The Wrong Hero

Chapter 25 - Travel Complications

It was late evening of the second day on the road. So far, they hadn't come across anyone looking to stop them. Well, not anyone actually effective. They did get stopped by a bandit group earlier that day, but they were so laughably weak that they were hardly worth mentioning.

It did, however, give them a chance to practice. And the interruption did give Dante a break from his thoughts.

He had spent a lot of time trying to figure out the various schemes going on in the kingdom. The church's was the one he was most confident about. They wanted Dante to kill Malty so they could then kill him with justification. From their viewpoint, he had a good reason to kill her. To encourage him further, they could make it look like she was trying to torment him. That would line up with what that knight he tortured said. From what he saw at the banquet, it did look like Malty was instigating the fight when she talked with her father, but that might have been an optics thing.

The king's plan was at about the same level of understanding to Dante. He believed the Shield Hero raped his daughter, so he wanted to punish him. However, the amount of involvement from Aultcray was arguable. It looked like it was royal knights that went around threatening shopkeepers to not deal with Dante, as far as he could tell. It may have been on the king's orders, the knights were actually devoted to the church and followed their orders, they worked for Malty and followed her orders, or they were acting independently. The only things Dante knew for sure were the forced duel and the attempted retraction of funds, and only because Aultcray did as much right in front of Dante.

Malty was the biggest enigma. Dante tried looking at it as if he didn't have any knowledge about this world. The morning after she agreed to join his party, she falsely accused him of rape. Afterwards, she joined Motoyasu's party. His next real interaction with her was through Motoyasu, who claimed she wanted the heroes to work together, and, of course, that she was the daughter of the king. Looking at it like that, Dante had fewer answers than he'd like. At most, it could be said it was politically advantageous for her to frame him, given the country's religion.

However, most other things he thought he knew about her were more speculation. It was confirmed through Eclair that Malty was no longer first in line for the throne. However, no real reason was given for that. Malty didn't contest it either, according to Eclair. Perhaps the queen had something on her that Malty didn't want exposed, and the queen couldn't just let it out for some reason. Maybe it would put Mirellia in a bad light too. He had no real knowledge of Malty's relationship to the church, aside from one knight who may not have truly known. Malty was more cunning and cautious, that much Dante was sure of. At the very least, she should be looking at the church as a potential ally or enemy.

With the introduction of Melty, another wrinkle in his thoughts occurred. He recalled that the king of Faubrey wanted Malty for his pleasures, in both the web novel and light novel. She was to be sent off to him, but she was able to postpone that by becoming a hero's companion, if he remembered right. That was the wrinkle. It was possible that Melty didn't want Dante to go to Faubrey because everyone might hear about how he was treated—however justly some may think it—but it seemed more likely it was to protect her older sister from the king there. After all, she seemed very poised and collected until he mentioned Faubrey. She was more worried about that than Siltvelt. Then again, if Melty knew Faubrey's king wanted Malty, and being in a hero's party prevented that, why wouldn't she question the rape accusation? Certainly that wouldn't be as bad as being a toy for the Pig King. Perhaps Melty didn't fully understand what that meant. Or, maybe the king of Faubrey wasn't that bad.

That also led him to wonder about Mirellia. She seemed to understand her older daughter's true nature. Whether or not she would be willing to give her to Faubrey's king was another thing, but still unlikely. She didn't want Malty or Aultcray to be killed after the incident with the pope, so there was less reason for her to allow King Faubrey to take her oldest daughter. Then again, maybe her personality was different too. After all, she couldn't convince Melty of Malty's cruelty. She may even entertain the idea that Dante did rape Malty, and she might be pregnant. That would be good for Melromarc-Siltvelt relations, from a certain point of view, and keep Faubrey's king from taking a woman pregnant with a hero's child.