Disclaimer: The Rising of the Shield Hero belongs to Aneko Yusagi. This story is non-profit fiction. I just wanted to write something about this series.
English is not my first language. If you notice poor grammatical structure, mistaken verbal tenses, wrong conjugations, etcetera, please tell me to correct it. For me, it is a language-development experience.
B/N: Still here, still fighting like Naofumi against the curse of not-so-good grammar and tenses...
The Shield Hero who came from another world
Chapter 9
The undead dragon tried to strike the Sword Hero in a rampage of violence and fury, with only Naofumi's instincts, natural-born reflexes, and experience being all that stood between Ren and a quick, painful death. The dragon's claws crashed against an Air Strike Shield, giving Ren the time to jump out of the way.
As the dragon started its rampage, Tersia had cast a magic spell to protect himself and Wyndia, but this drew undead Gaelion's attention, and it spat a deadly purple cloud in their direction. Naofumi, startled, rapidly put himself between the attack and the magic user and the girl, as Wyndia watched, terrified, how her sweet and lovely father had turned into a brainless corpse that would attack whatever was moving.
Naofumi made a large Hedron Shield in front of the attack as the magic user attempted to escape with Wyndia to a safer place, but all the Shield bought them was a few more seconds before the cloud reached them: the poison the cloud was made of entered their bodies and caused them to start coughing.
Quickly, Raphtalia unsheathed her sword and started to run towards the beast. Gaelion raised its claw and attempted to crush her, but Terry was faster and pulled his mother figure out of the way. After thanking him, Raphtalia prepared to choose another angle to attack.
At the same time, Aria had jumped to kick the dragon's head, and Bakta had tossed Welt onto the dragon's back so the latter could axe its wings. Ren jumped in to take advantage of Aria's attack and slash the dragon's throat and jaws, but Gaelion, unperturbed by pain, noticed what he was doing and counterattacked, knocking him to the ground and releasing another cloud of poisonous breath. Ren was only saved in the last second when Naofumi pushed him out of the way.
"Naofumi!" the Sword Hero shouted, worried for his fellow Hero, but, much to his relief a bright light struck the dragon's head, blowing it up, and Naofumi escaped the cloud as he frantically coughed.
"I'm fine, Ren," he said, his voice sore as he kept coughing. "I'm not immune enough, but I can manage. How are you dealing with it?"
"I'm still unaffected, I'll do my best not to breathe close to that thing."
"Well, that thing is focused mainly on you, perhaps we should try to take advantage of that," Naofumi replied as Gaelion's head started to regenerate from the damage.
"I'm NOT going to play bait, Naofumi," Ren said, clearly displeased, only for the two Heroes to be forced apart as more poisonous breath flew at them.
Welt was shaken off from Gaelion as the undead creature thrashed around, but fortunately Aria managed to grab him and pull him away before he crashed on the ground. Bakta, Terry, and Raphtalia took advantage of the opening to attack its legs and stomach.
But it was not enough. The pattern kept repeating. No matter how much damage Gaelion was taking, it kept regenerating from it, and for the living heroes and companions, it was a tiring matter, particularly as injuries and exhaustion led to them making mistakes that the others were forced to cover before it turned lethal. Seeing how Raphtalia was slowing down, Terry went over to his father.
"Dad! Mommy needs to leave the battle; her wounds are making it too hard for her to keep fighting!"
"What! That's not true, Naofumi-sama, I still can fight!"
"It doesn't matter if you can or not, we need to restrain the dragon and open its innards to take his core, and we need all the help we can get. Aria! Take Raphtalia and go find help, if you have to bring Rino as well, do it. Air Strike Shield!" Naofumi yelled, covering Ren as he, once again, unwittingly served as a decoy for the undead dragon's wrath.
A magic spell hit the dragon from afar, cast by Tersia.
"Aria, take Raphtalia, NOW!" Naofumi yelled at the griffin girl.
