A/N: Someone pointed out that it was odd for Jircniv to compare Ainz's strength to that of the Sunlight Scripture- but that's because Jircniv knows that they did fight the Sunlight Scripture. They haven't fought any of the Knights, and as such, his only reference for how strong Ainz is is in comparison to the Sunlight Scripture. Now, he may not have an exact idea of how strong they are as a group- but he must have a reference given they are a secret ops corps of the Theocracy.
As for things going too fast, I have to admit that that is a weakness in my writing- I do tend to skip things to get to what I think is interesting. Most of what I've skipped is stuff I assumed people would know going into this, and I don't want to spend thousands of words describing stuff though I might put in a short description of things. I don't want to end up copying the novel's chapters word for word though. Also, most of things that occurred in the first 3 Overlord novels, including Ainz going to guard Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness and whatnot didn't happen in this timeline. What did happen could be summed up rather fast- with that said I'll make it a point to pay more attention to detail about these things going on.
The first thing that Suzuki thought to do was to contact the NPCs.
There was a problem though. On his display, he could still see their names, but rather than appearing bright white, the names were grayed out.
In Yggdrasil as well as in many other games, a grayed out name signified that the person was offline. That didn't make sense given the current circumstances, so that left only one conclusion...
Suzuki tried sending a message to one of them, but despite draining his SP, the message didn't go.
Unable to send messages to this recipient.
Given the earlier messages about him suddenly unlocking new shields, he had a good idea what had happened.
"Take me back!" he shouted at one of the people surrounding him. "I have to go back!"
"Um, Sir Hero, we can't send you back," one of the said nervously.
"What do you mean you can't?" Suzuki asked, now furious.
The Great Tomb of Nazarick was what he cared about most in the world- no, that wasn't right- he valued his fellow guildmates more than it, but nothing else besides.
When he was with the NPCs, strangely, it felt as if his friends were still right there, standing right besides him. Not to mention he considered it his honor-bound duty to guard the guild base which they had all worked so hard to build together.
To be separated from it for him was almost worse than death. The only reason he wasn't freaking out even more was because he was sure there was a way back- even if this idiot wasn't telling him what it was.
"Relax," the man holding a spear said while putting a hand on Suzuki's shoulder. "Hey- haven't you seen an isekai before? We'll be sent back once we beat the final boss or whatever... then you can go back to Earth."
"I'm not talking about Earth!" Suzuki said. By this point he had almost no desire to return to the Earth of 2138. The new world he had found himself in, no matter its flaws, was infinitely better than Earth. The only reason that he might even consider going back there was to meet with his guildmates one more time. "I mean, whatever other world I was in." He glared at one of the mages. "Just reverse whatever you did, okay?"
"F-Forgive me, Sir Hero, but there is no way to undo what we have done," the man said.
Suzuki's mouth twitched as he remembered something. There was another way to travel between worlds- granted he didn't know if it would still work, but all he had to do was wait for the next Wave, right?
That was only if he was in Raphtalia's world, though. He needed to confirm that.
"Wait... is this the country known as the Kingdom of Melromarc?" Suzuki asked.
"I-Indeed it is," a man said. It was clear that Suzuki had surprised them with his knowledge of the place.
"Hey- have you been here before?" the man with a sword asked.
"Sort of," Suzuki said. "So... you want to take us to meet your king or whatever then?"
"Indeed, Sir Hero, the king awaits your presence," a mage said, now more relaxed given that Suzuki was no longer giving out a threatening aura.
The four of them were led through the castle, and through a window Suzuki saw a glimpse of the city. It was quite different from Raphtalia's village, but he wasn't sure as of yet how he would rate it compared to E-Rantel.
They were led through a courtyard to another building. After several flights of stairs they came upon two large decorated doors which led to a throne room.
The king was about as stereotypical a king you could find, at least Suzuki thought so. His hair was gray and he had a stern expression.
"Heroes, please line up so that the king may see you individually," a guard said.
The four of them did so, and the king began to speak. At least, it sounded as if he was going to say something before someone else whispered something in his ear.
His eyes immediately flickered to Suzuki and he grunted before saying, "Welcome, Cardinal Heroes, to the Kingdom of Melromarc. I am her king, King Aultcray Merlromarc XXXII. Please introduce yourselves."
