(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)

A heavy slam had slugged itself right into the floor. An armoured man in a steel plating had been the one to make such a commotion as he angrily glared to his apparent leader. His big body shape in comparison to the other people in the room had been prevalent.

"You're insane, Sir Itsuki!"

His low-pitch shout, comparable to what a grizzly bear would sound like with human speech, erupted throughout the room giving a fright to Itsuki and making his falter in his place. However, his other two party members had remained still, as if they already knew this was going to happen.

"W-What do you mean?" Even so, Itsuki couldn't even fathom it. He couldn't believe his ears. "This is your own country you're talking about! It's clearly being oppressive to those people! Even children are being taken in as slaves, just because they're demi-humans! Do you not feel anything for them!?"

"With all due respect, I don't care! They're slaves for a good reason! They're simply lowly demi-humans, not even worth the dirt at the bottom of my shoe!" Mald growled as if Itsuki had crossed his personal beliefs. "They aren't people, Sir Itsuki! Stop referring to them as such! If I was you, I'd forget about doing anything with the slaves in the first place!"

Itsuki gazed back at the agitated Mald. He didn't know why he had been acting so offensively like this, but all he mentioned was that they should look into saving those slaves at the trader.

Mald was the frontliner of their group, wielding a sword into battle. He was very adequate at his main role as a tank, drawing the attention of the monsters with ease for his allies to take down. However, his attitude had much to be developed on. In a few days, he's already been in countless arguments with the local mage of the team and he always speaks as he's high and mighty, even when he's being respectful to the Bow Hero himself. Itsuki always thought that Mald just hasn't had time to adjust to the new team, but now—he saw that there was a bigger problem to address. Perhaps it was part of the bigger problem here.

"Keep it down, Mald," the woman with the red bandana had sighed while standing close to the room's door. Her eyes leered at the man lazily. "You're going to disturb the other guests at the inn. If you're going to shout, you could at least be mindful of the volume."

A groan came from the bed, where a mage had been sitting upon it with his hood down. His rustic hair had been showing, opposed to how he typically wears his hood in the streets. He had been checking his right ear, trying to pop a sound using his palm—all with an annoyed and tired expression. "Never mind the other guests, I think I just lost some of my own hearing from that shouting."

"I can't help it if Sir Itsuki had just lost his mind! Demi-humans are nothing more than the monsters that we slay in the wild. They should be fortunate that we even allow them to stay as slaves!"

Itsuki could only let his blood begin to boil, transitioning his silent gaze to an angered glare of himself.

"How the hell could you even say that, Mald!?"

"From my angle, it's you that I can't believe! Why would the Bow Hero be lowering his hand to the likes of those lowly creatures!?"

"What's unbelievable about trying to save people!?"

"You're the one trying to save those who shouldn't be saved in the first place!"

The mage wryly glanced at the woman who clicked her tongue tiredly as the two were mindlessly arguing off their own emotions. However, all the woman appeared to be doing was lighting a small cigar from her pocket with some of her access to fire magic. The mage blinked confusingly as she took a huff and blew it out, before she twisted her wrist and flicked the cigar right between the two shouters.

As the cigar flew within the perspectives of Itsuki and Mald, it sparked and blew up in a sudden light, causing Itsuki and the man—and the mage, to an extent—to falter and cease everything they were doing and take cover from the bright flare. The cigar had dissipated into ashes, trickling down within the air as it piled up on the ground between them.

"I told you two to calm down. You're making a ruckus for the other guests."

Itsuki and Mald had been groaning from the visual flank, but the mage himself had rolled back on the bed, making some subtle screaming as he rolled side to side, holding back his eyes. "Gah, what the hell!? Why was I taken down in that, Kojeel!? I didn't do anything!"

"Welst, you should have seen that coming. You had a vantage point in the room."

"I didn't think you'd throw the damn cigar and imbue with light magic! Not only did I go partially deaf, I might be partially blind too!"

It took a moment for Itsuki and Mald to recover from the flashbang. It took Welst a bit longer, but Kojeel hadn't been concerning him much. In fact, they were ignoring Welst's dramatical complaints for the most parts, aside from Itsuki who glanced back to see if he was really fine before returning to the matter at hand. Over the past few days, Welst had a common gesture to complain, but eventually powered through them. It was an odd type of tenacity, Itsuki had to admit, but tenacity nevertheless.

"You can't be serious…! Mald, I honestly assumed better from you, so don't be telling me that my assumptions for you were wrong. I thought you were someone wanting to fight with justice, as you claimed on our first day together." He glanced over to Kojeel who didn't even bother to move from her spot, taking out another cigar and started to smoke this one properly instead of using it as ammunation. "Kojeel, I trust that you have your judgements in the right place! How do you feel about saving these slaves!? Tell Mald that he's wrong!"

Kojeel rolled her shoulders and sighed out a puff of smoke. "Listen, Sir Itsuki." Her voice had been calm and controlled in comparison to everyone else in the room. "A country of humans would never give human rights over to monsters. Monsters are to be given a separate law, denied human rights. Seeing that, no one in this country would ever complain against the fact that we treat beings like balloons and usapils different from our neighbours." As much as Itsuki understood Kojeel's words, he didn't want to hear them. "All that is left is where the definition of monster draws the line. If it's commonly regarded in Melromarc that demi-humans are simply monsters given human forms, the bottom line is that they're monsters and should be treated as such."

