The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 (9 page)

In the end, the magic power was increased.

Chimera Viper Shield (awakened) 0/30 R

ability unlocked: equip bonus: skill “change shield,”

antidote compounding up, poison resistance (medium)

special effect “snake fang (large),” “long hook”

mastery level: 0

status enchantment: magic power 20+

That was a serious boost!

Oh look, I can reset it. But I didn’t have many materials left, so I decided to leave it as it was for now.

The shield even looked more powerful to my eye. All the stats and systems were a little confusing, so I didn’t have it all worked out yet—but this was obviously something beneficial for me.

I read through the help menu one last time.

“ . . . .”

Everything they had told me about appeared in the menus now.

If the system responded to my beliefs then maybe I could use a growth system from a game I used to play back in my own world?

“Huh?”

No matter how deeply I believed or fiddled with the menus, nothing changed. Sure, the shield was already substantially powered up, but I couldn’t understand the mechanism at work.

“Queen . . . .”

“What is it?”

“Notify the other heroes. Everything they said was true. There wasn’t a liar in the room. Tell them you have to believe what the others say for it to work.”

I couldn’t believe the way this was turning out. It reminded me of something the queen had said.

She’s said that the replica weapon the high priest had been using was only one quarter as powerful as the real article.

With what I knew now, that made sense. Actually, I’d now pulled ahead of the others.

I could have been happy that I’d pulled ahead of the others, but if all this was true, then in the worst case . . . .

The next morning, after breakfast, I went to visit the queen in her audience chamber.

I’d expected Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki to be there, but there was no sign that they had showed up.

“Where are the others?”

“They left early in the morning.”

“What’s the rush? Did they take a boat?”

“Yes. And I have prepared a boat for you as well. It is waiting in the harbor. Please hurry.”

“Got it. Were you thinking of providing any funds for the journey?”

“I have provided for everything. If there is anything else you need, please just let me know.”

“Alright then . . . .”

I took out a sheet of paper and scribbled the ores and materials I would need to power up the shield further, then passed it to the queen.

“Will you have these things sent to me?”

“Very well. If the other heroes come to understand how powerful you really are, perhaps they will come around?”

That would certainly be nice.

I ran a quick estimation of how much the further enhancements would power up my shield—it was significant.

Filo’s stats had shot through the roof after her class-up ceremony, but it looked like I’d be in another league altogether after this.

“Alright. I’m off then.”

“Travel safely.”

“Here we goooooo! Mel-chan! We’ll see you later!!!!”

Filo waved to Mel enthusiastically as we filed out of the castle.

Oh, I forgot to mention that last night, Filo and Melty slept together. Those two sure were close.

Chapter Four: Weapon Copy

We left the castle, but I decided to swing by the weapon shop before going to the harbor.

The old guy that ran the place had really stuck his neck out for me when everyone had framed and betrayed me. I felt like I owed the guy a lot.

He’d made Raphtalia’s magic sword and the power gloves that Filo used when she was in human form.

“Hey old man—it’s been a while.”

“Well look who it is. The day after you left, the whole town was covered in posters saying there was a bounty on your head. I could hardly believe it.”

“Tell me about it. Rough times.”

“Well it looks like you convinced everyone of your innocence.”

“Sure—a lot of that is thanks to you. Those tools you gave us ended up being a real help. Thank you.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

“Thanks!”

Raphtalia and Filo both chimed in. They tried to return the tools to the old guy, but he turned them down.

“You stop that now. Makes me nervous, people trying to give me things. Those were just an experiment of mine. You can keep ‘em.”

“That thing that you added to my shield helped us out once too. It formed a sort of force field that saved us, but then it broke.”

“Don’t worry about that. That thing was an experiment of mine too. I wanted to see if I could understand the legendary shield a little better—sure enough, that thing is mysterious.”

“It’s thanks to you that we got out of that alive. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

“I told you to stop all of that. What can I do for you today, kid?”

“Could you show me some shields?”

“I don’t think I have any that would be of much use to you . . . or is it for the young lass here?”

“No . . . actually, I guess I can tell you.”

I told him what I’d heard about the weapon copy system. As expected, he looked a little disturbed by the idea.

“You know I’m the owner of this business. What you’re talking about basically amounts to stealing from me.”

“Would you rather I didn’t tell you? I’ll make sure the crown supports you, but in the meantime just let me try it.”

