The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09

by Aneko Yusagi

  “He was always kind to us, but he was very serious about his pursuit of power and authority. I cannot disagree with you on that.”

  “. . .”

  He was a weird one alright .

  Especially his constant, insatiable need for power. In that respect he reminded me of the other three holy heroes. He was just like them. Whenever he met someone more powerful than he was, he’d call it cheating. When things didn’t go his way, he’d throw a fit.

  Back when I played online games, I’d seen people’s jealousy. I had some weapons and items that were limited on the server, and people didn’t like that I had them. They’d go on anonymous boards and post things just like Trash #2.

  Yeah, I’d seen that sort of thing before.

  People want to be special, want to be chosen, and want to be better than everyone else. I knew how it felt, too. People probably played online games to savor that very feeling—that feeling of being the protagonist. They wanted to be in the center of the action.

  But Trash #2 wasn’t from a modern society like I was. And yet, he seemed so easy to predict.

  “Excuse me, but . . . Could you tell me a little more about why he wanted to kill me?” Raphtalia asked.

  It was still a mystery. He had been obsessed with hunting her down.

  “The vassal weapon chose a new master. I’m sure there are plenty examples in the past of assassination attempts on people that were chosen for important roles.”

  “Sure.”

  I knew all about that—firsthand.

  The Shield Hero had been inconvenient for the religious institutions in Melromarc, so they’d tried to dispose of me.

  “But then again, I’m not sure if I’ve heard of trying to assassinate someone out of simple jealousy.”

  There were still things I didn’t understand.

  The katana of the vassal weapon s was like a holy sword. It was stuck in a rock, and only those that could remove it would be able to wield it. I could picture him standing up in a crowd and complaining that King Arthur wasn’t supposed to have Excalibur—that was supposed to be his sword. It was a pretty low-class thing to do.

  The master had already been chosen, but he still insisted that it was supposed to be him? It didn’t even make sense.

  “We were open to negotiations, you know. It’s not like we want war. Didn’t Glass say that she wanted to end this peacefully?”

  “But it didn’t work out that way did it. If it was going to end this way, then I wish she never had been chosen to wield the vassal weapon.”

  I guess it went back to that, didn’t it—that was the reason their beloved Trash #2 was dead.

  “Why was he so obsessed with it? Don’t you know?”

  “I don’t. I’ve been with him since I was very young, but often there were times when I couldn’t understand what he was thinking.”

  The more I heard about him, the more mysterious Trash #2 became.

  “He seems like the sort of guy that was always chasing women. At least you and your friends made it look that way.”

  All of the women nodded along with me.

  “He was always meddling in our relationships. Always trying to help! I told him to watch himself time and time again, but he never listened! He was always up to something!”

  Uh-oh. I was playing with fire. The complaints were coming quickly now.

  So he liked the ladies, was an alchemist that was always working on revolutionary inventions, and was pretty good with a sword.

  I guess that’s why they called him a genius.

  Wasn’t that enough? If the vassal weapon had chosen him, he’d have to fight in the waves. He should have counted his blessings.

  “He used to drive me crazy!”

  “Are you going to stop complaining soon?”

  I guess their relationship was always on edge.

  “But I loved him. There was no one else like him!”

  Good thing too. One was more than enough.

  Yomogi and Kizuna came walking over.

  “So? How does it feel to be used for Kyo’s assassination plans?”

  Yomogi shot me an irritated glance.

  “I . . . I have to hear the truth from him myself. To that end, I will cooperate with you.”

  “You did promise, after all.”

  I didn’t want to derail the conversation, so I decided to ignore her self-satisfied comment.

  “That’s true, I did. But I . . . I don’t want to believe that Kyo has done these things. So . . . I will believe in the Kyo I thought I knew, and I will share what I know with you.”

  She was going to cooperate with us then. And in a weird way, she thought it was in service to the Kyo she’d imagined she was working with the whole time, a Kyo that probably never existed.

  “I have heard that Kyo journeyed to another world and caused a great disaster there. Is that a true story?”

  “Yeah. That’s the only reason we’re here.”

  Yomogi and Tsugumi’s weapons had been powered by an energy I was able to absorb with my shield. In all likelihood, it was the energy he stole from the Spirit Tortoise.

  I was probably only able to stop those energy attacks because I had the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

  “He took control over one of our world’s protective beasts, and used it to kill countless people. Heroes aren’t normally permitted to cross between the worlds, but I was given special permission to come here specifically to track him down.”

  “He laughed as he piloted the Spirit Tortoise, as he trampled people to death. Glass tried to stop him, and he said ‘ What does it matter? This world will be destroyed anyway!’”

  “. . .”

  Yomogi listed silently.

  I took the time to compare Yomogi and Tsugumi—they seemed very similar to me. They both believed wholeheartedly in whatever their leader told them.

  “Hey Yomogi, what’s the Kyo you know like?”

  “Hm . . . He’s very intelligent. He travels around the lands asking people about their troubles and then invents ways to solve their problems. He is also very skilled with magic. He saved me once, which is when I came to trust him with my life, and then . . .”

