"When you say, 'offer assistance', can I assume you mean more than just paying us once a month?" asked Ren, and Mirellia nodded at the question, not even reacting to how direct it was.

"Were I more foolish, I might presume to tell you how to train and prepare for yourselves, ordering you, rather than offering a hand instead. I am…sometimes so foolish, I will be the first to admit, but my daughter, husband, and I have spoken at length of the journeys you have been on, filling in details that my reports from others sources simply did not know," she said, making me glance around, but if there were members of the Queen's 'Shadows' in the chamber with us, my eyes couldn't spot them.

"A month ago, the reports I was getting spoke of a Hero of the Spear who did far more harm than good, his actions endangering my populace, with no thought to the damage he did to their lives, or the Kingdom as a whole," she began.

"But, on speaking with my husband, and hearing reports from sources far more aware of some things, I know that this was not a case of lack of care, but a case of being misled. My dau…the Adventurer Myne had the ear of you, and you trusted her words, for their falsity had not yet been proven to you," she explained, Motoyasu tensing up, and then sighing in relief as she spoke.

"The Hero of the Sword, who stalked into town like death himself, covered in blood, and dropped off some grotesque trophy at the Adventure's Hall, before leaving again, letting everyone fear his coming, wondering if his bloodlust was sated, or if he might decide to end them all with a sweep of his blade," she said, turning to Ren who…actually smirked at the image. Broody teenager to the nth degree that one.

"What was left out were the monsters slain not simply for power, or money, but to save others. Of a cavern with a bat shaped demon who had kidnapped a small child, one of many such souls lost to the darkness. That child's family only fails to grieve the loss because you dove into the darkness to save her," she said, almost proudly, and I was shocked to see him blush a little, as he scratched his cheek.

"That was mostly Welts' work. Dude has an ear for quests, and a spell that can light up a dark room or cave really well. I just killed the thing," he admitted, giving me another shock, as he remembered the name of the Crystal Wand wielder in his party.

"Regardless, you did well," she said, before turning towards myself.

"The Hero of the Bow sought out monsters to slay for money, earning him the Guild's adoration, and also a fortune, which seemed to be his only goal, as he claimed a long lost city for his own, and chose to give it to the Guild, as if to mock the idea of our Kingdom," she said, and I chose not to point out I hadn't known I would be earning a demesne or anything like it when I killed the bone hydra boss, as her pattern was pretty clear by now.

"What I heard about only in passing were the people you rescued from worse than death, giving them hope for tomorrow that had been bled from them by someone I can only describe as evil that wore a human skin," she said, and I could agree with that, and was even surprised as I thought of her face, the face of the woman who had died before begging for help, and I felt…not nothing, but not the pain I had even a few short weeks ago.

"As to the Shield Hero, the stories were of a man who cared nothing for the people, who squeezed every coin he could from every village he 'saved' and left them alive, but destitute to the point of having nothing left. A man who claimed tribute from bandits, and then allowed them to return to their craven acts of murder and death," she said, Naofumi looking a bit put out, but he didn't argue.

"What they left out was that he was also a man who saved everyone he could, who faced odds far worse than the other Heroes with far fewer resources, and that he took only what he needed to keep going," she explained, and Naofumi looked from her, towards Melty, who smiled at him and nodded.

"Each of you is unique, and has been doing their best to not only become strong enough to survive, or even defeat the Waves, but all the while also helping my kingdom in the ways they thought best," she explained, laying on the table exactly where she was going with this.

"It is the sort of heroics that anyone would be proud of, and I am happy to help you in any ways that I am able, now that I have returned," she said, while looking to each of us in turn, giving us a moment to digest her words. It fell to me to speak next, as I leaned forward in my seat, crossing my fingers in front of me.

"I'm going to guess that, if you're offering aid, you need to know what we might need, and more, what we can do?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Both would be ideal, but even before that, I have spoken with my husband, read the reports of the Guild, and debriefed the Knights you have encountered in your time here. This group, the four of you, have been divided since early on, and while bridges have been built, burned, and built again, they were never quite as wide or sturdy as what one might hope," she explained, and then brought out an orb I recognized. This was the one that had the fight with the Second Wave's boss and Glass on it.

