Chapter 3-Apprehension
As he sipped from a gold-plated chalice King Aultcray mused that red berry wine he was drinking had been bottled in the year of the last Incursion war. It had promised to be a good vintage except by all the chaos that had wracked the world ten decades prior. Now its flavor was skewed towards an overabundance of tannins whose bitterness perfectly suited the king's simmering anger at the world in general, and the blighted demihumans in particular. A lifetime ago, his precious sister had been kidnapped and murdered by those furry-eared bastards, and that damn Shield Hero Iwatani was their god incarnate! "Bastards! I hate them all," he roared as he flung the chalice at the door.
His chancellor, a short ugly older man in his 70s with wavy iron grey hair and conniving black eyes easily ducked out the way of the projectile, as he was long ago inured to his liege's irrational and moody antics. He was dressed in sumptuous black pants, boots, and a shirt with a ruffled lace at the neck, over which he wore a dark grey jacket with maroon decorations on his collar. He bowed deeply with a slight smirk on his face, "Begging your indulgence, Your Majesty. The Sword Hero requests a brief audience."
Aultcray rubbed at his beard in agitation, and prayed to the Three Heroes God that he could convince this good hearted fool about the realities of this world. He gave an annoyed, dismissive wave, "Send him in, Marius."
"Yes, Your Highness." He smoothly opened the door and admitted two warriors. The Sword Hero was now dressed in a more period appropriate blue tunic, black pants, ultramarine cloak, and tall boots. His black, white, and gold sword with its blue gemstone was now sheathed in a belt-mounted scabbard that had been last wielded by his predecessor from a century earlier.
Right behind him, one of the Royal guards in full armor walked behind him. Aultcray recognized the thirteen-pointed star on her breastplate, pin on her collar, and her eyepatch that indicated that she was an ex-guard to his younger daughter and that she had been given a royal commendation for helping to defeat the boss monster of the First Wave. He silently clenched one of his hands as he also recalled that she had fought alongside that son of a whore Mage Takia. He quickly realized that she was the descendant of the last Sword Hero, and finally pulled up her name as Guardsman Kuznetsov. Ah, that explained why she was following her idol like an over-exuberant pup.
The chancellor quietly shut the doors behind him, leaving them alone. The King looked at the thin, brown-skinned face, with guileless black eyes absurdly magnified by his ridiculously thick spectacles. He seemed like such a nice, kind boy. Why in the heavens was he interfering with the plan? His violet eyes looked upon the lad whose hands were noticeably trembling, "Good evening Sword Hero. I assume this is of utmost import if this cannot wait until the morn?"
Jeremiah shivered down his back as he tried his best to steel his nerve in the face of a powerful monarch. King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII was attired as befitted his rarefied station. He was a stern-looking man in his late 60s at the very youngest. His shoulder length hair and full beard was completely grey, and his severe violet eyes looked upon the world with weary bitterness most of the time. Over his white pants, he wore a full length white, purple, and gold hued tunic adorned with gold clasps with draping cuffs trimmed in lace. His heavy gold necklace was inset with cross-shaped fire rubies. He also wore a purple cape trimmed at the collar with pure white fur. His crown was a simple engraved hoop that arched up at the front and back to accommodate violet gemstones. Thick rings encrusted with invaluable gems decorated several of his thick fingers. Jerry had no clue why the King of Melromarc had treated Naofumi with such disdain; but if the Four Cardinal Heroes were to save the world, they had to work together. His instincts told him that instead of making a public spectacle, a backroom deal would be much easier to negotiate without the king losing face. After all, he knew well most people in positions of great authority were obsessed with image above all else. Her cleared his throat, "Good evening, Your Royal Highness. Begging your pardon, the first issue is that Guardsman Valeria Kuznetsov here would like to ally herself with my team immediately. Also Guardsman Cyril Kuznetsov wants to work with the Bow Hero Charlotte. Is that an acceptable arrangement?"
The elderly king nodded once with a curt wave, "Granted."
