Sword and Shield

Book 1: Game On 2

"Time to wake up."

Raphtalia slowly woke up and yawned to herself, feeling refreshed for what felt like the first time in months. Ever since that day she'd had terrible nightmares in her sleep of when it all went to hell, after which she'd usually wake up screaming, something that happened multiple times in the night. This was the first time she'd had an uninterrupted night of rest in what felt like forever. And her bed… It felt warm, comfy, somehow made her feel safe and it was…breathing?

Her eyes flew open and she came face to face with the sleeping face of her master, the Shield Hero, Iwatani Naofumi. She froze, she couldn't help it. It was only natural. The Shield Hero was a legendary figure to almost all demi-humans, and here she was, sleeping in his arms.

This was the realm of fantasies for many demi-human maidens. The fact that she was his slave momentarily escaped her as a deep flush began working its way onto her face, and she squirmed in his arms, unsure of how she found herself in Naofumi's arms and what she should do now.

A hand suddenly landed on her shoulder. "Hey, did you hear me?" Shirou's face drifted into view. "It's time to wake up."

Her fellow slave similarly woke up Naofumi, who went from asleep to full wakefulness in the blink of an eye. Raphtalia felt a wave of unexplainable disappointment wash over her as his arms unwound from her and the man got up, only offering her a nod and a head pat before he wandered off a little to the side to freshen himself up a bit.

Raphtalia got up and started cleaning up the remains of the campfire from last night, but she didn't get very far before her curiosity got the best of her. "Uhm," she turned to Shirou, who had just about finished gathering their loot from the day before.

"Yes?"

"Why was Master-sama holding me in my sleep?"

"… You had another one of your night terrors yesterday night. Your screaming attracted monsters," Raphtalia winced. "Master protected you while I took care of all the monsters. You'd calmed down by then, but you started acting up again and wouldn't let go of Master when he tried to put you down. In order to keep you calm, he slept beside you through the night."

"Yes, I did," Naofumi said, gaze directed not at Raphtalia, but at Shirou. "Through the entire night. Why didn't you wake us to change shifts?"

"Raphtalia has been having nightmares every night ever since I've known her. I couldn't wake either of you without waking her up, and I didn't want to interrupt Raphtalia's first night of full rest she's had for who knows how long. Besides, I'm used to functioning on very little sleep."

Naofumi sighed. "That's very nice of you, but what would have happened if you had fallen asleep? We would have had no one to stand guard. In a forest full of monsters, that's a disaster waiting to happen. And it will do no one of us any good if you make mistakes when we are out hunting monsters because you are tired. Next time, wake us. That's an order."

Shirou felt his Slave Crest twinge and he lowered his head in acceptance, both to the order and the logic. He wasn't pleased about it, though.

After that, they quickly cleaned up their campsite and started tracking back to Castle Town, Raphtalia and Shirou walking after Naofumi, hand in hand. Raphtalia mouthed "thank you" at Shirou, who simply nodded back and smiled a little bit. He might be tired and have been chastised, but that "thank you" and seeing Raphtalia doing better made it all worth it.

On the way back to Castle Town, they encountered another few clusters of Balloons. Sticking to the tactics they had used the day before, the monsters were quickly and efficiently killed without anyone of the party being injured. They picked up the extra loot and continued on their way.

They made it to Castle Town just as the town's gates were being opened. After selling the Balloon skins, they made one final stop by the Potions Shop to sell the herbs they had gathered and the Medicines Naofumi had made the night before. The Apothecary was an old and dour looking man, who frowned heavily as the Shield Hero stepped into his shop, but he didn't turn them away either. As Naofumi was about to sell the herbs and Medicine, he asked a question.

"What sells for more? The herbs or the Medicine itself?"

The Apothecary' frown deepened even more, but he answered honestly. "The Medicine. With the ancient prophecies proven true and the Waves threatening the world, Medicine and Healing magic grimoires are in high demand, driving the price up considerably."

