The Wrong Hero

Chapter 9 - Arming the Party

JoJo pulled the carriage down the dirt road at a decent pace. At their current rate, they'd make it back to the capital by the evening of the third day, assuming Dio switched with JoJo from time to time. Any faster and the kids would get more motion sick than they already were.

Dante made sure to keep his cloak's hood over his face as they traveled. His beard was coming in slower than he thought, so that didn't help. He did have some concern with JoJo being recognized, but Fiadia had reassured him. Apparently, Idol had a few rivals near his territory who could be a bit belligerent. They would dispute land ownership and, occasionally, burn down parts of the forest. Those lands would be where Idol's knights searched for the arsonist and murderer, if they were searching at all.

All the same, he kept both filolials in their average filolial forms when they pulled the carriage and their human forms while sitting in the carriage. That was more to avoid more attention in the short term. He'd worry about shadows gaining intel about their transforming later.

Of course, Dante and Sadeena discussed the shadows a bit before leaving. Until Dante gained the ability to teleport, they would assume the Q'ten Lo shadows were always around. She would only focus on the queen's and church's shadows, claiming they were unlikely to be using the exact hiding abilities the Q'ten Lo shadows were using.

When they broke for meals, Sadeena would hunt a few usapils for later while Keel skinned a few they had and Dante cooked them. Even without an arm, Dante was still able to apply his cooking bonuses. He just needed to have a non-insignificant roll in the cooking process.

"This is really good!" Raphtalia had said.

"It's the best!" Rifana agreed.

"Master makes super tasty food!" JoJo chimed in.

"It feels weird to be praised for, essentially, holding meat over a fire." Dante lamented.

He also took the time to try some of the non-tobacco Fiadia had gotten him. Sadeena mentioned his fondness of the plant to her and she bought some from the local farmers as a gift. It had a rather smooth flavor to it, and he felt like a wizened old man with the pipe he smoked it through. He'd have to thank her the next time he was there.

During one of their breaks, Dante had Sadeena help him test out a few things with his shield skills. He wanted to see why his skills seemed to break so easily, despite all the bonuses he had. After about ten minutes of testing, he had his answer. It turned out his armor and Faust Guard didn't affect his skills. They only affected his personal stats. Further, Sadeena was able to heavily damage his Air Strike Shield IV with a single strike from Idol's whip while in her demi-human form. She was strong, but Idol still had a class upgrade and surely levels beyond that. Conversely, her harpoon took three or four strikes in her therianthrope form to do the same damage.

That whip was a serious weapon. Hopefully, one of the kids might be willing to use it. If not, well, he could always save it for a rainy day. Both of the girls seemed terrified of it.

One thing Dante was happy about, as well as Keel, was that Rifana knew how to read very well. While they traveled, she showed Dante the alphabet of Melromarc's language and had him read along in the book Sadeena had gotten, something they didn't really have time for before. It was a little disorienting learning this way, as all the words she spoke were English to him and not Melromarc's language. Still, he did learn enough Spanish and Russian to hold a conversation, and more than enough Italian to anger his mother with his profanity, so he was confident he could learn this. Rifana, of course, seemed to love every moment she spent teaching him.

And, of course, Dante continued unlocking shields and having it make potions. He'd given both Rifana and Raphtalia a nutritional supplement and a bit of medicine to be safe. He unlocked a shield for intermediate recipes and started making healing salves next. They were quite a bit stronger than the potions, but they had to be applied directly to the wound, making them far more impractical in combat. Still, for the ingredients they used and time to make, let alone the price he would likely get, they were well worth it. He had Sadeena apply some to Rifana and Raphtalia, healing them the rest of the way and hopefully preventing more scarring.