No.

"Ah, welcome to the Seven Star Church, yes sir!"

No.

"If I had to guess, I would say you are the new Star Axe Hero, are you not?"

Nothing about this was okay.

Surprise, disgust, confusion. These were some of the emotions coursing through me. I saw him in both versions of the manga as well as the anime, but I wasn't prepared to see him. Especially since he wasn't in the Four Heroes Church like I thought he'd be. No, he was the pope of the Seven Star Church.

"…Yes." I replied as best I could.

Before me stood a fat man in small, reflective glasses who reminded me of Beloukas. I remembered reading about him from Reprise, but seeing him in person in priest robes was just too weird. I also thought he was the head of the Four Heroes Church, but I guess I was wrong, or this was yet another difference.

Now, I don't believe they were actually related, but he had the same appearance and mannerism as the slave trader in Melromarc, according to Motoyasu. I haven't met the slave trader yet, obviously, but this was what I imagined he would look like, with a ringmaster outfit in place of the robes and top hat in place of whatever that thing was called.

I felt like my thoughts were repeating, but I just couldn't help it. Registering in the Four Heroes Church was easy enough. He wasn't there, so I assumed it was another difference, and then I came here and got ambushed with this surprise.

"Little man here needs to copy a few of the relics." Khana said for me, tacking on a new nickname, apparently. That was indeed the main reason for coming here. Meeting with…the pope…was something that was expected of me, I guess.

"Of course, of course." The man nodded, his eyes hidden by his shining spectacles.

The rest of our time there passed quickly. I got a few weapon forms, though almost all of them were too high a level for me. Summoned heroes sometimes lost weapon forms from the previous wielder, even if the time between heroes wasn't large, so it wasn't odd I didn't have them. The one that I could currently use was more practical, and wasn't actually a relic but something they had for all the heroes here.

Bracelet Axe
(abilities locked) Equip Bonus: agility 1

The stats and bonus were nothing to brag about, but I could appreciate having this. As it was, I tried sleeping with my armor on—and, thus, my axe on my back—and with my axe in my hand. Neither one was all that great.

After chatting with the pope a bit more—and calming down from my surprise—the two of us exited the church. Khana's party was nearby, along with Lloyd's griffin, who was staring furiously at Hailey. Lloyd was with Hailey and Rato, who had since dismounted, and were talking. In fact, Hailey was eating something out of Lloyd's offered hand.

"Ah!" The hero looked at us like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Just offering your filolial a small treat. I hope you don't mind. I can't raise any with the griffins I raise around."

"No problem." I told him.

"Grah!" The large griffin stomped over and stood over me once more. Instead of doing whatever it was I thought he might, he instead lowered his head and bumped into me.

"Oh. Friendly, aren't you?" I gave the side of his head a scratch.

"Gweh!" Hailey protested, stopping a talon on the ground.

"Heh, heh. Jealous, actually." Lloyd scratched the back of his head. "Draak doesn't like it when I pay attention to anything that isn't a human or griffin."

"Got something against demi-humans, does he?" Khana raised an eyebrow, but I could see a tiny smirk on her face.

"N-No, not at all!" Lloyd flustered. "I mean, there aren't as many demi-humans around my ranch, so he could have some preferences, but that's not what I meant at all!"

It was good to see these two heroes getting along so well. This little performance was probably because of the cat demi-human in Khana's party, an archer. He tried to hide his amusement at Khana's provocation, and was failing.

"I hear monsters sometimes share the same views on people as their owners." Khana went on. "Ah, well, that's none of my business."

"K-Khana! I don't have anything against demi-humans!" Lloyd's head snapped over to look at the archer of Khana's group before turning back. "I have plenty of friends who…I mean, I don't really have friends, but I know people and some are demi-humans!"

"Hey, like I said, it's none of my business who you want as friends." Khana said with a flip of her hand.

"M-Miss Khana!" The mage boy meekly called out from the group.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop." Khana held up her hands in defeat.

I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

Khana stroked her chin. "So, what to do…?"

Now that I was registered, I had an exact time for the Wave.

