I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero

Biggest thanks goes to Ace-Triad for SPAG editing this chapter. Also, special thanks for Angel Wraith for reading my rough draft and provide some feedbacks.

More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.


Falling down, she can't tell how far she has fallen even with the dim light of her lantern. It feels like an instant, yet it also feels like a year. Amidst the darkness around her, she can barely tell which way is up and which way is down.

Until her back breaks through something.

Cold... as cold as the wind blowing through her window, through the silky drape of her bed and her blanket. The coldness seeps into her flesh and bones, trying to freeze her heart solid.

But she barely has a moment to reminisce about the night from many years ago when her lungs feels like they're burning, despite the bone-chilling coldness.

Air...

The lantern is doused by water, leaving her in total darkness. She wildly flails her arms and legs around as she panics. She need to break through the surface to breathe, but she does not know which way is up.

The first princess' brief panic makes her instinctively gasp, letting more icy water into her lungs.

Was Father right all along? Was using the name of her dead friend truly a curse from the start? She could practically see the face of her little friend staring right into her again. Red eyes glassy and unseeing when they were once full of life...

NO! I'm not dying here!

She had come too far already. She disobeyed Father's wish and the Three Heroes' Church, potentially making an enemy out of the most powerful faction in glorious Melromarc. She tossed aside her comfortable life of a princess, pretended to be a common adventurer from nowhere, living together like vagabonds - just like a bunch of dirty slaves.

She didn't do all of this just so she can drown to death in some underground lake, inside an abandoned mineshaft.

The first princess kicks her legs and swings her arms with all the strength she has left, towards the possible direction of the surface. She's not going to simply give up and drown, just like she's not going to sit back and watch her bratty sister eventually sit on the throne. She'll fight to her last breath if she has to.

Chapter 17: A Dark Descent

The paddling feels as long as her drop, but a hundred times more strenuous. After an indescribable amount of time, she manages to break her head through the surface. She coughs violently, letting the water in her lungs out while drawing in the precious air. The princess in disguise never imagined something this mundane tastes better than the sweetest Shiltfreeden Junius Wine.

She begin chanting the phase for her [Mage Light] spell once again. But instead of pushing it away, she lets the little wisp float right on top of her head. Now with some illumination, the princess turned novice adventurer looks around her to gather her bearings.

The first thing she notices is a current that's carrying her towards one direction, which means she's in an underground river and not an underground lake. The air around her doesn't taste stale, which according to her fencing coach means that there's an exit leading outside the cave not too far away. Mein briefly wonders if this underground river leads outside to the Goddess' Bounty, the widest river near the capital. Or maybe there's a cave near the foot of the mountain. It's hard to tell if a fully grown human like her can fit through such an opening.

But this isn't the time or place to think about her geographical studies. The princess looks up, trying to find any sign of the Shield Hero's party. She's unable to see the cliff face she fell down from, or any faint glow that might come from the light of lanterns. Fighting against the current to stay in the same place where she fell, hoping for a fast rescue from them, is out of the question.

That's when she belatedly realize she's no longer holding the hand of the raccoon girl. The incognito princess quickly turns around, her breaths become hitched once again from the fear of her being stuck in the depth of an abandoned mine by herself with a monster on the prowl.

She spots a bundle of hair bobbing up and down near the edge of her light, slowly but surely moving away into darkness by the current. That's when the princess realizes this is the golden opportunity she's been waiting for to get rid of the upstart slave girl. All she needs is to do practically nothing, and nature will do the job for her.

It might be a trick of the light, but the raccoon girl's hair bobbing on water looks awfully like the bundle of feathers of a young filorial chick... The next moment, the first princess finds herself paddling with all her remaining strength towards the slave girl. She manages to reach Raphtalia without too much trouble, and holds her head up from the water while squeezing the girl's chest to make her puke out the water.

There'll be plenty of other opportunities to get rid of this small nuisance... she's not falling down a cliff for nothing. And she's definitely not going to get stuck in a dark cave by herself, with a monster presumably preying on her in the shadow.

The river carries the two of them around a corner. The princess notices a shallow decline of rock near the edge of her magical light. She moves the slave girl around to her left side and starts to paddle towards the rock, hoping she can climb on top of it. The water is starting to feel like it's seeping into her bones by now.

It takes her a few tries, especially with her slowly but surely building fatigue. The princess in disguise eventually manages to toss Raphtalia onto the rock and climb up herself, no thanks to the completely unhelpful slave girl. For a while, she simply lies face down on the cold and hard surface, feeling like an exhausted and very, very wet dog.

