Sorting Out Filo’s Treasure
Finally, having cleared the false charges against me marked the end of the Three Heroes Church incident. Then not too long after discovering that the Power-Up Methods were shareable, on the night that we decided to embark towards Cal Mira Island…
Filo said that she was going to clean the carriage so I went to clear out any unwanted items in preparation for the journey to Cal Mira Island.
Since I was going to work with Melromarc from now on, I may as well pass the unnecessary stuff to them and make traveling easier. With Filo being as strong as she is though, I doubt we even need to do so in the first place…
Anyway, all that is left is to deal with Filo’s belongings so it wouldn’t hurt to have a look through it. And because Filo happened to see me near her so-called “treasures”, she thought I had developed an interest in them.
“Master, Mel-chan, wait for a moment!“ Filo stuck her head into the bag and started to rummage through her belongings.
I still remember how she bragged about it to Melty back then and I know that something similar is probably going to pop out again. I’m pretty sure that any kind of pellets have been removed but… I wonder what else she is going to pull out this time.
“So…” Moving my eyes from Filo who is still going through her sack of “treasures”, I now look towards Melty who is somehow here with us.
“… What?”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Naofumi-sama, please don’t give Melty-san the cold shoulder…” Raphtalia said.
“I wasn’t even being that cold to her though….”
“Is it wrong for me to be here? This is my home, you know?”
Well, it’s not wrong to say that the castle of Melromarc is indeed Melty’s home, though that isn’t what I was trying to ask.
“I don’t see why you need to be here to prepare for tomorrow.”
“I’m only here to wait for Filo-chan to be done with her things so that we can sleep together tonight, while also making sure that you don’t overwork her.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Knowing that you don’t develop sentimental attachment towards things, all of Filo-chan’s treasures would probably be branded as trash and be thrown away without a thought. I’m watching you. Don’t you dare do it.”
“Not that I would be scared of you getting angry at me.”
I was only going to dispose of anything that is similar to pellets… I guess Melty still has the assumption that I am treating Filo badly. It’s not my fault that Filo personally likes to pull the carriage, if anything… aren’t you also taking advantage of her by riding the carriage as well? Talk about getting mad at the wrong person.
“Hmph!” she grumped.
“I’m more concerned about the fact that Filo is ignoring me…” Raphtalia said.
“Ah… Right.” I agreed.
It is strange that Filo is so absorbed in what she is doing to the point where she isn’t responding to Raphtalia’s advances. Though I doubt that I need to pay close attention to it, it shouldn’t be that big of an issue, right?
“Don’t worry too much about it. Surely there’s no deeper meaning to her actions, it is Filo after all.”
“I don’t think you should be taking Filo-chan that lightly. Raphtalia-san, I’ll give her a heads up about it later.”
“O- Okay…”
While Melty and Raphtalia go on with their idle banter, Filo takes out a broken glass bottle from the bag.
“Let’s start with this! Filo found this lying around behind a box at a tavern!”
“That’s definitely something that some adventurer threw after breaking it.” I commented.
I remember taking a glimpse of it before. Yeah, it’s garbage.
“It’s the first shiny treasure that Filo found! Mel-chan knows about it, right?”
“Yes, you have told me about it before.”
It sure is shiny alright.
Melty isn’t showing any signs of being put off by this though. She’s probably being considerate by going with the flow. I’ll just be calling it a piece of trash if it were me in her place.
Also, isn’t a fragment of glass quite dangerous?
Or so I thought, but Filo seems to be holding on to it without hurting herself just fine.
… I guess it’s fine when it’s a world where you can easily heal such a wound with magic.
“Filo will make it round someday by imitating Master!”
Ahhh, I do remember seeing something akin to glass beads back then. Are those the result of whatever glass fragments that Filo rounded herself?
“Next is…” Filo set the broken glass bottle aside and started going through her bag again. “This! Filo found it lying by a riverside!”
It looks pretty much like a broken sword at first glance…
Hmm, yeah, it is just a broken sword. Looks to be cheaply made based on the materials.
