I am not the shield hero

"This little 'mad scientist' thing you had going on cost me three sets of chainmail." Dante spoke as he examined the table of components. He'd brought out another tunic and set of armor to wear. The boy alchemist had his hands and feet tied and was sitting on the ground. "You've greatly injured my party, taken over land that wasn't yours, and—oh, right—killed over a hundred people. Am I missing anything here?"

"I didn't kill them!" The boy yelled.

"He's lying, Dad." JoJo informed him, standing behind the boy. He and Dio were watching him as the others looked about the room for anything of note.

"I didn't kill all of them!" The boy changed his wording. "Most of them were killed in Ronota, or were bandits or something."

"That's true." Dio said, with JoJo nodding.

"I suppose the army was just to watch over this mining area, huh?" Dante asked. He looked at the journal and was able to read parts of it, but not all. A lot of words were too big or obscure.

"I made them to protect me." The boy turned his head to the side. "I don't have anyone else to help me."

Dio and JoJo nodded, showing he was telling the truth.

"I can empathize, but I don't think that's all there is to it." Dante examined a vial filled with some liquid. Whatever it was, his appraisal wasn't high enough to identify it. He set it down and absorbed it into his shield, leaving checking the revealed shield for later. "The cacodemon and imps attacked us on sight."

"You aren't supposed to be here!"

"And you are?" Dante turned to the boy.

The young alchemist glared up at Dante before his face suddenly softened. "Wait, you know what they are?"

"Yeah." Dante pulled over the chair from the desk and sat in it. "Looks like we're from the same world, or at least ones that both have Doom in it."

"That's awesome!" The boy cried out. "Wait, how long have you been here?"

Dante raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to distract me."

"No!" He adjusted himself to face Dante fully. "I just…haven't had anyone to talk to about this stuff…"

Dante looked down at the boy. He isn't really a child. He died and was reborn here. He might very well be older than me. One look at his kids told him the alchemist was telling the truth. …fine, dammit.

"I was summoned here less than two weeks ago." Dante said.

"Summoned? Oh…" The alchemist looked down. "Then you aren't like me."

"No, far from it." Dante shook his head. "I was chosen by the Legendary Shield to fight the waves, while—"

"Wait, you're the Shield Hero?" He laughed, falling back onto the ground. "You got the worst weapon!"

"…While you were chosen because you're a destructive asshole." Dante stood from his chair. "And I think I've indulged you enough. Time to die."

"W-Wait!" The boy seemed to realize how much trouble he was actually in. "I'm just a kid, you can't kill me!"

"He's right, Sir MacRory." Eclair said as she approached him. "The thing to do would be to turn him over to the guards."

"What guards?" Dante asked. "Ronota is gone. In the capital, we're criminals, and the rest of my party members are demi-humans or monsters. He's a 10-year-old boy here. Demi-human or not, no one in power would believe us over him."

"You're a criminal?" The boy asked. "What did you do?"

"Framed for raping the princess." Dante said to him quickly before returning to Eclair. "Better to kill him and be done with it. Besides, he was reincarnated. He had a life before being born here. He knows right from wrong, he has no excuse."

"That's not fair!" The boy cried out. "You got to start with weapon, even if it was a shield. I only got a power that doesn't work right. You're way better off than me!"

Dante turned to him. "That right? I was framed for a crime I didn't commit, I lost my arm, this country's religion denounces me as a devil, and I'm wearing someone else's underwear. How well off do you think I am?"

"What?" Raphtalia snapped up. "But you told me to wear someone else's underwear!"

"Yeah, but you had time to wash yours. I mean, it's not like either of ours were covered in shit, so it could be worse."

Raphtalia just made a disgusted face, shook her head, and went back to looking over the alchemist's things.

"I have problems too!" The boy yelled. "I had a shitty life in my world and got killed by a mugger. Then, when I thought I'd have a cool power in this new world, it didn't work right and I was born in a country that hated my race! My home town even had the wave happen so close to it! It's not fair that I'm going to die twice like this! I never even got to have a boyfriend before…" He immediately shut his mouth.

"Boyfriend?" Dante looked him over. "Wait, are you a girl?"

What the hell? Did I actually become bad at determining someone's sex since coming here? Either that, or he's gay. Can't be faulted for not seeing that.

"I was." He said. "When I was reborn here, I was a boy."

