I am not the shield hero

Killing the bandits one after another turned out to be mostly a waste of time. After killing the second one, they didn't get any new information. Well, they still fed them all to his Savage Shield, so it wasn't a complete waste, just time inefficient. Night had fallen by the time they were finished.

The bandits did just overhear about Dante's party being near Lurolona in the town. They didn't ask the people who were discussing it, they just heard Dante had some demi-human slaves and decided to go claim them. The woman Raphtalia killed apparently knew about orca demi-humans, so that's why they kept their distance for a while until they saw a pattern.

The only lead they had was some unidentifiable person in Ronota. Of course, they were still going to check it out. Someone there wanted them dead, that much Dante was certain of. Ronota wasn't on the way to Lurolona from the capital. Rather, Lurolona was roughly on the way to Ronota. They didn't even pass by anyone on the carriage ride. If it was a shadow that spread the information, there was little they could do, outside of killing every bandit and slaver they could find. That was certainly within the realm of possible—indeed probable—actions to take.

That would be their plan come morning. For right now, Dante had another problem, though much smaller in scope.

"You guys…I need to cook the food…" Dante was sitting on a log in front of the fire, with a filolial child clinging to either side of him. They shifted slightly, allowing him to lean forward to stir the pot he was cooking from, but still held firm.

"You two know I was in no real danger, right?" He asked the pair.

"Yeah." "Yep." JoJo and Dio said at once, not loosening their grips at all.

"I got hit in the shoulder with an axe and stabbed in the back with a sword. No damage either time."

"You're strong." "Very tough." They each patted him on his lower back.

Dante sighed. He stirred the pot a bit, then turned the skewers over the fire. Sadeena brought back some sort of octopus monster and a large fish creature for dinner, plus an assortment of less edible looking monsters for absorption. Interestingly, one of the bandits had something like an onion as an item drop, so Dante chopped it up and put in the octopus stew.

"What about Raphtalia?" Dante tried to shift their attention to the raccoon girl. "She was in much more danger than me. She could use the comforting."

"Ah, no, I'm okay." Raphtalia said, waving her hands in front of her. Dante gave her a pleading look, but she just smiled sympathetically back to him.

"She seems fine." "Sadie is comforting her." They wrapped their arms around Dante tighter.

Accepting his fate, Dante stirred the pot a bit more before easing back. Turning his thoughts to the future, Dante wasn't pleased. The plan they had got flipped on its head. It was pretty simple: Sadeena and either Dio or JoJo would fight in the high XP sea while the rest hunted and learned on land. They had a great start, but they tripped up near the end. It was incredibly disappointing, considering the gains they made.

Dante: LV 29

Sadeena: LV 35

Keel: LV 20

Rifana: LV 20

Raphtalia: LV 19

Dio: LV 28

JoJo: LV 28

It was infuriating, really. In a single day, they earned so much XP, it made all their previous work look pathetic by comparison. Of course, Dante had two maturation bonuses helping, but still! They played with the idea of everyone going into the water, but they didn't have a great way to go about it. They didn't have a boat, couldn't make a boat themselves, and Dante doubted they could purchase one at a fair price, if at all. Even if they could, when they finished for the day, that was just another thing they had to keep an eye on, lest it be destroyed during the night. He hinted to Sadeena about using her secret base, but she wasn't for it. The more it was used, the more likely it was to be found.

Dante couldn't reasonably expect Dio and JoJo to carry them all in the water. The two filolials did float like a pair of ducks, but they couldn't bring them underwater to fight, and one of them wasn't enough to hold up four people. Dante had hoped one of the sea monsters would have given a bubble shield, but that hope was dashed. He couldn't remember where Naofumi got it.

The only other option they had to stick together was to travel on land. That, of course, is why Dante was thinking about Ronota. They would swing by there, try to find whoever was hassling them, and then continue leveling. On the plus side, humans gave pretty good XP. It was a dark thought, but those humans did just try to murder him and enslave his party. He allowed himself this depraved joy.

It wasn't as if they had nowhere to go. The other three heroes gave Dante plenty of locations to grind XP at. They likely wouldn't be as plentiful or beneficial as the ocean, but it would do. Besides, Dante had another realization, one he should have really thought more of before: the levels gained for his slaves and monsters were much better than for regular adventurers. The two status adjustments greatly boosted the stats they gained. Looking over the stat gains of Rifana and Keel and comparing them to what Sadeena said she got before the seal, they were increases that looked to be for Sadeena in her 30s. That meant, for Keel and Rifana going from level 5 to 6 with a slave seal, it was a similar increase as Sadeena going from level 35 to 36 without one. That was pretty amazing, considering Sadeena herself was a cut above normal adventurers. She and Raphtalia would be gaining a lot from this, considering their lineage. There was also the percentage bonus from Trust to look forward to.

One drawback was that, like the stat gains increasing slightly after every 10 levels, the XP needed increased at those intervals as well. It was at a larger incline compared to the stat gains, so it was much less efficient at higher levels. Dante wished he could use the Whip power to bypass that, but it seemed there was a cooldown for using it, only usable once per day.

