Chapter 24 - Raphtalia
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
In her sleep, she dreamed often of old memories.
Raphtalia's oldest memory was of the apartment where she and her mother lived. She was about three, and her mother had come home from working as a maid (whatever that was). She hadn't come alone though.
"Look who I brought with me," she teased as an unfamiliar man stepped through the door after her.
Then the man's illusion magic dropped, and Raphtalia rushed him with open arms. "Papa!"
She only rarely saw her Papa -- she wasn't old enough to really question why, or where he was the rest of the time, or why he changed his appearance when he went outside -- but she loved to see him, and he and Mama were always so happy when all three of them were together.
...
In her dreams, Raphtalia is five again. Her parents have been quietly talking, the last two times Papa came home.
They're worried, but they won't tell her if there are monsters in the closet or bad men lurking outside.
Now she and Mama and Papa are all on a boat, sailing off into the night across the rippling sea, and- oh!
"Sadeena? Sadeena-nee-chan!" Raphtalia cheered despite her yawning as the amazing older girl hauls herself out of the water and onto the deck.
"Hush please, Raphtalia," her mother murmurs as her father casts some spells. "Remember, we're sneaking sneakily away."
"Yes, Mama," Raphtalia agrees. She holds out her arms and Sadeena grabs some dry cloth so her hug isn't soaking, and then Raphtalia relaxes again and begins to nod off.
She wonders why Sadeena isn't wearing all her fancy clothes and jewelry she wore before, the few times Sadeena entertained her in her room when Mama smuggled her to work for a day, but Raphtalia figures that people don't wear fancy clothes to go swimming so that makes sense. Maybe she snuck them into the bag she has?
Warm and content in her mother's arms, Raphtalia nods off to sleep.
...
Raphtalia is ten, kicking her ball around with two friends. She, Rifana, and Keel have been inseparable since they all three met after moving to the village, (Raphtalia neither knows or cares which of them arrived earlier or later,) and they play every day, even trading off cooperating with chores or making it a competition so they finish faster.
More hands make lighter loads, after all!
"Hey! The tide is down!" Rifana's cousin, Rufus, has been by the edge of the cliff that overlooks the sea to watch for this.
"Race you there!" Keel yells, sprinting off immediately mid game.
"Hey, no fair, save some for me! Come on, Rifana!" Raftalia insists, pulling the third of their trio along.
When the tide is low, it exposes a bunch of caves in the cliff-face that are half-full of water or more at high tide.
There's no monsters inside, but low tide exposes lots of shellfish, regular fish trapped in the cave's tide pools, and all sorts of treasure.
The caves are too small for adults to crawl inside, but it's too big a bounty for their tiny village to ignore, so the rules are that no kids can go in alone and there always have to be adults watching over them.
Raphtalia doesn't really remember it, but supposedly there was a time when the adults tried to ban kids from the caves, but it didn't work so they gave up and changed the rules to be more safe.
It's dark and secret and tremendous fun, and the caves are big but not so big a kid could get lost for real, plus there are some old ropes and handhold to navigate, it's great!
...
Raphtalia is twelve, but she looks closer to eight, and she's more than happy to stay that way for another year.
"You sure you don't want to go leveling a bit?" Sadeena teases from across the table as they share her birthday dinner.
"If we couldn't fit into the caves anymore, that would be bad," Raphtalia reaffirms as she munches on her honey cake.
"Don't you want to grow up a little bit more, get big and strong like mama and papa?" her mother presses.
"Growing up sucks," Raphtalia insists. "I hear you guys talk all the time about responsibility and being tired." Her mama frowns a bit in disappointment, so Raphtalia plays her trump card. "I promise I'll get big like Sadeena-nee-chan if you make me a big sister, okay? Then I'll be Raphtalia-nee-chan!"
Sadeena-nee-chan -- Raphtalia doesn't know much about what 'nee-chan' means, but it's apparently been passed down as a term that ancient Heroes like the Legendary Shield Hero who protects Demi-humans use to refer to a Big Sister who's awesome and needs to be respected -- falls off her chair laughing as as Papa guffaws and Mama buries her red cheeks in her hands.
"Well, your Mama and I will certainly try," her Papa teased, giving Mama a quick kiss, and Raphtalia squeals because she wants Mama to get pregnant but she doesn't want to see it! "You were a happy accident, but fate might still expand our family."
"Loft!" her Mama scolds, swatting at his arm. "Look, I just... is it really healthy for Raphtalia to stay this young at her age? I got my first few levels when I was nine or ten, to keep my growth steady."
There are some who deliberately stay at Level 1 into their sixties or older, prolonging their lifespan, and then use the skills they've amassed to level up all at once and regress back to peak fitness to maintain their youth even longer," Sadeena answered. "Waiting a few years for her levels won't hurt anyone."
"And you know how young I was when they pushed me to adulthood, leveling," Papa reminded her more gently, referencing how he'd sometimes talked about having an unhappy childhood, and wanting her and her friends to have better. "A few more years won't hurt her, and I have to admit that the caves' harvests are very useful."
"Fine, fine," Mama sighs, eyeing Raphtalia's empty plate. "At least it'll mean we won't need to stockpile food for a ravenous teen yet."
...
Raphtalia is fifteen, but she looks more like nine. She's still level one, although Keel recently bragged about becoming Level three when he killed a Pikyupikyu with a short sword her father lent him. Keel has been doing some hunting on and off, and Raphtalia and Rifana have joined in enough to get a little experience, but Raphtalia feels like catching and gutting fish is very different from getting hot red blood on her hands, and she doesn't like it.
She and Rifana are talking about boys, since their neighbor Amala asked Sadeena-nee to help her level up so she could try to date a human boy in a nearby town.
Raphtalia admits she doesn't get the appeal yet, but Rifana is having fun making up stories about how she'll meet and marry the Shield Hero like in legends.
Raphtalia just wants to be as happy as her Mama is with Papa, and she still isn't a nee-chan but one day she'll have a bunch of kids with someone she loves and raise a family full of fun and laughter, and her kids can say 'Grandma! Grandpa!' and give her parents extra hugs.
...
Raphtalia is seventeen, running for her life on ten-year-old legs, desperately wishing that she'd ever taken Sadeena-nee up on an offer to go gain some levels.
Now Sadeena is off traveling until Autumn, monsters are pouring out of the sky, and Raphtalia is running from skeletons and giant scary bugs.
Papa is hurling around light spells, but every four monsters he kills has five more emerge to keep chasing them. Mama lost her hatchet when she killed a giant spider and couldn't pull it out of the spider's head, so now she's shepherding the crowd along, trying to get to the few boats that aren't out on the stormy ocean already so everyone can evacuate.
Then the hounds arrive.
Baying reaches her ears first before giant black dogs, larger but less numerous than the other monsters, burst out and charge the villagers. Chaos instantly descends as the evacuees all panic, and Raphtalia is knocked over in the panic.
Mama was there seconds later, scooping Raphtalia up and sprinting for the ocean as the evacuation devolved into a panic. Clutched to her mother's chest alongside Rifana, Raphtalia could see her father falling back as he hurled balls of light at the largest beast, a three-headed dog.
One swipe of its paw sent her Papa and Mr. Parrus flying, but her Papa rolled with his landing and hurled more magic.
Mr. Parrus got eaten in a big bite, bit in half, and Raphtalia prayed that the Shield Hero would appear to rescue them.
Her Mama stopped running, and Raphtalia realized they were at the cliffside. Not by the seashore, where they could get into boats (although she could look below and see some of the dogs swimming out after everyone, and a bunch of people were dead in the water, and more were screaming, crying, praying,) but up at the top of the cliff, at the edge.
