"Talking"
"Thinking"
[Status Magic or other reference to a system or power]
...
The family checked the time and it was about time for the party to start. They were all rather excited for the party. Filo even more so, because it meant seeing Melty again. Raphtalia was a mix of positive and negative. Naofumi had some positive thoughts on the party, but mostly negative, because he knew what came after.
...
The family arrived at the front of the castle with a crowd gathered. There were a number of people looking rather frustrated.
"You simply must let me inside. I am the heir to a large estate." A young man said.
"I haven't been able to speak with the queen since she returned, I simply must." An older woman said.
"Nobles without access to the royalty will cause issues." An older man warned.
The nobles seemed upset that this party was meant for those that were useful in the battle in service of the queen. They wanted to grease several wheels for their own reasons. Likely some of them may have even worked against Mirellia in some small capacity in her absence and they were fearing retaliation. Either way, they'd be turned away.
Naofumi and the others approached the gate.
"Open the gate, six more guests." A knight called.
Naofumi didn't recognize any of these knights, but they seemed to have recognized them well enough. Naofumi wasn't sure he liked being so well known.
The onlookers were fuming.
"I am a noble and you keep me out and let a filthy demi-human in!?" The old woman shouted.
"This is ridiculous! All manner of creatures are being allowed in." The older man said bitterly.
"You didn't even make sure who they were." The young man argued
Naofumi felt the need to turn to those making the noise. Their eyes met his.
"You keep acting like that and you certainly will be speaking to the queen." Naofumi warned.
They flinched at the threat. They were all there to gain the queen's favor, not piss her off.
"..." They grew quiet. Naofumi and the others went inside.
Everyone could smell the food from inside the great halls. Naofumi and Raphtalia both had to place a hand on Filo or she'd run off. They started seeing other guests that stopped to chat with others before reaching the main hall. They either ignored or gave a slight nod to them as they passed by. The contrast between the way people treated his family that were allowed inside and those who weren't invited was not lost on Naofumi.
It was clear that the queen was trying to purge herself of undesirables. Naofumi thought it was to please him, but that was only part of the greater truth. The truth is that the late greater lords and the church had worked against the queen in a number of ways in the past, but with them dead and gone, she had the unchallenged power to do as she pleased and did everything she could to improve her country in the ways it'd need to.
It was so drastic that the queen planned to replace roughly 100 nobles over the next 5 years. Replacing them with either strong fighters, to strengthen Melromarc's power, or cunning merchants, to boost Melromarc's economy. All of those leaving had the wrong political views, while those she'd promote aligned well with how she wanted things to go in the future. Naofumi was seeing the effects of this on the surface and if he could, then the more politically minded were likely to align themselves with the queen for their own safety.
"Filo-chan!" Melty called.
As they entered the main castle proper, Melty was near the top of the stairs leading to the upper floors. After the excited greeting, Naofumi and Raphtalia let Filo go. As expected, she rushed to her friend with a smile and a laugh.
"Mel-chan!" Filo yelled and they hugged.
Naofumi and the others remained at the bottom of the stairs as the pair finished their hug and began to walk down the stairs to meet them.
"It's good to see all of you. I hope things have been going a lot better now." Melty greeted.
"The village has a long way to go, but we've made some real progress." Raphtalia answered.
"We have a bunch of pets now, too." Leon bragged.
"Aren't they for food?" Monti went to correct him.
"We'll need to keep some around or we'll run out. Don't you get how farming works?" Teal corrected Monti.
Naofumi moved past the kids a bit. "We'll be doing a lot better when the queen lets you come with us. We have no idea what we're doing and we are just winging it." Naofumi told her, reminding her of what she'd be doing soon.
"W-Well... I have no experience in ruling yet. All I have is what my mother, books, and teachers have taught me..." Melty seemed genuinely nervous.
"Better than us, we don't know squat about this kind of thing. You should be excited, not nervous." Naofumi told her.
"That's easy for you to say, you're saddling me with all this responsibility!" Melty said in frustration.
"You'll have plenty of time to play with Filo and the other kids and besides... Wouldn't you rather stumble and learn on a village level then screw up big time after you're queen." Naofumi said, appealing to her uncertainty.
"Well I... That's true. Just please don't put it all on me. I'm just one person and you'll need to learn to do this all by yourself." Melty warned, but ultimately relented.
"No, I won't. I'm the shield hero. I can't do anything by myself. Luckily, I have a supporting family..." Naofumi said sincerely, too sincerely. "Because I'm not doing paperwork, it ain't happening." Naofumi added to try not to be so mushy.
They spoke a bit more before Melty motioned them to the ballroom. Filo was free of her parents' grip, but Melty and Monti did their best to keep her from running. They filed into the room. It was the same room that Naofumi and Raphtalia were in for the first wave party. Even while reminded of those sour feelings, they both felt the difference in mood. These weren't all stuck up nobles and ass kissers.
Those here were either nobles that the queen borrowed men from without it being found out, meaning they were loyal and smart, likely not racists either or commanding officers and other outstanding soldiers, which made the place seem more approachable. Filo, followed by the other kids, went for the food, Naofumi and Raphtalia took it a bit slower.
