Author's Note: Sorry for being a little late, slept in today by like alot. Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and Remember to book your shots!
Chapter 12: The Shield Party's Therapy Session
"Hello. I'm Kaede Honjou and I survived the Melromarc Kingdom." Kaede started by reintroducing herself, redundant considering the company but that was how these meetings are suppose to start aren't they? 'I am me, and this is my problem.'
"Hi Kaede."
"Hi."
"Gulp. Hi!"
Raphtalia, Rifana and Keel affirmed Kaede's introduction, the latter two had to do so through gulps of boiled spider washed down with slime drinks that she had made for them.
"Um... I don't hold a lot of strong feelings towards this country, or the people in it. Even now." Even after they tried to murder her in a dark alley and use that as a excuse to try and do so again in public. "How do I put it... have any of you heard of what movies are?"
"The projections created with recording crystals?" Raphtalia asked prompting the other two to nod.
"I assume so." Kaede stated though she felt the need to provide a more detailed explanation. "Where I come from they're usually works of fiction." Kaede paused as the others signalled for her to continue. Influence of past Heroes again runs thick it would seem. "When I was in the sixth grade, me and my class watched a movie, and near the end of it the bad guy died and we all cheered. Our teacher, Mrs. Hyoudou, then walked over and turned the movie off and disappointed us all into submission."
"Why's that?" Keel asked pausing from his gluttony to look at Maple confused.
"'This is not a game. This is a real person, the series of events that led him to do what he did was not a good thing, the actions he took were not good things, his ending was not a good thing.' We never saw the end of that movie, I never went looking for it." Kaede had a distant nostalgic look on her features.
"So what she encourages a no kill policy?" Rifana asked fist tightening in response, as good as asking if they should've just stood back and let the soldiers who stormed their village and killed her family walk away free? That if they should've just let the monsters of the wave eat them all? That the strength they gained from murdering the monsters today was somehow tainted for it.
"No." Kaede shook her head in the negative to all of it. "It was necessity, by killing him the people he would've killed had been saved. But one should never confused what's necessary and what's good." Kaede's eyes looked away, like she wanted to say something else but didn't dare to. She didn't have to. 'This world rewards murder.' The people in it might not, but the world does, it's very laws of physics with it's XP and levels practically screamed 'stab this guy, I'll reward you for it.' Perhaps it shamed her to admit that she found it sick that she thought less of the people here for believing that, not as sick though as to admit that she was fooling around in a world that runs on that logic. "Raphtalia. Do you want to go next?"
"Hello. My name is Raphtalia, and I survived the wave." Wave, singular, they all knew there were more coming for them. "My parents always told me to smile through hardship, no matter what." A task Raphtalia found more difficult than she ever knew possible. Because here hardship is watching your mother sacrifice herself to hold off of a army of monster mutts. It means watching your father shove you into a crack too small for him but just big enough to keep the wave boss out before he gets eaten. It means realising that you gathered up your entire village and made it stupidly easy for what was left of all of you to get killed or enslaved. It means that the psychopath that caught you takes a liking to you and spends days torturing you waiting until you break. It means realising that your friends are sick and going to die as you are dragged off. And it also means the realisation that whatever fate awaits you after that is not going to be any better. "You may have noticed, that I'm not smiling."
"Is that a bad thing?" Kaede asked after she finished absorbing something into her shield. "When you're sad you should be sad. When you're angry you should be angry. When you're happy you should be happy. Pretending otherwise isn't going to help you."
"So what do you recommend doing? Fall into despair and never get out?" Raphtalia asked her tone harsh and growling.
"No I mean that you need to work through those feelings." Kaede stated simply. "Which yes I know that it's hard but it can be done, or so people tell me." Kaede didn't look entirely convinced. "But that is why we're here. We're talking about it, we're supporting each other through it, step one is day one, step two is day two. We will get through it." Kaede's tone had it's own brand of iron to it.
"So my turn I guess." Rifana was about to start but was interrupted.
"Air Strike Shield." Kaede produced a second Air Strike Shield directly underneath the previous one causing them and the makeshift picnic they were having to fall about a inch when the skill ran out. "Continue."
"Hello. I'm Rifana and I have tasted death." Rifana stated in no uncertain terms. "It tastes like iron and sickness." Rifana had a distant look in her eyes as she stared at the horizon. "Rabier's cells are dark, damp and cold. All things that our parents teach us to avoid when we play outside. We saw the lung sickness before, heard our parents warn us when a traveller came to our village with it, watched as he died and our parents burned down the house he was living in so you know what my chances were like." Rifana was just ranting at this point, and she knew that. "When someone like Idol Rabier doesn't even want to get close enough to torture you, then you understand what it is that you've got." Rifana shivered just thinking about it and she wasn't the only one.
