Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
"There is only one slight problem." Mein looks down near Naofumi's feet, where his pet balloons are rolling around, looking up at her. "You can't wear your dress if you go out 'impersonate' the Shield Hero. How will you hide your balloons?"
"Yeah… that is a problem." Naofumi looks down at the balloons. "I… might have to leave them here, in this catacomb. Shame I can't hide them like you wrapping your sword around your waist like a belt."
The balloons all bounce up one after another, making some squeaky noise. They turn to face each other, seemingly huddling together for a brief moment, before they turn to the Shield Hero again and rush to his feet. They jump up at his legs, and start to change the shape of their bodies before the very eyes of Mein and Naofumi.
The three of them start to both condense, while also stretching their bodies long. Even joining, and melding together as they flow up Naofumi's legs till they reach his waist. They form into one long band around the Shield Hero's waist, looking as much a belt like Mein's own soft-bladed sword. Three pairs of eyes winks at Mein, before even their beady little eyes disappear, and all that's left around Naofumi's waist is a belt that only looks out of place by being too brightly colored. It admittedly won't be a problem if he simply tucked them under his shirt.
"Huh…? Guess they can mimic more than monsters they ate. That's handy." Naofumi slides a finger around his new balloon belt, seemingly getting a feel of the new shape his pet balloons took by slightly stretching them. If this caused any discomfort to the monsters, they didn't show it. "Guess we don't have any more problem with me 'pretending' to be the Shield Hero now."
"Other than what problem this will cause us in the future, no." Mein rubs her temple, feeling a headache coming. "So… we are really going to fight the church heads on when we are both at our weakest… Sister Amelia is going to be there. That's the annoying nun who refused to give us holy water when I got chewed by the Wavehound. And one of the expeditions who did not help you against the undead at Eclair's home. Are you absolutely sure you want to show your face to her? She'll know where we are, and bring more Three Heroes' Church goons chasing us down."
"It's not like we have much of a choice. We'll be discovered by the church anyway if we can't escape out of this city. And I can't make it any worse than you going out pretending to be a princess. At least I wouldn't commit a crime by pretending to be someone important." Once again, the Shield Hero waves away her warning dismissively. Not realizing the irony of his remark. "If you are going, I'm going with you."
"Very well, let's go back to our 'hosts', and see what they have to say about it." The princess turned fugitive shakes her head as Naofumi tucks his new balloon belt under his disguise cloth. She opens up the metal door back into the catacomb corridor.
Chapter 91: To Steal a Nation
Every head, aside from the young, the sick, or the elderly who aren't going to participate in their jailbreak turn their head to look at Mein and Naofumi approaching them. Mein gives a nod to Uranus. "Siesta and I talked about it thoroughly. I will act as the first princess of Melromarc, and she'll pose as the Shield Hero."
"So be it." The elderly priest of the Four Heroes' Church looks… well, disappointed might be the wrong word. But he definitely looks pensive. "I'm not sure if it'll help. But if I live long enough to see Her Grace Queen Mirellia return, I will make sure to put in the word for you to explain why such action was needed to… correct the mistakes done by my sibling faith."
"So, you are eager to throw your life away, Miss Sophia. Not very smart." Streibough narrows his eyes, beadier than ones on Naofumi's balloons. Perhaps he is once again calling her fake identity into questions. "You seemed to have forgotten a very important part about your plan. How will you 'prove' to the Graile garrison that you are the first princess of this nation? There are thousands of redhead girls, if not more running around in the Crown Land. You need a little more than your hair color to convince even the most gullible fool."
"Oh, I assure you, Mister Streibough. I have more than my hair color to prove my identity to the men we are trying to win over." She wasn't exactly looking forward to this part, since she might risk everyone figuring out her real identity. The fugitive princess gives a quick glance over to Ken. The wolf of House Okami is the most problematic one considering the aggression he's shown so far. She takes a deep breath, and takes the star wand out of her sleeve. "Master Uranus. I'm afraid I wasn't fully honest with you during our initial meeting. For what I will disclose now will bring ruin not only to Siesta and myself, but our nation as well. But when I was near the southern mountain during the end of the Third Wave, this flew to my hand."
"Is that the king's wand?! The Star Wand?!" The balding battle priest of the Four Heroes' Church looks down at her hand. His eyes grow almost as large as a monster egg when he sets his eyes on the wand in Mein's hand. "Does this mean… the king was already dead?!"
"No, I do not believe so. My teacher at the guild told me that if the previous wielder was dead, the wand would have returned to its base state, waiting to be enhanced by the next wielder." Mein pretends to be unsure and confused, as she switches multiple forms of the wand unlocked by Father. "While the wand itself seems to be damaged somehow, perhaps related to that supposed Outer God the church was talking about? Anyways, there are multiple more advanced forms that's already unlocked when it flew into my hand, with messages recorded by the king. Probably not to me intentionally, but to whoever that would inherit it."
