Chapter 9: Slimy Royalty

Damn thanks for the support lads, I'm happy that you're all enjoying the story.

I took out the part with Naofumi unlocking the Curse Series cause yeah it felt forced when I reread it, she'll get it down the line eventually.

All rights go to their owners.

Talking: "I think I saw you but I know I'm not supposed to."

Thinking: 'I must be dreaming 'cause I don't believe in ghosts yeah.'

"How much do you wanna bet that they're better than the King at leading?"-Keel and the others fighting monsters.

Kane feels warmth on his face and can see the light piercing through his closed eyelids. "...fucking window." He rubs his eyes with his fingers groaning. As he's about to get out of bed, the sound of breathing can be heard right next to him making him pause, turning to look at what's causing the noise. He drops out of his bed with a yell before quickly back-pedalling away from the bed. The cause of the noise stirs and slowly gets up, the blanket covering them.

Leo bursts in the room. "Kane! Did something hap-" He trails off upon looking at the bed, finding a young boy no older than ten with black hair and horns in Kane's bed. "...Nope." Leo turns to leave before being stopped by the boy calling out.

"Big Bro Leo!" He turns back to find the young boy smiling at him from ear to ear.

Keel and Rifana to the others' dismay enter the situation. "What's going on?"

The young boy happily speaks to two. "Big Sis Keel, Big Sis Rifana!" The two girls look at Kane's bed finding a small boy who has arms sprayed out wanting a hug from the two.

They both stop at the sight of the boy. "...Uhhh Kane, why is there a child in your bed."

Kane throws his arm up in the air. "That's the million-dollar question, why the fuck is there an underage child in my fucking bed."

The boy turns around, a confused look on his face. "I wanted to sleep with you daddy."

Kane points at the boy. "I don't need you making this weirder, so don't call me daddy."

"So should I call you dad then?"

Kane grimaces, being called a father makes something in him twist and turn. "...Why are you calling me your dad?"

The boy tilts his head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because you're my dad? You take care of me, while mommy looks after those stupid birds." The boy crosses his arms, pouting as he does so.

The four stare at the boy in confusion until Rifana's eyes widen in realization. "Birds? Wait Naofumi!? You and Naofumi had a child!?" She places both hands on her blushing cheeks, the other two demi-humans' eyes widen not completely shocked but surprised at the belief of the two already have a child.

Kane stands up. "Pregnancies last for around 9 fucking months! You don't just pop out a child, like it's nothing!"

Rifana raises her hand at the boy. "Then who is he?"

"Not a fucking clue."

The unknown boy spins to Kane, looking hurt by this. "D-Dad, you don't know who I am?"

Kane groans, feeling a bit of guilt at the boy's sad eyes. "Sorry kid can't say that I do."

The boy looks down for a few moments, clearly upset by this. The boy smiles, looking right back up raising an arm, pointing at the ceiling of the room. "Wait! I know how to make you recognize me." The boy stands up on the bed, revealing that he was entirely naked this entire time. Making Kane somehow even more uncomfortable as he looks away, before he or any of the others comment on it the boy is enveloped by a cloud of smoke. When the smoke dissipates, a familiar black Dragon is found sitting on the bed.

"Shenron!?" Everyone in the room apart from Shenron shouts at the sudden revelation.

The mentioned Dragon starts to sway his tail. "Yep, it's me!" Despite his current form, his childish voice remains.

Kane's eye twitches, looking down at his arm and pinching it, feeling dull pain at this. "Oh great so this isn't some really weird fever dream."

Shen despite being a Dragon somehow makes a smile or at least the closest thing to it. "Did I surprise you dad?"

Kane looks off to the side muttering to himself. "Yeah you sure got me Shen, now all I got to wait for is the surprise from Chris Hansen or the fucking FBI." He finishes with a sigh, looking at Shen, finding the other three staring at Shen in shock.

The Dragon giggles. "I got you, daddy!" Shenron tilts his head in confusion. "Who's the FBI or Chris Handsome?"

"Don't worry about it, also please stop calling me daddy or dad or whatever, just call me Kane."

Shen tilts his head, confused. "Um okay, da- I mean Kane."

Kane shakes his head. "Moving on from this… uncomfortable situation, I'm going to take a bath."

Shenron leaps off the bed. "Can I take a bath with you?"

Kane looks at Shen in incredulity. "No just…. no."

Shen pouts while Kane walks past Leo, Rifana, and Keel into the hallway, speaking to them as he does so. "Keep an eye on him." Rifana nods while the other two are still in shock.

