Grinding of the Sword Hero

Egleris · Jul 22, 2024

It's fine, if I wasn't interested in seeing where the story is going and didn't think you knew what you were doing as an author, I wouldn't have bothered making any comment. And I can see you arguments, they're solid ones.

I also did read Oliver Twist, for whatever that's worth; Oliver Twist is a "secret prince restored to riches" story, and while, as usual for Dickens, it explores a lot of elements of what a horrible place to live into the English society at the apex of power of the British Empire was like if you weren't rich, I don't know that it really matches with the Rise of the Shield Hero's situation. That is, I get why you presented the analogy the way you did, I just think you could have found better.

But, that aside, as I said, your argument is pretty solid, and I did understand what you were using the analogy for. There's definitely some room to read what happened in the Rise of the Shield Hero under the Schindler's paradigm, and the issues with banning slavery have a point.

However, I do think that we shouldn't be blind to the fact that the author of Rise of the Shield Hero was very much not handling things in a sensitive or well thought-out manner; I think that the justifications you offer can pass muster as rationalizations for why somebody could enjoy the story despite its awful politics, find the good in it, so to speak, but I think it's pretty obvious that the story itself is cheating.

In real life, slaves that demand to be re-enslaved in order to retain the benefits of being basically well-treated servants doing a job that provided them with a sense of achievement and self-satisfaction, rather than become "free" beggars dying of starvation and exposure, was very much a thing. It was wrong, and part of a system engineered to ensure that slaves didn't work together to free themselves, but instead fought each other to keep the "lesser slaves" in the mud. It's the same tactic used by capitalists today to have the support of working class people to not raise the minimum wage for a number of essential but unpleasant job.

Of course, the narrative of Rise of the Shield Hero provides the protagonist with a perfect excuse for keeping people enslaved by having the whole "Slave Seals that empower people", but from a meta-perspective, that's the author cheating to make it palatable for Naofumi to have slaves and justified that people would volounteer for the job. You had Yumella gain the "Nakama Sword", which seems like it'll give the same bonus without a need for her to enslave people; Rise of the Shield Hero could just as easily have created a "Friend Shield", or heck, a "Bond of the Family" Shield to do the same thing without having to resort to slavery, but it did not. Not even at the end when the final battle has Naofumi pulling absurd things like the whole "infinity power is not so infinite" nonsense does he ever bring up any such non-slavery based group-empowering abilities, because the author did not want that. The author wanted slavery in the story instead.

I do admire that you're taking the lemons provided to you by the canon and making lemonade of them, and I expect you'll be able to have Naofumi manage to keep himself to the right side of the morality line with good writing, but I don't think it cannot be argued that the author is cheating here; just like JK Rowling with her "slave races who are happy to be slaves", it's using the fact that the setting is fantastic to justify actions and attitudes that would be unjustifiable in reality, and that is the kind of writing that doesn't incline me to be charitable towards the author of the story.

Basically: yes, as an author that is working with a world you did not create, you could take the general outline of Naofumi story, and find ways to make it a moral one, but the original author wrote it that way to circumvent the otherwise inherent immorality of those actions. That's what makes it easy for me to condemn Rise of the Shield Hero - it's not so much that Naofumi isn't an overall decent person (he is), it's that he's put in a position where the world is structured so that his immoral action can be excused due to extenuating circumstances, whereas there was no need for the story to be written that way.

Does any of this makes sense, or is it too much of a ramble to extract any meaning out of it?

blankmask · Jul 22, 2024

There's a story on Royal Road that addresses this, as it's after the whole end of the world thing and the Hero starts a revolution. One of the explicit goals is ending slavery

The argument made is that it is immoral, but also that it is a tool of the aristocracy to control the population via depressing wages.

Which I thought is really good because the general populace wouldn't see anything wrong with an institution that has existed for centuries. But they would be upset at being controlled and wage theft.

That doesn't mean that slavery isn't wrong, but that institutions don't disappear overnight.

Obloquy · Jul 22, 2024

Egleris said:
Does any of this makes sense, or is it too much of a ramble to extract any meaning out of it?

That makes sense, and thank you for reading and engaging with my story!

Even if it's just snippets, be it in this thread or your own, I'd love to see you write some story scenes of characters addressing, discussing, or acting on this in a world that is either closer to or farther from canon.

Possibilities free to you or anyone else interested:

1) Naofumi frees Raftalia immediately, and then they have to paint a fake slave seal on her skin so that no one will realize she is free and vulnerable. Possibly there can be extra fun during the Vs Motoyasu duel, where Motoyasu tries to free Raphtalia only for the potion to fail, and Raphtalia eventually tells them all that she's already free, her "slave crest" is normal non-magical ink to keep her from being re-abducted.

2) When Raphtalia is freed and sides with Naofumi anyway, it unlocks a Nakama Shield form with the same effects as the slave shield, so there's no long a stat boost benefit to keeping her enslaved, and possibly new benefits to keeping her free.

3) Despite Raphtalia being Naofumi's private property as his slave, someone still abducts her, uses a potion to remove her slave seal, and then sells her (or tries to) back to a slave merchant same as when she got grabbed and sold the first time. Naofumi has to chase her down and get her back ASAP, and then they decide whether or not to free her if there's no protection in slavery. (Possibly leads to a slightly delayed version of Plot 1?)

4) Motoyasu comes upon a man assaulting a woman, intervenes forcefully, and then gets told that he has no right or standing to intervene since the woman is the man's slave and thus his property. (There's a canon side-chapter where Motoyasu hears something he mistakes for erotic role-play that isn't where this could easily slot in.) Malty wasn't there at the time, so now she has to either back Motoyasu which brands her as anti-slavery and pro-demihuman or she has to somehow navigate not damaging her reputation in his eyes while trying to oppose or downplay his crusade.

5) Same as #4 except one of the other canon heroes gets involved instead.

...

Also some Grinding of the Sword Hero specific versions:

1) In their first meeting, Yumiella brings up various historical issues they might expect to find in Melromarc's aristocracy such as slavery, serfdom, Jus Primae Noctis, political arranged marriages, marital rape, etc. On his first day -- before Myne is in his party to influence him -- Motoyasu finds out about slavery in Melromarc while exploring the city (there are winged demi-humans called Harpies that exist in canon, maybe one of them triggers his angel girl fetish) and Motoyasu decides "I will fix this!" and tracks down Yumiella and the other two before they part ways.

2) Yumiella (or one of the others) runs into a slave trader, or worse into the bandits who've abducted demi-human kids to illegally sell them, and needs to juggle how to handle this. Bonus points if it's in Seaetto territory.

Qoheleth · Jul 22, 2024

blankmask said:
The argument made is that it is immoral, but also that it is a tool of the aristocracy to control the population via depressing wages

This is an interesting angle for sure. It does sort of rely, though, on the ways in which the kingdoms in yōshoku fantasy settings are often not feudal so much as "have a feudal coat of paint". The economic systems of the middle ages were such that few people actually performed wage labor as we know it; IIUC, arrangements such as tenant labor (lord provided the land/means of production in exchange for rents/share of product), apprenticeships (work for room, board, and free training), etc were more common.

I wonder if, in a more literally feudalistic setting, the argument would be less about control via "driving down wages", and more about control via "threatening the peasant class's land rights". If the gentry have access to slave labor, then, for example, they can evict their least obedient tenants with far greater impunity, since the now-unoccupied land can be converted into plantations rather than being left fallow.

Raphael · Jul 22, 2024

Qoheleth said:
This is an interesting angle for sure. It does sort of rely, though, on the ways in which the kingdoms in yōshoku fantasy settings are often not feudal so much as "have a feudal coat of paint". The economic systems of the middle ages were such that few people actually performed wage labor as we know it; IIUC, arrangements such as tenant labor (lord provided the land/means of production in exchange for rents/share of product), apprenticeships (work for room, board, and free training), etc were more common.

I always find that interesting, in these standard fantasy settings you usually get macrofeudalism (kings > larger lords > mayors), but then the mayors run their towns like, well, capitalism but dictators, and the larger lords then tax the mayors and so on.

Chronometry · Jul 23, 2024

blankmask said:
There's a story on Royal Road that addresses this, as it's after the whole end of the world thing and the Hero starts a revolution. One of the explicit goals is ending slavery

The argument made is that it is immoral, but also that it is a tool of the aristocracy to control the population via depressing wages.

Which I thought is really good because the general populace wouldn't see anything wrong with an institution that has existed for centuries. But they would be upset at being controlled and wage theft.

That doesn't mean that slavery isn't wrong, but that institutions don't disappear overnight.

Would you mind providing the name of this story? It sounds like an interesting read.

Kotar · Jul 23, 2024

One of the things I've noticed in Isekai and other power fantasy stories where slavery exists is that there's rarely anything like a native abolitionist movement. Shield Hero (the Queen) and the one with the skeleton guy are the only two I can think of off the top of my head where there's a movement to free slaves already there. Most actually kind of whitewash the act of slavery or nobody can be bothered to care about these people being abused.

cj.jedi · Jul 23, 2024

Obloquy said:
"including three people in the nearby area right now-," Yumiella lied.

Counting Higher

The two Shadows froze with their knives at each other's throats. The Queen's Shadow held up a sign. Truce?

The Church's Shadow nodded, and they both sheathed their knives. Their fight over the Sword Hero could wait until after they'd discovered the interloper following them.

*** *** ***

The number of monsters killed in the wake of the Sword Hero's party doubled as the increasingly elaborate traps set by the two Shadows failed to catch the unseen extra.

*** *** ***

"...there are at least four people in the nearby area observing us-" Yumiella said.

"Four!" Tersia gasped.

The Church's Shadow rubbed at his temples, while the Queen's Shadow threw back her head in a soundless scream.

There are more of them!

xbox432 · Jul 23, 2024

This is EXACTLY what I, and I bet more than a few others, imagined happening after reading that part of the chapter. So thanks for writing out all of our daydreams!

Obloquy · Jul 25, 2024

The Kingdom of Balshine was not a world power. They were home to none of the Seven Star Heroes, nor did they have any right to summon a Cardinal Hero in times of distress.

At most, they had a claim to fame that the Seven Stars Whip Hero of old who had helped their founding King and his Saintess Queen wife win sovereignty had later fallen to demonhood; he had attempted to conquer Balshine and then the world before being overthrown by the Saintess and the army before he could do too much permanent damage, though the death toll was atrocious.

Those who resembled the fallen hero had not been favored in Balshine ever since, with discrimination against people born with dark hair, dark eyes, and an affinity for dark magic.

Balshine was home to many families and factions, among which were Count and Countess Dolkness, a pair well matched in their ambition, impatience, and conniving natures.

When their lifestyle in the capital, attending the social scene and spending money from their territory failed to win them honor or repute, they began looking for more... subtle ways to gain influence.

Through various means, one idea came to them: a group with magical knowledge and power but a lack of resources had stumbled upon the instructions to summon a Legendary Hero from another world. The catalysts and methods to summon a Cardinal Hero were beyond even Count's ability to obtain, but historical records had made clear that the Seven Star weapons could also call an otherworldly Hero instead of choosing a native of the world.

Failing that, of course, the ritual could also be used to compel a Seven Stars weapon to select a hero, according to the chief researcher.

The Count and Countess quietly took this group of magicians to Hawou, the land where the Gauntlet Hero had long ago sealed the Sacred Phoenix of legend. The Seven Star Gauntlets remained in this land, placed on a stone platform in the open by the elderly Hero before he died, with the intent that any challenger who so desired could come openly and be tested for worthiness.

After centuries without success, the Gauntlets had largely been reduced to a tourist attraction now.

They would serve nicely.

In the dead of night, the Count and Countess and their troops quickly killed the night watch around the Gauntlets, set up the ritual, and performed it.

No Hero appeared through the summoning, nor was the Count himself chosen as a wielder like he'd hoped.

