Elena Haven wondered just how things ended up becoming so difficult so fast. She had thought she was getting a cushy job babysitting an easy money maker, a way to earn favor with the only Hero who looked like she'd have an easy time with. She wasn't cut for the traveling lifestyle and she knew it, especially with his habit of hitting on any girl he met. That was all so exhausting!
So, when the Spear Hero was looking into a source of consistent revenue, she took her chance. He thought that the miracle seed would have been a great opportunity if they only properly managed the sale and export of its fruits and she thought her skills at negotiation and contacts would have made her the best person for the job.
Now, she was in a war zone, battling for her life against killer plantlife. Her only weapon was a sword in her hand and whatever weedkiller she bought at the start of this mess. The heart of the village was overwhelmed, covered in ever expanding vines and deadly flowers.
From every direction, vines lashed out at her. She slashed through the air and met the tendrils before they ensnared her.
Mutated mushrooms and flowers threw spines and lobbed seeds right at her. With panicked reflexes, she managed to dodge the attacks and threw a bottle of a potent plant poison, which stunned her opponents for a brief second. In several frantic slashes, she cut down one plant's head and tore it to shreds.
The dying plant shrieked in agony before spraying jets of acid in her direction.
Elena, having done this before, leapt out of the way and darted into cover. Splatter hit her jacket and burned several tiny holes.
Though, at the rate things were going, she was rapidly running out of options. The plants had been relatively easy at first, enough that she handled it by herself and didn't even bother sending a letter, but everything changed so fast that she was cut off. The plants simply grew, both in number and power.
And Elena, despite her level going up, was only one person. At best, she could only slow down the plants' spread, keeping it away from the village and away from the people. Perhaps she should have left, run for her life against an unassailable foe, but that would have risked far too much. She would be held responsible for this mess, she just knew it.
Then, the ground shook as it started to give way right from under her.
"How troublesome," Elena muttered as she leapt away from the rapidly growing plant.
It looked nothing less than a gigantic pitcher plant, with several vines sprouting from its sides.
"That's a new type, can you please stop making more?" Elena groaned. Things were already hard enough as they were!
Then with a flick of its wrists, the pitched plant threw acid in every direction.
Painful burns erupted from Elena's skin, just as vines began to rush at her from every direction as both the pitcher plant and its friends started to encircle her.
She swung her sword and found purchase in a nearby plant monster, decapitating it instantly, but more practically grew around her.
A wooden appendage struck Elena in the head, causing stars to form in her vision. Her sword clattering to the ground, she wondered if this was to be her end.
Then, the pitcher plant was suddenly engulfed in fire. It shrieked in maddening agony.
A young woman with demihuman features walked into view, a scythe in her hands. She looked like a weasel, maybe. She muttered an incantation, a spell.
At her appearance, more plants shifted their bodies and went to retaliate, an avalanche of vines fell towards her.
"...ignite my target! Zweite Fire Wall!" A line of fire erupted in front of the weasel, forming a barrier that incinerated the oncoming vines and even burned several of the plant monsters to ash.
A gigantic filolial, its yellow feathers spread out, leapt out from a building and dived at one of the large mushrooms. It tore into one with its beak and started eating it. Plant monsters started to swarm the bird, but that just caused the bird to start biting at everything that got near. More than one plant monster got gobbled up for their trouble.
Before Elena could think more, one of the closest plant monsters to Elena was suddenly cut down as its head was cut off from behind it.
It fell away, revealing a young demihuman girl, probably in her mid-teen years. She had a familiar look about her, but Elena couldn't make out how. She was dressed in a padded light leather with tall riding boots. "Lady Haven?" she spoke, offering a hand.
Elena staggered to her feet, taking the hand for additional support. She didn't mind the rescue, not even from demihumans. "Whoever you are, I'm glad you're here!" she spoke.
The girl giggled lightly, even though this probably wasn't the place for it. "It's me, Beryl. Don't you recognize me?"
Elena stared, now recognizing the girl as Motoyasu's little pet. She had grown, not that much, but she was no longer as helpless as she had once been. Though, that probably explained who her Master was, that just begged the question of where he was.
"Hey, Beryl," shouted the weasel demihuman as her sickle cut through a monster. "We've got her, we should probably call the others and head back!"
"Others?" Elena just shook her head. "Whatever, let's just get out of here!" She cut down another plant monster as he neared, but as it was, just the handful of them weren't going to get much further.
"Right!" Beryl nodded her head. "Kou!"
The large filolial burst from a pile of plant monsters landed right in front. "Yes, Beryl?" It sounded like a young boy.
"Did that fat filolial just talk?" Elena sputtered. Maybe she had hit her head harder than she thought.
"We're going to leave! Call the others, just like Sir Naofumi asked!" said the fox.
The yellow bird nodded his head. He then twisted his gaze upward a loud shriek. "CAAAAWW!"
Elena covered her ears, a ringing within her ear drums. "A little warning next time!"
"Sorry!" said the bird.
The three girls plus the oversized filolial made their retreat, cutting through the plant monsters and vines as they did. At the same time, other shrieks rang out in the distance, perhaps filolials.
Whatever was going on, Elena did not care to ask too many questions right now. She ran for it.
At the end, they found themselves at the very edge of the village. While most of the core of the settlement had been overrun by the vines, this small patch in the village was still livable, even if plants were starting to encircle it. And the people were slowly succumbing, if not to the plants, then to the ongoing famine that necessitated finding the miracle seed in the first place.
