Chapter 18 / Gift of Generosity


The next morning, Naofumi got breakfast sorted out for his friends again. It was times like these that he missed, the sense of normality returning to his fingers, despite the incomparable circumstances he and his friends had been in.

While he was excellent at cooking, he never actually enjoyed it while he was still living with his parents. Once they learned of his skills, they merely wanted him to recreate the food that they ate at restaurants, all for the cheaper price. It was only when he found himself living with Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu in which he started finding the amusement of cooking.

They would always await what meals he had planned for the next occasion and Naofumi himself would alway enjoy their genuine gratitude, expressed from the happiness from being able to eat such a luxurious meal everyday. He never realize he took it for granted until they went their separate ways and underwent hardships of loneliness, but that wasn't a problem anymore.

"Alright, I'm heading off." Getting up in front of the table, Motoyasu carried Sakura into his arms. "I told the manager of the ranch that I'd be there in the morning, so I'll be gone for a bit."

"Pii! Piyo!"

"Hopefully, that won't disturb any plans we have," Motoyasu continued.

"Not really," Naofumi answered. "I guess we'll be staying in Riyute for a bit to grind up levels for us heroes, but other than that, we'll probably focus on wrapping up studies for the language today. I think I'm getting the hang of the basics already."

"Now if only Mister Itsuki would start his own lessons…"

"Absolutely not," Itsuki grimaced, glaring at Raphtalia from the corner of his eyes.

"I thought so…" Raphtalia wryly chuckled, as sweat slightly dripped down.

At this point, they've all already given up on Itsuki. He showed such reluctance to studying the language that it was actively making everyone's lives harder. At that point, it might have been worth it for the others to leave him be when it comes to studying.

"You better find something else to cover your time," Ren sighed, "because it's my turn to head out to grind some levels. I've been skipping my last few rotations for you, because you didn't want to study, but I'm at the point where I need to grind some experience to catch up with everyone else."

"Can't I just go off in a different direction to grind off some monsters myself?"

"We've already agreed that we shouldn't have more than one Cardinal Hero roaming out of the city, away from the main group," Eclair declared. "This is for everyone's safety and to keep our identities known as limited as possible."

"In the scenario that something does happen," Naofumi continued, "I don't want us to end up getting split up without any easy means to communicate with one another. It would be a different situation if we were able to communicate with each other with phones, or something like that, but without it, we won't know if we would be able to group back up again."

"Argh…" Itsuki drew circles on the table with his finger as his face plummeted against the table. "Then maybe I'll just practice my aim for now. It's already good, but I want an excuse to not study."

"Usually, you don't say the last part," Motoyasu dryly laughed.

"You guys already know that it's an excuse…"

Ren stood up, pushing in his chair as he put on his coat. Making it look straight and neat, he was about to take his leave before Motoyasu, but he stopped at the door frame as Naofumi and the others were bidding him a goodbye.

"By the way, have you guys noticed anything weird recently?"

"Weird?" Naofumi frowned. "I think you have to be a bit more specific than that."

"If I have to be specific, you probably wouldn't know what I'm thinking."

"Wait, Ren, but—"

"Later."

Without heeding Naofumi's concerns, Ren simply continued on his way. He didn't feel any need to dig too deeply into those words, merely shrugging it off as his friend being himself again. If Itsuki wasn't showing any signs of concern over it, then Naofumi didn't feel like he should either.

"Actually, if everyone else is heading off," Naofumi said, standing up from his seat, "then maybe I should take this time to start selling some of our materials. We might not get much, considering the current economic situation of Riyute, but it should fetch us enough money for the road."

"I'll head off with you, Master Naofumi. I actually noticed a few traveling merchants in Riyute yesterday when we came in, so perhaps we can sell our things to them."

"Good idea."

"I won't be doing anything at the inn either, other than training," Eclair pondered. "Perhaps I'll join you as well, Sir Naofumi. I do need to see what weapons Riyute has in store for me to use instead of my current blade."

Both Motoyasu and Itsuki silently gazed at each other, matching their wavelengths.

"You know, Riyute didn't have much to offer in terms of weapons when I first came around," Itsuki said, leaning on his hands standing on the table. "I don't think you'll find anything worth buying for your quality."

"Riyute is a mining village, is it not?" Eclair asked. "There should be some blacksmiths around that will be able to sell me a good-quality sword using the ores that they mine here."

"I don't think they're going to be available now," Motoyasu continued, acting with the little fib. "I heard that all of them were heading off to the mine this morning to pick up some ores for their work while I was heading over to the ranch yesterday. If you're going to get a sword crafted for you, I think you'll have a better chance at finding someone later today."

"In that case, why don't we head over to the ranch with Motoyasu?" Itsuki suggested. "It'll be a good way to kill some time and while we're at it, we might be able to help Motoyasu out with Sakura if the moment requires us to do so."

"Hmm." Eclair rubbed her chin. "If that's the case, I suppose there's nothing I can do about that. Alright, I'll come with Sir Motoyasu to the ranch."

