Is anyone else as happy as I am right now? No classes. A fresh chapter. Raphtalia won the Best Girl Award! Yes! Yes yes yes yes YES! And Naofumi's VA got the best Voice Performance in English award. Oh man, this was a good weekend.
Sorry, today's chapter is shorter than usual. I'm still working on the latter part of it for next week. Still, I hope you all enjoy today's chapter! And I hope that, as some of you predicted long ago, you'll enjoy a character introduction that has been waiting to happen for 29 whole chapters!
Since Last Time: 38 more Favorites, 33 more Followers (Total: 970 Favorites, 1132 Followers)
Updated: February 17th, 2020 12:00 P.M.
Chapter Thirty: Bound In Chains
10 Days before the Wave
"Ugh… My head..."
Naofumi blinked as he slowly blinked open his eyes. He had the mother of all headaches going on in his brain. He could tell he was lying down on something hard, but he couldn't tell what it was. 'Ow… What happened…' His vision was clouded with tiredness and pain. As he slowly sat up, he heard a strange clinking sound. When he tried to rub his eyes, he felt something on his wrists weighing them down.
'What the hell-' His eyesight cleared enough that Naofumi sprung to awareness. He was only dressed in the clothes he normally wore under his armor which was missing, and he had chains on both his wrists and his ankles. He was sitting on a stone bed in a dark dungeon cell. The only light came from a small window in the door to the room. He couldn't see anything beyond arm's length with how dark the room was.
'Damn…' Naofumi groaned and clutched his forehead. The pain was spiking from his movement. 'What the hell happened… I remember trying to reason with Motoyasu, and then that stupid nun appeared with those Shadows… and…'
After a moment, his mind finally cleared enough to help him remember what had happened earlier that day.
Oof!
Naofumi was thrown roughly against the ground. The impact caused him to groan and stir from his slumber. The front of his body felt sore from the 75-foot drop he'd done earlier that day. His Shield arm also felt sore from the powerful attacks he'd had to block. He tried to move, only to feel he was chained up and restrained like an animal. 'The hell?!'
He opened his eyes and found himself laid on a red-carpeted floor. Looking up, he found he was in the same throne room he'd been led to back when he was first summoned to Melromarc. A line of chandeliers hung on both sides of the ceiling. Around him, standing guard in lines were several squads of heavily armed Capital Knights and a few Shadows. Outside on the outskirts of the throne room, watching from between ornate pillars were some of the country's nobility along with advisors and Church Representatives. There were noticeably fewer nobles than before.
'What happened?! Why am I here!? Where's Raphtalia and Filo!?' Naofumi thought frantically.
He saw one of the Church Representatives, a nun, grinning ear to ear. Malice written in her eyes along with her smile. It was Altara. Here to see the great Shield Demon brought to justice.
It only took a second and Naofumi remembered what had happened. His blood boiled at the sight of the nun. He might have been inflicted with a sleep status effect (something he didn't have a resistance to since he hadn't found the appropriate Shields yet), but he couldn't forget her. Not when this nun had been plotting with Bitch!
"So, you finally wake up, Shield!"
Naofumi looked up. The red carpet led up to a small series of steps that ended at a platform with two thrones on it. Sitting on the left throne was none other than the Trash King himself. An arrogant smile was on his face as he took in the sight of his most hated enemy bound in chains before him. One of his ministers was behind him on his left. "How does it feel, knowing you can't run from your crimes anymore, Cursed Shield?"
The arrogant smile brought anger to Naofumi even greater than what he'd felt for the spiteful nun. He struggled against the chains binding him to no avail.
"Air Strike Shield!" He tried forming a shield close to his body to break the chains. A thin-looking green shield flickered in front of him for a second, and then it disappeared. "What the hell…" A notification had just popped up on his screen, telling him he couldn't use the skill due to Outside Interference.
"Try all you like. These chains were especially enchanted by mages from Faubley long ago to bind powerful criminals. They can bind even a Cardinal Hero when necessary!" The King yelled, victory lacing his tone. "You can't get out of them unless I say so!"
