BEN 10: RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO
CHAPTER 13: MELTY
As an author, I honestly think it is a convenient life with an ID mask and stuff. He doesn't even need to run away. But the ID Mask still needs to be reprogrammed if you want to take the appearance of people other than Ben 10 000. Ben 10 000 is basically Ben's future version, so ID Mask reprogramming only needed half its normal efforts.
Imagine there never was an ID Mask function in the Omnitrix. Then the story would be about Ben sneaking around civilization.
Thanks for reading and giving wonderful reviews.
I sigh as I walk out of the pharmacy, holding onto a book the shopkeeper gave me.
"I heard that a traveling merchant with… an astounding body saved them from the brink of a disaster. And I guess it's you, right?" he said, looking at the bag of herbs I had placed on the table to sell.
"Aw… News sure spreads fast, huh?" I was trying to keep my cool to not brag about the victory against the spear hero.
He looked into the shelves and brought a book to me.
"Do you happen to have an interest in pharmacy?"
I looked at the book and put on an awkward smile.
"Oh, pharmacy? Medicinal herbs and stuff, right? I'm kinda interested in… making potions, yes."
The shopkeeper thrust the book into my arms.
"Take this book as a gift of my gratitude. This will help you learn about making various potions."
"Oh… er…" I was struggling to find a way to refuse but…
"Come on, take it. The one who wants to help others needs more skills to help people in different situations."
No, I wanna learn the art of talking from you instead.
If you put it like that… well…
"Thanks. I appreciate your gift. So…"
I left the pharmacy and walked back to my cart.
Filo is seen pouting. I don't know the cause – well… I haven't retrieved Wildmutt (which is my sonorosian clone) and I let him draw my carriage so Filo seems to be angry with that.
I look around if anyone is aware of that before kneeling to press Wildmutt's Omnitrix which causes him to disappear in a flash of light.
Filo's smile comes back instantly.
"Come on, Filo. Let's go."
"Yes, master!" she responds cheerfully.
Arian smiles at us.
"Where are we going now?" she asks.
Filo turns into her filolial form.
"Uh… somewhere away from the capital? Maybe." I answer.
-(BREAK)-
I am glad that no Motoyasu is seen on our path, neither Myne.
Our carriage is moving at a slow pace along the mountainside path. I told Filo to chill on these kinds of terrains, not like it's a burden for her. I just want to take measures as a precaution in case we accidentally fall down to the… anyway, so we are moving at a pace.
"~It started when an alien device did what it did~"
Filo starts to sing a song I feel weirdly familiar.
"~It stuck itself upon his wrist with secrets that it hid~"
Oh… wrist… I look down at my left wrist where my gauntlet should be.
"~Now he's got superpowers he's no ordinary kid~"
I know that song! It was composed by a hardcore fan when I began to be famous across the galaxy, back then in my universe.
I accidentally tell her about the song and now she's singing.
"~He's Ben 10!"
Arian stares at me with weird eyes and a smirk as I flush in embarrassment.
Arian, you! The 40-year-old man flushing is not cute! You know!
The sound of footsteps from the front of our cart saves me.
"Th-There is a man!" I exclaim.
Arian averts his eyes (well, let's put it at that) to see the man who seems like his fatigue is taking a toll on his body. He is breathing heavily as he gasps.
I poke Filo to stop and then I jump down the cart to take a good look at him, preparing a potion out of my invisible shield.
"Hey, are you… OK?" I ask.
No, he is not OK, I know. But it is a good manner.
He shakes his head as he bends his body to catch his breath.
"Hah… no… sorry… please… could you please… g-give me a ride on your carriage."
I look back at Arian and Filo who give me nods in approval.
"Sure, take this potion first. This will ease your tired state."
"Th-thanks."
After he has drunk the potion, I lift him from the ground to help him walk to the carriage. He looks like a middle-aged man. His exhaustion seems to be effectively diminished.
"I need to get this medicine to the village past the mountain at once!"
He says holding up a vial.
Oh then…
"I will send you to the village myself. Aria– I mean Arian and Filo… go to the village by yourselves. I will take him to the village and return to you guys."
They give me nods. Then I lift the man and jump down the cart again.
"W-what are you d-doing?" he is startled.
