The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 14 Page 16

  “There was a dragon hourglass in the old city. Knowing you’ve still got a lot of work to do, I had him close the shop at home and brought him here,” I told the old guy.

  “That makes me worry a little about Melromarc, but that’s definitely a big help,” he said.

  “Geh! Now Tolly too?” Motoyasu II looked first at Imiya’s uncle and then glared at me. “You fiend! How much pressure are you putting on me?”

  “Just shut up and keep working. You can have your fun once you’ve taught the old guy and Imiya’s uncle all of your techniques!”

  “Shut it! I had a splitting headache that lasted three days, thanks to you!” he bellowed.

  “Don’t look at me. You ordered those drinks,” I snapped. I only made the, shall we say, adjustments.

  “It’s been tough watching master and making sure he doesn’t run off,” the old guy commented, crossing his arms. “With Tolly here that should get easier.”

  “Well, okay. I’ll do my best,” Imiya’s uncle said, looking like the responsibility was maybe a bit much for him—a reaction very much like his niece would have given in the same situation.

  “Oh, and those Spirit Tortoise materials you were asking about, old guy? I made the arrangements, so just say the word.”

  “Great! That’s a big help. If my master and I work on them together, I’m sure we’ll be able to make some great new gear!”

  “Damn your eyes, all of you! Very well, Tolly! I’m going to hammer you into shape, so I expect a cut of your profits later!” he growled. What crazy conditions. He was training two students, so he expected to see a return? Well, bad luck, pervert. Any profits created by Imiya’s uncle would be coming to me. Nothing for you, old goat!

  “Ah, something else. I brought Ren along too, the Sword Hero,” I announced.

  “Huh? Is this the moment you introduce me?” Ren spoke up, having quietly listened to us until that point.

  “Yes. We’ve got a sword that looks pretty good. I was thinking of having you copy it, Ren,” I told him.

  “It’s still being purified. I’ve no idea what will happen if you lay your grubby fingers on it,” Motoyasu II growled and pointed to the weapon hanging on the wall in a corner of the room. “Even with the facilities here, this is going to take a bit more time.”

  “A sword? Interesting. It does have an incredible energy. Like, I feel the sword . . . throbbing, I might say.” As he spoke, Ren placed his hand on the hilt of his own sword.

  “Ah? Interested in weapon-making, are you?” Motoyasu II spat.

  “Ah, well. A little. I do like to collect fine weapons.”

  “Hmmm. You’ve got a woman-repelling aura about you, much preferable to that Shield moron. I think we’re going to get on. Very well. Maybe I’ll teach you a few things, if you’ll help me escape later,” he went on. Seriously, he had some stones. Saying stuff like that right in front of my face!

  “S-sure, that sounds good. My name is Ren Amaki.” What the hell was Ren smiling for? He’d been roundly mocked! “Woman-repelling” was not a compliment!

  “Enough of this, anyway. Ren, you just keep an eye on that old perv,” I commanded.

  “Very well.” He nodded. With that, I left Ren at the workshop.

  “My sword! Noooo!” Motoyasu II’s cries rang out the moment after we left.

  “I’m s-sorry! I completely forgot. My curse makes things I touch degrade!” The damage was one sakura stone of destiny sword. It wasn’t going to be easy to get Ren to copy any weapons. I promptly ordered him to head to the hot springs as soon as possible in order to fully recover from the curse.

  Chapter Twelve: Past and Present

  A few days had passed since the occupation of the old city.

  In order to expose Raphtalia’s appeal to as many as possible, we were showing her off around the city, dressed in her miko outfit. Having already captured two-thirds of Q’ten Lo, the country now basically belonged to us. And in the eastern city representatives of each race from across the nation were turning against the Heavenly Emperor and choosing to join our forces.

