Special thanks for Angel Wraith, who read the draft of this chapter and provided feedback and provided a small part of his own writing near the end of the scene with Filorial Bill. And of course, Ace-Triad for editting this chapter.

The scene with Filorial Bill is inspired by DJman248's question in his review, on why Naofumi didn't ask Motoyasu for advice at raising filorials. Wish I addressed this earlier, but I didn't find a good spot to put it and only addressed it in this chapter.

As always, stay behind at the end to watch me blabber some more.


"So, how was your day?" Naofumi absentmindedly asked while flipping through a more advanced children's book. At least this one doesn't have a large picture taking up most of every page, so his reading comprehension is definitely improving. By her estimation, it'll be another month or two before he can start reading magical tomes. "Fighting alongside the other heroes? I don't have to worry about getting new companions, do I?"

The Shield Hero was clearly trying to lighten the mood up with a bit of self-deprecating levity, rather than throwing a serious accusation. Although he probably didn't realize how close to the truth his joke landed, at least back a month ago.

The princess turned adventurer thinks back over the last day when she switched between three other heroes. Honestly, not a very productive day considering none of them are used to how they fight, and most of them end up getting into each other's way. But at least they killed enough monsters for her to advance another two levels. "They fight very differently from you, and they are… clearly trying? I think? And don't worry about us running off with your fellow heroes, Master Naofumi. They can't replace you."

At any rate, she most definitely has missed the best window of opportunity for a bit of party switching between the heroes. If she wanted to do that, she would have done it before she thoroughly burnt her bridge with Father…and probably the Three Heroes' Church.

"That's nice… although I want to know more specifically how they fight." Naofumi puts his book down, clearly more interested in the conversation he started. "How about we start with Ren? Since I fought with him outside Trumpet, how does he fare in a group? He doesn't look like the social type to me."

Chapter 74: Bird Daughter and Children of Dragon

"Not well, the sword hero was clearly used to doing things on his own." The princess can feel her posture drooping down at the mention of the Sword Hero, who they arguably have the worst time with. "The way he quickly closes in on a target, chains weapon art one after another to overwhelm them like his duel with you is… well, interesting. But it's clearly not a fighting style best fit with a group. Especially with our melee heavy one when we keep getting in each other's way. Farkas, and Yatsuhashi especially have difficulties with him because of their size. And his 'instruction' to us basically boils down to 'don't get hit by your enemy'. Makes sense for Raphtalia, Kyubey or myself, but not really fitting Farkas and Yatsuhashi whose fighting style is more about exchanging blows with the enemy."

"I see, so he's the flanking skirmisher type… better keep this in mind with everyone's positioning when going for the Wave boss." Naofumi nods his head along, seemingly devising strategies on how to best use everyone's strength. His musing stops as he suddenly looks at her again. "About the boss monster from the Waves. Are they always large in size, or do they have smaller boss monsters?"

"It's usually a large monster." The princess tries to wrack her brain for the information about the previous Waves. Sadly, it's another topic of her education she didn't pay enough attention to. "Although rumor has it that there have been human-sized Wave bosses that are almost sentient. I haven't heard there's anything smaller though. There are theories about how the Wave isn't a natural disaster, but some Outer God's attempt at invading our worlds."

"Is that so…? Interesting." Naofumi nods his head along, pondering over the facts. "You know… if the Wave is controlled by some god, they could have made the boss monster small. Maybe some kind of virus. Or even a bug. No one can end the Wave, because they simply can't find the boss monster and kill it."

That is an admittedly interesting thought. One she's glad that none of the supposed invading outer gods took advantage of in the past, or she likely wouldn't have been born. She certainly wouldn't have been born a princess, at very least. Considering all the stories about how outer gods trying to invade worlds to make the people their slaves, or worse, toys for their twisted amusement. "Good thing the invading outer gods aren't as smart as you then, Master Naofumi."

"I'm not sure about that… I certainly don't feel very smart recently." The Shield Hero seems to focus his gaze on her, long enough for her to start feeling uncomfortable before he looks away and blatantly changes the topic back. "Well, at least I don't have to worry about Ren getting into someone else's way if we are expected to fight oversized monsters. What about the others? How did Motoyasu fare with you all?"

"Well… He seemed to have been busy training how to use a spear properly." The princess thinks back to the Spear Hero. While his movements still lack grace tempered through practice, at least he is actually using his weapon as a… Well, weapon. And not a glorified casting catalyst for his weapon arts. "He mostly charges head first into the monster, not unlike the Sword Hero, come to think of it. I can definitely see why the two of them were tripping over each other in the last wave. At least he actually has some idea on how to wield a spear now. Yeah, he doesn't really have a lot to say to us, regardless. He isn't someone who leads with verbal instructions."

"So he fights exactly like Ren? I didn't expect that. Since they don't exactly have the same personality." The Shield Hero looks up. His eyes wandering away from Mein again, probably trying to picture the scene in his head.

"Not exactly the same. I'm not sure I can properly put it into words…" The princess narrows her eyes, nearly squinting them shut in an effort to better visualize her memory to help her describe the situation better. "The Sword Hero approaches the monsters fast and quietly, and then starts to swing at them with a fast chain of weapon arts to overwhelm them. While the Spear Hero barrels towards them like an enraged boar, drawing monsters' attention towards him and hitting them heads on. I guess it's like… sort of like what you did with the undead monsters when we were fighting in Silver Keep. That's Eclair's home, by the way."

"Ah, I see. Ren fights more like a skirmisher, while Motoyasu acts more like an offensive tank." Naofumi drums his finger on his chin, sparks of mana clearly shimmering inside his head. "We can try to have Motoyasu around me, taking the boss monster at the front while Ren moves in from the side or back… Yes, that works. What about Itsuki? I imagine he's very different from the other two, being an archer and all?"

