LN Tate no Yuusha Ch 5 - 10 Vol 13 bahasa indonesia

Chapter Five: Harem

I returned to my room after the evening party ended.

“Rafuu!”

Raph-chan looked out the window at the view and squeaked. I’d heard some demi-humans and therianthropes were nocturnal, and there was no sign of the lights dimming down below in the Siltvelt castle town. There were even some demi-humans that looked like bats flying around in the air.

“Shield Hero, it’s time for your bath. Please follow me,” said one of the maids.

“Oh yeah, they did say I would get to bathe after the party,” I said to myself.

“Rafu?”

Raph-chan had been made from a lock of Raphtalia’s hair, so that made her a female, right? Regardless, I didn’t like the idea of leaving her here in the room. I decided to take her with me. I picked Raph-chan up and followed the maid to the bathing area.

We walked down a hallway on the first floor of the castle that exited into the courtyard and then continued on to an area that looked like a shrine surrounded by trees. I could see steam rising, so that was probably the baths.

There were actually public bathing areas in Melromarc too. The people of this world seemed to take personal hygiene pretty seriously. But when I really thought about it, they summoned heroes from Japan on a regular basis. With the heroes telling them about their culture, it made sense that Japanese bathing habits might catch on. That was convenient for me.

I suddenly remembered all of those times rinsing myself off with cold water by the riverside after I’d been framed. I sure had come a long way when I thought about it.

As I reminisced, I took my armor and clothes off in what seemed to be the dressing area. The maid was staring at me, but I didn’t let it bother me. I’m sure that was just part of the job.

“Rafuu . . .”

Raph-chan seemed embarrassed. She put her hands over her eyes. She always had the cutest reactions.

“Alright. Let’s go, Raph-chan,” I said.

“Rafuuu!”

If I had the chance to bathe, I figured I might as well take my time and enjoy it. I walked toward the baths. The steam completely filled the air. I could make out the outlines of several figures when I looked over at the baths. I hesitated to say people, because the figures were so huge.

“We’re so glad you could make it, Shield Hero!”

Several girls who probably belonged to wealthy households stepped out of the bath and did their best to strike seductive poses.

“You let us take care of washing that body of yours, Shield Hero,” one of them said.

“Feel free to choose whoever you like best from among us . . . and we’ll be happy to accompany you back to your room,” said another one.

Umm, I was pretty sure I’d seen one or two of them at the slave market in Zeltoble.

“What do you think?” one of the girls asked.

Her breasts bounced as she sauntered over, and a chill ran down my spine. I’d been set up! They clearly planned on seducing me here and making me do something vulgar! Even if I was the Shield Hero, I was still a man. Somebody must have figured the sight of naked women would get me excited and came up with this plan.

The baths looked like a brothel. They were filled with everything from normal-looking women to massive therianthropes that were at least as big as Sadeena’s killer whale form. It was like I was supposed to be some kind of lecher who’d take any woman I could get my hands on. Or maybe they just prepared a wide variety of women and hoped that one of them would fit my preferences.

“Sorry, but I’m not interested,” I said.

I tried to leave the bathing area, but the women all got out of the water and surrounded me.

“Please don’t say that, Shield Hero!”

“Even if you think you won’t like it at first, you’ll be in ecstasy before you know it. You won’t be able to get enough!”

Blech! The chills . . . I felt sick. It made my flesh crawl. I mean, Sadeena had said things that made me want to throw up before, but this was on a whole different level. I’d settle for Sadeena a million times over before I touched one of these sluts. At least Sadeena gave me a choice. She always left me an escape route. Even if she did say things that made me sick, something about her attitude was comforting.

I never thought I would actually say something like that about Sadeena. I had no idea how absolutely repulsive it was when someone was actually serious about trying to seduce me. And not even really me, but the Shield Hero. I might even have to revise my opinion of Sadeena, even if only slightly. The same went for Atla.

“Please choose, Shield Hero! Which one of us do you most desire?”

“I want to give birth to your child, Shield Hero!” a small demi-human girl exclaimed.

She was practically an infant and she was saying things like that! It sent a shiver down my spine. It was like Melty trying to seduce me or something. I would’ve told her to try again in another ten years. I’m sure she would have yelled at me, though.

“Stop screwing around! Get out of here!” I shouted.

But the women didn’t leave. They inched closer to me, one step at a time.

“Come on, girls! Do your best to seduce the Shield Hero!” said one of the girls.

The women suddenly leapt at me and I calmly called out the name of a skill.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The Shooting Star Shield barrier formed around me and repelled the women. The old weapon shop guy had saved my neck once again. Never before in my life had I been so happy to have this skill.

“Ugh . . . Come on, Shield Hero! Let’s have some fun!” one of them called out.

“No thanks!” I shouted.

“Oh really? Come on, everyone! We must break this shell for the sake of our beloved Shield Hero!” she announced.

“Yeah!” they cried out in unison.

“How about no!” I shouted.

I figured I would just ignore them and barge through, pushing them out of the way, but reinforcements kept showing up until the bathing area was practically overflowing with women. Dammit! This was bad! My chances of escaping were diminishing with each second! Even worse, they all started hitting my barrier in an attempt to break it!

Talk about how not to set the mood! The women were all crowded around my defensive barrier and punching at it. This was some next-level scary shit. I had an accessory that added a counterattack effect to my Shooting Star Shield, but it only worked in Kizuna’s world. I hadn’t been able to find a usable substitute here in this world yet.

“Raaaawwwrrrrr!”

What the hell?! Hey, elephant therianthrope! Stop trying to body slam me with your full weight, dammit! Wait a minute! Was that thing planning on trying to sleep with me too?!

This barrier had even been able to withstand one of the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks, but the women continued to crowd around it, intent on destroying it.

“Mwahahaha! All we have to do is break this thing and the Shield Hero will be ours!” one of them shouted.

“Grrrr . . .”

Shit. The barrier didn’t show any signs of breaking, but the whole thing was still scary for a multitude of other reasons. I had to figure out a way to get out of there.

“Portal Shield!”

I couldn’t use my portal?! Had someone leaked info about how to interfere with our portal skills?! It didn’t matter! I needed to focus on shaking these women and getting out of here! I could probably use the barrier to repel them and force my way through. But could I really make it all the way to Raphtalia and the others with a never-ending stream of women on my tail?

“Rafuuu!”

Raph-chan jumped up on my head and started squeaking. She began to focus her attention as if she were reciting a magical incantation. I wondered if it would be possible to cast cooperative magic with Raph-chan. If things went well, I might just end up making it out of this mess after all.

I focused my attention on Raph-chan’s squeaks. I had no idea what kind of magic we could cast. But given the situation, anything would have been better than standing around doing nothing. Raph-chan and I wove our magic together as I continued walking.

Oh? Those familiar cooperative-magic puzzle pieces gradually began to fade into view. Way to go, Raph-chan! She’d come from a lock of Raphtalia’s hair, so her magic felt similar to Raphtalia’s. I was sure we’d be able to use the same cooperative magic that Raphtalia and I had cast before.

“Power of two, lend your strength to confuse the enemy with an illusion! Re-spin the threads of fate, and turn our defeat into a victory!”

“Rafu, rafu, rafu . . .”

I couldn’t help but smile when Raph-chan recited her incantation. I didn’t know if it was because Raph-chan was essentially a big bundle of magic power or not, but the flow of magic felt even stronger than when I’d cast the spell with Raphtalia.

“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Show our enemies an illusion to confuse them!”

“Emptiness is Form!”

“Rafuuuuu!”

Emptiness is Form?! I thought it was Form is Emptiness! I guess the meaning was essentially the same. We’d cast a spell that was almost the same, but different! Our magic shot out across the whole area, affecting all of the women there. They almost seemed to be tripping out as they stumbled away and then broke out into a riot in a different place than I was.

“No, wait! Shield Hero! Ohhh, you’re such a bad boy!” they yelled.

I had no idea what kind of hallucination they were seeing, but they started writhing around and falling over unconscious, one by one. Alright! This was our chance to escape!

“Rafu!”

Just then, Raphtalia and the others came running up. It was the worst timing possible.

“I got a distress signal from Raph-chan, but, umm . . .” Raphtalia’s voice trailed off.

“Oh my,” said Sadeena.

They were looking around and taking in the scene.

“They all look like they were having fuuun! Were you playing with them, Masteeerrr?” Filo asked.

“Ugh! They beat me to the finish line!” Atla lamented.

“I can’t believe you nailed so many girls in one go . . .” Fohl mumbled.

Did he seriously just say that?

“Like hell I did! Stop getting such ridiculous ideas! Raph-chan and I cast some cooperative magic and made them see a hallucination. Now is our chance to run! Let’s go!” I shouted.

“That will not be necessary!” Werner announced as he walked up.

“My deepest apologies, Shield Hero. Take these women away at once!” he shouted to his lackeys, who then began to drag the half-conscious women away.

Ugh . . . The place had started to reek. It was hard to describe, but if I had to say, it reeked of women. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I suddenly remembered the trauma I’d experienced when Witch deceived me.

“Shield Hero, please forgive us for this gross mishandling,” Werner continued.

“This is beyond forgivable!” I shouted.

“This is a service that past Shield Heroes have enjoyed through the generations. We assumed you would be no different,” he replied.

“So you finally show your true colors!” I shouted.

I motioned to Raphtalia and the others. Everyone drew their weapons and readied themselves to attack. But Werner stood there motionless with his hands clasped behind his back, as if to say that he had no intention of fighting.

“Well, well, well . . . I guess this means the Shield Hero is quite picky about his women,” said a voice from the shadows.

And then the lion therianthrope from before came strolling over. Werner looked over at the lion and then furrowed his brow unhappily.

“Jaralis, choose your words more wisely,” Werner said.

Upon being reprimanded, the lion that Werner had called Jaralis shrugged derisively and backed off. But he was still staring at Fohl and Atla with a look of contempt in his eyes. Fohl noticed him staring at them and seemed confused. I’d noticed people in Siltvelt looking enviously at the others just because they were under my command, so he could just deal with it for now. I wanted to get back to addressing what had just happened before changing the subject.

“Did you really think I’d let a bunch of women seduce me and then just have my way with them?!” I shouted.

Ever since being summoned to this world, even the thought of that kind of thing just made my stomach churn.

“I’m so very sorry,” Werner said.

I was sure he felt absolutely zero remorse. In that case, I’d use this to make him agree to my demands. Yeah, I liked that idea.

“If you want me to overlook this, then arrange the boat for Q’ten Lo already!” I demanded.

“I-I’m afraid that will take more time. Please be patient with us,” Werner replied.

“Do you really need more time? There will be consequences if you lie to me!” I shouted.

“We do,” he said.

I continued grilling Werner for a while, but like a true politician, he skillfully avoided making any concrete statements and firmly stood his ground.

“Anyway, we’re going to use my teleportation skill to return to the village for now,” I said.

“W-wait! That would be a problem! Please give us some more time!” he replied.

“Why do you want me to stay in the castle so bad?” I asked.

“It would be bad for the country’s reputation if you were to leave without staying even one night,” he said.

Ah, now it made sense. The other countries had left Siltvelt in charge of hosting and managing the Shield Hero. If I left the country because they had pissed me off, Siltvelt would lose its national prestige.

“In such a case, it would be unclear whether we could comply with your request,” he continued.

I had a feeling what he was saying was reasonable, but it still seemed suspicious. What a pain.

“Then don’t let word get out! We’re just going to the village to sleep!” I said.

“Umm, Mr. Naofumi . . . Don’t you think we should give them one last chance? Otherwise we’re never going to reach an agreement, and that would be a problem for us as well,” Raphtalia said.

Werner must have realized I wouldn’t be able to argue with Raphtalia, because a look of relief spread across his face. Dammit! I glared at Sadeena.

“We can try to get to Q’ten Lo without Siltvelt’s assistance, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to make it,” she said.

Shit! What an annoying problem to have!

“Fine,” I said.

“Very well. I will call for a vote to comply with your request at an assembly in the near future. I shall do my best to ensure you receive our assistance, so please quell your anger,” Werner replied.

In the near future? At an assembly?

“Just what kind of cumbersome system does this country run on?!” I exclaimed.

“Siltvelt is supposedly similar to what the heroes refer to as a democracy. Representatives from the different races gather and vote on issues,” Sadeena explained.

A democracy?! They sure chose an annoying political system!

“In the past, the opinions of the hakuko and other elite races had a lot of political sway. But that changed after the loss of a war weakened their standing, I believe,” she continued.

That meant Trash was dragging me down even all the way out here in Siltvelt. Give me a break already! I was going to ask the queen to torture him when we got back to Melromarc.

“Utter foolishness! The ignorant masses can gather and discuss things all they want, but that will never amount to anything of value!” Atla muttered.

Hadn’t she been praising Siltvelt earlier? And what was with that comment, anyway? She sounded like some kind of oppressive dictator.

“Okay, fine. I’m going to let this one go. But I want you to make sure I get my assistance as soon as possible,” I said.

“Of course! As you wish, Shield Hero!” Werner replied.

He bowed and then left the bathing area. After that, we all returned to my room. Well, Raphtalia and the others had to wait on standby in the next room over to comply with the Siltvelt rules. And so the night wore on.

I almost forgot to mention that Werner said they planned on having more women waiting for me in my room after I returned from my bath. I remembered seeing a parade of disappointed-looking women walking down the hallway when I was heading back to my room.

Chapter Six: Conspiracy

The next morning in Siltvelt . . . Actually, the Siltvelt castle town was apparently the castle town that never sleeps, so the streets were bustling all night long. It was pretty much the same in the morning. How did these people ever get any sleep? But then again, with such a diversity of demi-humans and therianthropes, I guess that couldn’t be helped. It made Melromarc seem quiet in comparison, and that just felt strange.

I yawned.

“I wonder when breakfast is,” I mumbled to myself.

I woke up early since I was used to getting up at the crack of dawn to take care of the monsters. I played with them a bit in the morning before preparing breakfast.

Other than Raphtalia and our group, there was no sign of anyone else in this section of the castle. Perhaps it was because they assumed I would still be in bed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if leaving the room would set off an alarm or something. But I hadn’t really gotten to talk with Raphtalia and the others much yesterday, so I decided to go meet up with them while I had the chance. I went to check the next room where they were staying.

I’d already had Sadeena and Atla check the rooms for any concealed shadow-type agents. There had been a few, but we chased them off. Even Raphtalia and Raph-chan could see through their concealment techniques by now too. After what had happened at the baths, we decided not to let anyone stick around, no matter who they were.

“Rafuuu!”

Raph-chan was constantly on the lookout, so I was sure there was no one like that around anymore. If they were, I’d smoke them out and use that as an excuse to really get mad this time. Maybe they knew that, because it was dead quiet. We ran the guards off last night too, so there really was no one left.

Alright! I quietly snuck out of my room and then walked over and opened the door to the next room. When I did, I saw Fohl and Atla sitting there talking to a hakuko-looking fellow that I’d never seen before. It must have been Raphtalia and the others’ turn to rest.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Atla exclaimed, as if she had been deeply moved. “Good morning! Today is a good day!”

“Oh yeah?” I replied.

I looked over at Fohl. He seemed a bit annoyed by Atla’s attitude, but I guess he wasn’t going to shower me with insults today.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“He’s someone who used to work for my brother,” Atla said.