  Tsugumi listened to Yomogi explain Kyo’s qualities, and tilted her head to the side in confusion. I felt the same way, really. After all, she might as well have been describing Trash #2.

  “Isn’t this great? I think you two will be great friends,” I said.

  “No! Do not compare Kyo to the likes of this other man! Get a grip on yourself!”

  Tsugumi tried to grab Yomogi by the shirt and they started to scuffle.

  I wished they’d give it a rest already. Their battle wounds weren’t even healed yet.

  “And yet, it is strange, isn’t it? They seem so similar,” Kizuna said to L’Arc and Glass.

  “L’Arc, didn’t you say that you were a good judge of character?” I asked. He had said something like that back in the Cal Mira islands. He’d been talking about Armor, this guy in Itsuki’s party. L’Arc was saying that Armor was going to cause trouble. Still, it had taken him a long time to realize that I was the Shield Hero.

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “What did you think when you met Kyo and this other guy?”

  “I’ve met a lot of people over the years, and those guys are like two peas in a pod.”

  “Right . . .”

  L’Arc said he knew, just from talking to me, that I hadn’t raped Bitch.

  If he said that these guys were like two peas in a pod, then he was probably right.

  Their similarities were getting harder to ignore, even for me.

  “Anyway, we’ll have to find out if he’s really working on something that will raise people from the dead. But at the very least, you should realize by now that you can’t trust him.”

  “. . .”

  They couldn’t disagree. Not after he treated them as disposable assassins and left them maimed. Not after he’d treated them like pawns in his game.

/>   “Don’t you have zombies and things like that in this world? He probably used technology from the four holy beasts to make it look like he can raise people from the dead.”

  “Possible. Once someone is gone, they don’t come back. Perhaps this is punishment for our reckless decisions.”

  They seemed resigned to defeat. I guess it was a natural feeling to have if you were saved by the very people you wanted to get revenge on. Whatever. We were just trying to get information out of them.

  “Yomogi, how did you end up attacking our house?”

  “One day Kyo came home, injured and furious, saying that the girl with the fan of the vassal weapons and her friends attacked him. I said I would never forgive anyone that hurt him, and went to grab the weapon he had been developing.”

  “Didn’t take you long, did it?”

  “He always told me not to use it, but only showed me how to put it away and how to take it out.”’

  I could picture it clearly. He understood Yomogi’s personality, so he got her interested in the sword, and let her watch him take it in and out. He guided her actions indirectly—and he didn’t go chasing after her when she left.

  If I were Kyo and Raphtalia was Yomogi, I would have stopped her.

  No matter how fast she was , I would have stopped her.

  And he knew that Yomogi and Trash #2’s women had been captured. He had done and said nothing, as if nothing at all had happened.

  “Actually, now that I think about it, the sword was suddenly completed the day that he returned. It hadn’t been the same weapon until that day.”

  “And when was this?”

  “A little over three weeks ago.”

  “That’s right around the time that we came to this world.”

  Yomogi was starting to put it all together. She was starting to see what kind of person Kyo really was.

  “Anyway, I have to get the truth from him.”

  “If what we’re saying is true, what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’ll . . .” she curled her hand into a fist, “I’ll make him pay. The Kyo that I know made inventions to bring joy into people’s lives. If he is spreading destruction and pain, I cannot forgive him.”

  “Well that settles that. We came here to do the same thing. To make him pay, and to take back the energy he stole from the Spirit Tortoise.”

  In truth, we really didn’t have the time to sit around talking this all through. But at least we got a glimpse into just how suspicious the inventors are in this world.

  “Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, keep in mind what these inventors have been up to. If they are all the same, then someone else might try to take up the mantle.”

  “Good point. I’ll keep an eye out. We can’t have more creepy characters running around and causing trouble in other worlds.”

  “Yes, that is a good point. We should be careful.”

  “Yeah. There’s a problem with the vassal weapons, they’re supposed to protect the world. We better get this mess settled.”

  “Yes, let’s,” Raphtalia nodded.

  I nodded too. Everyone had agreed to fight.

  “Yomogi, Tsugumi, do you know where Kyo is?”

  Kizuna unrolled a map on a nearby table.

  We could start a war if we wanted to, but there was no telling if Kyo would actually come to the battlefield.

  He was probably working from a strategic headquarters somewhere. He could be safe in the capital, commanding troops on the front lines. If we went looking for him aimlessly, there’s no telling how long it would take to find him. Alto and some of Kizuna’s other friends were out hunting for his whereabouts undercover, but we’d yet to hear any news.

  And I didn’t come to this world to fight a war.

  “Kyo’s laboratory . . .”

  “It’s right there,” Yomogi said, pointing to the map.

  It was far away from the capital. It looked like it was in a village, deep in forested lands.

  “A long time ago, he built his laboratory in a sealed mansion here. It’s in a deep forest with fog so thick that anyone who wanders in there gets lost. It's impregnable. You cannot find it unless he’s allowed you to.”

