[Chapter=16] King of Melromarc

"Y-You... You can't be...!" Ren stepped back a little from the shock.

"You're the Shield Hero?! But you look so... so...!" Itsuki was even more dumbfounded, with Naofumi being a little miffed at this.

"I swear to God, if you call me a hobo again, I'll punch you." Naofumi threatened the Bow Hero with a fist.

"B-But h-h-how...?! You looked like you were a century old the last time we-! OWW!" Itsuki tried to make the connection... until he was punched in the face.

Granted, it was the Shield Hero's punch, so the punch felt more like a slap to the face, but it still hurt.

"I told you not to call me that, shrimp." Naofumi huffed, crossing his arms, making Itsuki infuriated from the nickname.

"D-Don't call me shrimp! What the hell did I do to call you that?!" Itsuki harshly barked back. "I didn't even call you a hobo that time!"

"It was in the same vein of demeaning to me, Bow Hero. Don't call me a hobo if you want me to call you shrimp, shrimp." Naofumi ended the argument with a glare that made a few of the adventurers flinch.

Itsuki shuddered in rage, but left it at that (he was the one who sort of walked into that punch). "Now, what the hell do you want? Can you see that I'm busy defending myself?"

"D-Defending yourself?!" A voice from the crowd of knights echoed in disbelief, as the Captain, dirty and disgruntled, pushed himself towards the front, unable to get through due to the Walls. "HAH! Do not make us laugh! Even in the face of the Heroes, you still have the gall to lie to all of Melromarc."

"Really." Naofumi raised an eyebrow, with a disbelieving stare at the pompous man, noticing how he was trying to save face by lying himself.

"Did you really?" Ren asked, but Naofumi shook his head.

"Of course not. The Shield Hero has an attack stat of one, after all." Naofumi told the three of them. "AKA, no way I can attack for shit."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe..." Itsuki frowned, unbelieving of it all, while Motoyasu was beginning to think the same.

He just saw a guy being flung across the road a few minutes ago.

"How is it hard to believe? He was the one who struck first. I'm without a weapon."

"W-WHAT?!" The Captain dropped his jaw from that accusation.

"I distinctly remember you announcing to the world: 'He's not my Hero, nor should he be the Hero! I'd rather put him to the sword if I must!' and then you struck me when I made a detour to get something. I was simply defending myself and the other townsfolk from your tomfoolery." The Captain did sputter, but Naofumi wasn't done yet.

"It's your fault that this brawl erupted in the first place. You wasted my time. You wasted the Cardinal Heroes' time. You wasted everybody's time. We would have been in the palace finishing up the audience, but no! You had to settle your petty squabbles because things didn't go your way." Naofumi said.

The other knights looked at each other, not knowing who to root for. While the Shield Hero indeed take his time, their Captain had no right to even cause a fight like this.

The Three Heroes and their parties looked genuinely confused at what to think about it. Was the Shield Hero really telling the truth?

"Right. Case closed. Now... should we head to the castle?" Naofumi concluded, turning around and motioning himself to walk towards the castle, but stopped at the sight of a crimson-haired woman, smiling almost triumphantly.

Naofumi only raised an eyebrow, but Motoyasu looked ecstatic at the sight and ran up to her.

"Myne!" He called out, hugging her like a couple.

"Lord Motoyasu!" She cried out with glee. Naofumi narrowed his eyes in disgust.

'Tsk... Coming at a bad time...' Naofumi wondered, seeing the woman mucking it up with Motoyasu. "Right. To the king, I guess..."

"What in God's name happened here?!" The sound of an old voice irritated beyond belief caught nearly everybody by surprise.

All the knights, even Ake and the Vice-Captain stood up straight in attention and slight fear.

The Heroes saw the owner of the voice, and began to look respectable, with even Motoyasu pulling away from Myne, as she began to run forward.

Naofumi was the only one who wasn't surprised at the sight of a regal man in royal robes, gray hair and a crown above his head.

"Well well. The King of Melromarc. Quite a big change of pace here." Naofumi noted, seeing the King of Melromarc coming to visit him, despite the ruined mercantile area. The young woman ran to the wizened King.

"There he is! The Shield Hero! He's the one who started the fight in the town!" Myne accused, pointing fingers at Naofumi, who narrowed his eyes at her brazenness.

"We literally just solved this five minutes ago." Naofumi said tartly. "We don't need another-."

"I see. So it is true." The King stated, clear on the situation. Naofumi widened his eyes.

Did this monarch just ignore what was literally laid out? "Shield Hero." The King began with much frustration. "First you evaded my summons to my court, and then not only do you injure my knights, but you caused much property damage with your rough-housing!"

"Ugh. I just explained it but-!"

"Enough! We will question you in the trial!" The King announced, with Naofumi's eyes widening even further in disbelief.

Most of the knights, especially the Captain, cheered at that, seeing the Shield Hero brought down a peg, enough for the Walls to break, marching up to seize Naofumi, but the Shield Hero threw their arms off of him.

"You have to be kidding me. You take her words over mine? A Hero?" The Shield Hero growled out, but Myne puffed out her chest with pride at what she was able to do to him.

"Hmph. A criminal like you has no say, Hero or no!" The woman haughtily replied, a bit shy on laughing at his face.

"I never asked you, you bitch!" Yelled Naofumi, seeing her having the high ground, purely because she was... just there...

Naofumi began to wonder just about that: Why does that crimson haired woman... Myne, was it? Why does Myne's complaint matter more than the words and evidence of a Hero?

Myne looked red with anger, being called that, and the King was no exception to that. But another Hero was more vocal about it than others.

"HEY!" The voice of Motoyasu, angry at the words Naofumi gave to the angered Myne, pointed his spear threateningly to Naofumi's head.

"You take those words back!" The man in question ignored it, and simply grabbed the spear and brought it away from his face, his eyes not leaving Myne.

"You... You're his daughter, aren't you?" Naofumi queried to Myne, who didn't really answer back.