The Wrong Hero

Chapter 10 - Cautious Hero

"I am." Dante said to the emissaries from Siltvelt. He was a little surprised to run into them here, but he supposed if there was anywhere to gather information on the Shield Hero's whereabouts, a demi-human bar was a good place to start.

The three cloaked individuals bowed deeply at the hip to him.

"It is an honor to meet you." The man said as he raised himself up. "We are emissaries from...by the Shield..."

The tiger man was staring at Dante's left side. He looked down and saw his cloak had shifted slightly, revealing his missing limb.

"Lord Shield!" The tiger man yelled. "What has happened?! Who did this to you?!"

"Hey!" Dante yelled back before stepping forward. He lowered his voice. "Don't cause a scene here."

The man's eyes were narrowed in righteous anger, but he nodded all the same. Dante turned back to Sadeena.

"Take the kids upstairs and then come back down." He said.

"Of course~." Sadeena spun about and ushered the kids on. They protested, wanting to know what was going on, but Sadeena kept on going. Dante had the emissaries follow him back to the corner table they used. They sat down, waiting for Sadeena to return.

"Please, Lord Shield." The tiger man said. "What happened since your arrival here?"

"I ran into a bit of...unexpected trouble." Dante shrugged. "It was difficult, but we managed. Sadeena there actually saved my life."

It wasn't exactly the truth, but it wasn't really a lie either. More like, true from a certain point of view.

"I see." The tiger man said.

"Would you elaborate, Lord Shield?" The dog demi-human woman next to him asked.

"I was in a fight I couldn't win. Sadeena found me and killed the person responsible for my injury. We've been traveling together ever since." That was even more of a lie than before. "As I understand it, there are ways to regrow limbs in this world, so I'm not terribly concerned. I must simply be patient."

No one actually verified that, but they didn't say it was impossible either. If nothing else, there was that Yggdrasil Elixir. Dante was pretty sure that would do the trick, though it was probably ridiculously expensive. Actually, he could probably get some from some Siltvelt nobles.

Nah, better not. Besides the numerous reasons not to go to Siltvelt at the moment, I'd be greatly indebted to whoever provided it to me.

"I see." The dog woman said. "But, could you provide us with any more details? For instance, who was it that injured you?"

"I never caught his name." That was completely a lie. Even if he didn't know Idol's name before, the pompous lord gave his name to Dante. However, it was better not to give that information to these people. If they knew a powerful Melromarc lord injured Dante, there would likely be war. Sure, it was in self-defense, but he was torturing and killing slaves for who knows how long. Either way, no good would come from revealing it.

"But, please," Dante followed up before the demi-humans could, "let's move past this. We can talk about whatever you want after my companion returns. Ah, speaking of which..."

Sadeena just appeared from the stairs.

"Sorry it took so long~." She said, grazing her hand over Dante's shoulder before sitting to his right.

"No problem." He gestured to the emissaries. "Now then, you had something to discuss with us?"

They looked between themselves for a moment. There seemed to be a silent agreement, possibly to do with his missing arm, though he couldn't say for sure.