Raphtalia still had a child's brain, no matter her age, but there had been funerals at the village -- most recently Keel's grandfather -- and she guessed they were going to die here, her and her mom and Rifana clinging to Mama's leg too.
Speaking of Keel, she saw him down by the shore. He wasn't in the water on a boat, but he was running along the cliffs to-
"The caves!" Keel shouted to the other land-bound villagers. "We can hide in the caves and board it up!"
"Lumber! We were building ladders and stuff," Rifana remembered. "If we can get down there-,"
"We can board up the caves and hide, the tide is still leaving and it won't come back for hours!" Raphtalia finished. "Mama, how do we-?"
Raphtalia cut off, partly because she remembered that her Mama was an adult, and wouldn't fit into the caves. But Mama could squeeze in, right? It was an emergency! But how could they get down to the caves?
"Love," her papa called, having put up a bright magic wall that was holding monsters off but was quickly fading as they tore at it, "I need to make a stand here and stop this thing, or it'll follow everyone down into the ocean. I'm sorry."
"I'll get the girls down to safety, I'm resolved," her Mama replied. Raphtalia was still scared out of her mind but, as her Mama resettled Rifana beside her in her arms, Raphtalia had hopes that they could get through this and survive. "Raphtalia," her Mama said seriously, "Don't forget to smile, and be nice to others."
"She's right," Papa agreed as the three-headed dog howled and magic light gathered around his fingertips. "Your smile can help other people remember to smile. Things will be hard, so be careful, and know that I always love you."
"Oh no," Rifana breathed, like she'd realized something bad.
"Live a long life, girls, and please forgive our selfishness. Take a deep breath, now!" her Mama ordered.
Then Mama jumped over the cliff, with Raphtalia and Rifana still in her arms.
Raphtalia didn't understand for a moment, even as she held her breath and they fell.
There was water under the cliff, but it was shallow water with some rocks, which was why they were never allowed to jump in, even if it looked safe to jump at high tide and sounded fun.
Still in the air, Raphtalia saw the largest monster lunge at her father before the rising cliff covered her view.
Seconds later, she heard her mother's bones crunch as they hit the water, her Mama shielding the two girls with her body.
"Get in the cave. Leave me, get in the cave, and don't look back! Run and live, girls!! Live!!!" Mama commanded.
Raphtalia ran. She slogged through the surf and sprinted for the caves with Rifana, joining a dozen other kids running to Keel for shelter.
But Raphtalia also looked back. She would never forget it.
...
Hiding in the cave felt like eternity and a moment's dream, all at once. Eventually, the skies cleared and they heard voice, instead of cries and howling. She didn't know how long it took, just that she was tired and cold and hungry and she didn't feel a thing about anything.
She and all the other kids clambered out to find knights and adventurers clearing away the monsters dead bodies. Raphtalia vaguely realized that it had to be the next day, unless the sun had moved backward in the sky from when the monsters arrived, but she couldn't bring herself to care about it.
The humans getting rid of the bodies said things like, "Good thing it had already taken a beating," and "Yeah, otherwise we probably couldn't have killed it," but they didn't seem to respect or care about the dead villagers who had fought the monsters first.
On the flip side, some of them talked about 'grabbing' her and the other kids but were dissuaded, so it seemed like Duke Seaetto was still maintaining order and protecting them.
The villagers' bodies at least weren't being disposed of like the monsters' bodies; a few adventurers had teamed up with adults from Lulorona to find the bodies of people and pull them over to a central spot to be identified and counted.
Later on, Raphtalia would be grateful that someone had placed her parents' remains side by side, but when she saw them, all she could do was shake and sob horribly.
"NOOOOOOOOO~!" Raphtalia wailed tearfully.
...
By the time she came back to herself, Raphtalia had a shovel and was piling dirt onto her parents' bodies. She didn't want them left out for the bugs and birds, after all.
Her cheeks were wet, but her eyes were dry and scratchy. She'd cried herself out.
'Don't forget to smile, and be nice to others.'
'Your smile can help other people remember to smile.'
'Run and live, girls!! Live!!!'
"I won't..." Raphtalia gasped to her parents' graves tiredly, "I won't let your deaths be in vain. My... My childhood is ended, Papa, just like yours was, but you gave me longer. I'll be good to everyone," she promised, "and I'll step up to take care of the lives you saved by fighting." She twisted her face: first into a grimace, and then into bared teeth, and then she called up the memory of her parents hugging her, their laughter, and she finally managed a watery smile. "I'll be good to everyone, Mama, Papa. I'll remind us all to smile and we'll live long into the future now!"
Looking around, she found a few other people nearby, crying as well. She helped finish the one final grave her neighbor was digging, then she tugged everyones' hands together, hugged them, and led them back toward the ruins of the village.
She greeted everyone with a hug, and a smile, and the words, "I'm glad you're alive." People were surprised, and she had to reiterate a few times that her parents had not survived, because she seemed too happy.
Raphtalia hopped up onto a broken cart and gave a speech. It went something like this:
"Everyone! Before they died, my parents told me to cheer everyone up and remind us all to smile. We're alive! I'm sad, and I know you all are sad too. We'll be sad for a long time. But our parents, our families, our friends... they don't want us to stand around crying! Many of our loved ones are dead, and we will cry, but we also have to keep living good lives because they love us and they want us to be happy again! Many more of our friends and family are missing, but they might be alive! When they come back to our village, we don't want them to see it like this! The village is a family that we have made together, and when times are hard, families pull together to share love and give comfort! We will rebuild! We are alive," Raphtalia insisted as some of the crowd seemed to perk up and grow resolute, while others were still uncertain. "We..."
The sea breeze brought with it a flutter of falling cloth.
Duke Seaetto had given Lulorona village a flag to recognize it. Several versions of it had hung across town, from tall and important buildings.
As the breeze stirred, the flag from the watch tower broke free and wafted down toward the ground.
Impulsively, Raphtalia jumped off her stand and raced to grab it. It was a sign, it had to be! A sign that her parents and everyone else were watching over them.
"We will raise our flag again and fly it proudly! We are Lulorona, and no army of monsters is strong enough to stamp us out!"
The cheers weren't too loud, but there were cheers at her words, and everyone seemed to rally a bit and agree with her.
...
Raphtalia's house had burned down along with many others, so almost everyone was living in tents, since the weather was warm and mild.
This meant that plenty of people heard her screaming from night terrors, and most of the villagers had keen enough noses to tell when someone wet the bed, but Raphtalia wasn't the only one to have bad reactions so she tried her best not to feel ashamed.
There was only so much work someone of her size and strength could do -- she wished dearly yet again that she had accepted Sadeena's offer to help her hunt and train, why did she want to stay immature and be useless? -- but every little bit helped, and she knew several of the adults were inspired not to let a scrawny pygmy outdo them in recovery efforts.
Raphtalia herself spent most of the first few days digging graves when she wasn't motivating everyone. She didn't have the knowledge or skill to plan and build, but her Papa had been one of the village's leaders and most of the adults seemed to accept any plans that she said sounded good.
Everyone had decided to leave the totally destroyed houses as they were, to better focus on repairing the buildings that could be repaired so that everyone could cram in there more safely each night.
It seemed that Raphtalia's parents had supposedly brought a store of emergency funds when they immigrated to the village, and they had buried it somewhere for safety, but Raphtalia didn't know the location so she gave some of her neighbors permission to go digging around her burnt out house. It would supposedly be enough to buy extra food and maybe hire some laborers to speed the rebuilding, if they could find it.