"Ren Amaki. I'm a sixteen-year-old high school student," the boy with a sword said.
"I'm Motoyasu Kitamura. I'm twenty-one and in my final year of college," the blonde person with a spear said.
"I'm Itsuki Kawasumi, seventeen years old and a high school student," the boy with a bow said.
The king turned his gaze towards Suzuki and smiled. It was not a genuine one- or so Suzuki felt. It felt like how a superior would smile just before bringing the hammer down on a subordinate.
"Ah, Shield Hero, it appears you are already familiar with our kingdom's name," he said. "Tell me Shield Hero, there is one other matter that has perplexed me for a while. A short time ago, I was told that a village in my kingdom by the name of Lurolona Village was attacked by a Wave of Calamity. The residents however were able to escape unscathed with zero casualties, and said that it was thanks to the work of the Shield Hero. However, no later trace of word of the Shield Hero could be found following the incident. There were also reports of an army of demons appearing shortly after the wave and disappearing. Could you perhaps shed some light on the matter?"
Suzuki took a few seconds to register the name of Raphtalia's village. "Right, indeed, I was the one who saved that village. And the army of demons are not actually monsters- that was my army."
The other three Heroes looked at Suzuki curiously while King Aultcray rubbed his chin. "Ah, it appears then that I am in your debt, Sir Shield Hero. Thank you for saving the people of my kingdom."
Suzuki couldn't help but feel like the man's gratitude wasn't one hundred percent sincere, but didn't want to tick the guy off for no reason.
"However, this is most confusing to me. How is that you were able to appear before we summoned you? Did you appear in another nation? Perhaps Shieldfreeden, or Siltvelt?"
"I have to confess to not knowing about either of those nations," Suzuki said. "Ah, but if you want to know what happened..."
Suzuki went into a long story describing his experience in Yggdrasil, the other world he went to, and this strange world.
"So... you were sent to a video game... which was sent to another world... and then you were transported to another world again...?" Motoyasu asked, pondering what Suzuki had said.
"It's like an isekai squared," Ren said. "No, an isekai cubed to be more exact."
"Regardless, what I really want is a way to go back to the other world," Suzuki said. "I can tell you need forces to fight the waves, and I have an army ready to fight them. Just send me back there." He didn't want to rely on intimidation right away and wanted to show the king that it would be in his benefit to send Suzuki away.
"I... cannot do it," King Aultcray said. "No method exists to reverse the Hero Summoning Ceremony. It is only said that once the Waves of Calamity are vanquished that you may return. Now, setting these matters aside, can you all see your status?"
"Huh?" Itsuki asked.
"The small square on the bottom of your screen," Suzuki told him.
"Ah!" Itsuki said. He then frowned as he glanced at Suzuki. "Wait a moment- why is he already level six?"
"I'm guessing because he fought in the First Wave," Ren said.
"That's... kinda unfair," Motoyasu said.
The other three Heroes shot envious looks at Suzuki which made him squirm on the inside.
Then again, their jealously couldn't be helped. If you saw someone else was given an unfair advantage, you would of course be rightfully angry about it.
After all, Ulbert tended to complain about how not only did certain people get unfair head starts in real life, but also in Yggdrasil by buying cash shop items.
It was like watching your sibling get a Christmas present while you got nothing- or something like that.
Suzuki turned to King Aultcray to seek some sort of salvation, but it appeared that the king was enjoying this spectacle.
"Regardless, let us put these thoughts aside," King Aultcray said. "A maid will lead you to a waiting room, and from there onwards to your rooms. We will meet again tomorrow."
Motoyasu tried hitting on the maid as they made their way to a decorated room with a large table on it, but his efforts went nowhere.
After sitting down, Ren said, "Was all that you said true, Suzuki?"
"Yes," Suzuki said. He then realized something. "Wait- you guys can see I'm level six, right? Can you see my Yggdrasil levels?"
"Uh... no," Itsuki said. "There's nothing like that at all."
Well, that sort of made sense. In Yggdrasil you couldn't see another player's level aside from using certain skills or items unless they were a team member. There were even level one hundred players who would take advantage of this by donning gear which looked to be plain and hunting down new players for fun. Suzuki and his guild had great fun in taking down those kinds of player-killers.
It seemed the same system didn't work for levels here though, as Suzuki could see that the others were each level one.
