Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter and providing feed backs.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
With the majority of the Three Heroes' Church and Consevatie Host buried under a collapsed mountain, there's much less obstacles left for Naofumi to try and free the people enslaved in Balafon. Not to say that there would be no challenge left. Since if Mein knows Consevatie The Younger well, he would still have a substantial amount of men left stationed in the farming village to protect him. But for the moment, the Shield Hero is more concerned with something else.
"That woman with the grappling hook got away." The Shield Hero's face is donned by a frown when he mentions Lady Ebonheart. Something tells the princess that what Naofumi has in mind about her is much less nice than what he is speaking out loud. "Will she cause us trouble if we try to save Balafon now? Could she warn Consevatie? Bring reinforcements?"
"She was one of the conspirators Consevatie gathered to rebel against you heroes, yes. But I don't think she'll crawl back to that son of whore now." The princess narrows her eyes and expects the renegade templar to elaborate. His conclusion doesn't fit the context he is giving, which means that there's more to the story than even the fanatical madmen gathered by Consevatie The Younger. "I wasn't high enough on the rank, or the noble circle to attend one of his close door meetings. But I have seen Ebonheart here and there in Consevatie Manor in the capital. She's almost always mumbling curses and complains about that rich fop. For his screw ups, or for him keeping a demi-human pet. She might be working together with Consevatie, but I doubt she has any loyalty or faith towards him."
"How can you be sure?" Mein immediately narrows her eyes, wondering if this is further manipulation from the scion of House Consevatie. "What if Ebonheart's grudge against Consevatie is also further manipulation and scheme from them, like Vicar Vittorio supposedly being denied entry into the capital? Just so that that whore son can lure us into another trap?"
"Because he would have jumped so many pointless loops, it would have been self-defeating to his overall plan?" Jackson rolls his eyes at Mein. It seems like the backstabbing commoner is regaining some of his cheek after their defeat of the combined church and Consevatie host. "Before she shown herself, did any of you know Ebonheart was working with Consevatie to begin with. Neither does anyone outside of his band of conspirators, I reckon. If his infight with Ebonheart, or Bartfort is all an act, he'd have expected or needed someone like myself, or someone else from his rank defecting to your side to feed you this 'false information'. And even if this is a trap, there's no sense sacrificing a few hundred of his loyal men, the majority of his forces he has right now, just so he can lure you into a false sense of security. He'd be hard pressed to field enough people to capture you now even with any sense of surprise."
Chapter 112: Third Time's the Charm
"He's not exactly wrong, Mein." The Shield Hero's eyes slowly peel away from Jackson, and slowly fall on the princess. "I understand you want to be careful. We underestimated that fucker outside the capital, and we paid for it. But I think you are being paranoid now, and scared of your own shadows. It doesn't make sense for him to jump through so many hoops, making this kind of self-defeating scheme just to lure us into some trap. It would have been so much easier if he just had his army hunt us down."
"I still don't think we should trust words coming from him." Mein gives Jackson another glare. The renegade simply chose to ignore her. "But yes, I see what you are saying. There are better ways for Consevatie to use what resources he has available. Throwing that many people to die just to lure us into a false sense of security is dumb. Because he'd be hard pressed to find men to protect himself from his enemies."
"And speak of enemies… Consevatie made one with Bartfort." Jackson suddenly narrows his eyes, seemingly remembering something. "Shortly before you arrived back in the capital, there was a gathering of Consevatie's allies. That's the first time Ebonheart attended their meeting too. I don't know what exactly happened in his manor, I wasn't allowed to enter. But the servant heard the sound of scuffle, and Bartfort was carried out of the room on a stretcher at the end. It doesn't look like an accident either, his nose was completely smashed, lips split."
"You think there's an inflight between Consevatie, and his men?" The princess immediately caught the unsaid subtext. She didn't spend all her time observing her parent's court for nothing. While it's not the most severe case of an infight between nobles in a gathering, the signs point to some lower ranked noble too ambitious for their own good decided to try and challenge their superior and lost. "Why didn't you bring this up sooner?"
"I just said I wasn't there, okay? All I heard are what the servants and guards mumbled to each other in gossip. Hearsay!" Jackson's shoulder twitches, like he wants to throw his arm upwards, but only manages to catch himself from doing so at the last moment. "You people aren't exactly receptive to what I say. Even if I remembered it earlier, you'd all accuse me of trying to lie to you if I said something sooner."
The Shield Hero's face slowly shifts from Jackson to Mein. "He's not really wrong. I would have thought Consevatie insane, or extremely stupid to piss off and fight his own strategist."
