Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad helping me with SPAG edit. Also thanks to Angel Wraith for reading my rough draft and provide important feedbacks.
Special credit to y1fellas. The entire scene between Malty and Eclair in this chapter spawn out of a pm conversation (particularly the part where Eclair admits she bullied Weiss) I had with them.
More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.
The heroes collected the jelly like carcass of the boss monster. Naofumi unlocked a mirror like round shaped shield made of azure shaded glass with white frame, while the Spear Hero gains a spear with a similar made ball hammer right underneath the blade of his weapon. [Loch Shield] and [Loch Spear] are their respective names.
Their base stats are nothing to write home about, but Naofumi's shield has a very strong magic resistance. The princess wonders if the spear can act as a magical catalyst similar to her commissioned sword wand.
Turns out, they did stay in the dungeon almost till sundown. When they trudged their steps back out of the blood and gore, the sky above them has already been dyed in the shade of violet and orange.
Thankfully, their rider escorts are still dutifully waiting for them in the distance, and so they didn't have to spend the night in the now cleared laboratory itself with rotting corpses.
But any closer inspection of the abandoned laboratory has to wait till the next day.
The Spear Hero sealed back the entrance to the now cleared laboratory before everyone except Farkas mount the filorials and the guard's raptors. They make a hasty retreat back to the village of Balafon, before any gutter beak can creep up on them.
The count's sworn shield wasn't too happy with their progress, judging from her frowning face, and crossed arms. "Did you two have a good reason to waste half a day explore an abandoned laboratory?"
"We were trapped in an inter-dimensional maze." Her Naofumi doesn't further elaborate on their misadventure.
The count's bodyguard squints her eyes closer and glares at Naofumi. She nods back at him after a short moment. "Did you at least clear the dungeon?"
"My rival didn't, but I did!" The Spear Hero hops on top of his black filorial like an over excited child. He rises his left arm skyward, the faintly glowing seed right in the middle of his hand. "And I have the proof here! Behold, the miracle seed!"
The head of Irileth turns around so fast, the princess wonders who the rabbit demi-human didn't snap her neck. The irritable bodyguard's tone somehow manages to grow even colder as she pulls out her sword. "You didn't destroy the outsider artifact immediately? Are you a fool!?"
Chapter 42: We survive
"There is no need for hostility, Lady Irileth." Iris rides her white filorial forward, her maid jumps down from the bird first and helps the heiress down. "Outsider artifact or not, no bad thing will happen to anyone, so long as we don't use it."
"You should listen to Iris, you know." Katarina looks at her friend for a moment, before giving her own voice of confidence. "She's smart. I mean really, REALLY smart. If she thinks it's fine, it'll be fine."
"We can't let our guard down with any outsider artifact. All it takes is one slip up before a disaster strikes on top of the wave. We need to destroy it immediately." The rabbit demi-human takes another step forward. Iris' personal maid draws her spear and takes a step in front of her mistress to meet Irileth head on.
The Whiterun guards look at each other, their hands begin to move towards their weapons. Not quite ready to cut down the very people they are escorting, but definitely ready to pull their weapons out in the blink of eyes in case things turn ugly.
"Ah, yes. The traditional wisdom of 'when you see something you don't understand, destroy it immediately.' I'm sure that mentality will be useful against the ever changing outsiders." The imp walks out from behind the count's bodyguard, he puts both arms up to keep Irileth and Tanya from trying to attack each other. "We have to understand what we are up against, before we can defend against them. Why don't we all back down for tonight, and let me, the expert here take a look at the seed and the dungeon first thing tomorrow?"
"Talk is cheap, can you ensure the seed's magic won't leak out and harm my jarl's people in the mean time, imp?" The rabbit bodyguard slowly edges her head away towards the half-man, but her eyes are still fixed on the Spear Hero's party.
"I can." Iris slowly overtakes her maid again and rises her free hand. "Go retrieve the safe box from my carriage, Tanya."
The personal maid looks around at all the House Whiterun guards around them. "Can I leave you alone, my lady?"
"Master Motoyasu, and Master Shield Hero is with me, I'm hardly along." The Amelia heiress' stern tone doesn't leave any room for negotiation. Her maid and bodyguard slowly breaks eye contact with Irileth, gives a quick bow and turns on her heel towards their parked carriages.
"What were you doing while we were trapped in the dungeon, Zylden?" Naofumi obviously tries to calm the situation down as best as he can. He climbs down Firo, and opens his arms up for Raphtalia. Mein helps guide the raccoon girl over into his waiting hands before jumping down herself.
"I didn't sit around with my thumb up my behind, if that's what you are implying." The imp gives a shrug as he takes out a metal rod connecting to some kind of gauge with a piece of vine rope. "Geomancy wasn't my strongest expertise, but I studied enough to measure mana concentration in the soil. It's above 150, should be fertile enough for most crops."
The Spear Hero turns his head towards Naofumi. "Is he making any sense to you?"
"Not really. I mean, I guess that's how they measure soil fertility in this world?" Naofumi scratches his head at Zylden's revelation, his mouth suddenly hangs open like he realized something. "Wait, does this have something to do with that mana conductivity thing when you were teaching me enchanting?"
"You learn quickly." The mouth of Zylden split apart into a wide grin. "Yes, by measuring the soil's mana concentration, we can get a rough idea what makes up the soil."
"In other words... If we can fix the problem with water loss, we could stop the land degradation Balafon is facing... hmm..." Naofumi nods his head as he scratches his chin. The Shield Hero seems to jump at the problem presented to him to forget about whatever he saw in his own mind attack. He continues to mumble under his breath. "Maybe if I start with some trees alongside the river... what we need is grass... grass!"
