by Aneko Yusagi
“Nice try! Air Strike Shield!”
I read the trajectory of the whip and deployed an Air Strike Shield to block it before it could hit Raphtalia.
“Move!”
Damn… The whip just wrapped around the shield and kept flying in Raphtalia’s direction.
It moved like a snake.
It wrapped around Raphtalia’s sword, and almost wrapped around her wrists.
But she dropped her sword before it could and jumped back to get some distance.
“Well, you’ve got determination. I’ll give you that. But do you think you can fight me barehanded?”
Barehanded… Raphtalia was very strong. But was she strong enough to take down this nobleman without a weapon? I didn’t think so. I was worried.
The fat man snapped the whip and Raphtalia’s sword flew into his hand. He brandished it against us.
Raphtalia avoided his thrust with a deft backbend then pulled out the other sword at her waist… the magic sword. She held it out at him, but there was no blade there, just an empty hilt.
The magic sword had been a present from the old guy at the weapon shop—it was pure magic fashioned into the shape of a sword.
“I’m not barehanded.”
The nobleman burst into laughter.
“What are you going to do with a toy sword?!”
But he was forgetting something important. I wasn’t just going to sit back and watch them.
“Don’t think it’ll go so smoothly!”
I reached out and grabbed his whip.
My hand felt strange. It was like the whip was burning me. Pain pulsed into my hand.
I knew the thing was cursed.
“You must be a very foolish Shield Hero to reach for my whip!”
“You think? It’s not so bad.”
It was burning me, but I could handle the pain.
“And since you’re focusing on me…”
“I can attack!”
Raphtalia’s magic sword suddenly had a blade, and she quickly directed an overhead swing at him.
“Whoops!”
The nobleman abandoned his whip and jumped back to avoid her thrust.
“You’re pretty quick. Not as quick as I am, though!”
He was small and plump, but he really was pretty powerful.
Judging from how he knocked out that guard with one hit, he should be fighting in the waves by himself.
Melty looked to Nice Guy.
“That man… He fought with my father a long time ago in a war against the demi-humans.”
I was starting to get it. So he used to be a military man. That would explain his strength and resolve.
And if he had been in a war against the demi-humans, he probably knew more about battle than we did—considering that we had only ever really battled with monsters.
“But don’t think that taking care of my whip means you’re going to win this.”
“That’s my line. I might not be able to attack on my own, but Raphtalia here is more than powerful enough.”
“Heh. If you would make a demi-human your party member, then you are obviously not taking this seriously enough.”
“Raphtalia.”
“Yes!”
She nodded deeply then held her hands over the point of her sword. The blade started to glow brighter.
“Filo!”
Raphtalia called for Filo.
“What?”
“To take this guy down, I need both you and Melty to chant magic spells.”
“Okay! C’mon, Mel!”
“But… Oh, all right!”
Confused about something, Melty looked from the nobleman to the rest of us.
Then she nodded, apparently having made some decision, and began to focus on her magic.
“What’s this? The Shield Demon really must have brain washing powers. To think he would use the princess as a pawn!”
“I have not been brain washed. I believe that your behavior is evil, and so I will punish you as the princess.”
“You fool…”
“I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them. Shoot him with a ball of water!”
“Zweite Aqua Shot!”
“I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them. Cut him with the blade of sky!”
“Zweite Wing Cutter!”
Melty and Filo cast their spells at nearly the same moment.
A ball of water shot from Melty’s hands, and a blade of air shot from Filo’s. Both flew at the nobleman.
“Ha!”
The nobleman dodged Filo’s blade, then produced another whip from somewhere and knocked the ball of water off course.
“Now!”
While he was avoiding the spells he left a weak spot unattended. Raphtalia readied her sword and ran at him.
“You think that will do me in?”
He cracked the whip at her.
I wouldn’t let that happen. I stepped forward and swung the whip I’d taken from him, catching the tip of his new whip in mid-flight.
“What?!”
“Hiyaaaaa!”
Aligning her timing with my own, Raphtalia let out a shout. Using her foot, she flipped a sword that the guard had dropped into the air and caught it. Then she readied her magic sword like a javelin and threw it at the nobleman. It plunged deep into his chest.
The magic sword can nullify its opponent’s magic. She’d used it to knock out Bitch before, so it should have had some kind of effect.
“Ugh… not yet!”
“No, it’s over! HIYAAAAAAAA!”
There was a dull sound, and suddenly Raphtalia’s sword was buried to the hilt in the nobleman’s shoulder.
“Noooooo! Damn you! You think it’s all right for a demi-human to hurt me?! I survived the demi-human war!”
“You fought demi-humans in the war? Then save your complaints for the war. You’re not in a war anymore.”
“I’ll never forgive you! I’ll kill you!”
