“Huh? You two want to come along? I’d rather you helped raise the level of everyone in the village,” I said. The ocean was such a great place to raise levels that if they kept on raising levels even while I was away, then we’d be ready for the waves or any other unexpected circumstances.

“Little Naofumi, you know what I want, right? You really think I want to be safe back here while Raphtalia is in danger?” Sadeena questioned. She had a deep connection to Raphtalia’s parents and a strong sense of wanting to protect Raphtalia. Now that Raphtalia had gone off to some other world, she didn’t want to stay behind and wait.

“I have friends I can count on! Little Sasa and little Elmelo!” she said. Right, those two mercenaries. I’d thought I might get along with the panda. So she was planning to leave things to those two?

“You won’t listen even if I try to stop you. Okay, Sadeena, you can come,” I said.

“And me?” Shildina raised her own hand, looking at Sadeena in annoyance.

“You’re staying behind. I need you to train Ruft and everyone else we can trust,” I told her.

“Oh my! No! I don’t want just Sadeena to go!” she said. I wanted to tell her to stop being so selfish, but her appearance belied her age—Shildina wasn’t all that much older than Raphtalia and the others. She also had quite complex feelings about her sister, Sadeena, and so what she perceived as unequal treatment was bound to trigger this response. She had been raised under such pressure. It could be seen as regression to an infantile state, but maybe she was just getting accustomed to the village.

That selfish reaction made me recall my own younger brother. Maybe he had been quite uncomfortable around me too—although when it came to pretty much anything, studying or anything else, he had generally been my superior.

“Shildina . . . just calm down.” Ruft stepped in. “The shield hero is leaving the village in your care. Doesn’t that mean he trusts you more than Sadeena?” This was interesting. Ruft placed his hand on her shoulder as he talked her down.

“Oh my . . .” It seemed to be working. Ruft was pretty good at managing her.

“Oh my! Do you really think so?” Sadeena chimed in. Just when I needed her to shut up!

“Dafu!” Raph-chan II moved over and climbed onto Ruft’s shoulder. Shildina immediately leapt up and moved to hide behind me. I really wished she would get over this by now.

“Dafu, dafu, dafu!” As though berating her for being selfish, Raph-chan II was pointing at Shildina and squeaking.

“Okay,” Shildina finally said. “I’ll help everyone here and wait for sweet Naofumi to come back.”

“That would be perfect,” I told her.

“But we need to have lots of fun once you return,” she confirmed.

“Sure, sure,” I said. In that moment, some kind of light flickered around Shildina. I wondered what it was. It appeared to be some light leaking from the anchor accessory Ethnobalt held. I blinked a few times and couldn’t see it anymore, so maybe I was just imagining things.