Author's Note: First off, I would like to apologize for the late delay in the update, as I told you at the end of the last chapter, I had to place my laptop into the shops to get fixed. After over three weeks of them not being able to fix it and for me asking for a replacement laptop, they sent me an Ecard for me to get a new laptop. During the three weeks, I used my phone when I can to write some work, but it's hard seeing how small the screen is to write on the phone. Then for the last few weeks, since I got a new laptop, apart from trying to regain the mood to write, I was catching up on the manga, anime and shows that I missed over the last three weeks.
But during that time, I did write what I could and as I did the story got away from me once again and went to around 13k words into the chapter and knew I still haven't finished. I felt that there would be another three to four thousand words left or maybe more. So like the last time that this happened, I decided to split this chapter into two. Now the epilogue is finished and planning to post it next week, however, should I get at least twenty reviews for this chapter, I'll post it sooner.
Chapter Twenty-Two…
The Duel!
"Excellent work, Heroes! I cannot contain my surprise after seeing the difference between the casualties and damage from this battle and the last." The king thanked the heroes, "But it should be expected from our heroes. To thank them, this banquet is for them, so we can show our gratitude for their hard work." Naofumi knew that this trash of a king was only talking to the other three heroes, that he wasn't talking to him.
It was now night, and the sun had gone down and the night sky had taken over. Naofumi and Raphtalia had cleaned up before coming to the castle for the banquet, a few moments before the king made this speech. It would seem that they were going to have the banquet with or without the Shield Hero and his companions.
When Naofumi heard this, he had no idea what the casualty count was before, but this time the casualties were within the low double digits. Where before the deaths were over fifty known deaths, could have been more, but there were no real reports, either no one knew that they were dead just thought they were dead or they were demi-humans and those in power didn't care about them.
Naofumi wasn't going to suggest that it was down to him that the count was so low, as the adventurers also helped too. Sure the other heroes had taken out a lot of enemies in their search for the Boss so there were fewer losses thanks to that. But at the same time though, there could be even fewer deaths if the other heroes helped with the evacuation before going on the hunt, those numbers could be even lower. Naofumi wasn't going to say that there would be no deaths, as nothing was certain, but there shouldn't be as many. He was worried about the next time, he didn't honestly think they would get off so easily if the others didn't get their act together.
They were lucky this time, the hourglass had transported them someplace nearby the village, which certainly was a help. But who knew what would have happened if it had been further out, somewhere that the knights would not have been able to get to so quickly, what would have happened then?
The other heroes knew how this world worked better than he did, so why wouldn't they have arranged for the knights to go with them? Unlike him, who people hated because of the rumours that were out there about him, people would fall backwards to help the Sword, Bow and Spear Hero. So they would have gotten volunteers to help them without a second thought.
The only thing he could think of was that they probably thought the Wave would be simple enough and thought they didn't need help. Either that or they'd been lazy about reading the rules. That was probably it.
Whatever the case, they were fools who didn't seem to take all this seriously, and unless something happened they probably won't. At least until morning, he didn't have to deal with them. As the feast being huge and the nobles singing the three heroes praises, they shouldn't even know he was there.
He was sitting in an appropriate-looking corner, where he was eating his food quietly, and making sure nobody noticed him. Not like he was enjoying the food like he should be, seeing how he couldn't taste the food.
As he was eating, he was looking through his Creation Window, trying to figure out something that could help them. During the Wave, he realized the one problem of summoning potions from his Shield and that was time. It took him a few moments to select the potion he needed and then summon it and then throw it to either Raphtalia or Kumiho, time which could have led to one of them dying if they weren't careful. Because as he was summoning the potion, should they be severely injured, he wouldn't be able to use a skill to protect them if they were suddenly attacked.
One way to help prevent it from happening was to get more slaves and monsters to fight for him. This was something he was planning to do anyway, but the problem was what if they parted. They would only be able to hold onto a certain amount of potions at one time, and when they run out, they would be in trouble.
This was what led him to look into his Creation Skill, he wanted to see what he could create to help with this problem. He had two rough ideas, the first was to get another Goblin Rider and wolf, and use them and the ones that he already had as Supporters. Once they were high enough level to defend themselves, Naofumi would gear them up so that they could stay off the fighting until they needed, at which point, they would ride in to give them potions, weapons and any other support they might need, even fighting if need be, before leaving again until they were needed again. But to do that, they would need gear to hold this staff, and not a wagon, as they would be too easy of a target for the monsters to go after. Not only that, but it would make the Goblin Riders and their wolves go slower and they needed them to move fast. So he had to design something useful to help with that.
The other idea, which is what he was working on now, was to create an item that they could wear. Something that could hold potions and if possible, some other useful items, like traps and bombs. The first thing that came to mind was a harness and a utility belt, a belt that the superhero Batman from his world had, this belt allowed him to carry many things. The problem with that was that he would have to redesign a few of the items like potions and bombs, seeing how they were too big to fit in the pouches for the utility belt. Then again, he was in a world of magic, so it might be possible for him to create bombs that can be small enough to fit a load into a pouch.
He already had one idea on how to reduce the size problem, for healing, he could cut herbs and put them into capsules. Sure they weren't as powerful as potions, but they would do in a snap. It would heal you and as long as it wasn't powerful, can cure poison and the like. Now that he was thinking about it, maybe if he played around with other ingredients, he might be able to make them stronger as normally they just ate the herbs by themselves to heal them. So it might be best if he looked into this, as herbs were used in potions mixed with other ingredients. Thinking about potions, maybe rethinking how the containers were made might help with the limited storage. Using medical capsules and potions would help him in different ways, capsules for the citizens and potions for them, something to think about later on.
"This is such a feast!" Raphtalia said in awe, as she interrupted his design, she was staring at the mountain of food with eyes shining like star dots. Food and the amount of it that normally she would only dream of eating, not once did she believe that she would one day get a chance to eat. "Everything looks delicious!"
