Chapter 51.

Naofumi

Naofumi walked around the clearing while nibbling on his jerky. The meat was coarse and tasted like salted cardboard but he continued to chew on it despite his antipathy for it. He would need the energy for tomorrow.

Most of his attention was on the forest around him. His party was resting after several hours of constant travel and all of them were quite exhausted. Ethan, Rizwan and Fenral had taken the first watch and were resting at the moment while Mirza and Naofumi himself were currently having a snack while doing their best to maintain security. They were the best choices for the night watch, Mirza with her special eyes that let her see in the dark and his Night Vision that let him effortlessly pierce the gloom around them, but it didn't change the fact that he was still very tired.

He stretched and went through some basic warm-up exercises, trying to get the blood flowing, trying to avoid falling asleep. Naofumi's two-hour nap had not been particularly restful and he still felt the need to try and rest. Unfortunately, sleep was yet another luxury he would have to give up until he was safe.

Naofumi had been trying to keep thinking positively but after three days of being hunted he was in no mood for optimism. It wasn't difficult to see that their current plan was a long shot and that there were simply too many ways for things to go wrong. Hell, things had already gone wrong, what with their Filolials getting killed, Fenral getting injured and the many fights and detours they had been forced to take to keep ahead of their hunters. The past few hours had been a little better in that they had avoided all the patrols looking for them but Naofumi was sure that it wouldn't last long, they would encounter them again and then Naofumi would have to kill again. Not directly, his Shield wouldn't allow that, but at his command.

He wasn't sure if he should feel guilty about it or not. They were coming to attack him for no reason, it was their fault and he was well aware that if he didn't fight then it would lead to his death and the deaths of his whole party.

It still felt like he was doing something wrong.

He sighed, and shook his head, before looking at his Shield. Naofumi wasn't sure what to think. His adventure had started off oddly, gotten better and then turned into a trip through hell and it was all this Shield's fault. There was a part of him that was grateful, happy about the chance to have an adventure, to be more than just an otaku, but at this moment most of his mind was furious and scared.

He had done nothing wrong and he still had people eagerly sacrificing their lives for a chance to kill him. It unnerved him to remember their fanatical zeal and how they threw themselves at him just to commit murder.

Naofumi shook off his useless thoughts, slapped his cheeks to shake off his sleep, and then continued to keep watch. For an indeterminate amount of time, nothing occurred save for the screeches of the many monsters in the woods and the rustling of the wind.

Then, Mirza moved abruptly, he turned to her in time to see her eyes widen, and point south, "Two signatures. Extremely powerful. They're-"

She didn't complete her sentence. She didn't need to, he could see a man just appear as if he had teleported, and even Naofumi with his paltry magical senses could tell that this man was powerful. Mirza quickly woke up the rest of his party while he got himself ready for a fight.

To his surprise, despite the rapid initial approach, the man was content to simply walk towards them slowly. The figure, whom he could now see was holding a child in his arms, walked with no hurry. He had a sword at his side, a familiar sword with a very familiar gemstone.

"Adrian?" he called out, not lowering his Shield, but a little less wary, "Is that you?"

"Naofumi," greeted the man whose features he could now identify, Adrian's accent twisting the name until it sounded a little odd, "It's good to see that you're safe. apologize for the abrupt entrance but I have some critical news. Do you have a moment?"

Naofumi wanted to laugh at the absurd man in front of him. He had heard that Americans were supposed to be rude but here was Adrian speaking to him like they were at a business meeting or something. Naofumi turned to his party and found that they were much warier. Mirza, in particular, looked to be shaking slightly while Rizwan had a cold expression on his face. Ethan was wary while Fenral was staring at the girl with a snarl on his snout, his broken wings flaring slightly in an attempt to make himself look bigger.

Before Naofumi could figure out what to do Adrian spoke, his voice calm but firm, "I mean you no harm. I'm here only to give you some information, some help if you desire it and an offer that you are free to refuse. Give me ten minutes of your time and then I'll leave if you wish it."

Naofumi could tell that his words were directed less at himself and more towards his party members despite the fact that he had been directly addressed. He winced slightly as his Rizwan raised his spear even higher, moving into position.

"Enough," he said firmly, not willing to make an enemy out of Adrian unless he was forced to and he certainly was not willing to have this racist demi-human of all people ruin this meeting. Not when Adrian could be the ace they needed.

Rizwan backed off and Mirza relaxed a little while Ethan who had not drawn his sword simply moved into a calmer stance. Fenral didn't stop snarling, however. His low growl was clearly audible. Naofumi repeated his command and Fenral looked at him, unhappy, but stopped.

"Sorry about that," he said, "we're a bit on edge. What did you want?" Naofumi winced at his clumsy demand, he really wished he had more sleep under his belt. Or at least a couple of moments to plan.

Adrian, however, simply nodded, ignoring his rudeness, "Understandable," he said, "thank you for agreeing to speak to us. I am Adrian Black and this," he said placing the girl, whom he noted had angel wings, on the ground, "is Isis. She is my daughter and a Filolial Queen."

