The Wrong Hero

Chapter 30 - Tasks at Hand

Me? The Shield Hero? Summoned to Melromarc?

"You're joking." He didn't want to believe it, but the expressions of the nobles told him it was true. It would be pretty stupid to lie about something he could somewhat easily discover the truth of. Though, that would explain why he never saw emissaries from any other country.

"I'm afraid not, Lord Shield." Werner answered him with a frown.

"Hmm." Dante didn't really think the queen was incompetent. Hearing this, however, started to make him reconsider. Eclair heard about the church's dealings with certain nobles, so it was a sure bet that the queen did with her shadows. With their activity, surely she would have investigated them more. But, no, that wouldn't have mattered. Eclair's father was supposed to be in charge while the queen was away. If he was, and the Shield Hero was the only hero summoned to Melromarc, things may have been drastically different.

Instead, none of that happened. Eclair's father died. Aultcray summoned all four heroes. Malty framed her country's enemy. They took a bad political situation and made it worse. If anything, perhaps Mirellia simply trusted her family too much, seeing as the person she put in charge could be sent away by her husband to retrieve a fish.

"I disagree on who the bad actor was in that situation, but I agree with some of what you said." Dante said. The queen's competence was up for discussion, but Dante highly doubted it was malice. Though, she was still called a 'vixen', so she couldn't be that inept.

"Sir MacRory!" That wasn't something Eclair wanted to hear.

"Take it easy." He told her. "For the queen to not care about your territory is, frankly, unbelievable. She was, after all, the one to put forward creating a demi-human area in Melromarc, right?"

Eclair slowly nodded.

"And Jaralis," Dante turned to the lion therianthrope, "I would appreciate it if you didn't try to antagonize my companions with statements you don't even believe."

The lion man smiled and bowed his head. "You're quite wise for someone your age."

Dante smirked. "I may not look it, but I'm 28 years old. Your little tirade may have worked if I actually was 17." Luckily, he had years of experience dealing with blowhards like Jaralis. "Now then, I agree with what Werner said. Let's leave politics for later."

The rest of their supper was, fortunately, very lighthearted. Eclair kept casting glances at Jaralis, but she didn't make any further comments. All in all, it turned out better than Dante thought it would.

Still, he was left with food for thought. Though, he likely wouldn't pursue it too aggressively for a while. It wasn't as if any of these nobles would have anything positive to say about Mirellia, given everything that happened since the start of the waves. There was that old genmu who Dante recalled was at least somewhat friendly with Melromarc. Maybe he could shed a little light on the happenings of the world, whenever they met.

Once supper was finished, Dante got ready to leave. Werner had something to say about that.

"If you would give us a moment, Lord Shield, we can prepare an escort for you." The winged man said.

Dante shook his head. "I appreciate the gesture, but I have it covered." He looked over at Eclair. "You're coming with me."

"I...of course, Sir MacRory." She didn't have much to say after her outburst at supper.

"Forgive me, Lord Shield, but is that wise?" Werner asked. "Lady Eclair has suffered an injury to her hands, and it has not yet healed, correct?"

It seemed they didn't have all the details about Dante's group. That was good. Dante still needed to figure out how much they learned and how they did so. Maybe the shadow he questioned could tell him.