“Well . . . yes, it kind of is,” Raphtalia admitted. “There’s a strange feeling about you. In the beginning, I was frightened of it, but with the passage of time, I’ve come to find it almost . . . appealing.”
“I see,” I replied. It sounded like Raphtalia could feel something as well.
“Fohl has talked about it,” Raphtalia continued. “How he felt something strange about you when he first met you. I think Atla was also pretty aware of it too.” It sounded like the blessing of the shield made a good impression on demi-humans and therianthropes.
“I have to admit, faced with all this, I do feel like you’ve got one over on me, Naofumi,” Mamoru said. I wondered—not for the first time—why we two Shield Heroes were so different. Mamoru could attack things! He was the better option in many ways!
“How do you feel to have me, with my jokes and making light of the role of a hero, come off more like a hero than you?” I asked sardonically.
“More jokes,” Mamoru said, shaking his head. “I don’t always like the things you say, but this is surely because you’ve got more experience than me—and you have met all sorts of other heroes.”
“We do have two more holy weapons than you,” I said. I’d struggled with resolving all the issues relating to those, including involving Ren. Counting all of those experiences . . . maybe that would make my presence more pronounced than Mamoru’s. It might also have something to do with me holding the mirror vassal weapon. I was one and a half times a normal hero, which did make me feel a little superior.
Now I was starting to sound like Takt. The less of that the better. Being “superior” also seemed to get me into a lot more trouble.
“You think that’s what all this is about?” Mamoru questioned me. “I see you as keen on tackling every problem and working hard for the sake of those who believe in you.”
“You’re starting to sound like Ren,” I chided him. “You’ve got a pretty big following yourself. That’s what I consider a hero.”
“Did you call?” Ren asked. He had been talking to Eclair—no surprise there.
“No, nothing to worry about. I was just saying that flattery will get you nowhere with me,” I said.
“It wasn’t intended as flattery,” Mamoru protested.
“Anyone who mocks you must pay the price, regardless of the cost. Nothing makes you feel better than landing that finishing blow, trust me!” I said.
“Mr. Naofumi, please control your face!” Raphtalia cut in from the side. That was easier said than done. We had faced more than our fair share of annoying punks in the future. At least they seemed to be keeping a low profile here in the past.
“Things might be better here than in the future,” I admitted. They didn’t have to deal with records from the past being completely wiped out for one thing. The people still seemed pretty smart and capable.
“I’m not sure I like where this is going. You make it sound like our hard work is meaningless,” Mamoru said, furrowing his brow.
“It’s not meaningless. You’ll lay the foundations for things that still exist in our time. But also, like Holn said, nothing lasts forever,” I replied. It was best not to let him sink into total despair. We needed him to stay on task after we were gone.
“Wise words,” Holn said. “Everything will fade with the passage of time.”
“Sure, but I still can’t agree with enjoying destroying my enemies,” Mamoru said.
“That’s the better way to be,” Raphtalia said sympathetically. “We have so much trouble with Mr. Naofumi in that area.” I didn’t care if they understood me or not.
“Even a little kid knows not to do to other people something they wouldn’t like to be done to themselves. I like to take people who haven’t learned this lesson and put them through the wringer and then laugh when they complain about it. If they aren’t prepared to potentially suffer something, then they shouldn’t do it in the first place,” I said. It was their fault for doing things they weren’t prepared to suffer for themselves. Most of them were unable to accept it, of course, and howled like whipped dogs.
“Ren. You loved it when Bitch died that time, right?” I asked, looking for some support.
“Yeah.” Ren nodded. “I guess I understand that much.” Talking about Bitch made Ren’s eyes cloud over. He hadn’t completely overcome all that yet.
“I wish she’d done us all a favor and died for good,” I added. She needed to pay for everything she’d done. Seeing as we knew she would come back . . . even though we didn’t know where the respawn point would be, I’d love to be able to camp it. Just kill her the moment she came back—as slowly as possible, of course. Her other victims, like Lyno, would be satisfied with that too.
“Enough talk like that, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said.
“You think?” I asked. I found it lots of fun to daydream about.
“I do. Your heroic presence will become more and more clouded if you continue down this path,” Raphtalia warned.
“I don’t feel that happening,” I snarked back. I had every intention of fulfilling my duties as a hero, but I wasn’t buying into this “presence” thing. I wondered if life force could be used to contain it. Life force might even be what was causing it! I concentrated and tried to contain it.
“Mr. Naofumi, what’re you doing now?” Raphtalia asked.
“Trying to contain my life force,” I explained.
“I don’t think that’s going to change anything. It’s not related to that,” Raphtalia said. That left me wondering what I could possibly do.
“What do you think a ‘hero’ even is?” Ren asked, his eyes distant.
“Don’t ask me,” Mamoru said, in sync with Ren for a moment, his eyes looking the same and staring off at the same spot.
“What’s this?” I said hotly. “You think I’m dumb, do you? Motoyasu is the dumb one!”
“I’m not denying your characterization of Motoyasu, but just feeling how unfair the world can be . . . you are reliable, Naofumi, no doubt about that . . . but that’s something strange about you that I still can’t quite accept,” Ren said.
“You’re really starting to piss me off!” I raged. “We’re going to come back to this!”
“Mr. Naofumi, if you don’t stop playing the bad guy, people are going to start looking at you like, well . . . you’re actually a bad guy,” Raphtalia cautioned me with a look similar to the one the others were giving me. I wasn’t “playing” at anything! I cursed. I hadn’t done anything to make them look at me like this.
“Your attempts to play the bad guy have been self-destructing a lot recently,” Melty chipped in, turning back from the head of our column to glance at me. That was the last straw. I needed them to shut up!
“I think our Shield Hero does a great job of lightening the mood,” Ruft said, offering a counterpoint to Melty. “It makes him more approachable.”
“That might be true, but sometimes there’s a serious mood for a serious reason. He’s even been breaking out into slap stick recently, so I hear,” Melty commented. I had no recollection of that! It was starting to feel like everyone was ganging up on me. I decided to just keep my mouth shut. I continued to follow the others with my lips firmly sealed. We did encounter some monsters along the way, but nothing the current party couldn’t handle. I almost thought we would run into the predicted Piensa elite unit, but we didn’t see anything of the sort. Maybe we had beaten them here.
We reached the sanctuary without any real trouble.
It was definitely in ruins. There were rows of worn-down stone houses and a crumbling old castle beyond them. The Demon Dragon’s castle had nothing on this place. In our time this had all been swallowed by a sprawling forest, but in this time the plants hadn’t gained much of a foothold yet.
I wondered where the spot we camped out was. The terrain was so different we’d probably never find it.
“What is here, anyway?” I asked. Piensa seemed to want this place, but I had no idea why. I couldn’t see much point to these ruins. It seemed like nothing more than a site of indigenous faith treasured by the people who lived here for pretty standard reasons. Melty and Mamoru made it sound like some kind of unknown power was still slumbering here, but I wasn’t seeing that yet.