continuing their training at Mamoru’s castle. I was happy with that—R’yne had a big mouth, so we didn’t need her chipping in with unwanted comments in the middle of important discussions. The price for mocking me sexually was a high one, she was going to learn.

I proposed that idea to Mamoru, and he agreed at once. The pacifier didn’t seem to like R’yne much either. I always seemed to pick up party members who made delicate things more complicated with their presence—like the killer whale sisters. But I really couldn’t knock Sadeena; she was great at pretty much everything she tried. She was adept at keeping things casual while really seeing through to the truth of an individual. That was something R’yne definitely didn’t have.

Anyway. That seemed like a good setup.

With that, we used one of Mamoru’s movement skills to travel over to the country where the current Heavenly Emperor was to be found. We proceeded to enter what looked like another castle town. Of course, we had the permits required, which Mamoru displayed at the gate. We made our way inside, wearing light robes and keeping our faces concealed.

“Don’t make too much of a commotion, if you can help it,” Mamoru stated. “This nation is strong enough to fend off Piensa.”

“Okay. It’s a powerful place then.” I wasn’t sure exactly what Mamoru was getting at, but I guessed it meant they had a lot of authority.

“They have remained neutral in regard to the conflict between Siltran and Piensa,” Mamoru continued.

“Maybe they just want to pick over the bones once you’re done,” I said.

“I’m sure that’s true. They are very strict about the flow of their people to other nations, however, and their politics are super corrupt too. But that doesn’t change how strong they are, of course,” Mamoru explained. I looked around the place he had led us too. It did all have a lonely . . . suppressed air to it. All the towns I visited in this other world looked like pretty crappy places to live. Keeping the peace in a fantasy world was no easy task.

As I pondered these thoughts, people started running from the direction we were headed in. Then there came a loud noise from somewhere up ahead.

“Dafu!” Dafu-chan—Raph-chan II—was immediately pointing in that direction.

“Move!” Mamoru shouted, dashing ahead.

“Okay!” I headed after him, along with the rest of the party.

“Dafu!” Dafu-chan was using the spear we found in the filolial sanctuary to fly through the air like a witch on a broom. I was a little bemused by the sight, but it also looked like loads of fun.

“Raph, raph!” Raph-chan was waving a paw. It was cute and soothing, but I also needed to maintain a certain level of tension for what was about to happen. Dafu-chan flew off in the direction of the noise, toward the castle, from which smoke was already rising. This felt like something I’d seen before somewhere.

We used our high-level abilities to force our way through the castle gate—the command structure among the defenders in chaos—and tried to work out what was going on. There was smoke rising from the plaza directly inside the gates. We heard the deafening roar of some monster or other.

“Whatever is the meaning of all this?!” The speaker was a woman who looked like Raphtalia, but with short hair, dressed in a miko outfit, and held a hammer in her hands. Dafu-chan was there too. The third occupant was a fox monster, with nine tails and everything, dying with a spear lodged through its face. The corpse looked familiar. It looked like the fox that had been with Takt. The colors on the fur looked brighter on this one though. Maybe I was just imagining things. “You would kill first and ask questions later?” the woman asked.

“Dafu!” Dafu-chan replied, with a bit of an uncomfortable expression on her face.

“Not to mention the vibrations I sense from your power . . .” the woman muttered.

“Dafu?” Dafu-chan inquired. A moment later the spear that Dafu-chan was holding started to shudder and then shattered into nothing. A gentle light floated up into the air, and it went into Dafu-chan. Fragments of that light also fell onto the short-haired version of Raphtalia.

“I see,” she said. “The weapon destroyed the curse and then sacrificed itself. Its task is completed.”

“Dafu,” Dafu-chan affirmed. It almost sounded like the two of them were hearing something we weren’t privy to.

“Very well . . . but who are you exactly?” she asked again, with more composure this time. In that same moment, what looked like a Chinese dragon flew down into the smoldering plaza to float at the side of the woman who looked like Raphtalia. I wondered exactly who they were. From the look of them, it was clear they were the ones we were here to see. When I considered the traditions of Q’ten Lo, wearing the miko getup suggested she was the Heavenly Emperor from this time, no doubt about it.

