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

by Ryo Shirakome

  The branch chief took Endou by the arm, pulled him to his feet, and marched him back inside the hallway. All the strength had drained out of Endou after that outburst, and he meekly let himself be dragged along.

  Hajime reluctantly followed along. Whatever story he was about to be told, he had the feeling he really didn’t want to hear it.

  “Demons, huh...?” Hajime’s voice echoed through the quiet room.

  Across from him sat Horaud’s branch chief, Loa Bawavis and Endou. Yue, Shea, and Tio all sat next to him. Myu was resting on his lap.

  Endou had just finished recounting the story of what had happened in the labyrinth. Both Loa and Endou had dark expressions on their faces, and the air was heavy. No one had imagined the hero party would get done in so easily.

  Myu was seemingly unaffected by the gloomy atmosphere, as she was happily stuffing her face with the snacks Loa had laid out for them. She’d actually looked a little worried at first, which was why Hajime had started feeding her snacks to pacify her. Though their conversation was too difficult for Myu to follow, she had at least been able to tell that it was nothing good.

  “Anyway, what the heck is with that girl!? Why’s she just sitting there eating snacks!? Don’t you guys get how serious this is!? Everyone might die!”

  “Hiii!? Daddy!”

  Unable to stand it any longer, Endou angrily pointed a finger at Myu. She let out a terrified squeal and clung to Hajime.

  Naturally, Hajime wasn’t going to let that slide. He wouldn’t forgive anyone that hurt his daughter.

  “You bastard... how dare you take it out on Myu? You wanna die, huh!?”

  “Hiii!?” Endou shrank back and shrieked in a high-pitched voice not unlike Myu’s.

  Next to him, the girls all sighed.

  “He’s totally become a father now.”

  “He called Myu ‘his daughter’ earlier too~”

  “I wonder if Master will be able to give her up when we reach Erisen.”

  Hajime ignored their comments. The only thing in his mind right now was how to calm Myu down.

  Loa sighed as he watched Hajime soothe Myu down and decided to move the conversation forward.

  “At any rate, Nagumo. Thanks to Ilwa’s letter, I understand the gist of your situation. I see you’ve been busy.”

  “Yeah, though most of it just sort of happened.” Hajime spoke of his unbelievable feats as if they were no different than going on a walk for him. He shrugged his shoulders, and Loa smiled in amusement.

  “According to this letter, Ilwa wants me to endorse your promotion to gold rank, and to assist you in any way I can. I more or less understand what’s going on, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve heard that you not only single-handedly annihilated an army of sixty thousand monsters, but that you completely destroyed Fuhren’s underground crime ring in half a day. Frankly, I find it hard to believe you’re actually capable of all of these things, but I can’t imagine someone like Ilwa lying. If he told me you were the demon lord himself, I’d still believe him.”

  Endou’s eyes flew open in surprise. He’d assumed Hajime must have gotten a little stronger since he’d managed to escape the Great Orcus Labyrinth on his own, but he’d thought Hajime was still nowhere near his level.

  After all, Hajime’s job was Synergist, and he’d been labeled incompetent by the rest of his class. Sure, he might have become a gold adventurer, but the people of this world were all fundamentally weaker than the summoned heroes. He’d expected the most Hajime could do was repair the broken teleportation circle and maybe support them from the rear.

  The reason Endou had come to the adventurer’s guild in the first place was to recruit high-ranked adventurers to go rescue Kouki with him. Obviously they wouldn’t have lasted a second on the lower floors, but they could at least have guarded the circle on the 70th floor.

  There were a few of Meld’s knights that had been stationed outside the labyrinth, but he’d tasked them with relaying everything to the capital. At best, they’d maybe been able to protect the circle on the 30th floor. Only adventurers silver rank or above would be strong enough to survive on the 70th floor.

  He’d gone up to the second floor to try and convince adventurers to join in his cause, but all of them had turned him down. Not only did he want them to guard the 70th floor, a place no one had ever been to, he wanted them to fight against creatures that had decimated the hero party, the hope of all humanity. On top of that, all of the kingdom’s elite knights had been slaughtered. As it was, the adventurers were all fearing for the future of the human race.