"I will admit to having only…skimmed this recording, but I have seen now how you did battle with the boss known as the Soul Eater. Each of you battled it valiantly, heroically in fact, throwing yourselves against it with the power and might bestowed upon you by the Cardinal Weapons," she began.

"But you did so without coordination at first, wasting your powers, and working individually instead of together," she said, and I opened my mouth, about to object, as I had indeed been coordinating the efforts of the Sword and Spear, but she held up her hand to ask to continue.

"The three of you threw yourselves at the puzzle that was the summoning, and in doing so, simply flailed about without reason, never coordinating your findings, simply trying one thing after another. Had you spoken with one another, you might have realized the solution some time earlier," she said, and I, along with Ren and Motoyasu looked away, embarrassed, as she wasn't exactly wrong about that.

"Naofumi, coming in later, with eyes that were open to the puzzle, but not set on what the solution had to be, was able to solve it in moments, allowing him to summon the villain, and do battle with them, something that should have happened hours earlier," she continued, and Naofumi looked rather pleased with himself, but she turned to him.

"The battle against the beast was…not as ordered as one might like, but you were successful in slaying it, and would have been even without Naofumi's 'Rage Shield', a power unknown that, by your own admission Shield Hero, poses a risk to you mind and soul," she said, and that made myself and the others perk up a bit. It was true too. Had Naofumi just given us time to recover, rather than charging in half cocked, we would have still killed the thing, if not as quickly.

"As to the duel with Glass…I see many faults therein. You didn't coordinate, you didn't fight as a group, instead hitting her from all sides at random, when the best would have been to layer your attacks, keep her off balance, and guard yourselves against her counterstroke. One, I might remind you, that nearly was the end for all four Heroes in this room," she continued, and we again looked away, as it was true, after all.

"Even with your direction, Bard, you merely gave them cues, and shouted basic commands, doing little to understand your enemy or observe their weaknesses and strategies. Compare that to what my daughter said of the fight against the Tyrant, where you knew exactly what the party was capable of, or what the Guild reports have said of your own efforts, and they were shallow imitations at best," she said, and I had to think that it was kind of true.

Against the T-Rex monster, I'd been more cautious, more looking for gaps in the armor of my foe. Better, I'd known more of what Naofumi had in his toolbelt in terms of abilities, skills, and stats, thanks to watching him and the others work beforehand. Same with my own party. I hadn't been able to give more than passing advice in the Soul Eater or Glass fights, since I honestly had no idea what they could do, and so left it to them to make the best decisions. And it wasn't that they'd done badly at all, it was just…sub-optimal.

"What, are you saying we should make Bard something like the party leader?" asked Naofumi, sounding…a lot less angry about that then I'd expect he would have even a few days ago.

"Nah, she's talking about a coordinator and field monitor. We had them all the time back in Emerald Online. Really helped out on bigger raids," explained Motoyasu, and I looked at him, as did the other two, which made him start a bit, before shrugging.

"I told you, unlike Ren and his whole solo player style, Bard's single player game, or Naofumi reading books, I played an MMO with a Guild. In that sort of game, you don't just have the guys doing the attacking, you have all sorts of other roles. It was important in larger scale, long term raids to have someone to make sure everyone was working at top efficiency, otherwise the bosses would just wipe the whole raid party, and everyone would be pissed," he explained.

"Wait, if you had roles, why did you call Naofumi's Shield the loser class on our first night?" I asked, Naofumi himself actually grinding his teeth a bit at the reminder of how, even before Myne, the others had not been the most endearing companions.

"Because it is, dude. Tanks only matter in games with aggro and wide defense stuff. Emerald Online doesn't have any of that. Heck most games dumped them once real time combat became the big thing," he said, and Ren nodded.

"Not much point in taking damage being your only trick when you've got a good healer class, or can just get out of the way," he opined, and Motoyasu smiled and pointed at him.

"See, he gets it. Tanks were part of the trinity of classes a long time ago because games were slow and awkward. Now? You want DPS, Crowd Control, Buff, Debuff, and Healer, and some of those can be combined together. Tanks just got outmoded by better game design," he explained, which sounded reasonable, I supposed, but even some multiplayer games I was aware of back home HAD tanks…even if they were never the most popular to play as.