“That’s wrong, Atla. He worked for our parents,” Fohl replied, correcting Atla.

Their parents’ servant or whatever he was looked at me and got down on one knee.

“I can never thank you enough for so graciously taking Fohl and Atla in and even going so far as to nurse Atla back to health,” he said.

“Umm, sure. Don’t worry about it,” I replied.

I think he was the first hakuko I’d seen here in Siltvelt.

“You truly are amazing, Shield Hero. To be able to witness such a miracle — I am simply in awe,” he continued.

“That’s enough of the formalities. And the gushy words of gratitude. Any more and I’ll get mad,” I said.

He looked up at me for a moment and then bowed deeply and stood up.

“So what were you three talking about?” I asked.

“Don’t you remember what we discussed before coming here? You said you wanted to try asking for assistance if I knew of anyone,” Fohl replied.

“Oh yeah. So this is that person?”

“Well, yeah.”

This guy was supposed to assist us? I guess, with the way things were now, all I could do was ask him what he’d be able to do for us.

“And what can you do for us? I’m not interested in trying to force you to help if there’s nothing you can actually do,” I said.

“There are several options we can discuss, but before that I wanted to tell you that the shusaku and his followers here in Siltvelt have no intention of letting you leave the country,” he replied.

“I don’t know how much of what you say I can trust, but judging from Werner’s reaction yesterday, that wouldn’t be a surprise,” I said.

I’d gotten a glimpse of his true intentions via his attempt to keep me tied down here by throwing women at me.

“I’m not sure why he would want to keep someone as dangerous as me around, considering I could put his position at risk. He must be out of his mind,” I continued.

“I suppose that depends on the hero,” the man replied.

“What does?” I asked.

“Well, you know . . .”

I guess I could imagine something about getting me to marry someone.

“There are a number of possibilities, but I’m sure you can imagine what they might be,” the man continued.

“Does he plan on giving us a boat to Q’ten Lo?” I asked.

“We haven’t been able to verify those details yet,” he replied.

I wondered if that meant I shouldn’t expect much. I was starting to think this trip had been a waste of time.

“How disappointing,” Atla said.

Wasn’t that supposed to be my line?

“The hakuko are currently in the process of doing everything we can to see that your request is fulfilled, both for your sake and Fohl’s as well,” the man said.

“That said, any semblance of hakuko influence in Siltvelt is basically for show now, so don’t expect much,” Fohl emphasized.

I wasn’t a monster. I wouldn’t act without taking the other party’s position into consideration. But damn, I wanted to get out of this country and invade Q’ten Lo already! Since Siltvelt was a democracy, I wondered if that meant the hakuko were just busy trying to convince the other races to provide us assistance. I had no idea how many political factions there were.

“There is something else too, Fohl. There is a dubious character here in Siltvelt that you and the Shield Hero must be very careful of,” the man said.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Fohl asked.

“I guess it doesn’t hurt to listen, just for reference,” I said.

“Isn’t that a bit rude?” Fohl replied.

He looked at me with a disgusted look in his eyes and Atla gave him a sharp jab.

“Ugh . . .”

“It’s a therianthrope who was with Fohl’s grandfather at the time of his death. His name is Jaralis and — ”

We heard footsteps approaching. The hakuko interrupted the conversation, bowed, and left the room. Several moments later, a therianthrope that looked like a female lion showed up. She seemed to be looking for me.

“There you are, Shield Hero,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter where I am as long as I’m in the castle, right?” I replied.

“You never know where an assassin might be lurking. Please wait in your room until it is time.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” I said.

Hmph. So there was some kind of conspiracy in Siltvelt and now I knew who to watch out for. Jaralis was that lion therianthrope, right? I didn’t know how far his involvement went or what the conspiracy was, but I needed to get them to agree to prepare a boat as soon as possible.

I didn’t care about any Siltvelt conspiracies anyway. They could conspire all they wanted. I had no interest in that kind of thing—as long as it didn’t cause me any trouble. I’m sure they felt the same way too. Because I had been somewhere far away, their worship of the Shield Hero over the generations and all of that was easy to take advantage of. Siltvelt hadn’t tried to get involved with me before now. And that was my answer.

“Alright, Atla and Fohl. Tell Raphtalia and the others I said hey,” I said.

“Okay,” Fohl replied.

“No, it’s not okay. When will we get to see Mr. Naofumi again?” Atla asked the lion.

I stood up to go back to my room. Atla made it clear that she was upset as she questioned the lion.

“You’ll be eating breakfast with the Shield Hero later, so please be patient,” the lion replied.

“There you go. See you then,” I said.

“Understood,” Atla replied.

I went back to my oversized bedroom and had a staring contest with Raph-chan to pass the time until breakfast.

Hmm . . . If something was bound to happen, maybe I should go ahead and bring Filo back with me to the room as another pet to ensure mobility. I wasn’t sure, but maybe she could transform into a filolial chick and then she could be another secret weapon like Raph-chan. I could use her to get away if things went south.

Yeah, I was going to try that. Raphtalia and the others could get away using some other means. I had a feeling this idea was a stroke of genius.

The time came to go eat breakfast. I was taken to a terrace with a really nice view. There was a table surrounded by a ton of people, and they sat me at the head of the table. I guess this was where we were going to eat breakfast. Raphtalia and the others showed up and sat down too.

“How is everything?” I asked.

“No problems so far. I do feel murderous stares every now and then, though,” Raphtalia said.

“I bet,” I replied.

I looked at the dishes that had been laid out before us. Hmm. Raphtalia and I squinted and stared at the food.

“Hm?” Filo muttered.

She seemed to have noticed right away too. I guess those were her filolial instincts.

“. . .”

Atla seemed to have a sense for that kind of thing too. But Fohl still had no idea. In that case, it must have been something that even your average demi-human or therianthrope wouldn’t catch.

“Oh my,” Sadeena whispered.

She’d noticed too. Raphtalia’s and Filo’s reactions had probably tipped her off. I really did have an observant bunch of companions. I looked over at each of them and signaled them with my eyes. They all nodded. I was going to stay quiet and see how things played out.

“Now then, let us all enjoy our meal,” Werner announced after standing up.

Everything hinged upon whether or not he knew what was going on. And then, almost as if they had arranged it beforehand, everyone present clasped their hands together in unison and began to pray.

“May all be as our Lord the Shield wills it. We are thankful for this food that nourishes our mortal bodies. May it give us the strength to carry out the wishes of our lord, the protector of this world.”

“May it give us the strength!”

Holy shit, I almost fell out of my chair! What kind of prayer was that?! I mean, I’d been called the saint of the bird god before, but this was way more awkward than that! I never imagined being worshipped this openly would be so creepy!

But whatever. I’d ignore that for the time being. Without saying a word, I put a bite of stew in my mouth and pretended to swallow it before spitting it out in a napkin. Then I looked around. Hmm. I stood up and pointed at the stew I’d been served.

“Ahem! So you all just prayed to me, your ‘Lord the Shield.’ Well, as the Shield Hero, I’m ordering you all to eat a bite of this stew stuff that was served to me and my companions. Right now,” I said.

“Umm, as you wish.”

Werner and several other members of the Siltvelt leadership did as I ordered and ate a bite of the stew.

“Go ahead, Atla,” I said.

“Understood!”

In a flash, she leapt behind the members that hadn’t eaten the stew and delivered a quick jab to each of their backs.

“Gah! Wh-what’s the idea?!” one of them shouted.

“She’s just following my orders. Now then . . .” I said.

I pulled out several powerful antidotes from my shield and tossed them to the ones who had eaten the stew.

“I don’t know how fast-acting the poison is, so you should probably go ahead and drink the antidote. Now then . . .” I continued.

I leaned back and put my feet up on the table, like an ill-mannered twerp, and glared at the members of the leadership.

“So who wants to explain?” I asked.

That’s right. The food we’d been served had been poisoned. My shield and Raphtalia’s katana had the ability to detect poisons. The ability was called “poison sensing,” but that was beside the point. If we put any kind of poisonous plant in our weapons and analyzed it, a warning would pop up.

I had no intention of forgiving the scoundrels who had so blatantly tried to assassinate me and my companions. Being a political enemy was no excuse. Anyone willing to make an attempt on another’s life needed to be held accountable.

“Apparently you weren’t involved,” I said as I glared at Werner.

It seemed like he really hadn’t known. He was in a state of shock. The person in charge of tasting for poison must have been in on it, because he was looking at me with a disgusted look on his face.

“What were you thinking!?” Werner slammed his hands down on the table and shouted at the members we’d exposed.

“Ugh . . .”

“I’m absolutely horrified! Execute them at once!” he continued.

“That would be letting them off easy,” I said.

I looked over at the lion therianthrope who hadn’t eaten the stew. He thought no one had noticed, but I saw him smirk ever so slightly when I pretended to take a bite.

And then without delay, I swung into action. We left breakfast uneaten and moved to the throne room. I sat on the throne and had the perpetrators kneel before me.

“I’ll see to it that everyone who was involved is smoked out. Please give me some time,” Werner said.

“Sorry, but I’m done waiting. I’ve had enough of your stalling!” I shouted.

I glared at Werner and he simply bowed his head. I guess that meant he wasn’t going to try to argue.

“Listen up. We want to get to Q’ten Lo as soon as possible and we need you to arrange for that to happen. I have no interest in doing anything that will cause problems for any of you. If you want to engage in a power struggle, that’s fine, but leave me out of it,” I said.

There was no way I was going to stick around with a bunch of bastards who’d tried to assassinate my whole party. The lion therianthrope had been staring at the ground, but he looked up and took a step forward.

“Making such a demand is easy, but if there is backlash from the people, I don’t know if we will be able to keep them under control,” he said.

“You ‘don’t know’? Bullshit,” I replied.

“Not at all. I’ve heard that assassins are being sent to your territory. If there is backlash, I can’t deny the possibility that some of Siltvelt’s citizens might join those assassins in their mission,” he went on.

“Oh really? And why is that?”

“Is it not obvious? A Shield Hero who is content with staying in Melromarc is of no value to them. To them, such a Shield Hero is but an imposter, presuming to be a god. It would be no surprise if we saw the emergence of a faction of citizens driven to violence by their own sense of justice,” he explained.

I had to admit that what he was saying did make sense. So in other words, he wanted to say that it was my fault that there was unrest within Siltvelt.

“It’s only natural that we would want you to do everything you can to help resolve this issue. Whether you do that directly or leave it to your underlings is of little consequence,” he continued.

“And what exactly do you want me to do?” I asked.

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that. It’s the same thing Werner desires as representative of the shusaku. The same thing all members of the Siltvelt leadership desire. Indeed, it is the same thing that all of Siltvelt desires,” he replied.

I stood there silently, looking at the lion therianthrope and wondering what he wanted to say.

“First of all, it goes without saying that you would commit to acting as the Shield Hero solely on behalf of Siltvelt,” he said.

“Solely?” I asked.

After the incident with the Spirit Tortoise, the waves had stopped occurring in this world for the time being. But that was temporary, and when they started again it would be up to me, Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu to travel around the world taking care of them.

That went for the seven star heroes too, of course. I didn’t know where they were or when I would see them, but if we didn’t all cooperate to put an end to the waves, we would most likely end up facing the same kind of problem Kizuna’s world was up against. I really wanted to talk to the seven star heroes about all of that now, before the waves started again.

“That is correct. You would act not on behalf of our enemy Melromarc, but as Siltvelt’s hero, and only Siltvelt’s hero,” he replied.

“The heroes have to fight waves all over the world. Are you saying you have a problem with that? If there’s something you want me to do here in Siltvelt, then I might be able to agree, depending on what it is,” I said.

The lion therianthrope sneered and gave an instigative response.

“Are you that naïve? Do you really think Siltvelt is going to send its hero to other countries? Don’t be absurd. Leaving the country without permission would be inexcusable,” he said.

“So basically, you want to put me under house arrest here in the castle.”

What a joke! I was so mad I could feel smoke coming out of my ears. I’d experienced all sorts of ridiculousness in this world, but it had been a long time since a request had pissed me off so much.

“Furthermore, you will take one wife from each tribe and produce an heir with each. Once you have done that, you will have fulfilled the absolute minimum of your obligations as the Shield Hero. Do you even have any idea how much discontent has accumulated among the tribes?” he continued.

So he was saying I was supposed to form a harem and get all of my wives pregnant?

“If you cannot even do that much, the tribes’ dissatisfaction with the current Shield Hero is certain to remain. You say Q’ten Lo assassins are being sent to your territory? That’s your own fault. That country is undoubtedly after you, the Shield Hero. To say that they would come after a pathetic racoon such as her is absolutely ludicrous,” he went on.

And to top it all off, he glared at Raphtalia like she was a piece of trash while he insulted her. I wasn’t sure I could resist the urge to kill him anymore.

That did it. I’d activate my Shooting Star Shield and parade around the castle town, declaring that the country’s leaders were rotten to the core and needed to be overthrown immediately. I’d start a revolution. If I didn’t, I was never going to get to Q’ten Lo.

“Jaralis! Hold your tongue! Shield Hero, I beg of you, please ignore him!” Werner exclaimed.

He must have sensed my anger, because he got down on the ground and prostrated himself, begging for forgiveness. But I wasn’t the type to let something go so easily.

“Do not misunderstand. What I have told you is the collective opinion of the people of Siltvelt. That is a fact. However, I am not like them. Leave the arrangement of your trading ship to Q’ten Lo to me, Shield Hero,” Jaralis said as he approached me.

He clenched his fists tightly as he openly defied Werner.

“Jaralis! You bastard!” Werner shouted.

“That is right, Shield Hero. I shall prepare a ship for you. You have my word,” Jaralis continued.

“Hmm . . .”

Did this guy think I was an idiot or something? The members who’d tried to poison us were all glaring at him, and it was obvious that they wanted to say, “That’s not what we agreed on!”

He probably just planned on running if I pointed it out. But surely he, of all people, knew just how much influence I had as the Shield Hero. I might have even been able to get away with having Raphtalia and the others kill him right there on the spot by just saying I’d told them to.

“Heeeey Maaasteerrr, why is that person saying something he doesn’t really meeeaan?” Filo asked.

She pointed at Jaralis.

“Are you implying that I’m lying? Ha! I wonder what gives you that idea,” he said.

“Huuuh? But when you said you would prepare a boat, you had the same look in your eyes as a person who’s lyyyying. Just like Mel-chan’s big sister or that armor guy that worked for the bow guuuy,” Filo replied.

Just like Witch or Armor, huh? Yeah, this guy was definitely just about as untrustworthy as those two.

“It’s unfortunate that you think that. Regardless, I am being quite sincere,” he said.

“Huuuh? But when Master was about to eat that stew, you were clenching your hands under the table in anticipation. I saw yooou,” Filo replied.

“I saw that too. You should have done a little better about hiding it,” I said.

“Y-you’re mistaken! That’s purely a coincidence! Does clenching one’s fists make one a criminal?! Do you enjoy framing people, Shield Hero?” he asked.

Hmph. So he knew about my past trauma and was using that to try to manipulate me. But I saw him smirk ever so slightly when I pretended to eat the stew. He was undeniably rotten. It was obvious he was trying to use me for his own political purposes. Now I just needed to decide how to cook his goose.

