After a few moments the light died down, Ryou, lowered his arm, and took notice of the new accessory in his wrist. It was a golden bracelet, something he would never be caught dead wearing, but the most ominous thing about it, was the familiar Yellow round gem still shining, encroached in it.
Looking at the bracelet in his arm, now that the initial shock had wear off, Ryou couldn't help but to narrow his eyes at the sight, face twisting into a frown.
Where had the bracelet come from, and why did it have a jewel, identical to the one on the Legendary Bow?
After pondering on this new mystery, a idea crossed his mind, and he took a seat on the bench intent on testing his new theory.
Eyes aimed on the dreaded icon, that had been annoyingly present in the corner of his vision, Ryou finally opened the Status window.
It was a weird sensation, he could see through it, and it was certainly distracting, but besides that, the window looked just like what you would find in a standard RPG.
Displayed, was all the information he had been expecting and more. From his name and current profession, to a diversified assortment of menus, it even presented a picture of himself, and of course his attributes, though Ryou noted a big emphasis on both his agility and attack, his defenses on the other hand showed far lower values. The Bow Hero, didn't have anything to compare too, but he was sure that his Health Points were also on the lower end of the spectrum. The markings of a glass canon, a very dangerous classification to have, in what may very well be a real life hardcore game.
He could easily see why the other heroes had thought that they were in a game, the interface itself, seemed like something that had been pulled out of a virtual reality role playing game. Ryou would also be inclined to agree, but thanks to his foreknowledge he knew better.
Opening the menu that was conveniently named equipment, he took a look at the items named there. A snort escaped him, since his clothes had been classified as Off-World Shirt, Pants, and Shoes of all things.
Apparently sneakers aren't a thing here… Obviously they didn't offer any bonus stats, not that he had expected anything, a shirt certainly wasn't going to protect him from a slashing sword or claw.
Resting his eyes on the weapon slot, a small proud smile did appear on his face. His theory had been proved correct. In the weapon slot his bow was equipped followed by the word sealed. It made sense, after all Naofumi hadn't been able to get rid of his shield, the cursed thing was strap to him, he could move it around but that was it. However, the other heroes had no such restrictions, their weapons weren't physically attached to them, but they worked in a similar fashion, they would teleport to the user after a certain limited distance, and the bracelet from what he could gather was indeed the sealed form of his bow.
"Now the big question, how to unseal you?" Ryou questioned out loud. It probably didn't need a secret word or incantation, considering that it was a weapon, and that would be impractical in the heat of battle. As he had been about to open the help menu, the answer to his current dilemma came, and sent him crashing into the ground in fright.
"Try willing it to become unsealed."
Ryou had been spooked out of his mind, but was on his feet in an instant, eyes locked on the culprit responsible for his second, less than gracious fall in this new world.
Cloaked in a dark hood, the person that was now occupying the bench he had been seating on, was female, if the voice was to be of any indication. Wearing a white mask, that one would associate with either a Masquerade ball, or someone who was entertaining some interesting fetishes, she sat there, legs crossed with a small amused smile on her face.
"Who the hell are you?!" Ryou barked, posture going completely rigid, with a glare in his eyes. The woman had come out of nowhere, he only noticed her when she had made herself known, but for how long had she been seating right next to him?
She inclined her head a little at being addressed. "Someone, who's mistress as a great interest in the Heroes, and their well being." It clicked then. The stealth she had demonstrated, the outfit that made her look like a night vigilante, the woman was one of the shadows, the group of spy's slash ninjas from this world.
"Yeah, I'll bet your mistress is just one of many that as a vast interest in us, right?" The question came heavy with sarcasm, and treading on slippery grounds. For some reason though she seemed even more amused now, crossing her legs on the opposite direction, she raised her hands palms upwards, as if showing she had nothing to hide.
"Ah, but Yuusha-sama, I can guarantee that my mistress intentions are benign."
Raising an eyebrow at that, he had to ask, "Isn't that something you would say, even if she had less then pure intentions?" Because in the end, if a stranger came out stating they were trust worthy, the normal reaction would be suspicion.
Thankfully, it had been a few hours since night had settled in, and silence was all around them, or Ryou might have imagined the cough that had come out to mask the small laugh from the female Shadow.
The fact that she had mentioned a mistress, probably meant her boss, was in fact the Queen of Melromarc. But if so, why make contact so soon and with him of all the people? He very much doubted that Itsuki had come for a night walk in canon, and there had been no indication of him meting one of the Shadows so soon. Actually thinking about it the Shadows had only started to show themselves after the first wave, and were a more prominent presence when Melty joined Naofumi's party.
Confusion must have been clear on his face, because she seemed to have read his mind.
"You are wise Yuusha-sama, more so than your companions, you don't give your trust easily either." Well that answered nothing, and how had she come to that conclusion anyway? Had he given that much away during this little encounter, or had she been spying on him?