"But what are you going to do now?" Maple asked looking at Rifana brow in the air. "You aren't trapped in that death sentence of a cell anymore. So what do you want to do?"
Rifana closed her eyes as if pondering that very question with no real shortage of seriousness.
"I want to live." Rifana said and meant more then just not dying like a animal locked in a small cage.
"More then we have the right to ask of you." Kaede stated warm smile on her features that was all tender love and support.
Keel punched the blanket and the makeshift platform that was beneath them along with it.
"Hello. I am Keel..." Bitter tears streamed down his frustrated face almost like he wanted to growl like a animal. "...and I'm a coward." Not a easy thing to admit but that was the idea wasn't it? Bravery means facing your fears, and in comparison to the waves, what's the fear of admitting cowardice. "When the wave came I was the first to run out to the ocean, I can't even say I knew what made me run either, holes in the sky opening up, the sudden crashes from above, the monsters that started to emerge. No I just did the first thing that came to mind and went where I knew I could outrun them." Keel's fist grew so tight that blood was coming out of his hand and trailing off to the side. Raphtalia and Rifana were different, their loathing were aimed at the monsters or the slavers, Keel was under the impression that the blood of the people who died there was on his hands and his alone. And that his hands would never come clean for it.
"There's nothing wrong with having to run away Keel." Kaede stated prompting Keel to snap, all anger and pain.
"How would you know!?" Keel snapped again reaching over and grabbing Kaede by her collar and pulling her over to scream in her face. "You're the Shield Hero! You're invulnerable! You come from some soft world with it's teachers and it's schools and it's movies! Have you ever had to put your ideals to the test!? Have you ever watched your loved ones screaming for help as a monster rips out their throat!?"
"No I haven't." Kaede stated as she pulled Keel's grip off of her. "Which is why the first time that I was put into danger that's exactly what I did. When the Kingdom's soldiers tried to kill me I did everything I could to run away from them both for their sake and mine. And I succeeded too."
Do not do the impossible. No one will blame you for not trying.
"Um. This might not be the best time to bring this up." Raphtalia stated patting Keel on his shoulder even as he nearly broke down sobbing. "But is this really the best time to be doing this?"
Maple's guide to Level Grinding. Step 1: Use Newly acquired Air Strike Shield skill to go up to the sky high enough to avoid the monsters limited to ground level.
Step 2: Have your legendary shield manufacture a giant net made out of giant Spider silk and use that to capture the army of giant spiders below and feed them to your shield.
Step 3: Process the monsters into food so that your Demi-human companions and Filolial can eat them and rapid mature safely without serious issue posed to their health, possibly send your Filolial to ground level to beat up the monsters when available.
"It's fine, people do it this way all the time." Maple stated waving off Raphtalia's concerns. "The important part is that we know how to fight when the wave does hit."
"Which is kind of what we're not doing right now." Rifana stated even as she rubbed circles into Keel's sobbing back.
"It's fine, we'll just ask Mr. Reichnott to pick someone up for us."
Once the monsters had been cleared out Maple and the others walked back to the Reichnott territory, the demi-humans needed some exercise to work off their meals. When they got there though Van Reichnott was already talking to a familiar blonde haired woman.
"The King already has a plan in place to rescue the Demi-humans of Seatto?" Eclair asked looking at Reichnott with blatant suspicion.
"This is why your father didn't think that you were suitable to inherit the territory of Seatto Eclair." Reichnott stated his tone scolding. "Two out of three of the noble families left in Melromarc are aligned with the church and their human supremacist views. If the kingdom decrees that all Demi-humans are to be released at once then they'd be put on the first wagon to Zeltoble. Their safe return requires working within the system they've created, not against it." Reichnott noticed that the girls were coming back now through the use of the one way mirror he had installed in his office, so he called them inside. "If the kingdom announces that all of the slaves of the Seatto territory are to be released immediately said slaves will either be sold off or killed." Reichnott stated counting on the girls to use their intuition to fill themselves in on the conversation. "It must be done gradually, over a period of time and in a manner that does not alert to them the fact that they are being dismantled." A slow death is often times much worst than a sudden one. You are eased into it gradually, you don't notice the signs at first, a sneeze, a cough paleness of the skin, it isn't long before you learn that you have a foot in the grave. But if it's sudden, you have the instinct to fight for your life, to lash and swing about. "The last time one of these foolish people felt like they had been cornered they unleashed a dragon in the middle of their own territory. Do you really think that it's a good idea to corner them again?" There was a pregnant pause in the room as the various people present were made to understand that this was a delicate situation.
