Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad helping me with SPAG edit. Also thanks to Angel Wraith for reading my rough draft and provide important feedbacks.

This chapter also features a non canon omake written by fellow writer y1fellas. And I also need to give credit to guest reviewer on chapter 45, whose comment on Naofumi and Malty's relationship has grown stagnant has inspired their little scene in this chapter. I know this probably isn't what you wanted, but thanks for bringing a flaw of this story to my attention!

Last but not least, I recently became aware of fellow writer seeker7246 started another story on SpaceBattle where Incarnate Malty actually joins forces with Naofumi. I didn't read it myself, since navigating through SpaceBattle has always been a pain for me. But judging by the standard of 'Promote to Queen', it's probably much more vanilla than my story where I full indulges my own pop culture reference fetish. I highly recommend everyone to go give seeker7246 some love, maybe they'll publish the story here too. We can always use more creative stories in this fandom than another Naofumi easy mode, or SI XXXX hero story.

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


"We should leave now."

Naofumi's eyes wander away, clearly unsure of the suggestion. "Are you sure you don't need more rest with your heart condition, Mein?"

"I'm sure. I can rest in our cart, Master Naofumi." The princess in disguise nods her head with grim finality. The gluttonous devil birds aren't the most well domesticated and trained beast of burden, to put things diplomatically. But they have to leave immediately after the expedition, if they don't want to arrive at Silver Fort before the church expedition is long gone and make the whole effort a complete waste of time.

"Okay, I'll go get Kyubey and Gaston. We'll start packing up." The Shield Hero gives a nod and turns to walk away.

"Will you be alright, big sister Mein?" Raphtalia's head moves from looking at the farmers to looking at the princess in disguise. It's hard to guess how much her concern comes from truly understanding Mein's condition, and how much comes from the fear of a child's imaginative mind. Regardless, it's appreciated.

"I'll be fine, Raphtalia." Mein runs her hand through the child's hair again. After a few weeks of using Naofumi's hair potion, the former slave's hair is as soft as any properly raised noble lady now. No doubt they'll be very rich, once her Naofumi starts to properly domesticate some egg-ups and fix the problem with the potion's bad odor. "Help me over to the pound the Spear Hero dug up."

"Okay." The girl hops onto her feet while nodding her head furiously. She props herself besides Mein, as the two of them slowly walk to the new cistern near the field.

The imp warned her of the severe consequence of overusing her bloodline magic, which is very problematic considering how volatile fire magic is by nature.

Which means she should put the reading of the Founder's grimoire to good use, and start using some water magic.

Chapter 46: Freestyle De-mask

Father comes from Noble Faubley's royal house, which means he has both Germania and Tristan bloodlines in his veins. It's likely where her younger sister's strong affinity with water magic came from - Father's Tristan lineage. She herself has always favored fire magic, both for its wild, destructive potential and her affinity strengthened with both Melromarc and Faubley bloodlines. But in theory, she should also have an affinity with water thanks to Father's heritage.

Sitting down by the pound, she decides to try something simple first to test her affinity. The princess holds her right index finger forward, closes her eyes and starts feeling her magic. "As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature..."

Once again, she feels the raw magic within her response to the command, untamed, like a raging inferno. She tries her best to cull it using the lessons she learned from the Founder's text, molding her magic into something more manageable, something less like a wildfire and more fluid like dragon's blood. "...turn my finger into a brush, and the world is my canvas. [Color Spray]."

One of the lowest leveled water spells that's only useful to distract a monster or a person by temporarily taking away their vision. It's as good a spell to test her water affinity as any. Jets of colorful liquid shoot out of her finger and fall into the pond ahead of her, slowly disappearing as they mix into the cistern. Not too bad, a test of something a bit more advanced seems to be in order.

"As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature, gather the water of the world in the sky..." The princess can clearly see strings of water rising up from the cistern as they slowly morph into a ball in front of her as the water element offensive spell [Hydro Sphere] should do. She remembers the words from the Founder's book, and decides to try and switch the spell into a different one half way.

"...tears of heaven, fall like knives of justice on my enemies. [Killing Rain]." The incomplete [Hydro Sphere] explodes into a flurry, as needles of water drills into the pound from where it came. It's hard to survey the actual damage her hastily changed spell would have done, especially when it falls harmlessly into more water. But from the way hundreds of holes suddenly appears on the previously serene surface, the spell is a success.

She can cast water spells, just like her younger sister now. Hah! Take that, annoyingly proper little sister! And with some additional effort and practice, she should be able to start combining her newly learned water magic with her instinctual fire magic to create an advanced element, even if uncle Aldrecht abhors this branch of modern Wizardry. It will greatly increase the arsenal of spells she has available.

"Wow..." Mein looks down after hearing Raphtalia's exclamation of awe. The girl's eyes are sparkling with admiration at her. "That's great, big sister Mein. Can I do that too?"

"I'm sure you can if you study hard enough. I learned it from the Founder's grimoire." Mein brushes her hand against Raphtalia's hair once again.

That's when they, and probably a number of other people heard what can only be described as a pained scream of pure despair and agony from Shield Hero. It's fit for a man who just found out he murdered his wife and unborn child in a fit of cursed wrath.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Both the princess and the demi-human child turn around as fast as they could. A number of Balafon farmers, Whiterun and Claes guardsmen, the Spear Hero and his companions are already running towards inside the village palisade. Mein and Raphtalia half hop, half dash their way into the village and push their way through the gathered people. They find Naofumi currently lying on the ground in a fetal position while hammering the earth. "My chocobo turned into a giant rubber DUCKY !"