"Lady Iris, the safe box." The voice of Tanya draws Mein's attention away from her Naofumi. The House Amelia maid is holding a dark colored, metal box with both hands. While Katarina's maid Ann has small stake of paper on hers.
"A titanite box is hardly enough to keep an outsider artifact." Irileth doesn't seem impressed at Iris' solution.
"No, but this should be." Iris leaves the box in Tanya's hand and takes a single piece of paper off the stack in Ann's hand. She turns it around, and Mein sees different symbols draw with a brilliant red ink. Grounded up red cinnabar, a catalyst often used by midland Siltvelt sorcerers and Q'ten Lo diviners. "Warding talisman, crafted and enchanted by Clan Uzumaki."
Mein isn't the only one sucking in breath at this revelation. While warding talisman itself isn't rare on its own, the ones created by Clan Uzumaki are top quality, especially since that particular Q'ten Lo great house no longer existed almost sixty years after the King of Rape had his way with the island nation. House Amelia no doubt paid a fortune for this stack.
The eyes of the rabbit bodyguard slowly relax, but they narrow down once again. "What if someone steals the box and unleashes the seed on us?"
She's probably thinking about whoever almost made a disaster with that Gaelion situation.
"I'll keep them inside my spear." The Spear Hero hops on his legs while furiously waves his hand. He hammers on his own chest after he has the rabbit's demi-human's attention. "No one can steal it without getting through me first."
"Very well, I concede you have enough precaution prepared for one night. But if something bad happens, the loss will be on your hands. We'll further discuss the matter tomorrow, after the imp does a more thorough sweep of the dungeon." The rabbit swordsman's shoulders go slack and waves all the assembled guards away. "My men will take over the night watch. As for all of you, rest in the village inn, or one of the empty houses we haven't commandeered.
"Will we cause trouble for the villagers?" Bertia holds her fox scarf closer to her chest at Irileth's suggestion. "I don't want to impose."
"Half of this village is empty before we arrived." The rabbit bodyguard stops her steps to look back at Bertia. "Anyone had family, or good friends somewhere else are already gone."
The count's bodyguards turns her back on them as she walks away, leaving them to figure out who gets to sleep in the slightly better condition of the small village inn.
"I say leave all the inn rooms for the ladies." The Spear Hero looks at Naofumi.
"No complain from me, I'm used to camping." The Shield Hero drops out of his deliberation and shrugs his shoulder. He gives a quick glance at Raphtalia, concern obvious in his eyes. "Will you be okay, Raphtalia?"
"I, I'll be FINE!" The raccoon girl jumps on her feet. She doesn't look, or sounds fine. It wouldn't be comfortable squeezing together in one of those single hay bed in village inns, but the Princess wonders if she should volunteer sleeping together with the girl to make sure she's okay.
"Right... how about I leave Yuzus with you? Does that help?" Naofumi slowly opens his cloak and detaches his orange abominations. They quickly bounces towards the jumpy little girl, while Spear Hero quickly shuffles back away from them.
NOPE! Sleeping together with the raccoon girl is one thing, she's NOT sleeping together with those bringers of pain and suffering!
"Yes, that helps. Thank you, Master Naofumi." Raphtalia draws the eldritch beings into her arms, she gives a smile and nod to the Shield Hero.
With their sleeping quarters arranged, everyone gets ready to retire for the night. The princess briefly wonders if she'll even fall asleep after that particular nasty mind attack, yet her mind completely shuts down so fast, she didn't even get a chance to complain about the dry grass underneath her bed's fur covering.
She couldn't recall what she dreamed about either, which can only be a good thing.
The crowing of filorials in the distance awakes the princess turned adventurer. She stretches her body on the shabby hay bed, feeling her joints popping back into places. Still not the worst sleep she had.
The princess summons a small handful of water into her hand to wipe her face. Her study of Grimoire of Water may not be enough to grant her combat advantage, but she consider improvement to her living condition a worthwhile investment.
The princess shakes her head a couple of times and leaves her small room. She knocks on the door of Raphtalia's room a couple of times. Mein starts to get worried, when she isn't hearing any response. She presses her ear towards the wooden board, and hears the squeaking whine of balloons. "Raphtalia? What's wrong?"
"GO AWAY!" The sudden loud screech startles the undercover princess enough to have her jump so far back from the door, she ends up crashing her back against the opposite wall, knocks the back of her head and falls on her ass.
Many things can be said for their youngest (the gluttonous devil bird not withstanding) party member. Sad, jumpy, traumatized... angry and aggressive isn't one of them, other than that one time she went completely stab crazy deep in Lute's mine. Yet the child is now displaying the kind of aggression equal to a cornered animal.
What's more, her voice sounds funny despite the unusual emotion. It sounds like the girl is either sick, or sniffing while she's screaming on top of her lung.
Mein pushes herself up from the floor. She kicks the door open and stomps inside. Pieces of ripped cloth litter on the floor of the small one man room. A big bun of blanket sits on top of the hay bed with a trembling raccoon tail hanging off the side of the bed. Her Naofumi's tamed spheres of death all turned into shaking baby filorials who got left inside raptor stables by mistake, as they continues to whine around the blanket bun that obviously contains the raccoon girl.
From the amount of tattered scraps on the floor, it looks like most of Raphtalia's cloth got torn apart? How can the girl suddenly grow that strong, no matter how violent her nightmare was? Did her forced body growth finally kicked in?