Strange, given that it didn't work like that in E-Rantel or with anyone he had met in that other world.
"I thought this world was based off of Emerald Online. I've never heard of Yggdrasil or a DMMORPG."
"It's actually like Dimension Weave!"
"No, it's like Brave Star Online!"
It became clear as they talked to one another that the four of them came from different worlds, though they were all from a country known as Japan. The person on the back of a thousand yen note, the first country to reach the moon, the country that won World War II- the answers to these questions were different for each and every one of them.
"Heroes- dinner is ready. Once that is done we'll lead you to your rooms," a maid chimed in.
Once they were seated at the dinner table talk once resumed regarding their respective worlds.
Itsuki had been sent here after being run over by a truck.
Ren had been stabbed while saving a friend of his.
Motoyasu had been stabbed by one of his girlfriends- yeah, he was doing two chicks at once and one of them turned out to be a little too obsessive. Suzuki found it funny that despite that being what landed him in this situation in the first place, he still found time to flirt with nearly anything remotely attractive wearing a skirt that passed by him.
It was kind of how Suzuki would imagine Peroroncino would act if he didn't have his sister, Bukubukuchagama to reign him in.
As a sort of fun exercise, Suzuki thought about which one of his guild members the other two seemed to resemble.
Regarding Itsuki, Suzuki felt that the boy was a bit similar to Touch Me in that he seemed to want to play the hero and exact justice.
As for Ren, Suzuki couldn't really fit him into the mold of any of his guild members given he seemed to be a bit of a loner- but if he had to do so, he would say that Ren was most like Warrior Takemikazuchi, though this was probably just because Ren fought with a sword.
None of them were really that similar to any of his guild mates though, and the comparisons were probably just mostly wishful thinking on Suzuki's part. After all, Suzuki figured that if they were all going to work together then he should try to stay on good terms with them.
Suzuki also learned that all three of them thought that the Shield was the worst of the Four Weapons- its power didn't scale enough when one levelled up and basically became obsolete with no one serious ever playing it.
Suzuki groaned at that, but didn't resign himself completely- there was the possibility that his Yggdrasil levels could compensate for this deficiency.
After dinner, Suzuki went to the room assigned to him, but rather than fall asleep immediately sprang into action.
Thanks to his Ring of Sustenance, he did not feel fatigue at all and would not need to sleep.
There was now a big issue for him though- he was separated from most of his magical items.
In Yggdrasil, the chances of a Rogue's or Thief's stealing skill working was based on the level difference between the two. Of course, several other factors like items and skills were also part of the calculations, but the main gist was that it was highly likely that anything that Suzuki had could be stolen if he ran into someone with Thief-type classes given his low level. As such, he had not equipped himself with the best items in Nazarick.
On top of that, a good number of the best items in Nazarick had certain requirements to equip them- and these were usually level requirements. Suzuki was at Yggdrasil level 12 and as such could not use many of them.
As for gold, he only had kept enough to use the effect of his shield generating interest from it. He had enough to use on maybe two mercenary contracts- no more.
He had always assumed that he could rely on items from one of the others if he ever needed something- but he hadn't prepared for a situation like this where he would be separated from the guild base.
He sighed and then jolted right back up.
Raphtalia!
It was very likely that the people of Lurolona Vllage would come here once they heard he had been summoned and then ask about her. What would Suzuki tell them? He wasn't even sure if when the next Wave hit, he would really be able to go back to the other world and bring her back here.
Even more alarming, he thought, was what the other citizens of Nazarick must be doing at the moment. As far as he could tell, time seemed to move at the same rate between here and there, which meant that several hours had passed.
All of them were probably panicking at Suzuki's sudden absence- and oh no! What would they do to Raphtalia? Suzuki knew most members of the Tomb did not like outsiders, and it was a possibility that without Suzuki being there to protect her the girl might fall into trouble.
His anxiety welled up within him and reached a crescendo which made him want to tear his hair out. If only there was a quick and easy way for him to deal with his emotions...
After a couple of deep breaths, he calmed himself enough to realize that panicking wouldn't do anything and instead he should focus on the task at hand.
The most relevant thing to do would be to see what shields he had and what he could do to prep himself for combat. Thank heavens he could still access his inventory as usual.