Kane rushes the bath, wanting to quickly sort the situation out with Shen as quickly as possible. He equips his custom armour, it feels a little tight in the arm and legs but he ignores this and walks back to his room.

Entering the room he finds Shenron in his child form again, sleeping in his bed with Leo sitting at the table, who looks up when he enters the room. "Where're the others?" Kane whispers as he walks to the table and pulls out a chair, taking a seat.

Leo sighs and shrugs, whispering back. "No idea, Rifana want back to her room to work on her traps, leaving me and Keel with Shen who started to make a fuss since you and Rifana left so Keel decided to lull him to sleep with a song, she left after that said she wanted to go do something and that she'll back soon.

Kane hums at this, looking at Shen. His soft breathing can be heard. "What song did she sing?"

Leo smiles, remembering who sang the song originally. "The same song you sang for us when one of us couldn't sleep because of nightmares."

A gentle smile forms on Kane's face, turning back to face Leo. "Really?" He nods. "The Misty Mountain Cold isn't exactly a lullaby, I'm still surprised it worked so well for… well all three of you."

Leo closes his eyes, leaning back in his chair making it creak. "Probably because you sang it, I remember falling asleep so quickly."

"My oh my Leo are you saying my voice is so boring it puts you to sleep?"

Leo chuckles, his mouth turning into a small smirk. "Maybe I am."

Kane puts a hand on his heart and makes an exaggerated sigh, slumping in his seat. "How hurtful, I would say you're taking after Iwi with that amount of sass."

Leo's chuckle turns into a quiet laugh. "Oh, poor poor Kane, he suffers so much." Leo's words seem to drip with sarcasm. Kane pretends to pout for a bit longer before eventually shaking his head, his usual carefree smirk appears on his face. Leo turns to look at Shen hearing him slightly mumble in his sleep. "Hey Kane... can I ask you something?" Kane pauses and nods. "Why don't you want Shen to call you his father?"

Kane's smirk weakens, he exhales and readjusts on his chair. "Well two reasons really, for one; I'm 19. So suddenly having a kid call me dad is a little weird."

Leo tilts his head, speaking before Kane moves onto his next point. "We never called you our father but you pretty much did raise us, why is it any different with Shen?"

Kane stares at Leo with a blank look. "I was able to tell myself that I was more the big brother, so I don't need you poking holes into my delusion Leo, plus like you said none of you called me dad or whatever so." He shrugs. "And well… let's just say I had some daddy issues of my own so hearing someone calling me a dad makes me… uncomfortable." He finishes it off with a humourless smirk aimed at Leo.

Leo's eyes widen before he looks down with his ears folding out of shame. "I-I'm sorry if I brought up something… painful."

Kane softly snorts at this. "It's fine Leo, it wasn't that bad so chin up when the girls get back we got shit to do."

Leo looks up, finding Kane gently smirking at him. Leo nods. "R-Right!"

Shenron stirs from Leo being a bit too loud who winces at this. "Mhmm. Where's Big Sis Rifana and Big Sis Keel?" Shenron still lying down in the bed, softly mutters to Kane and Leo sitting at the table.

Kane moves his head to face Shenron. "They're doing some other stuff, they'll be here soon. Before that, though we need to go over some ground rules Shen."

Shen tilts his head and slowly sits upright. "Rules?"

"Yep rules, nothing serious just certain things you need to be careful with like we're going to give you some of Leo's old clothes back when he was a kid so when you transform into… A Dragon make sure you're not wearing your clothes so it doesn't rip, and when you're human wear the clothes, and you are not allowed to transform in front of strangers okay?"

Shen nods with vigour. "Yep!"

Kane smiles. "Good boy, oh and no sleeping in my bed alright?"

That was too much in Shen's eyes. "What! B-But I want to sleep with you." Shen stares at Kane with an upset look.

Kane looks at him, his resolve slightly weakening at the boy's puppy eyes. "...Ugh fine, but you have to be wearing something when you go to sleep understood?"

The boy nods excitedly while Leo softly chuckles in the background at the sight of Kane failing to resist Shen's eyes.

"I'm back." Keel enters the room, a smirk on her face, her tomboyish hair dishevelled.

Everyone speaks their welcome.

"Big Sis!"

"Hey."

"What's with the smirk?" Kane is the last one to speak, noticing her smug pleased attitude.

Keel's smirk turns into a full-on grin, she raises one of her arms and flexes making the well-defined muscles in her arm tense. "I was checking out the bar when some random adventurer wanted an arm wrestle, I told him I wanted to make a bet on it, I won so easily but then some other guys wanted to try their luck at beating me, I accepted but they had to make a bet on it; not a single one of them even came close to beating me. You should have seen their faces, they were so upset they lost to a girl!" She throws her head back laughing. "And the amount of money I made just made it even sweeter."

