STA: The last fandom that I was in was strictly a manga without much of note happening in spin-offs, so you could pretty safely assume that most people reading fanfic knew all the relevant canon, and it's come to my attention that I maybe shouldn't make that assumption for a light novel series where a ton of people only watched the anime, the manga hasn't yet introduced a lot of characters in the LNs, certain main story plot events are contained in a drama CD that only recently got a fan translation, and a lot of the events for this fic are taking information from a spin-off that no one is translating the WN of and a lot of people won't touch the manga for.

So clarification on a spoiler that you all read last chapter: Someone is going around targeting heroes and stealing their weapons. The Claw Hero is one of the first people targeted. The group behind this includes a fox woman named Tulna with strong illusion magic. In the spin-off, when the Claw Hero is called on to meet Naofumi, she poses as the Claw Hero and is exposed when Motoyasu accidentally murders her about one minute into the meeting. Since Motoyasu isn't OP in this fic, I gave Fitoria the job of catching on and killing her instead. Both in the spin-off and in this fic, her appearance and death are the instigator for a larger plot to do with the group she belongs to.

(Actually, Naofumi encountering Sadeena in the village was based on spin-off content too.)

-x-

Since unlocking the Portal Spear, Naofumi developed a routine. He could only store three locations at a time, so one was whichever location his party most recently traveled to in their adventures, one was the island off the shore of Lurolona that Sadeena used as her secret base, and the last was a back alley in Melromarc. He moved between travel locations and the base at meal time, and checked Melromarc every evening.

That evening's check came up fruitless. The slave merchant had no new Lurolona slaves, nor did any business partners have one to sell. Not even a child, and certainly no adults. The slave merchant even canvased his own network as a service to a return customer, but no one along his business chain relieved such slaves. They would have to start looking at other slave traders, and even check sales records to find Lurolona slaves who they hadn't purchased in time.

Although Sadeena told him that demi-human children aged rapidly when leveled up and that those children who wanted to fight in the waves would grow into their role, Naofumi couldn't in good conscience put children on the battlefield. Even if they looked like adults, the oldest of the children they reclaimed was only twelve. He thought if they found more adults like Sadeena, they could grow their party, but so far it was only the two of them. It seemed all the other adults from Sadeena's village died during the wave.

There were other slaves Naofumi bought. Children he picked up and brought back to the hideout regardless of their origin. (They couldn't stay in Lurolona itself. When he spent a night there with only Sadeena, they'd been harassed by slavers.) If he had more money, he would also rescue older slaves. But Sadeena putting out a request for specific slaves drove up the price. They needed to save every copper they could for saving children.

There were other expenses too. Feeding twelve kids was no small feat. Before he returned to the base, he needed to buy more ingredients.

From the slave merchant's tent, there was a network of back streets you could take to quickly reach the market. Naofumi paused along that route to slip into a dive of a tavern for only a minute. Since he stopped staying at inns, taverns and gossip while hawking wares were his go-to for news. The guild only ever reported on Itsuki and the princess, and Naofumi suspected the king controlled what info they shared.

There was gossip among the drunks of how the Sword Hero slew a dragon, but still no word of Motoyasu. The last Naofumi heard, the Shield Hero allegedly attacked guards along the border before disappearing. A story Naofumi would believe when hell froze over. The Shield Hero couldn't attack.

The survivors of Lyute still fumed at how Motoyasu failed to protect them. Naofumi couldn't get a word in edgewise whenever he crossed their paths to explain that Motoyasu was protecting another kingdom in need. Personally, he was madder that Itsuki and Ren had run to fight the chimera and left a spear wielder to play defense. If they all defended the village until the soldiers arrived, there would have been fewer casualties.

No helping it now. All he could do was get stronger for the future. But even if Sadeena had already gotten his level up to the 70s, a party of two could only do so much.

The dilemma had troubled him the past few weeks. After one too many attempts by the church to plant a new party member for him, he was wary of any offers. Demi-humans were a safer bet, but too few were willing to fight. Any slaves who could fight in the waves, would demolish the funds Naofumi needed to save the victims of the first wave.

It was while ruminating on the problem that Naofumi heard the scream.

There were two other men in the alley, both seedy looking, neither concerned by the noise. Like they heard it all the time, and it was nothing to be alarmed by.

Ten feet away was a brothel. He could have easily misinterpreted that scream, and rushing to the rescue only to find out he interrupted…

Naofumi slapped his cheeks so he could say they were only red from his hand prints. He was the Spear Hero! A little embarrassment shouldn't stop him from helping people!

"No! Stop! Stop!"

