Rising of the Shield Demon (Side-Stories)
By
Dark Dragen…
Chapter Summary: In this part, you find out why Melty was returning to Melromarc and how along the way she ended up meeting with Filo and her master. This chapter is based on the bonus chapter in vol 3 of Shield Hero, but I have added details to fit my story, reword things because of changes and explain things sooner than later.
Melty...
The Kingdom of Faubrey, Capital City:
We begin our next side-story with a purple-haired thirteen-year-old girl by the name of Melty Melromarc. She was the second daughter of Mirellia and Aultcray Melromarc and the Second Princess of Melromarc. Although she was the Second Princess, because of her sister's actions over the years, she was first in the line of succession. It's not that Melty didn't love Malty, but she wasn't fit to be the next queen.
You see, whilst Melty loved her older sister, she knew how spoiled her sister was. It was thanks to her father that she was like this, how he spoiled Malty as she was young, even now he would allow her to get away from things that she shouldn't. She doesn't hate her father at all for this - instead, she thought that he is kind of gross. Before she knew better, she had heard all sorts of legends about what a strong and wise warrior he had been, but she grew up watching him fawn over her older sister. He gave her whatever she wanted and allowed her to get away with this, after seeing that, it was hard to respect him after that.
It was hard to believe the kind of man he had become.
Although when she asked the servants about this, they said he was acting like many fathers before him, spoiling their daughters. They don't know why this was, sure most men are taught to treat women with respect and such, but most fathers would spoil their daughters more than normal, more than their sons. Whilst this wasn't a bad thing, there should be a balance to this, but with her mother being the queen and being busy all the time when Malty was a child, there wasn't a woman in the First Princess's life to give her that balance. Although, many believed that the king was only trying to make up for the queen not being in her eldest daughter's life and things only got out of hand, and Malty became the way she has.
Because of this, she could understand why her mother took a more hands-on approach when raising her; her mother didn't want her to turn out like her older sister. Whilst it was hard at times and she wished that she had an easier life, to have a chance to have a normal childhood, she wouldn't give it up for anything. As the Queen of Melromarc, her mother's job was to travel around the country meeting with leaders of the other kingdoms/lands to make sure that Melromarc never has to go to war.
Right now, the two main nations that her mother visited often were Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden, as they didn't like how they treated the demi-humans in Melromarc, so she would visit them to prevent them from doing anything. Sure her mother had done as much as she could for the demi-humans in her kingdom, but there was just so much she could do. As there were centuries of mistrust and conflict thanks to the past people of Melromarc, it would take years even centuries to fix it. All she could do was reassure Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden that she was doing everything she could to change things in her kingdom.
Because of how her sister acted and their mother believing that she would be a better queen than Malty, their mother took her along when she travels, to learn how to do her job. By travelling with her mother, not only was she able to learn new things, but able to see new things that she would normally be unable to do so.
Either way, although she might have problems with her father, she had to admit that he still had a great military mind. You could tell when he played strategy games with her mother. She would sit there scratching her head in thought, and he would just yawn - and win. That's not to say that her mother was a weak player by any means. Melty had never seen her lose to anyone besides her father. No matter how hard Melty studied, she could never compare to the skills of her mother. Yet her father beat her easily.
No matter what she felt, Melty loved her father. He cared about his family - but she simply cannot understand why he was always caving in and giving her sister whatever she wants, and allowing her to get away with things.
Speaking of strategy games - Melty's sister was the least skilled among the family. Their father would often hold back to let Malty win, which is fine. But when Malty played against others she would lie, cheat, and steal - she would do anything to win.
Strategy games have different names all around the world. The one they played was actually brought to Melromarc in the past by a Hero from another world. Melty's mother said they called it 'chess.'
Melty wasn't good at using pressure or cheating. Her sister on the other hand? Well, Melty could remember the few times where she played the game, each time adding a new rule.
"Whenever this piece is in trouble, there is a rule that lets me shuffle the position of the other pieces on the board." Her sister would say as she reached out and moved all the pieces into more advantageous positions.
Even after that, Melty won. Her sister flipped the board over in anger.
There was another time where she said this to try and win, "It's a special move! All the piece affiliations switch! And the same special move makes it my turn!"
Melty even let her sister do that. But then when it was her turn and she reached for a piece… her sister would say, "This one can jump all the other pieces and go straight for the king!" As she slammed down a random piece where Melty's king was.
"Okay, then it's my turn to use that special move." Melty told her sister. Did she think that her sister wasn't going to follow Malty's fake rules?
"Well…" Malty would try and think up some reason why her sister could use the same rules as she made up.
"It's my turn, isn't it? Now then…" Melty said with a smile as she reached for the piece her sister said had the power, declared that she used the power, and then took the piece off of the board.
"…"
Malty glared at her sister with a burning hatred. Did she think that her sister was going to ignore the rules she made up?
"I'm the only one who can do that! I'm putting the piece back." Melty said darkly, unhappy that her sister would use her rules against her.
"Then this game is not fair. If you want to play that way, play with our father." Melty said as she stood up and left, as her sister picked up the board and threw it across the room. Melty had to wonder what her sister was thinking? Even though Melty loved her sister, the idea of the country falling into Malty's hands was enough to make anyone nervous.
Anyway, back to her story.
About two months ago their world was visited by a strange phenomenon that historians give it the name of the Waves of Calamity. The historians have no idea when they first appeared or why they appear in the first place, just that they first appeared a few millennia ago, even longer. From what the historians could figure out, these Waves of Calamity appear at least every four hundred years or so, give or take some years, or that's what they believe at least seeing how the last two before this one were four hundred years apart. Melty thought they could be right seeing how the last one was four hundred years ago.
When the Wave hit Melromarc, Melty was out travelling with her mother, who was travelling to a country called Faubrey. They were heading to Faubrey to attend an international conference when they learned that the Waves of Calamity were going to hit. You see, they learned that the Waves of Calamity was going to hit thanks to the Dragon Hourglass that were located in any temple/church around the land. As the sends within the hourglass starting to flow and telling them the danger of the Waves appearing soon. Because Faubrey was the most powerful nation on the continent, the conference was being held there.