41:23

Evening was just rolling in, so that put it at late morning in two days. I'd like to earn more XP, but we'd barely be able to fight any monsters before we had to return. Towns and cities with walls closed the gates at night. Just because we camped outside once without issue didn't mean problems couldn't occur.

I also got some sand and unlocked the Dragon Hourglass Sand Axe. Once I hit level 50, I'd be able to use it. I couldn't get a bag of some to take with me, or, rather, I didn't ask for one. Once I was with Naofumi, I'd simply take him to an hourglass to get some sand for himself.

"Hey, Khana." Another member of her group spoke up, the halberdier. "Why don't you take your new friend to get some better gear? His looks like crap."

Crap? Really?

"Huh?" Khana looked down at me, inspecting my armor. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"What's wrong with it?" I asked her.

"It's crap." She said.

"It can't be that bad." I argued back.

"Trusi? What do you think?" Khana looked over at the only other woman in her group, the one who wore a shield and had a sword at her hip.

"It's crap." She agreed with the other two.

I sighed. "Look, it's beginner armor. I was summoned recently and haven't been a hero for long, so—"

"I know it's beginner armor." Khana stated flatly. "It's crap beginner armor. How much did you pay for this?"

"300 silver." I told her.

The halberdier in her group started laughing, slapping his knee while leaning over.

"Damn, you really got ripped off." Khana said, pity clear in her voice.

Was it really that bad? Sure, maybe a little pricey, but it's not like I had a frame of reference for price versus stats. I wasn't bad at business, but I only vaguely remembered what Naofumi paid for his armor. 100-ish silver for something a level 1 adventurer could wear.

Then again, that steel helmet I got as a drop had pretty good defense. In fact, I'd even say it was better for the area it covered, and that came from a relatively weak monster…

"Well, how much would you have paid for this?" I decided to ask.

"At most, 100 silver." Khana told me.

"You're kidding." I paid three times that amount!

"Yeah. Look, the breastplate is fine, but the chainmail is garbage, shoddy at best. In fact…" She gripped the sleeve at my wrist and tugged. I had to keep my balance, but she easily pulled the rings out. "Wow! Never mind, its worse than garbage!"

The halberdier was laughing even harder now. If I ever had reason to go back to that town, I was going to kill that blacksmith. Not even joking. Even if he didn't know I was a hero, he charged me a high price for armor that would've gotten me killed if I had to rely on it.

Actually, I did have to rely on it! If the Axe of Rage didn't greatly boost my defense, I'd be dead right now. Sure, there were cuts in the chainmail where three of those guards hit me, but they weren't exactly low level. Other times, I always had Rato cast Faust Guard on Hailey and me before we jumped into a bunch of monsters. They mostly aimed for my chest, so I didn't notice.

"Don't worry." Khana patted my shoulder. "Big Sis Khana here will find you some better armor. And I know just the place. Come on, little man, let's get you all situated."

~The Right Man~

"This armor is crap. If one of my apprentices tried to sell something like this, I'd kick them to the street!"

While the idea of getting better armor appealed to me, it felt like I was getting kicked while I was already down.

Khana took me to the best blacksmith she knew of in Faubrey, a man named Baric. He looked to be somewhere in his 50s and had the build of a man who spent every day at his forge. Currently, he was handling the armor I'd taken off, the chain links coming apart as he pinched them. At this point, these people were just showing off.

"What do you think, old man? Can little man here at least use the breastplate?" Khana asked as she leaned on the workbench.

"Sure, if he was a level 1 hero." The man replied, tapping the solid armor. "Who sold you this crap, lad?"

"A dead man, if I see him again." It was low on my list of things to do, as petty murder should be. "How much would you buy this for?"

"60 silver for the breastplate. Before you ask, I'd probably sell it for around 80. As for the chainmail, 5 silver. I can still melt it down and make it into something worth something."

That was less than Khana's estimate.

"Put it against whatever I buy here." I told him. There were two days before the Wave and I wasn't about to wear paper mache to fight in it. "Actually, look at this first."

I started pulling out bits of armor from my drops. Not from those guards who were transporting Rato, since I'd have to do that at the hourglass. Besides, there was a chance Baric would recognize them and ask questions. Instead, it was a few drop items I got from monsters, plus the three sets I started out with, as well as a few different monster corpses to see what he could use.