The princess turns her head up to take a good look at what her Naofumi is currently groveling about. She has to spend a moment to pause at what she sees. Firo, Wolfgang, and the four birds brought along by the Spear Hero all look much bigger... and fatter from the night before. Even their elongated neck is no longer visible, as their heads look like a fluffy stump propped over their puffy, spherical bodies that can easily fit two, maybe three adult men inside.

Firo in particular is looking upset at Naofumi's outburst. She is currently sitting in front of her master, eyelids drooping down while cooing miserably.

"Well... they certainly grew large." Mein moves closer to the huge birds, making sure to stay far away from her Naofumi's crazy gluttonous devil bird even if she looks even more cuddly than before. The princess is acutely aware of how this devil bird's deceptive nature hides an uncontrollable rage monster inside a bundle of adorable fluff. "Even if they grow a bit fat, we'll just have to run them a bit more to burn down their blubber... huh?"

"Kuai~?" The hand of the princess reaches inside Wolfgang's feathers and reaches... something as hard as steel. No, don't tell her underneath their soft plumage is over fifty stones heavy of pure, solid muscles?

"Firo, just don't." Naofumi's stern voice makes Mein look away from Gaston's bamboozled bird. She sees their own gluttonous devil bird pulling her leg back ready for a kick... aimed at herself and possibly Raphtalia who is in the way. The bird jumps up, obviously startled at being caught red handed by her master. "Motoyasu is still here, I can still give you to him."

"KUAI!" The dumb piggy bird jumps up again, pulls her leg back and starts grooming Raphtalia's hair in an attempt to hide her previous malice. But she's not fooling Mein with this good girl act. The princess is a master at this kind of deception long before Firo's even an egg.

"Oh, our filorial birds turned into their monarch variant. That's wicked!" Bertia fits herself through the wall of people. She claps her hands and runs toward her pink filorial bird, hugging it.

"Monarch, variant?" Naofumi turns his head to look at the Notches heiress. He runs his hand over Firo's feathers to further pacify the devil bird.

"Yeah. This is the monarch variant of the filorials. See how large they are?" Bertia continues to run her hand through her pink bird's feathers. The bird obviously enjoys her touch, as she is slowly nodding off to slumber under her care. "They are usually extremely rare. Even Fitoria, the top monarch breed, only have one in a hundred chances to naturally grow into a king or queen."

"So... the rumor about a hero bringing out the full potential of a monster is true. Well... I guess a fat chocobo is still a chocobo." Naofumi runs his finger over his chin, he seems to have finally recovered his mind. He opens his cloak and brings out his balloon, looking at the other abomination hiding behind a cute facade. "I wonder what you guys will turn into."

The eldritch rubber monster hops on his hands and lets out a gurgling sound, it's body visibly ripples with the motion.

"Well, look at you now, little buddy. All grown up. " Gaston moves over from the other side as the gathered people start to walk away. The Lute hunter runs his large hand through Wolfgang's dark feathers. "With old Gaston retiring as Lute's best hunter, pretty soon you'll be feeding me."

"Kuai~!" The hunter's bird gives a happy chirp as he grooms Gaston's hair. The hunter moves away from his bird and guides Firo over to fix her onto Naofumi's wagon.

"So, guess you guys are off on your adventures. I'd want to take a look at the fabled Silver Keep myself, but I had enough shares of danger for now." The imp laughs in between drinking from his wineskin. "Hope you won't mistake me for the other 'Imp of Casterly Rock' next time we meet, huh? What was his name again? Typhoon Canister?"

"No, Tirion Lan-" Naofumi's eyes narrow in between correcting the half-man. "You were fucking with me this whole time, where you?"

"Well, the first time I legitimately got his name wrong. But yeah, I was fucking with you afterwards." The imp takes out a book from his satchel and hands it to Naofumi. "Here, keep this book of all the common enchantment circles. Your grasp with the basics is good enough for the more advanced enchantments now."

"Thanks, Zylden." Naofumi places the book into his shield. "You are just going to stay here and study plants? Didn't figure you to be a botanist."

"Plants? Of course I'm not interested in some mere plant. Do you see trees randomly sprout out a pair of giant knockers, boy? I don't think so." The imp blows air out of his mouth while glaring at the Shield Hero, looks rather scandalized at Naofumi's suggestion. "Have you not paid any attention to what the Life Root was doing, before your lady friend dropped a giant fireball on it, boy?"

"No? I was busy fighting for mine, and everyone else's lives."

"Alright, let your teacher Zylden enlighten you one last time before we part ways." The gnome drags the Shield Hero's sleeve to force him to sit down on the ground. "The reason why your lady friend tried to cast a forbidden spell on the Life Root in the first place, was because it was trying to open a portal, and root itself into the Void between Worlds to siphon power from the Endless Ether."

"Oh, I guess that's bad." Naofumi nods his head along, despite obviously not understanding the severity of the situation.

"You bet your arse it'd be bad. Forget about the Wave of Catastrophe, if it succeeded we'd have a bona fide Outsider God in front of us." The imp slaps the back of Naofumi's head for making light of the situation, his eyes practically glittering with passion. "But forget about that dead bean sprout, it opened up a portal not in this world, but the Void between Worlds. If I can figure out how to do that, opening portals anywhere on Medea to summon nubile women directly into my bedroom will be child's play!"

