At least I could use the shields from the Spirit Tortoise and Phoenix materials. It wasn’t worth worrying too much about. I mixed in the True Demon Dragon Shield and got Dragon Scale and a counterattack effect added. I couldn’t activate them all at the same time, so choosing the right thing for the right situation was going to become more important in combat.
There was a lot to be said for the past, at least in this regard. I was honestly thrilled to have these lost power-up methods restored to us so easily.
“What are the remaining vassal weapons?” I asked. We had Holn’s whip, Filolia’s claws, and the hammer taken care of.
“I think . . . probably the carriage?” Mamoru replied.
“Okay. The carriage.” I shook my head. So that was a thing. I’d seen Fitoria with something that definitely fit the bill. I wondered why she hadn’t said anything about it to us. That was harder to understand. “What’s the power-up method?”
“There haven’t been enough holders for us to know that. The holders have tended to be so . . . unique, shall we say. Even the pacifiers have trouble handling them,” Mamoru explained. It had only been a few moments and I was already feeling like taking back my thoughts on how great the past was. Maybe we were dealing with a spirit as stubborn as the person I suspected of holding the vassal weapon in the future. Once we got back to our time, we’d have to get her to talk. “We can’t afford to rely on you guys forever, Naofumi. We need to find someone worthy to carry the hammer.”
“I’m going to use my new powers for the good of those goals! Let’s go say hi to everyone!” Filolia spread her arms at her sides like airplane wings and dashed away. She reminded me of Filo more and more.
“Can we introduce ourselves to you first?” Melty asked.
“Oh! Of course you can!” Filolia proceeded to shake hands with everyone and complete the introductions with my party. That marked the revival of Filolia, the girl who was basically a filolial.
We emerged from the underground facility, and the kids Mamoru looked after all mobbed Filolia.
“Filolia! You’re back!” one cried.
“Filolia returns!” Filolia replied. I hoped she wasn’t going to refer to herself in the third person too much. “Have you all been good kids?”
“You bet!” another said with a sniff.
“No lying! I’m not blind, you know!” Filolia adopted another strange pose as she chided the kids before she rushed over to them.
“What? Filolia sounds mad!” a third kid shouted. All of them turned their backs on her and ran for it. Filolia glared at them, fixing them in place. She still didn’t look especially angry to me. She took a deep breath, putting her hands down on a couple of kids’ heads.
“I understand why you did it, but you need to stop Mamoru if he goes out of control, okay?” she told them. Her expression was gentle but her words were sharp.
“We just wanted to help him,” one of the kids replied.
“Like I said, I understand, but I’m also not happy about everything that he’s done to your bodies. There’s no taking it back now, anyway, so that’s the end of it,” Filolia said. The kids shuffled their feet. “I know who is to blame here, don’t worry. This all might even have been required for the development of Siltran. But it isn’t a good thing. You shouldn’t feel proud about it, okay?”
“Okay,” the kids finally managed. Filolia gave a smile and then petted them all in turn.
“I’m back now, anyway! Let’s use our new powers to take over the world!” Filolia shouted. The kids all gave shouts of agreement. I wondered if this was okay. She seemed to have a moral compass and her act together, but then she also seemed to be an empty-headed imbecile. She contradicted herself. Maybe she was like Sadeena—a bit hard to get a handle on.
As this reunion unfolded, R’yne and S’yne came in from the castle garden.
“I thought I heard a commotion. They finally let you out, huh?” R’yne said.
“Ah, R’yne, so nice to see you,” Filolia replied, suddenly calm again, as though formally greeting a guest. There was some tension in her forehead, suggesting she had difficulty with R’yne.
“That’s a bit stiff, talking to your flesh-and-blood sister!” R’yne replied, grabbing Filolia up in a hug that ended with Filolia’s face buried in R’yne’s chest.
“Stop it!” Filolia roared, only somewhat theatrically. “You big-breasted witch!” I hadn’t noticed R’yne’s chest being that large. She seemed in the same ballpark as Raphtalia and Sadeena, but I wasn’t exactly taking measurements. She was big compared to Filo or Melty. I mean, she wasn’t a washboard.
