I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero
Ace-Triad actually finished editing this chapter on Thursday, but a combination of work fatigue and unable to come up with a good chapter name (still think my current name is crap) make me push the publish date behind two days. So yeah, biggest thanks to him for SPAG edit this chapter.
Also, special thanks for Fluffball13 for reading the first draft and give feedbacks.
More note at the end if anyone interested to see me blabber some more.
The forest is almost completely silent except the cracking of their campfire and the occasional howl of a distant monster. Kyubey, the rabbit man, is poking their fire with his one good arm. Lautrec is smashing up the herbs picked earlier by the raccoon girl inside a pewter mortar. Speaking of the cub, Raphtalia is finishing the last of her rabbit pill meat broth dipped bread while looking intently at the Shield Hero. Naofumi rises his head back up to smile at her before looking down to continue his potion compounding process.
Mein props up the last tent up and lays down their sleeping bags down underneath. She returns to sit down around their campfire. The undercover princess would almost call this entire scene cozy, if not for the waving light and shadow making their resident lizard man look even more sinister than usual.
"Time for your medicine again, Raphtalia." Naofumi sets down the last vial of his finished potion aside. He reaches down into one of his waist pouch and places the small bottle in front of the cub.
Raphtalia's ears droops down to her scalp at the mention of her medicine. She still gives Naofumi an obedient nod and slowly closes her finger tips to pick the bottle, almost like she wants to minimize her skin's contact with the offending object. The cub pulls the stopper out, takes a deep breath and downs the whole thing in one go. Her still somewhat sunken cheeks swells up, but she manages to keep the medicine down instead of belching it right out. "Ah... bitter."
"They say the best medicine to treat diseases are the bitter ones." Naofumi reaches over to scratch the raccoon girl's ear. He takes a small bundle of red berries the rabbit man foraged earlier and hands a few to Raphtalia. "Here, have some berries. Don't eat too much though, they'll be bad for your teeth."
"Thank you, Master Naofumi." The girl takes the berries and is ready to pop one right in her mouth. She suddenly notices the expected look the balloons give her on the side, so she tosses a few into their waiting mouth before putting one in her own.
Naofumi shakes his head with a smile on his face, he takes some jerky out of his shield. From the slight sour odor it emits, one can tell it's not very fresh even if it's still edible. "I have some old rabbit pill jerky. You can feed them to Yuzu."
The raccoon girl's ear perk right back up again. She quickly takes the jerky from Naofumi's hand, tear them up into smaller bits and begin tossing them towards the three bouncing monstrosities. They quickly begin to devour up the tribute among themselves.
Chapter 13: Down Side of Camping
"You know, I forgot to ask. Eating this..." Naofumi turns towards the rabbit man sitting on the other side of the fire. He points his finger at the quickly disappearing rabbit pill meat on the ground. "...doesn't count as cannibalism for you, right?"
The rabbit man's eyes pull up from the raccoon girl, he locks sight with the Shield Hero to deliver one a response with uttermost blandness. "That's an offense, Master Shield Hero."
It's hard to tell if he's genuinely offended by the suggestion of him being related to one of the most common monsters in the world, or if he's simply trying his hand in comedy.
"Oh! Sorry. It's just you both have big long floppy bunny ears... and I'm making it worse, aren't I?" The Shield Hero fidgets left and right on his legs as he looks to the side. The young man from another world exude the kind of nervousness that should not belong to a slave owner.
Kyubey simply stares at the Shield Hero in total silence until the young man stopped talking. "I was only kidding. It became very hard to emote after... that."
"Oh." Naofumi looks down at the area that the rabbit man's finger is currently pointing at: Kyubey's chest, where his magical slave seal is engraved on his skin. "I wish there's more I could have done for you all."
"You have done more in this single day than most people did in a month, Master Shield Hero. That's quite enough." The rabbit man goes back to poking their campfire with a long branch, everyone falls into silence just like him. Mein simply use this chance to slowly edge close to Naofumi until their head begin to touch together.
The undercover princess bites down on her lower lips again when Naofumi turns his head towards the rabbit man once more. "I'm going to release you from the seal eventually. Do you have a plan after, or something? Maybe leave this country, and go to one of those demi-human countries?"
"There's not much point. I won't be hunted and enslaved in Siltvelt, or Shiltfreeden, but I'll still be looked down like a second class citizen." Perhaps to the Shield Hero's surprise, Kyubey looks very solemn for a moment at the mention of the demi-human country. He rises the arm that's bend at the wrong angle. "Some demi-humans can hide their birth defect. Pretty hard to hide this unless I chop it off. 'Those born with defects have no future' is the common saying for demi-humans."
"Isn't that a very unfair thing to say! It's not okay to discriminate against someone with a disability." Naofumi's brow begins to twist together into a knot and he fidgets around on his legs once again.
Mein almost bumps heads with Naofumi at one point as she ducks away at the last moment.
Kyubey simply tilt his head to the side for a moment while still has his eyes trained on Naofumi. He looks puzzled, despite his lack of facial expression. "Sorry, I forgot Master Shield Hero is from another world. It's well known demi-humans who are born with defects on their body can't have children. That's what the saying means."
