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Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 8




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Chapter Eight: The Troubles of the Shield Hero

A semblance of everyday life returned to the village for a while.

Raphtalia’s healing and Raph-chan’s illusion magic helped treat Keel’s trauma, and the simulated fights with the cerberus seemed to be having a positive effect too. We were putting together a comprehensive plan that included letting those who were still suffering consider Holn’s modification. Piensa was desperate to simply quell their own internal unrest, and it didn’t seem likely they would make a big move anytime soon. Melty and the others were giving them the runaround, in the best possible way. With Natalia resident in Siltran now, it made it even harder for Piensa to send heroes into battle. We just had to pray they didn’t make a stupid mistake.

One evening when we had finished our trading for the day and I was suggesting to Raphtalia that we return to the village, I noticed Cian—who was also along for the ride—looking at me like she wanted to say something. I gave Raphtalia a puzzled look for a moment.

“What’s up?” I asked Cian. There was no reply, and she just looked down. Maybe I needed to take this to Mamoru.

“What’s going on?” Keel said, coming over. She had helped bring in a lot of customers again today.

“You’re the Shield Hero from the future, right?” Cian finally asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“The same as Mamoru, right?” Cian said, seeking further confirmation.

“I mean, sure—I’m the Shield Hero. That’s the same, at least,” I told her.

“And you’ve managed to fix Keel’s trauma?” Cian continued. I looked over at Keel. It seemed we were making progress in that direction. I wasn’t sure exactly how much, but it seemed wise to give a definite answer here. Something was up with Cian.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“Does that mean . . . you can save Mamoru too?” Cian asked.

“Save him?” I replied. Mamoru was the one saving Siltran, surely. Then I remembered something from the whole Holn security breach fiasco. When I asked him if he could deal with Holn, he had almost started to hyperventilate like Keel. I had suspected that there was something going on there, and now it seemed that Cian knew the truth and was looking to do something about it. Mamoru took good care of these kids, and they were an energetic and helpful bunch. They had helped out a lot with the trading too. He had made a good relationship with them. “Why are you bringing this to me?” I asked. “Surely you’d be better off asking Holn or R’yne?”

“I don’t think they can help. Looking at Fohl made me think that only another Shield Hero could do something about this,” she replied. There did seem to be something there with Fohl, but he seemed to struggle a little with her, without even really knowing why himself. “I’m going back to the castle now. Once night falls, will you bring the charm that Holn gave you and come in secret to meet me?” Cian asked. It sounded like she wanted to show me something. She didn’t normally talk this much and was very shy—still, she seemed to quite like me.

“Sure, I guess I can do that,” I replied, still a little unsure where this was going.

“Thank you. But don’t bring too many people. Especially not that person who looks like Raphtalia,” Cian said.

“You mean Natalia?” I asked. She nodded. I wondered why Natalia in particular would be undesirable. She did seem to have an Eclair-level streak of inflexibility, so maybe that was it.

“You can bring Fohl and Raphtalia too,” Cian continued. Raphtalia, Fohl, and me. I wasn’t sure how she was making her picks, but combat-wise, that wasn’t a bad party.

“Raph?” asked Raph-chan.

“Sure. If you’re good at hiding, you can come,” Cian replied, stroking Raph-chan as she moved over to her.

“Dafu,” said Dafu-chan. It sounded like she had gotten permission to join us too.

“What about me?” Keel asked hopefully.

“You always make a big noise, so definitely not. Don’t bring any filolials either,” Cian said, crossing her arms in front of her to shut Keel down completely. The two of them still couldn’t understand everything the other said, but they were reaching a mutual understanding.

She was being pretty strict on who to bring though! This wasn’t a game-type thing where party members were restricted, but there had to be some reason for this.

“Hmmm,” I pondered.

“Bubba, what do you think?” Keel asked.

“I don’t know exactly what Cian wants to tell us, so this isn’t an easy choice. Considering our relationship with Mamoru and Siltran, though, we can’t really afford to turn her down,” I reasoned. The way Cian was acting, this seemed like a pretty serious issue. It felt like we would be letting something big slip past if we just ignored it. If it was going to be a problem, we needed to get the jump on it now. “Okay,” I finally agreed. “We’ll see you later.”

“Good. Watch out for sentries and security devices. You need to make sure you aren’t seen, no matter what,” Cian asserted.

“Sure, we’ll be fine,” I said, a little offhandedly. We returned to the village, and then took Mamoru’s allies back to the castle in order to swap them with Melty and the others. Melty was in a great mood, the restoration of Siltran going very well.

