I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero
Once again, biggest thanks for Ace-Triad helping me with SPAG edit! Also special thanks to Angel Wraith and Jurodan for reading my rough draft and provide important feedbacks.
Special thanks to BlackoutSampler's comment, which I adapted into dialogue in this chapter.
More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.
A group of outlaws was the first thought coming into Mein's mind. They are being robbed by bandits, just like what often happens in her romance novels.
But upon closer inspection, the undercover princess begins to notice something strange.
Most of the robbers have their cheekbones clearly shown on their faces, not because all of them happen to be blessed with high cheekbones. It is more of a case where they lack meat on their face. And all of them lack the color of blood on their faces, reminding her of what she looked like after her injury from the Wavehound.
Most of the robbers don't hold any real weapons, but appropriated tools like a woodman's axe, sickles or pitchforks. Some of them even hold weapons crafted out of twigs and stones. Their clothes mostly consist of rags ripped into shreds, patched over by monster skin. Some of them flat out wear a large blanket of monster skins wrapped around their body.
They look more like a group of refugees than outlaws.
"There's no need for alarms, good Sirs and Misses! We only want to take a little toll, of course. We'll leave you on your merry way, as soon as you share some of your wealth with us. Within reason, of course." The speaker is a man with grey hair and an impressively thick mustache above his lips. Both his hair and mustache used to be well groomed, but are now splitting at the end.
Compared to the rest of his men, this speaker has a more stocky build. His square shaped face has no aged lines despite the color of his hair. His clothing is made of dyed expansive cotton, judging from the texture. He's holding what appears to be a blunderbuss, with two axe-like blades poking out of the stock.
The weapon is a very typical modern Faubley design, even if obviously custom made. If it being a firearm isn't enough evidence, the excessive, over-designed nature of adding an axe blade to the stock sealed the deal. And the man's clothing suggests he used to be well off, some kind of court official if not a flat out aristocrat. It's hard to imagine why he chooses the bright career of being a highway robber all the way in Melromarc.
"Well, I'll be - now I've seen everything!" Zylden pulls an axe from the broken cart and slaps his thigh with his hand. "A group of polite highwaymen! You even had the decency to not interrupt our conversations!"
"Of course, of course!" The grey haired bandit leader laughs in a jovial manner. "We are all civilized men here. Just good, civilized men fallen on hard times."
"How kind of you. You want to leave us with a receipt too?" Naofumi narrows his eyes. The magical tablet on his wrist changes into the Chimera Viper Shield. His intention to fight the bandits is very clear.
Chapter 31: Thermae Romae
"Why do we waste time talking with these fat cats, Porter?" A teenage looking girl with short red hair waves her two handed war hammer at the grey haired bandit leader. She turns to look at Walter and snarls. "I say we take everything from those fat cats, leave them with their lives if they are lucky."
Walter immediately dodges behind the Shield Hero, showing surprise speed and agile for someone of his girth. Zylden and the rest of Walter's sellswords on the other hand hold their weapons up in a fighting stance.
For someone with such impressive girth, the fat merchant certainly is less a man than the imp.
"No, Nora," A dark haired young man puts his arm in front of the hot headed girl, stopping her from charging at the trembling merchant. "That's not how we do things."
"Why do we even care, Ren!?" Nora points her finger at the fat merchant hiding behind Naofumi. "These fat cats and asskissers don't care about us! I say take whatever they have, and leave their bodies for the bone dogs and beak-things!"
Mein ignites her hand with fire while the bandits are busy arguing with each other. She should be able to knock a good few robbers out while they are still off their guard. But Naofumi immediately whips around and catches her wrist before she has a chance to form her spell.
"You'll burn us all if you start a forest fire!" The Shield Hero releases Mein's hand as she extinguishes the magical fire and pulls out her sword. He turns to look at the group of refugee turned highwaymen. "No one is robbing anyone while I'm around."
"GOOD! I get to pick you clean after cracking your head a little!" The short haired girl charges right through her friends and swings her hammer down at Naofumi's Shield.
The Shield Hero's Chimera Viper Shield changes into his heavy stone-like Geo Shield again. He swings his shield arm forward to meet the hammer. With a loud boom, both Naofumi and Nora end up wobbling back a good five steps.
Did Naofumi's parry attempt fail? No, the bandit girl is also down like him. Her attack was simply too heavy and peerless to be properly parried.
Éclair charges forward, obviously trying to catch the bandit girl while she's shaking on her feet. A loud bang stops the knight right in her track, as she falls over on the ground, holding her bleeding leg. Mein looks up, and sees the black haired young bandit holding a smoking gun.
A pistol, those kinds of weapons aren't in the hands of common thieves or bandits even in Faubley. How did this young man get a hold of it? The Seatto lineage would have ended, if he aimed for Éclair's head.
While Mein is still pondering over the situation and history of their raider friends, Naofumi is much quicker on the draw. He immediately points his shields towards the young gunman. "[Shield Prison]!"
Naofumi's voice shakes Mein awake. She can't use her fire magic in a dense forest like this, but she isn't completely helpless. Flipping her right palm up towards the heavens and forming it into a claw, she wraps her left hand on her right wrist and begins to draw her magic power out as a blue sphere starts to rise up and hover above her hand.
