As everyone knew, once a parent started calling you by your full na, it usually ant disaster was coming.
Even Myne, as the First Princess, was no exception when facing her mother.
Not to ntion, the one who truly held power in this country was not the king, but the queen standing before them.
Because the Kingdom of lromarc's royal family was led by its female royals, the queen possessed greater authority.
The current king was actually Queen Mirellia's "acting king."
Under Queen Mirellia's piercing gaze, few people could withstand the pressure.
But the problem was… she truly had not done anything bad during this period!
Myne felt like crying without tears.
When the Four Cardinal Heroes had first been summoned to this world, she had indeed wanted to secretly stir up trouble and provoke discord between the Heroes.
But before she could put any plan into action, Drake had pressed down on her head and forced her into a contract.
Since then, she had obediently done nothing but play support the whole way.
"Oh? It seems you still haven't repented."
Seeing her daughter remain silent, Queen Mirellia sneered.
"Do you rember what I said?"
"If you continued to commit cris, I would marry you off to that ugly Pig King… and I always keep my word."
"Now it is ti to fulfill that—"
"Please wait, Your Majesty."
Suddenly, Drake spoke from the side and interrupted the queen.
"Sword Hero."
Facing Drake, the queen's tone softened, and her eyes were filled with approval.
"On my way back to the kingdom, I heard of your heroic deeds. lromarc owes you a favor. I will personally grant you a decoration."
"The decoration can be set aside for now."
Drake nodded faintly, thinking to himself that this queen truly separated public and private matters clearly, and her style was unmistakably sharp.
"Myne… Malty is a companion traveling with . I can guarantee that she has not done anything excessive along the way."
"Rather, with her accompanying , she saved quite a bit of ti."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Not only the queen, but even the second princess standing behind her showed a look of surprise.
She understood her older sister's nature all too well. Malty was practically a troublemaker in human form.
Being lazy and greedy was one thing, but Malty had actually managed to drain the national treasury until expenditure exceeded inco. It was truly shocking.
If not for that, their mother would not have issued such a severe punishnt.
Yet this Hero-sama was actually saying that her sister had not done anything bad along the way?
Was this still the sa sister who would help an old lady cross the road by ramming her into a wall, or dig a pit for a blind person to fall into?
"Master…"
Myne looked at Drake with great emotion, but soon, she was t by Queen Mirellia's sharp stare.
"Hero-dono, my eldest daughter is a habitual liar. You must not be deceived by her."
"Hehe… thank you for the reminder, Your Majesty. I will judge for myself."
Drake and Queen Mirellia looked at each other for a mont before both withdrawing their gazes.
"It seems I was overthinking things."
In the end, it was the queen who spoke first and ended the topic.
"Since the Sword Hero is confident in taming her, I will entrust Malty to you."
"I hope that, while traveling with you, she will learn so of the noble qualities you possess."
As expected of the queen. In just a few words, she had sold off her own daughter while also flattering Drake in passing.
To Queen Mirellia, she probably wished Malty would disappear from her sight as soon as possible.
That way, she could smoothly pass the throne to her smarter and kinder second daughter, lty.
Naturally, Drake had no reason to refuse the queen's "kindness."
"I will not betray Your Majesty's trust."
The two exchanged another glance, seemingly reaching so sort of mutual understanding, and both revealed satisfied smiles.
The only one hurt by this exchange… was probably the First Princess caught in the crossfire.
'That vicious woman. Thankfully, I already ford a contract with Master, so this move of hers poses no threat to at all!'
Myne gritted her teeth inwardly and began planning.
'But I will definitely get revenge for this… though Master definitely won't allow to hurt her.'
'In that case… hehe.'
'Mother, I hope you like the gift I'm going to give you!'
The second princess, who had been secretly observing the Sword Hero from behind the queen, suddenly felt a chill.
As though realizing sothing, she quickly shifted her gaze and happened to catch the fleeting sinister smile on her older sister's face.
'Oh no. Every ti Elder Sister has a bad idea, she shows that exact expression!'
'What is she thinking about now? Is she planning revenge against Mother? Or…'
'No, I have to stop her!'
The four people who brushed past one another each had their own sches in mind.
...
The banquet ca to a smooth end amid lively laughter and chatter, without the unpleasant fallout that occurred in the original work.
The reason for that was simple. Drake's achievents as the Sword Hero were simply too brilliant to question.
Not only had he single-handedly held back most of the monsters in the Wave, he had also slain the Wave's elite monster in a single strike.
One could say that, through his strength alone, he had minimized the losses suffered by the Kingdom of lromarc.
As for whether other countries had the sa luck… that was another matter entirely.
In the face of a monster horde large enough to make even Drake feel sowhat troubled, if the available combat strength was only on the level of the Spear Hero or Bow Hero, they likely would not even be able to defend the towns struck by disaster.
"So, legendary Sword Hero-sama, are you in need of more slaves?"
Inside the circus tent's slave black market, the strange man wearing a top hat and sunglasses rubbed his hands together, his face full of anticipation.
"You're well inford."
Drake glanced at him, not at all surprised that his identity had been recognized.
"Please, you flatter . In our line of work, information is the most important thing."
The slave rchant wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and forced out a smile.
Not long ago, he had sold the Sword Hero an ice-wolf slave.
Before much ti had passed, the Kingdom of Jioral's official slave-hunting squad had been completely wiped out, with not a single survivor returning.
It was difficult not to connect the two incidents.
"I'm no longer interested in slaves… Do you have monster eggs here?"