Shen smiles, not entirely understanding what his sister said but happy nonetheless at her joyous mood, Leo sighs with a smirk while Kane chuckles. "Nice work Keel." If Keel's grin couldn't grow any bigger it would of at Kane's praise. "Well Shen, chose, do you wanna be a Dragon or a human for a bit?" Shen stares at him for a few moments before transforming before everyone. The blankets still covering him somewhat. "Fair enough, all right let's go get Riffy then."

Kane gets out of the chair, pushing back under the table Leo copies him and when the two finish tucking the chairs under the table they leave the room, Keel already standing outside waiting for them.

The party walkthrough Castle Town, heading for Erhard's shop. They pass by stalls smells and sounds assaulting their senses, Shen stops and stares at some of the stalls with meat with a little bit of drool falling from his maw. "Keep up Shen." The Dragon looks ahead finding the others waiting for him, he quickly catches up.

The door to Erhard's shop opens, Kane and his party walk in. Erhard looks up from the counter smiling at the sight of them. "Spear Kid! Pipsqueaks! and... Dragon?"

Kane turns back to see Shen fold his wings against his body so he can easily enter the shop. Kane looks back at Erhard. "I got Shenron out of the egg Iwi gave me."

Erhard smirks and shakes his head. "I bet the Shield Lassie wasn't too pleased about it, anyway something I can help you with kid, or are you just here to talk?"

"Yeah, do you know what the star next to a level is? I got Rifana, Keel, and Leo all at level 40 but there's a star now and they won't gain any more levels."

Erhard suddenly stops as shock fills him. "Damn kid, you already got all the pipsqueaks ready for a class-up?"

Kane looks off to the sides, before smacking himself in the forehead lightly. The others stare at him. "Dammit, I saw that class-up thing in the help menu and completely ignored it, I need to properly look that over at some point." He mutters the last bit to himself, before sighing and looking back up at Erhard. "Might as well ask you what a class up is.

Erhard smirks, crossing his arms. "A class-up lets you increase your level cap. It also boosts stats depending on what you pick, although it's really important you think about it because once you pick your class-up you can't change it unless you reset your level all the way back to 1."

Kane whistles. "Fuck, alright so where do we go to get this class-up?"

"You get it from the Dragon Hourglass."

"...Well that's convenient."

"Normally you wouldn't be able to use the Dragon Hourglass without being recognized by the court or making a hefty donation to the Church but you being the Spear Hero, they'll probably let you through no problem."

Kane starts walking backward, making finger guns aimed at Erhard as he leaves. "Thanks for the info Ernie, see you later."

A tick forms on Erhard's forehead at the nickname. "You damn brat!"

Kane has already left the shop with the others following behind all of them saying their goodbyes to Erhard. "Bye boss."

Erhard sighs and waves goodbye to the demi-humans. "See you later kids, stay out of trouble!"

The party enters the Church and after Kane is the only one greeted by two nuns who walk him and the others to the Dragon Hourglass.

Keel, Leo, and Rifana walk to the Dragon Hourglass and place their hands on it. A golden light, begins to emit and shine from the Dragon Hourglass, brightening the entire room.

Class up: A class upgrade is in progress!

Rifana, Keel, and Leo names show up on Kane's HUD, lines appear from their names branching off into lots of different options. "...How is anyone suppose to know what they want to pick? I mean there's so much shit here." Kane reads off some of the roles before something pops up.

Class up: Would you like to let the targets choose freely?

A yes or no option appears. Kane with only mere moments of contemplation presses yes. "You guys pick what you think it best for you."

A few silent minutes pass as the three demi-humans look over the class upgrade descriptions, hmming and ahhing at the selection, in his boredom Kane starts to pet Shenron while looking over his help menu. Eventually the three finally pick their choice to which Kane looks over there stats in his menu.

Kane Stone-LVL 57 Spear Hero.

Keel-LVL 40 Berserker.

Rifana-LVL 40 Sentinel.

Leonidas-LVL 40 Weapon Master.

Shenron-LVL 15 Dragon.

Kane whistles at the demi-human's new stats. "That's impressive, I wonder if you gonna get any special stuff cause of your classes?" The demi-humans step down from Dragon Hourglass, smiles on their faces, clearly pleased with their choices.

"...Stone."

Kane stops, hearing a familiar voice echo his name through the room. Turning around he finds Itsuki and his party standing there. "Itsuki, save any actual slaves recently?"

