Chapter 36

"I'm sorry this is happening." Ake said as we walked side by side towards the bridge leading to the castle.

"Don't be. The King thinks that hurting my friends and allies will make me obedient. His mistake however, is thinking that if he does manage to harm my friends or allies, that he'll be safe from me." I rubbed the side of my finger against the base of one of my horns in a vain attempt to stop it from itching. At least they weren't bleeding anymore.

"I don't... ah... want to be rude, but..."

"My race has certain abilities, but using them can sometimes have side effects." I replied, already knowing the question. "Think of it like..." I captured my tail to give it a little attention, "When you're in combat, and everything seems sharper. It's not like practise. You feel less pain, your swings have more power behind them without feeling like its costing more effort..."

"Yes! A good knight learns about the Battle High early in their training." He nodded.

"That's normal for just about everyone. But this..." I motioned to my forehead, "It's a little deeper than that. However, if I draw too much on it..." I trailed off, letting him guess, but also trying to change the subject without defaulting to 'I don't wanna talk about it'.

He looked a little grim, but nodded, "Please be careful Sir."

A minute or so later, we got to the town side end of the bridge. "I think I can find my way from here." I said, "Just in case someone tries to delay you or toss you in the dungeon for helping me, it's better you get to that patrol now."

He stopped, "Good luck Sir." And with a sharp 180 turn he marched off away from the castle.

I turned back towards the castle and started over the bridge. On the way, I considered various ways to just... kill everyone inside. Sleep gas followed by a really smoky fire it the forest around the castle? Plain old poison gas on a windy day? Walk in and start tossing people out of windows, down stairs, or off balconies? Sneak in and poison the food?

"Halt!" A voice pulled me out of my little fantasy, followed by a pair of poleaxes being crossed in front of me. "Where is the Knight who was sent to escort you?"

I looked to the speaker, calculating just how much force I'd need to snap his neck and replied, "He's out doing his job. I hardly needed him to guide me over a bridge."

The two of them glared at me, but I just stood there looking bored, not feeling threatened at all. "You will be escorted the rest of the way to see the King." And he turned to ring a little bell exactly once.

Ten seconds later, I had four knights, one of which I had met before (that one guy who kept pushing me around when I'd been framed for arson) surrounding me. About the only thing they were doing right, was that none of them were close enough for me to grab.

"You will follow us, or you will be thrown into the dungeon." one of them said, almost shouting at me.

"Carry on then." I replied.

It felt incredibly satisfying to feel their anger rising. Their inability to intimidate me even a tiny bit seemed to just... anger them. But that wasn't my problem, and they knew it.

A minute or two later we stopped in front of the throne room doors, and the two guards who were standing outside let us in. As we passed through, they joined my little guard detail.

About half way between me and the throne, was that one knight who ordered his mages to 'kill the monsters' around me in Riyute. Yes, the same one who's codpiece I crushed. "You will be respectful in front of the King!" He demanded, then turned a neat 180 to face Altcray, "The Cowardly Shield is here Sire!"

He stepped aside and allowed the six knights to escort me forward. Altcray looked at me, frowned and started talking, "You will explain yourself, Shield. You fled the battle while the Heroes lay wounded from beating the Wave. You somehow managed to steal some of my Knights away from their duties. You use powerful weapons in your party yet have not shared them with the others! Your list of crimes grows ever longer!"

I said nothing. I simply looked at the fool on the throne, drawing an imaginary X on his face, right where his nose was.

He growled, "Nothing to say in your defence? Not like I would believe you."

I said nothing. Instead I wondered if I had enough attack power to crush his windpipe, or if I needed to trip him first and let gravity do it for me when I stepped on his throat.

"There are even reports of you and your party leaving unharmed! He shouted, "That you arrived to fight the wave, yet did nothing once you were there!"

I gave him my very best 'Akeno is about to zap you' smile and asked, "So you didn't summon me here to return my ring?"

I could see little veins starting to throb on his forehead, but to my surprise, he didn't say anything to that.

So I decided to start twisting the knife, so to speak. "I am surprised, Altcray of the Staff." His eyes went wide, his eyebrows almost vanishing under his silly crown, "That someone who was once a great war hero, who won the hand of the Queen through strength of arm and sharpness of wit... is so stupid."