'What?' Naofumi thought in surprise. 'No, it's not possible.'
"Your Majesty, I managed to bring Naofumi in as you requested," Motoyasu said. Further catching Naofumi off guard as he appeared from the side. He bowed to the King.
"Good work, Sir Motoyasu." The King said calmly.
"Motoyasu! You, you bastard!" Naofumi yelled at him. He thought Itsuki told him that Motoyasu cut off his attachments to the King. That the two of them had had a falling out or something. Did that mean Itsuki was wrong or … had he been lying to him about Motoyasu?
Motoyasu didn't look at Naofumi when he yelled. He just stayed in his bow until the King spoke again. "You made some mistakes in the past. But I can see how you have refused to let them define you." Aultcray said proudly as he stood up. Opening his arms as if he was welcoming a prodigal son home. "You are hereby redeemed from your self-punishment and shall be entrusted with the care of my daughter and her friends once again. You may return to your room now. Your funds and your party members will be waiting for you there." The King responded to the Spear Hero, sounding genuinely happy and proud of him.
Motoyasu looked… was it just Naofumi, or did it seem like Motoyasu was uncertain for a second? Did he have second thoughts about his actions? But it quickly passed as if it had never happened and Motoyasu stood back up. Bowing his head respectfully to the King. "Yes, your Majesty. Your kindness and forgiveness are much appreciated." Motoyasu responded formally, before turning around to leave.
"I hope it's worth it Motoyasu," Naofumi said bitterly as Motoyasu passed him again. "I hope you enjoy being the hero that everyone else wants you to be instead of the hero you should be."
He didn't get a reply from Motoyasu or see if Motoyasu had heard him or not. It didn't matter to Naofumi either. He was still the same naive idiot who did whatever he felt was right, no matter the consequences. 'I should have never tried reasoning with that blonde fool. I should have just run while I had the chance-'
"Now, Shield, the time of your trial has come at last!"
Naofumi focused on the King again, who was looking down on him as if he was the filth of the world. "First, in your long list of crimes, you attempted to rape my daughter, the first princess Malty Melromarc, and fled the Capital!" Aultcray's voice boomed authoritatively.
"I did not rape that Bitch." Naofumi immediately refuted.
"You will not call my daughter by such a foul term!" The King yelled over him.
"Also, I ran away from a plot to have me killed. It wasn't because I tried to rape anyone." Naofumi could already tell he was going to get a guilty verdict. This wasn't a trial. It was a sham. So he spoke dryly, refuting the King.
"And do you have evidence that what you say is true?" The King mockingly asked.
"Why? You wouldn't believe me if I had any." Naofumi coldly replied. All he had was his word. There was nothing else solid to back him up.
The King continued as if Naofumi hadn't interrupted. "You broke into our holy Church! Brainwashed a 'demi-human' to serve by your side! Committed various crimes and atrocities in killing the nobility across my country! And worst of all, you are responsible for the disappearance of the Holy Sword and Bow Heroes!-"
"BULL****!" Naofumi finally yelled.
He had broken into a Church, yes, but saying he had brainwashed Raphtalia to serve him was rubbish. Saying he was the one killing nobles was also rubbish. That was Itsuki, not him. He was curious about what he meant with Ren and Itsuki disappearing, but he was far too angry with Aultcray to ask. "YOU'RE REALLY PILING THE RUBBISH ON NOW YOU PIECE OF TRASH! I GUESS IT FITS YOU THOUGH SINCE TRASH AND RUBBAGE GET ALONG SO WELL!" Naofumi continued to yell in anger. Even in chains, defenseless and powerless, there was an intimidating air around Naofumi. One that made Trash pause for a moment.
Naofumi stood up in his chains. "Yes, I broke into the Church! But before that, I asked the priests nicely to let me register for the wave! They were the ones that forced me to break in since they wanted to keep me from fighting! An action that would have cost the lives of all the people who'd been trapped in Lute Village!" Naofumi said, gesturing angrily with his head at Altara and the other Church Representatives.