Then she noticed us and looked over in our direction.

“Okay, sorry about this. She’s one of my monsters . . . but the thing is . . . her spear flew off on its own, pretty much,” I tried to explain, taking a step forward. The girl looked at Mamoru and then raised her hammer, brow furrowed with caution.

“You are the Shield Hero. What are you doing here? Are you planning to use this chaos to your own advantage?” she asked.

“Nothing of the sort. We have something we would like to discuss with you, the one who calls herself the pacifier, and so we came to see you. I’d like to ask you about the cause of all of this commotion, actually,” Mamoru replied. He kept his guard down, speaking softly, displaying no hostile intent.

“This is part of my work as pacifier. I was simply seeking to locate and remove another monster that harms the people and infests this nation,” she replied.

“Very well . . . if that’s the case. What exactly was your plan next though? Things seem a little chaotic here,” Mamoru pointed out.

“I was going to explain what I was doing to the king and then ride off with my friend here. But we are talking about a person who has been tricked by this beast, of course, so he might not accept what I have to say,” she said. Just from hearing her brief explanation, I figured she sounded pretty disorganized. I wondered if this really was the Heavenly Emperor from this time. It looked like she had smashed the fox with her hammer, knocking him through the floor of the upper level.

“How’s that all working out?” I asked. Even as I did, a kingly-looking—and angry-looking—fellow just happened to show up. He was handsome enough and had black hair.

“You scum! How dare you! My wife!” the king spluttered.

“You had to know your wife, this foul beast you see before you, was poisoning this nation! You are the one who has been fooled here,” the Heavenly Emperor replied.

“Silence! You’ve taken my wife from me, a crime that deserves a thousand deaths—no! I’ll torture you until you split apart, then kill your entire family too!” the king raged. He proceeded to give the order to his men to attack the Heavenly Emperor. From the look of it, her plan had been about as well-planned as I’d thought.

“How sad. No wonder you let this monster into your bed. You are worth no better than that. A king who thinks so little of his country isn’t worthy to sit on its throne,” the floating dragon retorted. I’d seen similar creatures before, of course—like Gaelion and the Demon Dragon. We were in the past now though. This one probably had some Dragon Emperor fragments of its own.

“Hold a moment!” the Heavenly Emperor shouted, but the dragon ignored her, sucking in a deep breath, then blowing pressurized water directly at the king. With a gurgling, spluttering cry, the king was blown away. Not only was it a pretty grim sight to behold, but now we were party to regicide. I wondered how this was going to shake out.

“They’ve killed the king too?!” The gathered guards and ministers seemed pretty surprised, but half of them looked pretty happy about this turn of events. It looked like the king hadn’t been especially well-liked. I could imagine this might be what Melromarc could have turned into in the future if Bitch had become queen. How well someone was liked really comes to light once they died. When the previous queen of Melromarc died, the guards had been wracked with grief.

“I think we had better move along. Agreed?” I asked the Heavenly Emperor. She nodded. She looked like she had worked up a bit of a sweat. We proceeded to make a run for it. “We need to get out of here before we get caught up in this!” Considering the situation, we—that is, Mamoru—were definitely complicit in this. Even if we did just happen to show up at the right (wrong?) moment, no one who mattered was going to believe that it was a coincidence.

“You’re right,” Mamoru agreed. If word got around that the Shield Hero was trying to destroy this nation, that could cause trouble for me too. Best to just make a run for it.

“I can’t keep up with all of this,” Raphtalia said.

“Raph!” Raph-chan chirped.

“I think I’m getting a feel for how things work,” Ruft said. “You should have a better idea than me, Raphtalia.”

“I do. I just don’t want to,” Raphtalia replied. The two of them were running along behind us. Raphtalia and the other illusion magic users were aiding in our escape, of course, and we proceeded to exit the castle town completely.

As it turned out, the removal of the problematic king and his queen actually resolved many of the issues the nation faced, such as heavy taxation. The people suddenly found a far brighter future awaiting them. Their deaths were said to have been from an unidentified assassin. Anyway, the nine-tailed fox made me think of a certain stylized ninja as it ran through the streets.

