We arrived just inside a small town. I figured that's what it was, since there were walls, but they weren't impressive enough to be for a city. There were a good number of buildings, but not as far as the eye could see.

"Will this do?" Khana asked me.

I shook my head. "Outside. Less people around."

While I didn't expect there to be any spies waiting at this exact place, there was no need to be completely careless on who heard me.

It was only about 10 minutes of walking into the nearby plains, past the farms on this side of the wall, until we stopped.

"Alright then." I began. "The Axe gives you points to put directly into your stats. There's this weird puzzle thing that affects efficiency and how much each stat goes up."

I went down the list of weapons. First were the Seven Star Weapons, then the Holy weapons. Khana and Lloyd were surprised to learn the Holy Weapons had four power up methods each…sort of. Technically, it was three from each of them, but some had multiple aspects—like the Whip method—and they were different enough to be thought of as other methods. Like the Spear's Enchantment method, with the two aspects giving different kinds of bonuses.

But I digress.

Not everything would be immediately useful, depending on what all they had in their drops. That didn't mean they wouldn't get strong quickly with the others.

Then, I let them in on a lost bit of history.

"The Carriage gives you boosts depending on what's in your monster drops. You need a set amount of a monster, but more will give a bigger bonus." I told them.

"Wait, a carriage?" Khana asked.

"Yep." I nodded.

"There is no Star Carriage." Lloyd said.

"Vassal Carriage, same with all the other Star Weapons. The wielder of it just hasn't been in the public eye." I explained.

"Who has it?" Khana then asked, seeming to accept what I was saying.

"An ancient, immortal filolial that's been alive since the world only had two Holy Weapons."

Their reactions were hilarious, as were those of Khana's party. Even Rato looked shocked at what I was saying. The only one who wasn't surprised was the only one who couldn't really comprehend it all, Hailey.

"How do you know all this? Was it your…?" Khana let the question hang in the air, catching herself and glancing at Lloyd. She probably realized what revealing that would mean, either for me or for her.

"No." I said, shaking my head, then thinking of how to word it. "I already knew that before I was summoned, but…it was confirmed she was the same person."

"…How?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. There was a chance this would completely break their worldview, but I decided to let them in on how I knew these things.

"You see…"

~One explanation later~

It wasn't everyday you were told your world was the setting for a book series, or a web novel. I had to give a few further explanations on what that was, and TV, and the internet, but it was easy enough to compare them to recording crystals, the latter being all connected to one another and sharing what was on them.

Rato had a smaller explanation before, mostly just a few points to get the gist of it. This was much more in-depth.

It started with the explanation of 'how', and then went into 'what', leaving out any details of my goddess. The hero summoning, the false allegation against Naofumi, the schemes of both Malty and the Three Heroes Church. That was the bulk of it, with the addition of that version of the Whip Hero, who killed four other heroes and stole their weapons. Well, the Projectile Hero was reincarnated in the web novel, so he didn't really count, but the point remained.

And their reactions after I finished explaining things? How they took to the idea that their world was known as a light novel series? Well…

"Why couldn't I have been written as more charming to women?" Garth asked despondently.

I'd say they took it all pretty well. Lloyd was the only one that looked at all shaken by things, but even that was too strong of a word to describe it.

"None of you here were written about, except Rato." I reminded him. "If this world was closer to the books, Khana would be dead and Lloyd wouldn't have been the Whip Hero at all."

Fun fact: the Whip was actually in Faubrey, not Shieldfreeden like I remembered. The Hammer was in Shieldfreeden, though I didn't actually remember where that weapon was before. The Axe Hero might have been with Zeltoble before Takt murdered him, but none of that was actually important.

With any tension from my reveal broken—thanks to Garth, and I was pretty sure it was intentional—we got more serious about it.

"How do the Waves end?" Lloyd asked the big question.

"Good question. I don't know. Only one version of the story got that far, and it was rushed so the author could focus on a proper and edited published version." I told them.

