Rising of the Shield Hero Re-Rise

"We need to keep going."

If we always tried to avoid danger, we would never get anywhere.

If we ran into a monster, all we needed to do was defeat it.

"All right, let's go."

"Oh… Okay."

"Don't worry. We can beat it."

"I'll try."

That's the attitude.

So we kept on moving slowly through the cave. Until…

"Grrrrrrrr"

We ran into it right when we reached the top of the waterfall.

It was like a big, black dog. But it had two heads.

But the footprints were so much smaller… Maybe it was a puppy?

This one is probably the same dog as last time.

"Hawoooooooo!"

The dog let out a bellowing howl and turned towards us. It started running. I held up my shield, and waited for the attack. It was way too weaker than I thought. Still, I made it look that I'm having difficulty in handling this dog.

This dog was definitely not a threat. When I looked at Raphtalia, I saw that she was shaking in fear, and her eyes were locked at some random point in space.

Maybe she's having flashbacks.

The dog howled and jumped back for a moment.

It then turned to Raphtalia and began to dash in her direction.

As if I would let it.

I quickly changed to the Rope Shield.

"Air Strike Shield!"

The shield changed.

"Ah! H…Help!"

The dog turned from Raphtalia and came rushing at me, howling,

It tried to bit on my shoulder, but his teeths weren't going any deeper.

"No! No! Dad! Mom!"

This isn't enough.

I kixked the dog, ran over to her, wrapped her in my arms, and gave myself over to the waterfall.

It wasn't the first time I was doing it but it feels different every time. Everything was swirling, and. We were free from the water but were falling through the air. We fell into a small lake at the bottom.

we swam to the shore.

Cough… Cough…

"What happened Raphtalia? Why were you scared all of a sudden?"

"Dad?"

"No! What are you talking about?"

Even if I know it, I have to hear it.

I looked up as we talked. The dog ran to the edge of the cliff, looked down at us, then turned and ran off.

It had to be thinking of a way to get to us.

"Are you okay? Are you conscious?"

"I… I…"

"What was that?"

"It…"

"Tell me!"

"I… okay."

She started talking, slowly and deliberately.

"I'm from a little village of demi-humans, mostly farmers. It's a little ways from here, by the ocean… It's still part of this country though, so life wasn't easy."

Both of her parents were kind-hearted, and the village was peaceful.

But one day, skeleton warriors flooded the town. They had come from a wave of destruction.

There were a lot of skeleton warriors, but the adventurers in town were able to hold them at bay. But soon enough other beasts, giant insects, fell on the battlefield, and the adventurers were unable to hold the line.

Finally, a giant, three-headed dog appeared, some kind of monster. The people weren't able to stand up to it at all, and they were trampled.

The village couldn't fight anymore, so they ran from the monsters.

But the monsters wouldn't let them flee. Acting like it was a sport, they hunted down the remaining people and killed them. Raphtalia's family, like the rest of the villagers, ran from the monsters. Soon enough, they came to a cliff overlooking the ocean and found themselves trapped there by the wave of monsters. Realizing they could not escape, her parents looked into each other's eyes and then turned to Raphtalia and smiled.

Raphtalia was shaking in fear, but they patted her head and comforted her. She was too young to realize that they were planning on sacrificing themselves to save her.

"No! Father! Mother!"

The two of them, wishing for Raphtalia's safety, pushed her from the lip of the cliff. As she was falling to the ocean, she saw the monsters attack her parents.

As she told me the story, her face was pale. I think it was a difficult memory to talk about.

"I fell into the water and luckily washed up on a nearby shore."

After she woke up, she went searching for her parents. She climbed back up the cliff.

The monsters had finally been defeated by the knights and adventurers of the kingdom. She walked through fields littered with bones and finally found her way back to the cliff.

… And she found pools of blood, and strips of flesh.

When she finally understood that her parents were dead, something inside of Raphtalia snapped.

"Nooooooooooooooo!"

From that point on Raphtalia resolved to live a full life.

Looking at her now, it was hard to picture. But apparently she used to be quite the over-achiever.

When she became a slave, it must have slowly worn her down.

Until she met me, apparently she'd been living a pretty heroic life. She'd been fighting to reestablish her village but unfortunately ran into a slave dealer, was captured, and was even tortured.

Finally, she ended up in the slave trader's tent, just where I'd found her.

"That black dog is back! We need to run!"

She was starting to panic again.

I suppose that was the source of her trauma.

"Calm down!"

"But… But!!"

"That is not the dog that killed your parents. It has two heads, right? Besides… just who do you think I am?"

"You're the Shield Hero."

"Exactly. Up until now, I've been protecting you, haven't I? But even if I can protect you, I can't defeat the enemies myself." I said

Raphtalia put her head in her hands.

"Your parents are not coming back. But you can help other kids. You can help keep the same thing from happening to them!"

"All I can do is give you the best environment for you to use your fighting skills. If that's not cool with you, well, we already discussed your options."

"R…Right.

"Gaah!"

The dog had managed to find us somehow.