Special thanks for Angel Wraith, who read the draft of this chapter and provided feedback and a short addition near the end of the chapter. And of course, Ace-Triad for SPAG editting this chapter.
As always, stay behind at the end to watch me blabber some more.
The sound of metal clanking on the wooden floor, and Mein's frustrated grunt makes him raise his head. A shame, as he's trying to do some morning reading before breakfast, and when he part ways with his own party member to work with Ren's companions. He rubs his temple, hoping the issue can resolve itself without his intervention.
The shack he is given by the Balafon villagers is roughly about the size of two one-room cheap rentals back in Japan if you blast through the wall. It's devoid of most furniture, it's not clear to him if the previous owner traded them for necessities when they moved away, or they got destroyed during the Life Root's rampage. A large portion of the wood in the room looks newer than the rest, clearly patching over a hole created by the plant monster. At least they have a working stove, so they don't have to light up a bonfire outside for their cooking needs.
Even after two weeks, he still isn't literate enough to read the basic magic tome Madame Dolores gifted them yet. Not without Mein help doing some major interpreting for him. Which negates the point of getting magical tomes over getting magical crystals in the first place. He doesn't want to even think about what would happen if he read more advanced tomes, like the copy of the Grimoire of Water they got from Lucius Malfoy, of all people.
Mein doesn't look like she's being possessed, or cursed in anyways. So that's a plus. Even if by her own admission, she still has much more to learn from the text.
A new wave of noises break him out of his thoughts, this time accompanied with the sound of wood breaking and spluttering, and Raphtalia's scream of surprise. It looks like he's going to have to step in after all. "Whatever you are doing, knock it off, Firo!"
Firo quickly loses interest in Mein and Raphtalia, who are apparently trying to heat some leftover stew from last night in front of the stove. Over where the stove is, a piece of wall is now having a hole big enough to let an average sized adult crawl through.
"Firo wants to eat some more of your own cooking, not leftovers! Master Naofumi!" Firo tackles headfirst into him, rubbing her cheeks against his side. Moments like this make him realize how despite her apparently monstrous strength (because kicking someone right through a wall is not normal), she is still a very clingy child who doesn't know better. "And Firo doesn't want to follow the Sword Guy, Bow Guy, especially not Spear Guy!"
"Okay, I'll whip up something for you fast." He gives Firo's head a few light pats and stands up, making Firo cheer. His next action makes her cheer even louder. "And you don't have to fight with the other heroes if you don't feel comfortable. That's the same thing I told their companions."
"You really shouldn't be rewarding Firo for acting like a brat." On the other hand, Mein's face looks like she just swallowed a fly. She points at the newly created entrance to their temporary resident shack with her right hand, while running her left hand in a comforting manner through Raphtalia's hair. "Especially after she did this. How do you think Raphtalia would feel?"
"I'm not rewarding Firo for acting like a brat. She's just not used to new people, and I don't want her kicking up a fuss and get others hurt. Didn't you warn me about it? And Raphtalia can stay with me too, if she wants to." He bends down to look closer at Raphtalia. Who is most definitely biting her own lips. He can definitely hear Mein mumbling something along the lines of 'that's not my point' even as he talks with his first surrogate daughter. "Are you nervous going with the other heroes, Raphtalia? Do you want to stay with me?"
The tanuki girl gives a quick sideways glance to Mein first, maybe she's trying to look for either permission or approval from her surrogate big sister, or maybe a mother is more fitting. The older girl's eyes blinked furiously, her expression looking torn. But in the end, she grits her teeth. "I'll be fine, Master Naofumi. I want to do what's best for the heroes, so more people get saved in the coming Wave."
"Good girl." He goes on his knees fully, and runs his hands through Raphtalia's hair in what he hopes to be a comforting, and not creepy touch. "And you are being a good big sister to Firo. Showing her through your actions on what's the right thing to do."
"Firo is HUNGRY! Master Naofumi~!"
Interlude 12: Doubt of the Shield Hero
The area around Balafon is filled with enough wild monsters to have all four of them taking a group, and fight away from each other without interference. The first one he's taking today before noon is Ren's party.
"Are you going to join them?" Naofumi looks down at his right leg, or more specifically, at the little girl who is clinging on his leg. Her shiba inu like fluffy ears going horizontal, mimicking the rather famous 'Shiba airplane ears' gesture. And unlike said fickle dog, it's very easy to tell that she's very happy about the situation, because of the way she's smiling.
Ah, those ears are fluffy and soft, and he almost has the urge to pet them. If not for the threat of death, or disintegration flying behind him. He can physically feel Gaelion's death stare behind his back, even if the dragon emperor in question is still taking his mini-dragon form.
Wyndia looks over at the field. The rest of the Sword Hero's team is busy fighting with a lone gutterbeak. "They got the situation under control."
"Scatter and be on the lookout, men! We don't want another beak thing sneaking up on us!" Sir Beckter is clearly used to taking command of the whole group as he barks out orders while hitting his own shield with his sword, making the elephant sized monster focus its attention on him. While his more squishy companions keep their distance away, pelting the lone monster with their magic, or weapon abilities.
Despite its limb snappingly sharp beak and tree trunk sized legs of his opponent, the knight is surprisingly nimble on his feet considering the heavy armor he wears. He dodges out of the way for the monster's attempt to trample him down, and blocks the monster's sharp beak with his shield. All in all, the four man squad seems to have the situation well under control facing off against one of the more dangerous monsters without a hero looking after them, or a full sized party.