Many nations were invited to the international conference to discuss how to defend their continent, and which of the five powerful nations were going to summon the Four Legendary Heroes: Faubrey, Melromarc, Siltvelt, Shieldfreeden, Zeltoble. There was a sixth powerful nation, Q'ten Lo, but they had an isolationist policy and didn't like outsiders in their land, they only worked with Silitvelt because they rely on the flow of supplies from them for their daily necessities.
They were only there to learn who was going to summon the four Legendary Heroes. As they selected themselves as Watchers of the Legendary and Vassal Heroes, to make sure the Heroes did their jobs properly. If any Hero goes rogue and becomes a threat, they would send someone to deal with them. This person was known as the Pacifier, someone who had the skills to be able to face a Hero and fight them, to enact punishment and correct the Hero's path if possible.
The other nations didn't like this, as they feared that they might misuse this power and kill the Heroes for no reason, but they also knew that the Pacifier was also needed. Whilst Legendary Heroes only appear once every four hundred years, Vassal Heroes were more common, they appear every so often, sometimes two sometimes all seven of them at the same time. Whilst it's rare, there have been a few of them that have gone rogue, in fact, there have been eight Vassal Heroes that have gone rogue in the last four hundred years. Out of the eight, three were killed and the others were put back on the path they meant to be on.
During her trip to Faubrey, Melty asked her mother, "Mother, why don't they hold the conference after the Heroes have arrived?"
"Some things are too difficult to decide simply pragmatically, whether they be between people or between countries." her mother answered her, "It's best to discuss this beforehand, to make things fair and make sure that no one tries to monopolise the Heroes for their own gain and leave the other nations out of the loop."
When they arrived at Faubrey, Melty learnt that there was a panel to discuss who would summon the Legendary Heroes, and how to deal with the Waves which the Holy Heroes weren't able to defend against. As the Waves can happen at any time and anywhere, sometimes there would be Waves days apart from each other and so one Hero wouldn't be able to deal with it and so another would be needed.
The first half of the discussion wasn't too bad, it was to explain how the ceremony to summon the Hero was performed, and that Faubrey would show them how and try to summon the Sword Hero. The reason that Faubrey was going first was that as they had the only known people who knew the ritual to summon the Heroes, as the ritual was long forgotten and the only records of it were in Faubrey guarded so that no one could steal and monopolise the Heroes whenever the Waves of Calamity would show up again.
But the second half of the discussion wasn't going too well, whilst Faubrey was going to go first, they couldn't decide as to who would try next and which Hero they should try to summon. It took over a week to discuss this, during which the first Wave appeared, it was in her own kingdom Melromarc.
That's when things began to go to hell for her mother, as not long after the first Wave appeared, they found out that her father had someone to perform the ceremony without notifying the other nations. This was bad, as Faubrey had a few days before they faced their first Wave. What didn't help was that when they tried to send ambassadors through the Dragon's Gate to talk to her father, they weren't allowed to get any further and it was sent back by the orders of the king. This meant that the only way for someone to talk to the new Heroes personally so that the king couldn't interfere was to send someone by other means, but that would take at least a week to a month or so, depending on the method of travel before anything could be done about it.
The world was complicated and hostile enough before this happened, in fact, most of the hostility was towards Melromarc for one reason or another. But when Melromarc summoned the Heroes, it started a serious international dispute.
"You Melromarc weasels! You want sole control over the Heroes, is that it?!" someone from the nation of Zeltoble accused Melty's mother when the meeting started up a few hours after learning what her father did. No one believed that the church could summon the Heroes without the king knowing about it, or have him ordering it to be done in the first place. Because her mother rules over Melromarc, they all believed that her father had summoned the Heroes on her orders.
She did not retreat though, instead, she covered her mouth with a folding fan. Melty was shocked when she calmly responded, "Would you like me to say that we aim to take over the world?"
"What was that?!" someone shouted out in shock,
"Perhaps you mean to declare war against my country, which possesses all of the four Holy Warriors? Think carefully about that." the queen warned them all, "By the time you get to talk to them, my husband might have talked them into siding with Melromarc. So if you decide to fight us, you might have trouble, even Q'ten's Pacifier might have problems facing four Heroes at once instead of one on one that they are used to." Melty knew that her mother was bluffing, but she had to keep up a front so as not to show weakness against the other nations, as if she did, Melty knew that they would go after her mother with everything that they had. So as the Queen of Melromarc, she had to show a strong front even if she didn't have all the cards and hope they would believe her bluff.
"Ugh…" it worked, everyone wasn't too sure what to think or say at this, they weren't sure if it was a bluff or not, so it was better not to say anything for now.
Seeing that her bluff worked, her mother went on to give an olive branch by saying, "However, depending on the conditions you propose, we are not opposed to sharing the Heroes. Depending on the conditions, naturally."
"We can't trust you!" one of them told her.
"Is that so? The world is in a deep crisis, and you would accuse my country of only protecting itself? Are there no other countries here that wish to pull ahead of the others?" her mother accused them, making out that her husband did what he did for the protection of their kingdom, "That if they knew how to summon the Heroes themselves, they wouldn't summon the Heroes to protect their nation?"
The accusatory speaker swallowed his response, knowing that she was right, they would have done something like that if they knew how to.
Melty's mother produced a report gathered confidentially by her spies.
"King Faubrey? What do you think?" The Queen turned the conversation to the king.
To be honest, King Faubrey was a very disturbing man. He was like a writhing ball of flesh. He was like a monster pig you didn't want to be around. If the rumours were true, then he was worse than Melty believed him to be, a real monster and someone who shouldn't be king:
He was quite lazy and had a habit of sleeping past noon despite his responsibilities. He sees all women as toys for his pleasure which has been enabled by his incredible capability as the king of the powerful nation of Faubrey. So because of the notorious way he 'use' and dispose of his 'toys,' it was said that the nobles would threaten their daughters that misbehaved, that they would be sent to the king if they weren't on their best behaviour. The worst troublemakers would then be married off to Faubrey, but it was said that many of them would prefer suicide over King Faubrey's sadistic methods. Being sent to him is considered a famous but terrible method of execution.
"Ahahaha… Queen Melromarc, you know very well what it is I desire." King Faubrey told Melty's mother.
"Yes. All I need to do is agree to your conditions?" the Queen asked, not liking it one bet. King Faubrey wanted to marry her eldest daughter, but knowing what she did, the Queen didn't want this for her daughter.
