Chapter 31 / Breakdown


When the group met back up with each other, Eclair revealed the new objective for them to follow, as well as the presence of the shadows that will be watching over them on the queen's behalf in their own ways. Naofumi and Motoyasu were impressed with their jobs while Rishia was surprised that they even existed. Once caught up, Eclair opened up the letter provided to them and read it aloud.

"She wants us to meet up with a man named Van Reichnott. He's been informed of the current situation and is willing to assist the queen in hiding the Cardinal Heroes until further notice."

"Who's he?" Naofumi asked.

"A governor of Melromarc," Eclair answered. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him again in recent times, but he was a good friend and collaborator with my father."

"I wonder what the queen is thinking right now." Motoyasu couldn't quite understand the intentions. "Keeping us within Melromarc sounds like a weird idea."

"Please believe in the queen." Eclair held her hand onto her chest. "She must have some sort of plan in mind. She would not request something like this otherwise."

"We should be glad that she's still on our side." Naofumi silently glanced over to Ren and Itsuki. While Itsuki glanced the over way, Ren merely kept his eyes downwards. "And we should be glad that she already had her eyes on Errnthon's situation. That likely lessens the blow to her image of us."

"Yeah, I guess so," Motoyasu said, scratching his head. "We probably don't want to be stirring problems for her, so listening to her message would be the best thing to do."

Eclair pulled out a map to locate themselves. "Let us see… It looks like we'll have to head northeast from here if we're going to arrive in Reichnott territory."

"Isn't that back into Errnthon's general area?" Raphtalia asked.

"If we use the main roads." Leaning over, Itsuki noted the paths on the map. "We could try to cut straight through to Reichnott's territory to both cut on time and avoid Errnthon."

"Sorry to say, but I don't think the carriage is meant for off-road paths." Motoyasu glanced over to the carriage. "If we head off road, there's a good chance that the carriage's wheels might break."

"Sakura doesn't want that…" At that simple thought, Sakura looked terrified. She pouted while leaning back into Motoyasu's chest. "Sakura doesn't want her carriage to break…"

"Well, we can't waltz our way back there though," Naofumi groaned. "They're going to be on high alert for us, but then our only option is to go the long way around to the northern territory. That's heading to the south and wrapping our way at a comfortable distance around the capital."

As the others pondered what they should do, Rishia studied the map briefly. She then raised her hand nervously, prompting the attention of the others. "I, uh, think I have an idea…" She leaned forwards, guiding her fingers along a certain route. "We can try to loop over like this, heading south to avoid anywhere near Errnthon, but use here as a point to past into the northwest part of the country."

"Riyute…?" Raphtalia widened her eyes. "Won't that be slightly risky, since it's close to the capital? There might be a few knights that we surely wouldn't want to cross there."

"I-I'm sorry… Fueh…" Rishia slinged away from the map. "I-I just remembered about how you helped out Riyute before I joined… I remember Lord Itsuki telling me about it…"

"I mean, it's not a bad option," Itsuki pondered, rubbing his chin. "The people of Riyute aren't going to say anything about our presence, no matter what news would spread. Naofumi helped them out quite a bit, so they would feel indebted to him."

"It's still highly risky…" Naofumi murmured.

"Then maybe we should think about it while we're on the move." Motoyasu outlined Rishia's suggested path once more, as well as their alternative. "Whether we go straight through Riyute or choose to go around the capital, we're still heading south back near Lerno. We can make a little detour over there for a resting point before deciding where we should continue."

"We can check if the people of Lerno are doing alright at the same time," Raphtalia cheered. "I think that would be a great idea!"

"You said that the shadows would help us out, right?" Itsuki asked, turning to Eclair.

"They should be observing us, but I believe if it makes our lives easier, they'll be able to assist us if it means that we'll be closer to following through with the queen's request."

"When they show themselves, could you have them scout out Riyute's general area to ensure that our path could be safe or not?"

Eclair nodded. "Of course. I'll see to it that it's done as soon as possible."

"Yeah, that's a better plan," Naofumi sighed in relief. "Alright, we'll get some distance from Grenze while the sun is still up and hopefully, we'll arrive at Lerno within a few days. Hopefully, their situation has gotten much better since our last arrival and we'll be able to stock up properly there."

"Alright, let's get ready, Sakura!"

"Okayyy, Daddy."

As Motoyasu got Sakura hooked back up to the carriage while most of the others got ready for departure, Itsuki glanced over to the silent Ren. Ever since returning, Ren hadn't said a single word, let alone express his thoughts about their upcoming plan. He thought it was a little weird for his friend to be acting so distant like that, so he called out to him.

"Hey, Ren? Are you there?"

"H-huh…?" As if snapping himself out of his thoughts, Ren stiffened at his name being called. "Sorry… Did you want something?"

Alongside that weird mannerism, his response was very off as well. Itsuki didn't take his childhood friend to be someone to apologize for something that small; at the very least, not the Ren of the current present. If it were when they first met, it would probably fit.

"We're heading off soon."

"Right… We're heading towards the north?"

"Hey. What's wrong?" Not only was Ren acting strangely, he wasn't even listening in to their plans. Itsuki immediately turned his entire body, crossing his arms as his suspicion and concern started to take center stage. "This isn't like you to zone out like that."

"… It's nothing."

However, Ren avoided eye contact. He was more eager to get a move on than to properly answer his friend, walking right past him to find a seat in the carriage. It wasn't going to get himself any further away, leaving with more questions that couldn't exactly be asked. Itsuki felt concerned, but it was obvious that answers weren't going to come out too easily.

"Ren…?"

-/IV/-

After routing their way back, they arrived to Lerno's outskirts according to the predicted schedule. Eclair was able to make contact with the shadows beforehand to have them look into Riyute's situation, so it would take a bit of time for them to get back to the group. As they brought themselves closer to the village, Raphtalia heard footsteps coming from the beaten path ahead of them.

"Someone's coming and fast…?"

"S-someone! P-please help me!"

Once hearing the unknown voice, Motoyasu stopped the carriage as they made out with somebody running down the road. They looked like they were out of breath, but behind them, there were some holy knights chasing after him. As the person tripped over and fell onto the ground, Motoyasu leapt off the carriage. He spun his spear and aimed it at the knights, purely on instinct, as Itsuki lent his assistance upon hearing the screaming man.