"Oh..." Naofumi's mouth turns round once again.
For a second, Mein almost want to do something mischievous to the hero and leaves a big lump of bread in his mouth. She manages to hold this urge back in, of course. "...oh, I see. So it's kind of like a genetic disease."
No doubt more of Naofumi's otherworldly knowledge once again. The princess tries to search through her memory for something similar – diseases are fairly easy to understand... but this 'genetic' thingy? She could have sworn she saw it somewhere, but the origin eludes her.
"But you must still have something you want to do in life, other than staying a slave, right?" Naofumi's voice slowly pulls her back to their present again, the young man's voice has a slight tinge of desperation in there. Possibly more of his distaste in slavery, perhaps?
"I liked running a store, there is a certain... orderliness to it. Trying to keep your stock up, but also have enough coins saved for a rainy day. Not to mention I knew everyone in town as the general store owner." Kyubey looks to his side at the raccoon girl, as she is currently piling up the balloon monsters one after another on her legs like one of those bizarre totems those Siltvelt barbarians use for worship. "I don't know if anyone took Port Harp back or left it abandoned, and all the dead people that'll never come back. It's probably better I just leave it behind."
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to run a small business. I had a friend before I was summoned. He started his own business with a senpai. I know it won't be the same... but do you want to, I don't know. Maybe run a business for me one day? If I'm made a Duke like that slave trader said?" Naofumi moves closer to the rabbit man and places one of his hand on Kyubey's good shoulder to give him a firm shake. The two of them stares at each other for a short while before the Shield Hero moves his hand away awkwardly. "...Right, too early for that. I barely even know any of your pasts. Any of you want to talk about it?"
Lautrec is the first to answer as he looks up from his hand. "What's there to know about our past? We were living meaningless, aimless lives before. But our lives have meaning now, we are on a mission from the Goddess!"
"... You do that. I'll just ask Kyubey and Raphtalia here." Naofumi waves a hand at the lizard man. Lautrec drops his head back down to go back to his... sulking?
Mein squints her eyes to look at the scary reptile again. She notices he pulled his dagger out and seems to be carving something out of a piece of unused firewood.
Huh, it looks like even the crazy fanatic has something akin to a hobby.
"Not much to tell about me. My family's been living in Port Harp for generations, back when it's still only a humble fishing village and not a trading port." Kyubey looks up at the sparks of embers that rises up and seems to be join the stars above them. "After Mother named me after a previous Shield Hero, I got plenty of people staring at me growing up with how different my name was. But that's the only interesting thing about me really, aside from that birth defect."
Naofumi blinks his eyes a couple of times after hearing this rather trivial self-introduction. "Oh, OH! Your name is Kyubei, not Kyubey!"
...Is there any difference?
The Shield Hero and his rabbit man slave hold another staring contest for an extended period of time before Naofumi blinks first once again. Privately, Mein thinks her Naofumi should stop trying the same thing over and over again with Kyubey, or maybe put the slave seal to good use if he wants to win at least once. The young otherworlder turns to the raccoon cub of their group in the meantime. "What about you, Raphtalia?"
"I, I lived with Daddy, Mommy, Rifana and Kiel. Daddy, Mommy and Rifana are gone." The girl's ear droops down to her hair again as she looks down into the still cracking fire. "I, I don't know what happened to Kiel. I want to find my friend again."
"We'll find your friend again." Naofumi then runs his hand in a circular motion on the girl's back, his voice stern with conviction. "The slave trader before said something about demi-humans who are enslaved all have fake criminal records. We can check them, see if your friend's on there."
The princess in disguise want to be angry at the cub for seducing her Naofumi away with a sad past, but she only feels tired at the girl's predicament. Her mind wanders back to her own life, wondering what would happen to her if father and mother were suddenly gone from her life.
Father has shown some early signs of senility, but it may simply be a front he puts up as her Naofumi has deduced. And for all his faults, he truly loves his firstborn daughter considering how he goes out of his way to satisfy her every whim in the past.
Mother, on the other hand, had shown a distinct lack of maternal instinct on a consistent basis. In fact, the incognito princess wonders if tearing her down is one of Mother's favorite pasttimes every day after dealing with uncooperative nobility and clergy in her court. But it's also clear that Mother is the constant and unmovable rock in her life, and her mere existence as the rightful ruler of glorious Melromarc keeps the dirty hands of all the scum sucking bottom-feeders away from the two possible royal heirs. The sudden removal of Mother from her life would carry naught but extremely unpleasant consequences, as much as she hates to admit it.
The idea of losing her parents suddenly, maybe in one of the Waves does make the undercover princess feel a dreadful sense of uncertainty and weightlessness. She pulls her legs closer to her chest and holds on tightly to herself.
"Are you okay, Mein?" Naofumi's soothing voice brings her slowly out of her dread, the young hero stands up from where he's sitting to return to Mein's side. He takes off his washed and dried traveling cloak around the princess. It feels warm, and smells a little of cinder from the campfire Naofumi dried his cloak against. All in all, not an unpleasant feeling.