Then it was back to the village. We finished eating our evening meal, and then I put together the party as Cian had requested—Raphtalia, Fohl, the Raph-chans, and me—and sneaked in past the Siltran castle gate. Raphtalia and the two cuties had concealment magic, and with our levels and physical training, it was no problem to just climb the walls. We dropped down on the other side and reached our intended destination, the castle garden, to find Cian waiting for us.

“Here we are,” I said, keeping my voice low. Cian’s ears pricked up and she looked over in our direction.

“Hold on. Don’t reveal yourselves,” she said, pointing toward the castle wall just as Raphtalia was about to end her concealment magic. There were a number of birds circling around in a fixed loop above the castle walls. Birds at night were definitely out of place.

“Those must be familiars,” Raphtalia said. Castle security was using familiars too then.

“If they spot anyone, they make a loud noise. That’s how they are set up,” Cian said.

“Okay. What do you want us to do then?” I asked.

“Keep noise down to the absolute minimum. I have a pretty good idea where you are,” Cian replied. If she could sense us even through Raphtalia’s brand of concealment, that meant she had to be super sensitive. “You’re there, right, Fohl?” Cian said.

“That’s right,” he replied haltingly. Cian couldn’t see him but still reached out and took his hand, then started off. Fohl didn’t seem that happy with the arrangement, but we followed along behind her. Fohl really did seem to have a problem with Cian. He had looked after Atla for so long that he shouldn’t have any issues with taking care of kids. I wondered what his deal was.

We proceeded through the Siltran castle as I mulled over these thoughts. It was pretty quiet, all things considered. Back in the village, the nightly ruckus would only just be getting started. Some people would be getting training in after dinner, or taking a bath, or chatting with friends about the day. I’d thought Mamoru would be doing the same with his friends at this time of day. I looked around again. This place was just too quiet.

Thinking about our arrival, I realized the same could be said of the Siltran castle town. There had been some activity, but it hadn’t looked like the people had been enjoying themselves . . . just resting, waiting for something. An odd feeling. Even for a small nation, which easily got swept up in conflicts, there seemed to be too much tension in the air. It was almost like they were putting on a show just for us, lively when we were around but quiet when they thought no one was looking.

We continued through the castle.

“Wait a moment here. You absolutely must not make a noise beyond this point,” Cian warned us. She released Fohl’s hand and then pressed a part of the wall that until a moment ago had just looked like a dead end. With a rumbling, stairs appeared, leading downward. This was becoming a bit of a pattern recently, especially if this was also the work of Holn. She’d made modifications to the castle too.

Then what looked like a monster—it could have been Chick in a slightly more developed form—poked its head out the stairway and looked at Cian with a chirp.

“Fijia, great work on the lookout,” Cian said. The monster called Fijia raised one wing in reply. I had all sorts of questions but had been told not to make a noise. The chick thing was chirping enough, that was for sure.

“I know. We’re coming,” Cian said. Hurried along by this Fijia creature, Cian started down the stairway, beckoning for us to follow her. We proceeded cautiously behind her. Fijia pressed the wall again and the entrance closed up behind us, and then she returned to her post and started preening her wings. Cian said goodbye to Fijia and we started down the passageway. I was still intrigued by the bird. I hadn’t seen anything like that here before. Raphtalia seemed to be having similar thoughts and was also having to hold her questions in. Cian, however, was pressing forward, seemingly intent on not letting us waste time with chatter.

A moment later, it felt like we had passed through a membrane of some kind. I looked around the vicinity to see Cian turn back and make a leaf shape with her fingers. She was indicating the accessory that Holn gave us. Maybe it was some kind of key to get through all this security. The passageway itself was much like the hidden base Holn had created for herself in our village, with a sequence of corridors and rooms. She seemed to have spent a lot of time on this one, because we passed numerous doors along the way, but Cian just ignored them and carried on. One of them looked like a prison cell, with a grate to look through. I peered inside and saw someone who looked like a therianthrope sleeping, snoring loudly. That only made this all the more confusing. I couldn’t even tell what kind of therianthrope it was. It looked like a sheep but then had fangs and muscles that were more like a wolf. Some kind of human chimera, perhaps. It was a strange thing to see here though—we were still in Siltran, after all.

We continued quietly forward, and then Cian stopped.

“Walk exactly where I do,” she told us, as though muttering to herself, and then she started out. I put the Raph-chans on a float shield and followed after Cian, putting each foot carefully after the other. Raphtalia and Fohl then had to follow behind, but this was all going to be too much hassle. I decided to cover the ground with an Air Strike Shield and make it easier for them to proceed. I triggered one for them, and they continued along behind me. There was another door with a gate, so I checked that one too. This time there was a monster that looked a bit like an eagle suspended in one of those cultivation tanks. It was red, a burning, fiery red.