The couple's rage was great, and the Countess spiteful poisoned several of the stronger magicians the next day so that Count Dolkness could safely slaughter the weaker ones. Then they fled quietly and returned anonymously to Balshine, evading all suspicion with no evidence save for the old manuals those idiots mages must have mistranslated, if the books weren't fakes entirely.

When Countess Dolkness discovered her pregnancy a few months later, they thought nothing of the ritual incident and were only glad to have a successor to assure their line would continue.

After her birth, the Count and Countess raged that this disgusting creature had been born with dark hair and dark eyes, but they couldn't kill or replace her; the birth had been difficult enough that Countess Dolkness might not survive a second pregnancy, and they had used her pregnancy and safe birth as an excuse to throw several parties, so other nobility might get curious.

They retreated to their rural domain until Eumiella was weaned, then left her to be raised by their loyal and discrete (or else) servants.

When the young heiress was 5, she spent a long time looking in a mirror. She began to sign her name Yumiella instead of Eumiella when she handed coursework to her tutors. She began speaking more to the anxious maids to ask about the world, and to spend more time in the library, especially looking up books on history and magical theory.

Eventually, she snuck out for the first time, and the staff assumed she was just holed up in the library; she returned in time for supper and bed, so as long as she remained ahead on her coursework they let have keep her privacy and occupy herself.

Yumi Satou had been an average college student with a fondness for power gaming -- she could steamroll the toughest enemies with her overpowered PCs, it was amazingly satisfying -- before she got hit by a drunk driver while walking home from a convenience store one Friday night.

It was such a shame, too... After beating her current favorite game, Light Mage & Hero, a dozen times with different experimental builds and parties, she'd signed up for the recently released World Waves MMO expansion sequel game, and Saturday was going to be the first big Event, a catastrophic Wave of endlessly spawning monsters, so she'd been planning an all-night grinding session to top up her Level, skills, and stats in preparation.

Then one drunk driver put an end to all that. The main mercy was that she didn't linger long, everything fading into black as she was loaded into the ambulance.

There was darkness, and then there was light, and then she had a pleasant hallucination of timelessness as she went through a quiet, boring life as the young daughter of some rich family.

One day, when her hallucination had advanced to age five, she looked into a mirror at her reflection, and after a long time staring, she slowly woke up to realize that this wasn't a dream or a hallucination, it was a new life.

An Isekai.

And moreover, she recognized her face and name: she was Yumiella Dolkness, a noble girl who bullied the Protagonist Alicia, the future Saintess of Balshine, until her crimes were exposed and she was expelled. After the player defeated the Boss of Light Mage & Hero, they could go back to the Demon Lord's castle and find Yumiella, a tremendously strong Hidden Boss who had fallen to the temptations of Dark Magic and amassed fantastic combat power.

If she was fought with less than four Level 99 or Level 100 characters (teams could go up to 10 characters, although there were increasing EXP penalties beyond six in a team) one of which had to be Alicia, then the Player's loss was nearly assured.

Promotional materials had advertised that Yumiella would be returning in the World Waves MMO as one of a set of antagonists, but since the First Event hadn't even launched yet she hadn't gotten nearly that far in the underlying game lore and plot arcs.

However, unless this new world was into Plot Railroading, there was no reason for Yumiella to bully Alicia when they went to the Academy, meaning there was no reason for her to be expelled and fall into darkness.

If there was Plot Railroading and she'd be framed despite doing nothing, then Yumiella also had the option to just become strong and leave to live on her own without becoming a Hidden Boss who needed to be defeated.

Especially if there would be Waves of Destruction that spawned endless monsters in the future, requiring every powerful fighter to contribute their utmost in defense of the larger world.

"I need to Level Up," she vowed.

It had taken two weeks of asking about Status Magic and how to hunt monsters, but Yumiella finally felt ready. She'd even gotten to read a grimoire in her family's library that had taught her to cast basic Dark Magic, so she should be good to go.

The only question remaining was that of her weapons. In Light Mage & Hero, weapons had stats but had been largely interchangeble, while World Waves MMO had expanded the system and given people class choices with corresponding skills they made at character creation, in addition to having stats and elements. Yumi had personally preferred to play as a monk or a caster, but none of the servants were willing to give Yumiella access to any weapons, especially since she wasn't about to tell them she planned to sneak out and hunt monsters.

Finally, after she'd learned her starting spell Hex and practiced on inanimate objects, Yumiella decided that she'd just magic her first monsters to death and bash them with a rock if that didn't work.

One cloudy weekend afternoon when the staff was having a lazy day, Yumiella snuck out the back door and went hunting.

Eventually, she found a Black Mush -- a starter monster that was basically a hopping mushroom -- wiggling by some tree roots.

"Faust Hex," Yumiella cast, and darkness washed over it. Not enough, after it!

The mush tried to bounce away, but Yumiella chased it down and punched it to death, having forgotten to pick up a rock.

The status magic her tutor had taught her about (but not how to reliably access yet!) gave her a little ping, and then a gleaming light washed over her.

In a scene almost identical to the character creation completion graphics of World Waves MMO, a gleaming metal gauntlet with a grey gem appeared before her.

I suppose my class selection has been made for me. She reached out, touched the gauntlet, and with a flash it appeared on her hand.

Yumiella blinked, and then she noticed a Light Mage & Hero icon in the bottom of her vision. Focusing on it, she found her Status Menu opening before her eyes.

Yumiella Dolkness -- Gauntlet Hero Lv. 1

Beneath that there was a list of her various stats, skills, spells, affinities, equipment, and other data.

Is this an immersion video game after all, or is this real life? Yumiella wondered drily. Ah, I see a Help Menu bit as well.

In hindsight, Yumiella probably shouldn't have spaced out while reading the Help Menu in the middle of monster-infested woods, but nothing attacked her so it turned out okay.

The Help Menu itself was rather vague, but World Waves MMO had worked similarly, having a basic description and then an explanation that more data would be unlocked and discovered as each player progressed further, defeated more monsters, made new discoveries by experimenting, etc.

The basic data was enough for her to start:

1) She could not take the gauntlet off her person or swap it with a different weapon (change class), but she could move it around her body and change between various forms

2) Forms could be unlocked by feeding materials to her gauntlet, and different forms had different stats, powers, and effects as well as different appearances

3) Some bonuses and improvements only activated when she had that particular form attached, but others could be made permanently active

4) After unlocking a spongy Black Mush Gauntlet form by feeding it her monster materials, Yumiella had confirmed that she did have an inventory but that she had to manually move things in and out of it with her hands

5) In addition to Skills that were unlocked by getting various weapon forms, Yumiella would gain a set number of points each Level that she could use to upgrade her Skills, with the ability to reset the distribution if she found that she'd made bad decisions with her build

She wasn't sure if she wanted to risk the servants finding out about her new weapon, so after hunting for a while she returned home, declared that she felt ill, asked to have supper delivered to her room and that she be left alone to doze.

Once the staff had given her space, Yumiella began another round of experimenting.

Before she went to bed, she'd fed the Gauntlet her cloth napkin from supper to unlock a Linen Cloth Gauntlet, which made the whole thing look just like a fancy cloth glove she could wear as a fashion statement.

Feeling hopeful for the future, Yumiella went to bed that night with a small smile.

(The next morning, she smiled even more when she got a message that she'd mastered the Linen Cloth Gauntlet by having it equipped overnight. It seemed this had potential.)

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AN: The Army of the Waves thought they'd found a useful Vanguard... well the new world will certainly appreciate her help, whoops! For reference, Yumiella here is envisaged as being about the same age as Malty and Tact.

jacobpaige · Jul 25, 2024

This was so confusing until I saw the Apocrypha tag...

ShiftingSandLand · Jul 25, 2024

Sasuga, Yumiella-sama! You shall be the Muscle Wizard Hero!

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Jul 25, 2024

Please when are we going to see the real Grinding hero turning corn in the corn Mill and trees into sawdust

ShiftingSandLand · Jul 25, 2024

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
Please when are we going to see the real Grinding hero turning corn in the corn Mill and trees into sawdust

All she needs to do is crunch the corn, and punch a tree.

Obloquy · Jul 26, 2024

Day 19, morning

Just like the last ones, the (overnight! Urrrrgh,) boat ride to Cal Mira Archipelago was total misery, and Yumiella needed a few hours of rest to recover once they made landfall in the evening, so she swallowed down some broth and collapsed into the bed they'd arranged, with the twins and Yoshi cuddling up with her in the hopes she would feel better.

Come the morning, Yumiella woke up feeling hungry but human, and since she didn't want to stop cuddling with her three kids she decided to check her Menu to see how the boat trip over had gone.

Cavalry Sword has been Mastered! ... Cavalry Sword 100% Proficiency!

NEW SWORD FORMS UNLOCKED!

Blue Shark Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = ATK+4 ... swimming improvement (small)

Shark Fang Sword (M) -- Rarity F -- Base Power = ATK+5 ... ... Equip = ATK+2 ... naval combat skill improvement (small)

Sharkskin Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = DEF+2 ... swimming improvement (small)

Shark Meat Sword (M) -- Rarity F -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = cooking improvement (small)

Gouging Turtle Sword (unmastered) 1/20 -- Rarity D -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = ATK+4 ... Equip Skill: Gouging Blow -- spend SP and attack for a chance to tear out a chunk of the target's body, either lowering their defense around the wound or inflicting the Bleeding status condition

Gouging Turtle Shell Sword (unmastered) 1/20 -- Rarity D -- Base Power = ATK+1 ... ... Equip = DEF+4 ... M.DEF+4

Gouging Turtle Meat Sword (unmastered) 1/20 -- Rarity D -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = cooking improvement (small)

You have reached Level 40!

UNLOCKED: Multi-Squad Party System!

Yumiella needed a moment to wonder why the shark-type swords had all been mastered.

She checked her inventory, which had a lot of dissected shark pieces. Then she very quickly checked the Party Status page, which seemed to have mutated a bit.

PARTIES

Squad 1:

Yumiella Dolkness (Commander) -- Cardinal Sword Hero - Level 40

Yoshi Dolkness -- Tyrella Mount -- Level 27

Rich Dolkness -- Royal Filorial -- Level 28

Doduo Dolkness - Royal filorial -- Level 27

Farrie Bonheim -- Martial Artist -- Level 33

Welt Bluegrass -- Sorcerer -- Level 32

Squad 2:

Tersia (Captain) -- Scout -- Level 32

Bakta -- Ranger -- Level 35

She was about to read more about the changes when a burst of Alert notices distracted her.

+20 EXP ... +80 EXP ... +220 EXP ... +80 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +20 EXP ... +80 EXP

Welt must have wiped out a large group with a spell barrage, she realized. Then she realized that meant they were out Level-grinding without her, and they had 14 days left until the Wave hit. If we hurry, it may even be possible to get back to the capital and Class Up everyone before the Wave hits, so no EXP goes to waste when fighting it! Especially if I can get to Level 50, since that is when Motoyasu and Itsuki said the teleportation ability is unlocked.

"Kids, we should eat breakfast and begin," she said, nudging the twins awake and prodding Yoshi as well.

"Yom!"

"Fooooo~ood!"

"Good morning Mama!"

She had such adorable children.

"We are grateful for your hospitality, Margrave Habenburg," Yumiella greeted with her most formal curtsy. She had grilled Patrick for how to address various noble ranks because his father was a margrave and Yumiella would eventually need to ask for his blessing, so while she wasn't putting in as much effort here she still felt she did a reputable job!

The sallow man -- his hair was thinning and his skin had been pulled taught against his face, with dark, sunken eyes -- bowed politely in turn. "It is a great honor to host you in my territory, Lady Sword Hero. All our amenities will be reasonably at your disposal for the length of your stay, although it surprises me that you have come now, with no Activation event. Still, your party mentioned that you had an interest in records left by Heroes of previous generations, and I know of one I can show you to right away, if you'll follow me."

