Cassiel POV
The queen arrived too late to stop the massacre, while she didn't show it I'm certain she was disturbed by what she saw. Naofumi was at least able to keep the girls from looking upon the destruction so that's good. The queen arrested the Pope and confiscated the weapon to use it as evidence against the church then left with Melty and the bitch as the others were guided to a private clinic of the royal family. About three days later at around sunset she met with Naofumi to explain to him her side of what's been going on since the Waves started. Thanks to Aultcray and bitch, she's been stuck "putting out fires" between the nations, apparently the Heroes were supposed to be summoned one per country, but because they summoned the Heroes before the meetings were finished the queen was thrown into deep shit. Turns out Naofumi was supposed to be summoned in Siltvelt, but he got screwed over as well and that's not the end of it, the reason they were all able to be summoned was because the lord the queen trusted to keep everything in check died to the first Wave, the same lord of Raphtalia's home.
After explaining this she promised to clear his name and end his humiliation as well as reward him for his efforts during the Waves (I should have raided the vault sooner, now it's not a very good option) and for putting an end to the Church, she intends to give him the highest reward Melromarc can offer and 500 gold. After informing him of this she requested to speak to him alone so Melty got the others to leave with her, I was still in the SR like I've been since the battle except to get food and bathe so I heard everything and even what's to become of Aultcray and bitch, the Pope has already been sentenced apparently and executed. He reluctantly agreed.
The trials were scheduled the next day, though I doubt the others knew about why they were summoned.
"Naofumi, it's good to see you." Itsuki greeted.
"Where's Cassiel?" Ren asked.
"He's probably around, I have no idea where he keeps disappearing to though, not that any of us have seen him since then." Naofumi answered.
"You don't suppose he'd be willing to come out if he is around do you?" Motoyasu asked.
"Not too sure, he was hidden more than half the time anyway during our travels."
"He looked conflicted back then, 'first friends he's had in seven years' he said, I think he just needs time to himself." Raphtalia said, I exited the SR after.
"I was around, I did need time to myself. Raphtalia, Naofumi, Filo, I think... I think I meant what I said, about us being friends. I need to know, do you think the same?" I asked while removing my mask. Raphtalia and Filo latched on to me.
"I said you were among friends before didn't I? Back at the cave?" Raphtalia answered with her own questions.
"We'll always be friends!" Filo answered.
"You've been by my side since the beginning, I don't see why I wouldn't call you a friend." Naofumi answered. I think I smiled, a genuine smile as I slowly, almost cautiously, wrapped one arm around Raphtalia and the other around Filo and embraced them like they were to me, neither minding the blood dripping on their clothes.
"You haven't seen Myne anywhere around have you? She disappeared as soon as the fight was over." Motoyasu asked.
"She must be busy with her duties as a princess." Ren said.
"Our definitions of 'busy' must be very different Ren." I said.
"What makes you say that? Maybe she's putting together a surprise party-" Itsuki started.
"No, you'll see very soon, and I'm probably going to enjoy this far more than I should. Besides, Naofumi's here, do you really think she would invite him to a party? Don't answer that." I interrupted.
"Greetings Cardinal Heroes, please come inside." A royal attendent greeted, I put the mask back on before he led us to the throne room. Upon entering the throne room Filo and Melty waved to each other before the queen spoke.
"Four Cardinal Heroes together, I thank you all for coming." The queen said.
"Hm? Myne's not here..." Motoyasu said.
"I don't see the king either." Itsuki said.
"You can bring them in now." The queen said. The doors opened to reveal Aultcray and bitch in chains.
"Myne!" Motoyasu said shocked at the sight before him.
"Motoyasu! Help!" Bitch said terrified.
"They've got the king in chains, what's going on?" Ren asked.
"Do you really need to ask Ren? Last I checked, chains are commonly worn by criminals, and these two are on trial for more than enough crimes to at least earn a life sentence." I said.
"Indeed, shall we get started then? The trial of the foolish king consort and the first princess." The queen said.
"Mama please! Why are you being so cruel??!!" Bitch cried.
"What is this my queen? What cause have you to do this to us?" Aultcray asked. I didn't quite catch what he tried to say as he was interrupted by spears being crossed in front of him.
"This trial seeks to punish those responsible for shaking this country to it's core, as queen I shall serve as judge."
"What? Don't tell me the Devil of the Shield has brainwashed you-" the queen interrupted by freezing him in place.
"The Shield has no such ability and you know it! I can't believe I even have to say that."
'Holy shit I like her already.' I thought.
