I am not the shield hero

Dante just stood there. He stared at the second princess of Melromarc with her retinue of knights.

What the hell is going on? It's too early for her to be here. Is the church going to make a move now? I have been showing off a bit too much, and I'm sure at least one knight from Lute is loyal to the church.

A gentle squeeze of his arm from Sadeena brought him from his thoughts. He realized he hadn't answered her yet.

"Yes, I'm the Shield Hero." He said, gazing over her guards.

I just need to stay calm and think things through as they come. Nothing's going to happen in the middle of the street in broad daylight.

"I see. It's good to meet you, Sir Shield Hero." Melty gave a short curtsy. "I am Melty Q. Melromarc, second princess of Melromarc. I look forward to working with you."

"Ah, yes, me too." He needed to get his thoughts in order. Simply reacting to whatever she said wasn't going to help much.

"If you have some time, Sir Shield Hero, I would like to have a discussion with you."

"I see…" That made sense. Dante recalled that Melty returned to Melromarc to stop Aultcray from discriminating against the Shield Hero. If he was smart about this, he could work this to his advantage.

That is, if he had the time to think everything through.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" Dante said. "I need to discuss this with my party."

"Of course." Melty gave him a slight nod.

Dante turned his back to Melty, focusing on his party members. He freed his arm from Sadeena and changed to his Humming Shield, activating it.

"Papa, are you okay?" Dio asked, gripping his armored leg.

"You look like you're about to panic." Keel added.

"About to?" Dante had a forced smile on. "There's a good reason for that, you know."

"Mm." Sadeena nodded. "That's the princess the Shield Hero is later accused of kidnapping in your stories, right?"

"Yeah." If he stopped and actually thought about it, that likely wouldn't happen right now. He didn't plan on fleeing from her and making her chase after him. Then again, he was planning on leaving the country right now. "I think we can avoid that issue."

"She's not bad, is she?" Dio asked.

"No, sweetie. She's a nice girl, and she really likes filolials."

"Really?" JoJo asked, peaking around Dante to look at her.

"I think so, yeah." It was entirely possible that was another difference, but that'd be easy enough to confirm.

"What should we do?" Rifana asked.

That was the million dollar question. The obvious answer was to simply talk with her. Of course, the situation might be a lot more different than Dante thought. Many things already were, after all. It was best to be prepared.

"Keel and JoJo, go to the inn and get Raphtalia and Eclair, and the carriages. After that, wait outside the city walls for us."

There were a couple other stops Dante wanted to make, but he might have to work around them. One of which was stopping by Beloukas's tent. He wanted that letter of introduction, plus a replacement slave seal for Sadeena.

"You sure?" Keel glanced over at the knights. "Should we really split up?"

"I'm sure." Dante nodded. "JoJo should be fast enough to get you two out of any situation that arises, and my group has enough power to handle things here. Just in case, take this too." He handed Keel a potion he crafted using his shield. It was made to give an edge in combat, though they hadn't needed to use it yet. Still, it was good to have.

"Okay, Dad!" JoJo said, transforming. Keel jumped onto his back.

"Stay safe, you two." Dante said, bidding them goodbye for now.

As they sped off, Dante shifted his shield again, ending the silence effect. He turned back to Melty, seeing her face full of surprise.

"Did that boy…just turn into a filolial?" She asked him.

"That he did." Dante responded. "In fact…"

Understanding his lead, Dio transformed as well. Dante watched as the second princess began to shake, her folded hands rising and lowering, trying to think of what to do.

"So pretty…" She said, settling on raising her hands.

Control the flow of negotiations. That's what Eddy always said. I'm no seasoned diplomat, but I can at least handle this situation better.

"So, what was it you wished to discuss?" Dante asked, bringing the princess back into focus.

"Ah, yes." Melty cleared her throat. "It seems there is some tension between Sir Shield Hero and the king. My mother, the queen, has tasked me with reconciliation between you. Also, she wanted to make sure your…injury wasn't the result of the king's actions."

"Well, I'm open to reconciliation. And don't worry, my arm is unrelated to the king." Dante said. "This won't be a simple thing. What did you have in mind?"

"I would like you to accompany me to see my father and speak with him." Melty said. "We can sit down and discuss—"

"Ah, that's not going to work." Dante interjected. "He just gave out funds for fighting the waves, and he was less than agreeable. Not only was my reward far less than the other three heroes, but he tried to withhold it too. This all happened the morning after he allowed—and instigated—a fight between heroes."

