Chapter 11

Lyn walked out of the forest, changing his sword to a shield, and quickly walked back to the inn. The whole night he was grinding monsters and setting up metal spikes that would attract nearby mobs and gain some levels automatically. Lyn looked over his Hourglass Shield and found the class-up option.

He could let Raphtalia choose whatever class up she wanted... or he could just triple her stats. Lyn would let her decide. But right now, he tiptoed back into the room he and Raphtalia were staying in. Sadly when he arrived, Lyn saw Raphtalia sitting in a chair, arms and legs crossed, her hair covering her eyes.

"And where were you all night?"

Lyn's heart skipped a beat. Something in Raphtalia's voice made her sound like a mad housewife. And from experience with females, he could tell that he was probably gonna leave with a few broken bones.

"Um... hey Raphtalia. What's up?"

"Lyn."

Raphtalia stared at him.

"Ok, I was grinding for a bit. I left an hour ago."

"You were gone the entire night."

"Okay. So I pulled an all-nighter. So what?"

"Lyn, get in the bed and sleep."

"But.."

"Now."

"Oh hey look. The egg is hatching!" Lyn tried to change the topic. Luckily it worked and Raphtalia turned towards the egg.

A small feathered bird popped out of the egg.

"Pii!"

The bird looked at Lyn, and then at Raphtalia.

"Pii! Pii pii!"

She happily chirped.

The chick jumped onto Raphtalia's head, then Lyn's, and then back onto Raphtalia's, burying itself in her long hair.

"Well, your hair is softer and probably cleaner."

"Aw, it thinks we are its parents!"

Raphtalia petted the small bird.

"Piiiiii!"

"It's so adorable. I believe this is a female Filolial."

(((((FIRO!)))))

Lyn shoved the eggshells into his shield, unlocking some bonuses.

He pulled out some crushed beans and put them on the table.

"What should we call her?"

Raphtalia asked, moving the filolial next to some crushed beans.

"Laila?"

"You just said filolial in reverse."

"Firo?"

"As in Filolial?"

"Piiii!

"Firo it is!"

Raphtalia shook her head in disappointment, while Lyn pulled out his shield and turned it into the hourglass shield.

"Hey Raphtalia, before we grind, you need to class up. Now you can choose whatever class up you want, or I could just triple your stats right now."

"Triple my stats?!"

"Well, yeah? Some items can double your stats. I got a few runes to triple them. Do people not have that here?"

"Well... not that I'm aware."

Raphtalia looked down at the ground, embarrassed at her lack of knowledge.

"Hey, don't look so down. Barely anyone knows about this anyways. Now let's class up. Put your hand down on my shield."

[Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield] {1/?} (Awakened) Lv. 25 (Evolved) 50/50 LR

Abilities Mastered: [Portal Shield], +25% All Recovery Stats (50% within Dragon Hourglass Shield)

Special Effect: [Class-Up], [Level Reset]

Mastery Lv.: 100

Raphtalia nodded and put her hand on the big hourglass. It started to glow, and a few seconds later it turned back into a normal shield. Raphtalia and Lyn looked at her status and noticed that the stats have indeed tripled.

"Well of to grinding."

And before Raphtalia could stop him, Lyn jumped out the window and ran towards some random monsters. Raphtalia facepalmed and grabbed her sword.

"Hey Lyn, I'm going to go on my own from here."

"Alright, but just in case, here."

Lyn tapped a few buttons on the status menu and a second later Ren disappeared as a party member and reappeared as an alliance member.

"We won't share any exp but we'll know if the other person is still alive. Don't die on me, Ren."

Lyn put his fist out. After a second Ren smiled and fist-bumped Lyn.

"You too."

Ren walked away and soon disappeared into the forest.

Lyn heard some footsteps behind him. He turned around, only to face a really pissed-off Raphtalia.

"Lyn, go to bed. Now!"

"No! You aren't my mom or my wife so don't boss me around!"

"Lyn!"

"Raphtalia, I'm fine. Here."

He pulled out a vial of medicine that restored his energy and allowed him to not sleep at all and downed it in one go.

"There, 8 hours of sleep in 5 seconds."

"That can't be healthy!"

"I've been doing it for years, it's not that bad."

"But..!"

Lyn didn't allow her to finish and instead ran off to the monsters inside of the forest to start grinding. He soon came back with several monsters nibbling at his body. Raphtalia gave up on trying to convince him and instead followed him.

It was getting pretty late when Lyn, Raphtalia, and Firo returned, Firo now being a giant chicken, half the size of what a normal Filolial was.

After their grinding session, Lyn trained Raphtalia for about an hour, though it mostly turned into Lyn knocking her sword out of her hands and tapping her with a stick. But he could see some slow and steady improvement in her skills and reaction time. After a bit, they returned to grinding their levels.

Lyn used up 10 coins to reset the cooldown and reset his level to 3, so now everyone received a 120% bonus to exp and stats. Both Raphtalia and Firo got a 40% bonus for the slave seal, and Firo also had the 30% monster shield bonus so her exp gain was almost double what Lyn was getting.

