The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 06 Read online

I think the queen had said that he was sick and convalescing out in the countryside.

  Standing next to him was a well-dressed child. The child had dog-like ears.

  “Raphtalia!”

  “Keel!”

  That’s right. His name was Keel, and he was from Raphtalia’s village.

  We’d found him in the basement of that evil nobleman’s mansion. It was the same nobleman that had tortured Raphtalia.

  “Were you safe after all of that, Raphtalia? Did anything bad happen to you?”

  “I’ve been fine. Nothing bad! And no one is chasing us anymore.”

  “That’s good!”

  Keel looked at me.

  “You’re not pushing her too hard, are you?”

  “...”

  “Why don’t you answer him?!”

  “I was just thinking it over. Maybe I have been pushing you too hard.”

  “Mr. Naofumi, you’re the one that is overdoing it! Keel, don’t you worry about me. I’ve never been seriously injured or anything!”

  “You did end up getting cursed once.”

  “Mr. Naofumi! Be quiet!”

  “Isn’t he your childhood friend? It’s rude to lie to your friends.”

  “Ahahaha! The Shield Hero is always surrounded my such interesting people!”

  Nice Guy was laughing.

  Did I say something funny?

  “So what are you doing here?”

  “Well, I’m finally back on my feet, so I decided to come pay you a visit.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

  Were we supposed to take Keel off his hands, since he was Raphtalia’s friend?

  Raphtalia noticed that I was looking a Keel, and guessing what I was thinking, she fell into deep thought.

  “What should we do Raphtalia?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “About this kid, are we just supposed to leave him with this nobleman forever?”

  I looked over at Nice Guy. He smiled and rubbed Keel’s head.

  “I don’t have a problem with it. It’s up to him.”

  Well, that was nice of him. But I’m sure Raphtalia had something to say about it. Keel probably had an idea of what he wanted, too.

  “Raphtalia! You’re fighting against the waves, aren’t you?!”

  “Yes. I’m fighting them with the Shield Hero: Mr. Naofumi. Just a couple of days ago we were fighting a wave in a place called Cal Mira.

  “Wow! That’s so cool! I want to be strong enough to fight the waves too!”

  I liked the kid’s spirit.

  “But ...”

  Raphtalia looked upset.

  “Raphtalia?”

  “I ...”

  “You don’t like that idea?”

  Raphtalia responded by giving me a troubled look.

  “Big sis, what’s wrong?”

  Filo and Keel both cocked their heads in confusion.

  I understood what she was feeling.

  She was probably thinking that she didn’t want Keel to be put in harm’s way again. Just when he was safe, he was about to jump back in the line of danger.

  Raphtalia looked at me like she was asking me for something. I understood.

  “If you join in on our training exercises, I’m sure you’ll get stronger. You just have to make an effort.”

  “Mr. Naofumi ...”

  “There’s nothing bad that can come of being stronger than you are.”

  Raphtalia’s village had been decimated when the first wave came. Hordes of monsters poured over the town, and slave traders hunted down all the survivors.

  Had the survivors been stronger, they might have gotten out of it with less casualties and tragedy.

  “Raphtalia, you don’t want me to fight, do you?”

  “...”

  Raphtalia looked at him but said nothing. She was thinking.

  “It’s not that I don’t want you to fight. But it’s harder than you think. Are you sure you’re prepared for it?”

  “Of course I am! I . . . I want to be strong enough to help protect other people!”

  “Sounds like we have our answer, doesn’t it? If you try and control someone that has already made up their minds, you’ll only make them miserable. We can help him get strong enough to protect himself.”

  Raphtalia said nothing, but she nodded.

  That settled it. I decided to invite him into my party.

  We didn’t have enough people anyway. If there were people we could trust, it made sense to team up with them and help them get stronger.

  He was Raphtalia’s childhood friend. There was no way he would betray our trust.

  “Alright then, Mr. Naofumi. Can we take care of Keel for now?”

  “Yeah. Of course.”

  “He’s from the same village that Ms. Raphtalia is from. Isn’t that right?”

  Rishia stepped forward and introduced herself to Keel.

  “Whoa! What’s with this person’s outfit? It’s weird!”

  “Feh?”

  I guess he’d just noticed her standing there.

  “Very well then, Shield Hero, I’ll leave this . . . boy in your care.”

  Nice Guy smiled at Keel and then left to go meet with the queen.

  “Let’s all get acquainted.”

  “I’m Fiiiilo! We met before!”

  Before I could even finish talking, Filo jumped forward and introduced herself.

  Why couldn’t she ever wait?

  “My name is Rishia Ivyred. Very nice to meet you.”

  “You’re the only one left, Mr. Naofumi. Please introduce yourself to Keel.”

  “Sure. My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I’m the Shield Hero. Battle might be tough, but step forward and don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”

  When I finished talking, Keel decisively nodded and stepped forward.

  “My name is Keel. I’m very happy to meet you all!”

