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setokayba2n: If you think about it, I made a subtle reference to Mario, since Dante looked like he had a spiked shell on his back. As for vampire references…

Chapter 41 – Helping Out

"Lord Shield?"

"W-What?" Dante quickly swiveled his head around, looking for the source of the voice.

"We're here." Nisha said, pointing to the village beyond the treeline.

"Oh."

Dante slid off of Donavan's back and stretched out. The older vampire had flown them to the outskirts of Mirso village in a matter of hours, compared to the near-day of travel it would have taken. With everyone else out of range, Dante had sent a few pings to Fohl's slave seal before leaving the capital, a sign that he was fine but would be a while.

"You slept the whole way here…" Donavan shifted back to his demi-human form. His therianthrope form mostly resembled that of a large bat, with his fur being mostly black. He was easily bigger than Dio and JoJo in their royal filolial forms

"My body is 7 and I had very little sleep last night." Dante finished his stretching. "I needed a nap."

It was a bit of a deflection. Dante was admittedly a little embarrassed to have fallen asleep while riding Donavan. Of course, he wasn't about to admit that out loud.

"Let's see what the damage is." Dante said, leading the pair into the village.

Mirso was far gloomier than when he first arrived, even more than he imagined it would be. He didn't see anyone walking around outside. A light haze filled the air as he looked for someone, be it a random villager or someone treating them.

"Will you two be okay with disease here?" Dante asked his followers.

"For a short while, yes." Nisha answered. "But, if you plan on going up the mountain, we'll need to cover up."

"Got it." Dante had plenty of spare cloth in his shield to use as masks.

Most of the buildings they passed were empty, or had so little activity that they appeared so. The cemetery looked to have a number of fresh graves added to it. The only place that seemed to have any life in it was the small church. The door to it was ajar, so Dante pulled it open.

Inside the church was a makeshift treatment area. Cots sat where pews would be. They were filled with sick villagers, with only a couple being empty. A woman, likely a nurse, was checking over a villager when she took notice of Dante's group.

"Are you here for…no, you don't look to be from the village." She had bags under her eyes and her expression was grim. If she wasn't sick, she looked like she might contract it soon.

"We're here to help with the contagion." Donavan said after getting nudged by Dante. He didn't want to appear in charge just yet.

"You are?" The nurse looked between them. "Wait here just a moment." She turned around and went through one of the doors.

"Things seem rather dire here." Nisha whispered.

"Yeah…" Dante had double-checked the patients he could see. Not one of them was a child. That didn't bode well.

After a minute of waiting, the nurse came back with a man. He looked like he might be a doctor, though his condition was at least as bad as the nurse's.

"Are you here from the capital?" The doctor asked. His voice was raspy and quiet. "Did you accept the request for aid?"

"What happened here?" Donavan ignored the man's question and asked his own.

"A disease from the mountain." The doctor answered.

He told them how the Sword Hero had slain a dragon living there about a month ago. After that, adventurers had picked apart the dragon while the village basically made it a tourist attraction. Then, of course, the rotting meat from the dragon polluted the air and caused the current problem.

It was basically how Dante remembered, though he didn't recall anyone being that forthcoming with the details. The doctor must have been desperate for help. He didn't even comment how two adults traveled here with a child.

"I see." Donavan nodded, still speaking in Dante's place. "In that case, we will remove the dragon's corpse from the mountain."

"Oh, thank you sir!" The doctor bowed his head. "We are truly grateful for your help."

"Of course." Donavan turned with Nisha and Dante and the three started toward the door.

"First with the Shield Hero and now the Sword Hero, I wonder what will happen next."

That stopped them in their tracks.

"What did you just say?" Nisha whirled around, her voice cold.

"Err…" The doctor took a step back. "Well…both the Shield Hero and the Sword Hero have caused problems for this village."

"You…" Nisha was about to lay into him, but a tug on her pant leg from Dante stopped her. She collected herself before speaking again. "What do you mean? What has the Shield Hero done?"

"He said he had taken care of the dragon, but it was still here." The doctor told them. "It even ate a few people who went up to check. Though, we only learned later that he was the Shield Hero."

