The next morning in Siltvelt . . . Actually, the Siltvelt castle town was apparently the castle town that never sleeps, so the streets were bustling all night long. It was pretty much the same in the morning. How did these people ever get any sleep? But then again, with such a diversity of demi-humans and therianthropes, I guess that couldn’t be helped. It made Melromarc seem quiet in comparison, and that just felt strange. I yawned. “I wonder when breakfast is,” I mumbled to myself. I woke up early since I was used to getting up at the crack of dawn to take care of the monsters. I played with them a bit in the morning before preparing breakfast. Other than Raphtalia and our group, there was no sign of anyone else in this section of the castle. Perhaps it was because they assumed I would still be in bed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if leaving the room would set off an alarm or something. But I hadn’t really gotten to talk with Raphtalia and the others much yesterday, so I decided to go meet up with them while I had the chance. I went to check the next room where they were staying. I’d already had Sadeena and Atla check the rooms for any concealed shadow-type agents. There had been a few, but we chased them off. Even Raphtalia and Raph-chan could see through their concealment techniques by now too. After what had happened at the baths, we decided not to let anyone stick around, no matter who they were. “Rafuuu!” Raph-chan was constantly on the lookout, so I was sure there was no one like that around anymore. If they were, I’d smoke them out and use that as an excuse to really get mad this time. Maybe they knew that, because it was dead quiet. We ran the guards off last night too, so there really was no one left. Alright! I quietly snuck out of my room and then walked over and opened the door to the next room. When I did, I saw Fohl and Atla sitting there talking to a hakuko-looking fellow that I’d never seen before. It must have been Raphtalia and the others’ turn to rest. “Mr. Naofumi!” Atla exclaimed, as if she had been deeply moved. “Good morning! Today is a good day!”
“Oh yeah?” I replied. I looked over at Fohl. He seemed a bit annoyed by Atla’s attitude, but I guess he wasn’t going to shower me with insults today. “Who is that?” I asked. “He’s someone who used to work for my brother,” Atla said. “That’s wrong, Atla. He worked for our parents,” Fohl replied, correcting Atla. Their parents’ servant or whatever he was looked at me and got down on one knee. “I can never thank you enough for so graciously taking Fohl and Atla in and even going so far as to nurse Atla back to health,” he said. “Umm, sure. Don’t worry about it,” I replied. I think he was the first hakuko I’d seen here in Siltvelt. “You truly are amazing, Shield Hero. To be able to witness such a miracle — I am simply in awe,” he continued. “That’s enough of the formalities. And the gushy words of gratitude. Any more and I’ll get mad,” I said. He looked up at me for a moment and then bowed deeply and stood up. “So what were you three talking about?” I asked. “Don’t you remember what we discussed before coming here? You said you wanted to try asking for assistance if I knew of anyone,” Fohl replied. “Oh yeah. So this is that person?” “Well, yeah.” This guy was supposed to assist us? I guess, with the way things were now, all I could do was ask him what he’d be able to do for us. “And what can you do for us? I’m not interested in trying to force you to help if there’s nothing you can actually do,” I said. “There are several options we can discuss, but before that I wanted to tell you that the shusaku and his followers here in Siltvelt have no intention of letting you leave the country,” he replied. “I don’t know how much of what you say I can trust, but judging from Werner’s reaction yesterday, that wouldn’t be a surprise,” I said. I’d gotten a glimpse of his true intentions via his attempt to keep me tied down here by throwing women at me. “I’m not sure why he would want to keep someone as dangerous as me around, considering I could put his position at risk. He must be out of his mind,” I continued.
