Rising of the Shield Demon - Part 1

by The Dark Dragen

AU Story: A young man named Naofumi is unwillingly summoned to another world to become one of the four Cardinal Heroes, the problem was the hero he became was hated by the kingdom that summoned him and was considered weak. Read as he overcomes this and the events surrounding this, where he slowly become a darker version of himself. This is a slow and dark story, not for children.

13. Chapter 12

Author's Note: I would like to thank the Guest Reviewer for all the ideas that they give me, I don't know if I'll use them all, but I'll be looking into them to see what I can use.

Chapter Twelve…

The Cardinal Hero's Path!

Aultcray Melromarc:

Whilst Naofumi was sorting out his new slaves, the king was in his study when one of his loyal Shadows entered his room through the shadows. "Your Majesty, I have news about the Shield Hero."

"What news is this?" asked Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, not in the mood to hear anything about the damn Shield Hero. But he knew that if he wanted to keep the damn demon weak, he needed to know whatever he could so that he can counter anything he might do if possible.

"We have learned that the Shield Hero has gotten himself two slaves." the Shadow informed the king.

"What? How?" the king asked, thanks to his eldest daughter's actions, he was able to set things up so that the Shield Hero wasn't able to buy or sell things with ease. Thanks to his foolish daughter's actions of getting someone to hurt her and blaming the Shield Hero, people were more willing to believe that he was in the wrong and so treat him like the scum that the king knew he was.

What he didn't count for was the fact that one of the best blacksmiths in town was willing to help the Shield Demon. The king never liked the blacksmith, seeing how he was a non-human like the demi-humans, but the thing was he was one of the best blacksmiths in the town. He couldn't risk alienating the Maker, as many people go to him for weapons and armour with cores in them. So he couldn't do much to prevent the blacksmith from giving the Shield Hero his slave to help the demon to level up and learn to fight.

But learning that the Shield Hero had two slaves now, he had to find out how, as by law he would need a licence to get one. But first, he had to learn if the Shield Hero broke the law on this as if he did, Aultcray knew he could take the slaves from the demon without a problem. But he had to make sure that the slaves didn't belong to another person of importance. So he had to find out what this Shadow knew before he could take any action.

He couldn't let the Shield Hero become strong, who knows what could happen if he allowed it. Last time the Shield Hero gave those lower demi-humans rights, who knew what this one would do if left alone. If the last Shield Hero left things alone, his sister wouldn't be dead because of the demi-humans, as all of them would have been slaves as they should be. Controlled and knowing their place so that they couldn't go against their betters, just like the demons in this world.

At least with demons, they stayed on their own islands in the air, they hardly ever came to the other lands. But hearing that there have been sightings over the last week was disturbing, they were more powerful than a normal demi-human. Thankfully though, the soldiers in this kingdom and the neighbouring kingdom had armour and weapons able to fight against them thanks to Cores and Stones that give them extra powers.

Either way, the king listened as the Shadow went on to say, "From my contact who works in the slave trade, it would seem that his boss has hired the Shield Hero to deliver a few slaves to the mayor of Lute Village. To help him, the Slave Trader Beloukas has given two slaves to help him, both level one. Beloukas seems to want to see how the slaves raised by a hero will turn out, if it goes as well as he hopes, he might hire the Shield Hero or the other heroes to raise more of his slaves. It's unsure if Beloukas gave him the papers or not to allow the Shield Hero to use slaves or not."

Aultcray was truly unhappy with this news, Beloukas was yet another key figure that the damn Shield Demon got his claws into. Beloukas's uncle was the leader of the main underground slave trade, where underground fights and such took place. Not only that, but many of the nobles bought slaves from Beloukas to take part in the underground fights and such. If he went against him, not only would he have problems with the rest of the underworld, but with the nobles as well.

Both were important for the running of the kingdom, the nobles give the money and status to the kingdom, but they had their own connections Same with the cities underworld city, although their status wasn't what they needed, it was their money and connections, as there were those down there who knew things and were willing to tell the Shadows for a price. This allowed his wife to know what was going on in the criminal world and deal with it when needed. Without them, it would be harder to find and catch criminals, so he couldn't risk upsetting them without a good damn reason. As much as he hated the Shield Demon, he couldn't go after Beloukas, as it would cause so much trouble for him.

All he could do was set it up so that when he does his delivery, one of the hero's would be there to meet and deal with him. As he thought about it, he knew just the hero to send, the one that his daughter had her eye on from the moment she saw him, the Spear Hero.

Aultcray would have to be honest with himself, he didn't like the hero that much, as he was foolish and could easily be manipulated into doing something. But he needed him, so he let his daughter have her fun with him, he knew that when she had enough, she would throw him away and move onto someone who can get her what she wants.

"Have you found anything else about the Shield Hero?" asked the king.

"We're not sure, but a Maker by the name of Atla has come into town today," explained the Shadow, "from what we gathered she has come here on the request of Ulthane to teach the Shield Hero magic."

"What sort of magic is she meant to teach him?" the king asked worriedly, if the demon was going to learn magic, it would make it harder to kill him. So he had to know what sort of magic he was learning, this way he can find a way to counter it if possible, if not train the other heroes with stronger magic.

"No, we don't, from what we know about the Maker, we expect her to teach him something to do with Alchemy, seeing how she is supposed to be a well known but basic kind of alchemist." the Shadow explained to its king.

"Damn it." muttered Aultcray, this was something that the king didn't want to hear. Alchemists are one of the most problematic, as they have a huge range of magic and attacks, they can summon and create things on the fly. With normal fighters, as long as you knew what their style of fighting was, they could more or less make a plan up to deal with them. But with an Alchemist, you could never know what they had up their sleeves, seeing how they can change the surrounding environment to their needs. So they would need a small army to deal with them. Even the ones who are only able to use cores without focus can be problematic, but as long as you keep them from the cores, they can be dealt with as long as they didn't have any other tricks up their sleeves.

"I need you and your team to monitor Atla and the Shield Hero," the king told the Shadow, "I need to know if the Shield Hero has an affinity to alchemy or not. And if he does, I want to know what his level is in it." Aultcray knew that anyone can learn Alchemy, but having an affinity to alchemy would make it easier to learn. Without an affinity to alchemy, it would take longer to learn. The king hoped that the demon didn't have the affinity to alchemy, as he could deal with it, but if he had one, then the king would have to act and find a way to counter this somehow.

"Do you know what skills the other three heroes have?" asked the king, "Do they know about the transformation cores?" He hoped that if they knew about them, he might be able to use them against the Shield Hero should he become a powerful Alchemist.

"The Bow Hero has gotten himself the Angel Core," explained the Shadow, "the Sword Hero knows about them, but she can't decide which one to use, so she decided to learn more about each one before getting one. As for the Spear Hero, your daughter informed him about them, but his response was that he didn't want one, seeing how they would alter his looks. It seems like he doesn't like the idea of anything that could alter his good looks."

"The damn fool." muttered the king, unable to believe the Spear Hero would give up such power because he didn't want to alter his looks.

"If you don't mind Your Majesty, but I have an idea for the Spear Hero." the Shadow informed the king, who waved them on to explain, "We can design him with a new armour that has the Stinger and Hounds Cores, along with some Magical Stones. So just as long as the Shield Hero is only able to learn the basics of alchemy, those skills should be able to deal with the Shield Hero."