Naofumi nodded. That made sense, he wasn't an expert on economic theory, but the rule of supply and demand was pretty straightforward and iron clad. He presented the Apothcary with the dozen or so Medicines he'd made yesterday night. "What would you be willing to pay for these?"

"Hmm, these are pretty good," the old Apothecary looked over the Medicine with an experienced eye. "Do you have a background in Medicine, per chance?"

Naofumi shook his head no. "Yesterday was the first time I tried making some."

"A natural, then?" the Apothecary said, looking surprised.

"I think not, nor do I intend to make it my main source of income, but I'd appreciate if you had some old used tools I could use. I made these with rocks, and I think the quality suffered for it."

The old Apothecary brow raised even higher, but agreed to give him the tools if Naofumi consented in considering the tools as part of the payment for the Medicine and herbs. He agreed, and they then left the Potions Shop with a pestle, mortar, a variety of other tools and another 42 pieces of silver.

They had breakfast at a restaurant and were about to head out for another foray into the forest, but first Naofumi had a surprise for his slaves.

"… Here."

Naofumi drew aside his cloak, revealing a round object that he then threw towards Raphtalia.

It was a ball.

Raphtalia caught it. She looked at it, then at Naofumi, then back at the ball. She was so surprised that she forgot how to talk. Shirou seemed equally surprised at the sudden gift.

"Huh?"

"I saw you looking at the other children playing with one of these, and I thought you wanted one. Consider it a gift to both of you for your hard work yesterday," Naofumi tried to smile, but it came out more as a grimace. "After today's work, you can play with it."

"Yay!"

Raphtalia cheered and gave the biggest smile he'd seen from her so far. Whatever, she and Shirou were just children. The better motivated they were to work hard the more money he would be able to make. Buying a ball for them to play with was a cheap price to pay for such a return.

As they headed towards the town's gates, Shirou took advantage of the much sharper hearing he now possessed because of his demi-human status to listen in on what the town's folk were saying to each other as their party walked down the street. He admittedly found himself curious about Naofumi and his situation and he at that moment had a very, very brief opportunity to find out a little bit of what was going on by listening in on the whispering and gossiping town's folk.

Naofumi wasn't able to hear what they were saying, but he and Raphtalia could, and what he heard…

Monster. Devil of The Shield. Rapist.

…Confused him greatly.

Something wasn't adding up. Naofumi was not what you would call a nice guy, but neither was he evil. He was more a ruthless pragmatist than anything else. And what was that about the Devil of The Shield and being a rapist?

Naofumi was many things, but Shirou couldn't imagine him either as a devil nor a rapist.

What was going on?


The party left Castle Town, bypassed the fields completely and headed into the forest. Naofumi's Defense Stat had more than doubled the day before so he highly doubted any monster in any of the surrounding areas could hurt him. It was with that idea that they headed deeper into the forest, towards the mountains in the distance, gathering all useful herbs and such they encountered on the way.

It was then that they encountered a monster they'd never seen before, and made a curious discovery.

"What's that?"

The monster looked somewhat like a Balloon, only its outer layer was hard like an egg and it looked like one too. It was a soft cream color and it glared at them with sharp eyes, the monster known as a an Eggug not one bit pleased to see them.

Not deviating from their tactics the previous day, Naofumi was the first to rush in.

The Eggug noticed and bared its menacing fangs and clamped down on the arm Naofumi swung at it. Like expected, he didn't even feel an itch from the attack.

"Okay, it's your guys turn!"

Shirou was the first to act. He walked up and with a quick, solid strike of his knife killed the Eggug no problem. It fell to the ground in a pile of shattered shell and a glob of stinking yolk. Raphtalia made a face at the disgusting smell.

She'd become much expressive compared to when he'd first bought her.

Naofumi nodded towards Shirou before reaching down and feeding one of the shell pieces to his shield.

Requirement met: [Egg Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 1 – Equip Bonus: Cooking +1 (unmastered)]

Meanwhile, Shirou and Raphtalia had finished gathering the other shell pieces, but seemed at a loss with what to do with the yolk. They couldn't carry it with them, after all, but just leaving it seemed to be a waste.