"Do you want us to fight them?" Maple still had the chain mail hood of her armour over her face, which considering the redness in her right eye that glowed in the dark made her absolutely terrifying. But Eclair could swear she sounded familiar.
"...no. That would be quite counterproductive. We have some volunteers prepped to deal with the matter in their stead. I would suggest you focus on grinding but with your level there's no where in Melromarc to do that efficiently." Reichnott sunk some serious thought into the subject before he looked like he gave up. "For now I would like you to focus on recovery for yourself and your new friends."
"Umm... the egg hatched into a Filolial?" Maple turned to look at her friends who nodded in the positive.
"That is quite fortunate for you, it will be needing a carriage, and with them your range of travel will have shot up." Reichnott stated eyes going over to the wagon cages they had took from the Rabier estate.
"Travel?" Eclair took a good look at the three Demi-humans, Tanuki, Wanui, Selwea. So they were from the village. But Maple removing her hood was what made her drop to her knee. "You? I-I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you." Eclair paused and looked to the others. "All of you." Maple gave Eclair a hug, wasn't she the one who was suppose to be offering care and support?
"Mr. Reichnott told me about what happened to your dad. My condolences." Maple stated as she released the older woman. Reichnott got their attention with a clap.
"If you all want to know how to make up for everything I think I know where you can start." Reichnott explained as he pulled a sheet on a 'gift' that had been left for Maple and her and her companions.
In the mean time though we turn to Reichnott's volunteers, who had been fed the information concerning the numerous dealings of the Rabier estate via the innumerous shadows of Melromarc. As requested Tanya filtered the list of idiots she would have to kill according to the severity of their crimes.
Category 1: Low priority, these people have bought slaves through the Rabier estate but are pragmatic enough to keep them alive through a bare minimal number of means. These she would be ignoring for now.
Category 2: Medium priority, these individuals have bought slaves through the Rabier estate and have engaged in other illegal activity besides. These Tanya and the others would be blackmailing to keep them in check.
Category 3: These people hate Demi-humans and so bought them as slaves to torture them and eventually kill them. These they would be dealing with now.
"Have we decided our next move yet?" Eli asked having prepared drapes for their secret hideout and was now in the process of hanging them.
"You're going to like this one Eli. It involves cleaning house." Tanya cared little for the plight of Demi-humans or the blatant corruption of Melromarc's government, during the first wave a corrupt nobleman sacked the Seatto territory and enslaved it's entire population.
The next 'enterprising Noble' who had a wave drop close enough to see it and view not a natural disaster but an opportunity might not be so half baked in their actions in sacking the territory, or might not be patient enough to wait until the wave was over with. Each of these idiots represents a threat to Tanya's continued survival and she would be having none of that.
"Where do we start?" Eli asked brow cocked in interest.
"This one." Tanya stated finger on a map in the same tone that a butcher chooses which pig he is going to prepare for dinner. Tanya's guide to starting a slave revolt.
Step 1: Smuggle potions for breaking slave seals and restoring health to the most brutalised of the slaves.
Step 2: Find the largest barrel of liquor you can get your hands on, fill it with enough sleeping potion to knock out a dragon, and leave it for the guards to find.
Step 3: Start a fire.
"Where are all of my guards!?" The lord of these lands, dressed in his sleep wear and bathrobe, stormed through his estate while what few people left who were still sober trailed after him.
"We found them in their quarters, passed out drunk." Not technically untrue, but Tanya neither had the interest nor the presence to clarify that rumour.
"Those damned idiots! What am I even paying all of you people for!?" As the lord had been blindly fuming he stumbled across one of the slaves he purchased from Rabier dressed in his usual rags, and emerging from the wine cellar glaring at him in contempt if nothing else.
"What is one of the slaves doing out of their cells!?" The guard's moved to apprehend the man who ignored the rambling's of his quote unquote master unamused.
"He mentioned pay earlier. You should know that that is no long possible." The demi-human threw a bag before them and it hit the ground with a loud thunk, inside was the broken lock on the vault door that previously held all the ill gotten earnings of the estate. "It has already been cleared out." He didn't really care if these people could get their money, rather the look of rage on his former captor's face was much more satisfying. "While for her that might be enough she also freed us and gave us permission to kill you." Suddenly the sounds of the contents of the lord's wine cellar smashing open all over the building that the lord was currently inside of. "We accepted her offer." The one on the inside used earth magic to smash the legs of the guards and pin them and the nobleman under some heavy stones, and once he was cleared of the estate the entire thing was set on fire.
