Author's Note: No title. For over two weeks. That's embarassing.
Chapter 42: The Queen's Trap
Naofumi had been given the address where this Sadeena person was living, worst case scenario Raphtalia gets to see her old friend again. That said Naofumi doubted her overall usefulness to their party. Near as Raphtalia can remember her level should be pretty high, even with the promise of the added power through the Growth Bonuses it would be pretty hard to throw that away in favour of starting over again, doubly so to convince her to become a slave. But it would offer more power and with no idea what would pop out form the waves next that was a absolute necessity. That said Naofumi questioned just who this woman was as he approached the manor. It seemed to be somewhat high class implying that the person they were looking for was quite wealthy, which contrasted directly with a fisherman who use to live in a poor demi-human village that got wiped by the waves.
"Is this Sadeena person working as a bodyguard for some wealthy merchant?" Naofumi asked looking at the area suspiciously.
"It wouldn't surprise me if she was, Sadeena was a really powerful fighter. She could've easily beaten up those dogs that attacked our village, and dealt with the knights that came after, if she was there!" Raphtalia stated making her opinion on the woman she knew since she was little girl known.
"If she's in her upper ninety's as you claim then that much should be obvious." Raphtalia found herself back spacing to Naofumi's point though he himself then came up with something in her favour.
"I'm more interested in her age in this matter." Naofumi stated holding his chin in his hand. "What about her age!?" Raphtalia half shrieked and half demanded.
"I understand that the process of levelling up is normally a long and drawn out one taking decades to reach a high level. Yet should what you say is true she did it while still in her twenties, and somehow was able to secure a class up in a country as blatantly racist like Melromarc." The only way that was possible is if she proved herself enough of a war asset to bypass the normal concern of loyalties to a foreign nation, which again took place before she could get said class up grade. All of this indicated that even at a low level Sadeena was a really powerful combatant.
"She is a Sakamata you know! Remember what the trader said?" Raphtalia felt like bragging about her friend more as she prepared to lecture Naofumi with second hand information.
"Tenth strongest species on land and number one in the water. Yeah I got that lecture too." Fine then, let's see what they can get out of all of this. "Filo, if anyone tries to take you, the carriage or those two then kick them away, hard."
"Aye Aye!" They were fresh from Zeltoble's dragon hour glass and Fohl's level reset, leaving two Hakuko cubs at level 1 inside of the back of the carriage for any 'enterprising young men' to stick their noses into, let alone what value Filo or the carriage could bring. Naofumi walked up to the front gate and as he was about to ask the guards to fetch the Orca woman for him they opened the door to let him through.
"Trap." Naofumi concluded as he came up with counter measures to deal with the situation. "I forgot something in our carriage, excuse me for a moment." Back at the carriage Naofumi produced a Air Strike Shield and changed it over to the Chimera Viper Shield. Naofumi looked at Raphtalia and indicated for her to turn it invisible with a magic spell and she did so. There, now if this Sadeena or any one else attacks them they'll have a hostage to make them let them go.
"The lady of the house will see you now Sir Hero." Naofumi continued on his original path, being guided by the guards as he skilfully manoeuvred his air strike shield to avoid any collisions that would give away it's existence. Eventually the makeshift tour ended.
"Our patron is here Sir Hero." Raphtalia was following Naofumi the entire while, the moment that Naofumi triggered the Snake bite skill she would release a light into the nearest window. Zenberu and Kiyubi, who were on the street level would immediately begin their attack on the manor as Naofumi and Raphtalia escape on Filo's carriage, only after this many precautions were taken would Naofumi walk into this meeting.
"Good evening Sir Hero." The lady of the manor wasn't facing him directly, though he could still make out bits of purple hair and a golden crown of some sort as well. However Naofumi's eyes narrowed into a viper like glare as he saw the ten year old child standing next to the woman's arm chair perhaps having a conversation with the woman before they came in.
"Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia was slower on the uptake but only because she armed herself after Naofumi had called on his device. He hasn't come up with a name for it, he didn't know if that was important but he didn't care enough to find out right now.