At the time, Dante didn't want to deal with the aftermath of invalidating that quest. He wasn't surprised they discovered who he was later. It seemed Gaelion didn't take kindly to the idea that someone here would have enslaved his daughter.

I didn't think he fully believed that, at least not enough to eat someone.

"I see…" Getting her answer, Nisha left it alone. The three of them set off for the mountain.

During the walk—or rather, ride—up the mountain, both Nisha and Donavan expressed their annoyance at the doctor and village as a whole, and in no small detail. Dante had to agree with them, to an extent. Gaelion wasn't a problem before the quest was put in. This was on the villagers. Though, if Gaelion had done what he said he would and left, this wouldn't be happening right now. This also meant Dante would need to add Wyndia to the list of people Beloukas had to search for.

They arrived where the doctor said the corpse would be. It was in an open area with plenty of empty space around it, where some leftovers of the tourist attraction remained. Dante and Nisha dismounted and approached, with Donavan following after.

Nisha looked across the large, blue-scaled creature before her. "Lord Shield, you haven't said much about this dragon, but…was he your friend?"

"No." Dante walked along the length of the dragon.

"But you went to warn him anyway." Donavan said.

"I was trying to avoid pointless deaths. Didn't seem to work out that well." Dante stopped at the dragon's head.

"Still, whatever your relation, I am sorry for your loss." Nisha bowed her head slightly.

"As am I." Donavan joined her. At the very least, when it came to Dante, these two seemed to get along well enough. That, and war with Melromarc.

"Don't be." Dante turned to face the pair. "This isn't Gaelion."

"It isn't?" As Nisha looked over the dragon's corpse, Dante pointed at a few sections of it.

"The wings are way too small. The face is also much longer and flatter." Dante listed some more differences, which included the type of dragon Gaelion was.

"This is definitely a hybrid, not a dragon emperor." Donavan confirmed. "If I had to guess, it's some species of gator."

"Heh."

"What is it, Lord Shield?" Nisha looked down to see Dante with a silly grin on his face.

"Nothing important." It was hard to tell since Gaelion's scales were also blue, but this might have been a cross with an indigo gator.

Karma works in strange ways in this world.

"Well, let's get this done quick. I hope you two don't mind getting a little dirty."

Whatever reservations they may have had, they set them aside to aid Dante. Most of the dragon hybrid was absorbed into Dante's shield, but parts of it were broken down for shield reveals. He found that disassembled monster corpses not only decayed slower in his shield than whole bodies, but broken down remains had more value as power up components. However, seeing as the Job Level power up was the only one that really used them, it wasn't worth the time to break down every corpse, even if the cost had increased a lot since he started using it. Time spent on that could be put to better use elsewhere.

Once they finished with the corpse, they flew back down the mountain again. Dante himself would inform the doctor that it was done. He discussed with Nisha and Donavan what he should do about the villagers. Neither one particularly cared about humans as a whole, so leaving them to their fates was the general consensus. Dante was inclined to agree.

Not only did the people here seem to blame him for a few of them getting eaten, but it almost felt like he was on the same level as Ren. That itself was almost enough for him to let them suffer. Even more, all the children were either already dead or left with the parents who were wise enough to leave.

Still, he wasn't without any empathy for their situation, and there was already more than enough death to pay back whatever debt they could have owed for their actions. He used what medicine he still had stored in his shield to cure the remaining villagers, before revealing himself to be the Shield Hero. They departed soon after.

"I don't mean to question you, Lord Shield," Nisha said as they neared the village outskirts, "but why did you help them?"

"It's better in the long run." Dante answered.

If he was going to improve his name after the rape accusation was cleared up, healing these villagers was a good move. It might also sew a little confusion about how he would kill a noble one day and then help villagers the next. Of course, any positive actions he took could just be swept aside and ignored for the time being, since Aultcray and the church were still in power at the moment.

~The Wrong Hero~

There were a couple more stops before they returned to Siltvelt. The main one was back to Erhard to hear what the shop owners wanted to do, as well as receive the list of names.