Yumiella really wanted to get to training, but establishing the location and the enemies she'd be facing was important for grinding -- people who brought fire-resistant equipment to get Ryu's egg would have been blown away, after all -- and so she peppered Margrave Habenburg with questions about the islands, their composition, the monsters found there, and stories of previous heroes as they moved through the march's capital city. (She also made a mental note for some plot line development or twist where he either turned out to be 'secretly' evil somehow due to his ominous appearance, or he turned out to be critically ill and there would be a mission Quest available to get him magical medicine for treatment. Given friendly he seemed as they walked, she hoped it would be the latter, or a replacement impersonator who was responsible for the former if it came to it.)

Margrave Habenburg was a font of useful information who nevertheless greeted passing people warmly as they walked through the city streets.

1) The Four Cardinal Heroes of the past made friends with four pioneers who initially developed the archipelago (or re-developed it after some disaster wiped out the inhabitants). These four pioneers were given names/nicknames/titles/honorifics of some form based on animals from the Cardinal Heroes' home world, with the animals supposedly becoming each pioneer's personal symbol or totem. These names were Pekkel (penguin), Usuani (rabbit), Risuka (squirrel), and Inult (dog).

2) Some time after getting the island settled, the four pioneers had continued out into the ocean in search of other new lands to discover, and were never heard from again. (Yumiella thought this was particularly suspicious, and suspected dimensional magic shenanigans involved assuming it wasn't some simple cover up for an assassination, but it was unlikely that she would find much evidence either way if the generations of Heroes between then and now hadn't recorded any discoveries.)

3) During the Activation Event, the normal monster inhabitants' life cycles were explosively accelerated and the EXP they gave when slain was doubled. Moreover, the largest four islands of the archipelago -- Margrave Habenburg's capital city was on a large central isle, but it was by no means the largest of them -- also had a population boom of unique monsters, and even Royal Monsters (aka the Dungeon Boss of the island) leading them. Sadly, no Boss monster had been seen outside the activation events; there were folk tales that the Boss Monsters would appear to fight a Seven Stars hero even outside the Activation Event, but there was no record of conclusive evidence so it may have just been idle boasting.

4) During the activation events, people were asked to only move between islands by ferry for the sake of crowd control, but outside of that it was possible to walk or wade between the islands at low tide and there were ferries and a few bridges at high tide for people who were unable to swim.

5) There was a good spread of monsters between the smaller islands with much overlap, but the larger islands had more specialized or unique ecosystems. (Ergo, training on one small island was as good as another, but she'd need to visit each large island to unlock as many forms as possible.) Given that the Activation Event was not occurring, it was strongly requested that she exercise discretion by not killing too many monsters on any given island, so as not to throw the local ecosystem into disarray.

"I will keep a list and submit it to you after each hunting period," Yumiella offered, as it wasn't that dissimilar from Pokemon EV training in her first life's teen years, nd the materials gathered would make it easy to keep count. "Should I also submit monster materials, or may we keep those?"

"Ordinarily we would buy monster materials at a fixed price, provided you avoid over-hunting," Margrave Habenburg explained, "but Legendary Heroes are not subject to those issues, as they historically claim that they have other uses and needs for the materials they harvest."

Yumiella nodded along, mentally flipping through her list of Weapon Empowerment methods that involved equipping something to a weapon form or turning harvested materials into PP or another form of energy.

"Here we have an inscription left by the founding heroes of the island, that has been renewed or added to by successive generations of Cardinal Heroes. The Seven Star Heroes generally cannot decipher it, but we keep it pristine and intact as every Cardinal Hero visits at least once to learn some form of powerful sorcery.

...Ah. Perhaps I came here too soon, as I have not yet finished my lessons in reading grimoires. Still, it will be worth trying. "Is there anything I should do here?"

"Try to read it, maybe place your hand on it?"

"It looks squiggly, ugh," Rich complained, and she absently gave him a head pat as he fidgeted.

"Yom." Yoshi butted her gently with his head, while Doduo gave a curious look from where she had wandered off to peer at a penguin-squirrel-rabbit-dog totem pole.

Yumiella peered at the magical symbols, focusing and doing her best to run through every symbol she recognized and its meaning as she tried to-

The writing shifted, and suddenly she was reading Japanese: a message from heroes of old to their successors and instructions about...

...

...

!!

"As the Source of thy Power, I, the Sword Hero, command thee," Yumiella chanted. "Forces of nature whose laws I have deciphered, turn that strength which opposes me against my enemies. Imbue."

It was her first spell in this new world, and Yumiella felt a rush of satisfaction as old as her second life, back the first time she had conjure dark magic.

Her sword glowed with magic power, and she could practically hear the swell of background theme music into a crescendo.

Yumiella began to feel very let down when nothing else happened.

"Oh! I know! Rich, like uncle Welt taught us! Faust Air Shot!"

"Faust Tornado!"

Yumiella would never have struck out at her kids, but she did start to dodge and move her sword into a guard position as the wind spells -- one small and one large enough that she worried it would cause collateral damage to the area -- flew at her.

Then the spells bent toward her as the sword's glow grew brighter, and they were swallowed up entirely, coating the blade in a shifting swirl of tightly controlled air currents.

"Thank you," she told her kids with a faint smile. This... will be very useful.

Day 19, noon

"There wasn't much else to do once it was too dark to fish for sharks, and Doduo had been listening in on our lessons anyway and wanted to show off some spells for me when I was riding her on our hunts. I... didn't realized you didn't know."

+280 EXP ... +220 EXP

"I see. How did you obtain that many sharks during the journey?" Yumiella checked, sidestepping the jump of the third Magenta Frog so it flew past her.

"Faust Icicle. You don't remember?" Welt wondered as the EXP notice for the frog he'd just impaled arrived. Yumiella gave him a bland look. "Sorry! You were occasionally lucid enough to pull some of the meat out of your Inventory for the kids to snack on, except some of it was getting rancid. Tersia had the idea to tie it up in a net and dump it overboard as a lure. It worked a lot better than we expected."

"Good initiative," Yumiella congratulated. I had mostly given up on finding a way to draw monsters to our location with no Monster Summoning Flute equivalent, but dragging raw meat through the water would be far more effective than leave a pile of meat out in the open air.

"Yeah," Welt chuckled as another Magenta Frog braced to jump at them. "It was really nerve-wracking when the twins jumped in and started kicking sharks up onto deck, but-,"

Yumiella spun to glare at him, absently (furiously) kicking the frog mid-jump so hard that its legs flew off in different directions from its pulped torso. "You let my kids what?"

(Welt abruptly realized why the other members of their party had all made themselves scarce when Yumiella woke up.)

Day 19, mid-afternoon

"Ow! Ack!"

Bakta's hands trembled a little as he watched Lady Yumiella's ruthless 'sparring session' with Tersia, knowing that he was next in line (he was the oldest and most experienced, she was saving the best for last,) for his punishment.

It seemed that Welt hadn't been able to keep quiet how they'd failed to stop the two Filorials from jumping into shark-infested waters to to hunt and fight while Lady Yumiella was abed with seasickness, and that she Did Not Approve of what had occurred, no matter how much EXP and how many monster materials it had netted them.

Intellectually, Bakta really wanted to protest that 1) the duo weren't kids no matter their shape-shifted appearance, 2) they weren't even human, they were just tamed monsters she was training to help fight the Waves, 3) they'd been jumping into the water of their own accord, no one made either of them do it, and 4) they'd come out of it perfectly okay and happy to have had the chance to play like that.

Emotionally, he was pretty sure that would just make his situation worse -- even reasonable people could have feelings about a beloved pet getting hurt, and nobility were especially prone to temper tantrums in his experience -- and he was relying on a trump card to minimize his suffering.

"Woof!"

Bakta winced in sympathy as Yumiella spun around a dagger swipe and uppercut the tip of her wooden practice sword (which she seemed to have empowered in some way, as it appeared fancier than it used to look when she'd first unlocked the form,) into his jaw. Rather than just snap his head back, the strike lifted Tersia's feet off the ground and sent him flying to land on a nearby bush.

"Go team," Farrie moaned tiredly from her spot on the grass. "Longest survival time yet, Tersia."

"Mwoooooooaaahhhh..."

Lady Yumiella turned to him, entirely pristine after three fights other than one bruise on her cheek from the lone blow that anyone (Farrie) had thus far landed against her. "Sir Bakta?" she invited politely, but her eyes made clear that he had no options.

"Right, I'm up. Oh," Bakta 'remembered' just as she got into a dueling stance, "I nearly forgot. I spoke to a helpful person at the Church and they wanted me to give you this, though they'd like it back before the Wave hits." He handed over the decorated leather belt which the local Three Heroes Church Shadow had assured him carried the magic they used to change their appearances fur undercover missions. I hope this gets her pleased enough to go easy on me.

Lady Yumiella fed it to her Holy Sword's central gem, took a moment to read whatever message had appeared, and then turned her attention back to him.

"Well done," she said, and they began.

...

In terms of fighting skill, she did not go easy on him in the least.

However, Bakta did finally realize why despite her striking them at full force, none of his teammates had needed medical attention or a potion after their 'sparring matches'.

While getting hit by each blow was sort of shocking, it didn't actually hurt him per se, much like the pillow fights he'd had with friends as a child. Force was imparted into his body when her horizontal slash struck his gut, and while it winded him and forced him to bend double, it didn't cause pain or make him nearly vomit.

He still got disoriented and had to stumble around, but his HP didn't drop at all and compared to how savaged the beat-downs had appeared from the outside, Bakta was was getting off infinitely easier than he'd feared.

(It still bruised his pride to be effortlessly beaten by a slip of a girl -- he didn't even mean Lady Yumiella, who was a Legendary Holy Hero and thus expected to be far above them all, but rather beaten through his inability to match Farrie's feat of landing even one blow on their Lady -- but that just meant that he had room to improve and grow stronger.)

(With Lady Yumiella leading them, he would grow far stronger indeed, he felt.)

Day 19, past sunset

"Swim swim swimming swimming swim pyu pyuu~!"

"So... was it just me, or did you perk up when Tersia mentioned there were hot springs on the island?"

"I did," Yumiella acknowledged. The party had all gone to wash off the grime of a day of training (and soak their bruises after she'd expressed her displeasure with how they irresponsibly let her kids jump into shark-infested waters), and when Tersia had dropped the words 'hot spring' Yumiella had immediately changed her plans from perusing the local shops for equipment to relaxing all evening.

This left Farrie, Yumiella, and Doduo on the girls' side of the hot spring while Rich (who was at that stage where he insisted he was 'all grown up' and it made him so adorable!) had joined the men on their side to soak a bit.

Doduo was swimming laps while the older girls (both still teenagers, unless you counted Yumiella's first life) soaked their troubles away.

"I've read some novels about the Legendary Heroes of old, including a few written by them, and it seems like there's a thing about hotsprings in there? Something relating mythological... Wait, you came from Balshine, not Japan," Farrie realized.

"I know about and have been to Japan," Yumiella simplified. "It is called the Land of the Rising Sun because it is the nation forest in the direction of the dawn on our world maps, and it is a series of large, mountainous islands with significant seismic and volcanic activity. Underground magma flow create geothermal heat, which warms the groundwater and infuses it with minerals to create hot springs."

"Oh wow. I thought I got a good education, but you really know a lot," Farrie complimented. Then, "Um, is there any chance of a volcano erupting here?"

"The local people should know to recognize it and give warning to evacuate," Yumiella assured her. "Even Pompeii had pillars of smoke before its eruption."

"Pompeii?"

"An ancient city that is a valuable historical site. A nearby volcano erupted so violently and unexpectedly that many of the people died before they could, and the buildings were buried in ash to be perfectly preserved. It was dug up several thousand years later and taught us a lot about history of that era." It was also a location to explore in the Ghosts of Old Stones video game, with lots of fire-type undead monsters to slay.

"Wow. I'm surprised the lava didn't just burn it to the ground, though."

