The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09 Page 3

“Oh yeah, that’s right. There are a lot of people willing to show you how brave they are, but aren’t really strong enough to do anything.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much. Adventurers usually can’t be as powerful as people with vassal weapons or the legendary heroes.”

  “But that’s not what I meant. I mean there’s the country . . . and other people too.”

  What was he talking about? There wasn’t enough information to even guess. Even Kizuna looked confused. Luckily, Glass looked like she knew what was going on.

  I was starting to figure it out too. Glass and Kizuna and the others were serious about fighting the waves, but what about that Trash #2 guy we recently defeated, Kyo, the holder of the book vassal weapon, and others like them? They certainly didn’t seem to care about anything but themselves.

  “The vassal weapons holders in enemy lands don’t care about the waves, do they?”

  “Exactly—good instincts. Actually most people don’t seem to care, aside from the four holy heroes and the holders of vassal weapons that have aligned with them.”

  “You mean there are holders of holy weapons besides me ?! ”

  “Yes, they were summoned quite a while ago.”

  Glass looked more pale than normal. Something must have gone wrong. If there were problems with the other heroes, I had plenty of sympathy. Just the idea of trying to convince the other stupid heroes of all this when I got back to the world I’d come from was exhausting.

  “I’ve met them, just one time. However . . .”

  “What were they like?”

  “They weren’t very serious about helping fight the wave. They made all kinds of excuses, something about ‘upping’ or ‘dates.’”

  “They probably meant ‘update.’ It’s a word people use for patches to online games. If they’re Japanese people, like me, then that’s probably what it meant. It all sounds a bit familiar . . . do all these worlds work the same way?”

  “I was about to ask the same thing, Naofumi.”

  I suddenly felt a great deal of sympathy for Glass.

  Kizuna was the only hero in this world that had her act together. In a way, I was probably pretty lucky to have met her.

  “What’s with you guys, you look like you’re agreeing on something?”

  “Do you understand that word too, Kizuna?”

  “‘Update?’ Yeah, it’s a very game-like way of thinking, even though this is all a matter of life and death.”

  “Yeah, but considering all the stats and power-ups, I can understand why people might think all of this is a game.”

  Oftentimes the world really did seem like a game, but that didn’t mean I could treat the battles like one. If I did, the consequences would be dire. If you weren’t serious about mastering your skills and stats, then you would lose.

  “The heroes back in my world are the same way.” They probably actually thought they were in a game. The way that they went to attack the Spirit Tortoise without waiting for me made it clear that they didn't take their responsibilities seriously.

  “In the end they refused to do their duty, claiming they didn’t want to be controlled, and ran off to do their own thing. I don’t know where they are now.”

  “You didn’t try to force them?” I asked Glass.

  “They were from a country with whom we have poor diplomatic relations. Any attempt to force their hand would have caused a crisis, so there was nothing we could do.”

  “I have a good idea where they are, but that doesn’t mean I can just head on over and interfere in their business. It wouldn’t be wise to get in a fight with the four holy heroes,” Alto whined, waving his hands.

  Every world I went to seemed to have the same kind of problems. People came to new worlds and treated them like games. In some ways, the world that had summoned me might have been better. At least the queen of Melromarc was a skilled negotiator and diplomat. Thinking back on what she’d accomplished, I was even more impressed now than I had been then. Not only did she get all of the four holy heroes on her side, but she managed to avoid international conflict at the same time.

  “From the way you describe them, Naofumi, it sounds like the heroes in your world need to learn to work together. You can’t let them die.”

  “Yeah. We all have our problems to deal with.”

  Fitoria was the one who had first explained the gravity of the situation to me. I had since explained it all to Kizuna. From what I could tell, the same rules were in effect in Kizuna’s world too, so it was safe to assume that we were dealing with the same threats.

  For the time being I was busy in Kizuna’s world, so the plan was on hold, but when I got back to Melromarc, I still had to find a way to get the four holy heroes to join forces. It would be hard. Those three were stupid beyond belief—stupid enough to get captured by Kyo in the first place.

  “The other problem with the vassal weapons holders is that they are always in competition with each other to command the rest of the fighting forces.”

  Ah . . . yeah, that would be a problem. Even if there were a lot of adventurers that volunteered to fight, even if it was so they could get their hands on rare materials, they would still need to be organized and led by someone. If the heroes and holders of the vassal weapons weren’t serious about their battle strategy then they wouldn’t be much help anyway.

  And if they didn’t share what they knew about powering up with each other, then they wouldn’t be very powerful either . . . although Kyo had certainly managed to get strong.

  Maybe he was just very highly leveled, so he could get around the power up methods, or maybe he powered up in some other way. Whatever he’d done, he was powerful enough that Glass and L’Arc weren’t able to defeat him.

  “For now, Kizuna’s friends have gone off to all corners of the world, and they are recruiting and training adventurers there. Other countries think that they are already dealing with the waves sufficiently, and therefore, aren’t very worried about them.”

