Chapter 117
The planning done, everyone returned to the streets. The idea was to keep up the 'illusion' that nothing had really changed. You know, just a bunch of random seeming people taking a break a little before dinner time, and now, returning to where ever they had just been.
Under the all important (so said Delly) first glance, nothing would seem amiss.
Now, under a 'top down' view of the town? Everything would seem amiss. Ravula's people were converging on their muster points as if magnetized to them, slowly, purposefully, sifting through the evening crowds towards their destinations. Workers who had authority among those not involved (we called them 'civilians' in Orario) told their fellows to either ignore them or take the evening off. The water based demi-humans (like Sadeena) swam towards the shoreline 'as usual' but weren't chasing any fish...
This left me, Raphtalia, Raluva's son and his squad, to just... walk in.
The six of us approached the walled off grounds of the lighthouse. It had a very simple 'fort' design, with an outer wall, inner courtyard, inner wall, and our 'goal' in the deepest part. But not in the middle. There was only a small dock on the other side and a simple wall, but that was Sadeena's problem.
Because of our planning, the six of us didn't even come in from the same direction. The two guards had just enough time to see something was wrong when Raphtalia and the young samurai threw off their all purpose reed cloaks.
"Halt! These are-"
And while they were distracted by the 'shiny object' that was Raphtalia, myself, the samurai I was with, and the two others of our squad of six came in from the either side along the wall and slammed into their flanks. For me and my buddy, well, I just took three long running steps, and turned off the 'air wake' enchantment on my armour as I jumped. Velocity-mass etc etc made a mockery of the number vs. number system. While the other guard was taken down by a high/low combination of sword slashes, the guard gurgling as the back of his leg and the side of his throat were opened up through the gaps of his armour.
Two dead guards, one closed gate, the sounds of alarm from 'civilians', and two guards (at least) inside the gate. They apparently took their job very seriously, and before I'd even set down an Air Strike Shield to act as a ramp up over the wall, someone inside was calling an alarm.
"With me!" Raphtalia said, glowing with a defensive buff as she rushed up the spectral shield, a glow stone sailing into the air to signal everyone else to start 'hostilities' openly.
"This area is off limits by-" A hulking toad demi-human started as the six of us hit the top of the wall.
But a sudden hail of arrows from the nearest hilltop cut off his warning as the young samurai, Raphtalia and myself faced a dozen guards. The other three quickly overpowered the two on the inside of the gate, while we had a bit of a stand off.
The commander pulled an arrow from his forearm like it was a wood sliver, and instantly took in his situation. "The child of the false Emperor who abandoned his throne must die! Do not waiver!" His words galvanized the guards spilling out of the barracks, their weapons coming free. "Even if she brings a cursed monster with a Spirit Implement with her, she will never sit on the most High seat of the Emperor! Attack!"
"The gate is sealed!" One of our squad called out, the three of them giving up on getting it open from the inside. But he heaved a little red signal stone into the air before drawing his weapon and standing beside us.
"They were expecting us." I said, "Delay until stage two."
And with a shimmer of magic, soul, and a pair of books opening up on each of my palms, I started casting while my team of foxes appeared. First, my Silver Guardian (cheap copy of Fen-chan, sigh), then the Black messengers (reduced to auto casting dolls) and last, the Golden Harvest (I miss you my love... but I hope this poor copy honours you), we held our ground.
"Attack!" The Toad (dressed in samurai armour, he was massive compared to his rabbit, frog and a couple of dog demi-human subordinates) pointed his spear at Raphtalia.
A second volley of arrows rained down over the wall, delaying and wounding three of the dozen attackers. Three more were delayed as my silver guardian rushed in to intercept them, a storm of icicles and small lightning bolts from the Books heralding his charge.