Among the few days that he got to know his party members, he would have said that Kojeel was probably the closest one that felt like a professional in the adventurer's field. Her spear work was one of the best that Mald and Welst had apparently seen, though Welst mentioned jokingly that it appeared as if she was still holding back even more power. Her precision on the frontline had been almost as locked as Itsuki's arrow shots, making her probably the strongest one on the team. She didn't brag much about it, merely staying humble and keeping mainly to herself, but Itsuki was quick to realize that she was very dependable.

However, the answer coming from Kojeel shocked him.

"I-I… I didn't think you'd share the same mentality as Mald on the slaves, Kojeel."

Kojeel kept a steady gaze upon Itsuki before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath between her puffs. "You're free to go play hero for the slaves and be revered among them, but you're not going to solve the internal problem that you personally see in the kingdom's structure. It's simply going to return, one way or another."

Itsuki gritted his teeth, merely hearing Kojeel speak. "Then I'll just bring this matter to the ki—!" He instinctively stopped, as his memories held him back from continuing. It was foolish to depend on a king that would let this happen in the first place, not to mention a king that would help condemn Naofumi.. "I-I'll just do something about it, alright!? I'll go and convince people that it's—"

"Though, I'd advise you to not make any attempts to even change the core fundamentals of it," Kojeel continued, cutting off Itsuki as if she wasn't even heeding his words. "Politics and society structuring is a dangerous game to be playing and not something you should be trying to do within your first week in this world. If you want to be famous, you can increase your renown by effectively doing guild requests and the such."

His mouth was wide open as he had assumptions be thrown right back to him. "I'm not doing this for fame! Demi-humans are people! They think, speak, and feel emotions the same way we do! That's why I can't stand this! There's absolutely no justice here and I need to deliver it!"

"Them being slaves is justice," Mald growled. "What else do you want?

"What did they ever do to you!?"

"... Hey, Sir Itsuki?" Welst raised his hand like a student waiting for a teacher, all while groaning from his own side of the visual attack. He was still rubbing his left eye out from the apparent collateral damage. "Look, I pretty much have zero weight in these types of conversations, but I should probably give you some context before you keep blowing your lid. Do you remember how we talked about the Calamity Mage and the Wise Sage King back in the guild hall with the Spear Hero?"

"H-Huh?" Itsuki raised his eyebrows. "What does that have to do with the problem at hand?"

"Well, you should probably know that demi-human discrimination was already a considerable problem before the Siltvelt War, but it grew to a new height within Melromarc after it ended. I think Elesis or whatever her name was touched on it briefly when she was talking about the Calamity Mage. I think you should know that the enemy that wanted world domination, Siltvelt, was entirely comprised of demi-humans."

"So some demi-humans were enemies back then! Big deal!" There were wars between countries various times in the past, yet there was never any long term broken relations about it and if they were, they never dropped to the point of slavery! "That doesn't mean that all of them should be taken as slaves!"

"Look, Sir Itsuki." Welst cleared his throat. "I know a few demi-humans myself and they're rather good people. I'm not saying that all of them should be kept as slaves like a certain brickhead here, but what I am saying is that this is just the state of things right now. The demi-humans that are in Melromarc are either enslaved, a certified adventurer of Zeltoble, or protected on contained lands. There have been people that have been wanting to make changes for some time now, and you certainly aren't the first one."

"Of course you are hiding with those meaningless words, you worthless mage."

Welst narrowed his eyes at the armoured man. "Mald, kindly fuck off or the next time around, a stray magic spell might fly into your direction. Notice how I didn't say it as 'accidentally'."

"Bite me, you little shrimp."

"No thanks, I don't want to get any life threatening illnesses. I want to live a long life here."

As mentioned, Welst and Mald didn't get along all that well. Itsuki didn't really know what the entire problem was between the both of them and it sounded like they've never actually met each other before they were called to the castle to join up with one of the Cardinal Heroes. That literally could only mean that merely had bad chemistry with each other and this notion made Itsuki worried about the future of the team as Kojeel sighed in the background from the childish argument.

"It's as Welst mentions," she added on, trying to cease fire the mage and the frontliner. They both click their tongues, turning their heads away from one another. "You've only come to our world recently, Sir Itsuki. You shouldn't try and attempt to change things as you please. I don't know how it worked back in your world, but doing that here is a good way to send yourself to the gallows."

"I-I'm a hero, though!"

"Yeah, and so was that Shield Demon apparently," Mald scoffed.

"Which is why you should be more wary than acting hastily, in my opinion," Kojeel answered, trying to turn Mald's offhand comment into something more constructive. It was no real secret that Mald despised the Shield Hero, but Itsuki knew it had to do with stigma with the Church of Three Heroes rather than Naofumi himself. If Mald actually came to meet Naofumi, he'd have another opinion all together—Itsuki had hoped though.

Kojeel went on. "You have a lot of responsibility on your hands, Sir Itsuki. Even more so with the Shield Hero being condemned by the results of the trial. We wouldn't want another hero to be starting an uproar in the land. If overthrowing slavery of demi-humans is truly your end goal, you certainly won't be seen as a hero to everyone."

"But that's not what I'm trying to—"

"I understand that, Sir Itsuki. You want to do this for the sake of your justice, not for any personal gain. However, I'm telling you right now that there will be issues for heroes that don't look to be heroes in the eyes of certain groups. Surely, you remember the Church of the Three Heroes from Aldrecht's rambling."

