The Wrong Hero

Chapter 24 - Journey to the East

Dante just stood there. He stared at the second princess of Melromarc with her retinue of knights.

What the hell is going on? It's too early for her to be here. Is the church going to make a move now? I have been showing off a bit too much, and I'm sure at least one knight from Lute is loyal to the church.

A gentle squeeze of his arm from Sadeena brought him from his thoughts. He realized he hadn't answered her yet.

"Yes, I'm the Shield Hero." He said, gazing over her guards.

I just need to stay calm and think things through as they come. Nothing's going to happen in the middle of the street in broad daylight.

"I see. It's good to meet you, Sir Shield Hero." Melty gave a short curtsy. "I am Melty Q. Melromarc, second princess of Melromarc. I look forward to working with you."

"Ah, yes, me too." He needed to get his thoughts in order. Simply reacting to whatever she said wasn't going to help much.

"If you have some time, Sir Shield Hero, I would like to have a discussion with you."

"I see..." That made sense. Dante recalled that Melty returned to Melromarc to stop Aultcray from discriminating against the Shield Hero. If he was smart about this, he could work this to his advantage.

That is, if he had the time to think everything through.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" Dante said. "I need to discuss this with my party."

"Of course." Melty gave him a slight nod.

Dante turned his back to Melty, focusing on his party members. He freed his arm from Sadeena and changed to his Humming Shield, activating it.

"Papa, are you okay?" Dio asked, gripping his armored leg.

"You look like you're about to panic." Keel added.

"About to?" Dante had a forced smile on. "There's a good reason for that, you know."

"Mm." Sadeena nodded. "That's the princess the Shield Hero is later accused of kidnapping in your stories, right?"

"Yeah." If he stopped and actually thought about it, that likely wouldn't happen right now. He didn't plan on fleeing from her and making her chase after him. Then again, he was planning on leaving the country right now. "I think we can avoid that issue."

"She's not bad, is she?" Dio asked.

"No, sweetie. She's a nice girl, and she really likes filolials."

"Really?" JoJo asked, peaking around Dante to look at her.

"I think so, yeah." It was entirely possible that was another difference, but that'd be easy enough to confirm.

"What should we do?" Rifana asked.

That was the million dollar question. The obvious answer was to simply talk with her. Of course, the situation might be a lot more different than Dante thought. Many things already were, after all. It was best to be prepared.

"Keel and JoJo, go to the inn and get Raphtalia and Eclair, and the carriages. After that, wait outside the city walls for us."

There were a couple other stops Dante wanted to make, but he might have to work around them. One of which was stopping by Beloukas's tent. He wanted that letter of introduction, plus a replacement slave seal for Sadeena.

"You sure?" Keel glanced over at the knights. "Should we really split up?"

"I'm sure." Dante nodded. "JoJo should be fast enough to get you two out of any situation that arises, and my group has enough power to handle things here. Just in case, take this too." He handed Keel a potion he crafted using his shield. It was made to give an edge in combat, though they hadn't needed to use it yet. Still, it was good to have.