  Keel was nearly as tall as Raphtalia.

  They were from the same village. That meant that he probably looked younger than he really was.

  I suddenly realized that he was the first male party member I’d ever had. I hoped that we would get along.

  Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia sometimes had conversations that I didn’t really feel like I could participate in.

  “Alright then, let’s get started. Rishia, Keel, what do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just how strong do you two want to be?”

  Raphtalia looked me over as though she was trying to find a dark undertone to my question.

  Her instincts were sharp. These two probably would be freaked out by what I had to say.

  “I want to be the strongest there is! Obviously!”

  “Feh?! Yes, exactly!”

  They both seemed to really mean it too. Good.

  Then there was only one thing to do. I said it plainly as can be: “Then both of you need to become my slaves.”

  Chapter Five: Battle Advisors

  “Fehhhh!”

  “Wh . . . What the hell? You were lying about being the Shield Hero, weren’t you?!”

  Rishia’s gasp was still echoing throughout the castle courtyard. Keel was glaring angrily at Raphtalia and I. Then Rishia took off running as if she were a startled rabbit.

  They certainly were spurred to action at the strangest times.

  “Don’t let them escape with their lives!” I shouted.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “I knew it!”

  “Keel! Calm down! I know that Mr. Naofumi can seem a little rough around the edges, but trust me. There’s a reason for all this!”

  “What kind of reason could there be?”

  Hm? I suppose I was causing more confusion than necessary.

  “Okay!”

  Filo turned into her filolial form and chased after Rishia.

  Keel was stunned. That’s right. He’d never seen her transform before.

  “That
was a joke! Filo! Just bring her back normally! Don’t claw her!”

  “Or peck at her! Rishia wouldn’t survive your attacks!”

  Whoops. I should control myself better. I had almost gotten Rishia killed.

  Filo wrapped her wings around Rishia and pulled her back to me.

  But Rishia was writhing wildly.

  “Let me go! I’m going back to my village! I’m going back to my mom and dad! Master Itsukiiiiii!”

  “It was just a joke.”

  “About turning me into your slave?”

  “No, that part was true.”

  “But why?”

  “How do you get stronger? You raise your level by defeating monsters, right? The heroes have a special ability called maturation adjustment that can make your growth more efficient. That’s one of the reasons that Raphtalia is so powerful.”

  “R . . . Really? Raphtalia, are you really that powerful?”

  “Well, yes.”

  Raphtalia quickly shuffled around to stand behind Keel.

  She moved so quickly that Keel didn’t have a chance to react. By the time he noticed she’d moved, she was already behind him.

  “Wow!”

  “The only characters my shield can help grow faster are slaves and monsters.”

  In addition to the maturation adjustment skill, I also had a skill called ability adjustment. That would help them master new abilities faster.

  If I could get those two to accept the conditions, then they would level up a lot faster than they would have otherwise.

  “Whether you want to do it or not is up to you. But if you don’t become a slave, you won’t level up nearly as quickly.”

  “But ...”

  “Think about it. What do you need to do to get stronger? Be greedy about it. Think about what you can do to get what you want. I’m only offering you the option.”

  “...”

  Both Rishia and Keel fell into deep thought. It was their lives, so they needed to make up their minds for themselves.

  But I could give them a little push.

  “Well, Rishia is already at level 68. If you’ve already leveled that much, then it might not be as effective for you. Still, it would make you stronger than it would if you didn’t become a slave.”

  It was the sort of skill that worked best the earlier you started to use it. It snowballed over time.

  It really was like a game.

  Characters that had high levels at the beginning either died or betrayed you. Either that or they basically never leveled up more.

  That described L’Arc pretty well. But no—I couldn’t let myself fall into that trap. This wasn’t a game.

  “Or we could reset your level. But the next wave will be here soon and I want you to be powerful enough to fight in it. So if we were going to do a reset, we should probably wait until after the wave.

  The rest of us were in the 70s, so if we were to reset her levels and continue leveling from that point on, the gap between us would only get worse.

  “Oh . . . Alright.”

  “But if you become my slave then don’t run! I mean it’s not like I’m going to keep you in chains or... Hey, are you listening?!”

  The second I started talking about slaves, Rishia snapped her head left and right, looking for a way to escape. She was driving me nuts.

  “Are you listening? I’m telling you that you won’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to do!”

  “Fehhh!”

  “Rishia, please listen to me. I’m telling you how to get stronger. What do you want to do?”

  Her eyes were wandering around the courtyard, but she was thinking about the offer.

  Fair enough. Not many people I know would be first in line to volunteer for slavery.

  But Raphtalia had.

  “I will technically hold the reins. But I promise that I won’t force you do to anything against your will.”

  “He really is a good person. Although he can be a little selfish from time to time, he won’t ever hurt you. You can trust me.”

  “Raphtalia...”

  “Master, you never tie me up or nothing!”

  Raphtalia and Filo had both chimed in, but to Rishia and Keel it probably just sounded like they were brainwashed.