At that moment, Itsuki understood what Kojeel was trying to say. Indeed, she had been one of the most intelligential members of their party that sorted out all the ins-and-outs and this instance pretty much showed that. That wasn't to put Welst or Mald down on their reputation, but if they could get along with each other a bit more, then they would be a solid team.

However, Itsuki didn't need Kojeel to say any further. It already sounds similar to Zellus' warning back in the alleyway, where he warns them to be careful about their personal information spreading about town, open to the ears of the Church. However, Kojeel's warning came with a certain implication.

"W-Wait…! Are you saying that the Church of Three Heroes keeps slaves!?"

"I'll do you one better since my first step-mother was part of the Church of Three Heroes and tried to forced the entire religion onto my chest," Welst responded. "They don't keep slaves at all. If they did, that would be a blessing—a messed-up blessing, but one nevertheless. Either way, the teachings of the Church can be summarized as 'demi-humans are bad, screw them all to damnation'."

"W-What…?"

"In other words…" Welst straightened his back as he pushed up his thumb, swiping it across his neck while intimating a dying noise. "That. To all demi-humans they can get their personal hands on. It's to the point where the Church can't buy demi-human slaves for themselves since they used to monopolize the entire thing just to kill them. The Queen passed a law specifically for them. Though, the average member of the Church is simply advised to steer clear of them. Only the extremists find enjoyment in taking down the demi-humans."

"A fate too weak if I have to say so myself," Mald growled, crossing his arms. "If I was in their shoes, I'd take the time to let them suffer and—"

"Mald, shut up." Itsuki's voice had been deadly and cold, just as his stare had been towards the party member. "I don't want to hear another word from you until the conversation is done."

Mald grunted and started to walk for the door. "Then I'm taking my leave." Kojeel moved out of the way for him to approach the exit. Before he pulled on the door, he turned his head back one more time. "I hope you get your mind in the right place by tomorrow, Sir Itsuki. I respect you, but if you keep talking insanity like this, I'll have no other choice than to leave the party. Good luck finding a frontliner as good as me if I do choose to leave."

Mald closed the door as the three remaining party members glanced at each other. There was a brief silence, but Welst heavily sighed, breaking the tension.

"There goes an extremist. Honestly. I wonder why the king ever chose him to be a part of a Cardinal Hero's party. I even doubt that he's even a part of the Church of Three Heroes—he's just that much of an asshole."

"It's his skills," Kojeel immediately answered. "He may underestimate his opponents too easily, but he's surely a force to be reckoned with on the frontline. He might have been cocky by saying that, but I can't blame him for having such a mindset. On skills alone, he might be eligible for a high knight position in Melromarc's Army if he was a knight."

"Hearing that Mald has skills and experience," Welst said, air-quoting the nouns, "really grinds my nerves. How the hell does toxicity incarnate get a chance to party with the Cardinal Heroes? He must have either sucked up major ass to the King or his father has close connections with the King and made an arrangement. Both seem pretty valid, if I have to say so myself."

Welst buried his face into his palms before brushing his bangs all back, revealing the hidden eye underneath. "I mean, my father's nobility as well which makes me one in tandem, but I still had to work my ass off to get this slot of the Cardinal Hero's party."

"Welst," Itsuki sighed, "I know you have strong negativities toward Mald, probably for good reasons, but we won't get anywhere if we keep having internal problems like this. I would like to at least keep this party together for a week before ending up with a disbanding because I couldn't manage my party members' attitudes."

"Please tell Mald that. I would love for him to stop messing with me just because he sees me as inferior." He let go of his hair letting it all fall back to place. "Once that happens, I'll happily oblige, Sir Itsuki."

"... I'll try to."

Kojeel began walking towards the window and opened it up to let in a slight breeze as the two guys were talking. She dipped her head out to the afternoon light and started to smoke out there, leaning halfway out of the windowsill.

"I'm still curious, Sir Itsuki," she said after she took in one long inhale and exhale. "Will you still pursue the breakout of the slaves, knowing that you might not even be able to change anything?"

Itsuki sat back down on a nearby chair and thought about it himself. If what they all said was true, then there wasn't a real point to this apparent justice after all. There were so many restrictions that lied in the way, but as Itsuki thought about it and the room was left silent for him to do so, it felt even harder to make a decision.

Itsuki believed he knew the difference between an achievable goal and a hopeless dream, but he couldn't determine if trying to free this country from its slavery problem had fallen in the latter or the former. He did note that Beloukas' men seemed to be stronger than him if they were able to yank Itsuki back to where he started running from, but Itsuki immediately sent that thought off as not having enough power. If one didn't have power, then there was no way that one could confidently exert the righteous order.

Perhaps he refused to believe that it was hopeless. Perhaps that was what had made him hesitate.

Nevertheless, he still didn't know the answer to a question he wanted to ask himself. He knew what Mald's personal beliefs were and where Welst stood considering how he spoke about the Church with a growl and the demi-humans somewhat fondly, but all that he couldn't understand was Kojeel's placement. Now that he could think about it past his emotions, all she gave was an objective point-of-view, not necessarily her own.

"Hey, Kojeel? I don't think you ever gave a clear answer. What do you think about the slavery in Melromarc? Don't you think it's messed up?"