The balloons make some squeaky whines as they nudges at the bun blanket no doubt hides the raccoon girl underneath. Mein notices the thin, ripped sheets between their teeth. Ah, so that's her culprits. The Shield Hero's pet monsters must have torn Raphtalia's cloth by accident when they tried to help her through her nightmare. It's not like they have hands, or feet for that matter, so they have to resort to their teeth no matter how sharp they are.
"Raphtalia, did the balloons hurt you?" The princess turned adventurer slowly pulls her sword out as she tip toes her way towards the bed. "Want me to pop them? I'll explain to Master Naofumi later."
"NO!" The fluffy tail shoots straight up for a brief moment, before it hangs back down against the side of the bed again. "Yuzus didn't do anything wrong! I... I had a bad dream. YES! I had a bad dream..."
Mein feels like someone is pulling down her guts. She should have objected to her Naofumi about letting the balloons comfort Raphtalia last night. No, what the girl clearly needed was another human. She returns her sword back into the sheath and sits down right besides the 'bun' on the edge of the bed, Yuzus nudges away and gives Mein some room on. The princess slowly runs her hand atop the blanket. "Did you dream of... your parents? Or maybe your friend?"
The pregnant silence in the room is enough to answer her question. But after a while, a muffled squeaky sound escapes from inside the blanket bun. "...yes..."
"Do you want to, I don't know..." Mein tries to recall what her nanny did right after the death of her pet bird, at least till she's killed by an out of control fireball. "Talk about it? I heard it helps."
"NO!" And with her suggestion, the wild animal like scream is back. There's some more sniffing sound underneath the blanket again, till a more somber voice apologizes. "...no, sorry... I shouldn't, scream at you."
"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry about. It's never easy losing someone you truly care." Mein slowly and awkwardly tries to feel the shape underneath the blanket, trying to guess which part is Raphtalia's head or back. "Some people say time heals, they are speaking rubbish. It never gets better, you just learn how to deal with it. And you haven't gotten the time to deal with it yet, when you are forced to fight monsters with us. It's okay for you to act out a little."
The raccoon girl remains silent again for some time, till she opens her mouth again. "Did you, did you also lost someone important?"
"Yes." Mein nudges slightly back to sits a bit more comfortable on the narrow hay bed, she gently pulls her left index finger with her right hand. "It's over ten summers now, and I still don't want to talk about it either."
"Oh, okay..." The traumatized raccoon girl and the incognito princess fall into mutual silence once again.
"What I'm trying to say is... if you want to share it, I'll be here listening. But if you don't want to, I won't force you." Mein reaches out with her arm again, she scratches Raphtalia's head underneath her blanket. "No one has right to force someone else to face their problem. Face it or leave it, it's your choice alone."
"...Thank you."
"You are welcome." Mein slowly stands up from the hay bed. The balloons quickly start to congregate around the bun now she's no longer sitting on the bed. "I'm going to see if there's food, I'll bring some to you... and get you a change of cloth."
The princess takes Raphtalia's silence as her agreement. She quietly closes the door to the girls room, and leaves the village inn. Outside on a long bench, Éclair is sitting with her back against the wall. Even with her bucket helmet, Mein can tell the knight is staring into nothing in the distance.
Mein wonders if she should simply leaves the Seatto heiress to her own device, regardless whatever enlightening philosophical trance she's stuck in. She's supposed to be the princess of this party, someone to be protected and pampered. Not some matron who comfort whoever is having a crisis in their faith, or sense of existence.
She doesn't even know how to be a mother, considering her own is a sterling negative example.
Then again, she is trying to steal the last Seatto from her mother's side to her own, this is an opportunity that's too good to waste. The princess sits down besides the knight, she quietly whispers into Éclair's ear. "What has you attention, Eclea of Port Harp?"
The dishonored knight stays as quiet as the raccoon girl, and as still as a statue. When Mein starts to wonder if Éclair simply hasn't heard her words, the Seatto heiress finally gives a response. "I saw father yesterday. He's... ashamed of me."
The princess doesn't need elaboration to know the knight is talking about the mind attack she personally suffered through. "And I saw my mother, you have to know it's not real."
"Of course, I know! Father, he's gone..." Éclair's voice grows distant while she barely moves a muscle. "But I know my father. What that illusion said... it might as well come from his mouth."
The princess is willing to bet that the heiress doesn't know her father as well as she thinks. Those who are survived the Game for long enough, they never let anyone see their true faces, not even their family.
"In my zeal to protect the honor of my family, I brought only shame. Maybe I should never have taken Master Aldrecht on his offer." The back and neck of the knight besides Mein is still straight as a well crafted spear, yet the princess get the distinct impression that Éclair is now hunched over. "I let myself be provoked by someone, and I acted unbecoming of a knight of House Seatto, or one in her majesty's service."
This time, it takes a few second till Mein figured out the knight is talking about her duel... or more appropriately, the beat down she delivered against the Schnee wrench. "Are you talking about that duel with whitelock? Why are you blaming yourself? You did nothing wrong. She got what's coming to her, after she starts to trash talk about your family and your knightly order. Why, she got off easy..."
"No!" Eclair's outburst briefly makes Mein wonder if this is 'everyone interrupt the princess day'. "She insulted my family and our knights, but I didn't even show her my true identity. I was not defending my family's honor. No, Lady Weiss is the one who was defending her family's honor, while I acted like a cowardly bully who doesn't even show her face."
