"You can really tell that Lady Rozemyne was raised as a noblewoman. Her playing is amazing." Rishia said, her voice full of admiration as Ren's group sat at once of the tables set up for Rozemyne's live performance.
There must have been a good five thousand people there watching her play, with nearly a hundred of Rozemyne's subordinates running around serving food and drinks, as well as many festival style stalls set up.
It was all a fundraising scheme to quickly get the money needed to purchase a large number of slaves with specialized skills from Zeltoble. They had received some funds from the Adventurer's Guild, but Rozemyne thought that they were being cheapskates. They seemed to be under the impression that they would purchase just a blacksmith or two, where Rozemyne wanted to prepare for if she had to transplant an entire community to avoid splitting up families.
Of course, Rozemyne's 'children' offered to return the pay she had been giving them, but she refused, saying that money was for their own use. Even when they tried to rephrase it as repaying the debt they owed her from buying their freedom, she wouldn't budge. She'd been actually upset with them when they claimed they were her slaves, so it belonged to her anyways.
Naturally, said kids were partying hard tonight, spending their money so that Rozemyne would have it in a way she couldn't refuse.
"You were raised a noble's daughter too, weren't you? Any musical talents of your own?" Tersia asked out of curiosity. The pair of them were among the newest of Ren's recruits and were grouped together for hunting trips until Rishia could be assigned an area of her own to train in.
Rishia was the sixth member of the team, if you included Ren himself, meaning they were officially a full party, and everyone welcomed the girl warmly. They rarely worked together in the field,since having 6 people working together to kill 1 level 80 monster was less effective for leveling than each of them killing 1 level 50 monster on their own, but they did always come together in order to eat, drink and be merry.
"Ah, I know how to play the flute a little, but I was never very good at it." Rishia admitted with embarrassment. "My family wasn't exactly wealthy, so the flute was an antique that was a bit beat up, and I never received proper lessons. I just learned what I could out of a book my mother gave me."
"I'm sure you are underselling yourself. Maybe we will get a show out of you someday." Farrie said with a giggle. The green haired martial artist was fond of teasing Rishia. Though she was defensive if anyone else tried it, viewing herself as Rishia's older sister.
"Fueeeee!?" Rishia squealed in that way that she had whenever she panicked, getting chuckles from almost everyone at the table. Everyone but Ren.
"Lord Ren, is something the matter?" Welt asked, seeing their boss so tense, despite the party atmosphere.
"...An assassin made an attempt on Rozemyne's life this afternoon." Ren said flatly, getting wide eyes from his companions.
"...Damn." Welt said, raising a large arm and scratching the back of his head as he watched Rozemyne on stage.
"Something like that just happened, and she's out here playing like she doesn't have a care in the world." Farrie said with a shake of her head. "Girl might not be a fighter, but she sure has some grit to her. You would never guess it, given the way she looks."
That was for sure. Rozemyne looked like the holy maiden she technically was. It was hard not to think of her as a fragile princess, no matter how many times she had proven otherwise.
"At least we know that her defensive stat is way too high for most normal people to punch through. She's got poison resistance too." Tersia said, trying to put Ren at ease. Not that it worked.
"What bugs me is how she acts like it is something that's inevitable. Like no matter what happens, someone will always be targeting her life." Ren said grimly.
"I'm not surprised she feels that way. Given how much she loves reading, she's had to have read some of the stories of the past Shield Heroes." Rishia said, surprising Ren.
"What do you mean by that?" Ren asked, not having heard of this before.
"Well, while all of the Sword, Spear and Bow Heroes are mostly universally idolized, the Shield Hero is a point of controversy. There is a large faction among the Demihumans that worships the Shield Hero as their one true God, which puts the Shield Hero at odds with human supremacists and those among the Demihumans who worship the Dragon Emperor." Rishia explained. "A lot of the past Shield Heroes were assassinated because of politics, rather than dying in battle."
"So this is how they repay us? After everything we do to keep them safe?" Ren said bitterly.
"Yeah, well. That's nobles for you." Welt huffed. "No offense Rishia, but for everyone one good noble out there, there is one rotten one."
Having experienced the worst of what the older warrior was talking about, Rishia could only nod her head in agreement.
Ren clenched his fist as he spoke with the others, getting more details about what they understood of the attack.
While the 'ninja' or Shadow was a demihuman bearing a special-type of seal, its origin was unclear. The country in the east that trained them often sold them as a commodity to people with enough cash. So, at the very least, the ones who sent them had money. Not that it narrowed down the list very much.
But while Ren was stewing in his anger towards the assassins, another Hero was enjoying his time.
While his party hadn't wanted to go, Motoyasu had been too curious to stay away. He liked the festive atmosphere, the fried foods and good wine, the adventurer women who wished to share a drink with the famed Spear Hero. It was a nice change of pace from the noble parties he usually went to with the girls.
"She's pretty good." Motoyasu said, impressed as he watched Rozemyne play an instrument that he didn't know the name for, some kind of cross between a harp and a guitar.
The songs ranged in style from classical to country to even some anime style songs, much to Motoyasu's confusion. The lyrics were not either the local language or Japanese, though Motoyasu could still understand them thanks to the Spear. Most of them seemed to be religious in nature.
It was a shame that Rozemyne's looks were that of a shrine maiden, rather than an idol singer, being more part of the traditional beauty system than the cute system. Music was always better with a cute girl singing for it, better if they are dancing too.
"Hm?" Motoyasu paused in his flirting with one of the local girls as there was a brief intermission between songs.
