“Those of you who can’t fit inside go sit in the trunk or something,” Hajime said as he got into the driver’s seat.
Brise tore its way down the straight path, the mountains growing closer every minute. It was nowhere nearly as well maintained as an actual highway, but Brise had built-in suspensions. On top of that, its wheels were enchanted with the same ground leveling skill that Steiff had, so even the guys sitting in the metallic trunk attached to the back didn’t feel any real discomfort.
The reason he’d bothered adding a trunk when he had the Treasure Trove was because he really wanted an opportunity to sit in the back and fire a gatling gun while on a high speed chase like in movies. His hobbies showed through a little in his creations.
The seats inside the car were all bench seats. Hajime was in the driver seat, with Aiko next to him, and Yue next to her. The reason she was next to him was so they could talk. She hadn’t wanted any of the other students to hear just yet, so she’d insisted that she sit next to him.
Normally, the seat next to Hajime was reserved for Yue, but he’d explained the situation to her and she’d reluctantly agreed to let Aiko sit there for now. Aiko and Yue were both quite tiny, so there was a lot of leftover space.
Meanwhile, the back where Shea was sitting was a bit cramped. Shea, Yuka, and Taeko all possessed relatively... stacked assets, so they took up a decent amount of room. Among them it was only Nana who was flat. She glared enviously at the other three girls before looking down at her own modest chest. She gave them a forlorn pat, but they were nowhere near as bouncy as the others.
However, it was Shea who felt the most uncomfortable. She was sandwiched between Nana, who kept shooting jealous glances at her breasts, and Taeko, who kept pestering her with questions about her relationship with Hajime. A forbidden love between different races got every young high school girl’s heart racing, after all.
Shea did her best to answer all the questions, despite being overwhelmed by Taeko’s enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Yuka was resting her chin in her arms and looking out the window. She tried to look uninterested, but it was obvious she was curious too. She kept stealing glances at Shea, as she was the one most curious about how they had met.
Meanwhile, Hajime and Aiko’s conversation was heading in an interesting direction.
Aiko had gleaned as much information as she could from Hajime. The more she learned, the more she was convinced someone had tried to kill him, but she still didn’t want to believe it. When she’d asked him if anyone seemed particularly suspicious, Hajime had just snorted and said that everyone did.
Hajime had floated the possibility that it might have been Hiyama. He was, of course, right on the mark, but at present he only saw Hiyama as one of the possible suspects.
With the limited information she had, Aiko couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion either. Even if she could, Aiko wasn’t sure how to bring a potential murderer back on the right path, nor did she know how to make them atone for their crime.
She continued agonizing over it for a while longer, but the gentle rolling of the truck and the soft sheet she’d wrapped herself in beckoned her to the land of dreams. Finally, her head drooped forward, and she fell fast asleep onto Hajime’s lap.
Had it been anyone else, Hajime would have flung them off him. However, he couldn’t bring himself to do that to Aiko, so after debating with himself for a few seconds, he decided to just leave her be.
Besides, it was his fault she hadn’t slept last night. After all, it was the overload of information he’d dumped on her that had kept her up.
“I guess it’s fine,” he said in a rare display of tolerance.
“Hajime, you’re nice to Aiko.”
“Well, she has done a lot for me.”
“Hmmm.”
“Yue?”
“......”
“Come on, Yue, don’t ignore me. Please?”
“Let me sleep on your lap next time.”
“Sure...”
The two were soon flirting openly with each other, despite the fact that Aiko was still in his lap. In the back were two girls watching the spectacle up front with great interest, one girl staring out the window pretending not to care, but still stealing glances every now and again, and one sulking bunny girl. Behind them, three jealous pairs of eyes were burning a hole through the back window.
It was hard to believe this group was headed into dangerous territory where one highly skilled adventurer party had already gone missing.
