“Yep. It looks like we’ve really started to gain their trust. It feels good to help people, but also a bit weird that these people have gone so far out of their way to help us.”
“You just need to repay kindness with kindness, I say!”
“You’re right. So after we go clean up Riyute, back to our selling, then.”
Keel grinned. “So we’re gonna go back to selling medicine and helping people?”
“That’s right. We’re going to keep at it, help as many people as we can, and, just like I told Ren, see if we can change this country from the inside!”
“Let’s go!”
A cheer of support rose up from everyone in the carriage, and we set off.
It seemed like everything was going well. There were some small differences from the first go-around, but I felt confident that we were headed in the right direction. As Father had said, we were off to help more people!
Just as we expected, the streets of Riyute were filled with the corpses of monsters. The villagers were in the middle of gathering the corpses and dragging them to one pile.
“Kou, you wanted to eat them, didn’t you?” Father asked. “Do you still want—” Father stopped suddenly and looked over at the remains of the chimera.
The remains were crumbling and missing a lot of parts—people appeared to have taken plenty more parts from the monster after I had finished with it.
“It looks pretty much taken apart at this point, but is that the boss?”
“Indeed,” I said.
“So you took the head, right? But it looks like the villagers are having trouble.”
Father got off the carriage and went over to meet them. He talked with them for a minute and then gestured to me.
“They’re having trouble getting rid of it, so let’s help out. Motoyasu, can you help me take this thing apart?”
“Leave it to me, I say!”
So Father and I quickly took the chimera remains and cut them up. My spear was so sharp that it easily cut through the chimera’s bone. And if necessary, we could’ve just added everything to our weapons. Like an interdimensional trash box.
“I want to give some remains to the villagers, so can you get the meat off the bones?” Father asked me.
“No problem,” I said.
I disemboweled the beast, added the organs to Father’s shield, and separated the meat. We put some of it into Father’s shield. But what should we do with the rest? Father looked conflicted.
“Can we really eat this stuff? It might be good for the new filolials’ feed.”
“Hmm . . . The meat is a little tough for filolials, I must say.”
“We can just process it, so there should be no problem.”
I supposed so. There were various kinds of monster meat, but they tended to be pretty chewy. It was remarkable that Father was able to figure out what to do with the remains of a monster he had never even seen before. Since chimeras were a combination of multiple beasts, I wondered if we would be able to eat it. Well, they did sell mixtures of ground beef and pork back in the Japan I’m from, so surely it wasn’t an impossibility.
“Oh Motoyasu, did you destroy the ranch fence? You should probably go apologize for that.”
“I’ll do that right now! Don’t worry about me!”
I certainly had destroyed the fence in order to save the lives of the filolials there. But no matter the reason, I ought to apologize. I got onto Yuki’s back and rode over toward the ranch.
“I came to apologize for breaking your fence yesterday,” I called over.
“Oh, it’s the Spear Hero!” The rancher came over with a warm expression.
“I did it to try to save the filolials, but nonetheless, I apologize from the bottom of my heart for destroying your fence with magic, I say!”
“I was so busy running to save my own life that I ended up forgetting about all my monsters here! But thanks to you, they’re unharmed. No need to apologize.”
“So all the filolials managed to escape unharmed?”
“Yes, as soon as the monsters were gone, they all came back here.”
Filolials were truly unmatched in terms of intelligence. They understood who their owners were.
“That is most important to me,” I said.
“Thank you,” the rancher said.
I laughed. “Filolials are the jewels of this world. I only did the right thing, I say!”
“Gweh! Gweh! Gweh!”
The filolials rushed up to the fence to greet me. Yuki raised her hand and saluted.
When I got back from the ranch, Father was scratching his head about how to load the rest of the chimera remains on to the carriage. I think that Father had given some of it to the villagers, but there was still just so much left.
“I can load that onto the cart that we got from the villagers,” I suggested.
“Oh really? That’d be great, I guess . . . Is one filolial going to be enough to pull both the carriage and this extra cart?”
“Oh, no problem. Even in angel form, a filolial could carry both the carriage and an extra cart easily.”
“Naturally!” Yuki said, and the filolials chirped their agreement.
The single carriage was actually more troublesome since it was almost too light for them.
“Great, then let’s go with that.”
So we loaded the rest of the chimera meat in a pile onto the cart.
A large group of villagers came over to us. “We cannot thank you enough,” one of them said to Father, bowing.
“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Father asked.
