Chapter 8: Hero of Justice

The banquet soon ended with the king giving some closing statement about being prepared and having faith in the Heroes to save the kingdom from the Waves.

After that, the respective Heroes and their parties retired to the rooms reserved for them by the king.

Well, except for me at this current moment.

Right now, I was heading to where the Shield Hero was given to rest. The reason? To check up on him and Raphtalia.

After the duel, it didn't look like they were given any medical treatment of any kind; that didn't sit well with me, so I decided to do it for them.

While not my main field of expertise, both me and gramps often acted as Lurolana's resident medical experts from time to time; I couldn't tell you how many times I had to pull a fish hook out from a finger.

I should at least be able to patch up his small cuts if anything else.

As I walked down the halls, I immediately realised how badly the king had treated the Shield Hero,

The hallways leading to his room didn't look as well maintained as the ones around ours, there's even a smell of dust in the air. The rooms here were no doubt even smaller than the ones we were given too.

They weren't being subtle in their general dislike for him, were they?

"Oh, Raphtalia."

"Liya…?"

I must have found the room, as Raphtalia was just about to enter it; in her arms was a paper wrapped bundle.

"What are you doing here?" She asked me.

"Just wanted to give the Shield Hero some medicine for his wounds." I told her, "What about you? Why are you up so late?"

"Mr Naofumi didn't eat much during the feast, so I went to make him something with the leftovers."

That must be what that bundle in her arms was; I'm surprised that the staff even allowed her to take some leftovers.

Now that she mentioned it, I didn't seem to recall seeing the Shield Hero eating much back during the banquet. He had just been standing there scowling and glaring into the air.

Then, even on an empty stomach, he was still able to pin the Spear Hero down? Talk about tough.

"Is he doing alright?" I asked, "How are his injuries?"

"I believe so. I managed to patch up most of his injuries."

Guess my lessons on first aid had aided her well, pun not intended.

Still, taking damage from lightning magic wasn't something that you could just brush aside, and it wasn't something regular first aid or normal Recovery Medicine could take care of.

I personally would prefer to do a full body check up on him to be absolutely sure, but he wouldn't trust me enough to allow that; I was a party member of one of the Heroes that assisted in framing him, after all.

If that's the case, I was left with one option.

"Mind handing these to him?" I handed her a bottle of Recovery Medicine(Advanced), "I've read that wounds caused by lightning aren't easily healed with regular medicine. This should take care of it."

"Oh, thank you, Liya."

Raphtalia gratefully accepted the potion from me; it had the unique property of healing the most fatal of the current injuries, so it should do great for the Shield Hero's current wounds.

"…Hey, Liya."

"Hm? What is it, Raphtalia?"

"The village… is it… destroyed…?"

"…No. But the villagers had left for another region to start anew. Keel is still there, though. He's currently living with gramps."

It's better to tell her the hard truth than fool her with white lie. There's nothing worse than giving people false hope.

"…I see…" The raccoon girl let out a sigh, "So Keel didn't get captured… thank goodness…"

Raphtalia had always been one with a big heart; she was what the Shield Hero desperately needed in such tough times.

"…Raphtalia."

"Yes, Liya?"

"Sadeena is currently looking for all the people that got enslaved that day. Once she finds all of them, she'll return and they'll help rebuild the village anew."

"Sadeena is…? Really?"

"Yes. That's why you just have to focus on helping the Shield Hero beat the Wave, okay?"

It would do her no good if she was worried about Lurolana while fighting with the Shield Hero; the Waves weren't something that could be handled half-heartedly.

"I understand, Liya."

"That's good to hear. Then, I'll see you in the morning."

After bidding her farewell, I walked back to my room to rest up for the night. I had done all I could for them; hopefully, it would be enough.

"Hah…"

I let loose a sigh as I laid down on the soft bed.

Now that the situation with Raphtalia and the Shield Hero was settled, the mental exhaustion from this evening's fiasco finally hit me; being angry and holding back said anger had been really taxing on my mind.

All I wanted to do now was rest up and sleep.

The room itself was way more fancier than any room I had the pleasure or displeasure of staying in; from the velvet curtains on the larger than necessary windows to a bed that was way softer than I was used to, everything just screams filthy rich.