The king nodded as he told her some of the conditions, this shocked all of the delegates.
Melty knew that her mother had to make a very difficult decision in order to satisfy those demands. To prevent something that she had no control over, but was forced to carry the blame because of her being Queen of Melromarc, and so any actions taken by Melromarc, known or not, the blame lay down on her for not preventing it, dealing with or punishing the guilty. She had walked a very difficult path to get to these negotiations.
"Very well then. I agree to your conditions." The Queen told the Pig King. Melty knew her mother and she knew that whilst she agreed to these conditions, she would find a way to prevent her daughter from marrying this King. She went on to say, "All of your great nations may send envoys to Melromarc to meet with the Heroes, and offer aid and alliance to them. Please respect the wishes of the Heroes though, we don't want to alienate them and have them as enemies instead of allies. If they agree to your teams, the Heroes will accompany them back to your lands."
The delegates and the king all nodded to these terms and so sent envoys to meet the Heroes.
o0OoO0o
The Kingdom of Faubrey, Capital City, 3rd of February 1640:
It has been over a month since all this happened, and a few days since Melromarc had faced the second Wave of Calamity along with a few other nations or they were about to face the second set of Waves soon. During the last month, things weren't going well for Melty's mother. After finding out that someone in her kingdom had summoned the Heroes without permission, the conference fell into chaos, many people wanted to go to war with Melromarc. The Queen had her work cut out for her to prevent a war from coming to her kingdom, and to keep relationships together and not have them falling apart. As if that happened, Melromarc would be in trouble.
It didn't help that during this time, Melty saw her mother becoming ill, from the stress and the attempted assassins from the nations who blamed her for what happened with the Heroes. The problem is that she didn't know who sent the assassins to her, even if she did, she wouldn't do much about it, as she couldn't blame them. But the Queen hid her discomfort, her stress and worry, she couldn't allow them to see her weak at this moment.
The Queen had willpower like no other.
It was something that Melty respected very much about her mother. She hoped that one day she would be very much like her mother.
As things were slowly being dealt with, Melty dreaded going home, as her mother would have to take action against her father and sister.
It all started a little over a week after the different nation's envoys were sent to Melromarc by airship, which was the quickest way to get to Melromarc and back in the fastest way possible, the report wasn't good at all.
All four of the Heroes had declined to meet with the envoys. Three of the Heroes, Spear, Bow and Sword, had no interest in working with another nation, they had a deal with the King of Melromarc and had no reason to break it for lands they knew little about. They decided they would level up first and if they later feel up to it, they might come to them and make a deal.
As for the Shield Hero, well that was the most problematic of the four Heroes because the treatment of the Shield Hero was awful. Melty realized that in her mother's absence, it appeared that Melromarc had rebuked and chastised the Shield Hero, and was doing all that they could to oppress him. They were going out of their way to discriminate against him. Melty knew that some of it was because of the distrust and hatred that her kingdom had for the Shield Hero. She couldn't understand it fully, but it had to do with the fact that one of the Shield Heroes of the past did something and since then the distrust and hatred.
But the way they were treating him was more that to do with distrust and hatred, the rest of it was down to her sister. Normally she wouldn't know about such things, as her mother wouldn't let her know it, but it would seem that her sister claimed that the Shield Hero raped and beat her. Now she wouldn't learn of this, but they were sent a few photos of the damage that the Shield Hero meant to have done to her.
This started an argument between the nations, with the representative from Siltvelt being the loudest, denying that the Shield Hero would do such a thing. Even the representative from Shieldfreeden argued that the Shield Hero wouldn't do such a thing, here the representative followed the Dragon Faith, as he was a dragon demi-human known as Aotatsu, but a lot of Shieldfreeden followed the Shield Faith.
Melty and her mother though also knew differently, as they knew what Malty was like, so believed this was just a big set-up against the new Shield Hero. But the question was why? What did she gain from doing this? Was it to make sure people kept believing that the Shield Hero was a demon, or was there more to it.
Malty heard her mother during the last week when a Shadow reported what happened, that she was glad that her eldest was the Companion of the Spear Hero, as she was thinking about giving her to King Faubrey for all the political headache she was causing. She feared that thanks to her eldest, the Shield Hero would be more than happy to leave her kingdom in ruins if things got too bad.
It didn't help that her husband seemed to believe these stories too and made it harder for the Shield Hero, although, from the reports that her Shadows give her, he seemed to have some sort of hatred for the Shield Hero already, seeing how he was treating the Shield Hero differently from the start.
The Queen had no idea how she could fix what her husband and her eldest did to him, she would have to think things over and hope for the best.
Melty knew that her mother was glad that her sister was with the Spear Hero because as long as she was with him or the Bow Hero and got married to one of the two, Malty wouldn't have to marry the Pig King. Something that although she was tempted about, wouldn't wish that onto Malty, no matter how angry she was.
As of now, the Shield Hero wanted nothing to do with the envoys and wanted to be left alone, something Malty or her mother could blame him for.
"How could you believe such things from this woman?" the representative of Siltvelt jumped up on his table in anger, when a few people argued that something must be done to the Shield Hero. The demi-humans of Siltvelt worshipped the Shield Hero, and they couldn't think that he would do such a thing. "No offence to Queen Melromarc, but we all heard the rumours about her eldest, what she really is like, so why would we believe what she says now. At least until we have done our own investigation to learn what really happened."
Although, to most of Siltvelt, he could have done this to the First Princess and they still wouldn't think he did no wrong, to them their god could do no wrong. Many would follow him if he did become the Demon of the Shield as many called him over the years.
"That may be true, but what woman would allow herself to be beaten that badly?" asked King Faubrey. Sure he knew what Malty was like, but he didn't see her as someone who would ruin her own looks only to frame someone. So he highly doubted she would do such a thing. Zeltoble was siding with the king here, whilst they had their shady past, and dark dealings, what they learnt of the First Princess, she was vain about her looks and didn't think she would do such a thing. Q'ten Lo on the other hand wanted a full investigation before they decide what to do, as if the Shield Hero really did such a thing, they might have to send their Pacifier to deal with him and bring him back to the path he meant to be on. But they want hard evidence before they do anything.
