Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 3

by Ryo Shirakome

  “Ah.” Shizuku let out a silent gasp. The thing in front of her was a monster. She understood that. At least in her head. But she wasn’t mature enough to be able to accept that wholly right away. And a person’s instincts always acted faster than their thoughts. To kill the golem, she would have to slice her best friend’s face in two.

  “Aaaaaaaah!”

  Kouki couldn’t tell if that was a scream of anguish, or one to psych herself up. Either way, it was thanks to that that she managed to overcome her hesitation and let loose her fastest slash, the Yaegashi-style technique, Rising Dragon. Normally the attack was followed up by a jump kick and a finisher with the sheath, but the continuation was unnecessary in this case.

  A crack formed at the golem’s base and quickly traveled up, just like a rising dragon. A second later there was a snapping noise, and the golem was cleaved cleanly in two, along with the mana stone inside of it. The golem collapsed in a puddle of mud, the two halves of its mana stone falling into its remains with a plop. At the same time, the other golems all crumbled as well.

  “Great job, Shizuku!” Kouki let out an elated whoop as he ran toward Shizuku. Shizuku grinned and responded in a rather happy, exited tone, then Kouki turned around to congratulate Ryutarou and the others, while Shizuku looked down at her palms. Some of the mud from the Clay Golem was smeared on them. She furrowed her brows and quickly wiped it off. However, even after her hands were clean, Shizuku’s expression was still grim.

  “Shizuku.”

  “Huh?”

  Kouki’s voice brought Shizuku out of her musings. She gave a distracted reply; her every instinct was screaming to her that death was approaching from behind. She turned around, then saw a massive spider dangling from the ceiling. Its eight red eyes were fixated on her, and some poisonous-looking fluid was dripping from its clawed legs, which stood ready to pounce.

  Someone let out a gasp. This was the price they paid for letting their guards down for even a second. That was the harsh reality of the labyrinth. Those who braved its depths walked hand in hand with death. And more often than not, death would have its due. That was just the kind of place they were in.

  “Binding Blades of Light!”

  Luckily for the students, death had already had its fill for the day. Before its envenomed claws could sink into Shizuku’s flesh, crosses of amethyst light speared the spider’s body, blowing it back toward the wall and pinning it in place. As it was a binding spell and not an offensive one, the spider didn’t actually take that much damage, but the impact of being slammed against the wall still confused it for an instant.

  Shizuku had avoided death’s embrace by a hair’s breadth, saved by her best friend’s magic. Next to Kaori, Suzu had hurriedly started chanting a barrier spell, but stopped mid-cast.

  “K-Kaorin, how’d you get so fast...” she said, with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

  “Kaori... thanks. You just saved my—” Before Shizuku could finish thanking her, Kaori started briskly walking toward the spider. For some reason, the phrase “Let sleeping dogs lie” flashed through her mind, and Shizuku fell silent. Even Kouki was a little overwhelmed by Kaori’s attitude.

  She stopped in front of the spider and raised her staff, summoning her binding chains. Far more than she usually called forth. Chains sprouted from the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. They wrapped around the spider, ripping it from the wall, leaving it suspended in midair. They then coiled about it over and over, until it was encased in a sphere of glowing chains.

  “U-Umm, Kaori?” Shizuku called out nervously. Though the fear of death had since passed, Shizuku could feel goosebumps rising up on her skin.

  Kaori started shrinking the ball of chains, causing some disturbing creaking noises to come from the spider before slowly turning around to face Shizuku. Behind her was something that could only be described as a demon. A ghost dressed in pure white, with a horrific mask for a face.

  “It’s the demon mask-san!” Shizuku finally realized the true nature of the terrifying illusions she’d been seeing. Even Kouki let out a frightened squeal as he took a faltering step back.

  “K-Kaori? Umm, Kaori-san? Umm, behind you—”

  “Fufu, what’s wrong Shizuku-chan? You usually just call me by my first name. Fufufu... How odd. It feels as if some thieving rabbit just stole something really important from me. I wonder why?”