"And if the demon learns more advanced alchemy?" asked the king, wondering if the Shadow had any plans for this.

"We have the other two heroes help the Spear Hero, with using transformation cores along with Magical Stones in their armour." the Shadow shared their thoughts with their king, "Although with the Bow Hero, he liked the Angel Transformation Core, as it showed his sense of justice, so getting him with other transformation cores might be a problem. So we might have to give him some armour to go with his Angel Core. As for the Sword Hero, she just isn't sure which cores she should get. So the way I see it, Your Majesty, when the time comes to reward them for their actions, we can give them not only coins but these cores and armour. Whilst we only give the Shield Hero his basic coins."

Aultcray had to admit this might be the best course of action, as much as he hated to admit it, seeing how he was meant to be the Wise King Melromarc. But he knew that even the wisest of people would need help and ideas from others, so this Shadow's idea helped him a lot.

"Thanks for informing me about Atla and the idea what to do," the king thanked the Shadow, "for now, monitor the demon and let me know what level he has in alchemy. Not only that but the moment that you learn when he goes for this mission for Beloukas, send one of the heroes to try and stop him. It doesn't matter if they succeed or not, just the fact that they learn of the Shield Hero's actions is good enough. Making it so that they wouldn't want to work with him would be better."

"I understand Your Majesty, if there's nothing else, I shall take my leave." said the Shadow, where the king only waved them off, leaving him to his thoughts.

Aultcray had hoped he could keep the damn Shield Hero weak, allowing lies about the hero to spread, making it so that people wouldn't want to serve or deal with him. But he had forgotten about the damn Maker in the town, their race didn't care about good nor evil. All they cared about was keeping the balance and was willing to work for anyone as long as they didn't try to destroy the world or hurt their kind. Because of this, the Shield Hero was getting stronger than the king would have liked, not only that, but Aultcray wasn't sure what to do to keep Shield Hero from getting stronger.

As of right now, Aultcray knew that he did what he could do to keep the Shield Hero from getting any stronger, spreading lies to the other kingdoms and making it so that it was hard to do jobs and make a living. All he could do right now is hope for the best, hoping that what he has done so far was enough to prevent the demon from getting any stronger. Seeing there wasn't much more he could do right now, Aultcray went back to running the kingdom and finding a way to get rid of the Shield Demon without anyone finding out it was him.

o0OoO0o

Motoyasu Kitamura:

Motoyasu Kitamura aka the Spear Hero was standing in front of the Job Board in the Guild Hall within Melromarc looking for his first job. It had been a week since Myne, now known as Malty S Melromarc the First Princess of Melromarc, informed everyone that the damn Shield Hero raped her. Even thinking of it still made Motoyasu angry, he wanted nothing more but to kill the damn bastard. But he knew that as he was right now and with the high defences that the Shield Bastard had, he would have no chance at killing him.

Which is why for the last week, he had been visiting areas around the kingdom with high levelled monsters to defeat so that he could level up and gain new spears. Sure the First Princess, who preferred to be called Myne, told him about these transformation cores that would allow him to transform into a monster himself, allowing him great power and strength. The thing was that he prided himself on his looks and didn't like the idea of changing them, so he decided not to get any, but he was thinking about getting the Magical Stones and other Cores once he levelled up a bit more and had the money to buy them.

Now that he and his group's levels were between fifteen and twenty, him being level twenty, he decided it was the best time to leave the area seeing how it was getting hard to level up. As for his group though, there was a change to it, there were only seven instead of five of them - other than Motoyasu, the group was full of women. The man that was in the group before left for some reason, maybe he didn't like it that other than the Spear Hero, he was the only man in the group and the women in the group seemed to only have eyes for the Legendary Hero and left.

What Motoyasu didn't know was that Myne and the other women forced him out of the group, as they had plans for Motoyasu and they didn't want anyone to interfere with their plans. It helped that most of the women liked that with the Spear Hero, they could sit back and Motoyasu would do all the work. He would kill all the monsters and they would get the experience points. The only time they would be forced to do anything was if they faced a powerful monster and the Spear Hero needed support in the fighting.

Either way, Motoyasu had to admit that when he was murdered by the less likely person that would do such a thing, he wasn't expecting to end up having this kind of life. He would be living in a world where everything was like a game and a group of women who wanted to be with him, those who didn't seem to mind sharing him either. To Motoyasu, death was the best thing to happen to him and he was going to enjoy it as much as he could.

There were many jobs on the Guild's Job Board, he wasn't sure which job to take. It wasn't until Myne came over and picked a job for him. "Lord Motoyasu, why not take this job?" Myne asked him as she gave him a Job Card after reading it, "It's a job to help a village a few days from here, south-west of this town called Lerno Village. It would look like they are suffering from famine and want someone to help them. I would think that it'll help you get to be known better if you were able to help them somehow."

What she didn't tell him was that with her by his side, not only would it help him, but would help her too. Show her in a good light for someone who helped the hero who helped a village out of famine. It would help her to become queen one day.

Not realizing Myne's true intentions, only thinking that people would look up to him and gain more fame and possibly gain more women, the Spear Hero said, "Sure, I can't see any harm, it sounds like a simple enough quest. It'll allow me to see what I should expect in future quests. With luck, I can get some material to either gain new spears or strengthen up my old ones."

You see, the way that he strengthens his weapons were in one of three ways, the first was smelting, as by giving a spear a certain ore, it can increase the power and ability of his weapon. But sadly though, like in the game back in his world, not all ores are compatible with his spears. Should he use a wrong ore with one of his spears, it would reset the spear to the beginning level. So he knew it was best to make sure that an ore fits with the spear before levelling it too much. The second and third ways he would Spear Enchantment and Status Enchantment, where he would use materials to give his weapons new abilities and better stats.

Either way, after registering the request, Motoyasu and his girls left the guild to help the villagers. On the way out, they passed Renka and Itsuki coming in, with a few quick words with each other, where Renka sarcastic remarked that she hoped that the girls didn't kill him like the girls back in his world. Motoyasu sweated at this and made the smart move of leaving before he upset the Sword Hero somehow.

It would be about a week later before his task at the village would be finished. From his time back in his world playing Emerald Online, he remembered a quest called Recovery of the Miracle Seed Quest. The seed meant to grow into a huge fruit tree, where the seeds from the tree would spread and create more fruit trees, not only trees but other plants that bear fruit.

After hearing whispers that there was a dungeon fitting the description of the one from his game, he believed that the seed needed to help these people was there. So he left to find out, as long as nothing changed and new high levelled monsters were there, he knew he could in and out of the dungeon easy enough.

What the fool didn't realize was that whilst the seed and dungeon were the same as in his game, the aftermath of the seed wasn't the same. What he wouldn't learn was that whilst the seed did grow into plants, they made things worse than make things better, that the seed created monsters instead of edible fruit.

o0OoO0o

Itsuki Kawasumi:

The seventeen-year-old Bow Hero was having a great time in this new world, he was having a much better life than he had back in his own world. He wasn't bullied by his father nor those at his school, instead, people listened to him, hanged onto his every word. It was different, nice in fact. The only thing that he missed about his world was his mother, he was worried if she would be okay now that many believed him dead, wondering who would look after her now. He hoped that she would be okay.

