We returned to the castle with a load of fanfare. Like, knights assembled outside it, and the people watching expectantly, as if us just being here was a grand thing. To be fair to them, it kind of was, but it was still annoying, and slowed us down as they threw what amounted to a parade for us as we walked in through the doors, with cheering and the like, Motoyasu being annoyed as he was already there, and had been waiting for some time.

When we were present, I asked, and it turned out Naofumi and Raphtalia had stayed the entire night in the courtyard…probably more comfortable than my own nest of blankets, honestly, but regardless, he was there with us when they opened the doors to the throne room, this time Myne…Princess Malty, was standing beside her father, showing they were no longer hiding their relationship, as we were shuffled in, our parties taking their place behind us, as we stood in a line before the King once more.

"Heroes, your bravery and valor have seen our Kingdom, no our entire world, through this latest crisis with alacrity and finesse, allowing the evil of the Waves to spread for less than half a day, and meaning few, if any of its foul progeny will have lived to see the sunrise this morning," he began, as he sat there on the throne, smiling at us, and swinging his hand broadly in a grand gesture. On that command, four servants holding bags that clinked quite pleasantly came to stand just before us.

"In recognition of your deeds, it is only right that we reward you, even more than we had originally planned, as such, the five hundred silver that was to be given to you between Waves has been increased," he said, and motioned with one hand, the woman before Motoyasu stepping forward.

"To sir Motoyasu, for ending the life of the foul creature that was the Center of the Wave, as well as for following my orders without complaint, I present four-thousand pieces of silver, a true king's ransom," he declared with a chuckle, and the himbo was smiling, as he held out his hand, and took the bag.

"To sir Ren, who was instrumental in the fight against the boss, and who won his duel with honor even after such a battle, I present three-thousand-eight-hundred silver, that he might continue to grow stronger," and he had the man before approach, Ren staring at the bag as he took it, and nodding his thanks, but doing little else.

"To sir Bard, for his support of the others, I had intended the same as Sir Ren, but to repay the kingdom for the freedom of his servants I would have taken one-thousand gold from his payment," he said, and the one before me approached, seemingly a bit nervous, like I should be angry at her for the slight. Instead, I took the slightly smaller bag with a smile, and then stepped back into line.

"However, it has come to my attention that the village of Lute stands now only for the actions of his party, whom he sent to assist in the defense of it. As such, I shall gift him the sum of two-thousand additional silver, both for his concern for our population, and for preventing even a single loss of life within that same village," he said, and with that, the woman handing me a sack was replaced by a fifth servant walking around, and handing me another, almost as large one.

"And to sir Naofumi, I would present the modest total of five-hundred silver," he said, and Naofumi began to reach forward, as the bag was held out to him, only to pause as the King continued.

"However, the cost of freeing his servant has off-set this sum, and he shall receive no funds from the crown at this time," he said, and the woman holding it out to him quickly stood back, the Shield Hero himself scoffing, and rightly so. Not only was that almost twice the cost of the seal breaker stuff, but my own had apparently been, buy two get, one free. Still, I quickly saw a way out of this, and stepped forward, drawing all eyes to me.

"Your Highness, may it please you to hear my words?" I asked, and the King seemed…shocked by the fact that I addressed him so formally, at a loss for words, but then motioned for me to continue.

"It is to my great dishonor that I, had I been on my own, would not have seen Lute Village within the area of the Wave's encroachment onto this world. Had it been only myself and my party, we would not have been able to defend those people, and many lives would have been lost," I began, before walking out of line, and then standing before Naofumi, smiling at him, and placing my hand on his confused shoulder.

"It was this man who saw them, and drew my attention to those innocent lives, and while my party aided in the defense, it was his greatness that ensured that none perished. As such, I wish to gift Mr. Iwatani the full amount of that reward, to show the appreciation of not only myself, but Lute Village as well," I said, and then shoved the sack of coins into his hand, almost four times as much as he would have received otherwise.

This action brought the whole court to silence, as I then walked back to my place in line, and Naofumi stared at the sack in his hands, as if not believing he'd receive any kind of recognition for his actions. To be fair, given how against him this whole court was, it would have been, but I was not one to see heroism go unrewarded. Still, as I spun back around, snapping my heels together, I saw Malty flash me a very, very venomous look.

"Very well then, let it be known that the grace of the Bow Hero is vast, and he has seen fit to reward the Shield for his actions. Be grateful, Sir Naofumi, and with that, I will keep none of you from your courses. Go forth heroes, grow strong, for the next Wave approaches with every passing second, and it will be far mightier than the one you have dealt with," he said, and waved his hands, dismissing us. I bowed deeply, Ren and even Naofumi mimicking me, before we all turned and left.