In hindsight, it was probably for the best that they didn't find the money before the knights arrived, or else it would have been stolen as well.
"Wahahaha~!" A scummy looking man in metal armor with a sword laugh mockingly as he led a group of similar humans into the village. "I'd heard there were still some demi-humans alive here. I guess it was true!"
"Yeah," a second man agreed with a sneer, "and this area isn't protected. We can make some good money here!"
"This area is protected by the order of Duke Seaetto, and there are castle knights nearby if you try anything!" a Lumo man with gray in his fur warned furiously, flexing his digging claws. "Begone! Monsters weren't enough to kill us, and neither are you!"
"Duke Seaetto is dead," the leading man scoffed, and then suddenly his sword flashed. A bloody gash cut across the Lumo man's stomach and he toppled over with a cry. "Furthermore, we are the castle knights! Wahahahahaha~!"
"Run!"
"Everyone, run!"
"Don't let them escape! Women and children get the highest prices, don't kill them!"
In the chaos of trying to run and hide, as some of these knights threw torches to spread more fire, something grabbed Raphtalia hair and pulled her off her feet.
From there, everything got a little blurry.
...
Raphtalia was in a dirty dungeon. She'd been solid off as a slave and passed through passed through two owners -- they didn't seem like mean people, they'd tried to train her to be a maid or to do sewing and weaving, but her screaming dreams caused problems and they resold her -- before ending up with this new owner, who made them call him 'Master Lord Rabier' on pain of pain, because he was hard and cruel.
There was a rabbit-kin nee-chan named Sage about Sadeena's age, and she talked to them quietly when 'Master Lord Rabier' wasn't around and assured them as best she could. There were other people in the basement too, but Raphtalia wasn't sure how many of them were dead or alive.
Rabier liked to beat her and Rifana, whom he'd bought before he bought Raftalia, by hanging them in chains and using a whip on their backs. That said, his treatment of Sage-nee-chan was gross and disgusting, even if it meant she sometimes got brought upstairs out of the basement. Occasionally Raphtalia got brought up out of the basement to do chores, provided she wasn't dripping blood, but they always found some mistake (she was trying!) and brought her back down to beat her again for being 'lazy'.
Sage-nee-chan assured them that 'Master Lord Rabier' usually kept his slaves alive unless he got very angry, because he had a 'resale deal' and he would lose money if a slave died, so she advised Raphtalia and Rifana to beg and cry and scream a lot so the beatings would end faster and he'd have to resell them in a week or two before they died.
Raphtalia had promised her parents to keep smiling, though. She wasn't willing to give up hope yet.
The basement dungeon they got kept in was old, and the mortar that held the stones, bars, and chains in place was crumbling.
If she could dig out mortar in the right places, they could wriggle free or fight back!
Sage-nee-chan told Raphtalia that she was being foolish, and she'd get herself killed by her slave brand if she tried it, but Raphtalia refused to give up!
Then one day she got caught digging at the mortar.
"You filthy mongrel! You want to damage my property like this?!"
Her beating that day was especially severe; then he grabbed pliers and pulled out five of her fingernails 'for thieving' as she screamed.
Then he sold her off to another man again, a fat and menacingly cheerful man in a nice suit.
Master Beloukas gave her food and some medicine and ordered her to eat it -- he said he'd 'lose money if you died, yes indeed!' -- and gave her pain with the seal until she obeyed, but part of Raphtalia hoped she would die anyway, even if the other part hoped she could live to one day escape.
People walked by her cage occasionally, time passed, and eventually, someone decided to buy her. He was a young man, his gaze sharp enough to kill; there was hate in his eyes as he looked at her, and Raphtalia wondered if this would be a worse death than dying beside Rifana in the dungeon of 'Master Lord Rabier'.
Money changed hands, she felt the burn of the transference ceremony once again, and she walked out behind the man she felt would be her last master.
After all, her cough was getting worse, so she probably didn't have much time left.
...
No matter the hate in his gaze, her new master -- 'Naofumi. Just Naofumi,' -- treated her with kindness she'd barely have hoped for.
She'd been terrified when he plucked her out of the fat man's tent, and re-writing her Slave Crest had hurt, but that was beginning to be a familiar pain at least.
He'd taken her hand as he led her down the road, and he'd glared with hate at everybody, not just her! She wasn't sure if that was a good thing, but it was different.
At a smithy, he'd spent his own money to buy her a knife and some new clothing from Mr. Erhardt.
"Raphtalia, this is your weapon. I can't attack, so I'm giving you this knife to fight monsters on my behalf."
Raphtalia had whined as the word 'monsters' brought back memories of the Wave. Then she'd frozen as he moved his cape aside to reveal a round orange monster gnawing at his leg.
"Stab this and pop it."
"Heeeeeee~!" she'd shrieked, almost dropping her new knife. "I... uh...!"
"That's an order," he'd pressed.
"I... No." She'd refused, she couldn't bring herself to f-f-fight and die like her parents! She didn't want to be eaten! She wanted to live! "Uugh..."
The seal on her chest began to throb and burn again.
"Look, if you don't pop the balloon, you're the one who- bloody hell," her master muttered, and the pain cut off. She swayed and staggered.
Raphtalia blinked and took a few ragged breaths. Then she raised her head.
Rather than anger, her new owner had sat down across from her, looking sad and tired, like a lot of the surviving adults at Lulorona.
"Look Raphtalia... I want to show you something."
She nodded carefully.
"Hand me the knife?"
She didn't think he was going to cut her with it, but she stayed ready to dodge as she passed it to him.
"Watch carefully, please," he said as he gripped the knife. He stabbed down at the balloon and-
*Brrrrzzzzzzzap!*
Crackling magic jolted across his whole body, pulling a grunt of pain -- Raphtalia knew that sound, she'd made it herself trying not to scream so many times -- from her owner as he twitched and shook, and the knife fell from his hand.
Raphtalia had heard those sounds before, had seen magic like that, had felt it... had felt it just a moment ago.
"I... are you a slave, too, master?" Raphtalia wondered as he panted.
"P-Pretty much. I don't have a human owner, but I have this." He patted the shield on his arm. "I have a single-digit attack stat, Raphtalia. I can't take it off so I have to even sleep with it or it shocks me, I can't try to use any other weapons or it punishes me with pain... The Waves of Calamity are coming. In about a month, I'm going to be teleported there to fight the Wave monsters, whether I want to or not, whether I can or not. I'm a slave who gets owned by the country, by the entire world. They can spit on me and hurt me and still order me to protect them, and I'll have to do it," he said quietly. "I went to that tent planning to buy a tamed monster, an attack dog-,"
Raphtalia squeaked at the d-word, at the thought of the monsters that killed her parents.
"-but someone who can listen to me, who can trade shifts keeping watch, who can go buy and sell supplies without being tarred with the brush of my bullshit bad reputation? That got me thinking. Then I saw you, sick and miserable, and I was pretty sure you'd be dead soon if you stayed there. Here's the deal," he offered. "Once we both survive the coming Wave, I'll have enough money to buy proper monsters to do my attacking and you're free. You'll be strong enough to go wherever you want; I'll be alive to fight in the next Wave, whether I want to or not..." He held out his hand. "What do you say?"
Raphtalia blinked at his extended hand, uncertain what the gesture- ah!
"Right." Raphtalia nodded, grabbed the knife, and stabbed the balloon monster, dreams of her freedom and their town and the warm sun in her mind.
...
Master Naofumi made her kill a few more orange balloons, and then a bigger red balloon, and then he'd laughed crazily when that was enough experience to push Raphtalia over to Level 2.
Raphtalia really wished that she had hunted more and maybe she could have fought back against the wave. She'd been so close!
