The lumo slave shrunk away, his voice strained as if he were about to cry. I guess I couldn’t blame him, being a slave and all.

“I’m not interested in that kind of thing. If it’s a beating you want, then ask someone else.”

“Huh?”

Okay, now he was starting to get on my nerves.

“I’ll leave you some medicine, so treat their wounds. After that, go ahead and take care of the slave registration.”

“I look forward to seeing how the Shield Hero makes use of the slaves. So very exciting! Yes sir!”

“Enough with that, already! I have to take care of some other preparations in the meantime, and then I’ll be back. Don’t let me down.”

“Heh heh heh . . . Exciting times ahead. Yes sir.”

I left things in the slave trader’s hands and headed back toward the entrance of the tent with Raphtalia in tow. Filo caught sight of me and came running over.

“Finiiiished?”

“Yeah. Still some formalities that need to be taken care of, but we have other things to see to while that gets done.”

I stepped out of the tent. I still had plenty of other places to stop by, after all.

Chapter Three: Acquaintances

We threw our cloaks back on and roamed the town a bit, observing. The damages really had been severe. The scars left by the Spirit Tortoise ran deep, and countless signs of the onslaught of its familiars still remained.

Shortly after, we arrived at the shop that we had been headed for. Oh, thank goodness . . . The shop hadn’t suffered any noticeable damage and was open for business as usual. I stepped into the old guy’s weapon shop.

“Welcome!”

“Glad to see you’re okay.”

“That voice . . . Is that you, kid?!”

I doffed my hood and greeted the old guy. He seemed to be in one piece—not a single scratch to show, thankfully.

“Why are you wearing a cloak?”

“Don’t want to stand out.”

“Ah, that’s right. You’re an overnight sensation, kid.”

That was the real problem. I was no Itsuki, but the happy greetings . . . “Shield Hero!” just gave me the creeps. I suppose I could have basked in feelings of superiority, but being well loved by the riffraff of this country wasn’t really something to be proud of. Not to mention, I had way too many things I needed to take care of now. I didn’t have time to waste on meaningless affairs.

“People tagging along in droves would only cause trouble, right?”

I replied to the old guy while giving the inside of the shop a look-over.

“Doesn’t seem to be any damage of note from what I can see.”

“Yeah, not really. I chased off any monsters that showed up here.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“I guess I had you all wrong. Here I thought you looked disappointed or something when you showed up.”

“You’re so full of it.”

The old guy had done so much for me, but we still went back and forth like this.