Ch 5

Yes sir!", They all confirmed before leaving the confines of the castle, and out into the world.

With his face set in grave determination, Ryou couldn't help but to think... And so it begins…

Castle Town was truly a breathtaking sight, even if it didn't possess an equal amazing name. The castle had been built on top of the highest hill in the region, brilliant from a strategic point of view, not so much as far as safety was concerned, after all Ryou, could almost bet that if an earthquake high enough on the Richter Scale occurred, it would bring the entire structure down on the residents below.

The town itself, appeared to have been built in layers around the castle, it continued downhill, and far beyond. For a town from the medieval ages it was enormous, but it made sense since it served has the capital for the entire country.

It was a great view, one that Ryou, was taking his time to enjoy now that he was out of the Castle's Main Gate.

As far as the start of a journey, it had been very lackluster so far, basically walk out, bid goodbye to the other heroes, and stop to take in the sights for a little bit. One would expect for all the hype the heroes had, there would have been fireworks, and parades, but nothing of the sort happened.

Well… I'll will take this over a flock of murderous Spearows trying to peck me to death under a thunderstorm…

That had been a pretty epic starting scene when watched on TV, probably not so much for Ash, and taking in consideration the weapon sealed in his wrist, a Universe full of Pokemon would certainly be within the realm of possibilities.

Shaking his head of thoughts about alternative reality's, Ryou had a lot of things he had to get done before going out in a monster hunting expedition. He pushed that back to the very last thing on the list, because he needed to cover all his bases, not because he might be slightly scared of a creature that defied imagination jumping out of the bushes.

First was obvious. He had to explore the town, and familiarize himself with it. Finding a Inn, and someplace to get his meals would be a good start. Next would be getting some understanding of the economics of this world. A thousand silver sounded like a lot, but without any idea on the cost of anything, he could very easily be swindled.

Walking down what he assumed was the main street, since it lead from the castle all the way to the entrance gate, Ryou spotted some guards doing rounds, or just talking between themselves, it wasn't until a couple minutes walking, that he noticed a particular guard on a secluded area. The man was slouching, with a hand moving in front of his face to cover the yawn that escaped him, apparently bored of his mind. That gave Ryou an idea, that might just solve most of his initial problems.

Well lets see if this Hero status thing is worth as much here, as it is in canon… With a simple thought, the bracelet turned back into bow form, and with it firmly in grasp he made his way towards the guard in question.

It took him to be within a couple of meters from his target, for the guard to finally notice his approach. The guard sweep him with his eyes, suspicion quite present in them, until they came to rest on his weapon. Couple of seconds passed, before the realization hit the man, and he went from slouching to ramrod straight in record time, addressing him in a shaky tone.

"Yuusha-sama, what is it that you require?" The man had even thrown in a salute, and Ryou, couldn't really stop the grin from forming.

"Good afternoon sir, I couldn't help but to notice that you seemed a little bored, and thought that maybe you wouldn't mind helping me with a small problem." Ryou questioned, and it might be because of the temperature, or because the man had a full suit of armor on, but there were more then a couple of liquid drops running down his face.

"Of course, anything you desire Yuusha-sama!" The man appeared to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, though Ryou couldn't identify if the reason, had been his own sudden appearance, or the fact that he had caught the guard quite clearly avoiding his duties.

So this Hero Status thing still maintains its advantages after all…

"Well that was what I was hoping to hear, so here's the thing…"

For the next hour Ryou, proceeded to question the poor guard in all matter of things.

It had been a very beneficial hour. He found out that the layers forming Castle Town were not just for show. The layer closest to the Castle accommodated all the higher ranking nobles, along with the most loyal, and distinguished knights. After that the ranking of the nobles went down along the layers until it reached one of the main streets that circled the town, from there it was the start of the commercial zone, or unofficially known has the peasant area, the street forming an invisible barrier between the two worlds. Most of the stores were obviously located in the lower levels, with the exception of high-end restaurants, and vanity stores.

Thankfully the guard had also given him the approximate location of countless stores, and other services. From restaurants, taverns, to inns, and even a couple of blacksmiths, he had difficulty memorizing everything, choosing to at the very least keep the Inns location in mind. The man had even thrown a couple of brothel's in the mix, not that he had any intention what-so-ever of visiting such places, but the guard apparently had thought it would be valuable information.