"Huh." Dante scratched his face. "I guess there's no reason why that couldn't happen."

It did, of course, bring up the question of what exactly a soul was, but Dante didn't have the time or energy to look into something like that.

"Well, guess I'll be saving you from going through puberty twice."

"I barely went through it once—stop making me say these things!" He turned his head away from Dante, completely red.

"Hold up." Dante looked to his kids for confirmation. The alchemist didn't seem to be lying. "How old were you when you died?"

"…13." He said, quietly.

"13?" Dante rubbed his eyes. "God, who mugs and kills a middle school girl?"

"I told you I had problems."

"No kidding." Dante looked back over to Eclair. "Fine, I suppose we can't really kill him…her."

"Really?!" The alchemist shot him an ecstatic look.

"I'm glad you changed your mind, Sir MacRory." Eclair smiled.

"Yeah, well, killing a kid would have left a bad taste in my mouth anyway." Dante said. Sure, she/he lived for 23 years, but none of that was with a fully developed mind or body. "Anyway, if you aren't dying, I suppose I should get your name." He told the alchemist.

"Rolf." He said, lifting up his hands towards Dante.

"Rolf." Dante nodded. "I suppose you're fine with me calling you a boy, all things considered. Just for curiosity's sake, what was your name in your past life?"

"Nagashima Reiko."

Dante hummed. "Japanese? How do you know about Doom, then? Was it popular over there, or did you live in a western country?"

Rolf shook his head. "My father worked oversees before he died. We built a computer together when I was nine and he sent me old games he heard were fun." Rolf laughed a little. "He wasn't very good at checking them out first."

"Heh, clearly." Dante looked at Rolf's outstretched hands. "I'm not releasing you."

"Huh?" Rolf's eyes widened. "But…you said—"

"I wasn't going to kill you. That doesn't mean I'm letting you go." Dante shook his head. "Everything else you did aside, you very much tried to kill me."

"I thought you were a slaver!" Rolf yelled. "You have a bunch of slaves with you right now!"

"Mm, he's not saying everything." Dio said.

"…I thought you were someone like me, okay? Pahadron told me not all of us would work together."

"Oh?" That was a nice bit of information. If Dante recalled correctly, Takt exploded when he tried talking about the people behind the waves. If Rolf could talk about it so freely…

"You'll be staying with us." Dante announced. "Ignoring what you did here, you clearly have valuable information and I can't risk you getting killed by some asshole. So, I'll be putting a slave seal on you."

"You'll make me your slave?!" Rolf scooted away from him. "You can't!"

"It beats being killed." Dante pointed out. "Besides, you'll have greater protection as my slave then by yourself."

"Y-You just want me as part of your harem! That's what the Shield Hero does!"

"There is so much wrong with what you just said." Dante pinched the bridge of his nose. "JoJo, would you pick him up for me?"

"Okay, Dad!" JoJo transformed and lifted the fox boy onto his back.

"You named your filolial after that old—"

"Yes!" Dante quickly cut him off. He really didn't want to explain all of that now, or ever. "Now, I have a guy in the capital who can give you a seal. We'll go to him, get you one, and be on our way. You're free to make a scene when we get there." Dante shrugged. "Of course, people would probably believe you over the criminal Shield Hero. You can test your luck with what comes after, being in the capital of the country that views demi-humans as lesser beings."

Rolf continued to glare at him, tears threatening to run down his face.

"Look, kid, you screwed up. Maybe you did only kill bandits, or tried to, but there was a knight up there. And a slaver we needed information out of, but that's beside the point. Anyone comes around and sees this, and sees what you can do, you'll be in a world of hurt. I imagine a demi-human killing and experimenting on humans and a knight won't be put to death nicely, if you catch my meaning."

The boy sniffled on JoJo's back, tears starting to come out.

"I won't treat you badly. You have my word, for what it's worth to you. You'll be fed, taken care of, and get a few levels out of…wait." Dante noticed a problem with this situation. "What's your level right now?"

"What do you care?" Rolf turned away from him.

"It matters." Dante pressed on. If he was still a kid, that meant he didn't gain enough levels to grow.

Rolf kept looking to the side.

"…"

"What?" Dante asked. He couldn't hear what Rolf mumbled.

"…Untie me and I'll tell you…"

Dante sighed. He figured a 10-year-old kid wasn't going to outrun any of them, especially two royal filolials. Rolf probably wanted a small sense of control. Besides, they already searched him for any more vials of acid or anything else.

