It took an hour for the idiot to try and explain what had happened while he'd been gone. Worst of all, he thought it had only been a few days since the incident at the cliffside, apparently missing a full two days of time during his journey with Naofumi. He was still my Hero, the one to whom I pledged my service, but by the Weapons, I wanted to smack him again just for the sheer level of ignorance that showed.
Worse when I pointed out the menus had a clock function, and he only wanted to talk about me HAVING menus now. To be fair, that had been a shock, taking up the Replica Weapon, and finding it came with them, similar to when I used the Hourglass, but with me all the time. It made it even easier to see my skills, to thumb through them, and even offered suggestions as to what skills to take at levels, rather than it being random.
I got him back on track, and he informed us of the time he spent with Naofumi and his party venturing overland. That had been his mistake, missing both that first day in his count, and a day between learning about the burning of the forest and them meeting with Lord Reichnott. And wasn't that an interesting turn of events, that they would happen to run into the ruler of one of the more…liberal domains in the kingdom?
Fate, probably, was my only thought. He also spoke, with a smile, of how he'd identified himself as a prisoner of the Shield Hero to the man, and then of how Lord Rabier's forces had invaded the next morning, and they'd spent a full day traveling between the two estates, prisoners of the other Lord. We'd known about the Manacle, our connection to Bard had made it impossible not to feel it, and my menus had shown it, but it was still shocking to learn.
Manacles of the Prisoner were not cheap by any means. It wasn't a thousand gold, to be fair, but it was several hundred, and even Lords of the nation wouldn't just happen to have one on them. Why Rabier would need it was also in question, given it was doubtful he'd known that the Princess and Heroes had been present, and for all his skill as a statesman, Reichnott was no warrior.
That wasn't to say he COULDN'T fight, mind, he had levels, about twenty of them, so he could be formidable to a normal human, but the Royal Knights that Rabier had with him were all minimum of Level twenty just to be allowed assignment away from the Capital, let alone the elite unit he'd had which seemed to be in the thirties. Any small group of them would easily have overpowered the other Lord, and that wasn't getting into Rabier's own power.
That man, for all his faults, and there were many of those, had distinguished himself for a decade or more on the battlefield during the wars with Siltvelt. He was beyond the Class-Up threshold, and while I didn't know his Class, everyone in the Guild had known he was a power to be stepped around lightly. Worse, because he was a fanatic that had a church on every street corner in his city, his actions would be unpredictable at best.
Men like that were dangerous, and to hear that Bard had MOCKED him? I didn't just want to slap him now, I wanted to tie him up in a litter, and we'd carry him from now on, to keep him from doing stupid things like that. The idiot even laughed at how he'd made the fool angry, as if he had no idea how bad it was to just be in his hands, let alone be the focus of attention from one with his proclivities.
Still, hearing of that dagger he'd had. Ray confirmed that, from the description, it could be none other than the Dagger of Death's Flower. That was disturbing, to know that such a terrible weapon had been in the hands of the like of Lord Rabier all this time. Worse knowing what he got up to, it was likely that weapon had drunk well, and might even have been behind some of his worst excesses, though that did nothing to mitigate his blame, as he had to have willingly allowed it to influence him.
We broke only now to explain the Dagger was an artifact level item, similar to Ray's glass blades, or my Replica Weapon, forged using ancient techniques in Siltvelt, making use of the Vassal Hammer during the many wars with Melromarc. That weapon had allowed them to transfer properties from one object to another, and with that, they'd done some horrid things in the old days, in order to create malignant spirits from those they tortured, and then transferred into the Dagger.
Ray was quick to point out, Melromarc had done similar, using blood magic via the Vassal Staff, and that none on either side could claim to have been righteous, for all that both had and still did so through to today. And she was correct. Still, the Dagger had been lost at some point during the wars, and for a moment, we had to demand what had happened to it, only to hear that, much like the Hydra's poison, it had not survived contact with his power.