Over the last week, the young teen thought about what he should do during the times between the Waves. He knew that he had to level up and become stronger, but other than that he wasn't sure what to do. He could go on quests sure, but he has been given great power and he believed that he should use it to make things better. In fact, after learning what Naofumi did to the First Princess and how he tricked Ranka into having sex with him, Itsuki knew that to make him pay, to face justice, he had to become strong enough to get past Naofumi's defence and make the Shield Hero pay for his crimes.

In fact, as he was training to become stronger to be able to get past Naofumi's defences, he realized what he could do, help to bring justice to this world. They still had slavery, seeing how Naofumi had someone's slave to help him fight, and they had lords and nobles who made things awful for the innocent and those who couldn't defend themselves. Remembering how he was treated back in his world, he decided he could use his new power to do what no-one did for him, bring justice for these people and free the slaves.

Because of this, he spent the last week levelling up and gaining materials to make his bow stronger. For him, it was all about getting the rare weapons and strengthening himself up. Sure he can use ore and use status enchantment, but he didn't use them often, as he believed that finding rare weapons and levelling himself up was better. So he was using the defeated monster to make himself stronger and faster in the last week, mainly working on his attack speed and attack points. The reason for this was because he wanted to become strong enough to bring Naofumi to justice, something he couldn't do with weak attack points.

Now that he and his group were between the levels of thirteen and nineteen, with Itsuki being level nineteen. When he wasn't doing missions and saving the innocent, he was going to use his knowledge from playing Dimension Wave to find all the rare weapons. He hoped no one in this world found them before he could, as he knew if he had any chance against Naofumi, he would need powerful weapons to get past his defences.

Now there were these cores, sure they won't in Dimension Wave, but then again he knew that not everything was going to the same, that there was going to be some differences to what he knew of. Like demons, cores and such, he was hoping that they would help him in getting strong in this world.

At first, the Bow Hero thought that after learning about the Transformation Core and getting the Angel Core, that would be all he needed, other than his bow. That they would be enough power to bring justice to this world, seeing how if his party member prayed to him as he fought, he would get stronger. But in the last few days his companions told him that depending on which kingdom he helps, there'll be lords, nobles, even royals could come after him, to prevent him from bringing his justice to this world. That he would have to hide who he was so that he wouldn't get caught.

This got him thinking about a person back in his world, Robin of Loxley or as he was better known as Robin Hood. It was said that he was once a highly skilled archer and swordsman. He was born a noble, but after returning home from war and finding his home taken over and his land that he once lived being ruled by an unjust ruler the Sheriff of Nottingham, he became an outlaw. He became an outlaw to bring peace and justice back to his land.

No-one really knows the true story seeing how the retelling of his story changed many times, but one thing stayed true, he fought to bring justice to his land. This is what Itsuki wanted, to bring justice to the world. To do this he realized that he would have to break a few laws sometimes if he wanted to bring true justice to this world.

To do this, Itsuki knew that he couldn't use his Angel Core as much as he would have liked, as it would make him stand out too much. Which case he decided he would get a new core once he got the money, he would take the form of one of the Robin Hood characters back in his world. This would be a fox. They made Robin Hood a fox because of how sly and cunning he meant to be, it was something that Itsuki knew he had to become if he wanted to bring justice to this world.

So after a week of training, he decided it was time to start his plan to bring justice to this world, so he went to the Guild Hall to see if there was a job that met his needs. As he arrived at the guild, he met up with Renka and her team. It looked like her companions were all female now, no males at all. As they entered the Guild, Itsuki was going to ask about this, but they ran into Motoyasu and his female companions.

They had a few words in greeting, but after a few moments, Renka sarcastic remarked that she hoped that the girls didn't kill him like the girls back in his world. It would seem that after learning about what Naofumi did and how he used her, she became untrusting and hateful towards men it would seem. The Bow Hero saw Motoyasu sweat at this, where he made the smart move of saying goodbye and leaving before he upset the Sword Hero more.

This was another reason that Itsuki wanted to get stronger, he wanted to show the young woman in front of him that not all men were like where she came from nor like Naofumi. He wanted to bring justice to her so that she could live a carefree life without thinking that there was no justice in life. He knew it would be hard for her to believe that he didn't want anything from her, but he'll prove to her that not all men are like them.

"Renka, you do know that you shouldn't treat Motoyasu like that." Itsuki told the heroine as Motoyasu left the guild, whilst their companions went to look for jobs for them.

"Why not?" Renka asked with a sneer, "He is nothing more than a womanizing pervert, who'll do anything to get into a female's neckers."

"I can't deny that," admitted the Bow Hero, "but that's the way he is. He doesn't deny this, sure he talks himself up and such to do so, but he doesn't hide the fact he's a womanizer. I don't think he can hide it, even if he tries. He isn't like Naofumi, who only pretends to care to get what he wants, you know what he wants off the bat. Only those dim enough would think otherwise."

Renka had to admit that the Bow Hero had a point, Motoyasu was an open book, one they could tell what he is after. But still, "It doesn't mean that I don't think he is a perverted bastard. He and Iwatani are why I don't trust men."

"That might be true," admitted Itsuki, "but unlike Naofumi we know we can trust him to do the right thing. He seems to be the type who's loyal to his friends and would do the right thing, I don't think he is able to be able to betray those he believes are an ally. You might not like him, but until we deal with the Waves, unless he proves otherwise, we have to work with him. Afterwards, we can part ways and never interact with each other again if that's what you want."

As much as Renka hated to admit it, she could see his point, the king said that heroes needed to work together if they wanted to defeat the waves. But if that was the case, "What about Naofumi? Do we have to deal with that bastard?" the young heroine asked darkly, not liking the idea of working with him.

"No, we don't," Itsuki told her, "he proved himself that we can't trust him. Even if we could trust him, what can he do to help with defeating the Waves? He is a Shielder, the weakest person there is. How would he be able to help us in the Waves when he is unable to fight? We just ignore him when the Waves happen, we let him do whatever he wants and we deal with the main problem by defeating the Waves before anyone can get hurt."

"I can agree with that." Renka agreed to this.

"Listen, I know you don't trust men at the moment, but I was wondering if we can get something to eat after we finish here?" asked Itsuki, "I would like to talk to you about this world. Me, you and Motoyasu all seem to have a different interpretation of this world, all because of the games that we played back in our world. For me, I have already seen a few different things that won't in my version of this world that I know, so I wanted to see if anything is different to you and compare notes so we can make out a plan of attack or at the very least understand the changes if possible."

Renka thought about this for a moment agreeing to this, "Sure, I've also seen a few differences too and I would like to swap stories. How about we go to the tavern and talk about this."

"That would be fine," agreed the Bow Hero, "let me see if there are any jobs going that I like and I'll meet you at the tavern in a short while."

"Okay but come by yourself." Renka told Itsuki.

"No problem." the Bow Hero agreed, understanding that he didn't trust him or his male companions. With that, the two-part for now as Itsuki went to see if his companions found a job for the group. As he came to his companions, he asked, "So have any of you found any jobs that we can do yet?"

