Chapter Eight: Preparation for the Wave
Naofumi walked out of the dressing room. He looked down at himself skeptically. "I appreciate you making this armor for me Elhart, but doesn't this make me look like a villain?"
He was wearing a breastplate made out of light metal that was shaped almost exactly like the legendary shield in its default form. A fur line made out of Usapil hides that he and Raphtalia had hunted was added to his green cloak. His joints, instead of being covered in metal, were covered with thick porcupine skins with Pikyu feathers stuffed in between them. Elhart's reasoning was that he wanted Naofumi to not only keep a high defense rating but a high agility rating as well.
"Oh wow!" Raphtalia said, gazing admirably at the armor from below him. "It's perfect! You look amazing!" She continued in awe.
"I call it, Barbarian Armor. And I've got to say, brat, you're really rocking it!" Elhart said happily while Naofumi held up his cloak, looking down skeptically at the armor. "Now you look like a real bandit!"
"I'm supposed to be a hero, not a bandit." He responded with a tint of anger in his tone.
"But it makes you look so cool and dangerous!" Raphtalia complimented again, finding it hard to contain her excitement. He felt a giant sweatdrop form on his forehead.
Was it his fault she was into that kind of stuff? Damn, he knew he should have done a better job of raising her.
"Well, you did make it for me. It'd be a shame not to wear it." Naofumi said wearily, realizing that there was no way of him getting away from this armor. "It probably didn't help that I said no to getting a new chainmail set."
"Yeah, you put that last one through the wringer kid," Elhart said, the memory of the torn-up black chainmail still fresh on his mind. Yet he happily put an arm over Naofumi's shoulders. "But with this armor, I can upgrade it for you instead of making you a new set when you get stronger! How about that?!"
"I guess that's a plus," Naofumi said skeptically. 'You mean he could improve on this armor? I'm just not a high enough level for that yet… seriously, this world still feels like a game at times.'
"Oi, aye finally finished unloading and organizing the last of the ores Elhart," Jerry said happily while coming out from the backroom. "And damn, ya never fail to impress me old friend! Ya can make even the Shield Hero look like a right and proper warrior! Makes me a little jealous it does." He finished, clapping a large hand on Elhart's shoulder.
Naofumi didn't know whether to feel complimented... or offended.
"That's what you get when you're in the business for almost a long time," Elhart replied back, sharing a mirthy laugh with his friend. "Oh, and I can't forget the finishing touch," Elhart said quickly as he raced to grab something hidden underneath the counter.
"What do you mean-" Naofumi started to ask.
"Tada!" Elhart yelled boisterously as he revealed a set of shiny metal… gauntlets?
…
"Gauntlets? As in, more armor?" Naofumi asked dryly.
"Not just any gauntlets kid!" Elhart said excitedly as he handed them to Naofumi. "I'm calling them Barbarian Gauntlets! You'll be able to use these for close melee combat!"
This piqued Naofumi's interest, and he examined them more closely. He hadn't noticed at first glance, but there were small sharp spikes protruding from the knuckles.
He remembered a game he'd played a while ago. It'd had most of the typical weapons you'd normally see in a game. But there'd also been a warrior class in it that used only gauntlets as their weapon. Some of the attacks those characters could unleash with them were pretty cool.
"Are these normal in this world?" Naofumi asked, looking in awe at them. 'Those spikes look sharp enough to pop a balloon without me having to punch it into oblivion!' The thought excited him.
"Well, yeah, I remember you sharing your frustrations with me about punching balloons while that red-head was looking at armor…" Elhart trailed off as Naofumi glared at him for mentioning she who must not be named. "Cough Cough, anywho, I remember how frustrated you were about not being able to wield a sword... so I came up with these for you!" He finished excitedly.
...
"So, I can actually attack with these?" Naofumi asked for clarification.
"Well, they're still considered armor. I don't want to call them weapons after what happened with the sword. But these should give the wearer a nice attack boost. You can't wield a weapon, but you can still use your fists, right?!" Elhart asked happily.
"Yeah, I can." Naofumi's smile grew on his face.
"Wow, thank you so much, Elhart!" Raphtalia said happily. The way Naofumi was smiling now, it was like he was a child who'd just been given an early Christmas present.
'Yes! Finally! I'll be able to raise my attack stat a little bit! I'll finally be able to do something more than guard with a shield-' Naofumi hurriedly put one of the gauntlets on.
ZAP!
"Ahhhhhh!" Naofumi screamed as he started getting electrocuted by the gauntlet he was wearing.
"Master Naofumi!" Raphtalia cried in worry.
Warning! The Legendary Hero can't wield any weapon other than the Legendary Weapon he or she has been assigned!
The gauntlet wasn't flying off. The warning continued to flash on his HUD as he was electrocuted repeatedly.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Naofumi screamed.
"Ahhhhh!" Elhart and Jerry both panicked.
Naofumi stood panting, cradling his slightly burned right hand to himself. The set of gauntlets laid on the counter as far away from him as possible. He was giving his shield the stink eye.
'REALLY! The gauntlets are supposed to be a piece of freaking ARMOR! THEY AREN'T WEAPONS!'
That was a bald-faced lie and the Legendary Shield knew it. It gave off a faint spark from its gemstone, warning him what would happen if he tried any sudden moves.
...
"Well, um, I guess we can rule out having Shield Bro here use attack gauntlets," Elhart said with a nervous chuckle.
"They're not attack gauntlets!" Naofumi yelled at the blacksmith.
"Um... you going blind there, kiddo?" Elhart waved his hand in front of Naofumi's face. Naofumi slapped it away in annoyance.
