"So... time to reap the rewards?" I rubbed my hands together, surveying the area.
After the Wave ended, the flying ship finally crashed, breaking apart into a shower of splinters.
While the Fabulous Trio were still lying unconscious, I did a quick lap around and fed the Scythe everything it was even remotely willing to absorb. Among the more interesting finds were several tree-themed Scythe variations, like: Spirit Tree Scythe, Pith Scythe (no clue what that is), Deadwood Scythe, Blackwood Scythe, and others in a similar vein.
Most of them provided various passive bonuses, many of which boosted Spirit or Mana. The Deadwood Scythe, for example, gave me Psychic Resistance (Lv. 1), which later leveled up to 2 after I absorbed a few more materials.
There was also a Shadow Scythe, but I couldn't unlock it due to some missing prerequisite skills — which was interesting in itself. I'd clearly missed quite a few Scythe variations, no doubt, but still... Up until now, I'd been pretty confident that I'd fed the Scythe a decent range of materials — but that confidence was starting to waver.
The most noteworthy, though, was probably the Soul Devourer Scythe, which gave the biggest boosts to Resistances and Spirit. But the real prize — I finally unlocked a new skill!
Phantom Hands — a semi-passive skill that, as the name not-so-subtly suggests, lets me create phantom hands reaching out from somewhere behind my back in whatever direction I want. Multiple hands. Or just one — user's choice.
At level one, the skill wasn't exactly useful in combat, but as a sort of everyday telekinesis stand-in? Not bad at all. Here's hoping it gets a lot more effective as it levels up.
Soul Devourer also gave me quite the "head-scratcher" moment. Took me a while to realize that in order to actually hit intangible creatures, I needed to coat my limb in mana. Otherwise, my hand would just phase right through their bodies. Gotta remember that one for later.
Once the loot had been fairly split between me and Naofumi, the villagers finally started reappearing on the horizon — returning to their homes and assessing the damage. Which, honestly, was minimal.
Naofumi, being the Shield Guy, had done exactly what he was supposed to — protect people — backed by Raphtalia, Filo, me, Night, and even the somewhat weak but still helpful Melromarc knights. With that kind of squad, it would've been downright shameful to let monsters run wild. And even though we did end up leaving the village behind at one point, it didn't really matter — we'd cleared out the first and biggest monster surge of the Wave. After that, it was just up to the volunteers and the granny to keep the cleanup pace in sync with the rate of new spawns.
"I can already feel the meltdown coming when they realize we kept almost all the materials..." Naofumi said, rubbing his eyes with a pained look.
"Do we care, though?" I swung the scythe onto my shoulder and turned toward the villagers walking our way. "They lost, didn't do much of anything — and now they think they have some sort of claim to the rewards? That's idiotic. Then again, what am I even saying..."
"Sigh..." Naofumi let out a long breath. "Alright, guess we can help with rebuilding the village now."
And... Naofumi actually turned and walked off. Just like that — as if me helping out too was a given! Like that was simply how this was going to go!
"Uh... you're not coming?" He must've noticed something was off and looked back at me.
"Should I?" I asked, with a confused tone.
"Um... well..." He scratched the back of his head. "They did help us during the Wave."
…
That kind of answer knocked me out of reality for a solid few seconds. Wait, hold on — was he serious? Like, seriously serious? He was doing this not to boost his reputation or earn brownie points or anything — just because he felt he should? For them?
Yeah... this is about the point where I remembered why I didn't like this guy when I read the original story.
"You do realize you don't owe them a damn thing, right?" A few of the villagers had come a little closer by that point, now just standing there awkwardly, unsure how to approach us.
"Naofumi, you... Ugh..."
In the end, I just sighed, unable to come up with anything better to say. Whatever. I had more important things to deal with than getting into a moral debate with a Japanese college kid. That's basically an older version of a generic anime protagonist!
In the end, I even agreed to help out a little with the minor damage — but only in cases where something needed to be carried. That way, I could earn some totally useless reputation and, more importantly, work on leveling up my new skill — which was the real reason I agreed to it in the first place.
Phantom Hands turned out to be a bit trickier than I initially thought. Controlling multiple hands required a decent amount of concentration, although I got the hang of it fairly quickly — by evening, I'd already pushed the skill to level 3 and was managing three hands pretty well. But that was only for casual, everyday tasks. In battle, most of my attention goes toward, well, fighting, so the number of usable Phantom Hands might drop to one or two.
I didn't really want to leave Wyndia alone for long, but I still decided to stay the night in the village. It'd be good for the girl to get some practice being independent. She can't always be stuck to my side forever...
...right?
In hindsight, that was probably a mistake. I spent the night working on new scythes and casually training with Phantom Hands, using them for small, precise tasks instead of just hauling big stuff around. It was slow, but progress was progress — and that felt good.
What ruined everything, though, was the late morning of the next day.
"...Get the Heroes and their companions out of here — we're sending them straight to the hospital!"
It was already nearing noon by the time the troops from Melromarc finally showed up — supposedly dispatched to "deal with the Wave." I had no words for this.
Apparently, none of the "Heroes" had bothered to read the most basic system guide, which very clearly included a section about "Troops" — a mechanic that allowed Heroes to assign a few responsible people who could recruit their own team members without needing to be in the Hero's party directly.
That's exactly what Naofumi had done, by the way — recruiting those same volunteers.
