Welcome

"Well, well, if it isn't the Hero. Welcome, welcome!"

"Don't answer exactly as I'd imagine."

After the incident with Motoyasu, we headed to the Slave Merchant's place.

"What brings you here today?"

"More importantly..."

I was curious about how well-off the Slave Merchant looked.

Even his subordinates had similarly... extravagant decorations that gave off the impression of being flush with money.

"You seem oddly well-off."

"It's thanks to the Hero. Yes."

"Huh?"

"It's because the Hero has been out peddling that we've been able to profit as well."

"What do you mean?"

Several possible reasons came to mind, but I lacked the decisive detail.

"First, there's the reputation of the Filolial Queen. Nobles who are collectors come asking how on earth one can obtain such a monster. Yes."

Ah, so by having Filo pull our cart, our reputation went up. She was certainly a rare monster, and anyone who looked into where to get one would end up at the Slave Merchant's door. Several nobles had already offered to buy her from me.

I couldn't just sell her off casually, and mainly, if Filo were sold, she'd probably go berserk.

"After that, it's just using my silver tongue to get you to purchase all sorts of monsters. Yes."

"You're something else, you know that."

The conditions for becoming a Filolial Queen were currently unknown. If she could become one, there was no way I could sell her easily.

If a Hero raised one, would it become a Queen?

Filo alone was already a handful — I didn't even want to think about having two.

"Next, after seeing the Hero's slave, rumors spread that the slaves at my establishment are high quality, so I've been able to profit from that too. Yes."

This time it was Raphtalia...

Raphtalia was indeed a beautiful girl — at least by my standards — with well-proportioned features and figure.

Once people learned where I'd gotten that slave, anyone using slaves would consider me trustworthy.

So I'd inadvertently played a part in boosting the Slave Merchant's reputation.

"So, what can I do for you today? Slaves? Or help with a Filolial experiment?"

The Slave Merchant rubbed his hands together as he probed my mood.

"No, this time I came because I have business with you, the monster merchant."

"Then it must be a Filolial experiment."

"Wrong."

Was there really nothing in this guy's head but those two options?

"Then, what is it?"

"Well, I was wondering if I could buy some equipment for Filo here."

"Equipment... I can certainly prepare that."

The Slave Merchant turned his gaze toward Filo.

Filo, who'd been humming happily in human form, shrunk behind me as soon as the Slave Merchant looked at her.

She really didn't like him, huh.

"For weapons, there would be charging horns or horseshoes, I suppose. For armor, we have Filolial-specific plates, but..."

Given Filo's body shape, standard armor wouldn't work. Custom-made wasn't impossible, but since she transformed, she'd need to change armor every time.

"What's a charging horn?"

"It's a helmet you attach to the head. Used during a charge."

"Ooh..."

Horseshoes — those went on horses' hooves, if I remembered right.

"There are also claws."

"Filo, what do you want?"

"Huh?"

The girl had been so scared of the Slave Merchant she hadn't been listening?

"A helmet for your head, something like boots for your feet, and armor."

"Umm... Filo transforms, so stuff that digs into my meat when I change shapes is a no-go..."

Oh, so the Tailor Shop's threat was still working on her.

That meant the charging horn wouldn't be a problem in monster form but would be too heavy in human form. Horseshoes would dig in, and armor wouldn't fit.

I could go to the Magic Shop and ask if they could make that thread-like stuff out of metal plates, but that sounded incredibly expensive.

And the defensive power would probably be negligible.

"For ease of putting on and taking off, claws would be best. Yes."

"Just that, then? Filo."

"Okay."

"I'll need to take measurements, so could you please transform back into your monster form? Yes."

"R-right."

"Got it~!"

With a poof, Filo reverted to her monster form and stuck out her foot.

The Slave Merchant's subordinate measured Filo's foot.

"Hmm... quite a bit larger than the Filolial average."

"Don't think you can have them ready immediately?"

"Well, I believe we might just have a size in stock. Iron for the material, would that be acceptable?"

In situations like this, what was the standard for expected attack power?

Was hardness the key? Sharpness?

"I've got some gold to spare, so I want good ones."

"Understood. Then magical iron would be the best I can currently provide."

"How much, by the way?"

"As a special courtesy to the Hero, I'd like to offer them at half the market price — five Gold Coins."

"Can I negotiate further?"

"The Hero's greed gives me shivers. Very well, let's settle on four."

"Deal. And throw in a good set of reins while you're at it."

"I'll sell them to you!"

The Slave Merchant was way too enthusiastic. He was easy to deal with, but I also had a nagging sense he was using me.

In that sense, he was a scary businessman.

Large claws were brought out from the back of the tent.

They were metal claws that looked just the right size to fit Filo's feet. Nice find.

"How'd you even have something this big?"

"These are Wyvern Claws. We have even bigger sizes available."

They were out of Filolial-specific ones, then?

"I'm going to wear these?"

"Yep. These are your weapons."