Father's supposed message was completely made up by her, of course. For his many failings, he truly thought that the Three Heroes' Church headed by Pope Balmus was his friend. But luckily enough, there is a form she inherited from father that could easily fabricate whatever 'message' she wanted to use for their attempt to cause chaos in Graile, or others.
[Aural Mimic Wand], a wand that's completely black in color, and the head of the wand takes the shape that looks like a pair of bat's wings. Probably unlocked with a certain part from a bat monster. Its stats wasn't anything to write home about, but it does have a rather interesting active ability: [Aural Decoy Mimicry]. It can project, and mimic the voice of anyone the user heard of. And with this ability, she can have a father… or anyone else say whatever she wants to.
"I am Aultcray Melromarc XXIII, regent king of glorious Melromarc." With a thought from her mind, Father's voice begins to project out of the wand itself, stringing a series of words never actually spoken by him, at least in the current configuration. "If you hear this message, then I have likely fallen, or been incapacitated in the battle of the Third Wave. By the power invested in me, I grant you the right to stop and strike down anyone who dares to subvert this glorious nation in my absence!"
Once again, the human in the catacomb looks completely speechless. After a short period of dumbfounded paralysis, the Gallians quickly get on their knees to show their respect to their fallen king. The Gallians, except the arrogant straw boy. He throws another suspicious glare from his squinting eyes, before bending his knee at the end.
As for the demi-human, they don't seem concerned about the message from the king either way. Mein gives a quick glance to Ken, he is still leaning his back against the wall with his arms crossed. The young man looked bored, if anything else.
"You have the Vassal Wand on you, and you didn't think of informing anyone of us till NOW?!" Streibough's voice pierces into her ears like a rusty nail, she feels her head is about to explode from his incessant mewling along. "What are you trying to pull here?! Pilgrim?!"
"And how do you expect me, a humble pilgrim to act in this situation, huh?! His Majesty supposedly gives me the power to stop anyone from throwing a coup, but I'm not someone who was born from a prestigious family, or apprenticed under one of the most influential men in the nation, or has a strong faction standing behind me. I have no army of loyal guards willing to die to protect my safety! If I came out and showed my wand to everyone, I might actually be removed by anyone who is trying to actually throw a coup. And then the wand, alongside the warning of our king, will be lost forever!"
Of course, Mein realizes why Streibough is so furious at her for, not because she hides the fact that she possessed the Star Wand, supposedly passed down by the king to her before his death. He's starting to get suspicious of her supposed identity of being another agent of Lady Sheffield. The king obviously would not pass his hero weapon to someone who is associated with his wife's most prominent political enemy.
"Calm yourself, Streibough. Miss Sophia spoke the truth. Her possession of the Star Wand should not be widely known, especially if the wand itself is damaged." Uranus holds his hand up, not aware of the little mind games Mein played with Streibough from earlier. Something the smug straw boy thankfully isn't saying out loud. Likely because the smug little shit felt too embarrassed by how utterly he got played by her. Or perhaps he still has some reservation if she did speak the truth, and he doesn't want to face Sheffield's wrath if he unintentionally ruins the plan of his mistress?
"Even if you have the Star Wand, and a supposed message from the king. How do you know the garrison of Graile will even bother sitting around, listening to you prattle? What stops them from tying you up with a rope, and throwing you at the feet of those Three Heroes' Church priests."
Mein narrows her own eyes right back at the smug straw boy. "Nothing. That's why everyone of you better do your best to protect me. At least till I get the words out, and start swinging the opinions of the Graile garrison around."
"Honestly, I don't care if you succeed or not. I'm done relying on the humans to help us." Ken wraps his arms around his chest, he leans back against the wall on one leg. "You are just a distraction to cover my move on Captain Phillip Rose. Minami will be fine, once I retrieve Moonstone of the Fang King back to her."
"How would a rock change the outcome, when your entire clan was wiped out by the King of Rape's Carthus Company mercenaries at the height of their power?" Streibough turns his nose up at Ken.
"If the King of Rape attacked us on a night with a full moon, the outcome of the battle would have been very different." Ken narrows his eyes and glares at the straw boy. "The Moonstone of the Fang King let the wearer of my family access their full potential. The unkillable Golden Wolf transformation. And with that power, Minami will at least be able to escape out of this wretched city."
The girl in question stares at her elder brother without blinking for a while, before she speaks up once again. "I think you should use the Fang King yourself, big brother Ken. You won't have to bother running all the way back to me, and you are already a better fighter than I am."
"No! The Moonstone of Fang King belongs to you, Minami. The last priestess of House Okami." Ken instantly puts both his feet down as he glares at his younger sister. "I'm only a warrior. By our tradition, I have no right to use our family's most sacred artifact."