"[Air Strike Spear]!"

"[Wind Arrow]!"

Their projectile skills managed to strike down the holy knights before they could even realize what happened, knocking them backwards and out cold on the ground. Motoyasu quickly closed in on the fallen man, as most of the others proceeded to secure the area from any other knights. Ren remained rested in the carriage, while Rishia followed Motoyasu to see what she could do.

"Hey. Are you alright?"

"Yeah… Thanks…" The man looked up, only to widen his eyes. "Wait, you're the Spear Hero! Thank goodness! We need your help on a situation that's happening in Lerno!"

"Situation? Did something else happen?"

Motoyasu extended his hand to pull up the villager onto his feet.

"We were getting by in excellent condition because of the help you provided to us with the modified seed, but about two days ago, members from the Three Heroes Church came by under the pretense of checking out the situation. However, they were truly just preoccupying our village because they believed the Cardinal Heroes had come by Lerno."

If they had heard of the news concerning Errnthon, it wouldn't have made sense that they would come out of the way to Lerno. However, they did hear of the initial problem from a village searching for help in other towns, so after hearing that it was somehow resolved, perhaps the Church wanted to investigate it, to see if there was any involvement from the heroes. After all, it would probably be in their best interest that any good deeds they would do would be suppressed as much as possible.

Nevertheless, that was merely speculation on Motoyasu's behalf…

"The village chief was suspicious that they wanted to lock down where the heroes could have been, so he decided to hide the fact that the heroes had saved us. However, children aren't too good at making their own lies, so once a knight asked them, it was already as good as gone. We thought it meant the end of it and they would chase after you, but the knights suddenly kept us as prisoners in our own village, claiming that we've been… brainwashed by the demons."

"F-Fueh!? Is that even possible!?"

"Of course, everyone was defiant against it. They were trying to defend the Cardinal Heroes as people that should be trusted to protect the world, but those damned knights wouldn't listen. They continued to keep us in our village, refusing all entry and exit, but I overheard that they were going to start executing us because we thought we were so brainwashed past the point of no return. That's why I tried to escape from them, to get some help, but I was found pretty easily…"

Motoyasu clicked his tongue.

It was just one thing after the other for these villagers, but in a way, it all stemmed because the heroes were involved. The plant mutations overtook Lerno because of Motoyasu, while the Church's takeover of Lerno happened because they came to fix the plant mutation. He felt really bad for what was going on, but if he got involved two times already, one more time wouldn't hurt.

As Naofumi and others returned, Motoyasu debriefed them on what the villagers told him.

"You can't be serious!?" Raphtalia gasped.

"For the Church to go that far…!" Eclair growled in anger. "There's no way that this could be approved by any stretch of the imagination!"

"And yet, they're still planning for it." Itsuki grunted. "Do these Three Church goons have nothing better to do than to cause injustice wherever they go?"

"Hey," Naofumi said, calling to the villager. "You heard about this recently, right?"

"A few hours ago. When I escaped, I think they were planning to figure out who to execute, in an attempt to break us out of our supposed brainwashing through fear."

"We don't have time to lose. We've got to head over to Lerno and stop them!"

"No…" Eclair pondered at the thought. "If we engage in direct confrontation, there would be a good possibility that news would be relayed back to the Three Heroes Church. If that happens, then they'll have a better grasp as to our location."

"Who cares!? The villagers of Lerno need our help!" Itsuki spat. "We'll simply kill all of the knights before they can send a message!"

"I told you already," Naofumi sternly said. "Just because we're strong, it doesn't mean we can be reckless with our power, especially with how the queen wants us to meet up with Reichrott as our priority."

"What else would you suggest!? We can't ignore this!"

"W-would there even be a way to get the Church members to leave without confronting them?" Rishia nervously pondered. "I don't think… there's any easy way of doing that…"

"I…" Eclair felt defeated by the ultimum. "No, I don't believe so…"

"Because they only listen to the voices of their gods or whatever, right?" Itsuki sarcastically grunted. He wasn't hiding his hatred for the Church all too well. "The only voices they're hearing are the ones in their own head, so no matter how you tackle it, we're going to have to take them down and give the people of Lerno a chance to escape."

"Listen to the voices…?"

Motoyasu rubbed his chin. A thought popped up for him as he pulled out his map and glanced at the geography around them. His eyes laid to the side of a certain point to the north of Lerno, nearby where they were, and pointed at the location for the others to see.

"Guys, hear me out. There's a dungeon over here where I found the Miracle Seed. There's going to be monsters inside called Voice Gengars that will manipulate sound waves to distract their prey for them to hear the voices of others close to them."

At that time, he was distracted by the incident there for him to properly remember looting for monster materials, but there was a good chance that it would have helped in this situation if they were given a similar ability.

"I, uh, forgot to absorb their materials the last time I went there, but if we can unlock a skill that allows us to replicate their ability, we might have a chance of tricking the Three Heroes Church into leaving by making them hear something that might scare them off. It's not guaranteed that the skill exists, but I think it's better than nothing."

"Do you think that would really work?" Raphtalia asked.

"I believe it might be worth an attempt," Eclair nodded. "It's far better than a direct assault if we can largely avoid it, but we'll have to spare some time into retrieving the weapon form for the heroes."

"As long as you make it to Lerno before evening," the villager filled in, "you should be able to make it in time. If it means that you can save the others, that's fine by me."

"What will you do?" Eclair asked.

"I was trying to head to another village to ask for help, but perhaps it might be better for me to go ahead and ask for refuge for the other villagers once you save them. If your plan works, the knights may still come back at some point when they figure out the trick."

"It's a temporary solution, but it's not as if there's much less you can do about it."

As the group sent away the villager, they rerouted for the brief stop near the dungeon. When they arrived, Motoyasu was met with the familiar sight once again. He knew that he was the one to suggest the idea, but he didn't think he would be coming back to this dungeon again. When he thought about what happened the first time, he found himself shivering.

"I'll… stay on guard to watch over Sakura and the carriage."

"Huh? You're not coming in?" Itsuki asked.

"Don't worry. Voice Gengars should be easy to find. It's just that getting to where they appear might be a little difficult because they're located in the basement or the penalty dungeon. There should be a tunnel somewhere that takes you directly down there, but I don't remember where it is."

