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

I decided to visit Erhard see if I can help the guy out. Out of the entire capital, there have been only three shops that actually welcome me and are willing to treatment fairly, the magic shop who is owned by my neighbor's grandmother, the Apothecary who buys most of the medicines I make, and Erhard who I sometimes sell leather and metal.

All the other shops let's say need a reason why to even do business with me, I am not kidding when I said balloons properly trained could be rather nice pets. I took one of the ones that were trying to bite me and trained that balloon so well that he can bite through a copper shield.

That balloon also was rather loyal to me and Raphtalia, a little overprotective now that I think of it. For some strange reason I decided to name him Bowser, Raphtalia called it cute, and my pet balloon sort of like it. He goes with me everywhere, he hides by biting my bet beneath my cape.

If Bowser hears that someone is trying to deny me service or tries to rip me off, he jumps off the ground and tries to bite the idiot's head off. I, of course, try my best to prevent that from happening, a few times and a few people spreading gossip they no longer do that, but I still don't like to be anywhere near the capital.

"Erhard you in here? I came to see if you needed any leather or things." Not a word, I don't like how this feels, I came into the shop and the shop was quite a little too quiet. I began to look in the area around where he kept his weapons, maybe bandits or other crooks tried to steal from him.

I began to walk back to where he has his armors display. As soon as I turned around someone blocked my vision with apparently two very soft hands, and then I felt two mounds press against my back. "Guess who?"

I think it is Myne, I still don't know why she would try to pull something like this, is not like anyone else wears that perfume. I decided to get even with her. "For the last time Merrill, I am not interested in becoming a member of your coven. You know as well as I do, that the other witches would never accept a guy, especially one that does according to the weird magic as I do."

She finally stopped touching me and looked pretty upset for some odd reason, "Wrong, how can you not tell it is me. I got to tell you I feel a little hurt that you were so friendly with that witch that owns the magic shop but not with me, one of your childhood friends no less. Here I had Erhard get a little surprise for you and this is how you treat me."

It is me or does women in general love to use the guilt trip whenever they don't get their way? "Well I don't think pranks are something a young princess should be doing, so I told a little white lie. The magic shop owner never told me her name and is just a good friend of mine, the other stuff I made up. I don't even know her name truth to be told, but why are you acting like you are jealous?"

I looked at her and damn I wish I hadn't done that, she is sure wearing fine armor, but it tends to make quite a display of her very attractive figure. "Besides aren't you a member of the party of that spear idiot?" She walked near me and began to touch my chest, boy am I happy she doesn't have her homunculus abilities or I think she would send one of those fingers right through my heart, that is how upset she looked.

"Not my fault Roy, I asked you to let me join your party remembers, and you coldly ignored me. My father pretty much ordered me to join the party of Sir Motoyasu. As far as I understand who is the worst idiot? The one that can't take a hint or the one that keeps ignoring how much I care about him? What do you say about it, Erhard?"

He finally came out carrying a crate, "I would say princess that with someone as thick as Roy you need to be more direct. For all you know he probably thinks you are sleeping with Sir Motoyasu, that would send mixed messages to any man."

I looked at the crate and it even had a bow on it. "So who is having a birthday party?" He told me to open the crate and I was stunned by what was inside it, from the way the leather and metal felt this is some of the things I gave him to make my new armor set, but he said it would be finished after the coming wave, that is two days from now.

"Well, the princess here has been pretty much pretending to be a stone gargoyle and pretty much spends a lot of time in my shop. She said it was because she needed to get some armor made for herself, but she also kept asking me to make finishing your armor set a priority. I had to only work on it for two weeks. I finally got it finished today and luckily you showed up today."

"So stop making excuses and try it on, I need to adjust it for a better fit. As for presents, I have this magic iron sword I was planning to give Raphtalia, where is Raphtalia anyways?" I told him she was off walking Bowser. That made him sort of laugh, as I put on the armor, it was a combination of leather, gambison, and metal plates.

The entire thing made me look like a bandit, I am not kidding the entire thing made me look like an absolute villain, with a cape and everything. The only thing missing was a helm that had horns on it, and a belt that hangs down to look like a pointy tail and people would say I was the devil incarnate.

Raphtalia suddenly decided to walk into the shop with Bowser in her arms, for some odd reason Bowser really like to be carried by her. "Wow, Master Mustang that armor looks so cool. You did a wonderful job, Erhard, it looks even nicer than that plate armor over there."