That was…it was good to know that such a thing was gone from this world, hopefully forever, given what had happened with the Vassal Hammer at the end of the last war. Still, to learn he'd broken it with his power was astounding all the same. The Bow Hero was not a warrior in the slightest bit, or a mage for that matter, but even he had such potency within him to end such a terrible curse. It made me almost proud of him.
He then explained something odd, though neither of us could tell him what it meant to have his menus 'go wild' in the dungeons of the place. That was then pushed aside, as he explained Rabier's actions, how he unleashed the Tyrant from its prison, causing Ray and I to both look in horror at him. We'd known it HAD happened, but given the Captain had been light on details in that regard, neither of us had known it had been done deliberately, and not as an accident.
To hear that he had undone the only thing that had made his family noble, that their blood had been used to seal the thing away? It was madness in its purest form. It was good that he was dead, and it was just as well that Bard seemed to barely acknowledge the death this time. Ray had explained how hard the Northern Queen's death had hit him, to all of us, and we all knew he'd have to have many more like that, before this life was through, so seeing him not blame himself for someone dying around him was a good step.
Then he began to describe the battle against the Tyrant, and he wasn't bad at it. He wasn't great, but he was better than most adventurers would be with as long as he'd been in the Guild. He laid out the tactics he'd used, the stats of the monster in question, and what sort of terrain he'd been forced to fight on, even with commentary on how he might have done better against the same monster, and tricks he'd wanted to try, but had lacked the skills specific to the fight to test out.
Ray was quick to question him on everything she could think of, especially given we'd be facing monsters like that in the future so long as the Waves continued. She was most interested in how long he thought they could have sustained against it, given the Boon skills he had lasted a few minutes at best, balancing out how useful they were, and even with his reduced skill costs, he'd probably been drained quickly.
Then he laid out how he'd beaten it. We knew he'd done so, since it was both what the Knight Captain had said, and our link through the Party Member system had corroborated that. He had been unable to explain how, as he'd followed orders, and had in fact, called Bard a capable commander, which was high praise from a Royal Knight like that, who had to EARN his position in units allowed to leave the castle.
However, his plan was…absurd was the best description. His plan against the Hydra had endangered the Brothers, Ray, and myself. Not ideal, but acceptable. His plan against the Waves had done likewise. But against Glass he'd been willing to throw his life away on a stupid gamble, one that had paid off, but still, a gamble. This one went beyond that, as he described himself literally LEAPING into the jaws of the Tyrant.
He defended himself when I leapt from my seat to throttle him, held back only by Ray who was quick to remind me we still needed him not choking on the floor to continue with his tale. He was quick to add that he'd had Filo smash into the thing's gut specifically to keep it from being able to swallow easily, and he'd had the sword too, which would have given him some leverage if the thing had been able to do anything of the sort even with that.
It was, if it had been anyone else being used as the one going into the mouth of the monster, an audacious plan. Using the beast's own prodigious strength against it, and combining it with a quirk of the Shield Hero's skill? The fact that it had worked against a thing like that, targeting a weakness in a way that its stats had given it almost no defense against, in the same way we'd done against the Hydra? It was actually inspired in a way.
It was still a stupid risk, and they should have honestly just led it out of town. The Knights could have just as easily been ordered to evacuate its path, especially with it slowed by the 'Chilled' effect. Then, using his (Fast Travel) skill, he could have gotten us and a dozen others to come help, and while it would have taken time, we'd have been able to slay the beast in a far more normal fashion.
He was quick to counter with him having no idea what we'd do to Naofumi, knowing that the Princess had had days to poison the mind of her father, something we easily batted aside by pointing out that delaying the return of Melty would only exacerbate that particular situation. Worse, a crisis like that would have forced even King Aultcray into action, regardless of what his daughter said, if only to preserve his kingdom.
