Chapter Seven: A True Siltveltian
“What is this insolence? You and your brother are hakuko half-breeds. You have no right to speak here! Be gone!” Jaralis shouted.
“Half-breed? Right to speak? Pathetic! Have the people of Siltvelt — those of you here in this room, especially — not forgotten the most important thing of all?” Atla replied.
She may have only been a child, but she brushed off Jaralis’s angry response as if she were completely unaffected.
“What?!” shouted Jaralis.
“Hold your tongue!” yelled another member.
“A-Atla?” Fohl stuttered.
“I will not. I would not be able to forgive myself if I stood by and watched this farce without speaking up. My intellect, my intuition, and my heart are all telling me that your actions are wrong,” she replied.
As Atla was speaking, I could sense some kind of energy erupting from her body. The energy took on the form of a tiger and bore down on the Siltvelt leadership. It felt similar to bloodlust, but not quite the same. I wondered if it was some kind of advanced application of life force.
Atla stomped a foot down in front of her and the impact caused the floor to split open. The surrounding members of the Siltvelt leadership gulped.
“C-could she be . . .”
“Impossible . . .”
The way they were trembling in fear seemed to imply they knew something I didn’t, but that wasn’t really my concern at the moment. I decided to just cross my arms, sit there like a king on a throne, and hear her out.
“I want you all to recall the original purpose of Siltvelt. Recall why it came to exist in the first place. You say you worship the Shield Hero, but here you are treating him like dirt!” she shouted.
“Wh-what are you saying?! Have we not welcomed the Shield Hero back — ”
“Then tell me, why does Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero, look so upset?! Do you really think we have not noticed the innumerable times you have treated Mr. Naofumi rudely since we arrived?!” she continued.
They were all trembling like a group of children being scolded by their mother.
“I’m ashamed that I ever admired your so-called religious devotion!” she shouted.
Oh yeah. Atla had gone on about how fantastic their devotion was several times earlier. I’d been planning on having a talk with her about that before long.
“Now then, people of Siltvelt, do you know how this country was founded? Can you tell me why it exists?” she asked.
“O-of course! It was founded by the Shield Hero and exists for the sake of the Shield Hero!” one of them replied.
He’d taken the bait. Atla pointed at the man.
“That’s right! Siltvelt was built by the Shield Hero, just like that village in Melromarc was rebuilt by Mr. Naofumi! And yet you make veiled threats of sending assassins to the village! Your actions are a disgrace to the founding of your own country!” she exclaimed.
“N-nonsense!”
“Siltvelt is a huge country! That village in Melromarc is — ”
“And did Siltvelt start out as a huge country? Are you saying the village that Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero, is rebuilding is insignificant simply because it is small?” she snapped.
There was no end in sight to Atla’s castigation. She was really on a roll.
“Do you want the history books to tell of a world that longed for something fresh and new rather than settling for worn, old fossils?” she asked.
“Ugh . . . But . . .”
“What is the purpose of our power — these claws and these fangs of ours — in the first place? Think about it! Is it world domination? Or is it to protect others? It is neither! It is all for the sake of Mr. Naofumi, the Shield Hero!” she shouted.
The members of the leadership — Werner, in particular — began nodding repeatedly.
“Have you not spent years upon years sharpening those fangs to prepare for when they would be needed? You can insult me and call me a half-breed if you like, but that doesn’t change what this blood running through my veins is telling me. It demands my loyalty to Mr. Naofumi!”
Some kind of strange aura began to form around Atla, and the leadership gradually began clapping. I couldn’t believe it. Would they swallow anything dished out to them?
“That’s right! The waves of destruction are upon us! The fate of future generations lies in the hands of the Shield Hero! Have we not sharpened our fangs so that we may assist him? Then declare your loyalty to Mr. Naofumi! Serve him as a retainer should!”
The roar of applause filled the air. I was only looking on vacantly. Raphtalia had a look of disbelief on her face. There was a single lion therianthrope, along with his sidekick, who refused to join in on the applause. It was Jaralis, standing there with a scowl on his face.
“A-Atla?” Fohl muttered again.
He was staring at her with a look of amazement.
“I don’t know. Nothing she said seems outright wrong, so I can’t really argue with her,” Raphtalia said.
She seemed to mostly agree with Atla.
“Yeah. Her reasoning for being loyal to little Naofumi and her willingness to fight can’t be faulted,” Sadeena replied.
“Hm? We fight against the waves because Master asked us to, right?” Filo said.
They all voiced their support like it was completely obvious. Seeing this, the members of the Siltvelt leadership all knelt down, as if they had suddenly returned to their senses.
“I can’t believe I had to be told such a thing by a little girl like this. But it is just as she says,” Werner replied.
“We exist for the sake of the Shield Hero! Our purpose was supposed to be to rescue the world from the coming destruction. And yet we tried to treat the Shield Hero like a tool to gain power for ourselves. It’s unspeakable!” shouted another one of the members.
Everyone that had been clapping bowed to me. In a stark contrast to all of them, Jaralis and his sidekick glared at me and Atla.
