SCENE: A forested hill situated over a paved road. The other side of the road is flanked by fields of tall grass. A long stretch of the road can be clearly seen. The road is empty, except for a caravan of five wagons, drawn by big birds. The birds look like emus, but thicker, taller, with more plumage and brightly colored. Every wagon is packed with barrels, and driven by two armed guards. Two mages with staves sit on top of the middle wagon.
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA are sitting on the hill, taking a break from grinding mobs. They are eating sandwiches for lunch. Behind them is a small pile of various animal corpses, body parts, and other materials.
NARRATOR: After two days of grinding, our revolutionaries advance by leaps and bounds, already reaching ninth level!
RAPHTALIA: So, what is our plan?
NAOFUMI: Well, there are three things we have to do. First of all, bump up our levels, which is going great. Secondly, find out who that yellow-haired noble is, and where his lands are. Finally, get in touch with local revolutionary movements, or failing that, agitate them into existence.
RAPHTALIA: Revolutionary movements?
NAOFUMI: Yeah. Material Conditions will always bring them into existence in places with injustice. But more on that later: pay attention to those wagons.
As the wagons come close to a point where grass has grown up to the edge of the road, they slow down. Pair of mage guards stand up, raise their staves, and start chanting. Crystals on the ends of their staves glow, and a large ball of fire slowly forms in the air, leisurely flying towards the grass. Where it passes, the grass is instantly incinerated. The mages take a break after the spell, as the glow within their staves slowly recedes.
NAOFUMI: So, what do you think?
RAPHTALIA: They want to see if there are any monsters hiding in the grass before they pass, right?
NAOFUMI nods.
NAOFUMI: I think so, yeah. But why is the grass there in the first place? You would think it would be all burned off by now.
RAPHTALIA: Maybe it grows out every day?
The mages continue working as the wagons move, burning off a line of grass a good twenty feet wide to the side of the road. NAOFUMI finishes his sandwich, and starts feeding monster parts into the shield.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Small rabbit shield unlocked! Special: Perception 1. Allows you to see broad statistics of others.
The fields of grass close to the wagons start rustling, and a pack of varied monsters sprint out, heading for them. Guards pull out their weapons and prepare for battle, with the mages starting to channel another ball of flame. NAOFUMI concentrates, and his shield turns into a ball of rabbit fur. He scans the fight through a small magical circle hovering a few millimeters in front of his right eyeball.
NAOFUMI: Those guards are only level four. Come on, we have to help them!
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA sprint down the hill, joining the guards in the fight that quickly devolves into chaos. With their help, monsters are driven off without any casualties. RAPHTALIA heads off to pick up the loot.
SWEATING SOLDIER: Thank you. I thought we were going to be toast.
NAOFUMI: Why didn’t you just drive off? They’d stop chasing you pretty quick, and I’ve seen how quick those birds can move.
SWEATING SOLDIER: Filofials? Yeah they are fast, but we're moving food. It’s like catnip for the monsters, they don’t let you go. Our filofials would get tired and slow down, and it would be all over.
NAOFUMI frowns, deep in thought. RAPHTALIA returns with their packs, full to the brim with monster parts.
NAOFUMI: How about you guys give us a ride back to town. We have to sell our pickings, and we wouldn’t want this to happen to you again.
RAPHTALIA: We're going back?
NAOFUMI: Yeah. I just had an idea. We are going to visit a library.
SOLDIERS climb back onto the wagons. RAPHTALIA and NAOFUMI take seats on the front one. As they drive off, RAPHTALIA engages SOLDIERS in conversation. NAOFUMI takes out a notepad from his bag. His shield changes into a giant inkpot and he starts writing something down with the quill that appears in his other hand.
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SCENE: Inside of a massive gothic cathedral. Ceiling is so high up it is clouded in darkness. Light comes through intricate, stained glass windows, coloring the floor in a tapestry of light. Rows of seats lead to an altar, which houses a large, golden symbol of the Church of the Three Heroes.
On one side of the hall, NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA are arguing with a PRIESTESS standing in front of a large set of doors. Above the doors, a set of large golden letters spells out “GRAND CHURCH LIBRARY”.
PRIESTESS has a look of disgust on her face.
PRIESTESS: I am sorry, but we cannot open the library to Sir Shield.
NAOFUMI: Why not?
PRIESTESS looks around, as if searching for someone.
PRIESTESS: It is closed due to renovations.
NAOFUMI looks behind the PRIESTESS. Library is clearly visible through the doors, and doesn’t appear to be being renovated. PRIESTESS steps in front of him, interrupting his view.
NAOFUMI: Can we at least borrow some books?
PRIESTESS: No. The Church of the Three Heroes does not extend this service to Sir Shield. Please leave.