“Next you need to crouch down . . .” Cian said, pointing ahead. I didn’t see anything of notice at first but then spotted delicate wires suspended in the air. They might have had cutting effects, but that was meaningless against me. I could just push through them, if I wanted to. If they were connected to some kind of alarm, however, we were finished. The security in here was no laughing matter.

We made it through the traps arrayed against us and continued onward. Eventually, a kid appeared, who looked to be on watch. She looked kind of familiar too. She had a bit of a spaced-out vibe about her, a pale blue color . . . and a rucksack on her back.

“Good evening, Fitoria,” Cian said, raising her hand in greeting. Hearing that name made me do a double take. She did look a bit like a younger version of the Fitoria that we knew. It was almost enough to make me make a noise, but I held it in. Fitoria might have sensed something coming from us, because she tilted her head in puzzlement and reached out toward me. I managed to avoid her hand.

“What are you doing?” Cian asked, watching as Fitoria chopped at the air and looked around intently.

“It’s like . . . there’s something here,” Fitoria replied.

“Like what? An invisible man? Just get back to your post,” Cian said lightly.

“Okay,” Fitoria agreed, still looking a little suspicious as she turned away. That was a close one—and I was still spinning out over having found Fitoria here! This was more than someone else who looked a bit like her. She had feathers on her back and everything. I was sure—pretty sure—that I wasn’t wrong.

Cian was clumping along, perhaps trying to make some extra noise to cover us being there. Still unable to talk about anything, we followed where Cian led. Eventually, she brought us to a certain room.

“Hey, Cian. Where have you been?” The speaker was Mamoru. He was in the room, looking at Cian with gentle eyes.

“I wanted to get some night air, so I went for a walk in the gardens,” Cian replied.

“I see. It’s a modeling day today though, so you need to be on time,” Mamoru chided gently. The scene in the room provided the rest of us with a bigger surprise than just having encountered Fitoria. To the right of Mamoru, there were countless cultivation tanks, and inside them were the children who Mamoru looked after. They had their eyes closed, as though they were sleeping. On his left, there was a bird monster like the one from the stairs, but this one looked a bit more human in form. Right in the back, there was one tank larger than all the others, with a single girl floating inside it. She had a face a bit like Fitoria, maybe with some R’yne mixed in. She was also like S’yne and Filo. I wondered who she was.

I also wondered what the hell this entire place was.

“Hey, Mamoru,” Cian started.

“What is it?” Mamoru asked. He was attempting to show her to one of the tanks, and Cian had clearly plucked up her courage to speak to him.

“I want you to change back to the old Mamoru,” Cian continued. “I can tell how sad you are. That’s why we want to get stronger and why we asked for you to give us this strength. If the experiments aren’t going well, then we can ask someone other than Holn to help . . .” But Mamoru shook his head, an intensely sad expression on his face.

“I know what you’re trying to say,” Mamoru replied to her. “But we can’t. That isn’t an option.” What he was saying, combined with his gentle tone, created a strangely prickly atmosphere. “This is the most important time. If we can just make it through, no one will have to suffer anymore. We can make it through the conflict . . . without having to make any sacrifices.” I was sure a sound like a puzzle piece clicking into place rang out from inside my head. “Today we’re going to be practicing therianthrope transformation. Get inside here . . . I’ll lead you into it. Everyone is waiting.” But Cian shook her head.

“Mamoru, I’m not going to say I don’t want to be strong. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. But will this really make you smile like before? You only seem to be suffering more and more, recently . . .” Cian said.

“It’s fine, Cian. Just do as I say,” Mamoru replied.

“I’m sorry, Mamoru. I need you to think ahead!” Cian exclaimed. Then she looked in our direction. Mamoru looked over too, wondering what was going on. That seemed to be our signal. I gave Raphtalia the nod and she dropped the concealment.

“You seem to be conducting some pretty shady experiments down here,” I noted sardonically. Mamoru looked like he’d been hit in the stomach.

“Cian!” he roared at her. But Cian was just scratching at her face, as nonchalantly as a real cat might be. “What have you done? You’ve ruined everything! We’re finished!”

