A. N. Heya, guys. Welcome to the first chapter of my Rise of the Shield Hero fanfic. This one does have some basics from other stories, but, in the end, it is my own unique approach. I will be honest, this is gonna be a backburner project for me, as the only part of this story I had planned out was the trial. I have ideas about how to develop the characters in useful ways, but nothing after the trial (except maybe the duel) really caught my eye. Anyway, here ya go. My way the trail should have gone (after I had watch Bob Jrs. Sherlock Holmes to many times). Enjoy! (But don't expect too many further post. I do plan on writing this, just VERY slowly. Also, it is hard to keep this going, when the second season of RotSH hasn't come out yet.)
They say… that being a nerd is a useless trait. That book knowledge has little place in the real world. But this is not true.
Take a weakling, a man if the Indoors, and force him outside. Make him suffer, and give him drive. If he has the will, and the knowledge, anything is possible.
Oftentimes, a little change can make a huge difference. Add a touch of bitterness to a friendly challenge, and hatred can grow. A little resentment, and three harsh words, is all it takes to destroy a family. Then, those who live the easy life, find themselves in agonies of the body far greater than anything they ever imagined. But to the smart, the agonies of the spirit, which they cannot quantify, and of the mind, which they cannot ignore, can become a fire that destroys the world.
Then, there are the truly strong. Those who accept the suffering, but do not suffer. Those who are rejected, but do not fall into despair. These are the truly strong. The Makers of the New World.
Add in twenty-plus years of fanboy madness and a few good senseis, and anything can happen.
Naofumi Iwatani was laughing.
It wasn't a chuckle, or a guffaw, or a snicker, it was full-on from the belly laughing! Like someone had just made the funniest joke in the world.
"Let me get this straight," he said as he started to come down from his fit of merriment, "I caught you in your room, and you got away? I was drunk? That is what you are trying to tell me? And… snicker… your proof… chuckle… is a negligee found in my room? HA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That is TO MUCH!!!"
"Silence, Shield Devil! You dare make light of such a heinous crime? Have you no shame?"
Now, Naofumi, or Neo, as he preferred to be called, could understand the king's rage. If someone had tried to touch his daughter, he would be spitting fireballs as well, literally. But this HACK JOB was so bad, he couldn't help but laugh. After several minutes, he got himself under control.
"I am sorry, your majesty, I will explain the joke in a moment. Rest assured, such accusations must NOT be taken lightly, nor do I mean to be cavalier. However, I believe I can rapidly clear this up, with just a little help from you. First, I will need the strongest available pitcher of wine, or alcoholic anything. I will of course pay for it. Second, could you have the owner of the Red House sent for? Her aid would be most important. Finally, I would like your daughter to tell, in detail, her accusations. After all, some charges might have been missed, and we wouldn't want that."
Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, king-consort of the realm, was quite eager to behead the Devilrous Shield that had dared to touch his daughter. That being said, he really didn't want to miss a single charge against him, and the lad was paying for the alcohol out of his own pocket (one gold worth) so that would be another ding to him. The Red House owner… well, that was concerning. But the Red House was the reason that Melromarc, as well as the whole of the continent was matrilineal, and it did NOT do to make them mad. They had at least triple the power of the Church of Three Heroes in Melromarc alone!
"Very well. I do not know why you ask for it, but for the sake of clarity, and punishment, we will perform as you ask. Know this! I had intended to make an example of you, without killing or incarcerating you. If I find that you are wasting our time, that will change."
"Your majesty." Naofumi replied with a bow, and with that, the king gestured for Myne Sophia, or more accurately Princess Malty Melromarc to speak, or in her case, lie convincingly.
"T-t-the shield hero came to my room last night after I had gotten dressed for bed, around one in the morning, roaring drunk but saying that he wanted to discuss strategies with me. I thought it would be safe to let him I~n!! sob…sob… As soon as I did, he grabbed me by the wrists and threw me onto the bed, saying how the night was young, and I didn't matter as 'just an NPC', whatever that means!" Here the other three heroes, Motoyasu Kitamura of the Spear, an idiotic twenty-one-year-old college student misogynistic womanizer; Itsuka Kawasumi of the Bow, a naive, but well-meaning woman's rights activist and high school student (prom queen, in fact); and Renka Amaki of the Sword, a sixteen-year-old wallflower from the look of it; look up in shock and anger. After all, I had told them that this world had actual people in it, not NPC's.
