The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 06 Page 2

The battle was one of attrition and ended with their retreat. I don’t know who would have won if we had continued to fight.

  So we survived another wave, but the mystery at the core of the phenomenon had only grown deeper.

  When L’Arc and Therese retreated, they disappeared into the dimensional rifts that occurred during the wave. I tried to follow them, but we were too late.

  What were the waves?

  When I first arrived in this world, I thought they were a phenomenon where endless waves of monsters poured from dimensional rifts. But after listening to the things L’Arc and Glass had said, I wasn’t so sure they were a natural phenomenon anymore.

  They had to be something else. L’Arc and the others had made it clear that their end goal was specifically to kill the heroes.

  “There’s no point in worrying about it. Let’s go kill some time at the market.”

  “Good idea.”

  We were stuck on Cal Mira for the time being.

  The storm at sea would calm down eventually.

  The massive monster boss we’d defeated out at sea had already been hauled back to the island.

  The monster was an Inter-Dimensional Whale.

  The thing was so massive that I wasn’t going to be able to use any of it for materials until the villagers on the island managed to break it down a bit—and apparently that was going to take a while.

  “Look, Mr. Naofumi, they’re selling accessories.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  I looked over at the shop she was indicating and could hardly believe my eyes.

  “What the hell?!”

  The prices were absurd. I get that merchants want to get what they can from their customers, but there have to be some standards! I glared at the shopkeeper.

  Had he set the prices up to say . . . double the market value, I could have overlooked that. You have to expect that sort of thing in tourist areas. But did he really think he was going to get away with charging four times the market value?

  “Hey.”

  “Yes, yes! Step right up! What can I do for you?”

  “Don’t you think your prices are a little high?”

  I pointed to a necklace hanging from a rack behind him.

  Dummy Sapphire Necklace (Magic +)

  quality: poor (concealment) normal

  Had we been in Melromarc, every one of his items would be considered terrible in their price class.

  The guy had even used concealment magic on his items to hide their inferiority. If you didn’t look closely, you would have thought they were pretty good.

  But the prices were set so high that he was charging prices higher than even the most expertly crafted accessories could command. Four times higher. I’m all for getting what you can out of customers, but there has to be a limit.

  I looked over his other accessories to make sure that his pricing was consistently crazy—it was.

  He could scam people if he really wanted to, but I wished he would do a better job of it.

  “Please understand. The prices are the result of our isolation. These islands are very far from the main continent, so the prices need to be a little higher to pay for their shipment.”

  “A little higher? Is that why you’ve used concealment magic on them?”

  “Well, this is a business. Importing the materials costs me quite a lot.”

  I didn’t like the look on his face. He was going to try and play innocent.

  He thought I was just another complaining customer, and he waved his hand to send me away.

  I could have called for the queen. Or I could have used my hero status to give him a lecture. But I decided to talk to him as a fellow businessman instead.

  “Have you ever heard of this guy?”

  I flashed the accessory dealer certificate that I had.

  It was a real certificate. I’d received it through some connections I’d made when I was pretending to be the holy saint of the bird god.

  The guy that had given it to me was very well established in the community—a famous man. His seal of approval had an impressive effect on everyone I showed it to.

  The dealer immediately reacted to the paper. He twitched, a wince of sorts. Then he took it and carefully read it, pouring over all the minute details. As he did, the color drained from his face.

  “I can think of some people that might be interested in hearing about your business practices. I’ll be sure to remember you.”

  “W . . . Wait just a second!

  In a split second he bounded over his table of wares and threw himself at my feet, petitioning for mercy.

  “What do you want? I’m a busy man.”

  “I took another look at the prices and realized that I had accidentally attached the wrong price tags! I’ll change the prices to what they were originally supposed to be, so please wait just a moment!”

  “Nah, don’t bother. I’m not doing anything but having a chat with some of my friends back on the continent.”

  “W . . . Wait! Please! I’m going to sell them at a 30 percent discount!”

  “30 percent off those prices? I don’t know about that ...”

  “No, 30 percent off of the proper price! Of course!”

  “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “Wait! 50, no . . . 60 percent off!”

  “I wonder where my friend is these days? I’ll have to look him up when I get back ...”

  “S. . . 70 percent!”

  “I’m pretty sure he was part of the national merchant’s guild ... ”

  “80! 80 percent off!”

  “I’ll tell him that there was this guy who used concealment magic on terrible items and that he sold them for 400 percent the market value. Can you believe it?”

  “90 percent! I’ll give you a 90 percent discount!”

  That was probably about as good as I could hope for.

  “Sold.”

  There was nothing worse than building a business on intimidation and power. This guy would use people’s mortal fear to try and turn a deal. I was pretty sure that if the merchant guild found out about him they would shut him down.

