Filler Chapter 1
Broken Manor
Day 28
"NOOOOOOOO!" Delia yelled.
After she was released from the medical tent, Delia was prepared for a relaxing day after the wave. She missed yesterday's activities, much to her annoyance. So she was hoping for something interesting to happen today.
That was until she saw the damage to her perfectly crafted manor.
The explosion didn't just blow up the bottom floor. It also sparked a fire that the kids didn't know of. By the time they noticed and put it out, it was already too late. The wood on the bottom floor was now unstable, and the furniture found inside was destroyed as well.
And as Naofumi predicted. The bunny did not take it well.
"MASTER! WHAT DID YOU DO!"
"How am I responsible for this!?"
"Master."
"What!"
"How could you let this happen!" Delia whined.
"I had nothing to do with the house blowing up!" Naofumi scowled.
"Indeed. It was Itsuki who destroyed the place." Zalton chimed in.
"I'll kill 'em!"
"Go for it."
"Grab my knife Teba!"
"With pleasure." As Teba went to get their gear, Melty got in the way, blocking their path.
"Okay, I'm gonna put a gag order on this right now. We're not murdering lord Itsuki!"
"He just threatened the safety of my territory and destroyed my favorite and only house. He wants to be enemy number one so bad? I'll happily oblige."
"Just let Father handle this for now. Siltvelts wave is in two weeks with Zeltobles shortly after. If Fitoria is having us defend those places, then we don't have the time to focus on one person." Melty argued.
"I'm not gonna sit by and just let him walk away. I lost thousands of Silver on that place!"
"Then can you at least focus on the first set of waves? And if we don't have him when you return, then you can track him down."
"Deal. Zalton gathered a damage report and put the village on high alert. If anyone steps one foot in this territory, I want to know about it."
"On it my lord."
/~/
Day 34
Girls Building
90% Complete
"Why me." Keel blushed.
Her recent revelation of the birds and bees didn't help her journey to become cool. The boys were indifferent about it. Most still saw her as one the dog as one of the guys, and she was happy with that. The girls however were a different story. For some reason, many of the village girls wanted to pick her up and get a glimpse at her potential beauty.
Days of avoiding hair and makeup sessions soon lead the fashionistas to just kidnap her. And despite her protest, she became their dress-up doll for the day. She could fight her way out, but she begrudgingly let it happen, hoping for it to end as soon as possible.
The group of girls cycled in and out, each one putting her through several different dresses. The final one and most embarrassing, would have to be the maid outfit they got from who knows where. It felt degrading, and as stated before, very humiliating. But it also felt nice. Not that it mattered. Keel felt too flustered to wear it anymore and immediately fled from the room.
Storming down the hall and into her newest room. Keel was about to take off the dress before looking at herself in front of a mirror. It's been a while since she last saw her reflection. Probably the first time she looked at herself after her growth. Before she was still a pup who still believed in something as silly as Santa. But now she's a teen with a swollen chest and sharpened claws. As well as still being a girl who believes in something as silly as Santa.
It was hard to grasp. Keel thought she'd grow up to be macho and super manly like her father. And now here she was. She had the muscle sure. But now she's far from being the man of the sea she always wanted to be.
She hated the dresses, it made her feel less manly. But in the back of her mind. There was a feeling of contentment. A guilty pleasure. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to gag. But yet, she couldn't help but feel delighted.
Doing some curtsy's in the mirror and even a little pose. Keel giggled to herself.
She couldn't help but realize. But she does look kind of cute. Of course, her goal is to still become the coolest person in the village. But there was no harm in dolling herself up a bit in secret right?
"I gotta say. I do look kind of cute."
"You sure do." A voice chuckled.
"Thanks Rifana… RIFANA!"
"Heh heh!"
"RIFANA YOU GET BACK HERE WITH THAT RECORDING!"
/~/
Broken Manor
"Maybe it's still salvageable?"
"I'm not sure if that's possible." Teba scratched the back of his head. He had never seen his owner this distraught before. It was an odd change of pace, to say the least.
"Hold on. Maybe if I try-." Crack
As Delia tampered with the hinges, the wall holding the door broke off. As she held up the broken door, Teba tackled his owner to the ground and took the door from her hand.
"[Fast Reinforce!]"
