“Heh... Since we’re destined to die here anyway, let’s go out with a bang, men. Show her the pride of Heiligh’s knights!”
“Yes, sir!” The knights all yelled in unison. Their resolve was so strong that for a second, the monsters around them faltered.
Ten minutes later. The room with the teleportation circle lay silent.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!” Endou screamed in rage and frustration as he arrived on the 30th floor. Without a moment’s delay, he stabbed his dagger into the magic circle at his feet.
“Wh-What’s going on!? Hey, you, what are you doing!?”
“Stop that!”
“Someone, hold him down!”
The knights guarding the teleportation circle on the 30th were surprised when a black-robed boy suddenly appeared from its center. Though they were taken aback, they quickly recovered and tried to prevent Endou from destroying the circle.
These were the knights Captain Meld had left behind to guard the magic circle on this side. The ones he’d left behind were all too weak to accompany him past the 30th floor.
Endou struck a second time, then a third. Just before he’d destroyed the circle completely, the knights managed to pile on top of him. It was possibly the worst mistake of their lives.
“L-Let me go! I need to destroy this! If I don’t, they’ll follow me! Let me go!”
“Wait, you’re one of the heroes friends, aren’t you!? Why are you...”
The knights shouted in surprise as they realized the person who’d teleported in was a member of Kouki’s party. For just a second, their grips loosened. Endou took advantage of that to raise his dagger up again, but he was a second too late.
The magic circle began to glow. A second later, a blurry outline attacked Endou and the knights.
“Shit! Everyone, get back!”
“What’s happening!? Gwaaaaaaaaah!”
Endou leaped out of the way, barely dodging the Chimera’s attack. Unfortunately, one of the knights wasn’t able to react in time, and the Chimera’s claws tore right through his armor, mortally wounding him.
He slumped to the ground, blood spurting everywhere. The other knights stared in shock. Endou frantically called out to the rest of them.
“Enemy attack! Watch out for the places where the air looks warped! We have to destroy the magic circle or more of them will keep coming!” His shrill screams brought the rest of the knights back to their senses. But in that short time, another knight was torn to shreds.
There were seven knights guarding the 30th floor teleportation circle. Of those, two had already died.
Endou activated one of his Assassin skills, Shadow Dance, and leaped up toward the ceiling. He was planning on jumping behind the Chimera and destroying the circle with one final attack, but the Chimera realized his intentions and jumped up to stop him.
“Dammit, what the hell is this thing!?” The knights still hadn’t fully grasped the situation, but they knew they had to stop the Chimera. The five of them leaped at it all at once.
All they could see of the Chimera, was a blurry outline in the air, so they had no way of knowing what kind of weapons the monsters possessed, or what they should be wary of. Because of that, they were totally unprepared when the Chimera’s tail started biting at their necks, or when its wings started buffeting them away.
However, their concentrated attack did succeed in throwing the Chimera off-balance a little, allowing Endou to just barely dodge its fangs. They still grazed his shoulder, but Endou lopped off its tail in return as he fell past it.
The Chimera flapped its wings to regain its balance and landed a few feet away. At the same time, Endou landed on the ground and swung his dagger at the teleportation circle.
The Chimera used the recoil of its landing to launch itself at Endou with frightening speed, but it was too late. Endou’s dagger had already reached its target. There was a loud crack as the circle shattered. Its glow began to fade. The residual mana from the previous teleports scattered.
“Now we’re... Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the Chimera clamped its jaws down on Endou’s right arm. Then, it yanked its jaws back, trying to tear Endou’s arm off.
“We won’t let you!”
“Get off of him!”
Luckily, the knights rushed at it, distracting the beast. The Chimera’s grip loosened as a short spear embedded itself in its flank.
Due to the blood that had sprayed out when he’d been bitten, most of the Chimera’s face was now visible. Endou used that opportunity to throw a dagger at its eye with his left arm while he freed his right.
The knights closed in to deal the finishing blow, and two of them were killed as the Chimera thrashed about in pain. Endou threw more daggers at it, but even with one eye gone, it used its supernatural senses to dodge out of the way.
