I am not the shield hero

The ride to the village wouldn't take long. By carriage, it was maybe 30 minutes. Dante, however, wanted to resolve the issue from the caves as soon as possible. Under the premise of a quick hunting session, he, Sadeena, and Dio separated from the others. With a decent amount of distance between them and the carriages, he gave Dio a casting of Faust Guard V and let her go off while they talked. Dante used his Humming Shield to give them extra privacy, just in case any Q'ten Lo shadows escaped Sadeena's detection.

"I can go first if you want me to." Dante told her.

Sadeena held one arm to her side. "Could you?"

"Yeah…" He did want to get this out of the way, but he knew it wouldn't be comfortable. "I…heard the voices of my dead family. I've told you a bit about them before. The first voice was Eddy's, a man who was like a brother to me. Hearing his voice wasn't difficult. Neither was the second voice, his wife, Gloria. I'd seen her in my nightmares constantly until our fight with Idol. But, after that…"

This was the part he really didn't want to say. He knew Sadeena wouldn't react badly to hearing it. He knew that. She didn't think of him as a failure.

"…It was the voice of their daughter. Mary's voice. She—"

Dante found himself wrapped in Sadeena's arms.

"W-What?" He asked. It was rather sudden.

"You're crying." She said, rubbing his back.

Dante brought his hand to his eyes, feeling the fresh tears around them.

"You don't have to continue." She said. "I can—"

"No." Dante pulled back, holding her arm. "I can finish." He knew if he didn't get this out, if he tried to keep this back, it would probably eat away at him. "I told you before that she was who I wanted to bring back. If no one else, it has to be her. Eddy and Gloria would never forgive me if I brought back one of them instead. Ideally, I want all three of them alive again."

Dante took a deep breath before he continued. "There were some people I killed. Others in their group wanted revenge. They figured out where I would go, where I would lower my guard, and found a time to act." Another deep breath. "There was an explosion, but the timing was wrong. I had already exited the building. Eddy and Mary were killed immediately. Gloria received severe burns, but died not long after. With her dying breath, she blamed me for it. She was right to do so." Dante could feel the tears start again. "Mary was nine years old."

Sadeena held him close. "I'm so sorry."

Dante returned the hug. They stood there for several minutes, Dante just letting it out.

"Am I…" Dante tried to speak. "The kids…do I…"

Sadeena traced her hand up and down his back. "What is it? Ask me anything."

Dante swallowed. "JoJo and Dio…I treat them well, right?" He asked. "I treat them like they were my own kids, right? Not like…they're replacements?"

"That's…" Sadeena pulled back to look at him. "Dante, one of the first things I saw you do after they transformed was comfort them. I heard the guilt in your voice over Dio's scar."

Dante's eyes widened slightly before he gave a soft laugh. "You heard a lot of that, huh?"

"Just a little." Sadeena smiled. "They were your kids long before I had them call you father. You all just didn't realize it."

"Hm." Dante returned her smile. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Thanks."

"I'm only telling you the truth." Sadeena said. Her expression darkened as she let go. "I guess I need to tell you what I heard now."

"Only if you want to."

Sadeena shook her head. "I don't. But, I need to." She held his gaze. "Do you…think I'm a failure?"

"What? Of course not." Dante held his hand to her face. She leaned into it. "Is that what you heard?"

She placed her hand over his. "From my father. I mean, Raphtalia's…"

"I understand." Dante remembered what she said at the grave marker.

"I'm not weak?"

He cocked his head to the side at that. "No. If anyone calls you weak, they won't be thinking that for long."

"Even though my level was so low when we met?" It was her turn for tears to threaten to break out. "If I was stronger, I could have killed Idol Rabier myself. I could have returned from hunting sooner to protect my village from the waves, from those slavers."

"That wasn't your…" He remembered. It was the first time she got mad at him. She thought he blamed her for her level being as low as it was.

Dante couldn't remember all the specifics from the books, and the web novel was a little inconsistent regarding Sadeena. When she was in Zeltoble, he remembered her level was extremely high, possibly north of 90. Of course, that was something like four months after the first wave. Who knows how many of those levels she gained there?

However, if he considered what happened in the Reprise web novel, Sadeena would have been able to thrash the knights in the castle at the feast. That was a good reason to believe her level was always high.

