The rising of the Shield Hero X One piece

The Rising of the Sword Hero part 17

Team zoro as well as Berthold and his four bodyguards, were sitting in the living room of the old man's house, who turned out to be the Lord of Mirso Village.

So basically... what you're saying is, your village is being terrorized by a vicious monster and you are in need of someone with the power to get rid of it. Am I correct?" Zoro summarized after hearing the story of the village leader. The man nodded.

"Yes, sir. That monster is incredibly powerful; we don't have the power to fight back against it. That's why we're looking for the help of the Heroes; we heard that they all wield incredible power and have just pushed back a Wave of Calamity."

And that's why you asked for that fake Shield Hero's help," Rifana guessed.

"Yes, sir," the lord nodded again. "He arrived at our village about half a month ago, after the Wave happened. We didn't have any other way, so we decided to ask for his help. But then he started giving us requests after requests, each of which was more and more ridiculous than the previous one. We're starting to lose hope here..."

The Sword Hero looked at Berthold, but the merchant immediately waved his hands in dismissal. "Don't look at me, sir. I'm just a merchant; I don't usually care about the problems in places I don't have business in."

Zoro eye narrowed. This meant outside of the village lord's words, there was no one he knew who could confirm this story. And from what the man had just said, something like this should have been happening for quite a while already. So...

Why didn't you just ask the kingdom for assistance? You know, something like this should be a really urgent matter. Surely the government needs to send people to deal with it if they know about it. This is not something that can be ignored. And the king himself is a Hero, too, isn't he?"

The interesting reaction of the man upon that question attracted his attention. Why is he so flustered about that?

Maybe because of the same reason that other people don't want to ask for their help," said Rifana snarkily. "You know, something about how the royal knights are useless corrupted bastards. And the king is not much better."

Zoro rolled his eyes. It's so not easy to make this girl less hostile toward the kingdom, especially after seeing how they treated the people that she adored.

Really, she should watch her mouth around people, or else there would be a day when her neck would be hanged on the gallows for treasons.

Very well then," finally, he decided. "But even if we accept, we cannot go today. We're exhausted from our trip, and we still need to prepare if we are going to have such a big fight. You are the village leader; can you prepare somewhere for us to stay tonight?"

The village lord's face immediately brightened. "Of course, of course! All of you can stay here tonight if you want! My house has enough rooms for all of you to stay! I'll go prepare!"

When the man left the room, zoro also stood up from his seat.

Where are you going, sir?"

nodded at Berthold, who had just asked. "Prepare, of course. I'm gonna go around the village to see if I can find some more information about that monster we're going to fight." He looked at his student. Can you stay here and prepare for the night? I won't be out very long."

Zoro walked alone along the streets of the village.

It's not like he didn't believe that there was a monster near this village, and that the citizens of the village needed him to help them. However, something in the village lord's reaction when he talked about asking for the kingdom's help unnerved him. It felt like there was something behind this that the man was still hiding from him.