by Aneko Yusagi
“The woman called S’yne who currently stands by you, the Shield Spirit is also going to lend her some of his power. She should be a little more potent going forward,” Ost relayed. So the spirits saw S’yne as an ally.
“Okay . . . sounds good,” I replied.
“I pray that happiness lies at the end of your path, Shield Hero,” Ost finished, smiling down at me.
“I will always be watching over you,” Atla added. Then both of them turned into pure light and slipped away. After watching them go, my awareness started to wake back up to reality.
Chapter Six: The Staff Hero
As I opened my eyes, pain lanced through me. I grunted.
“Nao—”
“Naofumi!” It was S’yne and her familiar who shouted out to me as I awoke and sat up. Had they been nursing me? There was something on my chest . . . a square gemstone.
The stone glittered with a pale light. I could tell it was stopping my pain. So the power of this accessory had healed the wounds in both me and the shield?
Giving the matter some thought again now . . . I wondered who just S’yne was, anyway.
I mean, I knew she was a vassal weapon holder from another world. But it was also true that there were still many mysteries surrounding her.
“I’m fine now,” I said. I likely couldn’t talk to them again without the shield here, but even without it, the shield was still lending me its power. “Ren and the others are still in conference?”
“Yes. About Raphtalia too. She risked her life to save us, and then . . .” the familiar started, but I cut it off.
“I know what happened.”
“Raph!” Raph-chan came out from under the bed and leapt up onto me.
“Even when I was unconscious, I was aware of my surroundings through the weapons,” I explained. “I have some idea of what’s been going on. The queen is gone too?”
“That’s right. After we escaped from Faubrey . . . none of the treatments could save her,” the familiar confirmed.
“I saw it,” I said.
“Melty and Filo are participating in the funeral at the moment,” the familiar said.
“I see . . .” I’d pay my respects later.
“What are you going to do now?” the familiar inquired.
“Grief has closed the eyes of one of the seven star heroes. It’s time he opened them again,” I declared.
The state funeral had seen everyone crying.
After it was finished . . . one person was left standing in front of the queen’s coffin, inside which the monarch slumbered so peacefully. Behind them stood Melty, her eyes red, holding hands with Filo.
“Melty!” I called.
“Ah, Naofumi!” She came running over to me, crying anew. “My mother . . . my mother!”
“I’m sorry. I failed to protect her,” I said.
“No . . . no need for that. Filo and all the others said how hard you tried . . . and I saw how badly you were wounded,” Melty replied.
“But I still failed,” I said. That was the truth. The queen had done so much for me—never lying, lending me her strength, mobilizing the entire nation to aid me.
“Melty. There’s no need to hold back. I failed to protect her . . . You can hate me, if you need to,” I told her. She gave a scream of anguish and grabbed onto me, tears streaming down her face. It hurt, without the protection of the shield, but this was pain that I had to accept.
Seeing Melty break down, Filo also started to cry her eyes out. For a short while, I just stood there and comforted the two of them.
“I’m sorry, Naofumi,” Melty eventually said.
“No need to apologize. I hope you feel a little better,” I replied.
“Thank you,” she managed. Melty stood up and moved to leave the church.
“Are you finished with the funeral?” I asked.
“I’ve said my goodbyes to my mother. Now I need to prepare for the coming battle,” Melty replied.
“I see. You’re tough, aren’t you?” I said.
“Filo!” Melty called.
“I’m here!” Melty climbed onto Filo’s back and they raced away. They were headed to the same conference the heroes were currently holding.
“Well then . . .” I proceeded toward the one standing in front of the coffin—Trash.
The queen looked beautiful, even in death, like she was about to sit up and start giving orders. Trash was quietly looking at her corpse. The images the legendary weapons had shown me had told me how much he loved the queen. Trash had noticed me, but he still only looked at the queen.
“Have you come to laugh at me? An old fool, unable to protect a single thing that’s precious to me?” he asked.
“No,” I replied. I placed some flowers into the coffin. Just that simple act filled me with sad feelings.
The queen had continued to lend me her strength. That was why I’d also done my best to meet her requests. I could have gone to Siltvelt and started a war with this country. It was thanks to the hard work of the queen that Melromarc hadn’t gone to war with Siltvelt. I understood now just how hard that had been.
Nobles and religions from within the nation had continued to hate and hound me. She must have been defending me from attacks I had no idea about. That would explain why she had always seemed so busy. She’d given herself for the sake of her nation, for the sake of the world, and yet none of it had been rewarded. Now on top of that, she’d tried so many times—countless times—to set her daughter right.
None of those efforts had taken either. Witch continued to happily knock people down for the sake of her own desires.
I saw how the queen had been desperate to change the minds of her daughter and husband so they wouldn’t hate me. But all of that was finished now. That same daughter had rejected her mother’s maternal feelings, and in turn it led to her mother losing her very life.
All Trash had been able to do was watch his daughter’s twisted work.
“Shield Hero. I leave this nation in your hands. I won’t be fighting,” Trash said. My anger instantly flared up, and I grabbed Trash by the collar.