"He managed to remove my nightclothes, but I managed to fight him off and ran immediately to Sir Motoyasu's room for help. He let me in and let me stay until the morning, when we came to the palace as quickly as possible to report his horrible crime to you. I was sooo sca~red! sob…sob"
Ya gotta give her credit, she knew how to act. Too bad this ain't the first time Naofumi had to defend his character in front of a court. And this time, he actually WAS innocent, fancy that!
"Thank you, your Highness, for that story. I'm sure it must have been… draining for you. But there are a few points I would like clarification on. First, Sir Motoyasu, is Myne's story true?"
"Of course it is!" he replied hotly. "How could you even think she could be lying!?!"
'Oi, what a dim bulb.' "Yes, Sir Motoyasu, thank you for that. What I meant was, did she accurately describe her arrival to you?"
"I already said she was telling the truth! Why don't you admit your guilt already, you scum?"
'Some days, it just don't pay to get out of bed. Some people, make a lot of those days. Motoyasu makes one every day of his life.' "Thank you for that, Lord High Spear Hero. Truly, your nobility and brilliance fill us all with joy."
The nobles, who were a little put off by the spear's… slowness, were amused and quietly chuckled. The spear's party, including Myne, facepalmed. Motoyasu preened.
'Oh, gods, he thought I was serious!?! How??? I want to cry for him, then shoot him, then cry for me!' "Moving right along, what was she wearing?"
The nimrod blinked. "Huh?"
Naofumi had to fold his hands to keep from facepalming. We had a real bright one here. "Her clothes. When she came to see you, what was she wearing?"
"Her armor. Why?"
As soon as she answered, a ripple of uneasy whispers ran around the room, and Myne blanched. I had just shot her story to bits in front of everyone. Thankfully for her, as she glanced to confirm it, and unfortunately for the Shield, the king was too angry to notice.
"No reason right now, just curious for the moment. Might be useful later on, after all! Thanks for your help. Now, on to the next thing. Wine, please?"
At his request, the servants, who had been standing by all this time, came forward and offered him… a berry?
"I'm sorry, what is this?"
"Do you not know? It is a cohol fruit, a fruit so potent, one of them is put in a whole barrel of water to make it so that people can actually drink it, and then one shot-glass is as much as most are willing to drink. It is the strongest, and most cost efficient, alcohol we have!"
Neo looked at the fruit suspiciously. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, my lord."
He shrugged. "If you say so. Now, please do me a favor and place it on my tongue." He said as he handed it back to her and opened his mouth as wide as he could.
"W-w-what?" the poor servant stuttered out, her face going red.
Neo grinned and said: "I want everyone to see that the fruit is in my mouth. If I do it, there could be doubt. If you do, there won't be."
The servant blanched a little, but nodded. After all, she was a professional! She just was used to the weird stuff happening after the young nobles got drunk. Still, she gamely reached over, and dropped the cohol in his mouth.
He kept his mouth open as he spun in a circle, showing the cherry-like fruit on his tongue to the whole room, then closed his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Nothing happened.
The whole palace started to murmur, every person talking excitedly with the person next to them. Was this some kind of trick? How could he do that?
"I," he said, drawing all attention back to himself, "am completely immune to every type of solid or liquid poison in the world. Have been all my life. This mostly just means that I am safe from snakes and spiders and what have you, but it also means… that I literally CANNOT get drunk. Never could, in fact. This, of course, begs the question. If I cannot get drunk, how did I become drunk last night?"
All of this would have been more than enough to prove this to a rational judge. Alas, the king was rather… distressed by the claims his daughter made, and as such, was not quite as impartial as he should have been. "All this is very well, but what PROOF do you have for your innocence. As of yet, you have given us showmanship and fancy talk, and if that is all you have, you will pay for what you did to my daughter! SHOW ME PROOF!!!"
