The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 11

Epilogue
Making Peace with the Sword Hero

When all was said and done, we took the unconscious Ren with us
back to the village.

“Ugh . . . huh? Where . . . am . . .”

“You’re awake. This is the village I’m overseeing. That area you
were causing trouble in is part of the territory the queen gave me.”

“Oh . . . I see . . .”

Upon awaking, Ren was calm. He was looking at me and Eclair
with regret in his eyes. Raphtalia was staring at me like she was
keeping watch, to make sure I didn’t try anything. Oh, and Fohl had
returned to normal as soon as Motoyasu left, by the way.

“Sheesh . . . Becoming a bandit? You know better than that.”

“I messed up . . .”

Ren remained calm and listened to what I had to say without
protest. It seemed like Eclair’s chastening had been effective.

“For the time being, why don’t you tell us where Witch is?”

“Sorry, I have no idea.”

“Bullshit. Witch is the one that told you to play bandit, right?”

“No. Ending up as a bandit . . . was my own fault.”

Ren began to tell his story. Apparently, the same day the two of
them fled, Witch told Ren she wanted to meet someone and took him
to a certain town. It had been near where Ren had teleported them to.
There, Witch introduced him to a man. He’d recognized the man’s

face but couldn’t recall from where. The man had pulled out a sword
and asked Ren to teach him how to use it.

“Sure. I can show you a few things,” Ren told him.

Ren happily obliged and did some light sparring with the man.
And then the man began discussing something with Witch off to the
side. It was hard to make out what they were saying.

“Honestly, [. . .] than expected. In that case, [. . .]”

“If you think [. . .], then.”

“But he’s [. . .], right?”

“Yeah, but [. . .] stubborn, so taking advantage [. . .] tough.”

Something was uncomfortable about the way they had been
staring at him at first, but Ren trusted Witch and then she smiled at
him, so he decided not to let it bother him.

“Alright, Mr. Ren, I’m sure you’re tired after all that’s happened
today. Let’s go rest at an inn.”

Witch took Ren to a somewhat expensive inn and they got some
rooms.

“We’ve really been looking forward to traveling with you, Mr.
Ren,” said Witch.

“Indeed! We always admired you much more than the Spear Hero,
Mr. Ren,” Girl 2 added.

“Oh . . . really? I’ll . . . do my best to save the world . . . for you
two.”

Ren made up his mind to fight once again for the sake of the
people that believed in him. He was fed up with the people of this
world and their sudden change of attitude, but even so he’d fight for
the people that believed in him.

That was, until the next morning, when he realized that Witch had
stolen everything except for his sword and run away. She’d left a letter
behind on the inn table.

“This is the letter,” he told me as he showed me the letter.

Had he been holding on to it as a keepsake? Ren handed me the
letter. It was full of wrinkles like he’d crumpled it up before, but I was
still able to read it.

“You’re no longer of any use to me, so I’m taking everything that
is and leaving. I’m grateful that you helped me escape from the
Shield and the Spear, but I’m afraid neither your looks nor your
personality is my type. I guess I’d be willing to love you if you ever
became strong enough to defeat the Shield. Of course, judging from
the way you are now, that will never happen. Ha ha ha!”

Damn, she was annoying! Without even thinking about it, I ripped
the letter up and threw it away. That Witch bitch! She was beyond
redemption!

But to think she’d already ditched Ren by the following day . . .
Damn, she worked fast! Bloody hell. It made me wonder if the real
reason she’d approached him was to get her hands on his equipment
and money. But I guess she probably just decided that keeping Ren in
the dark for much longer would be too much of a hassle.

“I think something probably snapped inside of me at that point.
Everything went black and one of those curse series you’d told us
about appeared on my status screen,” Ren said.

He’d decided to believe in someone again and they immediately
betrayed his trust, after all. I could understand how he must have felt.
If Raphtalia had betrayed me the day after I’d realized she believed in
me, I’m sure my wrath curse series would have evolved much quicker,
too.

“After that . . . things just went into a tailspin. I left the inn and
walked around looking for anything of value . . . I decided if people

were going to steal from me, then I’d just steal back from them. But I
didn’t want to reveal my identity, so I got a mask and . . .” he went on.

I guess that was when he ambushed the bandits’ carriage, made
them his underlings, and formed his own gang of bandits. It was a
perfect example of a life spinning out of control.

“Naofumi . . . I know it probably sounds disingenuous, but I hope
you’ll forgive me for everything.”

“Yeah, whatever. Regardless of whether I forgive you or not, my
objective has been to protect you from the very start. I’ll let it go as
long as you don’t do anything like this again, so heed my advice and
just focus on getting a little stronger.”

There were people sneaking around in this world that wanted to
kill the holy heroes. Considering that and what was coming, the
heroes needed to get every bit as strong as they could. I was sure Ren
had the potential to be stronger than me at the very least, and that’s
why I wanted him to learn how to power up his weapons properly.

“Okay. I’ll do my very best to follow your advice and get stronger.”

Ren had been a huge mass of pride obsessed with maintaining his
suave image, but now he was bowing his head meekly and apologizing
to me. He seemed genuinely regretful. If he was going to apologize
this much, I felt like forgiving him might actually be an option. Did
that make me a softy?

“I never imagined Witch would be that horrible. I mean, I did have
my doubts. But . . . she was kind to me, so I made the mistake of
trusting her. It was foolish and unforgivable. I ruined what may have
been your last chance to capture her!”

Ren got pretty fired up as he badmouthed Witch. He’d gotten
played, after all. He probably hated her almost as much as I did. In
that sense, I could sympathize with Ren. It felt kind of like . . . we were
connected by a common enemy now.