Most of the shields he had unlocked while in Nazarick were locked away now, with the same message saying that the materials were not recognized that he had gotten when he had added materials from this world to his shield while in Nazarick. There were a few exceptions to this however- such as the Guildmaster Shield.
As of now, his best shield was the Cerberus Shield, which seemed rather natural to him when he thought about it. It was a drop from a boss monster after all.
Cerberus Shield [Attack +3, Equip Bonus: Alert Shield, Special Equip Effect: Dog Bite, Special Equip Effect: Intimidation]
His other shields gave small bonuses but didn't seem to be as suited as combat as this one.
Next, he went ahead and tried an experiment. He had an item equipped called Amulet of The Desert Prince, which could summon a level fifty monster known as the Pharaoh's Serpent once a week.
He used its effect to bring about a large brown basilisk-type creature with a pschent on top of its head.
"I'm gonna need one of your fangs," Suzuki said and the summoned monster obliged as he tore it off and added it to his shield.
As expected, nothing happened. Suzuki had found that any monster summoned through skills or spells could not be added to the shield to get anything new- though parts from mercenary NPCs worked. This was probably because summoned creatures were not considered 'real' and just extensions of their summoners. Suzuki had also tried fighting the POP monsters within Nazarick by turning on friendly fire once and found that they did not give him any XP because they were considered allies- so his idea of maybe fighting the summon to gain XP also went down the drain if similar systems worked here.
"Alright, enough," Suzuki said, dismissing the monster, which meant that he had used the amulet's effect for nothing. But no matter- he had some other items and if push came to shove he would bring about some mercenary summons.
The rest of the night was spent in compounding with whatever ingredients he had left, though this went nowhere as far as making new potions was concerned.
Eventually the sun came up and a knock at the door told him that it was time for him to get ready. "Sir Hero- the king awaits your presence!" a female voice called out.
"Understood!" Suzuki said.
"Welcome, Heroes," King Aultcray said. "I have called upon adventurers throughout the kingdom to aid you in your quests to save this world!"
Suzuki thought it was a bit too much given that there were already four people- but he soon got confused as he saw that it seemed as if they were being assigned separate parties.
"Wait- are we not working together?"
"No, Sir Hero, for the Legendary Weapons do not seem to work properly when near each other," King Aultcray said. "As such, the Four Heroes have always travelled separately."
A message even appeared on Suzuki's screen:
Warning: the Legendary Weapons and their owners will experience adverse effects if they fight together. It is preferable the Heroes fight separately when possible.
This was the first Suzuki had heard of this- though the others all seemed to have already known about this. The adventurers filed behind each Hero- save for Suzuki. In other words, the adventurers got to choose who they were assigned to rather than the Heroes picking, which seemed kind of backwards to Suzuki.
As expected, a giggle of girls had gathered behind Motoyasu, and both Ren and Itsuki had some party members with them. It was only Suzuki who was standing in front of no one.
"Hey- what gives?" Suzuki asked no one in particular.
"There are some... odd rumors floating about you," King Aultcray said. "Namely that you do not know the systems of this world... and also that you've been talking about an alternate world which there is no evidence of."
In other words, people thought that Suzuki was crazy when he talked about there being this other world apart from Earth. Which, given no one else could see the Yggdrasil functions that Suzuki could, was slightly understandable- but why would they discount everything else? Like how he had already levelled up, and the way he had already fought in the First Wave? Surely people should've been eager to join him?
"Is no one willing to join the Shield Hero?" King Aultcray asked with a sigh. Everyone moved closer to their respective Hero by about an inch, as if even drifting near Suzuki would infect them like he was some sort of contagious disease. Was he really that hated?
Suzuki was royally pissed because if he was back in Nazarick he would have hundreds of team members- but it was then that someone spoke up.
"I'll join the Shield Hero!"
The one who said this was a young woman with dark red hair and green eyes. She was rather beautiful- in Suzuki's opinion she would rank just below any of the Pleiades in appearance. She was not as beautiful as Albedo though, and also not as horny (in both senses of the word).
"Are you sure?" the king seemed to be worried about her decision.
"Yes," she said and stood behind Suzuki.
Well, Suzuki thought, he at least had someone he could rely on for the time being.