The door was reinforced with magic as the building began to fall. Fending off the falling debris with the door. Teba grabbed Delia and leaped out of the building with seconds to spare. Any slower, and the manor would have crumbled on top of them.
"Well, that just happened." Teba breathed a sigh of relief before checking on his owner. No injuries to note, but she was even more distraught now.
Delia sat there sumped on the ground, starting at what used to be her greatest project. Teba did his best to console the depressed bunny, his sandwich even being stolen as he started to pat her head. But even eating wasn't enough to fill the hole in her heart.
"You know. You can just rebuild right?"
"I know but… It won't feel the same you know. I worked hard on this and for what? Just for it to be blown up in seconds. All those inspections and sleepless nights were for naught"
Teba sighed. "It just ran into bad luck. The manor held out well for the few days we had it. So stand proud. You're a good mason."
"Really?"
"Yes. Really. It was blown up by a hero after all. For it to stand this long after that, it had to be some quality work." Teba shuddered as Delia went in for a hug. He was reluctant at first but hugged back after a bit. "By the way. This is the only amount of affection I'm showing you for a while."
"It was well appreciated little bro. Now let's build manor mark II. And It'll be 5000 Square feet this time!"
As Delia found her motivation, she flinched as a moderately sized house appeared in front of her.
"WHAT THE HELL!"
"Huh, the shield was a success," Naofumi muttered.
With Delia's ears picked up the voice. Naofumi turned towards her master who was placing dozens of homes around the town. As she witnessed this, one thought passed through her head. She immediately shooed it away. But Teba saw the distress and wanted to troll his owner a bit.
"Welp. Looks like you're getting replaced!" Teba laughed.
"SHUT UP!"
"There's my Delia."
/~/
Stable
"The shield hero has a lot of filolial, would you really be content with five? Fitoria asked. Since Melty bought up the current stock of Filolial from the slave trader. Motoyasu had to go somewhere else to find some more.
During his short travels, he met one man named the Filolial hermit. The hermit gifted him an egg for safekeeping before disappearing in a weird mist like he was never there. It was a nice gift sure, but the issue still stood. He had one egg, and he needed four more to make a full party. With the slave trader's stock not replenishing until next week. The spear hero went to the obvious choice.
"Absolutely queen angel! Once they hatch, I'll have a bundle of angles for myself."
"If that's what you desire, then I wish you the best of luck raising them. This one in particular."
Fitoria picked up one of the eggs. It was larger and felt heavier than the rest. Motoyasu of course, didn't notice this and only focused on his Filolial craze.
"This one… it's special."
"Special? In what way?"
"I'm not sure. But it feels different from all the rest." Fitoria handed Motoyasu back the egg before summoning her carriage. "Take care of it. I'm sure something great will come from it."
/~/
Somewhere in Lurolona
"I've seen lots of stuff as a shadow. But this village is the pinnacle of what the fuck." The shadow dressed in black took a sip from her tea. She was the queen's personal shadow, entrusted to Melty so she could protect her.
At first. She was a bit apprehensive about the queen's plan. The princess, although very knowledgeable. Was still a bit young to take on a task like this. Even though she doesn't listen to the three heroes' church propaganda. She still dislikes making the shield hero a lord so early on. Not to mention during a very controversial period in his career.
The Lord's meeting and the attempt on his life during the wave showed how much hate the shield has. And now even the bow hero has turned against them due to the way he governs the land.
But even with the constant disasters showing itself in the shield's presence. Naofumi Iwatani wasn't that bad of a lord. Sure to some, he's rude, brash, greedy, and a nightmare to work with. But most lords are so he's already playing the part well.
What makes him a good lord however is that he's not taking the burden onto himself. He uses the people around him in order to maximize efficiency in certain areas. With his current group of leaders. They're making great strides in returning the village to its former glory. Maybe even something beyond that.
Because of this, news of the shield hero's work hasn't gone unnoticed. Shadows from other nations also kept an eye on the hero.
In times like this. They would stay out of each other's sight and rarely intervene in each other's affairs. The shield hero isn't just Melromarcs after all.
Zalton however decided to go against this rule. And he went around and invited every shadow in the area to a tea party, just because he could. She was obviously going to decline. But the thought that he was able to find her and everyone else so easily made her a bit scared. So now she was here, drinking tea with enemy informants.