“You’re a coward! You only attack people weaker than yourself! What were the demi-humans you fought like? The ones I know were all women and children. Disadvantaged people! Don’t talk to me about how you fought them!”
Still incensed, she pushed him to the window, broke it, and pushed him out. As he fell, she let her sword stay in him, but kept her grip on the magic sword and the blade pulled from his falling body.
“AAAAAHHHHHH!”
“NOOOOOOOOOO!”
I immediately dropped both of the whips and watched the nobleman plunge through the window.
That was close. If I’d waited, the whips would have pulled me through the window with him.
“The… The governor lost to the Shield Demon!”
The remaining guards all quickly ran away.
“I’ll get that flag back… the flag from that day…”
Raphtalia stood in the window, whispering to the sky. She then recovered herself and ran over to me.
“Are you all right?”
“Huh? Yeah. No problem.”
We still had a little holy water left over from treating Raphtalia’s curse.
The curse itself wasn’t so bad. The holy water would be sufficient to heal it.
I went to the window and looked down at the courtyard. The nobleman was lying there, face turned to the sky.
I think he was… dead?
When I thought about the things that Raphtalia had told me... how he’d tortured demi-humans, it seemed like a fitting end.
“Okay. If we hang around here we’ll get caught up in the confusion. We’d better be on our way.”
“But first…”
“Ah… right.”
First we had to save any demi-humans he’d imprisoned.
That was what Raphtalia wanted, so I wanted it too.
I turned to Nice Guy and made a request.
“This man used to buy demi-human slaves and keep them in his basement so that he could torture them.”
“Unfortunately that is not
such a rare thing in this country. It could be that…”
“Even if we saved them, we are on the run. I don’t think we will be able to provide the things they need while we are running from the Crown. I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”
I knew that I was asking too much. I was putting him in further danger.
But if I was going to grant Raphtalia’s request, there was no other option.
“I understand your situation. I will do anything I can to help you.”
Nice Guy smiled.
He hadn’t lied to us yet, so I didn’t see any choice but to trust him.
“It will be okay. I have many demi-human allies, and I know that they will help me.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Raphtalia led us to the basement room.
The door was locked, but Filo used her powerful legs to kick the door down.
The second we walked in, we were overcome by a powerful stench.
It was the same smell that came from the slave-trader’s tent. It was that smell of death and decay that told you to keep your distance.
This… this wasn’t good.
“I have a bad feeling about this…”
Filo looked really worried.
Melty was shaking, obviously scared. Then she settled herself and seemed ready to accept whatever we found.
“It’s a little further.”
“We walked down the stairs in the dark and came to the basement. It was filled with various torture instruments. I saw a skeleton in the corner.
How many people had met their ends here?
I turned to see Raphtalia praying before a small skeleton in the corner.
“This girl was… She was a friend from my village. Her name was Rifana, and…”
Raphtalia was looking down at the skeleton. She seemed about to cry, and turned her face away.
They must have been close.
“Rifana was a bright, happy girl. She liked to talk about legends.”
Listening to Raphtalia, Melty looked ready to cry herself.
She was the princess of this country. It must have been hard to see this kind of misery happen within her own borders.
So much tragedy could be blamed on the waves, but this was different.
This was nothing more than an evil man taking advantage of the chaos around him. Really, everyone around here seemed rotten to the core.
“She was more girly than me… She was so nice…”
“I’m sorry.”
To think of the end that Raphtalia’s friend had met… It made me sad.
Had things been different, we might have met when she was alive. We might have been friends.
“She always said that she wanted to marry someone like the Shield Hero.”
“…”
But her dream never came true. She’d died in this cold basement. Just thinking about it filled me with rage.
She probably wanted to live. She probably died wishing for escape.
He’d done this to her simply because she was a demi-human.
I couldn’t even imagine what went through his mind.
I don’t know what kind of person I was in comparison to the children that died here. But I could say one thing:
We avenged them.
“What should we do with them? Should we take them?”
We could take their bones and give them a proper funeral somewhere.
“Yes… It’s too cold and sad here.”
“You’re right.”
We silently picked up the bones and put them into a bag.
“Were there any slaves?”
“Yes.”
Nice Guy answered from the back of the room.
After we’d gathered the bones, we made our way to the back of the room.
The slave was covered with bruises and cuts. It looked like he’d been badly tortured.
His eyes were devoid of life.
He looked to be around 10 years old, and he had dog-like ears.
Despite being a boy, he was kind of cute. You know how some guys are like girls when they are only 10 years old?
“Who are you?”
“That voice…”
“Who’s that?”
“Do you know him?”
“Yes. Keel, that’s you, isn’t it?”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“Did you forget me? I’ve grown a little since we last saw each other. It’s me, Raphtalia.”
“What?!”
Keel raised his head in surprise.
