Chapter 96  : Being Companions to The Hero of The Bow

I returned to the main island on boat by the afternoon.

……I pray that Raphtalia isn’t angry.

As I pray and walk back to the hotel, I see that as usual, Firo is waiting for me at the front.

Again?……While thinking that, I notice Itsuki sitting nearby with a fed up expression.

Firo:”Hey, come on, heeey. Why? Whyy?. Come on”

Itsuki:”No……I am-”

Firo:””I am” isn’t an answer. Tell me. Hey, come on, heeey.”

So, contrary to my expectations, instead of Rapthalia, Firo is constantly inquiring Itsuki about something.

What is it? I have no idea what is going on.

Itsuki:”Ah, Naofumi-san!”

When Itsuki see me, he approaches with Firo is still clinging to him, and points at her.

Itsuki:”Please hurry up and take this child back. Ever since I got back here, she has not stopped barraging me with questions.”

Firo:”It would be bad to leave since master told me to stay with you all the way while he wasn’t here right? Anyway, tell me the real reason, Hey, come on, heeey. Why won’t you tell me?”

Firo is extremely curious about something and continues barraging Itsuki with questions.

This is the first time I’ve seen Firo like this.

Naofumi:”Errr, did Raphtalia tell you to pester him?”

Firo:”NNn~ It’s different. Firo just wants to know. Though after that, Raphtalia onee-chan got mad.”

Naofumi:”……So it happened after all.”

I expected this after seeing Itsuki’s party.

The leader of Armour and them is Itsuki after all. Every action follows his code of justice.

Itsuki:”This girl did more than that other one who left half-way, but she keeps bothering me with the same question.”

Firo:”Come on, tell me. Heeeeey”

Armour:”This bird! To think you have the nerve to annoy Itsuki-sama.”

Firo:”Hm~? You want to play with Firo?”

Itsuki:”Stop it. She is not someone you can easily beat, she is the companion of a hero afterall. So you shouldn’t be fighting.”

Itsuki warns the flashy Armour who is about to go berserk.

Well, to be honest, it’s pretty obvious that the end result would be Firo toying with Armour.

In the worse case, we would be seeing dirty fireworks being launched. I guess Itsuki would also know what would happen to Armour if he got kicked by Firo as well.

Naofumi:”I’ll warn you now. What did you do to Raphtalia?”

She got angry, even after I warned her to turn a blind eye to his sense of justice.

Though, Raphtalia shouldn’t have snapped over something like that.

I’m not saying Raphtalia is at fault, maybe she just lacks some patience.

Even so, regardless of what Raphtalia may or may not have done, I won’t hold back venting on his group.

Since Armour and his buddies have boycotted me wonderfully.

Naofumi:”Also, make sure you manage your companions a little better. The only one who fought seriously to the end was Rishia.”

Armour:”Th-That’s not it! We just couldn’t fight well together with the Hero of the Shield-san.”

Naofumi:”No matter how you word it, it’s the same thing.”

Itsuki:”It’s the same here! What is with your companions?!”

……Oh my, it seems that we have an unproductive and mutual dispute with each other on our hands.

Frankly, I’m getting tired of dealing with Armour.

Naofumi:”For the time being, let’s not try to decide who is in the wrong. Since we are both calling each other’s companions terrible.”

Itsuki:”……Fine. then it’s over, but I request your help…… without you, it seems that stopping Firo-san is impossible.”

That’s quite rare, since he is the Itsuki with an unusually strong sense of justice.

Is Firo’s question that hard to answer?

Itsuki:”This matter is merely on hold. We will meet and talk about this tonight.”

Naofumi:”We’ll talk then. Since your companions were terrible as well.”

It seems that the situation is too tense to exchange information.

I just pray that I won’t be blamed for this situation by the other heroes.

Firo:”Heeeey, He still hasn’t told me yet.”

Naofumi:”Firo, give it up. No matter how much you ask that guy, he won’t answer.”

Firo:”Muu-……”

Really……It seems Firo really wants to know……

I’m quite worried about what happened.

Naofumi:”So? Where is Rapthalia?”

Firo:”Over there.”

Firo points to the same location as before.

Haah……Good grief. Is it my fault that all the heroes are causing problems?

Just like before, as Raphtalia was waiting for me, her tail is all puffed up.

Naofumi:”I’m back.”

Raphtalia:”Naofumi-sama!”

As soon as Raphtalia hears my voice, she starts running to me.

Naofumi:”……What in the world happened?”

Raphtalia:”Actually–”

I don’t really want to hear it, but Raphtalia began talking about the staff exchange with Itsuki.

While feeling uneasy, Raphtalia was waiting for Itsuki.

Firo:”Who is it today?”

Raphtalia:”It’s going to be the Hero of the Bow, Itsuki-sama.”

Firo:”Heeh-…… That person with the strange hair is coming.”

Rapthalia:”Seems like it.”

It seems in consideration for me, she decided that she would try not to get mad at Itsuki and endure it.

Itsuki came later than Ren, but earlier than Motoyasu.

There was an audible door knock.

Raphtalia:”Go ahead.”

Itsuki:”Excuse me.”

After knocking on the door politely, Itsuki entered the room.

Itsuki:’I am the Hero of the Bow, Kawasumi Itsuki. My best regards for these next two days.”

Raphtalia:”Yes, and my name is Raphtalia. Please teach us well, Hero of the Bow-sama.”

Firo:”Firo.”

The self-introductions ended simply.

At that time, out of all the heroes, she had the best impression from his politeness.

It’s like she is saying I’m bad.

