Disclaimer: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is the copyright property of Aneko Yusagi. Thus, I hold no rights regarding the characters used in this fanfiction story.

Woohoo! I claim first rights to this series fanfic section~

Anyways, this is just a one-shot snippet which takes place a day before the start of chap. 16 in the web novel version. Keep in mind that Naofumi is afflicted by the Cursed Shield during this time, so his perception of Raphtalia is still quite a bit distorted here.

Whack! Pow! Smack!

After inflicting about a dozen punches to its face, the monster finally expires with a weak, pitiful shriek.

Naofumi wipes the sweat off his brow and turns to his companion.

"Phew... Let's take a break, Raphtalia."

Raphtalia daintily sheathes her sword from her standby position and returns to his side.

"Alright."

It's been a little less than a week since they first traveled to the forest village of Riyuuto.

At first, it seemed inevitable that Naofumi would start lagging behind in terms of levels due to his class as the Shield Hero. But now he's gradually catching up to Raphtalia thanks to her devised battle method, where she would fatally damage a fallen monster before allowing him to deliver the finishing blow.

Using this new strategy, Raphtalia had risen her level by 2 while Naofumi was able to increase his by 5, bringing their total levels up to 24 and 17 respectively.

"Umm... Naofumi-sama? Wouldn't it be better if we weren't partying together while engaging in these sort of battles? That way, you'll be able to receive the full amount of exp for every monster encounter."

Naofumi regards her warmly for a moment before shaking his head. He hated kill-stealing way back when he was still playing online MMOs. So there's no way he would take advantage of Raphtalia, who works so hard and puts forth so much effort for his sake.

And he'd rather die than do the exact same thing that bitch Mein had done to him.

"This setup is fine. You're my slave, Raphtalia: my one and only ally. So it's only right for us to always be in the same party."

Though she was about to protest some more, Raphtalia blithely concedes when Naofumi reaches out and unwittingly ruffles her hair with his hand.

Really though, she has gotten increasingly better at gauging the monsters' health around this area.

So good in fact, that the near hour he had once spent on defeating a single, dying monster has now been drastically reduced to a minute at the absolute most.

While Raphtalia is only shaving off a few extra life points from the enemy, that finite precision of hers has truly made all the difference. It'd be no exaggeration to say that these fights would take far longer and be infinitely more difficult if his partner had been anyone else.

Of course, they still need to target enemies who are frail, with weak enough defenses so that his punches can still chip away at their remaining hp.

But that minor problem poses its own dilemma, since those monster types usually have explosive attack strength to compensate for their defensive shortcomings.

Naofumi had learned firsthand how much harder it was to restrain a cornered beast that's on the verge on death compared to simply killing it outright.

And then there's Raphtalia, who's purposely putting herself in harm's way while they were utilizing this strategy.

There were many times where she had gotten injured by the monsters' counterattack as a result.

Naofumi had been against these skirmishes at first, saying that the risk wasn't worth the reward; that he was perfectly fine being stuck at a low level so long as he could continue keeping her safe.

"I'm the Shield Hero. Like hell I'll fail at the only job I can do."

And he honestly meant it. But Raphtalia had been so insistent and unyielding about this topic that Naofumi had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

"It's exactly because I trust Naofumi-sama with my very life. But that doesn't mean I'd ever wish to entrust you with the responsibilities which are mine to bear alone."

She had grasped both of his hands and looked up at him then.

"So please let me do this much for myself, in order to reduce the danger Naofumi-sama faces each and every day: if only a little."

Damn it... How was he suppose to counter back after she made such a reasonable argument and stared so pleadingly into his eyes like that?

Yet no matter how often it happened, he still hates to see Raphtalia get hurt. Just the mere thought of it...

… Well, it leaves a sour aftertaste in his mouth.

Naofumi looks over at her and his eyes narrow.

Like right now. Though Raphtalia is trying her best to hide it, he can tell that she's favoring her left leg as she walks.

"We're done for today."

She turns toward him with a bit of puzzlement.

"Oh, are you sure, Naofumi-sama? Aren't you very close to leveling up soon?"

"Yeah, but that can wait until tomorrow. More importantly, we should return to the village and buy some high quality medicine for your foot."

Surprise flashes through Raphtalia's face before it's replaced by a shameful guilt.

"I'm sorry, Naofumi-sama... I didn't mean to cause you any trouble..."

"... Don't worry about it, I should have noticed sooner. And it's partly my fault that we're stuck in this situation to begin with."

