Chapter 2 Learning The Sword

An hour had passed and Malty had calmed down and in that hour she had realised something, she was being stupid, yes she had been reborn as the Malty Melromarc character, but she was a completely different person and since she had this future knowledge she had plans to alter the story for the better of all the characters.

She loved the Characters in Rising of the Shield Hero, except Malty who she'd be calling Bitch to separate herself from her and Trash, so she might as well use her story knowledge to help them, it was like what Naofumi said to the other heroes, it wasn't just an anime or a manga anymore it was her life so she might as well use her knowledge of the story to help them.

That said she did have quite a significant advantage since most of the events of the story happened because of Malty Melromarc, so removing that character already dealt with a lot of problems, so for now she should just worry about the Waves, fortunately she had ten years to get ready for them, so for now she should focus on learning how to use a sword and learning how to use magic, she would start learning the sword tomorrow for now she'd continue her planning.

When it came time for her to go to bed Malty had formed the first few steps of a plan, the first step was to become strong in the sword and in magic, the next step would take place ten years from now and that was to make sure Duke Seaetto stayed alive, if she did that it would prevent her father from summoning the Cardinal heroes and it would prevent Raphtalia from going into slavery and if her father did summon the heroes then she'd stick by Naofumi and help him through all the endeavours, but she'd have to get strong for that.

The biggest problem she faced was without a doubt the Three Heroes Church, in Malty's opinion they were the antagonist in the first part of the story, they were the ones who conspired with Malty to frame Naofumi for rape then spread it along with other rumours around the country to discredit the Shield Hero, but how was she going to get rid of them? In the story the Queen had disbanded the church after they attempted to usurp the Royal Family and murder the Three Heroes, she decided they were a problem to be dealt with later.

Then there were the other Three Heroes, when the other Three Heroes had been summoned they're Heroes welcome had gone to their heads and became extremely arrogant thinking this world was nothing but a game and that they could do whatever they wanted and it wouldn't matter, Ren was probably the best of the three he at least seemed to realise when he did something wrong and apologised for it.

Motoyasu on the other hand was an idiot and a very special kind of idiot at that, first there was the way he treated his party like they were just their to be his harem and cheerleaders but then there was that thing where he couldn't believe women could be evil or do anything bad that was why story-Malty was still in his party after all her crimes were exposed and even before he was so easily manipulated by story-Malty that it was honestly kind of pathetic.

But in Malty's opinion Itsuki was defiantly the worst, he was easily the most arrogant out of the three believing himself to be the most powerful of all the heroes and then there were actions he took in the story, the first being how he brought down an entire country and didn't seem to think he did anything wrong and then there was how he treated Rishia and the hierarchy system he formed in his party.

But if Malty could save the Duke then there was a chance that only one of the four heroes would be summoned and personally she was hoping for Naofumi, she did not want to deal with the other three.

But that wasn't all there was also... 'Ahhh!' Malty screamed in her mind 'too much to think about, time to sleep I'll worry about it more in the mourning!'

The next day Malty could get out of bed and return to her usual routine with a twist, after being dismissed from tutoring she went back to her room once there she managed to find a small plain shirt and pair of pants, she didn't know why she had these clothes and she didn't really care either they were perfect to practice swordsmanship in, once putting them on she started to stealthily make her way towards the knights training area.

She didn't want her mother or her father to know about her trying to learn swordsmanship, thinking that if they knew they might try to stop her, well her mother might support her but her father would defiantly stop her, when she finally reached the knights training area she was surprised to see that it wasn't unoccupied, someone else was using the training area.

It was a girl about her age, she could only see the back of her as the girl was holding a small training sword and using it to repeatedly strike a training dummy, but she could see the girl had long pink hair, in her old life she would have found that strange but this was anime where anyone can have any coloured hair naturally.

'Maybe I should come back later… no I know I have ten years but I need to use every minute I can, besides theirs plenty of room, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I joined her in the training room' Malty thought to herself, suddenly an idea came to her 'maybe she could help me learn swordsmanship, I mean it couldn't hurt to ask could it?'

Gathering all her courage and taking a deep breath which she swallowed down, Malty walked out into the training field and called out to the girl ''h-hello'' the girl stopped her training and turned towards Malty, revealing her pretty face and sapphire blue eyes, which were narrowed inquisitors at Malty making her jump slightly.

''Who are you?'' the girl asked.

''I'm Myne Sophia'' stated Malty, she didn't want anyone else to know what she was doing or they may inform her parents and her parents might try to stop her, Myne Sophia was the first name to flash in Malty's head, mostly because it was the alias the Malty character used in the story, she supposed Sophia was what the S stood for in her name or was it? Wait what did the S stand for?

