The Rising of the Scythe Hero

"Oh… I can only marvel at this, truly." The slave trader inspected Filo, clearly puzzled.

"I want answers, trader. And you'd better give them to me…" Naofumi's voice left little room for argument as Filo glared daggers at the sweating man, ready to pounce any second. Good girl! "What kind of eggs did you sell us?"

"O-oh… Of course, of course! Just a moment…"

The man scurried into the depths of his tent, returning a few minutes later looking even more bewildered than before.

"According to all the paperwork, both of you got standard filolial eggs, Hero-sama…"

"You call that a filolial?" Naofumi jabbed a finger at Filo.

"Growing that much in a few days is exactly what one would expect from Hero-sama. My compliments." The trader actually doffed his hat and bowed.

"Cut the flattery. I want real answers. What. Is. That?" Naofumi jabbed his finger at Filo again.

"W-well… Hero-sama, your case truly is unique. I'll need some time to figure out a possible explanation."

By the way, I'd made Naofumi promise not to mention that Night turned human. No need to give the slave trader a heart attack.

In the end, Naofumi and the trader agreed to leave Filo with him for observation. No harm would come to Filo, obviously — as the Shield Guy himself pointed out, he'd already invested a lot in her, and losing all that would suck. Heh, modest as ever…

Sensing trouble, Filo started to get anxious. But with Naofumi nearby, she calmed enough to let them slip a restraining collar on and lock her in a cage. But when Naofumi started walking away… Filo lost her mind.

She thrashed, chirped, slammed into the bars — totally pointless. Her beloved Master was leaving, while Night, her most obvious role model, stayed with me. Guess that comparison triggered what happened next.

"What…"

"What the hell?!"

Voices rang out behind us as the noise from Filo's cage suddenly stopped.

"…ster…" a soft voice came from the cage as we turned around. "Master!" And there, instead of a giant fluffy bird, sat a little blonde girl. Completely naked, by the way. "Master! Please… don't leave me!" She reached her arms toward Naofumi. "See? I can look like this too! Just like sister Night!"

"What the… is that…" It was painful to look at Naofumi. "You too?! What the hell is going on here?"

"Oh?" The slave trader's eyes suddenly sparkled. "You too? Then, may I assume…" His gaze jumped to Night, standing practically glued to me. "This girl next to you, dear Scythe Hero…"

"Yeah. Same deal."

"Incredible!" The guy practically lit up. "I don't understand what this is, but it's simply incredible!"

"Masteeer… Please don't leave me!"

"She's so… clingy." Said… Night. Well, that's unexpected!

"Naofumi-sama… I think… we need to do something." Raphtalia turned to the Shield Guy.

"Uh…" Meanwhile, Naofumi was still trying to process the fact that his mount suddenly turned into a loli. "Yeah… probably…"

As soon as the cage with the loli suddenly popped open, the said loli immediately threw herself into her master's arms.

"Masteeer, it was so sca-a-ary." She looks cute, sure, but that way she drags out her words… God, I'm so glad Night is… well, Night.

"Good girl, little bird." I patted my personal loli-philorial.

"Mmm…" In response, she only pressed herself tighter against my hand. Cuteness overload…

After realizing a small naked girl was hugging him, Naofumi zoned out again. Though, this time they managed to bring him back to reality a lot faster.

"H-hey! Don't cling to Naofumi-sama like that!" Raphtalia rushed to her master's rescue.

"Huh? Big sis Raphtalia?" Filo tilted her head, confused. "But I do-o-on't wanna…"

With some struggle, the raccoon girl still managed to pry the shameless bird off the poor Naofumi. And right after, once the guy finally came to his senses, several urgent decisions were made.

First thing first — get some clothes for the naked *birdie. Which, to be honest, turned out to be a bit of a problem considering it was already evening and the streets were packed with people. The reputation of our brave hero was already scraping the bottom of the barrel, and if folks started seeing him walking around with naked little girls… yeah, no. Though personally? I couldn't care less.

Second — while the search for clothes for the naked loli was ongoing, the slave trader was tasked with digging up everything he could about the whole phenomenon of lolis turning into birds. Though, knowing him, I was pretty sure he'd be all over that even without Naofumi breathing down his neck. Occupational hazard, I guess.

The whole time, I just followed the panicking Shield Guy. What exactly was freaking him out so badly? I already told him about the exact same thing happening with Night. You'd think that would've prepped him at least a little…

As we wandered off to who-knows-where, Filo — wrapped in a ragged old cloak the slave trader tossed us — managed to go "poof" several times, flipping between a giant bird and a human girl. And naturally, the cloak got shredded every time.

Thanks to that lovely little "poof", we got noticed. The looks on the people's faces were priceless… and Naofumi's face? Even better.

We somehow managed to make it to our destination. About halfway there, I'd already figured out where we were heading. Walked this route myself plenty of times.

"Kiddo? Oh, and Scythe kiddo too… Didn't expect to see you two so soon… Huh?"

Poof

Elhart's expression was instantly added to my mental collection as he watched a little girl suddenly morph into a two-meter-tall, round, fluffy bird right on the doorstep of his shop, busting the top of his doorframe in the process.

"Ouch… that huuurts…" the miracle of biology whined.

Poof

And just like that, she was a loli again.