Even Eclair's room wasn't as gaudily decorated as this, though I probably shouldn't use that musclehead's sense of decor as a comparison; she could be staying in the worst room possible and still be alright with it.

Speaking of her, I hadn't even seen the hair of that musclehead of a lady during the banquet.

While the banquet wasn't exactly her ideal way of spending the evening; she would rather spend it swinging her sword around, I highly doubt someone as straight-laced as her wouldn't even show her face there.

…Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think she shows up for the Wave either.

That's definitely not like her at all; her sense of duty wouldn't allow her to not show up to fight the disaster threatening the kingdom, not unless something even worse had her attention.

Or worse, there's something that prevented her from leaving the palace in the first place.

I better ask around about her situation tomorrow morning. For now, I need to—

*Knock-knock*

"…who is it…!?"

Just when I was going to sleep!? Who's the smartass who thinks it was a good idea to—

"It's me, Liya. Let me in."

"Trish?"

Confused and worried, I opened the door and let her into the room; she had changed to her usual nightwear of a long, thin gown that showed off her rather modest figure.

"What is it?" I asked her as we sat on the bed facing each other.

"I want to discuss our future plans going forward." She replied.

"What about it?"

"Do we stay with the Bow Hero and fight the Waves of Calamity, or do we leave the party and return home?"

"…Huh?"

"You joined the party to get a Class-Up, right? Well, you got it, and you help him fend off one of the Waves as well. I'm sure you've done more than you had offered him. We can get more levels on our own without having to stick with them."

She… do have a point here.

The only reason I had joined the party was so I could get a Class-Up using the Bow Hero's influence; it was the only thing I could think of to offer to him as payment at the time.

But now that's taken care of, I had no real reason to stick around; the fact that I would have to deal with the Mald and his cronies 24/7 was a real demerit to the idea. Just a week with them was enough for me to want to strangle them in their sleep.

Even so…

"I don't feel right to just leave so suddenly." I told her, "Also… call me crazy, but I think I might be able to push that kid in the right direction."

His desire for achievement and glory aside, it was clear that the Bow Hero had a moral sense of justice; he wouldn't be so eager to chastise the Spear Hero for cheating otherwise.

But as of right now, he had his head too high up in the clouds to see the reality around him, or acknowledge it. And with people like Mald and that princess around him, that sense of justice would eventually turn into self-righteousness.

That kid needs someone to reel him back down from the clouds and point him in the right direction, otherwise we would have a self-righteous douchebag with the strength and influence of a Hero.

Thankfully, we were able to get him to somewhat see the scheming princess for what she actually is; if I remained and helped him along, he would no doubt bloom into a proper Hero of Justice he had wished to emulate.

"So that's your decision…" Trish mused, "Well, looks like I'll be sticking around for a bit longer, too."

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"I'll just be too worried about you if I leave you behind in this mess of a party. And with how I had publicly offended the princess yesterday, staying with the Bow Hero might be the safest place for me right now."

"Ah, that's true."

There's no telling how far the princess would go to get back at someone for any varieties of petty reasons; at least she wasn't stupid enough to try something with a member of another Hero's party.

"Still, thanks."

"Eh, what are partners for?"

*Knock-knock* "Miss Liya, are you awake? It's Itsuki."

Me and Trish shared a confused look before I walked over to the door; that's quite the coincidental timing he got. How did that saying go? Say his name and he shall appear?

Still, what could that boy want from me at this late hour?

Opening the door, I asked the Bow Hero standing behind it, "Is something the matter?"

"There's something I wished to have your opinion on." He told me, "May I come in?"

"Sure."

I let the Hero into the room and closed the door behind me; Itsuki's cheeks turned scarlet red when he saw Trish on my bed. It didn't help that she was giving him a rather accusing stare.

"O-Oh, Miss Trish. I…um… I didn't know you're here too."

"Yes, I too had something to talk about with my good friend Liya here." She told him, "If my presence here is offsetting to you, I can just leave—"

"N-No! It's not!" He blattered out, "It's okay! You can stay!"

"…Alright then."

After regaining his composure, he sat down on the only chair in the room facing us as I asked him, "What did you want my opinion on?"

"It's about this evening's duel."