The Northern Mountain Range. Mountains ranging from 1000 meters above sea level to 8000 meters above sea level existed within the range, and the flora and even environment varied drastically from mountain to mountain. One mountain might be covered in trees with leaves the vibrant color of fall, but the next mountain over would be a dense green jungle. And then there were mountains that resembled desolate wastelands.
Moreover, no matter how many mountains one scaled, they would only see a sea of mountains extending infinitely northward. The first four rows of mountains had been somewhat explored, but past that was unknown territory.
A number of ambitious adventurers had tried mapping the entire range, but as the strength of the monsters grew with each progressive mountain, no one had yet managed to scale the fifth row.
The highest mountain in the first row was the so-called Sacred Mountain where the Holy Church’s headquarters were.
The section of the range Hajime was approaching was about 600 kilometers east of that point. Directly in front of them was a towering slab of rock covered in the blazing red and yellow hues of fall. Those well versed in botany would notice various spices and herbs dotting the landscape as well. The mountain’s vast bounty was one of the main reasons for Ur’s prosperity.
Hajime stopped Brise at the foot of the mountain, and the students spent a moment enjoying the breathtaking view.
A few of the girls let out murmurs of appreciation. Meanwhile, Aiko had finally woken up, and was as red as the leaves behind her as she apologized profusely to Hajime. Fortunately, everyone else was too focused on the scenery to notice.
Suppressing his desire to enjoy the view for a little while longer, Hajime put Brise back in his Treasure Trove and pulled something else out.
A thirty centimeter long model bird and a ring with a tiny stone embedded inside it. The body of the bird was gray, but it had a crystal affixed to its head.
Hajime put the ring on, pulled another four model birds from his Treasure Trove, and threw them into the air. Contrary to expectations, the model birds did not fall to the ground. Instead, they floated freely in the sky. Aiko and the others gasped in surprise.
The four birds circled in place for a few seconds before gliding toward the mountain.
“Umm, what exactly...” Aiko trailed off as she watched the artificial birds glide away without making a single sound.
Hajime’s reply was “Scouting drones.” In a sense, these objects were even more unfit for a fantasy world than his guns or cars.
Hajime had crafted them with the same remotely controllable ore that Miledi had used to make the golems they’d fought in the Reisen Labyrinth. He’d stolen... or rather been gifted a large quantity of them before they had been unceremoniously thrown out.
While he had no aptitude for gravity magic, he had succeeded in using his creation magic to enchant ore with gravity neutralizing magic, effectively creating floatstone. By infusing a spirit stone with gravity control magic, he had successfully created what he had dubbed esperrock. That was the nature of the crystals embedded into his drones.
Like the golems’ eyes, by pouring mana into the esperrock he could reflect what it was seeing to another esperrock. This was how Miledi had kept track of Hajime’s movements in the labyrinth.
Hajime had added a fragment of esperrock to his devil eye, so he could check what the drones were seeing whenever he pleased.
However, the brain’s processing power was finite, and having four drones circle far overhead already br
ought him close to the limits of his brain’s ability. Hajime couldn’t figure out how Miledi had managed to control 50 golems at once.
Though, ever since he had learned Riftwalk, he had been able to train his brain’s processing power like any other stat, and he had grown to the point where he could control a single drone with absolute precision without any noticeable drop in his own movements. Furthermore, when he activated Riftwalk, he could accurately control up to seven drones. Though that came with a time limit.
This time, though, he’d just brought his Ornises out to scout. They had a wide area to search, so he figured they would be useful.
As they watched Hajime’s Ornises fly off into the distance, Aiko and the students swore to stop getting surprised at every little thing Hajime did. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to make good on that oath for a while.
Meanwhile, the party continued down the path Will had supposedly gone up.
According to the reports, the more dangerous monsters only started showing up a little over halfway up the mountain. In which case, it stood to reason that Will’s party had been investigating that area. Hajime sent his Ornises out ahead to scout the area while he set a grueling pace.
