"Ah, daughter, I had heard you'd returned ahead of your mother, but I didn't know you were already back in the castle," he said, his voice warm and fatherly, despite her angry tone, and he rose from his seat, smiling at her, and opened his arms. She returned the gesture, despite her obvious anger, and hugged her father tightly, obviously glad to see him again. Myne, meanwhile, seemed to be gagging a little at the display of affection.

"Father, I have missed you these long weeks, but I come bearing a message from mother, and I must beg you to listen to me," she said, and the King pulled away from her, before gesturing to myself, sitting in a chair across the table.

"Yes, well, as you can see, I'm in a meeting with one of the Heroes at the moment, if your message can-," he began, but she quickly shook her head.

"No father, this message is for him as well as the others, if they'll hear it. I have returned only moments ago to the palace after my journey home, and I have to beg both of you, please do not reject the Shield Hero. His actions, while not ideal, have done nothing but strengthen this country against our foes," she said, the last obviously not her own words, as her tone changed, but still, even I could tell the king was not happy with what she was saying, as he pulled back from her a bit stiffly, to stare at her.

"Melty, my daughter, you can't possibly know what has happened in your absence, what act's the Shiel-," again, she cut him off, this time stamping her foot a little, not like in a tantrum, but simply for the clack sound it made against the stone, to draw his attention to her.

"I am aware, Father, of the accusations levied against Naofumi, and can even say that I deliberately put myself at his mercy to test his character, and do you know what I found as he allowed me to journey with him to the capital?" she told him, Malty literally grinding her teeth behind her sister, standing at an angle where King Aultcray couldn't see her, and Melty could only do so out of the corner of her eye.

"His character is rough, coarse, and he is a man of common make," she declared.

"But, he is also a kind, gentle soul, who went out of his way to aid me, until he found out my connection to you after Malty allowed the Spear Hero to ambush him in the market, causing damages that were almost worth a full gold piece, let alone endangering those in this city which falls directly under the protection of the Royal Family," she said, turning her head to glare at her sister.

"I was aware of the…incident in the market earlier. It was a misunderstanding on your sister's part, thinking that Naofumi had taken yet another slave into his ranks to send into combat, this one even younger than the demi-human, and thus having no place on the field of battle," he said, as if explaining it, and glancing at Malty, who nodded.

"Exactly, I assumed he had simply taken yet another young child into his employ to throw them into the meat grinder. Whether or not she can level, a child is still oftentimes a child. How was I to know it was some mutant filolial?" she said, crossing her arms in a huff, and even letting out a humph to emphasize it.

"Then you should have confronted him in a less public venue, dear sister. Attacking without warning in the middle of a crowd? Does Sir Motoyasu have no care at all for the wellbeing of our people?" she asked, and Malty looked at her sister, the King looking between the pair, and then sighing in exasperation. It was easy to see he cared for both of them, and to be fair, they were both making good points.

"Sir Motoyasu cares enough to help them with no thought of the reward beforehand. And he is strong enough to confront his foes on his own, without the need of others to do his fighting for him. Unlike some heroes I could name," she said, glancing towards myself, making my hackles raise up. I did try to put them back down again, but that rankled a bit. Like my team was doing the best, by the numbers, in terms of wins. Saying it wasn't enough just because I wasn't the one doing the fighting was just mean.

"Now, Myne, the Bow Hero has done more than enough to prove his worth, regardless of his personal involvement on the battlefield. I, myself, was more of a strategist when I was his age, and our place is behind the warriors doing the fighting," explained the King, and she seemed to consider his words, in a very…valley girl way. She even tapped her finger on her bottom lip like I'd only seen done in movies before.

"I suppose if he's being like daddy it's acceptable. But the Shield Hero has done nothing to support his party. He instead led them directly into the danger, where the Three Heroes kept us out of it," she said, and that was a fair point. I hadn't heard if anyone had told him of WHY we'd left the parties behind, but the fact that we had should have clued him in on something being wrong.

Of course, if he had, then things would have played out differently. Without so many people to protect, I think he might have been able to keep Motoyasu and Ren fighting, and we might have been able to actually take out Glass without me injuring myself. That was a very big if, at the end of the day, though. It was just as likely we would have been killed by her without Filo and Raphtalia's assistance. Not to mention if everyone had been present, and boosted, we would have run roughshod over her.