"Just hold tight onto me and take care of the vial. Now shall we…"
Fasttrack! I restrain myself from shouting the name out. And ID Mask is already on. His weight becomes lighter… or probably it's just that FastTrack is physically stronger than him. In some seconds I run at a high speed, though I hold back considering the man, along the mountainside to the village.
Don't ask a cheetah if his feet are hurt just because he is running on bare feet.
"Halt! Pay the toll!"
I toss a crystal at him hoping he will take the bribe.
"Don't return the change!"
I shout as I jump over the gate.
The man in my arms doesn't even get a chance to scream in horror.
Because I – We are here at the village in less than 3 minutes. I have to hold a lot back, you know.
I let down the villager who tries to catch my breath before running off like there's no tomorrow.
A vial… so it's a potion. Means someone is unhealthy or hurt.
I go after him into the house in case I can increase the potency of the potion for the patient.
There is an old woman lying on the bed. She seems to be in terrible pain.
I think fast with my citracayah brain and grab the vial.
"Now, mister. Go boil the water. I will treat her."
He looks at me for a moment then he widens his eyes and leave the room.
I lift the woman's head and let her sip on the potion which is enhanced by my shield abilities.
After a moment the man returns with a cup of hot water and sees the woman up.
"Mother! The medicine is helping already!?"
He widens his eyes in surprise and delight.
"Yes. The pain went away in an instant," she answers, "Thank you."
She says giving a nod to me.
"I think you still need to rest to recover your strength," I says looking at the son and the mother in turns. "It'd be better if you can cook her energy-recovering dish and healthy food."
Oh, it's an in-game term.
And I excuse myself to leave the house.
"Um, what kind of magic spell did you use?"
He asks in disbelief as I ready myself to run.
"A little trick," I reply with a chuckle, "but not much really. I just enhanced your medicine. That's all."
The man nods bringing a bag of vegetables and fruits up to me.
I take a glance at the house before gesturing to refuse his gifts.
"No, thanks. You don't need to pay me. Cook your mother some good dishes, OK?"
I nudge his shoulder as an encouragement.
"But… you–"
Before he can finish his sentence, I run at super high speed and leave him behind.
Hey, it's not bad doing this kind of things once in a while.
Back in my homeworld, I only had to kick the asses of the bad guys… I rarely went on a rescue mission.
Sounds like I have to help people occasionally on the journey.
I decided to prepare more potions of various kinds and read the book the pharmacist gave to me.
The days are gonna be so long.
-(BREAK)-
"Hey Filo, you should sleep with Aria, you know. You are a lady now. A lady should act like a lady!"
I lecture as Filo waves her body on the bed supposed for me.
We stay in a room together at an inn in the village for the night.
I wander around the village to see if anyone needs my help or my medicine.
And I sell the goods brought with me with reasonable price.
Every single time a person shows his satisfaction or joy, I can't help but feel blissful.
But that aside…
"Filo! Ben is right! I don't care if you sleep with me but I care if you sleep together with Ben!" declares Aria with somewhat annoyed tone. "Or else, I can let Ben sleep with me."
She looks at me with her eyes which are forced to look cute.
"What! You too!? I said a lady should act like a lady. You shouldn't invite a boy to bed out of nowhere!" I exclaim.
"What's the harm, Ben?" she grins but still looks cute, hah, no!
"We are just sleeping together, aren't we?"
"When did we sleep together? If anything, you crawled into my bed to wake me up!"
I bark back at her out of embarrassment.
"Master and Aunt Aria are acting all lovie-dovie again!" Filo pouts but that pout is something that saved me.
"Alright, I'm gonna sleep with Filo."
"No, what?!" Aria shouts in horror.
I ignore her and jump onto the bed, taking place beside Filo.
It's all going well, …
Until I realize I am somehow on the floor when I wake up.
And Filo is seen transformed into her true form – big fluffy bird – on my bed.
And a certain blonde girl is hugging me tightly in her sleep, her legs clinging to mine.
As soon as I recognize what is happening, my face turns hot and red blushing in embarrassment.
"Aria!" I shake her body hoping it will wake her up.
"Mmm." Of course not. She mutters some undefinable words in her sleep and hugs me tighter.
Instead Filo is up and sees us clinging to each other.
There is a silence…
Before–
"Master is doing dirty things to Aunt Aria!" she took it well.
-(BREAK)-
A few days later.
"I can't believe I get to ride with Our Savior of the Heavenly Fowl."