The hall outside was silent, as Naofumi looked at me, and seemed about to say something, but then shut his mouth, and turned away, huffing a bit. Obviously, he thought I was mocking him or some such idiocy, by giving him the full reward. The others, Motoyasu included, watched him go, and the blonde scoffed at his back.

"Jerk could at least say thank you. You gave him half your reward money," he said, and I nodded. Naofumi was a jerk, to be fair, to stalk off like that, but I shrugged it off. Motoyasu then waited for his party, as Ren and I walked off, Ren saying, if I was headed north, he would go east, as his party had told him there was a dragon that needed slaying along that path somewhere.

I wished the guy luck, as we exited the castle, to find most of the crowd had disassembled in the hour or so we'd been inside, returning to their business. I was grateful for it, as I quickly hefted up my bag of silver, and set off for my first port of call, the apothecary that had sold me Naofumi's potions before the Wave. Walking in, I greeted the old man at the counter, and was soon asking questions about the various potions and ingredients he had on offer.

By the time I was done, I had spent a good five hundred silver, but I had also unlocked dozens of new configurations for my Bow, that came with all kinds of bonus effects, all of which had me salivating at the thought of putting them into play, especially since I'd learned that I could 'mix' forms with my (Stage 2) Bow, allowing me to not only do the Multishot, but also increasing the effects of the Bow's own passive buffs.

That done, and a bit lighter in funds, we stopped in an out of the way place for lunch, passing Naofumi along the way. He looked…happy, though I don't think he noticed us, given we were on the other side of the street. I did, however, notice, thanks to my ring, that his companion had her Slave Seal back, making me wonder about their relationship, but I didn't care enough to question it, as we fed ourselves, and then proceeded to my second major destination of the day, the Adventurer's Hall.

The place was abuzz with people, from those taking jobs, to those giving them, as all four people at the counter were rushing around, trying to give out the correct amounts to those turning in materials for bounties, and taking the correct from those trying to post such. It wasn't quite a madhouse, given the armed nature of some of those involved, but it was certainly more rancorous than one he'd been in here before.

We probably could have skipped the line, but I wasn't going to make anyone else angry with me today, as I had to assume the King and Malty were, so instead we waited like everyone else, slowly approaching the counter where the panther demi-human Ray was looking more and more exasperated. She barely looked up from her paperwork as I stepped up to the counter.

"Picking up or dropping off?" she asked, and I was instantly busting a gut laughing, which got a few people staring at me, as her rendition was just pitch perfect. All we needed was a cop pulling Rick Moranis out of a car, and it would have been a scene right out of Ghostbusters. Regardless, the laughter had her look up sharply, and then shake her head as she looked behind me.

"Please tell me you don't have a whole cartload of monster bits from the Wave to sell. I really don't have time for sorting through all that," she said as I finally stopped snickering and shook my head.

"Not at all, in fact, I'm picking up today. Specifically I'm looking to hire two adventurers, if you can spare them, into my party," I explained, and she looked at me, before looking back at my party, seemingly studying them intently for a moment, before shuffling some papers around and walking into the back for a moment. When she came out, another two people, a larger man with a pair of angelic looking wings and a woman with fox-like ears and tail came out.

"You think you can handle all this?" she asked as the fox woman sat down, and she assured Ray she could. When she saw the other woman settled in, she motioned for us to follow her, and soon enough we were back in the office with the safe, Ray using some kind of stone to lock the door so it shined for a moment, before sitting down behind the desk, and quickly pulling out some files from a drawer.

"So, you want to hire one of the adventurers, eh? What sort of people are you looking to join your party?" she asked, as she set down the sheets of paper in front of herself, all of them had info on the various heroes that were probably registered with this Hall, and some looked quite good, but I shook my head as I noticed one thing they all had in common.

"Everyone in this stack is a human," I commented, and she seemed taken aback by the bluntness of the statement, so I continued.

"I think the other two parties are all humans, and doubtful they'll swap them out any time soon, even if Motoyasu has one more slot to fill. As such, I think, if only for diversity's sake, I'd like to invite some demi-humans onto my team," I tell her, and she again seems stunned into silence, before she slips the papers back into the drawer, and folds her hands in front of her.

"Why would you not just go back to the Slave Trader then. You could easily 'purchase' some, if all you're after is cannon fodder," she informed me, and I shook my head, only to stop as I realized the euphemism she just used, and wondered for a moment if they had cannons in this world, but then set that thought aside as I faced her.