She blew a grey smoke out into the outside world as she blankly gazed out of the window. She tended to the cigar for a brief moment, but leered downwards before she released the cigar and dropped it into the streets before. As it fell down, that cigar had as well burnt to ashes and flew off into the gentle breeze.

"It's because I don't have an opinion. Whether it exists or not, it doesn't really affect me."

"Then what do you think my course of action should be as someone on the sidelines? I really want to save the slaves from their fate, but everything you've been saying makes…" Itsuki clicked his tongue, hating to admit it. If Ren had been here, he'd be asking him instead. "It makes sense."

She didn't bother to look at the distressed and frustrated expression of the Bow Hero.

"I'm not the leader here. I'm only here to watch over you until you can get stronger. Do what you think is right, but I'm telling you that you shouldn't be heading into a situation blindly. That's the best way to get killed."

(—ነነነነ(—[[][ Chapter 1-12][]]—)ነነነነ—)
(—ነነነነ(—(—(—[][][ Allies and Enemies ][][](—)—)ነነነነ—)

Ren sighed.

How the hell did I let myself get pulled into this?

As Zellus remarked, he was taken into one of his favourite taverns as the Cardinal Hero and the high knight had been sitting along the bar's seats. He had been drinking down his alcohol, but Ren didn't know which type. The moment Zellus plopped himself down on the seat, he told the bartender to grab him the usual and keep it filled up for about half the amount of glasses. The golden brown colour of Zellus' glasses differed in water levels everytime Ren glanced over, making him believe that he was worse than Motoyasu. Though Zellus seemed to be a heavy drinker since he could really take his alcohol unlike Motoyasu who was probably gone in a few consecutive glasses. He didn't seem to be in the slightest bit tipsy.

Ren measly pushed his meal around his plate with his fork, seeing that his appetite was lost the moment he walked into the doors. Luckily, it seemed like the bar had just opened up for the day and there hadn't been many people within the business yet. He disliked environments with many people in them, just like the banquet, and if that hadn't been the case, there was no way that he would have been eating.

"I'm surprised, Zellus. Aren't you supposed to be on patrol around this time?" The bartender had been making some small talk with the knight as he took notes on the stock they had. "You aren't skipping your duties, are you?"

"It's not the capital is going to miss one knight that isn't one patrol. There are like a bunch of us that get sent out everyday." Zellus spoke with a boisterous smirk on his face. "Besides, it's a special opportunity for me to show my little friend here my favourite tavern!"

"Well, whatever you're doing, you better not lead Lothringen into the tavern again. You wanting not doing your duties and Lothringen wanting you to do them only results in utter chaos. It gets much too rowdy, even for my taste."

"Don't worry, DeGroff. I'll be in and out before Lothringen can even realize."

"Heh, you better. I still have nightmares from the incident that would have happened the last time Lothringen came into the bar."

Zellus talked with the bartender, speaking in quite the familiar voice and the bartender responded likewise, addressing each other on a first name basis. Ren caught the atmosphere that it was less of a customer-business relationship and more of a man getting something for his friend to drink, getting paid in compensation.

As the bartender went on with his own business, Zellus held in a sip of his glass before turning over to Ren. His expression from the corners of Ren's eyes had gone from a joyous smile to something akin to a bittersweetness. It was like Zellus had taken off his mask and rested down on the table, only to reveal that there was another mask underneath.

The sound of his glass landing along the table counter clicked through the silent air.

"Consider this your lucky day, Ren Amaki." None of them had been looking at each other, simply gazing into the space in front of them longingly. It was as if each of them were trying to read the different assortments of wine and alcohol that the bartender kept on the backcabinet's shelves. An array of them stood proudly, one after the other—carefully conducted in such a way that the colours of the bottles and labels had looked aesthetically pleasing. "I did some digging around for myself ever since the trial. Any questions you have, I'll answer for you as best as I can."

Ren's fork pressed down against the slim piece of meat, gutting a hole among the smooth surface until the fork's prongs had hit the plate.

"What's in it for you? Surely, you don't expect me to believe you'll be giving this information to me for free."

"What?" Zellus chuckled and sneered. "You don't think I'm doing this in good faith?"

"I literally have no reason to believe so."

"Well, in a way, you're already going to be doing something of my request in the future." Ren was skeptical at what Zellus was referring to, but something told him that he wasn't going to tell him what it was, judging from the tone. "Consider my available information as a future payment for what you're doing there."

"You mean, fighting against the waves of destruction?" That was the only possible conclusion that Ren could see Zellus implying. Other than that job, there wasn't anything else that was cemented in such a way that Zellus would confidently say that.

"If anything, you guys would get on my bad side. The waves of destruction seem really fun to fight against, but the king had to go and summon up the Cardinal Heroes to take care of it for us."

"You realize that the waves of destruction have the possibility of destroying your world, if what everyone is saying about it is true?"

"Yeah? And?" Zellus took another sip out from his glass, almost emptying it. The bartender noticed when the glass hit the counter and promptly filled it back up to full again. "I don't give a damn about what happens to this world. Let me enjoy my fights, for heaven's sake. Uh, wait. Don't tell Lothringen I said that." A flustered expression had been written across Zellus' face as he tried to backpedal.

"Quite some knight you are."

"I try my best." Zellus smirked and shrugged. "Though, that probably wasn't a satisfactory answer for you. Allow me to be more reasonable then."

Out of the corner of Ren's perspective, Zellus held up three fingers. "Three questions. That's all you get and in exchange, you'll be doing something that you'll already be doing in the future."

