The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01

by Aneko Yusagi

  He eventually managed to get the balloon off of his face, but when he was knocked down, he couldn’t swing his spear. When he ripped a balloon off, I threw another one on, and it bought me some time.

  It wasn’t just balloons either, I was using Eggugs too, and so many of them that trying to find Motoyasu was like a needle in a haystack.

  I just focused on making him as miserable as possible.

  I was going to lose anyway. If so, I wanted to traumatize him the best I could.

  “Ahaaaaa!”

  “Damn you!”

  He tried to get up, but I threw all my weight on him to keep him down then piled on more balloons.

  Hey, if I was going to lose anyway, there was something I wanted to try.

  I turned my shield into the Two-Headed Black Dog Shield.

  Motoyasu couldn’t put any force in to his spear from that angle, so I was able to stop his weak attacks with the shield.

  It made a sound like nails on a chalkboard.

  The special effect, Dog Bite, started to work, and the dog heads on the shield howled and bit at Motoyasu.

  A counter appeared for the Dog Bite effect.

  The effect would last for thirty seconds, and the dog heads would bite at the enemy for the whole duration.

  Normally the skill would do a little damage while it held the enemy still, but I could use it like this too.

  “Ah, ouch!”

  Huh? So it was really hurting him. Maybe I could win?

  If so, then I had some other ideas too.

  “Air Strike Shield!”

  It appeared over Motoyasu’s stomach, and the weight of it pinned him down.

  This was a new way to use the skill!

  “Le…Let me go!”

  “You think you can take me? Get me then! You coward!”

  I hope he thought long and hard about challenging me, thinking that I had no way to fight back.

  I held the Dog Shield and waited for Motoyasu to turn his face in my direction. Then I shoved the biting heads at him.

  The effect was triggered, and they clamped down on his face.

  “Dammit! Argh!”

  “What do I care?”

  Oh crap… The Air Strike Shield effect wore off.

  “Shield Prison!”

  “Ugh!”

  Now he was trapped in a large cage. He’d never be able to get out, flipping around on his back like that. I threw even more balloons and Eggugs at him.

  I could win this! He didn’t have any experience fighting other humans, did he?

  “Guh!”

  The Shield Prison broke. But the cool down time from the Air Strike Shield was also over, so I summoned another Air Strike Shield at the same time.

  The balloons kept biting, and anytime I found an opening, I lunged at him with dog bite. I could win this!

  “Hurry up and admit defeat! You want to win with this kind of foolishness?!”

  “What is the Shield doing to the Spear Hero?!”

  The crowd started heckling. What did I care? Why should I listen to people that listened in silence when I was set up?”

  “Is the Shield Hero going to win?”

  “No, it can’t be…?”

  They were going crazy.

  “Hear that Motoyasu? Give up. You’ve lost!”

  “Give up? Ha!”

  “Then I’ll just hold you down until you can’t stand it anymore! I really am winning!”

  I looked for the king. He was watching the fight, as he would be the judge. He was obviously watching the fight, as if he was planning to do something. But what?

  All I could do was keep on attacking Motoyasu’s face and limbs.

  If I didn’t, it was like they couldn’t tell who was winning.

  Or so I thought…

  “Agh!”

  Someone shoved me hard from behind, and I reeled.

  I looked around wildly, disoriented, as I looked for the attacker.

  Then I saw her, that woman! Myne!

  She was hiding in the crowd, but her arm was out straight and her palm was facing me.

  It must have been some kind of wind magic.

  I think it was called “Wing Blow” and it was a spell that threw a fist of air at the target.

  It was a fist made of air, so naturally it was transparent. Unless you looked for it purposefully you were unlikely to see it.

  Myne smiled and stuck her tongue out at me.

  “Arrrrghhhh!”

  My screams were drowned out by Motoyasu, who’d gotten to his feet, and then he made his sudden counter attack.

  He popped all the balloons, and pointed his spear at me.

  I was out of balloons to use. All I could do was try and use a shield that could counterattack.

  What a coward!

  The rest was very one-sided.

  All I could do was use Dog Bite against him.

  Finally, I fell to the ground after taking so many of his attacks, and Motoyasu, breathing heavily, set the point of his spear against my neck.

  “Huff… Huff… I… Win…!”

  He looked much worse off than he had at the end of the wave of destruction, but he turned to the crowd and announced his victory.

  Chapter Twenty-Three: All I’d Wanted to Hear.

  “You didn’t win anything, you coward! Someone interfered with our one-on-one fight!”

  “What are you talking about? You weren’t strong enough to hold me down, and now you’ve lost!”

  Was he serious? The creep!

  What a hero. What was he talking about slaves for?!

  What kind of hero would be proud of winning a duel against someone who only had a shield?!

  “Your little friend there interfered! That’s why I lost my balance!”

  “Ha! So disappointed that you have to make up lies?!”

  “That’s not it at all, you freak!”

  He ignored me, and kept acting victorious.

  But… But she really had cheated! And this… ARGH!

  “Is that true?”

  The crowd turned to Motoyasu.

  There was no way to tell if they believed him or me. They were waiting there in silence.

