On the morning of the third day, Asta woke up with the memory of last night's fight. He gets up from bed, looking down, seeing the state of his clothes from tare, burnt, and cuts. So he brought out the bear robe because he took it off when he transformed and saw no damages, mainly because of the anti-magic protecting it. Now the robe on, L came out of the grimoire to start talking "You know you're doing today, human" he looked down at him "I'm going to see Elhart for getting armor" after they finished talking they headed out to the blacksmith shop.
Once there, Asta enters to see the bold man moving some boxes. He sees the teen at the doorway "Hey there, you're the bear ears kid from before it's early to be here. Is there something you need" Giving a blank stare for the bear ears thing, but he asks "I just needed to buy armor, and it's Asta by away" "Sorry there this is the second time you been here, you can choose from many of armors I sell here has long you can pay for it" he pointed where the armors kept. Asta checked out the armor that Elhart has, but it doesn't feel right. Some of the armor's metals were too thin, too restricted, too bulky, or uncomfortable. "It is not easy to find an armor set to go with," he complained. "Hey human, doesn't that blacksmith make these armors? You could ask him about making one that suits you" Taking the evidence of L, he decides to ask Elhart about "Hey can you make armor for me" "Yes I can but needed more metal and other materials, there been a shortage of metals lately the mining town that delivered metal had stop do to the waves" he explained why they were a metal shortage. "So I find the way to get that town to deliver metal again you could my armor" teen says after hearing the man story "Kid if you did and bring some that metal and materials yourself I'll make your armor for free but if you to upgrade it you have to paid like everyone else" after hearing his deal Asta agreed with him "Ok I will but I still need some armor" Elhart thinks a bit and grabbed a box "How bout this, never get to sell this one but good for beginners" he decided to paid and go to the changing room putting on dark leather boots, pants, vest, fingerless gloves, and metal face plate that cover the eyes. Now, new armor was required. He thanked the man and left the building to start collecting supplies for his next journey.
Meanwhile, at the castle in the throne room, the king and his royal knights discussing last night happened. "So your majesty we can't find the cause of that explosion and no other building suffer damages" the leader of the knights spoke up on the reports "It's always one after another here the ritual blew up, we only have three heroes, and now a random explosion go off, and it only been two days, keep looking for answers" he gave the order the knight followed. Now alone, the king sits on his throne, thinking to himself it was a good idea to summon all four of the heroes. Nothing went right since then, so he had to make up for his mistakes and start by getting his knights ready for the waves.
A few hours later, at night, Asta went to work on collecting supplies and coins for the journey to the mining town and, not a big surprise, lost again in the capital. "Again human you what happened last time" L complains to the teen "Hey give me credit here this the third day it's not like-" he was stopped by some chuckling from behind, turns around to see three men, thugs like yesterday. "Do you guys want something?" he didn't need to ask. He already knows what they want. "Ya handed over your pouch, and no one gets hurt" The man in the middle threatened the teen. Unfazed, he huffy in frustration gets his shield then without warning he backhand the men knocked them out cold. "Hm doesn't take you longer to fight, human" L asked because Asta's battle was short "Who you think I'm Luck, I don't like to drag out a fight when I don't want to" done giving his reasons he plan to leave but hears and turns to someone clapping their hands.
A short man with fancy clothes and a mustache walks toward his direction with a wide smile on his face. "Well done, my boy. You took them out without breaking a sweat" he stares the man for a few seconds "Um think I guess, is there something you want" "Yes there is I'm a merchant and I wonder you can buy what I'm selling" "I guess it won't hurt to check" he follows the the merchant to a big tent. Once in, he was told about how he sells many kinds of monsters to fight for you. It's just like Yami's pets back at the black bull's hideout. "And this is the best I have in store" he pointed out a werewolf-like monster in the cage, worth seven hundred silvers. "What makes you think I have this many coins?" "I don't just want to show you the best ones. If you want something more affordable, come with me" he leads Asta, some smaller cages with tarps covering them. "Here let me show you what I have here" he tosses over the tarps to see people with animal's parts. "Yep these are demi-humans slaves get not for fighting but also for labor and other things you can think of, so are you choosing one" when he finished his sell pitch, Asta stood still shaking in anger.
He turns to that man, then starts shouting at him "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS WHY ARE THESE KIDS IN THOSE CAGES SPEAK NOW ARE I'LL RIP OFF THAT MUSTACHE" scaring everyone who hears his voice. "Hey hey come down, violence doesn't solve anything" The merchant was on the ground, crawling backwards "DON'T GIVE THAT CRAP TELL OR ELSE" giving into Asta's demand his starts tell everything from what slavery is to demi-human and why there are in slaves. "Is something like this should be illegal" he spoke up after hearing the man out "Well my boy, I got bad news for you it's perfectly legal by the king himself" the man got up and gives the teen a copy of the decree on slavery and the support of the high priest leading the three heroes church. "So even the people of the church are in on it" he is an orphan who grew up at a church to think that a whole religion could encourage the children's suffering. "How long have this been happening" Hopefully, it can't too long "After the queen left and the first wave ended so over a month ago" he hears something interesting "Why did you mention the queen if the king who legally this" " Because my boy, she is the one in charge of the kingdom, she did give authority to someone else but he died in the first wave and all I can tell you" the man done answering the Asta's questions.