"I think maybe if we didn't focus on them as weapons, Master Naofumi's shield might change its mind?" Raphtalia suggested questioningly. Unsure if it would work after seeing her Master get shocked for over a minute straight while she, Elhart, and Jerry tried to pry the gauntlet off.
Last time the sword had just zapped him and fell to the ground. This time, it was like the Shield had wanted to make sure that Naofumi would never try to cheat on it again in the future before allowing the weapon to come off.
"Alright, I'm done with getting equipment for myself," Naofumi said coldly. Still pissed off about the fact that he wasn't even allowed to wear armored gauntlets that had a secondary purpose of attacking others. "How about getting us some armor for Raphtalia?"
Elhart considered the young curious demi-human. "Hmmm, I can try. But I don't know if it'll be ready by the time the wave hits tomorrow."
Naofumi looked from Elhart to Raphtalia. She smiled brightly for him. Freaking teenagers! What did she want!? "You're kidding, right?" He asked.
"I mean, I could rush the job, but then the armor would be more of a detriment if I messed up along the way," Elhart said, crossing his arms seriously in front of him.
…
'Ugh…' "What is there to even rush?!" Naofumi whined. "Just give her something you've already made!"
"Well, shield bro, how do I say this? I might have a few things that would fit her but it's either way beyond your price range or... well umm. Too tight a fit if you know what I mean." Elhart said. "The little miss sure has grown, wow..."
Jerry nodded sagely in the background. "Aye, she is a beut." Raphtalia blushed at their compliments.
What the hell?! It was a ten-year-old girl they were talking about here. Sure, she already looked sixteen, maybe eighteen? Damn it, he didn't know how any of this worked! And Jerry wasn't wrong about her being beautiful- 'Crap, maybe I'm turning into a lolicon now!'
Or maybe it was because the Legendary Shield had fried a few of his brain cells. Either option seemed possible.
What was he thinking about… oh yeah, making armor for her shouldn't have been THAT *&^%ING DIFFICULT!
"Master Naofumi, you're spacing out again, are you alright?" Raphtalia asked.
DAMN IT!
Naofumi sighed to himself. "You know what, we'll get your armor after the wave." He said defeatedly to Raphtalia. He wasn't going to try and fight it. "After all, I wouldn't want you to hit your 'growth spurt' and get choked by your armor while facing a monster." He said sarcastically.
"Master Naofumi, I'm not a kid!" Raphtalia yelled at him.
I wasn't being serious, but whatever.' Naofumi thought tiredly. It probably didn't help that he was still bitter over the fact that he'd had another option for offense taken away from him after being given hope of finally being able to do something offensive rather than defensive in a fight.
Why did he have to be built to be a tank? Wait, he was worse than a tank. He couldn't even punch enemies stronger than balloons without hearing an inneffectual CLANG in response.
He was a wall. A fricking, immovable wall that could only block attacks.
"Oh well. At least we won't go over our armor budget!" Raphtalia said happily.
Naofumi sighed again to himself. Sure, the Barbarian Armor had been 180 silvers, but they still had a good amount left, right?... he pulled up his status screen to open the bank tab. He'd accidentally unlocked the skill a week ago when he tried absorbing a bag of 500 silver coins into his shield as a joke to scare Raphtalia.
Only, his shield had absorbed the whole bag without a second thought before their shocked eyes.
Weeks of grinding, compounding, and mining efforts had been absorbed in less than two seconds...
...
It was fortunate that it hadn't actually eaten the coins. He'd unlocked the Peddler's Shield, a shield that unlocked a bank tab in his HUD. It was a discovery that allowed him to hold their money without fear of it being stolen.
Still, had he not discovered that and if Raphtalia hadn't had the slave crest on her chest to keep her from intentionally harming him... it was very likely that Raphtalia would have killed him for that little joke. Hell, she probably would have found a way around the slave crest just to kill him.
She was just as stingy with their money as he was.
He'd really done a horrible job at raising her.
Back on the subject, he was surprised to find only 120 silvers in their account. 'But how did we get so… Oh yeah, she did say she got her magic iron sword at a discount, but Jerry still charged her nearly 300 silvers for it since everything was more expensive in the village. Then there are all the supplies and the upgrades to our sleeping bags and other camping gear… yeah, I guess it makes sense.'
"Look, kid, I know you probably need a place to lay low for a while before the next wave hits. So how about you continue to stay upstairs for now?" Elhart suggested.
Naofumi grimaced. "You're kidding, right? The next wave isn't for another two days." He said.
"Didn't you hear me earlier, brat? The Wave's hitting tomorrow." Elhart said.
…
Based on the dumbfounded look on Naofumi's face, the blacksmith was able to tell he hadn't paid attention to that detail. Elhart pinched the bridge of his nose. "Geez, kid. Are you that out of it?"
"M-Maybe…" Naofumi turned away in embarrassment.
"Anyway, ya saw what happened when we came into the city lad," Jerry said, resting his arms on the counter.
"And I hate to break it to you kid, but you smell like you have been crawling around in the sewers for the past month," Elhart said seriously, stepping away from Naofumi while covering his nose. "Hell, I'm surprised the guards didn't stop the carriage at the gate with that smell coming out of it. Not even my barbarian armor's fresh new smell is enough to mask it!"
"I took a bath last night! And I didn't hear Raphtalia complaining about it on our way here." Naofumi whined.
Raphtalia looked down at the floor. "Actually, I did complain to you about that Master Naofumi." She said.
...