Great, she got both the slave girl and herself away from the underground river onto some rock. What should be her next move? She barely knows anything about how to do this adventuring business, with it obviously below her stature as a princess of the royal house. Good thing her fencing coach, vice-captain Zellus used to be an experienced adventurer before he joined Melromarc's royal guard. It's also rather lucky that the vice-captain loves to hear himself talk.

If you are separated from your party by yourself, wait on the same spot for rescue. You don't want make your party member lose track of you because you moved from your last known spot. Unless you know there's a strong monster hunting for you, in which case do your best to make your way back to civilization.

Well... option number two it is in this case. The princess fights against her exhaustion and desire to keep lying on the ground and pushes herself up. She looks around, noticing there are solid dirt ground behind the huge stone slab she's resting on. It's hard to tell with her limited light source, but there seem to be a dark incline between two solid walls, suggesting a cave leading somewhere up. It's a long shot, but hopefully it'll eventually lead her somewhere outside if not back to the Shield Hero.

Then again... why blindly hope for something when you have a way to know it?

The novice adventurer sits back down on her butt and lets out a deep breath. She closes her eyes and pictures the mineshaft entrance in her head. Meanwhile, she cups her hands in front of her chest, pulling her inner magic out to focus them in her hands. "As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature and guide my steps, [Clairvoyance]."

A trail of white smoke leaves her hand and skip through the dark space between two walls, indicating yes, this passage does eventually lead to the entrance. The incognito princess lets out a small sigh of relief as she falls on her back. She may still be trapped in the bottom of a mine with a deadbeat slave girl and a flesh eating monster, but at least she has a chance to make her way back out.

The princess in disguise turns her head towards the raccoon girl. The demi-human is now a sobbing mess crawled into a ball. There is audible sounds like mother, father, or Rifana coming from her mouth once in a while. The rest are all unintelligent gibberish.

The princess in disguise realizes she can still leave the demi-human to her fate here, with the slave girl completely unaware of the surrounding. But then again... she's already went through the effort of pulling the girl out of the river.

So the first princess rolls back on her stomach and crawls to the slave girl. She gently pats the slave girl's face to gather Raphtalia's attention. "Come on. Get a hold of yourself."

The previously glassy and unfocused eyes of Raphtalia start to stare right back into her. That's good, the slave girl is finally regaining some of her faculties. The princess holds her hand out towards the raccoon girl. "We have to make our way back to Master Naofumi. Come with me, if you want to live."

Raphtalia's eyes stays on the offered hand for a good long while. It makes the princess wondering if the slave girl is genuinely considering death as an option, or maybe a way out. The raccoon girl eventually reaches out with her trembling hand.


The trek back to the Shield Hero, or the entrance of the mineshaft is a gruelling affair. The traveling cloth and leather armor is cold after their thorough soak in the underground river. They stick to the skin, weighing their steps down as their traveling boots squishes on the rocky path.

To the first princess, they might as well be hammers falling onto a very loud drums for the beating it takes on her hearts.

The cave network is otherwise quiet, with barely any shuffling of monster's paw on the dirt to be heard. It does nothing to set the princess' mind at ease. The princess turned adventurer can only hope the monster is killed by the Shield Hero's party atop of the cliff.

She tries to put her mind more at ease as her free left hand begins to trace the side of the rocky cave wall. There is some kind of root-like vegetation crawling along the wall and the ground, small mushrooms sprout on them here and there. Some of them look just like the common edible 'grass cap' one can find in forest, while others emit an almost ethereal blue glow. The same color that's usually associated with mana, or its source the Aether.

She wonders if she should take a couple of samples, maybe have her Naofumi appraise them once they are reunited. It'll be great if her Naofumi can branch out from only making healing potions and medicines to also making mana potions, with her being more of a mage than a fighter.

She also begin to wonder if this is where plant-based monsters come from. It is well-known that all animal based monsters are hatched from almost identical looking monster eggs, but maybe vegetation and fungus mutating from strong sources of magic into plant based monsters?

What's she even thinking about again...?

"Hah~ CHOO!" A loud sneeze echoes all around the tunnels. It jolts the princess turned adventurer out of her scattered mind and back into reality like a bolt of lightning. She spins her head to look at the slave girl who just committed the offense of possibly alerting the monster of their position.

The raccoon girl looks miserable with her normally puffy ears drooping right on her skull. Her hair is wet like a bundle of seaweed over her eyes and faces. But even with it obscuring Raphtalia's face, the princess can see her face become pale again almost like how she looked back in the slave trader's secret hideout.

