PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE YOU DELVE INTO THE STORY!

In essence, this fic is an AU "For Want of a Nail" fic mixed with the "Butterfly Effect." The "For Want of a Nail" is Naofumi discovering Malty's plan before she executes it. The "butterfly effect" is the slow and gradual change(s) that come from the Nail. Situations still happen which are called "Despite For Want of a Nail." However, butterfly effects gradually grow stronger and stronger throughout the story. If you're here wanting to see more changes happening, I recommend looking later on in the story past Chapter Eleven or Twelve.

If any of you have any advice or suggestions (as long as they're within reason) I'll try my best to implement them in my free time. Now, with that out of the way, you can delve into the world of the Shield Hero.

Summary: Naofumi Iwatani was summoned to Melromarc as the Shield Hero. Everything looked great... until he overheard Itsuki and Motoyasu talking about parties sharing experience from kills. He then finds out some stuff from his help guide that Malty hadn't told him about. In going to Malty to ask his questions, he eavesdrops on her conversation with a nun from the Church of the Three Heroes and learns more than what he wanted to hear. Not wanting to stay and wait to be arrested and tried unfairly, he runs away from the Capital. Now a criminal on the run, Naofumi has to do his best to avoid the Church and the King outside the waves. And find someone who, slave crest or not, will help him to overcome his own trials and pains past and present, and restore that which he thought he lost long ago. Hope.

Disclaimer: I don't own the anime, the manga, the novels, or anything else tied to ROTSH.

Hope of the Shield Hero

Chapter One: Not What He'd Wanted To Hear

In Naofumi's inn Room

"Hmmm, two hundred silver left. Two rooms at thirty copper each per night, and meals for two at 5 copper each. That leaves a little over... 199 silver." Naofumi said, counting the remainder of his money for the day.

It was night outside his window. He'd already stored all the clothes he'd bought at the general store earlier in one of the drawers. His new black and grey chainmail armor was hanging on the back of a chair next to the one he was sitting in while counting his money. His room was only lit by the light of one candle resting on his bed stand.

He took about 30 silver coins and stashed them inside his shield. "Hell, now I'm acting like a stereotypical Japanese tourist, stashing money away like this."

Naofumi finally got up from his chair and laid back on his bed. Feeling absolutely tired. "Holy crap, what a day." He said, staring up calmly at the ceiling.

...

'I wonder how it truly feels to kill a monster. Today I just ran around popping balloons.' He thought.

...

His face developed a look of disbelief. 'But still, I really am in another world!'

He started shaking around on his bed, squealing with excitement. Even though it was weird, he already loved this world. He loved how different it was from where he came from. He loved that he was actually needed for once in his life. He loved how even the littlest things reminded him of gaming. He had more experience playing in massive player games as a trader or guild boss and didn't have close to any experience playing RPG's, but hey, what did he care about that. He loved games almost as much as anime. And there was nothing better to him than learning as you go along.

Besides this world feeling like a game, he also loved how real it was. The feel of the nice soft mattress beneath him was real. The people he'd interacted with today were real. The food he'd eaten, oh how real and good it had tasted to his taste buds! He could sing praises to that food for hours if he could! Even the fresh air felt more real than the city air he'd been accustomed to back home.

What was the most unbelievable was an overarching fact. He, an average otaku, had been called to another world! And not only that, he was a hero in this world! With a beautiful redhead helping him out! It was amazing!

'Wow, I'm finally moving up in life.' He thought to himself, closing his eyes in bliss at the feeling inside him at that moment. 'It's about time my luck changed…'

He heard two voices talking outside his door, and he stopped moving around. The two seemed to be talking about their experience for the day. 'Is that Motoyasu and Itsuki?' He thought to himself.

"I'm totally going to outdo you tomorrow Motoyasu."

"In your dreams Itsuki."

Naofumi shrugged it off and got up. They were only talking about how they'd outdo the other tomorrow and all that. Classic gamer talk. Still, it made him smile nostalgically. 'Wow, it's so familiar to what my guildmates told each other all the time… I think I'm going to like it here.' He thought.

