Chapter 36: To Take Everything But Your Life
"Really...I'm lucky that I was able to get a ride on the heavenly bird carriage."
"Heavenly bird?"
That day we had a merchant who said he wanted to go to the next town, so we let him on.
"You don't know? Umm, you are the owner of this carriage right?"
The merchant wasn't pointing to Raphtalia, who had been making small talk, but at me.
We normally had Raphtalia take on the role of the carriage owner but...
"That's right..."
"It has become famous in the streets: A carriage with a heavenly bird is going around peddling in various regions while performing miracles."
I looked at Firo from inside the bumping and swaying vehicle.
Seems like they're speaking highly of her, even though she's really just a glutton who likes to be spoiled.
However, I don't really get what they mean by miracles.
Hm?
"KUEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Firo suddenly let out a strange cry and exploded into a run.
I, Raphtalia, and the merchant who were inside the carriage firmly grabbed onto the railing so we wouldn't fall out.
"-GYAAAAAAAAAAA....."
"-YASU-SAMAAAAAAAAAAA....."
Thud thump thump thump thump.
The wheels were making a noise so I couldn't hear the situation outside very well.
Every now and then Firo explodes into a run like this...
This would be the fourth time since we started peddling. She's pretty whimsical.
"It's not just us here so be careful."
"Okaaaay, I mean....Kue!"
We talked in a low voice to keep the merchant from hearing.
A talking monster got attention in a way, and it might bring something troublesome.
....I feel like we're already getting attention though...
As for the merchant, he was surprised and looking towards me.
"I had heard that it could understand human language, but it's really incredible."
"I think so too."
Thinking about it it's great that she can understand what we say. How high spec would being able to speak be?
It would probably be good to take it as a sign of high monster potential. In that way it might be incredibly rare.
"Well we're just using it to peddle goods, medicine, transport, and to be a jack-of-all-trades though."
Getting back to the conversation, I answered the merchant.
"It's said that people suffering from illness who ride the carriage are saved just by drinking special medicine given by a saint."
"Hmmmm..."
The medicine is just a remedy that normal people could get their hands on, though it is a little expensive.
By the way, it's also possible to change the medicine to match the symptoms.
The remedies that I first made were cure-alls but their quality was low. It's only good point was that it worked well on respiratory problems.
Now I've gotten a lot of different types of herbs, so I can make remedies to match the need.
Using herbs for fever, respiratory problems, stomach problems, or skin disease changes the result, though they all are classified as remedies.
The intermediate recipe book was fully descriptive in that area. The skill from the shield, in it's own way, has an assist display that depends on the type of herbs you are mixing.
"It's just a remedy you know?"
I showed the merchant a remedy taken from the storage box.
"So this is the miracle medicine."
The merchant removed the lid from the remedy and smelled it.
"It's true that it has the same smell as the normal medicine I took a while ago."
"...you can tell?"
Is this guy a medicine salesman?
And in response to the question the merchant shook his head.
"No, it's just a feeling."
So you can't tell!
Well, I wasn't sure if it was okay to react to that so I just let it slide.
"So, what kind of merchant are you?"
"I'm a jeweler."
Jewels are those things right. They're in this world too.
I guess for the most part nobles buy them as accessories.
"A jeweler...someone who sells such expensive goods is by himself?"
If a rich merchant is selling goods then there should be a corresponding escort, but he was travelling by himself. It was a bit suspicious.
"You hit on a sore point."
The merchant lightly laughed as he answered.
"I have all sorts of things. Strictly speaking I guess you could say I'm an accessory salesman."
"How is that different?"
"Well then, will you have a look at my goods?"
Saying that the accessory salesman showed me the inside of his luggage.
Looking inside I did see broaches and necklaces. Also bracelets.
However, it stood out that the metal used was iron or copper. Also the gems fitted onto them was....how to say it, they seemed somewhat too clouded to be call gems.
"For this trip I basically just have cheap stuff."
"I see....has your business crashed or something?"
"No, the accessories this time are for low income adventurers."
