Chapter 30 / Change
Being a city near Melromarc's border, it would have been expected that there were many people on its streets. However, that meant there would be more eyes around them to suspect if something was amiss with any of the travelers coming through and coming out of its perimeter. Naofumi was already very wary of the attention they would bring if they were to stroll in as a large group.
Resupplying themselves was not a large priority this time around and frankly, Naofumi was fine with skipping the town to not sell their materials and medicine if it meant they were playing it safer. However, it was important that they figure out the current situation concerning the public's perspective on the Cardinal Heroes and if they were going to have a difficult time crossing the border. Even then, they would still have cross a few smaller nations before even seeing Faulbrey's soil.
It was better to determine that now, rather than approach the knights to find out that they won't be able to get through without any sort of fighting. That was the last thing that Naofumi wanted, so he suggested for half of the group to head into the border city, Grenze, to quickly scout out whatever may be helpful to them.
In that regard, Ren, Eclair, Motoyasu, and Sakura volunteered themselves to head in. Of course, all of them were wearing their hoods to be spotted less easily.
"Crowded place," Ren commented. "It's almost as bad as the capital."
"What do you mean by 'as bad'?" Motoyasu chuckled. "If you're afraid to be lost in the crowd, you can hold my hand like Sakura is doing right now. We can stick together like that."
Ren flinched. "Wh-what…? No, I'm not doing that! I'm not a kid!"
"More for Sakura…" Sakura pouted, tightening her grip with two hands onto Motoyasu.
"Grenze isn't a place for us to wander about aimlessly," Eclair sighed, pulling the group's attention back on track. "Already, I'm seeing an increasing number of Melromarcian knights stationed around the streets. There are even some Three Heroes Church members scattered around as well. They are very wary of anybody that they could label as the Cardinal Heroes."
"If they've got eyes on this city, then it's almost guaranteed that there's an increased number of knights patrolling the border," Ren suspected. "Should we find another way around it?"
"We don't know that for sure," Motoyasu pointed out, "but it does look fairly likely that they have knights positioned here for a back-and-forth between a city and the border. If this is the closest city to the border, there might be information regarding said border if we can find the knights' headquarters."
"Are you suggesting we break in?" Eclair raised her eyebrow.
Ren shrugged. "I'm down for that."
"You will not be down for that," she immediately snapped back. "I highly advise against breaking more laws. After what happened in Errnthon, perhaps you might ease off breaking laws for a little while, if not then the rest of our travels."
"It's not like we would go in loud, I take it. I still have some of the uniforms from our escape in the castle. We could easily sneak in order to gather more intel if we can find the right place. Given you're a former knight, I can guess that you can figure out where they would keep that sort of information."
Ren glanced into his inventory quickly. "Unfortunately, I only have two. It's obvious that Sakura won't be able to wear one, not that I think it's a good idea for her to be brought in."
"Sakura can be quiet if Daddy wants her to be."
Ren bit down on his lips, judging her size. "That's… not the issue."
"What does stupid Ren mean by that?"
"Then I'll stay out with Sakura." Motoyasu rubbed her head, making her forget Ren's comment. "You two take the uniforms and figure out details on the border."
"That was my initial plan," Ren groaned.
"What will you two do instead?" Eclair asked.
Sakura raised her hand. "Sakura wants food."
"We'll get food later," Motoyasu laughed before returning to answer properly. "If you two are looking for information on the border through the knights, maybe it might be a good idea for us to do the same for the adventurers. I saw more than a handful of them in the city, so I'm assuming that there's something similar to an adventurer's guild here."
"An adventurer's guild…?" Eclair tried to remember her memories of Grenze. "I do believe there is one, near the western edge of the town. If you head straight down this street, you should be able to come across it without any difficulties."
"Perfect. I don't think there's any benefit for us to meet back up in the city after we're done, so we'll just return back to Naofumi once we wrap things up here."
Ren nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
After finishing their discussion, the group split off into the assigned pairs and went their separate ways. Ren reminded Motoyasu to wear his mask, just to be on the safer side, which he pulled out and equipped immediately. He didn't want to accidentally reveal his identity again. He was lucky in Lerno, but he knew there wasn't going to be a second break.
-/IV/-
"Daddy, there's a lot of people inside here too."
"This is your first time seeing the adventurer's guild, isn't it?"
It felt like some time since Motoyasu stepped foot in an adventurer's guild, but he had only been in the capital's guild a handful of times. He noticed that there were a few adventurers coming out, taking a quick look at them, as these mysterious visitors were cloaked with hoods, but they primarily didn't give their appearance much thought. After all, there were some adventurers that looked more suspicious than them; Motoyasu didn't mean any offense by that.
"The place is big…"
"It's a central workplace for adventurers, so they need to make it as big as they can to hold as many adventurers as they can. Most of the time, people are going in and out for their jobs, but there are people that hang around and use the places as a meeting spot."
"What are those papers over there?"
Motoyasu glanced over to see Sakura pointing at the nearby billboard. "That's where the adventurers grab their jobs. Each of those papers is someone requesting help with something, so it's very important for the guild."
"A lot of people need help…"
As a little distraction, Motoyasu walked up to the commissions with Sakura and looked at the various postings. "It looks like some of these are simple jobs, like gathering herbs or helping with a delivery, but we got bigger jobs scattered around here."
Out of the group, Motoyasu's attention caught onto one listing that asked adventurers to help with a revolution in a country north of Melromarc, but there was another that asked adventurers to slay a dragon. Both of which sounded so intense that no normal adventurer would be offering themselves to either cause. Though, slaying a dragon did sound like something Ren would try to pick up, but even so, the location was in the opposite direction of where they're heading.