"Well, time for bed. Off to an early start and all." He said to himself. After all, if they were getting stronger than he'd have to get stronger too. And with Myne there to help him out, he knew that nothing would stop him from defeating the waves.

He turned to blow out his candle.

"Still, I can't believe how much my party leveled up just from me killing monsters," Motoyasu said outside his door.

Naofumi didn't blow out the candle. 'Huh? You mean you can look up the stats of your party members in this game?' He thought, still unfamiliar with the rules of RPG's.

"Don't tell me you were the only one who was actually killing monsters now?" Itsuki asked.

"Of course I was." Naofumi could imagine Motoyasu making a pose of flexing his biceps at that moment. "Got to make sure those fine ladies of mine don't so much as scratch a fingernail while I make them stronger you know. Besides, that's one of the best things about an RPG. If one kills, then the whole party benefits."

Naofumi stared at the door calmly. 'Wait, didn't Myne kill a couple of balloons herself?... but I don't remember getting anything from that.'

"Yeah, I kind of forgot about that rule early on. It wasn't until we were halfway through the day that I realized I still had to accept the party invites my group sent me when we joined up in the castle. There was a boatload of experience we all ended up missing out on." Itsuki said in an embarrassed tone.

"No worries man! I'm sure you'll have better luck tomorrow if you and your whole party are going at it! Just don't make those ladies of yours work too hard!" Motoyasu said encouragingly to the Bow Hero. It sounded like both their voices were getting farther away.

"Alright, night Motoyasu!" Itsuki responded faintly.

"Night Itsuki!"

Naofumi was standing by the door now, his ear having been pressed up against it to listen to their conversation. 'The others received party invites from their adventurers at the castle? But, but I don't remember getting something like that… did I?'

He pulled up his stat screen. In the top left, it showed only his health bar and stats. He didn't see Myne's anywhere though. 'Is there somewhere I have to go to accept the party invite? I should do that now if me and Myne both want to get stronger together.' He thought as he spent the next few minutes tinkering around.

Eventually, he came across a help guide in the bottom right of his screen. He used it to help him get more used to how to navigate through the different menus. Even though a part of him was still tired, he realized this was probably important to get out of the way right now. Just in case he accidentally forgot about it tomorrow morning when he woke up.

'Let's see. That's how I can check my status. That's how I can check what recipes I have for crafting… and compounding? Guess I'll have to look that up later... Ah, here it is! The party menu. So if I have a party invite… it should put it in the party menu near the bottom left of my screen.' He looked at the icon labeled party, smiling in relief when he found it. 'And if I have a party invite, it should be under received invites in the party menu.'

He focused on the party menu, and the help guide moved to the side. Two options appeared in front of him. The first one being 'invite to party' and the second one being 'accept invitation requests.' When he focused on the second option, he received an error message on his screen. 'You have not received any invitation requests at this time. Please try again later.'

Naofumi's face scrunched up in surprise. 'I don't have a party invite from Myne here.' He was utterly baffled at that. With how knowledgeable she had been earlier, he could have sworn that she'd know how to do something like send him a request to join his party. 'Maybe she forgot… but how did she forget when all the other adventurers didn't.'

A cold feeling started to enter Naofumi's gut. A cold feeling he knew all too well from back home. It was part of the main reason he'd given up on drinking, on having a social life, having other friends, and spending quality time with his family. It was why he had allowed himself to sink so far into anime and gaming that he'd proudly taken on the title of otaku.

Something like this had happened to him once before. But his gut was telling him what was about to happen would be much worse than that time.

'I'll go find Myne. Maybe it was just an honest mistake on her part.' He thought to try and reassure himself.

He stood there for a moment more despite the hopeful thought. Even though the more hopeful part of him wanted to trust Myne and go to sleep. Even though it had been a very tiring day for him and he knew he deserved to rest; he couldn't shake the cold feeling he was getting. And that part of him that wanted to investigate and put the matter to rest was steadily getting louder and more logical to him. That there was something very wrong with a member of his supposed 'party.' He just didn't know what it was yet.

