I do not own or maintain any rights to Rising of The Shield Hero they belong to One Piece Books and Aneko Yusagi. I am just playing in their sandbox for a minute.
Chapter 9: Of Rabbits And Men
It took some of us a few days to recover after having gone and rescued Lily; it turned out that when Sarah had landed on Junior in the fight that the impact had broken his leg. Speaking of Sarah, the would on her side had required the town doctor to give her no less than a dozen stitches. Luckily for Naofumi and I, we had primarily received superficial wounds that only needed some sleep to heal. Luckily for all of us, Lily was almost wholly unharmed from the ordeal. She only had a few scratches, and a single puncture wound from where the cerberus had carried her off.
The Smalls brothers had run into the group on our way out of the tunnels. Apparently, they had run back into town to report that Lily had been kidnapped by a monster and taken into the mines; the townspeople were not fond of this and had rallied in masses to come to help us take down the beast. Help that had been thankfully unneeded, it was still quite the sight to see when we all had walked back into the daylight. There had been at least three dozen people armed with whatever they had on hand. I saw that they had the usual pitchforks and torches. What had surprised me was the number of them that had brought an actual weapon. I even noticed that an alderman had pulled out what looked like a glowing sword.
I think as much as the townsfolk had been willing to fight, they were still happy that the monster was dead when they got there. Especially after half a dozen men accompanied the Smalls siblings into the mine to recover the body of the beast. It gave us a little chuckle when the gathered crowd had seen the body and the look a few of them delivered to their somewhat lacking weapon of choice a doubting look. The mine owner and mayor approached us as we were resting in the shade of a nearby tree.
"I don't think you four knew this, but I had made a quest with the adventures guild to clear out the mine." The rotund owner of the mine began, "I think you all have more than earned the reward for killing that monster. I could not be more grateful to you." He finished as he passed over a large bag of coins to Junior.
"Thank you but, it would be a disservice to not give most of the credit to our friends here," Junior told the man as he gestured to Naofumi and I. "This man here is Richard Williamson, and his partner is Naofumi Iwatani." He said, pointing us out in turn.
"It is nice to make your acquaintance," The man said as we shook our hands in turn. "My name is Yohan Redbelly; this mine has been in my family for generations. It had pained me greatly to have had to close it." He said, twirling the corner of his mustache.
"It was also quite the pain to the economy of the town," The mayor interjected. "I think all of us owe you a debt of gratitude. "That being said, I would like you to have these." He said, passing over two wooden tags. "These are tax-exempt passes. From now on, you will not be subjected to any taxes in this area." He said, shaking our hands as well.
"Thank you, I'm sure these will become very useful for us," I said, accepting the pass for Naofumi and me.
"Thank you, Mayor Hughes. I'm sure pa will be happy to find out our grain just became more affordable. Junior said, accepting his pass.
"Speaking of Bill, please tell him to come to see me in the next few days; I would like to talk with him about fortifying your ranch. It is about time for the town to expand our walls again. I want to know if he would like to be in them." Mayor Hughes explained, shaking Junior's hand. "As for you monster carcass here, it should be considerably valuable. After you take anything you would like to keep from it, I would be happy to contact some of my friends that would be interested in buying it from you. I'm sure the butcher would also be happy to recover any edible meat from it for you at a discount as well." He told us before rejoining the crowd of townspeople.
"Anything you think you can make use of off that thing?" I asked Naofumi.
"I think we could make use of a head and some of its claws." He responded after looking through his menus.
"Right," I replied as I got up and walked over to the body. I quickly cut off two heads and the paw I hadn't destroyed in the fight. I pulled a handful of teeth out of the head I was getting for Naofumi. One of the random townspeople helped me drag the body parts over to the group.
"I thought you might like to make a trophy out of this," I said, pointing at the head that was in the best condition.
Junior spared a glance at it before he spoke, "I'm sure pa will love having that. He is never going to stop talking about how his son the simple ranch hand helped two mercenaries kill a level forty cerberus." He said with a smile, "Now that I think about it, neither will I." He said with a laugh as he reached out and ruffled Lily's hair.
"Whatever, just keep it out of the main house. I have seen enough of that monster for a lifetime." Sarah said with a yawn. "I think it is time for all of us to head back home though. I'm sure Martha has got lunch ready by now." She finished stretching as much as her wound would let her without tearing it open.