"So-sorry." The raccoon girl looks down at her feet. She tries her best to wring out some more water from her cloth. She lets go of her damp and wrinkled fabric to cover her mouth as she begins to cough.

The slave girl reminded of the princess in disguise how cold she herself feels. They need to find a safer place to start a fire and regain some of their strength, or else they'll be defenceless if monsters sneak up on them. "Stay with me, we'll find some place to dry up."

Raphtalia looks up at her again for a brief moment, the raccoon girl nods her head for a few times before letting it droop downward again.


The princess and the slave girl continue for another indescribable amount of time in relative silence. Only the wet squish of their boots and occasional muffled sneeze and cough from Raphtalia accompany them on their journey through the winding tunnel.

They eventually reaches an intersection where the cave branches into different directions.

The princess uses her sword to brush aside some moss like vegetation hanging from the ceiling to peek inside one branch. It comes to an abrupt dead-end after turning a few corners.

They would be trapped if the monster finds them in here, but at least it can't sneak up on them from behind while they dry themselves. It will have to do.

The princess in disguise cast another mage light and have it hovers on Raphtalia's head. She runs her hand through the raccoon girl's messy hair. "You sit tight here, I'll find something to start a fire."

A brief moment of panic flashes in Raphtalia's eyes as the girl's red orbs begin to frantically look all over the place. She eventually settles down and crawls into a ball once again as she lies on the mossy cave floor.

The princess turned adventurer turns around to walk towards the intersection by herself. She gives one last look on the resting slave girl, noticing just how close to a small flock of sad filorial birds Raphtalia looks in the distance. She shakes her head and steels her resolve as she returns to the cave.

She looks around front and back before tracing her hand along those root like plant on the wall. The novice adventurers gives a few test pulls. When the roots stay budged, she takes her steel sword and begins hacking at those resilient plants.

She ends up working herself full of sweets with only a small pile of the damned roots to show for, but at least they should be good enough to start a small campfire. The princess stops her feet as she's about to make her way back to the dead-end tunnel. She looks down at some of the plain looking mushrooms as she remembers how empty her stomach feels. It had been ignored till this point with all the other more pressing concerns, but they haven't eaten anything since they parted way with the Lute villagers.

The first princess looks around again to make sure there's no monster waiting to ambush her. She squats down on the floor and takes out her silver needle artifact and prickles the Grass Cap like mushroom. She pulls the needle out and inspects the tip under the mage light, yet there's no sign of it turning dark indicating it's not poisonous.

She ends up taking a handful of the largest mushroom with her back to the dead-ended tunnel. The raccoon girl's ear twitches before she looks up from the ground, her face seemingly lighting up. "You're back!"

Does the demi-human slave girl think she's being abandoned here in this dark tunnel? Who does she take Mein for...?

Okayyy ... the slave girl does have a point when even the identity of the incognito princess is fake. But the point is that Mein wouldn't simply toss her aside now, after she had already passed on two very better opportunities.

The princess dumps the pile of root like plants in front of the demi-human girl, Raphtalia quickly scoots away on her back. Mein picks up the little rocks around and place them in a circle before tossing a fireball into the bundle of woods. It lights up a bonfire that the princess can almost call cozy under the circumstance.

"Take your wet clothes off, and dry them with the fire." Mein begins to strip her own armor and wet traveling attire off. The raccoon girl nods her head and quickly begin to follow the example. Not long after, both the princess and the slave girl are in their loincloth by the fire.

Mein holds her cloth close to the fire, letting the heat burn away the water on her skin and in the fabric. She takes a quick glance at Raphtalia sitting close to her and shakes her head. This day is by far the most she has done for anyone else, and it's all for a demi-human slave girl, no less.

She hasn't even done half of this for her younger sister...


The light and heat emits from the fireplace cast the room of the first princess in a warm orange glow. She sits in her favorite armchair with her favorite romance novel tucked in the middle of her text book.

The elder princess has to admit that there is a silver lining to not being the heiress groomed to take the throne over her mother. She's not as beholden to the same high standard for her education as her bratty younger sister, even if she's much older.

Nobody, aside from maybe her father, cares about her slacking off on her studies. As long as she maintains a reasonable standard and not bring shame to the royal family, all her instructors choose to turn a blind eye whenever she indulges in her fancy vice of choice.

No, she's not bitter at her much younger sister apparently being a prodigy. Someone who is much better at her in everything even she was trying hard to study the same topics.

So what if everyone besides Father, from visiting nobles, to the knights and guards on duty, to even lowly servants whisper the same thing when they thought no one's listening?

'The younger princess got all the good side of the parents her older sister lacks.'