Then the young samurai, maybe eager to impress Raphtalia, dashed forward meet one of the six who were left to face us. His stance was a little different than what I'd seen Sadeena teach Raphtalia, but with a smooth pivot on his lead foot, and a strong half step forward from his rear leg, he brought up his katana in a vertical crescent. It reminded me of the 'mist slash' she used on that guy from Kizuna's world. But instead of a mist of magic, his blade went clear through both arms, most of a breastplate, a face, and through the helmet rim of the fastest attacker. And instead of a spray of blood, the droplets turned into sakura petals as they sleeted off blade and body.
"I am taking notes." Raphtalia grunted as she came to his defence, the Vassal Katana already showing its hesitation against their anti-Weapon magic. "When will you overcome this, I wonder?" She asked me as she parried a blade meant for the young samurai and kicked out the offenders knee.
"Use your breath to attack, not talk." I reminded her, feeling the same frustration. With their ability to weaken the Shield, I'd have a much harder time surviving with my usual style of hand to hand.
"Once we succeed, you need never worry again!" The Samurai encouraged as we all backed up a step, giving ground as the first three caught up, and the Silver Guardian vanished under accumulated damage. "But I will gladly teach you!"
"Ha! You expected a pathetic rebellion of a handful of archers and six warriors to succeed?" The Toad asked, stepping towards us.
Then I felt a vibration through the ground, "Clear the door!" I yelled out, throwing out my Air Strike Shields (they lasted a single very precious second) and the Starlight Shield (two seconds on this one) to let us get out of the way of the big heavy wooden and iron bound gate.
Dragon Tetsu SLAMED through the heavy door as if it were made of balsa wood. Bits of dense wood, metal banding, and those neat little rivets, sprayed forward into our attackers as her claws dug into the cobble stone to slow her down.
With a full body shake, she shed what little of the door stuck to her, and laughed, "Locked door? Pfft, as if that will help! Hey Boss! Go time?" She asked as five more of our samurai formed up to join us.
The discipline of the Q'ten Lo soldiers was pretty impressive. But when a dragon takes out your entire front gate (as well as part of the wall on either side)... But again the Toad got their attention, "This is nothing!" He launched himself down the steps, his spear impaling one of our number, his armour holding up just enough so the two bladed 'wings' stopped the weapon from going clear through him, and launching him backwards towards the cracked wall of the fort.
"Kodori! Third signal!" Raphtalia called out as one of our 'support peasants' just... appeared from the settling dust of the gate and dragged our fallen party member away, a second appearing from 'nothing' and helping.
"Oh? The false goddess from Siltvelt thinks her presence will help this pretender to the throne-" Again, I didn't care for what he was saying, and tossed a yellow signal stone into the air.
Then behind the Toad, the lighthouse was hit by a blast of lightning.
Unlike most people faced with a difficult choice, in this case 'defend his post' or 'kill Raphtalia', the Toad took decisive action to deal with 'right now' instead of 'apologies later'. "I will deal with the vermin who dare defile the sacred barrier, after killing this pretender and her pet false goddess."
He backed off a step, letting his subordinates engage with us for a moment and reached under his breastplate. He revealed a pink stone on a chain, and started chanting.
"Oh no!" The young samurai got shoulder to shoulder with me, "He's going to activate a Sakura Stone of Destiny barrier! It will weaken your spirit implement!"
And as soon as he said it, everything 'Shield Related' turned... off. The special 'Zweite Aura' spell I learned from Cal Mira, the Shield Prison I had holding two people in (and getting the 'black dog' treatment'), two Air Strike Shields... Vanished.
As the pink filter of light spread over everything, the effect for our side of the battle was almost instantly obvious. Without the buff, our outnumbered force lost the initiative and had to start falling back.
"Ha! Without the help of your Implement, you will never succeed here!" The Toad croaked, flourishing his spear and making ready to charge back in.
He charged at Raphtalia, with an explosion of fire and lightning behind him as our lighthouse team continued its work. But instead of defending herself, she backed up a half step and replied, "She's never needed the Shield to make a difference."