"On my way, daddy!" she said, landing in front of Raphtalia, who jumped on her back.
"I will return with help. Please, endure while I return, Naofumi-sama," she said. Raphtalia was nervous: she did not want to obey. She did not want to leave Naofumi behind, but she understood what was happening, and that they were not enough to deal with this trouble: she had to find help. Adventurers were the first option, since they should be strong enough to overwhelm the undead dragon with numbers.
Ferrie-nee-chan would be an immense help, but she knew that the other women would want to join the battle, and that was not an option: the only one of them with fighting experience was Rino, and if the others tried to pay back for Naofumi-sama's aid they would end up dying. That was what Raphtalia thought.
And, after everything Rino had gone through the previous day, she did not want to bother her, now that she was meeting her parents.
The griffin set off at great speed towards the village, and Bakta turned to Naofumi as he took a breather.
"You must have been worried about her condition, Naofumi-sama," the warrior said.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Naofumi replied, "but I'm wondering, do you have more of those ruculu berries on you?"
The other man laughed.
"When the time comes, I'll share a drink or two with you!"
"I'll think about it, but now we need to save Ren's ass."
The two men rushed ahead, facing the undead dragon one more time.
Raphtalia felt that all of her body was in pain. The pain from the cursed burns, and the pain from the bruises and scratches she had received during the fighting. And now, she was paying for it.
But, what hurt her the most was that she could not help in the fight. Even though she had left on Naofumi's order, and that she might be their best hope of survival... the sense that she was running away from the battleground rather than stay and fight was eating her alive.
She persisted, though: fighting a dragon was no joke, and help was necessary.
"Aria, darling," she said, removing several tears of frustration from her eyes, "we need to find Rino quickly, she'll know how to find people willing to fight, and then we have to find Ferrie-nee-chan and return as fast as possible!"
"I remember how that lady smells, it'll be easy," Aria said, still flying downhill towards Mirso, but then, to Raphtalia's surprise, she turned in another direction with no warning.
"What's wrong, Aria?" Raphtalia asked at the sudden change.
"Mom is that way, Mommy, and I smell blood."
"What did you just say?" Raphtalia asked, but before the griffin could answer Raphtalia had forgotten her wounds and leaned forward. "Go faster, Aria!"
"Alright!"
Raphtalia was forced to grip the girl's feathers tighter as she began to beat her wings in order to fly faster. For a few moments, all she could think about was trying to fight off the dizzy spell that overwhelmed her, until Aria finally landed in a forest clearing, far away from the main path to the mountain, in front of the women that had come with them to this town.
To their shock, most of them were suffering different wounds.
"What happened, Ferrie-nee-chan? Why are you hurt?"
"Raphtalia? Good to see you. Are you done with the dragon carcass? We need Fumi's help to treat our wounds. Rino's uncle didn't take kindly to her exposing him to Sir Ren, and he turned the entire village against us."
"Even my parents attacked us! They attacked me! Their only daughter!" Rino cried as she bandaged a cut on Lea's right leg.
"Wha-what are you saying?"
"We won't find refuge among these people; our only option is to get out of here and hide. They would have killed us all if we hadn't escaped. They even attacked Eda, even though she is a nun of the Three Heroes' Church," Ludmila stated, holding an unconscious Eda in her arms. The large bump on the latter's head, and the bloodied cloth in the demi-human woman's hand, were enough proof of what she was saying.
"Mommy," called Aria to Raphtalia, and Ferrie turned to see the now winged human girl with a concerned look in her eyes. "There's a green thing in the corner of my sight with Daddy and Terry's name, and they have almost disappeared. Is that bad?"
The two girls were surprised, and quickly checked their status screens to see that Aria was right: Naofumi's health bar was just an eighth of the maximum, while Terry's was still half full.
"What happened there, Raphtalia?" Ferrie asked.
