The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 06 Read online

  “If you think I’m cheating, fine. I’ll tell you how I did it. I actually used the power-up methods that you taught me. There! That’s all!”

  “...”

  They all continued to sit there in silence.

  “You know what I really want? I’d like to be able to fight for myself a little. Sure, Raphtalia and Filo are both really strong, but at the end of the day that’s still only two people. If I want to have some more offensive power, isn’t it ideal to team up with you three? You are the heroes, after all.”

  It felt wrong just saying it. I could hardly imagine having to team up with them.

  “You know, it kind of seems like you are condescending to us, even though we’re doing all we can to become as powerful as we can.”

  I sighed.

  I really couldn’t stand listening to them talk.

  “Ren, you just said that I wouldn’t be forgiven. Whose forgiveness did you think I needed?”

  “...”

  Well, he clearly thought highly of himself.

  He was acting like a server administrator or something.

  “You idiot. Who do you think needs to be doing the forgiving here?”

  He cast his eyes noncommittally at the tabletop.

  Had he just realized how ridiculous he sounded? Had he just let himself get emotional for a second?

  “Just how powerful do you think you are? Give me a reason to listen to the dribble you speak. Should I assume that you still have some secrets you haven’t shared?”

  He sighed and looked away.

  I guess he hadn’t been serious. He’d just let his emotion slip for a second.

  I’d met people like him before.

  It was like you were playing an online game and came across someone with a rare, powerful weapon. Because they had the weapon they were able to fight monsters and bosses that would normally be inaccessible to someone of their level. People would see that and think they were cheating, so they would run to tell the administrators.

  I knew about it because I used to be the manager of a pretty big guild. We had a stash of rare items reserved for anyone that aligned with us.

  “It’s time to open your eyes. I’ve been telling you the truth this whole time. I know it sounds sentimental, but it’s true—you have to believe in the system to make it work. Belief is our power.”

  “You like this? Do you like sitting there and lecturing us?”

  They never let up, did they?

  I glared at them.

  “You’re weak enough to warrant a lecture or two. Stop acting like weaklings. Playtime is over.”

  I figured they would respond to the taunt, so I tried to push them into considering the conversation more seriously.

  “What?!”

  “I refuse to speak with you further!”

  “You coward!”

  They all jumped to their feet and started shouting in unison.

  Then the queen used her magic to form a massive ball of ice and dropped in on the center of the table. It was very loud and heavy.

  “Control yourselves! Is this any time for infighting?”

  “Whatever. Why should we listen to someone who would team up with a cheater?”

  Ren glared angrily and the floor, and the queen seemed to have had enough.

  “My country will do all it can to help you heroes become as powerful as necessary to battle the waves. Please regain your senses.”

  It was really unbelievable. How long were they going keep this temper tantrum up?

  I sympathized with the queen.

  “Let’s set your various power-up methods aside for the moment. I’d like to discuss the enemies we encountered during the last wave.”

  “Good idea. Maybe one of you encountered characters like them in the games you’d played back in your own worlds.”

  The book I’d started reading at the library, the Records of the Four Holy Weapons , hadn’t contained any information regarding the true nature of the waves—which rendered it pretty much useless in this situation.

  But the other heroes might have known something that I didn’t.

  “So tell us. Have you ever run into anything like those three in one of your games?”

  “No.”

  “Me neither. That man fought with a giant scythe. I’ve never met a character that fought with a weapon like that.”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard of them before but never seen one. They’re pretty minor as far as weapons go.”

  L’Arc had used a scythe. I couldn’t argue with how strange that had seemed at first.

  “Why don’t you tell us about them? It seemed like you got to know them pretty well before the wave came.”

  “After you three took over all the rooms on the ship to Cal Mira, we got stuck with the bill and had to share a room with those two. We got to talking and agreed to spend one day on the islands leveling together.”

  “So you didn’t know them very well?”

  “No.”

  “When you were leveling with them, did anything seem . . . strange?”

  “Actually, yes. L’Arc’s giant scythe acted like our legendary weapons do. He was able to absorb monsters and items into it.”

  “Didn’t you think that was odd at the time?”

  How was I supposed to know what was normal in this world?

  The other three were supposed to understand how everything worked, and yet little things surprised them all the time.

  Had they been in my position, I’m sure they would have done the same thing I did, which was to ignore the mystery until it became a problem.

  “I don’t know much about how things work in this world. I thought it was weird though, so I asked him about it. He acted like it was a relatively normal thing, so I didn’t press the issue.”

  “Is that true?” Itsuki asked the queen.

  “No. Only the heroes wield weapons with those properties.”

  “Is there any other type of weapon that might mimic the actions of the legendary weapons?”

  “No. I’ve never heard of weapons that can appear to absorb monsters and produce their dropped items.”