After that he had inquired about the average price of an assortment of things. It was in that moment, that it became apparent that one thousand silver corresponded to a small fortune. The scaling of money in this World was divided in three tiers, cooper for the lowest, and one hundred cooper coins were equal to one silver coin, silver, and cooper were your standard currency for most part. The last tier was gold coins, where one gold coin was equal in value to one hundred silver coins, all in all it was an easy, and practical system.

Also according to the guard, a simple meal could go from two to ten cooper coins depending on the place, and on what you wanted to eat, of course if one were to go to an high end establishment the price would skyrocket, very much like a gourmet restaurant. He had also given the average pricing for general equipment, potions, and Inn rooms.

It had also been shocking to discover that a pair of good quality gauntlets, where worth nearly twice as much as a young child's life, shocking, and disgusting.

He did feel a weight in his chest when he thought about Raphtalia, and what she was probably going through at that very moment, far more pity then he felt for her eventual Master. For all the machinations arrayed against Naofumi, a small part of the blame had been on him. Sure there was little one could do when an entire country was against you, but Naofumi had made their job even easier, trusted to easily, taking everything with optimism that border lined on being naive, and would very soon pay the price.

Raphtalia on the other hand… If things had taken place just like in the story, then what she had went through, could be considered both monstrous, and sick. She barely reached double digits in age, yet she had already seen, and lived through some of the worst the world could throw at you.

He really did hate the fact that he couldn't do anything for her at the moment, but that was a can of worms he didn't dare mess with. For one, she would eventually be Naofumi moral support for most part. He didn't knew if things would play out exactly has they had before, but she was essential as Naofumi's Sword, there was no other way, the alternative could very well doom them all.

It took a while to reach the commercial area of Castle Town, for a straight street it had been awfully long. But it had been obvious that he had reach it, there were stalls all over the place along with the random merchant here, and there with a assortment of goods, some he couldn't even begin to identify.

Making his way in the direction, where one of the Inns was suppose to be, Ryou couldn't help but be amazed by how lively this part of town was when compared to the higher levels.

It was during his observations that Ryou spotted something that made him come to a complete stop. Both the manga, and the Anime had showed them, but there was a stark difference between something animated or in paper, and reality. It was a girl, a little girl probably no older then ten, wearing a pink dress, a little girl with a pair of ears… Bunny ears… Blinking a couple of times at the sight to clear away his astonishment he continued to stare.

The girl, had her attention focused on a small tree before her, the corner of her mouth turned down, and was biting on her lip. Following her line of sight, Ryou quickly identified the problem. There, on the lowest branch, was a ball not unlike the one Naofumi had bought for Raphtalia.

Isn't this like the most cliche setting ever? Boy meets girl, saves her ball from the mean tree, next thing you know she's following you everywhere, calling you Onii-chan, and the whole thing will become very awkward, very fast…

With a sigh, Ryou accepted his fate, maybe some good karma would come out of it, god knew he desperately needed it.

Reaching up on his toes, thankfully the branch was within reach, and so was the ball, after a couple of tries the ball was safely in his hand. Ryou, brought it down to the little girl's eye level, who had been looking at his actions with apprehension.

"Here you go little lady, this is what you wanted right?" Ryou offered with a small smile. The small girl took the ball, hugging the thing to her chest, apprehension completely gone, now that her precious possession was safely in her arms.

"Thank you mister!" She was all smiles, her excitement contagious.

"Just be careful where you play with it, I might not be around to save it from the mean tree, okay?" Wide smile still in place, she confirmed bopping her head up, and down in agreement.

"Rasha, what have I told you about bothering others." A far deeper voice came from behind. Ryou turned around to take a look at the owner. It was a man, clearly part of nobility if the garments where anything to go by. He had at least a few centimeters on Ryou, light brown hair with some grey's, and a few wrinkles.

She looked slightly ashamed, before springing back trying to explain her actions.

"Haaa Raid-Sama! I'm sorry, the ball got stuck on the tree again, and this mister got it for me." The mans eyes shifted towards Ryou before scratching his chin.

"Is that so?" The man was clearly evaluating him, looking him up ,and down maybe to see if he had less than honorable intentions, a few moments he seemed to reach some sort of conclusion with his eyes narrowing.

