Chapter 17 Start of the Merchants Life.
As she stood in the doorway Malty smiled while she watched her cousins embrace, eventually the two broke there embrace and lead her to the doorway ''Atla there's someone I'd like you to meet'' Fohl said ''this is Malty and she's our cousin''
''H-hello Ms. Malty'' Atla said with a small bow.
To which Malty warmly embraced her ''none of that Ms. nonsense, we're family you may call me Malty'' she said.
Atla returned the hug ''ok… Malty'' which caused Malty to melt on the inside, this felt so nice, she couldn't wait to introduce Atla to Melty, but she broke away to introduce Atla to the other members of the party.
''Alright, with that all done there is a lot we need to talk about'' stated Eclair.
''We do?'' Atla asked.
''We do'' said Malty, soon enough the group was seated and ready to talk, Malty, Naofumi, Eclair, Rishia and Fohl were all sat on chairs while Filo and Atla were sitting on the bed, they had given Filo some snacks to munch on while they all talked,
''ok now that's all out of the way the first big thing we need to talk about is what you two want from this point forwards, you have two options really, you can stay here or you can come with us, you don't have to answer now, but we're going to leave tomorrow so-''
''No, listen I don't know about Atla, but I'll come with you'' said Fohl.
''Alright, if that's what you want Fohl, but Atla I'd like you to think this over before answering alright'' said Malty, to which Atla nodded ''ok Naofumi would you be so kind to remove his seal?''
''Of course'' said Naofumi getting up and changing his shield to the 'Holy Shield', it was a shield they had discovered rather recently, Malty had used her authority as princess to demand the Holy Water after the duel and they had poured it into Naofumi's shield, Malty cringed at the memory she hated using her royal authority for this like this but it was nessesary.
''W-what do you mean remove my Seal, I thought this was so I could gain exp faster'' said Fohl.
''It was but your at the same level as we are, so as far as I'm concerned your seal has served it purpose'' stated Malty with a shrug ''besides we can easily gain extra exp from Cal Mira to my knowledge it might be activating soon''
''Wait, whats Cal Mira?'' Naofumi asked.
''Damnit! I keep forgetting to tell you things, I'm sorry'' Malty sulked.
''It's alright Malty you're not intentionally hiding these things from me'' said Naofumi ''but seriously what is Cal Mira?''
''We'll tell you later'' said Eclair ''but back to this topic, the Princess has been pushing for relations with the Demi-Human, so a Demi-Human slave being a slave in the party would not be a good look''
''I suppose that's fair, but why get a slave crest for Filo?'' Fohl asked.
''So she can catch up'' said Rishia ''Filo is currently a lower level to us, so its to help her catch up''
Malty gave a smile and patted Filo's head which she responded positively to leaning into the petting, it made Malty feel so guilty, to an extent Rishia was right, but there was another reason why they had taken Filo to take a slave crest, she might have been misremembering it but she was pretty sure the anime had said they needed one to control Filo, but like with Fohl and Atla they would take it off after a while it was just to raise her level and discipline her if needed but the very thought didn't give Malty a good feeling, she just hoped it wouldn't have to come to that.
''Fohl it kind of feels like you're fighting this, why?'' Malty asked putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
''I don't want to be a slave anymore, but I'm willing to grit my teeth and bare this burden if it benefits the rest of us'' stated Fohl.
''That's very noble, but you don't have to bare this burden anymore'' said Malty, to which Fohl smiled and nodded.
Naofumi then stepped forwards and held his shield and soon enough the slave mark on Fohl disappeared, he did the same with Atla ''alright, now whats the plan, I'm assuming we got the wagon for a reason''
''A few reasons actually, one reason being that Filolial's love to pull things, so it's something for Filo to pull'' Malty explained.
''Yay!'' Filo cheered.
''Another reason is that it'll help us all move faster'' explained Malty.
Naofumi nodded ''alright, yeah that works I mean there are six of us now it'll be much faster if we can load everyone up in the wagon and ride off, it'll also help us carry supplies we need''
''Which brings me to the final reason, we can use it to start a business, we will still be getting rewards from the palace whenever we fight in a wave, but using this we'll build up additional funds and we'll also build connections, in doing so we may get access to resources we need'' Malty explained.
''Hmm, it may also grant us access to certain sources of information'' Rishia mused.
''Exactly, so how about it Naofumi, ready to become a merchant?'' Malty asked.
To which Naofumi grinned ''sure, sounds like fun''
A month passed and things were progressing smoothly, Naofumi and the party were now well established as merchants transporting goods and even people, they were brining in a good amount of money doing this and notably Filo had gained the title 'the Heavenly Fowl' which had always confused Malty because Filo looked nothing like a Fowl if anything she looked more like an Owl but hey what did she know, currently they were transporting a very important person, it was the merchant from the anime.
Malty had been looking out for this guy since he was going to teach Naofumi a lot of skills that would help them in the future as well as introduce Naofumi to a lot of connections that would give them information and oppertunities to make money, the only problem was she wasn't sure if this was the right time, the reason that the merchant had taught Naofumi and introduced him to those connections was because his party had protected him from bandits, if Malty had
too early then they could have a problem.
