Author: Yeah, baby, that's what I've been waiting for; that's what it's all about!
Nori: Can you not say random memes every time?//
Author: I'm sorry, it's a habit when I don't know how to start a conversation.
Nori: I guess that makes sense anyway. Do you want to speak or should I?//
Author: I got it. He clears his throat. Alright, for those who have read this in the past and are reading it now, I appreciate it. I know how irritating it is to read something that's decent to read only for the author to completely disappear, and for that, I apologize. I can't really promise anything like consistent chapters or anything like my writing is going to be better, but what I can say is that this chapter is going to get a bit more original in terms of how the story goes. With that being said, I hope you all have an amazing day, night, week, month, and year. Now let's start this chapter.//
The chapter starts off where the last chapter ended with Ratel and Pitou punching Myne and the mage not too hard but just enough to cause them both to be sent back knocking against the wall softly as Mark, Nori, and Naofumi were pointing their weapons towards Motoyasu, signaling that the party of the shield hero won.
Itsuki:" They actually won. He said he was a tad bit surprised, looking mostly towards Naofumi and Nori.
Ren:" They took cheating into account. He looks in the direction of Myne and the mage, who were recovering, with a disappointed expression, not thinking that they would consider such a thing.
Itsuki: Yeah, you're right."
Motoyasu:" Damn it, I can still fight, you know! He tried to move forward, only for Nori to press his staff up against him even more.
Nori: Stop you just as well as I do; in a real fight, you would be dead in this situation. Come on, Motoyasu, don't make things worse than they should be. He looks down at Motoyasu with a caring look, trying to help him preserve his image.
Motoyasu:- He looked down, knowing he was right, and kept quiet.
Raphtalia:" Master Naofumi! She said she was jumping down and running towards him.
Naofumi:" Raphtalia?" -He turned around, and to his surprise, he was greeted with a huge hug, causing his eyes to widen as he remembered why he accepted this fight in the first place and gained a new reason to keep pushing forward with these large waves of emotion and realization he subconsciously hugged back.- (Yeah, that's why I do it—to protect you and everyone else.)
Mark smiles proudly at the touching moment. (It seems)
Ratel: We finally got it through his skull. She jumps down with Pitou as she goes to high-five. Mark-
Mark: Indeed, good work, Ratel.- He high-fives her.-
Ratel:" Same goes for you, Mark. I'm glad you didn't lose, because if you had, I would've punched you through five waves and back. -She laughed as Mark chuckled at her joke.-
Nori:- He looks towards Naofumi- (it looks like he's so caught up in his thoughts he can't hear anything other than Raphtalia, huh, almost like its fate adorable). -He then looks towards Motoyasu, who was also watching the touchy moment as he stopped pointing his weapon at him and sat down next to him.- "I know us having slaves on paper sounds really bad; I get that, but look at how they hug each other; do you really think that it's a master and slave relationship you heard of from your world and seen through this one?"
Motoyasu:- He stayed quiet for a bit until he shook his head and said, "It's not.
Nori:- He smiled a bit as he then noticed that the king was quiet, almost too quiet, which caused him to turn his head towards where the king was.
The King:- He gritted his teeth, looking at the outcome of the fight, but kept his mouth shut as he got up and walked off, signaling the end of the celebration.
Nori: (He took that better than expected.) He got up, dusting himself off.
Mark: Oi Nori, we're heading back to the inn to rest up. He said this, pointing towards Naofumi and Raphtalia heading out along with Ratel. Are you coming, or do you have to do something else first?
Nori: I've got something to do first; I'll catch up with you guys later."
Mark: Alright, then make sure you don't do anything stupid. He walks off, catching up with the rest of the group.
Pitou stood there, looking at Nori.
Nori:You're not going to follow them? He said this while helping Motoyasu up.
Pitou: No, I much rather stay here just in case anything bad happens."
Nori: You're probably also curious why I stayed."
Pitou:" That too. She nodded.
Nori: (No embarrassment or anything; that's Pitou for you.) He chuckles as he looks towards Ren and Itsuki, who were walking towards him. I'm glad you two didn't just leave."
Itsuki: Well, we figured you wanted to talk to us seeing that Naofumi and the rest of your team left, and I doubt they would just leave you behind."