"Just like a genie with strings attached."

"Only I'm probably not going to be granting your deepest, darkest desires in some twisted way." Zellus dropped his hand back onto the counter, reaching out for his drink once again. "If you want to take the questions, then go ahead. If not, the door is always open for you, but once you commit to the three questions, I'm expecting you to see it all the way through. You wanted to know about the trial, right?"

"How do I even know that you won't be making these things up?"

"You don't. I don't expect you to, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt. It's not like you're losing anything by hearing my responses to your questions." Zellus made a small hum to interrupt his own thoughts. "Though, I am one of the upper ranked high knights of the Melromarcian knights and I'm on close terms with Lothringen, believe it or not. If there's information that is just laying around the castle, there's a good chance that I can pick it up."

"The man blasted you out through a window."

"Isn't that what friends do?"

Once again, Ren couldn't tell what Zellus had been thinking, he started to proceed with possible hypotheses and conclusions that he could see from his own end. There wasn't a way that Zellus would answer what his own motivations were from doing such a thing. He'd probably give an unclear answer, letting Ren be even more concerned with his current status. Considering Zellus, it was probably the best idea to leave intentions alone for now and converse about the elephant in the room. He was lucky that he couldn't get distracted by the bland piece of meat in front of him right now.

However, Ren couldn't stop thinking about why Zellus had been offering information. It seemed more like Zellus had been tossing this information out like it was supposed to bait him, especially when the original offer seemed to be something given for free—at most, being exchanged to keep him company at the tavern, but that was something ridiculous. Ren couldn't think of a sane person that would offer seemingly important information for temporary company. If the information had been enough and it could lead into a revelation of a inner-workings conspiracy, the lid would be entirely blown off thanks to the recklessness of one knight.

Though, there was still what Zellus would gain out of this entire thing. If Zellus told the truth, what would he gain? If Zellus lied, what would he gain? Ren understood from a young age that human beings were instinctively selfish and held no innate compassion for those they refuse to understand. Of course, there had been small examples such as Naofumi, as naive as he was, but Ren took Zellus' persona to be more of the former. In any case, it was safer to assume the former regardless.

Zellus was giving information to push his own agenda, just as he mentioned in the alleyways. Something about the reasoning behind it being beyond their own reasonings and rationality. Did it mean that Zellus didn't want Ren and Itsuki to think about what he's trying to do? Or did he merely say that because he wanted them to be thrown off the trail?

Zellus was an enigma—the definition of the word, through and through. Compared to the others in this world, especially compared to the easy reading of the Church of the Three Heroes, Ren would have to say that his biggest problem would actually have to be Zellus himself. One day, he acted like a friend, but then he dropped the notion that he might be an ally of his own free will—and suddenly, he's back to being a friend, offering information that no one asked him to get.

Perhaps Zellus truly wanted to help out and that helped him push his own agenda. Perhaps Zellus had been trying to bait Ren using the information, in which that could push his own agenda. The more Ren thought about it, the more questions came up that couldn't be asked on the sole reasoning of an impossible answer.

Ren needed to think about the trial now. That was the information that Zellus was trying to pass onto him, but he hesitated to even accept the offer. It had true that Ren wouldn't have lost anything by listening to the knight, but it doesn't mean what Zellus told him could influence what he attempts to do about it.

Wait, no. Why do I even care? This is Naofumi's problem, not mine anymore. If that idiot wants to play his naivety up over these allegations, then I'll let him do just that.

There was another voice within Ren that struggled to make itself clear. The debate of what he should be doing crept closer as he let that voice speak up a little louder.

I can take the information, but not do anything with it. I'll let it sit there as a backup if Naofumi ever decides to shake himself back to reality. Yeah, I'll do just that. Better to sit on a safety net, even if it could have gaping holes in it.

However, there was still what he needed to know. Really, all he had were assumptions—nothing was exactly set in stone, but Ren believed they were solid assumptions to form a foundation upon. The fact that the Church of Three Heroes was involved and how the king might be involved to—both points were entirely feasible and probably the truth. Simply knowing such an involvement wasn't going to do much for Ren though. There was no physical evidence to even decide such a thing and if he started to stupidly point fingers now, he'd only be making a target on himself.

Ren took a sip of his water, before taking a deep breath.

"First question."

"So," Zellus smirked, "you're taking me up on my offer?"

"How much of Melromarc's knights, noblemen and Melromarc's people believe in the teachings of the Church of Three Heroes—or at the very least, discrimination of the Shield Hero?"

Ren needed to see the possible landscape of the field that they were playing on. There was practically no point in fighting if the majority had been ruling in the favour of the Church of Three Heroes, but if that was discovered to be the case, the trial might have been much more rigged than he expected. If a good number of Melromarc's citizens were believers in the Church, who was to say the evidence wasn't fabricated by them as well? He did hear that there were numerous witness reports of Naofumi walking of his inn—which already seemed to be suspicious as to how that many people managed to 'see Naofumi' among the night.

Though, Ren didn't expect Zellus to know the total answer. He wanted to test the waters using the first question to see how far Zellus' sourcing went, but when Zellus opened his mouth, Ren was frankly surprised.