Never mind that for now.
Motoyasu needed to get back on track, but his gaze slowly picked itself over to another billboard that was close to the commissions. He would have looked over it without a second thought, but he noticed a set of four posters in particular that caught his attention the first time. They were right in the middle as Motoyasu approached it for a better look.
"Is that your picture, Daddy?"
"And everyone else's…"
Motoyasu muttered under his breath, discovering that this was the bounty board. The posters of the Cardinal Heroes were stuck up with bold shadings, emphasizing their importance and danger. Mootyasu took down the one belonging to Naofumi, seeing that his in comparison to everyone else looked far more demonified.
"Ren looks dumb."
Motoyasu quickly glanced up from Sakura's comment, seeing that the portrait quality on Ren's poster was arguably worse than the others. Probably for the best to not mention it to him, as Motoyasu glanced back down and read Naofumi's poster for himself.
"Crimes to the capital. Wanted on multiple accounts…"
While the list had the incidents covering their escape from the castle, twisted in a way to make it sound like it was an attack on the royal family, the posters were already updated on what happened in Errnthon, accusing Naofumi for leading the charge on killing the governor.
In simply reading the poster, Motoyasu felt himself pulling on his hood instinctively, as if to cover his face a bit more. The lucky part was that the posters held no mention of the other companion they have in their journey, so they were primarily looking for a group of four people that could resemble the heroes. Having Sakura by his side might have helped more than he thought.
"Maybe we shouldn't stick around for much longer…"
Motoyasu returned the poster to the wall as he noticed Sakura rustling into her pockets. He didn't really pay attention too much, but he saw another kid looking at the bounty board next to her. Sakura largely ignored her, but he noticed that the young girl was staring intently into a poster.
Specifically, Motoyasu's poster.
The best course of action would have been to ignore her, just as Sakura was doing right now, but there was something frightening about what was in the girl's eyes. There was certainly hatred within it.
"... Is something wrong, little lady?"
"... It's nothing."
The young girl looked away and went over to the commission board. It then caught onto Motoyasu that such a young person had been working as an adventurer. Physically speaking, she looked around to be similar to Sakura's visual age. The guild must be weary of this, since she merely took a herb gathering request and started heading over to the counter. Even so, herb collection was somewhat dangerous with unexpected monster attacks at every corner.
Something about it felt weird to him. He knew that he should probably gather more information regarding the border, but this young girl was pulling over his attention. After all, there was no way that he could have mistaken that focused gaze in her eyes.
One of killing intent.
As the young girl was returning back for departure, Motoyasu called out to her once more.
"Should someone like you be working as an adventurer already?"
"Hmm?" The young girl stopped briefly. "I-I… It's not like I want to, but…"
"Did something to your parents that's making you need the money?"
"My parents died a year ago."
Motoyasu gulped. He would have slapped himself in the back of the head if he could.
"I need the money for income. That's all."
Being forced to depend on herself at a young age was brutal, but that would explain one side of the story. There was still the gaze that she was giving to the Spear Hero's poster, but before he could inquire further about that, the young girl was already leaving. He didn't want to stop her, in case he would accidentally trigger more landmines.
She really didn't look like she wanted to be here, but another adventurer approached him as she went off on her way. "You must be new around here."
"You can say that," Motoyasu nodded. "Is there a story behind her? I'm a bit confused as to why someone as young as her is serving as an adventurer."
"What about your companion there?" the adventurer asked, pointing to Sakura.
She puffed her chest. "Sakura is Sakura. Sakura is plenty strong."
"She's my daughter," Motoyasu chuckled, rubbing her head. "I'm looking after her, so she's not in any danger whatsoever, but that girl doesn't have anyone protecting her."
"Then I suppose your paternal instincts are what is making you concerned. There's no harm in letting you know about the situation, since it might be gnawing at you the rest of the day."
"Please."
He wasn't too convinced that he was going to get any information regarding the girl's perplexing attitude, but if it made him look less suspicious, Motoyasu didn't mind playing his hand into the situation as it came to him.
"It started a year ago when her father finally passed away. Her mother passed away earlier than him, so that left her family with the sibling of three to fend for themselves. She's the second oldest child, but her older sister was an adventurer already. Around these parts, it's a bit difficult to get commissions that pay well to continuously support her family, so the oldest child went off to the capital shortly after their father's death in order to send back money to survive."
"I see." Motoyasu grimaced. "Not having your parents around is a difficult thing."
"Still though, that young girl was able to push onwards because of the income that her older sister would send back weekly through the guild, as well as an update in a written mail about her time in the capital. Since some of us were acquainted with her older sister, she would share her sister's adventures."
Motoyasu's gaze returned to his bounty poster, deciding to take the shot. Perhaps there was an incident that involved the Spear Hero and this supposed older sister, but Motoyasu couldn't remember anything noteworthy. At the very least, he didn't think he had hurt another girl during that time.
"... Did something happen concerning the Spear Hero with her?"
"You see, a little while ago, her older sister was fortunate enough to party up with the Spear Hero and sent her messages through the guild about her time with him and his party. One including saving a village from a famine."
Motoyasu's body stiffened.
"However, it was during those days where the letters, along with the weekly income, had suddenly stopped. I would say it's been about a month already since we last heard anything from her."
His bad feeling started shaking himself to his core.
"It was around the same time that the bounty report happened concerning the Spear Hero. You can put one and one together. There's no doubt about it that the Spear Hero did something to her older sister and that's why she hates the Spear Hero so much. Every time comes in, she can't help herself to look at his poster and pray that he, alongside the other criminal heroes, are brought to justice."
