Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings

Rain pour down from the heavens as dark gloomy clouds covered the sky, blocking out all the sun's rays. The leaves shook with each drop pelted them, the dirt soaked and turned to mushy mud, the animals hid in their burrows or inside hollow trees to stay dry.

On such a gloomy day, a lone man rode his carriage through the heavy rain, pulled along with a Filolial, a yellow bird the size of horse with the strength of one and more. The man sighs as he felt the rain pelting against his leather poncho, pulling his hood further down as he looks up at the dark cloudy sky, "What a day… it was just sunny moments ago, and now it's raining cats and dogs…"

'I should have left earlier… those clouds are such obvious signs…'

"Hm?"

He quickly pulls his mount's leash, stopping his bird in its steps.

In front of him is a wooden cart, toppled over and demolished beyond repair. Its wheels broken into splitters and the main body is torn completely in half. Not only that, there are a several bodies, likely demi-humans from the animal ears and tails, lying about, pale skin getting soaked in both the rain and their own blood.

'From their clothing, they must have been escaped slaves…'

From how pale and faded the bodies are, he reckons they have been dead for quite a long time. Whatever did this have not been merciful, the bodies are either impaled many times, parts of their ears and tails cut and forcefully removed from them, a lot of them are missing limps or a good chunk of it blown away by something.

What's most disturbing to him is the fact that some of them are children, the oldest has to be about ten years old. That revelation sickens him to the very core, 'To think that even children are enslaved as well… this country is really rotting from the core… I hope Mirellia could save it before it is too late…'

Getting off his carriage, he searched the cart for any survivors or anything that can help identify the perpetrators. Sadly, all he found are bloodied bodies and nothing more, if he excludes the chains and cuffs. "No survivors. Damn, I guess I was hoping for too much–"

"WAAH! WAAAH! WAAAAHHHHH!"

Cries of an infant caught his attention. He quickly dug through the wreckage, unwillingly push aside a dead demi-human woman to find a small bundle of blue cloth. In it, is a crying baby; a demi-human one if the black cat ears are any indication.

'She must have died protecting her…' He thought as he glanced at the dead woman that was on top of it, 'A mother's love never ceases to surprise me…'

Gingerly, he picked up the crying infant, gently rocking it to try and calm it down. "There, there, little one. It's okay. Nothing's going to hurt you." After a long few seconds, the infant slowly calms down and their cries are reduced to sobs.

'I can't just leave a baby out in the wild.' He thinks to himself, 'But Rurorona has no orphanage as far as I can recall, and the next nearest town has to be the one these slaves were running away from. What should I do…?'

"Heheheh~!"

The baby broke into giggle much to the man's confusion, before wincing in pain as they pulled free a strand of his beard. "Owowow! You have quite a grip, don't cha?"

"Hahaha~!"

"…"

Seeing the once crying baby break into laughter, he came to a decision. One that he knows would change his life forever.

The sounds of stone grinding in the mortar echoes in the room I am in.

My eyes focused on the leafy paste in the stone mortar bowl as I crushed and grinds it with the pestle. Moving in a circular pattern, I watch as the leaf paste starts to come together, eventually forming a light green paste. Once that is done, I immediately stop. I moved a small bowl of water nearby and slowly pour it in.

Putting down the now empty bowl, I continue to grinding the pestle as I mix the water with the leaf paste. A good few moments later, I can't feel any more paste and the mixture has turned into a greenish fluid. Taking an empty potion bottle from the wire rack, I slowly pour it in, taking care not to spill a single drop.

Once the bottle is filled up, I seal it with a cork. "There. That's the last one."

Gently, I places the bottle on the wooden rack/crate with the other medicine bottles. There we go, that's all the basic medicine done! All that's left is the antitoxins. I sure hope we have enough ivy for how much I'm cooking up…

My name is Liya Price, an 18-years-old black cat demi-human, and apprentice apothecary.