There was only one real question to ask.

"It wasn't your fault." He said. "The waves happening wasn't your fault. Those slaver bastards attacking your village wasn't your fault. My arm wasn't your fault."

"I could have done something." She argued. "I could have prepared better."

Now was the time to ask. "How?" Dante ran his thumb across her cheek. "How do you think you could have done better?"

Sadeena shook her head. "You know how. I could have raised my level more."

"Then…" Dante sighed. "I'm simply asking, not accusing. Why didn't you?"

Sadeena kept his hand against her face, breathing slowly. "Because…my father wanted me to have a normal life."

"I see…" They had talked a little about her life in Q'ten Lo before the three of them came to Melromarc. It was mostly bits and pieces, but basically what Dante remembered from the light novels. A condition for the three of them leaving was having their levels reset. Dante had assumed they leveled up a little before venturing out, but perhaps Sadeena didn't. If Raphtalia's father wanted her to have a normal life—or, in this case, have an actual childhood—then it would make sense for her level to remain lower. In that case, it would have stayed low until she reached adulthood.

She was offered a childhood, and she accepted. Sadeena confirmed his thoughts.

"Clearly, you aren't to blame." Dante told her. "Not that Raphtalia's father is either. Hell, if all this wasn't going on, I'd want Raphtalia, Rifana, and Keel to all have normal childhoods too."

"But now, they can't." She said.

"No, they can't." Dante agreed. Apparently, an aged-up demi-human having their level reset did revert their age, but not entirely their mind. Sadeena described it as a haze of sorts. The Whip's power up seemed to subvert that. "You aren't weak. You're likely the strongest in our group, including me, a hero. And you aren't a failure. Raphtalia and Rifana are alive because of you."

"Because of you." Sadeena said. "I never would have found them if it wasn't for you."

"I couldn't have gotten the girls without you." Dante pointed out. "I had the knowledge, you had the power. And now, thanks to that power, they are both alive and well." Dante pulled her to him, giving her a quick kiss. "You just need to accept that you aren't weak or a failure."

"I could have been stronger."

"You could have." Dante said. "And the wave could have happened somewhere else, or not at all. And now, you will be stronger. I'll help you become the strongest non-hero in the world. Hell, you might become stronger than the vassal heroes. No one will be able to harm your family again."

Sadeena nodded. "But you're still crippled."

"Eh." Dante shrugged. "Could be worse. Could be a leg. Sure, I miss being able to do a bunch of things myself, but it's only temporary."

"What if it isn't?" Sadeena asked, her voice gaining a worried tone. "What if you can't regrow your arm?"

Dante smirked. "Well then, I guess you'll just have to spend the rest of your life with me."

Sadeena blinked. Then, she regained her usual smile. "So you do know how to flirt~."

"I've done it once or twice." Dante said, fighting the growing blush on his face. "So, are we good?"

"Almost." Sadeena separated from him. "There's just one more thing we need to discuss."

"What's that?"

"Rifana." Sadeena stated. "I think we should reward her."

"Hah!" Dante laughed. "For which thing? Learning three spells so quickly, or for being the most collected in our group during our cave searching?"

"She did handle herself quite well." Sadeena said. "Raphtalia and Keel have been progressing with Eclair and me training them, and Rifana has participated in that as well. She seems to be doing everything she can to improve herself. We should make sure she knows how well she's doing."

"Don't worry, I intend to." Dante said. "I may even try getting her to slow down a little. Her growth is great, but I don't want her to get reckless."

Between learning those spells, teaching Dante, practicing melee combat, and dealing with everything else that happened to them, Dante wanted to make sure Rifana kept going strong. He wanted all of them to keep up their morale. Keel was an ongoing concern, but he at least seemed to stay calm now. Rewarding Rifana was likely to be the quickest he could resolve.

With their talk over, Dante pinged Dio and they all rejoined the others. Not long after, they arrived at Lerno village. However, they soon noticed a problem.

"This village is starving." Eclair noted.

"How?" Dante gazed around.

It was strange. The seed was missing, but the village didn't have it. The quest was still at the guild, but that was a few days ago. Dante figured they just missed Motoyasu's party, and they could check on the progress of the bioplant when they arrived here.