  Hmm. So apparently L’Arc and the others had thought it was normal, but they were using weapons of a sort that don’t exist in this world.

  “Their weapons sound very strange indeed.”

  “I agree. There are only supposed to be four holy weapons, so where would they have gotten a scythe like that?”

  “You mean you haven’t heard of the other seven legendary weapons?”

  “What?” the three heroes all shouted in surprise.

  “There are other weapons? Does that mean that there are other heroes too?”

  Why were there constantly new, and potential major, bits of information being dropped on us like this? It was exhausting to keep up with it all.

  I’d never heard of anything like that!

  “Allow me to explain.”

  The queen’s eyes sparkled. Based on the way her eyes lit up when I told her about the filolial queen, I figured she was probably excited by legends. Melty had once told me that the queen used to travel around the country looking for ancient relics.

  “The most famous legend in these lands involves the four holy heroes, but there is another famous legend about the seven star heroes.”

  “Seven star heroes?”

  “Yes. Just like the four holy heroes, there are seven other heroes that each carry a special legendary weapon.”

  There were seven of them?

  If all of these weapons were different types of weapons, then this world was even more like a game than I’d come to expect.

  In RPGs you’d often meet characters in the latter half of the game that would use different weapons, weapons you would eventually have a need for.

  But judging by the other heroes I’d met since I arrived here, I wasn’t sure I wanted to meet any more.

  I’d yet to meet a single decent one.

  “Trash and the church made a real mess out of my cou
ntry. But Melromarc abandoned any attempt to claim partial ownership over the seven star heroes long ago. We may have shut our eyes and ears to some of the particulars since then.”

  “Whoa ...”

  “The seven star heroes and the four holy heroes are intimately connected, as they are both known as legendary heroes ...”

  They went on explaining the legend for a while.

  “So there are seven other heroes that were summoned here just like we were?”

  “There are that many people from other worlds here?”

  “Sounds like a better deal than only having four people in charge of saving the whole world.”

  The other heroes looked away when I said that.

  “Not exactly.”

  “No?”

  “The seven star heroes are often looked upon with admiration by normal adventurers. There are seven star heroes that are summoned to this world, but it is also possible for a normal adventurer to become one.”

  So you didn’t have to be summoned to become a seven star hero. People from this world had become heroes in the past?

  I guess there were some reasonable people to choose from. Maybe.

  If they were choosing new heroes, I’m sure they would try to pick people who were actually heroic, right?

  “The weapons are used in a summoning ceremony. But in the event that the summoning fails, the weapon itself will be available for use by anyone until a chosen hero appears.”

  “Something like the sword in the stone?”

  “Not exactly, because the sword is one of the four holy heroes’ weapons. But in concept, yes—the weapon is there for whoever can claim it.”

  I was starting to understand what she was getting at. Anyone with the ability to wield the weapon had the opportunity to try and do so.

  Then, if they were chosen as a hero, they would become physically more powerful, and the politicians would rally behind them too. Any adventurer in their right mind would love the idea.

  “Additionally, there are more of these heroes than there are holy heroes. Whenever conflict breaks out, there is a chance that they will appear.”

  “Oh ...”

  “When the waves came, the majority of the seven star heroes were appointed.”

  “That just proves how dangerous the waves really are, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  She was saying that the upper class was considering the global problems that everyone faced.

  “So? Does one of the seven star heroes use a scythe?”

  “Unfortunately not.”

  “Oh ...”

  “As you may have surmised, those three individuals have only introduced more mysteries into the mix.”

  So it sounded like, as far as this world was concerned, only heroes could use weapons in the way that L’Arc had been able to use his scythe.

  But he’d acted as though it was just an everyday kind of thing.

  “That reminds me. L’Arc said that ‘I needed to die for the sake of our world.’ It sounds to me like they might be from another world too.”

  “What could it mean?”

  “I have one idea. What if their world is on the other side of those rifts that appear during the waves? Could they be trying to invade this world for some reason?”

  “I supposed that would make sense.”

  “And you know what else? Glass’s weapons had gemstones set in them, just like our weapons do. Isn’t that strange?”

  “You mean her fans? Weapons like that do not exist in our world.”

  “What sort of weapons do the other heroes use?”

  “Allow me to explain.”

  The queen stood up and began to explain the particulars of the seven star heroes’ weapons.

  “The first is the staff.”

  A staff? If it was a legendary weapon, then I guess it was intended for a magic-user.

  Or maybe it was an ornate magical rod—the sort used by a certain magical young girl on TV.

  “Mr. Iwatani?”

  “Oh, sorry. Go on.”

  “The others are the hammer, projectile weapons, gauntlets, claws, axe, and the whip.”

  “Um ...”

  “The ‘projectile weapons’ one sounds a little vague,” Itsuki said, raising his hand.

