The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 (5 page)

Chapter Seven: False Charges

They dragged me down the street, and soon enough we arrived at the gate to the castle. I was still in my underwear. The knights kept their spears trained on me as they led me to the audience chamber.

The king and his retainer were there, both looking very grave.

And then…

“Myne!”

Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and the rest of their parties were also there. When I called out to her, Myne ran behind Motoyasu and made dagger eyes at me from behind his back.

“What the hell, Myne?”

Everyone was glaring at me like I was some sort of criminal.

“You mean you really don’t remember?”

Motoyasu stepped forward and interrogated me.

What were they talking about?

“What do you mean? Remember what… HEY!”

Motoyasu was wearing my chainmail.

“So it was you… you thief!”

“Who’s a thief? I didn’t know you were such a scoundrel!”

“A scoundrel? What are you talking about?”

With my outburst, I realized that the audience chambers were beginning to feel rather like a courtroom.

“We will now hear the charges against the Shield Hero.”

“Charges? But… but I!”

“Sob… sob… The Shield Hero drank too much, and he came bursting into my room. Then he… He held me down, and…”

“What?”

“He held me down and said, ‘The night is still young, Baby.’ Then he started to rip my clothes off…”

Myne was sniveling behind Motoyasu, and she pointed a shaky finger in my direction as she spoke. “I screamed as loud as I could and ran from the room. That’s when I found Mr. Motoyasu, and he saved me.”

“Huh?”

What was she talking about?

Last night, right after me and Myne split paths, I’d gone straight to sleep. That was why I didn’t remember anything.

I felt bad, watching her cry. But I was too confused to make sense of what was going on.

“What are you talking about? I went to bed right after we finished eating!”

“Liar! If that were true, why would Myne be crying like this?”

“Why are you speaking for her? And just where did you get that shiny-new chainmail of yours?”

They’d all just met yesterday, right?

“Last night I went to the bar for a drink. I was sitting there, alone, when Myne came running over. We had a couple drinks together, and she gave me this chainmail. She said it was a present.”

“Say what?”

I could tell that it was my chainmail.

Granted, Myne could have had her own chainmail and given it to Motoyasu. But it seemed suspicious, at the very least, considering that my own chainmail had gone missing at the same time.

Talking to Motoyasu would get me nowhere. I decided to speak to the king, directly.

“That’s it! Your Highness! I’ve been robbed! My money, clothes, equipment—everything but my shield has been stolen! Please bring the person who did this to justice!”

“Silence, Scoundrel!”

The king ignored my plea.

“Any act of sexual aggression committed against the people of my kingdom, whether by barbarian or Hero, will be punished—immediately—by death!”

“But this is all a mistake! I didn’t do it!”

“I had an inkling the first time I saw you. Of course you would sully yourself, you little wretch!”

“Wretch?! What did I do?”

“Of course things turned out this way. I felt it immediately, that you were a little different from the rest of us.”

“Me too. Even at that though, I never thought you’d stoop so low. You must think you’re somehow entitled to whatever you want!”

“This isn’t all about you! Show some respect!”

All of them were already assuming that I was guilty. I felt my blood rising hot up my neck. What the hell was going on? What the hell? What the hell?

I didn’t even know what they were saying! I never did these things! Why was I being punished? I looked over at Myne in desperation. Apparently she thought that no one else could see her, because she stuck out her tongue and mocked me.

Then I understood what was happening.

I glared at Motoyasu. I could feel hate, black and hard, churning in my guts. I jabbed my finger in his direction, and found my own voice booming out over the room, louder than I ever expected myself to sound.

“You! You had your eyes on my money and equipment, and so you made all this up to get your hands on my stuff!”

“Who would believe the words of a rapist?”

Motoyasu stepped forward, hiding Myne from my view, and stuck out his chest. He was playing the role of the brave hero, protecting a defenseless and victimized woman.

“Liar! You had your eyes on my money and equipment from the start! You and your little friends had a meeting about it, didn’t you!”

Here’s what happened: Motoyasu had whispered all of it to her when we first met at the castle. He told her I was a weak class, sure to lose. She convinced me to buy her good equipment. After she got what she wanted, she’d steal the remaining money and equipment, and run to the castle as a victim in an invented story. They’d have me killed off, and then they’d get away with everything.

… That was their plan.

Besides! Myne always called me, “Hero,” but she’d called Motoyasu by his name. If that wasn’t proof enough, I didn’t know what was.

In this world, I guess one hero was enough.

“You come to another world and treat your companions this way? You’re trash.”

“I agree. It’s very difficult to sympathize with him.”

So Ren and Itsuki had no qualms with throwing their lots in with Motoyasu.