Motoyasu and Itsuki didn't bother hiding their fistpump together, leaving the others confused as to why they did that. Little did Naofumi know what tricks and subtle manipulations of the situation that were pulling and if Ren had still been in the room, he'd probably jump on board with the scenario.

"Then I'll see everyone later today."

Naofumi headed off with Raphtalia into town, as Motoyasu and the others left towards the ranch.

-/IV/-

As Naofumi and Raphtalia walked past adults who were heading off to work on the reconstruction, there were children who were running around in the streets, smiling and laughing with one another. In their enjoyment, they accidentally bumped into Naofumi, rubbing their nose in slight pain.

"Sorry about that, Mister!"

"Just watch where you're going next time, alright?"

"Okay!"

The kid continued running along the streets with their friends, but Raphtalia's gaze merely stayed on them. It took her a few moments to come back to reality as Naofumi reached out to her.

"Are you thinking about your village?"

"Yeah."

Raphtalia's lips twisted.

"I am happy that things ended relatively well for the people of Riyute, but when I look to see how well it has gone for them, I can't help myself to be a little envious. Their buildings may be broken down, but their people are the opposite. They still have their spirits." She recalled the attitude that the townguard had from yesterday, and she had to make a guess, she would have never thought a wave of destruction occurred based on how he acted alone. "I suppose everyone that needed to grieve wouldn't come out so easily, but…"

Raphtalia held onto her own hand tightly, as if trying to dispel that emotion.

"When the wave of destruction ended in my village, everyone was crying over the people that we've lost. No matter where you looked, somebody was hurting because someone they loved had been taken away from them, so violently and so quickly." Raphtalia glanced over, seeing how the children were starting a fun game with a ball they had with contagious energy. "Did Mister Itsuki ever tell you what the scene had been like back near the mineshafts, where everyone had been kept?"

"I haven't heard," Naofumi looked over to the little game that the children were playing. "It was probably too nuanced to tell me in the first place."

"It was a celebration. For that one night alone, they wanted to celebrate before they go to work the next morning on rebuilding their village, but because Mister Itsuki and I were so focused on trying to get you back from the knights, we couldn't possibly join them in good faith. I'm certain Mister Welst and Miss Kojeel enjoyed themselves, as they should. They worked extremely hard to make sure they could save whoever they could reach."

"Given how many people we were able to protect, I'd be worried if they didn't."

"And yet, I couldn't help myself in being reminded of the grieving my village had to go through when the wave of destruction ended for us." Her clasped hands held themselves against her chest, as if it was hurting just to remember. "Only a handful of people died in Riyute, but only a quarter of my village managed to survive."

Back when Raphtalia was still looking like a child, she told him the basics about what happened that caused her to freeze up against the two-headed dog monster. Naofumi never dared to push for more details than what was shown on the surface, but right now, Raphtalia was volunteering that information, whether it was through a resolve or through guilt.

"With a survival like that, of course a celebration wouldn't be appropriate." Naofumi grimaced. "These are different circumstances, after all You had to keep on going, because that's what parents would have wanted. I mean, that's what you said before, right?"

Raphtalia sluggishly nodded. "I had to keep walking forwards, forcing myself to smile, because I knew that's what my parents wanted me to do. They would have wanted me to be a brave girl and make sure that the rest of the village was protected, or maybe I was telling myself that. All so that I couldn't have the opportunity to cry and never stop."

Her hands started to tremble close to her heart.

"After seeing what the Shield Hero and the Bow Hero could do to stop the wave, I wondered what would have happened if you were summoned before the first wave occurred. If you could have saved my parents, my friends, my neighbors and—!"

Her words spilled out by themselves. It wouldn't be too difficult for her master to misinterpret it as an act of pushing blame, but that wasn't at all what she was trying to do. Just seeing Riyute in such a state caused her feelings about the first wave to reemerge to the surface and she was scared about what else she might say to which she didn't whole-heartedly mean.

"I-I'm sorry, Master Naofumi. I was speaking out of—"

And yet, a hand reached out, tucking itself between Raphtalia's hood and her head. A soft caress against her hair as she slowly turned towards Naofumi.

"You're strong, Raphtalia. Even stronger than I could ever be."

"Master Naofumi…?"

"It's okay to feel envious. That's just the nature of a person," Naofumi answered softly. "And those emotions are what makes someone alive, after all."

When somebody has something that's desired by another party, it would be natural for them to yearn for their position, even if it was for a fleeting moment. Although he couldn't sympathize with Raphtalia in knowing the feeling for himself, he had already faced an occasion where jealousy almost tempted misery into his life when he was younger.

While he was still living with his family, his parents had already given up on Naofumi due to his lack of studying compared to how much time he would spend on books, games, and other forms of media. That was when they decided to focus all of their apparent efforts on his younger brother, sending him to a famous prep-school in order to secure his future, but all that did was secure his resentment that was born of the looming feeling of jealousy.