  When he’d heard the commotion, Loa had grabbed Endou and dragged him to the back to get the full story. It was then that the receptionist had shown up with Hajime’s status plate.

  It finally dawned on Endou that he might have been severely underestimating Hajime’s strength. It was possible he was actually way stronger than him, and maybe even Kouki.

  While Endou was still frozen in shock, Loa and Hajime continued their conversation.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. The demon lord wouldn’t even be a threat to me.”

  “Not even a threat, is it? You certainly have some confidence in yourself. In that case, I’d like you to prove your claims by taking on a certain request on behalf of the Horaud adventurer’s guild.”

  “You want me to go rescue the hero party?”

  Endou suddenly snapped back to reality when he heard the word “rescue.” He leaned forward and started begging Hajime once more.

  “Th-That’s right! Nagumo, we need to go save them! If you’re really that strong, then you can do it, right!?”

  “......”

  Endou’s eyes lit up with hope, but Hajime’s reaction was not what he was expecting. Hajime stared off into the distance, weighing his options. Endou had thought Hajime would jump at the chance to rescue his comrades, so he was confused when Hajime didn’t reply instantly.

  “What’s wrong!? They could be dying while we waste time here! What’s there to think about!? They’re your comrades!”

  “My comrades?” Hajime turned his gaze back to Endou, his eyes cold as ice. Endou faltered in the face of his intense glare. Fear warred with his stubborn desire to save his friends. Eventually, stubbornness won out, and he held his ground against Hajime.

  “Y-Yeah. They’re your comrades, so we’ve gotta go save—”

  “Don’t just go make them my comrades for your own convenience. I’ll say this now, but all I’ve ever thought of you guys as is classmates. That’s all. Not really all that different from strangers, really.”

  “What!? But... how can you...”

  Hajime ignored Endou’s stuttering and went back to considering the merits and demerits of going to save Kouki’s party. As he’d said before, he considered the rest of his classmates mere acquaintances at best. He wasn’t terribly interested in getting revenge on the person who’d dropped him into the abyss, but neither did he think too fondly of his former classmates.

  However, he also wasn’t going to just abandon them outright. Even now, Aiko’s words had a profound effect on his way of thinking. If he let them die for no good reason, it would be betraying everything he’d promised his teacher back in Ur.

  Plus, there was at least one person who was more than just an acquaintance. There was a girl who’d promised she’d protect him, despite the fact that everyone else had called him incompetent. Just as she’d feared, her dream had turned into reality and Hajime had been cast into the abyss. He’d asked her to protect him that night to try and assuage her fears, but in the end she hadn’t been able to fulfill her promise.

  Ever since he’d returned to this town, he’d been thinking about her more and more. Her tortured expression as she’d watched him fall into the darkness was still fresh in his memory.

  “Shirasaki... Is she still alive?” Hajime muttered quietly. Endou looked up in surprise. He quickly realized he needed say something or Hajime would likely refuse to help him.

  “Y-Ye
ah. Shirasaki-san’s alive. In fact, if it wasn’t for her, the rest of us would probably be dead right now. I honestly thought Jugo and Yaegashi-san were done for during that first attack... Shirasaki-san’s amazing. Her healing magic is something else... Ever since that day you fell, it felt like she changed, you know? Like, she started training so hard we were worried about her... And she kind of became more mature? Or well, that’s what it feels like, anyway. It’s like she’s always got something on her mind now. She’s not as scatterbrained as she used to be...”

  “I see.”

  Endou talked about everything that came to mind, even though all Hajime had asked was if she was alive. There was a brief moment of silence.

  Hajime sighed loudly, scratched his head, and looked down at Yue.

  “I’ll follow you no matter what your decision is. Do what you want.”

  “Yue...” She took his hand in hers, and he gently squeezed back. He was eternally grateful to Yue for being so understanding.

  “M-Me too! I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, Hajime-san!”

  “Heh. Naturally, I too will always be by your side, Master.”

  “Umm, umm, Myu will too!”

