I had gotten an unexpected invitation to cooperate from the hero, so my motivation was through the roof right now. It was so high I broke through cloud nine. Of course this was all theoretical, but that was how great my mood was.
Oh man. Honestly, figuring out how to treat the hero was one of the problems on my list, since if I just ended up antagonizing him, then I'd be straight back to the 'being beat up and sealed' route from one thousand years ago. He was still too weak to beat me, but he was the hero, after all. It'd be hard to tell just how much he'd change if the Goddess got involved.
It was the same way in stories, right? Even though the gap between their power was originally so large fighting wouldn't even be an option, there'd be a bunch of random events that would lead to the hero's awakening into some ridiculous, monstrous strength. Like anger from a friend's death or some sort of previously sealed power… Just like that, the hero would suddenly be stronger than the last boss.
Of course, that was just in fiction. Fiction was different from reality, so this doubt was only me mixing up fiction and reality. But unfortunately… This world was basically just the world of the Goddess's fiction, and she just loved the standard tropes and conventions. I figured she was the type to overlook at least some amount of contradiction or lack of consistency. That was why the laws of physics barely worked in this world that she'd made. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if different armors that weighed the same would affect speed in different ways or something game-like like that. Or, like, by using claws in both hands, your attack power would double.
My point being that if I underestimated and ignored the hero, then the Goddess would be free to power him up to surpass me. That wouldn't be surprising at all. So the hero coming to me to cooperate and build friendly relations was completely welcome.
Still, I hid the info about Robyn from him, though. It'd be bad if I ran my mouth and he said, "Then let's go kill Robyn."
"By the way, Big Sis, there are some people over there who have been staring at you this entire time…"
"Ah, them?"
"Yes, and we know some of them too."
I turned to look over the people who Haruka had pointed out. They were probably the hero's party. I didn't recognize the round dog beastman or the female knight, but I recognized everyone else.
I think we met the mercenary dude in Svel. His name was Teuchi, I think? And I'm pretty sure that the adventurer there is Cardin. I don't really remember the other three, since they didn't make much of an impression, but I do remember that they were an awfully imbalanced party of all warriors. And the unconscious one foaming at the mouth is the elf jiji who summoned me and taught me a lot of stuff.
Huh. Maybe I might actually be able to talk with them pretty easily. I decided to try and approach them. When I did, the round dog beastman immediately ran to hide behind a tree, and Cardin and the others put up their guard.
Looks like Teuchi is the only one who isn't too alarmed. Well, having even one like that is great.
"It's been a while, Teuchi. It's good to see you well."
"Yeah, you too, Naruko… No, I guess I should call you Lunaru Fenris." Teuchi didn't seem too surprised. It was kind of unexpected. In fact, he looked like something in his head had finally clicked.
"It seems like you noticed, judging from the way you act."
"Well, kind of. The only ones who'd be able to punch away Fiona like you did would be either the Seven Maidens of Midgar or the Grimm King, which makes the fact that you're not just some average person painfully obvious, even to an idiot like me."
Teuchi being here was a happy coincidence. It should be easier to talk and build up a relationship with them than I expected like this. Other than that… Yeah, I don't think we need to keep manipulating Cardin's memories.
I gave Cardin a once-over as I thought before turning my gaze to Haruka. When I did, she nodded in return and snapped her fingers.
"That's right, I remember now! You're the free merchants Naruko and Haruka! And that's Penny from the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians! Wait, why did it seem like we conquered the Grave ourselves up until now?"
Cardin and the other adventurers in his party all gasped at once. It seemed like they were a little confused thanks to the rush of their memories returning. Well, to them it would seem like they'd forgotten something incredibly important up until now, so they were probably just mystified at themselves.
At any rate, it seemed like it'd be a while until they got back on their feet, so I decided to wake up the elf jiji first.
I was never very good at healing, but I was capable of it.
For now, let's suppose being unconscious is like the 'sleep' status and try healing abnormal status conditions. Sleep could be canceled after taking a hit from an enemy, so I could try lightly hitting him awake, but he was clearly unconscious and not sleeping, so I didn't think that would work.
I cast the recovery spell, and the elf got back up. When he saw me, he was so surprised his jaw dropped as if it would fall straight off his head.
"L-L-L-Lunaru Fenriiiisss?!"
As soon as he saw me, elf jiji tried to scoot away from me instead of getting up. He also deployed a dome shield around him.
Hey, now. That reaction hurts. Still, that's a really thin shield… You sure you're okay? This is like super-thin glass.
Worried about the strength of the shield, I gave it a light knock. When I did, the shield shattered with an audible noise, and the elf was shocked speechless. Oh, super brittle. It's like what you see in those Showa era anime. The ones that break all the time.
"Calm down. We mean you no harm, and a tissue-thin shield like this would do nothing anyway."
I didn't actually want to scare you. Besides, what did you intend to do with a shield that shatters with just a knock? This is more like a fashion statement than an actual shield. This'd basically only be useful for putting up somewhere for people to look at.
"Wh-What do you…?"
"You can hear more about it from this brave child or Haruka. But just speaking about the results, We are here to cooperate with you. Well, it's only while we're in this country, but… We're looking forward to it," I said, flashing a smile at them.
Their reaction was stupefied silence before they all turned to look at Haruto.
Oh, wow… I know I'm infamous like that, so this is only natural, but it looks like the only ones who have any intention of talking to me normally are the hero and Teuchi. Oh, and I guess that little fox that's at the hero's feet with its tails wagging. The round dog beastman is even farther away than he was before.
I petted the small fox and heaved a small sigh as I thought of the future, even though this was all my just deserts.