"In that case, eat whatever you want." Naofumi told her with a small smile, "Who knows when we'll be able to eat such food again. In fact, try and see if you can gather some for Kumiho
"Yes sir! Thank you, sir!" Raphtalia acknowledged happily, glad that her master would allow her to eat such great food. She didn't think that any of her past masters would allow her to do so.
Naofumi sighed, because of how things were at the moment, he couldn't afford to give her and Kumiho great food as often as he would like. Then again, it might be for the best that they couldn't have it all the time, as if they did, they might want it all the time and that could be bad. So it would be better if they had it for special occasions and as for rewards, or in this case both. It was thanks to Raphtalia and Kumiho that he got through the battle so they earned it. He just wished that Kumiho was there, but with this feeling that something bad was going to happen, she couldn't be here. As for Raphtalia, she should be allowed to eat whatever she desires whilst here.
"Ah... but Master, I'll gain weight if I eat too much." Raphtalia told her master, worried about her weight.
'Oh fuck, not her, not now.' Naofumi thought in a panic. He didn't need the ability to see into the future to know where this was leading and if he wasn't careful, he would be in trouble himself, with her being a slave or not. Whilst he might not be well versed in everything that was about women and often mess things up, after being here way too often he knew the warning signs way too well.
He still remembered a few times when he said something offhandedly where the girls asked if he liked fat women. And if he answered one way or another, he could have gotten into a new lot of problems, so it could have been a lose, lose situation and he would have been in the dog house.
The truth was that he liked a woman who was well rounded and had fat in all the right places. But saying that when there were other women who were fat or skinny could place him in the dog house too. So he had always had to be careful how he answered these questions or talk about it.
So he had to think carefully before saying anything to Raphtalia, as whilst she was still young, she had an almost adult-like mind who sometimes acted like a child. To be honest, he had hoped that it was years before she would start thinking about such things, where hopefully he had returned home or had a bit of time to prepare for the question to come.
Either way, as he sat there thinking what to say to pull himself out of this jam, an idea came to mind. He realized that Raphtalia wanted to get stronger for him, so he could use that to defuse this situation before it gets too out of hand, which from Naofumi's past experiences can do well fast if he wasn't careful.
"Listen Raphtalia, you don't have to worry about getting fat." Naofumi informed her. He knew that it was a risky opening line, as this could open doors that he didn't want to open, but it was the only line he could think of with short notice. He just hoped that Raphtalia didn't overreact or she was curious about what he was getting at.
.
"What do you mean, Master?" asked Raphtalia, giving Naofumi a look that he knew all too well. He knew that if he wasn't careful, whilst she might not do much to hurt him, she can make his life hell in other ways if he messes this up.
"You see, with all the training and fighting that we do, all the food that you eat tonight would mean nothing." explained Naofumi, "As with everything we do, we'll be burning all that you're eating away in a few days."
"You're sure Master?" asked Raphtalia.
"I am, think of this as a small reward for everything you have done today." Naofumi told her with a smile.
"Thank you Master." Raphtalia said with a smile of her own as she reached out for the food.
"This is delicious, Master Naofumi." as she finished what she was eating.
"That's good." Naofumi said with a sigh of relief, glad that it finished there. In past experiences, sweet-talking or trying to reason with a female when it came to their weight or eating too much or little don't always work and things can go south. He went on a few dates where his date worried about their weight and how much they were eating when they shouldn't. He tried to reason with them, saying that they didn't have to worry about what they eat, but it only led to them breaking up or not having another date. So he was glad that things didn't go bad as he feared they might.
Either way, as Naofumi looked around the room, he believed that the whole banquet was stupid and a waste of time. This was for the nobles to gain favour with the Three Holy Heroes, to butter them up so the fools might do things for them. It was like that in his world, where the rich and high powered people would butter those who could do things that they couldn't or wouldn't do, either they don't have the skills, too lazy, didn't want to get caught or all of the above. It was such a basic trick to do, then again, they were so up themselves from the start, having people boosting their egos, they wouldn't see anything wrong. Naofumi thought for the hundredth time how foolish these guys were.
He was only counting the moments for when this banquet was over so he could just get paid and get the heck out. This place was like a cesspool of garbage, just looking around made Naofumi's anger boil. Looking around, the cost of all this could help rebuild Lute Village, but instead of helping the villagers, it would seem that they would prefer to throw a party.
As Naofumi watched the party going, he soon realised that it wasn't going to end any time soon, which meant he wouldn't get his reward until morning.
'What a waste of time coming here tonight,' Naofumi thought to himself darkly, 'at least we're getting some free food out of this.' Whilst he was hoping to get some food for Kumiho, he wished that he had containers or something so that they could take leftovers with them. As he knew that with a party this big, there would be a lot of wasted food that would be thrown away. If he was able to get some of the leftovers, he would be fine for the next few days and don't have to worry about buying any. Although, he knew that without anything to keep the food refrigerated, the food would only last for a few days unless it was vegetables or fruit, even then it would only last for a week or so. Thinking about this, he would have to look into how this world keeps its food refrigerated and if need be, design something himself.
As I was thinking all this over, one of five people that Naofumi
hated the most, Motoyasu Kitamura was pushing his way through the crowd, heading towards their direction.
'What does he want this time?' Naofumi thought to himself darkly, not wanting to do anything with him. Naofumi would like it if he, the Bitch Princess, the Trash King and the other two heroes would just die, but seeing how that wouldn't happen, they would leave him alone.
The thought of talking to him made his stomach turn, so Naofumi tried to avoid him by walking off into the crowd. However, seeing how it looked like it would be a pain in the ass for him, the crowd split apart and made way for Motoyasu, as he glared at him with intense hatred.
"Hey! Iwatani!" yelled the Spear Hero.
"What?" the Shield Hero yelled back, not wanting to deal with this fool. Seeing how he wasn't going to get his reward tonight, he wanted to leave the damn place before trouble could find him.
