"Talking"

"Thinking"

[Status Magic or other reference to a system or power]

He left soon after, needing to show the high ranking officers the queen's letter. Sophia watched him from the windows until he was out of sight.

"You better break my fucking back tonight, making wait the whole day." She muttered aloud, many shades redder than before.

...

Liviccic had shown the upper ranked knights and officials of Briarhaven the queen's letter, while subtly using [Corrupt] to place curses on each of them. Once they all confirmed that the letter was real, Liviccic spoke.

"So my father was most likely killed by Lady Olivia Grimwald, the Princess was nearly assassinated, and the queen is about to move. Now is the time to focus and cooperate. The shield hero is heading here with the Princess. Once here, we will focus on defense and do what we can to last until the queen arrives, which will trigger lord Aldreick to stab them in the back and from there we switch from a siege defense to an outward assault... Any questions?"

One of the men rose their hand. His name was Silvius and he was the same man who tried to advise Liviccic to take care of Boris before announcing his return. The man seemed loyal, which is why Liviccic promoted him a bit higher as one of his few changes.

"My lord, is it not a threat to have told everyone here this information? If the warband reaches here first, would we not want to play dumb? This provides the ten of us with a prime opportunity to betray you." The man said with concern.

Liviccic smiled. Silvius was showing a lot of promise.

"Are you questioning our loyalty!?" One asked angrily.

"It's only natural to provide us with this kind of information." Another said dismissively.

Liviccic cut through the crap, "It won't be a problem. I've placed a curse on each of you. If you try to reveal this information or act upon it in a way I don't appreciate, you'll die."

The men surrounding the table grew quiet. Silvius seemed relieved, most of the others were in shock.

"W-Why would you do this to us?" One began to complain.

"It'll cause you no problems if you are loyal. As of now, I can't know who is with me and who is against me, yourselves included. When we are not in an immediate crisis and have proper time to gain trust in you all, I will cease using such methods. You must admit that the circumstances are quite exceptional."

The table was filled with unhappiness, but they also had no argument. The meeting continued.

...

Three days later

...

All plans moved forward for three more days without interruption. The warband kept marching, Balmus and his officials were headed towards Briarhaven, Liviccic kept getting everything ready on his end, and the queen had nearly gathered all of the forces she was going to need.

During this time of growing tension, Naofumi and his party had kept a brisk pace and was nearly to Briarhaven. Unfortunately, things are never easy for Naofumi.

Monti swooped down low from scouting. He flew beside the cart, yelling inside.

"There's a whole bunch of people on the road ahead! Like, a whole bunch!"

Everyone got ready. Naofumi told Filo to slow down and stop like normal. As they neared the group, Filo came to a sudden stop too early.

"Why the sudden stop?" Naofumi said, looking out the front.

"Dad told Filo to not go near him." Filo said.

That was in reference to Motoyasu, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Itsuki and Ren. Their parties just behind them as they blocked the road.

"This could be unbelievably bad or possibly the only time I've ever wanted to see these three."

Naofumi came out of the cart and called to them, "Oi! Please tell me you three are here to actually help. We need to get Melty to safety before-"

"We aren't falling for your tricks Naofumi! You've slipped and now have been caught red handed!" Itsuki yelled.

"Oh for fuck's sake, what did I supposedly do now!?" Naofumi was already done.

"You had your dragon attack a town to kidnap the princess." Ren said.

"If I wanted to kidnap Melty, why did I hang out with her for days!? Motoyasu, you saw her. You saw she was hanging out with my kids. Why didn't I act then?"

Motoyasu wore a confident smirk as he stepped slightly to the side, revealing Malty.

"That's because you had yet to decide if you wanted to brainwash her, as you have those kids." She said, with a grin plastered on her face.

"Brainwash? What are y-"

"Don't deny it! They all call you 'dad' and 'father' when they obviously are not your kids! I did some basic research and found out that dragons and filolials hate each other to death, yet yours call each other brother and sister?" Itsuki yelled.