"I still think Tanks are part of any good combat encounter, but I can see some of that logic, I suppose," I admitted, and Naofumi, who had stayed quiet looked at me like I betrayed him, so I stared right at him.

"Don't take that to mean you aren't playing a useful role here in this world. After all, you have wide area defense, and plenty of other skills that we've seen in action," I told him, and it was, surprisingly, Motoyasu who agreed with me, slapping his hand on the table, and pointing at him.

"No kidding, did you see the barriers and stuff this guy was putting up in our duel, and the hits he took? I mean, he still lost because he was up against me, plus my new Armor made me able to adapt on the fly to anything he pulled out. But put him up against you or Ren, and he'd trounce both of you," he said with a laugh, and Ren grit his teeth, slamming his own hand on the table.

"You think I couldn't have won that fight?" he asked, and Motoyasu, smirking as he leaned forward and placed his head on his hands, nodded smuggly.

"I know you're good kid, I've seen you fight, but you go all out too fast, and Naofumi's got the skills to make that sort of style hurt, as he just outlasts you," he said bluntly, and Ren climbed to his feet.

"And you think you could take me on?" he asked, and Motoyasu, for such a blonde to his soul type, showed some actual awareness, and instead of saying yes offhandedly, looked up and down the Sword Hero, before shrugging.

"I mean…maybe? My style's better than yours for long haul battles, and this Armor I'm wearing is endgame level gear, letting me do what I need to do and then turn my strategy on a dime like against Naofumi, but when it's two of us, I think it would come down to a toss up on who blinks first," he admitted after a moment, and Ren, looking thoughtful himself, nodded at it. Seeing an opening, the Queen leaned forward in her seat, bringing our eyes to her.

"It would seem this Council is off to a rousing start, if what I had been told about your earlier interactions was any indication," she said, and Motoyasu, with a dopey grin on his face, nodded, before pointing towards me.

"Okay, so, that leaves us to what we have, what we can do, and where we're going," he said to me, and I nodded, before reaching down, and pulling some mushrooms out of my pouch, three of them in particular.

"Actually, before we get to that, I have a little experiment I want to run," I said with a grin on my face.

(A/N: This is one of the few times where I will cop to the fact that this is not really Queen Mirellia, this is an OC wearing her skin. This is how she is DESCRIBED by others within the story of Rising of the Shield Hero. But the woman we meet in every version is every bit the mother of Malty Melromarc.

She does not guard her words, she does not hold back her biting remarks, and she belittles those around her if they have earned her ire(even if it's earned through ignorance and not malice). She has a heart, to be fair, the anime says directly that, if her Husband and Daughter were executed, she would either join them, or offer up her life before theirs, so they might live.

But her interactions with the Heroes runs counter to the descriptions we are given, of a woman who is ever the consummate diplomat, who thinks through her actions to the point of seemingly being a chessmaster…autocorrect wanted that to be cheesemaster…I don't know what's going on with that.

Anyway, I simply took the descriptions we are given of her, and how she did go to each of the three nations around her, and in weeks got them to agree to the summoning, stymied only by Faubrey and its King. Though as Reprise says, Siltvelt was lying, and Shieldfreeden was…well they weren't lying, but they didn't see the need to keep their word if it came down to it. They'd do it if it was in their interests to keep doing it, but would have gone back on it if the scales tilted the other way.

So, this woman has actually gotten reports, and instead of simply saying to the other three Heroes, Naofumi is the strongest amongst you, and if he doesn't help you, you will all die, she coaches her words better here. She drives them forward, and even pokes Naofumi's own ego, as here he's only used the power of Curse once, and so she sees him as good, but not perfect in this version.

I think that was my biggest issue with her in canon, especially now that I have read the manga. She keeps talking up Naofumi's power, but the biggest victories are with the Curse power, a power he, right in front of her, refuses to share how he got with the other Heroes, and rather than understanding that means they won't be as strong, she berates them to the point of driving one of them away completely, so she has to send Naofumi to drag him back.

Sorry about the bit of a rant, but I wanted to get ahead of accusations with her. Yes, this is not the Canon Mirellia as she IS, this is the Queen we have described to us several times.)