Chapter 4 –

The Trial and The Slave

Homura was startled out of her sleep with the loud banging on her inn room door. Before her mind had caught up, her hand was already grabbing the edge of her harp like shield after trying to grab a gun from it as if she were back in her world.

Looking at it for a moment, her brain still catching up, there was more banging on her door. This time accompanied by shouting from a deep male voice, "Shield Hero! Open this door right now before we break it down!"

Homura was very confused about what was going on. Looking down at her night gown, she thought about making whoever it was banging on her door waiting so she could change. But if they were being serious about breaking the door down, she'd rather be in her night gown than nothing at all, and she had no way to handle it otherwise with her time magic sealed.

Changing her shield from what she hoped was an unlocked Companion Shield I, she changed it to the Orange Small Shield to work on unlocking it as she walked towards the door. Standing behind the door, she cracked it open to see who was there.

Standing there, fist raised as if to bang on her door again, was a mustached knight with several other angry looking knights standing behind him.

"Can I help you, Sir Knight?" Homura asked. His face scrunched up in anger before him and a couple of his underlings shoved her door open, pushing her back. Before she could raise her voice to yell at them, her arms were grabbed and jerked behind her back, shackles slapped on to her wrists.

"You're under arrest Shield Hero! You're to be brought before His Majesty immediately to stand for your crimes!" The man that was obviously the one in charge yelled once more.

Homura's brain screeched to a halt at the suddenness of everything. 'What the hell is happening?' she thought to herself. Just as suddenly she was being shoved out into the hallway and out of the building. She thought about resisting, but the several men holding spears to her back and the few more around her with their hands on their swords convinced her otherwise. Without her armor equipped she didn't think it wise to test her, admittedly still ridiculous, defense stat against their weapons.

P-*-*-*H

Homura was shoved into the massive double doors into the throne room, landing kneeling on the ground. Quickly she was surrounded by several more knights, each holding a spear to her before she could stand. Looking up, she saw her three fellow heroes standing up on the rise near the King, but their faces were red, and they were looking away from her.

She felt her own face flush red, mostly from embarrassment, but partially from anger as well. Not only had she just been paraded through the early morning crowd on the main road to the castle in just her nightgown. Because of the angle she was forced to kneel in relation to where the others were standing, her fellow heroes got a nice glimpse down her gown when she was tossed down. 'If they do not forget about it immediately, I will kill them. Shield or not, I will kill them.' She swore in her head. She felt a moment of vindictive pleasure at seeing them all shudder and spines stiffen.

Before she could gather herself, the King stood from his throne. "What is the meaning of this?!" he bellowed loudly. "I told you to bring the Shield Hero here for questioning! Why is she not dressed?!"

The captain, she supposed, went from smiling smugly to looking confused. Homura was confused overall, it had been just one shock after another in many uncomfortable ways for the last 15 minutes, but she narrowed her eyes balefully at him.

"Your Majesty?" the knight responded. "We bought her here as you instructed. You didn't say to make sure she was presentable. I felt you would want to question her quickly about why she assaulted your daughter."

King Aultcray looked ready to murder the knight for a moment, before taking a deep breath and glaring down at the knight, while Homura just grew even more confused. 'Assault his daughter? Who is his daughter? Even if I could hurt them, the only person I have met here that I would even consider it on would be Myne Sophia, and she is a simple adventurer. Or is she?' She thought, trying to figure out what was going on.

"So you decided that the best thing to do was to march a 14 year old girl," the King began, addressing the knight angrily, "through the village, as everyone was leaving their homes for the day, in her bed clothes?"

The knight looked even more confused before looking at her and widening his eyes for moment. Seemingly just now realizing her state of dress. Turning back to the King, he tried to stammer a response. He was cut off quickly however.

"Even with your beliefs, Captain, how do you think the general populace is going to look at the knights?" Homura noticed several of the people holding her at spear point were beginning to look uncomfortable. "How do you think they're going to look at me and the Queen? Even if I am angry that Malty was assaulted last night, I can not simply allow this treatment of the Shield Hero!"

Ren and Motoyasu looked at the King strangely. "Wait a minute," Ren said, "That's why we're here?"