Which is true to a certain extent. Since he had used up their entire stock of recovery medicine for every little wound Raphtalia had received, even those which weren't caused by a monster's attack.

… Yeah, you heard right. But in his defense, she had stumbled pretty hard and had taken a really nasty-looking fall, enough to draw blood even!

Well... not a lot of blood, but there was still some..! Like, a little more than a trickle maybe...

A-Anyways, it's his job to protect Raphtalia. And since she had gotten injured under his watch, then of course it was his swore duty to see her immediately restored to full health.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Naofumi convinces himself with that line of reasoning.

Thinking back, the last time she even gotten a limb wound was well over an hour ago. Which means she's been enduring the pain on that bad leg ever since.

Naofumi crotches down directly in front of Raphtalia, his hands grasp together behind his back.

"Hop on."

She looks down at him with agape surprise, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Eh?! Y-You don't need to go that far for me..! I can still walk well enough on my own, as you can see."

"You're wounded, Raphtalia, and it's a long journey back to the village. So this is the best way to prevent your injury from getting worse."

Still warring with uncertainty, her eyes dart back and forth while she tries coming up with a different excuse.

"What about the monster drops we've collected so far? There's no way for us to bring them all if Naofumi-sama will be carrying me as well..."

"We'll just leave them behind."

"B-But..."

Although he can feel his wallet crying in remorse, Naofumi shakes his head without a shred of hesitation.

"It's fine. Since Raphtalia comes first."

Her hot blush glows even brighter as she shyly averts her gaze, her already low resistance to him gradually dwindling.

"A-Are you sure..? I wouldn't want to impose on you like this..."

Naofumi huffs out a hefty, impatient sigh.

"Good lord, quit complaining and just get on already."

Backing dat ass up, Naofumi forcibly lifts the startled Raphtalia off her feet.

"Ofumph..! For having such a tiny body, you sure are heavy as hell—!"

Seriously, where's that weight reducing magic when you really need it?

"Geez, Naofumi-sama..! I'm not so little anymore if you haven't noticed!"

Her rosy expression now shifting to one of vexed indignity.

"Yeah yeah yeah... You're all grown up now. Like I haven't heard that before."

He replies while rolling his eyes.

"Seriously, what's with all this drama? Do all girls have such a warped way of thinking? Just admit you've put on a few extra pounds and be done with it. It's not like I'll be thinking any less of you if you did."

In response, Raphtalia releases a weary sigh of her own.

"As usual, Naofumi-sama can be so stubborn at times..."

"Look who's talking."

Let's be real here, his little girlie has got to weigh at least twice the amount than her size would ever indicate. But of course, being the wonderful gentleman that he is, Naofumi had decided to cushion his criticism purely for her benefit.

… A lot of good that did him.

Next time, he should probably just strong-arm Raphtalia into opening her eyes and seeing the truth much like he had once done with that merchant from before.

Then again, that method probably won't work on her since she already knows about his surprise balloon attack.

And quite frankly, those level of enemies are nothing against Raphtalia anymore, even a whole horde of them would barely cause her to sweat.

Oh boy... Like always, he just can't seem to catch a break no matter what he's doing. So let's simply stop here and concentrate on the task at hand, shall we?

…

…...

Huh..? That's weird...

While he does feel a mass amount of Raphtalia's blubber against his back, the weight is positioned a little too high up for it to be coming from her stomach. In fact, he can barely feel her tummy at all, what with that huge obstruction weighing so heavily along his shoulder blades.

Not only that, but her well-rounded tush was quite fleshy yet still had an underlining tone and firmness to it, not at all what you'd expect from a preteen girl.

Curious, Naofumi gives an experimental squeeze just to make sure he's not imagining this rather pleasant sensation.

"Kyyaaaah~~~! Na-Naofumi-sama—!"

"M-My bad..!"

His cheeks heating up at the sensual sound of her voice, Naofumi tries his best to reply as evenly as possible.

"Um yeah... sorry 'bout that..."

She ducks her head down, her entire face beet-red.

"... I-It's okay..."

Raphtalia answers while inadvertently drawing closer to him, and he can feel his heartbeat quickening in return.

Naofumi bites down and shakes his head feverishly to clear his mind.

Getting all hot and bothered over a little girl... He can't seriously be turning into a lolicon, right?

Ridiculing himself, Naofumi focuses squarely on his walking pace as they make their way back to town. Yet despite his ongoing efforts to drown away such perverse thoughts, he remains fully aware of Raphtalia and how completely right it feels to have her so close to him behind his back.