The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 11 Read online

  “Yeah, okay. Whatever. I may not be able to explain it very well, but I know what the waves are. I know that other vassal weapon holders are trying to save their worlds by killing holy heroes.”

  Murder Pierrot shook her head again.

  “——destroy other worlds——even——won’t——”

  The sandstorm was getting worse. It was almost pure static now. What was with her? Had she unlocked a curse series that made it impossible for her to carry on a conversation or something?

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

  Murder Pierrot fell silent.

  “What should we do, Mr. Naofumi?” asked Raphtalia.

  “We can’t trust her. She could just be pretending to be an ally and end up betraying us when we least expect it.”

  For all I knew, she was pretending to be a drifter to get close and wait for a chance to try to kill me. Even if she had exposed her own identity, I still couldn’t trust her.

  “. . .”

  Murder Pierrot just kept staring at me silently. What was this feeling? Something about her eyes reminded me of Raphtalia or Filo. It was true I didn’t detect any hostility. She showed no sign of ulterior motives. Even so, I still couldn’t trust her, and if she had no intention of fighting then there was no reason for her to come to me. She could just wait until the next wave and then go back through the rifts.

  “If it’s money——accommodations——I’ll pay.”

  Hmm . . . So she was offering to fight for me and even pay for her own room and board. Those were certainly favorable conditions. I knew that when something sounded too good to be true, it usually was. But the offer was still hard to refuse. But yeah, she was probably going to try to kill me in my sleep or something.

  “I’m smart enough to know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you understand my words, then you understand I’m telling you to get out of my village.”

  “Okay.”

  Murder Pierrot looked down dejectedly. She finished eating and then stood up. Something about her reminded me of Glass, after we had settled our differences.

  Another possibility I could think of was that she just wanted to get stronger and had come to this world looking for materials to power up her weapon like L’Arc and Therese had done. It wasn’t like going to another world meant she was trying to kill heroes. L’Arc had mentioned that the abilities and stat increases gained in another world could be shared between worlds, after all. And in fact, I’d retained my stat increases despite ending up back at level 1 when I first arrived in Kizuna’s world.

  Murder Pierrot probably didn’t intend to kill any of the holy heroes. She had probably just gotten stuck in this world and didn’t know what to do. Still, the power on the verge of disappearing that Atla mentioned did have me a bit curious.

  “. . .”

  Murder Pierrot started walking away at a ridiculously slow pace while stopping to look back at me every few steps, like she was trying to stall or something. Was she hoping I would stop her? I just stood there silently, glaring at her, and she just kept doing the same thing over and over. She would turn around and start walking again, and then stop and look back again.

  “Umm . . . Mr. Naofumi . . .”

  “Ignore her. She’s just hoping that I’ll stop her.”

  “If you can tell that’s what she wants, then why not stop her, little Naofumi? You do realize how strong she is, right?”

  “Strong enough that she might actually be able to kill me in my sleep. I can’t trust her.”

  “Aww . . . That’s too bad.”

  Murder Pierrot stopped and looked back again.

  “I’m not going to stop you, so just give up already.”

  This was getting a bit awkward. Considering what was coming, it might have been a good idea to keep her around. We could always just kill her if she tried anything. But that wasn’t a chance I could take in my current state. Murder Pierrot continued walking slowly while glancing back at me every now and then, all the way to the edge of the village.

  “Get out already!”

  Once she had finally left the village, I started cleaning up the dining hall. Apparently something had been bothering Raphtalia.

  “Umm . . . How did Murder Pierrot get here?”

  “She said she walked, but she probably used some kind of portal.”

  “Wouldn’t that mean she’d been here before?”

  That was a good question. I should have asked her. Actually . . . I had been so focused on kicking her out that I didn’t even think to find out what she knew about fighting against other heroes. Now I was regretting not asking her more while she had still been interested in being friends.

  “Should we go after her?” asked Raphtalia.

  “That would be like falling for the enemy’s trap. We’re letting her go unharmed because she doesn’t seem to be interested in fighting. But I’m not prepared to let my guard down.”

  It may not have seemed like it, but I was being plenty lax already. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if she had wanted to kill me. Honestly, I was a bit worried about what might happen if she ran across any of the other three heroes. We needed to find them and get them somewhere safe as soon as possible. They might very well end up dead if they were forced to fight against someone like Murder Pierrot.

  We had finished eating, so it was time to take care of the day’s business.

  “I guess we’ll start by heading to the Melromarc castle. It’s been a while. Raphtalia, Fohl, and Sadeena . . . You’re coming with me. We’re going to do the level resets we talked about yesterday.”

  “I would like to go, too, Mr. Naofumi.”

  “Okay, you’re coming, too, Atla.”

  It was probably a good idea to take Atla along with us. Fohl would probably start causing trouble if I tried to leave her behind. Filo had gone back to hang out with Melty again after she finished eating. Raph-chan had taken it upon herself to help Rishia and the villagers with whatever they were doing. I would have been more than happy to take Raph-chan along, but whatever.

  “Portal Shield!”