  So the leaders of other counties, most of the holders of the vassal weapons, and most of the holy heroes, were treating the waves as if they weren’t a significant problem.

  “But the monsters are getting stronger and they are giving more experience when defeated,” Kizuna said.

  “The countries just see that as a chance to gain more military power, they see profit in it for them. As far as they are concerned, all this talk of the end of the world is nothing but a fairy-tale,” Alto explained.

  “So anyway,” Kizuna clipped. “Can I ask why you ran over to see me, Alto?”

  “You don’t think I just wanted to see your face?”

  “I doubt it. That doesn’t sound like the Alto I know.”

  So she didn’t totally trust him. I could understand why. I didn’t trust the slave trader either.

  “To tell you the truth, I heard a rumor that there was an adventurer selling something called ‘soul-healing water’ in a nearby country. I couldn’t suppress my fascination with this supposed item, so I came to see if I couldn’t find out more about it.”

  Word travelled fast.

  So he heard that someone was selling soul-healing water, figured out who it must have been, and came to meet us. If he were up against someone else, he might have had a chance—but against me? If he thought he was going to get knowledge, tools, or ingredients from me, he had another thing coming.

  “So is it safe to assume that the person selling this soul-healing water was none other than Naofumi?”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you any—or teach you how to make it.”

  I learned how to make it from a book, so I was confident in my methodology. I was sure I could find the necessary tools and ingredients here if I needed them too. Still, I normally had my shield make it for me, so it had been a long time since I’d tried to make any from scratch.

  “I guess I’m on my own then! It’s been a while since someone has been so upfront with me.”

  “I enjoy negotiation
. I’d teach you if you were willing to provide me with something of equal value.”

  “Naofumi, you better be careful. Alto would do anything for money.”

  “Maybe so, but you two seem to be friendly enough.”

  “There’s still value in my relationship with Kizuna. It would cost me more to betray her.”

  His response was surprisingly frank.

  I was most comfortable around guys like him. I wanted to see how much control I could exercise over him. I wanted him in the palm of my hand.

  Hey look at that—Alto looked like he had goosebumps. I could tell his intuition was sharp.

  “Besides, if you’re the sort of guy that would do anything for money, I’d be doing myself a real disservice by teaching you how to make soul-healing water.”

  Soul-healing water, by the way, was a medicine that had an incredible effect on Spirit people like Glass—it rapidly and massively raised all of their stats. A Spirit’s stats were all tied to their energy level, which was like other humans’ levels, except that it always fluctuated.

  Soul-healing water had a different effect on heroes and holders of vassal weapons—it restored our SP. But when used on a Spirit, it restored their energy levels.

  If medicine like that was released to the public and made common throughout the world, the Spirit people would become immeasurably powerful. It would probably lead to war. I wasn’t going to just hand out such important information, not without getting something equally valuable in return.

  I looked over at Kizuna and tried to communicate all my thoughts with a glance. She must have understood, because she nodded.

  “I guess you’re right. I bet I can get it out of L’Arc or Glass.”

  “They won’t tell you!”

  “Even though it would lead to a renaissance of skill development? We could make even more concentrated soul-healing water.”

  “We still won’t tell you.”

  What did he think he was trying to do anyway? I guess that was all he could do.

  “Glass, you might want to get stronger, but don’t you dare tell him anything.”

  Glass nodded. I’d have to keep an eye on her. I hadn’t known her for very long, and I’d always found her insufferably serious.

  “Alto, do you think you could sell a bottle of soul-healing water for four and a half kinhan? Naofumi was able to do it, with a little bit of trickery, of course.”

  “You think I can’t?”

  “You shouldn’t challenge a real capitalist that way. If he says he can’t, then he’ll lose face.”

  Kizuna liked to be involved with sales too, but she wasn’t an actual merchant, and there were things about it that she didn’t understand.

  A real capitalist would use whatever tricks they had at their disposal to raise their profits. They’d tell their customers that they could do things they couldn’t really do—they’d do anything to affect the way that they were perceived. He had no choice but to answer a question like that in the affirmative.

  “If you really want to see who’s best, we should get Romina to make us something and then start a price war over it.”

  “Don’t you dare! This is MY workshop!” Romina snapped.

  She was a blacksmith, after all. She probably knew all about how troublesome merchants could be. If I really got into bargaining, I could seriously drop the price of a product.

  The old guy back at the weapon shop had realized long ago that he’d have to work for very low wages on any projects I requested.

  “Okay, okay. I actually had another reason for coming over. Kizuna, I heard that you stopped the development of tools that could be used to identify heroes from other worlds. Do you really hope to protect the world without such things?” Alto asked Kizuna. His tone was slowly growing more reproachful.

  They were trying to make a tool that could positively identify heroes? If they had actually managed to make it, the other three heroes back in my world would have been killed a long time ago.

  “That’s right. I think it’s terrible. I’m going to find another way around it.”

