Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Harem 

I returned to my room after the evening party ended. 
“Rafuu!” 
Raph-chan looked out the window at the view and squeaked. I’d heard some demi-humans and therianthropes were nocturnal, and there was no sign of the lights dimming down below in the Siltvelt castle town. There were even some demi-humans that looked like bats flying around in the air. 
“Shield Hero, it’s time for your bath. Please follow me,” said one of the maids. 
“Oh yeah, they did say I would get to bathe after the party,” I said to myself. 
“Rafu?” 
Raph-chan had been made from a lock of Raphtalia’s hair, so that made her a female, right? Regardless, I didn’t like the idea of leaving her here in the room. I decided to take her with me. I picked Raph-chan up and followed the maid to the bathing area. 
We walked down a hallway on the first floor of the castle that exited into the courtyard and then continued on to an area that looked like a shrine surrounded by trees. I could see steam rising, so that was probably the baths. 
There were actually public bathing areas in Melromarc too. The people of this world seemed to take personal hygiene pretty seriously. But when I really thought about it, they summoned heroes from Japan on a regular basis. With the heroes telling them about their culture, it made sense that Japanese bathing habits might catch on. That was convenient for me. 
I suddenly remembered all of those times rinsing myself off with cold water by the riverside after I’d been framed. I sure had come a long way when I thought about it. 
As I reminisced, I took my armor and clothes off in what seemed to be the dressing area. The maid was staring at me, but I didn’t let it bother me. I’m sure that was just part of the job. 
“Rafuu . . .” 
Raph-chan seemed embarrassed. She put her hands over her eyes. She always had the cutest reactions. 
“Alright. Let’s go, Raph-chan,” I said. 
“Rafuuu!” 
 
If I had the chance to bathe, I figured I might as well take my time and enjoy it. I walked toward the baths. The steam completely filled the air. I could make out the outlines of several figures when I looked over at the baths. I hesitated to say people, because the figures were so huge. 
“We’re so glad you could make it, Shield Hero!” 
Several girls who probably belonged to wealthy households stepped out of the bath and did their best to strike seductive poses. 
“You let us take care of washing that body of yours, Shield Hero,” one of them said. 
“Feel free to choose whoever you like best from among us . . . and we’ll be happy to accompany you back to your room,” said another one. 
Umm, I was pretty sure I’d seen one or two of them at the slave market in Zeltoble. 
“What do you think?” one of the girls asked. 
Her breasts bounced as she sauntered over, and a chill ran down my spine. I’d been set up! They clearly planned on seducing me here and making me do something vulgar! Even if I was the Shield Hero, I was still a man. Somebody must have figured the sight of naked women would get me excited and came up with this plan. 
The baths looked like a brothel. They were filled with everything from normal-looking women to massive therianthropes that were at least as big as Sadeena’s killer whale form. It was like I was supposed to be some kind of lecher who’d take any woman I could get my hands on. Or maybe they just prepared a wide variety of women and hoped that one of them would fit my preferences. 
“Sorry, but I’m not interested,” I said. 
I tried to leave the bathing area, but the women all got out of the water and surrounded me. 
“Please don’t say that, Shield Hero!” 
“Even if you think you won’t like it at first, you’ll be in ecstasy before you know it. You won’t be able to get enough!” 
Blech! The chills . . . I felt sick. It made my flesh crawl. I mean, Sadeena had said things that made me want to throw up before, but this was on a whole different level. I’d settle for Sadeena a million times over before I touched one of these sluts. At least Sadeena gave me a choice. She always left me an escape route. Even if she did say things that made me sick, something about her attitude was comforting. 
 
 
I never thought I would actually say something like that about Sadeena. I had no idea how absolutely repulsive it was when someone was actually serious about trying to seduce me. And not even really me, but the Shield Hero. I might even have to revise my opinion of Sadeena, even if only slightly. The same went for Atla. 
“Please choose, Shield Hero! Which one of us do you most desire?” 
“I want to give birth to your child, Shield Hero!” a small demi-human girl exclaimed. 
She was practically an infant and she was saying things like that! It sent a shiver down my spine. It was like Melty trying to seduce me or something. I would’ve told her to try again in another ten years. I’m sure she would have yelled at me, though. 
“Stop screwing around! Get out of here!” I shouted. 
But the women didn’t leave. They inched closer to me, one step at a time. 
“Come on, girls! Do your best to seduce the Shield Hero!” said one of the girls. 
The women suddenly leapt at me and I calmly called out the name of a skill. 
“Shooting Star Shield!” 
The Shooting Star Shield barrier formed around me and repelled the women. The old weapon shop guy had saved my neck once again. Never before in my life had I been so happy to have this skill. 
“Ugh . . . Come on, Shield Hero! Let’s have some fun!” one of them called out. 
“No thanks!” I shouted. 
“Oh really? Come on, everyone! We must break this shell for the sake of our beloved Shield Hero!” she announced. 
“Yeah!” they cried out in unison. 
“How about no!” I shouted. 
I figured I would just ignore them and barge through, pushing them out of the way, but reinforcements kept showing up until the bathing area was practically overflowing with women. Dammit! This was bad! My chances of escaping were diminishing with each second! Even worse, they all started hitting my barrier in an attempt to break it! 
Talk about how not to set the mood! The women were all crowded around my defensive barrier and punching at it. This was some next-level scary shit. I had an accessory that added a counterattack effect to my Shooting Star Shield, but it only worked in Kizuna’s world. I hadn’t been able to find a usable substitute here in this world yet. 
 