"Swimswimswim swimming swimming swim pyu~!"

"Lava rarely travels far in most eruptions. The main danger comes from clouds of hot ash and poisonous gas , which will burn and suffocate people but leave stone buildings largely intact."

The talk descended to other types of natural disasters -- Farrie didn't know what a tsunami was, and Yumiella was curious about weather events in a magical world -- and then to other topics like favorite seasons (Yumiella liked spring and summer, when the days were long and warm for her to get in plenty of her favorite outdoor activity, which Farrie agreed with,) and the environments they enjoyed traveling through (Yumiella was very comfortable with caves and mountains, due to her childhood grinding in the Dolkness Dungeon, while Farrie preferred forests).

All the while, Doduo seemed perfectly happy to splash around acting her age, and the sound of her fun soothed Yumiella's aching heart.

"You know," Farrie mused after the conversation had slowed and they'd sank back to relax again, "I remember you got a fire sword and an ice sword an a sand sword, but did you ever get anything like a water sword in the river?"

...I feel very stupid. "If nothing else," Yumiella fudged as she dipped the Cardinal Sword beneath the surface, "hot springs often have minerals mixed into their water that are beneficial, and this may unlock a Steam Sword as well.

NEW SWORD FORM UNLOCKED!

Freshwater Sword (unmastered) -- Rarity G -- Base Power = ATK+1 ... ... Equip = water magic improvement (small)

Steam Sword (unmastered) -- Rarity G -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = M.ATK+2

Water Vapor Sword (unmastered) -- Rarity G -- Base Power = ATK+1 ... ... Equip Skill = Cloud -- spend SP to create an obscuring cloud of mist, 45 second cooldown

[LOCKED - Requires Level 50] Purification Sword (unmastered) -- Rarity B -- Base Power = ATK+10 ... ... Equip = M.ATK+10, M.DEF+5 ... ... Unique Equip = improved damage to Unholy (medium) ... Unique Skill: Purify -- spend SP to cleanse yourself or a target in range of a negative status condition (one cured at a time), 70 second cooldown

Yumiella blinked, re-read the locked entry, checked how much time they had until the next Wave (13 days and 7 hours), and immediately resolved that she had to unlock and master this sword before the upcoming Wave, no matter what!

She immediately glanced up at the night sky, and when no ominous rumble of thunder sounded she hoped that she had not just jinxed herself. Then she put the Cardinal Sword back into the hot spring and opened her Inventory, hoping to master the Freshwater and Steam forms before bed that night.

jacobpaige · Jul 27, 2024

"naval combat skill improvement (small)" It's too bad this didn't help with her sea sickness.

"they weren't even human, they were just tamed monsters she was training to help fight the Waves" I'm pretty sure she'd either expel him from the party permanently, or do horribly violent things to him if he said this to her right now...Possibly both.

Pixulior · Jul 27, 2024

I always wonder why noone thinks to absorb light, shadows, darkness or the various gases and elements in the air into their weapons. They're right there.

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Jul 27, 2024

Pixulior said:
I always wonder why noone thinks to absorb light, shadows, darkness or the various gases and elements in the air into their weapons. They're right there.

Why would you go there, those are very abstract to try to put into the gem

cj.jedi · Jul 27, 2024

Pixulior said:
I always wonder why noone thinks to absorb light, shadows, darkness or the various gases and elements in the air into their weapons. They're right there.

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
Why would you go there, those are very abstract to try to put into the gem

Light, at least, you could probably manage with a magnifying glass. Not sure how you would manage shadows or darkness though. Additionally, light could be fairly useful against dark aligned monsters or ones immune or resistant to the more physical types of damage.

Shadow is often associated with illusions (indeed, Raphtalia has a Shadow affinity, granting her with some illusion abilities), and a well-crafted set of illusions can allow you to punch well above your weight class with more safety.

Dark is typically either overly good at doing direct damage, providing mooks, or simply doing everything else, but with a price payed in blood.

TL;DR: Light should be fairly easy, and if you can manage the others, they will likely be worth the effort.

Pixulior · Jul 27, 2024

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
Why would you go there, those are very abstract to try to put into the gem

cj.jedi said:
Light, at least, you could probably manage with a magnifying glass. Not sure how you would manage shadows or darkness though. Additionally, light could be fairly useful against dark aligned monsters or ones immune or resistant to the more physical types of damage.

Shadow is often associated with illusions (indeed, Raphtalia has a Shadow affinity, granting her with some illusion abilities), and a well-crafted set of illusions can allow you to punch well above your weight class with more safety.

Dark is typically either overly good at doing direct damage, providing mooks, or simply doing everything else, but with a price payed in blood.

TL;DR: Light should be fairly easy, and if you can manage the others, they will likely be worth the effort.

I wouldn't be mad if the author decided to make them impossible, but especially a protag like Yumiella, whose last life was so focused on light and darkness should at least think of it.
Also, gotta remember it's a fantasy world, light and air have mass, so their absorbtion should be very straightforward, but while shadow and darkness in our world are just the absence of light, in a fantasy world there's a lot of properties tied to them, so absorbing them shouldn't be too farfetched.
Every single form is worth the effort, because of the permanent stat bonus when mastered, everything should be absorbed. Every object, every bit of dirt, every kind of rock, every plant every animal, every hair. Every element, classic, as well as those from the table. And when that's done, go further beyond (sorry, watching MHA at the moment), magic particles, quants, quarks, concepts. Trying doesn't cost anything and if it works the benefits are great.
Sorry, I began ranting...
Also, very much agree, @cj.jedi

Qoheleth · Jul 27, 2024

Obloquy said:
She immediately glanced up at the night sky, and when no ominous rumble of thunder sounded she hoped that she had not just jinxed herself. Then she put the Cardinal Sword back into the hot spring and opened her Inventory, hoping to master the Freshwater and Steam forms before bed that night.

Plot twist: the Cardinal Sword unlocked all this stuff b/c it didn't want to be left out of hot-tub time.

Obloquy · Jul 31, 2024

"Bugger, blast, and bother," Damon muttered as he reviewed the books.

"Problem, gov?" Kathryn -- one of his fellow senior servants, a sharp woman who knew what's what -- checked as she reviewed her own stack of paperwork.

"There's been a steady decline in monster attacks the last two seasons, which is good, but it means the lord and lady will want to suck up the extra cash without laying any aside for repairs or emergencies. I already had to lower a dangerous amount from the infrastructure funding, if there's a fire or a flood..."

Kathryn shrugged. "Swap the numbers? Tell them the new security budget is what you're spending on infrastructure, and infrastructure pays the guards; you're not embezzling any money, so you can call it hand slip if you get audited."

"Maybe..." Damon sighed. "That still leaves the question of what happened to all the monsters?"

"New hunters moved in and wiped them out?" Kathryn offered, but she was frowning.

"Doesn't add up, since there are no new big names claiming fame in the towns. There hasn't been a huge glut of beast parts on the market, nor carcasses left behind if they were wiped out by a disease or a bigger predator," he disagreed. "Closest are rumors of a protective spirit haunting the area that's popped up to fight off some monster attacks, but it's always appeared in shadows and near nightfall, moving quickly with no distinguishing traits beyond being small, fast, and powerful."

"How small?"

"There are stories of smoke or robes of trailing shadows as it moved, but barring those the central body of its appearance is about waist high, so people are guessing it's some type of ghost wolf or bear cub. Assuming it even exists at all," Damon finished.

Kathryn thought that over. "Either it's someone heroic who needs to stay out of sight -- like they were wrongfully accused of a crime and are on the run -- or we've got some variant of an undead whose grudge is exclusively against monsters, not people."

"Neither option is reassuring."

Yumiella, recently turned age 10, eyed the notification she'd gotten from her Gauntlet in confusion.

She'd already unlocked Wolf Gauntlet form among others many years ago, but when she'd received a wolf pelt coat for her birthday and she'd noticed her gem glowing near it, she'd absorbed it anyway in expectation of... well, she hadn't really known what.

As it turned out, she'd been able to unlock a Wolf Pelt Gauntlet that was related to her Wolf Gauntlet. Now she found herself looking through her weapon tree all over again, finding more and more locked entries that she had dismissed before, but that could be...

The one time I snuck some beef I didn't like into my inventory to hide that I wasn't eating it, it unlocked a Cow Meat Gauntlet separate the Bull Gauntlet... now there's a wolf pelt with an entry separate from the wolf... I've previously been absorbing monsters whole, but- aha! When I punched that Armordillo so hard its shell shattered, and I absorbed the shell pieces individually because they had scattered around, and they unlocked a different gauntlet.

Judging from the locked entries branching off from each animal-based form's entry, it seems possible that I can absorb parts of an animal individually to unlock further form sub-divisions, rather than needing to find rare variants and subspecies to get those locked forms.

Fur and feathers, skin, blood, shells, bones, muscles, fat, nerves, and the assorted organs like eyes, brains, intestines, and hearts.

I doubt that every monster will have all of those forms available, but I could easily double or triple my form count by revisiting the animal forms and breaking them into components...

Although it seems I may need lessons in dissecting and preparing monster corpses. Do I have any Gauntlet forms that would be useful for this? I remember that pulled pork and similar foods are prepared using a handheld set of meat shredders, perhaps the kitchen will have a pair?

If nothing else, I have unspent birthday money I can use to hire someone for lessons.

Feeling satisfied at the opportunity to hunt down more monsters and do so productively, Yumiella went to check the kitchens.

"Writing another letter to the Count and Countess?"

"I am indeed," Damon sighed.

"Do you think they'll come back for her twelfth birthday next month?" Kathryn checked.

Is she serious? I guess hope truly does spring eternal, Damon reflected. "If they haven't come back up to now, I doubt they would come back for her twelfth when the thirteenth is more important."

"Maybe we could send her to the capital?" Kathryn suggested.

Damon gave her a look.

"No matter her appearance or her odd behavior, we both know she doesn't deserve to be ignored and neglected. Yes, she seems to have made friends if she's taking boxed lunches and sneaking out, and she went through that phase where she wanted to learn about all those village jobs like butchering, mining, and carpentry, but she deserves to have supportive adults in her life," Kathryn insisted.

"She does, and she won't find that support from the Count and Countess," Damon agreed. "I regularly copy down their instructions and then burn the letters they send so that there's no chance Lady Yumiella will read their opinions and commentary. If they are happy to ignore her rather than tearing her apart for her hair, then I am happy to let them."

"It's still not right," Kathryn complained.

"It's not. But she seems quite satisfied sneaking out on her own... Maybe take her with an escort down to a village festival or two?" Damon suggested. "Let her speak to people her own age without sneaking off, form her own friendships and opinions while making sure she isn't taken advantage of? As long as she's doing well in her studies, there should be no problem giving her some extra pocket money or traveling freedom." He paused, and another thought occurred to him. "Ahem. I've just realized, as she'll be turning twelve soon, it seems past time that someone took her aside to explain... things."

Kathryn raised an eyebrow. "Things?"

"Womanly things," Damon admitted awkwardly.

"Ah, like how to sit without ruffling her skirts, and how to wear high heels?" she mock wondered.

Damon glared. "I mean the facts of life and the changes in her body, Kathryn! Please, you're the highest ranking woman on staff, and you've got daughters of your own, haven't you?"

"Yes, I do... Milady Dolkness already knows, though," Kathryn admitted.

"Already? Did you...?"

"When I took her aside to talk with her, she already knew just about everything," Kathryn admitted. "Must have been some good book or I owe debts to a very knowledgable midwife, since everything I asked she could answer and she even knew a few facts and figures I didn't. She's so reserved, I don't think the blood will run hot in her veins toward anything unchaste."

"Well, that's one worry gone," Damon sighed in relief.

Comportment was one of Yumiella's least favorite lessons, but as she would be attending the Balshine Royal Academy soon, it seemed that she would need to know how to interact with others of noble stature beyond the lessons she'd already been receiving to date.