"Matter of fact, I think I might have Sir Bow Hero." a man in plate armour by the name of Mald told him, "There's a job in the next kingdom that is asking for some aid, it would seem that they are having a hard time of it. I have asked around, and it would seem that the Lord of the Land has heavily raised the taxes of his people and they are having a hard time. There are rumours that there's a resistance being built, to make a better land. So I was thinking that we could go to the land and show him some of the justice that you were talking about."

"Hmm…" hummed the young hero, as he thought about this. He had to admit he didn't like how people bullied the weak and by the looks of it, the Lord was doing that to his people by raising their taxes so much that they can't do much.

He knew that there were people like that back in his world and it sickened him, he didn't like the idea of this. But at the time he was weak, a nobody, someone who was unable to do anything to change things. But it was different now, he had supernatural powers now thanks to his bow, now he had the strength to change things to make sure that the weak wasn't walked all over upon. He can make a difference here, unlike when he was back in his world.

"You're right Mald, we should help this resistance," Itsuki said with a smile, finally able to help people, "we spend a few more days here to level up so that we're strong enough to deal whatever we might face there." Then remembering his plans, he said, "Listen, guys, I've to talk to Lady Renka for a bit, so if you don't mind, I'll leave you lot to get things ready for us and I'll meet up with you lot later."

"Understood Lord Itsuki." the Bow Hero's companions said at once, where a few moments later Itsuki left the guild to go to the tavern.

o0OoO0o

Renka Amaki:

The sixteen-year-old Sword Hero wasn't having a great week, she had hoped that now that she died and was brought to this new world, she would have a better time of it all. At first, she thought she did, she seemed to have found a guy that was a great and honest guy, someone she thought she could settle down with. In fact, she gave herself to the person she thought would be there for her, someone special.

But that was the worst thing she could ever have done, as the very next night he raped the First Princess and told her that he didn't really care for her. The truth was that he pretended to care about her so that he could fuck her. At first, she wasn't sure about it all, but she didn't have any reason for the First Princess to lie about this. What kind of woman would lie about being raped?

The only problem that she had was that she knew that Naofumi had the ability that made it so that he couldn't get drunk, so she had to ask the First Princess about this. The Princess couldn't explain it, all she knew was that when he tried to attack her, the Shield Hero was drunk. All she could tell her was that the Shield Hero had found a way to fake his abilities. When asked how it was possible seeing how they only been there for a short while, the Princess explained that there were those who were very loyal to the Shield Hero, namely the demi-humans, and they were willing to do whatever the Shield Hero wanted.

So it was possible that Shield Hero learned about this somehow and got the demi-humans to get what was needed to fake his abilities. Other than that, she couldn't tell her why the Shield Hero was drunk, as all she knew was that he was. Renka believed the Princess, seeing how she had no reason to lie about this. She was upset that Naofumi would do such a thing, was he trying to make him look cooler than he really was?

Whatever the case, any trust left she had for men was ruined for her, she didn't know if she could ever fully trust one ever again. Not after how Naofumi did. Sure she needed to trust Itsuki and the womanizing ass Motoyasu to a degree if she wanted to survive the Waves, but outside of that, she would be very wary around them. It would be the same with any men that hire her for a job, she would only trust them so far.

Now because of this, she decided to get rid of all of the men in her group, fearing that they would one day do the same to her or one of the women in the group. Renka replaced the men with women that she found.

Now like the other two heroes, she too spent the last week levelling up and getting stronger. Although, whilst she did have level up with her companions, as the loner that she was, she trained alone a lot too. When her companions were resting or doing something else, she would be levelling up and getting stronger by herself. She wasn't stupid, she knew that if she allowed the waves to continue and didn't stop them, she could end up dead with the rest of this world, something she didn't like the idea of. So she knew she had to make sure they could protect her by keeping the normal monsters at bay whilst she and the other heroes dealt with the bosses.

Now like the other heroes, she had her own belief as to how to get stronger, for her, she had three ways to get stronger. To get stronger, Renka believed that she had to level up her weapons to do so and for that, there were three key components for her to do this. The first component was Mastery, more she used the same weapon over and over again or giving it monster materials, it would level up its proficiency and so make the weapon even stronger.

The next two components go hand to hand with each other, energy transfer and rarity., as they allowed her to maximise the weapon that she was using. So once she maxed out the weapon to its maximum level, she could reset the weapon so that it would become level one again by unleashing the energy that it gained to get the max level. In doing so, she would gain Energy Points, where she could either transfer it into another weapon or back into the same weapon again.

By resetting a weapon and levelling it up by using the Energy Points, or giving it monster materials or using it over and over again, it improves the rarity of the weapon. In doing so, she would gain new abilities or make one of the other weapons stronger. But there is the risk that if it failed, the mastery points would be reset to zero and she would have to start all over again. Because of this, her plans were to level up only a handful of swords that were already strong and improve that sword's rarity until she found a better sword to use. She didn't see the point levelling up all of her swords, as she only saw it as a waste of time, so she only levelled up a few swords that she thought were important and had useful skills. So for the last week, she had been gaining new swords and levelling up the best one to make her stronger.

Over the last week, her companion got to the levels between fifteen and twenty, whilst she became level twenty-three. The reason that she was higher than her companions, and even the other heroes, was that during the nights or when they finished training together, she would head out and do extra training by herself. There were two reasons for this, first, she believed that her companions held her back, that she could become stronger by defeating monsters by herself.

The other reason was that she wanted, no she needed to get stronger, she wanted to show the world that she could be as strong if not stronger than any male hero. Not only that, but she also wanted to become strong so that no one, not even those like Naofumi, could use her again. In fact, one of her companions informed her about something called Monster Cores, where they would give you abilities of that monster or allow you to transform into a certain monster. The thing was she didn't know what monster she would like to use, as she knew that there were so many different monsters that she was used to. So she decided to wait for a while before deciding which one to use.

With her group at a decent enough level, that they can deal with almost anything that they might face, so today she and her companions went to the guild. She was looking for a mission that would test her strength, to see if they were ready to face the Waves of Calamity. On the way to the guild, she met up with Bow Hero Itsuki who was about to enter the guild. After greeting each other, they entered the guild where they met up with Motoyasu and companions who Renka saw were full of women. One is the First Princess.

Renka hated Motoyasu, she might only be around him for a short while, but she knew one thing for sure - he was a pervert, only thinking about ways to fuck women. In a way, he reminded her of Naofumi, but unlike Iwatani he wasn't good at hiding the fact.

Upon seeing them, Motoyasu called out, "Hey Itsuki, Renka, how are you two doing?"

"I'm good," said Itsuki, "I've come with my companions to find a mission to go to."

"Same here," said Motoyasu, "in fact, I'm leaving to help a village which has a food shortage, I'm hoping to get the seed I know about to help them. The seed is meant to grow anyway and bear fruit, which should help the villagers."

"Ah I see, I wish you luck." Itsuki wished the Spear Hero luck.

"So how are you Renka? What are you up to?" asked Motoyasu.

"I'm good Kitamura." Renka told him coldly.

"Why are you so cold to me?" Motoyasu asked in shock, seeing how he hadn't done anything against her.

"You're a pervert," Renka told him, "just like Iwatani. Trying to figure out how to fuck a woman. I have no idea why you're with him Princess, not after what Iwatani did to you?"