Ren: Yeah, so what is it? I'm guessing it's something about Naofumi, isn't it?"
Motoyasu:- He looks towards Nori, waiting for him to answer.
Nori: Wow, nice observation. You're right partially, but it's more than that, actually. - He lifts up one of his fingers and says, One, I want a proper reunion with just me, Naofumi, and you three, which preferably I want to do it tomorrow at the tavern so I can explain everything while also being comfortable asking for favors if that's ok."
The three would nod, curious to hear what he had to say, as Pitou watched, slightly confused at Nori's behavior.
Nori:" And two"-he lifts up another finger-"this one is just for Motoyasu, so you two don't have to answer."
Motoyasu: - His eyes widen a bit. "Ok, what is it?"
Nori:" Don't take it the wrong way; I want a one-on-one with Myne."
Motoyasu:" WHAT!!!" He asked with a surprised look on his face, completely taking it the wrong way.
Pitou:- Her eyes widen as well, surprised by Nori's words and wondering if he's planning to kill her or not.
Nori:" Not like that, you two. I just want to talk to her by myself. I have questions for her. I'm only asking you because I have a slight feeling she'll accept it if you ask her for me."
Motoyasu:" I'll see what I can do though don't try any funny business with her" - He warns Nori as both Itsuki and Ren gave him the bruh face-
Nori:" Hahaha I won't trust me anyways I'm off I'll see you three tomorrow" -He said walking away with Pitou following him as the three heroes walked off as well-
Pitou:" Mind if I ask you a question?"
Nori:" Go ahead," he said as he continued to walk forward.
Pitou:" What happened to your rage?"
Nori:" Huh?"
Pitou:" I guess I should rephrase it: why were you so nice to them? It doesn't make sense to me.
Nori:"It's really simple; what's to stay mad about?"
Pitou:" How they treated you and Naofumi back then
Nori:"Nah, I already got over it." He puts his hand behind his head as he walks forward, smiling.
Pitou:" That's what I don't get: why or how are you able to just get over things?"
Nori:"Well, the real question is, why stay mad at it?"
Pitou:" Huh?"
Nori: There are two sayings I've heard: one is, Why stay mad at the things you can't change? and the second is, Why be mad at the things you can? Basically, what they mean is, Why stay focused on the thing that's hindering you, and why stay hindered?"
Pitou:- I stayed quiet, thinking about what he just said and trying to decipher it.
Nori:" Though normally people who only say just one of these phrases are still miserable, that's because you're supposed to use them together technically. It's one phrase in two; let's take this town for example, where the king dislikes us, and to show it, he made up rumors using Myne to make the townsfolk here dislike us too, which does anger me."
The buildings would seem to cover the moon's light as they continued walking.
Pitou:" So why aren't you now?"
Nori:" Because why stay mad at the things you can't change and why be mad at the things you can? We can't change the king's mind; he hates the shield hero for what reason? I'm still looking into that, but either way, why stay mad? I can't change it now, so I just roll with that, but you wanna know what I can change?
Pitou:" What?"
Nori:" I can change everyone else's thoughts about us; an action speaks louder than any word, and that's been proven; some of those knights helped us during the wave, and that's because of our actions, which means the thing we're mad about gets mitigated to one thing, which is the king, and guess what? Now we don't need to change anything; he can hate us all he wants, but if he wants to keep his authority, then he's going to have to comply at some point, you see.
Pitou:" I guess that's still slightly odd to me. How you completely disregarded your rage like that"
Nori: I never disregarded anything; I just use it for what it was intended for, which is resolve. Your emotions are supposed to notify you if you're doing something right or wrong. If you're upset about something, don't stay mad unless you want to be mad for the rest of your life. Turn your rage into drive to make yourself happy, because normal happiness signifies you're doing things correctly. Sadness is the same as wrath. You apply it to improve your situation." The buildings would soon stop obscuring the moon because they were now in a much more open street area, and the full moon's light would shine on Nori: "Life isn't all rainbows and cupcakes, but why keep it thunderstorms?"