"Yes, Master Bow Hero obviously hangs out in the backline with Raphtalia and myself." It really doesn't take a military genius to realize that the Bow Hero would fight differently from the others. Although there is something that bothers the princess. "Although… I'm not sure if that's worth mentioning."

"What is it? If there's something wrong with Itsuki, we should all be made aware of." Naofumi's eyes narrow a little at her hesitation. "He didn't act unstable with you guys, did he? I remember he was a bit unhinged during the few times we had an audience with the officials."

Now that Naofumi mentioned it… yeah, she does remember how the Bow Hero was on the verge of his sanity in his earlier days of summoning. It was the reason that pushed her to abandon Father's original plan and instead cling onto Naofumi as the hero to support. Not a plan she regretted after, granted. But the Bow Hero does seem to be better adjusted now. Perhaps some of his companions were good for his psyche? Or maybe that encounter with the Faubley inquisitor really shook him up? It might be worth looking into, when, or if she regains her birthright later. But that's neither here nor there for now.

"Nothing like that at all, Master Naofumi. Aside from him obviously being inexperienced at commanding our group like the other heroes, he seems to have good control of his faculties. It's more on how Master Bow Hero fights." The princess narrows her eyes, and thinks back on when they explored too close to the forest area in the north, and kicked up an entire nest of beak things. Good thing both Farkas and Yatsuhashi are built and armored up enough to take their attacks and not immediately get torn to shreds, while she and the Bow Hero managed to cut down their numbers fast.

At least the Bow Hero ended up with a lot of beak-thing eggs in his inventory by the end of their ordeal, and he graciously gave half to the Shield Hero at the end of the day for their help. These things easily fetch the same price as their weight in gold, considering some of the world's top delicacies to the rich and powerful.

"Commanding the group huh… I don't know what I'm doing half of the time myself. Can't really hold it against the three of them." The Shield Hero shakes his head in gentle disapproval of himself. Of course, they should work on the Shield Hero's confidence before his command skill. Nobody would want to follow a leader who isn't even sure of himself. "But do elaborate on what's so strange about Itsuki's fighting style."

"Not so much as his fighting style, as the way he fights doesn't make sense." The princess drums her finger on the side of her own jowl. "We bumbled our way too close to a beak-thing nest yesterday when we strayed too close to the forest. And we pretty much kicked up the whole nest of them."

"So that's where Itsuki got all these giant eggs from." Naofumi balls his left hand into a fist, and slams into his right palm. "I didn't see any of you injured last night, so I assumed nothing you guys can't handle?"

"We fared well against them. Although the way Master Bow Hero was fighting was strange." Mein stops drumming her finger at the side of her face and sits straighter. "He fired one arrow after another, all of them hitting the vital part of those towering beak-things and didn't miss a single shot. But he hits his own arm with his bow string a couple of times."

"And that's weird… because?" Naofumi tips his head sideways, clearly prompting to better explain the situation. It once again reminds her that despite being a trained hero, her Naofumi isn't someone who is well educated in all manners of combat.

"Letting a bow's string hit one's own arm from the recoil is a mistake of the amateur bowman, Master Naofumi. It suggests Master Bow Hero wasn't very proficient with his own weapon, which makes no sense." The princess rests her chin on both of her hands, pushing her mouth forward into a slight pout. "If he's an amateur, he shouldn't be hitting all his shots perfectly like that. Definitely not at the rate he was firing. He was constantly nailing those abominable gutter beaks in their eyes or hearts, putting them down in one hit."

"Well… he did say he came from a world where super heroes are real. Maybe that's his super power: near one-hundred percent accuracy with a ranged weapon. Even one he's not skilled with." Naofumi's eyes turn towards the ceiling as he runs his finger around his chin.

"'Super', hero?" That term again. She's obviously an alien towards the terminology, considering the worlds of the summoned heroes are very different from her own, even from each other, judging from their conversation. But it suggests someone who is special even among heroes. "You mean like the four of you? 'Cardinal' Heroes, whose legendary weapon is stronger than the seven vassal heroes?"

"Oh, not exactly. At least I don't think so. Superheroes are… people who have special abilities." Naofumi begins to wave his arms around, clearly having a bit of a hard time explaining the concept to her. "Like they can throw fireballs like you, but without any training. Some of them are born special, others get it from accident, or have some serum injected into them… I guess it's like a potion?"

"...Fascinating." The princess stares at her own Cardinal Hero for a few moments, before giving him the most emotionless response. In a way, she can understand people who are born special. Clearly, those types of superheroes are people with prestigious bloodlines. Like the one she inherited from Mother and Father which gave her greater affinity towards fire, even if she still had to train hard to control it. But bloodline affinity that gained through some freakish accident, or having ingested a potion? That doesn't sound fair.

"Stop that, FIRO!" The two of them look over the stove, and see Raphtalia and Firo locked in a glaring contest. Behind them, the boarded up wall is in a very distinctly different color. From the short time she's known Raphtalia, Mein knows how mild-mannered and well-behaved the lost princess of Q' Ten Lo is, not even having any bad thing to say to her, who abandoned the poor girl to a monster. But apparently, an out of control wild brat like Firo can get Raphtalia to raise her voice. "Master Naofumi already cooked for you yesterday. You can't keep bothering him!"

"Firo isn't bothering Master Naofumi." Firo blows a raspberry at Raphtalia with her tongue. "He likes taking care of Firo and never whines about anything! Unlike you!"

"Just because Master Naofumi is responsible, and nice to you doesn't mean he isn't bothered by your actions." Raphtalia pokes Firo's forehead with a finger. "You need to be more considerate to others!"