Townsfolk ran over to the noblewoman, shouting at how it was good that she had come back.
"Hey, give me some room," Elena muttered as found the nearest wall to lean on. Granted, she probably would have been dead if it wasn't for the timely intervention of the demihumans. She probably might succumb if a seed or spore went into her body.
"I was really worried about you!" said a voice.
"Yeah, well, they say dying is easy and all, but-" then Elena realized that that voice did not belong to a random villager.
She turned around the Spear Hero looking right at her.
Before she could do anything else, Motoyasu grabbed onto her in a hug. "When we came, the villagers said you were off on your daily patrol and… we formed search parties to find you!"
"It's nice to see you, too, Motoyasu," Elena muttered. She had already known Motoyasu was here because of Beryl, so this wasn't a surprise. Rather, she was bothered by how tightly the Spear Hero was grabbing onto her though she supposed her family would appreciate it if they learned the Spear Hero cared for her like that.
Motoyasu broke away and looked her in the eye with an awkward look. "So, uh what happened? Tell me everything."
"Things fell apart. I don't know when it all started, but the vines started to grow out of control. I thought pruning them would have been enough, but then the vines struck back." Elena sighed. She thought she had an easy job, one with minimal hardships and difficulty. Now, she found abandon the village, but the famine and plants combined to make that impossible. So, I've been trying to ward off what I can, but it's been a losing battle."
Sir Motoyasu slowly nodded his head as if in understanding. "You've done what you can, especially on your own."
"Yeah, but it's such a pain," she muttered. In truth, she probably would have left the village herself, abandoning everyone to their fate, if she didn't think it would have resulted in even more problems. No, as much as she hated it, the path of least resistance and least work was in culling the plants up to the perimeter rather than letting them grow out of control. She shook her head, herself being the only one able to handle the problem in the village. "I tried to get people to remembering why she was even here in the first place. "Sorry, but if you're here to collect the harvest, I don't think we've got anything safe to eat. The fruits here will kill you."
"That's fine. I understand that," Sir Motoyasu replied, his tone even and steady. "We'll take it from here."
Elena raised an eyebrow. She expected the Spear Hero to forgive him, he was that sort of man who tended to look favorably upon women. Yet there was something different about him as he said that. And then she realized what was different. She looked at his eyes and noted the steely grim determination behind them. It was the kind of look that she did not even know the Spear Hero was capable of.
Sir Motoyasu put a potion bottle into her hand. "Take this, drink it if you need it. I'll be back, okay?" He didn't gush or proclaim his superiority, he simply declared his intentions.
Elena almost shivered, having a hard time reconciling the difference between this Motoyasu and the one she knew before. Something happened.
The Spear Hero walked away, over to the only exit point. The Shield Hero and some demihumans greeted him, including the weasel girl that burned the plant earlier. They exchanged a short set of words and then departed.
Elena had no idea what to think about this development. While she had known the relationship between Motoyasu and the other two Heroes was that of an adversarial rivalry, it appeared that his ties to the Shield Hero were much more cooperative. Enough that they were willing to work on this matter together.
Thankfully, this did mean one thing she was sure of. Less work for her.
The noblewoman slumped her shoulder and took one last look at the bottle in her hand before drinking its contents.
She really, really needed a rest.
Naofumi took a deep breath as he surveyed the damage. The village was overgrown with vines as it was last time, but they were smaller and less developed than last time. Barely any of the vines had even reached the small encampment the villagers holed up in, with more of the villagers in a stable condition than last time.
The Shield Hero did not know whether it was because he arrived in the village earlier than before or because of Elena's intervention keeping the plants at bay, but he didn't care about that. No, the only thing that mattered to him were the results. And the only result that he wanted was the swift and utter erasure of this blight.
And in a way, that was a foregone conclusion. Last time, Naofumi only had two people along with himself to handle this problem back when it had grown out of hand; and in truth, he only really needed himself, as the main plant monster had no ability to even hurt him and he had a means to instantly kill it. Now? He had even more people, including another Hero, to take this menace down. And that was on top of a generally higher level all around.
Raphtalia stood by his side, her hands over her sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice. Yet despite that, she spoke lightly. "We're ready."
Naofum nodded his head. "Good. Motoyasu?"
"I will be." The Spear Hero sighed. "I don't think I can ever repay you for this."
"We can always work out a price and say that that's what you owe me." Naofumi answered. Admittedly, the Shield Hero knew that he wouldn't be getting a return on what he gave to Motoyasu for a long while, but he had a feeling that the other Hero would eventually pay what he owed plus interest. And if nothing else, Motoyasu was someone he needed the support of in the long term; coins were good, but trust and respect were far more valuable commodities.
"Then, let's begin," Motoyasu answered.
Everyone present took a fighting stance as they marched forward.
As they crossed an invisible threshold, the plant monsters took notice of them and attacked all at once. Vine creatures lashed out from the ground, their limbs like razor sharp whips. A living barricade formed ahead of them, spewing acid like a machine gun encampment. Then there were the explosive seed pods, which were practically plant based grenades. The BioPlant horde met the Heroes.
And almost none of it accomplished anything.
Naofumi took the brunt of the attacks poured against the party, goading everything to fighting him. It did not even so much as scratch him. He didn't even suffer any knockback, for all of the good that did. The worst he got was green plant goop splashing against his cloak.