Finally, that part of him won out and he opened his door. He walked out into the hallway of the second floor of the inn and walked silently down it towards the room at the end. 'I'll just talk to Myne herself. Maybe she can help me realize that I'm overreacting over nothing.'

When he got to her door, he knocked gently on it. "Psst. Myne. Are you in there?" He whispered.

He got no response. He tapped his knuckles against it a little louder. "Psst. Myne. It's me, Naofumi." He called again.

There was still no response.

He looked around, seeing the hallway was empty. He opened the unlocked door to her room and peeked his head in. Taking one look around, he saw it didn't look like anybody had gone into it yet. 'Hmmm… Maybe she's still at her table downstairs.' He thought.

He closed her door and made his way back down the hallway. The candlelight from the various candleholders lit up his unsure looking face. For some reason, that cold feeling in his stomach wasn't going away. If anything it was only getting stronger the closer he got to where the hallway opened up to the room down below. Where the left wall was replaced with the ornate wooden banisters that kept people from accidentally falling from the second floor onto the first.

It was when he was close to the edge that he finally heard voices.

"Are you sure this plan of yours will work my princess? We have too much riding on this for it to fail."

'Princess?' Naofumi got down on one knee and leaned forward just enough that his face could look between the gaps of the second story wood banisters down below at the first floor of the inn.

"Yes, I'm positive it'll work. In fact, I can guarantee he won't see it coming until it's too late. After all, he's already gone to bed, and by the time he wakes up in the morning guards will have his room surrounded." Myne said proudly to a lady donned in a white cloak with a white hood over her head. Although he didn't have much experience in this world yet, it looked to him like something a nun from a Church would wear.

'Who was it they were calling a princess. And whose room would be surrounded by guards-' He was thinking confusedly. Though he also hadn't liked the tone of voice Myne had been using. It made her seem more, creepy.

"Princess Malty. The Church of the Three Heroes has many resources at its disposal. Why not use some of them as a means of eliminating the Shield Hero from this world?" The lady asked, her question posed directly to Myne.

Naofumi's eyes widened. 'What the hell?! Did she just say Myne's name was Malty?! And that she's a princess!? But then why is that nun also asking about eliminating the Shield Hero?! Myne would never want to do something like that?!' He thought. The cold feeling in his gut finally settled, as if its purpose had been accomplished.

"Because then Father would get suspicious," Myne said with an eye roll. "Sure he doesn't have much of a like for the Shield Hero because of what demi-humans did to his sister back in his days as the staff hero. But even he would suspect something if the Shield Hero was killed outright. And that suspicion could lead to both me and your Church being exposed, and then I'd never become Queen. No, we have to dispose of him properly. While my mother is away." Myne said haughtily.

Naofumi leaned in closer, narrowing his eyes down below.

"And how will your plan accomplish that?" The nun opposite her asked skeptically.

Myne laughed into her hand. It was like Naofumi was really seeing the actual bitch side of her for the first time. "Oh, because accusations of this kind against a poor innocent princess cannot be ignored. My Father will be absolutely furious when I tell him about what the Shield Hero did to me. His precious daughter. And because of his status as a hero my Father wouldn't dare kill him in fear of angering the other kingdoms. So instead, he'd spread the news of what happened throughout all the land, ruining the Shield Hero's reputation before he even stepped foot out of the castle doors!" She said with an evil sort of crazy happiness in her face that came from her envisioning what torture she could put other people through.

The nun in the white robes pondered it to herself for a few seconds, and then a smile spread across her face. "Oh, I see now why the Church decided to send agents out to spread rumors of this sort then. A hero accused of something like this..." She started.

"Would have no one except the worst riffraff who'd rather stab him in the back vouching to work for him. Meaning he'd be unable to kill monsters by himself because of his low attack stat, and he'd trust no one who would support him to help him out. By the time the next wave hits Melromarc, he'll be so weak that he won't stand a chance of survival." Myne continued.

"Meaning his death at the hands of monsters with no one the wiser about his innocence." The nun's smile grew bigger, but then she frowned. "But my lady, what about those adventurer's who had signed up to work for the Shield Hero? Surely some of them might want to help him even after the news of his deeds travel throughout the land. And what about the other Heroes?" She asked.