I offered a merchant a ride and then it happened.
He looks like a rather friendly man. But after we took off, he says weird words.
I understand that the "Our savior of the heavenly fowls" thing means us.
But I didn't know how I got that title.
"Our Savior of the Heavenly Fowl?" I ask him for details.
"You have become quite famous around these parts," he answers with a wide smile. "Traveling in a carriage drawn by the god of domesticated birds, Our Savior crosses the land to treat the sick with his special medicine! This is what the people say."
The god of domesticated birds, huh? Well, Filo is a lot different from other filolials. And she is… huge.
But "Our Savior" title makes me feel blissful inside, though I don't show it.
"My name is Tros Bennett. You know I am a Merchant like you, right?"
He takes a glance at the light metal beams on the carriage.
"No, no, they are not for sale. It's for my… experiment." I quickly says.
Filo tilts her head in joy.
"Master, master! Am I a God?"
I don't know gods exist in this world. Back in my universe… yeah but I created it. Damn, dark memories, I'm gonna cry.
"Hey, don't talk while strangers are around!" Arian warns her.
"Maybe," I whisper answering Filo's question.
When I look back at the merchant, his eyes are widened in shock, his body petrified in surprise.
"Oh… er… she can talk too? That's the god of domesticated birds for you!"
"Well…" I murmur.
"Ben– nett! There are people blocking our path."
Arian says imitating a male voice.
I stand up in the carriage to have a good look at them. They number about 15 including two women. They wear armors or robes or bandit getups and hold weapons of a different kind.
"Whoa, stop right there."
The man in the front of the crowd calls out to us.
I narrow my eyes at the group. Probably bandits, no it's bandits.
Filo stops as she can't go further as they are blocking the path.
"What a strange bird you've got there. We heard an accessory seller was hitching a ride with you," the bald man says boldly. "Hey, we know you're in there!"
The merchant sitting behind me, trembles and hides himself bending his body down in the cargo.
Sounds like a problem to us… I let out a sigh recalling that I used to run into troubles anywhere I go.
First,... "Let's try the easy way first, OK, Arian?" I whisper into his ears.
He nods in agreement.
"Quietly hand him over, and we'll spare your lives, at least."
The blonde man with annoying face in the middle declares.
I jump down the cart and clench and unclench my fists.
"Lives, you say?"
They are at least startled to see my muscular and barbaric appearance.
"Say, you prefer the hard way?"
On my right forearm, my shield appears as a small shield as I deactivate the Merlinisapien effects on it.
I am really disgusted at a random bandit saying about taking "lives."
Better give them a good lesson before other people are harmed.
"D-don't bother. We've got a class-upgraded bodyguard."
The blonde man declares with confidence.
Behind him a gloomy man in strange attire walks to him carrying a sword and smirks at me.
I raise an eyebrow at them thinking what this "class-upgraded" thingy is.
Whatever, I can find out later.
He doesn't look like much of a challenge.
"Filo…"
"Yes, Master." she responds immediately.
"Wanna kick some butts?"
"Yes, Master," she says cheerfully.
"Fast Tornado!" she cries out as she flutters her winds creating a literal mini-tornado.
As she jumps into the air, I create a horizontal Air Strike Shield for her to land and then she jumps again towards the bandits, beating them to pulps. And then I tie them up using Rope Shield.
"Good Job, Filo," I praise her patting her fluffy head.
"Yes! Master!"
"A talking monster, huh?" one of the bandits says.
I turn back to them to give them a glare.
And with a little threatening voice…
"Now speak!" I order.
"Some other trader told us to mug the guy riding with you," a bandit answers. "Because he was carrying a bunch of nice stuff."
I cross my arms as I listen to their excuses.
"One of my own sold me out, huh?" the merchant murmurs looking at the bandits.
"Now what do we do with these guys?" I ask him.
"Usually, you'd hand them over to the local guards," he answers.
"Guards, hmm."
Guards? I doubt it will be a good solution… well anyway.
"OK, I will take them to the guards. I don't know how many people these guys have killed. But we can't leave them like this. Or more people will die."
The merchant nods in agreement. But how do I take them to the guards?
"Bennett…" Arian, my savior, steps in.
"Yeah? Any idea?"
"How about using teleportation magic?"
The merchant raises his eyebrow but says nothing. Teleportation magic obviously means Deejay Emcee.