"It's no wonder why the Lord Shield Hero doesn't want to deal with any of us," said the representative of Siltvelt, "he fears we either blame for what happened or fears we might frame him for something he didn't do."
Sensing that another fight was going to happen and so forgetting about the real reason that they were here for, the Queen of Melromarc said, "Listen when I return to Melromarc, I'll launch a full investigation as to what really happened. Should he really be behind it, we can deal with it then. And if my daughter has made it all up, then I'll deal with her instead."
Both Melty and her mother knew this was something she might do, sure it would be new and a new low, but they knew that if it got her something, she would do whatever it takes to get it. Melty just hoped that her sister wouldn't go too far, that their mother would be forced to do something that she didn't want to, to keep the nations going to war with their kingdom.
"That I can agree with Queen Melromarc, I'm willing to hold off until you can learn the truth." The King of Faubrey agreed with Queen Melromarc. If this was any other time, he would have done more, as his kingdom had better technology and more power than other nations. But the problem was the Waves of Calamity, with them appearing now things were different. Normally he would let things be, allow the other nations to fight each other or allow monsters to attack nations unless it benefited him and his kingdom, but he had promises to keep, debts to pay. If he tried to start something during this time, he could lose a lot of support from the smaller nations and have them turn on him and join forces to try and defeat him. So no matter how powerful and tech they had, he could lose badly, so he had to think what was best for his kingdom and in turn for himself.
"That's fine, but to make things are done fairly and nothing is hidden, I would like someone from a Q'ten Lo to oversee the investigation and relay the results to everyone concerned." a representative Q'ten Lo told them.
Melty knew that her mother wasn't happy about this, knowing her mother, if she could she would try and do what she could within reason to cover for her family, to keep them safe. But to prevent political backless even a war, her mother knew she had to agree to this, so it was no shock to Melty when her mother replied, "That's fine with me, once we are done here you can send whoever you want back to Melromarc to make sure that the investigation is done correctly."
"How should we deal with the Heroes?" one of the representatives from the smaller nations asked because they were smaller nations aren't powerful, they don't say much, but they give feedback, learn who the new Heroes were, and there to help to decide who could summon the Heroes so that a fight wouldn't break out to the nations who could summon the Heroes. "Without them, who's going to help defend us when a Wave hits us? We have been lucky with the Waves so far, we lost very few people so far. But if the legends are true, the Waves will only get stronger, so how can we defend ourselves as we wait for the heroes to get stronger?"
"As for the Heroes, we should let them do as they wish for now. Apparently, they are still dedicating their efforts to accruing strength." The King informed everyone, "At least until the Waves get too much for us, at which point we'll deal with them. If they don't, I'm sure that Q'ten Lo would be willing to have their Pacifier make the Heroes see sense if the time comes."
"We'll be more than happy to make sure that all Heroes do their jobs when the time comes," the representative of Q'ten Lo said, as they give a knowing look at Queen Melromarc, "and if they are Vassal Heroes if they can't do their jobs, we'll find someone who can do the job of the Vassal Hero."
Melty couldn't understand it, but as the representative of Q'ten Lo said this, her mother looked worried for some reason. Her mother wouldn't say why she was worried, just say it was nothing she should be worried about and left it at that.
"As for who's going to defend you, I'm willing to send a few groups of guards to defend your nations the day before the Wave is meant to hit, if it's possible." said the King, hoping to gain favour with the other nations, so that when the time comes they would side with him or at least won't get in his way when he tries to get his own way. "In fact, we have recently discovered some armour and weapon designs from one of the former Legendary Heroes that we're planning to use during the upcoming Waves, which should be down in the next week or so. They should be able to defend against the Waves until the Heroes are strong enough to help us."
There were a few whispers among the representatives at this news, some were glad that Faubrey had found new armour and weapons, especially seeing how they were facing the Waves and needed all the advantage that they could get. The King hid his smirk at this, glad that he might gain some favour from these nations.
But Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden were worried that they gained such armour and weapons if the king was telling the truth, as it would mean that the Kingdom of Faubrey would have gained even more power, which worried them. As they feared the King could use these new items against them. But they knew they couldn't say anything right now, as it could cause a conflict that they couldn't deal with right now. So it was best to keep things as is so as not to start a war or other problems until after the Waves were dealt with.
"I say once the truth is known and Shield Hero is willing to talk, he should come to Siltvelt where he'll be treated as he would and get the support that he needs." the representative of Siltvelt told everyone, wanting to make sure that the Shield Hero should be treated as he should be.
"I do not think that is wise Lord Mushu," King Faubrey told the representative of Siltvelt, "do you think there are no records of just how long the last Shield Hero spent within your borders? I think it's unwise for him to go until we know he'll be safe there."
Lord Mushu curled his fingers into a fist, which turned into a dragon claw, as that tidbit was thrown into his face. The last time that the Heroes had been summoned, the Shield Hero remained in Siltvelt for a few months after helping to form it, before they mysteriously died. Whether it was an accident or a conspiracy, or if the Shield Hero himself was simply weak - no one knew, but it was an incident that Siltvelt found difficult to ignore. It didn't help that the other nations would throw this back at them, thinking that it was them who killed the Shield Hero - even though there was no proof as to who or how he died.
Seeing how things were going to end up with another argument, Queen Melromarc called out, "If King Faubrey doesn't mind, I think we should go it a day. We have much to do and discuss, and it would be best if we have a clear head to do so. Seeing how things are now, we won't be able to do much and might end up doing something we all regret."
This was something that all of the representatives could agree on, things were getting out of control and knew that if they didn't take a break, words could be said that could start a war. Something none of them wanted. Seeing how everyone agreed to this, King Faubrey closed the meeting for the day. Where everyone left to make reports to their leaders, whilst Melty and her mother went to their room to take a rest, where her mother thought about what she had to do next.
o0OoO0o
The Kingdom of Faubrey, Capital City 6th of February 1640
It has been a few days since this happened and Melty was in her mother's room with her room, after another disastrous meeting with the other nations. It would seem that after learning that her Kingdom had summoned all of the four Legendary Heroes, they couldn't have one meeting where it wouldn't come up and a fight would start among the representatives, if it wasn't about the summoning of the heroes it was something small that one of them decided to argue about.