"Sorry, Master Naofumi. Little Raphtalia makes me think of my own parents. It is well known that people that get caught in the Waves often lose their home, and sometimes much more..." Mein closes her eyes and thinks back to all the document she also happens to dig through as she snoops around Mother's journals. At the time, those reports are nothing more than ink blobs on parchments and scrolls. But with a girl orphaned by the Wave of Catastrophe right here in their party, it feels a lot more real.
They may be dirty commoner nobodies, or animals in the raccoon cub's case. But they are still the people Mein will rule over one day. Mother always said a queen is only as good as the people she rules, and while Mein is still unsure on how to feel about that... she certainly does not want to rule over a ruined slum full of the dead and dying. Having that one encounter earlier in the day once in her life is one time too many.
"I think Raphtalia's grandparents came to Port Harp with the other Q'ten Lo refugees. They were the ones who turned Harp from a humble fishing village to a bustling trade port almost sixty years ago ... or so my grandfather says." Kyubey is also staring at the direction of the little raccoon dog, but his hazy red eyes seem to look through her and see something else instead. "How strange, Port Harp is no more, just like the nation of Q'ten Lo itself. I just realized it now."
"That was the nation the last Shield... Hero conquered, wasn't it? The one he set the Carthus Company on." Naofumi throws a piece of the wood onto the pile and nods his head.
"Not so much conquered, so much as destroyed. For a long time, the nation of Q'ten Lo was the hermit country that's on an island away from the mainland of Medea. She was the self-proclaimed 'Judge of the Heroes' with their armor that protected her honor guards from the legendary Weapon, and other weapons that can shatter the Legendary Shield. The last Shield Hero saw them as a threat, so he demanded their obedience. When they refused to kneel, he destroyed them instead." Kyubey stokes the fire with the long stick to make sure the new pieces of wood Naofumi tossed into the bonfire does not spread out of control. "The short version, anyways. The story of the last Wave is a saga all to itself. I'll probably just bore you, unlike one of the bards."
"Well, we have time. And we are sitting under the stars, around a campfire. Now is as good a time as any." Naofumi looks up at the sky for a moment before turning his head right back down, he gives Kyubey a shrug. "You made it sounds like the last time someone summoned the heroes wasn't that long ago. I'd like to know what happened to them."
"Master Shield Hero is correct, the last Wave of Catastrophe, and Hero Summoning was only sixty years ago. It's unknown what exactly triggers the Wave, but the most popular belief among the mages who study the phenomenon is 'great suffering and bloodshed calls out to the Wave of Catastrophe'. And since the Great War where everyone was pretty much fighting everyone else started twenty five years ago... It's almost lucky the first wave only happened in the last month." The rabbit man bites down on his lips, his blank face make it hard to tell if he is being genuine or sarcastic. "Would be better if we have some music."
A sad melody begins to slowly surround them almost as soon as Kyubey finished his sentence. Mein looks around, and notices the lizard man has put down his wood and dagger and is currently whistling.
Huh, the tune is the famous 'A Cagesong of the Ocean' by Leone Fredrik Richter, one of the greatest musicians throughout the entire history of the old kingdom of Germania. He also happened to be widely considered as the progenitor of bard classification by channeling magic through music.
The lizard may be crazy, but at least he has good taste in music.
Naofumi also seems to be captivated by the reptile's simple, yet surprisingly elegant way to produce a tune. His eyes seems to grow mist as his lips trembles.
"Sixty summers ago, when Medea is neither young, nor innocent, the seven old kingdoms of Albion, Hibernia, Midgard, Tristain, Germania, Romalia, Gallia and the savage beast horde has long given way to glorious Melromarc, noble Faubley, and venerated Siltvelt. The Wave of Catastrophe struck again, casting the world under its ominous shadow." One would assume Kyubey's emotionless voice would be droning, but his silky smooth tune goes well with the melody Lautrec is currently whistling, given it the feeling of an impartial storybook narrator.
Mein carefully looks at Naofumi's expression under her hood, as it seems like the Shield Hero is captivated by the story from the start with his eyes coming back into focus once again. "The world calls out to heroes of legend to save its people once again."
Lautrec's whistling becomes more energetic and upbeat, progressing to the second half of Leone's famous compose without feeling out of pace. It seems like humming the music might be something the obviously insane Lizard man used to do often, if he can seamlessly transition the two phases.
"Glorious Melromarc, the land of brave knights and pious clergy, the origin of the faith of heroes, summoned the Loyal Spear Mikoto Itou."
Mein notices that Naofumi's eyebrow slowly rises and his eyes grow wider when he hears the name of the last Spear Hero. Hmm... interesting. It seems he recognizes the name but not in the way where he expected to hear the name of a hero as if he already learned it from his world's textbook. That's the kind of expression Mein herself would no doubt make, if her childhood playmates become a hero.
Very intriguing... could it be that her Naofumi either known the last Spear Hero personally before his summoning, or he's some kind of famous person in his world? "Noble Faubley, the nation of ancient bloodlines and arcane magic, in the dawn of a new age where rational thought slowly comes into conflict with ancient faith, summoned the Brave Sword Kazuto Kirigaya."
Once again, Naofumi's puzzled expression only deepens after hearing the name of the Sword Hero.