Itsuki frowns, his eyes narrowing at him. "Just because you're attracted to Iwatani doesn't change the fact she is a slave owner."

Kane snorts. "So that's a no then?"

One of Itsuki's party members points at Kane, the man resembled your standard cliché knight; plate armour and all but instead of a closed helmet he's opted for an open one with his metal visor resting just slightly above the bridge of his nose. His eyes held contempt and disdain for Kane. "Master Itsuki focuses his energy and time on more important matters! He is a true Hero of justice, unlike you Spear Hero!" Itsuki smirks at his party member's praise and even feeling slight joy at hearing that he's being considered better than Kane.

Kane shakes his head, his face twisting into a humourless smirk as he does so. "Yeah real Hero of justice: He leaves a village to die and pretty much gives up on helping slaves once the spotlight is no longer on him." He looks right at Itsuki, staring right at him. "You pretend to be some great Hero that talks about justice and all that bullshit but that's all it is, bullshit you only care about fame and stroking your own ego."

Itsuki's fists clench as he grits his teeth. "Don't look down at me Stone! I will become the greatest Hero of justice, even if you stand in my way!"

"Keep telling yourself that." Kane looks back to his party. "Let's go."

His party nods, making him turn to Itsuki and his party standing in the archway of the exit. Itsuki's entire party glares at Kane and the others, they attempt to walk past but the man in armour scoffs at the passing demi-humans. "Disgusting demi-scum, a real Hero wouldn't waste their time on them."

Kane comes to a sudden stop, his party members staring at him, his fists clench, as his mouth turns into a straight line. He turns around, glaring right into the man's eyes. "The fuck did you just say?" He starts walking towards the man. The two almost face to face, their eyes almost level with each other with Kane slightly looking down.

Itsuki and his party look on, their hands on their weapons ready to jump in should things get violent while Kane's party stares at them, Keel and Rifana to Kane's right with Shenron staring at them growling. The man staring into Kane's eyes doesn't waver, whether due to arrogance or courage. "I spoke the truth, a Hero of any note wouldn't waste their time on demi-sc-" Kane's left arm shoots out like a bullet, grabbing the man's throat before pulling the man in and slamming his own forehead right into the bridge of the man's nose.

A sickening crack echoes throughout the chamber, the man's nose is clearly broken, blood gushing out of the injury. Kane's accuracy with the headbutt wasn't perfect as he also hit the visor resting above the man's nose, denting the visor inward making it dig into the man's skin. "Mald!" Itsuki pulls out his bow and aims it at Kane. The now named Mald weakly struggles with Kane's iron grip on his throat although the headbutt, disoriented him making his attempt at freeing himself pointless at best and downright pathetic at worse. "Let my party member go Stone or else!"

Kane's head shoots right at Itsuki, his red irises glaring a hole into Itsuki making him sweatdrop. "Or else what?"

Itsuki snarls, pulling back the string on his bow. Leo comes up from Kane's left and gently grabs his arm, making him turn and face Leo. "Kane, let it go. It's not worth it."

Rifana doesn't take her eyes off Itsuki and his party. "Leo's right Kane, just let him go, and let's all go our separate ways."

Kane turns back and looks at Mald, the blood from the injury slowly dripping down to his mouth, making the injury look more severe then it really was. Kane grits his teeth as he narrows his eyes, before tossing Mald at Itsuki's feet, staring right at Itsuki. "Teach your pet bitch some manners Itsuki, 'cause if he insults anyone I care about ever again I'll rip off his fucking jaw."

Kane lingers for a bit longer staring down at Itsuki and his party before turning away, Kane's own party walk backwards watching them for a bit before turning around and following him wordlessly.

Itsuki's eye twitches as he puts down his bow. He looks over Mald and his condition before pulling out a potion for Mald and making him drink. Hate fills Itsuki as he watches Kane walk away.

Kane leaves the Church quickly, wanting to go into the forest to go and hit something. Fortunately for him, no one bothers him or his party as he leaves.

He finally steps outside, he looks up seeing the day is still early, before he sets out Rifana calls out to him. "Kane… you got a bit of blood on your forehead… and face."

He unconsciously wipes his forehead with his hand, finding as Rifana said blood on the palm of his hand. "Is it my blood or that asshole's blood?" Rifana squints, inspecting him, not finding any cuts or injuries that could be responsible for the blood.

Rifana shakes her head. "Just his I think." Rifana sighs, clearly displeased with Kane. "Who headbutts someone wearing a helmet?"

Kane pulls out a glass bottle of water from his inventory. "Someone who wants to headbutt an asshole."