“Nothing,” he replied. “Our buildings escaped undamaged thanks to your efforts, and besides getting rid of the monster corpses, we’ve been able to return to normal life.”
“No lasting harm is what matters most,” Father said, smiling. “We appreciate you putting in a good word for us at those stores over in the castle town.”
“Not at all. You’re the ones who protected us. I’m also glad that the Shield Hero and Spear Hero were different from the rumors that were spreading around. We’re the ones who should be doing whatever we can to thank you.”
“We gladly accept your thanks,” Father said. “All right then, stay safe!”
Another villager hurried up to Father just as we were about to leave.
“Excuse me, Shield Hero!”
“What is it?”
“Isn’t there anything else we can do to help?” he asked. “If you’re going to embark on a journey peddling, we could help you get a commercial bill of passage.”
“Thank you, but we already have one.”
“I see, that’s good to hear. Please take care. Thank you, Shield and Spear Hero!”
All of the Riyute villagers gathered to see us off, and we finally departed.
“So it seems like I probably got a peddling pass in the first go-around from the Riyute villagers here,” Father commented.
“You think so?”
“Most likely. It just kinda clicked for me. This is where we got it. I think there was more damage to the village then than this time around, so I probably stayed a while to help them repair their village, and eventually they gave me the peddling pass. Doesn’t that make sense?”
Perhaps. I remembered that now was about the time in the first go-around when I first met Filo-tan. To be precise, two or three days from now, I believe.
I can still remember it so vividly. The first time I laid my eyes on Filo-tan. That was when it all really started.
At the time, I had just gotten some land from Trash and was still cooperating with the Crimson Swine.
“Father, I do believe we’ll encounter Itsuki and the Crimson Swine tomorrow or the day after. He’ll have just gotten land from the king.”
“Huh? Does that mean Riyute?”
Indeed, it was a domain that included Riyute. And for the purpose of restoring the land, the Crimson Swine had decided to institute a heavy tax. That’s when we encountered Father and his companions. When the Crimson Swine realized things weren’t going to go her way, she made Filo-tan race against her knight’s dragon.
That’s when I first saw Filo-tan. Something came over me, and I just started laughing.
Even now I’m not quite sure why I laughed so much. It really was a mystery.
Most likely, I laughed so much because I had a totally incorrect image of filolials before meeting one. I had assumed that horses and knight’s dragons were superior, but the moment I saw a filolial—the moment I saw Filo’s beautiful color and shape—everything changed.
Before that, I had probably foolishly assumed that having a white dyed with pink as opposed to a monotone looked cheap.
Oh, my Filo-tan, how delightful your lovely colors are even in my mind!
Simply remembering her is the pinnacle of joy.
Filo-tan punished abusive, guffawing me with a hammer-strong kick straight into my nether region. I was sent flying like a mighty spaceship blasting off, and as the world drifted gently by, I felt as if my body had been seared by a mighty thunderbolt.
My beloved Filo-tan, wherever could you be?
“Is something wrong with Motoyasu? He doesn’t seem like he’s here,” Sakura said.
“He’s okay,” Father said. “He seems happy to me.”
“Spear Bro, what are you thinking about? Something tasty?”
“Why don’t we add some Keel sauce?” Father said with a grin.
“Hey, stop making that joke!” Keel shouted. “Arf! Arf!”
“Oink . . .”
Watching the conversation from across the carriage, Lazy Pig let out a long sigh.
“So Itsuki and the princess might be on their way here, huh?” Father mumbled to himself, deep in thought. “Based on Itsuki’s personality, I normally wouldn’t expect him to go along with a hefty tax, but you never know. Maybe we’d be better off just getting out of their way and let him oppose it. We’ll keep watch for two or three days, and if anything happens, we’ll just have to do what we can. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Got it!” I declared. “We’ll see if Itsuki is really on the side of justice!”
“I’m just hoping that Itsuki isn’t as dumb as he seems,” Father said. “By the way, Motoyasu, that new egg we got, who’s going to be the owner?”
“I despise dragons.”
“Okay, but I think it’s going to be a filolial. Do you want to raise it?”
A good question indeed . . .
“Understood! Then I shall register the egg, I say!”
“Maybe there’s a way to co-register it or something, but it’s probably safer for you to do it yourself.”
I went ahead and completed the registration, and we spent the rest of the day clattering down the road in the carriage.
We didn’t hear anything about Itsuki and the Crimson Swine taking over the domain. Maybe the Crimson Swine figured out Itsuki’s personality. The idea that her manipulation skills were getting even better was a nauseating thought.