Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari (LN)

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen: To Take a Life

We walked through the fields and based our operations in the woods and mountains .

We were fighting much more smoothly than we had been . I guess we’d gotten the hang of it .

We were also doing well when it came to herbs . It didn’t take long to fill our bags with loot and herbs .

That was when it happened .

We’d been fighting monsters that resembled, for the most part, inanimate objects, but finally an animal-like monster appeared .

It was like a giant, brown… rabbit?

Usapil .

Weird name, if you ask me .

“Booo!”

The Usapil looked us over for a second or two before rushing at us with its huge front teeth bared .

“Watch out!”

Probably thinking it looked weak, Raphtalia was already locked on . So I ran in front of her to cover .

Kiine! Kiiine!

The Usapil dug its teeth in, but just as before, it didn’t hurt at all . Apparently my defense rating was really high .

“Got it! Stab it!”

“Ahh… I…”

“What is it?”

“It’s alive… and it… it’ll bleed!”

I tried to figure out what she wanted to say .

“Just deal with it . We’re going to have to fight lots of living things . ”

“But… but…”

The Usapil kept biting me, over and over .

“Just do it! If you don’t, I won’t be able to watch out for you . ”

Sure, we’d spent time together, and grown a little attached . But I still needed her to fight for me . If she couldn’t do it, I’d have to return her and get a new slave, one that could fight .

“Hiya! Hiya!”

Raphtalia let out a child-like scream and stabbed the Usapil, time after time, in the back .

When she pulled out the knife, blood sprayed .

“Ah…”

The Usapil collapsed to the ground and rolled back and forth . Raphtalia watched it there, and then kept looking at the blood on her knife . The color left her face, and she looked like she was going to run off .

But there was no time for sympathy . We’d have to do the same thing hundreds, if not thousands of times .

“Boo!”

Another Usapil appeared from the shrubbery and bounded towards Raphtalia with its teeth out .

“Ah!”

I dashed between them and deflected the Usapil attack .

“I’m sorry . I know it’s really my responsibility, but I can’t do anything but protect others . That’s why you have to do it . ”

The Usapil buried its teeth in my arm as I spoke .

“I have to get stronger . I need you to help me . ”

If I didn’t, there was no way I could survive what was coming . The time was set . The wave of great destruction would be coming in just a little over a week .

If I had to face it at my current level, I wasn’t sure if I could survive .

“… But…”

“In just over a week, a wave of great destruction will wash over the world . ”

“What?!”

“That’s why I have to get stronger . Before the wave comes, I have to be strong enough to meet it . ”

Raphtalia listened in silence but was shaking in fear .

“You’re going to fight the wave?”

“Yeah . That’s what I’m here for . I’m not doing it for fun… If you think about it that way, you and I are very much alike . Not that I’m in a position to speak, since I am forcing you and all . ”

“…”

“So don’t give me a reason to let you go . ”

I didn’t want to . It wouldn’t be good for anyone to put her back in the cage in that tent .

I had no money . If I didn’t sell her off, I couldn’t buy a new slave .

“I understand… Master . I will… fight . ”

Color slowly came back to her pale face . She nodded . Then she turned to the Usapil and stabbed it with her bloodied knife .

She looked suddenly determined . Her eyes were fixed .

The Usapil was rolling over at her feet . She looked at it, and then slowly closed her eyes . She stepped forward and corrected the grip on her knife . She was going to dissect it .

“Leave that to me . This isn’t all your responsibility . ”

“Okay . ”

I took a dissecting knife from my bag and went to work .

This was reality, not a game . If I could have, I’d have looked away . But that wasn’t an option .

It was my first time butchering an animal, but it was something I’d have to do to survive . When I first saw the Usapil’s blood on my hands, I understood how Raphtalia felt .

Also, apparently I couldn’t use weapons in combat, but I could use them to carry out tasks like this . Granted, there were lots of times in life when you needed a knife, so it only seemed natural .

I butchered the two Usapils and let the shield absorb them .

UsaLeather Shield: conditions met

UsaMeat Shield: conditions met

UsaLeather Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: agility 3

UsaMeat Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: dissection ability 1

I turned my shield into a UsaMeat Shield and stood up .

“Master, please, um, don’t… abandon me . ”

Raphtalia was looking at me, pleading with me . She looked hurt .

She must have really not wanted to go back to the slave trader .