Then they'd left, and when her stomach had rumbled she'd thought he would yell at her, but he'd taken her to a restaurant and bought her tasty food! It even came with a flag!
"Five bronze for the kids meal and four bronze for the lunch stew special comes to nine bronze total," the waitress had said.
He'd spent more money on her food than on his own! And he'd let her eat it and keep the little flag, he hadn't yelled at her or made her eat off the floor or anything!
Her new clothes had pockets, and Raphtalia put the flag in her pocket when they left the restaurant to go to his camp. He made her drink bitter medicine, but it soothed her developing cough and gave her a bit more feeling back. He told her to wash in the river, and he didn't follow her or touch her or look at her or steal her clothes.
He turned the shield on his arm into some kind of pillow with a blanket and made her curl up under it beside him. Raphtalia tried not to go to sleep, so she wouldn't scream and wake him, but eventually tiredness claimed her and she had to rest.
She had a nightmare that ended with her parents being torn apart, and she woke up screaming to find Master Naofumi cuddling her and stroking her hair.
She really thought she'd be beaten for wetting the bed with him in it, it smelled awful and his face did not look happy, but he just took her to the river so they could wash their clothes and their bodies, and then he used his magic shield to start up the campfire again to dry them and their clothes off.
...
Over the next few days, Master Naofumi worked her hard helping him hunt monsters and gather materials, but he also kept her clean and safe and warm. He bought her simple treasures: a pouch to hold her belongings, a ball to kick around and bounce, a new knife when she broke the first one, some prettily colored string to play Thread Figures with...
Raphtalia felt he was working her hard, hunting monsters and searching for certain plants or rocks, but he never let a monster hurt her and she was never more tired at the end of the day than when she'd had a long day doing chores back home.
She grew levels so fast it was amazing -- Sadeena-nee-chan had made it sound like leveling up took days, and she'd gained two or three levels each day with Master Naofumi -- and after a bit they moved farther away from the castle town, deeper into the forest to live off the land directly instead of selling things at market.
Raphtalia had panicked the first time she stabbed a monster that bled red all over her, and she'd cried, and then another monster had shown up to avenge its dead friend... but Master Naofumi hadn't let it hurt her, and he'd told her his story.
He was actually the Legendary Shield Hero (no wonder he was so nice to her!) and he was going to fight the next Wave when it came. He was going to fight monsters and protect people, so that no more villages got wiped out like Lulorona.
Raphtalia wanted to get strong, to become his sword and cut down the monsters that threatened people. She wanted to avenge the home that was destroyed.
Raphtalia killed every monster they found that day, to help Master Naofumi, and then she went hunting for more when he gave her a bit of free time while setting up their camp.
...
Eventually, they went off to a nearby village and went to a mine with monsters to get ore. It was called Riyute village, or something? It seemed that another one of the other Legendary Heroes had passed through and killed a lot of monsters, but a few more had snuck into the mine after she left.
It put Master Naofumi in an odd mood, where he acted snappish and distracted but also somehow seemed less angry for a while.\
They went to the mine to dig up ore, with Master Naofumi mentioning something about 'smelting' that Raphtalia didn't get.
That was when they found the black dog. It was thin and gangly, but it was taller than Master Naofumi, with two heads just like- just like the- like-
Raphtalia had panicked again, and Master Naofumi had pulled out all the stops with his Legendary Shield to protect her, even eventually calling out 'Barrier Blaze' and lighting himself on fire to burn the dog with him and make it back away.
Raphtalia had been too small and weak to fight the Wave before, but she would never be weak again. She raced around Master Naofumi as the dog staggered back from him and slashed it with her sword until it was dead dead dead and would never kill anyone ever again.
They both patched up their wounds, taking especially good care with Master Naofumi's burns, and once that was done they went through the mines to kill every other monster they could find. They made their camp in a niche for the night and Raphtalia slept like a peaceful and happy baby, then they searched for ore to sell and monsters to hunt for the next few days.
She didn't really ask Master Naofumi much about his Legendary Holy Shield, but he seemed very happy with all the ore they found, and the money they got for selling most of it: 350 silver!
They returned to the castle town -- it apparently had some long and fancy name as the Melromarc capital city, but everyone casually called it castle town even though it was far too big to be a town -- and Raphtalia begged Master Naofumi to take her to the Slave Trader so they could see if anyone else from Lurolona had been sold to the man, promising that they would work extra hard like her to fight the wave and avenge their home (she'd told him her story after they killed the black dog) if he bought them to join her.
There hadn't been anyone from Lurolona, but Master Naofumi had made her smile while crying when he'd paid 20 silver in advance for the Slave Trader to keep an eye out for Lurolona slaves.
After that, Master Naofumi had bought a monster egg to raise as a mount and attack beast, like he'd planned to before he decided to buy her, and then they went out hunting to explore the area north of castle town, the side opposite from where she'd camped with Master Naofumi before.
Raphtalia wasn't keeping close track of the days, but that was when they'd met Carrie, a young woman on the run from the law because she'd burned down a nobleman's manor after he went back on his offer to marry her sister, which drove her sister to suicide in shame.
Carrie had seemed not to know who Master Naofumi was, but she'd begged them fervently and promised to 'do anything' if they gave her shelter and didn't turn her in to be executed.
Master Naofumi had seemed scornful and distrusting, but while he said hadn't accepted her, he also hadn't driven her away. Carrie had actually been helpful, because she'd known what to she the Filorial chick that hatched from their egg, and if she was the one who took their stuff into castle town to sell it (after getting Master Naofumi to help her with a disguise), then Carrie could get a better price than what they gave Master Naofumi because of all the malicious rumors about the crimes he'd been framed for.
Carrie didn't seem to have a high Attack, but she was willing to stun monsters with rocks or tree branches and bring them to Raphtalia for proper killing, and she wasn't interested in joining their party for EXP, instead asking Naofumi to buy the monsters she brought them with silver coins.
So far, Raphtalia had only seen her buy alcohol and then get drunk sharing their campfire; Master Naofumi had refused to have any even when she offered it for free, and he hadn't wanted Raphtalia to try any even though she was grown up now with a body to match her age. He'd also just snorted when Carrie had sloppily gotten drunk and fallen asleep on him, leaving her on the ground to sleep it off with the reasoning, "Idiots don't catch colds".
Still, Carrie had been very nice to Raphtalia and hadn't looked down on or talked down to her, and she'd taught Raphtalia and Master Naofumi how to care care of Firo, their new Filorial, who was growing incredibly quickly.
The Wave would be here in a week or two, and Carrie probably wouldn't be fighting, but until then Raftalia would enjoy time with her new friend, with Firo, and with Master Naofumi all around one shared campfire.
Day 24, morning
Raphtalia woke up to the crackle of their campfire and the smell of something cooking. It took her a moment to realize this was odd, but Master Naofumi was still sharing his Restful Shield with her and Carrie... Well, she supposed Carrie could have woken up earlier and started breakfast, but Master Naofumi was usually the one who did the cooking.
Master Naofumi's Alert skill hadn't gone off, so it wasn't like an enemy had snuck into their camp and started to cook for them.
Raphtalia wiggled free from Naofumi's blanket -- she hadn't gotten him to sleep while holding her yet, even if they shared the blanket and pillow of his Restful Shield -- and turned to join Carrie for breakfast. "Good mo-!?"
Sitting across from Carrie by the campfire was an unfamiliar woman with long, dark hair whom Raphtalia had never seen before.
The sword by her side, however, had the same jewel in its hilt as the Holy Shield.
"Good morning, Miss Raphtalia" the stranger greeted quietly.
