The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 (12 page)

Itsuki signaled to his party that it was time to take a break.

I wasn’t very invested in his party members or their lunches, until . . . .

“Rishia! It’s lunchtime!”

“Oh . . . okay!”

Armor and the other party members all yelled at Rishia to get their meals ready.

They certainly thought highly of themselves, didn’t they? Who did they think they were? Why did she have to make their lunches?

“Why not make your own lunches?”

I whispered it to myself, but Armor heard me and came running over.

“What was that?! Rishia is the newest recruit here! These chores are her responsibility!”

“What?!”

I didn’t know what to say. Recruit?

What was this? Did he think he was running a company or something?

Rishia prepared to hand out the lunches. But apparently there was a prescribed order that they had to be handed out in. She looked carefully at each lunch, confirmed the name, then softly called the name out.

As she got further down in the list, the lunches became less impressive-looking.

Was Itsuki’s his own homemade lunch? She passed him a lunch box.

Armor was next. His lunch was a large piece of meat on the bone, plus a sandwich stacked high with meats.

Then came the soldiers. They got a sandwich and grilled fish. The next up was . . . . Well, it went on and on like that until only Rishia was left. Then she reached into a bag and pulled out one piece of fruit, which she began to eat in silence.

What was all that about? Why didn’t they eat the same things?

“What’s going on? You have different ranks in your party?”

“What are you watching us for? Naofumi, you’re becoming a bother, so please move on to the next island.”

“Are you kidding me? Itsuki, are you all right in the head?”

It might have made me a hypocrite to say so, but he was treating this girl, Rishia, like a slave!

Actually, Raphtalia and I ate the same meals. Itsuki was worse than that. He was treating her worse than a slave!

“Master, I’m hungry!”

“Filo! Shut up for a second!”

She’d been overtaken by hunger watching Itsuki and his party chow down. Now all she could think about was food.

Armor looked over at us triumphantly. He smiled and opened his mouth wide.

“Our rank is decided upon by the amount that Master Itsuki trusts us and by how much we have contributed to the group. What is the problem with that? Should we have a nice long chat? I could tell you all about Master Itsuki’s most impressive characteristics.”

“No thanks, I think I’ve heard enough.”

“Well I’ll tell you anyway. When I first met Master Itsuki, he opened my eyes to justice.”

Armor went on talking, then the rest of the party joined in. They recounted all of Itsuki’s most impressive achievements.

I’d rather not go over the crap they said. Most of the stories involved Itsuki hiding out, and then taking down bad guys in secret. From the way they talked about him, they really did seem to think that he was the sole hero in charge of saving the world.

It was like a religion of some kind. They were devotees of Itsuki, practitioners of Itsuki-ism.

Finally Itsuki was watching over us all, an expression of deep satisfaction plastered over his face.

That was it exactly—he was using them to brag about himself.

My analysis is as follows. Itsuki was always dealing with bad people in secret. Therefore Itsuki must be a savior of justice.

I’m pretty sure there was some kind of name for a disorder like that.

I’d seen an old movie about it. There was a police officer in some other country who fought for justice. He became stimulated by the fight against evil. They’d named a disorder after him. It was a disorder that often affected police officers.

I couldn’t remember what it was called, but they’d taken the name from the title of the movie. The character said that those that served evil had no right to live, and would punish all transgressions, regardless of their severity, with death. If someone tried to avoid punishment, they would be punished for that too with death.

The actual policeman in the movie never went quite that far, but the concept remained, an indelible portrait of the psychosis.

Anyway, I couldn’t help but bring that character to mind when I thought of Itsuki.

I wanted to shake him and ask if he was really so confident that he was right. What if he was just imagining all this justice?

The Records of the Four Holy Weapons
had said that the Bow Hero had a strong sense of justice.

But Itsuki has misunderstood what justice was. Being “correct” and doing the right thing were not always the same.

Anyway, I don’t think Itsuki would hear me out if I tried to explain it all to him.

Besides, I didn’t expect very much from Itsuki to begin with—much less expect that he would be open to persuasion.

“We’re going deeper into the island. Naofumi, we’ll see you later.”

“Right, later. Try not to annoy the other adventurers.”

Itsuki’s party quickly packed up their lunches and left the area.

“I’d realized this when I tried speaking to them back at the castle, but they really are a difficult bunch, aren’t they?”

“Sure are.”

I’d rather not run into Itsuki again.

Moving between the islands was a little annoying, so if there were going to be four heroes here at the same time, it would have been smart to agree to level in different places before we set out.

Regardless, we couldn’t level on that island anymore. We made our way back to the main island.

“Hey, hey . . . if it isn’t Shield Kiddo? From the look of it, the monsters were too tough for you, so you came running back. Am I right?”

We got off the boat at the main island harbor and ran into L’Arc and Therese on the dock.

“The monsters were weak. No trouble at all. We do have our reasons for coming back so soon though.”

The real reason was that the heroes were not able to accumulate experience points when leveling in the same place because their weapons interfered with one another. But it would be a pain to try and explain that to him.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s lunchtime. That, and another hero showed up so we need to move to another island.”

We’d wasted plenty of time already, about two hours. Why did we have to sit and listen to Itsuki’s party brag about their master’s valorous deeds?

We could head out to another island now, but by the time we got there it would be getting late, and we’d just have to turn around and come right back.

The first step was to find out where the other heroes were leveling. Then I could make sure to avoid them.

“Well look at you! You’re really taking this hero-impersonation scheme of yours all the way, aren’t you? You mean about how their weapons interfere?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Are you and Therese heading out hunting now?” asked Raphtalia.

“Yeah. We just want to go and see what sort of monsters we’ll be dealing with. What was it like for you kiddos?”

“The monsters were not very strong, but they gave quite a lot of experience.”

