The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 Page 11

  “Zweite Aura . . . .”

  I could choose a target for the spell. I guess I might as well start with Filo.

  I held out my hand in Filo’s direction and a soft, transparent magic field appeared around her.

  “Oh wow! I feel like I’m full of power!”

  Filo started jumping up and down in place. She was in human form, but she could still jump pretty high.

  I checked her stats and found that most of them had increased.

  “Aura . . . . It’s a spell that only the legendary heroes can use. It raises the target’s stats.”

  One of Itsuki’s teammates whispered. It was that Rishia girl.

  “Awesome! Let’s all learn it!”

  The prospect of learning ancient magic really excited the others, as it fit in perfectly with their game-like attitude. They all tried reading the words.

  But . . . .

  “Damn . . . I can’t read it.”

  “Maybe that’s because you guys never learned how to read the magic letters?”

  Sure, they’d learned their magic easily enough with the crystal balls, but if they never learned to read, they’d never be able to learn aura.

  “Naofumi.”

  Itsuki turned to me and spoke.

  “What?”

  “Where did you get the shield that taught you to read magic letters?”

  “I learned to read it myself! The weapon can’t do everything for you!”

  “Don’t be like that!”

  “Yeah! Teach us!”

  They had no shame at all. Soon they’d want me to teach them the whole language.

  They must have thought that their weapons had absolved them of the need to make any sort of effort.

  “I learned a spell from this called ‘Aura,’ but that doesn’t mean that you guys are going to learn the same thing.”

  “That might be true. We might learn something even better.”

  Their condescension was becoming even more apparent. I couldn’t stand being talked down to like that.

  They couldn’t even hold their own against the high priest. I caught myself getting upset and tried to calm down.

  “Let’s move on. Is there anything else you wanted to show us?”

  “Very well then, we will head for the inn—but I will make sure to introduce you to items and places of interest along the way.”

  The earl interjected short explanations now and again as we walked to the inn.

  The areas of Cal Mira that were filled with wildlife were in a veritable uproar now, thanks to the activation event. The life cycles of the monsters had all been accelerated.

  The monsters would go on reproducing exponentially, and the island would find itself in dire straits if adventurers and heroes didn’t come to help cull the exploding population. Our immediate goal was to help beat back the monsters—and to level up substantially in the process.

  The earl explained that it would help the island most if we completely eradicated any group of monsters we chanced upon.

  There was no need for us to defer to other adventurers that were leveling there, but if we came across a battle underway, they asked that we avoid unnecessary conflict by not jumping in and taking other adventurers’ kills.

  It sounded a lot like typical manners in an MMORPG.

  If we wanted to move between the islands, there were small boats that we could use—but they wouldn’t shuttle us around. In the worst case, the earl said, it was possible to swim.

  The inn that the queen had reserved from us was the nicest building on the island. In my world, it would have been equivalent to a high-class hotel.

  I wondered if it used to be a castle or something.

  Anyway, it was a huge, ornate place that felt very clean. The walls were formed of something like marble and were polished so they reflected the light.

  There was a fountain that included statues of Pekkul and Risuka. All in all, the place made me feel like I was back in my own world, in a strange sort of way.

  Had I just gone to a trip to the southern islands? Maybe I was back in Hawaii?

  We were led down a hallway to our rooms, and there was a thick, plush carpet running the length of it.

  The hotel insisted that they would see to our luggage, so we'd given them our things, as well as Filo’s carriage.

  Opening the door to our room, we found that our luggage had already arrived, so we decided to head right out again and start hunting monsters.

  We jumped in a small boat, picked another island at random, and shoved off.

  “It’s been a while since we could battle monsters just to level up.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  Once Filo had hatched we’d turned our attention to our merchant work. During that time we’d only really fought monsters that we happened to come across on the way, and not many people specifically asked that we battle for them.

  Then we realized we couldn’t participate in the class-up ceremony, so we decided to head to another country—but then the crown put a bounty on my head.

  Once we defeated the high priest, we ended up stuck on a long journey back to the castle, then we jumped right on the ship to Cal Mira. Sure, Filo had killed a few monsters on the way, but nothing that would count as intentional leveling.

  Thinking back on it all, Raphtalia was right. It really had been a while.

  When we were on the run, we didn’t have the time to be systematic about it—and instead of using them for materials, we’d had to eat most of them.

  “We’ll be leveling up from now until the time we leave Cal Mira. Good luck everyone.”

  “Yeah!”

  “Yes.”

  We climbed out of the small boat and stepped into the wild.

  The area was infested with Bio Red Blobs, Magenta Frogs, Yellow Beetles, and Cactus Worms.

  None of those monsters sounded very strong to me. I was thinking over the names when a Magenta Frog came flying at us from some nearby bushes.

  “Hey!”

  I held my shield to block it, and its belly crashed into the shield.

  There was a sucking and popping sound. I looked down to find the frog stuck to the outer edge of my shield.