It was easy for them to see how recognizable the kids were to these people. The soldiers remembered the end of the battle, when the four of them came out of nowhere and rocked the whole battlefield. The nobles seemed to know them by their distinctive features. Some seemed afraid, but others seemed to regard them positively. A few people even tried speaking to the kids, thanking them for their help back then.
"You saved my unit during that battle, we were going to push too far and they were going to make us pay for it, but that wall of fire halted their retreat. It turned my foolish order into the winning play. Thank you so much." An officer told Leon.
"Of course. I'm pretty great, right? I wonder how much fire I laid down that day." Leon was sucking up the praise and fishing for more.
"Indeed, you are. One sight of you destroying that dreadful statue broke the enemies' resolve. We'd have lost double our numbers without you four at the very least." The man saw Leon sought praise and decided to indulge him.
"Your lightning tore deep holes into the enemy line. We had no trouble undermining their formation with those gaps. We would have lost many men and a whole lot of time without your help." Another officer told Monti.
"Oh, um, I just cast a few spells, you and your men did all the work." Monti responded.
"Nonsense. It was also you that disarmed Balmus, right? I remember the man I was currently fighting saw that, then threw down their sword immediately. Who knows, that might have saved my life." The man tried again.
"Oh... T-Thanks, I was just doing my best." Monti didn't know how to process a stranger's words of praise.
Leon saw his brother struggling with praise and it made him feel a certain kind of way. He'd speak to his brother at some point.
Filo ate food aplenty, but Melty did her best to keep it slow enough as to not be disruptive to the other guests. A few guests went to talk to Filo, but Melty waved them away. Teal got the most attention out of the bunch. Her plant features and exotic outfit instantly grabbed people's attention. Teal was the only one of the kids that was able to handle the attention of strangers correctly. She answered them politely and otherwise made small talk while trying a bit of the food.
Naofumi and Raphtalia grabbed a plate of food, but failed to find a seat before people went to speak to them. Luckily, it wasn't some strangers. It was Mia and Godiva, both wearing more formal wear.
"I'm glad your bad luck didn't strike again, savior." Godiva greeted.
"We were hoping you would show up." Mia added.
"It's good to see you're both here." Raphtalia greeted them both.
"I hope things have been going well for you two." Naofumi did his best to be nice.
They spoke for a time. During which, Naofumi found out they were both ready for class upgrades. He'd give them that when they get Keel his last level up and get all three at once. They also spoke of some rudimentary education they were receiving on acting as lords and how they were given specific instructions on the location they were to hold lordship over. They seemed to have received a more sensible response from the queen. Naofumi was forced to consider that maybe this was his fault. He made himself unapproachable and made the queen scared to upset him. It left her unable to take sensible steps with him. Him threatening to leave led to her soft handling of him. He'd need to clear the air with her, at least a bit.
"It's good to see the both of you. Does that mean Fitts and Chloe are here?" Naofumi wanted to check on everyone before the meeting.
"Um, no. They aren't here. Fitts doesn't want to cause conflict. The queen said it wouldn't be an issue, but he still decided not to attend. Chloe stayed with him." Mia told them.
"Of course he did... And Liviccic?" Naofumi asked.
"Lord Blackcrown isn't here either. The queen invited him, but he also decided not to come. We aren't sure why." Godiva answered.
"I have a good idea why. Sophia. She isn't allowed to be with him in public. Therefore he'll avoid any public event that isn't mandatory." Naofumi guessed, Raphtalia thinking something similar
"Oh, before I forget, Mia?" Raphtalia started.
"Hm?" Mia made a noise.
"Are you aware of Lurolona village's population issues?" Raphtalia inquired.
"Yes. The queen explained it, though details seemed purposefully left out, why?" Mia responded then asked.
"Well, we'll need medical staff for them and that's hard to come by. We were hoping you could give us some of that woman's medical staff when you officially hold the position." Raphtalia took the initiative to ask now.
"Oh, of course I'll help however I can, but I actually need to keep some of them for something I have planned. I'll be sure that you'll have the medical staff in need... As a former slave myself, I wish them nothing but the best." Mia answered genuinely.
"You mind if I ask one more thing?" Naofumi thought of something.
Naofumi decided to explain heaters from his world to Mia and asked if she could make something like them. The women getting too cold before the town is built up enough was a legitimate concern.
"I don't have the tools to make something that complicated, but a safe source of heat that can keep a room warm isn't hard to make. Maybe the royal alchemist can provide them? I still have no supplies and no authority yet." Mia answered.
They all enjoyed the party, but nothing was perfect. Raphtalia had to get Filo to stop eating everything and she did so by telling her to go sing. What surprised everyone was what Filo began to sing.
She sang new songs.
One was a sad song based on the first fight with the three heroes and them running away and crying. The family ignored everyone and listened to that song from start to finish.
The next was a loud and bombastic song about the raid on Idol's town. Leon had to admit, listening to her song made him remember their team up and how much damage they caused, a grin formed on his lips.
