The following day in the morning

Caboose starts to stir from his night's rest in King's Alutcray's Castle as he didn't have a place to stay in the kingdom. Naofumi offered Caboose a room at an inn he had recently checked in; however, Santa asked the king himself if he'd let Caboose borrow a room just for the night, just to keep the bed from 'breaking' due to Caboose's weight with his armor, which he wasn't able to take off because he wasn't able to do it by himself. The king, not wanting to let a person like Caboose walk around in the castle by himself, agreed only if Caboose allowed the king to station guards outside his room for the night, which Caboose agreed on without being questioned about it.

Before Caboose got off his bed, he started to look around confused as if he didn't know where he was. Scratching his head in confusion, he started to 'try' and remember what happened the previous night.

'Ok, Santa asked me to go into the fantasy world to help a shield create happy memories. Once we got here, we had crashed a duel between a shield and spear which the prize was a pet bunny. So far so good.' Caboose said while he reached over to his helmet. After that, the shield asked me if I wanted to make bunk beds with him, which would have been so fun but Santa asked King Aluty if I could sleep in his castle. He agreed if only I behaved like a good boy.'

"Hmmm, Freckles. Do you remember what happened last night?" Caboose asked his A.I. companion as he got off the bed and walked towards him.

"Affirmative Captain Caboose." Freckles replied as he got picked up and holstered on Caboose's back. "We were to only stay the night in the castle till today. Around 7:45 am, we'll report to the throne room to join Noafumi's party as Santa told you to follow before he took his leave to go back to Chorus. At the moment, it is 6:30 am. We have time. Would you like to get breakfast Captain?" Freckles asked as Caboose moved towards the 2 doors that lead to the balcony.

"After I take a look outside, I am interested in how it looks outside from the view up here." Caboose replies as he opens the doors towards the balcony of the room.

As he steps outside, he gasps in amazement as he looks at the surrounding landscape around the castle walls. Towards the front of the castle, miles away, there's a small village that is close to a forest that connects into a mountain environment. However, most of the landscape was covered in green plains as the land extends as various types of hills can be seen as the eye can see.

Caboose not wanting to miss the moment, he started to record the view from his helmet cam from the time Tucker did the training regime to capture Felix. As he recorded, he thought to himself how the crew would love to see this scenery as well. Once he finished recording the view, he took his helmet off and held it with his right hand pointing the helmet cam at him, as he took Freckles from his back holster and began to take selfies.

"Say 'Cheese' Freckles." Caboose tells his A.I. companion as he positions himself with Freckles leaning on his shoulder.

"Cheese" Freckles says in his robotic voice as the photo goes off.

"Alright let's take a few more." Caboose said as he leaned Freckles on the balcony stone fence.

Instead of taking a few, Caboose takes enough that half an hour goes by. From a handstand to tie towing on the balcony edge. Once he finished taking photos, he looked out towards the scenery one last time, wishing that when he comes back to the castle, it'll be with his friends that are doing their daily routines with the Army of Chorus.

'Maybe there's a way for Santa to bring them over?' Caboose thinks to himself as he picks up Freckles from his spot and walks back inside the room towards the other door on the opposite side. As he walks through the doors, the guards jump into their positions and point their weapons at Caboose.

"Where do you think you're going, Blue? You can't leave the room without an escort, king's orders." The guard with a red feather on the top of his helmet said as he kept a smirk on his face keeping the actual truth from Caboose.

The guards were ordered by Myne to keep Caboose in his room till the passing of the rewards to the heroes finishes to make it look as Caboose ran off into the wilderness to 'explore' the nearby caves for loot.

"But I am hungry! Can I at least be escorted to get breakfast because it is an important meal to start off the day. And I don't want to lose my energy for today. I have my first trip with Nofumi's party today." Caboose states as he rubs his stomach to show that he is hungry.

"How about you stay in your room and we'll bring it to you? How about eh? It is a long walk to the dining room, and between the dining room and throne room, you may be late to join up with that poor excuse of a hero. So let us do you a favor and wait here, we'll bring it to you." the same soldier said as he starts to lose his cool as well as the others due to Caboose oblivious eyes on the situation.

"OK! You are a really nice man. Thank you so much, I'll tell the king of your responsibility to take care of me." Caboose thanks as he turns around to go into his room again. " Knock once you have breakfast here. Ok?" as he closes the door the knights began to laugh and say how Caboose is so stupid to even understand what is happening.

"Hmmm, seems like them bringing my breakfast made them feel joyful, what great people. Am I right Freckles? Caboose asks as he sits down on a chair that was located near a table in his room.

"Negative, Captain Caboose. As you talked to them, I scanned the room to show hostiles. I didn't tell you because they would have grown suspicious of us and may have forced us to go back into the room." Freckles states.

