by Aneko Yusagi
Raphtalia held her sword against the Bitch as a threat.
“Do you think you could listen to all Mr. Naofumi has to say?”
“B…But…”
“Release your hostage! If you do not, you will be in danger. You had better stay back from Naofumi!”
Itsuki screamed, but Raphtalia regarded him coldly.
“You’d say that after taking Filo hostage? He took Melty hostage too. And you’d believe all that on a flimsy story about a supposed Brain Washing Shield?”
“Um…”
“And besides, can’t you see? Mr. Naofumi can’t move right now.”
With the Bitch unconscious, the tables seemed to have turned. I still couldn’t risk getting too close to Raphtalia though.
The reason was the relentless rain of arrows and magic falling all around me.
“Stop that right now!”
Ren shouted to the soldiers, but they didn’t seem to be listening.
“Please stop! Commander, please!”
“No! You call yourself soldiers of Melromarc?! Oh, hey! You’re the one that fought with the Shield Demon!”
The soldier that had called out for the Commander to stop was one of the soldiers who’d helped me during the last wave.
“Take your punishment now!”
Everything happened in slow motion.
Slowly but absolutely, a sword was slicing through the air straight at the soldier that spoke up for me.
It was just like with the younger princess.
I was lucky enough to have saved her, but this time I was too far away. I couldn’t make it in time.
“Stop!”
The Commander swinging his sword at a subordinate set me off. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. I felt like I might explode.
Just then, the little tool the weapon shop owner had given me, the cover for my shield’s jewel, cracked and fell.
“Whoa!”
I didn’t know what was happening, but I was aware of a great volume of light expanding around me.
What was it? It was a circle of light centered on myself, about three meters across. It was pretty big.
What…
The attacks raining down from the soldiers could not penetrate the light. They clattered off of it and broke, ricocheting.
“Whoa!”
The sparks and flying ricocheted attacks rained down on Ren and the other heroes—including their parties. Luckily, the sparks avoided anyone associated with my party. Raphtalia, Filo, the princess, and the soldiers were not harmed.
The broken shards fell on the enemies, blackened chunks. But then they began to burn. There were so many of them, scattered so randomly, that no one could get away from them.
The tool the old guy had given me must have reacted to my shield. The black flames suggested that it had instilled my shield with a counterattack based on the Shield of Rage II. That was the only explanation I could think of anyway.
“Wh…”
“U…”
Ren and Itsuki were both suffering from the flames. The only one who could still fight was Motoyasu, and he was locked in combat with Filo.
“Hiya!”
“Everyone!”
“Damn! Naofumi! Don’t you run!”
Motoyasu understood that the situation had turned against him. He stepped away from Filo.
“Everyone regroup!”
“Okay! C’mon, Mel!”
“Okay!”
What unexpected good luck. This was our chance to escape.
But Motoyasu was still up and kicking. How could we get away from him?
Filo was still stuck in human form because of that hoop. We couldn’t get away on her. And it wasn’t like Ren and Itsuki weren’t capable of fighting anymore. The black flames had burned them, but that was just a surface wound.
“Let Myne go!”
Motoyasu threw a spear at Raphtalia, who was still using Myne as a shield.
“I don’t think so.”
“Mr. Naofumi.”
I was in front of Motoyasu in a flash, but just before Raphtalia could swing back and maneuver behind me, she lost her grip on the Bitch.
Motoyasu’s gaze immediately went to the Bitch.
She’d been our major advantage, and now we’d lost that.
I reached out to see if I could grab her again…
“Myne!”
But Motoyasu had already swept her into his arms.
Damn. She was out of our hands.
Our situation had grown steadily worse since we ran into everyone. We couldn’t fight much longer.
Honestly, if we tried we’d lose.
I was thinking it over when something rolled up against my foot.
A bomb? I immediately raised my shield to block the blast, but the bomb just emitted a stream of smoke with a soft hiss.
“Uh…”
“Wh…”
The whole area filled with smoke, and we couldn’t see anything. I took a single step, and couldn’t tell anyone apart anymore.
With everyone in such close quarters, how were we supposed to tell friend from foe?
“This way, Zir.”
“That voice! Shield Hero, follow the voice.”
Mel called out to me.
“Is it okay?”
“I think so. Just in case, have Raphtalia use her illusion magic!”
“All right!”
Mel was leading me along, I ran behind her.
“Wait! Where did you go?!”
Before we escaped, I called out to Ren.
“Ren, I’m sure you understand all this. After using all this force, can you really say that I’m the criminal here?”
“…”
“I’m using wind magic! Anyone else who can use it—help me!”
“Wait, Itsuki.”
“What is it?”
“Now we should…”
Itsuki was about to use wind magic to clear away the smoke. It sounded like Ren was trying to stop him.