The nation had been insanely corrupt. At the end of the day, most people seemed grateful to the “assassin,” and that kept it from becoming a larger problem for us.

We left the castle behind us as we reached some nearby woodlands. Checking to make sure no one was following, we caught our breath.

“How sad,” the Heavenly Emperor said, breathing hard. “I never expected the outside world to be quite this corrupt.”

“That’s just how things are,” I replied bleakly. “Clinging to strange ideals will only disappoint you.” Looking back over my personal history, I realized finding politics that weren’t corrupt was definitely the hardest task in this world. I took a moment to consider things back at home though. If you believed the TV or the Internet, it was pretty much the same everywhere.

“I don’t know who you are, but you have a bitter outlook,” the Heavenly Emperor replied. She looked over at us, her brows knitting together as she tilted her head. “I have to say though . . .” She seemed especially interested in Raphtalia. Of course, that was why we’d brought her along.

“We’re here to explain about these people you see before you,” Mamoru said. “Please, don’t treat us like you treated that king back there.”

“Just what do you think a pacifier does? I am highly intrigued by those wearing clothing from my home nation, but I’m not going to attack without due cause,” she replied. Recent evidence seemed to suggest otherwise, but I held my tongue. Powerful people tended to take direct action—and her saying “without due cause” was telling me she very well would attack if we gave her any reason. “You, then. Why are you wearing clothing native to my homeland? Why do you look so much like me?” she asked Raphtalia. “Could it be a certain alchemist has tried to make a copy of me . . . but I don’t see her here today.” A certain alchemist? She was talking about Holn. She had been getting into all sorts of things recently, but I hadn’t talked to her much myself. She hadn’t been with Mamoru today either. Off with Rat again somewhere, probably.

“Well, about that . . .” Raphtalia started.

“Hold a moment. I sense that you have received the blessing of the Heavenly Emperor. That means you aren’t some pale copy. This other one has also experienced the ritual,” said the dragon that was wound around the Heavenly Emperor. The dragon was getting a read on Raphtalia and Ruft. And while that was happening, the Heavenly Emperor turned her gaze on me and my shield.

“The Shield Spirit implement . . . I sense other holy weapons too—and resistance to the sakura stone of destiny,” she pondered. Having seen all of that so quickly, she might be better at this than Raphtalia and those in my party. “You’re going to explain all of this, correct?” she asked.

“Mamoru literally just said that’s what we’re here to do,” I reminded her. “How long are you planning to keep this high-and-mighty act up for, oh lady Heavenly Emperor? You’re a pacifier in name, perhaps, but you just look like a girl spoiling for a fight to me. Don’t forget what Mamoru is here for.” Maybe she was trying to cow us into a submissive position for the upcoming talks. She looked at me with a slightly pissed-off expression.

“Huh. You got one over on us there, I admit,” the dragon acquiesced. “He’s right. Simply having authority is nothing to boast about,” the dragon murmured, cautioning the Heavenly Emperor. She still looked a little upset but managed to take a deep breath and calm herself down a little.

“Tell me why you are here, then. What have you come so politely to report to me?” the Heavenly Emperor asked.

“Okay, here we go . . . This is going to sound a little crazy, but we’re actually here from the distant future of this world—from the time of the next series of waves. I’m the Shield Hero from the future and these are my allies,” I explained. The Heavenly Emperor opened her eyes wide upon hearing this and then started to digest it at once.

“I see . . . That’s an interesting one. The Shield Hero from the future . . .” she pondered.

“Excuse me a moment,” the dragon said, moving toward me and gently stroking the gemstone on my shield, then checking Raphtalia and the others before swirling around in the air in front of me. This was definitely a new one for me. I’d seen other dragons, but not one so Chinese-styled before. For a moment I was reminded of when we were caught up in the whirlpool in Q’ten Lo.

“I like the aura you are giving off, I must admit. If you really are the future Shield Hero, then that’s a pleasant development for us,” the dragon said.

