Chapter One: Carriage-Crafting
“Sakura?” I looked at her in surprise. That was strange. In the previous round Sakura was pretty much the same height as Yuki.
In terms of her figure, she was like Filo-tan’s big sister. What in the world had happened? How could there be such a big difference between this round and the previous one? The only familiar thing about her was her hair that stuck up in one place, a cowlick like a flower.
“Sakura, you got so big!” Yuki exclaimed.
“You think so?” Sakura yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Naofumi, what are we doing today? I’m hungry!”
“Uhhhh . . .” Naofumi faltered and turned to me. “Motoyasu! What should we do?”
I have seen one example of a filolial like Sakura before. That is, of course, Chick.
I do recall that when Chick turned into her angel form, she looked more like an adult woman. It was far from a common occurrence.
Perhaps Sakura had become this way to make Father like her even more. That may have made sense. Whatever the true reason, it wasn’t like there was no such thing as filolials that became adults in their angel form. Every filolial is different, I say, even when they take their angel form.
Still, I could hardly suppress my surprise. Since Sakura’s eye color was also different from the previous go-around, I realized that there could be all sorts of other differences that pop up. And with her pink hair, I almost felt like I was looking at Éclair standing next to Father. They looked to be about the same age and same height.
“Uh, Motoyasu, are you listening to me?”
“Most definitely,” I assured Father. “Yes, I too have absolutely no clue what’s happening here, I say.”
My only guess was that Sakura had become an adult in her angel form because some sort of condition was met.
Well, since there seemed like no reason to be concerned about it, I let it be.
“There’s no problem whatsoever!” I announced.
“Huh? No problem?”
“No problem at all! Sakura, you know what you have to do, don’t you?”
“Yeah! It’s my job to protect Naofumi!”
She still looked sleepy, but I could tell from her voice that she was determined.
“Oh, got it. Thanks,” Father said. Sakura came to stand next to Father and he patted her on the head. She closed her eyes and bowed her head happily.
“Oink! Oink!”
Keel looked upset about something. What could the problem be? Meanwhile, Sakura asked Father to keep petting her head and he complied.
“Well then, Sakura,” I declared, “now I must prepare clothes for you, I say!”
“Whaaaat? That’s boring.”
“Don’t be so selfish!” Yuki scolded. She twirled around, showing off the clothes I had made for her. “What do you think? Motoyasu made these marvelous clothes for me.”
“They look great,” Father said.
Oh, Father, your kindness knows no bounds!
“You’ve got good sense, Motoyasu,” he said. “You must’ve been popular back in Japan.”
“I also made clothes for you too, Keel,” I declared. I took out the outfit from my bag and gave it to Father. Father unfolded the clothes and showed them to Keel.
It was the perfect design for Keel. Back in the Japan where I come from, pigs dress up to serve customers at maid cafés. I had modeled the clothes based on those European maid outfits. It had stockings and a frilly skirt.
“Oink! Oink oink!” Keel blurted out a series of distressed squeals, clearly opposed to the clothes I had prepared.
“I know, but even if you don’t like them . . .” Father started to say.
“Oink oink oink! Oink oink oink!”
“Please, can you just try it? I think they’ll look really good on you.”
Keel continued to oink and squeal furiously.
“I keep telling him you’re a boy, but Motoyasu thinks that you’re a girl, and I don’t think there’s anything we can do to convince him.”
Keel oinked in response.
“Huh? Well, if Motoyasu could start understanding what you say, then I think that would mean that he sees you as male. He doesn’t seem to be able to understand any women other than the female filolials.”
For some reason, Keel came over and grabbed me by the arm.
I had no idea what was going on. Why couldn’t she just speak human language!
“Oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink!” Keel screamed in my face.
“I don’t have the slightest clue what you are saying,” I coolly returned.
“So you hate the clothes Motoyasu made for you that much?” Yuki asked, scowling.
Keel oinked quietly and looked like she didn’t know what to say. She took several steps back and lowered her head under Yuki’s glare.
“Anyways, Motoyasu,” Father said. “Look at Kou. Why is he looking at Keel like that?”
Kou was staring googly-eyed at Keel from behind. “Keel’s tail,” Kou whispered.
Keel yelped and rushed to Father’s side. Kou trotted after Keel, but Sakura came in between them.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sakura told Kou. “I’m going to protect Keel. Just like from that thief from yesterday.”
“Did something happen with a thief?” I inquired.
“Yeah,” Father said. “We were attacked while we were riding Sakura. It was probably a thief or some other criminal.”
“Yeah! And in that fight, I protected Naofumi and Keel!” Sakura said proudly.
