The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 15 Read online

  “The gauntlets are much like your shield, Hero Iwatani. It’s a Seven Star Weapon that mainly places its focus on defense,” the queen explained.

  “I see,” I replied. Among my own shields, there were small ones much like these gauntlets. Maybe there was even some overlap in the categories. That could be useful. One strength of overlapping weapons was sharing them among allies.

  Katanas, for example, fell into the sword category, so it was easy for Ren and Raphtalia to share weapons.

  “What about the Seven Star Heroes? Have they made contact?” I asked.

  “We are having trouble getting in touch with them. Faubrey is searching for them in earnest, I assure you,” the queen informed me.

  “There may be fakes out there too, pretending to be heroes. Need to be careful of them,” I warned. We’d met and dealt with just one such fake in Siltvelt. I do think we should meet with them and talk, but all due care should also be taken.

  I did want to ask about what kind of weapons they had and about power-up methods and stuff too.

  Maybe if Trash would finally confess to having the Staff—unlikely, considering who he was. Depending on the situation, it might be better to get a new Staff Hero selected.

  I mulled these things over as I watched the slaves. It was finally Atla’s turn. She touched the gauntlet and tried to pull it free . . . but nothing happened at all.

  “I couldn’t do it,” she said, quickly giving up and coming over to me. She could have tried a bit harder. “I searched it out using life force, and I found it isn’t compatible with me,” she reported.

  “You understand that much?” I asked.

  “Just a vague feeling,” she confirmed.

  “Wow.” I was impressed.

  Next was Fohl. He had a pretty determined look on his face.

  “Oh? Brother, good luck! I’m sure you can do it!” Atla suddenly cheered him on.

  “Sure thing!” With a shout, Fohl eagerly grabbed the weapon and pulled with all his might.

  “What was that all about?” I asked Atla. It was rare for her to say anything like that to her brother. If there was a reason, I wanted to hear it.

  “I felt something different in the life force, from when I tried. I was sure for a moment that my brother would do it . . . but he’s disappointed me again.”

  “Atla?!” Fohl despaired. That was mean. Building him up just to tear him down again. Oh, Fohl, your sister was just toying with you.

  These thoughts running through my head, I silently watched the rest of them try, but none of them could take it.

  Chapter Thirteen: The Night Before the Phoenix Battle

  After that, I had a meeting alone with the queen in the castle.

  I needed to report everything that had happened recently to her, hear reports from her side of things, and decide on the materials and other supplies we needed from Melromarc in order to prepare for the Phoenix battle—lots of things to do.

  “We have the Phoenix battle in the next few days and more fighting ahead. How have things been in your lands, Hero Iwatani?” the queen eventually asked.

  “I’m gathering quite a merry band,” I replied.

  The main thing I needed to be careful of was that they didn’t think they could just do anything they wanted because they were allies of the heroes. I told the queen how Itsuki’s companions had done all sorts of shady things while they were traveling with him. Just like Witch, they were now wanted criminals, but they’d vanished completely—for the moment.

  Then there were the guys who seemed to have been the Church of the Three Heroes. The ones who Motoyasu took care of. If anyone could tell me, I really wanted to know why I had so many enemies.

  I’d recently been thinking of spending some money to hire a shadow human from Zeltoble, to be honest.

  “I’ve also heard that Melty is helping to rebuild a town within your territory, the one that Count Seaetto used to manage. It sounds like a good experience for her,” the queen commented.

  “I’d say Melty is a big reason everything runs so smoothly. She’ll make a fine queen,” I replied.

  “For you to praise her so highly, Hero Iwatani, my daughter must be working really hard,” the queen said.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I responded. She’d helped a lot with Motoyasu too. In the chaotic stable filled with the willful filolials that Motoyasu raised in the wild, Melty had stepped in and helped to start training them.