"Secondly, I didn't brainwash anyone!" Naofumi continued. "If I could do that, I wouldn't be in this situation right now! Actually, I would have brainwashed Motoyasu so I wouldn't have to be here!"
"Lastly, how can I kill a noble when I have no ****ing attack stat?!" It was one of his best qualities. It still took him four and a half minutes to punch a level one balloon into oblivion. There was no way he himself could actually kill someone unless he used his Chimera Viper Shield's skill. And he still had as of yet to manage to seriously hurt someone or something with that poison.
"Are you quite done yet." The King said rudely.
"No, I'd like to say you're full of **** while I'm at it!" Naofumi said angrily. "YOU CALL THIS A TRIAL?! NO! BULL****! THAT'S WHAT THIS IS! THERE'S MOUNTAINS OF EVIDENCE THAT GO AGAINST WHAT YOU JUST SAID BUT YOU WON'T CARE SINCE YOU BELIEVE I'M THE DEVIL HIMSELF! IF YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS CRAP BECAUSE YOU'RE A ****ING KING THEN YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRASH!" Naofumi could have sworn the gemstone turned red on his shield while he was yelling. It was only thanks to these chains and the knowledge that he had no attack stat that he didn't run up to the King to deck him in the face.
...
"I see." Aultcray stood up. "You want evidence of your crimes, then fine. This trial will be put on hold so we can gather it!" He slammed the end of his staff authoritatively on the ground. "In the meantime, Shield; I, King Aultcray Melromarc the XXXII, pronounce you to be held in the Castle Dungeons until we've gathered all the evidence!" The King yelled dramatically. "You shall not be let out, not even for a wave! You will sit in a cell and rot like the scum you are until the evidence you are looking for has been gathered and you are inevitably found guilty of the crimes I listed!"
What!?" Naofumi yelled. "But I'm supposed to fight in the waves! You can't keep me from fighting in them!"
"I can, and I will!" The King yelled angrily. "You want evidence of your crimes and yet you refuse to abide by our laws! You truly are a demon!" He yelled authoritatively. "This trial will now be on hold until the Shield Demon's request is fulfilled!"
Cheers erupted from the people on the sides. Altara the nun looked ecstatic at the Shield Hero's fate. Of course, there was no evidence, the Church especially knew this. But now Naofumi would never be allowed to see the light of freedom again. His scourge on their country would be eradicated in the dungeons.
Naofumi had seen some pretty twisted things before. But this, this took the cake.
"You… you're insane!" Naofumi clenched his fists angrily. "Do you even care about the lives of your people?!" Naofumi accused him. "If I don't fight in the coming wave, it'll be much stronger than usual! It'll already be stronger if Itsuki and Ren have disappeared! You can't just throw everyone's lives away-"
"Take him to the dungeons," Aultcray said dismissively. Not addressing Naofumi's accusations. "I don't want to see his face again until the evidence is gathered."
"JUST HOW STUPID ARE YOU-" Naofumi tried to speak, to say something, but he felt something prick his neck again. Was it just him, or had it pricked him more easily? Looking down, he saw his shield, covered in chains, in its default form. In other words, one of his lowest defense rating shields. "No… Filo… Raphtal-"
Naofumi fell forward, the tranquilizer already taking effect. He might have had a resistance to poisons, acid, and other things. But he had no resistance to attacks that inflicted sleep. "Take him away!" The King yelled to the soldiers.
"Yes, your Majesty."
"You… bastard…" Naofumi faintly whispered before he blacked out.
Naofumi returned to the present. 'Oh, I remember now… there wasn't anything I could do… that piece of Trash threw me in here to rot.' Gather evidence, yeah right. It was more like the King had been looking for any excuse to keep him locked up for all eternity. It hadn't been a trial he'd seen back there. It was a sham. It was one big, twisted, ugly sham meant to keep him imprisoned.
Well, he'd show him. One way or another, he'd get his payback on the King.
...