She's not bitter at all.

Anyways, her poison of choice apparently being romance novels, something that's commonly considered trashy and unbefitting for noble society.

The first princess draws in a deep breath, flipping to the page where the main character Myne Sophia meets her Spear Hero riding on the white dragon.

She already lost count how many times she read through this story, but every time she lets out an uncontrollable giggle at this point. The first princess closes her eyes for a moment, wondering if she'll meet her own hero on a white filorial. There is talk about a Wave happening in the near future after all with the Great War not too far in the past.

The door to her private chamber almost flies open. It almost makes the first princess drop her books. "Read me a bedtime story, sister!"

"Have Father, or Mother read you one. They won't say no to YOU." The elder princess quietly places both her text book and novel on her nightstand.

"They are screaming again. I don't like it when they shout at each other." The younger princess Melty purses her lips. She skips her way to her older sister and jumps into the lap of the elder princess without any invitation. "Something about a pig, and sending you away? Why does Mother want to send you away? Aren't we family?"

"Mother's being a bit..." The first princess quickly catches herself before she blurt out whatever's on her mind. With the shadows possibly hiding in any corner, it's not a very, VERY bad idea to be caught badmouthing her queen mother. The last thing she needs is to give more arrows to Mother to marrying her away to secure political alliance. "A bit protective over you. Mother doesn't tell the nobles, but one day you'll be the queen when she's gone."

The younger princess simply gives her elder sister a blank look.

The elder princess sighs in frustration. It boggles her mind how someone who manages to memorize the entire chronicle of important events regarding Melromarc dynasty in little more than a month can't understand the simplest concept of politics behind succession. "Think of it this way, Mother is our queen. The supreme leader of glorious Melromarc, right?"

"Yes...?" Melty blinks her big blue eyes right back, looking no less than a confused baby bird.

"Does she has any sisters? If she has a sister also living in Melromarc Castle, people will be confused who is the queen, right?" The first princess mentally cringes at herself for simplifying the politic like this.

"Oh, I get it. If I'm going to be the queen and you live with me, other people get confused. They wonder who exactly the real queen is." Melty hops back down on her feet and claps her hands together. Her smile quickly dissolves into a constipated looking frown. "But I don't want you to leave. I'll get lonely if Father, Mother and you are all gone. I know! How about I make you my regent, like Father to Mother? You don't have to leave if you are my regent, right?"

The first princess gives her blankest stare back at Melty's beaming face. The damn brat has the audacity to feel proud for that idea!

Then again, it's probably too much trouble to explain to her six years old younger sister, no, that 'solution' defeats the very purpose of avoiding power struggle within the royal family by sending the much older sibling away so the younger one can succeed without any problem.

The only way she'll be able to stay in the capital with Melty being the crown princess is for her to officially renounce any right of succession. Maybe being forced to give up her royal status all together and join a life of pious clergy. And no, the first princess does not consider being a nun any better than being the trophy wife of the Faubley King.

She scratches her younger sister's head like she would a baby filorial. This 'acting nice to her dumb bratty sister to avoid the ever present eyes of the Queen's Shadow' is seriously taking its toll.

"You should save the regent position for your future husband. You wanted to hear a bed time story right? How about I tell you a story about Queen Evangeline, the first queen of our dynasty?" The elder princess stands up from her armchair and walks towards her bookshelf. She looks back to see Melty pouting back.

"I read enough about the Queens and the Kings and the Lords in class. Can't I hear one of the stories you love to read so much?" Melty gives a sideway glance toward the romance novel sitting on the nightstand.

"Oh, but I'm telling you exactly a story like my romance novel." The first princess grins at her younger sister and shown her the title of the book. It reads: The untold story of Queen Evangeline.

Part unofficial record collected from the bards and commoners, part fiction. It tells the supposed secret romance between Queen Evangeline and the Saint of The Spear that they can't show in public with Evangeline already being a married woman. Most of copies for such... scandalous materials are destroyed. Although a few copies do still exist in the royal vault.

The first princess happens to have... procured one copy for herself. So she may better study all exploits of the first queen of Melromarc Dynasty, of course.

"Ooohhh... so it's just like that rumor about Mother secretly in love with Duke Luigi Claes, and she married Father for his position as the Hero of The Wand? Whatever that means." Melty's response makes the elder princess chock on her spit.

The elder sister takes a few drinks of tea to beat the coughing fit back down.