Ren quickly leaps backward while Mein is charging up her magic, out of Naofumi's trap before it fully encloses him. He manages to get a shot out while in the air, but the bullet only chips on Naofumi's multi-layered stone shield.
Gaston releases an arrow at the young highwayman, forcing him to retreat once again. Even with one eye, the former best hunter of Lute still has impressive accuracy with his bow.
Farkas charges forward straight at the bandit leader, who immediately raises his blunderbuss to aim at the charging wolf man. The rest of the robbers seem to see this as the attack order, as they start to charge towards the carts while howling on top of their lungs.
The loud boom and screech almost covers Naofumi's voice as he activates his ability. "[Air Strike Shield!]"
The green energy shield flickers into existence, and stops the barrage of pellets for a split second before it shatters into shimmering light once again. But the split second is still enough for Farkas to leap out of the way, while still going after Porter. The old man is ready to fire again when Naofumi tosses out a bottle at him. "Fire in the hole!"
The bandit leader quickly shuffles back, same as the rest of the robbers in his direction. The bottle Naofumi tossed out shatters on the ground, all it does is dye the grass red instead of igniting them. The bottle he threw turns out to be a healing potion, not an alchemist's fire.
In the blink of an eye for the bandits to realize their mistake, Farkas is already upon them. Porter immediately turns his blunderbuss around, using the tip as a handle and swings at Farkas with the axe blade fitted onto its stock.
A loud cracking sound turns Mein's head. She sees Naofumi sprawled on the cobblestone road, the bandit girl with a raised war hammer standing right beside his still form.
NO! THAT BITCH!
Mein is ready to release the spell she's still charging into the bandit girl's face. That's when Zylden swings his axe right on Nora's thigh. The bandit girl lets out a pained grunt, as she tries to kick the imp away from her. All the half man had to do is duck his head under to avoid Nora's kick.
While Zylden distracts the bandit girl, the orange spheres of pain leap out of Naofumi's cloak. They jump onto Nora and start biting her all over, making the hellion fall and roll all over the cobblestone road, trying to get them off. "AH! OW! OUCH! Get off me, you, YOU DAMN BALLOONS!"
Raphtalia quickly pulls Naofumi away from the bandit girl while she's busy dealing with Zylden and Naofumi's pet eldritch abominations. Nora roars like a wounded and angry beast as she swings her hammer around like a wheel. But the half man is clearly used to fighting someone much taller than him. All he does is duck and weave around to dance circles around the enraged bandit girl. The balloons simply ignore her hammer, leaping right back at her after she bats them away.
After a few short exchanges, it finally dawns on Nora that she's wasting time with Zylden and the balloons. Neither are really causing much damage to her. She turns around, and sees Raphtalia feeding a health potion down Naofumi's throat. With another loud roar, she rushes forward to attack the downed hero.
"You shall not pass, villain!" Éclair stands in front of Nora. The leg of the Seatto heiress is no longer bleeding, but she's still walking with a visible limp. Mein briefly wonders if she manages to get the pellet out of her leg before healing the wound up. The knight's longsword, and the bandit's war hammer immediately start to clash together.
And while the knight and the bandit are fighting each other, more robbers manage to get past Walter's guards to come at them. The fat merchants screeched louder than Raphtalia ever did. He immediately throws himself underneath Naofumi's cart. Zylden and Naofumi's balloons turn around and do their best to harass the robbers before they get near Naofumi, or Mein herself.
Mein turns around, trying to locate the young gunman in the skirmish. The highwaymen easily have Walter's sellswords outnumbered more than three to one. But it's also clear they aren't very used to robbing people yet. Instead of ganging up on the mercenaries with their superior numbers, the robbers spend more time getting into each other's way, or tripping over each other than taking swings at their opponents.
The mercs on the other hand appear to be experienced, despite their shoddy equipment. In fact, instead of their iron swords, the sellswords are fighting the robbers with their leather wrapped sticks. No doubt, they are taking more time to go for knockouts, instead of cutting their numbers down with killing blows. Captured bandits are a good source of additional income for those cutthroats, after all.
After a short few moments of searching, Mein manages to find the target she's looking for. The young highwayman is running and jumping around near the edge, trying to get away from both Wolfgang and Firo pecking at his heels while Gaston shoots arrows at him.
The blue sphere hovering above Mein's hand has increased to five now. She's both feeling empty inside and a little dizzy. Not a proper [Missile Storm], since even the lesser variety would have ten shots, but it'll do for now.
Mein squints her eyes closer, balls her palm into a fist and points her finger at the dodging form of the young highwayman. The five blue balls of pure arcane energy turn into small shooting stars, homing in on the still retreating form of the young gunman.
The dark haired teen manages to twist his body enough to dodge the first four shots. The fifth magic missile scratches his foot hard enough to make him tumble. The young man would no doubt recover, but Firo catches up to him while he's still spinning in mid air and kicks him right on the chest. The young highway man flies into a tree and stopped moving for now.
The princess turned adventurer lets out a sigh of relief, knowing she helped take down the gunman who can kill any of them with a squeeze of his finger. She crashes right onto her knees, feeling the dizziness catching up to her. While the world seems to spin all around her, she hears a voice echoing beside her while a cool, thin cylinder is shoved into her hand. "You are suffering from [Mana Thirst], drink this. It's on the house."
