Chapter 26 - Regaining Consciousness

Chapter 26 – Regaining Consciousness

Author's Note: How will Satoshi react to the Glass fight when he wasn't there?

I struggled to gather my senses as I attempted to survey my surroundings.

Where was I?

Last thing I remember was that I unleashed "Hypercharged Shot" which destroyed the soul eater, I saw a beautiful Japanese girl with a fan, and then I got knocked out. Did we win the fight?

As I swept my eyes across the room, I noticed Ren, Motoyasu and some of their party members still lying unconscious on the beds. They must have been knocked out by my powerful attack.

Struggling to get on my feet, I wobbled my way outside of the makeshift hospital and out into the village square. I realized that I was back in Granny's village.

Before I knew what was going on, Indigo ran up to me and bear hugged me, knocking me to the floor.

"Ouch! If you do that again, I'll lose consciousness!"

"Satoshi!" Tears streamed from his eyes. "You're still alive!"

"Wait," I stopped him. "What happened after I got knocked out?"

Indigo told me that the Japanese-looking girl, who introduced herself as Glass, fought a long and grueling battle with Naofumi, eviscerating the other heroes in the process, and Indigo himself was barely left standing. It was due to Naofumi using his "Iron Maiden" attack and Rishia's helpful advice that Glass was forced to retreat due to the wave timer running out.

Damn, I sure did miss a lot. At least the problems were dealt with though.

As I turned towards Naofumi to see what he was doing, the knight that he had been bickering with had ushed him into Filo's cart and they all started heading towards Castle town, followed by a large entourage of lesser-ranked knights. I was positive that they wouldn't do anything to him, since if they did, Siltvelt, the demi-human kingdom that Rishia had told me about, would resume the long and grueling war that had recently ended.

I hurriedly gathered the rest of my party.

"Let's all return to Arcium. We should take a break, and head out to grind levels in the neighboring countries."

No one had any objections, so we hastily made our way there. I checked the pigeons that had patiently been waiting outside the makeshift hospital. Arcium had a lot of paperwork for me that I had to do.

"And Rishia. You're going to have a lot more paperwork to fill out."

"Fueeeeeehhhh!"

Upon our arrival to Messeblick a few days later, I handed over much of the paperwork that Rishia had painstakingly filled out for me and handed it to the national council. Then, I spent much of the afternoon greeting the citizens, who had just recently began receiving small shipments of food from the countryside. They were all paeaning me for my heroic deeds to the republic.

According to everyone, the monster issue had largely been dealt with, since all the lower leveled monsters were easily defeated by passersby and local police forces. At this rate, with the farmers replanting the BioSeed and receiving large harvests from the first planting, Arcium would have so much food that we would even begin exporting it to neighboring kingdoms.

Once I arrived, though, I received some news that positively stunned me.

Naofumi was wanted in all of Melromarc for the kidnapping of the second princess, Melty Q. Melromarc, and murder of some royal knights.

I thought he would be fine when he was ushered away by the knights, but did he just go berserk or something? Maybe this was fake news? I wasn't completely sure. I don't think that he would be stupid enough to pull that off, though, so it was probably just Aultcray's anti-Naofumi propaganda.

Either way, a nationwide manhunt had begun, but they hadn't had much luck as of yet. Lucky for Naofumi.

After taking a quick tour of the city, which had gained 5,000 new inhabitants from the return of refugees, I was thoroughly impressed with the national council's efficacy at running the place. They had already built two Bessemer converters, which were just beginning to produce the steel needed to lay foundations for new buildings. As per my blueprints, which I knew how to make due to my minor in mechanical engineering, fire magic and wind magic would be used to heat up the iron, and water magic would power the steam engines in the future factories.

I knew that there was high demand in neighboring countries for luxury goods, so these factories would mainly be producing those when they were completed in a few months. Many cotton farms had started to be revitalized after the common knowledge that there would be a food surplus pretty soon, and they would create tons of cheap clothing for the entire country and more.