Malty's involvement notwithstanding, the king certainly forced the fight.

"He…I see. Then, perhaps I can act as the go between for the two of you. Father will listen to my words."

Dante stroked his chin. "I suppose that could work. However, I still don't see him coming around anytime soon."

"Hmmm." It was Melty's turn to hold her chin in thought. "Then…allow me to set the groundwork with him first. If you come alone with me, I can show father that you are open to discussion."

"I'm afraid separating me from my party is a nonstarter." Dante shook his head. "The fight yesterday was about freeing my party members from their slave seals."

Melty's eyes widened at that. "I didn't realize you had slaves."

"Technically, yes, but the slave seal is so other people don't come after them. Are you aware that your country, as a whole, cares more about damaged or destroyed property than the lives of free demi-humans?"

"My mother is trying to change that…" Melty said, lowering her head.

"I've heard." Dante nodded. "Regardless, now isn't a particularly good time to meet with him." He swept his arm to the walls. "Three dead demi-humans are hanging from the castle walls. While I don't think he'll be capable of harming my party members, I'd rather not give him another opportunity right now."

"That's going too far." Melty protested. "Even if he has a conflict with you, father wouldn't kill companions of a hero for being demi-humans."

"I believe he would. He did have three emissaries killed, after all."

Melty stood there, speechless. What even could she say to that? Dante didn't know what the proper treatment for emissaries and diplomats were, but having them killed wasn't exactly earning Aultcray any points.

"How do you know they're emissaries?" Melty finally asked.

"They told me they were." Dante said.

"You spoke with them?"

"A few times. They asked me to stay in their country, but I had declined. I still have things I need to do here."

Dante could see Melty relax upon hearing that. He could easily understand why. Her country's enemy receiving their god and telling him of their devotion, how he could order them to march on those who wronged him? It wasn't a good image.

"Besides," Dante continued, "I'm not too keen on being surrounded by royal knights."

"What do you mean?" Melty asked.

"I haven't had any good experiences with the royal knights of this kingdom. A group of them tried to set me and my party on fire."

Melty turned her head to the side. She seemed to mutter something under her breath. "Then I will have to discipline those knights." She said to him.

"Yeah, about that…" Dante looked over the knights she had with her. They had remained unmoving all while they spoke. "Who do those knights follow?"

"Huh?" Melty seemed confused by the question. "They are royal knights."

"That's not what I meant." Dante explained further. "Assume I do see your father with you. Things may not go well. In fact, he may even order the knights to apprehend me. It's not entirely unlikely, either. What I'm asking is this: if the king orders these knights to arrest me, and you order them to stand down, who will they obey?"

That was the big issue. Dante wasn't concerned about fighting knights. At least, not for the most part. He was worried that a fight now would lead to him being wanted. If Melty was able to rein them in, then it could work out. Otherwise, it would be best to leave.

"These knights are part of my mother's army." Melty said. "They have been ordered to protect me and follow my orders. They will listen to me over my father."

Well, I suppose that's as good as it can get.

"What do you think?" Dante turned to Sadeena.

"Hmmm…" Sadeena hummed in thought. "It's a bit tricky."

"Hm. I think it will work out." Dante said. "With the princess here, I don't think it could end up much worse than it is right now."

With that, Dante agreed to meet with the king. He and Melty would go in together, while Sadeena, Dio, and Rifana waited just outside the throne room. Of course, Sadeena knew to make a racket if someone tried to move against them. Similarly, Dante could ping the slave seals on Dio or Rifana to let them know to break in. Hopefully, neither case would happen.

Of course, on their way to the throne room, Melty started up an entirely expected conversation.

"What's your name?" She asked Dio, who had transformed back into a child for the walk.

"I'm Dio!" She said happily.

"Nice to meet you, Dio! Please, call me Melty."

"Can I call you Mel?" She asked.

Dante let out a soft chuckle. "Dio, she's a princess."

"That's okay!" Melty declared, continuing her conversation with Dio.

Dante knew she'd be fine with it, but still felt like he should say something. It was still their first meeting, so a good impression was important.

Before long, they were before the door to the throne room. Sadeena, Rifana, and Dio stood back while Dante, Melty, and the knights entered. Hopefully, it would be a productive talk.