The princess rises her head up and sees the face of the imp right in front of her. For a moment, she wonders how he turned back to tend her when the robbers are still trying to club them all. That's when she sees both Naofumi and Kyubey on their feet. Both the young man and former slave's legs move as if they are walking on cotton, but they manage to push back the bandits.
"Thanks." Mein blinks her eyes instead of nodding her head, not wanting to lose her balance even more. She tries to pop the stopper off with her mouth, but ends up knocking the top of the vial right into her teeth instead. Zylden quickly pulls it off for her, and helps her down the vial. "Can you take your hand off my butt NOW!?"
She would have slapped the damnable imp on the face, if the world isn't spinning around her while her head feels like exploding.
"Wow! Easy, girl. I couldn't reach your back, that's all. No harm, no foul." The imp quickly pulls his hands back up to pretend innocent. The lecherous half man turns around, and joins the fight once again before Mein recovers enough to take a stab at him.
Mein slowly stands back up on her feet and tightens her grip on the hilt of her new sword. She needs to stop trying to use a spell she isn't adept enough to cast yet in the middle of the battle. That means, she'll have to fight the old fashioned way. She turns around and gets ready to join Éclair to bring down the red haired hellion. That's when a bottle flies right in front of her eyes, even scratching her nose a little.
She turns around to see Raphtalia looking at her with a scared tremble. "So, sorry!"
"Don't worry, kid. Like Zylden said: No harm, no foul." Mein shakes her head at the Raphtalia, even giving her a thumb up. That's when a strong stench, like rotted food, starts to reach her nose.
"P-EWW! A ZOMBIE FARTED HERE!" Zylden's scream makes Mein turn her head, and sees the slightly puke shaded yellow liquid on the ground. It's a fitting punishment on the imp for daring to take advantage of her.
With a few good [Shield Bash] from Naofumi, the robbers all trip over their feet and fall down on their back or buttocks into the foul smelling liquid.
More of the 'shampoo' her Naofumi made? It seems like the liquid is a good potion to have people trip over, in addition to acting like a stink bomb.
"Good work, Raphtalia! Now hide with Hickwaal while we deal with these outlaws!" Mein gives Raphtalia a quick thumb up. The demi-human girl nods her head, and quickly slips back onto their cart.
Mein turns her attention back to focus on the battle between Éclair and Nora. It's not hard to see the knight is the better fighter between them, considering she manages to fight the hellion to a draw using a standard longsword against a war hammer, with her leg still hurting. But with her wounded leg, the Seatto heiress can't take the bandit girl down by utilizing superior agility.
"I'm coming, Éclair!" Mein pulls her sword out, holding it straight in front of her to point forward and charges at the bandit.
Coach Zellus taught her all nine forms of Aldori Style swordsmanship. The one she picked right now is Form Four: Spear Breaker. The name is more than a bit misleading. Form Four is designed to fight against weapons with long reach, the most prominent of course being the spear. Although even a heavy weapon like a war hammer also falls under its category.
"Eat this!" Nora swings her hammer hard at Éclair, making the knight stumble back a few steps when the Seatto heiress failed to execute a full parry. The bandit brings her hammer right back towards Mein, intending to smash the princess away.
Mein can't help but hear an exasperated scream from Coach Zellus. Just like whenever Iris waves her long sword around as if a fancy folding fan, Katarina swings it like a battle axe, or Bertia flails it around like a war club. Fighting this bandit girl using the Aldori Style is as much a waste as chopping vegetables with a magically enchanted Mithril sword.
The Nine Forms of Solitude is meant to fight against much more sophisticated weapon masters, than a common thug swinging their weight around. Legend says that whoever manages to achieve mastery of all nine forms will bridge the gap between levels and become invincible, able to fight someone in epic level range above 100 to a standstill, even if they themselves stay at level 1.
Honestly, Mein doesn't like to pay too much attention to baseless legends. If Uncle Aldrecht is right (and he often is), it's probably nothing more than another over exaggerated rumor spawned from some of the strongest heroes of the old. And she's nowhere near achieving mastery over a single form yet, not even the base form.
But to turn attention back to her current situation, she's still more than good enough to beat a common thug, like the hellion in front of her.
Mein's sword lunges out, but instead of trying to parry the war hammer or stab at the bandit girl, it sticks to the head of the hammer, hooking the head and pulls it forward. Nora lets out a surprised yell, as she's dragged forward on her feet by the sword, right in front of the princess.
And Mein punches Nora right in the face, with her empty left hand, as hard as she can. "This is for Master Naofumi!"
The sword of the undercover princess continues to stick, and pushes the head of the war hammer, guiding it right out of the hellion's hand, as Nora's body stumbles back just like Éclair a moment ago.
Speaking of Éclair, the lady knight of House Seatto isn't simply standing around with her thumb up her behind. From the way her left hand glows, she's obviously preparing for a paladin's ability. The Heiress raises her left hand up towards the heavens. A shimmering golden ethereal hammer appears over her head, confirming Mein's suspicion. "[SMITE EVIL]!"
