The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 15 Page 11

  “Wh . . . wh . . .” I turned at the voice to see Melty blushing bright red. “What the hell kind of spear are you carrying around?! Ah! It’s been that shape the whole time tonight?! I didn’t realize because I didn’t get a good look at it!” Melty’s high-pitched voice echoed out.

  “Hold on . . . What do you see, Melty?” I asked her, not sure I wanted an answer.

  “You can’t see it, Naofumi?” she questioned back.

  “From the last time we met, just the tip of his spear was pixelated—I mean, blurred.” It looked like the shape had changed a bit since then too. With the pixelation, I couldn’t really tell.

  “Why can’t you see it?” Melty asked.

  “Who knows.” I changed track. “Raphtalia, what shape is it?” Being unable to see it was actually making me more interested. Why was I the only one who couldn’t see it?

  Raphtalia just turned her face to the side without saying anything. Her face looked red too.

  “That’s sexual harassment! If it wasn’t you, Naofumi, I’d be punishing you for this! You’re just saying you can’t see it to embarrass me, aren’t you?!” Melty accused.

  “Sexual harassment? Seriously?” Just what shape was this thing? I looked at Ruft, and he was rubbing his eyes and repeatedly looking at the spear, much like me. So maybe men couldn’t see it?

  The things I could think of were . . . Well, the things that would have been pixelated when broadcast on TV—grotesque stuff? No, not likely. Cutting up monsters would be covered with pixelation otherwise.

  That meant we were in the territory of the Elizabeth Mikoshi, or that game with the spear called the Male Thruster. If I remembered correctly, it did double damage to women.

  I checked the shape of Motoyasu’s spear again. The shaft part was luridly decorated with a scorpion and snake. But the tip still had the pixelation on it.

  “Father-in-law . . .” Amazingly he still called me that, even when he was so deeply possessed by the curse series. In fact, I was almost impressed. I’d even accept being beaten by him now.

  Motoyasu . . . I didn’t have a grudge against him anymore. I made a declaration. He was so pathetic I could barely bring myself to look. Just go, I wanted to say. Just leave us alone.

  “I’m taking your daughter. Using my Lust Envy Spear IV,” Motoyasu exclaimed. God. This was all depressing me intently.

  “Filo-tan! I will stop you and take your purity!” Motoyasu thrust his spear at Filo.

  “Boo!” She wasn’t interested. Then I noticed what he was pointing at. Below the waist, shall we say.

  “Right, we’re doing this! Raphtalia, Atla! Bring Motoyasu down!” I ordered.

  “Okay!” Raphtalia affirmed.

  “Understood!” So did Atla.

  So we really were going to have to fight him. Immediately after starting the battle to capture Motoyasu—

  “Unleash Ressentiment!” Something else flickered past me. The Temptation had been close to working on me. But the skill this time . . . Hmmm, I kind of recalled being framed by Motoyasu and Witch back then. But that was just my daily dose of grudge-induced bile. Looking at Motoyasu, who had been betrayed and brought so low, had no real effect on it.

  In fact, in the next moment I saw Raphtalia’s face and then nothing happened. So just what kind of skill had it been?

  “Ooh . . . my head feels all funny,” Melty moaned, leaning on Filo for support.

  “Raphtalia . . . brother . . . how jealous I am of you receiving Master Naofumi’s love. Unforgiveable!” Atla started to mutter to herself.

  “Ah . . .” Even Raphtalia was holding her chest, suffering.

  “Are you okay?!” I asked, mainly directing my comments at Raphtalia.

  “I’m f-fine . . . but this isn’t easy to bear. It’s worse than the Temptation skill,” Raphtalia managed.

  “What’s going on?” I still wasn’t really feeling it.

  “I think it’s something that makes people feel jealousy,” Raphtalia managed around her own moaning. Even though she had decent protection against this kind of status effect, she was taking this much damage? What about Filo, Raph-chan, and Ruft then?

  “Raph.” So Raph-chan seemed fine.

  “Mel-chan! Are you okay?” Filo asked. She was more worried about Melty.

  “I’m fine,” Melty replied. “Don’t worry about me, Filo.”

  “Shield Hero, is there anything I can do?” Ruft bravely asked.

