Chapter 13 A Week Before The Wave.

The Hero party quickly got to the Seaetto territory and quickly took Atla to the territories hospital and into intensive care, when they arrived at the territories hospital the head doctor quickly went to meet them hearing that it was the First Princess and Duke Seaetto's daughter in order to see what the problem, but when she saw Atla she understood the situation and quickly ordered to have a room made up for her and to have her taken care of immediately, they took her into the emergency room while they prepared a room to keep her in and quickly went to work removing her old bandages and applying balms to their skins, they were also giving her medicine in a hope to help her.

While the medic's were doing everything they could to help Atlas Malty, Naofumi, Eclair and Rishia were sat outside in the waiting area with Fohl, they were both sat on opposite sides with the Heroes party sat on the left and Fohl on the right, he was looking at all of them suspiciously with his eyes going back and forth as he looked over them, until finally he spoke ''you said that you would explain whats happening to me soon, well its been a few hours now and that's soon to me, I ignored it because my sisters more important, but she's been taken care of now, so tell me, whats going on and how do you know my name!''

''Ok first of all your mothers name was Lucia, wasn't it?'' Malty asked.

This caused Fohl's eyes to fix on her and narrow in suspicion ''how did you know that?''

''Fohl there's really no easy way to tell you this, but the reason I know is because we're family'' said Malty ''your mother was my auntie, we're cousins'' Fohl looked startled at this revelation, he looked like he was about to speak but Malty held up a hand before he could speak ''listen, I know you don't believe me and honestly I have no idea how to prove to you that we're family, but I want you to know I do care about you and Atla and I want her to get better more than anything''

Fohl looked down biting his lip, it looked like he was deep in thought before directing his gaze to Naofumi ''you said that if we gain EXP so will Atla and gaining levels would help Atla, is that true?'' he asked.

''I don't know I wasn't stating that as fact I was asking the slaver a question'' said Naofumi ''I'm sorry, I don't know''

''None of us know if that's true for certain'' stated Rishia ''while it could help it could also make it worse, so we'd like to hear from the doctor before we try that idea''

An hour later the doctor came out of the emergency room and all those waiting outside crowded around expectedly ''alright, we've done everything we can and she seems to be out of the danger zone, we're going to keep her for a while and do everything we can to help her, this is going to be a very slow process alright and for now we're going to give her a night sleep'' she said.

''Actually Doctor there is something we wanted to ask'' Malty said, gaining the doctors attention ''

''Hmm, I suppose we've never really tried that before, if you want to give it a try go ahead it might work positively for her and we'll send a message if results are negative'' stated the doctor, before turning around and walking off and as she did the hero party turned to Fohl.

''So it really will help my sister'' he said to himself.

''Sounds like it'' said Malty.

''Alright, if it helps my sister, I'll help you'' stated Fohl.

With that the group left the hospital finding an inn in the Territory to take residence for the night, they would have a big day tomorrow.

Malty woke up the next mourning to someone gentle nudging her and soft calling her name ''Malty, Malty wake up'' Malty's eyes slowly opened, to see it was Naofumi who was trying to wake her up.

''Naofumi what's wrong?'' she yawned sitting up.

''I'm sorry but its the egg it's hatching'' Naofumi said softly, that woke her up in an instant, she jumped out of bed and rushed over to egg, with Naofumi following, Naofumi standing in front of Malty as cracks started to form on the egg.

Finally the egg broke open and revealed a small pink chick, Naofumi jumped in surprise at how abrupt it was, the chick excitedly looked around chirping before flying up to land on Naofumi's head ''well I guess it thinks I'm its mother

''Malty?''

Malty then let out a high pitch squeal that woke the other occupants in the room, she then quickly but gently took the Filolial off Naofumi's head into her hands and started to nuzzle with it which it returned in full ''your so cute and so fluffy wuffy, yes you are, yes you are''

''Whats going on? Who's attacking us?'' Eclair asked drowsily with her sword drawn and then saw the scene happening in front of her ''oh the egg hatched that makes sense''

''What the heck!'' Naofumi exclaimed.

''Weren't expecting that were you'' said Eclair ''I advise you get use to this, all the royal family women are pretty hardcore Filolial lovers and they all get like this around Filolials''

''Yeah we've seen Malty, Princess Melty and Queen Mirellia, have many an exited conversation about the Filolials'' said Rishia.

Naofumi looked at them shocked ''that's normal''

''Pretty normal, yeah'' said Rishia with a shrug to which Naofumi hung his head exasperated as Malty continued cuddling with the newborn bird.