"You were able to keep that dragon from attacking me with just a promise. He struggled the whole time. He wanted to attack me, but wasn't able to. You obviously have some kind of wicked control over them." Ren said.

"That explains why Raphtalia-chan returned to your side after I had her freed. She wasn't really free yet! I was a fool to not have done more back then." Motoyasu said.

"How dare you..." Naofumi said in a low voice, visibly shaking.

Melty ran a few feet forward to speak.

"I'm under no one's control. I am fleeing for my life. Now move! We have to make it to Briarhaven. We need to-"

"You are obviously under control though. You? My sweet little sister, revolted against our father and even sent him to the dungeons? That isn't something the Melty I knew would do under normal circumstances." Malty said, still smiling.

"You're right... Under normal circumstances I'd do whatever father says, but I needed to protect Naofumi. I needed to convince him to stay. He already declared he was leaving-"

"You see!? That right there! 'I needed to protect what's-his-face'. That's the brainwashing talking."

Monti stepped forward. He was furious that they'd use their family as an example of brainwashing. He was barely containing the anger.

"Then let Dad show all of you the recording of the last meeting between him and the king. Why would you say no to gathering more information before coming to a conclusion?" Monti proposed.

For a moment, they looked to have considered that much at least. However-

"That's actually a reasonable suggestion... from a wave monster." Ren said.

Naofumi's entire party froze at that.

"I had my suspicions since I first saw you, but thanks to one of your former party members... I've confirmed it." Motoyasu said.

"You try showing us up and make us look bad, but it looks like you missed a spot yourself, Naofumi!" Itsuki yelled.

"Just what are you saying?" Naofumi asked in an angry tone.

No one responded to his question.

Eclair was the only one with them that didn't know. She stared a hole through Monti a moment.

"Who...?" Was all Raphtalia could say.

"I think I know... One of the people in my party really got upset about Monti and left as soon as the wave ended... He must have told them." Ake admitted.

"...Yeah I'm a wave monster... I won't deny that..., but you don't get to call our family a lie! You don't get to deny who we choose to be!" Monti yelled, slight electricity escaping.

There was a pause.

"So we've confirmed both, correct?" Malty asked.

The three heroes nodded. Malty shot up a flare with magic the following moment.

Suddenly, nearly 50 arrows covered in fire rained down from a nearby hill. Naofumi wasn't warned, because it wasn't aiming for him. The arrows collectively fell straight onto their cart. The arrows must have been magic, as small fiery explosions were spawned upon collision.

Filo had no choice but to transform into her human form to free herself of the harness and watch in horror as their home was destroyed.

"NNOOOO! Our cart! Wahaa!" Filo immediately began to cry.

Melty tried her best to save it.

[Aqua Shot]

It stuck the flaming pile to little effect.

"You destroyed our home!" Teal lost it too.

Malty seemed unbothered as she explained.

"That was always the plan. Once you confirmed that Melty did give those orders, we concluded you are controlling them. Once you confirmed that this beast was of the waves, we knew we didn't have to 'save' it."

"First you kill my former father, now you go for my brother!? Some sword hero!" Leon yelled

Ren flinched from the words, but nothing else.

Naofumi switched to [Wrath Shield]. He then looked at everyone in front of them.

"How dare you... How dare you! You claim my family is some sick lie! Destroy our only form of home! Then you say you're going to kill Monti! Do you want to fucking die!"

"Naofumi-sama, we can't take them all on. Not all three..." Raphtalia said.

She thought it'd take some time to snap him out of it, but that wasn't the case.

"You're right..., but we can't just barrel through them either..."

"Yes, we'll have to give up on going to Briarhaven for now..." Eclair concluded.

"Filo, take Melty, Ake and Eclair. Leon, carry the rest of us."

They all did as they were told and shot off in the opposite direction of the hills. They thought they were fast, but-

"Not so fast, yaah!" Motoyasu yelled.

Motoyasu launched something that sped off and as if it was guided, it landed around Filo's leg. The moment it was locked, she was forcibly transformed back into her human form. She and those she was carrying hit the ground harshly.

Seeing this, Leon turned around.