  “Nope. Just stay close to Raph-chan and Filo,” I told him. Thanks to Raph-chan, it looked like he was holding things together.

  Still, if Motoyasu could create a field to cause double status effects, we needed to take him down right away! Everyone had been jealous once or twice in their lives, surely. But this was a mental attack, as I had feared. Why had he unleashed it though?

  “My heart . . . grows stronger!” he bellowed. Right. He was using the power of jealousy to enhance himself. “Now! Fly to my intended! My charging heart of love!” Motoyasu lifted his spear high above his head.

  “Haaaaaah!” Amid the entire crazy situation, Atla—perhaps losing her mind entirely—suddenly attacked Raphtalia.

  “Watch out!” I warned her. Raphtalia smoothly avoided Atla’s incoming strike.

  “What do you think you’re playing at, Atla?” Raphtalia asked.

  “You hoard all of Master Naofumi’s affections for yourself . . . No matter how hard I try, I can’t become Master Naofumi’s shield . . . because you exist, Raphtalia!” On unsteady feet, Atla charged forward, as though in all the world she was only aware of Raphtalia. Motoyasu had really done a number on her feelings of jealousy! Dammit, not the best timing for her to go crazy!

  “Raph!” Raph-chan clearly wanted to help, but if she left Filo, that would likely mean Filo would start rampaging. She was totally pinned in place.

  This was turning into a real nightmare!

  “Raphtalia! Atla! Waaah . . . spear guy, move!” With that, Filo kicked Motoyasu in the chest.

  “Guwah . . . I’m so happy to be kicked by you, Filo-tan. It feels as though my heart might burst from your foot pressed against it!” Motoyasu expressed nothing but pleasure at getting his ass kicked, an enrapt expression on his face. I’d clearly heard some nasty sounds when the blow landed too—damn, she still had Liberation Aura on too!

  It really showed just how crazy Motoyasu was about Filo.

  The situation was certainly not improving anyway.

  “Die!” This from among the combined squawking of the three under Motoyasu’s control, who had been silent until this moment but now launched an attack on Filo.

  “W-what are you doing, my lovelies?” Motoyasu stepped forward to protect Filo. The three of them moved to attack Filo regardless, one ripping off a kick, another using magic, and the third swinging a battleax in human form.

  The one kicking was Crimmy, the one incanting magic was Marine, and the human form one with the ax was Green. All of them had a crazy look in their eyes.

  “I hate her! She holds all of Motty’s love and yet allures other men instead! I hate her so much!” Crimmy cried.

  “Moomoo belongs to us!” Marine screamed. At least she was willing to share.

  “Yes. I won’t accept this interloper!” Green agreed.

  “S-stop this! Girls, please!” Motoyasu tried to stop the very thing he had unleashed.

  “We want to gobble you up! That bitch is in our way!” they all proclaimed together. Then Motoyasu started fighting the three of them to protect Filo.

  While they couldn’t match Filo’s speed, all three of them were definitely faster than before. Lust was firing them, girded by jealousy—a nasty combination.

  Faced with three of them, even Motoyasu was forced almost completely onto the defensive in order to keep Filo safe. They were his precious daughters after all. His was as likely to harm them as he was to harm Filo.

  “Atla! Come back to yourself!” Raphtalia had her own problems.

  “Raphtalia . . . when I wore t
he miko outfit from my own race . . . Master Naofumi didn’t look at me once,” Atla lamented.

  “You can’t hold me responsible for how other people react!” Raphtalia opined.

  “N-Naofumi! What do we do?!” Melty shouted.

  “That’s what I’d like to know!” I fired back. Look at this mess! Not only was Raphtalia fighting the enraged Atla, but Motoyasu had ended up having to fight his own three filolials, who he had also powered up, while Filo looked on, protecting Raph-chan and Ruft.

  How the hell had it come to all of this in such a short space of time?

  “Ah! Uh! My angels! Stop this! Nuwaaah! I will protect you, Filo, father-in-law!” Damn, Motoyasu was so loud.

  “Motty is mine—”

  “No, Moomoo is mine—”

  “You’re wrong. Mr. Motoyasu is mine—”

  The three of them at least agreed on the final part. “That bitch can’t have him!” Have at it then!