~The Wrong Hero~

The doors to the throne room opened quickly, allowing Dante to exit the room.

"Never show your face here again!" Aultcray roared from his throne. Dante scrunched up his face as the doors closed again.

"The talk didn't go well?" Sadeena asked, taking Dante's arm once more.

"It did not, no." Dante said, leading them out.

It started about how Dante expected, with the king shouting at him when he entered with Melty. He let Melty do a lot of the talking for him, but Aultcray seemed more interested in talking down to him than actually communicating. He was a bit more belligerent than Dante thought he'd be. At one point, Aultcray did in fact call for his guards to arrest Dante, even go after his companions. True to her word, Melty ordered her knights not to follow that command, and to prevent the other guards from leaving the room. That was when Dante thought it best to end the conversation.

"Sir Shield Hero!" He heard Melty call for him as they were nearly out of the castle. "Please, come back and finish speaking with my father."

"I think it's best to put that on hold for now." Dante told her. It wasn't just the king that needed to cool off. If Melty hadn't stepped in, Dante knew he'd say something he shouldn't.

"I don't want things to end like this." She said. "Even after what you did to my sister, I…"

"What I did?" Dante asked. He saw Melty hold her hands to her mouth. It seemed Melty did know what Dante was accused of, and she seemed to believe it too.

Melty slowly took in a breath and let it out. "Yes. I heard…that you raped my sister. I don't know why you would do that, but that's not why I'm here. I am simply trying to help patch things up between you and my father."

This was really something else. "What does your mother think about the accusation? Does she know I deny it happened?"

Melty folded her hands together. "She believes there is something more to it, but I don't understand why. My sister wouldn't lie about something like that."

So, even Melty doesn't know about her sister's personality. To keep the trust of her sister like that is really impressive. I'm surprised the queen couldn't convince her beforehand. Maybe the queen isn't as clever as I assumed.

"I see." Dante said. "Thing's will have to stand as they are for the time being. We can try again in the future, but it will be a while. In the meantime, I'm going to do a bit of traveling."

"Traveling?" Her face showed her concern. "If you plan on leaving the country, I recommend against it. That could be seen as fleeing from your situation."

"You're worried I'll go to Siltvelt, aren't you?" At the mention of that country, Melty flinched back. "I do know a thing or two about this world. Don't worry. Tell your father I'll be going to Faubrey. I hear they treat all the heroes there equally. It's a better idea than trading one zealous country for another."

Aultcray getting that information would likely lead to the church receiving it as well. Then, they could send all their troops to the wrong border, leaving the way to Zeltoble open to travel.

"Faubrey…" Melty made a face Dante didn't quite understand. "Wouldn't Shieldfreeden be a better choice for you? They favor the Shield Hero above the others, and they aren't as fanatical as Siltvelt."

Hmmm. Ignoring Takt's connections, Shieldfreeden probably would be the best country for me to go to. Sadeena told me that the dragon faith is more popular there than the shield faith among the rulers, but I'd still be quite welcome. It's interesting that she'd want me to stay away from Faubrey. Is she, or her mother, worried I'll speak to all the nations present at the discussions about my treatment here? Or, it could be to keep me safe from the king there. He does have a twisted personality, and I sort of remember him being just as cunning as Mirellia.

Dante realized the likely reason.

Melty knows. She knows the king of Faubrey wants Malty. If I go there and start making a fuss, he could demand Malty be given to him. It's not like Mirellia would be able to refuse, since her country tried to hoard all the heroes for itself. That, and Faubrey would have one holy hero, plus a number of seven star heroes as well, ignoring the obvious impossibility of that.

"I'll go there eventually." Dante said. "I plan on registering to as many hourglasses as I can. That is my role as a holy hero, isn't it?"

Melty sighed before she spoke. "Very well. But, how will you speak with my father again if you're going there?"

"I have my ways. If nothing else, I'll be back for the next wave." He responded. Before he turned to leave, he had something else to add. "I have to say, I'm a little surprised. Despite what you heard and believe about me, you tried talking things out. I respect that."

"This much is expected." Melty shook her head. "When you're part of the ruling family, you have to set your own desires aside for the good of the country."

"Wise words." Dante nodded. "I hope you can convince your father of that."