If it was left alone, Naofumi wasn't sure what honestly would have happened and frankly, he didn't even want to ponder about a thought that would never come to reality. He was probably lucky that he was able to figure out a solution for his younger brother. Ironically enough, it was the thing that caused all of those troubles to begin with, that being Naofumi leading his brother into the world of media entertainment, but his parents were happy enough to let Naofumi go off by himself with more freedom.

It wasn't anywhere comparable to Raphtalia's situation, but back then, all his brother wanted was some comfort deep down. He was guessing that Raphtalia, although she wasn't aware herself, wanted some easing on her soul as well. He knew she wasn't a terrible person to be maliciously envious. Quite the opposite, Raphtalia was a good-hearted person.

"It's because you went through all of that, it's why you want to help fight back against the waves of destruction. So that no one else would suffer the same way that you again." Naofumi held his hand right next to Raphtalia's cheek, trying to make her eyes look up. "Doesn't that envy come from seeing the people of Riyute happy like this? Doesn't that mean your envy is proof that you managed to do what you set out to do? You're part of the reason everyone could be happy like this, Raphtalia."

"..."

"The fact that you can move forwards like this," Naofumi said, smiling softly, "it's something I really admire. I'm not sure if I ever told you that before."

However, Raphtalia couldn't exactly focus all on his words. Her attention kept drawing itself to his hand's warmth, but it might have been her cheeks itself that were glowing brighter with a fluster.

"Master Naofumi…" she stammered. "Y-you're, uhm…"

"Hmm?"

Having Raphtalia's soft cheeks pressed up against his hand, Naofumi suddenly came to realize what the hell he was doing. All this time, he was simply going along with the atmosphere, trying to cheer Raphtalia back up, but never did he read in the description that he would end up like this until it was far too late to suddenly retreat.

Regardless, he quickly pulled back.

"S-sorry! I didn't mean to—!"

"It's fine. I..."

One could take it as an acceptance of his apology, but for a brief moment, Naofumi thought he meant it as an allowance in letting him touch her like that. As she looked up back into Naofumi's eyes, his heart skipped a beat. His mind was always filled with concerns for his friends and the circumstances that they were in, he had never taken the moment to appreciate Raphtalia's appearance.

Was Raphtalia always this beautiful?

Their eyes met, waiting for what felt like minutes, but when it was only a few seconds. It was as if Raphtalia was trying to tell him something through her gaze alone, yearning for it, and the delay only made his heartbeat sound louder through his ears.

"Raphtalia…?"

"Yes, Master Naofumi?"

"Is there anything else on your mind?" Naofumi quivered, gulping down his sudden nervousness. "I mean, if there's something that's bothering you, I'll always be there to listen if you need it. I don't want you to be moving forward if there's something keeping you down because you're my partner."

Raphtalia's tail wagged, feeling a tingle ride along the end up to the nape of her neck when Naofumi referred to her as his partner.

"Master Naofumi, I…"

"Please! Could you check once more!?" A voice of a man screamed loudly down. "There has to be something! Anything that can help my daughter! Please, help me out here!"

The sudden shouting down the street caused their moment to be interrupted, as Naofumi's attention swerved out of the left lane and into the highway exit. On one half, she was glad that the distraction occurred because she didn't think her heart could take much more of this. However, she felt a bit of bitterness.

Would it have been so bad to want to savor the moment a little more?

"Sh-should we see what's happening?" Raphtalia asked, trying to calm herself down. "It sounds like there's some sort of problem there."

"Y-yeah, of course," Naofumi nodded, trying to calm himself down as well.

Perhaps a break from their emotions was the best thing for them, or so they tried to convince themselves of such details. If only Motoyasu and Itsuki could have seen what happened, they would be snapping their fingers in frustration that they were close, but it was certainly better than nothing. If they went too fast, they would end up tripping before the finish line, after all.

"C'mon, you've got to have something back there! I'll pay for it! Just name your price!"

"I'm sorry. I don't have any more medicine back there and I don't think we'll be receiving any shipments anytime soon. I know you're desperate, but I can't sell you something I don't have."

"What's going on?"

Naofumi and Raphtalia stepped into the scene of a man begging to one of Riyute's merchants. His knees were on the ground as his body was shaking and his eyes were welling. It was a sight of a man that had fallen to his lowest point.

Not recognizing Naofumi as the Shield Hero, since he was hiding his arm underneath his cape with the [Book Shield] out, the desperate man turned to him. "Please! You're a traveler, right!? That means you have some spare medicine on you for precautionary measures, right!? Please tell me that's the case!"

"Wait, hold on." Naofumi raised his hand up slightly. "Could you explain yourself first? I heard the commotion down the street, so I thought to come check it out."

"My daughter…! It's my daughter! She's been suffering from some kind of illness. I've been trying to find medicine for her, but no matter where I look, Riyute appears to be all out."