"Leave it. That stuff is useless if we can't take it with us."

"… Aren't you going to let the shield absorb the yolk?" Raphtalia suggested, something she would've never done the day before.

Naofumi was about to tell her he'd already unlocked the shield corresponding to the Eggug, but paused. He was going off of game logic thinking that a single monster could only unlock a single shield, but it had been repeatedly pounded into his head since being summoned that, in spite of appearances, that this world wasn't a game. There was no rule as far as he knew that a single monster could only unlock a single shield.

He reached down, grimacing in disgust as he dug his hand into the runny yolk and picked up a large clump. Then he held it up to the shield.

Requirement met: [Yolk Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 1 – Equip Bonus: Cooking +1 (unmastered)]

"… It worked," Naofumi breathed, pleasantly surprised by another lucky discovery. He shook his head, refocusing. "Since it appears it's possible to unlock more than one shield from a single enemy, we'll be dismantling all the monsters from now on. I know it won't be very pleasant, but please bear with it."

"Yes, Master."

"Yes, Naofumi-sama!"

Naofumi didn't even notice that Raphtalia had started addressing him by name.


For the sake of completionism, Naofumi and his party doubled back. Luckily, only the various color variants of the Loomush had to be dismantled and absorbed by the shield piece by piece to get to full list of benefits, as Balloon's only left their skins behind when they were killed. The first time around, he had unlocked 7 shields from the Loomush Weapon Tree of shields, but with his new method of dismantling monsters they killed, that number had increased from 7 to 32. Only a few of those shields offered bonuses to his compounding Skill, most falling back on various Defense Stat boosts with a few Equip Bonuses for other Stats mixed in for variety. With the thoroughness characteristic of a gamer, they also had all the shields mastered before continuing on to the mountains.

They encountered dozens upon dozens of Eggug, again clearly separated in several color variants. None of them were particularly tough, and with their diligent work they had the entire Eggug Weapon Tree mastered in short order. Unfortunately, none of those shields offered any increase to his Attack Stat. On the plus side, his cooking Skill had broken through the stratosphere. Maybe, just maybe, he'd finally be able to taste something now?

The day had been productive, just like the previous one, but at the end, when the sun was going down again and they were about to head back to Castle Town, there was one minor hiccup.

"GRRR!"

"What's that?" Shirou looked up from cleaning the yolk from his knife from a freshly slain Black Eggug.

The bushes parted, and what looked like a rabbit stepped out. It was called an Usapil and, for a rabbit-like monster, it looked rather vicious with its massive front teeth and blood red irises.

Before there was any chance to do much else the bushes rustled and another two Usapils, identical to the first, came out to flank their fellow monster.

"Master!"

"I've already noticed. Get back a bit. I'll hold them down."

Naofumi boldly moved ahead, while Raphtalia seemed hesitant to approach. She'd built up some confidence the day before in fighting monsters, but something about these monsters made her seem uneasy and she remained where she was, not getting any closer.

The Usapils moved to attack the closest target, Naofumi, but their attack proved less than effective. In a few short moments, they were hanging off his limbs, unable to pierce his Defense.

Shirou, long since used to their standard battle tactic, picked the closest pinned down Usapil and drove his knife into its back. It squealed horribly and blood, real, actual blood sprayed out and painted his chest and face in a grisly display.

Shirou blinked, but didn't falter and twisted the knife as he forced it in deeper, killing the Usapil. Then, he quickly moved on and killed another of the Usapils, getting even more blood on him.

He was about to take care of the third Usapil, but Naofumi stopped him. "No," Naofumi shook his head and took a firm grip of the Usapil with both hands, holding it out in the direction of the last member of their party. "Raphtalia, you kill the last."

"N-no," she shakily took a step back, trembling and with her tail tense behind her.

"Raphtalia? What's wrong?"