"Gaelion resurrected as a zombie dragon and started to attack everyone, mostly the Sword Hero. Naofumi-sama sent me to find help from the village, but this..." Raphtalia said, knowing that the women and children here would be unable to support them.
"Damn. We need people to fight, but we have no one," Ferrie muttered.
"If you are going to fight, I will join you, Lady of the Shield, Raphtalia-sama," Lea proposed, stepping forward, and followed by the other girls her age.
"I forbid you from joining them, Lea, you don't have any weapons to fight with," Sarah stated, halting the three teenagers where they were.
"I can fight in my Therianthrope form, Mother! I can be useful to Naofumi-sama!"
"He saved us. We must return the favor," Merla stated, with Nelia nodding behind her. "I can easily fly there and help him."
"You can't go," Rino declared, and the three girls turned to her. "You have to stay here and protect everyone. Those of us who know how to fight will go support Naofumi-sama."
"I don't feel comfortable leaving them without protection, Rino," Ferrie said. "Maybe you should stay here with them and hide from the village's mob."
"The green bars are still going down, Mom, Mommy," Aria said, causing the women further distress.
"Where are they fighting Gaelion, Raphtalia?" Rino asked, and the tanuki girl pointed in the approximate direction of the battleground. "That's more or less where Gaelion's lair stands. If we stop this fight, we might be able to take shelter somewhere nearby."
"If you do that, you need to go now, Naofumi-sama believes the village wants the riches in that cave," Raphtalia replied.
Quickly, the women planned out what to do.
The group of former slaves, led by Sarah and Ludmila, headed up the mountain towards the dragon's lair, while Merla guided them from the air, flying low to avoid catching the villagers' attention: they would prepare the place to defend themselves and wait for the heroes to return, so they could either protect the place or help them leave.
At the same time, Aria was flying as fast as she could, carrying Raphtalia, Rino and Ferrie towards the fight. The constant changes to Naofumi's and Terry's health bars kept them on edge, particularly when those changes brought them closer to zero.
When they finally arrived at the fight, they saw Bakta, Terry, and Welt desperately fighting. Terry was kicking the undead dragon with such force that their sound echoed through the mountain. Welt was stabbing the monster's stomach with all his might, while dodging its attempts to crush him. And Bakta was slashing its legs, causing great damage to the beast – which was, nonetheless, unperturbed by the attackers.
But, of Ren and Naofumi... there was no sign.
"Where is Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia screamed as Aria landed near the fight.
"Bakta, Welt, where is Sir Ren?" Ferrie asked, calmer than Raphtalia, but still scared by the Heroes' absence. It felt like lead had suddenly fallen into their stomachs.
"The dragon... it swallowed them! Sir Naofumi activated a skill to cover them, but they are still inside! The dragon hasn't moved since then, and we're trying to get them both out!"
The girls felt blood draining from their faces, as a cold feeling ran through their entire bodies. Rino almost lost consciousness. Raphtalia felt like she was about to vomit but controlled her rebellious stomach and drew her sword once more, charging as fast as her body permitted towards the beast.
The undead dragon noticed the movement and decided to attack her, but her natural agility and the training she had undergone let her reach her target, making a deep cut into the belly of the dragon. The creature roared with anger, blowing Welt away, as it tried to devour the tanuki girl.
Raphtalia answered by readying her sword for a counter, but Ferrie intervened by kicking the dragon's head so hard that it hit the ground, allowing Ferrie to take Raphtalia away from the dragon and joining Rino so they could plan how to attack the monster. Meanwhile, Aria helped Terry deal with the dragon: coordinating hits, they were able to cause some damage and distract it from the others.
"Don't lose your focus, Raphtalia, Rino, Fumi's still alive," Ferrie told them, and Raphtalia checked her status screen: while Naofumi's health bar was not full, it was still green. Rino gave a breath of ease, knowing they could still help the Heroes. "Now, we need to focus the dragon's attention on us-"
Whatever Ferrie was going to say was interrupted when the dragon gave a screech of pain, as impossible as that was. Suddenly, the magic everyone could feel flowing out of the monster stopped, and it fell to the ground, unmoving.
