This is a Full Metal Alchemist and Rising of the Shield Hero Fanfiction only.

As we began to travel through the mine, we actually managed to defeat quite a horde of rat monsters, and sure enough for some strange reason they formed the mice shield, which I am not kidding the skill, it granted as passive are two, cooking improvement and poison detection.

I guess these monsters had been so exposed to the equivalent of pesticides that they developed this skill as a countermeasure, or a means to survive, but the cooking? Since when do a bunch of rats concern themselves over food preparation?

Raphtalia was pretty quiet, so in a sense I was proud that she was aware of the potential for a monster ambushing us, like the previously mentioned rats, and I also was worried that she could be quiet because she is so sad that she is depressed, that would be bad, seriously bad, her night terrors have gotten better, but if the other people in the Inn can't sleep because she is crying that would be terrible.

"You know Raphtalia you never told me much about your family. We are going to be pretty much down here for the entire day, why don't you tell me something about your family, maybe that could make this entire thing more pleasant for both of us."

She looked at me and she began to have this look of confusion on her face, "Well I got no siblings, it was only me, mom and dad, mom was a baker, and my dad was sometimes a lumberjack, and sometimes he fixed the other homes in our village. They always spent their spare time teaching me things, like how to read, count, and told me many stories about the cardinal heroes."

For some odd reason, she started to blush for a second there, "My dad seems to really like stories about the Shield hero most, since he said out of the four, the shield hero was the one hero that was always kind to demihumans. When I was five I had this really embarrassing wish that one day the shield hero would come in riding a white filolial and sweep me off my feet."

I guess this means it was the usual white knight fantasy girls had back in my original world. The only thing that confused me what exactly is a filolial? That was a word I never heard off, do they call their horses that?

"Raphtalia doesn't mean to interrupt here, but what is a filolial?" She laughed and told me that they are the big birds that pulled wagons, now that she mentions it, I think one of the memories I got from the previous shield heroes call them chocobos for some strange reason. Now I am even more confused, each time I tried to remember what they are called all the memories gave me different names, guess not knowing about filolials was rather common among in all shield heroes.

I kept hitting the rock formations the way the pick shield skilled showed me and I have to agree with the merchant, these are some rich deposits of both minerals and metals. I haven't done this for more than half an hour and I got plenty of crystals, metals and other materials.

I will have a field day transmuting some of these materials. I have only started to collect them and I already can imagine a few materials that can be transmuted with these materials. I am not even mentioning the shields that could be unlocked with just the base materials. This will be a very productive day.

That is when I heard some rather loud growls, that made me stop collecting materials and look for Raphtalia it seems she found something that had caused her to curl up in the fetal position, and when I looked a few yards ahead, I saw what had scared her, a rather nasty looking hound with two heads.

The hound had been walking slowly towards Raphtalia but ever since he saw me the hound began to pick up its pace and now was running towards us. "Raphtalia gets up, we need to kill that thing." She screamed that she was too scared, that if she moved she would end up getting eaten.

I had little time to think, so I grabbed her and jumped towards a nearby stream, the only reason we didn't hit the stream was that I used the rope from the rope shield as a means to direct where we were headed and how fast our fall was.

We hit the water and I tried my best to keep her from drowning, it was not an easy thing. "Raphtalia, you know that thing is waiting for us right? We evaded it but it has us between a rock and a hard place, so tell me why are you so scared of it? You killed monsters before, I know you are not afraid when the monsters bleed like you used to be."

She didn't look at me, her wet fur made her look like her ears were not as straight as they usually look. If I didn't know any better I would say she was very sad. "My parents were killed by a hound, they tried to run away, to buy me time for me to escape. If that thing catches me I will die. We have to get away from that thing. Please listen to that monster is too much for us."

I had no means of fighting, my gloves were wet and even if I use the tattoos on my hands the air is too humid for me to be able to use flame alchemy. No matter how much oxygen I can bring into it, the air simply will not combust and the explosion that would kill the hound will not happen.