Erhard was able to get the descriptions and a few names of the knights who went around threatening people, but nothing definitive on who did the actual break-ins. It'd be harder to escape blame if there were witnesses, after all. Curiously, all the shop owners decided to stay in Melromarc. With Dante mostly out of the country, let alone the capital, there wasn't much concern for their wellbeing. Dante wasn't totally convinced, but they knew more about this country and their society more than Dante, so he took their word for it.

After completing his other business, the three returned to Siltvelt. It was just before dusk when they got back.

"Oh, good evening, Lord." Rat greeted them when they appeared in his room.

"Oh, Rat." Dante wasn't expecting to see her first thing, though he had a good idea why she was here. "Checking out the bioplant?"

"Yes, Lord." She returned her focus to the somewhat large plant. "I wanted to collect more data on my next project."

Dante had left a few seeds with her before, since there was little else for her to do until his arm was prepared. There was some variations between them, but he hadn't yet changed any in her presence.

"No one gave you any trouble for being in here, did they?" He remembered how the servants didn't want anyone in this room. Even Dio and JoJo were hesitantly allowed, as well as Sadeena. They also didn't care for him teleporting random people in, but there wasn't much they could do about that.

"Some, but they let me in anyway. Your order to allow me access was enough, especially since I'm your slave."

"Ah, good…"

There was something in her voice when she mentioned her enslavement. It wasn't quite bitterness, but something close. At the very least, it didn't sound directed at him.

"As for you two," Dante turned to the vampires, "thanks for coming with me. It ended up making things a lot faster than they would have been."

"Yes, Lord Shield." They bowed their heads, though Dante could easily detect the smugness from Donavan directed at Nisha. He did end up being more beneficial than her.

"Go ahead and…refresh yourselves, I guess. I'm not really sure what's acceptable for me to offer people here." Being God here didn't always translate to having control.

The vampire lords left after bowing once more, leaving Dante with Rat. The alchemist continued her investigation of the bioplant, prodding it in places and noting its reactions.

"Is there something you need, Lord?" Rat asked, not removing her gaze from the plant.

"It's not something I need, but I am curious…" Dante approached, his short steps letting his words hang in the air. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened in Faubrey?"

It was subtle, but Rat flinched at his words. "If you command it, then I will."

"I'm not commanding it." Dante affirmed.

"Then I'd rather not…"

"Very well."

It truly was just a curiosity. With no Takt, he didn't know the reason for what happened to her. If anything, it seemed like expulsion would have happened later, though Dante couldn't recall when everything went down. Most of that information came from the web novel, and he's been trying to value any details from any source less.

Instead, they spoke more in depth at what he was wanting out of the plant. Specifically, to make a safe source of food and to make housing. With the villagers from Reichnott's temporarily staying in the now cramp servant quarters, both would be needed. From what Rat's seen, plus what Dante told her about his ability to alter the seed, such a thing should be rather easy.

"Little Dante~." One of the few other people allowed in this room entered, her voice ringing out.

"Hey, Sadeena." Dante waved her over before walking to meet her halfway.

"You were gone quite a while." She placed her hand on his head and gave it a good stroking.

Huh. Been a while since I've felt that. Feels nice. No wonder Rifana likes it so much. Oh, yeah…

"Yeah, hit a bit of a snag." Dante tried to push her hand away, only for her other hand to take its place. "Thought Gaelion got killed. He wasn't. Mirso got hit with a plague, though. I ended up curing whoever was left."

"Oh my." Sadeena said seriously, though she continued her petting.

"Anyway, can you get Rifana? I need to talk with her, and I may need some help from you." He turned back around. "Are you going to be long, Rat?"

"Just finished, Lord." Rat had one of the plant's fruits in her hand. It was seedless, like the one Dante made for Reiko, so it was mostly harmless.

As the two women left, Dante hopped up on the bed. He'd thought about what he was going to say to Rifana for a while, and he was hopeful she would accept it without much issue. Still, Sadeena here to help would be nice.

