by Aneko Yusagi
“Naofumi…”
“Shh!”
Melty was shaking my shoulder. She looked worried. I had a pretty good idea of what Bitch was up to, though.
“First Fire.”
She waved her hand, and flames leapt from her palm to the spilled contents of the bottle.
The area the bottle’s contents had affected burst into flame.
I knew it. Bitch! She would burn a whole mountainside to smoke us out? What was wrong with her?
Is that how a princess should behave? Everything she did was criminal.
She was immoral!
She left the flames behind and ran off after Motoyasu.
The flames spread further, and soon they were licking at the trees. Flames were everywhere. I turned to see where Motoyasu had come from, and there was a column of smoke rising in that direction too.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Melty, can you use magic to take care of the fire?”
“I can put this one out, but I can’t do anything about the fire she’s already started. It would spread too much by the time I got close enough.”
Damn… Bitch was hanging behind Motoyasu and setting fires as she went.
How miserable did she have to make us before she could be satisfied?
She was sure to pin the fires on me afterwards.
What should we do? Did we have enough time to hang back and play firefighter?
“Master! It’s so smoky!”
“I know. Filo, turn into your Filolial form. We need to get out of here fast.”
“Okay!”
“What are you going to do about the fire?”
“I don’t know if it would help much, but can you use your magic to make it rain?”
Melty was good with water magic. That’s why I wanted to know if she could do something to try to prevent further damage.
“I can try, but I won’t promise anything.”
Melty concentrated on casting a spell.
“I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them. Drop rains of mercy!”
“First Squall!”
When she finished casting the spell, rainclouds covered the sky, and heavy drops began to fall.
But the rain didn’t cover a very large area.
I guess it was better than nothing.
“This whole place will be on fire soon! Raphtalia, Melty, do you have anything against running?”
“My sister is crazy! What was she thinking?”
“She’s going to try to frame us for this!”
The area was beginning to fill with smoke. If the rain would come a little harder…
Filo turned back into her Filolial form with a puff of smoke, and we climbed onto her back. I kicked my heels, and we took off running in the opposite direction that Motoyasu had gone.
In the ensuing chaos of the wildfire, we had a chance to shake Motoyasu off of our trail.
Chapter One: Demi-Human Adventurer Town
We got rid of Motoyasu and escaped from the fire, but we didn’t know where to go from there.
“I know he said the southwest—but where, exactly, are we supposed to go?”
In order to clear our names, we were heading to meet the queen in a country to the southwest, but no one had told us where she actually was.
It wasn’t anything more than just grasping at straws, but I was hoping that if we just headed southwest and crossed the border, things would be clearer.
What I couldn’t figure out was how Motoyasu had been able to find out where we were going in the first place.
My best guess was that he was asking around for eyewitness reports or something.
Could there have been a shadow on the enemy’s side too?
“Shadow” was the name of the queen’s secret service soldiers. They had shown up to help us a couple of times.
But from what I hear, the shadows were far from a singular organization. The enemy might have been employing them too.
According to the Shadow, the queen’s group (who was trying to save us) and the Church of the Three Heroes (who accused me of kidnapping Melty but is actually trying to have her killed) were in the middle of a dispute. If the Church was as good at snooping around as I suspected, they might have been feeding Motoyasu information about our whereabouts.
The shadows that were helping us were dressed like ninjas. Apparently the group was divided into spies, and soldiers, and other specialties.
“We don’t have the time to let our guard down. If we don’t wait for Motoyasu to get far away from here, then we’ll have to keep running for days on end.”
Thanks to Motoyasu and Bitch, Melromarc’s road to the southwest had been heavily damaged.
By the time we had the chance to stop and think, we’d gotten far off of our intended path.
“Filo.”
“Whaaat?”
“Can you figure out where Shadow went?
“Um… I can try, but Big Sister Raphtalia is better at finding hidden things!”
“Is she?”
“Is that true, Ms. Raphtalia?”
Melty chimed in on the conversation.
“Please don’t put so much pressure on me. Sometimes I feel… I feel like something strange is going on… but I wouldn’t be able to tell unless I was really close.”
“Yeah, good point. Sometimes I feel like we are being watched from far away. I don’t know how we can hide completely.”
It would be very difficult to completely escape the gaze of the shadows. Still, there was a shadow on our side too, and he was drawing attention away from us. There was a high probability that we could shake off Motoyasu.
Even better… Motoyasu stopped tailing us once night fell. Bitch probably didn’t like to fight in the dark. She probably complained that a good night’s sleep was the cornerstone of proper skin care, the fire-starting monster.
Whatever. As long as they weren’t still chasing us, I didn’t care.
“Ah.”
Melty looked as though she’d had a realization. She was staring at me.
“What?”