"Okay... you do that." Naofumi slowly nudges away from the fanatical half-man.


The riding condition for the next three days of their journey didn't improve. In fact, the wobbling of Naofumi's carriage got worse now they are moving away from the plain of Hibernia Crownland and into the mountainous region of Silver Pass. Both Raphtalia and Éclair spent most of the ride with their bodies hanging over the back gate of their wagon, emptying the content of their stomach onto the road they are leaving behind. Mein herself joins the more squishy members of their party here and there.

"I'm dead, and gone to hell without realizing it." Éclair props her helmet back onto her head after another puking session, her legs shake as if stepping on a bed of puffy cotton and filorial feathers.

Mein looks around to make sure no one else from Naofumi's party can overhear their conversation. Raphtalia is preparing a bonfire with Kyubey. Gaston and Yatsuhashi haven't come back from their foraging trip yet. Naofumi is preparing their dinner - stew with rabbit pill jerky, foraged wild vegetables and spices, with berries as the side dish. Farkas is resting in the shade of a pine tree in the distance while glaring holes into everyone.

The princess turns back to look at the miserable looking last Seatto. Raphtalia's squirminess can be excused with her young body, but Éclair's performance is flat out abysmal especially considering her being a knight, as in someone who should be riding into battle. "Aren't you a Seatto knight? How do you have worse motion sickness than I do?"

"Guess I... got the wrong side of House Arc heritage from Grandmother." Éclair promptly falls face first onto the ground besides Mein. "Don't wake me up till the stew is ready."

"Alright then." Mein nods back at the unconscious knight. As the saying goes, with the Arcs it's always a coin flip to see if they can laugh and sing through the worst sea storm, or get absolutely hammered by the most gentle carriage ride. It's most likely an exaggeration, but has some truth in it considering how green Jaune's face used to turn every time they went for a ride back when they were courting.

He has obviously gotten better at riding monsters since then. Considering how healthy and fine he looked in their brief meeting back in Balafon. Hmm... either the Three Heroes' Church has some good training method, or there's some kind of charms or amulet to help with riding inflicted dizziness. Maybe she can get them for Éclair?

"It's that bad, huh?" Naofumi looks up from his pot while Mein drags Éclair's unmoving form over to the bonfire. "Maybe we should slow down?"

"We can't afford to slow down, Master Naofumi. The church's expedition is already ahead of us, plus we are getting closer to the old Rabier County where the Bitchlord and her bandits dwell. It's not safe to take leisure strolls." Mein pulls Éclair's body right over and sets her head onto Firo's side. The bird lets out an annoyed huff, but doesn't do anything else.

"Right, Gaston mentioned something like that before." Naofumi turns to look down into the pot. He seems to be dicing some wild potatoes into the pot without peeling away the skin.

"Aren't you going to peel the skin, Master Naofumi?" Mein looks down at the chunks of potato floating in the pot.

With their fire made, Kyubey sets up some targets away from their bonfire for Raphtalia to practice with her sling. The girl's accuracy still leaves a lot to be desired, since she barely hit a target two dozen paces away from them one out of ten times. But at least the pellets no longer fly every which way now with a few days' practice.

"Oh, no. The skin of a potato has more nutrients than the flesh." Naofumi shakes his head, pauses for a moment and squints down at the half diced wild potato in his hand. "At least back in my world. Well, there's no harm in trying. It's not like the potato peel is poisoned, since your silver needle didn't turn dark."

"Is that so?" The princess looks down at one of the pieces of diced potato in the pot, amazed at the kind of knowledge from Naofumi's world. "More wisdom from the legendary hero? Do they teach it in a hero's academy?"

"It's kind of common knowledge where I come from. Well, common knowledge if one bothers to look it up. Don't people research these things here? I'd imagine they want to know what they are eating." Naofumi dumps the last of the potato chunks into his pot. He carries the pot over the newly built bonfire.

"Maybe?" The princess is rather astonished at Naofumi's revelation. To think something as obscure as a potato's skin has more nutrients than the flesh is common knowledge is made public. Her Naofumi's world must be highly advanced, and prosperous. "I guess nobody thought to research them when famine caused by drought, flood, monster swarms are still commonplace."

"Oh..." The Shield Hero pauses for a moment, obviously trying to process the information in his head. He looks down at the pot and starts to add prepared spices into the pot while gently swirling the ladle.

The princess also stares into the swirling liquid that slowly begins to bubble within the pot. She thinks back to what Zylden told her. Time is obviously slowly running out before someone else reveals her true identity to Naofumi. Especially with both many from Father's court, and the church knows who she really is. And perhaps the imp was right about her being completely unlikeable.

But there's the other peak thing in the room: her family. Any noble worth their salt who plays the game knows a marriage is more than the couples courting. It's also an union between the two families. While This doesn't apply for any summoned heroes on account of them no longer having a family, the same can't be said for the family they marry into.

And considering Father's less than wise action after Naofumi's summoning, it's safe to say he has managed to thoroughly burn any possible bridge the royal family has with the Shield Hero. Mother will surely kick Father down from his throne once she returns to appease the Shield Hero, but the harpy most definitely won't be doing it for the sake of her maligned elder daughter. In fact, it's not unreasonable that Mother will twist the narration of the event enough to have her take at least some of the blame together with Father.

"Master Naofumi..." The Shield Hero looks up from his pot after Mein beckons him. "Have you ever thought about how differently it would have been... if you had a noble lady as your first companion? Like Spear Hero's party now."

