by Aneko Yusagi
She was really thinking—despite being so young. She needed to clear her name, and if she went back to Trash then she could prove my innocence too.
“If we could prove it was safe, then it might be a good idea.”
“Of course, I already know that it will be dangerous. Still, it might be less dangerous than traveling with you, considering how my sister is on your tail.”
For Melty, anyone connected to her sister was a sure source of danger. So traveling with us was a guaranteed series of dangerous battles.
If that was true, then it really might be best for her to sneak back to Trash while we drew attention away from her.
It wasn’t like we needed Melty to be with us when we met with the queen anyway.
“It’s only an idea. Just keep it in mind.”
“I know. You sure are thinking about things.”
“Are you treating me like a child?!”
“That’s not what I meant. I was just realizing how much you’ve thought it through.”
“But you said it like…”
And there she was again, picking a fight with me. At the time, I had no way to know that we’d have to put her plan into action very soon. The catalyst was already on its way.
Chapter Two: Noblemen
Dusk fell.
I was looking out the window, and I saw a carriage drive onto the premises.
Melty and Filo were off exploring the mansion—apparently they hadn’t seen much of it last time.
Raphtalia was asleep. I woke her and told her to prepare for a fight.
What was happening?
A small, portly man jumped out of the carriage and knocked on the door of the mansion. He was followed by a large group of soldiers.
A few minutes passed. Then came a knock on our bedroom door. It was the noble’s maid.
“What is it?”
“You have to run away from here.”
“I can see why. If you turn us over to them, I’ll kill you.”
I hadn’t completely rid myself of the nagging doubt that Nice Guy had invited us here as a trap.
Depending on how she answered, I’d kick out the window and run.
“A noble family from a neighboring town began to suspect that the Shield Hero was hiding here. They’ve come to investigate.”
“What?”
So that fat guy was a noble? It didn’t look like she was lying.
“Mr. Naofumi.”
Raphtalia was trying to tell me something. I looked out the window.
The fat man had tied up Nice Guy with ropes and was loading him into the carriage.
Yeah. I guess he hadn’t been trying to trick me after all.
He really had stood out. It looked like he had been watched, and now they were carting him off.
What should we do? If I kicked out the window and ran, that would only put Nice Guy in further danger.
“Please, think of my master. Is there no way that you can escape from here without being detected?”
The maid was standing in the doorway, pleading.
She was right. For Nice Guy to stand a chance, we’d have to sneak out without getting caught.
“If you don’t hurry, the soldiers will find you. You can still make it out the back door. Please…”
“Where are Filo and Melty?”
“Both of them are preparing to run.”
“Fine. But if this is a trap of some kind, I’ll make sure that you suffer for it.”
We quickly collected our things, opened the door, and made for the back door the maid was pointing to.
The kitchen was between the door and us.
“Hide in here!”
The maid felt someone approaching, and she stuffed us into to a secret servant room.
A second later, and we could hear people talking on the other side of the door.
“There you are. Are you hiding something?”
A man was speaking, but I didn’t recognize his voice. It was probably one of the soldiers working with the noble from the next town over.
“I have a feeling that the Shield Demon is nearby. Get over here!”
“Ahh!”
The maid screamed.
“Please wait! The kitchen is our…”
“Shut up! Are you going to stand in the way of our orders?!”
The maid screamed, and the soldier laughed. It was disgusting.
“Anyway, we have reason to believe the Shield Demon is in this mansion. You will stand aside and let us investigate.”
I could hear their footsteps moving off into the distance.
It didn’t seem like they were coming back to the kitchen… but still.
It would not be good if they found us. Where were Filo and Melty? Even if we found them… We couldn’t run away and leave them here. I prepared for the worst and turned to Raphtalia.
She placed her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist. She was ready.
If it were a numbers game, we’d lose. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t win. I didn’t want to get Nice Guy hurt, but…
The door in front of us rattled. Someone grabbed the doorknob and a shaft of light appeared at the doorframe.
“The younger princess is over there!”
I heard someone shout.
“I am the second Princess of Melromarc, Melty Melromarc! What are you doing with all these soldiers?!”
That was Melty. She was speaking with grave authority.
It wasn’t that hysterical voice she used when she spoke with me. I could tell what she was thinking.
I couldn’t hear Filo at all, which meant that they must have split up.
The door clicked shut again.
What should we do? They’d found Melty. Should we jump out of the room and save her?
“Where is the Shield Demon?!”
The soldier was shouting at Melty.
“Silence! Who do you think you are addressing?!”
“I believe it’s the little Princess Melty.”
I heard him shuffle his ankles together.
“Ah…”
Raphtalia had to clamp a hand over her mouth to remain silent.