The Princess waved her hand in dismissal. "It was only a few demi-humans and some knight from Seaetto that wanted to help him. The knight has already been arrested and jailed in the castle dungeons for crimes she didn't do, and the demi-humans were executed because of how desperate they were to serve such an idiot. All without my Father noticing of course. Not that he'll care either after I tell him about how the Shield Hero tried to rape me with their help." She said.

Naofumi's eyes widened dramatically. His breathing becoming ragged. 'They…' Cold hard realization hit him. Just like it had that one day when his life in his other world had been ruined. 'That was why no one wanted to join my party.'

His mind flashed back to the time when he and the other heroes stood in the throne room. How he'd seen all the other adventurers form up behind the different heroes. How he'd asked why he got no one to help him. And how no one except Myne, no, princess Malty had volunteered to help him.

'They had already chosen beforehand. Every last one of them. It was never a contest for who they wanted to choose when they saw us. And the reason why I had nobody to support me, was because of HER! But why-'

His mind was returned to the present when the talking continued down below. "As for the other heroes. Well, I need someone to be my savior from the dreaded Shield Hero. I've already chosen to throw myself into the arms of Motoyasu." Myne made a fake crying pose. "Oh Motoyasu, can you save this damsel in distress who has found herself in such a horrid tale. Please Motoyasu, comfort me with your embrace, and save me from that horrible creature wearing the shield." She started giggling into her hand again after her little act.

"And you think he'll really buy that?" The nun asked in shock at hearing such an obvious ploy having a chance to succeed with one of the three heroes she worshipped more than anything else in the world.

"Motoyasu's party members have told me how trusting he is to what girls say to him. He'd gobble my story up in a heartbeat. And since the other heroes trust him more than they trust poor, poor Naofumi, well;" Myne was saying in mock agony, before giggling into her hand. "It will be the unraveling and end of the Shield Hero."

The nun smiled in relief, trusting the princess in front of her. "Princess Malty. I can now see why Pope Balamus sent me here to check over the final details with you." She put a hand to her chest. "I personally had my doubts about this plan of yours succeeding before I got here. But now those doubts are gone. You have truly lived up to your name, first princess of Melromarc."

Princess Myne giggled into her hand. "Thank you lady Altara. That is high praise coming from one of the noble nuns of the Church of the Three Heroes." She said in delight. "Now, all I have to do is wait a moment more to make sure he's asleep, and then I'll be able to go into his room to plant the evidence. Who knows, I might also make off with all his gear and money while I'm there. I'm sure Motoyasu would like it even more if I gave my savior a gift like that." She said, a pur coming off of her lips.

Naofumi had heard enough. Shakily, he got back up. His mind almost refusing to believe it. But unable to deny it any longer. 'That two-timing lying bitch!-'

Creakkkkk...

Unfortunately, when he got up, the boards beneath him creaked long and loud from his weight. The talking down below instantly stopped. "Who's there?!" Princess Malty demanded while standing up to look around.

Naofumi stayed still with his back pressed against the wall. Sweat beaded his face as he nervously hoped that since he was out of sight that they'd think it was nothing. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the candle on the wall next to him was casting his shadow on the opposite wall in plain sight for anyone looking down below until it was too late.

"I see someone's shadow up there! Whoever it is must have been listening to our whole conversation!" The nun said in outrage.

"No worries, I'll take care of whoever it is right away." Myne's sweet voice said in a more deadly tone.

Naofumi's heart hammered at his chest. For the first time since he'd come into this world, fear gripped his mind like a paralyzing plague. And he was suddenly reminded that this wasn't a game. This was the real world, with very real consequences. And unfortunately, he found it was also full of traitorous backstabbers. 'All this time. She's only been plotting to ruin me. To have me stay weak, and to be killed off by the hands of monsters. No, not just her. But this Church that's helping her. What the freaking hell!'

It was the sound of footsteps going up the stairs that made Naofumi finally leap into action. He turned around, running back down the hall. There was no hiding his loud footfalls. Not that he wanted to hide them. Now, he only wanted to get as far away from this evil person as he could possibly get.

