Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 6

by Ryo Shirakome

  “This is...”

  “Give it to that other childhood friend of yours. He looks like he’s in pretty bad shape.”

  Shizuku turned back to Kouki with a start, as if she’d only just remembered he was there.

  After Eri had left, the tension had drained from him and he’d fallen unconscious. His breathing was shallow, and he really did look weak.

  Shizuku remembered how this medicine had instantly healed Meld from near-death. It was obviously extremely valuable and rare.

  “Thank you, Nagumo-kun.” Shizuku clutched the vial to her chest, tears in her eyes.

  Hajime nodded and turned around.

  He dashed off into the sky, chasing after Yue and the others.

  Chapter V: The Events of a Single Day

  After Hajime left, Shizuku fed Kouki the vial of Ambrosia and he recovered instantly.

  Once Liliana regained consciousness, she instantly took command and organized the chaos in the castle. Temporary hospitals were set up for the injured, and people were dispatched to find out what had happened.

  It was discovered that Eri had turned close to 500 soldiers into her puppets, and, excepting the few hundred Hajime had riddled with bullet holes, they had all vanished without a trace. Liliana surmised that they’d followed Freid in his retreat and were somewhere in demon territory now.

  Her scouts had also discovered magic circles made of mana crystals buried in the nearby hills, which explained how Freid had transported such a massive army without being spotted. Chances were that Eri had made her puppet soldiers draw them in secret.

  The king and all of the high-ranking ministers had been assassinated by Eri’s soldiers days ago as well. At present, Heiligh’s throne was empty.

  Until things settled down, Liliana would have to take charge.

  After the storm passed, it was likely that the prince, Lundel, would be crowned king. He’d survived the upheaval in the palace and was next in line for the throne.

  The most pressing issue now that the demons had left was that the Holy Church hadn’t sent any communications down.

  No priests or paladins had arrived during the fight, nor had any of them shown themselves in the aftermath of the battle. The people were beginning to grow worried, especially because the pope, Ishtar, hadn’t appeared either.

  A certain white-haired boy was morbidly curious to find out how the citizens would react when they discovered the main temple had been destroyed, and all of the highest ranking clergy killed.

  Rumors were beginning to spread that Lord Ehit had saved the humans by sending down that huge pillar the night of the battle, and most of the residents had only grown more devout since. The irony wasn’t lost on Hajime.

  He had, however, come up with a countermeasure for assuaging the people’s concerns. Liliana had nearly fainted when he’d sent down the letter detailing his plan. Aiko, too, had buried her head in her hands and groaned when she’d read its contents. They hadn’t been able to vent their frustrations at him either, as he hadn’t descended from the Divine Mountain.

  Naturally, there were a lot of people advocating a search party be sent up the mountain to see what had happened. But everyone in the capital was busy with the reconstruction effort, and no one could be spared to make the eight-thousand meter climb. The lift that went directly to the summit still wasn’t working, so that climb would be the only way up the mountain.

  Hiyama’s remains had been discovered a short distance away from the courtyard.

  His body had been half-devoured, making it clear that he’d been eaten by monsters after Hajime had kicked him out of the courtyard. There were traces of a struggle, so it was likely he’d been eaten alive.

  His left arm was completely gone. The bloodstains suggested that after he’d lost it he’d tried to crawl to safety, only to be caught and eaten from the feet up. A death so gruesome and painful that no one even wanted to think about it.

  The more people searched through the wreckage, the more they came to understand how the demons had taken them so completely by surprise. Five days after the battle, most of the pieces had been put together. Kouki and the others were assisting Liliana in rebuilding the city now that they’d fully recovered from the ordeal. Their thoughts often turned to Hajime, who hadn’t reappeared since that day.

  Most of the students had seen Hajime in action, so they’d had an inkling of how strong he was. But even they hadn’t expected he could call down an all-powerful laser from the sky. They were once again vividly reminded of the power gap between them.

  His strength was shocking enough to Kouki and the others, but for the students who had chosen not to fight it was a complete eye-opener.

  The others had told the stay-home group of Hajime’s strength of course, but now they realized they hadn’t truly understood how overwhelming he was.

  It wasn’t surprising that he and his comrades were a hot topic among the students.

  Another common topic of gossip was Shizuku.