Naofumi blinked at the girl and then at the Sword Hero. wondering how the hell he already had a kid, adopted or not. Then shook off the irrelevant thoughts it was the second part of the sentence that mattered.

"Fillolial?" he asked, looking at the girl who was in no way an ostrich-like bird, "What do you...

Adrian nodded before Naofumi could complete his thoughts, "Please transform," he said, looking at the silver-haired girl at his side.

"Yes Father," she said before wrapping her wings around herself and beginning to glow, he was forced to look away as the brightness blinded him thanks to his Night Vision Skill, and when he looked back at her there was a massive three-meter tall bird next to the Sword Hero.

Of course, that made perfect sense, Adrian had adopted a transforming bird girl. He wondered what else he had expected from this absurd world.

Adrian told her to change back which she did immediately and moved back to her human form with her black dress. Then the Sword Hero smiled at them, "Shall we get onto business," he said, making a couple of chairs and a table appear from nowhere.

Naofumi swallowed as he realized Adrian's tactic. The man had decided to push Naofumi off balance. This whole introduction thing was just so that Adrian had control over the conversation. And the worst part was that it was working. Still, he sat down and then introduced his companions as they each took a chair, Adrian sitting directly opposite his position across the small table while his daughter, and wasn't that an odd thought, sat next to him. His own party members were around him. Ethan on his right and the other two to his left.

Fenral was staying far away from the Filolial/girl hybrid and was almost hiding away from her. He had been since the transformation.

"How the hell did you do that?" asked Naofumi, unable to help it, he ignored Adrian's annoyed look, "you just made these chairs appear."

Adrian erased his annoyance quickly but he raised an eyebrow before answering, "I used the crafting ability of the Sword to make it and the storage space to hold it," he said, "I had assumed that you would have a similar ability. Is that not so?"

"No, nothing like that," he said, feeling incredibly irritated, he'd been pretty certain that Motoyasu and Itsuki's initial dismissal of the Shield had been incorrect. Sure it couldn't attack but it could do a ton of other stuff. All the skills he had unlocked and his stats were certainly nothing to scoff at...but if the Sword and the other weapons could do more than the Shield then they had been totally right to assume that his weapon was shit.

Adrian simply nodded, "I see...we can experiment on that later. Perhaps there are different abilities from weapon to weapon or the conditions for unlocking them are different but I've got some pretty important information to share." said Adrian, "The Four Heroes are part of a system to fight the Waves. We block the Waves both passively, by making the Waves weaker as long as we are alive, and actively, by forcing the Waves to occur less frequently if we fight a Wave directly and as long as all of us are alive this system works quite well." He paused for a second and then looked Naofumi dead in the eye, "The problem is that I don't know exactly what happened to Itsuki but he is no longer blocking the Wave passively. Something is wrong with either him or his weapon."

Naofumi found that Adrian had answered a question that he had asked before. Why bother summoning all Four Heroes if you hated one of them?

"How do you know this Sword Hero?" asked Rizwan, his words polite but his tone challenging, "None of our records have any mention of such a thing."

Ethan looked as annoyed as Naofumi felt at Rizwan's rude statement but Adrian smiled at the demi-human and answered calmly, "Fitoria, the Queen of All Filolials, was my source regarding this matter," he said, before turning to Naofumi, "you can also verify it on your help menu. It should show up there now that you've heard about it. Of course, you can choose not to believe me and do your own research. My main concern is to ensure that all of us live."

Naofumi was a little curious about this Legendary Filolial but he focused on his status menu for a second quickly scanned it. It took him about a minute during which he heard Mirza and Ethan ask Adrian something about the Filolial Queen, but he found the section about the Four Heroes and how they create a barrier to restrict the Waves. He sighed as he found the section about the Waves and the Heroes...and then realized that this had definitely not been there before. Had it been hidden until he got the information himself?

"Okay," he admitted, "I can see it in my menu but what did you mean by the fact that Itsuki's bow isn't functioning?"

"I'm not exactly sure," he stated, his expression becoming even more serious than before "but Fitoria detected that the Legendary Bow is not contributing to the defence of the world consistently. After that I decided to find him but Fitoria can't track him so I figured I'd check in on you and Motoyasu first to make you aware and make sure you both were all right...naturally learning that this worthless country decided to have you hunted down changed my priorities."

"Because if we end up dead or if our weapon stops working the Waves get worse." said Naofumi, his voice a little faint as he realized just how important their lives were and that Itsuki was already gone.

"More or less," the Sword Hero admitted, "I have no leads regarding Itsuki and I'd hoped to have you or any of your allies help me. Of course," he said with a sigh, "I hadn't expected that they would be stupid enough to try to kill you due to petty prejudices with an apocalypse on the horizon nor had I expected that they would falsely accuse me of a crime simply to have an excuse to execute me."

Naofumi nodded, "You heard about the rape accusation then?"

"Only recently," Adrian admitted, "while I was speaking to Van Reichnott. I'm honestly still quite confused as to what Aultcray's plans are but it's pretty clear that Melromarc is my enemy now just as they are yours. I was hoping to work together, it would improve our chances of survival and would help us in the future."

"That's your offer then?" asked Naofumi, "An alliance to deal with the Church and the King?"