"What should we do?" Raphtalia asked.

"There's nothing for us to do." Dante answered. "No seed, and we couldn't take the quest. We should start searching for it."

"What about the village?" Raphtalia continued.

"What about it?"

"We can't just leave it like this."

Dante sighed. "The quest should still be available in the capital. We should let whatever adventures take the quest handle it."

"But we can do something to help." Raphtalia said with conviction. "Isn't that what a hero should do?"

"If I could do it without any of them spitting in my direction, that'd be one thing."

"Have any of them done that?"

"…Fair point." They had a look around the village, but no one seemed to mind them. It wasn't as if Dante was advertising that he was the Shield Hero. He had his shield over his back as they walked, and he doubted anyone would look at a one-armed man and think he's a hero, regardless of fancy armor.

"What about all the gator meat we have?" Rifana asked. "We could give some of that to them."

"Those are our provisions, Rifana." Dante pointed out. "Besides, that's some really good tasting meat."

"Yeah…" The way she said that made Dante think otherwise.

"You don't like it?" He asked.

"It's not bad, but…"

"Really?" Dante looked to his other party members. They all wore similar expressions, and it wasn't positive. "Do none of you like it?"

They, in fact, did not. Apparently, the flavor was good, but the texture was terrible. Dante had cooked it several different ways, but it made little difference. They had it with other collected foods from the forests, plus a few things they bought in town. It was meat and good to have when they fought and leveled as much as they did, but that was it. The only two who did like it, besides Dante, were Dio and JoJo. Besides the fact that filolials basically ate anything, they liked the fact that they were eating monsters that tried to eat their father.

Dante sighed as he took another look around them. "Alright, I suppose there's something I can do here."

It was simple enough to come to an agreement with the village chief. In exchange for most of the indigo gator meat, the village would give them a small amount of coins and all the monster remains they had. It wasn't anything edible, at least not directly. Bones, rotten meat, anything Dante knew his shield could absorb for shield reveals or power ups. Dante's party took off as much of the scales as they could for crafting. The villagers were a bit concerned when they saw everything going in and out of his shield, but it wasn't like they had room to complain about where their food came from.

After they finished exchanging goods, they set off for the capital once again. They needed to bring Agatha back and get their thread made. Keel would need it for when he learned to transform. Rifana too, as Dante recalled and Sadeena confirmed, as well as Raphtalia, though Dante didn't remember that one. He recalled that Ruft had gained a therianthrope form, though that may have been from Raph-chan's influence.

During their first night traveling back, Dante took Rifana aside.

"What would you like as a reward?"

"Huh?"

Dante wanted to cut to the chase. He figured asking her by herself would get the best answer out of her, so she didn't feel like the others were judging her. Not that that was likely, given they were all friends.

"For your work in the cave, and for learning so many spells so quickly." Dante informed her. "Plus, for teaching me a spell. You've done exceptionally well. I want to make sure you know that. We can tell everyone what you chose afterwards, if you want. I just wanted to hear it from you first."

Rifana smiled. "That's okay. I don't need any reward."

Dante shook his head. "I wasn't asking what you needed, I'm asking what you wanted."

"I already have everything I want."

The conversation already wasn't going how Dante wanted. "If I don't somehow reward you, I feel like I'll be setting a bad precedence. Someone who goes so far above and beyond like yourself needs to be recognized. I'm not accepting 'no' for an answer here."

If he had to be a bit forceful here, so be it. Accomplishments needed to be recognized.

"Mister Dante," Rifana said, "do you know how much you've done for me already? For all of us?"

"I'm know what I've done, but—"

"I don't think you do." Rifana adjusted the top of her robes, opening the front.

"What are you doing?" Dante turned his head to the side.

"I wanted to show you what I'm talking about." She explained as she continued removing her robe.

"Rifana, I'm not going to watch you undress."

"Look at me." She said, standing before him. Dante could see out of the corner of his eye that she at least covered her breasts. "Consider it my reward. Please?"

Dante sighed. He slowly turned his face to her. His expression slowly changed from hesitancy to concern. "Rifana…"

He saw what she wanted to show him: her scars. The pair on her face had faded a little, and there were only a few around her wrists and hands, so he hadn't thought much of them. But, all around her stomach, chest, and shoulders were numerous lines. Understanding what he was doing, Rifana turned to the side, allowing him to look her over and see dozens more scars on her back. Had she removed her lower clothes, he likely would have seen many more.