"I'm hungry…"

"Uhhh…" The old man was clearly buffering from the whole scene. "I… still have some lunch left, and…" He cast a weird glance at Naofumi's suffering face. "You know what? I'll grab it… and then we'll figure this whole mess out."

Elhart disappeared into the back of his shop and returned a few minutes later.

"Here. I'll go grab some bowls…" He turned, ready to head back, but…

"Wait!"

"Yay! Thanks for the food!" Filo was already at the counter in the blink of an eye, grabbed the pot, and… just devoured the entire thing in one go. "Ugh… It looked tastier than it actually was…"

"…Kid, you owe me lunch." Elhart's gaze flicked between the smiling Filo, handing him the empty pot, and Naofumi.

"Haaah…" The Shield Guy could only sigh in defeat. "We need clothes for her. Ones that won't rip when she transforms. Got anything like that?"

"Hmm… You need a magic item for that, and that's outside my field. But I know someone who can help you."

"Maste-e-er…"

"Don't even think about transforming!" Naofumi jabbed a finger at Filo.

"I don't wanna-a-a…"

The girl clung to Naofumi's arm, and it was clear this circus was starting to fray his nerves.

"It's already pretty late anyway, so you won't find what you're looking for today. By morning, I'll ask around about your little problem."

"Yeah… Thanks." Naofumi exhaled tiredly.

"No worries. You've got it rough, no doubt." Elhart glanced over Naofumi's shoulder, where Raphtalia and Filo were still trying to settle the age-old debate of "who exactly owns Naofumi". Yeah… "And that girl…" his gaze shifted to Night.

"Yeah, yeah. Same thing." I smiled, answering the question before it even fully formed.

"Hah. Why am I not surprised…" the old guy shook his head. "But you're not having those… problems, I see…" He shot another look at the ongoing Raphtalia-Filo tug-of-war, with Filo stubbornly glued to Naofumi.

"Night's just perfect." I ruffled my bird's hair. "She's my smart little one."

"…"

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Naofumi's half-crazed expression, radiating pure jealousy. Heh-heh.

…

The next morning, Naofumi declared in the most ultimatum-like tone that we were going to the slave dealer. His eyes somehow looked even crazier than before. A bit later, on the way there, I found out from Raphtalia what triggered this sudden escalation.

Apparently, Naofumi nearly died from heat and suffocation this morning, waking up completely buried in Filo's feathers. She had turned back into a Filolial in her sleep and practically swallowed the poor guy whole. Damn…

"I still can't believe this, but… You knew, didn't you?" Naofumi suddenly asked.

"Hm? About what?"

"You knew what was in the egg. You knew what would hatch from it. And what it would turn into in the end."

"Why would you think that?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"The seal. I realized this morning… it doesn't work on Filo. Then I remembered… how, back when you bought the egg, you immediately asked for a higher-level seal. I can't see any reason why you'd spend that much coin just for 'precaution'. You definitely know something, but you're hiding it."

Huh. Well, damn. I'll admit, I didn't think of that. Honestly, I never expected to stick around with him this long. But I make decisions way too impulsively, and now I'm stuck dealing with the consequences.

"It really was just precaution. What if I'd won a dragon? My luck isn't that bad." I threw a meaningful glance at Night.

"You once mentioned your love for lolis. Your Filolial's a loli."

"Like I said — my luck isn't that bad."

"…"

Naofumi didn't say anything else. But I could practically feel his "trust meter" drop by several points. Well… that got a little awkward.

Right at the entrance to his tent, we were greeted by an overly excited slave trader. Sounds weird, but nothing indecent.

As a result of his "investigation," he found out that there are filolials with the ability to transform. Those were called filolial kings or queens, respectively. Using this ability, they could disguise themselves as regular filolials so no one could tell them apart. But the fact that this ability could also be used to turn into a human — that bit of knowledge he got from us.

He immediately showered us with praise for our incredible insight and wisdom. Praised our sharp eyes and our sense for picking exactly what we needed. And then, ever so casually, like it was no big deal, he suggested we take a couple more filolials to raise.

I actually thought about that offer for a moment, picturing some kind of personal harem of winged bird girls like Night, but…

"Master…" Night tugged at the hem of my clothes, pulling me out of my fantasy. Her face was still as expressionless as ever, but… this time, there was something in her eyes…

"Don't worry." I ruffled her hair lightly. "You'll stay my one and only bird. Why would I need others when you're already perfect?"

"Mmm… I'll do my best." The bird girl closed her eyes in satisfaction and nodded.

After that, Naofumi, using a little trick on the completely trusting Filo, placed a high-level seal on her. To say Filo didn't like the procedure would be putting it mildly. It was clearly painful, but the girl endured it. Watching it wasn't exactly pleasant, but honestly, I didn't see another way to keep her in check.

Filo was a child. And in a much more literal sense than Night. She refused to listen, acted on her own whims, and didn't care at all about the trouble she caused. Naofumi simply had no other option but to use a carrot and stick approach.

So, once again turning down the offer of a couple more filolials, we left the tent of the eggman… er, I mean, the slave trader. All that was left was to get special clothing made for Night and Filo, and then Naofumi and I would part ways.

I'd already spent too much time sticking around him and Raphtalia. Besides, now he had not one, but two companions. Female companions, to be precise. That was turning into too big a crowd for an introvert like me…