Another one of the knights screamed. Endou cast a quick glance in his direction. It seemed even after being cut off, the Chimera’s tail could still move. It had leaped up and latched on to the knight’s neck. The skin around where he’d been bitten turned purple, and after a few more seconds of screaming, he died.
“Damn it all!” The last knight tried to crush the snake-tail for good, but that was a grave mistake on his part. The Chimera instantly pounced on him the moment he turned his back on it. Covered in wounds, Endou desperately squeezed out the last ounce of his strength. He aimed his strongest skill at the Chimera’s neck, hoping to kill it before it reached the knight.
“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” He’d abandoned his comrades. He’d abandoned Captain Meld. He’d even let these knights be killed. He channeled all of that hatred and frustration into this one last attack. His blade struck true. He sliced through the back of the Chimera’s neck, slaying it instantly.
The force of his leap took him past the Chimera, so he hit the ground with considerable force, rolling a few meters forward.
Enduring the pain in his shoulder, right arm, and stomach, he propped himself up with his left arm and looked back to make sure the beast was really dead.
Its Camouflage had been dispelled, and there was a huge gash in its neck. As far as he could tell, it was done for. Still, rather than looking triumphant, Endou just cursed bitterly.
The last knight was a short distance away from the Chimera’s body. He was quite obviously dead. His right hand was still holding his sword, while his face was a swollen mass of purple. Next to him was the Chimera’s tail, cut in half. It seemed the knight had managed to cut down the tail right before the Chimera had reached him. However, just before the tail had died, it had shot its poison at the knight’s face.
In the end, all of the knights guarding the magic circle on the 30th floor had died. Endou wept, cursing himself for not managing to save even a single one of them.
Once his tears were all spent, he took out the strongest healing medicine he could find from Captain Meld’s bag and drank it. If he didn’t fix himself up quickly, he’d die of blood loss.
After he finished treating himself, he gathered all of the knights’ corpses and lined them up next to the broken teleportation circle. Then, he gazed at them for a few minutes before turning around and heading for the surface. His face was pale and his eyes empty.
Once again, he’d been the only one to survive.
That knowledge coiled about him like cold chains, weighing down his footsteps. The only thing keeping him going was the mission he’d been entrusted with by those who’d died. He ran mechanically, not thinking about anything else.
Chapter IV: Questioned Worth
“Woohoo! Hell yeah!” Steiff and Brise thundered westward, the Reisen Gorge falling off steeply to their left, while the vast green plains rolled by to their right. Though Brise was driving steadily down the highway, Steiff’s driver was clearly enjoying herself as she veered wildly from the rocky cliffside to the grassy plains.
“Shea’s sure in a good mood. She sounds like one of those bikers you see in movies.”
“Hmm... I kind of
want to try driving it too.”
Hajime watched Shea drive with an amused expression on his face. He was driving Brise with one hand, his other arm hanging out the window. Shea was the only person not sitting inside Brise with him. At her insistence, he’d let her drive Steiff instead.
She’d been more taken with the motorcycle, as it allowed her to feel the wind on her face as she drove, but with how much their party had grown, Hajime had ended up using Brise for transport more often than not.
She could have stuck her head out of Brise’s window as they’d drove, but it wouldn’t really have been the same. And because Yue always took the seat next to him, she couldn’t stick to Hajime like before either. After much insistence, Hajime had finally caved and agreed to teach Shea how to drive Steiff.
Since it was operated via mana manipulation, it wasn’t actually that hard to master. Shea didn’t even have to move the handlebars manually if she didn’t want to, as it could all be done magically. Since Shea could control her mana directly too, learning how to drive had been a piece of cake. And once she’d mastered driving, she’d fallen in love with the motorbike.
Even now she was driving all over the place, drifting, popping wheelies, jackknifing, and generally doing crazy stunts that would have put a pro stuntman to shame.
Since both acceleration and braking were controlled magically, it was a lot easier to pull stunts with Steiff than a normal motorcycle. That being said, Shea’s driving skill had far surpassed Hajime’s at this point.
