come out of his shop. I felt safe there.
“Then I’ll do what I can to make sure I stay useful to ya, kid.”
“Great. I’ll see you later then.”
So we left the shop, having tested out the weapon copy system, and prepared to leave for the islands.
Chapter Five: Gravestones
“We’re about to arrive at the harbor town.”
Everyone was supposed to meet in a nearby harbor town to board the ship.
The other heroes had left before me, in carriages provided by the crown.
I wondered why they didn’t just use the teleport skills they’d bragged about before.
Filo was enjoying the slow carriage journey—she loved that kind of travel, and it had been a while.
“Excuse me, Mr. Naofumi. Would you mind if we took a short detour on the way?”
“Huh?”
Raphtalia indicated that she would like to stop by somewhere. It was rare for her to speak out like that. The place she indicated wasn’t very far at all from our course.
“Sure.”
“Wonderful. Filo, will you please follow this road inland when in splits?”
“Okay!”
Soon enough we arrived at the spot she’d requested. It was the ruins of a village.
We passed by the debris. There were wells that nobody drank from, buildings without roofs, and the burned-out shells of family homes. The remaining, ruined structures scattered through the field all indicated that a village once stood there.
Everything was destroyed and rotten, but it probably hadn’t been that way for all too long. Still, it wasn’t anything very recent.
I looked around and tried to judge how long it had been abandoned.
I suspected that it was probably the remains of Raphtalia’s village.
“ . . . .”
We rolled through the ruins, and Raphtalia was silent the whole time.
I kept inspecting what was left, and before long I noticed the whole landscape was dotted with gravestones.
I’d heard that the village was wiped out when the first wave came to Melromarc. This was apparently all that was left.
More than three months had passed since I first arrived in this world.
I’d heard about what had happened before the heroes were summoned and estimated that the village had been destroyed about four months ago.
Imagining that this had been a bustling demi-human village only four months ago made me realize, once again, how severe the threat of the waves really was.
“Raphtalia, big sis, how far do you want to go?”
“Just to that cliff that overlooks the sea.”
“Okay!”
The carriage rattled over the uneven remains of the road, and I looked out on the village that Raphtalia had been raised in.
We made it to the cliff by the sea, and Raphtalia climbed down from the carriage.
At the lip of the cliff stood a pile of stacked stones. I suddenly realized I was looking at a grave.
She knelt down next to them and started to dig another spot to the side. I didn’t say anything, but I knelt too and helped her dig.
I had no idea what she was doing.
When we were on the run, we met the nobleman that had kidnapped and tortured Raphtalia, and there had been corpses in his basement of people from her village.
Maybe she wanted to give them a funeral.
She had taken some of the bones with her when she left. Now she removed them from her bag and put them in ground. She covered them over with dirt and clasped her hands in prayer.
Raphtalia had told me that they were the remains of a child, a friend of hers that had always wanted to meet the Shield Hero.
At least the child could rest here now and not in that dark, damp basement.
Maybe that was just an example of the tyranny of the living.
But even if it was, I prayed that the owner of those bones would find rest and peace here on the cliff by the sea.
. . . .
I realized again—had I forgotten? I realized that Raphtalia had lost her family only four months ago.
She was strong. Stronger, maybe, than I’d realized.
She lost her family, but survived. She told me that she’d had a very trying time before she met me.
When I eventually
“Then I’ll do what I can to make sure I stay useful to ya, kid.”
“Great. I’ll see you later then.”
So we left the shop, having tested out the weapon copy system, and prepared to leave for the islands.
Chapter Five: Gravestones
“We’re about to arrive at the harbor town.”
Everyone was supposed to meet in a nearby harbor town to board the ship.
The other heroes had left before me, in carriages provided by the crown.
I wondered why they didn’t just use the teleport skills they’d bragged about before.
Filo was enjoying the slow carriage journey—she loved that kind of travel, and it had been a while.
“Excuse me, Mr. Naofumi. Would you mind if we took a short detour on the way?”
“Huh?”
Raphtalia indicated that she would like to stop by somewhere. It was rare for her to speak out like that. The place she indicated wasn’t very far at all from our course.
“Sure.”
“Wonderful. Filo, will you please follow this road inland when in splits?”
“Okay!”
Soon enough we arrived at the spot she’d requested. It was the ruins of a village.
We passed by the debris. There were wells that nobody drank from, buildings without roofs, and the burned-out shells of family homes. The remaining, ruined structures scattered through the field all indicated that a village once stood there.
Everything was destroyed and rotten, but it probably hadn’t been that way for all too long. Still, it wasn’t anything very recent.
I looked around and tried to judge how long it had been abandoned.
I suspected that it was probably the remains of Raphtalia’s village.
“ . . . .”
We rolled through the ruins, and Raphtalia was silent the whole time.
I kept inspecting what was left, and before long I noticed the whole landscape was dotted with gravestones.
I’d heard that the village was wiped out when the first wave came to Melromarc. This was apparently all that was left.
More than three months had passed since I first arrived in this world.
I’d heard about what had happened before the heroes were summoned and estimated that the village had been destroyed about four months ago.
Imagining that this had been a bustling demi-human village only four months ago made me realize, once again, how severe the threat of the waves really was.
“Raphtalia, big sis, how far do you want to go?”
“Just to that cliff that overlooks the sea.”
“Okay!”
The carriage rattled over the uneven remains of the road, and I looked out on the village that Raphtalia had been raised in.
We made it to the cliff by the sea, and Raphtalia climbed down from the carriage.
At the lip of the cliff stood a pile of stacked stones. I suddenly realized I was looking at a grave.
She knelt down next to them and started to dig another spot to the side. I didn’t say anything, but I knelt too and helped her dig.
I had no idea what she was doing.
When we were on the run, we met the nobleman that had kidnapped and tortured Raphtalia, and there had been corpses in his basement of people from her village.
Maybe she wanted to give them a funeral.
She had taken some of the bones with her when she left. Now she removed them from her bag and put them in ground. She covered them over with dirt and clasped her hands in prayer.
Raphtalia had told me that they were the remains of a child, a friend of hers that had always wanted to meet the Shield Hero.
At least the child could rest here now and not in that dark, damp basement.
Maybe that was just an example of the tyranny of the living.
But even if it was, I prayed that the owner of those bones would find rest and peace here on the cliff by the sea.
. . . .
I realized again—had I forgotten? I realized that Raphtalia had lost her family only four months ago.
She was strong. Stronger, maybe, than I’d realized.
She lost her family, but survived. She told me that she’d had a very trying time before she met me.
When I eventually
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