The heavily armored, and imposing knight serves as a good tank to draw the monster's aggression away from his less well protected allies. Especially when the female spell caster, Tershia seems to specialize in supporting magic and keep supplying him with buffs or healing. Meanwhile, the male caster, Fauly, throws blades and arrows of wind, while the lightly armored spearman, Connor, tosses [Air Strike Javelin] at the large monster to weaken it at the distance. A very simple, yet effective hammer and anvil tactic.
All in all, Wyndia notwithstanding, most of Ren's party is already working like a well-oiled and maintained machine even without him. Maybe that's what his younger compatriot meant the night before they parted ways in Trumpet: his party succeeded in spite of him.
"Take your dirty paws away from Master Naofumi!" The hissing sound from his other side makes the Shield Hero pull his attention back from Ren's group fighting over a short distance. Sure enough, on the opposite side from Wyndia, is Firo clinging onto his other leg while baring her teeth at the shiba inu dog girl. "You… you stinky dragon dog!"
"My father doesn't stink! You dumb featherhead!" Firo's word clearly touched a nerve, as it makes Wyndia let go of his legs and start cracking a whip she apparently uses as a weapon.
"NO! You and your daddy both stink! You stinky, stinky, stinky dragon dog!" Clearly realizing her words are hurting Wyndia, Firo also releases his leg and starts to repeat the word ad nauseam while blowing raspberries with her tongue.
"And you are a dumb, dumb, dumb feather head! I don't know why the Shield Hero keeps an useless dumb dumb bird like you around!" The two girls who by now have entered full brat mode, glaring at each other for a few more… and then they both started scratching and slapping each other.
"Aren't you going to interfere?" Secretly glad for Wyndia finally letting go of his leg, he turns to look at Gaelion, who throughout the exchange simply levitates a short distance away from Naofumi's head. The dragon's nonchalant attitude makes him feel slightly better to not intervene at the first opportunity. But secretly, he's a little afraid to get into this kind of fight, especially between girls, especially underaged ones. "I was told Firo is very strong for her age. What if she hurts your daughter?"
"Oh, please. She may not look like it, but I raised my daughter stronger than that." Gaelion snorts a small string of embers out of his nose, his voice sounding prideful. "There's no Alaya's dumb birds alive, short of herself that's going to hurt my baby girl!"
The Shield Hero looks back at the slap fight between Firo and Wyndia. Sure enough, despite Wyndia looking equally as young as Firo (which suggests she hasn't had her level assisted growth boost, like Raphtalia secretly had), she's holding well on her own. Still, something didn't sit right with the young man. "Didn't she get kidnapped by slavers when you weren't looking? She can't be that strong."
"You know, that's a very good point." Gaelion blinks his eyes and looks at his daughter. The mini-dragon is about to fly forward, presumably to stop the two girls slapping at each other when Naofumi suddenly notices another towering figure start appearing over the horizon.
A second gutterbeak is about to join the frey, and it'll likely be more than what Ren's party could handle. "Firo! Get that second gutterbeak!"
"Okay!" Thankfully, Firo still listens to his commands when things get serious. His surrogate daughter breaks away from the slap fight she is part of, leaves Wyndia in the dust, and runs full speed at the figuring stomping its way towards Ren's party with her arms behind her body, and her legs moving faster than his eyes can follow. About twenty meters away from her target, Firo jumps into the air and barrels towards the giant monster with both of her legs sticking forward like a battering ram. "Firo flying kick!"
When her comparatively tiny body makes contact with the much bigger beast, a loud boom nearly knocks Naofumi off his feet. The gutter beak, which is about as large as an elephant, is kicked flying away like a bundle of boneless fleshjacks.
"By the Chief God and Heroes of Old!" About the same time, the gutterbeak the rest of Ren's party was fighting finally drops dead. Although Naofumi can't help but feel bad for the effort put in by the Sword Hero's party, when Firo easily replicated their result with a single flying kick.
Soon after lunch, it's time for him to work together with Motoyasu's party members. Despite their advantage in numbers, it's clear they are more used to the Spear Hero taking the lead as they simply stand around, staring at him for directions. It almost feels uncomfortable under their silent, yet expectant stares, so he tries to break the silence. "So… obviously I can't take the lead and attack monsters like Motoyasu. Since I'm the Shield Hero. And I don't know what most of you can do. So why don't we do a bit of introduction to each other and let me know what all of you are good at?"
"Yeah, that makes sense! I'll go first!" Katarina takes a step forward, taking the ax that's larger than her off her back, and swings it around as she spins on her heel. Everyone else immediately ducks under, scrambles away from her. Only her bird Kou cheers her on from the side. "I swing at enemies, with my ax!"
With a clank, Katarina's maid Anne stops her ax by intercepting the shaft with her spear. "Please, stop waving your weapon before you hurt someone, or yourself, Lady Katarina."
"Aw, sorry about that, Anne." Katarina pulls her weapon back, pokes her tongue out at the scene she just caused, and pets Kou's short but unruly hair. "I got carried away again."
"And Kou helps Katarina with his magic!" The yellow haired boy hops up and down on his feet, lightning and sparks dancing on his fingertips, making Naofumi take a step back. "Neat, huh?"
"Firo can do magic too…" Firo mumbles behind him.