"What's her name?"
"Excuse me?"
Motoyasu's question escaped his mouth faster than the adventurer could hear him.
"The... The older sister," Motoyasu sweated. "What was her name?"
"It's Rino."
Everything felt dizzy.
"Was she someone you knew?"
Suddenly, Motoyasu's legs felt weak and his body shivered at the revelation.
Something was very wrong. Rino allegedly left because of a family emergency that she had to attend to, but that was specifically concerning her parents. If her parents died a year prior to Motoyasu's summoning to Melromarc, that wouldn't have made any sense. Rino wouldn't have lied like that, but he realized that Rino wasn't the one to tell him.
It was the other girls that informed him.
"Daddy? Are you okay?"
"You don't look too good. Your face is pale."
"I'm… I'm fine." Motoyasu attempted to laugh it off. "I guess it's a bad idea to be worrying about other people when I still have my headache from this morning." Of course, that part was a lie, but Sakura was unintentionally helping him out of the situation.
"A headache? Does it hurt?" Sakura pulled herself closer to him. "Does Daddy need medicine?"
"Maybe I shouldn't skip out on that this morning."
"You really shouldn't be out like that, worrying your daughter so much. Go on, get back to resting already," the adventurer chuckled. "I haven't seen you around, so I can only assume you're new to town. There's a medicinal shop down the street, so you'll be able to pick something up there."
"Thanks. I appreciate it."
The adventurer said their goodbyes as Motoyasu and Sakura left the guild, but despite not having an actual headache, Motoyasu felt like his head was going to split in half. He couldn't make any sense of what happened that day when Rino left their party.
Rino never made it back to her hometown, despite the message that was forwarded to him by the other girls. Elena, Lesty, and Myne were all affirming her message by not saying anything further than that. If there was a slip of the tongue, somebody else might have said something, but that wasn't the case.
Why was there a lie? What was the reason for it?
There had to be a good reason for it, right?
He came into the guild, trying to seek information, but merely emerging, having more questions. Motoyasu wanted to take a break and step back for a bit to see what was going on here.
"Are we not going to the medicine shop, Daddy?" Sakura pulled on his sleeve, looking very worried for him. "Your headache might get worse."
"... I'm fine now."
"Your face doesn't say so. Is Daddy really sure?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll talk with Naofumi about giving something better than whatever the shop can provide to me." This was something that Sakura wouldn't understand, not that Motoyasu wanted her to. He distracted her by petting her head once more. "Ah, right. Didn't you want some food? We'll get some delicious treats in town before we head back. How does that sound?"
Usually, that would work in throwing Sakura off the scent of a conversation, but all she did was look at him, curiously this time. It was like on an instinctive level, Sakura knew Motoyasu was hiding his emotions. He repeated the question once more, bringing Sakura out of that little distraction into another.
"Okayyy…"
"Have something you have your eyes on?"
"... Whatever Daddy wants to eat, Sakura will eat too."
"Not too picky today, are we?"
They headed down the streets, not saying another word until they found something to eat. Perhaps that was more of a distraction for Motoyasu himself.
-/IV/-
The security on the knights' headquarters was weaker than Ren expected. Apparently, if someone looked the part, they would let you walk right on through without checking for any sort of identity which caused Eclair to be slightly disappointed in her fellow colleagues. Although, it made things far easier on their end, especially if they can walk by other knights without arousing any level of suspicion.
"It's been a while since I've been in a place like this," Eclair muttered to herself, readjusting her helmet. "It feels like yesterday that I was dispatched to my first remote headquarters for training purposes."
"So where are we going to find information concerning the border?" Ren asked, popping her out of reminiscing. "I take it that it's not going to be haphazardly on the floor or anything."
"I suppose the easiest method would be to ask others."
"I guess it'll be difficult for people to remember your voice immediately."
"Would you not be the one to ask them?"
For a few silent seconds, Ren and Eclair paused in the middle of the hallway, looking at each other with deadpanned expressions. This might have been a poor combination to bring into the intel mission that required them to speak with other knights to determine their objectives.
"Aren't you the one asking?" Ren inquired. "You're the one with more knowledge on how this knight business works, so you should be the person to speak."
"Unfortunately, that runs the risk of people figuring out who I am. My position in the knights was fairly ranked high, so there are more than enough knights that may be able to determine my identity based on my voice alone."
"You were a high-ranking knight?"
"High enough that I ran the training regimes in place for the captain."
"Would you even call that high-ranking?"
"You're dodging the point of the matter, Sir Ren." Eclair cleared her throat. "In any case, I do not see the issue with you speaking of us to figure out information for ourselves."
Ren bit his lips. "There is… a considerable wall for me."
He turned the other way, refusing to elaborate any further than that.
Eclair found herself facepalming. It was almost amazing to think that the same person that was capable of carnage had been the same person that was incapable of asking nicely for information. She didn't know what exactly had been Ren's problem concerning that, but it was evidently clear that none of them were in any position to speak in a conversation with the fellow knights.
"We could… try the documentation room and hope we find something?" Eclair sighed, exasperated at the unexpected roadblock. "It should contain the paperwork required for all the knights and patrols concerning the town and to some extension, the border fortress."
"Why didn't you suggest that first?"
"I didn't think we needed that suggestion to be made." Eclair pinched the bridge of her nose. "Still though, that does hold some amount of risk to it. If we're discovered inside that room without proper authorization, it's not going to end well for us."