Here Motoyasu purposefully removed one of his gloves and threw it in Naofumi's direction.
Naofumi was slightly confused here, it was like Motoyasu was challenging him to a duel or something. He found it strange seeing how no one from his time would do such a thing, they would just throw a punch to start a fight, nothing as old fashioned as throwing a glove. There were only two reasons he could think that this was happening, the fool was caught up with this fantasy world where such things happened and so was going with the flow. The second and more likely reason he was doing this, someone, more than likely Bitch, told him what to do. But the question if this was the case was why? What reason would she want Motoyasu to have this duel? As he made a point of not going near her nor her puppet hero since she framed him.
The crowd erupted in surprise at Motoyasu's next exclamation. "I challenge you to a duel!"
"Excuse me?" shocked that he was right about Motoyasu's intentions, "What the hell are you talking about?"
'Did his brain finally fry?' Naofumi asked him.
Sounds just like the kind of person that spent too much time in games. Then again, he was the kind of animal that would leave people to die while he goes off to fight a boss, instead of defending the innocent people.
Some hero.
"I heard all about it! That girl with you, Raphtalia, she alone with another Demi-Human are your slaves!" He was seething with anger. He thrust his finger at the Shield Hero and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Huh?" Raphtalia made a weird noise.
She had a plate full of delicious food and was shovelling it into her mouth when she overheard Motoyasu's accusation.
Naofumi just smiled at this, he knew that this day might come and so made up the cover story he told the Bow Hero. "I'll admit that they are slaves, but they aren't mine." the black-haired hero lied without batting an eye, "I was hired to raise them to see what would happen if a hero raises a slave. So I'm just doing a job for someone, so not doing anything wrong."
What's wrong with possessing a slave?
There wasn't anyone who would fight with Naofumi willingly. That's why he bought a slave in the first place.
And besides, this kingdom didn't have any laws against slavery. So what was the problem? In fact, he has been treating them much better than other owners with slaves. Sure, not at the start, but once he was sure they couldn't betray him and was able to fight without a problem, he had been treating them way much better than how other people would treat them. Even if he was cold towards them. (He was cold towards everyone nowadays, his slaves were no exception.)
"So how can you have a problem with this, if someone hired me to raise them?" Naofumi asked him, "As I said, I'm just doing a job. It might not be a great job, but I'm limited to what jobs I can do and so I'll do jobs even if I don't agree with certain things. I can't be fussy if I want to get money and become stronger."
Motoyasu was conflicted, whilst he might hate the Shield Hero for what he did to Myne, but he couldn't blame him for taking on a job to train slaves when Naofumi was limited in what jobs he could do. But still, he still thought that having slaves was wrong.
"But, but still, we can't have slaves nor encourage slavery." the blonde told the other hero, "We come from another world. We can't behave that way here. We have to show them that slavery is wrong."
"What's all this now? You know there are slaves in our world too." Naofumi reminded the older man. Whilst he didn't know anything about Motoyasu's world, he did know it was literally impossible for mankind's history to be without the existence of slavery. In his world, many of the ancient buildings were built by slaves, even nowadays, slavery was still a thing, people are tricked or kidnapped and used as slaves in one form or another.
If you think about it, we're all sort of slaves to society in one form or another.
"Don't listen to him Sir Motoyasu," this came from the last person Naofumi wanted to deal with, the Bitch Princess, Myne, "I have it on good authority, that this Demi-Human, along with the other one are really is slaves and he is lying about them belonging to someone else."
Out of the crowd came the Bitch that ruined his life and made it so that he wouldn't enjoy his time here as he would have liked to. She had a smile that Naofumi didn't like, it was the same kind of smile that she had before she set him up. This greatly worried him.
"I have been told by someone who works for the person where the Shield Hero got his slaves, that he in fact brought them and not been hired to raise them as he was leading us to believe." Bitch told everyone there loud and clear, where there were whispers from them. Wondering why the Shield Demon lied about the slaves not being his, and why he brought them in the first place. There were a few whispers saying he brought them to have sex with.
'Beloukas you bastard, you betrayed me.' Naofumi thought darkly, thinking that the slave trader had betrayed him even after making a deal that would benefit both of them.
"You lied to me." said the Bow Hero angrily, he couldn't believe that he fell for Naofumi's lie. He thought it strange, but he had no reason to believe otherwise. If he knew the truth he would have done something to free the poor girl, but thinking that she belonged to someone else, he couldn't risk upsetting someone in power. He knew that slavery was wrong, but they were in a different world and so laws were different to theirs and so freeing a slave without a good reason could cause him problems that he couldn't afford right now.
"You sick bastard," sneered Renka, "first you tricked me into having sex with you, then you raped the First Princess and now this. You brought two slaves who can't even say no to you, do you have no shame." Renka hoped that Naofumi could be redeemed somehow, that somehow he could see what he did was wrong and might change for the better. But now, she couldn't see that happening, any hope for him to change and become a better person was long gone.
"And here I was starting to feel sorry for you a tiny bit Iwatani," Motoyasu said with a sneer, "but you're nothing but scum who lies and uses people."
Naofumi couldn't believe this, these fools were trying to force others to follow their own biased beliefs. What's wrong with them?
"You stupid idiots. This isn't our world." Naofumi informed the three fools, as he shook his head, "The laws and customs here are different to our own world. Slaves exist here, and as long as you have a Slave Licence to own a slave, it's legal to own one. What's wrong with me using one? Especially when no one is willing to help me."
"You... How dare you!" Motoyasu said as he stepped back and pointed his spear at the Shield Hero, "Fight me! If I win, you have to set Raphtalia free!"
"Why do we have to fight?" Naofumi asked, confused, hearing the other hero speak made him think that there really was something wrong with Motoyasu, "I own my slaves legally, so I don't have any reason to do so. Even if I agree to this duel, what do I get if I win?"