"What the hell happened? Lass, that last attack of yours was clearly stronger than I believed," a shocked Bakta said.
"I-I don't think I did that," Ferrie replied, shocked.
Something sliced the belly of the dragon from the inside, and out came two figures, covered in blood, stomach acids and other slimy fluids no one wanted to think about.
"Naofumi, when you talked about the space cockroach and the dragon, I didn't believe you were that literal in what we would have to do."
"With my skills, it was the easiest way to reach the core. Damnit, now my smell sense is dead."
"Now I know how J felt when Edwin ate him alive."
"In my world, it was Edgar, and he ate K in the movie."
"Movie? Wasn't it an anime?"
"Nope. First it was a comic. Then it was a popular movie. Then came the animated series. But there was never an anime."
"Your world sucks, Naofumi."
"Shut up, Ren."
Deciding that he had made his point, Naofumi began to shake his limbs and body, attempting to remove all the bodily fluids that did not belong on his skin.
"Naofumi-sama!" Raphtalia exclaimed, running towards the Shield Hero, only to stop as she noticed the overwhelming stench coming from him.
"Fumi! Are you- crap, you stink, man! Stay where you are!" Ferrie said, holding her nose and trying to ward off the horrible smell.
Oh? Naofumi thought, smirking with mischief in his eyes. You don't want to come here? I can come to you, then.
Ferrie felt a cold shiver running through her back, and she stepped back. Seeing Naofumi's smirk grow, and noticing he was trying to get closer; she knew it would not be good.
"Come here, Ferrie, Raphtalia! I'm so happy to see you that I want to hug you!" he shouted, running with open arms towards them.
"Get away from me, Iwatani Naofumi!" Ferrie shouted back while starting to run.
"Naofumi-sama, don't come here, stop chasing Ferrie-nee-chan! Wait, Ferrie-nee-chan, don't chase me, no, AAAGH! The smell is unbearable!"
Meanwhile, the other people that had helped fight off the undead dragon just watched the three of them act like unruly children.
"I'm suddenly so glad that I'm not in his party," Rino said.
"Aw, don't worry, give it a week and you'll be there, Miss Rino," Terry replied, causing the blonde girl to grimace.
"Sometimes, our parents act like babies," Aria complained.
After several minutes of acting like fools, and after Naofumi and Ren washed off the worst of the smell, they were ready for the next: Naofumi turned to take care of the injured women, and then they began to dispose of the body, something Naofumi had suggested after learning what had been the plot of Rino's uncle. Ren had agreed with the idea, wanting to at least give a modicum of dignity to the dragon he had killed under false premises. Wyndia was obviously upset about the idea but knew she would rather see that than see her father's body ransacked for the greed of a bunch of people.
But then another complication surged.
"I'm not going to take her with me," Ren said, bluntly, as he cut off one of the dragon's legs in pieces, which he threw into a pit they had prepared to burn the corpse.
"Yeah, I'm not going to go with my father's murderer!" Wyndia was clearly unhappy with the idea.
Naofumi could understand both of their points and wished he could do more to deal with it. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones with troubles.
"Well, I have too much on my plate now. I had hoped that Rino's hometown would be able to house everyone while I found a better place for them to stay, but since we just ruined their plot to steal Gaelion's riches I don't think we'll be welcome there anymore. Hell, they just went and attacked the girls just because Rino pointed out Wyndia was here!"
"We will have to file a complaint about this, Sir Ren, the Crown cannot abide with something that could have put the kingdom at risk," Tersia said, fixing his clothes as he finished readying the pit.
"I don't care about that. I want to be here, at my home, at the place where he's resting," Wyndia stated.
