Chapter 31 – Hero Conference

Author's Note: The trial was a big chapter, so things will slightly cool down for now.

Motoyasu was pissed. His face was red, and you could practically see the steam coming out of his nostrils.

After the trial, he knew that Malty had done all those horrible things, but he still believed in her. He was the most gullible person I'd ever seen.

Mirellia wanted to have a private chat with Naofumi, so I left the two alone to discuss things. I lead my party through the cheering crowd and headed back to the inn. They were chanting my name and appeared to be very happy about what I did for their country. Some even called me the best hero.

I didn't get to rest for long, though. Soon, one of the queen's shadows leapt through my window.

"President Sera. The queen has sent you a message."

I accepted the letter and ripped it open. It read:

"President Sera, there will be a banquet in celebration of the defeat of the pope in an hour. Please arrive as soon as possible."

Ugh. I'd just had a long day, and I immediately had to go do more stuff.

"Tell the queen that I am heading there right now."

The shadow nodded and swiftly bolted out of the room.

The feast was quite delicious, with many of the women flirting with a confused Indigo. He was quarreling with Motoyasu, the latter jealous of Indigo's superior looks. Rishia and I joined Naofumi and Raphtalia in the corner, civilly chomping down on our meals. Eda, Rojeel and Welst were hanging out with the members of Ren's party.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea. Mirellia walked to up to us and announced:

"May the four heroes please meet me upstairs. We have important matters to discuss."

We followed her up the stairs and into what appeared to be a conference room, with a round center. Everyone's party members waited outside, but Rishia came along since she served as my scribe.

"Now," the queen spoke. "Let us commence our meeting. I am deeply sorry for everything my country has done to hamper your progress, so I wish to offer some kind of reparation. In a group of faraway islands, called Cal Mira, there is an impressive activation event going on."

Really? That was amazing! Activation events were events that gave way more experience for killing monsters, which appeared more frequently.

"That's amazing!"

"When does it happen?"

The queen gave a lengthy speech.

Basically, the Cal Mira islands were a famous tourist destination, and it attracted tons of monsters. Every 10 years, there would be an activation event that granted double experience. Adventurers would gather from far and wide to participate in this activation event, often in boatloads.

"Naturally, your boarding and transport costs have already been covered. I hope that you will all participate."

This was an excellent opportunity to train the platoon that had come to Castle Town originally to defeat the pope. With their extra experience, they could form the core of Arcium's elite units.

I would bring my navy there, but it would be a few more months until any ships of the Satoshi Sera class, modeled after the HMS Bellerophon (1865) with the 1885 upgrades and many more modifications, could be successfully converted from the preexisting wooden ships.

"Now then, before you heroes head off to Cal Mira, I was hoping you would participate in a friendly information exchange."

"I told Naofumi all I knew when I first came here," I said. "But I am more than happy to share what I've learned so far."

Motoyasu and Ren, however, were not so keen on the idea.

"Do we have to?"

"Yeah."

Those two did not like Naofumi very much. Especially Motoyasu, since his side chick just got convicted.

"I believe so. I've heard that the heroes had difficulty coordinating their efforts during the last few waves."

"Now then, we should all introduce our parties to each other."

We headed to the great hall, where all our party members were. We then proceeded to introduce everybody. Nothing eventful happened.

After introductions, we returned to the conference room.

"Now that that's out of the way, we shall begin our discussion. I will moderate the discussion, if President Sera is fine with it."

"Sure thing."

"I would like to start this discussion by telling you about the opinions of our neighboring nations, as well as our own country's subjects. To be honest, the other diplomats are expressing concern regarding the sword and spear hero's ability to survive the upcoming waves."

"What!" The two of them screamed. "There is no way Naofumi is stronger than us. Satoshi, though, maybe."

"Then let me ask you something. Who among you landed the most effective attacks against Pope Balmus before Satoshi and I arrived?"

"Um… I don't know."

"There's no way he's stronger than us, though! It must be Raphtalia and Filo!"

Motoyasu and Ren rambled on about how those two were overpowered.

"Enough with this." I annoyedly commented. "Let us tell Naofumi how to get stronger. He already knows about weapon copy and the basics of the system, but he should know more."

"Fine." Motoyasu and Ren sighed.

"For the bow, the easiest way to get stronger is rarity. The rarer the weapon, the more powerful it is. I also use minerals to slot into my bow, which makes it more powerful. I don't know about the other weapons, though."

"For the sword, its skill mastery."

"For the spear, its smelting and status levels."

We then proceeded to tell each other all of our strengthening and power up methods and other important details, methods and strategies to improve ourselves in every way possible. We were actually having a rare, productive discussion for once when a messenger suddenly burst through the door.

"Heroes! Your party members are fighting!"

Outside, it was like a rumble royal. My party members, Raphtalia and Filo were fighting with Ren and Motoyasu's party members.

Although, it wasn't really a fight. It was more of a smackdown.

Indigo was 1v3ing Ren's party, while Raphtalia and Filo were eviscerating Motoyasu's party members when they tried to attack them.

"Everyone, STOP!"

The brawling party members turned to face me. Rishia was hiding behind my back.

"Let's just go home for the night. We shall meet at the port town of Lola very soon."

Everybody reluctantly gathered up their weapons, gave half-assed apologies to each other and headed back. Indigo was complaining to me on the walk back to the inn.

"Come on. If I had one more minute, those three would've been dead."

"We're not supposed to kill our "allies", Indigo."

"I know. It was a joke, man."

Before we went back to the inn, we swung by the Arcian soldiers resting in the barracks and asked them if they wanted to come along to Cal Mira as well. Their captain was overjoyed, instantly agreeing. The soldiers were also very enthusiastic to grind some levels.

We formulated a plan. As soon as we got there, we would head to the easternmost island after talking to the duke and grind all the monsters there before anybody else could arrive. All's fair in warfare, after all.

When we woke up the next day, we immediately packed our bags and strapped Indigo to the carriage. I wanted to get to the port before anybody else, in order to be able to grind levels nearby and be more productive. Every second mattered when facing a world-ending catastrophe.

As the carriage's wheels rattled on the rough road, a massive filolial, 200 times the size of Indigo, appeared and blocked the road ahead of us. Indigo swerved hard to the right, barely avoiding the colossus. The cart had somehow survived that, though the suspension was slightly roughed up.

What the hell is that?

I would receive my answer soon.

"I have many things I wish to discuss with you. But it's not polite to speak to you in this form. Please wait a moment."

The gargantuan bird closed its wings, and slowly morphed down into a pretty little girl, with read eyes, dressed in a red and white gothic dress.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Fitoria, the Queen of the Filolials."

"But how!" Welst freaked out. "That's the name of the Filolial in the legends!"

How will the Fitoria meeting go? Find out next chapter!