''Well then Myne do you plan to tell anyone I'm here?'' the girl questioned, with a slight edge to her voice.

''N-no I won't tell anyone I promise'' said Malty holding her hands up in surrender.

The girl gazed of Malty for another minute, before brightening up and giving Malty a smile ''alright then, it's nice to meet you, I am Eclair Seaetto'' said the girl holding her hand out for Malty to shake.

''It's nice to meet you too Eclair'' said Malty smiling 'wait… Eclair!? Oh its her! She's one of the people who helped train the heroes in the Spirit Tortoise Arc, she's the Duke of Seaetto's daughter and a master swordsworman, I honestly didn't expect to see her so soon!'

''So what are you doing here Myne?'' Eclair asked.

''Oh, I came here to try and learn how to use a sword'' Malty explained.

''Really? And here I thought I was the only one'' stated Eclair ''not many in nobility would take up a sword, they would rather leave those matters to the soldiers, why do you want to learn how to sword fight?''

''Err, ok listen I know your probably not going to believe me but ten years from now our world will the Waves of Calamity again'' stated Malty.

''Oh, I know that's rather common knowledge, every hundred years the Waves of Calamity hit our world and next decade the hundred years will have passed'' stated Eclair.

''R-right, anyways I want to be able to protect my family when that happens'' stated Malty.

''It seems we have very similar motives, I want to get stronger so I can become a knight and protect my father and our land'' stated Eclair and as she said that an idea came to Malty.

''In that case why don't we have a spar?'' Malty asked 'while I loved anime and manga the most its not like I slept on video games, Persona 5 taught me everything I need to know about how to build relationships and make deals'

''A spar?'' Eclair asked.

''Sure why not, we both have the goal to protect our loved ones and I think we can help each other'' stated Malty.

''How so?'' Eclair asked.

''Well, truth be told this is going to be the first time I've ever wielded a sword'' stated Malty, Eclair didn't really seem surprised so she just continued ''so I was thinking we can help each other, I mean you can't just practice against a training dummy, I'm sure it helps to refine your strikes but it won't prepare you for a fight, so you could help me by teaching me swordsmanship and I can help you by being someone to practice with''

''You have a point'' mused Eclair.

''So do we have a deal?'' Malty asked holding out her hand with a soft smile.

And after musing it over for a minute Eclair shook her hand ''its a deal'' she replied with a smile.

''Alright then, lets start training''

Six hours later, after finishing training with Eclair and getting cleaned up Malty was sat at the table in the royal dining room having dinner with her parents, it was a rather nice meal and they ate in silence until the Queen spoke up ''Malty, I heard from your tutor today that you were paying more attention than you usually do to his lectures, is this true?'' She asked.

''Y-yes mother, I've decided I need to take my studies more seriously and I intend to'' stated Malty .

''Alright then, how long was the war between Melromarc and Siltvelt, what originally started the war and how did the war eventually end?'' Mirellia asked.

''Oh, it was centuries long, nobody knows how the war was started and the war ended only recently when you became Queen and decided to make a protected village for Demi-humans, Siltvelt also made a village for humans and soon enough the war ended with both sides agreeing to peace'' answered Malty.

''Very good Malty'' said Mirellia giving her daughter a gentle smile.

''Indeed, you must have worked hard Malty, perhaps you'd like a few days away from your studies, I know being cooped up in that room can't be very fun so why not take a week off'' said Trash with one of those doting father voices.

''Aultcray!'' Mirellia hissed.

''N-no father that won't be necessary, I've decided to take my studies more seriously and that's what I shall do'' stated Malty awkwardly, she honestly didn't know how to interact with him and if she was being honest she didn't want to, she was about to go back to dinner when an idea came to her ''mother there's something I'd like to ask you''

Mirellia narrowed her eyes inquisitively at Malty, which wasn't surprising she had been a spoilt brat until a few days ago, Mirellia was likely expecting her to ask for a something along the lines of a toy or an increase to her allowance ''very well Malty you may ask your question'' said Mirellia.

''I was just wondering why is the Three Heroes Church our state religion?'' Malty asked, this actually caused Mirellia's eyes to widen surprised that he daughter would ask such a question ''I mean we want improve our relationship with Silvelt and the Demi-humans right and from what I gather the ideology of our state religion is a big reason why so many in the kingdom are still discriminatory against demi-humans, so why are they still our state religion? Why not a church that worships all four of the heroes equally?''

