I had
"Oh, An-chan."
The old man waved as if he'd been waiting for me.
"Something come up?"
"Yeah, hold on a sec."
With that, the weapon shop owner closed up for the moment and led us somewhere.
We ended up at the magic shop—the same place that had given us those spellbooks.
"My, my."
When I showed up alongside the weapon shop owner, the magic shop lady greeted us with a cheerful laugh.
"Could you come to the back of the shop for a moment?"
"Sure. Filo, don't transform back until I say so, got it?"
"Okay."
The back of the magic shop had a lived-in room and what looked like a workshop. We were guided to the workshop.
The ceiling was fairly high—about three meters, maybe. A magic circle was drawn on the floor, and a crystal sat in the center of it.
"Sorry about the mess—we've been in the middle of a project, so it's a little cramped in here."
"No, that's fine… More importantly, is this where they make clothes for her?"
"I asked around first thing this morning, and the lady here said she had just the thing."
"That's right~"
The lady removed the crystal from the pedestal and placed an old-fashioned tool that looked like a sewing machine on it instead. Was it called a spinning wheel? That thing from Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales.
"Is she really a monster?"
"Yeah. That's why her clothes rip when she transforms back. Filo, go ahead and transform."
It should be fine to transform back here.
"Okay."
At my instruction, Filo nodded, removed the cloak, and returned to her true form.
"My, my, oh my."
The magic shop lady looked up at Filo—now in her Filolial Queen form—with undisguised amazement.
"Is this all right?"
Her voice was still Filo's, making the whole scene feel rather surreal.
Having a conversation with a creature like this was part of the promise of coming to a fantasy world, but…
I glanced over at
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Come to think of it, Raphtalia was a demi-human too. If I thought about it carefully, back when I was still caught up in the romance of it all, she might have been someone I'd have been incredibly excited about. In that sense, Motoyasu's reaction back then made perfect sense. That was all in the past for me now, though.
"So, shall I make the outfit?" the lady said.
"You can actually make one? Clothes that won't rip even when she transforms?"
"Well… strictly speaking, I'm not sure you'd call them 'clothes,' exactly."
"Huh?"
"What do I look like to you, Hero?"
"A magic shop… sort of like a witch."
"Exactly. So I do have some knowledge when it comes to transformation."
I still didn't quite understand how the common sense of this world worked, but in my world, witches in movies could transform into animals and the like.
"Well, transforming into an animal usually requires troublesome procedures, a lot of magic power, and a fair amount of risk. And having to dress yourself every time the transformation wears off would be a pain, wouldn't it?"
Hmm? So magic users could apparently transform.
The lady fiddled with wooden sewing tools as she answered.
They looked close to what my world would call a sewing machine.
"It's fine if you can change back at home, but if your transformation wears off in some unfamiliar place, that's a real problem."
"Yeah, you're right."
Mainly it'd be a problem with clothes. Walking around completely naked would definitely draw attention.
"That's why there are clothes designed to work even during transformation—convenient outfits that appear when the transformation wears off."
"Makes sense."
There was logic to it. Clothes that disappear while transformed and reappear when the transformation ends.
"This is a technique passed down among certain demi-humans who fall into the monster category. A famous example is a vampire's cape."
Ah… right. Turning into bats or wolves—I'd seen that in old movies. So they existed in this world too.
"And this here is the spinning wheel that creates the thread used to make those clothes."
"Huh… How does that turn into clothes when you transform?"
"Strictly speaking, 'clothes' isn't quite the right word—it's more like the power to make things appear as clothes."
I tilted my head at the magic shop lady's explanation.
What did that mean?
"This tool converts magic power into thread. Then the user can convert it back into thread or magic power at will."
"To put it simply, once she takes human form, she can convert her magic power into thread."
"Oh, so that's how it works."
The weapon shop owner's clarification helped me understand.
It really couldn't be called clothes in the traditional sense. When not in human form, it existed as formless magic power circulating within the wielder's body. When in human form, it took shape as clothing.
"All right, Filo was it? Could you slowly turn the handle on this tool?"
"Okay."
Filo began turning the handle of the spinning wheel.
Thread appeared almost immediately, and the lady tied it to a rotating rod at the end of the wheel. The thread gathered there and wound into a spool.
"Huh? It feels like my energy's draining out."
"That's because your magic power is being converted into thread. You're going to feel tired. But keep going a little longer—we still don't have enough to make the clothes."
