by Aneko Yusagi
“What?!”
It was only natural that she’d be surprised. Monsters grew up fast.
“You’ve grown so quickly!”
“Oh, he, he… Stop flattering me.”
“I don’t think that’s flattery.”
“Then I guess I’m the big sister here.”
“If you’re talking about age, then yes. You and Raphtalia are actually about the same age.”
“Raphtalia is…”
Filo looked over at Raphtalia, a slight look of disappointment on her face. Raphtalia just looked confused. Filo could be really abrupt. It was only natural to be confused.
“Wh…What?”
“She’s a demi-human. So even though we’re the same age, she looks older.”
Melty looked at Raphtalia as she spoke. Something about it all made me feel sympathy for Raphtalia.
“I don’t know… I feel like I’ve lost something… I don’t know why.”
“Well just because we all know how old everyone is, people are going to think I am some kind of pervert.”
They’d say I had a Lolita complex. Both Filo and the princess were little kids. With Raphtalia being a kid herself, it meant I was surrounded by young girls.
“Well, it is what it is. You’re fine the way you are, Raphtalia.”
“Mr. Naofumi…”
With three little girls around me, people would say I had a Lolita harem going. I could only imagine what the other heroes would say.
“Anyway, let’s rest here for the night. We’re crossing the border soon.”
“Okay”
“Yay!”
“Whoa…”
I looked at the checkpoints lining the border crossing and muttered in amazement.
What was so amazing was there were lines of knights so long it would be impossible to count them.
There were so many, it looked like the whole army was there. Could they afford to all be here? What if another country attacked?
No, it couldn’t be the entirety of the army—but it sure looked like it could be.
“The Shield Demon is, without a doubt, aiming to cross the border in to Siltvelt! Do not let him over this border!”
“Yes, Sir!”
They looked…rowdy.
The border was so heavily watched, it didn’t look like an ant could get over it without being noticed. Had I been alone I could have just run through the ranks, but with Raphtalia and the princess in tow, that would be tough.
I could have run through by myself and they could follow later—but if the other heroes were there, then they’d be spotted.
Not to mention that with so many knights in one spot, I wasn’t sure that I’d even be able to outrun them all.
Besides, how did they know that I was heading for Siltvelt?
Granted, they might just want to stop me from entering Siltvelt because their relationship with that country wasn’t the best. Even still, they were more prepared to stop me than I would have anticipated.
“What do you think? Could we avoid the checkpoint, and cross somewhere else? Somewhere off-road?”
“I don’t think so.”
The young princess whispered.
“Why not?”
“It looks like they have emergency checks set up. If you cross the border, an alarm will sound, and they will chase you down.”
“Damn…”
I pictured some kind of infrared beam. They had something like that over the border. With so many guards, they would eventually hunt down anything that illegally crossed the line. It would only be a matter of time.
“You don’t think Filo could outrun them?”
“They’d cut you off. The alarm would alert them before you even made it to the other side.”
“Hm… You sure know a lot about the border.”
“Mother said I should memorize these things in case of an emergency. The system is expensive to maintain, but everyone agreed to keep it for emergencies.”
“Excellent foresight.”
I could have killed someone. These people would stop at nothing to get in my way.
“Then I guess our only option is to go to a different country that neighbors Siltvelt, then enter from that shared border.”
This was the closest country by far, but we didn’t seem to have any other option.
Just then some villagers passed by with a loaded cart, and we accidentally bumped into them.
We were in disguise, so we should have been fine. The princess and I were hiding in the straw too.
“Um…”
For some reason, a mysterious silence fell between the villagers and Raphtalia.
“Shield Hero.”
They found us?! Could we get away?!
“Do not be concerned, you are okay. You once gave us a plant seed, and because of it prosperity has returned to our country. Thank you very much. We will not do anything to indicate your location to the soldiers.”
I looked closer. Sure enough, they weren’t villagers but people from the neighboring country. And they were apparently traveling merchants. They passed me some old clothes.
“The people with you could stand to look a little dirtier. Especially that pretty raccoon-type demi-human girl. She’ll give you away.”
I couldn’t deny that, among raccoon demi-humans, Raphtalia was exceptionally pretty. She’d met all the villagers while we were traveling merchants too, so she might have developed a reputation for herself.
Back when I first bought Raphtalia, the slave trader had said that raccoon-types were not popular with humans. But Raphtalia was exceptionally pretty, so she was sure to be noticed. And if any one of them had seen her before, they’d probably recognize her instantly.
I couldn’t leave Raphtalia behind though, so we’d have to find a disguise for her.
“If you plan to run from them, that carriage will stand out too much. You can use our cart. Move your stuff into it.”
“Thank you. And you’re right. This big metal thing does stand out. We probably need to get rid of it.”
“Gweh?!”
Filo was in her Filolial form, but she shook her head and grunted in protest.