"Where... did you hear that?" The first princess stares dagger at her younger sister, although she's not angry at Melty in this case. She also heard rumors like this, trading scandalous rumors revolving around royalty tend to be the noble's favorite pasttime. And with the current Duke Claes having a long history riding as Mother's second since Great War, rumor between those two are all but inevitable. Especially since Duke Luigi was considered the most charming eligible non-hero bachelor back in his youth.

But most nobles should have the good sense to talk about it BEHIND the back of the royal family.

She needs another drink for this.

"Viscount Raleigh Consevatie."

The first princess blows her mouthful of tea right back out. Melty lets out a surprised shriek as she hops back, completely unaware of how the liquid seem to obey her command and twist itself back to not ruin her dress.

"Why, why would you get close to HIM!?" The elder sister almost drops her tea cup and smash it on the floor. She does not want to know how her sister got close to the notorious child lover of Consevatie family. So what if her sister was made by mother to replace HER. The idea of Raleigh the Vulture doing what it is he does behind closed door to his child slaves to Melty makes her skin crawl.

She doubt the brother of Lord Consevatie would be stupid enough to do ANYTHING to the unofficial royal heir, but he must still revel in the chance to get close to Melty.

"Don't talk with Viscount Consevatie again, don't even stay in the same room with him. Mother loves Father and Father loves her back. PERIOD. You are a good girl, Melty. You don't want to spend time with someone badmouthing Mother and Father, do you?"

"Oh, okay! I hate people badmouthing my family!" Melty's cheeks puff up before she lets a laughter that sounds like the echo of a silver chime, she hops into her sister's bed and begin patting the mattress. "Melty is being a good girl, big sister. I want my story now."

"A juicy story about Queen Evangeline and the Saint of The Spear, coming right up." The elder princess pulls the blanket off and sits down on her own bed, she reads Melty the bedtime story till the younger princess falls asleep before turning in herself.


"Queen Evangeline was in love with the Spear Hero?" Raphtalia's voice brings the princess turned adventurer back to the present. She turns her head to look at the slave girl, who is staring back with curious eyes. "I never knew that."

The princess turned adventurer wants to kick herself. It's lucky the monster didn't sneak up on them while she's lost in her memory.

"That's what some bards used to sing about. Fitting, I guess. People loved to make stories about heroes get together with princesses or ladies." Mein takes a closer look at her travelling clothes, worried that she might have burnt the thing while she's lost in memory. Luckily the expansive cloth either has some kind of fire resistant enchantment, or she's holding them far enough from the bonfire. The first princess quickly pulls it on her clothes, the nice warm glow on her skin returns some of her lost strength. "I doubt they were true though. Queen Evangeline was too smart for something like that."

"How come?" Raphtalia looks back up at Mein again with her big twinkling eyes. The irony of a demi-human being interested in the history and the first monarch of Melromarc isn't lost on the incognito princess.

"Before glorious Melromarc, this country was known as the Kingdom of Gallia. The last standing kingdom from the era of the Seven Kingdoms." Mein pulls her sword and run some of the mushrooms through it. She holds her sword kebabs of fungus over the fire to roast them. "The last king of De Gallia dynasty died in the Wave, and his son was still an infant at the time. So his cousin, Duchess Evangeline took the burden of rallying the country's force against the wave behind the Spear Hero. If she was dumb enough to commit adultery to her husband with the Spear Hero openly, I doubt she'd be put on the throne and start the Melromarc dynasty after it was over. Prince De Gallia was the legitimate heir after all, even if he's still a baby."

"Oh, okay..." The raccoon girl tilts her head sideways. It's obviously she doesn't understand much of what Mein said, if anything at all.

"Enough about kings and queens. Have you fancied marrying a hero? All girls fancy themselves fall in love with a legendary Hero. Maybe our very own Shield Hero?" Mein turns her sword over to roast the other side of the mushroom. There is only silence meeting the question, which the first princess is fine with till she hears cough interrupted sobbing from the raccoon girl. "What's wrong?"

"Rifana, Rifana was the one who wanted to grow up and marry the Shield Hero." Giant beads of tear as large as some berry is dropping down from Raphtalia's eyes. "I killed her... I killed my friend."

"Hey, Raphtalia. Kid! Snap out of it!" Mein quickly runs her hand through the slave girl's hair. She holds the girl's head to her shoulder and let Raphtalia rest, hoping this can calm her down so her loud crying won't draw unwanted attention to them more than they already had. "You want to talk about it? I heard talking about it makes it feel better."

"Our last master, before Master Naofumi, was a very broad man. He was almost as wide as he's tall, and he wasn't that tall. Shorter than Master Naofumi. He doesn't have hair on the top of his head, only in a half ring around his ears and back. He has two bundle of mustaches, and he always smiles." The breath of the first princess draws shorter and shorter as Raphtalia recount the likeness of her previous owner. The more she hear, the more Mein is sure the man is Viscount Consevatie.

