Chapter 007: Change in Perspective

Author: WolfSpatial

Co-Author: Lucifer

[To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid.]

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Please enjoy the chapter. It's quite a bit late, sorry for that. I've had a hectic last two weeks, been completely swamped with work, so I haven't had a lot of time or energy to write.

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"Thank you," Naofumi looked down at the leather armor that he had commissioned from Erhard, I could see that some of the life in his eyes had withered but he was still hopeful somewhat.

The armor had iron plates on the shins, chest, upper arms, and left forearm that would provide Naofumi that little bit of extra protection that he needed at lower levels.

I wasn't sure how levels worked exactly yet, as I had grown stronger despite not raising my level and Motoyasu had raised his level but didn't grow too much stronger.

Itsuki was another matter, he had set off shortly after we left the castle to go hunting and raise his level to 'get as strong as me' or whatever. He had ditched his party in favor of a 'solo run' as he called it, which just meant that he was a loner. Which I knew.

However, I had sent Malty with him after she asked me to forgive her. My reasoning was that with Malty using her sword and Magic, Itsuki would be able to get a feel for the bow quicker than if he had to do both close-range and long-range combat.

But, I digress. Erhard had thrown in a black cloak for Naofumi that helped to conceal his identity. Despite Malty dropping the charges, the Church of The Three Heroes had all but proclaimed that Naofumi had beaten the girl and even worse. People in town gave him disgusted looks and refused to sell to him.

Erhard hadn't believed the gossip, welcoming Naofumi with open arms and giving him a good price on his new equipment. He seemed to like bartering with the Shield Hero, even tossing in a fur neck warmer for the colder months that were approaching.

As the two talked, I went back to the staff I had avoided my first time coming to the shop. As I got closer, the pit in my chest grew colder. It felt like the staff was attacking me, though not physically. It was more spiritual than anything else, like my very soul was opposed to the idea of even being near the staff.

It was a dark wooden staff with a red bead the size of my fist in the top that sat into a small nook between what looked like split branches.

I blinked once and scanned through the screen that came up with a small description of the staff. It was a fairly basic thing that boosted Flame Magic by a little bit.

"That's a Flame Tosser Staff," Erhard called out from behind the counter with a small smile on his face, "Could be useful to the Mage Hero, I think."

"I'm good." I stared at the staff despite my words, unable to shake the feeling that it was warning me through the hollow feeling I got from it.

Looking at my own staff, which floated silently near the door of the shop, I opened its sheet only to find that it was named strangely. All of the heroes' weapons were named as such; legendary Sword of Cardinal, legendary Spear of Cardinal, Legendary Bow of Cardinal. and Legendary Shield of Cardinal.

All but my staff had such names, which was named The Staff of Cantria. In addition to that, it didn't say that it boosted my magic at all. It simply stated: 'A focus for powerful magic' which I guess meant that the strength I displayed was all my own.

If my staff came from somewhere different to the other Legendary Weapons, could I even be considered to stand amongst the Legendary Heroes? Maybe the reason they didn't have stories about a Mage Hero is that there wasn't one in this world.

I might be the first. What brought about such a thing then? To make me the first Mage Hero, did the universe accidentally slip some celestial cocaine into its diet?

I wrapped my hand around the Flame Tosser Staff and felt myself stumble as my vision turned sideways.

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{NAOFUMI IWATANI}

I was talking to Erhard about maybe making a new shield that I could copy from him when I heard something hit the ground behind me. I turned to see Jayce unconscious, his staff — having moved from the door — floated next to him silently.

I still wondered how he could separate from his weapon, but now wasn't the time for that. I kneeled down next to him and put two fingers to his neck as Erhard came around the counter of his shop worriedly, "He's still alive. Just asleep."

"What happened?" Erhard held the broken pieces of the Flame Tosser Staff in his hands, and even I could tell that whatever enchantments were on it no longer were, "I've never seen an item do this before."

Looking back to Jayce, I could see a small red glow travel up his hand from the tip of his fingers and vanish into his sleeve. My brow furrowed as I reached out to touch Jayce, only for my hand to be swatted away by his staff.