I think I saw only one way out of this, well I guess in my last moments I will make my father and uncle proud of me, Alchemist be thou for the people, this had been the philosophy that guided me my whole life, who knew it would also be the last thing I would do as I pretty much face my last battle.

As I sent the rope from the shield to tie around a support beam, I beam to climb up, Raphtalia is simply too scared to deal with this hound, and I am not going to drag her down with me, if she is too scared to fight, I hope she is strong enough to survive and leave this country, find a better and fairer place to live.

As we climbed up from the ledge that leads to the stream I looked at the hound, it had this smug look on his face. I ran towards it with my shield active and tried my best to block it. "Raphtalia, if you can't fight, then run, get away from this place, go to a place where you can live and be happy, go, I will buy you enough time to get away, GO NOW!"

I felt the hound biting my arm with one mouth and my shoulder with the other, I used my free hand to take hold of both mouths as they were biting me. I had to hold on to both heads until I know she got away. I had to make sure Raphtalia would survive, the pain was simply so great that I had to focus on my grip just so that I would not lose consciousness.

I tried to look and Raphtalia was still there, what is she doing? I told her to run. "We have to options Rapthalia run or fight, I can't do it, my gloves are wet, and the air is too moist for me to use my alchemy. You don't want to fight it because this thing is like the hound that ate your parents, and I will not force you, so run. Don't die, live Raphtalia."

She was trembling as she finally got up and she began to mutter something, "No, not again, no don't leave me, don't leave me all alone, not Master Mustang, you are not taking Master Mustang from me!"

She jumped towards the hound and with her knife in hand she slashed the hound enough to cause it to back off, he must be really upset since the hound went from coming after me and instead he focused on killing Raphtalia, as it ran towards her I remembered the shield ability that I got in this mine from the Rope shield.

I pointed my hand and called for the Air Strike Shield, it appeared between Raphtalia and the hound hitting it causing it to get dazed, and that was the opportunity Raphtalia needed to stab the hound right through the heart with her knife. The hound yelped and fell down dead, the knife was sticking out of the hound's chest.

She ran towards me and began to hug me, then she began to cry. "Don't die Master Mustang, please stay with me, don't leave me all alone." I thought the bite used to hurt the way she was hugging me was so tight I swear her armor will be covered in my blood, that really hurts.

"I will be fine Raphtalia, you saved me, but could you please stop hugging me so tightly, it really hurts." She was not listening she just kept repeating that I should live and not leave her alone over and over again. I could not take much more and since I knew she was safe my mind went blank and everything went dark.

Never thought that I wake up from being hugged till I was unconscious by a half raccoon girl in the depths of the mine we just finish clearing of monsters, beasts, and other dangerous creatures, hey what is this that is touching me?

I open my eyes and sure enough Raphtalia placed me in one of my newly made blankets and she just had to pick hers of all things, so here I am in a mine on a pink blanket, with patches of rainbows and clouds on it, with Raphtalia still holding me while she is sleeping near me, to anyone else I must look like an absolute pervert.

Hey, when did my wounds close up? That must be the reason I am not feeling pain. Damn it, Raphtalia, how many times have I told her that we camp several feet away from the campfire. Well, she is a kid, I guess I should really be amazed how in the world she got me on this blanket, to begin with, me being a full grown man, and she to me looks like a ten-year-old.

She does look adorable when she is asleep. Now how can I get free from her vice-like grip? I am not even joking, the kid has her arms around mine and no matter how I move she will not let go. She just keeps repeating the same thing over and over, Master Mustang don't go.

I guess this is the situation where the wolf bites his arm off, I just hope that after this she will not end up with an even worse case of night terrors. Honestly, the Inn owner complains to me every single day, I mean every single day since we began to rent that room. If anyone else saw her screaming at me and didn't know I rent the room, I honestly think they would think we are a couple arguing.

Well, I got time, and an adorable half raccoon girl holding my arm for dear life, well let's see what I can do. Might as well check our progress, I concentrated hard enough and sure enough, there is all the information, the items in my so-called inventory, boy I really need to feed a bunch of these crystals and metals to my shield.