Eclair reluctantly led Ren over to the second floor where the documentation room was. It was unlocked, but as Eclair was about to look inside if any knights were present, someone walked out right into her. It wasn't a hard bump, but it was enough for the knight in question to drop the papers he was carrying in his arms.
"Sorry about that."
"I-I wasn't looking where I was going, my bad…"
The knight looked a bit younger, probably around Ren's age, but Eclair's attention was disrupted by the papers that were being scattered onto the floor. Out of pure instinct, she leaned down to help out the whimpering young knight.
"A-ah, thank you."
Ren looked more disinterested, trying to use the accident to sneak into the room, but he stopped when the young knight took a moment to look at Eclair closer up. She tried to keep her eyes away from the line of sight, but it was in vain.
"Huh? E-Eclair…?"
The two intruders flinched at the quick discovery.
"You're Eclair, aren't you!?"
Ren closed in to knock him out, but he looked up to see him winding up. The young knight cowered in fear, stammering a bit as he crossed his arms to protect himself.
"W-w-wait, hold on! I don't mean any harm! I won't tell anyone, I promise!"
Eclair lifted her arm to catch Ren's fist before it could land. Ren gave her a silent gaze, asking her what she was doing. They had nothing to lose in knocking the knight out, but Eclair finished up gathering the papers and stood up to extend her hand.
"Come. On your feet."
"Y-yes, ma'am…"
Oddly enough, the young knight followed her words without even looking at her offering hand. He merely kicked himself into shape, as if taking orders from higher-ups. As she handed back the papers, the young knight glanced in between Eclair and Ren.
"You're probably not supposed to be here, so maybe we should head back into the documentation room." He beckoned the two intruders into the room and while Ren was wary, Eclair assured him that their chances of being exposed was low.
As the young knight closed the door, he placed the papers down and started to sort them out. If he was doing some grunt work, Eclair knew that it might take some time, mostly because those papers had to be in order. He kept his back to them, but Eclair was starting to remember this particular knight.
"You are… Ake, right?"
"You remember me?"
"You were a part of the group of knights I trained," Eclair nodded. "Of course, I also remember that you struggled to keep up."
"U-ugh… That didn't need to be mentioned…"
Eclair crossed her arms as she made a quick inspection of the paper-filled room. Ren was already dismissing Ake as a threat and decided to start snooping around for their goal.
"Although I do appreciate that you won't be informing the others about our presence, I have to ask about your reasons. Knowing this as a former knight, withholding information like this is dangerous for you, if it were to be discovered. Are you certain about this?"
"Why are you asking that now?" Ren grumbled underneath his breath. "Don't make him take back what he said…"
"No, I'm certain. I won't tell anyone about seeing you here." Ake straightened out a stack of paper, hitting the bottom against the table. "It's because you're helping out the Shield Hero and the others, right? That's what the rumors around the castle say, if you, uh, dig past the part where they said that you were brainwashed by the Shield Demon…"
"You don't believe in the rumors?" Eclair asked.
Ake gently smiled. "I… actually have much to thank the Shield Hero. He heard he fought valiantly in the wave of destruction."
Ren flinched, hearing about the disaster. He hadn't faced off against the wave yet, so he had no idea what it might have looked like. Naofumi and Itsuki merely told him about the bare details of what happened, but he didn't think about anything further than that.
"When I heard that the wave of destruction was happening in Riyute, I knew I had to get there as quickly as possible because it's my hometown. My friends and family were there and I was already fearing for the worst. Thankfully, they were saved. I heard from them how the Shield Hero had conducted himself during the disaster, trying to save as many people as he could alongside his companions, but also the fact that the Shield Hero was arrested by the knights immediately after."
Ake clenched his hand, feeling a subtle frustration.
"If you ask me about who I should believe in, the people who were fighting the monsters or the people that were trying to save the villagers, I think it should be obvious." He pulled up his hand to his chest, glancing back to Eclair. "A knight should use their strength to protect citizens from harm. We aren't supposed to be fighting the waves directly, after all…"
He straightened himself up. "I do want to help out the Shield Hero as much as I can from this side, but from where I stand, I can't do much. I'm only being assigned grunt work, after all." Ake bowed to Eclair, acting as a stand-in for the group as Ren briefly looked over his shoulder. "Could you possibly relay my gratitude to the Shield Hero?"
Eclair nodded. "Of course. I'll pass the message onto him."
"I would like to meet him myself, but something tells me that it's not going to be possible."
"You've got that right," Ren scoffed. "The others are hiding out right now and regardless of your intention, I don't think it'll be good to lead a knight over to them."
Ren then lifted a few papers in front of him, shaking it a bit to divert their attention.
"How about we get down to business, now that we've got our little salutations out of the way? I found some papers that might explain more about the situation around the border fortress, but it doesn't look good if we're trying to cross it like normal people."
He left the papers in Eclair's papers as she took a look to read it for herself. Needless to say, she started grimacing, as if Ren's words were foreboding enough.
"An increase of two hundred percent manpower at not only the border fortress in Faulbrey's direction, but to every other border fortress that Melromarc has. And this is merely the additions that the knights have made. The holy knights appear to be lending their numbers as well, but it seems like they're more situated around the western side of the country where they have more influence."
"There seems to be more knights coming to the border fortress to Faulbrey in particular." Ren sighed. "How fun. That means we're on the clock if we don't want a higher difficulty in our exit. Though, we could always break through with our firepower. I don't think they can stop us if we go loud."
Eclair glared at him, as if to tell him to not mention anything relating to forcing their way through again.