Okay, now that got my attention; did it have more of an impact on him than I thought?

"It was obvious that it was rigged from the moment Motoyasu issued the challenge. But because he was only using it to free Raphtalia from slavery, I didn't try to stop it; I thought it was a necessity to save her."

Guess it did look like that from the outside, if you weren't aware of the darker picture happening in the background.

"But now, after seeing how close she and Naofumi were, I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do; that all of it was just some big farce in order to screw with him. What do you think?"

"It wasn't." I immediately responded, "They weren't saving Raphtalia from the Shield Hero as to taking her away from him."

"What… does that mean?" He asked worriedly, "Do you mean to say that the duel really was to screw Naofumi over!?"

"It was."

Did he really not notice? Or, was he trying not to?

"But…But why?" He asked, "He's already been branded as a criminal. Wasn't that already more than enough!?"

"The Shield Hero had always been a stigma in Melromarc." Trish told him, "He has always been depicted as the evil devil in the Church of Three Heroes's teachings. It didn't help that the king has justifiable reasons for hating him so much."

"The king… hated Naofumi? But we had only been summoned less than a month ago! Why would he hate him already!?"

"Not the current Shield Hero, just the Shield Hero in general. As for why, according to the rumors; the king had lost family members to the kingdom of Siltvelt, who worshipped the Shield Hero as their patron god."

"Just for that…!?"

Itsuki was stunned silent at the revelation; I guess it must be rather shocking for him to hear about this.

"Then… the crime Naofumi had been found guilty for… could it be that it's…" He slammed his fist onto the armchair and splintered the wood, "And I just licked it all up! What kind of Hero of Justice am I!?"

At long last, he seemed to have finally seen the nasty truth of the entire situation; looks like I was right about his sense of justice after all.

"I need to confront the king about this—"

"Don't!" Trish told him, "Even if you are the Bow Hero, he's still the king of Melromarc. You would only be forced to keep quiet about all of this or worse, imprisoned to shut you up."

"That's… then what can I do!? I can't just let such injustice go unpunished!"

"You wait for the right moment. As of now, the queen is the only one that could overturn his case and overrule the king's orders; and she's not here at the moment. So until she returns, you keep your head down and don't do anything to attract unwanted attention from the king."

"The queen? Come to think of it, I don't think I ever saw or heard of her."

"That's because she's not in the kingdom right now. If she was, this whole fiasco with the Shield Hero wouldn't have come to be, and both the king and princess would have been punished for their misdeeds."

"The queen has that much power!?"

"Naturally; she's the ruler of Melromarc, after all."

I had never seen anyone's jaw dropped as low as the Bow Hero's; had no one told him that Melromarc was a matriarchy?

"That would be the safer move…" He mused, "But to do nothing about it at all doesn't sit well with me."

"I didn't say you have to do nothing in the meantime." Trish told him, "While you can't do anything about the situation directly, you can do something else to change the Shield Hero's bad reputation."

"There is?"

"You're the Bow Hero, one of the most influential people on this continent period. Make use of that influence to get more people to question the legitimacy of the Shield Hero's crimes."

"Ah, I see!"

That's a pretty good idea; the reason why the public distrust the Shield Hero so much was due to the rumors about his crime being spread around.

If we could change some of their minds on the crime, or at least question it, it would get more people to the Shield Hero's side.

"Man, I'm really glad to have recruited you, Miss Trish."

"I'm glad that I am of help to you."

Seeing him like this, I might have to evaluate how high up in the clouds he actually was.

When morning came, the Heroes and their respective parties were asked to gather in the king's audience chamber after breakfast.

Aside from the king and his attendant, who was holding onto a tray with four filled bags, there were also some nobles in attendance and looking on from the terrace above.

"Now that all the Heroes are here," I saw the king give a glare towards the Shield Hero, "We shall distribute the reward for your excellent performance in the Wave, as well as your preparation funds for the next Wave."

The attendant then handed each Heroes a bag of coins while announcing to the onlookers the 'amazing' deeds they had performed for the kingdom to receive said funding.

The Spear Hero got 4000 silver coins for 'excellent performance', the Sword Hero got 3800 silvers for fulfilling their requests, and the Bow Hero got 3800 silver coins for his many good deeds across the kingdom.

