Naofumi And Raphtalia’s Recollection In Another World
On the night we planned on heading back to Raphtalia’s world after recapturing the Holy Ofuda from S’yne’s sister’s and Bitch’s forces.
“Naofumi-sama.” Raphtalia came to the castle kitchen as I was preparing tomorrow’s meal.
“Oh, Raphtalia? What’s wrong?”
“It’s already late, shouldn’t you be resting?” said Raphtalia, as she began to clean up voluntarily.
Raphtalia is always in charge of tidying and cleaning to some extent. We can’t calm down unless the dishes are cleaned. It’s become something of a habit between me and Raphtalia, I guess we’re both clean freaks. That’s when I proposed it.
“Let me prepare for the next meal a little more.”
“I understand, but really just a little more, okay? Since you’ve been cooking very carefully lately.” said Raphtalia.
“Well, I’m pretty enthusiastic. After all, I’ll be leaving this world to Kizuna and her friends… I wonder what will happen…”
“Let’s believe in Kizuna-san and her friends a little more. Otherwise, Naofumi-sama will faint out of exhaustion.”
Hmm… Somehow, this caution reminds me of what happened when I ordered barbarian armor from the weapons shop’s Old Guy. It was an event when I prioritized Raphtalia’s equipment over my lack of defense power.
“But… remembering what happened after we left this world the last time…”
Kizuna and her friends had a meeting with three holy heroes in this world, but they failed. Added to that, the reincarnators killed three of the four holy heroes, so it was a pretty critical situation, wasn’t it?
We’ve returned the momentum to where it once was, but it’s not much different from the time where they were beaten up by Kyo…
“I understand their feelings, but I’m a little worried,” I said.
“If you say that… there’s no choice but to have the Demon Dragon do its best.”
“Well… sure, that kind of scheming is her specialty.”
The Demon Dragon strangely reached out to me, but I guess the Demon Dragon who’s suspicious of human beings may be fit for the role.
Even though Heroes and a Demon King combining power to face the world’s crisis is a generic pattern… somehow, I still can’t stop worrying about Kizuna and her friends, even though they’re all pretty mainstream too.
“Thinking of Kizuna and the others, I wonder what will happen to us… Remember what happened when we returned from this world the last time?” Suddenly, I remember the last time we defeated Kyo and came back.
“After returning from this world, Naofumi-sama got my village as his territory and started the reconstruction of the village. So nostalgic, isn’t it?” Reminisced Raphtalia.
“It sure feels like that happened long ago.”
The fact that it feels like more than a few years ago to me, even though it was only a few months ago, must mean there were so many things that had happened in that timeframe.
Thinking about it, we’ve come a long way…
If I think about it now, it was a territorial management that started with the aim of strengthening the force to prepare for the waves, because I envied Kizuna and her friends.
“Ah, there’s also the rumor that Lurolona Village is Raphtalia’s— the Shield Hero’s right hand talented slave’s— hometown. Since it became famous, we couldn’t collect the villagers because the slaves from Lurolona village price skyrocketted.”
The price of the Lurolona village’s slaves had skyrocketed, and I panicked after I heard the price at the slave auction house in Zeltoble. I had a hard time thinking about how to make money and gather people from Raphtalia’s hometown. It was good that the remnants of the slave hunters who had a history with Raphtalia and the others came to the village at the perfect time.
We got military funds by capturing the irreconcilable enemies who trampled on the Symbol of Friendship between Melromarc and Siltvelt, and sold them off as slaves to Siltvelt.
For slave hunters, this is what I call ‘karma’.
“Sadeena-nee-san also was trying hard to protect everyone apart from us.” Said Raphtalia.
So, to make money, we participated in the Underground Coliseum of Zeltoble with our military funds, and the famous fighter of the opponent was actually Sadeena, Raphtalia’s older step sister.
“She’s been drunk since we first met… and she was drunk tonight, too. I know she does what she has to do, and she does it well. But still…” She knows how to take good care of everyone. She also takes good care of the kids in the village… But she gets drunk, and tries to get involved with me every time.
In Zeltoble, we all participated under a pseudonym ring name. Although we were weakened by the curse, Sadeena had the ability to keep fighting me, Raphtalia, and Filo at once. She certainly is useful… it’s mysterious how she can be that strong.
“Raphtalia, I wish you’d recognized her right away…”
“I can’t help it. I didn’t know that Sadeena-nee-san could transform into a demi-human form! In the first place, I reunited with her at the time of the match in Zeltoble, right?”
Well… I also don’t know if they would’ve recognized each other even if they had talked before the match. Sadeena was apparently in her demi-human form to hide her identity. When she’s feeling guilty… when she participated in the underground battle in Zeltoble, unless she’s serious, she’ll stay in her demi-human form…
Though now she changes her forms frequently.
“Both Sadeena and Shildina, they’re both changing their forms according to their feelings and when they want to.”
“Um… Sadeena-nee-san and Shildina-san said that they were changing their appearance due to Naofumi-sama’s reaction.”
Why are they changing their appearance to suit my reaction?
Sadeena said that she prefers guys who are good with alcohol and declared to Raphtalia that she will be aiming for me… For a while, the aura that Raphtalia emited after that was pretty ominous.
“And now, that Sadeena is a hero too, huh…” In terms of competence, she definitely had it… I guess it’s my own personal emotions that made me think it’s weird since she usually acts so laid back.
“Anyway, I’m glad we were able to gather the slaves of Lurolona village,” I said.
