I awoke to voices, as a bottle was put to my lips and some foul tasting liquid was forced down my throat. It was like raw sewage, and I was coughing it out the next moment. Luckily, someone seemed to be aware of how bad it would taste, and had a cup of 'coffee' ready to go, with my downing it in second, and leaving me gasping and wiping my chin free of the stuff dribbling down it.
I had been asleep for a good ten minutes as the Pope, who was the man standing over me with a warm, almost fatherly smile, stood back, and allowed me to slowly rise to my feet. Around me were my party members, and most of all, the King, who looked pleased with himself at the victory of 'his' champion over me. He was even laughing heartily at my defeat, but I just shook my head, before moving towards Ren, who looked…disappointed for some reason.
"You did good, Sword Hero. An excellent and well fought battle," I told him, and he took my offered hand, shaking it.
"You did well as…er well Bow Hero. If you'd been able to recover faster, you could have won," he observed, and I shook my head.
"To be fair, that move takes way too long to charge up like that. If you'd seen it coming, you would have dodged, and given one of your low power attacks did the same amount of damage to me as my best, it means you would have been the victor in an all out brawl too," I told him, massaging his ego a bit. To be fair, it was true, in a straightforward fight, stats said Ren was my better. That of course meant I had no real incentive to offer him a straightforward fight, but that's not really something I wanted to admit.
"Yes, a fine match between Heroes, and now, for the prize to be given," he said, and the Pope, chuckling, motioned some of his people forward, holding vials of water that shone a bit. My (Insight), which leveled from the use, though nearly sent me back to sleep from the cost of it, told me that it was (Seal-Dispelling Holy Water(Pure)). It was expensive as heck too, almost as much as my gear at three hundred silver coins, but he seemed happy enough to use it.
"Present yourselves, brave soldiers, and we shall free you from your bonds," declared the King, and I scoffed a bit. It was his laws that allowed them to be made slaves in the first place, and one of his nobles that had done the specific enslavement of these three. I didn't decide to say that aloud, however, instead, when Fast, Strong, and Shadow looked to me, I nodded, allowing them to take it.
The three seemed nervous at first, but then knelt down, as they were not quite short enough to make this easy for the people holding the bottles, and then presented their chests. The liquid, which seemed like it was made of silk as it spilled from the bottles, poured onto their seals, and they…evaporated. Like, I had been expecting a spark or something, but instead they shone for just a moment, and then they and the liquid were gone.
"There, now you are free to choose your own path in this world. Would it please you, my own castle could make use of strength like yours in its defense," he told them, and Strong, who looked at his own chest, then to his brothers, stood up, and walked towards the King, or so it seemed for a few steps. Then he, and they, strode right past him, to stand with Lucia beside me, making me feel really good about myself.
"It pleases us to continue with the man who offered us freedom, rather than the one who allowed us to be bound," he said simply, and the King's face flashed, for just a heartbeat into a face that looked positively murderous. Like this was some grave insult to his generosity that had been committed, and he would see my companions skinned for it. But it was only there for that brief second, before he was smiling again.
"Very well. Then let us all retire to the upper seats, so we might witness the duel between the Shield and Spear Heroes next," he said, and so we did, the others in my party making sure I was okay. I offered them general platitudes, as we moved to one of the open parts of the railing, away from the nobles and the King's own box, with Ren and his party soon joining us to watch the combat below.
When we were all seated, the Minister who was standing beside the King offered the same speech as before, and then, with the dull thunk, the twin doors below were opened, and it was clear one of the combatants this time was completely not okay with this, as Naofumi looked up at us, and then narrowed his eyes at me. I couldn't help but shrug, before pointing him towards where they were holding his lady.
Raphtalia, the demi-human woman, was currently being held in the King's box. It said something when my three companions were allowed to just watch me fight, while she was being held like a hostage, even being gagged. Made me wonder just what was wrong with all this. This had been planned, and they'd targeted Naofumi, as there was no way they didn't realize my own companions were slaves as well, but hadn't batted an eyebrow at them.
I had no time to question, as the fight began with the pair of them trading blows, and quite powerful ones at that. I could actually feel the wind being generated by the clash, and watched as Naofumi seemed to have some kind of supernatural ability to block every blow with his shield…to be fair it WAS magical in nature, but his stats said he shouldn't be able to move that fast, so it was thrilling to watch.
They talked about an anecdote that seemed to be on both their worlds, where a Spear and a Shield fought, the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Mind, I didn't have that one back home, and was curious that it seemed to be the same general story they were referencing between them, though the fact that Naofumi claimed the Shield won in that battle was interesting.