If it was not clear before whom among the Heroes the king had favored the most, it was clear now. It was no doubt due to his daughter being all buddy-buddy with him.

Itsuki looked rather miffed at the preferential treatment; though that might not be the only reason for it.

Also, he issued requests to Heroes to fulfil? This was the first I had heard of this.

When it came to the Shield Hero, however…

Just as he was about to grab it, the attendant pulled back the bag of coins, "As payment for the removal of the Slave Crest, his support funds are revoked."

"What!?"

That was going way too far. The Heroes need the cash to get by, especially the Shield Hero who needed any form of support he could possibly get; not issuing it to him was akin to telling him to die in a ditch somewhere.

Not only that, the excuse was of something that was forced on him against his consent!? This was such an obvious abuse of power!

"…Your majesty? May I ask you something?"

"What is it, demi-human."

Raphtalia proceeded to ask him, "What were these requests that you had been mentioning?"

"The many problems that plague our great kingdom; which were all, at my behest, dealt with by the Heroes."

"If that is so, why hadn't Mr Naofumi been given one of these requests? This is the first time I had even heard of it."

"Hah! What could the Shield Hero even hope to do? There's no way he'll be able to do anything about them."

As if on cue, the audience all started laughing at the Shield Hero as well. They really enjoy pushing people down to make them feel better, don't they?

With how tightly clenched her fists were, I wouldn't be surprised if Raphtalia suddenly lashed out at the king like she had towards that bastard of a knight yesterday; I know I would have.

"Bet he just turtled himself somewhere and hid from the Wave." Motoyasu laughed, "What good is a Hero who doesn't throw himself into battle?"

"Oh, so rushing towards the boss and leaving countless innocent villagers for dead is what makes a good Hero?" The Shield Hero snapped back at him, "Then you must be an excellent Hero then."

"That's what the knights are for, duh. And we did help with protecting them; we even sent some of our party to assist them."

"Oh, you mean those four people? Wow, that's quite the support you're giving them; not that it matters when the knights are beyond idiotic! If I hadn't done something, who knows how many innocent lives would have been lost!?"

I definitely have to agree with him there; it was only thanks to the soldiers stationed at the village and adventurers staying there that we were able to keep the monsters from killing all of the villagers. And we would have more people to help, if the princess and her entourage had helped out even a little.

The only thing the knights did was burn down an entire district just to spite the Shield Hero.

"B-But if the Heroes aren't doing all that they can to suppress the Wave at its source, the destruction would only grow!" The same bastard of a knight from yesterday shouted at the Shield Hero, "Quit your empty boasting!"

"Whatever. I'm out of here." The Shield Hero huffed in irritation, "Unlike a certain haughty king, I actually have important things to do."

"You damn Shield…! You're even worse than I had expected!" The king growled at him, "Leave! And never show yourself to me again!"

"Gladly—!"

"Naofumi, wait!"

"What!?"

Itsuki called out to the angry Hero who only turned to glare at him; everyone else was also shocked at his rather surprising move.

What was he trying to do!? Didn't Trish tell him not to draw unwanted attention!?

"Please wait for a moment." The Bow Hero then turned to the king, "Your majesty, may I ask of you something?"

"Ask away, Bow Hero."

"In last night's duel, Naofumi had been unfairly attacked from behind by an outside perpetrator. What are you going to do about that?"

"…"

The once noisy onlookers all turned silent at the question posed by him; the king looking increasingly nervous at the stare Itsuki was giving him.

"…I do not know what you mean by that—"

"The duel was originally over Raphtalia's freedom; yet despite there have been clear and solid evidence that the duel has been unfairly won, her Slave Crest was still removed. And you even revoked Naofumi's payment under the pretext of payment for it. No matter how you spin it, it is an unjust arrangement."

…Not going to lie, that was pretty cool of him to do; and pointing out the contradictory bullshit at his face was extremely satisfying to watch. Though it might start to paint a target on his back for this…

"He's right." The silent Sword Hero joined in, "Both me and him watched the whole thing. If it had been a fair duel, Naofumi would have been the winner, not Motoyasu."

"No, I didn't lose! There had been no cheating!" The Spear Hero shouted, but he was greatly ignored.