Naofumi scratched his cheek. "You're really not heading in?"

"Honestly, Sakura will probably calm down more if I'm out here with her."

As if prompted, Sakura leaned her head in to snuggle up with Motoyasu as he brought a hand up to pet her. A brief chuckle helped disguise his discomfort of the dungeon, leaving no one else wiser to it.

"I'll stay out here as well," Eclair announced. "There's no point in all of us heading in."

As they spoke, Rishia and Itsuki dipped their heads into the entrance.

"S-s-so, this is a dungeon, huh…?" Rishia leaned into the dark corridor, holding herself back. "I've… never been in this sort of place before…"

"It'll be fine," Itsuki assured. "Stay close to us and we'll be out no time."

As Rishia took her deep breaths, Itsuki glanced over his shoulder to see that Ren hadn't moved a single inch from his seat in the carriage. Motoyasu noticed and acted before him, dipping his head into the back. "Ren, my guy. Are you heading in or not?"

"O-oh?" As if broken out from his thoughts, Ren quickly started to move. It was like he didn't even realize that the carriage had stopped. "Are we at Lerno already?"

"... Didn't I say that we were heading to a dungeon to help out Lerno?"

"R-right…"

Before Ren could leave the carriage, Motoyasu reached out to him. "Did you get motion sickness or something? You look a little pale, added with the fact that you haven't been talking a lot late—"

As Motoyasu's hand landed on Ren's shoulder, his friend suddenly knocked his arm away very violently. It surprised Motoyasu for a brief moment, putting him in a daze, but Ren merely caught up with the others as if nothing happened. Motoyasu chalked it up as his usual attitude, shrugging it off.

Only Itsuki noticed the strange interaction between them, and once Ren came over, Itsuki stared at him as he walked right by him. Ren didn't even notice. As the others were preparing to enter the dungeon, Itsuki firmly reached out to Ren's wrist without warning, forcing him to stop in his tracks.

However, Itsuki wasn't sure what to say before Ren gently shook off his grip.

"..."

"..."

An awkward atmosphere slowly stirred up between the two childhood friends, but as Raphtalia called them over for them to start entering the dungeon, the tension between them disappeared. Itsuki glanced down to his hand, closing it on itself before following the others.

-/IV/-

Naofumi led the way into the dungeon's hall. Since Motoyasu said that the Voice Gengars only appeared in the basement, they would have to find a way down. They would be able to determine it by its bat-like appearance, but most of the time, it will try to hide in the shadows to strike using its special ability before closing in on its target. Motoyasu warned them to not get disoriented or distracted by their mental attacks, but none of them were truly aware of how it would be done.

Still though, there were five people here, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

"Don't go wandering off too much," Naofumi called out. "It's too dark in here, so it's easy for one of us to get lost from the group."

"Doesn't Raphtalia know light magic?" Itsuki asked. "Can't she shine a path for us?"

"It could be better than constantly holding a torch…" Rishia nodded.

"Unfortunately, I don't know any magic meant for illuminating spaces." Raphtalia briefly glanced over at Itsuki and Rishia. "And if these Voice Gengars attack from the shadows, they may retreat if there's too much light to expose them."

"I'll just shoot them down before they can escape." Itsuki imitated a pistol with his hand towards the ceiling. "Although, I guess that doesn't solve the fact you don't know any illumination spells."

"Then I'll have [Alert Shield] activated." Since he had fully unlocked the skill from the [Two-Headed Dog Shield], it was merely a switch he could activate at any time. "That way, we should be able to detect monsters before they could detect us."

The group came across a wide space after a winding set of hallways. It probably took around thirty to forty minutes for them to get through it, making them realize that having Motoyasu around might have been helpful. Though, that would be the case if he remembered the path himself.

They crossed with a large room, but there was a large hole in the center. It looked as if it crumbled underneath some type of pressure. It wasn't naturally forming, looking more like there was an explosion that happened here. Naofumi grabbed a rock and tossed it in, checking to see how deep it went and as it would turn out, it wasn't too deep.

"Well, I think this is where we should drop down."

"It looks like a slide," Raphtalia chuckled wryly.

"W-wait, can I… have a moment first…?"

Rishia scurried over to the side, seeing an opened chest on the other side of the hole. It was easy to get to since the outer perimeter was still walkable to them, but alongside that chest, there were stone pillars with certain engravings on it. Naofumi and Itsuki tried to understand what they said, but they weren't written in the melromarcian language.

"An opened chest…" Naofumi came closer to the tampered box. "You don't think that Motoyasu originally got the Miracle Seed from this exact place, right?"

"Can you read what those incryptions say?" Raphtalia asked.

"A bit…" Rishia came closer to the stone pillars. "I was just… curious because I haven't seen this old language outside of textbooks. I'm sorry if this is pulling ourselves away from the main objective…"

"It'll only take a minute, right?" Naofumi chuckled.

Rishia traced her fingers over the words.

"It looks like this does talk about an experimented seed—"

Itsuki crossed his arms. "So Motoyasu really did get it from here."

"—but it looks like these sets of stone pillars were meant to be a list of some of this person's experiments, whoever left these notes here." Rishia nodded. "I remember that there was supposingly an alchemist long ago that took up residence inside of a temple for his projects. This might have been one of the various places."

"You sure know a lot of things," Raphtalia commented.

"I, uh, don't do much except for reading in my spare time…" Rishia looked at her feet awkwardly, forcing a smile. "L-learning about trivial things is the most I could really do when I was in Faulbrey…"

"This dungeon belonged to an alchemist?" Itsuki glanced around. "You wouldn't happen to see if they've got anything that could help us out for Lerno, would you? After all, they had a Miracle Seed here that at least resolved Lerno's famine for a short duration before it became a mutated mess."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Raphtalia asked. "It was something from this dungeon that caused the famine to spiral into a plant overgrow."

"I could still try and see. The alchemist left… a few other names of their experiments on this other pillar…" Rishia walked over, murmuring to herself to translate the words on the spot. "It doesn't look like it. Everything looks very, uh… self-destructive…?"

Raphtalia raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Uhm, here's an example, besides the [Miracle Seed]." Rishia pointed to a specific line. "It says here that the alchemist worked on something called [Giant Golem]. However, it doesn't understand the difference between friend and foe, while having the demerit of blowing up once it's defeated."