Taking a moment to consider it, I realized that Raphtalia actually had quite a nice-sized rack. Then I quickly backed away from that kind of thinking. Who cared about breasts, honestly?
As these thoughts ran through my head, Filolia broke free from R’yne’s hold on her and put some distance between them.
“You almost sent me back to the underworld! Evil hero from another world!” Filolia declared. I was seriously going to have to ask Mamoru what he saw in this flake.
“It’s nice to see you the same as ever, but do you have to be so hyper?” R’yne said, shaking her head. Filolia gave a cough.
“Why don’t you just go off back home, R’yne?” she suggested.
“And why do you treat your flesh and blood so coldly?” R’yne asked again. She tried to grab Filolia again, but Filolia used her arms to block her. Then they both had their arms up, looking for an opening to strike the other. I wondered if this was what two bears looked like, circling each other, trying to get the other to back down.
“This is the home of my heart,” Filolia said. “I don’t need any annoyances getting in the way.” I could tell she didn’t get along that well with her sister. I didn’t want to deal with R’yne myself—mainly because she was so rude to me all the time. She must have had her fun with Filolia before she was summoned to this world. I was starting to understand how Shildina and S’yne felt. I wondered if big sisters were always problematic for their siblings. I still wanted to believe it was just these three.
“That’s enough, Filolia. R’yne was super worried about you too, so maybe don’t treat her quite so harshly?” Mamoru said. Filolia didn’t look happy about it, but she did lower her arms.
“Okay. I’m sorry,” Filolia said.
“I’m just glad you understand,” R’yne said. “It looks like you were talking to the kids.”
“Yeah, just giving them a bit of a lecture. I’m not completely happy with everything that’s been going on while I was away,” she said.
“Everyone here was involved. You’re not going to get us to regret these results either,” R’yne stated.
“That’s settled now, anyway. Who’s this here?” Filolia asked.
“Her name is S’yne. She’s from our world but came here with Naofumi. It sounds like our world has been destroyed in the future,” R’yne explained. S’yne was watching their exchange with a frown, but after her introduction, she showed off the sewing kit, then extended her hand.
“I’m the Maniacal Brave, the Claw Hero, also known as Brave Claws Filolia. Nice to meet you,” Filolia said. S’yne didn’t really seem to know what to say to that. She looked over at me. I signaled with my eyes for her to just play along.
“I’m S’yne. The Sewing Kit Hero from the future—but I recently haven’t been getting any respect as a hero,” S’yne said. The one who assumes the name of god that we fought against hadn’t included her among the heroes at all. The reason lay with her vassal weapon, which was losing its strength due to her world having been destroyed. At least the translation function that caused her speech to skip seemed to have been resolved.
“The techniques R’yne can use have all been lost in S’yne’s time. R’yne has been training her,” I explained. Filolia moved her face closer to S’yne and spoke quietly.
“Huh? Are you okay, spending so much time with her? Doesn’t she wear you down with all that chatter?” she asked. I almost did a double take—of all people, asking that question. S’yne just looked puzzled and tilted her head, unsure of what was going on.
“S’yne is very chatty too, I’ll have you know. She talks a lot with me,” R’yne said. That was true. Once S’yne got started, she could ramble on a bit. Both of them having come from the same world probably gave them plenty to talk about.
“Is that true? I want to chat with you too! I’m super interested in the future . . . and I’d love to hear some prophecies from the heroes coming from there!” Filolia said. I was a little concerned about the second part there, but she could do whatever she liked so long as it didn’t interfere with me.
“L’yne, you have some knowledge of magic, correct?” R’yne said. “Could you help with the teaching? I’m having trouble imparting how to deploy her optical wings.”
“Stop calling me by that fake name! Who’d have thought Dark Brave herself would have to suffer under such a burdensome sister?! But very well. It can’t hurt for her to learn these things,” Filolia said. It sounded like she could teach the magic from her world. That could mean a power-up for S’yne. “Shall we get into this right away?”
“No, hold on. I think we need to go to Naofumi’s village and say hello to Natalia first,” R’yne said.
“It’s past lunch . . . We’ll take Keel and the others back too, get some food, and make the introductions,” I suggested. We headed to the town below the castle, met up with Keel and the other villagers working there, and then all returned together to the village.