Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari (LN)

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: What’s Yours is Mine

The sun was high in the sky when I woke up . Raphtalia was waiting for me .

“Are we going back to town? Cough…”

“Yeah . ”

She was coughing again . I silently passed her some medicine which she swallowed in silence as well .

We went to an apothecary and tried to sell our wares .

“Well these aren’t bad at all… Hero, do you have a background in medicine?”

He acted like we were already close associates as he looked over the medicine I’d made .

“Nope . Yesterday was my first try . Would it be more profitable to sell these medicines, or to directly sell the herbs?”

“That’s a tough one . Medicine, if effective, is easier to use, and therefore probably easier to sell . ”

The owner looked at Raphtalia . He seemed calm, cool . He spoke directly and simply, as if he knew we would doubt his council if his eyes were darting around the room .

“The prophecies are pushing the price of medicine up though, so it’s probably more profitable to sell the medicine . ”

“Hmmm . ”

It would depend on the risk involved in fabrication, as some percentage of attempts were sure to end in failure . I also had no idea how much it would cost to assemble the necessary tools for the job . But I would need them to do it, regardless .

“Do you have any tools that you don’t use anymore?”

“I thought about telling you two weeks ago, when you came to sell those herbs . ”

The owner wore an odd expression, like half of a smile . In the end, he took the herbs as payment for instruction, bought the medicine I’d made, and gave me some of his older, used tools .

He gave me a proper mortar and pestle, as well as some other things: scales, flasks, and the like . I got the impression that, had I bought them new, it would have come to a hefty price .

“They’re all old and clunky, so I don’t know how much you’ll get out of them before they break . ”

“Sounds perfect for a beginner like me . ”

Regardless, it was plenty of equipment to start experimenting with compounds and fabrication .

Now all we needed to do was sell off the balloon skins we had .

We were on our way to the loot shop when a kid we passed in the street caught my eye . The kid was playing with a balloon, bouncing it up and down like a ball .

Raphtalia was watching him too, jealousy in her eyes .

“Hey, that…”

“Hm?”

I pointed to the ball the kid was playing with and asked the shop owner about it .

“Yes, well it’s made from battle loot . From balloon skins . ”

“I get it . Can you make me one too? You can subtract the cost from the amount of skins we sell you . ”

The owner calculated the cost, subtracted it from our total, then gave me both the money, and a ball made from the balloon skin .

“Here . ”

I threw the ball at Raphtalia . She caught it, looked at the ball, then at me, then at the ball . She was surprised .

“What? You don’t want it?”

“That’s not… Yes…”

She shook her head and smiled .

That was the first time I saw her smile .

… Whatever, it didn’t matter . She was just a kid .

“When we finish our work for the day, you can go play with that . ”

“Yay!”

She looked excited . That was good .

The more exited she was, the more money I could make with her .

We went back to the forest and started gathering herbs and fighting off monsters . We went anywhere we could with my current defense rating .

Apparently there was a town on the other side of the woods, but just thinking about the path that womanhad suggested made me angry, so I decided not to go there .

We were doing pretty well and collecting lots of stuff . It felt like we’d gained a little latitude, so I decided to start heading for the mountains .

Huh? A monster I’d never seen before appeared .

It looked like an egg of some kind . If I had to classify it, it was probably related to the balloons somehow .

“There’s a new monster . I’ll go first and see what’s up . If I say it looks okay, run up and stab it . ”

“Okay!”

Good answer .

I ran toward the monster . When it saw me approaching, it bared its fangs .

Clamp!

It didn’t hurt a bit . I fought with it for a second, to get a good grip for Raphtalia .

“Hiya!”

She attacked the monster with much more enthusiasm than she’d shown the previous day .

Eggug was what the thing was called .

The Eggug cracked with a loud snap, and its yellow interior ran out onto the ground .

“Ew! Gross!”

Could we sell the shell? It seemed like a waste to just leave it there . But it smelled rotten, so it probably wouldn’t be any good for eating .

My shield absorbed the eggshell .

Soon after, a number of other Eggugs appeared, but Raphtalia took care of them .

Egg Shield: conditions met

Egg Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: cooking 1

Seems like I got yet another ability .

This one was about cooking .

Soon after, more enemies appeared . They were variations on a theme though: various colors of Eggug . We hunted them for a while .

Blue Egg Shield: conditions met

Sky Egg Shield: conditions met

Blue Egg Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: vision up 1

Sky Egg Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: simple recipes

How come I only ever get crafting abilities?

I wondered if it had something to do with the type of enemy . Regardless, as the day went on we also found various types of new medicinal herbs . I was careful to gather as much as I could .

The sun was threatening to fall out of the sky . It was probably too late to start heading into the mountains . Besides, I wasn’t sure that Raphtalia’s equipment was up to the task .

So what did we achieve that day?

I reached level 8 .