The merchant sighed his heart out for the man.

"It's not as if I want it to be like that, nor do any of the others. We might have been able to survive the wave of destruction with most of our population, but many people were still injured, suffering wounds and infections as a result." He crossed his arms and looked to the father, almost with pity. "And besides, even if I did have medicine, he doesn't even know what type of illness his daughter has."

"Taking random medicine without knowing its problem can cause more issues than what you started with," Naofumi responded. "Have you asked a medical professional to come take a look at her?"

"They've already come to check up on her, but they don't know what the problem might be. They even said that it might be too late to do anything about it, but I can't simply give up here!"

Seeing the fear sinking into the man's eyes, Naofumi felt like there could have been more he could do than to simply hear them out. After all, he had been practicing his medicine brewing for Raphtalia's sake when she herself was sick.

"Could you bring me to her?" Naofumi asked. "I'm not an expert on medicine, but let me see if I can do something about it."

"Really…?"

Hope returned to the father's eyes.

"I can't promise anything, but having a chance is better than doing nothing, right?"

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

The father sprung up from the ground, not even thinking about dusting the dirt off his pants and started trying to bring Naofumi over to where his home had been.

"I'll pay you whatever you want! Please, just save my daughter!"

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here..."

Naofumi wryly chuckled as the father guided him down the streets. Raphtalia quickly shuffled along the way, seeing that her master had roped himself into another situation, but it wouldn't be Naofumi without that caring trait of his.

It took a few minutes to arrive back at the father's home, which was in the midst of light repairs, where Naofumi was shown to the daughter's room. The mother was already inside, trying to care for her daughter, but nothing seemed to be working. She wasn't eating properly, she couldn't drink properly, and she was completely bedridden, sweating with heavy breaths and excessive coughing. Her skin was pale and the daughter didn't look like she had any energy inside her body.

The mother and father gave Naofumi and Raphtalia some space in order to check things out, but they stayed in the room to make sure everything was going fine. He asked for a few things like a cloth and a bowl of cold water, while he pulled his own medicine kit and prepared it on a nearby table. He had only focused on making regular potions, both of which had different processes than proper medicine, so it might have been better to use the automatic process of his menu.

However, it wouldn't reach the high quality that was up to his standards, so he proceeded to continue by hand, trying to remember the method.

Since there hadn't been any thermometers in Melromarc, Naofumi held out his hand onto the daughter's forehead while holding his own at the same time. He could feel the significant change in temperature there, so the little girl had been suffering extremely more than Raphtalia's case.

"Raphtalia? Can you ease her temperature using the cloth and cold water?"

"Is there anything in particular I should be doing?"

"Dab the sweat off her face and her neck. Afterwards, soak the cloth fully in cold water and leave it on her forehead, but don't cover her eyes. Make sure she can breathe properly."

"Got it."

Naofumi knew he wasn't a medical professional, but he was struck with a stroke of luck here. While he trusted that the girl was not malnourished or mistreated, her illness still had resemblance to Raphtalia's. It must have been some type of serious cold or a variant of it, but it might be an overreaction from the parents. Something like this might not kill the daughter, but Naofumi couldn't simply say that for certain, not knowing what kinds of illnesses are in this world.

He got to work immediately, taking out the herbs that the recipes were calling for. Since he unlocked more shields since then, he was hoping that his crafted medicine would be stronger than before. It was a good thing he still had the [Book Shield] out to help his compounding.

Raphtalia couldn't help herself to look over to Naofumi's direction, seeing how hard he was working to save a stranger's daughter. He didn't even consider the price of what his service could be, especially since they hadn't dealt with something like this before.

The familiar sight as she watched him work through late nights when she was still a child, the familiar expressions of determination that lasted throughout the session, Raphtalia felt her chest be overwhelmed with a pleasant warmth. Being the Shield Hero, it felt a little wrong to be feeling this way towards him, but Naofumi himself said that emotions were natural, it's what made someone alive.

Her heart skipped a beat, simply watching him.

She already understood that she was in love with Naofumi, but as to how to go about it, it was another problem that she couldn't easily siege.

"Alright, looks like I got something…"

After some time, Naofumi glanced at the flask containing the liquefaction of the herbs and started pouring them out into portions. He was able to create a batch that were all labeled underneath [Very Good]. He prayed that it was good enough for the illness it had to fight against.

With one of the vials in his hand, he came over to administer the first dosage.

"Bring her up a bit to me, Raphtalia."

"Of course."

Naofumi leaned in to feed the little girl the medicine and while it was extremely bitter, the girl managed to drink it without showing any problems. Perhaps it was because she was half-unconscious from her illness that she was able to take it in more easily than he expected, but once Raphtalia settled the girl down, Naofumi observed her conditions for a bit longer.

Expecting any immediate results had been hopeful at best, but he noticed that her breathing started to become less heavy and color was starting to return to her face, ever so slightly. That was when Naofumi felt a momentary relief, seeing that the medicine was starting to have an effect.