"Wyndia... I'm sorry, but it's not possible," Ferrie said, looking at the young demi-human with sadness. "Those excuses of human beings attacked us, a group of unarmed women with babies in their arms, just because we exposed them to Sir Ren. One of them even died after I dodged an attack, and they didn't care about that. They will come after you, no matter what happens, because they'll believe you can give them his treasure."
"Yes. It'll be better if you just take some of your stuff and run away with Ren until you can find a better place to live," Naofumi stated as he dragged a part of the dragon's torso.
Wyndia reflected on what they were telling her... and she was not convinced yet. Whatever she wanted to say, though, was interrupted by Ren expressing his opinion.
"You're putting a lot of effort into a side quest that doesn't even exist in the game, Naofumi. She's an NPC. I doubt you'll get anything from this quest."
It was not the first time Ren's group had heard that word. From what they could tell, it belonged to the kind of people that could only make their leader angry, although they believed he may have used it to refer to them when they did not do a job in time.
Ferrie had heard that word in her past life, from when Naofumi and his cousin talked about games, but the actual concept behind it eluded the monk girl. To the rest of the natives, it was an unfamiliar word that they might have to learn.
But, to Naofumi, it was different. Not only did he know the meaning behind that word, but he could also hear more than what Ren was telling him. After all the time they had spent in this world, Ren still considered this world's natives, including his party, as expendable people.
No, it was worse.
As far as Ren was concerned, the humans, demi-humans and monsters of this world were as much worth as a rock in the road.
As far as he was concerned, no one was alive. They did not have dreams. Their feelings did not matter to him. Even after Naofumi warned him, he still thought nothing was real. And he would bet the contents in his Storage that Itsuki and Motoyasu thought the same thing.
Saying that he was outraged was an understatement. In fact, he nearly brought out the Shield of Rage, the same one he had used the previous night. It was only seeing Raphtalia and the burns she still had from the previous night that kept him from actually attacking Ren for his callous behavior towards the people in this world.
Taking a deep breath to calm down, he called Raphtalia over, and then led her to Ren, who was looking quite tense as he saw the thunderous glare Naofumi was giving him.
"Shield Prison!" Naofumi called out, and a cluster of shields suddenly covered the three of them, to everyone's shock.
"What is the meaning of this, Naofumi?" Ren asked, nervously. Naofumi ignored him.
"Raphtalia, I need you to follow my orders without a doubt. Can you do that?"
"Oi, Naofumi, why are you asking her that?"
"Yes, Naofumi-sama, I can do that," Raphtalia replied, ignoring Ren as well.
"Good. I want you to punch him in the face."
"WHAT?" Ren asked out loud. Raphtalia would have done the same, but she felt her seal starting to heat up in response to not obeying an order, and punched Ren straight in the face without further hesitation.
She punched him so hard that the young man slammed into the shield dome, causing him even more pain.
"Now, make a small cut on his cheeks and arms," the angered Hero continued. Raphtalia unsheathed her knife and closed in on him. Ren attempted to defend himself, but his sword was too long to allow him to fight effectively. Raphtalia quickly made two cuts to Ren's cheeks, and then one to his left arm, but Ren was moving so much that Raphtalia was unable to control it and the cut was deep enough that it touched bone.
"What the fuck!" Enraged, the Sword Hero changed his weapon to a short sword, a gladius if Naofumi was not wrong, and tried to attack Raphtalia, but Naofumi quickly jumped in.
"Hold it there, Ren," he yelled, blocking an attack that could have easily killed the tanuki demi-human girl. The attack was strong, but Naofumi was tough enough to deal with it.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to cut so deep!" Raphtalia apologized.
"What is the meaning of this? You've been helping me the entire day, and now, all of a sudden, you not only lock me up and separate me from my party, but you also actually instruct one of your companions to kill me! What the fuck is wrong with you, Naofumi?"