  “Haaa!”

  Raphtalia flashed her sword at the frog.

  Yes, she moved very quickly.

  EXP 95

  Hey, that was more experience points than I would have expected to get from such a weak monster.

  Raphtalia had defeated it with one swing of her sword. Raphtalia was looking down at her sword, surprised.

  “The monster was very weak, but we received quite a bit of experience points from it.”

  “I wonder if that’s because of the activation event?”

  “I hope so. Well, there’s no need to hold back.”

  “Just make sure you don’t steal another adventurer’s mark.”

  “I’ll be careful! Hya!”

  “Take that!”

  Raphtalia sliced a monster in two. Another monster was minced by Filo’s furious claws. If I wanted to absorb anything into the shield, they’d have to leave some scraps behind.

  I realized that I was now powerful enough to take on a number of monsters at once. Actually, they weren’t damaging me at all, so eventually the monsters started to ignore me.

  You had to give the monsters that much—they weren’t stupid. Something like a balloon might have just gone on attacking me forever. But these monsters were smarter. They realized they didn’t have a chance of injuring me, so they directed their attention at Raphtalia and Filo.

  I tried to stand at the front of the party, defend against the attacks, and find openings in the monster’s defenses. But there were so many of them that I wasn’t doing much good. Luckily Raphtalia and Filo were quick and powerful enough to dodge the monsters’ attacks that had gotten past me.

  But there was still a problem. If I wasn’t the one stopping their attacks, then there wasn’t really a need for me to be there.

  “Mr.
Naofumi, I feel like the monsters are a little too weak for us. Perhaps we should move on?”

  “Hmm . . . .”

  There must have been some way around the problem.

  Maybe I could switch to a weaker shield.

  Maybe they would realize that the shield was weaker, and so they would focus more of their attention on me—thinking that they stood a chance—and stop attacking Raphtalia and Filo. Besides, I could unlock a few shields in the process.

  There was a limited amount of time until the next wave arrived. I wanted to use the time we had in the most efficient way possible.

  Yes, for the time being, I’d go with that plan.

  Even still, Raphtalia and Filo were probably powerful enough to make it to the center of this particular island without too much help from me. They were defeating all the monsters with one hit.

  We battled on like that for a short while, when I suddenly realized that I wasn’t receiving experience points any longer.

  “Why?”

  “What happened?”

  “I stopped receiving experience points. What about you, Raphtalia?”

  “I’m still getting points just like normal.”

  I double-checked their points in my menu. Sure enough, they were both still getting experience—I was the only one who’d stopped accumulating points.

  I was wondering what was going on, then it happened.

  “You bastard! You stole my kill! Someone should kill you next!”

  “What?!”

  Itsuki, Armor, and their friends killed a monster that another adventurer had been battling.

  Come on now! Hadn’t we JUST been warned not to steal other people’s kills?

  I shot them all an annoyed glance, but then Itsuki looked confused, realizing that he wasn’t receiving experience, and he looked at me for help.

  “Oh, Naofumi. I didn’t realize you were here. That probably explains why I’m not getting experience.”

  “You mean because our weapons are interfering with each other?”

  “Yes. If it’s not too much trouble, do you think you could go to another island?”

  The idiot . . . . Why did I have to move? Was he incapable of moving himself? Was he incapable of considering the feelings of others?

  I swear . . . everything Itsuki did these days irritated me.

  “Yeah! Yeah! The Shield Hero is going to another island!”

  “Oh SHUT UP already!”

  Armor was getting really annoying.

  What did he have against me? What did I do to make him think I was his enemy?

  “Itsuki . . . . What was that all about?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Did you hear what the earl said? About not stealing other adventurers’ kills?”

  “What do you mean? That was my kill. I started that battle.”

  His eyes wandered off in the distance. Quite far away an adventurer was battling a monster. Itsuki drew his bow back and fired a killing shot.

  “Um . . . .”

  “What is it? We got the first attack.”

  The adventurer and I clearly had the same concerns, but Itsuki didn’t seem worried by them. He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  Maybe he wasn’t technically breaking the rules, but there was something wrong with that kind of behavior.

  If this were an MMORPG, that was called target stealing, or fishing.

  The behavior was prohibited or permitted depending on the game, so I couldn't be sure what the rules were here. But it was clearly annoying. It clearly bothered the other adventurers. And we’d been warned about it, in a way, so why behave that way?

  That reminded me. Itsuki had said that this world reminded him of a consumer game that he’d played.

  “Itsuki, you realize that behavior like that would get you in trouble if this were an online game.”

  “What? Oh stop that now. We scored the first hit!”

  “Only because you have a ranged weapon. Does that mean that only you have the right to hunt here?”

  Itsuki was troubled by the question, but he slowly nodded. It gave me a headache to figure him out, but I was starting to understand.

  In a consumer game, there was no need to worry about stuff like this.