Naofumi deadpanned, looking back at the hole once again.

"... I think I know what happened here then."

"There's still one experiment that I couldn't read because its description was scratched out…" Rishia continued, pointing to the incryptions at the bottom of the pillar. "I can't even read the name properly, but if I could make a guess…"

Rishia narrowed her eyes, pondering a bit.

"I… I think it says [Replica]."

"[Replica]? What the heck is that?"

"Fuehhh…. I don't know, Sir Itsuki." Rishia stood up from the stone pillar, dusting herself off. "Even if we did know, it… seems like the experiments on this particular stone pillar have been moved to another location for, uh, further testing…? This was probably a list for the alchemist to remember what thing is where."

"If we don't know what it is, then I don't think we shouldn't try to look for it," Raphtalia suggested. "We should make our way down to the basement."

"Yeah…"

There was the only contribution to the conversation that Ren made, not really paying any further attention to anything else. Itsuki was starting to catch on that there might have been something wrong, but it wasn't appropriate to confront it inside of a dungeon.

"I'll jump down first."

Since the hole looked to be split up into two halves leading to different places, Naofumi simply picked one side and leapt in. The others followed him shortly, but Naofumi found himself not being able to stick the landing. He tried to get up first before others could get there, but Rishia crashed into him and they both collapsed on top of each other.

"Gragh!"

Luckily for him, everyone else was able to land on their feet.

"Fuehhh! I-I'm so sorry, Naofumi!"

"D-don't worry. I didn't even feel anything," Naofumi sighed. He silently wondered if Motoyasu came across the same problem when approaching the Miracle Seed. "Just get off me already. Please."

Rishia panicked as she leapt off, profusely bowing her head apologetically.

"This seems like the place. It definitely looks like an area where Voice Gengars might live if they really do look like bats," Itsuki murmured. "Be on your guard."

Rishia stuck herself in the middle with Itsuki as Naofumi and Raphtalia positioned themselves ahead. Ren silently kept himself in the back in order to intercept any possible backside flanks, but every time Itsuki looked over his shoulder, it didn't look like he was paying attention to his surroundings since his eyes were gazing upon the immediate ground.

Ren didn't even have his sword drawn out.

Not to say that she was more nervous that Ren wasn't on proper guard, though given his nature, Rishia didn't know if that was simply his demeanor, but it didn't help with her unrest. Naofumi and the others were going a bit too quickly as well, so she tried to reach out to them.

"C-could we take things a little more—?"

(She's so useless. Why did I agree to take her along with us?)

"F-Fueh!?"

(Maybe we should lose her and leave her behind to die in this dungeon…)

Rishia stopped in her tracks when she heard Itsuki's voice mutter that.

Did he accidentally let his true thoughts out?

"L-Lord… Itsuki…?"

"Hmm?" Itsuki glanced back at her, curiously. "Is something wrong, Rishia?"

"I-I…" Rishia trembled as she shook her head. It must have been her imagination. "N-no… It's nothing… S-Sorry to be a bother… Fuehhh…"

"Did you hear something weird?" Naofumi stopped, turning around to ask her. "The [Alert Shield] is picking up a few monsters, so we might be in range of some Voice Gengars. Even without it, I can tell that they're nearby. I think we're currently being attacked by their sound waves."

"What makes you say that?" Itsuki asked.

"You wouldn't try to whisper that you were going to stab me in the back at any point in time," Naofumi chuckled. "You can say I've got too much blind faith in you guys for their ability to work against me. I think that worked out for me this time around."

"I was hearing quite the odd things as well," Raphtalia nodded. "It gave me a fright at first, but then I remembered what Mister Motoyasu told us. Although, these Voice Gengars really know how to attack where it hurts." Raphtalia winced, holding a hand to her chest. "The voices were mimicking you, saying how you only saw me as a tool."

"Wow, that is some terrible things."

"Yes, but I know you wouldn't say such things either."

"Were you hearing similar things, Rishia?" Itsuki asked.

"Y-Yes…" she fidgeted, glancing away from him. Even though she now knew that Itsuki didn't say that, those words still latched onto her insecurities. Her legs ended up giving way, making her collapse onto them with a heavy exhale.

"We can't be taking breaks here," Itsuki groaned. "If everyone's starting to hear voices, then we've got monsters inbound. We need to get ready for a skirm—"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Ren's scream suddenly lashed out, bouncing off the walls of the dungeon. He staggered backwards, trembling as his hands grabbed onto his own head. His hyperventilation was loud enough for even Naofumi to hear from the other side, but the look of his eyes were unstable.

"Shut up…! Shut up already…! I only did what I thought would help…!"

"W-what…?"

"Mister Ren…?"

It surprised the entire group, but before they could say anything further about his outburst, Ren started running off away from the group. Itsuki clicked his tongue and without even faltering, he ran after his childhood friend.

"Wait! Damn it, Ren!"

"Guys, wait a moment! Don't go running off like—Ugh, crap!"

Naofumi wanted to follow them as well, but he noticed that [Alert Shield] was going off more.

Even Raphtalia started to even hear the flapping of wings come around them, turning around to see the monsters. "I think Mister Ren's shouting caused them to start attacking!"

The Voice Gengars revealed themselves and flew towards Rishia with their fangs being beared. Rishia flinched and cowered onto the ground, as Naofumi activated [Air Strike Shield] to defend her. Raphtalia ran up as the monsters bounced off, slashing them in half before they could hit the ground. They served no real difficulty for them, but Motoyasu didn't tell them that the monsters attacked in hordes.

As Rishia backed up, basically crawling over to Naofumi, he tried watching for the monsters to swoop down to bite him to block. While it was difficult for him to defend with his shield, they weren't causing too much damage if he simply used his entire body.

Using his arms instead, he intercepted their bashing strikes, leaving Raphtalia free to cut them down. He even managed to grab one of them out from their flight path for an easy target to Raphtalia. Rishia's magic might have been too much for closed areas like this, but once she got on her feet, the little fire spells she did contribute had helped in knocking the monsters out from the air.

They didn't break a sweat, but they completely lost Itsuki and Ren.

"We have to catch up with them!"

"Of course!"

"O-okay…! W-wait, don't go too fast! Fuehhhh!"