  Maybe it was Motoyasu’s influence, but Filo’s Underling Filolial #1 had also started to look like a queen. I still hadn’t seen her talking though. According to Melty and Filo, aside from the three who formed Motoyasu’s direct retinue, all of the other filolials had been brought together by Underling Filolial #1 . . . whose name was Chick . . . apparently.

  I guess she had some skills after all.

  In order to fight the Phoenix, we’d also brought along the filolial army that Motoyasu raised. They were in competition with the Raph species, basically. Gaelion was going to talk with the dragons that the dragon knights rode and fought alongside them.

  Command of the demi-human therianthropes was going well, with Raphtalia, me, Fohl, and Atla acting as representatives. Werner from Siltvelt was handling business too, by all accounts.

  Then there was the Q’ten Lo contingent. Hearing that the new Heavenly Emperor Raphtalia was going to be fighting, some volunteers had expressed a desire to fight alongside her, and they’d already been added to our forces.

  The queen was responsible for leading the humans.

  Otherwise, the command structure was pretty solid.

  There were many soldiers among the Melromarc forces who had experienced the fight with the Spirit Tortoise, so they should be able to keep up.

  “Don’t you dare touch Atla!” I heard Fohl’s voice from the castle gardens. Huh? What now? He had been on standby in the garden . . . waiting for me, basically.

  Atla and Fohl weren’t suited to this kind of meeting, so I’d planned on filling them in later. It sounded like something had happened first though.

  I took a look out the window to see Fohl having to forcibly carry Atla away from Trash.

  Trash gently extended his arm forward, seeming to cut the air. Then he muttered something to Fohl before turning his back and moving away.

  Atla shook her head, while Fohl narrowed his eyes, thinking about something.

  The queen came to stand beside the window with me and watched Trash with something indescribable in her eyes.

  “I hope . . . he finds himself again—his former strength—as soon as possible,” she said. I’d expected as much. Somewhere deep inside she was still hoping that Trash would make it back to his old, intellectual self.

  “If you ask me, I think it’d be more practical to take the Seven Star Weapon from Trash and give it to someone else,” I said.

  “I am sorry about this . . . but if Trash could just return to himself, I assure you that he would be able to do ten times the things anyone else could with the Staff. Even if you order it, Hero Iwatani, I cannot have the Staff taken from him,” the queen affirmed.

  Trash was apparently the Seven Star Staff Hero. I’d never seen him holding the staff and honestly wondered if the original king was dead and this was just a doppelganger.

  Just where was he hiding the Seven Star Staff?

  “Hmmm. But we don’t have much leeway. If an enemy appears that we can’t handle, and he won’t share the hero weapon power-ups, then we’ll just have to find someone else to wield it, even if it means executing him,” I warned her.

  “I understand,” she replied. The queen was looking off into the distance but nodded at my words. I must have been imagining things, but for a moment those eyes looked just like Raphtalia’s when she was expecting something from me.

  Having finished my discussions with the queen, I headed down to talk with Fohl in the garden.

  “Master Naofumi!” Atla shouted. She was with him too, so . . .

  “Atla, I’m taking a tr
ip back to the village. Can you go and call Raphtalia and the others for me?” I asked her after lightly ruffling her hair to stop her from refusing.

  “Very well! I’ll do whatever you order me to, Master Naofumi!” With that, Atla rushed off happily. It felt like I’d started to understand how to get her to do what I wanted, recently.

  “Fohl, wait a moment,” I said. Her brother had been about to go after Atla, so I stopped him.

  “Huh? What is it?” he replied.

  “I saw you and Atla talking with Trash. What was that about?” I questioned.

  “Is there any reason I have to tell you that?” he came back, a bit aggressively.

  “Can’t you tell that he’s planning something? You know what he did to your people, right?” I fired back. Fohl quickly backed down. He had surely been told the stories when first meeting the queen. With seemingly no response to that, he started to tell me what happened.

  “He started asking Atla all sorts of probing questions. Even started asking me the same thing. Things about our mother, stuff like that,” he revealed.