Naofumi opened and closed his mouth, trying to formulate some response. She was right. She had complained about it. What the hell was going on with his mind?! "And while you did bathe last night Master Naofumi, you still stink worse than that one skunk monster that we encountered last week." She admitted.
'... ouch.' His self-image had just taken a rather large hit because of that.
His defenses were completely shattered.
"The Miss is right ya know! Heck, every man knows a Miss is right when she says that to a man." Jerry said happily.
Raphtalia smiled happily at Jerry. Naofumi rolled his eyes to himself. 'Freaking lolicons.' The familiar thought was accompanied by a tang of jealousy. "Fine, I guess we can continue crashing upstairs for now. But there better not be any Knights like last time. I don't want my bath time to be interrupted!"
"You mean like how you interrupted me during my bath back then?" Raphtalia asked with her hands on her hips.
Naofumi grimaced. "That's a totally different story, that I'll explain when you're older." He defended himself.
"Urghhh..." Raphtalia pouted at once again being told to wait till she was older.
"Don't worry kid. I already gave the King an earful about what his Knights did to my shop before. He's threatened to have any of his Knights beheaded if they so much as touch something I don't want them to touch here." He said, crossing his arms proudly.
"He did?" Naofumi didn't think that Elhart was actually that important to even push that piece of trash around. Or maybe the knights really were acting above their authority before…?
Nah, that's ridiculous, why would that trash care about the well-being of the city's merchants. It wasn't like he was some King or anything.
Elhart was probably just a hell of a specialist.
Naofumi gave them a wave of dismissal as he walked up the stairs to the hallway up above Elhart's shop. "Fine, then I'll take that bath now. Since I stink worse than a skunk monster, apparently." He said sarcastically. 'And so I can forget about the fact that I can't have something to enhance my punches. As dumb as that is.'
He was still bitter about that. Why did his Shield have to be so freaking stupid...
Again, the Legendary Shield on his arm gave no reaction.
...
"Eh, he seems like a nice lad to me," Jerry said, sounding upbeat.
...
Boom!
The door to the bathroom slammed loudly upstairs.
Elhart shook his head humorously. "If you think he's nice now, you should have seen him when he first walked into the shop. Never seen a happier, go lucky guy in my life. It's really a shame that the First Princess ruined that part of him."
"Wait, Mr. Elhart," Raphtalia spoke up. "Are you saying that Master Naofumi used to be nicer than he is now?" She asked curiously.
"Of course. He was probably the nicest customer I'd ever seen in my shop. He was also a little on the naive side, but who could blame him. He'd just been summoned as one of the four Cardinal Heroes." Elhart looked up as he spoke, smiling with fondness at the memory of Naofumi trying to cheat him into selling some armor to the princess for free. He then frowned. "After that princess though... I was afraid he'd want to run away and never return." He finished sadly.
"... um, Mr. Elhart, what princess? And what did she do to Master Naofumi?" Raphtalia asked nervously.
...
Elhart looked down in surprise at Raphtalia. "You mean, he hasn't told you yet?" He asked.
Raphtalia looked around nervously. "Well, you see. Every time I ask about anything before he met me, he just tells me to wait till I'm older. And I've only heard enough from villages I've visited to watch out for the Shield Demon because he's supposed to be evil. I don't know why they say Master Naofumi is evil... but I could understand why he'd want to remain hidden from people like that."
Wait until she was older? She was practically an ADULT now! That freaking stupid kid!
Elhart sighed to himself and rubbed a hand across his bald head. Maybe it was out of habit from a time when he had hair? "You're telling me he still has trust issues with other people." He muttered to himself.
…
"I think I'll take me leave now. Don't want me anvil to collect dust back in the village you know. Make sure to come by another time lassie!" Jerry waved an awkward goodbye before he left out the back door. Raphtalia awkwardly waved goodbye back but waited on Elhart who was obviously gathering himself.
...
"Wh, why doesn't Master Naofumi trust me?" She finally asked.
Elhart sighed to himself. "Look, I'm not sure how much I can share with you Raphtalia." He said, addressing Raphtalia by name to show how serious he was. "I'm guessing he's still hurting from what happened. And he doesn't want to talk about it because it might push you away."
"Master Naofumi wouldn't be able to do anything at this point to push me away!" She said determinedly, and then she looked shy again. "But, but I wonder why Master Naofumi won't talk to me about it? I mean, I've trusted him with everything about me from before we met." She pointed out.
He sighed again. "Everything?" He asked. That sounded like a bit of an exaggeration to him.
Raphtalia bit her lower lip. Sure, she had shared a lot with Naofumi in their travels. But… "Well, I guess there are some things that I still haven't told him about." She whispered. An image of her destroyed village passed through her mind.
"Any particular reason?" Elhart asked wisely.
Raphtalia's answer came immediately. "Because I don't feel like I'm ready to talk about those experiences with anyone." She said.
Elhart gave her a nod. "That kid's in the same boat. What happened to him hurt him deeply. You'll just have to wait for when he's ready to share the details with you." He then took in a deep breath. "However, while I won't share any details with you, I think it's dangerous that he hasn't told you why he avoids being seen, and why the Capital is a dangerous place for him to be." He said seriously.
Raphtalia, realizing that she was about to learn something very important, leaned in to pay close attention.
Naofumi sighed to himself, feeling weeks of stress, stench, and discomfort leech from his body into the warm bubbly water around him. 'This is nice…'
He couldn't remember a time when he'd last relaxed for a while in a hot bubbly bath. He hoped Elhart didn't mind him using his bath foam. It was like he was sitting on a cloud, looking down at everything below with fresh eyes, no wonder Raphtalia had used it before… even the realization that he couldn't use attack gauntlets didn't bother him now...
