[X] I'd be honored...
If you thought that the monk wasn't the Old Master of Martial Arts archetype and wasn't gonna teach you how to punch good then I dunno what to tell you.
Super long update for my standards because a lot of shit is happening in one day.
You had no idea what to say at first. You doubted you were monk material but William didn't really wanted you to be one did he? He wanted to pass on what he learned to the younger generation... "I'd be honored William... But don't expect me to address you formally or anything like that." You doubted he wanted you to, but it's a deal breaker for you. It'd be way to weird after getting used to saying his first name to call him Master Blackwood or Elder Blackwood etc. "No, I don't need you to address me any differently. Now that I have gotten a feel for your personality and beliefs I think I can trust you with my teachings, how exciting! I haven't had a new student in a while... Believe it or not I think you have the potential to be a great monk even if I doubt you'll become one." Yeah, you doubted that too. "I'm not going to teach you much of my spiritual knowledge or wisdom. Mostly because you've got lots of your own in your own way, and I believe as you walk your own path you will learn more than I can teach you on the subject and you wouldn't be interested I can tell already. I will be teaching you the mental and physical side of the path to enlightenment." You didn't know anything about monks, so that sounded correct to you "Huh, alright... So, what exactly does that mean?" You dreaded the question because you felt like you were about to get a textbook amount of material dumped onto you.
"Being a monk isn't merely just someone who collects knowledge. Nor is there only one path to enlightenment, but all paths will eventually lead together or so is my belief. In that end I have cultivated my wisdom, my strength and my mind. However I am getting old, I will soon die and my knowledge will go with me to the grave. I have created my own martial art style, that I believe would benefit you greatly. I didn't come up with the name, my enemies in my misspent youth did, 'The Cruel Mountain Style'... I think that's a bit dramatic, I call it the Blackwood Sect Martial Art in my head. I didn't think you were compatible with the Art for a long bit...
You see, this martial art requires you to utilize what all serious Monk techniques need, life energy. You came from a world where there was none, and you had none. Nor did the boy you were with at the time had any either... For all intents and purposes that was impossible you were quite literally void of life. But for a while now, I've been detecting that you've been slowly changing on a metaphysical level that I am only aware of due to my experience in sensing life energy... You started with none, but that is no longer the case. I've been sensing you gain life energy reserves which should be impossible... And if I'm correct you may have been given the ability to use magic as well... Unfortunately merely having the energy is not the same as being able to use it... So that's what we will be working on alongside various mental techniques. It will also give you time to physically recover your body from your... Training accident..." William pointedly looks at your hand, with quite the impressive deadpan expression. It wasn't your fault that you didn't know you couldn't use other 'weapons' with the Shield!
Anyway, William brings up some good points you think... You can connect the dots of what happened to you and why you and your clothes weren't a mess when you got here. You died, and then something grabbed you, and then fixed you to the point before you died, fixed your clothes and then changed you so you'd be able to survive in this new reality. How strange, you didn't really believe in any sort of god but you think this was damning evidence. You think you hate him or them. Soon after a bit of idle chatter you didn't remember after having a quasi-crisis that Gods existed yet didn't stop WW3 or anything you went to sleep.
You woke up, pretty refreshed. Today was going to be a good day. You walked to William's room, woke him up, went to the inn proper and ate some simple breakfast. Then of course, someone came in to ruin your mood. "Yukihime Sakura?" This guy was pretty obviously a palace official, considering his frills. He wore a blue waistcoat and white pants and a pretty stupid looking floppy hat. "Yes, that's me." he wordlessly handed you a letter and left probably in disgust of talking to you or visiting a commoner bar. You looked at the letter, mood destroyed.
To the Shield Hero, Yukihime Sakura. By royal decree of the powers invested in me by Queen Mirellia Q. Melromarc I summon you to partake in a mission to capture the serial killer Itsuki Kawasumi for the crimes of murder for the deaths of multiple lords. I implore you to meet me and pick out a hunting party to capture Itsuki at your earliest convenience. You must absolutely NOT kill him, as all four heroes are needed to save the world.
King Aultcray Melromarc XXXIII.
What a load of crap. What did you care if some robber baron got shot somewhere... But on the other hand... You knew exactly what happens when you cut the head off the snake, it's not pretty. After you killed Aoi, his band didn't simply go away they splintered into warring factions for the scraps of what was Aoi's small empire. It's why you haven't simply decapitated Aultcray, it simply won't help. The clean up of the various would be warlords from Aoi's old territory was gruesome on its own without there being any real civilians... Itsuki's causing similar issues even if the hierarchy here is much more robust, they're simply causing worse problems that not having an administrative leader. For example there's no longer a crown authority in the lands, no longer is the local lord a threat to bandits and the lord is no longer there to request support from disaster or monster attacks. Hmm... You take it back. Itsuki needs to be stopped. This is exactly what you wanted to avoid when you first heard of slavery in this nation, blindly thrashing around in rage will do nothing but cause more suffering. It's unfortunate but changing the status quo through violence is untenable at this moment. If Itsuki's acting in the way you think he is, then you don't think to harshly of him...