Damn it. That doctor said there wouldn't be permanent injuries. Was it the leveling and growth? Or, did he not consider scars injuries?

"I'm sorry." He told her.

"For what?" Rifana asked, turning to face him again.

"Your scars." He said. "Maybe…I should have been the one to apply the healing salves. I had Sadeena do it because you were girls, but…maybe I could have prevented them."

"I don't mind them." Rifana stood closer. "The wounds were given to me by a cruel man. But the reason they were able to become scars, the reason I'm still alive, is because the Shield Hero saved me." She looked up into his eyes. "If you don't like seeing the scars, I'll take whatever healing you want me to."

"Rifana…" The conversation turned so far from what Dante intended. "They're scars. Your scars. Whether or not you want them removed is entirely up to you. If you do, I'll do what I can to help, but you can't possible think I'd want you to keep them. Even if I did, you shouldn't listen to what I—"

His voice was cut off. Rifana had moved next to him and wrapped her arms around him. It was hard not to think about how her large chest was pressing into him. He already had Sadeena help him out of his armor for the night.

"Can I tell you a story?" She asked, the side of her head pressed into his chest. "There once was a girl who dreamed of marrying the Shield Hero. She lived in a peaceful village with her family and friends. One day, disaster struck. Monsters fell from the sky and killed so many of her friends. Her mother was killed by one of those monster. When it was over, the people who remained tried to rebuild."

"Before they could, evil men and women of the kingdom attacked her village. Many of the adults were killed, including her father. The women and children were sold into slavery. The girl and her best friend were sold to an especially cruel man who would torture his slaves every night. The friend tried to keep up hope, but the girl…had already given up."

"One night, it was the girl's turn to be tortured. She had seen how the cruel man did it. On the first night, he would beat his slave extra hard. On the second, he would force that slave to eat another demi-human with him, and then kill the slave after. After she was beaten, she knew the end was near. Even the girl's friend had lost hope. The friend lied on top of the girl the moment she was returned to her cell, hoping she could protect the girl."

"Then, the second night came. The girl was tired. She was in pain. She could barely focus. She wanted it all to stop. The friend was still holding her, but she'd fallen asleep. The girl didn't want to leave her friend, but she knew it was over. Once the cruel man opened the door, the girl knew she would be forced to eat someone, be killed, and then her friend would be tortured."

"The door to the dungeon opened. The friend cried out and clung to the girl. But, instead of hearing the cruel man's laugh, she heard a gentle voice. I'm the Shield Hero. I'm here to rescue you. The friend held the girl up and she drank what the Shield Hero gave her. When the girl opened her eyes, she saw the kind face of the Shield Hero. He glowed like a light in the dark dungeon, a shining, golden filolial behind him. He picked up the girl and placed her on his filolial, with her friend joining her. They were reunited with their friends from the village, and the girl knew she would be safe from then on."

Dante stood still, listening to Rifana finish her story. It was a little different from what he imagined. But, so was her interpretation of events. "Rifana…you think a little too highly of me."

She squeezed him tighter. "You're the man who saved my life. How could I think less of you?"

"Because I nearly left you and Raphtalia to your fates." Dante admitted. "With my knowledge…I knew Idol was strong. I wasn't sure if Sadeena and I would survive a fight with him. We almost didn't. I almost let Sadeena go off on her own to get killed."

"But you didn't." Rifana refuted. "You, Sadeena, and Dio fought Idol to save us. If anything, I still have to thank you and Dio. You both got badly injured."

"Dio's scar is…fading." Dante said. That injury he had been treating himself. "If anything, she thinks I'm too worried about her while I'm still missing an arm. That, of course, will be fixed eventually too."

"Still, I—"

"Didn't I once tell you and Raphtalia not to worry about that?" Dante was certain that came up once before.

"…Okay." Rifana leaned back slightly to look up at Dante. He turned his head to the side, not forgetting the situation they were both in.

"Good. Now then, get dressed." Dante said. "If you're truly satisfied with your reward, then we can move on. Just, you know, maybe don't mention this to the others?" Sadeena would have a field day with her teasing, and he felt Raphtalia may join in too. She seemed pretty invested in him getting with Rifana.