“I bet that’s also something someone threw away. Probably from some adventurer snapping it.”
All that can be said about it is that it’s “trash”. The best you could do with it is to give it to the Old Guy at the weapon shop and reforge it into something else?
Still, I wonder if the lack of rust on it is due to Filo’s diligence in maintaining it. The fact that it shines brighter in Filo’s hands rather than that adventurer is quite ironic.
Even though there were similar swords back when we robbed everything out of the bandits, it is very Filo-like to keep a broken sword instead as a treasure.
“It creates an interesting sound when Filo flicks it with her fingers! Right, Mel-chan?”
“Ye- yes. I know, Filo-chan is going to use it as an instrument.” (Melty)
“Melty, are you sure it isn’t too hard on you? How about you try being honest?”
During my attempts to warn her, Melty discreetly hits my sides with her elbows outside of Filo’s line of sight.
Witnessing it, Raphtalia said…
“Naofumi-sama, please try to be a little more understanding of Melty-chan’s considerations.”
Being considerate of Filo of all people is, honestly, a pain in the ass. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with admitting that it is just trash, no?
Thinking about it, I did enjoy collecting stones and shells around lakes and beaches to keep as souvenirs back when I was still young so it is not as though I can’t relate to how she feels.
Still… how should I put it? I feel like the stones and shells I’ve collected aren’t the same as those of Filo’s collections.
“This one next! Filo found it by the road!” Filo showed something that looked like a small piece of metal pinched between her fingers, to which I brought my shield closer to it for appraisal.
It’s an iron arrowhead, and as expected, it has a mysteriously bright shine to it. Something that Filo polished into a treasure of hers, I guess?
“That’s probably what remained of an arrow thrown away by some adventurer after breaking it or pulling it out of a monster.”
It’s not as if it was unusable, but what am I going to do with just one arrowhead? Or perhaps I should say that I never had plans to include the usage of consumable weapons like bows and arrows in our battles anyway.
“Naofumi, you have been pointing at the adventurers for being the source of all of the items so far. It could potentially have come from other sources,” Melty said.
“Is there even a point to go through the trouble of imagining the sequence of events that led to it reaching into Filo’s hands?”
“You have a point but…”
“So, Filo, what are you going to do with that?” I ignored Melty, and threw a question to Filo.
“Hn~? Filo is going to make it shiny.”
Hah, of course she’s going to polish it.
“Would you want it if we made that into an actual arrow, since it’s an arrowhead.”
“Hn~?”
Ah, there’s the face that she makes when she doesn’t understand what she hears.
“The thing that the Bow Guy uses?”
“Are you talking about Itsuki? Well, you aren’t wrong I guess.”
Come to think of it, Itsuki’s expenses have got to be rough. I wonder if the country is sponsoring the arrows he uses? Or it could be that arrows are purchasable somewhere?
It would be better if I asked the old guy at the weapon shop about it. I’m getting a little curious.
“It is okay! Filo does not want her treasure to get damaged!”
It’s purely for display as expected, huh.
As soon as she made that statement, Filo put her hand back into the bag for the next item to introduce.
It’s filled with more stuff than expected.
“Bows and arrows huh… Are you interested in that, Raphtalia?”
“No, I am fine with just using the sword… It is not easy to aim with one anyway.”
Well, it is quite hard to handle bows and arrows. But considering that Raphtalia doesn’t have any long range attacks, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea if she learns to use it.
There was the fact that Melty served the role of the backline with her magic, Filo could somewhat cover up the lack of long range attacks in our party with her magic but…
How should we go about it from now on? The hole created in our party formation following Melty’s absence could be detrimental.
I then turned to look at Melty.
… Um, I guess it should be fine if she leaves. There wasn’t any trouble that cropped up when we were peddling anyway.
“Naofumi, I am extremely curious about the meaning behind that look. Would you kindly tell me what you were thinking about?”
More importantly, I should be thinking about the method that I recently discovered to make myself stronger.