Baric immediately grabbed the armor my predecessor wore. "Where did you get this?"

That was a question I was fine answering. "When I was summoned, I was near three dead people. Since it looked like they'd been there for a while, I absorbed them after learning I could." A slight lie, but I wasn't going to say I knew who any of them were.

With a sigh, Baric pushed the armor away from him. "The last Axe Hero…He came by my shop a few times, got this armor custom made. Good customer."

"Yeah, it sucks that he died, but at least his replacement seems more fun." Khana nodded along. "I was wondering where you got the money for your crap armor."

The Hammer Hero was clearly not one for sentimentalism.

"Is any of it salvageable?" Since Khana opened the door to frankness, I decided to walk on in and ask.

"Hm, let's see." Baric scratched his chin. "This piece here is good. That one's gone. Trim away the leather here. I could weld that piece back together."

He spent a full minute going over the three sets of armor, plus some of the drops I had. At the end of it, he nodded.

"Yeah, I can do something with this. What level am I working with here? Ah, lass, would you step out?" He pointed at the door.

"It's fine." I held up my hand before Khana could walk out, though it looked more like she was going to complain. "I'm level 29." It's not like my level gave an accurate view of my power.

"What in the…" Baric's face jerked toward me. "When did you get summoned?"

"Three days ago."

"Three…" My answer was, apparently, shocking. Baric looked over to Khana, who was looking at me. "Damn. You heroes really are something else."

Cheating helped, but I wasn't going to say that either. If I was stuck with the methods of only one Holy Hero, or even just the Axe's method, I'd be nowhere close to that. Also, the Axe of Rage certainly helped me jump up there.

If I recalled correctly, Naofumi had similar gains after the Wave, and that was only around a village. I went much more off course and had plenty of help finding monster spots, plus a fast mount the entire time. If I wanted to keep up this pace, I really needed to get with Naofumi. My 20s slowed down quite a bit, and I could only imagine my 30s being even worse.

"I'll get to work then." Baric said, gathering up the armor he'd be using. "You let me keep what's left over, plus the crap armor of yours, we'll call it even. Don't need any of the monsters. The armor will be done by tomorrow night."

"Sounds good to me." I couldn't use any of that armor right now anyway, and this would get me a custom set I could improve on later. I reabsorbed the monster corpses.

"Hey, Baric, let little man borrow some chainmail. We'll be going out tomorrow." Khana said, pointing at a set on an armor stand. It was something we talked about during our walk here, and Lloyd agreed as well. To boost my and my party's levels, both of them would take us out at different times. Khana would go first.

"Yeah, yeah. So long as you don't damage it too much, there's no charge." Baric waved her off.

That was pretty generous of him. I could see why Khana got her armor here, aside from the quality. I'd have to see how my new armor turned out.

Moving things around, I got the chainmail on me and put the harness back on, switching my axe to its bracelet form and back again in the process.

"Any design preferences?" He asked.

"I have a few ideas if you want." Khana offered.

"Don't take aesthetic advice from this one." Baric warned me. "She wanted breastplate that actually showed off her breasts."

"My amazing tits would have distracted all my enemies!" She declared, thumping a fist against her armored chest.

"Lass, you had a spike sticking out of your amazing right tit the first time I met you."

"And they're still amazing, scars and all!"

I couldn't help but laugh. Khana reminded me of one of my old associates, Mia. This was exactly how she would react. The only differences I could see so far were Khana being more than two feet taller and being much less of a bitch than Mia. That woman had some lip on her.

"I'm not too picky." Function over form, even if I wanted to look like a certain god of war. "So long as it doesn't impede movement too much. I've got a halberd form and one that can be thrown, so keep that in mind. Oh, and I want to keep using this harness."

"It's a good style." Khana nodded, pointing over her shoulder.

"Got it." Baric made a quick note.

Since I was here, I looked around the shop a bit. There were more axes than that other blacksmith, and they looked much better, too. I reached out to grab one—

"Don't even try it." Baric warned, causing me to turn. "Lass here tried to pull that crap with me once."

"I don't recommend it. The old man's scary." The woman in question rubbed her side.

I held up hands in defeat. Being the capital of the country that was known for heroes wasn't just a boast.