For me, my own thoughts went back to one of skill vs strength, where a knight, fully armored and armed with a powerful broadsword, came upon an old farmer. The knight was young, and full of pride, and when he challenged the old man with a simple staff, the old man trounced him, showing that, for all the power you might wield, the important thing was skill, which I thought fit this fight far better.
After all, Naofumi's stats were abysmal when it came to attack. He had a whooping zero in his physical attack stat. But his defense, magical and mundane, was obscene. Meanwhile Motoyasu, for all that his attack was fantastic, was sporting defensive stats that were only slightly higher than my own, and given what I focused on in my build, that kind of said it all about how much damage he could take.
In general, that still meant this should have been an easy victory for Motoyasu. A LONG victory, to be sure, but a victory nonetheless. Naofumi, though, was making him look like a fool, using his defense, including summoning shields of light that floated in the air before him, and also using orange balloons, the weakest kind of balloon, as offensive weapons, apparently having had them gnawing on him the entire time we'd been in the palace.
Finally, after trading barbs for what felt like far too long, Naofumi was able to toss several balloons into Motoyasu, before trapping him in some kind of cocoon made of shields. The orb sealed him inside, and we could hear the shouts of pain, as I watched his HP drop. It was at half by the time Naofumi finally released him, allowing him to spill out onto the floor, exhausted and wounded, with Noafumi standing over him, holding two more balloons in his hands.
"That is game," I said, and Ren beside me nodded.
"Even if he can still fight, it would be foolish to continue, given he's barely done damage to Naofumi with his strongest attacks," he added, and I nodded in turn. To be fair, it wasn't NO damage that he'd inflicted, but comparatively, Naofumi was in better shape, and if this continued, we might lose the Spear Hero to his own pride, and I for one didn't want that to happen.
Luckily, it seemed his party agreed with that assessment, as I pointed to Myne walking out onto the floor, and standing at the edge. My expectation was that she would end the match the moment it was obvious that Motoyasu would suffer some grievous harm, possibly even use it as an opportunity to gain his affection or something by leaping onto him dramatically and begging him not to continue.
Then, all at once, she smirked, in full view of the audience, as she raised her hand, and then muttered a quick spell, her fingers going into motions, as she held out her arm, and her bracelet shone bright red. A moment later, you could see dust being blown forward in a sideways funnel, and slamming into Naofumi's back, driving him forward, and knocking him down, doing more damage in one shot than Motoyasu had done the entire fight.
"Foul play!" I shouted, rising from my seat, and slamming my fists into the railing, my party, as well as Ren's did the same, the Sword Hero didn't do so as loudly, however, but merely stood, and scoffed. Strangely, none of the nobles in the other seating, who could not have missed what had just happened, remained silent, as Motoyasu used the sudden distraction to destroy the balloons attacking him, and then wind up with his boss killing move from earlier.
Naofumi, who was still under the effect of the Wind spell's brief dizzy, and thus had his movement cut in half, couldn't quite bring his defenses up in time, and I watched as a rod of blue light shot through him, luckily only doing HP damage to him, but enough that he was down for the count, which made me finally grit my teeth, as I rose, Ren doing the same, and soon, our parties as well.
"Stay here, all of you. We might need cover fire if this goes badly," said the Sword Hero, showing an overall tactical sense I'd never gotten from him. I approved, and motioned for my own companions to do likewise, as the pair of us proceeded to walk, swiftly but not quite running, down the corridors, getting to the arena just as Naofumi was being forced to watch as Raphtalia was brought down before him.
"Halt this travesty!" I shouted over the arena, causing everyone to turn to the pair of us. Ren looked…well, he'd wanted this handled quietly, but this was not the time for discretion. One of our own had just been cheated, and Motoyasu had tried to KILL his ass dead. There was no way this was going to stand, as the two of us walked over, my eyes turning to Naofumi, who didn't seem to be rising, curled up on himself, either from pain, or just…not sure what to feel.
"Heroes, what is the meaning of this?" asked the King, and I shot him a look I hoped was not encouraging, but he just stood there stone faced as we came up.
"This was supposed to be a duel of honor and dignity. If party members were to be allowed, we could have put on a far better show than what we did," I declared, and Ren nodded.
"Exactly. And if it came down to it, Raphtalia should have been fighting at his side, if you allow Myne to use magic for Motoyasu," he added, and the Spear Hero seemed very confused by the statement.
"What are you guys talking about?" he asked, and I wanted to smack the himbo upside the head, but I bit my tongue instead, and pointed to where Naofumi was still laying on the ground, though he was looking at us.