  The odd thing here is you! Not that Shizuku could say that out loud, though. The ghost-demon thing behind Kaori had pulled out a massive sword from somewhere and was tapping it on its shoulder threateningly. Just what kind of curse is she possessed by? Shizuku cradled her head, despairing over the state of her best friend. She had no way of knowing that thousands of miles away a white-haired boy with an eyepatch was getting kissed to death by a worthless bunny after saving her from drowning.

  Kaori finally returned to her senses a few seconds later, by which time the spider was little more than a crushed ball of goop. After making sure she was okay, the party headed further into the labyrinth. As they continued, Shizuku had to deal with Kaori getting possessed multiple times, Kouki going crazy over Kaori’s madness, German-suplexing Ryutarou when he went a little overboard, keeping demon Kaori happy, keeping Suzu in line every time she tried to grope Kaori, and staring down Hiyama when he got full of himself and tried to rush through the rest of the floor.

  “This stress is going to drive me bald...” Her worries about her hair faded away into the labyrinth, much like the lives of many hapless adventurers that had come before her. Whether or not a savior would appear to relieve her of her duty of looking after the others and her worries about balding... only God knew.

  Hajime drove Brise even faster on the way back than he had on the way there. Because he was going faster than his road smoothening tires could work their magic, Tio, who was tied to the roof, and Atsushi and the guys, who were sitting in the back, were shaken around like rag dolls.

  “N-Nagumooo, can’t you drive a bit more gently!?”

  “I-I’m gonna falllllllllllllllll!”

  “Noboru! I’m coming, don’t— Blagh my tongue, I bit my tongue!”

  “Haaah... Oh how my wounds ache. Mas... Ahem, more.... Ahem... Please let me inside.” Atsushi was clinging on to the back window for dear life, Noboru was half out of the truck as it was, and Akito had managed to bite through his tongue while trying to reel him back in, and was now writhing in pain. Meanwhile, Tio was writhing in ecstasy as each bump dug into her wounds, calling out for help in a monotone that fooled absolutely no one. Had this been his world, Hajime would have been arrested, but it wasn’t, so he didn’t care.

  About halfway to Ur, Hajime spotted Aiko’s guardian knights riding hard in his direction. They were all fully armored. Using his Farsight, Hajime was easily able to make out David, who was charging forward with a ferocious expression on his face, and Chase, who was struggling to keep pace with him.

  A few minutes later, the knights spotted a giant black object racing toward them. From their perspective, Hajime’s truck looked like some kind of monster. They quickly pulled out their weapons and got into formation. Their quick response, even in the face of an unknown threat, showed just how well they had trained.

  Hajime honestly wouldn’t have minded just driving right through them. Their attacks had no hope of even scratching Brise. However, he doubted Aiko felt the same, and it would be a problem if Tio or Atsushi and the others got hurt as he drove past, so he opened the truck’s sunroof and started shouting and waving his arms wildly to grab their attention.

  David was just about to start raining magic down on the truck when he spotted something that looked distinctly human come out of it. He squinted, trying to make out more detail.

  Normally, David would have gone through with the attack anyway, but something made him hesitate. His devotion to Aiko had given him some strange sixth sense when it came to detecting her presence. He raised his arm and gave the signal for his men to stand down. His men looked at
him suspiciously, but then their eyes opened wide in surprise as the truck grew closer and they heard who was yelling from inside it. David muttered, “Aiko?” an expression of disbelief on his face.

  For a second the knights were terrified some horrible monster had eaten Aiko, but then they saw her waving frantically at them, yelling at them.

  “David-saaaan, it’s me! Please don’t attack us!” Joy spread through the knights as they realized Aiko was safe. True, they were still suspicious about the strange black object she was in, but they understood that it wasn’t an immediate threat.

  David was perhaps a little too overjoyed as he spread his arms wide, as if inviting Aiko to jump into them. Following his example, Chase and the other knights also spread their arms.

  Hajime stared with disgust as he watched the retinue of knights all stand there in a line, their arms spread to either side, obvious ecstatic expressions on their faces. Aiko had been certain he would stop in front of David and the others, but their attitude annoyed him so much that he instead accelerated as he got close.