"Anyone else?" King Aultcracy asked. Suzuki's party was still the smallest by far with each of the other Heroes having at least two more members. "Alright then, to compensate I will be giving Sir Suzuki two hundred extra silver in addition to the normal six hundred assigned to each He-"
"Wait!" Itsuki cried out. "That's not fair at all- he already has a head start on us!"
"Indeed, given he has had time to level up beforehand I'd say the playing field is relatively even," Ren said.
Motoyasu didn't say anything but nodded, indicating his support of the other two.
"Ah, a good point," King Aultcray said. "In that case, I will give each Hero the same amount of six hundred silver coins."
Ren and Itsuki perked up, and Motoyasu grinned. Suzuki was of course fuming- while he could understand that the others were a bit miffed that he had gotten a head start, he was also apparently wielding the worst weapon! And he would need party members to level up given his low offensive ability. Why were they so petty as to deny him some few extra coins?
But, Suzuki tried to not let it show too much as he wandered outside towards the gates.
"My name is Myne Suphia, Sir Hero," the woman following him said.
"Ah, it's fine if you call me Suzuki," Suzuki said. "First order of business- is there a hourglass here?" Suzuki described what he had seen in Carne Village to her.
"Indeed," Myne said. "It's housed in a nearby church." She told Suzuki that they were called 'Dragon Hourglasses' and were present in several locations in this world.
She then paused. "Are you looking for something?"
"Ah, I was just wondering- you're an adventurer, right? So do you not wear any plates to distinguish ranks between yourselves?" Suzuki asked. In Re-Estize and the Empire of Baharuth such a practice was common. Adventurers would wear metal plates made of gold, silver, copper, platinum, etc. based on their rank like modern soldiers would sometimes wear dog tags. Though, as Myne began to explain things Suzuki realized that adventurers in this world were little more than mercenaries and there didn't seem to be that much oversight over them.
Raphtalia had not told him these things- but given her age he really couldn't fault her for not knowing too much. She was also just a village girl after all.
Myne told him more about Melromarc- how it was a country that practiced human supremacy. That made Suzuki feel a bit odd given that there was a village of demi-humans in it. Also, it reminded him of certain guilds made of human characters who would strike and hunt down heteromorph players. It was due to them that he had almost quit Yggdrasil so long ago...
Not to mention this country practiced slavery like many countries in that other world.
At the church, Suzuki noticed that there were symbols showing a bow, a sword, and a spear, but no shield. Myne explained that the Church of the Three Heroes only worshipped those three.
That was probably why the priests and nuns there shot Suzuki some alarmed looks, but the two of them were not harassed as Suzuki linked his shield to the hourglass.
It was very similar to the one found in Carne Village, and Suzuki was delighted to find out that factoring in the event that a day had passed, it seemed the timing of the Wave was the same both here and in Carne. That was what he had wanted to confirm.
"Now, Hero, we should go to a weapons shop and pick up some gear," Myne said.
"I want to test some things out at first," Suzuki said.
The two of them made their way to a field on the outskirts of town, where there were several strange monsters which looked like balloons flying around. He had seen nothing of the sort in Yggdrasil, but did spot Ren easily slaying several of them with his sword.
"Hmmm..." Suzuki muttered to himself. If Ren could kill them so easily, he should be able to as well. There was one issue though...
Most of his offensive stats- rather, about ninety-five percent of them came from his Yggdrasil levels. This wasn't because classes like Guildmaster or General were very gifted when it came to offensive capabilities, just that even with their mediocre offensive stat boosts they were still better than what was basically nothing given to him by his shield.
This percentage was lowered to about ninety if he equipped the Cerberus Shield, and while this was not as good as the shield he got from Coccytus, he could still make do with it.
The special ability, [Dog Bite] sent the three dog heads on the shield reached out to ensnare and pop three balloons at once.
Ren glanced at him. "Where did you get that shield?" he asked.
"I uh, got it from the boss from the First Wave," Suzuki said sheepishly. He could tell that Ren was rather irritated at learning this- it was just another way in which Suzuki had been given a lead over the others.
"Ah," Myne said. "Most impressive."
"Right," Suzuki said. "But, I think we're done here given how low the XP yield is..." He then felt as if he was forgetting something. "Oh right! I didn't send you a party invite!"
Suzuki sent one to Myne. From what he could tell, the XP he was gaining was not being shared with any of the other NPCs, probably because of the barrier between worlds.