"I would never ask someone to join me without them being willing. If the brothers had said they didn't want to fight, I would have allowed them to hang back, even released them, and since their seals are removed, I've made that offer, and they've simply stayed with me," I said, and then looked back to the three, who nodded, Fast stepping forward.

"We are not slaves, nor are we weapons. We are people, to Mas…to Sir Bard. We do not serve him because we must, we do so to defend our world, and prevent tragedies like our village from happening again," he told her, slipping over the word a bit, but he took a step back, and I faced Ray again, who was starting to look rather cute with how many times she was lost for words in this conversation. I decided to power on through though.

"I don't want slaves, or servants, or Gods forbid 'meat-shields'. I'm after partners, good and skilled, and right now, I'd like to gain them from corners of this world my fellow heroes are ignoring," I explained, and she sat back in her chair for a moment, before reaching into her shirt and pulling out a symbol on a chain. At first, I thought it was the symbol of the local Church, the three weapons crossed before it, but I realized with a start that this one was just the Shield, looking shiny and new.

"Alright, let me ask this before we go any farther. Rumor from the Castle is that last night, you said you'd free the slaves, all of them, if you were given the means. Was that the truth?" she asked, her eyes moving up and down my body like she was gauging me, waiting to see some lie in my response. Mind, that only made me consider my words for a moment, as I leaned forward, over the desk.

"In my world, the crime of slavery is considered one of the worst, and has a history that has started wars. I find the practice reprehensible myself, and while I participated, that was to see how it works here," I began, and saw her eyes droop a little, as if even investigating was a problem, but I kept on.

"I have seen all I need to to know that this world is no better than my own in terms of laws protecting those who are owned, and were it within my means, I'd march down to the circus tent, and march out with all their stock, letting them free," I finish, and she looks to me, then towards the three beastmen, while twiddling with the Shield on the chain, before nodding.

"Alright then, what are you after in terms of skills? A ranged combatant seems redundant for the Bow Hero, but from what I've heard, you focus more on making your allies stronger than direct combat yourself," she asked, and I nodded.

"I'll never lie and say I like to fight myself, but I will support where I can. That said, we have strength of arms, speed, magic, and even some debuff skills thanks to Shadow's magical prowess. That means I have all the basics covered as far as small unit combat tactics go," I explained, and then brought up a small note I'd been writing earlier, mostly to read off the stuff I'd been going for.

"As such, I need off battlefield support skills most of all. Information and equipment would be ideal. Someone for each. A good fighter, with local info, including on monsters and what parts sell the best in local areas, as well as any big guys we can hunt, as Ren, the Sword Hero, is actually several levels ahead of me thanks to his team finding several higher tier creatures than what I and my own party confronted," I began, sifting through the random thoughts I'd committed to the interface.

"Better, I would like someone with the ability to maintain, or hopefully even improve, the gear we find using the stuff we've got. An apothecary perhaps? Potion making and the like would work, but even better would be someone who can alter the things we purchase. I've recently come into possession of some Bow forms that claim they 'increase the drop rate' of monsters, and it claims I can get things from them using it," I said, looking down at the thing on my arm as if I thought it were lying to me, to my surprise, she just idly nodded.

"To be fair, you find many sorts of strange things in and on monsters. You can find wolves that swallowed all kinds of random treasures and whatnot that come spilling out of them when you slay them. I even heard from a Bard once that he killed a rat, and out of it popped a treasure chest. To be fair, the womanizer was a drunk, but still, he always seemed to have coin on him," she said, as she leaned back in her chair, before opening another drawer and pulling out more files from it, this time holding them towards herself as she looked over them.

"And you're certain you prefer demi-humans for your party members. The beastmen were a stretch, but including both is not going to make you any friends amongst the nobility," she warned, and I shook my head.

"Anyone who cares about that sort of thing is no one I count as a friend. At best, a useful tool. At worst, something to be stepped on," I said bluntly, and she almost seemed to giggle with delight as she began to shuffle through the parchments in her hand, before pulling out two, and then holding them to her. She held up her hand as if thinking, counting something, before letting out a barking laugh, and then getting up.

"You're in luck, Hero of the Bow, I know just the pair to call on in this situation, and they just so happen to be visiting here right now. Give me just a moment, and I'll be right back," she said, placing the parchments back in the drawer, and then rushing from the room, her tail almost literally wagging behind her, which given its feline nature made for an interesting look, before she vanished out the door, and left us waiting for her return.