Naofumi hastily grabbed a handful of corpses without even dissecting them before running down the corridor alongside Rishia and Raphtalia.

-/IV/-

(I can't believe you would be screwing up so badly like that.)

(It's your fault that we're in this situation.)

(Maybe it's a good idea to leave him here. He wouldn't hinder us any further like that.)

Hearing those voices in his head, Ren tried to run away from them, not even knowing where he was going. He even bumped into a couple of walls within his distress, but he shook it off with no comment, not paying attention to the next wall. Before he knew it, his vision soon became pitch black. Though, it was questionable if Ren even noticed.

He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to know.

All Ren did was try to keep his friends safe. He knew what he should be doing, but he was willing to go through with any extent to do so. That was his falling point, burdening himself with a task he thought he could do. A mask of stoicness, worn to make himself believe that he could take on anything as long as his friends were safe, was starting to crack underneath the heavy doubt of the results.

It was right to have scrutiny, but he was trying his best. He didn't want to kill the people that he had killed, but he thought if they were left alive, it would end up causing more problems for his friends in the future. When in reality, letting them live would have been the correct choice. Maybe it would have been even better if he didn't intervene at all.

If that was the case, what was the point of him being there?

What was the point of his strength if it was being used to burden his friends even further?

Maybe the voices were right. He should go away, so that they wouldn't be stuck with someone like him to hamper their progress every step of the way.

"—Huh?"

A sudden attack struck Ren from his side, sending him flying away onto the ground. Ren grunted, but he wasn't getting back up. The strike hadn't been enough to injure him, not making a reasonable dent in his health bar, but for some reason, Ren couldn't find the spirit inside of him to stand back up.

However, he found himself being lifted up and thrown across the area by whatever had been attacking him. It detected that Ren was still far too alive to be devoured, as he found himself crashing into a wall. He somehow caught himself to stand on his feet, but there wasn't any energy left in them.

His sight still hadn't returned to him, but he could hear that a monster was growling.

"Kyukiiii…"

Out of instinct, his hand reached for his sword, it merely stopped before he could pull it out. His hand started to sweat and shake, remembering that it was the same sword that caused such inconveniences to his friends. His face paled, unable to even pull it out. If he could, he might have been able to deal with this monster, even through his blindness, but that would suggest his will to fight was still available to him.

His hand slowly fell down to his side as he slid down the wall, letting his legs collapse under him.

He heard the monster leaping at him to try to make another attack, but the sound of projectiles flying through the air scraped through the space. The darkness started lifting up from him as he glanced over to see that the monster, one who looked like a Nue, had been shot dead with a few arrows.

"Don't rush off like that, Ren!" Itsuki said, gasping for air in trying to catch up with his friend. "What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Ren caught Itsuki in the corner of his eyes, but didn't bother to directly look at him.

"Did the Voice Gengars somehow get to you?" Itsuki frowned. "You were honestly one of the last people I'd thought to react that badly to an audio attack like that."

"..."

Shaking himself off, Ren slowly got back on his feet without addressing Itsuki's concerns, but as he was going back from the way they came from, Itsuki stopped him once more. With his hand forcefully pulling on Ren's wrist, without thinking of letting go, he wanted an answer right now, regardless if they were in the middle of a dungeon.

"What did you hear?"

"That's none of your business."

"Do you not think I'm worried for you? Ever since you came back to the group with Eclair in Grenze, you haven't been acting like yourself."

"I… I just have some stuff on my mind. It's… It's really nothing."

"It doesn't sound like nothing."

Ren paused for a moment, still not making any eye contact with Itsuki.

"Do you think we brought too much trouble for Naofumi and the others when we went off to assassinate the governor of Errnthon?" Ren grimaced. "I simply brushed off what Naofumi said about our actions when we were still there, but maybe he had some truth to it."

"Of course he had some truth to it." Itsuki said, as if it was obvious. "We decided to kill that governor because of what would happen if we left it alone, weighing out whether it was worth the risk and demerit to us in the end. It might have made some problems with the queen, but as long as justice was properly served out, I don't think I'll be living to regret that decision anytime soon."

"What if it wasn't out of justice? What if we made a mistake in our judgment somewhere?"

Itsuki frowned, burrowing his eyebrows. "How could we? We checked beforehand and made sure that he was a terrible guy! He had Rishia captured from her parent unjustly, so there's no way that what we did in Errnthon was a bad thing!"

"I…"

Ren winced, as if he didn't know how else to express himself. Itsuki looked at him curiously, not understanding where all of this was coming from, but before he could ask any further than that, Naofumi and the others caught up to them.

"There you are!" Naofumi shouted. "I was afraid we might have taken a wrong turn!"

"Fueh! What is that!?" Rishia staggered, seeing the defeated Nue on the ground. "M-Motoyasu didn't say anything about a monster like that!?"

"I think it's expected to see more than one type of monster in a dungeon," Raphtalia replied.

"No, but that monster should be more in the east, right? It shouldn't be here," Rishia responded worryingly. "Maybe it has to do something with the alchemist that lived here, once upon a time…"

"Well, it's dead now." Itsuki announced. "Went down with a few arrows, so it wasn't too much of a problem. It'll be a good side-reward for our time spent here."

"Anyways, Ren," Naofumi groaned as he walked over. "What was that all about? You suddenly shouted and ran off. You don't need to worry about what you heard, since that was all the work of the Voice Gengars."

"... Right. That makes more sense."

Acting as if he didn't already know that, Ren started walking off from the group once Itsuki's grip dropped from his hand. His expression returned to the stoicness that he was typically wearing after catching a deep breath, unmissed by Itsuki's eyes. Itsuki could have been stubborn about confronting Ren, but his emotions were holding him back.

"Where are you going this time?" Naofumi asked.

"Outside. You guys came and got what you were looking for, right?" Ren sighed dismissively. "There's no reason why I should stay here."

"Wait, Ren…"

No one could really stop the aloof swordsman from going off by himself again. They weren't even sure if he could find the exit by himself, but no one knew what to say to convince him to stay with them as a group. For some reason, Itsuki could start to feel like a barrier was slowly being formed between Ren and his close friends.

"Itsuki? Could you follow him again?" Naofumi asked, not noticing their friend's complicated distress. "We'll get the monster materials here sorted out before we rush back over to Lerno."