"Gloves off, Miss Dolkness. We are practicing for a formal tea with high society," her tutor scolded her.

Rather than try to protest that she couldn't take it off, Yumiella utilized a trick she had worked out long ago to get around her shape-shifting gauntlet's unwillingness to detach from her body: she slid her hand down to her thigh as though her shoes were untied, grasped her own leg, and pulled her hand away with the glove remaining.

As long as it was touching some part of her skin, the gauntlet seemed content, so she'd gotten used to walking around with it in a thin cloth form stuck to her belly or her thigh under her clothing.

"Good," her tutor sniffed, not bothering to check whether Yumiella actually had any kind of purse or handbag that she'd put the glove in.

The rest of the tea party lesson seemed to progress well, as Yumiella was withdrawn enough to rarely give offense.

After that, they moved to covering different types of curtsies and bows used for a variety of situations.

Then at the end of the lesson came a surprise.

"Hosting?" Yumiella wondered.

"Governor Damon has indicated that there's going to be a bit of a festival for your fifteenth birthday, to see you off to the capital for your education," the hatchet-nosed woman sniffed. "A few of our noble neighbors and vassals might attend, but mostly it'll be commoners from the around the county come to wish you well and offer their regards. You'll want to be both gracious and officious, and to project that the land's future will be secure with you."

"I feel like a hunt would be a better way of proving I can keep people safe," Yumiella sighed.

Unfortunately, she'd said that aloud, which got her a long lecture she really could have done without.

"I'll be in your care, it seems," Yumiella greeted the redheaded maid who had set up her rooms in the Academy.

"Yes, milady. My name is Rita, and I've been assigned to see to your needs by the Count and Countess. They asked me to deliver this to you." Rita pinched her skirts, spoke politely, and was deferential in handing over the letter, but Yumiella was pretty sure she caught some signs of uncertainty in the woman.

Yumiella read the letter.

"...The Count and Countess-," Yumeilla certainly wasn't willing to liken them to her first life's parents. "-live in the capital, correct? Yet they aren't bothering to see me in person?"

"I could not dare to comment on their thoughts or motivations, milady," Rita answered neutrally.

I've heard of being 'damned by faint praise,' but this is even worse than that. "Out of curiosity, Miss Rita, what are your monthly wages?"

"His lordship pays me, you don't need to worry about it."

"Indulge me, please."

Rita hesitated, then named a number.

"I see." Yumiella made a show of going over to her trunk, digging into it with her back to Rita, and while her hands were obscured she took advantage of the Currency Gauntlet series she'd unlocked with assorted coin denominations; when she slew and absorbed monsters, these gave her odds of getting money (represented as GP) dropped into her inventory and she could even exchange denominations. "Three months wages up front; please inform me in advance of what you report back to them about me, and whether you need additional support or assistance."

She pressed the coins into Rita's hands as the redhead's jaw dropped.

"Level 99? Seriously?" William Ares dismissed. "If you're going to throw your noble pride in the muck and fake your Level reading, you might as well have gone the whole hog and claim you hit the Level Cap." Seriously, this girl pisses me off! If she'd gone with Level 40 I might have thought it was cool, she either hit the mid-Cap or was faking it, but this? Way to piss on the hard work of everyone who bothered to put in effort, Dolkness.

"...But I didn't fake my reading?" the black-haired girl offered.

"Will! Calm down, this is not the place to make a ruckus." Edwin's voice caught William before he could make a bigger scene with that faker. Will did his best to breathe and back down, though he really wished he'd brought his gloves to challenge her to a duel.

Dolkness, meanwhile, shifted smoothly into butt-kissing mode with a curtsy. "It's a pleasure and an honor, your highness. My name is Yumiella Dolkness."

"Yes, yes," Edwin sighed, waving her off with all the respect that faker was due, though William was disappointed that she seemed to take Ed's disdain in stride. "Dolkness... Those central wannabes. Lady Yumiella, I admit the ingenuity you showed in fooling the reader crystal was impressive, as well as the daring needed to make such an act your social debut, but in truth such a display was in very bad taste. Lady Yumiella, Will has been working hard on his swordplay all our lives, and for you to trample on that is in poor taste."

Will grit his teeth as Dolkness doubled down instead of backing down, and he couldn't wait for combat classes to start.

... ... ...

It was cool for Will to catch up with Alicia, the commoner girl attending on scholarship for her prodigious healing magic capability, even if Edwin and Oswald kept horning in on his conversation with her all afternoon and the next morning, but what he was really looking forward to was their combat class in the early afternoon.

He immediately volunteered to pair with Dolkness for sparring, and from how gingerly she held her wooden sword it was immediately clear that she'd never swung one before and she'd been spewing bullshit the other day.

Still, Will had to reluctantly give her credit that she wasn't actually worried when staring him down. Maybe she was willing to accept the consequences of her behavior, or maybe she just had one hell of a good poker face... or maybe she was as thick-headed as her senseless parents, too stupid to realize she should be worried.

I'll try not to make her cry too much, Will decided as he readied himself. "If you step out now, I'll excuse you," he offered chivalrously.

Dolkness just gave him a duelist's bow. "I look forward to our match."

"Me too," he grinned toothily. "Though it's pretty clear you've never been in a fight before."

"Handling weapons was not allowed for me, so I'll wait for you to start," she demurred.

Will huffed, waited for the signal, and charged. Girls tend to get all hissy about their face, but maybe hitting her arms, her wrist? That'll be a good reminder. But seriously, with my speed, you're so slow you might as well be standing still!!

He swung, even as Dolkness wasn't making any moves to dodge or block him, and he almost felt bad about how-

Will's world spun wildly as he ate dirt face first. He tried to push himself up, to figure out what had happened, only to freeze as he felt a tiny bit of pressure at the back of his skull.

"Sensei, is this my victory?" Dolkness asked. Will abruptly realized that the blunt tip of her wooden sword was at the back of his neck.

"The winner is Yumiella Dolkness!"

Will had lost plenty of fights, but rarely against anyone his own age.

His heart swelled with rage.

What the fuck! She snookered me! She isn't an amateur at all, how dare she! "Fuck that! You caught me off-guard after lying, now defend yourself properly!"

He retightened his grip, leapt to his feet, and swung blindly with blood trickling from his forehead down into one eye.

Will had a minor moment of distant mortification when he realized she'd turned away, and he was swinging full strength for the back of her head, but his training to strike hard and follow-through on each move wouldn't let him abort the attack.

His heavy wooden blade smacked into her skull, and he really hoped he wouldn't hurt the conniving twit too much, it would be bad if the infirmary really needed to get involved.

His sword stopped cold, the recoil nearly wrenching it from his grip as he staggered back; it was a feeling so familiar and yet so unexpected here that Will needed to blink once, twice, three times total to confirm visually that their teacher had not intervened.

There was no shield, no armor, no helmet. There was no third party who'd got between them in time.

He'd swung full force at the back of her head, and her skull had stopped the swing cold without injury.

What the fucking hell kind of Defense Stat does she have? Will wondered as their classmates stopped shrieking to mutter in confusion. I mean, this feels like...

Abruptly, as Dolkness turned to face him, Will remembered where he'd felt this sensation before.

Twice a year, to check his oldest son's growth and progress, General Roy Ares let Will wield live steel against him in a serious match. Will's father was a Level 70+ badass war veteran, a man who had gone through a Class Up a decade before Will was even born, and whose stats showed it.

Will's father let him land the occasional blow, but even swinging with all his now considerable strength, Roy Ares was tough and powerful to the extent that Will's every strike was stopped dead by his father's sizable defense rating.

Zero Damage. That was all Will had ever acheived against his father. Zero damage, even when he scored a technical win through a weapon touch.

Zero damage. That was what he'd just managed with his strongest swing to the back of Yumiella's skull. And now her head had turned around, and she was facing him, and she didn't look at all worried or discomfited.

Drop the sword!! Drop your sword before she fucking retaliates, you moron!! Will's sensible brain yelled at the rest of him, and the wooden sword slid from his sweaty grasp.

"Ah... Sorry, Dolkness. That, uh, that was unchivalrous and unsporting, and a whole Buch of other 'un' words. Won't happen again."

She blinked, nodded, and decided that she didn't need to take revenge on him for it.

Or at least not in front of all these witnesses, William's hindbrain whispered nervously.

...He'd really need to figure out what kind of apology she'd accept, fast.

ShiftingSandLand · Jul 31, 2024

Ah yes, that one scene from Bofuri.

The Great Gauntlet Hero-Sama wears her stats well.

Grovel, William. Grovel for her mercy.

And maybe tribute some rare monster mats, she wants the formgrind.

Obloquy · Aug 2, 2024

Trigger warning: discussion of historically accurate treatment of slaves, including sexual assault, torture, and execution

Details based on research into how the Roman Empire handled rebellious slaves.

Day 20, mid-morning

"Bored~!"

"Rich!"

"We'll find monsters without poisonous skin for you to fight soon," Yumiella assured the twins as Doduo huffed at her brother.

"You can also just try to grab a tree branch and club them," Farrie suggested, having cartwheeled over from the three large poison-skinned frogs she'd kicked into some trees.

The gray-winged boy blinked, tore off a thick tree branch, and immediately jumped into to fray swinging wildly.

"Whoa! Watch it kiddo," Tersia scolded, "you almost got me there!"

"Rich-kun, batter up," Yumiella called, switching to her Wooden Practice Sword form (now upgraded to Rarity D with better stats) to smack the few frogs jumping toward her over to him so he could smash them. "Doduo-chan, do you want to join in?"

"Later mama, I'm trying to make something cool with uncle Welt," her beige-winged daughter demurred from her perch on Yoshi's back alongside the mage.

Yumiella tossed Yoshi a treat for him being so patient about not fighting the poison-covered frogs, and set to absorbing some nearby bodies once the current crowd of frogs had been depleted.

Magenta Frog Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+5 ... ... Equip = SPD+3 ... jumping improvement (small)

Magenta Frog Meat Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = Poison resistance improvement (small)

Magenta Frog Bone Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = DEF+2 ... total HP up (small)

Magenta Frog Skin Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = DEF+2 ... Poison quality improvement (small)

"All of these forms have been mastered. Let's move on to find other monsters on the island," she instructed.

"Gonna squish some bugs!" Rich cheered.

"You say 'going to,' little big brother!" Doduo giggled at him.

Day 20, early evening

Having finished clearing out the most recent group of monsters on the second island they'd explored that day, everyone sat back around the carcass-filled clearing to relax a bit as Yumiella set to absorbing monster materials.

"Whew," Tersia sighed, "I'm glad we're in the shade but it's still scorching. Anyone fancy a swim? Ow!"

"There are ladies present, you three-inch cad!" Farrie scolded, having thrown something at his face. "Go be lewd on your own time!"

"I brought along swimwear, no skivvies necessary," Welt contributed smugly. "Are you saying you weren't prepared to get wet on an archipelago?"

"I didn't bring them with me out here! Wearing waxed wool would've melted me in this heat," Farrie complained irately. "Just because you can keep yourself cool with wind and ice magic..."

"Ooh! Doduo-chan can keep you cool, Aunt Farrie! Faust Tornado!"

Congratulations! Doduo has learned gust, Yumiella's mind chirped, and she had to suppress an amused snort.

"Hah, that's weak sis! I am-,"

"Hey, hey, maybe let's not throw around any big magic right now," Welt intervened quickly before things got chaotic.

"Booooring! Yoshi, fight with me!"

"Hey, that's not," Bakta tried to intervene.

"Yo-yom!"

Yumiella glanced up again quickly at the sound of a scuffle, shifting to Wooden Practice Sword in case she needed to break them up, but it seemed Rich-kun had learned more restraint after his last scolding and was keeping it to play-tussling levels, which Yoshi reciprocated. She gave Bakta a nod that he could let them be and set to finishing the absorptions.