  I used my portal skill to teleport us to the Melromarc castle. When we arrived, Sadeena looked over and commented on the mountains on top of the Spirit Tortoise’s back, which were visible from the castle.

  “Wow . . . It’s been a long time since I came this way. Things seem pretty crazy outside the castle town gates.”

  “So you’ve been here before?”

  “I am a citizen of Melromarc, you know.”

  Sadeena was still looking at the Spirit Tortoise mountains as she replied. As for the rest of the Spirit Tortoise . . . Oh? Looking closely, I could see that many of the trees had been cleared away. The reclamation of the land was coming along nicely. Humans sure were a hardy bunch. Disaster had struck, but everyone was working hard to bounce back.

  “Where to now?” asked Sadeena.

  “We’ll go talk to the queen first. We didn’t tell anyone we were coming, so they’ll probably need some time to make preparations.”

  It made sense to go see the queen. Unlike class-ups, level resets were probably relatively uncommon, after all.

  “Into the castle, then? I’ve seen the Melromarc castle from the outside like this plenty of times, but I’ve never actually stepped foot inside.”

  I guess it would be rare for demi-humans or therianthropes to see the inside of a castle in a human-supremacist country.

  “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. Although, we are in the courtyard right now.”

  “I’ve been here many times, now, but the size of the castle never fails to amaze me,” Raphtalia remarked.

  “It’s about the same size as L’Arc’s castle. But this isn’t a very good place for demi-humans to be.”

  “You’re right. I’m on friendly terms with some of the people here, but it’s still uncomfortable.”

  “I can imagine,” replied Sadeena.

  Several of the castle soldiers noticed us and salute
d, but they looked slightly disconcerted when they saw Sadeena. She was in her therianthrope form, which was normal for her, but I guess it only made sense that we would get some confused looks. But then again, they had invited all the adventures to the celebrations after we defeated the last wave. Hmm . . . Actually, I hadn’t really seen many demi-humans there. I guess being a demi-human in this country was hard in more ways than one. I’d started to forget that. It was only the queen that didn’t discriminate. The racism was deeply ingrained in the citizens themselves.

  “Alright, then. I wonder where the queen is right now.”

  She was probably staring at paperwork in that office of hers, like always. I asked a castle servant where the queen was. Apparently she had already been informed of our arrival and was headed out to meet us. We could just wait for her to come to us, then. Relaxing in the castle courtyard didn’t sound bad to me.

  “We’re going to wait here,” I announced.

  “Okay. Atla, aren’t you getting exhausted from standing? Do you want to sit down?”

  “I’m fine, Brother.”

  Crash! It sounded like something had fallen over behind us. I turned around to see Trash staring at us with his mouth hanging open like a fool.

  “The . . .”

  So he was still around, huh? More importantly . . . why was he half-naked? He was wearing nothing but underpants and a cloak. I guess he was going for the emperor’s . . . king’s new clothes look.

  “What’s with the new look? Some kind of punishment? Or you lose a bet?”

  A smile crept across my face. Why hadn’t they invited me to join in the fun? He even had a note stuck to his back that said, “I’m doing a lap around the castle grounds as punishment. Do not assist me in any way, no matter what I say.” The note was signed by the queen at the bottom. What had he done this time?

  “The Shield finally shows his true colors!”

  He pointed at me and started shouting.

  “Come! Everyone! After the Shield! We must wipe the Shield Demon off the face of the earth!”

  Trash grabbed the note and started running toward us. Several nearby castle guards blocked his path despite being clearly dumbfounded, and then restrained him.

  “Let go! The Shield! The Shield has infiltrated the castle along with those hakuko! Bastards! Out of my way! Or else I can’t kill the Shield!”

  I’d heard that there was bad blood between Trash and the hakuko, but this was an impressive show of rage even for him. And that last line of his was almost identical to a quote famous with otaku back in Japan.

  “Huh?”

  Atla turned around.

  “Err . . .”

  Trash had been stomping his feet violently, but he began to lose steam and then stopped completely. And then . . . What was going on? He was just standing there with a really strange look on his face. I couldn’t tell whether he wanted to smile or cry.

  “Huh? Brother? Why are there two of you?”

  Atla looked back and forth between Fohl and Trash.

  “What are you talking about, Atla?”

  How in the world had Atla managed to mistake Trash for Fohl, of all people? And when they were both right there in front of her? I guess they did share a tendency to be rather annoying, but otherwise they could hardly be more different. I mean, their ages and physical builds . . . umm, were irrelevant since Atla was blind, I guess.

  “. . .”

  Trash regained his composure, turned around, and hobbled back in the direction from which he had come, as if he’d lost any desire to confront us.

  “Hey!” I shouted.

  It was as if Trash couldn’t hear me at all. What in the world was going on?

  “What happened? He looked like the empty shell of a person,” said Raphtalia.

  “He looked really surprised when he saw little Atla,” Sadeena commented.

  “Yeah.”

  Had he seen something ominous in Atla’s face or something?

  “What was all the commotion about?” asked the queen.

  Having heard all of the shouting, she’d finally showed up several minutes later. I told her about how Trash had started raving when he saw Fohl, only to up and leave as soon as he saw Atla’s face.