The next was a funny song about being chased by the Tyrant Rex. Filo made it almost sound fun to be chased by a giant dinosaur. The guests laughed a few times, the family did not.
The next was a sweet song about their time spent in Fitoria's realm. A few brief asides for the wave and the Cerberus fight. That one reset the mood from the previously silly song. Naofumi remembered that he'd need to talk to Fitoria at some point.
The last song was loud, fast and quite exciting. It was the song that covered the failed coup. Most of the people in the room lived through some part of that fight and so it enraptured their collective attention. The family was all but cheering.
Naofumi had to give Filo more credit than he thought. Not only were those great songs, but Filo must have been working on those songs ever since those events happened. He made it a mental note to praise her later.
Raphtalia tugged at Naofumi's clothes and he turned towards her then passed her towards what she was looking at. It was the queen and the three heroes. Ren and the queen waited patiently, Itsuki seemed annoyed, and Motoyasu seemed like he was in a daze of sorts.
"How long were they there?" Naofumi thought.
What Naofumi didn't know was there was also another unwelcome guest. The former king, Aultcray, was keeping himself hidden on the balcony of the second floor. He heard the songs Filo sang as he thought of a number of things. Hearing about the troubles he caused made him lose himself in thought, he'd been doing that a lot.
"Watch the kids." Was all Naofumi said as he joined those waiting for him.
They wordlessly started walking towards a quiet meeting room. Ren couldn't handle the silence.
"Were those grinding spots useful?" Ren inquired.
"Yeah. Keel is class upgrading tomorrow most likely." Naofumi responded.
"Wait, you gave away some of your secrets?" Itsuki asked in disbelief.
"Yeah... We have a lot to talk about..." Ren answered.
The queen led them to a large set of doors that guards on either side opened to her approach. She led them into the room.
...
The four heroes meeting
...
The room was one of the nicest rooms Naofumi had ever seen. The room was fully furnished, but the centerpiece was the large important round table. The queen moved to the furthest chair of the table and took a seat.
"Heroes, take a seat. There are things we need to discuss." The queen spoke.
Naofumi, Ren and Motoyasu went towards a chair, but Itsuki did not.
"What do you have to discuss, the trial is over." Itsuki said defensively.
"But the waves are not. I said before that I want the heroes to succeed and I do. There are many things we do not know about the holy weapons. Lord Iwatani being able to strip my foolish husband of his seven star staff. I've never even heard of something like that."
Itsuki nodded and also began moving to a seat.
"I want to believe now that you heroes don't have the wool over your eyes, that maybe you gain your bearings and not be so easily manipulated. If that is the case, I want you all to be as strong as possible. I know that you three have suffered the loss of party members, until that is rectified, I will offer additional assistance." The queen announced.
Ren went to say something, but Itsuki spoke first.
"So you want us to share all our secrets? Not happening." Itsuki said plainly.
"..." There was a pause.
"Fine. I'll go first." Ren said.
"First you give Naofumi grinding spots, now this? What happened after the trial? You're way too friendly with him." Itsuki began to vaguely accuse Ren of something.
"He... I... We screwed up. We almost killed his kids, we owe it to him and... And we lost to kids, so maybe there's stuff we still don't know." Ren responded.
"..." Itsuki thought for a moment.
"Everyone here knows weapon copy, right?" Itsuki asked.
They all nodded.
"We can make tools and such." Motoyasu started.
"Yeah, tech skills." Itsuki added.
"You mean making potions and such? That's not limited to heroes." Naofumi tried to correct him.
"No, as in you can give the necessary materials to your weapon as long as you have enough tech skill and the recipe, then after a certain amount of time, the weapon will make what you want for you." Ren explained in more detail.
"Yeah, it's way easier than selling the materials and buying the potions yourself." Motoyasu added.
"What!? ...Then why'd I learn to make them the hard way?" Naofumi lamented.
"Tech skill..." Naofumi went through his menu and found it, he never noticed it before. His seemed quite high, so maybe it increased as he got better at it. "Then again..." Naofumi clicked on the icon and it opened up a sub-menu. In that menu, it assigned a numeric value to all kinds of skills, like blacksmithing and accessory making to climbing and swimming.
Naofumi had something new to look into later. He nodded to indicate that he now understood.
Ren went next. "We all know about the item drop menu, right?" All three nodded.
"I guess I'll go next. You guys know about the mastery bonuses, right? Not just the permanent gains, but also the combined effects?" Naofumi asked.
They all nodded. "There aren't many combined ones, but yeah." Ren answered.
The queen stayed silent, pleased at the dialogue progressing nicely.
After that small exchange they went silent again, but Itsuki spoke.
"Then let's get to the serious stuff. The most important thing to remember in this world is item rarity. The special effects are all nice additions, but it's the rarity of the weapon that determines the lion's share of the power of a weapon form. You-" Itsuki was interrupted by Ren.
"That's not true! Naofumi, rarity is important, but not like that. In fact, there's a way to increase special abilities of a weapon form. Even then, levels are way more important. Your weapons grow with you so you can focus on whichever form you wan-" Ren was interrupted by Itsuki
"Stop lying! You can't increase the rarity of a weapon. It is whatever it is and your level gives you more stats, but it doesn't give your weapon more stats. You didn't even mention the ore." Itsuki finished.