"Before that…" Rifana moved her hands to Dante's face, turning it to have him look down at her. "Would you hug me?"

Dante gaped at her request. "I…like this?"

"Mm." She nodded.

"This is a bit much, don't you think?"

"Is it more than what you did with Sadeena before?" She asked. "She had kiss marks all around her neck and going down—"

"Okay, I get it!" There would be no winning this discussion for him. "I assume this will be part of your reward, yeah?"

She smiled up at him. "Yes!"

"Alright…" He brought his arm around her, earning a shiver as his hand moved across her back and held her close. She let out a tiny squeal as her arms wrapped around his neck.

I was making this out to be worse than it is. It's just a hug, after all. Besides, it's not like she's a child anymore. I wonder if Keel is jealous, since he still looks 16, while both of his friends look older.

"Hey, Mister Dante?" Rifana brought him out of his musings.

"Yes?"

"Can I…be a bit more selfish?"

"How so?"

"I…can you…um…" She barely spoke above a whisper.

"What is it?"

"…"

Dante couldn't hear what she said at all. It was mostly mumbling. However, given the situation, he had a pretty good idea what it was. He brought his hand from her back to the left side of her face. He tilted her head back so he could clearly see her face. Her cheeks were flushed from her trying to speak her request. Dante smiled, leaned down…

And kissed her on her forehead.

He gave her a grin as he pulled back up. "Next time, say what you want properly, otherwise I might misunderstand your—"

Rifana instantly slumped down, barely held up by Dante's quick movement. Her eyes basically swirled as he set her down.

"Rifana? You okay?" He asked the weasel girl.

"I…uh…" She couldn't even talk right.

"Well, I guess you've been properly rewarded now." Dante said. He picked up the robe from the ground and draped it over her. He made sure she was covered up. "So, uh, maybe don't mention this to—"

"Oh my~!" He heard the voice he didn't want to right now. He looked over his shoulder and found Sadeena standing there, her hand barely covering her massive grin.

"Uh…" Like a deer caught in headlights, Dante didn't know what to do. Unfortunately, Sadeena did. She immediately turned around and started running back to camp.

"Hey, everyone~!" She called as she ran. "Guess what Dante just did~!"

"Are you a fucking child?!" Dante yelled as he chased after her.

~The Wrong Hero~

The rest of the night and the next day went about how Dante expected it would. Raphtalia congratulated her friend on her progressing relationship, while turning around to tease Dante about it. Everyone but the filolials got in on it. Even Agatha and Eclair chimed in. The old witch found the whole thing amusing.

While they weren't teasing Dante, he had Sadeena, Eclair, and Agatha look over the map with him. If the bioplant seed was out there somewhere, his party needed to find it. However, they couldn't devote all their time to it. He had the three of them mark every village location they could think of. There were…a lot. Of course, being a medieval-esque world, there would be many farming villages. The most Dante could figure was there was some hidden quest Motoyasu knew of for the seed. Of course, that was assuming he was the one who found it. For all Dante knew, that seed had been gone for years.

Still, they could search for it a little while they leveled. Dante still had the areas the other three heroes told him about. He had them marked on the map as well. They could travel around to those areas, grind XP, and search for the seed nearby. For the places away from monster hunting areas…well, hopefully the seed wasn't there.

Once they made it back to the capital, Dante had the former demi-human kids spin their thread. They could take it to Ann to make clothes for them. Sadeena had been teaching Keel how to transform, and she knew he was close. Of course, they'd leave the clothes there for a bit to continue grinding.

They stopped by the slaver trader's tent again. Of course, there was still no news. They could expand to other slave merchants, but Dante didn't know where to find them, and Beloukas wasn't about to help his competition.

After that, it was time for Dante to do what he probably should have done earlier.

"You must be the Shield Hero, correct?" A nun at the church said.

"That's right. I'm here to register with the hourglass." Dante replied. He and Sadeena went to the church. He figured he should have an accurate time until the next wave, just in case they accidentally missed it.

The nun didn't seem too pleased as she looked him over, but she did smirk when she saw his missing arm. "Right this way." The nun said with little emotion in her voice.