Myne's name appeared on his screen and was a bright white- though she didn't have the status of 'Guild Member' next to her.
"This really isn't very efficient," Suzuki said after popping a few balloons. "Let's move deeper into the forest to fight some stronger enemies."
"Sir Hero, please wait," Myne said. "There are some dangerous monsters in the forest- we should be careful. We should go get better gear first of all- I can't help you as well like this."
Suzuki did want to go ahead, but the fact remained that he was a stranger to this world and it was possible there were indeed very strong monsters inside the forest. He was not as strong as he used to be and didn't have the Floor Guardians with him- given that it was probably best to go along with Myne for now. He was also interested in seeing what the weapons and magic items of this world were like.
"Alright then- but if you don't mind me asking, why do we each have so few team members? Would it not make more sense to gather as many knights as possible to help the Heroes? Why not create an army of thousands to follow each of given what is at stake?" Suzuki asked. He had seen several hundred soldiers in the castle itself, so why wasn't this nation building large armies to fight the Waves?
"If there are too many people fighting, the amount of experience you'll get will be reduced to almost nothing," Myne explained. "So it's best to keep teams small."
Suzuki understood that somewhat. If there was a monster that you could gain 700 XP by killing but there were seven hundred people on your team, everyone would get 1 XP each.
However, Suzuki remembered that the Guildmaster Shield mitigated this, granting everyone 10% of a monster's total XP value so long as they were a guild member. In that case, that monster would give 70 XP to all seven hundred of them or 49,000 XP in total. Given that seven hundred people could farm a huge number of monsters if they were sent out into various areas, overall it would still be worth it to organize your party like that.
As a matter of fact, so long as they found a large enough area Suzuki felt that everyone in the Great Tomb of Nazarick could quickly reach max level in this world- which would do wonders for their military strength. The only reason that he had not done so already because finding such a large area where so many people could level up was difficult, and like he had told Shalltear, they couldn't just go around killing monsters willy-nilly.
Suzuki however did not voice these idea as he was sure that Myne might not believe him or acknowledge it. If she was like the others and didn't really believe in Yggdrasil then he didn't want her to think that he was crazy too.
The weapons shop seemed, to Suzuki at least, quite plain.
"Hello there!" the blacksmith and shopowner said. He then looked at Myne. "Do I know you from somewhere, young lady?"
"Yes, your shop is famous and I've been here before," Myne said.
"Ah, understood. And this gentleman here is?"
"Suzuki Satoru, the Shield Hero," Suzuki said.
"Right, I heard about you- you're the crazy one out of the Four, right?"
Suzuki sighed. Did this guy really have to say that to his face?
"Anyway, what can I do you for?" the blacksmith asked.
"I actually wanted to ask you something," Suzuki said. He took out a few Yggdrasil coins. "This is money from my own world- will you accept it?"
The man examined the coin before saying, "If this is made out of gold you can get something for it- but I need to run a few tests on one of them first."
"That is fine," Suzuki said before going to examine the items in the shop.
He didn't have access to the spell [Appraise Item] or its higher variants, but from what he could tell based on what his shield's interface told him, none of these sets of armor were even close in quality to that he had. Some of them definitely did have some unique properties that he would like to examine, but not enough for him to spend his limited funds of this world on them.
For example, there was a suit of armor that would grow stronger with one's mana. In Yggdrasil, things such as Coccytus's exoskeleton sort of functioned that way, but those things were all species-specific. Even then Suzuki didn't feel like it was worth buying.
"Alright," the blacksmith said. "I've looked at your coin, and it has enough gold for about 2.4 gold pieces."
Suzuki found it hard to calculate with a number like that.
"But, if these are really coins from another world, I think you could get a much higher price," the blacksmith said. "Also taking into account the artistic detail on it, it should still fetch you a better price than what you'd get by just melting it down for gold. Anything related the the Heroes is considered pretty special, so a coin from your world might be worth a nice sum if you were to sell it off to a private collector or a museum..." He trailed off. "If you don't mind, can I hold onto this for now? I'll keep looking around to see if there's anyone who might want to pay a high price for it."
"Alright," Suzuki said.
For now, he would pay with the silver pieces he had gotten from the king.
"Let's get all of this, okay?" Myne told him while putting down numerous items onto the counter.
"Miss Myne, we should conserve our funds for now," Suzuki said.