Sure, there was more stuff in Reprise and True Reprise, but that was all web novel stuff. The most I knew that was accurate here was that a number of gods used the Waves to make themselves stronger, or others weaker. Some wanted to destroy worlds, either to gain significant power in one go or to just watch things burn. For this world, future events depended on what other reincarnated and champions were here.

"This explains why you aren't worried about the queen." Khana said, nodding with crossed arms. "Can't say I'm happy about doing nothing about it, though."

As a real hero, of course Khana wasn't happy about letting political strife put people in danger, in that the Holy Heroes wouldn't be spread out as much to help combat the Waves in other countries.

"I see it as a bit of karmic retribution." I said, though I didn't actually believe in that sort of thing.

"Still…" Khana didn't look any more pleased about it.

"The queen threatened you, and you want to not let her husband put a target on her country?" I tried a different approach. That got more of a reaction out of her, as she scrambled her braided hair in frustration. "Look, I'd rather have a crappy, but similar and manageable situation over a complete unknown."

"But it's not just taking all the heroes, now is it?" She asked, giving me a look.

"Leave that to me." I said confidently.

I did mention how the other three heroes made a mess of things. Some of it could be avoided, like Gaelion's death. Same for the whole bioplant incident. It was just a matter of timing. Itsuki, however, participated in a coup. Dealing with that would be a bit out of my expertise, aside from stopping him personally. Maybe Khana's political friend would have some ideas about that.

Well, the biggest way to stop all of that was to stop Melromarc from summoning the heroes. They could do it in Faubrey sooner, though I heard they were already trying and failing. Besides, I remember that those three were pretty high on the list of people the weapon spirits considered, and they still screwed up badly. We could get better people, but we could just as easily get worse. Not a good gamble.

Khana sighed. "I still don't like any of this. But…"

"How would we explain any of this?" Lloyd voiced the obvious question.

"We can't." Omir tapped his cheek as he held his chin. "Summoned heroes supposedly have at least some knowledge of our world, but this is too much."

"But shouldn't we do something about Melromarc?" Trusi asked. "Even if we can't stop the summoning, Dante said a demi-human village will get destroyed and the survivors enslaved."

"If either of you can get us to Melromarc in the next eight…make that seven days, you're more than welcome to." I told them. The Wave was in eight days, but we'd either need to register at the hourglass or be in Lurolona, which would take time for directions and travel. Getting there was certainly a good option, if it was available.

The looks on their faces told me it wasn't.

"This is the closest I have." Khana said.

"Mine is in Othil, but I think that's a little farther." Lloyd likewise couldn't help.

"And the time it'll take to get there from here?" I asked the big question.

"I could bring Draak. He's pretty fast, but griffins aren't great for traveling long distances." Lloyd looked to the ground. "I don't have anything else close to his speed."

Khana crossed her arms in thought. "Well…assuming I can get us a flying dragon when we get to the capital—which I probably could, for a favor—then it'd be nine days, at the absolute fastest."

That probably meant riding the dragon hard, much like I would have had to with a filolial in Faubrey. Even then, I would have had to switch out exhausted mounts to do that.

"Well, that's it then." I sighed. It really would have been nice to protect that village, but that's it. It wasn't necessary and it would have been strictly for my peace of mind to keep people whose names I knew from harm. Some of the kids survived in the books, so I could only hope that would happen, at the minimum.

"So, what is you plan for the queen?" Khana then asked. "Sure, she'll be in a tight spot with the other nations, but she still has dirt on us."

"On you." I corrected. "I don't need people to like me, and Zeltoble caters to all kinds." Sure, someone could put a bounty on me, but I'd be more than strong enough with enough utility abilities to make do by then. Probably.

"You two never said what happened." Lloyd said.

Khana looked to me, and I just shrugged. "It's personal." She said with no further explanation.

"Alright." Lloyd nodded. He didn't look like he wanted to pry.

"Anyway, your plan?" Khana repeated, looking a bit sterner.

"Her idea wasn't bad." I started. "We can't kill her without being labelled murderers, or threaten her family without a hit to our reputation."

"See, this is why I'm asking." Khana sighed. "I was getting the feeling that murder would be one of your first options."