“Well it sounds like the other heroes have been doing it in secret anyway . . . . Fine, whatever. Besides, you’re a good kid. Go ahead and grab anything you like.”

There was a shield hanging on the wall, so I reached up and took it down from the hook it was hanging from. A vibratory rush shot through my arm, and an icon appeared to flash in my periphery.

Weapon copy system activated.

Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Red Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Pink Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

White Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Brown Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Blue Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Sky Iron Shield conditions unlocked.

Etc . . . .

It unlocked every color variation of the Iron Shield!

When I just started out in Melromarc, I’d unlocked a few color variations of my Small Shield. The equip bonuses had all been boring stat bumps, so I hadn’t paid much attention to them at the time.

But . . . if the weapon copy system worked the way it seemed to, I had an idea.

Was there a Balloon Shield? That was one of the monsters that had never unlocked a monster-based shield.

I knew there were red and orange balloons. Could there have been normal, uncolored balloons too?

Anyway, I went through the shop touching and unlocking all the shields.

There were round shields, bucklers, night shields, bronze shields, copper shields, steel shields, and silver shields. There were even leather shields—ones I hadn’t been able to unlock from absorbing scraps of tanned leather earlier.

It seemed like most of the shields available for sale unlocked different color variations of the materials they were made from.

I went on copying a few more shields, like the magic silver shield, the heavy shield, the iron armor shield, and a magic shield.

The iron shield and the iron armor shield were technically different, I guess. As for the magic shield, it was more of a small device with a switch on it. When you flicked the switch it would turn the user’s magic power into a shield. So it was basically something akin to Raphtalia’s magic sword.

“Oh hey, hold on a second there, kid.”

The old guy said, waving a hand as he snuck off to a back room.

I heard the sound of his heavy footsteps climbing a flight of stairs, and then a cacophony of clangs as he hammered on something metallic.

A minute later and he reemerged into the showroom.

“Sorry for the wait—this shield is pretty rare around these parts.”

He came back brandishing a rugged-looking thing. But it was somehow glossy as well, catching the light in an odd way.

It was formed from some kind of metal. I assumed iron. But it felt different somehow.

I opened up a window to analyze it.

Siderite Shield quality: normal

“Siderite?”

“Yeah, it’s a name for those strange stones that rain down from the sky sometimes. It’s one of the most impressive display products to come out of Zeltbul. It’s part of their siderite series of weapons.”

“Really? A display product, eh? Why do you have it?”

“Back in the day, well . . . you know.”

“Heh.”

Whatever that meant, he probably had a good reason for not selling it.

Motoyasu had mentioned that the best weapon shop was in Zeltbul. I wonder if he’d gone there and copied it.

“Here, take it.”

“Right.”

The old guy handed me the Siderite Shield. I reached for it.

Weapon copy system activated!

Siderite Shield 0/20 C: ability locked: equip bonus: skill “shooting star”

mastery level: 0

Now we’re talking! The other heroes had all been using the shooting star skills, and now I’d found the shield version.

The copy system also unlocked a number of color variations, but they only had boring skill bumps for bonuses.

Was I part of the bumbling shooting star crowd now? I guess that would depend on how useful the skill actually was. I changed my shield in to the Siderite Shield.

“Whoa!”

The old guy gasped in surprise.

“This thing comes with a weird skill. Do you mind if I try it out?”

“I dunno about . . . .”

“Shooting star shield!”

I shouted the skill name, and I was suddenly enveloped in a sphere of pale light.

It extended about two meters in all directions, with me at the center. As for SP usage, it apparently used about five percent of my max value. The cool-down time was also really short—about 15 seconds.

Judging from what I knew about gaming, it seemed to be some kind of defensive barrier skill.

It might have behaved similarly to the magic shield that the old guy had just shown off.

If it worked the way I thought it did, then it was sure to come in handy.

“What kind of skill is it?”

“I think it forms a kind of defensive barrier.”

Raphtalia reached out her hand and brushed her fingers against the sphere of light. They slipped right through it.

“Maybe not?”

“Hmmm . . . .”

Filo jumped through it once too. Then, realizing that it didn’t affect her, she entertained herself by jumping back and forth through the barrier.

The shooting star series of skills that the other heroes used were probably pretty high-level skills. If that were the case, then it didn’t make sense that the shield version would be useless.