Naofumi threw open the brothel doors and ran past a man who tried to grab him to burst into the room from which he thought the sound came.

Two men inside, thankfully beneath a sheet, froze and looked at him in horror.

"S-sorry. I…"

"Stop! Please! Help!"

"Sorry again!"

Naofumi left the two men and threw open the adjacent door.

A man had a young woman pinned against the wall, a shackle linking her ankle to a nearby bed. Her torn top lay at her feet. Her arms were pinned over her head by one of the man's hands while he used the other to wrestle off her skirt.

Naofumi raised his spear.

"Back away from her."

The man shot him a dirty look without turning from the girl. "I paid fair and square."

"Then go get your refund. She's not interested. Right, miss?"

The girl had fallen to her knees and was sobbing into her hands. When Naofumi called on her, she shook her head, but said nothing.

"What kind of cheap whore charges and then chickens out?" the man snarled. "You, get out already. I paid, so I can do whatever I—"

"Shooting Star Spear!"

Meteorite chunks crashed into the wall to the right of the man, who was only level 8. While the coward ducked from an attack never aimed at him, Naofumi slammed his spear into the chain on the ground. It broke with a satisfying clang, and he grabbed the girl and pulled her through the hole in the wall before activating his next skill.

"Hey! Get back here you son of a—"

"Portal Spear!"

-o-

"Oh? Naofumi-chan visited a brothel? If I'd known you needed a little comfort, I'd have happily satisfied you."

"This is exactly why I didn't want to go in there."

"Does that mean you already had your fill for tonight.?What a shame. You know, at my cup size, my breasts are quite heavy. I was hoping someone could hold them for me."

"I see. I'll hold your cups then." Naofumi gathered up the nearest of the mugs Sadeena had filled with booze in his arms. "Clearly, you've had enough to drink for the night."

"I could drink a little more. It looks like someone has something to offer me."

She gestured downward, and Naofumi lowered the mugs to hide his crotch. A good-natured and buxom woman was talking about sex with him. Of course his body would react! But even if the children had been shooed away, while the girl he rescued listened in was not the time!

"You've had enough for the week," Naofumi amended. "Now either sober up and help me out, or go to bed."

Sadeena pouted, but set down the drink in her hand and turned her full attention to the rescued girl.

In the heat of the moment, Naofumi hadn't taken the time to really look at her, but he'd been able to take the girl in since. She looked too young for that line of work. Even the braids she'd tied her long green hair in only served to make her seem more childish and timid. Although she'd calmed somewhat after Naofumi lent her his jacket, she had yet to speak. At least she'd finally lifted her head to inspect the cave he brought her to.

"Naofumi-chan didn't scare you by taking you so suddenly, did he?" Sadeena asked. "I promise he's not a bad kidnapper. We can take you back to the castle town as soon as his spear recharges. Naofumi-chan, your other portal goes to Roanwa right now, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I didn't get the chance to buy anything for dinner either…"

"We have enough food still to throw something together. I can return to bland, inferior cooking for one night on this girl's behalf. Although as payment for foregoing one of Naofumi-chan's delicious meals… Miss? Can you tell us your name?"

"Huh!?" The girl looked at Sadeena as if noticing for the first time that she wasn't alone in the room. "R-Rishia! Rishia Ivyred!"

Even speaking, she seemed timid.

"Rishia-chan, are you injured? Naofumi-chan can use healing magic."

Rishia shook her head.

"That's good. No old bruises either?"

Another head shake.

Rishia caught onto the meaning of that question before Naofumi, and whispered, "I've never been inside a place like that before today."

He really rescued her in the nick of time. Naofumi sighed to himself, relieved that this girl was safe, and that Sadeena realized the need to be serious.

Except then Sadeena asked, "Is there anything we can do to help?" and Rishia shook her head again.

Rishia still trembled slightly. Obviously she needed some sort of support. But Sadeena took that response in, shrugged, and rose to her feet.

"Then I won't bother you. If you decide you need a fellow woman to talk to, call for me. Otherwise, I leave you in Naofumi-chan's hands. He'll make dinner and help you get home once the children have eaten."

"You're leaving?"

"I have to check on the children."

"Oh… okay…"

The ones who saw Rishia saw her clothed and quiet. Keel had even tried to play with her before he was chased off.

She must have wanted to check on the one that screamed a lot. Sadeena was keen on that girl. So keen that they were outlaws in the domain they stole her from. Apparently, her parents had been dear to Sadeena. But she hadn't spoken a word to Naofumi since they rescued her save to go into hysterics whenever he got close. When he watched from a distance, he would see her mutter few words to Sadeena, but she was so subdued that she wouldn't chew unless Sadeena or Keel put food in her mouth for her. Naofumi had no idea what that girl had been like before the waves, but Sadeena said she'd been incredible.