The knight probably isn't even looking at Mein, but the princess still turns her face away to roll her eyes. She can't believe Éclair actually blames herself for putting a upstart merchant girl back in her place. Then again, the Seatto is a knight through and through, unlike a certain disgrace in Bow Hero's party. They can be stupidly stubborn when it comes down to semantics or ideologies. "If it makes you feel any better, I would have jumped in and fight her if you didn't."
"Thank you." From her crestfallen tone, it's hard to tell if the knight actually heard whatever came out of Mein's mouth. Éclair stays still for a few breathes more, and she continues. "What's more, I have tossed away father's teaching and given into my aggression. Even if I were to duel against Lady Weiss, I should have simply deflected her attack and tire her out, not going on the offense. 'Army is the shield that defend our people, not a sword to strike down others.'"
The princess can't control her sense of contempt towards old (and dead) man Seatto any longer. Naofumi's frankly naive amount of optimism is endearing, considering he's a freshly graduated student from his world's hero academy (she tries her best to ignore the little murder scheme planned by his teachers to send his soul to Medea). And an optimistic hero especially fit his role as the Shield Hero who soaks up most damage in the Wave.
Not to mention, she's going to stay by his side and warn him of all treacheries he would otherwise overlook.
But the same kind of blind optimism is stupid and dangerous for the High Lady or Lord of an entire province. Considering they should be much more knowledgeable about the Game of Thrones. To take the ideology of extreme pacifism is irresponsible for their house, and even the common people they are supposed to protect. No wonder he was assassinated, and his people got scattered to the four winds by the first Wave.
The princess rolls her eyes again and crosses her arms. "With all due respect, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. And my father summoned all four heroes a month ago, while he antagonized the Shield Hero like an idiot."
Éclair immediately rises up from the long bench and spins on her heel to face Mein, her sword draw and roughly points toward the direction of the princess. "I will not have you besmirch my father's name!"
Mein isn't optimistic on her chance at beating the Seatto heiress in swordplay. Their fighting style aside, Éclair is the one with undisputed better skill with swords. And considering how her duel with Weiss ended, Mein's own magic prowess will only have very limited contribution, if it doesn't flat out contribute to her loss.
Good thing the sword has never been the preferred weapon of choice for the princess, not even her fire magic. No, while martial skill and mage casting is still no doubt important in this day and age of Waves and Heroes, picking up a weapon and start wildly swinging or setting things on fire should always be a ruler's absolute last resort.
Mein slowly stands up from the bench. She pincher the tip of Éclair's sword between her fingers and slowly rises the sword up towards her heart. "And what would you do, if I don't renounce my stance on this matter, Éclair of House Seatto? Will you strike me down, just like you did with the Schnee girl?"
The knight looks down at her sword. She takes a quick step back, ripping the sword out of Mein's hand and then drops it on the ground. The breath of the last Seatto becomes fast and labored. "I did it again, I did it again..."
"You didn't do anything wrong. I did just insult your father's owner. It's okay to feel angry." Mein walks forward, picks up the sword on the ground and return it into Éclair's sheath. She runs her right arm over the distraught knight's shoulder, and grabs Éclair's left waist with her free hand to guide the knight back down on the long bench.
"As I was saying, I didn't mean to disrespect your late father. I have always admired the valiant heroes and oath bound knights, I grow up reading romance novels, after all." Not exactly true, but lies has places in a ruler's court just like truths. "What I wanted to say was, perhaps you simply misunderstood him, and took a metaphor to a literal sense?"
Éclair's helmeted head stays perfectly still, the princess doesn't need to see her face to know the knight is staring at her right in the eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it. Is not your father, Lord Seatto the high lord of Ivory Pass, one of the two northern provinces tasked to defend the Griffin's Back mountain range. To shield the rest of glorious Melromarc from Siltvelt raiding parties?" The knight's head slowly nods at Mein's narration, indicating she's following the princess' logic. "Obviously, I don't know how he deal with the Siltvelt raiders, with me living my whole life in the safety of Crownland. But, does your father simply hold the mountain range, our natural barrier, or does he directly attack the raiding parties?"
The knight clearly doesn't get where Mein is going with the question. She still answers after a short deliberation. "Father would hold the fortification build alongside Griffin's Back when facing overwhelmingly large raiding parties, but if it's small... he would fight in the field to destroy them."
The princess smiles underneath her hood. "There you go. Even your father would 'give into his aggression'. And he's taking other lives when you were only being a little more... proactive in your duel against Lady Schnee. I think what Lord Seatto meant was aggressive behavior shouldn't be your default response, as one shouldn't immediately resort to violence. But when violence is inevitable, there's nothing wrong leaning on a bit of controlled aggression."
"Is that what father truly meant...?" The knight leans slightly back, her head resting on the wooden wall of the inn. "But the words he said to me-"
"Aren't from Lord Seatto." Mein holds her hand up to stop Éclair from going down the wrong rabbit hole again. "It's obviously the dungeon boss twisted Lord Seatto's words and used them against you, just like they did with my mother against myself."
"I'll, I'll have to think about it." Éclair slowly sits upright again. Mein can feel the knight's eyes staying on her a second time, but perhaps it's for a different reason this time. "My gratitude to you. For giving me something to think about. Your highness."
"No gratitude needed, Lady Seatto. I did tell you I take care of my friends, did I not?" Mein gives Eclair's hand one last squeeze before she stands up again. "Please excuse me. I have to go get some food, and a change of cloth for little Raphtalia now."
The princess can barely contain a smirk as she walks away, happy she took another step to manipulate, no, guide her future ally towards a direction that'll help her in the Game.