“Framing, huh? I have no problem with presuming innocence when in doubt, but I saw you smirking. Or do you have an excuse for that too?” I asked.

“Your eyes were clearly playing tricks on you,” he replied.

That was a ballsy answer. So I guess he was going to insist that what I’d witnessed was just me seeing things.

“That’s not truuuue. You were acting fidgety before Master took a bite toooo,” Filo said.

She really was good at seeing through others’ lies.

“Why are you doing thiiis? Why don’t you tell the truuuuth?” she asked.

With a little bit of guidance, she could come in handy during the interrogations. Actually, I guess I’d used her against Melty before too. Her tactics didn’t work on me, though.

“Alright then, maybe I’ll put Filo in charge of questioning the poison taster. If he doesn’t know anything, then we’ll just question the next person. You’ll be last. Then again, even if things don’t lead back to you, you’ve done plenty of other shady things too. I refuse to trust you,” I told Jaralis.

“Oh, dear!” he replied.

He made an exaggerated show of being mortified when I pointed at him.

“Reprehensible! I can bear no more of this!” Atla declared loudly as she took a step forward.

“Huh?”

Chapter Seven: A True Siltveltian

“What is this insolence? You and your brother are hakuko half-breeds. You have no right to speak here! Be gone!” Jaralis shouted.

“Half-breed? Right to speak? Pathetic! Have the people of Siltvelt — those of you here in this room, especially — not forgotten the most important thing of all?” Atla replied.

She may have only been a child, but she brushed off Jaralis’s angry response as if she were completely unaffected.

“What?!” shouted Jaralis.

“Hold your tongue!” yelled another member.

“A-Atla?” Fohl stuttered.

“I will not. I would not be able to forgive myself if I stood by and watched this farce without speaking up. My intellect, my intuition, and my heart are all telling me that your actions are wrong,” she replied.

As Atla was speaking, I could sense some kind of energy erupting from her body. The energy took on the form of a tiger and bore down on the Siltvelt leadership. It felt similar to bloodlust, but not quite the same. I wondered if it was some kind of advanced application of life force.

Atla stomped a foot down in front of her and the impact caused the floor to split open. The surrounding members of the Siltvelt leadership gulped.

“C-could she be . . .”

“Impossible . . .”

The way they were trembling in fear seemed to imply they knew something I didn’t, but that wasn’t really my concern at the moment. I decided to just cross my arms, sit there like a king on a throne, and hear her out.

“I want you all to recall the original purpose of Siltvelt. Recall why it came to exist in the first place. You say you worship the Shield Hero, but here you are treating him like dirt!” she shouted.

“Wh-what are you saying?! Have we not welcomed the Shield Hero back — ”

“Then tell me, why does Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero, look so upset?! Do you really think we have not noticed the innumerable times you have treated Mr. Naofumi rudely since we arrived?!” she continued.

They were all trembling like a group of children being scolded by their mother.

“I’m ashamed that I ever admired your so-called religious devotion!” she shouted.

Oh yeah. Atla had gone on about how fantastic their devotion was several times earlier. I’d been planning on having a talk with her about that before long.

“Now then, people of Siltvelt, do you know how this country was founded? Can you tell me why it exists?” she asked.

“O-of course! It was founded by the Shield Hero and exists for the sake of the Shield Hero!” one of them replied.

He’d taken the bait. Atla pointed at the man.

“That’s right! Siltvelt was built by the Shield Hero, just like that village in Melromarc was rebuilt by Mr. Naofumi! And yet you make veiled threats of sending assassins to the village! Your actions are a disgrace to the founding of your own country!” she exclaimed.

“N-nonsense!”

“Siltvelt is a huge country! That village in Melromarc is — ”

“And did Siltvelt start out as a huge country? Are you saying the village that Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero, is rebuilding is insignificant simply because it is small?” she snapped.

There was no end in sight to Atla’s castigation. She was really on a roll.

“Do you want the history books to tell of a world that longed for something fresh and new rather than settling for worn, old fossils?” she asked.

“Ugh . . . But . . .”

“What is the purpose of our power — these claws and these fangs of ours — in the first place? Think about it! Is it world domination? Or is it to protect others? It is neither! It is all for the sake of Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero!” she shouted.

The members of the leadership — Werner, in particular — began nodding repeatedly.

“Have you not spent years upon years sharpening those fangs to prepare for when they would be needed? You can insult me and call me a half-breed if you like, but that doesn’t change what this blood running through my veins is telling me. It demands my loyalty to Mr. Naofumi!”

Some kind of strange aura began to form around Atla, and the leadership gradually began clapping. I couldn’t believe it. Would they swallow anything dished out to them?

“That’s right! The waves of destruction are upon us! The fate of future generations lies in the hands of the Shield Hero! Have we not sharpened our fangs so that we may assist him? Then declare your loyalty to Mr. Naofumi! Serve him as a retainer should!”

The roar of applause filled the air. I was only looking on vacantly. Raphtalia had a look of disbelief on her face. There was a single lion therianthrope, along with his sidekick, who refused to join in on the applause. It was Jaralis, standing there with a scowl on his face.

“A-Atla?” Fohl muttered again.

He was staring at her with a look of amazement.

“I don’t know. Nothing she said seems outright wrong, so I can’t really argue with her,” Raphtalia said.

She seemed to mostly agree with Atla.

“Yeah. Her reasoning for being loyal to little Naofumi and her willingness to fight can’t be faulted,” Sadeena replied.

“Hm? We fight against the waves because Master asked us to, right?” Filo said.

They all voiced their support like it was completely obvious. Seeing this, the members of the Siltvelt leadership all knelt down, as if they had suddenly returned to their senses.

“I can’t believe I had to be told such a thing by a little girl like this. But it is just as she says,” Werner replied.

“We exist for the sake of the Shield Hero! Our purpose was supposed to be to rescue the world from the coming destruction. And yet we tried to treat the Shield Hero like a tool to gain power for ourselves. It’s unspeakable!” shouted another one of the members.

Everyone that had been clapping bowed to me. In a stark contrast to all of them, Jaralis and his sidekick glared at me and Atla.

“Objection! I submit that this Shield Hero standing here before us is not the true Shield Hero that Siltvelt has so longed for!” Jaralis roared.

“Jaralis, you bastard! Your insolence has crossed the line!” Werner snapped, rebuking Jaralis.

“Insolence? You’re mistaken. It is exactly because I care deeply about Siltvelt that I am calmly stating my opinion so that we might avoid making any foolish decisions,” Jaralis replied.

Hmph. His wording was a bit sensationalistic, but I had a feeling what he was saying wasn’t wrong. The whole “Shield Hero’s word is law” attitude was a bit too blindly accepting in the first place. That could easily lead to trouble. If the situation had been different, I might have agreed with him. But at this point, he was only getting in the way. In which case, I wondered what to do about him.

Hm? Atla must have had something else to say, because she took in a deep breath and . . .

“Mr. Naofumi — nay, our god makes no mistakes!” she screamed at the top of her voice.

That little twit. I was starting to think she might be a genius when it came to stirring up trouble. And what the hell? These people were actually nodding in agreement. Even I could admit I made mistakes from time to time! I’d have to talk some sense into Atla later.

“Or are you foolish enough to try to say that Mr. Naofumi is a fake hero?” she asked.

“Not at all. I have no intention of going that far. I am simply saying that I don’t believe he is the Shield Hero that we have been waiting for,” Jaralis replied.

He was trying to avoid attracting further disapproval by objecting without denying outright that I was indeed the Shield Hero. It was the response of a true politician.

“I am questioning whether what we are seeing now are truly the waves of destruction spoken of in the legends. As they say, haste makes waste. If these truly are the waves prophesied to destroy the world, then why was the Shield Hero successfully summoned by our enemy, Melromarc?! Indeed, the fact that the Shield Hero was called to our enemy’s territory is the ultimate proof that now is in fact not the time that has been foretold!” he roared.

There was no arguing that things might have turned out differently if I’d been summoned to Siltvelt by myself. I’d probably be spending time with my harem, engaging in some of that “rampant debauchery” that Sadeena liked to talk about, although I wanted to believe that wouldn’t have happened.

“No, I’m afraid that theory doesn’t hold water,” Atla replied.

She shook her head in disagreement. Oh? Was she going to argue?

“It is exactly because this is the prophesied time that the Shield Hero was summoned together with the other three holy heroes. The true power of the heroes lies in sharing their individual powers with each other. In other words, Mr. Naofumi was summoned to Melromarc because it is an appropriate location for the other three heroes to be summoned to. That is your proof that the world is in danger!” she continued.

“Keep your sophistry to yourself!” Jaralis roared.

“Who is the true sophist here?! I speak as one who has sworn my loyalty to Mr. Naofumi!” she snapped.

The members of the Siltvelt leadership gulped and fell completely silent. Just then, a voice came from near the entrance of the throne room.

“You ridicule the young child, yet she has a strong will and is as fierce as a tiger. If one were to ask which of you were the true Siltveltian, I suspect anyone here would answer the girl,” said the voice.

Everyone turned around. Standing in the entrance was a therianthrope that resembled a turtle. And standing next to him was Fohl’s contact — the hakuko that I’d met early that morning. The turtle’s tail looked like a snake. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but something about him made him seem plump.

“Who are you?” I asked, confused.

Werner’s expression of surprise softened. He regained his composure and answered for the man.

“He is a genmu, and one of the country’s most well-known nobles. He is among perhaps the top two most influential people here in Siltvelt,” Werner explained.

Genmu? Was that supposed to be genbu? Ah, so the genmu race resembled the Black Tortoise. All that was left was to find an aotatsu, or whatever they called the race that resembled the Azure Dragon. Then we would have all of the four symbols.

“Greetings, Shield Hero. I have heard of your many deeds. It is a true honor to make your acquaintance,” the turtle said.

“Thanks . . .” I replied.

“Might I remind you that you stand before the Shield Hero! No matter how powerful you may be, using that form here is unforgivable!” Werner snapped.

He spoke in a threatening voice, but he grinned at the genmu.

“My, my! I remain in this form at all times to keep myself protected, so I had completely forgotten,” he replied.

The genmu returned to his demi-human form. What had been a turtle was now a plump little man. He appeared to be rather elderly — around 60 years old, perhaps. The way he walked with a cane had already given that away. There was nothing particularly dislikable about the way he looked.

“Gentlemen, we have sharpened our fangs in preparation for the coming of the prophesied time. We have kept this country alive and strong so that it might support the Shield Hero. To imply that Siltvelt will fall apart if the Shield Hero does not remain here is utter foolishness. Do you not agree?” the man asked.

Aside from Jaralis and his sidekick, everyone nodded in agreement.

“Are you suggesting that we listen to this half-breed?! Nothing about her actions strikes me as being worthy of being called a true Siltveltian!” Jaralis roared.

That threatening aura erupted from Atla’s body once again.

“Is that so? If you insist on standing in Mr. Naofumi’s way no matter what, then . . .”

Atla pointed at Jaralis and issued a bold statement.

“Mr. Naofumi’s word is the law. If you are going to stand in his way, then I shall remove you using physical force!” she declared.

Gasps of surprise erupted from the Siltvelt leaders.

“Hmph! A most welcome proposition! Werner, I see no way of avoiding this,” Jaralis replied.

“Very well, then. In accordance with Siltvelt tradition, I permit you to engage in a duel!” Werner announced.

The leadership immediately broke out into a murmur.

“Then I shall serve as the guardian of the Shield Hero’s hakuko girl. Jaralis, you will personally accept the duel to show that you stand true to your beliefs,” the genmu said.

“Those are some big words, old man. Are you truly prepared to accept the consequences as her guardian should she lose the duel?” Jaralis asked.

“I am,” said the genmu.

It certainly seemed clear that the old man had a ridiculous amount of influence. But what was a traditional Siltvelt duel, anyway?

“First, the four ‘elite’ races of Siltvelt will relinquish their overinflated say in matters. Second, you will accept our claim to the Shield Hero as the sole property of Siltvelt. And finally, you will permit the severe punishment of that insolent little brat there,” Jaralis said.

“Th-that is — ”

Werner attempted to intervene, but the old man stopped him.

“If I lose, then so be it!” Atla shouted.

“Those conditions are a joke. They all favor him. I’d rather not accept them if there’s another way . . .” I said.

But I could see Atla’s firm determination written all over her face. I would have refused if it was me in her place. I was basically being treated like the prize here. Part of me wanted to tell them all to just go to hell.

“May I assume you will not object to us specifying equally severe conditions?” the old genmu asked.

“You may,” Jaralis answered, nodding calmly.

He seemed like the type that had confidence, if nothing else. But he also seemed to have a subtle charisma, or some lion-like quality, that gave him a regal air. I had no personal obligation to accept his terms, honestly. But it would be worth it if it meant being able to deal with Raphtalia’s issue while also making these fools pay.

“Fine. Why not? I’ll accept your conditions. In return, you’ll agree to follow my orders if we win,” I said.

“Why, of course! As you wish, great Shield Hero,” Jaralis replied.

Could the bastard have been any more provocative?

“Then let us confirm the conditions. Should Jaralis win, the four noble houses of Siltvelt will relinquish their right to speak, the Shield Hero will remain in Siltvelt, and the half-blood hakuko will be punished. Should the Shield Hero win, Siltvelt will follow his orders. Are both parties in agreement?” Werner asked.

“Agreed,” I replied.

“Then I shall explain the rules of the duel. According to Siltvelt tradition, those who initiated and accepted the duel each get to choose who will fight for the opposing party,” Werner said.

“I choose . . .” Jaralis began.

He pointed at Atla and Fohl.

“The two hakuko half-breeds!” he roared.

“Huh?” Fohl muttered.

He was at a loss for words upon being chosen to fight. But seriously? I could understand Atla, but to pick Fohl too?

“You’ve got a big mouth for a half-breed! I’ll show you the true power of pedigree!” Jaralis roared.

“I’d like to see you try! Although, I am a bit worried about Brother,” Atla replied.

“A-Atla?!” Fohl stammered.

I was starting to feel sorry for him again.

“I would prefer to be paired with Mr. Naofumi,” Atla said.

“Am I allowed to participate in the duel?” I asked.

“Let the Shield Hero — the reward — participate? You’re quite the comedian, aren’t you?” Jaralis said sarcastically.

The bastard pointed at me and sneered with a provocative look in his eyes.

“I hope you realize you’re going to regret this later. Then how about Raphtalia or Filo?” I suggested.

Raphtalia would be able to crush him. I’d brought a real all-star lineup of formidable fighters, actually.

“You sure talk big, half-breed, but it would seem the Shield Hero has little faith in you and your brother. This is a real masterpiece,” Jaralis scoffed.

What an asshole. I sure hoped he wasn’t planning on trying anything sneaky to push the fight in his favor.

“Just to be clear, this is a duel between men. The use of monsters is not allowed,” Werner said.

“Hm?” Filo muttered.

“Rafuuu?”

Raph-chan and Filo both looked confused. I figured Filo might be able to participate in her human form, but I guess that wasn’t allowed.

“The fact is, I don’t really trust him to play fair, but . . . fine,” I said.

I realized that if I tried to swap the duel participants and send Raphtalia instead of Fohl, it would probably cause problems, but . . .