"Nice work, mashing three questions into one. I'll count it as a single one, as you intended. So, Melromarcian knights." Zellus started counting the different populations Ren listed out on his fingers. "I'd say a good portion of them are non-believers, but that simply because of how the knights are structured in the first place. As a knight of the kingdom, you're not fighting for a religion, but for everyone in the land. That's the vanilla answer that Lothringen would have given anyways. Though, if there were to be knights with beliefs from the Church of Three Heroes, they probably wouldn't even be a knight of Melromarc in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"The Church itself has their own faction of knights that's led by one captain, opposed to Melromarc's three captains. It's usually separated by the name of our Melromarcian Knights and their Holy Knights. The girl who leads it is pretty strong too, but I don't think Lothringen would take too kindly if I suddenly attacked her one day."

Ren recalled his time when he walked into the Church itself. Now that Zellus mentioned it, some of the knights that were inside of the Church had been in a different armour set. Ren merely didn't even address the knights or even paid much attention to them since he thought they were normal knights under a different branch of Melromarc. They blended into the background as he went on with the bigger fish that was needing was fry.

However, if the Melromarcian knights weren't believers, they would be less inclined to discriminate against the Shield Hero. That seemed far from the case, but perhaps it was because they also saw a criminal after his name was proven to be guilty in the trial and they were merely bitter at the fact he was saved due to their role.

"And the captains don't particularly believe in the Church nonsense either."

That merely cemented the theory. If what Zellus says is true, it appears that the Melromarcian knights were just as victim as Naofumi was in the crossfire, causing them to believe things that they wouldn't otherwise believe—Lothringen especially, since he was the one to conduct the investigation, only to present fabricated evidence to the king.

"And you mentioned the noblemen next, right?" Zellus extended out a second finger to count it. "Truth be told, I'm pretty sure that they're pretty fucked up. I know a few nobles that support the Church on the mere basis that they're able to torture and discriminate against demi-humans to their heart's content. They're terrible people, but I think that if the Church told them to dance, they would indeed still dance. Most of them are rather short-sighted, thinking only for their own lust, ambitions, and greed. Though, the ones that don't believe in that nonsense are pretty alright people. I wouldn't think twice if the former heavily discriminated against the Shield Hero alongside the teachings as well."

"And what about the citizens of this land?"

Zellus raised a third finger. "The citizens of this land are what you would expect. Some of them believe in the Church's teachings. Some of them don't. It's that simple, but as you might have heard already, those who believe in the Church's teachings can be a little louder than those who aren't. That ultimately ends up causing… some manipulation behind the scenes."

So Zellus is trying to imply that it was the blind-faithed followers that set up the false evidence to frame Naofumi for the trial? I assumed as much, but it's nice to have some type of confirmation, even if it comes from Zellus' mouth. I have to be wary though that Zellus is simply telling me what I want to hear.

"Alright, that's the first question down!" Zellus spun his fingers from three back down to two, holding them like a peace sign. However, Ren felt nothing of worth along the lines of peace in the interaction in the first place. "That'll give you some food for thought. You got two more questions left, Ren Amaki."

From the first question, it doesn't seem like Zellus had been intending to give half-assed answers. To some degree, he had the image of their playing field mapped out, but now—he needed to make the next two question count if he ever wanted to get the picture of the truth in his mind clearly. It was easy to imagine how it played out from the perspective of the Church, but there was one detail that was bothering him.

"Second question. What's the true relationship between the Church and the monarch?"

"Monarch?" Zellus looked at Ren as if he was crazy, but Zellus realized, softly pounding a fist into his palm. "Oh, you mean the matriarch? Melromarc is fully ruled by the queens, not the kings."

Ren widened his eyes in a complex surprise.

Wait, what?

Was... the kingdom not ruled by King Aultcray? Why did we meet him then!?

Ren was stunned at the revelation. If Melromarc had been truly ruled by the queen and not by the king, why the hell haven't they even met the queen yet? From what it sounds like, summoning the four Cardinal Heroes was something of a big deal and the meeting with the figurehead of the country that summoned them seemed only to be the most logical result. Instead, they met the king with the queen nowhere to be seen.

Either this was a huge oversight on the kingdom's behalf, or there was something else going on in the background that Ren and the others haven't heard about yet. And it wasn't as if the queen was dead—from what it sounds like, she was she up, alive and kicking. Just not here for one reason or another, but Ren didn't feel like giving a question to figure that mess out.

"Though, considering you mentioned the monarch, I presume you simply mean the royal family anyways. I'll bite this game," Zellus said, downing another glass of alcohol. "Hmm, what about that old bastard who doesn't die…?"

"O-Old bastard?"

"Oh, just how I refer to the king sometimes, and to an extent—Aldrecht." He fell the glass back down, but kept it held in his hands. "Anyways, I'm not entirely sure what the situation is right now, but back then during the Siltvelt War, the bastard was allied with Biscas who's currently the head of the Church of the Three Heroes. The stories of the war always involved Aultcray and Aldrecht fighting side-by-side, but I believe Biscas helped save them countless times too. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the king wouldn't be alive with Biscas' intervention."

"So you feel like the king is indebted to the leader of the Church?"

"I'm not saying that simply because that's not an answer you'd be appericating." Zellus started to cycle the glass within his cupped palm, pushing its edge with his thumb to roll it within. "Ren Amaki, I feel like you're a person that would rather something that sounds more factual and can be checked, rather than a gut feeling or an opinion. Unless you want my opinion for whatever reason, I'm only going to adhere to my assumptions."