  “I see . . . So that’s what the noise was.”

  “Any idea what that was about? I’ve never seen Trash act like that before.”

  “Miss Atla, was it? Let me take a look at your face.”

  “Of course.”

  Atla stepped forward so that the queen could see her better.

  “Ah, now I understand.”

  “You do?”

  “It’s a long story, but I’d be happy to explain if you have the time.”

  “Hmm . . . I do have better things to do, but I’m curious after seeing Trash like that.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll skip the finer details.”

  The queen began to explain why Trash had calmed down when he saw Atla.

  “Lüge—the Staff Hero—had a sister much younger than himself who was blind. Her name was Lucia.”

  Why was she making a point of not calling him Trash? I guess it didn’t matter. But . . . little sister?

  “There were a number of issues that made Lüge’s birth rather complicated.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yes. His full name is Lüge Lansarz Faubrey. He was born as the thirtieth heir to the throne of Faubrey.”

  “Faubrey is this world’s most powerful country, right? And he was the prince?”

  “The youngest prince, but yes. However, there was an incident that prompted him to relinquish his right to the throne. That incident was the murder of his parents and everyone he loved by the hakuko.”

  It sounded like Trash’s life had been one hell of a roller coaster. But now I understood why he seemed to detest Fohl—a hakuko—so much.

  “Fortunately, Lüge and his younger sister had been away at the time, which is why they weren’t killed in the incident. However, for political reasons, Faubrey made no attempt to hold Siltvelt accountable. As a result, Lüge developed an intense hatred for both Faubrey and Siltvelt. He changed his last name and moved to Melromarc, a country hostile toward the demi-humans.”

  The queen shifted the subject for a moment before delving into the bloody details of Trash’s personal feud.

  “Lüge concealed the fact that he was royalty and established an impressive track record for himself as both a soldier and officer of Melromarc’s military at a time when the country was constantly at war. He was eventually chosen to wield the seven star staff and went on to make a name for himself as a hero.”

  It was a picture-perfect story of self-made success. I started to feel a bit jealous. But then . . . a slight look of distress came across the queen’s face.

  “When I was still young, it was that very cleverness and strength of his that stole my heart.”

  “I’m not interested in that lovey-dovey stuff. Get back to the explanation.”

  “Just as things had begun to go his way, Lüge’s blind young sister, who he loved dearly, was attacked by a hakuko and . . . presumed dead due to the bloody scene of carnage left behind. But her body was never found. More than ever, Lüge was consumed by a desire for revenge, pushing him to finally confront and overthrow the king of Siltvelt, who was a hakuko.”

  “And? What does that have to do with his reaction earlier?”

  I already had a good idea of what the answer was going to be. More than likely—

  “Just as you suspect, Atla is the spitting image of Lüge’s beloved younger sister, Lucia.”

  “I knew it.”

  “Yes.”

  This was just conjecture, but the following possibility came to mind. Trash’s beloved younger sister didn’t actually die. Instead, she was taken back to Siltvelt as a plaything and raped by the hakuko, which is how Fohl and Atla were conceived. But there were several problems with that theory. For example, why wouldn’t they have used her as a hostage? Maybe the younger sister and the
hakuko were secretly in love, like some kind of soap opera or something.

  I had no idea what had actually happened, but the fact that Atla mistook Trash for Fohl probably meant that there was some kind of blood ties that she had sensed. Now that I thought about it, I remembered Fohl mentioning having had a sizable amount of money devoted to Atla’s treatment.

  “It all seems a little . . . too convenient to be true,” said Raphtalia.

  “Oh? What about how you and little Naofumi met? Does that not seem too convenient to be true? It sure does to me,” Sadeena interjected.

  “Well . . . I guess it does, but still . . .”

  Oh, come on. Surely Raphtalia and I meeting had nothing to do with fate or anything like that. Sadeena just associated me with destiny because I couldn’t get drunk on this world’s alcohol.

  “Fohl. Atla. Are you two half human?” I asked.

  “Who knows? I was too young at the time to remember anything before our parents died. Brother would know more, I think.”

  “All I know is that our grandfather was supposedly really impressive. We were told to never mention our last name, and our parents died in some war when I was still young, so I don’t really remember much. I’m pretty sure they had been well-off, though. We had servants and other helpers, too.”

  “Did one of the servants run off with all of the money or something?”

  This world was full of worthless people. They must have fell victim to one of those people and that’s how they ended up as slaves.

  “Nothing like that. Once we couldn’t afford to pay for Atla’s treatment anymore, we divided up the family assets among the servants and said our goodbyes.”

  So they were bankrupted by Atla’s medical fees. And they even had loyal servants. They had gotten lucky with that one.

  “Your grandfather, you say?”

  The queen looked at Fohl long and hard.

  “Fate sure works in mysterious ways,” she finally said.

  “What does that mean?” asked Fohl.

  “Your last name . . . is Fayon, I assume.”

  “Yeah . . . We were told to never mention it, but that’s it. How did you know?”

  The queen nodded as if it all finally made sense.

  “You should definitely remain by the Shield Hero’s side. Your late grandfather would be thrilled.”