Author's Note: To a guest review asking if there was going to be hybrid weapons like a blade shield, the answer is yes, there will be. But it won't be as powerful as the other heroes weapons, his main strength will be magic and defence.

I got a review saying that they are skipping chapters because the are more or less cannon, I advise you not to do that, as you would miss the extra parts that makes up the story. They are world building chapters, if you miss the chapters, you might see something in this chapter or the next and wonder, what the hell did I miss. It is better to read all the chapters to make sure that you don't miss anything and get confused later.

Chapter Five…

The Betrayal!

With Myne:

Princess Malty Melromarc a.k.a Myne Sophia was sitting in her room, thinking about the past day, she went with the Shield Hero for three reasons but mostly for one, to find out what he really was like and steal all of his money and frame him. What she discovered shocked her. She was expecting some weak person like how the stories portrayed him as. At first, that was true, he was the weakest of the four heroes, but what he lacked in attack points, he made up for in smarts.

When he realized that if he couldn't use weapons, he thought outside the box and set up traps to defeat the monsters and it worked. Make things worse, the Shield Hero had a shield that was able to summon monsters to him by using pheromones. She didn't know how he was able to get such a shield, but if used right, he could level up fast.

The main problem with this though was that the Balloons Monsters became aggressive, they were stronger and faster than before. Thankfully though, all he was able to summon in the area was Balloons Monsters, sure she would have problems with them if she fought them, but given time she would have been able to defeat them. What worried her was what if he summoned something stronger than a Balloon Monster? Sure the plains were normally where the weak monster appears, but every so often though, a strong monster appears what if the Shield Hero summoned that one? It would have been an aggressive type one and could have killed her or worse along with him.

She did care if he died, in fact, she would have been very annoyed if he died before she could set up her plan. She wanted to frame him for multiple crimes rising up his evilness in the eyes of the people, before killing him off with one of the other Heroes most likely the Spear Hero, he looked quite good-looking and easy to manipulate just her type, but she had to wait until her plan was ready, especially given how her mother has been treating her lately.

Back to the matter at hand, spending the day with the Shield Hero showed that he was smarter than expected and thought like a Hunter. If you can't kill it with strength alone, use cunning instead, weaken the monster before killing it. Another problem is that like a Hunter, he didn't seem to trust people that easy. Whilst he didn't show it, she could tell that he didn't trust her. Although he did try and get along with her, he showed signs that he wouldn't trust her at all. Even at dinner that night, he wouldn't drink the wine that she offered him. No man before would have denied a drink from her, it was as if he knew that she had the drink laced with pheromones. But she didn't know how, seeing that it was one of the Church's Shadows who served the wine, she didn't touch it.

As she thought more about it, another thing that didn't go her way was that the damn Shield Hero wouldn't buy her everything she wanted. All he was willing to buy her was a new weapon and one price of armour, not a full set as she hoped he would. It was strange, never in her life had a man turn her down, not even her own father. She hated it, she loved getting her own way, but yet with the Shielder, she couldn't, which made her angry. But she smiled all the less, knowing that she had plans for him and he would pay dearly for this.

She was going to doublecross the Shield Hero and make his life hard either way, in the hopes that no one would trust him making his life harder and making it easier to blame him for more crimes that she was going to commit, and with the Church of the Three Heroes help in framing him she would have an easier time stealing the throne from her bitch of a mother as she laughed as she watched her too trusting Little Sister Burn alongside her and everyone would blame the Demon of the Shield. But now, she was sitting in the inn room trying to think of a way to destroy the man, so that even if he leaves her kingdom, no other kingdom would trust nor want him.

Her original plan was to frame him for raping her, but now with the fact that he was friends with the Sword Hero, who was revealed to be a female and not a male as Myne thought she was last night. So if she tried to frame the Shield Hero for rape now, Lady Renka might defend the damn Shield. Especially if what the Church's Shadows found out was true, that the two had sex together the night before and it was gentle and consensual.

As if it was, the Swordswoman would back the Shielder up, which means that all of her plans to discredit the Shield Hero might fail, but Malty wasn't one to give up so easily, especially with her goals so close, she just have to think about this carefully. Right now she couldn't go against the Sword Hero, as if she did, she might have the Church of the Three Heroes against her. To them, the Spear, Sword and Bow were like Gods, so going against them without a good reason would be real bad for her. So she had to think of another way to deal with the Shield Hero.