RAPHTALIA: Hey! What is that supposed to mean?
RAPHTALIA begins to argue with the PRIESTESS.
NARRATOR: But now… Naofumi notices the sigil of the Church! As if snapping into focus, the complex symbol resolves itself into a bow, a spear and a sword overlapped together. There is no shield in sight!
NARRATOR: His spirit is conflicted! It fights against itself, not knowing what to do. Finally, it splits!
SPIRIT OF NAOFUMI wobbles in place, growing less coherent, before a small part of it splits off. The main part of the spirit resolves itself into SPIRIT OF THE HEART. The smaller part that split off grows, solidifies, and turns into NAOFUMI, but wearing black clothes, with a red scarf covering his mouth. On his shoulder, there is a large white letter D, in a circle. It is the SPIRIT OF DIRECT ACTION!
SPIRIT OF DIRECT ACTION: Look, she is clearly bullshitting, and just wants to get in our way because of who we are. Shove her aside, go into the library, take the books we need. There is no need to debate this.
SPIRIT OF THE HEART: No! We can’t do that. We are already on shaky ground; if we antagonize the church on top of everything else, we will be too mired in enemies to get anything done.
SPIRIT OF DIRECT ACTION: What part of “revolutionary action” involves “not antagonizing” existing power structures? Monarchy and religion are always tightly intertwined, you can’t break one without the other.
SPIRIT OF THE HEART: Obviously! But not at the same time and not when we have zero support from anywhere. There is a reason we didn’t go punch the king in the face yet!
SPIRIT OF DIRECT ACTION: Oh, bullshit, what do you think will happen? She will go complain to her boss, that boss will complain to the king, by the time anything happens we will be long gone. They didn’t even put us in jail for the rape nonsense, reading some books which we clearly need to do our job won’t make the weather happen.
SPIRIT OF THE HEART: A church of this size no doubt has guards of its own, and likely high level ones, ones we can’t deal with yet. King won’t care if we take the books, but he also won’t care if we get both our legs broken.
As NAOFUMI debates his actions, the SWORD HERO exits the library, and notices the commotion.
REN, THE SWORD HERO: Naofumi? Elnin? What is going on here?
ELNIN THE PRIESTESS: Sir Hero -
NAOFUMI: We want to look at the regional maps and this priestess is telling us we can’t enter the library.
RAPHTALIA: It clearly isn’t closed. She's just giving us the runaround!
RAPHTALIA gestures to the open doors REN has just walked through. REN frowns.
REN: I see. Elnin?
ELNIN bows to REN.
ELNIN: Sir Hero, the Church has an old rule that we must refuse all service to Shield Heroes. I apologize.
REN: We will need all the help we can get for the waves. Can you make an exception?
ELNIN: For you, Sir Hero, of course.
REN: Excellent.
REN motions for NAOFUMI to follow him. They enter the library, RAPHTALIA following after them, raising her nose at ELNIN as they pass.
REN: I was already looking at maps, so I'll save you the time searching for them.
NAOFUMI: I thought you already knew everything from the game?
REN: Not everything was in the game. Unimportant facts not written into the lore, areas that were only going to be added in a DLC, that sort of thing.
NAOFUMI: Didn’t expect you to help me.
REN: Don’t mistake this for friendliness. We may simply need your abilities for the Waves. If you are clearly trying to not be useless, I may as well help you.
REN: Besides, you found someone willing to work with you, so clearly you aren’t completely hopeless.
SPIRIT OF THE HEART: Let’s not mention the slavery part.
They walk through the library, finally reaching a reading room. Inside the room are nine wide tables, two of which are piled with books. Warm daylight streams in through a wide window. REN reaches the table with the books, pulling out one, and opens it to show a map of Melromarc, split into many regions.
REN: I suppose I should start from the beginning.
He adopts a practiced lecturing tone, as if he has given this talk many times before.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
REN: Melromarc is split into twelve areas called duchies. In the game each of those corresponded to a loading zone, but that doesn’t matter now.
REN points out the duchy borders on the map as he is talking.
REN: These are further subdivided into marches, counties and baronies, in order. Each duchy is administered by a duke, march by a marquess, county by a count, and barony by a baron. The Queen has the power to bestow and retract ducal titles, and thus determines who administers which zone. Dukes, in turn, have the same power over the marquess titles, and so on down the pyramid. In practice, with rare exceptions, this selection is done from among the past holders of the titles or their families, and generally from among those who already live within the corresponding area. This means that the titles tend to be heritable.
NAOFUMI: You really know your stuff, huh.