"As Lady Katarina's personal maid, I am responsible for taking care of her well being. Both in common everyday matters, and protecting her from physical harm. Especially in the absence of Lady Katarina's Sworn Shield." Anne also returns her weapon to her back, and gives him a deep bow. "That is why I have been learning how to properly use a spear from Lady Iris' personal maid Miss Tanya, and practicing together with the Spear Hero Lord Motoyasu."
"I see. So Iris' personal maid is the one who's good at using weapons…" Naofumi nods his head along and looks at the other maid in their group. It takes a few seconds before a part of what Anne said registered in his mind. "Wait, Katarina has a Sworn Shield and she's away? How did you do that? Aren't they supposed to be close to, you know? Be a bodyguard?"
"Oh, that's easy! I told Linde to go to Faubley!" Katarina smiles and waves her hand dismissively, in the direction he assumes to be Faubley. "I love her, but she's a bit of a stickler for the rules. She'd never allow me to run around with Master Motoyasu!"
"And she listened to you?" Remember how difficult it was to have Yatsuhashi leave his side for half a day or so, Naofumi raises his eyebrow towards his hairline.
"Oh, it was easy." At his question, Katarina rubs her hands together, actually looking a bit devious for once. It's probably her pulled back hairstyle and slanted eyes. "I told Linde there's this new charmed earring that's supposed to make pastry taste sweeter that just came out in Faubley, and if she didn't get me those, I'd go to Faubley to get the earrings myself. And since I don't usually ask for a lot of favors unless I really need it, she totally bought it!"
"I'd feel better if you didn't do that, my lady." Anne aims a withering glance at Katarina. Naofumi gets the feeling she's as much a handful to the poor maid as Firo is to himself. "Since Sir Sieglinde's option is either to go through Shiltfreeden, right pass an active warzone. Or wait for the monthly ferry from Dunwall, and then take another boat to mainland Faubley. Eitherway, it'll take her more than two months to return to you. I wasn't trained as your bodyguard like Miss Tanya was for Lady Iris from the start. I can't protect you as well as Sir Sieglinde."
"All the time for me to get ingratiate in Master Motoyasu's party!" Katarina looks right back at her maid, looking proud at her master plan rather than being chastised. "And when Linde comes back, she'll have no choice but to join us rather than bringing me back to Mother!"
"Right… moving on." The Shield Hero nods his head, not sure he should get too involved with whatever mess Katarina apparently caused to her servants. "And that glowy chain thing you did with Motoyasu - what's all that about?"
"Oh, OH! That was the last Spear Hero's ability. Not my great great great grandfather, but he's pretty cool too!" Katarina furiously nods her head while trying to explain it. "I think it's called something like 'Chain Contract'? It lets Master Motoyasu combine his stats with mine, and we share our health, magic and stamina pool together! So it's like we fight as one person! I heard the last Spear Hero can do it with all his lovers! So it'll be neat when Master Motoyasu gets the contract with Iris and Bertia!"
"Ah, I see." Maybe it's the way Katarina explained it, but he feels a bit worried about this technique. Isn't tied up in chains suggesting some kind of submission, or bondage at play? Or maybe it's his paranoia running on overdrive after learnt the cruel system of slavery in this world, where every slave has a magical torture device/killswitch tattooed on their skin. It could be the old saying of 'a string to bring things closer to you', but a chain seems to suggest something more devious than a string. "Does the chain itself do anything? Like, can the two of you pull some advanced movements like pulling each other in mid-air? Or can you bond your enemies up if you move your chain around and tighten around them?
"Huh… you know, we never thought of it this way! I never heard the last Spear Hero do something like this either." Katarina's eyes wander to the side, as she looks thoughtful for a moment. "Thanks for suggesting it! Shield Hero! I'll be sure to try it with Master Motoyasu later!"
"Happy to have helped." Naofumi smiles, feeling like he managed to at least accomplish one good deed for the day. He turns to look at Bertia, who seems to be busy digging the dirt with the tip of her shoes. "And what about you? Miss, I mean Lady Bertia. I saw you using some kind of dark barrier magic back when we were fighting against that giant tree god. It's as strong as my shield barriers."
"Oh, I have my spirit animal to thank for them." Bertia's eyes quickly roll to the side, not seeming to dare meeting his gaze head on. She's apparently much more shy than her companions, despite adventuring with Motoyasu, or her outburst against her father from a day before. The red haired girl runs her hand through the fluffy looking fur of her black fox scarf… wait, it moved. That's a living fox? "She's a spirit fox I meant when I was younger, and Master Motoyasu named her 'Kuro'. I think it means black in his tongue?"
"Just like me!" The filorial with double pigtailed black hair jumps up and down. At first, Naofumi assumed this filorial to be a girl due to wearing a dress, and having a very feminine looking face compared to Kou. But the voice, despite still being higher pitch sounds more like a boy. "I'm Kuro too! But Moto named me 'Kuro the Black Lightning'!"
"Firo is faster than all of you." Once again, Firo mumbles unhappily behind them.
"Black Lightning is very strong on his own. He's also as fast as Lady Yuki." Bertia smiles, and confirms the cross dressing boy's gender. The petite girl's smile becomes more strained near the end. "But I'm not like them. I can't do anything without Kuro."
"Don't say that, Tia. You befriended Kuro, a dark spirit animal, easily. That makes you pretty special, because they are the most fickle spirit animal to please." Katarina throws her arms around Bertia's shoulders, to the apparent annoyance of Kuro judging by how she shuffles around and huffs at Katarina's arm invading her space. "And you always cheer us on when we feel down. That counts for something!"