"You can do whatever you want then. You can just keep using Raphtalia the way you have been!"
"Some duel." muttered Naofumi as he turned away, and made to leave. Why should he fight when he has nothing to gain?
"I have heard what Lord Motoyasu had to say." The crowd parted, like the Red Sea, as the king came strolling up. "I had heard rumours of a Hero using slaves. But I cannot believe that it is true. So that's how it is, the Shield Hero truly is a criminal."
Naofumi couldn't believe what he was hearing, slavery was legal here, so long you had a license to have them that is, it was legally allowed to buy one. If everyone else was using slaves, why were they singling him out like his?
"Do you really hate what the Shield symbolises that you put your hatred for it on me, your majesty, or should I call you Cane Hero?" Naofumi asked the king. To be honest, he wasn't sure why he was saying this, but part of him wanted the heroes to know that not everything is as it seems with the King.
Thankfully one of the heroes took the bait, it was Renka who asked, "What do you mean by Cane Hero? As for hating you, that's down to what you did to his daughter."
"First off, his hate has nothing to do with what happened to her, as he was giving me the cold shoulder before that so-called incident happened. That just made him hate me even more." Naofumi explained to Renka, not bothering to defend him anymore, as they wouldn't believe him anyway.
"This has nothing to do with what is happening right now." said a red-faced Aultcray, he was worried about how much this damn Shield Hero knew. If he knew that he was the Cane Hero and why he hated him and Demi-Humans, what else could he know? He couldn't let him tell anyone else. So he had to push things along.
"What matters right now is that if Motoyasu's words do not sway you to free this poor creature, then perhaps my order will. Duel!" the Trash King ordered Naofumi. In the back of his mind, he had to find out who gave him the Slave Licence, as he would need someone backing him to get one. So he had to learn who it was, why they were helping the demon and find out if they were going to be a problem or not.
Whilst this worked for most of the people here, there was one person that it didn't work on, the Sword Heroine, Renka. Thanks to her mistrust in men, thanks to her world and what she thought Naofumi did, she found this very suspicious and wondered what the king was trying to hide. This was something that she would have to look into later on. As she wanted to know, in case this might affect her in some way and if it did, she would be ready for it.
"Why would I care? I've been told by your daughter that this kingdom is matriarchy run, and from what I've been told, this country's Queen is alive, which means you have no real power to order me to take part in this stupid duel.". Naofumi pointed out to the king, hoping that this would stop his foolish actions and allow him to leave. "So if you don't mind, hurry up and pay me for my services. Once you pay me, I can leave and get out of your hair."
The king was red with fury, to think that this Shield Demon would look down at him. Sure, his wife had more power than him, but whilst she was away and the person who she left to look after the kingdom was killed during the first Wave, it was down to him to make sure the kingdom was safe. He couldn't let this Shield Hero think he could walk over him, so with a sigh, he snapped his fingers.
Soldiers appeared from all directions and grabbed Naofumi and before she could do anything, he saw them restrain Raphtalia too.
"Master Naofumi!" Raphtalia cried out.
"What's all this?!" Naofumi asked as he glared at the king with hatred that made the king and those around him step back in fear and shock.
"Whilst it's true that my wife has most of the power in this land, but whilst she is away, my word is law!" the king informed the Shield Hero, " If you don't cooperate, we will take her from you by force."
"Damn!" muttered the Shielder. He suspected that the royal magicians, no doubt, had the skills necessary to break the slave magic that held her. Naofumi knew that if he didn't fight this duel, he would lose Raphtalia for sure, even Kumiho should they get their hands on her.
He had invested so much time and money in Raphtalia and Kumiho. In fact, Raphtalia was his prized slave, as after healing her and helping her to learn how to fight, she had not long become useful to him. But now they were trying to take her away from him.
'Who the fuck do they think they are to try this?' Naofumi thought darkly.
"This match is meaningless! I am - - uuuuurg!" Raphtalia tried to cry something out, but they stuffed a gag in her mouth to silence her.
"She's under a Slave Crest to force her to obey and defend her owner." the king informed the three heroes as they looked confused at this, "So for the time being, it's for the best that she is silenced and binded, so that she can't be forced to help her Master."
"Obviously you're going to let her participate in the duel?" Naofumi asked, but had the sinking feeling he knew what the answer was going to be. And he wasn't far off.
"She is the prize of the duel. Why would she participate?" the King said with a smirk, happy to get something over the demon. The King believed that he would finally show the Shielder that he, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, was not someone you should cross.
"Y… you bastard!" Naofumi sneered.
"Everyone, to the castle gardens!"
The king ignored Naofumi's complaints and announced the duel in the gardens.
'Fine, if this is what they want I'll show them what this Shield Hero can do.' Naofumi thought to himself. He knew that they were suspecting a Shield Hero who can't fight back because he couldn't physically attack monsters and people as he had low attack points, but he was going to prove them wrong.
Yes, unless he used his werewolf form, his attack points were so low, that unless a person had a very low defence, he couldn't do much damage. But that didn't mean that he was weak as they thought he was, not only did he have magic to fall back on, but he had traps that he could use too.
Now that he thought about it, this was a good thing to happen, as now he could show these people what this Shield Hero could do. That he wasn't weak or useless as they thought he was. Sure he wasn't going to show him his trump card, his werewolf form and some of his alchemist skills, but he would show them that a Shielder had their own style of fighting if they thought out of the box.
So wanting to get this over with, Naofumi made his way to the castle garden.
o0OoO0o
As Naofumi entered the garden, he found that they had altered the gardens to make space for our duel.
Torches were set along the perimeter, and everyone who'd been enjoying the feast came out to watch the heroes fight. They were on the upper balcony, waiting for the duel to begin.
Naofumi was in one of the entrances to the garden, it was a small hallway. It was full of weapons right now. It was like they were mocking him, seeing how they knew he couldn't use any weapons other than shields. He bet that the ass Motoyasu had spears of different kinds in wherever he was waiting. But him? There wasn't one shield where he was.