Woe be unto him to keep those two apart.

"I guess I'll start on dinner…"

There was no proper stove or oven, but Naofumi and Sadeena had built a fire pit and piled rocks around it to make a space to cook. Naofumi took fish that Sadeena caught while he was out, gutted then, and laid them over the heat to grill.

While they sizzled, he looked over at Rishia, still sitting far away. Outside of Sadeena, Naofumi didn't have much experience with women, and he was pretty sure Sadeena was not the norm. How was he supposed to talk to her after what happened?

He couldn't say nothing. Naofumi steeled himself and forced words out.

Um… Rishia? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to but… Well… When we bring you back, will you be safe?"

"Fue…"

"No?"

Rishia squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, braids whipping back and forth.

"I don't know! I don't know why Itsuki-sama never came for me, or if I would be sold somewhere worse if I tried to reach him to tell him what happened."

"Huh? Itsuki?"

"You know him!? He tried to keep a low profile."

He wasn't trying hard! Naofumi could barely go anywhere without hearing about Itsuki's exploits!

"We were summoned together." Naofumi held his spear out for Rishia to see better. "I'm also a Holy Hero."

Rishia nodded, but didn't say anything to that.

Well, given how quiet she'd been thus far, that probably wasn't a bad response.

It could be worse. If he were Motoyasu, he'd have no chance of getting her to talk. Imagine being saved from a near rape by the hero best known for supposedly trying to rape the princess. Ren never wanted to talk either. Awkward as Naofumi felt in that moment, he was the best hero to have stumbled upon Rishia. Unless he wasn't. What was that about Itsuki coming for her?

"How did you meet Itsuki, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Itsuki-sama saved me. My family was forced to give me to a neighboring nobleman to save their land, but he tricked them and took me away. Itsuki-sama freed me from him. I was going to serve Itsuki-sama to thank him with my support but… fue…"

So the girl was a magnet for situations like the one Naofumi found her in. How unfortunate.

"I think I can guess the rest. That creep followed you back to the castle and took you while Itsuki was distracted." Naofumi tightened his grip on his spear. "That building isn't too far from the location I saved. When we go back there, I can straighten that guy out."

It felt embarrassing to say. Naofumi had never tried to play tough guy before. He reflexively apologized to a guard he knocked out the time they went to rescue that girl Sadeena wanted. Although he'd been too angry after seeing the dungeon they pulled her from to remember how he conducted himself after. He wasn't quite that angry yet, but Rishia needed someone to assure her she was safe. Hopefully, he had looked more heroic than goofy.

"Fue…"

"I-I'm stronger than I look, you know."

Rishia shook her head. "I don't doubt you. But that man wasn't the same one Itsuki rescued me from. He was… a customer at that… place. I wish he'd listened to me, but the one who bought me was the building's owner."

"Bought?"

Rishia didn't answer.

It couldn't be…

From his interactions with Itsuki, Naofumi had gotten the impression he was a decent person. A little obsessed with what impression he made, but largely well intending. Naofumi didn't have much nice to say about the princess or how readily Itsuki took her at her word, but being a poor judge of character wasn't the same as having a poor character. Naofumi never shared Motoyasu's belief that Itsuki was a confederate in the conspiracy to smear the Shield Hero. In fact, since Itsuki did occasionally question the princess while Motoyasu let her get him blackout drunk, Itsuki had a better track record of not taking her entirely at her word.

But if he was involved in human trafficking, that changed everything.

"I see. So that's what Itsuki's really like…"

"Fue!? Itsuki-sama never did anything wrong!"

"Ah… My mistake. Sorry. I shouldn't be so quick to jump to assumptions like that about my fellow heroes. After what happened with Motoyasu, I guess I've been a little on edge."

How far he'd fallen from the wide-eyed young man he was upon summoning. Now he was so readily suspicious of people, and even if it was for a good cause, he'd become a regular in a slave tent. The old Naofumi would be horrified to see what he turned into upon coming to a fantasy world.

So it wasn't anyone from Itsuki's team, and it wasn't the man who took her in the first place.

"It wasn't a complete stranger who sold you to that place, was it?" Naofumi asked. "Talk about bad luck."

Rishia looked down at her hands, and Naofumi couldn't help but think that she didn't want to tell him he was wrong again.

…Because for some reason, she was afraid to name the culprit.