Surprised by her daughters question and her suggestion Mirellia actually looked a little intrigued with the idea, Trash meanwhile looked horrified what was his precious baby girl going on about!? One of the most integral lessons he had drilled into her was that the shield was the devil and that he and his Demi-humans brought nothing but suffering to humans so why? Why was she going against his teachings? Who or what had made his precious baby girl go against him!? It didn't matter he'd make it pay for corrupting her!

''While your idea does have merit Malty the Three Heroes Church has unfortunately been the state religion for centuries, many worship its religion and if we were to remove it and replace it with a new religion without reason their would be a massive outcry from the people'' explained Mirellia.

''I see'' said Malty, a little disappointed she wouldn't be able to take down the church any time soon, but if her mothers reaction was anything to go by she had sowed the seeds.

''Why don't we just forget all this talk about the church for now, Malty would you like some dessert?

your favourite'' said Aultcray with that cooing voice.

''O-oh, no thank you father'' sighed Malty sadly ''I- I'm full''

''Are you sure?'' Mirellia questioned, she was quite shocked to hear Malty say this, every night after dinner Malty wanted dessert in fact she'd demand extra when she had finished her plate.

''I'm sure mother, may I be excused?'' Malty asked, Mirellia just nodded and Malty left the dining room, as she walked back to her room she was thinking to herself 'some sacrifices are necessary and if I want to become a well trained swordswoman I'm going to have to sacrifice sweets, goodbye chocolate, caramel and vanilla, I will miss all of you dearly!'

The next few days fell into a routine for Malty, she would get up, have breakfast, get washed and dressed, go to tutoring and afterwards she would get changed and stealthily make her way to the knights training area to train with Eclair, she had actually mapped out a way to get their without anyone seeing her and the training with Eclair was going really well.

Their training started with basic warm ups such as push ups, sit ups and laps around the training area, they would then practice against a training dummy before having a spar, she was usually dressed in a shirt and shorts, but today she was walking towards the training area in her usual princess dress, there was reason behind this though 'my muscles are really starting to ache, I'm going talk to Eclair about taking a break for today I'm sure her muscles are starting to ache too and we've been going none stop, taking a day off should be fine' Malty thought to herself.

When she got to the training area she saw Eclair had already started without her, not really that surprising she was a little late her tutoring had dragged for a bit today, Eclair was currently doing some sit ups but she was going much slower than usual, which obviously indicated her muscles must be feeling sore too.

''Eclair'' Malty called.

Eclair stopped mid push up and turned her head to the side to see Malty ''oh Myne'' said Eclair, getting up she rushed over but she was moving slower than she usually would another sign that her muscles were aching ''sorry I started without you, I didn't think you would mind'' she then noticed what Malty was wearing ''why are you dressed like that?''

''Well I was thinking, we've been going none stop for days so maybe we should have a day off from training'' said Malty.

''What do you mean?'' Eclair asked.

''You know, have a day off, take a break from training and relax'' said Malty ''my muscles have been getting really sore and to the looks of things yours are too, so we should stop for a while, if we don't we might pull a muscle'' Eclair sheepishly looked at the ground ''whats wrong?''

''It's just that I'm not very good at relaxing'' said Eclair.

''Well what do you usually do to relax?'' Malty asked.

''Umm, if I have free time I usually study, it's to be ready for if my kingdom needs me, I don't understand much of it but I try'' said Eclair.

''That's not good for you Eclair, it's nice how dedicated you are but everyone needs to relax at one point or another or they'll overwork and collapse, maybe even die'' said Malty concern emanating from her words.

''Well how do you relax?'' Eclair asked.

Malty didn't answer immediately, she knew she needed to show Eclair how to relax and have fun, but how in her previous life when she had free time to burn she spent it on one of her hobbies, she'd play video games, read manga or watch anime, but all her hobbies we're solely otaku based, she also liked to make origami in her spare time, play shogi and draw, though drawing kind of tied into her otaku hobbies, in her previous life she was aiming to be a mangaka and she was actually pretty good at drawings, her friends commented that she her art style was a sort of mix between Tite Kubo and Atsushi Okubo.

Eventually Malty did come up with an idea ''lets go to the library'' said Malty taking Eclairs hand and pulling her along, once they arrived at the library Malty left Eclair at a table, before returning with a handful of books.

''What are those for, I thought you wanted me to relax'' said Eclair.

''And we will, these are story books'' said Malty.

''Story books? Oh do they tell stories about what happened in the war or tales of some of the heroes?'' Eclair asked.