  Sounds like he made his hideout in a pretty good spot.

  But lucky for us, we had a way to move through the air.

  “Alright! Let’s get prepared and get going. We can’t let up on the war effort either.”

  “Right. Let’s put an end to all this. It’s up to us, the vassal weapon holders, and the holy heroes too, to punish this creep that abuses a vassal weapon.”

  That was what had to be done.

  There was going to be war. But if we could sneak over and get rid of Kyo, we might be able to put an end to the war. It all rested on him.

  “Oh hey, Romina was looking for you, Naofumi. She’s made a bunch of new stuff.”

  “Nice.”

  “Yeah, Kiddo. And I got a bunch of material together for you, so get prepared.”

  “You’re coming too, L’Arc.”

  “Think I don’t know that? Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  “Boy.”

  “Ha! You just remembered that now, didn’t you? Stop it!”

  “It’s hard to be serious when Mr. Naofumi is around.”

  “I’m just trying to be serious about all this.”

  “But sometimes you’re so silly!”

  Huh? Had I said something? Whatever. I left Kizuna and L’Arc behind and went to visit Romina.

  “Yesterday was pretty crazy, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, we were in a pretty rough spot there.”

  If that spear had actually exploded, it probably would have taken a good chunk of the castle with it. Honestly, I was a little impressed with myself for containing it all, but I also knew there had been luck involved, and that we had been very close to disaster.

  “So? I heard you put some stuff together for me?”

  “Yeah—took me a while too,” Romina said, rummaging through the back of her store and returning with a suit of armor.

  It looked a lot like the barbarian armor that I’d left with her. But the coloring was different, and there were patches of black and white fur stuck onto it in various places. The shoulders were capped with tortoise shells. The collar was lined with red things that looked like feathers.

  “That’s some impressive looking armor.”

  “It is. I used some of the material we had from the four holy beasts—no small cost for that, but I think you’ll like how it came out. It’s a damn tough set of armor. I have to show you this. Take a look at the dragon emperor core stone we’re using here,” Romina said, pointing to a gem set into the breastplate.

  It was quite a bit larger than the stone I’d had previously.

  It was shaped like a ying-yang symbol, but the black side of it had grown substantially larger than the white side. It looked like a mix between Chinese and Japanese designs. You know those games about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? It looked like something a commander from those games might wear.

  “I based it off the barbarian armor you brought in last time—the set that had lost all of its functionality.”

  “It looks excellent.”

  I was surprised. I didn’t think there was anyone out there that could even repair the armor the old man made for me—much less improve upon it.

  “It’s harder than you think, using materials from the holy beasts, I mean. If you don’t do everything just right, the materials can backfire on you.”

  “Oh?” I was starting to understand why Kizuna was so impressed with Romina’s work.

  “I’m telling you, working with new materials, using new techniques to replicate your last set . . . I put a lot of work into this. Take that dragon emperor core stone there for instance. I had to work out a way to combine the old one with a core stone that Kizuna got a while ago. It’s tough to do even without having the stones interfere with one another, but I pulled it off. The effect is even stronger now.”
/>
  “Is that why it looks bigger than it used to?”

  “Yes. Those stones are very, very rare—so you better take good care of this.”

  “Sure.”

  Once I defeated Kyo, I was going back to my world anyway.

  What if I couldn’t use this armor once I crossed back over? What if crossing over worlds would cause the name to become garbled in my status menu?

  “With any luck, you’ll be able to use it back in your world too, so take good care of it. It won’t be good for my reputation if you treat it like it’s disposable.”

  “Sure, right. So what do you call this armor anyway?”

  I remember asking the old man at the weapon shop the same question.

  Maybe it hadn’t been officially named yet, because it wasn’t displaying correctly in my status menu. Maybe I wasn’t good at assigning names.

  “Kizuna suggested the name, actually. She said the last set was called Barbarian Armor, so maybe this should be called Barbaroi Armor.”

  “The Barbaroi and the barbarians weren’t really the same thing though . . .”

  There were differences, but I guess they were related. For a human-supremacist nation like Melromarc, the god of the demi-humans, the Shield Hero, might as well have been a barbarian deity.

  The old man had probably named the armor that way on purpose. It was all a joke to him. In hindsight, it was the perfect set of armor for me.

  Barbaroi Armor +2 (cursed)

  defense up: impact resistance (large): slash resistance (large): fire resistance (large): wind resistance (large): water resistance (large): earth resistance (large): HP recovery (low): magic recovery (weak): SP recovery (weak): magic power up (medium): dragon emperor revolt, four holy beasts power, magic defense processing, automatic self-repair, growth power.

  There were tons of imbued effects. I’d lost shadow resistance, but I’d gained a ton of new resistances.

  There were so many that it would take me a while to research them all. What would happen if I equipped it?

  There was one other thing that bothered me. Why was there “cursed” after the name?

  “It turned into a really specialized piece of equipment, so I don’t know if you’ll really be able to make good use of it. But I hope so, because if there are problems, I’ll have to remake it.”