Much to Jerry's surprise his Status Screen that he had first seen when he had first spoken with the king automatically popped up in his field of vision again. On the top left corner under his HP and SP bar a new name appeared: Valeria Starnovna Kuznetsov-Spear Knight Level 10. He bowed humbly as did his enthusiastic companion. "M-my thanks, Your Highness."
"It is nothing. Technically she was supposed to join your ranks at the official ceremony tomorrow, but I'm sure you two wish to coordinate strategy immediately." Although he had abandoned his duties as a renowned tactician decades ago, Aultcray still had sharp instincts from many heavy years of rule. He eyed the guard's silver icon from the Three Hero's church on a chain around her neck and realized that her dogmatic faith would be quite useful in channeling the Sword Hero into the correct path. He also knew her brother would be useful to keep tabs on the Bow Hero. He managed a slight smirk as he guessed at his next request, "The second favor is in regards to the Shield Hero?"
Jerry perspired visibly and unhappily nodded. He really didn't want to touch off a landmine here. "Y-yes, Your Highness. V-varri told me that the Holy church worships the Bow, Spear and Sword Heroes as avatars of God's mercy in Melromarc. If that is the case, why…why is the Shield Hero excluded?"
The king tensed up at the very mention of that infidel's title. Instead of snapping at this blameless youth, he looked at the crackling fire in his stone-walled anteroom for many moments. Finally he spoke up as he did his best to bend the truth to his benefit, "The last time the Cardinal Heroes were summoned was just over 102 years ago; there was also a summoning 151 years before that. Both times, the Shield Hero fought for the sake of the demihumans at Melromarc's expense. As you may have noticed, demihumans and humans have not historically gotten along, and have fought many bitter wars. During the last Incursion, the Shield Hero essentially defected to the demihuman-dominated Kingdom of Siltvelt, betraying my Queen's grandmother." He locked eyes with the nervous Hero and spoke gravely, "Many generations ago there was still a unified Church of the Four Heroes all across the continent. However actions of the successive Shield Heroes unfortunately precipitated a schism where Siltvelt's church only worshipped the Shield Hero, and Merlromarc's pope decreed that the holy church in Melromarc could only worship the three other Heroes who loyally supported our noble kingdom. The Shield Hero must therefore earn his trust in the eyes of my people to atone for the sins of his predecessors and prove his loyalty to Melromarc. I realize that it is blatantly unfair to the current Shield Hero, but such is life."
Jerry had been afraid of this. Of course politics were just as screwed up just as much in this world as back on Earth. Still this outcome was better than he had hoped. Once the Cardinal Heroes beat the snot out of the next wave, their bonds would be all but unbreakable. Surely the people of Melromarc would accept the Shield Hero by then as one of their revered champions too. "I understand, Your Highness. I will do my best to aid the Shield Hero, even though our Cardinal weapons' incompatibility forces us to form different parties."
The king fought down his irritation again. Why couldn't this naïve, good-hearted fool leave well enough alone? After the First Wave, his council of mages had assured him that the summoning would pull a clueless, weak-willed amateur to fill the Shield Hero role, and arrogant experts from three other parallel Earths; this would all but guarantee that the Shield Hero would be quickly isolated and all 4 Heroes would be pliable to his and his elder daughter's machinations. He had berated his head magus for over on hour for the botched summon causing 4 Heroes from the same Earth who seemed to regard each other with sympathy and camaraderie. Ah well, Princess Malty was nothing if not persistent in her schemes, and Aultcray was confident that they could still salvage this mess by destroying the Shield Hero's life and saving the world with the remaining Cardinal warriors. And that gave him another idea. He cleared his throat, "Can I assume the third favor is that the Shield Hero wishes to take on the Mage Takia as a follower to atone for his sins against the crown?"
"Y-yes, sire." Note to self, do not get into a poker match with His Highness, Jerry realized somberly.
