A means to attack, heal, survive, hide, and detect. All the abiliites a paranoid guy like myself would need.
I was a bit surprised though. I would have thought that support abilities would take up less capacity since the shield specialized in that, but maybe my own affinity was suited more towards attack? I hadn’t found a spell or shield focusing on attack that took up more than 1 capacity while the useful support ones took up much more.
Well, it didn’t matter too much in the long run.
As I laid there feigning sleep, I spent the time crafting new abilities to try out at a later point.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I was alerted to someone entering my room. Mein. She crept over and took my chain mail, along with the coin bag. I heard her shuffling about, as if looking for other things, but she quickly left as if fearing I would wake up.
When she left, I heard her crying over at Motoyasu’s room.
“So it begins, huh?” I muttered.
When morning came, noisy footsteps pounded down the corridor towards my room. The knights.
I yawned and decided to save them some time. I walked out of my room and pretended to be surprised. “Huh? Knights?”
The one in charge pointed at me and shouted. “It’s the Shield Hero!”
“Well, yeah. What were you expecting, the Spear Hero?”
The knight sneered. “Don’t you dare mock Motoyasu-sama’s name!”
Huh? Was that an honorific? Weird…
“Sure, sure. Now, did you need something?”
The knight gnashed his teeth and then said, “The king has requested your immediate presence. We are to accompany you along the way.”
I shrugged. “Alright. Lead the way.”
The knights didn’t budge. Instead, they stepped forward to grab my arms.
Before they could, I glared at them. “…I recommend that you stop unless you want to get hurt.”
“Hmph!”
He scoffed and then the knights circled me, grabbing my arms. They must have thought I’d be an easy person to tug along.
They were mistaken.
All of them stepped forward, presuming that I would move with them. Instead, all of them stumbled over their own feet as I stayed rooted in place.
That was the result of dumping 90% of my stats, including HP, into strength.
“What-?”
I sighed and began pulling them along. “Alright. You guys are making enough of a racket. If you keep bumbling about, I’ll lead the way.”
Without giving them a chance to respond, I started walking, pulling the knights along with me.
They eventually managed to get back on their feet, although their caution had increased another notch.
Outside was a carriage. Maybe the knights were planning to throw me inside, but seeing my strength, they hesitated.
I stepped in of my own volition and we made our way to the castle.
There, more knights tried dragging me along only to suffer the same fate as the previous ones. Eventually, however, we managed to arrive at the audience chamber.
Inside, the knights pointed their spears at me.
There, the king and his minister glared at me. Off to the side, there was also Itsuki, Ren, Motoyasu, and their companions.
Oh, Mein was there too, though she hid behind Motoyasu the moment I stared at her.
I laced my hands behind my neck and said, “So, what’s the deal? I didn’t even get to eat breakfast yet.”
“You bastard!” Motoyasu glared at me. “I thought you were a good guy, Naofumi, but to attack Mein when she was sleeping…!”
“Hm?” I glanced at him and saw that he was wearing my chain mail. “Ah. Nice armor, dude. I’m guessing Mein gave it to you?”
“Huh? Well, yes, but-“ Motoyasu stumbled at the sudden compliment and then snapped back into focus. “Don’t think distracting me will get rid of your sins!”
“Sins? Haah.” I shook my head. “So this world’s rotten as well, huh?”
“Rotten?” Itsuki spoke up.
I glanced towards him and nodded. “Yeah. False accusations and guilty until proven innocent. Oh, but we haven’t heard my charges yet, have we?” I glared at the king. “Go on, ‘your majesty’. Hurry up and denounce me as a villain without any evidence.”
The king stared back with cold eyes and then said, “What is the charge against the Shield Hero?”
Mein sniffed and clung to Motoyasu. “Shield Hero-sama got drunk yesterday. Th-Then he suddenly burst into my room, gave into his beastly desires and forced himself on me.”
I scoffed.
The king and Motoyasu glared at me, before Mein continued.
“The Shield Hero said that, ‘The night is still young’ and violently tore my clothes off.” At that point, Mein started sobbing into Motoyasu’s back. He patted her, consoling the sobbing young woman.
“I-I was horrified… I ran out of the room, screaming for my dear life when Motoyasu-sama appeared and defended me.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The story was just so ridiculous. If anyone asked around, they would have known that was impossible. By the time I went to sleep, everyone else was already gone. After that, only a few hours passed before it was day time.
Motoyasu glared at me. “You bastard! Laughing at a time like this…!”
The king glared as well. “Silence, you fiend!” He pointed his finger at me.
I kept laughing.
“You…!”
The knights took a step forward, closing in with their spears.
I decided that was enough laughing. Any further and I’d have to fight. Now wasn’t the time. Not yet.
The king stared at me and said, “You brutally committed rape against my dear countryman, villain! If you weren’t a hero, I would have you executed on the spot!”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed again. “Right! Executed…! Pft. If that woman was here right now, they’d slap you across the face and strangle your neck for acting like this.”
The king turned a beet red, no doubt knowing who I was referring to. The TRUE ruler of Melromarc, the Queen.
Motoyasu pointed his spear at me. “Enough with your nonsense, fiend!”
The king glared at me and said, “Do you admit to your crimes, Shield Hero?”
“Admit? Of course not. There’s nothing to admit to. But I’ll ask you, your majesty. Do you really want me to be a villain?”
I stared at him, waiting for an answer.
Contemptuous eyes stared back.
I scoffed and looked around. “You guys too, huh?”
Apathetic eyes and condescending glares everywhere I turned.
Ren turned away. “I hold no sympathy towards you.”
Itsuki frowned and simply shook his head.
I knew it already, but this was really pissing me off. Not only the fact that it happened in a fantasy world, but that it was happening back in reality too. Guilty before innocent…
I sighed. “Whatever. Are we done here?”
The king scoffed. “Hmph. If it were possible, we would have sent you back and summoned a new hero. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. Even if we wanted to re-summon new heroes, all of the current ones would first need to perish.“
At those words, the three other heroes panicked.
“Wh-why?” Ren said.
“What the…” Motoyasu said.
“I-It’s got to be a lie…” Itsuki said.
I shrugged. “I kind of figured. I meant, are we done with this farce of a trial? You’ve already declared me guilty, no matter what I come up with otherwise, so there’s no need to keep wasting anyone’s time, right?”
“Show some respect!”
One of the knights grabbed my arm and tried to force me to kneel.
Of course, it didn’t work.
I pivoted on my heel and threw him, sending him flying through the air before he crashed to the ground with a clatter.
Suddenly, the room grew silent.
I brushed off my hands and then turned towards the king. “So, what will it be? Just declare your punishment so I can get out of here already.”
The king stared at me and then said, “…Right now, you shall not receive any discipline due to your value as our trump card against the incoming wave. However, we will spread the rumors of your crimes to the citizens. That will be your punishment. Don’t even think about finding suitable work in my country.”
'Rumors' of my crimes. Not 'confirmation.'
How funny.
Also... I couldn’t help but scoff at his claim. “Right. YOUR country. When you don’t even bear the royal name… sure.”
The king’s eyes widened. “You-“
I turned around and started walking. The knights parted, whether out of fear from being sent flying or in shock.
“O-Oi! Get back here, you bastard!” Motoyasu called out from behind me, but I ignored him.
Finally, my story could start.