Now, a much calmer teen needs to think about how to save these people. He can't set them loose. They will be captured again, and he can't just kill the king or the priest. That doesn't get rid of the problem. He has to make it illegal somehow, but he figured that out later, he needs to save them now "Fine I'll… Buy a few" he hates, saying that "Ok then will show which one you are paying for" the man went back to his usual self. After checking each of the demi-humans slaves, Asta decided to use his Ki sensing to find who needed more help; he got three signatures, seeing which ones needed help: an auburn hair raccoon girl, red hair cat girls, and green hair small lizard girl. Sensing them being sick and weak he chooses them for now "You're sure that one is really sick I don't think she make it" he gave the man a glare "Alright then it's your choice now let's get them ready" before they take them somewhere he ask their name the raccoon girl spoke while coughing "I'm Raphtalia" then cat girl says next "I'm Tara" when it's time for the lizard girl to speak she didn't say anything. He looked at the man "The deal with her is that she's muted, so she can't talk even if she wants to." The merchant explained why the girl wasn't talking. "Does she have a name?" The man apologized and said she didn't have one, so he had to choose a name. "I'll call her Kiera" Now the names of the three girls were taken to a sealing room. They stand on top of a magic circle and slave crests on their chest "Do they willy need that" "Sorry my boy, but they have to wear that or they by taken by someone worse" "I just wish they have to suffer from this" After two painful scream over with, one is muted the teen paid the man and leaves with the girls being carried.
Outside of the capital in the forest, clearly a campfire lit the night the three girls were sleeping after he cleaned them up and fed them medicine in his sleeping bag he bought for himself. Luckily, it was big enough for them. Sees Asta sitting against a tree looking over the girls then reaching his hand in his robe taking out L who stares back "Human this place disgust me in slaving race like that I would think my kin has something to do with this" "Not only that but the king and priest is involved in this too" "What we going to do?" The teen got off the tree and stood up "First we take care of those slaves crests" "But if we get rid of those crests they by taken by more discussing humans" Asta pull out the destroyer "Who says we getting rid of it remember when he was destructed I took some of the link that have my blood in" "How unlocking a slave shield help?" The teen takes out a bottle with the link inside it. "And want me to do what?" "Try to get anti-magic into it" After injecting anti-magic to the bottle of link, the purple link becomes black, creating a bottle of anti-link. "Now with this we can replace the crests, it's like sealing magic I've seen Zora and Nero doing it before" "Seeing and doing are two completely different things, what will happen if you mess up" the teen is now next to the sleeping girls "I have to try, I don't to hurt by accident telling them what to do" after one short stare down, L gave in "Fine hope you know what you doing" Asta gets some link on his finger and paint over the crests, leaving a circle with a five leaf clover in the middle. With that done, he takes the destroyer, aims it down to the girls, closes his eyes, takes a deep breath then transforms, and lets anti-magic follow out the sword, reacting to link and crests. After some time, he stops, turns back to normal, and seeing the crests now they blacken with the clover in the middle.
"Nice I did it, I told you it will work" "Whatever I'm going back to the grimoire. See you later, human" L went into the grimoire, leaving Asta with the girls. He checks his stats to see the girls on the party list all level ones, "I'm going to train those girls to learn how to fight" with that thought in mind to sleep.
In the morning of day four in the forest clearing, the three demi-humans girls wake up, to the smell of cooked fishes, look over at the campfire to the man who bought them. When he looked back at them, they went back into the sleeping bag, and he approached them with fishes in hand. "You can come out now. I got you girls some food" they look out to see the man with fishes. The girls take one fish each and start eating. He sits down, waiting for them to finish eating. Once done, he starts saying "First thing before I tell you what we are going to do. My name is Asta, and this is L" he takes out L, who was in the robe like always. The girls never saw something like L. "Hello demi-humans" "Eek it spoke" Tara panicked. "Master, what is L?" Raphtalia asked the teen "One no don't call me master, call me captain and two L is a… a… a friend" L catch that part "Human why did you hesitate that last" he continued " Either way I'm from a land really far from here and trying to get home but then I heard about the waves so I to be prepared for that wave and train you girls to fight with me, any questions" he finished saying. "Um master, do we have to fight?" "It's captain, and yes, you girls do" "Captain how are you going to train us" "Well Tara some good old exercise and kill monsters but we to that later" he turn to Kiera knowing that she can't talk so ask her "Hey Kiera what to get stronger, nods your head for yes or shakes for no" she nods. "Alright then, let's get started" he sees the girls wearing what they call clothes "But first, I need to buy you girls some clothes" he decided to take them somewhere in the capital.