The only saving grace in this situation was that the Shield Hero had a shield which had pheromones for its ability. As she thought about it, an came up with the idea out that the Shielder used it on her to have sex with him, but she was able to fight it off.

But the problem would be with Lady Renka. Sure she heard the stories from the Shadows about Lady Renka, the full story as to why she pretended to be a male. That men in her world would take any female that they wanted and rape them as they like, but instead of being punished for it, they got away with it. But the problem was that she didn't know if Lady Renka would believe her story.

She expected that in Lady Renka's world, no woman had accused a man of rape when they hadn't done it, as if they did, Myne expected that they wouldn't be punished severely for it. So Myne expected she could play Renka with this, making her think that he really was a cruel and manipulating man. That when he heard her story and used it to gain sympathy to take away her innocence.

The problem was this, would Lady Renka believe such a story, would the Shield Hero be able to convince her that she was lying about the rape. Myne knew that she had to come up with a way so that not even the Shield Hero could get himself out of her lie.

Now as she was trying to figure out her next step, a stranger clad in dark blue approached her from the shadows. This stranger's attire was stark dark blue, except for the chest and shoulder that were covered by a chest plate and shoulder guards. At the hips pouches and wrists were bound by the same dark material of the rest of the outfit. The face was covered in a dark blue hood, with a metal facepiece. If you look carefully, you would be able to see the symbol of the Church of the Three Heroes on the facepiece. The thing with the outfit was that you couldn't tell if the person was a female or male.

With the person coming out of the shadows, the person kneeled on one knee as in a muffled voice, they said, "Your Highness, His Holiness has sent me to see how the plan to discredit the Shield Demon is coming along."

"Sadly not as well as I had hoped," the princess informed the Shadow, "I have a plan, but the problem is that he is close to Lady Renga which could backfire the plan."

"What's your plan?" asked the Shadow.

Myne explained her plan and how it was altered because the friendship between the Shield Hero and Lady Renka, but also explained how with the Shield Demon could convince Lady Renka it isn't true and so the plan could fail.

"Hmm, I see…" hummed the Shadow as they thought about the problem before coming up with a situation for this plan, "I think I have an idea that might help you. But it means a sacrifice on your part."

"What do you mean by sacrifice?" asked Myne, worried at what the Shadow had come up with.

"We heard about Lady Renka's world, how men would beat and rape women and they could do nothing about it." explained the Shadow, "So if she sees you beaten and you say that you were raped, it is more than likely that she'll believe you over him."

"Are you sure this is the only way?" asked the princess, her vanity was showing. She believes that her looks were important to her, as her looks were what got her what she wanted.

"With the time that we have yes this is the only way," the Shadow told her, "do you want His Holiness help in becoming the next Queen or not? If you do, you know there'll be times where sacrifices are needed on your part."

"I know this, but my looks though, they are what got me the things I want." Myne told the Church's Shadow, then a thought came to her, "Can't I use makeup or magic to show that I was beaten up?"

"No, you'll have to have real marks for this to work," the Shadow told her, "all we know is that the Shield Demon could ask a magical cleansing, to see if you were lying or not. Which will make it hard for you and your father."

Myne sighed, this was something that she didn't want to do, but if she wanted to be the next Queen instead of her younger sister, she would have to do this. Although, but doing this, she might gain more points with Spear Hero, he was a good-looking, but at the same time easy to control. So showing up beaten and saying that it was the Shield Hero who did it to her, he might be even easier to control. His party had a few of her friends in it, so with their help, they could get anything they wanted from him.

So with a deep sigh, set to do this, she said, "Okay, let's do this before I change my mind. All I ask is that you place a spell on me so that I can't feel the pain too much and make sure that you don't do any damage that will be long-lasting or leave a visible mark after healing."

"As you asked Your Highness, although I would suggest that you have a scar." the Shadow suggested, "As it'll be a constant reminder to people to what the Demon of the Shield meant to have done to you." the princess seemed to be unsure about this, as she didn't want to lose her good looks. But she knew that if she wants the Church's help, she would have to do things she wouldn't like.