The Cardinal Sword Hero had found them.
Raphtalia's oldest memory was of the apartment where she and her mother lived. She was about three, and her mother had come home from working as a maid (whatever that was). She hadn't come alone though.
"Look who I brought with me," she teased as an unfamiliar man stepped through the door after her.
Then the man's illusion magic dropped, and Raphtalia rushed him with open arms. "Papa!"
She only rarely saw her Papa -- she wasn't old enough to really question why, or where he was the rest of the time, or why he changed his appearance when he went outside -- but she loved to see him, and he and Mama were always so happy when all three of them were together.
...
In her dreams, Raphtalia is five again. Her parents have been quietly talking, the last two times Papa came home.
They're worried, but they won't tell her if there are monsters in the closet or bad men lurking outside.
Now she and Mama and Papa are all on a boat, sailing off into the night across the rippling sea, and- oh!
"Sadeena? Sadeena-nee-chan!" Raphtalia cheered despite her yawning as the amazing older girl hauls herself out of the water and onto the deck.
"Hush please, Raphtalia," her mother murmurs as her father casts some spells. "Remember, we're sneaking sneakily away."
"Yes, Mama," Raphtalia agrees. She holds out her arms and Sadeena grabs some dry cloth so her hug isn't soaking, and then Raphtalia relaxes again and begins to nod off.
She wonders why Sadeena isn't wearing all her fancy clothes and jewelry she wore before, the few times Sadeena entertained her in her room when Mama smuggled her to work for a day, but Raphtalia figures that people don't wear fancy clothes to go swimming so that makes sense. Maybe she snuck them into the bag she has?
Warm and content in her mother's arms, Raphtalia nods off to sleep.
...
Raphtalia is ten, kicking her ball around with two friends. She, Rifana, and Keel have been inseparable since they all three met after moving to the village, (Raphtalia neither knows or cares which of them arrived earlier or later,) and they play every day, even trading off cooperating with chores or making it a competition so they finish faster.
More hands make lighter loads, after all!
"Hey! The tide is down!" Rifana's cousin, Rufus, has been by the edge of the cliff that overlooks the sea to watch for this.
"Race you there!" Keel yells, sprinting off immediately mid game.
"Hey, no fair, save some for me! Come on, Rifana!" Raftalia insists, pulling the third of their trio along.
When the tide is low, it exposes a bunch of caves in the cliff-face that are half-full of water or more at high tide.
There's no monsters inside, but low tide exposes lots of shellfish, regular fish trapped in the cave's tide pools, and all sorts of treasure.
The caves are too small for adults to crawl inside, but it's too big a bounty for their tiny village to ignore, so the rules are that no kids can go in alone and there always have to be adults watching over them.
Raphtalia doesn't really remember it, but supposedly there was a time when the adults tried to ban kids from the caves, but it didn't work so they gave up and changed the rules to be more safe.
It's dark and secret and tremendous fun, and the caves are big but not so big a kid could get lost for real, plus there are some old ropes and handhold to navigate, it's great!
...
Raphtalia is twelve, but she looks closer to eight, and she's more than happy to stay that way for another year.
"You sure you don't want to go leveling a bit?" Sadeena teases from across the table as they share her birthday dinner.
"If we couldn't fit into the caves anymore, that would be bad," Raphtalia reaffirms as she munches on her honey cake.
"Don't you want to grow up a little bit more, get big and strong like mama and papa?" her mother presses.
"Growing up sucks," Raphtalia insists. "I hear you guys talk all the time about responsibility and being tired." Her mama frowns a bit in disappointment, so Raphtalia plays her trump card. "I promise I'll get big like Sadeena-nee-chan if you make me a big sister, okay? Then I'll be Raphtalia-nee-chan!"
Sadeena-nee-chan -- Raphtalia doesn't know much about what 'nee-chan' means, but it's apparently been passed down as a term that ancient Heroes like the Legendary Shield Hero who protects Demi-humans use to refer to a Big Sister who's awesome and needs to be respected -- falls off her chair laughing as as Papa guffaws and Mama buries her red cheeks in her hands.
"Well, your Mama and I will certainly try," her Papa teased, giving Mama a quick kiss, and Raphtalia squeals because she wants Mama to get pregnant but she doesn't want to see it! "You were a happy accident, but fate might still expand our family."
"Loft!" her Mama scolds, swatting at his arm. "Look, I just... is it really healthy for Raphtalia to stay this young at her age? I got my first few levels when I was nine or ten, to keep my growth steady."
There are some who deliberately stay at Level 1 into their sixties or older, prolonging their lifespan, and then use the skills they've amassed to level up all at once and regress back to peak fitness to maintain their youth even longer," Sadeena answered. "Waiting a few years for her levels won't hurt anyone."
"And you know how young I was when they pushed me to adulthood, leveling," Papa reminded her more gently, referencing how he'd sometimes talked about having an unhappy childhood, and wanting her and her friends to have better. "A few more years won't hurt her, and I have to admit that the caves' harvests are very useful."
"Fine, fine," Mama sighs, eyeing Raphtalia's empty plate. "At least it'll mean we won't need to stockpile food for a ravenous teen yet."
...
Raphtalia is fifteen, but she looks more like nine. She's still level one, although Keel recently bragged about becoming Level three when he killed a Pikyupikyu with a short sword her father lent him. Keel has been doing some hunting on and off, and Raphtalia and Rifana have joined in enough to get a little experience, but Raphtalia feels like catching and gutting fish is very different from getting hot red blood on her hands, and she doesn't like it.
She and Rifana are talking about boys, since their neighbor Amala asked Sadeena-nee to help her level up so she could try to date a human boy in a nearby town.
Raphtalia admits she doesn't get the appeal yet, but Rifana is having fun making up stories about how she'll meet and marry the Shield Hero like in legends.
Raphtalia just wants to be as happy as her Mama is with Papa, and she still isn't a nee-chan but one day she'll have a bunch of kids with someone she loves and raise a family full of fun and laughter, and her kids can say 'Grandma! Grandpa!' and give her parents extra hugs.
...
Raphtalia is seventeen, running for her life on ten-year-old legs, desperately wishing that she'd ever taken Sadeena-nee up on an offer to go gain some levels.
Now Sadeena is off traveling until Autumn, monsters are pouring out of the sky, and Raphtalia is running from skeletons and giant scary bugs.
Papa is hurling around light spells, but every four monsters he kills has five more emerge to keep chasing them. Mama lost her hatchet when she killed a giant spider and couldn't pull it out of the spider's head, so now she's shepherding the crowd along, trying to get to the few boats that aren't out on the stormy ocean already so everyone can evacuate.
Then the hounds arrive.
Baying reaches her ears first before giant black dogs, larger but less numerous than the other monsters, burst out and charge the villagers. Chaos instantly descends as the evacuees all panic, and Raphtalia is knocked over in the panic.
Mama was there seconds later, scooping Raphtalia up and sprinting for the ocean as the evacuation devolved into a panic. Clutched to her mother's chest alongside Rifana, Raphtalia could see her father falling back as he hurled balls of light at the largest beast, a three-headed dog.
One swipe of its paw sent her Papa and Mr. Parrus flying, but her Papa rolled with his landing and hurled more magic.
Mr. Parrus got eaten in a big bite, bit in half, and Raphtalia prayed that the Shield Hero would appear to rescue them.
Her Mama stopped running, and Raphtalia realized they were at the cliffside. Not by the seashore, where they could get into boats (although she could look below and see some of the dogs swimming out after everyone, and a bunch of people were dead in the water, and more were screaming, crying, praying,) but up at the top of the cliff, at the edge.
