On that day, I was thinking about getting new weapons and armor in the castle town. Well, I planned on staying in Riyute Village for a few more days.
I just returned to my room after selling medicine to a peddler who came to the village, and found Raphtalia sorting out various baggage.
It seems like the ball that I had previously bought her and a neatly folded set of clothes that she formally wore in our first meeting were packaged inside a luggage bag. Among them, there was also a dirty flag from the children’s lunch set.
Raphtalia still doesn’t seem to have noticed that I have opened the door. With the dirty flag in hand, far from throwing it away as trash, Raphtalia instead holds it affectionately.
“Ehehe” she went, smiling joyously… it seems?
I see… So Raphtalia likes the children’s lunch flag that much? In that case, I’ll give her what she wants. Raphtalia is a valuable fighting force, I have to make sure to get her motivated. Otherwise, I don’t know if I can survive the waves either.
“Ah, Naofumi-sama.” When Raphtalia noticed that I was back, she put her flag in her luggage bag, pretending to be calm.
“I just got back.”
“How was it?”
“Sales are going well.”
While having a conversation as usual, a certain idea flashed into my mind.
This way, Raphtalia would happily enjoy her meals and fight.
—
In the mountainous roads, some distance away from Riyute Village, we defeated some monsters we encountered along the way and decided to cut them up for grilling since it was about time to eat.
Today, we will be grilling with iron skewers.
“It’s almost done, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
I can’t say for certain since I currently lack my sense of taste, but I am still able to somewhat judge whether something is delicious or not by its looks and smell.
I prepared the meat using spice-like herbs that were among the medicinal herbs I had on hand, so there was a nice smell of spices drifting around.
Well, I guess it’s about time.
I picked up a nicely grilled iron skewer, took out a flag that I made last night from my bag and stuck it onto the skewered meat.
“EH!?”
“Here, Raphtalia. It’s for you.”
It’s a national flag from my world. There are multiple national flags that I remember, so I should be able to increase the variety.
“Um… what is this?”
“It’s a flag, what’s the problem?”
Well, I do agree that the thought of having a flag attached to it is strange. But Raphtalia seemed to like flags, so I just stuck one onto it regardless.
Oh, another good idea came to me.
“Are you dissatisfied with the flag I made? In that case, if you collect seven of these flags, I’ll order a lunch with a flag from that restaurant in the castle town for you.”
“No, it’s not that I’m dissatisfied, but…”
“Then you should eat to your heart’s content.”
“Yes…”
So she doesn’t like the flags I make?
Though Raphtalia took the flag and began to stuff her mouth with the skewer in a good mood.
She raised the flag in the sky, looking very happy. Yes. Raphtalia really does seem to like flags.
“Now that we’re done filling our stomachs, it’s time to start raising our levels again.”
“Yes!”
And so, until the evening of that day, we continued to hunt nearby monsters and collect medicinal herbs at the same time.
—
In the evening, we returned to Riyute Village and ordered a slightly extravagant lunch.
Anyway, I’m tired. I know my body won’t last if I don’t eat good food, even though I couldn’t tell what it tasted like.
I also have to get Raphtalia to eat something nourishing, otherwise she won’t be able to build up her muscles.
She’s already skinny to begin with. She seems to be hungry all the time anyway, so there’s no point in being stingy.
“Sorry for the wait,” said the clerk.
Raphtalia followed the lunch served from the bar with her eyes. The meal was placed in front of us, and the clerk left to begin serving the next customer.
“Itadakimasu.”
“Ah, wait a minute,” I stopped her.
“What is it?”
She has also recently learned table manners, which has made her more elegant. So much so that it would be hard to believe that she had once been eating by grabbing food with her hands.
I took the flag out of my pocket and stuck it in her lunch.
We’re going to the castle town soon. It would be better to increase the number of flags I give her until then.
“Um…”
Raphtalia, who was looking pretty happy to eat, now had her expression clouded over.
“What’s wrong?”
Oh, is it about hygiene? What a selfish girl.
Fast forward to dinner time. Raphtalia hasn’t been waking up hungry recently, but she woke up as I was compounding some medicine.
“What is it? Are you hungry?”
“Ah… yes.”
When I took out the skewers I had grilled during the day and tried to stab a flag on it, Raphtalia grabbed my hand and stopped me.
“What?”
“Um… that’s enough.”
“What’s wrong? I thought you liked flags.”
“It’s not a matter of if I like them or not, but when you give me one so often like this…”
Ah, I understand now. She feels happy when receiving it from time to time, but that gratefulness diminishes after receiving it every single time. It seems like I was mistaken. It’s a scarcity whose value is only known by the person herself.
“Sorry about that.”
“Yes.”
If so, then she would be happy so long as I can provide said scarcity value. What should I do? If I don’t take care of my slave’s mental state, it will interfere as we fight.
I got it. So she likes flags, but not flags on food, huh?
“Then, from now on, if I think you’ve been useful enough, I will give you a flag.”
“Huh?”
“Think of it as a substitute for money. When you collect seven flags, you can take a day off and play to your heart’s content.”
“That’s not why I refused!”
Hmm… Raphtalia is being stubborn about this too.
“Then what should I do?”
“Naofumi-sama. I, you know… It’s not like I’m cherishing the flags because I like them.”
“Is that so?”
“How can I put this… well…”
It was from a children’s lunch. Raphtalia, who’s a child, was probably allowed to eat the same meal with her parents when they went to eat outside.
So that’s why she’s looking back at the past and comparing it to the flag of her memories?
“You don’t have to say anything, I understand. It reminds you of your parents, right?”
“Umm…”
Raphtalia rolled her eyes and nodded as if she had given up.
“Yes. Let’s just leave it at that, since it’s something similar.”
Am I wrong? She’s really hard to read.
Oh, come to think of it, there was an old anime character with a flag on his head.
I then modified the flag so that it could be worn as headwear and placed it onto Raphtalia’s head.
“And all that’s left is for you to add ‘dajo’ at the end of your sentences.”
T/N: #Hatabo from Osomatsu-san.
“Um… what kind of joke is this?”
“A flag-loving character… It’s an imitation of a character from a story.”
“I’ll get angry, you know! ‘Dajo’… was it?”
… Hmm, thinking about this calmly, I think I’m overdoing it. It’s pretty repetitive anyway. And old at that.
“I’m really sorry about that.”
“Yes.”
“Then guess I should throw the flag away.”
“No… Just for this time, it’s fine, so please give it to me.”
“Hmm, okay.”
After receiving the flag from me, Raphtalia puts it away in her luggage bag.
“There seem to be various types of flags, but which flags were they?”
“They’re country flags from my world.”
“There are so many.”
“There are a lot of countries after all…”
“What kind of place is Naofumi-sama’s world?”
Hearing Raphtalia ask that, I dream of returning to my original world.
Ah… how nostalgic. I never thought I would miss those days that I thought were boring.
“Right… First of all, there are no monsters. There is no concept of levels or anything like that either.”
“Really!?”
“And there are no demi-humans. There was slavery, but now it’s obsolete—”
And so, late into the night, I told Raphtalia stories of my hometown, Japan.
“Is there such a world?”
“Yeah, my world is like that.”
“I’d like to go even just once. To such a peaceful and ordinary world.”
“I think it’d be a difficult place for you to live, Raphtalia.”
She’d be a spectacle. I can easily imagine a sad future for her there.
“Still… I would like to go.”
“Well, if you manage to do so, I’ll treat you to a children’s lunch from my world.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah,” I made a promise with Raphtalia, one that I didn’t know if it would even come true at all.
