Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 4

by Ryo Shirakome

  “Anyway, let’s rest for today. We’ve gotta restock on supplies tomorrow.” Hajime lazily closed his eyes as Yue stroked his hair. However, Shea objected to Hajime’s plans. She grabbed Hajime’s leg and started shaking him.

  “Wait, Hajime-san. You promised...”

  “Oh yeah, I did say I’d take you around the tourist quarter.” As a reward for saving Aiko’s life, Hajime had promised to take Shea around the tourists’ quarter for a day.

  Shea looked at Hajime expectantly. However, he hesitated. They still had to get a lot of shopping done too. It was then that Yue came to the rescue. She cupped Hajime’s cheeks and looked down at him gently.

  “Tio and I will do the shopping. You go with Shea.”

  “Are you fine with that?”

  “Yeah... but in return...”

  “What?” Yue knew how much Shea was looking forward to her date, so she wanted to make sure it happened. Really, she was more like a big sister than a friend to Shea. Hajime looked up at Yue with a complicated expression on his face. Her expression transformed from gentle to predatory, and she licked her lips. She brought her lips close to Hajime’s ear and whispered softly.

  “Spend tonight with me.”

  “Okay,” Hajime replied, sounding just like Yue. He instantly gave in. He, who had the confidence to beat even labyrinth guardians, didn’t think he would ever be able to win against Yue.

  “...And there they go, flirting again. Yue-san’s really good at this.”

  “Hmm... I must say, it is quite impressive how you refuse to back down even after seeing that, Shea. I am satisfied as long as Master doles out punishment regularly, but... it must be difficult for you.” Shea watched Yue with admiration. Tio was impressed with how Shea didn’t seem to be jealous of Yue. Their relationship had piqued Tio’s interests. A while later Yue and Hajime came back to reality, and the four of them chatted idly for a few hours until it was time for bed.

  Late that night, around the time the moon was nearing its zenith, two figures were stealthily creeping their way across the terrace of the top floor of the adventurers guild’s inn. They were covered from head to toe in black, like assassins, snuffing out their presence and furtively looked into the window of a certain room.

  Upon looking inside, they saw...

  “Fwah, look at that, Tio-san! They’re being so rough... Won’t Yue-san break if Hajime-san’s that rough?”

  “Fwooooh! Master is indeed being rough! B-But look, Shea. That expression of Yue’s... it is far too stimulating! Even a woman such as myself feels tempted to...”

  “Hawawa, you’re right. That look of pure ecstasy really is something! Yue-san looks really happy. I’m so jealous~”

  “Nnngh... I had thought being tormented was enough for me, but... that does look nice.”

  A few minutes later, the two of them were discovered by Hajime and subjected to his usual punishments.

  “Hmhmhm... Hmhmhm! The weather’s great... It’s a perfect day for a date!” Shea was happily skipping down the main street of Fuhren.

  She was wearing a white one-piece dress today, instead of her usual adventuring outfit. It was a wonder the thin shoulder straps managed to hold up her massive bust as she walked. She was wearing a small black belt around her waist, which further accentuated her figure, the loosely tied belt emphasized her perfect waistline, and her bare legs drew about as many stares from the surrounding men as her massive knockers did.

  However, most charming of all was her radiant smile. Her cheeks were flushed and joy was overflowing from her every pore. The fact that she was a beastman, and that she was wearing a slave collar, albeit a very pretty one, didn’t matter at all to the onlookers. They were all utterly entranced by Shea.

  Hajime was walking behind her, his demeanor more at ease than it normally was.

  Shea kept excitedly bounding ahead a few steps and then turning around to wait for him with a smile. Honestly, even Hajime couldn’t help but smile when he saw how happy she was.

  “You don’t need to run that fast, Shea. What if you trip?”

  “Fufufu, as if I would do that~ I’ve been trained by Yue-san, there’s no way I’d—” Her foot caught on something and she tipped backward before she could finish her sentence. Hajime rushed forward and caught her before she fell. He doubted falling would actually hurt her with her strengthened body, but he wanted to be safe since she was wearing a dress. He wasn’t going to let any of the onlookers “accidentally” cop a feel as they pretended to fall on top of her.