Naofumi still felt like he had a major headache. It was likely a side effect of the tranquilizer that had been used on him to knock him out. He hadn't fully slept it off yet.
'I just… I don't get it.'
How could so many people in this world hate him this much? That they'd lock him away even if it meant losing their own lives. Was it because of people blindly believing in their religious leaders? Was it because people in power abused their authority? Was it just because people hated the Shield Hero that much that they wanted to accuse all the problems they were suffering from on him? Was that all he was, a scapegoat in demon form?
And Ren and Itsuki… the King had blamed him for their disappearances… did that mean something had happened to them that he wasn't aware of?
'You know what, forget it. I need to figure out what I can do and find my own way out of this mess.' He was alive, but his party members, the people he trusted, were still out there, waiting for him. There was a wave coming that he had to fight. If he didn't, many innocent people would die! He had a painful headache, and he was exhausted, but he couldn't take this lying down! He had to fight back!
'Let's go over options.' He checked the timer on his menu. The red hourglass showed there were only ten days until the next wave. He estimated it had been almost a day since he'd been captured, meaning it was evening outside. 'I could wait the ten days out and then be teleported to wherever the wave was happening to escape... but I get the feeling that the chains I'm wearing will restrain me from teleporting. And I'd rather not wait ten days. So that option is out.'
'What else can I do?' He focused on the status icon in the corner of his view, hoping that his status magic wasn't restricted. He sighed in relief when he found he was still able to open the icon, and he was further relieved when he immediately saw Raphtalia and Filo's stats appear under his own. Even though they'd locked him up, they hadn't been able to remove his party members. They were at full bars of HP and MP. Since he could see their stats, that meant they were still alive and doing well...
Naofumi quickly checked his own stats. There was a notification to the right of his stats saying his shield was locked in its default form. He still had a high defense stat due to stat boosts he'd unlocked from some of his other shields. However, with being locked in his weakest shield, and because he was missing his Barbarian Armor… his defense stat was about less than a fifth to a fourth of what it normally was.
...
Just to check and make sure, he tried accessing the Shield Menu from his status screen to see if he could change shields that way.
Unable to Access. Locked due to Outside Interference
'So I can access my status magic, but I can't change to a stronger shield to break out from these chains… 'Damn them.' He thought in frustration. That option was also out.
He opened a tab in his menu and checked his Shield's Inventory. All of the maps, coins, potions, and other items he'd been carrying before being captured were still in there. Apparently, even if he was a criminal, they didn't have the power to access any of his Peddler I and II Shields and take away all his stored money and items. They could only take away the armor he wore and keep his shield stuck in its default form.
'So besides my armor, I still have everything else. That means if I can just get these chains off, I can switch to a shield with higher defense and get the hell out of here.'
He tried to pull out one of the crafting tools he normally used to shape gemstones from the gemstone of his shield. His current plan was to use its sharp blade to saw through the chains. Then use it to saw the hinges off the door, and improvise from there.
He found, however, that he couldn't pull the Jewel Saw out. He could see it in his inventory, but he couldn't access it. 'Alright, time for a different approach.'
"Jewel Saw."
By saying the name of an item in his Shield's Inventory, Naofumi could summon the item from his Shield into his hand. It was a skill that used SP, but it'd come in handy when he didn't have time to look through his inventory before.
…
…
…
…
After a long pause, nothing happened. "Jewel Saw." He said more forcefully.
Again, nothing happened. No tool appeared in his hand to help him cut through the chains. 'Come on!? Just how many things can these chains manage to block me from accessing?!' He thought angrily.
"Jewel Saw. Jewel Saw. Jewel Saw!" Naofumi yelled at the end in frustration. 'Damn it! I thought I'd found a loophole to these blasted chains!' Naofumi thought angrily. There went yet another option to escape.
'What else can I do?! These chains can't just keep me bound here?! I'm a freaking Cardinal Hero damn it! This Shield must have some type of power that'd allow me to escape-' He was thinking angrily in his frustration.
"It's no use. If magic worked here, I could have escaped long ago." A feminine voice said opposite him.
