I noticed that the Energy Blast special effect was at zero percent now. The other stats had fallen a bit, too. It was as if the shield was saying it had served its purpose and its work was done.

“Well then, I suppose we should check up on things here.”

“Agreed, Mr. Naofumi.”

That was Raphtalia.

Raphtalia was a demi-human girl and former slave that had been fighting by my side for so long that I recognized her voice instantly without having to turn around. Even though I considered myself something of a surrogate parent to her, it wasn’t uncommon for me to be the one relying on her in certain situations these days.

She had been chosen by the katana of the vassal weapons to be its owner in the other world, which meant that she could no longer be a slave. She possessed a beauty that felt Japanese somehow, and miko clothes suited her strangely well. Maybe it was because of her tanuki-like ears and tail?

“Alright then, let’s see how long until the next wave.”

I glanced over at the hourglass numbers that hovered in my field of vision. I could see . . . the red hourglass numbers had come to a halt. I also noticed that the blue hourglass icon had become active.

Was that an 8?

I was pretty sure I remembered Ost saying something about a delay before the next guardian beast appeared.

The Phoenix, was it?

That made sense. The blue hourglass was showing how much time we had left before the Phoenix’s seal was broken. It looked like we had around three and a half months before the seal would be broken. Only three and a half months after a battle that intense? Or maybe, should I have been happy that we even had that long?

“Looks like we have three and a half months until the seal is broken on the next guardian beast.”

“Oh . . . I see. Seems like we have less time than expected.”

“Not necessarily. Compared to how it’s been up until now, that should be plenty of time.”

The first wave came one month after I’d been summoned here. The next was a month and a half later. Pretty much right after that was the whole Church of the Three Heroes mess, meeting the other heroes to exchange information, the wave at the Cal Mira islands, and then the Spirit Tortoise incident.

The next Melromarc wave would have been right around the corner, which means . . . it had been right around four months since I’d first arrived in this world.

“That’s just about the same amount of time I’ve been in this world, combined with the month spent fighting in Kizuna’s world.”

“Reeaallyyy?”

“Considering how old you are, Filo, three and a half months should be more than enough.”

Filo was a young girl who was actually a type of monster called a filolial. Filolials were strange bird-like monsters that delighted in nothing more than pulling carriages, but Filo was a certain type of filolial that was considered superior among their kind, and she had the ability to transform into what looked like an angel. If she kept her mouth shut, you might think she was just a cute little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.