"With me? What the hell is wrong with you, Ren!" Naofumi grabbed Ren's sword hand with his left to keep him from attacking, while the other gripped his shirt. "We have been living in this world for twenty days already! You've worked with your party! You've had time to get a feel of their personalities, their tastes! You've met with the people you helped! And you're still holding onto the delusion that they are just some NPCs in a videogame? How much of a fool are you that you think these people have no life of their own? That they have no emotions or free will to do whatever they want?"
"This is a game, Naofumi!" Ren yelled back. "How do you explain what I've seen? Everything here is pretty much the same as in my favorite game, except for you and the other two! I may have only played on PVE servers, but it's all just the same!"
"Well, I don't know! Maybe someone in your world got an idea they thought was unique and came up with a videogame to let others see it, when what they did was to see this world! For all we know, a lot of literature, movies, TV shows, whatever, maybe they were created because someone saw another world! And when you played your game, all you saw was a dragon that the game maker decided you had to kill! He didn't see Wyndia, he didn't know about Wyndia, so she never showed up!"
"And why didn't I see someone like you in the game, trying to stop me!"
"Because they didn't see everything! Even if they had somehow seen you do this, any minor change would have caused further changes along the line!"
By this point, the two Heroes were screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, and in the middle of it was Raphtalia, who was growing a headache from both being inside the Shield Prison and the pounding from all the yelling. But, still, she was paying enough attention that, even with her somewhat naïve mind and young life, she could understand there was something seriously wrong.
"What you are saying is stupid and moronic, Naofumi!"
"Oh, what I am saying is stupid? Are you even hearing yourself? You think that the idea that this is a different world is dumber than the possibility that you are in some game? If that were true, why are you in pain? Why is your blood spreading the way it is? Hell, I'm sure your health bar is dropping, isn't it?"
Ren tried to counter, but Naofumi grabbed him so close they were almost eye to eye.
"I know, better than the three of you combined, what being in another world means. I had three lovers, and they all died in my arms. My aunt was eaten alive by a monster that your worst nightmares would have nightmares about. My uncle was torn apart and impaled and still had the strength to make jokes with his last breath. My best friend, the first woman I loved, died because I was too stupid. Don't. You. Fucking. Dare. To. Insult. Me. Like. That. These people are alive, we are the intruders, and we WILL treat them like human beings. Even the ones that don't look human. Is that understood, Ren?"
Ren gulped right then. Naofumi's eyes were turning an unnatural shade of red, the Shield was covered in flickers of black and green fire, and he could even smell the evil coming out of him.
It was the second time in his life he could say, without shame, that he was terrified for his life. And, while held by that terror, he felt a wall within his mind break, and he gained some clarity of his current situation.
"Cr-crystal," Ren replied, nodding so quickly that he actually began to feel pain in his neck.
"Good. Now, you are going to take Wyndia under your care, guarantee her safety. She doesn't need to fight with your party, but you must take care of her health. Only way to atone for your sins, after you left her an orphan."
"Look, I-I can't take her, Naofumi! If what you think about the church is correct, she'd suffer worse than if she were on her own, and if I go down to the town with her in tow not only would it cause her pain, but they might also actually do what you said!"
"I have ten adult women, three children and a lot of babies under my care, and I don't know where to keep them! If I add Wyndia to my group, it'll be all the harder for me to take care of them, it's not as if I have some place where I can hi-" Naofumi suddenly went silent, clearly pondering something else.
"Naofumi?" Ren asked.
"Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia asked.
"Goddamnit, I'm a dumbass," Naofumi finally said, headbutting the Shield Prison's walls three times. While Raphtalia felt worried, the evil presence the Shield Hero had been exuding just a few moments before suddenly vanished, much to Ren's relief.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Nothing, Ren, nothing. So, you said you don't want to take care of her, and, well, she said she didn't want you near her. Alright, I'll bring her with me, but you better make sure that the people who wanted Gaelion to die face justice. I don't care how you do it, as long as it happens. Are you alright with that?"