"Who are you trying to kid, big brother? You never cared about tradition. If you did, you'd be asking us to return to Port Harp. To fulfill the duty of our family as the royal family's sworn protectors." Ken turns his head away from his younger sister, as Minami puts her hands on her waist to chastise her elder brother. Her voice grows softer next. "You are trying to protect me again, aren't you, big brother? But you trained for this all your life. I mostly just skipped my training to play and read my novels. I'd be much safer if you used the power of Fang King than if I tried to use it myself."
"She got you there, Ken." Biggo gives a light punch on Ken's shoulder, to which the wolf boy bristles like a wet dog.
"Fine, I'll use Moonstone of the Fang King this time. But you are getting extra training from Nagumo-Sensei and myself from now on! We won't always be with you, especially now this entire nation is going up in flames." Ken takes a few steps, and slaps his hands down on Minami's shoulders while staring down his younger sister. "I let you indulge in your novels, because I wanted you to have a happy childhood, but you need to be able to protect yourself."
"Okay… I'll be more diligent in my training from now on." Minami winks away, while she pokes her tongue out at her brother.
"If I'm going to pretend to be the Shield Hero, I need to make it look real." The Shield Hero steps into the ring next, because apparently Naofumi has thrown all sense of caution to the wind. He walks beside the retired battle priest of the Four Heroes' Church and takes a deep breath. "Master Uranus, I already know some basic miracles. Can you help train my miracles before we begin our plan? Father Gordon's golden fists, that's a miracle, right? If I can do something like it, like maybe making a golden shield, maybe I can actually have the Graile garrison believe I am the Shield Hero."
"Yes, that is true… although I don't know how much progress we can make in such a short time." The balding priest nods his head along as he scratches his beard once again. He suddenly turns to look at Nagumo. "You Okami Clan vassals should be more knowledgeable on this, but we should have two more nights with full moons after tonight, correct? Can we postpone our plan for two more days?"
"Not exactly a 'full' moon, but the full power of the Fang King can still be accessed for two more nights after tonight." Ken turns away from his younger sister and nods to Uranus' question. "But it has to be at night, where the user bathes in the moon's light. It doesn't have to be a clear sky, but it can't be during the daytime where the light of the sun overpowers the light of the moon."
Uranus closes his eyes for a brief moment, before looking dead in Ken's eyes once again and speaks his request. "In that case, I ask you to take back your family artifact on the final night. I will use the time to train Miss Siesta, Sir Oersted and Brother Demetrius in using our lord's miracles."
"M- me too?!" The young knight whips his head around to look at Uranus, before turning his head to look at Mein. "What about Miss Sophia? If someone like me is getting lessons from you, shouldn't she also be trained in miracles? She is a pilgrim following Saint Brimir. "
"Do you realize what you ask of us, humans?" Ken growls at the old priest before he has a chance to answer Oersted's question. "Moonstone of the Fang King is our clan's most sacred artifact, it is considered as important… more important than the life of the current high priestess of House Okami! What if the damn captain gives our artifact to someone else, like those blasted church men? We will lose the Fang King forever!"
"Yes, I do realize prolonging your plan might cause unforeseen consequences. But if we want to have the best chance at turning the Graile garrison to our side, then Miss Sophia and Miss Siesta needs to be properly read for their roles."
"Bah! I never agreed with this plan to begin with." Ken turns on his heels once again, as he's ready to storm out of their hiding place. "I'm going to take the Fang King back right now, and I'm carrying Minami to safety on my back, if I have to."
"Stop trying to do everything by yourself, big brother! Lone wolf dies, and the pack survives!" Minami jumps into her big brother's path again as she spreads her arms to the side, stopping him cold in his tracks. "Say something, Nagumo-Sensei! Help me out here."
"Minami does have a point, Ken." Nagumo raises his head and looks over at Ken. "Fang King doesn't look any different than any regular moonstone. That Gallian captain clearly had no idea what he had his hands on. And something tells me that he wouldn't have let Minami and Saya go, if he realized he had the last daughter of House Okami right in front of him. The pilgrim girl's plan does significantly increase our chance at survival, if she can pull the act through."
"Very well… but I'm still going out there." Ken takes a half step back, takes a short pause, before gently pushing his sister to the side. "Even if we have the help from the humans, we need to know what's going on at the surface to best plan our moves."
That… is actually a good point. Now matter how much they plan and predict the situation, things are still constantly changing on the surface. The Three Heroes' Church could be bringing reinforcements in, forcing them to act early. Alternatively, the Three Heroes' Church also has enemies, and said rivals could arrive any moment and give them an opportunity to escape in the ensuing chaos, not having to resort to drastic measures of starting a revolt themselves. If they have no one on the surface, they would essentially act blind and deaf to the real situation around them.
"Take me with you too, Master Ken." Mein takes a few quick strides over to Ken's side. If she's going to start a revolt by pretending as… well, herself, she'll have a higher chance at success if she knows what the Graile garrisons are thinking right now. Surely, not all of them willingly went along with the church enslaving their own men? "I want to know what the men of Graile garrison are thinking about the situation at hand."