"Oh my, how did you know I just received a fine batch of monster eggs yesterday? You're the truly well-inford one, aren't you?"
"Cut the nonsense. Bring them out."
Soon, the slave rchant took out a wooden box filled with eggs and hay from a corner of the tent.
Judging from the layer of dust on top, that nonsense about "just received yesterday" was complete garbage.
This box of eggs had probably been sitting in the tent for a very long ti.
"Speaking of which, why do you have monster eggs here?"
"This humble one still needs a legitimate identity on the surface… such as a monster rchant, for example."
"Looks like your legitimate business hasn't opened in a long ti."
"After all, in this country, demand for slaves is far greater than demand for monsters."
Even after the Kingdom of Jioral captured slaves, its largest market was still its neighboring country, lromarc.
That alone was enough to show how deeply rooted slavery was in this nation.
Drake had little interest in that. Every world had its own circumstances, after all.
"How much are these monster eggs?"
"Hehe… one draw costs one hundred silver."
A rchant's treacherous smile appeared on the slave trader's face.
"If your luck is good, perhaps you might draw a Wyvern egg worth twenty-five gold coins!"
Although Drake's target was not the grand prize to begin with, he still asked with interest,
"And if my luck is bad?"
"The ordinary prize is a Filo Rial egg. An adult Filo Rial can also be sold for two hundred silver, so it's a guaranteed profit."
Drake would have to be insane to believe him.
It was like saying that since a fully grown at pig could sell for ten thousand, buying a piglet for nine thousand was definitely not a loss.
However, Drake did not expose him on the spot. He directly tossed over a bag of coins.
"I'll draw twice and test my luck."
"Right away!"
At the sight of business arriving, the slave rchant imdiately bead with delight.
"There are two hundred and fifty monster eggs in this box, and one of them is the grand prize—a Wyvern egg!"
"By the way, if you buy ten at once, you can also draw once from the bonus egg box…"
"No need."
While using Appraisal on the eggs inside the box, Drake rejected the rchant's persuasion.
Ten-pulls? Not happening. For Drake, who had "X-ray vision," one pull was enough to get the prize.
"This one… and this one."
Drake quickly selected two monster eggs.
One of them was the Wyvern egg worth twenty-five gold coins.
The other was a monster egg that could hatch into a Filo Rial.
It was a common giant bird-type monster, gentle by nature, fond of people, and extrely easy to raise.
"Then, please drip your blood onto the marked area on the shell."
Following the slave rchant's instructions, Drake sared his blood onto the crest on the eggshell.
Then, with a flash of red light, information related to "pets" appeared in Drake's vision.
It was not his own system taking effect, but rather this world's status panel responding.
"Next, you need only place the eggs inside the incubators and wait for them to hatch."
The slave rchant gave a crooked smile and took out two oval-shelled incubators, though no matter how Drake looked at them, they resembled egg boilers.
"How long until they hatch?"
"Each egg has a different incubation ti, but you can learn the remaining ti through the incubator's information."
"Oh…"
Drake glanced at the incubators in his hand. Just like with the Dragon Hourglass, two decreasing countdowns appeared in his vision.
One showed twelve hours remaining, while the other showed seventy-two hours.
The latter was naturally the Wyvern egg. It would take a full three days to hatch.
The Filo Rial was a relatively low-level monster, so it would break out of its shell in half a day.
"Although I don't know what kind of monsters you will hatch, I personally suggest preparing plenty of food."
After the transaction was completed, perhaps because the slave rchant felt sowhat guilty about taking money from the Sword Hero, he offered a reminder.
"After being born, monsters grow and level up very quickly. That is when they need to eat large amounts of food."
"If they fail to receive sufficient nutrition during this period, they may end up below the average level of their species—in other words, underdeveloped."
"I didn't expect a slave rchant to know about this sort of thing."
Drake teased him lightly and put the incubators away.
"I'll keep it in mind."
"Are you leaving now? I look forward to your next visit, Hero-sama."
Unfortunately, unless sothing else ca up, this would probably be Drake's last ti visiting the slave shop.
According to the status information that only Heroes could see, the next Wave would arrive in forty-five days.
Generally speaking, the Heroes would take advantage of this rare rest period to travel around and raise their levels.
But Drake had a better place to go.
Terraria.
According to the ti ratio, one day in the Shield Hero world was equivalent to four days in both the Terraria world and the Apocalypse world.
In Drake's eyes, there was still nearly half a year until the next Wave. There was no need to rush at all.
However, just as Drake was about to return ho, the royal palace sent an invitation from Queen Mirellia requesting a eting.
Considering the terrible mother-daughter relationship between Myne and the queen....
…
Drake did not bring anyone this ti and went to the eting alone.
Surely Queen Mirellia would not smash a cup as a signal and have five hundred axen rush out from the sides to ambush him, right?
Facts proved that Drake's concerns had been nothing more than him scaring himself.
"I sincerely apologize for delaying Hero-sama's precious training ti by asking you to et ."
As soon as they t, Queen Mirellia personally ca forward and apologized to Drake.
"There is no need to apologize, Your Majesty. However, it seems you did not invite the other Heroes."
Drake swept his gaze around and found that only he had received an invitation, which left him sowhat puzzled.
Logically speaking, if this was a matter concerning the "Heroes"…
All four Cardinal Heroes should have been summoned.
Could it be because of the First Princess?
However, after hearing Drake's question, Queen Mirellia revealed a bitter smile.
"Because this matter concerns only you… or rather, only the Sword Hero."
"Oh? How so?"
"It is a long story. Please take a seat first, Hero-dono. Allow to explain slowly."
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