"Yeah, keeping mental health is as important as physical health. Especially in high stress situations. Sounds like that's what you are doing at Motoyasu's party." His words make Bertia's expression brighter again. He knows someone suffering from self-esteem issues when he sees one, the poor girl is probably smothered by her father's intention to protect her despite his best intentions. It seems like too much love can be as damaging as not enough. "Can you do anything other than making barriers together with Kuro?"
"Oh, yeah. There are many things dark magic can do. There's a reason why it's one of the two celestial elements above the prime elements, with light!" Her red croissant shaped hair curls visibly bobbing up before drooping down again with her eyes. Are they some kind of half-sentient emotional antennae like a dog's ears? "But I don't like using them, because none of them are very nice. Dark magic is either very destructive, or needs proper sacrifice before it does anything. Like, I can take away other people's wounds and take them into me, but I can't heal any wounds like light magic."
"I see. It needs a very harsh equivalent exchange." Naofumi nods his head along. It seems to fit with how dark magic is usually portrayed in his world's pop culture, although it's somewhat surprising to see it used defensively. "What about your bird? Was her name Sakura?"
"Yes. Sakura hits things. With a mallet." The bird opens her eyes up by half and pulls a hammer out, seemingly from nowhere. She doesn't bother to stand up to her legs, or elaborate further.
"I know Sakura looks a bit… tired out all the time. But she's protective of me." Bertia wraps her arms around her bird's shoulder, and pulls Sakura closer to herself. "She beats monsters, or bad people away from me. That's why she got classed-up as a Hammer Fighter."
"Firo doesn't need to beat people away with a hammer. She can kick them hard enough." Considering what Firo did to an elephant sized monster this morning, he has no doubt about her claim. Although he's definitely starting to notice a pattern here. Firo is definitely jealous of the birds raised by Motoyasu.
And speaking of these birds… tired out isn't the word he would have chosen for Sakura, but then again he doesn't really know what's going on in Motoyasu's party either. It's probably not good to be judgemental from a first impression. He decided to continue on as Motoyasu's last major companion. "And what of you, Miss- Lady Iris?"
Damn the Aristocrats, and their need for proper titles!
"I mostly provide Lord Motoyasu for material needs, and leave the actual fighting to him. I am raised as a future heir to House Amelia to oversee statesmanship and business, not to lead our soldiers." Iris opens her fans and hides her lower face behind it. He doesn't understand the gesture, as it makes him focus on her scar more. "However, I am a descendant of one of the Bow Hero. I can use wind magic to assist Lord Motoyasu, while my personal maid Tanya is trained in all kinds of weapons to protect me."
"And I, protege and lady in wait for my Lady Iris, focus on healing magic." Yuki stands up even straighter besides Iris, despite her being shorter than even Bertia. He can definitely see a preening bird in her posture. "I make sure Master Motoyasu's party is at peak health in a battle."
It seems despite their individual quirks such as Yuki being a bit prideful, Sakura being lazy, Kuro and Kou being hyperactive, all the children raised by Motoyasu are very well-behaved. He wonders how his spear-wielding compatriot had better success at child rearing than he himself. He should probably ask about it the next time he sees Motoyasu.
"Firo…" For once, Firo seems to be at a loss at something she can't do. Although his daughter clearly hasn't thrown in the towel yet. "can learn healing spells too, if Firo wants to."
"Oh, really? You uncultured rabble?" Yuki turns her nose up against Firo, clearly not taking Firo's word seriously. It's hard to put his finger on, but for some reason the two of them seem to be especially at each other's throat. "With your lack of tact or grace, you'll probably kill the ones you are trying to heal."
"YOU ARE GOING ON A DIET! FIRO KILLS YOU!" Before he has the time to process the strange words Firo strings together, his daughter lunges into Yuki faster than a speeding bullet. In the blink of an eye, both of them start to wrestle, roll, punch and kick at each other all over the grass. Again.
It takes him embarrassingly a few seconds longer to realize Firo has associated the word 'diet' as some dirty word. Since that's how he discipline her when she misbehave.
"Go! Yuki! You can do it~!" On the side, Kou jumps and taps his feet as he shouts out cheers for his fellow bird. The others don't look eager to break the ensuing fight either. Granted, none of them are giant walking monoliths of muscles like Farkas and the filorials are supposedly more muscular than their look suggests, but one would assume they are more concerned for one of their own.
"Aren't you ladies worried about your friend?" His gaze shifts between the ball of dust kicked up by the fighting birds, and Motoyasu's group. Aside from Kou and Kuro cheering Yuki on, no one even seems to bat an eye at the ensuing chaos, not even Iris herself. "Isn't Yuki at a disadvantage with her being a healer?"
"Yuki might be focusing on healing and supporting magic after her class-up, but she can take care of her own. She was born a monarch breed, already much stronger than the rest of her siblings." Iris dismisses his concern without even looking at the fight. "If anything, I would be more worried for your garden breed, Lord Shield Hero. No offense."
"Yeah, Big Sister Yuki is strong." Sakura opens her eyes by half again, she shifts herself a little, probably trying to get more comfortable against Bertia. "Sakura can't push her around even after becoming a Warrior of the Hammer."
Almost as if proving their point, the dust starts to settle around Firo and Yuki. And the monarch breed raised by Motoyasu is currently sitting on Firo's back, stretching Firo's cheeks wide as she futilely flails around under Yuki. "YIELD! You uncultured beast!"