"You will be silent!" The crushed codpiece knight demanded, making the six around me rattle their poleaxes meaningfully.

I turned to look at him, and narrowed my eyes as I drew an imaginary X on his face too. He was much sharper than the King though, because he seemed to know exactly what I was doing. I turned back to Altcray, "I could tell you the truth, but since it's just 'the Shield' and a 'demi-human', you'd ignore my words, think them false, or try and stop me from talking to save face for the three failures the other Heroes have become."

"That's correct. You are the Demon of the Shield. I see those horns on your head, you cannot hide them from me." Altcray growled.

"Before I walk out of here, and leave for Shieldfreeden." I smiled, "I'll tell you something very important." I paused for effect, noting that yes, he heard what I said, "After we beat the boss of the wave, someone with a Vassal weapon fought us, and beat us. ALL of us. On their own."

That seemed to get a little more of his attention, but again he was dismissive, "You are not permitted to leave Melromarc." He paused, then continued, "You will tell me about this supposed vassal weapon user. If she isn't simply an excuse and a lie made up to hide that you fled the battle!"

"Funny, I never said it was a 'she'. Which means you've heard some reports, and since only the heroes and our parties were there, I wonder who told you I fled the battle?" I smiled, "And I am going to leave Melromarc. You can't stop me. Until now, I've simply let you have your way. But this time, if you try and stop me, you will be condemning people to die for your pointless prejudice."

"Restrain him!" The King ordered, calling my 'bluff'.

The six knights around me sprung into action, but suddenly I was encased in a glowing dome of energy. The 'Shooting Star Shield' was kind of like Shield Prison, except it only covered me and my immediate surroundings, just out of arms reach oddly enough.

"And how will you do that?" I asked. "Last chance to let me leave."

A couple of the guards slammed their weapons against the dome of energy, but it hardly made a ripple. Of course, like the other skills, it wouldn't last long. Hm, maybe I would have to burn the place down after all?

The King growled, "Leave my sight, and never return!" He said, half standing and waving a hand as if that alone could throw me out.

The guards stopped swinging at my barrier, and I gave Altcray a smile, "If I come back here, it will be for my ring. And if you don't have it, I will leave you alive for last until I find it." I turned away, glaring at the knights around me as my little force field dome popped like a soap bubble.

All but one of them moved out of my way. It was the same 'overzealous' knight who kept kicking me around. He'd apparently reached his limit, and with a yell and a massive overhand swing, he tried to cut me in half.

With a sigh, I ducked under the swing and took a step to the side then forward. For an instant, he and I were back to back, so I reached up over my shoulder, grabbed his head with both hands, then took a single long stride forward to pull him backwards... Then with a little jump, I got us both air born and I let his full weight slam to the ground, the back of his head held to my shoulder. It was the signature move of a certain wrestler and while they acted, I did not, and at the very least the knight was unconscious. Or dead. I didn't care.

No one tried to stop me on my way out. Sure, there were glares, and the occasional glob of spit sent in my direction. But that was as close as they got.

Instead, as I turned down the street leading towards the bridge that separated the 'merchant' and the 'residential' rings of the city, I heard a very distinct ahem from the nearest alleyway.

Turning, I saw Motoyasu in his all concealing generic brown robe (tm). So, I turned and walked towards him as if that were my plan all along.

He at least seemed to be familiar with being discreet, and started walking away from me slowly, letting me catch up in the deeper shadows of the alleyway.

"I tried." He said. "We all did."

"Let me guess..."

"Myne." He replied quietly. "You've been more than right all along." He chuckled bitterly, mostly at himself, "Ren is super pissed off at you, and Itsuki wants to steal that..." He paused, "What was his name?"

"Clive." I nodded, giving his shoulder a pat, "So hero. How are you going to fix it?"

He was about to reply, but something under his all concealing cloak (tm) squawked quietly. "Oh right..." He opened his cloak up a bit, and a fat fluffy bird head peeked out, shaking itself out a little before squinting at me REALLY hard. Like... super death stare.

Except, the head was about the size of my fist and the face was super cute. Black downy feathers, bright intelligent eyes and a sharp beak. Yup, filolial chick. Who was being super cute and angry at me.