Naofumi looked up in surprise. Because of the low light, he'd thought he was the only one in this cell. However, after having been given some time for his eyes to adjust, he was now able to make out the outline of another stone bed at least a dozen feet across from him. Someone was laying on it. "I'm sorry. Who are you?" Naofumi asked.
The woman, for Naofumi, had deduced by this time that it was a woman lying on the bed, sat up. The faint torchlight fell over her, and he was genuinely surprised. Unlike himself, dressed in the clothes of an adventurer, she was dressed like a noble. She wore a mostly blue outfit, with gold colors on the shoulders, the collar, and the center of her outfit. A series of light metal diagonal squares were spaced evenly throughout the center of the gold-colored part of the outfit like buttons, traveling up to a red jewel holding the collar together. Looking closely at it, the jewel kind of resembled his shield. He at first thought it was a dress, but then he realized that it wasn't a dress. It was more like the chainmail he'd first worn, only fancier and made from better materials. It was the coolest armor he'd ever seen so far in this world.
"And why are you here?" Naofumi finally asked. This was the last place he'd ever expected to meet someone that struck him as a noble. No, it wasn't just her armor, but even chained up, this woman held an air of authority around her.
She lifted her face to look at him. She had long strawberry-blonde hair and startling blue eyes. In the faint torchlight, her face could have rivaled Raphtalia in beauty... if it wasn't for the scruffs and cuts on it. Along with the look of hopelessness in her eyes that had come from her time in prison.
"I am here awaiting a trial that will never happen." The woman said calmly. "For a crime I never committed."
"... Well," Naofumi said. "I wasn't using magic. I was trying to do something else to help me escape."
"Even if you weren't using magic, it'd be impossible to break those chains." The woman said defeatedly. "They keep magic users from accessing their MP."
'There goes the only other option I could think of.' Naofumi thought. Not that it'd help him much since he didn't know any magic that could destroy anything.
"These chains are enchanted to prevent prisoners from accessing anything other than their status magic." The woman continued, before looking down at the shield on his arm. "That would include access to SP and any other powers possessed by the Cardinal Heroes."
…
"I take it you know who I am then," Naofumi said dryly.
"Of course I know who you are, Shield Hero." She said. "After all, I signed up to become a member of your party when you were first summoned to my world long ago."
… Naofumi was confused at what she'd said. Or maybe it was the pain of his headache clouding his mind. 'She signed up to join my party? I don't remember anyone other than Bitch joining me that first day...' "I'm sorry. I don't know if you already said it... But… who are you again?" He asked confusedly.
The woman let out a defeated sigh. She hadn't expected her first meeting with the Shield Hero to be here, chained up as cellmates in the Castle Dungeons. But…
"My name is Eclair Seaetto." Eclair introduced herself. "I am the daughter of the late Lord Seaetto. And I am a Knight of Melromarc."
"Thank the Gods you're alright."
"I can say the same to you."
"Were you and your party also attacked?"
"Yeah, we barely made it out alive."
"Same here. My party… it isn't good. I almost killed one of them."
"You what?"
"I..."
"..."
"..."
…
...
"It doesn't matter now. You heard what Motoyasu did, right?"
"... Yeah, I did."
"Do you think he realizes what the Church is twisting him to do?"
"I doubt it."
"Then what do you think we should do?"
"They tried to kill us. If I learned anything down in those Archives, they'll try to kill Naofumi while he's jailed up."
"Then we need to rescue him."
"Right. You have the closest waypoint saved to your weapon. Mine were erased somehow by the Church."
"The closest I have is a day's journey away. We'll have to move quickly."
"Gather your party members. And any other volunteers who want to help us. We can't let Motoyasu's mistake kill Naofumi."
Again, sorry for how short this chapter is. I wasn't planning on cutting it so short, so there won't be an omake in this chapter. There will be an omake for the next chapter though. And it is going to be hilarious. I hope you all enjoy your week and keep up with the Support!
I can't wait to hear what you guys want to see now that Eclair has been added to the mix.
Till Next Time
Allen