As the happy couple mounted up on Coal with Lilly in front and headed for home, we said our goodbyes. Naofumi busied himself with absorbing anything of use with his shield as I made arrangements with the mayor to transport the rest of the body back to town. He said he would let us know what he had managed to get for the rest of the carcass in a few days. Larry and Mathew ran over to where Naofumi and I were camped out. Mathew handed a shoulder bag over to me.
"I think you might want to take a look at that. I found it down in the mines on a pile of bones." He said with a grimace, "In particular, there is a letter in there that I think might be of interest to the four of us." He finished plopping down next to us.
I quickly rifled through the bag to find the letter he had mentioned. I examined the envelope it was in before seeing why it had caught his attention. From the desk of Idol Rabier for Beloukas. I carefully removed the letter from its envelope before reading it.
"What does it say?" Naofumi asked curiously.
"A letter from a nobleman to a slave trader detailing a trade agreement for an exchange on a few slaves. Specifically, it states that for the return of a slave named Raphtalia, Beloukas will sell one Johnathan Smalls to this Rabier dickhead at a discount." I told him as my chest filled with rage and hate.
"Wha!" Naofumi had started before Larry quickly covered his mouth.
"Shh!, No one knows that Mathew and I used to be slaves." He whispered quietly.
"That's right, it's supposed to stay secret. Mr. Williamson has agreed to help us rescue our brother. He wasn't able to escape like with us. We promised him that we would come back and rescue him." Mathew said to explain the situation a little.
"You don't have to worry. I didn't volunteer you for this, so" I had started before Naofumi but me off.
"I'm in." He said quickly.
"What?" The three of us replied.
"I said I'm in. I will help you rescue your brother from Beloukas. Because that is what heroes do." Naofumi stated.
"Well, okay then," I said. "According to this letter, the exchange is supposed to happen in about a week. I am going to have to train you quickly on stealth takedowns and tactics." I told him. "This is going to be a lot, and we don't have long to get ready; I am going to run all of us through drills to get ready.
"Alright," The group agreed.
"Good, your ass whopping will start in the morning," I said, standing up and getting ready to go.
- {LINE BREAK} –
I am nothing if not a man of my word, so true to it, I woke everyone who was going on the raid up well before sunrise despite their many objections. I walked them all through how to properly stretch out before working out by showing them what I wanted them to do, then I began their nightmare. It was a concept that has made many a recruit weep with dread the awful and satanic, early morning physical training. I ran them through pushups, sit-ups, burpees, and ass-kickers, and more, all before telling them they were going to have to run as fast as they could around the outer perimeter of the ranch three times.
After we all had completed the workout I had set for the group, it was breakfast. We then split up for the day as we completed our daily tasks around the ranch. Usually, the boys would finish their daily chores a little after lunch. When we were all free for the day, I would instruct the group on stealth takedowns and team tactics. We would then spend a couple of hours reviewing and practicing what we talked about. Finally, to complete the day, I would make them all run through another physical training session that was exactly half of what they did in the morning. We would all stretch out before washing off and heading to bed. We kept this routine up for four days before Bill walked outside one night and asked us about it. Safe to say, we had an unusually engaging breakfast conversation the following day.
"So, what exactly are you all planning again?" Bill asked us as we all sat down at the table for breakfast.
I looked at Mathew and Larry for a moment before they gave me a reassuring nod to tell bill the truth, "We are planning to go and rescue their brother," I told him honestly, pointing at the brothers. "There was a messenger bag found in the cave where we rescued Lily that contained a letter addressed to Beloukas, the slaver they escaped from, that told us that their brother was about to be sold off," I said, handing Bill the letter that I was talking about. I let him read it for a moment before continuing. As you can see, this is going to be their final chance to get their brother back."
Bill stroked his beard for a moment before speaking. "Frankly, I can't believe that these two let you in on their secret. But I can see what you are talking about. Rabier is not known for being the nicest man either." he said, taking a moment to think about the situation. Before speaking again, he looked over at Naofumi. "And what do you think of this? Normally, adventurers only show up to do a job and move on".
Naofumi had perked up when he heard Bill address him. He listened to the old man's question before he spoke to me, "I think it is time we just told everyone everything. Are you okay with that?". I nodded at him that he had my permission, "Mr. Williamson and I are two of the cardinal heroes. Specifically, I am the Shield Hero, and Mr. Williamson is the Spare Hero, not that we know what that means yet."
Junior, who had the misfortune to be taking a drink of water at the moment, choked on it violently. He sputtered like an old chevy for a second before yelling, "You are both cardinal heroes!". We both gave him a nod that we were telling him the truth before he resumed, "I thought that the heroes could not work together, or their weapons would not work?" He questioned us.
