A/N: And we are back with the final daily update for this fanfic. Starting with chapter 10, I will be making these chapters every other day. So Chapter 10 will come out Wednesday the 27th. I'm so sorry this came out so late in the day, It was meant to come out earlier, but things happened. That's all for now!
"We leave for less than a day and this is what happens?" Naofumi sighed. "How long does it take for us to travel there on foot? Four of five hours?"
"We could ride Filo," I suggested. "There are carriages we could rent for 10 silvers to get there." I pointed to a stall selling carriages and filolial harnesses. Naofumi walked over. "Hey, can we rent one of your carriages? Just until tomorrow." The stall operator nodded and Naofumi tossed him the coins. "Filo, come get in the harness." Filo's feet made clacking noises against the stone of the road. Naofumi mounted the harness. I jumped in and helped Raphtalia up. "Let's go!" I said. Filo started running. "Woah!"
The speed was fast. In what would be a four hour trip, we were going to make it there in one hour. We burst out of the town gate, and others walking in stared as we shot past them. "Woohoo!" I hadn't even been on a carriage this fast before. The bumpy road seemed almost smooth at this speed. "Filo, go faster!" I cheered. The bird sped up. "This can't be good for the carriage," Naofumi said as his cloak fluttered. "This carriage is meant for horseback, and now we're going 35 kilometers per hour." He muttered. "What's horseback?" Raphtalia asked. "It's nothing." I eyed him, then focused on the carriage. It was sturdy, but I doubt it was meant for high speed like this. "You might be right, but it's a sturdy rental. If we need to, we can slow down." I said. "No! Filo doesn't want to slow down!" Filo squawked. "You can talk in bird form?" Naofumi asked. "Yup!"
I'm going to lay down and this bird will make some sense, hopefully. I laid down on the bench and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Raphtalia was shaking me awake. "We're almost there." I sat up. We were traveling down the road at a brisk pace. Filo seemed to be tired out. "Master, I want food when we get there."
"You'll get it soon enough." I noticed a blonde head of hair down the road. I tapped Raphtalia on the shoulder and pointed. "There he is, the new lord of Riyuute, Pervert-sama," I said. Naofumi caught the dripping sarcasm from my voice and drank it in. "Pervert-Sama. All must bow in his presence as he gloats." Me and Naofumi shared a smirk. The carriage drew closer.
"Can it be any hotter?" Motoyasu-bou said. The afternoon sun was beating down and it seemed to have made an effect on them. "Ah, Lord Pervert-sama!" I mockingly bowed. The group turned around "Are you mocking Motoyasu-sama?" Red-Hair questioned. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What can we do for the ever glorious Pervert-sama?" The whole carriage grinned as the group behind us grumbled. "Can you give us a ride?" Hah. As if. "Ah, stupid, naive, little Motoyasu-bou. Of course, we wo-" Filo interrupted. "I can take them there!" No! Filo, you're ruining my amusement! Bad filolial! Filo waited for the group to come near her. "Here goes!" She reared her foot back and kicked Motoyasu-bou. "Aaaaah!" He screamed. "What in the world are you doing to Motoyasu-sama you filthy animal!?" Red-Hair screeched. She was united with her Motoyasu-sama in the forest west of the town. I doubled over laughing.
"Who's next?" Filo chirped. The rest of the girls in Motoyasu-bou's party shook their heads and started running down the road. "Oh well." Filo chirped. Good filolial. You've made me proud, Filo. "We should continue to Riyuute," Naofumi said.
We entered the village. "Ah! Shield Hero-sama! You've returned just in time!" A villager shouted. He guided us to the town center, where Motoyasu-bou was speaking. "As new lord, to help in the reconstruction I will levy a toll of 50 silvers to enter and exit the town." Villagers standing around gasped. "Do you know how much it is to stay at the inn for one night?" Naofumi questioned. He had jumped off the carriage and was standing beside it. "1 silver a night. You are charging 100 nights in the inn to enter and exit the town. Does that not sound ridiculous?" The villagers around cheered in agreement. "The Spear Hero knows nothing of us!" "The Shield Hero saved us, not the spear!" The villagers shouted. Red-Hair stepped forward. "How dare you all disrespect your new Lord! Be ashamed!" One of the men stepped forward. "We are ashamed that this fool is our new Lord!" The rest of the village cheered and repeated the sentence. "Silence!" Red-Hair screamed. I swear her voice could break my ears.
"You are all insolent fools for listening to the Shield Demon!" Red-Hair declared. Motoyasu-bou stepped in. "Now, now Myne. You're angering them." He said. Ah, so that's her name. I still am calling her Red-Hair though. "Naofumi, If you think you can rule this town better than me, duel me." He scoffed. "Look how that went last time. You were losing, then cheated, then said you weren't and you're challenging me again? Don't waste my time." Motoyasu-bou stepped forwards, bolder, then held his side. Good work, Filo. "Then have one of your companions duel mine. The winner's side will rule the village." Oooh. Interesting. "I'll do it." I stepped out of the carriage and drew the hood of my cloak back. "I will duel Red-Hair, or whatever her name is. I don't really care." Red-Hair ran to the edge of the stage. "Oh yeah? Duel me you filthy piece of trash! Motoyasu-bou doesn't deserve the punishment of being in a Demi-human's presence!" Motoyasu held the girl back from fighting me then and there.
"Come duel me in the morning. Make it interesting." I walked away smiling.