With a loud 'BANG', the ethereal hammer falls right on top of Nora's head, slamming her right into the cobblestone road. Only the slight twitch of her fingers shows the bandit girl is still alive.
Éclair looks back up at Mein. "You aren't a bad fencer. Aldori Style, right?"
Mein turns around instead of answering the knight. She sees most of the bandits are already on the ground just like the bandit girl Nora, or the gun wielding boy Ren. Wait, wasn't that the same name as the Sword Hero? What's the chance to have the exact same name as one of the summoned heroes?
Not important, she turns to look at the new werewolf in their party, and the princess feels like a claw is tightening around her heart. Far away from the still fighting sellswords and robbers, Farkas is still in a deadlock with the bandit leader. He's obviously not letting the grey haired man have a chance to fire his blunderbuss again.
Right now with every flail of his body, drops of blood seems to pour out of the wolfman. From a number of deep gashes all over his body.
It's hard to say if the Farkas would still end with this many wounds if he can still use his arms, but to reduce a veteran prestige level adventurer, and experienced gladiator of Zeltoble Coliseum to such a state - there's no doubt, this Porter guy isn't one of those fat nobles, or well -connected merchants who gains EXP from monsters already half dead from fighting their guards.
Porter is a well trained, and battle-tested warrior himself.
The princess in disguise feels like her mustered courage starts to drain away. Uncle Aldrecht is right, there's no way simply mastering a style of fencing can bridge the gap between a common level adventurer, and a prestige level adventurer, let alone an epic level adventurer above level 100.
"I'm coming, Farkas!" Naofumi's shouting brings Mein right back to reality. The Shield Hero ducks his head behind his Chimera Viper Shield, and charges directly towards Porter. "[Shield Charge]!"
The princess turned adventurer feels like something burns inside of her. How can she fall behind the Shield Hero, who doesn't even have any way to attack back? She turns around to Éclair, who is trying to follow Naofumi with her limp. "Stay behind and protect the others. I'll go!"
Éclair looks down at her bad leg before looking right back up. She gives a defeated sigh and nods her head. "Be careful. Your Aldori Style... isn't that good."
Doesn't she know it?
Mein shakes her head and runs fast after her Naofumi. The two of them end up standing on opposite sides of Farkas, instead of side by side like before. They end up having to dodge more of the werewolf's wild flailing than the attacks from Porter. But somehow, the two of them manage to make their new 'formation' work.
Naofumi is like the rock in the middle of a rapid stream, stalwart and unmoving no matter how hard the incoming wave hits him. Always there ready to cover Farkas so the wolf man won't receive another one of the gashing wounds from the bandit leader, and parrying Porter's weapon away when he gets the chance.
Mein herself on the other hand, is like a needle hidden in a haystack. For most of their battle, she ducks and weaves behind Farkas. But she immediately swims forward whenever she spots a weakpoint in Porter's assault, forcing the bandit leader back to give both Farkas and Naofumi a moment to catch their breath.
In the heat of battle, the undercover princess forgets her fear and focuses her mind in finding the weakness of the bandit leader, the core and soul of Aldori Style swordsmanship, being constantly on the offense and forcing one's opponent back by exploiting their weakness. She even begins to understand why the style is said by Coach Zellus to 'grow stronger with your opponent'.
This lasted till Farkas suddenly slumped on the ground after one of his more wild swings. The wolfman fails to get up afterwards. It seems like the constant bleeding finally caught up to him.
Without the only Prestige Level fighter on their side keeping up the pressure on Porter, both Naofumi and Mein's situation immediately grows exponentially dangerous. With the bandit leader able to focus his assault on the two of them, Naofumi has to step up and clash his Shield with Porter's blunderbuss axe. Mein's attack on the more experienced warrior becomes more like a light flurry, instead of a barraging storm like Farkas.
Both Kyubey and Éclair come up to join their battle with Porter. But the bandit leader is quick to exploit the rabbit man being weak on his feet, and Éclair's limp. Both of them get knocked down to the side after a dozen exchanges.
Porter swings his axe forward, knocking Naofumi back a step. His weapon immediately twisted back towards Mein's head. The princess in disguise barely has enough time to duck under the axe's assault as it splits the top of her hood.
That's when another dark object flies right into Mein's sight, with Raphtalia's battle cry mimicking Naofumi from earlier. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
The bandit leader seems to take this second bottle of potion as another desperate attempt to distract him. So when the bottle smashes on his head and the foul, slippery liquid drenches him, he freezes for a split second in confusion.
"[Shield Change], [Geo Shield]." That's when Naofumi charges right back in behind his shield. "[Shield Charge]!"
The Shield Hero crashes into the bandit leader with all his speed and weight. The two of them both tip over on the now wet and slimy ground.
Mein immediately runs forward. She kicks the blunderbuss axe out of Porter's hand and presses her sword on the man's neck. They won through pure luck, but a win is still a win.
It doesn't take long for the sellswords to tie all the bandits tightly up with ropes. Porter got special treatment, as the three layers of rope around him are obviously made of stronger materials. Not to mention Walter got some steel cuffs around him.