From the Shield Hero's right side, Raphtalia cleanly cut plant monsters, shaving them to pieces one limb at a time. Keel took the other side and savagely ripped them to shreds with his blade. Rifana cut a swathe of bruning destruction with a single spell, her scythe cutting the stragglers with the ease of gardening. Beryl shot her crossbow at distant targets, each bolt coated in a homemade plant killing toxin. Three filolials and a tiger ran through the enemy plant monsters like they were nothing more than ordinary shrubbery.
As for Motoyasu? It was almost like plants turned into rotting mush the moment they got too close, his spear wilting everything within his reach.
There was no desperate struggle, no rush to finish the fight because they were being gradually overwhelmed. No, if anything, it was the plant monsters that fought bitterly and desperately for the slimmest hope of victory. Suicidal and reckless attacks came as the plants tried to encircle them or isolate members of the group, only to be soundly rebuffed without any fanfare.
At the center of the village stood a titanic flower that bore a single eye, the living nexus of the entire plant monster horde. It sent everything it had against Naofumi and his companions, between calling on all of its spawn and birthing new abominations, between lifting its roots and lashing its vines. And yet none of it even mattered in the end.
Naofumi took every attack he could, whilst his party carved the onslaught of lesser plant monsters. "Moto!" the Shield Hero barked as he broke through a wall of vines, clearing a path.
"On it!" Motoyasu fan forward, his Defoliating Dory on hand. He cut his way through a mess of vines and slashed at the titan plant monster's base and fell it in a strike.
In the end, the whole event felt less like a battle and more like yard work.
The Bioplant howled in searing agony its body rapidly wilted and crashed into the ground. The impact shattered its decaying husk, trampling its spawn. The rest of the surviving plants either died with it or were cut down shortly afterwards, with the vines rapidly decaying into waste. The only thing left of the incident was a single seed pod.
Motoyasu looked at the surviving seeds with disgust. "You sure we can't just destroy them? This thing caused so many problems."
Naofumi walked over to the pods. "Remember what I said. The Heroes can purify the seeds."
Motoyasu gave him a pained expression. "Maybe you can, but look at the mess I caused."
Naofumi nodded his head. "It takes trial and error. In the book, it took dozens of tries before the plant was properly cleansed into something workable." He reached down and took two of the seeds. He placed one into his Shield, unlocking the BioPlant Shield in the process. He then offered the other seed to Motoyasu. "You won't learn anything if you're afraid to fail."
The Spear Hero looked hesitant, perhaps mistrustful in his own abilities and limitations. Then with a sigh, he took the seed and unlocked his own mutated plant spear. "Yeah, okay. I'll give it a shot if you think this is a good idea."
"It will be," Naofumi promised.
"Maybe," Motoyasu admitted with a frown. "But how do you know if you can trust the information you've learned from your book? Like, this whole thing with the seed never happened with Emerald Online; if it did, I'd have been wise. What if you do something wrong because it's not what you were used to?"
Naofumi frowned as he mulled over the reply. He actually hadn't thought about it until now, but in a sense, he was acting on the information he learned beforehand, similar to the other Heroes. Sure, he was a time traveler and not someone who thought he was thrust into a video game, but the principal was the same. He only had one response, one learned from the lessons of painstaking suffering. "I'm willing to be proven wrong and I'll accept it when it happens. I don't know everything, but I intend to learn what I can…and fix what mistakes I made."
Motoyasu sighed. "Alright. I hear you."
"Let's get back to the village," Naofumi offered. "I'm sure you'd want to speak with Elena, don't you?"
"Yeah. From the sounds of things, I don't think she's aware of what happened." Motoyasu bore the faint ghost of a smile on his face. "It also means she wasn't one of her lackeys."
Naofumi nodded his head. That was a promising sign, if nothing else.
Motoyasu gestured for his party to come with him as he walked back to the village.
Naofumi went to follow him, urging his own party to follow as well.
They entered the village and received a warm welcome, the kind Motoyasu never thought he would ever receive again.
"Thank you, Sir Hero!"
"Praise the Spear!"
"You've saved our lives!"
Motoyasu waved at the crowd, happy to receive their thanks. Compared to the looks of suspicion and the mistrust he felt in Melromarc's castle town, he welcomed these kind words like they were a soothing balm. It wasn't why he was here, but he was glad to receive the approval, especially since he had been expecting a much more negative reaction when he came by - Naofumi had warned him that there was a possibility that the villagers would have been very hostile because he brought the seed here.
The two of them were glad to be proven wrong.
They passed by a gaggle of children that reenacted the fight, some of them with shields, whilst the others had spears, chasing after one of their own whose mask was that of a singular eyeball.
Motoyasu smiled in amusement as they play-reenacted the fight. He then walked towards a small, unassuming building that was newer than the rest. The main feature that set it apart from all others was the sign over its top, which bore a stylized depiction of his default Small Spear stabbing a fruit.
"Huh, so she did settle for that logo after all," Motoyasu mused. He really didn't understand how logos actually worked, other than they were important for setting up your brand. He supposed it got the point across and it did look kind of cute. She must have paid quite a pretty penny to have all of this made so quickly.