  Atla and her party had been stamping out fires too, extinguishing much of the drama caused by the Heavenly Emperor’s forces. While it seemed that the opposing water dragon’s miko priestess had apparently given orders to end the terrorist-style attacks, many of those on her side were not paying much attention.

  The main suspects, of course, were the underlings of the poisonous power behind the throne. She had to be quite the imbecile herself to believe that was all it would take to defeat us.

  Honestly, I’d started hoping that the water dragon’s miko priestess would quickly switch to our side and just end this. The standing Heavenly Emperor was getting quite the reputation for trickery and deceit, and the more damage those tactics did, the more people turned to Raphtalia.

  On the other battlefields after taking the old city, Ren and Itsuki had taken an advance force and marched on the eastern capital—but all the village and towns along their route had capitulated without bloodshed.

  The water dragon’s miko priestess, who had fled in the face of the enemy, had been taken back to the city in the east. The sakura destiny spheres deployed by any who did resist were, as we had expected, canceled out by the sakura destiny spheres placed by Raphtalia, who now could do that since she underwent the rite of succession.

  With that shift in the balance of power, the Heavenly Emperor’s forces couldn’t touch Ren, Itsuki, or Sadeena. Atla and her party were continuing to put down any resistance that occurred behind us. Atla was working well with the forces coming in from Siltvelt, and the suppression was apparently proceeding apace. Ren had been quite complimentary about the techniques possessed by this nation, but now it was possible to just muscle through on the basis of our superior stats. Sorry, did you say civil war? What civil war? That was basically the point we were reaching.

  In all honesty, it almost looked like we could just end the Q’ten Lo invasion and return home, but I was yet to achieve my goal of punishing those who had started all this.

  “Mr. Naofumi.”

  “Hmmm?” Raphtalia appeared during a moment of downtime in planning our operations. Sadeena and most anyone else who could fight were away on the front lines. I was going to join them tomorrow. S’yne was posted in front of my room as I took a break. She’d completely become my bodyguard. Tomorrow we were going to take Filo, who was waiting on standby. With her speed, so long as we didn’t meet any enemies, we’d reach the eastern capital in a single day.

  We were getting pretty close.

  “What direction is the operation going to take?” she asked.

  “For a start, we need to secure the opposing Heavenly Emperor. He needs to be punished, of course, and if we don’t completely extract the festering pus at the heart of this nation, we’re just going to end up repeating all of this again,” I said. According to our incoming information, the current Heavenly Emperor was simply being used. He’d been raised up without even realizing it, and the real ones pulling the strings were those around him.

  “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right.”

  “Exactly. That said, I think learning about your origins, Raphtalia, has been one good thing about all this.”

  “I’m not really bothered about all that. I’m happy to learn about my father and mother, but I’m still just myself. Raphtalia from Lurolona, that’s all I need to be.” I looked at Raphtalia’s face. She clearly had complex feelings about this whole queen business. Once we saved the world, and once I’d gone home, which path would Raphtalia choose? By some measure, it looked like the results were already in.

  “Sure, Raphtalia, but still. It’s a fact that the political situation in Q’ten Lo is unstable. If you choose to hide yourself away, a large number of people are going to lose their guiding light.”

  “I know.”

  “I understand you don’t want to accept this burden. Until you can step aside, then, it’s about how much we can settle things down her
e, or who we can leave it all to.”

  “Yes—you’re right.” Not exactly convinced but having no choice anyway—that was the kind of nod Raphtalia gave. We did have options though, all sorts of them. We could open the borders and merge with Siltvelt, even! I was sure that side of things would work out.

  “Rafu.”

  “Master, is the meeting finished?” Raph-chan and Filo said as they poked their heads into the room.

  “Not yet. Working the details out between all these races isn’t easy. Everyone is so concerned about saving face. Seriously, I wish we could just cut these guys loose!” It was all such a pain, the politics so corrupt, I wanted to toss it all over to Siltvelt, seriously. It was no better than Melromarc. Talk about power corrupting completely.