Neo scratched his head. "Wow, still not convinced? This is one hell of a tough audience. Have no fear, your proof is here!" He said with a wave and a flourish as he made his way to the center of the room. As soon as he got there, just under the light, he seemed to change. The shadows cast an eerie veil over his face, and he seemed to grow taller. His eyes glowed like coals, and his smile went from mild and friendly, to downright monstrous, and when he spoke, his voice echoed like a death sentence.
"Shadows of the knight, the Coin in the lord's purse. Honeyed lips that bare adder's fangs, and the horrors of the gentle hand. Thus, I speak, and I call thee. Arise, greatest of the demons of the city. I CALL THEE, SUCCUBUS!"
A sweet, kind, terrifying voice came from the crowd of attendants in response, making them part like water and a drop-dead gorgeous woman wearing a light pink silk evening dress and a veil made her way forward. "Why callest thou me, greatest of calamity. Man's way to me doth lead, in truth, though most shall know me best as Ruth."
"Dang! I thought my voice thing and calling you a demon thing were cool, but you made yours RHYME! Nice! Anywhos, thanks for coming!"
"Sure thing, Neo. And your little speech thing was good, but a little subtlety goes a long way. What can I help you with today?"
"I need an alibi! Your majesty, may I present the Madame Ruth, owner of the Red House in Melromarc. Madame Ruth, the king has some questions regarding my whereabouts last night, preferable between the times of half-past-eleven, and, say, around five o'clock in the morning?"
"Not a day here, and you are already in trouble? HAH! Well, at eleven-fifteen you entered the Bronze Ring to fight its champion, Glurg. After a fifteen-minute match, you proceeded to fight your way through the Silver Ring, which took you forty-five minutes, and then the gold ring, which took a little longer than an hour and a half. At that point, you were exhausted and rather out of sorts from the fighting, so you took a twenty-minute nap on the floor of the arena, at the cost of three gold, which I took from your winnings. You had delayed the fight, after all. After that, you moved on to the winner's circle, where, after an hour of hobnobbing, you spent half your winnings to talk to me, a whopping one hundred gold. Forgoing the usual request for a private interview, you actually spent the two hours you bought talking, as opposed to… other things. We had a good conversation discussing such things as modern politics and the set-up of the nations on this continent, background information, you said, and then you left. That means I can account for you from half-past ten, when you arrived, right up until five minutes to a quarter of an hour after five, give or take. All things considered, with as late as you were up, it is incredible you are currently awake! Why? They want you for murder or something?"
"Even better. The Princess Malty accused me of going to her room at one in the morning, and trying to RAPE her!"
The lady(?) stared at the princess for a moment, did a slow pan to Neo, did a doubletake, and burst out laughing. After she had gotten her mirth mostly under control, she reached up and swept her veil to the side, revealing a face so gorgeous, many of the women in the room started to drool. All the men except Neo were barely able to maintain their… (ahem) postures.
"Honey, if he could manage to turn ME away, after he could have well demanded it of me, ain't no WAY he tried to attack you." She let her veil drop back into place, and made her way out of the throne room, much to the happiness, and sorrow, of the men inside it.
"Your majesty, I was accused of being drunk, but I proved I couldn't get drunk. Malty claimed that she ran from her room in a nighty, the same nighty that was somehow discovered in my room, and yet she showed up in front of Sir Spear Hero wearing her armor somehow. She was willing to spend the night in a strange man's room, despite the fact that she claimed assault against another strange man that had been summoned at the same time, and she claims I was in her room at one, when anyone who was at the Red Ring last night could attest that I was in the middle of making my way through the Gold Ring's best fighters. Surely you must see that her accusations CANNOT be true. If you don't believe me, look at her wrists! Never once did she mention seeking healing, yet her arms, the place that ANY sexual attacker grabs, are entirely lacking ANY sort of bruise! And the clothing she used as proof? It isn't stretched, torn, or even wrinkled! Surely you must see that I COULDN'T have done this. She may be lying, or an imposter may have attacked her. She may have been mistaken in her attacker, or it might have just been a surreal nightmare. But whatever it was, surely you must see it COULDN'T have been me!"