Of course… They had all been in cahoots from the beginning. The Shield Hero was weak, so they wanted to get rid of me, and increase their own standing in the process.

They were disgusting.

Could they be any worse?

Thinking back on it, it seemed like no one, not even the people from this world had shown any desire to trust me.

But why? Why should I have to fight to defend the rats?

I hoped the whole place burned to the ground, the whole damn world.

“… Fine. I don’t care. Just send me back to my world, and call yourself a new Shield Hero. That’ll do it, right?”

Another world? Ha! What a joke. Why did I have to spend my time in such crappy place?

“Things don’t go your way, so you decide to turn tail and run away? How weak.”

“I agree. You have no sense of responsibility or justice. You ignore the task you’ve been entrusted with, only to attack a poor girl… Just terrible…”

“Get out of here then! Go back home! We don’t need people like you here!”

I was glaring at Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu as if I could kill them with my eyes.

This was SUPPOSED to be FUN. But they had ruined it all.

“All right already! Send me home!”

The king simply crossed his arms and frowned.

“I would very much like to send you home, but the waves of destruction will not allow it. New Heroes can only be summoned once the original four have all died. This is what the researchers say.”

“Wh…What?”

“But…”

“That’s… you’re kidding, right?”

Finally, the three of them seemed surprised by something.

There was no way to send us home?

“You mean we can’t go home?”

Give me a break.

“When were you planning on telling us that?!”

I broke free from the knights and their spears.

“Plan on running, eh?!”

“I’m not running.”

One of the knights hit me.

It made a good sound, his fist. But it didn’t hurt. It didn’t even irritate me. The knight, rather, seemed to have hurt his fist. He was cradling it like a baby bird as he stepped away from me.

“Well? What’s it going to be, Your Majesty? What’s my punishment?”

I swung my arms to get the blood flowing again.

“At the current moment, you are our only defense against the coming waves, and therefore will not be punished. However, your crimes are already well known to the people. That will be your punishment. I doubt very much that you will find work or help in our country.”

“Ah, thank you so much!”

So I was to level up and fight back the waves of destruction.

“We will summon you in another month, when the waves approach. You may be a criminal, but you are still the Shield Hero. Do not shirk your responsibilities.”

“Got it! I’m weak, is that it? Better hurry up!”

Clink…

Ah, yes. I remembered the stash I had hidden in the back of my shield.

“Check it out! This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

I removed it from its spot. It was the last 30 pieces of silver I had. I threw it forcefully at Motoyasu.

“What the? What are you doing?!”

I didn’t expect him to deride me for filling his pockets further.

I left the castle through its gate, and as I made my way down the street, the crowds on either side of me pointed as they whispered among themselves.

Gossip moved fast here. Better be careful what I say, and to whom.

The whole world looked awful to me then. Hideous.

And so I lost respect, trust, and my money. Just as my adventure began, I lost it all.

Chapter Eight: Ruined Reputation

A week went by. I stayed relatively close to the castle.

“Hey there, Shield-Guy.”

“Huh?!”

It was the owner of the weapon shop. I’d been walking around town in my underclothes, and he called me over when he saw me.

Granted, I’d been passing right by his shop, but what could he have wanted?

“I heard that you tried to take advantage of your friend. Come over here and let me give you a hard smack.”

It was like he had no intention of listening to me in the first place. Hatred was on his face, and his hand was curled into a tight fist.

“You too?!”

No one wanted to listen to me. No one believed me. Granted, I was from another world, and the common sensibilities of this land were a mystery to me. But even then, I was not the type of person to force myself on a woman. No way!

Ugh…it was making me sick. Even the owner of the weapon shop started to look like
her
.

I could probably kill him with a well-placed punch. My hand was also curled into a fist. I glared at him.

“… You…”

“What? Weren’t you gonna hit me or something?”

His hand relaxed, and he didn’t seem as on-edge.

“Uh… well, never mind.”

“Gee, thanks a bunch.”

Right then, even though I was weak, I thought I could punch everyone I met.

But I stopped myself. What good would that do? I needed to focus on leveling up, and on making some money. If I focused my anger on the balloons, it would at least do me some good.

“Wait just a second!”

“What?!”

I was standing at the town gate, ready to leave for the fields, when the weapon shop guy called out to me again. I turned to him, and he tossed a small bag in my direction.

“You’ll never make it dressed like that. At least take this.”

I looked inside the bag. It contained a sooty cape, and some cheap clothes.

“How much are these worth?”

“Somewhere around 5 bronze pieces. I just had them in the back.”

“Got it. I’ll bring you your money soon enough.”