"The time he came to us... he pulls Rifana into his lap and hugs her. She was shaking so much... I tried to cheer her up and started talking about the Shield Hero coming to save us. I think I scared our master with my laugh. He let go of Rifana and left. Told the guards to 'break us'. That's when the beatings started... Rifana got sick before me, we didn't get any medicine and then she's... gone... If I didn't talk about the Shield Hero or started laughing... maybe Rifana won't get sick. And she'll still be alive..." The raccoon girl is unable to continue her story, as she buries her head into her lap to muffle her cries.

The first princess turns her head to get a good look at the slave girl beside her. She runs her hand gently through the girl's hair and back, and whispers in a soft voice. "No, no. You didn't kill your friend, Raphtalia. Look at me, and listen to me well."

The raccoon girl slowly lefts her head up and stares right back into the eyes of the Princess.

"That man, your last owner before Master Naofumi. He. Was. NOT. A good man like Master Naofumi. If you hadn't scared him away, he'd kill you and your friend in much worse manner." Mein slowly let her hand climb back up Raphtalia and gives her a firm shake on the shoulder. "You didn't save your friend's life, but you saved her from a much worse death. You don't understand now, but you will one day. Don't feel sad for it."

"I... I saved Rifana. From, something...?" Raphtalia blinks her eyes at Mein's revelation. She does not seem to understand how condemning her friend a slow and probably painful death from disease can be seen as saving her.

The first princess of glorious Melromarc almost hope the demi-human slave girl never learn it. There are something in life best left unknown. Raleigh the Vulture's personal vice being one of them.

"Yes, you did." The raccoon girl's stomach chooses this moment to growl. The princess turned adventurer smiles at the Raphtalia's action of pressing down her stomach with a blush on her otherwise pale face. Mein pulls her sword away from their bonfire to take down some mushrooms. She hands a couple to Raphtalia first. "Eat this for now. We'll get some better food when we find Master Naofumi again, and also some more medicine for you. Your cold is coming back."

The two of them shares their roasted mushroom together. It taste as bland as some wax in Mein's mouth compares to her Naofumi's cooking, but she doesn't mind it.


They resume their journey once they devoured the last of their roasted mushrooms and put their armor back on. The undercover princess gives her helmet a quick smell and decides to forgo it for the moment. The musky water manages to make the stink from sweat and other undesirables that's been seeping into the leather worse.

Raphtalia, for all her faults, seems to slowly begin to regain her composure. She is currently holding her long dagger tightly in her left hand, to the point her knuckles is turning white. Her eyes also quickly darts left and right, while her fluffy round raccoon ears is peaked onto the top of her head.

The raccoon girl manages to put a brave front after their talk, but her fear is obvious to anyone who knows where to look for it.

"Relax your left hand a little. You want to hold your weapon tight, but not too tight where your hand becomes rigid and your knuckles turn white. You can't react to your enemy well that way, or you'll hurt your hand when you try to attack." Mein murmurs out the instruction she and her playmates learned from their fencing coach. It's more as a mantra to herself to keep her mind focused rather than teaching the kid.

From her peripheral vision, the princess sees Raphtalia giving a long stare. The slave girl relaxes her hand a little to mimic the novice adventurer.

The miniature sun above Mein's head begins to shrink and wave, till it shrivels out of existence. The one on Raphtalia's head follows suit shortly after. The undercover princess can feel her mana reserve near the end, and she does not want to risk exhausting it in case she needs to cast [Clairvoyance] again to find the right way.

Mein is grateful for the glowing mosses and mushrooms around the two of them manages to provide an enough light to avoid stumble. She is about to take bite down the arrow and cast another light spell, that's when they come face to face with the THING as they round a corner.

Mein finally has a good look at the THING that ambushed their party, and knocks Raphtalia down the underground river.

It is a hound longer than her height with two heads, its bloodshot eyes seems to radiate the sense of hunger and greed as it snarls at the two of them through its sharp teeth. Despite its size, the dog looks emaciated with its rib bones clearly visible near its stomach.

Did the thing manage to run away from the Shield Hero and his two companions, or did it kill them?

Mein can hear the cluttering of her teeth. She looks at the dog again, and notices a long gash on its side slowly dripping blood down. The tussle with Shield Hero's party clearly leaves it injured.

But according to her coach... a monster suffering from a non-fatal injury is much more dangerous than one at full health. The pain only serves to fan the flames of their bloodlust and makes them more ferocious.

