The Substitution of the Shield Hero

I stared at the giant chasm and glassed surroundings still smoking with heat, stretching all the way to the coliseum.

Then I looked at Bahamut, who had turned around to look at me with a bright smile.

"Father. Did I do good?"

I slowly blinked. Then I laughed and ruffled his hair. "You're scary. I like it. But next time, ask first, okay?"

Bahamut nodded. "Understood. But..." He furrowed his brow. "...They were bad people."

"I know. But sometimes, you need to use some bad people for bait to get more bad people."

Bahamut's clear blue eyes glittered and he nodded. "Okay, Father. Next time, I will wait."

"Good kid. Son? Mm... that's still a bit weird to say. Good job, Bahamut."

I'd compromise with that for now.

Still needed to get used to suddenly being a father with adopted children in my mid-twenties...

Huh.

Was this what Dad felt? I feel like he mentioned this happened a few times on some of his missions...

Well, funny thoughts and coincidences aside.

> Lia has defeated a powerful opponent!

> Sylvia has defeated a powerful opponent!

> Bahamut has defeated opponents far above his level!

> ...

> Your companions have leveled up!

===

[Party]

Naofumi Iwatani(?) {SABER ✫ = Ascension 0} - Lv. 1/20

Lia - Lv. 35 => 40

Sylvia - Lv. 35 => 40

Mein Sophia - Lv. 1 => 20

Rishia Ivyred - Lv. 10 => 15

Nina Wyndia - Lv. 1 => 10

Mina Wyndia - Lv. 1 => 10

Bahamut - Lv. 1 => 10

===

I glanced at the updated levels and tilted my head when I saw the scaling.

'Huh. Weird.'

Mein was leveling up rapidly. Rishia was leveling up slowly. The three youngest kids were leveling up at the same rate. And Lia and Sylvia leveled up five levels...

...The scaling here seemed all messed up.

I guess Mein's experience curve must be lower? Probably because she was prestiged and retrofitted by my skill to be <Mein Sophia>? It would probably even out later, but it seemed to be having a catch-up rubberband effect for her.

Rishia... If I remembered right, she was a latebloomer type of character, so her experience curve was a bit harsher. That'd explain why she only got five levels.

Lia and Sylvia though... since everyone was getting the same experience points, the fact that they were STILL gaining five levels meant that their experience per level hadn't changed at all.

Was it because of the elixirs and random potions I gave them when they were young?

...I had a feeling that their level up requirements were a flat amount per level instead of a scaling amount.

And for the children...

I stared at Mina, Nina, and Bahamut with mild concern.

...But they didn't seem to be rapidly growing like Lia and Sylvia did.

Maybe it was because they were different?

They weren't marked as 'Demi-human' like Lia and Sylvia were, so maybe they would grow up normally.

Hopefully that would be the case.

I didn't want to have to deal with a surge of teenage hormones times four with all the girls...

But for now...

Mein was being useful and moving to talk with the neutral Zeltoble citizens along with Rishia.

...Well, I said talk, but from the way she was standing and how concerned Rishia looked, it seemed more like she was pressing them like a villainess would.

Either way, since that was settled...

I turned to look at the silver-haired young woman... Teenager?

I looked at the silver-haired teenaged girl who had approached a bit earlier that Rishia had pointed out.

She flinched and then quickly bowed her head. "M* na*e is S*yne."

I blinked and shook my head, wondering if I was hearing wrong. Because it definitely sounded like her voice was glitching out for a bit. "...I'm sorry, what? Is your name... Shine?"

She frowned and shook her head. "No. S*yne. Like..." She pointed at a nearby sign.

I blinked. "Sign... Oh, it's pronounced like sign. Got it. But it's not spelled like it, right?"

The girl let out a relieved smile and nodded.

Mina floated over and looked at the girl with wide eyes. "Papa! She's like us!"

Nina floated over too, poking at Sign's... Sein's? Whatever the girl's name was.

Nina poked at the girl's back and said, "Where are your wings, Miss?"