"He was standing over you, ready to fling more balloons into your face, then suddenly shot past you because of a blast of wind. Did you not notice that?" I asked, and Motoyasu seemed to think back on it, but the King coughed to draw attention to himself.
"And what proof do you have of such an accusation?" he asked, while looking up to the stands.
"Does anyone here corroborate this story? Did anyone above see this crime?" he asked, and you…well okay I could see the people shuffling thanks to my telescopic vision ring, but none spoke out.
"And what of you, your holiness, surely from your vantage point such despicable behavior would have been easily seen," he said, turning to the Pope, who looked very mad, for a split second, for being called on the spot, but then waved his hand before his face.
"I must confess, that my mind was on the business of the church, so I was not paying as close attention to the combat spectacle as I should have, though I saw nothing that would lead me to believe such took place," he said, using some very, very carefully chosen words, so as not to contradict the King, without really agreeing with him either.
"So you see, it seems there are none who would back your claim here that my daughter in any way interfered with the match," he said, with a note of finality that told us to drop it.
"Yeah, I bet it was just some kind of trick of the light or something. You guys just fought after all, and you, Bard, just woke up after passing out. Maybe you imagined it," added Motoyasu, giving us an out, and I looked to Ren, and towards Naofumi who was looking up at us expectantly. I really, really wanted to hit someone, but I knew the game being played here now, and so instead, bowed my head.
"Very well, I withdraw my complaint," I said, and then dramatically spun around, motioning with my eyes for Ren to follow me. He looked confused at first, but mimicked what I had done, the pair of us stalking off the arena, and then out into the hall that had held the knights before, but was empty now. I took him out to one side, with him looking at me curiously.
"What was that about? Why did you back down just now? We both know that was no delusion, and our parties will back us up, I'm sure of it," he said, but I shook my head.
"You mean the parties made of adventures, mine containing some former slaves, and the others being, possibly foreingers, if they're not loyal to the kingdom?" I countered and he opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then closed it, as his mind worked that over.
"Worse yet, Motoyasu is too stupid to have seen it, but we both know that woman set this up. That same woman that accused Naofumi of something awful back when all this started, and is now hanging off the Spear Hero like an accessory…or like a trophy wife," I added, and it seemed Ren was only just starting to twig onto my line of thinking as his eyes went wide.
"Are you saying she…?" he asked, without finishing the sentence, and I just shrugged.
"This world isn't like ours. Any of ours. Mine, yours, Naofumi's or Motoyasu's. The people here, they do things differently, but she seems far too…recovered, for my tastes," I say, and he looked back towards the door, before nodding slowly.
"Motoyasu trusts her though, implicitly. He'd never hear a bad word about her," he observed, and I had to give him credit. He was right, I just hadn't figured Ren had been paying enough attention to notice the way she and he were inseparable. Not like we'd gotten to spend more than a few hours together. It was a good catch.
"Let's leave it at that then. I'm going to recruit some more party members for myself. Maybe see about getting my own legion going," I tell him, and start to walk away, but before I can, he catches my arm.
"Wait, you…you can't do that. I tried myself, but the party system bugs out when you try to go beyond six. Trust me on that, I tried for a bit. At first it was just some lower EXP, but I figured I could keep pushing, you know? Maybe even challenge myself to a low level run, but going even farther caused all kinds of problems," he said, and I looked him in the eye, making sure he was telling the truth, and when I saw him not turning away, I did so, and swore, several times.
"Fine then, I at least have two more slots to fill. I'll do that in the morning, once the king passes out the reward he promised, and then leave the city. I have some business to take care of for some friends. What about you?" I asked.
"I…was going to try and get the King's advice, but given tonight, I think I'll simply travel like I was doing. We should probably find the strongest monsters this world offers, and slay them. It is the noble thing to do, to help make people safe, and it will help us grow stronger, right?" he said, and I nodded at that idea.
"Fine. I'm headed north towards the steppes there. You should probably pick another direction. I'm sure Motoyasu will just wander, and Naofumi…let's leave him to his peace for now. I'm positive his lady friend will stay with him, seal or no, same as my own three," I respond.
With that, we proceed back up to the stands, seeing that Naofumi had indeed had his lady stay with him, even having her slap the himbo at one point, which made me wish I'd stayed to see it, but regardless, he and she seemed to be unmoving in the arena, and when I called out to her, Ms. Raphtalia said she was fine where she was, so I proceeded with the rest to the barracks where we'd been staying, to rest until morning, when we'd resume our adventure.