"What's that?" Bitch asked as a tray with a few items I couldn't see at this angle was brought to the queen.
"To ensure a fair trial, you will be given a temporary slave crest." Raven, you have competition.
"Mama!" Bitch cried as she was forced to kneel.
"How can you do that? She's your own daughter!" Motoyasu shouted.
"Because my daughter is a pathological liar."
"I'm not! You know that I'm a good girl, an honest girl!" The man who brought the tray moved to apply the crest. "Stop! Please mama!" She cried as the crest was applied to her chest.
"Let us officially begin the trial now. Be warned, your crimes are clear for all to see, you cannot worm your way out of this."
"You can't convict them of anything without an explanation, besides, what so called crimes are you claiming they commited?" Motoyasu said angrily.
"Mind if I join you on this queen? I'll act professionally, don't worry." I requested. She looked to me, more like through me.
"Very well, I will hold you to that." She granted and a slave pact was made between me and bitch.
"Alright then, would you like a list? Starting off with recent events she and the king are being charged with colluding with the Church who tried to kill all of us and frame the Shield Hero."
"No that can't be." Motoyasu said refusing to believe it.
"Do you deny it?" I asked.
"What reason would I have to collude with the Three Heroes Chur- AAAAAAAHHHHH!" She screamed as the crest shocked her.
"It's appalling to think the first princess would try to overthrow the state." The queen said.
"No, I wouldn't! Forget about the Shield, they tried to kill the other Three Heroes too, they even came after the royal family! I swear I would never involve myself in such a terrible scheme!" She denied, the crest didn't activate.
"There! You see? Myne really di-" Motoyasu started.
"Moving on you tried to have princess Melty murdered then blame it on the Shield. When that didn't work you framed him for kidnapping her, and tried to kill her yourself later. After they escaped you started a forest fire and framed them for that too. Do you deny it?" I interrupted.
"I didn't do anything to- GGGGGGRRRRHRHHR!" The crest activated again and she tried to keep it down.
"Oh sister..." Melty said in a hurt tone.
"No Malty! Tell me you didn't?" Aultcray asked in disbelief.
"It's not true papa! I wouldn't- AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" She screamed.
"So far your crimes include, but are not limited to treason, attempted regicide, arson, framing others for your crimes, and multiple charges of attempted murder. Does that sound right so far?" I asked.
"No! It's all wr- AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" She really doesn't understand her position right now.
"It's true." Ren said shocking Motoyasu. "It certainly looked like she was trying to kill the second princess."
"Yeah, we were there, we saw the whole thing!" Itsuki said.
"She wouldn't..." Motoyasu denied.
"Malty... How could you do su-" Aultcray started.
"King Aultcray, you conspired with the Church as well and summoned all Four Heroes while the queen was away." I interrupted.
"I only did that because we needed the Heroes in order to counter the impending Waves of Catastrophe!" He defended.
"And in doing so you left the other nations to fend for themselves which violated their agreement that each nation summons one Hero and nearly started a war with the entire world against Melromarc, leaving your queen smack dab in the middle of enemy territory." Naofumi looked surprised I knew that and the queen's eyes opened just enough to indicate surprise.
"Even so, on their first night, the Shield committed an unspeakable sin against my daughter!"
"That's right! Naofumi assa-" Motoyasu started.
"You said the Shield was and I quote, 'reeking of alcohol and ripped your clothes off' as he sexually assaulted you. Was he even in your room when Motoyasu rescued you?"
"Yes! Why wou- AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"You do know it only hurts when you lie right? Did he actually try to rape you?" I asked amused.
"Yes! The Devil of the Shield nearly raped me! I barely- AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" She fell backward. The other Heroes looked on in disbelief.
"Didn't you also steal his armor and remaining 200 silver? Don't answer that, it's basically been proven already."
"No way, that can't be right!" Motoyasu denied.
"Well then Spear Hero, why don't you forge a slave pact with Malty yourself?" The queen asked.
"Fine, I'll prove Myne is innocent!" A pact was made between them. "Okay, Myne, that night you were assaulted by Naofumi, but you escaped and came to me for help. Isn't that right?"
"Yes that's right! I was so scared and you were the only person I could turn to- AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" Okay that's getting old.
"Moving on you cheated in that duel between the Shield and Spear which not only did you force him into it, but it resulted in him losing his slave and only real emotional support, as you've seen with that one Shield everyone would've been put in grave danger."
"He cheated f-"
"Using monsters as weak as balloons as weapons is not cheating, shooting him in the back with wind magic is." I interrupted her again.