And right now, I'm busying myself to tomorrow's orders. Rurorona's general store has need for more medicine as of late, especially antitoxins with the whole poison mushroom incident. That Keel… I wonder why he thought it was a good idea to eat that obviously poisonous mushroom, even more when he shared it with some of the kids…

Just as I cleaned the mortar and is about to search for the Blue Ivy to begin my work on the antitoxin, the door to the lab is opened and an elderly voice called to me.

"You're still in here, Liya?"

"Ah, yes, teacher."

At the door stood my teacher, and adopted grandfather, Hohenheim Price, or Hohen for short.

He found me in the rain in the hands of my dead mother when I was still a small infant, and has raised me ever since. When I show interest in his work, he enlisted me as his apprentice and showed me the ropes of an apothecary. Everything I know, I've learnt from him.

"You can still call me gramps, you know." He tiredly chuckles as he made his way into the room, where he took a look at my work, "Is that all for the village?"

"Yeah, I'm just about to start on the antitoxins." I nodded.

"Well, you can do that later. It's lunchtime, and you know how fussy Letia can be if you try to skip a meal."

I blinked as I look out the window, seeing the sun high up in the sky and signalling noon, "Oh, I must have lost track of time."

"That you did." He nodded as he heads out the door, "Come on."

We both exited the research room and made our way to the living room, where a blonde leopard demi-human is already arranged out the cutlery and utensils and is now placing the plates of freshly cooked food on the dining table.

Letia is my senior apprentice, and gramps' daughter-in-law. She's the wife to gramps' son, who worked at the local lord's mansion as one of his many knights. The reason she stayed here and not with her husband is due to gramps' age, not to mention the amount of work he has to do that she mostly took over a few years ago.

She also is a bit of a nanny to me, having taken care of me since I was five.

"There you are, Liya." She says as she placed the last bowl of stewed vegetables on the table, "I was wondering when you'll come out to eat."

"Sorry, Letia." I apologized as I sits down on the table, "I've lost track of time making tomorrow's orders."

"Geez, you're as bad as your grandfather sometimes." He flinched at that comment, but choose to say nothing and picks up a bread roll to dip into the stew, "Of all the traits you to emulate, it has to be his workaholic ones."

"[The work of an apothecary never ends]." He comments as he takes a bite into his soaked roll, "That's the first lesson I was taught when I started this profession. I'm pretty sure you are well aware of that, Letia."

"I am, but there are limits too." She stated with a huff, "You can't work if you're starving. It's important to take breaks when you need to."

"I know that, but I'm almost finished with tomorrow's orders anyway." I tells her as I swallowed some stew, "All I have left are the antitoxins, and I should be able to finish it before nightfall."

"Ah, right. That reminds me. I think we're almost out of Blue Ivy and Spotted Mushrooms. What we have left isn't enough for the order."

"Seriously!?" I cried out in shock of my teacher's sudden notice, "NOW you tell me!?"

"It slipped my mind." He chuckles as I practically inhaled the rest of my meal, "When you get to my age, things like these happens all the time."

After swallowing the last of the stew, I grab my basket and slung it over my shoulder before rushing out of the door as Letia calls for me to return in time for dinner. I need to hurry and harvest them before sunset, otherwise the forest would get too dangerous to harvest anything and I won't be able to finish the order!

"Hey, Liya."

I was stopped in my rush when a woman with long strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes in a female knight's uniform stands in front of me with a sheathed sword by her hip, her horse's reins in her hands which indicates that she has just arrived.

"Oh, Éclair. What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I have a break from my sword practice, so I thought I'll come by for a visit."

Éclair Seaette, daughter of this land's lord, female knight and my childhood friend. We both first met a long time ago when I accompanied gramps in a delivery to Lord Seaette. We didn't get along well at first, we ended up becoming the closest of friends.

"So, what are you up to?" She asked me.