As for me, I skimmed through that guide back in my early days in this world, but didn't find anything that really caught my interest.
Why didn't I use the whole "Troop" system myself? Well... I was lazy. And honestly, it wasn't necessary at this level of Wave difficulty. Plus, that's what Naofumi was for — my designated responsible adult.
"Alright, alright, whatever — take 'em. I've got things to do anyway," Naofumi said, brushing off the Melromarc officer who'd just arrived, already turning to walk away — but...
"Hold it, Shield."
"...Now what?"
"You're going to the castle to file your report."
"Don't wanna. Too much effort."
"I said, you're going!" The guy said it with the exact tone of a teacher scolding a sulky kindergartener — except way more commanding.
I could already tell what Naofumi was thinking and exactly what he wanted to say. The only thing stopping him from voicing his inner monologue was Raphtalia, standing a little unsteady next to him. But me? I'd have backed him up in a heartbeat.
And then... something happened that seriously tanked my mood. The only thing keeping me remotely sane at that point was Night, who stood beside me looking as snarky and indifferent as ever.
"Please, Hero of the Shield-sama, don't refuse..."
That voice... came from one of the volunteers. A kid — couldn't have been more than twenty. He ran up to the Shield Guy and gave the most perfectly executed ninety-degree bow I'd ever seen.
"Sigh..." Naofumi turned his head, looked at me with a mildly surprised expression, scratching his head. "Alright, I'll go. I owe you guys at least that much." Then he glanced at me — like he was asking for some kind of confirmation or approval.
And that's when I mentally checked out. The whole situation was so absurd that I couldn't even come up with a response. Actually, scratch that — all thoughts just evaporated from my brain right then and there.
"…"
"Nott?"
"Hmph. Scythe Hero... Since you've decided to grace us with your presence, you're required to report to the king as well. His Majesty has quite a few questions for you, 'Hero'." That last word — he practically spat it out. And of course, his tone... that same commanding tone again.
That was the final string holding my inner peace together — and it snapped loud and clear. Not even the little bird, who clearly sensed something and looked up at my face, could pull me back from the edge.
"Naofumi, are you... stupid?"
"W-what?"
"I stayed out of it yesterday, but... are you seriously that naïve and spineless?"
"What are you even talking abou—"
But I didn't let him finish. I'd had enough. Way more than enough. Yeah, now I remembered in vivid detail exactly what had annoyed me about him back when I read the original novel.
"'I owe them for their effort'? You? Them? The people who are literally obligated to protect their own citizens? And you think you owe them? Just because you let them do the job they're supposed to be doing anyway?" Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the same volunteer kid who had asked Naofumi to go to the castle — his eyes dropped to the ground in shame.
"You seriously believe you're in debt to people whose lives you freely protect? Whose skins you save — and who, despite all that, were still trashing your name just a week ago?" Now even the villagers listening in lowered their eyes, clearly hearing every word.
"I..." Naofumi was clearly struggling to say something — but nothing coherent came out. And judging by the look on his face, he didn't even realize anything was wrong with what he'd said or done.
I just knew he was about to come up with some excuse for all of this.
"How... disappointing."
"Nott-sama..." Raphtalia looked at me with a conflicted expression, but in the end, she didn't say anything either. She just kept glancing helplessly between me and the Shield.
"Big sis Night, do you get what's going on?" Filo asked my bird, but she only gave the girl a glance — then returned to quietly observing my face.
I was... truly disappointed.
"Enough of this nonsense. You both are going to the king!"
Naofumi didn't say a word. And that, right there, was the final note to this whole ridiculous scene.
"Hey! Don't you dare turn your back on me!" As I turned to walk away from the idiocy, the knight commander… tried to attack me from behind.
"Foolish."
"Khah!" he choked out as he was suddenly lifted into the air — gripped by a dark violet hand around his throat. "A-Att-kh-ack, you idiots!"
And, stunned as they were by the sudden turn of events, the knights actually attacked.
"Ice Shards."
The ground in front of me erupted with jagged ice spikes, tearing through the group and scattering most of them on impact. Their steel armor helped minimize the number of lethal wounds… but didn't eliminate them completely.
[Skill Activated: Life Absorption]
[Specialization Activated: Reaper]
[EXP: 280 (+560)]
One knight's armor couldn't handle the pressure — it cracked, and the ice spike punched right through it.
The rest of them, watching the pool of blood spreading beneath their comrade, went pale — and none of them looked eager to get back on their feet.
"You bastard! Not even your Hero status will protect you now! You'll rot in Melromarc's dungeons!" Their commander, for his part, didn't seem all that torn up about the death of his own soldier.
"Don't worry. I've got some business with you too."
"Wait, Nott!" Naofumi rushed toward me — but seriously, what did he think he was going to do?
"Portal Scythe." A small flash — and in the blink of an eye, I was gone. Along with Night... and the commander still dangling from my hand. Destination: a quiet, out-of-the-way spot in Zeltbull.
"Well then..." The knight looked disoriented by the sudden shift in scenery — but I couldn't care less. "Time for a little experimentation."
"What are you—"
Whisper of Death.
"Shut up."
"…"
The man's eyes went glassy, and the mouth he'd just opened for another angry outburst slowly closed again. Time to learn more about what I could do — and why exactly people around me reacted the way they did.