Homura finally managed to cut in and say something as the King looked towards Ren confused. "Who are you talking about your majesty? I do not know a Princess Malty."

"Liar!" Itsuki snarled, as he shifted slightly to the side, revealing Myne cowering against his back. Homura reeled back in shock. Her face and exposed arms and legs were covered in bruises, her clothes torn and her leather armor appearing cut by a knife. "Princess Malty was your party member when you two left yesterday! She said that you kicked her out of your party and abandoned her to monsters! After she made it back to town, you found her last night and proceeded to beat her unconscious!" He roared at her.

"I demand [Justice] be bought upon her!" he turned to face the King while pointing down towards Homura.

"This is ridiculous." Ren replied, crossing his arms with a huff. "Homura couldn't have done any of that even if she had wanted to, Itsuki."

Motoyasu nodded in response to Ren, while the King turned to face him, cutting off Itsuki before he could yell at the other boys. "How do you figure that Sir Ren?" Aultcray questioned. "Surely you're not just saying that because you fancy her."

Ren's faced flushed a bit, probably remembering the very brief view from earlier even as he turned his head away slightly, causing Homura to focus her glare on him. "We learned yesterday that Homura has an ATK stat of 1. Not to mention some of the damage to the princess' clothes look to be caused for a knife. Those could not have been caused by Homura."

Itsuki and the King both looked shocked. "What do you mean an ATK of 1, Ren?!" Itsuki exclaimed. "Even in Dimension Wave, Shielders had a higher ATK than that, even if they were bottom tier trash!"

Looking at the Bow Hero with some confusion at his choice of words, the King gestured towards Ren. "What do you mean the cuts could not be caused by her? Surely even with an ATK of 1, it would be possible to use a knife to cut some clothes."

Motoyasu decided to answer this time. "Yesterday morning, while we were waiting for you to finish getting dressed Itsuki, little Homura found us in front of the meeting hall. She was annoyed at me for her nickname, so she kicked me in the gut." Scratching the back of his head, he chuckled. "Launched me into the wall good she did. Her kick was excellent to, knocked all the wind out of me for a good minute. But the thing is, she did no damage to me. Had the cancellation sound and everything.

"As for not being able to cut Princess Malty, that's easy. Our weapons apply something called [Restriction] on us, letting us only use weapons of the kind assigned to us for the purpose of combat. So I can only fight spears, Ren swords and Itsuki bows. I would take it that Homura can only wield her shield." He continued on, Itsuki still looking dumbfounded at Homura's attack stat. "So like Ren said, even if she wanted to, there's no way little Homura could have assaulted the princess last night."

Aultcray regarded the two heroes for a moment, before turning to face Homura. He looked at her for a long while, searchingly, while she tried to keep most of her anger and frustration from her face. Finally, he called over one of his assistants. "Go find and bring me a servant at Level 1 with no armor. We shall test the Spear and Sword Heroes claims."

The assistant bowed and left the throne room, the King returned to his seat. "Stand, Shield Hero. I want to hear from you while we wait for him to return."

Homura narrowed her eyes and stiffly stood up. Shifting slightly to try and get her gown to cover as much as possible with her hands chained behind her back, she looked at the king for a moment. "After receiving our funds last night, Myne Sophia and I headed to the Blacksmith Erhard's store on her recommendation. I attempted to pick up a sword, intending to buy it to pull my weight in combat when the sword was expelled from my hand by the Legendary Shield." She began to explain.

"After that, the blacksmith came out from the back with the armor for me that I ended up purchasing, as well as a knife to skin and prepare monsters. When I questioned Myne Sophia about buying her some armor, she requested armor that was both more than the entirety of what funds we had received yesterday, and inappropriate for what I consider to be worn by a hero's party member. So we left without outfitting her because of her own choice, turning down the alternative that I had suggested to her. Before heading out to the fields, we stopped by the Apothecary to purchase some medical supplies in case something slipped by me or through my defense."

"A moment, Shield Hero." The king interjected, glancing towards his daughter who looked like she wanted to start screaming at her. "The other heroes say that you are not allowed to wield a weapon in combat. Why purchase a hunting knife?"