Knocking sounded on the door, pulling him out of the cloud back down to Earth. He groaned and wished to sink below the water and ignore whoever it was that wanted to talk to him. He could have sworn he'd only been in that state for thirty minutes when the knocking sounded. And it continued at an annoying rate. "What is it?" He asked grumpily.
"Master Naofumi, are you still taking your bath?" Raphtalia asked.
"Yes, I am, now what do you want Raphtalia?" Naofumi asked, wanting to go back to enjoying his comfort and relaxation. "There better not be any Knights searching for us downstairs again."
"I just, um, needed to use the bathroom." She said.
Naofumi sighed to himself. "Can't you go to the inn or somewhere else to do that?" He asked. After all, she could walk freely around the Capital. Unlike him...
"I'm… I'm scared to go outside, Master Naofumi." She replied nervously.
…
…
Naofumi had never gotten dried and dressed so quickly out of worry in his life. He opened the door and saw Raphtalia looking at the opposite wall. Her tail was hanging low behind her, feeling guilty for interrupting her Master's bubble bath. "Raphtalia, what's going on?" He quickly asked.
Raphtalia slowly turned and looked up at him. She really did need to use the restroom, but... "Is it true that the King is trying to capture you for committing a crime here?" She asked.
...
Naofumi took in a sharp breath, but then he calmly exhaled it out. Still, he felt like he was standing in a minefield. One wrong step and he'd explode. "Did Elhart tell you?" He asked blandly.
"He didn't tell me everything. Only that the King is searching for you because you were accused of something you didn't do." She said quietly.
"Not just the King," Naofumi said, looking pointedly to the side. "The Church of the Three Heroes set me up too." He added bitterly.
...
'So Elhart was right… both of them want to capture Master Naofumi…' She still didn't know why, but their first night together inside the Capital made a lot more sense to her now. Though her memories were fuzzy from sickness and fatigue and a whole slew of other things. "Is, is it okay if I ask you why?" She asked quietly.
… Naofumi stood silently for another moment. Then he shook his head. "I'll tell you when you're older." He said dryly, wanting to drop the subject. "For now, I just want you to trust me and not make any rash decisions. If the Church finds out that you're the same Raphtalia that they tried to kill off with me in the coal mines, then you'll be a target again, just like me." He said, walking away from her down the hallway. He couldn't return to his bath now. Not with all these dark thoughts swirling inside his mind.
"But how am I supposed to trust you if you won't trust me?!" Raphtalia asked angrily behind him. The anger at him was for dodging the subject again. At being kept in the dark. At the realization that what happened long ago had been set up to kill them. Had all that trauma she was forced to suffer from the result of evil people who wanted them dead?!
Naofumi stopped at her words, gasping in shock. "You keep treating me like a little kid, and I'm sick of it! Maybe I don't understand everything that's going on, but I'm in as much danger as you! So tell me what happened so that-..." Raphtalia stopped speaking in shock. The rest of her sentence died on her lips.
Naofumi's shoulders were tightened, his hands were clenched into fists. The gem on his shield started pulsing with a strange red color. "You don't trust me... After everything we've been through together!?" His calm voice was as hard as a rock and as dangerous as a volcano nearing its eruption. "Do you think I'm evil too!? IS THAT IT?!"
Raphtalia realized too late that she might have just pushed him dangerously close to the edge. She whimpered in slight fear and bowed her head fearing what was to come. A trace of her former life as a tortured slave showed through at that moment.
Naofumi heard her whimper, and his eyes widened. 'What the hell am I doing?'
He relaxed his shoulders, face, and hands as his anger and hatred reined back into his subconscious. The gemstone returned to its normal green color. He'd almost unleashed all his pent-up rage and hatred at the world, the King, the Church, Myne, and various other people that he'd overheard in their travels… on Raphtalia…
A guilty look came onto his face.
"I'm sorry... I don't know why I can't trust you Raphtalia. I don't know why I can't trust anybody." He responded tiredly, guilt lacing his tone. "I guess I just wouldn't trust myself if I was in your position." He sounded defeated as he walked down the hall.
"Don't ask me about it. I'll tell you when it becomes relevant. I don't want to make the same mistake again."
'And I don't want you to know what I was accused of… and what I ran away from...' He thought pathetically to himself.
Raphtalia stared at his back as he walked away. She put a hand to her mouth in shock at what she'd just done. Even with her master turned away, she could tell that her words had hurt him. She'd never felt so guilty before in her life. 'Master Naofumi…'
She wanted to chase after him, but her reason for interrupting his bath went through her mind again. And pounded at her bladder. So instead she ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her.
Naofumi finished compounding his latest batch of medicine and stared up at the ceiling. The dinner that night had been a much more somber affair than usual. The food still tasted bland to Naofumi. Elhart had been more mellow than he normally was. And Raphtalia…
'She hasn't said a word to me since the hallway.' He realized.
Hell, he hadn't seen much of Raphtalia since the hallway earlier that day. She'd spent time outside the shop getting last-minute supplies they'd need from different merchants. Spreading out her purchases so that it wouldn't look like she was preparing herself and a Legendary Hero to fight the wave. When he had seen her in the shop, then either he, or she would scamper off to do something else.
That dinner had been an exception since both of them were forced to sit at the table with Elhart. Raphtalia had looked more subdued at dinnertime than he'd ever seen her before. The only time he'd remembered her looking more depressed was when he first found her in Belouka'es slave tent. She'd talk when she was talked to, and ask for food when her plate ran out, but other than that she remained quiet.