At Elhart's blacksmith shop, the teen and three girls entered. The man sees the teen came in with three demi-humans children "So you bought slave then" he cross his arms giving the teen a look "DON'T YOU DARE CALLED THEM SLAVES EVER AGAIN GOT IT" Asta Immediately got close to the man's face poking his chest while shouting.
"Ok ok I got not calling them anymore, so why are you here with those girls" "Oh I'm going to buy them some real clothes and a weapon each" "I think I got what you need" he went back to bring three similar dresses there were red, white, and blue. After being given their dresses, they went to the changing room and changed into their new clothes. The white and blue dresses look like Raphtalia red ones. When they get out of changing room, Asta sees them in their new clothes, but something is missing he got it, and he reached in inventory pulling out three small bear robes "Where I'm from we wear matching robes show that we belong to a team" he sees a problem with their animals ears so he grabs a pair of scissors and some holes in the hood for two of the robes. Then, he gave them the robes. Kiera got the one that still has bear ears on, and the other gets the ones with holes for their ears.
"Ok now you three choose a of your choice" Doing what their captain says, they each pick a weapon "Master going to wield this sword" "It's captain, but I can teach you how swings a sword like me" "Captain I want this bow" "Well that's fine you hit monsters far" he turn to Kiera seeing carrying a hammer same size as her "That's look for you Kiera but you're going how to use ok" she nodded. "I guess you found what you looking for" Elhart spoke up when they were done. "Yep sorry it's going to take awhile to go to that mining town now" "Don't worry kid there's no set date so no rush" he pays the blacksmith what he owes then leads the other three back to the forest.
On a rooftop a shadow was near a shop where the teen is shopping at "Can't believe that one boy manages to beat three of us good the leader blew him up" when she said that the teen she was talking about walked out the shop with three smaller people in similar robes as him. She quickly hides, thinking how he survived that explosion with three new followers. Leaving her hiding spot, she rushed to her leader to report his survival and the new followers.
After returning to the forest, Asta is watching his squad members attacking some balloon monsters multiple times "Hey human, why don't you just kill some bigger monsters while they business" L ask the teen "Because all of use gain experience points together I wanted them to earn it" "Wouldn't that mean they level faster" "Yes but they need get used to their weapons too you can't get that from leveling up" "I guess you're right, so how long you think it's takes?" "I'll give it a week, then we're all going to that mining town" he said while checking his inventory for materials he plans for his armor.
At the meeting place for the shadows, the leader just heard the news about the boy she fought two nights ago. "So he lives thought I finished him off he wasn't wearing armor the last time and what about his followers" she ask the one who bought the news "There demi-humans children who wear similar robes to his own" the leader thinks for a bit "Don't engage him I doubt he fall the same tricks again" "Yes ma'am" After the leader left alone says "I have to tell her highness about this unknown boy" and left to do just that.
Six days have passed, the repeating routine of waking up, exercising/weapons training, monster killing, eating while the girls take their medicine, making money, buying some supplies, and sleeping followed by Raphtalia's nightmares he has to calm her. Now, the day before they head out to the mining town, he is going to test them on what they learned in the six days since they started to train. "Ok girls, let's see what you all learn, just show what you can do and try to hit me" The three girls get ready. Seeing this, he says "Now start".
Raphtalia begins to run her sword in hand, and she starts swinging toward him, but he keeps dodging out the way, Tara starts shooting arrows at him, but he keeps catching them and sticking to a tree, and Kiera spins around her hammer then slammed down just missing him if he didn't jump away. This pattern of dodging, catching, and jumping for thirty minutes until the girls get tired and he tells them to stop, now he is sitting down with girls catching their breath. "You girls did well, I think you're ready to go to the mining town" The girls had a smile on their faces. "Thank you master" "Its captain and your welcome" "Captain what kind of monsters were going to face" "I do not know that way I have you girls train" he turned to Kiera and asked "Hey are you excited to go?" she nodded, yes. "Alright then, we're spending the rest of the day getting ready, we leave the capital first thing in the morning" finished with his speech, and they got to work.
Meanwhile, very far away from the kingdom of Melromarc, sees the queen Mirellia receive the report of the mystery teen. "So he is not only able to find them, but beat a few of them, and survive an explosion, is that what I'm hearing right?" she asked her shadow, who reported it. "Yes your majesty" her Highness thinks for a bit "For now, don't give him a reason why to hunt you girls down from I heard right he stronger than few of you together" after given she orders she left the queen alone, the queen checking the sketch of the teen before and after his transition "Why did this have to happen when he in charge" she signs in aspiration.
