A/N: I just want to say right out the onset- and I'm only going to say this once- this fanfic is supposed to be a parody.
I do not believe in or endorse the viewpoints expressed by the characters. The viewpoints are also not meant to be taken seriously.
The reason I'm writing this is because I'm tired of pearl-clutching people constantly criticizing this series for just mentioning slavery, and so I wanted to write a version where the slavery is 100x worse.
Naofumi stretched his arms as he had finished yet another playthrough of his favorite game, Palworld. Honestly the game had all that anyone could want- you could enslave magical creatures and make them do your bidding, and the game had no morals other than optional ones. He had tried to do an 'evil' playthrough once, where he only captured humans to work on his ranch, but the issue was that this really didn't work as the humans in the game didn't have any special skills. One of his bases was dedicated to enslaving humans, though, just out of sheer principle.
Right, now with that done, Naofumi turned to updating his fanfiction.
Do you, dear reader, perhaps have fantasies about being transported to Japan at some point and then becoming a samurai in feudal Japan, earning fame and fortune for yourself?
Well, Naofumi Iwatani was what you can consider a 'reverse weeb' of sorts. His dream in life was to one day be transported to the antebellum South, pick up a rifle, help the Confederacy win the Civil War, and then retire on a huge plantation. This was ridiculous, and so was his self-insert fanfic, but that didn't stop anyone, now then did it?
With this taken care of, he decided to take a stroll to the library. He had already gobbled up most of the 'alternate history' section, and was bored out of his mind until he happened upon a book he hadn't seen before.
"The Record of the Four Heroes?"
He started reading the book but it nearly put him to sleep with how boring it was, however, as he turned to the section that described the Shield Hero, he found it was blank.
"Hey what gives I want a refund!" Naofumi said angrily, even though he had not paid for the book in the first place, but his protests fell on deaf ears as a flash of light erupted from the book.
"Oh Heroes, please save us!"
After some talking, Naofumi realized that he had been transported into a different world.
This was amazing! Alright, the king was kind of racist towards him, but that just made him appreciate the world a bit more.
He did have one complaint however, why was he given a shield for a weapon? He would've much more preferred a whip, but oh well, he guessed that the function of the shield was so that he didn't have to fight on his own. That made sense.
Later on, he was talking with the other Heroes.
"So we all seem to come from different worlds, it seems," he mused to himself. "Hey- who won World War II in your worlds?"
Ren and Itsuki both answered, "The Axis powers," while Motoyasu said, "The Furries."
"Man, I wished I could have lived in your worlds, Ren and Itsuki," Naofumi said to them.
"Why? Who won World War II in your timeline?" Itsuki asked.
"The bad guys," Naofumi said with a sigh. "Oh, can I go back to your worlds once this is done instead of returning to my own?" His original plan was to build up a magical army in this world, go back to Japan with it, conquer it, declare himself Emperor of Japan- and after that tell Italy and Germany that it was time to get the gang back together again.
However, it seemed to be so much easier to just go to a better world instead. "Who won the American Civil War in your worlds?"
"I never really paid that much attention to American history, so I don't know," Itsuki said.
"Are we just going to gloss over the fact that not only was there a Furry faction in WWII in Motoyasu's world, but that they apparently won?" Ren asked, watching Itsuki and Naofumi converse with a strange look on his face.
"Yeah," Naofumi said, patting Motoyasu on the shoulder and giving him a pitying look. "I thought that I came from a hopeless world- but Motoyasu truly does come from the darkest timeline."
"Ah, but it feel so nice to meet all of you, if only I had been able to bring along my fursuit to this world along with me for this occasion," Motoyasu sighed.
"I changed my mind, guys, I say that we all gang up and kill Motoyasu right here and now while he's still weak," Naofumi said.
"Agreed!" Ren and Itsuki said, drawing their weapons.
"Hey guys don't you think that you're overreacting a bit-" Motoyasu began as Ren and Itsuki powered up their skills.
In the end, this new 'tripartite agreement' wasn't able to finish Motoyasu off, and Naofumi, Ren, and Itsuki were kicked out of the room for the damage they had caused.