Still, all that meant was they needn't sacrifice 200 levels. Really, it would have been overkill anyway, so they weren't in too bad a spot.

"What do you think we'll find in Ronota?" Sadeena asked, grabbing Dante out of his thoughts. She gave him a wink, letting him know she checked for any nearby eavesdroppers.

"Possibly a lot of soon to be dead people." Dante said with a smirk. "You said you checked that place out before we met, and it was abandoned. It hasn't been two weeks since then. I doubt most people there are supposed to be."

"Hmm." Sadeena scratched her chin in thought. "I believe most of the people there were demi-humans. Any humans that were there probably fled during the wave, if not after."

"How many is 'most'?" Dante asked. "Ronota is a town, right?"

"A small town. I'd say…about four or five times the size of Lurolona. Maybe 1% of the people were human."

That is pretty small. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected much. Still, something that size, I'm impressed 25 people were able to kill or round up the residents. Sure, they had armor and probably much higher levels, but it seems like it would cause too many problems."

Sadeena shook her head. "It wouldn't have been as much of a problem as you think. Ronota was hit harder than Lurolona. When I was there, I saw so many…" She paused, looking at Raphtalia.

The girl looked up at her and smiled. "It's okay."

Sadeena smiled back at the girl before she went on. "There were so many dead littering the roads. Some may have been killed by those knights and slavers, but I saw enough torn bodies and dead children to know how bad it was."

"I see." Dante hummed. He took a look at the food and patted the filolials on their arms. "Food's ready, I need to get up now."

That was enough for the filolials. Dante was sure they'd fill their bellies and then get right back to clinging. Rifana was the one to help serve the stew, pouring everyone a bowl. They each took a skewer of fish as well and dug in. Rifana snuck in next to Dante while the filolials were absorbed in their food.

"Here." Rifana held out her hands to Dante. She'd set her food next to her on the log and was pointing to Dante's bowl.

"I can feed myself—" Dante saw the look on her face. It was a similar look to what Sadeena gave him when he tried to walk next to the wagon at Idol's. "Fine."

He handed his bowl over, skewer sitting in the stew. Rifana scooped out a bit of stew and blew on it. She lifted it up to Dante. "Ahhh." She held the spoon in front of his mouth.

Dante shook his head with a smirk before allowing her to feed him. "I know how to accept food without a prompt, you know." He said.

"But's it's more fun this way. Ahhh." She scooped another bit of stew for him.

Dante took another bite. He held up his hand before Rifana could get any more for him.

"Okay, I think it's about time we had a talk about this." He said, motioning for her to put down the food.

"About what?" She asked, following his silent instructions.

"About the whole 'marrying me' thing." He said plainly. "You can see how that's a bit strange for me, yes? You're a child."

"But I'll grow up soon." She pointed out. "It should only be a few days."

"True, but you see how I am with Sadeena, right?" He pointed at the woman in question. "Don't you think that means I want to be with her?"

Surely that wasn't a difficult concept for a child to understand. Rifana must get that. It was also part of the reason Dante openly kissed Sadeena, to deter Rifana. Of course, kissing felt nice too. So did sex, but they weren't about to do it in front of the kids to prove a point.

"Well, yeah…" Rifana tilted her head to the side. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"Come again?" Dante cocked an eyebrow. He didn't exactly like where this was going.

"You're a hero. You can have more than one wife, and you can have a harem." She said with a straight face.

"How do you know about that?!" Dante yelled. "And why do you know what a harem is?!"

"I read about it in a book about the Shield Hero." Rifana was pretty calm about it. "I didn't know what that word meant when I read it, but I asked Sadeena one day and she told me."

"Sadeena!" Dante turned to the orca woman, who was completely unabashed about the situation.

"Yes~?" She gave him an easygoing smile.

"Don't tell children what harems are!"

"Oh~? But she wanted to know about the Shield Hero." She reasoned. "If she wanted to marry him one day, she'd need to know about that~."

"You…I can't even begin to…forget it." Really, this woman. He was pretty sure the holy heroes could only be summoned for the waves, or some other catastrophe. What were the odds of something like that happening? Sure, it was happening, but still.

Dante refocused on the girl before him.

"Okay, look." He would go about this another way. "Right now, you're still a child. I refuse to do anything like what you may be thinking with a child. Once you become an adult, we can discuss this further."

"Really?!" Rifana stood up, her tail wagging.

"Yes." Dante nodded. "However, you must be an adult by my world's standards. That's 18 years old, understand?"

"Yes, Mister Shield Hero!" She nodded vigorously.

"Alright then." He gave her a pat on the head, which she gratefully accepted. It was a little mean of him to use that condition. From what he recalled, most demi-humans would only grow to about 15 or 16 years old. She probably didn't even know that. There were exceptions, like Raphtalia and Sadeena's families, as well as the Hakuko, but that was the general rule. Technically, it was his country that had that age for adulthood, though most others had that as a minimum. Really, most states had the age of consent at 16, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Go ahead and eat your food." Dante said, grabbing his bowl. "I can handle mine. And, please, just call me Dante." He brought the bowl to his slips and slurped some down. He could drink what was there, and then scoop out the octopus chunks afterwards.