“Objection! I submit that this Shield Hero standing here before us is not the true Shield Hero that Siltvelt has so longed for!” Jaralis roared.
“Jaralis, you bastard! Your insolence has crossed the line!” Werner snapped, rebuking Jaralis.
“Insolence? You’re mistaken. It is exactly because I care deeply about Siltvelt that I am calmly stating my opinion so that we might avoid making any foolish decisions,” Jaralis replied.
Hmph. His wording was a bit sensationalistic, but I had a feeling what he was saying wasn’t wrong. The whole “Shield Hero’s word is law” attitude was a bit too blindly accepting in the first place. That could easily lead to trouble. If the situation had been different, I might have agreed with him. But at this point, he was only getting in the way. In which case, I wondered what to do about him.
Hm? Atla must have had something else to say, because she took in a deep breath and . . .
“Mr. Naofumi — nay, our god makes no mistakes!” she screamed at the top of her voice.
That little twit. I was starting to think she might be a genius when it came to stirring up trouble. And what the hell? These people were actually nodding in agreement. Even I could admit I made mistakes from time to time! I’d have to talk some sense into Atla later.
“Or are you foolish enough to try to say that Mr. Naofumi is a fake hero?” she asked.
“Not at all. I have no intention of going that far. I am simply saying that I don’t believe he is the Shield Hero that we have been waiting for,” Jaralis replied.
He was trying to avoid attracting further disapproval by objecting without denying outright that I was indeed the Shield Hero. It was the response of a true politician.
“I am questioning whether what we are seeing now are truly the waves of destruction spoken of in the legends. As they say, haste makes waste. If these truly are the waves prophesied to destroy the world, then why was the Shield Hero successfully summoned by our enemy, Melromarc?! Indeed, the fact that the Shield Hero was called to our enemy’s territory is the ultimate proof that now is in fact not the time that has been foretold!” he roared.
There was no arguing that things might have turned out differently if I’d been summoned to Siltvelt by myself. I’d probably be spending time with my harem, engaging in some of that “rampant debauchery” that Sadeena liked to talk about, although I wanted to believe that wouldn’t have happened.
“No, I’m afraid that theory doesn’t hold water,” Atla replied.
She shook her head in disagreement. Oh? Was she going to argue?
“It is exactly because this is the prophesied time that the Shield Hero was summoned together with the other three holy heroes. The true power of the heroes lies in sharing their individual powers with each other. In other words, Mr. Naofumi was summoned to Melromarc because it is an appropriate location for the other three heroes to be summoned to. That is your proof that the world is in danger!” she continued.
“Keep your sophistry to yourself!” Jaralis roared.
“Who is the true sophist here?! I speak as one who has sworn my loyalty to Mr. Naofumi!” she snapped.
The members of the Siltvelt leadership gulped and fell completely silent. Just then, a voice came from near the entrance of the throne room.
“You ridicule the young child, yet she has a strong will and is as fierce as a tiger. If one were to ask which of you were the true Siltveltian, I suspect anyone here would answer the girl,” said the voice.
Everyone turned around. Standing in the entrance was a therianthrope that resembled a turtle. And standing next to him was Fohl’s contact — the hakuko that I’d met early that morning. The turtle’s tail looked like a snake. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but something about him made him seem plump.
“Who are you?” I asked, confused.
Werner’s expression of surprise softened. He regained his composure and answered for the man.
“He is a genmu, and one of the country’s most well-known nobles. He is among perhaps the top two most influential people here in Siltvelt,” Werner explained.
Genmu? Was that supposed to be genbu? Ah, so the genmu race resembled the Black Tortoise. All that was left was to find an aotatsu, or whatever they called the race that resembled the Azure Dragon. Then we would have all of the four symbols.
“Greetings, Shield Hero. I have heard of your many deeds. It is a true honor to make your acquaintance,” the turtle said.
“Thanks . . .” I replied.
“Might I remind you that you stand before the Shield Hero! No matter how powerful you may be, using that form here is unforgivable!” Werner snapped.
He spoke in a threatening voice, but he grinned at the genmu.
“My, my! I remain in this form at all times to keep myself protected, so I had completely forgotten,” he replied.
The genmu returned to his demi-human form. What had been a turtle was now a plump little man. He appeared to be rather elderly — around 60 years old, perhaps. The way he walked with a cane had already given that away. There was nothing particularly dislikable about the way he looked.
“Gentlemen, we have sharpened our fangs in preparation for the coming of the prophesied time. We have kept this country alive and strong so that it might support the Shield Hero. To imply that Siltvelt will fall apart if the Shield Hero does not remain here is utter foolishness. Do you not agree?” the man asked.
Aside from Jaralis and his sidekick, everyone nodded in agreement.
“Are you suggesting that we listen to this half-breed?! Nothing about her actions strikes me as being worthy of being called a true Siltveltian!” Jaralis roared.
That threatening aura erupted from Atla’s body once again.
“Is that so? If you insist on standing in Mr. Naofumi’s way no matter what, then . . .”
Atla pointed at Jaralis and issued a bold statement.
“Mr. Naofumi’s word is the law. If you are going to stand in his way, then I shall remove you using physical force!” she declared.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login