"That's probably because he didn't see Bartfort as a valued strategist." Jackson crosses over his arms and snarls with bared teeth. "That rich boy sees everyone as beneath him. And people only have value to him if they are willing to grovel before his feet."
"This would explain why that Bartfort guy was giving him bad advice when we were caught." The princess dips his head down, and nods along with their words. Suddenly things begin to fall into places, and become clear like all the pieces of a previously unrecognizable puzzle neatly sliding into its position. "You remembered it, right? Master Naofumi? That Bartfort guy, he was the one who told Consevatie to imprison us, and kill us in a public execution."
"Yeah. He even had a little spat with that four-eyed nun over how to properly execute us." The normally courteous Shield Hero actually sounds spiteful for a change. Not a great surprise. Even a saint would have his patience tested by someone like Consevatie for multitude of reasons. "You think he was working against Consevatie there? He was feeding that little shit's ego."
"Yes. Preparing a public execution of yourself would be very bad for this nation, and particularly for Consevatie himself. If they murder us quietly, they could try to give excuses that maybe some bandits, monster, or even stray wavespawn got you. But a public execution would leave them with no deniability, and other nations would use it as the excuse for an invasion." Privately, the princess doubted the excuse would have worked since Melromarc already broke the sacred covenant due to father's illegal summoning. But it would have been something for the other nations to keep up the appearance. Because they are still enemies with each other. But an actual formal execution of the Shield Hero, for no good reason other than to satisfy Consevatie's fragile ego would truly unite the rest of the nations. Even Melromarc's traditional allies would turn them at the drop of a copper. She wouldn't even be surprised some of the native Melromarc nobles would turn on Consevatie either truly due to their belief in fairness, or because they want to use it as a chance to grovel and beg for mercy when the house of cards inevitably crumble.
"So that's why he made Bed-Chan. He was getting ready to fight the entire world." The look of vindictiveness quickly receded from Naofumi's face and was replaced by thoughtfulness. His eyes wander without focus as he rubs his chin. "It's stupid to go against the world when all he has is a small village. But it makes a bit more sense if he's incarnated from my world… maybe not literally my world, but a world similar to mine. There are plenty of trashy, power fantasy novels about some arrogant, stupid schmuck who gets summoned, or incarnated into a fantasy world and they eventually take it over. If he is literally calling everyone around him NPCs, he probably thinks he can do it too. It's still stupid, but it would have made sense in the mind of a smug idiot like himself."
"I'm so glad he was not one of the summoned heroes." Mein has to do a double take at Naofumi's revelation. She knows those knight novels, or even the romance novels she privately enjoys can be trashy and dumb. But she didn't expect them to be this brainless. A single guy taking on the entire world? How would that even work? The logistics alone would have the idiot buried alive under its sheer weight, let alone the other intricate parts involved in a campaign to conquer the entire world like military strategies and politics.
Granted, the last Shield Hero Mikage Mikami kind of acted like Consevatie, particularly after the Wave of Catastrophe was stopped and he fully ascended into the infamous creature the rest of the world remember him as The King of Rape, Or the Great Conqueror like those Siltvelt animals like to call him, because they take pride in rape.
And if she thinks deeper on the issue. Was her own countrymen really that different from an utter fool like the reincarnated Consevatie? Siltvelt might have been the country that lost the most territory and influence due to the Great War, after they given up all the land they conquered during and after Mikage's reign as their king. But Melromarc was the nation that left the worst off due to Siltvelt's brutal occupation. Yet among the people of glorious Melromarc, there is still an inherent sense of arrogance for those who were too young to have been born during the Great War, or even those who have lived through it. They still see Siltvelt, a land inhabited by savage animals who need culling if not extermination, and they see Faubley people as lazy pigs. No wonder a colossal idiot like Consevatie were able to attract a cult of followers!
"It's fortunate that our current enemy is a fool. Even if he is capable of a small moment of unpredictable brilliance. This will make our task of escorting the Shield Hero to safety, or liberating the enslaved people of Balafon possible. If he was even nominally competent, we simply wouldn't have the resources to take him on." Oersted decided to be the sensible person amongst the sea of stupidity somehow generated by Consevatie. "What resources, and manpower does he still have? We killed a lot of his men thanks to the strength of The Bed of Chaos and Lord Shield Hero's cunning. But surely this can't be all? I imagine he still needs a sizable force stationed in Balafon to keep the people suppressed, even taking into account of slavery seals."