Homura quirked an eyebrow at the question, she had thought she answered it with her explanation. "I am allowed to use the knife as a tool. It is when I consider using it for combat that it is rejected by the Shield." Seeing him nod, she continued with her story. "After purchasing medical supplies, we proceeded out to the field, where we encountered some Orange Balloons.

"I caught one midair when it tried to attack Myne Sophia. I then asked her to dispose of it while I held it for her. When she attacked it with her sword, she made no attempt to not hit me. Had my defense not be high as it apparently is, she would have hurt me. I dismissed her from my party after that since we were near the gates and sent her away. I cannot trust my back to someone who will not even attempt to keep from hurting me."

"Liar!" Malty screeched, pointing at her from behind Itsuki. "You know you abandoned me deep in the forest by myself! Left me to fight my way back into town!" Her venomous green eyes looked alarmed. Like this was not going how she had expected for it to.

Homura narrowed her eyes at her when Itsuki began to scream at her as well. In all honesty, his words sounded so much like Sayaka's "Ally of Justice" spiels that she ignored it with ease of long practice. "I myself did not progress pass the fields of aloe outside of the gates. I spent the afternoon by myself gathering herbs and killing Orange and Yellow Balloons until I reach Level 2. If you circled back around into the forest behind me after I saw you enter the town, then that has nothing to do with me."

Before the arguing could continue, the king's assistant returned. Trailing behind him was a face awfully familiar to Homura, Amelia. "Your Highness, I have found a servant as requested. This is Maid Amelia."

The king regarded her for a moment. "You're the maid that served as the handmaiden for the Shield Hero the last two days, are you not?"

Amelia nodded after bowing deeply, glancing over to Homura in concern out of the corner of her eyes. "I am your Majesty."

"Raise your head, Maid Amelia. You are not here to serve testimony." Aultcray informed her. Amelia raised her head as ordered, looking confused.

The king stood and gestured towards Homura. "Unbind the Shield Hero."

"Sir?" questioned one of the knights still holding the magical girl at spear point. He promptly received a sharp glare. "Do not make me repeat myself."

Nodding quickly, he dropped his spear and proceeded to unlock Homura's shackles. Once she was free, the first thing she did was straighten her gown as much as possible, glaring at the boys who once again averted their eyes, even Itsuki, even if he kept an angry look on his face. Rubbing her wrists gently, Homura turned to face the king who was now standing next to Amelia. His hand holding her shoulder firmly, keeping her in place.

"Shield Hero, prove to me that you have no attack power. I order you to strike Amelia as if you were assaulting her." He ordered.

Amelia looked startled, her eyes darting between Homura and Aultcray. Homura glowered at the King, growling softly at his order.

Slowly, she approached the maid, who was now looking at her with scared eyes. "I am sorry Amelia. I promise it will not hurt physically." Before the maid had a chance to react or say anything, Homura wrapped her arm around Amelia's shoulders and launching a solid uppercut into her gut.

Amelia gave a loud gasp as all the air was driven from her lungs but being held in place between Homura and the king. Her head fell forward as her knees also gave out, but she blinked in surprise as Homura caught her and gently lowered her to the ground as she caught her breath. Instinctively she looked at her health bar and became very confused, not having heard the damage cancellation sound in her small panic.

"I'm…not hurt? But Lady Akemi…?" she muttered, slightly dazed. Suddenly she felt her hair being lightly stroked by a hesitant hand. When she started paying attention again, she started to blush. Her Lady Akemi was stroking her hair.

"I am sorry about that Amelia…" she heard Homura mutter softly, her face looking upset before she turned a glare at the king. "Are you satisfied now your majesty?

Without saying a word, Aultcray looked back with an emotionless face, before returning to his throne.

"Papa!" Malty exclaimed. "You can't seriously believe the Shield! They must've planned this!"