"One silver apiece." Baric said, his index finger pointing up.

"Fair." I nodded.

After becoming 22 silver lighter, we left the blacksmith's shop. Our parties were waiting for us outside, and we departed soon after. Lloyd wasn't there, having already left to find lodging for the night. He needed a place big enough for his griffin, and didn't want to keep him where Hailey was going to be. Pretty considerate of him.

"You know, I heard the Four Holy Heroes would grow quickly, but I didn't think that included summoned Seven Star Heroes." Khana commented as we walked.

"Luck." I told her. "Got the drop on something that looked really strong, but also heavily injured."

My go-to answer if anyone asked about my level growth. I mean, those guards could have been really strong, and I did get the drop on them.

"My help menu was also…helpful." I added that, but didn't consider the wordplay.

"Pft!" Khana slapped my back, nearly making me fall over. "You're a funny guy, little man."

And it seemed like puns translated.

This night would be a decent opportunity to get to know Khana a bit, at least before we hunted monsters tomorrow. As fun as she was, I needed to know a little bit more about her before I go and tell her how to become even stronger. Same with Lloyd. That would happen soon enough.

~The Right Man~

We found an inn not too far from the main area of the city. After getting Hailey settled in the stables—and giving her lots of pets and scratches and a promise to ride her more tomorrow—Rato, I, and Khana's party went inside.

The place had a small restaurant on the bottom floor, where the seven of us sat down for dinner. A few people here and there greeted Khana as they walked past, but otherwise let us be.

It didn't take long before Khana got into the swing of things. That felt like the right way to describe it, since she drank two mugs of ale and started recounting a few adventures she and her party went on.

Now, I've read stories and seen movies where a knight or mercenary would recount tales of their heroics and great deeds and all that, with some exaggeration. Since this was a world with magic and dragons, that upped the stakes and possibilities. Still…

"And I jumped from the mountain ridge, bringing the Hammer down on the massive dragon's open maw and—" Khana slammed her fist down on the table. "—snapped its jaw clean off!"

Her party rose mugs in cheer, as well as a number of patrons who were listening in.

"But it wasn't done yet." She continued her tale. "The fire in its belly still burned, and it spewed forth everything it had. To avoid the flames, I—"

"Miss Khana slid under the beast's belly and grabbed its tail!" The one who took her place was a bit of a surprise. Martin, the young mage of the group, who looked too meek to hurt a fly, leapt up onto the table with a mug in his hand. "She swung the rampaging dragon around and threw it over the ledge! With a broken wing, it fell to the ground below, with Miss Khana diving after it. Then, she held her hammer once more and caved in its skull!"

He, too, emphasized his point, this time by stomping on the table. The crowd around us cheered as Martin wobbled.

"And that," Khana said, grabbing Martin by his robes before he fell over, "is how I made a name for myself."

"Very impressive." I gave her a nod, the other patrons beginning to quiet down.

"Oh, what do you know?" She said, half-drunk by this point, but still smiling. She'd had at least five more mugs since starting story time. "You just got here."

"Doesn't mean I don't know anything about dragons." I managed to keep myself dry as she pulled Martin over to her, setting him on her lap and pushing his mug away.

Khana finished off her latest mug. "Well, now you know how amazing I am." She gave a little flourish with her free hand, the other holding Martin steady. "How about you? To get so many levels after being summoned, you must've done something right, aside from your bit of luck."

"That's thanks to my party member." I pointed to Rato, who kept her head down and hood up as she ate. "She knows a lot about monsters, so it was easy to find them. Plus, we have a filolial."

"Does your party member have a name?" Khana asked, pointing at her. "I don't think I've heard her speak once yet."

"Mouse." I said, uncreative as I was. "She's shy."

With Conrad not in the capital, we only had to worry about anyone who knew Rato. Thankfully, she wasn't exactly public with her research, so most people didn't know her. Only the ones who arrested her or were at her trial should know her, and she was keeping an eye out for any of them. Her sendoff wasn't a huge thing, so most people shouldn't recognize her easily.

"Miss Khana…" Martin slurred out, wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug and barely conscious.

