Finally, Ren and Itsuki’s companions finished classing up. After this, Ren and Itsuki would get the portal skill for their weapons, which meant that they would be heading to Zeltoble sooner or later. So first they had to get the sand from the dragon hourglass after finishing classing up. I remembered that in the first go-around, Ren had asked on behalf of Father when the Shield Hero would get the sand. The pig responded by lying and saying that she would give it to him later. I also vaguely remembered Father complaining about how they wouldn’t let him class up in Melromarc at the time. And so that was my plan: to get Father to try to class up. Then, when they rejected him, it would only give Ren more evidence to distrust Melromarc, I say.
“Let’s class up your companions now, Father!” I proclaimed.
“What?” Father glanced at me in confusion. I gave him my signature leave-it-to-me glance, and Father nodded and understood. Yes, Father had already classed up, but this was an ingenious bluff.
The pig that had led us here oinked, squealed, and snorted in surprise.
“You can class up?” Ren asked.
“This glorious filolial Yuki here grows at a remarkable rate, so I think she should be able to make it, I say!”
If you get a filolial up to level 30, they should just be about able to class up. You might have problems depending on how you want to class up, but even in the game there was no strict minimum on what level you needed to be. I had used that knowledge in the first go-around, so I expected Ren would have the same knowledge.
He let us go through, unexpectedly, without a fight. This was the potential scenario that I had whispered about to Father before, but Keel and Sakura were tilting their heads in confusion.
“Hey, Big Bro—”
“Naofumi—”
Father raised a finger to his lips.
“I’d love to at least take a look,” Father said. “I know that at level 30 there may not be a lot of options, but the wave of destruction is almost here, and I think we’d fare better with a class up.”
The pig snorted and squealed some confusing explanation.
“Huh? Why would Naofumi’s companions have to get up to level 40?” Ren asked. “Some of mine were just barely level 35, but they could class up. So they shouldn’t have been able to do it.”
“Oink! Oink oink!”
It was exactly what I was aiming for. In the first go-around, Father had told me that the heroes didn’t need any special letter of introduction or money in order to use the dragon hourglass. But for Father, they acted like he needed both. So now we had exposed the inequality right in front of Ren and Itsuki, who had just classed up for free.
What will you do now, eh, Melromarc? An attack armed with the wisdom from the previous go-arounds—take that!
“Naofumi needs to apologize to the king to get permission, you say?” Ren snorted. “Just how much are you guys trying to hold onto that farce of an accusation against him?”
“It is an undeniable fact that he tried to rape the princess,” Itsuki interjected. “He shouldn’t be able to get permission in the first place!”
“They had no real proof that he did anything,” Ren replied.
“You’re the only one who thinks that!”
Ren opened his mouth to fire back and then sighed. “Even if we were absolutely sure that he did try to rape her, it makes no sense not to let Motoyasu and Naofumi class up. We all have to fight the waves of destruction.”
“So if he apologizes, they’ll let him fight!” Itsuki shot back.
Itsuki really was annoying. He got so easily confused in the name of justice.
However, it was problematic that this pig had the wit to come up with an excuse so easily. They couldn’t use money or a letter of introduction as an excuse, so they made it such that he needed permission from the king himself.
But Ren wasn’t moved. He looked at me and Father.
“There’s something strange going on here. Doesn’t it seem like the king and princess are working specifically against you, Naofumi?”
The pig chimed in to oink on and on about some sort of excuse, but Ren didn’t seem to believe a word she was saying. It wouldn’t be a bad time for me to reveal the whole truth here, but that might cause more troublesome differences between now and the first go-around to spring up.
Ren shook his head at the pig. “Really?”
“It’s all because he won’t properly apologize!” shouted Itsuki, pointing at Father. “Do it! Apologize!”
“Why would I have to apologize to you?” Father shouted suddenly. “Even if I were to apologize, it wouldn’t be to you of all people!”
This had gone far enough. Father had clearly understood my intentions and was pretending to lose his temper. His back was facing the dragon hourglass.
“Just forget about it,” Ren said. “It’s not like saying anything now is going to change things.”
The real performance began now. After a moment of silence, the pig brought sand from the dragon hourglass, put it into bags, and handed it over to Ren and Itsuki.
Ren checked the contents and carefully applied it to his sword. “The sand of the dragon hourglass, huh?” He looked over at us and back at the pig. “What about some for Motoyasu and Naofumi?”
“Oink oink oink oink!”
“Is this some sort of joke? There’s way more than enough for all four of us! Just what are you trying to pull?”
“The point is that Naofumi won’t be forgiven for his sins, Ren!” Itsuki interjected.
“You say that, but Melromarc is supposed to provide it to all of the heroes. How else are we supposed to face the wave of destruction? How are we supposed to protect this world with only half our strength?”
Ren’s argument even appeared to resonate with Itsuki. The pure unfairness of only giving two of the heroes items that clearly could have been distributed to all four was too evident.
“Itsuki, if you’re feeling all high-and-mighty because you’re getting treated favorably, let me give you one piece of advice. Think about what you would do if you were put in Naofumi’s situation.”
“That’s enough!” Father interrupted, turning around. “This whole argument is pointless! Let’s go, Motoyasu!”
“At once, Father!”
Ren gave us a final glance. “Whatever. Itsuki, you ought to be a little more suspicious of this whole thing.”
I followed Father out of the building, avoiding the gazes of Ren and Itsuki and their companions. We left Ren in his ugly mood.
And after leaving, I realized I forgot to figure out who Itsuki’s companions were. Oh well.
“That lady was seriously unhelpful,” remarked Keel.
“I was this close to giving her a taste of my sword,” Sakura said.
“Keel, Sakura, don’t do anything that causes a fuss,” Father said. “Yuki, thanks for staying cool.”
“I could tell from Motoyasu’s expression that there was no point in listening to the mindless drivel of such a repugnant creature,” Yuki said.
“Big Bro! We can’t just let her get away with it!” Keel shouted.
Father looked at Keel and smiled gently. “I’ll tell you a little secret,” he said. “Just don’t tell anyone.”
“What is it!?”
“Even I tend to lose my temper from time to time,” Father said. “Motoyasu, do you think we can really trust Ren here?”
“I suspect he already has plenty of reasons to mistrust Melromarc,” I explained. “He was bound to believe you sooner or later.”
“Well, I’ll take it. If we don’t try using his mistrust against Melromarc, then we’ll be leaving our knowledge of previous events on the table, so we may as well go for it.”
I was happy that Ren didn’t trust Melromarc, but if he ended up being unreliable as always, then it could backfire on us. Still, just as Father said, we had made the safest choice.
“So we finished our preparations, and now all we need to do is relax and wait for the wave of destruction,” Father said.
“Time off! Yay!” Keel shouted. “Big Bro, please, cook us something?”
“All right, all right,” Father said. “Let’s go cook by the riverbed over near the plain.”
“Woohoo!”
“I can’t wait to eat,” Sakura chirped.
“And I as well!” I declared.
“You always make the most wonderful food, Naofumi!” Yuki said.