"Hmmm, well as long as they bring me my breakfast, I'll be happy. Would you like some eggs Freckles?" Caboose asks Freckles as he turns around to see the butt of the assault rifle.

"Negative, Captain Caboose. I only need the power of our love and friendship to function properly, as well as batteries and oil occasionally." Freckles states as there is a knock on the balcony door.

"Who could that be?" Caboose asks as he gets up from the chair as he walks towards the door.

"Scanning…..unknown individual. Body temperature normal levels, no signs of hostility towards us, but proceed with caution, Captain Caboose." Freckles warns while Caboose takes a hold of the door knob and pushes the door outwards.

The unknown individual was crouching in the right corner of the balcony as if to hide from someone. The individual wore a dark purple hood, with a grey masquerade mask that only covered the eyes and nose of the individual. As they saw Caboose, they stood up revealing that the person was a female. Alongside the cloak they wore black boots that reached above the knee, black shorts, and a black shirt with grey outlines.

"Sorry for the disturbance new comer, but I am Shadow working under the Queen of Melromarc, I was sent to take you to the throne room since the knights outside your room are keeping you locked inside to keep you from rejoining with the Shield Hero." the Queen's Shadow announced as she began to tie a metal chain to the ledge of the balcony.

"OHhhhh, but said they'll bring me breakfast. Hm, must be a prank of some sorts. Should I wait then for them to prank me or do I jump off the balcony?" Caboose asks as the Shadow looks at him with an emotionless expression due to the mask covering her eyes on how she felt when the blue armored soldier suggested he jumps off the balcony as an escape method.

"You can't stay here, but as well as you can't jump off the balcony, you'll cause a scene." The Shadow replies towards Caboose's questions as she looks over the balcony to see if the coast is clear from another Shadow on the castle grounds. As the Shadow gives the thumbs up, the Shadow on the balcony tosses the chain over.

"Ok I'll go down the rope first. Once I am down there I'm going to throw a rock at the balcony. When you hear it start descending down the rope. I'll make sure no one looks over the balcony as you are descending down the rope." the Shadow tells Caboose as she looks into the room to check that the knights aren't looking into the room.

"Ok. On your mark mysterious lady." Caboose replies as he positions himself to hop over the balcony.

"See you down there, blue soldier." the Shadow said as she began to descend the rope.

"Freckles, how much time do I have left to group up with Nofum?" Caboose asks as he looks at the Shadow reaching half of the chain.

"It is currently 7:05 am. We have time, but we have to be careful. Hostiles could spot us at any moment as we went down the rope, Captain Caboose." Freckles states

"Yup, I wonder? Will it be alright to meet up with them earlier?" Caboose asks himself.

"I see why not. It'll give us an advantage over our opponents if we were to meet up with them earlier." Freckles agrees as the Shadow has finally reached the ground and runs into the bushes.

Caboose sees a pebble being thrown towards the balcony and hitting the side the chain is connected to. As Caboose hops of the ledge and takes a hold of the chain. He looks up to make sure any knights didn't see him jump off the balcony. Once he was sure that there weren't any, he began his descending on the metal chain.

However, before he reached half way, he heard the sound of popping metal as if something was breaking apart. He stops and looks up to see what the noise was. To his surprise the chain was beginning to break apart.

"Freckles." Caboose calls out his A.I. companion.

"Yes, Captain Caboose." Freckles replies.

"Am I fat?" Caboose asks.

"No, why do you ask?" Freckles replies as he questions himself why his captain would ask a thing about himself.

"Because the chain is breaking apart." Caboose states

"Oh no." Freckles said as the chain finally reached its limit.

"Oh boy, this is gonna be a fall. Is that?"

The broke with Caboose's weight of his armor being too much for the metal chain to withstand. On the ground, only one thought came into mind to the 2 Shadows.

'Oh…….Shit.' they both thought as they saw Caboose fall towards the ground.

As Caboose made impact with the muddy area, a loud splash could be heard around his area as mud went everywhere, spraying the Shadows with mud as well. Once the mud met with the ground again, all the Shadows could do is stare where Caboose's body made impact with the mud. They were both shocked beyond belief.

"I-I thought the chain would be able to support his weight." the Shadow that met Caboose stated.

"M-Me as well. Guess we were both wrong."the other Shadow said.

"D-Do you think he is, d-dead?" the Shadow asked as they both walked towards his body.

As they both reached his body, they could see him looking back at them. The 3 of them stared at each other for seconds.

"Not my fault, Tucker did it." Caboose said as he got up, mud all over his armour and field of vision.

"Ummmmm, are you alright?" one of the Shadows ask, being surprised that Caboose doesn't seem to be injured at all.

"Nope, I am used to falling off from tall heights."Caboose states as he wipes the mud off his visor.