She cried in the night, had a disease, and was skinny as twigs . If I weren’t careful, she’d end up dead . And that wouldn’t be good for anyone .

I momentarily smiled at the thought of dying and bringing that woman down with me . But back to reality: that wasn’t an ideal scenario .

“If you do your job, I won’t abandon you . ”

And I’d be really in a tight spot if she died .

… Yes, anything with the same gender as that woman…ugh, her!

My head was spinning . I had to stop thinking about it . It was painful . It was time to think of how to use this slave to get stronger .

EXP 7

Raphtalia EXP 7

“I want to… To help you… Master . ”

Raphtalia was behaving like a new person, attacking and killing Usapils left and right . Once, she even dashed off to attack one before I’d had a chance to secure it and hold it down .

This was good, even if it seemed a little violent .

What I was doing wasn’t a good thing . Everything was just for me, and it was self-centered .

But hey… I didn’t really have a choice, did I?

We decided to stay in the woods that night . We found a clearing, stacked some firewood, and built a fire .

We picked some herbs that seemed to be edible and boiled them with the Usapil meat for dinner .

There was some meat left over, so we skewered it and grilled it by the fire .

I was planning on going back to town by evening tomorrow, but I wasn’t sure if we could sell the meat . I wasn’t even sure if we could eat it, but my Vision skill was saying that it was edible .

Once the cooking was done, I took a nibble to test it . There was nothing wrong with it .

It was rubbery, though, and I couldn’t taste it . Was it gross?

I hadn’t done anything to it but cook it . So it was probably pretty flavorless .

My cooking ability lit up and told me that the quality was “pretty good,” so it couldn’t have been that bad .

“Here . Eat up . ”

I passed her the pot of stew and a skewer of meat .

“It so yummy!”

Her stomach had been rumbling in anticipation, and her eyes lit up when she bit into the food . She ate it as though it were the most delicious thing in the world .

After the day’s fighting, I was at level 10, and so was Raphtalia . She had finally caught up with me .

I turned my attention to compounding work by the light of the fire .

With the money I made from the medicines, hopefully, I’d be able to afford us some better equipment . I made the most expensive medicines I knew of .

I ground herbs in the mortar and pestle and wrung their juices into a beaker .

You’ve made medicine!

You’ve made a nourishing drink!

I’d made all the recipes I knew .

So I’d reached the end of the usefulness of compounding 1 . Besides, these two recipes were what I stumbled upon by luck . I was running out of materials to compound .

And most of my results were not very good .

“… Cough . ”

So, the medicine was wearing off . I passed her another bottle in silence, and she drank it in silence . Anyway, we’d both have to be stronger .

“We’re going to take turns watching the fire . You can sleep first and… I’ll wake you up when it’s your turn . ”

“All right . ”

She was so agreeable and honest . She was acting like a completely different person from when we first met .

“Good night . ”

“Ah… Yeah, night . Oh hey, we’re going to sell it off tomorrow, so you might as well sleep on the sheepskin blanket while we have it . ”

While cooking, I’d used the fire to smoke out the bedbugs and lice from the blanket, and I passed it to Raphtalia . It wasn’t that thick, but in combination with the rest, it should be pretty warm .

“Okay . ”

She sniffed at the sheepskin and made a face .

“The smoke?”

“Yes . It’s very smoky . ”

“Yeah, I bet . ”

“But it seems warm . ”

She lay down and leaned against my back . Then she closed her eyes .

I kept on practicing compounding, and tended to the fire, waiting for Raphtalia’s inevitable outburst .

Geez… just how long would we have to live like this?

At the very least, we’d need to live like this one more week .

I didn’t want to think about it, but if we didn’t get better equipment, we might just end up dead .

… It would happen pretty soon . By the third day, I was getting a good handle on the timing .

“… Mmm…”

Raphtalia slowly raised herself up and rubbed her eyes .

“Hm…?”

“You awake?”

She didn’t cry .

Oh, that’s it . Her back was touching mine when she slept, so the warmth must have made her feel better . If she could sleep and touch another person, maybe she’d be all right?

“… I’m hungry . ”

She was still hungry? After eating all that?

“Here you go . ”

I gave her the rest of the grilled meat, though I’d been saving it for breakfast . She ate it up and seemed to enjoy it .

“Okay, I’m going to try and get some sleep . Wake me up if anything happens . ”

“Okay!”

She nodded as she chomped on the meat .

I’m glad that she was happier than she used to be, but she was turning into a little piggy .