"I felt the force that Madam Akemi struck Maid Amelia with, and I appraised her myself after she was struck. Her health didn't drop a single point." Aultcray announced. Turning his focus to his daughter and the Bow Hero, both looking unconvinced, but he continued. "I don't know why you felt the need to try to frame Madam Akemi, my daughter. I shall let it pass this time, but I announce now. The next time a Hero is to be accused of a crime, the accuser shall be branded by and give a testimony under the Slave Seal!"

Turning his attention to Homura and Amelia, he took another moment to say anything to her. "I apologize for the shame you have experienced today Madam Akemi. I will give you an additional 200 silver as recompense for my daughter falsely accusing you. To the other heroes, I apologize for the time wasted this morning. Malty, since you seem to have decided which hero you wish to follow, you shall accompany the Bow Hero in his quests."

Having heard the king's verdict, Ren approached Homura, looking away from her while his hand hovered over the jewel of his sword. As he neared her, he pulled out a black cloak and laid it over her shoulders, covering her up. "Next time you want to waste my time, your Highness, please don't." He said facing the king before turning his attention to younger girl. "I'm sorry about this Homura. Please get past this setback and get strong for the Waves. Once you're ready, remember to head north if you don't want to risk running into any of us."

Without waiting for a response, he turned and left the castle. With a huff, Itsuki and Malty both left the castle, completely ignoring Homura. Motoyasu finally approached her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"I wish I could've done more to help little Homura. Try to catch me before the next Wave, and I'll see if I can't help you out some then. See ya later." With that and a small comforting pat on her shoulder, Motoyasu left to go meet up with his own party.

"Lady Akemi…" Amelia muttered softly, looking down slightly at her since her she was taller than the magical girl. Her hands were held in front of her chest, nervously. Homura was struck by how young the maid suddenly looked, maybe somewhere around 16 or so.

Holding her hand above the gem on her shield, she willed a gold coin to materialize from her shield and held it out towards the girl. "I apologize for doing that to you Amelia. While this does not make up for it, I feel it is a step in the right direction."

With shaking hands, the maid hesitantly took the coin, looking unsure as if this were real or not. After Amelia held it firmly clasped in her hands that had returned to her chest, Homura pulled the cloak given to her by Ren closer to her. "Unfortunately, I must be leaving. I have to acquire at least one companion if I want to set out today." Bowing to the maid once more, Homura turned around and left the castle herself, holding her cloak tightly closed. As she left the throne room, another servant approached her with a small bag tinkling with coins.

She however did miss Amelia reaching out towards her. "Lady Akemi…" she muttered quietly, watching the younger brunette leave.

P-*-*-*H

Homura flitted down the roads, keeping her new cloak close. She really needed to find somewhere close she could change. She was grateful that she had put what stuff she owned into her shield last night before she retired for bed. It meant that she didn't have to return to that inn, that she couldn't even remember how to get to from the castle.

Homura growled softly when a thick hand landed squarely on her shoulder, frustrated that everyone kept getting handsy with her, but she was surprised at the huge amount of strength in that grip. There was no way whoever had grabbed her was a low level. She could feel some pain in her shoulder even through her defense stat.

"Hold it right there, shield lass." A voice spoke, undertones of anger in his voice. It was vaguely familiar to her. Looking down at the hand on her shoulder, seeing the dark tan and massive callouses, she recognized who had stopped her. It was the blacksmith, Erhard.

"What's this I heard about you attacking your party member last night after abandoning her?" He asked firmly, turning her around to face him. The face he was making reminded her of a distant memory. It took a moment for her to place it. Her father. Looking disappointed at her after she had been caught lying when she was…6? Maybe 7? A time that seemed oh so long ago to the former time traveler. While the blacksmith's face wasn't exactly the same, angrier, it was uncomfortably similar.

"I did no such thing." She defended herself, sounding offended and almost bratty even to her own ears. She still felt off kilter from the repeated jerking around this morning. "I was woken up by knights banging down my door, dragged through the streets in my gown, barefoot, thrown on to my knees in front of the King and my fellow heroes, accused of a crime I could not even commit and forced to attack someone who has only been helpful since I was summoned here to prove that I could not. And all against my will!" she snarled out.