  They all looked like Filo, but without the cowlick. Crimmy mainly used her claws but sometimes spat fire. Could filolials do that? Maybe it was a type of magic.

  Marine seemed based mainly in magic, but sometimes she plucked out feathers and threw them like a Feather Shot attack.

  Green, meanwhile, had stayed in human form the entire time. Looking just like a human with wings, she swung her battleax around and unleashed magic. She was the one who looked most like a demi-human as she fought. A pretty brassy combat style too, despite how docile she had looked.

  All three of them fought very differently from Filo. Was that just down to filolial individuality? I didn’t really want to know.

  “Gah . . . Atla is attacking with a speed I’ve never seen before!” Raphtalia interjected from her side of the battle.

  “Do you want a hand? Some support magic?” I offered.

  “No, Mr. Naofumi. Please stop the Spear Hero as quickly as you can! If he puts that spear away, it might stop all this!” Raphtalia struggled to get that much out, taking Atla’s strikes on her blade even as we conversed.

  “Haaaaaah!” Atla was totally out of it.

  What to do then? Motoyasu and his three opponents looked like they could go at this all night if someone didn’t step in. Stopping Atla’s rampage meant first stopping Motoyasu.

  It made me want to think about how we reached this situation in the first place.

  It was all Motoyasu’s fault, of course. Filo also had some of the responsibility for breaking Motoyasu so completely. Somehow I needed to persuade Motoyasu and get him to change that spear, stopping its effects.

  I wasn’t sure if he would even listen or not, but I had to give it a try.

  “Filo,” I said.

  “What?” she replied. She didn’t look happy about this situation.

  “Repeat what I’m about to say to Motoyasu!” I ordered her.

  “No! Don’t want to!” Seriously? Couldn’t she see what was going on? Filo was the only one who could bring this situation under control.

  We might have been able to stop Motoyasu by force, but it wasn’t a sure thing as to whether that would work on him. I needed to shake him mentally.

  “If we don’t do this, who knows what Motoyasu might do!” I pleaded with her. It was true that his spear was already spitting out more cursed smoke. I really wanted to stop this as quickly, and as peacefully, as possible.

  “He’s right. Please, Filo, do what Naofumi asks,” Melty said, agreeing with me and prompting Filo to resolve the situation.

  “Uh . . .” Filo still wasn’t sure.

  “Raph!”

  “Being a hero is real hard work, isn’t it?” Ruft noted.

  “I guess so,” I agreed. Raph-chan and Ruft were a little out of the loop perhaps, but they were still able to read the situation.

  The problem was Filo.

  “Look, Filo.” I changed my approach. “At this rate, we’ve no idea when Motoyasu may blow up completely. If that happens, I can’t guarantee what might happen to you. Do you want to get stabbed by Motoyasu’s spear?”

  “Stabbed by his spear . . . An interesting choice of words, Naofumi,” Melty jibed.

  “But I’m not wrong, am I?” I fired back, at which Melty gave an exasperated shake of her head. She must have some idea of what Motoyasu was after.

  “No!” Filo shouted.

  “Then I need you to do this for me. Raphtalia is really struggling with Atla too.” I was watching that battle out of the corner of my eye, Raphtalia desperately fending off Atla’s attacks, as I continued to persuade Filo.

  What the hell was going on here, seriously? I’d thought this to be a simple request, and look at what it turned into.

  Fitoria! You’ll pay dearly for this! She’ll never hear the last of it. Putting this one off was absolutely the right thing to have done!

  “Stop this, I say!” Motoyasu had been trying to talk his retinue down for the entire time. As if it wasn’t all his fault! His own three seemed to be in love with him and so jealous of Filo.

  Not that he’d listen even if we said that. So I’d have Filo resolve this.

  “Hey! Spear guy, listen!” At Filo’s shout, Motoyasu turned around.

  “Of course! What is it, sweet Filo?” he asked.

  “Right, well,” Filo started. “I like platonic relationships. I’m not going to think about anything more until the world is truly at peace.” What else? What else was there? “I like people to be loyal, and kind to everyone, and never cheat, and always abide by the conditions of a bet. Also, they need to keep promises, not just pay lip service to them—” I had Filo run down an exhaustive list of all my problems with Motoyasu. Hopefully this would change him . . . The part about Filo’s tastes was a total lie.

