Chapter 15 Banquets, Duels and Rewards

So the Heroes and their parties ended up going to a banquet the king was hosting in celebration, it was basically the party in the anime, full of noble lords and ladies, Fohl grumbled the whole way their and they understood why they didn't want to go to this party and that was especially true with Fohl he just wanted to go back to the Seaetto territory to see if his sister was alright, but it was an obligation so they had to go, after being their for a while Malty excused herself so she could go talk to Duke Seaetto Eclair insisted on coming with her though, so the two made their way to the Duke.

They found him standing off to the side watch the banquet when he saw them have waved them over to which the two approached and he gave them a smile ''you two have done well, while there was damage to the village there were no casualties of the Waves and honestly that is the clearest and truest victory we can have, so I'd say you did well''

''Thank you sir'' said Malty.

''Thank you father'' Eclair said.

''Now is there anything you'd like to talk to me about at this moment?'' Duke Seaetto asked ''once this banquet is finished you'd most likely be back out level grinding, so I'd suggest you use this time to relax, while you do classify as legal adults you are both still young so I think you deserve to relax whenever you can especially with the service your giving our kingdom''

''There's something I wanted to propose'' said Malty.

''Go ahead'' said Duke Seaetto.

''While the Shield Hero did defend Lute Village the other three Heroes immediately charged off to face the Waves Boss'' stated Malty.

''I know, I've seen this on the crystal ball , is there any reason you're telling me this or are you just ratting out the Heroes?'' asked Duke Seaetto.

''I'd like to propose a method to motivate the Heroes'' said Malty, Duke Seaetto raised a brow and gestured for her to continue ''they think our world is a game, so I suggest we use that to our advantage, take part of the reward and donate it towards the funding that will be used to repair damages done by the Waves, in doing so they'll think of it as taking an effect on their score and as such the amount of reward they get, they'll think if they don't protect the area the Wave hits it will effect their score so they'll be more willing to protect the area''

''Malty, that's brilliant'' said Eclair.

''Indeed, I shall implement it immediately Princess'' said Duke Seaetto before looking over to Eclair ''and what about you Eclair, did you need anything?''

''No father, I just wanted to talk to you'' said Eclair ''as you said after this we are going to level grind, but on top of that we're going to travel the land and help people, so I wanted to spend some time before we leave, if its alright''

''Of course it's alright Eclair'' said Duke Seaetto with a small smile ''your mother would be very proud of you, I know because I'm very proud of you''

''Thank you father'' said Eclair with a teary smile.

Malty smiled at the scene and remembered there was something she had to do as well and she left the two to enjoy their time together while she went o find her father.

After making her way though the party she finally found her father he was talking with his advisor Dominic Thresher, while Malty had resolved herself to do this she wasn't even sure if it would work but she had to try, so approaching the two Malty cleared her throat as she approached to catch her fathers attention.

It worked and she caught his attention, Trash looked surprised to see her but recovered and excused himself from his conversation with Thresher before going over to talk to her ''M-Malty, I-I'm-''

''Surprised to see me'' said Malty.

''Yes after all our last conversation didn't exactly go too well'' said Trash.

''And I'm not sure if I'd call it a conversation'' said Malty causing Trash to flinch ''listen I think we both said and did something we shouldn't have last time, I will admit I might have gone a little too far, that said I don't exactly regret it''

''So why are you here?'' Trash asked.

''As I've said, we both did something wrong in that and I've had sometime to think about it'' said Malty ''listen it doesn't have to be the way its been going, I'm willing to settle this, but you have to change your ways''

''What do you mean?'' Trash asked raising a brow.

''When I say you have to change your ways I mean you have to change your ways'' stated Malty ''meaning no more discriminating against the Demi-Humans and the Shield Hero''

''You know I can't do that!'' Trash said with an angry look.

''Can't or your not willing to'' said Malty, causing Trash to narrow his eyes angrily ''listen I understand your reasoning I really do but as I said when we were arguing you don't even know what happened all those years ago, in fact there is something you need to know about that and-''

''And you do Malty, you weren't even born then'' said Trash.

''Yeah I wasn't, I acknowledge that but now that the Waves are back, now really isn't the time to be fighting each other!'' Malty stated ''and I do know something about that so stop being a- a tool for five minutes at the least'' Malty's pleads were ultimately unanswered because there was a commotion at another part of the banquet 'oh, now what?!' Malty and her father turned towards the area of the commotion and Malty just sighed as she realised what was going on ''oh great''

With that Malty started to make her way towards the commotion Motoyasu had just challenged Naofumi to a duel, Malty was mentally kicking herself for forgetting that event in the story ''whats going on?'' Malty asked as she made it to the centre of the commotion, she already knew what was going on but she needed to ask to make it look normal.

''I'll tell you whats going on Princess, the Hero you've defended and fought along side because you were brainwashed by him to believe he was a good guy has finally shown his true colours, he's finally shown that he's nothing but a rat bastard!'' stated Motoyasu ''the Demi-Human you've been fighting along side is a slave!'' this caused whispers among the crowd.

'Oh, shut your trap already you stupidly unless blonde idiot!' Malty thought to herself angrily, she was really getting fed up with Motoyasu at this point.

Before Malty could say anything though her father spoke up ''you see Malty, this is what I was saying all along, the Shield Hero is a despicable person, its undeniable now''

''Indeed sire, indeed'' Thresher nodded.

'And you two can shut your traps as well!' Malty thought angrily 'you two don't even care about Demi-Human slavery!'