  The others quickly spoke up before Hajime and Yue could start flirting again. Myu didn’t fully grasp what was going on, but she didn’t want to be left out of the fun.

  “What’s with this harem development...” Endou muttered in disbelief. Hajime ignored him, then turned to face his reliable comrades.

  “Thanks, guys. To be honest, I really don’t want to deal with god’s chosen hero... but there’s someone I owe a debt to, so I’m gonna go save her. Though knowing them, they might have fought their way out already.”

  In all honesty, Hajime couldn’t have cared less about Kouki and most of the other students. In fact, he would’ve preferred not to get close to them, since they were effectively being manipulated by this world’s corrupt gods.

  Still, he’d always felt bad about not letting Kaori know that he was still alive. He had no doubt the reason she’d pushed herself so far was because of him. She was one person he’d rush to save if she was ever in trouble. She’d been the only one who’d tried to protect him. And though he didn’t know it, even now she was soldiering on because she believed he was alive.

  Besides, the danger to him would likely be negligible. From Endou’s description, he guessed the four-eyed wolves they’d encountered were the same ones Hajime had fought in Ur. And the chimeras and cats seemed no stronger than the monsters he’d fought in the first couple of floors of the labyrinth. He wouldn’t even break a sweat.

  “U-Umm, does that mean you’re going to help?”

  “Yeah. Chief Loa. If possible, I’d like you to still make this a formal request from the guild.”

  “You don’t want the guild’s managers thinking they can ask you to do things for free?”

  “Pretty much. Oh yeah, one more thing. Do you have a room I can leave Myu in?”

  “Of course, that won’t be any problem at all.”

  Endou breathed a huge sigh of relief when he heard Hajime was coming, but Hajime ignored him and continued talking to Loa.

  He was hoping to leave Myu in the guild’s care while he went to rescue everyone. Strong as he was, he didn’t want to risk taking her somewhere that dangerous. Like before, Myu was not at all happy about being left behind. However, this time everyone managed to convince her together, and they left Tio to be her babysitter. Finally, they prepared to depart, with Endou leading the way.

  “Hey, hurry up and lead us there, Endou.”

  “Hey, don’t kick me! And how come your personality’s so different from what it was before!”

  “Quit asking dumb questions. Hurry up, I want to reach them in a day... No, half a day. I’m not happy about having to leave Myu behind, so we’re gonna get this done as fast as possible. I’m worried about leaving her alone in the hands of that pervert.”

  “Man, you’ve like, really become a dad, haven’t you? And you’ve got a harem of beautiful girls with you.... What the heck happened for that meek Nagumo to end up like this...” Endou grumbled to himself as they ran through the labyrinth floors. He’d regained some of his former composure now that he’d recruited Hajime’s help.

  Endou had been pretty confident in his agility, but that pride had been ripped to shreds as Hajime and his friends easily outstripped his speed. He pushed on as fast as he could, praying that his friends were still safe...

  “Ngh...”

  “Suzu-chan!”

  “Suzu!”

  Suzu groaned and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was her two best friends, Kaori and Eri, looking happily down at her. It took her a few seconds to fully regain consciousness, but eventually her mind cleared up enough that she could speak.

  “T-This is an unfamiliar ceiling.”

  “Suzu, we know you’re a comedian at heart, but maybe you should lay off the jokes until you’re feeling better.”

  Her voice came out as a hoarse croak. Shizuku had rushed over the moment she’d heard Suzu awaken. She was both impressed, and somewhat exasperated that Suzu would try to crack jokes even in this situation. She pulled off her leather canteen and brought it up to Suzu’s lips.

  Suzu greedily gulped down the water.

  “I feel like I’ve just come back to life, literally,” she exclaimed as she finished drinking. After that, she unsteadily rose into a sitting position. Kaori and Eri hurriedly supported her.

  It was so very like Suzu to act cheerful even after she’d just recovered from near-fatal wounds. Her bright demeanor lifted the spirits of her classmates.