“Pretty good.”

We were chatting about the monsters when Therese came over and spoke to me.

“May I call you Mr. Naofumi? Raphtalia was kind enough to tell me your name.”

“Huh? What now?”

“I hear that you are quite skilled with crafting?”

That came out of the blue.

L’Arc hadn’t shut up from the minute I met him, but Therese tended to keep quiet. I wasn’t really sure how to speak to her yet.

“I wouldn’t say I’m really skilled, but I learned from an expert and managed to get the basics under my belt.”

“If I provided the materials and the funds, could you make an item for me?”

“Probably . . . that is, if I had the time.”

“I’d love to purchase one.”

“Sure.”

I wasn’t about to turn down a job. I’d make sure I was paid well.

“So what kind of item were you thinking about?”

“I’d love a bracelet. I’ll let you pick the type and design.”

Those types of requests were the worst. I wished she would just make up her mind.

I decided to wait and see what materials she provided me with. Then I would just make whatever I could from them.

“Well, I can’t make anything without any materials.”

“Okay. L’Arc!”

“What’s up?”

She reached over and pointed to a small pouch synched at L’Arc’s waist. He opened it to show off a number of different ore fragments that were inside.

Many of them seemed to be rough gemstones.

“So what do you want?”

“Just pick the best thing out of that pouch and make a bracelet from it.”

“Fine.”

L’Arc passed me the pouch. I’d have to think of it as a side quest.

“Alright. I’ll bill you for the bracelet when it’s finished.”

“Awesome! Thanks, Shield Kiddo.”

“Whatever.”

I was starting to understand how the old guy must feel running that weapon shop. He must have felt this way when I stopped by and asked him to make me things.

Well, I’d accepted the job, so I was determined to make something good.

“Alright, we’re heading out.”

“Good luck, L’Arc. And you too, Therese.”

“Bye now!”

“Raphtalia and Filo waved them off. They climbed into small boat and rowed away from the dock.

It was so much easier to get along with these normal adventurers than it was to tolerate Itsuki. Something about that felt a little sad.

We hunted down a shadow and the earl, who had both come from the castle, and asked them to tell us where the other heroes were leveling.

The other heroes, Ren and Motoyasu, had planned where they were going and made sure not to overlap.

So they were all on different islands.

This was all turning into such a pain. Why did the legendary weapons have to interfere with each other like this? Up until now we’d only fought in the same place during the waves of destruction, so I hadn’t really been bothered by it.

I felt like I was losing valuable time. I had to think of something.

“Raphtalia.”

“What is it?”

“Want to do some leveling at night? Then we could make up for lost time.”

She rubbed her chin and seriously considered it.

“Good idea. It might be a little dangerous, but we could use the leveling time.”

“Are we fighting at nighty-night?”

“Yeah.”

I could have used a soak in those curse-curing hot springs, but after all the time at sea I kind of wanted the exercise.

If we were going to make up for lost time, leveling at night would be our best bet.

Besides, who knew what time the next wave would come? There was no guarantee that they only occurred during the day.

And besides, Filo was like a wild animal, and we’d fought during the night plenty of times when we were on the run from that bounty.

And so we decided to go to an island where there were no other heroes and battle through the night.

“Whew . . . .”

“That should do it.”

“Yeah.”

We landed at the island and continued to battle monsters after the sun had dipped below the waves.

I soon discovered that the monsters in the Cal Mira islands dropped all sorts of items. They dropped plenty of medicinal herbs, but also magic waters and the materials you needed to make soul-healing water.

Once night fell, and it was dark, the monsters started to appear with greater frequency.

The more monsters we fought, the more experience points we were going to get. So by my estimation, we were accumulating a lot of points.

We eventually grew tired and built a bonfire. We needed a rest.

Filo’s eyes kept darting around the camp though. It didn’t look like she was ready to fall asleep.

There were a lot of different islands in the Cal Mira archipelago. Some were steep mountains, others were heavily forested, others were like jungles.

“There are so many monsters out tonight.”

“I know.”

The island we were camping on was more like a giant mountain.

I looked up to the peak. It stood out ruddy against the sky, a stark silhouette.

I wondered if the color had something to do with the activation event.

I think we were getting more experience points for battling at night. We had all managed to level up a bit.

When we’d arrived on the island I’d been at level 43, while Raphtalia was at level 40. Now I was at level 48, and Raphtalia and Filo had reached levels 50 and 51.

Raphtalia almost seemed bored. The monsters were not presenting much of a challenge for her.

Another thing I noticed was that the monsters had the same names, but some were bigger than others, and some gave more points than others.

We’d even run into a Magenta Frog that was as large as I was. Despite being so large, Filo had taken the beast down with a single kick.

They weren’t so strong. But they really were rewarding us with a lot of experience points, and they were appearing very frequently. All in all, it was good for us.

We’d managed to level up quite a lot in just a single day.

Raphtalia and Filo’s stats were rising quickly too. I was focused on trying to power up my shield—but I think I’d done all I could with the materials I currently had.

I’d managed to power up the Chimera Viper Shield pretty well, but it wasn’t like I didn’t use other shields. I didn’t want to have to depend on the dangerous Shield of Wrath either. So I wanted to find a weaker shield that I could power up.

“Hm . . . .”

“Mr. Naofumi, I worry that you might be pushing yourself too hard. I know you would have a hard time saying so yourself, but you must me tired. Your curse still has not healed. Why don’t you rest a little?”

My body did feel heavy. I don’t think I could make it through any long, drawn-out battles at this point.

Still, I’d hoped I could power up a shield to the point where it was so powerful that it didn’t really matter whether I was cursed or not.

“The monsters here hadn’t been able to damage me at all, so I figured it would be okay to keep going.”