Motoyasu added on to what Itsuki said. "Yeah, using ore makes a given weapon much stronger. There's technically no limit, but there's a chance of failure that increases each time, getting 'plus nine' is about as lucky as you are going to ge-" Motoyasu was interrupted by Itsuki.
"Now you're lying too. There are hard limits for how many ore you can slot in and there is no failure rate!" Itsuki yelled.
"What are either of you two talking about? You take your mastery with weapons and convert it into energy for your other weapons!" Ren argued.
"What do you mean 'weapon energy'? The way you use ore and the way you use monster materials are completely different. Ore gives stats, but you can use the monster materials to gain enchantments." Motoyasu argued.
"What? You can turn items and monster drops into energy, then turn that energy into an enchantment. Why even build up energy?" Itsuki argued.
"Why else? Energy is used for all kinds of things! You-" Ren went to argue more.
They yelled a bit more before Mirellia stood up suddenly and yelled. "Stop this yelling!"
"..." The room was silent.
Naofumi believed Ren a bit, well, he wanted to. The other two weren't just refuting him, they were giving specific conflicting information. Information Naofumi could see was a lie by not seeing it in his menu.
"I'm missing something." Naofumi concluded.
Naofumi raised his hand slightly, and the queen yielded to him for a moment.
"For all I know, all three of you are lying. Either way, you guys interrupting one another has me beyond confused. Rarity can be increased, but it can't. Ore makes a weapon form stronger, but you lose it and don't lose it and it can fail or it can't. Enchanting with materials or enchanting with energy or using energy to master a weapon or master it without anything to do with energy... One at a time. No one says a damned thing until they are done, okay?" Naofumi offered a solution of sorts.
"..." They weren't happy, but they understood they were basically talking over each other too much.
"Fine, but I'll go first." Itsuki wasn't asking.
Ren decided to go last so it was fine with him. Motoyasu didn't feel strongly about it either way.
"Okay, so it's like this-" Itsuki went over the ways he knew to get stronger.
The first method involved using ore. You could slot ore into your individual weapon forms. How many you could place on a given form was predetermined and based on that form itself. You could remove them to place them on another one if needed. So they weren't permanent and there wasn't a chance of failure. These increased the stats of that weapon form, with different ore giving different bonuses to different forms. So you would need to experiment a bit to find the best result.
Secondly, he repeated himself on rarity. Saying that the rarer something was, the better its stats were. Simple enough.
Thirdly was the enchantments he spoke of. You could break down items and materials absorbed by your weapon to produce energy. You could then spend that energy to place an extra effect of some kind onto a weapon form. The effects are random and must be reset until you get an effect you find useful. Once you have a useful effect, you could expend more energy to attempt to strengthen it. This has a failure rate and upon a failure, the effect is dropped to its weakest amount again.
Lastly, Itsuki spoke about a weird job system. By using materials and items stored in your weapon, you could use them to increase a stat. At first it was a simple (+1), but it went up by one with each bonus and was cumulative. Meaning the 100th upgrade to a stat would have a bonus of (+100) on top of the other bonuses to that stat.
The amount of materials required for each upgrade went up with each upgrade, however, and the method had a cooldown of one day before it could be used again. It seemed weak, but it could become very strong later on.
Naofumi wondered what Itsuki was lying about, but it'd be weird if he did. Itsuki liked to be seen as the hero, lying to their faces and the queen's didn't seem like something he'd do. Regardless, Naofumi saw the curse series that Itsuki had for a moment. Maybe he was so mad he would lie?
Once Itsuki was done explaining, Motoyasu and Ren seemed pretty pissed off. Motoyasu stood up and explained what he said added strength to a hero. He addressed his points to directly counter Itsuki's.
He said that enchantments are a thing, but that there were two kinds and neither of them used 'energy'.
Firstly, there was the ability to place an enchantment on a weapon form, the same as Itsuki. This was done by equipping a soul item, not converting anything to energy. Once done, it'd place an effect onto the weapon form based on that item. Since they were equipable, they were also unequipable, meaning no expended resources and not surprises. There was no such thing as boosting or strengthening this enchantment after it was placed on the weapon form.
The second enchantment was achieved the same way, by acquiring items or monster souls from drops and using them to get an effect for a weapon form. This was a different method for two reasons. First, the randomly obtained effect was always a boost to a single stat, with both the stats and the amount being factors of chance. The second was that a weapon form could have both of these enchantments at the same time, but not a second of either, showing that they were different.
Motoyasu then explained that the way he used ore involved expending them as a non-recoverable resource. Doing so increased the weapon form by a notable '+1' or '+2' and so on. There existed a chance of failure after '+1'. Upon a failure, it was reduced to '+0'. It seemed risky and frustrating, but he spoke of it as being very strong.
Lastly, Motoyasu said that simply using a weapon form increased the stats of that form.