And I slid between the two, the Shield of Marius feather light on my arm, my armour a second skin around my body. With the proper angling, I deflected the Toad's spear point away and down, his new strength actually harming him as the metal point and fancy bladed 'wings' on either side buried themselves into the stone of the courtyard.
"What?!" He was shocked as his expert and (I will admit) very heavy strike was parried, and he came Fox to Frog with my mask.
"Burn the first seal." I said, the coat of scales I had magnetized to my armour glowing, coming free, and melting as I used one of the 'new things' I'd learned from Kyo's research. "Matter to magic."
His body was lit up with whatever the pink stone dangling around his neck was doing, but then runes and glyph all over my armour lit up with the dissolving metal around me, and whatever he had done to weaken the Shield and the stats it gave me, reversed and doubled in the other direction.
And I punched him.
Amphibious lips and the beaked ridge of 'teeth' deformed, split, rippled outwards to make the rest of his face contort and twist, and with a comical crunchy 'whoosh' he was flung backwards. Back flipping, rolling, crashing, and ultimately coming to a stop at the barracks door most of the others had come from.
Then all the scales I had over my armour finished dissolving into ashen sparkles, and my few seconds of 'old strength' faded. But their leader was now a tangled mess of bleeding armour 'over there', his spear was still in the stone next to me, and in the hand the Shield was stuck to, I held the glowing stone he had around his neck.
"Stop that." I said to it, "You have no authority over me."
And the glow snapped off like a child flicking off the light and hiding under the blankets when the parents came to check on them.
Sadly, the next bravest of them yelled out, "We must fulfill our duty! Death to the False-"
The sound of the lighthouse, or rather, the sakura lumina 'tree' contained within the lighthouse's structure and holding up the barrier snapping at its base to a third explosion, was somehow quieter than Tetsu shutting that guy up with the body of one of his fellows, using her signature 'meat on a butcher's table' slam and all her (frankly overpowered but I still loved her) dragon strength to turn them both into a bloody crater on the cobblestones.
"Protect our True Empress!" The son of Ravula cried out, as we finished the job of clearing the lighthouse fort, my auto casting foxes bringing all the buff spells back online, the splash of a ten story tall 'tree' hitting the water in the background.
Reduced to 'background character' again as my prototype version 2 (lab tested, battle tested, waiting for full production and refinement) booster was now magic sparkles around me, I took a moment to examine the little pink stone I'd snagged off the Toad. It wasn't actually stone, or rather, it was pretending really hard to be stone.
Amber of the Sakura Tree
Said the Status screen.
Then Sadeena showed up, doing what Tetsu had done, smashing though the inner gate of the fort in her full killer whale form. Like Tetsu, she shook off the remains of wood metal and stone with a laugh, but unlike Tetsu... She had nothing to do when she got here.
"Wow." She said, seeing the mess we'd made of the place. "Anyhow, job's done! Your adorable little dragon-noodle is super scary by the way!"
She and a dozen like her (black/white skinned men and women, but not supersized like she was right now) laughed as Kotetsu struck a little pose from on top of Sadeena's head. "Boss! We did the thing! Working now?"
From behind us, I heard a 'huff' of someone getting to the scene, "What? It's over? But I did all this work just to help!"
It was the dog demi-human who I threw into the water. In his hands and over his shoulders was a collection of equipment. A shield, a basket of katana, a trinket or two, and even a pair of gloves. "Oh, it's him again..." Raphtalia sighed, "Wait... those items? They were for us?"
"Yes! I had started making them in my spare time when old boy Ravula mentioned the state of things and... YOU! You're the one who threw me into the water! I'd know those horns anywhere!"
I took off my mask, giving Kotetsu an excuse to perch on my horns, and looked down at the man. "And you must be Erhard's master. I get it now. Old, drunk, lazy, genius. He didn't mention 'hopeless skirt chaser' though."