“You need not worry, Mr. Naofumi! Even if Brother is defeated, I will win the fight on my own!” Atla exclaimed.

“Atla?! I won’t be defeated!” Fohl replied.

She was basically declaring Fohl as useless. What a poor guy.

“I do feel a bit uneasy about it . . .” I admitted.

“To accept the opposition’s designations and still come out on top — that is a true testimony to our strength! Even if Brother loses, I will not! Mr. Naofumi! Please allow this!” Atla pleaded.

I really would have rather been extra careful, but I guess it was partially thanks to Atla speaking up that we’d been able to specify the conditions we had. If worse came to worst, I could just make up some excuse and ignore their conditions. Besides, that Jaralis bastard really pissed me off. And I’d seen how formidable Atla could be recently too.

“Fine. I will allow it,” I said.

“Thank you! Now then, we have Mr. Naofumi’s permission. Let the duel begin!” Atla declared.

All of the hot-blooded members in the room nodded excitedly, and everyone was taken to the hall where the party had been held the night before. Apparently that was where the duel would be held.

Jaralis’s sidekick was a brawny minotaur therianthrope who looked like some kind of legendary warrior. He was gripping his weapon tightly and raring to go. The guy was even bigger than the minotaur who had taken our carriage the day before.

“Oh my . . . I see you have chosen one of the surviving heroes of the great wars to fight by your side,” said Werner.

“Indeed. With the Shield Hero at stake, this is a battle of utmost importance. I can’t risk bringing along some nobody that I can’t trust. Of course, I fully expect him to go all out from the get-go,” Jaralis replied.

“All for the sake of Siltvelt!” exclaimed the minotaur.

He seemed eager to fight too.

“I’ll have the Shield Hero take my daughter in marriage,” he added.

Hell no. Even if this muscle-bound beast’s daughter was the most beautiful girl in the world, I would still refuse. I disliked women as a general rule. And being used for breeding like a stud was inexcusable.

“But . . . Is this really . . .” Werner’s voice trailed off.

He glanced over at me with a worried look on his face.

“Oh my . . . The boy certainly does seem to know how to handle himself. He might even be stronger than little Sasa,” Sadeena said.

I wanted to retort with a “who the hell is that?!” But I vaguely recalled that being the name of one of the fighters I’d seen in a Zeltoble coliseum match.

“We have no choice but to fight, regardless of who the opponent may be. Atla will just have to defeat him. Can you do that, Atla?” Raphtalia asked.

“You shouldn’t even have to ask, Raphtalia. If it will prove my loyalty to Mr. Naofumi, then I will smash through any obstacle, no matter how great it may be!” Atla replied.

“I . . .” Fohl started.

He seemed to be wavering. Whatever, I wasn’t expecting much from him anyway.

“And I’m supposed to just watch?” I asked.

“That’s right,” Werner replied.

Hmph. So this was how it felt to be treated like a prize. I couldn’t help but wonder if Raphtalia felt the same way when Motoyasu challenged me to a duel. Anyway, we’d managed to make it this far without losing. Doing so here wasn’t an option.

“Atla! Fohl! You better win, no matter what!” I said.

“Of course we will!” Atla replied.

“Ugh . . . I’ll win for Atla and for our father!” Fohl said.

Oh? He was starting to show a bit of verve too.

“Hmph! Good luck with that, you hakuko half-breed!” Jaralis snarled.

“I heard you fought alongside my father. What kind of man was he on the battlefield?” Fohl asked Jaralis.

I’d almost forgotten about Jaralis being there to witness his father’s last moments. His father’s death had been suspicious too, so it only made sense for him to ask.

“Ha! You are but a pale shadow of the man. If you really want to know, then ask me with your fists!” Jaralis replied.

“Fine. Whether or not I am stronger than he was . . . I’ll let you see for yourself!” Fohl shouted.

“Very well. Are both parties ready to begin the duel?” the announcer asked.

He gave the signal to get ready and Jaralis and the minotaur both took on a fighting stance. Atla just stood there casually, as if completely relaxed and unaffected by any of this. Judging by the way Fohl was starting to get worked up, he might have actually enjoyed fighting after all. I was still a bit worried, though. Arguing with his sister was the only fighting I’d seen him do so far.

And then the sound of a gong echoed throughout the hall.

Chapter Eight: Honor in Battle

Atla exhaled powerfully and the sound of her breath resonated throughout the hall. The air around her rushed outward, as if a shockwave had erupted from her body. The opponents — Jaralis and the minotaur — must have sensed the incredible power accumulating within Atla, because they both gulped unwittingly.

“Hmph! We are pureblood warriors! A pair of hakuko half-breeds could never defeat us! Let’s do this!” Jaralis roared.

He pulled a pair of brass knuckles out of his back pocket, slipped them on, and rushed toward Atla and Fohl. The minotaur held his ground to the rear, waiting for an opening.

“Atla!” Fohl shouted.

He leapt forward to protect Atla, but Jaralis’s target appeared to have been Fohl from the beginning. The minotaur leapt over the both of them and swung his massive axe down at Atla. He looked like a heavyweight, but he was surprisingly quick! He’d sprung toward Atla at unbelievable speed, given his massive body. The sight of him flying through the air as he swung his axe was, in a word, astounding.

“Too slow!” Atla scoffed.

She dodged the axe by the breadth of a hair as it came flying at her and then used the force of its impact to launch herself high up into the air.

“To think you would be able to dodge that . . . It looks like I might get to have a bit of fun, after all,” said the minotaur.

He must have been one of those bellicose, muscles-for-brains types, because he grinned with excitement when he saw the way Atla moved.

“I’ll leave her to you! This all-show-and-no-go hakuko half-breed is mine!” Jaralis roared.

Oh wow, he called Fohl “all show and no go.” That wasn’t funny, considering the fact it was pretty much true.

“Say what you like! I don’t plan on letting you beat me! I have to protect Atla, after all!” Fohl shouted.

He ran toward Jaralis swinging, but Jaralis just grinned.

“Ha! Do you really think I’d lose to someone with a swing like that?” he snarled.

Jaralis moved so quickly that his afterimage seemed to linger behind. In a flash, he buried a fist deep into Fohl’s stomach.

“That was too easy! Your defense is weak, hakuko half-breed!” he roared.

Without even giving him a chance to breathe, Jaralis unleashed a flurry of attacks on Fohl.

“This miserable nothing is supposed to be one of the Shield Hero’s soldiers?! Don’t make me laugh!” he sneered.

He kicked Fohl, delivered a powerful hook, and then followed up with a straight jab. After that . . . he cast a spell?!

“Zweite Accel Boost!”

Jaralis appeared behind Fohl almost instantaneously, as if he had teleported. He then clenched his hands together and smashed them into the ground. There was a loud rumble as a tremor shot forth, shaking the earth below.

To be able to deliver such a barrage of attacks in mere moments . . . I’d heard that Siltvelt was a militant country. It wasn’t hard to believe after seeing such combat prowess. I wondered if Fohl would be alright.

“Hmph. Finished already? How boring!” Jaralis growled.

“Raahhhhh!” bellowed the minotaur.

I looked over toward Atla just in time to catch a glimpse of the instant the minotaur swiped his axe at her. He must have used the axe version of a Hadouken or something, because the pillar behind Atla split in two.

“Jaralis, you better not try to interfere!” the minotaur shouted facetiously while grinning.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you have all the fun this time. This duel is sacred. That hakuko half-breed disgraced me, and for that I’ll make her pay,” Jaralis replied.

“Oh really? I don’t mind fighting you both by myself, but it’s a bit early for you to assume that you’ve defeated my brother,” Atla said.

She dodged the minotaur’s swing and attempted to close in on him in one fluid motion, but his guard was tight. He deflected her attack with his axe and then used it to repel her, tossing her into the air.

“I’ve fought people like you before. I know taking any of your attacks head-on would have dire consequences. I can see why the Shield Hero chose you,” the minotaur said.

“Oh? Should I parry that comment too, then? Gosh, I never expected this to be so difficult,” Atla taunted.

“You seem to be convinced you’ve won, Jaralis. You better keep your eyes on your own opponent,” the minotaur said.

“Hmph! You warrior types are too serious. Look at this! My victory is already —”

Jaralis had grabbed Fohl by the leg and lifted him up into the air as if he were about to finish him. But Fohl kicked Jaralis’s hand away with his other foot, landed on his hands, and sprung backward away from Jaralis in one swift movement.

“You’re quick, but you hit like a girl. Actually, you make yourself seem quick, but you’re really not all that fast,” Jaralis taunted.

Fohl brushed himself off, faced Jaralis, and readied himself to fight again.

“What did you say?!” he shouted.

“Oh? You’re pretty tough after all, Brother,” Atla said.

“This is nothing compared to my training back at the village. I hope you’re not going to tell me those attacks were you being serious,” Fohl taunted Jaralis.

Jaralis snarled and his aura grew even more threatening than before. I guess that meant he had been holding back. His attacks had been slow enough that I was able to follow them easily, after all. Raphtalia or Filo would’ve had no problem dodging and counterattacking.

Now that Fohl mentioned it, I remembered that he’d not only been training daily, but he also had to do battle with Atla every night. “Tough” might have been an appropriate description, after all. Maybe he’d purposely taken the attacks to get an idea of his opponent’s strength.

“Why would I fight seriously against a hakuko half-breed? Don’t insult me,” Jaralis replied.

“Nothing is more insulting than not taking an opponent seriously!” Fohl shouted angrily.

His eyes were ablaze.

“Have you ever even been on a real battlefield before? It’s not a place for aristocrats to play tough,” Fohl codded.

Jaralis let out an angry roar.

“You mouthy brat! You’ll regret that!” he thundered.

The two of them went on bickering, but I turned my attention back to Atla and the minotaur. This duel was supposed to be a tag team battle, but it had just ended up being two one-on-one fights. Not that I actually cared either way.

“Here I come! Aiya!” Atla cried out.

The minotaur bellowed out a battle cry and swung his axe down with all of his might! But the path of the axe mysteriously shifted sideways, and the blade fell just to the side of Atla.

“Hmph . . .”

“I wouldn’t get hit by an attack like that in a million years. If all you have is your superhuman strength, parrying is easy as pie!” Atla taunted.

“This is getting interesting! Then how about this?!” the minotaur shouted.

He gripped his axe with both hands and held it out directly in front of himself. He then took a wide stance and closed his eyes. Huh? What was he doing? The axe started to glow faintly.

“Do not underestimate pure strength. Your little tricks won’t work if the strength is so great that it cannot be parried,” he said.

“Impressive. Attacking is everything to you. I admire that. In that case, I won’t hold back. I’ll divert anything you can throw at me!” Atla replied.

“You better not think that strength is all I have!”

The minotaur bellowed out another long, ear-piercing war cry. Strange patterns suddenly appeared on the surface of his body and his muscles began to bulge. But was that war cry really necessary? It lasted so long that I zoned out for a second there.

“Th-that’s . . .” Raphtalia muttered.

She was at a loss for words.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“It’s not quite the same as the Muso Activation technique, but it’s similar to Filo’s toned-down version of haikuikku. He’s increasing his stats by circulating magic power throughout his body,” she explained.

Hmph, I guess he really was a legendary warrior.

“Oh? That’s interesting. Let me give that a try,” Atla said.

And just like that, something like magic power began to accumulate around Atla. I could sense it thanks to my training with the Way of the Dragon Vein.

“Just as I suspected, you must be a prodigy. Here I come!” shouted the minotaur.

Atla exhaled powerfully and the sound of her breath filled the hall. The minotaur was fast! Seeing a body of that size move so quickly reminded me of Filo fighting in her filolial queen form.

“Wooow, they’re both so quiiick,” Filo said.

She was able to follow their movements with her eyes. I guess that wasn’t surprising, considering that she could move like that too.

“Let’s see you take this! Crushing Bull!”

The minotaur planted his feet down firmly and swung his axe down toward Atla.

“Indeed, it would be the end of me if that attack landed. But I’m not going to just stand here,” Atla replied.

She hopped to the side with a light step and anticipated the path of the axe, delivering a swift kick to the blade from the side as it came crashing down. In one fluid motion, she followed up with strikes using her elbow, heel, and fist before delivering one final thrusting jab. There was a loud bursting sound, and something like magic power exploded out of the axe and dispersed.

“Hmph! To think such an evasion would be possible!” snarled the minotaur.

“I drew out the power you concentrated in the blade and used it to counter the power of your swing. It’s a technique I often use to divert my rival’s attacks,” Atla replied.

The minotaur gave a slightly irritated grunt.

“Making such an indiscreet show of life force is just asking for it to be repelled. You need to either wait until the moment before impact to channel the life force in or just make it so concentrated that it is undetectable. You’ll never land the attack otherwise,” she continued.

I glanced over at Raphtalia without saying anything.

“She’s right. That’s the least you have to do to make it through Atla’s defense,” she said.

In other words, Atla had no problem thwarting the minotaur’s finishing move, thanks to having sparred with Raphtalia. I guess that meant their sparring was at least as intense as this fight was.

Hmm, it sure was inconvenient not being able to see life force. I wanted to learn how already, but I just couldn’t seem to catch a break. Then again, I had a feeling I was starting to be able to see it lately.

“I see! You mean like this!” the minotaur shouted with excitement.

Just as Atla suggested, he swung his axe across and power erupted out of the blade at the very last second, just before impact.

“You need practice! Now it’s my turn!” she said.

Having crouched down to dodge the minotaur’s attack, Atla delivered a swift jab to his stomach, arm, and finally his back after passing under his arm and circling around him. Immediately after, a loud splitting sound rang out.

“Urg . . . gah! Not a bad attack for such a frail little body . . .”

The minotaur swallowed the blood that had filled his mouth and flashed a feisty grin at Atla.

“Oh? It would seem you are far tougher than I expected,” she said.

“It’s been a long time since I last fought someone who stirred my blood this much. This is starting to get fun. The effortless grace of your movements is unusual for a hakuko. I want more! Don’t let the fun stop yet!” the minotaur exclaimed.

Atla’s opponent sure seemed to be enjoying their fight.

“I don’t have time to spend all day fighting you, but I will admit that I’m enjoying this!” she said.

“Then let’s do this!” he shouted before bellowing out another war cry.

I don’t know if the minotaur used magic or what, but his horns suddenly grew longer and sharper. He crouched forward like he was about to charge and pointed his horns at Atla.

“Oh my, that appears to be a savage attack, indeed. I’m guessing you will charge forward and then use that momentum to attack with your axe — a transfer of kinetic energy,” she said.

“Well read, blind girl. I can confidently say that you are one of the most formidable fighters I know of, even within Siltvelt,” the minotaur replied.

“You flatter me! I suppose I should go ahead and do something about that superhuman strength of yours,” she said.

She stood on her tiptoes like a ballerina and held her hand out toward the minotaur. Atla sure was a lot flashier than Fohl when it came to fighting.

I glanced over at Fohl. He was exchanging blows with Jaralis. Well, no. Actually, it was Fohl doing all of the swinging. It was a stark contrast to Atla’s defensive approach. That said, Jaralis was dodging all of his punches with some fancy footwork. On top of that, Jaralis must have been more tactically inclined than Fohl, because he was also using tools to his advantage.

