The rising of the Shield Hero X One piece

The Rising of the Sword Hero part 16

An hour later, the group gathered around a bonfire in the four bandits' camp. The tiger demi-human, the leader of the group, started.

My name is Wotan, and these three are," he pointed at the fox, the bear and the dog, "Warin, Ulfric and Wendel. We were citizens of Lurolona Village. We served the Lord of the village, Lord Seatto, and his only daughter, Miss Eclair Seatto, as their bodyguards."

Lurolona Village?"Zoro blinked. "Isn't that...?"

Yeah Rifana nodded solemnly. "That's the village destroyed during the First Wave and... the place where my dad..." she looked away, unable to finish the sentence.

So I wasn't wrong after all," Wotan nodded with a smile. "You are the daughter of Sir Ike Randell. I've been suspicious for a while..."

Rifana blinked in surprise. "How do you know that?"

It's your sword," he pointed at the weapon strapping on her side. That sword with the golden hilt was very similar weapon he wielded during the last battle in our village. Even how you fight reminds me of him, girlie. After our Lord was killed, Sir Randell told us to bring his corpse to run away, and he would hold the monsters back for us to escape. He was always the greatest adventurer, even when he faced death..."

We're really sorry about your loss. But your... Lord Seatto... he was killed in the Wave by the Wave monsters, didn't he? So how can I...?"

Oh, that's what everyone thought, yes," Ulfric growled, cutting zoro short. "Even we had thought so, until we checked his remain. Our Lord wasn't killed by the Wave monsters; he was assassinated!"

After carrying our Lord's body back to a safe place, we checked his body to see whether we could still save him or not," Wotan continued. "And no words could explain how surprised and angry we were when we discovered a very tiny dart on his neck. No, it didn't contain poison, but rather a very powerful sedative. You are an experienced swordsman I think you will understand what will happen if you fall asleep when you are in the middle of a battlefield, Lord Sword Hero," he looked at zoro who nodded in agreement.

Someone actually struck him with that dart to make him lose his focus during the battle, and that's why he was overwhelmed by the monsters and lost his life," said Wendel bitterly. "When we told everyone else that, they just dismissed our claim, and they actually got a point, because even we couldn't imagine who could do something like that in the middle of a such a battle, to someone who was wearing a full set of armor."

Zoro eye narrowed. Something like that was, indeed, incredibly difficult to do, but definitely not impossible. Someone who managed to do that must be a very skilled assassin... someone like those Shadows. Could it be that the Queen was the one who ordered the assassination?

After the Wave passed, our village was destroyed, and our villagers didn't have anywhere to go," Wotan's eyes went downcast. "Slave traders of the kingdom arrived and captured the villagers, and they were even backed up by the soldiers of the kingdom and the Church of the Three Heroes, claiming that we were the one who made the Wave happen because we were the blights of this world. When Miss Eclair arrived and saw what happened, she went into a rage and hunted down those slave traders to protect us. After that, the Church said that she was brainwashed by the Shield Demon, and she has been imprisoned by the kingdom since then."

So... what you want from me is for me to go to the kingdom, break that Miss Eclair of yours out and escape?" the Sword Hero guessed. "You know that it would mean branding myself an outlaw of the country, didn't you?"

Wotan shook his head. "No, my Lord. We know that doing something like that would put you in a difficult position with the kingdom. What we want is just... please, my Lord, when you return to the kingdom, please, give a word to the King and find out whether Miss Eclair is still alive or not, and if she is... please, take care of her for us, don't let them kill her, at least until the Queen returns. We already lost our Lord and our village; we can't stand seeing another precious person of us perish unreasonably like that. If you can do that for us... we swear we will follow you until the end of our lives, Lord Sword Hero."