Filo looked at the odd device a moment before trying to pry it off. Her hands were quickly grabbed from behind.

"Don't take that off Filo-chan. I had the royal alchemist make that just for you. Stay a perfect angel, like this." Motoyasu said as he held her.

"Let me go! Filo hates you! Stupid spear guy!" Filo screamed.

"I know Naofumi made you hate me, but once you're free-" Motoyasu started.

"Filo hates you because Filo hates you! You attacked dad! You destroyed our home! Now this!? Wahaaaaa!" Filo screamed, then cried.

Filo was the most upset she had ever been and was bawling her eyes out as she struggled with everything she had. Seeing this gave Motoyasu pause. She seemed to be as honest in her feelings as anyone he'd ever met.

"Could this really be fake...?"

He didn't have time to consider this, as Leon arrived back down with everyone else, while the others got to their feet.

"Hands off our sister!" Came all three of Filo's siblings' voices.

Monti and Leon planted their fists on either side of his chest, while Teal made a deliberate effort to hit him in the groin with her enhanced bark arm. He was sent a few feet before landing. He stayed on the ground, holding his crotch.

Itsuki and Ren came in to attack Monti, but Melty and Eclair were ready. Melty used [Aqua Shot] in front of Itsuki to make him stop. Eclair however, went at Ren as if they were somehow equals. She went to clash swords with Ren, but instead used a feint and struck his hand, then placed her leg behind his before overturning him.

She was a level 10 normal knight and she had placed a level 60+ cardinal hero squarely on his back.

Itsuki saw this and went to advance again. Melty in turn attempted to stop his advance again, but before she could, a large mass of fire was approaching her from the side.

[Zweite Fire Blast]

Malty had launched a spell at Melty.

[Anti Fire Blast]

However, Leon simply walked in front of Melty and the spell vanished.

Itsuki stopped at the sight of the exchange. "Malty! What the hell!? You could have killed your sister?"

"What are you talking about? She attacked me first! If anything-"

"You should pay attention" Came Raphtalia's voice.

The next moment, some strange blade of light pierced her chest. This was called a [Mana Blade] and was one of Erhart's parting gifts. Malty went to fall, but forced herself to spin around. She tried to strike at Raphtalia with the sword that she always had, but hardly used. It showed, as Raphtalia took a throwing knife out and held it out for Malty to cut herself on. Once she did, she stopped her attack and stepped back, only to be kicked in her face by Raphtalia.

She saw no reason to not attack while Malty was distracted by such minor damage. Raphtalia wondered how she made it to such a high level while freaking out at such a minor amount of damage.

Motoyasu saw this and forced himself to his feet. Ren also picked himself up too. Raphtalia saw this and began to make her way back over to Naofumi.

Eclair engaged three of Ren's party members at the same time. A monk girl, a young man using two shortswords and a larger man with an axe. At the same time, she was having to watch out for a fourth one, a mage that was a coward with long range magic. Teal helped where she could, but kept moving. She knew that at Eclair's level, a single hit could kill her, but with every step she took, Teal was placing another seed. A successful escape required her to trust Eclair to not die.

"Stop this! Everyone! What can we accomplish fighting like this?" Ake pleaded, but no one listened

Two of Motoyasu's teammates went to his side, while Rino looked at the situation and was considering what to do.

Meanwhile, Itsuki's teammates rushed towards Melty and a still weakened Filo that went to her side. They were intercepted by Monti and Leon. Leon used [Smog of War] to create a thin smoke screen. From there, Monti struck each of them with his tail while they couldn't know to block. He managed to poison them a bit, but even if the poison did well, the level gap was once again denying them success.

One of Itsuki's party members rushed through the smoke, passing Monti and Leon, using the smokescreen against them. It was a blond women with a spear. She nearly reached Melty, with an arm outstretched. Suddenly, Melty's shadow appeared, grabbing the outstretched arm and used the spear woman's forward momentum to pivot behind her, locking her arm. Before the adventurer could try to free herself, the shadow lifted her up and suplexed the woman into the stone road, rendering her unconscious.