After a few minutes of waiting, Sadeena returned with Rifana. They came up to the bed, with Dante now standing on top of it. He originally was going to wait until he was older again, but he didn't want to put it off any longer, not even one more night.

"We didn't talk much about last night," Dante began, "but we need to clear something up."

"What is it?" Rifana asked in concern. "What's wrong?"

"I want this to be perfectly understood." Dante pointed straight at Rifana's face, pulling her full attention. "Don't ever take a hit for me like that again."

"W-What?" She asked, startled.

"I'm the Shield Hero, you are the party mage. You are the last person who should be blocking attacks."

"B-But I had that shield…" Rifana argued weakly.

"Oh? And where is that shield now?" Dante asked.

Rifana lowered her head, remaining silent.

"If I recall, it's sitting in the party's room." Dante answered for her. After taking the attack, the shield had warped. Its quality and stats had diminished considerably. Given what Dante saw of its stats before, and what he could do with a base Zweite spell, he wasn't all that surprised. Erhard was good, but he was by no means perfect.

"I didn't want you to get hurt again…" Rifana whispered out.

"Rifana, getting hurt is practically my job." Dante sighed. "You don't see Sadeena doing that sort of thing, do you?"

While it was true the magic clothing did increase their defense, even their magic resistance a bit, it was still nothing compared to what Dante was capable of withstanding. That was before his massive defense boost from the curse.

"Go easy on her, little Dante." Sadeena knelt next to Rifana, patting her shoulder.

"Sadeena, I would have expected you to be on my side with this one." Dante said. "Most of her defense came from that shield and—"

"Little Dante, do you know what it's like watching you get hurt?" Sadeena asked.

Dante didn't have an answer for that. Or, he knew the answer, but didn't want to say it.

"Seeing those gators try to drown and eat you, losing your arm again in Othil, the monster that hurt you in Siltvelt."

"Sadeena…"

"When the Pistol Hero showed up and you fought him alone, I was scared." Sadeena admitted. "When he started hurting you badly, I was terrified. I barely held myself back from simply attacking his party and then rushing to help you."

"That would have been a terrible idea." Dante pointed out. "If he could do that to me—"

"And still, I would have attacked." Sadeena stated.

This conversation wasn't going how Dante wanted it to.

"Look, I have the defense to take attacks. The damage I do take is nothing compared to what you all would. Even with my heightened attack, my main job is to protect. Duke Chance was and exception, and…my plan to attack that noble wasn't well thought out. Don't make bad choices that build off of my own."

Speaking of the invading hero, Dante needed a plan to deal with him the next time he came. His current idea was to hunker down with Tower Shield active and let his party take potshots at the cowboy.

"But Mister Dante—"

"Rifana, do you know what would have happened if things went just slightly differently?" Dante hopped down from the bed. "If you went for that noble instead of me, you would have fallen into that pit. If that happened, you might be dead right now."

That was the case for more than half of his party. Three of them were 10 years old, and another two were a couple months old. If he was with them, he would have activated his Shooting Star Shield to block out the poison right away. If he wasn't, and he didn't see what was happening, they would have regressed to nothing.

"I know asking you to watch me take attacks isn't something you want to hear, but seeing any of you do the same is much worse." Dante looked up at the weasel girl. "I'm not losing any of you. Understand?"

There was sadness in her eyes as Rifana nodded. "I understand."

"That goes for you too, Sadeena." He looked up at the much taller woman as she stood.

"Alright, little Dante." She agreed as well.

"Good."

Dante had gotten a bit too sure of himself. It got worse whenever he got angry. He lost awareness and focused too heavily on the source of his anger. Relying on his party to make good decisions was more important now than ever.

"I'm not mad at you, Rifana." Dante reached up and scratched around her ear. "Just be more careful in the future, okay? You're important to me."

"Okay." Her sadness had already begun to be replaced with happiness. She leaned into his scratching, practically purring. "I've missed this."

"Me too."

Ever since coming to Siltvelt, he'd held back on petting Rifana. They already knew he and Sadeena were a thing, but that didn't seem to be the case with Rifana. He didn't want to set the precedence that he would be getting with his party members like that. That might cause a bit of a stir with the leaders.