"A noble lady as my first companion, huh... I mean, I guess Katarina and Bertia are nice, and Iris was pretty smart. A bit too smart for her own good, really. She did push for using the magical seed, and caused all those problems." Naofumi nods his head along as he scratches his chin. He quickly looks back up at Mein and shakes his head. "But it's not like I'd trade you for anyone else, or something. I mean, you helped me out more times than I actually protected you."

"Oh, thank you for your kind words." The princess in disguise has to pause for a moment. She wonders if her Naofumi is simply saying the nice words without meaning to, she certainly didn't expect him to hold her in such high regard. It's sweet, sadly not exactly what she was getting at. "But if you had someone with the right connection with the queen and king's court, like Lady Amelia, or... maybe a princess. A lot of the mess we went through could have been avoided. You'd have the full resources of the nation at your disposal, after all."

"I guess that would have been nice." The Shield Hero picks up the wooden ladle out of the pot and sets it down against the rim, eyes staring into the fire. "But there's a saying in my world: 'there's no free lunch'. If I'm getting all those resources of this country, it probably means I'm duty bound to do a lot of things for the nation. Or worse yet, for whichever family I'm in the pocket of. Honestly, with all the things I heard so far... I'm not sure I want to be bound to the whims of this country's queen and king, or some other backstabbing noble family."

Hmm... the Shield Hero certainly is as sharp as it comes. He could certainly become a powerful and cunning ally for her in The Game. It's just ironic that he obviously has no interest in playing it. Not that the princess in disguise can blame the dimensional interloper.

"I mean, I can just go back home after the Wave is over, I guess. But if I'm staying, I'd rather stay with someone like you than marrying some princess, or even become some duke like Beloukas said.'' Naofumi's hand leaves the handle of the wooden ladle, letting it slide into the stew pot once again as he looks Mein in the eyes. "Your hometown, Samphor is close by and out of the way, right? Maybe I can work as the cook for the local inn, or even open my own restaurant. I'll cook the food, and you count the coins. We don't have to play that backstabbing, throat cutting game and get ourselves hurt."

The future Naofumi painted with his words does sound great. And she'd instantly and hopelessly fall for him knowing he'd reject a highborn lady to stay with her. If she's actually 'Mein of Samphor'.

"That's... that's great." No longer wishing to talk about the subject, Mein slowly turns away.

Her 'Mein of Samphor' identity has really outlived its usefulness by this point. Considering she originally didn't plan to stay with her Naofumi past Father's trial, what a terrible mistake that would have been! Yet, with her supposedly being a peasant from a remote county, she can't even put in good words for her real identity to slowly acclimate her Naofumi to her real identity without sounding unnatural.

The princess briefly debates if she should spend the time before dinner teaching Raphtalia some more of the Founder's texts, or sink into the breathing exercise Yatsuhashi has been teaching everyone. The princess' attention is instead drawn by something else, as she catches movement from the opposite side of the long road stretching north.

Five figures, wrapped in non-descriptive yet obviously expansive traveling cloaks, are riding towards them on filorials. Four riders with their hands on the handles of their weapons all look tense, as they closely surround the last rider in the middle. They pull the reins of their birds as one, yet the birds all slow down at different pace, nearly making the five of them collect into a pile if not for the riders making some quick adjustment at the last second to dodge away from their charge.

The riders are too well-trained for adventurers or sellswords, yet clearly riding newly bought birds from some rancher or breeder. Mein briefly wonders if they are more foreign agents infiltrating her nation, but quickly dismisses the thought. Spies or assassins probably won't draw attention to them by riding down a main road.

This leaves the option of them being veterans, possible elite knights from one of the higher noble families protecting their ward on a trip. Traveling around during the Wave of Catastrophe is obviously not smart, but perhaps some northern noble houses decided to send their heir to the capital to wait out the disaster under father's protection after the fall of House Seatto.

The princess turned adventurer still can't see any of the newcomer's face, but the opening of their hoods all points towards the lead rider without saying anything. The lead rider raises their left hand, the voice is stern and forceful, obviously used to being listened to and obeyed. "We'll camp for the night."

The three followers flip off their bird, while the lead rider helps their charge down from their bird. Now they are all standing on their own height, it's clear the one being protected is much shorter than the rest, only around the same height as Raphtalia. Further evidence adds to Mein's hypothesis this is an heir from a northern noble house.

"More spies?" Naofumi whispers into Mein's ears. It seems like the Shield Hero didn't forget about their earlier encounter with the Siltvelt rats either.

"Probably some heir of a northern noble, seeking sanctuary with the church, or the royal family. See the short one?" Mein whispers right back to Naofumi. "That's a child, protected by their best knights."

"I see, hope they don't start any trouble." Naofumi nods back at her as he goes back to cooking again. The other group clearly have no intention to join them on their already built bonfire, as they simply settle down on the other side of the road while passing around a dried meat sandwich.

Gaston, Yatsuhashi and Wolfgang's forms emerge from the tree line. The Lute hunter takes a moment to pause and look at the newcomer before turning towards the Shield Hero. A lavender-like plant with a yellow flower in his hand. "Is this spice what you were looking for?"

Mein notices he didn't say anything to give away her Naofumi's true identity to the new group. Clearly, the gruff looking hunter is smarter than his appearance suggests.