Would we make it? I didn’t know, but we all ran after the voice.
When the smoke cleared, we had put a lot of distance between Ren and ourselves. And just in case, Raphtalia had cast magic back there. They were still looking for us.
That meant…
“Zir, better use this cloak too.”
The mystery voice spoke and threw a cloth over me.
“Will we make it?”
“Quiet… Let’s get moving—quietly.”
Mel took Filo’s hand and ran of silently. We followed after them. And so we were able to escape from the heroes. A short while later, the force field around me vanished. In the end it was clear that we had only been able to escape because of the gifts the old guy had left us.
This wouldn’t be the last time though. How would we escape next time? The heroes weren’t stupid. They would learn from this and come up with a new plan.
And yet, it looked like Ren was starting to suspect that things weren’t as they’d seemed. I had to hold out hope for that.
Anyway, it wasn’t any time to dwell on things. We needed to focus on running.
Chapter Twenty: Shadow
“Zir. We’ve made it this far. We should be zafe for now.”
I flung off the cloak and got a look at the owner of the mystery voice. And it was one of the villagers from the neighboring kingdom that we’d spoken too at the border. It was one of the people that hadn’t spoken.
“You…?”
I felt like it couldn’t be the same person.
“Remember how we talked about the doppelgänger that had dressed as my mother?”
“Um… yeah…”
“This is that person.”
“This is our first meeting, Zir. Have you recognized me because of princess Melty’s explanation? I hope so, Zir. Otherwise I have failed as a shadow.”
“I think you’re saying that wrong.”
“It is a command of the princess, so I have no choice, Zir.”
“Let’s end the inside
jokes already—speak up. Why did you save us? Who are you? What do you want?”
“I am a member of Melromarc’s zecret zervice. I am a “shadow.” That is why I helped you. Also, I have no name of my own. If you must call me something, Zir, please call me Shadow.”
Shadow… Was he trying to look cool? I remembered meeting one of them before. It was back in Riyute, when I’d raced Motoyasu.
There must have been some difference between the way I thought, having come from another world, and the way natives of this world thought.
If I started to number them all, the list would be huge—so I just put that out of mind for the time being.
“Why did you save us?”
That was what I wanted to know the most. I could think of a few reasons, but none of them stood out as most likely.
“I cannot answer that, Zir.”
“How secretive.”
“If I must explain, I can zay that it is my job to protect Princess Melty.”
“That doesn’t explain much.”
If that had been the reason, he would have jumped in to help when Melty started fighting.
“I knew that the Shield Hero would protect her then—that is why I didn’t appear.”
“You…”
“That battle was looking quite dangerous near the end, but we were able to escape safely. I believe this is because the other Heroes harbored doubts about their own missions.”
So basically, he know what was going on, and just watched as it all happened. He must have been very capable.
“Furthermore, I have arrived so that I might deliver news of the queen’s whereabouts to the princess and to the Shield Hero.”
Shadow showed us a map, and he pointed to a country in the southwest corner.
It was in the exact opposite direction of Siltvelt.
“The queen is presently in this country. It is in the opposite direction of the demi-human country where you wish to find zanctuary. It is very far, and therefore your preparations are not enough to get you there. You will need protection.”
“Well…”
I had started to suspect it, but now it was clear that everyone had guessed where we were going.
The only reason I could think of was that the demi-humans believed in the Shield Hero—the opposite of the church in Melromarc. Had I managed to escape and get sanctuary there, it would have been very bad for the church and the Trash.
Naturally, I would have loved to piss them off by getting into the demi-human kingdom, but considering the heavy patrol of the border, that option was now essentially impossible. It would take Filo two weeks to get there, and if the other heroes cut us off and got there first then we would never get through. Not to mention that they had even anticipated Filo and her power—they even made a special loop to keep her out of the fight.
Still, even if it required a long detour, I still wanted to go.
“The motives for your current troubles are deep rooted. If it is possible, I’d like the other Heroes to assist us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The Church of the Three Heroes is clearly weakened by all that you’ve been doing, Zir. That is why they are going to such lengths.”
“Weakened? They sure don’t seem weakened to me.”
“Just wait to see what happens when the public finds out about the plan to kill princess Melty.”
It was true that we’d managed to get as far as we had because many people had stepped forward to help us.
Did it mean that the populace was losing faith in the church’s teachings?
“See? Father wasn’t behind this.”
“This shadow might be lying to us. Don’t just believe whatever he says.”
I had to warn her, but I was still interested in hearing whatever he could tell us.
“Let’s just say that I believe you for the moment. That would explain why they are trying to force this ridiculous brainwashing story on everyone.”
What could I have done to bother them? Selling medicine, helping villagers here and there. Could that really be it? Ironically, the biggest problem for them might be that I was cleaning up the messes the other heroes had left behind.