"Her name is Kuro." Motoyasu said with a sheepish smile, "I'm not good with names." He gave the little head a gentle pat, "No being mad at him." He said as the grumpy squawks turned into 'this is the best thing ever' chirps at the attention. "I mean, I know I got her to be a rival, but... You've helped me figure it out."

"Good." I didn't really know what to say, but I did try to boop the little beak.

This however, got my finger bitten. "Now now." Motoyasu said, "Friend." He said firmly, pointing at me.

"Food." I added, pulling a bit of random dried meat from the Shield's inventory. "Huh. Dried Chimera meat? Thought it was gone..." This time, Kuro didn't attempt to nip my finger along with the offering. "You didn't answer my question."

"That's the thing. I don't know what to do." He finished fishing the chick out of his robe and revealed it to be... well, like a ball of black feathers about as big as a person's head, with only stubby legs (with raptor clawed feet), and its tiny head breaking the norm of 'ball shaped monsters' this world seemed to have. "If I ditch my party I'll be alone..." He looked at me, sighed, "Melty was right. Listening to myself has really changed my perspective."

I saved him the potential guilt by not looking at him and instead went through the Shield for more bits of meat that my party and I had turned into jerky at some point or another, oh, and some nourishing beverages (now in vegetable soup and berry flavours!) "Here. She's going to be eating a LOT of stuff, and this will help."

I could tell he was looking at the status screen as each item passed from me to him and into his Spear's inventory. "Huh, suppose you've done this already."

"Yeah, Raphtalia and I went through a weird accelerated growth phase too, something the humans around here hate the Demi-Humans for. I could literally hear myself growing, bones and everything. Anyhow." I sighed, "Yes, speaking, and hearing what you are actually saying, is a great skill to have. You're level is high enough you hardly need to worry about the local monsters. This means you can boost her training just by letting her leech XP."

He nodded, "You know, you're really weird."

"If I had a 500 yen coin for everyone who's said that to me, I could make another shield." I smiled, "Can you cook?"

"I..." He sighed, dropping his head just low enough for Kuro to headbutt his forehead and rub her face on him. "I let one of the others do it. They insisted, so I never bothered trying. Thank you Kuro."

I could have called him all kinds of names, made fun of his lack of skill, and really just said 'I told you so' and be totally justified in saying so. But instead, I gave him another pat on the shoulder.

"Okay. My advice, is to follow me to Erhard's weapon shop. My party and I will teach you some very basic survival skills." I stopped and kept my hand on his shoulder to keep him quiet (this got my hand pecked at again as Kuro gave my little finger THE DEATH STARE), "Then. Leave your party, aside from Kuro, and head back to that village you 'solved' the food crisis for."

He winced, interrupting me, "I screwed that up too I'm guessing?"

"Yes. But I fixed it. Your punishment will be to take a bite out of an unripe foxberry. Just one bite." I smiled, making him flinch a little, "You'll be fine, but you'll know why its a punishment. Have a ripe one after that. But that is my advice. Get as far away from that red haired obscenity."

He looked a little pained, but sighed and nodded, "Yeah. Alright."

"Oh, and you." I pointed at Kuro, "You get to try and be friends with Tetsu."

Once again, Kuro tried to eat my finger, but while she was distracted I applied a headpat, yes, just as fluffy as she looked. "What are you going to do?" He asked, "Friend." He moved back a tiny bit just to get my finger out of range.

"My party and I are heading a little north of there. The former slaves are coming with me to Van's territory, then I'm heading out of Melromarc for a bit. Shieldfreeden maybe." I paused, "Oh, just so you're not seen with me, turn here, go to the general store, the one that sells adventuring supplies..."

"Ah, you're back! And there haven't been any alarms for fire." Erhard grinned as I stepped into his shop.

"It was a close thing, and I probably killed a guard on the way out." I said without a shred of pity or regret, "I also made it very clear that any guards that come after me are dead men walking as far as I'm concerned."

He looked grim, disappointed even, "You sure you know what you're getting into?"

"The irony is, I didn't get myself into it. I was pulled into it. And if I want to go home to my wife and children, I have to now live through it. I will drag this world kicking and screaming to the other end of these 'Waves of Disaster' if I have to, but if the king dies a horrible screaming death at the hands of a monster, I'll wait until he's silent before killing the monster."