"Rifana?" He called to the weasel girl. She came over and cut the restraints with her knife. While she was there, she fed a few things to his shield, revealing a couple more.

Rolf rubbed his freed wrists before looking back at Dante. "I can't form a party with my creations."

"You can't?" Dante asked, hand on his hip.

Rolf shook his head. "No. They're sorta part of me, but also not. I can give them orders in my head, but they don't always work right. I can't party with them and this world doesn't consider them to be me enough to give me the XP. That's why…I'm only level 3."

"Level 3…" Eclair repeated. "You did all that at level 3?"

Rolf nodded. "The power Pahadron gave me doesn't use any stats. At least, it doesn't have to. If I want to make something stronger or smarter, it uses MP, or other things. It would have taken weeks to make that cacodemon, but I learned how to make simple MP potions. I just use my power on the dead bodies until they rise up again."

"But why use humans and demi-humans?" She continued. "Even if you needed to use a few at first, you could have used monsters afterwards."

"I…" Rolf rubbed his arm. "I didn't really like most people growing up. When I was killed, I was really angry at everything. When Pahadron offered me a power…"

"You told Pahadron you wanted to create monsters using people." Dante guessed. Rolf nodded again in response. If Dante had to guess further, he'd say Doom was Rolf's favorite game. Being able to take revenge by proxy with monsters from the game he enjoyed might have felt nice, though it would have been long delayed. Though, being born a demi-human in Melromarc would have led to a life of discrimination or slavery. With the timing of the waves, he was somewhat close to the age he originally died. He was even living in the area where the wave would occur.

Maybe Pahadron set him up for that. Maybe Pahadron was an asshole who liked to fuck with kids, and gave Rolf exactly what he asked for with no variation. If Pahadron was helping in causing the waves, such a thing would be so small in comparison.

"Well, I'm sure we can find something for you to do." Dante said. He walked over to JoJo, causing Rolf to flinch. "This is your best option. You hate people? You want to kill them? That's fine, that's fair. Just make sure you're killing the right ones. I won't lie, plenty of people in this country probably wouldn't give a dying demi-human kid a second glance. But…" Dante stole a quick glance at Eclair. "Some will go above and beyond to do what's right, even to their own detriment."

Rolf didn't say anything. He just clung to JoJo, nestling into his feathers a little.

With their interrogation done, they collected what they could from the room. The ingredients that Dante could use to make potions were stored in his shield. The rest were put in one of their packs for later. It was a bit strange that only recipe components could be stored like that, but Dante was getting used to his shield's weird rules.

The books were what Rolf could carry from his teacher's lab. It was all in Melromarc's alphabet, even the journal Rolf had been writing in. It was mostly magical or alchemical notes, plus the recipes he devised for his power. Dante would take a longer look at them later with Rifana for practice.

After collecting everything of use, they left the living quarters. Dante told Rolf to send all his remaining minions to the surface so they could be killed for XP. They were fairly weak, gave a lot of XP and—according to Rolf—couldn't gain XP for themselves. They were perfect for them

Of course, that ended up not happening.

Rolf walked right behind Dante, as there wasn't enough room for JoJo and Dio to be transformed. As they walked through the winding tunnel, a section of wall burst open just as Rolf was passing it. A grey-brown arm reached out. Dante turned to see Rolf be pulled in. When he went after the boy, the same arm came back out and slammed Dante's head to the ground. It emitted a noise not dissimilar to an elephant, if highly distorted. It had a pig-like face with horns sticking out of its head. With brown goat legs, cloven hooves, and now flaming green hands, Dante didn't need his status to tell him what it was.

D. Hell Knight

Just past the hell knight's legs, Dante could see Rolf riding on a pink creature that looked either hunched over or like its head was part of its torso.

D. Demon

"Rolf!" Dante called after him. The boy glanced over his shoulder before he and the demon he rode on disappeared around a corner. Once barely out of sight, part of the ceiling in that tunnel collapsed. His escape was unfortunate—and pretty well done, Dante admitted—but the hell knight before them was a more pressing issue.

The tall creature stepped over Dante towards the rest of his party, but was held back as Dante grabbed its foot. It spun around and tried to crush him with its other leg, only for Dante to let go and bring up his shield.

"Someone kill it quick while I distract it!" Dante called out.