Shirou took a step towards her, but a single look at his blood drenched form and what little color she had left in her face drained away. Honestly, she looked honest to god ill, and Shirou instantly realized what was wrong with her.

Up to this point, the monsters they had fought resembled inanimate objects, but an Usapil looked like a rabbit, an animal. A living being that will bleed and die if it's stabbed. Thinking of it like that, he'd be considered the weird one for not hesitating at all.

"Kill it. Do it now," Naofumi said, voice hard.

"But…"

"That's an order, Raphtalia."

The Slave Crest on the girl's chest lit up. She doubled over in pain, trying to resist.

A futile effort.

"W-wait! WAIT!" Shirou quickly interjected, raising his knife "I'll-"

"Do nothing," Naofumi cut him off. "Like it or not, we will be killing lots of living things in the future, creatures just like this. If she can't fight, I can't justify keeping her," he said, hiding his grimace at the thought. "I'll have to return her, and I think we'd all try to avoid that."

"You can't be serious!" Shirou blurted out. "She'll die, or worse, if you send her back!"

"Exactly. That's why she has to harden her heart."

Shirou was about to object, violently, but before he could, Raphtalia got back on her feet. She stood steady, her eyes teary but paradoxically focused. She let out a childish scream and rushed forward with her eyes closed, stabbing the Usapil multiple times in the chest. She pulled the knife out and the monster's blood sprayed across her face and chest.

She froze like a dear in the headlights as she nearly dropped her blood drenched knife. Shakily, she ran her hand down her front, coating it with the life giving liquid, forcibly taken.

"GRRR!" Another Usapil appeared, and bounded towards the shell shocked Raphtalia, teeth bared in a ferocious snarl.

"Raphtalia!"

Naofumi dropped the last slain monster and dashed in front of the girl, catching the Usapil before it could close the distance and sink its fangs into her. Instead, the Usapil sunk its fangs into his arm with all the force it could muster, ineffective though it was.

He wrapped his other arm around it, effectively pinning it.

Naofumi looked at the angry Shirou and trembling Raphtalia and let out a breath, all but ignoring the madly thrashing Usapil.

"In a few weeks, a great Wave of Calamity will wash over the world."

Raphtalia's eyes widened, horrible realization crashing over her. Shirou kept his face neutral, if still a bit angry, trying to not show how clueless he was about what was being discussed.

"That's why I'm out here fighting monsters and why I bought you two. As a summoned Hero, I've got no choice but to take part in the battle against the Wave in an attempt to meet it. But all I can do is defend. I need someone else to do the attacking for me and because no one wanted to join my party, I had no other choice but to buy a slave to fight for me."

Shirou thought back to the what he had heard back in Castle Town. The whispered words of ridicule and accusation. If people were talking about him like that, than true or not, it'd be no wonder why no one wanted to join his party.

"I know that it's my responsibility and that it's cruel to force this on you. On both of you," Naofumi's voice was heavy and tired, speaking of burdens unspoken. "But I need to get strong. I need to survive. Please… hate me… detest me all you want. I won't hold a grudge. But please… help me…"

Raphtalia stood straight, knife bared.

"Please, fight for me and don't make me let you go."

Raphtalia had stopped trembling. She lunged.

SQUELCH!

The stab was clean and straight as an arrow. It punctured clean through the Usapil, killing it instantly and releasing another spray of blood.

A second later, Raphtalia's knife dropped to the ground and the girl had tackle-hugged the surprised Naofumi. "Naofumi-sama," Raphtalia whined, burying her face into his stomach. "I'll fight for you. I'ill defeat all your enemies for you. So please, don't throw me away."

"So long as you do your part, I won't," Naofumi promised and patted her on the head.

Raphtalia nodded tearfully, then started when a hand landed on her shoulder. "We will do our part, right, Raphtalia?" Shirou added. "With both of us working on attack, there's no way Master will get rid of us. I'll be with you every step of the way."