"Really?" I couldn't help but smile.

"You said you killed people who didn't deserve it, and you didn't look all that broken up about it." Khana pointed out. "Mercenary? Hired killer?"

"Huh. Yes to both." That was a quick deduction.

"Should I be concerned here?" Lloyd asked. I couldn't really blame him, even if one of the people involved here was a veteran hero.

"Nah. I'm not here to burn things down, just need to gain a lot of levels. Plenty of ways to do that." I assured, though he didn't look all that assured.

"That's not helping." Lloyd sighed.

"No killing a bunch of people." Khana commanded.

"Hard to save the world if all the people are dead." I joked. She didn't seem to like that, nor did her party, nor Lloyd. "Yes, fine. If they come after me, they're fair game. Same with bandits. I'm sure I'll get a lot of XP when the Three Heroes Church makes their move."

"Good enough, I guess." Khana sighed. She gestured for me to continue.

"Right. Well, Naofumi—assuming it is still him—will need a friend. I plan on being that friend."

"How's that?" Khana asked. "From what you said, he's not going to trust anyone, especially someone who's offering something for nothing."

"I'm working through ideas. Near the top is showing that I don't need to trick him, since I'll be strong enough to kill him easily." I explained.

That got a mix of reactions from the assembled group. Khana continued to look at me, though she raised an eyebrow. Lloyd covered his eyes with his hand. Garth chuckled and shook his head. Omir and Trusi looked at one another and shared a silent conversation. Martin's reaction was the most on point, next to Lloyd's, pulling his wizard hat over his eyes.

On the flip side, Rato and Hailey barely reacted, though for wildly different reasons.

"What?" I gestured with my hands. "It's true. Besides, I will be getting something from him: large XP gains for partying with a Holy Hero. I'll also get to schmooze with a hero who's viewed highly in at least two other countries, which I'll tell him about. Plus, I'm sure he'll want revenge against the woman who betrayed him."

"No murdering." Khana immediately ordered.

"Framing a hero for a capital offense has got to be a crime." I pointed out. "It'll also stick it to Mirellia, so you could be a little happy about that."

"I've had a little time to calm down." Khana let down her arms. "I'm not forgiving her, but you understand why she's doing that, right?"

"Yeah, sure, but her country isn't special." I rolled my eyes. "She threatened my first friend in this world. She's going to suffer the consequences of that."

I never really thought of myself as spiteful, but I knew I could be if I wanted to. That didn't mean I was going to let Lurolona get sacked if I could help it—which I couldn't really. Hell, I could do worse. The other three heroes will make a mess of things, and I could just leave that be. I mean, I might with Itsuki, since I didn't know what country he helped topple. That information shouldn't be hard to get. I'm not going to let Ren kill Gaelion either, and the bioplant seed is too useful to just ignore.

Khana, however, just smirked. "We really are friends then, little man?"

I just shrugged. "You seem like a decent person. Plus, we three had sex last night, so we're at least a little bit close." I pointed to Martin as I said that.

The young man, not a boy, blushed. Khana gave a laugh and pointed at Rato. "What about her?"

"Partners." I said simply.

"Oh~?" Khana waggled her eyebrows.

"I don't plan on having sex with him." Rato spoke for the first time today, at least with me nearby.

She and I didn't talk much, unless it had to do with our plans or monsters to fight, or combat orders. I didn't blame her or anything. Our first interaction was me pulling her out of a prison carriage and threatening to burn people to death.

"I'm starting to think I don't want to be here for any of this." Lloyd said, indeed looking like he wanted to be anywhere else but here. "If all that's left is just politics, I'm going back home."

Well, that would be three Vassal Heroes that didn't like politics. Being a king, Aultcray was at least proficient at it, even if his mind degraded from everything he went through. Conrad…well, I wasn't sure how political he was, but he was a dead man anyway. Funny. It was almost as if heroes had better things to do than play politics. Imagine that.

Khana stretched out as she walked around. "Yeah, little man's group and mine can work out what to do. You don't have to worry about it."