  “I understand why you feel that way, but you’re the only hero around that seems to care about anything at all. At this rate, our world is as good as destroyed. How do you plan to save it?”

  “I’m not going to complain about how unfair the whole system sounds to me, but at the very least, I think it’s worth investigating other options.”

  “I see. You haven’t changed a bit, Kizuna.”

  “You look like you’ve got something to add.”

  “And you’re as perceptive as ever. I do—it’s the reason I came to see you,” Alto said, pulling out a number of books and showing them to us. They seemed to contain the same information, as if they’d been copied from one another.

  “I found this in the ancient labyrinth library.”

  I looked at the book he was indicating. It included occasional illustrations, and many of them appeared to depict the waves. One of them showed two worlds intersecting, and the people at the intersection were bathed in the light of the legendary and vassal weapons.

  There were also strange creatures in the picture, like genies, angels, and a monster that looked like a filolial.

  There was a person that seemed to be made of light too. They were shining so brightly that I couldn’t make out their faces, but I could see that their hands were outstretched toward the world.

  I had no idea what to make of it. It seemed to depict two worlds at war, but then, at a certain point, the heroes on either side appeared to be shaking hands instead of fighting. It likely depicted exactly what Kizuna was searching for.

  “The illustration is very old, and it undoubtedly contains coded information that will require time and effort to uncover. I’ve brought this as a present for you and your friends.”

  “Oh!”

  “You have some impressive friends, don’t you?”

  “I just found this book recently. Had Kizuna not returned when she did, I probably would have put it in storage.”

  “If we can figure out what it means, it will probably be really useful.”

  “I hope so. So? What did you want to do about the war?”

  “I’d like to avoid it if possible, but I also don’t plan on bowing down. It seems likely now.”

  That’s right, we were currently in the middle of preparations to go to war with the country that Kyo belonged to.

  Kizuna and L’Arc implored the country to turn him over, but they refused to comply. And it turns out that Kyo’s country had also managed to absorb several neighboring lands while my friends and I were split up. I heard they captured the country that Trash #2 was from and the country of the holder of the mirror of the vassal weapons just at about the time we escaped.

  Diplomacy had failed, and the current situation was tense. We had no choice but to prepare for war, and so we did. It felt like war might break out at any moment.

  We thought about a sneaking across the border with a small party to take Kyo out in secret, but the border was very secure and it was unlikely that we’d get through it.

  We didn’t know exactly where Kyo was either. So even if we did manage to sneak in, we’d have to find him without being found ourselves, which would be difficult. That left us with open war as our best option, so we were preparing for it.

  If only we knew where Kyo was! We could have ended this so quickly!

  “Naofumi-san! It’s rude to give these precious things anything less than your full attention!”

  “Rafu ?! ”

  Therese had started to voice her opinions on my accessory making. I wished she wouldn’t shout like that. She was scaring Raph-chan.

  “Oh shut up already! Why don’t you go see L’Arc or something?”

  “I can’t do that. I simply must observe the way you create these miracles with your hands!”

  That’s right, Therese was standing over my shoulder and watching me work.

  “Naofumi, how’s the work going?” Kizuna
asked. They all had a look of unrestrained greed as they looked at the accessories I made.

  What was with these people? Is that the real reason they wanted to meet and talk? Were they just after my crafting secrets? “As long as we are leaving the magic-imbuing process up to a specialist, then I’m making good progress.”

  I had intended to make a sheath for Raphtalia’s katana and a cover for the gemstone in my shield. No one had any problems asking me to make things for them. Kizuna wanted a lure, Glass wanted decorations for her fans, and L’Arc wanted a plume. Who did they think I was, their servant?

  I did what I could with the gemstones we had, and I’d managed to produce some attractive pieces, though I wasn’t sure what kind of effects to expect from them.

  You see, they say that if an accessory is fitted to a hero’s weapon that it will cause special effects. Kizuna and I powered up our weapons in different ways, but we both seemed to have this in common.

  Conceptually it was similar to wearing armor that granted the user special effects. It wasn’t the same as the power-up methods we used to actually change the stats and abilities of our weapons.

  The plan for the moment was that I would attempt to make the accessories, but they’d be passed on to an imbuing specialist for imbuing. Then, we would see what kind of effects the accessories granted when they came back from the specialist.

  “I just finished making Raphtalia’s. I wonder if Rishia would be able to read that book? I’m done here for now, so maybe I’ll take it over to her and see what she can figure out.”

  “It was fascinating to see—the way you made that sheath, I mean.”

  “I guess.”

  Romina, one of Kizuna’s friends, had helped me make the sheath for Raphtalia’s katana.

  I used a rare ore to form the sheath itself, and then inlayed the area where the blade enters the sheath with gemstones. I have to admit that it looked pretty cool.

  I thought about adding a symbol to the center of the sheath, something to indicate ownership, but I wasn’t sure what would be appropriate. My best idea was to use Raph-chan’s face as a symbol, but I could see Raphtalia getting angry about that. I decided against it and left it plain.