  “Did you tell him anything?” I asked.

  “No, I turned him down . . . but—” Fohl’s reply was cut short for a moment, as though there was something else he couldn’t quite say. “He looked even older than before and seemed so listless.”

  “I’m not surprised,” I commented. According to what I’d been told, Trash’s younger sister had been a lot like Atla, which meant he probably empathized with Fohl.

  “After seeing us together, he stared off into the distance and told me that I have to protect my sister, no matter the cost, or that I’d regret it. I mean, talk about stating the obvious,” Fohl continued.

  “I see.” It might be obvious, sure, but Trash was definitely placing himself in Fohl’s shoes.

  I’d seen this story before.

  I didn’t want to know the details, but apparently Trash was a pretty capable fellow, back in his youth. Everyone in Siltvelt—his enemies at the time—had said the same thing. So it had the ring of truth to it, although I didn’t exactly see where it was coming from.

  Meanwhile, Atla was probably physically much stronger than Trash’s sister had been and had a personality that was a bit like hers. But also, she was a bit different. Hmmm, maybe I could taunt him a little with that next time I saw him.

  But I really wasn’t seeing much of him recently.

  Heh. I’ve not forgotten my grudge against you, Trash!

  Atla came back with Raphtalia and the others, so we returned to the village.

  “Well then. It’s pretty late. How about we all get some sleep?” I suggested.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Fohl suddenly came up and interjected. I’d finished the meeting with everyone from the village about the Phoenix battle and was about to return to my own room in the village when Atla and Fohl approached me.

  “The meaning of what, exactly?” I asked.

  “Is something the matter?” Raphtalia also asked him. It turned out that there was an issue with Atla’s placement in battle.

  “Why is Atla also on the front lines?” Fohl asked.

  “I want to be with you at all times, Master Naofumi,” she said.

  “Fohl, wouldn’t you rather be with Atla too?” I pointed out. I’d placed her there in order to keep Fohl focused on the fighting and because of Atla’s own clear combat abilities. But maybe Fohl would prefer she was away from the front, even if it meant not being as close to him.

  I guess Atla’s problem was that I’d be standing at the very front, and she didn’t like being any further back than that.

  “Atla, if that’s your issue, then you’d need to be placed at the very front,” Fohl pointed out.

  “I’m fine with that,” she replied.

  “No! You need to be further back, where it’s safer!” he objected.

  “Brother. That’d mean I hardly get to participate. Would you be fine with things if you were placed in a rear support unit?” she asked. Fohl made a noise, clearly having no reply.

  “Come on, don’t get beaten that easily,” I chided him.

  “Master Naofumi, I’ve told you before, haven’t I? I want to become a shield to protect you,” Atla stated.

  “I mean . . .” Was she looking to steal my job or something?

  Not to mention that would only rile up Fohl even further.

  “I’ll let you stay a little behind me then, but it would be meaningless for you to stand any further forward than that. Even Raphtalia understands that much, right?” I asked, looking for some backup.

  “That’s right.” Raphtalia nodded at my words. There would be a time to push forward, and I needed to make that decision. She talked about protecting me, but look at what we were going to be fighting. I needed her to be a little more prudent.

  “Very well,” she said, giving a bit of a stubborn nod. “Even so, I still want to protect you, Master Naofumi.”

  “I’ve been wondering this for a while now. Why are you so fixated on protecting Mr. Naofumi, Atla?” Raphtalia asked.

  “I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Fohl concurred. “Why do you want to protect this guy, of all people?”

  “Raphtalia, brother, don’t you understand?” she asked, lifting her eyebrows as though annoyed by the very question. “I don’t want to rely on Master Naofumi’s kindness forever. Just seeing him step in front of us, get hurt in place of one of us, makes my heart ache in my chest,” she explained.

  I felt like pointing out she was denying the entire point of me in combat, but on some level her words also reached me. It wasn’t a bad feeling; I could say that much. Even if it ran contrary to the abilities of the Shield Hero.