Rifana went along with it and started eating her supper, a content smile on her face. Dante shot Sadeena a quick glare, only for her to return it with closed eyes and a smile.

Dante spotted both Dio and JoJo getting a second bowl from the pot. He was thankful they got a larger one while in the capital, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to make enough. Technically, he didn't. The filolials ate some of the octopus raw, as well as some of the not-so-edible fish monsters.

Once they were finished, Keel, Rifana, and Raphtalia rinsed out the bowls and pot in the river they set up camp by. The two girls had gained a few inches during the day, with Keel gaining less. Sadeena said most of their growth would happen during their sleep, and a longer rest was better. For that reason, Sadeena and Dante would be the ones keeping watch again, starting with Sadeena.

As Dante went to get ready for bed, he saw the strange layout of bedrolls. "What's this about?" He asked. Three of them were all right next to each other, and another three were more spread around the fire.

"We wanted to sleep with you tonight!" Dio said, still in her smaller form.

"We sleep together every night." Dante countered.

"No, we want to sleep with you like this tonight." JoJo grabbed Dante's hand and pulled him towards the grouped up bedrolls.

"What about the others?" Dante looked to the three demi-human kids.

Keel waved him off, a smirk on his face. "We'll be fine tonight." Dante didn't like how he said that. It felt…off. Dio joined JoJo in pulling Dante.

"Seriously, what's up?" Dante asked as they reached the bedrolls.

"Isn't this okay?" Dio looked up at him. "We just wanted to be with you like this, Papa."

Dante looked back down at her. His mouth moved silently.

"Yeah, Dad. We thought it'd be nice." JoJo agreed.

Dante's head slowly looked over to JoJo.

"Oh my~." Sadeena had slid over to him without him noticing. She stood to his left with her arm around his right shoulder. "They seem to see you as their father~." She brought her face close to his and whispered to him. "I suppose this is payback for—oh!"

She immediately pulled back and stood before him. She held his face in both of her hands. "Dante, are you okay?"

"Pa—Master!" Dio pulled at his arm. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to make you sad!"

Dante shook his head. "I'm not…this is…" His mind couldn't process the words he wanted to say.

"Sorry, Da—Master." JoJo held onto his shirt. "I won't call you that again."

Dio tried to lead him to the bedroll. "Me neither. We can just—"

Dante fell to his knees. He pulled Dio close to him, with JoJo getting squished in next to her.

"No." He felt the tears going down his face. "You can call me dad." He held onto them tightly. "Please, call me dad."

The two filolials reciprocated, awkwardly wrapping their arms around Dante from within his grasp on them. Dante felt his body move, being pulled along the ground. He found himself kneeling on the bedrolls. Without another word, he lay down, JoJo and Dio following after him. Not even a minute passed before he was fast asleep.

~The Wrong Hero~

Dante slept. He slept for a while. Near the end of that sleep, he had a dream. A dream he didn't want to remember. A dream of something lost. Parts of that dream were hazy, so it was easy to push it from his mind.

When he finally opened his eyes, he saw Sadeena lying next to his left.

"Good morning~." She said with that smile of hers.

"Morning…morning?" Dante looked up and saw the sun already over the horizon.

"I thought you could use the sleep." Sadeena answered his confusion. "Dio and JoJo took turns watching."

"Ah…thanks." When he went to get up, Dante felt something on his side. Dio was there, arms wrapped around him and a smile on her face.

"Good morning, Papa!" She beamed at him.

He fell back down and pulled her up more. "Good morning." He said, a happy expression on his face. She snuggled up to him more, arms around his chest.

"Oh my~" He glanced over at Sadeena and saw her grinning at them. "You're doing better."

"Yeah." He really wasn't expecting that last night. Thinking about it, it wasn't that strange. They hatched from eggs and he was the first person they saw. He named them, raised them, fed them, it's no wonder they viewed him as their parent. Of course, Sadeena had a hand in that. Dio looked like she had a secret when she switched with JoJo. Sadeena must have told her to call him that, same as JoJo.

"Ah! Dad's awake!" JoJo ran over to them, smothering Dante and Dio with his feathers as he jumped on them. Sadeena laughed as she moved out of the way.

"Hey, JoJo." Dante moved his feathers around to breathe.

JoJo got off of them and transformed into his child form. He and Dio helped Dante as he pushed himself off the ground. A large fish monster was on the ground near them, still wriggling.

"I see you found us breakfast." He looked over the catch. "You all should have woken me up sooner. I could have had food ready for everyone."

"You needed to sleep." JoJo looked up at Dante, his expression showing his concern. "You don't look any better…"

"Still look dead to the world, eh?" Dante nodded. "Well, I feel great, so don't worry about it." He rubbed JoJo's head, ruffling his hair.

Sadeena wrapped her arms around his midsection, bringing him closer to her. "You sure you're good?"

"Yeah." Dante hummed. "Not tired at all. Do I look worse than I did yesterday?"