Unfortunately Naofumi wasn't able to start buying slaves anytime soon, even though Naofumi knew there was slavery in this world, he had to put up with getting teammates assigned to him, and then before you knew it, a girl was falsely accusing him of touching her.
"Hey, I'll have you all know that I've never touched anyone inappropriately!" Noafumi said. "The only person I've touched since coming to this world is myself!"
"TMI bro," Ren said.
"Liar!" Motoyasu said. "Can't you see the tears in Myne's eyes? Don't they tell you so much more than words can speak?"
"Counterpoint: you are a Furry and ergo your opinion has no value whatsoever," Naofumi told him.
"The Shield Hero makes an excellent argument," King Aultcray said. When it had been said that the Spear Hero was a 'furry' he had no idea what it meant, and after he learned what a furry was he nearly had a stroke. "However, we still find the Shield Hero to be guilty!"
"Drat!"
Naofumi was now kicked out of the castle, but at that moment a new notification popped up on his HUD.
Do you hate this world?
Yes...
It seems that you have a... very unique temperament to put it mildly. There is a special shield path you can go down, but there is a downside- once you choose this, all other shields of other paths will be locked out. You can only go down this path afterwards.
What kind of path is it?
The Slave Shield Pa-
The notification wasn't even complete before Naofumi agreed to it.
After a few nights, he managed to find his way to the slaver's tent.
"Hello fine sir," Beloukas said.
"Hello, I heard that you have slaves for sale," Naofumi said. "Kind of a like a slave version of Walmart." If only this place was more like Palworld and you could just catch random people, but it looked like he would have to rely on this guy for now.
"Uh yes but..." Beloukas started to say but then stopped. There was something really off about this person which was creeping him out- normally it was the other way around but...
"Take me to them," Naofumi said. "What kind of humans do you have?"
"We ah, don't sell humans here," Beloukas said. "Enslaving humans is forbidden in this country..."
"Drat, why did I even bother coming here?" Naofumi asked.
"Here, we have demihumans slaves instead."
"Tell me more about demihumans."
"Demihumans are considered to be a hybrid between animals and humans, they are treated poorly in this country, and as such, have no rights," Beloukas said.
"So this country has combined racism and slavery? Maybe there is something here that is worth saving," Naofumi said. He walked through the store excitedly, this was like being a small kid in a candy store!
"Uh... sir...?" Beloukas said.
"Anyway, I don't have enough money for a real top-of-the-line slave," Naofumi said. "Get me your cheapest one."
"Haven't been able to make any money?"
"I tried shaking down some orphans for coin earlier, but as could be expected, they didn't have much," Noafumi said.
"Uh, I uh," Beloukas said, unsure of how to answer that. Was this really one of the Heroes summoned to save this world? "Well, the cheapest collection is here."
Naofumi appraised the slaves presented to him. His new Slavemaster Shield showed him far more information than he was able to see earlier when it came to stats- it also had a meter that showed a 'slave potential.'
"This one... has great potential," he muttered as he wandered near a half-racoon.
Ten minutes later, Naofumi and Raphtalia were walking down the street.
Naofumi had unlocked several more slave shields, and had even gotten a stat boost from the purchase.
"Um... Master Naofumi..." Raphtalia began to speak.
"Wait, before we start, we need to think of a name for ourselves if we're going to be a team," Naofumi said. "How about the Fourth Reich?"
"Uh... what happened to the first three?" Raphtalia asked, not knowing what 'Reich' stood for. The auto-translation feature of the Shield didn't translate words that Naofumi said specifically in a different language.
"You're right, no one will get that," Naofumi said. "Instead, we will call ourselves The Racists. The main important thing to remember is to be racist to everyone you meet, regardless of their race, Raphtalia."
"Can I... go back to the slaver and my cage?" Raphtalia asked, pretty sure that her new master was really messed up in the head and she would prefer to take her chances back in the cage, even if it meant possibly dying.
"Ha ha, that's so funny," Naofumi said. "Now let's get you some gear!"
A/N: Someone mentioned that there is a fanfic called Rising of the Shield Slaver which is a more serious take on this concept, but I can't find it anywhere so it looks like it was deleted.
