The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 by Aneko Yusagi Page B

price. It seemed just fine.
    “You want to eat that?”
    “Hm? Really?”
    “Well, you want to eat it, right?”
    She quickly nodded.
    She was much quicker to respond to my questions now.
    “Cough…”
    She was still coughing though…
    I silently passed her some medicine and placed our order at the cart. They were selling something like thick mashed potatoes, formed into balls and skewered.
    “Here you go. Good work today.”
    I passed her a skewer, and once she finished swallowing her medicine, she took it and smiled.
    “Thank you!”
    “Oh… Um…”
    She looked genuinely happy.
    She chewed on the potatoes as we walked around town, looking for a place to stay.
    “You want to stay here tonight?”
    “Sure.”
    I wanted a place to escape from Raphtalia’s night terrors, and I was tired of fighting off balloons. We entered the inn. The owner made a face when he saw me, something approximating anger, but once we came to the counter he approached us with a business-like smile on.
    “My friend here might scream a bit in the night, but can we stay here?”
    I didn’t intend to threaten him directly, but I waved my cape a little so he caught a glimpse of the balloons inside.
    “That… that’s…”
    “It’s fine, right? We’ll try to be quiet.”
    “Y…yes.”
    I’d slowly realized since I arrived that a measure of tenacity was important when conducting business in this place. All the people in the country thought it was fine to ridicule me, but if anything happened they’d run to the king.
    Even if they did, there really wasn’t any other choice but to let me do as I pleased.
    Geez. Oh, what a world…
    I paid for the room, and we went in and started unpacking.
    Raphtalia was holding her ball, and her eyes were shining.
    “Come back before dark. And try to stay close to the inn, okay?”
    “Okay!”
    Geez, what a child…
    Apparently demi-humans were subject to a fair amount of persecution but I figured that if she were an adventurer, she’d be left alone.
    I watched her playing ball in the street from the window, and turned my attention to studying compounding.
    About twenty minutes went by. Then I heard the shouts of children.
    “What’s a demi-human playing in our spot for?!”
    What the heck? I looked out the window. Down in the street was a pack of children, clearly just a bunch of brats, and they were approaching Raphtalia as if they were picking a fight. No matter what world you went to, there was always someone like this to contend with.
    “Aw, look, she’s got something good! Give it here!”
    “I… um…”
    Raphtalia understood that demi-humans were in a lower class. It didn’t look like she was planning on fighting it.
    Huff... I left the room and ran down the stairs.
    “Give it here! Can’t you hear me?!”
    “But I… Um…”
    She looked weak, and scared, and I could tell that the brats were going to take the ball from her by force. They formed a circle around her.
    “Hold on a second, you little brats.”
    “What the hell? Who’s the old guy?”
    Wh… What? Old guy? Whatever, I was twenty. Who knew what age they considered grown up in this place? I guess I was an “old guy" to them.
    “What are you trying to take toys from her for?”
    “What do you care? It’s not yours.”
    “It IS mine. I’m letting her borrow it. If you steal it from her, you are stealing it from me.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    I didn’t care if they were kids. I wasn’t going to go easy on them. If they felt like breaking the rules, they needed to be punished.
    “Okay, Okay. Let me give you another ball that I have.”
    Raphtalia looked at me in shock. She turned to the boys and looked ready to scream.
    “Run!”
    But they didn’t run. They looked right back at me.
    I smirked, and grabbed a balloon out from under my cape.
    “OUUUUUCCCH!!!”
    I let the balloon bite the kid before immediately putting it away again.
    “Now then… Are you sure you want to play with my