I looked at her while wearing my new armor, "I am supposed to be a hero, yet somehow I end up looking like the Bandit King, but let's put aesthetics aside, it is nice, light and comfortable, it almost doesn't feel like I am wearing armor at all, I could wear this all day, every day, and it feels like I am wearing regular clothing."

Erhard smiled, "I call it Barbarian Armor. I am glad you find it so comfortable kid, I know how much you said agility is a factor in combat for you. I also planned to add an auto repair feature to it, but since Princess Malty here rushed me, I didn't have time to do it, I guess I can continue to upgrade it after the wave, speaking of which how long till the next wave?"

I touched looked at my status and was rather shocked, "By the looks of it little more than half a day, boy times sure flies. I guess I got so occupied stocking medicines and improving the defenses of Lute that I simply lost track of time."

I really should not have mentioned Lute, "So that is where you are living. No wonder I could never find any trace of you in any of the Inns in the capital. Speaking of which why is that demihuman, Raphtalia, carrying that balloon like it is a pet? Isn't she scared of carrying something like that?"

I looked at her and I swear she is acting like she is jealous for some reason, from her tone she doesn't like demihumans, or it is that she doesn't like Raphtalia in particular for some reason. "Because that balloon is a pet, his name is Bowser, he is quite feisty if you can't tell. He is also the guard for our home."

That made her glare at Raphtalia who was looking at the sword rack. "You mean to tell me you two live together? What is next? That you both sleep together too?" Why is she this angry? I mean her father pretty much would love for me to die during the wave, in fact, I wouldn't put it past him ordering his soldiers to make sure of that did happen.

"Actually I am the one that should complain, no matter how many times I asked him, Master Mustang still lets me have my own room, I keep telling him that I would be more comfortable if we slept on the same bed. I am sure I and even Bowser would feel less worried if he let us do that."

I need to change the subject as fast as I could, no telling where a conversation like this will turn out, but even I can tell it would not be pleasant. "Anyways, since we are here I think it is time we finally get you a proper sword Raphtalia, and speaking of weapons, shouldn't you be training with Motoyasu to increase your power? Oh wait, less than half a day to the wave, I hope you are ready."

She smiled an almost predatory smile and looked at me, "I wouldn't worry too much, I am more than ready to face any monster. You should know how well I can handle bladed weapons Roy, or did your father never tell you about that." Yes, dad told me Lust was an expert in close quarters combat, and he did mention what she could do with knives, swords, and lances.

"I guess I should worry more about your frayed relationship with the cult, I mean church, I don't think they will be very happy that you were worried about little old me, you do remember that under their ideology, I am pretty much the devil right?" That made Erhard drop his smiting hammer on his foot. That has to hurt, a lot.

"Since when did you know about that?" Did Erhard truly think I was oblivious to the fact that the national religion of his country considers me the devil? I guess since I regained the last memories that I left in my shield from my previous incarnations I know a little more than people expected, then again that is the reason why I left those memories in the first place, knowledge is power.

"I have known that for quite some time, in fact, I have known that since I began to look at the information that was placed within the status magic we heroes can use. There is an awful lot of information in that magic if you know where to look. I looked at Class Upgrades and that is when I remembered that the Church or Cult only worships the Lance, Sword and Bow Heroes. That sort of makes sense since the Shield Hero is almost never summoned by Melromarc."

I look at Erhard and couldn't help smiling, "I can't thank you enough for being fair even supportive of me. I know you didn't mention it because you thought this would actually make either furious or it would hurt me, but the hate people felt against the Shield Hero is not exactly covert, Malty, does Melromarc actually have a national holiday where they burn wooden shields on a large pile in the middle of the plaza near your family's castle?"

She waited for a second before she looked at me and began to shake her head, "Actually Roy they don't burn wooden shields or have that national holiday, but the fact that most nobles indeed hate the Shield Hero is not openly spoken but it is also not openly denied. Remember our last meeting with my dad? Well, he is not exactly happy."

This made Erhard after she handed Raphtalia a new magic steel sword to walk over to where I was, "What exactly does she mean her dad did not exactly happen? Cause I need to know." I guess the news of our last meeting was not part of the gossip that was distributed to the public. No wonder, it didn't exactly paint the King in the best light.