"Captain Caboose, we have 35 minutes and the walk to the throne room will take approximately 15 minutes." Freckles announces

"Seems like we should get going then." one of the Shadows states as she starts walking in the direction of the throne room.

"We'll take you to a few of our companions here in the castle. From there you should be escorted by them towards the throne room to join up with the Shield Hero." the same Shadow from the balcony tells Caboose.

"Ok." Caboose replies as he walks off with them. Covered in mud.

The throne room

Before Caboose arrived at the throne room, Naofumi had gotten his reward that he deserved for his actions during the first wave even though the King Faubly would have preferred that he didn't get paid at all. But the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki, and the Bow Hero, Itsuki Kawasumi, told the king that the actions Naofumi had done were one to be considered of noble praise even for his "past crime" and deserved a better reward with what he got at first. Deciding not to go against the other heroes, he paid Naofumi his amount that he deserved.

"There I paid your part of the reward, go and get out of my sight you filth!" the king retorts wanting the Shield Hero to leave immediately, wanting not to see him anymore

"Oh I would love to, your Highness. But I am waiting for that new companion that Santa brought in yesterday. That is if you're not holding hostage of course." Naofumi says as he goes towards a pillar and leans on it.

"Why would I hold him hostage after that performance last night? That boy would trash my place if I were let him be here within my castle. Take him as much as you'll be doing me a favor." The king said as he started to smirk at Naofumi knowing of Myne plans.

'If everything goes fine, we'll lure the Shield Hero and his demi human companion into the caves and get rid of them once and for all. No killing would need to be done, just enough to the point where he'll finally break and make him go on a rampage against me. There we'll make it look as if the Demon of the Shield is finally making his appearance as the enemy to the kingdom.

After he finished that thought, the doors to the throne room opened. Revealing a very muddied Caboose being accompanied by 2 maids that lead the way. Naofumi stared at Caboose in confusion, not knowing why Caboose was covered in mud. As for the Bow Hero and Sword Hero, they did their best to hold in their laughter as they saw the scene unfold. Unfortunately for the king, he did not enjoy it one bit.

"YOU STUPID BOY!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WALKING IN DIRTY LIKE THAT?!!" King Faubly exclaimed asking himself what type of individual would walk into a place of royalty and nobility. All dirty.

"Well you see, I was looking at the pretty view outside, which is AMAZING! So I decided to take pictures and record the surrounding area because it was pretty. And I thought 'Why not stand on the balcony and tip toe around the edge?'And so I did. It was FUN! Then I tripped and fell and landed in mud. I'm hungry. Did I mention the view was pretty?" Caboose said as he got closer to where all the Cardinal Heroes stood.

Well, except for one.

"Guess you were right, your highness. He would trash the place if he stayed with you. Probably like around an hour so." Naofumi states as he starts to walk towards Caboose.

"Good morning, Nofume. How's your morning?" Caboose asks as Naofumi walks to him.

"It's o-wait what did you just call me?"Naofumi asks as he didn't hear Caboose right.

"We apologize, your highness. We would have gotten him clean before we arrived, but he always kept going the wrong direction." one of the maids explained

"Oh yeah, apparently the way I went led me to the room filled with explosives. Things would have gotten real messy if I had entered" Caboose states as he remembers his experiences with explosives.

"I..think I am just gonna take him out of this place before something bad actually happens." Naofumi said as he started leading Caboose through the doors he entered a few seconds ago.

'What type of mess did I get into this time?' King Faubly thinks to himself as he looks at the doors open in disbelief.

Near the entrance

As Naofumi led Caboose to the front gate of castle, Raphatalia was thinking to herself as she wondered what this blue armored person was like. All she was able to know about him is that he's strong, has a child personality, and has a gentle face.

'Would he accept me for being a demi human like Naofumi-sama did when we met? He waved at me and called me cute, but maybe that was because he did see my ears or tails while I was being held hostage.' Raphatalia kept on thinking like this since the time he went to collect the reward and collect Caboose.

Since she was a child, humans had treated her as if she were nothing. Slavery was the first thing she experienced as human hatred towards the demi humans. To add on that, she became a slave to a landlord due to the Waves destroying her hometown as well as taking her only parents she ever had. She wasn't held for long at her first plantation, eventually another slave owner bought her off from the landlord and took her away into the kingdom where she was bought from Naofumi as of a week ago.

"It's Naofumi. Nao-fum-i. You try it now." Raphtalia could hear Naofumi pronouncing his name to someone as she turned her head towards him.

"Na-e-fum." the blue soldier said as she noticed him walking next to Naofumi. Covered in mud

"You said my name correctly, yesterday at night. How could you forget it that easily?" Naofumi asks Caboose as they get closer to Raphtalia.