Taking a peek outside, he saw that the balcony was full of nobility, knights, and some adventurers that helped with the Wave and were invited to the feast as thanks.
Everyone was shouting out their bets, and Naofumi couldn't hear anything over the din.
But he could also see Renka and Itsuki up there. Itsuki was talking and laughing with his companions, enjoying his time here. Renka was waiting with her companions, she had a blank look on her.
Naofumi knew it was only natural that they would bet on this duel. If he was going to lose, they wanted to make money off it.
To them, the outcome was already considered a foregone conclusion.
With him unable to deal any damage, at least as far as they knew about, and he was fighting with the Spear Hero, they believed that he was unable to win and it was only a matter of time before he was defeated and so they were betting on how long before he was defeated.
They couldn't wait to see me lose.
All of them, all of them either wanted to get rid of him or wanted to rip things away from me without a care. Just so that they could keep him weak.
In the whole world, all that can be found are enemies who ridicule, frame him for crimes he didn't commit or like the knights during the Wave, tried to kill him. And right now, the enemy was laughing at him and betting how long he would last against Motoyasu.
As the Shielder waited, he had to admit that it was highly likely that he would lose and so he would lose Raphtalia. He had no idea how powerful Motoyasu had become, whilst he hadn't gotten to level thirty yet. Whilst he couldn't attack and was stuck in this damn kingdom, Motoyasu didn't have that problem and so could go wherever he wanted to level up and get better weapons. He could get armour to defend himself against magical attacks.
'Fine.' Naofumi thought darkly, 'If the outcome really is that I'm going to lose, then I'll keep to my original plan and show them what a Shielder really is capable of doing. And in the process, if possible, if I can, cause the bastard as much pain as possible.'
So spending the last few moments before being called to fight the fool, Naofumi got ready. He used his shield to create two leather bags, where he placed a few traps and bombs in them. He also changed his Chimera Viper Shield, which he had equipped most of the night to master its skills, to the Light Metal Shield. It was a shame really as he wanted to master the Change Shield skill as soon as possible, but the Light Metal Shield had the better base defence stats out of all of his shields so would be more useful. Not only that, but the Chimera Viper Shield had a poison counter which Naofumi didn't want to use. As if he was going to lose and lose Raphtalia, he wanted to cause as much pain and humiliation to Motoyasu.
Naofumi just wished he could have mastered the Change Shield ability beforehand, as he knew he could do more. Without it, he would have to pick which shields he was going to use carefully, as he would have a few minutes to cool down before he could charge his shield again. This is why he started off with the Light Metal Shield, not only for its high base defence but because of its magical defence, as he didn't know if Motoyasu knew magic or not.
Before he could think more about what was going to happen, he was called into the garden, where he heard the Minister say, "This duel will take place in the presence of King Melromarc and the Pope, and it is thus legitimate and official."
Here, Naofumi heard bitch who was on the sidelines call out, "Best of luck Lord Motoyasu."
The Minister went on to say, "Now for the duel between the Shield Hero and the Spear Hero! The duel will end when one of the contestants is unconscious, unable to fight, or admits defeat."
Moving his wrists around to loosen them and cracking his fingers as he set his footing to ready himself.
"Remember that folk tale about the irresistible spear and the immovable shield?" asked Motoyasu as he twirled his spear as if he was trying to make a point of something. Whatever it was, he didn't make the point as he said, "Naofumi, be a man and admit defeat."
"Ready!? Begin!" the Minster called out, as Naofumi stood his ground, ready for Motoyasu's attack.
He couldn't remember the exact words, but Naofumi remembered an old saying as a kid that went along the lines of, 'The first to attack, is the one that often loses the battle.'
Over the years Naofumi couldn't really understand the saying, as most of the time if someone starts a fight, they would catch you off guard somehow. So he thought it was something that parents told their children to stop them from fighting, which rarely worked and must be why people stopped using it. But right here and now it made sense to Naofumi. If he rushed to attack like a bull in a china shop, he could have been defeated as he had no idea what Motoyasu was able to do. The Spear Hero could have some sort of counterattack that he didn't know of or some other skill that could take him down for all Naofumi knew. All Naofumi knew from a quick use of his Appraisal skill was that Motoyasu was level forty-eight, much higher than him and so more than likely had a higher attack than his defence. So it was better to be careful than rush.
What decides the outcome of a match anyway?
It's the same in Shogi and Go.
For example, even if you're holding a losing hand, what will you do?
Spears are weapons designed to kill the opponent.
Shields are guards designed to protect the bearer.
Expanding on this, if it manages to stop the strongest spear, the shield wins; it did as intended.
Their purposes are fundamentally different, a spear and a shield.
So what happens in the next few moments will hopefully decide what happens, would Motoyasu be as skilled as his level showed he should be, or would he be as foolish as Naofumi knew him to be? He was about to find out.
As at the moment that the Minster called out go, Motoyasu ran at Naofumi, aiming his spear at Naofumi's shield. But the problem was that the moment that the spear hit the shield, the spear didn't break through the mo asked in shock as he jumped back a few meters, unable to believe that someone as weak as Naofumi could block his attack, "I guess you're not the Shield Hero for nothing."
"You lose." Naofumi said with a smirk, "In this battle between an irresistible. spear and an immovable shield, you lost the moment you couldn't pierce my shield!"
Motoyasu wasn't happy at this, that Naofumi of all people was gloating at him. So he grabbed his spear tightly and threw his weight behind the spear as he thrust it at Naofumi.
"Chaos Strike!" Motoyasu: called out at the same time as his spear instantly splits into several replicas, as they all flew at Naofumi.
'A skill!' Naofumi thought to himself in shock as he protected his head with the shield as he moved to retreat. 'Damn it, he really was coming after me.'