Naofumi considered what Motoyasu said. He had quite a grudge with him, but without Malty in his ear... he wasn't an issue. Which meant it was never really Motoyasu that was the problem. Furthermore, he did look quite depressed and sorry. Maybe Naofumi could give his words some weight?
With Itsuki and Motoyasu done, Ren was really upset at this point, but needed to set the record straight for Naofumi.
Ren quickly explained that weapon forms start out at different level requirements and the stats are based off of that (or vice versa), but that weapon forms grew in strength as you gained levels. Because of this, all of your weapon forms became stronger as you leveled up, which allowed the hero to use some earlier weapon forms for their [Unique Ability] and not have to be stuck with a higher level weapon that had nothing special.
Ren then spoke about energy. He said that energy was the key to everything and he began explaining it via rarity. He said that every single weapon form starts off as common indicated as [C] in the menu. He said that you could use energy to upgrade the rarity of the weapon form. The ranks were [C] for common, [UC] for uncommon, [R] for rare, [SR] for super rare, [SR+] for super rare plus, [LR] for legendary, and [AF] for artifact.. He said the stats increased quite a bit per rank. He mentioned there was a failure rate, but if it failed it only wasted the energy, it didn't reset like Motoyasu's.
Next, Ren spoke about weapon mastery, but it was also different from Motoyasu's and, again, it involved energy. Using a weapon form over time allowed that weapon form to occur mastery. You could then reset a weapon's mastery to obtain energy. Once you had enough energy, you could use it to awaken a weapon form. This meant it would gain a substantial boost in stats and even gain new [Unique Abilities] alongside strengthening the current ones.
Unlike many of the other ways spoken about, there were no ranks or tiers. A weapon form could either be 'awakened' or not, surprisingly uncomplicated.
Lastly, Ren spoke about other ways to gain and move energy around. Ren clarified that resetting a weapon form's weapons mastery to gain a good amount of energy. This lowered the power of the weapon in the short term, but working to gain the energy to awaken and to upgrade rarity was more than worth the resetting of mastery in the long-term. Essentially, you should reset a weapon's mastery the moment it's full unless the boost is needed in a coming battle.
A light went off in Naofumi's head during the explanations. "Using items and monster materials to gain power… Meaning one should absorb everything they possibly can... That's what Fitoria made me do, but she said she couldn't remember why..." Naofumi realized.
Ren and Motoyasu agreed that using a specific weapon form garnered more stats, but disagreed on the details. Ren and Itsuki agreed that weapon forms have rarity, but what that actually meant differed. Motoyasu and Itsuki agreed that there was both a way to power-up a weapon form with ore and they also agreed that enchantments exist, but, again, disagreed on the specifics.
He'd think over the details for now, but he knew that the method of turning items and monster materials into power that they spoke about had to be real, it lined up with what Fitoria said too well. Naofumi looked through his menu and went to turn items into energy to try what Itsuki said, but then realized that this energy must be the same as the energy Ren spoke about. Suddenly, he could see it, he could see energy as a numerical value. He navigated his menu to sacrifice an item for energy... It worked.
"Naofumi, your turn." Ren prompted him.
Naofumi was too absorbed in his revelation to care. He saw that his weapons had energy as Ren said, he tried applying an enchantment using energy misremembering it as Ren's. It worked. Only after it worked did he remember that item energy was a thing mentioned by Itsuki.
"Lord Iwatani?" The queen asked in concern, but Naofumi was so close to figuring something even bigger out.
If Itsuki wasn't lying about that method then... Naofumi raced through his menus and now saw that his [Siderite Shield] was much stronger due to its rarity. If neither Ren nor Itsuki lied, then Motoyasu probably wasn't lying either. The stats on his [Chimera Viper Shield] were also too high based on what it should be, meaning Motoyasu's thing about using weapon forms to gain stats was dead on.
"Why can I see all of this now, but not before? It's just like... just like with my inventory changing..." Naofumi understood now.
"Naofumi!" Itsuki and Motoyasu both yelled, snapping Naofumi out of his revelation.
"W-What?" Naofumi snapped out of it.
"Your turn, tell us what you know." Itsuki answered.
"I'll touch on this last." Naofumi thought.
"Well... I guess I'll go over what I learned from Sophia and Fitoria. Fitoria told me our inventories are limitless. Before she told me that, there was a hard limit, but afterwards, none." Naofumi started.
"Why would knowing that change it?" Motoyasu questioned.
"I'll get to that. Fitoria also told me that holy heroes can take away the vassal hero's weapon, but only if they are unworthy at the time. You all saw that work yourselves." Naofumi told them.
The heroes nodded, the queen hid her mouth behind her fan.
"Sophia was raised by the whip hero nearly 100 years ago. She said the whip hero could reset his level and the level of his allies and gain better stat growth and sometimes other things depending on how many levels they gave up." Naofumi gave more info.
"Well that's the whip hero, not us." Ren commented.
"I don't think so." Naofumi responded.
"What do you mean?" The queen was the one to ask.
"I didn't know what to believe with the three of you, but it makes so much sense now... My inventory was limited before, because I thought it should be. Only after someone told me the truth did I get a limitless inventory. I never saw any of what you guys said in my menus anywhere, but Itsuki?" Naofumi called.