"Tucker did it." Caboose replies as he notices Raphtalia looking at them.

"Who's Tucker?" Naofumi asks as he notices Raphtalia looking at them as well.

Once they reached Raphtalia, Caboose and Raphtalia kept on staring at each other for a couple of seconds. She had a face of nervousness and fear as she had to go into a visor that didn't allow for her to see his true facial expressions. Caboose, however, was filled with excitement to meet the girl he saved last night and happy to know that they'll become good friends as they travel with Naofumi on his journey around the kingdom.

"Hello." Caboose said to break the silence.

"H-Hi there." Raphatlia greets back.

"It's alright Raphtalia, he isn't that type of person." Naofumi said as he noticed that Raphtalia was nervous about the blue armored soldier.

"It's the helmet isn't it?" Caboose asks, knowing what Naofumi meant.

Caboose begins to remove his helmet to show Raphtalia that he meant no more harm towards her. The smile itself helped calm her nerves. She didn't see any hidden emotions or deceiving smile. She saw an honest and wholesome smile. Something she doesn't see in Melromarc at all. Instead she would see guilt, hatred, lies, betrayal, sadness, and anger in Melromarc. What she saw in Caboose's smile was the opposite of that. It was pure, happy, sweet, childlike, and warm.

"I understand that you are afraid of me at the moment. After how you saw me fight Matuyoso last night. But I never meant to go too far. Just to the point to make him yield. I only fought to keep 2 friends from being separated. Both of you would have been devastated if I had lost. So I did my best to win for your sakes, but also held back to not give a bad first impression of me. I hope to get close as friends along our journey. I came to help both of you out, and to make sure nothing bad happens at all. My name is Micheal J. Caboose, would you please let me accompany you both on your journey." Caboose bowed himself when he finished introducing himself towards Raphtalia.

Naofumi stared at Caboose with wide eyes, remembering back to what Santa said about Caboose.

'You were about him Santa, stupid as hell, but has a good idea on what it means to be wise.' Naofumi thought to himself. He turns to Raphtalia with an wide eyed expression as well, which slowly turned into a smile.

"Thank you so much for fighting last night for me and Naofumi-sama, even if your opponent had won, I would have still gone back to Naofumi-sama, but I know he would have been hurting because he would have thought he had lost me. I thank you so much for keeping that from happening, even if it was a coincidence that you entered the arena at the same time when that woman shot her spell at Naofumi." Raphtalia said as she shed a few tears. To her it felt like a miracle what happened last night, and the person in front of her did it for their sakes not his.

"I'm glad to know you'll join our party Caboose, we need more people like you in this world, someone that's willing to take a leap for someone else's sake, even if you have never met or know how that person is. Thank you for helping not be afraid of you as well. And yes, it was the helmet. Hehe. Sorry for responding, I was just scared and the names Raphatlia. Nice to meet you Caboose." Raphtalia introduces herself as she thanks Caboose one last time.

"Neat...oh wait I forgot one last thing."Caboose said as he put his helmet back on.

"Raphtalie, meet Freckles. You saw him last night when I tossed him towards Nofemu." Caboose said as he got both names wrong. Holding Freckles in front of Raphtalia as she looks down at him.

"Hello Raphtalia, I am Captain Caboose's MA5B Assault Rifle, but you may call me Freckles." Freckles greets Raphtalia.

"Hello Freckles, never seen a weapon like you before, what do you use to stay functionable?" Raphtalia asks.

"He runs on the power of our friendship and love, as well as batteries and oil occasionally." Caboose replies towards Raphtalia.

"That's cute, where did you find him?" Raphtalia asks

"Well, I was sad, I was walking around, and talking to myself when I ran into him in a cave. He was all over the place. There was broken ship parts, some bodies, he was split into pieces, and covered under a rock." Caboose explains.

"I see." Raphtalia said as she tried her best to ignore the 'bodies' he mentioned.

"Yeah, but I was able to fix him right up, and he was better than ever. Right Freckles?"

"Yes Captain Caboose." Freckles agrees with Caboose.

'Just like Naofumi and me when we first met, I was a mess. But he was able to get me back up and alive. And because of that we are able to handle what the Waves or kingdom sends at us.' Raphatlia thought to herself remembering how it was the past week.

"It's nice to know that you guys were able to get along even under a few minutes of talking, but let's get moving. I wanna stop somewhere before we leave this place." Naofumi said, as he started to walk towards the front gates of the castle. He really loved the fact that they were able to become close under a matter of saying a few words. But he's got to admit it's all thanks to Caboose understanding how Raphtalia felt.

"Where are we going Master?" Raphtalia asks as Caboose starts to follow both of them.

"Well, since we got ourselves a new companion, I don't think it'll hurt to get a new member into our party. Would it?

To be continued