 
“Raaaawwwrrrrr!” 
What the hell?! Hey, elephant therianthrope! Stop trying to body slam me with your full weight, dammit! Wait a minute! Was that thing planning on trying to sleep with me too?! 
This barrier had even been able to withstand one of the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks, but the women continued to crowd around it, intent on destroying it. 
“Mwahahaha! All we have to do is break this thing and the Shield Hero will be ours!” one of them shouted. 
“Grrrr . . .” 
Shit. The barrier didn’t show any signs of breaking, but the whole thing was still scary for a multitude of other reasons. I had to figure out a way to get out of there. 
“Portal Shield!” 
I couldn’t use my portal?! Had someone leaked info about how to interfere with our portal skills?! It didn’t matter! I needed to focus on shaking these women and getting out of here! I could probably use the barrier to repel them and force my way through. But could I really make it all the way to Raphtalia and the others with a never-ending stream of women on my tail? 
“Rafuuu!” 
Raph-chan jumped up on my head and started squeaking. She began to focus her attention as if she were reciting a magical incantation. I wondered if it would be possible to cast cooperative magic with Raph-chan. If things went well, I might just end up making it out of this mess after all. 
I focused my attention on Raph-chan’s squeaks. I had no idea what kind of magic we could cast. But given the situation, anything would have been better than standing around doing nothing. Raph-chan and I wove our magic together as I continued walking. 
Oh? Those familiar cooperative-magic puzzle pieces gradually began to fade into view. Way to go, Raph-chan! She’d come from a lock of Raphtalia’s hair, so her magic felt similar to Raphtalia’s. I was sure we’d be able to use the same cooperative magic that Raphtalia and I had cast before. 
“Power of two, lend your strength to confuse the enemy with an illusion! Re-spin the threads of fate, and turn our defeat into a victory!” 
“Rafu, rafu, rafu . . .” 
 
 
I couldn’t help but smile when Raph-chan recited her incantation. I didn’t know if it was because Raph-chan was essentially a big bundle of magic power or not, but the flow of magic felt even stronger than when I’d cast the spell with Raphtalia. 

“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Show our enemies an illusion to confuse them!” 
“Emptiness is Form!” 
“Rafuuuuu!” 
Emptiness is Form?! I thought it was Form is Emptiness! I guess the meaning was essentially the same. We’d cast a spell that was almost the same, but different! Our magic shot out across the whole area, affecting all of the women there. They almost seemed to be tripping out as they stumbled away and then broke out into a riot in a different place than I was. 
“No, wait! Shield Hero! Ohhh, you’re such a bad boy!” they yelled. 
I had no idea what kind of hallucination they were seeing, but they started writhing around and falling over unconscious, one by one. Alright! This was our chance to escape! 
“Rafu!” 
Just then, Raphtalia and the others came running up. It was the worst timing possible. 
“I got a distress signal from Raph-chan, but, umm . . .” Raphtalia’s voice trailed off. 
“Oh my,” said Sadeena. 
They were looking around and taking in the scene. 
“They all look like they were having fuuun! Were you playing with them, Masteeerrr?” Filo asked. 
“Ugh! They beat me to the finish line!” Atla lamented. 
“I can’t believe you nailed so many girls in one go . . .” Fohl mumbled. 
Did he seriously just say that? 
“Like hell I did! Stop getting such ridiculous ideas! Raph-chan and I cast some cooperative magic and made them see a hallucination. Now is our chance to run! Let’s go!” I shouted. 
“That will not be necessary!” Werner announced as he walked up. 
“My deepest apologies, Shield Hero. Take these women away at once!” he shouted to his lackeys, who then began to drag the half-conscious women away. 
 