"I didn't cheat! I would nev- AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"So with that out of the way you owe Naofumi a few hundred silver and the freedom of all Demi Humans as agreed with the exception of Raphtalia as she willingly accepted the crest again after being freed, I'm probably forgetting something, but we'll sort that out later. Next we have maliciously abusing your power to force the Spear and Shield to fight which caused quite a bit of property damage and recklessly endangered dozens of people. I'm not even going to ask if you deny it because their testimony as well as the peoples would be more than enough evidence of such."
"Hopefully you understand now. Despite their status as royalty, they resorted to dirty tricks, attempting to eliminate those who opposed them. Concerned only with obtaining more power for themselves, there was no consideration for the nation they served!" The queen said.
"I didn't! I swear- AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
'One truth and how many lies? Jesus Christ it's not hard to tell the truth.' I thought.
"I admit my actions may have been unbecoming of royalty, but I swear I did it all for the sake of my beloved country and my family! That was the only reason I was tryimg to eliminate the Shield! The Shield's the Devil, it will surely bring the calamity of the past to my family all over again! I simply cannot let that happen! Never!" Aultcray defended as he slammed his fist on the stand.
"Ironically that 'Devil' has saved more lives in the past few Waves than you or the other Heroes have in that time frame, endangered fewer people too. He was willing to fight for you and your country and you betrayed him, branded him a criminal, and tried to take what little he had left. Your actions against him likely caused even more trouble for the queen to deal with between Siltvelt and Shieldfreedon. He did nothing but defend himself and a country that wanted him dead for no other reason than the weapon that chose him, everything else was by the works of you and your daughter including this trial. You fear the Shield will take everything from you again yet all the evidence so far has proven you and the first princess are more of a threat to your family and country than the Shield." I summoned Dawn as a scythe and leaned on it with the blade to the ground.
"Watch yourself." The queen said.
"Need I remind you it is thanks to this so called 'Devil' that several villages are still standing, more than one was nearly destroyed by the other Three? How about the fact he is the only reason the other Three survived the last Wave? Let's not forget he also saved the second princess from her older sister multiple times. You have everything you could want and more. Money, power, a loving wife, two... I can't believe I'm about to say this... Two beautiful daughters, one an absolute angel, and an entire country at your beck and call, and your actions have proven to me at least that you hate the Shield because of what his worshippers did to you more than you love your own family. Do you know what I would give to have my family back? Mind, body, and soul?" I shoulders are shaking as my voice began to crack. "I don't see royalty before me, I see a spoiled rotten, power hungry, psychopathic bitch and a pathetic, spiteful old man ruled by his emotions! I'll be back after I get this under control." I stepped into the SR and left the throne room.
They were sentenced to death, that much was obvious. This country has a good queen, though a little soft. Had bitch and Aultcray been my family I would have killed them well before the second Wave. Funny enough, the reason they were spared was because the bitch's crest didn't shock her when she begged Naofumi to save her. "She's so thick skinned that she can honestly beg the guy she tried to kill to save her, I doubt the blade would be able to cut off her head" or something like that as Naofumi put it. That got the crowd laughing, me as well. Now I believe Naofumi was still more merciful than he should have been, it'll come back to bite him I'm sure. Rather than make them slaves for life and removing the bitch's tongue he decided their punishments would be humiliation. He renamed them Bitch and Trash, though because Bitch had another name she was also given the name Whore (dubbed, Slut for subbed). After this the queen announced the start of a new religion which included the Shield and deemed the Three Heroes Church as heretical. Yup, good queen.
As Naofumi began to leave he was stopped by the other Three and the queen, he turned down the rewards and compensation the queen offered as it "wouldn't make him happy", he did however change his mind about not working with Melromarc, but he would still work with the rest of the world against the Waves. Upon leaving we were greeted by a few dozen people and a few knights to salute us. I was more surprised that swords and spears weren't being pointed at me for once.
The next day we made a trip to the Dragon Hourglass for class upgrades, the cathedral changed it's crest to include the Shield as Raphtalia pointed out. We were greeted by two of the people who joined us for the second Wave, once we reached the Hourglass the ritual began for me, Raphtalia, and Filo.
Class: ??? Keybearer Darkbringer Cursebearer
Available Upgrades:
Curse of Darkness: Reduce all stats in half, but increase 35% faster and 35% more.
Curse of Hatred: Dark emotions offer more power when channeling Darkness, but may lose self to own power.
Curse of Solitude: Misfortune follows wherever you go, only affects others at random times.
Curse of the Spellbreaker: Can no longer use magic, but offensive spells are sent back at the caster.