“Did your wife tell you to leave this nation with me?! You aren’t even going to try and understand what it was your wife tried to impart to you, as she lay dying?!” I raged. A flicker of reciprocal anger did appear on Trash’s face, just for a moment.
It vanished just as quickly, however, and he looked away.
“What should I do, then? I can’t . . .” Trash mumbled.
“Will standing here grieving bring the queen back? Will praying return Atla to life? Will wishing for a miracle bring peace to the world?” I questioned, almost accusingly.
“Shut up! What . . . what the hell do you know?” Trash’s anger ignited again, and he took a swing at me. I avoided it smoothly. Trash glared at me as though he had finally found something to smash his anger against.
“You think I don’t understand?” I countered. Trash had no reply for that.
I thought of Atla.
The girl who I whispered to, the girl inside my shield, was no longer in this world. She had given up her body in order to protect us all.
“I am going to avenge Atla. I’m also going to execute your daughter, Witch. She’s nothing but a poison to Melromarc.” I was going to put on a real big show. If the spirits didn’t like that, they’d just have to lump it. “Siltvelt treats the Shield Hero as a god. Melromarc is already mine, and Faubrey will fall next. Then all the major nations will belong to me!” I gave an evil cackle. “The start of a new world order.”
“What are you talking about?!” Trash raged.
“Once that happens, you are first on the chopping block, old man. You worthless hero. Then Melty, I reckon. She seems to think I’m a good person. Big mistake. It will be fun to see how she reacts. Or maybe I’ll do what your wife wanted and make her my sex slave,” I pondered. God, if Melty actually heard any of this, the wounds from Takt would be the least of my worries. Without the shield, even Melty’s magic cou
ld really put the hurt on me now.
Still, I hoped that was enough to make Trash really mad.
“I won’t allow that!” Trash focused his pure anger on his fist and swung for me.
I let him hit me.
I didn’t know what level Trash was. With the shield slumbering, however, I did taste blood in my mouth.
“I will be the one . . . I will protect the Melromarc that Mirellia so loved! I won’t let scum like you have it!” he declared.
“Good. That’s the way. See, you can do it,” I said, recovering from the blow.
“What?” Trash was stunned by my response.
“I ask you again. Did your wife say to leave this nation to me? She didn’t, did she? She left it to you! The Staff Hero and the Wisest King of Wisdom! You need to listen to the final request of the woman you so loved!” I shouted. With a stunned gasp, Trash’s eyes opened wide and he took a large step backward.
Then he wiped away his tears.
“You are right. My eyes have been clouded. I let my sadness, my grief at losing someone so close to me, overtake me . . . and I directed all my hatred from the past at you, Shield . . . Hero Iwatani,” Trash said. In truth, he probably wanted to attack me for failing to protect his wife. Trash still hated me, clearly. They all seemed pretty selfish to me, but he had plenty of reasons to hate the Shield Hero. And yet, from the Trash standing in front of me now, I couldn’t feel a single one of them.
I felt something regal from him now, like when we had been opposed before the arrival of the queen. Indeed, something even more than that, as he looked at me so sharply.
“My wife left this nation to me. All I can do is abide by her final words. I won’t ask for your forgiveness. But will you still fight for my nation? Please, I beg you!” Trash bowed low before me . . . and I couldn’t help but splutter with laughter.
“No need to bow to me for that. The queen has already bowed enough for both of you,” I told him.
“But . . .” Trash started. The queen had said that she wanted my aid in protecting her nation. That she would do whatever she could to aid me in that. The queen had kept her word right up until she died, meaning I had to keep my promise with her.
Now I had to fight in order to clean away the true trash infesting Faubrey.
Just like Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki had changed, like I myself had changed, everyone had the potential to change.
“You’re going to change, right?” I asked him. “Then stop talking and bowing your head and take action.” It was easy to talk about defeating Takt, the one who had killed Atla, to claim you could save the world in an instant. But someone who was just all talk couldn’t defeat our foes and couldn’t save the world.
We weren’t going to be playing at politics now. We were going to war. A war we absolutely must not lose. A war to avenge all who had died.
“What are you still doing here then? Go and get to work for this nation!” I barked.
“Very well.” Trash lifted his face and gave me a salute with a sharp expression. As though responding to his words, a shining staff appeared in front of Trash. “This is . . .” Yes. The very moment the Seven Star Staff had been waiting for—for the clouds to clear from Trash’s festering eyes. Or in this moment, should I say King Aultcray?
Trash grabbed the staff. Lightning scattered around him, and the seven star hero was revived.
Staff Spirit, I’ve kept my promise to you.
Trash accepted the staff . . . and then took out his ceremonial dagger, cut off his overgrown hair and beard, and then stood straight.
“Let’s go, Hero Iwatani,” he said.
“I am with you. Wisest King of Wisdom . . . Aultcray,” I responded. But Aultcray shook his head.
“I failed to protect the one I loved. ‘Trash’ is the only name worthy of a fool like me,” he said. I had no response to that. “I am Trash. I brought all of this upon us. You should continue to call me Trash,” he told me. He was like a different person. I’d heard that only fools called themselves wise men, but what kind of man called himself “trash?”