"You are one of the Heroes." It hadn't been a question, but rather stating a fact, like the sky was blue, and Ryou found himself scratching his neck nervously.

"So everyone says." Ryou more or less confirmed, and the man broke into a small smile before tilting his head slightly.

"Yuusha-sama, you don't consider yourself a hero?" The man asked in what seemed genuine curiosity.

Snorting Ryou took on a crocked smile. "Sir, the most heroic thing I have done since getting here, was saving this little lady's ball from the tree, hardly proper qualifications for a hero, no?" Gesturing towards the tree in question. The man if anything looked even more amused then before.

"Haa, but its not the magnitude of gesture itself that counts, its the intention behind it."

Ryou, looked taken aback before replying with a small frown, "I don't think that's how it works, if it was, everyone would be a Hero, just for doing one good deed."

The man still possessing the same smile, continued unabated, " Then why don't you take Rasha's opinion in consideration." The man said patting the little girl in the head, who had been watching the exchange in curiosity, "After all, at least to her, you are certainly a hero who saved her ball from the mean tree, right?" He asked the girl, Ryou felt his ears getting slightly warmer, the man had heard that particular statement.

That question however, seemed to spark something in the little girl, since she was now looking at him with wide eyes. "You are a hero? Like the four legendary heroes? Which one?" The little girl, who he now knew the name, Rasha, asked in a voice filled with what could only be described as awe.

"I'm the Bow one, Rasha was it?" She nodded slowly, face completely mesmerized like she couldn't believe he was really there, before another thought seemed to pop in her mind.

"Do you know the Tate no Yuusha-sama?" She questioned, and he looked confuse before replying.

"Yeah I know him, why?" What could possibly have been her interest in Naofumi. She looked down before replying in a small voice.

"Well it says in the legends, that the Tate no Yuusha-sama is always really nice to demi-humans, so…"

Ohh, right, that was a thing.., Remembered Ryou, it wasn't Naofumi himself, but the Shield Heroes from the past had always treated demi-humans with decency, and in a country that discriminated against them, meeting him was probably like a dream come true.

Even then for some reason this is irking me…

Hardly a couple of hours had passed since he left the castle, and he was already second place to Naofumi as far as a little girl was concerned. In the great scheme of things, especially with the perils that lay ahead, this was mostly meaningless, and yet…

"Haha, but you know, the Tate no Yuusha isn't known for rescuing balls from the mean trees, that's the Yumi no Yuusha's job you know?" Had it been petty? Yes, extremely so, but he felt the need of approval, even if it came from a ten year old child, he had his pride after all, perils of the future or not. He certainly did not miss the amused cough that came from behind him, but he ignored it. Rasha for her part seem to ponder this before coming too a conclusion.

"Yeah Yumi Onii-chan is really nice too." He was taken aback by that statement, and it had been follow by an almost but not quite, shout that came from behind

"Rasha, you cant treat one of the Heroes so casually!"

The noble was rubbing the bridge of his nose, but Ryou waved him off, "Its fine don't worry, I don't mind." He didn't mind it, not really, with everyone throwing his title everywhere, it was nice to have someone from this world that would speak with him casually, a breath of fresh air actually, even if it came from a little girl.

"Hey, hey Yumi Onii-chan, can you sign my ball? Then I can show everyone in the village that I met you!" She extended the ball in his direction, and Ryou scratched his cheek.

"Sorry Rasha... I don't have anything to write with…" He was then interrupted by an object that appeared in front of him.

"Ahem here you go Yuusha-sama, after all the lack of a pen should not be an obstacle for the Yuusha-sama who is so superior to the Tate no Yuusha-sama, right?"

Opps he caught that one… Thought Ryou with embarrassment, he hadn't been subtle in the slightest, and it had come out of nowhere, but the thought of being second place to Naofumi… Naive, idiotic, Naofumi right off the bat, didn't seat well with him.

Picking up the pen, one of the old ones that he never had the opportunity to wield in his old world, he couldn't help but take a second to marvel it. It was most likely made of gold with beautiful engravings all around it,. Grabbing the ball he scrawled his signature in it, before giving it back to Rasha. She took it, looking at the signature before reading, and mostly butchering his name.

"Ryou… Takuma?" He laughed a little at her pronunciation nodding.

"Yup that's me." Rasha, repeated it a couple of times before a wide smile was in place.