  “Why would we believe the words of a criminal! Spear Hero! The victory is yours!”

  The jerk! The king ignored all the evidence, all the doubts, and proclaimed Motoyasu the winner.

  Just when I had been about to win, he was looking down on me, vulgar-like. That was it! I could have won. I could have won!

  It looked like the crowd had their doubts as well. Their eyes were looking us both over, but none of them had the courage to speak out against the king.

  He probably would have had them killed for speaking out.

  What was this, a dictatorship?

  “Oh you did so good, Mr. Motoyasu!”

  The root of all evil, that woman, was smiling innocently. A castle magician ran over and healed only Motoyasu’s wounds.

  They just ignored me.

  “Yes, my daughter. Malty has excellent choice in Heroes.”

  … Said the king, and placed his hand on Myne’s shoulder.

  “Wh…What?!”

  Myne was the king’s daughter?!

  “Yeah, I was really surprised too. To think that the princess would use a fake name and infiltrate us!”

  “Oh, yes, but naturally it was all for the peace of the kingdom.”

  … So that’s how it was.

  I’d thought it was strange that she was able to have me branded a criminal without a single shred of evidence.

  The sneaky princess, in order to get the hero she wanted, she sacrificed the weakest hero, myself, stole my money, then ran to her father and got him to denounce me. It was a perfect way to frame me.

  Then, because Motoyasu had saved her, she used that as an excuse to get closer to him than the other women were able to.

  Now it all made sense, even why I’d been given more money at the start.

  She’d wanted the good equipment for her
self, and then she would attach herself to the best hero.

  When I’d seen, at the very beginning, that Motoyasu had better equipment than the others, I should have been smarter and kept my distance.

  They’d thought it all out, and there was no other recourse but to ask them directly. But considering how far they would go, I didn’t have a good reason to think they would not have covered their tracks. In the end it was the word of the disgraced and useless Shield Hero versus the word of the >Spear Hero who had saved the princess.

  They’d planned it all from the beginning. It was a perfect trap.

  And while it hadn’t damaged me directly, the Wing Blow was strong enough to knock me off balance, which suggests that the caster had been well educated. It was proof of the princess’s involvement.

  That was why they’d set up this one-sided duel in the first place. It had been their plan from the start.

  They’d known that he would win, and they’d known that the princess could interfere on Motoyasu’s behalf if the duel ever seemed to be in question.

  It was simple. All that woman needed to do was whisper in his ear:

  “That girl with the Shield Hero is a slave. He’s forcing her to cooperate. You have to save her.”

  It was a perfect opportunity to make herself look good to her chosen future husband. They would not let it slip by.

  If they ended up getting married, then saving a slave girl from the disgraced Shield Hero was the perfect end to their heroic story.

  Legends are born through evil. The more evil you were, the better you’d be remembered.

  Throughout history, they’d be remembered as the heroes that took care of the fallen Shield Hero and saved a little girl. They’d have songs written about them.

  The king was a jerk, and the princess was even worse!

  Wait a second… The princess was… a bitch?

  The phrase sounded familiar to me.

  But from where? I know I’d seen it before.

  …I remember. It was in The Records of the Four Holy Weapons.

  The princess in the book was a bitch that made eyes at all of the heroes.

  If those heroes were the same as the heroes in that book I’d read at the library, then it must have been connected somehow to this world, so it only made since that the princess would be a bitch.

  I was filled with a burning hatred, and it ran powerfully through my body.

  Thump, thump.

  My shield was… pulsing.

  Curse Series Shield: conditions met

  The seething black hatred absorbed my shield, and my field of vision warped.

  “Now then, Mr. Motoyasu, the girl that the Shield Hero was using as a slave is waiting.”

  The people parted, and Raphtalia was there with the castle priests. They were about to remove the slave spell from her.

  The magicians were holding a bowl filled with some kind of liquid which they smeared over the slave mark on her chest.

  As they did so, the slave icon in my field of vision vanished.

  And that made it official: she was no longer my slave.

  The seething hatred was burning, and it took control of me.

  The whole world was laughing at me. Mocking me. They were happy when I was in pain, when I was humiliated.

  Yes, all I could see was shadows and dark smiles.

  “Raphtalia!”

  Motoyasu rushed over to her.

  They’d removed the gag from her mouth, and as Motoyasu approached, her eyes filled with tears, and she turned to say something…

  And slapped him.

  “Y…You fool!”

  “… Huh?”

  Motoyasu looked stunned and confused.

  “Of course I don’t forgive your cowardice, but when did I ever ask for your help?!”

  “But Raphtalia… He… He was abusing you!”

  “Mr. Naofumi never made me do anything I didn’t want to do. The spell only made me fight when I was too afraid to have done it otherwise!”

  I felt very light-headed and couldn’t really follow what everyone was saying.

  No, I could hear them, but I didn’t want to listen.

  I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

  I wanted to go back to my own world.

  “But that’s not okay!”

  “Mr. Naofumi can’t attack monsters, so he needs someone to help him!”

  “That doesn’t have to be you! He’ll work you to the bone!”