"Oh my, what a good idea, Arian."
I smirk as I make my shield vanish using Merlinisapien's shield skills.
"Now then,..." I transform into a pugnavore under my mask.
I look back at the bandits as I walk to them.
They scream in horror as the green light engulfs them. And they all vanish with me.
About 10 minutes later, I alone returned to the spot, canceling my transformation under the mask.
The merchant widens his eyes in awe.
"Whoa… Wow. It's… Crazy."
"I know right."
We take the merchant to an inn in the nearest town where we hear the rumors about the legendary heroes including myself.
They don't know I am a Shield Hero. A meme reference.
The spear hero is known to find a legendary seed and give it away to a village. Knowing his nature, I hope he didn't do anything absurd to trouble the villagers.
The sword slew countless monsters and is rumored to have slain a dragon.
The bow hero has tons of credits. He is rumored to even take part in a revolution. I don't know why but it smells trouble to me.
And lastly, the shield hero is a devil. But a good devil, what's with these people? They still believe the shield hero was born a devil but he uses his abilities to help people as the villagers of Lute claimed.
I am not even from this world. But I didn't say anything back.
Well, I can say these people are optimists. Or probably idealists.
"You are a merchant, right?"
The man we offered a ride, asks me.
"Yes, why?"
The man averts his eyes uncomfortably.
"Well, I don't see it in you."
"What is it you don't see?" I ask.
Filo and Arian are curious what he means, too.
"The way of thinking of a merchant," his smile never faltered. "You don't have it in you, like considering the profits of a job or taking advantage of a situation to make money. You don't have it!"
He's not wrong. I am not a merchant after all.
"Aw… Yes, maybe. I am… still new to this job."
I answer, putting on a fake smile.
"But I sense another thing… heroism. Since you are "Our Savior," I don't doubt you have it."
He leans forward to whisper. "But the way you change and use shields… are you the legendary shield hero, right?"
I widen my eyes in shock. Jeez, I forgot about him.
He shakes his head and assures me.
"I won't tell anyone. Since you are willing to conceal… Sir Bennett. Thanks for doing me a favor… I will tell you about my connections if you want to be a merchant to hide your identity."
The people of this world are good-natured, I guess. Every time I help someone, they give me something back.
But I don't think I need it.
"Uh no–"
"Thanks for your generosity, mister," Arian interrupts, imitating a male voice.
"But–" I try to refuse.
"Oh, that's the spirit. Learning this information doesn't have any disadvantages, I can guarantee. Since you are… well… so you will need it. It's not because I doubt your abilities. Precaution never betrays you, right?"
He takes out a book and gives it to us.
"Take it, Our Savior," he grins, satisfied. "The one who saves sometimes needs to be saved. And say, what else do you need?"
Before I can say anything, Arian interrupts.
"Gemstone that can produce magic threads," she asks. "If you can tell us where to find it."
He smiles bearing a meaning.
"Oh yes, I know. I will write you a letter about that. Wait."
Oh, I forgot about the magic thread. It's been a long since we got to the capital to get an outfit for Filo. It works for us, too, right?
"Thanks. I appreciate your help."
-(BREAK)-
After talking to the person in charge at a mine, we've found the place where to mine a gemstone.
"Bennett, are you sure you remember the shape of a gemstone? We can just get that magic shop owner, you know?"
I chuckle. Of course, I remember even if I don't show this feat of mine many times. Though I forgot Filo needs an outfit that doesn't rip when she transforms because we've been providing her with clothes. What is my superpower? – I am rich.
I feel guilty about spending my artificial money too much.
"Leave it to me."
The carriage slows down and stops before a temple.
The entrance is as high as Humogousaur's mid-biggest size. And the insides are all dark.
I disable my ID Mask so that I can light the way inside, using my alien.
"Sir Ben, I haven't seen you in a while!"
Arian drops his cool-boy act and clings to my back.
"Hey don't do that!"
I remove her from my body by force and lead the way into the temple.
"Be careful," I warn them.
"CHROMASTONE! Let's go!"
I am now a 7-feet tall alien with one eye and rocky spikes on my body. Being one-eyed doesn't make much difference I suppose. Or it's just that I'm already used to this alien's sight. His eye is big in the middle so I can see as a human can.
I force the energy on my purple crystal horn to give light to the front.
Nothing can feel better than this.
