What's Wrong with Only Having a Shield? My Summoner Hates Me

Chapter 6: There's Marble Everywhere!

"Rin!" Hilde exclaims with joy as I exit the hospital.

He jumps onto me and gives me a bear hug. How fitting considering his weapons are bear traps. I blush a bit, only to remember that Hilde is still a guy.

Alright dude, off me now. I don't want to question myself anymore.

After being let go from the crushing bear hug, I catch Roy and Liz standing together smiling at me. I give them a thumbs-up as I walk over to them.

"Hey guys, I guess I'm not dead," I say with a hand behind my head.

"We wouldn't let you die so easily." Roy jokes as he pats my back.

"You're our precious party member after all," Liz says with a soothing smile.

Man... what is this?

A warm sensation slowly spreads across my chest and all over my cheeks. For the first time in this new world, I feel like I'm being valued. The warm sensation quickly disappears however when I realize a certain someone is missing.

"Where's Isabel?" I ask.

Roy and Liz's eyes meet for a second, Roy finally nods with a serious look on his face.

"She's currently having a talk with her father." Roy starts, "She'll be back soon."

"What's with the strict look?"

"P-pardon?"

I waste no time in questioning Roy's serious expression. I'm not dense enough to not notice the way he looked when giving me an answer. Something serious must have been going on while we were talking.

Roy and I engage in a little staring contest until, finally, Roy sighs and slumps his shoulders.

"You see, Isabel is a daughter of royalty."

What?

My bravado completely disappears as I fail to hide the shock on my face. I slowly regain my composure and clear my throat.

"S-so, what if she's royalty?" I cough.

Roy hums and scratches his head in a thinking manner. After a couple of seconds of obvious brainstorming from the knight, he points to an imaginary light bulb above him.

"Do you remember the condition of our carriage?" Roy answers my question with a question.

"Y-yeah? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Look around at the other carriages here."

I scan at my surroundings properly to see that the hospital was built across from a busy street. The street was filled with multiple varieties of carriages pulled with horses and other creatures.

I started to understand a little bit what Roy was trying to get at.

As I watched 5 more carriages roll by, some made out of shiny metal and some made out of polished wood, I confirm to myself that those carriages were in a more comfortable and well-managed state.

Royalty usually wouldn't be riding around in a carriage made completely out of unpolished wood and in a rather poor condition like the carriage our party uses.

"Isabel doesn't like using her royal status to get what she wants in life," Roy says after noticing that I figured out what he meant.

I think deeply about what Roy just said.

If Isabel really doesn't want to use her royal status to her advantage...

"Considering the fact that I took a full blast from a dragon," I slowly start, "the hospital fees to bring me back to the condition I am in now..."