  That’s fine with me. He deserved whatever he got.

  “I’m not telling you that you have to take slim margins and sell tons of stuff. You just have to be reasonable. In the end you only harm the industry—you only harm yourself.”

  I would have said the same thing to a merchant who sold his products at substantially under market value.

  It might look like what they were doing was good and nice, but in the end it only accelerated deflation. Lower prices weren’t always the best option.

  If there were merchants that wanted to charge substantially over market value, they needed to be in competition with another merchant. That was the only way to stabilize prices.

  Considering how far Cal Mira was from the mainland, it was only natural that prices would be somewhat higher.

  From my time in the market, it didn’t look like there was any other business that was really in direct competition over accessory prices. Either this guy was chasing them out of town or he was cornering the market in some other way.

  If there were no other shops offering competition for the same articles, then he could just raise the prices to whatever he wanted, and customers would have no choice but to buy from him.

  And if that happened, the association of merchants would lose the trust of the people.

  “If you’re going to turn a profit, at least make sure the customer is smiling when they hand over the cash.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Think about it. We’re in the middle of an activation event, aren’t we?”

  “Well, yes ...”

  “Then why don’t you spread a rumor? You could say that accessories formed with ore from the islands raise the level up rate for the wearer. Or something like that.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t you get it? You just have to spread the rumor. You don’t have to actually improve the efficacy of the
item. You only need to spread the superstition. Think about it. Everyone that has come here to level up is excited about leveling up. They already want to buy something to help them.”

  It was the same concept behind local good luck charms and amulets.

  Even if they didn’t actually have an effect, the wearer felt like they did.

  “I think I see what you mean!”

  I’d used that strategy in the past, and it had worked for me.

  If I heard that a village needed medicine, I went and sold it to them. If they need pesticides, I went and sold it to them. I did the same with food. The price was higher than it probably should have been, but the customers went away happy nonetheless.

  In the end it isn’t the price that matters—it’s the satisfaction that the customer feels when the deal is done.

  The merchant seemed excited by the idea. He nodded and stood back up.

  “You understand the rest, right? You keep an eye on what the customer thinks they want to pay, and then you try to get a little bit more. As long as you do that, the customer will leave satisfied. Then they believe in the superstition that they are leveling faster than they would have without it. They tell their friends all about how well it works, and then more customers come to you.”

  I didn’t know if he could actually expect such a dramatic effect or how long the effect would last. But it would probably work for a while.

  During the activation event, the experience points awarded for battle were higher than usual. So the adventurers on Cal Mira would already be leveling up faster than they were used to. Once they noticed the effect, they wouldn’t be able to tell what was the result of the activation event and what was due to the accessory. Then they would buy into the rumor that the island ore was somehow special—and they’d be happy about it.

  If that went on for a while, then the number of people using the accessory would grow, and that in turn would lead to wishful thinking, leading even more people to believe in the power of the accessory.

  “I’ll try your suggestion right away!”

  The merchant handed me the necklace I had been looking at. Then he closed up shop and got to work.

  “Whew.”

  I did a great job with that one. In the end, I’d gotten the necklace for free.

  “Mr. Naofumi ...”

  Raphtalia looked disappointed. She sighed and slapped her palm to her forehead and moaned.

  I guess it did kind of look like I picked a fight just to cheat the guy.

  “He deserved it. He disrespected the very idea of business.”

  “I understand that, and yet I feel like we’ve just led him to shadier practices.”

  “True, but that’s just how people work. They love superstitions.”

  The queen came walking over and called out to me.

  “What are you doing in a place like this, Mr. Iwatani?”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “The preparations for the meeting are complete. The other heroes are waiting.”

  “Okay.”

  I guess I’d gotten wrapped up in the conversation. Time had slipped by faster than I’d expected.

  The queen led, and we followed. We were heading for the castle-like inn that we’d been staying in since we’d arrived in the islands.

  We arrived at the inn and followed the queen up a flight of stairs.

  “The other heroes’ party members are waiting in another room. What would you like Ms. Raphtalia to do?”

  “Um ...”

  The last time we’d had a meeting of the heroes it had been back in Melromarc castle. During the meeting, Raphtalia had gotten in a fight with some of the other heroes’ party members.

  It wasn’t really her fault. A certain few of them were really selfish and cruel, and they were prejudiced towards demi-humans.

  Just because the national ruler publicly declares something bad doesn’t mean that the racism inherent in society just vanishes. People were mean to her just because she was in league with the Shield Hero, never mind that she was a demi-human.

  “At the moment, the majority of the heroes’ compatriots are wandering around the island freely. Still, I can have a room prepared for Ms. Raphtalia, if you would prefer that.”

  The queen meant to imply that the easiest solution would be for Raphtalia to take this as free time and go somewhere else to avoid unnecessary conflict.