Rifana sighs, Leo, rubbing the bridge of his nose while Keel and Shen smile at Kane. Kane finishes cleaning off his face. "Let's go kill some monsters, I want to work off this anger."

Kane makes a hiss of air exhaling, with his teeth closed as slams his Spear into the slime, the others finish off the remaining monsters.

23 XP gained!

Kane sighs as he looks at this, he tilts his head upwards looking past the foliage of the trees to find the sun almost directly overhead. 'Almost midday and we've barely gained any XP, need to move on from Castle Town.'

Monster Slaying Expertise milestone reached!

Do 5% more damage to slimes!

Kane tilts his head at the pop-up. 'Monster Slaying Expertise?' He opens up his help menu quickly going through and finding the tab on Monster Slaying Expertise, he presses on it for additional info.

Monster Slaying Expertise is a system that grants buffs depending on slaying milestones you reach, once you kill a certain number of monsters you will reach the milestone granting a buff against all monsters of the same species for example getting a milestone on a slime enemy will buff you against all types of slimes.

Bosses count more towards the milestone and some boss types have their own additional milestone to reach.

Some milestones can give you buffs that may increase your stats permanently and not against a specific type of monster.

Kane nods at this before opening MSE in his menu. A whole bunch of milestones fills his vision.

Slimes milestone: 500/1000. +5% extra damage to slimes.

Usapils milestone: 112/500.

Balloons milestone: 457/500.

Trolls milestone: 1/5.

Wolves milestone: 34/100.

The list goes on and on.

Splat, splat, splat.

A familiar noise is heard coming from the deeper part of the forest although it doesn't sound alone, the sounds make the entire party get into position and take a battle stance. Leo and is upfront with Keel, Kane, and Shenron directly behind him. Rifana is at the very back her bow drawn ready.

After a few moments of tension two slimes of varying size and colour pop-out

He looks over each of them slimes names.

Queen Slime LVL-31

King Slime LVL-34

The Queen Slime is a royal purple while the King Slime is a very light grey. Kane says the names of the monsters aloud making Keel scoff. "I bet that the King slime is better at ruling than the actual King of Melromarc."

Kane laughs out loud while the other two demi-humans shake their heads at how the two aren't being serious. "Kind of a shit bet since we know it's true."

The Queen Slime pulses and gurgles, causing it to make a warble that echoes throughout the forest.

Queen Slime summons her loyal subjects!

A group of smaller slimes appears from nowhere surrounding the King and Queen Slime in a defensive manner.

Royal Knight Slime

The smaller slimes start hopping quickly at the party. Rifana fires the arrow she already had drawn, burying itself deep into one of the slimes, killing it instantly. Shenron puffs in and steps forward, standing side by side with Leo, Shen lets out a gout of red hot flames; scorching most of the slimes into a steaming puddle of goo before they even got close.

Kane lowers his Spear just a tad. "...Not gonna be a super challenging fight is it?"

Keel huffs, clearly unhappy at how weak the enemies appear to be. "I get that they're just slimes but still man, these guys suck."

Leo doesn't falter from his position, his base still low with his shield blocking most of his body. "We really shouldn't underestimate our enemies based on their minions."

Kane scratches his cheek. "I mean your right buuuut." He trails off seeing Rifana's arrows fly overhead and kill another slime; Shen's fire breath finishes off the rest of the Royal Knight Slimes. The two move on from the Royal Knight Slime to the King and Queen and while not killing them instantly as they did with the Royal Knight Slimes they were still taking very serious amounts of damage, while Rifana is doing more damage than Shenron, Shenron himself is adding a burn status to two slimes. The two slimes begin hopping towards them quickly but by that point, at least half of their HP was already gone and was still depleting quickly due to the burn status effect inflicted by Shenron.

Leo stands up straight. Humming as he does so. "Kane I think we need to move on from this area, the monsters aren't really good for gaining XP or even good practise for us."

Kane sighs and shakes his head. "I was just thinking that before we were ambushed by the overgrown pieces of jello."

Queen Slime uses Doppelgänger.

King Slime uses Wisdom of the Jelly.

The Queen Slime splits into two pieces, hopping towards them even quicker while the King Slime seems to morph and twist its body away from the arrows and fiery doom.

Despite the two monsters using impressive skills, they were easily dispatched as the burn had essentially taken them from having only 50% of their HP to just 25% resulting in Kane, Keel, Leo, and Shen killing the two slimes when they finally reached the party in just a few swings of steel and claws.

1646 XP gained!

Level up!

Monster Slaying Expertise milestone reached!