What was it that he said before? Making excuses was what sore losers do?

"Depending on your answer, we might have to reconsider the 'crimes' Naofumi had been found guilty for."

Looks like even the Sword Hero had taken notice of the discriminatory treatment of the Shield Hero by the king; that means only the Spear Hero still blindly believe in the king and the princess.

And judging by how pale the king had become, it was not what he had expected them to act at all; the Wise King had lost his touch with age.

"That's not true, Sir Ren, Sir Itsuki! You got it all wrong!"

The spoiled princess was quick to jump to the aid of her chosen Hero; the Shield Hero scowled even deeper when she showed up.

If my guess was right, she was indeed the 'victim' of his 'crime'; from what Trish described her as, she definitely fit the part. And it wouldn't be hard for her to play the victim with her father backing her up.

"What had I gotten wrong, Princess Malty?" Itsuki asked venomously, not even hiding his disdain of her.

With how shocked she was at his words, she definitely wasn't expecting such animosity from him.

"T-The duel was supposed to be one-on-one, and yet the Shield Hero uses monsters he had hid under his cape to attack Sir Motoyasu! That's a direct violation of the duel's rules; therefore, my wise father's ruling is correct!"

"If what you say is true, Ms Myne, then wouldn't your own actions be a direct violation of the rules as well?"

"Grgk!"

"And yet despite that, Motoyasu was declared the winner anyways and Raphtalia was 'freed'; so tell me, what part of this ruling is even correct!?"

I put a hand on his shaking shoulders and gave him a shake of my head when he turned to me; it thankfully calmed him down and stopped his venomous tone with the princess.

He had already painted a big target on his back, there was no need for him to dig his grave any deeper than it already was; though the sight of the princess looking increasingly irritated by the Bow Hero's lack of cooperation was rather satisfying.

"…Sure, he hadn't been working as hard as us, but I can tell that the Guild hadn't been giving him any work either. He at least needs some funds to support himself and his… slave."

Ren looked particularly uncomfortable saying that, but still pushed forward his argument, "Besides, from what my party told me, the Shield Hero did protect the villagers while the knights didn't do anything to help him with that."

Now even that bastard of a knight was looking miffed by the Sword Hero's comments; he couldn't exactly say anything back to him.

"Hah… You both make a convincing argument. Very well, we'll provide the Shield Hero with the bare minimum of funds."

The king gestured to his attendant who reluctantly hand over the confiscated bag of coins, "Take them, and begone from here!"

"Like hell I want your—"

"We thank your majesty for your oh so judicious consideration." Raphtalia said in a far too cheerful tone as she took the bag in her master's stead, "We will take our leave now."

She then proceed to lead him by the hand out of the audience chamber; a sight of a slave leading her master along instead of the usual way around brought out a chuckle in me.

"Running off with his tail between his legs." The Spear Hero scoffed, "He has no shame at all."

"Not that you have any right to talk, Motoyasu; not when you couldn't beat him without someone intervening for you." Itsuki told him.

"I told you, there was no cheating!"

"Enough!"

The king's words shut both of them up; he then glared at the Sword and Bow Heroes, "Seeing as it was indeed a mistake in my ruling, I would let it slide this time. However, if you dare challenge my authority again, Hero or not, there will be consequences. Am I clear?"

""…We understand, your majesty.""

"Good. Now, then…"

The sight of them bowing to him seemed to have raised his mood a little as he carried on with his speech; his daughter, on the other hand, was still looking pretty annoyed and irritated at the turn of events.

Still, while a bit reckless in his execution, Itsuki had managed to get the king to overturn his ruling towards the Shield Hero; he even prevented the princess from covering it all up with her sweet lies.

The Bow Hero looks to be on his way to becoming the Hero of Justice he wanted to be.

…
To be continued…

Sup, you all! There's only two more days till season 2! I hope you all are ready for it!

As you can see, Itsuki's current path would be somewhat different from the one in Canon; after all, he now has people on his party that weren't just yes-men.

As for Ren, who can honestly say? Only time would tell.

With that said, I thank you all for reading!

*Sup! So, this is the rewrite of my rewrite of my Shield Hero OC fic. This time, I'm going to make a few changes so that it would be more than just a Canon rehash.