"Yeah. He had all of his father's bannermen out chasing the damn- the Bed of Chaos." Jackson quickly changed his tone when he remembered that the giant dryad is still lumbering behind everyone. "He probably doesn't want to deal with his more proper cousin. Lord Mark constantly chastises, even borderline berates him for his improper behaviors. I think Mark was one of his sister's creatures."
"Yeah, all the political intrigue among those inbred noble pigs is very interesting. I'm sure dumb and dumber can make another hit show like Game of Thrones out of it. Can we focus on the more important things? Like what more fighting man he still has, and how he's using them?" The Shield Hero waves his hand, urging the renegade templar to get to the military aspect.
By contrast, the princess finds Jackson's recount much more interesting. There is rumor of discord within the main Consevatie family due to Lord Grima's clear favoritism of having his son rather than his daughter inherit his nobility title. And it is true that the tradition of passing noble titles to daughters is a relatively new one when Queen Evangeline came to power at the start of Melromarc dynasty, and it wasn't coded into law. But the current rule of thumb of their nation is still passing the noble title to daughters, and having the son pursue a military career. 'Men fight war, women rule the court' as the saying goes. Therefore Lord Grima openly going against the tradition to groom his son as the next head of House Consevatie raised some eyebrows. And gossip of his son and daughter having a bitter hatred towards each other underneath the courteous (or not so courteous, in case of that reincarnated little shit, she recons) facade spawn from it.
Which makes Jackson's telling of Mark Consevatie's action, and attitude towards his main house cousin highly intriguing. For the boy of the branch to even have the nerve to reprimand an arrogant fool like the reincarnated Consevatie, it speaks either closeness between him and Mark (or his sister), or enough protection from the daughter to shield Mark from the fury of the fool. So which is it?
Jackson's recount of events would obviously be biased, and she doesn't want to trust him as far as she can throw him. But this time, she's willing to place the bet on them being actual enemies underneath the facade of family unity just like Jackson said. Or else it wouldn't explain why Consevatie would send all the loyal men of his family out, while keeping those he brought from the Three Heroes' Church. No doubt, those would be the bands of sycophants and bootlickers he gathered and loyal to himself.
"He has about another fifty men with him in Balafon. These aren't mere slaves, forced conscripts, or regular chapel guards. Everyone of them is an elite knight templar." Jackson's words further affirms Mein's belief. While it's true that a church's knight templar is supposed to be some of the world's most elite fighting force, the nobility also have their own preferred enforcers to keep themselves safe and the common people in line. The fact that Consevatie's reserve and his personal bodyguard solely composed of the Three Heroes' Church templar say a lot about his relationship with his own family.
"Fifty Knight Templars are nothing to laugh at. Assuming they aren't more fools like this Consevatie." Sir Oersted nodded his head and looked at their group. "But they aren't an insurmountable challenge with the Bed of Chaos on our side."
A sudden wave of ear piercing noise coupled with head splitting pain assaults the princess. She falls on her knees, and wonders why the Bed of Chaos suddenly decided to attack her. It might be a strange thing to ponder about, since the dryad is still a monster at the end of day. But despite its very eldritch appearance, and even more intimidating act of collapsing a mountain on a small army, she has acted remarkably considerate. Even more courteous than a lot of noble scions she had the displeasure of encountering.
When Mein came back, she realized that the dryad didn't simply 'attack' her. Everyone else of their group is also kneeling, or sprawled on the ground. The only one who looks better than the rest is Naofumi, and even he seems to be cringing in pain. So it wasn't only aimed at her.
"Okay, I understand you are distressed, Bed-Chan. But you need to control yourself. Your scream is a weapon." The Shield Hero shakes his head, it's hard to tell if it's due to pain, or frustration with the surprisingly human eldritch monster. And speaking of the giant tree, her 'head' hangs low, looking thoroughly chastised by the Shield Hero's words despite her obviously non-human appearance.
Another wave of piercing headache coupled with unintelligible noise assaults the princess, making her drop to the ground once again. When she opens her eyes next, she sees Naofumi now have a much more somber expression on his face. "I... I never thought of it this way. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you kill all those people. Damn... you are even younger than Firo. And it's all my fault to have you kill them."
"What was that about, Master Naofumi?" The princess stands up with the help of Yukari. The rest of their little group also shakily gets up to their feet.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot you guys can't understand her." The Shield Hero's head jerks over to look at Mein and the rest of his group before he turns towards the giant dryad once again. "Bed-Chan didn't want to kill more people, so she let out a scream. I guess she didn't realize how much her scream would hurt you guys."