"Thank you Yumi Onii-chan." She knows my name, and is still going with that... Well whatever… Ryou thought with amusement.

"I don't mean to interrupt the moment, but we really need to leave, we still have to make the trip back to our village." The noble said, and Rasha, accepted it with good grace even if her smile did diminish a little.

"Okay, will I see you again Yumi Onii-chan?" Rasha asked, and with a smile Ryou patted her on the head.

"I'm sure you will Rasha." She seemed delighted, both at his answer, and at the pats.

"Until next time Yuusha-sama, and the best of luck, for all of our sakes..." The noble conveyed with a drop of seriousness, the meaning not lost to Ryou, who nodded firmly.

Waving the pair goodbye one last time, Ryou continued on his way towards the inn, though his thoughts still lingered on them. From what he could recall demi-humans in Melromarc, were mostly, if not exclusively slaves, and taking in consideration that the man had been a noble, it would made sense that he 'owned' Rasha, yet she did not possess any signs of abuse, or of being mistreated, she appeared like a completely normal, and happy child, their relationship looked more like daughter, and father than anything else.

Who would have thought, not all nobles in this world are scum, faith in humanity, slightly restored…

However that had been the exception not the rule, there were a lot of demi-humans out there that weren't nearly as lucky…

A picture of another small girl this one with raccoon features, suspended in the air, with her wrists cuffed, while being whipped appeared in his mind, and Ryou couldn't help clutching his arm with a frown on his face.

Finding the Inn had been a rather shameful affair he would admit, it had taken two entire trips up, and down the same street, before getting tired, and asking for directions, although in his defense the Inn had no signs signaling it as such, it looked just like any other house the only difference being the door slightly opened.

The rental of the room had been another struggle altogether, it turned out that reservations were not a thing in Melromarc, that particular fact had left both himself, and the clerk confused, without being able to understand one another. Thankfully the manager had come to their rescue, and after some explaining he understood what Ryou wanted.

The way Inn's worked in Melromarc were among the lines of - One could only rent a room for the night, and had to vacate the next day, if someone wanted to spend two nights, he had to talk to the manager for approval. A very retarded system or so Ryou thought at the time. However while not common practice, his status as Hero had once again shined through, and the manager had reserved a room for his personal usage for the next five days. Having one of the Heroes as a semi-permanent guest would probably be very good marketing, if you weren't Naofumi that was.

The room itself had the most basic of features, those being a bed, one bedside table, and a wardrobe, it did however possess its own private bathroom so there was that.

Ryou, had also spotted a couple of taverns on the other side of the street, and the Inn also served simple meals, yet they were on a schedule, but that solved his food problem.

Now with a place to call a temporary base, it was time to plan the next step. Exploring the rest of the town would be a must, he had to visit a Blacksmith, and Apothecary. Come what may, he wouldn't set foot outside the town without some armor, and a hefty supply of health potions.

This had also been the perfect time to explore the help menu for more information that he didn't already have, something that took a fair amount of time, and testing, but all in all had proved to be very rewarding.

Amount a plethora of information Ryou had discovered how his stats actually worked. The attack attribute had been self explanatory, it related to how much damage he would be able to deal, it also loosely translated to his own physical strength. Both defense, and magic defense were also easy to understand, basically it meant a reduction on the damage he would suffer if hit, it also included pain resistance, something that made him swear out loud since his defense attribute was the lowest one he had by far. Magic was directly related to both the power of his spells, and the ability to cast them, he had no idea how to even go about it, so it would be another thing to explore.

Agility however had been interesting to read about. It was the highest of his attributes right next to attack, and from what he could gather it related to his overall speed, and nimbleness. That meant that he could get faster, probably much more then the average human could move. It would be his biggest defense mechanism, essentially if you weren't Naofumi who would eventually be able to just stand there, and tank hit after hit, your best bet would obviously be not getting hit in the first place.

The idea of getting in an out of combat in a blur, or simply vanishing was a very interesting one indeed. It also brought another idea to the table, a cheesy little thing called kiting. If he could achieve good enough values on agility, and if it did indeed translate to what he was thinking, he could stay ahead of whatever monster he happen to come across, as long has the creature didn't have the means to attack him at long range.