"William, we've been summoned to the Royal Palace... After we're done with our errands we will head to the palace." He nodded, slightly distracted by food and you cant blame him it's pretty good today "So, we're going to Ricardo's to see Priscilla then check in on Vivian before seeing Aultcray? Good, it's a big snub in his face to make him wait behind commoners." He sounded approving, even if that wasn't your intention you just had things to do that was more important then talking to Aultcray.
Eventually you got out of the tavern and headed to Gregory and Ricardo's Alchemy Shop, you ignored the more middle class people who were openly gawking at you. You were tempted to threaten to punch them again, maybe they'd stop fucking looking at you. At the same time however, you're supposed to be a hero so you repeat in your head: 'punching stupid people isn't heroic' until you enter the alchemy shop. You pass by a disgruntled rich looking man with a unbearably high pitched voice "Ha! Letting peasants work your shop is one thing, but you let some slum filth here too! It's the shield hero no less! Why, my word Ricardo" You weren't Itsuki, you won't kill this man, you weren't Itsuki you won't kill this man, you said this in your mind over and over. "Lord Kentway... It was a pleasure... Please never darken my doorstep again" Ricardo looked like he was almost ready to strangle this posh idiot, your hands were already clenching and unclenching. Unable to even take one more word or insult as soon as 'Lord Kentway' looked at your direction you fucking grabbed him by the scuff of his stupid robe "Look here, fuckface, I don't fucking give a shit about your stupid ass title Count Dickhead. Some people have some actual business to take care of now fuck off" You quite literally threw him outside like he was yesterday's trash. You were in pain, and you had no plan on accommodating idiots.
After doing that you felt marginally better. You really hate self important dickheads. "Thank God! He's GONE. He's been in here for TWO HOURS! TWO HOURS! He wants me to teach his stupid son instead of Priscilla, and at this point I don't care the lubricious amounts of money his orders bring in I don't think I ever want to experience this again." Ricardo looked exhausted... "Priscilla! Yukihime is back for her treatment!" Ricardo called down to the back room, and eventually said girl came back out. "Yukihime, welcome back. The type of treatment we have to do is through the back room... The extent of your injuries requires ritualistic alchemy which is much more expensive then capsules or serum just so you understand why it cost you so much. Luckily I've finished the preparations in advance, the ritual will fix the extensive damages you had in your skeletal structure from old injuries that healed improperly so hopefully you'll be in less pain from now on..." You think you're blushing slightly, she's trying to hide that she went beyond what she needed to do to help you how sweet. You let yourself be led into the back room, which held a large elaborate ritual circle that you're not going to bother to try to understand with several interesting offerings surrounding it. You can see, gold, some amount of a purple fluid, a greyish sand, and some other things hidden inside sealed urns... You're instructed to stand in the middle, and Priscilla activates her safety glasses, scans you and the room one last time and activates the circle.
It's bright as fuck, like almost flashbang levels. You also feel like you were dumped in ice cold water and a slight itchy-tingly sensation all over. You don't really understand what's happening but you assume it's working... Then it's over after about a minute. Your hand isn't blackened anymore, merely slightly discolored and a bunch of pain you had in your back and shoulders vanished and more importantly you could actually walk without feeling pain. You give her a thumbs up with your newly healed hand "This was fantastic Priscilla. Worth every coin." She looked genuinely happy you praised her work, and that you weren't in pain anymore. "You're welcome Yukihime... The ritual isn't complete though... It will take a few days to completely heal the damage in your body so please take it easy for now" The irony is that you just got summoned by the king to do the opposite. "We'll see" You respond, you hope you're not sent out immediately you'd like to recover before getting into a big brawl...
You say your goodbyes to each other, and you leave towards Vivian's clothes shop. The place is as adorable as you remember it being, though Vivian herself is in a different cute ass dress, this time in a gothic style with a cute hat. "Ah! Yukihime! Welcome, I stayed up all night making your... What did you call it... Military Outfit? I haven't started on your Prince outfit yet but... Please try your first order on!" Okay it was much cuter than you thought it was going to be. As you wanted it's basically the same as the uniform you wore right now, but this one was black, had a gold trim and a cute little shield over your heart. She removed the belt thing from the design and all the pockets which you'd usually be mad about but the Shield was basically a giant ass pocket. You're not gonna lie, if your face wasn't mostly scar tissue and your eyes weren't empty you'd be very fucking cute. You love it. "I love it. It's regal enough that it fits what I want to project as my ideal of a hero, yet I can fight in it." You were glad you got your hair fixed before you wore your new outfit. "Ahh I'm glad you liked it! I tried to make it as combat withstanding as possible... It won't protect you much like real armor would but it should clean itself and repair itself barring destruction of over 70% of the outfit... I took some liberties when making it after your speech about wanting to be the Prince... I thought that you'd need to look regal in battle as well at no extra cost! See Yukihime... You're a real prince!" You didn't really hear that last part, but from what you think she said has you sort of embarrassed. "W...Well, I gotta go... The King needs me to do things and I uhh... Gotta go bye!" You didn't retreat, you bravely ran away! Stop laughing William!