"How have we done today, Lady Hero?" the older man rumbled as the last carcass entered her Inventory.

"I know I went up 3 Levels, and I expect the rest of us did too," Welt commented as he stroked Doduo's hair.

Yumiella paused. "How did you know that?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't I?"

"I thought I was the only one able to access Status magic and check our progress," Yumiella answered. The King mentioned that... "Isn't status magic unique to the heroes?" I know that in my last life, I didn't have a way to check my own Level or other stats without using various magical tools, or else things would have been very different.

"Ooh, it used to be!" Farrie input as the rest of the group tried to parse her question. "I don't know how long ago it was, but basically old mages eventually created spells or magic accessories that let normal people access a weaker, watered-down version of the Legendary Status Magic. Not everyone bothers to buy an item or learn those spells, but Welt and I both know it so he just had to check it on his own."

"Hey, I know it too," Tersia complained.

"I have an accessory," Bakta hedged with a significant look to Yumiella.

"I see." When no more conversation was forthcoming, Yumiella pulled up her Menu -- if nothing else she ought to check her kids' level growth -- to review their achievements for the day.

PARTY STATUS

Yumiella Dolkness (Commander) -- Cardinal Sword Hero - Level 42

Yoshi Dolkness -- Tyrella Mount -- Level 29

Rich Dolkness -- Royal Filorial -- Level 31

Doduo Dolkness - Royal Filorial -- Level 30

Farrie Bonheim -- Martial Artist -- Level 35

Welt Bluegrass -- Sorcerer -- Level 35

Tersia (Captain) -- Scout -- Level 35

Bakta -- Ranger -- Level 37

"I should take out the kids for some extra grinding soon, but everyone else is on-schedule to reach Level 40 by the end of the week or sooner. After that we can discuss whether we want to continue training until the Wave arrives, or whether we should return to... is the capital the only place to Class Up?"

"There are stories about other ways to Class Up in the black market," Tersia answered, "but nothing concrete, and as far as I know the only Dragon's Hourglass is in the Castle City."

"That fits everything I know," Bakta agreed.

"We could also take a boat to Zeltbul, in Zenoble. I've got family there, they've got a Dragon Hourglass, and the capital is pretty close to the coast while Castle City is much further inland, so going to Zeltbul would be faster."

"I'm to sure that's wise," Bakta interjected worriedly, which sparked off a debate about the rewards of leaving Melromarc (better gear in Zeltbul's markets, new monsters,) versus the risk of heading to Zeltbul (which had blood sports and a lot of money-based government corruption, and it would be easy to strong-arm them if they party wasn't strong enough to hold their own).

"We'll discuss it after we reach the Class Up point and need to decide," Yumiella judged after several minutes of back-and-forth had culminated in Tersia's observation that Zenoble wasn't generally religious beyond their worship of money, and a lot of people there would be trying to buy or steal a talking Filorial.

The others settled down at her declaration and they began packing up to leave the island.

"You get enough sword forms for today, or should we do a bit more hunting?" Tersia wondered once they were all packed.

Yumiella checked her recent acquisitions list.

Violet Blob Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+5 ... ... Equip = M.ATK+3 ... M.DEF+2

Violet Blob Plasma Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = potion compounding up (small) ... MP recovery up (small)

Yellow Beetle Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+4 ... ... Equip = ATK+3 ... M.DEF+2

Yellow Beetle Wing Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = SPD+5

Yellow Beetle Horn Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+5 ... ... Equip = ATK+4

Yellow Beetle Shell Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = DEF+3 ... M.DEF+4

Yellow Beetle Meat Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+2 ... ... Equip = cooking improvement (small) ... dissection improvement (small)

Cactus Worm Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = ATK+2 ... Skill power improvement (tiny)

Cactus Worm Spike Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+4 ... ... Equip = ATK+3 ... Spiny Sword skill improvement (small)

Cactus Worm Skin Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+3 ... ... Equip = ATK+2 ... DEF+2 ... M.DEF+1

Cactus Worm Meat Sword (M) -- Rarity E -- Base Power = ATK+4 ... ... Equip = ATK+3 ... cooking improvement (small)

"We made excellent progress today; tomorrow we should move onto one of the larger islands and search out the rarer monsters."

"I can ask around town to see whether anyone saw them recently on any of the four in particular," Farrie offered.

"That'll probably be better than Tersia or me trying to find them before sunset in person," Bakta agreed.

Day 20, evening

Black Slime Sword, Yumiella commanded, and the Cardinal Sword shifted forms to bolster her Dark Magic. "I am the Hero of the Sword, who commands the origin of power. I have read and deciphered a law of nature. Smother strength and stifle my target: Jinx!"

The chant made her feel embarrassingly chuuni, but at the same time as she spoke it she meant it, for while she had bent mana and matter to her will for years she had come to understand the laws they often followed. And her magic responded.

Dark smoke wreathed her hand and flowed to the wooden post before her, which creaked and discolored under her spell.

"You did it! Congratulations, Lady Yumiella!" Welt cheered. "That was Jinx, a dark-attribute spell that deteriorates the target's condition with a status effect and can even do a little damage if you cast it right. I'm not certain how a status effect would translate from flesh bodies to wood," he acknowledged, leaning in to examine the now rotting post, "but it was certainly powerful. Jinx conventionally pairs really well with Hex, a dark-attribute spell that deals extra damage if the target is suffering a status condition. Do you think you know Hex too, now? Or can you cast one of the advanced variants of Jinx? ...Lady Yumiella?"

Yumiella, who had been contemplating several different trains of thought along with her satisfaction -- thoughts such as Wasn't there a Pokemon move named Hex? And a Pokemon named Jinx? I wonder if Jinx could learn Hex, to continue the theme with Doduo-chan and my Sand Slash skill? Actually, there were dark-type moves like Bite and Crunch, Thief and Beat Up... However, I still prefer to try to learn or recreate my old spells, like Dark Bind or Shadow Lance. would I be allowed to cast Shadow Lance, though? The Cardinal Sword might forcibly change it to Shadow Sword instead, like the Dark Knight equipment of Dark Souls? Although maybe I already had that theme, since knights were supposed to use lances... -- blinked away her distraction and turned back to Welt, her lips still unmistakably in a small smile.

"Faust Jinx," she cast, and a smaller flow of darkness warped and discolored the post closer to its base.

It clearly did perhaps a third as much to the wooden target, but the speed she'd cast it would likely make the Faust version more tactically useful in tense fights.

"Fantastic!!" Welt cheered, and while she agreed Yumiella rather wished he'd be a bit quieter about it; her ears might no longer be Level 99, but they were still very keen and she had several bonuses to hearing. "Can you cast the Zweit version, Lady Hero? That would be amazing to see!!"

Yumiella didn't disagree with him, and her MP wasn't anywhere near depleted, so she began to chant.

"I am the Hero of the Sword, who commands the origin-,"

*beep beep be-beedle beep ... beep beep be-beedle beep*

A familiar sound reached her ears, and she cut off her chant to reach for her purse or pockets before she realized how absurd it was.

She hadn't heard a cellphone's ringtone since her first life back in Japan, after all.

*beep beep be-beedle beep*

"Do you... hear that, Mister Welt?" she checked carefully.

"Hear what, Lady Yu...miella...?" He trailed off and started glancing around uncertainly.

*beep beep be-beedle beep*

Welt was still glancing around, so Yumiella pulled up her MENU and immediately got an alert that answered almost as many questions as it created.

You have an incoming communication from Kawasumi, Itsuki.

Will you accept this communication? Yes / No

Will you contribute SP to support the length and quality of the communication? Yes/ No

"Please excuse me," Yumiella said reflexively, stepping away and waving Welt off for privacy (and not at all to hide her total confusion as she pinched herself to check this wasn't a dream,) as she mentally hit Y and Y on her Menu. "Moshi-,"

"Melromarc has slavery!" Itsuki burst out across the line, and her Menu even provided jagged line that went spiky and fuzzy in time with his voice.

Yumiella attempted to come up with something and fell back on, "I see."

"Slaves! Not human slaves, not usually, they're called Demi-humans, but there's been wars and they're treated like trashhere, there's no Constance Convention or a Declaration on Human Rights, none of my party seemed bothered by any of it when we passed a man hanging from a tree and now I found kids, what am I supposed to do here?!"

Yumiella skipped over 'That's amazing' because it was disgusting and would have tried to use 'Please tell me more' if not for her brain stumbling over the most inane thing.

"Do you mean the Geneva Convention?" she said instead.

There was a strangled gurgle that made the menu's heart-monitor-voice-display line wobble very interestingly.

Yumiella didn't often apologize, but Patrick had gotten her in the habit of it for when she could tell she'd said something wrong here. "I'm sorry. I'm in shock," she managed.

"You're in shock?! You're the one who knows about plots and plans and politics! You're the one who guessed we might be hoodwinked! You're supposed to tell me what to do!!"

"I'm- I think I need to know more. How are you- is there a telephone bow?"

"That's what you're curious about?! What kind of- I saw a family of four hanging from a tree, a teenage girl and her pre-teen brother and their parents, and you want to know how I-? Motoyasu's a moron and Naofumi's a fucking rapist, I've been sending you messages for the past week since I found out slaves still fucking exist and you haven't responded!! I had to stick silver, zinc, and copper in a dozen potatoes to simulate an electric circuit and experiment like crazy to unlock a fucking Telegraph Bow and then upgrade it three times with your fucking Awakening ability, but oh no, the actual message of executed kids isn't important, let me tell you more my whacky primary school science projects I based this on so I can spend all my SP feeding this ability that sucks it down like crazy and never get around to asking you for advice on this shit!!! Are you fucking braindead?!!!"

"Yes. Some people have called me that," Yumiella admitted for lack of anything else to say. "I need to-," She stopped, checked her menu, and said, "This is draining my SP too. I will get to where I can regenerate it. Tell me how I can help you."

It took her 90 seconds, liberal flashing the Holy Sacred Cardinal Sword in its Energetic Sword form (with 'strong' SP regeneration) to invoke her privilege, and a large handful of coins dumped on a countertop, but she got herself exclusive access to the highest quality magical hot spring the staff could point her to so she could immerse herself and her sword completely before her SP could drop below half her total.

She hadn't thought she was reacting to Itsuki's story, but once her hand started tingling in the hot water she realized that her nails (trimmed short, since she didn't bother with conventional beauty methods and long nails would only get in her way) were carving crescents into the meat of her palms, and in hindsight she'd probably dripped some blood on the counter along with her payment.

She distantly hoped that there wasn't any kind of voodoo magic that used blood samples in this world, but Itsuki was pouring out his story and that deserved her full attention.

It wasn't pretty.

As per the hero quartet's vague plan from their first night, Itsuki had gone west after leaving the king's castle -- Itsuki had mentioned Naofumi's rape trial, but Yumiella wasn't going to push for details on that when the younger boy was in this state -- toward a mountainous area where the Bow Hero could snipe at great distances from mountainous peaks overlooking monster-filled valleys, and where there were plenty of rare ores for his Ore Equip and the Tempering method that Motyasu had shared with them.

Also in keeping with Yumiella's suggestion that the four heroes look for artifacts, messages, and legacies left by previous generations of heroes, Itsuki had asked around while hunting bandits (he seemed to have no issues with fighting or killing humans so long as they were criminals; Yumiella chose not to press,) and eventually heard about an obelisk monument in the capital town of Count Rabier's territory, which was said to mark or commemorate the defeat of an ancient dragon by the Cardinal Heroes of old.

Rabier County was the place where Itsuki had first begun to realize that things were off, and this new world had more hidden darkness and brutality than he had realized. He didn't go into much detail, but it involved Count Rabier's nephew (the man himself was back at the capital when they visited,) brutally beating a demi-human maid ("A child! He straight-up punched a fucking kid in her face, and he'd have done it again if I didn't grab his arm! I ought to have killed him for it!!") who'd dropped the tea service when Itsuki was there for a meet and greet.