Curse of Retribution: The more damage taken, the more that can be done.
Curse of Bloodlust: Consecutive strikes increase speed and strength, but go berserk after a point until miss or damage is taken.
Curse of the Elements: All elemental magic becomes 50% stronger, but all physical stats and non-elemental magics are 50% weaker.
Curse of Sacrifice: Permanently trade varients of Way To Dawn and Path Towards Nightfall for power, can be traded any time.
Curse of Endings: Trade own life for the Absolute Death of any being.
So it looks like I got a class change too, none of them are exactly good. I'm not sacrificing any part of Dawn or Nightfall, I have no intention of dying to kill something, I like having magic and would like to not be reliant on it, I have no intention of getting hit to hurt them more, narrowing it down to Misfortune and Darkness, I saw the latter as more beneficial and reliable. I was able to choose my upgrade, but Filo and Raphtalia weren't, when we asked the queen she said she heard certain items can affect the ritual, on a side note we found out she loves chocobos as much as Melty. While we were there we were invited to a party and she asked to hold a meeting between the Four, after informing us of such the queen wished to speak with me in private so the others left the room.
"I wished to thank you for standing by Naofumi's side as long as you have." She said.
"I chose him because Bitch looked like bad news and a shield is definitely more useful than people think as he's proven more than once."
"Nonetheless you have my gratitude. Now on to other matters. You have some explaining to do regarding certain things you said during the trial and the battle with the Pope." I opened a Corridor between us.
"All I'm going to tell you is this was a gift from someone back home and basically I can get around very easily without detection and listen in on anything. As for the battle I gave him multiple chances to surrender, but apparently his life was worth more than everyone else's."
"Those were for the most part unarmed people you slaughtered."
"Perhaps, but it doesn't change the fact they were all guilty of attempted murder and treason among other things. They were trying to help the Pope kill us, legally speaking I defended myself and everyone else. You said so yourself that it was a battle, He did too, is it not the objective to kill your enemies and protect your allies during a battle? They tried to kill me too by the way."
"Was mercy not an option?"
"Can you in all honesty tell me they had a future? It was either die by me as a soldier of God, or die by you after a trial, or life imprisonment. Die a hero or whatever passes for such, die a criminal and a fraud, or die in a cell after an indeterminate amount of time. Which is lesser of the evils presented?" Silence filled the room for a minute before she responded.
"You remind me of a young Aultcray- Trash I mean. Please don't walk the same path as him."
"I'm not a fool, that won't happen." I stepped through the Corridor and found the others so I joined them for one last thing.
"Oh! Hey Cassiel, so what'd the queen want?" Naofumi asked.
"Nothing really. Listen, I'm taking my leave now."
"What??!!" They all said at once.
"It's time I returned home, I wanted to thank you for everything."
"You're really leaving?" Filo looked ready to cry.
"I'm sorry, but that I have to for another reason. The next Wave is soon and all my upgrades also had downsides, I had to make myself a lot weaker to recieve the fewest negatives, I'd hold you back."
"I'm sure we could make it w-" Raphtalia tried to say before Naofumi put his hand on her shoulder.
"He said he would be leaving eventually, he's earned it." He turned to me. "Promise you'll come back eventually alright, you're welcome here with us." I removed my mask.
"Only if you all promise not to die before me." Raphtalia and Filo hugged me again, it feels... Nice actually.
"We'll be here when you return." Raphtalia said.
"I don't want to see you go, but I'll wait." Filo said. Naofumi extended his arm.
"I'll see you around, thanks for all your help." I shook his hand.
"Don't mention it. I've lost enough already, so you'd better stay alive. Goodbye." I opened another Corridor and returned to Equestria.
Stepping back into my room I was greeted by Raven, or Nevermore as she was still wearing that look. She was reading a book and laying on the bed, there was a slice of cake on the nightstand.
"So how was it?" She asked.
"It was... Pleasant, turns out there are people, even humans worth saving." I answered. She closed her book, moved closer and lowered herself down to eye level.
"You've grown, not just physically, I might have to modify the Corridors some more. Enough of that though." She handed the cake to me. "I know it's still technically over a week from now, 8 or 9 days or something like that, but happy birthday Cassiel. Take the next week off from our training, you've earned it." I took the cake, but I had to set it back down. I was starting to cry and out of nowhere I latched on to her.
"No o-one, no one has do-done thi-this in so lo-long!" I said, my voice muffled. She wrapped her wings around me and did everything in the book to comfort me. I don't know when I fell asleep, but I finally had a dream.
And it wasn't the void or a nightmare.