"Ne- NE'ER!" Firo shakes her head and body, trying to throw Yuki off her back and flip over. But she's not having much success.
He shakes his head, stepping in and tries to separate the two. "Firo, apologize to Yuki for attacking her. I'll ask her to leave you alone if you behave."
"N-NO!" Firo immediately start thrashing with renewed vigor now Yuki's hold has been loosened. Her feet swipes right across Naofumi in his chin, sending the Shield Hero sprawling on the floor.
The young man lying on the ground, stars spinning in front of his eyes. He can vaguely feel and hear Katarina and Bertia looming, and fussing over him for taking the hit. Well, know he can personally understand why that boxing manga, 'Hajime No Ippo' makes such a big deal about boxers getting hit on their chin. Note to his future self, physically getting into a fight between two fat chocobos is a bad idea for his health, even when they look like ten years old little girls.
"Okay… while Yuki is over there taking care of Firo, let's see what most of you can do." Deciding to leave the two wrestling birds alone for a while, Naofumi turns towards the empty field in front of him and rises a shield barrier the size of a small house as he recovers his faculties. He quickly changes it into his rock shield, providing a target. "Why don't you hit it with your magic, and let me see how much damage all of you can do?"
"Oh, OH! Me first!" Kou turns on his heel, he hops up and down while a surge of spart runs up his right arm. The boy jabs his arm forward, releasing a bolt of lightning towards Naofumi's impromptu target in the distance. Although it shouldn't conduct electricity, the impact of his bolt alone seems to have opened a 'window' on the stone target.
"That's very good, Kou!" Naofumi smiles and ruffles the boy's hair a little. He giggles in response. The Shield Hero turns to Iris. "Would you like to give it a try, Lady Iris? I want to see all of your limits before I risk you against those gutter beaks. Pretty sure Motoyasu will try to kill me again, if I get any of you hurt like Mein."
"Certainly, Lord Shield Hero." Iris steps up and waves her fan, a blade of wind glowing with green light, wide as a car forms in front of her. It blasts into the stone target Naofumi made, leaving a wide trench across the entire surface. Not enough to bisect it in half, but deep enough to be visible over a hundred meters.
It seems like Kou's magic is more suited to concentrated attack, while Iris is better suited at crowd control. He files their specialization in his mind while turning towards Bertia. "Can you show me what your dark magic can do?"
"Uh… I'm not sure. Dark magic is not very nice, like I said." Bertia looks left and right, her eyes not daring to meet his gaze. "What if Master Motoyasu ends up hating me? He… he doesn't like things when they aren't nice."
It takes him a few seconds to realize Bertia is talking about Motoyasu's very simple, possibly naive sense of morality. By the time he understood what Bertia meant, Katarina was already all over Bertia with her arms around the smaller girl's shoulders. The pudgy looking fox curled around Bertia's shoulder lets out a few annoyed squeaks, clearly not appreciating her personal space being invaded. "You worry too much, Tia. Master Motoyasu won't hate you for your dark magic. You already used it to protect us against the newborn outer god, and you used it to save his life! He won't change your mind, just because you can cause a large boom."
"Yeah, I don't think Motoyasu would be that childish and petty. If anything, he seems to be the kind that stays loyal to the bitter end." The Shield Hero nods his agreement. "If you used your dark magic to hurt innocent people for no good reason, that's a different thing. But he won't hate you for simply having it."
"Oh, okay… if you guys think so… Everyone probably should stand back a little." Katarina pulls her arms around from her smaller friend as Bertia walks forward. Kuro is now fully standing on her shoulder. The petite redhead takes a deep breath, as black mist starts to seep out of the ground and draw into her. She cups both of her hands in front of her chest. Responding to her motion, the shadow around her seems to morph into the shape of a roaring black dragon. "[DARKNESS TERROR WAVE]!"
Bertia's dress cloak and hair bellows behind her like a cape. A dark purple wave of energy shoots out of her hand with the force of a flood wave as it roars forward. Even behind her attack, Naofumi has to quickly throw out an [Air Strike Shield] before everyone to not have Motoyasu's followers, particularly the daintier ones like Iris get blown off their feet.
After the blast has dissipated, the Shield Hero opens his eyes and quickly finds his jaw hit the floor. The stone wall he constructed is completely obliterated, as well as a large portion of the ground in front of them. A trench, no, a crater plowed through dirt in the shape of an enlarging fan is all that's left in front of them stretching a good few hundred meters in front of them.
"I… I think I overdid it. Even if I haven't used Kuro's full power. Don't know what [Darkness Terror Wave - Maximum Caution] would have done." Bertia drops on the ground, her legs seem to have turned into noodles. She promptly loses her consciousness afterwards. "Me napping now."
"Fan out, don't let them reach Sir Bow Hero!" Sir Crepe commanded as the rest of Bow Hero's companions broke apart like sand in front of him. The ones with melee weapons each take on one of the bone dogs trying to swarm them. The ones in robes support their compatriots with their spells.
"No! It should be me at the front, protecting all of you." Naofumi finds that he has to more or less push through some of his new team members to get to the front. Luckily enough, the bone dogs are below his level range by now and he doesn't have to worry too much about the canine monsters from hurting himself. So he can safely use his wheel of redemption shield for a rare case of extra attack power.
It'll probably still take him a long time killing one of those things, considering his still subpar ATK rating even with a more offensive shield… and on how he doesn't know how to use his legendary 'weapon' as a, well, offensive weapon.