"Ugh…" Naofumi moaned in slight pain, as a few sharp spear points bit into his shoulder and side.
Sure it was only a few scratches, but a hero's attack really was much stronger than the enemies that he and his slaves had faced up until now.
"Take this!" said Motoyasu, where to Naofumi's shock, the Spear Hero thrust the blade of his spear at the Shielder.
Naofumi was shocked at this, as one, doing so, so close made the spear weak. A spear was great for fighting at a distance, but once the enemy got close, it became difficult to use very quickly.
Naturally, it's effective at knocking down the opponent before they manage to get too close. But fighting someone so close is harder and made it easier to deal with, as the attack wouldn't be so powerful. So a single blow isn't enough to take down the Shield.
What else shocked Naofumi was that Motoyasu only used one skill against him. He himself had a few skills at hand already, some he can cast non-stop as long he had the SP to use them and others like this Chaos Strike skill of Motoyasu's, that needs a cool-down time to use again. Naofumi found it strange that after all this time Motoyasu had one skill he could use.
This made Naofumi realize two things, the first was that Motoyasu was indeed stupid as he thought, if he only had one skill to use. It meant that Motoyasu hasn't been using his Legendary Spear the way he should be, which was strange seeing how he and the other two heroes knew this world and how it worked and so he thought they would be much stronger by now.
Either way, the other thing he realized was that he had a chance to win this duel.
So as he parried the attack, Naofumi raised his fist and punched Motoyasu square in the face, doing a counter strike.
"Ahh!" Motoyasu screamed in shock and pain, as the very last thing happened, his HP dropped by a few points, something he thought was impossible when facing Shielder. "How on earth did you get the ability to do damage? A Shielder shouldn't have such an ability."
"You're right, doing direct damage is impossible, but what I did wasn't a direct attack." Naofumi said with a smirk, "What I did was a counter-attack, and whilst not as powerful as if I used my shield, I am able to do some damage as long as I'm doing a counterattack. Something that Shielders excel at."
There were mumbles by those who were watching the duel, they couldn't believe what they heard and saw. It was unbelievable, the Shield Hero, the weakest of the four Legendary Heroes, was somehow able to do damage to the mighty Spear Hero. It looked like the Shielder would win this.
No, that isn't possible the people thought, he must have cheated somehow. Even if he didn't cheat, this was only the start of the duel, Lord Motoyasu would find a way to defeat the Shield Demon.
Whatever the case, Naofumi knew that Motoyasu was off his game at the moment, so not wanting him to regain it, he threw a few smoke bombs into the area, making it hard for Motoyasu and everyone else to see what was going on. It was only thanks to working with smoke bombs that he was used to fighting in the smoke. He could see a basic outline of who was in the smoke, so as long as no one he was fighting looked like his slaves, he could fight them with ease, otherwise, he would have to be careful or send his slaves elsewhere so he wouldn't hurt them instead.
"You damn cheat, I can't see!" Motoyasu shouted out as he aimlessly swung his spear around trying to hit the Shield Hero. Even those watching the fight was calling him a cheat too. Not that Naofumi cared, this was his way of fighting one on one. Within the smoke, Motoyasu called out, "Fight fair!"
"Fight fair? What a joke." Naofumi scoffed at this, "If you wanted a fair fight, you would have allowed Raphtalia to fight with me, as you know I can't really fight without her. So seeing how you want to fight one on one with a Shielder, I'm going to show you how this Shielder fights when he is alone."
With that, Naofumi moved carefully in the smoke so as not to alert the Spear Hero where he was. As he moved he threw a punch or two to make the fool feel pain, this was not only to make Motoyasu feel pain but to humiliate him too. Seeing how he was being defeated by someone he considered weak and useless.
Then as the smoke was clearing, Naofumi threw an ice bomb at Motoyasu. But the Spear Hero was able to dodge, leaving behind a patch of ice next to the other hero. Naofumi wished he could use normal bombs, but he found that any bombs that used physical damage would be low. But elemental damage was different, so he would use them.
"How, how are you doing this? A Shielder can't attack like you are doing, they should only be able to heal and support people." Motoyasu asked in shock as he attacked Naofumi, making sure that he wouldn't have the chance to attack him again.
Naofumi turned his shield into the Two-Headed Black Dog Shield. Before Motoyasu's attack could reach Naofumi, the heads of the dogs howled before attacking Motoyasu, by biting the Spear Hero.
The effect would only last for thirty seconds, and the dog heads would bite at the enemy for the whole duration. Normally the skill would do a little damage while it held the enemy still, but Naofumi didn't care, he wasn't aiming to win that much but to humiliate the ass. Sure he wanted to win, but he knew that until the duel is done, anything is possible and if he is going to lose, well, he wasn't going to let Motoyasu go easy.
"As I said before, this isn't a game, so you should stop thinking like it." Naofumi reminded him, "I don't know what your experience is if your world had magic or not in your game with Shielders, but here we have magic and such. Do you think I wouldn't use it to help me fight?"
Motoyasu just couldn't believe it, everything he thought he knew about Shielders was being challenged. As a Shielder, Naofumi shouldn't be able to do any damage to him, but here he was doing damage to him. The only thing Motoyasu could think of was that Naofumi found some sort of cheat to allow him to do damage, it was the only way it could be possible. Before he could put more thought into this, he saw Naofumi change his shield to a white circular shield with a red dot in the middle of it. It reminded Motoyasu of his world country's flag.
He was shocked to see Naofumi took hold of it and threw it. Although he was shocked to see this, as he had never seen a shield being thrown before, he was able to dodge the shield. Motoyasu smirked at this at first, as he said, "You missed."
"Did I?" Naofumi smirked back as he pointed behind Motoyasu. What Motoyasu didn't know was that Naofumi had been practising with the shield, to see what he can and cannot do with it. So whilst he was aiming to hit Motoyasu, he expected that Motoyasu might dodge the attack. So he aimed the shield in a way that if Motoyasu was able to dodge the attack, it would hit the wall and bounce off it to hit Motoyasu.