……Am I actually? Though I was rarely ever courteous, since I would have been taken advantage of.

Itsuki:”Shall we go level up at once?”

Raphtalia:”Yes, preparations are already done.”

Firo:”Yeah! Let’s go-”

Thus, Raphtalia departed with Itsuki.

It seems that before arriving at the hunting grounds, Itsuki had a meeting with Raphtalia regarding the methods they would use to fight.

Well, since time travelling is wasted anyway.

Raphtalia and Firo explained the characteristics of their finishers, and their levels, while also explaining what types of demons they have fought on the island.

Itsuki wanted to gather a large quantity of demons in one area. then he would special skills to defeat them.

That was it. It seems that besides me, Raphtalia found that Itsuki was a hero worthy of respect.

There were also some stories about his strong sense of justice too, but that should be natural for heroes.

She said that, it didn’t take to too long to discover how big of a mistake that was.

Itsuki:”Alright, Raphtalia-san, you guys can do quite a lot, so we should be able to go quite far.”

Raphtalia:”Okay!”

And so, they advanced towards the middle of the island.

Itsuki:”I found a demon. I’ll pull it so get ready to fight!”

Raphtalia:”Eh?”

Itsuki nocked his bow and shot an arrow at a demon that was quite far away.

The arrow hit the demon right-on, and it started approaching, but……

Adventurer:”Wha?”

An adventurer who was trying to fight the demon watched it go with an astonished expression.

Adventurer:”Ummm……”

Itsuki:”Do you have a problem? Didn’t we take the first attack?”

As a matter of fact Itsuki answered what Raphtalia and the adventurer have been thinking.

The rules weren’t broken, but it’s still quite provoking.

This behaviour is called “Mobbing” in net games. Whether it’s acceptable or inacceptable depends on the game, so I can’t make any sweeping statements, speaking of which, wasn’t Itsuki under the impression that this was a console game world?

Well, it’s not something worth worrying about. Or can he still not tell the difference between this and a game?

Adventurer:”Nevermind……”

It’s not a violation of the rules. However, while they were thinking of it, the demon approached and Rapthalia attacked it with her sword.

Since it was a weak demon, it was easily killed.

Firo also slaughtered the demons that Itsuki attracted with his bow in one shot.

Though, Raphtalia felt that Itsuki’s attacks unexpectedly lacked power.

The time he attacked was little as well……

By the way, I didn’t know, but it seems Itsuki’s quiver endlessly produces arrows for his bow, the arrows appear simply by tightening his grip on the bow.

While deep in though, they kept advancing.

Wherever they went, Itsuki would do a preemptive attack on the demons that any adventurers were trying to go for.

Raphtalia:”Umm, Itsuki-sama……Could you please not perform those actions against the demons adventurers want to fight?”

Itsuki:”What are you saying? It’s the law that we can kill it since we attacked first. Even the lord of this island said that there are too many demons and it’s troubling, so we are fighting any demons we come across.”

Raphtalia:”But……”

Itsuki:”A demon is coming. Please fight.”

Raphtalia felt that something was off.

And then, while Rapthalia was in the middle of thinking.

She felt that Itsuki’s attack power and the times he attacks is very little.

Raphtalia learnt Itsuki’s level earlier. Since 75 was quite high Raphtalia decided to trust him.

Compared to Motoyasu and Ren, that attack power was too low.

While approaching the center of the island her convictions changed to doubt.

Demons called Karma Squirrel Familiar appeared.

They were attacked by a group of small black demon squirrels.

They were hard to fight due to their quick attacks and numbers. Raphtalia and Firo both fought, but it seems that these demons have a habit of calling their companions.

For any one that got knocked down, another one take its place.

Furthermore, the reinforcements weren’t just from the same family, they also called in high level demons like the Magenta Frog.

Raphtalia:”Itsuki-sama! Hurry up……use your area of effect attacks.”

Itsuki:”Understood! Please wait a second! Arrow Shower!”

Itsuki aims his bow to the sky and shoots an arrow.

The arrow flew up and started multiplying itself, and rained down…….But it wasn’t enough to defeat the Karma Squirrel Familiars.

Raphtalia:”Tei!”

It couldn’t be helped due to low attack power.

While following Itsuki’s strategy, Raphtalia continued to exert herself and fight.

“Firo is the origin of power. Firo has read and deciphered a law of nature. Blow them all away with a raging tornado!”

“Tzuvait ?Tornado!”

With perfect timing, Firo sends a bunch of demons flying.

Though, the disadvantage due to numbers is still prevalent. Raphtalia expected that if I had been there to trap all the demons in a prison, she could have blown them all away with magic.

At the time, Raphtalia was about to receive a serious attack from a demon when—-

Itsuki:” Falcon ?Strike!”

At that moment, Itsuki fired off an arrow that turned into a bird of flame and instantly destroyed the demon that was about to attack Raphtalia.

Furthermore.

Itsuki:”Fire Arrow Squall!”

Arrows of flame started pouring around the vicinity, and all the demons were wiped out.

Itsuki:”Are you alright?”

Raphtalia:”Y-yes…….”

While looking at Itsuki with a skeptical gaze, Raphtalia looked around at the demon corpses.

In that instant, Raphtalia was ashamed to admit she thought Itsuki was cool.

Why? I think, at that moment he should have been naturally cool.

Raphtalia:”I was saved.”

Itsuki:”That’s good.”

Firo:”……Hey”

Firo pecked Itsuki’s back with her beak.

Itsuki then turned around to look at Firo.

And Firo asks Itsuki with a face full doubt.

Firo:”Hey, why did you hold back your power?”