  However, despite her forced cheerfulness, Suzu’s face was still pale. She’d burned through much of her mana with that last barrier, and she’d lost a lot of blood. There were dark circles in her eyes, and her smile was strained. It was a testament to the strength of her will that she managed a smile at all. Both Shizuku and Kaori really respected Suzu for this very reason.

  “Suzu-chan. You should rest for a bit longer. Your wounds have closed up, but you lost a lot of blood...”

  “Ah, so that’s why I’m feeling so dizzy~ I can’t believe that horrible demon could do such a horrible thing to my fair skin... She pierced right through me. Hey, don’t you think that’d make for a great line in porn?”

  “Suzu! You’re a girl, don’t say such vulgar things!” Eri blushed as she reprimanded Suzu. Nomura and Nakano, who were nearby, snorted with laughter, but Shizuku’s stern glare shut them up.

  “Suzu, I’m glad you’re finally awake. We were really worried about you.”

  “Hey, you alright? You’re white as a sheet.”

  Kouki and Ryutarou came over to check up on Suzu as well. Both of them were smiling tiredly.

  Kouki especially had expended himself a great deal in the earlier battle. Fortunately, the after-effects of using Limit Break had finally begun to fade, and he was feeling a little better.

  “Morning, Kouki-kun, Ryutarou-kun! So everyone managed to run away safely, then? Let’s see, everyone looks fine... Wait, is it just me, or are we missing someone?”

  “Oh, you mean Endou. We told him to escape ahead of us. Since he’s the stealthiest out of all of us, we thought he might be able to slip through the floors unnoticed...”

  Suzu glanced around the room, making sure all of her classmates were accounted for. Kouki explained everything that had happened since Suzu fell unconscious. Kondou and Saitou had been unpetrified some time before Suzu had woken up, so they’d already heard his explanation.

  “I see. A lot happened while I was unconscious, huh... Oh yeah, thank you so much, Kaorin! It’s thanks to you that I’m still alive!”

  “Healing’s my job, Suzu-chan. I only did what anyone would do. You don’t have to make such a big deal about it.”

  “Man, you’re even cooler when you act all stoic like that! Will you marry me?”

  “Suzu... you’ll just scare her if you propose while you’re still p
aler than a ghost. I really think you should rest for a bit longer.”

  Suzu clung to Kaori, while Eri scolded her. Shizuku was waiting on standby to stop her by force if she went too far. In a way, it was business as usual for the four girls. Everyone else was worrying about the possibility that they might never see the light of day again, but these four girls were acting the same as always. Seeing them act so composed helped calm the other students down.

  Unfortunately, someone had to go and ruin the atmosphere just as everyone was starting to look up.

  “What are you guys smiling about? Nothing’s changed! We could still die at any minute! If you’ve got time to be cracking jokes, how about you think of a way out of this mess!” Kondou yelled at Suzu. Next to him, Saitou glared angrily at everyone.

  “Come on, Kondou. You don’t have to put it like that. Suzu was just trying to cheer everyone up...”

  “Shut up! You don’t have any right to talk to me like that! You... You lost! Thanks to that, I nearly died! Goddammit! Hero my ass!”

  Kouki tried to calm Kondou down, but his words just added fuel to the fire. Kondou snapped, lashing out at Kouki this time.

  “Bastard... Do you know why you’re still alive right now? It’s ’cause Kouki risked his life to make an escape route!” Ryutarou started yelling back, but Kondou wasn’t willing to back down.

  “If you’d done your job and won, we wouldn’t have had to run away in the first place! Besides, anyone could tell that we were at a disadvantage! You should have just pretended to take the demon up on her offer and then killed her later! But no, you just had to act all noble and start fighting! This is all your fault!”

  Kondou rose to his feet and stared Ryutarou down. Saitou and Nakano stood up as well, backing him up.

  “Ryutarou, it’s fine. You’re right, Kondou. And I’ll take responsibility for my failure. Next time, I won’t lose! We know what those monsters are capable of, so we won’t get caught by surprise again. Next time that demon comes, we’ll win!” Kouki sounded confident, but Saitou wasn’t convinced. He turned to Kouki and muttered something darkly.