Aultcray managed a satisfied smirk, "I will grant it, providing he only be allowed to serve the Shield Hero." This was absolutely perfect. Not only could he destroy the Shield Hero's reputation and humiliate the demihumans across the continent, he could finally rid the kingdom of that noxious gadfly of a mage…for good. "Was there anything else, Sword Hero?"
Jerry bowed deeply again, "No, that was everything. Thank you most sincerely for honoring our requests. It can only help build up the Cardinal Heroes' morale and ability to fend off the coming Waves. Good night, Your Royal Highness."
Varri bowed as well, looking exceedingly pleased now that she was recruited to follow her idol, her faith and her kingdom. "I am truly humbled. Good night, Your Highness."
Both departed through the double doors as King Aultcray chuckled nastily to himself once he was alone again. "Finally, I will see those damned demis eat dung for all they have done to me, my family, and my kingdom!"
…
Surrounded by a half dozen warriors, and reclined on a padded chair in their comfortable temporary quarters, Clint adjusted his glasses with a faintly annoyed expression. "So the three of you went out for a stroll and ended up recruiting one follower apiece?" He had been too busy to change into the red and white outfit left for him by the maids, so he was still in his school clothes. The lone exception was a belt containing a holder for his spear. Thankfully, the haft of his Cardinal weapon could magically reduce its length to an easily stowable form; the tip had a sturdy leather cover so that the teen wouldn't stab himself when he tossed in his sleep. All of the Heroes had been discomfited to find out that their weapons could not be removed from their bodies at any time.
As she was happy to cosplay when the opportunity presented itself, Charlotte had eagerly changed into her dark brown pants, black boots, and beige tunic trimmed in goldenrod. She was also wearing a quiver at her side with 20 arrows hanging off a brown belt, and a clip on her shoulder belt for her bow. She broke into soft giggles as she teased the overly serious computer geek, "You've got to put your laptop away once in a while and actually step out into the world outside, my friend."
The high school student shrugged off the crack, and pointed to a prototype model on the table, "That is a mock-up of a dynamo that I am going to build so we can power up our technology. So being a pasty-faced computer guru has its rewards." He stretched out and carefully powered down his laptop. Hopefully he could solve the 'no outlet' problem within a day or so.
Cyril carefully inspected the model with a keen eye, "Spear Hero, I believe I can aid you on the mechanical side, even if your technology is far beyond me. I did design a magic and spring-operated gauntlet to replace my mutilated left hand.
That caught the dark-haired teen's interest. He brushed his dark blue hair back and carefully peered over Cyril's homemade prosthetic hand once the guard had handed it over for his perusal. He poked around the steel glove with intense interest. "This is really well constructed," he murmured.
Charlotte felt uncomfortable as she saw her tan-skinned followers' left hand was missing three fingers down to the first knuckle; but she quickly chastised herself that he seemed to possess a noble heart and he should be judged on who he was instead of what he looked like, "By the way Cyril, I just wanted to welcome you on board Team Charlotte." She smiled as she deliberately extended her left hand out.
Cyril's brown eyes widened in concern, and he hesitated. Soon, he broke into a restrained smile as he put out his mangled hand. They shook hands firmly.
The Bow Hero beamed and released her grip on her underling. She reviewed her status screen which showed her name and listed underneath was: Cyril Starnovich Kuznetsov-Sword Knight Level 7. She was slightly annoyed that he outleveled her, but she assumed her potent weapon would be her most reliable friend. She took out her holy bow and admired its refined craftsmanship. The white weapon had the shape of a gentle arc with black trimlines, and gold accents at the tips where the bowstring was attached and in the center ring facing forwards where the orange gemstone glowed faintly.
The sword knight admired the bow with obvious reverence, "To the best of our knowledge that bow at least 1500 years old, Miss Charlotte."
Her blue eyes registered surprise, "Wow. How many Bow Heroes have wielded this wondrous weapon?"
Cyril nonchalantly retrieved his gauntlet from Clint and reattached it with a satisfying click.