The king was silent for several seconds, thinking things over. Truly, the Shield had brought hardship upon him in the past, though he knew that the hardship was at least equal parts Shield and his own stubbornness. Still, he couldn't bring himself to trust that damned hero, regardless of his kindness and manners. When the heroes had first been summoned, Aultcray had been almost awestruck and jittery by the thought of meeting the Sword, the Bow, and the Spear, but he had been almost catatonic with fear at the thought of the Shield, the real Shield coming to claim vengeance for his war on that man's favored land. Yet, when they had arrived, the Three blessed ones of the Church of three Heroes had been nothing short of a disaster! The Foolish Spear was so dumb, he was an offence to humanity, never mind the Cardinal Heroes! The Sword was so shy that she barely ever spoke, and the Bow, while nice enough, was both young, and kind of bitchy. And the Shield? He was disoriented, and had forced the people in the room to keep their distance while he pulled himself together, but after that, he was polite, genteel, and even diplomatic, helping smooth over any issues and clear up the matter with the other heroes. He had even politely glossed over the king's own snubbing of him!
It was all very confusing.
Then, things had started to pull back into their expected alinement. The Shield had done something evil; the Spear had stepped up to defend the innocent, things were looking normal. Not good, to be sure; after all, his daughter, even if it was his problem child, had been assaulted. Heads would certainly roll for that! But at least things were starting to make sense again! Now, it looked as if the Spear was an idiot dupe to his own daughter, and the Shield was actually innocent! This could not be! The church had made so many promises when they had been caught summoning the heroes against the will of the Crown, but this was NOTHING like they had described!
He shuddered for a moment when he considered how his wife was going to dress him down when she got back. True, he hadn't commanded the summoning, but he should have caught on quickly enough to stop it! Alas, it was too late for that now! Maybe if the summoning had gone as it was supposed to, they would have gotten a better class of hero.
All this pointed in a very disturbing direction. Was the church actually to be trusted? Was Malty in collusion with another country or an untrustworthy faction to weaken the heroes and provide her an opportunity to ascend the throne? He needed to send his wife a letter, and soon!
Back to the matter at hand, he couldn't punish the Shield. As much as there was room for doubt, there was only a very small room for doubt, so he would have to handle this carefully.
"Sir Shield, you have certainly made your point. While you have not provided a foolproof case for your innocence, I cannot in good conscience punish you for a crime we can't prove you did. As such, you will be permitted to leave without harm. Know this, however! You are NOT acquitted. We are merely postponing your sentencing until the High Court can convene. During this time, you will be CLOSELY observed, and ANY infractions or lawbreaking will be recorded until such a time as this can occur. Until then, consider yourself on probation! You may go, but we will be watching you VERY closely."
"Your highness." The Shield replied with a bow before turning to the other heroes. "If I could, I would appreciate it if you would join me for lunch. I have a few tidbits I would like to share with you, and some information that I think you might find useful. I will be most happy to pay, of course. However, this is info that will only be of use to you, so I must ask for your parties to not join. I will be more than happy to buy them lunch, but the discussion must be between us."
The Three exchanged uneasy glances with each other, then muttered agreements. None of them trusted him at this time, but all of them were uncertain enough that they were at least willing to listen. All, that is, except Motoyasu, who looked pissed that Neo "got away with his crimes." Still, curiosity would assure their attendance, if nothing else would.
--Later at an inn--
"Ladies and gentleman, thank you for being willing to join me for this lunch. I know that this was short notice, but I did have several things to discuss, as well as one matter to set right. But first, how goes your integration into this new world? Any issues to speak of?"
The two girls shook their heads, the Sword with her head down, eyes not making contact, while the Bow glared at me like I was the source of all evil. The Spear, though, soon focused her anger elsewhere. Namely, on himself.