Raphtalia nearly gets her head taken off, or at least kicked through a wall when Firo kicks her in return. Good thing she has come a long way, since the timid and sick raccoon child in a cage, and she managed to dodge Firo's attack despite a surprised yelp. "NO!"

"Stop that, Firo!" Naofumi stands up from his crouch sitting position. The Shield Hero walks over, and guides Firo away from Raphtalia. "You don't attack one of our own, just because you don't like what they say."

"She attacked Firo first!" Even with the Shield Hero looking clearly upset, the dumb bird still has the audacity to point her finger and throwing accusation at Raphtalia. The princess almost admires Firo's selfishness, if she's not trying to harm Raphtalia.

"No, she didn't. Touching you with a finger isn't an attack on you. See?" Trying to prove his point, Naofumi also lands a finger on Firo's forehead. Although the bird simply closes her eyes, and seems to enjoy the moment rather than attacking the Shield Hero. He guides Firo to face Raphtalia. "You should listen to Raphtalia better, she's like your big sister, and she knows how to properly behave. Apologize to Raphtalia, or else I'm not feeding you anything sweet till the next Wave."

"Firo is sorry…" Despite her seemingly genuine and apologetic tone, Firo pokes her tongue out at Raphtalia, clearly NOT sorry at almost hurting the other girl. The sneaky little fiend!

Mein places a hopefully comforting hand on Raphtalia's shoulder, to give her some encouragement to be a better behaving child. And for the harm Firo almost caused, Raphtalia responded very well. "You are forgiven. Just don't go around hurting other people."

"The fact Firo tried to attack Rapthalia when all Rapthalia did was correct her bad behavior is unacceptable, Master Naofumi." Not willing to let the devil bird get away with her actions, the princess looks at Naofumi in the eyes and follows up on the issue. Firo clearly doesn't like it, judging from how she's now baring her teeth. "What message would we send other people? When we let a child get away with assault, and attempted murder?"

"Yeah, I know. Motoyasu's birds aren't acting like this either." Naofumi scratches his head, while running his hand through Firo's hair. The movement of his hand is a bit erratic, probably reflecting his exasperation. "I asked Motoyasu what he did to raise his children better, and he apparently didn't do anything special. So I'm out of ideas. Although I did ask him to take us back to Lute, maybe we could ask Filorial Bill for advice."

As if previously rehearsed, the sound of repeated beating on the door, like an over passionate drummer can be heard outside. The Shield Hero moves over to open the door. Although he probably responded too fast, or maybe the Spear Hero was too over eager. The last series of hand knocks ends up turning into punches right into Naofumi's face. "Ow! Stop that!"

"Opps, sorry. YIKES!" The Spear Hero quickly pulls back both his hands in surprise. Although he screams much louder, and is higher pitched than Rapthalia and throws himself onto the ground when Firo barrels herself right past him like a missile. "Is that what you deal with everyday?"

"Stop attacking Motoyasu too, Firo! He's not trying to attack me, it's an accident." Naofumi quickly runs over, and stands between the enraged devil bird, and simpering Spear Hero. He turns over to the other hero, while Motoyasu slowly gets up from the floor. "Well, Firo doesn't attack me, if that's what you are asking. Although she does attack everyone else she doesn't like."

"Right, that's why you asked me to take you to that filorial ranching expert last night. See what can be done about her." The Spear Hero pats down the dirt on his armor, adjusts his ruffled cloth and smoothes over his hair. Iris probably drilled the idea of making himself presentable during their travels. "Well, let's not keep waiting and line up then. If we hurry, we can get back before everyone else has finished their breakfast and get some more team building exercise in."

"No complaints here." Naofumi pushes Firo behind him, and together with his ever dutiful sworn shields separate her from the Spear Hero. "The faster we found out why Firo is like this, the better. I can start finding a way to correct her behavior. Anyone want to follow me?"

Except the way to correct her behavior was already suggested to him, yet he refused to take it. The princess shakes her head and steps forward. "I'll come with you, Master Naofumi. I want to hear what Filorial Bill has to say too."

"I'll stay, and heat up our leftovers together with Kyubey, Master Naofumi." Raphtalia gives another withering glare to Firo, who simply blows her tongue at the raccoon girl. "I want to have some warm food ready when all of you get back."

"Thanks for being so considerate, Raphtalia." Naofumi walks over and gives Raphtalia a few pats on her head, she smiles while Firo glares at her behind Naofumi's back.

"Master Naofumi still loves me more!" Just as the Spear Hero raises his weapon up for a teleportation, Firo shouts back at Raphtalia before their vision is filled by ruby light. That damn cheeky brat… no, that demon pretending to be a little girl!


The quaint village of Lute didn't change much, as long as one doesn't count the sudden presence of both the king's men, or the church. Soldiers with full suits of armor and tabards of House Melromarc march on the expanded wooden wall with newly built walkways. Templars with red triangles symbol over their silver armor, and inquisitors dressed in their red dress coats and gray cloaks walk alongside the militia and peasants giving blessings and sermons as they are needed.

The reason for this village's sudden attention from both Father, and the church is clear: piles upon piles of cut up, and sawed ironwood is being loaded onto carts. Despite them never revealing the buried ore vein in the abandoned mine, it seems like the village has gained a new life due to the villagers taking back the lumberyard.

"Ah, Master Shield Hero!" A voice called them almost as soon as they arrived. Naofumi and Mein both look over, and they see the bald-headed leader of Lute Militia walking towards them. "Didn't expect you'd visit us before Gaston even made it back. I hope life is treating you well."

Naofumi takes a moment before replying. He's clearly trying to recall the man's name. "Mr. George, was it? I see most of the damage caused by the last wave was fixed."

