The Substitution of the Shield Hero

To sum up the current situation with Libertas (which was now de facto the name for the country).

First, they had waged war against Four Bray in my absence and won. While they mostly left the nobles alone, they absolutely cleaned house and took away every captured slave, political hostage, and 'fiancee' that was sent to that pig of a king.

Second, they had left it nominally in tact since everyone wanted a PROPER war with me leading the vanguard against Four Bray. While the rescued citizens had left the nobles a beaten and bruised mess, they hadn't murdered anyone.

Yet.

Third, all of the housing that I had created ahead of time due to my city planning was now occupied, complete with deeds being handed out and magically bound to statuses so they couldn't be stolen or tricked (validated via magically replicated blockchain technology).

And fourth, most importantly of all...

I had a constant stream of people throwing themselves at my feet, and giving me heartfelt thanks, as well as a horde of beautiful women promising me their everything out of gratitude.

Needless to say, I told them all to take a raincheck since it was 100,000% the suspension bridge effect mixed with overwhelming emotions.

A fact that made me now empathize with how Dad always gave me weird looks when I brought up Miss Graham.

But anyway, it was a mess.

And it didn't help that everyone was absolutely convinced I wasn't just the Shield Hero, but divine retribution sent down from the heavens themselves to punish this corrupt and unjust world.

...That may have been due to the fact that they noticed the moon was green and tales of my exploits had blown out of proportion.

But either way, I let everyone enjoy the festival while I headed back to Melromarc to update Mirellia before she panicked.

===

"Good afternoon, Naofumi." Mirellia sipped on a cup of tea while sitting on her throne.

That wasn't the part that caught my eye though.

"Good afternoon, Lord Naofumi." Melty gave a small curtsy, pinching the edges of her dress as she bowed before returning to her spot at the right side of Mirellia's throne.

She didn't catch my eye either though.

No, the thing that caught my eye was...

"AH! It's the scary man!" A blonde girl with blue eyes and pure white wings buried her face into Mirellia's chest, as if that would make me go away.

...Yes.

The thing that caught my eye was the girl that looked like Flone from Disgaea, wearing the sky-blue dress with white frills. The one named...

"Filo, dear." Mirellia chuckled and stroked Filo's blonde hair. "There's nothing to fear from Naofumi."

Mina, sitting on my left shoulder, nodded and said, "Papa isn't scary!"

Nina, sitting on my right shoulder, paused and said, "...At least, not all the time."

Filo pointed at Nina and said, "See! She said the scary man is scary!"

Nina puffed her cheeks and said, "Only sometimes! Father is nice! ...Mostly!"

I sighed. "Not helping, Nina..."

"...Sorry, Father." Nina looked sad.

"It's fine. This is just my life. Having great power comes with-"

Melty's eyes lit up. "Oh! I know this quote! It's 'with great power there must also be great responsibility!' One of Melromarc's ancient ancestors, Peni Parker, stated it!"

"...What? Peni- Actually, I don't want to know. Too much on my plate already. But no, I was going to say having great power comes with constant headaches."

The people who were terrified of you, the people who were suicidal enough to think they could play you, the people who were fanatic enough to give everything to you...

Headaches.

Nothing but headaches.

Mirellia chuckled and said, "I can definitely concur with that sentiment... And I also don't believe I've met the little ones with you."

"Ah, right." I pointed towards Mina and said, "This is Mina."

Mina waved. "Hi~!"

I pointed towards Nina and said, "And this is Nina."

Nina nodded. "It is nice to meet you."

I looked at Mirellia and said, "They're my daughters. It's a long explanation on how they are, so I won't be going into it. But they're my biological daughters."

Mirellia blinked and then said, "You have heirs already?"

I paused at the phrasing Mirellia used. And then I let out a long suffering sigh at the realization that Libertas was undoubtedly already developing the lorebook around the fact that my daughters looked like literal angels, and that S'yne, my familiar, ALSO looked like an angel. "...Long story."

Mirellia giggled. "Clearly."

I raised an eyebrow. "...You seem to be in a good mood."

Mirellia shrugged and said, "Well, Melty and I were just having a discussion about you before you arrived. And we were noting about just how stressfree we both are now."

Melty nodded and let out a bright smile. "Undoubtedly so! I have done the calculations with the help of the Shadows, and the incidents of crime have reduced to zero! Moreover, with the annihilation of Zeltoble and Siltvelt, as well as the crippling of Four Bray's forces, Shieldfreeden has sent many overtures stating they desire absolute cooperation... so all is well!"

I blinked, parsing Melty's words. Then I said, "Huh. Now that you mention it..."

Zeltoble, Four Bray, and Siltvelt had been the main baddies on the international stage. The world powers to look out for.

But since I'd... cleaned house, so to speak.

Everything was resolved.

That left Melromarc free to flourish as the main power standing next to Shieldfreeden... and since Shieldfreeden ACTUALLY had rational people in charge, they sent a proper cooperative treaty out.

"Wait." I looked at Mirellia and said, "How'd you know Siltvelt's gone?"

"The blinding cloud of blue flames erupting in the horizon?"

"Ah. Right." I nodded. "That."

Mina giggled. "Big brother is in trouble~"

Nina nodded. "Big brother is in timeout. Bad."