"Now, for our next song, Daisy, Sakura and Ivy will be performing the vocals and a little routine they came up with! Please be supportive, everyone!" Rozemyne said as three little girls came up onto the stage.
Motoyasu sat up straight, his eyes wide as he saw the three little girls.
They looked to be around ten years old, and each of them was cute as a button. The girl on the right had long green hair done in a braid with a farmer's girl tan and bright cheerful smile. She wore a white and sky blue dress that was simple and pure, giving the impression of a girl that could be seen running through a field of golden wheat in a dream.
The second, the one of the left, had bright pink twintails, soft red eyes and pale skin. She seemed shy and bookish, but earnest and wore a black dress with dark purple lace.
Finally, standing in the middle, was a child with honey golden hair in corkscrew curls and cheerful sky blue eyes. Her expression was warm, happy and kind and she exhibited an innocent charm. Her dress, bright red and white had a Christmas feel to it, making her look like a holiday addition of a doll.
All three of them were cute as could be, and all three of them had white angel's wings growing from their backs. Not mere props, but real wings.
Motoyasu watched, mesmerized as the girls started to sing and dance to the tone that Rozemyne played for them, a cheerful, high pace song that one would expect at an idol concert.
They were the textbook definition of Moe.
'Otherworlds are the best!' Motoyasu cheered deep within his otaku heart.
The outdoor concert had been a success, luckily. It should have been enough to bring on a few families when they went to the slave market.
Rozemyne was tired afterwards, and left the organization of everything to her Library Rabbits. But even if she was tired, that didn't mean that the night was over for her.
"Were you able to set everything up?" Rozemyne asked Indigo, who had stayed home during the fundraiser event in order to set up a magic ritual for Rozemyne.
"I did everything exactly according to your instructions." Indigo said with a bright and cheerful smile as he handed Rozemyne a potion.
"Thank you. You did a really good job." Rozemyne said, patting his head and giving him some more mana as a reward, getting a bright smile in return.
The pair of them then went into Rozemyne's hidden room, where her would-be assassin was laid out on top of one of two magic circles.
Rozemyne had not told Ren, as he was too impulsive for this kind of business, but it wasn't necessarily true that dead men tell no tales.
In her world, so long as the brain is not destroyed, you could tap the mana contained within it in order to look into the memories of the other party. It was one of many tools in the Archdukes and Archduchesses' kits. She didn't have the headgear that was normally used, so the entire magic circle had to be prepared, but it was still doable.
Normally, in Rozemyne's world, nobles would arrange for their Devouring Soldiers to explode when they died, to make sure that their memories would be out of reach, but it seemed that there were no such precautions here.
"Well, let's see who was behind this little attack." Rozemyne said, before taking a drink of the potion and laying down in the middle of the second circle, closing her eyes and letting its effects take hold.
The memories weren't terribly clear. The man had been dead for only a few hours, but things were already getting fuzzy. And without a consciousness to steer her, she was only shown whatever happened to flow by her.
The result was a unusual movement from scene to scene as she experienced moments in the assassin's life.
He was taken as a child to a hidden camp and made to endure brutal training in order to learn his arts. The survival rate of the first few years was low, as any child who couldn't make the cut wasn't considered worth the resources spent to keep them alive. But as time progressed and his comrades died, the conditions became better.
After he leveled up a few times, he started to grow, his physic becoming closer to that of an adult's, and at this time, they branded with the magic seal that he would wear for the rest of his life.
More flashes of training, of fighting, of torturing people, of assassinations. Finally, she saw memories of him and three others being sold off to a new master, a master who looked at them with disgust, seeing them as less than animals, but who valued their skills.
A large cathedral. A fat man dressed in white robes and a bishop's hat, his grandfatherly face not hiding the twisted soul underneath.
'High Bishop.'
"Go, and kill the Demon of the Shield."
Rozemyne pulled herself out of the trance, breaking the connection. Her body was shaking a little, experiences from the man's youth, of the horrible events that had transpired against him as a child were still fresh with her.
"Milady, are you alright?" Indigo asked as he held onto her arm, trying to steady her.
"I'm fine. I just… need a moment." Rozemyne said as she collected herself, taking advantage of the situation to draw Indigo into a hug, pretending for a moment that it really was her baby brother. "It seems that the church was behind this attack."
She wasn't exactly surprised. As a religious figure herself, she knew the kind of power that a religion with true believers had, and she'd experienced the kinds of things that people who were in charge of such a religion would do in order to maintain those believers.
But in politics, direct attacks were a last ditch effort. The means were always more important than the ends. If they couldn't come across as righteous, then they would lose face and power. So instead of going at her directly, they would use assassins until they were convinced they could attack openly without looking like the bad guys.
It was a good thing that Ren didn't know about this. If he did, he would likely have attempted to seek justice for her, and triggered a civil war in the process. A war Rozemyne wasn't sure they would win, and that she wasn't sure was worth fighting in the first place.
She needed more information first, but before that, she needed to buy time.
"These seals. They have a different magic signature than the normal slave seals. If I can isolate it and register it with the foundation's barrier, I can stop more of these Shadows from entering our territory." Rozemyne said allowed as she got up, but Indigo held onto her dress.
"No, Milady. You need your rest. Let us handle it. We'll analyze the magic seal for you." The blue haired Library Rabbit insisted.
Rozemyne smiled softly. "You all really are too sweet to me. Thank you."
She had had a long day, and she really needed her rest.