Shield Hero’sss new Sssuporter Draft (Patreon)

I am Malty S Melromarc, future queen of Melromarc, the biggest human country in the world. We are also the only ones that have managed to summon Heroes by now and all four of them even, meaning no other country can summon any more heroes. Not that they deserve them anyways.

And what makes it even better is that the three important heroes: The sword, bow and especially the Spear, are complete and utter morons. It is so easy to make them dance to my tune. Just a single word and all of them come rushing to their dear princess’ aid. Hahaha.

On the other hand, there is the shield hero by the name of Naofumi, or better known as, the shield devil. Truly the most evil creature on this planet, even teaming up with those damn demihumans to exercise their nefarious deeds. Of course I, as the future queen, have my ways of showing everyone how evil they truly are. No one will ever believe a word he is saying, trust me.

Speaking of him, Naofumi was also the one me, the real heroes and my army were currently chasing. In a most convenient turn of events, that idiot had ‘kidnapped’ my dear sister, the only obstacle left on my way to the throne. That I was planning on getting rid of her and pin it on the shield was obviously a given.

“Heroes! Let’s split up to cover more ground quickly! We have to find my sister before it is too late.” I commanded and everyone obeyed. We quickly split into a few groups, but that really didn’t matter. I just received information on where the Devil was hiding, and me stealing my sister's life would be... troublesome if I had witnesses. They need to stay blissfully unaware.

“Here you are! Found you, you shield scum and my dearest sister~” This is going to get good. The information was correct and we really found the shield hearos party in a matter of minutes, camping out in the wild.

But something was off. I could see that that demihuman and my sister, and even that fat bird were here, but the shield hero was surprisingly missing. All of them entered a battle ready stance, and so did my men, but where was that damn Shield Hero?

“Right behind you!” A familiar voice shouted and I turned around to look at its origin. Standing behind me was none other than the shield devil himself. I have to get away or at least attack him before he can…

“Ouch!” I shouted, but bit my lips to not show any further weakness. My right arm was burning up, but on second thought it wasn’t even all that painful.

“Got you! I brewed up a little something just for you.” The shield devil laughed. He was currently wearing a shield with two snakes on it, one of them had come to life and bit me on my right arm. Pulling the snake back into his shield, he continued to talk. “I’ll make this simple for you. This snake is poisonous and I am the only one who can cure it. And if you don’t do as I say, then…”

“How dare you devil scum bite me with your accursed shield?” I interrupted. His threat means nothing to me! I just need to find someone that…Oh no… I feel dizzy.

I can feel my legs shaking as huge waves of weakness are overcoming me. Everything seemed to originate from my right arm… the bite wound. My vision was getting a bit hazy. My hand feels… weird. Was it moving on its own?

I watched as red scales started to spread out from my bite wound, quickly covering up most of my arm. My hand was contorting in ways I have never seen before and fingers seemed stuck, I could no longer move them. It was like they were fusing together.

I felt a force pulling my legs together, but decided to ignore that for now. That was because I was way too fixated on what had happened to my hand. Two yellow eyes opened up on my appendage and suddenly I could see my own face… with that set of eyes.

We stared at each other for what felt like a very long time, all the while it formed into a more familiar form. A mouth formed where my palm had been, and a snake-like tongue shot out from the inside. I could taste the air. My hand had turned into a full snake, and I knew that the snake was part of me.

“W-what? M-my hand. It’s a snake? Wasn’t it always…” I mumbled, as the fog in my head grew thicker. I could feel, taste and see through my snake hand. It was part of me and the more I tried to remember when I didn’t have it, the more I seemed to forget. But I am no demihuman. I am human, right?

I felt so dizzy I couldn't even stand anymore. My legs just gave in and I plummeted to the ground, yet everything continued to feel so foreingh. It was like they were smooshed together, then pulled by an invisible force. When I stopped to look at them, I saw that the same red scales had already completely covered my entire lower body and my massive snake-tail was now getting longer.

…Snake-tail? Wasn’t I human? Shouldn’t I have human legs? No, that didn’t make sense, did it? It felt so true a moment ago, but the reason why just seemed to slip me. My head started to hurt badly and I couldn’t make it stop.

I tried to hold my head with my right arm, making me feel my own breath through the snake mouth with the occasional tickling of its tongue. What am I doing? Something is messing with my head. Am I a human? Am I a Gorgon? Something is making my thoughts all hazy. But I won’t be losing myself! Never!

I opened my eyes the best I could and looked at my surroundings. People were talking. People were fighting. I tried my best to make sense of it all, but the headache was getting nearly unbearable.

“Ah~ No! I am the next queen! You won’t…” I was shouting out loud to sort my messy thoughts. It's when I noticed that right next to me two humans were fighting. Two humans I knew very well, two heroes. One with a spear and one with a shield.

“None of those pathetic heroes will stop me!” It felt like my head was splitting, like something deep inside was trying to convince me to support the wrong hero. But I won’t be swayed that easily. I know who the true hero is and I know that he will save me!

“Oh Naofumi-sama, help me~ Ahhh~” All at once the pain, the haze, all of these weird feelings were gone completely. I knew that I could count on the shield hero to heal me like that. Like I said at the beginning, a single shout of a princess in distress and sir shield hero will always be there for me.

“Thank you, I am feeling much better now.” I shook my head and pushed myself off the ground. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the last thing I remembered was getting ambushed and poisoned by the spear hero. A foolish attempt really considering my royal Gorgon lineage.

“Time to show the rest of the world the greatness of the shield hero!” I said, briefly looking down to my snake head arms and reading their poisonous fangs. Meanwhile the Shield hero and the Spear devil were watching me intently, like they were waiting for me to join the battle. And who was I to disappoint?

I am Malty G Gorgonia, future queen of Gorgonia, the biggest demihuman country in the world. And now it was time for me to show the entire world how evil those ‘heroes’ really were. Believe me, I have my ways. Hehehehissssss~

Meanwhile with Raphtalia and Naofumi.

“Did you know that the poison would have this effect on her?” Raphtalia asked, as the two of them watched Malty go toe to toe with the spear hero, while she was ignoring basically everything he was trying to say to her.

“I genuinely have no idea what just happened, but I'll take it for today. Plus, seeing her betray her comrades like that is pretty funny.” Naofumi laughed, then readied his shield to storm into the fray once more.

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This is a cap that I wanted to write for quite a while now. I have commissioned that sequence from the amazing Miraimiru, and now it was time for me to write the caption for it. I hope you enjoy.