"I'm more curious about that one." I pointed to the clearly drunk boy. "He looks barely old enough to be an adventurer, let alone someone following a hero."

"15 is plenty old." Khana argued. "Besides, I started out even younger."

"I can see how you became a hero, then." Honestly, that was impressive. "Also, surprised you survived."

"There's nothing that can beat me!" She boasted.

"Except a pretty face." The party halberdier cut in. His name, I learned, was Garth, and he loved to rip into Khana. More than once, he poked a hole in her previous stories.

"Don't listen to him. He can't get any pretty faces, since they always come to me!" Of course, the feeling was mutual.

I thought he might be indignant about that, but he merely shrugged. "That's my job. Have to make sure all the fair maidens find their way to the hero."

"Like that one girl from Tanvir village?" Khana gave him a toothy grin.

"Fuck off, Khana!" Garth shouted, going for his mug. Someone had mood swings when drunk, apparently.

Before he could, Trusi pulled it back and slid another one in front of him. "Here, stud. Have some water."

"Whatever." Garth downed that one instead.

Khana simply laughed. "Aw, come on, Garth. You'll find someone. Maybe little man's shy friend?"

The man's eyes turned hopeful for a moment, before Rato dashed those hopes with a shake of her head.

"Maybe little man is interested." She turned to me next.

"I'm not into men." They just never did it for me.

"You hear that, Garth? Little man wants a real man, like me!" Khana laughed again, giving me a wink.

"Fuck off." He grumbled, much more subdued than before.

The bonds of their friendship were truly great. She wasn't bad looking, if that wink meant what I thought it did. A few scars on her face, ones earned in hard battle. The armor she wore probably wasn't big for nothing, so her boasting of amazing tits wasn't just a boast. Well, if she was actually offering, I wasn't going to say no. Just never been with a woman who was quite so crass.

Well, except Mia. But, again, she was a bitch.

"Ah, don't be like that." Khana waved him off. "You know I love you guys."

"Clearly." The cat demi-human, Omir, pointed at the nearly passed-out boy still sitting in Khana's lap.

"He's my precious childhood friend and I'd fight to the death for him." Khana gave him a little squeeze, earning a happy murmur from him. "Same as I'd do for any of you."

Drinking was a great way to get to know someone, especially if they drank more than you. Even without that, I've had a lot of experience reading people in my life. Mostly for intent to harm me or Eddy when he met people to make a deal, but picking up lies came with it. Khana clearly meant what she said.

So far, Lloyd seemed to be a genuine person. The memories I saw of him mostly revolved around his ranch my predecessor went by. They only interacted a few times, but Lloyd always cared deeply for the monsters he raised. Some stayed with him, but others went out into the wild to make territories of their own.

There were fewer memories of Khana. Two, actually. I didn't have much to go on, aside from her liking to fight monsters. If there was more to see of her character from watching her fight tomorrow, I'd be a little surprised. She was gruff and maybe a bit rude, but I could understand why a weapon would choose her as a hero.

Omir let out a sigh. "Here it comes."

Before I could question what he meant…

"Plus, he's not half-bad in bed. A bit too gentle, but willing to do what I like." Khana waggled her eyebrows at me.

…I may have spoken too soon. An eight-year gap wasn't that big, but it'd be better if they were both older. As it was, he was a little young for her, but still an adult in this world, I guess.

"Khana, you're drunk." Trusi told her.

"I'm serious!" Khana argued back.

"We know. You're still drunk." The sword and shield user repeated.

"I feel like you're doubting my love for you now."

Trusi smiled, resting her head on her propped-up arm on the table. "Doubtful. We just know which of us you love the most." She didn't need to point at Martin for me to know what she meant.

"Jealous~?" Khana waggled her eyebrows again.

I got a nudge from Rato, and a finger pointing up. There wasn't any concern in her eyes, so I assumed she was tired.

"I think it's about time we turned in for the night." I said as I stood.

"Sounds good." Khana replied with a wave. "Think we'll stay up a bit more." The light snoring I barely heard over the crowd said that only four of them were actually up. I had to assume he's fallen asleep like this before, since he kept his arms around her neck and didn't threaten to fall over.

"Alright. See you in the morning." With that, Rato and I headed off.