Ake gave up on peace and blocked an attack for Eclair. Unfortunately, the pair could not deal any damage at all. Ake was already at half health from two hits from these adventurers. Eclair was still at 100%, but she was still one clean hit from death.

[Aquashot]

[Fast Bolt]

[Fast Fireball]

Melty, Monti, and Leon shot spells from the back, with Leon having a lot of Mp and Monti having both Mp and Sp to dip into. Their constant attacks did well at keeping everyone busy until Raphtalia returned to Naofumi's side.

They staved off the enemy well enough, but the heroes and their parties regrouped. Ready for a firmer forward assault. This gave Naofumi's party time to regroup as well. However, a forward assault wasn't something the family had any realistic way to stop. The family was screwed and needed to get away somehow.

Naofumi had a thought. One so petty, it had to work. After a moment, he uses [Trickster] with [Tele-communication] to speak to the whole party. After that was done, he started with the easiest part of the plan, pissing off Itsuki.

"Oi, Itsuki! Maybe now would be the time to show everyone that secret of yours? Y'know? The one about you being a-"

Itsuki took the bait and shot an arrow at Naofumi as he ran forward to block it. The arrow struck and the shield began to catch fire.

"So predictable." Naofumi said as he triggered his shields passive effect.

[Self Burning Curse]

The flames shot out of his shield and hit the three heroes, as well as all other front line fighters they had. It did great damage considering they were all still higher level than Naofumi, though not by nearly as much as everyone else. Before they had time to pick themselves up, Monti, Teal, and Leon ran at them with what seemed like a misplaced sense of potential victory.

They each had a different target, but attacked nearly everyone between them and the heroes. Monti tripping or poisoning people as he rushed Itsuki. Teal either swung her enlarged arm or whipped people in the face with vine fingers. Leon either struck with his spear or breathed fire on them.

The only exception was Rino, whom Leon simply passed. Leon had been paying more attention to the mages in the back, so he could counter any spells. Because of this, he noticed that Rino had not attacked them the whole time. He recognized her as the girl he saved from falling off the ship during the last wave. Rino simply stood there, surprised she was spared a passing blow.

Monti reached Itsuki and grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the road.

"You may want to kill me, but I don't want to kill you... So, please survive this."

[Electrocution]

Monti proceeded to use both his Sp and Mp to flood Itsuki's body with lightning, using what he learned about moving lightning through bodies to basically imitate an electric chair style execution. Itsuki was in an intense amount of pain, only surviving because of the level gap. He couldn't retaliate either, as his body kept spasming from the electricity.

Leon reached Ren and dowsed him in fire from his natural breath as he pinned his weapon to the ground with his own and then began casting something. Ren overpowered Leon and broke his weapon free, causing Leon to take a step back.

"I was hoping to spare you, but I have to get serious." Ren said as he went to activate a skill of some kind, but wasn't able to in time.

[Zweite Hellfire]

Ren was now surrounded by orbs of fire. He knew what happened next. The fire converged on Ren, doing little damage. Leon then transformed and ran his weapon paired horn into Ren with all his strength, trying to run it through Ren's stomach. Ren fought to push him away, but struggled to move Leon at his full weight.

Teal reached Motoyasu, having been growing something in her other arm.

[Undergrove]

She ruined the stone road, as roots sprang up and wrapped nearly every inch of him with increasing amounts of restraints. She left her target exposed, Motoyasu's groin. He struggled with his full strength, but new roots grew nearly as fast as he ripped them off. Once she was done prepping her arm, it grew to three times the size of her body. Instead of bark covering the arm, it was leaves. Those leaves then turned metallic like one of the monsters Naofumi made before.

[Autumn Blow]

She came down on him with all her might. Motoyasu broke free and tried to block the attack, but was unable to use a skill in time. Teal pushed him down as they struggled for the upper-hand. She was disappointed that she didn't get his junk, but that wasn't the goal.

All three heroes were in a bad spot, but it wasn't to last.

Monti couldn't maintain his incomplete spell. He had taken nearly 20% of Itsuki's life, but if anything that made him all the angrier. Without the electricity stopping his movements, he was easily able to get up.