He had enough sense to concede the point, so we didn't press farther. He then laid out the death of the beast, and used his (Auto-Loot) skill on the body, which, as the local Guild Administrator had said, was better than bad, but still only just this side of good. Still, it was a superior attempt compared to his previous uses of the skill, and he'd even gotten Ray's mark right, so they'd been going over our account, with the Head of the Guild themself even remaking on how much Bard was owed by the organization.
We would have to give some of that, probably half if Bard's honor was the same as always, to the Shield Hero and his party. Naofumi was about to be rolling in gold, honestly, as it was doubtful the Guild would want to be in his debt at all. He had a reputation after all, and the Head of the Guild tended to dislike having to give out IOUs anyway. Bard was an exception simply because of the sheer amount he'd earned over the last few weeks, what with us hunting down trapped and sealed monsters regularly the way we'd been.
After that, he explained their encounter with the Filolial Queen, a figure of legend. The Queen of Melromarc had claimed to have met her in her youth, of course, and even introduced her second daughter to her at some point. However the woman's…quirks was probably the nicest way to put it, and the Princess' youth had worked against proving it, as any filolial was likely to seem like 'a giant' to someone so young.
Having the Heroes to back her up would probably improve the woman's standing amongst most of the populace, not just in the nobility but even those of lower social class. It would be interesting to see the effects that might have in the coming years, almost as much as the ousting of Princess Malty from the Royal Line entirely. That last having been a long time coming, and everyone from the highest noble to the lowest peasant knew it.
He did ask if we'd known of the city of Sanctuary before he'd decided to name his city that, and we had to point out that it was a fairly common name, all things considered. Ray listed out five she knew of, none standing, and I had some stories of at least three myself. It was simply the sort of thing you'd name a city you hoped would stand for a while, and all the Sanctuaries I knew of had stood for centuries.
He actually pouted over that a bit, almost being adorable enough to make me forget all the stupid things he'd done. Then he went on to the detail about the Vassal Carriage. It took Ray and I a moment to really process that. The Seven Star Weapons were well known to have originally been called the Vassal Weapons, spawns of the Cardinal Four, but it was speculated that while there had once been an eighth amongst their number, it had been lost, and likely destroyed, as it had never come to light in any conflict or war for as long as most records went back.
To find out it was in the hands of a Filolial the size of a castle? Well, that was quite the shock, especially as he detailed her stats, as far as he knew them. She sounded like a monster on a whole other level, the sort of thing the Guild made whole books about to give to the various adventurers, mostly in the 'stay away from this' mold. The fact that she was both intelligent, and able to be anywhere put her above even that.
Bard was quick to point out that she was benign for the most part, even helpful, in her own way. To hear she was actively hunting the remnants of Waves was both good and bad, though. It explained reports of boss monster corpses we'd gotten lately. It also was a reason to tell some of the more…agitated nations to stand down, lest they attack their neighbors without cause.
It was still true, however, that it was proof that though we humans…and demi-humans and beastmen, were not as in control of the world as we liked to tell ourselves. We carved out villages and cities, but something like Queen Fitoria could sweep that all away with a single flap of her mighty wings. That was enough to put many rulers on edge, and we silently looked to each other, trading something in Guild hand signs to come up with another story later to tell people.
He then laid onto us the reason we'd been booted from his party. The Upgrade System sounded…I wanted to say too good to be true, but knowing what I did now about Heroes, it was just like them to be able to gain quick power. And to hear that, instead of taking it for himself, he'd made the decision to give it to the rest of us? I had to wonder if any of the others would have done that? Probably not, either wanting it for their own glory, or not wanting to put others in danger, either way making them the focus of power.
"That does beg the question, where are the Brothers? Or Souka for that matter? I think it catches you up with my story, so how's about I hear about what happened while I was with Naofumi?" he asked, and Ray and I looked at each other again, this time no signs passing between us, save her motioning with her hands, and causing me to nod, as she gave me the floor to explain what had happened over the last week, as it was quite a lot.