Things between Naofumi and I were strained for a while. He developed a bizarre habit of asking me strangely probing questions after we were apart for any length of time.

The first time it happened was when one day I was returning from sword training with Eclair. I was asking her about exercises that I could continue when I was by myself or traveling when all of a sudden Naofumi reached out and grabbed my arm. I hadn't even noticed he was there until suddenly his grip was around my arm and tightening uncomfortably. His attack stat was always low, but his strength stat was much greater than mine, and there was no way for me to pull away easily.

I looked up at him, blinking with confusion as he stared into my eyes and demanded, "What did we eat for lunch yesterday?"

"Uh…" It didn't seem important to me, but after a moment I recalled. "Sandwiches?"

"What was on the sandwiches?"

"...Lettuce, tomato, smoked and salted slices of spiked hog, and that sauce you made, mayonnaise?"

His gaze lingered on me for a long moment, before he nodded once and let go of me. "That's correct."

"Wha-" I looked over at Eclair, who looked just as confused as I did, before asking him, "Why do you ask?"

"It's not important." He dismissed with a smile, before reaching forward to pat me on the head. "How did your training go?"

I hated when he treated me like that, but at least it showed he was in a better mood than he had been recently.


Then the very next day he asked me, "How much did I buy you for?"

That had been months ago, and so I just stared at him trying to remember the exact number, and I couldn't immediately recall it. "Why do you want to know?"

His eyes narrowed suspiciously, his gaze turning into a glare. "Why wouldn't I want to know?"

It was only then that I realised I was being tested. Whatever for, I didn't immediately realise, but suddenly I was afraid of failure. "I think it was thirty silver pieces?"

There was a long pause before suddenly he smiled, looking relieved. "Yeah, that's right."

At that moment I breathed a sigh of relief, too, not sure why I had felt so tense.

Moments like those became common, Naofumi asking me to recall some detail about a moment we had shared, and every time he did it there was an undeniable feeling of threat. Like a wrong answer would have utterly awful consequences. The questions were never too difficult, though. A moment or two of thinking was always enough to find the answer. I even tried to convince myself that we were playing a game, though in my heart it felt like he was punishing me for what I had tried to do that night.

Eventually he stopped asking questions like that, though. At first I was relieved. It seemed like at last he was back to normal.


The next mission we went on was to find a cure for Motoyasu. During the duel he had lost his eyes to Naofumi's balloons, and had been blind ever since. This had made him utterly dependent on Princess Malty for everything. She had greedily sequestered him away in the royal palace, and he was completely helpless to resist her pampering him into pathetic obedience. He was both her helpless pet and golden ticket to take the throne, until the queen returned to find the state he was in and became furious. Melromarc had no use for a fat, palid hero who had to be born about everywhere on a palanquin by servants.

Apparently there was an incredible medicine, a legendary cure all called a Yggdrasil potion, that the queen hoped could bring his sight back. She had dispatched all three of the other heroes to find it, including her daughter who she considered responsible for most of the mess, before hiring foreign experts in an attempt to make the hero learn blind martial arts so that he could oneday fight again.

I didn't think it was likely to work.

As far as I could tell, the man would prefer to spend his days wallowing in self pity, distracting himself with food and flirting with the many women that seemed to pity him. So many would gather around him like strangely maternal flies, that I couldn't understand it at all. I could understand one, maybe two, but when I saw him last he had to have had at least a dozen attractive women of varying ages waiting on his hand and foot.

Princess Malty looked furious when we left the throne room. No doubt it was because her best chance at a heroic heir was likely to be stolen from her.

Naofumi hardly seemed enthusiastic about the quest, even with the incredible amount of gold that the queen was offering for completing it. We took our time traveling, helping villages that we passed and peddling wares as we went. We did plenty of monster hunting, and it felt like we had once again returned to that peaceful time between the first wave we fought in and the second, though there were more of us than there was then.


The inn seemed like a welcome break from the road and I was happy to spend a night in a soft bed rather than sleeping on the hard ground for once. The rest of the group went to the table, while Naofumi and I went to the counter.

"Three kids' meals and two adults, please." Naofumi ordered.

Doing the math in my head, I realised he intended the adults' meals for himself and Rishia, and the kids' meals for the rest of us. At first I opened my mouth to protest, but then I hesitated. Naofumi didn't seem to like it when I acted like an adult, and that horrible experience from that night was still fresh in my memory. It seemed safer and easier to indulge him, so I closed my mouth and accepted the indignity. That seemed like the right thing to do, until I noticed Naofumi staring at me.

He had looked at me like that so often just recently, that I immediately realised I was somehow failing one of his tests. My mind raced, trying to figure out what I had done wrong when I realised.

Hurriedly, I smiled at him thinly, and said, "That adult's meal is for me, right? Rishia can have the children's."

After all, children were supposed to make a big deal of being an adult, weren't they?

Naofumi visibly relaxed, and the tense moment was gone like it had never been there. Even though it seemed like it was over, my stomach clenched painfully and all I could do was poke at my food. Without ever finishing the meal, I excused myself to go outside and cry for a moment in private as I realised that he was never going to go back to normal.

Naofumi wasn't just in denial about me growing up, he was paranoid and delusional. What I had done had changed him, and the man I was in love with would always be testing me, always be watching me, and never really able to trust me again. This was how things were going to be forever.

It was a long time before I felt the courage to go back inside.


My eyes fluttered open blearily, disoriented as I searched around for Naofumi and the others. Then I remembered where I was, or at least where I had been. The island, the fall and Kirche all flashed through my mind as I tried to stand up, only to find that I couldn't. It was too dark to see, but I could feel cold metal around my ankles and wrists.

I very quickly realised where I was.

If the stone floor beneath me was anything to judge from, I was shackled to the floor of a dungeon.