I considered using Heatblast but I chose Chromastone over him. Not destroying the ancient ruins is a quality of a good citizen, I suppose. Kai is gonna love this!
"Whoa, the master is bright!"
The cave inside is dusty. Soon enough, we find an already opened chest at the end of the pathway.
"What is that?"
I mutter, looking at the emptied chest, then I notice the stone beside it.
"Something is written here. Omnitrix, translate this for me."
We pray this seed never makes it out of here. It is a horribly twisted manifestation of our wish for nobody to starve.
Some kind of dangerous seed, huh? Looks like someone has already released it into the world, though.
"Master?!" Filo calls out.
"Yes, what is it?"
"There is a path down this way."
Filo says pointing in a direction with her wing.
I look at Arian as a warning.
"Let's go, Filo, Arian, stay behind."
I light up the darkness with my hand and see a tunnel in that direction.
Filo is keeping a distance from us for some reason.
We stop for a while when we see a monster footprint on the ground.
"Oh… it's huge," I mutter.
"We should keep our guards up, Ben."
Arian warns taking out his pistol from the utility belt.
"I pretended to follow Ben so that I could kill him and avenge my father."
I tilt my head to glance at Arian. I sure heard his voice (feminine one) saying that line but an omnitrix warning pops up saying something is gonna mess with my mind.
I turn back and hear another voice. It's Filo's.
"Master is my food!"
I suspect it's Filo who actually said it.
Something suddenly slashes my rocky skin but doesn't do anything.
I exert more energy and convert it into the light to brighten the hallway.
And we can see several bat-like monsters in groups.
"Aria! Filo!"
I shout as the monsters fly towards us.
I shoot multiple ultraviolet rays to strike down a good number of them while Arian blasts plasma beams into them.
"Fast TORNADO!"
Filo calls out creating a tornado before us which sucks the bats into it and efficiently kills them.
After seconds, all bats are down.
I take one of the corpses and let my shield absorb it to analyze and I get a shield with properties similar to the Echo Echo shield.
Sonic Attacks… Um.
"Let's go."
We proceed into the tunnel and see a big cave full of blue crystals.
And then there is a chimera-like monster at the other end of the cave.
"Ahem…" I grasp the attention of the other two. "We have two ways to go. Do it easy or do the hard way."
"Master," Filo speaks up. "That monster looks tasty."
Seems like there's no other choice, huh?
"OK, Filo. Let us hunt it down! Arian, cover fire, OK?"
Arian nods and Filo starts charging into the cave.
"Be careful," I give a final warning before I transform into, "HUMONGOUSAUR! Grrrr!"
I growl as I start charging towards the Chimera-like monster who is awakened by Filo's footsteps.
"This guy will cover 2 DAY WORTH OF FOOD FOR FILO!" I roar as I hold back my fist to ready a punch.
Filo jumps into the air dodging the snakehead tail and at the same time, Aria shoots multiple blasts with her rifle precisely into the monster's fist.
I leap into the air high, growing my body to maximum size, and punches the monster with all the impact I've collected.
It triggers a shockwave and a quake in the cave.
When I get down, I can see the monster is already down.
"Hey, master, no fun," Filo says as she bites a piece of meat with her beak.
"Waste of bullets," Arian says coldly in character.
Is she pushing herself so far? No one can recognize it's Aria at this rate.
Anyway,...
"Now… the gemstone, huh?"
I press the Omnitrix symbol to transform into…
"DIAMONDHEAD! Easy-peasy!"
As I extend my hands and concentrate on using my crystallokinesis abilities, I manipulate small crystal ores and dig them out of the ground.
"This should work."
Arian facepalms looking at the pile of gemstones I've gathered.
I shrug bearing a dumbfounded look on my crystal face.
"What?" I ask.
"Everything looks way too easy to you, huh?" he says with a monotonous voice.
It's scary indeed.
Not me, it's him.
"Right, right," I mutter and sigh, observing the gemstones before me.
They look like ordinary crystals at first glance but knowing the nature of most crystalline substances, I, as Diamondhead, can sense some sort of material or energy residing in the crystals. I can't really define what it is, but I can feel it's there. Magic? Mana? Well, anything I can't identify in this world will be considered as Magic or Mana immediately, source - me.
The Magic and Mana I've been seeing all along are nothing like Gwen's magic, though. They are considerably weaker, to admit.