“After that, Atla-san and Fohl-kun, and then the Heroes came to the village, and it became more and more lively.” Raphtalia said.
“There’s also Imiya, S’yne, Wyndia… even the Dragon Zombie Gaelion.” I chimed in.
There’s no doubt that there were various strange encounters. I can’t shake the fact that it’s a strange situation, Gaelion the dragon zombie became our ally. Ren also feels a lot of responsibility and shows his sincerity to Wyndia… On the contrary, Wyndia has trouble dealing with Ren.
Speaking of Ren… I got info about the Heroes’ whereabouts, so I went to investigate. There, Ren had a strange exchange with Motoyasu over Bitch. He was caught by Bitch’s sweet words, escaped from the feelings of guilt, trapped by Bitch, fell into darkness and even started acting as a bandit. It’s truly sad that those things happened.
As for Motoyasu, he was heartbroken after knowing he was deceived by Bitch all along, but then Filo encouraged him and he became crazy in the head… I wonder when he’ll return to his previous personality. He now calls me ‘father-in-law’ after all… I hope he can be cured, but looking at him now, I don’t think that’s gonna happen…
Itsuki was also strange for a while due to the power of the curse weapon… It seems that the curse has been lifted, but he’s not as energetic as before, and he’s strangely blackhearted.
Everyone told me that Itsuki became like that because of me, but I want to believe that is just a false accusation.
“Truly, when I think about it now, those are definitely a lot of strange encounters.”
“Speaking of strange fates, the fact that you were part of the royal family of Q’ten Lo is one of them.”
“That ruckus was caused by Naofumi-sama’s insistence on making me wear a miko outfit.”
“Ugh… it turned out fine didn’t it? As a result, Ruft and Shildina were able to get out of troublesome ties.”
The country of Q’ten Lo invaded the village because they thought that Raphtalia was trying to shake their country by wearing a miko outfit that resembled their royal costume, and they thought that she was trying to return to the royal family.
When I launched a counterattack from there, I heard that someone named Makina was corrupting the country, and we ended up starting a revolution with Raphtalia as the figurehead.
In this case, the former-royal would have a great reason to claim to be a king and triumph for the country.
“You know you’re also quite… You’re like the main character of a story. Former Royalty who fell into slavery, and now is the Queen of Q’ten Lo and the Katana Hero of another world.”
“I yearned for something like that to happen when I was a kid, but I don’t think it feels right, now that it actually happened.”
Oh… so she’s not really aware of or feels good about it.
“If you say that, Naofumi-sama is pretty much the same, you know? In addition to being the Shield Hero and Lord of our village, you’re also the Archduke of Melromarc, the great country that united the world, who’s looked up to by Melty-chan, and you’re also the Mirror Hero of another world.”
“Ugh…”
That’s right… I don’t really feel it either, but somehow my career and reputation has been building without me wanting to…
“Returning to the topic, I was really surprised that this time Shildina-san came to this world and became a hero of the Holy Weapon.” Said Raphtalia.
“Well… I didn’t originally plan on bringing her, but now that I think about it, I think she was brought because she was a candidate.” She has aptitude, and I’m sure she was being watched. As a result, we were able to recapture the Holy Weapon, so it turned out alright in the end.
“And I know I’ve been putting this off for a while, but I’m going to ask you about Ruft-kun’s appearance.”
Raphtalia’s cousin, Ruft, is now able to transform into therianthrope that contains many of the characteristics of the Raph species that grew from the Raph-chan who’s originally made from Raphtalia’s hair. Ruft also likes the appearance so much. Originally, he liked Filolial, but he changed to Raph-species because he learned the ferociousness of Filolials.
“Ruft is happy. Can’t you just leave it at that?”
“No!”
“You sure are stubborn, Raphtalia.”
“I’m sorry, but that is the one thing I can’t overlook!”
I think it’s fine though. He’s a relative of Raphtalia, and I don’t think it’s strange for him to be able to do that.
“And I think that when Q’ten Lo’s problems had been cleared up, we reunited with the Spear hero…” Raphtalia stumbled over her words.
“Yeah… then we got into a battle with the Phoenix.”
“Yes…”
If it had gone as planned, we should’ve been able to overcome it without any casualties because we had both Heroes and sufficient forces.
But there, Takt interfered, costing us a great deal…
Atla died to protect me and everyone… After we defeated Phoenix, we searched for the perpetrator, but I ended up seriously injured, and the Queen who had supported us until now also died.
At that time, Trash, who had a grudge against me, abandoned the past ties and became cooperative with us, then we made Takt pay for what he did. But now, Trash laughs like a caring old man when he sees Melty and I getting along. The past when he hated me seems to be a lie.
“We beat up Takt, but you were called here to escape from him, and to save Kizuna and the others in a pinch, then we came to pick you up.”
“I really panicked at that time. Kizuna-san and her friends were cornered into a difficult situation after all… I wonder what would have happened without Naofumi-sama.”
After that, I found out that there were some real vanguards of the wave who were ruining this world… the reincarnators, and the battle was intensifying with the addition of the one who are running everything from the shadow; Bitch’s and S’yne’s sister’s forces.
“As a result, we’ll return to the world I originally got summoned to and prepare… The battles will continue, but I will continue to ask for your help, Raphtalia.”
“Yes! For that reason, Naofumi-sama. Please rest your body soon.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Really, the dense days continue.
And, while recollecting about the events of the past, our night full of thought was drawing to a close.