"Venerated Siltvelt, the children of the horde and the First Shield Hero, union of eight six tribes, summoned the Ambitious Shield Mikage Mikami."
Mein quickly cast another glance towards her Shield Hero. It seems like the name of his predecessor only leaves him with a blank face, how ironic.
"And finally, the enigmatic Q'ten Lo, hermit island on the sea of mist, judge of heroes stepped up to summon one of the greatest Bow Heroes throughout the Heroic Age, Shiro Emiya."
Naofumi's eyebrow disappeared into his hairline by this point. Interesting, very interesting. It seems like the only name he had no reaction from was the last Shield Hero. Is there some kind of link, maybe it's because he IS the Shield Hero of this current Wave that he has no knowledge of the last Shield Hero?
The raccoon girl's head suddenly droops down to Naofumi's lap. She quickly pushes herself up, her still sunken face red like an overripe apple. "So-sorry!"
Despite the girl's best effort to stay up, her fatigue is clear for everyone to see as her eyelid fights to stay even half open. And the girl is constantly leaning to either her left, or her right. The balloons seem to notice this, they quickly hops onto one another and pushes themselves behind the girl to prop her upright.
"Guess it's way past Raphtalia's bed time. Let's get ready to turn in, and get some rest." Naofumi ruffles the raccoon's hair with an affectionate smile on his face. He takes one of Raphtalia's tiny hand into his own and guides her to a tent with the little rubber terrors trailing behind them. The Shield Hero tucks the demi-human girl into her fur sleeping bag with the gentleness of a young man newly experiencing fatherhood trying to cuddle his bundle of joy. "Don't force yourself to stay up late, you need a lots of rest."
"Okay, thank you, Master." The raccoon girl nods her head furiously all the while fighting to keep her eyes open and fixed on the Shield Hero.
"Naofumi is fine." The Shield Hero gives the slave girl one last rub on her head as the balloons swarm their way into Raphtalia's sleeping bag and nuzzles against her head.
"Shield Hero... you are as nice as the story says." The little girl wraps her arms around them as if they aren't some avatar of pain and suffering spawned from the Wave. Her eyes close soon afterwards with a smile on her face.
For some reason, the girl does not look as happy as her words implied. There seems to be a certain tint of melancholy right on the corner of her mouth.
Is she thinking about her parents who died in the first Wave? The ones who even the Legendary Heroes had no chance to save because all the bureaucracy and international politics that prevented the summoning ceremony before all the leaders have a chance to take a piss at each other?
Or perhaps she is thinking of her dear friend who did not survive slavery before she ended in the dubious care of the slum merchant, who the Shield Hero was just a little too late to save?
The Shield Hero drops onto his behind once again in front of the campfire. He looks around at everyone's face and lets out a sigh. "It's been a long day, go get some rest, guys. I'll take the first watch."
"Are you sure about that, Master Shield Hero? I can take the first watch if you are tired." Kyubey turns to look at the young man, his red eyes unblinking.
"Yes, I'm sure. All I did was standing around holding my shield up. I'm sure you guys need rest now more than I do." Naofumi simply waves his hand in nonchalance.
"Don't look a gift Pegasus in the mouth, grass muncher." Lautrec mumbles under his breath as he moves in big stride towards his own bedroll. Now that their impromptu story session is over, the lizard man is apparently back to antagonizing everyone again.
Mein's eyes follows Lautrec's every movement until he tucked himself securely into the fur bag. With most of his scale body covered inside, he almost looks non-threatening, like a larva of an insect monster. She is somewhat aware of the rabbit man also leaving the campfire and going to his own bedroll from the movement of peripheral vision.
"Mein, you should get some rest too." Naofumi gently nudges her on the shoulder. It's good to see he still remembers his original companion, even if he only noticed her after fussing over the demi-human slaves. "Master Naofumi did say you guys need rest? Remember, I am a girl." Mein takes her hood off and winks at Naofumi.
The Shield Hero instantly casts his sight down, the red hue returns to his face. It's nice to know he still hasn't grown out of his awkwardness yet, there is still a chance to fully seduce him before he knows what's going on. "Oh, sorry. I, I wasn't being literal when I said that..."
"It's okay, Master Naofumi. I was only teasing you." Mein leans her head onto Naofumi's shoulder and winks at him, the undercover princess can feel his body tensing up once again unlike how at easy he leads around the raccoon cub. Good, it's apparent that her Naofumi sees the little animal as nothing more than a very cute child, but he is much more careful and awkward when it comes to her. Both signs of an inexperienced young man treading lightly besides a woman he has some feeling for. "Although... I'm not kidding when I say I missed the time when it's just the two of us. Just a little. It's barely a day, but it felt like a decade has passed."
"Yeah, today's pretty crazy, wasn't it?" Naofumi turns his head slightly away from Mein, but she can still feel him throwing an occasional glimpse towards her. "Spies from Siltvelt, getting slaves into our party, learning about past generation of heroes... killing people."
Both the Shield Hero and the incognito princess lets out an involuntary wince when they remembered the body littered slum again. They stays silent, gazing into the cracking bonfire each deep in their own thoughts.