“Gweh! Gweh!”
“We don’t have a choice! Do you want us to be caught? Want to go to jail? They’ll kill the princess, you know?!”
“Gweh…”
Once Filo realized that Mel would be in danger, she reluctantly stopped protesting.
She’d really loved that carriage, but I guess she valued her friend more.
“Good girl, Filo. You had to pick between an object and a person, and you chose to value the person.”
I rubbed her head. Even if she didn’t understand the reasons why, she was making the right choice.
“Gweh?”
“Once we’re done, we’ll come back for the carriage.”
“Gweh!”
She knew I was promising.
“Please accept out cart.”
“We will. Thank you.”
“It’s all right. We will leave it with a nearby village.”
“We’ll make it up to you.”
“You already have.”
“Oh yeah. Ok, Princess. It’s time for you to change. If you don’t, they will catch us for sure.”
“Oh… All right...”
I gave a few silver pieces to the villagers to thank them for their help.
The only remaining problem was how to feed Filo. Since we’d been on the road she had thrown a fit whenever she got hungry.
And the worst thing that could happen now would be if she slowed down. At the moment, our only strengths were our disguises and Filo’s speed. After all, there were more dangerous things that we could run into than bounty hunters or adventurers.
The princess looked like she was not happy about having to wear dirty, old clothes, but she agreed to do it, understanding the situation.
The clothes they provided her with were very worn-in. After she changed she looked like a messy little girl. Sure, she was still a princess
, but I felt like she could pass for a villager.
But she clearly had a good diet. She looked very healthy, and when she spoke she was obviously educated—not to mention her bright blue hair suggested a royal bearing. No one would know from a distance, but if they inspected her closely… Whatever, leaving her behind was not an option.
We were going to need luck on our side.
“Get a bag and stuff it with things.”
We collected things that we could reasonably carry, and then covered them with a cloth. Anything we couldn’t carry we gave to the villagers. Even if we made good progress, it would take more than two weeks.
“Um, are you a merchant? I have a little shopping list.”
Dammit! A soldier was walking up to the foreign villagers to shop.
“Shield Hero?”
Dammit! He spotted us! I turned to Filo to run.
“It’s me. Remember? We fought together in the wave?”
I looked him over. Sure enough, he was one of the volunteer soldiers that had fought with us.
Yeah, we parted at the wave, and I hadn’t been able to follow up with them since we’d parted ways with the Trash.
I was relieved, but then I realized that he was probably sent out here specifically because he had helped us.
Back then I hadn’t known anything about this “Shield Demon” business. Thinking back on it with what I know now, it must have taken enormous stores of willpower to overcome their beliefs and help me. They must have paid for it to. Society would shun them.
“Were you demoted?”
“No, there was no punishment.”
“Oh, good. So you weren’t assigned to this post as a demotion?”
“Apparently not. Almost half of our knights are here.”
All that, just for me?
Hey now. Wasn’t that a bit of an overkill? Just how bad did the Trash want to keep me out of Siltvelt?
I couldn’t understand it anymore. What did he really want?
Could it be that there was something in Siltvelt, something I didn’t know about yet?
I had to go. If the enemy was this upset about it, then it had to mean something good for me.
I didn’t know why they were so upset, but I had to go find out.
“Anyway, it’s too dangerous for you to be here. Run away.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s not just knights, the other Heroes are here too. I was afraid you might bump into them.”
He was right. I had to admit that they were all considerably stronger than I was.
When we were fighting Glass they’d fallen when I hadn’t, but she’d appeared randomly and hit them with a finishing move before they had a chance to fight back. So they never got to show off their true powers.
And they had all gone through the class-up, whereas none of us had.
It would be foolish to think I could beat them in a fight. If we ran into them unprepared, I might end up dead.
“Let’s get going.”
“I am praying that you are cleared of these charges and suspicions.”
We parted with the foreign merchants and volunteer soldier, heading to the south for a long detour.
Chapter Eighteen: Persuasion
We’d made some progress when we saw them.
Motoyasu and Itsuki were there with their parties, watching the carriages on the road. The soldier had been right.
I peeked out from my hiding place. There were wizards around. They were chanting spells.
“There he is! He’s in that cart!”
I had a suspicion, a fear—and apparently I’d been right.
Motoyasu and Itsuki took off running in our direction.
Damn! How did they know?!
It must have been those wizards. I don’t know what they did, but it must have been them.
I threw off the cloth I’d been hiding under and jumped out of the cart. Filo knew something was happening, and she quickly transformed into her Filolial Queen form.
“I knew it! There he is!”
He must have been nearby, because Ren was running for us too.
Dammit. It was the worst situation I could think of.
“We found you! Release princess Melty!”
Itsuki was shoving a sanctimonious finger in my direction and calling out in a self-satisfied voice.