"Ah, but Hero, the stronger I am, the better we can do!" she said, grabbing his arm. She then placed her hand on his chest and rubbed her chest against his arm. This would've flustered the Suzuki Satoru that existed before being transported to a new world.
However, Suzuki had been dealing with both Albedo and Shalltear trying to charm him for several days- and at least with those two the affection they were given was genuine and not clearly manufactured to swindle him out of some cash.
For example, Albedo had once told him that she had developed a skin rash which she wanted him to look at- when Suzuki agreed she began stripping down completely despite his protests and kept exposing herself sensually to him asking him to look for the 'rash.'
For example, Shalltear had 'accidentally' broken the wall separating the male and female side of the baths while Suzuki was in there- wasn't it supposed to be the other way around with peeping in the baths?
For example, one day, all of the pillows in his room had vanished back when he was used to still sleeping, and Albedo had piped in saying that as there were none he could use her lap or chest to rest on.
For example, Shalltear had once been in charge of handing him his clothes and had 'accidentally' damaged them so that they fell apart the moment he walked out of his room.
For example, when Suzuki had tripped once, rather than simply catch him, Albedo used her speed to place herself beneath Suzuki so that he would face-plant into her chest.
For example, when Shalltear had offered to be Suzuki's footstool when he was trying to reach something on a high shelf rather than simply jumping up and getting it for him which would've been far easier and simpler for her.
All of this didn't even touch on the many number of times the two of them would 'drop' something and bend over very slowly to pick it up next to him.
Suffice it to say that if there was a 'Thotslayer Shield' he should've unlocked it a long time ago.
Myne's acts of petty thottery were nothing compared to all of that.
As such, Myne's actions had absolutely no effect on him. "Miss Myne... I think we can make do without half of these items."
Honestly speaking though, he had to admit that Albedo and Shalltear were beginning to wear him down with their antics. He was just a man after all and both of them were extraordinarily beautiful, and he felt that if enough time had gone on he would've certainly ended up doing one- or perhaps even both of them. In that sense, being transported to this other world had a bit of a silver lining given that he was far removed from them.
As it was Suzuki had a few sets of armor and the like in his inventory which he could lend to Myne if it was necessary. Even in this world, Suzuki was as stingy as ever when it came to his money. He would normally not pinch pennies when it came to spending on a comrade- but he had just gotten to know this woman and his funds were limited for now.
Myne pouted a little but didn't say anything else as Suzuki haggled with the man for a lower price.
"So where should we stay at?" Suzuki asked her.
Myne pointed to an inn which for Suzuki was far too high-class, but given he had denied her quite a bit earlier he felt like relenting for this one day regarding this matter. Also, he supposed it wasn't such a bad idea to try it out a little bit just once to see what the hotels in this world were like.
During dinner they discussed their plans for the next few days.
"I think we should go to this dungeon over here," Myne said, pulling out a map of the area. "It's perfect for beginners like us."
"Ah, I see," Suzuki said. "Before that though, I would like to visit Lurolona Village."
Myne frowned at this. "Why though? It's far off from where we should be going?"
"Yes, but there's something I need to do there," Suzuki said. He wanted to get ahead of the matter regarding Rapthalia's parents to tell them what had happened to her and also to explain that it had all been unintentional.
"Well, we can visit that place later," Myne said flatly. "It's in the opposite direction of the most optimal path for us, after all."
Myne then pushed a glass of wine towards him and tried to change the topic.
"Won't you join me in a toast?" she asked.
"There's no point," Suzuki said. He had an item which negated poison completely, and he had found out that meant that he couldn't get drunk at all. "Feel free to drink on your own."
"Truly? In this nation, no man would deny a woman's offer to drink with her, do you know that?" Suzuki however, was unmoved and retired a while after.
Suzuki collapsed on his bed, though as usual, he felt no fatigue. It was time for him to get to work.
First of all, he unlocked the Orange Small Shield and Yellow Small Shield by adding in parts from the balloons he had killed. Next, he added in a coin of this world and found that he could convert Yggdrasil gold to this world's currency now, though again, there was a small penalty he would have to pay to do so.
Thanks to his interest-generating shield however, he now had one hundred gold coins which he had made today. While that sounded like a lot, it was nothing compared to the cost of summoning a mercenary vassal, so he could not get careless with his gold.