"The King in his infinite wisdom tried to accuse me of actually forcing myself on his daughter. They actually arrested me, brought me before him shackles and accused me of doing something truly horrendous. Too bad for him the crime supposed to have happened or at least he planned to say it happened in the Inn near his home in the Capital."

"Too bad he actually never checked if I ever checked in at the time he provided rooms for all the heroes, I been slowly recovering my memories, which I left in my previous lives here, but at the time one thing was clear, not to trust the King. I was not in the Inn, I was mining and clearing out mine at Lute."

"So you can imagine the King was not exactly happy to find that his carefully planned scheme to ruin me publicly, only left him with egg on his face, when I could call no less than a dozen people to testify about my innocence. Hope you don't mind me calling you Myne, she said that there was not even the possibility of me forcing myself on her, so seeing his plan go up in smoke, and contradicted by his own daughter, how could he not be upset?"

That is when he began to laugh, and I mean laugh like he heard the funniest thing ever. "You know that sexual assault is a crime punished with the death penalty right? He didn't even consider that the facts were straight, I am sorry, but I wish I could have seen that. You probably want to give me a birthday present, forget it, this more than qualifies."

I began to try to move when I realized that Myne or Malty was pressing herself against my back. "I don't imagine the Pope would be very happy to see you pressing yourself against them, what was it, the Devil of the Shield?" She placed her head against my back and then she kissed the back of my neck, how? I am taller than she is.

"I wouldn't worry too much about him. He will be more upset how the priest of the church was told to leave Lute, and most people renounced being a part of the Three Heroes Church. I know you been helping that town a lot, but even I am shocked and amazed how quickly you gained the loyalty of the people in that town. What did you do? Clean out mine, and kill creatures around the town."

I also provided them with free medical exams, affordable medicines, and a few ideas on how to process metals, minerals and grow food more efficiently. You know, basically, be a good neighbor. They did take notice on my metal processing and purifying ideas, even the crop rotation, but minerals such as crystals, they felt those better remain as natural as possible.

Well for some reason Myne was acting rather forward, who am I kidding, she used to embody the very sin of Lust, she actually quite modest when you take that into consideration. "Myne have you considered that you are being watched and that you being this way with me could end up causing you trouble?"

She didn't even move, she began to giggle when I said, "Well it is nice to hear you still worry about me, it is rather touching to see that you care. Don't you worry none Roy, I have my way to deal with this sort of trouble, and most of the shadows for some reason or another always avoid Erhard's shop for some reason."

Erhard looked at her and began to shake his head at me, "They know I am not a security risk, and they don't want to tick off their main weapons and armor supplier. What do you mean you left memories of your previous lives? You mean to tell me this is not the first time you have been a Shield Hero."

I walked over the counter and looked at what he had in stock as far as leather components, he could use a bit more in regards to deer and elk hides, his stock of scales also seem to be low, I better make a mental note of that after the next wave. I think he used some of it to finish my armor, but I supposedly left enough.

"As far as I can recall this is my fifth time being a Shield Hero, the last time was before Myne's parents were even married. The man who is now King was born in a Noble family but in the low end of the Noble families. The only thing they had going for them as they were a lineage of knights of some renown."

He began to look at me as he kept touching the armor I was wearing for some reason. "Well it fits, yes, I will take care of what I couldn't get done after the wave is done, hope you don't mind a question of a private nature. If you are the reincarnation of the last Shield Hero, did you actually date anyone in your previous life, someone who might still be carrying a torch for you."

That was a private matter and asked me in front of a kid like Raphtalia, and someone who clearly didn't like the question such as Myne. I had no reason to hide it, he trusts me I should repay him with the same level of trust. "I did, but apparently I didn't mean much to her since she apparently married someone else. We met once when I saved her life during one of the waves, she was off playing with Filolials. Something about them having really soft feathers."

"I was summoned by another country and just happen to be present during the wave, I saved her, and kept her safe during the wave, I didn't have any combat ability as I do now, so at most I was merely protection while the other three heroes killed the one monster that was leading the wave. We got to spend quite a bit of time together, alone, and she became really interested in me."

He was just loving this story I could tell, to me it was like pouring salt and acid in an open wound. Having to remember how Mire and I met was not something I ever wanted to tell someone, but Erhard is one of the few people I know I can trust.