King Explosion Murder the Shield Hero

by BKL777

This is the story of hero in training Katsuki Bakugou being transported into the world of Melromarc and is the new cardinal shield hero in their darkest time of need. Bakugou will go on many new adventures in this fantasy world to become their world's greatest hero whether they want him to or not.

12. Chapter 12: Control over the Gods

Chapter 12: Control over the gods

It was now morning in the town of Edvie as the Shield hero and his team emerge from the town lord's mansion. Due to Bakugou's actions, the corrupt sheriff and his son Arcat's reign of terror in the town was over after the Shield hero and his crew defeated them and their lackeys, who were all stoned to death yesterday from the understandably pissed off townsfolk.

In the night before Bakugou helped the town lord to confiscate those two now dead exploiters and their men's money and helped him properly redistribute it back to the people they exploited in the first place.

A lot of the town was out near the mansion to see their Shield hero one last time before he heads for the nation's capital. Thankfully for Bakugou, they are not as fanatic as they were the day before, feeling thankful for what Bakugou did for them despite their bigotry from yesterday.

Kirishima was in his large form ready to fly off again as the three sidekicks got themselves on along with Bakugou who now sported his gauntlets again after they finally self-repaired themselves 2 days after the fight with Glass. Before he flew off though the old town lord wanted to say some final words to him, "Thank you again for everything Lord Bakugou. You should be welcomed at the Capitol, they will know ahead of time that you are coming so you shouldn't have to deal with too much trouble."

Bakugou nods back at the lord understanding him, he then grabs on to his dragons' reins and shouts, "Kirishima! Fly!"

And after some running and flapping his wings the dragon was in the air again now on the way to the nation's capital.

Kirishima continued to fly for a few hours across the countryside until the crew finally made it to their destination, Siltvelt's capital city.

In some ways, it looked similar to Melromarc's capital with a large castle in the center of a large city. Though what sets it apart from Melromarc were the walls, not just around the city itself but also large layers of walls that divided up the city. While such a setup would make it hard to seige and assault the city in an invasion, it also divides the people and the different castes that reside inside the city.

Kirishima continued to fly over the busy city as the crew look down below to see a diverse people of demi-humans of all shapes and sizes. It was quite a sight for them. Though some of them did quickly noticed that it was clear that some groups of Demi-humans were living in better areas than others. And the humans were another completely different and unpleasant story.

Eventually the crew made it near the large castle that was elevated high at the middle of the center wall ring. And to their surprise there seemed to be a large number of armed soldiers lined up in rows and by the looks of it they were saluting up to their shield hero.

Bakugou then lands Kirishima at the large welcome party with the crew jumping off the dragon as he shrinks into his toddler self and jumps on his father's shoulder.

Despite it looking like a warm welcome, Bakugou didn't want to take any chances, "Keep your guards up, we still don't know if we can trust any of these furries yet." he says to his crew.

Melty wasn't sure why the hero would be cautious to people that see him as a God, but she didn't question it, not that Bakugou would listen anyway.

As the soldiers continued bowing before Bakugou one demi-human noble who looked like a human with straight-up red hair but had large feathered wings on his back and had clawed bird-like feet. He approaches the crew and once up to the shield hero he kneels down before him, "Thank you for finally coming to our Kingdom Sir Shield hero, I am Valnar, one of the four councilors and the representative of the Shusaku race of Siltvelt. It's a pleasure to see your gracefulness." he introduced himself.

Though Bakugou wasn't impressed, 'All I smell is a suck-up.' he says in his head, then spoke out, "Whatever, I just want to meet who is in charge here and get to the dragon hourglass.".

Valnar stood himself back up, "Of course lord Katsuki Bakugou if you and your team were to follow me I will escort you to meet with the King then later the rest of the ruling council." he says as he turns back and walks toward the castle with the guards standing back up to follow with him."

Bakugou still had a lot more questions to ask but he might as well see the king first and see if he can get more information out of him. So he and his crew followed the birdman.

---

After about an hour of walking through the large castle across there decorated and elaborate halls, similar to the one in Melromarc there was a throne room with its king residing at.

The doors quickly open and Bakugou, his crew, and Valnar all walk inside the room. Despite the familiar doorway, the room was barely like the one in Melromarc, for one thing it was smaller, and it was also lacking much sunlight with drapes covering the windows with only the chandelier candles keeping the place light up. And at the end of the room was a large recliner throne chair that had a bunch of female demi-human servants in very scantly clad uniforms surrounding a man who lazily sat on that throne, It was something Bakugou was not expecting to rule one of this world's biggest nations.

Valnar stood there and announced, "Let me introduce you to the ruler of Siltvelt, King Janio." He then looks up toward his king, "And your majesty let me introduce you to the great shield hero. Katsuki Bakugou." The birdman continued and showed off.

And that very King finally raised himself up and was yawning. From what Bakugou can tell this King was some type of Lion Demi-human, but he didn't look like a ferocious beast or anything, the exact opposite in fact. He was thin with almost no muscles on him, and barely had much of a mane to speak of, so one could easily confuse him as a female lion. The decorated jeweled crown he was wearing looked too big for his size and was wearing overly colorful expensive silk robes. He looked more like a rich lazy bum than a king of a country.

Bakugou thought, 'Pathetic, the cowardly Lion looked more kingly than this loser.". Rino and Neia also looked unimpressed with Melty wondering why someone of great importance would allow himself to look like this in front of important guests. And she lectured Bakugou 2 days ago about his manners.

After he finished his yawning the young king looks down at Bakugou, looking just as unimpressed, "So this is the so-called shield hero. Hm, to be honest I was expecting him to look a lot bigger than that." He nonchalantly mocks as he sips on some wine from a golden grail.

"You don't look much better either runt." Bakugou insults back, despite that kind of talkback would give gasps back at Melromarc, the room remained mostly silent with Valnar and the servants acting normally as if such a thing was never said.

After finishing his wine Janio looks back down at Bakugou, "I have no need for physical strength or size, as the king I can just get other people to do it for me and not need to lift a finger. Unlike my late older brother and father who got themselves killed for insisting on doing things themselves." he says as some catgirl servant feeds him some more grapes.

Bakugou just rolls his eyes by this living proof of pure decadence.

Neia then decided to speak up, "You seem calm though for someone ruling a country in such times of the waves. I assume you still have to actually run the nation even if you don't fight on the front lines.". Neia still remembered the King of Tervein Kardrum and he was not a fighter either but was still a politically active king despite his kingdom being a lot smaller than Siltvelt.

King Janio just smiles, "Ha, that's why I have a hard-working servant to do it for me. And he and the council run things fine without me wasting my time on boring crap." he responds to her.

Bakugou then crossed his arms, "And who is that servant exactly?" he questioned the king.

"That would be me." announced a voice in the room making everyone's heads turn toward it. The bearer of that voice reveals himself as he came out of hiding, and walked toward the shield hero.

This person was a large orange and black striped Tiger beastman. He was a huge brute over 7 feet tall with large muscles that can be seen even over his proper nobleman minister attire and had a group of large scars across his left eye. Unlike the King, this beast of a demi-human looks like a true king of the jungle and would intimidate almost anyone by just getting a good look at him. Anyone except Bakugou.

Once the Tigerman was right up at Bakugou he finally smiles and bowed standing up, "Let me introduce myself, I am Lord Trinock, the grand duke of Parnaria, High general of the army, and the Prime minister of Siltvelt. It is a great pleasure to finally be seeing you Lord Bakugou." the Tigerman introduced himself with Bakugou just coldly staring at the large cat.

"So you are the one really running things around here?" Bakugou asked getting to the point.

The Tigerman continued to smile, "More or less, I deal with most of the political, economic, and military issues with the country by his majesty's permission, along with the council of Siltvelt handling the legislative side of our country. King Janio is still young and holds a lot of cultural responsibility for our great nation that normal politics can get in the way of. So he remains as an important icon for the people."

Bakugou looks back at the so-called king as he picks his mouth with a toothpick as he stares at one of his servants' large chest, 'Yeah some cultural responsibility huh?' Bakugou says in his head rolling his eyes knowing what was really going on. But he knew bringing it up would accomplish nothing and decided to remain quiet.

When Bakugou stares back at Janio after he yawns again the young king lifts himself off of his throne chair, "Trinock you can do whatever with the shield hero, I'm going to just head downstairs to the dungeons and have some fun. So enjoy yourself with our so-called 'special' guests." the king says as he gets up and heads toward the nearest doors.

It surprised Bakugous crew that King Janio was in the middle of a meeting with one of the most important people in his life and he just ignores them as he leaves the room

Lord Trinock than looks back at Bakugou, "Now then my lord why don't I introduce you to Siltvelts council." He brings up as he walks away out of the throne room, with Bakugou and his crew following suit feeling somewhat glad to be out of this room of the proclaimed King of Siltvelt.

Thankfully the room of the council wasn't too far away from the throne room as Trinock lead the way inside. The room was a lot more spacious than the throne room with windows revealing some sunlight, and in the middle of the room sat a circular table with 4 different individuals sitting around it with the birdman Valnar now sitting down on one of the chairs making it 5.

Other than Valnar there was an old man who was some sort of turtle demi-human with a shell on his back similar to the lord of Edvie but less frail, another was a humanoid woman with lizard-like features and scales across her body, a tail, and small horns on her head, next to her was another Tiger demi-human, but unlike orange-colored Trinock his fur was white and had a smaller body built on him as well as looking somewhat more human compared to him, but he still had muscles on him and still looked more powerful compared to the pathetic excuse of a king. And the last of them was a by the looks of it some sort of Ox demi-human with long horns and a large snout, though he was dressed differently than the others with the clothing looking more like religious robes similar to what some of the three heroes church members were wearing. It was definitely a unique group of characters that controlled most of the country.

Trinock finally introduced them, "Lord Bakugou this is the council of Siltvelt, these 5 represent our most powerful factions and landowners of the nation. Along with my help, we run this nation as efficiently and prosperous as possible for your people."

He then points to Valnar as he stood up again, "You've already meet Valnar, he represents the Shusaku."

"It's still a great pleasure to be introduced again," Valnar said as he bowed.

After Valnar sat down Trinock pointed to the turtle man, "This is Larq, he represents the Genmu."

Larq bowed lightly, "I hope we can work together to help make Siltvelt prosper more."

Then Trinock points to the dragon newt woman, "This is Lady Shellina representative of the Aotatsu

The lorddess remained in her seat just giving a smile as she smokes from a long thin pipe smoking on some sort of tobacco-like substance, "It's a pleasure to see you in person, I hope we will cooperate well."

Trinock then points to the white tiger man, "And this is lord Rehu, representative of the Hankuko."

Unlike the others lord Rehu remained silent, only giving out a small smile, Bakugou thought he was either not much of a talker or was just reading over the shield hero and observing him.

And lastly Trinock points to the Ox man, "And this my lord is Grand Patriarch Ozsan. He doesn't represent any race or tribe, but he is the current head of the Great holy shield church, your church, and due to their influence and power he is an associated and honorary member of the council."

The churchman got himself out of his chair to walk up to Bakugou and kneels before him while holding a staff with a shield headpiece on the top, "It is a tremendous day to finally be meeting you face to face Lord Shield hero, you have no idea how many of us waited to be able to see you in person and be blessed by your greatness." the Ox man praised and eventually move back to his seat.

Bakugou did remember hearing those races' names from Darnar with him saying that these four races dominated Siltvelt politics and hold an iron hand on the nation along with the church. Despite their more or less welcoming nature, Bakugou still kept his eye on them, he knew nothing good can come out of a handful of powerful people controlling a large multi-cultured nation with limitless power.

Trinock then turns back to Bakugou as he makes another small bow to him, "We are at your service Shield hero, whatever you need to make yourself comfortable we will grant it."

Bakugou turns toward Trinock, "So just these five? Don't the other races get any sort of representation?" he asked seeing through the Oligarchic nature of this council.

"There are other noble factions of course but the council is based on the 5 most powerful and productive people of this nation. So it's in the country's best interest that the largest and most powerful landowners run things, even my tribe the Hankucoi are not a part of this council despite the presence of the Hankuko my cousin tribe." Trinock explains and tries to justify it.

But Bakugou continued to look unimpressed, "Yeah whatever Stripes." he says still seeing this as them trying to suck up to him.

But then Lady Shellina spoke out looking toward the sidekicks, "And who are those three, are they with the shield hero?"

She and the other council members look toward Neia, Rino, and Melty who were remaining silent, until now as they nod back, "Yes we are Sir Bakugou's sidekicks or companions." Rino spoke up, with the entire Council's continuing to stare at them with curiosity.

"Will you mind introducing yourselves?" Lord Larq requested.

The girls turn toward Bakugou who just nods at them with approval.

Neia went first, "I am Neia Varon of the Water Elves. I am currently exiled from my people and Sir Bakugou took me in as his first sidekick after he saved my life. I owe him my life and wish to help him save the world and be the best heroes in it." she introduces to everyone. The Councilors looked with intrigue but remained silent.

After Neia stepped back Rino went up, "I am Rino of Melromarc, I was the former companion of the Spear hero only for him to leave me to die, that was until Sir Bakugou saved me as well. I became his second sidekick and like Neia before I wish to become the best mage of all time along with the hero I helped out, and I never regretted it." she introduces herself. The councilors continued to remain silent though looked more worried with slight disgust that some of Melromarc still remains on the side of their Shield hero.

Bakugou himself decided to lower his shoulder to show off Kirishima, "And this is my Dragon Kirishima, I'm counting him as one of my sidekicks and I expect that he will be treated as an equal among you, got it!" Bakugou told to councilors with Kirishima standing up from Bakugou's shoulder. The councilors just smiled and nodded they didn't need to know much from a supposed pet, but they weren't going to protest against it either.

After that Melty finally decided to introduce herself, "And I am his fourth companion. I am Melty Q Melromarc, 2nd princess of Melromarc, daughter of Queen Mirellia and King Aultcray, and heir to the throne."

Bakugou groans to himself, 'You idiot! Did you really have to tell them everything about you?!' he says in his head, knowing Melromarcs and Siltvelts rivalry.

And right he was as the Councilors looked on in shock with even Trinock widening his eyes a bit.

It was silent for a few seconds until lord Rehu got out of his seat, "You royal Melromarc whore!" He shouts as he stomped his way to the now scared princess, "You dare come to our castle and our seat of government without our permission in an attempt to spy and commit espionage against our nation for your mother! I'll have you.."

"Hey!" Bakugou immediately jumped in front of Melty, the White Tiger lord almost immediately made him shut up. Bakugou then said, "Listen here you Oligarchs, Princess Blue hair is with me, she is my sidekick so she is protected under me. So you mess or insult her you mess and insult me. Got it!?" He intimidating stared at the Lord who continued to remain silent until he stepped back to his chair.

Trinock then spoke out, "Of course, I'm very sorry for Lord Rehus's outburst my hero, but I'm sure you are aware that we are not on the best of terms with Melromarc. And from what we have heard you weren't being treated the best there either."

Bakugou knew the Tigerman was somewhat right about the last part, but that had nothing to do with Melty or the one who actually rules the nation of Melromarc, just the consort, his supporters, the church, and the evil princess, "Yeah I'm aware of it and I don't care stripes, Blue hair princess is with me and she is under my watch so I expect her to be just as respected as me along with my other sidekicks! Am I clear?!" Bakugou informs everyone in the room, that gave many raised eyebrows but no protests from the lords.

Trinock after nodding back went on to change the subject, "Now then, Lord Bakugou do you request anything right now? Perhaps some food or drinks, or a party to celebrate your coming?" he suggested.

But Bakugou got to the point, "What the hell I want is to get the damn class-up upgrades from the stupid hourglass, the idiot consort and the corrupt pope refused to give me ones to my sidekicks back in Melromarc, so that's why we are even here in the first place." he demanded from the Tiger prime minister.

Grand Patriarch Ozsan then stood up, "Of course Lord Bakugou, you are free to use the hourglass at any time for your party members without any charge." he told his shield hero.

Bakugou crossed his arms and said, "Good, and can we do it now?" he asked wanting to just get out of this room already with the girls eager as well.

The Ox man walks up toward him, "Of course follow me to your church and we shall begin the process of upgrading your party." He tells Bakugou with the council and Trinock nodding in approval.