“What the hell are you doing this in my store for? I swear you ki . . . ow!”

The old guy was waving his hand in a mock lecture, when he walked forward and slammed into the wall of light.

“Ah . . . I guess only your party members can pass through it.”

I didn’t have a way to test the durability of the sphere for now, but it apparently really was some kind of defensive force field. If I could learn to use it effectively, it would be a big help in battle.

It looked like the field would remain in place for about five minutes. With such a short cool-down time in comparison to its efficacy, the skill was looking exceptionally useful.

“Damn . . . I wish you’d think before you acted, kid.”

“Sorry. I wanted to show you what it could do, since you’ve held on to the shield for so long.”

“When you put it that way, I guess I don’t have much to complain about.”

“I guess that’s just about enough experimenting for today. We’re all about to head for the Cal Mira islands.”

“Oh yeah, I hear the activation phenomenon is happening now. If you’re going to go, now’s the time.”

“I think you’re right, old man. I’ll pay you another visit when we get back from the islands.”

“Excellent! But are you sure you want to keep using my shop?”

“Of course. I come here because I see how talented you are. I trust you more than anyone in the country—more than the country itself.”

“Kid . . . .”

The old guy seemed nearly overcome with emotion for a second.

Pretty much all the equipment I’d used up until now had come out of his shop. I felt safe there.

“Then I’ll do what I can to make sure I stay useful to ya, kid.”

“Great. I’ll see you later then.”

So we left the shop, having tested out the weapon copy system, and prepared to leave for the islands.

Chapter Five: Gravestones

“We’re about to arrive at the harbor town.”

Everyone was supposed to meet in a nearby harbor town to board the ship.

The other heroes had left before me, in carriages provided by the crown.

I wondered why they didn’t just use the teleport skills they’d bragged about before.

Filo was enjoying the slow carriage journey—she loved that kind of travel, and it had been a while.

“Excuse me, Mr. Naofumi. Would you mind if we took a short detour on the way?”

“Huh?”

Raphtalia indicated that she would like to stop by somewhere. It was rare for her to speak out like that. The place she indicated wasn’t very far at all from our course.

“Sure.”

“Wonderful. Filo, will you please follow this road inland when in splits?”

“Okay!”

Soon enough we arrived at the spot she’d requested. It was the ruins of a village.

We passed by the debris. There were wells that nobody drank from, buildings without roofs, and the burned-out shells of family homes. The remaining, ruined structures scattered through the field all indicated that a village once stood there.

Everything was destroyed and rotten, but it probably hadn’t been that way for all too long. Still, it wasn’t anything very recent.

I looked around and tried to judge how long it had been abandoned.

I suspected that it was probably the remains of Raphtalia’s village.

“ . . . .”

We rolled through the ruins, and Raphtalia was silent the whole time.

I kept inspecting what was left, and before long I noticed the whole landscape was dotted with gravestones.

I’d heard that the village was wiped out when the first wave came to Melromarc. This was apparently all that was left.

More than three months had passed since I first arrived in this world.

I’d heard about what had happened before the heroes were summoned and estimated that the village had been destroyed about four months ago.

Imagining that this had been a bustling demi-human village only four months ago made me realize, once again, how severe the threat of the waves really was.

“Raphtalia, big sis, how far do you want to go?”

“Just to that cliff that overlooks the sea.”

“Okay!”

The carriage rattled over the uneven remains of the road, and I looked out on the village that Raphtalia had been raised in.

We made it to the cliff by the sea, and Raphtalia climbed down from the carriage.

At the lip of the cliff stood a pile of stacked stones. I suddenly realized I was looking at a grave.

She knelt down next to them and started to dig another spot to the side. I didn’t say anything, but I knelt too and helped her dig.

I had no idea what she was doing.

When we were on the run, we met the nobleman that had kidnapped and tortured Raphtalia, and there had been corpses in his basement of people from her village.

Maybe she wanted to give them a funeral.

She had taken some of the bones with her when she left. Now she removed them from her bag and put them in ground. She covered them over with dirt and clasped her hands in prayer.

Raphtalia had told me that they were the remains of a child, a friend of hers that had always wanted to meet the Shield Hero.

At least the child could rest here now and not in that dark, damp basement.

Maybe that was just an example of the tyranny of the living.

But even if it was, I prayed that the owner of those bones would find rest and peace here on the cliff by the sea.