Kane opens his MSE menu. Nothing's change apart from two things

Slimes milestone 650/1000

Royal Slimes milestone 2/2 +35% reduction in skill cost.

'Huh that's pretty fucking nifty, guess completing the milestone for bosses gives me big bonuses.' Kane next checks his party HUD, looking at the new levels.

Kane Stone-LVL 58 Spear Hero.

Keel-LVL 41 Berserker.

Rifana-LVL 41 Sentinel.

Leonidas-LVL 41 Weapon Master.

Shenron-LVL 17 Dragon.

Kane goes around absorbing the remains of the slimy ambushers with the help of his party apart from Shen who was more interested in playing with the puddle of goo by stomping in it with his front paws and making whirlpools with his talon.

Royal Knight Slime Spear unlocked! (+0) +18 Atk, +18 Agi.

King Slime Spear unlocked! (+0) +55 Atk, +30 Mag, High resistance to Bludgeoning.

Combined Skill unlocked! King Slime Spear+ Alpha Dire Wolf Heart Spear-Loyalty of Family: Your party gets a boost to all stats, this works alongside any other presence buff skills.

Queen Slime Spear unlocked! (+0) +35 Atk, +40 Mag.

New Skill unlocked! Doppelgänger: create a duplicate version of yourself to attack your foes, the duplicate has a higher Attack stat at the cost of very low Defence.

Kane whistles at the SP cost of Doppelgänger. 'That shit ain't cheap, it better be worth it.' Kane gathers more monster materials and stuffs it into his inventory to later give to Naofumi, whether in person or through Erhard. He looks ahead from where slimes came from. "Let's keep going."

Kane walks off with the others directly following suit apart from Shen who's still playing in the puddle before looking up and running after the party. "Wait for me!"

Elsewhere with Naofumi.

Naofumi sits at the front of her carriage, idly watching the road ahead of her. Sakura and Filo pulling the carriage in sync with each other, the two had difficulties at first but it's been worked out or is at least in process of being worked out in Naofumi's opinion.

"Euugh."

Naofumi turns her head, finding Raphtalia slightly green, her ears are flat against her hair with her tail limply hanging. Naofumi turns back to the two Filolials. "You two slow down a bit."

The two Filolials complain but do as their told, Raphtalia slowly looks at Naofumi. "T-Thank you Naofumi."

Naofumi hums in response. "We're going to be travelling by carriage now so I want you to get used to it."

Raphtalia weakly nods, adjusting her position to get more comfortable. "...Do you think Kane and the others are okay?"

Naofumi scoffs. "It's Kane, he'll be fine as long as his party keeps him in line."

Raphtalia snorts at this. "Yeah I guess you're right, I'm just worried that woman might try something."

Naofumi shakes her head. "Again, it's Kane, if anything happens it's probably gonna be him getting into an insult match like a child."

Raphtalia's snort turns into a giggle. The two stop talking entering a comfortable silence listening to the outside world. Raphtalia's eyes start to feel slightly heavy. "Wake me if you need me Naofumi."

"Alright, get some rest. Hopefully, you'll feel better when you wake up." Raphtalia hums and before very long she falls asleep. Raphtalia dreams of a certain memory due to the conversation between her and Naofumi, back when Naofumi has recently purchased her and only a day after Kane's near-death experience with a Troll.

One day after the incident with the Troll.

Raphtalia is outside playing with the ball Naofumi bought for her, enjoying herself while waiting for Naofumi. A group of boys walk up to Raphtalia. "What's a demi-human doing on our turf?" Raphtalia squeaks as fear begins to fill her, the three boys look down at her, making her feel puny and meek.

Raphtalia begins to stutter, frightened at the three. "I-I um-"

The boy in the middle steps forward, a foul smirk on his face. "What? Are you so brain dead you can't even talk?" The other two boys laugh at the lead boy's mockery. "Whatever, that's a nice toy you have there, give it to me demi."

Raphtalia wraps her arms around the ball, scared stiff of the three but protective of the ball. "Hey now, that's not very nice." A familiar voice makes the boys stop, Raphtalia turns around to find the Spear Hero walking towards her. "You three should know better, you should be nice and polite, how would you like if someone started insulting you?"

The three boys look up at Kane the other two losing a bit of confidence but the lead one still has his smirk. "She's a demi-human, who cares?" The boys snort. "Besides what a dumbass thing to say, I should be nice because I might not like other people insulting me, how stupid crap they tell in fairy tales and stuff."

Kane crosses his arms, his forced pleasantness instantly thrown out the window, his smile turning into a frown. "The only stupid thing was your mother having you, you little fuck." Kane forces a shudder as he stares at the child. "Jesus, looking at your face makes me physically ill."

