This is a Full Metal Alchemist and Rising of the Shield Hero Fanfiction only.
It was the very next day we were hired by a merchant. This is one shifty merchant, can't help but like him. He reminds me of the stories dad used to tell me about his long-dead friend, Maes Hughes, in the end, he followed his dead friend's advice that he should get himself a wife. Well if he hadn't I would be telling you this now, would I?
"So you are a loan shark as well as a marker of accessories, well I call that being smart and not putting all your eggs in one basket. Now you want to get from your home to the capital, don't worry we will make sure you get there safe and sound."
As I said that Filo began to laugh, "You mean this is the Filolial I heard so much about, this the god of domesticated fowl, and that must make you the Savior of the heavenly fowl. Indeed I believe that if you make a promise I have nothing to fear, but I didn't know she could talk about how wondrous."
I simply told him that she is simply excited about traveling with people other than those that raised her, she is practically our daughter, so our little one gets excited to meet new people. That kept her from talking, guess all I need to do is embarrass her to keep her from saying something we would later regret.
"Master Mustang, there is a group of men blocking the road, somehow I don't think they look that friendly." No, I don't imagine they are friendly since more than likely they are after our merchant passenger, guess the reason he needed extra security while traveling is that he had quite the load of money in those briefcases, money he will deposit in the central bank at the Capital.
"Look, we already know that money-loving scumbag is there with you, so cough him up, and everything you own, and we might decide to let you go with your lives." I jumped from the place I was seated to the road in a single leap, and apparently, Raphtalia and Filo were ready to fight, good thing I got her some new gear and some talons for Filo.
"You know something that demihuman looks pretty darn hot, you should also leave her with us, think of the fun we could have with her boys. Don't even think of opposing us, and refusing our generous offer, we have a guy who has done a class upgrade, so he can kill all of you without much effort."
"As a source of power, I order you to decipher the laws of nature and cloak me in like, Mirage."
There was a bright light and she was gone, "As a source of my power, I order you to decipher the laws of nature and grant me a strong wind, fast tornado." As soon as Filo said those words several small tornadoes appeared and flip them up into the air, and when they landed Raphtalia gave enough a painful hit to the back of their heads using her sword.
Well, it looks like I didn't get to do much, all I ended up doing was get my rope shield and tied them up. "So who hired you lot to rob the merchant?" They didn't want to tell me until they saw Raphtalia grab her weapon and began to walk towards them. "Alright, I will talk, a merchant told us a fat cat would be traveling down this road carrying a pile of cash and jewels."
"So one of my own sold me out, why am I not surprised?" I looked at him and could tell even though he was pretending, this affected him, to be betrayed by a colleague, for this person to know his usual travel routes, must mean this person knew him fairly well to know him like this.
He arranged for a third party to provide transport, which means, he already had a suspicion this would happen or someone pretending to care actually suggested it, on the first he would be relieved that he was able to avert a tragedy, but the second makes more sense from the way my senses are telling me, this was a surprise and it hurt him.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, the real situation is how do you want to deal with these bandits?" He simply smiled and looked at them, "Ordinarily I would want to take them to the local guards, have them arrested. I may be alright but they did break the law, and something tells me I am not the only one these people have robbed."
No I don't imagine that is the case, except that they been looking at my shield snickering, which tells me all I need to know, "Actually that would not work at all for me, the second we take them to the guard these bandits will pull a wolf in sheep clothing and pretend that they are harmless travelers who were shamelessly assaulted and robbed by the Devil of the shield, right?"
They all began to laugh like they heard a really funny joke, till one who was the toughest of them, the one that did a class upgrade or at least that is what he pretends, to do a class upgrade he would need the permission of the crown and the pope, the pope maybe but I don't think Luge would do anything to help a commoner.
"You know us well, indeed who are the guards going to believe the badly beaten commoners or the Devil of the shield? You should know that you got no way to come out of this winning, too bad for the merchant getting involved with an even worse criminal than we are."
I guess I should stop being so damn merciful with these crooks then, I used my alchemy to form pockets of highly combustible air around them, at a safe distance for this demonstration, "You know you are right, why am I being so kind to you." I snapped my fingers and each snap an explosion happened that made a large hole in the ground, causing rocks to hit them.