It's just their luck that the eldritch abomination they somehow befriended has an aversion to killing other people. Then again, she suppose it's better than the alternative as they'd all been killed, maybe even eaten by the Bed of Chaos like Yukari thought.
"I supposed we can't do anything for the people of Balafon if she doesn't want to help us kill Consevatie's goons. Fifty knight templar is more than a match for our group." Mein can see both Jackson and Logan's posture slumps a little at her verdict. They clearly both know, and agree with her assessment.
"I'm not so sure about that. I don't want that reincarnated fucker takes his loss out on the people of Balafon... or Raphtalia and Firo once he learnt of my involvement." The Shield Hero turns his attention to their giant dryad friend before Mein has a chance to admonish him. "Hey, Bed-Chan. You only don't want to kill anymore people, right? Get this... will you help us if you find a way to only restrain the bad people, keep the good people captive, and help us break the good people out of that village?"
Huh... the princess isn't ashamed to admit that she never thought about it this way. While killing Consevatie's forces would have the rest of their errant of freeing the people of Balafon easier, they truly didn't need to kill all of them. More than fifty bodies is a sizable number compared to their small party, but it would be spread very thin when they are guarding a village. Even a farming village like Balafon. They truly didn't need to kill all of them for this to work.
Of course, it would make the rest of their journey much harder. Consevatie will have an easier time to learn of Naofumi's involvement when he liberate a village of people under the little shit's rule. And when he does, he and the rest of his surviving goons will be out for blood.
The giant tree monster bends down, and once again whispers into the Shield Hero's ear. From the way he smiles and nods his head, the Bed of Chaos clearly accepted their proposal. Just as Mein is about to let out a sigh of relief, the Shield Hero's next words make her heart jump right back to her throat once again. "Okay. You don't have to worry about killing anyone if you can have them held down. But we'll go ahead and kill that Consevatie fuckboy."
"NO!" Mein's scream was loud enough to have everyone in their group, the Bed of Chaos included, jump on their feet (or roots for their giant dryad friend, she supposed).
"What's the big deal, Mein? I didn't think you'd be one against us from killing that fucker. He puts a slave seal on you, for fuck sake!" The princess is a bit worried with how the Shield Hero apparently sees her. She hopes that he only thought her spiteful towards Consevatie's action, and not thought her as a psycho who enjoys bloodshred and death. Well... she is, at least towards people she utterly despises like that reincarnated cunt. But that's not the important part. "Look, normally I'm not one to advocate for murder, but Consevatie is dangerous! If he has similar otherworld knowledge like me, and he sees everyone around him like an NPC who isn't even alive, there's no telling what else he'll do and how many people will get hurt..."
"I don't care about Consevatie. We can give him to Siltvelt and blame him for this mess. Let him die from being pulled apart, or get cut into a thousand pieces if you want to." The princess belatedly realizes not only Naofumi, but everyone in their group (once again, the Bed of Chaos included) is slowly backing away from her. Okay, she went a bit overboard here.
"I have no love for Consevatie, but do we want to give him to those Siltvelt animals?" Logan gives an unsure look to everyone in their group. "They take delight in torture people to death in the most cruel way. Even more than those wrath god worshippers during an execution festival in Zeltbole. Nobody deserves that kind of death."
"I wasn't being literal here! The point is we can't, or at least we shouldn't kill Consevatie while Raphtalia and Firo are still enslaved and bonded to him. There's a setting in slave punishment that makes them all drop dead if their master dies."
"Oh." The Shield Hero's reply is as eloquent as the situation required it. "Do we know if he used this setting on Raphtalia and Firo? He didn't bother with you, did he?"
"For all we know, it could be on by default. This is the church we are talking about." The princess crosses her arms in front of her chest. She's not happy to be reminded of her moment of enslavement, or the brief time she was placed under Consevatie's care. "He didn't bother with me, because he didn't even see me as property owned by him. He was ready to kill us all right there till Bartfort persuaded him to postpone our execution outside the capital's walls. Stamping the slave seal on my body was just an act of showing dominance for him, just like he burnt that Chief God damned mark on your chest without the magical ink. From our friend Jackson, it's not the same thing as the interest he showed to Raphtalia."
"Yeah. He wouldn't have pampered those two to the point of getting the envy of all those female priests around him." The renegade templar helpfully supports her argument.