"The brat's in the painting at the castle with the Bitch and her father! I assume that makes you the whore that spawned them!?" Naofumi spat as he glared at the back of the woman's, the Queen of Melromarc's head.
"My Mom is not a whore!" The little girl shouted but the woman waved her arm to silence her as she stood up revealing her full regalia, purple dress, gold trimmings, a face just similar enough to the bitch's that he wanted to roast it right here and now.
"Hello there Naofumi Iwatani. I am..."
"So done with this conversation it has stopped being funny." As Naofumi was about to do something drastic he was suddenly pinned to the ground face first.
"I don't know how it is in your world but people aren't usually this hostile from the get go." Naofumi had been pinned to the ground by the full weight of what could only be described as a humanoid whale and felt every moment of it. The whale woman wisely jumped off before Naofumi threw her off harpoon still in hand as she looked at him with blatant suspicion on her bloated features.
"Sadeena, revert from your Therianthrope form." At the queen's instruction Sadeena turned into a the form of a rather attractive woman in her early twenties with long black waist length hair. "We are not here to ambush the shield hero."
Naofumi was grinding his teeth now, Raphtalia had to smack him across his face to make him come back to his senses.
"I see, you are afflicted." The queen stated holding her fan over her face while she looked at Naofumi.
"With what?" Naofumi narrowed a glare while he debated what shield he can turn his invisible shield into to turn this situation into his favour.
"The Curse of Wrath." The queen stated prompting a suspicious look from Naofumi. "It is something I am familiar with. Leave this place and never turn back if you insist, but first I would prefer if you listen to what I have to say."
"I have nothing to hear from that King's..."
"Ah. Yes. The 'King.'" The Queen interrupted Naofumi as she started strangling the fan in her hands. A shadow appeared nearby who put a painting of the king and Malty on the floor there and at once... "HHHIIIYYYAAAHHH!" The Queen screeched as she loosed a icicle barrage into the painting, freezing it over, skewering it on the shards of ice, shredding it to pieces. The sight of it all put a legitimate smile on Naofumi's face. "I'm sorry about that I lost my composure. Where were we?" Naofumi moved his invisible barrier over and sat down on it, to the queen's notable lack of surprise as to an untrained observer he was sitting on thin air.
"You were in the process of convincing me to listen to you. So convince me." That little display was more effective than anything she could've said, the rest is just going to be icing on the cake.
"First and foremost my most sincere apologies for the way that you have been treated in my country sir Shield- No, Sir Naofumi Iwatani." It was good to hear someone say it and mean it. The King had done it before, in that way that wasn't remotely apologetic. Even if Malty was awake to say it her words wouldn't have any meaning to them. His entire life up rooted and dragged through the mud to be used as a political tool by that bastard king, any action that he took used to advance his agenda. "My husband has sent me a report explaining his scheme to me." The Queen explained seemingly not yet done abusing her fan yet. "The other countries failing in their initial attempts to summon the Heroes does not give him to right to summon all four of you at once."
"You didn't have the right to summon us in the first place!" Naofumi snapped glaring angrily at the queen. He certainly didn't remember his country having a treaty in place saying that these people could come out of the blue and abduct them at any time that they liked.
"Yes, my apologies in that you are correct. For one thing proper lines of communication between our worlds is not within our ability to perform. And yet, we have no other choice in the matter but to rely on the power the four of you bring the waves to heel." The Queen explained though Naofumi still did not look satisfied. "You know better than anyone the power the four of you represent, the power in your companions that your legendary weapons give them, the unique abilities produced by feeding materials to your legendary weapons..."
"I meant that you wouldn't have been able to summon us one at a time." Naofumi stated having had enough of these people pushing their problems onto them for a life time and instead getting down to brass tacks. "I don't know what the logistics of yanking people off from other worlds is like but I'm going to assume that they're not all that simple. So what does it say when the easy summoning ritual fails but the hard one succeeds?"
"I take it you have a theory?" The Queen asked looking sceptical.
"This thing has all kinds of rules attached to it, sometimes I get the feeling that it has a mind of it's own. The initial summoning attempts probably failed because the weapons didn't want to be summoned separately." Naofumi stated causing the Queen to cock a sceptical brow.