She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "A little." He saw a growing smirk on her face. "Maybe I just need to help you relax a bit more~."

"Heh. That's a bad idea for a number of reasons."

"Oh~?" She trailed her hand up his chest. "I think it would be fine."

Dante grasped her hand, locking their fingers together. "Nice try." He turned around to face her fully. "You've done that sort of thing too much to work on me like this. We're out in the open with children standing right next to us. There's no way anything is going to happen." He leaned in close to her ear. "Besides, I know I'm not the only one who can get a bit flustered, Sadie. I'm sure I can—"

He jumped back and freed his hand, holding it to the side of his head.

"What's wrong~?" Sadeena asked, licking her lips. "Weren't you just saying something about that not working?"

"Haha!" Dio pointed at Dante with a giggle. "Papa's all red!"

"D-Don't mention that!" Dante turned down to the girl. How could he not be blushing at a time like this? He could still feel the light bite on his ear from that woman.

Dante had his head pulled back to face Sadeena, a lascivious smile on her face. "There's more where that came from, little Dante~." Her arms snaked around his neck, bringing him in close. "I might pounce at any time, in any place~. If you ever drop your guard, I'll—"

"Sadeena!" Raphtalia yelled from behind her. Sadeena lazily looked over her shoulder. "Stop flirting with Dante! You were supposed to tell us when he woke up!"

"Aw~." She let go of his burning face, but not before letting her hand rub against her mark on him.

Dangerous. That woman is incredibly dangerous. How does she keep doing that?

"Dante!" Raphtalia called out to him. He broke free from his thoughts and looked over at her. It was then that he realized what the issue was.

Her dress didn't fit anymore.

It wasn't as if he could see it. She covered herself with Sadeena's cloak, but she was standing at around mid-chest height to him. With a slightly reddened face, it was pretty obvious what the issue was.

"Well, huh. That was faster than I expected." Dante said as he walked towards Raphtalia.

"That's all you have to say?!" Raphtalia pulled the cloak tighter around herself.

Dante hummed to himself, cupping his chin with his hand. "You sound a lot more confident now!" He gave her a large smile.

"Dante!"

"Alright, alright." He held up his hand. A pair of pants dropped from his shield's gem, along with a non-bloody shirt. He'd gotten the tunics back from Dio and JoJo when they got their own clothes. Thinking about it, he probably should have washed the other tunics from all the knights. What he gave Raphtalia, however, was from one of the women from yesterday.

"Where's…ah, there she is." Dante spotted Rifana a short ways away, bringing over some kindling for a fire. Her dress was pretty tight on her. She too came up around mid-chest. If he had to place her age, it was probably around 14.

"Ah, good morning, Mister Dante." She said, setting the sticks down and running over to him. "Look!" She twirled around, showing herself off. "See how much I've grown?"

"Yes, yes, you're growing nicely." He said with a smile, patting her on the head. With a small laugh, Rifana grabbed his hand and brought it to her ears. It was a little strange to him, but he gave them a scratch all the same, earning a pleased sound from her.

"I'll be an adult in no time~." Her voice was wavy as her ear was scratched. "Then we can get married."

"Then we can talk about marriage." Dante clarified. "A lot of things are going on right now. Marriage can be talked about, but isn't something to do during the waves."

I admit, it's still a little weird for someone so young to be talking about marrying me, but it's still kind of sweet. Almost reminds me of…

"Dante?" He turned to look at Raphtalia again. She was holding the clothes he gave her in front of her, a frown on her face. "I'm…we need to go to town and get what I'm missing."

"You're missing something?" He tilted his head. "Pants…shirt…what else? Oh, right, boots. I have—"

Raphtalia shook her head. She shifted in place, her face reddening slightly. "You know…"

"Underwear." Sadeena said the word Raphtalia couldn't.

"Sadeena!" Raphtalia turned to the older woman with a pout.

"What~?" Sadeena stuck out her tongue. "He wouldn't have gotten it if you didn't say it."

"Why not just say it?" Dante asked her. "Besides, look at Sadeena. She's practically wearing only underwear."

"See what I mean?" Sadeena gave a laugh.

"I get the difference." Dante pointed out. "It just doesn't bother me. I mean, I could go around in my underwear fighting monsters and I'd be fine with it, aside from my lower defense stat."

"Ah, now I get it." Raphtalia nodded at Sadeena. They seemed to be having a hidden conversation about Dante.

He really did get it. Women tended to care about that sort of thing more than men. Then again, most of the women who were involved in his life, who weren't also prostitutes, didn't care too much. Actually, the prostitutes didn't care much either.

Ah, that's right. What was that crazy bitch's name…Mia, that's it! She posed as a whore for that gang, had sex with their boss, and then murdered about a dozen people in that house in the dead of night while completely nude. She was supposed to deactivate the alarm and let me in to help, but she went ahead and did her own thing. Then, when she did let me in, she still didn't have any clothes on and acted like I was the one who didn't want to help. She was a bitch, but she was damn good at her job.

"Well, if you want something to wear right now, I have some undergarments in my shield you can—"

"No!" Raphtalia shouted.