"Don't let whoever it is getaway!" The nun yelled from down below.

Naofumi turned the corner into his hallway right before Myne reached the top of the stairs. He ran into his room and slammed the door behind him.

Without really thinking straight, he grabbed his chainmail and hurriedly started to put it on with one hand. His other hand scooped all the silver coins he had left back into the pouch. By the time he'd finished with that, his chainmail armor coat was half on, and he hurriedly put the rest on with his other hand while his free hand stuffed the pouch of coins into one of the back pockets of the chainmail before hurrying to his drawers to grab his spare clothes.

A knocking sound came from his door. "Sir Hero. It's me, Myne. By any chance, did you hear somebody run down the hallway just now?" She asked through the door.

Naofumi looked at the door in fear, and then back down at his clothes. He wondered for the space of half a second if he should answer or not… he could pretend that he had heard someone and they'd woken him up. But with all his boiling anger towards her right now, and fear of her killing him then and there, he was tongue-tied.

'What do I do?! What should I do?! She's already going to accuse me of raping her! Do I try to play along and pretend like nothing's happening?! Do I run away right now!' He thought desperately. With the way his anger was bubbling up in him though, along with his inability to hurt her, he figured he only had one choice.

…

"Sir Hero?" Myne asked again, opening the door into his room. She was holding the sword she'd gotten from the blacksmith earlier that day in her hands.

The candle to the room was blown out, so it took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room. The back window was open. The table and chairs were flipped over as if they'd been quickly searched. The drawers were wide open, and the contents were all emptied. His armor and silver coins were gone. And most alarming to her was that he was nowhere in sight.

"Sir Hero?!" She yelled.

Oof!

Naofumi landed on his shield arm hard after jumping from the second story of the inn. "Ow…" He groaned in pain to himself. He had tried to time his jump better but had failed to adequately judge when he'd hit the ground. 'Good thing for my high defense stat. Otherwise, jumping out that window would have broken my ankle.' He thought as he slowly got himself back up off the ground. Though his legs felt like hell for a few seconds before the pain reverted to a more bearable form of hell.

He did a quick look in the menu at his stats. His HP had dropped about a fourth from the hard landing. But otherwise, he appeared to be okay. The shocking difference between reality and gaming was mind-boggling. 'Still, what the hell! They go through all this trouble summoning me to their world, just to set up betrayal and false rape accusations within 48 hours of me being here! What kind of sick psychos would do something like that!?' He thought angrily to himself.

"Sir Hero!?" He heard Myne's voice up above from his open window.

Naofumi looked up in anger up above. He'd never hated someone so much as he did at that moment. This hurt even worse than what happened to him years ago in school. And what was worse was that at level one, he could do absolutely nothing about it. Not one, damn, thing!

'No. I have no time to sit here and stew about it! I have to get the hell out of here now!' He thought before he took off as fast as he could away from the inn.

"Sir Hero?" Myne asked, looking out the window to look at the street down below. She looked both ways, seeing no one in sight. When she looked at the ground directly below the window, she saw a dent in the street that looked to be the exact shape of the Legendary Shield.

She was confused at first why Naofumi would do something as stupid as jumping out a window. But then the dots quickly connected in her mind, and a growl escaped her lips. "Damn it! The Shield Hero knows my plans." She growled out.

She turned around and walked back towards the doorway. "I might as well put my plan into motion now. If he manages to leave the city before I can tell my father what happened, it could drastically weaken my rape accusation." She said, dropping a pair of purple lace panties on the side of Naofumi's bed.

"Motoyasu! Motoyasu!" Princess Malty yelled, running quickly out the door.

...

In the shadows of the room, a lady wearing a mask moved from out of her hiding place. "I daresay, if the princess is already putting her plan in motion, then I will have no choice but to do the same." She said to herself.

...

One second she was there, and the next she disappeared into the shadows.

Naofumi ran through the streets of the Capital. With it being so late at night, there weren't very many people out and about. What few that were out looked confusedly at him as he ran like he was being chased by a hellcat.

