The Wrong Hero

Chapter 26 - The Filolial Queen

Following the brown filolial left Dante with mixed emotions. Meeting Fitoria this early was unexpected, but not impossible. He did have two royal filolials, after all. While his relations with the other heroes wasn't great, it wasn't too bad either. Itsuki was fairly hateful towards him, but Motoyasu and Ren seemed neutral. Dante did plan on working with them all eventually too, once the whole rape accusation got taken care of.

His thoughts drifted in and out between meeting the filolial queen and listening to the conversations behind him.

"I hope you didn't take my statements to mean I'm excusing any of the king's actions." Eclair said.

"No, of course not." Raphtalia assured her.

"If he had any involvement in your village being attacked, I will condemn it wholeheartedly and see to it that he faces the queen when she returns." Eclair continued on.

Dante had mentioned to Eclair that Davon Mallory was in the throne room while the heroes were being rewarded. Apparently, being stationed there was a step up from where he was when Eclair was imprisoned. Even if the king wasn't involved, it was certainly looking like he approved of the outcome. After all, he did ignore what Eclair said about the knights enslaving the survivors.

"And Sir MacRory." Eclair turned to the Shield Hero. "Until we know whether or not the king had any part in my territory's destruction, I would ask you not to make any conclusions on it."

"Fair enough." Dante nodded. "He's done plenty else for me to judge. And, it's not as if the royal family doesn't have slaves."

"As do you." Eclair pointed out. "My father did as well."

"And I'm sure all those slaves were treated the same." Dante glanced back her. "Of course, I'm not implying the king tortured any directly. He just wouldn't care if they were."

"You think he wouldn't care if his wife, the queen, had her edicts ignored?"

"He tried to have Sadeena and the others taken to the Three Heroes Church to have their slave seals removed." Dante reminded her. "Assuming he was honest about that—and that's a big assumption—it would take an incredible amount of willful ignorance to think they'd be fine, and not enslaved or killed. Well, not that the church could pull that off anyway."

It wasn't as if he'd let them go alone. Dante would have gone with them to make sure that was all that was done, if they somehow lost the duel. If that caused a fight, then they'd have to deal with things a lot earlier. It's not like they couldn't escape.

"Since we won't be able to agree on this, I suggest we postpone this discussion." Eclair suggested.

"Agreed."

For all Dante knew, the king would have made sure his slaves were properly freed. It seemed unlikely, given the hanged emissaries outside the castle walls. Eclair held that knights were responsible for that, since they could have done that without the king's approval. Dante had to admit it was a possibility, given that they must have been put up at night, or early morning at the latest. Aultcray denied knowing anything about them, though he may have just been careful of what he said in front of his daughter. Still, finding Eclair guilty and doing nothing about the slavers was a pretty clear indication to Dante.

"Huh." Rifana looked between the two of them, having retaken her position in the front of the carriage.

"What?" Dante look down at the weasel girl.

"It just...didn't seem like you two made up at all." Rifana said.

"We didn't, because there was nothing to mend." Dante stated. "Neither of us were proven wrong, and neither of us are sorry about what we said to each other."