"Relax, I wouldn't give any of the ones from before. Just the ones from last night." He hadn't thought of it earlier, so a few pairs of pants were stained from when the dead knights released their bowels. It was weird to think of them doing that in his shield. Same with meat rotting, really. "Three of them were women, right? It's not that bad. You can wash them out in the river if you feel the need, then we can replace them later."

They may have a few hole in them from when his shield ate the bodies they were attached to, but they'd work for now. If Ronota was in the state Dante thought it was in, finding replacements wouldn't be too difficult.

"Alright…" Raphtalia hesitantly agreed. Sadeena, however, continued to look at Dante with half-lidded eyes, an annoyingly happy smile on her face.

"Got something else to add?" Dante asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sadeena playfully covered her mouth and pointed at him. When he turned back around, Dante realized he was still scratching Rifana's ears. The girl in question had a fully red face and an ecstatic smile.

Dante quickly yanked his hand back. "S-Sorry…"

Rifana gently rubbed her ears. "It's okay, I really liked it." She gave him a quick wink. "And I heard you liked cute and fuzzy things."

"Sadeena!" Dante yelled at the woman. "Stop telling her things!"

~The Wrong Hero~

After clothing Rifana and Raphtalia, they ate their breakfast and set out for Ronota. Keel looked to be around maybe 15, so his clothes were still fine, just a little less baggy. It took less than an hour to arrive at Ronota. When they did, they found many of the initial buildings in ruin. Walls were collapsed, carts were broken down at the sides of the roads, and the dead seemed to have been piled outside the town and burned in a mass cremation. A pair of armed guards stood on the main road at the entrance of the town. There was little in the way of a town wall, but it was still partially in existence.

However, as Dante looked at the town…

"Wow, Papa looks really happy." Dio said in front of their carriage. She pulled it in her queen form, Dante no longer seeing the need to hide that.

"Dad's eyes are all sparkly~." JoJo sat next to him in the front.

"Every time I think I understand you, you show me something interesting~." Sadeena leaned forward from the back. "What is it about the town you like so much?"

Dante turned to her, a wide smile on his face. "Can't you see it?" He asked excitedly.

"Hmmm. It's a mostly destroyed town, there are armed thugs at the entrance, and we'll probably have to watch our backs the whole time we're here."

"You can't smell it?" Dante looked ahead again.

"Smell what?"

"Money!" Dante shouted. "There is money to be made here!"

Sadeena gave a somewhat stifled laugh. "That's quite the nose you have~."

"Ah, you don't get it. I learned a lot over the years in my world. One of those things was how to smell a massive profit that's there for the taking."

"How so?" Sadeena took a seat on Dante's free side.

"You mentioned the thugs over there, yeah?" Dante pointed to the armed men. "With the governor dead, someone's likely taken over this place. Whoever that is isn't supposed to be here. That means they have no real recourse for whatever we end up doing. It's not like they can bring in any knights to enforce their rule, unless they're in on the take. Of course, if they are, it'll be fine to…remove them." He gave her a nudge.

"My, what a thing for a hero to say~." Sadeena held a hand up, acting aghast.

"While I sympathize with whoever used to live here, if their property hasn't already been looted, it will be before long. We might as well get in on it."

"I don't think whoever's in charge here will like that." Sadeena gestured to the guards, who started making their way over.

"Don't worry." Dante stepped around JoJo and got off the cart. "I know how to speak their language." He nodded towards them. "I'll act as your interpreter."

Sadeena shook her head as she dismounted. "That's a terrible metaphor."

They stood in front of Dio as the guards approached.

"Halt!" One of them said. "There's a toll to go into town."

"Of course." Dante gave Sadeena a glance. "How much is it?"

The second guard grinned at them. "20 silver."

"Oh my, that's a lot~." Sadeena joined in the little game Dante wanted to play.

"Surely you can lower it?" Dante asked the man.

"For you?" The first one spoke again. "19 silver and 50 bronze."

"How generous." Dante gave a laugh. He pulled back his cloak, which was barely a cloak after all the monsters taking a swipe at him, and revealed his shield. "What about for the Shield Hero?"

The two thugs looked between themselves and started laughing. They pulled out their weapons, an axe and a sword, and pointed them at Dante and Sadeena.

"Thanks for telling us that." The axe wielder said. "We'll be taking everything you have, including your demi-human whore."

"Oh my~." Sadeena gave her harpoon a twirl. She didn't bother with a cloak, seeing as whoever was watching them knew what she was. Besides, Dante said it wouldn't matter if his assumptions about the town were right. And it looked like they were.

"Bad move." Dante said, shifting his shield to his best one. "Then again, you probably thought I was too weak for a pair of glorified highwaymen."

"Hey, Dante!" He heard Raphtalia call from the carriage. When he looked behind him, he saw more bandits approach. It looked like some came from a worn down cottage and some from over a small hill. Including the two in front of Dante, there were 11 bandits in total.