Mein briefly wonders what her Naofumi is thinking about right now. Is he having some second thoughts about being a hero, or maybe he is reminiscent of his world again? Her mind wonders back onto the way his face contort with both puzzlement and realization when he hears the name of the former Spear Hero, Sword Hero and Bow Hero. "Master Naofumi, I was wondering..."
"Mein, I was thinking..." The Shield Hero picks almost the exact time to ask his own question. The two of them looks into each other's eyes for one brief moment before they both breaks eye contact.
"You go first, Master Naofumi. There's must be a lot on your mind."
"Thanks, Mein. I think... no, this will sounds crazy to you. But I was just wondering about this whole EXP and Level thing." Naofumi's recollect himself and schools his expression to look more neutral. "You mentioned they are actually the life force of the monsters and-"
The voice from the young hero abruptly stops mid-sentence. The princess has no time to reprimand his complete lack of tact even if she wants to. She has to consciously hold herself very still to not shudder a second time.
"What I'm trying to say is... wouldn't it make more sense to simply call it Life Force, rather than Experience Points? Experience Points should imply it's something gained based on you going through the motions, not making a confirmed... kill."
Mein ponders over Naofumi's words for a second, and she realizes the Shield Hero does have a point. She has almost a decade of hard work and practice over her brat of a younger sister, yet when they spar together, the little rascal can knock the elder princess on her ass with barely any effort because of their twenty level gap.
In fact, the only time she win against her younger sister is in their occasional fencing practice together, and that's only thanks to the brat's under developed midget body.
"What I'm trying to say is, what if EXP is something more sinister than Experience Points?" Naofumi holds his chin up using his left hand, left index finger brushing across his own chin. "What if it stands for something like Execution Points, and the Level is short for Level of Violence? Wouldn't it fit the menu more than EXP being the life force of creatures, especially since Legendary Weapons can somehow create more out of nowhere through Battle Formation like those two Siltvelt agents explained? Since if this is the case, then technically everyone in the formation did contribute to the execution of the creature they are fighting."
"That is... a very good question." Mein blinks her eyes at Naofumi's hypothesis. Granted, she's only been doing this adventuring stuff for less than a week, so she's not what one can call an expert on the specifics of adventure mechanics. But at least in her ears, Naofumi's suggestion seems to make better sense than all of the different theories about why and how a Legendary Weapon can improve the levelling process.
Still, one of the fundamental truths she has accepted about her world since birth being called to question makes her head hurt. She can feel her brain screaming at her like a hysterical child awoken from a gruesome nightmare.
Wait a minute, she CAN actually hear the screeching of a child. Or more to the point, the child that's just behind them. Her head jerks up from Naofumi's shoulder as she spins around to look at the racoon girl. Raphtalia's eyes are as wild as they are unfocused. She is howling is as high pitched as it is continuous, making the undercover princess fearing the girl ripping her lungs, or causing everyone in the party to lose their sense of hearing, not necessarily in that order.
Didn't the slave merchant had a quick mention about the girl suffered from night terror? Mein admits she forgot this detail since it pales in comparison to the seriousness of everything else happening.
And speaking of everything else, several ruffling and rattling sounds come from the shadows and foliage outside the illumination from their campfire. It seems like the little girl's outburst manages to attract every single monster around them.
"What are you standing around for, fools!? Get ready to fight, or calm the damn kid down before she brings every monster in the forest on us!" Lautrec leaps out of his tent with both shotels in hands and start hacking away at the first wave of monsters conjugating on their campsite.
Kyubey follows him out right after into the fray, rapier in hand.
Mein curses under her breath as she pulls her sword out in her right hand, and a long piece of burning firewood as a makeshift torch. She waves both in front of her, battering and slashing away at monsters trying to get through her defence to dig their face into her tender flesh. She can faintly hear Naofumi shouting something to the raccoon cub behind her, trying to calm down the distraught animal.
Judging from the continued and hoarse scream, the Shield Hero is having as much success as his three as of yet contained eldritch pests.
This is the WORST!
"We need a better plan, Master Naofumi." Mein swipes her hand across her sleeves. The putrid blood of the monsters is beginning to dry up on some part of her leather armor. Not to mention her hair.
Oh, the heroes of old have mercy on her, just what's going to happen to her beautiful red hair now that it got hideous blotches of monster blood sticking them together from places to places like the hay roof of poorest commoners?
Her mouth taste foul when she realizes she's unconsciously biting into her leather glove covered fingers again. Gloves that also have layers and layers of blood. She quickly spits out multiple times onto the grass under her feet, and dangles her tongue out of her mouth in disgust. The princess in disguise takes the damn glove off to wring the blood off as best as she can, before she gets another mouthful of the acidic fluid in her mouth again by accident. "Sorry, I forgot all about Raphtalia's condition." Naofumi's eyes are downcast once again as he runs his hand through the little girl's dishevelled hair in an obvious effort to make her feel better.
The raccoon cub, on the other hand, looks completely destroyed. Her eyes are puffy from all the crying she did after she finally realized what she did. Her tightly pursed lips can't stop trembling while an occasional sniff escapes her nose. She avoid eye contact with everyone in the group, barely able to even muster up the courage to give a useless apology.