"She's going to make it."

Once Naofumi came over to inform the parents, the mother was practically crying for joy while the father held Naofumi's hands, sobbing with happiness.

"I'll be providing the rest of the vials here, but this should be more than enough for her to get better. Have her take one vial in the morning and one more during the night, and keep that up while making sure she's hydrated. If she starts complaining about the medicine because of the taste, I recommend that she eat her meals separately from the medical ingestion, so that she won't accidentally vomit everything out, but make sure to provide more water during that intake if you'll go that path."

He started stacking the rest of the vials safely, so that the parents knew where to find it. There was enough for about a week or so, especially since he went ahead and made an extra batch.

"She'll be able to walk after a few days, so that doesn't mean that the course is clear. Make sure that she doesn't go outside until she feels healthy again, but let her be active inside the house to rebuild up her vitality."

"Thank you, Sir! Thank you!"

"How much do you owe you!?"

He never really thought about a good price for selling medicine before. He remembered back in the capital that he was told by a merchant that selling medicine was a profitable business, but he never paid any attention to how much they could fetch for one. He simply made enough medicine for Raphtalia, then moved onto potions where he simply made enough for their own stock.

But if some herbs can net him a few copper coins, then it would make sense if medicine made from those same herbs were on the next echelon of pricing.

"Maybe two silver coins? I don't usually do this, so I think that's fair enough for now."

The mother and father widened their eyes in disbelief.

"That little? For all of this medicine?"

"We were prepared to pay fifty silver coins!"

Naofumi laughed. "Then maybe four silver coins? I didn't use too much materials to make the medicine, so I think that's fair enough."

Despite what he insisted, they kept trying to give him all fifty silver coins, but by the end of it, he was able to negotiate for only ten silver coins. Odd how that worked, where he needed to convince the customer to pay a lower price. Back in Odin Spirit, that would have been unheard of, but he didn't want to take advantage of their gratitude and weakness.

They were thankful for his services, thanking him all the way through until they departed from the house. Naofumi glanced back, seeing that the parents were on the verge of tears, having their hopes and prayers answered, and he was pretty happy to see that another family didn't have to go through those unexpected troubles and turmoils.

"You said that you didn't know much about medicine, but you sounded like you were experienced," Raphtalia said, standing by Naofumi's side to look at the family's happiness. "Was that something of a white lie?"

"No, I was speaking the truth."

"Then how do you know all of those things?"

"Because I had to take care of my friends while they were sick. I've at least had to nurse Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu once each back when we were living together, so I searched up the things I needed to know in order to help them out. Overtime, I just came to figure out these types of things. I also helped that you were suffering from a lighter version of that illness, so I already had some experience against it."

With the sun still shining brightly down on them, Naofumi sighed heavily.

"Shall we head back?" he asked. "By now, I'm sure Motoyasu and the others have finished checking up on Sakura's growth."

"I feel like we're forgetting something. Didn't we have to do something beforehand?"

"Are we?" Naofumi titled his head, but quickly shook the thought off. "Well, if it was so important, it'll come back to us."

"I guess you're right," Raphtalia giggled.

-/IV/-

Within the forest, a cloaked figure had been moving quickly past the trees, but no matter where they looked, they seemed to have been missing something. Though, it might have been strange to think that they lost track of the person they were following just moments ago. It was almost as if the target was using the brief shadows of the forest to blend into the surroundings, using that as a way to escape their sight, but that would imply that they had known they were being watched.

They stopped at a certain mineshaft to scout the area further since this is the direction their target had been heading. There was no one, not even the villagers here, but as they approached further into the area, a blade suddenly extended from behind them, pushing up against their neck. The cloaked figure didn't need to look behind to know who it had been, but said nothing as their assailant spoke up.

"I think you need to get better at your job," Ren quietly growled. "It seems like you were following us ever since we left the capital, but you're not the only one keeping a close eye on us, aren't you?" He tightened his grip on his sword, making sure that any subtle movements by the cloaked figure were threatened by a swift flick of his blade.

Ever since they started traveling together, Ren always felt like there were eyes on him, or rather on them, as the group went along their journey. It kept trickling down his spine when his guard went up, even after a battle ended, so after a while, Ren made his conclusions about what could have been the cause of it. The sooner he cracked down on the source, the better.

However, the figure said nothing in response and it made it harder to read them, considering they were wearing a mask covering their entire face, but it might have been better that way. It made it certain that the figure knew their position in the matter.

"You're going to tell me who you are, and what your objective is. It's going to be that simple, but if you won't comply, I won't be holding back nor hesitate to do it."

Clashing with his expectation, there hadn't been a response. There wasn't even a mutter of any sort, making Ren suspicious that he wasn't even engaging with a person, but the subtle breathing was still audible. It was simply that this figure wasn't cracking as easily as Ren would hope.

"You don't think I'll kill you?"