"I'd like to have a word with whoever did that to you," Naofumi said. "If you're afraid of backlash for it, I can keep quiet. But if someone is targeting the heroes or their allies, as the Spear Hero, I need to know about that. I have a dozen children under my care right now. I need to ensure their safety."

"Fue…"

"You saw them when we arrived, right? Please? I won't make any trouble for you, but I need to know that Sadeena and the children stay safe."

Although if anyone tried to pull anything on Sadeena, Naofumi was more worried about what state he'd find her would-be assailant in.

"I may have misunderstood the situation…"

"That's fine. It's only something I want to know so I can take precautions. I won't act against anyone you don't want me to."

Rishis still fiddled with her braids as she hesitated to tell him, "When Itsuki-sama went to the guild to listen for rumors of other injustices that he might be able to help correct, a few of the other members of the party said they wanted to show me a certain weapons shop. My stats aren't as good as the rest of the party's, and they promised they could get me equipment to help me be more useful to Itsuki-sama. But was taken to that building instead. Mald held me in place while they put this shackle on me, and Myne and the owner of that place argued about how I came without a slave seal and then agreed on a payment in light of that. And then they left."

"…What part of that did you misunderstand?" Naofumi asked.

"Fue?"

That sigh was starting to annoy him.

"They pinned you down, put you in chains, and sold you to a brothel. What sort of context could you be missing that makes that okay?"

"Maybe Itsuki-sama was planning to expose them, and he needed someone on the inside."

"But then wouldn't they ask you if you wanted to be their plant? Never mind that. They ought to have told you! They definitely sold you to a brothel with ill intent! Itsuki let that happen!?"

When Itsuki and Naofumi met up for the first wave, he'd learned that Itsuki had recruited a demi-human to his party, only for that party member to be found dead several days later. Itsuki had thought Motoyasu was responsible, and the princess had talked up how Siltvelt might have done the deed on Motoyasu's orders. At the time, Naofumi thought Itsuki paranoid and the princess shady. Now he revised that impression.

Itsuki was an idiot at best. He went around fighting for justice and supposedly tried to keep a low profile, but didn't notice fiends within his own party? Even if you supposed the princess was subtle, the guilds weren't. Itsuki had to have noticed all the stories of his exploits practically posted on bulletins. Itsuki was either willfully ignoring that his every deed was widely reported, or wanted to be praised for not caring about recognition while reveling in it at the same time.

And if the princess could sell one of Itsuki's party members as a sex slave, what else did she get up to? The demi-human from Itsuki's party died while they stayed at an inn, with no signs of forced entry. The official story was that she must have forgotten to lock the door

"I don't think I can take you back there tonight," Naofumi decided. "If Itsuki's party is that bad, then what would they do if they saw you? You don't have to stay at my hideout, so I can drop you off in Roanwa, but I can't in good conscience put you back in danger."

"I'm sure Itsuki-sama would-"

"Assuming Itsuki is innocent, he failed to notice criminals right beneath his nose. Would he know to protect you If you went back? Would he believe you over the princess if you told him what happened?"

He wouldn't. Itsuki could tell when the princess contradicted that which he saw with his own eyes, but he was wrapped around her fingers. For any situation where there wasn't evidence to contradict her, he took her word above all else.

"Since Itsuki-sama is innocent," Rishia said, "and he failed to see through those two, someone needs to stop him before they ruin him."

One of those two was the princess of Meleomarc. They couldn't exactly call her a villain without solid proof. But Rishia was right about them needing to help Itsuki. They couldn't let a hero be compromised. The band of four was already short one after that same princess chased their shield out of the kingdom.

"You're not wrong, and I'm willing to believe you. I've seen the princess do some shady things. But she got away with all of them. Unless you have solid proof she sold you, you're the one who will suffer for it if you tell Itsuki what happened. Still, to think she was that bad… That's not something I can overlook. I'm still happy to take you to Roanwa if you want, but…" Naofumi opened up his menu and sent Rishia an invite. "…I'd like to work with you. We have a shared interest in keeping the Bow Hero from falling."

And if the princess had tried to keep this girl away from Itsuki, then there was no way she was a plant. If she served well by one hero's side, she could be of great help to…

She had absolutely terrible stats.

Because Naofumi had forced a gentle smile throughout so much of the conversation, it (felt like it) was easy to (hopefully) maintain a pleasant expression as Naofumi took in just what kind of stats he'd taken on. Level 30? Her stats were all worse than his had been at level 10!

"Great. How long did you travel with Itsuki?" A day? Two? "If you have a sense for the types of quests he takes, Sadeena and I can focus on jobs and business ventures in the same areas. The more times we cross his path, the more chances we'll have to catch the princess doing something we can get her on."

