Chapter 19: It's a Peddlers Life for Me
I figured we would continue helping Lute with transporting lumber and continue getting Talia and Seb used to the cart at the same time. As we were heading out of the city we ran into the witch from the magic shop, who also happened to be heading to Lute, and we ended up giving her a ride. Since we didn't have something to focus on this time, we talked about the differences between the magic system used in Tortus and the one used here. She found it hard to believe that anyone could use any type of magic if they made the chant longer and magic circle big enough. I still found the chants of this world to be a bit odd myself, particularly that my chants normally refer to the abyss even when I'm not the Lord. Interestingly, the witch doesn't seem to be as affected by the cart as Seb and Talia. I wonder if it's because of the placement of their ears or their inner workings.
After we got to Lute, the witch gave me some copper coins as payment for the ride. Then we got back into lumber transport and motion sickness training. I also brought the springs to install in the wagon that was partially built. After two days of that, they were able to handle full speed without worrying about barfing. That was also the point at which the promised wagon was completed. The entire village threw a party to celebrate and Blake was happy that she had a proper wagon to pull rather than a small cart. Seb and Talia were less than thrilled but still took part. The governor also gave me the bill of passage that should let me go places and sell stuff without paying taxes.
"Blake, you know what your job is?"
"To pull the wagon to wherever it is that we're going."
"Right."
"And to keep Master warm at night."
"Don't say things like that!" (Talia)
"Also to kill annoying things." Blake looked at Talia.
"Not allies." (Seb)
"Fine." Blake turned her head but kept an eye aimed at Talia.
How did I end up with a two week old bird and a ten year old raccoon-girl competing over me like this? What would Hajime do? Bad idea, he has a harem. What would Kouki do? Probably say something about protecting them and saving the world. Not very helpful. Motoyasu? No. Why is everyone I know who has experience with this kind of thing either useless or polygamous? Sigh. If all else fails, change the topic.
"Seb, Talia, you know your jobs?"
"Sell stuff in towns and keep an eye out for trouble." (Talia)
"Make sure people don't connect us to the false rumors spread by the king." (Seb)
"Good. Let's go."
The book the apothecary had given me had a fair number of different medicines and other useful concoctions, so there was quite a variety in our selection for people to buy. Seb knew more about finances in this world, so he set the prices. They were generally around what others were selling them for, but if no one else in t town was selling something he would raise its price a bit. We would also buy some of the ingredients from the town merchants if the price was good. There would also be times where I would use my healing spells or medical knowledge to help out injured villagers or travelers. With Blake's speed we could usually get to several towns a day, often stopping at villages in between and camping out at night. Luckily the shadow(s) that had been following us couldn't keep up with Blake's speed so we didn't need to worry about them spying.
On the nights when we camped out, we ended up all sleeping against Blake in her queen form. Somehow it's a better night's sleep than staying in an inn, plus monsters instinctually know to avoid stronger monsters like her. She did make the condition that Talia slept on the other side of her though. I was also teaching Blake how to sense presences and hide her own, she picked it up faster than Seb or Talia did. In her queen form she could blend into shadows perfectly and find monsters hiding a good distance away. I tried to teach her some fighting techniques for her human form and she pretty good but she said that none of them really felt right. Oddly enough she liked the throwing knives and hid some in her coat, they somehow appeared in her bandoliers when she transformed. I think she must be able to make slight adjustments to the magic clothes when they transform and is able to control where connected objects move, but I rather not ask. What was really surprising was that, without much training, she could throw them in either form with higher accuracy than Seb. She may not have been quite as good as I was, but my shield wouldn't let me use them to attack anything, so she beats out all but my clones. I wonder if there will be a point when she is able to use her feathers to take out enemies. No, thinking like that is just asking for the Lord to show up.
We would occasionally happen upon people heading the same way and give them a ride. One guy was desperate to get medicine to his sick mother and I helped administer it since I had gained the ability to strengthen potions and other medicine I administer. There were also times when we heard about a dangerous monster in an area and hunted it to see what kind of shields it would give me. Occasionally we would be asked to deliver messages or goods to towns or villages we pass through. It made me wonder how much people trust the merchants in this world, or if it was because I was a merchant trusted with a bill of passage. There generally wasn't anything of much value that they asked us to deliver, but these people were still trusting us to deliver it for them.