"Filo,... hmm."
"Mmm? Marchader?" she replies with her mouth full.
Sorry but she has eaten like half of the monster in no time. Or maybe it was half a day I had been looking at the crystals.
Now… I will take back my "this guy will cover two days worth of food for Filo," statement.
But I can't blame her, can I? I eat a massive dense energy ball as Upchuck during my trip to Rex's universe.
"Uh, yeah, if you are finished, let's go back!" A father can't really stop his daughter?
Filo runs past me and joins Arian for me to walk towards the remains of the monster and collect it to store in my inventory.
I look down at the shield to accidentally see my level.
Benjamin Kirby Tennyson
Level: 62
It will be 69 someday.
Oh, I should check on their stats, too.
Arian (Aria Brambila) is level 38 and Filo Tennyson is level 33.
She sure grows fast. I mean, Aria was level 18 when I met her. But Filo was level zero and it's only been weeks.
Forget it.
I pick up the crystals and put them into a bag I took out of my inventory.
Now, head to the capital!
-(BREAK)-
We chose the route that passed through the forest.
"I am hungry. I fought monsters alone and hungry! Give me some meat, master!"
We encountered some beasts on the way back and I let Filo handle it alone hoping it would help with her level.
"Yea, yea, you can stop anywhere you want and I will feed it to you, OK?"
"OKAYYY!"
She replies with an acutely enthusiastic voice and stops the carriage after a second.
Then I let her free from the carriage to comfort her and feed some meat taken out of the inventory.
"Master! Master!"
She calls out as she points in a direction with her wing.
"Something's going on here!" she adds.
When she removes the leaves and branches that are covering our sight, with her wing, I realize there is definitely something going on!
A bunch of colorful filolials is surrounding a little girl in a seemingly expensive dress. She is sitting on the grass, facing the other side.
What's going on? Do Filolials eat little girls?
I look back at Filo who is literally an Omnivore who eats everything and anything.
Come on, Ben, it's hero time!
I jump and land before the little girl as "RATH!"
"Let me tell ya something you big-necked ostriches or Chocobo rip-offs! No one eats this guy under my eyes. No one!"
I know I am being angry but I am furious with being angry!
I turn to face the girl.
"Let me tell ya–" I tap the Omnitrix symbol quickly to revert into human form.
"Ahem, sorry to surprise you."
The little girl looks up at me, who is now a muscular man that transformed from a bipedal tiger. She is still petrified in shock and fear in her eyes.
Arian drops her cold boy act and runs towards the girl performing something else.
"You monster! Getaway," she yells at me for some reason.
"There, there, little girl. I chased him away. Now… relax…" she whispers as she pats the girl's head.
I watch them as the little girl slowly comes back to life, looking around, her face still being pale.
Perhaps Aria has some hidden skills in babysitting.
"What happened?" she asks. "Where are filolials? Wait, that monster ate all of them?!"
"I chased them away because they are gonna eat you," I casually answer.
"No!" she continues.
"Oh, why is everyone talking about eating?" Arian says with his normal cold tone.
"Maybe I am gonna eat you."
Arian widens his eyes as he throws his body towards me.
"As you wish, sir Ben- nett! Eat me!"
I carry him in my arms and lift.
"No, not a fan of cannibalism, sorry. And what are you doing here?"
I say to the girl.
Now I look at her carefully, her hair is blue. She totally looks like a noble – a noble's daughter.
"Those birds looked yummy," Filo claims.
The blue-haired girl widens her eyes in horror as she hears it.
"If we go after them now," Filo continues. "We can hunt them down!"
The little girl turns back and sees the talking big fluffy bird.
But the girl's eyes now turn into those of admiration.
"Those are your kind," Arian warns Filo with a monotonous voice.
"Is that so?" Filo blinks.
The blue-haired girl stands up and faces Filo.
"So… so big…" she mutters, looking up at the big bird, blushing a bit.
She has a thing for filolials?
Did I do something wrong?
"Are you a Filolial?" she asks.
"You means Filo?" Filo says pointing at herself.
"You–you can talk too!" the girl exclaims.
Oh, yeah, I did do something wrong. I thought they were gonna eat her.
I look away in embarrassment, and then Arian realizes it and acts like he's wiping my tears.
"Don't cry, big sister is here to protect you."
"HELL NO!" I refuse his hand.
