The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 11 Page 17

  “Rafu! Rafu rafu!”

  Being a familiar, Raph-chan was able to send Raphtalia a distress signal if needed. Since Raphtalia was one of the more capable fighters among us, I wanted her to be able to move around freely. Raph-chan seemed eager to help out, too. Sure, if I ran into any monsters I might have trouble killing them, but fleeing would be no problem. It wasn’t like there was a rule that said I had to stand my ground and fight any monsters or attackers that appeared. Worse comes to worst, I was sure S’yne would come if I called for her.

  “That makes sense. Got it. Let’s go, then,” said Eclair.

  “Understood.”

  Raphtalia seemed convinced when Eclair agreed.

  “Atla, I’m counting on your heightened senses. Go find me a bandit hideout.”

  “Leave it to me! Come, Brother! Let’s go!”

  “Ugh . . .”

  Fohl was acting bitter toward me like usual, but his sister dragged him off and they began their search.

  “We’ll be back in a while, then,” said Rishia.

  “See you laaater, Master!”

  Rishia seemed calm as she and Filo left to begin their search.

  “Now then . . .”

  Raph-chan and I started looking for the bandits and their hideouts, too. It wasn’t like the bandits were going to be able to injure me, even if they took me by surprise. This was an easy mission for me. I was just walking down the mountain path enjoying a leisurely stroll, playing with Raph-chan.

  “Rafuuuuu!”

  Raph-chan shrieked and pointed her finger as if trying to warn me about something. What was it? I turned around, but no one was there. But then, all of a sudden, a dark shadow appeared in front of me, so I instinctively raised my shield.

  “Assassinating Sword!”

  “What?!”

  Sparks flew from my shield. The weight of the impact made it clear that it had been a powerful and determined attack. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would have survived such an attack.

  “What’s the big idea, all of a sudden?!”

  I swung my shield and tossed the ambusher off to the side. I took a quick glance at the person who had tried to stab me.

  “Fight me fair and square!” he shouted.

  “Wha . . .”

  Even I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stood there looking at the attacker, speechless. The attacker’s face was hidden behind a shady-looking black mask made to look like some kind of skull. But based on his build, voice, and the way he held his weapon, I already knew exactly what his face looked like. It was Ren Amaki. The Sword Hero readied himself, with a sinister, jet-black sword gripped tightly in his hands.

  “Hmph!”

  It might have been my imagination, but his equipment seemed even shabbier than before. From what I could see through the openings in his mask, he had a gloomy expression and something about his eyes just seemed off. No, I may not have been one to talk, but it was well beyond off. His pupils were dilated like his mind had snapped or something.

  “R . . . Ren?!”

  “Hide . . . Sword!”

  Ren began to shimmer like a mirage and then disappeared. What the hell? Had he cast some kind of illusion magic on me that was making me see things? Either way, the fact that he was using a skill with “hide” in the name was plenty suspicious, so I prepared myself for combat.

  “Rafu!”

  Rafu was telling me where he was. What was that about fighting fair and square, in the first place? He’d attacked me from behind suddenly and then used a skill to make himself disappear. Just what kind of mental state was Ren in? Was “fair and square” supposed to be according to some game’s fighting system? Either way, there was something oddly ambitionless about the way he spoke. But whatever, I needed to focus on the enemy right now.

  “Hate Reaction!”

  This skill attracted monsters, but I’d figured out that it actually had an additional hidden effect while we were at the Cal Mira islands. That was, it drew out and exposed enemies that were using simple concealment magic or skills to hide themselves. We’d noticed the effect when I’d used Hate Reaction at the same time Raphtalia used her Illusion Blade skill. The concealment effect of her skill was canceled out. So when something or someone was hiding, I could use the skill to find them.

  I guess Ren had been trying to circle back around behind me again, because he was right in the middle of moving toward my rear left. His stupidity was really kind of silly, but that only pissed me off more. If he was going to use a skill that lame, he should have taken the chance to withdraw temporarily. That probably wouldn’t have worked against Raph-chan or Raphtalia.