Ren had chills down his spine. Zellus spoke as if he had already figured out Ren from head to toe somehow, but surely, that had to be a mere bluff. There was no way that Zellus, out of everyone, could already understand how Ren was thinking—hell, sometimes Itsuki had trouble knowing what he was thinking, but Zellus acted so confidently that Ren was prone to thinking so.

Ren merely kept quietly, picking apart the meat on his plate with the mashed potatoes. He was halfway done with the meal, but no way close to cracking this mysterious man's thoughts open.

"Nowadays, I do see that the king meets the pope more than the queen does. Frankly, there's been speculation that the queen doesn't really trust the pope, but take that with a grain of salt. However, I can say for certain that the discussion of the summoning the Four Cardinal Heroes did stem from the conversations between Aultcray and Biscas."

Ren scrunched his eyebrows. For being a matriarch, it didn't sound like such an important decision was being discussed with the queen, or even brought up. Zellus worded it as if the entire summoning ritual was doen behind the queen's back somehow. Though, that thought could be set aside for now.

Ren was more concerned that the leader of the Church recommended to summon all four of the Cardinal Heroes, Shield Hero included. That was incredibly suspicious if that was truly the case, and if Ren threw it into a hypothesis, it could have worked out in his favour. If the pope wanted the Shield Hero to be summoned, he could show that the Shield Hero was actually a Shield Demon, like the teachings said he was. However, that would have been a problem if the Shield Hero didn't actually do anything demon-like.

Therefore, a framing from the pope would have been the play to do, to keep the interest in the Church of Three Heroes high and not to lose face when the Shield Hero is revealed to be much more docile than he expected.

But if the summoning was discussed by the pope, then wouldn't that be a severe indication that the king truly was participating in the framing of the Shield Hero? Logically, if the premise of the Church of Three Heroes framing the Shield Hero was true, then the predicate of the king being aligned has to follow. I can't see any other way that it could play out.

Ren circled his thoughts one again, pulling back to the idea of faith among the people. This could perhaps answer Myne's entire involvement, if he assumed that she was an adventurer that was being led by the Church of Three Heroes. The pope could tell her to enlist herself to fight with the Shield Hero as the king himself guarantees that she will be one of the twelve adventurers selected to be able to enact the plan. Partying up with the Spear Hero first must have been a red herring, to direct the intention away. She probably was instructed to not give Naofumi a single chance, like hiding away key elements of the world before he had brought it up before Erhart's shop, and ultimately accuse him of rape.

It made sense, but again, it was merely speculation at this point.

"So as for the relation between the Church and the royal family? In summary, it's the old bastard of the throne that's more trusting with the organization, even if Aldrecht does blabber on about how much the Church must be contained more and more recently."

It doesn't seem like Aldrecht would be involved in this plan, but I can't say anything for sure. That old man is nevertheless still his retainer and unless there's something culturally different, retainers usually stay by the side of their leaders whenever possible.

"Two down," Zellus spoke, folding one more finger back to leave one raised finger out, "one left. Make this one count, Ren Amaki."

Everything Zellus has been saying went further then what he had expected, but it wasn't any information that he could really use to expose the conspiracy the entire way through. All this information seemed to only go to satisfy Ren's own beliefs, but it could barely topple the inner-workings of a ruler and an organisation. If there was a question that could lead him straight into evidence that he could show Lothringen, the one that seems to simply be trying to do his job, this hidden operation by the pope and king would be over.

At this point, Ren wasn't thinking about Naofumi.

He was merely thinking for himself.

"Last question. Where can I find the details of the trial, including names of witnesses, investigation details and various information that was all omitted from the trial due whatever reasons they had?"

Zellus raised his eyebrows and made a small chuckle.

"Oh my, you're sure going in deep," Zellus jested. "I don't think it's information you can get access to though, so I'll refund you your question. Feel free to ask another—"

"No. This is my question." Ren glared at Zellus from the corner of his eyes. "Answer it."

"If you insist, then fine." Zellus made a defeated sigh, but there was a tone of whimsical sense to it. "The kingdom has an advisor pertaining to the informational network of, well everything. Sourcing information is an essential job for not only the king and queen, but the captains as well. That role is called the royal spymaster, the current one being Noches, and he's primarily in charge of controlling the information given and taken from our eyes in the shadows and any trivial reports that come in. It's a very busy job and severely important to the kingdom, but all that it takes is a simple murder to leave the role open."

"What are you trying to get at here?"

"He stores all the information in his office, not his mind—at least the trivial ones like criminal reports and what not, something that you'll be interested in. I didn't introduce you to his chambers yet, but it's one of the underground floors. It branches away from the dungeons and is usually well protected by knights. The location is pretty obvious once you see it. Even if you're the Sword Hero, they're not letting you pass without a good reason. There's usually a high knight there most of the time too. Though, if you were to pass as one of his agents, you would be able to get through—nah, that's just a thought. Never mind my rambling."

Wow, that was really subtle, Zellus.

Ren wanted to groan that the obvious display in which Zellus wanted Ren to enter through, but Ren didn't even know if Zellus was being stupid, helpful, or trying to bait him out using his mentioned strategy. The fact that Ren couldn't tell said a lot about how much he's gotten a grip on Zellu's seemingly erratic personality.

"I'll warn you though. Those criminal reports are not for public view, even for the Cardinal Heroes. They're exclusive to the captains of the Melromarcian Knights and those with their letter of approval for documents. Of course, the king's ruling and special exceptions like Aldrecht are allowed to seek inside, but you're probably not going to be able to receive such a special exception by a captain or the king."

