Remember, kids
Chapter 236: The Demon Lord of the Shield
The shouts of justice from the brainwashed slaves fill the air, and I can no longer hear anything else.
I’ll have to pay them compensation when all of this is resolved, and if they ask for medical fees… Should I just play dumb?
“Firo.” (Naofumi)
“Throw them off! With enough force to kill!” (Naofumi)
“They’re people Firo knows, so no!” (Firo)
Ku… she’s fine with leaving them on the brink of death, but she won’t kill.
Her memory isn’t to be underestimated, so she can probably recognize the villagers.
But this swarm is making it hard to proceed.
“Naofumi sometimes makes some dark jokes, doesn’t he?” (Ren)
“Right, we all know of Naofumi-sama’s kindness.” (Atlas)
“No idea what you’re talking about. I just want to end this and go home.” (Taniko)
The one who wanted to return was Taniko. She seemed to be fed up.
But correcting them would be a pain.
Fighting is also getting to be a pain, so I gather my comrades into a single area and deploy a magically strengthened Meteor Shield.
I expand it to a radius of 5 meters.
With the barrier deployed, we drive all the enemies out of it.
The slaves keep on breaching my defenses.
When that happens, the infiltrator gets knocked out and tied up.
If the culprit was a vampire or something, then I might look forward to fighting them, but this setting isn’t fun at all.
And we reach and open a large door in the depths of the church.
Inside is…
In the center is a ceremonial altar, or perhaps I should call it a ritual altar.
It seems we’ve fallen into a trap once more. The remaining remnants of the church and Itsuki’s former companion, Armor, are sitting on a high place, looking down on us.
“So you finally arrived, Devil of the Shield. I was getting tired of waiting.” (Armor)
“Are you referring to our comrade, Princess Malty? Unfortunately, she is not present.” (Armor)
“Ruckus? You call our crusade in the name of Justice a simple Ruckus!?” (Armor)
“Crusade? You sure love to joke, you terrorist.” (Naofumi)
I laugh as I provoke him.
It’s because this guy has a needless amount of pride.
It’ll be easier to make him self-destruct with words.
“What was that!?” (Armor)
“No, the Three Hero Church sympathizes with our Justice. They are merely our kindred souls.” (Armor)
“Is that so.” (Naofumi)
As always, he’s carrying a self-centered sense of Justice.
Even so, he answered quite naturally.
I guess using his compatriots to provoke him won’t work.
“And, like, did I even do anything to make you mad at me?” (Naofumi)
Though the Three Hero Church has its own reasons, I don’t remember offending Armor or the rest of the Itsuki Party to that extent.
I didn’t even interact with them much.
We were only in the same party for an hour or two on Cal Mira.
“Don’t play dumb. You use your power of brainwashing to obstruct our Justice!” (Armor)
… The hell?
Let’s put aside the fact that they’re the ones brainwashing for now.
What exactly is his justice supposed to be doing?
“Let me ask for argument’s sake. What is your Justice?” (Naofumi)
He probably won’t say anything good.
“Our Justice is one where evil does not exist. It is to make a peaceful world based on our glorious ideals. And as such, we must Judge all evil with our power!” (Armor)
Totally self-righteous.
Isn’t there something they find strange about calling themselves Justice in the first place?
I guess the result of Itsuki’s loss is starting to take root in them.
“And? What exactly did I do to get in your way?” (Naofumi)
“You… No, the Fake Heroes caused our party’s prestige to drop, and caused us to be pursued by the country. You all destroyed our status! Atone for your sins!” (Armor)
… So because of Itsuki’s loss, their prestige from being of a Hero’s party fell, and they were unable to reform the world and convince others to follow them as they pleased. And all fault lied with the Four Heroes?
What’s more, the fact that my peddling within Melromark helped raise the morale of the populace and was looked on as an act of good simply pissed them off further.
Oh, I think I’ve received requests from villages to send peddling carts over.
Because I made sure to regulate the pricing, I didn’t really pay attention to the orders themselves.
Because of my work, they were unable to gain ground, so they came to resent me.
I’m getting the urge to punch them into silence. And that will take a while with my attack.
“Devil of the Shield… No, Demon Lord of the Shield! We, the new Heroes, will defeat you!” (Armor)
With a flash, he takes a familiar sword out of his scabbard and takes the shield off of his back. He gets into a battle position.
For a Hero’s enemy, a Demon Lord is standard fare, but no matter how I look at it, this situation is a bit off.
And why does he get to be the New Hero?
Just proclaiming it yourself doesn’t make it so.
If I lose here, will all the fault of this incident fall to me?
They could simply have them rampage and then kill them in the name of Justice to earn fame.
Something similar will probably happen here as well.
Just how self-righteous of an organization are you making here?
“Evil, is it… Naofumi, what should we do?” (Ren)
“That sounds like something you would say. No, now I think you’re actually in the right. Next is… Ah, the person who was with Witch was that person.” (Ren)
Ren holds out his sword and glares at Armor.
Why couldn’t he remember until now anyways?
Not that I should be talking, but I bet he never looked at their faces more than once.
“Someone who would do things like this, even if they were deluded, even if they were seen as Heroes, will never be Justice.” (Ren)
“Yes, I think so as well!” (Rishia)
Rishia seems motivated.
She would have trembled before him if it was the Rishia I first picked up.
“What course of action should we take, Naofumi-sama?” (Atlas)
“Should we just take them out?” (Taniko)
Atlas, Gaelion, and Taniko are also quite motivated.
“Mu… Is the one standing there Rishia? As I thought, you were a filthy traitor!” (Armor)
“…I … can’t accept anyone who would lead things such as this!” (Rishia)
Rishia boldly declares at Armor.
Don’t just treat me as a background character. I’ll smack you.
“There’s no way this is Justice!” (Rishia)
Ah, and the thing that caught my attention, armor’s sword and shield…
It’s the one I saw at the Zeltburg auction, the Spirit Turtle Sword.
It was an item so expensive, I would never dream of holding it. Why does Armor have it?
Or perhaps it was stolen.
Steal… Now that I think about it, there are plenty of Heroes who break into houses and look through the drawers and chests.
But that doesn’t really matter. It’s not like that sword is mine.
But that Shield that looks like the counterpart of the sword.
Could that be…
“Oy! Is that Shield stolen goods?” (Naofumi)
“Surely you jest. I merely purified a wicked item manufactured by the Demon King.” (Armor)
Oy, that’s the Shield the Old Man and Imya’s uncle worked hard to make. The Shield made just for me.
What do you mean purify, you thieves!?
“That Shield is mine!” (Naofumi)
If it’s used carelessly and gets scratched, its value will drop.
“That Armor is my prey. You guys go deal with the rest. There’s no need to keep them alive, so fight with all your strength, but don’t kill the brainwashed ones.” (Naofumi)