The Sword Hero was surprised by Naofumi's change in attitude but chose to just be grateful for that and nodded. He then realized it was too soon, as the evil aura surrounding Naofumi went from zero to max in one second.
"Also... you need to reevaluate your views of your party. They're good people, and they don't deserve the way you have been treating them."
"I-I-I will think of it," he uttered.
"Good to hear."
The evil aura vanished, and so did the Shield Prison, finally revealing the three of them to their parties. Upon seeing Ren's injuries, his party quickly reacted: Bakta jumped between the two Heroes, Tersia cast a healing spell, and Welt unsheathed his knives, ready to attack.
Ferrie, the children, and Rino, went tense as it seemed there would be yet another fight here. Fortunately for everyone, Naofumi just stepped away and raised his hands.
"Remember, Ren, if this were a game, you wouldn't be bleeding like you are right now."
"You already said that, Naofumi," Ren replied with a groan.
"Just wanted to make sure the message stuck. Do your part, and I'll do the same. Wyndia, if you want, you can join me, and I'll take care of you."
"What else can I do?"
"You can go with Ren, come with me... or stay here and hope the villagers will not attack you."
It did not take her long before deciding to join the Shield Hero's party. Ren and his party left, and Wyndia guided them to her home, to meet the women Naofumi had rescued.
Only to find a surprise as they arrived at the dragon's lair, for, apart from the expected barricade, there were multiple balloons marching back and forth, protecting the entrance.
"What the hell," Ferrie muttered in astonished surprise, while Rino watched the considerable number of monsters with a wary eye: she might be able to deal with them, but their bites were annoying to hell.
Raphtalia, however, was not afraid: she was watching the balloons as if she were trying to find something. Then one of the monsters turned towards them, and flew towards the group, going towards Naofumi as if it were a guided missile.
The monster promptly bit Naofumi's side the moment it reached the hero, who took a few seconds to understand what had just happened.
"BOB?" Naofumi shouted, surprised. "I thought you had died in the fire!"
"That Balloon and its friends saved us, Naofumi-sama," Radoslava said, walking from behind the barricade, her child in her arms.
"What do you mean?"
"The villagers found us on the way here. They surrounded us, laughed at us, said things I really don't want to repeat, Naofumi-sama. But when they tried to attack us again, this balloon horde appeared from behind them and started to attack. The villagers realized they were outnumbered and ran away. I think they believed the balloons would attack us. But... these little fellas instead guided us to the lair, and they even helped us put up several tables to make a barricade."
What. The. Hell, Naofumi thought, stunned.
"Be honest with me, Naofumi," Ferrie said, accidentally switching to the language of Tlautik. "What did you do to those poor balloons? This behavior is completely against the norm for them. Are you using Animal Whisperer to make them work for you?"
"Are you kidding? I lost that skill when I was summoned here! I don't even know what's going on!" Naofumi replied, using the same language.
"Naofumi-sama? Ferrie-san?" Rino said, trying – and failing – to draw the duo's attention as they began to talk louder in another language.
"Can you stop them, mommy?" Aria asked to Raphtalia. "I don't get what they are saying."
"I don't recognize what they are speaking," Radoslava said, fascinated with this new language.
"Forget it, they start to use that language when they want to have a private conversation," Raphtalia replied. "They'll come back soon. Wyndia, get your things ready, this place is not safe for you anymore."
With a stab of pain in her chest, the demi-human dog girl conceded the point that her safety could not be assured if she stayed, not after hearing what had happened to the women and children that had taken refuge in it. The Shield Hero had only come to the town near the mountain to find a safe place for them, and instead they had been rejected.
It was... wrong.
As she gathered her things, she heard the tanuki girl giving orders to the two children that somehow were also a Filolial and a Griffin, so they would keep an eye on the surroundings, in case the villagers decided to attack again. The others just prepared themselves for departure. And the Shield hero and the green-haired girl just kept arguing in that strange language of theirs.