"If that's the case, they've figured out our intentions." Eclair shuffled through the next few pages. "They do not wish for us to leave Melromarc under any circumstance, but even if we arrive there first, there's still an unbelievable amount of knights standing guard there."
"I'm surprised they have the numbers for that."
"They shouldn't…" Eclair grunted. "If the commanders made orders like these ones, they're leaving city patrols thin on protecting the citizens from the average crimes. These are definitely not orders that the captain would permit, but…"
"The captain isn't back yet," Ake responded. "Both the captain and vice-captain went off with the queen to Faulbrey in order to be her bodyguards, assigning direct control of the knights to the king for the time being. If the queen hasn't returned, then we won't be seeing those two either."
"Then it makes sense. The king was very livid with the Cardinal Heroes during our departure," Eclair said, taking a subtle glance at Ren, "so he would see to it that the heroes do not escape his grasp."
"Considering the tight position that the queen is in," Ake grimaced, "we don't expect them to make a return anytime soon. We've heard that she's been making some trips in order to prevent Melromarc from falling into war, but that's only the rumors on the knights' streets. This entire situation concerning the Cardinal Heroes is spiraling out of control, even for someone like her."
"Then it's a good thing that they're by her side. There's no doubt that there would be plenty of assassination attempts laid onto the queen's head as a figure for Melromarc, so with the captain and the vice-captain there, I could reasonably see her to be safe for the time being. At least, physically."
"That's fine and all, but from what I'm hearing," Ren interrupted, "it doesn't sound like the queen is in Faulbrey anymore. If she's been confirmed to be traveling around already, we might have already missed her in Faulbrey."
"Sorry, but I don't know where the queen is right now. Things like that is not public information for us lower-ranked knights. If you asked the commanders, they would probably know."
"And that's out of the question," Ren spat.
"Let's assume that we've missed our chance at Faulbrey," Eclair declared. "Where else would she go for peacekeeping? I think the main countries she would visit are the other countries that were involved in the conference. That is to say, Zeltoble, Siltvelt, and Shieldfreedan."
"... Shield… freedan?"
"Is something wrong?"
As Eclair asked him, Ren bit down on his lips, nervously looking away. He didn't vocally respond, only shaking his head to dismiss Eclair's concern. She raised an eyebrow to the strange reaction, but continued with her thoughts aloud.
"Continuing where I was, the nearest country would be by taking a ship to Shieldfreedan. Or would it be towards Zeltoble? Would the queen make the roundtrip clockwise or counterclockwise…?"
"Maybe you should take the route that's more convenient," Ake suggested. "Not only do they have knights at the borders, they've got knights on the port cities to make sure the heroes aren't escaping to the waters. That much, I could definitely say since a close colleague of mine got repositioned to Lola."
"Then from the sounds of it, we should be readjusting our objective to Zeltoble?"
"It appears to be that way," Eclair nodded. "If there are going to be more knights heading this way, we should divert our original passage and make a straight cut towards Zeltoble to throw them off our scent. There will still be a few countries we'll have to cross to get there, but hopefully, the borders will be less guarded if they're assuming we'll still intending to head to Faulbrey."
"It's not a bad plan, but we've already wasted a good amount of time. It's already been a few weeks since we started moving around like this, so who's to say that the queen hasn't already departed from Zeltoble or Shieldfreedan yet?"
"Diplomacy is a lengthy process, Sir Ren. It does not come as easily as you might expect. It does not take a single meeting to make everyone satisfied, nor does it take anywhere close to that number. Even between the governors of Melromarc, there were disagreements that caused meetings to take a week or two to settle out. I've heard about a few of them from my late father when I was younger."
"Then I suppose we'll make our way to Zeltoble instead and place a gambit that the queen didn't head to Shield…" Ren heistated for a bit. "... Shieldfreedan after finishing up with Faulbrey."
"Perhaps we'll be able to hear more about the queen's position once we're through. The borders will be far easier to cross once we're out of the country, so it does not matter if we don't access Faulbrey through Melromarc."
"Alternatively, you could find a safe haven in Melromarc and, uh…" Ake scratched his head. "Maybe you can wait for them to return?"
"Are you insane?" Ren frowned.
"Well, you avoided them so far, right? I was only thinking that because if the queen is able to return, she can solve your problems."
"Why do you think we were trying to cross the border? We want to find the queen first."
"O-oh, I didn't realize. I guess I should have picked up on that, but I still think it's a decent idea. The queen wants peace and the captain is a very open-minded person. If they are able to meet you guys, your innocence is almost guaranteed."
Ake straightened out the papers and tucked them into his arms before Ren could lay out another comment about it. "Anyways, I should get going. The commander is expecting these papers soon, so I have to get them to him. It was nice seeing you again, Eclair."
"Just to be clear again, you won't tell?"
"Absolutely not. You taught me the basics of swordplay, so even without the whole Riyute incident, I'm still indebted to you."
Ake bowed his head to Eclair before he left.
"Bye, you two. Good luck on your journey."
Ren sighed. "Yeah, you too."
As Ake closed the door, Ren gulped, hoping that the young knight didn't hear him. Most certainly though, Eclair did, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
"... 'You too'? Ake isn't going anywhere."
"Forget about what I said."
Ren swiped the papers back from Eclair, showing a slight fluster along his cheeks. He tried to distract himself from the embarrassment by making himself busy putting back the papers. However, the door opened again while Ren's guard was down. Eclair thought it might have been Ake forgetting something, but to her surprise, it was another knight.