Raphtalia releases Mein's hand while the undercover princess is still paralyzed under the dog's gaze. The little demi-human girl holds her dagger tight with both of her hands. She opens her legs out and flexes her shoulder a little to make herself look larger while glaring down at the dog. It seems some of Lautrec's training manages to stick to the little girl, even if she must be terrified out of her mind.

Mein knows she herself is definitely near the point of panic now. This isn't the same as the one time she mistaken a couple of low level grunts for Siltvelt Ravens. The THING, no, the two-headed dog monster shouldn't be far outside of Mein's level range, even if it has very sharp teeth and claws.

Not to mention it already suffered some damage from the skirmish with the main party.

But on the other hand, those teeth and claws are sharper than Raphtalia's dagger. No doubt, the monster can do some serious harm to both of them if they choose to stand their ground and fight. Judging by its thin frame, the monster is also starving which likely makes it even more bloodlust than normal and will likely shrug off pain and damage Mein and Raphtalia inflict onto it.

Mein isn't a real adventurer till she becomes the companion of the Shield Hero, but she goes to enough taverns to hear from the seasoned man and woman who lives the life of vagabond. They like to boast about when two group in the same level range meet together, victory goes to the courageous.

On their side, both the demi-human child and Mein herself are cold, scared and tired. On the side of the giant hound, it is driven by the single prospect of finding its next meal. It doesn't take a veteran adventurer to figure out who is the more courageous in this case.

It's one thing to pull the demi-human slave girl out of a river, or have a good long talk with her when she's being crushed by guilt.

Is it worth it to risk her life to protect the damn raccoon? She may not be the crown princess... but she's still the royalty of glorious Melromarc!

A single bead of sweat rolls down Mein's forehead. It travels from her brow and into her eyes.

Mein tries her best to keep her left eye open despite the sandy feeling and urge to let out tear, but it's a clearly losing battle. She closes her left eyelid tight and can only see with her right. The dog does not look any less terrifying now half of Mein's vision is going dark. In fact, it seems to sense Mein's resolve crumbles as it start to slowly inch forward.

The incognito princess can no longer see what Raphtalia is doing, she wonders if the girl is also finally starting to give into her panic now. For all she knows, the raccoon has already bolted. She's largely useless when fighting monsters after all.

Run while there is still a chance. Let the dog eat the dirty little animal! It'll solve two of you problems in one go! It'll be too late if the animal get away first!

So Mein did.

For a moment, she stares down the dog with her right eye and waving her sword at the monster. The next moment, she is panting heavily while running back from the tunnel she comes from.

The next moment she stares at the cold, hard rocky floor with what feels like the weight of the entire mountain on top of her. The pawn of the dog grinds into her shoulder blade, while its nails digs into her back like a spear piercing through her body.

The side of her face burns, like it's being licked by a raging inferno.

The same pain and searing heat erupts on her left shoulder, the leather armor recommended by the smith does nothing to stop its fangs from sinking into her shoulder and tearing her flesh apart. She screams and struggles, trying to avoid the maw of the dog's other head which no doubts aims at the back of her neck. She can feel the hot and rotten breath through her hair.

"-OU BASTARD~!" The scream of a mad man suddenly echoes in the tunnel as the dog's teeth rips out of her shoulder, taking a good chunk of it away. Some dark shadow begins to roll around the cave with the dog, kicking up both the glowing fungus and mosses while the orange glow of a lantern flares wildly around the rocky cave.

The Shield Hero Naofumi is clawing, punching and grappling one of the Dog's head, his glare shines with a crazed mania that doesn't look out of place on the Bow Hero in one of his 'attacks'. The young hero seems to be oblivious to the dog's other head biting into his right shoulder, bypassing his monumental defense rating and drawing blood as it gushes out like a geyser. He completely ignores his own injury and keeps on punching and twisting the monster as if he was possessed by one himself.

Lautrec sped past Mein's prone form on the ground and slams his shotel into the dog's wound, drawing a loud screech from the beast. Raphtalia bounces onto the back of the dog, and brings her dagger down with both hands. The short but sharp blade sinks into one of dog's heads all the way to the guard like a flesh sheath. The dog finally goes still after a short struggle.

Mein feels something cool drip onto her ruined shoulder, and the side of her face. She can hear the emotionless but rapid voice of Kyubey near her back. "We need to go back to Lute Village immediately, Master Shield Hero. The wound on Miss Mein's shoulder isn't closing. Our potion isn't strong enough. She needs a proper healer."