“Why is it that monsters—and even dragons—seem to take such a liking to you, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia interjected from the sidelines.

“If you mean they like to walk all over me, sure. I’m not giving off some kind of strange pheromones, am I?” I said, shaking my head at whatever curse my body was suffering from. Gaelion was bad enough, but the Demon Dragon was the worst. The way she acted gave me all sorts of uncomfortable ideas. I had to hope this new dragon wasn’t going to earn the name Demon Dragon II. Just to test the waters, I tickled it under the chin in a spot where the scales looked like they grew backward. I didn’t care if I upset the beast. I just wanted to try something.

“Oh, wow . . . what’s happening here?” the dragon enthused. “Ooh? That feels good? What is this?!” I immediately regretted my action and stopped. But it was too late—I saw a new fire appear in the dragon’s eyes already. “What new territory is this? Can you stroke me some more there? I had no idea such a thing could feel so good!”

“Could this be the proof of R’yne’s theory that you can’t cause pain?” Mamoru started, but I gave him an intense glare to silence him. There was no need to bring sex into this again! Meanwhile, Raphtalia and the Heavenly Emperor were looking at me with the exact same look in their eyes—mild hopelessness, bordering on disgust.

“This one is fun! I like him!” the dragon stated.

“I’m not having fun!” I replied.

“You’re so popular, Naofumi!” Ruft said.

“You can keep this kind of popularity,” I shot back.

“I’m still trying to see if your story checks out,” the Heavenly Emperor said with a sigh. “Everything seems like it’s in line, and the target awareness of the spirits in your weapons has not been disassociated—meaning you don’t seem to be using them for personal purposes.” The Heavenly Emperor had been on her guard from the moment we showed up, but she finally dropped her defenses. “To top it all off, it seems you have already stolen my dragon away from me.”

“No one is stealing anything,” the dragon replied. “They have just caught my interest. I had no idea that being stroked here would make me feel this way.”

“It sounds like something has been stolen to me,” she replied archly. “Now, about your claim of having come from the future, perhaps you can explain that?”

“Sure thing, if you’ve got the time.” I proceeded to tell the Heavenly Emperor about how the attack from S’yne’s sister’s forces had sent our entire village back in time, then how we had met up with Mamoru and were now working alongside him.

“I see. I think I understand. That would also explain why I am sensing two Shield Spirits. You have other spirits too, don’t you?” she asked me.

“You have keen senses. That’s right. The Mirror vassal weapon from a completely different world to this one is also lending me its power,” I told her. The effects of that seemed to be unlocking things with a mixture of shield and mirror elements—things like a Mirror Shield.

“If multiple spirits are willing to lend you their power, that means you are both trusted and powerful. Not the kind of individual even a pacifier may engage without due consideration,” the Heavenly Emperor said.

“The Book Spirit and Mirror Spirit practically fought over him,” Raphtalia added, a little cheekily.

“I see,” the Heavenly Emperor said. “You are quite blessed, if that is the case.” I didn’t deny it, but that had been more about returning a favor for having helped them out. “The heroes in the future seem to get all the favors,” she continued, giving Mamoru a pointed look. I wondered for a moment why she seemed too hard on him—and then remembered the conflict with the Bow Hero.

“I wouldn’t exactly put it like that,” I replied. Those who had summoned me certainly hadn’t done me a favor.

“My thanks for finding me to report all of this,” the Heavenly Emperor said. “Otherwise, it could have caused quite the misunderstanding later. I didn’t expect to find the future Heavenly Emperors of Q’ten Lo here, after all.”

“That’s why we’ve come to you,” I said, seeing my moment. “Do you have any idea how we could resolve our time-based problem? We’re really just looking to get back to our own time.”

“I regret to tell you that my knowledge as a pacifier is somewhat incomplete. I have no idea how to resolve a situation such as the one you describe,” the Heavenly Emperor admitted, her brow furrowing a little as she replied.

“Ah, one thing,” Raphtalia said, stepping in. “It might be wise to introduce yourself to Mr. Naofumi as quickly as possible. Otherwise, he will give you a strange nickname, and those never seem to go away,” she cautioned.