"Come along, if you want to. But don't think I'll be sticking around, like some good knight in shining armor watching over you like you are the actual princess." Ken lets out an impatient snort at her. "I'm going to be jumping from roof to roof, following that bastard Captain Rose."
"NO! Don't put yourself in danger, Me- Miss Sophia." Once again, Naofumi nearly gives away her real… well, her fake identity in his rush to stop her. "Stay here with me where it's safe."
"It's okay, Miss Siesta." The princess turned fugitive gives a slight emphasis on Naofumi's fake identity, reminding him who he is pretending to be. She still gives him a nod, hoping to put him at ease. "I have a form of Star Wand that'll make people less likely to notice me. If I'm not learning miracles from Master Uranus like you, I need to do something else in the meantime to increase our rate of success. I will be fine."
"About that. Why aren't you teaching Miss Sophia too, Master Uranus?" Oersted looks over at the elderly battle priest. "I'm more of a knight than a paladin, yet you are offering to teach me our lord's miracles. Miss Sophia is already a pilgrim, shouldn't she be closer to our Chief God's divine sphere than I am?"
"The same reason why I'm not teaching Mister Streibough miracles, Sir Oersted." Straw boy makes the sound of an annoyed, spoiled kitten. "Miss Sophia is a pilgrim, yes. But she follows the path of Saint Brimir. The old ways, before we started worshiping our Chief God and his Legendary Heroes. That means she is a man of god, but she uses wizardry school of magic more like a mage than a cleric. She isn't as suitable to learn at the miracle school of magic as a result."
"Doesn't Vicar Vittorio use both?"
"Most people aren't Vicar Vittorio. There is a reason why Mystic Theurge is so rare. For most, wizardry school and miracle school are the complete opposite of each other, and people generally tend to lean towards one." Looking at Oersted's completely blank face and hollowed looking eyes, Uranus let out a sign and started making gestures with his hand. "Think of the mind set to be adapted to the miracle school as a closed fist. You need a strong, faithful mind to punch through the barrier to the gods' divine sphere to let their miracle pass down to our earthly realm. While wizardry school's mind set is that of a pair of opened hands, picking apart a puzzle box and then rearranging it together to suit your liking. They are inherently opposite from each other, that's why most people can't easily switch their mindset between casting wizardry, or miracle."
"I'm wasting time here. Ramble on if you want, I'm going to tail Captain Rose." Ken lets out one last grumble before pushing through the wall and exiting out to the dirt tunnel.
Mein is about to follow him, when she feels someone grabbing one of her sleeves. She turns around, and sees Naofumi looking at her almost with a pleading look in his eyes. Honestly, she doesn't even know when, and why she had become as foolhardy as she is now. She gives the Shield Hero a quick hug, and whispers to his ear. "Don't worry. I'm a survivor. I'll be back."
With that said, she quickly pulls away from the Shield Hero, and follows after Ken.
To her surprise, the wolf boy didn't completely disappear from the tunnel, leaving her hopelessly lost in the labyrinth they created. Judging by how he moved like one of Mother's elite shadow commanders, he clearly slowed him down for Mein to follow him all the way back to the little dug out underneath the stove of Nagumo's kitchen.
"I don't know how long you plan to stick around on the outside, but I'm going to be gone for most of the night. Hide out of sight around Nagumo-Sensei's dojo if you return before me. I'll come find you." Ken gives her one last instruction before he climbs up the wall, carefully opening up the exit hidden as a stove before climbing out back to the surface. Mein follows him up, and sees him giving her a hand at the top.
Definitely someone who is harsher with his mouth, than his hands.
The fugitive princess climbs out of Nagumo's stove, and Ken puts everything back. She notices how dark it is outside the door, it seems to be night already. Good, she's not really trained in sneaking around, but the dark of the night will obviously help her stay out of sight. The wolf boy gives her a nod, before his body disappears again after a quick flicker. Mein also switches her wand to activate the steal skill she used outside Gallia city once again, before she carefully steps out of the kitchen.
The slum of Graile felt dead, barely any sound of the living, aside from the striding boots of patrol in the distance once in a while and crickets of bugs in tall grass. Mein detaches the sword she commissioned from Cattleya, using its sharp blade to make small marks on the corners of buildings she passes through to help her find her way back to Nagumo's residence.
As she moves closer and closer out of slum, Graile begin to feel less like an abandoned ruin, and like an actual fortress city. Standing torches illuminate the night, warriors in armor and weapons patrol the street, or city around large bonfires. It's harder to make out the specific heraldry on their armors and shield in the distance to know if these are Graile garrison forces of Gallia army, or men brought in by the Three Heroes' Church. But what's easy for her to make out were the large mass of people in rags in the distance, miserably sitting around the priests in robes who sound less like preachers of the Chief God, and more like raving madmen.
