Free The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 by Aneko Yusagi Page B

done!”
    I sighed and glared at Itsuki and Motoyasu.
    “You mustn’t! These two are friends of a hero, and they fight to save this world!”
    Itsuki, sensing the direction things were going, turned to Armor and scolded him.
    “But Master Itsuki . . . aren’t these people wandering around and causing problems everywhere they go?”
    That was rich. This coming from the guy who was causing a problem right here, right now.
    “That has been shown to have been a misunderstanding. Please make your peace with them.”
    “Very well.”
    “Myn . . . I mean, Whore! Why are you treating her like this?”
    Motoyasu cradled Bitch in his arms and glared at the queen.
    “This is the punishment she receives for inciting disorder. It’s as simple as that. From all that I’ve heard, the problem seems to lie with her and her alone.”
    The queen snapped open her fan and covered her mouth as she spoke. Motoyasu’s displeasure was evident—he stared at her, hate burning in his eyes.
    “Mr. Kitamura? Take the time to properly think this over. This girl just got back from her convalescence in the hospital, and this is the first thing she did.”
    “Urm . . . .”
    “Did you hear what just happened here? Is it not obvious where the blame lies?”
    Motoyasu, clearly sensing that he was over his head, said nothing else. He simply cradled Bitch in his arms and left the hall.
    Itsuki had his hands full trying to calm down Armor.
    The man was showing respect enough for Itsuki, but then he’d participate in actions like these.
    “I think the feast has gone on long enough. Let’s call it a day. Later, on another day when tempers are not so high, I’d like to attempt a conversation with you all once again, one with the heroes all present.”
    “Sure.”
    “Agreed.”
    Ren and I nodded.
    Itsuki nodded his agreement and then left the room.
    Give me a break . . . . Things were growing tenser by the minute. How were we supposed to learn to cooperate now?
    The heroes had to cooperate, or else Fitoria would come and kill us all. We were already in dire straits, but our problems were continuing to multiply.

Chapter Three: Power Up

    “Hmmm . . . .”
    The hall was quiet now, and I was thinking over all they’d said. I’d already sent Raphtalia and Filo back to the room.
    Thinking over it all with some silence, I realized I would just have to treat the heroes with suspicion.
    I think I had already gotten all the information out of them that I could realistically hope for.
    But I didn’t know how to figure out what was actually true and what was just another elaborate lie.
    There was one thing on which they had all agreed: when you absorbed a defeated monster, the monster released a drop item.
    They had also all agreed on the weapon copy system.
    The rest must have been differences between the games that they had all played back in their home worlds.
    They said that if you held a weapon then you could make a copy of it, and that once you met the requirements you could equip it normally.
    They’d also said that they weapon you used could perform certain tasks for you, like crafting.
    Yeah, they’d all agreed on at least those points.
    But they’d disagreed on how you were supposed to power up your items. I decided to try and figure out what their positions had been.
    Let’s say that everyone’s weapons behaved differently—that’s fine, except that I didn’t know how my shield worked. Everyone else had experience with a game that reflected the way their weapons seemed to behave, but I didn’t. Sure, I’d read a book about the heroes back in my world, but the section that was supposed to describe my own weapon was blank!
    I took out a memo pad and tried to sum up what they’d all said about the power-up system.

    ★ Ren
    Strength is basically determined by your level.
    Mastery: using the same weapon would improve your proficiency with it.
    Energy transfer: when you finished using a weapon, you could reset its mastery level and