  “Is it?”

  “Do you know what sort of weapon it actually is?”

  “Yes. In the legends it is a throwing knife, a small sword, a kunai, a small axe, etc. The weapon can turn into any small, throwable weapon.”

  That sounded like it might come in handy, but it sounded like it could only turn into small things.

  Projectile weapons would overlap with Itsuki’s specialty: bows.

  If they were ranged weapons, then there was a chance they couldn’t be used for close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat. Considering that I was the shield hero and I couldn’t attack at all, that much limitation seemed likely.

  “What’s the difference between the gauntlet and the claws? Aren’t those kind of the same thing?”

  “Yeah, I was just thinking that too.”

  Ren and Motoyasu asked the question.

  It sounded like nitpicking, but I could understand the confusion.

  “I honestly don’t understand it very well myself.”

  That was fair. We couldn’t expect the queen to know the answer to every question that we could think of.

  Regardless, it was a strange selection of weapons, no matter how you looked at it.

  I guess the four holy heroes had already gotten the main fantasy-type weapons. There were only so many weapons they could choose from.

  The last one, in particular, stood out to me.

  “The whip ...”

  That was an odd choice for a weapon.

  Where would they set the gemstone? In the handle?

  I realize that, as the Shield Hero, offense wasn’t really my specialty, but a whip sounded like a weak weapon.

  Well actually, I guess I had played a game once where one of the strongest pieces of equipment was a whip.

  “According to legend, the whip could transform into a chain at any time. I’ve also heard that the weapon could turn into a flail.”

  “That’s not much improvement on the whip.”

  I just meant that it was a blunt weapon either way.

  The seven star heroes’ weapon categories seemed very broad. I was stuck with only a shield, so I was a little jealous of the variety.

  “Well, a spear and a pike are basically the same weapon. There must be some overlap.”

  “Yeah, I had a throwing knife once before,” said Ren.

  A small sword would definitely fit under the sword category. So in certain situations, it looked like the seven star heroes could use the same weapons as the four holy heroes.

  And yet there had been no mention of anything like a shield.

  “According to legend, the whip has a special ability that the other weapons do not possess. I’ve heard that it is capable of controlling the power of monsters.”

  “You mean like those special monster growth shields Naofumi was talking about?”

  “Maybe it’s a more specialized ability. I bet it’s more powerful than the abilities I have.”

  I suddenly couldn’t stop picturing the queen cracking a whip at a group of monsters.

  I wonder if that was how it would work? The queen was sitting right in front of me . . . but maybe that was how she controlled Trash?

  I couldn’t care less. What was I thinking about that for?

  “The hammer and the axe also seem like similar weapons.”

  They might be similar, but they certainly weren’t the same thing.

  “You think so?”

  So the queen didn’t agree. I guess if you had always known about the seven star heroes’ weapons, it wouldn’t strike you as odd.

  I wanted to think about the gauntlets and the claws first of all. What if one of my teammates could equip one of those weapons? What would happen then?

  Th
at made me think of Filo, which made me realize something.

  That’s right—gauntlets would require the user to have hands, but you could technically use claws on feet if you needed to.

  If Filo became a hero, I could hardly imagine how annoying she’d be. But when I thought about it more, it kind of made sense.

  As for the hammer and the axe, they were similar in the sense that they were large and heavy and were swung overhead. But they weren’t the same—they had different effects.

  “I’ve never met one of these seven star heroes.”

  “They have been fighting in a place far removed from where you four heroes have been. Furthermore, a number of the weapons have yet to be assigned to a hero.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “Why don’t we just let them deal with the waves?”

  If we left everything up to the seven star heroes, then the queen of the filolials would come and kill us! Idiots!

  “The world is too large for the seven star heroes to protect all of it.”

  Of course it was. Did they really just want to sit back and pray that someone else would take care of our problems for us?

  “Anyway, I think we got distracted for a little bit there. What about the weapons that L’Arc and Glass were carrying? Have you ever heard of anything that might fit their description?”

  “No. Never.”

  If that were so, then there was only one simple explanation that came to mind. There must have also been legendary weapons in whatever world they came from.

  But there was a big problem with that theory.

  “Here’s what I don’t get. When I asked L’Arc about his weapon, he acted as though it were the most normal thing in the world.”

  “So what?”

  “Well, their weapons seem to be similar to our legendary weapons, right? But if he thought that they were normal, does that mean that legendary weapons are normal back in their world?”

  The queen and the other three heroes all fell silent at the thought.

  What if everyone on the other side of the rifts had weapons like our legendary weapons? If that were true, we would never stand a chance against them if they came to attack our world in earnest.

  After all the leveling and powering up I’d done, I had only just managed to hold my own against them in battle. If everyone from their world was as powerful as Glass, then we didn’t have a hope of winning.