After what Naofumi was calling the 'Mourning Hatch Fiasco' the Hero party got dressed and headed towards the Church, after learning about the Church Naofumi had no desire to go there, none of them did, the only reason they were going there was because that was where the Dragon Hourglass was located, so they went to the Church to see the Hourglass so they knew how much time they had left.

Fortunately the Dragon Hourglass was open to the public so they didn't really need to interact with anyone as they walked through to see the hourglass and found that they still had a week left to grind, which was a relief a week was plenty of time.

''Well, well, well if it isn't the Shield Hero''

The group turned towards the voice to see the Spear Hero Motoyasu walking up to them, with a smirk on his face, predictably he was flanked by women, he was dressed in the armour he usually wore in the story ''been a while'' he said.

''Yeah I guess a week is a relatively long time'' Naofumi mused seemingly trying to ignore Motoyasu.

''Haven't seen you since that farce trial Naofumi'' said Motoyasu ''Lesty's still in the dungeon you know''

''Oh is that so'' Naofumi mused.

''I still don't know how you got the Princess and her friends to vouch for you and convince the Duke your innocent, but I'm resolved to prove that your guilty, just like Lesty said you were'' said Motoyasu.

''Hmm, interesting here's an idea maybe they vouched for me because I didn't do it, because I'm innocent ever think of that!'' Naofumi snarled.

''Or you have some form of blackmail that your using against the Princess'' said a girl, but this was a girl Malty had never seen before, she had a pretty face, which was obviously the reason why Motoyasu recruited her, she had light blue hair and light blue eyes, her upper body was dressed in knights armour while her lower body was dressed in baggy pants, but most notably she had a Three Heroes Church pendant around her neck.

'Oh don't tell me the Church gave Motoyasu another girl, please don't, you know what I'll deal with her just as easily as I dealt with Lesty, so bring it' Malty thought to herself ''I'm sorry I don't think we've met''

''I'm Grettle, it's a pleasure to meet you Princess'' the girl stated, something felt off about her voice but Malty just shook that off as her not like this girl.

''Oh no, the pleasure is mine'' said Malty with a strain smile.

Before anyone could say anything someone else spoke up ''ah so you guys are here too'' the two groups turned to see Ren and Itsuki approaching them, they were also dressed the way they were dressed in the anime, but there was a small addition Filolials sat on both Ren and Itsuki's shoulders.

''Oh Naofumi, yours hatched too'' said Itsuki.

''Yeah, it happened this mourning'' stated Naofumi, before realising something ''wait if my Filolial hatched and their Filolial's hatched where's your filial Motoyasu?''

''Hmm, oh that I took Lesty's advice and sold it before it hatched'' Motoyasu explained.

''What, why would you do that?'' Naofumi asked flabbergasted.

''Well what was the point of keeping I around, I was probably going to sell it for something better anyways so might as well sell it as an egg before hatching it and letting it get attached'' Motoyasu explained, before adopting a smug look on his face ''aww that means while I get something like a dragon your going to be stuck with this dopey bird, how's it feel knowing I'm going to get a Ferrari while your stuck with a drink old car''

Now Naofumi gave Motoyasu a smug look and pointed over Motoyasu's shoulder, confused Motoyasu looked over to see Malty cuddling with Ren and Itsuki's Filolials cooing about how cute and 'fluffy puffy' they were with Ren and Itsuki looked baffled, before looking over to the others which was when Eclair loudly declared that 'this is normal'

Motoyasu's jaw dropped, while Naofumi smirked ''well as you can see ladies love Filolials, I'm sorry you gave yours away'' he then looked over to Ren and Itsuki ''if you've come here too see how much time we have I just checked we have a week'' the two heroes nodded to him ''well I guess it was nice to see you guys but we gotta go ride levels, I guess I'll see you when the Wave hits''

After leaving the church the Shield Hero Party went to a place in the forest outside of the city where they could grind.

''Alright we have six days and one day to prep so we're starting now'' stated Naofumi before looking over to Fohl ''Fohl we didn't know how you fight, so we can only give you this''

Malty then handed Fohl a knife, Fohl looked the knife over and nodded to himself ''it'll do, I can make it work'' he said.

''Alright then, lets start looking for monsters so we can level grind'' Naofumi ordered.

Malty pulled out her new axe which caused Eclair to raise a brow ''Malty are you sure about that axe?'' Eclair asked.

''Yeah I wanted to try something other than a sword, you know give myself more options just in case I need them'' explained Malty twirling the axe around in her hand a couple of times.