The morning of day ten, Asta and his squad members are getting ready to go to the mining town before they start leaving, he ask them a question "Hey girls can you hand me your weapons" "Master why you our weapons for" "It's captain, and I can keep them safe until we get there" once all girls handed over their weapons and the teen put them away in his inventory. "Captain, are we going by carriage?" Kiera also wants to know, and the teen a look "Nope we're going to run there" The girls give him a shocked look "But master it's will take too long to get there on foot" "Don't worry about I'm really fast and it's captain" the girls look unsure about that when he sees this he starts crouching down "Come on climb on of my back" when the girls climbed on his use one of his new rope shield and ties them to him make sure they won't fall out. "Get ready. I'm going to be really fast" he starts getting in a runner's position and starts running.
At the gate of the capital, the three heroes and their parties happened to meet up at the same time. "So how has everyone's journey been?" Itsuki asks the other two heroes. "I'm doing great with all these girls in my party" Motoyasu confidently explained with vulgarity. "It's fine. I still have to find some monsters" Ren said with a low tone. Before anyone else knew a black blur ran past them leaving in a dust cloud "What was that I couldn't see anything" one of the heroes party spoke up while coughing, even the knights who guard the capital gate saw nothing but a blur followed by dust clouds.
Back to P.O.V.s of the girls, they can barely see what was happening one moment he was crouching the next, this they knew strong winds pushing against them. "See told you I was fast" their captain said while making twists and turns on the road to town. A few minutes of running until the teen sees a town miles away, "Look at that we're almost there" he kept up the speed, and when they were near the town's gate, somebody kept watching. He stops moving his legs, digging his heels to the ground, slowing down and coming to a stop at the front of the gate. "Wow already it hasn't been ten minutes, see where earlier than you thought" he says this while crouching down untiring the rope "Hey there" the teen turns to the man who is guarding the town's gate. "I don't care how you got here, but you have to pay a toll" After paying the toll, then visit the town chief and ask about the mining problem.
Now they're in the mines looking for the monster that is giving the people of the town trouble. "So after killing that monster, collecting some metals, and leaving the mine, human" L explains the situation "That what the chief says can't believe one monster can do this" Asta responded "Master, how are we going to find that monster?" Raphtalia asked, with the three girls giving back their weapons from the teen "It's captain, and with my Ki sensing, I can find that monster in no time" "Ki sensing" Tara wondered if it was "I learned this technique from my captain back home. It's allowed me to sense life, or Ki is what he calls it, so I know what people's next move will be" after giving the girls an explanation of Ki sensing. He found what they were looking for and headed there.
At the cave opening, there is a waterfall and glowing mushrooms that light up the opening. "It's supposed to be here, but I don't see the monster," Asta said. Using Ki sensing again and turning back to block an attack that was aimed towards the girls, it jumps back, letting them see a dog-like creature with two heads. Raphtalia begins to be afraid of the monster. He sees this, designed to grab at its necks the bottom of its jaws. Holding it back, he asks Tara and Kiera to help her. "Raphtalia what wrong" Tara ask "It's the same kind monster that kill my parents" her told then explain the nightmares she been having "So this monster killed your parents then" he ask "No the one that did had three heads" Kiera look at her then the teen wanting to told what to do. "Raphtalia you have to face your fear, just for me but your squad mates and the people of the town, what do you think will happen to the town if this attack" he gave her a reason to fight. She thinks about how it's started attacking people they will die like her parents.
Raphtalia began to pick up her sword and ran toward the monster, then stabbed it. Tara starts pulling her bow and shoots her arrows at its body. Then Kiera grabs her hammer and starts smashing it. Sensing their Ki he let go, to let them attack the monster. After that was done, the monster was near death, laying down one of its heads still up, and the other one was dead. "You three get together and look away" they listen and look the other way. Seeing the girls not looking his way, he bashed his shield there and laid his foot on "Nothing personal" the girls then a crunch sound, a few seconds later "Hey its ok to look now" when they look back the monster corpse is gone. "Ok let's-" he was stopped by Raphtalia, hugging and crying to his leg while the other two hugged him as well, seeing that collecting metals could wait and he started hugging back.
After some time they collected the metals and other materials in the mines, went out and met the chief to tell him the monster is dead, spent some time helping out, then before the sunset they left town the same way they got there, and now it's night at the forest clearing. Asta finds himself surrounded by his squad members sleepy. That when L decides to ask "Why didn't you just kill the monster, I know your stronger than thing, human" "Because I don't want them to think that I'll solve their problem forever and be more scared if I'm not there" after hearing that reason L decided to end it there and go in the grimoire. Now alone with the girls, he remembered sleeping like this back home at church and the other orphans, with that in mind he fell asleep, ending the night on day ten.