"Ah, sorry, Master Shield Hero. Force of habit." Sir Crepe cuts a boned dog down with her sword, while Firo sends another flying through the trees with a roundhouse kick. "Master Itsuki is a fragile attacker. So we are more used to shielding him."
"Understandable." Naofumi notices from his peripheral vision, where the blond girl who was in Motoyasu's party at the start pulls back now that he enters the front line. At first, he wonders if she's going to use the short bow tied to her side to provide some extra long range fire. But then, she pulls out the flute and puts it to her mouth, and starts playing an upbeat song. He quickly finds himself, and Bow Hero's team become lighter on their feet. Firo is the one who got the most out of the sudden speed boost, as she darts left and right through the bone dogs' rank, quickly turning all of them into boneless messes flying through the treeline with her heavy kicks.
It seems like music has actual power in this world. Not that surprising, since this is a fantasy world. Although there weren't too many games he played with magical music. Wasn't it a bit more common in western games based on D&D? It wasn't really his thing, but he has seen enough western students from his school organizing tabletop gaming groups.
"So, magical music, huh? Should I worry about some bard charm me when I stay at a tavern?" He asks the blonde girl, half joking and half seriously worried.
"Not unless they graduated from Leone School of Music and Magic. Master Shield Hero. And all graduates are required to wear their badge, to not enchant someone without them knowing." The girl flashes the badge over her chest that's shaped like a tuning fork. "Unless they possess one of Master Leone's Resonance Stones, the proper art of Resonance takes as much time and discipline to learn, much more to master as the Thu'um of the Graybeards. They might be very similar to nature, come to think of it. Since both arts synchronize one's magic with sounds… hmmm… I wonder if that means the People of the Sea is in some way related, or maybe taught by Lord Gaia, and his children the everlasting dragons similar to the Thu'um."
The bard girl seems to retreat into her own musing, now he unexpectedly triggered some academic theory in her mind.
Now that he has a chance to breathe while the bonedog monsters are all dead, he begins to notice everyone from Itsuki's group is carrying a short bow with them. Even Rishia, who spends most of the fight dodging away from the monsters, occasionally firing off a spell has one. Yet, none of them actually used their bow. "What's up with the bow you guys all carry? Some kind of dress code for being in Itsuki's party, maybe?"
"Oh, these." Welst, the male mage from Itsuki's party looked down at the short bow by his side. "Master Itsuki insisted on us carrying them, and practicing with them when we have some spare time. Since he is the Bow Hero, he'll eventually unlock bow based party formation skills with us."
"Do they actually work? I haven't seen any of you using them." Naofumi's eyebrow raises. The weapon in question is still fairly large, despite their namesake. It can't be easy running around, and fighting with it poking out of the place.
"All of us need to be above Level 50 to use it, and one of us hasn't reached it yet." Another girl, Lesty if memory serves, turns her nose at Rishia. The shy looking girl quickly averted her gaze from the accusing stare.
"Don't be mean to her, just because your father is a lord." Sir Crepe gives a glare to the apparent noble girl, who quickly looks away from her. Naofumi didn't expect a young knight to take control of Itsuki's party this quickly, after parting with her for less than two weeks after their encounter with the Faubley Inquisitor. First Eclair, and now Sir Crepe, are female knights who take charge of a situation for this country?
"Yeah! Rishia is doing her best. And she only needs another two levels to hit fifty now!" Maron, the daughter of the retired knight Sir Raithos, throws her arm around the timid girl. "We'll all get there, you'll see!"
"Tha, thank you! Sorry I'm holding all of you back. I… I wouldn't complain if all of you leave me out behind in a town. Help manage Mast- I mean Sir Itsuki's inventory is good enough for me." Rishia's face starts furiously blushing when mentioning his fellow hero. It seems like she has a case of hero worshiping with Itsuki. "I- I can do some basic spells now, thanks to Mister Welst and Miss Maron teaching me. But I can still only cast the most basic ones…"
"Don't sell yourself short, Lady Rishia. Learning magic takes a long time, and you already have learnt all the basic attack spells and a few support ones from all four prime elements." The wizard places a hand on Rishia's shoulder, nearly causing the poor girl to jump out of her own skin. "Who knows, you might be another Mind of the God, like Prince Joseph's battle mage Lady Sheffield."
"Mind of the God, M-Me? No way!"
"So, these [party formation skills] are pretty powerful, but need the whole party above a certain level, huh?" Naofumi rubs his nose while Rishia is having a small meltdown. Thinking back on the church group fighting alongside him around Eclair's home. They were putting their shields together, and creating barriers similar to his own ability. Maybe he should start asking his party members to carry shields now? Something worth looking into, although there is a question he needs to ask first.
"Does the party member have to actually use the weapons to trigger a [party formation skill]? Or do they simply have to carry them?" Naofumi's words drew the attention of Itsuki's companions. "I saw a group of church knights using shield abilities together. [Tortoise], I think? I'm thinking about maybe having my own party fitted with a shield, but one of my companions has both of his arms crippled and he obviously can't use a shield without his arms."
"Ah, in that case it won't work." The bard girl shrugs her shoulders. "[Party Formation Skill]'s power is determined by the overall proficiency of all the members with the weapon. If one of them can't utilize it at all, it won't work no matter how high his level is. You have to group him into a separate party, if you want to use them."