Raphtalia still had a child's brain, no matter her age, but there had been funerals at the village -- most recently Keel's grandfather -- and she guessed they were going to die here, her and her mom and Rifana clinging to Mama's leg too.
Speaking of Keel, she saw him down by the shore. He wasn't in the water on a boat, but he was running along the cliffs to-
"The caves!" Keel shouted to the other land-bound villagers. "We can hide in the caves and board it up!"
"Lumber! We were building ladders and stuff," Rifana remembered. "If we can get down there-,"
"We can board up the caves and hide, the tide is still leaving and it won't come back for hours!" Raphtalia finished. "Mama, how do we-?"
Raphtalia cut off, partly because she remembered that her Mama was an adult, and wouldn't fit into the caves. But Mama could squeeze in, right? It was an emergency! But how could they get down to the caves?
"Love," her papa called, having put up a bright magic wall that was holding monsters off but was quickly fading as they tore at it, "I need to make a stand here and stop this thing, or it'll follow everyone down into the ocean. I'm sorry."
"I'll get the girls down to safety, I'm resolved," her Mama replied. Raphtalia was still scared out of her mind but, as her Mama resettled Rifana beside her in her arms, Raphtalia had hopes that they could get through this and survive. "Raphtalia," her Mama said seriously, "Don't forget to smile, and be nice to others."
"She's right," Papa agreed as the three-headed dog howled and magic light gathered around his fingertips. "Your smile can help other people remember to smile. Things will be hard, so be careful, and know that I always love you."
"Oh no," Rifana breathed, like she'd realized something bad.
"Live a long life, girls, and please forgive our selfishness. Take a deep breath, now!" her Mama ordered.
Then Mama jumped over the cliff, with Raphtalia and Rifana still in her arms.
Raphtalia didn't understand for a moment, even as she held her breath and they fell.
There was water under the cliff, but it was shallow water with some rocks, which was why they were never allowed to jump in, even if it looked safe to jump at high tide and sounded fun.
Still in the air, Raphtalia saw the largest monster lunge at her father before the rising cliff covered her view.
Seconds later, she heard her mother's bones crunch as they hit the water, her Mama shielding the two girls with her body.
"Get in the cave. Leave me, get in the cave, and don't look back! Run and live, girls!! Live!!!" Mama commanded.
Raphtalia ran. She slogged through the surf and sprinted for the caves with Rifana, joining a dozen other kids running to Keel for shelter.
But Raphtalia also looked back. She would never forget it.
...
Hiding in the cave felt like eternity and a moment's dream, all at once. Eventually, the skies cleared and they heard voice, instead of cries and howling. She didn't know how long it took, just that she was tired and cold and hungry and she didn't feel a thing about anything.
She and all the other kids clambered out to find knights and adventurers clearing away the monsters dead bodies. Raphtalia vaguely realized that it had to be the next day, unless the sun had moved backward in the sky from when the monsters arrived, but she couldn't bring herself to care about it.
The humans getting rid of the bodies said things like, "Good thing it had already taken a beating," and "Yeah, otherwise we probably couldn't have killed it," but they didn't seem to respect or care about the dead villagers who had fought the monsters first.
On the flip side, some of them talked about 'grabbing' her and the other kids but were dissuaded, so it seemed like Duke Seaetto was still maintaining order and protecting them.
The villagers' bodies at least weren't being disposed of like the monsters' bodies; a few adventurers had teamed up with adults from Lulorona to find the bodies of people and pull them over to a central spot to be identified and counted.
Later on, Raphtalia would be grateful that someone had placed her parents' remains side by side, but when she saw them, all she could do was shake and sob horribly.
"NOOOOOOOOO~!" Raphtalia wailed tearfully.
...
By the time she came back to herself, Raphtalia had a shovel and was piling dirt onto her parents' bodies. She didn't want them left out for the bugs and birds, after all.
Her cheeks were wet, but her eyes were dry and scratchy. She'd cried herself out.
'Don't forget to smile, and be nice to others.'
'Your smile can help other people remember to smile.'
'Run and live, girls!! Live!!!'
"I won't..." Raphtalia gasped to her parents' graves tiredly, "I won't let your deaths be in vain. My... My childhood is ended, Papa, just like yours was, but you gave me longer. I'll be good to everyone," she promised, "and I'll step up to take care of the lives you saved by fighting." She twisted her face: first into a grimace, and then into bared teeth, and then she called up the memory of her parents hugging her, their laughter, and she finally managed a watery smile. "I'll be good to everyone, Mama, Papa. I'll remind us all to smile and we'll live long into the future now!"
Looking around, she found a few other people nearby, crying as well. She helped finish the one final grave her neighbor was digging, then she tugged everyones' hands together, hugged them, and led them back toward the ruins of the village.
She greeted everyone with a hug, and a smile, and the words, "I'm glad you're alive." People were surprised, and she had to reiterate a few times that her parents had not survived, because she seemed too happy.
Raphtalia hopped up onto a broken cart and gave a speech. It went something like this:
"Everyone! Before they died, my parents told me to cheer everyone up and remind us all to smile. We're alive! I'm sad, and I know you all are sad too. We'll be sad for a long time. But our parents, our families, our friends... they don't want us to stand around crying! Many of our loved ones are dead, and we will cry, but we also have to keep living good lives because they love us and they want us to be happy again! Many more of our friends and family are missing, but they might be alive! When they come back to our village, we don't want them to see it like this! The village is a family that we have made together, and when times are hard, families pull together to share love and give comfort! We will rebuild! We are alive," Raphtalia insisted as some of the crowd seemed to perk up and grow resolute, while others were still uncertain. "We..."
The sea breeze brought with it a flutter of falling cloth.
Duke Seaetto had given Lulorona village a flag to recognize it. Several versions of it had hung across town, from tall and important buildings.
As the breeze stirred, the flag from the watch tower broke free and wafted down toward the ground.
Impulsively, Raphtalia jumped off her stand and raced to grab it. It was a sign, it had to be! A sign that her parents and everyone else were watching over them.
"We will raise our flag again and fly it proudly! We are Lulorona, and no army of monsters is strong enough to stamp us out!"
The cheers weren't too loud, but there were cheers at her words, and everyone seemed to rally a bit and agree with her.
...
Raphtalia's house had burned down along with many others, so almost everyone was living in tents, since the weather was warm and mild.
This meant that plenty of people heard her screaming from night terrors, and most of the villagers had keen enough noses to tell when someone wet the bed, but Raphtalia wasn't the only one to have bad reactions so she tried her best not to feel ashamed.
There was only so much work someone of her size and strength could do -- she wished dearly yet again that she had accepted Sadeena's offer to help her hunt and train, why did she want to stay immature and be useless? -- but every little bit helped, and she knew several of the adults were inspired not to let a scrawny pygmy outdo them in recovery efforts.
Raphtalia herself spent most of the first few days digging graves when she wasn't motivating everyone. She didn't have the knowledge or skill to plan and build, but her Papa had been one of the village's leaders and most of the adults seemed to accept any plans that she said sounded good.
Everyone had decided to leave the totally destroyed houses as they were, to better focus on repairing the buildings that could be repaired so that everyone could cram in there more safely each night.
It seemed that Raphtalia's parents had supposedly brought a store of emergency funds when they immigrated to the village, and they had buried it somewhere for safety, but Raphtalia didn't know the location so she gave some of her neighbors permission to go digging around her burnt out house. It would supposedly be enough to buy extra food and maybe hire some laborers to speed the rebuilding, if they could find it.
In hindsight, it was probably for the best that they didn't find the money before the knights arrived, or else it would have been stolen as well.