"She was so pretty…I'm sure she was the one. And Khana got to have her…" Garth mumbled against the table, mug of water in his hand.

"There, there." Trusi patted his back. By her expression, this was a common occurrence. I wondered how many times that actually happened to him.

That was two of her party members who had personality quirks when drunk. Garth flipflopped and Martin…acted a bit like Khana. Trusi and Omir didn't drink that much, so I couldn't comment, though they just might not be big drinkers.

We got up to our room and started to unwind. Like the previous ones, we had a busy day riding and killing monsters, the latter mostly on me and Hailey. Rato still kept us high on HP, so she wasn't just sitting around.

"What do you make of them?" I decided to ask as I pulled off my chainmail.

"I don't know much about adventuring parties." Rato replied, loosening the covering around her mouth. "They seem well-adjusted, at least."

"Pretty fun, too." I nodded.

Khana was born in this world, not summoned as a hero. That much was clear. The question I had in the back of my mind about her was whether or not she was reincarnated and, thus, on the payroll of another god.

My conclusion? Doubtful. She came off as a bit crude and more than a little pushy, but not arrogant or self-assured that she was always right, at least not genuinely. I didn't get any feeling that she thought this world was a game for her to win, nor did she have any real bloodlust, something I was confident in identifying. Sure, she wanted a fight when she thought I was here to challenge her, but she quickly changed her tune when that wasn't the case. In fact, she was more than willing to help out a new hero.

Her party also didn't worship the ground she stood on, but acted like long-time friends. Garth especially, but that was likely more his own personality. I was more focused on Khana. I couldn't quite get a read on how she felt about her party in the more…carnal sense. Clearly, she's fucked the boy that was wrapped around her. No question there. She may have just been flirting with the others, something that seemed part of her personality and not an indication she's slept with them too.

Of course, part of my analysis came from my knowledge of how the reincarnated acted in the books. Off the top of my head, there was only one reincarnated that wasn't a total shithead, and he was only around for one fight. A little entitled, sure, but without the same energy.

Rato was already lying in bed. I was nearly ready to turn in when there was a knock at the door. The two of us shared a look before I approached, ready to shift my axe out of its bracelet form. Rato covered her face once again as I opened the door a crack.

"Hey, little man." Khana greeted me with a wave and boisterous smile. "You didn't fall asleep already, did you?"

"Just about to lie down." I told her. "What's up?"

"You got a minute? I need to talk to you in private." She nodded down the hall.

"Sure. I'll be right back." I told Rato as I stepped out. She gave a nod before I closed the door.

The inn we were in didn't really have common rooms outside of the bar-slash-restaurant downstairs, so we moved to the end of the hall where there seemed to be a room for supplies.

"What did you need?" I asked as Khana leaned against the wall.

She crossed her arms, tilting her head from side to side as if in thought. "That Rato woman…how well do you know her?"

"Not well, I suppose. We did meet only a few days ago." I wondered what this was about.

"And how did you meet again?" She asked.

I hadn't mentioned how we met, but we worked out the story for it. "A bit of chance. She was researching how different monsters act when raised by people instead of in the wild. When she found out I was a hero, she wanted to see how monster growth would change firsthand."

That was backed up by common knowledge—for serious monster tamers—that monsters raised by heroes tended to be bigger and stronger, the best of which usually raised by the Whip Heroes.

"Uh huh." Khana closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She muttered something to herself, but I couldn't quite catch it. Something about 'helping the newbie'.

After a moment more, she sighed and pushed herself off the wall, letter her arms fall to her sides.

"She's lying to you, Dante."

If her tone wasn't indicative of her seriousness, using my name was. She hadn't said any part of it outside of our first meeting.

"What do you mean?" I tried to keep calm, suspecting where this was going.

"She was arrested over a week ago." Khana proved my concern right. "Omir recognized her. She was being taken out of the capital when we were resupplying. Human experimentation, I think. That was her crime. Arrested by Conrad. She must have escaped somehow."

"Oh…" I didn't really have a way out of this. If anyone recognized her, we could simply run away. The Axe of Rage would be able to mow down anyone who tried to stop us.

Anyone, except maybe another hero.

Khana stared down at me. "You knew, didn't you?"