"Our glorious nation is at a time of crisis! Outer Gods worshiping demons, masquerading as a hero, walk among us, while we are beset by heretics from all sides!" Rambles on by the robed men and women with the triangle emblem of the three heroes faith on their chests. Mein squints her eyes and tries to take a better look. She didn't see the face of Amelia or hear her voice. The sniveling witch clearly isn't a fan of standing out in the open where she is vulnerable, even when surrounded by slaves forced into obedience by a magical tattoo that would subject them to great pain, or kill them instantly. "You, who live destitute and lazy lives! It is time for you to prove your faith to our Lord!"
Mein quickly turned around into the back alley street. She doesn't want to risk the chance of such crazed fanaticism, or stupidity rubbing off on her. And to think, at one point she actually considered the possibility of allying with these insane idiots! Thanks to Pope Balmus' personal charisma, it's easy to forget what absolute fools the blindly zealous in his church were like.
And now these very people have taken both her father, and her little sister. She… doesn't even want to imagine how Melty would turn out, when she's surrounded by these schemers and zealots. Forget about going to Defiant Bay to find possible evidence that the Four Heroes' Church could use to exonerate the Shield Hero and herself. She needs to find out what's happening in the capital!
The fugitive princess shakes her head. Baby steps first. Find out the overall sentiment of Graile's garrison, get the Shield Hero and herself free from a city occupied by the Three Heroes' Church radicals first.
The princess sneaks around in the shadow, finding an opening between the back alley and the main street where there are a few piles of crates and barrels piled on the side. Some of the containers are smashed, with grains spilling out of them and being munched on by rodents. But they still provide a good cover for someone even without an ability that directs people's attention away. Patrolling soldiers occasionally pass through the opening on the main street, providing Mein a good chance to possibly overhear their conversation.
Knowing she likely won't get a better hiding spot than this, Mein quickly, but carefully tip toes her way over to crouch behind the crates of supplies. The pests quickly scatter away with a few scared squeaks, only notice her when she is standing near them.
"Ah! Damn pests!" Cries out one soldier standing near the crates. "Vermins and bugs everywhere! Blast it! Blast it all to the Waves! Wavespawns, crazy clerics burn down our own church and enslave our own countrymen, and now pests on the street! This world is gone mad, the end time is near, I tell you!"
"You actually care about some dirty squatters, and animals being taken by the church to fight our war?" A second voice comes from the otherside of the crates, this one sounds less crass, but more callous.
"Why shouldn't we? They are still our country men. Today it's squatters and demi-humans. What stops those fucks from enslaving us the next day?" A third one, this voice actually sounds a little bit more sophisticated than the last two.
"What makes you think that'll happen to us? We aren't squatters lying around doing nothing. We pray to the Chief God and fight for our pantheon and lords." The second voice sounds dismissive of the third man. Mein get the distinct mental image of him
"Haven't you heard what happened to the Siltvelt army back in The Great War?" The third, more sophisticated man lowers his voice, sounding like someone spreading false conspiracy. "They were running out of fighting men over the five years even with all the slaves they taken from us to use as their breeding stock, especially after Shiltfreeden, and free cities started rebelling against their rule. So they started taking their own women to pop out babies. First, it's just widows. And then, they started taking wives of the soldiers fighting in the war, thinking they'll die anyway. That's why the Siltvelt soldiers lost the will to fight. They are bleeding and dying on the frontline, and their women are being taken from their homes. That's how the tyrants get to you, they don't take everything immediately. They slowly push their way forward, till you are too weak to resist them."
"Fucking animals! Damn them all to the Waves!"
"Shit, that's real? I thought it was cooked up by our own men to make them sound more like savages." Mein doesn't dare to poke her head out to take an actual closer look, but she still gets the impression of someone shaking their head in sheer disbelief. "Well, don't let the church people overhear you. You might find a slave seal tattoo'ed on your chest for disobedience and spreading heresy."
"So what? Captain Alderic has been screaming death and murder at the Three Heroes' Church since they got here. If anyone gets enslaved for disobedience and spreading heresy, it'll be him first." The first, most aggressive warrior snorts out after making a spitting noise on the ground.
"Well, we aren't Captain Alderic, Champion of Graile. Come on, let's just go on our patrol route." The next thing Mein hears is the sound of armored boots stride away from her hiding position.
So, she was correct. Despite going along with the Three Heroes' Church's madness, there are definitely dissidents among the troops stationed in Graile. And if she got the words from this small patrol group right, this Captain Alderic is the most noticeable figure. Now, she just has to figure out where this Captain Alderic is first. To hopefully sneak near him, and judge his character for herself rather than second-hand rumors.
Walking up to someone and ask is obviously the quickest, but it can easily get her exposed, or worse, taken as a slave considering how she dressed as a humble pilgrim. She needs to absolutely avoid this outcome, as they could use the slave seal to force her spilling everything she know once the Three Heroes' Church realize who they captured.