It was an hour later, as she put the last of what she wanted to take in a bag, that the latter finally switched to the common language – and all they were speaking about was things that sounded like nonsense.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE, NAOFUMI, FORGET THE FUCKING POTATO! THAT LITERALLY HAPPENED A LIFETIME AGO!"
"I DON'T CARE, YOU STUBBORN WOMAN! I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN! THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO HARVEST THAT THING!"
"THAT'S WHY WE NEED THOSE SEEDS, TO RESOLVE THE FAMINE IN THE KINGDOM, YOU MORON! YOU JUST NEED TO KEEP THEM IN A DARK PLACE SO THEY WON'T BECOME POISONOUS! THEY ALSO HAVE THOSE IN YOUR WORLD, AND NOBODY IS DYING, DAMNIT!"
"ENOUGH THERE, YOU TWO!" Raphtalia finally screamed, grabbing Naofumi and Ferrie by their sleeves and pulling, throwing them off their discussion. "Now that we are not wasting any more time, we need to move. Wyndia picked up her belongings ten minutes ago, and you didn't even notice because you were too busy with your arguing match!"
"Ugh, right. Sorry, Fumi, we went over the tangent too easy."
"Yes, we did. I'm sorry too."
"But we need-"
"DON'T!" Raphtalia yelled, heading off another argument before it could even begin. "I don't know what the deal with this potato is, but you've argued about it every night whenever you thought I was asleep, and it always ends the same way! We need to move NOW!"
"YES, MA'AM!" Naofumi and Ferrie replied simultaneously, and the two moved into the lair in a power walk style, just to get away from the angry Raphtalia and her angry tanuki noises.
"Man, that sounded a lot like Raphaella whenever she got angry," Ferrie said, scratching her head. Also, while she would not say it aloud, the angry noises Raphtalia made were quite cute.
Making her mad more often might actually be worth the effort.
"Yeah, it's just like her," Naofumi admitted, his gaze turned melancholic as he remembered his past.
That was so hot- wait a moment, where did that come from? Focus, Naofumi!
Pulling their head out of the past, they found Wyndia sightlessly looking into the distance. After giving her a few moments to herself, they made their presence known.
"Are you ready?" Ferrie gently asked, snapping the younger girl out of her thoughts.
"Yes. This... this is everything I can bring with myself without being a hindrance."
Naofumi looked over the lot of it. She had several open bags, which contained what Naofumi thought were mementoes, personal items like clothes, a bag that had a decent amount of money...
… and a dragon's egg.
"It's my sibling, my father's child, I'm not going to leave it with those people," Wyndia said as she noticed Naofumi's gaze, scorn obvious in her voice as she spoke.
"If you want, we can take everything in this cave with us. Hell, we can take even all of the furniture so you can furnish your own house."
"And how would you get that mountain of gold with us?" Wyndia asked, skeptical.
"I have a pocket dimension that would allow me to stock all of your belongings until we find a place where you feel safe to live in. Even that mountain of gold and silver. Tell me, what were you planning to do with all the treasure you couldn't bring?"
"Melt it away."
Naofumi and Ferrie looked at each other and silently shrugged before starting to move the rest of Wyndia's belongings.
The following day, the villagers would reach Gaelion's lair... only to find it bare as if nothing had ever been in that cave. Of the dragon's corpse, there was no trace at all – their expectations of getting materials out of it was dashed. Worst of all, though, was that the rumors that the Sword hero had killed the dragon were spreading like wildfire all over the country, and soon adventurers seeking to buy or take parts of the body would come to the town... and find that they did not exist anymore.
After a turbulent season for me, I return with the next chapter of this story. I want to thank all the people who have read up to this point, as well as my Beta reader, who is a genius and saint, for being so patient with me and this story even though English is not my primary tongue.
Still, here we are.
The next chapter will take a little longer (I hope not) because I'm going to change my job, and it's going to take some of my time to get used to the new routine.
See you next time.