  “Damn . . .”

  “Ren . . . It’s you, right? What’s going on?”

  “. . .”

  It would have been nice if this were only an illusion, but . . . I never imagined he would be hiding out here. Could it be that Witch was the bandit chief? That would have suited her perfectly. She certainly wasn’t the princess type. Something like a pirate or a bandit was definitely a better fit.

  “Maneater! Shooting Star Sword!”

  Ren swung his sword at me using the same motion he used for Shooting Star Sword. A cloud of black particles that twinkled like stars shot out from the tip of his sword and rushed toward me. I held my shield out and blocked the attack. It hadn’t been that strong, so I was able to block it with no problem. Ren was weak, like usual. I wished he would hurry up and use the power-up methods already.

  I’d left myself open while thinking about how weak Ren was and he didn’t pass up the chance to attack.

  “Chain Bind! Chain Needle!”

  Ugh . . . My shield withstood the attacks, but I felt a slight dull pain run up my arm. I had Raph-chan to protect, so that was close. Ren continued straight into the next skill.

  “ Let this foolish sinner pay for his transgressions with an execution by beheading! With nary the time to scream, let his own head be separated from his torso and then he shall know despair! ”

  “Guillotine!”

  Chains suddenly shot up from out of the ground and wrapped around my body before transforming into something like barbed wire and piercing my skin. Then an instrument of execution appeared from out of nowhere with a massive blade suspended above my head.

  This attack . . . Judging from the look of it, the skill was the same type of attack as the Iron Maiden skill on my Shield of Rage. Damn it! There was no way I was going to eat that!

  “Not happening!”

  I tore the chains off and stopped the falling blade with my hand. Damn, that hurt! I could see blood. Had Ren finally broken through my defense? It was a bit depressing that he had done it with a skill instead of using the power-up methods I’d shared with him. My SP tanked.

  “Ren . . . quit messing around. You better stop this fight before I really get mad.”

  “Mr. Naofumi!”

  Raphtalia had heard Raph-chan’s warning and came running. She turned to Ren and swung her katana at him. Good! Keep him occupied!

  “Transport Sword!”

  “Ah! You bastard! Don’t run!”

  Before I could grab him, Ren used his teleportation skill as he leapt away and disappeared. What the hell was that? Was it a monster or some other person pretending to be Ren? But the attacker had broken through my defense and that meant he was a real force to be reckoned with. The only other way that might happen is if someone could use defense ignoring or defense rating attacks like the old lady.

  The attacker had started off hidden and used a skill called Assassinating Sword. Judging from the name and the skill itself, it must have been a finishing move that had to be used while concealed, in stealth mode, or hiding somehow. There were similar moves in some games. In terms of classes, the skill would be used by something like an assassin, ninja, or scout rather than the more orthodox warrior or knight. That wasn’t at all like the Ren I knew. And he’d been using a sinister sword that screamed curse series.

  But . . . a sudden ambush . . . Was he tr
ying to be a player killer like in an online game or something? Don’t tell me Ren was the bandit chief . . . His behavior matched up exactly with what we already knew about how the chief operated. Well, I guess he had come from playing some weird VRMMO game, after all. And to top it all off, he had used an attack that screamed curse skill. If it had been anyone other than me, not only would they have died instantly, but they’d have been sliced clean in half. If Raph-chan hadn’t warned me, I might have been taken out from behind with that first attack. The thought of it made me nauseous.

  “Are you okay?” asked Raphtalia.

  “Yeah . . . but . . .”

  “Unbelievable. I saw it, too.”

  Eclair came running up, seething with anger.

  “What in the world is he thinking?” she snapped.

  I cast some healing magic to heal my wounds. Oh, and by the way, that Guillotine skill hurt like a bitch thanks to the curse effects I was suffering from. Plus, my wounds took longer to heal now. It had only been thirty minutes since we started our search for the bandits, and I already had a really bad feeling about how this mission was going to turn out.