Most people remember Queen Evangeline, the first queen of Melromarc Dynasty as the dynasty's greatest warrior queen for fighting on the frontline, and ended the Wave of Catastrophe 200 years ago alongside the Saint of Spear.
Those people are fools who can only see the surface. For Queen Evangeline's greatest accomplishment was never on the battle field, but on how she managed to bring the different warring noble houses of the crumbling De Gallia kingdom under her banner to support the Spear Hero.
The sword is a mighty weapon with a strong arm, but for a ruler, the quill is always mightier than the sword.
Not too far away from the village's inn, her Naofumi is squatting in front of the large bonfire in the village square in front of a large pot. Another pot sits on the side, away from the cooking fire where Bertia, Katarina and her personal maid Ann are filling out empty bowls with stew, and handing them out into the waiting hand of Balafon villagers, and Count Balgruuf's soldiers.
"The second pot is almost ready." Naofumi gives a quick sniff of the rising steam, he looks over and sees Mein approaching. "Ah, Mein. Did you have a good night's sleep? How is Raphtalia."
"I had a dreamless rest, Master Naofumi. Thank you for your concern. But Raphtalia... she's not very well." Naofumi's face grows darker and more somber at the mention. "When I went to check on her, I found her ripped cloth litter her room. And she was acting very emotional. She probably had a nightmare about her parents and friend, and your balloons torn her cloth up when they tried to hold her."
"I see..." Naofumi's fingers let go of the ladle, letting it slowly sink down into the stew pot. Katarina quickly hops forward and catches the handle, before it full drop into the bubbling stew. "I should have put my foot down and left her out of the dungeon exploration."
"You and me both Master Naofumi. I should have insisted you leave Raphtalia behind, or at least asked to sleep with her last night." Mein slides her arm around Naofumi's arm to pull him away from the cooking stew. "We have been lucky so far, and all of us got complacent. Next time, let's keep Raphtalia away from danger."
"Yeah, you are right. I shouldn't have brought a child to the Wave or dungeon." The Shield Hero nods his head and turns to look at Kyubey. "Kyubey, can you go get a new set of cloth for Raphtalia from our wagon?"
"Right away, Master Shield Hero." The rabbit man obediently sets down a jar of pickled vegetables besides the cooking fire, he turns around to walk towards all the parked wagons.
The Shield Hero carries two bowels to Mein, presumably one for her, and one for Raphtalia. "Try the stew, the vegetable are pickled and not fresh. But I hope you like it."
The princess took the two bowels back to Raphtalia's room. Turns out, the damage to her last set of cloth was more extensive than Mein previously thought, as the raccoon girl was practically naked with barely a few strands of ripped sheets hanging around her. Kyubey brings the cloth not soon after, Mein had him leaving it by the door and she carries them in.
After helping the still shaking girl get into her new dress and finishing their morning meal, the two of them leaves the inn and meet the rest of Naofumi's party outside.
"Sorry you had to go through that, Raphtalia." Naofumi runs a hand through the girl's cloth for a couple of times. The curve around the corner of his mouth slowly disappears as he looks up at Kyubey and Farkas. "Shouldn't Raphtalia has her growth boost by now? She's already over level 25. I half expected she torn her cloth when she suddenly turned into an adult."
The princess can almost swear the fur on Raphtalia's ear are standing up.
Kyubey throws a quick glance up at Farkas, the wolf beastman snarls back at him. "Don't look at me, half-breed. I'm not like the two of you."
Naofumi's brow slowly rises up into his hairline. "Something you want to share with me?"
The rabbit man turns to face the Shield Hero, he rises his bad arm. "Remember what I told you about my arm, Master Shield Hero?"
Naofumi blinks a couple of times, he looks back down at Raphtalia again. "Something about demi-human with birth defect can't have children? What does that have to do with Raphtalia?"
"It's possible she's someone who can't grow up." Kyubey also focuses his eyes on the raccoon child. "I remember there was another girl from raccoon clan back in Port Harp. Everyone thought she was a late bloomer till she hit her thirties, still doesn't look any bigger than she was 12."
"Oh." The Shield Hero blinks his eyes again. He suddenly kneels down and pulls the child into a full embrace. "Well, at least you won't be forced to grow into an adult before your time. We'll think of something to help you... this world of monsters and magic, anything should be possible, right?"
"You might have to find a vial of Yggdrasil medicine, Master Naofumi."
"The miracle cure. The potion with extremely rare ingredient that can fix any problem one has, including birth defect, and bring a man on the verge of death back to full health." Kyubey recites as if from a script. Considering he used to own a general store, that could very well be the case. "It is said every vial is worth a small kingdom."
"Well, at least Master Naofumi has enough time to look for them, after he stops the Wave of Catastrophe, of course." The princess rest her hand on Naofumi's shoulder. She doesn't know enough about alchemy to understand how one go about making the miracle cure. But surely, it's not out the realm of possibility with her Naofumi being one of the four Cardinal Heroes?
Maybe she can even have her face fixed. Not as important as securing her political position, but having her beautiful face back will surely help.
The princess turns around, just in time to notice the northern gate of Balafon opens up. And a large group of soldiers riding on their raptor returns, a certain annoyed looking rabbit in the lead. And an equally annoying, if for different reason half man riding in front of her. "Zylden's search party is back, Master Naofumi."
The search party trots closer to them, and the princess notices Zylden has a slight frown on his face. She doesn't know the Imp of Casterly Rock for long, but Mein is still willing to bet something very bad must have happened to break his usual juvenile persona. As if trying to justify her guess, Irileth flips down from her steed and opens her mouth. "Get the Spear Hero, we need to talk about that damn seed."