I couldn’t help but notice that Sakura lit up whenever she talked about protecting Father. What a glorious sight! I felt especially happy that she took such pride in it.
Normally, I would be the one protecting Father, but we couldn’t be together too often at the moment.
“Whenever he started to speak, you just slapped him around. Is that because he was lying?” Father asked Sakura.
“Yeah! I couldn’t speak human language well at the time, so I just slapped him around because he was lying.”
“He did have a weird look in his eyes,” Father said. “So maybe he was disguised as a thief. Based on what Motoyasu told me, he was probably a follower of the Church of the Three Heroes. His clothes did look too nice for a thief, so maybe he was purposefully acting like a thief to try to trick us?”
Hmmm. I tried to remember if Father had ever been attacked by a thief at around this point in the story. But I didn’t know enough of the details. Perhaps the person claimed to be a thief so that Father wouldn’t suspect what he really was. If Father had found out who he was and told Siltvelt, a war might break out between the Church of the Three Heroes, so he was likely being careful to hide his true identity when he attacked.
I figured that they wanted to be able to attack but didn’t want to risk us attacking them. It all pretty much made sense.
Keel oinked a few times.
“Keel, I know you don’t have any experience, but you’d really be a great salesperson for us,” Father said. The topic appeared to have changed back to Keel’s clothing. “I get it, you’re a boy who looks feminine . . . Where I come from, we’d call you a bishonen. But either way, you still have an attractive face.”
Keel oinked softly.
“So you don't want to wear the outfit. You might not like it, but I know you can do it. Try it on, persevere through it. Remember, we’re doing all this to get revenge on the people who destroyed your village.”
Keel oinked and nodded.
“Thank you, Keel. Do your best.”
Father patted Keel’s head and turned back to Sakura.
“So what should we do about Sakura’s clothes? I’m thinking it would be best if you could make some for her soon, but . . .”
“In that case, I would need for her to come with me,” I informed Father.
“I want to protect Naofumi!” Sakura said. “I can’t leave his side.”
“But . . .” Father started.
“Well then, we’ll just have to make do with normal clothes for her for the time being,” I declared.
“Should we stop by the weapon shop to see if the old guy has any good clothes?”
“I also know that the monster tent should have some as well,” I said.
“Do they? Well, let’s check out the weapon shop first,” Father said.
“Of course!”
And so we went back to the Melromarc castle town. When we got to the weapon shop, the old guy looked curiously at Yuki, Kou, and Sakura.
“Wow, that’s incredible. Did your filolials transform into humans because you’re heroes?” the old guy asked.
“Motoyasu, is that how it works?”
“Just so,” I said. “When heroes raise filolials they achieve exceptional growth, I say!”
“So what can I help you with?” the old guy asked.
“That’s right,” Father said. “Well, we need some clothes that are made with magical power for Sakura here. I thought it was possible that you might have some. I know that they have those sorts of clothes in countries with a lot of demi-humans.”
The old guy shook his head. “I know about those sorts of clothes, ones that can expand or contract and that have exceptional defense. They’re out there, but not in my store. Stuff made out of magic is outside my area of expertise.”
Sakura was looking around at the swords on the shelves.
“I want to try using a weapon!” Sakura exclaimed.
“Huh? W-why?” Father asked.
“Well, I know there are times that I need to stay in my human form, like in the inn, and I want to be able to protect you even when I’m in my human form!”
“Can’t you just turn into a filolial when the time to fight comes?”
“Hmmm.” Sakura thought about it. “I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?”
“Well, a sword might be more effective than talons alone, if you asked me,” the old guy chimed in.
“Yeah! I wanna use a sword!”
“It’s great that you’re interested,” the old guy said, turning to Father and me. “So what are you going to do?”
It was certainly true that filolials tended to pick their own weapons, even if it was just a beak or talons. I was a believer in the individuality of each and every filolial. But in this situation, I was concerned about our money. We couldn’t just keep spending willy-nilly, I say.
Of course, we planned to make money via peddling sooner or later, and it was always possible to get money by going to Siltvelt as well.
“Regardless, after the attack yesterday, we need some new equipment,” Father said. Father glanced at Keel, who took out a spare sword and handed it over to Sakura.
“Do you know how to use it?” Father asked her.
“I learned by watching Keel!” Sakura said.
“Oh really?” Father turned back to the old guy. “So you really don’t know anything about clothes made out of magic thread?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said. “Maybe if you go to the magic shop you could find something.”
“The magic shop?”
“The biggest magic shop around is right in this area,” he said. “I thought that you kiddos might have seen it yourself.”
“Are you talking about that giant bookstore place?” Father asked.
“Probably the same place,” the old guy said.