As she was about to make an excuse for them to leave, the mysterious knight silently glanced between the two of them. Almost immediately, Eclair's instincts told her something was feeling off about this particular knight and her hand threw itself next to her sword, but not on it, just in case she was mistaken. Ren felt the piercing gaze look over his shoulder, silently returning the pressure as his fingers started itching to move at any needed moment.
"You two are accompanying the Shield Hero, correct?"
Both Eclair and Ren immediately slammed their hands onto their sword's handles, but before they could close the gap to knock out the mysterious knight, they continued with their words.
"I'm not an enemy. I come bearing a message."
"... A message?" Ren frowned.
"... From who?" Eclair asked.
None of them broke out of their hostile stances until they could get confirmation, but they didn't expect what the mysterious knight was going to say.
"I come bearing a message from the queen."
Eclair and Ren stiffened at the mention and while Eclair's stance relaxed, Ren made up for it with a growing strength on his grip. He finally pulled out his sword, burrowing his brows.
"Do you really think we can just trust you because you know how to drop the queen's name like that? How naive do you think we are?" Ren took a step closer, threatening his attack. "And if you've come to send a message from the queen, there's no reason why you should have taken so long."
"Hold yourself, Sir Ren." Eclair raised her arm to stop him from moving any further. "If this is truly a messenger from the queen, we can't be acting too hastily. Don't forget that we've been hiding ourselves for a while, so it may be possible that the queen's messenger had difficulty finding us."
"That doesn't change the fact that I shouldn't be suspicious about this."
"We might have been able to contact you sooner, but there were some difficulties. Perhaps we should speak elsewhere, not inside of the knights' headquarters."
Without much regard, the mysterious knight turned and started to leave. Ren gave Eclair a wary gaze, but she was convinced of the situation. She headed off first before Ren tried to stop them.
"Wait, we don't know if they can be trusted."
The mysterious knight looked over their shoulder.
"Shall I diverge into explaining our difficulties?"
"I don't see how that relates to us."
"It does indeed. Once we are out, you shall see the truth."
The mysterious knight walked out and Eclair silently followed them. Ren was still on the fence, but if this had been a trap, he could simply fight his way out of it. Giving it a reluctant shrug, he followed them outside, for the knight to bring them to a nearby alleyway without any problems.
"Alright. Spit it out. What's the deal here?"
The mysterious knight turned around to face Eclair and Ren.
"I am what you may call a Shadow, one of many that belong to Melromarc's secret service. As such, we do not have names to provide to our clients, but that is not needed for our jobs."
"A shadow…?" Eclair gasped. "I've heard rumors of their existence, but I didn't expect us to have some underneath the queen's command. You're the ones that largely gather intelligence for those in upper command for the queen and the captain, correct?"
"I cannot answer further than that."
Ren sighed sarcastically. "How secretive of you."
"Can you tell us about the queen's message?" Eclair asked.
The shadow nodded.
"The queen has heard of the… troubling news that has happened within Errnthon and while she had already planned for the governor to be investigated deeply for his mismanagement of his territory, his assassination is not something that was desired. Everyone will be on high alert because of that action and while it is seemingly beneficial for the heroes and the queen to meet with each other, she has chosen that this is not the time to do so."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Ren frowned.
"You will not be leaving Melromarc. It is in the queen's best interest that you stay within the country."
Although Ren was taken back from the announcement, it was Eclair who had been more shocked to hear the change in their plans. "Excuse me, but I don't… understand the queen's intentions. Could you elaborate on that? I don't see how it will be safe for the heroes to stay within Melromarc."
"She has permitted me to tell you that occupance of the heroes in Melromarc is one of the leverage pieces she is keeping to prevent war from happening outright."
"That doesn't explain anything!" Ren spat. "How is our presence in Melromarc preventing war!? Aren't we supposed to be criminals here!?"
"... I cannot say anything further than that, except for the fact that the queen has another agenda for the heroes to stay in Melromarc. However, she will not allow for that to be revealed."
Ren was already starting to be frustrated. "You really like keeping your mouths shut, don't you?"
Eclair glared back at Ren, as if to rein him back in. "If the rumors of the shadows are true, then it is not because they want to be quiet. They will only communicate what was assigned for them to communicate, in order to control how much information is being spread."
Ren found himself shaking Eclair off to step up right up to the shadow's face, although he couldn't see their eyes because of the helmet they were wearing. "Can you at least tell us where the queen is right now?"
"... I cannot tell you that as well." The shadow softly shook their head. "She has disallowed that information to you, in the case that it tempts the heroes into continuing their journey."
Ren clicked his tongue. If they couldn't get a surefire location, they were almost guaranteed to listen to whatever this person had been telling them, but that didn't mean that he had trusted them completely. He was merely hearing them out, but the distrust must have been visible on his face, causing the shadow to take a few steps back.
"Huh? What are you—?"
Almost immediately, the shadow released a smokescreen to hide their body, causing Ren to retreat from its area of effect. He raised his sword instinctively, watching to see any sudden movements that escaped from the smoke, but all the shadow did was walk forwards.
Their outfit had completely changed.
However, it was an outfit that Ren was familiar with.
"Wh… w-what…?"
"I told you that we had difficulties in reaching the heroes. This should explain it."
Eclair raised an eyebrow. She didn't quite understand it, but when she looked over to Ren, the sweat dripping down his forehead had been undisguisable. It was the first time that she had seen Ren be so unnerved before, especially seeing how his sword fell down, having the tip slump against the ground.
"N-no… way…"
"Sir Ren? What's wrong?"
"We once had eyes on the heroes when you first left the capital," the shadow explained. "However, we had only the instructions to observe the heroes and their movements. Without any further instructions from the queen, that was all that we did and what we were only allowed to do, regardless of what circumstance we found ourselves in, but…"
The shadow stared at Ren.