''Are you alright Malty?''
Malty turned to her left with a smile, sat next to her on the left was Atla, she had decided to come with them which Malty was happy about ''its nothing Atla I was just thinking'' Malty replied giving Atla a pat on the head.
''I can't begin to express how thankful I am, but I never imagined I'd been pulled in a cart by our saviour of the Heavenly Fowl'' said the merchant.
''Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl?'' Naofumi asked confused.
''You haven't heard?'' Malty asked ''they've started calling you a Saviour since you bring medicine to and heal those who need treatments and they started calling Filo a Heavenly Fowl because… I actually don't know why, I don't even know why they're calling her a Fowl''
''Well the Heavenly part is because clearly she's a goddess of domesticated birds and the Fowl part is obviously because she is a fowl'' said the Merchant.
''No she isn't, she's more similar to an Owl than a Fowl'' said Malty.
''I'm a god?'' Filo asked, swivelling her head around to look from behind.
''Filo quiet down'' Rishia whispered.
''Oh my she can speak? She really is a god!'' The merchant gasped.
''No she's not a god'' said Naofumi.
''Why does Atla get head pats! Mama I want head pats too!'' Filo cried.
''When we're done with this job you can get one'' said Malty.
''Promise, do you promise I can get one?'' Filo asked.
''Yes I do'' said Malty.
''Yay!'' Filo cheered.
Malty gave a tired sigh, so far the experience looking after Filo was like looking after any child it could be and was fun a lot of the time but it was rather draining, that said Filo was rather well behaved they didn't even need to use the slave mark they just needed to raise their voices to get her to behave, due to this Malty and Naofumi had agreed they would remove the Slave mark as soon as Filo reached the same level as the rest of them.
Malty was drawn out of her thinking when the wagon came to a current stop, Malty quickly moved to the front of the wagon to see what was going on and saw a group of thugs stood in front of the wagon and while it shouldn't have the very sight filled Malty with relief, it wasn't too soon it was the right time, well time to get to work, she along with Naofumi, Eclair, Rishia and Fohl jumped out of the wagon ready to fight.
''Can we help you?'' Naofumi asked.
''Yeah you can, we're being paid to bring our client a particular merchant and we heard you were transporting him'' said one of the bandits the one with blond hair, the Marchant gave a panicked cry in the wagon with Atla reassuring him it was ok ''we don't you just hand him over make it easy for all of us''
''In the future we need to pick our clients more carefully'' Naofumi whispered to Malty, she nodded and the party got into fighting stance.
''Heh, think you're so tough well we've got a Class Upgraded bodyguard'' said the bald thug, based on how easily they went down in the anime Malty severely doubted that.
They began to fight and the group of thugs went down just as easily as they did in the anime and when they had finished with them they had tied them up like they had in the anime and after tying them up they confessed everything that they were hired by another merchant to take out the merchant they were transporting.
''Hmm, so one of my own sold me out?'' The merchant mused ''I see, well I'll let you do with them as you see fit''
''We should turn them into the Melromarc Guard'' Malty stated.
''Yeah, we should'' said Naofumi before turning to the merchant ''that said I'd like hazard pay for this''
''Oh of course, I'd be more than happy to pay you back, but I'll give you a choice as to how I pay you back'' the Merchant stated ''I can pay you back the good old fashioned way or I can offer you something better''
''Hmm?'' Naofumi mused.
''I can teach you a few useful skills, as well as introduce you to some connections of mine'' explained the Merchant ''it's the least I can do all things considered, I can tell looking in your wagon your trying to be a merchant, doing this will give you a huge leg up so what do you say?''
The merchant reached out his hand, Naofumi didn't need to think this over and instantly took the merchants hand while Malty grinned as the two shook hands everything was going according to plan.
The party would spend the next two weeks in the merchants villa that overlooked a rather large town, while Naofumi learned how to enchant and craft gems the party frequented the towns local guild where they would take jobs to earn extra money and exp, at night and on the weekends the merchant took Naofumi out to introduce him to his connection and they quickly took a liking to Naofumi, but that might be because Malty had taught Naofumi and the party a bit about negotiations and how to present yourself while talking to people like these, some took to it better than others, but it really helped them in general.
Though of course there seemed to be a problem, during his conversations with the connections he had asked if they had heard any news about the other heroes and they had told him some… interesting stories, the Spear Hero had apparently introduced some kind of fast growing super crop which would replenish the land to an area stricken with famine, the Sword Hero had gone to the mountains to fight strong monsters there were even stories about how he slayed a dragon and not much was known about the Bow Hero as he seemed to keep a low profile though they're were rumours he had taken down a corrupt lord of a neighbouring country Malty suppressed the urge to groan, ah well at least it was something to keep them busy.
And the merchant had also told them where they could find a certain gem they were looking for.
So that was the chapter, I hope you liked it, sorry its been a while I've been busy so I hope this make up for it.