"Yeah?" Itsuki responded.
"When you said that energy could be gathered by absorbing dead monsters in large numbers, Fitoria said something similar. She demanded I absorb every monster from that fight and when I asked her why, she said she couldn't remember, but it was important. It lines up with what you said." Naofumi reasoned.
"See? I wasn't lying." Itsuki said instantly.
"Neither were they." Naofumi responded, pointing at Motoyasu and Ren.
"..." There was silence for a moment.
"Just a bit ago, I tested what you guys said and it all checked out. Even you telling me wasn't enough at first, I had to bridge the gaps mentally before I could see them... I know this sounds silly, no, it sounds really dumb, but... I think... that it was my belief that was the deciding factor or maybe my understanding." Naofumi concluded.
"Yeah, that is really dumb." Itsuki commented.
"But I never saw anything in my menus before. Just try absorbing an item or material for energy, but don't try to put it into anything." Naofumi told them both.
There was a moment of frustration, but Naofumi was being insistent. After entirely too long, it worked. Motoyasu immediately tried to use that energy to increase the rarity of his weapon, he needed more energy, but as Naofumi said, the menus were now there. Itsuki, upon seeing the energy stay there, went to his weapons and checked if they had energy too, they did. He removed the energy from a full weapon and now had much more.
The pair stared at their screens for a moment.
"Holy shit." Motoyasu whispered.
"This changes everything." Itsuki declared.
"See, no one was lying. If I can use what you guys use, why not other heroes? I believe Sophia about the vassal whip's power too and now I have the option to lower my level right now, no hourglass... This is big." Naofumi told the group.
They all agreed. They all spoke more about their power up methods, all of them listening closer than they did before, testing things along the way. There were issues for those who already had similar things, but they all believed the majority of them.
"Anything else, Naofumi?" Ren thought to ask.
"Liviccic told me the way the staff worked was that you get points per level and you can spend them to level up spells." Naofumi told them.
"Hmm, maybe magic will have some hitting power now" Itsuki commented.
"That would explain why magic is so weak." Motoyasu added.
"Heroes, what do you mean?" The queen was confused.
"Same, I'm confused." Naofumi agreed with the queen.
"Spells just don't deal good damage or matter all that much." Motoyasu said dismissively.
"Oh wait, that's right, you guys learned it the weak way." Naofumi remembered.
"What? There's two ways to strengthen spells?" Itsuki was interested.
"It's just that learning from crystal balls results in you knowing only enough to cast it." Naofumi answered.
"What alternative is there?" Motoyasu asked.
"Reading." Naofumi said deadpan.
"What? You mean you found a shield that translates writing for you?" Itsuki asked with a jealous look.
"Unfortunately, no. Naofumi learned to actually read the language, he told me the other day when I went to the magic shop to buy my books... It's super hard." Ren answered for Naofumi.
That was not an answer they wanted to hear.
The queen listened to this meeting, barely participating, but she now understood how legendary heroes lost to mere children. Not only did they have so many ways to get stronger than they already are, but they also took shortcuts. Using crystal balls without proper study of magic and her hearing that Eclair had fought Ren the other day in the courtyard and was told how poorly he fought... It was both positive and negative. They were weak, but they had all kinds of potential.
Hearing of these methods, the queen decided to stockpile ore and material for the heroes. That would have good results. First though-
"Lord Iwatani, do you not think there is still one more thing to discuss?" The queen prompted.
"Oh, yeah..." Naofumi needed to warn Itsuki.
"Itsuki?" Naofumi prompted.
"Hmm?" Itsuki responded.
"About the trial, do you remember being really, really angry?" Naofumi asked.
"I mean, I was upset, sure." Itsuki felt weird discussing this with them.
"No, I mean do you remember being unnaturally angry?" Naofumi clarified.
"No...?" Itsuki was now confused.
Seeing his confusion, Naofumi explained.
"...I have a shield that is very strong, but using it causes me to become so angry that I can't think straight. It's really dangerous to use." Naofumi began explaining.
"Like I said, I was upset, but not so much as to..., but I was emotionally confused and it was hard to hear other people." Itsuki thought that was odd.
"That's the curse series. Don't use it. Fitoria said that it eats away at your ability to resist. The more you use it, the more you will be willing to use it." Naofumi warned.
"Like I said, it hasn't happened." Itsuki dismissed.
"When that green haired girl calmed you down, you were covered in an ominous energy, maybe you didn't unlock it, maybe you just got close. Still, if you ever feel yourself getting really angry, try to calm down, otherwise you might hurt your party members." Naofumi warned.
Motoyasu had some thoughts about that last line, but kept it to himself. Itsuki nodded in acknowledgement, if only to move the conversation forward.
The heroes spoke a bit more, asking for certain clarifications on some of the details of their power-up methods. As the conversation died down, the queen spoke.
"I am glad that this meeting was so fruitful, I hope it allows each of you to grow much stronger... Speaking of growing stronger, I am happy to announce that Cal Mira's activation event has begun." The queen announced.