"Uuu… This isn't fun anymore…"
Well, she was essentially a child. She was less than a week old, after all.
Filo looked around this way and that as she kept turning the handle.
"Hang in there. Once you're done, I'll keep my promise."
"Food? Yummy food?"
"Yeah."
I was a man who kept his promises. I'd promised Filo she could have something delicious to eat afterward.
"Then I'll do my best!"
Filo cranked the spinning wheel with renewed vigor, making a whirring sound.
"Wow, she's really going for it."
Even the lady seemed surprised by her speed.
"Old man, I had a deal with you too. You free after this?"
"I left a note on the shop saying I'm closed until after lunch. So, An-chan, you treating me to something?"
"That's the idea. Can you get your hands on a big iron plate?"
"Hmm? What do you need something like that for?"
"Cooking."
"Your cooking, An-chan? I was kind of hoping for something else…"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I felt a little miffed at his disappointed expression.
"Well, I'll look forward to it then."
"Raphtalia, head to the market and buy some charcoal, vegetables, and meat. Think about Filo's appetite and get enough for about five people."
"Understood."
I handed her a silver coin and sent Raphtalia off to shop.
"Food~ food~"
Filo's spirits were high, and the spinning wheel whirled away.
"That should be about enough. You can stop turning it now."
A little while later, the lady had Filo stop.
"If I keep going, will there be more food?"
"No, there won't. Stop turning."
"Okay."
Filo returned to me in her monster form.
"Master~ food~"
"Not yet. The clothes aren't done."
"Awww…"
Filo sounded extremely disappointed. Raphtalia hadn't come back yet either. There was no food, nothing.
"When we leave the shop, you need to take human form again."
"Okay."
Did she actually understand?
"After this, we just need to turn the thread into fabric and make the clothes, and it'll be done," the lady said.
The magic shop lady showed us the finished thread.
"The fabric—we could probably get someone who does weaving to handle that, right?"
"I know just the right person. Come with me."
"So, what should I tell the young lady when she gets back from shopping?"
"Tell her to wait at the gate at the edge of
"Got it."
On the weapon shop owner's recommendation, we left the magic shop right away.
"I'll bill you through the weapon shop later~"
"How much is it going to run me?"
I couldn't help asking—it was bothering me.
"The magic-to-thread conversion? The crystal is a bit pricey, but since you're the Hero, I'll sell it at cost. Fifty silver coins."
Gah! Why did everything involving Filo cost so much money?
And if we were going to turn the thread into fabric and then into clothes, who knew how much more that would cost?
So we went to the person the weapon shop owner recommended, and they agreed to turn the thread into fabric.
"Since it's such a rare material, I'll have to do some special work with it… It should be done by this evening, so I'd suggest heading to the tailor shop now to get measurements taken. I'll deliver it later."
That being the case, we went straight to the tailor shop.
To think that making a single outfit took this much time… It was quite the ordeal.
"Wow… She's such a cute one."
At the tailor shop, a bespectacled girl with a scarf wrapped around her head was working the counter.
She gave off a somewhat plain impression. How to describe her? In my world, she'd be the kind of girl who'd draw doujinshi—slightly above average in looks, if I had to place her.
"She has wings, like an angel. There are demi-humans with wings too, but… hers are much more refined."
"Really?"
I asked the old man, and he just shrugged.
"Demi-humans with wings tend to have bird-like features on their legs, hands, or other parts of their body too. But this one—she only has the wings. It's remarkable."
"Hmm?"
Filo tilted her head and looked up at the tailor shop girl.
"Ah, she's a monster. Disguised as a human. In her true form, regular clothes would rip."
"Oh my… So the order is for clothes from magic-converted fabric. How fascinating."
Her glasses seemed to flash. Sure enough, she was exactly the otaku type from my world.
I had a similar acquaintance who worked the sales side at doujin conventions, so I felt a sense of familiarity. Of course, I'd gotten circle entry passes from her and gone to those events plenty of times, so she was an approachable type.
Well, well. So in another world, people like that ended up in jobs like this.
"Since the material is so nice, something simple like a one-piece dress might be best. And if we could add some accessories that won't be affected by the magic conversion, it'd be perfect!"
"Huh? Uh, huh?"
She measured Filo, still in her cloak, with a tape measure and began sketching out a design.
"I want to see her transformed form!"
Filo looked at me with a troubled expression. Yeah, I felt like I was getting swept up in the energy too.
"Here's gonna be tight."
