by Aneko Yusagi
“If you think [. . .], then.”
“But he’s [. . .], right?”
“Yeah, but [. . .] stubborn, so taking advantage [. . .] tough.”
Something was uncomfortable about the way they had been staring at him at first, but Ren trusted Witch and then she smiled at him, so he decided not to let it bother him.
“Alright, Mr. Ren, I’m sure you’re tired after all that’s happened today. Let’s go rest at an inn.”
Witch took Ren to a somewhat expensive inn and they got some rooms.
“We’ve really been looking forward to traveling with you, Mr. Ren,” said Witch.
“Indeed! We always admired you much more than the Spear Hero, Mr. Ren,” Girl 2 added.
“Oh . . . really? I’ll . . . do my best to save the world . . . for you two.”
Ren made up his mind to fight once again for the sake of the people that believed in him. He was fed up with the people of this world and their sudden change of attitude, but even so he’d fight for the people that believed in him.
That was, until the next morning, when he realized that Witch had stolen everything except for his sword and run away. She’d left a letter behind on the inn table.
“This is the letter,” he told me as he showed me the letter.
Had he been holding on to it as a keepsake? Ren handed me the letter. It was full of wrinkles like he’d crumpled it up before, but I was still able to read it.
“You’re no longer of any use to me, so I’m taking everything that is and leaving. I’m grateful that you helped me escape from the Shield and the Spear, but I’m afraid neither your looks nor your personality is my type. I guess I’d be willing to love you if you ever became strong enough to defeat the Shield. Of course, judging from the way you are now, that will never happen. Ha ha ha!”
Damn, she was annoying! Without even thinking about it, I ripped the letter up and threw it away. That Witch bitch! She was beyond redemption!
But to think she’d already ditched Ren by the following day . . . Damn, she worked fast! Bloody hell. It made me wonder if the real reason she’d approached him was to get her hands on his equipment and money. But I guess she probably just decided that keeping Ren in the dark for much longer would be too much of a hassle.
“I think something probably snapped inside of me at that point. Everything went black and one of those curse series you’d told us about appeared on my status screen,” Ren said.
He’d decided to believe in someone again and they immediately betrayed his trust, after all. I could understand how he must have felt. If Raphtalia had betrayed me the day after I’d realized she believed in me, I’m sure my wrath curse series would have evolved much quicker, too.
“After that . . . things just went into a tailspin. I left the inn and walked around looking for anything of value . . . I decided if people were going to steal from me, then I’d just steal back from them. But I didn’t want to reveal my identity, so I got a mask and . . .” he went on.
I guess that was when he ambushed the bandits’ carriage, made them his underlings, and formed his own gang of bandits. It was a perfect example of a life spinning out of control.
“Naofumi . . . I know it probably sounds disingenuous, but I hope you’ll forgive me for everything.”
“Yeah, whatever. Regardless of whether I forgive you or not, my objective has been to protect you from the very start. I’ll let it go as long as you don’t do anything like this again, so heed my advice and just focus on getting a little stronger.”
There were people sneaking around in this world that wanted to kill the holy heroes. Considering that and what was coming, the heroes needed to get every bit as strong as they could. I was sure Ren had the potential to be stronger than me at the very least, and that’s why I wanted him to learn how to power up his weapons properly.
“Okay. I’ll do my very best to follow your advice and get stronger.”
Ren had been a huge mass of pride obsessed with maintaining his suave image, but now he was bowing his head meekly and apologizing to me. He seemed genuinely regretful. If he was going to apologize this much, I felt like forgiving him might actually be an option. Did that make me a softy?
“I never imagined Witch would be that horrible. I mean, I did have my doubts. But . . . she was kind to me, so I made the mistake of trusting her. It was foolish and unforgivable. I ruined what may have been your last chance to capture her!”
Ren got pretty fired up as he badmouthed Witch. He’d gotten played, after all. He probably hated her almost as much as I did. In that sense, I could sympathize with Ren. It felt kind of like . . . we were connected by a common enemy now.
“Well, the bitch is a waste of good looks, and she’s a pro at pretending to cry, too.”
“You’re maligning the former princess, now? Well, it’s not like I can’t understand how you feel, but . . .” Eclair mumbled while scratching her head.
But where had that woman run off to, anyway? Based on what Ren had said, she seemed to have an accomplice. A man that Ren had seen before somewhere . . . That meant it was someone that Ren had come into contact with at some point. Who in the world could it have been?
I had no idea. Anyway, if we wanted to go after Witch, we probably needed to find Itsuki. Witch had targeted me, then Motoyasu, and then Ren. It was highly likely that she would go after Itsuki next. I didn’t know what her plans were, but they certainly didn’t seem to be well-intentioned. Seriously, that bitch brought nothing but trouble. It was possible that there were still more enemies like the pair Motoyasu had killed lurking around, too.
“Which leaves . . .”