The Spear Hero snickered at the sight and quoted Ash from the horror/black comedy flick Army of Darkness, "Groovy!"
"Pardon me?" Cyril looked at the Spear Hero with a completely befuddled expression.
"Just forget him," Charlotte interjected with a soft titter.
"Oh…okay. We have had twelve Incursions, but we have probably had seventeen to nineteen Bow Heroes, not counting you. The records are a bit unclear on the exact number." He saw the brunette's worried frown and he sighed deeply, "Not every Hero that was summoned survived all the Waves. Occasionally we had to perform a new summon in the middle of at least five of the incursions, including the eleventh."
Takia, who was curled up in a ball in the far corner of the room, looked up with a sharp gaze at the guardsman. He had lived through the hellish Eleventh Incursion and seen a total party kill on his watch with his own eyes. He gritted his teeth but opted to stay silent. It was not as if he would be believed anyway.
Charlotte fell silent and gently patted Cyril's armored arm before wordlessly sitting down and gazing at her bow with a melancholy expression. It was only now that she realized just how perilous their situation truly was. She was touched when Jerry seated to her left gave her shoulder a brief squeeze of comfort.
By the arched windows, Naofumi was pleased and rather surprised that King A-hole had consented to release the tortured mage to his care. Maybe he did have a one redeeming quality at least. He quickly brought up his Status screen and was genuinely shocked to see Takia's level. The display indicated: Takia Aliki-Earth & Wind Mage Level 1. He snorted in exasperation as he looked at his new companion with annoyance plainly visible in his bright green eyes, "Seriously, all those lifetimes of defeating Waves and you're back to Level 1?"
The mage nodded glumly, "Every time there is a new summoning, as a failed Hero, my level will reset as well. I was level 58 during the First Wave two weeks ago."
Naofumi scratched up his unruly raven locks, "That's really crappy luck. Sorry 'bout that, man."
Takia nearly smiled, "It is my fate to be screwed over again and again." He stood up and stretched. After being healed he was given a set of cheap monochromatic ebony robes, with a matching belt and short black boots. The guards had jeeringly told him that he was going to be slain in the Second Wave if he even made it that far. Maybe they were right, but oblivion never seemed to be within his grasp. He made eye contact with his former ally Varri, who huffed and crossed her arms. He returned to his corner and continued to read over incantation tomes that he had to relearn again for the third time.
Jeremiah smiled up to his unhappy underling and attempted to dispel the strained mood in the room, "It's okay Varri. How are the sketches turning out?"
The guard was unexpectedly quite talented with a charcoal pencil and had drawn up sketches of the 'mystery summoners' that each of the 4 heroes had seen just before they had been pulled into this world based on their recollections. She handed over the sketch of the 'Library lady' to Naofumi and the 'Import Shop lady' to Jerry. Jerry was astonished how well she had accurately replicated her sharp eyes, slight frown, delicate nose, and long lustrous hair. He gaped, "Holy crap! This is awesome. It looks just like the mute lady who visited my store."
Varri was now in even a worse mood, "Good to hear sir." She exhaled in obvious exasperation as she took stock of the young lady's features, "She's very pretty too." Regrettably, unlike her collected younger twin brother, Valeria was never very good at hiding her emotions, for good or ill.
The Sword Hero blushed furiously as he recalled that the mystery woman with the white hair was what would be termed by his roleplaying pals as 'smoking hot'. He chuckled in embarrassment, "Er…well. Yeah, she was attractive, but you need to remember that any girls that look like that don't even notice me."
Varri's green eye burned with indignation as she stood up and fumed, "That's a load of bull, Sir Jerry! Any lady would be lucky to have your attentions…because you're so…I, ugh." She had blown it, idiot. Varri flushed herself, slumped back into her seat, and buried her face in her hands in abject misery.
Cyril sauntered over and gently patted his sister on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile, "Don't mind my sis, Sir Jeremiah. It's just a little hero worship on her part."