"Georg, actually. And please, no need for a 'Mr.' title." The militia leader gives a pat on the Shield Hero's shoulder. He moves his arm and points at the piles of dark purple hued logs Mein noticed earlier. "Yes, our village has recovered mostly thanks to you. The training you gave us let us drive away the weaker monsters, take back and hold onto our old abandoned lumberyard in Harvest Valley. It's hard work, but the pay is good. And with ironwood in high demand, His Majesty decided that Lute is a very valuable strategic location. The soldiers are also skilled builders in their spare time, and they helped build back up the damage."

"It's good to know the King still cared for his people. Even if it's mostly for resources." The Shield Hero shakes his head for the ironwood stockpile, he turns to look at Georg once again. "Anyways, I'm here to see Mr. Bill. I need to ask him some questions about my filorial."

"Ah, right. You can find him working at his ranch as always. He has his work cut out for him, now our village is developing again. Raki!" The militia leader turns towards one of the older children running around, carrying a basket with items to the adults. The boy in question places his basket, which is filled with bread, onto a boulder to let the workers pick up their own food. Raki pauses a short moment when he sees the Shield Hero, and then begins to look around Naofumi. "I still need to oversee the caravan loading, be helpful and take Master Shield Hero to Bill."

"That's really not needed if he's busy. I still remember where the barn is."

"Of course, sir." The boy ignored Naofumi's attempt to reject his help and led them towards the outskirts of the village. Perhaps he welcomes the errand to break what must be monotonous work. Or perhaps he wants to hear about the adventures the Shield Hero got into after leaving their village. "So, I noticed Raphtalia wasn't with you, Shield Hero, Sir. How is she?"

"She is well. She's preparing some food for us when we get back." While Naofumi makes some small talk with the boy, Mein remembers how he was the one who almost kissed Raphtalia. So, that's why he's eager to run alongside the Shield Hero. "How's your big brother?"

"Oh, he got to his post right here in our village after the Wave, and he's been training me how to use a sword in his spare time. It's great!" The boy begins making some wild gestures, probably imitating some of his own training regiment. "I'm not sure I can help more during the Wave, since I'm still too young. But I want to do my part too! Because I want other people to also survive the coming Waves."

"Good man." Naofumi nods his head as they draw closer to the barn. They can already hear the tweeting noise of young filorials before they see them. And sure enough, as they turn around the fence, they can seeFfilorial Bill feeding some newly boiled beans to the young chicks. "Mr. Bill. I need your expertise."

"Oh, Master Shield Hero!" The filorial rancher smiles as he looks at the Shield Hero. He places the bowl on the ground, and lets the baby filorials help themselves. "What can I help you with, do you need more beans?"

"Well, I wished my problem was that easy to solve…" Naofumi grumbles under his breath as he pushes Firo forward. "So, this is Firo. She apparently gained the ability to transform into a humanoid form because she's raised by me. But the problem is she barely listens to me, and she violently attacks everyone she doesn't like. Motoyasu's birds aren't like this, and he doesn't know what I should do either."

"That's your bird, huh?" Filorial Bill blinks exactly once as he looks at Firo, he mutters under his breath. "Not the strangest thing that has happened to heroes, so I heard."

"Yeah, I didn't do anything special with Kuro, Yuki, Kou, Sakura, and their little siblings I raised for Melty." The Spear Hero shrugs his shoulders while Firo growls at him.

"Your filorial… physically attacks people?" The filorial rancher runs his hand through his hair with a dumbfounded expression. It's curious how he's more shocked at Firo's aggressiveness than how she now looks like a little girl with a pair of wings behind her back. "That… shouldn't happen, at least most of the time. There's a reason why filorials are one of the most common domesticated monsters on Medea."

"Well… I'm out of ideas." Naofumi flips both of his palms upwards. "And I'm told she's too high leveled to be sent to a trainer for proper behavior training. Since she's already about Level 40."

"Yeah, that's way over most levels the trainers are." Bill scratches his head as he drums on his chin with his other hand. "I mean, don't get me wrong. Filorials CAN be aggressive. They just aren't by nature. There are some trainers, Zeltoble especially, who raise them to be very aggressive to have them fight in their gladiator battles. Those sick fucks! And the key to making them more aggressive is to treat them violently shortly after they are born."

Well, that's certainly out of the question. Since it's not like Naofumi or anyone else from their party abused Firo after she was born. Sure, Farkas sits on her, but that's only after her violent tantrums…

Wait a minute. Didn't she herself flicked Firo in the head because the dumb bird didn't like the name 'Evangeline'? It can't be because of her own action that this gluttonous devil bird is the way she is, can it? All of sudden, she feels very hot inside her dress cloak and starts to sweat profusely.

"...alternatively, it could be that she has some cockatrice lineage in her. They are close enough with filorials to interbreed, although most of their offspring tend to be born as filorials, they are much more aggressive than pure filorial breeds. That's again something those bloodthirsty Zeltoble fucks love to do." The filorial rancher pulls his right hand down from his hair to scratch his own nose, clearly not bothered by the odor of his own sweat or his birds. "Now, I know you didn't get her from me, and I'd never breed more aggressive filorials. Where did you got her anyway?"

"I got her from a smuggler from the capital slum, from a mixed pool of different monster eggs." Naofumi looks down at Firo.

"Ah, that explains it. Yeah, there's a good chance she might have a cockatrice parent." Bill looms over Firo, probably trying to get a better look at her before he pulls back when she swipes at him. "Well, shame she isn't showing any cockatrice lineage if that's the case. They are more fit for battle, and I'd imagine she'd help you more against the Chief God damned Wavespawn if her gaze paralyzes them."