He gave me a long hard look, his arms crossed, his jaw set in stone. But he just sighed, "Well, at least you're not blaming everyone for the actions of one person."

"I try not to inflict collateral damage." I replied, "Oh, the Spear should be here soon. It only took two beatings and a near death during the wave, but I think he's finally started to get it."

"Huh. But why is he coming here?"

"He's got a new friend, realized his old friends weren't his friends at all, and is going to take my advice on how to improve." I smiled, "He's going to need some survival training though, so my party is going to teach him."

"Kicking and screaming huh?"

"Nah, we're past that with him." I started to walk around him towards his workshop, "Gonna hammer something. Where is everyone?"

"Out back working on the wagon. You should take a look."

I was so impressed by the wagon, I just had to say so. "I am impressed. This is great work everyone."

The four wheeled, wide bodied lumber wagon had been going through all kinds of little renovations during out travels. It had mostly been a little here, a little there, adding short walls, a fabric roof, shelves, that kind of thing.

But we all knew it wasn't going to last. When we'd hit town before the Wave, we'd emptied it out, flipped it over, and started to redesign it from the ground up. Tougher wheels, actual 'leaf spring' shocks (for poor Raphtalia mostly, but also because it was a cargo wagon), solid walls, a couple windows, a front and back door, a 'half barrel' roof (one part to keep the weather off, one part a 'bedroom' for Kunshu)...

My party and I had been working on it, and Erhard had actually called in a couple friends to 'consult' with us on how to really do it well (though I'd done this before a few times already, Erhard's friends knew the local materials better than I did).

So now it was a mobile home. A real one. It even had (thanks to Raphtalia) internal and external lighting! About the only things it didn't have was running water (yet, I had an idea for that), a bathroom (meh plenty of bushes all over the world that could use a bit of fertilizer), and a real food storage (the Shield was doing that, but well, if I wasn't around and someone wanted a snack...)

"We just have a few more planks to tap in." Raphtalia said, "And then paint it with that stuff you made. Wish it didn't smell so bad, but it reminds me of home."

Yes, I'd made 'boat soup'. Basically waterproofing tar.

"Well, when you finish, come inside. We're going to have a guest." I smiled at all of them (except of course Kunshu, who was already getting started on the roof painting). "The Spear has finally seen the error of his ways, and is going to do what we did at the start. Go alone, survive off the land, and maybe become a proper Hero while doing it."

The reaction was a little mixed, but I looked over to Tetsu (who was holding a plank in place for Raphtalia), "And, his new friend is Kuro, you can try and make friends with her."

"Oh! His egg hatched!" Tetsu almost dropped the plank, but was a good girl and kept it in place.

A bit later, with Motoyasu looking suitably sheepish about being such a jerk to everyone and everything in the world (okay, maybe not that bad), he apologized to everyone, bowed, and then looked to Erhard.

"Can I commission a skinning knife from you?" He asked.

Erhard nodded, "Finally going to buy something huh?" He frowned just enough to make the Spear look even more downtrodden, but then gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Sure. I'll have it ready by the time your lessons are over."

Money changed hands, and Erhard gave Motoyasu another pat on the shoulder before vanishing into his workshop. "First." I said, "A little information and item exchange."

I felt kind of bad for him. I mean, only kinda, but the Legendary Spear was very... underfed. He had only absorbed monster items and some metals. Yes, even for the Shield, 'metal' based shields were tougher, and monster based ones usually had some kind of status boost (resistances, bonuses against certain monsters etc etc). But Motoyasu didn't have a single utility based skill.

Not one. No medicine efficacy up, no gathering bonus, no fishing bonus, no improved eyesight... nothing.

So, I gave him all kinds of herbs, let him have the 'alchemy set for dummies', the book that went with it (ye old alchemy for the soft of skull), tree bark, seeds, dried fish, zombie flesh (this was for the 'inventory anti rot' skill, and was given back right after!) and all kinds of other stuff that he'd been told wasn't worth his time...

Basically? His Spear could do almost everything my Shield could do. And in his case, he could use every bonus it gave him (unlike me, who was already good at smithing, crafting, cooking, fishing, alchemy... sigh...("there there sir." ... "Thank you Usa."))