"Lady Renka, Lord Motoyasu is nothing like the Shield Hero," Myne defended her chosen hero, "he cares and defends us. He hasn't laid a hand on us. He really does care for us, unlike the Shield Hero."

Motoyasu was glad that Myne defended him before he could say anything, he hated the thought that Renka thought of like that damn Iwatani. Sure he likes his women and would like to be in their beds at night, but he would never, never force himself onto others. If they say no or they don't show him any interest, he would either back off or try to impress them, but he would never rape someone.

"He only defends you so that he can fuck you." Renka told her, "He may act like a good guy, but deep down he is nothing more than a womanizing pervert who wants to fuck one or all of you."

"I'm nothing like that." Motoyasu defended himself.

"Oh really? Please remind me, why did a woman try to kill you?" Renka asked with a smirk, as she reminded him what he told her when they first met.

Whilst it was only over a week since it happened, Motoyasu rubbed his side at the thought, he didn't know how long before he would get over that. He wanted to say something about this, but he wasn't sure if he said anything, it wouldn't make things worse and have Renka turn on him even more.

Just as Motoyasu and his companions were about to leave, Renka called out, "Listen, if you finally see the scum that Kitamura is and decide to leave but want to help in fighting the Waves, you can always come to me." None of them said anything, they just left.

As Motoyasu left the guild, Itsuki told her that she shouldn't have treated the Spear Hero the way she did. Sure he was a womanizer and a pervert, but he was nothing like Naofumi, that he could be trusted to do the right thing. That Motoyasu was loyal to his friends and would do the right thing, he didn't think that the Spear Hero is able to be able to betray those he believes are an ally.

The Bow Hero told her that she might not like him, but until they deal with the Waves, unless he proves otherwise, they have to work with him. Afterwards, they could part ways and never interact with each other again if that's what she wants.

As much as Renka hated to admit it, she could see his point, the king said that heroes needed to work together if they wanted to defeat the waves. But the problem was Naofumi, how could they work with him after what he has done, how could they trust him. Itsuki told her that they shouldn't work with the bastard, seeing how he has proved himself that they couldn't trust him. Even if they could trust him, what can he do to help with defeating the Waves? He was after all only a Shielder, the weakest person there is. How would he be able to help us in the Waves when he is unable to fight? They'll just ignore him when the Waves happen, letting him do whatever he wants and they'll deal with the main problem by defeating the Wave Bosses before anyone can get hurt.

This was something Renka could agree to. She just hoped that Naofumi stayed away from them whilst they were fighting in the Waves, she didn't know if she could stand back and do nothing.

Just as she was about to see what jobs there were, Itsuki wanted to talk about this world. Seeing how she, he and Motoyasu all seem to have a different interpretation of this world, he wanted to see what her interpretation of this world was and he would tell her of his. As it would seem that he saw a few differences already. He was right, she too saw a few differences too, so it would be nice to see if these changes were from Itsuki's version he knew of or not.

So agreeing to this talk, Itsuki said they should meet at the tavern once they have finished here at the guild. The Sword here was more than happy with this, but she told him to come alone, which the Bow Hero agreed to. So with this the two parted ways, where Renka looked around to see if she could find a job. Sure she could check the notice board, but she knew from her games that sometimes if she listened to NPCs, she might learn of missions that were not normally on the board for some time. Not only that, but going directly to the NPC, you might get a better reward than the ones on the board.

It was the right thing to do, as she learned about a dragon that seemed to be a bother to a village a few days from here. If she and her companions could deal with the dragon with ease, she knew that they would be ready for the next Wave. So after talking to these people and learning a bit more about the dragon, she offered to deal with the dragon which the people were glad to accept, seeing how she was a hero and all. They thought that if she couldn't deal with it, nobody could.

Renka had to control herself and not to be too rude to these people, seeing how they were men, but once they got the details Renka and her group left the guild where Renka went to the tavern to meet Itsuki, whilst her party got ready to leave town and deal with the dragon. Gaining new weapons and armour, along with getting more potions and such.

What Renka didn't realize was that the people who sent her to kill the dragon had an alternative motive, you see the dragon was protecting a group of demi-human children as if it was their parent. They have been trying for years to get these children so they could make them into slaves, but everyone that they sent to deal with the dragon ended up dead. So hearing that the Four Cardinal Heroes were summoned, they hoped to track one of them into killing the damn beast. So using the cover story of how the village wanted someone to deal with the dragon, which they really did, as they wanted to gain the eggs and treasure along with getting rid of the dragon who was scaring away visitors. So after making a deal with the villagers, they went in search of a Cardinal Hero to deal with the dragon. Now seeing that they found the Sword Hero, they hoped that she was able to defeat the beast so that they could get the damn demi-humans.

o0OoO0o

Naofumi Iwatani:

As he was walking out of town, he heard rumbling behind him, looking behind him he saw that Raphtalia was holding her stomach. It was Kumiho who made a comment about this, "Master, before we go and level up, can we get something to eat? I don't think Raphtalia has eaten in a while?"

She was not worried in the slightest about talking out of turn to the Shield Hero, but she was worried for the young girl who was now her sister in arms to protect her Lord. If she hadn't eaten for a while or done anything about that cough, she might be too hungry and weak to fight and that could lead to the girl's death. This would be bad for her Master seeing how he spent money that she was informed he didn't have much of on him. It was her job to make sure that the Shield Hero was protected and taken care of any way possible, even if it meant stepping in when possible to point out problems that might arise, even if it meant she would be punished for it, what she highly doubt it that would happen given the information that she got beforehand about him.

Raphtalia was almost pale as a ghost from what Kumiho said, she only been a slave for about a month or so, but she learned enough over that time. She knows that her masters have varied with some good and some bad, and was wondering if she could ask for food but was hesitant to ask before Kumiho said what she was thinking. What made her terrified that she might get punished for asking for someone else or even asking out of turn, she hoped that if she did she would not be punished or mistreated like her previous master. But given that this was their God and saviour, she knew she was safe with him as long as she did everything he wanted of her.

Naofumi totally forgot about this, from buying his slaves, getting them items and going to see Ulthane and getting Crusch, he forgot that he was going to feed his new slaves after buying them. "I'm sorry you two, I forgot that I said that I would buy you some food before we go and level up. So let's go to the tavern and get something to eat."

"Lord Naofumi, I think it would be wise if we go back to my Master's place and get something to eat there." Crusch said respectfully, "You see, My Lord, demi-humans aren't allowed to be in the taverns in this town."

This was the first that Naofumi heard about this, then again there was a notice in front of the door at the tavern, but seeing how he couldn't read the language of this world, it wasn't surprising he didn't know. It's not like he and Crusch ate at any of the taverns in the town together, they normally ate at Ulthane's place. But then again, what is the worse they could do to him, throw him out, make him pay double? Most taverns already do that, the tavern that he goes to only serve him as they care more about coins than anything else, so as long as he paid they didn't care who he was. It helped that they force him to pay more than anyone else in the place.

"What are they going to do? Throw me out, make me pay double?" Naofumi asked her, "Been there done that, it's not like they like me anyway, at least this way I am actually giving them a reason to hate me. Come on, let's get something to eat."

