“At the same time, we need to work on obtaining the carriage vassal weapon and going to the world of the sword and spear,” I confirmed. The heroes being held hostage were probably on their home world. Holy weapon heroes had difficulty traveling between worlds without special permission. The ones who assume the name of god might have dragged them here against their will, of course. We couldn’t give up on recusing the hostages, wherever they were being held.
“We’d have a lot less trouble if you could cross to the sword world with a wave summons, Ren,” I mused.
“I feel you. I’ve been thinking the same thing,” he replied, his hand on his sword. These weapons could be such a pain in the ass. Sometimes I thought they were just messing with us on purpose. They really had something against doing what we wanted.
“If the weapons wanted to get in the way more than they have already, then what? They could prevent us from leaving this world?” I pondered. Mamoru was the hero in this time. If the shield still refused to let me leave, I’d order Atla to give the Shield Spirit a good kicking.
It felt like the gemstone on my shield flickered. Either the spirit was begging for me to call Atla off, or Atla was letting me know I only had to give the order.
“We might be able to sneak over in the chaos during a wave,” I pondered. The ones causing the waves had placed a target on our backs, however, so it seemed unlikely they would let us get away with that. I wouldn’t, if I was in their position. They might wait until they had a way to deal with us, then cause a wave to finish us off. I wasn’t going to wait for that either.
“Mamoru, Filolia. Have you made a decision about Fitoria?” I asked. Filolia flushed red at my question and looked down at the ground.
“Suddenly getting a daughter . . . and then putting such a cruel burden on her. I don’t want to accept it . . . but Fitoria wishes for this to happen, so I can try,” Filolia said.
“Sounds like we’re a go,” Holn commented. She took out what looked like a Dragon Emperor Core and passed it to Mamoru. “I was planning on overseeing you making this, but we need all the time we can get, so I went ahead.”
“Holn . . .” Mamoru said.
“I’ve packed in everything I could imagine you would have done, Mamoru, if you were making your child with Filolia,” Holn explained.
“Is there anything you can’t make?” I asked from the sidelines.
“I’ve adapted the Dragon Emperor’s inheritance system and the tech I used for Natalia’s hammer. It’s not what you’d call a soul. It’s more like something that will accelerate Fitoria’s advancement into self-awareness,” Holn explained. She wanted to bring down dragons as the most powerful monsters, but backing up that attitude had required a lot of study of those very monsters. That allowed her to apply all sorts of different techniques. “If you activate this crystal while performing a ritual in front of the carriage vassal weapon, it should be automatically adjusted to select her as the holder of the carriage vassal weapon.”
“Okay. Let’s get back to the sanctuary and pick up the carriage. There’s no more time to waste,” I said. In that moment, a wave of dizziness washed over me.
“Naofumi, are you okay?” Ren exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I lost a lot of blood, and so I’m not back to full strength yet. I need a little longer, that’s all,” I replied. I’d fetched some rucolu fruit from the village stores and was wolfing them down. They were packed with nutrients that only I could unlock—for me, these were better than most medicine.
“I’m not sure I approve,” Ren said.
“Mr. Naofumi, please stop pushing yourself so hard,” Raphtalia added.
“I’ll be careful,” I told them. “We’re just going to see a man about a carriage. Nothing to it.”
“If you say so,” Raphtalia replied.
“We should also pick up Keel from the Siltran dragon hourglass,” I mentioned.
“Keel really proved her worth,” Raphtalia said.
“She certainly did,” I replied. We swung by to pick up Keel, finding her healed and happy. Her tail whipped from side to side as she leapt toward us.
“Bubba! Everyone! Did things go okay without me?” she asked. I picked her up for once—it couldn’t hurt sometimes—and she started licking my face. She really was a dog!
“Yeah, nothing to report. What about you?” I asked.
“I’m still sore all over, but I can move around again,” Keel yipped.
“If you aren’t fully recovered, don’t push yourself too hard,” I cautioned her.
“I don’t want to miss anything because of this,” she replied.
“I heard what you did,” Fohl said. “Good work.”
“Bubba Fohl, beast transformation really hurt! How do you put up with it?” Keel asked.
“I don’t do it all that often, but did it really hurt that badly?” Fohl asked. Holn stepped in at that point and started to question Keel.
“My estimates suggest it shouldn’t place too much stress on you. What did you do?” Holn asked.
“Bubba lent me some strength,” Keel replied.
“I had to use the cursed shield. It can be useful in a crisis,” I said.
“Not surprised that caused some stress,” Holn replied.
“I was filled with power too! But it felt kind of horrible . . . like I hated everyone. That’s your trump card, huh, Bubba?” Keel said. It sounded like Keel had experienced some of the mental pollution from the Shield of Wrath. I was glad she hadn’t been infected by the curse herself, but the blowback had still been harsh on her. “Now if I could maintain that strength for longer . . .” Keel said, looking at me with expectations on her face.
“I’d prefer it if you found a different way to get stronger,” I said. Then I had a thought. “Are you okay with not getting turned into a cerberus?” I asked. She had been told she’d never be able to change back after transforming once, but she performed the beast transformation anyway.
“I’m fine. If I can obtain that strength and power, I’m fine,” Keel said. I still didn’t think it was the best approach.
“We should at least run some tests,” Holn said. “We need to make sure the stress of this isn’t causing any other issues.”
“You finally see how dangerous your experiments are?” Rat said, homing in on Holn.
“Greater output than the individual can support is not a good idea,” Holn admitted.
“You need to keep that in mind when you’re around Duke,” Rat said.
“You don’t miss a chance to put the boot in,” Holn said wryly.
“The same goes for you,” Rat replied.
“There’s a risk to Keel’s life,” I decided. “We won’t use it again until Holn and Rat finish their tests.”
“Okay,” Keel finally said. “I’ll toughen up.” This had been a good learning opportunity for her. I wanted her to continue to grow and to learn the meaning of our fight.
“You need to take better care of yourself,” Raphtalia said.
“That’s rich, coming from you, Raphtalia! Everyone in the village is always thinking the same thing about you guys!” Keel shot back.
“She’s got us there,” I replied. We always did whatever it took to win, however crazy. Keel had taken notice.
We ended the discussion and moved things back to the sanctuary.