Chapter Twelve: Unexpected Visitors from Piensa
“Oh wow, look at that! Yes, there was a funny smell in the air!” Keel said, sniffing around. The one with the staff and dagger was behind the three others, making it hard to see them.
“It doesn’t matter! We were going to fight them either way!” the fox demi-human said and then smashed something down onto the ground. Iron fences erupted from the ground a short distance away, sealing us inside a cage. I recalled this item. It was a magical tool used to cut off means of escape. Motoyasu and his crew had used it during the Church of the Three Heroes incident. This one looked pretty similar to that, but with lightning and fire swirling close to the cage. So they had it in this time too. It looked pretty powerful.
In the same moment, a dragon appeared in the air and unleased some magic with a roar. I felt the tension in the air as the dragon Sanctuary expanded outward. They really didn’t want us running away.
“I recognize them,” Shadow murmured to me.
“Hold on. Isn’t that the one we cut down with these new weapons? That’s odd. He isn’t meant to be able to survive that,” the puma therianthrope said to the fox demi-human as he pointed at Shadow.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s someone else dressed the same,” came the reply.
“That must be it,” the puma responded. “No way anyone could survive what we did to that guy.” I heard Shadow take a few deep breaths to control his anger and then he murmured to me again.
“We zhould keep it quiet that you managed to heal me, Zhield Hero. It would be a great dizadvantage to let them know we can do that,” Shadow said. He was right. No need to make their lives easier.
“How strong are they?” I asked him. “Are they allies of the Bow Hero?”
“They are in the upper rankz in Pienza but not affiliated directly with the Bow Hero. They are ztrong though. Fighting them will not be eazy,” Shadow cautioned. They weren’t quite on hero level then . . . more like Keel, perhaps.
“Let’s chat a little,” the fox said. “You must have heard talk about these new weapons of ours by now.” It sounded like they wanted to negotiate first. It wasn’t a bad idea to play along. There were some selfish people in this time, but they also seemed less inclined to have already made up their minds before we even started talking.
“Yeah, we’ve heard some stuff,” I replied. “So what do you want? I thought you were here to capture the sanctuary?” They didn’t seem to have the numbers for that, unless they simply wanted to get their hands on the carriage vassal weapon. From how it was protected, they would need the Bow Hero for that though.
“That’s part of our orders,” the fox replied, “but our primary target is you, the heroes.” It sounded like Piensa had become interested in us after we took out one of those running the waves. But they couldn’t believe these heavy-handed tactics were going to work. Melty and the others had messed them up once already.
“Bubba?” Keel asked.
“Keel, quiet!” Raphtalia shushed her as Keel looked around. “Don’t cause any trouble for Mr. Naofumi at the moment. Stay silent.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“Leave Siltran behind and come join Piensa. Siltran could never have withstood Piensa without your help, even with the Shield and Whip Heroes on their side,” the fox said. It sounded like word of Filolia hadn’t got around yet. It wasn’t especially easy to explain away her coming back to life.
“What about the newly appeared Hammer Hero?” I asked. Word that Natalia the pacifier had been selected by the Hammer and was working with Siltran to quell the turmoil had rapidly spread around the world.
“We know about the pacifier, of course, but she’ll understand. A unified world is vital to overcome the fighting ahead and end the waves,” the fox replied. That almost sounded logical, but also very arrogant. Natalia certainly wouldn’t “understand” either. “Piensa would welcome you. The king has promised it. That has to be appealing!”
“Unfortunately for you guys, no, not really,” I shot back. The two-tailed fox frowned at my quick rejection.
“We’re offering the full support and cooperation of a powerful nation in order to help protect the world from the waves. Isn’t that exactly the kind of environment you want to complete your duties as a hero? We’ve all the people—and the women—you could need. We can definitely offer more than tiny little Siltran,” the fox said, pulling out all the stops to get us on the hook. Back in our time, I was already a Duke in Melromarc, the nation that basically ruled the world. There were no merits for me in joining with this relatively soon-to-be-doomed nation. They had already deployed weapons that caused incurable wounds. Who knew what they would do to us if we joined them?
“Sorry, but I don’t care for you whoring out your women, and I don’t need a fancy bed to sleep in either,” I retorted. “The waves are here. They’re happening. It would hardly be heroic to bow to a dictatorship trying to seize control of the world.”
“Or maybe you could consider the Shield and Whip Heroes to be the ones causing the unnecessary conflict,” the fox countered. “All this fighting is only happening because they aren’t willing to obey Piensa’s orders.”
“And yet you use the word ‘orders.’ I feel sorry for the Bow Hero being stuck with you,” I said. Just this short conversation had already revealed they had no intention to cooperate. They were too accustomed to giving orders from a place of absolute authority. Mamoru and Holn were completely in the right here. I recalled the former queen and her calls for nations to set aside their differences and overcome the waves together. She had been a good ruler. Trash had taken up the same tune since his return to form. Having intelligent people on the throne definitely made a difference in our time. Faubrey could be overbearing and had tried to lure the heroes to them, but they hadn’t demanded a monopoly and hadn’t sent them into warfare either. Those aspects seemed worse in this time. “What are you planning to do about your relationship with our world?” I asked, bluffing them a little.
“Piensa has some thoughts on heroes from outside coming in and causing trouble, of course,” the fox replied. “But such transgressions can be forgiven.”
“Forgiveness, huh. That isn’t something we need from you. I can already see that you try to use force to settle everything. It’s easy to imagine what you will try if you ever do unify this world,” I shot back. The desire for domination was without bounds and the waves were known to fuse worlds together.
“I don’t think it’s a bad proposition to join with mighty Piensa in ruling any number of worlds,” the fox said.