Good! She clearly deserves every single pang of remorse she is feeling right now. She's just lucky that her nightly screeching did not attract one of the stronger monsters for their still as of yet underlevelled... and underequipped group, Naofumi himself not withstanding with his fancy customized knight's plate mail.
"I'd tell you to send the brat back to the fat bastard and get a refund, if I didn't know how much you value my opinion." Lautrec crosses his lanky arms in front of his chest, completely ignoring how much monster blood covers his now even more tattered tunic. In fact, the damn lizard actually has the audacity to lick some blood off the side of his jaw with his inhumanly long tongue.
What a hypocrite! The savage obviously reveled in the carnage they caused last night to the local wildlife.
"I know last night was unpleasant for everyone, but please, don't make Raphtalia feel worse. She can't help her condition." Naofumi's voice is solemn even as his eyelids droop down. Despite his obvious sympathy towards his favorite pet and his lack of fierce fighting last night, the fatigue is also settling in on the Shield Hero due to lack of proper sleep.
The lizard man snorts in derision once again. He slinks off to start collecting the dead bodies of the monsters and begin to prepare them with his dagger.
The young hero hands a bottle of his health potion to Kyubey, who limps his way to the Shield Hero not unlike that young thief who turned out to be a spy from the day before.
The rabbit man has a few nasty bites and slashes from the wild monsters unlike Lautrec, who manages to come out of the last night without a single scratch either thanks to his high level, better skill, or Heroes of old forbids... actual divine intervention from whatever the fucking goddess his addled mind prays to.
"Terribly sorry for not doing something, or warning you about Raphtalia's condition before I went to rest, Master Shield Hero." Kyubey looks up from the still wheezing animal cub. "Lautrec was harsh but right, we can't keep going like this. The [Well Rested] effect only kicks in after eight hours, and none of our wound heals without it. Even if you continue supply us with health potions, the fatigue will make us all drop down to our feet in a day or more."
Mein almost want to use this opportunity to suggest going back to the capital and have a good night's rest in Deidric's Inn. She gives a quick glance to the saggy pouch that contains the last of their fund on Naofumi's waist, and immediately toss the idea out of her head.
Hmm... didn't her playmate's dad offer to compensate Naofumi for his unfair trial? Maybe they can ask him to fulfil his promise now they obviously lacking in fund?
"No, it's not your fault... Kyubei. But we really do need to come up with something better than sleeping in the wild and attract monsters every night. If there's a village or something around here, maybe we can work something out..." Naofumi's musing makes Mein suddenly remembers the map around the capital every single 'Hero's companion' is supplied with. She almost forgot its existence, due to the fact that it didn't help them much in the first few days, thanks to both Naofumi's complete lack of attack power, and her low level forcing them to stay very close to the capital city.
"Master Naofumi, the court did give every one of us a map around the region. Let's take a look." She takes the map out of inner pocket of her traveling cloak and opens it up. Naofumi and Kyubey quickly edges close to her while the damn raccoon is still glued to the same spot trying to find new and interesting patterns of bloodstained grass underneath her feet.
"We followed the king's highway out, and broke from the road here along this small unnamed river. This bend should be where we took our bath last evening." Kyubey runs his finger on the map and traces their short journey from Melromarc Castle. He stops his finger at one nondescript spot of The King's Forest. "This should be where our camp is. And if we continue our way, we should come out of The King's Forest and arrive at this small village named Lute. We should be able to rest there, for the villages usually have some kind of basic spell ward to repel weak monsters in addition to their wall and militia."
"A small village, hmm... If it's out of the way, maybe we won't be noticed by those Church of Three fanatics and ambushed by them again." Naofumi nods his head while running his finger along his chin. He turns his head to regard the undercover princess. "Mein? Do you agree with Kyubei?"
Damn it all! How should she, the royal princess of glorious Melromarc know how a village in the middle of nowhere defend itself from monsters? Unfortunately, her cover story gives her the origin of a country girl from the middle of nowhere, so she'll just have to trust the rabbit man's decision. "He speaks the truth, Master Naofumi. That's how Samphor survived all this time even without a constant Adventurer Guild's presence."
"Alright! We have a plan now. Go to this Lute village, try to barter with them for some rooms, and then... ha~, ah... then we sleep. Let's go help Lautrec prepare those monsters. Maybe we can barter with the villagers with food supplies." The Shield Hero lets out an elongated yawn as he drags his feet away from Mein and towards the scattered piles of different monster corpses on the ground.
Lute Village is about as grandiose as the name suggested, which is to say the squalid village is a sorry little collection of wooden shacks haphazardly built around the cobblestone road that runs right through the hamlet. A wooden inn with peeled back paint is the only building that's higher than a single floor.
Mein looks down the road to get a second, and better look of Lute Village to see if there's anything to it that she missed the first time. She comes back not disappointed... which is a more diplomatic way to say she had no expectations to begin with. A small inn that creatively title 'Lute Village Inn' which faintly smells of mud and home baked bread, a single shop right beside the inn, and a large wooden hall almost as tall as the inn further along the road that obviously serves as the gathering place of all its inhabitants despite the lack of a bell at the top. These are the only noticeable buildings as far as her eyes can see.