“Hey, Naofumi, are you listening to me right now?”
“Melty-chan, calm down.”
“And then~ Next is… Tadaaah! This!” After hearing a mysterious sound effect coming out of Filo came a cracked glassware… not.
What was taken out looked to be several cracked crystalline objects. Those look familiar to me.
“Master did not want it so Filo took whatever was left behind.”
“Those were supposed to be thrown away, they were failed works after all.”
She even had stuff that had belonged to me. I remember seeing something similar during the previous showcase.
All the cracked crystals were the results of my unsuccessful attempts at magic-imbuing. They’re useless.
“Naofumi, can’t you try to go along with Filo-chan’s narrative a little more?”
“Ehhh… It’s a hassle.”
With her continuing to brag about things that are essentially trash, I’m starting to get tired of it.
“Is this schtick really going to continue until she introduces every single one of them?”
“Well, I do understand how Naofumi-sama feels but… however, there is also going to be no end to it if we have to wait until she introduces everything as well…”
As expected of Raphtalia to also express her concerns about having to listen through all of it.
“I knew it. Well said, Raphtalia.”
“Not you too, Raphtalia-san!”
“I am not saying that I completely agree with what Naofumi-sama has said so far but I do think Filo should carefully choose what she wants to introduce.”
“Eh~… Okay!” Filo gave a slight pout as she dug into that bag of hers again.
I think we could pack up after checking out two or three more items.
“Then~… This is next!”
Now that’s an unfamiliar bright red broach. If I had to guess, this would be the best if not the most valuable among the items shown so far.
Hooh… To think that Filo had something like that. This had Melty fluttering her eyes, as if she didn’t recognize this item at all. Can I treat this as something special to Filo then?
“This dropped when Filo kicked Spear Guy!”
“Awesome! Good job!” I complimented her.
The Spear Guy that Filo mentioned must have undoubtedly been Motoyasu. It should be him since Filo has been kicking him into orbit on sight after all. Though I didn’t know that she plundered the broach that he dropped in the midst of it.
My pent up frustration due to Bitch and Motoyasu harassing me before had diminished now, but I’d give Filo credit if such misfortune had befallen that bastard.
It also had to be the kind of expensive broach that would sell nicely too. Why wasn’t this introduced earlier? I would have gladly confiscated it to sell it off somewhere, or have used it for myself.
“That is not good! Why are you complimenting her!” And Raphtalia immediately reprimands my actions. Man, she’s fast.
“That is bad! Filo-chan! By “Spear Guy”, you are referring to the Spear Hero, right? Let’s go and return it to him right now!”
“Eh~… But Master said that it is okay though!” Filo pouted in objection to Melty and boldly started with her booing.
“Naofumi’s words are not absolute. That does not belong to you, Filo-chan, holding onto it will eventually bring trouble to Naofumi, so please return it. Or else… The racket that my sister will create would be…”
“It seems like Melty-chan is also not too fond of that sister of hers as well,” Raphtalia said.
“Of course she is not fond of her,” I agreed.
She is the infamous former princess Bitch after all. I pity you, Melty. Though this is coming from the culprit who made that name change.
“He’s probably going to just say that he planned on giving it to your sister even if we went to return it, no? Even if they make a fuss of it, it’s only going to result in Bitch getting punished anyway.”
Currently, Motoyasu and the others had lower standing than me. Even if they make a fuss, the Queen will take priority over me, so just reporting that Filo stole the brooch from Motoyasu in the past will silence them.
“Compared to this, there’s still plenty of money the Bitch owes me.”
Since I’m making accessories, the value of the accessories that Filo has is obvious. It’s a little pricey, but it’s cheaper than the money Bitch stole from me.
“Naofumi, shut up! We’ll return this!”
Filo reluctantly decided to follow Melty, even though she was kinda against Melty.
“Naofumi, I’ll expect you and Filo-chan to apologize, so come with us!”
“Boo!” I try to imitate Filo and protest.
