“Well, maybe. You have defeated one of the enemies. But, Mr. Naofumi, what happened with the Whip Hero? The queen was badly injured with you, wasn’t she?” Raphtalia asked. I looked away at her question, falling silent. Realizing what that meant, Raphtalia also looked down.

“I barely survived myself, mainly due to my own vitality and the power of the Shield Spirit,” I eventually said.

“I see,” Raphtalia responded, subdued.

“Regarding the Whip Hero, Takt . . . Trash took over after the queen died, you see, and awoke again as the so-called Wisest King of Wisdom. Takt decided he wanted to take over the world, but Trash put a stop to his plans and achieved victory for Melromarc,” I explained.

“Are we talking about the same king? I can hardly imagine it.” Raphtalia only knew the old Trash, after all. It wasn’t surprising she couldn’t conceive of the change in him.

“I’d only heard the rumors myself, but he really is something else,” Sadeena confirmed.

“I concur. He put up a fight more than worthy of the title of Wisest King of Wisdom,” Itsuki intoned. Of course, Itsuki and Rishia had fought alongside Trash’s forces. That meant they probably had an even better idea of what he was capable of. Itsuki went on. “I just fought, doing as I was instructed, but before I even realized it, the Faubrey forces had been wiped out.”

“I can vouch for that. It really was so fast,” Rishia added, backing up Itsuki’s words with a nod. They had just been following orders, so of course they hadn’t seen the whole picture. I’d personally been off bringing down Takt, so I hadn’t been part of the main battle either.

“I’m sure the departed queen would be most happy with the outcome,” Raphtalia said. “But the king hasn’t changed his name back yet?”

“He seems to have accepted the name ‘Trash’ now. He told me not to change it,” I replied.

“That’s a little sad, isn’t it?” she commented. Don’t look at me! I thought it was crazy too.

“It was so impressive, seriously. He’s so charismatic. ‘Trash’ doesn’t suit him at all. He led the coalition army, with inferior numbers and strength, and drove off Takt’s Faubrey army,” I said. I had called him Aultcray, and he’d given me a sharp look until I took it back and called him “Trash” again. I still wasn’t sure why it had upset him so much. “I also took part in Trash’s operation, and repaid Takt as viciously as I could.”

“Viciously? Repaid? That doesn’t sound especially pleasant,” Raphtalia commented, furrowing her brow. I proceeded to explain the course of events that led to Takt’s defeat. After borrowing the staff from Trash, I had used my stats boosted by the support magic All Liberation Aura X to completely overwhelm him. I had become so much stronger than him it had been hard to hold anything back, and so I’d ended up letting him also take the staff and then worked together with Fohl to kick the crap out of him. As a result, I not only got my shield back but also liberated all the seven star weapons. After stripping poor Takt of everything—his pride, his arrogance—I’d captured him.