by Aneko Yusagi
It continued to fall down to where the low-altitude Phoenix was waiting below.
And then close to the ground, dust rising from the battle, I grabbed both Phoenixes and shouted a skill.
“Chain Shield!” Both birds were caught up in the chains that emerged from my shield and bound together. With those preparations in place, I shouted to everyone else in the vicinity.
“Everyone! Take them down!”
“Naofumi?!” Fohl was stunned.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. “Take them both out!”
“Okay! Tiger Break!” Fohl was also the first to act. I mean, he would be. I really felt like I could understand his feelings the best in that moment. That was how I felt. Maybe I didn’t understand what it was like to lose a family member like that. But I knew exactly what Atla had been like.
“Don’t worry about me. Just hurry up and defeat this thing! Make sure you kill them both at the same time!” I commanded. There were general shouts of agreement, and then special attacks started pounding in.
“Naofumi, what about Atla?” Ren asked me between attacks. I was unable to reply and just looked away. I didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Damn . . .” Realizing what it meant, Ren made a painful sound. He also applied more strength to his sword.
“I feel so . . . light!” With her sword in front of her, Keel charged forward just like Filo and attacked the Phoenix.
“Yeah. I feel, like . . . totally different from before.” The slaves and everyone else in my unit were definitely performing better, their attacks sharper, more on point. This was clearly a result of the boost from the Slave Series and Comrade Series being unlocked. I still hadn’t checked the details yet, but the effects were clearly pretty massive.
It was all thanks to Atla.
“Faster. Finish them off faster. All the unfairness, all the sadness here . . . we have to eradicate it as quickly as possible,” I shouted. Both Phoenixes were together now, attacking me one after the other, but I didn’t feel a single thing.
The claws, the breath, the feathers, none of it meant a thing.
Once we had them pinned in a single place, they were just prey. All we had to do was pile on and tear them down.
“Gravity Sword!”
“Brionac!”
“Bird Hunting!”
“Tornado Throw!”
“Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny Second Formation! Third Formation! Stardust Blade!”
“Spiral Strike!”
Everyone unleashed all of their highest-powered attacks, one after the other.
“I’m activating the Ritual Magic, Meteorite! Hero Iwatani!” the queen cautioned me, but I signaled with my eyes that she should just go ahead regardless of my position.
“Very well! Everyone other than Hero Iwatani, fall back!” she warned. As my other allies all put some distance between themselves and the target, a massive meteorite dropped from the sky to envelop both myself and the two chained birds.
A huge explosion swallowed the three of us, but I didn’t take any damage at all.
“Our turn, Shildina!” Now it was Sadeena.
“I’m ready!” Shildina replied. The two of them, located toward the back of the forces, promptly completed incanting ritual magic.
“Gale and Thunder Gods!” they shouted together. The ritual magic caused a thick blast of lightning, far more powerful than Judgment, to crash down onto the Phoenixes, combined with an air-shredding tornado.
One of the two birds gave a protracted scream, and the other started to pulse in a strange fashion. It was happening again.
Self-destruct.
Of course, we weren’t about to let that happen.
As the cacophony of ritual magic came to an end, my allies dashed back in.
“Attack Support!”
“Tiger Rampage!”
Fohl’s special attack thundered home after he had received support magic from pretty much everyone else, and the two birds were reduced to feathers at almost exactly the same time, proceeding to vanish into nothing.
A roar of victory echoed out across the field.
Feathers drifted down like snow. And amid the blizzard I just stood, quietly, simply existing.
“Atla . . . we did it,” I finally said. I lifted my shield high, reporting the victory.
We definitely could have won this without having to pay such a price.
Whoever was responsible for this . . . they would never find forgiveness from me.
“Ren! You know what needs to be done?” I shouted.
“Yeah!” he replied.
“Tell the queen too. Whoever it was who fired that flicker of light, we’re going to burn them at the stake! No forgiveness!” It might have been one of the suspicious Seven Star Heroes. Or it might have been S’yne’s enemies. I looked over at her, but she just shook her head, telling me that she didn’t know.