Well when in doubt just go for it... If the woman had the desire to harm him, he wouldn't be breathing right now anyway.
"So who are you anyway, and what do you want, approaching me alone in the middle of the night like this?" Better to play dumb to avoid suspicion, she already had enough on him as it was.
"Me? I'm a simple envoy of my lady, and as for what I want? I simply want to issue a warning, and to help the heroes to the best of my abilities, although regretfully, I can offer very little besides information." Head taking a slight dip, she did look apologetic. The reason behind it must have likely been that the queen didn't want to tip off the pope to the fact that even far away, she was still keeping a close eye on the events in her country. If he remembered correctly the queen had been away during the summon of the heroes, made behind her back, action that had tied her for a long period of time, but even away the woman had plotted the fall of her country's religion. Ryou had to give it to the woman, they had only been summoned a few hours ago, and she had not only been made aware, but had already taken steps to reach out to them. Or maybe she had predicted the situation before it happen, and left standing orders for her Shadows to approach if possible. Either way he had severely underestimated the foresight of the Queen, if she had in fact foreseen all of this then she was a far more dangerous woman then he had previously thought.
"Yes, although I'm sure you have already realized it, I will speak bluntly. There are many eyes on you Heroes... You are symbols, Yuusha-sama... Symbols of power you see… And there are many who would love to wield that power for their benefit." Her tone had taken a far more serious note, a complete contrast to her previous soft demeanor, and Ryou for his part, decided to take the warning seriously and for what it was,
The other heroes had been playthings easily controlled in the beginning, especially Motoyasu. Even Naofumi had fell for Malty's charm. That woman Malty, The King, and probably most of the nobles were in league with the church, even if the church worshiped the three heroes, him being one of those, the Pope who ruled the religion had no problems getting rid of the heroes if that benefited him.
"All that aside, Yuusha-sama, you have still to release your weapon from its sealed state." His contemplations were interrupted with that. Throwing a annoyed look in her direction, Ryou decided to entertain her request. Raising his arm so the bracelet was at eye level, he gave it a try.
I order you to become unsealed… That amounted to nothing.
Reveal yourself! Still nothing…
Please..? And the bracelet remained unchanged. Now getting frustrated both with the situation and the fact that he was talking to a bracelet, Ryou decided to take a different approach.
Okay here is the deal, you turn back into a bow, and I wont throw you into the nearest river, how is that you little shit?! As one might expect the bracelet remained exactly the same, thankfully the Shadow woman decided to intervene with a cough, before Ryou could continue with a far more interesting choice of words. Moving his attention from the bracelet towards the woman, she was smiling, and Ryou was sure she was finding his frustrations pretty amusing.
"Your asking… Don't ask… Will it to change form."
With a sigh he looked back towards the bracelet, wondering how did one use their willpower to force something to happen. He decided the best way would be to imagine it becoming a bow again.
The result was instantaneous, in a flash of yellow light, the bow was standing in front of his hand defying gravity. Ryou grabbed it by the grip, and the moment his hand made contact, gravity began to work again, and he could feel the weight of the bow.
Raising his other hand, Ryou smacked it against his forehead, and groaned, "This stupid thing makes zero sense". It defied the laws of gravity, could instantaneously move between locations, and could change both form and matter with nothing but a thought of its wielder.
"Its one of the Four Legendary Weapons Yuusha-sama." That statement explained nothing, but by the way the Shadow woman had stated it, Ryou had the impression that she believed it did.
Taking another look at his weapon, Ryou couldn't contain the look of disdain that cross his face.
"Its full of bullshit, that's what it is." He concluded with certainty.
"The Legendary Bow can change between forms, you only have to will it, that goes for the sealed and unsealed state, as well as any other forms you unlock." She pause in her explanation, hands coming to rest on her lap, before continuing.
"It will also follow its wielder as you observed earlier, but if needed you can just call upon it, and it will come to you." That in particular had been very useful information that he didn't had before, useful and practical, since he could actually drop his weapon, and will it back to him if needed. Ryou off the top of his head, couldn't picture a situation where something like that would be needed, but it could come in use in the future.
"You know, for someone so suspicious, you are pretty forthcoming with information." She had explained all that on her own without any need to ask, and although he might had eventually figured most of that out, it had been helpful.
"As someone living in this world, its important to me that its defenders have the best chance to succeed possible, even if this information only raises that chance by a indiscernible amount, it would still be worth it." She paused and raised her head upwards, eyes on the starts above before continuing. "And just because I'm giving out information, doesn't mean that I'm not collecting it at the same time." She finished, looking back at him, the same infuriating smile once again present on her face.
Face morphing in surprise, Ryou couldn't help but to think on how bluntly she had laid the cards on the table. She had all but confessed that while it might be beneficial to him, she had also been collecting information, seeing what made him tick. After a few seconds Ryou did come to the conclusion that it hardly mattered, he had been at a disadvantage since the beginning, so there really was no point in stopping now.