She could simply run her way back to Nagumo's dojo and wait for Ken to get back. If this Captain Alderic is famous, as being the champion of the entire Graile garrison, surely even the demi-human would recognize him. But Ken won't be back till the night's over, and she will have to wait till the next night to go find Captain Alderic. Who knows what might happen in the meantime?
[Clavoyance] spell is another possible solution. While she doesn't have the mental image of a face to focus on, the spell could still work if the one she is searching for is a significant figure. Someone this Captain Alderic apparently is. But the trace of her magic could possibly be detected by a more sensitive member of the church, especially if she needs to cover a long distance to find this Captain Alderic. The risk is once again, not worth it.
Which leaves her the most old fashioned way… find a disguise, and walk in the broad daylight. Well… broad torchlight among the rebels who are looking for the at large Shield Hero and his companion. Something that won't get her instantly taken as a slave, but let her blend into the crowd so she won't be expected to talk with some important people…
The princess turned fugitive thinks hard on her options, before the metaphorical bolt of inspiration hits her. The Gallian soldiers she was listening to mentioned the burnt down chapel for Graile's Four Heroes' Church. Perhaps nothing remains, but assuming it's not heavily guarded and it wasn't literally burnt to the ground like Amelia's order, she might find just what she is looking for. It might be a long shot, but worst case, the place is still guarded and she turns back. Or she combed through the ashes and found nothing of use. She'll just turn back to wait for Ken, and wait till tomorrow to go near this Captain Alderic while hoping nothing major changes between the time. Not the worst loss in this situation.
With her mind made up, Mein quickly leaves her hiding place after looking around to make sure nobody is around to notice her. She once again begins to sneak around the back alley that runs parallel to the main street, silently thanking the Chief God Nagumo's dojo is situated on the same side as the chapel so she doesn't have to worry about crossing the main street.
She doesn't know exactly how long she spent to find the burnt down ruin of the chapel, but the building itself has certainly seen better days. The roof has collapsed at places, and some of the walls have been reduced to rubbles. The fanatics did a good number on Amelia's spiteful order. Mein once again looks around the place, even using one of Star Wand's abilities to amplify the sound around her to hear for the sound of guards after not seeing any with her eyes. After a few moments of careful deliberation, the fugitive princess decides that the ruin of the chapel is not guarded, so she carefully crawls her way over to the hole Brother Demetrius led them through.
The inside of the chapel doesn't look much better than the outside. With smashed furniture and decorations lying on the empty halls. Thankfully, most damage seems to be caused by weapons and magic, not a literal fire that reduces everything to cinder. She might find just what she is looking for yet.
Mein slowly slips her way around the abandoned, carefully using Star Wand's [Aural Amplification] ability to listen for sound of movement around every corner. She's close to her objective, no sense being impatient and risk being caught by a sentry she wasn't aware of. Thankfully, her worry proves to be paranoia. After taking five times as long if she had simply walked the whole way, she manages to reach the right wing of the chapel, where she knows the women's bedrooms would have been located if it followed the same design as the great Cathedral of Three Heroes back in Melromarc Castle.
Not wasting any more time, she dives into the bedrooms, and begins to search through every dresser she comes across. After three rooms, she managed to find a disguise that would work for her purpose: a full set of lay sister's clothes, completed with a hood that would thankfully hide her burn scar due to it being near the backside of her face.
Unlike a fully converted member of any church, a lay sister doesn't formally affiliate her with any sect. Therefore, their dress looks completely the same no matter if she works for the Four Heroes' Church, Three Heroes' Church… or even the Shield Hero's Church. At least they do here in Melromarc, or in Faubley. She doesn't know how the Siltvelt animals dress. Honestly, with how their last king was like, she wouldn't be surprised if the priestesses of Siltvelt dress around in two-piece silk like a common harlot.
Mein shakes away her malicious musing, and quickly begins to change into the cloth of a lay sister. She carefully hides her own pilgrim's robe into the back of the dresser, not intending to retrieve it back, as she still has spare sets. A suit of lay sister's cloth is more valuable in this case, as it gives her another avenue of disguise in her journey. After a bit more searching around the ruined chapel, she manages to find a pewter plate, a jug, and a few cups.
Happy with her spoils, she sneaks back out of the hole in the wall into the back alley. She finds a water barrel and fills the jug. Taking a deep breath to steels her resolve, she deactivates the Star Wand's ability to divert people's attention away from her. She walks out of the back alley when she is fairly sure nobody is paying attention around the area anyway, and walks onto the main streets in broad… Well, moonlight or torchlight. Now looking like an unremarkable lay sister who works menial tasks for the church.
Mein follows the movement of Gallian soldiers on the street, wordlessly offering them water from her pewter jug as expected from a lay sister. Considering this Captain Alderic is supposedly the well-known champion of Graile, she's willing to bet that he's near a large gathering of Graile troops, likely the largest of them all. The soldiers from Graile, the knights and priest from Three Heroes Church all ignore her aside from when they want to take a drink.