  “I’m not going to force you. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I’m just telling you the best way to move forward. Keel, I’ll tell you the same thing. All I’m doing is giving you the option. It’s up to you whether or not you want to take it.”

  “Yeah. I want to be stronger! If it would make me stronger, I’d sell my soul to the devil. If it would help me bring them back.”

  “You think I’m the devil?”

  “He just pretends to be mean! He’s actually very nice!”

  Keel didn’t answer Raphtalia or me.

  Did that mean he thought I was the devil?!

  Rishia held her hand over her heart. She was wearing the kigurumi, so I couldn’t really make out her expression, but she spoke as though she had made up her mind.

  “I’ve decided. Please, make me your slave!”

  “Are you sure?”

  I hadn’t expected her to decide so quickly. Judging from what I knew about her personality, I’d expected some vague foot shuffling for a while.

  But it looked like once she’d made up her mind, she threw herself into it completely. I liked that.

  “Yes! I want to be strong!”

  “Alright then. Let’s go see the queen and get this matter settled.”

  And so we left the courtyard and went to go visit the queen.

  “Ugh . . . Uh...”

  The slave sealing ceremony went off without a hitch.

  Both Rishia and Keel ended up with powerful slave seals on their chests.

  Keel had already been a slave though, so first we had to have the original seal removed. I’m sure he didn’t like being freed only to immediately become a slave again.

  The queen had applied the same sort of seal that she had used on Bitch. It was the sort that was invisible unless it was activated by something.

  A list of actions I could prohibit appeared before me in the air.

  I unchecked all of the options. Or I tried to. I couldn’t uncheck them all!

  Apparently I had to leave at least one thing checked or the spell wouldn’t work. So I picked a minor condition and finished the process.

  It was a simple thing. They were not permitted to lie to me.

  I didn’t want to think about it, but there was always the possibility that one of them might try to betray me.

  What if Rishia was actually a spy sent by Itsuki?

  Granted, the very fact that she had agreed to be my slave made that pretty unlikely.

  Huff. Huff.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. I’m fine.”

  “I’m good. That was nothing!”

  “Yeah? Good.”

  I felt a little guilty, but there was no use dwelling on it. I opened up Rishia and Keel’s status screens.

  I decided to check Keel’s stats first.

  He was at a pretty low level. I couldn’t be sure how he would mature. But from the looks of it his agility rating was very high. He was a demi-human with dog-like features, after all. Maybe it was wise to assume that speed was his specialty.

  I looked as Rishia’s stats next.

  “. . . !”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

  I had gasped without thinking.

  I didn’t know how to explain it. Compared to Raphtalia, Filo, and I, her stats were unbelievably low.

  She was at level 68, but her stats were barely any higher than Keel’s. Now I understood why Itsuki wanted to get her out of his party.

  But I wasn’t going to abandon her like that. Figuring out how to make a weak person stronger was my specialty.

  Maybe those were the kind of stats that normal people had in this world?

  If there was an
ything of interest about her, it’s that all her stats looked to be roughly equal. There was nothing in particular you could point to as a weakness.

  But the stats themselves were all very low. It was exactly what you would expect from a jack-of-all-trades.

  Was she really level 68? If she was, then I really had my work cut out for me.

  “Mr. Iwatani.”

  The queen was talking to me. A knight I didn’t recognize was standing by her side.

  “What?”

  “I am in the process of calling for an experienced combat advisor. But when it comes to sword fighting, this person is easily one of the best in the kingdom. If you would find her of use...”

  “Why don’t you call for ALL of the best?”

  “Mr. Naofumi, you don’t need to be so crass.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  What would be the best use of our time though? I’d have to make the most of what time we had.

  “Hey Keel, you’re the lowest level member here. Filo’s going to take you out leveling.”

  We needed to bring him up to fighting level if he was going to get any use out of the training.

  To do that we’d have to power level—at least that’s what it was called in the online games I used to play. A weaker character would go level with a high-level, fast character, and then they would level up very quickly. At the very least, we had to get him ready to class up.

  “I’m supposed to help him?”

  “Yeah. Take him out leveling. Just make sure you’re back before dark.”

  “Okay!”

  With a puff of smoke, she transformed into her filolial form, then picked up Keel and placed him onto her back.

  “Huh? But . . . Raphtalia?!”

  Before he could finish his sentence Filo used her wings to hold him in place and took off running.

  “AAAHHHHHHHH!”

  “Oh! Keel!”

  “Don’t worry about them. Filo’s strong—they’ll be fine.”

  It was important that they started with the fundamentals. That was the only way to make the most of the following training. And besides, focusing on the fundamentals would probably be good for higher-level characters, too.

  “Rishia, once the next wave has come and gone, you’ll be doing the same thing as Keel. So look forward to it.”

  “Fehhh!”

  She never calmed down, did she?

  Oh well. I guess there was no getting around it. Even Raphtalia got a little freaked out when she had to ride Filo.