  Filo liked Melty, surely. That was who she was always hanging around with. She’d almost been affected by Motoyasu’s Temptation skill, saved only by Raph-chan, but if that hadn’t happened, Filo would have gone for Melty. Surely.

  “Naofumi, you’ll have to explain the meaning of that look later,” Melty commented.

  “No idea what you mean,” I replied.

  Filo, meanwhile, hadn’t finished her explanation. I remembered something else I wanted her to say.

  “Ah! Finally, you have to listen to what people tell you, especially my master. You need to listen to his orders at all times. Oh, and until the world is really at peace, just leave me alone!” That last part hadn’t come from me. Filo could be cunning at times, couldn’t she?

  “I-is that all true, Filo?” Motoyasu’s reaction suggested he had bought it. Good! Now, Filo just needed to get him to change the spear.

  “So I need you to—” Filo looked at me, eyes wavering. She’d forgotten what I told her! After remembering stuff I didn’t even need her to say! “Ah, right, right. I’ll really hate you if you don’t change that spear to something else! Please, never use that spear again!”

  “N-no! Don’t hate me! I’ll never change to this spear again, I say!” Motoyasu quickly changed his spear at Filo’s suggestion.

  Ugh, what a dope. So easily manipulated. I couldn’t believe he went along with it so easily.

  In the moment he changed the spear, everyone in his retinue collapsed as though their batteries had been plucked out.

  “Uh . . .” Atla stopped moving too.

  “Now!” Grabbing that tiny opening, Raphtalia whacked Atla’s solar plexus with the hilt of her sword and knocked her out.

  “Raph,” Raph-chan said.

  “Yeah,” Ruft agreed. After checking that Filo and Ruft hadn’t been affected by Motoyasu’s skill, Raph-chan climbed down from Filo’s back along with Ruft. Then Filo turned into her human form.

  Having seen all that, I turned back to look at Motoyasu.

  “Now then . . .” I proceeded to give Filo the next thing to say.

  “Right then . . . I like heroes who fight for the sake of the world. But I don’t like people so caught up on me all the time that they can’t work with others! Please, do what my master tells you!” s
he pleaded.

  “Very well, I say!” Motoyasu had changed his spear, but his silly verbal tics remained. Was that an effect of the curse series? Like when I’d lost my sense of taste, were his visual and hearing senses being impaired?

  If Filo had saved him though, surely they should be fixed too, no?

  “Father-in-law, I now solemnly swear that I, Motoyasu Kitamura, shall contribute to your cause as a love hunter, seeking to bring true peace to this world and to win the heart of Filo.” Yeah, he was still talking garbage. “I will officially come and stay in your territory, father-in-law, if you can just give me some time to get my belongings ready.”

  “I’d really rather you didn’t come at all, but I guess it’s better than having you wandering around,” I managed.

  “Mr. Naofumi, you need to be careful what you say.” I couldn’t help but nod in agreement with Raphtalia’s caution.

  “Very well. Just be quick about it,” I told him.

  “As soon as my preparations are ready, I shall descend upon you! My angels, we are leaving! Portal Spear!” Motoyasu shouted.

  “S-sure thing!” Everyone in his retinue picked themselves up, and in the next instant, all four of them were gone.

  “He left the wagon behind,” I muttered. It was impossible to miss the thing, the teeth-jarringly decorated sparkly monstrosity making its presence painfully felt.

  “Yes! The spear guy is gone! But my wagon . . .” Filo lamented.

  “This really is in the worst possible taste,” Melty commented, moving over to the wagon and checking it out. I was in complete agreement. I’d had an Internet friend with a car that was pretty outlandish, but I’d never dreamed that the wagon I purchased for Filo would end up stolen and turned into this.

  “My wagon . . .” Filo was getting some serious consolation from Melty. I shared an unspoken look with her, knowing what had to be done, and then I spoke with a sigh.

  “Right. I’ll buy you another one, so cheer up, okay?” I told her. That looked like the only way to cheer Filo up.

  “Yay!” She immediately did so.