So with a nod with agreement, the Shadow went on to say, "Don't worry, Your Highness, as soon as the deed is done all of the Churches Shadows, will disguise themselves as citizens and before the stores open, there should be enough rumours going about, that no one will trust him nor want to aid him." the Shadow said with a bow as they stood up. Once he was up, he cost a numbing spelling on the young Highness, before they started to hit Myne, to show that she really was raped. After it was done, Myne slowly went to the Shield Hero's room and stole the coins, his bag, armour and anything else she could get her hands on before going to Motoyasu and play the rape victim.

o0OoO0o

Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Inn, 7th of January 740, Morning:

Rattle, rattle.

Hmmm? What was that? People yelling at the bar?

Snore.

Whisper, whisper… something was pulling at my clothes. But he was so tired that he couldn't wake up to see what was going on.

"Heh, heh, men are fools. So easily tricked… can't wait until tomorrow." Naofumi thought he heard someone say, or was it part of his dreams, he wasn't sure.

*mumble*

*rustle*

So hot... clothes stuck...

"Ngh?"

It was cold.

Naofumi didn't know how long it was, but the next thing he knew the sunlight was shining on his face, which told him that it was morning already.

As he Naofumi wiped the sleepiness out of his eyes, he sat up and looked out the window. Apparently, Naofumi had been more tired than he first thought, since the sun was already fairly high in the sky. As he checked his watch, Naofumi he saw that it was nine o'clock, or that was the time in his world, he had no idea how time was dealt with here.

"Huh?" Naofumi said as he looked down and saw that he was wearing nothing but his underclothes. 'Did I strip in my sleep?' Naofumi thought to himself, a bit confused about it. But then again, he was so tired last night, that he could have easily undress without remembering what he was doing. He had to admit, when he was back home and fallen asleep fully clothed back home, he did sometimes undressed himself in his sleep.

Well, whatever. He had a long day ahead of himself, first, he had to tell Myne that he no longer wanted her in his party and then look for new companions. As he was getting out of his bed, he heard sounds coming from outside, the street was bustling with people going about their daily routines. The restaurants and food stalls busily preparing for the lunch rush while carriages clattered along made Naofumi feel like he was in a dream.

This world was really amazing. Apparently, there were two types of carriages: higher class horse-drawn ones, and lower class bird-drawn ones. The bird-drawn ones were being pulled by huge, ostrich-like things that kind of reminded him of Chocobo.

The occasional ox-cart rounded out the medieval atmosphere.

"Well then, time for breakfast!" the young man told himself, as he started to prepare for the day. But as he searched around the bed for his clothes, he was unable to find them.

It was strange, not only couldn't he find his clothes, but the armour that he placed on the chair the night before was no longer there.

On top of that, his backpack and his bag of coins was gone too, around three hundred silver coins, that should have been sitting right there on the table was gone too!

Even Naofumi's original clothes, which he had kept just in case he ever needed them, had up and vanished.

"Wha..."

No way!

'I'd been robbed!?' Naofumi thought angrily 'That's totally ridiculous! Didn't this inn have any security at all!?'

Anyway, Naofumi thought about telling Myne about this, to see if she saw or heard anything. He saw that she didn't go to her room straight away, so she could have seen or heard something. But then a dark thought came to him, 'Did that bitch do this to me.'

Naofumi didn't want to think that this was true, as whilst she was somewhat helpful to him yesterday, but it would make a lot of sense if she did. Why she never called him by his name but would call the other heroes by their name, she was trying to get him to buy her a full set of armour and a weapon and many small things that bothered him yesterday. It was one big set up, butter him bim up and get what she could from him before stealing the rest from him when he was asleep.

But then again he could be wrong and someone else did this and he was jumping to conclusions, all because the way she acted the day before and the picture of her too. Sure the saying there's no smoke without fire came to mind, but Naofumi didn't want to accuse her until he knew for sure. As if he did and she is proven innocent, it could make things worse for him.

So Naofumi went to her room and knocked on her door as he called out, "Myne! Myne! I need to talk to you!"

But no matter how desperately he knocked, there was no response. As much as he hated to think it, but it didn't look good for Myne in his mind, all of his things were gone and Myne was nowhere to be found. Sure it was possible that she just went to have breakfast or she went out into town for some reason, but Naofumi was thinking of the worst-case scenario.