When Motoyasu turned around, he saw Naofumi's shield bounce off the wall and right back at him, knocking him onto his knees. Motoyasu was shocked at this, he couldn't believe that this could happen to him, that he was losing to a damn Shielder. As he looked up to Naofumi, he saw the younger man hold the shield in both of his hands and swung it at his head, knocking him back.
"As you can see, while I might not be able to fight like you, I can defend myself in my own way." Naofumi informed Motoyasu.
The older hero was in a rage that he was being defeated by someone who was meant to be weak, and to get stronger, cheated somehow. This was something a hero shouldn't do, not even if he was weak, he should get stronger by training and staying with the abilities he should have. Taking a few steps back to be able to attack, Motoyasu raised his spear to attack.
But he wasn't fast enough, as Naofumi called out, "Air Strike Shield!"
Doing this, the huge shield that was normally upwards, was now on its side and flew towards Motoyasu and hit him in his stomach, which winded the Spear Hero. At this moment, Naofumi pulled out two Imp Cores that he collected in his fights with them and summoned them for ordering them to attack Motoyasu. As the two imps were attacking the hero, Naofumi called out, "Shield Prison!"
This trapped Motoyasu in a large cage with the imps. Motoyasu was unable to escape as he fought with the imps. Naofumi pulled out another two Imp Cores and summoned them and threw them into the cage with Motoyasu.
"Hurry up and admit defeat!" Naofumi told Motoyasu, "You can't win with this kind of foolishness! So just admit defeat and end this!"
"He's an alchemist?"
"The Shielder can use alchemy?" knowing that the only way he could use unfocused cores was if he knew alchemy. This was something Naofumi wanted them to know, but not letting them know how much alchemy he could use, which is why he wasn't using the few other things he learnt about alchemy.
"What is the Shield doing to the Spear Hero?!"
The crowd started heckling. Like Naofumi cared about this. Why should he listen to people that listened in silence when he was set up?
"Is the Shield Hero going to win?"
"No, it can't be...?"
They were going crazy.
"Hear that Motoyasu? Give up. You've lost!" Naofumi informed the Spear Hero, "Even those watching us know that you lost. So make it easy on yourself and give up."
"Give up? Ha!" Motoyasu scoffed, he was too proud to give up, he couldn't. He was the Spear Hero, and he couldn't give up on someone who was weaker than him. He didn't know how Naofumi was able to fight like this, but it didn't mean he couldn't win. He had to keep on fighting and find the weak point of Naofumi's power.
"Then I'll just keep beating you down until you can't stand it anymore!" Naofumi said with a dark smile, more than happy to show everyone how weak Motoyasu really was, to show that he as a Shielder wasn't as useless as everyone thought he was. "It's not like you can defeat me as you are now, I have won already, just give up. All you're doing is showing everyone how weak you really are against a weak Shielder like me."
But as he said this, Naofumi felt an eerie unease about this, feeling as if something wasn't right. The Bitch was just watching smirking as if she knew something he didn't. Thinking that her father was going to do something, Naofumi looked up at the king.
He was watching the fight, as he would be the judge. He was watching the fight as if he was planning to do something or had something planned. But what?
All Naofumi could do was keep on attacking Motoyasu until he gave up and admitted defeat.
Deciding to change his attack a bit, our black-haired hero unsummoned the imps and pulled out a few Wolf Cores and summoned the wolf's within the cores. He ordered them to chew on him, not too bad to hurt him badly, but enough to make him give up the duel.
Naofumi couldn't help but smile and laugh as he heard Motoyasu moan in suffering. It was strangely refreshing.
"Gua...!" Naofumi groaned as a sudden, powerful push back and staggered him. It was as if someone pushed him. As this happened, two of the wolves that were attacking the Spear Hero stopped and looked around to see who attacked their master. As Naofumi looked around wildly, disoriented, for the attacker, he saw the First Princess standing there, smirking with a knowing look, her arm was out straight and her palm was facing him.
The look that she gave him was one he seen on TV back in his world many times, where a bad person gives to the main character of the show, to say yes they did something but now prove it.
If he had to guess, she used some kind of wind magic. And if it was wind magic, it was more than likely a spell he heard about called 'Wing Blow.' The spell threw a fist of air at the target. Because it was an air spell, it was naturally transparent. Unless you were looking for it purposefully, you were unlikely to see it, unless it was a powerful wind spell like a tornado or hurricane.
'That bitch,' Naofumi swore to himself, 'she used magic to interfere in this fight.'
"Arrrrghhhh!" the Shielder screamed at the thought, hating that the bitch would cheat and get in the way.
Because of this lack of concentration, he only had time to hear Myne call out, "Lord Motoyasu, use the cores that I got for you." before Motoyasu started to do his counterattack. First, his hand became like a monstrous black claw, with white claws. Using this claw, he defeated the two wolves that were attacking him. Then out of nowhere, a metal-like tail with a stinger at the end of it, came out from behind his cape and the stinger opened a bit before attacking the other two wolves.
Thankfully though, although the wolves were destroyed, they weren't killed as they would be normally. Instead of their bodies being laying on the ground, they were summoned back to their core, needing a short while to recover from the damage taken.
Naofumi wasn't expecting this fierce counterattack, and so wasn't ready for what was about to happen. The stinger shot out three laser beams at him, which he had to dodge, but as he did, the tail extended itself to attack Naofumi from so far away. Although Naofumi was barely able to block the attack, it didn't matter seeing how the rest of the fight was very one-sided.
Motoyasu attacked non-stop, not allowing Naofumi to make a move to do much other than to use the Two-Headed Black Dog Shield to counter, but even then it wasn't much use. As Motoyasu was able to block or dodge the heads before they could bite him again.
It wasn't long before after so many attacks by Motoyasu, that Naofumi collapsed on the ground with Motoyasu, breathing heavily, set the point of his spear against Naofumi's neck.