"Hmmm...."
According to the accessory salesman, it seemed you could add magic over time to accessories to increase abilities.
"By the way how much does one usually go for?"
"Let's see...this iron bracelet of attack would probably go for about 30 silver coins."
Uu...That's pretty high. My medicine, even the remedies, don't sell for that much.
"If you were to enchant it, one would be about 100"
"Is that so."
"Yes."
Hmm...this needs some thought.
Medicine sales have hit a plateau right now. We're managing to pretty much sell out our stock, but we also have to buy herbs so the profit isn't that great.
Collecting each and every one isn't working in this situation.
Before we started peddling that might of been good, but collecting and making it lacks efficiency.
"Is crafting them good for things like that?"
"Let's see...it's fine for making the shape, but next I'm going to get them enchanted, if you add that in I don't know if you could call it crafting."
....I see, first you make the shape, and then when you enchant it with magic the effect shows up for the first time.
Enchanting...this is tricky.
It sounds unpleasant, I guess you could say. It also shows up in the medicine preparations every now and then.
It's in the recipes for magic water and spirit healing water quite a lot.
This means that if you can't use magic then you can't make them.
"That was pretty informative, thanks."
"No no, thank you."
"Master~, somethings coming."
Firo let out a somewhat tense voice and, keeping me in mind, came to a stop.
Raphtalia and I come out of the suddenly stopped carriage to confirm the situation.
And then human shapes appeared from deep within the woods.
Every one of them was carrying a weapon, and their attitude was the exact opposite of a warm welcome as they came towards us.
Their clothes were pretty sparse, but they each were wearing amour and seemed savage. No matter how you looked at them, they seemed like some kind of bandits.
"Thieves!"
The accessory salesman screamed in a panicked voice.
"Hehehe...you guys, leave everything of value."
I was kind of amazed at how cliched that was.
Isn't this situation off? There's only meaning in ambushes if you keep quite while doing it.
Ah, Firo noticed them already so they just went ahead and attacked.
Their faces seem like they're looking down on us and think they've won too.
"We know about it! That that carriage has a jeweler on it!"
The thieves raved at us.
I looked at the accessory salesman inside the carriage.
"Didn't you say that you didn't have anything valuable?"
"Yes...there aren't any in my wares this time..."
The accessory salesman, while looking really scared, was already holding his things like they were important.
"There were some accessories I sold off for a large price."
"I see...that caught their eyes I guess."
I've let on a troublesome customer.
"I saved on escort expenses because I didn't think a merchant travelling for personal reasons without any expensive goods would be attacked."
"Your pretty stupid, haa...."
All I could do was sigh.
"I'm going to add a fee for the trouble."
"...I understand."
The accessory salesman nodded with a glum face.
"Raphtalia, Firo, they're enemies."
"Yes!"
"Yep!"
At my orders Raphtalia jumped out of the carriage and prepared for battle.
I followed with the accessory salesman sticking close behind me.
"Don't move away from me no matter what."
"Y-yes!"
I changed from the shield that was in the middle of unlocking it's power to one for battle.
"Y-you are the shield..?"
"Yeah..."
The accessory salesman was surprised after learning that the owner of the heavenly bird carriage was the infamous shield hero.
"What? You want to fight us?"
"Yeah, I have to put out the sparks coming down[1], after all."
I answered while glaring at the thieves.
The important part of this battle is to make sure the enemy doesn't achieve their goal.
In other words, I have to make sure they can't steal the stuff the accessory salesman is carrying.
"Raphtalia, Firo, can you do it?"
"Yes, if we don't we'll be done in."
"I was just bored anyway."
"I see, then...do it!"
At the same time I gave my order, the thieves brandished their weapons and started to attack.
Looking at them, it felt like there were a little over 15 enemies. A good amount people.
"Erst Shield!"
I showed the enemies running at me a shield in midair, and I was already triggering my next skill.
"Change Shield!"
Change Shield is a skill that let's me change Erst Shield and Shield Prison into any type of shield I know.