The road is still blocked by a broken Hickwaal wagon. But at least they don't have to worry about being ambushed and robbed anymore. It's a well known unwritten rule how two bands of robbers won't share and/or compete in a single mountain, or forest.
As for their party, both Kyubey and Éclair are well on their way to recovery after the battle. Firo and Wolfgang didn't get many wounds on them at all, mostly thanks to them simply charging through the badly trained robbers. Some ruffled feathers are their only trouble.
Farkas on the other hand is in much worse state. The werewolf is pumped full of Naofumi's high grade healing potion, and wrapped tighter than Porter with both bandages and healing balms, currently snoring inside their cart. He'll be fine, after a good eight hours of [Well Rest].
The leader of the mercenary, a man in his late 30s or early 40 walks up to Naofumi and claps the Shield Hero on the shoulder. "We can't thank you enough for your assistance, Shield Hero. Without you and your brave companions, we would have to either run or pay their toll."
"No thanks needed. They were trying to rob me too." Naofumi scratches his head and looks away, a light shade of pink on his face. He ruffles the hair of Raphtalia in an attempt to hide his own embarrassment. "Plus, we are all alive thanks to Raphtalia. If she hadn't thrown that bottle of shampoo at the bandit leader, we'd be all toast."
"Really?" Raphtalia looks up, her eyes seem to be twinkling while her raccoon-like ears are fluttering with excitement.
"Of course, Raphtalia." Mein knees down to pinch the girl's cheek, now ripe with baby fat again after a good few weeks of well balanced food courtesy of Naofumi. "You saved all of our lives."
Raphtalia doesn't seem annoyed at Mein's action. In fact, the girl gives the undercover princess one of the largest smiles she has ever seen in her life. "I'm glad to finally be useful."
"Now, let's divide the spoils. Your party took down all the good merchandise, so of course they belong to you. Or maybe you'll keep them for yourself. They fared pretty well against your party, especially the old guy." The mercenary leader waves his hand to his men, and the mercs pull up Ren, Nora and Porter to leave them by Naofumi's feet. "We'll have to settle for the lesser goods. But they'll still fetch a decent price with their numbers. Guess my boys will get to have some drinking and whoring in Trumpet after all."
"Wait, what do you mean, merchandise? Their equipments?" Naofumi's face starts to turn green as he looks at the three bandits in front of him. "You can't mean..."
"Yes, Master Naofumi. He meant to sell all of the robbers into slavery." Mein quickly whispers into the Shield Hero's ear. His face is slowly turning from green to blue by this point.
"WHAT! No, NO, and NO! We aren't selling these people into slavery, even if they just tried to rob us!" Naofumi stomps his feet down and glares right into the mercenary captain's eyes. "An innocent man died two days ago, because I once had slaves in my party! I'm not turning right around and help perpetuate slavery before Hob's even buried! Can't you guys bring them to the authority, or anything? It's not rape, but surely trying to rob a caravan is a crime in this country."
"You don't want to take slaves, but you suggested that I buy slaves for myself?" The imp walks besides Naofumi. His eyebrow goes up into his hairline.
"WHAT!?" Naofumi whips his head to look at the half man in horror. "When did I do that?"
"When you suggested using money for women. You meant buying slave girls, right?" The imp shrugs his shoulder. "Because that's better use for your money than paying for whores every night."
"NO! That's not what I meant!" Naofumi takes a step back at Zylden's implication. His left hand rises up to cover his face again. "You know what... continue your wild dream of discovering summoning magic. That's probably for the best."
Zylden smirks and lets out a whistle. "Glad we came to an agreement."
The mercenary captain looks back at the Shield Hero, like he's looking at some very exotic monster captured in Siltvelt. He simply shakes his head after a few breaths. "Regardless what you think, Master Shield Hero. What do you think would happen to these criminals, after we take them to the authorities? They will be branded with slave seals on them anyway, and the prison guards will most likely turn right around to sell them into slavery if their lady or lord don't get the first pick beforehand."
The sellswords walk in front of the two younger prisoners. Nora opens her mouth and tries to chomp down on the merc's hand even with her tight bind. The mercenary captain doesn't pay her any attention, instead he grabs Ren's chin. "Young pretty boys and girls will be sold at a high price. They'll end up as a plaything for some sick lord and lady, if they are lucky. Or maybe they'll be kept around on a tight leash, as their buyer's personal attack hound."
The merc let go of the young highwayman's face. He looks up at the rest of the prisoners. "The rest will probably spend the rest of their lives toiling away in a slave farm, labor camp or one of Schnee family's mineshafts. They'll be lucky to last a whole year, if it's the Schnees buying them. But regardless, it's the same if we bring them to the authorities. The only difference is who gets to pocket the coins."
"He's not exactly wrong, Master Naofumi." Mein slips her hand into Naofumi's trembling hand, trying to help steady the young man.
"Isn't there any way we can punish them ethically?" Naofumi shakes his head around, not looking at anyone in particular.
Firo walks in front of a group of tied up robbers. The gluttonous fat bird licks her beak. The prisoners' faces turn pale, they try to shuffle away from the bird even with them all tied up together. "Master Naofumi... I think Firo wants a snack."
"NO! Bad, bad Firo!" Naofumi quickly walks over and pulls Firo back. "We aren't killing the prisoners and feeding them to you! Behave, or you'll get another diet!"