[Phasing Arrow]

Monti was suddenly ghost-like, as Itsuki passed through him and stood off to the side. He took aim and waited for Monti to manifest. He was going for a killing blow

Ren managed to push Leon away and activate a skill. That skill enveloped his sword in a force of some sort that scared Leon to death and he didn't even know why. Just at the switching of the form, Leon was too scared to move. He shivered a moment.

[Dragon Buster]

"So, you can tell? This is a skill that all dragons should fear. I don't want to kill you... so run away." Ren said.

Leon instinctively took a half step back, before taking two steps forward. He felt he would die if they fought like this, but he wasn't going to retreat. Gaelion chose to die instead of abandoning his family and while Leon considered Naofumi his father, Gaelion was forever a piece of his identity, the source of his blood and power.

Seeing that Leon wasn't going to back down disappointed Ren, but he wasn't going to back down either.

"Then I'm sorry. I'll make it quick." Ren finished, preparing his killing blow.

Motoyasu fully regained his footing and used [Sun Spear] while he overpowered Teal's attack, knocking her away. Just like the last time she touched Motoyasu's spear while he used that spear, it gave her whole body a strange feeling. She didn't have a hope of winning, but she had a big arm and wanted to use it while she had it.

"I don't want to hurt you. I like to avoid hurting girls. Step aside and we'll forget all of-"

"First of all, my dick is probably bigger than yours."

Motoyasu froze, "Excuse me?"

"Secondly, you've now tried twice to snatch my big sister away." Her other arm began to grow.

"Thirdly, you destroyed our family's only form of home and in doing so, robbed Filo of one of her purposes..." The arm grew leaves all over it.

"Lastly, you actually tried to kill my brother. My big brother!" The leaves also turned metallic and she now had two of those large arms.

Motoyasu was still blanking from the information Teal gave earlier, but Malty had recovered and ran over to him to snap him out of it. With her support, he began to consider hitting Teal with heavier hits, hoping she'd survive somehow.

[Triaina]

As Monti phased back in for Itsuki to kill, Ren swung his sword to kill Leon, and Teal was about to be obliterated by Motoyasu's attack... All three disappeared.

[Knock Knock ll]

The plan was a success.

After the cursed fire struck the three heroes and their parties, Raphtalia used [All Hide Mirage] on everyone besides Monti, Teal, and Leon. From there, they ran as far as they could in the direction they wanted to run for as long as they could afford to. Once Monti, Teal, and Leon were in a tight spot, Naofumi simply summoned them back to them.

Teal then used [Living Wall] to wall the three heroes and their parties in a mass of trees, while they all climbed on Leon's back and began to fly away.

The heroes took a bit to realize their enemies were gone and then it took a bit longer to destroy the trees enough to find each other. By the time they realized what was going on, Leon was a speck in the sky from their view.

They had escaped.

Naofumi was the first to speak, "Sorry I put you three in a situation like that."

All three of the kids nodded their heads, they understood the dire situation they were in.

"Dad! Get this thing off me!" Filo whined, still crying from everything that happened.

Naofumi didn't care to analyze the damned thing and simply removed it by absorbing it.

.

[Stagnation Shield]

+2 def, +2 Mdef

[Ability: Form Lock] Blocking an attack from someone else locks their form for 1 hour plus 15 minutes per level, or until the user wishes to rescind this effect. (Also locks weapon forms).

.

"Where do we go now?" Raphtalia asked.

"Can't we still reach Briarhaven? Leon should be able to reach it." Ake pointed out.

"They blocked us there because they knew where we were going. Now that we got away, the first place they'll go is Briarhaven." Teal corrected him.

"Then I know somewhere we can go. It'll take at least a day, but there is a lesser lord that I know will help us. He is a kind man and fair to demi-humans." Melty offered.

"...Well, we have little choice. Fine. I need to let Liviccic know what happened and to expect those three idiots..." Naofumi said.