For a moment, the Spear Hero wondered if what he was about to do was the right thing or not. He could set the conversation for tomorrow morning or the day after, when Elena was in a better condition or… No. He put his foot down and crushed his doubts. He had to speak now. To set his record straight. If Elena did not want to support him or not, that was fine with him. As long as she was alive.
Motoyasu knocked on the door.
No response came for a good solid minute.
A small, treasonous part of him told him that he could easily back away now and come back at a different time, but the Spear Hero was committed. He had come here to see Elena alive and well; he was not leaving until he saw that to be true.
He repeated his knock again, slightly louder, in the hopes Elena was willing to see him.
This time, the tumblers on the door clicked. Elena pushed the door open to see him. "Sir Motoyasu." She looked at the sky, as if trying to check the time. "Good afternoon."
"Good afternoon, Elena," Motoyasu replied.
Elena flinched, as if caught off guard. She regained her composure and spoke professionally, distant. "I….see you are alone."
"I wanted to speak to you alone, yes," Motoyasu confirmed. While he did want to let Beryl and the filolials to meet Elena, he felt that he needed to speak to her alone for the first time. "How have you been?"
"Good enough." Elena replied, her tone weary. "Say, is the Princess around here somewhere? I don't think I saw her."
Motoyasu shook his head as he barely set aside his rage and hatred for that pig-woman, just so that he could be coherent. "She… is no longer part of my party."
Elena stared hard into him. Her eyes then widened in shock before narrowing to a more muted expression. "...What happened between the two of you? Is that why none of the other ladies stuck around?"
"She accused me rape in front of her father," Motoyasu said as a matter of factly, barely suppressing the cold hate that he felt felt for that woman. He had no intention of lying, not when the sting of that horrendous lie burned against him. He resolved to be honest with himself and everyone he trusted. "I have been branded a criminal in the eyes of the country, allowed to only live because of my status as a Hero."
"I see," Elena kept her tone neutral, as though what she heard was a simple fact and not a scathing truth. "And what do you intend to do about it?"
"I intend to clear my name, with the younger princess's help." Motoyasu said firmly. "I intend to prove that I am not what that woman says that I am."
Elena gave him a look of hesitation. Eyes flickered, searching the spaces beside her. "So, do you need my help or that of my family?" she asked, a tone that indicated skepticism.
Motoyasu shook his head. "No. I came here because I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I was just told that you were in danger and I acted accordingly." He admittedly still wondered if Elena was one of that woman's confidants, but he held out hope.
"I… uh… thank you." Elena looked like she was at a loss for words.
A moment passed between the two of them before Elean spoke once again. "I assume your reputation in Melromarc isn't very high right now."
"No." Motoyasu confirmed. The gossip was something he didn't like to listen to, especially the parts that got things incredibly wrong; he was no monster.
"And that means you don't have many assets beyond your own strength," Elena continued.
"No. I don't have much beyond what I can carry." Motoyasu shook his head. "That's why even though I would like to have you back, I know that it's not something I can easily support. I'm not going to force you to follow me if you don't want to. I know things are bad right now and I don't want to put you through what you don't want to go through. I don't want you to suffer if you don't have to."
"I appreciate that." Elena's expression became hard to read.
Motoyasu shivered under that cold gaze of hers. After that witch ripped out his heart, the Spear Hero had come to realize an important thing he had been neglecting even after his death, that he barely understood the people around him, let alone women. He did not know where Elena actually stood. He had prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.
"Motoyasu, I'm… sorry that the older princess has made you a pawn in her games," Elena replied, her words carefully chosen. "But because of that, I do not think I can openly associate with you. My parents would not approve."
The Spear Hero hesitated before and he accepted the words he had been given. A part of him was fearful that Elena wasn't completely being honest with him here, but he wanted to believe that his party at least had some good people, good girls in it. Maybe if he looked closer, he could see their flaws, their imperfections, but also for their virtues beyond just beauty alone. Hopefully, Elena was reliable. "You believe me?"
"I could believe the senior princess being a liar over being a rapist," Elena said as a matter of factly. "I mean, you always struck me as the sort of man who would bend over backwards to please women wherever you went. All you need is assurance that they'd approve."
Motoyasu winced. That felt uncomfortably accurate. He basically ran his party that way, doing most of the heavy lifting because some pretty girls egged him on.
Elena shook her head, continuing "No, Malty was disqualified from the royal succession over her younger sister for very good reasons."
Motoyasu just stared at her. That implied so many things, none of them good. If he had known that, would he have ever gotten so close to that pig? Oh, who was he kidding? He would have ignored them, thinking he could have fixed her! All because he read it in a story he liked. "Thank you for your assessment."
"Don't thank me just yet," Elena sighed. "I still can't really directly associate with you. There will be harsh penalties for the nobility aiding you, not to mention my family will not approve. I can maybe help you out indirectly, but that's as far as I think I can go."
"That's fine. I'm just glad you're okay." Motoyasu replied. At very least, it didn't sound like Elena personally hated him. Though, a part of him still worried that she was hiding that from him. No, he had to have a little hope. He then raised an eyebrow as he realized something important. "Hey, uh how did you hold off the plant monster for so long? Or better yet… why? I mean, why not run or evacuate or something?"
"A year's supply weed killer, worth several gold. I didn't think I'd use it all in a month, but here we are," Elena groaned, as though it was very painful to say. "Once the monsters started popping up, I really thought about running, but ugh, it was either deal with the killer plants or deal with desertion charges… and especially my parents. The plants seemed like less hassle."