''Wow your worst than I thought, no these are fiction, they're made up, they're written so you can read and enjoy, take a break for a few minutes and just read'' explained Malty, seeing Eclair looking rather skeptical Malty put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle smile ''don't worry I'm sure you'll like them, I didn't know which to get so I just got some random ones, their a mix some romance, some adventure, my two favourite genres, you can have first pick alright, so lets get to reading''

Eventually Eclair picked a book and the two started to read it taking turns to read the chapters and when they were finished Eclair immediately demanded to read another and another and another and soon they had finished all the books Malty had brought for them and they had to get more, they continued reading until Eclair realised she had to go.

''Thank you Myne, I'm so happy right now'' smiled Eclair.

''I'm glad to hear it, how about we do this after ever four or so days of training, give up so time to loosen our muscles'' smiled Malty.

''Sure, I'd really like that'' smiled Eclair ''anyways I have to go, see you tomorrow''

''I'll see you too'' said Malty waving as Eclair left.

Unfortunately their training wouldn't be a secret forever and after a few more days Malty and Eclair found themselves stood in front of her mothers desk for a talk with her mother and Eclair's father, Malty was more than a little worried, she didn't know how Mirellia would react to the news that her daughter was learning to fight, Eclair on the other hand while concerned for what was going to happen was still recovering from the shock of learning Malty's real identity as the spoiled princess she had heard so much about.

''So why have you two been practicing sword fighting?'' Mirellia questioned.

''I wanted to be useful to my father, I'll be blunt, I'm not very smart, I know that and so I thought I could at least become a strong knight and that way I would be able to protect my father and our people so I could be useful to him'' stated Eclair.

''I wanted to learn for a similar reason, I want to be able to fight for our country and protect our people when the Waves come

and to protect my new sibling'' said Malty.

The Queen and the Duke both looked at each other and Malty noticed they looked puzzled ''alright, but why hide it from us?'' the duke questioned.

''I didn't think you'd approve father, so I kept it a secret'' said Eclair.

''Same'' said Malty, before looking over at Eclair who was looking at the ground with a sad look in her eyes before glancing back at her mother and Eclair's father who let out long sighs, she didn't know what that meant but she wasn't going to let her friend get punished for some stupid reason like she wanted to learn how to sword fight.

''mother if your going to punish someone, please punish me'' shocking all attendants ''I could have talked Eclair out of it and I could have pulled rank since I'm a princess and she's a dukes daughter, but I didn't and- and I think we knights like Eclair, we need knights who are kind and loyal to both humans and Demi-humans, so if you want to punish someone, please punish me!''

Clamping her eyes shut Malty bowed her head ready for whatever punishment the queen was going to give her only to be surprised by the queens next works ''no one is going to be punished Malty''

Raising her head she saw the two parents smiling ''really?'' Malty asked.

''Really, I see nothing wrong with you and Eclair wanted to learn sword fighting, do you Duke Seaetto?'' Mirellia asked.

''Not at all, in fact I'd like to thank you princess Malty, for the longest time I've been worried my daughter was going to make herself sick from overworking, but you've taught her how to relax, so I'd like to thank you'' said Duke Seaetto.

''I see nothing wrong with you learning how to use a sword, however your father would likely try to stop you saying that your too young to learn or something, so Malty you have my blessing to learn swordsmanship'' said Mirellia.

''And you have mine Eclair'' said Duke Seaetto.

''Oh- oh, thank you, this is great isn't it Eclair now we don't have to sneak around anymore!'' Malty beamed.

''Yes its wonderful!'' Eclair cheered.

''Thank you mother, thank you Duke Seaetto'' said Malty happily.

''Your welcome, but their is one more question I have'' said Mirellia.

''Yes mother, what is it?'' Malty asked.

''From what I gather, you started training the day you started rejecting dessert, is that why you've been avoiding dessert?'' Mirellia questioned.

''Y-yes mother'' answered Malty meekly ''I love dessert, but I knew sacrifices had to be made to be a swordswoman''

''Malty you can still have dessert alright, one serving of dessert is enough just no more than that alright'' said Mirellia.

''Really!?'' Malty asked excitedly.

''Really, in fact why don't you both go have some sweets right now'' smiled Mirellia.

''I'm down for that, come on Eclair, we'll have some tea and sweets for reading time!'' Malty cheered rushing out the room.

''Oooh, that sounds good count me in!'' Eclair cheered following Malty as she rushed out of the room, with the Queen and the Duke just watching their children fondly.

Alright, if your wondering why Malty doesn't have her own little council in her head like Katarina does its because I was so eager to write this I didn't think about it until I finished it, they will appear in the next chapter and I will write an omake for the parts in this chapter where a council should have been, unless you don't want a council of Malty's tell me if you don't.

I hope you liked this chapter, some parts I really struggled with so tell me what you think.