  “Sh-Shorry.”

  “Hey, I know you’re excited, but don’t run off ahead.” Shea shrank back in embarrassment. She timidly grabbed his sleeve and matched his pace with small, quick steps. Quite a few of the onlookers fainted at the sight of her blushing cutely as she walked with Hajime. Most of the knockouts were caused by their lovers punching their lights out, though.

  They made their way to the tourists’ district, attracting attention along the way.

  The district was filled with entertainment facilities of all kinds. There was a theater, numerous street performances, a circus, an opera house, aquariums, an arena, a gaming hall, numerous sightseeing platforms, multiple botanical gardens, and various plazas and towers to explore.

  “Hajime-san, Hajime-san! Let’s go to the Meerstadt first! I’ve never seen living sea creatures before!” Her bunny ears twitched impatiently as she gestured to the guidebook in her hand. As she’d lived her entire life in the Haltina Woods, it wasn’t too surprising that she’d never seen the sea or the animals that lived within it. That was why the first thing that had caught her eye was Fuhren’s most famous aquarium.

  There had been lakes and rivers in the forest, so she had seen aquatic life before, but freshwater fish and saltwater fish had a completely different feel to them, even if they looked similar.

  Fish are fish, aren’t they? It’s not like they’re any different... But Hajime saw the excitement on Shea’s face and kept his thoughts to himself. Today, at least, he would be nice to her.

  “Huh, I’m kinda surprised they have marine fish this far inland... They really go all-out to attract customers. It must be tough transporting and feeding them.” Hajime’s interest in the aquarium was in perhaps the wrong direction, but he saw no reason to refuse, so they decided to go there. Shea happily grabbed Hajime’s hand and pulled him along to the aquarium. Her ears and tail were jumping for joy.

  Along the way they passed by street players performing extraordinary feats of acrobatics that tested the limits of human flexibility. They watched as they walked, until finally they arrived at the massive Meerstadt Aquarium. The building was painted an ocean-blue and filled with people.

  Hajime marveled at how the inside resembled the aquariums back on earth. The only difference was that the tanks were covered in thick glass and a lattice of steel support beams, making it a bit harder to see inside. Unlike Earth, Tortus had yet to develop thin glass sturdy enough to handle the water pressure.

  With nothing to compare it to, Shea didn’t mind at all. Her eyes glowed as she watched all the creatures swim by. She pointed at them one after another and chattered excitedly to Hajime

  Her mannerisms were the same as the little girl next to them who’d come along with her family. For a second, Hajime’s eyes met with those of the girl’s father. For some reason, the man’s warm gaze made Hajime embarrassed and he quickly dragged Shea somewhere else. Though she was surprised by their sudden departure, she was glad Hajime was holding her hand. She squeezed back.

  They spent an hour wandering around the aquarium enjoying themselves, but as they were passing by another row of tanks, Shea suddenly did a double take.

  One of the tanks was holding... A fish with a human head. In fact, he looked just like the human-faced fish from the game Seaman.

  “Wh-Why is he here...” Shea stepped back with a shudder. The weird fish spotted Shea and swam over to the edge of the tank, a bored expression on its face. Shea felt a sudden surge of uneas
e. Hajime ignored the two of them and went over to the plaque next to the tank.

  “Let’s see here... Oh, it can talk?” According to the blurb, the fishmen were an aquatic race of monsters whose unique magic was Telepathy. Thanks to that, they could talk to people. So far they were the only recorded monster race to have made peace with mankind.

  However, it seemed that they found talking a pain and rarely used their ability. Even when they did, their replies tended to be lazy and lifeless. The plaque warned that people who did talk to them tended to feel listless themselves and to approach it with caution.

  They loved alcohol though, and would become rather talkative if given some. But even then they would simply launch into a long-winded lecture so actually conversing with one was very difficult... Their nickname was “office drone.”

