Chapter Eleven: Dinosaur Hunting
It was a few days later.
“Thiz iz no way to treat zomeone recovering from a zerious injury,” Shadow complained with a moan.
“Raph,” said his ninja Raph specimen. We had been moving between the sanctuary and the village, working to protect them both. We’d also received a request from the village close to the sanctuary to deal with some dangerous monsters lurking nearby. Mamoru and his party were busy with preparations for the infiltration of Piensa, and so we hadn’t seen much of them. As a side note, Eclair had quickly become friendly with the lizard men and was often seen training and sparring with them. Maybe because Mamoru was lending them some strength—applying the Whip power-up method—but the lizard men were putting up a good fight even against Eclair.
“You’ve recovered enough for this. Shut up and get moving,” I said. I’d decided to take Shadow and his ninja Raph specimen along in order to level them up a little.
“You do look like you’ve made a full recovery!” Keel yipped.
“I’m a zeriously injured individual!” Shadow complained. I also had Raphtalia, Ruft, the noisy Keel, and—for the first time in a while—S’yne too. I hadn’t even talked to S’yne much recently, what with all her magic training. I didn’t like her just watching me from a distance all the time, so I decided to bring her along. Raph-chan and Dafu-chan had gone with Natalia to help Mamoru. I could summon them via a skill if they were needed, so that wasn’t a problem. Raphtalia and the others could also stop Shadow from trying to escape if he decided this was all too much hassle. It was a good all-round party.
“I’m not sure about working Shadow quite this hard,” Raphtalia cautioned me.
“The very fact he suffered such a wound is why we need to bring him,” I replied. Shadow might have learned a lot of technical things from our village and Q’ten Lo, but in a matter of pure stats, he had performed a limit break but was still behind Keel and the others. This was maybe the only time we were going to have to do something about that. He certainly was tough. He had been up and walking around soon after his wounds healed. If he had been bedridden and unable to move, I wouldn’t have been pushing him this far.
“My role iz only to collect information, infiltrate targetz, and protect Queen Melty,” Shadow said sullenly. He had been all for joining Mamoru in the Piensa infiltration, providing information on routes through the nation and acting as a guide, but I had put a stop to that and practically dragged him along with us.
“You must have upset Bubba something fierce for him to be taking you out like this so soon after a big injury,” Keel pondered. “When I got hurt badly, I was left in the village for everything.” She was right. During the fight with the Spirit Tortoise, we’d been forced to leave her behind due to her wounds.
“If you want to help with the infiltrations so much, you need to be strong enough to escape from any possible enemy attack,” I said pointedly.
“I have no responze to that,” Shadow admitted. “But you are a demon, Zhield Hero. I need zympathy, not combat.”
“What do you mean, zympathy?! I couldn’t be more zympathetic if I tried!” I shot back. He had just healed up and wanted to head straight back into a warzone! I needed to prepare him as best as I could first. What was that, if not “sympathy?!”
“If you raise my level here, Zhield Hero . . . will you end up making me your lover?” Shadow asked.
“Huh? Is that how this works?” Keel asked naively.
“Keel, shut up,” I snapped before addressing the main crazy person. “You think I’m raising my allies’ levels in order to make them my lovers?” I asked. The only ones thinking like that were the old Motoyasu and the resurrected. Before we even got to that point, I couldn’t ever understand why I would want my lovers to be strong.
“Mozt of thoze you go out to raize levelz with are your loverz,” Shadow said.
“I don’t think you really understand the situation,” Raphtalia said. “Keel, that isn’t what’s happening here, so don’t worry.”
“What about Fohl? And Ruft?” Keel asked persistently.
“Me? Lover of the Shield Hero?” Ruft asked. “Ah, love me, love me just like this!” Ruft struck an affected pose. He really did love his Raph therianthrope form. I thought it was cute too, but it was having the opposite effect at the moment.