Honestly, I was starting to worry about going around in my underwear.

“I’ll be waiting for that money.”

“Sure you will.”

I flung the cape over my shoulders, changed into the clothes, and made for the fields.

I decided to base myself out in those fields, and to hunt balloons.

“Arrrrgggghhhh!”

It took about 5 minutes to kill one of them, but they weren’t able to hurt me, so all it took was time.

I spent most of the day fighting, and was able to secure a substantial amount of balloon skins.

Level up!

You are now level 2

Orange Shield: conditions met

Yellow Shield: conditions met

I spent the rest of the day carefully reading up on my preparations.

Just as the sun was going down, I realized that I was hungry. I trudged back to the gate and made for the shop I’d been told would buy my battle loot.

A portly man stood behind the counter. He was laughing heartily as he looked me over. He was going to turn me away. I could tell.

There was another customer there also, already selling loot, among which I spotted some balloon skins.

“Yes, yes. How about one bronze piece for two of these skins?”

They were deciding on a price for the balloon skins.

So, only one piece of bronze for two of them…

“Please.”

“Thank you very much.”

The customer left, leaving me alone in the shop.

“Hey, I brought you some of my battle loot. I hope you’ll buy it from me. Heh, heh.”

“Welcome! Welcome!”

Did he think I couldn’t hear the giggling that followed all of his sentences?

“So you’ve got some balloon skins, huh? How about one bronze piece for ten of ‘em?”

A fifth the price?! He was looking at his feet the whole time!

“Didn’t you just offer that customer one piece for two skins?”

“Did I? I can’t seem to remember…”

He went on for a few minutes, making various excuses about his stock.

“Fine then,” I said, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close.

“What are you doing?!”

“Buy this stuff off me too. He’s still alive, and a real kicker.”

I had an orange balloon hidden under my cape, where it was fruitlessly biting my shoulder. I removed him and put him right in the shop owner’s face, where he promptly bit down on the man’s nose.

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

He started screaming, and rolling around on the floor. I pulled the balloon off of him, and pulled him up by the collar.

“Should I take these little things back to the fields where I got them, or do you want to buy them off of me?”

I pulled back my cape to reveal five additional orange balloons. I’d realized that their attacks didn’t hurt me, so I was able to carry them around, and use them against others, if I chose to do so.

It was an ingenious strategy, if I do say so myself. It would help with my negotiations. Besides, I had no attack power, so I wasn’t able to threaten anyone without them.

Surely, the man would understand. Surely, he knew that if I left the balloons there, they’d eat the guy down to his bones.

“I’m not asking for much, just a fair price. Our talks start with the market price.”

“But the country will…”

“Look, what do you think will happen to a merchant who tries to cheat a hero out of his fair share?”

Exactly. Merchants had to rely on the trust they’d gained. If he had tried to pull something like this on any other adventurer, he’d have gotten a swift kick in the teeth for sure. And hey, there was always the chance that his customers would stop showing up altogether.

“Ugh…”

“But, it doesn’t have to go that way. If you’ll buy from me consistently, I’ll sell to you for just under the market price.”

“Honestly, I’d like to refuse, but there’s no sin in business.”

So the guy just never gave up, but in the end I was able to convince him to buy my loot at just under market price.

“Feel free to tell others about me. Tell them I’ll punish other sneaky merchants with my balloons.”

“Sure, whatever. You’re quite the customer, aren’t you?”

I took the money for my loot, went back to the weapon shop, paid the owner for his clothes, and finally went to a restaurant to get some dinner.

The food, however, tasted like nothing.

It was like eating unflavored gum. At first I thought someone was pulling a trick on me, but soon enough I realized the problem lay with me.

Where would I stay? I had no money, so I slept in the fields. The balloons weren’t capable of hurting me, so there was no real problem.

When I woke in the morning, I was covered in balloons. It was something like a Tibetan Sky Burial. It didn’t hurt though, and I used them to burn off some stress, popping them one by one.

I was already filling my pockets, and I’d just woken up!

Just then, I came up with an idea. I could make money without having to kill these things all day.

The first thing to do was to find some loot, besides the balloon skins, that I could sell for a profit. There were grasses in the field that had medicinal value, and I’d seen an apothecary in town, and I am pretty sure I could sell off the grasses if I picked them.

I walked around the fields, picking grasses as I found them. Suddenly, my shield began to react. It absorbed the grasses as I picked them.

Leaf Shield: conditions met

That reminded me, I hadn’t looked at the weapon book recently. I opened it, and focused on the flashing shield icon.