“I know a wealthy family in this area. They might let us hide out until Motoyasu has moved on. Then we could escape without being seen.”
“You want to head into town? You? And me? Even Filo is pretty recognizable these days.”
My face was very well known. The crystal ball they had used was like a 3-D photograph back in my world. There wasn’t a soul alive in Melromarc that didn’t know my face.
If someone saw Filo, they’d report that too. She’d been turning into a more average-looking Filolial these days, but she still stood out just by being pink.
We’d seen the village from a distance, and there were clearly a number of guards posted there.
“And you say they are wealthy?”
I had a good reason for asking.
The powerful families of Melromarc tended to really hate the Shield Hero. According to what Melty said, and as far as the teachings of the Church of the Three Heroes were concerned, the Shield Hero was Melromarc’s enemy. It didn’t matter how many people’s trust I managed to earn on my mercantile wanderings. The nobility and the powerful families would still hate me.
“I think it will be fine.”
“Why?”
“This particular family always worked very closely with my mother. I think they share her way of thinking.”
“What do you mean?”
“They were very involved in demi-human to human relations in Melromarc. They tried to help everyone get along.”
“Then why don’t they speak out against your father, Trash, and the Church?”
If they were so enlightened and active, why did everyone still disbelieve me? Why did they all hate me?
If they had really worked so closely with the queen, then they certainly couldn’t claim ignorance about Melromarc’s internal affairs.
“They were a noble family in charge of managing a territory called Seyaette. But they died in the wave.”
“Oh…”
Why did the good people have to die so quickly?
“They were vacationing in their lands when the wave happened. They fought to protect the people who lived there… until the end.”
“That’s terrible…”
“Yes. We lost them in the first wave. It was a great sacrifice.”
Huh? The first wave?
I looked over at Raphtalia. She had met a hard fate during the first wave too.
Raphtalia nodded.
“My village was under the protection of the governor. But the governor died, and we tried to rebuild… the village was…”
So it was all true.
“When we lost that family, we lost the last voice that spoke for the compassionate treatment of demi-humans. Any remaining powers that held the same views were given reassignments by my father. That’s not the worst of it either. I’ve heard that the inhabitants of Seyaette met a hard fate in the ensuing violence.”
“Violence by the Crown’s soldiers.”
Raphtalia was unable to hide her irritation.
Melty silently nodded. She appeared to understand what had happened.
“I believe my mother, once she returns, will see that they are punished. She sent a letter, but it seems to have been ignored. Once all this is over, Raphtalia, please tell me about the soldiers that did these things.”
“I will.”
“Your father is up to no good.”
“Father…”
Melty looked disappointed.
She should be disappointed. One of her parents and her sister were after her life.
Melty says that he’s just being used, but could Trash, the king, really be innocent?
Still, the real mystery was the queen and this noble family. Were they really working for demi-human liberation? Here in human-supremacist Melromarc? I didn’t have enough information to fathom a guess at their true intentions.
But I digress. Back to the topic at hand.
“Ok, and you say there is a noble family in these parts with ties to the past governor of Seyaette?”
“I think so. They were not close with my father, and I believe they were forcibly removed from their lands.”
“That’s a real gamble.”
It sounded like this family was having a rough time. But it wasn’t like I knew nothing about the area.
I guess it happened gradually over a few weeks, but with Filo pulling the carriage, I’d managed to travel most of the country. There were even times when I knew people and places that Melty mentioned.
I didn’t travel as the Shield Hero though. I pretended to be a holy saint of a bird-god, and I traveled around selling cheap accessories for handsome prices.
I remembered a rather intellectual-looking, young family. I’d met a young guy that seemed very kind. My private nickname for him was “Nice Guy.”
I’d secretly snickered to myself at the time, but could it be that he’d done business with me—and he’d known that I was the Shield Hero?
He might have. He had seemed affable. Thinking back on it further, I remembered seeing some demi-human adventurers around town too. Raphtalia might be able to walk around without arousing suspicion.
“It’s a risk to enter the town, especially for Melty and Filo.”
“Why?”
Melty cocked her head inquisitively. Filo did it too—I wished she wouldn’t copy Melty like that.
“Your blue hair stands out too much.”
Melty’s hair was noteworthy. It was a deep blue… almost navy.
It was rare to come across people with deep blue hair, so she stood out even when she wore a disguise.
As for Filo: her Filolial form, and of course her Filolial Queen form, drew the attention of anyone walking by. Don’t even get me started on her human form. She was impossible to hide. If we all walked in wearing heavy robes to hide our identities, that would look suspicious too.
“You stand out too, you know.”
“You’re right.”
“Hey, Master! How about we wait until dark. Then everyone can sit on my back, and I’ll jump over the city gate!”