“Keel, Ruft, you’re only going to make things worse for Mr. Naofumi by getting involved in this. Please stay quiet,” Raphtalia chided them.
“Huh?” Ruft said.
“I’m not sure what you mean, but whatever,” Keel replied. I turned my attention back to Shadow.
“I’m not your lover,” Shadow confirmed with me.
“It might have been better if you did die, at least once,” I said. I had no idea what he thought I was. Yes, I had lost it that one time and grabbed onto Fohl, but there was no reason to keep basing their entire assessment of me on that one mistake!
“Holn haz told me that you fall for the heart, not the body, Zhield Hero. Race and gender mean nothing to you,” Shadow said. So that was the reason for this! Turning the Shield Hero into some kind of idolized pansexual! The idea that love could overcome all boundaries should be reserved to the thinking of dragons and Motoyasu!
“You’ve been zpending a lot of time with Keel recently. Are you trying to make her yourz too?” Shadow asked. I presumed he was talking about the incident that had triggered Keel’s trauma.
“So that’s what’s going on!” Keel said.
“Keel, have you forgotten already? That was punishment for you saying the wrong thing. Do you want to be punished again?” I asked. I’d given her a thorough stroking when we were in the trading wagon as punishment for her telling me I should get with Raphtalia and other mockery.
“Ah! Your punishment feels good, but it scares me too, so no! Raphtalia! Forgive me!” Keel yipped, both hands together, bowing her head as she asked for forgiveness.
“The details of that incident don’t concern me, but please don’t overstimulate Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said.
“I took Keel along on that trip as a punishment in the first place, but I spent most of the trip talking about accessory making with Imiya,” I said. Keel and Imiya played the role of loveable mascots for the village, perhaps, but that wasn’t the kind of “love” being intimated here. Imiya was cute, in the same kind of way Raphtalia was, and she seemed to be into me. But I’d think about that once the world was at peace. Otherwise, there would be some real wild beasts awaiting me back in the future—wild beasts named “Sadeena” and “Shildina.”
I wondered where this rumor that I raised party members’ levels to make them my lovers started from. If I could pinpoint the exact individual, they would need to be punished. It sounded like something that Keel might have kicked off. It might be time to activate her slave seal!
“Why are you glaring at me, Bubba? What have I done now?” Keel asked.
“He suspects you of spreading those rumors about leveling people up in order to make them his lovers,” Raphtalia said.
“No! You’ve got that wrong!” Keel instantly protested. I wasn’t sure about that. Rumors could spread, whether the originator intended them to or not.
“Okay. Where does Cian fit into the crazy scenario?” I asked.
“Zhe’z zomeone already intimate with a different hero, making her an exception. I don’t have any hero I’m ezpecially cloze to, so I’m a likely target,” Shadow explained.
“Well, you can relax. This is all in your head. I don’t even know if you are male or female, to be honest,” I replied. I had always presumed “he” was male. “I’ve never even seen your face. How could I fall for you? The only way to tell you apart from all those other shadows is the way you talk.” I’d seen him turn into the queen once. I actually had no idea of “his” gender. He seemed able to pretend to be Melty too. When I was on the run during Melty’s kidnapping, he had turned into a villager. He really could be a man or a woman, so I had no idea.
“Are you zeriouz?” Shadow said, shocked. “You really don’t care about me, do you?! I’m juzt another namelezz, formlezz blob to you, aren’t I, Zheild Hero?! Raphtalia, pleaze tell me! Why doez thiz feel zo much like defeat?”
“I think you would be better to just ignore him completely,” Raphtalia advised.
“That juzt makez the zting of defeat even worze!” Shadow complained.
“Shadow . . . I don’t even know if you’re a bubba or not, but do you really want Bubba Shield Hero to look at you in that way?” Keel asked.
“I don’t think he (or she) wants it either way,” I said.
“I know Bubba can be foulmouthed, but that only shows how much he cares,” Keel explained, just making stuff up like normal.