"Ah right! Almost forgot! I need to get those ingredients and fast!" I quickly run towards the forest behind the cottage, dragging her by the wrist, "If you're free, mind helping me out? Another pair of hands would make gather things faster."

"H-Hey! Wait!" She cried out as we enter the woods with one goal in mind.

"Is this it?"

"No, that's Dotted Toadstool. We can't make antitoxin from that. But if you're looking to kill someone with intense diarrhea…"

"WHAT!? This doesn't work on skin contact, right?"

After entering the forest, we got to work in finding the poisonous plants and fungus I need to make the antitoxin. At first, I find it skeptical that we use poison to create something to counteract poison, but I've learnt to accept it. Fight fire with fire, I guess. Anyways, due to Spotted Mushrooms' appearance being really similar to countless other poisonous fungus, it's getting tricky to gather them.

Purple Ivy isn't as tricky, but due to their tendency to grow on only certain tree tops made it very difficult for someone like me who is… vertically challenged. Thankfully, I have a female knight here to help me with that.

"Remember, it's has an orange cap with brown patches on it." I tells Éclair who quickly tosses away the diarrhea-inducing mushroom.

"I keep forgetting how difficult it is to just gather mushrooms." She stated as she looked inside a fallen tree trunk. She then plucks free another mushroom to show me, "How about this one?"

"Yup, that's the one." I nodded as she tosses it right into the basket on my back, "And gathering mushroom isn't that difficult if you know your fungus. Just got to remember all the little details. Oh, found another one."

"Sorry, Sir Smartypants." She jokingly mocks as she cuts free some Purple Ivy, "Not everyone is as book smart like you."

"You could be." I pointed out as I tosses in another poisonous fungus into my basket, "And you do realise that you have to read a lot in order to succeed your father, right? 'A good lord has to have the strength of a hundred knights, and the wit of a thousand scholars.' Isn't that what he told you when you tried to skip out on your lessons last time?"

"I know, I know, father keeps reminding me again and again…" She sighs as she puts that poisonous ivy into my basket, "But I can't help it if the books are so complicated!"

"If you didn't just focus on swordsmanship, those books might not be complicated."

She lets out a loud sigh at that, "So, is that everything? It's getting pretty late and father would be worried if I didn't get back soon."

I took a good look into the sky. The sun is starting to dip into evening, meaning I'm going to have to head back soon as well. I look into my basket and count the amount of fungus and ivy we have collected and then mentally calculating it with the amount of antitoxins I need to make.

"Yup, this should be enough. Let's head back-WHOA!" My foot suddenly hit on something and I fell over, faceplanting into the grass. "Ow…"

"Liya! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine… what did I just…?"

By my foot, sticking out of the ground is what looks like a small corner of something, a box if the semi-sharp angle of it is to be implying. What in the… is there something buried here?

"…What's that?" Éclair asked curiously, "A box? What's that doing buried all the way out here?"

"Hey, let's dig it up." I suggested.

"Dig it up? Why?" She asked.

"A box buried in these woods? That's not a good thing." I pointed out, "Plus, I'm kind of curious as to what's in this box."

"Always the curious one, aren't you?" She chuckles, "Alright, let's do it."

A few minutes of digging with our hands later, we managed to get it out of the ground.

The box itself isn't all that fantastic, a very simple wooden box the length of my arm. There're hinges on one side, meaning it can be opened, with a latch that keeps it shut. You know, for a box buried in the ground, it looks rather undamaged in any way. The metallic hinges and latch aren't rusty at all, the wood doesn't look waterlogged or mouldy.

Could this be left here just recently? Why would anyone bury something here of all places?

"Well, let's open it!" Éclair stated anxiously.

"Alright. Here goes…"

Unlatching the… latch, I opened the box up to reveal what's inside, and not what I was expecting.

In the box itself are a couple of interesting but bizarre items.

