What was it an old philosopher once said? The best laid plans of mice and men? I took the final shift, the one just before dawn and to wake the others up, especially since, even without my skills, I had a literal alarm clock built into the system, something Naofumi apparently hadn't known about until I pointed him to it under the help menu, along with a calculator and a screenshot ability…one that I still had no idea how to use right, and neither did he.
Regardless of that, it was just past the false dawn, the darkest part of the evening when I saw wagons enter the nearby town, the sort you used to transport troops, not goods, in. Quickly, I roused everyone from their beds, suggesting to Melty that she take Filo and play a game, while Lord Van's head maid came into the room, just in time for us to see the man himself being led out in chains.
"What the heck? This Lord Rabier can just accuse another of the same station of a crime and arrest him?" I demanded, and the maid nodded.
"It is unusual, but Idol Rabier is in favor in the court right now, and he has been granted a full company of Royal Knights. Lord Richenott dare not oppose him, lest he order them to burn the town," she said, and Naofumi gawked.
"Those monsters would do that?" he asked, and she looked sympathetically back towards him.
"They do not question orders once given. They only carry them out," she said, and he grit his teeth. Meanwhile, Melty came up to us, saying Filo was 'hiding', but she had no intention of doing so. Naofumi and she had a brief argument, but I was quick to stifle it, as the sound of metal boots could be heard.
"You two, in the closet, Princess, with me!" I said, and quickly moved towards a smaller cupboard on the other side of the kitchen. Thinking fast, I shoved her inside, and then leaned against the wall opposite, pulling my hood up, and then eyeing the maid, who saw my game immediately and went to work looking like she was making food. Just in time too, as two of the knights kicked in the door, hard enough to dent the wood, and looked around.
"You there! What are you doing?" demanded one of them, and she bowed to them.
"Sir Knight! I didn't know the Lord had company this morning. I'm preparing his breakfast. Am I to expect guests? If so, the workman we hired will have to gather more things from the village nearby," she said, and the knights looked from her to me, and then back to her.
"Your Lord is accused of crimes against the Kingdom, and so we've been ordered to arrest everyone present in this house. Come along! And you as well, Demi-Human!" he shouted, and I had to wonder if he was simply assuming, or if my hood made it look like I had ears or something. Regardless, one of them grabbed the maid, gripping her wrist hard, causing her to cry out, and I found myself tensing as the other came towards me.
"Stop right there!" shouted a voice, and my tensing became rock solid, as Melty decided to burst from the small cupboard, and confronted the knight, literally pointing her finger at him, and causing him to stumble backwards.
"My name is Melty Melromarc, Second Princess of Melromarc, and I demand to know what you think you two are doing to these innocent people?" she cried out, and the two knights, looking at each other, quickly shuffled backwards, and then bowed their heads.
"Your highness, we are doing the orders of Lord Rabier. He had it on good authority that Lord Reichnott had been harboring the Shield Hero who kidnapped you, and took prisoner the Bow Hero," said the one I presumed to be in charge. Melty, for her part, huffed, but seeing an opportunity in this, I decided to step forward with her, pulling down my hood.
"Ah, a misunderstanding then, my good knights," I said, and the two stared at me, as it seemed at least the lower ranked one recognized my face…or my size, it was good to be the tall Hero, as he mumbled something about 'the giant'.
"You see, the Princess and I were released from the Shield Hero's company by him. He believed when he encountered us, that we were facing danger on all sides, and wanted to see us to safety. I convinced him instead to allow me to escort the Second Princess to my city of Sanctuary. Isn't that right, Princess Melty?" I asked, and for a young girl, she was quick on the uptake, smiling at me, and then turning towards the knights.
"Exactly. We wished to keep our presence here hidden, but it seems Idol Rabier has spoiled that plan. Now please inform him that Lord Reichnott was merely providing the Princess of the Realm with a place to sleep, and we will be very displeased if he is not released immediately, along with all his staff," she said, in a very commanding voice. I idly wonder if she'd come up with that tone on her own, or was mimicking her mother, as her father nor Malty had that sort of thing, instead barking orders or trying to act sweet respectively.
Unfortunately, before either knight could leave the room, a figure turned the corner, a fat, blonde, toad of a man with a mustache that might have looked dashing on someone more fit. With none of my skills usable, I couldn't tell you his stats or level, but the way he manhandled his way past the knights said he was strong in his own right, and the whip at his side seemed to exude an evil aura that even without my skills I could sense.
"What is the meaning of this you dolts, grab the people here and…Princess Melty?!" The last was said in a shocked tone, and it was obvious from it the man had in no way expected to find her within the manor, which likely meant we'd stumbled into a situation where the nobles were feuding, and this one had taken advantage of the situation to oust his rival. That got under my skin, and trying my best to look intimidating, I stepped forward.
"Indeed it is, Lord Rabier. Her Highness is under my protection, as Hero of the Bow, and as we told your knights, the Shield Hero has released us, willingly, from his party. As such, whatever accusations you have made against Lord Reichnott were in error, and we expect him to be released post haste," I command, and the Princess, nodding, steps up beside me, causing Idol to back away slowly, at least until his face broke out in what I could only call the foulest looking grin I had ever seen.
"I'm afraid, my dear 'Second' Princess, that I can't do that," he said, emphasizing the word second, and telling me without needing to ask that he was 'in favor' in the court only in the eyes of Malty, who had likely as not sent the knights here to do his bidding and remove an inconvenient rival who supported her sister. She really was smarter than I gave her credit for, and that grin said this fat bastard was just as able to think on his feet.
"You see, the First Princess has let it be known that you and he were in the company of the Shield Hero, and that he possesses a most wicked power to alter the minds of others. As such, even if you claim it, we need to verify that you are not under his sway," he said, bowing mockingly towards her, and then turning towards the guards.