“Take this!” Jaralis shouted.

“That again?!” Fohl moaned.

Jaralis hurled a smoke bomb at the ground and smoke billowed up around Fohl. I really wished he would stop doing that, because it made the fight hard to see. Fohl seemed to understand the potential danger of such a thing, because he made his way out of the smoke immediately. But just as he did, Jaralis flung something that looked like metal spikes at him. Was he supposed to be some kind of ninja assassin or something? There were a bunch of similar weapons scattered around the area.

“You fight dirty! I thought this was supposed to be a barehanded fight!” Fohl shouted.

“Dirty? I prefer to say I fight smart!” Jaralis replied.

He pulled out a long sword that was covered in decorations and swung it at Fohl. It must have been hidden under his cloak all this time.

“I never said anything about bare hands. Whatever happens, the victory goes to the last man standing,” he said.

I guess we hadn’t really set any rules regarding finer details. And Atla’s opponent was using an axe too. There were no rules against weapons. Regardless, I still didn’t like how he’d started out unarmed and then suddenly began using concealed weapons later on. Did he think he could just weasel out of things if I objected?

“What happened to all of that confidence?!” Jaralis taunted after cutting into Fohl’s arm with the sword he’d been hiding.

“Ugh!” Fohl groaned.

After being attacked, he looked at the wound on his arm and then held a hand to his forehead like he’d become dizzy.

“How underhanded can you get?” he muttered.

“Were you not listening? Winning is all that matters!” Jaralis roared.

“You fool. You have no concept of honor in battle. You’ll never know true strength!” Fohl shouted.

It looked like he might pass out for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and glared at Jaralis, standing as steady as if nothing had happened.

“What?” Jaralis muttered.

“I don’t know what poison you used, but it will take more than that to defeat me!” Fohl exclaimed.

Oh! He sounded like a real tough guy now. Out of curiosity, I took a look at Fohl’s stats. I should have been able to tell if he’d ingested any poisons, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. I guess that meant he’d already nullified it.

“Just as expected of a hakuko,” the old genmu whispered.

Fohl was growing tougher by the day, thanks to Atla. Practicing with her was supposed to help me awaken some kind of latent strength, but it almost felt like he’d beat me to it.

“Hmph! You sure talk big for someone who can barely stand!” Jaralis roared.

“I’ve had enough of your dirty attacks!” Fohl shouted.

He blocked Jaralis’s swing and snapped his sword in half before slugging him in the face.

“Gah!”

Blood poured out of Jaralis’s nose. He grabbed his face and groaned in pain.

“Ugh . . . How dare you . . . How dare you leave a mark on my face! You’re nothing but a pathetic hakuko half-breed!” Jaralis roared.

This guy reminded me of someone—his hubristic way of speaking. Who was it? I knew it was someone I hadn’t interacted with much. I just remembered he had an overbearing sense of pride and managed to present himself as well-mannered while still being insolent. If you paid careful attention, it became clear he was a selfish megalomaniac.

And then it came to me! Jaralis gave off the same vibes as Armor, one of Itsuki’s old party members. I was glad I figured that out, because it would have bothered me forever.

“Umm, Mr. Naofumi? What are you thinking about? It’s something that has absolutely nothing to do with the duel, isn’t it?” Raphtalia asked.

“Huh? No, not really,” I replied.

I brushed her question off, satisfied with my revelation. It made total sense. Jaralis was a megalomaniac who was trying to take advantage of a hero. Just like Armor. And he was arrogant as hell!

“‘Half-breed! Half-breed!’ You’re so annoying! Are your dirty tactics supposed to be noble, then?!” Fohl trounced.

“Ugh! You never stop! The way you constantly insult me reminds me of your father!” Jaralis replied.

“I was wondering when you would mention my father. You told me to ask with my fists, but your fists tell me nothing of him. I was just thinking how disappointing it was,” Fohl said.

“Bah! The man was disowned by his parents and left his own country, and he still seemed to know everyone! Just thinking about him pisses me off!” Jaralis growled.

Was he jealous? Something seemed fishy here.

“Yeah, I talked to a hakuko who knew my father earlier this morning. He told me that you fought in the same war that my father died in,” Fohl said.

I turned to the hakuko who was standing behind the old genmu.

“What’s the story behind that?” I asked.

The old genmu replied, “That hakuko boy’s father was most likely the son of Tyron, a man who once ruled over Siltvelt with his extraordinary charisma. Tyron’s son was a brave man, but he disliked war and his relationship with Tyron suffered for it.”

I could’ve guessed that much. What I was interested in was what came after that. I seemed to remember something about him getting engaged to Trash’s younger sister.

“One day, Tyron’s son was in Melromarc attempting to finalize a peace treaty. I didn’t know this until later, but he was set up by someone in Melromarc. They murdered the members of the pacifist faction he was meeting with and then shifted the blame onto Tyron’s son,” he continued.

“Oh?”

“After that, Tyron’s son went missing. That is until the country, where he was hiding, got mixed up in a war. When his true identity was discovered, he was forced to go to war as a soldier for one of Siltvelt’s allies. That is most likely where he came to know Jaralis,” the genmu explained.

Hmm . . . Having seen how that lion-bastard fought, I could imagine what might have gone wrong when the two met. Fohl’s father was a brave, valiant man. Jaralis liked to fight dirty and probably loved making surprise attacks.

“Come on, spit it out! Tell me about my father’s final moments!” Fohl demanded.

“Hmph! He charged straight at the enemy like a fool and died in battle, of course! The fool was vastly outnumbered and couldn’t even defeat a single enemy!” Jaralis snorted.

“Lies! There’s no way my father was that weak! He was a kind man, but he bravely stood his ground when it came to battle!” Fohl exclaimed.

I wondered just what kind of father he’d really been.

“He enjoyed reading books when he was a child. His natural talents surpassed even those of Tyron’s, but he did everything he could to avoid fighting. Even so, he was no less impressive than his father when he did decide to fight,” said the old genmu.

“So he was more of a Mr. Nice Guy?” I asked.

The old genmu nodded. I hadn’t actually expected Mr. Nice Guy to translate. Anyway, that made sense. So he was willing to fight when necessary but tended to be mild-mannered otherwise. I was totally imagining him as a character from an anime show, manga, or some game. That type was so cliché.

“Kind of like Master when he’s coddling Raph-chan?” Filo asked.

“You might be on to something. Mr. Naofumi doesn’t go easy on his enemies, but considering the way he looks after everyone, they do seem pretty similar,” Raphtalia said.

“You’re wrong!” I snapped.

I was a tyrant. I was no Mr. Nice Guy. And to be honest, before I came to this world I was just some frivolous otaku! What were they thinking?!

We went on talking and Fohl took another swing at Jaralis. Determined not to lose, Jaralis pulled a collapsible spear out from behind his back and attempted to counterattack with it while dodging Fohl’s fierce swing. The head of the spear suddenly detached and shot straight toward Fohl’s face. But Fohl must have anticipated the attack, because he tilted his head to the side and dodged it.

“Ha! Did you really think an attack like that would work? The mercenaries in Zeltoble are a lot dirtier than that!” he exclaimed.

Well, yeah, Zeltoble was basically a huge collection of cowards, after all.

“You say you were comrades in arms? Sacrilege! Whatever the truth may be, I don’t trust a word that comes out of your mouth!” Fohl continued.

“What?! You dare attempt to disgrace me?! A pathetic half-breed like you!? You’ve gone too far!” Jaralis roared.

“No way . . .” mumbled Werner.

He must have known something I didn’t, because he looked horrified. But that didn’t concern me at the moment. The lion’s roar filled the hall. I thought the lion was supposed to be the king of the savanna. Were they really such dastardly creatures? Well, I guess this was a different world. And this bastard was just a therianthrope. He probably thought nothing was off limits as long as he won.

On the contrary, this fight was making Fohl look better. He’d been on the verge of being declared the weakest of us all.

“Stop screwing around! Help me finish this bastard already!” Jaralis shouted at the minotaur.

He ordered the minotaur to help defeat Fohl, but the minotaur was completely absorbed in his fight with Atla and wasn’t listening.

“I’ve never seen someone dodge like that. Trying to hit you is like batting at a feather dancing in the wind — so difficult!” the minotaur said.

Every time the minotaur attacked, Atla would divert the attack with her bare hands and then go spinning around. He was marveling at the way she maneuvered to divert each and every one, no matter how skillfully the attack had been executed. I would’ve expected him to be overcome with rage and go into a swinging frenzy, but he seemed to be more of the “intellectual warrior” type . H e remained calm and level-headed during battle. It was clear he was a formidable fighter.

“Then how about this?!” he shouted.

With a loud clunk, his axe split right down the middle, transforming it into two single-handed battle axes. He swung the axes at Atla from both sides in an attempt to sandwich her so that she couldn’t divert the attack.

“That can be diverted like this,” Atla replied.

As the axes came barreling at her from both sides, she placed a hand on each one and then leapt up into the air as gracefully as if she were dancing. With a determined shout, the minotaur altered the path of the axes in an attempt to crush her from above and below. But Atla carefully placed her hand on the blade of the top axe and pulled herself up over it in one swift, flowing movement.

“You’re not getting away!” the minotaur bellowed.

“Indeed. Because now I have you right where I want you,” she replied.

The minotaur thrust his horns at Atla and she gave him a light jab right between the eyes.

“What?!” he exclaimed.

“You finally left yourself open. Now then, I wonder how much stamina you have left after all that. As for me, I’ve just been hopping around and diverting your attacks,” Atla said.

Atla landed on the ground and closed in on the minotaur in a flash before unleashing a barrage of jabs into his chest.

“Ugh! Gah! Argh! I’m not done with you!” the minotaur bellowed.

Despite being bent over backward and falling toward the floor, he caught himself and returned to an upright position, but his axes slipped out of his hands and fell to the floor.

“You won’t be able to use your strength for a while. I sealed it off with those jabs,” Atla said.

“I’m still not going to let you win!” he shouted.

The same magic power that he’d channeled into his axe when he swung it earlier suddenly began erupting from every inch of his body.

“Like a true legendary warrior, you never give up,” Atla said.

“Your lofty sense of composure reminds me of that man’s spirit. Ha! I love it!” the minotaur exclaimed.

The two of them were really getting into the duel. In the meanwhile, Jaralis was still yelling at the minotaur to focus his attacks on Fohl.

“Ugh! Why am I surrounded by barbarians?! Do you not understand the concept of strategy in a battle?!” Jaralis growled.

“Strategy? Ha! Don’t make me laugh,” I said with a chuckle.

Jaralis glared at me.

“That’s not strategy. That’s you begging for help because you’re on the verge of losing. The way you’re fighting is far too sloppy to be called strategy,” I continued.

Even if the minotaur had been listening, what was Jaralis planning on doing about Atla? It’s not like she was going to just stand there quietly and watch the two of them finish Fohl off. Well, I guess it was possible in Atla’s case. But either way, there would have undoubtedly been consequences.

“You use a bunch of concealed weapons and surprise attacks, and then you go begging your friend for help when you’re about to lose. I can just imagine you blaming it all on him when you lose the duel too. Sorry, but I’m not going to let you do that. I’ll use my authority as the Shield Hero to make sure he’s protected,” I said.

“Ugh . . .”

Oh! Nice! I liked the way that made him look at me. He acted like propriety was so important, but he was really just a greedy bastard. Frankly speaking, I hated his type. That’s why pissing him off felt so good. The slave traders were scum too, but this guy was a different kind of scum. I could tell he despised me deep down. In fact, he made the slave traders seem like good guys, since you could never actually tell what they were thinking.

“Jaralis, was it? It only makes sense that you’d take full responsibility, right? There’s no way in hell I’m going to let you off the hook,” I said.

“Umm, Mr. Naofumi, why do you look like you’re enjoying this so much?” Raphtalia asked.

“Huh? Because he’s probably the one behind all of this. If things work out, I plan on using any means necessary to make him confess, whether that be torture, drugs, or whatever,” I replied.

“I can’t believe you just openly admitted something so extreme. Even I wasn’t expecting that,” Sadeena said.

“Hm?” Filo asked.

“Hey, Filo, if that guy tells any more lies, feel free to force the truth out of him,” I told her.

“Okaaaay, I will!” she replied.

“I’m pretty sure I can make a truth serum with my shield. I never had a reason to before now. Maybe I’ll make an absurdly powerful one and try it out on him,” I said.

We’d almost been poisoned, after all. Surely it would be okay to use a truth serum on the prime suspect.

“Or maybe we should see if you can outdrink me. I’ll even give you a handicap. I mean, we’ll be competing using rucolu fruits, so it probably won’t help,” I continued.

The Siltvelt leaders all gasped and covered their mouths with their hands. The thought of eating a rucolu fruit seemed bizarre to them.

“Oh my! I want to play too!” Sadeena exclaimed.

“Oh yeah, you were telling me all about rucolu fruit before, weren’t you?” I replied.

She’d mentioned that the fruit was sometimes used to assassinate people. It could induce acute alcohol poisoning.

“That sounds good, right? You get the privilege of drinking with a hero. Even if you get drunk and end up dead, you’ll be dying happy, right?” I continued.

Everything he said was a lie. He was just a piece of scum dragging this country down. Nothing bad could come from getting rid of him.

“Regardless, you can’t seriously think I’m going to let you off the hook after you lose. Don’t underestimate the heroes,” I said.

“Get over yourself, otherworlder!” Jaralis roared.

His eyes were burning with rage. I guess he was finally going to show his true colors. I’d barely had to bait him at all—setting him off had been a breeze. But seriously, I’d just gotten tired of hearing his excuses.

“Fohl, hurry up and finish him off. Atla is enjoying her fight too much. She’s just going to keep going forever if you don’t stop her,” I said.

“You don’t have to tell me that! I’m done playing games!” Fohl snapped.

Fohl crouched down low, held his hands out, and pressed his palms together. What was that? It looked like a pose a character in a fighting game might make before using a really impressive finishing move. Or maybe a special move that belonged to some Super Vegeta . . . ble Man. Either of those would’ve been fine, as long as his hair didn’t turn all spiky and blonde. That would have been unacceptable.

“Hengen Muso Fist Technique . . .” Fohl said quietly.

I could tell he was concentrating hard. I saw something appear between his hands before he gripped them tightly to form fists. Did that mean nothing was going to shoot out of them?

“Why are you looking at Fohl with a disappointed look on your face, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia asked.

“It’s just that I expected him to shoot something out of his hands after making a pose like that. I mean, even Melty holds her hands out in front of her when she fires off magic and stuff, right?” I replied.

“I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but I have a feeling you’re imagining something different than we would,” she said.

No I wasn’t. I just wanted to see some kind of super-secret move is all.

“Fist of the Tiger Slayer!” Fohl shouted.

He dashed toward Jaralis and smashed his fist right through the spear in Jaralis’s hands and into his stomach. I hadn’t expected him to land a clean hit that easily.

“Gaaaahhhhh!”

Fohl’s powerful punch sent Jaralis flying through the air and into the wall, which cracked when his body smashed into it. He’d flown right between Atla and the minotaur while they were staring each other down, and they both turned their attention to him in surprise.

“Hmph! That was too easy!” Fohl declared.