He then spent more time trying to compound something new with no real results as was the deal with last night. He even considered taking off his Ring of Sustenance for a while and going to sleep just to kill time when he heard a knock at the door.
"Huh?"
It was far earlier than when he had been called upon the day before.
"In the name of King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, open up!"
Suzuki opened the door to see several armed guards glaring at him.
"You! Shield Hero! You have been summoned by the authority of King Aultcray!"
Suzuki didn't know what was up- but he had little ability to refuse as he was dragged unceremoniously to Melromarc's throne room.
He saw the other three Heroes standing there, but they were all giving him cold looks. And these weren't simply ones of jealousy, no, it seemed like the three of them despised him.
"Shield Hero!" the king barked. "How do you answer for your crimes?"
Crimes? He had been told of nothing like that when he had been brought here- though very likely this country had no concept of a person's rights to be informed of the charges brought against at the time of an arrest. Hell, Suzuki had not even been told he had been under arrest for something.
"What happened?"
"Don't play dumb!" Motoyasu barked.
"Please, Myne, though it pains me to ask you to say it again, you poor girl, repeat your testimony," King Aultcray said.
It was then that Suzuki noticed Myne standing behind Motoyasu. Wait... what was going on? How had she gotten there?
"Last night, the Shield Hero got drunk and barged into my room..." she said. "He was really drunk... a-and he said that 'The night is still young'... and then he- and then he- he tried to disrobe me!"
Suzuki at first had no response given just how ridiculous that statement was.
"I then went to Sir Motoyasu for protection," she said.
"You're lucky she asked me to spare you for the morning and wait for a court trial," Motoyasu said. "Else I'd have chopped your head off!"
One of the guards piped up, "We found this in his room." He held up a lady's undershirt which Suzuki had never seen before.
Myne wailed at seeing it.
Suzuki was still bewildered at this point when his eyes wandered over to Myne- who stopped crying for a second to lower an eyelid with her finger slowly.
She was taunting him.
And then he understood.
He had been set up.
But how far up did the scheme go? Some guards were in on it... did the king know too?
He wouldn't put it past the other Heroes to be part of it given how they had behaved towards him up till now.
"Wait," he said. "I have a way to prove my innocence. There are spells I have which can force one to speak the truth- we just need to use them on me and on Myne and we'll-"
"Silence!" King Aultcray said. "As if any of us could trust a spell that the culprit would cast! As it is, the punishment for such in this country is death- but as it is I cannot kill you because you are a Hero. I cannot imprison you either as you will be let out when the Wave comes- so I will let you wander this country in shame for what you have done! Every single person you meet will look at you in scorn for your actions. That is your punishment!"
Suzuki's eyes twitched. This man... he must've been in on this too! He looked at the Heroes but none of them had any trace of sympathy for him.
"He must've thought he could do anything in this world because he was a Hero, huh?"
"What shameless actions."
Suzuki's bewilderment was now replaced with molten hot rage. He had a strong urge to take out a tenth tier summoning scroll and unleash a monster to tear this place to pieces- but that would mean he would be unable to prove his innocence if anyone else asked. He also didn't know enough of this world's power to be confident in taking such drastic actions against them.
Instead, he just said, "I have done nothing wrong and I'm being set up- though clearly you do not wish to believe me. Despite that fact that I continue to protest my innocence. I will therefore give you an opportunity, Your Highness. You have until the next Wave arrives, whereupon this offer will no longer be valid. Apologize to me and correct this miscarriage of justice and clear my name- if you do this I will let this slight slide. If not, I will burn this entire country to the ground."
"Why you little-" the guards shouted at him before Suzuki whipped out the Cerberus Shield, activating its [Intimidate] ability.
This was rather similar to the [Despair Aura I] ability he had as an Overlord, dealing a debuff to the surrounding knights. With that, Suzuki stormed out of the place.
"Did you enjoy the show?" he said to a wall before leaving as his shield picked up someone hiding there.
"Monster..." King Aultcray said after Suzuki had left.
"Indeed, to know what he did to Myne..." Motoyasu said.
That hadn't been what the king was talking about. For a very breath second, he had seen the Shield Hero's visage change into something else- something far more sinister than that of a simple human. He hadn't been able to fully register what it had been, but whatever it was chilled the king to the very bone.