The shield I chose was Bee Needle Shield.
Bee Needle Shield's effects were needle shield (small) and bee poison (paralysis).
"Wha-, a shield just! GAHA-!"
One of the thieves running at us ran into the suddenly appearing shield, fell down, and went numb with cramps. I'm glad the effect activated fine.
"Shield Prison!"
"What's with-"
And another thief was caught in the shield's cage.
They each have limited time. Change Shield's cool down time was 30 seconds. Using it continuously was difficult.
However, they can shave down the number like this, so the effect is pretty good.
About 3 thieves came up to right in front of me. They must have thought I was a stupid escort who didn't have anything but a shield.
I stood in front of the merchant and prepared for the attacks.
Sparks rose from in front of the shield, and the thieves attacks were repelled with a metallic sound. It looked like their attack power wasn't enough to overcome my defense power.
The shield I had equipped now was the Chimera Viper Shield.
The effects were snake poison (middle) and hook.
The sculpture of a snake on the shield started moving and bit the thieves that had launched an attack at me. Snake poison was a poison attack that reacted to enemies that attacked me.
"GUAAA!"
"Ku, if it's just thi- GAHA!"
"I-I feel sick..."
The snake poison then poisoned those who attacked me. It didn't have much affect on guys with tolerance.
The poison's effectiveness was high, I hadn't tested whether it had an effect on humans, but it looked like it was indeed powerful.
I gave orders to the shield's hook. The snake sculpture on the shield lifted up one of the thieves.
This hook effect doesn't have and attack power, but it's range is 2 meters. It's good for grabbing things or climbing mountains.
The thief's movement visibly worsened and he started to collapse.
"Th-this guy's the shield hero!"
A wave of tension ran through the thieves.
I guess they just noticed that they ran into the hero whose famously twisted in this country.
However, it's too late now. Plus the thieves immediately realized that that fear would cause their own disadvantage.
"Tei!"
"Eei!"
Raphtalia used her sword and cut into a thieve when he showed this opening. He took it on his defenses but Raphtalia's slice must have been strong since he was blasted away, hit his head, and collapsed.
As for Firo, she was running around them at high speed, kicking one, then another, into the air with her strong legs. Just like that the thieves flew like Motoyasu 5 meters, no 20 meters, away and rolled on the ground.
....Did they die from that?
In no time at all the thieves numbers decreased. There were about 6 people left that could put up a fight.
"Che-! Withdraw!"
"I won't let you!"
I trapped the thieve that stank of being their leader in a shield prison, and Raphtalia, riding on Firo, caught the ones running away.
"Right then."
I checked on the now tied up thieves.
"These guys...will we get a bounty if we turn them into some village's guard?"
"I do not know if they could give us that much during these times..."
Raphtalia answered with a smile and troubled expression.
"Do you know?"
I asked the accessory salesman, but as I thought he shook his head.
"However, I think we should hand them into the guards."
"Hmmm...that's true but..."
The guy who looked like the thieves' leader was looking at me with a mocking smile.
I could guess, for the most part, what scenario he was imagining.
"'We're just adventurers that were attacked by the shield hero.' is it?"
The leader's face changed to discomfort.
"That's right! Not a problem, the guards would believe us more than the infamous shield hero."
"Well, the possibility of that is pretty high..."
Why is my bad name spreading this much....thinking carefully about it I can't really accept it.
Because of that sh*tty princess and sh*tty king even if I act justly the people around me won't believe it.
Sigh...
"No helping it. I guess we'll kill them."
Maybe they thought I wouldn't make that choice, the thieves expressions all went pale at the same time.
There were some who were desperately trying to get out of their ropes, but Firo quickly kicked them and they stopped in pain.
"It might be good to let my dangerous monster know the flavor of humans too..."
I muttered at the thieves adding pressure into my voice.
"Food?"
Firo looked at the thieves while drooling.
"Hi-hiiiiiiiiii!?"
"What should I do?"
