Phoenix of The Shield Hero

A Great Man's Demise

Sadeena's POV

          "Dreifach Thunderbolt!" I shout as lightning strikes the Cerberus boss. It dies almost instantly and falls in a charred heap. Soon after, the sky returns to normal, indicating the end of the first wave. As I make my way back to the town, I see Matthew snapping the neck of one of the monsters. As it falls to the ground, I see him fall too his knees. He seems, upset.

Matt's POV

          "Come on man. Don't be so sad. So a few people died despite your best efforts. That's no reason to get so broken up."

          "It's not just a few people, Phi. Lord Seatto has perished as well. You know what that means, right?"

          "Ahh, yes. That is a concern. But you already planned for that to happen, didn't you?"

          "Yes, I did. But that doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it."

          If lord Seatto were to remain alive, then Father wouldn't be able to summon all four heroes to Melromarc and they'd all be summoned to different countries. If that happened, Naofumi would likely be summoned to Siltvelt, where he would likely die because of the fanatics. And most importantly, nobody would be there to set the other three on the right path or clean up their messes.

          Of course, I couldn't do the deed myself. But since I have plausible deniability, and knew that he was going to die here at the hands of the church, all I had to do to ensure he died was allow him to help defend the village. After that, I let the church do the rest. Of course, with how strong Sadeena is the first wave wouldn't last nearly as long as it originally did. However, unlike in canon (probably), the church had agents here already in the form of the shadows tailing me at all times.

          They started following me after the dog shit incident, where I got assistance from Siltvelt... good times. And they've remained on my tail ever since. That was about 1 and a half years ago, or about half a year after I started paying the slave trader weekly to have his slaves write those death threats to the pope. Lucky for me, Phi has the ability to detect human souls and can inform me when I'm being followed, and where my pursuers are.

          When the wave started, and Lord Seatto requested to assist me, I set the shadows on him by warning him about the consequences of him dying. Namely, I warned that Father would be left in charge of the country, and that someone could take advantage of the chaos to attack the villiage after the wave. As expected, Lord Seatto still went through with assisting the villagers, and the shadows jumped at the opportunity to kill him. All I had to do was have the phantom I sent with him let itself be dispelled by the monsters via sneak attack.

          And just like that, a great man died. And as a result, this village will soon be targeted by Melromarc soldiers. Sadeena will be able to defend them, but she's only one person. Some villagers will still die, and some kids might still end up being kidnapped.

          "Still, with this, I can manipulate events for the better." As I thought that, I fell to my knees. "I really am starting to sound like Malty, aren't I."

          "Hey, Kai." Oh, look, a distraction. "What's wrong you look upset." never mind. "HA!"

          "I lost contact with the phantom protecting Lord Seatto." I said, knowing Sadeena realized the ramifications of that.

          Of course, Sadeena looked horrified. We went over to where I last had contact with my phantom and found his body. After we killed the monsters here, Sadeena checked his vitals. As she confirmed his death, a small crowd started to form around us. Seeing the tears well up in the eyes of the villagers, I left the group to hunt down any remaining monsters.

Sadeena's POV

          I watched Matthew run off from the crowd. I let him be, knowing that he was grieving in his own way. Not many people know this, but Matthew actually has a difficult time shedding tears. In fact, he has a hard time expressing sadness in general. As far as I know, I'm the only one he's talked to about this, and neither of us really know why this is. But we suspect it might have something to do with his aversion to making loud noises.

          Part of the reason he ran off just now was because he didn't want to offend anyone here by not visibly grieving. After all, arguing amongst ourselves was the last thing that should be done after a great man's demise.