“I see no reason to share my name. Just call me ‘Heavenly Emperor from the past.’ I’m fine with that,” she replied.

“I think that might be too on the nose—and long too,” Raphtalia said.

“Well, if you must call me something shorter, you can call me Natalia,” the woman said.

“Is that your real name? Or an alias?” I replied. “Which is it?” She hadn’t thought for too long before tossing that name out. It sounded pretty made-up to me. Her chosen name was a lot like Raphtalia’s name too—I was worried about getting them mixed up. The name itself felt like a combination of my name and Raphtalia’s. Raphtalia herself was making a pretty strange face.

“We have more important things to discuss,” Natalia said. “I don’t know of any technique for traveling through time, but we may find some hints if we look into the traditions of the past.”

“Traditions, huh,” I said.

“Every region has its own legends. Searching around might turn up some weapons or other useful things too. So it’s not a bad idea,” Mamoru said calmly. The issue was whether or not we had the time for it. We had access to copying weapons, and yet we hadn’t exactly been looking around for famous weapons of the past to copy and obtain. If we found a sword stuck in a plinth somewhere (the old classic), we only needed Ren to grip the handle and copy it, which would boost our attack power considerably.

Then I realized why I’d never given this much thought. There wasn’t going to be legendary shields stuck into plinths. I glanced over at Raphtalia.

“The powerful gear used by the heroes of the past, and their allies, can reasonably be expected to still be around somewhere,” she added. Maybe it was something like that high-energy intensive weapon copied from the four holy weapons that the high priest of the Church of the Three Heroes had used. We also had the ones from the monsters that the past Heavenly Emperor had sealed away in Q’ten Lo; after that, almost all of our gear was stuff made for us by the old guy or his master. Maybe all the better gear had been lost over time. It seemed like there was not much of a tradition of passing things down to future generations in this world.

Considered in that light, though, maybe this was also the work of the one who assumed the name of god—our enemy, and the one behind the resurrected. A little treasure hunting back here in the past might turn up the goods.

“After all of this, I still have one question . . .” Natalia said.

“Raph!” Raph-chan exclaimed as Natalia picked her up.

“Just what is this creature?” Natalia asked.

“Raph-chan is a familiar who was created from Raphtalia’s hair. She’s one of my favorites,” I said.

“What a bizarre creature. I can’t believe the spirits allowed for its existence,” Natalia stated.

“I agree,” Raphtalia replied. “There are so many of them back in the village.”

“I will need to observe all of this some more. It would be best to find a way to get you all back to your time as quickly as possible—or maybe just execute you here,” Natalia pondered.

“Hold on. You can’t do that to a hero over personal issues,” the dragon chided Natalia. She clicked her tongue in mild annoyance, and I narrowed my eyes at the relationship between them. It seemed like the dragon was in charge.

“You haven’t finished your introductions yet,” I said. “Who is this? A Dragon Emperor?” A dragon who could speak the human tongue was, in my experience, a Dragon Emperor, but I wasn’t sure on the logistics.

“That is probably how one would classify me. I am the pacifier’s guardian dragon. As for my name . . . in Q’ten Lo they call me the Water Dragon,” he replied. That gave me pause. This was the object of Sadeena and Shildina’s worship just showing up out of the blue. In the future, it had stayed hidden the whole time.

“Will that mantle eventually be passed on to a younger dragon? Anything like that?” I asked.

“Not so long as I live,” the dragon replied.

“If you make it to the future, then, you’re going to allow us to enter Q’ten Lo. You also stay under the sea and just maintain a barrier around the place,” I told him.

“Interesting. It sounds like even Q’ten Lo will suffer tribulations. What might have caused me to summon heroes?” the dragon pondered. I was still wondering if Sadeena and Shildina would be bowing and scraping if they were here.

“What is the Water Dragon doing here anyway? What’s going on over in Q’ten Lo?” I asked. I’d thought the dragon would be deep under the water, keeping the barrier going even during this time period. Maybe this was some kind of copy—a minion the main dragon had shared a core with.