"Wahahaha~!" A scummy looking man in metal armor with a sword laugh mockingly as he led a group of similar humans into the village. "I'd heard there were still some demi-humans alive here. I guess it was true!"
"Yeah," a second man agreed with a sneer, "and this area isn't protected. We can make some good money here!"
"This area is protected by the order of Duke Seaetto, and there are castle knights nearby if you try anything!" a Lumo man with gray in his fur warned furiously, flexing his digging claws. "Begone! Monsters weren't enough to kill us, and neither are you!"
"Duke Seaetto is dead," the leading man scoffed, and then suddenly his sword flashed. A bloody gash cut across the Lumo man's stomach and he toppled over with a cry. "Furthermore, we are the castle knights! Wahahahahaha~!"
"Run!"
"Everyone, run!"
"Don't let them escape! Women and children get the highest prices, don't kill them!"
In the chaos of trying to run and hide, as some of these knights threw torches to spread more fire, something grabbed Raphtalia hair and pulled her off her feet.
From there, everything got a little blurry.
...
Raphtalia was in a dirty dungeon. She'd been solid off as a slave and passed through passed through two owners -- they didn't seem like mean people, they'd tried to train her to be a maid or to do sewing and weaving, but her screaming dreams caused problems and they resold her -- before ending up with this new owner, who made them call him 'Master Lord Rabier' on pain of pain, because he was hard and cruel.
There was a rabbit-kin nee-chan named Sage about Sadeena's age, and she talked to them quietly when 'Master Lord Rabier' wasn't around and assured them as best she could. There were other people in the basement too, but Raphtalia wasn't sure how many of them were dead or alive.
Rabier liked to beat her and Rifana, whom he'd bought before he bought Raftalia, by hanging them in chains and using a whip on their backs. That said, his treatment of Sage-nee-chan was gross and disgusting, even if it meant she sometimes got brought upstairs out of the basement. Occasionally Raphtalia got brought up out of the basement to do chores, provided she wasn't dripping blood, but they always found some mistake (she was trying!) and brought her back down to beat her again for being 'lazy'.
Sage-nee-chan assured them that 'Master Lord Rabier' usually kept his slaves alive unless he got very angry, because he had a 'resale deal' and he would lose money if a slave died, so she advised Raphtalia and Rifana to beg and cry and scream a lot so the beatings would end faster and he'd have to resell them in a week or two before they died.
Raphtalia had promised her parents to keep smiling, though. She wasn't willing to give up hope yet.
The basement dungeon they got kept in was old, and the mortar that held the stones, bars, and chains in place was crumbling.
If she could dig out mortar in the right places, they could wriggle free or fight back!
Sage-nee-chan told Raphtalia that she was being foolish, and she'd get herself killed by her slave brand if she tried it, but Raphtalia refused to give up!
Then one day she got caught digging at the mortar.
"You filthy mongrel! You want to damage my property like this?!"
Her beating that day was especially severe; then he grabbed pliers and pulled out five of her fingernails 'for thieving' as she screamed.
Then he sold her off to another man again, a fat and menacingly cheerful man in a nice suit.
Master Beloukas gave her food and some medicine and ordered her to eat it -- he said he'd 'lose money if you died, yes indeed!' -- and gave her pain with the seal until she obeyed, but part of Raphtalia hoped she would die anyway, even if the other part hoped she could live to one day escape.
People walked by her cage occasionally, time passed, and eventually, someone decided to buy her. He was a young man, his gaze sharp enough to kill; there was hate in his eyes as he looked at her, and Raphtalia wondered if this would be a worse death than dying beside Rifana in the dungeon of 'Master Lord Rabier'.
Money changed hands, she felt the burn of the transference ceremony once again, and she walked out behind the man she felt would be her last master.
After all, her cough was getting worse, so she probably didn't have much time left.
...
No matter the hate in his gaze, her new master -- 'Naofumi. Just Naofumi,' -- treated her with kindness she'd barely have hoped for.
She'd been terrified when he plucked her out of the fat man's tent, and re-writing her Slave Crest had hurt, but that was beginning to be a familiar pain at least.
He'd taken her hand as he led her down the road, and he'd glared with hate at everybody, not just her! She wasn't sure if that was a good thing, but it was different.
At a smithy, he'd spent his own money to buy her a knife and some new clothing from Mr. Erhardt.
"Raphtalia, this is your weapon. I can't attack, so I'm giving you this knife to fight monsters on my behalf."
Raphtalia had whined as the word 'monsters' brought back memories of the Wave. Then she'd frozen as he moved his cape aside to reveal a round orange monster gnawing at his leg.
"Stab this and pop it."
"Heeeeeee~!" she'd shrieked, almost dropping her new knife. "I... uh...!"
"That's an order," he'd pressed.
"I... No." She'd refused, she couldn't bring herself to f-f-fight and die like her parents! She didn't want to be eaten! She wanted to live! "Uugh..."
The seal on her chest began to throb and burn again.
"Look, if you don't pop the balloon, you're the one who- bloody hell," her master muttered, and the pain cut off. She swayed and staggered.
Raphtalia blinked and took a few ragged breaths. Then she raised her head.
Rather than anger, her new owner had sat down across from her, looking sad and tired, like a lot of the surviving adults at Lulorona.
"Look Raphtalia... I want to show you something."
She nodded carefully.
"Hand me the knife?"
She didn't think he was going to cut her with it, but she stayed ready to dodge as she passed it to him.
"Watch carefully, please," he said as he gripped the knife. He stabbed down at the balloon and-
*Brrrrzzzzzzzap!*
Crackling magic jolted across his whole body, pulling a grunt of pain -- Raphtalia knew that sound, she'd made it herself trying not to scream so many times -- from her owner as he twitched and shook, and the knife fell from his hand.
Raphtalia had heard those sounds before, had seen magic like that, had felt it... had felt it just a moment ago.
"I... are you a slave, too, master?" Raphtalia wondered as he panted.
"P-Pretty much. I don't have a human owner, but I have this." He patted the shield on his arm. "I have a single-digit attack stat, Raphtalia. I can't take it off so I have to even sleep with it or it shocks me, I can't try to use any other weapons or it punishes me with pain... The Waves of Calamity are coming. In about a month, I'm going to be teleported there to fight the Wave monsters, whether I want to or not, whether I can or not. I'm a slave who gets owned by the country, by the entire world. They can spit on me and hurt me and still order me to protect them, and I'll have to do it," he said quietly. "I went to that tent planning to buy a tamed monster, an attack dog-,"
Raphtalia squeaked at the d-word, at the thought of the monsters that killed her parents.
"-but someone who can listen to me, who can trade shifts keeping watch, who can go buy and sell supplies without being tarred with the brush of my bullshit bad reputation? That got me thinking. Then I saw you, sick and miserable, and I was pretty sure you'd be dead soon if you stayed there. Here's the deal," he offered. "Once we both survive the coming Wave, I'll have enough money to buy proper monsters to do my attacking and you're free. You'll be strong enough to go wherever you want; I'll be alive to fight in the next Wave, whether I want to or not..." He held out his hand. "What do you say?"
Raphtalia blinked at his extended hand, uncertain what the gesture- ah!
"Right." Raphtalia nodded, grabbed the knife, and stabbed the balloon monster, dreams of her freedom and their town and the warm sun in her mind.
...
Master Naofumi made her kill a few more orange balloons, and then a bigger red balloon, and then he'd laughed crazily when that was enough experience to push Raphtalia over to Level 2.
Raphtalia really wished that she had hunted more and maybe she could have fought back against the wave. She'd been so close!