"I'm right here!" The voice of the Spear Hero comes from behind the village hall. He turns around the corner not too long after, a child hanging onto each one of his arms. The idiot is followed by his birds, the village children also climbing all over the large fluffy birds.
"Aren't you going to help a poor half-man, my lady? Share your fortune with someone less fortunate." Zylden opens his arms up towards the Count's bodyguard.
"You may be short, but last time I checked you still have your hands and legs." Irileth simply sneers back at the imp.
"Knights, this is why you should never date them, my shield boy." Zylden rolls his eyes as he hangs onto the raptor's rein. He hops off the saddle and slips down with an impressive show of acrobatics considering his size, holding onto the strap like a rope and jumps off before his hand get caught in the end. "They have their behind locked tighter than a virgin's legs in the red lantern district. You can try to sleep with them, and you'll actually fall asleep."
Éclair makes a gargled grunt at the imp's recommendation.
"I'm not a delicate southerner knight." Irileth shoots some daggers at Zylden. Mein can understand her irritation this time... although not the particular topic she finds offense on.
"Well, you are a Midgard Huscarl, no? You are what the Midgardian pass for an knight."
"Why wouldn't you want to fall asleep, if you are trying to sleep?" Raphtalia tilts her head to the side, obviously her parents never bothered to explain about the world of the adults before their unfortunate passing.
"Don't mind Zylden, Raphtalia. He's being a fool, and you'll understand his tasteless jokes after you grow up." Mein takes Raphtalia off Naofumi's hand. Speaking of the Shield Hero, he walks in front of Zylden and gives his head a slap. The Shield Hero is obviously not happy with Zylden's antics in front of a child.
"You better bring forth the damn seed now, and your little leash holder while you are at it, Spear Hero." Irileth gives another glare to the hero unarguably with the lowest intelligence, who simply stares back at her without a clue in his eyes.
Correction, he also scratches his head while staring back at Irileth.
"I think she meant Iris, Master Motoyasu." Bertia's eyes quickly dart between the two locked in a staring contest.
"Oh, right! Good idea. Iris is smart, she'll figure things out." Motoyasu turns around to look at his white bird, who got her plucked feathers grown back now after a good night's [well rest]. "Go get Iris, Yuki."
"Guah!/Roger!" The bird cranks her long neck up and down. She lowers herself to let the children climbs down her, and quickly runs in front of the inn. The bird lets out a loud crow and sits down in front of the door. After a short while, the heiress of House Amelia comes out of the door wrapped in her overdressed fancy traveling cloth, and a note book in one hand.
Was she doing the number planning of her father's realm right in the morning?
"What seems to be the problem this time, Lady Irileth? I'm sure we can find a compromise, if not a solution." Iris slides her notebook into her traveling cloth and daintily glides her way over to the Spear Hero's side. As for the idiot in question, he took out the Titanite safe box out of his spear. All the Uzumaki warding talisman pasted all over the ugly monstrosity.
"That seed was more trouble than it's worth, just like I thought. We really should have destroyed it." The rabbit bodyguard gives a nod to Zylden, obviously indicating him to continue.
"Okay, the lady Housecarl needs to stop wrapping everything as quickly as possible, good thing I'm here to elaborate." Naofumi's attack obviously didn't have any tangible effect to the Imp's health. He takes out a half torn book out of his traveling pouch. "We combed through the sealed laboratory since dawn break. Well... what's left of the laboratory anyway. One, or maybe all of you got over excited and trashed the entire place. All those secret, forbidden knowledge I came for... gong! All smashed, trampled and destroyed!"
"It's not me, or Katarina this time." Both the Spear Hero, and the monkey girl of House Claes shoots their eyes towards Firo. The bird has her neck cranked away, humming.
As a professional liar, no, negotiator herself, Mein can tell the gluttonous devil bird is as guilty as charged.
"Anyways, good thing this half a book is still around. It's a journal detailing all the experiment the mad bastard did in the laboratory." The imp flips through the pages of the half torn book. "A second good news. That seed you retrieved isn't a true Outsider Artifact. At least, not in the most strict, academic definition."
"How can that be?! We faced against monsters, clearly twisted by Outsider influence. We were even stuck in an dimensional maze for who knows how long." Iris' usual calm voice even raised a few pitches higher at the start, an achievement the imp should be proud of.
"Don't get me wrong here, you dainty southern flower. Outsider influence is definitely involved with that dungeon." The Amelia heiress almost lets out a huff of indignation at Zylden till she catches herself. "What I'm saying is, that seed isn't an artifact bestowed by an Outsider God. No, it's a normal seed enchanted with Outsider magic. As I said, NOT an Outsider Artifact on strict academic term."
"I'd say there's no difference between the two for everyone else. Only you scholar types care for the difference." Irileth scoffs at Zylden's academic definition.
"Of course there's a difference, you'd know it if you grow more meat in your head than your bosom... although I'm not complaining." The Count's bodyguard cracks her knuckles, looking ready to strangle the imp if she didn't need him to figure out the more brainy things. "But anyways, this particular cultist was a total mad man. Mad, but also brilliant. He figured out if he steal some magic from an Outsider instead of having the magic passed down to him and use it to create enchanted magical item, he can limit the undesirable side effect of Outsider influence to a few known variables while reap all the benefit of an Outsider's artifact. As I said, mad, but also brilliant."