"Guess I got no alternative but to kill all of you, when I get done with you, there won't be even ashes left. So do you have something else to say to the Devil of the shield, before I send you to hell?"
They looked at me and then Filo looked at me, "Master, don't burn them too much, I am still hungry, how about you just roast them, I bet they taste yummy." I nearly forgot Filolials are omnivores. "You know you are right, how could I deny a request from my precious daughter, pulling that wagon sure made her hungry, she will devour a man whole in a single gulp."
That is when they realized that they were quite literally up the creek without a paddle, "Oh, come on, you can't kill us, you are the Savior of the Heavenly Fowl, you are a hero around these parts your reputation would sure take a major hit if they find out you killed us."
I looked at him ready to snap my fingers, "Like I care what people say about me, I never said I was any hero, I am just a merchant selling my goods and services, and so far your begging is taking from my valuable time, so I better get rid of you lot and fast, my daughter is quite hungry."
They began to look at each other and began to whisper between each other, "Look we promise to never do this again, but you said you are a merchant, so come on, let us live and we will give you anything you want."
I looked at the fool and smiled my most sinister smile, "Anything I want you to say?"
I told them I want everything they stole and I do mean everything and tell me who did they rob and what did they take from each person. Each crook brought everything out of their hideout, but it had happened so long ago that they don't remember what they took and from who.
"So we are looting the bandits? I don't know this makes me feel more of a crook than they are." The merchant smiled and looked at the crooks bringing us everything they owned, "I don't think so, Mister Mustang is simply showing a bright mercantile spirit, they wanted to live and so he has treated their lives as merchandise, this makes me like him, yes, a truly magnificent merchant."
"I have to admit, Roy really has made quite the impression on me, my wife died long ago, and we never had a child to whom I can teach my trade, I am going to teach Roy everything I know and even put him in contact with my business associates, I can tell he would do me proud."
The man was true to his word, he taught me everything from handling precious metals, making accessories, but the real skill I learned was to enchant and engrave spells on accessories, he was not kidding with introducing me with his business contacts. I only met personally half a dozen, and I could tell my capacity to earn a living had improved exponentially with each person I met.
By the time we made it back to the capital, I was well on my way to being very good at making jewelry and accessories. He told me where his business was at, and told me not to worry, he would simply have the guards take him home, I guess carrying so much money and merchandise was too much to risk, the knights could kill him and make more money than in their entire lives.
As I walked towards the Witch, I smiled, "Well I got some good news and some bad news, the bad news is that like I said the gem needed to make mana threads are rare, but I found someone that can tell us where to obtain one, but the thing is the person is the owner of a mining company or at least was."
"The man took a loan from a very shrewd person and lost the right to his mine, and company, so he will charge us an incredible amount for the information where we can find the gem we need." She told me the name and I couldn't help but laugh, this loan was one of several that he gave to me as a gift for passing a test he gave me, he did make it difficult, but thank my alchemy I passed the test.
The Witch insisted that she came with us, I was not about to say no since she was doing us this favor, and it gave me the perfect chance to hear more about mana and magic theory, I love to learn new things.
We stopped at the almost collapsing mine entrance, I walked over to one of the men who looked like he has been working none stop for days, "So you are the one that loan shark took this mine and company from you?" He stopped and walked towards me, dear god, and I thought Armstrong was a mass of muscles.
"That would be me, kid, now what does that have to do with you? Did you come to rub it in? To put salt in an old wound? What is the matter with you?" I began to laugh and told him to come closer, I took out an envelope, "Is that any way to treat your boss, owner, and general overseer?"
"I just gain the title and ownership of this mine and this company. Let me tell you, this was not cheap, this comes in a gold-trimmed bag, polished with crushed jade, and the key is pure silver and key chain is a pure diamond, this is a treasure to be sure, and it is all for sale, I got things to do around the world so I can't stick around."
Several of the men look pissed when I finished saying, "So you plan to take advantage of us when we can barely make enough to feed our families! You are a devil, shield hero! What do you want for that?"