. . . .

I realized again—had I forgotten? I realized that Raphtalia had lost her family only four months ago.

She was strong. Stronger, maybe, than I’d realized.

She lost her family, but survived. She told me that she’d had a very trying time before she met me.

When I eventually left and returned to my own world, what would Raphtalia do?

Filo had Melty, but Raphtalia had no one.

Sometimes she asked me why I wanted to return to my old world. Maybe she was worried about the same thing—about what would happen when all this was over. Maybe she was afraid that I would leave her alone.

“I . . . .”

Raphtalia’s voice came soft. It was barely a whisper. I listened in silence.

“I . . . I’ll live enough for all of them. I want to save everyone from the misery of the waves. Coming here now, I feel that even stronger than I had before.”

“I know. And now we have the country’s support. We can save more of them now.”

People had refused to cooperate with me because I was the Shield Hero, and because of that, more people had died than necessary.

But now I had support. Now we could fight the waves together. I hoped to save more people than we’d been able to before.

“I’m sorry for all the trouble.”

“Stop that. The important thing is that . . . well . . . let’s get going.”

“You’re right. I’m going! Father . . . Mother . . . Rifana . . . .”

Raphtalia waved to the graves and climbed back into the carriage.

When the next wave was over, I’d have to think more about Raphtalia.

It was my responsibility to ensure her happiness.

What about her village and all that she’d lost? Was there a way to bring it all back?

When we defeated the nobleman that had tortured her, Raphtalia had said, “I’ll get back the flag I saw that day. I’ll get it back.”

I couldn’t bring the dead back—but there must have been survivors.

We’d found a child that was still alive in the nobleman’s basement. I’m pretty sure his name had been Keel.

Couldn’t I bring the survivors together and find a place for them to start over?

Yes, I nodded to myself. When I had the chance to do it, I’d search them out. I had to do it for Raphtalia.

If I didn’t I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forgive myself.

The plan was for all the heroes to meet in the harbor town and ride on the same ship. Obviously, the ship’s departure time was set in advance, so even though the other heroes had left before we had, that didn’t get them to the islands any faster. When we arrived, they all looked grumpy and irritated by the wait.

After all that we’d been through and all that we’d discussed, why were they all still competing to be the best? A bunch of idiots—that’s what they were.

There was still time to kill before the ship’s scheduled departure time. Everyone was lined up along the seawall, waiting to board the ship.

The guy in front of me in line seemed to have too much spare time on his hands. He was fidgeting, like he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“L’Arc, calm down, will you?”

“I know, I know! But I can’t help it. Ships get me so excited.”

Sigh. This guy sounded like he had the maturity of a kindergartener.

Apparently hearing my sigh, he spun on his heels and faced me.

“What’s the matter, kiddo?”

“Kiddo?”

I was 20. I didn’t like being called kiddo.

I sized him up. His hair was cropped short and stood up in styled spikes.

He must have held it up with some sort of hair band. Or maybe that’s just how his hair was naturally?

You didn’t normally run into people with a hairstyle like that. Maybe it was normal in this world—but it wasn’t normal in mine.

He was handsome enough. The girls probably liked him.

His eyes showed confidence. He looked like the sort of person you could depend on.

His muscles stood out from his body, clearly built through battle. His shoulders were massive. I bet he could handle himself in a fight.

It was hard to judge his age. If I had to guess, I’d say he was probably in his late 20s.

All in all, he gave the impression of a cool, experienced adventurer. For some reason, a large scythe hung from his waist.

“I’m no kiddo. I’m 20.”

“Oh, forgive me then. I didn’t mean anything by it. It just pops out of my mouth when I meet people younger than myself.”

I looked to the woman that had told him to calm down. I figured it was safe to assume they were traveling together.

The first thing you noticed about her was her beautiful white skin—it looked like ivory.

Her hair was strange—it was bluish-green and sparkled when it caught the light. But then again, so did Raphtalia’s.

Her hair was pulled back into a braid of three thick strands, and it draped elegantly over her shoulder.

Her eyes made her look kind, but you could tell she had a rigid core that wouldn’t bend. Again, something about her reminded me of Raphtalia.

She had wide bangles on both arms, both inset with massive jewels, and a tiara sat daintily on her forehead.

She was probably one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen.

The sparkling jewels only made her look more beautiful. It was like she sparkled all over—a jewel of a woman.