REN: I was planning to study history in university. Let’s continue. The duchy of Melromarc - yes, named the same as the country and the city - is managed by the royal family. Here is a list of current dukes - there were recent changes done by the King, so don’t look for it in the books - as well as where they are situated, what they administer, and basic details about their character and appearance. That’s who we’d have to work with to organize cleanup after the Waves.
REN hands NAOFUMI a piece of parchment. NAOFUMI quickly scans it. On one side, there is a long list of information. On the other side, there is a sketch of Melromarc, with all duchies outlined and labeled, and with notes for major cities and roads, and even with approximate travel times between points.
[https://i.imgur.com/ktIfX76.jpg]
NAOFUMI: You said there were recent changes?
REN: Something about poor management by some dukes. Several of them got removed from their provinces, but I didn’t ask about the details.
NAOFUMI: How about marquesses and counts? Do you have a list for those?
REN sighs in frustration.
REN: Look, there are twelve duchies. This means more than a hundred marquess, and somewhere between one and two thousand counts. Furthermore, there are places which violate this pattern - some lands are managed by the Church, some towns manage themselves, occasionally this neat pyramid of titles has people out of place, and so on. It’s a mess. They don’t have a census, either, or any kind of centralized data collection - if a duke changes a marquess, it will be weeks before the capital even finds out. Any records you may find here are almost certainly out of date, if they ever were accurate in the first place. Don’t even try to focus on the details, just go to the duke and they will know how to delegate the work.
NAOFUMI: I see. Thanks for your help.
REN: Yeah, yeah. Be there at the Waves and don’t fuck it up, got it?
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA turn and leave the library.
NAOFUMI: Remember how I said that I don’t have allies?
RAPHTALIA: Yeah.
NAOFUMI: Well, it’s worse than that. I am still not sure why, but when I arrived here, the King and his cronies framed me for a crime I didn’t commit. I am now starting to suspect it had something to do with the Church.
RAPHTALIA hisses in sympathy. They exit the Church, and head into the city.
NAOFUMI: The thing is, because of it, it’s very difficult to work from Melromarc. Everyone here has heard of me, and a lot of them hate me from the onset. And if the Church dogma literally has no place for me… I am thinking we should leave the city after stocking up on equipment. We can grind levels anywhere there are monsters, and it would be much easier to build up reputation if we don’t have to work against the current. Plus, I now know where to start looking for that noble who enslaved your village.
RAPHTALIA’s head jerks up, and she fixes her gaze on NAOFUMI in rapt attention.
RAPHTALIA: You do? Where?
NAOFUMI: Well, think about what we know. None of the dukes on the list fit your description: this means he is at most a marquess. We also know he captured people from a village several towns away from his own. A nobleman could hardly raid villages outside of his domain, could he? And I don’t think a baron could control multiple towns. So he is either a count or a marquess. We know your village was on the coast, and so his manor must be somewhere close to it. Finally, look at the map.
NAOFUMI ducks into a side alley, and takes out the map he got from REN. He squats on the ground, showing RAPHTALIA what he means.
NAOFUMI: This country has two coastlines, and we are right here. You said you drove for more than a week to get here - using REN’s notes, we can draw a circle that is a week’s travel away from Melromarc, and one that is two weeks away.
NAOFUMI draws two wide circles around the city of Melromarc.
[https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/dDDEJN8n0g1Bb8J91SAVwX-lJMpb6jkh9LZBTEjxXNDGitsgz_tJB4Ezq1uppr5P9h4TuR64Mqw6z1ZNMgtGjsZySLS8iyCdhbMHHZQoGLEsSSm4YaDWciLLSmUVrI6wMcZD3A9XI7oyfqtXwkRSDYX9IXQR_zp8lCvHQLpR29PWYFekbdl7Lyqwag]
NAOFUMI: See this? It only leaves four duchies that are on the coast and within a correct travel distance: Langurohel, Javganon, Dornuromarc and Noruroter. So all we have to do is get to those four dukes, and ask them about their marquess who have lands along the coast. We might hit the jackpot and find our target right away; if not, we will simply go to the marquess and ask them about the counts. And knowing the names of the cities, we can easily get there by taking a ride alongside some merchants heading in the right direction, or hiring a wagon of our own.
RAPHTALIA’s eyes shine, full of hope.
NAOFUMI: At this point, it’s just a question of time until we find him. He isn’t getting away.
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SCENE: Montage, as NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA prepare for the Wave.
NARRATOR: But first…they must survive the Wave!
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA are running through a field of grass. Whenever a monster pops out, RAPHTALIA snaps to it, killing it quickly.
NARRATOR: They grind! Their stats take off into the sky! But the stats alone will not get them there fast enough. To catch up with the other heroes, they need to punch well above their weight class. They need tools! Levers!