It didn't hurt, surprisingly, but it did knock my hand from him. I looked up and couldn't help but picture a furious guardian standing over their charge. I scowled, "Then why didn't you protect him earlier?"

The staff seemed to reel in shock, though I'm sure that was just my imagination. Erhard set down the broken staff on the shop counter and turned back to me, "We need to move him, I know the owner of the Inn across the street, the Silent Knight, you two can stay there for a while."

Erhard scooped Jayce up in his arms like a princess, his green hair falling and revealing the strap that held his eyepatch on. I couldn't help but wonder as we walked why he wore the patch. Had he lost his eye? Was he just trying to seem cool? Or does it actually serve another purpose?

It didn't seem to hinder him in any way, as he could obviously still see stuff on his left side. Maybe whatever was going on behind it was just too much for the rest of the world and he felt he needed to contain it. I had seen it glow from the edges of the patch during the facade that was my trial.

Opening the door for Erhard, we came into the front room of the Silent Knight Inn. To our left was the entrance to a dining room with long wooden tables that had benches on each side. To our right was a door that read 'Management Only' and a set of stairs that led up to the second and third floors.

Directly in front of us was a two-step counter with a ledger sitting on the lower section. A small sign sat on the taller section, which was toward us, that read '3 Rooms Left' in large black letters.

"Sactifa!" Erhard called out loudly, catching the attention of the few patrons I could see in the dining hall.

A woman came from the door to our right, a sigh on her lips before she stopped and stared at Jayce, "Gods, Erhard, he's just a kid!"

She was a woman about Erhard's age, long blonde hair tied behind her head, long legs hidden beneath a simple green dress. She wore an apron over the dress, and I could see spots that were worn on both the garments that told me they were old.

She was old too, wrinkles just barely making themselves known on her worried face. Her soft green eyes giving me motherly vibes.

"I know," Erhard hefted Jayce up, his grip appearing to have slipped slightly, "Take me to a room, any room."

"Alright, alright." She grabbed a key from behind the counter and rushed up the stairs with us in tow. Jayce's staff followed behind us, making me think it had a mind of its own.

Did all of our weapons have something like that? Was Jayce just so in tune with his staff that it cared so much about him? He did say that he made it, could that play a part?

Regardless of my thoughts, I was brought from them as Sactifa took us to a room at the far end of the third floor. She unlocked the door, opening it to reveal a small room with a single bed against the right wall with a chest at its foot. Across from the bed, against the left wall, was a wooden desk with a matching chair pushed under it.

Between the two, on the far wall, was a square window that looked like it could be opened about halfway. On the window sill was a small cactus that looked like it had seen better days.

Erhard set Jayce on the bed whilst Sactifa set the keys on the desk, "Now," She said, "Tell me what's going on?"

"This is Jayce," Erhard explained, Jayce's Staff lying itself on the bed next to him, "He's one of the Heroes that were summoned to fight agains the Waves of Catastrophe.".

"Why's he knocked out?" Sactifa gave Erhard a pointed look, to which he shied and rubbed the back of his bald head.

Stepping in, I helped Erhard out, "He suddenly passed out in Erhard's Shop. We aren't sure, exactly, what's wrong with him."

Sactifa glared at Erhard, "You owe me… I expect you here first thing tomorrow morning."

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{ITSUKI KAWASUMI}

"Isn't he so cool!?" I asked my new party member, whom Jayce had stuck me with before releasing me to level up and become strong like him.

"Who?" Malty didn't seem to understand the god that was Jayce Fateweaver, "Oh, yeah…"

"You've been kind of despondent since we finished monster hunting," I trudged forward a bit and turned to stop her, "Are you okay?"

"Can I be honest with you?" Malty looked down at her hands as she twiddled her thumbs. I could see she was nervous, but unlike Jayce I didn't know why.

"Of course," I placed a my right hand on her shouler. Jayce had put her with me for a reason, and I was determined to figure out what it was so I could show him I'm worth his attention and support. Like Naofumi is. A soft, toothless smile stretched my lips across my face, "You can tell me anything."