“I suppose that depends on the hero,” the man replied. “What does?” I asked. “Well, you know . . .” I guess I could imagine something about getting me to marry someone. “There are a number of possibilities, but I’m sure you can imagine what they might be,” the man continued. “Does he plan on giving us a boat to Q’ten Lo?” I asked. “We haven’t been able to verify those details yet,” he replied. I wondered if that meant I shouldn’t expect much. I was starting to think this trip had been a waste of time. “How disappointing,” Atla said. Wasn’t that supposed to be my line? “The hakuko are currently in the process of doing everything we can to see that your request is fulfilled, both for your sake and Fohl’s as well,” the man said. “That said, any semblance of hakuko influence in Siltvelt is basically for show now, so don’t expect much,” Fohl emphasized. I wasn’t a monster. I wouldn’t act without taking the other party’s position into consideration. But damn, I wanted to get out of this country and invade Q’ten Lo already! Since Siltvelt was a democracy, I wondered if that meant the hakuko were just busy trying to convince the other races to provide us assistance. I had no idea how many political factions there were. “There is something else too, Fohl. There is a dubious character here in Siltvelt that you and the Shield Hero must be very careful of,” the man said. “Huh? What do you mean?” Fohl asked. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to listen, just for reference,” I said. “Isn’t that a bit rude?” Fohl replied. He looked at me with a disgusted look in his eyes and Atla gave him a sharp jab. “Ugh . . .” “It’s a therianthrope who was with Fohl’s grandfather at the time of his death. His name is Jaralis and — ” We heard footsteps approaching. The hakuko interrupted the conversation, bowed, and left the room. Several moments later, a therianthrope that looked like a female lion showed up. She seemed to be looking for me. “There you are, Shield Hero,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter where I am as long as I’m in the castle, right?” I replied. “You never know where an assassin might be lurking. Please wait in your room until it is time.” “Yeah, sure. Whatever,” I said. Hmph. So there was some kind of conspiracy in Siltvelt and now I knew who to watch out for. Jaralis was that lion therianthrope, right? I didn’t know how far his involvement went or what the conspiracy was, but I needed to get them to agree to prepare a boat as soon as possible. I didn’t care about any Siltvelt conspiracies anyway. They could conspire all they wanted. I had no interest in that kind of thing—as long as it didn’t cause me any trouble. I’m sure they felt the same way too. Because I had been somewhere far away, their worship of the Shield Hero over the generations and all of that was easy to take advantage of. Siltvelt hadn’t tried to get involved with me before now. And that was my answer. “Alright, Atla and Fohl. Tell Raphtalia and the others I said hey,” I said. “Okay,” Fohl replied. “No, it’s not okay. When will we get to see Mr. Naofumi again?” Atla asked the lion. I stood up to go back to my room. Atla made it clear that she was upset as she questioned the lion. “You’ll be eating breakfast with the Shield Hero later, so please be patient,” the lion replied. “There you go. See you then,” I said. “Understood,” Atla replied. I went back to my oversized bedroom and had a staring contest with Raph-chan to pass the time until breakfast. Hmm . . . If something was bound to happen, maybe I should go ahead and bring Filo back with me to the room as another pet to ensure mobility. I wasn’t sure, but maybe she could transform into a filolial chick and then she could be another secret weapon like Raph-chan. I could use her to get away if things went south. Yeah, I was going to try that. Raphtalia and the others could get away using some other means. I had a feeling this idea was a stroke of genius.
The time came to go eat breakfast. I was taken to a terrace with a really nice view. There was a table surrounded by a ton of people, and they sat me at the head of the table. I guess this was where we were going to eat breakfast. Raphtalia and the others showed up and sat down too.
“How is everything?” I asked. “No problems so far. I do feel murderous stares every now and then, though,” Raphtalia said. “I bet,” I replied. I looked at the dishes that had been laid out before us. Hmm. Raphtalia and I squinted and stared at the food. “Hm?” Filo muttered. She seemed to have noticed right away too. I guess those were her filolial instincts. “. . .” Atla seemed to have a sense for that kind of thing too. But Fohl still had no idea. In that case, it must have been something that even your average demi-human or therianthrope wouldn’t catch. “Oh my,” Sadeena whispered. She’d noticed too. Raphtalia’s and Filo’s reactions had probably tipped her off. I really did have an observant bunch of companions. I looked over at each of them and signaled them with my eyes. They all nodded. I was going to stay quiet and see how things played out. “Now then, let us all enjoy our meal,” Werner announced after standing up. Everything hinged upon whether or not he knew what was going on. And then, almost as if they had arranged it beforehand, everyone present clasped their hands together in unison and began to pray. “May all be as our Lord the Shield wills it. We are thankful for this food that nourishes our mortal bodies. May it give us the strength to carry out the wishes of our lord, the protector of this world.” “May it give us the strength!” Holy shit, I almost fell out of my chair! What kind of prayer was that?! I mean, I’d been called the saint of the bird god before, but this was way more awkward than that! I never imagined being worshipped this openly would be so creepy! But whatever. I’d ignore that for the time being. Without saying a word, I put a bite of stew in my mouth and pretended to swallow it before spitting it out in a napkin. Then I looked around. Hmm. I stood up and pointed at the stew I’d been served.