Naofumi looks at the safe box in Motoyasu's hand before turning to face Zylden again. "I suppose you meant the miracle seed, in this case?"
"Why, yes. The cultist was trying to create a quick growing fruit though Outsider magic. And I think he finally managed to nail it, and write down the instruction on how to properly grow the seed to not have it turn into an Outsider monstrosity before he's driven mad." The imp looks up from the journal. For some reason, he looks like he's force fed some very undesirable, possibly spoiled monster carcass.
"That's great! We can use my miracle seed to save this village, right?" The Spear Hero looks as excited as a baby filorial welcoming his owner home.
"It wasn't your miracle seed. You didn't make it." Mein can't help but remind the hero not to take credit for someone else's toil.
"Well, I suggested using the seed first, and I killed the dungeon boss. That has to count for something, right?" The Spear Hero shoots right back, Zylden clears his throat to draw everyone's attention back.
"Yes, in theory the seed is safe to use. IF we still had the instruction." The Imp rises his arm to show everyone the book. The word 'instruction' is written on the last half torn page. "Do anyone of you see any instruction on this thing?"
Motoyasu squints his eyes and cranks his neck to look at the book, written in a language he probably didn't spend as much time as Naofumi to learn. "What does it say, Iris?"
"The instruction pages are missing, Master Motoyasu. Probably destroyed in your battle against the dungeon boss."
"Oh." The Spear Hero stands back and blinks his eyes. He jumps on his feet and points at Firo. "Well, it's not my fault! It's the fault of that piggy bird who kicked me!"
"GUAH!" "GUAH!" Firo and Yuki starts to once again, screeching and snapping at each other. There is a lot of name calling about who is the egg stealer between the two of them.
"Look, let's stop pointless blaming games and think about how to help Balafon's people" Naofumi walks between the two jousting birds to keep them from pecking each other. He looks at Zylden, while pushing both Firo and Yuki away. "Aren't you also an arcane researcher, Zylden. Can't you figure it out with whatever's written on that journal, and studying the seed?"
"I'm an arcane researcher, not an forbidden Outsider researcher, better known as an occultist heretic. There is a difference. On top of that, I don't even know who is the Outsider God this madman was stealing magic from. That's the one thing the madman didn't bother to write down! He's probably afraid to invoke the god's name considering he just committed thievery." Zylden rolls his eyes again as he shoves the torn journal down his pouch, in his frustration, the imp is showing he knows a bit more about forbidden art than he lets on. "You might as well have me find you a needle after you toss it into a field of hay. And let's not even start thinking about possible side effect of the fruit they were trying to make. It can range from making you squirt milk, to grow a second head and everything in between or beyond."
Irileth turns her head slowly back from the imp back to the heroes. "As I was saying, more trouble than it's worth. We should destroy it, before anything bad happens."
"There is no need for that. The seed may be useless, or even harmful to the village of Balafon, Count Balgruuf, or you. But it has value to my family." The flap of a Siltvelt paper fan makes everyone look back at Iris again. "If you are willing to pass the seed to me, I will convince father to supply all the food House Whiterun need through the current Wave of Catastrophe."
"What are you planning, Amelia?" The rabbit man bodyguard narrows her eyes and looks up and down at the Amelia heiress. "Do you not know the danger of Outsider influence?"
"I do, that's precisely why it's important for me to obtain this seed. Master Zylden was right, how can we defend against something if we don't even understand it?" Iris flips her fan close again and points it towards the safe box.
Mein frowns underneath her hood. What is Iris thinking? Studying occultist knowledge is considered taboo with the church, and owning Outsider Artifact is highly illegal. Unless she truly does plan to use the technicality brought up by Zylden as a defense in the court.
Of course, she also need to consider House Amelia's biggest income comes from all the food produce they export to the other provinces thanks to their fertile land and sea bounties. It's possible that Iris' goal isn't so much as to understand how Outsider magic works, but what she can learn from the seed's magic to further boost her own food production.
There is of course, also the possibility of she simply wish to obtain an powerful magical item to unlock some special weapon form for her own Cardinal Hero, while deny the same form for the others. If the journal didn't contain misinformation, this seed is likely one of kind.
The princess looks to her Naofumi, and she find the Shield Hero frowning just like her. She leans closer to his ears and whispers to him. "What are you thinking, Master Naofumi?"
"I don't like this setup. It's too good to be true for the people of Balafon." Naofumi bites down on his lower lips as he looks up and meet Mein in her eyes. "Do you remember what the Schnee family did to Ren and Nora's group?"
Of course, her Naofumi would be worried about the common people. Not how the Game is played. And now that Mein thinks about it herself, yes. The scenario proposed by Iris definitely sounds like the same one the one-bag bandits found themselves in beforehand. Granted they only heard it from the bandits' side, which isn't exactly trustworthy. But judging from the way Schnee family conduct their business... yes, the princess is willing to believe the bandits over the merchant.
"What's more... how can the people of Balafon live like people, not cattle if they are fed by someone else? And what happens after the Wave of Catastrophe concludes? There still won't be enough food to eat, and I doubt House Amelia is going to give free food to Jarl Balgruuf indefinitely." Naofumi gives an almost challenging stare to Iris.
"Our relationship is a strictly business transaction. House Amelia has no obligation to feed House Whiterun indefinitely." Iris nods her head and concede to Naofumi's point.
"ARGH! Too much talking! Why don't we go ahead and plant the seed, see what happens?" Katarina's suggestion makes everyone look at the Claes heiress. "I mean, we have both Master Motoyasu, and the Shield Hero with us. Even if something bad happens, they can stop it. Right?"