Whatever she says would most likely be reported to the enemy. So she had to watch her tongue for many of the conversations there. At least she had an exact count of people watching the shield hero. It'll make things easier for later.
"I'll have to agree myself. Between this and the golem incident with Doof. I'd say this takes the cake." Zalton chuckled.
"What's Siltvelt doing with golems?"
"Classified."
"Then who's Doof?" Another shadow asked. Since Shadow A was in charge of watching over Melty. Shadow B took charge as the queen's top informant. Her task was to watch over the three heroes. And it was made easy since they lived in the same place, much to the protest of the shield hero. Itsuki however went off the grid, which made her job a bit more difficult. Thankfully. She wasn't blamed for losing him.
But now that there are two shadows for Melromarc in Lurolona. Zalton decided to give them names. Melty's shadow was called Kage, and the new one Yin for simplicity's sake."
"Some mad scientist. Don't worry about him, he blew up."
"Because you killed him?"
"Also classified."
"...Okay." Yin sipped her tea, not wanting to make an enemy of Zalton. As she sipped her tea, a bunny demi human beside her went for the nearby sugar.
"I swear. You people from the outside are barbaric as usual." The bunny shadow scoffed.
When gathering the group of spies around Lurolona. They found a shadow from the country of Qten lo. His task however wasn't to observe the heroes. Instead, he was observing one of the villagers under orders from the emperor.
"Say the country whose emperor has an executioner as a best friend." Zalton joked.
"SHE is the water dragon priestess. A master of the mystical soul arts. I demand you show some respect when her name."
"Ha. No."
The shadow fumed, mere seconds away from jumping across the table. He however composed himself and indulged in more tea.
"I'll have you know! Master Takt is the classiest of us all!"
There was one final shadow. She was from Faubrey, and much like the rabbit, she wore no mask to hide her identity. Her job is similar to the rest. Observe the heroes and report back to her master. What made her special however was the obnoxious admiration for said master.
"You mean that one "Genius" that found out how to make ships fly? Why not just use a dragon?" Zalton asked.
"You dare question his tech!?"
"Isn't he the guy who spent months building a… what it called apartment? Whatever it is. The shield hero just did the same thing in an instant. If there's a skill that can do that, then what's the point of genius?" The rabbit sipped his tea, as the girl seethed at his question."
"You just don't know the greatness of Master Takt!"
"If greatness is a man working on a weapon more expensive but just as effective as a bow. Then I'd find someone else to follow."
"That's it!" The girl jumped across the table and attacked the rabbit. The rabbit shadow, however, just dodged as he drank his tea.
"Fan girls. Am I right?" Zalton chuckled as he looked over to Kage. "You're not a fan girl of the queen right?"
"The hell are you asking!?"
/~/
Somewhere in Melromarc
"We've been walking for hours. How long until we get there bandit?" Malty demanded.
"It's Tanji princess. And we're right here." As they reached the top of the hill, the sight of a massive town caught their eyes. It wasn't as big as the castle town. But it was large enough to house thousands of people without issue, possibly even more.
The city was walled off. And every building they saw looked well-built and was made of some of the finest materials around. Guards clad in armor patrolled the place, with the largest amount of them coming from the very back of the city. Even with it being far away, it was hard to miss. Being almost four stories tall, with a field half the size of the city it's in. This area was the lord's manor. And it was their final stop in their journey.
"What is this place?" Itsuki asked.
"This bow hero. Is the Zail territory."
"Are you sure they can help us though?"
"No need to worry Lord Itsuki. The lord should be happy to see you."
"This better not be a trap. If it is I'll-"
"Yeah yeah. Tattle to your father. I got the memo princess."
"You dare interrupt me!"
Sigh. "Five more minutes Tanji. Five more minutes." Tanji whispered as he herded everyone inside.
/~/
Code Phrases
Naofumi has made many code phrases so he can discreetly order Zalton in times of pressure. The list of phrases goes as follows.
Damn that's crazy = "Be on watch"
What are you so pissy about = "Be ready to strike"
Don't fret over every egg: "Alert the guards"
I don't care = "We might be fucked"
I really don't care - "We are definitely fucked"