Homura didn't even notice she had begun shaking. All she felt was the slowly rising tide of anger and frustration and embarrassment that had threatened to swallow her. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes which she tried to keep in. For once in so many timelines, she looked like a fourteen-year-old girl, dealing with something new that she didn't know how to deal with, and frustrated and scared about it. Glaring up at the slightly shocked blacksmith that was still holding on to her shoulder but more gently now.

She watched his eyes look over her, stopping for a moment at her dirty bare feet. Finally, he relaxed and let out a sigh. "I believe you lass." He finally said. He looked slightly ashamed, which gave Homura a small spark of vindictive pleasure. "Come on. I can let you clean up and change at my shop."

The magical girl scowled slightly, before letting out her own sigh, feeling some of the emotions that had been building all day drain into an emotional numbness. Mumbling a soft, "Thank you," she followed behind Erhard.

Soon, they had entered the shop that Homura had been in yesterday. Homura looked around, seeing mostly the same items, but she noticed that some were gone, and some new stuff was in their place.

"There's a wash basin upstairs, second door on the right." Erhard finally said. "Not quite as good as a bath, but it'll do for now. I don't think you want to bathe in my dirty smithing water." He gave a bark of laughter at seeing the shudder from the girl before shooing her upstairs.

A short while later, Homura slowly walked downstairs, clad back in the armor she had bought, trying to finish getting herself back on kilter. She hated to say it, but she was missing Mitakihara. At least there she knew almost everything there was to know. Random events like that devil Oriko showing up were uncommon to the extreme after a few dozen repeats, let alone the amount she had done.

Finally walking back into the storefront, Homura saw Erhard manning the counter and approached him. "Ah! Shield lass, finally done I see. And would you look at that! Somehow got that armor back on! Good to see, I was afraid that it might've been stolen if it was left at the inn." He greeted her, looking to be in a much better mood.

Homura contemplated whether to explain it to him or not. Deciding there wasn't any harm, she held her hand over the gem once more and this time deposited a small bundle of herbs into her hand. "I can store pretty much anything in my shield. I put my clothes into it, just incase I had to leave quickly." She explained. "Though…I was not planning on something like this morning happening."

With a sigh, the blacksmith crossed his massive arm across his massive chest. "That's a neat trick lass. Many times I wish I had a similar power back during my adventuring days."

Homura stared at him for a minute. "Mister Erhard, would you mind answering a few questions I have?"

"Hmm? Sure, I guess that shouldn't be a problem." Kicking back against the wall, he focused on the little girl. "What you got?"

"First, is there any particular reason for this dislike for me that I've been seeing? I heard and saw a few strange things yesterday after leaving your store, and then this morning the king called the knight captain out."

Erhard scowled in response to that question before he rubbed his bald head. "I guess that's understandable. Are you aware that a little over two decades ago Melromarc was at war with Siltvelt?"

Homura nodded in response. "It was bought up at the feast the night us heroes were summoned."

"Well that makes it a bit easier. You see, demi humans in general, but Siltvelt especially, worship the Shield Hero as their personal god."

Homura's eyes widened in shock. 'An entire country believes that I am there god?' The concept was mind boggling to her. Erhard nodded at her look.

"Yeah, well because of that belief, the Four Heroes Church that was the main religion at the time was converted into the Three Heroes Church and the Shield Hero cast as the Shield Devil." He explained.

"While most people don't put too much faith into that stance, there are some fanatical worshippers. Especially among veterans of that war, and their descendants."

Homura groaned and covered her face with her hands. Not only was she considered a god, but of course she was also a devil. Why was it always like this?

Taking a deep breath to try and center herself after yet another bombshell being dropped on her, she rubbed her face tiredly. Long since done for the day before the sun had even peaked in the sky.

"The second thing I want to ask concerns something the king mention at the end of the trial." She finally continued. "He mentioned that any future accusations against a hero would have to backed by a slave seal. What exactly is that?" Homura frowned at the blacksmith, expecting a certain answer but hoping she was wrong.