  The knights stared blankly at the rapidly accelerating truck for a second before hurriedly diving out of the way.

  Hajime mercilessly rode Brise past the scattering knights. The knights watched, smiles still frozen on their faces, as the black thing sped away, Aiko’s questioning scream faded into the distance.

  Then as one they screamed “Aikoooooooo!” like a group of abandoned lovers, and chased after Brise.

  “Nagumo-kun, why did you do that!?” Aiko yelled furiously at Hajime.

  “There was a good reason not to stop, Sensei. If we’d stopped, we’d have to explain what happened, which we don’t have time for. We have to explain everything once we get to town anyway, so I’d rather not waste time doing it twice.”

  “W-Well, I-I suppose that’s true...” She still wasn’t happy about it, but considering how fast Hajime was driving, she had to admit they would have lost a great deal of time stopping for the knights.

  Yue, who’d returned to her usual position next to Hajime, leaned in to whisper in his ear.

  “...The real reason?”

  “Those grinning knights were creeping me out.”

  “Mmm, agreed.”

  Incidentally, Tio had been moaning in ecstasy on the roof right behind Aiko during that entire exchange, but both Aiko and the knights had pretended not to see her. Yue had received quite a shock upon learning Tio’s true nature. Enough that she’d mumbled “...Is that really a dragonman?” She had already had misgivings when Tio had first transformed back to her human self, but after seeing how Tio got off to pain, her illusions about the dragonmen all being dignified and wise were completely shattered.

  Upon reaching Ur the party got out of Brise and headed to the town hall. As Hajime, Yue, and Shea took their time strolling leisurely there, Aiko and the others ran as fast as their legs would carry them. Hajime had been hoping to just drop Aiko and the students off here and drive Will all the way back to Fuhren, but he’d jumped out of the truck before anyone else, so Hajime had reluctantly followed after him.

  The main street was bustling with activity. Not only were this town’s dishes famous, but there was also a lake nearby. It attracted tourists and immigrants alike. It was hard to believe this town was about to be overrun by a horde of demons in less than a day’s time. The party gazed longingly at the rows of food stalls, but they dutifully headed toward the town hall first.

  When Aiko broke the news to the city’s leaders, there was a huge uproar. The managers of the Ur branch of the adventurers’ guild and the local priests began arguing about what to do next. No one couldn’t believe what Aiko had told them. No, they just didn’t want to believe it. They kept on asking question after question, hoping against hope that maybe the party had just mistaken what they saw.

  Had it been anyone else who had told them their town would be destroyed tomorrow, they would have dismissed it as the ravings of a madman. However, it had been one of Ehit’s messengers, the woman the townspeople referred to as a fertility goddess who had brought such news. And as the Holy Church had already made it public knowledge that demons might have found a way to control monsters, the story sounded entirely plausible.

  While they had been driving back, Aiko and the students had agreed that it was better not to mention Tio’s true identity, or that the mastermind behind the monsters was likely Yukitoshi Shimizu. They hadn’t mentioned Tio because Tio herself had not wanted knowledge of the dragonmen’s survival to become public knowledge and had requested they stay silent, while not mentioning Shimizu was because Aiko didn’t want to incriminate one of her students until she was absolutely sure of the truth.

  Leaving Aiko’s sentimentality aside, dragonmen were not looked fondly upon by the Holy Church. The students really hadn’t wanted to deal with the hassle of making the situation even more chaotic, and possibly be branded as heretics, so they’d unilaterally decided to keep quiet.

  It was in the midst of this uproar that Hajime entered the town hall looking for Will. He seemed wholly unconcerned by the tumult.

  “Hey Will, don’t just run off by yourself. Think about the guy that has to protect you. If you’re done warning everyone, then it’s time to go back to Fuhren.” Everyone turned to Hajime in surprise. The town’s leaders exclaimed things to the effect of “Who’s this kid?” angry at his sudden interruption.

