The rest of the fight was completely one-sided, and we captured a ton of the slave hunters. The boss that Raphtalia had defeated was still alive, although just barely. I thought they had killed him, but apparently they stopped just short of it.

“You’re not going to finish him?”

“No . . .”

Raphtalia and the others apparently wanted to hand him over to the authorities and have him punished.

“Now then . . .”

I looked at the hordes of slave hunters tied up and scattered all across the village square. To think they had rounded up and brought so many . . . and the whole lot of them were lowlife trash.

“Damn! They’re monsters!” yelled one of the slave hunters.

“You told us we would be able to handle them regardless of their level advantage!”

The slave hunter subordinates were spouting off begrudging complaints at their leaders. That’s a lowlife for you—blaming it on his superiors when he fails.

“That’s just too bad for you, scumbags. You want the heroes to protect your world? Well, this is part of that.”

“Hmph . . .”

“We won . . . Everybody! We won!”

Keel and the rest of the slaves from the village let out a big hurrah in celebration of our victory. Imiya and some kid, who seemed to like monsters, looked like they were getting in on the celebration as well. It didn’t matter if they were originally from the village or not—they’d all experienced a similar kind of trauma. Their victory against the vile slave hunters would be good for them.

“Yes, we won. I think that this time, for sure . . . we took back the flag we lost that day,” whispered Raphtalia, while gripping her katana firmly and staring off into the distance.

“Flag, huh? You really want a flag that bad?”

“That’s not what I meant . . .”

“Raphtalia, this flag . . .”

Eclair interrupted before I could finish, speaking to Raphtalia with a remorseful look on her face.

“I’m sorry. This should have never happened while I was here . . .”

“Don’t worry about it, Eclair. But tell me, do you know if there was a flag flying in this village?”

“Huh? Umm, yes, it was a flag presented as a gift to the village by my father.”

Aha, so that’s the flag that Raphtalia had been talking about.

“Eclair, why don’t you fly that flag again as a reward for their victory?” I suggested.

“Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia exclaimed in surprise.

“All of the hard work that everyone has put in since coming back has finally paid off. Raphtalia, this is a new beginning for your village, is it not?”

Raphtalia closed her eyes for a moment as if she were reminiscing about the past, and then she opened them again and nodded.

“You’re right. I’d like that.”