Without another word, Bakugou follows the religious Ox along with his crew. Soon they were out of the room heading to the church.

With Bakugou gone the council got back to real business, "Great just what we needed, another brat to pamper." Shellina complains and admits out loud with the other councilors nodding agreeing with her.

"I don't know why the shield hero must always be a human. Why can't we have one that is just a demi-human? Even a low caster shield hero would've been preferable." Lord Larq complains out loud.

But Trinock ensures them he has it under control, "Don't worry about him, he will quickly be on the palm of my hand, as I do with Janio. Just his existence here alone will greatly advance our nation into greatness."

The three councilmen nodded agreeing with him, except for Rehu, "But what about that princess he has with him, are we just going to allow the future ruler of Melromarc to just wander around the castle?!" he complains out loud.

"Calm yourself Rehu, as of right now she is just a little girl hanging with the shield hero, once the shield hero is content with our nation, he will eventually forget about her. And once she desires to go back home, we'll keep her under "house-arrest", she will be of use to us as leverage or a political prisoner once we go to war with Melromarc. So don't try anything rash, your tribes' presence on the council is barely hanging on a thread as it is after the great war so don't be risking it," Trinock says back to the white tiger councilman who looked annoyed.

Valnar then spoke up, "So the war with Melromarc is still on then?"

Trinock answers him, "Of course it's still on, but we must wait. The next wave is going to happen in 3 days, we need to deal with that first. After the wave, our first step will be to use the shield hero to get all of the smaller demi-human nations to be absorbed into the empire or become our vassals including that rebel state of shieldfreeden. Once we consolidate our power and when Melromarc is in a weak enough state we can finally start the war. And with our newfound military might with the shield to motivate our men, we shall have one destroyed Melromarc, one dead king Aultcray, as well as more lands and more slaves for all 4 of your tribes."

Lord Larq then spoke, "And if our spies are anything to go by it seems Melromarc might be on the verge of a Civil war soon, if we allow them to weaken themselves it will be easier to conquer them."

Trinock nods to that as he clutches his large clawed fist, "Exactly, with this brat on our side, Siltvelt shall eventually become the dominant force on this planet! Just as old King Rohaw wanted!"

He and all the councilors smile at that, to them it looks like they're on their way to more riches and power all because of their shield hero.

Then Lady Shellina spoke up, "But we can worry about wars and conquests later, let's focus on the now. And the now involves the legion of noble girls eager to have a piece of the Shield hero."

"They're all here already?" Rehu commented.

"Yes most arrived just this morning and some late last night when the rumors were confirmed, Trinock made sure of it. They are all in heat waiting to meet Mr. Shield hero." Shellian confirmed

Valnar then spoke out on his concerns, "Isn't it a little early for the shield hero to be mating? He just arrived and recently got out of that cesspool of Melromarc, don't you think we should at least let him settle down for a few days first?"

Trinock shakes his head in response, "It'll be fine. He's a teenage boy after all, they are always begging for sex when they get the chance. I have king Janio spied on all the time just so he doesn't waste his seed on some whores he tries to hire. I mean the shield hero already has those two female 'companions' of his, he probably just took them in to satisfy his itch. So he'll love this.".

Larq then spoke his mind, "Speaking of those whores. They need to go, along with our and the other nobles daughters getting shield hero heirs, our sons need to be the shield heroes companions or men-at-arms and those two will just get in the way."

"What of the one who claims to be an elf? Shouldn't we get some information out of her first? Then we get rid of her?" Valnar suggested.

But Rehu dismissed it, "She is not an elf, they have been extinct for over 1000 years. She is probably some water-bound amphibious demi-human from a fishing caste tribe lying to the shield hero to make herself look more appealing to him. Best get rid of the con artist now along with the Melromarc witch before they taint our hero and lands anymore."

Valnar understood his point and decided to pull back on his suggestion.

Trinock then continues to speak about the sidekicks, "Don't worry about them, I'll handle those two fine. Whores are always bought off easily when enough coin is pushed toward them." Trinock ensures him, "I will also get the girls ready, I'm sure they'll be extremely happy soon enough.".

Valnar nods and smiles, "Your always good at getting everything to go smoothly, Trinock. Cheers to Siltvelt's bright future." he finished while holding up a wine glass with Trinock and the other councilors doing the same.

They then all lightly laughed and smile liking how this was going now that their new supposed puppet has arrived.

---

As Bakugou and his crew follow the Patriarch toward the hourglass, crowds of cheering and screaming Demi-humans all gather to watch and cheer for their shield hero.

Numerous guards had to constantly push them back just so the Patriarch and Bakugou's crew can move.

Some people would've loved this, all of the praise and admiration from hundreds or thousands of people and fans.

But not Bakugou, he felt the exact opposite with irritation and disgust. If he was going to get screaming fans and love from the crowds, he should only get it through his actions and hard work. But these people didn't know who he was, he just got here and yet they were showering him with praises for nothing but his title.

It's just like at the sports festival back at home. After the last fight, icy hot refused to go all out on him with both his ice and fire, like he did with Deku. Bakugou never felt like he truly earned that victory. But despite that, the crowd in that stadium cheered him on and they were forced to give him that gold medal. Even though he never proved that he was truly the best, they only cared that he won, not on how he won.

It's all the same here in Siltvelt, they don't care about him, Katsuki Bakugou. They only care about the shield hero who happens to be him this time.

After enough crowd pushing the crew were now at a large church, it was around the size of the cathedral in Melromarc but this one had a more domed-shaped design than the more pointed gothic-like design of the 3 heroes cathedral. The crew was escorted into the church and it was a weird feeling to be in a place like this again. Unlike the last church, the clergy were all smiles and respect here as they look toward the man they thought was their God. Despite that, it still felt creepy for Bakugou, maybe even more so than the last church that hated him.

Eventually they were at the hourglass chamber surrounded by numerous nuns and soldiers guarding the structure. It didn't look much different than the hourglass from Melromarc, just as large and eloquently designed as the one before with the red sand inside it slowly dropping down.

After the church folk moved over the Patriarch bowed again to the shield hero, "After you register yourself to the hourglass, your party may use it. All they have to do is touch the hourglass base and they should get past the level barrier and pick their classes. Though be warned that once the three pick their new class, they are unable to change it again unless they choose to reset their levels again." he informed them.

Bakugou walks up to the hourglass and extends his shield arm toward it and like what Melromarc's did before a beam of light strikes the shield for a few seconds until it stops. Bakugou was now officially registered to Siltvelts hourglass, but once he looks at his menu he noticed that the timer for the waves had changed. Instead of over a month away, the timer suddenly changed to about 3 days from now. He hoped he didn't accidentally speed up the timer, but as he thought about it, this could also mean that Siltvelts wave went on a different pattern than Melromarc's. But this could apply to all the other hourglasses, that not all the waves happened at the same time? Bakugou thought, 'Who the hell else is out there stopping the other waves then?' he thinks to himself.

But that was something he could think more about later.

Bakugou finally just turns back to Rino and Neia while Kirishima jumps off his shoulder and grows into his teenage form, "Ok you three heard the Ox, go and get upgraded already, and think hard and well on what you are picking. Don't just pick what gives you the most immediate strength, think about what you want to do with the future and how you want to grow and improve yourselves. I won't hand-hold the two of you so think for yourselves and choose wisely." He tells his sidekicks who both nodded in approval. Bakugou would've preferred to pick exactly what he wanted for them, but they were not his slaves and were free to decide on their own futures.

When the retractable staircase was finally extended out, the three walked up to the hourglass while he and Melty watched on.

The three sidekicks were right at the hourglass and all touch it including Kirishima. Suddenly the hourglass glowed a bright light with a surge of magic energy emitting from the structure to the sidekicks.

Menu's then pop up in front of Neia and Rino allowing them the choice of multiple classes and the two looked it over on what they wanted.

A menu also appeared in front of Bakugou which says, *Class up upgrade: Kirishima. Choose the class you want your monster companion to have*

Bakugou wasn't too surprised to see this, Kirishima was a dragon companion so he imagines that in such a system it made sense that the owner of a dragon would be the one to pick its class for it regardless if there's a slave crest or not, he also knew Kirishima wouldn't know how to read anyway so he would have no idea what to do.

Bakugou activates the class upgrade menu to look over the various choices. Many of these classes were of different fighting styles and upgrades. Many also seem very situational for certain tasks or jobs, probably good for adventurers who want a specialized team of monsters, but Bakugou wants a good all allrounder with the potential to grow. And each class had many different stat boosts and abilities. It was a lot to choose from and Bakugou had a hard time picking one.

But as he was looking he found a strange option, one not labeled like the other class choices with purple brackets around it with golden letters. It made Bakugou curious and read it through.

It says *Special Class upgrade: Dragon Emperor. Unlocked from Dragon emperor fragment*

Bakugou figured that perhaps specific classes are blocked by certain barriers or require specific items to have them available and thanks to either his and/or Kirishima's dragon emperor fragment this class was now available.

In the description it read, *Grants double the stats to the user, unlocks more powerful class options for other team members, makes dragon a candidate, and increases intelligence greatly.*, it interested Bakugou, he wasn't sure what being a candidate means, but the increase in intelligence and stats sounded great, the other classes only boosted stats to 25% at most and even then usually not to all of them, but this one can double all of them with no drawbacks. Increased intelligence is pretty vague, but having more brains for anything was always beneficial.

The other classes did not compare. It was obvious what Bakugou wanted, so he picked the Dragon Emperor class for Kirishima.

After confirming it, Kirishima glowed as a magic aurora envelops him, after the magic dissipates his stats automatically doubled.

Neia and Rino were surprised when they were looking at their menus. Suddenly a few new classes appeared for them after Kirishima got his new class. It was surprising at first, but they didn't question it as they looked over these new classes as well.

Eventually the two picked what they wanted and after they confirmed their classes a light appears from the hourglass again and just like Kirishima a minute ago a surge of magic envelops them.

From what Bakugou can see on his menu screen he knows what the two picked. Rino picked "Grand elemental Sorceress" and Neia picked "Ultimate Ocean master warrior" and just like Kirishima's before both there stats just doubled making them twice as powerful as before.

After that, the sidekicks came back down to Bakugou with Kirishima reverting back to his toddler form and jumps on Bakugou's shoulder.

"I feel stronger than ever," Neia says

"So do I." Rino also says

Bakugou smiles with pride, "Good, I better see the results of that soon." he bluntly says with the two smiling back on Bakugou's own way of saying he was proud of them.

Patriarch Ozsan then spoke up, "Now that is done lord shield hero, would you like to have a tour of your beautiful church before we head back to the castle to celebrate your coming?"

Bakugou could hardly care about all of this religious stuff, but he also wanted to get more information on the church that worships and supposedly controls a large amount of power in Siltvelt, "Fine whatever." he agreed.

"Perfect let me give you the tour." the Patriarch said with enthusiasm as Bakugou and his team followed him around.

After about an hour Ozsan went on to tour through the building, showing off and explaining the history behind the church, many of its items, and the paintings and other artworks. While the rest of the team listens in, Bakugou could barely care about all of the pointless crap and wants to get to the actual meat of things.

Ozsan continued his tour as he points to a large glass mural of a shield hero figure holding a shield up high toward the bright sky, "And this here is the "skyward shield" it was created by a great artist named.."

"Yeah yeah I get it already, some overpaid asshole made some overprice crap. Can we get to the point on how my stupid church works?" Bakugou shouts getting tired of the tour already.

Ozsan decided to move on from that mural, as he continues to talk to Bakugou while they walk, "Of course lord Bakugou. What would you like to learn about?" he asked.

"From what I've heard the church owns a lot of land and employs a good amount of Siltvelt, is that right?" Bakugou asked.

"Yes of course we hold sustainable power across this country. It's all to spread the word of the shield around and preserve the moral fiber of our people," he explains but Bakugou was hardly buying it.

"But don't you guys own a lot of non-church related stuff like wine production and silver mining?" Rino asked herself.

"We do, but it's all to help fund the large expenses our system requires. Donations from the commoners are fine, but they are not always enough. And they are established monopolies granted by Lord Trinock so we won't have to worry much about competition or other business laws that get in the way." he explains which rubbed some of the crew the wrong way.

Bakugou then spoke up again "Yeah sure I got that, but I've also heard you pay your workers far less than the average amount in this nation?".

"It's not the money that's important lord Bakugou, what's important is to keep the moral structure of the church, and giving away too much would just encourage greed. I hope you can understand lord shield hero." Ozsan continues which seems to contradict what he mentioned before.

But Bakugou can see through his bs, "Yeah and how much do you get paid along with the rest of the higher-ups of my church?"

Ozsan was silent for a second with a more worried look on his face, "Well you see we patriarchs and matriarchs are paid based on our importance and how well we achieve our duties to the church. Those of course the most diligent will get rewarded the most, and lately our assembly of patriarchs and matriarchs have been very successful. Just visit some of the other churches some time and see what I mean, by what sweat, blood, and tears have accomplished over the years. Do you have any more questions to ask?" he excuses trying his best to dodge the question and change the subject.

But Bakugou could smell the bullshit behind this so-called holy man (or holyOxman), but he knew pointing it out will just spew out more excuses so he decided to talk about something else, "Ok so what are your duties exactly Ox?"

"I of course manage the church in general, keeping things running smoothly and approve or disapprove what the word of the church is. I'm also the judge of anything involving heresy, which grants me the power of excommunication, which such a punishment basically ends all involvement of the church to the heretics which they will be rightfully shunned by society with their word no longer meaning anything. And none are immune to such a punishment, this applies to the most minor commoner to the highest nobleman including the crown itself, but thankfully they been doing their duties quite well lately especially Trinock." the Patriarch explains.

'In other words, he can hush up his critics. And if the Ox is being paid under the table by them, all of prime minister Stripes and the Oligarchs critics as well.', Bakugou says in his head seeing through what kind of abuse of power this is with such a powerful faction that's already in association with an also powerful council and prime minister.

This continued on for a few minutes as Bakugou asks more about the church system with the Patriarch responding, giving a clear picture of how powerful and corrupt this so-called grand holy shield church really is.

It even gave thoughts to Melty, she thinks about how powerful the three heroes church already was in Melromarc, Her mother warned her about this sort of thing once before, but she doesn't want to imagine what horrible things the 3 heroes church would do to demi-humans, those that sympathize with them, or the churches critics if they held such power the shield church has.

But as they were walking through the hallway Neia turns her head toward a room with an interesting painting in it, more interesting looking than the other ones they had to learn the history of. She decided to leave the group to get a better look at it.

When Bakugou turned back he noticed his first sidekick going into the room and decided to follow her.

As he went into the room with the rest of the group following suit they all looked up to what Neia was looking at and it was an interesting giant painting.

The painting showed off a powerful-looking and proud shield hero holding up his shield weapon high toward a group of three giant evil demon-like creatures, with dark red skin and horns, with spiky bone armor, and eyes of fire. But what seemed the most distinct part of these demons were what they were holding on their hands. Twisted and Demonic-looking Weapons, one with a Sword, one with a bow, and one with a spear.

Everyone was looking at the painting with curiosity even Bakugou, as no such painting like this was seen in any other part of this church.

Neia finally spoke up about it, "What is this?"

Ozsan then answered her with no smile on his face unlike before, "This young one, is the painting depicting the final battle of Good vs evil, The shield hero against the 3 demons."

"The 3 demons?" Melty spoke up with curiosity.

Ozsan then went on to explain the story of them, "The 3 demons are powerful monsters of pure evil, beings born in the darkest pits of hell itself, whose only desire is to spread their evil and eventually conquer all that exists."

the grand patriarch then points up toward the demon holding onto a sword, "The sword demon, a creature of endless greed and gluttony, with his blade he murders all he sees and takes whatever they have no matter how pure or innocent. He then absorbs his victim's souls as well as drink and bathe in their blood."

He then points to the bow-wielding demon, "The bow demon, a being full of pride and envy. See's itself as the greatest thing in all of existence, above all else, and will cut down those that oppose or challenge him. Some say he even has the power to brainwash and control anyone he desires and force them to do his bidding.

And lastly he points toward the one with a spear, "And the spear demon, a monster of pure lust and desire. He seeks the purity of any female and rapes them, he uses them to breed him an army of demonic children to continue on to do the same thing their father has done until they become a pure horde of evil."