Raphtalia, Rifana, and Keel already exited the back of the carriage. They had their weapons drawn and ready. They were all armed with the swords he got from the knights. Rifana used a single shortsword, Raphtalia had a shortsword and dagger, and Keel wielded the longsword from the item drops.

"Looks to me like you are that weak." The axe guy said. "Any last words, Shield Hero?"

Dante looked over at Sadeena.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"Not sure. Maybe these two are the strongest?" Dante turned back to the pair. "Are you two the strongest? Or the weakest? Or in the middle?"

The eye on the sword guy twitched. "You making light of us?"

"Sounds like something a weak guy would say." Dante said. "Although…" He took a quick glance at the others' equipment. "I'd say these two have the shiniest things. In a criminal group like this, I think better equipment correlates to better fighters."

"Then I'll go fight the other ones." Sadeena turned and walked towards the carriage.

"Hey, what do you think—"

"Dio, JoJo!" Dante ignored axe guy's outburst. "Go help beat up the guys around the carriage. I'll support you all from here."

"Okay!" Dio detached herself from the carriage as JoJo jumped off and transformed.

"Bastard!" Axe guy lunged forward and brought down his axe. Dante held it back with his shield, not budging at all from the impact. "What?!"

"Shield Prison IV!" He pushed the man off of him and pointed at a group of three closely packed bandits, encasing them.

Sadeena sped forward, catching one of the remaining bandits off guard and piercing his leather chest piece. He dropped his sword and tried to pull out the harpoon, but his arms went lax. She spun her harpoon and threw the man at the bandit in front of Raphtalia, knocking him over. The raccoon girl saw her opening and thrust her sword at the downed bandit.

Rifana and Keel went after a woman with a spear. As the bandit thrust forward, Keel sidestepped it and forced the tip into the ground with his longsword. Rifana went around and stabbed the woman in her arm.

Dio and JoJo…didn't have any trouble. Before the bandits could make any moves, their armor was torn off with their claws and they were left bleeding on the ground. The last bandit there outside of the prison tried to run for it, but Sadeena threw her harpoon into his back.

The two who were with Dante had tried attacking him, but Dante's defense was too high. Even without using his shield, he could hold back their attacks. The worst damage he got was from the axe, and even then it was minor scratches on the palm of his hand.

"Screw this!" The sword guy yelled. "We need more guys!" He tried to turn around, but—

"Cleave Bash II!" Dante stunned the both of them. He tripped them and knocked their weapons aside with a kick each. "Dio!"

When called, she rushed over to him. Without a moment of hesitation, she dug her claws into the former axe guy before turning to the former sword guy. With all of the bandits outside of the prison dead, all that was left were those three.

"Zweite Chain Lightning!" Sadeena let loose her spell when Dante dismissed the prison. After the initial attack, Keel, Rifana, and Raphtalia finished them off.

"Oops." Dante looked over the newly made corpses. "I should have said to keep one alive. Oh well."

After that, it as just a matter of collecting drops. Dante absorbed all the bandits normally, not using his Savage Shield. The three younger demi-humans might be okay with it now, but he didn't want to push it. He found that any humans absorbed into the shield like this couldn't be expelled and devoured later, but he wasn't concerned. It wasn't as if there was going to be any shortage of people trying to kill him, either in the nearby future or in the long run.

There were some decent item drops, but none of it was any better than what the bandits actually wore. Dante inspected the weapons of the two he dealt with.

Vicious Axe

quality: good

special effects: attack up (small), critical bonus (cleave)

Gilded Sword

quality: good

special effects: agility up (small), swordsmanship up (small)

Those were indeed good weapons. If Dante had to take a guess with the axe, he'd say getting a critical hit would let the wielder cleave into another enemy, like the Cleave Bash did automatically.

After checking who wanted what, Keel took the axe while Raphtalia took the sword. Rifana was looking to become the group mage, a decision Dante wholeheartedly supported. Her attack and agility were decent, but her magic stat was by far her highest. He hadn't gotten any staffs or wands as drops, but they might just find a mage bandit in this town.

After gathering their loot, Dio pulled the carriage into town as the rest followed on foot. They wanted to get a good look around, unobstructed from the carriage. It looked worse on the inside than from the outside. Buildings were completely demolished, either smashed in or burned to the ground. There were a few in the center of town that seemed relatively fine, some with broken walls but still usable. They even had people working outside them. There was someone doing metal working, a tanner, what appeared to be a food vendor, thought it was a very wide assortment, so it was likely taken from somewhere.

Just like before, Dante had a twinkle in his eyes.

"This is Panama all over again." He said in an elated voice.

"What's that?" Keel asked, trying walk while marveling at his new axe.

"A country in my world." He said over his shoulder, stars in his eyes. "Eddy took me there once because he heard there was money to be made. I was against it, but he had a certain sparkle in his eyes, likely the same one in mine now. Seeing how we made out like bandits there…Hah!" Dante covered his mouth, a deep laugh escaping him. "I can't believe I just made a pun."

"Oh Dante~." Sadeena tapped him on the shoulder. "I think we have some curious onlookers."