After a bit more small talk, Mirellia got up from her throne and started walking towards the nearby meeting room, hugging Filo. Melty followed behind her, looking excited as a ten-year old should be.

I followed after her, and after we sat down, I said, "So Melromarc and you aren't panicking about Siltvelt being wiped out?"

Mirellia gave me a blank stare and said, "Naofumi. Considering that, for the first time in history, there was zero injuries or even property damage in the wake of a wave, as well as the fact that you clearly claimed the moon as your territory, I do believe you have crossed the threshold of having people fear you to just accepting you as a force of divine will." She paused. "...Which you aren't?"

"Which I'm not." I confirmed it and said, "Though I recently did kill a god. Kind of maybe."

"..."

Melty stared at me with sparkling eyes. The same expression that Rose used to have after I told her stories about clearing out zombies in Marhawa Academy.

Huh.

I should see if I could speed up that shortcut back home. Rose needs more friends, and Melty seems like she'd be good for her.

Filo peeked out at me from her spot on Mirellia's lap, still shivering.

I looked amused and said, "Am I really that scary to you, Filo?"

Filo rapidly nodded her head, making her long blonde hair scatter in a mess. "Super scary! You look like you want to munch on the world! And you eat magic!"

I paused. "...I look like I want to munch on the world? What do I look like to you then, Filo?"

"World breaker! Big shadow! Giant black hole! Scary!" Filo shivered again and then shut her eyes, as if terrified to even look at me.

Mirellia frowned and held Filo closed, rubbing her back. "Apologies, Naofumi."

"It's fine. That's useful information, actually."

Filo was a Filorial Queen candidate in the NovelPhoenix... since that was a main setting, she was probably the same in the light novel.

And while Nina was the egg that Filo should have hatched from, the 'soul' that was supposed to be Filo clearly was born from the Filorial that Mirellia raised.

Which meant that Filo there should be in tune with the world and its systems... which would probably explain why she called me world breaker.

Nina puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms. "Meanie. Father is not scary." She paused. "...Only a little."

Mina nodded. "Only a little scary! But mostly cool!"

I rolled my eyes and pulled both Mina and Nina into my arms. "You two aren't helping."

Mina giggled. "Yay! Hug!"

Nina lowered her gaze. "Father... Sorry..."

"It's fine. Now." I looked at Mirellia and said, "I've been meaning to do this for a while. But do you think you could call the other heroes? It's about time we got down to business."

===

Earth-30847. A blacksite research lab of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance.

Leon watched the screen with wide eyes as video of a world that looked right out of a fantasy book or anime played on the projected screen. "That's where my son is?"

Chris crossed his arms and nodded. "Seems like it." He chuckled. "Your kid's as resourceful as ever."

Ada sat at a separate console, parsing through the terabytes of data that her son had left in the USB drive. As she did though, she put on a smug smile and said, "He gets that from me, clearly."

Chris rolled his eyes and said, "Sure, Ada. Whatever you say."

Leon watched as his son's entire journey in that foreign world played out, cut and edited like a docuseries and complete with voiceover subtitles.

*And this is when I decided that I might as well go full Emancipation Proclamation on this world.*

Leon smirked as he heard his son's voice and watched the following events. "Attaboy."

Chris looked amused and said, "You aren't concerned about your kid clearly murdering scores of people?"

"You aren't either."

"They had it coming."

"See?"

Chris chuckled.

Ada snapped her fingers and said, "Focus, men. Look for any clues in the footage. My little boy wouldn't have given this to Rose just as a news update. It's a hint."

"Right." Chris focused, staring intently at the screen. "Hm... I don't have too much to work with here. But I think Doctor Strange can look into it if he has this footage. It's probably enough to narrow it down."

Leon kept watching too and slowly nodded. "If this world used a summoning ritual to drag our son in, then Shinra should be able to find it with the Portalstone. I just need to take a trip to Japan."

Ada kept typing at the terminal, putting in filters on various keywords to sort through the information. "I'll keep digging through this then." She let out a sigh of relief. "It's good that our little boy is safe and sound. But..." She looked genuinely worried. "We need to hurry."

Chris frowned. "Hm? If he's safe and sound, why would we need to worry?"

Leon froze, realizing the implications. "...Oh no. He's in a world with magic."

Chris tilted his head. "...Why would that be a bad-" His eyes widened. "...Oh. OH. He's not just IN a world with magic..."

Ada finished, genuine concern on her face. "He HAS magic. And considering that he was already half-finished with the theoretical framework for deriving magic from first principles..." She let out a nervous laugh, something completely out of character for her, which showed the severity of the situation. "...If we don't get there in time, he might have scaled up enough to have the resources to 'fix' our world when he gets back."

"Right." Chris immediately started walking off. "Heading out now to chat with Doctor Strange."

Leon grabbed his coat from nearby and then kissed Ada. "Love you. If you manage to get through to our kid, yell at him for me."

Ada chuckled. "Love you too. Don't get lost again."

"I won't."

A few minutes later, Ada was alone in the facility, sitting at the terminal and scrolling through the information.

And then she saw a .txt file named 'to_mom.txt'

Ada paused. Then she looked amused and said, "Just what did you leave for mommy dearest, Boy?"

She clicked it open, wondering what it was-

===

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===

"..."