He didn't know if she was anxious because of the wave being tomorrow, or because of what happened in the hallway. Either way, he felt guilty about it.
When he walked by the room Elhart had given her after dinner, she was lying face down on her bed. Not doing her nightly work-out like she normally would. As he'd walked back to his room, he felt that guilt inside him double.
'I want to tell her what's happening… but how can I know that she won't just turn on me like that bitch?' He thought pessimistically to himself.
Immediately after having the thought, he shook his head, feeling ashamed. 'Even after everything we've gone through, can I still not trust her?!'
…
Naofumi cleaned his supplies off the desk and stood up. He looked out of the window of the room that Elhart had lent him, glaring at the dim lights of the Castle in the distance. 'I can't trust anybody in this world because of them…' He realized.
'I can't trust them with my past. I can't trust them with my present. And I certainly can't trust this world with my future… not as long as I'm the Shield Demon...'
He sighed, and then sat down on the edge of his bed. 'I wish I could trust somebody with… with something. If I only knew they… wouldn't stab me in the back...'
Lute Village. Mirso Village. Random travelers in the forest. Even the customers that came into Elhart's shop during the day. No matter where he went, it was always the same thing. Everybody, from knights on patrol to merchants peddling their wares, everybody down to the lowest peasant thought that the Shield Hero was a demon, an evil abomination sent to torment them during the Waves.
He'd overheard plenty of gossip about the Shield Hero raping the king's daughter. About how people thought the Shield Hero was this scary psychopath who murdered those who got in his way. Extorted money from those who had little. Brainwashed people into complying with his sinful desires. They spoke highly of the other three heroes that they worshipped like Gods, but him; he was nothing short of the devil to them.
'The Devil of the Shield' is what he'd heard a passing knight describing him as while he listened from his bedroom window.
'Nobody here will believe that I'm innocent.' Deep inside, he dreaded that even Elhart didn't believe him, despite everything that the old man had done for him... but if Raphtalia really didn't trust him, even after all the things they'd gone through together the last few weeks, then he truly had no hope left for this world… He buried his face in his hands.
'Why did I have to be summoned to this forsaken world?... I just want to go home...' He missed his little brother more than ever. What he'd give to see him again... even if it meant having to deal with his parents...
...
He was still in the middle of his depressing thoughts when he heard his door open. He looked up and was surprised to see Raphtalia standing there. She was dressed in nightclothes that Elhart had given to her, which looked big on her to him. She held her hands together in front of her. Her face was looking down at the floor. A moment that felt like a day passed by, and still, she didn't speak.
...
"What is it Raphtalia?" Naofumi finally asked.
Raphtalia stayed still while looking down at the floor. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but couldn't bring herself to. He looked more closely and saw her eyes were red from crying. "Was it another nightmare?" Naofumi asked worriedly.
...
She sniffed and then nodded her head.
What happened back in the hallway was forgotten. "Come here." He said, patting the side of the bed next to him.
Raphtalia quickly took his invitation and sat down beside Naofumi before leaning into him. He moved an arm around her shoulders, letting her settle into his body. For a while, neither one of them spoke… and he allowed her to silently cry...
…
…
"It was about the time after the wave destroyed my village…" Raphtalia started.
"Your nightmare?" Naofumi asked.
…
"Yeah."
A young version of Raphtalia and her friends looked around at the rubble surrounding them. She was trying to cheer the other children and adults up to help them rebuild. It was having mixed results, but they were making progress. And besides, she'd always been told by her parents that things always get better when the world couldn't keep you from smiling. And she didn't want to stop smiling when she and her friends needed to rebuild their village. They needed the hope that came from her smile.
The few adults that had survived looked determined to help rebuild their homes and take care of each other. By the looks on their faces, you wouldn't have thought that they'd just lost their homes, loved ones, and friends to a bunch of monsters. In fact, you'd think they were just moving in, ready to start their new lives in a different place. An optimism that was inspired by Raphtalia's hopeful smile.
" We tried to rebuild the best we could. We vowed that even though the wave had destroyed everything we had, we'd rebuild our village. It'd be greater than it ever was before. Me and my friends couldn't wait for the time when we'd be able to raise our flag over our village again…"
Raphtalia and Rifana held a flag together. Looking it over and imagining it on top of the Church's steeple.
Suddenly, an adult villager nearby screamed. An arrow was sticking out of her chest. Raphtalia stared in shock as the demi-human woman, that had been her babysitter before the wave, fell to the ground, the life draining out of her eyes and her chest.
"What happened?" Naofumi asked.
"Kill the adults! Capture the children!"
"The Knights and Adventurers that the Capital had sent out to deal with the wave came back. And instead of helping us to rebuild, they tore down what was left standing by the monsters." Raphtalia continued bitterly in the background.
Young Raphtalia looked around her in shock. Knights and Adventurers, bearing the cross of the Three Heroes on their clothes/armor came out from everywhere, laughing greedily as they slashed with their swords, swung heavy spiked maces, nocked bows, wielded spears, and set fire to buildings with their torches.
The adults were being slaughtered left and right. Some soldiers in their madness for destruction pulled down the weakened supports of the buildings, bringing them crashing down on the demihumans hiding inside them. Their screams of terror cut off long before the rubble settled.
" They killed… all the adults. They didn't leave a single one of them alive." She whimpered.
Some adult demi-humans went down screaming in terror. Some begged for their lives on their hands and knees, only to be cut down in a spray of blood. A few tried to fight back but were killed as easily as a fly stuck in a spider's net. Blood spattered on Raphtalia and her clothes when one adult was beheaded mercilessly by an ax nearby.