After about a week, I learned I had gained a new reputation; they called me "The Phantom Saint of the Shadow Bird". Just being called something like that was almost as bad as some of the less embarrassing times when I became the Lord. I can understand the idea behind it and how each part can be considered true to an extent, but it is still embarrassing to be called something like that. Though they haven't made the connection that I'm the Shield Hero so I'm not sure which reputation would be stronger. I would hate for them to try to combine the names into something even more embarrassing. Also Blake has been mentioning that the wagon was too light. I suppose compared to a cart full of wood it was a lot lighter, but the suspension I added meant that the ride was much smoother and she could go faster without worrying about Talia and Seb getting sick. I did still have to maintain it though, wagons were not meant for such high speed.
I was also able to experiment a bit with status magic, or more specifically, I found out that it even affects the power of chemical reactions. The apothecary's book had a recipe for gunpowder and I finally had the ingredients necessary, so I made two small cherry bombs. I lite one and it was just a puff of smoke, then I had Talia set off the other and it was like C4, good thing I had her throw it. Pouring acid on monsters seems to work similarly, but for some reason doesn't trigger my shield's no weapon rule. For some reason herbicide is stronger for me though. I spilled some near a tree and it withered in under a minute. As a comparison I had Talia do the same and it only killed some grass. Then there was Magic Water which seemed to be this world's Mana Potions but a lot more expensive to make, emergency use only.
Seb managed to hear some interesting rumors about the other heroes as well. Ren is now a dragon slayer, but if that lizard Motoyasu rode in our race was a dragon then it doesn't mean much. Motoyasu found some sort of miracle crop to end a famine. And Itsuki has apparently gone to help another country's citizens overthrow their government. I hope he didn't just hear some people say that the king was cruel and decided to take the guy down without hearing both sides of the story. That's the kind of thing that gets so-called heroes in trouble. For some reason there were also a few rumors of the Shield Hero being seen in various places trying to strong-arm people out of their money and possessions. I guess there's an imposter using the title of Hero to mess with people, but I don't get why they would impersonate me instead of one of the heroes that people like.
I'm still not entirely sure of his reasoning, but we encountered one such imposter while setting up to sell medicine in a town. He looked somewhat Japanese, which I suppose makes sense; if this world has a habit of summoning Japanese people as heroes and they chose to stay they would probably end up having a lot of descendants. He was basically just walking around threatening people into giving him money like a poor attempt at a protection racket. His shield didn't even have a gem like every form of mine has; it was just an ordinary iron shield.
Talia asked that I let her handle him, and at the time I didn't see any reason to refuse. She walked up to the imposter and started talking to him. "So, you're the Legendary Shield Hero?" She managed to pull off sounding like a fan girl meeting her idol rather well.
The imposter turned to look at her. "Yes I am. Well aren't you a pretty one. How about you become my slave and I ca-" He was cut off when Talia's kicked him in the family jewels and he collapsed.
"If you really were the Shield Hero, your defense would be too high for that to have done anything. And no one would be able to take your shield." Talia proceeded to remove his shield while he was in too much pain to resist. "If anyone actually gave this idiot anything thinking he was for real, now's your chance to get it back." She tossed the shield to the side and walked back to us while a few people went to start kicking the imposter and others just stared at her. We got quite a bit of business that day.
Then there was another particularly interesting day when we were escorting an accessory merchant. "Wow, to think I'm able to ride in the carriage pulled by the Shadow Bird from Heaven."
"I've heard people whisper, calling Blake a shadow bird before, but this is the first time I've heard someone say that part about her being from heaven." Does it have to do with her turning into a little girl with angel wings? She normally doesn't transform when others are looking.
The merchant blinked upon realizing I was there, but recovered quickly. "You mean you don't know? They say there's a carriage pulled by a large bird as dark as night that brings healing miracles to those it visits."
"You won't find any miracles here; people tend to exaggerate stories when they are grateful."
"They also say that a holy man that disappears as if a ghost travels with the shadow bird healing injury and treating sickness with special medicines. I assume that refers to you?"
"I know a bit about medicine and healing magic, but I'm no holy man. Though I have been experimenting to specialize some of them to be more effective, they aren't much better than standard stuff."