He folded his arms confidently. I couldn’t tell if Jaralis had just been weak or if Fohl was actually strong.

“Oh my, that was impressive,” said Sadeena.

“I guess so,” I replied.

“Atla! I’m coming to help!” Fohl shouted.

“That won’t be necessary. It is I who must fight this battle,” she replied.

“Hmph . . . I don’t mind! Bring it on!” the minotaur exclaimed.

“Atla!” Fohl whined.

“You’re in the way, Brother!” she shouted.

Atla gave Fohl a sharp jab to the chest when he ignored her and tried to interfere anyway. He gripped at his chest and fell to his knees.

“Ugh . . .”

“I guess that means Atla is the strongest one here,” I said.

Fohl appearing strong must have been an illusion. But seriously, Atla! What happened to showing the people of Siltvelt her pride and dignity as a retainer of the Shield Hero?

“Alright then, here I come! This ends here!” the minotaur bellowed.

“So it shall!” Atla replied.

The minotaur fused the two battle axes back into a single axe and held it behind him like he was going to drag it along the ground.

“That again? Techniques are far less exciting once they’ve already been used,” she said.

“This one is different. You’ll see when it hits you,” he replied.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m going to see through this one too.”

“Ha! This was fun, heiress of Tyron!”

“D-don’t tell me . . . Shield Hero, we are in danger here!” Werner warned me.

“We’re fine. Who do you think I am?” I replied.

I was the Shield Hero. My worth as a hero would be questionable if I couldn’t withstand an attack or two. And if there was an enemy capable of delivering an attack I couldn’t withstand, it would probably be in everyone’s best interest if I stuck around and made sure the enemy went down with me.

“I’ll catch any stray bullets that come our way. That’ll make things simple if that’s all it takes to prove I’m the Shield Hero,” I continued.

The minotaur went charging forward, and the floor below his feet cracked and crumbled with each step. Atla dashed straight at him.

The minotaur bellowed out an earth-shaking battle cry and a swirling mass of magic power poured out of his mouth and took on the form of a bull. It was an incredible sight. Even if it was me trying to block that attack head-on, the impact probably would’ve sent me and my shield flying. Not that I planned on ever being careless enough to have to take such an attack head-on.

“Stampede of the Iron Bull!”

The minotaur lifted his axe high into the air and then hurled it toward Atla. The axe took on the form of a bull and went flying at her.

“Oh my, that is indeed a potent and fearsome attack. Such an arcane technique is certainly worthy of praise,” Atla said.

And yet she looked completely relaxed. The attack charged straight at her in the form of a raging bull. Atla leapt straight at the bull and jabbed her finger right between its eyes. With another thundering battle cry, the minotaur went charging after, as if to fuse with the raging bull made of magic power. Atla exhaled powerfully and a loud hiss reverberated throughout the hall.

“Haaa!” she cried out.

She switched from using a single finger, to her whole hand, and then to both hands to stop the raging bull in its tracks. I had a feeling I could see something like concentrated life energy emanating from her hands.

“I shall take the liberty of attacking as well. This is my imitation of the Hengen Muso technique Point of Focus—no, make that Orb of Focus!” she exclaimed.

Atla held the raging bull in place with one hand and began to form a small orb of light in her other hand. It grew for several seconds before she injected it into the bull’s body at the point between his eyes. The minotaur began to howl but then stopped suddenly.

“Urgah?!”

Despite the fact that we were watching from relatively far away, we could see the small orb of light make its way through the raging bull’s body toward the heart, where it then burst. The magic power that had taken on the form of the raging bull shattered and dissipated, revealing the minotaur once again. He was standing there motionless with Atla’s finger resting on the point between his eyes.

“Superb. Your softness, rather than hardness, distinguishes you from Tyron. But you are clearly the reincarnation of his spirit,” the minotaur said.

“Coming from you, there could be no higher praise. I accept your words with gratitude,” Atla replied.

“I wish I could say I look forward to meeting you on the battlefield again . . . some . . . day.”

The moment he finished his sentence, the minotaur collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud. Atla didn’t seem to have taken much damage at all. That didn’t make the minotaur seem very strong, but maybe I was mistaken.

“Hey, Sadeena. How strong was that guy Atla just fought?” I asked.

“Hmm . . . Strong enough that I’m not sure I could have beaten him without your hero stat boosts,” she replied.

Using herself as the standard didn’t make things any clearer. I guess it was my fault for asking her. Regardless, putting it that way must have meant he was pretty powerful.

“He had not only power, but also speed. His fighting style was creative and daring. And each of those aspects was of the finest caliber. I can confidently say that he was a one-of-a-kind warrior,” Atla said proudly.

I looked over at Werner and the genmu and they nodded in agreement.

“He was considered one of the most powerful warriors in Siltvelt, second only to the Claw Hero. Practically speaking, that places anyone that could defeat him among the most elite of warriors,” Werner said.

“Half-breed or not, that girl’s hakuko spirit could be no purer. There is no truer embodiment of a warrior of Siltvelt than her. That is a fact,” added the genmu proudly.

“I hate to admit it, but you’re right. She is worthy of being considered a hakuko and a member of one of Siltvelt’s four elite races. As a retainer, though, I still have doubts about her strength, among other things,” Werner said.

“A hakuko? That is irrelevant. I simply did my duty as Mr. Naofumi’s retainer. Whether or not I have human blood running through my veins is of no consequence,” Atla replied.

“Oh? Well, that’s fine too. We can decide who will stand at the lead of Siltvelt’s four elite races at a later date. What is important now is pledging our loyalty to the Shield Hero. Nothing more,” Werner said.

“I’m not sure I agree with any of you,” I mumbled.

I just couldn’t wrap my head around the way they did things in this country. But regardless, this meant that we would finally be able to get that ship to Q’ten Lo and—

“Not yet . . . I’m not done . . . yet . . . I haven’t lost yet . . .”

Battered and bloody, Jaralis mumbled defiantly as he crawled to his feet.

Chapter Nine: Beast Transformation

“It seems your claws need sharpening, Brother,” Atla said.

“A-Atla?! Fine! I get it! I’ll finish him for good this time!” Fohl exclaimed.

Just as Fohl readied himself to attack, Jaralis pulled a vial out of his pocket. It seemed to be filled with some kind of concoction.

“Hmph! I never imagined you would drive me this far. But this is a fight that I can’t afford to lose!” Jaralis roared.

He snapped the end of the vial off and gulped down whatever had been inside. I could suddenly hear his heart throbbing loudly, even from as far away as we were standing.

“Did he just drink some kind of crazy drug?” I asked.

I guess we hadn’t banned doping or anything, so it wasn’t like I could say he’d broken any rules. But regardless, did he really think I was just going to let him do whatever he wanted? This guy just couldn’t get it through his—

“Shield Hero? Ha! This fool is far too arrogant and troublesome to serve as our puppet!” Jaralis growled.

“My bad. I’ll get to work on that,” I said.

Jaralis’s wounds began to close up right in front of our eyes and the look of urgency in his eyes was replaced by a calm, smug expression.

“Jaralis! Watch your mouth!” Werner shouted.

“Yes, I’m afraid that judging from your earlier performance, the result will be the same no matter what kind of drugs you choose to rely on. Stop wasting time and surrender already,” the genmu added.

They both scolded Jaralis harshly. But Jaralis just started cackling as if he had no intention of listening to a word they said. I’d seen that face before. Anyone that made a face like that was certain to be up to no good.

“Surrender? What are you talking about? This is the beginning of a new era! The time has come to throw away our obsolescent faith in antiquated legends of so-called heroes and worship a new god—me!” he roared.

What was this crackpot going on about? Did he really just declare himself a god? I was trying to figure out how to even respond to such absurdity when Jaralis’s body began to grow rapidly. Finally, he dropped down onto all fours and roared. He was basically just a huge lion now. The transformation left him panting.

“This is incredible. My body is surging with power,” he said.

“Jaralis . . .” the genmu whispered.

“Have you managed to surpass your therianthrope form?! Could this truly be the beast transformation that is spoken of in the legends?!” Werner exclaimed.

Beast transformation? I slowly shifted my gaze over to Filo.

“Huuuh? What is it, Master?”

Filo had switched into fight mode in reaction to Jaralis’s menacing aura, but Atla and Fohl were technically still his opponents in the duel.

She was a filolial monster to start with, so I guess she didn’t have what would be considered a therianthrope form. Jaralis didn’t really look all that different now, but maybe I just couldn’t tell. Werner must have noticed I was confused, because he looked at me and began to explain.

“We have a legend here in Siltvelt. You already know there are demi-humans who can use therianthrope forms to increase their abilities. This legend tells of a transformation even more powerful than that,” he said.

“And you’re saying he managed such a transformation?” I asked.

“It would seem so,” Werner replied.

Hadn’t he really just taken some dangerous drug and spun out of control? I had a feeling that was closer to the truth, to be honest. But whatever.

“With this much power, the Shield Hero is no longer necessary! Yes! The whole world should praise and adore me!” Jaralis roared.

“Looks to me like you’re just full of yourself after managing to get a little bit stronger,” Fohl mumbled.

What a coincidence. That was exactly what I was thinking.

“Hmph! You’re the one who’s got a big head, hakuko half-breed!” Jaralis growled.

As soon as he finished his sentence, Jaralis’s appearance seemed to blur. He was fast! But he wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t follow his movements with my eyes. He approached Fohl from the front. Aside from me, Raphtalia, Filo, Sadeena, and Atla would probably be able to see his movements too. That was quite a few of us, actually.

“What?! He teleported?!” Werner exclaimed.

I guess it was safe to say that Werner and the others couldn’t keep up with Jaralis’s speed. I wondered what level Jaralis would equate to now, by ordinary standards. At the very least, it was unlikely that any of the village slaves would be able to react to his current speed. And with that breakneck speed, Jaralis moved his massive body to Fohl’s position.

“Grrraaaahhh!”

Jaralis roared loudly and swiped at Fohl with his claw. Fohl immediately took a defensive stance to guard himself from the massive lion’s attack.

“Ugh!”

Fohl was tough, but Jaralis’s claw drew blood when it sliced into his arm. Fohl went flying through the air.

“What?! His speed is ridiculous! Gahhh!” Fohl exclaimed.

He stumbled a few steps before steadying himself and moving back into a defensive stance. As soon as he had, Jaralis charged at him for a follow-up attack, batting at Fohl repeatedly with his claws.

“How does it feel?! You get to be the guinea pig that I try this magnificent power on! It’s more honor than you can handle, right?! How about it?! Take this!” Jaralis roared.

“Ugh! Gah! D-damn you!” Fohl stammered.

He was being beaten to a pulp. He dropped down onto a knee and tried to defend himself. Defense was all he could manage now. Things weren’t looking good.

“Hahahaha! Is that all you’ve got?! Just like I thought, you hakuko are all simple-minded fools who go rushing headlong into danger! You and your father both! ‘Leave this to me and get out of here!’ he said! Ha! The truth is we sacrificed him to save ourselves! I couldn’t have him resisting unnecessarily, you know!” Jaralis sneered.

“What?! No way . . . Did you do something to my father?!” Fohl snapped.

“That’s right! I gave him a little shove from behind! I went to all that trouble to leak our strategy to the enemy. We were supposed to look like we were losing. We would retreat temporarily, only to come back and achieve an overwhelming victory thanks to my strategic guidance. But that bastard kept turning the tables! It was so irritating!” Jaralis moaned.

What the hell? The bastard just started confessing everything. Even if he did manage to defeat Fohl, didn’t he realize he’d be going straight to the slammer now? I glanced over at Werner and the old genmu. They both seemed to be lost deep in thought.

“Die!” Jaralis roared.

He swung his claw powerfully in what appeared to be an attempt to finish Fohl.

“You bastard!” Fohl screamed at the top of his lungs.

It all made sense now. Fohl’s father had interfered with Jaralis’s plan, so Jaralis caught him off guard and killed him. Could it get any dirtier than that? Yeah, nothing good would come from having this bastard around. I’d have to think about what to do with him later, but whatever that was, he needed to be permanently stripped of all authority for sure.

“Once I’ve killed these half-breeds, I’ll show the rest of you too! I’ll show you who the strongest one here really is! Now! Attack!” Jaralis roared.

A bunch of monster-looking creatures suddenly appeared and began attacking our group and the Siltvelt leadership.

“What?!”

Werner and the other Siltvelt leaders readied themselves to fight. The demi-humans switched to their therianthrope forms, and the ones who were already therianthropes braced themselves for the incoming attacks. But . . .

“Ugh! What are these things?!”

“We are Siltvelt’s warrior elite! Can these abominations really be faster and hit harder than us?!”

“Keep calm! We must protect the Shield Hero!”

Jaralis’s followers must have been planning on starting a revolt here and taken some of those drugs to undergo beast transformations. There were quite a few of them too. They probably had some lame aspirations of killing everyone in the castle and claiming they were supreme or something. That must have been why Jaralis confessed earlier. He figured he would tell Fohl the truth since he was about to die anyway.

Well, at least things had become crystal clear now. There was no reason to hold back anymore.

“What do you mean protect me? Protection . . .”

I slowly rose to my feet. A massive gorilla leapt at me swinging and I caught his fist with a single bare hand.

“. . . is my business! Raphtalia! Filo!” I shouted.

“I had a feeling things would turn out like this. On it!” Raphtalia replied.

“I’ll do my beeessst!” Filo cried.

Immediately understanding what I wanted her to do, Raphtalia lunged at the gorilla and cut it down. A large wolf leapt at us and Filo kicked it out of the air. Her kick produced a powerful shockwave the moment it made contact. Hmm, they did say Fitoria’s so-called advance payment had boosted Filo’s stats. The way she was moving now definitely made her look like a beast of a fighter.

“You really shouldn’t get too carried away with the tomfoolery. I do believe you’ve forgotten about me,” Atla said.

She mowed down the beasts approaching her and was about to run to Fohl to protect him. But Fohl held his hand up and shot her a glare that made it clear he wanted her to stay back.

“Atla! Jaralis is mine! This is an opponent I must defeat! Stay back!” he shouted.

“Oh? In that case, I guess you don’t mind if I run to Mr. Naofumi and hold him in my arms?” she replied.

I minded! What was she saying in a situation like this?! And Fohl must’ve already completely flipped his lid, because he just nodded forcefully. What the hell?!

“Yeah. I’ve seen how tough he is in our other battles. I won’t say I like it, but you should let him protect you for now,” Fohl replied.

“Umm, Brother? You misunderstand. It’s my job to protect Mr. Naofumi,” Atla said.

She corrected Fohl’s misunderstanding with her own nonsensical misunderstanding.

“Whaaaat?! You plan on hiding behind Atla?!” he screamed at me.

“Like hell I do, you knucklehead!” I shouted.

Raphtalia and the others were busy mowing down the attacking beasts, but they looked over at me like I’d done something appalling.

“Anyway, Fohl, if you’re going to claim that bastard as your prey, then hurry up and take care of him!” I added.

Fohl looked back and forth between me and Atla a couple of times before nodding forcefully.

“My father fought bravely and believed in his fellow soldiers. I can’t forgive anyone that would do such a contemptible thing to him!” Fohl thundered.

“Oh, spare me! I’ll send you to be with daddy right now! I have other things to attend to, after all! You know, like daring to kill a god!” Jaralis shouted.