A cunning move, I’d give them that. If it had been S’yne’s enemies, they really had targeted the best single moment that could possibly kill the heroes.
S’yne had always warned us about that possibility.
If they were the ones, then . . . they were going to take full responsibility for everything that had happened as a result!
“Still . . . after the first explosion, the Phoenixes became a real pushover,” Ren commented. I ignored him, my anger still seething. Who cared about any of that now?!
“We’re moving!” I stated. I called over Filo and told her to head straight for where the light that had punched through the Phoenix had come from. Ren came too, riding Gaelion.
We searched for the remainder of the day until the sun went down but didn’t find anyone who could have been the culprit.
“Dammit! Where have they run off to?!” I roared.
“This search isn’t going to find anything now. Naofumi, you need to take a break.” Ren chose that moment to give me what sounded like an order.
“What are you talking about?!” I fired back.
“We’ll keep going and let you know if we find anything,” he said. “You need to rest until then. Please.”
“But—” I wanted to carry on.
“Please, Naofumi,” he repeated. I wanted to debate the point, but Ren wasn’t having it. His expression was a complex one, mixing sadness with anger. “You aren’t the only one who’s angry here. I’m filled with an incredible rage.”
“Okay,” I managed.
“I’m not going to forgive whoever did this either. But we need you to approach this a little more calmly,” he said, which was actually quite effective at calming me down.
When I became truly angry, completely incensed, it could feel as though I was actually completely calm. My feelings in that moment . . . couldn’t be easily described.
It felt like I was being controlled by a totally different type of anger from when Witch betrayed me. He was right. I should take a break. I needed to rest up well enough to be able to tell the difference again between those I needed to protect and those I needed to get angry with.
That was what my seemingly calm mind told me.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll leave this with you,” I told him.
I sat down beside the temple, the sun slipping away.
The search was ongoing.
As I rested as Ren had told me to, I realized that I had been angrier than I’d even been before. The Shield of Compassion helped to soothe that anger, which otherwise felt as though it might burn me away. Yet beyond that, I just couldn’t hope to find forgiveness for whoever had done this.
I understood the depth of the unfairness, sadness, and suffering this had caused.
As the anger faded though, I became aware of a feeling of loss, like a hole had opened in my chest. It swelled up to overtake me. Before I knew it, I was sitting in a temporary tent erected by the coalition army . . . with Raphtalia standing in front of me.
“That was a cowardly move on Atla’s part. I was hoping to get you to notice me, on my own merit
s, Mr. Naofumi,” she said.
“Okay . . . but . . . for now . . .” I could still barely speak.
“I know. I know, so please . . . stop crying.” Raphtalia said, who was crying more than I was. They were tears from her heart—tears that understood the pain of others.
“I’m not crying,” I replied and then realized something was running down my cheeks.
Were these . . . tears?
When I left the medical tent, I hadn’t been aware that I was crying at all. But everyone else must have seen it.
I was crying.
In the moment I realized that this a feeling of emptiness had started to overtake me.
“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia started. Without thinking, I grabbed onto her and started to sob.
After the battle in the castle, I’d decided I wasn’t going to cry anymore.
Now my tears wouldn’t stop.
The more I tried to stop them, the more they flowed out of me.
It was because I understood the sadness, suffering, and pain of others now. This wasn’t something to be ashamed of. It was the correct thing, the right thing to do. I understood that now. For now, I just wanted to quietly cry, thinking of the girl who became a shield and who was now closer to me than anyone else.
I also made a vow, however, deep in my heart, that those responsible for this, whoever they might be, were going to be made to pay.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol. 15
(c) Aneko Yusagi 2016
First published by KADOKAWA in 2016 in Japan.
English translation rights arranged by One Peace Books
under the license from KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Japan
ISBN: 978-1-64273-019-7
No part of this may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact One Peace Books. Every effort has been made to accurately present the work presented herein. The publisher and authors regret unintentional inaccuracies or omissions, and do not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the translation in this book. Neither the publishers nor the artists and authors of the information presented in herein shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.
Written by Aneko Yusagi
Character Design Minami Seira
English Edition Published by One Peace Books 2019
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