JoJo slammed his mace into one of the hell knight's knees while Dio smashed her fist into the other. It stumbled off of Dante, but remained standing. Its fists glowed brighter as it brought back its arm.

"Hate Reaction II!" Dante pulled the hell knight's attention, earning a chest full of green fire and a chunk of missing HP as a result. He scrambled to get to his feet, wanting to engage the hell knight in proper melee to avoid more magical blasts.

Sadeena, however, rushed forward with her harpoon. She pinned the hell knight to the wall with it by its left arm, giving Dante the chance to grab its right. Eclair sprung up behind them and swiftly slashed it in its chest repeatedly. After several swings and a thrust to its skull, it let out its dying breath and fell to the floor.

Dante looked at the blocked pathway where Rolf disappeared into. If it was a wall in his way, he might have been able to knock it down with his pickaxe and mining skill, but there was nowhere else for these fallen rocks to go.

"To the surface, quickly!" Dante ran down towards the entrance with his party right behind him.

They came out of the winding path, through the open area, and up the incline to the outside world. There, nearly two dozen imps greeted them. Within moments, they launched fireballs at the party. Dante brought up his Air Strike Shield V to absorb the blasts while he changed to his Spellcobalt Ore Shield.

"I can find him, Papa!" Dio called out as she transformed.

"No, stay with the group!" Dante yelled as he ran around his barrier. "We stay together now. Kill these first." He kept his shield up, letting the fireballs harmlessly bounce off and be partially absorbed with its effect. Once he made sure all the imps would be in his skill's effect, he activated it. "Hate Reaction II!"

~The Wrong Hero~

Cutting down the imps didn't take long. However, the time it did take, combined with the unknown direction of the hidden tunnel, allowed Rolf to escape. Neither Dio nor JoJo were able to pick up any scent. The blood from all the bodies on the surface was too strong.

Dante was annoyed by his mistake, but it wasn't as if he couldn't understand it. Become a slave and hope the man talking to you isn't a liar, or set off on your own? Dante would have made the same choice.

Really, he was thankful the hell knight wasn't part of the large group that attacked the others on the surface. If it was, Sadeena and the others may not have survived. It acted a bit smarter than the others, not just mindlessly attacking its nearest opponent. Dante wondered how long Rolf spent making it.

In a way, they were lucky they came here when they did. Rolf himself was quite lucky to not only survive the wave, but to also gain such a large amount of resources. His luck did run out, of course. He likely wouldn't be able to create such a large force again.

They went through the tunnels as a group, Dante not wanting another group of Rolf's monsters to ambush them. They gathered up more ore from the ground, plus what a few of the imps were mining. Dante got those from the walls quickly. They also found what was keeping sound from getting to the surface. It was a stone the size of Dante's fist, etched with runes and enchanted with magic. Dante let his shield absorb one.

Humming Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: hearing bonus (small)

equip effect: silence

It seemed like he'd be able to make a similar effect with that shield. He whispered as much to Sadeena. Once they were finished clearing out the mines, they returned to the surface to deal with the dead. Dante had Sadeena and Eclair look over them. They confirmed what Rolf said: most of these people were likely from Ronota, from the few either of them could identify. Most did still have demi-human features on their modified bodies.

After confirming that, Dante had something he wanted to do. Something he decided not to hide from the others. With the time it would take, he'd likely not be able to hide it anyway.

"You want to eat their bodies!?" Eclair yelled at him.

"My shield will eat them." Dante corrected, holding up his Savage Shield. "Every corpse consumed increases this shield's defense and one or more of my stats." Since the shield still considered them people, it could devour them.

"These are citizens of Melromarc! Their families need to be informed of their deaths."

"Normally, I would agree, but most of those families are likely dead, either here or back at Ronota." Dante swept his arm to the bodies around him. "Besides, they've been modified. Even if we found survivors before the bodies began to rot, would you really want them to see this?"

Eclair grit her teeth and turned her head. "It's not right. I know you know that."

"Unfortunately, that doesn't matter. We are in this to survive. The dead get no say in the matter." He turned to the others. "If anyone has anything they want to say about this, feel free. I'm going to do this regardless, but I'll still listen."

Raphtalia, Rifana, and Keel looked over the area. The silver lining is that there didn't appear to be any children here, though they couldn't say for sure. Rolf didn't mention what all his power did, but it might have given XP from the world to them. After all, some of his monsters gave more XP than others. Either that, or the stronger enemies were higher level to begin with.