He let out a loud, annoying roar and then lunged at Fohl swinging, as if to finish him once and for all. But Fohl blocked Jaralis’s huge claw and let out a thundering howl of his own. That was when I heard a loud thumping sound coming from Fohl.

“Wh-what?! Are you telling me this hakuko half-breed can use a therianthrope form?!” Jaralis cried out incredulously.

Fohl howled once again and his whole body began pulsating and swelling. I was confused at first, but then I figured he was changing into a therianthrope form, since it looked pretty much just like when Sadeena transformed into a killer whale.

“Brother? Are you really going to use a therianthrope form?” Atla asked.

“Oh my! It sure looks that way. I knew you had potential, little Fohl, even though you couldn’t make the transformation before. It looks like you’re finally going to pull it off,” said Sadeena.

“Is it one of those things where once you’ve done it, you can do it again any time?” I asked.

Sadeena nodded as she showered several attacking beasts in magical lightning attacks.

“Brother, please don’t tell me you plan on transforming into an adorable therianthrope form in an attempt to steal Mr. Naofumi’s heart,” Atla said.

“That again?” I mumbled.

After seeing how I’d reacted to Keel’s therianthrope form, Atla had gotten the idea stuck in her head that I would be smitten with Fohl’s therianthrope form.

The crunching sounds slowed as Fohl’s transformation approached completion and the details of his new form grew clearer. He seemed to be slightly taller than me now. He was quite muscular, but not needlessly so—he didn’t look unnaturally bulky like the minotaur had. If one imagined a tiger-man, they probably wouldn’t be far off.

Fohl was now a muscular, white tiger therianthrope, standing there blocking the fierce attack of a massive lion. He looked pretty macho. This was nothing like a cuddly Siberian husky that would go fetch a stick if you happened to throw one. This was what a therianthrope form was supposed to be. It made me kind of happy that his transformation had turned out exactly like I’d imagined it would.

“Let’s do this!” Fohl shouted.

He blocked Jaralis’s swift attack and countered with a kick to his face.

“Gah! You impudent brat! I need more! I’ll unleash even more power!” Jaralis cried.

The flow of magic power surrounding him intensified and he let out a thundering roar that echoed throughout the hall.

“Oh my, our little Fohl sure is looking cooler than usual,” Sadeena said.

“That form certainly is impressive. I wonder if I should be jealous,” Raphtalia whispered.

She was staring at Fohl in his new therianthrope form. I’d wondered what Raphtalia would look like if she had a therianthrope form several times. Would it be a female version of the Shigaraki ceramic tanuki statues? Or would she look like Raph-chan?

“Mr. Naofumi, what are you thinking about at a time like this?” Raphtalia snapped.

“Ugh! I sense that Mr. Naofumi has lost interest in my brother and is looking at Raphtalia!” Atla exclaimed.

Their intuitions were incredible!

“Maaasteerrr, we’ve defeated most of them,” Filo called out.

She was stomping on several monsters that were lying on the ground squirming. I guess I didn’t even need to get involved in the end.

“Ugh . . .” one of the Siltvelt leaders moaned.

“Get ahold of yourself! Those wounds are nothing!” shouted another.

Apart from Werner and the old genmu, the members of the leadership had stepped forward to try to protect us. It was great that they had managed to ward off the fierce attacks of the beasts, but it looked like most of them had been seriously wounded. I quietly rushed over and applied my healing magic.

“Drifa Heal!”

Just as I cast my spell, Jaralis unleashed a loud roar and the incapacitated beasts suddenly rose up like zombies. Their eyes were freakishly ablaze. They unleashed a chorus of savage roars and began attacking us once again. We were all gathered together in one spot now, and the beasts were even faster than before.

“Shield Hero! You’re in danger!”

Several of the leaders tried to charge forward to protect me, but I pushed them back and called out the name of a skill.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The beasts crowded around us attacking, but their claws smashed fruitlessly into my barrier.

“Grrraaaaahh!”

“Raawwwrrr!”

The beasts were drooling and foaming at the mouth like a pack of rabid dogs. They clawed at the barrier and tried to bite into it.

“Eww . . . They just keep coming no matter how many times I kick theeem,” Filo moaned.

She was in her filolial queen form, kicking the beasts away as they continuously lunged at her.

“Yeah, this is starting to get irritating, even for little ol’ me,” Sadeena replied.

She launched her lightning magic at one of the beasts that had been thrown off guard by Filo’s kick. Raphtalia and Atla joined the fray, determined not to be outdone.

“Hmph, these things are tougher than I expected,” I mumbled.

“Yup! They seem to recover almost as soon as I kick theeem. I think the way they move their bodies is letting most of the power of my kicks get awaaaay,” Filo replied.

Oh? Filo was absolutely terrible at explaining things, but that actually wasn’t a bad description. The beasts attacking us were probably some of Siltvelt’s top warriors who had undergone beast transformations. That meant we probably wouldn’t be able to finish them off with half-hearted attacks.

“But there’s something weird about them toooo,” Filo added.

“She’s right. Something about their bodies is off,” Sadeena said.

“Weird in what way?” I asked.

“They seem to be patched together,” Atla replied.

Hmm . . . I took a closer look at the beasts. I could see what looked like scar tissue where the bodies had been patched together. Jaralis or somebody must have been dabbling in human modification. It was similar to what Kyo had done in the other world. Rat probably would have been ecstatic if I’d brought her to do an in-depth inspection.

“And that ‘grraahh’ voice seems to make them stronger toooo,” Filo said.

So Jaralis’s howls had an effect similar to support magic. What a hassle.

“Hiyaaaa!”

Fohl parried Jaralis’s attack and then lunged forward and delivered a powerful straight, burying his fist deep within Jaralis’s gut.

“Gaaahh!”

Blood gushed out of Jaralis’s mouth.

“I’m not finished yet!” Fohl shouted.

He opened his hand wide, leapt at Jaralis, and then swiped his claws at Jaralis’s face, cutting deep into the flesh.

“Urgaahhhh! M-my eyes! Gaahhh! You bastard!” Jaralis roared.

He wailed and covered his eyes with his hands. But the tissue of his eyes began to swell up and within a matter of seconds they had completely regenerated. It was a grotesque sight.

“Blood! I need more blood! I need flesh! No, more power! I need more power!” Jaralis screamed.

He was looking around frantically. His eyes stopped on the nearby group of beasts that we had defeated and then he leapt at us.

“Watch out!” I yelled.

Filo and the others distanced themselves from the fallen beasts, but Jaralis simply began to devour the beasts.

“Urgahhh!” cried out one of the beasts.

“J-Jaralis?! Wh-what are you—” began another.

“Silence! Consuming your bodies will give me more power!” Jaralis roared.

He crushed one of his followers’ heads and began to devour the beast whole. So now he had turned to cannibalism!

“That’s just . . .” Fohl muttered.

Even Fohl was horrified by the sight. His face turned pale.

“Enough of this! This has gone way beyond a one-on-one fight with Fohl!” I shouted.

“Understood! Everyone, you heard the Shield Hero!” Werner cried out.

“Here I go!” Raphtalia chimed in.

She dashed toward Jaralis and attempted to unleash one of her quick-draw attacks, but the flesh of the beast he was eating formed something like a tentacle and batted her katana away.

“Ugh!”

The blade of Raphtalia’s katana sliced clean through the tentacle, but there was a bigger problem. The chomping sounds came to a halt, and Jaralis seemed to be done chewing on the flesh of the beasts. The corpses he’d chewed up began to merge with his body and form more tentacles, which gathered up more of the fallen beasts. Jaralis’s body continued to grow as it went about assimilating the corpses.

“Mwahaha . . . Mwahahahaha! Yes, that’s it! So the power can be used like this too!” Jaralis exclaimed.

Oh, man. Didn’t he know that getting power in such a horrific manner never turned out good in the end? Just what kind of dodgy drugs had he taken anyway?!

“It is I who reigns supreme now! I have become more powerful than any god! With this much power, the whole world will be mine!”

Jaralis was just a huge mass of flesh now. When he talked, it looked like a big chunk of clay being kneaded or something. And now the clay was starting to take on form. But we sure as hell had no obligation to wait around and find out what that would be.

“It’s a big clump of gooey flesh-claaay! Ewwww!” Filo cried out.

She came over and hid behind me, cowering. Ahh, I guess she had been taken prisoner by a similar abomination not too long ago, after all. It felt like we’d been facing a lot of similar enemies lately. But this one was far more grotesque than any of those.

The stench of blood filled the air. I couldn’t take much more of it.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Go for it,” I replied.

“Looks like we’ll just have to deal with this thing,” Sadeena interjected.

“Mr. Naofumi gave the order to attack, and so I shall!” exclaimed Atla.

“Atla! Ugh . . . I’m helping too!” Fohl cried.

Our group seemed to be doing fine. As for the Siltvelt bunch . . .

“You guys stay back. I don’t want you getting caught in the line of fire,” I told them.

I’d have trouble sleeping if any of them got in the way and ended up dead.

“As you wish!” shouted one of the leaders.

“U-understood! May the Shield Hero protect us!” Werner cried.

“Yes, we should leave this one to the Shield Hero,” the genmu said.

The other leaders nodded. Fohl stood in front of everyone and faced Jaralis.

“Jaralis! Your life ends here! This is for my father!” he shouted.

According to Jaralis’s confession only moments earlier, he had killed Fohl’s father. To think he’d come up with such an underhanded scheme and ambushed Fohl’s father from behind. Just how low could one go? I absolutely despised bastards like him. He was no better than Trash or Witch. I’d make sure he paid the price for his actions!

“I can get on board with that. But, Fohl, considering the circumstances, I can’t ask you to defeat him by yourself. You have a bunch of people here who can lend you a hand. Don’t forget that,” I said.

I prepared to cast support magic on Fohl. Sadeena and I began reciting the incantations for Descent of the Thunder God.

“No problem. It doesn’t matter what power I use or who helps me. I have to defeat him!” Fohl shouted.

And then suddenly a new icon appeared on my screen.

Would you like to empower the target and force a beast transformation?

Yes / No

A beast transformation? Was it asking me to make the choice? The icon was hovering over Fohl. It seemed like there might normally be more options. But at the moment, Fohl was the only one I could choose. It was probably worth a try.

“Hey, Fohl,” I said.

“What?!”

“Mr. Naofumi called your name, Brother! Come now! Answer him properly! You shall obey his every command!” Atla snapped.

“Shut up for a minute, Atla! It looks like I can use an ability to give you some kind of special power, Fohl. Do you want me to try it?” I asked.

Fohl stood there trying to make up his mind for a few moments.

“Fine. More people are going to get hurt if I don’t defeat this scumbag. So for myself and for Atla, let’s try it!” he replied.

“Got it. Here I go,” I said.

I held my shield out toward Fohl and selected “Yes.” The shield began to shine brightly, and then light shot out and poured over Fohl in the form of support magic.

“Wh-what is this?! What’s happen—”

Fohl began to float up into the air as the magical light enveloped his body.

“M-Mr. Naofumi! What did you do?!” Raphtalia exclaimed.

“Just like I said, I used some ability to give Fohl more power. That’s all,” I answered.

“Th-this is . . .” Werner’s voice trailed off.

He and the other Siltvelt leaders clasped their hands together and began praying.

“This is truly a miracle of a god. It seems the legends are true after all,” the old genmu said before he began praying with the others.

I guess this power was something mentioned in their legends of the heroes.

“My body . . . It’s overflowing with power!” Fohl cried out.

The light that was surrounding him dispersed and a different creature drifted down to the ground. There, before us, now stood a huge white tiger.

“Th-this is . . . Have I turned into a white tiger?!” Fohl asked.

“It sure seems that way,” I said.

I casually pulled up Fohl’s stats. What I saw was . . . incredible! Every single one of his stats had been massively boosted!

More specifically, the equivalent of my own stats had been tacked onto the majority of Fohl’s. Filo had gotten a lot stronger too recently, but this was on a completely different level. These numbers were even higher than Raphtalia’s! Now this was offensive capability I could get excited about. But I also noticed my own magic power seemed to be falling by the second.

“There seems to be a limit to how long this will last. Get out there and finish him!” I shouted.

“Mwahahaha! The time has come! A new legend is born! It’s time to lay the old god to rest!” Jaralis roared.

He rushed toward me and began to take on a new form. It was some kind of grotesque monstrosity that resembled a chimera. And he was fast! I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to react in time anymore. But then a flash of white appeared in front of Jaralis and dug its claws into his face.

“Gah! Wh-what?!” Jaralis groaned.

“What’s with that leisurely jog? Are you fooling around?” Fohl asked.

Jaralis went flying through the air. Fohl didn’t seem to have any problems adjusting to his own new form, judging by the way he’d turned and spoke to Jaralis so casually.

“You’re just a coward who accepted a wretched blessing from the Shield Hero! I hope you don’t think that will let you win!” Jaralis roared.

“I should probably point out that you’re the last one who should be saying that,” I shot back at him with a sneer.

“First you take some fishy drugs. Then when you still can’t win, you assimilate your followers and act like you’ve suddenly become king of the mountain. Who in the world would worship such a hideous monster? Seriously, think about it,” I continued.

“Monster?! Are you saying I’m a monster?!” he growled.

“That I am. You’re repulsive! You look like some kind of chimera!” I shouted.

Jaralis must have finally come back to his senses, because he transformed the tentacles into eyeballs and then cried out in surprise.

“Impossible! I’m a monster?! I can’t believe it! It can’t be!”

He unleashed a beastly roar and charged straight at me.

“I won’t let you!” Fohl shouted.

“Brother!”

For whatever reason, Atla jumped up onto Fohl’s head and turned toward Jaralis. She began to prepare for an attack.

“Concentrate all of your power into a single point and run him through!” she exclaimed.

“Got it! You better not fall off, Atla!” Fohl replied.

His body began to radiate light, which then formed a vortex of magic power. The magic power began to take on some kind of shape in front of them. Wasn’t this basically the same attack that the minotaur had used against Atla? The light enveloped Fohl and Atla, and they took on the form of a radiant tiger and charged forward.

“Th-this must be the ancient technique that only the hakuko can use—the legendary Assault of the Ferocious Tiger Tyrant!”

I guess that was the name of the skill. But really, the people in this world sure seemed to like offering explanatory narrative like that. Rishia and Ren too. I just kept my mouth shut and focused on maintaining my magic power. Fohl was sucking up more of it than I would have expected, and it was starting to make me lightheaded.

Fohl and Atla both unleashed long, drawn-out battle cries as they charged at Jaralis in unison. A loud slicing sound rang out as they shot right past him, and then Fohl’s transformation wore off. He and Atla landed on the ground.

“Gaaahhhh! I-impossible! That drug was supposed to make me the strongest therianthrope of them all! That bastard! I’ve been tricked! I don’t believe it! I . . . I . . .”

As soon as Fohl and Atla landed, light began to flood out of Jaralis’s body. And then it split wide open! The light was so bright it forced me to squint my eyes. It swallowed up whatever that thing was that Jaralis had become and then exploded, dissipating in all directions. Not to sound overly dramatic, but the massive impact made the whole building shake too.

“Father, I have avenged your death,” Fohl whispered.

