“Hmmm . . . and we’re going to have to fight them at some point, right? We should consider the harpoon vassal weapon holder as our next enemy,” I said. If our enemies were at work in this world, that should help draw them out. The one with the harpoon was likely the one who killed the holy heroes too. We’d need to try talking to them, but we should also probably presume that they are a vanguard of the waves—until proven otherwise.

“Still . . .” L’Arc muttered with one hand on his chin, looking me up and down.

“What?” I asked.

“Just never thought you’d get picked by the mirror vassal weapon, kiddo,” L’Arc responded.

“Hey, same here. It’s probably just a temporary thing, seeing as I can’t use the shield,” I said.

“The bow kiddo has the musical instrument too, so who knows what might happen next? There’s still so much stuff going on that we don’t know about,” L’Arc replied.

“Itsuki can play better than Miyaji could, so I think he’s well suited to the musical instrument. The book seems to suit Ethnobalt too,” I said.

“It even looked like the vassal weapons were fighting over you, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia commented. I nodded. I wouldn’t say they had been waiting for the right moment, but both vassal weapons had come pushing into me.

“I guess the book weapon felt indebted to you after the whole Kyo incident, kiddo. We had no idea where it was though,” L’Arc said. I remembered the two spirits circling around in the shield spirit world. Maybe it had been hiding close to me in order to avoid more people like Kyo, Miyaji, and the other vanguards of the waves. The mirror holder had been pretty suspicious too, so maybe being liberated from that situation also created some goodwill toward me.

“Still, now I’ve got a mirror,” I said. It looked like I could handle it much like a shield. Easy enough to use, but I would have liked some attack capabilities. It didn’t look like I could use Iron Maiden.

“If the choice was between the book and the mirror, I think the mirror suits you the best,” Raphtalia said, nodding to herself.

“Why do you say that? You think I’m some kind of narcissist?” I said.