"Before I learned of our...situation, I wished to extend a mutual aid pact," he said, "Essentially a promise that if things go wrong we help each other if or one of us ends up dead then the survivor avenges the one who ended up dead. That sort of thing. It would force most of the nations of the world to back off and treat us with more caution and less manipulation. I also wanted to make sure that we ally together to fight off the Waves." he paused here to let Naofumi digest his words, "Now, I want a full-fledged alliance so that we can pool resources to dismantle the Church, the Royal Family and any of their supporters and find Itsuki and whoever has captured or killed him."

That sounded pretty good...if Adrian could deliver. Not to mention that Naofumi himself was hardly in a position to offer anything to Adrian. He was on the run, his allies were limited to three people and a dragon and he had a huge number of enemies. Plus, the Church was his enemy not Adrian's. Naofumi was hardly an expert politician but this deal was actually biased in his favour. Was Adrian suggesting this simply to make sure that all of them stayed alive? Naofumi hesitated but decided to voice his concerns. It wouldn't be right to keep Adrian ignorant.

"I can't really contribute much at the moment," he stated, "I'm on the run and my Shield stops me from attacking."

Adrian looked a little surprised but laughed a little before smiling, "You underestimate the potential of that Shield. I'm sure that our alliance shall be an equal one if you have a little time to devote to it without the worry of the Church. Plus, it is in my best interests to keep you alive no matter any other factors."

The Sword Hero paused before standing up and waving his sword over the table a small pile of red sand emerged there. His status screen identified it immediately.

Dragon Hourglass Sand (SR)

"Please absorb it and see what you unlock," he said, "that alone shall prove why I believe that your contributions to our alliance shall be significant."

Naofumi frowned before gathering the sand and pouring it into his Shield. He wasn't sure what to expect but given that it was a Super Rare item it was bound to be something epic.

Portal Shield Unsealed. (Unlocked at Level 50)

"Portal...as in teleportation?!" he exclaimed, his excitement coming through.

"Indeed," said Adrian, "it will likely have several limits which I shall not discuss here," he said with a pointed glance at Rizwan, "but it will be very useful once you unlock it. The chances of the Church catching you shall basically be zero."

"You already have teleportation," stated Naofumi, confident in his assumption, Adrian would not have known the skills limits without it, "you're past level 50."

He simply smiled and offered Naofumi a party invite. Ethan, Rizwan and Mirza's reactions told him that they had received on as well. He accepted and then checked his status menu.

Adrian Black Level 62

Isis Level 60

Naofumi stared at the number and slowly started to realize the full depth of Adrian's little strategy during this conversation. He had slowly but surely proven that he could help Naofumi with all his current problems. No matter how limited teleportation was it was pretty likely that it could get them out of the country without leaving a trail and take him to a place where he could get some room to breathe and even train. Train until that teleportation was a skill that Naofumi had as well.

Frankly at this point, Naofumi was tempted to accept...but he needed more information. This was convenient, perhaps, too convenient. Naofumi would probably have to accept the offer but he could use Adrian's desire to have Naofumi on his side to gain some more information from the Sword Hero.

"What exactly do you want from me?" asked Naofumi.

"I need you to stay alive," he said, his voice intense, "everything else is secondary. I would like for you to help me crush the Church and the King, investigate Itsuki's disappearance and then fight the Waves with me and for that I'd like to take you away from the nations here and into the wilds where you can grow free from their interference."

Naofumi nodded but then caught a glimpse of Rizwan's expression which was cold , the man spoke calmly, "You wish to stop the Shield Lord from entering Siltvelt." the man snarled, his voice furious, "you have no righ-"

"Be quiet," said Adrian, sounding annoyed for the first time in the whole conversation, his aura flared and Naofumi felt a shiver run down his spine, "I only want Naofumi to have enough power to resist the manipulations of all the nations in this pathetic world. Or do you mean to tell me that there are no factions in Siltvelt which seek to harm him?"

It was an obvious opening but Rizwan fell for it and was about to speak, Naofumi could tell that Mirza was annoyed by her partner's behaviour while Ethan and Adrian were genuinely irritated. Naofumi moved to stop this debate. It was a pointless one...mainly because he was pretty sure that Adrian was a much safer option than Siltvelt, when both Mirza and the angel girl stood up abruptly.

"Father, something is there…" said Isis, pointing, she was about to say more when Adrian narrowed his eyes and said, "Portal"

Naofumi realized that the skill took everyone in Adrian's party when the world around them all started to waver. He also realized that something had gone wrong very quickly after that. The Status screen made it obvious. As did Adrian's curse an instant later.

Portal Blocked.

Adrian moved as soon as the wavering stopped and pulled out a massive wooden disc-like thing before creating dozens of floating swords while looking in the direction Isis had pointed at.

"Get on that thing. Now," he said as the wooden disc began to float, "Isis if things start to get problematic transform, pick up Naofumi and run. Use your full power, this is not going to be simple."

Rizwan was about to protest when he saw a massive swarm of what looked like Papers started to surround them. Naofumi got his shield up when he saw that a lot of them were wreathed in elements. Fire, Lightning and even Wind based mana was saturating them.

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