The birds let out a devastated howl as she hangs her long neck down on the ground.
"Do it quick, you fat cats and ass kissers! Better a quick death than being a slave!" Nora suddenly starts to scream and spit on top of her lungs. "All of you are the same! You're just selfish bastards and bootlickers of the fucking nobles!"
"Be quiet, Nora!" The teen gunman seems to be much more rational than his hot tempered companion. He quickly tips his head over Nora's mouth to muffle her up. The dark haired boy does his best to look up at Naofumi even with his awkward position. "You are the Shield Hero, right? That means you'll need strong companions to fight against the Wave. Porter was a professor in Faubley's Hero Academy, he's already in prestige level. And both Nora and I trained with him when he's on break. We'll fight for you, all three of us!"
"PFFT! NO! We PFFT, We WON'T!" Nora finally manages to shove Ren off to the side, she glares at Naofumi with burning vindication in between spitting. "I'd rather die than being this bootlicker's attack dog!"
"Please, just shut up for once, Nora." Ren tries his best to appease his companion. "It's better to fight for a legendary hero, than ends up in a sick noble's dungeon or tower bedroom."
"NO! IT'S NOT!"
"Master Naofumi ... I don't think your usual method will work with this bunch. They'll probably pull a Lautrec, if we take off their slave seal. And then they'll go right back to robbing other people." Mein looks at Naofumi, whose brown is twisted into a large bump like the root of an ancient tree.
Naofumi holds his hand up at Mein. "Please, let's not get ahead of ourselves... we haven't decided to slap a magical torture device, and put a killswitch onto them yet."
"We don't have much choice. It's either slave seals, or serve out vigilante justice and kill them. We barely beat them with Farkas risking his life. We can't leave them around to rob common merchants." Mein feels like shaking her head at Naofumi's occasional stubbornness. It's not like there's any other way to ensure these criminals obediently serve their sentence. The incognito princess points her finger at Nora. "This one isn't very bright. She'll probably resist and trigger the slave punishment."
"You can bet your ass, Bitch, SLUT!" Nora bares her teeth at Mein. "Better dead than a slave!"
Naofumi's face twists together, like he's sucking on something as bitter as it is sour. "So my only choices are help promoting slavery, or pull a page out of Itsuki's book? I'd rather go face more boss monsters from the Wave."
"Or... we can take everything they own, and just kick them to the curbs." Walter Hickwaal seems to teleport right beside them. For someone with his impressive girth, the fat merchant is surprisingly nimble and agile. "To take everything, but their lives."
Hmm... fatten their own coin pouch on some criminals' misery. Not a bad idea.
"And making these bandits more desperate in robbing people? Like villagers, or merchants who can't defend themselves? How is that going to help anyone?" Naofumi points his finger at Porter, the bandit leader. "We barely beat him by luck, after Farkas nearly killed himself. Isn't it completely irresponsible if I make them someone else's problem?"
Walter looks at the tied up bandit leader, and the resting werewolf. His body gives a violent shake once again. "Right, you are right, Master Shield Hero. We would have been dead, if not for you and your companions."
"What's taking you so long!? You ass kissing dickless bitchass fuckboy!" Mein quickly covers Raphtalia's ear again as Nora starts to let out a string of rough curses worse than what the imp spew. "Just give me a quick one!"
"Take Raphtalia away, Kyubey." Mein turns around to hand Raphtalia into Kyubey's hand. She turns right back towards Nora and pulls her sword out again. "I can easily grant your wish, scum."
"Go shove your sword up your ass! You BITCH! All of you bootlicking, ass kissing fat cats are the same! You never saw us hardworking, honest common folks as people. We are chattel to you!" The hellion starts to roll around on the cobblestone road, like she's the world's biggest baby throwing up a temper tantrum.
Mein's ear really starts to sting now. She takes a step towards Nora, when Naofumi grabs her arm. "We aren't killing them, Mein."
"I won't kill her, Master Naofumi." The princess in disguise returns the sword back to the sheath. She takes a small piece of cloth out of her pocket. "I'll just gag her, so she won't insult us."
Naofumi stays quiet for a brief moment without removing his vice grip. He ends up shaking his head once again. "No, let's hear what she wants to say. I think she might go somewhere between her cursing."
"All of you are no better than that slide eye jackass Van Reichnott, or those blood sucking leeches, the Schnees! They are the reason we had to resort to robbing in the first place! But no, none of you will go put a sword on their neck or sell them into slavery! Because they have power and money, when we are just worthless commoners like grass!"
"WHAT!? Impossible!" Mein whips her head around to look at Éclair. Even with her black pot helmet covering her face, the princess can still feel the knight's jaw hitting the ground. "I mean, I heard the Schnees are as cutthroat as the merchants come. But not Lord Reichnott. He's one of the good lords who care for his people. Both the human, and demi-human! He's Fa- he's Lord Seatto's most trusted ally!"
"Shows what you know!" Nora kicks her feet at the shocked knight. "He tried to take Rabier County back from the Bitch Lord three times, and the Bitch Lord kicked his sorry ass three times and started raiding us! My dad and mom, and Ren's dad and mom were all taken by dickless Van Reichbutt, and they died fighting Bitch Lord and her filthy animals! That motherless son of a whore is the reason me and Ren grew up without our dad and mom!"