"Yuki calls her a garden breed though. Wouldn't it suggest she's born from you know… common filorials? OW!" Motoyasu's musing is interrupted when Firo kicks him full force in the shin. Despite his high level and armor, the Spear Hero ends up hopping on one leg, both hands holding onto his damaged leg. "Ow, ow, ow, ow OW! That really hurt!"

"Don't do that, Firo. Motoyasu is only asking a question." Naofumi and his sworn shield quickly pulls Firo back, before she can continue to do more damage to the rather dimwitted Spear Hero.

"As I said, it's rare for a filorial to inherit cocktrice lineage. She could have one cocktrice parent, and still comes out as any breed of filorial, only with added aggressiveness." Bill shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. "As for how you bring her violent side to heel… honestly, I probably know as much about you at this point. Most filorials have the intelligence of a child, or a young teen, but they don't turn into an actual child. You probably raise them like a normal child at this point. A very destructive one, apparently. Unless you want to use the monster seal's punishment effect to force her-"

"NO! I'll try some other way. Thanks for the advice, Mr. Bill." The Shield Hero once again shows how stubborn he can be, even going against the advice of an expert who has been raising filorials for at least three generations and all his life. Although it does feel good to have her opinion vindicated by said rancher.

"What 'other way' are you thinking about, Master Naofumi?" Mein can't help but voice her objection, despite knowing full well that she won't win any favor from the Shield Hero by doing so. The irony of her doing 'the right thing' despite the displeasure of the one she's trying to butter up doesn't elude her. She wonders if Eclair has rubbed off on her, but then she remembers how much harm Firo could cause to her future political prospects. "You know that Filo is out of control. She throws temper tantrums every time she doesn't get her way. She attacks anybody she doesn't like. And outside of you, she doesn't listen to anyone on the battlefield or outside of it. By the gods, she barely listens to you if she doesn't like what you are saying."

"Shut up! You pig woman!" Firo makes a lunge at Mein. She stumbles back, trips and falls on her behind on a piece of rock. Her head would have been taken off her neck, if Motoyasu didn't recover from hopping on his leg, and pulls Firo back. "Unhand Firo! Damn spear guy!"

"NO! Don't take your anger on Mein! She suffered enough already!" Motoyasu holds Firo back, with his spear leveled across the bird's chest and pressing her into his body. "Heck, take it on me if you have to. I can take the punishment, Mein can't!"

"See what I mean?" Mein looks back at Naofumi as she's being helped up to the ground by the Shield Hero. "She can't be allowed to behave like this. Even noble children get lashes if they act like this. At least… that's what I heard of. The Ascard childrens aren't like her at all."

Naofumi's eyes fixed on her face, long enough to start making her feel uncomfortable before the Shield Hero let out a frustrated and tired sigh. "What do you want me to do, Mein? Use the familiar seal? Become the same scum that did that to Raphtalia?"

"Chief God damn it! This isn't the same thing! I'm not telling you to use it all the time, or worse, to satisfy some sadistic urge. Just use it whenever Filo is getting particularly out of control or when she's not listening to you." The princess feels like pulling her own hair out at this point. On the one hand, Naofumi's uncompromising kindness and willingness to do the right thing definitely have refreshing charm compared to backstabbers and lipspittles she knew from the court. On the other hand… his stubbornness also has its share of frustration. "I understand that you see her as a daughter, but you need to remember that Filo is not some human child, where the worst thing she can do is throw a temper tantrum. Her temper tantrums usually result in somebody getting hurt or worse. You NEED to use the familiar seal."

"Absolutely not! Out of the question! That's a slippery slope, if I do that, then what sets me apart from the same scumbag that abused Raphtalia?" Naofumi throws his arm wildly around, starting to act dangerously as agitated as the first time she showed prejudice against demi-human. "And if I do that, what's going to happen to my effort to rid this world of slavery? All the bastards who support that abusive, evil system can point their finger at me using punishment on Firo, and say I'm a hypocrite who says one thing and does another!?"

"What then, Naofumi? Do you intend to wait until Filo has gravely injured somebody, or heroes of old forbid, kill somebody to start taking this seriously? You won't even have a chance to start abolish slavery by that point. You'd be labeled an accomplice of a criminal, and you'd actually be guilty this time, unlike that farce of a trial you went through last time!" The princess in disguise glares right back at the Shield Hero, fully knowing that she's in the right this time.

But in the end, she's still the one to turn her eyes away first. "I've given you all the advice I can, but if you're not gonna listen then we have nothing more to talk about on this matter…"

Well, this venture turned out to be a waste of time. Maybe Firo being condemned by law will finally open his eyes to the harsh reality. She'll hopefully do everything in her power to minimize whatever reputation damage that assured future debacle to herself… and her Naofumi. It's not like she cares about whatever will happen to the gluttonous devil bird anyway, so long as she, her Naofumi, or Raphtalia isn't the victim. If Firo gets put to the sword, then good riddance.

At least the Shield Hero hasn't seemed to figure out she might have been the one that caused Firo her aggressive behavior.


Raphtalia and Kyubey already prepared heated soup for them, they even prepared the bread the same way as Naofumi did back in Count Whiterun's castle, with melted cheese over sliced bread. Firo grumbles some more as she eats the leftovers, but she devours, no, practically inhaled everything down like usual.

They met up with the rest of the heroes, and whatever Balafon militia or Whiterun County guards were willing to join them. Like the afternoon when they returned from the parade, their group marched out and fought wild monsters together, with their combined group practicing their unity together with the militia and guardsmen.

Even some of the Siltvelt warrior insisted following and protecting their king, although they are met with trepidation. At least nobody draws swords or bows at each other, as the situation wouldn't have ended well for her fellow countrymen, with the Siltvelt warriors being elites tasked to guard one of their great house nobles.