The incognito princess looks around and notices the Shield Hero is looking down the opposite way from the village. Curiosity makes her imitate her Naofumi's gesture, her ear picking up the signal before her eyes. Still a fairly long way from them, the almost rhythmic pitter-patter indicating the fast approaching of a Filorial carriage.
They sees the small head and almost comically long neck of the bird first. The rest of its pudgy and fluffy body leaves the cover of trees around the King's Highway. The coach driver and the rest of the wooden carriage holding storage barrels and crates reveals themselves shortly afterwards. The big yellow bird has a pleasant smile on his face as the quacking and skipping his talon across the cobblestoned road towards the sleepy little village.
Naofumi simply stands glued to the ground as his eyes follows the big happy bird till it eventually stopped right in front of the village's shop. All the sleepiness in his chocolate orbs seem to evaporate as his eyes sparkled... no, twinkled at the sight of a completely unremarkable garden breed Filorial. "Aww... you guys have Chocobos! Where can I ride one?"
What is a Chocobo? Is it what the Filorial is called in Naofumi's world? But more importantly...
Oh sweet Heroes of Old NO! Her Naofumi is a Filorial fetishist just like her self-righteous brat of a sister, and her stone-hearted harpy of a mother.
So what if they are fluffy, and huggable, and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and are willing to throw themselves into the maws and claws of monsters to save your life if they love you enough. They also eats ten times their weight, leaves excrement everywhere as a result, and are generally menaces to society just like griffins and dragons as they destroy everything in their path.
No! They are not cute! At ALL!
"Master Naofumi, let's go to the inn and try to have some rest." Kyubey's voice seems to shake the young otherworlder out of his fantasy about Filorials. The Shield Hero quickly look away from the big fluffy bird with a cough and a quick sorry as he strides his way to the single door of the humble village inn.
Mein quickly follows her Naofumi's footstep. She hears a lazy 'welcome' from inside before even crossing the threshold into the dingy establishment herself. The inside of the wooden hovel is no more luxurious than its exterior - with most of the village inn being made of cheap wood that's showing its age. At least the place is clean instead of filled with Filorial excrement like the princess feared.
"Visitors this early? And adventurers too? Well, I supposed this is a strange time with the Waves of Catastrophe and all." The thunderous announcement reminds Mein the echo of the bell on top of Three Heroes Church Cathedral. She cast her eyes onto the owner of the voice and likely the owner of the establishment. The inn owner is a very typical businessman with the appropriate girth and a slightly poked out belly that reminds the princess of beer barrels. What sets him apart from Deidric... or the stall merchant who tried to take advantage of Mein from the day before is his deep tree trunk colored hair, and a bush like beard over his mouth and the side of his cheeks.
The incognito princess look up from the inn keeper's head onto the shelf behind him. A small altar sits on the shelf with the holy icon of the Four instead of the holy triangle of the Three: A round circle in the middle, with four rectangular extending out towards the four cardinal directions forming into a cross.
A Faith of The Four practitioner so close to the heart of the Three Heroes' faith? Interesting, and very ironic. She should tell this little trivia to her Naofumi before someone else has a chance to.
"Master Naofumi, look on the shelf behind the innkeeper. The cross with the circle in the middle is the holy symbol of The Four Heroes' Faith. I think we can trust him." Mein quickly leans herself to Naofumi's face and whispers into his ears.
Naofumi gives Mein a slight dip of his head to show his acknowledgement without tipping off everyone else, he walks up to the bar table the likely innkeeper leaning on. The young hero pulls out a chair and nods to Raphtalia. "We were camping on the other side of The King's Forest last night, and got ambushed by a swarm of monsters and we didn't get a very good night's sleep."
The raccoon cub hops on her feet at the noise of the dragging chair. She frantically looks around for a few seconds before even noticing Naofumi's gesture. The dumb animal scrapes her feet on the wooden floor before flopping herself onto the pulled back chair.
"Ah, it's the Waves. Monsters around here aren't very tough." The still as of yet unnamed innkeeper, or at least the barkeeper nods his head at Naofumi's explanation. He puts down the wooden mug and scratches Raphtalia's hair like he's scratching the feathers of a baby Filorial. "Your young'un? You look a little young to be a father."
"We travel together. Raphtalia lost her parents in the last Wave." Kyubey walks up to the bar table and pulls out a chair for himself and slouches onto it, his lethargy being evident in his sudden lack of poise.
"My bad." The bearded man frowns at this. He begins to poor some thick white liquid with a very slight green hue into the wooden mug and place it down in front of Raphtalia. "Have this one on the house. Bean milk, good for your growing body just like it's good for the Filorial chicks."
"Thank you." The cub bows her head down respectively and begin to take small sips from the wooden mug.
"Cute kid, well behaving too. Shame what happened in the Wave." The man looks up at Naofumi once again and offers his hand. "Name's Lud, short for Ludus. I owns this inn."
"An adventurer, answering the call of the king to fight the Waves." Naofumi takes Lud's hand and gives it a firm shake. "We didn't have a good night's sleep yesterday. Can we rent some rooms for our party? I still have some coins after fitting our party, or maybe you'd like some monster meat? We hunted more monsters than we can eat last night."