  Raphtalia had figured that out as well. She nodded.

  “I understand. I’ll just be off then.”

  “I’ll call for you if we need you. Just do whatever you like until then.”

  “Alright.”

  I parted ways with Raphtalia, and the queen led me into the meeting room where the other heroes were waiting.

  Chapter One: The Seven Star Heroes

  I was led up the spiral staircase just like in Melromarc tower and into a high room with an impressive view over the country.

  The other heroes were already there, sitting around a table and waiting for my arrival.

  “So you finally showed up, eh?” the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki, blurted out.

  He was a 16-year-old swordsman that liked to dress in black.

  His hair was cropped short, and his face—or actually his whole aura—gave off an intelligent, cool, and collected sort of vibe.

  If you ask me, he faked it all. He just wanted people to think he was cool.

  For example, I’d just recently found out that he didn’t know how to swim and was terrified of the water. So my guess was that he just tried to keep his pathetic side hidden.

  He had been summoned from an alternate version of Japan, just like me.

  In Ren’s Japan, they had a type of game called “VRMMO,” which apparently was a combination of virtual reality and internet gaming. He’d explained that the players could completely immerse themselves in an online world. I sort of thought that maybe he had just come from my Japan, only in the future.

  From the interactions we’d had, I gathered that he was able to exercise some degree of common sense. Still, I only say that in comparison to the other heroes.

  “Where have you been?” demanded Itsuki Kawasumi, the Bow Hero.

  He had naturally curly hair and looked like a sensitive, artistic type of guy.

  In reality he had an overactive sense of justice and was pretty hot-tempered.

  His favorite thing to do was to travel around the country in disguise, hunting down bad guys and making sure they were properly punished.

  He liked to exercise his authority as a hero to right the wrongs of the world.

  He was like a famous general commander character from a period drama.

  From where I stood, he just looked like an arrogant prick—but I couldn’t deny that some unfortunate people had benefited from his self-righteousness.

  The problem was that his party members worshiped him with religious fervor, which naturally only fueled his arrogance more.

  Knowing that they basically worshiped the ground he walked on, Itsuki himself made no effort to change their behavior. That’s another thing about him that rubbed me the wrong way.

  “I bet you were out picking up chicks, weren’t you? They probably threw themselves at you after that last battle,” chimed in Motoyasu Kitamura, the Spear Hero.

  “Is that all you think about?”

  “Motoyasu, let it go this time.”

  “Yeah, we’re all tired of your shtick.”

  Motoyasu was the most handsome of us four heroes. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail. I guess you called it a ponytail?

  I’m a guy, but I can admit that he was pretty good-looking. He looked pretty easy-going, not uptight at all.

  If you were just going to hang out normally, then I guess he was fine. I mean you probably wouldn’t hate him or anything.

  He sure was stubborn though. Once he decided what he believed, nothing would change his mind.

  Apparently he was supposed to be the most loyal of the heroes. That was true in a way, but he was
also an idiot that never doubted his “friends.”

  He was also a full-time womanizer. Whenever he had a second to spare, you could bet he’d use it to hit on a girl.

  He’d hit on both Raphtalia and Filo the first time he met them.

  I’d heard that he was walking around Cal Mira hitting on girls too. I didn’t doubt it for a second.

  The bitch that framed me was one of his party members, so of course he believed her completely. To this day, he still thought that I tried to rape her. But lately the queen had forced Bitch to show her true colors time and time again, and it seemed like even Motoyasu was starting to take notice.

  All three of the other heroes had been summoned from alternate versions of Japan, and all three of them had played games that very closely resembled the world we now found ourselves in.

  Ren had played a game called Brave Star Online, through the VRMMO system that was used in his world.

  Itsuki had played a game called Dimension Wave, which he has said was a console game.

  Motoyasu’s game had been called Emerald Online, and it was an MMO.

  But I had never played a game resembling this world; I had read about it in a book called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. We’d all learned about this world in different ways, but what that meant was still a complete mystery.

  “I was just watching the ocean from the beach.”

  I took a seat.

  “Yeah, well. The storm is still raging out there, so we can’t leave yet.”

  “I guess we could use the time to level up and collect drop items? Any other ideas?”

  “Not really.”

  At least they seemed to understand that we were stuck on the island for the time being.

  “So? What’s the meeting for?”

  “Don’t you know?”

  The reason we’d all been called to the meeting was obvious.

  I’ll just be blunt about it: the other heroes were too weak to be of any use.

  When the battle with L’Arc and the others began, L’Arc had used a single restraining move against them to keep them from interfering. He’d only had to use it once. The three of them all fell instantly and stayed out for the remainder of the fight.

  It had been some kind of lightning-themed combo skill, I think.