"I suspect he has so much attention on Raphtalia and Firo because he wanted to spite me. Not because he truly cares about them. But yes, I get what you mean. Okay, Consevatie lives for now... at least till we found a way to free Raphtalia and Firo, or have their ownership changed to me." The Shield Hero turns his face over to Yukari. "I don't suppose you can do what your mentors did with Mein?"
"Oh, goodness no! I'm still a novice. There's so much more to learn under Master Rudopholus and Bellatrix before I even try something like this. I'd probably mess up and kill them if I tried." Yukari immediately shakes her head left and right like a tornado.
"Okay then, new plan. We'll go into the village at night, restrain Consevatie and his remaining goons with Bed-Chan's help, and we help the villagers make a break for the hills. Hopefully it'll work better than what happened at Graile." The Shield Hero nods his head, and begins to draw circles in his left palm with his right index finger. Privately, Mein wonders if it's a bad omen to bring up what happened in Graile. Since they have even less assets than what they had to work with back in Gallia. But hopefully the result will be better with the help of an abomination angel created through Consevatie's idiotic attempt at god crafting.
"You're forgetting that Consevatie brat still holds the leashes of your girl and the bird, and probably more than a few others too." Jackson crosses his arms in front of his chest. "He can kill them at a moment's notice without any of his hands, with a command alone. What's to say he won't try to hold them against us and force us to stand down?"
"Consevatie is a gutless brat who whines at the slightest bit of pain, I doubt it would take much to 'coerce' him not to activate the kill switch on the slave seal if we have him at our mercy. On the threat that we completely end his manhood if he does." The princess huffs at Jackson's reminder. As if they needed this reminder to begin with. Naofumi probably didn't bring it up because he doesn't want to think about the precarious situation his daughters are forced into. She huffs again when everyone gives her a weird look. "What? It's a good threat."
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that's the case. If that fuckboy is literally calling everyone an NPC, he might believe himself to be the 'player', or the 'main character' who has plot armor." The Shield Hero elaborates on the strange word as Mein gives him a puzzled look. "Sorry, a 'plot armor' is just a saying where I'm from. It basically means he thinks himself invincible and can't be hurt."
That's very strong armor indeed, if Consevatie The Younger truly believes he is beyond hurt. Even mythically strong material, like mythril or titanite can't truly protect a wearer from all incoming damage.
"Guess we'll have to both bond, and gag him at first chance if we want to stop him from killing anyone with those damn slave seals." The Shield Hero lets out a tired sigh, his body slumps further down.
"You'll need someone to go in there before your operation, and pass the words to the villagers. The last thing you wanted to happen is for them to panic, running around like a filorial chick with their head covered, and recaptured by Consevatie and his thugs." Jackson steps in and offers to help once again. "Logan and I will go. With luck, they haven't heard the words of our defection yet. We can post as the messengers for his forces, and pass your message down."
"No, we aren't letting the two of you go alone." The princess turns her face towards the renegade, and immediately shoots down his offer.
"I thought we passed the 'I can't be trusted' part when I lured your pursuers into the Shield Hero's trap." Jackson crosses his arms, the two faced commoner seems to regain some of his previous confidence back after that particular service. "Consevatie isn't merciful. He'll cut off my head even if I sell you to him after I betrayed him. And if you still aren't satisfied, you still have that fire rune on me. Sneak around after me and activate if you are afraid of me stabbing you in the back. Just leave Logan out of this. He was never part of Consevatie's little clique, and he got into this mess because of me."
"No! I'll have her use those fire runes on me too. I'm not leaving you alone in this, Jackson." The much bigger renegade immediately rejects Jackson's offer to protect him.
"As emotional as you two's show of faithfulness and friendship is, trust in you isn't the issue this time. Believe me, it pains me to say it." The princess gives both the Three Heroes' Church defects a dry look as she waves them off. "That stunt Master Naofumi has the Bed of Chaos pulled, it's big and loud. Consevatie and his sycophants would surely heard it, if not seen it with their own eyes. You don't collapse a mountain, and expect people not to notice. So if it's only the two of you, he'll wonder why the team of messengers is so small, and why you both look relatively pristine. So no. We need more bodies to impose the the Three Heroes' Church members, or even some of Consevatie's own bannermen to make this look real."
"You aren't offering yourself are you, Mein? You can't go, he knows what you look like! And you aren't even hiding in the bushes this time! It's game over for you if Consevatie, or one of his goons recognize you!" The Shield Hero immediately protests her suggestion.