The tailor shop's ceiling was barely two meters high. If Filo transformed back, her head would hit it.
"Should I sit down and transform?"
"Sure, that works."
Filo glanced up at the ceiling, then transformed into her monster form and looked at the tailor shop girl.
"Ohhh— The contrast is a wonderful accent!"
She wasn't fazed by Filo's true form at all. This tailor was the real deal. She absolutely had the personality to dive into doujinshi and the like. Thank goodness this was another world.
"Then a ribbon would make a nice accent."
The girl measured around Filo's neck and began working out the garment's design.
"I'll be waiting for the materials to arrive then!"
She answered with barely contained excitement.
"She's a real craftsman."
"She is."
Once people like that caught fire, they got obsessed. She'd definitely see it through to the end.
"Should be done by tomorrow, I'd imagine."
"Wow, that's fast. But more importantly, how much is this all going to cost? Total."
"Well, even with everything at cost for you, An-chan… I'd say about a hundred silver coins…"
Gah… I could barely look at that number.
"Filo, you understand this, right? I've spent a whopping four hundred silver coins on you. You're going to work it off."
"Okay!"
Did she actually understand? Filo, back in human form, and I left the tailor shop.
At any rate, most of what needed doing was done, so we went to meet up with Raphtalia at the gate of Castle Town.
"Naofumi-sama, I bought all the ingredients you asked for."
"I ended up spending four hundred silver coins total on Filo. Raphtalia was much cheaper."
"Don't talk about me like I'm some cheap woman."
Sigh… This was just how life was going to be.
"All right, old man, bring the iron plate. Filo, you hitch the cart to the front of the weapon shop and bring it over."
"Okay!"
"You got it."
Filo waddled off together with the weapon shop owner, and after a while, they came back pulling a cart.
…Why did she have to pull it in human form?
The cart held an iron plate about the size I'd imagined.
"All right, let's head outside the castle to the riverbank in the plains."
And so we arrived at the riverbank.
I quickly piled up stones and set the iron plate on top, spread charcoal underneath, and lit the fire.
"Raphtalia and old man, keep the fire going for me."
"Uh, sure…"
"Okay."
He was the weapon shop owner, after all. Managing a fire should be second nature to him.
"What about Filo?"
"You—let's see—keep watch for any Balloons that get too close."
"Okay!"
I didn't want Filo's curiosity getting in the way and ruining things, so I gave her a different job.
I cut the vegetables and meat Raphtalia had bought into appropriate sizes with a knife and skewered some of them on iron rods.
"Coal's all set, An-chan."
"Right."
Once the old man and Raphtalia had heated the iron plate as instructed, I placed the fatty cuts of meat on top first to let the oil seep out.
Then I scattered the vegetables and meat across the surface and, off to the side, grilled the skewered pieces directly over the flame, rolling them as they cooked.
"You're pretty handy, An-chan."
Using a work knife and a wooden stick, I flipped the meat and vegetables so they wouldn't burn.
"Yeah, I suppose I am."
That's right—today's lunch, and Filo's reward, was a barbecue by the riverbank.
"Filo, it's ready."
"Coming!"
Drawn by the smell, drool already dripping, Filo came over and used the fork I handed her to eat the meat.
"Wow! This is really good!"
Filo shoveled the freshly grilled meat and vegetables into her mouth one piece after another.
"Hey, there's food for everyone here—don't eat it all!"
"'Kay."
Filo nodded, cheeks puffed out full of food.
Did she really understand?
"There you go. Raphtalia and old man, dig in."
"Thank you."
"Sure."
Raphtalia and the old man each took a leaf I'd handed them as a makeshift plate and started eating the grilled meat and vegetables.
"Oh, this is delicious. I'm shocked that plain grilled meat could taste this good."
"For some reason, food Naofumi-sama makes is always mysteriously delicious."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"I'm not just being polite! This is good enough to open a restaurant, isn't it?"
The old man tilted his head as he nibbled away.
"The reason is probably the cooking skill I've acquired."
"The Shield's power?"
"Something like that."
Ever since a little while ago, icons had been flashing nonstop in the corner of my vision: Grilled meat completed. Quality: Good → Fine.
"It's a strange shield, really. I'm starting to get genuinely jealous."
"I can't take it off, and it's pretty inconvenient, you know."
I don't have any attack power, and…
Oh right, the Bee Needle Shield had an exclusive effect called "Needle Shield"—a counter-type ability that reflected a portion of enemy attacks back at them.