Before Malty could respond though Fohl beat her to it ''I chose to become the Shield Heroes slave'' this caused the attention to turn to him ''my sister is not in a good state and when the Shield Hero having learned that our age increases with our level proposed an idea that levelling her up might improve her condition and slaves and their masters share EXP amount each other, but he would not do it without my consent which I gave and honestly I don't mind in fact I kinda like being the Shield Heroes slave, he's been genuinely kind to me, treated me well and overall I have no complaints and if you were to ask if I think the Shield Hero is evil I'd say no''

There was silence before the whispering started again and Malty was glad to hear that this time it was positive but of course the Anti-Shield Hero group spoke up again ''so it was you who proposed him becoming your slave Shield Hero?'' Thresher questioned.

''Yes, Malty protested but I insisted and she gave up after a while'' said Naofumi, Malty was about to ask Naofumi what he was doing but then she saw it in his eyes, he was doing this to take the blame and protect her reputation and was trying to make sure she didn't look like a hypocrite.

''So you brainwashed him much like you've been brainwashing our princess'' stated Thresher ''but even then should we trust a Demi-Human, I mean the Shield Hero is their Hero, so obviously they would be bias'' more whispers but these ones were questioning if Thresher was mad which made Malty smile ''but the Spear Hero intend to free him from this through the duel''

''Do I have to do this?'' sighed Naofumi.

''Of course you do'' said Trash ''if one Hero challenges another to a duel they must accept''

Naofumi sighed again ''alright, you know what fine, fuck it I'll do it, besides I think I've been wanting to kick your ass since we got here Motoyasu, I'm going to enjoy finally doing it'' he said.

Malty then stepped up she knew what she needed to do and she needed to do it now ''very well, but if Naofumi accepts there must be certain terms set'' she stated.

''What, you can't just-'' her father started but Malty cut him off.

''Since they arrived the Spear Hero hasn't stopped talking about ow the other three heroes are superior and now he's just challenged the Shield Hero who he considers his inferior'' Malty stated ''so I think us being aloud to set conditions is fair'' many spoke up voicing agreement so the king and his advisor needed to back down ''both the Shield and Spear Heroes parties will be sat in their own box and they will be observed by the Sword and Bow Heroes as well as their parties, if anyone from either party enters the arena there hero will immediately be disqualified and the remaining hero will be declared the victor, do you both agree to these terms?''

''I do'' said Naofumi.

''Pff, yeah I don't need any help to beat him anyways'' stated Motoyasu.

''Alright then may the duel begin''

And so that was how the Shield and Spear Heroes parties as well as the Sword and Bow heroes along with their parties were all crammed into a little box overlooking the arena to watch the duel, Malty looked over the Spears party counting all of them, they well all there even Grettle which caused Malty to raise a brow she wasn't sure if she believed it, Malty got up and walked over to Greatly before tapping her on the arm to see if it was an illusion.

''Oh, is there something you need Princess?'' Grettle asked.

''No, just checking'' said Malty.

And with that the duel started, it played out rather similar to how it did in the anime but Malty didn't really pay much mind to the fight, she was more focused on scanning the arena to ensure nothing bad was happening, but she didn't feel like she needed to be uneasy, she had ordered the Shadows to scope the area out and to ensure there would be no interruption and the duel eventually ended with no interruptions and in Naofumi's victory, which Malty grinned at, her grin widened as she heard the crowd cheering for him this was all going better than she could have hoped it would.

The next day the Four Heroes and their parties were stood in the throne room ready to receive their rewards, Duke Seaetto was the one handing out the rewards as didn't believe the King couldn't be trusted ''Shield Hero you shall receive

for your efforts protecting the people you shall 900 silver coins'' he stated ''Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes you would have received the same amount, but it will be reduced to 400 and donated to a fund to help rebuild anything the Waves destroy''

''What?!'' Ren exclaimed.

''How's that fair!? We're the ones who killed the Waves boss!'' Itsuki cried.

''Yeah Naofumi just defended the village!'' Motoyasu yelled.

''That is precisely why Sir Naofumi will be receiving his full reward while you three will have your rewards reduced, a Hero's duty is not only to fight the Waves but to protect the people and all you did in the last Wave was fight, you never even considered protecting the people, we can replace buildings but we cannot replace our peoples lives, you chose your glory over our people which isn't something we can accept!'' Duke Seaetto strongly stated glaring at the three.

The three looked down at their feet while Malty smiled it looked like her plan was going to work, but then the door to the throne room was flung open and the stable master ran in gasping for breath, he had clearly been running all the way from the stables ''H-Heroes, y-you Filolials- Y-your Filolials!'' He cried.

''Whats wrong with them!?'' Naofumi cried worried.

''Are they alright!?'' Ren called out.

''What happened to them!?'' Itsuki cried.

All of them and most of there parties were freaking out about this except Malty who knew what was probably happening,

''I- it's probably best you see for yourselves'' stated the stable master, he quickly lead them to the stables, there in the pens the Heroes had left their Filolials were three little girls with angel wings on there backs, they had all wrapped themselves in sheets that Malty had left because she felt like this was going to happen, each had a different hair and eye colour, one was blonde with blue eyes, one was a brunette with green eyes and one had black hair and red eyes upon seeing them the three girls had only one thing to say.

''Can I have something to eat?''

So that was the chapter I hope you enjoyed it, I'm going to be busy for a while so I wanted to get this chapter out quickly so there, also I put out another challenge this one an idea for a Bleach story if your interested, I might write this someday but not today so check them out if you want to.