"Tactical decisions made at the time by the Shield Hero make sense, from his point of view. He protected the village until it was, in his estimation, taking too long for us to defeat the boss, and so he came to render aid. His…attitude might not have been the right one for grouping up, but I cannot deny his reasoning," I said, trying to be diplomatic about it, though I will admit, the moment had made me want to punch him.

"And do you agree with his use of that power? This 'Iron Maiden'?" asked, surprisingly, the Second Princess, rather than the other two, and the question did force me to consider for a moment. Honestly, he was right, it had ended the battle several minutes earlier than what we could have done without. But that power was dangerous to use, or so his discussion with his party indicated. Pros and Cons on both sides then.

"I can say it was not the choice I would have made in that regard, noble though I think his aspirations were with it," I conceded, trying to play both sides here, as I had no reason to pick between the two obvious Princesses, though Myne was coming off the worse of the pair regardless, given her not only putting me down, but almost hanging off her father in the way a much younger girl would to have him agree with her.

"Nobility then. Does he strike you as the type of man to take advantage of a woman who trusts him?" she asked, bluntly, really jumping the rails on the conversation to take it to the track she wanted it on. Worse, it put me on the spot, as the other two in the room turned sharply to me, waiting to see how I'd answer that one. That was not very nice of her, honestly, but I could see why she did it on an intellectual level, forcing me to be for or against the Shield Hero, whom she was obviously for.

"I…" dragging out that word far longer than was appropriate, there was a sudden knocking at the door, the focus on my answer causing all three of the others to jump in surprise.

"Oh thank gods," I swore under my breath, as the door opened a moment later, admitting the woman who had been showing us the recording of the fight, as well as the Pope himself into the room, making me bow my head slightly.

"Your Holiness, to what do I owe a visit from your person?" asked the King sounding…not quite as put out as he could, but certainly not happy the man was here. The Pope, smiling a warm, fatherly grin, nodded to each of us in the room, inclining his head slightly more to me than to the royals, which was probably a breach of etiquette or something, but not one said anything.

"I apologize for the interruption, Your Highness. This morning's doings in the court caused my subordinate to come seek me out personally so I might tend to the wounds of the Hero of the Bow, as well as answer those questions he might have in regards to the crystal ball. It did not occur to me that this meeting would be so full, and I suppose I can excuse myself," he said, turning with the woman, causing me to bolt up in my chair, before wincing and falling back down into it.

"My business with King Aultcray finished some time ago, and I would hate to come between him and his daughter's homecoming. Unless you need me for something more, your Highness?" I said, hoping my eyes didn't look as pleading as I felt, and to his credit, the King coughed into his hand to regain his composure before answering.

"I believe we have sorted out what we can at this juncture. I will have the appropriate documents sent to Sanctuary, and you may sign and return them through the Guild's channels as soon as you can," he responded with a knowing look on his face, allowing me to rise from my chair just a bit more slowly this time, and shuffle towards the door, with a small bow to both of the Princesses. Just before I exited the room, I turned to the King.

"Your Highness, before I forget," I began, drawing his gaze to me.

"Thank you for sharing what you did today. I know such a history must weigh heavily upon you, so it can't have been easy to speak on it. I will keep it in mind, for the future dealings we have," I told him, and then, with the woman's shoulder to lean on, the three of us left the room, the three royal voices already raising before the door even shut, as the two Princesses took their chance to both try and win over their father.

(Author's Note: Not sure if this is a CHANGE per say with the other versions, but it's pretty clear during the trial scene in the anime that Melty had no idea what specifically Naofumi had been accused of, given her shocked face when it was brought up, and they danced around it in the earlier scenes with her for some reason.

Here, I'm establishing two things. One, she knows exactly what he's accused of, and more importantly by who. And two, that whole randomly stumbling on him in the wild was not so random. In the anime it's pretty much just chance, or at least she never comes out and says it was this. That said, this is not, in my opinion, manipulative, it's more feeling him out to establish, as best she can, that her sister is lying. And to be fair, she is.)