The disguised fugitive princess keeps her eyes and ears wide open as she moves through the fighters and men of faith, trying to find any information she could possibly use. With the men of the Three Heroes' Church walking among them, the Gallians aren't as careless as to open their mouths and spout out what they truly think about the current situation. But thanks to her experience around her parent's court, she still captures small evidence of disgruntlement from the Gallian soldiers even in their guise of silent meekness.
The Graile garrison quickly scampers out of the way of the clerics who walk around like a preening filorial who won a race. The Gallians throw dirty looks at the Three Heroes' Church from the corner of their eyes when the church people aren't paying attention. The braver of them even spit at the ground that previously walked by the Three Heroes' Church clerics. Not all of them are like this, of course. As most Graile soldiers simply get on their way, with their heads on the road or hang low. But there is clearly enough unhappy, and angry Gallian for Mein to ignite when she 'pretends' as the First Princess of glorious Melromarc and leads them on a glorious uprising against the heretic oppressors.
Even if she doesn't end up meeting Captain Alderic herself, she is still getting ever optimistic about her hairbrained scheme.
As she walks near the gate house of the northern gate, she suddenly hears the loud voice of shouting, and things breaking. "Whore! Shit! For god's sake! Damn these Three Heroes' worshiping sons of whores! Coming into my city! Burning down our church and enslaving our people and I can't do shit about it!"
While metaphorical blood drips out of Mein's ears, she has a sneaking suspicion that she found her target. Even if she didn't… Well, someone so openly cursing up a storm at the Three Heroes' Church is worth investigating. Her mind made up, she walks closer to the sound of ruckus, still with her water jug in hand.
As she turns around a corner, a dark object flies towards her head with the speed of a crossbow bolt and strength of a fireball. She quickly ducks onto the ground with a surprised yelp, dropping her water jug in the process. The thing clanks on the stone wall and rolls on the ground, making her realize it's a captain's helmet.
A pair of armored boots stomp over her way, and kick the helmet towards her again, forcing her to roll on the ground like a startled beggar. Mein looks up, hoping her hood hasn't fallen off her head in the confusion and sees a giant of bulging muscles underneath a suit of heavy Gallian armor lumping towards her. The man's head is shaved bald, with facial features that look carved out of stone. "Return whence you came, you church whore!"
Yeah… she really should have expected the downside of dressing up as a member of the church when going to see someone who is well known for being openly mad at the Three Heroes' Church. Especially someone insignificant, like a lay sister. People like Amelia probably won't even care if this thug cracks her head like an egg.
"Taking your anger out on our guest from the church now? A lowly lay sister no less? Guess I shouldn't expect more from a brute like you, Alderic." A wormy nasal voice drills its way into her ears, reminding her of a certain little shit with straw and hay gatherer as his parents. The voice made the large captain pivot on his heels, letting Mein quickly collect her pewter plate, jug and cups and scoots away from the muscular thug.
Mein gives one quick look over, and sees a blonde man with bluest eyes with a she has ever seen looking condescendingly at the now named and confirmed Captain Alderic. The man is also dressed up as a captain of the Gallia army, with a spear leaning on his shoulder.
It might be because he is sitting, or maybe it's a trick of the light. The other captain looks shorter than the average Gallian, much on the slim side of the build where one can charitably call athletics. Unlike Captain Alderic, this captain clearly wasn't promoted for his fighting ability.
"Piss off, Felix!" Alderic scowls at his fellow captain. "If those Three Heroes' Church whoresons want to come after me, LET THEM! Unlike you, I don't sell out my countrymen to lick the church's boots!"
"You are just mad that the Three Heroes' Church put me in charge of the Graile garrison. What, did the pride of Champion of Graile got wounded because he's no longer the unofficial leader of the Graile captains?" Captain Felix taunts right back at Captain Alderic. "Maybe if you start growing a brain, your big head wouldn't be empty save for all the muscles and hot air."
The sound of someone being punched can be heard after the guttery growl that belongs more to an animal than a man, followed by someone dropping on the ground. Mein is too afraid to peek her head out at what's happening, but from the sound of angry grunting and bodies colliding into each other, she's pretty sure Captain Felix didn't simply turn the other cheek after being hit by Captain Alderic. The sound of people running towards the fighting can quickly be heard, and soon a large group of Gallian soldiers swarms the place.
"Damn it! They started again!" "Quickly! Give me a hand! Break the captains up!" "Captain Alderic and Captain Felix will kill each other one of these days…" From the words of the soldiers, it's clear that the dispute between these two Graile captains didn't start with the arrival of the Three Heroes' Church.