Nodding, Itsuki left the group as Naofumi glanced down to the Voice Gengar he was still holding in his hand. He was holding it so tightly that he was crushing the material within his own hand, not that it would end up damaging it too much.

Alongside Raphtalia, they quickly dissected the two monsters for Naofumi to absorb, keeping a few to the side for the others as well. The extra monster in the Nue unlocked a few shields, but there hadn't been anything noteworthy as it stood. He might have needed to upgrade the shield a bit in order to see further benefits, but he wasn't thinking too much about it right now.

Once he absorbed the Voice Gengar, he quickly looked into the menu to see what skill it had.

[Voice Gengar Shield + 0] 0/15 - C
(Equip Bonus Skill) : Sound Wave Endurance (Small)
(Special Effect) : Megaphone

"... Guess we have some bad news to break to Motoyasu." Naofumi swapped over to the newly unlocked shield for the other two to see. "There's nothing like the Voice Gengar's ability here. There's only a megaphone, which only amplifies someone's voice."

"That said," Raphtalia pondered, "I don't understand how the Voice Gengar's ability would make such a disruption to the knights that it would scare them away. When we went through it, the ability made it sound like the voices of other people around us. Perhaps Mister Motoyasu remembered it wrong?"

"Misremembering or not, we don't have much to go off from here with merely a megaphone," Naofumi sighed. "We're going to have to fight the knights off and potentially reveal ourselves."

"W-wait… You said that it amplifies voices, right…?"

Rishia raised her hand timidly.

"I… I think that's good enough."

"You have an idea, Rishia?"

"S-something like that…"

-/IV/-

"You can't do this! You knights are crazy!"

"Like we would listen to the rambles of brainwashed fools of a demon."

The knights were rounding up a few villagers. The others were captured and left on a lockdown, split between a few buildings. To have been run out of their village by plants to transition into being kept prisoner within it by knights, the villagers of Lerno must have been a set of unlucky individuals. Some of them were even cursing the Cardinal Heroes for getting involved, bringing about two layers of trouble onto their lap, but others reprimanded them, knowing that all they did was what they thought they could to solve their current predicament.

If they were really hostile and evil, they would have simply left the villagers to fend for itself when the Miracle Seed conquered their village. However, the holy knights would not listen to reason, bringing a few of them out to the center of the village, as a few knights brandished their swords. They could hear the villagers screaming and crying from within the boarded windows, but it was ignored.

One of the people planned to be executed was the village chief.

"We'll make an example of you folks for the others! If the brainwashing is so strong, then this is the only solution and peace we can offer to you all! Let this trauma snap you out of it!"

"You're making a mistake…" The chief grumbled. "The Cardinal Heroes are not as evil as you make them out to be."

He was suddenly struck by a holy knight, being left bleeding from the attack before being dragged back up. "Keep your senseless ramblings to yourself. Isn't it already clear that the Shield Demon brainwashed the other heroes, then forced them to commit evil upon the land of Melromarc? Although it might be best to cut the darkness at its source, it is not as if we can ignore the problems as they arise."

One of the knights lifted their sword, aiming it for the chief's neck. The other knights did the same for the handful of other villagers that were selected to be killed off.

Another knight came up to the one leading the charge.

"Hey, uh, you sure this is a good idea?"

"Do you have doubts about our beliefs?"

"No, not that. They're definitely brainwashed, but doesn't that mean we should try to save them? We've only spent a day or two trying to resolve this problem after all. I know you said it was to violently shake the brainwashing out from the others, but, uh, I can't help to feel like this isn't going to work."

The knight shrugged. "It's worth an immediate try. If we leave them alone for too long, they might never be able to be saved after waiting around for an answer."

"Okay then. Got it."

The skeptical knight scratched his head, glancing away from the execution line.

"By the way, has there been any word of the villager who slipped away?"

"We haven't heard anything from the guys who gave chase, but I'm sure he'll be brought back soon. What the hell is a villager going to do against a few armored knights?"

"Okay… then…"

The knight-in-commander then turned over to the execution line, preparing to give the signal for the villagers to be killed off simultaneously, but as he was about to call it out, a strange voice echoed through the skies. It sounded like it was coming from above, but the holy knights weren't too sure. They were distracted and lowered their weapons, glancing around to see what was happening.

"Who goes there!?" the holy knight shouted.

"It is I, the Spirit of the Holy Bow…"

"W-what!?"

"From the heavens above, we've heard of your request. To fight back against the demons that corrupted our precious people, we shall lend our assistance to cleanse these people of their brainwashing."

"The Holy Bow!?"

In the distance, Itsuki was masquerading as this apparent spirit, carefully speaking into Naofumi's [Megaphone] skill. It was amazingly in the same shape as one, setting aside from the fact that there were bat wings attached to it and that it was attached to a shield. They were in a range where Itsuki could hear the shouting of the knights, if they wanted to reply, but they were mainly out of sight just to be safe.

To keep visuals, Raphtalia and Motoyasu were both under the veil of [Hide Mirage], keeping an eye out on the knights in the immediate area to see if they would fall for the trick. If they didn't, they would immediately fall back to the original plan of using brute force to knock them all out.

"Wait, then what happened to the Bow Hero!?"

"I'm the Spirit of the Holy Bow. He and I are two different things."

"I see! Of course!"

Thankfully, they were fully buying into it. Motoyasu had trouble holding in his laughter, imagining how much Itsuki had to bite his lips to speak as if he was believing in the suspected rumors.

"Although the brainwashing of the Bow Hero and the others cannot be easily undone, I, as the Spirit of the Holy Bow, can save these people. However, you must leave this area for it to be done properly. And never look back."

The skeptical knight frowned and nudged the commander.

"Hey, uh, don't you think that's kinda suspicious?"

"Be quiet! You are in the presence of the Holy Bow Spirit!"

"R-right…"

"Seriously, some of them have brains…?"

"Did you say something, Spirit of the Holy Bow!?"

"E-erhm, nothing!"

The supposed spirit coughed a bit, before continuing onwards. Some of the knights were murmuring, not being able to dismiss the irregular nature of the divine being, but Itsuki had an idea as to how he could reel them into believing that he was the real deal.

"If you doubt me, then I must show you the divine arrows of the heavens."