To the group they can quickly tell where this was all going and what this was all about, but the patriarch continued on his story anyway, "As I said already the 3 demons all desire to conquer all that exists and rule over everything with their evil. They usually fight amongst themselves in their own territories in hell, but eventually they will put aside any differences they have and fight together with their armies to attempt to take over our world. But their evil will eventually be stopped by the shield hero, who will fight to finally kill the demons forever and bring heaven onto earth itself. Lord Bakugou this is your destiny, I hope you will be ready for it soon. And to think other countries worship these monsters, I can see all of those heathens going down with their false gods in the pits of hell once Lord Bakugou prevails." he finishes as he moves his eyes toward Melty with distaste which the princess took notice of.

It was quite a lot to take in, but despite the flowery over-dramatic speech the shield group especially Bakugou saw through what this really was. It was exactly like what the 3 heroes church has done in Melromarc with the shield hero, but instead of just the shield hero, the grand shield church was demonizing the other 3 cardinal heroes.

Bakugou is not sure which did it first, but he can imagine this goes back to the Siltvelt and Melromarc rivalry. What better way to insult your enemy nation than to mock the gods they worship. He imagined if the 3 idiots got summoned in Siltvelt rather than Melromarc they be put through hell like he had to go through in Melromarc. Though the thought of seeing them going through such a hell was a happy thing to think of, especially with Itsuki and Motoyasu But even then he can't help to think how over-the-top evil the patriarch described them as. They were idiots but they were definitely not that evil, especially not Ren. If it was Malty in those positions though, that would be another story.

But after they had enough time eyeing the painting a messager dogman runs up to the group, "Lord Bakugou I hate to disturb anything, but Lord Trinock likes to have you back at the castle soon, he has prepared a large dinner feast for you to celebrate your arrival.

Ozsan didn't like the interruption of his tour though, "I'm sorry young man but I still need to show lord Bakugou the ashes of former patriarchs who have..."

But Bakugou just pushes him over, "No, I'll be glad to go. I'm sick of this church shit anyway." Bakugou said bluntly as he follows the messager wanting to get out of this boring tour as he has gotten all the information he needed about how this so-called grand church operates.

He along with the rest of his team move on and head out of the large church with the bodyguards pushing through the excited crowds. But eventually Bakugou just uses his dragon to fly over everything until he was back at the castle.

---

Now back inside the castle, the group was escorted into the dining hall where a gigantic feast had been prepared. It was a lavish meal of different kinds of food and drinks.

And awaiting them at the table was Trinock, the councilors, and even King Janio was there sitting on his huge throne chair on the end of the table.

"Welcome back shield hero Bakugou, Please have a seat and enjoy your dinner." Trinock greeted him.

Bakugou and his crew were escorted to the other end of the table toward another large throne dinner chair as big as the kings' chair was with the sidekicks sitting near him in less extravagant but still comfortable chairs.

He and his crew were immediately offered their food as their plates were placed in front of them. The group dug in, but as Bakugou was eating he noticed those same servants continued to stand around smiling and looking creepy.

A servant went up to say, "Excuse me Shield hero would you like a shoulder massage while you eat?"

"No thank you!" Bakugou said bluntly.

"How about I cut up your bigger pieces?" another servant asked.

"No I fine, let me eat!" Bakugou responds getting more irritated.

Unfortunately the servants wouldn't stop, "How about some more salt?"

"Maybe a foot massage instead?"

"What some more wine?"

"How about more pepper."

"I can give you..."

"I SAID SHUT UP! I'LL GODDAMN ASK YOU FIRST IF I WANT ANYTHING! AND RIGHT NOW I WANT YOU TO SCREW OFF!" Bakugou explodes at the servants who did what their shield hero yelled for and quickly moved away with even one of them crying thinking she had disturbed her God.

Neia and Rino didn't react much knowing they had it coming, but it irritated Melty with the hero acting terribly in front of royalty. But then again after she looks back at the King he was just being pampered by his servants like a child, in some respects that's worse than yelling at them to go away.

After that the meal continued as everyone enjoys the food, especially Kirishima on his raw filolial meat. Eventually though, Trinock spoke out toward Bakugou, "I hope you're enjoying yourself in Siltvelt shield hero, the people are glad to have their hero here."

"To happy if you ask me," Bakugou remarked quietly

"There are also plenty of fine-looking ladies who would love to see you in person. Many of them high in caste, beautiful, and have wonderful personalities." Trinock mentions them.

"Yeah and so what?!" Bakugou shouts back.

"Well would you be interested in talking to a few of them? Maybe they can help you relieve some of your stress and... Comfort you." Trinock continued to pester him on the subject.

"I can care less about some inbred privileged brat whores. Do you have any actual point to make Stripes?!"

Trinock looked annoyed, but he just sighs to himself and decided to change the subject, "Very well then, on another matter. I'm sure you are aware after your visit from the hourglass of our soon-to-be problem. A wave is about to arrive soon and it be of great pleasure if you would help our proud nation out when the time comes and to stop the wave quickly."

"Yeah I'm aware of it, and I'll definitely end it, but I ain't doing it for you, the council, or that lazy ass you call a king. I'm doing it for me and the people you say you care about!" Bakugou responds making it clear he was not some windup toy they can activate whenever they wanted.

"That's perfect, I'll be sure that you will be a reward for ending it as well as many more privileges you may granted for helping out your countrymen." Trinock continued to suck up to Bakugou, which just made him roll his eyes.

"Why bother waiting? Just give the monkey everything from the start and you never have to hear him bitching about anything. Not like they demand much anyway." King Janio spoke his own mind out.

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?!" Bakugou immediately responds.

"I'm just saying that you monkeys never need much to feel satisfied. It's why so many of you are just sponges for hard labor."

Bakugou was close to losing his temper, "Well I'm not some damn sponge! And like you to talk about work! Someone who just lays his ass around all day!"

"It is the simple fact of life. The dumb do the physical work and the intelligent rest. The fact your kind and the low castes waste their lives around work just proves my point."

*Slam!*

Bakugou hits his fist on the table, "YOUR CALLING ME DUMB! Along with every other human slave! How about I force one of those crests on your ass and see if you privileged shithead can survive one day out there in the real world!"

"How about I have you and your little friends be taken down to the dungeons where I..."

"King Janio!" Trinock finally interrupted stopping the two arguing, "Janio, the shield hero is our guest and is one on equal standing as you, maybe arguably more than you. As your Prime Minister, I advise you to be more respectable to the shield hero. Or I might need to set up a curfew for you and then take away your entertainment in the dungeons! Am I clear!?" Trinock looks at his king mad in the eye.

Despite him being technically his superior, all the king did was just make an irritated face and didn't say anything against Trinock. It's as if he was a kid getting scolded by his father.

King Janio just grumbles and then orders some servants to pick up his dinner, "Alright fine Trinock do whatever you want, I'll just leave you to the shield. I prefer eating at my throne room anyway. You can deal with the monkeys yourself" Janio says as he just gets up and leaves the dining room.

Bakugou just huffs not missing the so-called king as he continued eating. The rest of the crew were just as annoyed by the king acting like a racist brat. In some ways he reminds them of Malty especially Melty if her sister was also extremely lazy.

Trinock then turns back to the shield hero, "My apologize Sir Bakugou. King Janio can isn't the best at conversation with large groups. He still has a lot to learn and I'll be sure to give him a bit of a longer talk tonight." he ensures him.

Bakugou just continues to roll his eyes, 'considering that shithead looked to be in his 20's and is the literal head of state, he would already know how to talk diplomatically and not insult me, the guy who is basically seen as a god to his subjects.' he says in his head. It just proves his point that Janio was just a toy for Trinock and the council to wind up. He wants to know how much control and exact details on that control.

Trinock then moved on with his proposal to Bakugou, "Now back on the topic of the waves. After we deal with the next incoming wave, we demi-humans need to be united to fight off the wave after that as they grow more powerful. I and the council are proposing a confederation of united Demi-human run states. Siltvelt will become its brain and main voice, and you lord Bakugou can become its heart. With your words of encouragement to the demi-human people and their governments, all of Demi-human kind will be united under one force and not only crush the waves, but to crush those who have screwed you over before."

It was a lot to take in, but Bakugou wasn't impressed and saw through what this really was as he continued to eat, "So you and the oligarchs want me to be your poster boy to subjugate all of the smaller demi-human nations?"

"Subjugate?! Why no Lord Bakugou this is simply to unify your people in an alliance and to help combat the waves with now a sense of unity and strength. They'll be free to go on their way after the end of the waves, but if they so choose to merge with our kingdom we will not protest and allow them to join in. It's all up to you to unite our shattered world into a golden age of light and unity." Trinock continued.

But none of it was convincing Bakugou, he sees through what all of this bullshit is.

Neia then spoke up, "Sir Trinock you mentioned 'crushing those who screwed you over before' who are you talking about?"

Trinock then explained, "Of Melromarc of course. Did they not treat you poorly at that God-forsaken kingdom? The people who worship at a church that speaks of you as a demon and stole you from your loving and caring people. If you can get this confederation going with your voice you can encourage the demi-human world to unite, we shall have the power to demand retribution to those devil worshipers. Melromarc will be forced to pay all of us back with tribute of all types for what they did to you. And you can have your revenge."

Melty was starting to get offended by this though, "Sir Trinock, what had happened with Sir Bakugou in Melromarc was by the actions of a few. My father King Aultcray and my sister Princess Melty were responsible for how the shield hero was treated, the Queen the true sovereign of Melromarc had nothing to do with it. Don't demand repayment from Melromarc from the actions of a few." she says in a serious tone.

Trinock just shakes his head, "And who allowed such an incompetent man in charge of the country in her absence? And did nothing to help return the hero to his people? I say your mother is just as responsible. We will not let this go unnoticed. "

"But you can't just..."

"Now lord Bakugou are you still interested?" Trinock finally just ignores the princess and asks back at Bakugou which irritated Melty by such rudeness with the rest of the crew took notice as well.

Bakugou wasn't liking this one bit, even if he hated Aultcray, Trinock was just trying to manipulate him to eventually go to war with Melromarc. He knew better, this world did not need pointless grudge wars during a time of evil waves coming in appearing with monster armies.

After some thinking though as he scratched his chin a bit Bakugou finally said, "I'll think about it, but first before I do, after dinner I want you to provide me some data and census documents on Siltvelt. I think it's best I should know more about the country I'm supposed to be protecting first." he requested.

The request made Trinock raised his eyebrow, "Well yes of course Lord Bakugou I can provide you this data, but it's not exciting stuff, just a bunch of numbers and notes. I have shown some of that stuff to Janio before and he just fell asleep before reading through the first 10 pages." he explains to the shield hero who didn't look amused.

"I'll damn say whether it's boring or not to me! Just show me this crap and I'll think about your stupid Confederation thing!" Bakugou demands, though this was just a bluff as he had no interest in what was obviously a Siltvelt land and power grab.

Trinock still looked confused that someone so young would care about any of that stuff, but before he responded a servant from behind whispered something in his orange tiger ears.

He looked intrigued at first but then he smiled, "Very well Lord Bakugou, just meet me in a special room after dinner and I'll show you all you want about our kingdom's data and statistics. And while you are at that I like to privately talk to your uh sidekicks and Miss Melromarc. I would like to say a few things to them, just me and them." he agrees and requests from his shield hero.

Bakugou thought this looked suspicious but he might not get to see that data in any other way, and he doubts his sidekicks would care to look at a bunch of numbers and statistics for a few hours, "Ok fine, but it better be the right documents and the most recent data as possible." he then looks toward his sidekicks, "Kirishima, Blue, brown hair, and princess Blue hair, you will stick together and hear whatever stupid thing stripes wants with you, but stick together at all costs." he accepts and orders his sidekicks, knowing they can take care of themselves, and if not they have a giant fire breathing dragon to fall back on to.

They all nodded in agreement understanding Bakugou quite well.

Little did they know what both of these events will soon entail.

---

After dinner sometime later Bakugou was walking through the castle until he made it to the room the Prime Minister insisted on meeting at. It was a large room that had no windows or any other doors than the ones up front with soft red carpets, a large chandelier high above to light up the room, and a large study desk with some cabinet next to it.

It seemed like a random place to be at just to read documents, so Bakugou kept his eyes open for anything as the prime minister with a servant holding a box leads him toward the desk.

Once near the desk Bakugou stood there with his arms crossed, "Ok stripes so where is all the data and papers you promised?!" Bakugou demanded from him.

But Trinock just smiles, "Of course my lord here's all the copy's of records and data on our Kingdom for you to research." After the servant placed down the crate box he and Trinock turn around and was walking away from Bakugou as he stared back. "I'll be gone for a little bit to talk to your party so enjoy yourself. You might also be getting a big surprise soon but I won't spoil what is yet." Trinock says with a smile says as he leaves the large room.

Bakugou just ignores Trinock as he starts to read over the documents. A lot of it was the general census data and how much power the noble families have. The church owns the most land at 20%, the Genmu turtle people, owned 16%, the Aotatus half-dragon newts 14%, the Shusaku bird people, 14% as well, and the Hankuko White tigers 11%, leaving only the rest of the 25% to the other many different demi-human nobles. So with those four groups and the church working together it means that they can push whatever agenda and control whenever they wanted regardless of anyone else's say on the matter. He also found out that the white tigers use to be a lot more powerful years ago but suffered a severe decline a little over 20 years ago from a rather large amount of deaths of their noble ranks. But while they declined one other group was rising, their so-called cousin tribe the hankucoi were rising with some of the Hankukos' old territories going to them. It's probably no coincidence that the growing tribe happens to be of the same tribe as the current Prime minister.

He also looks over the census data on the various demi-human groups and tribes, what castes they are in and how many fill up their positions. After looking through the numerous papers Bakugou found something interesting. It seems that in a lot of areas, there is a lacking of populations of a particular group or caste, meaning that due to the strict caste system many places would have a large lack of employees, which could lead to an employment shortage. If there was no caste system and peasants were allowed to do whatever they wanted this would be no problem, but Siltvelts strict laws on the caste system ensure the 4 tribes of Siltvelts council would retain control with no other tribe or race rising up in the ranks, they all wanted to keep the status quo. Even when the result of this is many becoming unemployed and have no choice but to work for the greedy and cheap church. How they fix the labor problem was simple, slavery. For whatever jobs are lacking in a particular caste, the merchant guilds or noble landowners would just use human slaves to fill in as the scabs, since as far as Siltvelt was concern they had no place in the caste system, so they were loopholed into whatever job their masters decide.

About over an hour later Bakugou eventually finished reading the documents and inserted many of them in his inventory in case if he ever forgot the details or use it as a reference for anything, but as he looked around the room, the more suspicious it got. He first thought it was some random study room, but it seemed very big and spacious to be just a study room. He then noticed a random lever not far from the desk which for curiosity sake he just pulls and from the wall out came a giant bed with numerous pillows on it.

"What in the hell?!" he says to himself now getting suspicious of this place. It seemed too big and empty to be a bedroom, but he then looked back on the cabinet next to the desk. He walked to it, and opened the cabinet and saw numerous blue bottles in it with no labels of some sort of liquid inside them. Seemed too fancy of bottles to be just water or alcohol . He takes one of the bottles and removes the cork to smell its fumes that seemed to smell off, nothing like any potion or poison he smelled before.

Bakugou then poured some of it in his shield just to see what it was, the shield then popped up *shield unlocked: high aphrodisiac shield*

"Aphrodisiac!? What the hell!?" Bakugou shouts out now rapidly looking around the room, both the large bed and the cabinet of aphrodisiac made him quickly figure out what kind of room this is and Trinock sent him up here, "That walking striped rug! I'll..."

then suddenly the doors opened.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Bakugou quickly turns to that loud noise and it was dozens upon dozens of squealing Demi-human teen and young adult girls staring excitingly happily right at Bakugou.

"Oh shit!" Bakugou says out loud now realizing what he has gotten himself into.

"It's him! It's really him!" shouted a few of the girls and quickly enough the army of half-animal girls storm into the room like a swarm of hungry locusts eyeing their food.

Bakugou looked on confused for a few seconds before he looked up toward the ceiling.