"Umm..." The Shield Hero looks over at Raphtalia again, he's no longer thinking about the conversation they had about being complacent with danger. "I'm not sure we'll be enough, if a god is involved."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! We'll find some other ways to feed ourselves. Relying on any magic is dangerous, let along Outsider magic." The rabbit man crosses her arms in front of her chest to show her displeasure.
"Well, unless you have a solution readily yourself, I suggest we keep our options open." Zylden looks around at everyone's faces. "What should we pick? Drawing number out of a hat, or anonymous voting?"
End Note:
And the woobification of Eclair continues in this chapter. Not initially planned of course, but the conversation I had with y1fellas had me thinking, and I think it fits her character to be stressed about living up to the image of the perfect honor-bound knight.
Malty of course, shows off a bit of her two fighting side in this chapter. The side of her born from this story, where she unconsciously tries to be a good person to Raphtalia, and her canon side where she further mold Eclair into someone to suit her own need. I really like writing the scenes where she actually gets to shown her manipulative side more, especially when it isn't simply her flirting with guys.
Guest review time.
To ImpureLunacy:
Unfortunately as I said, I'm nowhere creative enough (plus my English grammar sucks) to write my own original novel, since most of my creative juice comes from me intentionally subverting a lot of writing tropes I'm familiar with, usually from manga and anime. I don't think that's anywhere enough to construct an original story. Although I do treat my fanfictions like original work passion project, for better or for worse.
To Guest(s):
Everyone gets knocked out through some actual magical mushroom feels like it's right on point. Maybe I can have a scene like this where Naofumi cooked some magical mushroom by accident.
XD
I'm thinking some obscure Chinese website probably has the original version, since CCP doesn't give a flying F about other countries' copyright issue so long as the violation isn't too blatant. Heck, that Chinese Reprisal fanfiction was actually in a subscription service where you have to pay money to read the later chapters, something that's probably unthinkable here.
I hope the psychological repercussion in this chapter is satisfying enough. Obviously there will be longer consequences, although it'll be more on how it subtly change how the characters act than a whole 'let's talk about that nightmare I had' scene.
On the topic of Shounen manga, yes, I agree there are good ones (I myself give some examples of what I consider to be great Shounen manga with top notch writing). But as a whole, Shounen manga industry right now is like a septic tank where you need to swim through oceans of (BEEP) to find a diamond. It's like that Steam indie game floodgate all over again... hopefully I haven't spawn another controversial discussion (probably just jinxed it).
On discord... I have to admit I'm not a fan of the chatroom program, mostly because I'm pretty anti-social and it would give me a seizure if I try to respond to everyone like I do here. I actually turned down the invitation of joining RotSH official discord. Partly because of my more... revisionist (or contemptuous if you want to be frank) opinion on the original work, and partly because I just don't like to use it.
Just in case you haven't noticed (because this site is awful), even if you don't want to sign up for an account, you can edit your reviewer name when you are reviewing as a guest.
On the term of spreedsheet being used here... think of it as a term popularized by a previous hero. Although if there's enough people voicing their objection, I'll go back to the chapter and change it to 'number sheet' or something.
He hasn't been called by his full name yet, but I think I gave enough hint that the leader of the demi-human slum gang is Adam Taurus from RWBY.
XD
To Night:
Yeah, the name Mein comes from Malty's pet filorial when she's young, and the name came from her misspelling the main character of her romance novel, of course. I think it's a good way to connect to her canonical fake identities.
And I want to thank everyone who read, review and even send me pm for my story. I honestly didn't expect this story to become as popular as it did.
:)
I already had this conversation with someone else (I think it was in private), but I'm definitely not a fan of the canonical portrayal where Queen Safespace is the ideal good ruler as her husband being the bad ruler, or Melty the good princess / Malty the bad princess. Granted, it gets the job done, but to rely on trope writing doesn't do the story any favor when it supposedly being a subversion of Isekai power fantasy (I'd personally say it's not, it's pretending to be a subversion while actually being the very thing it's pretending to subvert in the first place, which is where most of my annoyance towards the franchise comes from).
If the author really wanted their own story to be a mature subversion of Isekai power fantasy, they should have leaned much more on how being a ruler isn't about being good alignment, but about a series of trade offs they need to make to do their job. Going out of their way to justify the Queen as some kind of perfect good ruler doesn't do the story any favor, especially considering she doesn't so much as pamper the main character rotten, as she sucks him off. If she actually stand oppose to the main character, at least it gives some credit on the main character isn't this supposed perfect lord and savior to everyone else.
So yes, you are right on your guess. I'm definitely leaning more towards the queen being a good (as in competent, not good alignment) to her subject, but a terrible wife and mother to her own family. Although like I already admitted, this direction came from my unintentional fuck up in chapter 4's script.
:P
To HeshGerlan:
Thank you very much on your kind word!
You are very welcome. Obviously, I wouldn't know how well your story fares if you starts writing (there are a lot of underrated stories on this site where the story is great but barely anyone read it). But from the discussion we had, I think you can be a good writer since you actually have a lot of your own original thought.
I'm not against pure power fantasy writing, especially in this current high stressful time where it seems everything in the world is awful. Even if my own preferred power fantasy has always been video game, since it's inter-reactive. Why read other people's power fantasy, when I can live my own through games?
But I really hate this current trend where it feels like EVERYTHING is leaning heavier and heavier towards being dumb power fantasy. I think online novel (fan fiction or original) can really use some more creative works where people actually pour their passion on something more interesting than dumb power fantasy.