"I hated Motoyasu from day two, the other two have been off and on, riding that line, but now? There is no way I can see them as anything but enemies. It's like I told Monti... Those three will die before my family does. You caught us in a moment of weakness, but after we class upgrade... I'll show you three the power of [Iron Maiden]!" Naofumi thought.

[Eighth and Ninth conditions for Fami*y *rest series have been unlocked]

...

Briarhaven

...

The three heroes had yet to arrive, but a new guest had already made her way into Briarhaven. A shadow had infiltrated the city and scaled the wall. She even managed to do so without even needing to take out any guards. She was relieved. She thought she'd be more rusty than this. She managed to make it all the way to the Blackcrown manor. She listened to the guards.

"I want to believe him, but he's new to this and he has no proof." One guard said, full of doubt.

"I know what you mean. First he claims that Princess Melty is on her way here, then just randomly announces that she had to go somewhere else... Maybe it was a lie, but a well-meaning one? His words got us back in shape after all." The second guard reasoned.

"But he really sounded like he believed it..." The first said.

The shadow was even more interested now. She checked every window and found they were all trapped by what appeared to be wire. From the outside, she saw multiple internal guards as well.

"Are those...?!" She saw that they were skeletons.

She paused to consider that information, but kept moving. Eventually, she had no choice but to try the chimney. She made her way down it slowly, quietly. She placed her first foot down to the floor and activated Sophia's [Triggering Thread], triggering a combination of her [Sticky Thread] enhanced with her [Steel Thread]. The shadow was caught in the bindings and quickly tried to free herself.

She had only a few seconds before Sophia rushed to her, in her giant white widow spider form. The shadow would have screamed at the top of her lungs if her mouth wasn't bound, but that didn't stop her from trying. She was terrified beyond reason, but all that happened to her was that Sophia moved her to a chair. She then began adjusting the bindings to firmly bind her to the chair.

Once that was done, Sophia changed to her human form and placed a dress over her body made of web and walked slowly to the opposing chair and sat down. The shadow was beyond terrified and now believed she had gone crazy. Sophia moved her finger and the web around her mouth fell.

"Speak." Was all Sophia said.

"...First of all, you scared the living shit out of me...! Secondly, the fuck!?" This shadow was not acting like how Liviccic described a shadow acted, nor the way the last shadow did. She also had longer hair than the previous shadow. She had to be a different one, but Sophia needed to know whom she served. For that purpose, she played a trick.

"We've already given the church shadows instructions on how to enter and leave here. So you must be from the queen? That's a shame." Sophia said with a bit of evil glee.

The trick was simple. A shadow loyal to the queen that wasn't told the proper way to enter the house would freak out at the false news that Liviccic was working for the church. Once their reaction provides the truth of them being the queen's shadow, they were let go. If the shadow was from the church, they'd confess to being one and say they didn't know. Sophia would then exchange a little bit of info and play nice.

She wouldn't harm the queen's shadows and couldn't lay a hand on the church's shadows yet. They had to pretend to be buddy-buddy with them until it was time to act.

This shadow didn't act in either way.

"Goddammit! Really!? The day after!? This is bullshit! ...Hey, who's the acting lord?" The shadow shouted.

"...Liviccic Blackcrown... Why?" Sophia was lost.

"Heh, good. Maybe I'm not spider food. Tell that kid that the suspected killer, 'Fitts', he didn't do it. It was Lady Olivia Grimwald of Evergreen."

"Firstly, you will never disrespect him by referring to him as a 'kid'. Secondly... you are against the church, but not with the queen... Who are you?" Sophia had no guesses.

If a strong third party was involved, then things would honestly become too hard to predict.

"No, you have to believe me! The church is responsible for the whole thing, I can give you all sorts of information ab-"

"He knows, now answer my question." Sophia shouldn't have said that, but the woman was being annoying.

"Oh... Well my name is Chloe and I'm a former shadow of the three heroes church. I came here to convince everyone of the truth and keep them from hunting down Fitts." The shadow was now really chill and loose lipped and the sudden switch took Sophia off guard.

"Well that was pointless. We've heard directly from the shield hero that Fitts is innocent." Sophia said.