This was his time to escape and when a bunch of girls finally came up to him, some of them pounced at him like a lion with an antelope wanting first dibs on the hero. But Bakugou just in time uses his quirk to jump out of the way as the girls jumped and missed now piling on each other on the floor with no hero underneath.

Bakugou was now on the bed and with a jump and his quirk again he was now in the air as a few of the girls attempt to grab on to him. But Bakugou just got out of their reach and now was up near the ceiling as he jabs in his shield into the wall so he would stick on.

As he looked back down below he saw well over 100 demi-human girls wearing noble clothing or what looks like sexy pajamas, all eyeing him with love and lust. They were of all different types of demi-humans, from dogs to cats to lizards to pigs to bird-like demi-humans, etc,. Though he did notice a good number of them are of the races of the 4 major tribes that make up the council, not too much of a surprise.

Bakugou knew why they were all here, to meet and then breed with the Shield hero.

Even from below the young girls still look up with lust to their current center of the universe.

"Oh lord he is more handsome than I thought."

"My god those amazing muscles, oh imagine how strong our kids will be."

"Forget muscles, our babies will be the cutest things in the whole world with those looks."

"Looks like he wants to play hard to get, that's so sexy, now I really want him."

The girls then burst into a mass of noise, as they reach their hands out begging for the shield hero to come down and give them babies.

They all wanted a piece of him, every single one of them.

To some people like Mineta or Kaminari back at home this was a dream come true, but to Bakugou this was a true hero's worst nightmare. An army of fanatic fangirls who basically want to gang-rape their hero.

Bakugou was above romance and relationships, he was going to be married to his job as the number one hero and doesn't need this harem shit, especially not one from a mass orgy gang rape.

Bakugou then looks toward the wall in front of him, "I'm so out of this shit!"

He blows away a part of the wall, with the debris falling on some of the girl's heads who were all rushing in to grab the pieces as souvenirs from their hero.

As the dust settles Bakugou was about to make his escape only to pause and looked surprised when he noticed the wall hole that was blasted in had a green magic barrier inside it, "What the hell is this bullshit!" he yells at the wall hole.

He blasted and blasted at the wall barrier over and over, but it did no good. It seemed that what magic was here was stronger than his regular explosions can handle.

Bakugou looked around to see if there was another way out, in all honesty these girls were not tough at all, Bakugou can just easily blow them away like nothing. But at the level he is at even his regular explosions could kill many of the girls who the highest is at level 10, and there were too many close together to attack with non-deadly held back blasts. Without mass murdering a bunch of young horny teens, his only option is to somehow get the hell out of the room and then punch that tiger bastard in the face.

But as he was looking around he saw some of the girls with wings spreading them out, "Playing hard to get is sexy, but I'm tired of waiting. Time for some of the Shield's lips." One of the bird girls said as she licks her own lips. She and a bunch of other flying demi-humans jumped into the air toward their cardinal god.

Bakugou just looks at them pissed off as the girls tried to get a go at him. But since they were not as clustered together Bakugou uses his quirk to blast away at the flying girls, injuring them but not killing them as they fall one by one back to the ground.

But despite the explosions at the faces, the girls were not stoping, with some even taking it as a gift from their hero.

Then some of the girls with claws started to climb themselves up the wall, the rest were starting to piling each other to get themselves up to their shield baby maker.

Bakugou continued to look and blast away at any horny girl that came near him. He then looked toward the doors and remembered when the girls were storming into the room from there but were now closed. He knew there had to be someone on the other side to have done that for the girls.

He knew it was a long shot, but it was probably was his only chance, so as more and more girls get closer to him, Bakugou finally just rips the shield off the wall and blasted quickly to his way toward the doors.

The girls noticed and were all following him to the doors thinking he was just teasing them as some girls trip and fall over on each other.

Bakugou lands near the doors and without hesitation opens them finding out they were not locked. But just his luck, that green magic energy barrier was here too preventing his escape. But he did get a small glimpse on the other side and saw four figures with their arms out and hands glowing, no doubt they were the spell casters making this barrier.

"HEY YOU BASTARDS! OPEN UP NOW!" he yells blasting explosions on the barrier that made small openings that disappeared just as quickly. He knew they can hear him but they refused to listen still conducting the spell.

But before he could do anything else the army of girls had caught up and were ready to tackle him.

Without much time to be thinking Bakugou blasts himself in the air again with the girls running themselves over into the barrier wall. A few of the girls were able to grab onto Bakugou's leg attempting to weigh him down, but before they could Bakugou blasts at the girl's faces forcing them to let go.

Bakugou finally got himself high in the air again now out of their reach, but he did notice that some of the girls he blasted were now in near-critical condition on their health, "Quick heal!" he shouts to the girls making their health recover. But despite those attacks, the same girls got themselves up again still horny for the shield hero.

Bakugou knew the walls were no longer the safest spot and instead goes for the chandelier up near the ceiling and finally lands on the expensive decoration.

The girls were all surrounding at the center of the room eyeing the shield hero like hungry piranha's awaiting their prey to fall into the water to be devoured.

The flying demi-girls still continued to fly up to grab and kiss him, but Bakugou just as easily dodges and blast at them, and with the position of the chandelier he was now out of reach of the ones that can climb.

Bakugou then activated, "Queen balloon shield!" and started producing out dozens of living low-level balloon monsters that won't do much harm but hopefully scare away the girls.

A few of them were screaming from the balloons munching on them at first, but just as quickly they stopped and began to see it as another gift of the shield hero,

"Come on Hero, let's make more to have as pets for our kids!"

"We can make them breed with each other like you can with me and have adorable babies."

The girls continued to spout out with the majority of the balloons just jumping off and went on to biting on to an elephant Demi-human noble with her defense high enough to ignore the pain. The girls kept on shouting and bagging for the shield hero to come down now.

As all of this madness continued to happen, Bakugou thinks, 'Damn it! What the hell can I do!? I can't get out of here if these bitches keep following me like flies on horse shit! How do I get out of here without blowing their whore brains out!? I'm not going to wait days until they almost starve out, unless they cannibalize each other first. Then again considering how they keep running over each other they seem like they can just kill themselves already just as…'

He stopped thinking when he finally then had an idea, one that didn't involve a lot of dead noble girls. At least on his hands anyway. He smiles to himself, and then thinks of what Kaminari would do to get stupid girls to look at him.

Bakugou then jumps from the top of the chandelier, then grabs onto one of the jeweled rings of the hanging object.

The girls suddenly stopped for a second wondering what their hero was doing now.

He unhooks his cape and wraps it around his waist exposing his muscular shirtless body completely. He then waves his spiky hair around and then brushes his hand up his face. And then looks at the girls with a calm warm smile with his arm out with his eyes sparkling somehow, and said in a calm voice, "Hello my ladies, do all of you want to finally be with your hero."

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" most of the girls squealed in excitement with a few even with bloody noses. They now think Bakugou was done playing around and was ready to start to have sex with all of them.

"Pick me! Pick me! My hero!"

"I want my babies to be as beautiful as you!"

"Yes I want to! I want to!"

Many of the girls say begging for their turns.

But then Bakugou finally told them, "Now now my beauties. I am still a virgin and I want my first time to be with the one who is worthy of being the first to me. It can't just be with any girl. It has to be a girl I know I want to be my first and head wife. The one I want to truly be forever with and give her as many beautiful children as she desires. It will be more than just a one-night stand. It will be for a happily ever after ." He says out loud, 'Blah! I think going to puke myself with the garbage that I had to say out of my mouth!' he thought in his head.

The girls completely ate it up and were now more horny and excited than ever, now all of them want to be the shield heroes first and head wife.

Bakugou finally asked in his kind voice, "So then, which one of you is the most beautiful and intelligent girl among you?"

And with that, the crowd of girls shouted while pointing to themselves, "Me!"

Everything was awkwardly silent for a few seconds as all the girls looked at each other quietly.

And just as quickly the attitude of the room changed, going from a room of love and lust. To a room filled with jealousy and hatred as all the girls looked at each other pissed off, now realizing they were all competition of each other.

Then began the show

"You think you are prettier than me?! Like the hero would pick some fat hog to be his head wife!"

"Like your much better, with your flat chest and large forehead!"

"I am better than all of you low casters! I am of the Hankuko!"

"Your clan couldn't even win a war! And besides that hairstyle is so stupid!"

"Your hairstyle is even worst you fat rhino!"

"And your teeth look like shit you Fox!"

The insults went on and all of girls now at each others throats, as well as getting louder and more pissed off, just a Bakugou had planned.

"Your mother married her cousin! You will probably have the worst looking babies ever!" a catgirl noble insulted at a wolf noble girl.

"My parents are not cousins! And besides my skin is of pure perfection, it will be reflected on our pups when they to have flawless skin."

Then a cat girl scratches the wolf girl's face leaving it cut and lightly bleeding.

"Not so perfect now is it!" the cat girl insults having heard enough of girls like her.

But then that wolf girl looks on in pure rage. Just like that as if she lost control of her inner animal side, she jumps and attacks the catgirl with pure rage and started beating her up.

And like that the rest of the girls got the same idea and started attacking each other, now turning into a giant brawl of noble girls punching, clawing, and biting each other to show who is truly worthy to be the shield heroes first wife.

And as the giant catfight went on Bakugou just looks down sighing to himself, "Crazy bitches.", but this was exactly what he wanted as now the girls were focused on killing each other than on their hero.

Bakugou then looks back at the doorway with the barrier still up, "Here goes nothing! Rope shield!" He activates his shield and quickly wraps a rope around the chains of the chandelier.

Once tied up he jumps still holding on to the rope and blasts himself back to the door while the girls weren't looking.

Now right at the barrier, he started to rapidly blast at it like a mad man, the magic continued to try to heal itself but couldn't do it fast enough giving away to small openings. Bakugou could now see through the other side and saw the mages conducting the spell now struggling to keep it up as the shield hero resists. The holes were still too small for him to just jump through, but getting a clear eye view on the mages was all Bakugou needed as he shouts, "Airstrike shield! second shield!"

And with that two energy shields appeared sideways were launched right toward the 4 mages stomachs knocking to the ground.

And with them out the barrier finally breaks with the doorway wide open now.

But as the barrier disappears, some of the girls took noticed as they still beat each other up into pulps.

"Oh no! He's leaving now! Wait lord Bakugou!" one of the girls shouted as she and others turn and were about to run after him.

But then Bakugou turned back, "Not today whores! AP SHOT!"

Bakugou quickly aims and launches a concentrated explosion beam at the chandelier chain above as he yanks on it.

The chain breaks off and Bakugou quickly shouts, "Shield prison!" and the falling chandelier was now covered up in a magic metal ball. The girls panicked and jumped away as the giant ball lands on the ground and roll right toward Bakugou until it finally crashes right into the doorway leaving it stuck.

Now Bakugou was freed, and the girls were trapped inside unable to chase after him even after a few minutes when the ball eventually disappears.

Bakugou finally took a breath as he finally got himself out of that mess.

He then heard some groaning and looked back at the mages trying to get themselves back up.

A now extremely pissed-off Bakugou stomps up to the mages and grabs one of them by the collar, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING AND WHO MADE YOU DO THIS!"

"I..we..we were only here to create a protective barrier for you and the girls to maintain your privacy and whatnot. We were only looking out for your best intere…"

"SHUT UP WITH THAT BULLSHIT! Who ordered you to do this!?"

"It was… it was Lord Trinock, he ordered the barrier and had escorted the girls to you. I'm so sorry Lord Bakugou!" the mage answered and begged to his hero.

"DON'T SAY YOU'RE SORRY! TELL ME WHERE THAT STRIPED BASTARD IS AT NOW!" he screams at the mage's face.

"He's… he's on the 5th floor, at the end of the hallway beyond the double doors. But you…"

Bakugou just throws the man into the wall and steps over the others. He was now stomping his way to find Trinock and his sidekicks to give him a piece of his mind, "I'll show him the real devil he should be afraid of!"

---

In another room inside the castle, but one with windows and a few servants around serving the shield heroes companions with a few large rhino guards standing in their positions and watch over the room. Neia, Rino, and Melty were all sitting down on a couch with Kirishima resting on Rino's shoulder waiting to listen to whatever Trinock wanted to say to them while Bakugou was elsewhere reading through his documents in private.

Rino was mostly at ease, but Neia and Melty continued to look awkwardly at each other, both were still too nervous to say anything to the other.

Neia still feeling guilt and Melty afraid to make her mad again.

Rino took notice and started elbowing her, "Come on just say something to her already, you're making this more awkward than it should be." She whispers.

Neia knew her friend was right, but it still didn't make it any better. Neia finally just makes a large sigh and looks back at Melty, "Me.. melty, I... I just want to say that.."

But before she could finish that line the doors to the room open and in came Prime Minister Trinock with a grin on his face.

The girls remained silent as the Tigerman sits himself down to the couch in front of him as a servant pours tea for him, "Now then are the three of you comfortable?" he asked the sidekicks

"We are fine Sir Trinock, what is it you want to discuss with us privately?" Rino asked

Trinock sips his tea and begins speaking, "I understand the two of you are close companions of the Shield hero am I right?"

It seemed like a weird question to asked but Neia still answered, "Yes we are all Sir Bakugou's companions and would do anything to help him fight off the waves."

"Yes I understand, you two feel honored and obliged to be with the great shield hero. Must give you a lot of pride doesn't it?"

"I guess so, why are you asking us?" Neia asks back.

"You must understand at this time the waves are no cakewalk, each new one gets stronger every time and it has been known that those who stand by the cardinal heroes don't usually make it through in the end. Sometimes in very gruesome ways. I fear that the two of you might suffer from the same fate of those unprepared."

Rino then spoke, "We are both aware of the risks when becoming heroes Sir, so we know what we are getting ourselves into. And besides, as long as we get stronger ourselves it won't matter. "

"It's not guaranteed though, you two still have long lives ahead of you and to risk it all on combating the waves won't be worth it in the long run. Even in the end, the hero will be remembered in history, but rarely does his companions ever get remembered other than being footnotes."

The two weren't sure what Trinock was trying to accomplish with this, but it didn't sway their opinions, "It's not the fame and glory we are after Sir Trinock. We are here to be heroes and save people. It doesn't matter if we will ever be forgotten or not." Neia says back at him.

"It also certainly didn't matter to Sir Bakugou. When the three heroes church and King Aultcray were slandering him 24/7 it didn't stop his drive of being a hero when it was a thankless job to him and the crown wanted him forgotten." Rino also says back.

"I am still very concerned about your health's and wellbeing's. I imagine such stress will make you both start to age faster and damage your already beautiful faces. Just think about that when you want to marry in the future?"

Both Rino and Neia were raising their eyebrows at this, now finding this conversation strange, "Sir Trinock, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish here? It's starting to sound like you're trying to get rid of us?" Neia asked him.

Trinock finally then went for his trump card as he drops two large sacks on the table, 'Why don't I give you two a small proposal, I'll pay the both of you 100 gold pieces each and you may be off your ways without any more worries or troubles from us." Neia looked surprised that he was now being so blunt about it. Rino on the other hand can already tell what he was doing, she has been through such a scenario before with Malty trying to bribe her out of Motoyasu's team a few times before.

"I'll give you a minute or two to let you think about it." Trinock suggests to them then looked toward Melty, "Miss Melromarc, I also think its best that you leave and return to your mother."

"Why Sir Trinock? I'm here to accommodate the Shield hero." She asked

"It's too dangerous to be here, many of the nobles here are not fond of you being in the castle with Bakugou, with you being the future queen of Melromarc. I don't see it myself, but they think you are influencing the shield hero and corrupting him. Many are clamoring for your death."

"My death? Just for being here?" Melty says to herself. She always knew of Siltvelt's rivalry with Melromarc, but she didn't think that just being with the Shield hero was seen as a great sin to them.

"I'm afraid so, I recommend you be taken by an armed escort by our soldiers to send you back to Melromarc safe and sound," Trinock suggested, not telling what he really intends to do with her.

Melty was never going to accept that offer either way as she still had a duty to not have the Shield hero to be demanding they declare war on Melromarc for what her father and sister did, and if the conversion at dinner was any indication the Prime minister was going to be all for it. She was also thinking that this could also be a way for Melromarc to end this centuries-long feud and finally gain peace. And being with the Shield hero the man they worshiped can help them with that, "I have to refuse Sir Trinock, I understand that many nobles here are not fond of Melromarc or my family, but me just leaving will not make things better. I want to stay to show Siltvelt that Melromarc is not all anti demi-human and we can compromise if need be. And as long as I'm with Sir Bakugou, security will never be an issue with me."