The merchant looked over some of the medicine I had made. Then the conversation moved on to the merchant's accessories and how they can enhance the stats of the wearer. Then I felt a number of presences coming from up ahead.
"You guys feel that?"
"Yeah, there are a lot of them." (Blake)
"Oh my, it talks." (merchant)
"A lot of what? (Talia)
"Probably bandits. There was a rumor in the last town that there was a group of them in the area." (Seb)
"Bandits?" (merchant)
They came out of the woods as we got closer and surrounded us. Then they spoke close to one of the most cliché lines imaginable. "Give us everything that you're carrying and you will get out with your lives. We know there is a jeweler in there with you."
"Now don't say that. It is far too hard for me to take you seriously when you say something like that. How about this, if you all leave now we won't have to get rough, and if your boss askes, you can say you couldn't find us." I climbed out of the carriage, followed by Seb, Talia and the accessory merchant.
"Ha. Someone's full of themselves. We have you outnumbered 4 to 1."
"It doesn't matter if you outnumber us when we outmatch you." I targeted a group that was close together. "[Shield Prison] [Change Shield]" The latter skill lets me change projected shields into other types I have, it's good for triggering counterattacks. I managed to enclose three of the bandits in the prison then changed it to the Bee Needle Shield for the paralyzing effect. Of course they would only get paralyzed if one was dumb enough to attack the prison, which they were. "I don't like killing people, but if you persist then we will be left with no choice."
Seeing that we weren't going to surrender, two of the bandits tried to charge at us from behind but were blocked by my [Air Strike Shield] and a bit dazed from the impact. At the same time Seb managed to immobilize a few with ice magic before ending their lives. Blake swatted several of them into a pile and then landed on them, there were a lot of groans but I think they survived. Talia stayed near the merchant and cut down any bandits that tried to get close, including the two that ran into my shield.
We were winning easily enough, then they decided it was time for the second wave. The merchant was surprised, we weren't. This group had a few bowmen in it; they aimed at the merchant, but I caught the arrows in flight. They stopped firing after that. At some point Blake had changed to her human form to avoid attacks and started using spinning kicks to take down opponents. She is surprisingly efficient considering she's the lowest level of the four of us.
"I am the source of thy power. Hear my words and comprehend. Stab him with Ice! [Erst Icicle Shot]!" Seb sent an icicle flying into one of the bandits trying to fight at range.
Most of the bandits were either dead, unconscious, or in too much pain to move, when the one I assume to be their big boss showed up. "So, seems the jeweler hired the Shield Hero as a bodyguard." This guy seemed to be at a much higher level than the others. Blake sent a knife his way, but he deflected it with his sword. "I'll have my fun with you later pipsqueak." Did he really just say what I think he said?
"I've got this guy, Talia, Seb, keep the rest from getting to the merchant." I walked over to the bandit leader.
"So the Shied Hero thinks he can take me alone? How you going to do that without any way to attack?" He started laughing as I got close.
"[Shield Prison]!" I enclosed him in the prison and heard the sound of him failing to break its defense. I placed my hand on it then a few seconds later there was silence. When the skill ended all the world could tell was that he had somehow been decapitated. They have no idea that I created a clone inside of it to cut his head off. I turned to the remaining bandits and smiled. "Who's next?"
They surrendered and I had them show us to their hideout. Normally they would be taken to a town to be imprisoned, but since they know I'm the shield hero and I have that reputation, I felt this was the better option. They weren't exactly willing, but they agreed when I said that Talia could kill any that continued to resist. Her bloodlust is seriously scary. We took everything of value and left the survivors tied up. As a bit of a joke I had Seb freeze a knife in a block of ice so they could escape once it melted, which would probably take over six hours.
We had managed to get a variety of goods from the bandit's hideout. Mostly combat equipment and money, plus what I assume were goods stolen from their previous misdeeds. Blake also got her own set of throwing knives and found a pair of sunglasses that she liked. I'm not sure what they are made out of, but they do fit with her outfit.
For some odd reason the accessory merchant took a liking to how I do things and decided to teach me how to process gems and introduced me to some other members of the merchant's guild, of which he seemed to hold a lot of power. I ended up pretty good at making accessories, though none of mine were even in the same league as Hajime's. He also started passing along requests for high speed deliveries that Blake could get done in half the time of a normal filolial and information on places in desperate need of goods we could provide.