What was going on? Raphtalia’s face was very pale, and thick globs of sweat were streaming down her shaking face.
“Are you okay?”
I whispered to her, but she just nodded. She was still shaking.
She certainly didn’t look okay.
“Have you been playing hide and seek here? Can you tell me where the Shield Demon is?”
“I’m sorry to tell you that the Shield Hero is not here.”
“What does that mean?”
“I begged him. ‘Please, please,’ I said. ‘Please leave me here and escape.’ I told him that I would stay in Melromarc and clear his name.”
Was she trying to do what she’d talked about earlier? That was too reckless!
“Very well, that makes sense. So, Princess, you are here alone. And the Shield Demon is not here?”
“That’s correct. And I have no idea where he went.”
“Did you all search the mansion?!”
“Y…Yes! We didn’t find them!”
The man who’d been talking to Melty, the noble from the next town, sighed in frustration.
“Then I suppose we have no other choice. Princess Melty, please come with us.”
“Very well.”
They continued speaking, but they had walked away, and I could no longer hear them.
Were they just going to take Melty? Were we just going to leave her?
“Mr. Naofumi.”
“Yeah.”
I reached for the door.
“The Shield Hero is not here!”
Melty exclaimed loudly.
“She must have thought that we were hiding nearby. Had she sensed that we were about jump out of hiding?
Damn... If we jumped out now, did that mean we were going against Melty’s wishes?
“I would very much like to speak with my father to clear all this
up. Please bring me to the castle immediately.”
“First I would like you to accompany me to my mansion. Then we will decide how to proceed. Everything is in accordance with God’s plan.”
Melty gasped. The man had explained himself enough. There was nothing left to hold me back!
I went to open the door, only to find that the Maid was standing there to block it.
“Please, you must not ignore the wishes of the princess. If you don’t, my master will only receive a worse punishment.”
“But we can prove our innocence—”
The maid went right on talking.
“Please, at the very least, wait until she’s shown that my master has nothing to do with the Shield Hero.”
Right. If they found out that Nice Guy was harboring us, they’d kill him right on the spot.
We were a small group, so we still had some flexibility. If we pulled Nice Guy and everyone into things, then it would be much harder to act.
So if we wanted to give Nice Guy a good chance of surviving this, we’d have to swing back around later to pick up Melty. That would prove that he hadn’t been involved.
I hated betraying someone as much as I hated being betrayed.
It was easy enough to say it, but I owed him. I didn’t want him to suffer needlessly on my account.
“My master was able to find out some information for you. The Spear Hero is currently looking for the Shield Hero far away from here. The Sword and Bow Heroes are also nowhere nearby.”
Motoyasu wasn’t our only enemy. The nobility scattered around the country was going to be a real problem.
The maid slowly opened the door.
“Where is Filo? Did she go with Melty?”
“The blonde girl who was with the princess? She wasn’t with Melty when she was discovered.”
We went around Nice Guy’s mansion looking for Filo.
I swear—you’d think it was bad enough that Melty was taken away. But now Filo was missing too.
So where did we find her? She was hiding up in the attic.
I called for her but she kept hiding. I didn’t see any other option, so I activated the monster control magic and got her to come out.
At least she hadn’t run far.
“Ouch! Master! You’re the worst!”
“No, YOU are. You should have come when I called.”
“He’s right, Filo! What were you doing?!”
Raphtalia scolded her, but Filo answered with a smile on her face.
“Huh? Where is Mel?”
“You didn’t notice?”
“Huh? After everything got loud and crazy, Mel said we should play hide and seek. So I hid. Mel said that I shouldn’t come out for anyone.”
Filo didn’t understand what had happened…
If we left Melty and made for the border, if we found asylum in another country, then we might be able to find some way to fix all this.
Melty must have known that she’d be killed if the Church got its hands on her.
If she was going to survive, Shadow would have to intervene. From what the nobleman had said, it seemed reasonable to assume that he was connected with the Church.
He’d either kill her himself, or he’d give her to Motoyasu and Bitch, and then they would kill her.
The guy wasn’t a fool. He must have realized that Melty wasn’t being totally honest with him.
He probably wanted to lure us out of hiding. He might torture Nice Guy.
If we left Melty and ran away, our chances of meeting the queen seemed pretty good.
That’s what Melty had done. She’d given us more time to escape.
Now I just had to decide what to do with that time.
Should I tell myself that I wasn’t abandoning her? Should I prioritize our lives over hers?
Melty was Bitch’s sister. Still, she’d never betrayed my trust.
She’d actually put herself in danger to buy us more time, to give us a chance to survive.
There was only one thing to do.
Even if it was dangerous, I had to do what I could for someone who’d believed in me. I had to save her.
“Filo, I need you to listen very carefully.”
“Okay. What?”