The sun is sinking towards the horizon again when they return towards Balafon. Her little sister rides at the front of their combined group and charges onto a hill, her sole surviving knight riding with her behind her back. The filorial they are on, or surrounding them are no longer some rented animal from any local ranch, but specifically raised by the Spear Hero for her. Melty looks back at their ragtag group of entourage from her elevation and waves her hand like some self-important queen. "Come on, my va- I mean, guys! I can already see the village palisade!"

Her sister clearly hasn't gotten fully used to the 'keeping incognito' part of her act yet. Which kind of defeats her purpose of hiding with the Spear Hero. Not helped that she's technically surrounded by men from her nation's bitter enemy.

"Slow down, milady. This is not a race. And please, eyes to the front." Sir Palmer actually acts sensible for once, as she pulls the reign of the bird she's on, making sure her charge's life wouldn't end when she unfortunately falls off her own steed. "It's more important for you to stay safe. What am I going to tell your mother if you hurt yourself under my watch?"

"Ah, sorry. Si-Sarah." Melty brushes a stray strand of hair away from her eyes. "Wait, is that a caravan moving into Balafon?"

It takes the elder princess some more time to climb up the hill with the rest of their group to see what Melty was pointing at. Sure enough, a group of at least a few hundred men are making their way north along the road towards Balafon. Both her party, and the new group are still far away from each other for her to tell their identity, but from the discipline of their well-maintained formation, it's clear they are well-trained warriors.

"I recognize some of those nobles from the parade. The young ones." Mein looks over at the Bow Hero, who is holding up a bow with a piece of round glass on the side. Does this particular form give him longer sight? "That young knight with long blue hair tied in a headband. He talked with me after we came down the wall. What was his name again? Syrus?"

"I believe you are talking about Sir Seliph, Master Itsuki. He is the wielder of Tyfring, their dragon bloodline weapon and the grandson of the last Duke of House Chalphy." The Bow Hero's own blue-haired knight explains to him. Mein briefly wonders if she is either distantly related to House Chalphy, or De Gallia.

"I see. Wasn't the current duke that brown-haired guy with that evil-looking mustache?" The princess nearly tripped on her feet at the Bow Hero's remark. She'll probably never understand how he associated Duke Oify's stylish mustache to a trait of evil. Maybe some kind of cultural thing from his land? "Did he pass the title to the other, older guy because he was too young?"

"Not exactly… he actually passed the title to his uncle over for love." The knightess wraps her arms around her body, her feet begin twisting on the ground. She looks embarrassed to admit her fantasy. "His foster father, Duke Arvis was talking about a marriage contract with the daughter of House Grant, but he loves his sweetheart, Miss Maurne who he grew up with, and she's an Issachian commoner. So he renounced his succession right to House Chalphy, passed the title to his uncle and let him marry Lady Celestine to save House Grant's face."

"I see. I wonder if that's what he meant, about past regrets…"

"To give the title you are born with away, for something you truly believed in like a true love… isn't it the highest calling of knighthood?" The princess fights back the urge to scoff at Sir Crepe's fantasy.

It's not hard to understand why most commoner women, even some of the more hopelessly romantic noble ladies, are charmed by the story behind Lord Seliph and Miss Maurne. A young lord who is in love and being faithful to a childhood friend, to the point he is willing to give up his claim to succession to be with her? It's a story straight out of romance novels, even if they are heavily frowned upon by high society.

The first princess herself would have been quite enamored by Lord Seliph's pursuit for his supposed 'true love' against all social conventions. If she heard his story before Mother opened her eyes on how fragile something like family, or love truly is in the court.

No, she sees the so-called 'Light Princes', or 'Scion of Light' for what he truly is: A foolish and useless boy who thinks with his loins rather than his head. He could have both, marrying Lady Grant and keeping his childhood sweetheart as a mistress, or even an official concubine. Instead, the mewling idiot made House Grant his enemy by openly rejecting the hand of their daughter to be with a commoner girl.

She might read those trashy romance novels as a pastime. But she has her priorities straight when it comes to her real life. Obviously, her future husband has to be someone who is willing to treat her as a queen. But he also needs to be cunning and perceptive. Someone who will help her in The Game, and rule the land with her as a partner. A pretty boy with his head constantly stuck in the cloud like Count Seliph will never even make it close to the list of young lords she's willing to entertain a brief courtship with.

"Something's wrong, Mein?" The princess is pulled back to reality by the Shield Hero's worried question. She looks around, and realizes most of their group have already walked past her. Only the Shield Hero's party, and their accompanied Siltvelt warriors waited around, and it's clearly not for her sake. "You seem to be lost in your thoughts again. Is this Sir Seliph another one of your past crushes like that Jaune guy?"

Is there actually a hint of… jealousy in her Naofumi's tone? Well, he doesn't have to worry about her wanting to elope with a useless loin brain like. But she probably shouldn't tell him that.

"Ah, well… Most Melromarc girls were enamored with our Light Prince at one point or another. Master Naofumi. He gave his title of duke up for the girl he grew up with, after all." The princess in disguise quickly pats Naofumi's shoulders, while hoping her chuckle doesn't sound too forced. "But you are better than him! He at least got a county from his uncle, and you were willing to live as a cook with me after this is all over. Ask Raphtalia!"

"Yeah, I don't think he would cook as well as you do, Master Naofumi." Raphtalia's reply makes both Naofumi and Mein herself chuckle out loud, this time she is being genuine.

"We better catch up quick, and see what's going on here." With Naofumi's words serving as a conclusion, they quickly run to catch up with the rest of the heroes and their followers.


"The soil here is very fertile, and I can practically feel mana glowing from the earth. I guess that's what those magical dryad trees are for." As they move closer to Balafon, Mein can see and hear Katarina's distant cousin kneeling around the field, scooping up dirt in his hand. Not mind dirtying his hands, or cloth at all. Perhaps playing with dirt runs within the entire Claes/Claus family tree? Gae Bolg was often known as 'The Lance of Earth' compared to its sibling, Gungnir 'The Lance of Heaven' after all.