Trinock looked on with annoyance, 'Damn it another stubborn brat' He thought to himself, he was not going to let go the opportunity for a important political prisoner to get away from him like this.

But before he thought of it more he heard, "We also refused."

He turns his head back to Neia and Rino looking at him more sternly, "We do not want your bribe and we will not leave Sir Bakugou's side." Neia says upfront with Rino nodding and agreeing with her.

Trinock now looked more annoyed than ever, "Alright then, how about 500 gold pieces instead, what do you say." He was thinking they were trying to hustle him for more money, but that could not be further from the truth.

"Still no deal we do not want your money," Rino tells him now looking angrier at the Prime minister.

"Fine, then I'll quadruple it, 2000 gold pieces each if you two just leave!" Trinock saying his final offer.

But just the same as before, "No, we are not doing this just for money. I have no idea why you are not fond of us Lord Trinock, but we are not going to abandon our duties as heroes to get rich." Neia tells him off now no longer acting polite to him.

"Yes and we owe Sir Bakugou our lives, we wouldn't abandon him because of thinly veiled threats. I've been through that nonsense before and I'm not going to put myself through it again." Rino also tells him off with little Kirishima now growling at the Tigerman.

It became clear that none of the girls were going to change their minds and will remain loyal to Bakugou no matter the amount of money or threats being thrown at them.

Trinock was trying his best to not lash out at them right now for such stubbornness as he clutches one of his fists. But with his other hand, he gave a small hand signal to the guards behind them as they nodded toward him. Trinock was about ready to give the order to arrest them as he raises his fingers up, "Very well if you want to make this more complicated than it should be then I'll…

Boom!

The room doors blasted open and a rhino guard on the other side of it was sent flying through them until he crashes into the wall with the doors now on his back upside down in pain.

Everyone was in shock to what in the hell that was. But that got quickly answered when everyone turns toward the doorway and saw Shield hero Katsuki Bakugou standing there. A very Very pissed-off Bakugou.

"YOU STRIPED ASS PIECE OF SHIT!" Bakugou growls as he continues to stomp his way toward the Prime minister.

Trinock couldn't believe that Bakugou was here already, no way he could impregnate that many noble girls that quickly, "Oh uh Sir Bakugou, it's a surprise to see you again this soon, were you satisfy by your reading's?"

But Bakugou just ignores that and grabs Trinock by the collar of his suit and dragged his head down his level, "Don't fucking give me that condescending sweet talk shit! You think you can trick me, turn me into some breeding bull, and get away with it!"

"But Sir Bakugou, it was just a little surprise for you, I mean after going through such stressful times, I thought it was appropriate for you to have some enjoyable time while you…'

Bakugou then blasts him in the stomach to send the prime minister into a wall. Then he jumped and punched him in the face multiple times. Only doing 1 point in damage but still felt painful.

"I said don't give me that damn sweet talk anymore! I'm done hearing that shit from you!" Bakugou yells back with the girls wondering what made Bakugou more pissed off than usual.

After a while Bakugou stopped, the Tigerman had bruises on him now, but despite the beatdown, he was able to recover to crack his neck a bit. He had taken such punishment before and still came up on top, but unlike those times he couldn't lash back at the man most his kingdom saw as god. He tried to think of something to say to curb his anger.

The girls were looking on in shock and surprised to see Bakugou in such a state like this, "Sir Bakugou what just happened?" Melty asked wanting to be the one to know first.

"This piece of shit trapped me in a room filled with over 100 horny noble bitches and to try to make me into a baby-making machine!" he answered

They were surprised to hear such a thing, though Melty just looked confused as to why the prime minister would do such a thing, political marriages were one thing, but to just throw over 100 girls at someone was insane.

Neia and Rino on the other hand, looked with anger on their faces now proving to them that Trinock was just as bad as the King of Melromarc for completely different reasons.

Bakugou then looks back at them, "So what did this bastard want from you anyway?" he demands from his sidekicks.

Rino was quick to answer that, "He was trying to bribe us to leave you Sir Bakugou, Offered over 2000 gold for each of us."

Bakugou turns right back at the Minister, as he tries to smile back at a very mad Bakugou, "Please Sir shield I was just looking out for all of you, let me explain…"

Boom!

Bakugou just blasts him through the room's wall. Trinock attempts to get himself back up, but Bakugou stomps his foot on his crotch, "I don't need to hear any more of your stupid bullshit! I already got what I wanted from this corrupt dump anyway. Now I'm leaving it! Blue, Brown hair, Kirishima, Princess! Let's get the hell out of here!"

"But what about the wave in three days? You can't just leave us to die?" Trinock began to beg as he got back up, but it didn't matter to Bakugou.

"Not my problem anymore! Good luck saving your own asses!" he finally says to Trinock giving him the middle finger as he turns around and begins to walk out, Kirishima jumps back on his shoulders with Rino and Neia following his lead without a hint of protest also having enough of Siltvelt.

Melty on the other hand stood there, what Bakugou said about ignoring Siltvelts wave disturbed her. As much as Trinock deserved that beat down, she can't imagine that Bakugou would just abandon Siltvelt to fight off their wave themselves. The waves have done so much damage to everyone and are in need of a hero to defend against them. Without a hero what was Siltvelt to do? And how would it reflect on Melromarc? If the nobles of Siltvelt were already mad enough at her to want her dead, they would probably start a war with Melromarc to force Bakugou to come back in.

She knew it will not be pretty, but she ran to catch up to Bakugou, "Sir Bakugou wait!"

"What the hell is it this time Princess blue hair?! Don't be asking me to apologize to that piece of shit of demi-human garbage as well!" Bakugou demanded not in the mood to be arguing anymore.

Melty sighed but then looked up to say, "No I'm not asking that at all. You have the right to be mad, but look Sir Bakugou, you can't just abandon this entire kingdom because of the actions of one man. It's not fair for everyone else." She argued.

"Yeah and so what? They most likely dealt with one or two waves before, they can deal with another one again." Bakugou argues back.

"Even if they can stop the next wave, how many people will die because they lack a hero to protect them during the wave and end it as quickly as possible? Are you saying they should die because of the actions of a few?"

But Bakugou no longer cared, still full of anger to think of anything else, "I say good, gives these bastards a lesson on trying to screw with me!"

"But it is not just the royal court that will suffer, it will be the good knights and soldiers that will suffer, as well as the normal peasants including families with children. Do you think those people deserve to be losing their only hero?"

While still mad, that point did make Bakugou pause for a second to think on that.

It also did make Neia and Rino think about it themselves, they still had fresh memories of Edvie and despite there anti-human racism from some of the residents they were still people, people with friends and families. After their experience with the waves, they knew how deadly they can be, and to have no one to protect and aid them. It made them feel uneasy on just the thought of it.

"Please Sir Bakugou you have to understand. This isn't just about Siltvelt, it's about the whole world, and the people of Siltvelt are a part of it whether you want it to or not." She finally says to Bakugou.

'Damn it I hate when she has a point.' Bakugou says in his head now starting to think more about it. He knew the power of the waves and without him in the last 2 waves like in Lout village so many would've died without him and his sidekicks to help them. In this scenario he would be no different than the three other heroes still treating this whole thing as a video game.

"I have to also agree with her." said Neia now speaking up, "We are this world's heroes, and we all fight for those that can't help themselves. We must still hold up our duties as heroes for the innocent people of Siltvelt."

Rino then spoke up, "I agree, even in Melromarc when King Aultcray, the church, and Malty continued to make you into the villain of Melromarc, it still didn't stop you from helping its people, and you have proved them all wrong in the end. Imagine doing the same here, showing the court of Siltvelt that you are not God to be revered without question, but a hero to look up to."

'Damn it now all of them are on board!' Bakugou yells in his head again looking annoyed. He would've ask Kirishima if could support him, but even if he did sided with his father he couldn't talk anyway as he sleeps on his shoulder.

Bakugou calmed himself down a bit as he thought this through more, and think what All might would do. He has to deal with mad fans every day, hell Deku used to be one of them and still stands up with a smile on his face. He probably also gets constantly badgered by companies or charities to sponsor him and do stupid things for them, he can refuse them, but he wouldn't just not help the employees of those companies if a villain attack one of their factories or something to spite the company. He be no different than those corrupt heroes that only help when it makes them happy. And he wasn't going to be just like All Might, he wants to be even better than him.

He also is aware of how corrupt this country is with its lazy puppet king who is reined over by its power-hungry Prime Minister, its greedy church, and an oligarchy council of powerful individuals looking out only for them and their own tribe's interests, all who encourage and continue on the racism and enslavement of humans as well as maintain the obvious bias and broken caste system to maintain their power. He can't just leave and let it continue to fester. Few heroes were ever able to take down corrupt politicians as they weren't just something you can punch hard enough and instantly solved the problem like Itsuki thought he could do. It would be an interesting challenge for him if he can take it on, to take on a corrupt government of a large country. He would still need to learn more about Siltvelt first, those documents from earlier were just the beginning of knowing how Siltvelt works, and what he can do to break it and renew it.

Bakugou clutches his fists and was groaning in annoyance for all of this thought and anger. But after one more sigh he finally made up his new mind, "All right fine, we're staying for now, at least until we beat this next wave!" he tells his sidekicks.

They were all surprised that he even agreed to what they were saying but at the same time were happy and relieved that Bakugou wasn't completely heartless after all.

And after listening to the whole thing Trinock was just as happy after he recovered and walked up to him, "Splendid, I'm glad you are willing to give Siltvelt another chance Lord Bakugou. If you would like anything I will..."

"No you listen to me Stripes!" Bakugou snaps back angrily at Trinock as he lays it down, "For your information, I'm not doing this for you or the corrupt council! Like I said before at dinner, I'm doing this for the people of Siltvelt only! I can care less about you or the oligarch's asses! But I guess as compensation for doing this crap to me, I'll take that 4000 gold you promised to my sidekicks and I'll begrudgingly tolerate you for now.

Trinock looked annoyed by having to give away that much gold, but he had no choice, "Uh... yes very well then, whatever you say, but would you like to be escorted to where and your party members will be staying at tonight while we..."

"No in hells way am I sleeping here tonight or any other night for that matter! We will be sleeping elsewhere out of the castle and we will only come here when it will benefit us! You got that! And I also don't want to see any of those bitches you try to throw at me again or attempt anymore 'surprises' again or I'll be turning you into a rug! Got it!" Bakugou finally demands from Trinock

As much as he wanted to smack the brat across his head, Trinock could only clutch his fist in and sighs and bows to him, "Of course Lord Bakugou, whatever you want, I shall grant." he finally says back as two guards with large coin sacks with the 4000 gold coins came toward Bakugou to give in to his demands. This seemed like another benefit in staying in Siltvelt longer. Bakugou will see how much he could mooch off Trinock and the council to make him stronger before the wave comes.

Once in his inventory Bakugou leaves for the door, "Come Blue, brown hair, Princess, and Kirishima let's get out of here for the day! For now on we will be sticking together! We will not be out of sight of each other no longer. Got it!" He orders with them all nodding in agreement, for then on they would be together almost always to avoid any more 'surprises' that Trinock will come up with.

"Well so much for sleeping in a normal bed tonight." Rino snarks quietly with Neia and Melty trying to lighten the mood, knowing they will most likely be sleeping out in the woods again. Which did Neia and Melty just smile back, and the two knew they still had have their talk eventually.

Back with Trinock he waves his hands goodbye for now to the shield hero, but as soon as he was out of sight, the man's true nature comes out as he madly clutches his fists and then goes on an angry outburst as he roars and breaks and claws over at the walls and a bunch items in the hallway in anger even breaking a window. He then stomps up to a guard and demands, "Bring in those mages now!"

And in a few minutes those 4 very mages that made the barrier in the room to contain Bakugou in it were thrown in front of the Prime Minister as they were forced on their knees.

"You have failed your duty to the crown and more importantly you failed me! You got anything to say about it!?" Trinock yells at them.

"But Sir we did everything you said to do, to keep the Shield hero in the room at all cost, but he was too clever and powerful and got through our magic!" One mage excuses, but excuses were not going to cut it for Trinock.

"I will not tolerate failure when it involves anything with the shield hero! Remove them off their tongues at once and send them out to one of the churches silver mines!" he ordered the guards.

The mages looked horrified as the guards take them away as they begged for forgiveness and help, but Trinock had about done forgiving today.

"Let this be an example for all of you low casters! Anyone who fails their duty or angers the Shield hero again will be getting fates 10 times worst than that! Got it!" Trinock shouts to all the guards and servants around the room wanting to set up a message and example to be passed down to all the staff in the castle to not fail and take everything seriously for now on.

"Trinock!" Shouted a voice which turns out to be councilman Rehu along with the other 3 councilors coming through the hole in the wall, none were happy at all.

Trinock looks toward them but didn't smile or say anything immediately still feeling pissed off.

"Trinock what the hell just happened!" Rehu yelled at him

"Mind being more specific?" Trinock asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Shellina then answers that, "The entire hospital is currently crowded with injured and depressed noble girls and not a single one of them pregnant!"

"You think I'm not aware of that fact now!" Trinock talks back at the dragon woman. But lord Rehu wasn't done with him yet.

"And then you supposedly gave that brat 4000 gold like it was free candy, you also have not got rid of any of those whores, and we currently have no political prisoner! Are you still fit to partially rule this kingdom?!"

"More than fit than your tribe of failures! Failures who allowed your king to die under their watch!", Trinock yells back and quickly the white and orange tiger-men were now literally at each other's throats roaring and wanting to so badly kill each other.

But Lady Shellina stepped in to stop them, "Stop it you two, we are civilized people here, we shouldn't be fighting like those monkeys!"

After that the tiger lords let themselves go still looking pissed off at one another.

Valnar then spoke up his mind, "I knew this was a bad idea. I told you we should've waited a few days before doing this. He was probably still stressed out of his mind."

But Trinock dismissed that, "Honestly even if we did wait I don't think it would've mattered. This kid is more stubborn and prideful than I thought, not much of a sex drive either."

Lord Larq then spoke up, "Perhaps the shield hero prefers men than women?"

Valnar looked horrified at the suggestion, "Oh that would be terrible, how would we spread the shield hero bloodlines then? Though maybe if we could still get a sample of his sperm we could distribute it evenly then we..."

But Trinock put a stop to it, "Forget about that for now. The most important thing to do now is to keep the shield hero in Siltvelt at all costs. The girls can return to their homes when they are healed up and can mate with the shield hero some other time. This also means we will have to continue to tolerate those companions of his including the princess, she is probably the only thing that is keeping him here as of now."

Lady Shellina then spoke up, "I also agree, we will have to tolerate them and the heroes' antics for now. In all honesty, it won't change too much once the noblemen's sons arrive. They'll still be with him side-by-side in the incoming battle. And if we get lucky those two can die during the wave and the hero will have no choice but to take in the sons of Siltvelt as his new party."

"And what of the war with Melromarc?" Valnar asked about it again.

Trinock answered that quickly, "Still on, but we'll deal with that later once the wave is done. We just need to continue to convince that hero that this land will be his paradise, that the "confederation" is necessary, and Melromarc should be destroyed for what they did to him." he says as he looks out toward a setting sun, "I will promise this, before the end of the year, Melromarc will burn. And the cane hero will watch it burn through his severed head... Just as he did with old King Rohaw."

---

Back in Melromarc by the sunset, a large black feathered Filolial Queen was pulling on a wagon cart through the countryside until they were in a large forested area. It was Scarlet transporting Ren and his crew to the nearest town for the night.

He left the capital that morning planning to avoid all of the politics going on after the noble diet, Melromarc was now on its way to a Civil war and he did not want to get involved in the crossfire. He was sticking to his decision and will remain neutral to the whole affair regardless of what Aultcray said and demanded.

Ren knew he still had a duty to get stronger and to fight off the waves, and so far he, Motoyasu, and Itsuki have just fumbled while Bakugou the shield hero had beaten both wave bosses and was able to put up a fight with the glass woman unlike them.