"GO!" Naofumi pushes himself to stands up from the ground, ignoring his own bleeding shoulder as he runs towards Mein and tries to hold her up. The young hero wincing a little as he embraces Mein tightly with his arms. "You are going to be okay, Mein! Stay with us! We'll get you to a doctor!"

Her vision is already turning blurry by this point, her heads rolls around unconsciously as she is rocked around left and right as if riding a Filorial carriage on a very bumpy dirty road. Slowly, she begins to see something else in front of her eyes.

A small puff of red fluffy feathers staring back at her with sad red eyes. It chirps at her once, and slowly but visibly begin to grow large, first into a bun, and then into a big bird like the ones the royal family keeps at the palace stable.

But her neck is all wrong, bent in an unnatural way as it sprawls on the ground.

Mein's eyes, once bright with endless energy of life. Now glassy, empty and hollowed out.

"Why couldn't you fly...? Didn't you have wings...? You'd still be alive if you could fly..."

Huh, Father was right. It was bad luck after all...


End Note

Well... that happened. I bet the ending of this chapter is exactly as predictable and cliche as most people already imagined where Malty does a bad thing, and gets an immediate comeuppance for it. But as the saying goes, if something isn't broke, don't fix it.

Next chapter will be an interlude from Naofumi's perspective, where we get to see just what's been going through his mind since his trial.

To Night:

(*pulling collar*) Okay... I feel like I will very much let you done on the department of the possible comedy when Naofumi confront Trash again. Since it'll be a much more serious scene than the fake trial. As for Malty and Melty's sibling relationship, this chapter should give you some answer to it with the flashback scene.

To Halo:

Pretty sure Naofumi won't get to nerd out with Motoyasu, since Motoyasu is the antithesis of being a nerd. But yeah, if they unlock some iconic weapon they'll probably fanboy out a bit. Heck, I can see Naofumi being very envious of Ren if he gets Buster Sword or Fusion Sword since he already called filorials 'chocobos' (who honestly haven't?).

To Rando12:

I'm glad you enjoy how I'm characterizing Malty so far! Not going to lie, I'm having a blast thinking of ways where she's a real person and not just an empty shell to draw all the hate. Hope this chapter lived up to your expectation!

To Addison:

Thank you very much for the kind words! Personally, I hope there'll be more stories in RotSH fandom where people take creative risks to flesh out all the characters... since if I'm allowed to be honest, I think most characters in RotSH canon are more of two-dimensional archetypes than full characters.

To Guest1:

Well... it's a bit debatable if Ito would be disappointed in Motoyasu... since he's most famous iteration is the anime version which he went into the bad guro aka 'Nice Boat' ending. And while I don't want to spoil too much... it's better to disassociate the three crossover heroes as alternate timeline versions of themselves rather than whatever 'canon' version, and just use their canon personality as a foundation.

Comrade Broseph was actually talking about writing a spin-off prequel about the last Wave with Shirou and Mikage as the main characters shortly before his mysterious disappearance. It's a real shame, since from what he told me about his plan, I think it would have been an awesome story.

Regarding the summon of Naofumi's generation... I personally don't want to explain the specific mechanic of how the it works, aside from how summoning four heroes together comes with a curse (which help explain why Trash can't just get off his ass and vaporize Naofumi even though he's a veteran hero). I prefer this part leave open to everyone's interpretation, so feel free to come up with your own version.

;)

To Fire:

Yeah, it was really weird to me how the author makes Naofumi and Malty both the unfavoured elder sibling living under their younger sibling's shadow, but never does anything with it. I have to wonder if it's just some coincident they never even noticed themselves, or for some creative intention. Although if it's the lateral... I can't figure out what creative intention it would serve.

To Guest:

First of all, thank you very much for your critic and suggestion. I really hate to do this because I know I'll come off as extremely smug and ungrateful when you obviously put a lots of thought into your critic. But the truth is... thinking about writing style isn't something I put a lot of thought or effort into. Because I do creative writing for fun, not because I want to base a career on.

Nothing wrong with people who do make a career out of what they enjoy of course, but it just doesn't work for me. To me, hobby should stay as hobby and work should stay as work. If I want to build a career out of writing, I'll have to put all my thoughts into what would appeal to the audience and what technique I'll have to use instead of explore ideas that's interesting to me. And that kind of kills the fun of creative writing.

So yeah, thank you very much for your suggestion on how to improve my writing. But I'll probably always put more effort into what story and character interaction I want to put into my story, rather than what style I'll use for the story. As for listening to music while writing, that's something I'm already doing, but once again thank you very much for suggesting it.