Magic store. Walls are covered in bookshelves and presentation stands, full of staves, crystal balls, wands, amulets, glowing rocks, and so on. Arrays of dreamcatchers hang from the ceiling, casting flickering shadows on the walls from a single lamp that lights up the store. OLD WITCH is showing NAOFUMI several magic orbs. NAOFUMI’s brows are attempting to escape his face.
NAOFUMI: It costs how much for one spell orb?
OLD WITCH: The church sets the prices quite high, yes. If that doesn’t fit your budget, there is an older, cheaper method, using spell books. Of course, that way you won’t learn a spell instantly, but by studying for a long time you could learn as many as you want.
OLD WITCH goes to a bookshelf, and brings out several magic books, showing them to NAOFUMI.
SPIRIT OF THE HEART: Cheaper my ass! Is this book made of gold?
NAOFUMI: We’ll get back to you on this.
Scene transition. NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA are in a potions store. NAOFUMI is looking through recipe books, before purchasing several.
NARRATOR: Forget magic. Alchemy! An easy way to boost stats and abilities!
A rented tavern room has been turned into a base of operations. Furniture has been pushed to the sides of the room, and the floor is covered in various equipment: bags, ropes, clothing, tools, and so on. Ropes have been anchored to the walls of the room, forming a net just below the ceiling from which hang a variety of dried plants, mushrooms and animal parts. RAPHTALIA is sitting cross-legged on the floor, her mouth covered with a tight scarf, and is grinding dried mushrooms with an alchemical mortar. Two rows of bowls flank her: on one side, full of unprocessed plants, fangs and roots, and on the other side, filled with dust, diced roots and plant mush.
Table in the room is full of glassware. NAOFUMI is standing in front of it, pouring a ready potion mix from a pot into smaller bottles. One end of the table has rows of capped potion bottles on it. Other end has a portable stove, with fire coming from a red magical crystal.
NARRATOR: But for the best tools, they need funds. A get-rich scheme! Erhart gets them in touch with a traveling merchant, who gives them a tip: a day’s travel away from the capital, there is a mine that has been closed due to monsters, full of expensive magical ore. If they could get in and mine some, all the profit will be theirs!
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA climb onto a wagon, drawn by a pair of filofials, followed by the TRAVELING MERCHANT. They set off through one of the city gates.
NARRATOR: Five days remain until the Wave!
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SCENE: Late evening. Wagon of the TRAVELING MERCHANT enters a village. It slows down and comes to a stop in front of an inn. NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA dismount, and follow TRAVELING MERCHANT inside.
TRAVELING MERCHANT: Welcome to the Lute village. Next morning I’ll show you where the mine is. Come on in, my wife owns the tavern here.
NAOFUMI and RAPHTALIA get a room at the inn, and retire for the night. In the morning, they wake up before the TRAVELING MERCHANT, and go for a walk through the village to pass the time. They walk across a scene of ROYAL GUARDS arguing with a crowd of VILLAGERS. ROYAL GUARDS are loading barrels into a wagon drawn by a pair of filofials.
ROYAL GUARD WITH FANCY HELMET: You know the law! Tax is to be paid in full and on time. If you don’t have ore, we will take it in wheat.
VILLAGER 1: But the mine is full of monsters! Even the guards that were supposed to guard it ran away!
VILLAGER 2: How can we mine if you don’t clear out the mine? It’s your job!
VILLAGER 3: And you even raised the tax!
ROYAL GUARD unsheathes a sword. The crowd shrinks back.
ROYAL GUARD WITH FANCY HELMET: Enough! You dare question the King’s authority? His majesty is working hard to deal with the Waves! Of course the tax was raised. The mine will be cleared out once we have the troops for it. Just do your duty and pay the tax!
ROYAL GUARDS load up the wagon, and set out. RAPHTALIA watches on, her face full of pity.
RAPHTALIA: My parents used to say that the nobles could make stones bleed taxes. The whole village would always worry if we could pay them on time.
NAOFUMI: This, comrade Raphtalia, is what is called a Material Condition. Come on, I’ll explain at the tavern.
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DRAMATIS PERSONAE
SPIRIT OF THE HEART, PREVIOUSLY SPIRIT OF NAOFUMI. Voice of the majority of the heart.
SPIRIT OF DIRECT ACTION. If not you, then who? If not now, when?
SYSTEM MESSAGE. Provider of skills. Voice of the status magic.
NAOFUMI IWATANI, THE SHIELD HERO. The first socialist. Protagonist. Went to a library once.
RAPHTALIA. Racoon girl. Second socialist. Picking up theory by osmosis.
AMAKI REN, THE SWORD HERO. Practical. Opener of library doors.
OLD WITCH. Magic store proprietor. Taxed by the Church.