I laughed and Filo, Raphtalia and the Witch were looking at me with looks of sadness, disappointment, and disapproval, "Why for the simple price of telling me where can I find a gem to make some mana threads. So tell me can you tell me where to find that gem?"
The big guy walked towards me, "You are kidding, right? You just want to know where to get a mana thread gem?" I told him I was dead serious, and that is when all the other miners began to laugh like I told the best joke in their lives. "You know kid, I like you, tell you what, I will give you a massive discount, you ever need any gems, just tell me what you need and we will get it."
"Alright guys, we own the mine again, and from now own this company is friends with the Shield Hero, Roy Mustang for life, right?" They all began to cheer, I never met so many men that look like bodybuilders crying like they were, I guess they are really happy.
"The only place we know the gem can be found is in an old mine, we had to abandon it because some crazy monster took the place over, and even we were scared because some crazy alchemist once used that mine as his home, he made some crazy things that the villagers near that mine are so scared they use it to scare their kids straight."
He pointed towards the map, and we at least knew where to find this place, well I guess having a strong monster also helps since I will be able to unlock more shields and grow stronger all in all I gained the knowledge I wanted, some friends and for some reason Raphtalia was looking pretty happy as we boarded the wagon to go to where we would find the gem.
"Well Roy, you really surprised me, I had no idea that you would find a place where we could get the gem for my spindle so quickly, all in all, given a few hours I think we will have enough tread to make Filo some clothes. I happen to know a seamstress that will be very happy to make her the clothes for a good price since Filo looks so cute when in human form."
I would personally say that she looks more like jail bait than cute, but then again I was never a guy that was well versed in matters of fashion. My first girlfriend used to joke that I would not be able to wear anything at all had I not joined the State Alchemists.
Darn it, why do I have to remember a conversation with Lust at a time like this, I am getting my little girl some treads so she can have some clothes and this reminds me of that backstabber that once proclaimed her undying love for me.
"Well, the real problem will be the monster that took up living in the mine, according to what the original owners of that mine told Master Mustang, that monster was scary. We handled the monsters of the previous wave so I don't think this monster will give us any trouble, don't you think so Master?"
I was never what you call an optimist, I rather keep my mind open to all possibilities. "I don't know Raphtalia, those miners were by no means weak, and yet they could not get rid of the monster, I say we be careful and not let out previous success make us overconfident."
The witch began to laugh as I said that, I personally don't think it is that funny. "You look so young, yet you already know better than most your age. I just find it funny that some people I know who look older than you are, always get hurt because they never came to realize exactly what you said."
"Indeed, being aware of your surroundings and never letting overconfidence cloud your thinking is something that many adventurers seem to have a problem with. I am very impressed." As we finally made it into the mine I came to see an empty chest and something was written right next to it.
I began to read it and then looked at the empty chest, this does not look good. "I know I should not be surprised but apparently this chest held something that should have been left alone, what it is written here is making even me worried. According to what it says someone tried to end world hunger and made this experimental seed."
"It goes to say that they sincerely wish that this seed is never planted for it shall bring disaster upon the world, what kind of an idiot would ignore this clear warning and steal something even the person who made it didn't want the thing to be used?"
The witch looked at me and then at the sign, "Someone who doesn't know the language the warning is written on, I have to admit it was giving me some trouble reading it, it is apparently in an ancient and forgotten dialect. Didn't reading this give you any trouble?"
I don't know why she would think so, the text on the plaque near the chest was perfectly simple and clear, "No, it was easy enough, I mean it was written in such a clear and simple way even a child could understand it. I hope the fools that stole it don't use it, it sort of reminds me of some of the experiments that I saw back in the world I came from."
As we began to walk towards the tunnel that leads to the interior of the mine, everything seems to get darker, "I only wanted that slave seal again, so that he would drop his guard, now I can kill him and finally be free." Why does that sound like the voice of Raphtalia, but I don't believe she would ever talk to me like that.
"I am not letting anyone have a Master, he is my food!" That is when I felt a claw hit my back, strange Filo in her current form should be much stronger. "Don't listen to the voices, they are lying, they are saying the things you would never want to hear, form the people you never want to say them."