“Finished why, exactly? Because of your human experiments on children? Or because Natalia is going to find out about all of this now?” I asked. I was starting to see why Natalia had been sent here from Q’ten Lo—and it wasn’t about Holn stepping off the path of a hero or the Bow Hero planning to pull something nasty. It was because Mamoru was dipping his toes into waters best left undisturbed by the Shield Hero. Maybe he had even been corrupted by the Curse Series. Cian had said something about him returning to the “old Mamoru.” Based on what I’d seen with the other heroes, I could tell something was going on here. Ren had started out with a strong sense of responsibility, for example, but in many ways, it had been too strong. That had conversely kept him from wanting to get too involved in the affairs of others, along with a fear of making things worse by getting involved. That was why he had started out alone . . . or just with a small group of elite fighters, people he was confident he could protect. Ultimately, although he had overcome the arrogance derived from his gaming history, when I left him in charge of the village, the responsibility had crushed him, leaving him bedridden.

For Itsuki, his overbearing sense of justice had worked against him, sending him on a rampage in which he gave no thought to the situation of others and just followed what he believed was his own justice. He had ultimately lost his individuality as a result of a cursed weapon. While being treated for that, he had been given time to think and mature, and now he had calmed down a lot.

Motoyasu . . . wasn’t even worth considering. He was the worst of the bunch by a mile. Now, though, I had to admit, he was also the one among us who wanted to save other people, wanted to believe in other people, the strongest. There were issues with his approach there too, of course, and he didn’t think too highly of people. In fact, he only really cared about Filo and the filolials and was becoming a bit of a troublemaker for everyone.

Even I had a totally different personality now from when I first came here. And Cian wanted Mamoru to return to how he had been before.

“This place has just been one surprise after another,” I quipped.

“You said it,” Raphtalia agreed. “In all sorts of ways. Can you please explain all this?” she asked Mamoru.

“I’m sorry, but that’s not on the table,” he replied. “Even if you are heroes from the future!” Alarms started to ring out inside the facility, and the doors behind us opened up at once. R’yne came in and then shook her head as she seemingly quickly picked up on what was going on.

“Check it out. The cat’s out of the bag, huh?” R’yne said.

“You were in on this too?” I asked her.

“In a roundabout way,” R’yne replied. She didn’t seem all that happy about it, but she also didn’t seem ready to back down, turning her sewing tool into a pair of scissors and popping out her wings. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to avoid a fight. “You definitely helped out by keeping Natalia’s attention on Holn.”

“The alliance between us ends here!” Mamoru exclaimed.

“Cool it. We just want to talk. Can we start with that? We were friends a moment ago,” I said. Mamoru had been very cooperative, almost since we first met. There was some shady stuff going on here, but we could work through it.

“I can’t stop now! Everyone needs this!” Mamoru ranted.

“Listen to me!” I shouted back. But Mamoru called out a shield with a suspicious-looking aura around it and was fiddling with something in his field of vision. It looked like maybe he had dug up some hidden weapons after all—like something from the Curse Series.

Then the liquid in the cultivation tanks containing the children started to bubble. In the same moment, Cian sank down to the ground, clutching her chest. Then the kids all started to transform . . . following the exact same process that Sadeena and Fohl did when they became therianthropes. I could tell right away that this was something being done to them, however, rather than something they did voluntarily.

Cian had always had some slightly odd things about her. There was that time she moved at super speed onto the back of the ultros and slashed its throat, for example. That kind of behavior, almost instinctual, didn’t really match with her level and combat experience. Meaning she was able to rely on some kind of special instincts in battle. That had been a sign of her human modifications—she’d been set up to unconsciously use such abilities.

As I watched Cian turn not into a cat, but a white tiger—the exact same form as a therianthrope hakuko—my guesswork changed to conviction. The other kids were also changing, into shusaku, genmu, and aotatsu therianthropes.

The Shield Hero prior to me had done great work. One of the things he did was act as a go-between for the demi-humans and the humans. I didn’t know exactly when that had been, but it was likely around the time that Faubrey was established. The name “Faubrey” suggested to me that the four heroes had worked together to establish the nation. In any case, this was definitely something that happened after the period we were currently visiting.

Then there was also his establishment of the nation of Siltvelt and the affection the four primary races showed him. In this time, though, those four races didn’t even exist. There was something about the characteristics of the four primary races of Siltvelt that nagged at me a little—the question of exactly what kind of demi-human they were. I had met a variety of demi-humans and therianthropes in my time here. Every race had characteristics that pointed to a single animal. Raphtalia was a tanuki, Sadeena a killer whale, Keel a dog, and Imiya a mole. There were plenty of others too, and all of them had been animals I recognized.