"Take over for me, Kyubey." Naofumi gives a light tap to the rabbit man's shoulder as he stands up from the bonfire and walks towards Gaston. He takes over the plant in the hunter's hand and gives it a quick sniff. "Yeah, it smells like curry. Not sure if it's the same thing from my world though. I'll mix it up with some other spices and see if I can create curry powder. We might get to eat curry soon."

"Kuai?" Wolfgang cocks his head sideways and lets out a curious chirp.

"Birdy~!" The young voice makes Mein's head snap towards the group across the road from them. No, it can't be HER! Sure enough, two strands of curly blue hair hang down from both sides of the girl's face, something she inherited from their De Gallia grandfather. The blue haired menace jumps up from the ground, clapping her hand at Gaston's filorial. "Big birdy!"

Mein knows this voice even in her dreams, for it belongs to none other than the one who took away her birthright from her: her younger sister Melty. She doesn't know how Mother managed to send the little brat back considering both of them should be at least under house arrest. But Mother's intention is clearly trying to set Melty up with a legendary hero suitor.

She expected this moment, just like the eventual encounter with the Three Heroes' Church expedition team. It still doesn't make seeing her younger sister in the flesh standing before her any easier.

"Huh, guess everyone loves a big fluffy birb." Naofumi sits right back down beside Mein, completely unaware of the inner turmoil inside his first companion. "Think she wants to join us for some hot meal and bird petting session?"

NO! They should most definitely NOT offer anything to her sister. She already has everything!

And now her chest feels like it's introduced to a thousand needles. She's also choking on nothing but air. Her Naofumi's voice sounds distant, or through some tube. "Breathe, Mein. You have to remember how to breathe!"

"You have your birdy with you, my lady." The lead rider pushes her bratty sister right back down while swatting at their filorials resting beside them. Now Mein knows who their identities are, it's not hard to recognize her mother's favorite thug: Knight Captain Sarah Palmer. "Don't mingle with filthy animal lovers."

A frown quickly climbs up Naofumi's face with Sir Palmer's comment. Mein, who manages to catch her breath again, lowers her mouth besides the Shield Hero's ear. "Let's keep away from the traveling nobles. They don't like demi-humans to say the least. And we don't want any more trouble than we already have."

"Yeah, you are right." Naofumi nods his head along. He takes a set of mortar and pestle, and starts to grind the spice plants down into powder.

To Mein's relief, her younger sister didn't try to approach them after the quick discipline from Palmer. The road between their group is almost like an impenetrable magical barrier as the night falls. She barely had any sleep that night, rolling over and constantly waking up for the fear of her sister stealing her Shield Hero too.

She was glad to leave her younger sister and the escorting knight behind as they finally packed up and travelled north.


It might be Mein's mood affecting her judgment, but their wagon seems to be shaking even harder than the previous few days. The devil bird is also making some weird squeaking noises in front. Both Raphtalia and Éclair have their bodies hanging by the back, emptying their stomach once again. Mein is tempted to join them considering her lack of [Well Rest].

"Maybe we should stop and check Firo out... WOW!" Naofumi is about to crawl to the front when their wagon suddenly turns to the left. Raphtalia and Éclair would have both flipped out if Yatsuhashi didn't manage to catch them. "What the hell, Kyubey!"

"You better take a good look at this, Master Shield Hero." Kyubey's voice is emotionless as usual, yet Mein manages to get a sense of tiredness from the rabbit demi-human. She crawls through the sheet covered with Naofumi to look at what happened to their bird.

Firo has fallen off the side of the road, and would likely continue on and plows her way into a pine tree at the side. Thankfully, Gaston seems to have pushed her down on the ground judging with how he still has Firo's head under his hand.

Right on the back of their bird, a head with a bundle of messed up curly blue hair poking out of Firo's feathers is none other than her younger sister. Most likely snuck into Firo's plumage in the dead of the night. "Big birdy!"

Mein feels like banging her head against the wooden wall of their carriage by this point.

"So, it looks like we got some unplanned cargo." Gaston jumps down from Wolfgang's back, walks back a few steps and runs his arm into Firo's fluffy back. He pulls Melty off Firo's back after a few seconds of searching for the hood of her traveling cloak. "What should we do with the little girl here?"

"We can't take her with us, that's for sure." Naofumi jumps down from his cart. "I don't want to be accused of kidnapping some noble's daughter. Let's just wait for her bodyguards to catch up."

"Why don't you take me with you, Sir Shield Hero?"

Naofumi jumps up on his feet when he hears Melty calling out his real identity. He looks down at the petite princess, obviously unsure of how she manages to realize who he is. "How do you know I'm the Shield Hero?"

"Well, you got two monarch filorials with you." Melty points her finger at both Firo and Wolfgang. "Not everyone can pick out a monarch filorial because they are so rare. But those who can... well, you kind of give out your identity as a hero with two of them. Considering even the Fitoria breed only have one out of a hundred chances to naturally grow into an actual monarch. And since you only have a shield on your arm, it doesn't take a lot of thinking to figure out who you really are."

"I see... that's a bit of a problem if I want to hide my identity, huh." Naofumi's head slowly turns back from the birds to look at the second princess.

"Yeah, that's a shame. But you should take your shield off your arm, if you don't want people to figure out who you are immediately. There are a bunch of other heroes, and you can probably pass for one of the vassal heroes if you don't walk around with a giant shield on your arm." Melty bends her body down sideways to look at Naofumi left and right. "Well... you probably can't pass for the Claw Hero, since she's a woman. Or Gauntlet Hero Dionysia and Whip Hero Tact. They are both pretty famous. But you can probably make people think you are a new hammer, or axe hero."