For one, there's a leather-bound book with the symbol of the Three Heroes Church on it; but this one has an additional shield-like symbol imprinted in the middle of the usual three weapon combination. It is sealed with a metal latch that doesn't look like it can be opened at all.

Another is a lone glove that sits on the book. A white glove made of an unknown material that has metal plating on the back of it. The plating itself seems to be engraved with some kind of pattern that butterflies out from the middle of it.

And then there's the last item, the one that caught my interest almost immediately after opening it. And is also the most bizarre.

"A… sword hilt?"

Next to the two known items is what appears to be nothing but a rusty cross-shaped sword hilt. A metallic handle that is wrapped in old tattered leather with a conical diamond-shaped pommel, a circular crossguard with two arrowhead-shaped extrusions on either side and a faded glass orb in the middle of it, and what looks like a tip-part of a sword at the… well, tip.

"That's the weirdest hilt I have ever seen." Éclair noted curiously, "But there's a blade there, if a bit short. I have knives with longer blades, though…"

Curious, I picked up the sword hilt to examine it. And the moment my finger touched it, something zaps my finger and pulls the hilt into my hands. Dropping the box and spilling its contents everywhere in my shock, the glass orb starts to glow and the entire hilt starts to change.

The once faded glass slowly turns into a shining and glowing white. The rust from the hilt starts to disappear in front of my eyes and the tattered leather wrappings begin to repair itself. Even the tiny blade, chipped and covered in rust, repair itself before shooting out of the hilt, a connecting long chain following after it.

"W-What in the…!?"

Both of us could only stare in either shock or awe as the chain flew up into the air before stopping, hovering for a moment before retracting itself back into the hilt.

"…that was… weird…" Éclair numbingly said, "What even is that thing…?"

"It's definitely not a normal hilt, that's for sure…" I muttered out, "It's not even a sword, it's more of a… chain whip or something?"

"A whip made of chains… I think I've seen something like that before, but never like this." She stated, "Let me have a look."

I hand it over to Éclair. Or, I tried to, but…

"…Liya, let go."

"I am."

"Let. Go!"

"W-What the hell!?"

No matter how much she pulls on it, the hilt refuses to remove itself from my hand. It's like its stuck to my palm!

"What's going on!? Why can't I remove it!?" I cried out.

"I don't know!" She stated in shock, "Try dropping it."

I reach my hand out and removed my fingers from it, or at least tried to. My fingers don't seem to want to listen to me and just clenches ever tightly around the hilt with each mental command. Oh man, oh man, what have I gotten myself in to!?

"L-Let's head back first!" I stated, "Maybe teacher know something! He has to!"

"G-Good idea…!" She nodded.

By the time we made it back, the sun is starting to set.

"We'll back!" I shouted as I ran through the door in a panic, the damn thing still stuck to my hand as usual. Éclair followed suit while holding the other two items from the box.

"Ah, you're back!" Letia called out in worry, "It's getting late and I… was…" She trails off when her eyes meet the thing in my hand, "What's that in your hand?"

"Long story short, I found it in a box buried in the forest and now it won't. Get. Off. My. Hand!" I proved my point by shaking my arm to try and shake it out of my grip, before stopping when it is clearly not working and let out a loud sigh in response, "Is teacher still up? I kind of need his help on this…"

"Yeah, I'm up." His voice resounded as he walks up from behind Letia, "So, what's all the fuss's a…bout…"

His eyes trails to the hilt in my hand, blinking a few times before widening in shock. "Where… did you get that…?"

"We found it in a box buried in the forest." Éclair answers for me, "And now we can't get it off him. Can you help?"

Teacher was silent for a moment, before letting out a small sigh at that, "Of all the places…"

"T-Teacher?"

"Liya." He turns to me, "Be a dear and check your status for me?"

"Huh? S-Sure…?"

Unsure of what he meant, I use the status magic to check my stats. Status magic is a common thing everyone in the world can use, which displays our strengths via our levels, skills and magic in a detailed format. Besides those who fight for a living, and those with professions like apothecaries, almost everyone remained about level one or two, three if you kill enough balloons.

