Chapter 13: A day in Naofumi's party
Castle town. Two weeks after the dog fight
Erhard sat down at his desk quietly enjoying the peaceful morning of the castle town. But the silence was quickly shattered when Sakura dragged Naofumi inside, he had some bandage wrapped around his shoulder indicating battle damage. He quickly turns the open sign to 'close' before hell breaks loose.
"Damn it Sakura, put me down!" Naofumi shouted while struggling to release himself from her grasp.
"Sakura wasn't joking when she said she was dragging you to Erhard's shop."
"I could have walked here myself!"
"And what message would that send, you're getting the armor."
Erhard looks on as the two adults argue over who was right. He called Raphtalia over to ask what their business is.
"Can you explain what happened, or should I just assume the kid did something stupid."
"Hey!" Naofumi shouted, feeling offended by the comment, he was going to explain but Raphtalia started talking before him.
"We're here for some new armor for Mr. Naofumi, but to explain what happened quickly."
"Damnit!" Naofumi shouted. He just had a quill removed from his arm. He was trying to cook the inside of the Eggue to see if it's edible before a porcupine appeared and tackled him, piercing His shoulder with the quills from its back.
"Sakura told you to dodge, why didn't you move?" Sakura pours a healing potion on the wound and wraps a bandage around Naofumi's shoulder to prevent bleeding.
"I was caught off guard, yelling dodge is more distracting than helpful you know."
"If Raphtalia was able to get out of the way then you have no excuse. After this Sakura will personally drag you to uncle's shop so this doesn't happen again."
"We can't, we're saving up for a new cart because our current one is absolutely shit."
"As tempting as that sounds, your safety is one of Sakura's priorities, and for that Sakura will be responsible and…" Sakura let out a sigh before finishing her sentence. "skip out on the new cart so stop making excuses."
"That's something I thought you'll never say." Naofumi's eyes gaze at the Porcupine as he activates his ability.
"Shield Prison!"
A large ball wrapped in chains appears trapping the creature inside, once it disappears Raphtalia moves in to secure the kill.
"That was annoying, it just kept running around aimlessly," Raphtalia said.
"You were just chasing it with a knife. I also need you two go hunting again or breakfast is not happening."
"What happened to the egg?" Sakura asked.
"Sorry to disappoint you but that got knocked over into the fight."
Sakura fell to the ground in disappointment. "Damnit, Sakura doesn't want to go hunting again, that egg was annoying to bring it here alive."
"How about we just go to the pub, that sounds good," Raphtalia said.
"Normally, I'd want to avoid spending money at the moment. But I'm too hungry to argue against it."
"Well that was a great breakfast," Sakura muttered, she transforms back into her monster form and took everyone back to the town.
"That's basically what happened, so what type of armor can we get for 180 silvers?" Raphtalia asked.
"Hey, since when did you decide our budget!?"
"Because you refuse to do so yourself, also you got outvoted by the party so you're getting the armor."
"And if I refuse?"
"You can't, you don't have your money pouch."
Naofumi searched his waist for his pouch only to realize Sakura had it dangling the pouch in right in his face. "How did you…"
"Blame Raphtalia."
"Raphtalia?" Naofumi asked, still confused about the situation.
"Illusion magic."
"Oh, you two a-, forget it, show me the collection."
Erhard heads into the back and brings out a few mannequins, each holding a different type of armor, Naofumi looks around for something that would suit him best.
"If you can't choose, kid. You can always get another set of chain mail. Erhard reached underneath his desk and pulled out a black garb.
"Absolutely not!" Naofumi shouted in anger. The armor reminds him of the time with that bitch.
"Damn kid, just say you don't like it."
"My bad it's just…"
"Just forget it, so what attributes are you looking for anyway?"
"Something that gives good defense, but light enough to move it."
"Seems simple enough, with a few materials I could make a custom order if you like."
"That sounds good, Sakura brings in the stuff."
"Why does Sakura have to do the heavy lifting?"
"You were the one who dragged me here, so deal with it."
"Fine," Sakura muttered as she left the store.
"I haven't seen you guys in a while, what have y'all been doing these past few days? Erhard asked.
"We were shifting back and forth between Lute and the castle town for some extra coins and exp. Lute doesn't have an active apothecary yet so it's a good area to sell my potions for now."
"And I learned some table manners from the inn keep while also teaching Naofumi and Sakura how to read."
"Impressive stuff, you really grew into a nice young lass."
"Thanks, boss."
"So how's Sakura doing?"
"A lot of sleeping and eating, I don't understand how she can be so hungry and tired half the time."
"That's how Sakura spends her breaks," Sakura said, carrying a large bag over her shoulder.