Seeing Raphtalia and Kumiho were his slaves, they followed him anyway, it wasn't like they could do much else but to do so. Crusch though stayed behind for a few seconds, worried what might happen. She was worried that a fight might break out, but then again, it wasn't like Lord Naofumi couldn't handle himself, over the last week he had shown that he was able to do so very well. She had no reason to worry that he would get hurt. She was just worried about how people would treat him afterwards, his reputation was already bad, this could make things worse.

But seeing how he walked towards the nearby tavern without a care, she realized that he no longer cared about his reputation. Instead, it would seem that he was willing to give them a reason to hate them, instead of just something the old Shield Hero did. He would be hated for his actions, not someone else's who died hundreds of years ago. Whilst she might not like it, seeing as he meant to be the Shield Hero, she could fully understand where he was coming from.

Once they were in the tavern and headed towards a dark corner of the place, people were giving them all dark looks, a waitress came along and said. "Sir, you do know…" but before she could finish, Naofumi glared at her and said, "I do not care what you're going to say. Hand me the damn menu and get lost, you're just going to overcharge me anyways so I'm not going to hear any of your crap."

As the waitress looked like she was about to say something before Naofumi gave her a dark look, "Just pay me double for their meals as you normally do with me. Or does your boss no longer want my money?" He said in a dark tone showing off his annoyance and making her take a step back at the threatening atmosphere he started to admit.

"I, I understand sir…" the waitress said with a bit of fear in her voice, "Wh, what would you like to order?"

"I'll have three basic meals and I'll also have whatever that kid over there is eating." Naofumi told the waitress.

"Very well sir. That will be fifty bronze coins." the waitress told him.

Here Naofumi gave her a silver coin, but as many times before when he paid a silver because he didn't have the right coins, he didn't get any change. Naofumi just sighed at this as the others had differing looks, Kumiho Look angry and annoyed, Crush looked sad and disappointed and Raphtalia just looked on at this with confusion not understanding what's going on.

"What Wrong?" Raphtalia asked, not understanding what's going on as she looked at the other slaves' expressions.

"Let's just say I have my problems with this kingdom because of the last Shield Hero, and because he isn't around, they are taking their hate and anger out on me." Naofumi told his new slave, he didn't have to tell her everything and it wasn't a lie either. He suspected the reason he was famed for rape was that the bitch hated what the Shield Hero represents, whatever that was and was more than happy to dirty his name, even if they don't know fuck all about him.

"Humm, yeah that kind of sounds right," Kumiho said, "Raphtalia you see the last Shield Hero gave us demi-humans protection and rights allowing us to make a kingdom for ourselves against the humans. It was thanks to his help that we have our own capital and freedom there, the king of this country hates us demi-humans because of the war that they won recently."

After hearing that they mostly waited quietly for their food to arrive, he saw that Raphtalia was looking all around the place. Like normal people were casting glances in his direction while they whispered among themselves.

Oh, how much Naofumi hated this damn kingdom.

"I… Is it really okay for me to eat?" Raphtalia suddenly asked the Shield Hero, looking up at him with a confused look on her face.

'Is it really that odd that I would want to feed her a meal?' Naofumi thought to himself, but aloud he asked, "I did say I would feed you." Naofumi reminded her, "You're my slave so why shouldn't I feed you? Not only that but I need you and Kumiho at full strength. Having you underfeed and weak won't help me out." Naofumi told her simply.

Before she could say more, the waitress returned with their food. Whilst Kumiho and Crusch ate their food without a problem, Raphtalia just stayed at her food for a few moments, before saying, "Are you, are you sure that I can eat this?"

"I wouldn't have brought it if I wasn't sure," Naofumi reinsured her, "like you I told you, I need you and Kumiho at full strength and eating is the best way to make that happen, that and giving you medicine to make you better. Now eat the damn food, if you walk around all skinny like that, you'll just die on me and I can't have that happen. At least not right after I got you."

Raphtalia hesitated for a moment more before finally attacking her meal bare-handed.

'How long has she been a slave?' Naofumi asked himself seeing her bad table manners. For someone to have such manners, she must have been a slave for years. As he was thinking of this he saw her starting to choke on some of the food that she ate and slid over some water that she gracefully gulped down. Then he began to eat his meal, which was like aways tasteless.

As he was eating his meal, he remembered something that he wanted to tell his slaves when he got his new shield, "So you know, unless I say otherwise I don't want anyone to know about any of my Shields especially about my new shield that I just got. That's an order."

Raphtalia and Kumiho could feel the slave magic working on them, making it so that they can't say anything about his new shield. Not even here with him being here, as there were people who might overhear them talking about it. "Can I ask why you don't want people to know that you have that sort of shield?" asked Kumiho.

"This damn town already thought of me as some kind of demon," explained Naofumi, "if they learned that I have this kind of shield, they'll believe even more that I'm a demon. As they wouldn't like the idea that I could get stronger, they would fear what I could do. So I don't want anyone to learn about it just yet."

"Understood Master/Lord Naofumi." the three slaves said at once.

"Now, Raphtalia, Kumiho, as I told you when I first got you, I'll be doing whatever I have to survive in this world." Naofumi reminded his two slaves, then in a lower voice so no one but the three of them could hear. It helped that the place was full that day and it was noisy, making it hard for people to hear them. "In this case, it'll mean that to gain money and other supplies, I'm going to become a bandit, with your help."

"Bu, but Master… you're meant to be, meant to be a hero," Raphtalia said though her coughs, "you're… you're meant to save people, save the world, not… not hurt people, stealing from them."

"I'll be saving the world, just not the people, at least not for free." Naofumi told them, "I can't let the world end, seeing how I'm on it and I don't want to die in this godforsaken world, so I'll save it but anything else is secondary. The way I see it, during the Waves, unless it suits me and I get something out of it or I'm getting paid or there is no other option, I let the town guards and the other heroes be the real heroes. During the Waves, unless we have something else to do, our goal is to deal with the Wave Boss and end it as soon as possible. Outside of the Waves, we'll train, level up and do whatever to, get stronger and survive the next Wave."

Raphtalia was about to say something, but her master held his hand out to stop her and said, "Listen Raphtalia, you might not like the way I'm planning to do things, but remember what I told you when I got you. if you don't pull your weight, slow me down or get in my way I won't hesitate to sell you back to the Slave Trader and buy someone who'll be able to do what needs to be done."

Crusch was saddened at how Lord Naofumi was acting, but she could understand where he was coming from, even if she didn't like it. This kingdom was forcing him from a hero into a bandit so that he could get the things that he would normally get if he was treated normally, so it was expected that he would want his slaves to be able to do what was needed of them. So it wasn't surprising to hear him tell his slaves that he would sell them back to the Slave Trader if they didn't pull their weight or unwilling to do what was needed of them.

She knew that most seasoned slaves wouldn't have any problems following such orders, but she was worried about young Raphtalia. She was young and got ideas about right and wrong, she didn't know that as a slave, she should forget such things, as they no longer apply to her. She just hoped that the kingdom didn't kill off all of Naofumi's humanity, where he would punish the girl too badly for her inexperience or worse yet send her back to the Slave Trader. She feared that if he did, the young girl would die if she was reading the signs right. But the problem was that she couldn't say or do much, seeing how it was up to Naofumi to deal with this in his own way.