“Naofumi-sama, please keep your jokes in moderation…”
“Don’t imitate Filo-chan!”
To be honest, Motoyasu is probably in a bad mood right now, so I don’t think he’d have a good attitude even if we went to see him.
While thinking of that, we decided to head to the room where Motoyasu was resting.
And so, we arrived at the room where Motoyasu was resting. It’s late at night, so he probably is asleep now.
Melty knocked on the door.
“I’m sorry I’m intruding this late at night. I’m Melty, the second princess of Melromarc. I’ve come to talk to you.”
After Melty said that, someone replied.
“Yes, do you need something from me?” Motoyasu opened the door with a slightly amused expression, without any particular signs of caution.
Right after that, his eyes met with mine and he made an unpleasant face.
After that, he looked at Melty with a gentle, hot guy smile… And then turned towards Filo with sparkling eyes. Wow… I didn’t know he liked women so much.
Precisely because there are only women other than me, Motoyasu seems to have treated me without any disrespect.
“Uhm, I heard from Filo-chan about various things, and I heard that she picked up something that the Sir Spear Hero had dropped, so we came to return it.”
Melty bows once and answers by pointing at Filo. The action does look elegant. Is this also the behavior of the royal family?
Normally, whether when we were camping or not, there was no shadow of composure to be seen.
Is it graceful instead? No, there are times when she makes a fuss hysterically, and I don’t want to see her that way.
But… I feel that she cares about public appearance when she rephrased it as “picking up” what was “stolen”. As expected of the royal family. I guess she’s good at political conversations even at her current age.
But come to think of it, in RPGs, when monsters drop things, they are called “drop items”, and we take them without concern. If you think about it more carefully, that is “robbery”.
According to that theory, it’s something that Filo got after defeating Motoyasu, so I can’t help but feel that it’s wrong to return it. Well, Melty will make a fuss again if I said it, so I won’t say it.
In the first place, it turns out that the corpses of monsters that have been defeated and placed in the shield can be converted into drop items.
Somehow, the definition of “dropped” is wavering in my mind.
“Hey, Filo-chan.”
“Boo…”
Filo held the brooch as if she didn’t want to return it, but when Melty glared at her, Filo reluctantly held out her hand to Motoyasu.
Wow… that Motoyasu bastard. Perhaps because of wanting to show off how hot of a guy he is, he naturally crouched down to match his gaze with Filo, and gave her a smile.
He acts like he never called her “fat bird” or being knocked by her after that.
How many women have you preyed upon with that smile, you bastard?
When I suddenly looked at Raphtalia, she frowned slightly as if she was astonished.
“…”
Noticing my gaze, Raphtalia alternately looks at me and Motoyasu.
“Haah…”
Why are you sighing? Do you think I’m inferior to Motoyasu? Even if it’s Raphtalia, I can’t overlook that.
“If only Naofumi-sama was kind to everyone like this…”
Ah, it doesn’t look like he’s comparing my face to Motoyasu’s. Are you telling me to be kind to Filo? I’m sorry, but since I knew about Filo’s disobedient side, I wouldn’t be able to treat her kindly.
Or maybe she’s looking for kindness from me, but my kindness had closed itself off since being framed by a bitch in this world. It’s foolish to expect kindness from me.
“Mel-chan told Filo to return this, so Filo came to return it.”
Reluctantly, Filo reluctantly offers Motoyasu the brooch.
Well… how will Motoyasu reply?
Then, Motoyasu puts his own hand on Filo’s hand and covers it with the other hand.
And… I wonder what it is.
He looked at Filo with a strangely lustrous gaze and began to speak in a voice tone that gave me chills.
“Don’t worry about it, Filo-chan.”
I got chills down my spine.
You’re the bastard who exploded in dissatisfaction not only during the quarrels between the heroes, but also during the punishment for Bitch. And now, you’re forgetting Bitch completely because you’re being called out here by Filo.
Above all, that brooch is something that Filo stole from you by kicking you away, you know?