I looked back up at her. There was no way out of that. I knew when I was made. I was good at spotting lies, not always so great at telling them, or keeping my face like a rock. "Is that a problem?" Instead of deflection, I opted for confrontation.

She didn't reply. Once more, I was preparing to shift my weapon out of its bracelet form. If I couldn't kill her, quickly or otherwise, we'd have to make a run for it. We could jump out a window, grab Hailey, and get the hell out of here. Hopefully, Rato was still up and ready to flee, and the rest of Khana's party wasn't waiting for us.

Finally, Khana responded. She didn't reach for her weapon, but instead held up her hand.

"If you already know, then it's none of my business. Heroes get certain privileges. I can see why you were asking if the other Seven Star Heroes were coming now."

I wasn't expecting that. Before I could speak, she held up a finger.

"But whatever she does will be on you. Summoned or not, you're an unproven hero to the people. I suggest you find a slave trader and get a seal on her before she does anything. Tonight, preferably."

I couldn't really argue with that. Sure, I knew of Rato from the books, but I wasn't going to rely solely on that. Too many things were already different. Plus, if she was my slave, then it'd be harder for someone to try and arrest her. Like Khana said, heroes had privileges, even if I didn't know all of them. That must be truer now that the Waves were going on. If Rato could be put to use against them, all the better.

"That's all I wanted to say." Khana shrugged and stepped around me, heading down the hall.

"You really aren't going to say anything?" I asked at last, turning to watch her. "To the guards?"

"No." She didn't look over her shoulder as she spoke, but she did stop. "Not if you follow my suggestion. I'll even overlook how she escaped, since I don't think it was by herself. Can't say I approve of criminals being sold to Siltvelt or Melromarc, so I guess it's not as bad as it could be."

Getting away from guards was one thing, but Rato had a slave seal on her too. Khana easily figured out they were dead. She most likely put together that being how I gained so many levels early on, at least in part.

This seemed almost too good to be true. Still, I had to ask. "Why?"

She didn't respond right away, taking a moment to think. "Conrad…is a serious guy. He's killed more bandits in a few months than I have my whole time as a hero. But he's got this sense of how things should be, and things that go against that make him mad. There's some things I've done he's mad about—unforgivable, according to him—but he can't do anything about it. That woman might have done something he didn't like, so he set her up. Or, she really did the things he accused her of. You should make sure."

Khana then looked back at me. "The last Axe Hero was serious, too. Just in a different way. I want to see what kind of hero you'll be. If Conrad did lie about her, I'd keep away from him if I were you. And if you are the hero I hope you'll be…"

She turned to the side, gave me a thumbs up, and wore that same grin she's had since I met her. "I'll be happy to work with you."

With that, she continued down the hall before going down the stairs.

Khana was sharper than I initially thought. I underestimated her. Not just a crude warrior with a good heart, but someone who confronted a problem head on, even half-drunk. As a hero, I knew she was likely strong. However, I didn't consider her powers of observation, or that of her party.

As for me being a hero, I wasn't. Not really, only technically. I could play the part well enough, and I would a little bit. Call me sentimental or whatever, but I didn't really want to disappoint her. Not out of fear, though. She had a certain charm about her. Plus, now I kind of owed her for not doing anything about Rato.

And as for Conrad, there seemed to be a little animosity between him and Khana. She might have been talking about his view on justice and morality, given the context clues she just dropped on me. Fitting, really, considering who the Vassal Projectile went to in the books, and who that person fought against.

If Conrad ended up being like Itsuki, focused on justice but in a detrimental way, then I probably wouldn't be able to reason with him. But, well, that wasn't really my plan anyway.

Author's Notes:

Yes, there's someone who looks like Beloukas who is the high priest/pope of the Four Heroes Church. Pretty sure that's in the Faubrey loop, but it's been too long to remember. He might actually have been in the Seven Star Church and I just remembered wrong, but I'm not about to scour the web novel for that one detail.

A bit more characterization than I initially thought (since I still can't estimate the amount of time I'll spend on it even after two years of writing). New, more accurate estimate puts the Wave not next chapter but the chapter after that. Then we'll speed things up a little bit to get us closer to canon.