He has heard about a large nation east of Melromarc called Zeltoble, and he plans on going there for a little while until things calm down in Melromarc. He hopes that it will calm down.

Scarlet has been their mode of transportation. When she grew up to a queen, she kept complaining that she gets bored from just walking around all the time and always wanted something heavy to carry. Ren eventually asked a filolial expert about this, according to him Filiolials like to pull on or carry heavy items as an instinct which is why they are always seen pulling on carts or are carrying heavy loads on their backs.

Ren could only guess this was a result of centuries of selective breeding to make these birds easier to control and remain content as beasts of burden. It felt wrong to make a month-old child do such a thing, but there was no helping it as Scarlet continues to whine about it, so Ren eventually bought a cart for her and she would transport them around the country.

It was faster than walking. But it was also boring, if they are not grinding for monsters he was just sitting on the wagon doing nothing. He doesn't have a phone or electronic device with him to cure his boredom, not that they would work out here anyway or have any means to charge their batteries. He had 5 companions and while he talked to them on an occasion and he respected their loyalty to him, Ren was never been the most social person and he didn't have much in common with his companions so they talked to each other about stuff, but it was never in Ren's interest. One of the only other things to do was reading, but unfortunately for Ren he couldn't understand the language of this world. He and the two other heroes were relying on magic orbs to learn new spells and whatnot so reading from magic texts seemed pointless.

But hours of sitting on a cart doing nothing did no good for him either, so he started to learn to read this world's language from his companions just so he could read something and not die of boredom. So far he is getting the hang of it starting to understand the alphabet and some common words, but he was still a ways off to unlock the ability to understand it, at least that helped speed up the time for him.

Eventually Ren and his crew made it to a small town that was surrounded by the large forest as the sun goes out for the night and they went to the largest tavern in the town to eat and then rented out rooms to sleep until morning.

He always got each of his companions their own room to rest at, including the only human girl on his team. Someone like Motoyasu would've jumped the first opportunity to have her share a room with them, but Ren wasn't a scumbag and respected her wishes of privacy.

The only one to sleep in the same room with him was Scarlet as she was still basically a little girl though she always slept on a couch not far from her master as they slept through the night.

And slept he did for a few hours, until suddenly.

"Master Ren! Master Ren! Wake up! Please wake up!" Scarlet shouts and shook him up, Ren wasn't exactly a morning person as he yawns up, and it wasn't even morning yet, according to his swords status menu's built-in clock it was only 2 am.

"What is it Scarlet? Did you eat the couch in your sleep again?" Ren moans not in the mood for Scarlet's bird shenanigans.

"No master Ren! Look outside there are a bunch of metal guys with Swords, along with that creepy spear guy with the mean girl and the mean bow guy?" Scarlet told him with fear in her voice.

"What!?" Ren said in surprise and when he looked out the window of the inn there was a small army of soldiers right outside, some with torches not far from the inn along with Motoyasu, Itsuki, and their parties. Ren grits his teeth knowing what they were here for. He then runs to his closet to change into his hero armor and out of his sleepwear.

"Master Ren, what are we going to do?" Scarlet asked him.

"I don't know yet. But I'll think of something, just be a big girl and don't panic." Ren tries to not worry Scarlet.

After Ren got his armor fully on, he and Scarlet storm out of their room, and right outside were his other companions who were already in their combat clothing fully aware of what is going on.

The big guy with the ax spoke up first, "Sir Ren they have the whole area surrounded. In the back, the sides, and even the roofs of other buildings have archers or mages on them ready to fire." he gave his status report of the situation.

It didn't help Ren's situation much, "Looks like leaving from the back won't be an option then." he says out loud as he tries to think of something else.

But as he was thinking someone scared came running down from the hallway that turned out to be the owner of the tavern, "Lord Ren, the soldiers and the other heroes are demanding you to come outside now. They say if you don't they and the soldiers are going to storm in and force you out. Please do something about this Sir?" the owner begged him worried about what they might do to his building.

Ren was afraid that was going to be the case. It annoyed him, but he sighs and looks back at the inn owner and said, "Tell them I'll be out in around 3 minutes."

This surprised his crew, "Lord Ren? Are you sure about this? This could be a trap?" the green-haired girl tells him with her and the group looking worried with Scarlet gripping and holding onto Ren's black armor coat.

"I don't have much of a choice. I'm not going to endanger this inn or the town because of me, maybe I can see a hole in their defenses and get the hell out of here. If I can find one anyway." Ren says to her, he knew that was not much of a plan at all, but there wasn't much they could. Ren then looked at them in the eyes again, "But none of you have to follow me. They're only here for me, none of you should endanger your lives for mine, if any of you want to just leave the group and just stay in the inn, you are free to do it now and I won't hold it against you." he informs and tells his group.

It was silent for a second as the group look at each other. But eventually the 5 of them including Scarlet all nodded and looked back as they bowed to Ren. It surprised the sword hero, and didn't know what to say. Eventually the green hair-girl spoke up, "Lord Ren we all agreed to be your loyal companions and to protect you at any cost. None of us will abandon you just because things look ugly." she says with the other four nodding in agreement.

Scarlet then spoke up, "Yes master Ren, I'm not going to leaving either, I will help you kick all of those meanies butts."

Ren smiles at all of them, he still can't believe he had such loyal companions. He wasn't sure if he even deserved them or not, but it still made the loner sword hero feel happy.

As he nods back Ren turns around toward the way to the front door where things are going to get ugly, "Alright then team, let's head out and remain strong." he orders them as the group got themselves together and follows Ren toward trouble.

Outside of the tavern the small army of soldiers stood their grounds awaiting for the sword hero to come out.

Motoyasu is also waiting for Ren to appear as well as Itsuki but he wasn't happy, "What the hell is taking him so long! If he does more of this stalling bullshit I say we just storm in now!" he complains with Motoyasu feeling bored as well just standing and waiting.

Malty of all people then spoke up, "Have a little more patience bow hero, he said three minutes and that is exactly what we will give him to come out peacefully, but he only has one left. And if he isn't out by that time we can just burn him out with fire." She said gleefully as she turns behind to see two 3 heroes church knights holding a metal case. Malty opens it and in the box was a magical slave crest branding iron, which according to Pope Balmous was what will create the most powerful slave crest anywhere, melded together with the most powerful slave ink on the planet, just one heated stab on the chest will make the sword hero the iron holders their obedient slave. Malty takes up the iron and heats it up with her magic making it red hot now with a sadistic look on her face excited to be making someone as powerful as a cardinal hero as her true slave.

The last minute was almost up and the 2 heroes were almost ready to start the burnout.

But to their surprise, Ren had finally come outside along with his party. The group walked until they were decently away from the door with the owner of the inn shutting them off. The group remained cautious as they stood their ground with their weapons ready as the large number of soldiers surrounding them doing the same.

Ren then looks toward at Motoyasu and Itsuki with them and their teams holding their weapons ready to attack if need be. Ren finally said, "So what's the reason you two are here? I doubt you came just to chat?"

The two remained silent as Princess Malty walks up in front of Motoyasu with a smug grin as she rolls out a scroll decree with her other hand behind her back and finally says, "Sir Sword hero, you have officially been conscripted by order of my father King Aultcray into Melromarc's army. You are required by the law to fight and join Melromarc's wars including ones involving the kingdom of Siltvelt. You shall follow every order given to your superiors including father and me, and any act of defiance will be considered an act of treason."

Ren wasn't surprised that this goes back to that stupid war again and it seems the king is no longer taking no for an answer. And now he is responding with force. Ren then said, "Last time I recalled, the majority of the nobles agreed to not go to war. You and your father seemed to be overstepping your own authorities as of now." He knew that wasn't going to convince her or the others over anything, but it did give him and his party some stalling time to look around their surroundings for any openings to make a run for it. But this whole area was crawling with soldiers on all sides.

Malty with a frown stares back at Ren, "Those traitors will be dealt with later, but for now this is about you and your defiance. You and your party have been ordered to come with us back to the castle, right now without resistance, or we will have to force you back ourselves." she says as the soldiers beside her lowered down their pike axes awaiting for the sword hero to attack. Malty then continued, "You have two minutes to cooperate or we will be resorting to force." she ordered.

It looked really bad for Ren and his group, there wasn't a straight way out. They could fight them off but with all the soldiers in such a cramped area that would only endanger the people around the town not involved in any of this. He also felt that he could take on either Motoyasu or Itsuki one on one but both at the same time they might just easily overwhelm him with their combined cardinal powers not to mention all the knights and their companions helping them both.

His 2 minutes were coming to a close and he had no way to get him and his party out of this. It seemed hopeless, until the green-haired hero girl of his team whispered in his ear, "Lord Ren, to your left by your wagon there seems to be a thin concentration of soldiers and an easy way miss Scarlet can jump up to the building with no soldiers on it. If you and Scarlet can just rush yourselves through it, you and her can escape while we distract the rest." she says quietly at his ear.

Ren didn't like the idea though, "But what about the rest of you? I can't just abandon you to possibly your deaths?" Ren knew they probably wouldn't last long against all of these soldiers and even if they don't kill them they would be taken away as prisoners or worst slaves.

"We all agreed to this plan Lord Ren, like we said we will protect you at any cost even if it risks our lives, just go and get away from the King and Princess as much as you can and look for the Queen if you can." she finally said to her hero.

Ren still didn't like this but at the same time, it would do them no good if they all just get captured. With a slight sigh, Ren agrees, "Alright, but I will eventually come back and save you guys. I promised that as your hero." he whispers back to her with them and the rest of the squad nodding in agreement. Ren can only smile at them feeling proud of their courage and loyalty.

But that ends when Malty starts to countdown to the last of the minute, "7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2..."

"Ok I'll go!" Ren shouts toward Malty. He then without resistance began to walk slowly up toward Malty, Motoyasu, and Itsuki who were smugly smiling thinking they had won. Malty in particular was especially grinning large as she still had the branding iron hidden behind her back and was ready to brand the sword hero with the slave crest once he was close enough to her.

Ren continues to walk as he was about halfway to the group. But then he just stops and stares at the three, confusing Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Malty.

Myne quickly demanded, "what the hell are you.."

"NOW!" Ren shouts

It surprised everyone but before they could react the magic caster carrying a book in Ren's group activated an air dust spell and sent out a bunch of high winds and dirt in the air forcing almost everyone to block their eyes.

"SCARLET!" Ren shouts back to his group and quickly Scarlet turns into her large bird form, the two then ran toward each other as Ren jumps on her back.

The army, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Myne quickly recovered and just as quickly noticed what Ren was doing as Scarlet rams right through a line of soldiers, "Stop him now!" Myne orders the soldiers now rushing in to stop Ren, but the rest of the sword heroes group rushes at the army and fought valiantly, and held most of them off allowing their hero to get away.

Itsuki attempts to shoot an arrow at Scarlet until the green-haired girl of Ren's group threw a knife at him forcing the bow hero to dodge it, making him miss his target. He quickly aims and shot another magic arrow at her, instantly knocking her out.

Scarlet finally jumps up on the edge of her and Rens' wagon cart and launched herself up to the rooftop of the building with her wind magic. The archers and mages on top of the other buildings fire arrows and magic blasts at the large black bird and sword hero but they ended up being too quick for them as the bird jumps across rooftop from rooftop dodging everything.

After being overpowered by Motoyasu and Itsuki, Ren's group was quickly defeated with all of them being knocked out cold and tied up to be taken as prisoners. But they didn't celebrate as they hear the soldiers on top announcing Ren's escape. None of them were happy especially not Malty, "After them you idiots! Get back on the horses!" she yells at her soldiers as most of them rush to their rides along with Motoyasu and Itsuki to catch up to Ren before he gets away.

Ren and Scarlet were finally out of the town as Scarlet jumps off the roofs to the ground on the highway road. The bird monster continued to run along the road as much as possible to get away from the army.

Ren still felt a lot of guilt for basically leaving his team to be taken as prisoners and most likely tortured for answers later, "Damn it! why did it have to come to this?! They shouldn't have to suffer because of me!" he scolds himself, but he did give out a small sigh, as much as he hated it, it was still his teams choice that they could've refused. He will make sure it wasn't all for nothing. "I'm not going back on my promise, I will somehow free them again as soon as I can." he continued as he still holds on to Scarlets feathers.

But their troubles were not over as Ren looks behind and sees dozens of horses with riders pursuing them. And he immediately recognizes Motoyasu and Itsuki riding on them, now they were on their tail.

"Faster Scarlet! Faster!" Ren orders his bird as the young girl continues to run away as fast as possible. At the same time, some of the soldiers and the two heroes were launching out a bunch of long-range attacks on Ren and his bird. Thanks to Scarlet's reflexes she had been able to dodge most of them with Ren also deflecting some of the attacks away from them. Especially Itsuki's attacks that seem to never miss as Ren kept deflecting the magic arrows. Ren also fires back with his own long-range attacks, being able to knock out a few of the horse riders, but not long after they were now setting up magic barriers from the mages to be protected against those attacks. He now regrets ever making fun of shields, now he wished he had one to also soak up fire.

This chase continued for minutes with Ren hoping they win by a war of attrition with his more powerful monster being able to hold out with greater stamina than the horses. But that plan quickly changed.

"Master Ren! Look ahead!" Scarlet shouted, and to Ren's horror when he looked up in front he saw the road ahead blocked off by a large number of soldiers with numerous traps and magic barriers on the road, which was going to make it a struggle to even pass through.

"Damn it! Of course they do this ahead of time!" Ren shouts, they seem to be trapped now with the road blocked off and the army on their tail.

Ren had to think fast making him turn his head in all directions, but when turns to his right toward the woods and sees a large tall steep cliffside, it's going to be hard to run through the thick forest, but that might be there only chance to escape.

They were nearly at the blockade with the other two heroes smugly smiling thinking they had him cornered. But then.

"Scarlet run to the right!" Ren shouts and Scarlet makes a sharp turn to the right into the woods.

It surprised the other heroes and the army, but it didn't change their act to pursuit as Motoyasu and Itsuki turn their horses to follow Ren and his bird while the Princess and Itsuki's crew went on in different directions.

Ren and Scarlet continue to run and run in the dense forest struggling to pass through it.

Ren turns again to see Motoyasu and Itsuki now on their tails as they continue to throw their magic attacks at them.

Despite the struggle with Scarlet starting to breathe heavier from all the constant running the two were still getting ahead of the bow and spear heroes , it seems that their horses were having more trouble getting through all the thick brush than the filolial . Quickly enough the other heroes were now far behind the sword hero, "Looks like they're unable to keep up. Come on Scarlet keep it up until they're out of sight!" he encourages his monster bird with Scarlet now more motivated to run faster than ever before putting the others further behind.

Motoyasu and Itsuki were getting pissed off by this, "Damn it! I don't have a clear shot at them anymore!" Motoyasu complains.

But Itsuki smiles as he looks back at Motoyasu, "You still got the charmed item right?" he asked.

With a smirk back Motoyasu throws to Itsuki a small metal magic-enchanted leg cuff. The Bow hero quickly applies it on his bow and pulls his weapon back and aims right for one of Scarlet's legs, "Let's see you get ahead now you bastard!" Itsuki mocks and finally fires his weapon with the leg cuff.

The magic arrow goes on with intense speeds right through the trees until it had caught up with the Sword hero. Without Ren noticing the magic arrow hits Scarlet in the right leg. It didn't injure her or harm her but that magic leg cuff still closes on her leg. And in a blink of an eye, Scarlet is forced out of her bird form into her little girl form.

The sword hero and his bird companion roll across the ground with the momentum eventually stopping. Despite that hurting the two quickly got themselves up, "Scarlet! What happened!? Why did you transform like that!?" Ren demanded with some concern in his tone.

Scarlet looks at her leg and notices the metal cuff and attempts to remove it to no avail, "I don't do it on purpose, this thing forced me to... And... And ugh! It's stuck!" Scarlet responds with even her strength she can't force it off.

Ren quickly noticed what was going on, the cuff was enchanted with some spell to prevent monster transformations. It seemed the other heroes were more prepared than expected.

Ren quickly holds on to her leg down as he raises his sword, "Just hold still and I'll get it off." he says and after careful aiming, he thrusts his sword on the magic item.