"We were stopped when your group arrived in Riyute. The shadows were attacked and were forced to retreat temporarily and once we were able to regroup ourselves, the heroes had already disappeared from our sights."
"In Riyute? If I remember correctly, we had to leave quickly because Sir Ren told us—"
Eclair started putting the pieces together. If this shadow said that they were attacked, alongside Ren's odd behavior back in Riyute, then it couldn't be anywhere close to a coincidence. Her eyes widened as she slowly gazed over to Ren, who had now been as pale as a ghost.
"It was… my fault…?" he whispered. His footing looked far more unsteady than before, as if he was wobbling back and forth from his own bewilderment. His eyes weren't paying attention to anything except the ground beneath him as Ren's mind slowly crept up to his own realization.
The shadow had been wearing the same outfits that the supposed "spies" were wearing when he had confronted them in Riyute. They were the same people that Ren had killed to make sure that they weren't being followed and while he originally thought they belonged to the Church, such a hasty decision in his actions apparently cost them far greater than they could assume.
"Sir Ren…? What did you do…?"
"We received the orders to bring you to the queen a few days later," the shadow continued, ignoring the dilemma between Eclair and Ren, "but at that point, we had already lost your position." The shadow had no intention in saying what happened in Riyute outright, but by the way they didn't specify, it would seem that Eclair's assumptions were correct. "Now with the change in circumstances, the queen is forced to readjust her plans."
"I… I thought…" Ren's hand was shaking. "I was… only trying to help us… I thought they…"
"You can help yourselves in following the queen's plan from now on."
The shadow removed a piece of paper from their pocket and handed it over to them. Only Eclair was able to accept it, since Ren was frozen at his feet. She briefly looked at the paper before the shadow took a step back.
"I trust that this message will be delivered to the other heroes. Now that we have caught up to you, please note that we will be watching over you to ensure that the queen's request is fulfilled. You may tell the other heroes about that matter as well."
The shadow turned around and sent out another smokescreen to quick-change back into their knight disguise. As Eclair closed the paper back up and glanced over to their departure, they left with some concerning words that dug her deeper into this pitfall.
"Please tell the Sword Hero, since he does not appear to be listening anymore, that we know about what he has done to the Shieldfreedan embassies as well. That itself is causing some problems for the queen to dispute."
"Shieldfreedan embassies? There were… embassies…?"
Without another word, the shadow left Eclair to the quiet Ren. Although, this silence had been far different than the usual silence that Ren gave off. Eclair was feeling herself to be frustrated from what Ren had been doing behind their backs, turning around violently as if she could snap.
"Tell me…! Tell me what you've done!" she shouted. "More than what happened at Errnthon! It's clear that you've been doing more things behind our backs that have further propelled our objective further away from us!"
"I…"
"No. In fact, not now." Eclair turned around and started leaving for herself. "Save it for when we meet back up with Sir Naofumi and the others. They deserve to hear what you've—"
A sudden hand reached out, grabbing Eclair's wrist to stop her from advancing. She looked over to see Ren holding on, trying to stop her. She could feel the sweat along his fingers, the palms starting to clam up, and the nervousness in the muscles. When she looked up to see Ren once more, her anger was quickly washed away by the sheer surprise that was shown.
She had never seen Ren be so scared before.
"Don't… Don't tell them I messed up… Please…"
She had never seen Ren show some much weakness.
"I… I have to… fix this somehow…"
"Sir Ren?"
"I… I have to…"
Eclair cleared her throat, pulling him closer and shook him.
"Sir Ren! Listen to me!"
"H-huh…?"
As if escaping from a trance, Ren shook his head and calmed down by himself. Although, that was what it looked like on the surface. He pushed Eclair off of him and sped up out of the alleyway.
"We… We should go tell Naofumi and the others about the change in our plans."
"Are you sure that you're alright?"
"Forget… Forget about that." Ren grimaced, trying to hide his face from her. "Let's just move on already. There's no point in dwindling around here for much longer."
His tone suggested he was back to normal, but after seeing an opening like that, Eclair couldn't exactly observe Ren in the same light again. Instead of returning to his stoicness, it was as if Ren was using that stoicness to mask his insecurities of the situation. Something was starting to crumble inside of Ren, but Eclair couldn't bring herself to ask any further than what she saw.
The rest of the time they used returning to the group, it was spent in silence.
[SKIT 115 : Grenze]
[Naofumi] : "It really feels like it's been a while since we started on our run from the captial. The little detour we had to take to get to Lerno, not to mention the various stops we needed to have in order to properly level ourselves up, ended up counting up our days."
[Raphtalia] : "We won't be too much further from leaving Melromarc."
[Eclair] : "Indeed. The city of Grenze is absolute proof of that. There aren't other cities closer to the border than Grenze, so it's mostly thought of as a place to rest for travelers and merchants leaving the country."
[Rishia] : "I read that it also has great street food. Because of the nature of traveler coming in and out of the country, vendors took the time in order to perfect the nature of fast dining with excellent quality tastes. Most people staying in Grenze mostly don't want to be spending much time in the area due to various requests, such as guild request time frames and merchant deadlines, so vendors made food that are perfect for the go."
[Raphtalia] : "Is that true, Eclair? Have you ever tried the food here before?"
[Eclair] : "Sadly, I didn't have the time to confirm or deny what Lady Rishia is saying. Whenever I arrive to Grenze, it was always for work with the knights. And whenever I had a break to myself, I was either for resting my body or training."