He was so preoccupied that Naofumi almost didn't notice the heavy footsteps approaching from down the hall. Before he knew it, he. had been surrounded by castle knights.

'Thank goodness!' Naofumi thought upon seeing the knights, he could see a light shining in the darkness. He hoped that once he explained what had happened, they'd definitely catch Myne and find out if she was behind this or not, and if she was, she would regret ever messing with a Hero!

"You guys are from the castle, right?" asked Naofumi, "You've gotta help me!"

He earnestly appealed to the knights. Where the hell was Myne? Her not being here was making the young Shield Hero suspicious!

"Shield Hero!"

"Y-Yes?" Naofumi asked worriedly, why did it seem they were so hostile against him. He didn't do a thing, in fact, someone stole from him.

"You've been ordered to appear before the king. Come with us." ordered one of the knights.

"Appear before the...? Wait, what!?" the young otherworlder asked confused, seeing how he had no idea what the fuck is going on, "I can't see the king, you have to help me! I believe that my companion came into my room last night and..."

"I said let's go!" ordered one of the knights once again as two of knights roughly took hold of Naofumi's arms and started dragging him down the hall.

"Hey, stop! Listen to me!"

'What the fuck were they doing?' Naofumi thought darkly, 'I'm still in my underclothes for god's sake!'

"Myne! Myyyne!"

But the knights ignored the hero's cries, as they forcibly brought him back to the castle in one of the very carriages Naofumi had thought were so wondrous just a little earlier. Nobody told the Shield Hero anything. He had no idea what was going on. The only certainty was their eyes - their eyes that clearly regarded him as a criminal for some reason.

o0OoO0o

Once they arrived at the castle, the knights marched the Shield Hero - still in his underwear - into the royal audience chamber, spears prodding at his back. The king and minister were waiting for him with sullen looks on their faces.

And...

"Myne!"

Not only were Renka, Motoyasu, and Itsuki already there, along with all of their followers, but Myne as well. However, when Naofumi called out to her she shrank back behind Motoyasu and glared at him. What he saw shocked him though was how Myne looked like, she had a cut lip, a cut across her eye, a bruised nose and her. It looked like she was beaten by someone.

"Huh? What's with that reaction? What happened to Myne?" Naofumi asked confused, but thinking to himself, 'What is this bitch playing at? Why would she be frightened of him now, when last night she was friendly enough.' But as he gave a second look over at Myne and how everyone was looking at him as if he was a villain. His gut give a turn as it twisted in him, as it did, dread came over the Shield Hero, as he fearfully thought, 'Please God no, please fuck no, I hope this isn't what I suspect it is.'

"You're saying you don't remember?"

Motoyasu questioned him with a threat of menace in his voice.

'What the hell was all this?' Naofumi thought to himself before he began to ask, "Don't remember wha... huh?" That's when he suddenly realized that Motoyasu was wearing his chain mail, boots and gloves.

"Wait a damn minute... I fucking knew it. You're the one who stole my things and give it to pretty boy here!" Naofumi shouted at her angrily.

"Who are you to accuse anybody!?" Motoyasu asked the Shield Hero darkly, "I never thought you would stoop so low, you... you fiend!"

"Fiend? What are you talking about?"

At that, the atmosphere in the audience chamber shifted. Naofumi had the distinct feeling that he was in a courtroom.

"Yes, please state the charges against the Shield Hero." the king said with a sad shy, but Naofumi thought he could see a smirk in his eyes.

"Charges?" Naofumi asked in shock, "What are you talking about?"

"L-last night the Shield Hero got drunk, burst into my room, and... and... f-forced me down against my will!"

"Huh?" asked a dumbfounded Naofumi unable to believe that she was going to try and frame him for rape, while he was lost for words, he wasn't last for thoughts as he thought himself, 'Oh fuck no, she is going to play that card. But why?'

"He... he told me that the night was still young, and then started r-ripping off my clothes..."

Myne clung to Motoyasu's back, crying and accusing me through her sobs.

"I was able to fight him off, but he than he summoned one of his shields which had a pheromone ability on it and he tried to use it on me." Myne explained with more fake tears, "But thanks to facing a monster with pheromone ability a while back, I built up a defence against it, so it didn't last long on me. But as I did though, he, he hit me around the face a few times as you can see. He forced him down and began to slap me, telling me that he wouldn't be doing so if I give myself to him. Just like how Lady Renka give herself to him as he pretended to care about what she told him."