If it was me, I won’t forgive her even if she apologizes. I’d ask for repayment from the owner. That’s why I didn’t want to return it.
Do you really think that this is the magnificence of a hero? Does Raphtalia want this from me too? If so, I don’t want to be a hero.
“Since it’s a good opportunity, Filo-chan, I’ll give you that brooch. I want you to treat it as if it’s me,” Motoyasu said while looking at Filo passionately.
If that was me, I’d destroy the brooch on the spot thinking it was him.
“Ugh… Mel-chan!”
Wow, Filo’s wing feathers are standing on end. She must feel disgusted.
Then, Motoyasu takes the brooch from Filo who wasn’t holding it tightly… and puts it on Filo’s chest.
“Hey, you look great, Filo-chan. I see these shades suit you too.”
… I wonder what. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
Motoyasu, just how long are you planning to act like a hot guy?
After seeing this much, I feel like I’m going to be impressed by how much you love women.
I guess he thinks that the one who should be resented is me and that Filo is innocent.
To be so divisive… you’re such a frightening womanizer.
“Ugh…”
“What? Oh, do you feel bad for taking the brooch?”
Yeah, I think Filo thinks your attitude is very disgusting. Because Filo hates you. It is a grudge that has been established ever since you called her “fat bird”. After all, she also understood you when you called her a fat bird the first time.
“Then, as an atonement… how about we talk on the terrace over there? The night view is so beautiful. It’s my favorite spot.”
… It’s becoming a troublesome thing.
“I see, then I’ll leave, so take it slow…”
When I raised my hand and tried to leave, Melty immediately grabbed my clothes and stopped me.
Before I could say what, Melty intervened between Motoyasu and Filo.
“Is that so? It’s all good, then? Good for you, Filo-chan. Let’s go then!”
With half her speed, Melty grabs Filo’s hand and walks away.
“Oh my… what a sweet and lovely lady.”
… What kind of gentleman are you trying to act as?
And, Motoyasu averting his gaze from Melty and Filo, who are leaving, and now he’s looking towards Raphtalia.
“Ah, please wait for me, Melty-chan!”
Unable to bear it, Raphtalia also retreats. As expected of Raphtalia. I guess she left without waiting for me to call her, so Motoyasu won’t make a fuss. Well, I would put it like that.
When I turned my eyes to the room, Bitch was looking at me like I was a demon.
Haha! Your hero is quite simple, huh?
The reason why she keeps quiet is… I think it’s because she is unable to move after getting poisoned instead when she tried to poison me, and the pain of the slave crest being activated.
Whatever, I chased after Melty to not cause an unnecessary commotion.
Frankly, Motoyasu must’ve thought that I was a mob if I’m not his enemy. That’s the reason why he only looked at the girls before. It makes it easier for me to leave, though.
And so, that’s how Filo has officially received the brooch from Motoyasu…
“Ugh… Filo doesn’t need this!” Filo took off the brooch from her clothes, and handed it to me.
I don’t need this either. It’s an accessory from after those things happened.
When talking about the brooch, Melty stops after reaching some distance from Motoyasu’s room.
Melty turned around and took a deep breath while brushing her bangs, as if looking at a distant place, she put on an uncomfortable expression.
“It seems that what you said is correct, Naofumi. We shouldn’t have paid attention to THAT.”
“See?”
Usually, Motoyasu has no problem with being kicked off. Now, he must be especially happy to be kicked by Filo. I can see he thinks something like “the fat bird is actually a beautiful girl, I somehow have to make her my girl!”
“I thought it would be troublesome if my sister took advantage of him more than this, but it seems it’s correct to treat him as you said. No, it might be better to be stricter. Filo-chan, treat him as you always do.”
“Understood~!”
“Melty-chan, you are contaminated by Naofumi-sama! Please, come back! Kick and run is not good! If even you said that, there would be nobody left to stop Filo! Keep yourselves straight!”
While Raphtalia tried to persuade Melty, we started organizing the carriage for tomorrow.