It wasn't likely, but he supposed it was possible. It was funny. This 10-year-old child was more responsible and sensible than her much older and experienced father. Although, Aultcray did manage not to say that Myne was actually his daughter.

"One last piece of advice." Dante said. "Watch out for the Three Heroes Church. Make sure to tell your sister to do the same. And keep your mother's knights close to you."

Whatever plans Malty had, they likely didn't involve staying friendly with the church. Then again, perhaps they did. She could be a devote believer in that faith for all he knew. Perhaps her plan was for Dante to kill the king, then she could rule in his place to gain more support. Melty arriving would make that more difficult, and Dante leaving would likely prevent any attack on Melty.

If Malty and the church are or were to be enemies, having her focus on them instead of him was a net positive. If they were allies, maybe his warning would sew a bit of mistrust. If nothing else, it may cause a bit of confusion for her.

From there, they bid Melty farewell, after having her promise to take down the bodies of the emissaries and return them to Siltvelt. Once out of the castle's gatehouse, they hopped on Dio and made their way to Beloukas's. It was a short matter to have him apply another slave seal to Sadeena. It didn't take long for him to write out a letter either. Dante would be able to take care of a few things with Beloukas's relative.

After that, they made their way out of the city. It looked like one of the city guards wanted to stop them at the gate, but they kept on going. It was easy enough to find Keel and the others. However, when they did, there was another issue.

"You killed a knight?" Dante asked the dog boy. "Okay, when and why?"

It was the first thing he asked when he saw the body of the knight in one of the carriages. In fact, there were seven bodies, and one had his head chopped off. Dante saw the XP notifications pop up in his vision while meeting with Aultcray, but he assumed they weren't an issue, since no one's HP went down. He hadn't really thought about how large the XP was.

"They were trying to take Raphtalia and Eclair!" Keel told him forcefully. "I had to do it!"

"I'm not blaming you." Dante said. "I just want to know how it happened."

Eclair explained the situation. The night before, Raphtalia caught a knight trying to snoop inside the carriages. She could have taken care of the knight herself, but the innkeeper came out to shoo him away. The next morning, several more knights came by with orders to seize the carriages. Eclair and Raphtalia had their weapons pointed at the knights when Keel and JoJo arrived. That was when Keel came up behind one of them and cut off his head. He attacked another with his throwing axe and cut deeply into his chest with his main axe. After that, the others joined in the fight and quickly took out the knights.

"That wasn't smart, Keel. We were trying to keep our heads down." Dante dragged his hand over his face. "But, I suppose you didn't have many options."

"The only good news to this is that they appeared to be church knights." Eclair informed him.

"Well, that's something at least." Dante agreed. "Were there any witnesses?"

"Just the innkeeper." Raphtalia said. "But since these knights are from the church, and with knights going around threatening people, he was more than happy to keep quiet about this."

"Good, good." Dante would have to thank the man the next time he was in town.

They had made sure to clean up when they finished. Keel used some of his magic to wash away the blood on the ground. He managed to learn a few spells, but only one was from a book. The others he gained from crystal balls that Dante got as drops. They were rare, but very useful, considering Keel had a hard time learning from the spell tomes.

Speaking of those books, Keel's group ran into someone on their way out of town. He had on a cloak, but there was no mistaking it was Erhard. He didn't say anything, just handing Raphtalia a bag before walking off again. In it was a note explaining how Agatha and Simmond had relatives in Lute they saved, and the two wanted to repay them. The bag had a book on potion making, as well as a Zweite level fire tome. Erhard also threw in a few accessories. Dante made sure he'd thank them all once everything blew over.

They got on their way, first heading north. That was only to show any guards from the city walls them leaving in that direction. After they got out of sight, they took a long course around the capital. They made sure no one was nearby on their ride to tip off anyone about their change in direction.

They had just one more stop before they started heading for Zeltoble. It was one that no one else in the party was particularly happy about, but they understood it enough to warrant its necessity.

"You know, you may want to branch off from Doom monsters."

Dante stood in the carved out living area of Ronota's mining complex, with Sadeena at his side. The mine's current occupant sat in a chair before him, his knees brought up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. On either side of him was a baron of hell. On the table behind Rolf was the corpse of one of the knights, which was starting to look like a heavy weapons dude.

"I-I can do that." Rolf said, his voice unsteady.