Next was cooking. His skill here wasn't as bad as he claimed, thankfully. He had at least seen enough cooking to figure out how to not cut himself. Each of us taught him a simple camping recipe, from bread to stew, and he also got a little alchemy practise in when I asked him to grind things up with the mortar and pestle.

Of course, since he helped make dinner, we insisted he join us for it.

Backing up a tiny bit. Tetsu and Kuro were... Well, it was looking like they were coming to the same kind of understanding that Tetsu had come to with that one Filolial from Van's mansion. The little black ball of feathers just didn't want to be friendly with Tetsu. However! Tetsu could hand feed the little thing, even if it tried to peck at her fingers. So yes, 'an understanding'. Tetsu had to wait until it settled into a food coma before actually getting a good headpat in.

Speaking of 'who got to headpat the adorable feather ball'. Clive, Usa and Kunshu had no trouble at all making friends. Erhard got a 'are you food' peck first, then accepted headpats, while Raphtalia got the 'GLARE OF FEATHERY DEATH' but accepted a bit of food all the same.

"Wow." Motoyasu said after all the lessons (and dishes) were done. "I know... I know it's real. But this kind of stuff just makes it seem..." He pondered a moment, "I dunno, like adventuring and stuff is just a job. Still gotta eat, still gotta take care of yourself..."

"Now you know why I've been so irritated at you all." I said, "This isn't a game, no matter how much it seems like it. What ever game you played was probably written by a survivor of this world who returned back to Earth. I was only ignorant of all that, because I got a nice book, not a game."

He gave me the same look I'd gotten from just about everyone by now, the one that said 'you're a weird person'. "Just how much do you really know?"

"I thought suspicion of Kitsune was supposed to be bred into you Japanese folk." I smiled. "We leave in the morning if you want to follow us."

We clasped forearms, but he shook his head, "No. If I leave with you... Myne will have an even worse meltdown than she'd going to have in about three minutes..." He took Kuro from her napping spot on the table, and set her on his shoulder. Without waking up, her stubby clawed feet gripped the armoured shoulder plate of his armour tightly. "I'm going to go through Riyute, say sorry to them too, get a quick lesson on-" He shivered a little, like the soft city boy he was, "skinning animals... then make my way to Lerno. I'll put my new camping skill to its first test before sundown I'm sure."

And he left.

"Well kid? Think it will stick?" Erhard asked, "Your lesson, I mean."

"I can always beat him up again." I shrugged, "But just this once, I hope I don't have to. I'm gonna make some more nails, you guys get back to the wagon. We'll paint it before bedtime."

The Ringmaster was making it harder and harder to hate him.

Now, to be transparent, I still hated 'the trade of flesh' that he peddled. I was only participating in it for the benefits from the Shield. If any of my party wanted the mark removed, I'd snap my fingers and that would be it. The slaves I'd just bought would simply have to ask as well, though I did ask they wait until we were out of the Castle town, since 'stealing or damaging property' was a crime.

But the Ringmaster, before my party and I had gotten to the west gate of the Castle Town, had everyone out of the city. As a Human, a recognized businessman, and someone with a LOT of money, well, none of the human guards dared to bother him. He'd overcome one of my biggest problems. Even if I had paid for 'service', well this was admittedly good service.

He himself wasn't actually there though. Instead, there were a dozen of his Muscle Clowns, a few wagons, a filolial for each wagon, and all the supplies we'd need to get to Van's territory.

When my party and I arrived at the little circle of wagons/people/muscle clowns, one of them (the clowns) stepped forward and handed me a note.

"To the esteemed Shield Hero." Huh, flattery? "This particular service has now been served in full. Underneath, as per our agreement, is a list of supplies, how much it cost, and the names of the merchants I procured them from if you wished to buy more."

"Sir? What's funny?" Usa asked.

"He does his paperwork." I chuckled, then continued in my best Ringmaster voice impression, "In an effort to keep you as a customer, I escorted them out of town. Also attached is the list of the names of your new acquisitions." I looked to the Clown, who handed me a roll of paper, "If questioned in an official capacity, it simply proves they are yours. While I doubt you would care, I must follow the rules."