The boy's smirk fades away. "S-Shut up!"

Kane leans in, still towering over the three boys. "I told you to be polite and nice. Don't get upset now that you absolute waste of jizz." Kane crosses his arm, staring down at the boy with a stoic gaze, the boy almost shitting himself at the very armed and very imposing Hero who's at the moment glaring at him that he can almost feel the Spear Hero's patience running thin. "You gonna apologise to Ralphy or what dipshit?"

The leader of the bullies takes a step back, the Spear Hero intimidating him, the boy looks at Raphtalia and then Kane. Too prideful to apologise and too afraid to be in the Spear Hero's presence he puffs up and speaks "F-Fuck you!" The boy turns and gets into a dead sprint, the boy already halfway down the street, fear powering his legs.

Kane snarls, watching the boy runoff, he shouts after the boy. "You pathetic little shit! Bullying little girls and when someone calls you out on your shit you run away pissing yourself!?" He shakes his head as the boy turns a corner, disappearing from sight. "Even I wasn't that fucking pathetic back in my teens." His red eyes latch onto the two remaining boys, his glare making the boys gulp. "How about you two shit-stains? Am I going to have to boot your asses so you learn a valuable lesson?"

The two boys stare at each other before bowing. "We're very sorry for the trouble we caused!" The two speak in sync and also runoff in the same direction as the leader who of the two.

Raphtalia looks in the direction of where the boys ran off to, before feeling Kane pet her on the head. "Hey Ralphy, they didn't hurt you did they?" Raphtalia shakes her head. "Good." Kane looks at the object Raphtalia is protectively clutching. "What's that in your hands Ralphy?"

Raphtalia looks down at her ball, her hands still tightly clutching it. "M-My ball, Master gave it to me."

Kane nods his head, the two stare at each other for a bit. Kane smirks as an idea hits him. "...Hey do you wanna play a game?"

Raphtalia tilts her head, before nodding with a smirk. "Mhm!"

Kane motions to the ball and Raphtalia reluctantly hands it to him, he places it on the ground. "Okay, I'm gonna pick you up alright?"

Raphtalia nods again, intrigued by the game.

"3...2...1 Blast off!"

Kane lifts off her the ground. Holding her tight and flying her around. Raphtalia flaps her arms, laughing. "Weee!" Raphtalia's giggles fill the air, as Kane runs around holding up Raphtalia. The interaction completely makes Raphtalia forget about being bullied a few minutes ago. Joy fills her as she gives a bright smile, telling Kane to go faster and faster to which he does to a degree, not wanting to make the young girl unwell. The two continue this for minutes, Raphtalia's wide grin bringing a grin to Kane.

The sounds of someone clearing their throat make the two stop, turning around they find Naofumi standing there, her eyes staring at the two and her lips in a straight line. It's impossible to tell what she was thinking at the moment but unknowingly to Kane and Raphtalia, Naofumi watched the two this entire time through the window, she was about to intervene with the bullies but Kane arrived and she decided to watch and see what happens. Watching Kane fly Raphtalia about brought a smile unto her face but it was time for bed, as they have an early morning tomorrow. "Having fun?"

Kane looks at Raphtalia who looks back at him the two then in sync look at Naofumi. "Uhhh yeah… you wanna join in?"

Naofumi scoffs. "What, you want to pick me up and fly me around?"

Kane tilts his head. "I was thinking more you be the one that flies Ralphy around but if that's what you want then sure."

"...oh, well no, sorry to say it's time for bed Ralphy I mean Raphtalia." Kane smirks at Naofumi who slightly flushes while Raphtalia slumps a bit, unhappy that she can't keep playing but she wasn't going to voice her disappointment, she knew from previous masters that was a bad idea.

Kane slowly puts Raphtalia down, picking up her ball and handing it to her while petting her. "Well, we can play tomorrow if you want."

Raphtalia looks up to him with a smile before turning to Naofumi, a pleading look in her eyes. Naofumi considers herself a cold, jaded person but the look in Raphtalia's eyes is affecting her more than she would like to admit. Naofumi sighs. "Fine, you can play with Kane tomorrow, after we get all our work done." Raphtalia nods her head with extreme vigour, already excited about tomorrow.

Kane chuckles, his mouth forming into a soft smile. "You should join in tomorrow Iwi, connect with Ralphy a bit more." Raphtalia somehow gets even more excited at the idea of Naofumi joining in, causing her tail to wag like crazy.

Naofumi shakes her head, which makes Raphtalia's ears droop and her tail stops wagging so intensely. "Unfortunately I can't be playing around, I'll have work to do."