Things were so volatile, that Melty was worried that one wrong word could start a war. A war that they couldn't afford to have right now, seeing how they had to deal with first and not some stupid war over some silly words spoken out of anger. At the moment, her mother was speaking to one of the loyal Shadows of the Melromarc Kingdom.
When she was done and the Shadow left, her mother looked down at whatever the news was, and with a sigh, she said, "Melty, I have a job for you."
"What can I do?" asked Melty, worried what news the Shadow had given her mother so that she would ask her to do a job.
"I would like you to, very secretly now, sneak back into Melromarc, and convince your father to stop this unfair treatment of the Shield Hero." the Queen informed her daughter what she wanted to be done.
"What has father done now?" asked Melty. Sure, she heard what her sister had done to the Shield Hero and their father believed her and so like any father, he was upset and angry at the Shield Hero. But the problem was that he was also the King, so that meant he would sometimes have to put his fatherly duties aside and act like a King instead of a father.
If her father had problems with the Shield Hero, he should treat him as if he was like an enemy with who they have a price treaty with, be distrustful but give the respect and sometimes let things slide, even if you don't like it. As if they do something without any real proof, the enemy could retaliate and start a war or cause problems because they were getting blamed for something they didn't do. Because they were dealing with the Waves, instead of trying to handicap the Shield Hero, her father should be helping him.
After asking the question about what her father did, her mother informed her daughter about how he forced the Shield Hero into a duel with the Spear Hero, to try and remove Shield Hero's slave from the Shielder. Her mother went on to explain how her father covered up how Malty cheated and allowed the Spear Hero to win when the Shield Hero looked like he was going to win. Because the Spear Hero won the duel, the slave was removed from the Shield Hero. Lastly, her father tried to make the Shield Hero pay for the removal of the Slave Crest so that he didn't get any rewards at all.
"But I thought you sent the Shield Hero a Slave License so he could own slaves to fight for him?" Melty asked her mother. Like her mother, she didn't like the idea of people owning slaves but seeing how other nations had slaves and political aspects to it all, there wasn't much they could do about it other than to make sure that slaves were treated as well as possible. Her mother gave the Slave License to help the Shield Hero, as she knew that he might have problems from how the past heroes were treated and how her kingdom thought of him over the last four hundred years. "So why would father do something like trying to remove the Shield Hero's slave from him?"
"I honestly don't know," her mother admitted to her daughter, "that's why I want you to go home and convince him to stop this unfair treatment of the Shield Hero."
"Do you really think I can do this mother?" Melty asked, feeling unsure if she could do this, "Can't you come with me to stop father?"
Her mother had already sent a few soldiers to try and speak with her father, but they had all been ignored. She could understand why her mother wanted to send her to speak to him, seeing how he often listened to her and respected her opinion, and therefore she wanted to send her to reason with him. But something like this, she wasn't too sure about it seemed too big and she feared of not doing well for her mother.
At night, when her mother didn't know she was awake, Melty found her mother burning portraits of her father that her mother found, more like having the Shadows bring them to her, with magic. All because her father was causing her so much trouble. Melty feared that if things continued this way, with her father acting crazy back home, their relationship could not bear the strain. Her mother would run out of patience.
She couldn't let that happen. But at the same time, Melty felt as if she wasn't the right person to do this, that her mother could deal with her father better than her.
"I wish I could deal, I wish I could, but I can't." her mother said with a sigh, she wanted to give her husband a few chosen words as to how he was acting, but right now she couldn't. She had other things to deal with, things she thought was more important and felt her daughter could do this job just as well as her, "You been in the meetings in the last few days, every time we get close to getting some sort of arrangement sorted out, something or someone would bring back what your father did or how our Kingdom is treating the Shield Hero and so they had to break up for the day so that the wrong things aren't said and a war might start. It might be a few weeks before things settle down and I can return home and sort out your father and sister."
Then pulling her daughter into a hug, the Queen went on to say, "Listen I know that it might seem hard, but I believe in you, believe that you might be able to make your father see sense. I wouldn't have sent you if I didn't think that."
Melty felt pride in those words, she knew then that she couldn't turn this down, let it fail, so with a big smile said, "Thank you mother, I'll do my best to make sure father behaves."
"I know you will deal," her mother said with her own smile, "once there, I would like it if you can keep an eye on your sister and make sure she doesn't give the Shield Hero any more trouble, if she does, please try and prevent it if you can."
"I'll try mother." was all Melty said, both knew it would be difficult, but it was something that had to be said.
"Now, the carriage to Melromarc will be off in an hour, so please get ready and be careful." Melty's mother told her.
"Leave it to me!" Melty said with pride as she pulled away from the hug, as she was going to get ready to leave.
"Thank you, Melty." said the Queen.
Nothing was said here, nothing was needed to, both knew how important this was, that if things didn't get better, there could be a war starting in a few weeks and this wasn't what was needed right now. They needed peace so that it would be easier to deal with the Waves, not nations trying to kill each other.
Once the hour was gone, Melty, in the disguise of travelling the lands and seeing the sites, as her mother tries to fix King Melromarc's actions, left to return home.
What the Queen didn't know was this one action doomed her fate. Whilst she thought she was doing the right thing by sending her daughter to stop Melty's father's and sister's behaviour, it only doomed her fate, in ways she would later look back on and wished that she could redo all this.
o0OoO0o
The Kingdom of Melromarc, 10th of March 1640:
It has been a few weeks since Melty left the Capital City to return to Melromarc. They were taking their time so that none of the Shadows from Melromarc nor anyone else knew that she was going back home. Another reason it was taking time was so that they and the Filolials could rest, not only that, but this allowed the Shadow to deliver the reports that the Second Princess made for her mother.
"Now I will deliver this report for you Princess Melty." the Shadow informed the young girl, "Whilst it'll only take me a little while to do so, please don't go far from here Princess."
"Understood." Melty said with a sigh. Like the few other times that she sent reports during her trip back home and many times in the past when a Shadow looked after her, she was often told not to go far from the carriage. It was getting a bit bothersome hearing it over and over again when she knew this already, but as a Princess and future Queen, she couldn't say much. It was after all for her protection.