After a little over an hour of walking, they finally reached their destination. They stopped there in order to investigate more thoroughly, and because...
After a little over an hour of walking, they finally reached their destination. They stopped there in order to investigate more thoroughly, and because...
“Haah... Haaah... F-Finally, we can take a break...Ugh... Haah... Haah...”
“Haah... Haaah... Are you alright... Ai-chan-sensei?”
“Ack... Urgh... Can we rest now? Haah... Haah... We can, right? I’m sitting down, okay?”
“Ahhhhhh...”
“Haaah... Haaah... You and your friends are monsters, Nagumo...” Aiko and the students had even less stamina than Hajime had expected.
Of course Aiko and the others had far greater stats than most people in this world, so climbing this far wouldn’t normally tire them out so. However, Hajime had been going so fast that they’d had to sprint all out just to keep up. And sprinting nonstop up an unfamiliar mountain path was more draining than they had expected.
Aiko was kneeling on the ground, panting for breath. Noboru and Akito were lying on their backs, gulping in huge lungfuls of air. Meanwhile, Nana looked like she was about to puke.
Surprisingly, Yuka and Taeko weren’t on the ground. They were leaning tiredly against a tree, but they didn’t look ready to collapse just yet. Probably because both of them had more frontline-centric jobs.
Yuka’s job was Acrobat, while Taeko’s was Whip Master. The former was a job that specialized in throwing weapons such as knives or darts, while the latter, as the name suggested, was proficient in whips, though they were also skilled in using all rope-like objects.
The sight of the delinquent-looking Yuka juggling knives, while the flashy Taeko swung a whip around was... depending on who you asked, either extremely surreal or extremely fitting. The class was split fifty-fifty on it.
Atsushi and Noboru were frontliners as well, but... their stamina was clearly lacking in comparison. Had anyone pointed it out, their hearts would probably have broken right then and there.
Hajime sighed as he looked over at the other students. Though in the end he was planning on searching the area anyway, so he supposed it was fine to let them take a break in the meantime. He decided to investigate a nearby river while they rested. Thanks to the view from his Ornises, he had a pretty good idea of the overall geography. He told Aiko where the river was and left the students there. It was likely Will’s party had stopped there to rest, too.
Hajime headed deeper into the mountains, with Yue and Shea in tow. The dried leaves littering the forest floor let out a satisfying crunching noise as they marched through the forested mountainside. Soon enough, they heard the sound of rushing water, indicating the river was nearby. The sounds of nature were pleasing to the ears. Shea especially was enjoying the walk, her rabbit ears flopping about happily.
The river was just a little too large to be classified as a stream. Shea, who had the best senses of the three, started scouting the area. Just to be safe, Hajime also swept their surroundings with his Ornis, but there didn’t seem to be any monsters nearby. Sure that there wouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises, the three of them sat down on a nearby boulder to discuss their strategy.
Halfway through, Yue kicked her shoes off so she could dip her toes in the river and relax for a bit. Hajime didn’t want to waste time, but as it was unlikely Aiko and the others had recovered sufficiently yet anyway, he let it slide. It was obvious he spoiled Yue. Shea ended up taking advantage of his magnanimity as well.
Thinking they might have gone upstream, Hajime sent one of his Ornises further up to scout while he watched Yue splash about in the shallows. Shea was barefoot as well, but she’d chosen to just dip her feet in. It seemed she was just enjoying the ticklish sensation of water rushing past.
Finally, Aiko and the others recovered enough to catch up to Hajime. They weren’t very happy about being left behind, so they glared testily at the trio when they arrived.
However, the guys’ expressions changed instantly when they saw Yue and Shea playing in the river, barefoot.
“This is heaven,” they exclaimed, and the girls’ cold stares turned toward them. The guys trembled under the weight of their collective glares. Upon noticing everyone’s arrival, Yue and Shea got out of the river.