Raphtalia gave Dante a hard look. "Will doing this help prevent other towns and villages from suffering from the waves?"

"It'll give me more power to fight the waves." Dante said.

"I'll hold you to it." She said, stepping back.

Rifana said nothing, only nodding to him. She'd seen his shield eat the mercenaries in Ronota, and she seemed to have made peace with it.

Keel merely said he didn't want to watch and went back to the carriages. Raphtalia joined him, as well as Rifana after Dante's prompting. Dio and JoJo didn't see much of a problem with it. They recognized that they were people before, but were now just smelly meat. They went to the carriages with the others. Sadeena had helped feed mercenaries to his shield before, so she was well equipped to handle this.

Dante and Sadeena went about absorbing the bodies into the Savage Shield. Eclair watched for a short while. She looked like she had something to say, but she kept her mouth shut. Of course, Dante wanted her to say whatever it was.

"I won't be mad if you hate me." He said. "Just say what you're thinking."

Eclair watched as another body quickly disappeared into the shield before speaking. "I don't think I can continue to be a knight after this."

"Seriously?" Dante moved his shield to the next body. "Is it that honor crap you were talking about before?"

That got her attention real quick. "Honor is everything to a knight!" She declared.

"Honor should be everything to a knight." Dante corrected. "Honor, duty, loyalty, all of that. Too bad honor isn't worth that much."

"You…then tell me, Sir MacRory, what is honor worth to you?" She strode up next to him and Sadeena.

"Honor…" Dante looked between her and Sadeena. "Have I told either of you about my friend, Eddy, from my world?"

"Hm." Sadeena thought for a moment. "I believe you mentioned him and the country of Panama before. I take it you worked with him in you…illicit activities?"

"He's the one who got me started. Or, rather, we started together through his suggestion." Dante gave a subdued laugh. "Man, it felt like such a long time ago. Back when I was 17."

"Was?" Eclair looked him over. "How old are you?"

"28, but my body regressed for some reason." Dante laughed again. "It's really funny, given how old my body looks now, but I'll get to that later. I believe I was speaking of honor and Eddy." He got a nod from Eclair. "You see, Eddy's smarter than me. He knew how to do business, how to work people, how to avoid getting killed…"

Dante let his arm go lax for a moment before he continued. "And he learned a lot during our time doing that sort of work. He's the one who told me what honor truly was."

Eclair crossed her arms. "I'd love to hear a criminal's take on honor."

Dante smiled. "Honor is what keeps the world running." Eclair's expression stiffened before softening. "It's what society thrives on. It's what keeps people from turning on one another. It's what you use when faced with overwhelming odds to continue the fight and achieve victory, in battle and war. It can lead to such greatness that all of the world would acknowledge its worth."

"Oh…" Eclair stole a quick glance at Sadeena. "That's a rather good view of honor."

"I know." Dante agreed. "Eddy's smart like that. However, that's only half of what honor is. The second half is more of a saying, but I can translate it to this world's terms."

Dante let his shield finish eating its current body before he stood up fully. He turned to Eclair and looked her straight in the eye.

"Honor and five bronze will get you a cheap mug of ale."

Dante would have laughed at her expression if he wasn't being fully serious. "The truth is, honor and all that is only worth what everyone else says its worth. On any given day, honor can be worth a single bronze piece, or it can be worth all the treasure in the world."

"…If people see you acting without honor, they will treat you accordingly." Eclair said.

Dante shook his head. "If you and your allies fight against a common threat, only for one of your allies to conquer all of you immediately afterwards, their lack of honor will mean little."

"…"

"Look, I'm not saying honor is worthless. But just consider, what has honor done for you recently?" Dante brought his shield down to the next body. "When you tried to protect the demi-humans of your father's land, you were captured. When you were tried for treason, the king found you guilty. Did he even bother searching for the truth in that?" Dante looked to Eclair, but her expression told him what he already suspected. "Believing in honor is well and good, but you have to understand that corruption is everywhere. The lord of the land, the knights sworn to protect the citizens…" His gaze fell to the ground. "Even town guards you knew since you were a boy."

Even now, more than a decade later, he recalled the scenes that set his life on that path. Two bloody bodies in an alley, both older women. Him and Eddy standing in the coroner's office, identifying the bodies. The police officer, a man who knew Dante's mother from before he was born, speaking to them.