“We did it! We exterminated the traitor!” Atla exclaimed.

Their reactions were on completely different ends of the spectrum. The siblings both turned to the rest of us and waved.

“Umm, I think this goes without saying, but we have a winner! The victory goes to the hakuko siblings who serve the Shield Hero,” Werner announced loudly.

“That means we’re free to do as we please now, right?” I asked.

“It does. You may do whatever you wish, Shield Hero. On behalf of Siltvelt, we recognize that you are the Shield Hero we have all been waiting for,” he replied.

“I didn’t expect you to submit so easily,” I said.

Then again, the fact that we’d just stamped out Jaralis’s little rebellion for them probably had a lot to do with that.

“Yes, well, that is largely due to seeing the beast transformation your power induced,” Werner replied.

“Our legends here in Siltvelt tell of such a transformation. They say that it is only the Shield Hero who can unleash the true form—the true power—of our people,” added the old genmu.

“Ah, so that’s why,” I replied.

Werner bowed his head to Atla and Fohl.

“I was wrong to insult you and call you half-breeds. More than anyone, you two are true subjects of Siltvelt,” he said.

“You’re wrong. I am Mr. Naofumi’s subject,” Atla replied without hesitation.

“I . . . I’m . . .” Fohl stammered.

He didn’t seem to know how to respond.

“You looked so cooool! I want to be able to transform like that toooo!” Filo told Fohl.

She was a beast by nature. Still, I kind of wanted to see what a half-bird, therianthrope-type Filo would look like. But then again, maybe not.

“That sure was something, little Naofumi! I wonder if you can do the same thing for me,” Sadeena said.

“Who knows?” I replied.

A sense of exhaustion suddenly took hold of me. Fohl must have felt the same, because he fell onto his back.

“What is it?!”

“Ugh . . . I feel . . . so weak,” he said.

He moaned and did everything he could to try to stand up. I was feeling pretty beat too.

“Allow me,” Atla said.

She jumped up onto Fohl’s collapsed body and held her arms up in the air victoriously. Umm, why did she feel the need to stand on her brother’s body again?

“This is your reward, Brother. You actually managed to follow through,” she said.

“Atla! S-stop that!” Fohl cried out.

Why the hell did he seem to be halfway smiling?!

“What are you doing?!” Raphtalia snapped.

“Oh my . . .” Sadeena giggled.

“Rafuuu?”

“Hm?”

And so our duel in Siltvelt came to an end. Afterward, we did some investigation into the drug that Jaralis had used and the source of his plans for revolt. We found out that some mysterious group had been involved, but they’d suddenly disappeared as soon as Jaralis was defeated.

We decided a specialist should analyze the drug, so I brought Rat back from the village to take a look. I didn’t like the fact that we hadn’t been able to figure out who the drug had come from. In the end, I could only assume it had probably been either one of S’yne’s enemies or one of Witch’s lackeys.

Chapter Ten: Assigning the Heroes

Siltvelt gave us their full support after that. We loaded up onto one of their ships and set off for Q’ten Lo. After some time had passed, we dropped anchor at the port of a small country to the east. I registered the spot as a portal location and we returned to the village temporarily.

“Oh! Welcome back, Shield Hero!” Imiya exclaimed.

She and the other villagers welcomed us back when we arrived at the village.

“Thanks. It took a while, but we’re back,” I replied.

“We were all worried,” Imiya said.

She updated me on how things had been, and I looked around at all the villagers. S’yne was there too. As far as I could tell, not much seemed to have changed.

“S’yne was a bit on edge a few days ago,” Imiya said.

“Ah, so you saw that?” I asked S’yne.

She’d probably wanted to help but resisted the urge to come since I didn’t call on her. It didn’t feel like we were in danger of losing at the time. We weren’t even really struggling.

“S’yne’s familiar gave us periodic updates on what you were doing, so we have a pretty good idea of how things went,” Imiya continued.

“I———” S’yne began and then cut out.

Hmm, I wasn’t sure whether that was convenient or if I should feel like I was being spied on. But I guess S’yne was kind of like my bodyguard, after all. It only would’ve been a problem if I got accused of a crime and S’yne served as a witness to testify against me or something. But judging from her behavior so far, it was probably safe to assume that wouldn’t be an issue.

“Were there any attacks on the village?” I asked.

“Several,” Imiya replied.

“Ah, so there were after all,” I said.

There’d even been an attempt in Siltvelt too, apparently. The guards there were really sharp, though, and they took care of the Q’ten Lo assassins before they ever reached us. Sadeena jumped in the water and started firing off lightning several times while we were on the boat earlier, so I knew the assassins were still coming. But they hadn’t made any more large-scale attempts yet. Q’ten Lo probably couldn’t risk making any big moves against a powerful country like Siltvelt.

“We were able to successfully fend them off with the help of the Sword Hero and the Bow Hero. But the attacks were smaller in scale than the first one,” Imiya explained.

“Oh yeah? Where are Ren and Itsuki?” I asked.

“They’re training in the neighboring town at the moment,” she replied.

That meant they were with the old lady.

“Mel-chaaaan!” Filo exclaimed.

“Hey, Filo. If you’re going over to the town, let Ren and Itsuki know that I’m back,” I told her.

“Okaaaay!”

She was energetic as usual. I think she might’ve enjoyed playing with Melty a bit too much, actually. But they were good friends, so I guess it was fine.

Not long after, Ren, Itsuki, and Rishia returned to the village.

“We heard you were back, Naofumi. We came to check in,” Ren said.

“Yeah. We pretty much resolved any issues with Siltvelt,” I replied.

“I heard you got tangled up in some pretty messy stuff. Maybe we should have gone, after all.”

“Nah. It probably would’ve made things even more complicated if you guys had been there.”

I was sure the Siltvelt leadership would’ve treated us quite a bit differently if Ren and Itsuki had been there. That lion bastard would’ve most likely spouted off something about not being able to trust a Shield Hero who’d established amicable ties with the heroes of a hostile country.

“Everything went smoothly, thanks to me,” Atla said.

“. . .”

She sure chose the perfect timing to gloat about her performance. The fact that I couldn’t say she was wrong was really depressing. It really came down to that powerful attack in the end, and it was thanks to Atla’s and Fohl’s performances that the Siltvelt leaders finally gave in too. So I couldn’t really argue with her. I shrugged it off and ruffled Atla’s hair before telling her to settle down.

“Atla! Ugh . . .” Fohl moaned begrudgingly.

It was the truth, so he’d just have to shut up and deal with it. I wasn’t sure if taking them had been a good or bad decision, because now I really owed them one. I’d have to think about how to settle the score.

“I hate to admit it, but . . . I can’t deny that Atla did play a big part,” Raphtalia agreed reluctantly.

“It sounds like you had a lot to deal with. So how long until we’re able to get into Q’ten Lo?” Ren asked.

“If everything goes as planned on the water, they say we should be able to get there by the day after tomorrow,” I said.

“Oh? Is that you, kid?”

The old weapon shop guy showed up out of nowhere for some reason.

“How are things going so far?” he asked.

“We were just discussing our progress. But what are you doing here?” I replied.

He’d gone back to the castle town last I knew.

“I never heard back from you after that mess, so I closed the shop down temporarily and brought Tolly to come check on you,” he explained.

“Ah, I see. Sorry about that. I’ve had my hands full,” I said.

After we got everything settled in Siltvelt, thanks to Atla, I’d been pretty busy with other things. After looking into the Jaralis thing and searching his house, we rushed around getting the ship ready and then set sail for Q’ten Lo. I hadn’t had time to return to the village, much less stop by the weapon shop to give the old guy an update.

“So you’ll be able to reach the country you’re headed for by the day after tomorrow?” he asked.

I pointed at the map.

“Oh, so that’s where it is. That’s perfect. Do you think I could tag along? There are some materials around there that can’t be found anywhere else. If you’re heading into Q’ten Lo, I’d like you to take me with you,” the old guy pleaded.

He clasped his hands together for dramatic effect. When I didn’t say anything, he pulled out the assassin’s broken weapon that I’d given him after the attack.

“Tolly and I took a look at this weapon and I think we figured something out,” he said.

“Oh yeah?”

I’d asked him to check the weapon out. Did that mean there had been some kind of development?

“It seems like our master is the one who crafted it,” he continued.

“What?”

I remembered hearing the old guy and Imiya’s uncle talk about their master a little bit before.

“You’re telling me your master is the one who forged Q’ten Lo’s mysterious weapons?” I asked.

“There’s a good possibility he did. So could you take me with you? I’d like to look into it some more,” he replied.

“But . . .”

Even if that were true, did I really need to take the old guy with me? I would’ve preferred to have him stand by at the village or go do some work in the neighboring town while he waited. Then again, I did owe him after all he’d done for me.

“It’ll be dangerous,” I said.

“I’m aware of the dangers, kid. I can hold my own in a fight too, you know. I won’t go down easily,” he replied.

Hmm . . . This was a request from the one-and-only old weapon shop guy, after all. I was still thinking about it when Ren raised his hand.

“I think he should be fine. He’s even given us a few lessons while we were training over in the town,” he said.

“Now that you mention it, he’s the one that taught me how to use a sword too,” Raphtalia said.

She stood there reminiscing for a moment.

“Only the most basic of basics,” the old guy said.

“I’ve been teaching her a little something too, lately,” Sadeena interjected.

“Yes, I’m finally starting to understand how to use a katana properly,” Raphtalia replied.

“I’ve noticed that, now that you mention it. You’ve become a rather troublesome opponent,” Atla said.

“I don’t plan on losing to you, Atla,” Raphtalia replied.

Now that they mentioned it, I did notice Raphtalia training with Sadeena while we were on the boat. Sadeena had been giving her a detailed explanation of how to use a katana. Sadeena was most proficient with harpoons and spears, but she seemed to know how to handle a variety of weapons. Was there anything she couldn’t do?

“What’s your actual level?” I asked the old guy.

“I used to be an adventurer, you know. I’m level 87, give or take,” he replied.

That was higher than I expected! In that case, he would probably be fine. I guess. It still made me a bit uneasy, though.

“Hmm . . . Alright, then. But I’d prefer to bring you once we’ve landed in Q’ten Lo and made sure things are safe,” I said.

“Oh, come on. I could use a little bit of adventure every now and then too. Besides, you or the little miss might end up killing the master if he happens to be on the enemy’s side for some reason. That would defeat the whole purpose, right?” the old guy replied.

He had a point. All I knew about their master was that he was a swordsmith. Checking the identity of every enemy we fought probably wasn’t feasible. I could always take Imiya’s uncle instead, since he knew their master’s face. But considering their levels, the old guy made more sense.

“You better not do anything crazy. And I want you to stay close by,” I said.

“I know all of that! You sure are a worrywart, kid,” the old guy replied.

Well, yeah. He’d done so much for me. It was only natural that I’d worry about him.

“Naofumi has a sharp tongue, but generally speaking, he’s always thinking about protecting others. It only makes sense that he would worry,” Ren said.

Ren spoke up on my behalf. Why was he acting like he suddenly knew all about me? I had a feeling commenting would only cause trouble, though, so I kept my mouth shut.

“And what about us? Should we go with you too?” Ren asked.

“I was planning on having you stay here to deal with any attacks on the village. I don’t want to leave the place without anyone to fight back,” I replied.

I mean, it wasn’t like the villagers were helpless. But they still needed someone here to fight alongside them as their leader. And when all was said and done, Ren and Itsuki were pretty much a dream team. The two of them together would basically be considered OP, or overpowered, in gamer terms.

It would be nice to have them with me when I invaded Q’ten Lo, but that would mean neglecting defense back at headquarters. It helped that there hadn’t been many attacks so far. But it would be a real problem if the enemy managed to capture the village while I was gone and then held the residents hostage.

“Of course, that’s only until we make it into Q’ten Lo,” I continued.

I could teleport back and forth with my portal skill, so I could return to the village at any time. I figured things would work out if I used that advantage to keep the village defended. That was why I had S’yne keeping tabs on me at all times from a distance, after all.

“Besides, we’re still traveling by boat, so we have to think about fighting on the water. Putting you in a situation like that could be dangerous, right?” I told Ren.

“Ugh . . .” he groaned.

That’s right. Ren couldn’t swim. On top of that, there was a good possibility we would end up facing enemies that were like mass-produced Sadeena clones. Putting Ren in a situation like that would be too risky. I couldn’t have him getting killed in battle right after we’d finally gotten him on our side.

“Why don’t you try working on your swimming if you have some spare time? Luckily for you, some of the weapons you can unlock using sea monster materials have adjustments that make swimming easier,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll do that. Still, it will take time . . .” he mumbled.

“Of course. I realize that. That’s why I want you to watch over the village and town for me. I’ll use my portal to call for you if you’re needed,” I replied.

“Okay. Sorry I can’t do more,” he said.

Ren was always so serious now. My opinion of him improved with each day.

“Don’t worry about it. More than that, I really wish you two would hurry up and go to the Cal Mira islands to get rid of those curse effects,” I said.

We were on high alert and didn’t have time to go register the hot springs as a portal location. But it would still be a while before they fully recovered from their curses, and that was a problem. I wasn’t sure what to do about that.

“Itsuki, you can swim, right?” I asked.

“Yes. I can swim,” he replied.

Itsuki hadn’t changed. He always responded, but he still seemed to lack any emotion due to the effects of the curse. That made him far easier to deal with than before, but the complete absence of emotion was kind of creepy.

“If I’m going to take one of you with me on the way there, it would be better to have Itsuki, since he can make ranged attacks from the ship,” I said.

“If those are your orders . . .” Itsuki replied.

Hmm . . . Deciding what to do with Itsuki wasn’t any easier than it was for Ren. Having him there during the trip would be nice too, of course. But even more than that, if something were to happen upon our arrival in Q’ten Lo . . . I had to consider the possibility that we might end up having to fight as soon as we got there. In that case, it definitely made sense to have him with us at that point.

I couldn’t expect Ren to help fight while we were on the boat, but Itsuki could still prove useful. He came as a set with Rishia too, and the two of them together were pretty formidable. I was worried about the Q’ten Lo equipment that weakened attacks made by heroes, but that would be an issue no matter where we were fighting.

“Hey! Hey! Little Naofumi!” Sadeena called out.

“What?” I asked.

She spoke up as soon as I finished talking.

“Considering what lies ahead, I think you should take Gaelion with us too. Being a dragon, he should be able to sense when we approach the water dragon,” she said.

Was that because of dragon territorial marking or something? If that were the case, I wanted to say that Filo could probably do the same thing. But then again, Gaelion could fly too. That might come in handy if we got into trouble.

“Fine. It’s starting to look like we’ll be invading with a pretty big group,” I said.

When I really thought about it, taking the whole village to invade was a possibility too. But the villagers were busy peddling our wares and taking care of routine operations. We needed money. I could probably get a substantial amount of support from Siltvelt if I asked, but I didn’t want to rely on them any more than I already had. Doing so would probably just be digging myself into a hole. And seeing them all lined up like a bunch of pigeons bobbing their heads and praying to me was super creepy.

“It doesn’t matter, either way. We set sail tomorrow morning, so be ready,” I told everyone.

“Understood!”

And so time marched on.

SHARE

Siti Dara

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

• 
• 
• 
• 
•