As his blade edged closer to the figure's throat, two more shadow-like figures, looking almost exactly the same as his hostage, came from the forest which confirmed his assumption that there were more than one of them hanging around. Now that he had an audience, answers were probably the last thing he was going to get.

He tugged his hostage to face the two shadow-like figures, as he glared at them.

"Feel free to not answer. I don't care anymore, but I'm making one demand."

There was a high chance that these shadows were working at the Three Heroes Church. Although it wasn't an exact match, they had some resemblance to the assassins that attacked him and Itsuki in the capital. It was never declared back when they were escaping, but he should make his intentions clear.

"Tell your employer that we're not interested in playing nice and if they keep sending agents like you all to watch over us, we'll be coming for them without mercy. Keep your damn eyes off us, or I'll slaughter any of you all that I can get my hands on."

The two shadow-like figures back off slightly, as if to respect his wishes, but Ren knew he was dealing with the frantics of the Three Heroes Church. He wasn't even sure if what he was saying was getting through to their heads, so his sword lifted off from his hostage for a brief second.

He told himself that this was for Naofumi and the others.

From his time spent with them, he owed much to their companionship back home. He was grateful for their company, marking them as his closest friends and the brothers he never had. That was why he wanted to protect them, no matter what cost he had to take and no matter what distance he would have to go. That was his response to their generosity.

He steeled himself, covering up his emotions as his sword came swinging downwards.

"Just like this."

His blade dug a deep wound, fleshed in red, on the hostage's back. His power, granted from the strengthening methods, was almost enough to kill the hostage in one single attack, even if his levels were one of the lowest of their team. Out of everyone in the group, he was the one working the most efficiently on the methods, so in terms of raw power, Ren might have been the strongest person on the team.

The hostage slumped over, bleeding out as they struggled to move from their injury.

"This is my message to them! Leave us alone or else I'll destroy every last one of you that follows our tracks! And that's not a threat, it's a promise!"

They glanced over at the twitching half-corpse before heeding Ren's demands. They retreated from the area, leaving Ren with the fallen hostage and his heavy breaths. It didn't take long for the body to stop moving, leaving them with no health remaining to their name.

He felt his hand sweating as his grip on his sword tightened, leaving vague, flickering images in his head. A fierce screaming, one of his own voices, echoed in his mind as blood covered his sights temporarily before he shook off that memory. What he did was morally incorrect, taking someone's life, but if it was to ensure that he could protect his friends, he needed to be strong enough to swallow it down.

It wouldn't be the first time this happened before and Ren wasn't counting on this being the last time here. He had to become stronger in order to do more things like this if required of him and with a simple breath, slowly coming in then out, Ren calmly sheathed his sword.

Thinking too much about it will lead to hesitation and cause problems, so all he needed to remind himself was to do what he could to protect his friends from any harm. It was as he told Motoyasu.

This likely wasn't the end of that problem, so he needed to get back to the others to minimize the dangers that were approaching them. Before he left, he glanced back at the corpse and grabbed the mask off their face.

"Whatever it takes. I'll do whatever it takes to keep them safe."

His eyes were simply cold.

"... Even if I have to kill."

Or so it would seem.

-/IV/-

"And so, the manager of the ranch said that Sakura is a healthy filolial! Even though she's growing exponentially faster than the average filolial, she should be fine, as long as we keep up with her nutrition. According to him, the worst thing we could do is to leave Sakura hungry after growing a bit more, so we'll just have to keep an eye on that."

"Piyo! Piyo!"

"As long as Sakura doesn't complain, we should be fine," Itsuki sighed. "And here, I was thinking that the sudden growth of bones was at least hurting the bird, but it sounded like monsters can easily get used to it from the way the manager was speaking."

"At this rate, I believe we will have a healthy filolial in no time," Eclair said, "so we should likely begin a search for a cart that the filolial can start pulling."

"Pii!"

Sakura was energetically flapping its flightless wings within Motoyasu's arm. Although it looked as if it could jump right out to start running around to exert its energy, it still looked content to be in Motoyasu's arms, but the day where it would be too heavy to carry might have been around the corner.

When Naofumi and Raphtalia returned from helping the man and his daughter, he'd realized that through all of that distraction, he completely forgot to find a traveling merchant to sell his materials. It wasn't exactly a big deal, but he wanted to hear about Sakura first and foremost.

"Oh, and by the way, we came across people that were harvesting that chimera I fought during the wave. I'd completely forgotten about it during the time to get some weapons unlocked from these materials and when we asked to have some, they were more than happy to provide it for free."

Motoyasu took some of the chimera materials out of his inventory for Naofumi to unlock more shields for himself. He could only imagine how monstrous the wave boss could have been, but according to Motoyasu, it was simple to take care of. The most problematic part had been searching for it.

"The people preserved it the best they could, but Sakura kept wanting to eat it." Sakura looked as if she was bothered by the restriction. "As if I'd let her eat something like that. Especially right after the manager said to keep her nutrition in check."

"It must have been problematic to keep her down," Raphtalia said.