"The weapons want you four to work together? Forgive me but that flies in the face of the logic of what we know about the legendary weapons." The Queen stated looking concerned.
"A flipping demon woman and a walking weapon of mass destruction was summoned during the ceremony. Ikki is apparently some kind of master swordsman with brief bouts of super human strength and I can turn the contents of a barn yard into a army with my mind. The fucking stops have been pulled out, and somehow working together is suppose to make us stronger to do that." Naofumi stated his irritation running thick and his patience thin.
"Perhaps that is the case, but if so that only makes what I am about to tell you all the more important." And thus, the queen bowed before Naofumi to the protests of her youngest daughter but she was silenced in short order. "Though I know I have no right to ask you I find I must anyway. This world is on the brink of war and not just with my country and I fear that of the four of you, you are the only one who can stop it."
"Eh... shoot. I've been wanting to give all of you a piece of my mind anyway." Naofumi muttered like that as he followed the Queen to another room.
The meeting room between the nations was little more than a repurposed store room. A turtle man, a red Bird man, and a dog man served as representatives of Siltvelt while a cross between a woman, a lizard and a bird was in Shieldfreeden's corner, not unsurprisingly the representatives of the two rivalled nations were glaring daggers at each other. The closest thing that Zeltoble had to a representative was a exceptionally plump self proclaimed merchant prince while Faubrey's representative was flanked on either side by two knights. The alliance of independent nation's representative gave the impression of a beleaguered Bureaucrat and looked like the only one there who didn't want to be there. And now all eyes were on the Queen as Naofumi walked into the meeting with his shield strapped to his arm.
"What's this Vixen? Run out of stall tactics so now you hire some random mercenary to pose as the shield Hero?" To the bird Man's arrogance Naofumi responded by holding his shield in the air and switching between the Chimera viper shield, Cerberus and more. "Nice try, but the efforts of your church to replicate the legendary weapons are well doc-"
"Shield Prison!" Naofumi further silenced the irritable senator with shield prison. "Rude people can stay off in a corner until they're needed again." Naofumi switched the shield over to the rarely used frisbee shield and tossed it across the room. The moment that it touched the far wall it disappeared and reappeared on his arm. "So is there something else you'd like me to show you I can't do as the shield hero? Take a man's head off with a sword? Throw a punch worth a damn? If there's nothing else please get on with it!" To Naofumi's barking the other countries shut up allowing him to move on with the meeting. "Good. Now than you have some complaints with my patron here, which as I understand it is the main reason this meeting has been going on for so long? Let's hear em."
"Melromarc sneaked behind all of our backs and Summ-"
"You can shut up!" Naofumi snapped glaring accusingly at the hybrid woman who started to speak. Raphtalia could only sigh in exasperation at her master's lack of political tack. "Setsuna was busy putting her own country in order after a war and Tatsuya was trying to save his own from one. Any argument for why you deserve our help more then their's does that starts with you arguing your right to kidnap us to fight for you ends now!" The hybrid woman was stunned by Naofumi's statements, these people acted like their help was their god given right, well as he was supposedly one of those gods he held the right to take it away. "If you people have an entire army to spare for fighting over us then use it to fend off the gods damned waves!" The hybrid woman folded her hands together as if she was calculating her next best move. "Good while you think about that is there any other complaints someone would like to voice?"
"I believe it is necessary to seek compen-"
"You can shut up too!" Naofumi snapped landing a glare at the man from Faubrey. He didn't know what type of compensation he was looking for but he had no business looking for it. "I know exactly four victims of this mess you all have been bickering about and you are not one of them. Is there anything else you all would like to complain about!?" The others wisely concluded they had been told to shut up and listen, but the hybrid woman felt like opening her mouth again anyway.
"The Spear Hero attacked one of the vassal Heroes who was visiting our country at the time. This close to a wave you do understand why this might be a bit of a issue." The hybrid explained and was satisfied at finally getting a word in edge wise against this person who showed her nothing but disrespect.