"I've always dreamed of talking with a filolial!" I can hear the girl shouting with joy.
Well, we should leave them at that.
Arian seems to be more than happy to have Filo away from me for even a moment.
I can kinda relate to her.
"Oh, here is some dried meat, wanna eat?"
I tilt my head to see the blue-haired girl feeding Filo some meat.
Hey, Filo, you had another 1/10 portion of the remaining monster meat recently!
But the view is… wholesome that I can't avert my eyes from it for some time.
"What are you looking at!? Are you a pedophile?!" Arian asks out of nowhere.
"Hell no, why are you being so cold to me today?"
He clings to my muscular arm.
"I am not being cold," he mutters. "I am just… acting in character."
First, I was gonna flush.
But I struggle to hold it in.
"Is.. is that so? I can see, hahah. You should just relax when we are alone, you know?"
When Arian climbs over my back and clings to my neck, the blue-hared girl's eyes widen in surprise. Then she blushes with a weird smile before looking away.
That smile smells… fishy.
Arian is disguised as a male now.
So her lovie-dovie act… and two males,,,
She is obviously misunderstanding!
(A/N: This is a medieval world, so I hope you can understand me making a joke like… this here. This kinda humor is common in anime though.)
"What's your name?" she asks my daughter.
"Filo's name is Filo Bennett," she replies with an enthusiastic tone.
"My name is Melty," she says back.
That "Melty" name makes me and Arian flinch.
Blue hair, well-dressed, Melty.
Blue-haired well-dressed Melty.
Arian and I look at each other.
Then Arian asks Melty.
"Are you… the Crown Princess of Melromarc, Melty?"
She turns and looks at us with surprised eyes.
"How do you know?"
"Your mom is a good friend of ours," I answer.
"O-oh…" she then turns back at Filo to rub her fluffy body.
"Where are you going to?" Arian asks Melty.
"I was going to the capital and I got separated from my escorts," she replies without looking at us.
"Say, how about we offer you to take you to the capital?" I declare.
She turns at me with eyes of questions.
"It… sounds good. I can ask my father for your reward."
"No need. I am … a rich merchant," I say.
Arian takes out evidence from the Queen and shows it to Melty.
She narrows her eyes reading the scroll.
"I don't think I need this level of protection."
I cross my arms to intimidate her.
"This country has nowhere safe for you, Crown Princess," I claim.
"I may not look but…" I think I can trust her. The Queen assured us she is a good girl. "I am the hero of the shield… or rather… the devil of the shield, the enemy of the church, the shapeshifting demon." I declare deactivating my ID Mask and Merlinisapien shield.
Virtually to her, it looks like I shrink back to my teenage self.
"O-oops," she gasps in astonishment.
CHAPTER (13) ENDS
There is another method for disguise – Lenopan transformation. Although this form has a weakness to heat and coldness, it can mimic any creature or human though without the original's properties. Just appearance. And little detail errors of course.
Reprogramming ID Mask is a pain, you have to rewrite the detail feature of the whole body. So transforming into a demi-human or lenopan is favorable if Ben and his party have to depart for Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt. I am also considering Faubrey because Ben has a bit sense of feminism. Changing genders is a thing in Omnitrix, as I have mentioned.
But still, AI Azmuth doesn't let Ben unlock lenopan or demi-human DNA. Sadly.
Class-up (Ascending) will be earlier than it happened in canon chronology.
My favorite anime character is Hachiman Hikigaya from Oregairu. The first time I planned to write this story, I consider having characters from other franchises or anime to be the rest of the four heroes. Hikigaya would have died crashed by Yukinoshita's car to be summoned as a sword hero.
Thanks for reading and writing reviews. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Oh, almost forgot it. I am considering the nation Ben will travel to will be Faubrey or Shieldfreeden. I think Siltvelt and Faubrey are cruel choices for Ben.
But it is set in stone that if they go to Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden, Aria and Filo can have a class-up. Filo grows as much as she eats, but due to her overprotective father, Ben, she can't go on actions like in canon and her level-up has a slower rate. But it's nothing to worry.
I skipped 2 episodes worth storyline so this isn't the third wave arc, yet.
I am really excited about Glass Vs. Ben battle. Because the enemies till now were no much of a challenge for Ben. I think Ben needs time to analyze what Glass can do and what her weakness is. No spoiler.
Christopher Paradox Chronos