Motoyasu tried really hard not to laugh. He wasn't sure he succeeded in the least. It sounded so ridiculous, yet it was somehow also… relatable. The Spear Hero was no stranger to having to do undesirable things because he had to or because the consequences were unwanted. It was definitely a mark in favor of Elena being more than just a certain princess's sycophant.
"What happened with the seed by the way? Do you know?" Elena asked." Why did it… change?"
"Naofumi says that it's cursed and needs purification first, something I didn't know." Motoyasu shook his head. If he had come just an hour or two later, Elena might not have been here. And it would have been his fault. "I'm sorry things didn't work out. screwed up big time."
"A shame, really." Elena said, her tone neutral as she tried to find more words. "I am confident that you can… write these wrongs, correct your mistakes." She frowned. "If you don't mind, I think I need to rest. It's been a long day for me."
"Oh, that's okay." Motoyasu nodded his head. Elena did look rather ragged and fatigued, probably from having to defend against a siege all by her lonesome. "I'm sorry for taking too much of your time."
"Don't… worry about it?" Elena yawned. "I'll see you later."
"Later." Motoyasu said.
And then Elena closed the door.
As Elena Haven closed the door, she slumped her shoulders down on her desk, feeling the migraine come on.
Why did everything have to become so complicated now?
Elena had no problem believing Motoyasu's side of the story, feeling Motoyasu just didn't really understand deception all that well. No, what bothered her was that she knew that things were going to get rough if these kinds of shenanigans were happening among the Heroes.
Seriously, what was Myne thinking? Accusing a Holy Hero of rape is tandamount to stupidity. It might have worked against the Shield Hero, because he was the patron god of Siltvelt, but against the Spear? That was suicide and Elena had no interest in being involved.
Elena slammed her head against the desk, wondering what kind of stupidity drove the princess. She just had to ruin everything for everyone, didn't she? Was it spite that drove her? Jealously? Or just her usual brand of insanity?
The woman sighed. At the very least, it looked like Motoyasu wasn't fooling around as much as he used to. What happened to him wasn't good by any means, but he seemed to have come through it wiser than before. That was a promising sign. Maybe if he really did clear his name, things would be better. She had no intention of fighting his battles, but she was willing to help out here and there, maybe hand out supplies or sell valuables to him.
Still, until then, Elena knew that the right course of action was to step back and… let nature take its course. Unfortunately for Myne.
Naofumi sat back and watched as three children and an oversized house cat frolicked through the dirt, dancing in the with their backs against the afternoon sun.
They were a respectable distance away from the village right now, far away from the devastation and vegetable remnants for the sake of both safety and to have more room to themselves. The villagers respected their space, more caught up in restoring and salvaging their village than bothering their saviors.
It was Naofumi's turn to watch the kids today, especially Motoyasu wanted to have a chat with Girl 1 as soon as she was available. The Shield Hero had no strong feelings of any sort for Elena, nor did he even really know her actual name until recently, but he tried to be hopeful things went well. In the meantime, he had children to watch.
Filo, as a filolial, spun in place and struck a pose, swinging her wings in an exceedingly practiced gesture. At the end of her dance, she adopted her human form, striking a pose in the process. Tama walked right behind her, stretching himself forward and roaring to complete the effect, as though he were part of the entire transformation sequence. Kou and Yuki performed their own little dances, slightly different but every bit as eye-catching. With a little bit of editing and special effects, it would have fit right on children's TV.
The whole thing honestly reminded the Shield Hero of his own childhood, when he pantomimed the actions of his favorite heroes from TV out of admiration. Back then, all of those exaggerated motions were cool to do, his own imagination making up whatever special effects he needed. It didn't matter if it looked goofy, it was fun.
"They're so cute, aren't they?" Motoyasu's voice reached the Shield Hero's ear. He wasn't there previously.
Naofumi nodded his head in agreement. The filolials shifted back and forth between their forms in a makeshift battle between good versus evil, each side arguing their virtues and power with made up attack names. And the occasional bit of actual magic.
Technically, they should have been working with the others, but the animals had very little time with each other left.
"They're like… little angels," Motoyasu said simply.
For a moment, Naofumi squinted an eye, concerned about that specific phrase. In the previous timeline, Motoyasu was obsessed with "angels", which caused him to have an unhealthy attraction to Filo. But no, there was none of that excessive glamourization or possessiveness in his words. There was only a simple admiration.
"So, how did the meeting with Elena go?" Naofumi asked, his eyes still focused on the children in play.
"She doesn't hate me, that's far better than I was expecting," Motoyasu answered. "She won't be traveling with me, but I'd like to think we could be friends. That's good enough for me."
The Shield Hero nodded his head. It was probably for the best. "And the village?"
"... Thankful, I think. I think it's mainly because things weren't as bad as you said they'd be." Motoyasu said, slumping his shoulders from what could have been exhaustion. "I think some of the kids declared me as their favorite Hero."
"That's a good sign. It's probably because we came so early, there were fewer casualties than in the book," Naofumi replied, telling a half-lie as he did. At least, Motoasyu got a lucky break.
"Daddy!" Yuki greeted his adoptive father as soon as she became aware of him
"Dad!" Kou shouted to Motoyasu, joining in.
"Papa!" Filo shouted and waved, not wanting to be left out.