"I'd say I do have to be worried with you involved, but I'd rather not think about it at all." Lloyd said, unlatching his whip from his hip. "Have fun fighting with the queen about…whatever it is."

"Before you go," I held up a hand as I approached Lloyd, "I'd like that favor from you this evening."

"Oh, right." Lloyd nodded, walking to the side with my hand on his back to guide him. "What did you have in mind?"

Once we got a little farther from the group, I whispered it to him. The look on his face told me it was an enormous favor, one that might be worth more than the power up methods I gave him. It wasn't, really.

"Are you serious?" He asked, voice raised.

"Come on." I chided jokingly. "You can't say it's not worth it."

His heart wanted to argue further, but his mind told him otherwise. "Fine. This evening, you said?"

I nodded. "That's right."

He took in a deep breath and sighed. "…Fine. I'll be waiting where we teleported in at."

With that taken care of, I decided now was a good time to give him the monster corpses from the Wave. He didn't look too pleased about all the bones, even if he could use them to improve his armor some. I also threw in some regular monster corpses as a bonus. Once he finished absorbing them, he turned back toward the town and walked off.

"What did you ask him for?" Khana asked as I came back over.

"It's a surprise." I smiled up at her. "So, should we head toward the capital? We'll need to come back in the evening."

Khana shook her head. "Not yet. There's a reason I have this place saved and not the capital. Strong monsters are in the hills a few miles over there. We'll get you some more levels, and I get to try out how strong my hammer is now."

"Hm. Well, I can't really argue against that." It would be too beneficial to decline, and it wasn't as if a single day would make much of a difference to partying with Naofumi. Actually, this would be better, since I'd be even stronger when I got there.

"Good to hear!" She slapped me on my back and pushed me onward. "Big Sis Khana here is going to get you all set up. We'll figure out a good way to deal with the mess we're in while we're at it."

It was as good a plan as any, though I felt compelled to point out one detail. "I'm still older than you."

She smirked back at me. "We all know that's not true."

I was surprised to hear her say that. Looking at the rest of her party, who formed up behind us with Rato and Hailey as well, I could see they weren't surprised to hear that. Maybe a little surprised, actually, but it wasn't shocking.

"They all know?" I asked.

"Yep!" With her other hand, she brought Martin closer to her. "My precious childhood friend convinced me to tell them a long time ago."

"I didn't do that…" He mumbled out.

"You said you wanted me to find people I could trust like family, and family tells each other about things like this." Khana said proudly.

At my looking, Garth gave me an easygoing smile with a shrug. Omir nodded while Trusi did a little of both with a soft smile and slight nod.

"Huh." I looked back up at Khana.

"And they already know about that whole business with Rato and Conrad, so you don't have to hide anything." She scrunched up her face slightly. "Unless you've done worse. Then you should probably not mention that."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You're weird. I guess I'm fine talking about what I've done in my old world with you and your party. But, it's weird. You sort of remind me of one of my colleagues, who was a bitch, but also like my best friend's wife, who was like an older sister to me."

Khana's grin was back in full force. "So, you really will start calling me 'Big Sis'?"

"You're younger than me."

"My total age is 33."

"I don't count your first life."

"Stingy."

~The Right Man~

We spent most of the rest of the day hunting and fighting monsters. This was just an educated guess, but there was likely a dragon somewhere in the hills near this town. Not incredibly close, since the town still existed and the hills were vast, but one was probably there.

The reason for my belief? Most of the strong monsters we fought were some form of hybrid.

"Come at me!" Khana roared, hands up and ready to grapple. A winged bear with a long snout came charging at her, vicious claws ready to tear her apart. Only, the whole thing was halted when she grabbed its arms.

It snapped at her with its jaw, though she evaded easily by tilting her neck from side to side. Then, she ducked under its bite, headbutted it in the chin, and slammed it onto the ground. She pulled her hammer off her back and crushed its chest in, an XP notification telling me the thing was dead.

"The fuck are you even doing?" I asked her.

"Jealous?" She laughed, kicking the bear at me.

"Yes, obviously." The bear disappeared into my axe's gem.