He looked up at me, his shaggy dog face clearly conflicted.
"If you make a pass at me, I will throw you into the ocean again. But it will be in a straight line from here." Here having at least one stone wall in the way. "I'm married, have children, and do not have time for that stupidity."
"You know my apprentice? He make that for you? You think this kind of work just happens girl!?" He jostled his arms a little, the pile of equipment in them rattling quietly.
My party was starting to back away from our argument, yes, even Sadeena (but not Kotetsu who was always happy and safe napping on my head). "He taught me how easy your world has it when enchanting. And after that? I made this. Besides." I held up the little bit of pink amber, and started to warm it up with foxfire slowly. "Our enemy has done your work for me."
I once again switched back to the Shield of Marius, the old man blinking at it as I shut the conversation down with a literal barrier. "Hey boss?" Kotetsu got my attention carefully (since I was working) by brushing her chin feather/fur against one of my horns, "Mirror working now."
Not looking away from my work, I replied with, "Sadeena? See how high you can throw the signal stone, since you kinda broke the highest point nearby. Raphtalia? As bright as you can make it. Tetsu? Help your little sister."
Around us, our little rebellion force seemed a bit confused. I suppose it was because we (my party) weren't acting like we'd won. To them, we'd finally struck some 'great blow' against the 'unjust government'. But to my party and I? Stage one done, weapon check and snack break before stage two.
But as the little pink amber started to soften and submit to my will, I heard Raluva's son take up the 'inspiring speech' duty. I tuned most of it out, since I was busy, but as Sadeena heaved a sun-bright blue stone into the air over the ocean, our little samurai and peasant army was cheering and working themselves up into a post battle frenzy.
"What are you doing girl?" Came a voice near my elbow, my tails keeping its owner out of arms reach.
I popped one of the enchantment/enhancement tags out of the back of the Shield of Marius.
Lightning Resist (Excellent) down.
And put in the cooling rectangle of reshaped pink amber.
Sakura Stone of Destiny Shield conditions unlocked
The King's Influence...
The status fizzed for a moment.
The Queen's Influence, Unlocked. Shield of Marius's inevitable Destiny.
It was here, behind the words of the Status I was reading, that I saw the pink amber fuse into the enchantment slot. Due to the nature of the Shield, I would never get it out now...
Sealing resistance (weak), Skill "Sakura Sphere of Command"
Special equip effect: spirit blessing, status chain, know no fear
"That's impossible." The old lecher said, peering up at me through shaggy dog eyebrows.
"People keep using that word. But I do not think it means what people think it means." I shrugged, looking over to Tetsu as she carefully held one corner of the Vassal Mirror in one big dragon hand, and was stretching it slowly like a Windows frame on a computer. Kotetsu was holding the top corner, and in the middle, I could see Motoyasu in the mirror, waving as he waited patiently for the all clear to step through the mirror I knew SITA was holding on the ship off shore.
While they walked through the mirror, introduced themselves, and got used to just... not being on a ship, I took a look what all that stuff did.
First, was that it had changed the Shield of Marius. I wasn't usually a fan of pink, but back home I left it to everyone else to be colourful. But outwardly, the blue crystal lines on the face of the Shield of Marius had become sakura pink. The overall stats had increased slightly as well, but numbers were just numbers until I got my hands on them.
What really caught my eye, was the little arrow pointing at 'spirit blessing' indicating a sub-menu.
"Hey boss?" SITA 'appeared' at my elbow in that 'I know you're working' kinda way. "Oh! Heehee... Hardly a hair out of place." Of course, my tails would have none of that, and wrapped her up for a hug just long enough to feel tingly. "Something new? Love the colour."
"Another key." I said quietly while the sound of battle junkies telling their tale to the new arrivals filtered through the courtyard. "That guy over there had a Sakura Stone of Destiny. I pulled it off him-"
"Explains why his head is ten degrees past a survivable angle." SITA nodded.