"What the fuck, you lying bitch," sneered Naofumi, which he got hit by one of the knights for "I did no such thing. In fact, I left you so that I could turn in early seeing how we fought those damn balloon monsters all day." Than turning to Renka, he begged her, hoping she would listen to him, "Don't listen to this lying bitch, I didn't do such things to her, I wouldn't do these things, I'm innocent."

"Why would she lie about this?" Renka asked with a dark sneer, "I can't believe that I give my first time to a bastard like you, all I know you could have used the same shield on me. Why else would I told you so much and give myself to you when I swore I would never do so."

"But I didn't," Naofumi sobbed a bit, unhappy that someone that he beginning to care about wouldn't believe him, "I don't know if she did it herself or have someone do it to her to frame me, but I didn't rape nor beat her, that's just me."

"Why would a woman do such a thing?" Renka cried as Itsuki held her, hating herself for giving her first time to a rapist. She thought that Naofumi was different to the men from her world, but now she realized that she was wrong, that he was just like all the men she knew, she could not trust a single one of them. Not one time did she think that Myne was lying to them, why would she? In her world, no woman would dare lie about such a thing.

As if they did, would would be wishing for death by the time the man that they accused was finished with them. If they thought what the men did to them at other times was bad, accusing them for something they didn't do, the woman in question would think she was in hell with the punishment that they got. For this reason, no woman in her world would lie about such a thing.

Naofumi wasn't sure how to reply to this, he knew that women in his world, they accused men of fake rape more times than people would like to admit. They did so because they were dumped, mistreated, jealous and many other reasons. Or they did get rape but not knowing who did it, decide to blame an innocent man for these reasons too. But in this case, Naofumi believed that she wasn't raped and she was trying to ruin his name for some fucked up reason. But he knew that for Renka, it was hard to believe that women could do such a thing, seeing how women were treated in her world.

So all he could do was look at Myne in bewilderment, wondering why the hell was she making up this kind of bullshit? Why was she trying to slander his name? Was it because he wouldn't get the gear that she wanted or was there some deeper darker reason for this?

"It was so scary…" continued Myne as if Naofumi and didn't say anything to each other, "I only barely managed to escape from the room, screaming. Thankfully Lord Motoyasu was there to help me."

"What bullshit are you talking about?" Naofumi asked darkly, trying to defend himself, "As I told you, after dinner yesterday, I turned in early after a long day."

"Liar! If that were true, why would Myne be crying like this?" Motoyasu defended the young woman.

"Because she's a fucking psycho bitch, who loves to ruins people's lives for twisted reasons." Naofumi told him darkly, unable to believe that he would fall for such a lie. "Why are you being so protective of her? You barely know her! Why would you fall for this cock and bull story? And while you're at it, explain where you got those chain mail, boots and gloves!"

'Didn't they meet for the first time yesterday?' Naofumi thought to himself, 'Is he that much of a tool that he would believe any pretty face?'

"Oh, this?" Motoyasu asked as he waved his hand over his new armour, "Myne give it to me as a reward from saving her from you bastard."

"Don't you find it strange that out of all the people at the inn, she would go to you of all people, why not the guards or her father the king, why would she give you those items at all" asked Naofumi, as he tried to make a point, not realizing the slip up that he just made. As the other heroes looked at Myne in shock, wondering if this was true or not.

"How did you know that Malty was my daughter?" asked the king, not seeing the point of hiding it, shocking the heroes, but with what was happening between Naofumi and Myne, they didn't say much. But there were whispers among the noble wondering that the Shield Hero raped the young girl because she was a princess and he wanted to show her and the king who was in control.

Realizing his slap up, Naofumi covered himself by saying, "I overheard people in town asking why your daughter was out in town with me. I never said anything to her as there was no point in asking, if she wanted me to know, she would have told me."

"It's just a coincidence, I was there when she needed me the most, she wouldn't lie and steal." said Motoyasu, as he blindly defends Myne.

"Don't tell me you two believe this cock and bull story?" Naofumi asked the other two heroes, hoping that they would be on his side. "Whilst she might be pretty, I have no interest in her, not only that, but I was planning to remove her from my party, as I didn't trust her. I have no reason to do what she said I had done to her. There are many things I'm willing to do to protect people, even murder if need be, but I draw a line to raping someone."