"Whilst I don't care if you become a bandit or get paid to protect the human Master, and I understand that you need those who can help you but can I request that we help the demi-humans we come across?" Kumiho asked with a bow of her head, "I ask as I would like to show the demi-humans that worship you know that their hero is there to protect them, and not the person that this kingdom that portrays you as. They need to know that at least one of the Cardinal Hero's are protecting them, especially the one that they worship."

"As long as they pay I'll help them." Naofumi told her, seeing that she was going to say something, she held up his hand and said, "You might want it so that I don't, but how can I trust people where they leadership place one of their own into enslavement to gain the favour of another."

"But I volunteered to become your slave, Master, I wasn't forced into becoming a slave." Kumiho informed her master, "And so you know, not every demi-human in this kingdom can pay you. Whilst the Queen protects us, there's only so much she can do. Outside of a handful of villages, demi-humans are caught and sold as slaves and those who live in the villages, they have very little money that they can't pay you much."

"Not my problem," Naofumi told her, "after everything that has happened to me, I'm not going to do anything for anyone unless they pay me in some form or they earned my trust where I'll be able to do something for free, I won't be doing anything for free." Kumiho could only sigh at the damage that this kingdom has done to her Master, that he wouldn't be willing to help anyone unless he got paid for it. "And as for your leaders, why didn't they come to me first, try and talk to me before sending you to me?" asked Naofumi.

"But they did," Kumiho informed the Shield Hero, "but because of what happened to you, you sent them away and so decided the best option was to send me here instead."

"So instead of waiting for me to calm down or wait for me to come to them, as at some point I would have come to them once I learned about them, they were willing to send you here to become my slave." Naofumi stated things in his point of view, "So tell me how can I trust such people, how can I know that they or others won't try and control me in some way. Can you tell me that your people wouldn't try and control me for their own personal gain? That they wouldn't try to get rid of me if I wouldn't do what they say or when I'm no longer any use to them?"

Kumiho had to admit that her Master had a point, whilst she didn't know them personally, she did know that there were groups that would try and use the Shield Hero for their own gain. And as much as she hated to admit it, there were a few groups who would kill him once they are done with him. If the rumours were true, that's what happened to the last Shield Hero, once they got their own kingdom and other things, there was a group who killed him. Not that her Master knew this though.

But it didn't matter, whilst Kumiho knew that she was his slave now and he could do whatever he wanted and she could only follow his commands, she wanted to try and make him see sense. To make him realize how bad things really were to show her Master that people needed him to stop the Waves.

"Master, I think you're underestimating those who hate you and what they are willing to do to keep you weak." Kumiho began to explain, hoping that her Master would understand, "Not only are these people trashing your name, but they have made it near impossible for anyone who wishes to help you to do so. There are many fears about what might happen if they do help you, they fear what the king might do to them. I understand your fears that those who sent me might have their own agenda and want to use you, which they might have, but regardless, your job is to save our world."

Here Naofumi gave a dark look at this, not wanting to be reminded of the reason he was here. As part of him believed that this world should burn to ashes, but he knew that if he allowed this to happen, he too would die. As the only way, he could go home was to save this damn world from the waves. He had a few comments about what Kumiho had to say so far, but he held his tongue until she was finished.

"Sure that doesn't mean you have to protect the people nor the country that they live in," admitted Kumiho, "but if you treat everyone the same because of the actions of this one king, nobles, nations along with that princess, then why are you fighting?" Kumiho asked her Master seriously, wanting to make him think clearly about why he was doing all this. "The Waves of Destruction are said to get worse and worse, as each one passes. If you are just fighting to leave this world, then you will not have the resolve to live long enough to see it to the end." she said with a deadly serious tone, "If the rumours of what I heard what happened to the first town that got hit by the Wave are true then this is going to get a lot worse."

As Raphtalia seemed to shake at hearing that.

However, before anything else could be said though, the Sword and Bow Hero entered the tavern. Seeing them Naofumi got into a darker mood than he already was in, he wasn't in the mood at all to deal with those two fools. So pushing his meal away from him, he stood up and said, "We're leaving, now!"

"But Master…" began Raphtalia, not understanding what was going on. But her Master wasn't in the mood, as he said, "I said we're leaving, don't make me give you an order."

"Listen Raphtalia, it's best we leave now." Crusch told the young slave softly, "Lord Naofumi has, say we say problems with the other Heroes at the moment, and he isn't in the mood to deal with them right now. So either eat quickly or leave your meal, either way, we're leaving. It would be best not to anger him right now when it comes to them and the royals of this kingdom I've heard that he has no tolerance for them. He can be very snappy about it, and is unwilling to talk about it when he is like this." Raphtalia nodded quickly as she finished her meal before she walked behind her Master.

Naofumi was hoping to leave without incident, seeing how he wasn't in the mood right now to talk to them without letting his mood get the better of him. But it wasn't to be though, as the Itsuki spotted him and called out to him darkly, "I see that you're still using slaves to do your work for you, not only that but you gain an extra two since I last saw you. Don't you have no shame? We are meant to show these people a better way of life, showing them that things like slavery are wrong."

"You damn pervert," Renka sneered darkly, "seeing how you can't get any women to sleep with, you got yourself, three slaves, to be with, seeing how they can't say no to you. Can you get any lower?" Then seeing that one of them was just a child, she launched herself at the Shield Hero.

Thankfully Itsuki held her back before she could do any damage, standing in front of her, he said, "Listen Renka, I understand that you are angry and for the right reason, but we're indoors with innocent people who could get hurt if you fight here. We can't allow that, we are the true heroes here, we should act like it."

"But he is with a child, who more than like force her to have sex with him." Renka told the Bow Hero, making people who weren't already watching the outburst to do so.

"You, you sick twisted bitch!" Naofumi told her darkly before Naofumi could finish Kumiho quickly stepped up next to her and without any hesitation, slapped Renka in the face with enough force to push her back and leave a red mark on her face.

"I am highly disappointed in you!" Kumiho said looking down at Renka, "I thought the heroes would be smart enough to believe in each other instead of a spoiled lying child!" she said in a cold and stormy tone.

"Hay! That's the princess you're talking about!" Itsuki said angrily, angry at what this demi-human did. But he figured that Naofumi probably told her some lies to defend himself, "You can't say things like that about her."

"I can and I will," snapped Kumiho, "because she's nothing more than a lying cheat. From what I have heard, her own mother was so disgraced by her actions, that she disinherited the First Princess and gave the inheritance of the next Queen to her younger sister. If you knew anything about our world and its politics, you would have already known how big of a deal that is. If the rumours are true, the First Princess would be willing to do anything to get her way. It wouldn't surprise me if she lied about Lord Naofumi for some reason."

Naofumi was shocked to see someone standing up for him against his fellow Heroes, it reminded him what Crusch did for him. This made part of him realize how devoted demi-humans were to him, but another part of him was concerned, wondering if this was only to get on his good side. The Slave Trader did say that she was there for him as someone arranged it, who knows what she really could be up to. Thanks to how he was treated in this world, all he knew, whoever sent her to him, could have done whatever to her so that she could lie if she had to, or even hide certain things even with the Slave Crest.

"It doesn't matter he's still bought slaves to screw or why else would he get you since he couldn't get anyone else to fall for his tricks." Renka sneered at Kumiho.