Her breathing became heavy, looking down at the blood on her hands.
"No. Please no." The young Raphtalia whispered to herself.
" The other kids tried to flee, but they were surrounded by the soldiers. Those who tried to resist were knocked out, those who were resilient to the hits were killed."
One of her childhood friends kept on getting back up, even after being hit repeatedly in the head. "Stay down, damn you!" The adventurer yelled angrily, trying to knock out the demi-human again. However, the tiger-like kid bit down on his hand, causing him to yell in pain and drop the sword. The demi-human then stabbed him with his own sword and took the chance to try and flee.
"Urgh! Kill, kill that brat!" The dying adventurer yelled as he pointed to the fleeing kid. Raphtalia thought he would get away. But the archers treated the runaway like target practice, boasting about who'd kill him first. It turned out, several did at once, as several arrows impaled the kid from multiple directions at the same time.
Raphtalia just stood there in the midst of it all, too shocked to make a move.
"Ah, what do we have here?" A Knight snidely asked, picking up Raphtalia by her hair.
The young Raphtalia grimaced in pain. "Why, why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?" She pitifully asked.
"Don't talk back to me you filthy demi-human!" The knight said angrily, backhanding the young Raphtalia across the face. The young girl was shocked by the pain of the hit. She remained silent as she was thrown into the back of one of three prison carriages. She saw some of her other friends held in the other two. She weakly gripped the bars, her young eyes unable to comprehend the scene of bloodshed before her. Unable to comprehend what had just happened to her village.
She had thought the wave had been terrible… but this...
" I was taken from my village, along with all the other kids. The soldiers stayed behind, and they… and they torched the place."
From her view in the prison wagon that slowly started to move away, she saw more of the knights taking out torches. They set many of the buildings, both those that were being rebuilt and those that had been undamaged during the wave. Some of the other soldiers threw the bodies of the dead into the fires. Her heart clenched as she saw those she'd known her whole life consumed by the flames, never to be given a proper burial.
It hurt almost as much as seeing her village's flag taken, and thrown into the largest fire of them all. The flag that had symbolized so much hope for her and her friends… standing near that fire was a figure on a horse. Dressed in white robes and a hood.
"No…" She whispered to herself. Falling back onto the cold hard seat as she was taken away from her home for the first, and possibly the last time ever. "This wasn't supposed to happen… the, the Shield Hero was supposed to protect us…"
Slowly, her smile started to fracture on her face. "No… No…" She whimpered.
...
" After that. We were all separated. I was sold to one Master to be trained to become a maid. But because of my screams at night, he sold me to a noble that owned my best friend. The one who tortured us both… To this day, I still have no clue what's happened to the others, or if my best friend survived that cruel noble's whip…"
Around her, the other demi-human children began to cry. Some screaming in sorrow at having their parents taken away so traumatically. Raphtalia looked at them all, not wanting to believe what had just happened. She tried to cheer them up. She tried to smile for them.
Eventually though, tears filled her eyes, and she started to cry just like all the others.
" The wave might have destroyed my home... but it was those Knights, and whoever that robed figure was, that destroyed my life."
Time returned to the present. Raphtalia had tears falling down her face, and she was clinging to Naofumi. Her body shaking from the memory that had so badly affected her in her sleep. Naofumi was now hugging her to his chest with one arm, while his other hand rubbed calming soothing circles on the back of her head.
'Raphtalia…' He couldn't even muster up the focus to be angry at the Knights. He was too worried about her to even think about being angry.
"I'm… I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before, Master Naofumi. I didn't know if I was ready to tell anyone about that horrible experience. I didn't think anyone would believe that Knights could ever do such a horrible thing! I…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I didn't know if you'd believe me if I told you." She whispered quietly, her tears continuing to drip onto his chest.
…
"Don't worry. I believe you." He whispered.
Something inside him brought the next words to his lips before he could stop them. "I don't like the Air Strike Shield because of a girl I met in school."
...
Raphtalia looked up at him, wiping tears away from her eyes. "You… you never told me you were a nobleman in your world." She said curiously, her sadness being shelved by her curiosity.
Naofumi almost wanted to chuckle, realizing a little bit more just how much his world was different from hers. "Actually, in my world, all kids are required to go to school. Trust me, it isn't all that great. And I wasn't really much of anything in my world." He said humorously before his face fell. "And you asked about it before… I just didn't know if anyone would believe me if I told them about it or not."
Raphtalia continued to look at him, resting her hands in her lap. "Go on." She encouraged.
...
Naofumi took a deep breath. Part of his mind was yelling at him to stop. But the other part was winning through. It was telling him that keeping this experience bottled up wouldn't help anybody. In fact, it was likely hurting him more than it would if he talked about it with someone who he could trust talking it over with someone.
Did that mean he trusted Raphtalia? He didn't know. But he didn't want to not trust her.
And that meant he had to take this small step and put a little more trust in his Companion instead of telling her again to wait till she was older. "She was the first girl I liked. And I wanted to get her something special to show my feelings for her..."
A young seventeen-year-old Naofumi, dressed in a school uniform, gripped a gold encased locket in his hand. He looked around the hallways of his High School nervously. Students in similar-looking uniforms walked up and down the hallways, absorbed in their phones or books. Each one was studying for their final exams which were later that week like their lives depended on it. And with college around the corner for most of them, their future lives and careers did depend on how well they did right here and now.