"Again, why would she lie such a thing, no woman would lie about such a thing." this came from a sobbing Renka, as Itsuki nodded in agreement.

Naofumi couldn't believe it, Renka he could understand with how men treated the women in her world, but Itsuki? Didn't his own world have women who cry out about fake rape like in his world. He would repeat himself by saying that she was a fucking psycho bitch, who loves to ruins people's lives for twisted reasons, but he knew it would make things worse.

But before he could say anything or think of what to say to defend himself more, things were made worse as the Spear Hero said, "All we know is that before you decided to kick her out of your party you decided to have some with her. But seeing that she wouldn't have any of it, you raped her."

"Huh?" Naofumi asked dumbfoundedly, unable to believe this fool would think something like that. What kind of thinking was that it made little sense. It didn't help seeing how the other two heroes seemed to agree with the idiot.

Naofumi decided to give up on talking with Motoyasu and the other Heroes and try to appeal directly to the King. Hoping that he would see sense and help him, letting him know that his daughter was lying to them.

"Your Majesty and noblemen and women! I know what all you heard but none of it is true." Naofumi informed them all, "As you heard, after a long day in the training grounds, I had dinner with Myne and went to bed early. During the night as I soundly slept, my possessions except for my shield and some coins that I hid away were stolen. No matter what you might have heard, I did NOT rape or beat the princess. I beg you, your Majesty to launch an investigation to prove that I didn't do what I'm accused of, to find out who stole my things be it Myne or not, you could even ask the bartender and is a shop owner, The Bartender saw me go to bed not even taking a sip of alcohol and the shopkeeper can easily identify that is my armour! I'm willing to be put under any truth spell you might have so you know that I'm not lying."

"Silence, fiend!"

The king bluntly denied Naofumi's proposal. Oh he knew all too well that the Shield Hero did not do what his daughter was accusing him of, as he knew his daughter all too well. She might think she was clover and smart, but he had his own personal Shadows keeping an eye on her, just in case she got herself into something that she couldn't get herself out of. Sure she was cunning, but not as cunning as she thought she was. But he gave a blind eye to her doing as she was his first born daughter, so allowed her to get away with murder.

Now whilst he knew that the Shield Hero didn't rape his daughter, he was going along with it for one reason and one reason only. He hated the Shield Hero for his own reasons and didn't trust him, so he was more than happy to make his life hard, it was thankful that his daughter was able to come up with something to do so. So he was more than happy to play along with this.

"Committing an act of sexual violent assault on one of my citizens, more importantly my own daughter, is an unforgivable offence. If you weren't one of the Legendary Heroes I would have you put to death on the spot!" the king told the Shield Hero darkly with a hint of a smirk in his eyes, for some reason the King seemed to be enjoying this. "And whilst we do have magic to force the truth from you, we have no idea if it would work on you. It is said that the Legendary Shield has a high resistance against magic, so we would have no idea if you were telling the truth or not."

Naofumi was dumbfounded about this, as much as he hated to admit it, the king had a point. Whilst he hadn't yet what his resistance stats were, he knew that his Magic Defence was quite high, so it wouldn't be surprising to say that his resistance stats were high too. But he thought that the King would have mages that were powerful and could deal with someone who was still level one, Legendary Hero or not.

"Then use it on her." Naofumi told the king, trying to prove his innocence, "she's not a Legendary Hero. She's just a adventurer, if you're going to believe her crap so easily without any proof, well my truth is that she stole my armour and stuff is literally on Motoyasu. There is no way you can be so blind to believe that my supposed teammate, who is supposed to be helping me, went behind my back to help him before the incident even happened!"

However, as Naofumi looked around the room, he saw that everybody in the room had already decided he was guilty. It felt like the world had suddenly dropped out from under him.

'What the hell? What the hell!? WHAT THE HELL!?' Naofumi thought in disbelief and anger, 'Why am I suffering this kind of abuse for something I didn't do?'

"God damn it, fine, if you're all so convinced that I did this. Where's the damn proof?" Naofumi suddenly asked, realizing that without it they won't be able to punish him as they hoped to. He could feel a terrible, dark emotion coming from deep within him, wanting to come out, rage about the injustice of all this, burn these people and the bitch. But he knew that if he did so, things would just become worse, she he fought the feeling, making sure that he didn't react to his anger, his rage for all this.