  Hajime wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and turned to Shea and the fishman. He couldn’t tell if they were staring at each other or glaring at each other. With a hint of trepidation, he tried talking to it. Since they apparently didn’t respond often to regular conversation, he tried using Telepathy.

  “You can use Telepathy, right? Can you really talk? Do you understand what I’m saying?” The seaman blinked once. It tore its gaze away from Shea and slowly turned to face him. Shea smiled triumphantly, as if she’d just won a contest.

  “Tch, this is our first meeting, isn’t it, boy? It’s only polite to tell someone your name first. Sheesh, this is why kids these days are...” A fish with an old man’s face had just lectured Hajime on manners. He couldn’t believe it. His mouth twitched at the corners a little and he tried again.

  “Sorry about that. I’m Hajime. So, you really can talk, huh? What kind of creature are you guys?”

  “My dear boy, what kind of creatures are humans? If I asked you that right now would you be able to answer? You wouldn’t, right? All I can say is I’m me. Nothing more, nothing less. I can’t say I have a name either, so just address me however you wish.”

  Hajime floundered for a bit. Not only had the fishman’s response made complete sense, he’d started sounding really cool too. He hadn’t expected a fish monster to be this intelligent. Didn’t the plaque say their answers are always lazy and lifeless? Hajime suddenly felt like suing whoever had written that. He quickly averted his gaze, so this time it was the seaman who asked him a question.

  “I’d like to ask you something, too. How is it you can use Telepathy? You certainly aren’t using any magic humans are capable of... It’s almost like you’re the same as me, as us monsters.” It was a pretty reasonable question. After all, here was a human using the special magic Telepathy. It was only natural for the fishman to wonder how Hajime could do something only monsters were supposed to be able to do. The reason he’d answered Hajime’s questions seriously was because he’d been curious himself.

  Hajime cleared his throat to give himself a second to think. He explained that he’d eaten a monster that could use Telepathy and absorbed its powers.

  “I see. You’ve faced a great deal of hardship despite your youth. Very well, if there’s anything you’d like to ask this old man, go ahead. I’ll tell you anything you want.” He was being pitied by a fish. It looked like the fishman had misunderstood and thought Hajime had been so poor that he’d been forced to eat monster meat to survive. It wiped a tear with its fin. Judging by the clothes Hajime was wearing now, it was obvious he had worked hard to escape his impoverished situation. Truly, it was a tale touching enough to make an old man cry.

  Since he wasn’t that far off the mark, Hajime didn’t bother to correct him. Hajime certainly had faced a lot of hardship. Though it was still a bit of a shock that his life so far had been so bad that even a fish pitied him.

  He shakily pulled himself together and asked whatever came to mind. Whether or not monsters possessed their own wills, how they were born, whether there were any other monsters people could come to an understanding with, and so on.

  According to the fishman, most monsters acted purely on instinct and had no wills of their own. Aside from his race, it was unlikely that there could ever be understanding with monsters and humans. Also, it seemed even he didn’t know how monsters were born.

  They spent a long time discussing various topics of interest. To a bystander it looked like a boy and a fish with an old man’s face were just staring at each other. The surreal sight started attracting attention, so people came to watch.

  “Umm, Hajime-san, people are staring at us. Also, you’re on a date with me, so how come you’re staring at that old fishman? The person you’re supposed to be looking at is me.” Shea’s rabbit ears pressed flat against her head and she shyly tugged at Hajime’s sleeve. He reluctantly cut his conversation short and turned to Shea. His obvious reluctance made Shea even more depressed.

  Honestly, Hajime had been hoping to talk some more with the fishman, but he had promised to spend today on a date with Shea, and he didn’t take his promises lightly.

  “Oh my, I didn’t realize I was interrupting your date. My apologies for getting in the way of you youngsters.” The fishman didn’t seem to mind stopping their conversation there either. What an understanding old man...