"T-this is the heavenly bird carriage right!? Are you going to kill people despite going around doing miracles!?"
"I don't really ever remember claiming that. It's a given that I should put out the sparks coming down on me right? Up until now you've been taking from other people right? Just think of it as it being your turn and give up."
"Pl-please leave us with our lives!"
"Then give me everything of value and your equipment, and tell me where your base is. It's fine if you want to lie, but lying to me means an unpleasant death. If you lie once then my heavenly bird is going to tear off and eat your limbs one by one okay?"
The thieves, while trembling, answered me in a small voice.
I might be because I was the infamous shield hero, but it was extremely effective.
"I-I got it! Our base is-"
I confirmed where it was on the map.
It's close.
"Alright, negotiations confirmed."
I lowered my hand and Firo attacked the whole group of thieves with enough power to knock them out.
"For now let's take everything of value from them, oh? This guy has some good equipment. Raphtalia, we'll make this your equipment."
Raphtalia was following my orders and efficiently depriving the thieves of their equipment.
"After this we'll give the poisoned guys an antidote and load them on the carriage. Hurry up, we're going to drop in on their base too."
"Okaaay!"
We confirmed that their base was there, and at the same time bond the hands and mouths of the lookouts.
And then, after loading the treasure the thieves were hoarding onto the carriage, we left them all tied up at the base.
There was a lot of different kinds of treasure.
Simple money, food, alcohol, weapons and armor, precious metals, cheap heal ointments, ect.
They had quite a bit more than I imagined so it was some unexpected extra money.
It's possible that these guys were a gang of thieves who hit all over this area.
"How...severe."
The accessory salesman, who had been half absentmindedly watching what had happened up till now, looked at me.
"So, about how much of a fee for the trouble are you going to pay?"
At my question the accessory salesman came to his senses.
"If it's a few silver coins that would be...."
I guess I should add more threats.
It's your fault that this became so troublesome. If that was enough to settle it then no one would have to suffer.
It was settled that I would receive a part of his accessory goods.
"...I'll keep in mind that if the thieves had attacked me I wouldn't have gotten off free...and accept it."
It seemed like he was deeply moved. The accessory salesman's gaze at me was hotter than before.
I felt like he wasn't lying.
"Okay. I'll offer you my treasured crafting and enchanting. As well as my distribution route."
"...isn't that a little too much?"
Even with the trouble, the reward was too large. It made me suspicious instead.
It was likely he was acting out of spite of having part of his accessories stolen.
"No no, recently, thanks to greed like yours, merchants that you can't deal with without trouble and becoming fewer."
"Aren't there more than enough greedy people?"
"The meaning is different. It's not trying to profit by exploiting people, using them and throwing them away, what we need is someone who can asses the situation and exploit them while letting them live.
"Using and throwing away..."
I looked towards the thieves I had exploited and tied up.
They might have been doing well since they were wearing good clothes, so I took those along with their equipment but...
Although it was what they deserved, it definitely felt like they were people who had had everything stolen.
"Even though I left them like that?"
"They had tried to steal both our valuables and our lives. However you compromised and left them with their lives just stealing all they had. They are those with lives, even though it was a given they would be killed. Compared to what they would do to you it was the best outcome for them."
Well, thanks to my bad name, it was pretty possible that the guards would have believed their claim. The was also the possible they wouldn't though.
"They spent their entire fortune to buy their lives from you."
"You can look at it that way but..."
"Also...after they restore their equipment, you can exploit them again when they come to take revenge!"
The accessory salesman was cruelly smiling.
What's with this guy!? I starting to see him as pretty disgusting!
"W-well, I'll let you off at the next city."
"No, I'm going to teach you a lot. Until I finish I won't leave."
What exactly does this accessory salesman intend to teach me!?
I'm worried because he seems oddly motivated...
Anyway, like this we continued peddling with the treasure stolen from the thieves warming our hearts.
It doesn't really matter, but it seems like there was a group of merchants who sold the information that the accessory salesman was riding on our carriage to those thieves, but later it seems they were purged.