I could do that if I wanted to, but Khana had better armor for those sharp claws and my weapon improvements didn't increase my defense as much as hers. And I wasn't about to use my Axe of Rage for something like that.

That was how we spent the first hour up in the hills. Khana, drunk on the power she just received, really went to town on the monsters. According to Martin, she did something like this every time she learned some new trick or got a really good weapon form. It was another habit of hers her party tried to rid her of, and failed.

I wasn't going to complain. Her party rotated out who was actually in her party, so there was no XP penalty for me and mine. She generously gave me half the monsters, of which I absorbed most of. Hailey still had a big appetite, after all. Her hunger only grew when Khana finally slowed down and 'let us in on the fun'—her words.

The weapon forms I unlocked were good, mostly providing stat bonuses and a few effects, but no skills. I wasn't complaining about that either. Naofumi took a while to get those, and even he had something like only two dozen with all the forms he unlocked. I still got other non-stat equip bonuses, like another recipe. Plus, plenty of item drops, ore, and corpses, all of which could be used for the power up methods.

After many hours, we finally started heading back to town.

"Say, I just remembered." Khana spoke up. "Are you actually going to kill that blacksmith you bought that crap armor from?"

A reasonable thing to ask. "I'm guessing you're going to ask me not to, right?"

"I would really rather you didn't." She said.

He was a shady blacksmith, but murder might be too much. He still could have gotten me killed, and others. Maybe I'll just rough him up or something if I go back to that town.

"He can live." I told her.

"Good." She nodded. "You can't just cut down everyone in your way, little man."

"Well, now, this and that are separate." I joked. She didn't laugh. "What? You don't kill any bandits that try to rob you?"

"Not usually, no." Khana shook her head. "Usually, we turn them in and see if they have any bounties on them."

"In Faubrey?" I asked. Her grimace told me she knew where I was going with that.

"I don't like it, but if that's where they were, then yes." She said.

"Heh. You really are a hero." I wasn't making a joke.

Being a hero didn't mean she got to fight the ruler whenever they passed a law she didn't like. Though, not stopping the person who opposed said rules wasn't unheroic by itself—which was basically what I had done. Sure, selling criminals as slaves to foreign countries wasn't good, but they'd be put into forced labor if they stayed. That didn't mean every criminal was sold off, but it still happened. It was just a more permanent punishment.

Then again, I imagine that happened often to bandits, since they made their living robbing and killing people.

"Anyway," Khana brushed the topic aside, "you have any more plans thought up for the Shield Hero?"

When she said her group would help plan things…well, most of her party were really good at combat. Things outside of adventuring weren't their specialty. Martin had the strongest grasp of politics, a little less than my own, but that was it.

It wasn't exactly easy to plan for befriending someone who was betrayed, at least not quickly. Martin did say to give Naofumi time to show I was indeed on his side and not looking to make a quick profit off him. Sound advice, but not something I could wait for.

The plan I settled on was making sure he understood the national religion of Melromarc, since I didn't think he knew about it until the kidnapping accusation. A major oversight on his part, but all he wanted was to do his job and go home. A reasonable desire; it was the same as me. The only difference was that I was an experienced killer who was used to gathering information that could be useful in whatever job I was on.

Oh, and I would offer to chop off Malty's head and give it to him. Not right away, of course. She was still a princess and there would be nothing but drama from Aultcray, Motoyasu, and any number of people, Mirellia included. Once we were powerful enough, then I could chop her head off and deal with the fallout.

And that was more-or-less what I told Khana.

"Seriously?" She looked over at me.

"What?" I shrugged. "She's a manipulative bitch. You wouldn't believe the things she got up to in the books."

Now, she wasn't a shard of Medea—probably, since that goddess was dead for a long time—but there was a long list of evil deeds for no other purpose than entertainment. Poisoning her 5-ish-year-old brother at around the age of 10, staging a coup and attacking Melromarc's capital with the church, having her own mother murdered, joining up with the people behind the Waves, and so on. Again, some of that was from the web novel. I could prevent any of those possibilities by removing her head.