For example, this is my status:

Liya Price

Class: Apprentice Apothecary Lv. 10

Equipment: Apothecary Tunic, Basket

Skill(s): None

Magic: None

This is the common status for a well-versed apprentice like me. Nothing too crazy, and nothing too weird.

At least, it was supposed to be that way…

When I saw my status sheet, I blinked a few times before rubbing my eyes to check if I was hallucinating. "This can't be right…"

Liya Price

Class: Vassal Hero Lv. 1

Equipment: Apothecary Tunic, Basket, Legendary Vassal Cross

Skill(s): None

Magic: None

What's with my class all of the sudden!? When did this happen!? How did it turn into Vassal Hero!?

"Well?" Teacher looked at me with a knowing look, "Your class changed to from Apprentice Apothecary to Hero, didn't it?"

"Y-Yeah! H-How did you know?"

"Well, the same thing happened to… a friend of mine." He explains a bit hesitantly, "He picked up a hammer and his class changed to Hammer Hero instantly."

"Hammer Hero?" Éclair looks confused, "I thought there were only four Heroes, the four Cardinal Heroes of Sword, Spear, Bow and Shield. You're saying there are more!?"

"Yup." He nodded, "They were the Seven Star Heroes, not Heroes summoned from other worlds, but chosen from our world by the weapons themselves. Like the name implies, there are seven of them, Axe, Hammer, Claws, Gauntlets, Whip, Staff, and Projectile. He and the others supported the four Cardinal Heroes during the waves, and fought in the wars when they are needed."

"Seriously…?" I muttered. I've never knew there were other Heroes beside the four cardinal ones…

"But let's not discuss about it right now." He returned to the subject at hand, "Liya, can you tell me what your class is right now?"

"Um… it's Vassal Hero."

"Vassal…?" He blinked at that, "Never heard of that before… was there another Hero we don't know about…?"

"A-At any rate, can you help me get this off me?"

"Well, here's the thing." He nervously chuckles, "Once that thing is stuck to you, it's never coming off. Not unless certain requirements are met."

I'm afraid to ask, but… "What requirements?"

"You die, get permanently crippled, has a mental breakdown; those kinds of requirements."

"W-What!?"

"Unless any of those things happen to you, I'm afraid you're stuck with that thing till the end of days." He explains with an apologetic look on his face, "Sorry, Liya."

I could only groan at that revelation and slam my face on the table. This is not what I wanted! I just want to be an apothecary! Is that too much to ask!?

Little did I know, that day was the day my fate was sealed. And was the last day I'll ever experience the normalcy of life.

And that tomorrow…

Would be the day that would change my life forever…

…

To be continued…

Hey, hey, hey! How is everyone doing!? So yes, a new fic! Even though I'm busy with two other stories, I write out another one! Man, I'm just a glutton for punishment, aren't I?

After seeing the boom of the Shield Hero anime and with seasons two and three in the making, what better timing than to write out a fanfic about it?

And seriously, the fanfictions for this series is coming out of the woodwork the past couple of months! There are a few amazing ones, a real diamond in the rough situations, and there are the generic ones like the ones that replaced one of the main Heroes with your OCs kind of stories, or another Hero is summoned alongside them.

Not that it is boring, quite a the contrary, I think some of them are great as far as SI fic can go. Heck, some of my favourite Shield Hero fics are stories like that! Rise of a True Shield Hero(Redux) by theoneandonlyedster is one good example of it!

As for me, I decided to go with another route, with another Hero as usual but not one that is summoned. Instead, we have someone who just stumbles onto an unknown Vassal Weapon and has to deal with all the troubles and chaos that come with the Hero title.

It would be crazy, it would be violent, and most of all, expect to see Motoyasu get his butt kicked in the far future!

With that, I thank you all for reading this!