Erhard gave a heavy sigh, making a disgusted face at her question. "The answer to that goes back to the conflict between Merlomarc and Siltvelt. The two countries have been at arms pretty much since they were founded several iterations of Heroes ago by said heroes. Soon after their founding's Melromarc developed a stance of human supremacy, while Siltvelt established demi human supremacy. This belief in the separate supremacies led to each side taking slaves from the other. To enforce the slavery with various methods to different severities, they applied a curse to the slave, a curse that has existed within magic circles for supposedly millennia, so no one knows the exact origins on it."

Homura made a face similar to the blacksmith's. She might not generally care for people, but slavery was something almost burnt into the modern person's distaste. Erhard gave her a nod.

"Even to this day, slavery is technically legal within each country, and even most others practice it in some form or another. In Melromarc, they are supposed to be a source of easy physical labor. At least on paper. It's something of an open secret that various tiers of royalty own, abuse and kill slaves for their own amusement. However, the king's declaration is a bit more of an accepted practice by the common population. On imprinting a person with the slave seal, various restrictions can be placed on the slave. One such restriction is that they aren't allowed to lie, and they'll experience pain in relation to the severity of the lie. But it's not an infallible practice, it still requires the one asking questions to be able to recognize lies of omission, or that what the person might think is the truth is not the actual truth, just how they perceive it." He continued his explanation. "Most people still don't like the idea of being someone's slave, even if just for the duration of a trial."

Homura nodded in understanding. It made a lot of sense, even if it still left a bad taste in her mouth at the idea. "I guess my last question is if you know somewhere I can pay for a companion?" She paused for a moment, something popping up in the back of her mind, something vaguely mentioned off hand by Sayaka. "Or maybe a pet monster that could fight for me? Either would work for me at the moment."

Erhard scratched at his beard in thought. "Well for a companion, you could always try the Adventurer's Guild near the castle. As for a monster, hmm…." He closed his eyes thinking, before snapping his fingers as he remembered, "There is a monster tamer that I remember hearing about. From what I know, he's a bit…on the sketchy side. But the quality of his supplies are of good quality with a fair price. I think I can draw you a map."

Digging around behind his counter, he eventually pulled out a roll of parchment and a quill with inkbottle. He quickly began to sketch out a very rough map, pausing every now and then as if thinking. After a few minutes he turned it around to show Homura. "So this might be off a bit, but if you go out the store and turn left you should be able to follow the map. The notches coming off of the lines are other roads to make it easy for you to count. Around the area the map ends you should hopefully see or find a circus tent. From what I've heard he's one of the best [Monster Traders] in castle town. I also went ahead and marked the location of the Guild if you want to stop by there as well."

Homura looked over it, memorizing it as much as possible before rolling it back up and tucking it into her belt pouch. "Thank you very much Mister Erhard." She said with a bow. "I may come by with my new companion later today to get them outfitted properly if required. Otherwise I will try to stop by before the next Wave to make sure we have gear ready."

Erhard gave a loud laugh. "Sounds good Shield Lass! I look forward to your continued patronage. Good luck on your journey!"

Homura bade goodbye to the blacksmith before finally leaving his store. She was glad that she could finally walk the town in her own clothes and not draw more attention than any other well-dressed adventurer, which were thankfully common enough here. Following Erhard's directions, she turned left and followed the road, doing her best to follow his rough drawn map.

Soon she had entered a section of town that looked less well off. Not quite what she would call slums, but less flashy and showy as the main streets she had been on. Not trusting the people that she noticed lurking around, she drew her purple cloak tighter around her, and pulled the hood up to cover her hair and shield her face in shadow.

Continuing on the way, her eyes darting around, keeping an eye out for threats she saw what she would describe as a circus tent a ways off. It looked slightly off from her map, but she had been warned that it might.

Cautiously she approached, the area around her finally starting to look more like the slums of a medieval town. Suddenly she stopped a few steps away from the entrance to the tent. She felt a spark, a familiarity shooting through her magical senses in a way that she wasn't expecting to encounter in this world.

A potential magical girl.

While it wasn't exactly the same as what she was used to from Madoka and Sayaka, it was close enough to be unmistakable. She had used to think that what she was sensing was their capability to use magic, but now she knew better. There was something, she didn't know what exactly, but to her it felt like a spark, that set apart a magical girl and a magic user.