  The other characters weren’t really people, and so they weren’t actually in competition for the monsters. They didn’t steal from each other.

  So I had to find the right way to approach the issue.

  “Go ask Ren and Motoyasu about it. Or go ask the earl of the island. I think you’ll find that everyone is against disruptive behavior like that.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Alright . . . see ya!”

  I signaled to Filo with my eyes.

  Itsuki had already leveled his bow at a monster that was poking around in the weeds.

  “First wind!”

  Filo sent a torrent of wind magic to hit the monster first. A second later, Itsuki’s arrow connected, and the monster died.

  “You stole our kill! We were hunting that monster, and you stole it! How could you?!”

  I shoved an accusatory finger at Itsuki and shouted to make my point.

  When I did, Armor looked very upset, and he stepped forward.

  “You fool! Despite being a hero yourself, you’d turn on Master Itsuki?!”

  Itsuki looked troubled for a moment, then upset. I realized he had come to understand the situation.

  “Please calm down. I understand what you mean now.”

  He smiled peacefully, but his eyes were not smiling at all. He could hide his discomfort with a mask of smiles, but I saw right through it.

  We left. I don’t know if he continued to “understand” after we were gone though. I figured it was best to try our luck at another island.

  “Should we have some lunch while we wait for my experience points to become available again?”

  Itsuki signaled to his party that it was time to take a break.

  I wasn’t very invested in his party members or their lunches, until . . . .

  “Rishia! It’s lunchtime!”

  “Oh . . . okay!”

  Armor and the other party members all yelled at Rishia to get their meals ready.

  They certainly thought highly of themselves, didn’t they? Who did they think they were? Why did she have to make their lunches?

  “Why not make your own lunches?”

  I whispered it to myself, but Armor heard me and came running over.

  “What was that?! Rishia is the newest recruit here! These chores are her responsibility!”

  “What?!”

  I didn’t know what to say. Recruit?

  What was this? Did he think he was running a company or something?

  Rishia prepared to hand out the lunches. But apparently there was a prescribed order that they had to be handed out in. She looked carefully at each lunch, confirmed the name, then softly called the name out.

  As she got further down in the list, the lunches became less impressive-looking.

  Was Itsuki’s his own homemade lunch? She passed him a lunch box.

  Armor was next. His lunch was a large piece of meat on the bone, plus a sandwich stacked high with meats.

  Then came the soldiers. They got a sandwich and grilled fish. The next up was . . . . Well, it went on and on like that until only Rishia was left. Then she reached into a bag and pulled out one piece of fruit, which she began to eat in silence.

  What was all that about? Why didn’t they eat the same things?

  “What’s going on? You have different ranks in your party?”

  “What are you watching us for? Naofumi, you’re becoming a bother, so please move on to the next island.”

  “Are you kidding me? Itsuki, are you all right in the head?”

  It might have made me a hypocrite to say so, but he was treating this girl, Rishia, like a slave!

  Actually, Raphtalia and I ate the same meals. Itsuki was worse than that. He
was treating her worse than a slave!

  “Master, I’m hungry!”

  “Filo! Shut up for a second!”

  She’d been overtaken by hunger watching Itsuki and his party chow down. Now all she could think about was food.

  Armor looked over at us triumphantly. He smiled and opened his mouth wide.

  “Our rank is decided upon by the amount that Master Itsuki trusts us and by how much we have contributed to the group. What is the problem with that? Should we have a nice long chat? I could tell you all about Master Itsuki’s most impressive characteristics.”

  “No thanks, I think I’ve heard enough.”

  “Well I’ll tell you anyway. When I first met Master Itsuki, he opened my eyes to justice.”

  Armor went on talking, then the rest of the party joined in. They recounted all of Itsuki’s most impressive achievements.

  I’d rather not go over the crap they said. Most of the stories involved Itsuki hiding out, and then taking down bad guys in secret. From the way they talked about him, they really did seem to think that he was the sole hero in charge of saving the world.

  It was like a religion of some kind. They were devotees of Itsuki, practitioners of Itsuki-ism.

  Finally Itsuki was watching over us all, an expression of deep satisfaction plastered over his face.

  That was it exactly—he was using them to brag about himself.

  My analysis is as follows. Itsuki was always dealing with bad people in secret. Therefore Itsuki must be a savior of justice.

  I’m pretty sure there was some kind of name for a disorder like that.

  I’d seen an old movie about it. There was a police officer in some other country who fought for justice. He became stimulated by the fight against evil. They’d named a disorder after him. It was a disorder that often affected police officers.

  I couldn’t remember what it was called, but they’d taken the name from the title of the movie. The character said that those that served evil had no right to live, and would punish all transgressions, regardless of their severity, with death. If someone tried to avoid punishment, they would be punished for that too with death.

  The actual policeman in the movie never went quite that far, but the concept remained, an indelible portrait of the psychosis.

  Anyway, I couldn’t help but bring that character to mind when I thought of Itsuki.