  We ended up finding the bandits’ hideout, but we didn’t find Ren. That meant he was using a cowardly strategy of only fighting people when they were alone, just like we’d heard.

  “Alright then . . . What should we do now?” I wondered out loud.

  “To think that the Sword Hero is the bandit chief . . .” mumbled Eclair.

  “It’s safe to assume that Witch is behind this.”

  “The former princess? Just how long does she plan to act so foolishly?”

  Witch hadn’t been in the hideout, either. She was probably staying low somewhere else. I guess I’d start by getting the bandits to spill . . . hmm?

  “Umm . . .”

  I approached one of the bandits that had been in charge of the hideout and looked at his face more closely. I’d seen this guy before. And recently, too. Wait, wasn’t he one of the bandits that Ren had captured? What was he doing here?

  “Hey . . . Didn’t you get captured?”

  He was one of the bandits that was always there when I used Filo to threaten them. He’d been acting real tough when we first showed up at the hideout, but his legs started shaking and he started looking around nervously as soon as he saw me. So I’d pointed over to Filo.

  “Ra! Fu! Fu!”

  Raph-chan had an evil grin on her face. I just loved how she always played along so well. Raphtalia could’ve learned a thing or two from her.

  “Alright, Filo, eat—”

  “I surrender!”

  The bandit had given up immediately, and that’s how we’d ended up here. Like always, the other bandits had started calling our bandit friend names like “scaredy-cat.” Of course, I swiftly put them in their place.

  “Why are you on familiar terms with a bandit, Mr. Iwatani?” Eclair asked.

  “We seem to be stuck in an unfortunate relationship. Our first encounter was before I’d cleared my name. I couldn’t take his group of bandits to the vigilante corps, so I stole their loot. Then we ran into each other again during the whole Melty abduction mess and I used his hideout as lodging.”

  “So you couldn’t really capture him even if you had wanted to.”

  “Pretty much. After that, I saw him again around a week ago when he’d been captured by Ren, and now this makes the fourth time.”

  “And why is he here now?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to ask him.”

  My subordinates swiftly took care of any bandits that still had some fight in them. There were more of us this time, so things were going really smoothly.

  “Who are these people?! They’re monsters!”

  “Exactly! These monsters are just as strong . . . no, they’re even stronger than the chief!”

  “Complimenting us isn’t going to get you anything. In fact, pay up.”

  “What are you charging him for?!”

  Raphtalia was really on top of her straight man game. I was starting to feel like this was a comedy sketch.

  “Ugh . . .”

  “Anyway, we turned you guys in, so what are you doing here being bandits?”

  When I thought about it, nothing about this guy made sense. He should’ve been behind bars in some prison or something by now.

  “That’s right. What happened?” asked Raphtalia.

  “When we were being transported, our carriage was ambushed by a bandit and we got away.”

  “Hmm . . .”

  What a mess. The carriage was ambushed while they were being transported . . . Did that mean a friend had rescued them or something? The security measures in this country were surprisingly lax. I should probably have a word with the queen about that.

  “It was the chief.”

  “Reeeeennnnn!”

  I screamed out unintentionally. That idiot! What the hell was he doing rescuing bandits?! Even worse, he’d rescued the very bandits that he had captured! What was he thinking?! Was this like that sockpuppeting thing I’d heard about online? No, I guess that was different.

  Raphtalia sighed.

  “What in the world is he thinking?”

  Her voice was filled with exasperation. I felt the same way. Even Eclair had been thrown off balance by the bandit’s reply.

  “And when was this?” I asked.

  “Umm . . . Around a week ago.”

  That meant it was only shortly after Ren had fled. Had Witch lured Ren in and then immediately organized the gang of bandits?

  “I see. In that case, the mastermind . . . probably isn’t Ren. Did the chief have a skanky redhead chick with him?”