"Everybody loves the coin, but meat can be as good out here in the boonies. Especially if you got meat from high-leveled monsters like Porcupines. Our hunters only stick to smaller games like the rabbit pills." Lud nods his head along to Naofumi's suggestion. "Fresh meat is good, we can serve them in dinner, or treat them in our smokehouse. Jerky tastes bland but are good in a pitch, especially with the Wave around the corner. But if you got big game, bring the whole body in. Our hunters can get more out of the body than you adventurers, even things you people like to toss away."
"Really?"
"Yes. Every adventurer knows meat can fill their belly, fur and leather is always good loot to sell to merchant who buys them. But outside the city walls, we use all parts from monsters." Lud looks down and begins to count his fingers as he give examples on how to effectively use a monster. "Smaller bones can be made into tools or home decoration, or even grinded down to make some medicine depends on monster, bigger bones can turn into makeshift weaponry against bandit raids or monster swarms. Organs aren't good for eating since they have parasites in them, but shove them into a small pot and hold them in a while, you get what we call 'dirty bombs' for alchemist dummies. Toss them against a charging bandit or monster, and you get to see them get hit with all sorts of status alignment."
"Interesting, I guess I learned something new today." Naofumi's reply helps to conclude Mein's thought as well. Who knows the commoners out here in the middle of nowhere can get this creative? The Shield Hero sets down his bag on the floor and he begins to take cuts of meat wrapped in big leaves out. "Are these worth anything?"
The bag ends up being useful after all even aside from his 'turtle school training'. Nobody can guess her Naofumi is the infamous Shield Hero when he doesn't simply begin to take things out of the legendary shield.
The Innkeeper carefully unwraps the slabs of monster meat, he makes a howling sound not unlike some of the monsters they've slain in The King's Forest. "I'd say you just earned at least three night's stay with all meals included. Can't exchange them to coin for you, though. We run a tight ship in this inn."
"A safe place to rest will be good enough. We'll be staying here for a while." Naofumi's head is about to drop on the table just like the raccoon cub by this point. Although he does suddenly perk up once again. "Should tell you this before you kick us out of the Inn. Raphtalia is suffering from night terrors. She'll scream very loudly when she has nightmare of the 1st Wave again. She can do this at the dead of the night... like last night."
"Huh, thought there must be a reason your party got attacked by monsters. As for the girl's night terrors... hmm..." The bearded inn keeper scratches his own face pondering over the issue. "Shouldn't be a problem. Hob just got a young'un himself, lively lad, that one. Got a pair of good lungs too. Wakes up half the village every night. We probably can't tell it's your little one."
Lud scratches Raphtalia's hair once again. "Tell you what. You guys move out of my inn if we get some more esteemed guests... which is basically never. Otherwise, treat my inn like your home so long as you keep the fresh meat flowing in. We got a hunter's cottage a little west outside the village proper. It's warded every month by my mother-in-law, she runs the magic shop in the capital. Should keep you safe from the monsters."
"Thanks, my party will be in your care from now." Naofumi shakes the inn keeper's hand again to confirm their transaction. The prospect of sleeping on hardwood and hay makes the princess cringe in her mind, but at least she's finally under a roof now.
She'll just have to figure out how to get inside Naofumi's heart too, before the raccoon cub has a chance to grow up.
End Note
Yeah, basically the last generation of heroes (aside from the last Shield Hero... who is roughly based on the main character of a Persona fanfiction I read in Chinese) are the original inspiration of Ren, Itsuki, and the original nice boater himself which Motoyasu's origin story clearly taken inspiration from.
Comrade Broseph was trying to work out a completely timeline if not a prequel story for the last wave before his mysterious disappearance. Shame, since from what he did work out and shared with me, it would have been awesome.
If anyone wonders why Shiltfreeden wasn't involved in the last wave. Basically in Comrade Broseph's outline Shiltfreeden was part of Faubley at the time, and gained its independence after the Great War. It does have a bit of conflict with what's revealed in canon, since Vagnar implied Shiltfreeden has been around for a long time formed by the bottom cast demi-human who were unhappy with Siltvelt's rigid caste system. My personal thought on it is Shiltfreeden could have existed for a long time, conquered by or willingly joined together with Faubley at some point in history (could be what triggered the last wave 60 years ago) and split off again after the Great War.
Also, the tune Lautrec was humming actually exist. It's from Legend of Heroes V - A Cage Song of Ocean. The tune's name is incidentally 'Leone Fredrik Richter'.
To the guest reviewed in Spanish:
Sorry, goggle translation is very wonky, but I assumes you meant Naofumi could bring up the idea of currency reform by using paper currency? That won't be put on the table till he actually become a king since a lots of foundation is needed before people actually have trust in paper money vs coin made of precious metal.
To Night:
Obviously Malty's confession will come much later since she is actively trying to cover it up with Naofumi. But yes, eventually there will be a confession AKA Liar reveal moment.
Completely unrelated... but does it still count as a Liar reveal trope if the liar in question is pretending to be someone less qualified than they actually are?