"Well good... Can you untie me now?" She asked.

"Well, I can't have you leaving. You could have all kinds of information that we don't know about." Sophia said.

"...Understandable. Very well, I'll tell you everything, but first you need to go get Fitts." She said casually.

"Wh-What?" Sophia asked.

"I left Fitts waiting outside the town, southeast side. He's expecting me back... Also, could you do me a favor and scare him like you did me?" The shadow asked politely.

"...Sure."

...

Southeast of Briarhaven

...

Fitts kept shifting nervously just behind the tree line. He let Chloe go in by herself and it had been nearly 20 minutes. He knew he shouldn't even be considering bad outcomes for another twenty minutes, but couldn't help it. Since they didn't know the truth, every person in Briarhaven personally wanted his head. If even a group of twenty knights chanced them, he'd never make it. Briarhaven men are trained hunters, he'd get few in his traps, if any at all.

He began to consider what to do. He had plenty of time to leave..., but he also couldn't abandon Chloe after sending her in there. Of course there was also the possibility that she betrayed him. If she did, the whole town would be after him and he'd have no way to escape them all. So worrying about that seemed pointless.

While he sat there clueless, Sophia had located him and avoided all of his traps, slowly positioning herself above him. Normally, she'd announce herself in human form and politely convince Fitts to come inside, stealthily with her and meet with Liviccic, but as soon as she saw the way he stood, she decided to do as she promised Chloe. Fitts gave off that overly serious mood she liked pushing Liviccic out of, Chloe must think the same.

Sophia transformed quietly and carefully prepared herself. If she was honest, she just needed a little bit of fun. She cared for and would help Liviccic however she could..., but she needed more fun like this.

Fitts was brought out of his thoughts by heavy webs binding his axe to his back and his crossbow to his side.

"What the hell!?" Fitts thought as he turned to face his foe, only to see a giant white spider larger than himself above him.

"You will be my food, Raaar!" Sophia said as she dropped onto him.

"Aaaaaaaaa!" Fitts screamed in fright.

...

Blackcrown manor

...

Sophia bound him, covered his face, took human form, dressed herself, and walked the 'VIP' through Briarhaven. Regardless of what the guards thought, they had it made very clear that Sophia was basically an extension of Liviccic's own authority.

She walked him inside the house, sat him in a chair beside Chloe and rebound him to the chair the same as Chloe was. Once she was done, she returned to the chair she sat at before and pulled the hood off Fitts with a web.

Fitts freaked out and tried to understand what was going on. He saw Chloe bound as he was and a... spider monster... woman. In a way, she reminded him of the shield hero's kids.

Before he freaked out too much, Chloe asked casually, "So? Did you scare him?"

"Oh, you bet. You would think such a well sculpted man with all that seriousness and muscle would be a real toughie, but he went 'Aaaaaaaaa!' the instant he saw me. Muwahahaha!" Sophie kept laughing.

Chloe joined in. Sophia and Chloe kept laughing until Liviccic entered, having returned for the day. He saw Sophia and a bound shadow laughing it up. He saw a tied up Fitts with his head hung low.

"I leave for two hours..." Liviccic complained to himself.

.

[Author's Notes]

Liviccic shows that he can curse people into staying quiet.

They actually used the family as examples of the brainwashing. Itsuki even referred to raising Monti as 'Missing a spot'. How many of you are mad too?

So the first three heroes vs Shield family was really rough. They lost the cart that was their home, the only thing Lute was able to help make to repay Naofumi and Raphtalia for all they did. And as Teal said 'one of Filo's purposes'.

Filo was made worthless, as she still can't fight that well in her human form and she was emotionally distraught.

Eclair trying to take names while being level 10.

They had every intention to kill Monti and even nearly killed Teal and Leon too.

The family tried hard and did good in places, but just like with Glass, the level gap keeps them down. Naofumi is now readying himself to kill them if needed.

Fitts and Chloe make it to Liviccic and Sophia. The next time Naofumi speaks to them, he will know nearly everything. That will be a game changer.

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