Pitou:" I think I get it now"
Nori:" I'm glad anyways let's go to inn im pretty sure everyone else is waiting on us"
Pitou:" Right"
-The two head towards the Inn but little did they know that there is someone listening into their conversation watching them from The shadows as the person watching them disappears-
Nori:(I could've sworn someone was watching us) -he thought to himself -
Soon the scene would cut to a woman who was getting her dress fixed up by her maids as she looked like a queen of some sort.
???: So is that what the kings have been up to?" she said, looking at her window, as there was a person wearing a black cloak standing next to the window. -
The person wearing the black cloak said, Yes, apparently. I'm sure Princess Malty talked him into it."
???:I see, and how is the shield hero holding up?"
The person wearing the black cloak said, He seems to be doing well; he found a party of his own thanks to the help of that demon orb, who is also trying to bring the heroes together, at least giving them a better bond than what they have currently."
???:Is that so intriguing? The demon orb plays the role of a saint. Now that's something you don't hear very often. She smiles with relief, but then her expression changed to a slight tired expression. However, the news of the summoning of the four cardinal heroes has made no small impact in our kingdom as well as others, and we must make sure that our neighbors won't meddle in our affairs no matter what."
The person in the black cloak said, Don't worry, my lady. We will continue to keep a watchful eye over the capital and this demon."
???:I'm counting on you, she said as the person disappeared and she sighs, "a demon protecting humans, huh, times are changing and things are becoming more unpredictable." She said she remembered the assassin that attempted to kill her as a quick flashback happened showing this assassin.
-
"I just hope that the heroes are ready"
-Soon the scene would cut to the four heroes along with Nori in the throne room while the rest of their groups were off somewhere resting-
King:" as his reward for his efforts during the wave and for filling my request master Motoyasu will receive 4000 silvers "
-Soon someone would hand Motoyasu large coin bag-
King:" And young masters Itsuki and Ren will receive 3800 silvers"
-Someone would hand both Heros a slightly smaller coin bag-
King:" And finally I set aside 500 silvers for the shield hero" -He said as someone was about to hand Naofumi the bag- "However"
Naofumi and Nori:" Huh"
Nori:(Don't you dare tell me)
King:" But due to the cost of now owning one of my knights they will receive anything funds in this current moment"
-Nori and Naofumi would look at the king with a irritated expression -
Nori:( Alright I'm a have to speak my mind again) -He thought to himself as he was about to open his mouth but before he could say anything Itsuki would cut in-
Itsuki:" Thats not gonna fly"
Naofumi:" Huh" -He looks over to Itsuki-
Itsuki:" You were the one who let Motoyasu bet on your knight so truly if anyone would should loose money its him"
Ren:" And that's not even adding the fact that two of Motoyasu's companions tried to cheat "
Myne:- Would stay silent-
Motoyasu:" Plus it was Naofumi and Nori would defended the village not the knights so you should compensate them fairly "
King:" Fine I will give him the agree amount but nothing more "
Naofumi:- Snatches the bag-
King:" Now you have it now get out of my sights!"
Naofumi:- Was about to say something but quickly turned around walking off-
Nori:- Looks towards the three smiling as he whispered thank you before heading out with Naofumi-
- When the two walked out of the castle they would be met with the knight who was carrying the helberd-
Nori:" Ah there you are I almost thought the king made you hide our something" -He said chuckling-
The knight:"Well, believe it or not, he was considering that. She did a slight bow to show respect. But even if he went with it, I wouldn't listen. My name is Artoria Pendragon. Use me as a spear as I'm now part of your power."
Nori:" Please don't be so formal, and thanks for sticking to it, but you shouldn't worry too much because even if the king were to hide you from me, I would've still found you anyway because once something is mine, it will forever be mine until I say otherwise." He walks towards her placing his hand on her shoulder for a bit as he continued walking.- "Now go grab some new armor and go to the inn to meet everyone else." -He smiles.-
Naofumi:"Jeez, I never took you to be the obsessive type.
Nori:" I'm obsessive? I've never noticed."
Naofumi:" How? what to forget it So where are we going?"
Nori:" To the tavern because there's something we've got to do.