Raphtalia wiped away her tears and the blood on her face with the sleeves of her shirt. Her tail wagged ever so slowly behind her. "T-Thank you," she hiccupped.

"I think that's enough for today," Naofumi said, after giving his slaves a moment to compose themselves. "Gather the monster parts and the loot we'd gathered throughout the day. We'll go and clean ourselves in the river on the way back to Castle Town."

Neither Shirou nor Raphtalia noticed the smile that had been on Naofumi's face for the very briefest of moments.


Requirement met: [Usapil Meat Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 6 – Equip Bonus: Cooking +2 (mastered)]

Requirement met: [Usapil Hide Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 4 – Equip Bonus: Defense +3 (mastered)]

Requirement met: [Usapil Fang Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 7 – Equip Bonus: Agility +6 (mastered)]

Requirement met: [Usapil Claw Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 3 – Equip Bonus: Defense +2 (mastered)]

Requirement met: [Usapil Bone Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 6 – Equip Bonus: Defense +5 (mastered)]


Back in Castle Town, after selling their monster loot, Naofumi's party found themselves in a room in an Inn Naofumi had rented for the night. The sun was already going down the horizon, dyeing the world orange. Naofumi laid down the gathered herbs and the tools he'd bought from the old Apothecary on the table before turning towards his slaves. Raphtalia had already tucked away what little possessions they had and was holding the ball he had given her with shining eyes.

"I'm going to work on compounding more Medicine. You two can go out and play if you like, but stick close to the Inn. Don't get lost."

"Okay!" Raphtalia chirped and dragged a bemused looking Shirou out of the room. Both their tails were wagging in unison.

Before Naofumi could even properly get started he heard and saw Raphtalia and Shirou play a game that reminded him of football from the room's window. Raphtalia was delighted, kicking the ball around and laughing as it rolled and bounced across the pavement, while Shirou was more reserved, but still happy if the small smile he wore meant anything.

What a bunch of kids.

Naofumi shook his head and turned back to his compounding. He'd earned a few new recipes from his grinding and unlocking shields and he wanted to try them out. His compounding Skill had also increased by a not insubstantial amount. He wondered, how much having actual tools would help and how much he had improved.

First, he tried to make the same Medicines from last night.

[Healing Medicine Fabricated – Quality: Excellent]

[Basic Cold Medicine Fabricated – Quality: Excellent]

The quality had indeed increased. He wondered how much of that increase was because of the tools and how much was due to his increased Skill in compounding. It didn't matter he supposed. So long as the higher quality sold for more, that's all that mattered.

Then he had a crack at the new recipes.

[Nourishing Beverage Fabricated – Quality: Normal]

[Energy Pill Fabricated – Quality: Normal]

[Healing Ointment Fabricated – Quality: Normal]

Hmm, making these new Medicines hadn't been particularly difficult, but the quality of the products weren't as high as the more simple recipes. He'd probably need more practice or a higher Skill level in compounding to raise the quality.

But now the question was what would earn him more gold? The higher quality of simple Medicines or the lower quality, more complicated Medicines? Better make several of all the Medicines he could make and see how much each of them sold for. Why several? He would need to feed at least one each of the Medicines to the Legendary Shield of course.

Requirement met: [Calorie Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 3 – Equip Bonus: Stamina +2 (unmastered)]

Requirement met: [Energy Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 2 – Equip Bonus: SP increase (small) (unmastered)]

Requirement met: [Potential Energy Shield Unlocked – Base Defense: 5 – Equip Bonus: Stamina Use Down (small) (unmastered)]

These various Medicine shields had useful bonuses, but unfortunately no combat abilities. He had not expected any, but he had hoped for another windfall. No luck.

"What are two demi-humans doing on our turf!"

The yell made Naofumi start. He looked outside, and what he saw made his eyes narrow.

A group of six children were approaching Shirou and Raphtalia, clearly looking to pick a fight. All of them were around their age, if not two or three years older considering their height. They were just a bunch of brats picking on someone they perceived to be weaker than themselves.