The Clown then gave me a small bow, and just... walked back in the direction of town. A moment later, the other Clowns did as well, leaving my party and I in the middle of a couple hundred demi-human slaves in various shapes, sizes and conditions.

So, I sighed, put the 'proof of purchase' in the Shield, and changed it to the Gengar Shield so everyone could hear me.

"Ah! Sir!" Usa panicked, hastily lifting his helmet then tucking his ears under. "There. Thank you for waiting."

"Good morning everyone." I greeted, "We have a bit of walking ahead of us, but if I could get you all organized, we can start on our way..."

Ake, right on cue, joined us as soon as we were out of sight of the Castle Town's walls. First him and his four knights and one mage, then his secondary team of five knights and a caster. He was met with suspicion, but once I told everyone that he was the knight I talked about, and shown that his two casters were demi-human (and also said Ake was a nice person), everyone calmed down again.

After that, and a few pokes and prods at the 'party status screens', Ake and his knights got those willing to learn out into the nearby fields to hunt monsters. This close to the town, the threat level was fairly low, but occasionally a group would come back, report on an potential 'hot spot', and my party and I would go and break it apart.

And by lunch, the average level for all of the former slaves had gone up by one.

A little after lunch time (we didn't actually stop for lunch, just handed out food and water, maybe switched people around who were sitting in the wagons), I saw Usa's head whip around to focus his ears on something. "Sir! Two riders! Filolial!" Pause, "No armour."

Two unarmoured people on bird-back. I loved it when people were punctual. "Melty and Lady Ragnarok." I said, "Hopefully." I mumbled. "Kunshu?"

Kunshu appeared beside me, waited for (and got) the usual antenna rub greeting, and then walked beside me as we went to meet the two riders.

The elderly martial artist and diminutive aristocrat were a little dirty with road dust, and Melty had a couple of little tears in her otherwise perfect blue dress, but they looked to be in good spirits. "Well well, seems you've got quite the following." Ragnarok said with a chuckle, getting off her filolial (mostly white with hints of red), "Not as many as I thought?"

"Ake and his knights have been taking groups of them out to find monsters. Anything dangerous gets reported to me, otherwise, scrub training." I said, "Melty, thank you for coming back."

"She's been going on and on about you since the Wave." The Elder chuckled.

"I have..." She paused, "Sigh... yes, I have." She pouted at me, "Part of being a good diplomat is the ability to lie just a little."

"Well right now, you're not a diplomat." I smiled as I let my eyes flick over the status screen, "Wow, you've been busy too."

"I would have been a fool not to train with such an esteemed fighter offering to help me." Melty huffed, "But thank you." She dismounted as well, her (white with green highlights) filolial leaning its head down to rub her cheek.

"Well earned. We're going to be travelling a couple days at this rate, so I wanted your opinions on something." I turned and started back, "Kunshu? Take the birds over to the nice old man with the droopy ears.

Kunshu went to the riding birds, offered a pat on the neck in exchange for getting sniffed at, then led them into the marching group of slaves. There was a lot of 'domestic talent' in there, and no surprise 'animal handler' was one of them.

"What an interesting monster she is." Ragnarok mused, "So what's the problem then?"

"Well, before the wave, we had to abandon a hunt. We just couldn't kill it, but it's contained." I explained, "Tyrant Dragon Rex."

"It got free?" She went a little wide eyed, "And you want to kill it?"

"Oh, don't misunderstand. We are going to kill it. But are we ready?" I felt my horns itch, but I resisted the urge to rub at them, "We wounded it, Clive blinded one of its eyes." I added, "And I'm almost positive Raphtalia can kill it with the sword I gave her."

"What kind of weapon did you make for that kind of confidence? All four of the heroes of a previous generation could only contain it!"

"Well, we can get to that. I want to ask the others, and if we could get your help, Honoured Elder, we would all like a lesson or two." I put my hand on Melty's shoulder, "And I'd like some help with my magic as well."

"Of course." She smiled.

The end of the first day ended without any real trouble. It was slow going, but I couldn't really complain. These people were just recovering, much like Clive, Usa and Raphtalia were when we became a party. Except some of them were basically keeping themselves alive on hopes and dreams. My medicine could help, sure, but some of these people were missing body parts, were recovering from lung infections, all of them were underfed...