There had also been another couple of interesting discovery's, that he tested. The first had been the existence of something called Navigation Ability, and as to what that was, it was simply a GPS like map that he could open from the menu, infinitely helpful, even if it wasn't the most detailed of maps, showing just the outline of the buildings around him, but it also came with the ability to place bookmarks. Ryou had been positive, that such a thing didn't existed in canon, another divergence from the story most likely, or maybe the weapon had come to his help, and created a new type of ability. Either way he would no longer need to memorize places, although it would have been useful to know about it sooner, especially during his questioning session with the guard.

The second had been the discovery or semi discovery of his own personal pocket-dimension. He also had his doubts if it had been something that existed in canon, since he could remember, that Naofumi had Raphtalia carry a back pack with their camping equipment. In all honesty he had no idea what-so-ever on how the bloody thing worked, and why it came with a weight limit, since the weapon apparently had the power to teleport people across dimensions, or universes, even able to change matter, form, and defeating gravity, but they couldn't be bothered to carry more then one hundred, and fifty kilos. At least he had a safe place to put his money where no one else could reach it.

All-in-all things were looking up slightly.

Making his mind, and since he still had plenty of day light to burn, Ryou decided to hit the streets once again.

After leaving the inn, Ryou decided to take his time surveying everything around him, bookmarking the most relevant, or interesting places. It was during his trip that he found the medical store by chance, even if he had more or less been looking for it. Unlike the Inn, the Medical store was advertised has such, or at least Ryou thought so, since it had huge letters above the door, now if only he could have understood their meaning.

The owner was an old man, with a strict no nonsense attitude, and apparently cared very little for his Hero status. He had been helpful though answering any question that Ryou had.

In essence there were far to many potions, and concoctions to count. From high regenerating ones, to slower regeneration but larger duration ones, and that was not even counting antidotes, medicine, or MP, and SP restoration potions, there was a option for every situation, and for every need.

Ryou, had chosen to take a dozen of low to medium quality ones, enough to heal anything from a light scratch to rather deep wounds, and able to stop bleeding. He had also been wrong in his assumptions. Initially he had thought that Healing potions just increased the speed of regeneration of the human body, but that had been a wrong assumption. The principal was the same, only that the potion created new cells to repair the damage, out of itself apparently. The science behind it was lost to Ryou if there had been any to begin with.

He had also bought a high quality all-purposes healing potion, and that one alone had cost him one gold coin, expensive yes, but according to the old man it could heal anything besides lost members, and vital organs. He had no intention of ever being in a situation where he needed to use it, but it was better to be safer then sorry. There existed only a couple of medicines stronger, with one being something of a legend, made from the sap of some divine tree.

Ryou wanted nothing to do with a divine tree, after all the last mention of a divine tree came from another manga in his old world, and that particular one came attached with a murderous goddess hell bent on ruling the world, while turning every human into sapling mutants in the process, so that had been a very big no in his opinion, the current potion in his possession would have to do. Messing with deities always ended up causing all sorts of problems…

The last place to visit would be the blacksmith, there was one that he vaguely remembered the location, the one the guard had personally recommended.

He did eventually reach the blacksmith after bugging a few of the villagers for directions, his GPS didn't came with pre-marked locations unfortunately.

Once again he couldn't even begin to understand the letters on the tablet next to the door, but Ryou knew eventually he would have to sit down, and learn how to read the language of Melromarc. At least he had came to the right place, if the emblem of a shield with what looked like a buster sword in it was anything to go by.

Opening the door, he took a peek inside, the lighting inside the store was dim, but his eyes did see an assortment of weapons, and suits of armor.

"Excuse me…" Ryou exclaimed, before going through the door.

His sight did zero in on the swords displayed, even if those weren't the reason for his visit. He would never be able to wield one, but they still had the awesome factor of being swords. Maybe he did feel a tiny bit of jealousy towards Ren.

"Well what can I do for you kid?" A jovial voice asked from the door in the back.

"Excuse me I was…." Ryou begun, but stopped the moment he took in the owner. The man was tall, taller then he was, shaved hair, with a brown rough beard ,and a scar under his eye, a small friendly smile on his face.

In front of him was the very same blacksmith that had helped Naofumi on multiple occasions, Erhard.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" He asked in jest, and Ryou couldn't stop the small smile that appeared on his lips.

Well now... Would you look at that, he really is the most sought out blacksmith in Castle Town...