Chapter Five: A Royal Order
To class-up we had to make our way to the Dragon Hourglass. “That reminds me.
I heard that classing-up will open up a bunch of new opportunities. What do you want to do, Raphtalia?” “I want to do whatever you ask of me.” “Stop that. Raphtalia, you should decide on what you want for yourself.” I’d played a game once that let you chose the path of light or the path of darkness after a certain class change. The whole point of that mechanic was that the player would pick whatever they wanted for themselves.
“When the waves are over and I go back to my own world, you’ll still be here without me. I need you to become strong enough to survive without me.”
“What? Are you going to leave me, Mr. Naofumi?” “Yeah.” I didn’t feel any particular connection to this world. I’d helped some people and gotten a party of friends, but did that really make it worth it to save the world? If I didn’t like it there, I couldn’t think of any reason to stay. “You wouldn’t take me with you?” “Where?” What was she saying? If a girl like Raphtalia came to my world, people would stare at her. “Filo could take me there. Where are we going?”
“I don’t think Filo could take you there.”
“Really?”
“Let’s change the subject. Filo, what do you want to do when you class-up?”
“I want to… Um… I want to learn to spit poison!”
“…”
Now there’s a phrase for the history books. What did this stupid bird want now?
Was it because we’d fought a lot of poison-type monsters lately? Did that make Filo think that it was cool or something?
Like the BioPlant and the Dragon Zombie?
“You’re already spitting poison.”
I just meant that she had a sharp tongue. She just babbled whatever she wanted without thinking about her surroundings.
“Really?!”
She narrowed her mouth to a slit and exhaled sharply.
“Did I do it?”
“That’s not what I meant. Anyway, let’s get going.”
We thought about the impending class-up and made out way to the Dragon Hourglass, our hearts leaping in our chests.
The Dragon Hourglass was situated very prominently in the center of Melromarc’s Castle Town. There was a great view from the grounds. It was a very sunny spot too, and there was usually a crowd of people lounging around in the afternoon sun.
I was thinking over the location on our way there, and soon enough we arrived at the Dragon Hourglass.
Just like always, it stood silent in the building, a heavy and important atmosphere floating over the hush.
“You must be the Shield Hero.”
Just like the last time, I was greeted by a grumbling sister of the faith.
“Yeah.”
“And to what do we owe the pleasure?”
“We’d like to class-up.
“In that case, we will need 15 pieces of gold from each of you.”
15 pieces of gold? Was she crazy? What could possibly justify a price that high?!
The sister remained calm and unmoved, though her eyes seemed to be laughing at us.
Was she waiting for us to say that we couldn’t afford it so that she could laugh in our faces?
“You said 15 pieces of gold each?”
With both Raphtalia and Filo, we wouldn’t have enough money to cover it.
But there was still time until the next wave came, so I guess we would just have to focus on making money with the time we had left.
“Raphtalia, you class-up first.”
“What? Just Big Sister?!”
“We don’t have enough money, so there isn’t much we can do about that. You can class-up the next time we come here, so just relax. I’ll get you a treat on the way home.”
She sighed in exaggerated discontent.
I’d been meaning to treat her to something anyway, ever since she delivered that good kick to Motoyasu, so it was good timing.
I took a bag filled with 15 pieces of gold, Raphtalia’s portion, and showed it to the sister.
The sister’s face suddenly flushed, and she ran to retrieve some documents from the desk at the front of the room.
“The Shield Hero is prohibited from classing-up.”
“What?! What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“It is a royal order. The Shield Hero and his party are prohibited from classing-up.”
That Trash king! He sure did know how to piss me off!
First they set an illegal price, and then when I show that I can still afford it they say that I’m prohibited from even trying! Give me a break! If I couldn’t class-up, what could I do?!
Why would I have to fight on without a job change? Was this some kind of “new game +” playing strategy for hardcore gamers?
“Give me a break!”
“It is the rule. And besides, the Shield Hero has, right from the very start… oh… Never mind.”
“From the very start WHAT?”
When I jumped to my feet, some knights that had been mulling about the back wall all snapped to attention.
“Geez! Fine…”
I put all my strength into my legs and pounded my feet loudly as we walked out of the room.
I should have spent longer with the younger princess. What if she had really wanted to help me?
She was in line to inherit the throne, and if she really did want to be on my side, she might have been able to do something about this stupid rule.
And besides, if they were putting the brakes on my ability to class-up, that was a good enough reason to go see her anyway.
“What are we supposed to do?”
Raphtalia whispered. She looked upset. She was right. This was a major problem.
“Hey! What’s that big hourglass? I wanna look at it more!”
“Calm down.”
I decided to look at the help menu.
I found the section on class-up. I’d better read up.
Class-up is a ceremony to increase the possibilities for party members of a Hero.
The ceremony is performed at the Dragon Hourglass.
We suggest you wait until there is a star by your name before attempting to class-up.
There are no limitations on the growth potential of a Hero.
There were no limitations on a hero’s growth potential? That must mean that I, and only I, was able to level past 40?
But… But that was no good at all!
If there was no way to class-up Raphtalia and Filo, then they’d be in a tough spot when it came time to battle, and that would leave us without any way to attack.
“There’s nothing we can do. Let’s come back to this later.”
It would be fine. I hadn’t planned on doing much more leveling until the wave had passed anyway. We could worry about all this after that.
Maybe we’d meet an adventurer or two that had a certificate allowing the bearer to class-up. We could get Raphtalia to team up with them to get to class-up—or something like that.
We had some cash to throw around. Certainly we could come up with something.
But that reminded me—the slave trader had slaves that were over level 40. I didn’t really want to spend more time with him than I had to, but I guess I didn’t have a choice. “All right, let’s go see the slave trader.” Filo suddenly looked very scared. “Are you going to sell me?” “I’m not going to sell you, so just calm down.” She was sniffling, but she seemed to relax, and we all made for the slave trader’s tent. Even still, I was in a terrible mood. Whenever I felt myself getting grumpy, I closed my eyes and tried to recall Motoyasu’s face after Filo had kicked him. That made me feel a little better.
“Mr. Naofumi, that’s quite a smile you’ve got there!”
Raphtalia never knew when to shut up. What was wrong with laughing a little to myself?
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