The national council had a request, for me to visit the seaside city of Seehafen. Apparently, much of the previous royal fleet was stationed there, and they wanted me to unveil the new, revolutionary names for the ships. There were about two dozen warships or so, and twice as many merchant ships. We didn't have nearly enough soldiers to man them, so they gathered a few hundred-man crew to just maintain the ships and do some measuring for the upcoming rebuilding. I had drawn a few blueprints to modernize the ships while still retaining the sails, including protective steel plates which were currently under production, new breech-loading cannons, Type 63-style rocket launchers, interwar machine guns and a hybrid steam/magic engine for maximum efficiency. These plans would not be implemented until it would be more economically and technologically feasible, about a month or so from now. Completion would probably be achieved around a few months from now.

As soon as I arrived, by myself since the rest of my party was out grinding levels, I received a warm welcome. It wasn't a grand ceremony or anything, but everyone that I met thanked me for my work. Due to the new government and the ending of the civil war, they had been able to slowly rebuild their economy and trade their fish with BioPlant vegetables.

Standing at the dock, I picked up the new nameplates for the ships and bolted them on to their sides. The ships all had flamboyant names, like ARS Victorious, ARS Glorious, and ARS Illustrious. The largest of them all was to be renamed ARS Satoshi Sera, which made me feel a bit embarrassed, hoping the people wouldn't think that I was too stuck up.

After feasting on the locally caught scrumptious fish, I traveled around the countryside, mopping up the shockingly few monsters that survived the culling earlier. They were only enough for my level to rise by one, and I had wasted numerous days dealing with them. Apparently, the rest of my party had dealt with them earlier.

Suddenly, as I finished skewering a spider with my arrow, a messenger pigeon landed on my shoulder. I opened the letter, which I could barely comprehend after learning some basic Melromarcian reading skills with Rishia.

"Mr. President," it read. "Shadows from Queen Mirellia Q. Melromarc have informed us that she will be arriving very soon. Please return to the capital as soon as possible."

Seeing this, I picked up my pace and made my way back to the capital. I totally should have brought Indigo along, so I didn't have to waste a day or two on the journey alone.

When I was there, a police officer quickly motioned for me to go to the former king's palace, which had been renamed to the Presidential Mansion by the national council. Apparently, the queen had been waiting for me there, though she arrived just an hour ago.

When I entered the meeting room, the queen was sitting on one end of the long table, with shadows standing beside her. I walked around the table, and politely sat myself on the chair across from her.

Indigo and Rishia were also sitting at the table, looking quite nervous. Eda, Welst and Rojeel were still fighting monsters in the countryside, though they should be back to the capital soon.

"Good afternoon, President Sera." Mirellia said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's all mine." I replied courteously.

"Now let's get to the real reason I'm here. There is no time to waste." Mirellia continued. "The pope of the Three Heroes Church is plotting to stage a coup against the Kingdom, and he is planning to kill the shield hero. We must return to Melromarc and defeat him at once."

Well, I wasn't expecting this. On one hand, defeating the pope and helping the queen would make her owe me a favor, but on the other hand, I was still a bit tired from using Hypercharged Shot. Hopefully, I'd be able to return to full fighting form before we reached our destination.

The benefits far outweighed the consequences. I had to accept her proposal.

"I'd gladly assist you in your endeavors against the church." I replied. "If I may propose, shall we leave this instant?"

"That would be preferable." She replied.

"Indigo, Rishia, any objections?" I questioned.

"If you're up for it, we are as well!"

I loaded up Indigo's cart as fast as I could. The queen was heads over heels for him, since apparently, she was an ardent lover of the species. Eda, Welst and Rojeel barely arrived in time as we were about to depart. I left a note behind for Colonel Adria, one of the most experienced commanders of the civil war, to lead two platoons to go to Castle Town immediately to assist in the war effort.

Chapter 27 out soon! What do you think will happen!