That's when a knight came into the chamber, and as he knelt to the ground he said, "Your Majesty, when we performed a search of the Shield Hero's room, we, um, found this sir strewn across his bed." here the knight held up a sexy torn purple nightgown. Upon seeing this, Myne turned and cried into Motoyasu's arms.

"It seems that the proof is undeniable." said the king.

"But your Majesty, that wasn't there when I got up this morning." Naofumi tried to defend himself, "One of your knights must have planted it there."

"You would dare accuse one of my knights in doing such a thing." the king demanded.

And then it happened. As soon as she was sure that nobody was looking at her, Myne's expression changed. A self-satisfied smirk floated across her face, and she stuck her tongue out at him derisively and pulled her eyeled down, telling him that she won this round and there was fuck all he could do about it.

Everything fell into place.

Naofumi glared at Motoyasu as the terrible, dark emotion became stronger, wanting to tere the fucking place apart, it took everything that he had not to let it go and allow this power to come out and play with these fools. He now understood why Myne would join him when no one else would, to be nice to him, it wasn't out of the kindness of her heart, although now he had to wonder if she envy or that she pitied him, no it was because of a plan. It was so she could destroy him here and now.

"You! You did this!" Naofumi sneered at them, a bit surprised by the voice that came out of his mouth. "You set this whole thing up! You and that damn bitch"

"Ha! Like anyone would listen to the words of a damned rapist!" Motoyasu stepped between Naofumi and Mine as if telling the Shield Hero to keep his filthy eyes off her, and played himself up as the hero helping the hapless victim.

"Don't fuck with me, pretty boy!" the Shield Hero told the Spear Hero darkly, believing that he was part of what Myne had done to him, "That's what happened, isn't it!? You two planned all this together, just to get my money and equipment!"

Naofumi believed that the damn ladies man probably knew that he would end up buying Myne lots of nice things to compensate for his own weakness. To help and make get levelled up easily and faster. His plan must have been to have her squeeze Naofumi for everything she could, then skip out with whatever money was left. Then, this entire charade was just to take him out of the picture entirely and ensure they never got caught. Hugging up to him and calling him by his name was prove enough to the Shield Hero that they were working together.

'Fuck, I'm impressed they could come up with a plan like this in a short time.' Naofumi thought darkly.

He did wonder why she never once called him by his name, now with everything that's happening, Naofumi had to wonder if this was her way of saying this world didn't need the Shield Hero?

"Not only lying about not raping her but now he's accusing her and Motoyasu of plotting of stealing from him... what trash."

"You're right. Even I can't bring myself to pity him."

Renka and Itsuki didn't hesitate to condemn Naofumi either. 'So, they were all in on it from the very beginning, huh?' Naofumi thought to himself as they all ganged upon him, the darkness blinding him and making him forget that Renka was just as innocent in this as him. That she was been played too, to split the two up. 'So since I have this damn shield, they believe that since I am weak, that I can't fight, they all just decided to trample over me for their own benefit?'

There was one word that the young man could describe them as… filth.

They were all cowardly filth. None of them had ever believed in him. 'Well, screw that!' The Shield Hero thought to himself darkly, 'Why should I have to protect people like them! This world could burn for all I care!'

He heard the nobles talking about how it was a mistake summoning all of them at once, that they shouldn't have summoned the Shield Hero.

'Once again it comes down to this damn shield, fine if that's the way they want it so be it.' Naofumi thought to himself before saying to them, "...Fine, whatever. If you don't believe me and you don't want me, why don't you just send me back to where I came from? Then you can get yourselves a new Shield Hero." He couldn't believe that he had to come to another world to be treated like scum for something he didn't do.

"As soon as things get inconvenient he runs away, huh? How disgusting."

"I agree. Somebody who would throw away their duty and assault a woman is just..."

"Just go! A person like you could never be a Hero!"

Naofumi wanted to kill them. Renka, Motoyasu, Itsuki - he wanted to kill them right there. The darkness within him was busting to come out, to punish those here for how they were treating him. But he fought these feelings down, as he knew that if he did, things would be a lot worse. This should have been his chance to enjoy an adventure in another world, and they had ruined it. Not only them, but the king and the people of this land looked down on him because of the shield.