"And re-purposed it to the Shield here." I continued without skipping a beat, "Without the means to power it up through any of the usual methods... I have four options..." I had been too busy... not adventuring? So my storage of monster items and the like were rather low. But, I'd used a lot of it for the Hearth, and powering up Kotetsu through the Ofuda system. Worth it.
"What did the Stone do?"
"It shut down the Shield to its most basic functions, almost turned it off completely. Stats, defence, shield based spells... Silly as they sound, I'm glad I learned all those spells from the nice Witch."
"She's very nice, but was a little sad I didn't eat the candy she gave me." SITA agreed, "But... If that exists out in the wild... But isolated here..." She did the cute thoughtful frown, tapping a finger to her nose, "That goes a little against our theory."
"Unless they wanted as much of a 'hands off' approach as possible. Hard to be mysterious if you're stepping in all the time."
"Voice of experience." She teased. Yes, the AI had learned well from everyone teasing Gasper. "So how does it work now?"
"Well... Aside from a colour switch... I have a list of everything the original Stone shut off. Skills, Magic, Stat bonuses, growth adjustments, mastery level, rarity, spirit enchants, status enchants, reinforcements, item enchants, job level..."
"And you can only choose four? Harsh, considering that guy over there was just a..." Her face froze for a half second, calculating, "If the Emperor is ranked first, then he would be third from the bottom? That's a guess for sure though. But if every guard captain has one of those..."
"Well, one of the other things that changed, was I can extend the authority of my choices to those around me." Yes, the Queen's Authority. And 'Sphere of Command'. "When we get back to the Hearth... Well, we'll have-"
"Fox!" Erhard interrupted my chat, "For someone who apparently punched a guy's head off, you look kind of grim. Everyone else is partying, while you're over here... Oh... Never mind. Hey tiny."
SITA leaned into the fatherly headpat, most of her adorable head vanishing under his big hand. "Yeah, talking about work. Speaking of, your old master is a real piece of work..."
He looked apologetic, "Yeah, I was trying to forget that part... He's kind of upset right now, but considering you did your usual thing... Oh! The scales are gone. Did they work?"
"Yeah. Pretty sure I can do better, but that's why the guy over there is looking at his butt. Sadly, that single punch cost about thirty hours of machine making, tooling and production... But, now we can refine and do it again in ten minutes... once I get back." I nodded, "But for now, I gotta talk with the others. So, got caught up with the plan?"
"Reckless and direct as always." He nodded, "But wouldn't it be a better idea to slow down a moment? Gather people up?"
Sometimes it was easy to forget this used to be his job. "Well, as someone part of the plan, you can vote to change it. What are you thinking?"
Sita, Erhard and I got to our little knot of party members and heroes. They were surrounded by the various samurai, just trying to get along. Motoyasu of course was his easygoing self, and was examining a copied version of the spear the Toad was using. Itsuki was looking a little shy, as was Rishia, but they were being shy together and drawing strength from it. Also, it was cute. Ren and Solitaire were... polar opposites. Solitaire, in his nice butler outfit was greeting people and trying very hard not to look like he was sniffing them. Ren was just... nodding quietly while his face attempted some kind of smile.
Fohl and Atla were a bit of their own 'thing' as well. Fohl's obvious warrior vibe and Atla's easy manner made them both pretty popular it seemed. Usa and Clive were... oddities. Not a single one of our enemies so far was 'human' and there was a definite leaning towards 'beast-people' here. But Clive was singular among the demi-humans, while Usa seemed more common, but dressed in a totally different style to any of the other rabbit demi-humans.
But one thing didn't change. Usa's ears twitched in my direction as we got closer, "Ma'am." He said formally. "The Captain sends her..." He paused, "Felicitations? Was that it?" Clive nodded, and Usa continued, "And said she should be in port within the hour."