Unfortunately it didn't work with the sword just bouncing off the metal cuff and the spell remains. Ren tried over and over again but with no luck the item was nearly invincible that even his cardinal weapon couldn't destroy it. He did see a menu pop up above the item and it showed off a small timer of under 5 minutes and slowly going down. If Ren had to guess this was how long the cuff will remain unremovable. So until that time was up and without any magic removal spells they were sitting ducks.

"What are we going to do now master Ren?" Scarlet said with concern.

Ren wasn't sure what to say to her. But before he could think about he started to hear galloping and yelling from behind again. Itsuki, Motoyasu, and the army were now finally catching up to them.

Ren was frightened now and knew they were not safe here, "Scarlet we need to go now! Get on my back!" he orders her with Scarlet not questioning his order as she jumps on his back and the sword hero continues to run through the thick woods on foot as magic and arrow attacks continue to be thrown at him.

Despite the loss of speed Ren continued to force his way through to escape capture with Scarlet continuing to remain on his back.

Eventually though Ren had finally managed to get out of the woods in a barren rocky area. The sword hero looks up to see a nearly flat cliffside over 100 feet high. Without Scarlets bird form there was no way to get up it fast enough so this was a dead end now and this cliffside goes on for miles in both directions with no other way to get up.

Ren wasn't sure what to do next, but then looks behind again and saw Motoyasu on his horse almost up to them.

Ren didn't know what to do but to run again by going left hoping that there be a ramp or something to get up the flat cliffside eventually, but this running came to a halt when he sees a line of horsemen with a bunch of Itsuki's party members awaiting the Sword hero and ran toward them.

Ren quickly turns to ran the other way to the right only to be quickly greeted with the same thing only with this one has Malty and Motoyasu's other party members among them with her evilly smiling still holding on to her magic branding rod.

Ren and Scarlet were now trapped on both sides with nowhere to run as the two armies move closer toward the sword hero.

Ren grips his sword tight as he turns around to the two sides to keep them away with Scarlet getting off of his back making growling noises.

But before they did anything, "Hey Ren!" shouted a voice that turns out to be Motoyasu on his horse finally making it to the battlefield. Motoyasu decided to jump off high from his horse and attempts to strike at Ren.

The sword hero notices and blocks the strike. Motoyasu then finally engages and battles against Ren. The sword and the spear were now clashing with each other.

While they fight some of the soldiers decided to attack Scarlet thinking she was easy prey. But despite being stuck in her human form, the monster girl was still strong as she dodges, kicks, and punches at the attacking soldiers holding out on her own as she fights the normal troops.

Ren and Motoyasu fought valiantly as the two thrust and slash at each other using their best weapon abilities. The two were quite evenly matched, though in terms of pure attack power Ren was better, but Motoyasu had the speed advantage attacking faster than Ren can handle especially when he uses his rapid chaos spear ability to get a few hits on Ren. But despite the pain Ren held out and when got a hit on Motoyasu it definitely hurts him a lot more than the spears attacks.

But then by Malty's order some of the mages on the sidelines began to fire at Ren with fire blasts while also giving Motoyasu some combat boosts making him even stronger than before and healing him.

Ren was also trying to help out Scarlet at the same time firing a magic attack or two on the soldiers that were starting to overwhelm the bird girl. It was starting to overwhelm the sword hero as well.

The struggle continued as Ren fights against his increasingly more powerful opponent as his health regenerates while his was slowly decreasing with no opening to drink a health potion.

Motoyasu goes on to attack faster with an increasingly tiring Ren trying his best to block off these attacks. The two then made a big clash as the two began to struggle against each other.

During the struggle Motoyasu finally spoke up right to Ren's face, "You think you're better than us? You think your a better hero? You disgust me as much as Bakugou! Making this poor angel fight for you like a servant! Once I'm done with you, she will be freed from your dirty hands!" he taunts Ren which was just pissing him off more. Despite the pain, Ren wasn't going to give up as he starts to notice Scarlet starting to get overwhelmed by the soldiers again with no one to help her.

Ren with most of his strength pushes back at Motoyasu on the struggle as the two heroes attempt to overpower the other.

But despite Motoyasu's boosts it did start to look like Ren was beginning to win the struggle as he activates a sword ability he has to temporarily double his strength for a short amount of time and was about to overpower Motoyasu.

But suddenly Ren gets shot in the shoulder with a magic arrow that knocked him to the ground.

Motoyasu looked confused at first until he turned around to see Itsuki finally making it to the battle, or more accurately he waited until he got the opportunity to look the most competent of the team as he smugly smiles.

"About time you got here!" Motoyasu yells at Itsuki not amused by him stealing his thunder.

"Hey your the one who couldn't finish the job." Itsuki mocks back making Motoyasu look more irritated.

But they quickly put their own petty rivalry aside as they look back at Ren getting himself back up feeling a lot of pain, but he wasn't giving up yet.

Motoyasu then attacks Ren again activating his Chaos spear ability after the cooldown on it ended. While at the same time Itsuki was launching out Magic arrows at Ren.

It was what the sword hero feared, fighting one cardinal hero one on one is one thing, but two with numerous troops helping them out was borderline impossible.

Ren was just tanking hit after hit getting injured and bruised up all over by the twos attacks.

And despite her struggling Scarlet noticed and was worried sick, "Master Ren no!" she shouts and was about to ignore the random soldiers and help out her master.

But Itsuki winks toward his party members that nodded back. The blonde girl then launches a magic arrow at Scarlet almost knocking her out.

"SCARLET!" Ren shouts witnessing that event when a bunch of soldiers were about to gain up on the down girl. "Crismon blade!" Ren quickly uses his flame sword ability to blast away a group of soldiers nearly knocking most of them out.

But by doing so it left him open for an attack.

Motoyasu stabs him on the back of Ren's left shoulder. Doing a lot of damage and even made him bleed a bit, "*cough* you bastards!" Ren coughs with blood starting to come out of his mouth.

But as Motoyasu removes his spear out of his shoulder and backs away a bit, Itsuki continued to attack with light magic attack arrows, doing minor damage but kept staggering the sword hero barely able to hold out anymore.

Motoyasu then charges up an attack and runs right at Ren and shouts, "Lightning spear!"

And with that Motoyasu launches a devastating attack at the sword hero sending him flying into the cliffside making a small crater within it with his body.

Scarlet noticed and struggled to get herself out and looked at her master horrified, "Master Ren no!" she attempts to get up and run toward him, but then Itsuki's party ran up to her and tackled the bird girl. Despite her struggle the large metal man finally overpowered her then he and a few other knights put her down on her knees holding onto her arms tight.

Scarlet had finally been completely immobilized as she still tried to fight against her capturers but it did no good.

Princess Malty finally decided to get off her horse and walk slowly up to Scarlet evilly smiling as Ren got himself out of the cliffside and looked pissed off at Myne.

Malty twirls around the branding iron and finally said, "That was quite the show sword hero. It even impressed me, but you were clearly out of your league when you decide to go against the crown. If you came quietly this would've never happened, but you had to make things complicated."

"Fuck you!" Ren swears at her which continued to put a smile on the princess face.

Motoyasu holds out his spear ready to attack Ren again for the insult, but Malty then spoke up, "Stand down Sir Motoyasu, we still need him alive after all." she ordered.

Motoyasu did what she said and lowered his spear as he moves near toward Scarlet while Itsuki still stood his ground with his bow prepared to fire again if need be.

Ren could barely hold himself up as he continued to grip his sword not wanting to give up and let his party's sacrifice be in vain. But he then noticed Malty was walking up right to Scarlet as she uses her magic to heat up the slave crest branding iron again as she stares at the bird girl who continued to squirm around while being held down. Ren feared what they were going to do to her.

"What the hell do you want from me!? Do you want me to swear fealty to you and your father and start this stupid war of yours!?" Ren demands from Malty.

Malty just smiles back to say, "I'm afraid your word of fealty will not suffice anymore sword hero, knowing that you can just run away like the coward Shield devil did. You must become a true servant of the crown of Melromarc and know your place. You can stop this pointless resistance now and accept your place." she then turns her head toward Scarlet, "Or I might just make your oversized poultry my new pet."

She then ordered, "Hold her up and expose her upper chest!"

The soldiers and Itsuki's companions did as they were told and moved over and held out a resisting Scarlet while lowering her dress a bit to expose her lower neck area.

Ren knew what she was going to do and had to stop it, "No Scarle... AH!" he shouts only to get a magic arrow on his injured shoulder by Itsuki reminding him where he was still at on the bargaining table.

"No! No! Master Ren! Go! Go and leave me!" Scarlet shouts as she tried to resist but she was no longer going anywhere as Malty now stands right before her with the red hot iron brand.

She said with a smug smile, "You'll make a fine toy for Sir Motoyasu." She then moves her arm back ready to press the iron in her chest to make Scarlet her new slave. There was dread in the air and when Malty was about to press her arm in...

"OK! I'LL DO IT!" shouted a voice and when Malty turned it turned out to be Ren as he stabs his cardinal sword weapon on the ground, "If you want me to be your slave so badly then fine, I won't let anyone else get hurt because of me." Ren gives up as a couple of soldiers began to surround him with Itsuki laying down his weapon now seeing no point in doing so anymore.

Malty just smiles, "Perfect! Things can be easy now." She then grabs hold of Scarlet and throws her at Motoyasu, "Sir Motoyasu you can play with her for a bit." she says as Motoyasu wraps his hands around the disgruntled girl.

"Master Ren no! Don't do this! Runaway! Get away from here!" Scarlet shouts wanting her master to save himself but Ren couldn't bear to let a true friend in this world suffer because he was too weak to stop them.

Motoyasu continued to smile like a dense idiot rubbing the girls head, "Don't worry Scarlet-chan you'll be under our care for now on and we can be best friends forever." he says in a creepy tone making the girl more resistant than before, but in her human form she can't overpower the spear hero.

Back with Ren, Malty had finally walked right at the defeated sword hero as she holds up the still burning hot branding iron while Ren accepts his fate. She then says, "Now then. Let's end this childish game and return to reality."

And with a quick move, she jabs the branding iron right on Ren's exposed upper chest.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Ren shouts in pain as the hot magic iron burns into his skin to leave its magic ink mark on its new victim.

"No! No!" Scarlet shouts but it did no good as Malty continue to press on his chest to make sure the powerful slave crest was fully on the cardinal hero.

After a few more seconds the branding iron finally turns cold as the heat of it is lost. Malty finally removes it as she watches the magic taking in.

Ren was now covered in purple electricity, zapping him into submission as the powerful slave crest on his chest was glowing using its power to subjugate the hero

This went on for over a minute as Ren continues to scream in agony trying to resist the power but it seemed hopeless as the Princess watches over enjoying the pain and suffering with the soldiers watching on to see one of their heroes become a slave to the crown.

Eventually the electricity died down around Ren as his crest fades into his skin. With the spell now fully completed.

Ren then finally stands up looking on toward Princess Malty who continued to have her smug smile thinking she had won now.

She finally says, "Ren Amaki, you are now officially a slave of the crown which includes the King and Princess of Melromarc. You shall do whatever we say and obey every command given. Am I clear to you?"

Ren then places his right fist across his chest, "I shall obey every command and do whatever my masters command me to do." he responds without a hint of resistance or tone from him.

Malty loves it and wanted to see more, "Perfect, now kneel before me and kiss the boot of your superior." she ordered

And without resistance, he goes to his knees and kisses the dirty metal boots of her royal highness making her laugh and laugh and laugh with Itsuki laughing with her enjoying the show.

"Master Ren! No! You can't do this! Your not a slave to these meanies! Get away get away!" Scarlet shouts toward Ren again but it did no good as he ignored her. "Master Ren!"

"Oh shut up already you damn brat! Or I'll.." Shouted Itsuki's companion getting extremely annoyed of her. He would've smacked her but Motoyasu gave him a mad and threatening look, that basically said, 'Don't touch her or your dead'.

But Scarlet didn't want to give up no matter how bad it looks as she continued to scream, "Master Ren you can't! Master Ren you..."

But Scarlet stopped when she noticed that Ren made a tiny wink at her. It was quick but she knew what that meant and made a tiny smirk. She then continued to yell, "No No no! Master Ren! You must break free!"t everyone else began to just ignore her.

Malty finally stopped laughing and looks down at her new slave, "Ok stand up, pick up your toy sword, and follow us." She ordered with Ren picking up his sword again out of the ground.

Malty then turns away and walks toward her horses with everyone else, she then said, "Now then let us get back with father and discuss our next plans to curtail the rebelling nobles and began preparations for.."

"METEOR BLADE!"

"HUH!?" This surprised Malty making her turn but before she could react or say another word, she gets blasted point-blank at the chest with a magic attack by Ren sending her flying straight at Itsuki while he was turning, and the two smack into each other until they were blasted into a tree.

This surprised everyone especially Motoyasu, "Myne!" he shouted worried about her.

But while he wasn't looking, Scarlet moves his glove and quickly bit into his hand.

"Yahhhh!" Motoyasu shouts from the bite making him let go of Scarlet.

She quickly kicked him in the crotch temporarily stunning him and runs toward Ren while dodging some soldiers.

The rest of the men rush over to attack Ren again but he uses his sword to knock a bunch of them away with the only one able to resist was Itsuki's large companion as he engages and attacks Ren as the sword hero blocks off his attacks.

"Master Ren!" Scarlet shouts again as she jumps over a bunch of soldiers and launches herself up in the air as she exposes her leg out with the charmed bracelet still on her.

Ren took noticed and remembered that it had been over five minutes so the invincibility of the charm had to be over by now and as he struggled with the large man he just jabs him in the eye with his fingers making him yell in pain, "Ahhhh! You damn cheater!" he shouted rubbing his eye.

Ren turns and lifts up his sword to make a swift move, he swings at Scarlet's leg in the air at the leg cuff on her ankle. And unlike before the bracelet was instantly destroyed with the charm now dead.

With the magic item gone Scarlet immediately changes back into her large bird form and with her strength and speed, she attacks the soldiers that are attempting to gain upon Ren.

And while dealing with them, Ren turns behind him and quickly blocks an attack and it was none other than Motoyasu who now recovered from the kick and was attacking Ren again. As the two heroes attack and block each other off again Ren orders, "Scarlet kick as many guys as you can at the meanies by the tree!" pointing toward Malty and Itsuki who were about to get themselves back up again.

Scarlet took quick notice and began to kick some of the soldiers toward them as they were getting up. Only to be bashed into the tree again by the inured and knocked out bodies most being of Itsuki's and Motoyasu's companions keeping them all out of the fight as much as possible.

Motoyasu and Ren continued to fight intensely as they try to overpower one another again but on more even ground as Motoyasu was no longer getting help from Itsuki or Myne. But the large metal man after recovering from his eye injury ran back up to Ren again and doubled-teamed with Motoyasu to overwhelm the hero again like last time.

But the large man was not as powerful as Itsuki and when he and Motoyasu missed their swings, Ren hits the man's head with the hilt of his sword, messing up his helmet and nearly breaking his jaw.

"Ow damn it! Damn it! I'll castrate you for that!" he yells at Ren as he continues to fight off Motoyasu.

The giant man attempts to fix his helmet but when he seemed to fix it, he saw a giant angry black bird coming right to him. And before he could react, Scarlet kicks him right in the chest breaking some ribs as he flies right into the tree with Malty and Itsuki being pelted at again with a large body now over them.

Motoyasu and Ren continued their struggle as they fight with all their power, but Motoyasu was still being blessed with some of the mages on the sidelines making him more powerful them Ren with regenerating health.

"Face it already Ren! You lost! You can't beat me!" he taunts Ren as they struggle with their weapons again.

But Ren just responds with, "I know. But she can for me."

"Huh?" Motoyasu said in confusion.

"Hey creepy Spear guy!" Motoyasu heard and then turns his head and saw a bird form Scarlet right behind him.

And before he could react, Scarlet kicks him right in the middle of his crotch.

The Spear hero is launched high in the air now screaming in pain of the area between his legs.

"Get off of me you fat piece of lard!" Malty yells at the large companion finally throwing him off with Itsuki getting up as well now with their burning eyes pointed at Ren.

"Kill that damn bird already!" she shouts, Itsuki readies an arrow, but to their luck, Motoyasu crash lands on top of both of them. Back on the ground again, as Motoyasu groans in deep pain of his damaged private parts.