Naofumi:" At the tavern? Alright then "
-Small time skip to Nori and Naofumi entering the tavern with Naofumi noticing that it was mostly empty -
Naofumi:" Why is it so empty here"
Motoyasu:" That's because we asked the owner of this place if we could use it to talk for a bit" -He would say to grab the their attention as he seemed to be sitting at one of the tables to the side near Itsuki, Ren and Myne-
Naofumi:- He just stayed quiet as he turned around trying to walk away but couldn't since Nori grabbed him by the cape dragging him back-
Nori:" No you don't get back over here we are going to talk to them"
Naofumi:" I have no reason to talk to them" -He tries to continue to walk-
Nori: " Dont be such a baby"- Takes out his chains to wrap him up dragging him to the table as he looks at the other four who was witnessing this- "Sorry about that anyways let's start this proper reunion shall we? " *he lets go of Naofumi as he sat down next to him*
Ren:" Yeah alright then Nori what did you want to talk about?"
Nori:"Well, first off, I wanted to tell you that what happened in that dungeon was fake, and the Naofumi who pushed me was really a knight the king ordered to kill me.
The three heroes would look at him, shocked, as Myne looked away.
Naofumi: (I guess he's proving my innocence with these three first, huh?) He continued to look towards them.
Itsuki:" But how is that possible, as the crystal ball showed?"
Nori:"Well, two things counteract that." He cuts him off: One, you need a crystal ball to record it, and Naofumi doesn't have one, and I don't think Myne has one either.
Motoyasu:"Yeah, she doesn't."
Nori:"Well, that's the thing; it wouldn't make sense to be able to show something from inside the dungeon, and I heard that there was a safe zone. Yeah, no, there were no safe zones in that dungeon, which was why it glitched a bit since you can only edit so much of the video within the crystal.
Ren:" I see, so the king must've faked the whole thing.
Nori:"Exactly, which is what Naofumi was trying to tell you, but to be fair, you guys didn't know what a crystal ball was, so it did make it harder to believe him."
Ren:" I get it." He looks towards Naofumi. "I apologize for not believing you."
Motoyasu:" Same here.
Itsuki:" Now the real question is why would he fake everything?
Naofumi:- Would slightly roll his eyes. (So now you want to believe.)
Nori:"Well, I'm thinking it's because of his hatred towards the shield hero. I think you three have noticed how he never says his name, and even when he does say shield hero, it's with pure irritation in his voice."
Motoyasu:" Now that you mentioned it, yeah, I've kind of noticed that." He said as he then looked towards Myne, "Do you know the answer, Myne? You are the king's daughter."
Myne:" I don't know; he's never really mentioned the shield hero to me."
Naofumi: (That's a lie, and you know it.) He would have an irritated facial expression as he was about to say something until Nori tapped his shoulder to snap him out of it.
Itsuki:"Actually, now mentioning Myne, the other quote on quote crime he committed was assaulting her. How do you explain that, granted, the background was fake, but I don't know if they can flat out make up a scene?
Ren:" And we can't say a guard did it because why would her own father do that to her?"
Naofumi:Interesting point. Wanna explain that, Myne? - He looks towards her along with the other three heroes, causing her to smile nervously now that she is backed into a corner.
Myne:" Well, she said, looking at the heroes then towards Nori since he was exactly across the table from her as she noticed that he was smiling at her watching. (Oh no, he set all of this up ever since last night and even now he purposely ignored the other crime so he can make me admit to my false accusations.) She continued to look at Nori as her eyes widen when he started to open his mouth, causing her to panically think 100 thoughts a second trying to find a way to get out of this situation as everything would seem like it was going slow motion.
Nori:" I can't believe you've been here for this long and still haven't figured it out."
"Huh?" the four heroes said in unison as they turned towards Nori.
Nori:" You forget illusion magic exists; they probably put an illusion over a skeleton while the skeleton was trying to grab her." He smiles as Naofumi and Myne look confused at him. I mean, it'll only make sense if that's the case."
Itsuki:"Yeah, that checks out, so Naofumi is innocent fully.
Ren:" I just didn't know the king would stopped that low.
Motoyasu:"Same, I apologize for not listening to you and trying to take away your slave. I thought you tried doing something bad to her like you did Myne, but turns out that's not the case."
Naofumi stayed quiet as Nori would just nudge his shoulder, whispering, "Accept the apology, man. They're not that bad, and they really mean it."