He didn’t particularly mind that she’d become a better driver than him. What he did mind was that now that her skills had improved she took every opportunity to show off and rub it in his face. It seemed Shea was one of those people whose personalities did a complete 180 when they started driving.
Yue also watched Shea drive around, a hint of longing in her expression. Hajime didn’t think his heart could take it if Yue turned into a 90s gangster too, so he swore in his heart that he’d never let Yue drive.
Heedless of the inner turmoil within Hajime’s heart, Myu clambered up onto Yue’s knees and stared at him, eyes glittering with excitement. She pointed at Shea, who was currently doing a handstand on the handlebars.
“Daddy, Daddy! I wanna do that too!”
“Not happening.”
“But I wanna!” Myu started thrashing about in Yue’s lap.
Yue got a firm grip on Myu so she wouldn’t fall down and scolded her gently. Myu started pouting, and Hajime finally relented.
“Myu. I’ll let you ride it with me later, so be good okay?”
“You will?”
“Yeah. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you get on with Shea, but if it’s with me, then I guess it’s alright.”
“I can’t go with Shea-oneechan?”
“Absolutely not. Just look at her. She’s posing on top of the handlebars. It’s kind of scary how good she is... But there’s no way I’m letting you ride with someone who drives like that.”
Shea was standing atop Steiff’s handlebars, covering her face with her right hand while raising up her left shoulder. It looked just like Jojo’s trademark pose.
Hajime stared as she laughed maniacally, vowing to himself that he’d never let Myu ride with Shea as long as he lived. He then glared at Myu, impressing on her that she better not ask Shea to drive her around in secret either.
“Two-wheelers are pretty dangerous though, so I don’t really want to let you ride in one as it is... Maybe I should make a children’s seat for Steiff? I could probably use... Hmm...”
“Yue-oneechan. Daddy’s talking to himself again. He’s weird.”
“He’s just worried about you... I didn’t think he’d be so overprotective.”
“Fufu, Master’s a surprisingly doting father. I must say, the discrepancy between how he normally is and how he’s acting now is quite... Haaah... Haaah...”
“Yue-oneechan. Tio-oneechan’s making weird noises again.”
“That’s just how she is, don’t worry about it.” Yue absentmindedly patted Myu’s head as she talked with her.
It had only been a short time since Myu’d started traveling with them, but Hajime had already given up on being called anything other than daddy. At first, he’d tried everything he could think of to get Myu to change her mind, but he’d be defeated at every turn by her teary-eyed face. He’d grown strong enough to kill the monsters that inhabited the abyss, but he didn’t think he’d ever match up to this little girl. And so, daddy had stuck.
As time had passed, Hajime had begun doting on Myu more and more. At this point he was just like those idiotic fathers he’d seen on TV. Shea was hopeless, and Tio was a pervert, so it fell to Hajime to raise Myu into an upstanding young woman. Or so he thought, anyway. At present it fell to Yue, the level-headed member of the party, to rein Hajime in when he was clearly being too overprotective.
Yue was a little disappointed that Myu was cutting into her alone time with Hajime, but at the same time she was enjoying acting out the motherly role.
She covered Myu’s ears so she wouldn’t be corrupted by Tio’s perversion, then shut the dragon up with her magic.
Hajime absentmindedly watched Shea, who wasn’t even riding Steiff at this point, but rather clinging to its rear as she sent it careening up and down the cliffside, while he considered what materials would make for the best car seat.
The party continued driving down the highway like that. After a few hours, they arrived at Horaud.
Originally, Hajime had planned on passing the town by, but Ilwa had asked him to deliver something, so he’d taken a small detour. It was more or less on their way to the Grand Gruen Volcano, so he wasn’t going that far out of his way anyway.
Hajime looked around nostalgically as he walked down the main street of Horaud. Myu noticed the slight shift in Hajime’s attitude and lightly patted his forehead from her perch atop his shoulders.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s just I’ve been to this place before... It was only four months ago that I was here, but it feels like years have passed...”