"If Sakura hadn't been so attached to Motoyasu, I think she would have pecked her way out," Itsuki shrugged. "Probably would have devoured the entire thing."

"I'd… rather not see something like that again." Eclair's head shook, trying to forget about the frog incident.

As Naofumi took in the materials, he unlocked a few more shields. All of them were of good rarity, probably because they came from a wave boss which shouldn't have been all too common in Melromarc. Most of them had a few equip bonuses he would want to keep an eye on unlocking for himself, but there was one particular shield he had his eyes on.

[Chimera Viper Shield + 0] 0/30 C
(Equip Bonus Skill) : [Change Shield], [Antidote Compounding Up (Small)], [Poison Resistance (Medium)]
(Special Effect) : [Snake Venom Fang (Medium)], [Hook]

He couldn't use the shield yet, due to the level requirement it needed, but once he was able to use it, it may be worth investing materials into it.

Just as Naofumi was planning to section off a few portions for Ren, but he wasn't thinking that the door would open up behind them. If Ren went out to grind experience points, it shouldn't have taken that little amount of time, but when everyone looked over, they were surprised to see that it was, in fact, Ren who had entered.

"Did you forget something, Sir Ren?" Eclair asked.

"Hey, we picked up some materials for you," Naofumi called out, almost pushing the materials over to Ren on the table, "so if you want—"

"We have to leave Riyute."

Everyone frowned, straightening themselves up from the sudden announcement.

"What do you mean by that?" Raphtalia asked.

"It seems like the Three Heroes Church planted a few folks to keep an eye on us."

"What!?" Naofumi flinched, as did everyone else in their disbelief.

"Don't worry too much about the details, but I managed to buy ourselves some space to lose them from our scent, but it's going to be meaningless if we stick around Riyute for too long."

"Then in that case, we need to leave immediately," Eclair agreed. She was already strapping back on her sword. "It's a bit of a waste that I won't be able to get a new sword while we're here, but I can always get one in the next town."

"You didn't go buy a new sword?" Ren frowned. "Why? Most of the blacksmiths were avail—"

Both Itsuki and Motoyasu lunged at Ren, covering his mouth. He figured that there might have been a good reason for this, even if it was a bit annoying to be suppressed like that, so without continuing his previous thought, he ended up sighing.

"What was that, Sir Ren?"

"Never mind what I was saying," Ren shrugged. "Everyone should get themselves ready to depart. I'll go ahead to check and see if they've listened to what I said. If they haven't, then that's another issue that I'll have to deal with, first and foremost."

"Wait, what exactly did you do?" Naofumi asked.

"I thought I said to not worry about the details."

As Ren left the room as abruptly as he entered, Naofumi was forced to gather the chimera materials for Ren into his own inventory for now. With that sudden storm of news, Naofumi didn't even get a chance to finish his thought for Ren to unlock a new weapon form, but despite Ren's words, Naofumi couldn't stop himself from wondering how Ren was able to push off the Church temporarily.

After the group packed themselves up and met up with a waiting Ren at the front gates, a voice reached out to them before they could leave.

"Ah! Please wait!"

They turned over to see that a well-suited man had been coming down to meet them, alongside a few guards for security measures. Whoever this person had been, they weren't the typical villager, but while Naofumi tried to figure out who this might have been, Eclair bowed respectfully to the man. Although she didn't know him by name, Eclair understood who he was, simply by observation.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Governor."

"Governor?" Itsuki echoed. "Wait, so this guy is the guy who presides over Riyute and its surrounding territories?"

"You are correct, Sir Bow Hero." He made a pleasant laugh before approaching the group. "Apologies if it took some time to get here, but when I heard that the saviors of Riyute had returned to us safely, I had to come to personally give my regards and thanks to them. I wasn't able to do so last time, given the circumstances."

"Is that what you wanted to do? Stop us to say thanks?" Ren scoffed.

"Please be a bit more respectful, Ren," Naofumi groaned.

Ren merely turned his head away, silently yielding to his friend.

"In any case, we were just doing what had to be done," Naofumi continued, turning to the governor. "If it was in our ability to do so, we would be protecting the villagers regardless."

"Of course, but allow me to show the gratitude that we were given to us."

From his shirt, he pulled out some sort of plaque from his pocket. It looked almost like one of those guild cards that adventurers would carry around with them to identify themselves to the receptionist desk and for them to properly take up requests under their names.

"I, too, have heard about the rumors. They say that the Shield Demon has taken possession of the other three Cardinal Heroes and they're planning to plunge the world into chaos. A disturbance in the capital that they've already committed and it's spreading that they would soon be the ones to destroy our world, not to save it. It's quite the worrisome rumor for those who are not knowledgeable."

The governor extended his arm out, handing Naofumi the card.

"So as merchants, you would be best to watch out for them."

"... Excuse me, what?" Itsuki's brain couldn't keep up with the sudden topic change, blinking blanklessly to try and understand what was happening now.