“Melty was taken away. She went with them to protect us.”
“What?!”
Filo quickly processed what had happened, turned into her Filolial Queen form, and was ready to run.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“I’m going to save Mel!”
I turned to Nice Guy’s maid.
“I just want to check. Where did they take her?”
“Probably to the mansion in the next town. It’s not very far away, but I imagine that they have already arrived.”
I was familiar with the area from my peddling days. She was right. The next town was very close. Everyone there had been mean to Raphtalia, and we didn’t sell anything, so we had moved on quickly.
At the time, we’d had a lot of eyes on us when we made our way into the town. They’d been very concerned with our entry—but they made it very easy to leave.
I hadn’t really understood why at the time, but now it all seemed clear enough.
I remembered that, even though demi-humans were treated poorly all over Melromarc, the discrimination had been especially bad in that town.
I didn’t know all that much about Melromarc, but it seemed to be that way.
Another explanation might be the notable difference in power between the nobility in that town versus the nobility in this town.
I remember the neighboring town being much larger.
To be honest, the town we were hiding out in was more of a little village. Looking around at the state of the houses, I nodded to myself. Yeah, this place didn’t have the same authority as the other town.
I’d heard something about the nobility in that town too… There was some sort of legend associated with the place…
What was it? It had something to do with a previous hero defeating a monster and sealing it away…
I remembered that they’d made some kind of attraction out of the site.
“Do you have a sketch of the mansion they took Mel to?”
“We know someone that has been there many times. Maybe you could listen to their description of the place and make a map of sorts?”
That was a good idea. Better to trust those who had already been there.
Shortly afterwards, I had a simple map in my hand.
The mansion was three stories tall, and built around a central courtyard. They said that Melty was probably being held in a room near the back of the second floor.
“Got it. I’m sorry about all this. We’re leaving now. Filo, Raphtalia, let’s go.”
“Okay!”
“Yes!”
The owner of this mansion, Nice Guy, had been taken too.
I didn’t want to put him in any more danger than he already was. What could I do?
I couldn’t let them know that he had helped us… I’d have to say that we had come to take Melty from him.
I’d have to get them to think that Nice Guy had somehow taken Melty from us.
If I couldn’t convince them, they might torture him to death.
This town had a reputation in Melromarc for being full of demi-humans. I had to do what I could to protect it.
A few moments later, and we were chasing after the carriage that had taken Melty.
“Damn…”
The demi-humans around Nice Guy’s town were out in the streets and agitated. Nice Guy must have meant a lot to them.
If I told them all that I was the Shield Hero, they might have jumped in to help, but at the same time I didn’t want to involve more people than necessary. Besides, if it became common knowledge that Nice Guy had been harboring us, he’d only end up in worse trouble than he already was.
If I went with just Raphtalia and Filo, the small size of our group would give us flexibility and speed—both of which were necessary
if we wanted to stand a chance of saving Melty.
Soon enough, I was riding on Filo’s back, and we had jumped over the wall and snuck into the neighboring town.
Luckily, thanks to Raphtalia’s magic, we’d been able to deepen the darkness of night and sneak in undetected.
“Think it’s that big mansion over there?”
There was a large hill in the center of town, and a large mansion stood on the top of it. It only seemed natural that the governor would live there.
“Yeah… That’s got to be it.”
Raphtalia silently nodded.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
Raphtalia was definitely acting strange.
“I didn’t notice the last time we passed through here. But now… now I’m sure.”
“What do you mean, Big Sister?”
We were still perched on the wall around town. Raphtalia was glaring at the mansion. She looked very agitated.
“I’ll make it darker. Then we should hurry up and make our approach. If we don’t hurry, who knows what will happen?”
Raphtalia cast a spell to darken our surroundings, and we made our way to the mansion by jumping from roof to roof. I couldn’t be sure that no one had seen us. But then again, who walks around town at night looking up at the roofs?
“It doesn’t look like any of the town guards have noticed us yet. You think they would be on closer guard, considering the situation with the princess.”
“I think it is because, at nighttime, these nobles do things that they can’t tell others about. Even if they heard that you were approaching, I doubt they’d be able to respond very quickly.”
“What are you talking about? What do you know?”
“Yes… This town is different from other places. The nobility here don’t want the guards to keep too close of a watch.”
“Are you talking about what happened when you were a slave?”
“Yes.”
Raphtalia silently nodded.
This nobleman… He was the one that had tortured her… the one who had finally broken her spirit.
If a guy like that had his hands on Melty… who knows what he was capable of?
“Did you hear that, Filo? If we don’t hurry, Melty will be in trouble.”
“Yeah! Let’s go save her!”
On Filo’s back, we jumped over the mansion’s fence.
“Woof! Woof!”