As the princess focuses her attention on their group, She can see the younger generation of the crusader families, not only Marquis Claus, or Count Seliph. Lord Luchar, the second son of Duke Danan. The young Duke Febail Yngvi of Ullr bloodline. The Fiege siblings, and Lady Ishtar Fiege's husband, Lord Julius.

"Does this place remind you of home, my cousin?" Sir Seliph puts a comforting hand on the shoulder of the 'Silver Prince' of Leonster. It seems like they are close, despite one being from northern Melromarc while the other hails from the south. Considering Marquis Leif's mother was Sir Seliph's aunt, they are actually much closer cousins than Katarina and Leif. "I heard the land of Leonster was both beautiful and fertile before the Great War."

"A place I have never been to, and a home I have never known." Leif lets the dirt drop from his hand as he slowly stands up to his full time, his fiance princess Nanna quickly wraps her arm around his left arm and leans closer to the melancholy marquis. "All I remember is cracked earth devastated by magic and heavy fighting. And my elder brother works himself to the bone in the field with all of our people when he's not holding meetings with our banner lords or drilling our troops, trying to save our land."

"Not even pre-Great War Leonster can compare to this land, and I doubt the Golden Coast of Romalia is either." Sir Finn comments as he stands straight behind his lord, solemn as a statue.

"Still, I wonder why the people let such good fields fallow. Shouldn't this be the growing season?" Sir Seliph looks thoughtfully over at the empty fields stretching outwards, and the dryad tree orchard further away.

"Cousin Leaf!" Katarina runs over, and throws herself towards Marquis Leif with the force as if she's fired out of a ballista. She successfully catches the attention of the young crusaders, as they turn around to see the approaching party. "It's good to see you again!"

"Honored heroes." Julius steps forward amongst the younger generation crusaders, clearly their leader, or representative. Technically, it should have been Duke Febail leading them, as the head of House Yngvi is already a fully fledged lord who outranks the heir to House Velthomer. But the blonde bowman is clearly willing to let the redhead take the lead. "My father dispatched us to rendezvous with you after he learnt you were making Balafon your base of operations. As the descendants of the Divine Crusaders who were there to fight alongside the first heroes, it will be our honor, and sworn duty to assist you to stop this current Wave of Catastrophe."

The other heroes cast their glance onto Naofumi, silently giving their confidence to the Shield Hero for the decision. After pausing a little, the Shield Hero gives an open, yet noncommittal answer. "We'll see about that. If you are serious about protecting the world and the people, help us train and prepare for the Wave. Let's see how well we work together, or not."

"That's our intention." Julius gives a shallow bow, more like a nod. Only deep enough to not be seen as disrespectful to the heroes.

After consolidating his hold amongst the rest of the crusaders, it seems like Duke Velthomer decided to appease the summoned Cardinal Heroes. Not something as boarish as most noble families: by throwing virgin daughters at them. No, he's trying to emphasize and leverage the unique strength of the crusader bloodlines. Their martial excellence towards both gives concrete support to the heroes, but also potentially makes the heroes reliant on their strength.

"Cousin Cat! You have got to stop doing that!" On the side, Lord Leif stumbles back a step as Katarina charges into him, before holding the monkey girl's arms with exasperation. "One of these days, Sir Finn, or someone else would mistake you for a danger and hurt you."

"Nah, Sir Finn wouldn't do that to me. He's too nice." Katarina pokes her tongue out at the knight in question before turning to look at Seliph. "The Shield Hero was the one who told us not to plant crops too many times. You see, the soil here at Balafon is special after we destroyed a giant plant monster. Turned into some fortunate ground thingy, yeah, you have to ask Mr. Zylden about it, I didn't understand any. Anyways, they make crops fully mature within the week, and produce abundant bounty. But if we overplant, we'll make the soil barren again. That's why we are allowing the field to fallow, while also adding ashes of excessive branches we burnt up from those dryad trees."

"I see…" Leif looks over at the tilted earth thoughtfully. "Is it possible for us to buy some saplines of these dryad trees, and maybe some of these ashes? It should help the soil of Leonster recover."

"Oh, you have to ask the Count Whiterun for that. This isn't really any of our land, after all."

"They are just barely sentient, bastard offspring of an already bastard child of some outer god, girl. What's the point of asking permission for them?" Gaelion flies off Wyndia's head and snorts a small cloud of ember out of his nose. "Tell that Balgruuf boy I said okay. If he has a problem, I'll give him some more of my scales."

"My Lord!" The shocked exclamation of a young woman can be heard from the back of Marquis Leif and Count Seliph's group. Mein looks over, and sees the lavender-haired heiress of Fiege Duchy rushing over. Her face looks slightly contorted from her usual serene expression, either from pain or something else. The rest of her five siblings and cousins follow her and they all kneel in front of Gaelion. "You are our patron, Lord Gaelion, aren't you? I can feel the blood in my right hand boil when you fly over."

"Lord Gaelion, it's an honor to have an audience with you." The rest of the young crusaders.

Wait, Gaelion was the patron of House Fiege, the same family Lotheringen, the captain of the royal guards are from?

…of course he is! It's easy to overlook his identity considering Gaelion likes to take the form of a pygmy dragon, and he's often bullied by his headstrong daughter. But he is still a Dragon Emperor, a child of Gaia.

"My children, and my sibling's children as well. All of you seem to be recovering, and healing after that mess from sixty years ago." Gaelion looks over at the kneeling young ladies and lords. Despite his tiny stature and scratchy voice, he actually seems more… regal all of a sudden.