Sein paused and then rummaged in a small... sewing kit?

'Wait.'

I stared at the purple jewel on the sewing kit.

It crackled for a bit.

And then a message popped up in my field of view.

> The Otherworldly Vassal Weapon, Vassal Sewing Set, is requesting your aid!

> The Vassal Sewing Set is requesting for you to aid its hero, S'yne Lokk!

> The Vassal Sewing Set promises to strengthen your level of existence if you provide aid!

"...Huh. S'yne Lokk."

Sein- No. S'yne's eyes widened and she quickly nodded her head, pointing at herself. "S*yne. S'y*e. Me."

Her voice still clipped out, as if there was feedback interference...

Which there probably was.

"Hm..."

S'yne wasn't emitting any malice. And from what Mina and Nina said, she was similar to them... so she was probably a Skywing too.

That meant that I could get more information out of her. Especially if she was from another world.

...She also DEFINITELY wasn't in what I knew about the Rising of the Shield Hero, so we could just scrap whatever knowledge I had about what was happening next, I guess.

I already planned on doing that, but this was definitely the nail in the coffin on that ship...

> Would you like to allow [Vassal Sewing Set] to interface with [Parallel System]?

I took a quick look around the surroundings to check on the situation first. Just in case this was the sign for a sudden boss encounter or something.

Mom always said that when things seemed too good, that was when something usually tried to get the drop on you...

...But Lia and Sylvia were clearing things out.

Mein and Rishia were doing negotiations with the rational people from Zeltoble.

Bahamut was a standby as a living nuke for some reason...

Maybe it was the name. Wasn't there that slime anime or something where the slime named monsters and made them strong because of those names?

I should be more careful about that in the future. Names DID have power... And it was the reason why I never used my real one. Same with Mom too.

But anyway...

Since things seemed fine, I accepted the request. And the moment I did...

===

> [Vassal Sewing Set] has been added to [Parallel System].

> Your free capacity is utilized to reinforce your new companion.

> S'yne Lokk has been added as your first familiar.

> Scanning accumulated information to generate help file...

> Confirmed!

> [Help] S'yne Lokk can be considered as a Sekirei while you are her Ashikabi.

===

...Beautiful violet wings erupted from S'yne's back.

Nina let out a gasp and flew over to look at them. "Pretty!"

Mina giggled and patted S'yne on the head. "Big Sister!"

Bahamut crossed his arms and nodded, looking pleased with himself.

I, of course, had no idea what the heck was going on.

First of all, [Parallel System]. My friend. My loyal companion. I thought you were a game system. Are you just pulling things from my memories now and using whatever fits?

...Or is the fact that this is interdimensional means that anime worlds and video game worlds were within reach?

Because if so, I had SO many things I needed to try out now...

...And I also realized that Mom was right about how watching so much Anime would come back to bite me.

But it wasn't like it was my fault. Between her being gone all the time and Dad always being out on classified missions all the time like when he went to save the president's daughter, what else was I going to do?

She should honestly be glad it took me this long to bother taking a serious crack at conquering the world. The number of people who slyly gave me invites growing up...

But that aside.

...Hm. Might need to speed up clearing out these countries.

Inner monologuing is increasing.

Can't be like Dad. He's a terrible example to follow.

So, focusing on the situation, I put on a poker face and looked at S'yne. "We'll talk later. For now, can you fight?"

S'yne stared at her violet wings in amazement, watching at how they looked like spun violet light. Then she looked back at me and nodded. "Yes. I can fight."

"Great." I looked out at Zeltoble and at the merchants scrambling onto carts to try and escape. "...Then, since you're a hero, you should understand. Cut out the evil by the root so that it can't sprout again."

S'yne looked at the merchants. Then she nodded. Flicking out her right hand, the small sewing bag flashed purple and turned into a pair of giant scissors. "...I'll cut it short, Mister."

After that, she flew off in a blast of purple light.