The king had glowed brightly to her magic senses, wielding power on the level she had only associated with Madoka. The princess had glowed and felt remarkably similar to Kyoko in power. Even the three boys glowed faintly to her, the sense of magic there but unrefined.

But here in this tent she felt that same sense as the boys, but a spark that her brain could only connect to her friends. Her face settling into a small frown she finally pushed her way into the tent.

"Ooh, a customer? Welcome madam, to my Monster Tent!" a short, fat man crowed from the back of his tent. He was short for a man his age, maybe a bit shorter than Homura herself was. He wore a strange top hat and a feather lined cape over tuxedo style coattails. His face was chubby with his obesity and a strange mustache. Overall, the impression Homura got was something along the lines of slimy penguin.

Watching the man almost waddle over towards her did not help her impression.

"What can I help you with today ma'am?" he asked with a small bow, tipping off his top hat to reveal his bald head. Homura regarded him emotionlessly for a moment, before turning and walking away from him, observing some of the monsters he kept in cages.

"I am looking for something I can use as a mount, preferably one that can also fight for me. Ideally it would be able to carry at least two people." She stated, keeping her voice level, and as detached as possible. This man set off many different alarms in her head to be warry around him. But she was also working to pinpoint the potential magical girl that she could now tell was vaguely below her, possibly in a basement of some sort. But she could also sense several other sources of magic of varying strengths below her as well.

"Well then you came to the right place! I've got many mounts you can choose from, in all their different stages of growth!" he cackled happily.

"Oh?" Homura made a sound of faint curiosity. She knew she couldn't show much to this man for some reason, so she kept her hand close to her chest, metaphorically speaking. "Why would I want to buy a monster as anything less than full grown?"

"Hmm? You must be new to this business. But that's alright, everyone has to start somewhere!" he crowed. "The reason is simple ma'am, the younger a monster is when you acquire them, the more likely they are to obey you. Why if you hatch one, then they can imprint on you right away and are the most likely to listen to you! It all depends on how immediately you want to be able to use your monster."

That made sense. Didn't someone mention to her that monsters and demi humans age as they leveled? If that was true, then if she waited the time period for the monster to hatch, she could level it up quickly and get it to an age where it was useable as a mount.

"And what kind of monster would you recommend?" she asked, stopping for a moment to stare at a weird snake monster in a glass cage.

"Well for your request, would I be able to interest you in a griffon?" he smirked at her. "They're extremely well known to turn into powerful monsters, and one full grown can easily carry three or four people." Homura glanced at the man before continuing on with her circuit of the tent interior. "And how much would such a fantastic beast cost me?"

The penguin like man held up his hand with all his fingers spread. "One griffon egg would cost you 5 Gold Coins!"

This time Homura couldn't help but to stop and turn her head to look at him for a moment. Finally, she shook her head. "As nice as a griffon sounds, I am not made of money. What cheaper alternatives do you have?"

"Hmm, I guess the most reasonably priced one would be a Filolial." He answered, lowering his hand, and putting it behind his back, grin still ever present on his face.

"And what is a Filolial?"

"Ah, you've probably seen them around town. They're the large birds that love to pull carriages." He explained. "They're known to be fast and literally live to pull carts and wagons. Even being known to die from sadness if they go to long without. Not many use them for combat, but they are known to have a fierce rivalry with dragons. So they must have combat potential."

"Hmmm." That all sounded acceptable to Homura. She stopped once more, seemingly observing a small monkey like creature that was watching her. But in actuality she found what she had been looking for this whole time. A trapdoor, peaking out under as rug that looked to have been hastily placed. "And how much will one of their eggs cost?" She kept up her act, even if she was actually interested.

"I can provide you with a Filolial egg for the simple cost of 100 silver. They're fairly common monsters, and rarely worth anything to resale unless they're raised as racers." He chuckled, rubbing the top of his cane.

Homura gave a nod, before suddenly moving directly towards the trapdoor. Opening it swiftly she dropped down into the basement, the beast trader making a loud noise of startlement behind her.

Taking a quick look around, Homura saw her first few demi humans. Trapped in cages and clothed in rags. Slaves.