"Because I'm unable to attack and I need someone to do it for me." Naofumi reminded her, before lying, "So you know, these slaves don't belong to me. One belongs to a blacksmith who agreed to help me, and the other two are part of a job that I'm doing. One where I'm helping someone to protect these slaves as they level up."

"You would support slavery?" Renka asked in shock, unable to believe how low he could go.

"Normally no," admitted Naofumi, "but seeing how in this world slavery is legal and most support it, I don't want to interfere with their beliefs seeing how we might leave after the Waves are over. Not only that but what other option do I have but to work with slavers or the slave masters. No one is willing to work with me, so I'll take help wherever I can."

"And who's fault is that?" Renka asked darkly, "If you hadn't raped the First Princess, you wouldn't have this problem."

Naofumi hated that she would say that aloud, he was trying to keep that from his slaves so that they wouldn't fear what he might do to them. Okay, mainly he didn't want Raphtalia to know, as he didn't think she needed to know that people thought he was a rapist. He didn't want her to fear that he might do something like that to her without warning.

Then he remembered that she saw his Status Card, maybe he could make her see sense, to prove to her that he didn't do what the bitch said he did. So trying to make the foolish girl see reason, Naofumi said, "Listen Renka, you saw my Status Card, do you really think at that time I was able to do anything?"

"Yeah I saw that and when I first heard about you raping Princess Malty, I had my doubts about it and so I went to talk to her about it. To learn the truth to see if you really did do it, as I knew one of your abilities made it impossible to make you drunk." explained Renka, "However, whilst the Princess said she couldn't explain it, she admitted that you really were drunk and that you must have faked your abilities somehow."

"And how was I meant to do this err?" Naofumi asked her darkly, "We only been in the world for a few hours, how the hell could I fake my skills and abilities."

"I wondered about that too and I asked her about it too," admitted the Sword Hero, "but she was able to explain that too. She told me that there were those who were very loyal to the Shield Hero, and they were willing to do whatever you wanted. So seeing how weak you were, you had those loyal to the Shield Hero help you fake your skills to make you look better than you really were."

"You gotta be kidding me, you believe such a bullshit story like that?" Naofumi asked her in disbelief, he couldn't believe that anyone would believe such a bullshit story. "We were only in this world for a few hours, so how would they know that I needed to fake my abilities? To demi-humans I am a god-like figure, so why would they want to fake my skills and abilities and how would they in a human superiority country."

"Because they consider you as their god," Renka shot back, "they don't want their god to look so useless and weak."

"You're not going to believe me no matter what anyone says," Naofumi said with a sigh, "not like that you believed me from the start."

"What are you talking about?" asked the Bow Hero, asked that Naofumi say such a thing seeing how Renka gave her first time to the bastard.

"Remember when I asked if any of you had any tips for help?" Naofumi asked them, the two other heroes only nodded at this, wanting him to get to the point of things, "Whilst Motoyasu tip about coping my weapon type worked, her tip about monster drops and creating items with our weapons didn't work. At first, I thought it was me or the system just didn't work in this world, but now? I think she had no faith in me and gave me some damn fake tip because she felt sorry for me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Itsukie, "That system works well for me here, in fact, it saved me money on potions and such."

"Same with me, the system works for me as well." Renka informed the Shield Hero, "And me not having any faith for you? I had a lot of faith in you until you did what you did, that's when I lost any faith that I had for you."

"Yeah right," scoffed Naofumi, "if you had any faith in me, you would have believed me when I said I didn't rape the bitch." Seeing how they were going to defend the bitch, Naofumi decided to cut them off by saying, "You know what, I think it's better if me and my team leave."

"Yeah, I think it would be for the best." Renka remarked darkly, and without another word, Naofumi and his companions left the tavern and went to the fields to level up.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END: Here ends another chapter of Rising of the Shield Demon, I would like to thank you for reading this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I'm sorry for the wait, but I had problems with the ending of the chapter, it took longer to write than I hoped. I got to a point where Renka and Itsukie entered the tavern, I had to redo and redo it until I was happy about it, which took a while, even now I'm not fully happy with it but it is the best I could get for the part of the story. So if you don't fully like it, you're not the only one, I don't fully like it either.

So you know, I'm going with the info that I gained from a Shield Hero discord group I'm in and a YouTube video I found about Itsuki strengthening method. They told me that Itsuki rarity method is finding rare weapons, not making his weapons rare. So I'm going with that...

Now I have been thinking about the Lust Shield, the main thing I'm looking for are side-effects of using it. For Rage Shield, to activate it, he had to give up all of his SP to do so. And to use his main power at the time, Blood Sacrifice, he had to give up a lot of his stats for a month, so I was thinking what these side-effects should be for the Lust Shield.

I knew that I could use the loss of SP too, as I might want to use it at the same time as the Rage Shield, which is why I've been asking you guys. Although, now that I think about it, I didn't do a good job at it lol. Either way, I got a review from the last chapter that give me an idea of the side-effects for using the Lust Shield, here's the part of the review that got me thinking:

The Lust shield could have a poison area effect that is constantly pumped from Naofumi's body whilst in use due to his pumped-up emotions and needs, that weakens enemies(and allies) caught in the area over time:

- Causes them to lose vision/partially blind them.

- Slowly weakens defences of all who's affected.

- Maybe cause monsters/enemies/allies to go into a frenzy and attack anything that moves (could be a major drawback if used wrong)

- Like the pheromone shield the Curse: Shield Of Lust will also produce pheromones from the shield at a higher potency to draw in monsters (that could then combo with the poison produced from Naofumi).

- An attack the shield could also do is ignite the poison, causing an explosion and also setting fire to the surrounding area (a later upgrade) but could cause significant harm to Naofumi (sort of like the Shield of Wrath: Blood Sacrifice).

These are only a few ideas I had, maybe you could make them work or bounce ideas off of mine.

So I was wondering what are your thoughts about this, and what should his most powerful move be for the Lust Shield and what side-effect would Naofumi have for using such skill? Can you think of something better for activating the Lust Shield instead of above?

I would like to comment that the Stinger and Hounds Cores idea came from the came Code Vein. I had to come up with ideas for cores that Motoyasu use instead of transformation cores, I was playing the game when I got the idea.

Here are the results to what body Naofumi should have with Raphtalia in/ So you know if you're keeping a count yourself, there were a few voters who voted in chapter 12 who voted in chapter 11, because of this as I told you before, these votes won't count. I'm trying to be fair here so that no one can say I've been biased here.

Older: Review: 32 PM 2

Young: Review: 37 PM 2

I have looked back when I asked this before and decided to use the votes from what chapter too, at least it is partially fair. So you know who, those who are thinking that the Lust Shield will take the place of the Rage Shield, that's not happening, he is going to have both.

Yes Lust Shield: 24 PM 1

No Lust Shield: 9

I got a question from Storylover213 that got me thinking if this is a dark and evil Naofumi does that mean once he thinks his new slaves are healthy enough he'll use them as he sees fit even as pleasure slaves?

So you know, after a few reviews that I got saying that Lust Shield isn't needed, I'm having second thoughts. But it might still be there, as a few people said there's lust for power and revenge as well as sexual lust, so might use lust for power and revenge as well as sexual lust. Seeing how he'll want the power to destroy those who belittle him and lust for revenge against Trash and Bitch...