Normally a group of them would take turns watching her, this way other than stopping so often, they would only stop for the Filolials to rest instead of stopping to send reports too. But with so much happening these days, her mother could only spare one Shadow to protect her.
So Melty was left to her own devices while the Shadow delivered her reports.
It wasn't that she didn't like travelling by carriage, but it did get a little boring. As she didn't have anything to do while the Shadow was gone. Sure she had her attendant, but he wasn't one for talking and doing much at all. But with the Shadow, whilst she wasn't meant to talk to them, the one who normally protects her would at least talk to her.
Melty often caught herself yawning at these times as she had no one to talk to.
But today was different. Yes, she was bored, but as she looked out the window, she spotted an interesting creature.
"Ah!"
"Wh… What's wrong?" her attendant asked as Melty startled her attendant when she shouted.
Instead of answering, finally found something interesting, she jumped out of the carriage and walked off into a nearby field, parting the grass as she went.
"Gah, Gah!"
There was a wild Filolial there pulling an empty carriage. It was an amazing and strange sight to see.
To be honest, she loved these creatures since she was young. Her mother would often tell her about the legends of the Holy Heroes and how the Filolials were famous for pulling the Heroes' carriages and were revered as holy creatures here and there. But instead of being drawn to the heroes as many people do, she was drawn to the Filolial characters for some strange reason. She couldn't help but love them!
She would often visit the ones that were in the stable back home whenever she could, to look after and play with them. Over the last few years, as she visited them in the stables, she slowly found herself falling in love with them. But they all lived in captivity whilst these were wild ones. She wanted to get a closer look at them.
As she followed the Filolial, she soon arrived in a huge opening of a forest where other Filolials, there were other empty carriages here where the Filolials were pulling around. She heard the stories that all Filolials shared the desire to pull carriages for some reason. She, like a lot of others, didn't really understand why they had this desire, but apparently, they feel anxious without something heavy to pull, in fact, they say that Filolials who don't have something to pull would slowly die over time.
Now that she thought about it, she did her strange stories of carriages being stolen by Filolials over the last few years, but like everyone else, no one believed such a story. Why would a Filolial steal a carriage for? Many believed that those who reported these stories were either trying to cover up being mugged by bandits or create a story to cover up a reason for losing their carriage. No one believed the stories of Filolials stealing the carriages before - that was until now.
Seeing these carriages, a few of them she recognised as royal carriages that were reported stolen, she began to believe the stories. The carriages were stolen by wild Filolials, as for why, she didn't know, but they did. But she knew that if she said anything, no one would believe her either. So she decided not to say anything. This would be one of the amazing things she ever witnessed in her life, she wouldn't forget about it ever.
As she hid in the long grass, behind a few trees, she saw a strange-looking Filolial in the middle of the opening, watching over the other Filolial.
"What kind is that one? I've never seen that kind before." Melty whispered to herself. Looking at how it was acting, she believed that this Fiololial was some type of protector Fiololial.
Normally, a Filolial would be one colour, be it be, pink, light blue, yellow or alike, this one was different. It was white with a few feathers that had blue tips on her tail feathers. Not only that, but the feathers around its neck were also blue - light and dark blue.
At a glance, those who breed Filolial you could tell that this bird was a Filolial, but Melty had never seen one coloured this way before. Not only that, but the wings looked different too, and the body shape was strange too, it was much fatter than other Filolials. Which would make it hard for people to realize that this was a Filolial if you didn't breed them. Even then, you would wonder.
The most obvious difference was the feathers on top of its head, which made it stand out from the other Filolials too, as the feathers were made up to look like a crown.
'Could I make friends with it? It must have been a very rare type.' Melty thought to herself as she looked at the rare breed of Filolial. She really wanted to make friends with it and be able to ride it.
Now Melty knew that wild Filolials were quite timid around humans. So as long as you don't make them startal, you can get up close to them. To win them over, that was an easy job, as these creatures were very hungry beings, and you could win them over by feeding them some jerky or grass.
That's why Melty had taken up carrying jerky around in her pocket and bag. So if she ever ran into a wild Filolial, she could try and win it over and get a ride from it. So as she pulled some from her pocket, she slowly walked up to this rare Filolial, as she did so the other wild Filolial parted.
"Gah?"
The Filolial noticed her with the jerky.
Melty didn't want to scare it off, so she held the jerky out in front of her and slowly inched forward.
"Come on, Filolial." Melty said softly, not wanting it to run off.
The bird was obviously still cautious, but it started to come over in her direction.
Melty could tell it was sniffing the air for the jerky.
But…
"Gah!"
No, no, no! The Filolial ran off through the grass
"Wait!" Melty called out to the bird, she really wanted to be friends with such a rare creature.
Remembering her mother's stories about Filolials, she knew that there were some Filolials that would only respect you if you ran after them (because Filolials love to run.)
So she ran back to the carriage and quickly told her attendant what to do.
"Follow that Filolial!" she ordered her attendant.
"B… but!" the attendant hesitated, seeing how he was ordered to protect the young princess.
"Please!" begged Melty, really wanting to be friends with the rare Filolial.
The attendant hesitated for a moment, then nodded and gripped the reins.
Our carriage was also pulled by a Filolial.
"Gah!" the Filolial pulling the carriage cried out before it lurched off, running after the strange, blue Filolial.
"Wait!" Melty called out to the blue Filolial.
As they continued chasing the rare Filolial, the road had grown steeper in the forest though and was beginning to wind deeper into the mountains.
"Wait! Please wait!" Melty cried out, wanting the Filolial to stop running.
But the blue Filolial continued running, it was running its heart out. Melty felt as if it was having fun.
It was so fast. The Filolial that Melty was using was beginning to tire out.
"Stop." Melty told her attendant.
"Huh? Um… Okay!" said the attendant.
"Gah… Gah…"
Melty climbed down and let their Filolial drink some water, then she cast a water spell on her to cool her off.
"Are you okay?" asked Melty.
"Gah!" chirped the Filolial.
Melty felt upset that she had pushed the Filolial too hard. She knew that she probably should have given up the chase.
Melty was thinking about that while she watched the blue Filolial runaway.
But then it stopped and looked back at them as if it wanted them to chase it.
Melty didn't know if it was a game, but it looked like the Filolial was having fun.
"You want to keep going?" Melty asked the bird.