But it was only really effective against dumb monsters like Balloons, since smarter ones would just run away before I could finish them off.
And any monster smart enough to realize it was at a disadvantage would flee. The intelligent ones would ignore me and go after Raphtalia instead, which was a pain.
"You've gotten pretty strong yourself, haven't you, An-chan?"
"No idea how I compare to the other Heroes."
"Fair enough, but what kind of power does a legendary weapon actually have?"
"Well… based on my own experience, want to hear it?"
"Sure."
"Then—"
Since I'd acquired a number of skills, a legendary weapon apparently gave you the ability to outperform the average person once you'd put in enough effort.
Furthermore, status bonuses from things like ability releases would stack and become permanently added to my stats.
If I met multiple conditions—monsters, materials, levels, connected shields on the tree—I could transform and equip a shield. And once I equipped a shield and released its abilities, I'd gain those exclusive effects permanently.
Even a weak shield could maintain a decent level of defense once released.
Equipment bonuses were inherited, so I didn't need to keep switching to a different shield to activate skills. In fact, after releasing a shield, I used it less often than the ones I hadn't released.
You could view your total stats and see how much had been added. Compared to Raphtalia, my overall stats were higher. I was a Hero, after all.
Looking at defense alone, mine was more than three times hers. And on top of that, I had the permanent effects from shield releases.
Raphtalia had never been one to take hits head-on, and I hadn't equipped her with particularly strong armor, so it wasn't a fair comparison, but the Hero of the Shield's latent potential was clearly focused on defense. The trade-off was that my attack power was less than one-tenth.
The difference between this world's inhabitants and the Heroes likely came down to the bonus effects granted by these shields.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be any different from certain specialized races or monsters with high defense.
If you viewed the Heroes as being shaped by the corrections applied by legendary weapons, then the distinction between a Hero and an ordinary person ultimately boiled down to the weapon.
As annoying as it was, the shield made me—and every Hero—special.
And that effect extended to the Hero's companions as well.
Through the Slave Trader's Shield, Raphtalia had abilities superior to those of an ordinary demi-human. And Filo, despite her level not having caught up yet, already surpassed Raphtalia in many areas.
I didn't know how much of that came from growth bonuses, but it had to be substantial.
I had the Slave Trader's Shield and the Monster Tamer's Shield. If there had been a Companion Shield or a Friend Shield or something like it, it would undoubtedly have an effect too.
In other words, companions were indispensable to a Hero.
…Companions. The thing I was most distant from.
"I see… So the root of a Hero's power really is fundamentally different from an ordinary person's."
"That's probably how it is."
Travel the world, have the shield absorb all kinds of monsters and materials, and grow stronger through that process.
Honestly, I still had no idea how many varieties of shields there were out there. I didn't even know how far I needed to develop this shield.
But if I slacked off, the Waves of Catastrophe would come.
And there was no telling how many of those there would be.
Already two. Would there be five in the end? Ten? A hundred? There were nothing but unknowns.
Either way, all I could do now was what needed doing.
…Come to think of it, I was curious about that shield known as the Curse Series too.
The shield that had been released when Raphtalia was almost taken from me—the Curse Series shield that had corroded the Shield itself. I'd searched through the shield tree for it many times since then.
But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find it.
I tried calling it up in the help menu.
Curse Series.
Even to touch is forbidden.
That was all it said. And each time I checked, lightning would flash across my vision and the text would change: Curse Series.
A weapon that grants power and curse befitting those who walk the path of darkness. Hero—do not touch it.
So I decided to put off looking for this weapon I couldn't find. Maybe it would appear someday when I actually needed it. It was probably a shield with very limited conditions for unlocking.
"Master—there's no more meat!"
"What?!"
Sure enough, the meat was gone. Even the skewered pieces had all been eaten. The only thing left was vegetables.
"We done already? Filo's still hungry."
"Sigh… All right then. Go catch about five Usapills from the forest beyond the plains. I'll grill extras for you."
"Okay!"
Filo dashed off at full speed toward the forest.
"Man, that was good. Really hit the spot."
"If you think so, then knock some off the price of the clothes."
"If I cut any more, I'll be the one taking a loss, An-chan."
And so we spent the rest of the day until close to evening having a barbecue by the riverbank.
For the record, Filo came back with about ten Usapills.
As for me, I barely had time to eat—I spent most of it butchering Usapills and grilling more meat.