I looked at my status and then at hers, ten so-called levels higher, well that is nice. I look at her conditions, her flu is cured that is always a plus, her health is as good as it can be, her stamina is no question about it, I mean she is asleep. Maybe I can get the shield that is made thanks to the Air Strike Shield ability to hover, no, that is not working.

I could try to wake her up, but the only arm I got free is the one where I have my shield equipped, if anything I am happy that Havoc is not here to see this, I swear she would not miss the chance of making fun of me in this sort of situation, I can practically hear her now, well like father like son. Come to think of it, the last person I had an argument with was Lust, and then I got summoned to this place.

I wonder if she is still angry with me, knowing her the obvious answer is yes she is. She can sure hold a grudge, but there is nothing to be done, I got summoned to a new world, in a country that all these memories tell me will without a doubt hate my guts simply because I am the shield hero.

I understand that in the previous wars all the shield heroes fought against Melromarc, and always on the side of the demihumans and the demihuman kingdom, they are the ones that usually summon the shield hero in the first place. I know they even have a country called Siltvelt, I think one of the previous shield heroes actually helped establish the country, something about demanding fair and just treatment of demihumans.

From my memories, I can see Melromarc is a speciest nation that seems to consider anyone that is not completely human to be nothing more than beasts or monsters. The way the slave merchant showed me all those monsters and people locked up in cages I go as far as to call it a human supremacy nation.

I know I should feel bad about purchasing Raphtalia as I did, but I had very little time but as soon as I heard that she was considered property I had to act, I had to do everything I could to get her away from the slave merchant and so I had to buy her. I know I could easily beat him up or threatened him but what kind of savage would that make me?

I still plan to give her the choice as to whether or not keep the slave seal, while I know people love to use that thing to cause pain, why would anyone willingly torture someone as innocent and as kind as Raphtalia just for their insane form of fun? I am better than that, I do realize that the slave seal with me at least does have a few benefits.

I have been able to monitor her health, her nutrition and even check on anything that might be harmful such as injuries, poisons and other things that would put her life at risk, I also see that she gets a bonus in how much she gets stronger. It has benefits but deep down just picturing some sick bastard using it simply to make someone like Raphtalia scream still makes my blood boil.

I will also have to explain to Erhard what was the real reason why I refused Myne's request to join me in this adventure. The guy has been nice to me ever since I met him, he deserves better than me making a scene at his shop. Every time I go to sleep I see the memories of the previous shield heroes.

It is a little frightening sometimes, to think that every night I see what the other shield heroes went through, what they experienced, what they saw, out of all the memories I saw there had been only one person who the previous shield hero considered to be a decent person, she was a rather nice young woman, I think she was once the crown princess of Melromarc now that I think of it.

My predecessor really considered her beautiful, I think that in those memories he actually considered having a relationship with her. I have not seen any memories about any dates that he might have had with her, but then again I don't think the shield is crude enough to show me my predecessor and this princess kissing or being intimate.

The other heroes probably consider their legendary piece of equipment nothing more than a tool, but the more I place things into the shield it makes me feel like the shield is eating the things I place on it like the shield somehow is alive. I guess all these abilities and different shields that are unlocked are simply the Shields is maturing.

I knew the second that the portrait I saw would show me the faces of the royal family, meeting the rude King pretty much told me that was the case, and I did consider Myne to be quite beautiful, but I saw her face and tried to picture her as young as the girl on that portrait and it hit me like a ton of bricks, she is the young girl on that painting.

I knew that being the daughter of the king, the very king who clearly hates my guts simply because of me being the shield hero, she must have grown up hating the shield hero. I knew that I had to place as much distance between me and her as possible, her father would do everything even order his daughter to do something to discredit or make my life a living hell.

I honestly don't know her, I just somehow feel deep down that I just feel like all except for that one lady I know is nice every member of the Melromarc royal family either hates my guts or was raised hating my guts simply because I am the shield hero, the fact that the religion that used to revere the four heroes went and erased the shield hero altogether tells me hatred of the shield hero is very accepted by a large majority of the people of Melromarc.