The priority had to remain collecting the Lurolona children. Keel, being the first child they came across, have given them the names of every survivor he knew of, and they had less than a quarter of the names and one confirmed death of a child already. To say nothing of what the children they reclaimed alive endured while enslaved. Naofumi couldn't see another small corpse or another broken child like that screaming girl, even if that meant letting the princess do more harm in the meantime. Gathering funds for more slave purchases trumped tracking the princess, but as often as they could do both at once, they would.

"I was with Itsuki for almost a week. I think I gained a good sense of what patterns he likes in quests."

"Good. And… about your stats…"

"Fue…"

"I have a spear that can boost stat growth, but only under certain circumstances. If we manage to meet the criteria, let me know what stats you want to focus on. If we're lucky, it will happen before I get a good sense for what your strengths are."

The Friendship Spear he unlocked when Sadeena drunkenly demanded he see what he could get by absorbing a lock of her hair. For some reason, the spear's name had irked her. It did sound a little lame, like something out of a bad shounen. He was embarrassed to say it out loud or even switch to it. Since Sadeena planned to reset her level once Naofumi was confident he could manage while she worked her way back up, he hadn't used it much on her yet, even though its ability to adjust the stat growth of those in his party with whom he formed a bond was useful.

But if you told someone that by befriending them, they could gain a huge stat boost, that opened the door to people only pretending to be your friends. Even an honest person who didn't want to take advantage of you might feel awkward knowing there was an incentive, and that could hurt a relationship as well. He'd told Sadeena about it, but planned on keeping it a secret otherwise. If someone with loose lips heard, all of Melromarc might know within days.

Letting Rishia know that he had some means of giving others a boost was more than he wanted a girl he just met to know. But really, her stats were atrocious.

"I-I'll do my best! Whatever role you need me to fill."

Between her lightning and harpoon, Sadeena already handled most ranges of combat well, while Naofumi could fight in close quarters and short distances. Ideally, she would be well suited to attack from the back.

Even if she didn't fit neatly in combat, she could always help them pick out jobs, confront Itsuki when the time came, and then babysit when he and Sadeena wanted some private time.

That was a selfish thought. Naofumi turned back to the cooking so Rishia couldn't see him look ashamed of himself. The fish were fully cooked, and he took them off the heat and laid them out on plates for everyone.

"I'm going to call the children back for dinner. There's enough for you too. Have a seat… um… anywhere. Sorry that we're short on furniture. Tell us about what you did on Itsuki's team while we eat. Sadeena will want input to on how we can best combine our strengths."

Rishia didn't seem as useful as what he'd hoped, but maybe she was the norm for most citizens, and Sadeena was an exception in terms of abilities. In any case, at least for the time being, it seemed Naofumi had gotten his wish for a third party member.

-x-

STA: I almost named this chapter "Rino" as a nod to the member of Motoyasu's party who Myne sold to a brothel behind his back in canon, but that story was cut from both the manga and anime so I don't know how many people would have recognized the name.

Anyway. one of my biggest pet peeves in Shield Hero fics is when Naofumi buys Raphtalia and trains her to fight even when events were radically altered such that he has no reason to force a child slave into battle. I mostly blame the anime for this, because it gave less focus to how desperate he was and cut out large chunks of his motivation to buy Raphtalia specifically. (It didn't even show some of the other slaves he nearly bought.) So since Naofumi in this fic isn't jaded or desperate and can not only fight for himself but has Sadeena with him, it wouldn't make sense for him to force Raphtalia to fight. But maybe I also tweeked her circumstances a bit in this fic. We'll revisit that later.

Actually, I almost made the next Naofumi chapter about rescuing Raphtalia, but I had no specific plans for it and some notes for recreating the Rino moment but with Rishia had been sitting in a spare file for a while now. She'll be more relevant once the whole war thing gets underway anyways, so it makes more sense to focus on her anyway.

reality deviant: A new plot point. It'll be expanded upon in future chapters.

Peiniger: Oof. Well... The White Room Syndrome and too much internal monologue type stuff... are things I've known for a while that I'm bad about. I'm trying to catch myself more and more while actually writing and revising, but it's a work in progress. This fic was inspired mostly by Aneko's what-if story, but also largely by a lot of discussion stemming from it about all the different things that would then screw Motoyasu (and everyone else) over if you kept in mind all the events from the main story/spin-off, so trying to work off of that meant keeping some moments of Motoyasu getting saved by others, and between that and the Acedia shield I planned to make a character arc of him repeatedly getting into trouble by being passive and needing to take the reigns at some point, but I guess I didn't do a good enough job of making it clear that that's where the story was heading.