“Ahem! So you all just prayed to me, your ‘Lord the Shield.’ Well, as the Shield Hero, I’m ordering you all to eat a bite of this stew stuff that was served to me and my companions. Right now,” I said. “Umm, as you wish.” Werner and several other members of the Siltvelt leadership did as I ordered and ate a bite of the stew. “Go ahead, Atla,” I said. “Understood!” In a flash, she leapt behind the members that hadn’t eaten the stew and delivered a quick jab to each of their backs. “Gah! Wh-what’s the idea?!” one of them shouted. “She’s just following my orders. Now then . . .” I said. I pulled out several powerful antidotes from my shield and tossed them to the ones who had eaten the stew. “I don’t know how fast-acting the poison is, so you should probably go ahead and drink the antidote. Now then . . .” I continued. I leaned back and put my feet up on the table, like an ill-mannered twerp, and glared at the members of the leadership. “So who wants to explain?” I asked. That’s right. The food we’d been served had been poisoned. My shield and Raphtalia’s katana had the ability to detect poisons. The ability was called “poison sensing,” but that was beside the point. If we put any kind of poisonous plant in our weapons and analyzed it, a warning would pop up. I had no intention of forgiving the scoundrels who had so blatantly tried to assassinate me and my companions. Being a political enemy was no excuse. Anyone willing to make an attempt on another’s life needed to be held accountable. “Apparently you weren’t involved,” I said as I glared at Werner. It seemed like he really hadn’t known. He was in a state of shock. The person in charge of tasting for poison must have been in on it, because he was looking at me with a disgusted look on his face. “What were you thinking!?” Werner slammed his hands down on the table and shouted at the members we’d exposed. “Ugh . . .” “I’m absolutely horrified! Execute them at once!” he continued. “That would be letting them off easy,” I said. I looked over at the lion therianthrope who hadn’t eaten the stew. He thought no one had noticed, but I saw him smirk ever so slightly when I pretended to take a bite.
And then without delay, I swung into action. We left breakfast uneaten and moved to the throne room. I sat on the throne and had the perpetrators kneel before me. “I’ll see to it that everyone who was involved is smoked out. Please give me some time,” Werner said. “Sorry, but I’m done waiting. I’ve had enough of your stalling!” I shouted. I glared at Werner and he simply bowed his head. I guess that meant he wasn’t going to try to argue. “Listen up. We want to get to Q’ten Lo as soon as possible and we need you to arrange for that to happen. I have no interest in doing anything that will cause problems for any of you. If you want to engage in a power struggle, that’s fine, but leave me out of it,” I said. There was no way I was going to stick around with a bunch of bastards who’d tried to assassinate my whole party. The lion therianthrope had been staring at the ground, but he looked up and took a step forward. “Making such a demand is easy, but if there is backlash from the people, I don’t know if we will be able to keep them under control,” he said. “You ‘don’t know’? Bullshit,” I replied. “Not at all. I’ve heard that assassins are being sent to your territory. If there is backlash, I can’t deny the possibility that some of Siltvelt’s citizens might join those assassins in their mission,” he went on. “Oh really? And why is that?” “Is it not obvious? A Shield Hero who is content with staying in Melromarc is of no value to them. To them, such a Shield Hero is but an imposter, presuming to be a god. It would be no surprise if we saw the emergence of a faction of citizens driven to violence by their own sense of justice,” he explained. I had to admit that what he was saying did make sense. So in other words, he wanted to say that it was my fault that there was unrest within Siltvelt. “It’s only natural that we would want you to do everything you can to help resolve this issue. Whether you do that directly or leave it to your underlings is of little consequence,” he continued. “And what exactly do you want me to do?” I asked.
“I’m sure you already know the answer to that. It’s the same thing Werner desires as representative of the shusaku. The same thing all members of the Siltvelt leadership desire. Indeed, it is the same thing that all of Siltvelt desires,” he replied. I stood there silently, looking at the lion therianthrope and wondering what he wanted to say. “First of all, it goes without saying that you would commit to acting as the Shield Hero solely on behalf of Siltvelt,” he said. “Solely?” I asked. After the incident with the Spirit Tortoise, the waves had stopped occurring in this world for the time being. But that was temporary, and when they started again it would be up to me, Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu to travel around the world taking care of them. That went for the seven star heroes too, of course. I didn’t know where they were or when I would see them, but if we didn’t all cooperate to put an end to the waves, we would most likely end up facing the same kind of problem Kizuna’s world was up against. I really wanted to talk to the seven star heroes about all of that now, before the waves started again. “That is correct. You would act not on behalf of our enemy Melromarc, but as Siltvelt’s hero, and only Siltvelt’s hero,” he replied. “The heroes have to fight waves all over the world. Are you saying you have a problem with that? If there’s something you want me to do here in Siltvelt, then I might be able to agree, depending on what it is,” I said. The lion therianthrope sneered and gave an instigative response. “Are you that naïve? Do you really think Siltvelt is going to send its hero to other countries? Don’t be absurd. Leaving the country without permission would be inexcusable,” he said. “So basically, you want to put me under house arrest here in the castle.” What a joke! I was so mad I could feel smoke coming out of my ears. I’d experienced all sorts of ridiculousness in this world, but it had been a long time since a request had pissed me off so much. “Furthermore, you will take one wife from each tribe and produce an heir with each. Once you have done that, you will have fulfilled the absolute minimum of your obligations as the Shield Hero. Do you even have any idea how much discontent has accumulated among the tribes?” he continued. So he was saying I was supposed to form a harem and get all of my wives pregnant?