Lyn- 19

Raphtalia- 40

Firo- 23

Lyn asked a villager to rent him a stall and helped fix the damage as payment. Raphtalia studied magic. Firo ate Lyn's cooking and sat down next to Raphtalia, looking at the book over her shoulder. And while Raphtalia and Firo slept, Lyn gathered herbs, compounded medicine, and experimented with magic and accesories for the rest of the night.

Early in the morning, Lyn walked over to Firo with several meat shanks in hand.

"Gua!"

She's almost fully grown.

grumble*

"Hello there, I brought food."

"Guaaa!"

Firo didn't hesitate to dig her face into the food. Lyn cooked all the monsters that were edible to not go broke feeding Firo. It was like with Raphtalia, but twice as bad. However it seems like Firo was almost done maturing, so soon she wouldn't eat as much as she does now. But eating less doesn't mean she won't still eat a lot.

Lyn checked her stats. With the [Rebirth], [Slave Seal], and [Monster Tamer] bonuses, Firo was several times stronger than any normal racing Filolial. He rode her the other day and her speed was pretty impressive.

Playing with Firo proved to be rather fun. She was like a small and excited puppy, playing fetch, demanding head-pats, and so on.

"It's nice to see you so happy Lyn-sama."

"Yeah, it's a nice day today. We should get Firo a carriage."

Lyn was about to talk to a villager and try to buy one, but suddenly a large shiny carriage entered the village, being pulled by a riding dragon. As soon as it stopped, the person who exited was none other than Motoyasu. Lyn could see his silver chest plate over chain mail from a mile away.

"Attention, inhabitants of this village!"

Myne announced as she opened the parchment in her hand.

"I appeal to you, the inhabitants of the country, to inform you that for the valor shown in the battle with the wave, the Hero of the Spear Motoyasu Kitamura-sama is appointed the ruler of this land."

Myne looked at Motoyasu. He nodded and took a step forwards.

"So, I am Kitamura Motoyasu, Hero of the Spear, and now I am your new ruler. Good luck with your village rebuilding! Nice to meet you! Remember - first ensure financial stability, and then buy materials!"

Everyone was shocked. The Spear hero being appointed as the ruler of the village he left to die?

"But I rule this land?"

The village elder raised his hand.

"What's this? Some redneck dares to contradict the decision of the king himself?"

"No, that's not what I meant at all, it's just so unexpected and..."

"Silence!"

That arrogant wh*re! I'll kill her one of these days. And why do I think of her when I look into her eyes? Her energy and soul have a weird mist around them too.

"Yo, Motoyasu!"

Lyn yelled, walking through the crowd.

"Long time no see! How have you been doing?"

Motoyasu's grip on his spear tightened and he gave Lyn the dirties glare he could muster.

"How dare you! This village now belongs to Sir Motoyasu. A criminal like you has no right to be here. Leave, before we force you too."

She turned back to the villagers.

"First of all, we will establish a tax on entry and exit from the village. Otherwise, you will be rebuilding it for a long time. Entry tax - 50 silver coins, exit - 50 silver coins."

I see, they want to burn this village to the ground because the people here support me after I saved them from the wave.

"But we won't survive that," the elder exclaimed.

"That's way too much," the villagers agreed.

"Is it really such a large amount?" asked Motoyasu, who clearly knew nothing about finance.

"For one silver one, you can stay here overnight, and you will have more food leftover. You are asking one hundred times that just for leaving and exiting the village. You're basically bleeding the village dry Motoyasu."

Motoyasu shot Lyn another glare and turned back to Myne.

"At such a time, painful reforms are needed, otherwise the restoration will never end. And the previous ruler of this land is dismissed by the power of the king."

"Bullsh*t. They wouldn't have needed to rebuild jack if your idiotic metal pawns you call knights didn't spray fire magic just to try to get rid of me. And we already fixed most of the damage anyways, we have like one roof and a wall we need to fix."

"That's right. We already have the restoration handled. We don't need some absurd tax!" a villager chimed in.

"What kind of joke is this?!" another one added.

"What are you up to against us?!"

"You weren't even the one to save our village! You left us to die!"

Soon the entire village began to protested.

"Oh-ho-ho, disagreeing with the king's decision? You will have to pay with your own skin."

A few knights pointed their spears at the protesting villagers.

"[Airstrike Shield]."

Lyn quickly jumped in between the knights and the villagers and raised his shield to protect them.

But before Myne could command the knights to attack the villagers, several cloaked figures appeared next to her.

"What...?"

"Myne-dono, you probably know who we are. We have a letter for you."

The cloaked figure that was talking to her handed her a parchment.

Shadows?

Myne unfolded the parchment, and her face began to turn pale.

"Who are you?"

"We are acting on the orders of one person. Surely you will find out everything one day."

The shadow answered, otherwise staying unnaturally still.

"No, you..."

Myne fell silent and crumpled the paper.

"Fight!"