“That’s not a bad idea, but we’d be caught if there was a single guard on duty.”
“Raphtalia could use her magic to help us…. but I guess that if we used advanced magic, that would draw attention too…”
“What should we do then? It seems like we can count on support. And yet…”
Running away probably wasn’t a bad idea. But constantly running away from Motoyasu had me exhausted.
My body was telling me that it needed rest. Motoyasu was not our only enemy. We might have to fight with adventurers, soldiers, or bounty hunters. We needed to rest up.
“Um…”
Raphtalia raised her hand.
“What is it?”
“What if they’ve been following the news, and they are expecting us to stop by?”
Hm… that very well might be the case.
After all that happened, it seemed like the country was divided into two factions over how to deal with me.
“Good point. And you know, Naofumi, a demi-human adventurer might be more willing to listen to us.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Did you forget? If the Shield Hero is the enemy of human-supremacist Melromarc, then what would the demi-humans think of him?”
She had a point. Among the countries that were on bad terms with Melromarc, one of them was a nation of demi-humans.
It seemed like the Church of the Three Heroes was the national religion of Melromarc—which meant that any nation that stood in opposition to Melromarc might be more willing to cooperate with us.
And that meant that demi-humans might be more inclined to listen to us.
Thinking back on it, I recalled then some of my first customers had been demi-human adventurers. It might be worth a shot.
“All right. When we get to the town, let’s try talking to a demi-human adventurer.”
“Okay.”
“I hope it goes well.”
“Here we go!”
We made for the nearby village, careful to stay hidden on the way.
“Ex… Excuse me!”
“Hey!”
As we drew closer to the town where we expected to meet the nobility, we found a demi-human adventurer on the road. We hid in the shadows and called out to him, but…
“Oh man… that’s the tenth time! Naofumi, what did you do?”
“I don’t know!”
When the demi-human caught sight of my face he made an exaggerated apology and ran away.
But why? Had my demonic reputation spread even to them?
Things were not going as smoothly as I’d hoped.
“It doesn’t look like he reported us.”
“You’re right. He ran, and then we ran—but no soldiers have shown up.”
I had been worried that the town guards would find us and chase us away. But so far no one seemed to be around.
Honestly, as we were walking down the road, it looked like even the demi-humans would run off to a different path when they caught sight of us.
“Maybe I should approach them?”
“Will you do it for us, Raphtalia?”
“Sure.”
“If anything happens, call for help immediately.”
“All right.”
“You can do it, Big Sister!”
So Raphtalia stepped in to approach some demi-humans we encountered.
It had me a little worried. The demi-humans in Melromarc always seemed to be on their toes—always ready to dash off.
It must have been very uncomfortable for them to be in Melromarc. They were always aware of their status.
I wondered what they were doing here, but the sheer number of people seemed like a good enough explanation.
Raphtalia came back from talking with the demi-human adventurers.
“I’m back.”
“What happened?”
“Well, I foun
d out why they won’t talk to you. It seems that they have been ordered not to speak with you directly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I thought it was weird too, so I asked in a way that seemed natural. They said that the Shield Hero told them not to speak with you.”
The last Shield Hero had told the demi-humans not to talk to me? That could be a problem.
So the only reason Raphtalia talked to me was because, at first, she didn’t know that I was the Shield Hero? And because she was in trouble? It’s like this whole world was set up to make me miserable!
“Naofumi, didn’t you once tell demi-humans to stay away from you?”
“I don’t remember that.”
“That’s strange. My mother once said that the Shield Hero had ordered everyone to stay away from him. Demi-humans worship the Shield Hero, so they were only obeying his wishes.”
What?
“You mean because Master said to stay away?”
“Could that be it?”
“I don’t remember saying that. Was it a previous Shield Hero?”
“No. So you mean that it’s not true? Could it all be a misunderstanding?”
It had to be the Church of the Three Heroes!
“I heard that this happened a few days after you were summoned here, Naofumi.”
I was pretty messed up then, and I don’t remember much about the first couple weeks.
It was when I had just been framed and arrested. I didn’t trust anyone, and I told off anyone that tried to talk to me.
Could it be that someone who sincerely wanted to team up with me had approached me? Could I have told them to stay away from me?
“Naofumi? You don’t think…”
“Anyway, can we get into the town?”
I changed the subject. I couldn’t tolerate the way that Melty was staring at me.
“Well, they seemed friendly for as long as we spoke. They know how foolish Melromarc is being. They said the Church was crazy.”
“Did they mention any reports about us?”
“They said that everyone has been told the Shield Hero is close. But they also said that all the demi-humans were in agreement that they wouldn’t say anything if they saw him.”
“Huh… Well, it sounds risky, but should we try it?”
If things turned sour, we could always escape on Filo. We could throw capes over our faces…