And with Motoyasu finally out of the picture and with Scarlet in her bird form, Ren knew that the opportunity to get the hell out of here was opened again, "Scarlet with me up the cliff now!" he ordered as he quickly jumped on Scarlet as she ran toward the almost flat cliffside.

A group of soldiers attempts to stop them but Scarlet just bashes through the group and quickly jumped on the cliffside.

And with her clawed bird feet, she sticks to the cliff rocks and with Ren gripping her bow collar that transforms into her clothes in her human form as she runs up toward the cliff top.

"Get off already!" Malty shouts just pushing off her in pain boy toy as she looks out toward the two escaping heroes with burning rage, "FIRE AT THEM! DO YOU HEAR ME!? FIRE AT THEM! FIRE AT THEM!" she screams at the mages.

And without hesitation they aim and fire magic and arrows at Ren and Scarlet. But this proved to be harder than it looked as the bird's reflexes were fast enough to dodge any blast coming at them or just outruns it. Now they were halfway to the top of the cliff.

"AIM AT THEM YOU IDIOTS! STOP THEM NOW!" She continued to scream at her men who were not having any luck.

Itsuki finally got himself back up and was just as pissed off as Malty was, he was ready to just end this for good. He pulls back his magic bow weapon as powerful magic energy builds up and he aims right at Ren intending to get a rival out of the picture for good, "So long Ren." he says to himself.

"Meteor arrow!" Itsuki finally releases a giant powerful attack and flies right toward the sword hero.

Ren quickly saw it coming and while he had one hand gripping on Scarlet he still had his other hand open with his sword and just in time he blocks the powerful energy bolt. Ren struggled with this blob of explosive power trying to not let it pass and hit him or Scarlet and explode on them off the cliff. He held his grip tighter and tried his best to balance the bolt on his sword which was already difficult with just one hand with other things also shooting at him.

Ren was tired and injured but despite the pain and aches, he used up almost the last of his power and raises his sword up and finally deflected the attack up away from them.

The bolt then quickly hits the top of the cliff and...

Boom!

The explosion causes an avalanche of rocks to rain down.

"Scarlet use quick step!" Ren ordered, he and Scarlet learned from experience from their first avalanche and wasn't going to be victims of one ever again.

Scarlet activates an ability she learned to speed herself and began to jump over the falling rocks and maintain her momentum.

But at the bottom of the cliff, Malty, Itsuki, and the army were all being pumbled and finally buried under the rockslide.

After some more perseverance the two were finally up on top of the cliff.

Ren and Scarlet could finally catch some minor breaths after going through that hellish experience.

Ren looks back down to see what happened and saw most of the area they fought in was now covered with rocks and large boulders. Injuring the rest of the soldiers.

Itsuki and Myne were just buried under a bunch of rocks while Motoyasu was still moaning away at his injured crotch.

Ren just gives out a big sigh and didn't feel any pity for them.

After the quick rest Ren jumped on Scarlet again, "I know your still tired Scarlet but we must get as far away as we can, just run straight ahead as much as you can and don't stop." he ordered pointing straight ahead into some more woods.

"Yes master Ren!" Scarlet agrees, without a second to lose, Scarlet ran ahead into those woods as they get as far away as they can from the king's men and the other heroes.

Back down at the cliff Malty finally gets herself out from the rocks and her face was mad boiled red in rage, "GET UP! ALL OF YOU! GET BACK ON THE HORSES! WE MUST NOT LET THEM GET AWAY! UP UP UP!" She screams at her soldiers as some try to pull themselves from the rocks and recover from their injuries.

Itsuki pulls himself out of a rock pile and was just as pissed off, to be on the losing side again.

Motoyasu was still lying down crying and holding on to his crotch.

"Get him medical attention now! And then put him on a horse!" Malty orders more, and continued barking more at her men, "I don't care what or how long it takes to get up this mountain, I want those pieces of shit hunted down NOW!" Malty screams again with her rage completely out now even ignoring the injury she received from Ren's attack on her chest.

She was full of rage, and it was placed on multiple things, Ren being the most pissed off with at the moment, but also to Itsuki and Motoyasu for being complete failures to stop them, toward Bakugou for making just as much of a fool out of her and ruined her original scheme to get rid of Melty, and she was extra pissed off at Pope Balmus with his so-called most powerful crest not doing anything to her target.

She was now full of wrath and she was going to drive her to hunt down the sword hero all night and burn them on the stake after she tortures them in every conceivable way until she finally has the last laugh in all of this.

---

After over an hour Scarlet continued to run and run and run none stop leaving behind their pursuers miles away.

But running so fast for so long was making even the large young filolial tired as she starts to slow down.

Ren was noticing it, while he had been administrating health potions to him and her, he saw that the girl was getting tired of running none stop. He knew she had eventually stop or she will die of exhaustion.

"Alright Scarlet I think we are far enough away from them, you just rest for now," Ren says to Scarlet.

Scarlet didn't hesitate as finally stopped her running breathes heavily.

Ren jumps off with Scarlet transforming back into her human girl form still feeling exhausted.

Ren sits down on a log with Scarlet following suit with her deciding to lay down on his lap feeling a little sleepy.

Ren pets her head as he was still trying to contemplate in his head on everything that had happened tonight. He was now basically a wanted man on the run from half the kingdom's army, Itsuki, and Motoyasu. All so they can drag him into some stupid war he didn't want to get involved in.

It seemed hopeless for them right now, and Ren still felt guilty about what happened to the rest of his party, but at the same time he feels happy knowing that Scarlet was safe and away from their hands. And as the young bird girl lays she decided to speak up, "Master Ren what are we going to do now?" she asked.

"To be honest I don't know," Ren said giving his honest opinion. The now was to get away from them and recover, but he had no idea what to do next, the rest of his party was captured and most likely going to be sent to prison to be interrogated for answers on his whereabouts, and he had no idea how to deal with Itsuki and Motoyasu, alone one on one he might have a chance with them, but when he fought the both of them he barely survived against the two and Bakugou is currently in some other country right now so he couldn't get help from him, not that he offer it to him anyway. And with the waves happening periodically he'll be forced to be together with Motoyasu and Itsuki in only over a month away, so they couldn't run and hide away forever. They were in a tight situation and he had to think of something.

Scarlet could tell her master was stressed out and tried to cheer him up, "Don't blame yourself master Ren, we all did what we could. It's those mean peoples fault and we still kicked their butts together. Like when you blasted that evil red girl away into mean bow guy, that was so funny." she says with a smile on her face.

Ren gives one back at her, "I sure did, you did well too, you taught Spear guy that your not some doll he could play with. I'm sure he'll be on ice packs for weeks."

The two then lightly laughed with each other, temporarily forgetting their troubles for now.

Scarlet then asked, "Master Ren how did you not get enslaved though? I thought after that evil lady poked you with that metal thing, that you were gone for a second and was made into her pet?"

Ren quickly answered her, "Thankfully it seems in this world, cardinal heroes are immune to being enslaved, no matter how powerful the spell. They didn't seem to be unaware of that fact and I just took advantage of it as she and the others let her guard down completely." Ren looks down on his unmarked chest, "Thankfully it seemed that crest left no scars or marks after it disappeared."

"How did you find out about it?" she asked

"At the same place I bought you as an egg, the slave trader guy told me about it. When he brought in the loud shield guy for the first time at his tent he activated a powerful enslavement spell on the floor without him noticing and despite the spell's power it did absolutely nothing to him. He heard rumors about cardinal heroes being immune to it, I guess that was his test to confirm if it was true or not. And if it worked he probably would've sold Bakugou off to the highest bidder." Ren continued.

"Well that's good master Ren, at least they can't force you to do awful things for them. Hopefully we can somehow beat those meanies again soon. I like to kick that bow guy again he is the meanest next to that red lady." Scarlet finally says to him as she yawns.

"Yeah I hope so too..." Ren says until he heard some tree branches cracking from above.

He hoped it was just a wild animal, but Ren quickly grips his sword in case it was them again, but unless they somehow got a dragon like Bakugou how could they even catch up to them? Going up the cliff would take them over an hour alone if they didn't spend more time going around for miles, and they had a massive head start so who could it have been if it not them?

That quickly got answered when finally a cloaked figure jumps out from a tree in front of Ren and Scarlet.

Ren had no idea who this was but he wasn't taking chances as he pulls his sword out with Scarlet lifting her head looking angry at the figure, "Who the hell are you!?" Ren demanded.

The cloaked figure lifts its head and the mysterious person turns out to be a woman covering her face up in some mask. After a few seconds of silence the woman finally spoke, "Dear Sword hero, I am not your enemy here. The complete opposite I dare say.".

Despite the woman's proclamation Ren was still acting cautiously with his sword out, "And what are you then!?" he demanded from the woman.

"I am of the shadows, we are the espionage and spy force of the true ruler of Melromarc, Queen Mirellia. And to get straight to the point, you have been hereby requested to meet up with her Majesty herself."

"The Queen huh?" Ren has mostly only known about the Queen from his companions and word of mouth from the regular townspeople. He originally thought she and her husband were some dual monarchy welding equal power together, but with her agent saying "true ruler" that puts that it into question. The only other things he knew was that she was a highly respected monarch and the fact that she was currently out of the country. He never expected the queen to be contacting him through an agent. And he remembered briefly about one of his companions telling him to try to find the queen back near the tavern, so there was probably some more merit to it.

Ren felt a little more at ease but he acts cautiously at this mysterious figure, "Ok and what does she want from me?" he asked.

"The roots of this commotion run deep, you understand right. I dare say we can get all the help we can get." the woman continued.

"I know with Aultcray and his insane plans for the war," Ren responds thinking he knows everything about this situation.

The woman was silent for a few seconds until she spoke up again, "I'm afraid there is more to it than that. Aultcray, Princess Malty, and the spear and bow hero are nothing more than pawns of a game. With another player controlling them without the four knowing."

The fact surprised Ren, "Another player? Who are you talking about?" Ren asked wanting answers now.

Without hesitation, the spy woman continued, "The group that holds a tight grip on the country and had been trying to keep a certain status quo that will maintain their control over Melromarc's people. Lately though that status quo had been shaken down by the shield hero and all of his accomplishments."

Ren looked even more surprised after hearing that, "Wait the shield hero? Do you mean Bakugou? What does he have anything to do with this 'status quo'?" Ren asked.

"The shield hero had always been used as a convenient scapegoat for this group making the people see him as a creature of death and destruction. The group that also worships you and the two other heroes as gods, and puts you up as perfect beings that uphold their ideals. But despite their attempts to stop this, the shield hero had proven them wrong again and again and the two other heroes had done nothing but made fools of themselves, which the people of Melromarc have been noticing. Now there once strong foundation is crumbling and now this group is doing all it can to not only revert to the old status quo, but to remove those that can stop them." she explains.

Ren hated when answers are being intentionally cryptic, but he can still understand who she was talking about. The three heroes church, "So you are saying the church is behind all of this? Other than motivation, what other info do you have?" Ren asked.

"We agents are everywhere we are needed to be, including at the castle you were at over a day ago. We learned that enslaving you was all Pope Balmus's idea and he provided Princess Malty her enslavement branding iron."

"Ok, but how does that make him and his ilk look like they are trying to control the royals and not just a regular suggestion?"

"Because Pope Balmus had already known that enslavement of a hero would never work. He and the rest of the church knew almost everything about heroes inside and out. So he deliberately gave the royals false hope and information."

Ren raised his eye to that, "That is a good point, but how does any of that benefit him in any way? How does all the nonsense that happened tonight advance any of his plans?"

"We are not completely sure yet, a good player would always make a move that may seem nonsensical, but then he makes his next ultimate move to eventually crush his opponent. Sometimes this requires them to sacrifice some of their pawns."

Ren understands what she was saying, but there are still so many things that don't make sense with the church's plans. But it was something he had to think about later, he went on to ask other topics, "Ok if you guys are everywhere? Then do you know what actually happened to Princess Melty?"

"Princess Melty is fine, she is currently in Siltvelt right now under the care of the Shield hero Bakugou. But unlike what King Aultcray thinks she is not there against her will, she went with the shield hero in her own free will to accompany him," she explains.

"I see, figures," Ren responds, he was glad the princess was fine, but he was banking on finding her and get her insane father to stop this nonsense, but now she and Bakugou were in a different country with a heavily fortified border. He then asked her, "I'm guessing you didn't try to tell the royals or Itsuki and Motoyasu of this?"

"Aultcray refuses to listen to his own wife's direct orders from loyal knights and messengers, do you think we would have any luck explaining this to him? And Princess Malty gains the most from her sister dying and has no love for anyone but herself, the Spear hero is on her fingertips and the bow hero is just as stubborn as Aultcray."

"Yeah not surprised," Ren comments again.

"So again Sword hero, please meet with her majesty, she'll help you with the current situation you are in."

"Ok and how do I know you're telling the truth and not some kind of trick or trap?" Ren asked, he already dealt with one noble manipulating him before and doesn't want to make the same mistake again.

"I really can't Sir Sword hero, but do you have any better idea on what to do?" she responds.

Just as before it was another good point, he may have no other options.

But then Scarlet thought up of something, "Hey master Ren what about going back to your town again and meet up with Wyndia?"

Ren was completely against it though, "Bad idea Scarlet. Aultcray would be aware of that, and that will probably be the first place they'll go to try to find me.". Ren was also concern about dragging Wyndia and the other demi-humans into his fight, when they did nothing to deserve to get involved in it. He's also worried about Gaelions safety as he alone nearly killed the dragon once, if Itsuki and Motoyasi were involved they would certainly overpower him and the dragon and will have no sense of mercy, "We need to avoid Mirso at all costs and any other obvious place. So it looks like meeting the Queen is the only thing we can do for now. So where's..."

But the shadow was gone and in her place was a large sack of supplies and a map attached to it. Ren takes it off and saw that it was marked with where they were at right now leading the way to the Queen who seems to be near the border of a different country away from Zeltoble.

It was a few days away from where they were at and was still a big risk to go to especially with half of Melromarc's army on his tail. But he didn't have much of a choice. To save his other companions, to protect Scarlet and the people of his town he was lord of now, and to stop a civil war from happening in Melromarc, they must find its true ruler and put an end to Aultcrays mad reign, as well as Malty's and the three heroes churches ambitions to take over.

Ren puts away the supplies and looks back at his party member, "Ok Scarlet are you rest up and ready to go?"

Scarlet then made a cute salute to him, "Yes Sir master Ren I'm up and ready to go again."

Ren could only smile feeling proud of her, but as he looked up, he noticed a large amount of smoke from a distance. It seems the Princess is trying to smoke and burn them out, "Alright Scarlet lets go." he ordered

Scarlet turns back into her bird form as Ren jumps on her back. She then runs off at a fast but more steady pace than before to find the queen and stop this madness already.

---

Far back near the cliffs, Princess Malty had been ordering her archers and mages to setting fire to the forest at the cliff above wanting to burn out the hero that escaped her clutches while Motoyasu and Itsuki recover from their wounds from that disastrous fight.

She didn't feel any satisfaction though from the fires, only a burning hate, "Keep burning and continue to set up search parties, I want that bastard and his brat now!" she shouts to her soldiers who did all they could do to make their princess not have them executed.

Malty continued to stand there clutching both her fists in great rage, "I will not be humiliated again! Not from the sword hero! Not from my brat sister! And not from the shield devil! I will have my crown, and I'll burn Siltvelt, the sword hero, and anything else that gets in my way!"

---

Authors note: Yeah another long one, never expected that this chapter would be this long. Still I'm glad finally have it out now, though again if people find these chapters to be too long, I can always split them up as I suggested once before, but if not then I won't change anything. I thought it was appropriate considering some of the minor parallels and contrasts to Bakugou and Ren's stories, so I hope I didn't make anyone bored reading this long chapter.

Something I should address though, mostly about the fact of Siltvelt demonizing the 3 other heroes, that part I completely made up in shield heroes lore. Otherwise Motoyasu in the Spear hero spin-off would not have been welcomed easily in Siltvelt in the first place in that story. But I went with it anyway as I think it's appropriate as I imagine after the church of their rival nation began to demonize their God figure, I can see the Siltvelt government/church doing the same thing back to the other heroes they worshiped.

Thank you again for your patience and hope to see you again soon