  “Do you think I’m joking? The person I want to stand alongside isn’t the hero, but just the man, Master Naofumi.” Not the hero, she said. I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I guessed that was Atla’s take on things.

  “What are you talking about?!” Raphtalia was less receptive to the idea.

  “Great question! Atla, you can do far better than this guy!” Fohl put the boot in. Hold on though. It did sound a bit like a profession of love. I hadn’t realized that was what was going on here. She’d said similar things before, but I’d really just let them slide.

  “Master Naofumi,” she said to me directly.

  “What?” I tried not to be too blunt.

  “I’m drawn to your fundamental kindness. Please try not to risk your very life just to protect the rest of us,” Atla pleaded. All I could do was defend, and here she was asking this of me.

  “Haha, yes, yes. Well, thank you. I do understand what you’re trying to say, but I’m a crafty one, I’m afraid. You see, I’m just getting you guys to do what I can’t do myself,” I explained.

  “So tell me, Master Naofumi, if you could fight the enemies for yourself, where would you be on the battlefield?” Atla asked. Hmmm. If I could fight normally, what would I be doing?

  An interesting question . . . but I’d still be standing at the front.

  I wasn’t sure I’d place any trust in these slaves. When I’d first been framed, if I had any attack power myself, I probably would have raised my level alone without buying a single one of them.

  “Master Naofumi, I ask this one thing of you. Don’t take it for granted that you have to get hurt. Your true nature, Master Naofumi, is how much you give to others . . . and as you continue to give so much of yourself, who will heal you? Who will give back to you?” Atla asked, turning to look at Raphtalia.

  “I agree with what you clearly want for Mr. Naofumi, Atla. But you’re forgetting something. Mr. Naofumi himself also has a say in all this,” Raphtalia told her. At those words, Atla bit her lip in annoyance.

  I wasn’t sure what was making her do that.

  “Master Naofumi . . . if someone were to lose their life in the coming battle, I don’t want you to ever blame yourself, thinking you were unable to protect them,” Atla told me. Her intent was so infused in those words I could
n’t have ignored them even if I’d wanted to.

  Atla was making clear both the feelings of the protector and the feelings of the protected.

  “Those who do nothing but receive from others become something less, something corrupted. They just sink further into corruption. That feeling of slipping away, without even understanding that it’s happening . . . I never want to feel that again,” Atla said.

  “I understand,” I managed. She wasn’t wrong. Many people had died in the previous fighting and the time before that, and before that. I’d tried to save as many as I could but wouldn’t deny my failings.

  That said though, corruption could happen in other ways. For example, like Atla was doing now, affirming everything that I did. Praising everything someone did as incredible, so incredible, caused the same issue in a different way. It made them think they could do anything they like. I thought Kyo was maybe one who had become corrupted by such an environment. He had apparently started out as a genius, but look at how he’d ended up.

  “Brother. I’m no longer someone who just receives, who just takes from you. I’m going to be like you and Master Naofumi and defend everyone,” Atla stated.

  “Atla, what do you mean?” Fohl asked.

  “Brother, I know what you’re thinking. So long as I’m safe, it doesn’t matter what happens to anyone else, right?” Atla said. Fohl gave a surprised gasp. I mean, there was certainly a feeling that Fohl didn’t really care about anyone other than Atla. “I don’t want to see any more of that from you, brother, although . . . I’m not sure it’s my place to say that. Well, goodnight.” With a slightly sad expression on her face, Atla left.

  “I’m only thinking of Atla? So the real reason I get so irritated by her fixation with this guy . . .” Fohl trailed off in thought.

  “What?” I waved my hand at the stunned Fohl. He snapped back to himself with a pretty pissed off expression and then left, just like his sister.

  I was never going to understand either of them.

  “Dependence on Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia seemed to be deep in thought about something too. Was this really an issue that required so much thought?