 
Ugh . . . The place had started to reek. It was hard to describe, but if I had to say, it reeked of women. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I suddenly remembered the trauma I’d experienced when Witch deceived me. 
“Shield Hero, please forgive us for this gross mishandling,” Werner continued. 
“This is beyond forgivable!” I shouted. 
“This is a service that past Shield Heroes have enjoyed through the generations. We assumed you would be no different,” he replied. 
“So you finally show your true colors!” I shouted. 
I motioned to Raphtalia and the others. Everyone drew their weapons and readied themselves to attack. But Werner stood there motionless with his hands clasped behind his back, as if to say that he had no intention of fighting. 
“Well, well, well . . . I guess this means the Shield Hero is quite picky about his women,” said a voice from the shadows. 
And then the lion therianthrope from before came strolling over. Werner looked over at the lion and then furrowed his brow unhappily. 
“Jaralis, choose your words more wisely,” Werner said. 
Upon being reprimanded, the lion that Werner had called Jaralis shrugged derisively and backed off. But he was still staring at Fohl and Atla with a look of contempt in his eyes. Fohl noticed him staring at them and seemed confused. I’d noticed people in Siltvelt looking enviously at the others just because they were under my command, so he could just deal with it for now. I wanted to get back to addressing what had just happened before changing the subject. 
“Did you really think I’d let a bunch of women seduce me and then just have my way with them?!” I shouted. 
Ever since being summoned to this world, even the thought of that kind of thing just made my stomach churn. 
“I’m so very sorry,” Werner said. 
I was sure he felt absolutely zero remorse. In that case, I’d use this to make him agree to my demands. Yeah, I liked that idea. 
“If you want me to overlook this, then arrange the boat for Q’ten Lo already!” I demanded. 
“I-I’m afraid that will take more time. Please be patient with us,” Werner replied. 
 
 
“Do you really need more time? There will be consequences if you lie to me!” I shouted. 
“We do,” he said. 
I continued grilling Werner for a while, but like a true politician, he skillfully avoided making any concrete statements and firmly stood his ground. 
“Anyway, we’re going to use my teleportation skill to return to the village for now,” I said. 
“W-wait! That would be a problem! Please give us some more time!” he replied. 
“Why do you want me to stay in the castle so bad?” I asked. 
“It would be bad for the country’s reputation if you were to leave without staying even one night,” he said. 
Ah, now it made sense. The other countries had left Siltvelt in charge of hosting and managing the Shield Hero. If I left the country because they had pissed me off, Siltvelt would lose its national prestige. 
“In such a case, it would be unclear whether we could comply with your request,” he continued. 
I had a feeling what he was saying was reasonable, but it still seemed suspicious. What a pain. 
“Then don’t let word get out! We’re just going to the village to sleep!” I said. 
“Umm, Mr. Naofumi . . . Don’t you think we should give them one last chance? Otherwise we’re never going to reach an agreement, and that would be a problem for us as well,” Raphtalia said. 
Werner must have realized I wouldn’t be able to argue with Raphtalia, because a look of relief spread across his face. Dammit! I glared at Sadeena. 
“We can try to get to Q’ten Lo without Siltvelt’s assistance, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to make it,” she said. 
Shit! What an annoying problem to have! 
“Fine,” I said. 
“Very well. I will call for a vote to comply with your request at an assembly in the near future. I shall do my best to ensure you receive our assistance, so please quell your anger,” Werner replied. 
In the near future? At an assembly? 
“Just what kind of cumbersome system does this country run on?!” I exclaimed. 
 
 
“Siltvelt is supposedly similar to what the heroes refer to as a democracy. Representatives from the different races gather and vote on issues,” Sadeena explained. 
A democracy?! They sure chose an annoying political system! 
“In the past, the opinions of the hakuko and other elite races had a lot of political sway. But that changed after the loss of a war weakened their standing, I believe,” she continued. 
That meant Trash was dragging me down even all the way out here in Siltvelt. Give me a break already! I was going to ask the queen to torture him when we got back to Melromarc. 
“Utter foolishness! The ignorant masses can gather and discuss things all they want, but that will never amount to anything of value!” Atla muttered. 
Hadn’t she been praising Siltvelt earlier? And what was with that comment, anyway? She sounded like some kind of oppressive dictator. 
“Okay, fine. I’m going to let this one go. But I want you to make sure I get my assistance as soon as possible,” I said. 
“Of course! As you wish, Shield Hero!” Werner replied. 
He bowed and then left the bathing area. After that, we all returned to my room. Well, Raphtalia and the others had to wait on standby in the next room over to comply with the Siltvelt rules. And so the night wore on. 
I almost forgot to mention that Werner said they planned on having more women waiting for me in my room after I returned from my bath. I remembered seeing a parade of disappointed-looking women walking down the hallway when I was heading back to my room.