"One of us has to go, Master Naofumi. Because one of us has to see for ourselves how Raphtalia... and Firo are doing. Maybe even try to get into contact with them without Consevatie or his goons realizing it. Better me than you. It'll be game over for everyone if Consevatie kills you." The Shield Hero doesn't look any less agitated at her, so she continues. "It'll be okay, Master Naofumi. I'm not trying to get myself killed. I'll be digging up some of the... bodies of those dead church clerics, and House Consevatie's sworn swords for my disguise. Their clothing, and armor will be very dirty, so I'll be smearing a lot of dirt and mud on my face to go with my disguise. It'll help disguise my face, and I doubt someone like Consevatie will pay much, if any attention to a dirty messenger."
"You are still putting yourself in danger! If you are going, then I'm going too!" The Shield Hero stomps his feet into the ground, obviously trying his best at stopping Mein from putting herself into more danger. She can't understand his concern. She wouldn't believe herself capable of risking herself like this a mere month ago.
"Please, be reasonable. Master Naofumi. The point of me going was to keep you safe from a madman like Consevatie. And I'm not going alone. I'll be taking Sir Oersted and Ren with me, so we'll have a five man team for our 'message'. That's a good number, and I'd be taking all the fighting men from our group. You'd be in more danger if something happens and the Bed of Chaos refuses to fight to protect you." The branches and vines of the dryad ruffles, something tells Mein that the Bed of Chaos resented her comment. She pays the surprisingly reserved eldritch angel no mind, and turns towards the two young men she named. "Unless you have two objections?"
"I sworn to protect you back on the outskirts of Gallia City, Miss Mein. Even if you are not who you claimed to be, I will not break my oath or shrink away from my duty." The young knight immediately recites something that almost sounds rehearsed.
"I'm not a knight on an errand, but I'm not abandoning you after Shield Hero helped us." The former refugee turned bandit immediately follows his own declaration of loyalty. It's a shame that a mere highwayman is displaying more honor than a lot of actual Melromarc knights she's been witnessing lately.
"There you have it, Master Naofumi. You have nothing to worry about me."
"NO! This doesn't solve anything! You are still going to throw yourself into danger! And I can't do anything but sit on the side! I'm not letting you-"
"STOP IT! Master Naofumi! This isn't the time to be stubborn!" The princess shouts on top of her lung, making the Shield Hero hops on his feet once again. She doesn't have the same ruler ability [Voice of the old kingdoms] like her younger sister, and she has her mother's constant snubbing to thank for it. But she can still get someone's attention, or stop them from acting as a petulant child by screaming really loud. "This is more than you and me, Master Naofumi. You must keep yourself alive at all cost for the good of everyone living in this world. That's why you can't blindly throw yourself into danger even if you worry for me. Plus you aren't used to all the customs and gestures of our world. If you go alongside me, there's more of a chance for me to be discovered in the first place."
"...Okay... but you better come back." The Shield Hero is clearly biting his own lips. But in the end, he relents to Mein's demand. "Because if you don't, I'm going to turn into the second coming of Mikage, raise an army in Siltvelt just so I can kill Consevatie."
"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it." The princess gives Naofumi's cheek a few gentle pats before she turns around, and begins the grim task of digging out buried dead bodies underneath the rubble, dirt and fallen trees. She is quickly joined by Sir Oersted, and Ren. It's a sordid affair, and she feels like a grave robber even if she had no problem nor remorse with killing these people.
The Shield Hero on the other hand sits on the side, eyes downcast and cheeks swollen looking. Yukari sits beside him, whispering what she hopes to be comforting words into his ears while the dryad towers over them like a giant sentry. He's obviously not happy about letting Mein go into danger, but he needs to learn that not everything goes his way even if (or because) he is the Shield Hero.
The work itself is grave, but otherwise unremarkable. They had to dig up multiple bodies, before managing to pick enough of the relatively undamaged armor, or clothing to form into one disguise. They even managed to find the dead body of Mark Consevatie among them, underneath his equally lifeless steed. Either he got thrown off his filorial, or the bird made a futile attempt to save its rider's life by throwing itself on top of the scion to shield him. But in the end, it's all for naught when a literal mountain collapses on top of them.
Seeing the broken form of the bird reminded Mein of her dead friend, and nearly threw herself into a state of shock. But in the end, with some comfort from her companions she manages to control herself, and continue her grim task.
While the princess has passed the stage of rejecting a piece of clothing's condition before wearing it, especially when the intention is to wear it to pose as someone else, many of the damage suffered by the armor and cloth are too severe. They would have raised questions on why their skin underneath their tattered costume is so pristine if they tried to wear them.