"I'm thinking of asking Jayce to marry me," Her ears turned a bright red. As much as I wanted to laugh, I held myself back and frowned. She looked up at me and gauged my reaction, "N-not right now… Maybe when I've redeemed myself from what I did to the Shield Hero."

"Why the sudden change?" Retracting my right hand, my left clenched tightly onto the grip of my bow. I wasn't sure who exactly had made the bow, but they were missing an important part of it. At least to the standards of my world.

The bow itself should have been made out of four parts – that was mostly correct on the Legendary Weapon – The Riser, The Limbs, The String Nock, and the String. Three of those sections were completely right, well done to the creator.

The Riser was just a bit off. The Riser itself should be made of three pieces; the Grip, the Arrow Shelf, and the Sight Window. This Riser didn't really have an Arrow Shelf or Sight Window. Not that that was a big issue for me, given my ability to hit my target as long as it wasn't hidden. But it did irk me as a longtime archer, alas, I couldn't change the weapon yet.

Before I left with Malty, Jayce had explained how our weapons could be used to copy others of the same type — Naofumi could copy Shields, and me, Bows. I was thankful to Jayce for what he's done for me and Naofumi. I had been put down and stuck in the gutter in my old world, I really didn't want to see Naofumi go through that too.

But Jayce stopped it. And now this woman has the gall to say that she's gonna ask him to marry her!? That's just insane… Jayce would never go for a girl like her. Would he?

"I, erhm…" She suddenly became extra nervous again. That means she must be plotting against Jayce. I got ready to knock an arrow, just in case I had to get rid of her, "I've never been treated like that before… He was so close and I could feel the warmth of his breath when he spoke. And it smelled like minty cinnamon, but not too strongly. And he smelled like faint wood smoke. And I want to stay by him and keep other vultures from picking away at the brightness of his eye."

"Vultures? You mean women?" My grip relaxed as I shook my head, this girl was clearly infatuated with Jayce. Maybe I could use that to get her to serve him better. If we both proved ourselves to be better than everyone else, then he won't need to find more people. He'll have us.

"Yes." Her eyes burned with fervor and fury I had never seen before, "I'll become his sword and you'll be his Bow. Naofumi will be his Shield. And then we'll have a complete party."

"You forget the part where our weapons don't work in tandem." I felt tempted to flick her forehead, but I figured that was something Jayce should do instead.

"That's not entirely true." Malty gave a sly smile, "We said that so you'd all go your separate ways and we could get Naofumi alone. We never thought Jayce wouldn't care. Anyway, your weapons do technically work together, you just suffer serious experience drawbacks. But with Jayce's strength, I think that can be overlooked."

Nodding at the new information I turned to see the old weaponsmith coming out of the Inn that the four of us were supposed to meet at. I greeted him with a smile, "Hey, do you have any good bows in your shop?"

"Huh? Yeah… You're the Bow Hero… right?" He seemed a bit lost, which confused me as he was a native of this world and should know his way around.

My statement came out as a question unintentionally, "Yes?"

"You better go in, Sactifa will take you to your room. You'll be sharing with Naofumi. The girl has her own room." He shook his head and walked back to his shop. I could faintly hear something slide in front of the door after he closed it.

I exchanged looks with Malty and entered the Silent Knight Inn, an older woman with blonde hair was standing behind the counter switching around the number three with a zero on her little sign.

She looked up at us before setting a single key on the counter, "This is for the girl. Naofumi already went to bed."

"Uh, okay?" She didn't seem too happy with whatever happened between her, the weaponsmith, Jayce, and Naofumi.

Malty took the key off the counter, it was a small key with three teeth on it. I assumed it was made of iron given its dark color and it was attached to a small leather tag which was engraved with the number three-hundred eleven.

"You're in room three-ten," She told me as we started up the stairs. With a nod, we walked up the stairs and found the place eerily quiet.

My boots clacked against the wooden floor, stopping as I opened my door and looked at Naofumi sitting on the edge of the bed to the left of the centered window. He looked up at me and I couldn't help but ask, "What happened?"