"Besides, Mirellia didn't want the Pig King to get any closer to her daughter. That would solve that problem." I went on.

"You've got a messed-up sense of humor, little man." She didn't really chide me so much as state that as fact.

"Who's joking?" I kept my tone a bit more serious. "Looking only at what'll happen in the next few weeks, Malty could have easily started a war. Her mother will be the only reason that doesn't happen, and even then, things could go differently."

"Hm." Khana kept walking, her face forward. "You really think she'll lose her leverage over us…over me, with just that? She could still contact us and push us around."

"She wouldn't dare."

"How can you be sure?" Khana looked down at me.

"Because I know people." I said simply.

Khana may have been here longer, but her aversion to politics seemed to be worse than mine. We'd be working for the queen until we decided her leverage wasn't worth it anymore, and then she'd let out the crystal for all to hear, claiming she just stumbled upon it and wasn't sitting on the information, if questioned. We'd be useless to her then, and I'd be a pariah.

The recording actually started while we were laying on the bed in silence, just before talking about the girl I killed. The only good thing was it didn't catch me admitting to killing a lot of other people, but that didn't matter as much. They weren't from here, even if I said some of them didn't deserve to die.

Regardless, Mirellia would be trapped soon.

"The queen went against the other nations and summoned all the Cardinal Heroes, who then refused to leave her country. Then, she tries to coerce two Star Heroes with a fake recording crystal. With her husband as the Star Staff Hero, she's clearly trying to gather as many heroes as she can during this time of crisis to dominate the world. What do you think? Too far out there?"

That was another thing I put together while we fought monsters—mostly while Khana fought, but still.

"I guess…" Khana murmured. "I'd like to run that past my friend first."

"Sure, that's fine." It would be nice what an actual political person thought of it. And, hell, after I registered with Shieldfreeden's hourglass, I'd be able to bring Naofumi here to fight the Wave. Bonus political points for me, and Khana, who helped get me here in the first place.

"All this cloak and dagger stuff…I really don't like it. Not my style. But I'd also rather not try to force you to do anything. That's also not my style, and I know you have an ace in the hole with that creepy axe form." Khana told me.

She was really observant. Even if she didn't know what the Axe of Rage was, she knew I wouldn't just use it for nothing. If we did come to blows over this, I might not win. Khana had more fighting experience in this world and could improve her weapons more than me right now. But, I wouldn't fight fair. Her party, while a higher level than me, wouldn't be able to hold off against a powered-up curse series weapon.

"You have card games here?" I left all that unsaid and asked a different question instead.

"People have fun here, little man." She grinned down at me.

"I'm well aware." Last night was a perfect example of just that.

We made it out of the hills and onto the plains, making good time. It was nearly sundown by the time we made it back. Lloyd, just like he said, was waiting for us near where we arrived at this morning.

Upon seeing him, Khana stopped in her tracks. Her arms lazily swayed at her sides as her mouth hung open. I had to stifle a laugh. Honestly, I didn't think this was how she'd react, but it was pretty funny.

"Is that…" The words came out of her like a whisper. Coming up on her other side, I saw Martin's eyes widen before a smile broke out on his face.

"Yep." I answered her.

Lloyd, dragging his feet and holding my favor in his arms, slowly made his way over to us. Likewise, Khana started to slowly shamble over to him. One step after another…this was far too drawn out. Both of them were being too dramatic about this.

Eventually, thankfully, they stood right in front of each other.

"So…" Lloyd began, "do you actually know what to do?"

"Yes…" Khana's hands were reaching out ever so gently.

"He's omnivorous, but he prefers meat. No plant monsters. He's young, so he'll want to nap during the day." Lloyd continued to instruct Khana.

He went on for another minute, but I didn't think she was paying too much attention. After all, she had a red ursa in her arms, just like she wanted from him. By this point, the rest of us came around to watch the display.

"Be sure to take good care of him." Lloyd finished, looking like he just gave away his child. Had I known it was this bad, I might not have asked for this.