"But we're not merchants though?" Motoyasu curiously asked, pointing to himself.

"Traveling through different towns will be difficult under your conditions," the governor explained. "It won't be long until the guards of the other towns will mistake these rumors as the truth and try to look for people matching your description, so this might help alleviate some of the pressure off your shoulders. It's a merchant's card, proof that you are a merchant."

"This would prove to be helpful," Eclair responded. "While regular travelers would pay a fee in order to enter some villages, merchants with the pass would be able to move freely."

"The plaque suddenly became something interesting, didn't it?" Motoyasu chuckled. "Wave that before their faces and they won't think too much about it. Is that what you're saying?"

The governor nodded. "Since the knights are searching for you for an arrest, this was the most I can provide for you in your safe journeys. They won't expect the Cardinal Heroes to have their own merchant's pass. No matter what rumors may come, the people of Riyute know the truth behind those false words. I had to pull some strings to have a merchant's pass on such short notice, but I hope it will show our thanks for saving this town."

"We appreciate the help." Naofumi tucked the merchant's pass immediately into his inventory for safe keeping. "This is more than enough for what you could do for us."

"No, no. It should be us who are saying that. Once again, thank you for saving Riyute."

"Are we done here yet?" Ren groaned. "If we stick around for too long, we might end up bringing more trouble to Riyute." The others were amused at how much Ren was trying to act annoyed, but his words showed that he cared about the village to some degree.

"Your stay may have been short," the governor bowed, "but we wish you the best, Shield Hero and companions." The guards bowed alongside the governor.

"Thanks. Take care of Riyute and we'll take care of ourselves."

With that, Naofumi and the others left the gate and headed their way outwards to the next destination. Ren looked over his shoulders, to make sure that he wasn't feeling the same sensation of being watched, but only the eyes of the governor and his guards had been on them at the time.

Hopefully, it would stay like that as everyone threw on their hoods, leaving Riyute behind them.


[SKIT 083 : Too Much Energy]

[Eclair] : "So what exactly would Sir Itsuki and I have to do in order to help out with Sakura's procedure?"
[Motoyasu] : "O-oh, nothing too complicated. In fact, there might be a chance that you won't be needed at all. It's just a little check-up by the ranch manager and that's all, but Sakura might be a little too rambunctious and energetic to sit still during the check-up."
[Sakura] : "Pii...?"
[Itsuki] : "Yeah, that's... That's right. I suppose we're there to help handle Sakura if she tries to escape or something. After all, having two extra bodies block off her potential escape would end up benefitting them in the end, if it does ever come down to that."
[Sakura] : "P-Piyo...?"
[Eclair] : "It's merely a check-up, isn't it? In that case, I don't believe Sakura would act up, especially considering that Sir Motoyasu in nearby. She has been very close to Sir Motoyasu ever since she hatched, and I'm under the impression that she wouldn't disobey commands from him, if needed."
[Motoyasu] : "Yeah, but what would happen if the ranch manager needs to give Sakura a needle?"
[Sakura] : "P-Piyo!?"
[Motoyasu] : "Like one of those very sharp, very large needles, just in case that Sakura needs to be vaccinated with medicine to help ease her growth... or something like that. In that case, she might end up getting spooked and run away to the point where I can't control her!"
[Sakura] : "Piyo!"
[Itsuki] : "Yeah, just like... that."
[Itsuki] : "Wait, where is she running to? Wait, when did you let go of her, Motoyasu!?"
[Motoyasu] : "Huh? Aw, crap! She jumped off! Itsuki, Eclair! We need to catch Sakura!"
[Eclair] : "I see. So this is part of the reason why our help was enlisted. Fear not, I'll provide the assistance that you demand, Sir Motoyasu!"
[Sakura] : "Piii!"

[SKIT 084 : Mother]

[Raphtalia] : "Master Naofumi? The way that you mentioned as to how you helped the other heroes while they were sick, it gives you a bit of a maternal nature. I could even see it through the way you cared for the little girl back there, tending to her with care and gentleness."
[Raphtalia] : "It reminds me of my own mother in way."
[Raphtalia] : "My mother was always the one cooking around the household as well, since my father had his hands filled with other business regarding the village. I think I'd be looked down upon if I ever said that your cooking was better than my mother's, but both of which rest in a special place in my heart."
[Raphtalia] : "You really have that motherly figure about you, Master Naofumi. I... I think you would be a great parent one day."
[Naofumi] : (I have conflicted feelings about being called a motherly figure, but Raphtalia doesn't mean ill about it.)
[Naofumi] : (Just take the compliment, Naofumi.)
[Naofumi] : "Thanks, I appreciate the insight."
[Naofumi] : "Though, I'd probably have to start working on my fatherly instincts if I want to have a kid in the future."
[Raphtalia] : "I-I... Uhm..."
[Naofumi] : "Something wrong?"
[Raphtalia] : "N-no, it's nothing..."