"We don't have any leads on who did this."

The lies told to them with a straight face. Dante and Eddy didn't know who did it, but they knew he did. Their mothers went out for the evening, saw something they shouldn't have, and it turned far uglier than it needed to.

"Dante?" Sadeena stirred him from his thoughts. He shook his head and gave her a smile.

"I'm fine." He told her. He turned back to Eclair. "Once the queen returns, I imagine you'll become the lord, or lady, of your father's land. It's important you understand what honor really is before then."

"I see…" Eclair slowly nodded. "You've given me more to think about."

"I'm sorry honor isn't some unbeatable thing. If it were, all of our lives would be much different."

"I suppose my view on it is a bit idealistic." She admitted. "Though I believe continuing to hold honor in a high regard is what I should do."

Dante gave a light chuckle. "Because if you don't, who will?"

"Sir MacRory, you may not believe it, but there are other honorable knights and lords in Melromarc."

"I do believe it. I'm just practical about…oh." Dante's gaze led him to the top of the mining area. There, five heads peaked over the edge of the higher ground, though three of them disappeared and two were left confused.

"Oh my~." Sadeena looked where Dante did.

"Yeah, guess it was a matter of time before they heard some of my less savory thoughts." Dante said. Of course, knowing he had his shield eat corpses was a bit of an indicator to his personality. This was more like confirmation. "I guess demi-human ears aren't just for show."

"It's because you barely talk about yourself." Sadeena said, giving him a nudge.

"I talk about myself." He argued.

"To me, you do." Sadeena pointed out. "Didn't you notice how they looked at you when you talked about Panama?"

"…No?"

"They were happy to learn something new about the Shield Hero, the man who saved them."

"Hm." Dante knew she was probably right. With his actions, they were starting to understand his personality more, but they didn't have all the context of why he was the way he was. Torturing knights, absorbing bodies, basically announcing his intention to loot what remained of Ronota, it was a wonder they still followed him.

~The Wrong Hero~

They continued to let Dante's shield devour bodies for a little while longer. Eventually, a popup appeared in Dante's status. A new shield appeared before him.

Stout Shield

equip bonus: skill "Tower Shield"

The shield was already unlocked when it was revealed. He tried out the skill and found it made his current shield multiply in size and greatly increase its defense, with a moderate increase in magic resistance, while also greatly reducing his agility. It very much made his equipped shield into a tower shield.

The Stout Shield itself had decent stats, and it seemed to also have the defense bonus gained by the Savage Shield's devouring. He figured it was revealed after devouring enough bodies that gave a defense bonus. It was, after all, connected to the Savage Shield in his list of shields, and he didn't gain any more defense bonuses from devouring more enemies. However, after absorbing a few more that gave bonus HP, another shield was unlocked.

Vitality Shield

equip bonus: moderate HP regeneration

equip effect: HP boost

It wasn't enough to never need healing ever again, but combined with the Savage Shield, it would fully replenish his current max HP in a little over an hour. The effect seemed to give him a large amount of temporary HP, which quickly ticked down over a few minutes.

After unlocking those two shields, most of the bodies in the mines couldn't be devoured, since most of them would provide only defense or HP. While equipped with the Savage Shield, Dante could actually see which bodies were still edible now. He devoured those, then absorbed the remaining bodies like any other monster corpse.

Their business at the mines concluded, they moved out a small ways to a nearby river. Despite all they did that day, it was only a little after noon. Dante had a proclamation that was widely accepted by the party.

"We're going to get ourselves cleaned up, drink heavily, and sleep this whole day off."

They'd get closer to Melromarc's capital before setting up camp for the evening, but they desperately needed a bath. Blood coated most of them, though most of the gear they wore had a blood clean coating. The chainmail three of them wore was an obvious exception, but Dante was beginning to suspect most of it was garbage anyway. Erhard's held up to a lot, but the knights' armor from Idol's seemed to break like paper mache.

They took turns bathing, girls first, then the boys. Once they were cleaned and changed, they continued on towards the capital. Dante took the time to play with his Brewing Shield. It seemed that it would make any alcohol he had the recipe for, like his shield would create automatically, but the quality could be better and he could make modifications. He used some of the grains and fruits that were available in Ronota to make a few different ales and wines. There was a separate inventory available when he had the Brewing Shield equipped, and he could dispense any alcohol he made and stored from the shield's tap, which he could open with a thought. He tried them against the few casks they took from the Seaetto mansion and found the quality to be comparable.