[Naofumi] : "I'd offer to get everyone some food under other circumstances, but..."
[Eclair] : "There's no need to worry. I don't have much of a craving for it, especially knowing that anything you can produce would be far greater, Sir Naofumi."
[Rishia] : "In the end, I... I guess homecooking triumphs above all..."
[SKIT 116 : Sensitivity]
[Motoyasu] : "Grenze certainly has some interesting snacks and street food available."
[Motoyasu] : "I wish we could have stay for a bit longer to see more of what the city has to offer."
[Sakura] : "... Daddy?"
[Motoyasu] : "Is something wrong, Sakura? I feel like you haven't gotten an appetite today."
[Motoyasu] : "Wait! Don't tell me that you're sick!?"
[Sakura] : "Sakura is fine. Sakura just wants to see Daddy eat a bit too."
[Sakura] : "Just like Sakura, Daddy hasn't been eating much too."
[Motoyasu] : "Haven't I? That's strange, but maybe I'm not feeling as peckish as I thought I was..."
[Sakura] : (That's not the only reason. Daddy's been less cheerful all of a sudden.)
[Sakura] : (And Sakura... doesn't like it...)
[Sakura] : "... I want a hug."
[Motoyasu] : "Of course! C'mon here, Sakura! A bit out of nowhere, but I don't mind it!"
[SKIT 117 : Apart From the Rest]
[Ake] : "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but, uh..."
[Eclair] : "Our time is limited here, so we shouldn't speak for long."
[Ake] : "I know, I know. Though, your friend has been staring a bit at me for a while."
[Ren] : "What? Am I not allowed to have eyes?"
[Ake] : "It's a bit uncomfortable if they're, you know, always directed towards me..."
[Ake] : "Was there something you want to ask me?"
[Ren] : "... You mentioned that your hometown of Riyute was attacked by the wave of destruction, but you're grateful for the Shield Hero and his companions for saving your family. Do you think there are other people that would see the same thing?"
[Ake] : "... Sadly, I don't have the answer for that."
[Ake] : "I've been keeping my gratitude close to my heart for myself, never letting it out until now."
[Eclair] : "I can assume that even with the Shield Hero's accomplishments, any positivity of the Shield Hero would be met with discrimination of some kind."
[Eclair] : "If there are others in a similar position as Ake, where a loved one from their hometown was protected, they would also be keeping quiet to themselves while outside of those areas."
[Eclair] : "That would likely go the same way for the people hailing from Lerno and Errnthon."
[Ren] : "So what makes Ake stand apart from the rest is that he was actually able to finally express it."
[Ren] : "The pressure seems to be tough, but par for the course. If the Three Heroes Church is going to gain an advantage over us, it's going to be from them setting the battlefield to be under their control, or as much of it as they can."
[Eclair] : "And thus, we should always move on with caution."
[SKIT 118 : Eclair's Training Regime]
[Ake] : "Just seeing your face makes me suddenly flashback to my training days under your hand..."
[Ren] : "It couldn't have been that bad."
[Ren] : "I've seen Eclair train Raphtalia and it doesn't look very difficult."
[Eclair] : "Mostly because I've been teaching her by herself. It might be an entirely different regime if I were to, say, train everyone else in a single course."
[Eclair] : "Because of this, I'm able to focus more on what Raphtalia needs to improve on with specific training that you may find easy, but she may find difficult. I didn't have such luxuries while running the training regimes for the recruits, but as such, I did try to go lighter on the group. Saying that it was difficult might be an exaggeration."
[Ren] : "So what did you do instead?"
[Eclair] : "Very generic exercises, including laps, sword swings, and push-ups. We would usually end the session with the recruits pairing up with others in order to practice proper combat while I survey the area for misconducts I can catch and that I come to fix."
[Ren] : "That doesn't sound difficult."
[Ake] : "U-uhm, Eclair? I, uh, think you left out a little detail there."
[Eclair] : "What did I miss?"
[Ake] : "We did a hundred of laps around the castle every session with you! A thousand of sword swings every single time! Don't get me started on the push-ups! Everyone thought they were going to break down into burning pieces when we finished each time!"
[Eclair] : "Oh? And have I ever told you what type of training regime you would have been given if you were in my time of being a recruit? The vice-captain was the one running the training sessions at the time and I can promise you and almost everyone felt like they were dying when they were done, but I appericated the way he pushed everyone to be better."
[Eclair] : "And if my group of recruits were able to survive through that, I'm certain you would be able to survive through something more simple."
[Ake] : "..."
[Ren] : "..."
[Ake] : "..."
[Ren] : "... My, uh, condolences?"
[SKIT 119 : Heaviness of Sin]
[Ren] : "..."
[Eclair] : "Are you sure you're holding up alright, Sir Ren?"
[Ren] : "Leave me alone."
[Ren] : "We need... to just head back to Naofumi and tell him about our update..."
[Ren] : "You can do it..."
[Ren] : "I'll just somehow mess it up..."
[Eclair] : (Just like that, it's like his confidence disappeared.)
[Eclair] : (I don't understand what's happening here...)
[Eclair] : (I don't understand what's going on in his head...)
[Eclair] : (And yet, I still can't make heads or tails of what the shadow told us.)
[Eclair] : (Sir Ren... killed people behind our backs? If that explosion in Errnthon never happened, that incident might have been swept underneath the rugs, just like
everything else he had done so far. And Sir Ren would keep walking forwards, ignoring the heaviness on his shoulders.)
[Eclair] : (And now that it came back around to bite him...)
[Eclair] : (... I'm not even sure how I should react to this, Sir Ren.)