“Well, the bitch is a waste of good looks, and she’s a pro at
pretending to cry, too.”

“You’re maligning the former princess, now? Well, it’s not like I
can’t understand how you feel, but . . .” Eclair mumbled while
scratching her head.

But where had that woman run off to, anyway? Based on what Ren
had said, she seemed to have an accomplice. A man that Ren had seen
before somewhere . . . That meant it was someone that Ren had come
into contact with at some point. Who in the world could it have been?

I had no idea. Anyway, if we wanted to go after Witch, we probably
needed to find Itsuki. Witch had targeted me, then Motoyasu, and
then Ren. It was highly likely that she would go after Itsuki next. I
didn’t know what her plans were, but they certainly didn’t seem to be
well-intentioned. Seriously, that bitch brought nothing but trouble. It
was possible that there were still more enemies like the pair Motoyasu
had killed lurking around, too.

“Which leaves . . .”

Now the question was whether I should tell Ren how to get
stronger again or not. He seemed genuinely regretful, and it wouldn’t
hurt to have him on our side. After all, the heroes were supposed to
work together to fight the waves, like Kizuna, Glass, and their
companions.

“You were using curse skills one after another, so we need to figure
out what kind of condition you’re in right now. Other than that . . .
actually listen to what I say and get stronger. It’s really not that hard.”

“I will. Naofumi . . . Thanks in advance.”

“Don’t worry about it. All I want is for you three to get stronger.
You need to recognize what kind of situation we’re in now, too.”

“Yeah.”

All I could do was defend. I had to rely on my companions to
attack. The reason I could put up such a good fight now was because
Raphtalia just happened to have been chosen by the katana vassal
weapon. In other words, the other three heroes were supposed to be
the foundation of my offense. If I could get Ren on board and if he
really made an effort to get stronger, then that would be just about the
best companion I could ask for.

“I . . . I’m going to face up to what I’ve done. Welt, Bakta, Tersia,
and Farrie . . . My companions died trying to bring peace to this
world. I want to fight to make sure they didn’t die in vain.”

It seemed like Ren was finally ready to listen to what I had to say. I
was still a little worried, but it looked like things might work out.

“Sword Hero, try not to worry about things too much. We . . . Me,
Eclair, and the village children that I grew up with are all here to
help.”

Raphtalia was trying to comfort Ren, perhaps because she
sympathized with his newfound purpose. Ren nodded meekly in
response.

“Thank you.”

“Mr. Amaki the Sword Hero.”

Eclair faced Ren and stepped forward. Ren stared at her.

“Yes?”

“You understood what I was trying to say during our duel, right?”

“Yeah . . . Thank you . . . for stopping me.”

“Of course. I, too, will do everything I can to help. Let’s fight this
battle together. What do you say?”

Ren closed his eyes and nodded quietly.

“I don’t want to be a bother. But if I start heading down the wrong
path again, please stop me.”

“Certainly. If you ever start to go astray again, Mr. Amaki, I will be
there standing in your way, no matter how many times it happens.”

“I’ll count on it . . . umm, Eclair. And please, call me by my name.”

Ren held his hand out to Eclair.

“Mr. Ren.”

“You can drop the honorific. There’s a lot I’d like to learn from you,
Eclair.”

“Of course. I must warn you, Ren, my tutelage is exacting.”

“I was counting on that.”

There was bromance in the air as Ren and Eclair firmly shook
hands.



“Mr. Naofumi, you’re thinking about something rude, aren’t you?”

“I was just thinking about how it seemed like a nice bromance.”

“Eclair is a female!”

“Mr. Iwatani . . . Good grief . . .”

“Naofumi.”

Ren looked at Eclair’s face and then addressed me.

“What?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.”

Wasn’t it a bit late for that? But whatever. We’d both been tricked
by Witch. I wasn’t looking for a support group or anything, but I felt
like we could sympathize with each other. Another member had
joined the Victims of the Witch Bitch Club.

“Anyway, just take it easy for today. We have a lot to do starting
tomorrow. Later.”

I left Ren with Eclair and exited the room. Raphtalia followed after
me.

“That was a big step forward. The Sword Hero seemed to have a
positive attitude.”

“Yeah. So far, our force to fight the waves . . . and the next
guardian beast—the Phoenix—is steadily increasing.”

Other than that, we would have to deal with those enemies looking
to kill the holy heroes. I couldn’t imagine those two men being the end
of it. Thinking about the fact that there may still have been others
lurking out there somewhere just made me feel sick. Kizuna’s world

had its share of problems, but we had heaps of our own here in this
world, too. Knocking them out, even if only one at a time . . . was our
only choice, I guess.

“Alright, Raphtalia. We’ve got plenty of headaches ahead. We don’t
have time to be taking it easy. We have to be ready to deal with any
enemy that stands in our path.”

“Understood! What will we do now?”

“Reconstruction and building up our offensive capabilities are both
important, but after seeing the rapid improvement of Rishia and
Eclair, I think it may be time for us to do some serious training.”

“I agree. Sadeena keeps telling me I don’t know how to use a
katana, so I’ve been feeling like my technique is lacking lately.”

Our stats were reduced at the moment. I could have just used that
as an excuse, but I think we needed to go back and do a thorough
reassessment of our technique. Our enemies this time had only been
the vanguard. They weren’t holy heroes or even seven star heroes.
They had been the equivalent of hero companions. Struggling with
enemies like that was unacceptable. We would continue with our
usual tasks, but I was going to add training to the schedule, too.

“Alright, in that case, let’s do this!”

“Understood!”

Looking out over the village, well on its way to returning to its
former glory, Raphtalia and I both went back to work.