  That said, there were also some promising individuals—but spotting them wasn’t easy either. I also had to keep an eye on those who had flipped to our side. Just in case.

  Still, in either case, we couldn’t count out the pressure from Siltvelt. They knew how to pile it on. The authority of the Shield Hero was pretty easy to use. A big factor was also using Raphtalia’s Return Dragon Vein to use the dragon hourglass to bring in some of Siltvelt’s best. Rumors were spreading of the returned Heavenly Emperor calling forth an infinite army of warriors, just like a real god.

  With this rapid accumulation of forces on our side, it really didn’t take that long for us to march on the eastern capital.

  Around the time the eastern capital came into view. A messenger was sent forth, exactly like at the old city.

  “We’ve got another request for a battle between representatives,” a reporting officer announced.

  “Is there any need to give them the time of day?” I retorted. We had them on the ropes, surely. There were a settlement and large town to the north of the eastern capital; maybe they planned on running away up there?

  That said, the opposing water dragon’s miko priestess seemed to have quite a keen sense of duty, so I was almost thinking of taking her up on the offer.

  “If the Heavenly Emperor’s forces should win, then so long as we retreat, they promise not to press the attack. That note is included, swearing to stand by these promises as a general—and as a miko priestess of Q’ten Lo,” the officer reported. There was indeed a note, written with some kind of letters and symbols. Hmmm, had I seen that writing before somewhere?

  “Oh my, they look serious this time. Are they planning on buying some time, perhaps?” Sadeena commented.

  “Looks that way,” Raluva agreed.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “That symbol there is like a promise, made as the representative of the race, the defender of the town. If you break it, it means throwing mud on the deepest trust. It’s not just one’s house, or one’s clan, but on the level of not being able to live in Q’ten Lo at all.” So a promise that absolutely could not be broken. It sounded as serious as a slave seal.

  That said, this was the idiotic Heavenly Emperor’s forces who had been breaking the seals on monsters sealed away since ancient times, so wasn’t it just the teensiest bit hard to trust them?

  “They have also designated our representative, however. The previous water dragon’s miko priestess. What shall you say?” the officer finished. We all looked at Sadeena.

  “Oh my. Me?” Sadeena exclaimed.

  “Yes. It seems the present water dragon’s miko priestess really wants to fight you. If we agree to this fight, she is even willing to wait a few more days,” he explained.

  “So what? We’ve no obligation to accept this. I don’t see any reason to take part in an operation that will just let the enemy general run,” I snorted.

  “Then we reject the proposal and attack?”

  “Not sure about that either.” Unable to make a choice, I was deep in thought—

  “Huh!?” Filo looked up at the sky. A sudden wind was blowing up, causing a tornado that passed right in front of our forces. It was a pretty dense little twister.

  “That’s some powerful magic. The raw power is making my skin tingle.”

  “It’s the ritual magic Great Tornado. Being able to perform magic of this quality, they’ve got someone with real skill leading them. We won’t be able to take them with a rapidly formed force.”

  “I still think we can break through their lines.” So what was this? Some kind of warning? Hmmm. Honestly speaking, we had no obligation to listen to them. I could only make the decision based on the rumors we had heard so far—and that tornado pushed my impression in a pretty negative direction.

  Still, it could be considered a better proposal than pointless bloodshed.

  “What happens if we win?” I asked.

  “The water dragon’s miko priestess will surrender without resistance.”

  “And the Heavenly Emperor? Are they going to surrender too?” The reporting officer shook his head in reply. Of course not. So this was hardly a discussion—and yet she had proven good to her word once already. This was starting to feel like a general simply suffering under a stupid ruler. Taking her up on the offer might not be a bad idea.

  “Little Naofumi, I’m happy to do this,” Sadeena offered.

  “She’s your kid sister, right? You sure?”

  “She’s also an opponent I clearly have to overcome, and as the previous miko I have a responsibility to show the present miko exactly how strong I am.”