Naofumi gulped, clutching the necklace close. "You see, in my world, those of us who graduated school could move on to a higher school called college. There were different colleges that offered this higher education to us, and this girl and I had chosen different colleges to go to… so on the last day of school I brought a gift for her."
Naofumi walked out from his secluded spot in the hallway past several different students. He felt nervous, but he was also smiling in excitement. Not even the threat of finals could put a damper on his mood.
" I thought she liked me too. She'd led me on with hints over the last few months… I'd gotten her the gift to help her to remember me while we were far apart."
He entered a side hallway where there were no students in view. It was a much less used area of the school, where students would go to hang out with their friends when Finals weren't looming like a two-headed Orthrus Dog. His nervousness was growing, but so was his excitement. He was finally going to do it. He was going to take the first step with admitting his feelings to a girl! His brother would be so proud!
He started to round one last corner, wondering in his mind what he was going to say… only to stop, and then hide back behind the corner.
…
...
"What happened?" Raphtalia asked in the background.
"I found out that it had all been a lie," Naofumi said blandly.
It was that simple. His world hadn't shattered, but his heart certainly had.
Naofumi stared in shock. He saw the girl he'd gotten the locket for, the one he'd thought he was falling in love with, lip-locked with another student. Their hands moved all over each other in this secluded part of the school where no eyes would find them. Naofumi breathed heavily with tears filling his eyes.
"So, when is that one kid coming with your gift?" The guy asked his crush.
"Oh, he should be here any minute now. The poor sap actually thinks I'll think about him after graduation. I'm sure he'll bring me a nice gift like all the other losers though. I heard him say to one of his friends that he was planning on spending a hefty sum of his college money to get it for me." The girl responded seductively to her real boyfriend. "It might just be enough for the two of us to have some serious fun tonight."
"Babe, I love you." The guy said, going back to lip-locking with the girl.
Naofumi felt tears pricking at his eyes, tears that he quickly wiped away. He looked down at the locket in his hand. It wasn't shaped like a shield, but the design etched in it was almost exactly the same as the design shown on his air strike shield.
"I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to think that it might have been a joke. I wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't what it looked like." Naofumi clutched desperately at the locket.
"I love you too, Yuno."
He never thought hearing somebody saying those words could shatter his reality. But it happened. He could finally see how false this bitch of a girl was. She didn't even know the meaning of what she'd said, yet she threw that word around like it was a pretty penny. Love.
She didn't have feelings for him. Hell, he could tell she didn't have feelings for that guy. She was just a girl who loved to use people for her own ends. The thought that he'd actually fallen for a person like that without even realizing it...
" I'd realized how she'd played me like a fool. She'd actually thought of me as just another boy. Someone she could bend around her finger and extort to her heart's desire… I was so naive."
Naofumi gritted his teeth and stormed back down the hallway. The locket gripped tightly in his clenched hand. "... And after that, I didn't trust another girl in my world again."
Naofumi found himself staring into Raphtalia's eyes. She had stopped crying and was simply staring up at him. The two were silent for a moment, and then he looked down at his hands again.
"I… I didn't know." Raphtalia murmured quietly.
"I spent some time after that trying to drink myself out of my misery with some friends. But I quickly found out that I have a high alcohol tolerance. No matter how much I drank, I couldn't get drunk. I found the stuff so disgusting that I eventually stopped drinking altogether and became a shut-in instead. I didn't like going out into the real world except to visit the library. I didn't talk to girls if I could manage it. I rarely even interacted with my own family outside of my little brother unless it was serious. I just, I just didn't…"
He trailed off. He didn't know why he'd even started talking about this. It wasn't making it hurt any less… in fact it probably only made him appear weaker in Raphtalia's eyes. Just as it would in that bitch's, as well as everyone else…
"I didn't want to be hurt like that again." He whispered. "And seeing the locket's design on that shield was like a slap to the face about what happened back then." He growled angrily. Because he had been hurt that way again.
His first day in this world and he'd gone and crushed hard on his first party member. The one girl who'd reached her hand out to help him when everything was so different and confusing. But her helping hand had been a lie. A ruse to win his trust, so she could shatter it into a billion pieces.
...
Raphtalia embraced him in a warm hug, much to his surprise. "Did it happen again when you came to this world? Is that princess I hear about responsible?" She asked.
She'd guessed it. Right on the money.
'I thought when I came here that it'd be a new world. I'd have another shot, a new chance for me to find the one... Until Myne turned it all to hell by plotting to accuse me of rape so I'd be killed off…'
"I'd rather not talk about that right now. I think I shared enough for one night." He said, feeling tired. The fact that he didn't deny it though gave Raphtalia part of the confirmation she needed.
…
"Thank you, Master Naofumi." She said quietly.
He looked down at her. "What for?" He asked. Surprised that she wasn't begging for more info like she normally did.
"Thank you for trusting me with a little bit of knowledge of your world. Even if I am a girl." She had a soft smile on her face, hidden by her hugging him. He had finally trusted her with a little piece of his past outside of that bedtime story about his little brother. "... And thank you for still using that skill to save my life. Despite the pain it brings you."
"Well... you're different from those girls. And besides, it wasn't anything like what you told me." He said, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole memory now that he'd spoken it out loud. "I mean, thinking back on it, I can't even remember that girl's name. I just overreacted to what happened."
"Who's to know what I would have done if I was put in your shoes," Raphtalia said. "Had I been there and a guy played me like that, I would have broken both of his arms and legs and hung him outside to make an example of him to anyone else who would ever think that it'd be fun to play around with a girl's feelings."
She said it so casually, she could have been mistaken for talking about something at the dinner table while asking someone to pass the salad.