The other three heroes seemed pleased, Naofumi was clueless.
"I will be securing safe passage for each of you and your parties. To you three, this is the perfect chance to recruit new party members. The archipelago will be hosting many adventurers, some well off to afford their way there, others are quite strong, a few are probably both. I am sending quite a few people myself, if you are in need of teammates in order to do well there, please ask any of them, they have been ordered to agree."
"Oh um... I won't require any. I still have a full party." Ren answered.
"Is that so? And I also heard you had been training with Eclair daily..." The queen gave Naofumi a look.
"Naofumi, why have you been helping Ren so much?" Itsuki saw the flow of the room and asked.
"..." Ren said nothing.
"I helped him by saying the same thing I'm about to say to you... 'This isn't a game'. I know that reality here has all kinds of rules and features that we are used to in our old worlds' games, but these people are just as real and their problems are too." Naofumi tried to sound as serious as he could.
Itsuki and Motoyasu half-listened.
"Speaking of helping me out... Naofumi?" Ren asked hesitantly.
"Oi, you're pushing it." Naofumi was getting annoyed.
"I was just going to tell you that Wyndia is due for a class upgrade. Leon promised her that broken class upgrade." Ren reminded him.
"What do you mean 'broken'?" Itsuki asked.
Now Naofumi had to explain that.
"...Filo can double the stats of people during class upgrade. She did so for my family, Eclair, Melty and a few others... and yes, Ren, I'll need to class upgrade someone tomorrow anyways." Naofumi answered them both.
"But would that not delay leaving for Cal Mira?" The queen pointed out.
"I still don't even know what you guys are talking about with this 'activation event'." Naofumi admitted.
"During a brief period every ten years, the islands of Cal Mira become active and monster populations boom." The queen answered.
"Yeah, the monsters are so abundant that you can't run out, it's awesome." Ren confirmed.
"They're also worth double EXP." Itsuki added.
"Damn, can't pass that up." Naofumi admitted. "Where's Cal Mira on a map?" Naofumi asked.
The queen pulled a map from among the things already in the room. It was a huge map and she rolled it out over the large table. It was incredibly detailed. It wasn't until this moment that Naofumi realized that this room was probably the war room.
"Cal Mira is here." The queen pointed. "And the boat that'll take you is here." She pointed again.
Naofumi smirked, ignoring a flinching Ren.
"Then it's no problem. We can get there quickly from Lurolona. We can meet up tomorrow morning for the class upgrading, then teleport to the village and head to the port." Naofumi reasoned.
"...Thanks." Ren responded.
"C-Can you... um, take us too? It'd be a long trip otherwise." Motoyasu actually asked.
Naofumi looked Motoyasu in the eyes, which caused Motoyasu to flinch.
"...We're trying to get along, I get that... but let me set a few ground rules. Neither of you are going to teleport with my family, and once the teleportation is over, you both go on your merry way, immediately." Naofumi said to both.
"Also, Motoyasu, if I even see you looking at Filo I'll ki-I'll have Teal kick you in the dick." Naofumi threatened.
Motoyasu shivered. Itsuki seemed annoyed.
"Naofumi, I'm not like Motoyasu, there's no reason to equate the two of us. You're overreacting." Itsuki went to correct Naofumi.
It was a nice meeting up to this point, very productive, but Naofumi wasn't going to let that slide. Naofumi stood and matched eyes with Itsuki.
He began to tell him off. "Did you already forget nearly killing Monti? If I hadn't pulled him out, you would have-"
"But I didn't, so stop acting so upset." Itsuki dismissed.
Naofumi walked a few feet closer and leaned over, more pissed.
"But if I didn't stop you, you would have! Do you know what would have happened then? I would have killed you! No matter what happened from that point on, I would have put you in my [Iron Maiden]!" The queen went to intervene, so Naofumi added. "And I would have killed whomever else got between me and that goal." Naofumi said definitively.
Itsuki was getting more mad. Naofumi saw this was getting out of hand and it was partially his fault for taking the bait, so he reeled it back in.
"You aren't succumbing to the curse... guess it's fine." Naofumi walked back to his seat.
"Don't talk to my family and leave as soon as you get there, or find another way." Naofumi told him.
"You can't-" Itsuki went to argue.
"Yes I can. It's my family and it's my village!" Naofumi yelled.
"Your village?" Itsuki asked
"That's right, I'm lord of Lurolona village. The people who live there are all victims of people that you three sided with. I don't want them scared. So either leave immediately after I get you there and don't talk to the family you almost killed, or fuck off." Naofumi delivered his ultimatum.
"..." The room was silent. Itsuki turned to the queen to inquire about the lordship, and she nodded.
"I'll leave immediately." Motoyasu promised.
"And you won't interact with Filo?" Naofumi asked.
"Y-Yeah..." Motoyasu promised with some hesitation.
Naofumi looked at Itsuki.
"...I'll be at the boat on time, I don't need your help." Itsuki finally answered.
The meeting came to a close soon after. There was much to do. The heroes had new information to look into and so many new ways to grow stronger. For Naofumi and Ren, that was a good thing. For Motoyasu, it was probably a good thing. For Itsuki... that remained to be seen.