"Kid, I'm not going to hurt you." Dante said. "Our partnership isn't going to last if you're terrified of me. Did I really do something to make you so scared?"

Rolf hid his face behind his knees. "I t-tried to kill you."

"A lot of people have." Dante quipped. "Most of those people also weren't useful to me. You are."

"What if I'm not useful too?"

Dante shrugged. "Then just don't go around killing people and we won't have a problem." He really didn't want to have to kill Rolf. Fortunately, he hadn't killed anyone since their last meeting. He used a few of the intact bodies left out at Ronota. "As far as I'm aware, your only crimes are trespassing and desecrating corpses. Well, you also killed a knight, but he was an asshole who raided a village in the kingdom."

Rolf looked up from behind his legs. "You mean Lurolona?"

"Exactly." Dante turned to Sadeena. She held out a small notebook to Rolf, who accepted it. "This contains a list of all the knights and slavers involved in the raid. We've killed a few, confirmed the deaths of a few, and seen you kill a few in front of us."

"S-Sorry!"

"I'm not mad. Never was." He was mad once, but it was more at the slaver having the gall to die than it was Rolf's monsters killing him.

"So…you wanted me to find these people, right?" Rofl hesitantly asked.

"That's right."

He gave Rolf a quick explanation at Lute, but he expanded on it here. It was simple. Rolf would hunt down the people on the list and hold them for Dante to question. Once a week, Dante would come to check on his progress. Once he got all the information he could out of the person, Rolf could use them however he wished. In exchange, Rolf could consider himself under Dante's protection. That wasn't worth much now, considering Dante's reputation, but he would help take care of any problems that came Rolf's way. Not to mention, he would give Rolf any drops Dante no longer needed.

"Okay, I think I get it." Rolf said, nodding.

"Good. One last thing." Dante made sure Rolf was paying attention to him. "Be careful of Davon Mallory. His level in in the 60s, as are the more elite knights in the kingdom. They'll cut through your monsters like they're butter."

Outside of the initial surprise, the hell knight they fought before was easy to kill. Rolf, following his devotion to Doom, doubled the HP of the baron of hell compared to the hell knight, with no other stat changes. That said, it wouldn't be difficult to kill them. Eclair's attacks were enough to kill the hell knight, and she was a little above level 20 at the time, though she did have a good sword.

These monsters did seem a bit smarter than Rolf's weaker creations, but it wouldn't be enough. Their attacks were strong, but they weren't all that resilient.

"Got it." Rolf nodded again, seeming more at ease with Dante.

"Good. Then I think we're done for now." Dante gestured to Sadeena and they headed towards the exit. "By the way," he added, "it's not a great idea to hide in the place you were last found."

"Did you look for me here afterwards?" Rolf gave him a smirk.

"Touché."

Dante and Sadeena left the mines. Once they reached the surface, they rejoined the others. They waited outside the carriages, ready to fight if it came to it.

"Are you done here?" Eclair asked. She was by far the least happy about the situation, next to Keel. Those two handled the fight here the worst, and Eclair had to go against her ethics with Dante's plan.

"For now." Dante said, hopping onto the front carriage. JoJo got into position to pull while everyone else climbed into the back of the front carriage. Sadeena opted for the front with Dante.

Once they were set, JoJo began pulling the carriages, heading east to Zeltoble. According to Eclair and Sadeena, if they didn't do any hunting and switched out Dio and JoJo to rest, they should arrive in about a week.

"Do you really think Rolf will only go after the people on that list?" Eclair asked, sitting near the front.

"I do." Dante said, nodding. "He's a bit misguided, but seems alright. A little surprising, really."

If Dante had to guess, this Pahadron may not have been a big actor in the waves. He might be someone who just liked to watch people suffer. After all, if Rolf was meant to participate, he would have been older, or someone with more drive. Aside from a few people who deserved it, Rolf hadn't really killed anyone. Well, one of the knights he killed at Lute wasn't part of the raid on Lurolona, so maybe he was decent. Then again, Dante might have killed him anyway. He did step forward with the commander to threaten Dante and his party.

"I think you might just have a soft spot for kids~." Sadeena said, leaning into his arm.

"That too." Dante laughed. He looked over at Sadeena. "You're really liking that arm, huh?"