If they had a faith built on worshiping all the heroes besides the shield, then my actions actually might cause them trouble. It would shake the people’s faith. If they could convince everyone that I’d pulled all this off through manipulation and brainwashing, then they could restore people’s faith in their teachings. On the other hand, if I was able to prove my innocence, that would strike a fatal blow to their good reputation among the people.
“What will you do, Zir? Do you want to continue on to Siltvelt and gain zanctuary there?”
“Well…”
I couldn’t just hand the responsibility over to somewhere else and live out my days in peace. If Siltvelt and Melromarc went to war it wouldn’t save me either—the next wave would come, and I’d just end up teleported into the midst of my enemies again. That wouldn’t be good at all.
And think about it—these were the people that had put me in this position in the first place. The Bitch was probably working for the church. According to the young princess, the Trash wasn’t though.
That meant that I probably shouldn’t just run for sanctuary, ask for help, and launch a counterattack. It would make more sense to use the people that had already proven they believed in me. If everything went well, we’d save a few days too.
And yet…
“Let’s say I meet with the queen. What’s in it for you? We might end up destroying the church.”
“I cannot tell you that, Zir.”
So the shadow would only give me information about the queen. He didn’t plan on telling me what to do after that.
But there was no doubt in my mind that he worked for the queen.
He was connected with the princess and worked for the queen. So it was safe to assume he was acting on behalf of the queen. That meant that the queen must think that meeting me would help her somehow.
Honestly I couldn’t figure out what the queen wanted.
From what the princess had said, it seemed like her highest priority was avoiding war with the neighboring kingdoms. Furthermore, if she wanted to go out of her way to help me even though her own country had deeply-rooted beliefs against the Shield Demon, she must have taken the threat of the waves very seriously.
Shadow had said that she wanted their “assistance.”
The queen’s plans were not in line with the church’s.
Well, one thing I felt safe to assume was that the queen was not my enemy. Whether or not she was my friend, I didn’t know. But she might be our best option in this situation.
“Just once.”
“What do you mean, Zir?”
“You saved us back there. So I’ll believe you, just this once. We just need to meet with the queen?”
If she could put an end to this whole debacle, I’d have to trust her.
“I really don’t like the idea of being led around—but it’s probably our best option here. If you betray us…”
“I understand. Very well, I bid you farewell. After all, we don’t know when the church’s shadows will arrive.”
“The church has them too?”
“We are not a monolithic organization. So please be careful.”
“How can I do that?”
“Shield Hero, you are full of doubts—they will save you. Say you meet someone who speaks as I do. Would you just believe them?”
He was right. I’d still be suspicious if we met again.
“Now then, farewell.”
He said goodbye and vanished in an instant.
He talked weird, but he seemed to be good at his job.
“Think we can trust him?”
Honestly, I didn’t know.
“Yes. Mother trusts him.”
“I don’t know much about the queen.”
The queen apparently thought very differently than the Trash or the Bitc
h—but I didn’t know what she was actually thinking. Everything that Mel and Shadow had said made her look like my friend, but I still couldn’t figure out her goal. The worst part was that I couldn’t ignore the possibility that she was in league with the church in the plan to assassinate the princess.
If it was all part of the queen’s plan to have me killed, then I was already out of options.
If we all turned back and headed away from Siltvelt, then she’d have us all rounded up. I didn’t want to believe it, but she might be after the princess’s life too. I had to find out what she was after. If I could just figure out where she stood in all this, I’d know what I needed to do also.
“Anyway, at least we know where we are going.”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
“Yes. Let’s get going. Filo”
At the very least, we knew what to do now. That put us one step ahead of where we’d been when we were trying to figure out how to cross the border. We turned to the Southwest and started walking.
“Yeah, but I’m kinda tired. My hands hurt, and I used up all my magic.”
Filo sat down, exhausted. She needed to rest.
“She’s right. And besides, we left our carriage and all our things back there.
“We didn’t have a choice.”
All we had left was our money, a little bit of goods, and a knife I could use for cooking.
But we’d even lost Raphtalia’s equipment.
Even worse, Filo was stuck in human form. How were we supposed to get rid of that hoop?
“Raphtalia, can you think of a way to get that hoop off?”
“I can try.”
Raphtalia wrapped her fingers around the hoop and tried to pry it off. But it didn’t show any signs of budging.
“It’s pretty tough.”
I was getting worried. I couldn’t let that show on my face.
“I’ll try too.”
The princess stepped forward.
“I wonder if magic would work?”
I remembered that my own world had something called a water cutter. It was a machine that used water pressure to cut through things. I was thinking about it, trying to remember how it worked. Mel was fidgeting with the hoop.
“I can’t do it, it’s too tough. I think we’d need an alchemist or an item-maker to take it off.”
“No!”
Filo made a grumpy face.