"That's a shame." Well, so much for that idea. But maybe discussion with Farkas and maybe even Kyubei about grouping them as a separate party isn't out of the question.
As the night falls and everyone from his party, even his bodyguard, goes to sleep, the Shield Hero carefully, and slowly crawls up from where he lies. He sneaks towards the door of his shack, which is now thankfully free of the previous Siltvelt guards.
He only had less than five steps to go, when someone rolls into his feet, making him stumble face down towards the floor. The Shield Hero manages to hold his arm forward at the last second to break his fall, rather than have his nose jamming directly into the floor.
Looking back, he sees Firo has grabbed his ankle, and starts nibbling at the end of his pants. "Firo wants more sweets, Master Naofumi…"
He slowly pulls his leg away. Firo lets out some more gibberish sounding noise as she rolls towards the other side. Feeling grateful for the lack of guards around his shack now Prince Kael'Thas isn't around, the Shield Hero quietly creeps up to the door and exits the door with whatever stealth skill he could muster.
It's mostly dark outside. The Balafon people, after a whole day of hard farm work, have all turned into rest. Only the few occasional Whiterun guards lazily pass through the largely deserted dirt road, waving their torches with weapons in hand. They look tense, probably not helped by the majority of Siltvelt warriors camped outside the village with only a wooden wall separating them. No doubt, it would be very difficult for him to sneak from their nervous gaze.
Thankfully, he doesn't need to stray far this time. The Shield Hero turns around and makes his way behind the wooden shack, and he waits for the person who sent the message to him through his newly connected smartphone shield. Not too long after, a silhouette appears from the other direction, making Naofumi place his free hand on the edge of his shield in equal parts anticipation and trepidation.
As the figure pulls closer, he begins to see clearer Ren's face. The Shield Hero releases the breath he's been holding. "You could have just sent whatever you wanted to say through your message rather than schedule this meeting, you know. There's fewer chances for witnesses to notice us, with our written words not translated by our weapon and all."
"Yes." The younger hero dips his head in agreement, but his face looks more grime than his usual brooding. "But some things are better said face to face."
"Alright." Naofumi narrows his eyes, wondering what Ren is playing at. "I'm here and you are here. Better start the explanation before people start noticing."
"Your companion, Mein of Samphor. She's an imposter." Naofumi has to blink a few times after Ren's rather blunt explanation. He fights the urge to jam a finger into his ears and see they are clogged and hear the words wrong. "Itsuki and I met the real 'Myne of Samphor' in the adventurer's guild when we were trying to find Wyndia. She's in the party of some famous adventurer, 'Beast Slayer' or something, who looks like an even more unhinged Goblin Slayer. She looks almost like your companion too, red hair and green eyes. But she looks less refined with the way she dresses, coarser skin, and she has freckles on her face. We asked her if there's someone with a similar name to her from her hometown, but she's the only one."
So… Mein really isn't who she said she was. He should feel betrayed with this revelation, except it feels right. Like an answer he already figured out long ago, yet didn't have the courage to call it out. That explains why she doesn't act like a girl with the backstory she gave him, despite there apparently being a real 'Mein of Samphor'. She is noble after all, who has been taking the identity of someone else.
It seems like he was on the right track all along, even if he's snooping around the wrong trail of breadcrumbs. Maybe she was a noble close to the capital, who simply had better access to information for her to take a false identity from the more remote area. This would explain why she clearly had an intimate relationship with the king's battle mage.
He supposed that he should be grateful that imposing as another person is all she did. And she hasn't done anything to 'tie up any loose ends', like he would expect from a noble like he heard so far.
"What do you plan to do now you know she's been lying to you?" While he is still somewhat dazed by the prospect of Mein's deceit and possible real identity, Ren asks the true question.
Yes, what should he do now that he knows Mein's identity was untrue? And she most definitely had a hand to play in the trial that almost labeled him as a rapist? He should by all means, have the right to kick her out of his own party now that he has gathered a group of truly loyal followers, and possibly on his way to ally with a church that's supposedly friendlier towards him. Granted, that still may not be the smartest decision, but he should at least be within his rights to confront 'Mein' about her identity to learn who is truly behind the scheme to play him, and possibly his fellow heroes, for chumps. Knowledge is power after all, and the first step to stop being someone else's pawn in a game is gathering all the information to know who is playing what role.
Yet… hasn't 'Mein' been loyal to him till this point? She was the one who rescued him from the unenviable position of being a condemned criminal after all. Possibly, no probably making an enemy out of the king and who knows what other schemers in this pit of backstabbers. She also nearly killed herself destroying the newborn outer god, and later saving him from the Siltvelt spies who kidnapped him and the giant dinosaur released afterwards.
If she trusted him enough, she would have come out with her real identity. Perhaps she doesn't believe he has enough power to protect the secret she's keeping. Not just in terms of his level and status, but in the authority he commands… economic and legislative power too if the aristocrats are behind all the schemes. Yes, that would certainly align on how she's trying to push him allying with the Four Heroes' Church too. "Nothing for now."