I had to believe he was the better of the two.
“As you say. Trash, I’m leaving our strategy to you. I’m counting on all that wisdom supposedly packed into your head,” I told him.
“We shall destroy these enemies with the fewest sacrifices possible,” he said.
We turned from the queen’s coffin and quietly . . . started walking.
We arrived in front of the conference room where Ren and the others were in discussion. I’d picked up Motoyasu along the way, who had been playing with his three filolials.
“Ah. The Shield Hero, and . . .” The castle soldier swallowed his words, looking behind me to see S’yne and Trash giving off a radiant aura. An aura you could see in a single glance—truly something only a hero was capable of.
It was true. Trash looked like a completely different person. It wasn’t whatever I’d felt the first time I saw him but rather . . . a charisma, almost. Like I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“Your majesty,” the guard responded, carefully choosing his words.
“Good man. I wish to talk with the heroes and the coalition army. Will you please open the door?” Trash asked.
“Your majesty!” The guard gave a salute and then opened the door. We proceeded into the conference room.
“Naofumi!” As soon as Ren saw me, he stood up and came over. “Have you recovered from your injuries?”
“For the time being,” I responded. There was still pain, but I could move, and I was continuing to recover. Combined with the blessings of the shield, by the time it came to fight the scum, I would be recovered enough to take him.
“And . . .” Ren saw Trash and stopped dead. “Is that who I think it is?”
“Yeah, one and the same. I’m just as surprised as you,” I replied. With a stern look on his face, Trash looked over everyone in the meeting and showed them his staff. His face looked so regal it almost made me want to check if it was really him.
It wasn’t his arrogant face from when I first saw him, or the pathetic and hate-filled one that had come later. If he’d been like this from the start, I’m pretty sure I’d never have beaten him.
“So the Staff Hero of Melromarc is finally ready to fight, huh? A little too late, isn’t it?” The old genmu guy took an aggressive stance with Trash.
“I’m not going to deny it. My eyes were clouded before, but no longer. In accordance with the final words of my wife, the queen, I will defend this nation,” Trash said. Even just yesterday, hearing such a comment would have sent him into a rage, trashing the room before being chased out. This new Trash, however, admitted to his own mistake.
“Melty,” he said.
“Y-yes,” his daughter answered, standing up straight. She had been running the meeting alongside Ren. Perhaps sensing something out of place, Melty knitted her eyebrows as she dealt with her father.
“Will you continue this discussion? Hero Iwatani and myself will join you,” Trash said.
“Very well,” Melty agreed. Trash pulled out a chair for me and then sat down next to me. Just that made everyone hold their breath. It was clear that he had let our past wash away and was showing respect to me.
It was even freaking me out. All he had really done so far was pull out a chair with a really serious expression on his face, and even I was thinking that something was up with him.
It was like that old trope when someone who had been completely worthless up until that moment suddenly started pulling their weight and it made them look so cool. The only test now was how far he could exceed the obvious expectations being heaped on him.
“What are you doing, daughter? Proceed. We have little time remaining to us, correct?” Trash said.
“V-very well then,” Melty stumbled. She proceeded to take out some documents and start to write on a board placed on the wall. It was a breakdown of Takt’s forces. He had seemingly deployed all sorts of weapons into battle.
Things looked bad for us, I’d say that much.
Takt was coming directly for Melromarc from Faubrey. He was calling for the nations along the way to surrender and taking those that wouldn’t by force. For that, his progress almost seemed too fast to me.
He was even finding the time for all those public executions.
They would reach Melromarc within a few days, anyway. That was the situation.
“The Sword, Spear, and Bow Heroes have not participated in the defensive line yet?” Trash asked. Melty even went so far as to raise her hand before answering.
“The Faubrey weapons and abilities of their hero pose too significant a threat. So long as they have their hero, we cannot deploy ours carelessly, and so we made the hard choice to keep them out of the fighting,” she explained.
“Hmmm. A wise decision. These ‘airplanes’ then. I have some understanding of the kind of weapon they are, but do they really pose such a threat?” Trash asked.
“Yes. After bombing using airplanes and airships, they drop troops via parachute and occupy the target. Anybody who gets close to them is repelled by machine guns. High-level dragon knights from each nation have attempted close combat, but the pilots remain far too high a level for that to work,” the report continued. The level gap meant just trying to muscle through couldn’t work against them either.
A simple strategy, but that simplicity itself made it difficult to defeat. Magic or long-range attacks might have proved effective at shooting them down, but the levels of the pilots prevented those attacks from landing too.
“How many airplanes do they have?” Trash asked.
“They apparently use a maximum of five. They board close to the battlefield and then drop their infantry from the airspace over the enemy nation and suppress the inhabitants,” Melty explained.
“I would like to hear the opinions of the heroes about these airplanes,” Trash stated.
“I’m afraid we can only provide an outline. I guess they are possible to realize here, but it’s not like you summoned aerospace engineers,” I responded.
“I need to know how these airplanes are used in your worlds, heroes. How they feature in conflicts, and what other applications they have. As much as you can tell me,” Trash clarified.