Raphtalia reached level 7 .

She was catching up so quickly .

I suppose that only made sense; she was the one defeating the monsters after all .

It looked like the majority of the EXP points went to whoever landed the finishing blow, which would explain her quick progress through the levels .

“I’m hungry…”

Her stomach was rumbling . She looked at me, concerned .

“Fine . Let’s head back and get some dinner . ”

We gave up on our duties for the time being and went back to Castle Town .

When we entered the town, I made for the loot shop . The Eggug shell wouldn’t be much use for compounding, so I decided to sell it off .

Combined with my sales from earlier in the day, we made 9 pieces of silver .

I couldn’t even imagine what they would use the shell for, but they bought it for a good price, so I decided not to press the issue . Our herbs and medicine sold well too . So what should we get for dinner?

… Is what I was thinking, but Raphtalia had already fixed her eyes on a food cart, and was drooling in anticipation . I didn’t plan on spoiling her, but it seemed like a fair price . It seemed just fine .

“You want to eat that?”

“Hm? Really?”

“Well, you want to eat it, right?”

She quickly nodded .

She was much quicker to respond to my questions now .

“Cough…”

She was still coughing though…

I silently passed her some medicine and placed our order at the cart . They were selling something like thick mashed potatoes, formed into balls and skewered .

“Here you go . Good work today . ”

I passed her a skewer, and once she finished swallowing her medicine, she took it and smiled .

“Thank you!”

“Oh… Um…”

She looked genuinely happy .

She chewed on the potatoes as we walked around town, looking for a place to stay .

“You want to stay here tonight?”

“Sure . ”

I wanted a place to escape from Raphtalia’s night terrors, and I was tired of fighting off balloons . We entered the inn . The owner made a face when he saw me, something approximating anger, but once we came to the counter he approached us with a business-like smile on .

“My friend here might scream a bit in the night, but can we stay here?”

I didn’t intend to threaten him directly, but I waved my cape a little so he caught a glimpse of the balloons inside .

“That… that’s…”

“It’s fine, right? We’ll try to be quiet . ”

“Y…yes . ”

I’d slowly realized since I arrived that a measure of tenacity was important when conducting business in this place . All the people in the country thought it was fine to ridicule me, but if anything happened they’d run to the king .

Even if they did, there really wasn’t any other choice but to let me do as I pleased .

Geez . Oh, what a world…

I paid for the room, and we went in and started unpacking .

Raphtalia was holding her ball, and her eyes were shining .

“Come back before dark . And try to stay close to the inn, okay?”

“Okay!”

Geez, what a child…

Apparently demi-humans were subject to a fair amount of persecution but I figured that if she were an adventurer, she’d be left alone .

I watched her playing ball in the street from the window, and turned my attention to studying compounding .

About twenty minutes went by . Then I heard the shouts of children .

“What’s a demi-human playing in our spot for?!”

What the heck? I looked out the window . Down in the street was a pack of children, clearly just a bunch of brats, and they were approaching Raphtalia as if they were picking a fight . No matter what world you went to, there was always someone like this to contend with .

“Aw, look, she’s got something good! Give it here!”

“I… um…”

Raphtalia understood that demi-humans were in a lower class . It didn’t look like she was planning on fighting it .

Huff… I left the room and ran down the stairs .

“Give it here! Can’t you hear me?!”

“But I… Um…”

She looked weak, and scared, and I could tell that the brats were going to take the ball from her by force . They formed a circle around her .

“Hold on a second, you little brats . ”

“What the hell? Who’s the old guy?”

Wh… What? Old guy? Whatever, I was twenty . Who knew what age they considered grown up in this place? I guess I was an “old guy” to them .

“What are you trying to take toys from her for?”

“What do you care? It’s not yours . ”

“It IS mine . I’m letting her borrow it . If you steal it from her, you are stealing it from me . ”

“What are you talking about?”

I didn’t care if they were kids . I wasn’t going to go easy on them . If they felt like breaking the rules, they needed to be punished .

“Okay, Okay . Let me give you another ball that I have . ”

Raphtalia looked at me in shock . She turned to the boys and looked ready to scream .

“Run!”

But they didn’t run . They looked right back at me .

I smirked, and grabbed a balloon out from under my cape .

“OUUUUUCCCH!!!”

I let the balloon bite the kid before immediately putting it away again .

“Now then… Are you sure you want to play with my ball?”

“Ouch!”

“What are you talking about? You’re crazy!”

“Die! Argh!”

“What do I care, you brat!”

They ran off down the street, and I called out insults after them before heading back inside .

“Um… I…”

Raphtalia had a hold on my cape .

“Careful, you know there are balloons under there . ”

She quickly released the cape, surprised . She was shaking with fear, but she slowly raised her face and smiled .

“Thank you . ”

What was that about?

“… Right . ”

I rubbed her head, and her face flushed red as she turned away .