  “I see.” It looked like Sadeena wanted the fight, so why not accept?

  “Very well. Spectators can at least attend, I presume?”

  “Yes. However—” The reporting officer turned his gaze to Raphtalia. Yeah, good point. It might be safer if Raphtalia didn’t go.

  “Mr. Naofumi—” Raphtalia really looked like she wanted to go along. Honestly, she was safer at my side anyway. If I deployed Shooting Star Shield, we could deal with any sudden assassination attempts too.

  “It’ll be fine. I, as Shield Hero, will be there to protect her.”

  “Thank you!” Raphtalia was very happy to hear she got to go. Honestly, I would be more scared to have her away from me.

  “Rafu.”

  “I’m coming tooooo!” Filo sounded a bit too cheerful.

  “Nhh—” S’yne had her hand up too. She didn’t want to leave my side. We were well beyond a second, third, or fourth by now. A full crowd was going along.

  “Very well, all of you. Just stay alert.”

  With that, then, we set out to where the present water dragon’s miko priestess was waiting to engage her sister in battle.

  Maybe battlefields during Japan’s warring states period were like this? Just an idle thought as we proceeded as the representatives of the revolutionaries. It looked like the miko and others from the idiot Heavenly Emperor’s side were coming toward us.

  In the middle of the territory between the two forces, there were people—well, a number of soldiers—and then a killer whale therianthrope holding a katana and waiting.

  So she was a katana user.

  Perhaps matching her opponent’s style, Sadeena also went therianthrope and closed in. I turned my attention to the opposing miko.

  She was a little shorter than Sadeena and looked well-rounded in places. When I compared them, they had different colors too. Of course, their clothing was totally different. Sadeena favored a waistcoat and loincloth-like fold while her counterpart had a heavy vest, holder, and baggy pants. How was I telling the difference between a waistcoat and vest? Just the atmosphere. Considering the newcomer the second-player color . . . was too video-gamey a way to look at it.

  Also, she had some kind of pattern of red tattoos across her body. She looked a bit more like a shaman than Sadeena, perhaps. There was a different atmosphere about her compared to Zodia too, but I still couldn’t tell for sure if it was her or not.

  I was about to say something, and then Sadeena took a step forward. If she didn’t notice me at this distance, anyway, she was surely someone else. Such a string of ridiculous coincidences coul
dn’t continue forever.

  “You are my sister?” Sadeena asked. No reply. The killer whale therianthrope representative gave a wordless nod, then took a bottle from her vest pocket and drank it down. What was she doing, some kind of doping?

  After finishing the bottle, she took out another and threw it to Sadeena, who took off the lid and sniffed the liquid.

  “Oh, I know that aroma. A local brew!” she said. Okay, this wasn’t just a gift of wine, right?

  “Now our conditions are the same, Sadeena! I’m going to prove myself superior to you, once and for all!” the opponent shouted.

  “If you’re an oracle, I’d say that makes you superior.”

  “You are joking! Do you have any idea the extent to which I’ve been compared to you?” Her animosity was like a palpable wave.

  “No idea at all. It isn’t like I was rated that highly myself.”

  “You have no idea how this nation suffered without you, do you?! Don’t you understand how feared you were? What a monster you were considered?” So Sadeena’s departure had negatively impacted stability in the region. I took a look at the troops arrayed behind her opponent, and it backed up this story. They weren’t taking any chances against Sadeena. It was quite the number of troops.

  “You shouldn’t believe all the rumors,” Sadeena quipped.

  “But there were so many of them! Now just imagine being forced to follow in the footsteps of the one who created them all!” Wow, she was really holding a grudge. I guess this was one possible family scenario. In my case, my younger brother was the golden child, so things were a bit different.

  “I did feel bad about that. Even after I found out, I didn’t expect those two to try this hard to make a replacement for me,” Sadeena explained.