"Well, I may collect those felicitations in person when she gets here." This made anyone who knew the word laugh, "I've got some news, and Erhard thinks we may need to go over our plan again." I looked around and spotted the most popular person here, "Raphtalia! Bring him over too!" Since she was standing next to the young samurai.
She came over, saw the look on my face, and knew what was up, "Change of plans?"
"Possibly. Enemy abilities, our own, and numbers have changed. Your father, where would you put him as a leader for putting her on the Seat?" I asked Raluva's son, "Kotetsu? Are you bothering the nice man?"
Kotetsu's head peeked up from the boy's feathery hair, "fluffy!" and hid again.
"She is no bother, Honoured Fox." He replied, but didn't bow (out of respect for his passenger, not disrespect for me). "To my knowledge, he is one of many town leaders. Not above, or below them, who all have been making ready for this day on the chance our Empress returned to us."
Erhard spoke up, "Does he have numbers?"
He looked to Raphtalia, who nodded her approval of Erhard's question, "The slow oppression of the one on the Imperial Seat has made them almost universally unpopular. Those not under their direct command are simply maintaining appearances until now."
Just like Marius had taught me, 'pretend nothing has changed'. "Okay." I nodded thinking, "How secure is the town now?"
He turned, spotted someone from the crowd of rebels, "Is it done?"
That someone stopped in mid word to someone else, snapped to full attention, "Sir! Yes. The port town is under our full control. Prisoners have been taken, dead have been disposed of, communication from here to the Palace is cut."
This reminded me, "Where did S'yne get to?"
"She's still on the ship, we had a few raids looking for the little miss." Motoyasu said, "But we just said 'you will never reach her' and tossed them to the fish later."
"Okay. We have a little time then. If they're looking for her, they'll keep following the ship..." I looked towards the downed lighthouse, sighed, and continued, "Let's take a little time then. Good meal, a drink, maybe talk to your master... well, someone else can talk to him..."
"I feel like someone is talking about me! Oh, you're pretty too!" Yes, the old (horn) dog that was Erhard's master seemed to materialize near SITA, "But something seems off about you..."
"Hi! I'm SITA-eight. Part of the Legendary Toolbox!" She didn't even flinch when the old pervert put a hand on her hip, "Oh! He's one of those people."
"Oh don't be so... wow, you are literally cold! Well we can-" He threw himself backwards as SITA used her 'anvil of self defence', the horn of the one ton anvil landing between his legs. "WHAT THE HELL!"
"The only entertainment I offer is knowledge, and fluffy accessories. My clothes are literally my skin, so..." SITA smiled, the anvil vanishing in an eye blink while everyone stared wide eyed at her. "Though, I'm told I'm getting better at humour?"
"Well, I found that hilarious." I smiled down at the old man, "Yes, I made her too. Now, please, be serious, and play after we're out of danger of having an army fall on us. Or, get out of the way. She can chain you to that anvil and toss you into the water, if you ignore her warning."
Again, everyone was doing that nervous backpedalling. Oh, except Erhard, "Yeah. I'm super sorry about not mentioning that about him..." He sighed, "Master? She nearly burned Melromarc to the ground for what you're doing. Please stop?"
Everyone from Melromarc was nodding VERY fast in agreement with him. I didn't need the Shield for this kind of authority. No Ma'am.
"Let's find your father, sort things just a tiny bit better, and now that we have you guys here, lemme tell you about what I pulled off his neck, before I broke it." I smiled.
NOTES
This puts is at the end of book 13, where I originally stopped reading the LN so I could get away from Naofumi's apathy.
Once again, Kodori is skipping steps and stealing the show. Poor Raphtalia was originally the one who broke the barrier for the ship to get through, but when you have a super strong killer whale woman and a dragon-noodle who can carry infinite amounts of explosives in a pocket storage, who needs a fancy sword strike?
Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!
aKAQg4bnYu for the discord! As well as ways to support me!
And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.
And! I'm looking into getting some story themed merchandise made. Join the Discord to find out more!