“It can’t be. Raphtalia is shorter than me. She’s not some tall beautiful woman. I mean, she was cute and all…”
Keel was muttering to himself like a dead man.
“You’d pretend to be a friend?! Why? How are you trying to trick me?!”
His eyes filled with tears. He was overcome with despair. He was just like Raphtalia when I’d met her.
“I’ll prove it to you then. Two months before the wave came, you went to the beach looking for a pretty shell. You wanted to surprise your dad for his birthday. But you nearly drowned, and Sadeena had to jump in and save you…”
He seemed to smile, like the memory brought him joy.
It did seem like the sort of thing that only the real Raphtalia would know.
“Could it be?! Raphtalia…”
He was looking her over very carefully.
“It’s me… Do you remember eating that poisonous mushroom out in the field? You got sick and hid so that no one would know! I found you that day, and you told me to keep it a secret. You were shaking…”
“Ahhh! Yes! I believe you! It’s you! Raphtalia!”
Finally, the slave, Keel, recognized Raphtalia.
“Raphtalia… Why are you so big? Why are you so pretty?”
Even if you knew that demi-humans grew as they leveled up, seeing it with your own eyes was another thing.
Raphtalia had been so small when I found her. I was shocked when she grew up before my eyes.
Had I grown up with her myself, it would have been all the more surprising.
“I’m actually Mr. Naofumi… The Shield Hero’s slave right now.”
“What?!”
Keel, the demi-human slave, looked at me.
But he was so weak that he couldn’t lock his sight onto one thing. I must have looked blurry to him.
I reached into my pocket for some ointment and made to treat his wounds.
“Don’t touch me!”
“It’s okay. Relax. This is medicine.”
Next he would need some nutritional medicine. I knew that I really shouldn’t use it in situations like this, but I couldn’t ignore a crisis right before my eyes. I had to help him.
Not that I was actually a holy saint with a beautiful heart or anything, but this was Raphtalia’s friend.
“Ugh…”
He resisted at first, but he realized I wasn’t trying to hurt him, and he slowly drank the medicine. My shield had many strange powers. One of them increased the efficacy of medicines. In times like this, I was grateful for how useful it was.
He looked a little better already. A little color returned to his cheeks.
I wasn’t very good with recovery magic. I had been able to treat his wounds, but he hadn’t recovered any energy. Realizing that he was safe, he suddenly fell forward, exhausted, and began to snore.
“I cannot believe that my country allowed this to happen.”
Melty whispered to herself.
“I’d watched my mother work in other countries, so I thought that I understood demi-humans and humans. But this… I… I cannot forgive this.”
“You have to be a little more hysterical. Why not scream, ‘I CAN NEVER FORGIVE THIS!’ That would be more like you.”
“That’s not who I really am! Just what kind of person do you take me for?!”
Melty suddenly realized what she was doing and clamped her hands over her mouth.
“Sometimes you get hysterically angry, and your fac
e gets all red. That’s you, Melty.”
“What was that?!”
“Okay. We can’t stay here forever. Let’s get going.”
Nice Guy picked Keel up and held him over his shoulder. We turned and left the basement.
We talked as we climbed the stairs.
“First we need to focus on getting out of town. It’s not like we can all fit on Filo’s back.”
It was hard enough to fit three of us on there, much less five.
“Why don’t we have Filo take the nobleman, Keel, and Melty out of here first?”
“Good idea.”
They could jump over the wall and get out easily.
The town entrance still seemed to be embroiled in an uproar. What was going on?
I was wondering that when I noticed blood pooling on the stairs. I followed it up and saw that it was coming from the courtyard, and the blood continued out to…
“What?!”
“What is it?”
I was silently pointing to the courtyard. Raphtalia understood and nodded.
“Ah, ha, ha, ha! Now I finally have a way to kill you!”
The nobleman who’d fallen from the second floor, the nobleman we thought was dead, was standing there, laughing.
Dammit! What’s next?
The nobleman’s shoulder was bleeding profusely. He was facing the gravestone-like boulder, chanting some kind of spell.
This wasn’t good. Keel was still that man’s slave—which meant he could use the slave seal to kill him.
What should we do? We’d just managed to save Raphtalia’s friend. If he died now then it was all for nothing
But the slave curse didn’t need a spell to work. He could just order him to die, or choose to do so from his status magic.
So was he… doing something else?
“He’s… We have to stop him!”
Nice Guy turned to me and shouted.
“What is it?”
“Shield Hero, do you know the legend of this town?”
“I heard they chased something away and then sealed it up. It’s still here.”
I was getting a bad feeling about this.
“It couldn’t be…”
“It’s true. The sealing stone has been watched over by this town’s nobility for generations. And now…”
I could tell where the story was going. The fat man was attempting to break the seal.
“Back up.”