"Other than you attacking Melty, no." The spear idiot snarks back. Honestly, does he even HAVE a brain? From the looks on the other heroes' faces I'd guess they are wondering the same thing.
"E-he. Sure. So, the reason I asked you here today was to provide you with the information I got from the Red House owner last night. More specifically, it is info on how this world works, to sort of point you in the right direction on your quest. First, a warning. See to it that you DO NOT treat this like a video game. If you kill something, get rid of the body. In fact, you should consider harvesting it. If you face a poisonous creature, DO NOT let it poison you. And most importantly, DO NOT expect things like severed limbs, concussions, and similar injuries to heal overnight! This is a real world, no matter how much it looks like a game, and you must be careful to treat it as such. I know you probably figured this out already, but if you reiterate the basics, no-one needs to get hurt by a noob mistake."
"Yeah, we knew that, jerk." Kawasumi sneered. God, but I don't miss high school, or high schoolers. "If that is the only reason you called us here, I'm leaving."
"It is not. I also had the opportunity to investigate the power structure around here, and it was a bit odd for us earthlings. To begin with, the country, and the continent, is matrilineal. The queen is the head, the king second; the firstborn woman inherits, the firstborn son or second-born daughter is second, and so forth."
"Does the misogynistic pig have a problem with that?" The snark-mobile… snarked. Honestly, what did you expect?
"Eh, it's just like any government. Necessary, but a pain. On a plus side, this will decrease the violence between kingdoms by a large amount. On a downside, this means that bureaucracy is through the roof, and the few wars we do have, will be much, MUCH more brutal. Not a big deal, when all is said and done, but there ya go.
Now, on to money. The system in this kingdom is one that you all are probably familiar with. Ten copper to a silver, one hundred silver to a gold. However, the base costs are a little… odd. For example, a loaf of bread is one copper, no real surprise there. That being said, a night at an in is ten times that (one silver), as opposed to the more convectional five times that most places have. This is because most towns don't have an entrance tax; rather, they may have an entrance fee.
The way it normally works, for us anyway, is that you pay a tax at the gate, which goes to running the gate, paying for soldiers, and any extra goes towards the local government. This is because, since the fifteen-hundreds, most cities walls were not needed for defense all that often. Around here, however, defense is a much bigger concern, so walls and guards are payed for automatically. They have no other options. The towns make up for this by having higher business and travel taxes, payable at stores for the first, and the inns and taverns for both. If you have any background in economic theory, you probably know what I mean. If you don't… a night at an in with food costs a silver."
"W-why does that matter?" the Sword asked, and Neo smiled. If she was willing to ask for the sake of curiosity after knowing him for all of a day-and-a-half, there was hope for her.
"To a large extent, it doesn't. What it comes down to, is which is more important: guards, or entertainment. Whichever is less important, is taxed more. For example, if you live in a kingdom with few threats, and your prime money-maker is tourism, you would tax at the gate, making the guard expendable if the tax wasn't enough, but you would avoid putting a large tax on inns, as that would make people less likely to come. In this land, however, the walls are a matter of life and death, and, as such, the guards take a small tax for maintenance only (if at all), because their wages are certain. And that analysis segues us nicely into the issues we will face. In this land, there are three, primarily.
First, you will have an issue with the monsters, hence the importance of guards. I know you already know this, but hey, might as well cover everything.
We also are gonna have a problem with politics. As a women-dominated culture, interpersonal actions are… vastly important. The king, by failing to acquit me, has made it so that I will be snubbed in many places of business, and many legitimate merchants CAN'T have anything to do with me, as being seen with the person who the king wouldn't acquit would ruin their business. This isn't like, some plea for help, I'm just giving you an idea of what to expect as you travel.