Jerry laughed uncertainly, "Yeah. It's all good."
The Shield Hero clenched the paper featuring the sketch of the adorable maiden that he despaired of ever seeing again. She was so nice and sweet; so why had she apologized to him? He was happy to help save another world. Why would regret the chance to be a hero? He silently smoothed out the crumpled edge and vowed that he would find her in this world…somehow.
…
Early the next morning, the Four Cardinal Heroes stood in a neat row in the long rectangular throne room, with two thrones at the far end, double doors at the entrance, balconies along the both sides and a bank of two story tall windows on the left side. Plush carpets cushioned the unyielding stone floor. The walls supporting the upper levels contained large archways with gilded trim. King Aultcray himself sat with his advisors on the right hand chair. A group of adventurers and mercenaries stood in a row right before the dais.
Among them was Takia looking with resignation at all the resentful glares at him. The dark haired mage's normally greasy tangled black hair was actually clean for once and fell past his shoulders. He looked at Naofumi and vowed that he would give the Shield Hero Naofumi his full support; for whatever it was worth.
Both Kuznetsov siblings were standing next to the dour mage, with Cyril gamely interposed between his sister and the magic user she despised. As they were now mercenaries instead of guards, both had surrendered their helmets and had their armor altered to change the silver color to a dull matte bronze hue. Frankly, rather than worry about his petulant twin, Cyril was much more concerned about the red-haired adventurer Myne Suphia standing in the same line. Her presence quite simply had to be regarded as a potent of a coming cataclysm; as he knew full well that Myne was simply First Princess Malty Melromarc in a peasant disguise. He had known from his service as a guard that the First Princess was notoriously capricious, bloodthirsty and hedonistic; to the point where she had numerous innocents put to death for her own amusement. Only last year, her long litany of aberrant behavior had finally caused the frustrated queen to promote the Second Princess to be the new crown princess. He was not a man of great faith, but he made a small prayer to both the Three Heroes God and the Shield God that this development wouldn't end in ruin for the kingdom and the entire world.
Naofumi was staring at the charcoal sketch of his 'mystery girl', and looked up and down the line to look for her; bitter disappointment sunk in when he saw that she was not there. Damn it all. If she knew him well enough to pull him into this world, why wasn't she here now to serve at his side? He briefly gawked at a drop dead gorgeous swordswoman redhead with seductive green eyes staring right at him with a flirtatious smile. He blushed and quickly found a chandelier overhead to admire instead.
The King sternly sat on his throne and looked at the Shield Hero with particular disdain. He was confident that once that traitor was properly humiliated that the rest of the three Heroes would band together to save his realm. He cleared his throat, "Greetings, brave Heroes. Now is the time for your adventure to begin, as we have but little time before the next Wave strikes our fair kingdom." He addressed the prospective followers, "Go forth adventurers."
The mercenaries marched towards the Heroes to fall behind their champion of choice. Naofumi was taken aback that the Heroes couldn't do the choosing, but he felt immense relief when the haunted Mage Aliki proudly stood behind him. However, his feelings quickly turned to dismay as it registered that the other followers had dispersed to the other three Heroes. As Jerry had already chided him yesterday for using the far too casual address of 'Yo king', he sighed and spoke with a minimum of respect, "Your Majesty, why do I only get one follower? You know my shield is purely a defensive weapon."
Aultcray sighed heavily, "Unfortunately your ignorance about this world has rapidly spread to the masses. Unlike the other three Heroes, you lack the most basic knowledge about this world. I am assuming your potential hirelings would see that fact as a liability."
Jeremiah turned to Naofumi and guiltily whispered, "Damn. I'm sorry about yesterday. I was only trying to help you get oriented." His followers included a burly bearded axe-wielder, a lilac-haired mage, a blond thief, and the Spear knight Varri.
Charlotte spoke up indignantly, "There should definitely be a more equitable distribution of retainers, Your Royal Highness." Behind her stood a muscular knight in full armor, a short mage with purple hair, an older man with a brown pony tail wielding an axe-type polearm, and the Sword knight Cyril.