"Aaaaaaah!" The bear let out a somewhat quiet roar as he nestled his head under Khana's chin.

Khana, the Hammer Hero, a veteran warrior who just recently saved a village from an army of skeletons, spun around and started laughing.

"This is the best day ever!" She yelled up to the sky. "We shall ride into battle and slaughter every monster from the Wave!"

"Aaaaaaah!" Another roar came from the red ursa, prompting Khana to hold him up at arm's length.

With Khana's hands under his armpits, the young red ursa didn't look all that intimidating. But I knew bears could get pretty damn big. I've hunted a few times before, but never bear. Something about the prey being able to fight back like that…well, it would be sporting, but it wasn't something my dad was interested in. We hunted to bring in food in addition to sport, and bear meat was difficult to work with.

The red ursa might be telepathic, because it was giving me a look. Khana saw the look, but wasn't telepathic. Instead, she held the bear against her chest and gave me the biggest smile I'd seen on her yet.

"I love you, little man!" The bear squirmed slightly at the volume.

"Don't mention it." I waved her off. "It was the least I could do for you." I did feel partly responsible for putting the queen's eyes on her. I knew it wasn't my fault, not entirely, but I still played a part in what happened. Getting drunk and mouthing off wasn't something I normally did, so the initial great interest in me—enough to be spied on—was due to me.

Even if my hopeful prediction came to pass and the queen wouldn't dare aggravate two heroes she'd already pissed off, someone threatening to expose an important secret was never fun.

Martin came up to me and took one of my hands in both of his. "I've never seen Miss Khana so happy! We have to thank you properly."

"Really, you don't—"

"He's right!" Khana stepped forward, one arm supporting the bear and the other on my shoulder. "You're in for another good night, little man."

I could feel my eyebrow lift up all on its own. "Well, I was curious how it would be sober." And I wondered if using a bear as payment for sex would feel any different. That thought would probably be in the back of my head all night now.

"Hah…" Lloyd sighed, running his hands up and down his face once. "I don't need to be here for this."

Khana turned back to him. "Don't worry, Lloyd. I'll raise Mauler up well."

"You already…" Lloyd just shook his head and turned around. "No. If I stay and listen any longer, I'll change my mind. Just get him registered to you. Portal Whip!"

And with that, Lloyd left us once more.

"Come on. Let's get Mauler some food!" Khana said, shifting her hand around my shoulder to drag me along.

"Aaaaaaah!" Mauler agreed with her suggestion.

Author's Notes:

Figured I'd make mention of something I'd thought of for a while, even while I was writing The Wrong Hero. Two methods from each of the Holy Weapons (minus the Shield) were close enough that they could easily be the same method, just with separate functions. The Spear's two enchantment effects, the Bow's Job Level and Item Enchantment, and the Sword's…well, that one has three methods that kind of work off of one of them (mastery, which gets reset for energy, which can be used to unleash weapons or increase rarity), with Level Link being separate. But, I mean, the Shield's Energy Boost gives a boost to stats as well as the EP bar to empower skills and spells. (I know there's more to it than that, but my point remains.) Whatever. Naofumi mentions at one point a Holy Hero being 3x as strong as a Vassal Hero, and there were only 3 stone tablets in Q'ten Lo for power up methods for Holy Heroes, so…

Recently, there's been talk on Discord about the 'core' methods not actually existing, and that makes even more sense. Like, the core methods were just the three heroes' preferred way of getting stronger (with the Bow's Rarity also being more relevant to how many ore slots are available). This is compounded with the Sakura Stone Shield allowing certain hero functions/power ups to work, with the core methods not listed. Since I already mentioned the core methods as actual methods here, I just went with what I thought of before.

Again, doesn't impact the story too much, just felt like rambling. It's not really that important and probably won't be brought up again anyway. Just wanted to put out what I thought on it.

I've used up my backlog of prepared chapters for all my stories. It's been kind of hard to be motivated to write. I still plan on keeping to my schedule, so hopefully the deadline will help kickstart my motivation.

Also, a reminder. Since FF is acting up again with email alerts, I do crosspost this on AO3.