"Haa... haa... it's my, victory!" Motoyasu said out of breath. He looked much worse off than he had at the end of the wave of destruction, but he turned to the crowd and announced his victory.
"You didn't win anything, you coward!" Naofumi informed the fool as he slowly stood up and faced the Spear Hero, he was pissed that he was cheated out of a win, a win that he worked so hard for. A fair and honest win. He wasn't going to let this go without a damn fight. "Someone interfered with our one-on-one fight!"
"What are you talking about?" Motoyasu asked dumbly, not realizing that someone had helped him. Either that or he was too stupid to notice that someone helped him or not wanting to know. As he didn't want to lose against a Shielder who was meant to be weak, so he welcomed the win however it happened. "You lost because you couldn't stand up to my strength."
'Is this bastard serious?' Naofumi thought darkly, he couldn't believe that Motoyasu honestly thought he won that battle honestly.
'You trash, acting a hero while rigging this battle to satisfy yourself.' He wasn't fully sure if he knew that the bitch was going to cheat or not, but as someone who checks on his party's status often to make sure that his slave's health and mana was okay and didn't need to be healed, Naofumi found it strange that Motoyasu didn't notice that Myne's mana dropped for no reason and most have done something. So either Motoyasu knew what was going on and was covering the whole thing up, or he was an incompetent fool who didn't want to know.
"Yeah right, I lost because of your strength." Naofumi scoffed at this, "The truth is that your little friend there interfered. That's why I lost my balance and concentration! You were on the verge of losing, and would have if it wasn't for her!" Oh, he had other things he could call her or say about her, but he was trying to keep things decent so as not to lose Raphtalia.
"Ha! So disappointed that you have to make up lies!" said Motoyasu, who still thought he won the battle fairly, before he defended his companion as he would, "Myne would never do such a thing that you accuse her of, she most loyal and trusted companion."
"That's not it, you asshole!" Naofumi yelled, "She cheated so that you can win!"
Motoyasu ignored Naofumi's accusations and kept acting victorious.
This annoyed Naofumi. Sure he knew that the Princess was someone that lies, used people and the like, but there was a part of him that still thought she would go this far. Maybe he was naive, seeing how she treated him and seemed to like to ruin him, but he thought that after seeing how he could handle himself, she and everyone else would let him be. But it would seem that it wasn't the case.
There was at least one person there who wasn't too sure, as they called out, "Is that true?"
The spectators had their eyes on Motoyasu.
Did they not see what happened? Or was it they hated what the Shield Hero symbolises, that they would turn a blind eye to the cheating. Or was it because she was the daughter of the King or both? Whatever the case, they were waiting there in silence.
"There is no need to believe the words of a criminal. Spear Hero! It is your victory!"
'That asshole!' Naofumi sneered at the thought, unhappy that the king would boldly proclaim Motoyasu the winner.
But Naofumi knew he should have expected this, the trash of a king was the father of the bitch and he hated the Shield Hero for what one of the last Shield Heroes did, so of course, he would back his damn daughter. It didn't matter that he was going to win fair and square, the king looked down on him and hated him, so he wanted to ruin his life as much as possible, all because of the damn Shield.
It didn't matter if some of the crowd had their doubts as well, even if they hated the Shield Hero, they did agree to a fair fight, even if the winner was someone they hated. But even if they looked around as if they wanted to speak up, there was no one who would challenge what the king had declared. Afraid of what he might do to them. Not only that, but those who didn't care about fair fights were more than happy to see the king do this. Anything to keep the Shield Demon weak.
"Oh, you did so well, Lord Motoyasu!"
And here came the root of all of his problems since he got here, that bitch, smiling innocently as if she didn't do a thing. Behind her was a castle magician who ran over and healed only Motoyasu's wounds.
What pissed Naofumi off, even more, was that they just ignored him.
As he watched Motoyasu being treated, he came to realize something, this duel wasn't something he would have come up with himself. No, from what he can tell he was too stupid to do such a thing unless pushed to do so, so that meant that bitch was the one to informed Motoyasu that he had slaves. Seeing how the fool was around women, it was easy for the woman to set things up.
All that woman needed to do was a whisper in his ear: "That girl with the Shield Hero is a slave. He's forcing her to cooperate. You have to save her."
He suspected that the princess thought that this would be a one-sided duel with the hops to humiliate him even more, by having the Spear Hero defeating the Shield Hero so badly. How couldn't that work? Motoyasu had better equipment than him and the others and the other heroes. So it wasn't hard to think that he should have won with ease.
It was almost a perfect plan: it was a chance to test her potential husband's abilities and skills, as well as to show herself in a good light.
If they ended up getting married, then saving a slave girl from the disgraced Shield Hero was the perfect end to their heroic story.
Legends are born through evil. The more evil you were, the better you'd be remembered.
Throughout history, they'd be remembered as the heroes that took care of the Shield Hero that had fallen to darkness and saved a little girl that he had enslaved. They'd have songs written about them.
It was too good of an opportunity to slip by for her.
With this and how he had been treated since he got here, being framed by the bitch and her bastard father, being treated by almost everyone like shit, and now this where he was now going to lose Raphtalia, something in him snapped. Naofumi was now filled with burning rage and hatred, and it ran powerfully through his body.
The Curse Series!
The conditions for unlocking this shield have been met.
Naofumi's vision began to distort as his shield was swallowed by the pitch-black emotion overflowing from his heart, as he slipped into his subconscious.
To be Continued!
Author's Note: Here ends the final chapter of the Rising of the Shield Demon, I hope that you all enjoyed part one of this story and will return when part two comes out. I hope that you liked the duel and how I changed things. There's nothing to ask or say in this chapter, but expect a long note at the end of the next chapter though, as there are a few things I want to ask and say. But that can wait until the final chapter. So all I want to know is what you think of this chapter.