'They were going to set me up! They were going to trick me and betray me! They wanted me to fail and die instead of defeating the waves!' He thought angrily to himself.

He felt so stupid. He should have realized how off it had seemed to have such a beautiful girl like Myne want to join his party. Why would some girl as hot as her ever want to join with some loser who had nothing but a shield to fight with? She hadn't really been prepping him for fighting against the waves. She hadn't been getting close to him as a means of becoming friends with him.

No, she'd been setting him up to fail from the start. She'd wanted to take everything away from him. His money, his trust, and his respect for others. Whilst using this accusation to throw herself into the arms of the Hero she really wanted to be with. The hero she really had her eyes on.

Motoyasu!

He stopped next to the wall of some shops. "URGH!" He yelled at himself as he slammed his fist into the wall with a resounding Thud. His anger spiked when he felt no pain from punching a brick wall. "I'm so stupid! I'm such a loser!" He berated himself while no one else was around on the street.

"I knew I should have played those RPG's back at home! I knew I should have tried to ask the others more questions when I had the chance! I knew I should have been more suspicious when nobody wanted to join my party! Then I wouldn't have trusted letting a bitch like her close in the first place all over again!" He yelled to himself, falling to one knee beside the wall. "I'm so stupid, stupid, STUPID!"

Tears were starting to leak into the corners of his eyes. "Why? What did I ever do to them? Why does being the Shield Hero have to mean that they'd go to such lengths just to get rid of me?!" He looked up angrily at the sky. "If you hated me already, why the hell would you pull me from my world to this crappy hellhole!?" He yelled angrily to the night.

…

"Hey kid, you doing alright?"

Naofumi looked to the side. The door to the shop was wide open now. And he recognized the blacksmith Erhard standing in the doorway. "Erhard-" He started to say when he stopped himself.

'No. I have no way of trusting anyone now.' He thought coldly.

"Sorry to ask, but your yelling kind of woke me up. Did something happen to you-" Erhard started to ask with concern in his voice.

"Stop trying to trick me, old man!" Naofumi yelled while glaring at Erhard, much to the latter's surprise. "I already overheard what that princess was planning with the Church! I know they've sent agents out to spread false rumors about me! How should I know you're not one of them?!" He asked in anger.

Erhard put his hands up. "Whoa, there shield kid. It sounds to me like you just had a rough time of it. How about you come in and explain the details to me so I can understand." He said.

"And let you distract me while guards surround the place and capture me! What reason do I have to trust you?" Naofumi angrily asked.

Erhard looked back behind him at Naofumi's angry face. The kid's eyes which had seemed so warm and full of hope before were now starting to turn cold and distrustful. They hadn't finished transforming yet, but the process had begun. Erhard heaved a sigh. 'Damn it.' He hated to see people who looked so happy before turn out like this. It reminded him too much of his old war days.

"You probably don't have any reason to trust me, kid. I have no idea what happened to you to turn you into this. But I'm offering to listen to you right now instead of these false rumors you mentioned that are spreading right now. And if it's as bad as you say, would you rather I heard it from you, or from these rumors about you?" He asked logically.

Erhard didn't realize it, but this was the right way he needed to speak to Naofumi in that moment. Naofumi, emotional as he was right now, had mainly been driven throughout his life by logic. His favorite classes in school had involved common sense and logic. He made strategies with dozens of other players based on logic. And to ignore such cold hard logic presented to him now would have been an affront to such a strong part of his personality.

He sighed. "Fine. I'll talk. But you better not betray me." He said coldly.

Erhard nodded, and let Naofumi into the blacksmith shop. "Let's hear what you have to say first, and we'll see about that."

Thirty minutes later

"Wow, so all that really went down?" Erhard asked, leaning back in his chair.

The two of them sat in chairs around a simple dining room table. A lantern was on, casting light over the both of them.

Naofumi nodded glumly. The anger at being betrayed by Myne had mostly disappeared. But now he closely resembled the cold Naofumi he had been years ago when a similar event in his world happened. And of course, that had also involved a hot girl. Though he had sworn not to dwell on it himself ever again.