"Is that so?" Ren sighed, seeing that his meal was almost over.

Zellus took a deep breath for himself and slid the glass a distance away from him towards the bartender. Now that Ren has thought about it, this bartender had been present for the entire conversation, which made him increasingly worried. However, it was as if Zellus knew about Ren's worries and as the bartender caught the sliding glass, Zellus pointed towards him as he sat up from his seat.

"Degroff, do the usual and put the drinks on my tab for next week alongside this guy's meal. Also," Zellus winked, "you didn't hear our conversation that took place here, right?"

The bartender chuckled. "I'm sorry, Zellus. I'm not sure what you're talking about. I was too busy minding my own business here."

"Good on you, Degroff. A business with a good owner that cares about her will surely flourish in the long run." Zellus spun around as he promptly walked towards the door. "And so, those were your three questions, Ren Amaki. Do what you want with your newfound information because I'm certain that you'll find a great use for them. Good luck. You'll need it."

As the chimes rang the exit of the extravagant knight, Ren was left within the tavern all by his lonesome, setting aside the bartender and his thoughts.

He knew he said he didn't want to help out Naofumi, but if he bit the bullet here, he could quickly get all of Naofumi's problems out the window. His hesitation came where he remembered the heated emotions he had shown Naofumi so recklessly and the face Naofumi had been making. The man was trying to defend Motoyasu instead of worrying for himself, so it was hard to find any might to do this for Naofumi.

No, I'm not doing this for Naofumi. I'm doing this to show him.

In any case—

Zellus flashed in his mind once more. His unreadable smirk had been crystal clear as Ren gritted his teeth in frustration.

—whatever game you're playing Zellus, fine.

I'll play along.

Just make sure you don't surrender too early.

(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)

Sunset has already fallen and Ren had walked down the streets of the capital. His mind had been circulating as to how he was going to get into the spymaster's chamber and seek out the information that he needed. Primarily, if he can get the witnesses to confess that they made it all up, then it would be enough for Lothringen to raise his eyebrows and cast skepticism on the case.

The city itself had still been active, trying to milk any last profits that they can get by the people that passed. There were many faces that were unknown and just as many that he would rather keep unknown as he strolled by into the thin crowd. He pushed up his scarf to cover his nose to keep everyone's gazes away from him as he snuck through the streets in the middle of it.

He merely wanted to get back to the inn that his other party members had agreed to meet up at. They would review what occurred during the day and give updates on the current inventory, money, and experience levels. After that, Ren would give out a free time period to let them do whatever they wanted if the result had been satisfactory enough with his expectations.

However, as Ren continued walking, he suddenly hit a stop. Someone had bumped into him and fell over backwards on the stone road.

"A-Ah…"

It was a girl whose green mage's hat had toppled over as she held onto her nose. Her smooth, brown hair had been exposed from underneath where the hat was as she made a high-pitched noise, remarking that she might be younger. Her green tunic had been slightly roughed up from the fall, but Ren didn't bother to extend his hand out. She wasn't looking where she was walking, so he shouldn't be the one to deal with her problems.

Ren was able to leave her to her fallen state, but when he caught a look at her face, he paused.

He had seen this girl before, but Ren couldn't determine where.

"Rino! Don't be running off like a child!" Another woman with brown hair had been walking up to what Ren assumed to be her companion. "I don't want to be doing more work than I have to here."

"S-Sorry, Elena."

The woman, apparently named Elena, had bowed her head in her companion's apologies. If anything, if they wanted to be sorry, they would have let him go on in his business.

"I apologize for my companion, and—huh?"

Elena had widened her eyes when she saw Ren.

"Y-You're the Sword Hero, right?"

Ren could already imagine how this conversation was going to go. Too many times in the past few days had he turned down autographs and mindless conversations from people who practically idolized him, but he supposed it was a given considering there was a religion centered around him and the others. However, that never stopped Ren from refusing to take part in whatever they wanted him to do. He had other stuff he needed to attend anyways.

Ren made a evident groan as he decided to just ignore those two girls, but the girl on the ground had called out for him.

"The S-Sword Hero!? A-Ah, please wait!"

The girl on the ground extended her hand caught onto Ren's pants, causing him to be quickly irritated. He obviously wasn't going to show it to the extent that he could have, but a single glare managed to escape his gaze. The girl hadn't been phased—maybe, she became more hesitant and started stammering in her words—but as she got back on her feet, she approached Ren with a question.

Her words carried a sense where she had to ask.

"P-Please! Both of us are part of the Spear Hero's party, but we have a big problem!" the girl exclaimed. "Help us look for Sir Motoyasu! He's gone missing!"

(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)

Quick Author's Notes

This one was quite the heavy chapter, but not in the usual way.

The first scene is based off of one of AllenBlaster's scenes in [Hope of the Shield Hero]. Specifically, Chapter 14 if you want to see the source. Thanks, Allen. (:FiloYay:) Though, I didn't want to make it seem like it follows the formula of that same scene, giving it some of my little twist to it.

The second scene with Ren and Zellus was brought to you by the inspirations of [Ambition of the Red Princess]. There was no real specific scene that I trailed behind, but I really wanted to demonstrate the mood and atmosphere of the story of this instance, as it's people trying to figure out what's going on, but not wanting to show their own hands too much.