"Gather them up, and bring them with us. Make sure no one sees them either. We have to ensure they are free of the Devil of the Shield's control BEFORE we tell anyone of their presence," he commanded, and the knights, looking nervously between myself, Melty, and Idol, nodded towards the last, and came towards us. To be fair, Melty, I think, could have taken them, with little trouble, but Idol would probably just use that as an excuse to beat us down, and so we left with him, leaving the maid behind as neither knight moved to grab her.
The moment we were outside of a ten meter sphere around Naofumi, the (Drained) condition that I'd been stuck with suddenly left me, and so I glanced to find my meters climbing in the corner of my eye. Smiling, I just had to wait a few minutes, I thought, before I could get us out of here, and back to Sanctuary. Unfortunately, we were then shuffled out of the back of the mansion, one of the knight captains waiting for us, with a carriage, with a 'Manacle of the Prisoner' on hand that he insisted I put on rather emphatically.
Unable to fight him and the rest of the knights off, not without endangering the Princess as I didn't have an easy way of grabbing her using (Blink), I held out my hand, and he slapped it onto my wrist. Sadly, as I thought, the thing caused most of my skills to gray out, leaving me still regenerating my SP and MP, the latter filling quickly, the former slowly, but neither of any use at all as we were then loaded into the carriage.
We spent a few minutes with her picking at the Manacle with her fingers, but she was not skilled in the removal of such items, which required a key of some kind. Naofumi could hack it with one of the skills he had, but she was stymied by it. So we were forced to sit and wait in what was, truth to tell, the best carriage I had ever been in, well appointed, with all the trimmings of wealth and power.
And a lock on the door, as I found out on trying it after taking far too long to think of it. Melty was quick to assure me most coaches had such, to prevent their charges from leaving the safety of these confines until they reached their destination. It made sense, to be fair, but it also meant we were stuck inside until we arrived at Idol Rabier's mansion, and that left me annoyed, as minutes dragged on into hours.
We had a few discussions I had held off on in the presence of the others. Mostly the one about Lord Seaetto and his death. That had led to her demanding details that I admitted I couldn't provide, especially when I asked about the visits to the other lands, and how close they had been to securing the summoning rituals. She didn't want to talk about that, especially when I reminded her it had been only two weeks from our being summoned to the Wave, not a lot of time at all.
It took her a bit to finally break on that, and admit, she liked her mother, and her intentions were good. The summoning of the Four Heroes, in four different nations, was a good idea, especially with how close to war they'd been at the idea of summoning us. Apparently the King of Faubery had directly made that threat the moment he heard about it, only holding off summoning us himself as, it turned out, the rituals HAD to start where the Waves were centered.
That answered my question of why no other nation had summoned us in the interim, despite the cost. Apparently without Melromarc syncing with the others, it wasn't possible for them to do the ritual at all. Still, he'd been unhappy to learn we were now beyond his grasp completely, and it had taken all of her skill, and a month of work, to get him to stand down from sending troops across the border to 'rescue' us.
Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden had threatened similar things, but their armies, fearsome though they were, had nothing on Faubery's. Better, we'd ended the Waves quickly, compared to some of the stories of our predecessors, whose first few Waves had been allowed to finish, as they got to grips with it. Something that surprised me, but it was good to know we'd been doing better than average in that regard.
That was likely the only reason the other nations had not invaded. The surprise strike of the First Wave had weakened everyone about equally, and seeing us deal quickly with the other two, they felt it was at least acceptable for us to be in Melromarc for the moment, especially since we hadn't exactly been friends with the Royals. That last was probably the only reason they let us be, honestly.
Which was why she was here to begin with. The Shield Hero's treatment. Her daughter's…inappropriate relations with the Spear Hero. Myself claiming a large chunk of land. These all spoke of turmoil, and she had, at last, been allowed to send Melty back, who had investigated the Shield Hero first, seeing him as the most in need of a friendly face, given he was alone, and under a dark cloud for most of his time here.
We hadn't raised our voices, and I actually found the discussion quite illuminating on how Melty, and presumably her mother, thought. It was all good intentions with them, but they acted for the greater good all the time, so they lost sight, sometimes, of smaller details, like the whole time limit thing between Waves. Still, they were trying to do the right thing, where the Pope, and most certainly Malty, were not.
That did lead me to asking after her father's part in this, and how much she thought he knew, and she admitted, she wasn't sure. He knew of the false win in the arena, but for anything else? She had even asked him, privately, of her sister's accusations against Naofumi, and he had acted like he knew nothing of its falsity, but she knew, because her sister BRAGGED about how this trick worked in the past, and how it had been her tool for getting rid of men she didn't like for some time.
I pointed out that leaving her sister behind, if they knew her father would believe every word she said, was a foolish thing for her mother to have done, and Princess Melty didn't even argue, instead saying she was well aware. That left us in silence for quite some time, with me looking out the window of the carriage, watching as the farms and forests gave way to hills, and finally, to a large city, at the center of which was Lord Rabier's estate.
It had taken most of the day to get to our destination, showing just how small the Kingdom of Melromarc was, but when we arrived, I had to admit, I was impressed. The mansion was not the modest thing of Lord Reichnott. No, this was a place of power, ruling those below with an iron fist, as it sat atop a bluff, surrounded on all sides by steep inclines, with only one approach to it being of ease, and that having more than one gate to prevent anyone from coming up unannounced.
It was a fortress in all but name, and I had a sinking pit in my stomach as we were taken in through the front gate, gazing at a statue in the center of an opulent courtyard, one that hummed in my senses, screaming at me to run away from it. I couldn't do that, however, and instead was taken out, being led by the knights into the keep, along with Lord Rabier and Lord Reichnott, for a fun evening I was sure.