“I can’t release her because she’s not my prisoner! She’s not tied up, is she?!”
“Say what you want, we have proof! Justice is not on your side.”
“Justice? Ha!”
This was from the guy who left the lives of innocent villagers up to the knights during the wave? Telling me about justice.
These guys really only thought about fulfilling their own ideas of justice.
Wait a second. There was one option. I could try telling them about all that had happened. I remember that Ren felt bad about the village he abandoned to sickness, and there were certainly holes in Itsuki’s theory of justice. Maybe I could use that?
Still, they had obviously made up their minds not to believe anything I said.
But I had to try. I had to make them understand. I needed to get them to focus their justice on something else. They needed an evil conspiracy to fight against. It was a situation that any gamer would love. I’d need them to believe me, though, or at the very least I’d need them to start doubting the Crown.
“Are you all so sure that you are right? Are you so sure that you are on the side of justice?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?
“The princess, as you can see, is perfectly unharmed.”
I readied my shield and showed off the princess. An attack could come from any direction at any time.
She looked worried, but she looked up at me and nodded.
“Sword Hero, Bow Hero, Spear Hero—The Shield Hero is innocent. He actually saved my life.”
She wasn’t speaking like a child anymore. She spoke with a regal tone.
They listened to her, and I could see a shadow of doubt creep over their faces.
Could there be a shred of evil on their side of things? If there were, their inflated egos and sense of justice certainly wouldn’t be able to tolerate that.
“Please believe me. There is a great conspiracy behind all of this.”
“But Princess Melty, isn’t that man taking you all around the country in secret?”
“Yes, but he is doing it to save my life. I asked him to do so.”
Mel explained the situation, and Itsuki flinched, confused.
“Does it not seem odd? What would the Shield Hero stand to gain by my abduction?”
“Well… That’s…”
Was he trying to think of an answer? He looked lost.
“But… But this guy…”
“Did you ever think that Melromarc has been treating the Shield Hero, and ONLY the Shield Hero, poorly?”
“It’s true, but…”
“My mother told me that it was time for us all to join hands and fight back the coming disaster. This country simply does not have the time or resources to allow its Heroes to dally about with such things. Please, put away your weapons.”
The three heroes might have been listening. They loosened their grip on their weapons.
They were starting to come around. After all, they had lost the last battle during the wave.
And the young princess was right. We really did need to spend our time on leveling and strengthening our weapons. If they were serious about following through on the purpose of being a hero, they would realize that any time not spent on leveling or strengthening their weapons was a waste.
“Do you get it? This is a conspiracy. Now I’m going to tell you everything I know. Can you decide to fight me after you hear me out?”
The Bitch stepped forward from the crowd.
“Why should we listen to the words of a demon?”
What did she want? Was she trying to get points for pretending to be concerned about her sister?
“Did
n’t his actions speak loud enough? He must be using the Brain Washing Shield!”
“Sister?!”
Mel was absolutely shocked. She glared at the Bitch.
Really, there was only so much I could stand to listen to.
What the hell was a Brain Washing Shield? If I had something like that, none of this would have ever started to begin with. It was so easy to ignore the fruits of someone’s labor if you just threw out a phrase like “brain washing!” Besides, brain washing and religion tend to go hand-in-hand. Ha! Brain washing, give me a break.
“The Brain Washing Shield is a shield imbued with very powerful magic. Of course your story sounded fishy.”
“I don’t know when you found the Shield, but the church thinks it must have been around a month ago.”
That was around the time I started my peddling business. It was back when I had to prioritize making medicine for that village over my business. That was when people started calling me a Holy Saint of the bird-god.
I get it now. It fit, time-wise. From the church’s perspective it was a perfect explanation—a perfect lie.
“I feel like the situation explains itself perfectly. You’ve traveled a long way and gotten all mixed up. And here you are, practically working with Naofumi! Every normal citizen knows that he is a criminal, and yet here you are, helping him? Why would you do that?”
“Everyone is crazy. I’m saying that the Shield Hero wouldn’t do the things he’s accused of—and I’ve met old ladies that practically worship him.”
“That old lady…” I had a pretty good idea who she was referring to.
Even still, what the hell were they talking about?
It was just a fact that I had helped and saved a lot of people. But most of what I’d done was clean up the messes that THEY had left.
Did they really think that anything they didn’t know meant some kind of enemy strategy? Seriously, what was in their heads?
“It very well may be that simply standing near him and talking to him will allow him to brainwash you. At this very moment the church members among us are pooling their resources to break his spell over you.”
“You freaking idiot! Who has that kind of power?!”
No one responded to my outburst.
Actually Raphtalia, then Filo and Mel were stunned.
What they meant was that they had travelled around looking for me, and instead of listening to what people said, and actually processing the good things people had to say, they just invented this idea of the Brain Washing Shield, and the Bitch used that to convince the other heroes.