Small Shield: ability unlocked: defense 3

Orange Small Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: defense 2

Yellow Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: defense 2

Leaf Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: absorption ability 1

I decided to look into the help menus.

Weapon Leveling Up and Unlocking Abilities:

Weapon leveling up means that your currently equipped Legendary Weapon will change form. If you hold the weapon in hand, and picture what you
wish
it to become, the weapon will change into the desired form.

The weapon ability refers to abilities that can be unlocked simply by using the equipped weapon. Once unlocked the equip bonus will last forever.

Equip Bonus:

Equip bonuses are special abilities that can be used while your weapon is equipped. So if a weapon has unlocked the Air Strike Bash ability, that ability can be used as long as that weapon is equipped. If a weapon has an Equip bonus of “attack up 3,” the user’s attack stat will increase by 3 while the weapon is equipped.

I got it. So as long as the abilities were unlocked, you could use them even when you have a different weapon equipped.

The experience was something you earned, and slowly collected while you battled enemies and leveled up your equipment.

The world really was like a video game.

Despite being a little annoyed by the whole process, I did find the equip bonus of the Leaf Shield attractive.

“Absorption ability up 1.”

It must mean that I would receive some kind of bonus when collecting items.

At the moment, I had no money. What that meant is that I needed to find the best products to sell, for the least amount of effort. I quickly changed my shield into the Leaf Shield.

There was a sudden rush of wind, and suddenly my shield had changed in my hand. It was green now, and appeared to be fashioned directly from leaves.

My defense stat didn’t drop at all. Apparently my original Small Shield was as weak as they come. Now to test my theory; I reached for a clump of grass.

Blip!

A positive sound rang out, and the clump of grass tore free easily.

The clump of grass glowed with a faint light.

Absorption up 1

Aelo: quality: fair to excellent: medicinal herb for treating wounds

An icon describing the change appeared.

Well, it was nice to get such an immediate explanation.

I spent the remainder of the day walking around, mechanically picking grass and filling my bag. Also, and I don’t know if it was because I had been collecting grass all day or just because time had passed since I switched shields, the Leaf Shield equip bonus was unlocked.

The rest of my Small Shields also had the equip abilities unlocked.

I made my way back to town and decided to try and sell my herbs.

“These are in excellent shape. Where did you get them?”

“In the fields around the town. Didn’t you know it grew here?”

“I did, but I’ve never seen such high-quality stuff around. I thought only junk grew out there.”

We chatted for a little bit, and eventually he bought the grass off of me. My stash was worth one piece of silver and 50 pieces of bronze… which was much better than I had done so far. It was a new record.

I had a cheap dinner at a restaurant. As I was eating, a few people stopped by to ask if I would join their party. Unfortunately they all looked… disreputable. I soon came to find their intrusions annoying.

Ever since that day, all the food I ate tasted like nothing.

“I’ll join YOUR party, Shield Hero,” said some guy, who clearly thought a lot of himself.

Honestly, I didn’t like the idea of joining up with anyone at that point. Besides, they all had this look in their eyes that reminded me of
her
. Just looking at them made me angry.

“Fine. First let’s go over the employment conditions.”

“M’kay.”

Stay calm, stay calm. If you back down now, these guys will follow you everywhere you go.

“All right, employment will be based on your performance. Do you understand?”

“Nah-uh.”

Jeez, I could punch the crap out of these guys.

“It means that, as we are out adventuring, we collect a certain amount of loot, yes? So let’s say we earned 100 pieces of silver, I will take a plurality of it, which is at least 40% and divide up the remainder among you according to your performance. If it were just you and I, we would split the remainder. If you were just standing around all day, you don’t get anything. The amount you receive depends on my judgment of the matter.”

“What the hell! That means you can just take however much you want, right?”

See what the people were like in this country?

“But if you do your part, you’ll get paid. Get it? You got to do your part.”

“All right, fine then. That’s all good. Let’s go buy some equipment.”

“You buy your own equipment. I don’t see why I need to take care of you all that much. Take care of yourself.”

“Pfft.”

Exactly what I expected. Even if I did buy his equipment, he would probably just slack off the whole time. In the end he’d run off, leave me in a tight spot, and sell his equipment for a profit. The gall of these dirty men. They were just like
her
.

“Fine then. Just give me some money.”

“Hey, what’s a balloon doing here?!”

I had taken a balloon from my cape and let it bite the man’s face.

“Ouch! Ahhh!”

People threw a fit. I had brought balloons into the restaurant, but what did I care? I pulled the balloon off of the screaming man, put money on the table for my meal and left.

Were there no good people in this world? They all looked like rotten cannibals to me.

Anyway, I kept this pattern up for a few days, and finally started to save a little money.