Motoyasu's eyes went wide and he paled.

Lyn sighed again and looked at Motoyasu.

"B-but Myne..."

"Really? After what happened last time? I'd feel bad to have to curb stomp him again."

"Fight for this village in a race against our dragon!"

Lyn paused.

Then he burst into laughter.

"Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"W-what's so funny!"

"You can't win with cheats in the duel, so you pick something where you can cheat even more? Aha ha ha ha ha!"

"How dare you accused us of cheating?!"

"You cheated in a one-on-one duel. Your words mean absolutely nothing to me."

Lyn turned to Motoyasu.

"Instead of a race, how about a cook-off!"

"Huh?"

"Duel or race both come down to physical strength, which can easily be boosted or damped by magical interference. But a cook-off relies purely on skill and can't be altered!"

There are cooking skills in the heroes arsenal, but he doesn't need to know that. Not like I need them to beat him.

Motoyasu looked at Lyn and grit his teeth.

"So how bout we decide this in the kitchen!"

Before Motoyasu could decide, Myne interfered.

"No, we will have a race, and that's final."

"*sigh*"

"Gua!"

Firo walked up to Lyn and glared at Motoyasu's dragon with fire in her eyes.

"So it's true that Filolials and Dragons don't get along."

Raphtalia muttered.

Lyn looked at Motoyasu.

"So what happens if you win?"

"If we win, we get ownership of this village and you will return what you stole from me and Sir Motoyasu."

Myne declared. Lyn looked at her to check her level.

37? They work fast. Then again, she is the kings' daughter, so she probably received plenty of support.

"And if I win?"

"You get ownership of this village and we will leave."

"Nah, that won't do. How about if I win, I get to borrow Motoyasu and have him help me cook for a day?"

"Why the hell would I cook with you?! You tortured and embarrassed me in front of the whole kingdom, you bastard!"

Motoyasu screamed at Lyn with hatred in his eyes.

"You challenged me to a duel I had no chance of winning and blasted me in the face with a lightning skill. You also work with a woman who accused me of rape on day three and let her cheat just to get the upper hand."

"You barely took damage from that skill! And your criminal record has nothing to do with me!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm the Shield Demon, an evil sadistic bastard, and yada yada. What can you do about it?"

"Bastard! I'll beat you in this race and show everyone that I am better than you!"

"And bleed the people of this village dry with impossible taxes just because I beat you in such an unheroic way? I didn't take on the monsters of the wave to save this village just to have you kill them off. Firo let's get ready."

"Gua! Gua gua!"

Lyn borrowed a saddle from a random villager and put it on Firo's back. He could see the fire in her eyes every time she looked at Motoyasu's dragon.

"So lame. You really think your bird can beat my dragon?"

Firo glared over at Motoyasu.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"Motoyasu, a quick word?"

Lyn walked up to the hero of the spear and led him out of earshot.

"What do you want?"

"Ok so I may have gotten a bit carried away at the duel and beaten you up pretty badly and for that I would like to apologize. You caught me in a really bad mood and reminded me of a bastard from my world so I took some of my anger out on you."

"You think an apology is gonna fix what you did to me back there? Do you even have any idea what you did to my reputation?! I get mocked by kids who call me D*ck Spear!"

"And people point at me and call me rapist and demon. See what I have to deal with daily?"

"I-it's not the same thing! I did nothing wrong. You're the one who tried to rape Malty!"

"No evidence."

"Tere was plenty of evidence. The knighs showed up and showed it to us right after you left."

"What was the evidence?"

"The clothes you tore of of Malty."

"You mean clothes that could have easily been bought prior and showed as evidence to incriminate me? And what happened to the evidence I showed by the way?"

"A knight smashed it. The king told us of how the shield is able to make fake information to lead good people to believe your lies. I won't fall for it Lyn. No matter what you say, I will always trust my companions over you."

"I am also your companion. I don't see you blindly trusting me though."

"What are you talking about? They are my companions," Motoyasu says as he points at the women that were always with him. "What makes you think you are my copanion?"

"We are literally the four heroes summoned together to fight the waves. We are supposed to fight the waves together. The seperate companions we have are to strengthen ourselves so that we are strong enough to fight together."

"Shut up! You didn't even do anything last wave."

"I saved this village."

"Ghah. Just shut up and race me!"

"Fine. This conversation is going nowwhere anyways."

Lyn ran back to Firo, who was in a really intense staring contest with Motoyasu's dragon and jumped onto her back.

When Motoyasu did the same, the village elder walked in front of them and began announcing the rules.

"The course will be three laps around the outskirts of this village. Whoever reaches this game first will be declared the winner."

"Good luck Motoyasu. May the best rider win."

"Shut up."

Motoyasu grumbled and grabbed the reins of his dragon.

"Motoyasu-sama."

Myne cheered for Motoyasu, trying to look excited.

"Good luck, Lyn-sama!"

"You can do it Shield Hero!"

"On your marks..."

The villager elder raised his hands as Motoyasu and Lin leaned forward.

"Start!"