"Alright." Dante withdrew his hand, causing Rifana to dip a little as she tried to keep in contact with it. "Now that that's done, I should probably let Werner know I'm back, if the vampires didn't already."

"Actually, little Dante…" Sadeena trailed off. She seemed to sway in place.

"What's up?"

She passed her hands over themselves, as if she was nervous about something. "Could you change your shield for a moment? Something much smaller."

"My shield?" He still had the Dark Tyrannosaurus Shield over his back from before. "Yeah, I guess."

He switched out his shield for what was basically a bracelet, something he found in one of the blacksmith shops in Siltvelt. The stats were pretty bad, even after upgrading it, and the equip bonus only gave a tiny bonus to his agility. Not something he'd want to keep equipped, even while trying to sneak around. Plenty of other options had much better agility, not to mention other stats.

"Alright, what now?" He asked. The small cacodemon that was hidden under his shield started floating around him.

Sadeena stopped her fidgeting and took a step closer to him. "Forgive me for this, little Dante."

"What are—"

In an instant, Sadeena bent over and scooped him up in her arms. She held him close to her chest, one arm under him and the other against his back.

"If I don't do this now, I don't know when I can again~!" Sadeena laughed as she rocked back and forth.

"I…wha…" Dante wasn't really sure how to process what was happening.

"I only get one more night of this~!" She squeezed him tight against herself.

Of all the thing Dante thought might happen while he was in this world, being held like a child was not among them. Still, it wasn't entirely unpleasant. If it made Sadeena happy, he was content to let her do her thing.

A soft 'plop' sounded with a bit of smoke in Dante's peripherals. He looked over and saw Rifana in her demi-human form.

Huh. I haven't seen that in a while—

"I want to hold Mister Dante too!" She cried out, extending her arms.

Sadeena adjusted her holding on Dante, as if carrying a princess. The princess in question let his arm and legs dangle like a dead fish, his eyes partially glazed over as he stared at the ceiling. Rifana took hold of Dante and lightly press him to her chest.

"Aw, so cute~!" Sadeena clasped her hands together as she watched Rifana cradle Dante.

Yeah, I'm definitely not telling them about the shield I unlocked.

The shield in question was from the monster he killed in that baroness' pit trap.

Czar Shroom Shield
equip bonus: poison resistance (large)
equip effect: Small Size

While he hadn't tested it out yet—for obvious reasons—he believed it would simply shrink his form while keeping his proportions, instead of reducing his age. That complemented the other shield he acquired yesterday.

Titanic Ogre Shield
equip bonus: attack bonus (large), HP bonus (large), skill "Second Shield"
equip effect: Giant Size

It was strange to see such a bonus to his attack stat, but Dante chalked that up to the wrath curse affecting his shield. If he didn't have that, maybe it would have been a defense bonus. Dante couldn't say either way. He hadn't boosted the shield yet, but he would try it out and see how it upgraded.

With the money he took from that dead baroness, he had a good chance at upgrading a few shields to a higher level. It wasn't a crazy amount he received, her funds likely being used to buy slaves to send to their deaths. That, or her wealth came from what her land produced, like normal medieval lords.

As an aside, his shield unlock speed had really increased. The Czar Shroom Shield was unlocked during the night, and the Titanic Ogre Shield finished unlocking during his traveling to Mirso.

"Have you two had your fill yet?" Dante asked the pair.

"Sorry, Mister Dante." Rifana giggled as she let him down, patting his head. "I didn't know it was so nice holding someone smaller like that."

"Yeah, well, it is…" Dante felt embarrassed, but he decided to chalk that up to his reduced age. He knew otherwise, but he wouldn't admit it. "Anyway, I need to go talk with Werner."

"We'll join you, little Dante~." Sadeena said as she followed after him. Rifana did the same after transforming again.

Man, Gloria was never this bad.