"Well, what are you waiting for!? Send me back!" Naofumi told them, "I didn't ask to be ripped away from my world only to be treated like this. So just send me back to my fucking world, I hope this world burns."

However, the king merely seat down and placed his hand on his face in defeat, "I would like nothing more than to kick a Hero like this back to where he came from, I truly do." the king admitted with a deep sigh, "However, legend says that no new heroes can be summoned unless all four of the current Heroes have met their end."

"...What?"

"That can't be..."

"N-No way..."

Finally, even the other three Heroes were at a loss for words.

There was no way to return to our original worlds?

"You're saying that I'm stuck here, that I can't go home!?" The young innocent man asked he couldn't believe it, this had to be some sort of sick joke!

"Sadly no, not yet." the king admitted with another deep sigh, not liking the idea that he couldn't send the Shield Hero back to his world. "The only way you can be sent home is to defeat all of the incoming waves can you be sent home."

"But sire, does that mean we have to fight alongside a criminal like him?" asked one of the knights.

"Screw you guys, who needs bastards like you?" Naofumi said in a fit of rage, "I'll figure out how to handle the wave my own way." With that, the Shield Hero pushed the knights off him.

They tried to attack him, but a magical barrier surrounded him protecting him from anyone who tries to hurt him. Breathing deeply in rage, our hero asked the king, "So what will it be king? Are you going to let me rot in jail in between each wave?"

"As much as I would love to do that, no I won't, it would be counterproductive, as the legend says that we need on four heroes to defeat the waves. So you need to level up so that you can help in the waves, having you imprisoned will only hinder the progress and in the end, could end up killing you. Whilst something we would like would only put this world into danger." the king informed the young man, "So whilst I can't imprison you, as you one of four beings who are able to fight these waves off. But know this, the news of your crimes are already spreading among the people, so that shall be your punishment. Do not expect to find any work in my kingdom, nor lead a decent life."

As Naofumi blink rapidly hearing this information, "Are you all idiots!" the Shield Hero called out, "You just said that you need all four Heroes to work together and yet you asses are going to screw over one of them for some petty pride or believing some cheap bitch lies, just because I'm the shield." the Shield Hero said with a scoff. In short, he had little time to level up as an adventurer and prepare for the Wave. It didn't help that he won't be able to find work here and he wouldn't have an easy time buying things here.

"I'll be leaving. I'm weak, after all. And time's wasting for levelling up. I just hope I never see any of you again until the wave begins."

As Naofumi left the castle, people pointed in his direction and started whispering among themselves. He couldn't really say it was surprising. Rumours here spread quickly, after all.

At any rate, his trust, his respect and most of his money gone. He had lost almost everything

This was the true, miserable start of his adventure in another world.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note: Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and how I changed things so far - if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I still want your thoughts from the notes from the past chapters, so please look back on them and if possible give me your thoughts.

I know that some of you might not like it that I had Myne beat herself up, but I found it strange that out of two people who you just meet, you would believe one was a victim and the other was a rapist without some sort of prove. Because of this, I had Myne get herself beat up, to give prove that Naofumi did rape her.

I hope you like how I portrayed the king, knowing what his daughter was up to, but doing nothing about it. I found it strange that he had the Shadows and yet he knew nothing about his daughter's games with people. As my Beta Reader told me, the king meant to be the Wise King, but the writers dumped him down to levels of stupid that it is unbelievable, and he fell for that legitimately.

Now before you go, I would like to ask for your help, I'm still looking for new slaves and shields and I would like to ask for ideas.

For slaves I would like this information:

Name:

Age:

Birthday:

Race:

Birthplace:

Gender:

Height:

Skin Colour:

Eye Colour:

Hair Colour:

Hair Style:

Body Type:

Scars:

Piercing:

Now for the new shields, need this information:

Name:

How to get the new shields:

What the shields look like:

Stats Gained:

Equip Bonus:

Special Abilities:

I'm after shields that'll help make shields better and stronger:

Alchemy

Blacksmithing

Cooking Upgrading Idea - Absorbing food to gain recipes

Jewelcrafting

Skinning/Dismantling

Enchanting

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Fishing