“If you cannot even do that much, the tribes’ dissatisfaction with the current Shield Hero is certain to remain. You say Q’ten Lo assassins are being sent to your territory? That’s your own fault. That country is undoubtedly after you, the Shield Hero. To say that they would come after a pathetic racoon such as her is absolutely ludicrous,” he went on. And to top it all off, he glared at Raphtalia like she was a piece of trash while he insulted her. I wasn’t sure I could resist the urge to kill him anymore. That did it. I’d activate my Shooting Star Shield and parade around the castle town, declaring that the country’s leaders were rotten to the core and needed to be overthrown immediately. I’d start a revolution. If I didn’t, I was never going to get to Q’ten Lo. “Jaralis! Hold your tongue! Shield Hero, I beg of you, please ignore him!” Werner exclaimed. He must have sensed my anger, because he got down on the ground and prostrated himself, begging for forgiveness. But I wasn’t the type to let something go so easily. “Do not misunderstand. What I have told you is the collective opinion of the people of Siltvelt. That is a fact. However, I am not like them. Leave the arrangement of your trading ship to Q’ten Lo to me, Shield Hero,” Jaralis said as he approached me. He clenched his fists tightly as he openly defied Werner. “Jaralis! You bastard!” Werner shouted. “That is right, Shield Hero. I shall prepare a ship for you. You have my word,” Jaralis continued. “Hmm . . .” Did this guy think I was an idiot or something? The members who’d tried to poison us were all glaring at him, and it was obvious that they wanted to say, “That’s not what we agreed on!” He probably just planned on running if I pointed it out. But surely he, of all people, knew just how much influence I had as the Shield Hero. I might have even been able to get away with having Raphtalia and the others kill him right there on the spot by just saying I’d told them to. “Heeeey Maaasteerrr, why is that person saying something he doesn’t really meeeaan?” Filo asked. She pointed at Jaralis. “Are you implying that I’m lying? Ha! I wonder what gives you that idea,” he said.
“Huuuh? But when you said you would prepare a boat, you had the same look in your eyes as a person who’s lyyyying. Just like Mel-chan’s big sister or that armor guy that worked for the bow guuuy,” Filo replied. Just like Witch or Armor, huh? Yeah, this guy was definitely just about as untrustworthy as those two. “It’s unfortunate that you think that. Regardless, I am being quite sincere,” he said. “Huuuh? But when Master was about to eat that stew, you were clenching your hands under the table in anticipation. I saw yooou,” Filo replied. “I saw that too. You should have done a little better about hiding it,” I said. “Y-you’re mistaken! That’s purely a coincidence! Does clenching one’s fists make one a criminal?! Do you enjoy framing people, Shield Hero?” he asked. Hmph. So he knew about my past trauma and was using that to try to manipulate me. But I saw him smirk ever so slightly when I pretended to eat the stew. He was undeniably rotten. It was obvious he was trying to use me for his own political purposes. Now I just needed to decide how to cook his goose. “Framing, huh? I have no problem with presuming innocence when in doubt, but I saw you smirking. Or do you have an excuse for that too?” I asked. “Your eyes were clearly playing tricks on you,” he replied. That was a ballsy answer. So I guess he was going to insist that what I’d witnessed was just me seeing things. “That’s not truuuue. You were acting fidgety before Master took a bite toooo,” Filo said. She really was good at seeing through others’ lies. “Why are you doing thiiis? Why don’t you tell the truuuuth?” she asked. With a little bit of guidance, she could come in handy during the interrogations. Actually, I guess I’d used her against Melty before too. Her tactics didn’t work on me, though.
“Alright then, maybe I’ll put Filo in charge of questioning the poison taster. If he doesn’t know anything, then we’ll just question the next person. You’ll be last. Then again, even if things don’t lead back to you, you’ve done plenty of other shady things too. I refuse to trust you,” I told Jaralis. “Oh, dear!” he replied. He made an exaggerated show of being mortified when I pointed at him. “Reprehensible! I can bear no more of this!” Atla declared loudly as she took a step forward. “Huh?”
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