Naofumis's expression darkened. He stood up, reaching for something underneath his cloak.

Back outside, Raphtalia was hugging her precious ball to her chest as she cowered behind Shirou. As she was a demi-human that had grown up in the human supremacist country of Melromarc, she knew that demi-humans were second-class citizens. Hence her inability to act.

Shirou didn't know anything of that. And even if he had, he would have spit on such ideas.

"Hey, look. That little twerp his holding something sweet. Hand it over!"

Raphtalia gasped at the demand, hugging the ball tighter. Shirou felt his lips curl down and he stepped forward. If they wanted to get to Raphtalia and to her ball, they'd first have to get through him.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is, but-"

"You think we're going to listen to the words of a stinking demi-human! Get him!"

Two of the older kids lunged at him, fists swinging wildly.

Much to their surprise, Shirou reacted like they were moving in slow motion. He dodged the two fists and sidestepped the follow up kick. Shirou than drove his fist into one kid's stomach. Said kid then dropped like a rock, desperately trying to draw in air and largely failing. The other kid had taken a step back, taken aback, but that was not enough to save him from the vicious backhand that send him sprawling.

"Wha-What the hell!"

This outcome was to be expected. Both Raphtalia and Shirou appeared to be ordinary demi-humans, but both of them had reached Level 7 this very day, making them much stronger than children had any right to be. Combine that with the Stat growth correction power of the Legendary Shield and well, even a Level 1 adult would do well to not steer up trouble with them.

Raphtalia could have kicked these kids around for fun if she had wanted to. Only her upbringing in the country of Melromarc caused her to not stand up for herself.

Shirou stepped back in front of Raphtalia, thinking he'd made his points. "We don't want any trouble. We were just having a little fun playing a game. Just take your friends and leave."

"Do you think we're just going to let this go after YOU dropped my friends like that! I WILL-"

"Leave."

"Huh?"

The apparent leader of the posse turned around and briefly had a full view of a darkly smiling Iwatani Naofumi. The next, his vision was obscured by something orange and round.

CHOMP!

"AHH! What the hell is a Balloon doing here!"

Naofumi was glad he had stocked up on Balloons on the way back to Castle Town. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to punish these little shits himself. He drew aside his cloak. Every eye in the surroundings widened at the half a dozen Balloons gnawing on his limbs.

"Run!" Raphtalia and Shirou warned them, already knowing what was about to happen.

Naofumi's dark grin widened and he started chucking the Balloons at the brats that had been trying to torment his slaves. Even the two collapsed on the ground found their second wind, stood up and ran away with their tails in between their legs, running after their frantically retreating posse. The six kids screamed their heads off at them.

"You'll regret this!"

Naofumi snorted contemptuously. He very much doubted it.

"You two all right?" he asked, looking carefully at Shirou and Raphtalia.

"Ye-Yeah," Raphtalia said. Shirou nodded in affirmation.

"Good," Naofumi nodded, already in the process of gathering the Balloons he had thrown.

"I… Uhm… Naofumi-sama?"

"Yes?" Naofumi turned to the bashful Raphtalia.

"Thank you for… always protecting me. You too, Shirou."

"No problem. That's my job."

Naofumi rubbed her head. Shirou grabbed her hand and gave a squeeze. Her blush deepened and she looked away, smiling. Her hair swayed in the wind as she did, and Naofumi noticed that her hair was rather long and unkempt, unbefitting for a girl. Shirou's hair was still alright as his hair was quite a bit shorter as a boy, but he really thought he'd need to give Raphtalia a haircut.

He did it that very night and Raphtalia was pleased with the new haircut as she giggled and danced about the room with her much more manageable hair. She had steadily become more expressive and happy since he had bought her, and this latest act seemed to make her joy reach a crescendo.

Naofumi's shield reacted when he went to dispose of the cut off hair, so he let the shield absorb it. Though, apparently, he hadn't yet reached the Level necessary to unlock the corresponding shield. He wondered what Shield he would get once he reached the Level requirement.