  Raphtalia sighed.

  “I could say a thing or two about your choice of description, Mr. Naofumi, but I can’t deny that it does sum her up well.”

  “Chick? The chief is always by himself.”

  “Yeah, I guess he is always alone. He even kept his distance from his party members,” I said.

  In online gaming terms, Ren was what you would call a solo player.

  “I don’t know why, but I’m starting to feel sorry for him.”

  Ren was so pathetically alone that even Raphtalia felt bad for him. But Witch was probably still with him for the moment. Anyway, it didn’t seem like the bandits were trying to hide Witch or anything. As far as I could tell, they really didn’t know anything and hadn’t seen her. Did that mean Witch wasn’t with Ren anymore?

  Actually, I noticed that his equipment seemed really beaten up. I’m sure he had plenty of money since he was robbing adventurers. It wasn’t like he’d be selling his better equipment to make ends meet or anything. Maybe he was giving all the money to Witch to fund her extravagant lifestyle or something. Nah . . . That didn’t seem too likely, judging by how much loot the bandits had piled up here.

  “What in the world are they trying to accomplish, I wonder,” mumbled Raphtalia.

  Was Witch pulling the strings from behind the curtain, or had she already abandoned Ren? I guess we could wait until we caught him to find that out. Now that he had appeared, we needed to make capturing Ren our top priority.

  “Ren was using a sword that I’m guessing is part of a curse series. Confronting him could be dangerous, so we need to be careful.”

  “I noticed,” said Raphtalia.

  “But assuming it’s cursed, I wonder what the curse is.”

  Based on the types of skills he was using and how powerful they were, I had no doubt it belonged to a curse series. If figuring out the details could help us predict his behavior, it was worth giving it some thought. The question was: what was the curse?

  We already knew there was wrath . . . Assuming there were other curses, they might correspond with the seven deadly sins or something similar. But the skill Ren had used was . . . Guillotine. It was similar to my skill in that it used an instrument of torture or execution, but it still wasn’t the same skill. If there were different curse series, then it would make sense that the weapon
s would have different effects.

  “My Shield of Wrath . . . Well, originally it was called the Shield of Rage, but either way I’m guessing the naming comes from the seven deadly sins. Does that concept exist in this world?”

  Raphtalia was from a rural area, so it was probably better to ask Eclair about something like this.

  “Yes, I’ve heard about a similar concept of sins existing in records of legends left by previous heroes.”

  Some previous hero that had been from another world like I was had probably introduced the concept. After all, the heroes that were summoned from other worlds were probably the kind of people who liked that kind of thing.

  “Let’s make sure we’re talking about the same seven deadly sins. There’s pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, right?”

  Eclair nodded in response to my question.

  “Those are the ones.”

  My curse series had been unlocked by the anger, or the wrath, that I had felt toward Witch, Trash, and everyone else in this world. As for Ren . . . We could probably rule lust out. The remaining sins all seemed possible, so there was no way to tell which it might have been.

  “Anyway, I wonder why we haven’t heard any talk of the bandit chief being the Sword Hero.”

  “Maybe it’s because he’s been wearing a mask,” suggested Raphtalia.

  “I guess that could explain it.”

  If he changed his sword, they wouldn’t know he was a hero. The Sword Hero running a gang of bandits . . . I guess any rumor that sounded that crazy would have been snuffed out before it ever made it to us.

  “Did none of the bandits recognize the Sword Hero’s voice?” I asked the bandit.

  “We were threatened and told we’d be killed if we said anything. We kept quiet because he would have killed us!”

  Ah, yeah, Ren was really secretive. That was probably why he was trying to hide his face with a mask, too.

  “Honestly, getting captured like this is a relief. I’m just glad it’s finally over.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  What in the world was Ren thinking? I mulled it over while we tied up the bandits and proceeded to steal their loot.

  “Good grief, are all the heroes like this?”