Once they found a good spot, they started to set up camp. It was a small matter to gather up kindling for a fire and a few monsters for dinner, as it was early evening by then.

Sadeena, however, kept Dante in one of the carriages. He used his new Humming Shield to keep sound from escaping. Interestingly, they could still hear what was going on outside the field it created.

"That's a very nice shield." Sadeena said, looking around the carriage. It seemed like she could feel the distortion of sound.

"Fair compensation for what we've been dealing with." Dante said. He sat down against the side. Sadeena sat opposite of him.

"So, what's the plan?" Sadeena asked, not talking around it.

"I have a few places to visit around the country before the wave." Dante explained. "We'll continue to level as we travel, but we'll stick closer together from now on."

"I understand your concern, but I don't think it's necessary." Sadeena said. "We haven't had any problems while on the road, only when we went somewhere. Besides, won't we all be drinking soon? Isn't that not safe~?"

"My poison resistance will keep me from getting drunk." Dante said. The imps his shield devoured helped increase that a bit.

"Oh my~." Sadeena gave him a wink. "You're becoming more and more my ideal man~!"

"Back on topic for now." Dante steered the conversation. "The mines demonstrated what can happen even if we're somewhat close."

"The mines that were occupied by a mad alchemist child." Sadeena explained with a smirk. "Dante, we'll be fine. If someone wanted to attack us, they'd have done so already."

"Like the mercenaries near Lurolona?"

"That was an exception." Sadeena shook her head. "We just need to not spread out so much and keep several people at a higher level, that's all."

Dante let out a long sigh. "Fine. We'll do that." He lay his head against the side of the carriage. "I just wish our victories weren't so mixed or backhanded."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. At Idol's, I lost my arm and the girls witnessed something horrible. In Lurolona and Ronota, we beat the mercenaries because they acted incompetently. Even when we won, they'd already tortured Eclair. We nearly lost at the mines against the alchemist, there were so many dead townsfolk there, and he even managed to escape afterwards." Dante shifted on the floor. "What I wouldn't give for a victory with no strings attached."

Sadeena wore a frown. She moved over to the other side of the carriage, sitting at Dante's right. "I think you're just focusing on the negatives. We saved Raphtalia and Rifana from death, defeated a band of mercenaries who occupied a town, rescued an honorable knight, and destroyed an alchemist's army. Doesn't that sound better~?"

Dante chuckled and shook his head. "I didn't realize you were an optimist."

"I wasn't." She wrapped her arm around Dante's side. "But, when the Shield Hero starts bringing you miracles, you start to change your mind~."

"Glad I could help with that." He turned his head to her. She brought her free hand to his face and pulled him close.

"I wanted to talk about something else." She said, her face nearly against his. "About Rifana."

"Ah, right." Dante hadn't forgotten. Things just kept popping up. Sadeena did have a lot to drink last night, and she went hunting with JoJo before the alchemist. "You should probably tone down whatever you're teaching her."

"Do you like her?" She asked.

"In what way?" Dante asked in turn. One look from Sadeena and he knew exactly what she meant.

"I'm asking if you want to marry her." She continued. "Or, are you opposed to it? If you are, I can help you tell her."

"Sadeena, you have to realize that this whole 'hero' thing is still pretty new to me." Dante said. The concept of multiple wives wasn't exactly unheard of, but it wasn't something that happened around him. "I'm…not exactly opposed to it. I'm just not sure how to go about it."

Sadeena nodded along. "Well, for a hero, it's common to be married in Faubrey, though for the Shield Hero—"

"No, not that." Dante held up his hand. "Sadeena, you know about me, about who I am. At least, a little bit. Marrying Rifana means revealing parts of myself to her. She may have grown up, but there are things even adults shouldn't know."

Sadeena pulled him in and gave him a quick kiss. "She's more than prepared to accept that. She and I have talked a little bit." She held a finger to Dante's lips before he could interject. "No details, just some ideas. Also, I believe she's the same age as you right now~."

"Oh." That could easily solve this little problem. "In that case, if she's not—"

"Dante…" Sadeena's tone, however, suggested otherwise.

"Yeah…" He should have known better than to get out of it like that. "Tell me, do demi-humans normally grow that much? I thought only a few races did."