He looked over to where she was pointing. The blacksmith had stopped hammering, the tanner stood up from her rack. The food vendor…was nowhere to be seen. Other people around town seemed to be observing them from around corners and behind windows.

"Well, that's strange." Dante walked over to the blacksmith, seeing as he was the closest. The man in question slowly moved his arm to the side, gripping a long hafted axe. He didn't have much on in terms of armor, just a thick smock and some sort of bandana around his face. Dante stopped and raised his hand. "Easy, we aren't here to fight. Unless, of course, you wanted to start something, then we're definitely here to fight."

The man looked him over a moment before relaxing his arm. "You aren't with the Pale Fangs, are you?" He asked.

Dante shook his head. "No idea what that is."

"It's the mercenary group that's running this town." The blacksmith said.

"Mercenaries?" Dante looked around at the buildings from where he stood. From what he could tell, there was little of value inside, at least from what he could see through the windows. "You sure you don't mean bandits?"

"Seems that way, don't it?" The man nodded. "They showed up a week ago, a few days after we did."

"Really? I thought this place was abandoned." Dante said, recalling Sadeena's words.

"It was. We heard it was it by the wave. We thought we could set up here and join the town, but no one was around when we came."

Dante gestured for his party to come over. A few of the new townspeople came over as well.

"Why would you want to come to a town that was attacked by the wave?" He asked.

The blacksmith looked over at the tanner. She dipped her head and the blacksmith sighed. He pulled down his bandana, revealing brands on his cheeks. The tanner pulled back a sleeve, revealing a different type of brand. A few of the others did the same.

Dante turned to Sadeena. "Thieves, brigands, murderers…" She pointed out a few before settling on the blacksmith. "Rapist."

The man grit his teeth. "I didn't do it."

"No?" Dante looked the man over.

"The lord who branded me wanted my daughter. I refused. He had me convicted and ran me out of town after taking her."

"You singing that same old song?" A man from the crowd jeered.

The blacksmith brought up his axe. "You want to say that again!?"

The man had run off before the blacksmith had even grabbed his weapon.

"Assuming that's true," Dante eased the blacksmith back, "why set up with these people? They framed as well? And isn't rape a capital offense in this country?"

The blacksmith put his axe back down. "Don't know about them, and don't care. We're all traveling with our families, so we all have something in common at least. I'm not from this country, so I didn't know that."

Dante looked to the building the blacksmith worked in front of. Before he disappeared behind the broken window, Dante caught a glimpse of a boy with features similar to the blacksmith's. He couldn't have been much older than eight.

"Well, if that's all true, I'm sorry for your circumstances. I'm not really in a position to call you a liar, since I was framed myself." Dante held up his shield. "Shield Hero, convicted of raping his only companion on his second night in this world."

The people murmured to each other. Raphtalia gripped her new sword, pushing it slightly from its sheathe.

"Easy." Dante told her. "No need to worry."

"I don't know what they're saying." She said, looking all around her.

"You don't…oh!" Dante looked back to the blacksmith. "The language you're all speaking, it's not Melromarc's?"

"No." The blacksmith shook his head. "It has a similar alphabet, but different words. You couldn't tell?"

"The Shield translates spoken words for me." Dante told him. "Anyway, you set up here because the wave took out the inhabitants?"

"We came here because we heard the lord was friendly to demi-humans in a country that hated them. We thought he might let us stay."

Dante could see the logic in that, if barely. Convicted criminals were different from racial enemies, but it may have worked out. Of course, these Pale Fangs seemed to put a dent in that plan.

"And what can you tell me about these mercenaries?" Dante asked. "They legitimate?"

"You have to ask?" The blacksmith crossed his arms.

"Thought I should, just in case. Tell me everything you know about them."

~The Wrong Hero~

After hiding the carriage down an alley and disguising it, the blacksmith, Rokkar, told Dante what he knew. The Pale Fangs were indeed a mercenary group, but the lack of recent wars had put a dent in their pockets. From what Rokkar knew, they were selling their services to whatever lord they could, bypassing the adventurer's guild and their regulations. Dante figured the lords that hired them could have them do less reputable tasks.

When the waves started, any ongoing conflicts between any smaller nations were put on hold, likely pushing this smaller band out of whatever land they were working for. They probably came here after hearing the wave hit the area, thinking they could either work for the lord or, more likely, loot what they could. Seeing as the lord was dead, they decided to set up here. The blacksmith's group was about 50 people, plus another 50-odd people from various walks of life. Travelers, hunters, traders, just to name a few, all mostly from Melromarc. The mercenaries numbered about 48, minus what Dante's group killed.

When asked about the rumors concerning Dante's party, the blacksmith did mention hearing them, but he didn't know who had started spreading it. He would ask around his group to see if they knew, and would also have someone ask the other groups if they knew. It was a show of thanks for killing the mercenaries Dante's group came across.

One concerning piece of information was that, apparently, a Melromarc knight was seen in town yesterday morning. He didn't do anything to the people there, just spoke with one of the lieutenants of the mercenary band. Rokkar heard them talking, but couldn't understand them. Whatever it was, they had a laugh about it, in a way that made Rokkar's skin crawl.