Erhard put his hand to his chin in thought. "You know, I could have sworn I recognized the girl that came in with you earlier today. But I never would have guessed that she was Malty, the second princess of Melromarc." He said to himself.

"Yeah, I never would have guessed it too," Naofumi said coldly. "Not until I heard that nun she was talking to call her by that name."

Erhard leaned forward. "Do you realize what kind of accusation that carries there kid? We're not just talking about some member of royalty plotting something, but we're talking about the state religion of Melromarc plotting with royalty against one of the Four Cardinal Heroes of Legend. If what you're saying is really true, then that'd mean-" He tried to say.

"Then that'd mean that I've been set up to fail from the start. By both royalty, and by the prominent religion of this kingdom." Naofumi said coldly. "Just what I need. Both politics and religion working against me."

"More so than that kid, you'd be making enemies of some of the most powerful nobles in the land. Both those who support the king and his daughter, and those who are strong believers in the Church. Not to mention, the many commoners who support them both." Erhard stressed to Naofumi, trying to get him to see the importance of that.

"Why should I care?" Naofumi asked coldly, his body was facing the side. His head turned to blandly look at the blacksmith. "It's not like I'll be able to do anything about it now. Malty is probably before the king with Motoyasu right now, spreading her lies like wildfire throughout the Capital."

The blacksmith remained silent, but a frown came onto his face. "I mean even though I ran away, it's not likely the princess isn't going to let go of her plan. In fact, it'll probably make a stronger argument since I supposedly 'ran off' after raping her. Nothing I could say now would mean a thing since the King has already shown he doesn't like me. And even if she's right and he wouldn't execute me on the spot when I'm arrested, word of what I 'did' to the princess will travel fast whether I stay or not because of the Three Heroes Church. In short, I'll have no help to level up. No way of gathering money sufficiently to improve my gear. No way of being able to trust anyone... And no chance of surviving the waves that are coming. All because of them." He said despondently, before looking down at his lap.

Erhard took pity on the Shield Hero in front of him. 'Poor kid. He's only been here less than 2 days, and he's already lost almost all his trust and respect for everyone here.' He thought.

"Is there any way that I could return back to my homeworld?" Naofumi asked in a begging tone.

Erhard shook his head. "Sorry to break it to you shield kid, but according to legend the only way a hero can return to their world is for them to beat the waves."

Naofumi leaned back in his seat again. "Great. I'm screwed then." He said.

...

"Tell you what kid, since it looks like you need it, what if I told you there was a way you could have someone you could trust in your party helping you out?" Erhard asked.

Naofumi looked blandly back up from the floor at the blacksmith. 'Yeah right. Like I could ever trust anyone else to ever help me out after this.' He thought pessimistically to himself. Still, a part of him realized that if there was a way that he could somehow get stronger and survive the waves long enough to return home, then he had to take it. After all, at this point, he had no choice. "I'm listening." He said, turning fully to face Erhard.

Erhard grimaced. "Alright. But if you go through with this, I want you to treat that person better than the way the First Princess treated you, you got me?" Erhard asked.

Naofumi grimaced but nodded. "Just get to the point grandpa, I don't have all night." He said impatiently.

The grimace didn't disappear from Erhard's face. "I'm not much of a fan of it. But desperate times call for desperate measures." He leaned forward again. "But I have a feeling that you'll be a better slaveholder than most other people." He said seriously.

Author's Notes:

Wow, and here we are off to a great start! I'm actually particularly happy with how the beginning of this played out here. Before writing this, I decided to do some more research into the anime to find out a bit more about Naofumi's treatment in the beginning. And I have to say I'm glad I did. I'm not only able to understand a bit better what Naofumi is going through here, but I also understand now why it all worked so well in why he was hated so much in the beginning.

If you're interested in more, please favorite and follow! If you have any suggestions for what you want to see in this AU of sorts, leave a review or PM me! And if you really like it and are the type of person who leaves a review to tell me all of what you liked or what I could improve on, feel free to do so! I take any constructive criticism seriously.

Till Next TIme

Allen