"These will do." The princess lay three suits of relatively intact clothing, and armor in front of her. She managed to piece together two sets of House Consevatie bannermen, and a set of disguise for the Three Heroes' Church. She looks up at Oersted and Ren in front of her. "Oersted, you dress up as the cleric knight from the Three Heroes' Church. I know they are different from the knights who serve a noble house, or an independant knightly order. But you had some training with their miracles from Master Uranus. You'll be best suited to pose as one of those cleric knights. Ren, you dress up as a Consevatie sworn swords with me, follow me lead and don't say too much. Just keep your head down. A noble heir like Consevatie is used to ignore their servant, and he wouldn't even look at you in the eye unless you did something to capture his attention."
"As you say, Miss Mein." The pair of boys gives each other a quick look. Sir Oersted answered for both of them. They grab their individual costumes indicated by the princess, and begin to undo their own clothing.
The princess turns her head over to the pit they dug out to pull the bodies out underneath mounds of broken rocks and dirt. She tosses a fireball into it, making sure to burn the remains of their dead pursuers so they don't end up rotting in the open and spreading disease. She's never been pious, but she hopes they'll be wiser in their next incarnation. Not to blindly trust and follow a delusional fool like Consevatie The Younger. With the deed done, she takes her own set of disguise and walks behind the Tree of Chaos, and begins to strip out of her cloth to get into the cloth and armor she pulled down from those dead Consevatie men.
"I talked some more with Bed-Chan while you were busy doing... that." Naofumi's voice comes from the other side of the dryad. It seems like he was doing something productive, instead of sulking around. "She made some seeds that'll sprout out from the ground to bind down those church people, or help give the escaping villagers a boost. I think you should take them with you, and plant them around Balafon."
"That's nice. What exactly do those seeds do?" The princess kicks off her traveling pants, and pulls up the pair from the dead sworn sword of House Consevatie. She cringes a little when she has the belated realization that she's wearing the pants of a deadman, but she tries to not think too hard on it, else she'd lose her nerve to scout around Balafon entirely.
"...You know the thing Bed-Chan did to control those gutter beak skeletons?" The Shield Hero takes a few seconds before replying back. "It's... kind of like it. Once planted, it'll grow some semi-sentient plant monster made of moving vines and roots. It'll hold down those church people, or wrap around the villagers and carry them around."
"You want us to carry around parasite seeds, and spread them around the village of Balafon." The Shield Hero's silence tells the princess all she has to know. While the morality of what she's about to do is more than a bit ambiguous, she can't deny that they need all the help they can get their hands on. And yes, that included using what's apparently some kind of parasitic monster. "Very well. Pass them around us, and each one of us will carry some when we scout out what's happening in Balafon. Hope we'll get a chance to tell the people what's going on, so they don't end up fighting against these plants and get themselves hurt."
"Yes, that's probably for the best." She can hear Naofumi's sigh between the words. The princess quickly puts on the disguise of House Consevatie's bannerman. She rolls around on the dirt afterwards, making sure to thoroughly soil herself despite her aversion for uncleanliness. Using her water magic, she stirs some mud out of all the dirt, and carefully smears them onto her face to hide her features even more. With the preparation down, she walks out from behind the Bed of Chaos, and sees both Sir Oersted of Ren also looks haggard and dirtied just like herself. She wouldn't be able to recognize them if she didn't know who she was looking for, so the princess hoped this would be enough to full Consevatie, and his band of sycophants.
They climb onto the crown of the dryad once again, as she begins moving. This time, the Bed of Chaos carefully walks towards the village of Balafon which she escaped from instead of away from it. With the village more than half a day away from them on foot, it doesn't make sense for the Naofumi to be so far away from them, that he wouldn't even know what's going on if they are captured.
"Remember. If you see a commotion from the village before we are back, don't stick around. Tell the Bed of Chaos to run like she's being chased by those church people, and have her carry you through the northern border." The princess tries not to focus on the crestfallen look on Naofumi's face as she cautions him on what to do if the worst has come to pass. "Consevatie is a delusional idiot. And most of his force is now destroyed. But he might end up calling reinforcements from the Three Heroes' Church just to spite you, and you don't want to get stuck with him long enough for someone who can threaten your life to show up. You'll surely attract some attention when you run through the border on a giant running tree, and I don't know how she'll fare against the kingdoms of griffin nestling on the mountain range. But hopefully, the Bed of Chaos will carry you through."