The other heroes left, but the queen asked Naofumi to wait. After they were gone, she spoke.
"That was a fruitful meeting indeed, I want you to update me on the sword hero. Is he useful now?" The queen asked.
"He sees things are not a game and is taking things seriously. He still can't use spells properly and Eclair can probably tell you how bad he is in a fight, but yeah, he's getting there. He also has Gaelion's adopted daughter in his party now. She's my eyes and ears as far as Ren is concerned." Naofumi answered.
"Eclair said he is about the worst swordsmen she's ever met. She tried correcting his behavior, but she had to bring it to the basics, even his fundamentals are terrible. Who knows how long it will take for him to learn proper martial prowess." The queen thought.
"And your opinion on the other two now?" Queen was interested in his opinion for many reasons.
"...Motoyasu is being cooperative and remorseful. I hope he stays that way. I still don't like him and he needs to stay away from my daughter." Naofumi said honestly.
"And the bow hero...?" The queen inquired further.
"...He's a problem. He either has a curse series or he's close. He is more uncooperative than I am... and I'm me. Any attempt to actually correct his behavior is met with stubbornness and if you actually try to force the point, he'll freak out." Naofumi answered.
"How can you not see you are putting me in a similar situation? Regardless of the misgivings that you suffered from Melromarc, we are on the road to recovery. Without the church or other greater lords to stand in my way I can make genuine change, but you might end up being an obstacle to that, when you should be one of the driving forces for Melromarc achieving real greatness again..." The queen thought bitterly.
"I tend to agree... With hero matters settled I have to ask about your lordship, how are things?" The queen asked.
"Everyone has a roof for now." Naofumi said with a tired expression.
"A low bar to pass..." The queen thought.
"Wagner's son is sending stonemasons and carpenters. Hopefully construction can go a little faster then." Naofumi added.
"Eadwig is working hard to remove that trading war. Maybe I'll cease the rumors then." She considered.
"After the party, we are picking up some demi-humans from Beloukas." Naofumi informed her.
"Even more?" She asked.
"Yes, every kid he has and anyone capable of working." Naofumi told her.
"I understand the reasoning, but that will hurt you financially, yes?" The queen inquired.
The queen would offer him aid as a means of having him rely on her. She needed to make their relationship one that was beneficial and good-willed.
"No. Teal has been producing seeds that spawn plant monsters. Beloukas has been buying from her and selling them to his customers. We'll use her cut of the profit to pay for or at least mitigate the cost... After we return from Cal Mira, we have to leave for Siltvelt as we've discussed, but I'm nervous leaving it under-protected." Naofumi planned aloud.
"Eclair already volunteered to guard the people. A sense of obligation, I assume." The queen said, to ease his worry.
"That reminds me... Is she mad?" Naofumi had a moment of reflection.
"About Lurolona not being her family's lordship anymore? No. She didn't want to inherit land to rule, she only wants to serve. One of the truest knights I know." The queen assured him.
"Good, I didn't want to upset her, she has been good to us." Naofumi allowed some amount of good will to be had.
They spoke a bit longer. He requested the heating devices for the villagers and the queen agreed. She was being very helpful, Naofumi felt the need to be nicer to her in the future.
And with that, the first meeting of the four heroes wrapped up.
...
After the meeting
...
Naofumi returned to the party as it wrapped up and didn't bother Raphtalia with the details, waiting until the party was over.
"Now we head back to Beloukas'?" Raphtalia inquired.
"In a bit." Naofumi answered, placing leftovers in his inventory.
Seeing this, the kid did the same. Raphtalia looked at the scene with Naofumi looking entirely too happy with himself and had to say something.
"Naofumi-sama... kids... why? Are we so desperate for food?" Raphtalia felt shame for them all.
"I'm just grabbing stuff for Keel. He's gonna be pissed when we get back. Give him a whole cake though? He might forget everything." Naofumi told her, placing most of a cake in his inventory.
"And the reason you all have already taken several meals worth?" Raphtalia asked, not buying it.
"...Sometimes, I don't wanna cook." Naofumi admitted, then kept grabbing.
Raphtalia just let it happen, rubbing her eyes. Naofumi could be a pain sometimes and the kids didn't dissuade him at all. If anything, their tacit approval of their father's actions only galvanized such behavior. Teal was the only one of them that would call him out, but only to her own benefit. The idea of her backing Raphtalia currently was laughable, as in literally laughable. Teal had stopped grabbing food and just started snickering at her mother's woes. After the kids cleaned the food tables, they left with a very ashamed Raphtalia, apologizing to the staff as they went. They had one more destination tonight before heading home.
.
[Author's Notes]
Bit of a long one. I really wanted those that hadn't read the LNs to understand the power-up methods, so hashing that out took up more time.
Filo has more songs to sing, always a plus.
The heroes meeting was more fruitful than canon, but the other heroes being stronger is not strictly a better thing until they accept that this world is real.
Keel and Wyndia will be class upgraded for Cal Mira, yay.
What changes will occur due to these events?
Please leave a review!