"Gah!"
The Filolial seemed chipper and eager.
"Then let's go!" Melty said with a smile as she got back into the carriage, and the chase was back on.
The blue Filolial was running and seemed to be enjoying itself.
Although it was hard to keep up, it was amazing and fun. It was amazing that such a rare bird would be so fast too.
"Oh no!" Melty grasped as she remembered something that she had forgotten. They were running down switchbacks, now. Each curve led to a steeper dip ahead.
The blue Filolial was running near the bottom of the mountain. But she was heading for a place that her mother told her that everyone should avoid. It was populated with dangerous monsters and dragons.
From what she learned about Filolials, Filolials and dragons never got along for some reason. And the blue Filolial was running right for the dragon's land. It was so focused on the chase that it must not have realized.
"We have to stop it!" Melty cried out in fear, worried that the Filolial might start a fight.
It was kind of cheating, but Melty jumped down from the carriage, went over the cliff face of the switchback, and jumped down towards the Filolial below.
It was dangerous, but the young princess could use magic to keep herself safe.
"Princess!"
Melty heard the attendant call after her, but it was too late.
She fell straight down onto the blue Filolial.
"Gah?!" cheeped the Filolial questioningly, wondering what Melty was doing.
"I'm sorry! But you are about to run into dragon territory!" Melty informed the bird.
"Gah!" shrieked the blue Filolial, as it agitatedly flapped its wings.
But Melty was too late.
"GROOOAAAAR!" A dragon was descending on us from above.
It was much bigger than Melty's carriage had been.
The forest was filled with the dragon's roar and the Filolial's cries.
The Filolial was preparing to defend itself.
Dragons are large, vicious monsters covered in hard scales. They could fly, and it was hard to hurt them with a sword. They had long claws and fangs.
They could also use magic, but it was different from what the humans used.
One of those very powerful dragons was now right there before them.
Melty was worried, what should she do? She didn't want the Filolial to end up hurt. There was only one thing that she could do, she stepped forward.
"I… I'll fight you." Melty challenged the dragon. She was only level eighteen, but she was able to use powerful water magic. So, if she used her strongest spells, she might be able to scare the beast off. And if things got out of hand, she could run towards her attendant who was nearby, there was a tool in the carriage for times like these. So that should scare the beast away if she couldn't
She knew that if she didn't time her attacks right, she would leave herself wide open for the dragon's counter. She had to relax then take care of the dragon.
"Wa…Wahhh!" the attendant took off running.
Terrible. Without him there, who was going to get her the tool from the carriage?
"Gah!" shrieked the Filolial from the carriage as ur ran over to protect Melty from the dragon.
Melty had become pretty close friends with this Filolial during her journey back to Melromarc. She was glad to know that she hadn't imagined our friendship.
To think that the Filolial would protect her…
"Gah… a…" the Filolial cried in pain as the dragon thrust its fangs through the neck of her Filolial… no… her Filolial!
"Stop that!" Melty shouted at the dragon, trying to save the Filolial.
It took all of her discipline to control herself, but she steadied her breathing and cast a spell.
"I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them! Attack him with a blade of water!" Melty began to chant her spell, "Zweite Aqua Slash!"
Finishing the spell, a blade of water flew from her hands and hit the dragon. It scratched the dragon, but it wasn't a fatal blow. All she had done was scratch one of its scales.
'Am I this powerless?' Melty thought to herself upon seeing the little damage that she had done.
"Gah!" shrieked the Filolial, as it the dragon. But because the dragon had locked its jaws onto Melty's carriage Filolial, the blue Filolial had to hold back.
Melty turned to the dragon and started to cast another spell. "I am the root of all power…"
But it wasn't to be though, the dragon roared as it whipped its tail and knocked her down.
"Ah!" Melty cried out in shock.
It had only felt like a light touch, but before she realized it, she was flying backwards and crumpled to the ground. A large blue bruise appeared where the tail had hit her.
"Ugh…U…" Melty mourned as she climbed to my feet but she found it difficult to stand.
"Gah…" shrieked as the blue Filolial kicked the dragon again, and this time it hurt enough that the dragon stumbled, releasing its grip on the other Filolial.
"GRAOOOOAR!" the dragon roared.
The dragon was so focused on chasing the blue Filolial that it seemed to have forgotten about Melty. This gave the young princess the chance to run over to the Filolial the dragon had bitten. It had collapsed on the ground. The wounds were deep and serious - the poor thing could die at any moment.
She needed to get back to the carriage…
"GRAOOOAR!"
Another dragon had appeared and tried to claw at the collapsed Filolial.
If this kept up any longer, the poor bird was sure to die.
At the time, all Melty could think of was saving the Filolial. She focused on chanting a spell.
"I won't let you die!" Melty called out as she ran forward to protect the Filolial, but the dragon flapped its wings, producing so much wind that she was knocked back. "Ahhh!"
Melty was slammed into a tree and felt her consciousness slipping. The wind slammed into the carriage, as it flew through the air and broke. If the princess stayed put she might have been able to avoid the battle. If they ignored her, she could escape later. But she just couldn't leave the Filolial there.
Ever since she was a child she travelled with her busy mother, and Melty spent all that time becoming friends with these Filolials. she couldn't abandon them.
"Ug… Uh…"
Her creaking body and fuzzy consciousness were straining. Melty reached out her hand.
"I am the… source of all… power. Hear my words and… heed them. Attack him with a… blade of water." Melty started to chant, trying to stay conscious, "Zweite Aqua Slash!" She focused all of her magic power into this single attack and sent the blade flying at the dragon.
She had used all of her remaining strength, and she fell forward, exhausted.
"Groaaar…"
From somewhere in the dim distance, Melty heard the dragon scream.
She hoped… she hoped that her last attack had managed to drive it off.
"Thank you for protecting me." Melty heard a voice, but she didn't know whose it was.
Melty felt something like a strong breeze… kindness blowing… and then she drifted into darkness.
"Gah!" Melty heard a soft cry.
"Oh… Ah?" Melty moaned softly.
When Melty opened her eyes, she saw the blue Filolial standing over her.
The hurt Filolial was resting inside of the carriage. Melty was relieved that it was alive.
She looked around but found that she wasn't in the mountains anymore. She was in some kind of field.