Itsuki pulled back an arrow aiming towards the skies, activating a skill as lightning charged up between his fingers. Once he released it, the lightning-charged arrow flew into the skies and made an arc downwards towards one of the empty buildings. It crashed with a loud strike, scaring everyone in the area as the building toppled over and collapsed very easily from the attack. It was a sacrifice that the villagers would need to deal with if they wanted to be safe.

"No way…"

"Where did that come from…?"

"From the skies...? Then it must be true..."

"Now leave for this spirit to perform its radiant work in saving its people from the curse of brainwashing. Please have more effort in tracking the Shield Demon himself, rather than spend your energy with frivolous tasks such as this one."

"R-round up everyone! We're leaving, as per the spirit's request!"

"Yes, sir!"

Leaving the village chief and the other villagers behind, the holy knights quickly regrouped and departed from Lerno within the hour. Motoyasu and Raphtalia made rounds through the invisibility spell to ensure that there hadn't been a single holy knight left behind, but once it looked like they were free from the Church's presence, everyone came out from hiding.

Naofumi and Raphtalia came over to untie the ones brought for execution while the others freed the villagers trapped within the buildings. It was a bit of a distasteful move for the holy knights to simply leave them there, but when the villagers saw the heroes, they were more than happy to be so thankful.

"You've returned!" The village chief bowed to them. "This makes for the second, no, third time that you've saved our village. Hopefully, we aren't incurring any debts."

"When we heard what was happening, we couldn't leave it alone. Sorry about getting Lerno wrapped up in the business with the Three Heroes Church. I think it would be for the best if everyone in Lerno stays quiet about the Cardinal Heroes, dodging out of their way for now."

"The villager that we came across said that he was going to talk with a nearby village in order to help out. The knights won't be coming back soon, but it might be something worth looking into."

"We appreciate your help but the knights are looking for you as their goal. While we are thankful, you must keep your own heads down as well. You wouldn't want to be accidentally stirring trouble up. We've even heard rumors that you folks killed a governor, but we were certain that it was simply the Church trying to frame you."

Naofumi bitterly smiled, trying to hide his personal discomfort. He didn't want to lie, but perhaps it was best if he didn't say anything about it at all. It would make things more difficult otherwise.

"You should be on your way. Don't let us hinder your travels."

"Can we get some supplies before we leave? We need enough to make our way over to the north."

"Of course! Take what you need! You'll see to it that we will not quarrel about it."

"Thanks. We'll pay accordingly for it though."

After triple-checking what they needed and buying it off the villagers, the group settled underneath a roof for the night and made their plans to route over to Reichrott's territory. Someone still had to be on guard, just in case that the knights did make a return, but if not, they would be leaving first thing in the morning as the sun rises over the horizon.

As Ren and Sakura went to sleep early while Motoyasu and Eclair were outside, Naofumi's thoughts started to wander, concerning Lerno's situation. Specifically, he was worried about its implications.

"If something like this happened to Lerno, I… I think I'm starting to get concerned on Riyute."

"Riyute…" Raphtalia repeated. "That's right. We helped out Riyute twice as well. Once for their mining problems and the second during the wave of destruction. They might be in a similar predicament."

Eclair returned back to them, closing the door behind her.

"It would seem like you've already been thinking about Riyute."

"Yeah," Itsuki nodded. "We need to head off to Riyute to check up on them."

"Actually, the shadows knew about our projected path and advised us against it. The situation isn't as dire as to have the villagers to be executed like in Lerno, but I've been informed that the Church has taken control of Riyute. I just got off a brief conversation with one of them."

"We can't just let the Church do whatever they want."

"We won't have to directly go through Riyute, but I can't feel at ease, knowing that there are more people being dragged into this mess because they've been involved with us." Naofumi shook his head. "Not even that, some of them would have died if it weren't for us."

"We'll just use the megaphone deal again," Itsuki suggested. Although he didn't think it would have worked here, it was actually much more effective than he expected on the mere basis that they were such zealous believers.

"Fueh… I don't think the same trick would work like last time…" Rishia whimpered. "If they've already taken full control of Riyute, it's going to be very difficult for us to get into position. We were only able to sneak in Lerno because the holy knights weren't stationed all too well here."

Eclair sighed. "They probably know what most of us look like by now, if Motoyasu's report on the wanted posters is to be taken seriously. We shouldn't intervene more than that if there's no immediate danger to the villagers."

"A quick check might not be too bad though…" Even though it might have been a bad idea, Naofumi was still very worried. "We'll simply be in and out to check, and nothing more than that."

"It doesn't look like I can convince you otherwise, Sir Naofumi."

"Then we'll have to rest up properly for the night," Raphtalia said. "There's some distance between Lerno and Riyute if we are to head straight over there, so we should restore our energy as much as we can."

As the girls went off to their own rooms, Naofumi and Itsuki wished them good-night as the lights went off. Motoyasu was probably the person on guard duty, but since he didn't say anything to them, it was difficult to say for sure. However, that job was now thrusted on him, regardless if he wanted it or not. Naofumi turned off the lights as he went off to sleep, leaving only Itsuki to drift off as he was left staring at Ren's back for the remainder of his drowsiness.

-/IV/-

A few moments ago, as Eclair was finishing up talking with one of the shadows, Motoyasu was watching from a distance. When Eclair started to leave, Motoyasu stepped in to catch the shadow before they could depart from the meeting. Thankfully, the shadow noticed his presence and turned to him before they could disappear into the night.

With a dutiful bow, the shadow spoke up.

"Is there anything we could do for the Spear Hero?"

"You guys are good at handling information, right? Investigation, discovering intelligence and whatnot?"

Motoyasu glanced around them to see that there were a few villagers still working hard to make the trip to the next village for refuge. They didn't bother to suspect the conversation because the shadow was disguised as one of the villagers here.

However, Motoyasu couldn't stop thinking about what he discovered back in Grenze. Heading back to Lerno only made the memories hurt even more. Although he was scared to hear the answers, he couldn't look away and pretend that everything would be alright. He made the resolve to not run away anymore, after all.

As the shadow nodded, Motoyasu continued with his request. If the shadows were to be lent to them by the queen to look after them, it may have been possible for them to be used in such a personal manner. Besides, Motoyasu would not be at rest until he could figure this out.