"I know, but try being active sometimes, especially with how much you eat."
"Are you calling Sakura fat?" Sakura hissed, slowly pulling her sword from her scabbard.
"Shit! No, I didn't mean it that way!" Erhard slowly backed away.
"Yeah Sakura knows, here you go boss a bag full of monster parts, use what you like."
"You were this close to death kid, but I'll see what I can do with this batch of monster parts."
"Okay then, we'll come back tomorrow to check on the progress."
"Sure kid, it should be finished by then anyway."
Some Random Forest,
After leaving Erhard's shop, the party went into the forest for a training session. The team would be practicing their spell casting, combat, and teamwork overall. Before Sakura and Raphtalia teamwork was bad, but it's gotten better over time. During their break, Naofumi sat down in the shade along with Raphtalia and Sakura. For a while, they sat there talking to each other like normal, but over time a mysterious group appeared forcing their attention to something else.
"What about you Raphtalia, you want to become a master at magic," Naofumi asked
"I'll stick to the sword for now." Raphtalia replied.
"Don't worry, you can rely on big sis Sakura to teach you." Sakura gushed, bringing Raphtalia in for a hug. Raphtalia gets annoyed and pushes her away.
"I'm still not calling that."
"You'll grow into it someday."
"No, I won't."
"Harsh. Sakura just wanted to be a good big sister." Sakura cried with fake tears.
"I'm technically older than you."
"If you really want to go by Technically, Sakura was a fully grown adult before transforming, I know how demi-humans work so right now you're still a teenager."
'Dang, she's hard to fight against.' Raphtalia thought, thinking of a way to beat Sakura in this argument.
Naofumi just sat back attempting to read his grimoire while Sakura and Raphtalia argued in the background. A few minutes later Naofumi gets an alert from his shield, indicating a creature is nearby.
"Both of you shut up for a second, something is nearby."
Everyone draws their weapons and searches for the enemy but puts them away after identifying the threat.
"False alarm, it's just some Filolial staring at us from the bushes. How should we deal with them?" Raphtalia asked.
"I vote Sakura for the job, tell them to leave." Naofumi ordered.
"Fine Sakura will be the translator, but she gets paid by the hour."
"I'm not paying you, you'll waste all your coins on food."
"You know me so well Naofumi." Sakura walks over to the bushes, she talks to the group of monsters hiding in the bushes and returns back to the group with some information.
"So what are they saying?" Naofumi asked
"They said she will arrive shortly."
"Who is she exactly?"
"Sakura doesn't know, they didn't give a lot of information."
"So should we wait?" Raphtalia asked.
"Sakura didn't really sense any bad intentions, so it should be safe."
"I guess so."
The party watches as the Filolial line up forming a path in front of them, soon a cart appears and opens its doors revealing a little girl in a white and red dress, in her hair are 3 cowlicks that form the image of a crown. All the Filolial cheer as she walks by until being silenced by the child.
"Good day to you shield hero, I am Fitoria queen of the Filolial."
"Queen, but you look so tiny." After saying that Naofumi gets whacked in the head by Raphtalia.
"Naofumi, that's rude," Raphtalia said.
"You can't blame me, it's not my fault she looks like a child on her way to a ball."
"You know, I'm starting to see where Sakura got her sass from."
Naofumi and Raphtalia go back and forth for a bit but are interrupted by Fitoria.
"My bad, just ignore the previous conversation. As for our introductions, I'm Naofumi Iwatani, and these two are Raphtalia and Sakura.
"Okay then, I have come for a number of reasons, one of them being your position on fighting the waves."
"Well, we're definitely planning on fighting the wave. We were only summoned a few weeks ago so we are still trying to prepare before the next one hits. I'm also working out an issue, but that won't really hinder our ability to fight."
"So the heroes are willing to fight the wave, if that is the case I have one more thing to ask of you."
"I'll answer if you can answer one of mine."
"Go ahead."
"Why is Sakura so different from the others? I mean she can transform and has a lot more intelligence, I guess she's similar to you but just… taller."
"Aww that's so flattering Naofumi, I didn't know you thought so highly of Sakura."
"Shut up!" He snapped back at Sakura, he turned back to the Queen. "So do you know anything about it?"
"She is like this because she's being raised by a hero, and depending on the situation their current party they're in, the growth process will be different."
"So will this happened every time a hero raises a Filolial."
"There are some precautions you can take if you want them to grow normally, otherwise they will grow to be like Fitoria. Now, will you accept my request?"
"Depends, what is your request exactly?" Naofumi asked.
"Simple, I want to fight your Filolial."