"Sixty years ago? Wasn't it when the last wave happened? What exactly happened? It doesn't have anything to do with the last… Shield Hero, does it?" Naofumi's face begins to frown as he leans closer to ask Gaelion.

"I don't remember exactly, my memory of the last wave was fuzzy after my title was passed down from me, to me." Gaelion turns around to face the Shield Hero. "All I remember was there's some ritual conducted by both the last Shield Hero, and the Bow Hero. And it ended up tearing a hole right through the Four Saints Barrier around our world. It nearly awoke the Four Guardians all at once, and started a mass life purge of Medea to repair the barrier with the gathered life force. The twelve of us Dragon Emperors used all of our power to patch it up the best we could before it could have happened. Our second oldest sibling, Naga lost all of their power, the rest of us can't even hold onto our corporeal form and had to all reincarnate."

"That sounds… very serious."

"It was." Comes Gaelion's short reply. "Don't make the same mistake as your predecessor."

"Well, to not make the same mistake, they are going to grow strong enough to beat back the Waves without resorting to some screwed up rituals. And I'm here to help them with that." A flippant voice calls from behind the kneeled young Crusaders. Sure enough, Coach Zellus pushes through their retinue to stand in front of the four heroes. "What's up, children? I'm their chaperone… and your coach before the Third Wave to make sure you are all as prepared as you can be."


End Note:

So, everyone probably figured out how much I disliked (to put things diplomatically) on a lot of changes anime version did to Rising (which I already didn't have the highest opinion on). Although one thing I did like was making Raphtalia and Firo not get along as it makes the group dynamic of Naofumi's team more interesting and lively. That being said, I personally perfer it being sibling rivalry, than a love triangle acting catty considering the age of associated characters.

On Firo's aggressiveness. From a meta-narrative point, the reason I massively emphasised Firo being a brat is because how I didn't like the double standard canon Rotsh had between Naofumi's group and everyone else. When everyone else does something, they get judged overly harshly even by real life standard and get portrayed as completely unreasonable, while when Naofumi's group does something downright heinous, it's handwaved away with anime bizarro world logic.

Firo as a character is a pretty good example, as even her canon self was someone who repeatedly commit assault, even attempted murder on anyone who she doesn't like. But it's always played for laugh and never taken seriously with a coat of anime comedic violence paint. I simply took her aggressiveness, but taken off canon's comedic anime filter off.

Although the in-universe reason for Firo's aggressiveness is finally explained in this chapter. It's because Malty abused her when she was young, which heightened her aggressiveness to fight back.

(belated) guest review time.

To Halo:

Sorry about forgetting to respond back to you last time. Got a bit tired with real life problem. This week wasn't anything better, at least I finally remembered to respond.

X_X

Well... I don't want to give away too much. But Fitoria underwent MASSIVE change from her canon self due to a mix of Comrade Broseph's love for FATE series (at least I assumed, I wasn't versed in the actual series) and me having to abridge what lore he created into my story after his disappearance. I'm not sure if he would like the changes I made to his lore, but I'm happy with what I got. You'll see it when she appears, and I hope it can at least be interesting.

:P

RotSH is nowhere near as bad as most Isekai WebNovels, not even close to the bottom tier. My biggest problem is how cynical the story was and I don't mean the overall cynical view of the story itself. The biggest problem I have with RotSH (aside from a bunch of things from characters to plot points that didn't get properly setup, or fleshed out) was its blatant double standard. It pretended to be a 'smart subversion/deconstruction of Isekai genre', when all it does is making funny faces at some of the Isekai genre troupes... and then it turns around and do the exact same troupe with its main character. It's a very disgenuine, therefore disappointing story for me personally because I actually wanted to read an actual smart subversion/deconstruction of braindead Isekai power fantasy.

That's why I enjoyed Reincarted as a Slime (at least till knock-off Black Butler's appearance, and any sense of balancing got punted out of the earth's orbit by the author) much more than RotSH even though it IS a braindead power fantasy. At least Reincarnated as a Slime was genuine, and had a likeable main character who doesn't go around looking down on everyone just because he has sixty feet thick plot armor.

While it's more often to have fanfiction writers using the three weapon heroes as stooges to prop up their own SIOC trash (since it's already done by the original author), there are definitely some writers who write stories where the heroes get along with each other. Highly recommend you give 'The Rising of the Four Heroes' by Pretty Lazy a try if you haven't yet.

Things are definitely progressing with Malty one way or another. It remains to be seen if it's good things.

:P

I don't read Ariferuta myself, so I have no opinion on it. Sorry.

To Night:

Likewise, sorry I missed responding to you last time.

It's clear that most of the support characters from RotSH are super attractive girls is because RotSH is still a braindead power fantasy at its core, despite it pretended otherwise. The original WN's ending literally had the main character become a god, while marrying most of his pretty lady cheerleaders.

Well... like what I said to Halo, Fitoria has pretty extensive change to her character in this story. Not sure if you'll like my version better than canon, but hopefully withou spoiling too much, she's much younger than she gives the impression of (which is still old by human standard, granted).

Like Ren implied in the last chapter, a 'liar revealed' troupe is incoming.

;)

And yes, Firo in this story needs some 'tough love'. Sadly Naofumi isn't willing to give it considering how he was neglected by his own parents.

While Malty enjoy reading romance novel was directly inspired by Katarina's story (it just make perfect sense with how lacking in entertainment her time was, and fits how she's good at manipulating men) and had nothing to do with I want to make Malty and Naofumi more similar to each other, their very likely unintended similarity by the author (because how the author didn't do anything interesting with it) was noticed by me. That was a huge reason inspired me to go with Lawful Good Naofumi X Lawful Evil Malty ship.

XDDD