Keeping her distaste carefully off her face, she slowly began to head towards where she felt the spark. Behind her she heard the slave trader descend the stairs. "Ma'am! I really must request you warn me if you want to see my special wares!"

Homura didn't stop, but her speed slow enough the fat man was able to catch up in short order. Huffing as he struggled to catch his breath. "If you were interested in a slave, Madam Shield Hero, you really should have just said so. I would've been more than glad to have shown you some of my wares."

Glancing sharply at him at hearing her title be called, she bit her tongue from lashing out at him. "There is only one I am interested in. I do not yet know if I will…acquire them or not." She informed. "Oh?" his grin grew even more disturbed.

P-*-*-*-H

Raphtalia coughed roughly into her first. Her entire body ached, but she no longer cared. Rifana's death was fresh in her mind. Her failure to keep smiling, to have finally broken, ate away at her soul. She heard her Owner approaching, talking to someone, so she curled into herself slightly.

She heard the sharp footsteps of his companion walk up towards her cage. She began coughing roughly once again, her body shaking slightly in fear. She didn't want to be sold again. Her young mind told her she'd die under her next owner for sure.

After a moment, the person spoke. "Little one."

The voice of quiet, but there was strength and firmness within it. It also sounded younger than what she had been expecting. Feminine as well.

Raphtalia only curled tighter into herself in fear, even as her body was racked with coughs.

"I recently came into possession of that raccoon demi from her previous owner," she heard her owner, the trader, tell the younger woman that apparently stood in front of her cage. "She has had a persistent cough that no amount of medicine I have given her has cured her. She also suffers from night terrors. Apparently, her screaming is why her first several owners sold her back. She's likely to die in the next few days. If she's lucky."

Silence greeted the trader's explanation.

"Look at me, little one." The woman commanded this time, her voice still quiet but growing firmer.

Shakily Raphtalia slowly looked up as ordered, afraid the trader would punish her if she didn't. Slowly the woman came into view.

Raphtalia couldn't help but to gasp to herself. The young woman was beautiful. A dress that bought to mind fairies, a simple but elegant plate armor that only reinforced the idea. Silky black hair draped behind a heart shaped face. But that only barely registered to the young raccoon girl.

What captured her attention were those violet eyes.

Raphtalia was always told that she was a great judge of character. She always said it was because of people's eyes. What she saw in those eyes scared her.

But they also drew her in.

On the surface, there was blankness, a mask hiding the woman from the world. But Raphtalia saw below that. She saw anger and frustration, at herself and at the world. Beneath even that she saw a sea of sadness that threatened to swallow her whole. Those things scared her.

But it was what beneath even that that drew her in. A flame. Of madness. Of insanity. Of love. It drove her. It drove this woman beyond things that had broken Raphtalia. It had forged this person, scarred her in a way that Raphtalia could barely begin to imagine. But Raphtalia wanted that strength.

She wanted to be able to burn through her own sea of despair that even now was trying to drown her in it's depths.

"What is your name little one?" she was asked.

"Raphtalia," she breathed in answer, not realizing she was still staring into those violet eyes, not even consciously realizing she had answered.

A moment passed.

"I'll take her."

A/N: Finally the chapter a lot of people have been looking forward to since the beginning.

I want to address just a few things that some people have been bringing up in the comments. I am grateful for ideas, constructive criticism and speculation. But I want to put out that I am using the official english Shield Hero light novels on Amazon as my source materials. I do plan to pull a few things from the anime, but largely any differences that are not a direct result of changes in this story are likely to exist from the LNs. As for Madoka Magica things, those are mostly coming from memory and/or commonly accepted fannon lore(such as Gamer!Sayaka).

I'm also taking ideas/preferences for segment breakers. I'm not a fan of straight lines, so I went with S-*-*-*-H for Shield Hero, but I tried out P-*-*-*-H for Progressive Hourglass this chapter. If you've never posted to , they don't like symbol only lines. But any suggestions will help.

Thank you to everyone for all your kind words, and supportive ideas! I plan to keep working on this regularly, but expect sporadic updates.