Since after they woke up, she's been clinging to him like that. Eventually, they removed the spiked armor from his right shoulder so she wouldn't have to keep moving around it. They took off the left shoulder spikes too, mostly to keep both sides similar, and because the spikes were too distracting.

"Can you blame me?" Sadeena asked as she trailed her fingers up his arm. "We did have quite the night~."

"You did?" Raphtalia popped her head through the carriage covers to look at them.

"We did." Dante said to both of them. "It was very nice."

"Oh, don't be so modest." Sadeena gave him a quick kiss. "You should have seen how he acted, little Raphtalia. Dante was so—"

"Why are you like this?!" Dante cut off her explanation. That was not the sort of thing to talk about with others.

"Aw, you love it!" Sadeena laughed.

"…Yeah, I do." Dante acknowledged. It was certainly part of her charm.

"Anyway," Raphtalia said through her hand, covering a small blush, "if you've already done…that…with Sadeena, does that mean you will with Rifana soon?"

"That's…" Dante was somewhat impressed with Raphtalia's concern for her friend's love life. "Well, at some point, I suppose."

"You suppose?" Raphtalia asked, looking annoyed.

"I-It's fine, Raphtalia." Rifana said, tapping her friend on the shoulder with her hand. A light blush was present on her face. "It'll happen when it happens. I didn't realize how important it was to you that I be with Mister Dante like that."

"I-It's not!" Raphtalia deflected, blushing heavily. "It's just…I know how much you wanted to marry someone like the Shield Hero. I want you to be happy."

"I am happy." Rifana said with a smile. "I promise. I'm more than willing to wait for whenever Mister Dante is ready."

"But when will that be?" Raphtalia asked, directed both at Dante and Rifana.

"I think it'll be when he trusts me." Rifana said.

Raphtalia gave her a look before turning to Dante. It took her a moment, but she seemed to understand what Rifana meant. After all, only three people in the party had Dante's trust power with them.

"I don't know when that will be…" Dante admitted. "I thought that, if I told you all enough about my past, the power would activate. It didn't. That's because…" There really wasn't any good way to say what came next. "I don't think I can trust you with knowing about me."

"After all we've been through together?" Raphtalia asked. "Dante, you saved our lives. Everyone here whose life you saved doesn't have that power you talked about. Is…that the reason?"

This wasn't a conversation Dante wanted to have. Still, they deserved to know. "I know the kind of people you all are, and the type of things you expect out of me. I've done a lot of terrible things for money, and there aren't many I regret. If you knew about them, some of you would probably hate me, and most of you definitely would. So…I won't tell you any of it. I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Keel asked. "Some of the things you told us were wrong, but nothing really bad."

"That's my point." Dante said.

While it was true he did tell them parts of his past, he said nothing about murdering people. He tried to find the courage to do so, but he just couldn't. The three former kids looked up to him, and he didn't want to ruin that. If he told Eclair, that would definitely ruin whatever trust he already earned from her. Dio and JoJo were monsters and his kids. It was easier to have that connection with them. Sadeena, of course, already knew more about his past. Dante knew she understood.

"I'll give you small example." It wasn't much, just something to test the waters. "I didn't really care about saving the villagers. You all cared, so I cared. That, and some relatives of Agatha and Simmond live there. I couldn't very well let them die after all those two have done for me."

"I know that's a lie, Sir MacRory." Eclair stated. "You do indeed have a soft spot in your heart for kids. You wouldn't let them be killed, or end up as orphans if you could help it."

"…Yeah, fine, that's true." Dante didn't really want to admit that. "But my point remains. Just because I'm doing good now doesn't meant I didn't do terrible things before."

"But that's okay." Dio said, slipping past the others. She sat on Dante's other side. "That was before, and this is now."

"Yeah, dad." JoJo chimed in. "You said you threatened people before, but I only see you threatening bad people."

It was nice to hear that from them, but that didn't change anything. Still…

"And you tortured and tried to drown that knight." Keel added. "It's not like we wouldn't understand."

"He what?" Eclair looked between Keel and Dante.

Oh, yeah, I did do that.

"I understand what you all are saying. I'll…consider this for the future."

It wasn't as if there was any real time limit to that power up method. There didn't seem to be any accumulating effect either. There was an XP gathering increase, as well as a stat boost, but that was it.

Maybe one day, they'd be able to know what he was like before.

But more than likely, they wouldn't.