The waves had also led to monsters rampaging across the world, causing all sorts of damage. Cleaning up some of those monsters would help keep the peace, and the enhancement received from it would also be useful once we got back home.
“Good idea. We need to show them that they’ll get a fight if they come for us. What we really need to watch for, though, is the possibility of attempts to obtain sensitive information from people other than the heroes,” Melty warned.
“I think all the villagers are on the ball when it comes to that. We should be fine,” I said, a little offhandedly. Many of the people in the village I had restored came from the same nation as Raphtalia, and almost all of them were former slaves. They were generally a lighthearted and cheerful bunch, but they had all been through the wringer in various ways and knew how harsh the world could be. That said, some of them weren’t that smart. We did need to be careful. “I guess a potential issue would be that yappy puppy, the filolials, and Keel,” I pondered.
“You just said Keel twice,” Raphtalia noted archly.
“She’s so dumb. That’s my concern. Even if it isn’t for some totally nefarious scheme, she could easily fall for some legit-looking spy and start giving stuff away,” I said.
“That’s . . . actually quite possible,” Raphtalia admitted.
“I have to question you questioning the filolials so casually. Why did you ignore that part, Raphtalia?” Melty cut in.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” Raphtalia replied.
“I’m just telling the truth,” I defended myself.
“That’s right,” Ruft backed me up. “There’s nothing scarier than a flock of filolials.”
“You need to stop giving all your favors to the Raph species and start getting along with the filolials too,” Melty chided him.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he replied.
“I simply can’t believe you were once such a filolial fan,” Melty said, putting a hand to her forehead at Ruft’s response.
“Filolials are violent beasts, after all. There are still some who come after Keel and Imiya, seeing them as prey. Ruft has his head on straight in this matter,” I said. The filolials we were talking about were avian monsters large enough to pull a wagon. They developed in unique ways if they were raised by a hero. They were generally easygoing and loved to eat, but they could turn violent.
“I’m not sure how I should respond to this exchange,” Mamoru said from the sidelines, evidently unsure what expression to make. We had recently discovered that the filolials were probably creatures originally created by Holn, the Whip Hero in this time. There were all sorts of secrets concealed back here in the past, meaning we had to stay alert even though we knew the future. There could be any number of pitfalls waiting around each corner.
“What about your girlfriend? Overcome her little problem yet?” I asked him. I was talking about the self-named Filolia, the Claw Hero and seemingly the origin of the filolials. When I said “little problem,” I was actually talking about her death in battle. Mamoru was desperately trying to bring her back to life. We had been party to a recent experiment to do so, and I was subtly asking about how it was going.
“You have a girlfriend?” Melty asked, picking up on something and looking over at Mamoru.
“It’s going well. You and your friends have really helped the situation, Naofumi. But there’s no need to hide any of this here, is there?” he asked.
“I already know you’re keeping secrets. Isn’t it about time you let me in on them?” Melty asked. She was of royal blood, after all. She could pick up on someone hiding something but continue to ignore it on purpose, if it so suited the situation. It was the mark of a ruler. If she couldn’t play these kinds of games, she wouldn’t be fit to lead the largest nation in the future.
“Okay. We can let you know now,” Mamoru said. “All thanks to you, Naofumi. But . . . I would rather Natalia doesn’t hear about this,” he confessed with a wry smile. Then Mamoru started to explain to Melty all the secrets he had been keeping.
Our discovery of all this had come on the night before we defeated one of the ones who assume the name of god. Cian, one of the kids Mamoru looked after, had led us into a hidden research base located beneath Siltran castle. There we had uncovered his experiments to restore his girlfriend Filolia to life and his modification of kids into the future representative races of Siltvelt. We’d had a bit of a scuffle, but they had proven unable to match us. Cian and I managed to talk Mamoru down, and after accepting defeat, he had explained the situation. We had gone on to pretty much resolve it for him.
“I don’t think that’s especially pleasant research,” Melty admitted, “but considering what we’re facing, maybe we should accept it as a necessary evil.” After what we had seen during the last wave, it wasn’t surprising that she might think this way. We’d been lucky enough to have a weapon that proved effective in the battle; if we’d been left to our regular means, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.
We still didn’t know what path the past was going to take, but at some point after this, the filolials would be created.
“I see,” Melty finally said. “I had no idea the origin of the filolials concealed such a sad secret.”
“You can accept this, Melty? You too, Ruft?” Raphtalia asked.
“Making a fuss about it now won’t change anything. It sounds like Naofumi has already negotiated this out,” Melty replied pragmatically.
“How is this different from what happened with Mikey?” Ruft said, also totally casual about the whole thing. “The Raph species were created in a slightly different way, perhaps, but isn’t it the same kind of thing in the end?” Ruft hung out in his Raph species-like therianthrope form most of the time—Keel could even take notes. He was in his demi-human form right then, and Raphtalia gave him a strange look. I guessed it was because he looked so much like her own father. That made me wonder which of his forms caused her less mental distress. Both of them were hard on her, just in different ways.
“Of course,” Raphtalia finally said, with a twist of her mouth. “You’ve already undergone human experimentation yourself, haven’t you, Ruft? I chose the wrong place to look for sympathy.”
“I look pretty great for it too, don’t I?” Ruft said, showing off the results. Raphtalia did not reply.
“Just take a look at Naofumi’s village!” Melty chipped in. “He’s in no position to talk about any kind of moral code.”
“That’s true,” Raphtalia said. “The Raph species, and Ruft, and then Ruft again. Naofumi even said he wants me to become like Ruft.” She was still carrying that around.
“Sounds like you’re pretty much the same as me,” Mamoru said with a laugh. “That certainly makes this easier.”
“Still, this isn’t information we want our enemies to know. It’s probably better to hide it from Natalia if we can,” Melty agreed.
“I guess so,” I pondered. “The worry there is that if hiding it fails, Natalia might turn on Mamoru in anger, and our alliance with her would fall apart.”
“I’m asking you to do this with a full understanding of the high risk of failure. I won’t hold it against you if things do fail . . . and Filolia has regained consciousness now anyway, so there’s no need to even worry about it,” Mamoru revealed. His eyes went over to the doorway even as he spoke. He had been wishing for this reunion with his girlfriend for so long; he must have wanted to be with her really badly.