"'I, Queen Mirellia Q. Melromarc, Queen of the Kingdom of Melromarc, write this letter giving the Legendary Heroes my full permission and support in disposing of the blatantly corrupt and foolish noblemen of my Kingdom in the interest of it's continued peace and prosperity in anticipation of the Waves.'" Eli read the scroll dictating the marching orders the shadows they met had given to them prior to their blatant act of arson here. "You may also notice that there is the official seal declaring this as a royal decree." Eli stated letting the former slaves read the letter before smacking it aside.
"You expect us to care about what this government does?"
"Less than I care about the thirty or so orphans that were being kept here." Tanya stated sitting next to a group of Demi-human children who were eating the meat that Otto and Aranaya had provided for them earlier on. "Put bluntly. I cannot look after all of you, and you currently do not have the means to keep yourselves from getting enslaved again." Tanya stated as she shrugged her shoulders and gave a grin that was all malice. "So my proposal to you is to get yourselves enslaved again."
The king looked at the latest report to cross his lap, the third demi-human uprising the occur in three days resulting in one of the chief most supporters of the three Heroes Church getting themselves killed by the same people they had been torturing to death.
"I honestly do not know what you expect me to be able to do about this Biscas." The King stated looking directly at the Pope of the Three Heroes Church after he came in fuming. "If people do not like the idea of being bitten by rabid dogs then you should either not be keeping them or take better care of them."
"Your majesty! This is clearly a Demi-human uprising, the loss of these territories a prelude to their rebellion." The Pope snapped angrily glaring at the king who clearly had his priorities in the wrong place.
"And especially during the wave this could be disastrous." The King seemed to have the same opinion of the pope. "Which is why as soon as we locate the ring leader of this rebellion he and I are going to have a sit down to discuss terms of a Cease fire."
"You cannot be serious!?" The Pope exclaimed eyes wide in terror.
"Are you?" The King asked brow cocked in the air suspiciously. "Are you really entertaining the idea of trying to fend off a rebellion while the Waves loom over our head like the waiting blade of a executioner?"
"If nothing is done about the Demi-humans they will overrun us!" The Pope snapped glaring hatefully at the King.
"Then we have reached an agreement." The King stated though his tone of voice implied that they had done nothing of the sort. "Now go tend to your flock Pope, I must tend to mine." The King waved the pope off as he turned his attention to his henchmen, the Pope himself running off to fume.
"Should we send someone to keep an eye on him." Calos was old and looked like he was made out of eels and grease, but grease keeps the wheels turning smoothly, and likewise he has his uses. "No. Whatever he does will not be subtle, my wife will do enough of that for all of us. Our resources will be dedicated to fortifying for the wave." The King stated and the henchman nodded his head as he went to execute the royal families will.
Maple learned about this from a Anime, Carbon fibre was created by layering soft material like paper with a hard and stiff material like plastic, this combo of softness and hardness made it unreasonably sturdy. Maple didn't have nearly enough paper to create a canopy for their wagon, instead she made use of the spider silk and had the shield weave it into very large + sized sheets, she didn't have any plastic either, so instead she turned the slime into a lacquer and after building a skeleton on top of the former wagon cage using it's metal bars layered the spider silk sheets and slime lacquer into a canopy. It wasn't carbon fibre but Maple was reasonably certain this was better. Spider Silk was suppose to be as strong as steel at a fraction of the weight, gods know what that would be like after reinforcement by the slime lacquer. Filo certainly liked it drooling visibly like a teenager who just got their first car.
"Where do we go first?" Raphtalia asked looking at Maple with suspicion.
"Now that these two are fully grown we should hit somewhere with lots of experience points to let them hit the cap." Their new swordsmanship instructor, Eclair, had explained why Raphtalia's level wasn't rising anymore, and the lack of likelihood that they'd be able to get a class upgrade at the dragon's hourglass any time soon. "After that... maybe we should try and pick up more allies, if we can find them before the wave hits." Raphtalia nodded approvingly as she climbed into the back of the carriage and together the monster, two humans and three Demi-humans went off to go kill some monsters.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: Gradually but yes.
Halo: Sorry about that. Kuro can often be a nasty piece of work.
FBI: I'm Canadian, you hold no jurisdiction over me.