"There's a certain adventurer named Rino. I want your team to find out her current whereabouts, then report back to me if there's been some sort of trouble."

"Of course. A simple task for us."

As the shadow left, blending back into the crowd, Motoyasu felt the moonlight's ambience reflect down onto his skin. His hand balled up into a fist, as his consciousness shivered upon the thought.

"Myne… Did you and the others do something to her…?"


[SKIT 120 : Uninvolved in Battles]

[Naofumi] : "You two. Come over here for second."
[Motoyasu] : "What's up, Naofumi?"
[Itsuki] : "Want something?"
[Naofumi] : I've been noticing that Ren's been sitting out in our battles for a while."
[Motoyasu] : "Maybe he finally got tired of carrying us? We've got to show him that we're capable of taking care of ourselves, after all!"
[Motoyasu] : "I don't have any problems if he wants to take a break from fighting."
[Naofumi] : "Is that all there is to it?"
[Motoyasu] : "Uh, what else could it be? He decided he didn't want to fight so suddenly?"
[Itsuki] : "If Ren needs a break, I don't think we should think too much about it. It's not as if we need him or anything."
[Itsuki] : "And if we do somehow come across a monster that three Cardinal Heroes can't beat, I'm sure Ren would be willing to help out."
[Naofumi] : "I just thought something might be up. That's all."
[Itsuki] : (...That something that might be up, huh?)
[Itsuki] : (You should bother to hide it a bit better if you're trying to sort out your own thoughts by yourself, Ren.)
[Itsuki] : (Or maybe...)

[SKIT 121 : Waiting Outside]

[Eclair] : "Are you sure you don't want to enter with them, Sir Motoyasu? It may be easier with someone that's been inside before."
[Eclair] : "I can handle Sakura by myself."
[Sakura] : "Sakura doesn't want Eclair here without Daddy. Sakura wants Daddy to stay by Sakura's side."
[Motoyasu] : "You heard her. A daughter's word is law."
[Eclair] : "You certainly are taking this parenthood very seriously, I'll credit you for that."
[Eclair] : "Though, I am worried what might be remaining inside of this dungeon for the others."
[Eclair] : "If you found something as dangerous as the [Miracle Seed] in a chest inside, I have to wonder what else could be waiting in there?"
[Sakura] : "... More food?"
[Motoyasu] : "You're not wrong. There are some monsters in there that could be edible."
[Eclair] : "... I see this conversation will not bare any fruit over my concerns."
[Sakura] : "There's fruit inside?"
[Motoyasu] : "It's just a saying, Sakura. There's no fruit in there. I think?"
[Sakura] : "Can we go check?"
[Motoyasu] : "I mean, there's definitely no fruit in there! Absolutely none!"
[Eclair] : "... Please return quickly, everyone."

[SKIT 122 : Alchemist's Cavern II]

[Raphtalia] : "A cavern belonging to an alchemist that performed experiments..."
[Naofumi] : "Yeah, it's a bit eerie, now that I think about it. Who knows what could have happened between these walls?"
[Rishia] : "The alchemist that was reported to reside in this dungeon was not affiliated with anyone. That's why no one knows about their identity. Strangely enough, their projects were able to see the light at some point to have rumors about it spread across the land. For example, I think the [Miracle Seed] did originally cause problems, just as it did for Lerno recently, and whatever the reason, the alchemist probably took it back and sealed it in this dungeon. And once enough time passed, that simply fell into mere rumors."
[Itsuki] : "They probably made things based on how much they were getting paid to do it before shipping it out to their customers. What other type of alchemist would create a seed whose purpose is to infest an entire village? You cannot tell me that it wasn't intentional!"
[Rishia] : "That was believed to be a theory, but no one could say for certain."
[Rishia] : "And regarding everything else they created, many people wonder if those projects are still around, sealed off somewhere similar to the [Miracle Seed]."
[Naofumi] : "Hopefully, they are still sealed. If it's anything like the [Miracle Seed], it could even categorize itself as a problem to rival the waves of destruction."
[Naofumi] : "I might be exaggerating, but I think you get my point."
[Raphtalia] : "Are there any other known caverns where this supposed alchemist worked?"
[Rishia] : "A few others in the continent, but those are the only ones that are known. That alchemist could have even more that are hidden."
[Itsuki] : "This old alchemist has been dead for who-knows-how-long and they're still giving us problems."
[Naofumi] : "Let's hope we don't come across another one of their inventions anytime soon..."
[Raphtalia] : "I suppose that's one way of seeing things..."

[SKIT 123 : Satisfied Curiosity]

[Rishia] : "I wonder what those stone slabs were all about."
[Rishia] : "Experiments and projects created by an unnamed alchemist, left documented within the depths of his dungeon."
[Rishia] : "I feel like if we stayed there for a little longer and looked around, we might have found a few more clues regarding these experiments. I read that this unnamed alchemist and his legacy were mysteries laid upon mysteries, and for us to be able to come across one of his dungeons like this..."
[Raphtalia] : "You sure get into things like this very easy, Rishia."
[Rishia] : "I-I guess it's because I've got nothing better to do, so my mind simply wanders around like that. Obviously, I know that we can't stay around for long because Lerno is in trouble and all, but if this were to be under different circumstances..."
[Rishia] : "I'd be lying if I said I could leave this place without looking back a few times out of curiosity..."
[Raphtalia] : "You remind me a bit of my friend."
[Raphtalia] : "She loved the stories of the Cardinal Heroes, though mostly Shield Hero, but she could always talk about those books almost endlessly. I get the same feeling of passion from you. Her curiosity was different, in the sense where she would wonder what the next generation of Cardinal Heroes would look like. How they would act. She would wonder how close to the storybooks the next generation of Cardinal Heroes would be."
[Rishia] : "Oh, that's perfect! You can introduce Naofumi to her!"
[Raphtalia] : "I can't. Not anymore."
[Rishia] : "Huh? Why can't you—?"
[Rishia] : "A-aah...!?"
[Rishia] : "F-FUEE?! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to be insensitive like that!"
[Raphtalia] : "It's okay, Rishia. I didn't mean to sound so heavy."
[Raphtalia] : "But I think my friend knows for herself what type of people the Cardinal Heroes are from where she is right now."
[Raphtalia] : "And I think... she would be satisfied."