Tama made an excited chuffing noise, probably saying the same thing.
Motoyasu laughed, waving at the animal children.
"Hey, go back to playing!" Naofumi commanded, though his tone wasn't particularly forceful. He just didn't want to involve the filolials in what were possibly going to be adult conversations. That, plus, he liked it better to watch them so…. happy.
The children all laughed and dashed off, returning to their disorganized play.
Motoyasu snorted in amusement. "I'm glad that they have each other to play with."
Naofumi nodded his head. If there was one change in this world that he truly felt unambiguously satisfied about, it was the fact that this time around both Raphtalia and Filo got to have friends to grow up with. The way things happened before, they were so isolating in retrospect. There were practical benefits, sure, but the way things were now was far better.
Which did bring up an unfortunate topic. "It's a shame that the Heroes can't grow stronger if they're so close together," Motoyasu continued.
Naofumi had always known that the current state of affairs between him and Motoyasu were always temporary. It was a simple fact of the world that they were put in that the Heroes were meant to travel in separate ways, never to linger with each other long. While he and Motoyasu had spent the past two weeks raising the animals together, Filo and Tama were always going to be separated from Yuki and Kou at the end of it.
"It is a shame," Naofumi agreed. "But ideally, the filolials will always get to meet up with each other. We're still going to be fighting the Waves together, aren't we?"
"Yeah, silver lining and all that. Maybe we'll get some presents for you every meet up." Motoyasu sighed, his tone changing to become more dour. "Naofumi, I just want to say. I'm glad that you took me in, even when you had no reason to do so. If you didn't… I don't think I would have come out of it without losing my mind."
"I was never going to stand by and watch someone get destroyed for a crime they never committed, especially not that crime." In truth, Naofumi didn't truly know what actually made him decide to help Motoyasu as much as he had, but he did know that his own resentment for being branded a rapist by that Bitch drove a lot of his motivation.
"That's what she accused you with, isn't it?" Motoyasu said coldly.
Naofumi blinked, wondering if Motoyasu had somehow figured out about his vendetta against the red princess. "What?"
"You know, that woman, that girl who manipulated that guy you knew?" Motoyasu answered. "You never told me what they did, but I guess a false rape accusation was part of it, isn't it?"
"Oh yeah…. That's basically what happened. I was accused of that and my life nearly fell apart," Naofumi answered, not quite a lie, but not quite honest either. After all, it was Motoyasu, himself, who was manipulated by the same woman in a different world. He was actually surprised that Motoyasu remembered what he said nearly months ago at this point.
"I guess I can say that sympathy is why I'm not living out in the wilderness, then," Motoyasu made a small laugh at his own expense.
"Alright, enough with the self-depreciation. You're not going to improve things if you focus on that. You have to work at it." Naofumi directed. While that cruel, vindictive part of him did take satisfaction from Motoyasu's praise of him, it wasn't helpful to either of them, not when there were so many things to do, especially since there was every likelihood this was to be their last night together in the same village.
"Yeah. Right." Motoyasu took a deep breath. His eyes flickered over the filolials and tiger as they started rolling in the dirt and giving each other dust baths. "Focus on making things better."
Naofumi took out a small sack of seeds, all of them from the BioPlant that they slew earlier. He took out a seed. "Did you get that skill I thought you would?"
Motoyasu transformed his spear into a floral abomination. "So, it's supposed to have Plant Reform right? You've worked out which plants are safe for people to use yet?"
"I did," Naofumi didn't exactly lie. While he did remember some of what he did to reign in the worst results from the plant experimentation, he couldn't recall what were the exact settings he settled on when he left the village that first time around. So, he did take some time refreshing what he knew. That was also another reason why he and the filolials were so far away from the village - it freaked people out less when they did their experiments.
Motoyasu took a seed from the satchel. "Alright, let's see what I can do."
While her Master was busy with both the animals and working with "purifying" plant, Raphtalia and her friends worked to assist the villagers in their reconstruction efforts. Villagers wanted the desiccated remnants of the plant monster removed, both to return to their homes and to recover their possession. Bonfires rose as they collected scraps and cuttings, disposing of the remnants in the most expedient way they thought of.
The mood was what Raphtalia remembered from last, though there seemed to be more people present than what she remembered. Some were like the old woman and her grandchildren, who evacuated when they were forced to, though the raccoon girl knew that at least some had to have succumbed to their suffering from last time. By coming here so early, more lives were saved.
Though, it did come at the cost of everyone's time, having to rush all the way to the village from Melromarc's capital city. The journey might not have only been a day or two, but those days were a bit sleepless, with both Beryl and Motoyasu staying up all night, worried for their companion. Raphtalia, herself, suffered from some motion sickness from the accelerated pace, though she was getting over her issues a bit at a time.
At least it was all over now. The village was saved, Motoyasu and Beryl saved their friend, and soon, Master Naofumi would solve the famine.
Raphtalia and Keel hauled the bodies of several large plant monsters towards Rifana as she chanted spells to incinerate the corpses, each time trying different combinations. It was hard, but necessary work.
It was during this time, Beryl approached the three of them. "So, uh, did you guys ever feel weird after the… uh growth spurts?"
"Yup!" Rifana answered after she finished igniting another pile of plant remnants. "It felt very weird having a developed body at first, but you kind of get used to it."