It is also ESSENTIAL to point out the fact that there are three other kingdoms, and we were, in fact supposed to be summoned separately, one per kingdom, to help them all out. It is my intent to visit all of these kingdoms, in an attempt to smooth things over and help their people. Be careful if you do so! Our appearing here, in this kingdom, will be seen as a personal snub from us to all of the other kingdoms, and Siltvelt and Shieldfreedon are anti-sword, -spear, and -bow hero anyway, due to an old, and very complex, war that rocked this land. The Three heroes fought for the humans and against the Shield hero, who was protecting the demi-humans, blah blah blah. Long story short, mind your manners and watch your step there, just like I will have to do here. Be sure to act on your best behavior anyway. The primary religion of two of the kingdoms is the Church of the Three Heroes. That means that, in half of the lands you can visit, you are seen as emissaries of God himself. You must make sure not to let them down, or you WILL end up… in a very bad position. Nothing burns quicker that a demonized hero.
While we are on the subject, be sure to mind yourself around the church. I have heard that the members are fanatically loyal, not to you of the kingdom, but to the pope. As such… well, I could draw parallels between them and the catholic church of the Inquisition and the Crusades. Not that they are necessarily bad, mind you. It just pays to be careful."
"So, monsters, politics, and the church. Is that all?" the shy girl asked
"Hmph, politics won't matter. We are in a woman-based culture now. Everything will be better here than it was in our old world." Miss Feminist hissed.
Ignoring that comment, Neo continued. "One last thing and I'll have said my peace, and that is about our weapons. I was able to spend some time looking mine over last night, and I found out several interesting things. First, it comes with a tutorial of its basic functions. This includes is ability to mimic the effects of any type of your class of weapon that you pick up with its 'Weapon Copy' mode, the 'Duel Wield' skill that lets you use an extra of your class weapon, either one that you purchase or a copy of your Cardinal weapon. At the early level of the skill, which is the only level we can access at the moment, it only creates one copy with 50% stats and no special skills, but according to its description, higher levels allow you to create more than one copy, blend the weapons, and access any special skills, as well as granting you all of the weapons stats. You can blend weapons anyway, but again, higher levels are needed for better stats.
You also have a very useful 'Create Quest' function, and a 'Random Encounters' and 'Random Quests' function that gives you access to the good EXP. The best thing about it, is that the 'Create Quest' function lets you know what is, and is not possible. It tells you where to go to find what you are looking for, sets you up to be in a position to succeed (as long as you are willing to work for it), has both a difficulty setting and a difficulty determiner (that is, you can choose how hard the quest will be, and it tells you hard it will naturally be), and even lets you know when trying to do something will leave you injured or dead! Unfortunately, as far as leveling goes, stats are auto-assign ONLY.
Finally, each weapon has a series of class-specific skills that you can learn. These are essential for you to become the best you, you can be. You will also find that you can teach class-specific skills to your followers, but that only works for skills you really understand. That being said, you must be sure to keep up with this, and it pays to make sure you keep the same units you start with.
Actually, I do have one more thing to add. Ya'll were rather harsh about my shield, saying it is mostly useless. That is not the case. All seasoned European warriors, if given a choice between sword and shield, choose shield. You can punch with a shield, smash with a shield, and block with a shield. After all, having an eighteen-inch piece of steel slammed into your chest at high speeds tends to ruin your day. Your weapons are similar. In a game, you use a bow to shoot, a spear to stab, and a sword to cut. This is the most basic, and least imaginative, use you can use it for. A very broad sword can be a shield, and invincible bow can be a club, and a spear was MADE for mobility boosting. Just something to think about as you hone your styles.
Welp, that's all I had to say. Do you have anything you want to say?"
Spear-head stood up. "The only thing I have to say, is 'I don't believe a word you have to say, scum!'" With that, the idiot left the room. Honestly, I thought it was an improvement, but the two girls seemed put off by this, like they had forgotten I had been accused of a heinous crime just this morning.
The rest of the meeting didn't really seem to go anywhere, but the girls tried to be polite. Honestly, this world is going to eat them alive. After another fifteen minutes of niceties over an extremely awkward lunch, they both excused themselves.
It was a little disappoint, the caliber of the 'heroes' I was summoned with. That being said, I have finished my duty as far as they are concerned. Now, we must just wait and see what will happen.
Which means, it's ADVENTURE TIME!
Right after I find a good companion, that is. Being alone on the road can be a real pain.