"I take that is normally the case, but I seem to be a special exception to that rule. After all, Naofumi is the one who got summoned. I just happened to be touching him when that happened and got pulled along for the ride." I explained to Junior as his wife slapped him on the back.
"So, you both come from the same world? I have never heard of that happening before." Sarah said, finally getting Junior to stop choking on the air.
"We are from the same world, although I did not know Mr. Williamson before we ran into each other moments before the summoning happened." Naofumi elaborated.
"To think that this whole time two cardinal heroes have been staying on my ranch! It's absolutely incredible." Bill laughed out.
"Ma and Pa are a little more religious than us but, it is still quite an incredible thing," Junior said, having caught his breath at last.
"What does religion have to do with us," I asked him.
"Most people believe that the cardinal heroes are the avatars of the gods, or actually gods themselves," Sarah said with a bit of a shrug, "More people are starting to believe that they are unusually talented people from other worlds though these days. Don't get me wrong, I still think what you do is heroic but don't expect me to worship you two." She finished with a smile.
"I am not looking to be worshiped, so no worries," I said with a smile, "I only want to make sure that Naofumi and I make it home safely."
"It must be so strange to be pulled away from everything you know and into a totally different world; what is your home like?" Martha asked.
"Well, the biggest difference is that slavery is completely outlawed where we are from," I said, trying to drag the group back on topic.
"Right, the rescue of the young Johnathan," Bills recalled sitting upright.
"Yes, back to that," Larry said.
"Here is the plan I have been working on. Beloukas is hiding out in one of the slums of Castle Town with his slave market. I will sneak back to castle town tomorrow and recon the situation so some things might change, but it should go something like this. Objective one is to locate and rescue Johnathan Smalls, Objective two is to free every slave we can that doesn't have a slave crest yet. Objective three is to eliminate Beloukas if possible.
"Two questions," Naofumi interjected, holding up two fingers. "What is a slave crest?" He said, putting down one finger, "And you are planning to kill this Beloukas person?" He questioned me with a little bit of an unsure tone.
"From what I have been able to learn, a slave crest is kind of like a tracker and forced obedience collar rolled into one. In one of the books I stole from dear old King Aultcry, it was listed as a most insidious torture curse," I explained with some air quotes for emphasis. "And yes, if I can get a clear opportunity, I will put Beloukas down like the rabid monster he is," I stated, jabbing my finger into the table.
"Why do you seem to hate Beloukas so much?" Sarah asked.
"My nation fought a war over whether to allow or do away with slavery, it tore us in two, and many good men died fighting for what they believed was right. In fact, it was such a bloody conflict that people are still fighting over the issues that war brought up." I said try to summarize the civil war as best I could, "When I joined the military, I swore an oath to defend and uphold our constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The thirteenth amendment to that constitution is a universal condemnation of slavery."
"I would believe Mr. Williamson. Our nations once fought a war against each other. We sank six ships; they dropped the sun on us. . . twice." He explained, holding up two fingers, "I would like to believe that many people learned a simple rule."
"And what's that?" Mathew asked as Martha mouthed, 'The sun?' at Bill.
"Don't mess with the Americans. They are crazy."
After assuring Bill that I was not in possession of a nuclear warhead and was not intending to "Drop the sun" on Castle Town, he gave us his blessing to go ahead with the rescue of Johnathan Smalls and subsequent assassination of Beloukas. The good man he is, Junior was instantly onboard with the plan and volunteered to come along. However, his lovely wife Sarah felt very different about it and forbade him to do so, seeing as he was still injured. Junior tried to remind Sarah that he owned a filolial and could go wherever he wished. Sarah reminded Junior that she was the proud owner of "The Nookie," and if he ever wanted to touch it or her again in his life, he would do exactly as she told him. To further illustrate her power, we had a surprise guest in the bunkhouse for the night.
Authors Notes
Well, hello there! It has been a while since I last spoke to you, my dear readers, but here we are! Firstly, I would like to announce my intention to provide a weekly update for you on this story and my shiny new one Snap/ped. Thing the second is that I, the great and magnanimous man I am, have created a discord for this story! /QFmHqVMWVF - A wild link appears! There is nothing there yet, but I will be happy to talk with you all about plans/polls there. And for the final thing, I wanted to say thank you. I won't lie. This has been a hellish year for me; I lost my father and a brother early in the year and have spent most of it so depressed that I didn't even want to get out of bed most days. One of the biggest things that helped me get through that was my desire to finish this story for you all and the incredible support and love this community has shown me.
So truly, thank you ~Sobe James.