Raphtalia added her own experiences to the conversation. "For me, the big change was how people treated me and how I felt about how Master treated me." Especially since for a good week or so, Master Naofumi hadn't even realized how much she had grown. The same kind gestures that he tried when she was a kid… didn't quite enthuse her as much as they used to.
"As for me, well. I didn't expect I'd be growing up… as a girl," Keel butted in, putting a hand over her heart for emphasis. "That was more of a shock than anything else."
"Yeah, I imagine that'd be a shock." Beryl looked down at herself and her new outfit "It still feels a little weird, but it's better than being someone's doll."
Raphtalia nodded as her gaze drifted over from Beryl and Keel, mostly because the two of them were nearly the same height.
The fox girl had finished growing, reaching to a height slightly shorter than Keel some time around the filolials hatching. Instead of the maid dresses and hand-me-downs, she wore a simple tunic and riding pants. A dark purple monster leather jerkin went over the whole ensemble, a relatively lightweight get up all told.
"Kind of wonder why you two ended up so big," Beryl mused as she looked towards Raphtalia and Rifana.
"I kind of wish I knew why, too," Keel muttered, probably still a bit jealous about how she ended up. "I mean, I think I've got a bit more growing to do, but it's kind of clear Rifana and Raphtalia don't have to anymore, and we're all on the same level!"
"Maybe Sadeena knows?" Raphtalia suggested. The orca woman was basically the only demihuman adult she knew about. Everyone else from the village was her original age, if not younger.
"And besides, none of us are really, you know, kids anymore," Rifana said, turning to Keel and Beryl.
"Hmph, some people believed we weren't kids," Keel replied bitterly, probably still mad about Ren.
Raphtalia chose to change topics, mostly to avoid bringing up the Sword Hero. "So, how did you feel about the fight, Beryl? It was kind of your first big one"
"It was a little weird," Beryl answered as she tapped the crossbow on her back. "I didn't really have a chance to try backstabs, but the crossbow worked fine. Is fighting in the Wave like that?"
"A bit, but more hectic!" Keel answered, her tone more proud and enthusiastic, a stark contrast to the negativity she had during the Wave itself. "There's all of these monster everywhere. And you had to fight big hordes of them!"
"So, sneaking up behind to do stab things is probably quite hard," Beryl mused..
"It might depend on the situation, but you can probably get up close to hurt boss creatures if Sir Motoyasu has one pinned." Raphtalia admitted. Her own fighting style, whilst not as stealth focused as Beryl's, did more or less rely on her Master distracting foes so that she could execute them.
"Yeah, but the crossbow is probably what I'll use for most of the time. Probably ice magic, too, once I get better at it," Beryl frowned.
"You'll figure things out," Rifana reassured her. "Like, if Keel could do it."
"Yeah, like, if I could do it…. Wait, hey!" Keel scowled at Rifana.
Raphtalia gave the two of her friends a light smile. Oh, how she missed their bickering like this. It almost reminded her of home, back before the Wave.
"Hey, Raphtalia, uh, what are Sir Naofumi and Sir Motoyasu doing?" Beryl then suddenly asked.
"Uh, what do you mean?" The tanuki girl asked at the sudden change of topic.
"Probably that." Rifana pointed in the direction where Master Naofumi had taken the filolials. There were a surprising number of trees in that direction, when there weren't any before. "All of that wasn't there before."
"Oh, that's just the two of them… uh purifying the plant monster?" Raphtalia answered as she recalled what her Master did last time. "If they don't do something about the plant monster, the famine in this village would still remain."
Beryl nodded her head in interest.
"Isn't it amazing what the Heroes can do?" Rifana's eyes stared at the trees as they rose and fell at a rapid pace. The filolials bursting in and out like they were playing hide and seek amongst a collapsing forest.
"Yeah, but it's kind of dangerous, too. There is always the possibility that they'd fail to purify the seeds," Raphtalia said. She… had mixed feelings about her Master's use of the plant monster. In the first time, she had been opposed to her Master experimenting with and trying to tame the plant monster's offspring, fearing the danger of it sprouting up again. While her Master eventually bent it to his will, she still feared that thing could have easily gone wrong.
"It's still incredible. See. Look at that." Beryl said, pointing to flowers blooming upon one of the trees.
"It does look pretty," Raphtalia commented as she saw the flowers wither away, replaced by reddish objects, probably fruits. That might have meant that the Heroes were done or getting close to finishing figuring out how to manipulate the seeds to their liking.
"Hm, that looks like a lot of fruit.." Keel's mouth began to water. "I wonder if Sir Naofumi can figure out a way to make crepes using a tree."
"Keel, don't be ridiculous!" Rifana giggled. "Sir Naofumi won't be doing something like that."
"Hey, it's just an idea!" Keel crossed her arms defensively. "Still, it's kind of crazy how just a few hours ago we were fighting those things and now they're… growing us food."
"The power of Heroes is definitely something to behold," Raphtalia said. Out of all of them, she had seen that power first hand, sometimes used against her. The power in the hands of Heroes was capable of so much, saving lives as easily as it could destroy them. It was that power that was being used to end suffering and famine.
Everyone there stood still for a quiet moment, barely paying attention to the small bonfire behind them as the Heroes continued to refine their work.
"... We're going to be splitting up soon, aren't we?" Beryl asked finally.