Nina's blonde hair swayed from the wind as she watched with sparkling blue eyes. "Wow... so cool..."

Mina nodded, making her blue hair bob. Then she looked at me and said, "Papa! Can we fight like that one day?"

I smiled and ruffled her hair. "When you're a bit older."

I deliberately said 'older' and not 'bigger.'

Because the last time I told a pair of children that they could fight when they were bigger they grew up over night, and I was VERY much trying to eliminate all the variables that could cause that to happen again.

Mina nodded again, smiling. "Okay!"

...Thank you for small miracles, world.

===

Since Mein was apparently coming into her own as a princess due to interacting with all the hostages- I mean, 'citizens of Zeltoble' and Rishia was just good at social interactions in general, I sent them ahead with all the new refugees back to Libertas (still needed to call a revote on that name).

That left me with the kids, Mina, Nina, and Bahamut, along with Lia and Sylvia.

A group of six... which had increased to seven with S'yne.

Which meant we were actually a group of seven.

Seven, against the single mysterious black-haired woman who had rushed me with a trident earlier.

...And also a woman who was objectively scantily clad.

Honestly, what's with that single white tube top that barely counted as a shirt and that loincloth covering like NOTHING at all?

This world really DID operate on RPG logic, huh? Did that mean there was some sacred bikini type armor that like absolutely negated defense somewhere? Sheesh...

Still, I ignored her state of attire and just gave her a curt nod. "I'll take the previous exchange as a misunderstanding. You can call me Naofumi Iwatani. I am the current leader of the country of Libertas, as well as ally to those oppressed within this world. Who are you?"

The woman stared at me. Then at Lia at my side, who was deliberately not looking at her.

After that, the woman sighed and gave me a weary smile. "My name is Sadeena. I am... I was a friend of Raphtalia's father and one of the main fighters of Lurolona Village before it was destroyed in the first wave."

Lia immediately glared at Sadeena.

...Okay. Seems like I'd been putting off that 'get to know each other' conversation a bit too long now...

Still, this was no good. Lia looked like she was one wrong word away from snapping.

So...

I opened up <Parallel System> and selected a few of the crops we'd stockpiled from Libertas before getting here. Then I synthesized an orange popsicle and handed it over to Lia.

Lia blinked. "...Goshujin-sama?"

"You're in a bad mood. Here. This will help." I kept holding out the colorful frozen treat.

Lia blinked again. But then she softened and took the popsicle. "...Okay. Thank you, Goshujin-sama."

I smiled...

And then my smile froze on my face when she proceeded to take a bite out of the popsicle.

...Ignore it.

Lia was smiling. She clearly liked it.

Even if it's practically a crime against humanity to bite into a popsicle like that, it's fine if it makes her feel better...

Mina gasped when she saw Lia bite the popsicle and flew over. "Big Sister! Can I try?"

Nina flew over as well and said, "Sister Lia... may I?"

"Of course! Here!"

I let them interact for a bit and shifted my attention back to Sadeena.

"...There is clearly a lot to discuss. But I'll keep it brief. Zeltoble is falling today. I intend to scrape every last bit of resource in this country before sunset and then return to Libertas. Are you an ally, or an enemy?"

Sadeena stared at me. Then she said, "Before that... may I ask something, Sir- No, Lord Naofumi?"

"If you keep it brief." I glanced at the position of the sun and did some calculations. "...It's past noon now, so we'll need to move quick."

Sadeena nodded. "Understood. Then... Are you the Shield Hero?" She glanced at my left arm, where the shield had been. "...And did I break it...?"

Clear concern. Nervousness.

I kind of got the vague sense from her that she felt like she committed a terrible taboo.

But I shrugged and said, "I was the Shield Hero. But a lot happened and the Legendary Shield vanished because this world broke its vows... Wait. Did you not receive the message?"

Sadeena tilted her head. "...Message? What message?"

I paused, considering the implications of her words. Then I laughed. "Oh, that's interesting. It seems like there's someone else here who can tinker with the world's Status Magic."