Naofumi's face paled. 'Seriously, how did I mess up this badly raising her? I'm starting to feel glad that she wasn't in my situation. In my world, she could have gone to jail for doing that.'
Maybe losing faith in girls and fully delving into his hobby as an otaku hadn't been the worst thing he could have done… especially since it'd helped him to save his brother when he fell off the beaten path.
"We might be from different worlds Master Naofumi, but that doesn't mean our past challenges weren't hard for us to deal with," Raphtalia said.
...
Naofumi looked down at Raphtalia in wonder. '... how did this young girl become so wise?' Had he raised her right after all? For once, he could feel emotions other than anger bubbling up inside him, wanting desperately to be released.
When he realized it though, he coughed into his hand. He couldn't be having those thoughts now. 'Nope, those are thoughts that only a lolicon would have. And though she looks closer to my age now, that's still wrong.' She was still a teenager. He just had to wait until she was an adult and... and...
Ugh. He really needed to find out how this world viewed demi-human maturity. This wasn't a problem anyone in his world had to worry about, damn it! Why couldn't common sense work the same in a fantasy setting?!
"Anyways, we should probably go to sleep now. The wave of Catastrophe's tomorrow." Naofumi said.
"Alright… Is it alright if I sleep here tonight?" Raphtalia asked.
Naofumi looked down confusedly at her. "Aren't you a little old for that?"
She blushed a little bit. "I, I'd feel better if I wasn't alone after that nightmare." She admitted.
...
Naofumi sighed to himself, unable to resist the begging Tanuki face she was giving him. "Fine. But you better not wet the bed." He said seriously.
Raphtalia glared at him. "Master Naofumi, I haven't wet anything since your cloak after my first panic attack nightmare with you!" Raphtalia said childishly.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to forget about it," Naofumi replied dryly.
Raphtalia sulked, but she still cuddled up to Naofumi as they laid back on the small bed. It was just like what she did when she was smaller. Was it just him, or was she taking up far more space than was necessary? He wasn't calling her fat, but maybe she was getting a little thick?
He shrugged it off. It was probably just him.
"Goodnight, Raphtalia," Naofumi said.
"Goodnight… and... thank you for believing me. I promise I won't let you down." She whispered. Drifting off into her own dreamworld next to him.
…
Despite his best efforts, a smile forced its way onto Naofumi's face. 'Damn it, I knew it! I am starting to trust this girl! And I don't even mind that I do!'
…
'I swear if this blows up in my face like that princess bitch and that bratty bitch from school, then I'm not going to trust anyone ever again! Not even Elhart!' He promised himself. Raphtalia shifted her head and moved into the crook of his neck. Her ears tickled his chin, and her tail started to wag gently along his leg in her sleep, showing that she was happy.
...
'Is it bad if I really hope that everything works out though…?'
If anything, he was hopeful that things would work out… that maybe he'd be able to open up to Raphtalia about what had happened when he first came to this world. Because... because he was downright terrified of what'd happen to him if it didn't work out. If she left him after hearing what it was he'd been accused of…
If she left him now, he would lose it.
He shook his head and closed his eyes. That was a worry for another night.
First, they had to survive the Wave of Catastrophe tomorrow.
Hero Clips!
Endless Nightmare
"Ahhhh!"
Motoyasu sat up straight in his bed, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. He looked around, eyes wide with fear until he realized that he was back in his bedroom in the castle. He let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, man, that nightmare sucked-"
"What nightmare, Motoyasu?"
His eyes widened, and he looked beside him. His breathing became ragged as he recognized one of the two girls that stabbed him to death before being isekaied. "You're not suffering from a nightmare, are you Moto?"
He looked to the other side. Both girls were there. Both of them grinned maliciously at him.
"Don't worry." "We'll deal with that nightmare for you." They pulled out very familiar knives. Raising them up, and-
"AHHHHHHH!"
He sat up in bed again. Even when he recognized the room he was in, he pulled his blanket up to his face. Shivering behind it in fright.
"It's alright… it was only a nightmare… it's not like you're still stuck in a nightmare…"
He quickly looked on both sides. There were no girls there. However, movement in the shadows of his room caught his attention. "Who's there?!" He screamed an octave higher than normal.
"... oh, no one special…"
Motoyasu sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness-" His eyes widened. Wait, that voice-
Naofumi stepped out of the shadows. A grin on his face. "I just have a hunger that still hasn't been satisfied yet." Fangs sprouted from his teeth, and he jumped towards Motoyasu to-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Motoyasu flung off the blanket, jumped out of bed, and ran out of his room screaming. Scared all the way to hell and back.
There was no way! He was stuck in an endless nightmare! He didn't remember this being a facet of his game!
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Still screaming, he burst into the castle kitchen. His screams finally stopped as he grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and drank it down in one gulp. He started coughing, some of the water going down the wrong pipe. It was then that he finally realized that he wasn't trapped in a nightmare.
"Oh, thank goodness that's over." He sighed in relief.
"Yawn, I'm so hungry..." He turned in surprise at Myne's voice, only to freeze in horror.
She had no make-up on. Her hair was a mess. She looked at him and then froze.
The Bitch hadn't realized Sir Motoyasu was up this late at night!
"Wait, M-M-Myne-" He tried to say.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Myne screamed, running from the kitchen in terror. She wasn't presentable like this! This had to be a nightmare!
…
"Maybe I should go back to bed and pretend this was a nightmare," Motoyasu said out loud.
After all the nightmares he'd had that night, his mind would definitely believe it.
Till Next Time
Allen