Her objective kind of completed, she quickly walks off in the guise of getting more water to fill her now empty jug. After some time walking through the street, she ducks into the empty back alley street she came out of when she's sure that nobody was looking. The fugitive princess ditches the items she carried around as part of her disguise, and reactivates her misdirection skill. Using the little marks she made for herself, she began to slowly trace her way back to Nagumo's dojo.
Judging from how he openly curses at the church and constantly starts fights with his fellow captain, Captain Alderic is clearly someone who is a bit on the dimwitted side, and let his anger drive his action. In other words… the perfect target to focus her scheme! Despite his problems, he is clearly still well regarded enough by the Graile garrison. Well.. some of the Graile garrison. It's debatable if Captain Felix' attitude towards him is more common among the rest of the captains. But with how mad he is already at the Three Heroes' Church, all she needs is to give him a gentle push to set him down the road of rebellion.
A gentle push, such as the first princess of glorious Melromarc and Shield Hero come out, denouncing the Three Heroes' Church as heretic traitors. Him leading the rebellion should win over a good amount of Graile garrison to their side. And then, the matter is simply pouring as much oil on the fire to start another riot in Graile to cover their escape.
Yes. While there will surely be unforeseen difficulties, she is already getting much more optimistic for her desperate, and not so well thought out plan to win over Graile garrison.
She sneaks her way back into Nagumo's kitchen, pulls her legs into her body and curls herself into a ball in the corner. She's tired, both physically from her nightly trip, and mentally from all the stress of sneaking around someone who wishes her harm, and her intense encounter with Captain Alberic. The princess slowly drifts away into sleep while waiting for Ken's return. Her dream is filled with chaotic nonsense, like more knights exploding into ashes, the Spear Hero protecting Raphtalia from a strange order of mages, and exploring an ancient dungeon with all four Cardinal Heroes and strangely… her mother besides her.
She awoke when a hand suddenly tightened around her neck. And she belatedly realized that there was yet another flaw to her plan of not getting back into her pilgrim's traveling robe. She looks like someone from the church, someone who is an enemy to Ken. Thankfully, the fingers loosen around her neck just as her eyes bulge open as Ken lets her slowly drop to the floor.
"Don't dress like one of those church whores, damn it. Almost snapped your neck on instinct." The wolf boy looks bashfully away from her, she could almost spot a shade of pink on his cheeks. "Come on. The day's breaking. Let's get back to the others before someone comes snooping around."
Mein wordlessly nods her head as Ken moves away the stove to reveal the dug into their tunnel. He once again helps her down before climbing down and moving the stove back to cover the exit of their tunnel. The two of them begin to make their way back to Nagumo's safe house for the heirs of House Okami.
"You can stop this charade. I know who you really are." As the brick wall moves to the side, Mein hears another wormy sniveling that she has become increasingly familiar with in the past few days. "The two of you are the real Princess Malty, and the Shield Hero running away from the church. And you got everyone into this fine mess!"
Mein covers her face in her hands, and fights back the almost unstoppable urge to scream.
Here they go again.
End Note:
I honestly considered naming this chapter 'Karma Chameleon' since I listened to that song when writing the whole part of Malty's expedition out on the surface. But that chapter title would probably be too silly for what's actually happening with the actual story.
Malty once again, gets to show off her skill at blending into environment. Although things almost turned dire for her in two different instance. I want to keep at least some part of her canon personality in tact. Her taking big risks, but not fully think the consequences of her actions through feels like the way to go.
Fun trivia. The wacky dreams Malty had while she's waiting for Ken are actual dreams I had since I started writing this story (not in the exact order... maybe). The dream where Motoyasu protect Raphtalia in her child from a bunch of strange mages happened in a Venice like water city full of canals where he jumps between a lot of boats while avoid mages with their specific theme similar to Fullmetal Alchemist characters (I don't remember anyone specific). And the dream where Malty explores a dungeon with her mother and the four cardinal heroes is set in lava hellscape similar to Lost Izalith with a lot of Silent Hill like wired walkways. And the two of them have to figure out who are the real cardinal heroes when they encountered their dopelgangers.
There's also another dream where the three weapon heroes started a raid on a secret community who kept a fragment of Kirito's AI Yui. But obviously I can't have Malty dream about this I never had her mention Kirito's AI before. I don't think she would know about Yui, when Kyubey was the one who told Naofumi the identity of the previous heroes.
The explody knight obviously already happened. I'll have to wait and see if I can work these other dreams into my story eventually... somehow.
:P
Guest review time.
To Avalon:
Thank you very much for your review! Glad you enjoyed the chapter so far, and hope you'll continue to have a good time.
I'm not sure it's in Naofumi's character to essentially troll Malty, since he's more of a goody two shoe boy scout like his Reprisal iteration. Although it certainly could happen in a less serious chapter later, when they are just messing around with each other.
XD
Which sadly means I can't really use it in this arc. Since it's a more serious situation they found themselves in. Plus, it's kind of hard for Naofumi to mind(BEEP) Malty by claiming a shield ability when he doesn't have his shield.