Aiko and the others collapsed near the riverbank, and busied themselves with the task of replenishing lost fluids. Atsushi and the guys’ leering gazes had bothered Yue and Shea a little, so they also glared at the boys on their way out, causing them to avert their gazes in fear. Aiko and the girls all turned to look at Hajime. They’d all heard a lot from Shea about his relationship with the two girls, so they were glaring at him in mild annoyance.
“Fufu, you seem to treasure Yue-san and Shea-san a lot, Nagumo-kun,” Aiko spoke with a smile.
No matter what he said, he doubted they’d like the answer, so Hajime just shrugged his shoulders. Still, Yue’s next action provided enough of an answer. She walked up to Hajime and plopped into his lap. Then, she wriggled her butt until she found a comfortable position.
“...Good.” After that, with a satisfied expression on her face, she leaned back. All but stating that she trusted Hajime completely. Feeling left out, Shea hopped up behind Hajime and hugged him. Hajime’s back was enveloped in twin mounds of pleasure.
Aiko and Yuka blushed, while Nana and Taeko started squealing. The guys, meanwhile, were gritting their teeth in frustration.
Hajime didn’t bother trying to peel them off. Instead, he turned away, clearly embarrassed.
However, a second later his expression turned serious.
“This is...”
“Hm...did you find something?” Hajime stared off into the distance, muttering to himself. Aiko and the students all gazed at him intently.
“Further upstream there’s a... shield, I think? And a bag... They both look new. This might be what we’re looking for. Yue, Shea, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Roger!”
The three of them stood up at the same time, then started packing up.
Honestly, Aiko and the other students were hoping to rest for a while longer, but they were the ones who had insisted they come along. Plus, it seemed Hajime had found some kind of clue. They roused their exhausted bodies and pushed themselves forward, struggling to keep up with the hellish pace Hajime set.
When they arrived, Hajime found a small metallic shield and a bag, just as he’d seen from his Ornis. However, what the Ornis had not been able to show him were the details. The round shield was dented in the center, and one of the bag’s straps was ripped.
They cautiously examined their surroundings. Upon doing so, they discovered that one of the nearby trees had had its bark ripped. F
urthermore, it was stripped a full two meters up the tree’s trunk. It looked like someone had meticulously scraped off all the bark, but judging from the height, no human could have done that.
Hajime asked Shea to scout the area with her ears, while he activated his own perception skills. Cautiously, he walked past the scraped tree.
The further he went, the more he found evidence of a fierce struggle. A tree snapped in half. A broken sword lying in the grass. Traces of blood. The more they found, the grimmer the students’ expressions grew.
They’d already had their spirits broken once by the imminent fear of death, back in the Great Orcus Labyrinth. It was obvious from their pale faces that the scene had brought back memories of that time. Hajime could tell they were struggling to keep their composure.
He kept an eye on them as they progressed through the forest, absorbing each piece of evidence as he passed by it. Suddenly, Shea found something sparkling up ahead.
“Hajime-san, this is a pendant, isn’t it?”
“Hm? Yeah... looks like it might have belonged to one of them. Let’s find out.”
Hajime took the pendant from Shea and brushed the dirt off. As he did, he realized it wasn’t just a pendant, but a locket. He opened it to see a portrait of a woman. She must have been someone’s lover, or maybe their wife. Wasn’t that helpful as far as clues went, but considering how new it looked, it most likely belonged to one of the adventurers they were searching for. Hajime decided to keep it just in case.
They found a few other articles scattered about, and kept the ones that looked like they had been significant to their owners.
Searching the area took quite a bit of time, and the sun was beginning to set as they finished. They’d probably have to make camp for the night soon.
So far the only other living creatures they’d seen on the mountain had been animals. They’d been on alert for the monsters that had attacked Will, but they hadn’t even seen a single hostile creature.
They were relatively close to the summit at that point. And, while they hadn’t passed over the first mountain yet, they should still have encountered a few weak monsters so high up. It was unsettling how quiet their journey had been.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 3 Page 11