Kane's smile turns into his normal impish smirk. "How about this, if you join me and Ralphy tomorrow I will give you one gold coin."

Naofumi stares at him in disbelief. "...You'll give me a gold coin just so I would play with Raphtalia?"

"It would be good for both of you so it's money well spent, plus this is easy money and if the rumours are true you would never give something like this up."

Naofumi grunts. "...Alright that's kind of true but I'm not stupid; some things are too good to be true." Naofumi crosses her arms and turns her head closing her eyes.

"How about I give you half upfront?"

Naofumi opens one of her eyes staring at Kane, after a few moments her own signature dark grin appears on her face. "Give me one gold coin upfront and another when we're finished and I'll accept."

"Okay." Kane doesn't miss a single moment, opening his menu and pulling out a gold coin, and tosses at Naofumi who catches it.

Naofumi stares at the coin for a bit, shocked at the lack of hesitation of paying two gold coins just so she would play with her slave for a bit. "...Dammit I wasn't expecting you to accept that easily."

He softly laughs. "Like I said this would be good for both of you so money well spent." Kane pets Raphtalia one last time. "Well, I should be off see you tomorrow you two." Kane turns around and walks away.

Raphtalia watches him walk off. "Bye Mr. Kane!"

"Bye Ralphy! Bye Iwi!" Kane turns around and waves, before turning back and walking off out of sight of the two.

As soon as he leaves their line of sight Naofumi looks back at the gold coin in her hand. She clenches it and sighs before placing it in her inventory. "...Well I guess taking a break wouldn't be so bad." Naofumi looks up and finds Raphtalia staring at her with her tail wagging happily. "I guess you're excited for tomorrow huh?"

Raphtalia nods. "Mhm!"

Naofumi shakes her head, a small smile appearing on her face. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised, come on Raphtalia let's take a bath then get to bed." Raphtalia nods to which Naofumi walks back into the inn with Raphtalia following behind her.

Back with Kane.

Night has descended and the party has decided to camp out instead of going back to Castle Town, a small campfire is going on in the middle, Kane using his crafting system crafts seats for the whole party. The others are all asleep, with Kane being the one standing watch while the others rest. Kane stares at the campfire, the orange glow reflecting off his red irises, he hears a snort to his left making him turn and find Keel and Shen cuddling, making Kane softly chuckle at the peaceful two. He turns to his right and finds Rifana and Leo in their separate seats sleeping.

After checking up on his companions he looks up to the night sky, finding the bright stars that await before him, zoning out, staring into the dark cosmos that is patterned with thousands of dots of light of varying size, mesmerizing Kane. He's brought back from him zoning out by Rifana who he didn't notice waking up. "Kane, I'll take over you can go get some rest."

Kane nods. "All right, good night Riffy." Rifana nods to which he gets comfortable in his seat, still staring up into the sky before slowly falling asleep.

The end of Chapter 9

Honestly, I wasn't too sure about the name of this chapter I was thinking of making it somewhat mention Kane influencing the trio Demi-Humans' childhood while also affecting Raphtalia's own childhood but I don't know so Slimy Royalty it is.

Kane and Itsuki's relationship has pretty much become volatile, Itsuki wants to prove he's better than Kane and Kane thinks he's an annoying asshole not worth the time or effort, will something come out of it besides two morons insulting each other? Who knows.

So in my mind, Kane is about 192cm tall so around 6'2-6'3, he's pretty tall not obscenely tall but above average but fuck me sideways when I was trying to find out how tall Mald is so I would know if they would be eye level or lower all I got was the main Heroes height which the Light novel already told me, so I looked in the manga and tried comparing heights between him and some of the Heroes and bro he doesn't look much taller then Itsuki who's 5'1. Erhard suffers the same problem; Naofumi is apparently around Motoyasu's height which is like 5'6 and yet Erhard doesn't look much taller than Naofumi, in the anime and sometimes the manga.

It could just be it hasn't been drawn to scale properly but fuck me is it hard to gauge certain people's heights. I'm kinda curious did I make Kane one of the tallest humans to exist in the Rising of the Shield Hero world or is there someone else?

I can't remember where I got the Monster Slaying Expertise idea from, all I remember was that someone mentioned Motoyasu talking about getting special stats against monsters when he killed a number of them, I tried searching it up, couldn't find fuck all about it.

Also, I got the idea of Kane lifting Raphtalia from Daddy Day Care and him flying her around well that was a little something extra I added.

In case you were wondering no the Royal Slime fight wasn't the anti-climatic fight I had in mind.