"Wait a minute, hold on a second." Naofumi crosses his arms in front of his chest into an X, shakes them for a second and then tosses his arms sideways. "What do you mean, 'take my shield off my arm'? It doesn't come off even if I want to."

"Not if you keep it in the shield form, no. But surely you unlocked one or two 'mimic series' already?" Melty stands straight once again to blink back at Naofumi. "That's the form where a Legendary Weapon looks like some common item. You can take it off your arm as a mimic shield, so long as you keep it on your body."

Naofumi blinks his eyes right back at Melty a couple of times. He changes his shield into a bundle of ropes... then takes it off his arm and hangs it on his waist. "Oh."

Damnations! She KNEW she forgot something about previous heroes!

"Great, now you learned something from me you didn't know before." The younger incognito princess claps her hands and hops on her feet. "Take me with you, Shield Hero! I'm sure we can help each other some more!"

"Look, I appreciate you giving me new information, but you shouldn't stick with us. It's not safe for a child like you." Naofumi looks over at Mein, and back at Raphtalia who is slowly crawling out of the carriage to look at the commotion. "I can barely keep all of my companions safe."

"Didn't you have a child in your party already? And I'm not helpless. I can cast water magic." Melty closes her hands together in front of a chest and pushes it out. A jet of water erupts out of the ground like a geyser, drenching everyone as the water falls down. "I have been learning and practicing my magic since I started reading. I can help you on your adventure!"

"That's great and all." Naofumi takes his helmet off to shake the water off both the armor and his hair. "But your family's going to worry. Didn't they send you away to protect you from the Wave, not run right into danger?"

"Well, Mother wanted me to go join one of the summoned heroes, you are one of the four Cardinal Heroes, AND you have a monarch filorial! I'm just doing what I'm told!" Melty steps back, looking rather proud at the conclusion she draws.

"Let me have a quiet and private talk to her, Master Naofumi." Mein leans over into Naofumi's ear, making sure her voice isn't captured by her younger sister. "I'll probably have a better result."

"Yeah, you are good with Raphtalia." Naofumi looks sideways at her for a few moments. He nods his head and pushes Melty over to the elder princess in disguise. "She's all yours. We'll wait for her escorts to catch up here by the road."

"Come here with me, my lady. You can't get everything you want." Mein speaks with a fake hoarse voice as she drags her younger sister away from Naofumi's party. She can feel her younger sister dragging her feet every step.

"You aren't going to bound me up and toss me to the side, or kill me, are you?" As they move away from everyone else's sight, Mein can feel her younger sister starting to struggle more against her own grip. It seems like Melty finally realized what a bad idea it was to sneak away from her bodyguards and into a group of strangers she knows nothing about, except they have a hero and monarch filorial with them, not exactly in that order. "I'll have you know every member of my house has a royal Shadow tailing after us, and they'll intervene if you try to harm me."

A bluff, and a bad one at that. While it's true, every House Melromarc member has at least one Shadow tailing them at all time, they are only ever loyal to the current reigning queen. And their primary mission is to report back the action of every member of the royal family back to the current queen. Trying to stop a kidnap, or assassination attempt runs counter to their mission as they might fall into a trap and become available to spy and report suspicious activities back to the queen.

"Stop making bad bluffs, you foolish girl! Do you want to have someone panic, and actually kill you!?" Mein whips back and hisses at her younger sister. "Maybe I should bind you and leave you on the road for Palmer, just to teach you a lesson!"

Honestly, she should at least try to act cordial with her brat of a sister. Especially since Mother's shadow assigned to monitor Melty and herself is probably still around observing her. But she's beyond the point of caring after suffering her heart condition, three days of being shaken around by Firo, and her lack of proper sleep last night.

It's not like her stone hearted harpy of a Mother would think better of her at any point.

"Wait, your voice..." Melty jumps back at Mein's sudden outburst. "Big sis!?"

"Yeah, it's me. Mother sent you back to protect you, didn't she?" Mein pulls down her cloth mask to show Melty her lower face. "You should listen to her and go home. It's bad enough one of us is out here risking our lives fighting the wave with a hero."

"I wasn't lying, I swear! Mother really did want me to join one of the legendary heroes summoned by Father." Of course Mother would have done that. Without a fellow summoned hero as a future betrothal, Melty's chance of securing the throne will be much lower than that of Iris. "And it's great you are already a companion to a legendary hero already, I can stay with you and a legendary hero. Like the old oath sisters, but we'll be better because we are actual sisters!"

NO! If she doesn't want to share a hero with Katarina or Bertia, she damn well doesn't want to share her Naofumi with her flesh and blood sister!

"Well, you have to go find your own." Mein holds her arm up towards the direction of Whiterun County... and probably Balafon. "Go join the Spear Hero. He's staying in a village about three days that way. He has even more birds than my Nao- the Shield Hero. For the mercy of the Chief God, he'd probably raise one, or maybe a dozen monarch filorials just for you."

"Oh, that would be like a dream come true!" Melty clasps both hands in front of her face like a prayer, the twinkle in her eyes slowly dims out. "But I'd rather stay with you. There are many filorials running around the country, I can get one whenever I want. But I only have one sister who'll read me bedtime stories: You."

The mouth of the elder princess hangs open for a few beats, not realizing how much her annoying little sister actually looks up to her, despite Mother's best efforts. Knowing this admittedly makes her feel content for a moment, even if she can't tell if it's genuine affection for her sister, or the idea of having one over her mother.