"Yeah that sounds like something Setsuna would do." And just to prove how reasonable Naofumi was he didn't even give her any back talk this time, seeing a opportunity the finally freed bird man went for the jugular.
"If you have a moment Sir Hero there are some people we'd like you to-"
"You can shut up now too!" Naofumi snapped glaring at the Siltvelt party having reverted directly back to being rude again. "Do any of you stupid people think that I want anything to do with a romantic relationship after the closest thing I ever came to one saw me accused of rape and my name dragged through the mud? Any offers of establishing long term relationships with the people of this world will be treated as a threat against my life by what I can assure you is a very aggressive Aototsu and a Filolial with a especially large appetite! Now do you two have any quote un-quote offers or complaints you'd like to make?" The remaining Merchant prince and beleaguered bureaucrat gave shakes of their heads, one amused and the other relieved. "Then I will tell you how this is gonna work. You are all going to write down the number of days left until each of your respective waves and my lovely assistant over here is going to come round and collect them all. Me and my friends are going to come to your countries one by one where you are going to have a army of level 1 mooks waiting for us."
"I find your statement somewhat counter productive sir hero." The Merchant prince raised a fair point of his own and Naofumi addressed it in short order. "Hero stats. Heard of the term before? The king had the bright idea of getting us to add a army of level ones to our collective party before our first wave. It lasted longer than we expected but thanks to our collective bonuses after about 14 levels each one of them had stats equal to someone whose level was maxed." Naofumi's statement left his audience stunned by the implications. The growth bonuses produced by the Legendary weapons of the past were state secrets after all. "If what you are saying is true..."
"Not if, is. Unless one of you have four more of us lying around somewhere willing to contribute growth bonuses to an entire army then Melromarc currently has the strongest army in this world. Your majesty anything you'd like to contribute on this?" Naofumi turned his attention to his ostentatious ally. It would be a good opportunity to see how honest the queen was being with him, or how good of a liar she is. Similarly the Queen knew that telling Naofumi common knowledge wouldn't damage any secrets she wished to keep.
"Faubrey has four of the Seven Star Heroes working for them, their companions seem to match yours in terms of super human stats, though I haven't seen them apply that to the army yet, though in compensation they have apparently embraced technology from your world to a much higher extent making use of powerful machines of war in their army." The Queen explained in a neutral tone of voice, satisfied to hear that if nothing else her bull headed husband was ahead of his big fat pig of a brother.
"Oh that's good to know. Faubry gets bottom priority." The Faubrian representative glared at Naofumi but remained silent. Perhaps if something happened that Faubrey was put into a position where it would need outside assistance but as it stood: there were a lot of other people here who could use his help far more. "Is there anything else I should know about?" The various people shook their heads in the negative. "Then this meeting is adjourned!" Naofumi punctuated the sentence by clapping his hands together. "Everyone go home!" Naofumi's primary objective had been Sadeena, but that didn't mean that he didn't see a opportunity when he saw one, he wanted that bastard king and his bitch daughter put in their place already, and he was taking the opportunity to do so. Reluctantly the representatives dispersed, if they followed Naofumi's instructions they would be back in their home country's come morning, perhaps he should sit in on the meeting tomorrow... No. No the Shieldfreeden wave would be hitting in a matter of days, Naofumi wasn't even sure he had time to get there even if he used a portal to Melromarc as a short cut.
"You, whale woman, are you coming with us yes or no?" The number of damns Naofumi had to give for people's bull had hit a all time low, if Sadeena didn't feel like coming along that was her business but he has a schedule to keep.
"Don't worry I'm coming little Naofumi-chan. Your talk about the growth bonuses struck a very strong cord with me, I'll be able to reach my old level of power in no time." Naofumi nodded his head as he left the room, though the Genmu representative stopped him on the way out and passed him a scroll of paper.
"Something one of the past shield Heroes left behind for their successors." The muscular young Genmu stated as Naofumi looked at him suspiciously. "Your scepticism is understandable. But there are those who realise where the real threats lay."
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Good to know. Very little to like truth be told.
Amatsumi: Would it be a deal with the devil if the temptation to give in and use it was not overwhelming?
superpierce: Starting Next week.