  Sometime during their conversation they’d started calling each other by the nicknames Fish-san and Young Haj. Hajime could tell this fishman was a man among men.

  Before they parted ways, Hajime asked what he was doing here in this aquarium. The answer he received was rather surprising.

  “Well, like I said before, I was traveling the world... when suddenly the underground river I was swimming in got blasted to the surface. Before I knew it, I’d been thrown out of the fountain and into the grass. I won’t die on land, but I can’t really move either. I used my Telepathy to call for help and... Well, I ended up getting taken here.” Cold sweat poured down Hajime’s forehead. It was obvious from his description that the fishman was talking about the time Hajime and the others had been forced out of Miledi Reisen’s labyrinth.

  The poor fish had been caught up in the stream and thrown on land. Technically, that was Miledi’s fault, but that didn’t change the fact that Hajime had something to do with his current plight.

  Hajime awkwardly asked the seaman the foremost thing on his mind.

  “Uh, Fish-san, do you want to escape from here?”

  “Of course I do. Wanderlust is in my blood. And it’s my belief that living things should be born in nature and die in nature. When I die, I want it to be out in the open sea, not this metal cage.” His words were filled with longing. Hajime had taken quite a liking to the fishman, and it was partly his fault he was stuck in this cage, so he decided to save him.

  “Fish-san. If you want, I can let you go in a nearby river. I think it might be partly our fault you’re stuck here in the first place. I’ll get you out in a couple of minutes. Are you willing to put your trust in me?”

  “Young Haj... Heh, never thought I’d have a youngster worrying about little old me. Dunno what you’ve got planned, but I ain’t so senile that I’d mistrust a strapping young lad like yourself. I believe in you, Young Haj.”

  The two of them shared a smile.

  “Huh? Could it be I have a rival in love?” Shea muttered that to herself as she watched the two of them stare at each other.

  Hajime then turned on his heel and dragged Shea along. Shea had no idea what was going on, but followed Hajime obediently. As they were about to leave, the fishman reached out to Shea via Telepathy.

  “Sorry for surprising you back then, Missy. Don’t ever let go of that hand you’re holding, you hear?”

  “Huh? What? Umm, I don’t mind at all! Actually, it was thanks to that I was able to share my first kiss with Hajime-san! Also, I’ll never let go!” She responded as best as she could. The fishman smiled in satisfaction. Meddlesome old fart, Hajime thought affectionately. Hajime wished the first “male” friend he’d made since coming to this world well and left the aquarium.

  A few minutes later, one of his cross bit
s started rampaging around the aquarium and destroyed the seaman’s tank. As he fell out, he landed neatly in the cage Hajime had attached to the cross bit. The cross bit blasted through the aquarium staff that came after the fishman without hurting them, blew through the aquarium wall, and flew off into the sky.

  The incident caused such a stir within the city that eventually Fuhren’s leaders got involved as well. No one could tell whether it had been a new monster, or some hidden power of the fishman’s... but none of that had anything to do with Hajime.

  Around the same time, Yue and Tio were walking around the commercial district doing their shopping. Hajime had stockpiled large quantities of resources in his Treasure Trove already, so they were mostly just topping up on supplies a little bit. Thanks to that, they didn’t have to scramble to buy up as much food as possible, and they could take their time window shopping as they walked down the business district.

  “Hmm. I have to ask, Yue. Are you truly alright with this?”

  “Hm...? You mean Shea?”

  “Indeed. It’s possible their relationship may have progressed far more than you anticipated on this date.” Yue turned back from the clothes she was examining. The curiosity was rather evident in Tio’s voice. “Are you sure you should be taking it so easy? She might usurp your position, you know?” was the unsaid implication in her question.

  Tio had joined only recently, and the strange relationship between Shea, Yue, and Hajime was something that intrigued her greatly. Seeing as they’d be traveling together from now on, she decided not to beat around the bush and just ask about it.

  However, Yue didn’t seem shaken at all. She glanced at Tio’s expression and shrugged her shoulders. She evidently wasn’t worried at all.