The fun needed to end however, and you had to meet with the King who you wasted around four hours of his day waiting for you. "Finally, there you are. I've been instructed to lead you straight to the King. Come with me" A palace guard wielding a halberd collected you. Eventually he delivered you to some sort of meeting room, the only occupant being King Aultcray his face set in a firm line. "When I put earliest convenience in that letter, I didn't mean 'five hours from now'." He sounded pretty annoyed, well tough "I had things I needed to do, King-Consort" He should be happy, you didn't even get around to burning your old uniform. He resisted the bait, and instead grabbed a bunch of papers and put them in front of you. "This is the information we have on hand about Itsuki, who he killed and speculation of motive and where he's headed next. It also includes some information on his companions, who have been charged with treason." You silently go through the stack of papers. Lord Connery was the first of the lords killed, he owned a small part of land outside the capital and primarily used demihuman slaves to run his vineyard. Itsuki must have come across him when he was commanding his slaves, and executed him. You think Itsuki's the good guy personally, it's just that it's shitty that without their master the slaves who only know how to farm will either go back into slavery or die of hunger. The person who's the real criminal is sitting beside you, who allowed this dynamic to happen. Lord Weatherby raised harsh taxes against the villages in his domain, Itsuki must have come across one and then decided to go after him as well. Unfortunately the harsh taxes was to deal with emergency repairs to the flood control systems and if it isn't fixed soon will flood the area. Lord Rodgers was a decadent count who was legitimately corrupt and needed to die. He took women as taxation, allowed his subjects to be enslaved for money and you think if you had been in the same room as him you'd have broken him in two. Itsuki needed to be stopped, no matter how justified his killings because it simply isn't helping anyone. The pressure from one person simply wasn't enough to change systemic problems. Even if you largely agreed with Itsuki... It also doesn't help that he's destabilizing the political situation already teetering off its axis.
Itsuki's followers were pretty uninteresting. He had when he left a cute witch girl, a no nonsense soldier type, a priest and what looked to be like a viking. After his first murder, the witch, and the soldier left him, but he gained a few Demihuman followers. They mysteriously died, likely to the Priest from the religion that hates Demihumans with all their might and recruited two mercenaries, a crossbowman and a spearman. You had next to no intel on them either.
You take no pleasure in partaking in this mission, it's simply something you need to do so Itsuki doesn't blindly open a can full of problems... However... "I'll only agree if you only punish him for the death of Lord Weatherby. The other two were disgusting pigs. Even then, I request you don't execute or torture Itsuki after you're done with whatever you plan on doing with him. Send him out powerless to live a quiet life in exile if you must." Itsuki didn't deserve death for doing something you'd have done if you had the power to stop the consequences. "WHAT! That's absurd! But... I if it's the only way to get you to agree... Fine." King Aultcray needed a Hero with a Legendary Weapon to stand up against another with a Legendary Weapon. You're not stupid, so you motioned to William to take his words in writing. King Aultcray handed you another, small stack of paper "I'm assigning you a squadron of knights to assist in capturing Itsuki... You will be rewarded handsomely for your cooperation in this matter. The Knights are nonnegotiable, you aren't replaceable and neither is Itsuki. I'm not gambling the world away." You suppose you can point out how he already did by fucking you over, but you wont antagonize him pointlessly.
"When do you want me to do this?" You didn't want to do this immediately but at the same time you do to keep Itsuki out of killing another noble and thus voiding your deal with Aultcray about him. "In two days. The knights aren't here yet, and will take time to arrive. Then you are expected to go immediately, you will be provided a horse." This sounded good enough you suppose. You were tempted to break out into a yawn. This was a fucking lot of paperwork, you've been sitting for a few hours now.
The Knights you bring with yourself?
[X] Knights of the Rose. An all female knight group. They're usually used as an elite bodyguard for high ranking female nobility.
[X] Knights of the Holy Saint Lois III. This is probably a bad idea, they're a group of elite paladins from the Church of Three Heroes.
[X] Hedge Knight Association. If you're reading this correctly, this is a loose organization of hedge knights. Quality will vary.