"...yes. I'll do as you say." The Shield Hero's face, or his eyes didn't even bother to leave the leafy crown of the Bed of Chaos they are currently riding on. It's clear he doesn't like what he has to do. The princess can only hope that he took her warning to heart, rather than simply giving her empty placate.
"We should see the plain Balafon is on when we cross over that hill ahead." Yukari suddenly points her finger ahead, at a hill that's five hundred to a thousand paces in the distance. Lush, green forest grows around it, making it an excellent place for Naofumi to hide and observe what's happening in the village taken over by the Three Heroes' Church.
"Okay, that's where we'll get off. We don't want his 'daughter' to warn that reincarnated bastard we are coming after them." The princess pets the leaf covered branches of the dryad, instructing her to stop. Her words let the Shield Hero release a soft chuckle. For all she knows, this might be the last time she'll see the Shield Hero. She hope that's not the case, and Consevatie's unpredictable stupidity would work for them, rather than against them. The giant dryad raises one branch like 'arm', letting her climb onto it alongside Sir Oersted, Ren, and the pair of the Three Heroes' Church renegades. The tree monster gently deposits them onto the ground.
They arrange themselves into a standard marching formation. Ren needed an extra bit of instruction to not make himself stick out like a sore thumb. But he managed to get it right not soon after. From there, they begin to briskly jog up the hill. As Yukari said, the farming village can be seen in the distance, about three to four times the ground they run from Naofumi. Without any more words, they begin to march towards the village they are trying to scout ahead.
The village of Balafon didn't look that different from their last visit. The magical fruit bearing orchard has expanded, and the cultivated fields are filled with rip looking crops instead of left fallon. On this first glance, it appears that the village of Balafon had managed to prosper under Consevatie's dubious supervision. But the princess started to see the cracks when she took a closer look.
The first is the grim look on the villagers. All of them look like they are trying hard not to cry out loud, or they have a completely dead expression on their faces and they move around in a similar jerky motion as the skeletons used by the Lestrange family. Somehow, these people look even less alive than their first visit when the village is on top of glorified barren wasteland. The princess doesn't know how the common born people live their lives, but she suppose it's hard for anyone to enjoy the fruit of their hard labor when they are made into properties owned by someone else, and all of their growth goes towards their masters.
"Please, my lord clerics. We really shouldn't replant more crops after this harvest cycle." On the side of the road, the village elder is on his knees begging one of the templars. "The Shield Hero warned us that overgrowing the crops will kill our land even with these magical plants. We can't lose our home again after the heroes helped save it."
He promptly falls onto his back unmoving, when he receives a hard kick by the templar's steel armored boots. The cleric thug spits on the elder's body. "You dare to spread the heresy of the Shield Demon? You are lucky I didn't take your head right here, heretic!"
"Don't cause a scene, we'll save these people tonight if everyone works out." Mein whispers to Oersted and Ren. The Gallian knight looks particularly ready to draw his weapon and run through the templar.
"Elder Balafon! Here, drink this." A familiar voice catches Mein's attention. Her focus shifts towards the gate of the village palisade. Sure enough, Raphtalia runs out of the village, kneeling down by the downed village elder. She props the old man up against her body, and feeds the red healing potion from the bottle she is carrying. Before she has a chance to help the elder down the entire bottle, the cleric thug gives him another hard kick in the gut. Making the poor old man puke out of the potion he already downed, he knocks the bottle out of Raphtalia's hand, shattering it and spilling its content on the ground. "What more do you want?! You already made your point! Leave the elder alone!"
"I was going to leave this Shield Demon sympathizer alone, until you showed up. Now tell me, animal. Why should I show mercy when you proven this man is a heret- GAHK!" The templar's smug sneer freezes on his face as the back of his head is suddenly split apart by an axe. Surprisingly enough, the one who killed the offending cleric thug isn't one of the people accompanying Mein.
"Let this be a lesson to you all. Never disrespect my woman." Consevatie's punchable face smirks down on the fallen body of the dead templar, as he pulls his weapon free from the split skull of his subordinate.
End Note:
So, yeah. While Naofumi's plan was good (well... good enough) to get rid of SIOC's army, he basically coarsed a new born child to commit mass murder as a result. Special mention to Svampmannen on showing Bed-Chan's weakness. While the scene was already writen before their review, that remark did make me increase the length of the scene where Naofumi realizes what he did with Bed-Chan to put a bit more emphasis on it.
Well, the second phase of Naofumi's counterattack is about to commence. And it begins with Malty disguise herself, and try to get intel once again just like their failed rebellion in Graile. And yes, as the end shown, SIOC is definitely a bastard.
:)