Itsuki had thought he'd hidden his disquiet while feeling out his companions' opinions on the conflict at the time, but now he wasn't sure of anything. Still, he had kept his eyes and ears open through the next few noble estates they had visited while also comparing multiple people's stories to see what was consistent.

He'd learned that slavery was legal in Melromarc -- was legal across the entire continent, even, albeit with varying specifics -- but that humans in Melromarc could only be enslaved either as the result of being found guilty of severe crimes, or by willingly selling themselves into slavery with a formal legal contract and a monetary payout.

He'd learned that Demi-humans had far less protection, unless the local laws of the territory they lived in said otherwise, although this was ostensibly the result either of Demi-humans 'needing to be kept under control' because 'they were the result of human-monster crossbreeding and slavery kept them from turning into feral man-eating predators', or it was a result of previous wars with demi-human nations who had invaded Melromarc not many years past, and the population of enslaved demi-humans descended from captured enemy soldiers.

He'd learned that it was quite common for nobles to own a few slaves as status symbols, though they might be 'employed' as body guards, farm laborers, craftsmen, domestic servants, 'domestic companions' (i.e. sex slaves, but it had taken the teen a while to put together that innuendo), or in other various positions.

He'd learned that slaves were expensive enough that it was good business sense to keep them alive and in relatively good health, because replacing a dead slave would be costly for most people, so they weren't regularly tortured, starved, or killed the same way you wouldn't deliberately break your own tools or burn your own fancy clothing.

He'd almost left things at that because he hadn't felt sure about the situation.

Almost, but Yumiella's warnings about leeches and resentful companions had twinged at Itsuki's suspicions when two of his party members had heavily advised against going into a certain noble's territory or meeting with the man, as the Reichnott lands were reportedly rather anarchical and there were heretical people living there who might attack the party.

Itsuki had soon after snuck away under the guise of 'a stealth mission to find a rare animal in the forest, but I need to do it alone because you all move too loudly,' and had traveled quickly to the supposedly lawless territory, expecting that he would find a wretched hive of scum and villainy ruled by powerful tyrants his teammates had wanted to spare him from clashing with until he was strong enough to make a difference.

Instead, Itsuki had found that Lord Van Reichnott was a reasonable and educated man who ruled a largely peaceful territory and was respected by his diverse citizenry for being patient, fair, and just. Moreover, despite being woken in the middle of the night, Van Raichnott met with Itsuki and shared a lot of new information about the state of the kingdom and the world at large.

Slavery was legal. Slavery was enforced by magical slaves crests that could cause pain or death by the controller's will. The king who'd summoned them was not supposed to have done so for a dozen different reasons. The kingdom's plurality-and-nearly-majority religion had begun as a heretical offshoot that demonized one Cardinal Weapon (the Shield) and its wielder.

The Waves of Calamity were occurring across the entire world, not just in Melromarc; Melromarc had been first, the site of the First Wave of this iteration, but they'd already received news of a Wave in Shiltfrieden, and the casualties there had been 'significant' with Melromarc monopolizing all four Cardinal Heroes in violation of the ancient tradition to summon them separately across the continent for better coverage.

King Aultcray was not supposed to be the highest authority in the kingdom. He was a foreign hero who had married into the royal family, so when Queen Mirellia had left for an international conference to discuss the Waves she had left her distant cousin Duke Seaetto in charge as her proxy; by tremendous bad luck, the First Wave had opened on Duke Seaetto's home territory and he had been killed fighting against it, which allowed Aultcray to reclaim the sovereign's authority and command the summoning of all four Cardinal Heroes.

Itsuki had been so shocked that he hadn't wanted to believe it -- there was nothing like this kind of treacherous sub-plot in Dimension Web! -- and due to that, he hadn't confronted his teammates directly once he snuck back, instead questioning them more about the laws and legal processes over the next few days.

He'd also sent several PMs to the others, but replies had been very slow to arrive, and when they did come they were not helpful; Naofumi had responded with a flood of insults, Motoyasu hadn't been helpful when he eventually responded, and Yumiella hadn't been responding at all.

Itsuki had started quietly investigating the wealthy and powerful people of the territories he'd traveled through, making excuses to go off alone more often to level grind without his party so they wouldn't think his behavior was odd, and what he'd found was...

It wasn't good, even if it what he'd found then hadn't been atrocious enough to make him confront his comrades directly, but he'd continued getting more and more paranoid. He had begun experimenting with his telegraph recreation device in hopes of unlocking some communication Bow form he could use to check that Yumiella was alive and get advice from her.

He'd gotten a Transmission Bow and then Awakened it once after it hadn't provided the type of communication Skill he'd wanted, and then decided to Awaken it again the next day, and when two awakenings hadn't yielded the desired results he'd put the idea away to try again later.

Then, earlier today, his party had passed by Rabier territory again. Itsuki had been hunting ahead on his own and had made an impromptu detour toward the city -- he'd realized that he ought to try and get copies or charcoal rubbings of the obelisk's engravings, in case the other heroes could decipher them even though he couldn't -- only to unexpectedly stumble across a family of four fox-type Demi-humans hanging from a tree by the roadside, several days dead and having clearly been tortured and defiled before they died.

Itsuki couldn't read the wooden placard nailed to the tree, but he'd raced up to the nearby city's gates, grabbed a gate guard under his authority as a Cardinal Hero, and dragged the man off to the site of the crime.

Or rather, the site of the execution.

Itsuki had been under the impression that he was reporting a homicide, but the guard explained without any fear or shame that it was a public execution that had taken place a few days before, common knowledge in the city, and the wooden placard identified them as rebellious slaves.

It seemed that a young man of the Rabier household had wanted to 'break in' the teenage fox-girl of the family -- the guard had expressed comical surprise that she wasn't sullied already, and had joked that Count Rabier must have been saving her for a special occasion or planning to re-sell her for more money once the parents had produced another daughter to replace her -- and she had violently resisted.

As the four were legally owned by Count Rabier, the younger nobleman hadn't been able to use the Slavery Control Seal to subdue her, so she'd not only clawed out one eye while fighting, but also bitten a large enough chunk from his neck that he might have bled to death.

As the guard had joked, 'Well, when a dirty Demi does something that fucking stupid, you can't kill just one, it's not a big enough example to get through their thick animal skulls.'

The guard had survived this 'joke', as well as his re-telling of the gruesome events of the execution, solely because Itsuki had been too flabbergasted to do worse than punch him out when the re-telling got too filthy to stomach.

The Rabier aristocrat whose assault started everything was still alive primarily because he had reportedly left town already to seek medical treatment in the capital for his injuries, and Itsuki had been too preoccupied giving the four bodies decent burial to go hunting.

In lieu of tracking down some villains to Bring Justice upon for this, Itsuki had spent the past few hours burning through every upgrade, power-up, and alternate form he had available to try to reach Yumiella with his Transmission Bow because he was panicking and overwhelmed and wanted help from the girl who knew noble plotting and politics.

"I just... please," he managed at the end of it, "I don't know what to do."

Yumiella had listened to Itsuki's staggered outpouring of words with only a bit of contribution from her side, and when he finally slowed to a halt she realized that she needed to say something.

"Itsuki, I... One moment." Yumiella raised her head, pitched her voice to carry, and called, "Shadow of the Three Heroes Church, I feel the glow of your righteous soul and by my authority as the Holy Sword Hero I summon you to stand before me. I require consultation with you regarding the religious laws and strictures that the Church observes in this day and age; answer now or forever turn your face from we Holy Three."

She waited, counting back from twenty under her breath, and Itsuki didn't interrupt her.

"...one...zero. Thank you, Itsuki, I needed to see that I was not being spied on," Yumiella relayed. "First question: is the guard you attacked still alive?"

"Yes, he's still unconscious. I might change that, though."

"Has anyone else seen you burying the bodies?"

"No. I used a bit of earth magic and some Bow skills, it didn't take me that long."

"How many guards at the gate saw you bring this guard with you to the scene?"

"There were two guards, but the other one was busy inspecting a caravan and didn't pay much attention to me. He might not have heard exactly what I was saying."

"If you have any alcohol or potions in your storage, a way to inflict drunkenness, confusion, or delirium, then you can apply those to the guard to cover your tracks," Yumiella advised.

"I don't care about me! Stop focusing on me and help me plan this fucking slave rebellion!" Itsuki screamed across the line at her. "This is rank injustice, I need to set them free!"

"If you immediately attempt a violent revolution, the tyrants in power can easily organize a mass execution of innocent slaves either to spite you or to bait you into a trap, ambush you, and enslave or kill you."

"We're Holy Heroes! It's our job to change the world and save the people of the world, and we can't even be affected by slave seals or mind control! We're the only people they can't enslave this way, we're the only ones who are safe to fight them!"

ALERT: Legendary Heroes are immune to Slave Control Seals and other forms of external control magic.

Yumiella blinked at her menu notice, linked through to the Help Menu that described it, and after a quick skim she said, "Meaning either they will kill us all and summon new heroes while the Waves are weak enough that it's safe to train, or they will dose you to the gills with magically enhanced addictive drugs and alcohol to keep you compliant and obedient. We don't appear to be immune to alcohol, narcotics, or other forms of drugs and poisons."

"We-!" He cut himself off, and for a few moments Yumiella only heard Itsuki's ragged breathing over the line. She guessed he was checking his own Menu. "Still, we can't just do nothing here! The police here violated a fourteen-year-old because she defended herself from a rapist, burned her eyes out, hanged her and her parents naked from a tree, and hung her eight-year-old brother beside them just to make an example! These people are fucking evil and maybe they don't deserve to be saved!"

"Maybe," Yumiella agreed, "but for all we know, King Aultcray may have summoned four different Cardinal Heroes a week before he summoned us, only to dispose of them a few days later when they discovered this an attempted to plot a rebellion."

"Hah... Hah... Haah..."

All she heard over the line was Itsuki's ragged panting.

"In Balshine, if I had not been Level 99 when I entered society, any attempts I made at social change would have failed or floundered immensely, and I would have been manipulated or disposed of quickly," Yumiella assessed clinically. "If you want to save the slaves and end slavery, the fastest way that is likely to succeed is for all four Cardinal Heroes to become too strong for the government to suppress, and for us to use our power and our popularity to unanimously demand change from the legal authorities. If the four of us present a united front-,"

"Hah! You fucking out-of-touch ignoramus," Itsuki accused venomously, "that will never work! Motoyasu might go for it if we phrase it as rescuing pretty girls from sex slavery, but Naofumi bought himself a slave two or three days after he was convicted of raping his- Actually, that could work," Itsuki realized. "If all three of us agitate to end slavery and we hammer in the point that Naofumi owns slaves, the Three Hero Church would have to realize that slavery is evil and it helps the Shield Hero and the people who act! We can do it, quick and easy! Once rape-Hero Naofumi and his slave prove useless in the next Wave while we conquer it, we can get slavery abolished then and there by the end of this month!"

"Wait. Naofumi what?" Yumiella asked uncertainly, going back to the unread messages she had noticed -- beginning with a message chain in response to her own question about the rumor Bakta had reported after her defeat of the zombie owlbear -- once Itsuki reminded her to check them at the start of his call, but that she hadn't yet read because she was listening to his story.

It was...

Well...

That's a lot of swearing. I wonder how much HP Naofumi has to feel safe burning this much on insults and ranting about conspiracies.

"The Shield 'Hero' raped his adventuring partner, Myne, during their first night in the inn the day they met up." Itsuki hesitated a moment. "Or, I guess he attempted to rape her, but he was drunk enough that she fought him off and fled to report him? I think that's how it happened, he was tearing her clothes off when she struggled free and fled."