"Agreed," Clint added stoically. His retainers included a rapier-wielding brunette, a short female mage with reddish brown hair, a scantily-dressed maiden with long braided purple hair, and Myne the Swordswoman.
Jerry gave a sharp nod, "All four of us are in agreement then."
The king shook his head. "It is a sacrosanct tradition that the followers choose their masters. Shield Hero, I fear you will need to recruit your own-"
"Your Majesty, my name is Myne and I would like to join the Shield Hero," came a voice from behind Clint. Myne smirked as she switched from standing behind the Spear Hero to the Shield Hero. She flashed a cheerful smile to both Valeria and Cyril and silently encouraged the twin ex-guards to keep their big traps shut if they knew what was good for them. "Now you have a sword and a mage to rely on, Sir Shield Hero."
Takia nervously shuffled as there was something about this girl that unnerved him.
Naofumi flushed as this effortlessly beautiful ponytailed swordswoman dressed in brown leather armor and a purple skirt decided to pick him despite his poor reputation in this Kingdom. "T-thanks, Miss Myne. I appreciate it."
The king suppressed a smile. Finally things were back on track. "Step forward to receive your initial payment. Use it to outfit yourself and prepare for the battles to come. Good fortune to you all" Except to you Shield Hero, he silently added as an afterthought.
…
After parting from his fellow Heroes, Naofumi spent an exhausting day grinding. After gawking at sights like vendors using magic spells to sell goods, giant bird and lizard mounts and servants wandering the streets that had animal ears and tails, Myne guided him to a shop called Erhard's Arms where they were outfitted by a giant muscular blacksmith. The intimidating looking smith was surprisingly personable and reasonable in his rates despite his baldness, bushy chin beard and fading scars arcing over his forehead and chin giving him a foreboding appearance. Much to his frustration, Naofumi's attempts to use a sword conflicted with his Cardinal weapon. Dejectedly, he had concluded that it was left to Takia and Myne to do the fighting for him, and he would shield them from damage.
An hour later they were hard at work at a nearby meadow within sight of the Castle town skyline fighting the very goofy-looking balloon monsters with blank white eyes and rows of sharp teeth. Much to his surprise, Myne had opted out of fighting to hone her sword skills instead of taking on the pathetically weak monsters. When he asked why, she had shrugged with a smile and noted their XP gain was too small to promote her above level 15. That had left the burden on Takia to use his extremely weak Earth magic to summon a razor sharp rock to pop the enemies one at a time once the Shield Hero lured them in. Naofumi was happy to see that as Takia gained 15 XP per balloon popped, he gained a similar amount. Unfortunately, the dark-eyed mage's SP petered out only after using the spell 5 times in a row. It took a full hour for the bar to reset back to full on its own. After a lot of experimentation, the Shield Hero figured out that by converting his default Small shield into his silly-looking corrugated steel Failure shield, it projected a misfortune field that caused the balloon monster's attacks to fall on each other in spectacular fashion. After hours of strenuously pushing his level from 1 up to 4 he was beyond beat. After selling the balloon monster fragments off, Myne had dragged him back to Erhard's shop and found a full set of steel armor that suited her perfectly but had burned through most of Naofumi's funds. He hadn't minded too much as he wanted to make his new companions happy. He had asked Takia if he wanted any upgraded attire, but the gloomy mage had simply shaken his head.
By the time he got back to the Regal Flame and Mist Inn Naofumi noted that only of few of the other Heroes and followers were still downstairs eating or drinking. Jeremiah's Axe fighter was getting drunk at the bar, and 2 of his other companions were not in evidence. The Sword Hero himself was quietly writing in his DM's notebook with a look of utter focus. Clint was busily typing away on his laptop with his prototype dynamo spinning as it was powered by wind magic. He had dismissed his three female followers to divvy up his 2 rented rooms as he was planning to work late into the night on his computer tracking his expenses and making notations of important trivia about this world. Charlotte had already retired to bed in 1 room and her followers bunking in the other 2 rooms.