Now the question was whether I should tell Ren how to get stronger again or not. He seemed genuinely regretful, and it wouldn’t hurt to have him on our side. After all, the heroes were supposed to work together to fight the waves, like Kizuna, Glass, and their companions.
“You were using curse skills one after another, so we need to figure out what kind of condition you’re in right now. Other than that . . . actually listen to what I say and get stronger. It’s really not that hard.”
“I will. Naofumi . . . Thanks in advance.”
“Don’t worry about it. All I want is for you three to get stronger. You need to recognize what kind of situation we’re in now, too.”
“Yeah.”
All I could do was defend. I had to rely on my companions to attack. The reason I could put up such a good fight now was because Raphtalia just happened to have been chosen by the katana vassal weapon. In other words, the other three heroes were supposed to be the foundation of my offense. If I could get Ren on board and if he really made an effort to get stronger, then that would be just about the best companion I could ask for.
“I . . . I’m going to face up to what I’ve done. Welt, Bakta, Tersia, and Farrie . . . My companions died trying to bring peace to this world. I want to fight to make sure they didn’t die in vain.”
It seemed like Ren was finally ready to listen to what I had to say. I was still a little worried, but it looked like things might work out.
“Sword Hero, try not to worry about things too much. We . . . Me, Eclair, and the village children that I grew up with are all here to help.”
Raphtalia was trying to comfort Ren, perhaps because she sympathized with his newfound purpose. Ren nodded meekly in response.
“Thank you.”
“Mr. Amaki the Sword Hero.”
Eclair faced Ren and stepped forward. Ren stared at her.
“Yes?”
“You understood what I was trying to say during our duel, right?”
“Yeah . . . Thank you . . . for stopping me.”
“Of course. I, too, will do everything I can to help. Let’s fight this battle together. What do you say?”
Ren closed his eyes and nodded quietly.
“I don’t want to be a bother. But if I start heading down the wrong path again, please stop me.”
“Certainly. If you ever sta
rt to go astray again, Mr. Amaki, I will be there standing in your way, no matter how many times it happens.”
“I’ll count on it . . . umm, Eclair. And please, call me by my name.”
Ren held his hand out to Eclair.
“Mr. Ren.”
“You can drop the honorific. There’s a lot I’d like to learn from you, Eclair.”
“Of course. I must warn you, Ren, my tutelage is exacting.”
“I was counting on that.”
There was bromance in the air as Ren and Eclair firmly shook hands.
“Mr. Naofumi, you’re thinking about something rude, aren’t you?”
“I was just thinking about how it seemed like a nice bromance.”
“Eclair is a female!”
“Mr. Iwatani . . . Good grief . . .”
“Naofumi.”
Ren looked at Eclair’s face and then addressed me.
“What?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.”
Wasn’t it a bit late for that? But whatever. We’d both been tricked by Witch. I wasn’t looking for a support group or anything, but I felt like we could sympathize with each other. Another member had joined the Victims of the Witch Bitch Club.
“Anyway, just take it easy for today. We have a lot to do starting tomorrow. Later.”
I left Ren with Eclair and exited the room. Raphtalia followed after me.
“That was a big step forward. The Sword Hero seemed to have a positive attitude.”
“Yeah. So far, our force to fight the waves . . . and the next guardian beast—the Phoenix—is steadily increasing.”
Other than that, we would have to deal with those enemies looking to kill the holy heroes. I couldn’t imagine those two men being the end of it. Thinking about the fact that there may still have been others lurking out there somewhere just made me feel sick. Kizuna’s world had its share of problems, but we had heaps of our own here in this world, too. Knocking them out, even if only one at a time . . . was our only choice, I guess.
“Alright, Raphtalia. We’ve got plenty of headaches ahead. We don’t have time to be taking it easy. We have to be ready to deal with any enemy that stands in our path.”
“Understood! What will we do now?”
“Reconstruction and building up our offensive capabilities are both important, but after seeing the rapid improvement of Rishia and Eclair, I think it may be time for us to do some serious training.”
“I agree. Sadeena keeps telling me I don’t know how to use a katana, so I’ve been feeling like my technique is lacking lately.”
Our stats were reduced at the moment. I could have just used that as an excuse, but I think we needed to go back and do a thorough reassessment of our technique. Our enemies this time had only been the vanguard. They weren’t holy heroes or even seven star heroes. They had been the equivalent of hero companions. Struggling with enemies like that was unacceptable. We would continue with our usual tasks, but I was going to add training to the schedule, too.
“Alright, in that case, let’s do this!”
“Understood!”
Looking out over the village, well on its way to returning to its former glory, Raphtalia and I both went back to work.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol. 11
(c) Aneko Yusagi 2015
First published by KADOKAWA in 2015 in Japan.
English translation rights arranged by One Peace Books
under the license from KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Japan
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
Translated by Nathan Takase
Character Design Seira Minami
Cover Design by Yusuke Koyama
English Edition Published by One Peace Books 2017
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