But Ake and his knights brought back plenty of animal meat, and there were lots of people eager to cut it up and eat it. Food wouldn't be an issue.

Shelter was a little tight, the Ringmaster came through with supplies, but they were 'exactly' enough. But unless we had a flood, shelter wasn't an issue either.

Raphtalia, being a former resident of Lurolona village, had many friends here. She was my 'finger' on the pulse of these people, letting me know if there were problems. I tried to be attentive, but my status as 'the Shield Hero' made me a little unapproachable. They didn't want to bother me with 'little things', even if I asked them directly if there were any problems. So I had to rely on Raphtalia to find the problems for me.

Speaking of problems, my party's vote on taking another swing at the Tyrant Dragon was a 'yes', and Elrasla agreed to help us train for it. Our levels might be stuck at 40, but our skill could always be improved on.

"Boss?" Tetsu called out to me as just as I sat by a cooking fire to keep watch that night.

She was in her Dragon-Newt form, but even like this she still had some 'giant lizard' mannerisms. Like getting next to someone and dipping her head down so she could wedge it between your body and arm. Like a very big cat or dog that was demanding attention. She did this now, getting her head under my arm, then sitting next to me before wiggling into my side and using her tail to get my cape over her too.

"What did you want?" I asked, giving her the headpat she wanted, "You usually don't do this unless you want yet another plate of food or something."

"Heehee. Well, I wouldn't mind more food..." She started, but then shook her head side to side to refocus herself, "No later! I wanted to ask you something! Yeah..."

"Of course." I nodded, taking my hand off her head so she could concentrate. Hmm, I missed Spot. I bet they'd get along. Heh... Spot and Tetsu playing tug of war with some rope. Now that would be a funny sight... This time I was the one to shake away the random thoughts, "What was on your mind?"

"I was thinking about fighting the dragon. And how we can't level until we find that hourglass thingy. But..." A pause, "I think maybe..."

I waited for her to work up the courage.

Then she said, "I wanna eat the dragon core!"

I blinked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I think... I think I'm ready. I dunno why, but it feels like something I can do now." She moved a little away from me so she could sit facing me and give me her best look of determination (along with a dramatic pose).

Faced with this look (and dramatic pose), I nodded. "Well. Let's go tell Ake's knight we're going to step off the campsite first."

I had no idea what might happen, so I woke up the rest of the party first. The only things I knew for certain about Tetsu wanting the Zombie Dragon core, was... she wanted it, and there was something like a 'soul' inside of it. Was it some way to power up a dragon? Was it something like the monsters in the Dungeon eating magic stones? Would Tetsu and this 'memory' inside the fragment fight for who controlled the body?

Too many uncertainties. But Tetsu thought she was ready, and while she wasn't the smartest (clever, yes, smart... well for someone a little over a month old? Yeah very smart) her instincts were sharp. So, we (her party and family) were there to cheer her on... Or put her down if she became a monster, though, we didn't mention that.

So, with Tetsu in her dragon form standing in the middle of all of us in a clearing away from the camp, we all gave her a hug for encouragement, and I took out the Dragon Soul Shard from the Shield's inventory and held it in my hand for a moment. Again, I could feel the whispers inside of it, like a slow inconsistent snake scale over stone hiss, just loud enough to hear. As I tried to listen to it, I felt my horns itch again, just like before. But this time it didn't feel like something the size of a house was looking over my shoulder and about to open its jaws...

"Remember Tetsu, the Lucky Iron Dragon. No matter what anyone tells you, we are your friends and family. We're here for you." I said, reaching up to rub the end of her snoot, then scratch under her chin, "Ready?"

"Yeah." She said, her 'human' sized voice still a bit weird coming from a Dragon sized body. And she opened her mouth, her tongue wrapping around the crystal shard of dragon soul and pulling it into her mouth.

NOTES!

So Motoyasu has officially joined team Fox... Mostly... And yes, I pulled a little from the Web Novel. He's seen the error of his ways, and wants to come back inside like a good puppy.

Yeah, Naofumi had a dragon friend later in the books. But Kodori has one now like... a half dozen books early? :) See you next time.

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.

And! I'm looking into getting some story themed merchandise made. Join the Discord to find out more!