But she also needs to discourage Melty's attempt at forcing her way into the Shield Hero's party. If they are both in Naofumi's party, she'll be overshadowed by her younger sister in more than one way.

Well, she doesn't like the idea of showing weakness to her sister, but it's probably the best way to scare her into line. "You think this is some kind of joke, or fun game? Take a good look at someone who underestimated the danger of the Wave of Catastrophe!"

Mein strips the hood off her head and lifts up her hair, showing the full exposure of her scar to her younger sibling. The previous whimsical smile on Melty slowly morphs into something approaching the terror of Raphtalia when they first pick the girl from the skin merchant's den. The child's mouth hangs open, teeth cluttering together a few times, but no word comes out for a long time. "Di, did the Shield Hero do this to you? Bi, big sister?"

The elder princess feels like slapping her own face, or maybe slap her younger sister for an over imaginative mind. "NO! You idiot! How do you think of a hero, no, the Shield Hero gives me a cursed scar when he can't even attack?"

"Well, there's the cursed series used by the King of Ra-, King Mikage..."

"A Wave Spawn gave this scar to me. ONE, SINGLE, Monster from the Wave." Not exactly true, of course. But the two headed Wavehound definitely isn't a native Melromarc monster, considering its bite gives a cursed wound. "And the actual Waves are crawling with those things you can't fling a fireball without catching a dozen on fire! Go home, have Father's best knights protect you while we adults fight the Wave!"

"I-I, I..." Melty's teeth clutter together once again. Whatever romantic ideas her bratty little sister thought about adventuring with a legendary hero, she obviously didn't expect something this real to happen to one of her family. "I'm sorry, big sis. I'll go home and stay with Father."

"Good girl. Try to stop Father from constantly annoying and antagonizing the Shield Hero while you are at it. He's been an idiot this whole time, I don't even dare telling Shield Hero who I really am." Mein pulls her hood and cloth mask over her head again. She brushes Melty's hair down with her head, and gently wraps the hood of the traveling cloak over the younger princess' head. "And also, remind father to beware of the Three Heroes' Church. They aren't our friends."

"The Church? No way!? Uncle Biscas blesses me on my birthdays... Father said he helped name me when Mother was carrying me." Melty's head whips around to look at her older sister again, obviously not understanding personal friendship in The Game is as good as the promise of a harlot.

"Look, I'm just saying to be careful about the church. I don't think they have our best interests in mind." Mein guides her younger sister out of the woods and back to the road again. As they get closer to the Shield Hero's group, she sees Palmer and her fellow knights are having a standoff with their weapons drawn at Naofumi and his companions.

"See, she's unharmed and coming with Mein now." Naofumi waves his hand at the two princesses' approaching forms, the hero is obviously trying to defuse an ensuing fight with Mother's best knights. "Let's just all put our weapons down, and laugh at this big misunderstanding."

"There's no misunderstanding here, animal lover." Palmer spits on the ground. "You took our lady with you, you should pay the price with your blood."

"Stand down, Sarah. I was the one who snuck up against Sir Shield Hero's steed." Melty walks away from Mein's guiding hand. She holds her hands up, standing in between of the two parties to parley for the Shield Hero. Good to see she's remembering some of her diplomacy lessons now, even if Mein would rather not have this mess to begin with. "If anyone deserves punishment, it's me for my own hubris."

"You can never be sure with someone who takes filthy animals as their companions, my lady." Palmer pushes Melty behind her, sword still carried in a fighting stance ready to lunge at the Shield Hero. "They may reveal your identity to other people, it's best we take care of the loose end."

"Oh, for the love of... is everyone in this world a stubborn mule like the idiot king or that Faubley Inquisitor!? I don't even know who she is!" Naofumi throws his army up in the air with frustration.

"Think you can kill us, hairless ape?" Farkas sneers back at mother's thug. "I don't need my arms to rip your throat."

"Cute, it wants to scare me." Palmer smirks back at the giant beastman as she steps forward with her fellow knights, ready to fight the Shield Hero and the first princess of her nation to the death. That's when a much deeper voice suddenly booms out behind her.

"Stand down, SIR PALMER!" Melty's voice is laced with a commanding echo, making even Mein herself want to kneel down, grovel and beg for mercy. Éclair is instantly on her knees, same as Kyubey and Raphatalia. Palmer, who was prideful to the point of being insufferably smug, is now on her knees with her fellow knights, Mein can even spot a trail of sweat running down the side of her face.

[Voice of the old kingdoms], an ability passed down from the royal descendant of the seven old nations that gives them the ability to command other people.

"Mother told you prudence is more important than pride in your mission. Is this how you intend to protect me from harm, by picking a fight with everyone you meet?" Melty's voice is no longer affected by her ability, but Palmer's head only hangs lower.

"I'm terribly sorry for letting my pride get over me, my lady. We'll be leaving with you now."

"Not till you first apologize to Shield Hero and his companions for your aggression, Sir Palmer."

The knight captain gives a scornful glare towards Naofumi, obviously not happy at apologizing to an obvious 'animal lover'. But she does demonstrate submission, at least to Melty as she bows her head. "I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Master Shield Hero."

There's some uncanny similarities between Palmer and Farkas, despite the knight's obvious condescension towards the beastman. Even down to how they both manage to make the word hero sounds like an insult.

The knight captain carries Melty onto one of their filorial birds. The second princess gives one final look to her elder sister, as she rides away with her escort.