Apart from the four primary races of Siltvelt, it was easy to say “white tiger” for the hakuko, but something seemed off there too. There had already been enemies like the Phoenix and Spirit Tortoise that seemed rooted in Chinese mythology, and the hakuko seemed more along those lines—like the mythical byakko white tiger. For shusaku, genmu, and aotatsu, there was also the legendary suzaku, genbu, and seiryu. But if seiryu was the dragon, what did that make the other dragons? Exceptions to the rules, perhaps. They could increase their numbers without intervention, after all. This was another world, meaning creatures of their bloodline could exist here too. There had been kappa in Q’ten Lo and I hadn’t batted an eyelid—I was well past the point of such things bothering me.

It looked like my original thinking on the matter—that races living in the world of the Sword and Spear had come to settle in Siltvelt after the fusing of the worlds—had been incorrect, anyway.

“Fohl,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ve worked out why you feel odd around Cian,” I told him. It made sense if she was his ancestor—on his father’s side, of course.

“Brother . . . this is hardly the time,” Fohl replied.

“I’d expect no less from Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia chipped in. Cian finished her transformation with a growl and looked around. The situation was not especially rosy.

“Cian, can you hear me?” I asked, but she only growled at me angrily in reply. It looked like an incomplete and out-of-control therianthrope transformation. Cian was clearly trying to hold in her aggression, gripping her right arm with her left hand hard enough to draw blood.

“Confusion Target!” Mamoru said, pointing a finger toward us. All the kids immediately turned their aggression toward us and started to measure up the space between us. It looked like even if they lost control once transformed into therianthropes, Mamoru had a skill that he could use to make them attack a specific target. “C’mon Fimonoa!” With that shout, the three-winged birds we had seen on the way here appeared around him. Then I realized what they were—familiars. So he had a skill to summon them, the same as I did for Raph-chan.

I looked around myself, seeing that we were surrounded by Mamoru’s allies.

“Shooting Star Shield, Air Strike Float Shield, Second Float Shield!” I set up some barriers and deployed some shields, just in case they attacked. The question now was, how the hell did we get out of this situation?

“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia asked, wanting to know what to do.

“Brother,” said Fohl, wanting the same thing, even as both of them also prepared for the worst.

“Mamoru, are you serious about fighting us?” I asked him. I couldn’t see any reason to go ahead with it. The circumstances seemed different than with the resurrected, and it felt more like he was losing control just because his secrets had been exposed.

“Dafu!” said Dafu-chan, up on my shoulder and making aggressive gestures toward Mamoru. Raph-chan was also up on Raphtalia’s shoulder, warning off would-be attackers as well.

“Of course,” Mamoru replied. “You’ve seen all of this now.”

“Hah. Mamoru, you’re forgetting one important thing,” I said. “You’ve been so worried about Natalia . . . but do you really think Raphtalia is any less strong?” Certain things might have been lost along the way, but Raphtalia was still the Heavenly Emperor in the future. Not to mention, he had to know we had a sakura stone of destiny. Picking up perfectly on what I was doing, Raphtalia and Fohl both changed their weapons to the sakura stone of destiny Katana and Gauntlets, respectively. These anti-hero weapons hadn’t been available in Kizuna’s world, but it seemed going back in time wasn’t enough to stop them.

With this, we could win even if it came down to just shooting skills at each other, meaning experience would be the deciding factor. We could stop their weapon modifiers from working, but the issue was pure stat increases, like those offered by the Whip power-up method that couldn’t be nullified until we had the sakura stone of destiny barrier in place. Mamoru was obviously worried about us getting to that point.

“You won’t make your pacifier barrier,” Mamoru said, lifting his shield and deploying something strangely colored from it. It seemed he had countermeasures in place. “We can still fight you, with the proper preparation.” They already had some measures to combat the sakura stone of destiny—of course they did, or things wouldn’t have gotten to this point. We’d only come along because Cian had asked, but we ended up being exposed to some pretty crazy secrets.

“Ma, mo . . . no . . . no more . . .” Cian managed to force down her violent urges and force out a few words to Mamoru.

“It’s fine, Cian. I’m not going to punish you for something like this. You were only thinking of me. It’s fine,” Mamoru said, but there was something like pity in his eyes when he looked at her. She wasn’t reaching him at all.

Or maybe she was. Maybe that was why he felt so full of betrayal.

We were facing the therianthrope kids, who looked ready to pounce at any moment, Mamoru’s familiars, and the girl who looked like Fitoria. Behind us, blocking our escape, was R’yne. It didn’t look like we could use portals down here, so even escape would mean smashing our way out.

“Brother,” Fohl said again.

“Fohl, I know you don’t want to do this. I don’t want to either. But I can’t see a way out without a bit of fighting,” I told him.

“But . . .” he started, and then Mamoru raised his hand and gave the order.

“Go!”

We were going to have to fight.





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