There was one other impression that reminded me of Raphtalia. She was somehow . . . serious.

“L’Arc, please calm down. Can’t you see you’re bothering the other people?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not upset. It does look like it’s almost time to board though.”

I pointed to the ship, and sure enough, the line lurched forward as the first customers stomped their way up the ramp.

At the very front of the line, looking very pompous and self-satisfied, were Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu. So they’d been waiting a while to board. The poor things.

“Hey!”

The line had started moving now, and so the guy in front of me finally started walking.

“Master!

Why was Filo already boarding the ship and waving to me?

Filo was supposed to be waiting for the carriage to be loaded, but she was already on the gangplank.

We'd managed to secure special permission to load the carriage even though we wouldn't be using it in Cal Mira.

I waved back to her, and Raphtalia and I proceeded to board the ship.

I decided to stop by our room first. All of the heroes were supposed to have rooms set aside for them and their parties, but for whatever reason, my room was down with all the other average guest rooms.

A crowd of staff members came running up to us.

“We apologize for the inconvenience!”

Did they think that they’d all get fired if I got upset with them? That I’d separate their heads from their necks?

“The heroes that boarded earlier took over all the prepared rooms, and they even occupied the captain’s chambers. We tried to do something about it, but it seems that all the rooms are full, and . . . .”

The heroes that boarded earlier? Seriously? They took over the captain’s room? Who did they think they were?

Well, I guess they all had pretty large parties. They probably gave the men and women separate rooms.

I’d also made an odd request—that they allow us to bring Filo’s new carriage. Nothing good would come from complaining at this point.

Still, I’d make sure the queen heard about it later.

“We have compensated the other guests for breaking our agreement with them and are having them leave the ship to make more room for you. Please just wait a little while longer.”

“Really? What sort of normal adventurers could afford to go to Cal Mira at a time like this?”

I asked the staff what the average price of a ticket was.

“Yes, well normally they are quite expensive. But this time the country has commissioned the trip and printed the tickets, so they are being sold directly at a lower price than normal. Still, the journey is sold out.”

Apparently the country would occasionally commandeer the islands for the leveling of country loyalists—the army, loyal adventurers, and so on. It was possible for people to sneak over to the islands on their own, but the waters were typically too treacherous for small boats.

It was like trying to get a ticket to a pop star’s concert.

The crown was covering the cost of my trip there, which meant . . . wait a second—were the islands part of Melromarc?

I felt bad for the poor adventurers getting kicked off of the boat, only to be compensated with a small breach of contract fee.

“You don’t have to do all that. If I can just have a room to stay in, we’ll all just share it so there’s no problem.”

I would have considered asking if there was any more space in the rooms the other heroes had taken, but I had to think about Raphtalia and Filo too—they probably wouldn’t want to stay with the others.

I couldn’t forget that we had all just collapsed into shouting and fighting when we tried to have a simple conversation back at the castle.

Ren’s party might not be so bad. But there had been quite a lot of them, so I was sure they had no space in the room.

There might have been space in Itsuki or Motoyasu’s room, but there would probably be issues if we tried to stay with them.

Itsuki’s “bodyguard” had started a fight with Raphtalia, and Motoyasu was traveling with Bitch.

There was no getting around it—I had to give up. And so we accepted a normal room down in the bowels of the ship.

“Not a good sign, is it?”

“Sure isn’t.”

We finished talking with the staff, and we were led to our room. We stood outside, paused, and opened the door to find . . . .

“Oh HEY, kiddo!”

I quickly shut the door again. It was the giant kindergartener from before.

“Raphtalia, I’m sorry, but go ask the staff if we can still change rooms.”

“Why? What’s the problem?”

“Hey now, kiddo—what’s the matter?”

The guy opened the door from the other side and stuck his head out.

“I told you not to call me ‘kiddo.’ I’m not much younger than you.”

“I guess you’re right. Anyway, what’s the problem?”

“Oh nothing. Looks like we have to share a room.”

“Oh yeah? Well if we’re going to share a room we might as well be friends! Come on in! Don’t stand out in that cold hallway.”

He flashed a warm smile and waved us into the room.

Something about his manic energy annoyed me. He was like the weapon shop owner sped up—I thought I might go crazy dealing with him.

“Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is L’Arc Berg—call me L’Arc.”