Split
"Are you sure you should do this?" Raphtalia asked me. She had been worrying since I challenged Red-Hair. "You don't have to." I waved Raphtalia off. "I'm the one who should be worrying over their sister. You know I'm the Big sister."
"Hey! We're twins! That can't be possible!"
"Mom said I came out first."
"We came out the same time!"
I laughed as Raphtalia flushed. Her brain wasn't used to thinking like this, about babies and things. A horn sounded, my cue to go. "See you after I embarrass this woman. She'll be wearing a paper bag wherever she goes." I waved goodbye and stepped outside. The tents had been set up on opposite sides of a marked arena. This was my first duel since the last owner. I shuddered thinking about him.
"The duel between Malty Melromarc and Ariete begins in 10! 9! 8! 7…" I rested my left hand on my bracelet. The stone shone as bright as ever. "Begin!" Red-Hair immediately shot forwards. She was going to thrust her rapier. A mistake. I parried and dashed left. I started chanting. "Tsuvait Firebolt!" Red Hair started to run away, probably trying to outrun an arrow of flames. Too bad I was faster. I leapt forwards and slashed out with the Firebolt. The flames hit exactly where I wanted. Her hair. "Eeeek!" My ears instinctively flattened themselves at the noise she made. How high did her pitch go? She glared at me. I saw locks of her hair fall to the ground. "Welcome to Ariete's beauty salon. Our special secret? Fire." I taunted. She moved forwards again, slashing and stabbing. I blocked the attacks with my dagger. A little slant added to my blade, and there we are. She's wide open. I kicked out. She dodged my kick by stumbling backward.
Into a shield of flames. "What!?" She screamed as the ends of her hair were singed and burnt off. "When did you-" She didn't finish her sentence, as I struck out. She blocked most of my blows. A good rapier user, Her. With a little acrobatics, I increased the distance between us. "Now it's time for my finisher."
She shot through the distance between us and started attacking. I blocked and dodged every thrust and slash. She tried to use plain old brawling moves like weak kicks to try and get me off guard, but I dodged. She thrust once more and I let her rapier scrape on my dagger. "You see, there's a reason we call it Fast magic." I cackled as she felt the warm sensation on her face. I backed up with a somersault and watched as she pawed at her eyebrows. The whole audience broke out in laughter as her hand dropped. Her face was free from eyebrows. "Thank you for choosing us for your hair removal. Please, come again in the future." I did a mock bow and everyone laughed again.
I didn't get a warning as her rapier appeared less than a meter from my face. I managed to deflect the blow, but she came at me with another slash. I leaned back and let the blade pass over me. She put too much weight into it. She started to fall on top of me, and I kicked out. My feet met her back, and she was launched into the air. "Tzuvait Firestream!" A ball of flame coalesced in my hand and I shot it out. Red-Hair landed whimpering as I held my dagger at her neck. "You know, your hair looks real nice when half of it is gone. The whole audience laughed with me as we viewed the sight of a Half-bald princess.
Split
"Wow, Ariete. You were ruthless." Naofumi patted me on the head. "Ah yes, praise me more!" I purred. Naofumi's face contorted and he withdrew his head. I pouted. "When you say it like that it makes me feel like an old Motoyasu." I chuckled. Raphtalia was in another corner, also pouting, "I don't get praise like this." I snuck behind her. "Y'know you could get praise for these." I snaked my arms under hers. "Ah! A-Ariete! Don't touch- Ah! Stop!" I withdrew my hands from her chest and she covered them up. "Aw, Naofumi was enjoying the view, right?"
Naofumi scratched the back of his head and stared at the roof of the tent. "Well, uh… um…" He didn't get a complete answer out before someone came inside. "Ah! Shield Hero! We must thank your companion!" The lord bowed in front of me. "Ah, It's nothing, I got paid in the form of seeing that woman with half of her hair gone." The lord chuckled. "Is there anything we could do for you? We can't afford to give you payment immediately, but we could scrape something together." Naofumi shook his head. "Actually, a carriage would be nice." The lord quirked his head. "Don't you already have one?" "Ah, no. That was a rental we used to ferry ourselves here to deal with the fake lord." I explained. The lord nodded. "I'll get to it right away."
At the end of the day, we were presented with a fancy new carriage. The wood came from the surrounding forest. It was strong lumber and would take the force of Filo running as full speed. "We should go and drop off the rental and then come back for the new carriage," Naofumi said. "Wait, Shield Hero!" The Lord called out. He held a gold plate in his hands. "Here. This is a trader's pass. It will let you pass through any toll in Melromarc without paying." Naofumi looked at the pass. "Thank you." He said. He then hopped onto the rental carriage. "I'll bring this back. You two wait here. If it gets dark, rent an Inn room." Naofumi dashed off with Filo.
A/N: And there we go. Final daily chapter. I meant to get this out earlier in the day, but life happened. I tried to make this chapter lighthearted, to balance out the unintended grim tone of the Interlude. It was entirely meant to be fluff then turned into a flashback where Ariete murders her friends. Weird how that happens. I played around with the metaphors in this chapter too.
Azentra: It will hopefully make sense soon in upcoming chapters. I will be doing lots of interesting things with Filo soon.
Hawa-Chan: Oh, I hadn't seen the resemblance before! That's a chuckle.
Come back Wednesday and See Filo kick more people, Ariete be a badass, Raphtalia also be a badass, and Naofumi watch the chaos. Bye-bye!