"NOTHING?!" Ren briefly loses his composure, his voice rises a few degrees higher, nearly pitching into a scream. He quickly bites back further response, and takes a few deep breaths before asking with a more even tone. Even if he's no longer perfectly keeping his composure. "Look, I know you are sentimental about her, with her being your first companion and saving your skin back during your trial. But this is more than yourself. For all we know, there's a conspiracy over all four of us, and this 'Mein of Samphor' is in the middle of it. She could have been in on your false accusation herself, and only got cold feet for one reason or another-"
"I already thought of that. I understand you want to get to the bottom of everything when something fishy is going on. But you have to trust me on this, alright?" Naofumi holds up his hands. Half trying to placate Ren, the other half out of frustration. "Yes, there is clearly some scheme going on involving us, and those rat bastard nobles of this country. But trying to knock things down with a sledgehammer isn't going to help anyone. If Mein is really supposed to be a sleeper agent besides me, confronting her will only alert whoever is behind her that something has gone wrong. We need to act with discretion to find out what's going on, and protect ourselves."
"Alright… I'll give you that. But what's really going on here?" Ren takes a step back, but his eyes only grow narrower. "You were acting strange, when one of Motoyasu's girlfriends revealed that she's the descendant of Son Goku. Why did you word your response in the way that makes Goku sound like he's someone who exists in your, heck, maybe all of our worlds?"
Naofumi feels his face heating up. Seriously, he probably shouldn't expect all his fellow heroes to be idiots who would miss his obvious strange behavior. "Mein… she kind of got the impression like I'm from some kind of Shounen manga world where I'm being trained in some super hero school for this job. And I'm… well, I'm not discouraging her line of thought."
"YOU WHAT?!" Ren nearly stumbles on his feet. The younger boy runs his hand through his hair with a claw. "No, you were clearly encouraging her into thinking you were some trained super hero. Why the hell did you do that? Didn't you see any stories with a 'liar revealed' plot to know what'll happen?"
"How would you feel about it if you were in her shoes?" Naofumi throws his arm up, this time in full frustration. "Here, you have a world ending threat that'll kill everyone you ever cared for and destroy everything, and you expect a hero summoned from another world to save you. How would you feel if instead of a trained professional hero who knows how to handle the situation, it's just some random otaku nobody who flunked his entrance exam?"
Some part of Naofumi knows that Ren is right. That he should have nipped this in the bud. He should have explained to Mein the first time it happened that he wasn't some specially trained hero that was selected to save the world. That he's really just some random commoner from Tokyo that has no idea what he's really doing.
But he can't do that...and he can't even really say it's purely for his companions sake. Because some part of his ego and pride feels good being thought of like that, makes him feel special that he was chosen and respected by some of the people here. Back home, he's just a no-name loser who isn't even respected by his own family and was just cruising through college before ending up at some dead-end job if he hadn't picked up a magical book that took him here.
But here he has a clean slate... his companions respect and look up to him, even if it is for believing in a lie that he's special here. Pathetic.
Maybe that's why he can't bring himself to confront Mein about her real identity...because he isn't even being truthful with her. That he's not special, he's just another loser that was brought here by pure coincidence. How hypocritical of him to judge Mein for not being totally truthful about her idea, when he hasn't done the same.
"Well… I know neither you, nor this 'Mein of Samphor' can claim the moral high ground now, at least. Okay, I agree with you that confronting Mein is a bad decision. I'll try to do some snooping around myself, while you do whatever you can to keep Mein in the dark about how we discovered her deception." Ren pinches the bridge of his nose, making Naofumi turn his head to the other direction. The younger boy's voice starts to trail off in fatigue. "Good thing I convinced Itsuki not to shout accusations as soon as we saw her. And we kept Motoyasu in the dark as well. It's not really fair to him, but he… isn't exactly the most mature one out of us."
"Yeah, no argument there. Guess it's up to the two of us." The Shield Hero can feel the pressure mounting on his shoulder. Who knows how many people in a position of power, ready to stab them in the back for greed. And they can't even trust the four of themselves with all the knowledge they learnt. "Let's prepare for the third Wave for now. But we did make some plans about running and hiding in Zeltoble if shit hit the fan. Supposedly a free city with a lot of mercenaries and gladiators for us to blend in. Might be worth looking into."
"Alright, I'll drop some hints to Itsuki and Motoyasu. If things really go bad, we'll make a break for it and regroup in this Zeltoble place." Ren nods his head. As their discussion comes to an end, he quickly slips into the dead of the night.
End Note:
The Interlude chapter were we get to see a bit on how the party of the other heroes function. And no, I'm not even hiding my blatant favortism towards Motoyasu's party here. It's just so much fun imagining how Iris, Bakarina and Bertia would interact with the shenanigans that happens in RotSH.
XDDD
And Firo acts as complete brat again, but actually gets consequence this time. And yes, Yuki IS stronger than her. Firo doesn't get preferrential treatment (or more like I give preferrential treatment to Motoyasu's birdies from Reprisal, because they are much more likeable than Firo) just because she is in the main character's team.
Speaking of the Reprisal birdies, Yuki, Kou and Sakura's specialization is once again, taken from the aforementioned Chinese Reprisal of the Spear Hero fanfiction. Although there it's changed a bit to have them develop their specialization arounding their partner villainess. The 'chain contract' concept itself came from a less well known Japanese manga series (I stumbled it by accident on a Chinese pirated manga scan website, and I don't even know if it had international release. Definitely don't know its English title), where a bunch of super powered high school students with animal feature/super power fight otherworld invaders. Although obviously, the way Naofumi suggested Katarina to explore her chain with Motoyasu cames from Plantinum Game's 'Astral Chain'.
Of course, Naofumi finally have the private meeting with Ren behind Malty's back, as some of you have been wondering. And he decided to not immediately act on it for now due to both practical, and emtional reasons. We'll see how it'll come into play in Act III, of course.