After their talk, Dante needed to discuss with the party what they were going to do next. Rokkar let them stay in his house for now, to keep prying eyes away from them.

"What do you all think?" He asked. He translated for Rokkar as he spoke, making sure everyone was on the same page and to not let any details go.

"Hmmm." Sadeena tapped her hand on the table. "Assuming he's telling the truth, and knights are letting this happen, it doesn't seem like there's any legal reason we can't do something."

"Dio, JoJo?" Dante looked to the filolial kids. "Do either of you think he was lying?"

"Well…he seemed scared, but not of us." Dio rocked her head around. "I couldn't really tell what he was saying, but he looked like he didn't want anyone to hear him."

JoJo nodded along. "Yeah, there were a couple times where he didn't really want to say something, and he looked around when he did."

"That's what I was thinking." Dante confirmed. Their instincts were pretty good. "He seemed to talk the same about how they all ended up here. If he's lying, he's really good at it."

"And then there's that knight." Keel pointed out. "Rokkar's description sounded like one of the knights that sold us into slavery."

Rifana nodded along. "There might be more in the mansion they're using as a base."

"Quite possible." Dante said, scratching his chin. "We might even find some slavers too."

"Should we help them?" Raphtalia asked. "It feels like the right thing to do."

"Well, that's just it, isn't it?" Dante smiled. "We find ourselves in a very strange situation. I was expecting to find a bandit camp. Instead, we have a mercenary stronghold. I'd say it's more dangerous, but we made pretty short work of both groups we came in contact with."

"Mm, true~." Sadeena rest her head against her propped up hands on the table. "But it didn't seem like they were high up in the group."

"I suppose so." Dante agreed. "The ones from yesterday were likely trying to make some quick coin, and I doubt the best of the best would be acting as glorified highwaymen."

"But if Rokkar is right, there should only be about 30 left." Rifana said.

"And he said there's another group at the opposite side of the town, waiting for people to pass by." Raphtalia added.

Honestly, the plan these mercenaries came up with wasn't bad. Any travelers coming this way could be forced into town to work for them. Repairing weapons and armor, gathering food, emptying buildings, whatever the mercenaries wanted. The entrance fee was probably some sort of joke for the guards. When they were done, they could kill the inhabitants and move on, possibly to another country. It had great short term gains without massive risks. With the wave damage, there likely wouldn't be too many witnesses to worry about. They'd see a host of enemy knights coming and they apparently had horses to retreat with. There were enough openings that they needn't use the main road, so they could escape in any direction.

Their execution of said plan, however, was terrible. They didn't have anyone in the center of town to watch over the residents, leading to Dante's party arriving without further issue. They seemed to rely solely on fear, as they already murdered the kid of the tanner without provocation. They were quite belligerent, as drunken shouts could be heard most nights from the mansion.

In short, it was circumstances just begging to be exploited. Dante was happy to oblige.

"I got a real simple plan all ready to go." Dante told his party. "We take care of the second ambush group first, reducing their numbers further. Afterwards, we have the people here cause a commotion and draw out some of the mercenaries from the mansion. We ambush them, kill them, and then move on to the mansion and take out whoever's left."

"That is pretty simple~." Sadeena said. "But shouldn't we come up with a stronger plan if we want to do this?"

"If we do that, we'll lose the element of surprise." Dante countered. "We haven't been here too long, and there hasn't been any alarm, so we can still take out the other group before anyone realizes what's happened."

"Well, it would get rid of our immediate problem of not being able to level up freely." Sadeena conceded.

"And we'd gain some levels from the mercenaries." Keel added on.

"Exactly!" Dante slapped the table with his hand. "We'll be killing two birds with one stone."

"What…" Dio looked up at Dante in fear. "Why would you do that?"

"Huh? Oh, no, not you two!" Dante clarified. "It's a proverb. It means accomplishing two goals with one action."

Dio tilted her head to the side, clearly not getting it.

"It's like…a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It's—" Dio grabbed his hand and continued to look up at him. Dante turned to the others. "Is this not translating?"

"Well, we understand what you're saying." Rifana said. "But I've never heard those before."

"I got them." Sadeena said. "The words are just different here. Anyway…"

"Right." Dante said, freeing his hand and patting Dio before continuing. "So, the plan. We good with it?"

Everyone nodded along. They'd find positions in town once they took care of the other group. From the first one today, almost everyone gained a level. By the end of it all, they were likely looking at two or three more. Humans, it seemed, gave much more XP than land monsters.

Really, if they didn't want to be used as fodder, they shouldn't have come after Dante's party in the first place. It was only fair.

Author's Notes:

"Do not burn the candle at both ends, as it leads to the life of a hairdresser." - A wise foreigner. I wanted to use a proverb to confuse the filolials for a while. It's sorta just dropped in there, but it was a chapter end anyway.

More number finangling. I don't recall ever reading more concrete bonus stats, so I just went with what seemed good. It gives some indication at how good the bonuses are without locking myself in with hard figures.

Of course, go to town to look for bandits, find a hive of mercenaries instead. I wonder what else they'll find there.