Naofumi:" I accept your apology. Hopefully nothing like that happens again. I wouldn't want to go back to square one."
Motoyasu:"Yeah, same here." -He smiles.-
Myne:- continue to look towards Nori confused as she was so confused she wasn't even paying attention to everything else- (I know he knows exactly what happened So why didn't he say it What's his goal? He had me exactly where he wanted me.
Nori:- He smiles more, watching Naofumi accept the apology, as his eyes then glance over to Myne: Well, then, I'm glad you guys made up. Now the second part of favor, and this is really not up for discussion because it's more of a necessity than a want."
Ren:"Ok, what is it?"
Nori:" I need you four to actually grow a bond. Sure, we're acquaintances and friends sort of, but I mean a fighting Bond. I'm only saying this now because, looking back at the wave, it was way more dangerous than the first one, and believe me, I was there for the first one, and it's only going to get more dangerous from here on out. And we need the four Cardinal heroes to act like a team if not the world's doomed. I know it's hard due to the fact that you can't level up together, but it must be done. Does that make sense?
The three nodded as Naofumi looked towards them, then back towards Nori.
Naofumi:"Yeah, that makes sense. (As much as I don't want to do it right at this very moment, I just became innocent.)
Nori:" All right then, that concludes today's reunion. You may all be dismissed. He chuckles as the four get up from their seats and walk out of the tavern. Myne would try to walk out with them but is stopped by Nori, who closes the door with a chain.
Naofumi:- He looks behind him to see that Nori and Myne are still inside as he looks towards Motoyasu. "Why are they still in there?"
Itsuki:"Oh, that's because Nori asked Motoyasu if he could have a one-on-one with Myne."
Motoyasu:"Yeah, and a part of me thinks he's trying to steal her." He said as tears streamed from his eyes comedically.
Ren: "I highly doubt that Motoyasu "
Naofumi: (I see, wait a second, he was being awfully nice the whole time; I don't think he's going to kill her but might injure her.) He continued to look towards the door.
Back with Nori and Myne -
Nori:Why so quiet, Myne? Is there something wrong?." He would have his back towards her since he was still on the chair.
Myne slowly turned around to face him. I'm fine," she said nervously.
Nori:You're probably wondering why I'm keeping you here. Well, to answer that question, I want to tell you a story."
Myne:" A story, what story?"
Nori:" A story about a black sheep who hated It's Shepherd Yeah, it hated it, and the shepherd knew about it but decided to let the black sheep do its thing, not without warning it. The shepherd told the black sheep that one day, if the black sheep were to ever do anything, karma would come and collect its debt, and the only way the black sheep would know that karma was close is by the sound of a crazy person laughing. The black sheep You didn't believe in shepherds, so one day the black sheep injured the shepherd's leg, causing him to fall on a very high hill and break his leg. The black sheep then ran away. Sometime after that, the black sheep started to get chased in the woods by a pack of wolves, eventually cornering the sheep. Expecting death, the sheep closed its eyes, but surprisingly, death never came. Why? Because the shepherd came in and got rid of the wolves. The black sheep looked towards the shepherd, confused, wondering why the shepherd, reading the sheep's mind, turned around and told the sheep, Karma can't come yet, but it's coming soon." - He stands up as Myne slowly starts to back away.
Nori:" Hey Myne Did you ever wonder why I didn't let you admit to your own crimes? Do you want to know why I'm telling you the story? And do you remember what I said to you that day?"
Myne:"No, I don't remember why you asked.
Nori:Because you would know why I did those things, I wanted to make sure." His voice started to become distorted as he turned around, his face like that of a horror movie.
Author:It's a bad drawing I know but it gets the job done//
Nori: You doing me dirty//
"that I was that karma HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA" -He started to laugh like a maniac as multiple chains would head towards her-
Myne: -She was frozen in fear not really being able to do anything being stuck on her fight or flight response-
To be continued
Hello everyone! Here's a quick note for anyone who expected me to stick with the shield hero plot. It's not going to happen because I'm going to be experimenting like crazy, which has a 20 to 60% chance of being a hit or miss, so when the writing begins becoming poor and I'm also setting fire to the kitchen. Simply tell me to stop cooking or to cook something more delicious.//
Anyways have a wonderful day//