She led them deeper into the church until they were before the giant hourglass. It was over 20 feet tall and looked about as gaudy as Dante imagined it would. He held his shield up to the hourglass and a beam of light went into his shield. Then, a clock with a timer appeared in his vision.

15:01:23

From what Dante could tell, it looked like the wave would be a little after noon when it arrived in 15 days. Plenty of time to level up an acceptable amount. There was only one thing left to do here.

"Excuse me." He said, adjusting his footing as he looked to the nun. "I understand the dragon hourglass has other uses besides predicting the waves."

"…What did you hear?" The nun asked. She clearly didn't want to say anything that Dante didn't already know.

"That people can get something called a class up once they reach a certain level." Dante told her.

"Ah, yes, that's right." The nun hummed. "You can get a class up as early as level 30."

"I see." Dante nodded. "Is there some sort of limit to the class up?"

"You won't be able to level up past 40 unless you receive a class up." The nun said. "Some adventurers like to class up as early as possible so they can continue to grow without interruption."

"That's good to know." Dante said. Of course, he already knew that getting a class up earlier would stunt your growth, as confirmed by Sadeena. "And, if we wanted to have that done, how would we go about it?"

"Your…companion is level 30?" She asked, clearly not happy about it.

"Oh, no, not at all." Dante said, lying through his teeth. "We still have quite a ways to go."

"I see." The nun seemed to look around a moment, as if searching for an answer. "The class up ceremony will cost 15 gold coins."

"That much?" Dante asked. "Even though I'm a hero?"

"I'm afraid so, even for a hero." Dante could hear the obvious tone shift when the nun said that.

"I see." Dante felt a light pinch near the bottom of his leg. "In that case, we'll be off. Thank you for your time."

The pair left the church, their task there complete. He gave a small amount of information to the church, but he found it acceptable. After all, what was a demi-human or two going to accomplish? That was, of course, assuming they were completely inept and didn't receive word about any of his other companions.

After passing a few buildings, Dante and Sadeena went into an alley. There, Raphtalia was waiting for them.

"How did it go?" She asked the pair.

"See for yourself." Dante said, adjusting the armor on his legs. A soft 'plop' sounded. With a wave of Raphtalia's hand, her spell was dismissed. Dio stood there in her chick form.

"Chirp!" Dio flapped her tiny wings before she transformed into her child form.

"Well?" Dante looked down at her. "Did you get it?"

"Yep!" Dio beamed, producing a small bag for Dante. He knelt down next to her and she poured the contents into his shield.

Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield (LV locked)

(abilities locked) equip bonus: skill "Portal Shield"

Dante smiled. "Good work, Dio." He gave the girl a head rub, which she greatly appreciated.

"You know, I could have done that too." Raphtalia said.

"Too risky." Dante rose from the ground. "You'd make more noise that a filolial chick. Besides, if they happened to have something to dispel invisibility, at least Dio is small. Even if they saw her, what are they going to do about a baby filolial? A demi-human, on the other hand…"

"Right." Raphtalia nodded.

"So, what's left?" Sadeena asked.

"Once the others have finished making their thread and we place our order with Ann, we head out. We can stock up a bit in the meantime." Dante said.

They had more time before the wave than Dante realized, and not many tasks remaining. All that was truly left was finding out where that seed went. Besides that, they would continue to train. Gaining levels, learning spells, practicing combat formations and maneuvers, whatever they needed to prepare for the waves, and whatever anyone else could throw at them.

Oh, and searching for a certain martial artist. If Dante's time in this country was limited, which it may very well be, he'd need to find that Hengen-something master and help her out. He couldn't very well hope to find her son, or grandson, randomly running down the road.

That was assuming, of course, she was actually here, and not something else that was different. But, if they were looking around for the seed, they may as well search for that old woman. The more advantages they could get, the better.

Notes:

Can't think of too much to say here. I originally had the story Rifana told as a flashback, but thought it would have the same or better effect as a story.

There are 2 big time sinks I come across while writing. One is describing or thinking up effects of gear and shields. The other is trying to find the odd bit of lore/info from the books. Case-in-point, the minimum level for a class up. I remembered it was in the LN, but I couldn't remember where. I ended up confirming it from the Spear LN, since I remembered it mentioned in one of the manga chapters.