"You weren't in the capital so they couldn't invite you," the Bow Hero continued, "but Myne ran to Motoyasu for safety so he was at the trial, and I got invited to watch the proceedings as well. Naofumi was basically naked and sweaty when they dragged him in, and pretty hung over or still drunk even given that he didn't seem to think he'd done anything wrong. The first words out of his mouth were literally 'What the hell, Myne,' as soon as he saw her, he showed no remorse for the fact that she was crying, and he called Motoyasu a thief for stealing Myne from him, as though she- He was already treating people like property back then! That fucking bastard!!"

"I see. Please, tell me more," Yumiella requested as she tried to reconcile this image with the Naofumi she knew... the Naofumi she had known for barely a day. This sounds like a scam or a set-up, but if Itsuki believes it and he was there, I have no good reason to doubt him on it... "What was the result?"

"Naofumi didn't have any kind of alibi or explanation, he just claimed that Motoyasu was fabricating the false charges to steal his equipment, presumably including Myne herself in that category," Itsuki relayed. "Naofumi even tried to rant that Motoyasu must have come up with this scheme the very morning he met Myne, and that she had moved to the Shield's party at Motoyasu's suggestion to set up this chain of events, as though the very basic starting amount of money -- money Naofumi had already apparently squandered in just the first day out -- was worth anything compared to the loot and drops we've been getting after a week or two of honest work hunting monsters."

"Rather than accept any form of responsibility or apologize for his drunken assault, Naofumi demanded to be sent home again, fleeing responsibility like a spoiled brat! However, this world can't get new heroes unless all four of us die, so Naofumi was essentially holding our lives hostage against receiving just punishment for his crimes. In the face of that kind of defiance, King Aultcray could only have Naofumi judged and punished in the court of public opinion, given that our lives as Cardinal Heroes are too important to the wellbeing of everyone on the planet."

"So Naofumi got let off without any punishment except public scorn and infamy, and to cap it off that lying son of a bitch made a blasphemous religious reference by throwing thirty silver coins at Motoyasu's face as he stalked out of the throne room, even though he'd been claiming a minute ago that all his stuff got stolen! So if he was lying about that and totally unashamed, what else do you think he was lying about?!"

"I see. That's..." Yumiella couldn't bring herself to say amazing. She was still trying to process everything. It was certainly possible that Naofumi had been set up, but it was equally possible that he was a mean drunk, and trying to judge the situation as an armchair psychologist would be a waste of breath. Still... "What punishment exactly -- what limits and prohibition and oversight -- was Naofumi subjected to after he was found guilty but released to fight the waves?"

"I just told you, nothing! He walked out free as a bird- No, that's an insult to birds, I like birds. He walked out free as a mosquito, free as a cockroach that everyone loathes like the disgusting wretch it is, but no one wants to get close enough to squash it for fear of getting its guts on them! I ought to hunt him down and kill that fucker, even if it means they'll try to kill me too! Three strong heroes can still beat the Waves, we can change the world!!"

"No punishment?" Yumiella pressed incredulously.

"Nothing! I told you, the King could do nothing! And that makes more sense, if he isn't the legitimate monarch and doesn't-,"

"That was a set-up," Yumiella interjected.

...

...

...

...

"...You think it what?" Itsuki hissed furiously. "You think I'm a moron? You're a girl, what kind of dumbass victim-blaming shit is normal in your world, you always believe women about sexual assault when they report it, you-,"

"The King, he didn't believe the charges," Yumiella clarified. "Possibly Myne was genuinely attacked, there is magic to impersonate appearances, but King Aultcray did not believe the charges against Naofumi were true. If he did, Naofumi would not have been freed."

"I just told you, he's only the royal consort! If there are laws about not punishing Holy Heroes, then he can't overturn them with the Queen away," Itsuki countered. "He didn't have a choice but to follow the law, even if the law here is stupid and evil."

"Parole officers," Yumiella countered.

"Well- What about them?"

"If Naofumi -- the Shield Hero with no known offensive power, who had only been fighting monsters for a day when this crime was committed -- if such a man were powerful and impulsive enough to have assaulted a trained adventurer who'd been judged suitable to support the Heroes in fighting against the Waves, and to nearly overcome her," Yumiella explained slowly, "then such a man would have no trouble successfully assaulting peasant women with no combat training who have never fought any monsters in their lives."

"Breaking into a house in the capital city might risk causing a fuss, but it would be easy for him to walk down the road to a farming village and find a house with a vulnerable woman he could target. Breaking in at night and assaulting her would also afford him the chance to rob her of money and materials, and he could cover his tracks by burning the house down afterward so that it seemed like a tragic accident he had nothing to do with."

"Itsuki," Yumiella spelled out, "if Naofumi was a sexual predator, and if he was already declared immune from conventional legal punishment for the sake of fighting the Waves, then Naofumi has nothing to fear and nothing to lose by indulging in every evil vice he can physically attempt to perform, and 'Wisest King of Wisdom' Aultcray would know this. If he knows that he can't be punished for his attempted rape, then such a man knows he will not be punished for future assaults where he is successful. If I can realize it, then King Aultcray must know the same thing."

"Rather than setting an attempted rapist free to attack again indiscriminately, the responsible decision would have been to assign two or three guards to accompany Naofumi, force him out into the wild to level up so he can fight the Waves, and supervise him along the way to prevent him from assaulting anyone else. If Aultcray let Naofumi walk away free, that means Aultcray believes that Naofumi will not reoffend," she concluded. "If Naofumi was sorry, that could be understandable, but if Naofumi showed open contempt for the court and no remorse for his crime, yet 'the Wisest King of Wisdom' genuinely believes there is no need for guards, genuinely believes Naofumi will not assault other innocent women or seek revenge against Myne by ambushing her later-,"

"Then Aultcray believes Naofumi didn't commit that first crime to begin with," Itsuki finished, sounding faint. "Buddha's balls, that son of a bitch lied to my face and made me complicit in a fucking Kangaroo Court. I'll fucking murder him and feed his body to wild boars."

"He'll kill you," Yumiella warned.

"I'm the fucking Bow Hero, I can snipe an explosive arrow through his bedroom window from the walls around the city!"

"He's the Seven Star Hero of the Cane, he's almost certainly hit the Level Cap of 100 and may have used royal secrets to exceed it, and he's a long-range magic specialist who nevertheless killed the Level 120 King of Siltvelt in battle despite the Siltvelt king being fast enough to enter close combat," Yumiella answered. "Do you have a skill to wipe his HP before he immolates the city block where you're hiding?"

There was a long pause.

"Fuuuuuck," Itsuki wheezed, and she guessed he'd started crying again. "How the fuck are we supposed to handle this? Why the fuck does this world even fucking need summoned heroes with old monsters like that running around to fuck shit up~?"

It was a disquieting reminder that Itsuki wasn't just younger than her mentally, but that he was the same age or younger than her classmates at Balshine's academy. At least Naofumi had been 20 and in college, and Yumiella was the same before her first death, but Itsuki was still a literal teen who'd been in high school and it showed.

She may have been grateful for this second chance at life after bleeding out in the Demon Lord's throne room, but if Yumiella ever met whatever power was responsible for choosing the people who got summoned, they were going to get a Yumiella Kick straight in the face for this.

Possibly followed by a Black Hole if the explanation wasn't very good.

"If there was an easy way to solve this problem, people already would have solved it. This will take time and effort, but we will overcome it," Yumiella assured Itsuki. "Regarding your companions, one of my party confessed to reporting on me for the Three Heroes Church, and he said the spy in your party who'd pulled rank on him was a knight and a nobleman."

"Mald," Itsuki growled immediately.

"You don't want him or the others to get suspicious of you, or else people will target us secretly," she reasoned. "Rather than telling them about your opinions, pretend to be naive and inexperienced with the cruelties of the world, and ask them to voice their opinions and experiences about slavery, Demi-humans, the church, and the crown. We have..."

Melromarc -- 12:17:28:32

Melromarc -- 12:17:28:31

Melromarc -- 12:17:28:30

"...twelve days until the second Wave arrives. If you attempt to start any large scale plans of rebellion you will be interrupted and pulled away within two weeks. Instead, get your party more used to the idea of training while you go off alone. Pretend you have quests that are solo-only, or that the Cardinal Bow is imposing requirements on you. Stop sharing experience with them and try to remove them from your party without their noticing so that they don't become unreasonably stronger than you can handle before you decide whether you can trust them. Don't drink alcohol yourself, but if you gift your party with a few bottles of wine to get them talking and bragging, then you should quickly figure out which of them you can trust to support your new ideas."

"That won't help if I'm forced to watch innocent kids get killed for bullshit bigotry," Itsuki snarled. "I'll fucking take the risks to free them and you'll have to back me or they'll kill you too after I make them kill me!"

"I don't know the details of slave-control magic, but until you have a Bow Skill with some form of anti-magic skill that can cleanse those control seals, any slave you spirit off to freedom will die painfully when the master triggers their control seal. If a nobleman dies under suspicious circumstances, it's likely that his slaves will be sold to other people if they aren't tortured and killed under suspicion of assassinating him."

"Then I'll take them all on the run with me! We'll flee in secret and embody Perfect Hidden Justice as we-,"

"if a nobleman dies and all his slaves simultaneously disappear, then everyone will assume it is the prelude to a large-scale slave revolt," Yumiella countered. "Neighboring nobles will muster their armies to suppress it, and slave owners will either flee the area with their slaves or begin to mass-execute their slaves before the slaves turn on them. Until our side has the power to defeat hordes of trained soldiers, many of whom may be veterans from the war against Siltvelt who have Classed Up, acting hastily will get the innocent people we wish to save killed instead."

"I won't just leave them! If I see them stringing up or crucifying more innocent people, I'm not some fucking psychopath who'll go, 'Sorry folks, you're dying too early, but I promise to come back eventually and save some of your friends and neighbors, assuming they have been murdered too while they're waiting~!' I'm going to intervene!"

"Then intervene. But do so in a way that people don't know it is the Bow Hero who has intervened. I don't know what Bow Forms you have unlocked, but I have several sword forms that grant bonuses to fast movement, stealth, disguise, and skills that create smokescreens or distractions. Provided you intervene in such a way that it seems like random chaos, a monster attack, a group of random bandits, or other forces unrelated to the very public Cardinal Bow Hero, you should be able to act without too much scrutiny."

"...Right. A secret hero who hides his identity, even from the public, in order to save people and roust out corruption in the government," Itsuki summarized. "Fantasy Owlman, I can do that."

"...Do you mean Batman?"

"What? No, batman is the evil crime syndicate villain who- right, different worlds, fuck! Okay, you said you had a list?"

"A decorative sword that someone tried to pass off as a battle weapon," Yumiella read off her MENU list of forms, "which grants me a passive disguise bonus. The Usapil Sword, which grants me a jumping bonus. The sand sword, which grants a skill to create a blinding cloud and dirt and dust. The bat sword, which..."

...

...

...

(It was a long list, but Itsuki said he had the outline of a plan once she finished. Yumiella didn't know what other help she could provide him from the archipelago, but they said their goodbyes and she invited him to call again for more help with planning.)

(That night, before bed, Yumiella warned her team that she would be changing their training plan over the next few days.)

(The next morning, Yumiella went to Margrave Habenburg to request a trusted guide who could lead her to monsters on the larger islands for solo-grinding. She needed to reach Level 50 and unlock the Teleportation Skill as quickly as possible.)

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Arc 2, "Nose to the Grindstone" is now complete.

Next chapter will begin Arc 3, "The Wheels of Justice Grind Slow but Fine". Thank you for reading!

I'm really interested to hear if anyone saw this coming or not so please tell me what you think!!

Bow Hero: "Ahahahahahaha~! You thought the biggest canon changes would come from Naofumi, but it was I, Itsuki!"

Rakan · Aug 2, 2024

It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. Itsuki is going to go complete stealth archer and the world will be better for it.

He's been slapped pretty hard by the terrible world, and it is only going to get worse.

Yumiella has instigated change from afar, though I've been wondering if she'd been missing messages.

The fact the sword's help menu is constantly changing must be infuriating.

Grinding of the Sword Hero

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