Filo placed her foot on the claws set on the ground.

"Perfect fit, it seems."

"Looks like it."

All that was left was to tie the claws to her feet with the straps.

Filo raised one foot, testing the feel of the newly equipped claws.

"This feels weird~"

"Get used to it. Once you do, you can expect an even greater boost in attack power."

Filo's leg-based attacks were already powerful. An increase meant...

The image of Filo kicking Motoyasu flashed through my mind.

Next time, if Filo kicked someone with these claws, she'd probably tear them apart.

"Filo, when you kick someone with a spear next time, don't use the claws."

"Why not?"

"Because at that point, it won't just be a crushed crotch we're talking about."

I was a Hero, technically. If I killed someone, who knew what would happen. It felt a bit late to worry about it now, though.

Motoyasu probably couldn't even complain about having his crotch kicked by my subordinate.

All his motivations boiled down to wanting girls to like him.

He probably couldn't bring himself to do something as uncool as siccing the Trash King on me.

"Hmm."

Filo was focused on her new claws, only half-listening.

Was she even paying attention?

Well... whatever happened to Motoyasu was his own problem.

I handed four Gold Coins to the Slave Merchant.

"I don't need armor after all~"

Since the claws fit, it seemed Filo had decided armor was unnecessary.

Well, I hadn't planned on buying any, so that was fine.

"Now, next is..."

Let's see, there was something else I needed here, right?

The whole Motoyasu incident had blown it out of my head.

Right, Raphtalia and Filo had...

Ah, I remembered.

"Hey, Slave Merchant. Can your place arrange a Class Up or something?"

"A Class Up?"

"Yeah. The Trash King here won't approve the Class Up for my subordinates, and I'm stuck. I heard you have slaves over level forty — I was wondering if you had some kind of introduction letter or referral."

My request made the Slave Merchant pause, touching his chin in thought.

"It's extremely regrettable that I cannot fulfill the Hero's request. We do not have any introduction letters."

"I see..."

So that slave hadn't used the Slave Merchant's connections for the Class Up after all.

"For a Class Up, you'd need to earn the trust of a neighboring country, and then you can do it at a Dragon Hourglass in that nation."

"What?"

Wait a moment — the Dragon Hourglass wasn't exclusive to this country?

"Other countries have them too?"

"Yes, but earning their trust would take an enormous amount of time..."

For me, who wanted to level up quickly, that time was incredibly precious.

Would the neighboring countries' reputations of the Shield Hero precede me?

If they did, this would be difficult.

"The ones you could manage would be Zeltoble, the mercenaries' country, Siltvelt, the Demi-humans' country, and Shieldfreeden. Yes."

"There are that many?"

"Yes. My recommendations for the Hero would be Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden. You could probably get a Free Pass there."

"Hmm... how long would it take to get there?"

"A month by carriage, or two weeks by ship, to each."

The Slave Merchant brought out a map and showed me the routes.

Sure enough, calculating backward from the average daily travel distance in Melromarc, these places were quite far.

If Filo carried us, we might just barely make it in two weeks and change.

Best to budget three weeks to be safe.

Two weeks by ship was tempting, but being unable to do anything during that time was rough.

"A Wyvern would get you there faster, but given the Hero's usual means of travel, this is about right."

"That's far..."

But if I was thinking about boosting our combat strength, I had to go.

Factoring in monster materials and shields unavailable in this country along the way, it might not be so bad.

The downside was that I'd fall behind the others, but if Raphtalia and Filo didn't grow, there'd be no point staying here.

It was essentially decided then — we'd be heading to the Demi-human country.

"After the Wave is over, we'll go."

Seriously, that Trash King was way too passionate about making my life difficult.

"Thanks for everything."

"If you feel that way, then by all means—"

"Oh, I refuse. Right. Can humans be sold here?"

When we'd defeated those bandits, I'd briefly considered selling them as slaves, but it was too much trouble so I'd dropped it.

"Humans can't be sold in this country. If you go deeper, there are buyers, but they demand higher quality and take on more risk."

I see — in this country, the safe option was Demi-humans. Another supremacist human nation, huh.

"Got it. See ya."

And so we left the Slave Merchant's tent. Filo reverted to human form, bundled up her discarded claws with straps, and carried them along.

Raphtalia had been quiet throughout, barely participating in the conversation with the Slave Merchant.

Well, I wouldn't have wanted her butting in on business negotiations, but I had to admire her for being so thoughtful.

"Next up is Raphtalia's turn."

"Huh?"

"Holy Water. They sell it at the church, right?"

"Oh, yes."

"At the end of the day, Raphtalia is a girl too, so that dark bruise has gotta be a problem for you."

"Well... if Naofumi is concerned about it..."

Raphtalia mumbled shyly.

"Well, anyone would be concerned. I'm the one who caused it."

"In that sense... no, it's nothing."

Raphtalia had a habit of saying cryptic things sometimes.

Well, either way, our next destination was decided.