''Alright as long as you're happy'' Eclair replied.

''And speaking of, if you want to borrow the axe Fohl your more than welcome to'' stated Malty to which Fohl nodded.

With all of that said the party spent five hours grinding until finally stopping for a break, Naofumi was now at level 20 and Fohl was at level 19, Malty, Eclair and Rishia were at level 40, they could see stars next to their levels indicating they were ready for class upgrades, but that could be a problem considering who allowed them to happen.

Currently Naofumi was cooking them a meal, he was getting rather good at cooking just like he was in the Shield Hero story which made Malty happy, to her that was a sign that he was progressing quicker than he did in the story.

''So far we've done good work today, you've both progressed a lot'' stated Malty.

''Thank you Malty, but do you mind if I ask you something?'' Naofumi asked.

''You just did but go ahead'' said Malty.

''I can see all our levels, mana and HP and their are stars next to your, Eclair and Rishia's levels whats that about?'' Naofumi asked.

''Those aren't really relevant right now, so we'll tell you later'' said Malty.

''Alright, I trust you, but if I feel like your keeping this from me for too long I will demand answers'' Naofumi stated.

''I understand'' said Malty with a nod ''by the way you can see Atla's health and level too right? How does it look?''

''It looks pretty good, she's levelled up too and her HP is rather high, I hope that means she's better'' said Naofumi.

''That's good too hear, we can't really tell unless we go back to the Seaetto territory and we can't really do that now because we need to make sure you and Fohl level up'' stated Malty, before looking over to Fohl when was looking down at his food with an unreadable expression ''Fohl listen even if this plan doesn't work, we'll do everything-''

''Shut up, I don't want to hear it you can say that all you want but ultimately its pointless and it doesn't mean anything unless actually do it, I am willing to work with you because it might help my sister and if it does I'd be willing to continue to work with you, so don't tell me you'll help my sister if this doesn't work do it'' Fohl stated.

''Yeah, that's fair'' said Malty with a nod.

On the last day before the Second Wave hit the Shield Hero party the Shield Heroes party split into two groups one group comprised of Eclair, Rishia and Fohl who was going to the potions shop to buy any medicine they would need while Naofumi, Malty and the Filolial which Naofumi had named Filo of course went to the magic shop at Malty's insistence, there was a reason why Malty wanted to go here of course it was to see about magic threads, because now Filo had grown too, she was now level 20 and she looked like a fully grown Filolial and Malty was sure she was going to evolve into a Filolial Queen sometime after the Wave, so it was probably best to set that up early if possible.

''Hello Princess, Shield Hero'' the old shop keeper greeted ''what can I do for you today?''

''Well the Waves about to hit, so we were wondering if you have anything that could be of help?''Naofumi asked.

''Unfortunately I do not or at least I do not have anything that would be immediately useful, most of my wares consist of books and those wouldn't really help you'' the shop keeper explained ''I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you''

''No it's fine, we were just checking'' said Naofumi.

''Can I ask you about magic thread?'' Malty questioned.

''Of course, magic thread takes the users own magic and weaves it into threads it's usually used by transforming species to ensure their clothing doesn't tare and in fact transform with them, unfortunately the crystal in my spinning wheel has broken'' the old shopkeeper explained.

''Well, that's too bad, we'll look out for one during our travels'' said Naofumi.

''Thank you and please come again'' said the shop keeper.

''We will thank you'' said Naofumi as they exited the store, when they exited Naofumi cursed under his breath.

''What is it? What's wrong?'' Malty asked.

''We don't have much time left until the Wave hits'' said Naofumi untying Filo from her post ''come on we have to meet up with the other's quickly''

Deciding it would be quicker the two got on Filo's back and rode to where they agreed to meet Erhards shop where they found the others stood outside waiting for them, but the moment they made it there was when the Wave hit.

'Alright so that's the chapter, first of all I'd like to thank you all for helping this story get 500 followers, I know that's probably not a lot or something to that nature, but it's a lot to me and I'm thankful for it, I've got a bit of a plan now for the next two chapters and I hope you'll enjoy, the next chapter is going to be fighting against the second wave of course, so lets hope that's done well, Naofumi's got a lot more support now so it should go better than before.

Oh a couple more first the thing with the axe I wanted Malty to use an axe because I've been playing a lot of FETH and I love Edelgard, she's my favourite lord character in that game so I wanted to give Malty an axe, I had her lend it to Fohl because I don't know what his fighting style is so there and I don't know what I'm going to call Ren and Itsuki's Filolials, don't know how many of you were going to ask I was just telling you now.