Non-Canon Omake (By y1fellas): Records of Legendary Heroes

The main thing Naofumi missed about his home world wasn't video games, movies, processed foods or even aircon. It surprised him, but he discovered the thing that he absolutely missed the most was transport. Trains, planes, automobiles, all of them. A car ride from one side of Kyushu to the other was a day or two road trip, where just getting across the vastly smaller Kingdom of Melromarc took weeks in a jostling caravan. It didn't help that Raphtalia was constantly motion sick. Of course he felt sorry for the little girl, but the smell of vomit was getting old fast, to say the least.

To pass the time he glanced over at Myne, who seemed to be deep in thought. She often got that way at times, yet another indication that there was more to the woman than she let on. He wasn't going to pry about it, though. Naofumi had played enough role playing games to know the secret would come out eventually, which would probably be the start of her loyalty quest. If he wanted to unlock that though, for now he needed to interact with her and raise those affection points.

"So. Can you tell me anything about some of the heroes who came before me?" It seemed as interesting of a topic as any.

"Of course!" Myne quickly smiled at him, obviously pleased. "What would you like to know?"

He considered for a moment. "Let's just start with their names." He wanted to test his otaku culture trivia skills and see how many he recognised.

"Well, let's see." Myne considered for a moment. "There's the ones we've already discussed, but others include Kiryu Kazuma."

Oh, Naofumi thought the Yakuza games were really fun.

"There's also Takamachi Nanoha."

Magical Girls weren't exactly Naofumi's thing, but okay.

"Oozora Subaru."

The streamer? Naofumi shrugged, he supposed why not after all?

"But the oldest known hero is of course our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Wait, what? Naofumi looked at Myne, disbelief running through him. "I'm sorry, who?"

"Jesus Christ, of course." Myne glanced over at him, looking confused. "Why, have you heard of him?"

"Yeah, you could say I have." Naofumi swallowed down his shock and turned forwards, again, carefully keeping his face blank. Wait, but did that confirm that the Christian messiah was real? Or, actually, given how the world had worked up until that moment, did it prove he was actually fictional? That raised so many questions he didn't know where to start.

Whatever. It was probably best if he didn't think about it too hard.

Still he couldn't help dwelling on it. If all these fictional characters were real in this world, what did that say about him? Was Naofumi real? Or was he just the creation of an overactive mind?

"Myne, am I real?" He asked, desperate and afraid.

She looked at him, obviously concerned and reached out to take his hand. "You're certainly real to me."

He opened his mouth and closed it once with a pop, before nodding firmly. "You know what? Fair enough."


End Note:

Malty starts using water magic, and Comrade Broseph leaves the story... for now.

Malty and Melty finally meet each other face to face in this story for the first time. And yes, this chapter features a scene where Melty puts Sarah Palmer in her place.

Guest review time.

To Guest(s):

I think it's fair for Malty to get some long term consequence for trying to pull off a forbidden level spell while under leveled. As for turning Trash's Omake into a full on interlude chapter... I just don't have enough muse to extend the length, and I'm not sure anyone's interested to read an interlude from his perspective to begin with. A short and to the point Omake scene is probably better.

There's nothing short of brain scanning technology being suddenly invented that'll convince me of Trash being supposedly a 'Wise King' was a later retcon. Because I don't think I'm being unfair to the author by saying there's no evidence of him had any trace of wisdom or basic intelligence when he's still the big bad of the day. But if this was planned since the beginning... I think it's once again, fair to say the author failed to do a proper setup for this eventual payoff.

I have nothing more to say about my pop culture reference fetish than I'm truly sorry it made this story not enjoyable for you to read. That being said, I am also not sorry for excessively indulging in my own fetish.

I know some member of fan fiction community insist a fanfiction has to strictly stick with all the settings of canon, which is a philosophy I don't personally share. To me, a fanfiction's beauty is doing something different with either familiar character or a setting, and enforcing the rule of being consistent with canon just feel an arbitrary rule when the point of a fanfiction is to change something.

Of course, the flip side is if I'm bringing characters/settings from a different franchise, I should classify it as a crossover, which is something I'm also having contention about. To me, a crossover story should feature either actual story element from the other franchise, or having at least a character from another franchise as a member of the main cast, which I don't think my story features either. I consider it more of a gray area.

But of course, considering my excessive red princessing (haha) for the canon author indulging in their fetish, it's only fair other people calling me out for my own indulgence making this story worse.

:P

To HershinGarlan:

Regarding equipment... specifically the invention of firearms and it existing side by side with traditional cold weapons. Later in my story I do give my own explanation on why this happens on Medea, which probably isn't beholding to canon's setting (Uncle Sheogorath knows I changed enough canon setting already). I don't want to give away the explanation here in author's end note since I suppose not everyone read them, and I don't want to double explain especially it happens in the arc that's coming right up. So hopefully, you'll be a bit patient for now and wait for the full explanation in the story.

To be fair, a forbidden spell isn't usually pulled off by one single mage, even if they are high leveled. And that's what made Aldrecht seemingly doing it by himself so demoralizing to Siltvelt army when Melromarc has a mage that can do a forbidden spell by himself. Of course, what he actually did is so situational it's pretty much a lightening in the bottle one time deal.

Well, Naofumi already had a few minor culture shock moment after he land in Melromarc, although they are kind of glanced over with him no longer the POV character. Malty had a few too, when Naofumi explaining how things are done in his world (badly).