That thought actually put a smile on his face. Since Korokan, whenever he thought back about what he lost, it would spark anger in him. He supposed his good feeling was from his reduced age, and from being handled like he was. Once he was older again, Sadeena would likely stick close to Raphtalia more. As far as he could tell, the main reason she was staying by him now was because he got himself hurt/cursed…again.

Well, that was probably the initial reason.

"Lord Shield." Werner greeted them as they approached in one of the hallways. "I heard you were back and was just about to come find you."

"You did? You were?" Dante looked up at the shusaku.

"Yes, Lord Shield. You see, we received a message from the king of Faubrey for you."

"Oh…" Dante already did not like where this was going.

While there was little chance Faubrey's king had any love for his brother, there was an incredibly high chance he would use the current situation to his advantage. The most obvious—and disturbing—was to use this as a way to get Malty to him. Dante still wasn't sure where she fit into everything that was going on. He needed to know for certain before he let that thing take possession of her.

And, really, is it too much to ask that I get some good news that isn't coupled with bad news, or is a mislead like with Gaelion?

Werner, however, had a smile on his face. "It seems you are invited to Faubrey to take part in the activation of the North Ferret Forest."

"…Oh."

From what Dante recalled, the North Ferret Forest was basically the same as Cal Mira Island. There was also a way to get his hero exclusive spell there, something he had planned on getting from Cal Mira in the nearby future. The huge influx of monster parts and shield reveals would be great too. As for leveling…well, he had an idea about that.

"There is a request coupled with the invitation." Werner continued.

Oh boy, here it comes…

"The king would like you to participate in Faubrey's next wave, which will occur after the activation event." Werner finished.

"That…is perfectly fine." Dante said. "Please tell him I accept his invitation."

"At once, Lord Shield." Werner turned and left the group.

This was the win Dante was hoping for. He was going to fight in Faubrey's wave anyway, so he lost nothing. It was almost strange to be asked that, since Lloyd said the Seven Star Heroes weren't to go to Melromarc, what with them summoning all of the Cardinal Heroes.

Oh well. It's not like all the Seven Star Heroes would necessarily follow that rule, since they had no input. I'm pretty sure Khana wouldn't, at any rate. Hell, telling the Cardinal Heroes not to participate in waves sounds crazier. Maybe I'll meet the Projectile and Axe Heroes at the wave and see what they're about.

He'd get more information about it from Werner later. Tonight, he had a curse to break.

"I suppose that's it for today." He told the two with him. "I'll get some proper sleep tonight and be back to normal tomorrow."

"Before that, little Dante," Sadeena stroked his head again, "maybe you should come by our rooms for a bit. I'm sure the others would like a chance to, well~…"

Dante looked up at her as she trailed off, a grin on her face. A glance at Rifana told him they both wanted to hold him again.

"Yeah, okay, fine." Dante relented. It was only one more night. He'd let them have their fun.

Author's Notes:

For anyone who didn't/won't read the web novel, the North Ferret Forest is indeed a thing that's basically the same as Cal Mira. As with two other places, their names are played off of vampire names. North Ferret Forest is Nosferatu Forest, while Cal Mira Island is Carmilla Island. There's also the Dracula Mountains and the Prado (Vlad) Desert. I don't think I'll do anything with the mountains and the desert is a maybe, but the whims of my brain may change.

Totally unrelated to this chapter, I just realized something about the name I gave to the old genmu. I called him Ushan mostly because I picked it from a name generator and it sounded good. I didn't realize/remember until recently that his name is close to what somewhat else called him. From "Retiree of the Shield Hero Volume 4" on AO3, the author named him Ooguay Shan. Oo = U, leading to Ushan. My brain does that from time to time, where I'm thinking up a name, it sounds good, then I realize it's close to someone else unintentionally. I almost named Nisha "Lysa", which would have basically been the name of Dracula's wife in the Castlevania show, Lisa.

On the flipside, my subconscious really helps out at times. I reread a few parts from earlier and realized I made mention of cowboys long before Duke Chance appeared. I don't think he was fully formed until a couple chapters before his appearance, but the seed was planted in my mind by an off-hand comment I had Dante make.