  “Mr. Naofumi hasn’t let a monster hurt me, not even once! When I got tired, he always let me rest!”

  “N... No… He’s not the kind of thoughtful person you… you think he is.”

  “Would you reach out to a sick, filthy slave?

  “What?”

  “Mr. Naofumi did a lot for me. He fed me whenever I was hungry. When I was sick he made medicine for me. Would you? Would you have done those things?!”

  “Of course!”

  “Then you must have slaves of your own!”

  “?!”

  Raphtalia rushed over to me.

  “Leave me!”

  This place was hell.

  The whole world was made of duplicity and evil.

  The women, no… The whole world was laughing at me, punishing me, trying to hurt me.

  When she touched me, I felt hatred boil inside of me

  When Raphtalia saw the way I reacted, she turned and glared at Motoyasu.

  “I heard the rumors… That Mr. Naofumi forced himself on his friend, that he was the worst of the Heroes.”

  “Right. Yes, he’s a criminal! You should know since he made a sex slave out of you too!”

  “How can you say that?! Mr. Naofumi has never touched me, ever! Not even once!”

  She reached out and held my hand.

  “Let me go!”

  “Mr. Naofumi… What can I do… What can I do to earn your trust?”

  “Let me go!”

  The whole world thought I was contemptible! They blamed me for everything!

  “I didn’t do it!”

  I was flying into a fury, when something covered me.

  “Mr. Naofumi, please, please, calm down. Let me… Listen to me. Let me earn your trust.”

  “Huh?”

  “If you can only believe a slave, because they are incapable of hurting you, then let’s go back! Take me back to that tent, and I’ll take the curse again.”

  “Liar! What do you want from me?”

  What? What was this voice that forced its way into my heart?

  “Whatever happens, I believe you. I believe you, Mr. Naofumi.”

  “Shut up! You want to frame me for something else!”

  “I know that you wouldn’t do what they accuse you of. You wouldn’t force yourself on anyone. You aren’t that kind of person.”

  It was the first time I’d heard the words I wanted to hear. The first time since I’d come to this world.

  I felt like the dark shadows surrounding me were starting to fall apart.

  I felt kindness.

  “The whole world might accuse you, might blame you, but I won’t. I’ll say it again and again: you didn’t do it.”

  I opened my eyes, and when I saw her she was no longer a little girl. She was a seventeen-year-old woman.

  I could tell that it was still Raphtalia. It was Raphtalia’s face, but she was the cutest girl I’d ever seen.

  Her hair had been so dirty, but here it was, beautiful and long, her dry and cracked skin was somehow changed. She had a healthy glow.

  She had been so skinny, but now there was meat on her bones, and she was full and healthy and energetic.

  She was looking at me. Her sad, dull eyes that always showed her surrender to life and its monstrosities were clear and bright and full of life.

  I didn’t know who she was.

  “Mr. Naofumi, take me back to the tent. Let’s put the spell back on.”

  “W…Who are you?!”

  “Huh? What are you saying? It’s me, R
aphtalia.”

  “Ahaha, no. Raphtalia is just a little girl!”

  This woman was claiming to be Raphtalia, the girl who’d just sworn to believe me. She looked confused, and cocked her head to the side.

  “Oh c’mon. Mr. Naofumi, you’re always treating me like a kid.”

  Her voice… It sounded just like Raphtalia’s.

  But she looked totally different.

  No way, no way. This didn’t make any sense at all.

  “Mr. Naofumi, let me tell you something.”

  “What?”

  “Demi-humans, we… When we are young, our bodies grow with our levels. So we grow very quickly as we level up.”

  “Huh?”

  “Demi-humans are not humans. This is one of the reasons that some people treat us as monsters.

  The girl who called herself Raphtalia kept talking.

  “Sure, I’m still… I mean I guess I’m not emotionally that mature, but my body has matured. I’m basically an adult.”

  She pulled me close and… and buried my face in her large, voluptuous breasts as she spoke.

  “Please believe me. I believe, I KNOW, that you never committed any crime. You gave me medicine, saved my life, and taught me what I needed to survive. You are the great Shield Hero, and I am your sword. No matter how rough the path, I will follow you.”

  I’d… I’d wanted to hear that for so long.

  Raphtalia kept swearing that she would fight with me.

  “If you can’t believe me, then please, turn me back into a slave. I want to stay with you. I will follow you!”

  “Ugh…”

  Hearing such nice words, for the first time, I found myself involuntarily sobbing.

  I told myself to stop, to get a hold of myself. But I couldn’t. The tears wouldn’t stop.

  “Ah… Ahhhhhhh… Ugggg…”

  Raphtalia hugged me and pulled me against her as I cried.

  “Motoyasu, you lose the duel. You broke the rules.”

  “What?!”

  Ren and Itsuki spoke as they pushed through the crowd.

  “We saw it all from up there. Your friend attacked Naofumi from behind with wind magic.”

  “No. That… That’s not true!”

  “The king had fallen silent. Can’t you see that?”

  “Has he?”

  Motoyasu looked to the crowd, but everyone turned their faces away.