"It is only a few races." Sadeena confirmed. "But, you do have a few shields that change that, right? Raphtalia is about where I would expect her to be, but not Keel or Rifana. Though, it looks like Keel is about a year younger than them."

"He seems to be handling that well." Dante mused, but then he thought better of it. "Is he…okay?"

Sadeena shook her head. "I'm not sure. We'll need to keep a watch on him."

"Yeah." His emotional swinging with the mercenaries from in shock to wrathful was concerning, as was his mutilation of the alchemist's monsters after their deaths.

"By the way," Sadeena spoke up, "you didn't really answer my question. You're not opposed to marrying Rifana, but do you want to?"

"That…" Dante had thought about it on and off for the past few days, ever since she asked to marry him at Reichnott's. He wasn't sure how persistent she would be about it, so he thought it best to actually consider it. "She's a sweet girl, kind, thoughtful, and quite beautiful. She's eager to be useful, and obviously cares about those around her. Anyone would be lucky to have her."

Sadeena leaned her head against him. "I'm sensing a 'but'."

"But," Dante went on, "it's too early. At least to actually get married. I'm more than willing to—how did she put it—be close to her. Little by little, I'll tell her, and the others, more about myself and see what they all think of me."

Sadeena hummed to herself. "Well, that should be enough for her." She looked up at Dante and gave him a smile. "Your first wife will be happy to hear all that~."

"Oh, she isn't going to be my first." Dante said, snaking his arm around Sadeena's hip. "You are."

Sadeena grimaced a bit at that. "Dante…that isn't such a good idea." She leaned away from him. "As much as I'd like that, you know who's watching us. Just because it's not Raphtalia doesn't mean they won't take any action. If the former miko priestess to the water dragon were to be the first wife of the Shield Hero, while also protecting the former heir to the heavenly throne, then—"

"I don't care." Dante grabbed her full attention.

"What…?"

"I don't care what they think." He reiterated. "No matter where we end up, by the time marriage is actually feasible, I'll marry first whoever I damn well please. That will be between me and my would-be wife. Not the king of this nation, not some councilors in Siltvelt, and certainly not a foreign nation across the sea. Besides, who could stop us?" Dante gave her a large smile. "If they try anything, we'll kill them first. If they keep at it, we'll just have to burn their country to the ground or take it over ourselves. I'll protect you, Raphtalia, everyone from them. We're in the business of fighting the waves, a single country won't stand in our way."

Dante found himself flat on his back. He looked up to find his vision partially obscured in a sea of black hair. Sadeena stared down at him, hands on either side of his head.

"Do you mean that?" She asked, her voice soft.

"I do." Dante brought his hand up to Sadeena's face. She leaned into the touch. "You helped pull me from my self-loathing. How could I want anyone else before you?"

Without another moment passing, Sadeena slammed her lips onto his. One hand grabbed his while the other took hold of his tunic as she pulled herself closer to him.

After a bit of pleasure, Sadeena pushed herself up to catch her breath. "You saved my family from death. I think I want you a little more than you want me~."

Dante spun them around in the carriage, placing him on top of her. He beamed down at her as she gazed up at him. "We'll see about that."

Dante brought his face closer to hers. Specifically, down to her throat. His teeth grazed against her soft skin. Hot breath made her skin visibly tingle. He placed his lips against her neck, and—

"Dante! Sadeena!" Raphtalia called as she pulled back the sheet in the back of the carriage. "What are you…two…" Her face flushed red at seeing the pair. "Excuse me!" She let the covering fall back as she ran off.

Dante and Sadeena looked at the back of the carriage, then at each other. They shared a laugh at what just occurred.

"That's probably for the best." Dante said, leaning back. "I'm not sure how much I'd be able to control myself if we kept going."

"Oh~?" Sadeena pushed forward, knocking Dante back to the floor again. "Then I'll just have to lead. That'll keep you from doing anything too naughty~."

She brought their lips together again. The others would have to wait for dinner.

Author's Notes:

I feel like, as this chapter went on, it became more exposition heavy. I'll look over my other chapters and compare them.

If I'm keeping to the idea of arcs, this would be the end of another one. I'd call it something like the 'Distraction arc', since things kept popping up and interfering with preparing for the waves. All things considered, they're probably better off now than they were before. A good amount of ore for smelting/ore slots/making into actual equipment, some good shields, a new companion, an incredible amount of XP from humans and no-longer-people.