“The tides do not make entry into that land easily, and we have a barrier up too. I see no reason at the moment for such heavy security. But I presume something in the future is preventing me from moving around,” the Water Dragon said. We’d already come across numerous differences between the past and the future of this world, and there were the dealings of the resurrected to consider too. The dragon was likely defending against something related to them. “In any case, as I’m sure you are aware, I’m the dragon responsible for defending the Shield World. I am a kind of Emperor Dragon, but I’m not interested in fighting over fragments. I’m sure the Bow Guardian Dragon feels the same way,” the Water Dragon said. It sounded like he thought we knew what the hell he was talking about.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. We didn’t know anything about a “Bow Guardian Dragon.” It sounded like another dragon guarding some secretive nation somewhere. I really didn’t want to have to take another pain-in-the-ass field trip, if we could help it.

“I see. Their nation is harder to reach than even Q’ten Lo, that is true, so I can understand why you might have trouble finding it,” the Water Dragon said.

“We shouldn’t say anything more,” Natalia chipped in. “They wouldn’t want us sending unwanted guests their way.”

“It sounds like there are multiple nations with pacifiers,” I said. Based on what we’d seen in Kizuna’s world, something in our world had likely wiped them out too. More information was normally better, but in this case, I wasn’t sure we needed to know this stuff.

“Having heard your situation, I should probably explain a little,” Natalia offered. “As I’m sure you are at least aware, pacifiers are the ones who punish the users of the spirit implements—what you called holy or vassal weapons—if they step off the true path. We can punish anyone who causes issues, so be careful not to cross me.”

“No problem. We have those among our allies who have the same purpose as you,” I replied.

“I’m sure you do. I was dispatched because voices from the spirits reached the altar in Q’ten Lo, informing us that a hero had potentially stepped from the path,” Natalia continued. “With the global issues we are facing due to the waves, it isn’t possible to casually kill the holder of a holy weapon at the moment, but that won’t stop me if they are on some kind of rampage. Mamoru, you understand this, correct?” Dispatched after hearing the spirits at the altar . . . I recalled hearing something like that in the castle at Q’ten Lo, but I hadn’t actually been there to see it for myself. I presumed the “altar” was the spot with the dragon hourglass—I couldn’t recall much of anything else being there.

“Of course. But at the moment, should we be more fixated on doing something about the waves . . . and Piensa too?” he replied.

“I have no intention to get involved in your conflicts, but I do think it’s the height of foolishness that you choose to fight them at the moment,” Natalia replied. I completely agreed with her, but she was allowed to hold such an opinion because she was on the outside.

“Dafu! Dafu, dafu!” Dafu-chan said, almost as though she was chiding Natalia for something.

“This creature is saying you need to take these talks more seriously,” the Water Dragon said. “Allowing heroes to deploy into human warfare must never be allowed.”

“That’s true . . . but we can’t just charge in there and take out the leader either, can we? I’m reflecting on today already, believe me,” Natalia replied. She sounded more reasonable than I might have expected. I’d almost thought she’d paint us as fools who could never understand her. “Still, I face another creature who seems eager to speak her mind. Just who are you?” At that, Dafu-chan fell silent again. “In any case, you’re telling me that this world has already fused with another at some point in the future, right? I don’t want to believe it, of course . . .”

“We don’t know the details of exactly what happened or what’s happening to us here. I’d like to believe we’ve come to a different world with a similar history, to be honest,” I told her.

“I am going to need to observe your base of operations. You don’t mind if I accompany you there, right?” Natalia asked.

“If you launch into an attack the moment you locate our base, we’re going to put you down hard,” I warned her.

“You have access to the sakura stone of destiny, so I understand how hard defeating you would be. So long as the spirits are cooperating with you of their own volition, it would be difficult for me to bring down punishment on you, so you may rest easy on that score.” Natalia proceeded to let the Water Dragon wind up around her again and she finally dropped her guard completely. It sounded like she wanted to come with us. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of her yet, but she seemed a bit more intense than Raphtalia and Ruft.

We met up with Ren and the others, still waiting on standby in the vicinity, and then we all headed back to the village.