  “Wh-What do you mean, Hajime-dono? This is a huge crisis. You can’t seriously be suggesting we abandon the town...” Annoyed, Hajime retorted casually,

  “What do you mean abandon? No matter what we’re going to have to evacuate until reinforcements come. A tourist town like this doesn’t even have any walls or anything to mount a defense from... and if we’re going to have evacuate anyway, may as well evacuate to Fuhren. I’ll just be evacuating you a bit faster than the others.”

  “B-But... I mean, I suppose... but still, I can’t just run away before everyone else does! There has to be something I can do to help. Hajime-dono, please...”

  “Please, won’t you help too?” is what he wanted to ask, but he trailed off after seeing Hajime’s frigid stare.

  “How many times do I have to say it before you get it? My job is to deliver you safely to Fuhren. I couldn’t care less about what happens to this town. And I don’t care about your opinions either. If you refuse to come... I’ll just break your arms and legs and drag you back.”

  “What...? Y-You...” Will went pale when he realized Hajime was serious. He involuntarily took a few steps back, unable to completely believe it.

  To Will, Hajime was practically a hero. He’d easily beaten down the same black dragon that had annihilated Gale and his veteran party in a single attack. Will had assumed that despite his gruff nature, Hajime was still a good person who would have unconditionally helped the villagers in a crisis. That was why he felt betrayed when he heard Hajime speak so coldly.

  He staggered backward, and Hajime took a step forward. He was clearly pressing Will for a decision. The tense atmosphere had everyone else frozen in place, but one person stepped in between the two. It was Aiko. She stared right into Hajime’s cold eyes and questioned him.

  “Nagumo-kun. Isn’t... Isn’t there something you can do about that monster army? No... I know you can fight them.” Conviction crept into her voice by the end. She was certain he’d be able to save the town if he wanted. The townspeople broke out into another huge uproar at that.

  According to Aiko, the army bearing down on them was tens of thousands strong. Plus, it included ridiculously powerful monsters from up to two mountain ranges over. This was already at the level of a full-scale war, so a single person’s effect was miniscule. A single normal person’s, anyway. The only person strong enough to change the tide of battle single-handedly would be the strongest person among those summoned to save the humans... Namely, the hero.

  But even they wouldn’t be able to take on an army alone. Without the help of their party and the rest of the human ra
ce, they’d be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, so naturally they doubted that this boy, who wasn’t even the hero, could save them all singlehandedly. Even when it was their goddess saying it was possible. In the face of her determined gaze, Hajime waved his hand casually, as if to deny her claims.

  “No way, Sensei. That’s impossible. From what I could tell, there was more than 40,000 of them. There’s no way...”

  “But when Will-san asked whether or not you could do it back on the mountain, you didn’t say no. You said ‘In a forested place like this full of boulders and rivers, there’s no way I could be sure I’d gotten them all.’ That means out in the open on the plains you could definitely wipe them all out. Am I wrong?”

  “I’m surprised you remember that.” Hajime berated himself for saying something like that when he knew how good Aiko’s memory was. Well, no point worrying about it now. Hajime averted his gaze, and Aiko pressed her case, urging him to help.

  “Nagumo-kun, won’t you please help us? At this rate this beautiful town will surely be destroyed. Worse, many people will lose their lives.”

  “...How unexpected. I always thought you prioritized your students before everyone else. Aren’t you even only helping this country with its war because you’re hoping it’ll let them get home faster? And yet now you want one of your students to fight and possibly die for the sake of some strangers? Even when they don’t want to? Isn’t that exactly the same thing those war-hungry priests were trying to get us to do?” Hajime’s rebuttal silenced Aiko. She bit her lip and furrowed her brows, conflicted over what she should do.

  Still, she kept her gaze on Hajime the entire time, as if trying to read something in his expression. After a while shook her head, as if to clear the hesitation, and stared resolutely at Hajime. She had her teacher face on. Back in Japan, any time someone had come to her with a problem, this was always the expression she’d had.

  The nearby priests narrowed their eyes when Hajime insulted the Holy Church, but Aiko ignored them, her attention focused solely on Hajime.