“Are you really okay, Hajime?” Yue laid her hand on Hajime’s arm and looked up at him worriedly. He simply shrugged his shoulders. A second later, he was back to his normal self.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got lost in thought for a little bit. It’s not like me to get sentimental, but this is where it all began, isn’t it...? I spent a night here nervous and afraid, then the next day we went into the labyrinth... And then I fell.”
“......”
As Hajime reminisced about that fateful day, Yue, Shea, and Tio looked up at him, their expressions unreadable. Yue seemed content to stay silent, but Tio couldn’t restrain her curiosity.
“Hmm... Do you never wish you could do things over, Master? I have only heard some of what transpired back then, but... you do not hate all of your previous comrades, correct? Are there not some you were particularly close to? Do you never wish you could still be with them?” Since Tio hadn’t known Hajime for as long as the others, she wasn’t as familiar with his past. And because she was straightforward by nature, she had no compunctions about asking whatever came to her mind.
Perhaps the way she went about it was a bit insensitive, it was just her way of showing she cared about her comrades. Her constant perverted antics always gave Hajime headaches, but he actually liked this blunt side of her.
He wasn’t offended by her question at all, and organized his thoughts as he considered the best way to answer her question. As he sifted through his memories, he suddenly remembered the conversation he’d had the night before his fall. Kaori had to come to his room, wearing nothing but a white negligee. They’d talked under the moonlight, drinking his sorry excuse for tea. She’d sworn she would protect him no matter what. And even when he’d fallen, he remembered her tortured expression as she tried to jump down after him. It was only her comrades holding her back that had stopped her.
Yue squeezed his arm,
snapping him out of his reverie. When he looked down, he saw her staring intently at him. He returned her gaze, and his expression softened.
“You’re right, I was pretty close with some of my old classmates. Still, even if I could turn back time and return to that day, I’d do everything the same way.”
“Oh, and why is that?”
The reason why was obvious from Hajime’s expression, but Tio still asked anyway. He covered Yue’s hand with his own, and replied without ever taking his eyes off her. A faint smile formed on the edge of her lips. Her cheeks were slightly flushed too.
“Obviously... so I could meet Yue again.”
“Hajime...”
For an outpost town, Horaud was surprisingly lively. Mercenaries, soldiers, and adventurers alike flocked to the Great Orcus Labyrinth both to gain experience and raise their levels, and hopefully to make a fortune harvesting mana crystals. Merchants followed in their wake, hoping to relieve said adventurers of some of that fortune. Because the strength of monsters was strictly regulated by floor, it was one of the most popular, safest training spots in the kingdom. As such, it stood to reason that the town’s main street would be the busiest section.
Yue and Hajime were standing in the middle of that bustling street, staring at each other.
They were so lost in each other that they took no notice of the hundreds of people walking around them. They received a lot of curious looks and jealous stares, but as always, the two ignored them. They only had eyes for each other now.
“Did you hear that, Tio-san? He didn’t say ‘us.’ Just Yue-san. And now they’re flirting in the middle of the street again. They don’t even care where they are anymore, do they? And what about us, are we just supposed to sit there and watch? When are we going to have those kinds of special moments with Hajime-san? I’ve been ready for him to come on to me for ages now, but I keep getting treated like some kind of comic relief character... I mean, I get it. I know Yue-san’s special to him. One of the reasons I joined them was because I wanted that kind of relationship the two of them have. So it’s fine if Yue-san gets special treatment. In fact, if Hajime-san started ignoring Yue-san, I don’t think I’d even like him anymore. If he ever did anything to make her sad, I’d be the first one lining up to kill him. But... But you know? I thought I was making progress with him too. I thought I was finally getting somewhere, but nothing’s happened. Even if Yue-san’s special to him, he could at least look at me every once in a while, right? I’m offering myself up on a silver platter here, but he still won’t take me. What kind of guy ignores a girl when she’s trying so hard to seduce him!? Someone needs to teach him a lesson. I wanna flirt with Hajime-san too! I wanna do all those things with him in bed too! I wanna do all those things he did with Yue-san too! What’s so wrong about that!? You’re the pervert here, Tio-san, so tell me what the problem is!”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 4 Page 13