"Did you save me?" Melty asked the rare bird softly.
"Gah!" The blue Filolial nodded.
Melty didn't know how it did it, but the blue Filolial apparently saved both her and the other Filolial from the dragons and managed to bring them far away to safety.
"Thank you." Melty thanked the blue Filolial.
"Gah!" The blue Filolial happily chirped, then licked the young girl.
Melty rubbed the bird's head in return.
The young princess looked her body over to see if she had any wounds.
The Filolial was squinting and looked very comfortable.
Melty didn't have any large cuts or anything. Her clothes were fine too. She was a little worried that she might have some bruises… but she seemed to be okay. She looked over to see that the blue Filolial had covered the other Filolial's wounds with her wings and was healing them.
'So she could use healing magic too? Amazing.' Melty thought to herself in amazement.
In gratitude, she gave all of her jerky to the two Filolials.
After having a rest for a while, the blue Filolial let Melty ride her around a little bit. That was when the young girl noticed…
"Oh yeah… I…" Melty began as she remembered that the Shadow had told her to wait for her where she left her.
'What should I do?' Melty thought to herself. The carriage was broken. And the Filolial was too hurt to pull it anyway. She hadn't applied the monster control seal, but even if she did, she couldn't make her work when she was hurt anyway.
"Gah?" chirped the blue Filolial.
"I'm sorry. I have to go soon." Melty informed the blue Filolial.
She had taken a bit of a detour, but she knew that she had to make her way back to meet up with the Shadow and make her way back to Melromarc.
"Gaaah!"
Melty's Filolial called out to the blue Filolial.
"Gaaah!"
After nodding a few times, the blue Filolial called back.
Then, all of a sudden, they were surrounded by a whole group of Filolials.
There were so many - Melty had never seen anything like it.
Three Filolials came walking over to the blue Filolial.
It looked like they were all listening to her, and Melty knew she wasn't just imagining it. It seemed as if the blue Filolial was like their mother, and clearly the leader of the group.
"Gah!"
"Gah!"
The blue Filolial raised a wing and motioned for Melty to approach the other three Filolials.
"Um…" Melty climbed down from the blue Filolial and walked toward the others.
When Melty approached, all three of them knelt to the ground in what she assumed was a signal to climb up.
"You'll take me there?" asked Melty.
"Gah!" All three nodded.
"Gah!" The blue Filolial was waving its wings at Melty.
"Thank you!" Melty yelled her gratitude, as the three Filolials took off running.
Melty had such a mysterious experience with the Filolials that day. She would never forget it for as long as she lived.
The three Filolials found the road that Melty had been on originally and then brought her across the border into Melromarc.
On the way, they got tired and decided to take a rest. Melty was pretty sure they were near a village in the east of Melromarc.
"Gah?!"
Someone was approaching them, and the three Filolials were squawking in surprise.
Then, as if they suddenly noticed something, they all ran off.
"Ah…"
Melty guessed that this was the end of their friendship? This wasn't a very convenient place to be dropped off. But the young princess guessed she wasn't so far from Melromarc. She could just get a carriage or something.
"That bird looks delicious! Every time I pass one I can't get over how good they look." Melty heard a young girl say in the woods nearby.
"You're one of those birds." a young man rebuked the girl. Melty was confused here, wondering who the man was talking to.
"If Filo chases them, Filo can still get them, Master!" the young girl who was now known as Filo say.
Melty walked in the direction of the voices.
There was a Filolial there, but she was different from any Filolial she had seen before. All apart for one, the blue Filolial that she met earlier, she looked a lot like her. The only difference was that instead of having blue-tipped feathers, she had pink tips. She had clear, blue eyes, and a very happy and cheerful face. She looked like a very pure, happy Filolial.
Melty was so fascinated at seeing another Filolial like the blue Filolial from earlier that she walked right over to her.
"Wow… Are you a Filolial?"
"You mean me?"
"You can talk?"
To meet a Filolial that could talk like a person, it was like a dream to Melty!
Little did Melty know at this time, but this meeting would change her fate forever. Instead of being friends with the Shield Hero like they might have been in other worlds and times, her fate would take a darker turn. This is all thanks not only to her father and sister treating him so badly but her attitude too. She is used to having her own way outside of her mother and sometimes her mother, she is used to people saying yes to her. So later when she has a fit when Naofumi denies her request, that'll seal her fate.
As this Naofumi wasn't like any other Naofumis from other timelines and worlds, as this one isn't someone who tolerates people who demand things from, tell him what to do or betray or use him. So when Melty pushes Naofumi too far, he pushes back and punishes her.
To Be Continued!
Author's Note: Here's the end of the second side-story of Rising of the Shield Demon. I hope that you enjoyed the story and how I wrote Melty and how she got to the point where she meets Naofumi. Just so you know, seeing how I haven't got to the meeting in the main story yet, the ending will more than likely be going to change to fit the main story.
Before any of you say about how I changed what I have written about the Waves, that was intended, as when I wrote the last chapter. I talked to people and found things out and so had to change things to fit what I learned. So when I decide to start working on part 2 of the main story, I'll be adding changes before I do to fit what I have learned. Going to read over the last chapter of this side-story to see what I need to change and change them. At the moment because of the plans I have, I can only think of a few things that need to change, such as the dates, the rest should still be the same. Only time will tell.
I hope you like how I'm using Lilith and now Melty to show the story of Mirellia and Aultcray. I wanted to show that with these two characters, there's another side to their story, to show that it's not all black and white as Naofumi sees them thanks to how Aultcray and Malty treat him and so see the family in a bad light and unable to trust them.
So if there's anything that you would like to see happen either in the main story or the side-story, please let me know and I'll see if I can add it or not.
Got a question for those who read the Light Novel of Shield Hero, how was Aultcray able to defeat the last Cane Hero to be able to become one himself? I ask as when I wrote this chapter, I learned about the Pacifier that I wrote in this chapter and had to wonder how Aultcray was able to defeat the Cane Hero? As the Vassal Heroes meant to be powerful and near impossible to defeat which is why they have the Pacifier as they have the skills to deal with Vassal Heroes, so was the Cane Hero weak so Aultcray was able to defeat him or was there something else that we don't know so that Aultcray could fight the Hero?