Everyone nodded their heads. It wasn't something anyone doubted. Everyone knew that this was going to happen, that they'd have to split up to cover more ground. While they would always reunite later, the fact was that tomorrow or the day after, Master Naofumi and Sir Motoyasu had to go in different directions to grow stronger.
And that meant, once more, the survivors of Lurolona Village had to part ways once again. Raphtalia chose to savor the moment.
"It was good to run into you, for what time we had," Raphtalia said to her.
"I had fun raising the filolials together. And seeing them changed, that was a big shock," Beryl laughed. "But talking filolials are a dream come true, I'd say."
"If you want, maybe one of us could stick around you and Sir Motoyasu?" Rifana proposed. "Help you out?"
Beryl shook her head. "Master Motoyasu and I, I think we need some time to stand on our own two feet for a while, first. We can't rely on you and Sir Naofumi forever."
"Still, it's a harsh world out there." Raphtalia winced. While a part of her understanded the fox's point, the tanuki girl still felt a little fearful for the two of them. She knew exactly just how dangerous things could be, having spent a good chunk of time as a fugitive for crimes that neither she nor her Master committed. She did not want to put Beryl or Motoyasu through that danger if she could help it.
"And birds have to fly out the nest eventually, don't they?" Beryl tried to smile. "I think we'll be fine, especially if Master Motoyasu continues working on that disguise of his. We're going to try to keep our heads down."
"How does something so stupid work?" Keel muttered. "The ears are so obviously fake and the tail doesn't even move anywhere!"
"Master may have a point about humans not really noticing demihuman body language easily." Beryl shrugged. "Either way, it looks like we're not going to see each other until the next Wave."
"We're going to miss you," Rifana said. "Hopefully, we'll see each other then."
Beryl nodded. "Yeah, I hope good things happen by then."
Raphtalia turned her gaze towards the fire, thinking about what she knew that lay ahead.
She and her Master were set to make their way to Zeltoble to meet Sadina and hopefully all of the others who were sold outside of Melromarc. The rest of her friends were still trapped in Lord Rabier's castle, probably still being tortured. While she had put it aside thinking about it for a while, she still had every intention of freeing her friends. Though, the exact question of how, eluded her, she wondered if by the time they ran into Beryl again, the Lurolana survivors would be finally reunited.
Ren looked at the map one more time. While he couldn't read any of the symbols, the Sword Hero could make out the topography and terrain. It was like using a minimap, except it wasn't attached to his HUD and did not have a convenient arrow pointing to where he was. But, he did not let that stop him. He used the depiction of the valley below him and used it to estimate his location.
"The dragon… should be there. Is everyone ready?" Ren spoke to his party.
"Sure thing, Ren!" Bakta raised a weapon.
"Of course, they are!" Mald raised his new axe, one with an inlaid silver.
"Good." Ren said as he surveyed the area.
While most everyone had equipment that would do a passable job against a dragon's thick hide, nearly everyone present had either a silver weapon or flasks of holy water at their side. While the contract originally called for the slaying of a dragon, Ren had bigger goals in mind. After all, if his estimates were correct, this dragon boss, if it's the same one as from his game, would go down in a single hit with his current stats, with loot that was probably not level scaled appropriately. No, Ren had a means to change that.
While Naofumi did not come from from a Japan that did not have VRMMO's, the Shield Hero certainly had to have quite a mastery of the setting to have taken the weak Shielder class to where he was now. That guy knew his way around the world's lore if not its mechanics to get as rich as he did without even leaving the starter area. Ren might have called it cheating, but everyone had their own secrets.
And among those secrets was the first lore tidbits that the Shield Hero had ever told Ren, that slain monsters can be reanimated and turn undead in the right circumstances. While useless in reality, in the world of a video game, there was an enduring trope of game design that had been true in RPGs since the 8-bit age and remained relevant all the way to the modern world of simsense technologies and VR headsets: optional rematch bosses had better loot than their original counterparts. And there were few rematch bosses as special, as noteworthy as the undead boss rematch.
And all Ren had to do was to see if the dragon boss was one of those bosses who could be rematched. Maybe his hatred and rage at being slain will be what reanimated him. That would be so cool. If only this game had theme music, it might have made for an incredible spectacle!
"Sir Ren, I think I see the dragon!" someone shouted, pointing ahead.
Ren snapped out of his imagination just in time to see the dragon descend into distance. It was a fair distance away, maybe an hour or two of walking, more if the terrain wasn't stable. Nightfall would have hit by the time they arrived, if not later.
"What are your orders?" Mald asked. He was pretty much the only person Ren actually had a good sense for.
"Get close. And set up camp," Ren answered, his mind wandering as he imagine how cool this all was. Here he was, a highschooler, gathering his NPC's to fight a dragon. "Come morning, that dragon dies."
In a different timeline, Elena would have been the cause of Motoyasu's rapid descent into madness, but a few changed circumstances and not causing the Spirit Tortoise event have at least made Motoyasu not come off as a total fool. Also helps that he did take care of his own mess and saved Elena.
Granted, she isn't exactly a saint either. She'd quite pragmatic and attempting to adapt her character into this specific timeline was a bit of a challenge since a lot of her motivation and role in the normal timeline was after she and Motoyasu had their fight and Motoyasu broke his mind. And the best sources about her characterization at this specific point in time came from the Reprise material, which is a subject to extreme Unreliable Narrator given it is all from the perspective of a mentally broke Motoyasu.