Only her follower Cyril was still downstairs, morosely drinking berry wine with his sister. It wasn't fair, he reasoned in a tipsy haze. All this interminable waiting for his family for decades, and he had finally had the insanely good fortune to serve a living legend like Charlotte the Bow Hero. Damn it all, that maleficent First Princess couldn't wait to sink her talons into her helpless prey just for her own sick thrills! He stood up and despite his twin's clumsy attempt to snag his arm, he forcefully pulled away from Varri and soon bowed in front of the flame-haired fighter, "Miss Myne, k…kindly forgive my impudence."
What was this all about a surprised Naofumi wondered as he saw barely suppressed terror in the wobbling knight's eyes.
Myne fought with all of her might not to have this bastard of a guard beheaded for daring to attempt to blow her cover. If he even tried to issue a warning she would see to it personally that his idiotic sister and mother were put to death in the most horrible manner possible…and this jerkass would be forced to watch. She forced a smile with a slightly twitching eyebrow, "Tee hee! I'm so sorry that I don't remember your name, good sir."
"Cyril, Miss Myne," he replied with a melancholy tone as he knew his alcohol-fueled feeble attempt to deflect the pitiless Princess from taking a sledgehammer to their best chance to defeat the Thirteenth incursion was basically nil. "A-all I want to say is please…please use your effortless grace and talents to defeat our mortal enemies from the Waves. That must be our priority above all else."
"Oh of course! With the great Shield Hero at my side, there isn't anything we can't accomplish." She flashed the crippled guard a wink indicating that he had better know his place. She pushed up her ample figure into the Shield Hero to distract him and fluster him with her feminine charms.
Naofumi chuckled and rubbed at the back of his head in embarrassment, but his embrace by an entirely different maiden was occupying the forefront of his mind. "See you on the training fields tomorrow Sir Cyril."
"Good night Sir Naofumi, Mister Takia, Miss Myne." The intoxicated knight wove a bit unsteadily back to his seat where he soon passed out.
Naofumi sat at a table with Myne to get some supper as he was starving and the delicious smells made him drool. Takia had seen Myne's flinty glare directed at him and hastily retired for the night. The Shield Hero took out his sketch of the 'library girl' and stared at it wistfully as his beautiful companion suggested that they train at a cavern near Lafun village to hike up their XP. He ate the delicious stew and roasted tubers but declined the wine, much to Myne's apparent amusement. Despite her brazenly flirtatious mannerisms, he was distracted by that apologetic maiden that had forcefully pulled him in this world's troubles.
Myne was starting to get seriously annoyed that he was somehow staving off her irresistible allure. She teased him, "I wonder if I'm a bother to you, Master Shield Hero. You're not talking, you're not drinking and you're staring at a sketch of a cute little cinnamon bun." She pouted, "Aren't I cute?"
"What? Y-yes of course you are…I mean…" He shrunk back like a schoolboy that had been caught cheating on an exam. "Miss Myne, can you do me a favor?"
"Anything for you, my sweet champion of justice," she replied with a beaming smile.
"Do you know who this girl is? I need to find her somehow," he pleaded humbly.
She was this close to burning that damn sketch to a crisp, but for the sake of her scheme she had to hold it together, "I fear not, Shield Hero. I've been around quite a bit, but I've never seen that face." She refilled her glass, "She may have just been a figment of your imagination made as a side effect from that corrupt Overwrite spell." Oh she just adored seeing the Shield Hero pull a face of yearning and badly hidden despair. It enhanced the sweetness of her wine that much more.
Naofumi stood up and politely bowed, "Good night Myne. T-thanks for everything. See you bright and early."
"Good night Shield Hero," she chuckled. "Don't do anything that I wouldn't do." She watched with glee as she watched him mount the stairs to the rental rooms above. This mission promised to be too much fun!