"Okay, fair is fair, since we reach this point let me ask you, the wizards or whatever they were, said the world needed to be saved, but they didn't actually explained what was threatening it, what exactly am I going to have to face?"
Ryou knew about the waves of course, but he had to be sure that his knowledge matched with this reality.
"The Waves of Calamity… Nobody is sure how they started or why they happen, what we do know however is that its a cyclic event, happens every few hundred years, and that it as been happening for a long, long time now, according to our oldest records that is… " The shadow said with a somber tone crossing her arms.
"As the name implies they are waves, waves of monsters that is. Multiple ones, although the exact number is unknown they need to be cleared, and for that we need you heroes, after every wave there is a small period of peace before the next one comes."
That matched with what he knew about the waves, but he couldn't decide if it was good or bad to have confirmation.
Hand in front of his mouth, one finger scratching his cheek, Ryou fired his next round of questions in quick succession.
"And how do you clear it? Do we have to kill all the monsters, or is there something else we need to do, and if so what happens to the monsters after it? On that note, how big is the interval between waves, and is there a way to know where they are going to happen? " Ryou closed his eyes, and had to take a deep breath, after a few seconds they opened, and looked at the woman expectantly.
The Shadow for her part had her mouth slightly open, before closing it and recollecting herself. "Well.." She begun, "As far as clearing the waves, you don't need to worry about killing all the monsters, you have to kill a very specific one, the strongest usually, it should be clear what it his when you see it. The first couple of waves can be endured, and they will eventually closed by themselves, but after that, they will only end when you kill the strongest monsters, although any remaining monster will stay after it, even now almost three months later we are still dealing with remnants of the first wave." She took another breath before answering the rest of his questions.
"As for the location, you don't need to worry, the four cardinal heroes will be sent automatically to the wave. As far as the time of peace between the waves, its hard to pinpoint, but it can go from two to four months."
He had missed it at first, she had mentioned three months after the first wave, and a normal period between the waves of two to four months.
That can't be right… Ryou thought, while the time between the waves had been somewhat random, from what he remembered, it had been at a maximum one an half months, not two at the minimum. That kind of fundamental change couldn't be attributed to his existence.
"Two to four months, so the next wave will be in one month?" He had to clarify.
"Yes, the last wave did happen almost three months ago, even if it was decided right after that the heroes would indeed be needed, the summon itself was something easier said then done, so it took this long to prepare, One month to get stronger is not much, I know, it is what you have to work with though". She did looked truly sorry, more so then the Wizards slash 'cultists' that had summoned him here, at least.
He didn't have a choice but to be ready, it was either that, or death, the wave would see to that, there would be no running from it, not while being a hero. The time interval, that was something different, so he couldn't help but wonder, if the rest of the canon would actually stay the same, or if his foreknowledge, the only weapon at his disposal right now, had been rendered useless right on the first day. That couldn't be it, there was no doubt that this was Melromarc, the one he had read about in the manga, there were some differences, but some events would come to pass.
They have to, they just have to….
"Its unfortunate Yuusha-sama, but I will have to take my leave now, I will come to you in the future and hopefully able to help you in a more direct form, in exchange, I urge you to keep this meting a secret." The statement brought Ryou out of his grim musings. She raised herself from the bench, and took two steps before turning around, the same small smile on her face, with one finger touching her lower lip.
"Ohh, and please don't play around with your bow here, or Melty-sama will get angry." Ryou opened his mouth, intent on making it quite explicit once again, that he was not going to damage Melty's garden, but she disappeared, like she had never been there, no movement, no sound, just gone.
He should have been ashamed of himself, since it actually took a little while before his brain, caught on with what the Shadow had said, and when it did, his chin would have hit the ground if possible.
Wait, the god damned maid?! Seriously.?! How had he, not recognized her... And how the hell had she managed to not only change her hair style, but also put on her outfit, and made her way to the inner garden, all in under five minutes or so?
Taking a seat on the now vacant bench, Ryou had come to the conclusion that he himself, had found her suspicious the first time his eyes had rested upon her form, she had been standing outside of his room for no apparent reason after all. She had also been able to draw comparisons between him and the other heroes, that indicated some spying on her part, and what better way to do so, then in plain sight.
She really had me at a disadvantage right from the beginning didn't she..? With a sigh, he released a breath, and guided his thoughts to the conversation with her instead.
Most of the information she had released matched what he knew, and he had learned more about his weapon. The time difference between the waves, might influence a lot of things, but in the long run it could turn out to be a good thing, he did need all the time he could feasibly get, and even that might not be enough. He really doubted that any amount of time, would prepare him for what lay ahead.
But the biggest, and foremost question on his mind, was the one Ryou didn't have a answer for….
What now..? And that was truly the million dollar question wasn't it…