“Stop turning me into your kid!” she wailed, whapping Sadeena on the head. Raphtalia looked at Shildina with a confused expression for a moment.

“Is that Shildina up there?” she finally said, working it out.

“That’s right,” I confirmed. “We’d been planning to leave her behind, but she got dragged along anyway. After crossing between worlds, she ended up like this.”

“It’s the same as when Raphtalia came here,” L’Arc commented.

“Indeed,” I agreed. “It seems those with an external appearance that relies heavily on their level are turned into one more suited to their age once they cross worlds.”

“That did happen, didn’t it?” Raphtalia recalled.

“I would have liked to see it,” I commented casually.

“Why would you want to see me as a little girl?” Raphtalia questioned.

“Just to remember what it was like when you were smaller. See you and cherish you, that’s all,” I replied.

“You’re not pulling the wool over my eyes. Talking about ‘cherishing’ me is embarrassing too!” she responded. Especially in my more accepting state, I wasn’t about to denounce how cute she had been back then. Of course, I would never consider making a Raphtalia who looked like that into my girlfriend.

“Anyway, it sounds like you’ve had it pretty tough, Naofumi. Raphtalia and I were both very worried about you,” L’Arc said, somewhat evasively, after hearing my explanation of events. When I thought about it, Ethnobalt had come seeking our aid, but we had been in a pretty tricky spot ourselves. Only after resolving that had we been able to come here and offer our aid to this world.

“I’m sure it sounds very cruel to you guys, but they did more than enough to deserve such punishment,” I explained. The idea of leniency because someone was a woman was a mistake. My personal stance was to suspect everything women did, but then that was all thanks to Witch. I hated the idea that just because the alleged victim was a woman, absolutely everything she said had to be true.

“They ran around killing vassal weapon holders, attempted to kill the four holy heroes, and even killed members of the royal families from various nations. They surely got what they deserved,” Glass said with a nod. She seemed to have accepted it.

“Oh? You approve, Glass?” I asked.

“I don’t know what Kizuna would say, but there’s no way to escape from punishment for such a list of crimes. No matter how you attempted to defend them, it would have to be the death penalty. The same goes in this world. Just like those women over there.” Glass looked over at the captive women from the battle. “You have been wanton and selfish, you women. Even Kizuna would never find it in her heart to forgive you for all of this.”

“Glass, my lady, I know that’s true, but still . . .” L’Arc started.

“It is our duty to tackle the waves and protect the peace of this world. Yet they have killed the four holy heroes and disregarded their duties as vassal weapon holders. After all this undisputed damage they have done, you would still forgive them?” Glass rounded on him. “They stole your own vassal weapon!” Based on what Ethnobalt had told me, Glass and everyone here had been in serious trouble. That was probably what made her more sympathetic to understanding what we had been through in our own world.