"Please, Nora. Just... stop." Ren shakes his head, his voice low and begging. But it appears like the young highwayman simply gave up at this point. "That's why we shouldn't kill the people we tried to get money from. We aren't the Bitch Lord, or her animals."
"Gaston, you mentioned this Bitch Lord back in Lute." Naofumi turns to look at the hunter, his eyes seem to jump up when mentioning the village. No doubt, he's reminded by the death of Hob once again. "What can you tell me about her? And what's this about some lord trying to take back some 'Rabier County'?"
"Not much, Shield Hero boy. I'm just a hunter in a small Crownland village. And Rabier County is in Silver Pass. That's a different province from Crownland." Gaston shakes his head. "Far as I know, the County has always been empty of nobles. And this self proclaimed bandit leader 'Bitch Lord'? She's been there as long as anyone can remember."
"I can explain that, actually." Éclair huddles together with the Shield Hero and the Lute hunter. "The first Count Rabier was a common man. He's given the title of Count after he fought side by side as the Saint of Spear's companion in the wave from over two hundred years ago, and his descendants ruled Rabier County till about 25 years ago. All of them were killed in the Great War, by the Siltvelt invaders."
The Knight takes a drink from her water skin and continues. "As for this Bitch Lord... she's a bandit lord who took over Rabier County after the war, nobody knows who she is or where she came from. Some believe she was a Siltvelt captain, and went native here in Melromarc after the war. That would explain how she held the County over two decades, even beating back the lords who tried to take back Rabier County."
While Éclair is giving Naofumi a quick course on Melromarc history, the red haired hellion is still rolling on the cobblestone road and screaming. "Everyone said, 'things will get better! Everything will be okay in the end because Reichnott cared for us!' Well, things got worse after Bitch Lord's raid! Jackass Reichnott bought in the Schnees, and have them run things! They kicked all of us out of our home, because there's silver under our village! The cheap ass Schnees threw us on our butt, and brought in their slaves to mine the silver! All of you bootlicking ass kissers are..."
Mein quick covers her own ears now, to save herself from the onslaught of the rough curses. She turns around to listen to Naofumi's conversation with Éclair. "Have you heard anything about that?"
"Not much, Sir Shield Hero. I left Silver Pass to foster in the capital, and get trained as a knight. I don't know too much about what's going on in the Pass. Although..." The pot helmet on Éclair's face turns down. The Seatto heiress seems to be thinking about something. "I heard Father say something about Lord Reichnott having money problems before I left, after the constant raiding he suffered at the Bitch Lord's hand."
"Let me guess, only the Schnees were willing to lend money to him. And when Lord Reichnott couldn't pay up, he had to give up all the mining rights to the Schnees. Which is probably what they were after to begin with." Naofumi slaps at his forehead. "Sounds like the good count got played like a fiddle. If he didn't conspire with these Schnees and throw his people under the bus to begin with."
"I don't know what a 'bus' is, Sir Shield Hero. But I assure you! There's no way he'll sacrifice the common folks he's supposed to look after... if he can help it." Éclair's shoulders slump down. It appears like the knight is devastated at discovering the flaw of her family's ally. "As for him being backstabbed by the Schnees... I can see that. Lord Reichnott is too trusting for his own good, what you described is an usual trick those greedy white locks love to employ."
"What a mess." Naofumi shakes his head. He turns around, ignores Nora's screaming and turns to look at Ren. "Your name is Ren?"
"Yes, Master Shield Hero." The young highwayman quickly nods his head, obviously knowing Naofumi is the best chance for him to live. And not end up as a plaything for some sick aristocrat.
"Did you know you have the same name as my friend? Well... probably not my friend per say. But he's the most friendly Hero out of the other three." Naofumi smiles sheepishly and shakes his head. "Yes, you have the same name as the current Sword Hero."
Ren blinks his eyes in both shock and confusion, obviously don't understanding why Naofumi brought it up. He looks up at Naofumi and replies carefully. "I am honored, Master Shield Hero. And while I'm not the Sword Hero himself, I'm willing to fight as your loyal companion. But please, don't kill or sell Nora into slavery. She has a temper, but she's not as bad as her foul mouth suggests, and she's most definitely not a murderer."
Mein wants to object to that statement. If anything, the foul mouth of the filthy sow makes her way worse. And the hellion certainly didn't have a second thought when she hammered Naofumi's head. The only reason her Naofumi wasn't dead was thanks to his ridiculously high DEF rating.
"Is it true? All of you are simply hardworking, honest common folks driven out of your homes?"
"Yes, it's true. Only Nora and I were taught by Professor Porter. When he came back to our village between Hero Academy's breaks. We'd all been dead... if we didn't meet Professor Porter by pure luck after the Schnees kicked us out of our village." It seems like the teen is slowly calming down with Naofumi's friendly tone. He even fixed his previous grammar mistake.