Then they'd left, and when her stomach had rumbled she'd thought he would yell at her, but he'd taken her to a restaurant and bought her tasty food! It even came with a flag!
"Five bronze for the kids meal and four bronze for the lunch stew special comes to nine bronze total," the waitress had said.
He'd spent more money on her food than on his own! And he'd let her eat it and keep the little flag, he hadn't yelled at her or made her eat off the floor or anything!
Her new clothes had pockets, and Raphtalia put the flag in her pocket when they left the restaurant to go to his camp. He made her drink bitter medicine, but it soothed her developing cough and gave her a bit more feeling back. He told her to wash in the river, and he didn't follow her or touch her or look at her or steal her clothes.
He turned the shield on his arm into some kind of pillow with a blanket and made her curl up under it beside him. Raphtalia tried not to go to sleep, so she wouldn't scream and wake him, but eventually tiredness claimed her and she had to rest.
She had a nightmare that ended with her parents being torn apart, and she woke up screaming to find Master Naofumi cuddling her and stroking her hair.
She really thought she'd be beaten for wetting the bed with him in it, it smelled awful and his face did not look happy, but he just took her to the river so they could wash their clothes and their bodies, and then he used his magic shield to start up the campfire again to dry them and their clothes off.
...
Over the next few days, Master Naofumi worked her hard helping him hunt monsters and gather materials, but he also kept her clean and safe and warm. He bought her simple treasures: a pouch to hold her belongings, a ball to kick around and bounce, a new knife when she broke the first one, some prettily colored string to play Thread Figures with...
Raphtalia felt he was working her hard, hunting monsters and searching for certain plants or rocks, but he never let a monster hurt her and she was never more tired at the end of the day than when she'd had a long day doing chores back home.
She grew levels so fast it was amazing -- Sadeena-nee-chan had made it sound like leveling up took days, and she'd gained two or three levels each day with Master Naofumi -- and after a bit they moved farther away from the castle town, deeper into the forest to live off the land directly instead of selling things at market.
Raphtalia had panicked the first time she stabbed a monster that bled red all over her, and she'd cried, and then another monster had shown up to avenge its dead friend... but Master Naofumi hadn't let it hurt her, and he'd told her his story.
He was actually the Legendary Shield Hero (no wonder he was so nice to her!) and he was going to fight the next Wave when it came. He was going to fight monsters and protect people, so that no more villages got wiped out like Lulorona.
Raphtalia wanted to get strong, to become his sword and cut down the monsters that threatened people. She wanted to avenge the home that was destroyed.
Raphtalia killed every monster they found that day, to help Master Naofumi, and then she went hunting for more when he gave her a bit of free time while setting up their camp.
...
Eventually, they went off to a nearby village and went to a mine with monsters to get ore. It was called Riyute village, or something? It seemed that another one of the other Legendary Heroes had passed through and killed a lot of monsters, but a few more had snuck into the mine after she left.
It put Master Naofumi in an odd mood, where he acted snappish and distracted but also somehow seemed less angry for a while.\
They went to the mine to dig up ore, with Master Naofumi mentioning something about 'smelting' that Raphtalia didn't get.
That was when they found the black dog. It was thin and gangly, but it was taller than Master Naofumi, with two heads just like- just like the- like-
Raphtalia had panicked again, and Master Naofumi had pulled out all the stops with his Legendary Shield to protect her, even eventually calling out 'Barrier Blaze' and lighting himself on fire to burn the dog with him and make it back away.
Raphtalia had been too small and weak to fight the Wave before, but she would never be weak again. She raced around Master Naofumi as the dog staggered back from him and slashed it with her sword until it was dead dead dead and would never kill anyone ever again.
They both patched up their wounds, taking especially good care with Master Naofumi's burns, and once that was done they went through the mines to kill every other monster they could find. They made their camp in a niche for the night and Raphtalia slept like a peaceful and happy baby, then they searched for ore to sell and monsters to hunt for the next few days.
She didn't really ask Master Naofumi much about his Legendary Holy Shield, but he seemed very happy with all the ore they found, and the money they got for selling most of it: 350 silver!
They returned to the castle town -- it apparently had some long and fancy name as the Melromarc capital city, but everyone casually called it castle town even though it was far too big to be a town -- and Raphtalia begged Master Naofumi to take her to the Slave Trader so they could see if anyone else from Lurolona had been sold to the man, promising that they would work extra hard like her to fight the wave and avenge their home (she'd told him her story after they killed the black dog) if he bought them to join her.
There hadn't been anyone from Lurolona, but Master Naofumi had made her smile while crying when he'd paid 20 silver in advance for the Slave Trader to keep an eye out for Lurolona slaves.
After that, Master Naofumi had bought a monster egg to raise as a mount and attack beast, like he'd planned to before he decided to buy her, and then they went out hunting to explore the area north of castle town, the side opposite from where she'd camped with Master Naofumi before.
Raphtalia wasn't keeping close track of the days, but that was when they'd met Carrie, a young woman on the run from the law because she'd burned down a nobleman's manor after he went back on his offer to marry her sister, which drove her sister to suicide in shame.
Carrie had seemed not to know who Master Naofumi was, but she'd begged them fervently and promised to 'do anything' if they gave her shelter and didn't turn her in to be executed.
Master Naofumi had seemed scornful and distrusting, but while he said hadn't accepted her, he also hadn't driven her away. Carrie had actually been helpful, because she'd known what to she the Filorial chick that hatched from their egg, and if she was the one who took their stuff into castle town to sell it (after getting Master Naofumi to help her with a disguise), then Carrie could get a better price than what they gave Master Naofumi because of all the malicious rumors about the crimes he'd been framed for.
Carrie didn't seem to have a high Attack, but she was willing to stun monsters with rocks or tree branches and bring them to Raphtalia for proper killing, and she wasn't interested in joining their party for EXP, instead asking Naofumi to buy the monsters she brought them with silver coins.
So far, Raphtalia had only seen her buy alcohol and then get drunk sharing their campfire; Master Naofumi had refused to have any even when she offered it for free, and he hadn't wanted Raphtalia to try any even though she was grown up now with a body to match her age. He'd also just snorted when Carrie had sloppily gotten drunk and fallen asleep on him, leaving her on the ground to sleep it off with the reasoning, "Idiots don't catch colds".
Still, Carrie had been very nice to Raphtalia and hadn't looked down on or talked down to her, and she'd taught Raphtalia and Master Naofumi how to care care of Firo, their new Filorial, who was growing incredibly quickly.
The Wave would be here in a week or two, and Carrie probably wouldn't be fighting, but until then Raftalia would enjoy time with her new friend, with Firo, and with Master Naofumi all around one shared campfire.
Day 24, morning
Raphtalia woke up to the crackle of their campfire and the smell of something cooking. It took her a moment to realize this was odd, but Master Naofumi was still sharing his Restful Shield with her and Carrie... Well, she supposed Carrie could have woken up earlier and started breakfast, but Master Naofumi was usually the one who did the cooking.
Master Naofumi's Alert skill hadn't gone off, so it wasn't like an enemy had snuck into their camp and started to cook for them.
Raphtalia wiggled free from Naofumi's blanket -- she hadn't gotten him to sleep while holding her yet, even if they shared the blanket and pillow of his Restful Shield -- and turned to join Carrie for breakfast. "Good mo-!?"
Sitting across from Carrie by the campfire was an unfamiliar woman with long, dark hair whom Raphtalia had never seen before.
The sword by her side, however, had the same jewel in its hilt as the Holy Shield.
"Good morning, Miss Raphtalia" the stranger greeted quietly.
The Cardinal Sword Hero had found them.