"We meant it, when we only asked for some toll to keep ourselves fed. We aren't that Bitch Lord, the filthy animal." The young man bares his teeth just like his girlfriend when mentioning the Bitch Lord. He quickly looks up and sees the demi-human companions of Naofumi again. "I don't mean your companions, Master Shield Hero. Only that bandit bastard. No, we aren't her. We were serious, when Professor Porter asked you for a toll and would have even helped Master Hickwaal with his broken wagon. That's why we waited patiently for you to finish your conversation, and announced ourselves instead of ambushing you from the onset."
"Alright, I like what I'm listening to so far. Hope you aren't lying to me." Naofumi nods his head along.
Mein feels like he's being too trusting in this case. It's obvious the little rat is lying through his teeth to save his skin. Her Naofumi's next words completely took her back, however.
"What if I tell you, all of you are sitting on top of a treasure much more than what you are trying to rob? All you need is a bit of organization skill, and you can become good, honest folks again."
Mein suddenly remembers how her Naofumi was talking about buried resources right before they encountered Walter's broken wagon. Hmm... it's rather ironic those bandits supposedly got kicked out of their home for a buried silver mine, and they ended up settling right on top of some other valuable deposit.
"It's great you are trying to share the wealth, Sir Shield Hero. But don't you think it's more reasonable to share it with us, your compatriot?" The mercenary captain puts his hand on Naofumi's shoulder. "Not a bunch of criminals who tried to rob you a moment ago?"
"Don't worry for that, good captain. The treasure I'm talking about is bigger than what any of you will be able to carry."
How will they get the ores out, if the deposit is larger than what the men can carry? That's the question bugging Mein while she follows Naofumi, Éclair, the imp and the Mercenary Captain as Ren leads them back to the bandit's camp - a short distance from their encounter, with both Wolfgang and Firo trailing not far behind.
The rest of the bandit prisoners are staying right by the road, under the careful eye of the mercenaries and the rest of Naofumi's party, just in case the young highwayman lied to them and tried to lead them into some ambush. Although after seeing the bandit's camp, Mein lets out a sigh of relief. It was only her paranoia, after all.
What can be charitably called a camp is protected by a bunch of haphazard tied together branches. Most of the shelters are also made by tree branches. Old people, women, and children in their skins and bones look at the group of strangers, worry clear on their faces.
Once they reach the camp, Naofumi leads them around while looking at his 'Smart Phone Shield'. He stops a short distance away behind the camp, around fifty to seventy five paces. Naofumi points his finger at a flat ground at Wolfgang. "Wolfgang, I need you to strike the earth with your foot right there. As hard as you can."
"Guah?" The bird blinks at Naofumi. He slowly nudges forward, Firo right behind him mimicking his every move. After getting into the spot, Gaston's bird turns right back at Naofumi and quakes again. "Guah~?"
"Yes, great!" Naofumi holds his thumbs up at the bird. "Stay where you are and strike the earth as hard as you can!"
"Guah!" The black bird nods his head together with Firo. The two of them both crouch down, leap into the air and stomp hard on the lower flatland.
"GUAH~!" Both Wolfgang and Firo screech once again as they leap back into the air. But this time, they are pushed up by a geyser.
"That's the treasure you are talking about, Master Shield Hero?" The young highwayman Ren turns to look at Naofumi with confusion in his eyes.
"Yes. A hot spring." Naofumi nods his head. "You can turn the land around here into a vacation spot for the rich merchants and nobles - and collect an endless stream of money from them."
End Note:
So... I'm not shy about critiquing the problems I have in Rising of the Shield Hero canon. And the canon equivalent to chapter's event is a pretty big eyebrow raiser for me in canon. Naofumi robbing the bandits clean is NOT a good and rational solution, other than fatten his own wallet. Because now, he just left a bunch of bandits more desperate to rob travelers, and possibly peasants living in villages.
It would have been fine with this, if the story use this chapter to show him having flaw like the other three heroes (mostly that he's selfish and doesn't care for the consequence his actions cause to other people... no different than the three weapon heroes), except the author had to constantly emotional validate and shill for him, even going so far as to have Hickwaal praise him for this action.
Is Hickwaal a complete idiot who doesn't realize Naofumi's action makes the lives of traveling peddlers like him much more dangerous and difficult, or does he realized it, but he wants to suck up to Naofumi because he's now afraid Naofumi might turn around and do the same to him?
I personally believe second possibility is the most logical considering Hickwaal is supposed to be a smart merchant if the ending is any indication, but I'm willing to bet my ass the truth is the author never considered the negative consequence Naofumi is causing and just want to blindly validate all his actions, judging from the rest of the story.
Anyway, if anyone is confused about the title. It's a reference to an issue of the manga 'Thermae Romae', where the main character Lucius turned a group of robbers into good law abiding Roman citizens by having them build a vacation town around a hot spring.
Guest review time.
To Shiranai Atsune:
Thank you very much for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed the story so far and hope you will continue to have a good time.
To BlackoutSampler:
I hope this chapter answered your question on why they are Medea's most polite bandit.
:P
As for how Naofumi can take selfie with the Smart Phone attached to his arm... AH! You have discovered the biggest weakness of this form!
To Guests:
Once again, thank you for your reviews, hope you will continue to have a good time.
Malty doesn't so much as already know Sith Creed, as her thought pattern just fit a Sith too well.
XDDD