  She seemed to be doing fine, and completed every task assigned to her. But she’d often stop in the middle of her work and look off into the distance. Everyone knew she was taking Kaori’s death hard, but no one knew what they should do to comfort her.

  They had all heard what Hajime had said, that he’d bring Kaori back somehow. But none of them really believed he could revive the dead, so it wasn’t much comfort to most of them.

  A few of the students worried he might bring her back as an undead doll, like Eri would have. Doing so would only hurt Shizuku more, which was why some of the students, especially Kouki, mistrusted Hajime.

  He was also down because not only had he needed to be saved by Hajime twice now, he’d watched Meld die before his eyes. Not only that, the difference in strength between them was obvious now. All of that, combined with the fact that he still believed Hajime had somehow tricked Kaori into leaving him meant he wasn’t very fond of Hajime right now. That being said, even Kouki realized he was directing his anger to the wrong person. But he still couldn’t help but be resentful of Hajime.

  Naturally, he was too dense to have realized his feelings stemmed from simple jealousy. Even if he had, he would have refused to believe it. It was likely he would have just reinterpreted everything to suit his own perspective... but it was also possible realizing it might have made him grow as a person.

  Regardless, both Kouki and Shizuku were stuck dealing with their own complicated feelings, and Ryutarou was too much of a musclehead for anyone to consider him reliable.

  Normally this would have been where Suzu took charge and kept everyone together, but she was as depressed as Kouki and Shizuku. Everyone could tell her smiles were forced, and that she was still hurting.

  Eri’s betrayal had hurt her more than anyone. After all, Suzu had thought they’d been best friends for years. Hearing that she’d just been used so that Eri could get closer to Kouki had stung.

  As all of the people who could have potentially held them together were busy sorting through their own feelings, it wasn’t surprising that a pall had fallen over the regular students.

  Hiyama and Kondou’s friends had retreated into themselves, and the other students had started growing suspicious of each other. There was no telling who might be a potential traitor, and many stayed holed up in their rooms to avoid contact with each other.

  Eri’s betrayal had lasting repercussions beyond just the immediate loss of a friend.

  Still, none of them gave in completely to despair. Plenty of students threw themselves into the reconstruction effort to avoid thinking too deeply about what had happened, and the efforts of Aiko and Yuka kept them, if not optimistic, at least less depressed.

  Aiko was of course as worried about Kaori as anyone else. If she could have, she would have been there with Hajime. But she knew what they were trying to do, and she knew with Tio and Yue there, Hajime had no need for her.

  Which was why she had prioritized taking care of the other students. She was a hard worker by nature,
and she had gone to every student, listening to their worries and trying to cheer them up.

  And even if they had grown suspicious of each other, the students all trusted Aiko. She was in many ways their salvation.

  Yuka and the rest of Aiko’s guards were also a rock for many of the students, especially those who’d lost the will to fight. They’d been one of them originally, so they knew how the others felt. Without them, it was possible the non-combatants among the students would have been lost.

  Of course, both the students and many people within the palace asked Aiko what had happened up above at the Divine Mountain, but she refused to talk about it.

  She knew many people were wondering what had happened to the church, but she also knew now wasn’t the time to talk about it.

  If people went up the mountain now it would interfere with Hajime’s work. Besides, her thoughts grew dark every time she thought about what she’d done.

  Her spell might have been more effective than she’d expected, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d been prepared to kill back there.

  She decided she’d confess all of her sins when Hajime and the others returned.

  What she had done was a crime, after all.

  Though she acted cheerful, Aiko was actually terrified inside. What would her students think of her once they found out she’d helped Tio blow up the main temple and everyone inside it? She was responsible for the deaths of hundreds.

  She’d done it because she was tired of these people treating her precious students as pawns, and she certainly didn’t regret it, but murder was murder.

  It was possible they wouldn’t see her as their teacher anymore. But she was resolved to accept the outcome, whatever it might be.

  At the very least, David and the others had survived.

  They had used their position as Templar Knights to request an interview with Aiko after she’d first been kidnapped. However, Ishtar had denied their request, so they’d tried looking for her on their own. Tired of the knights snooping around, Ishtar had ordered them back to the capital and placed them on standby. In other words, he’d barred them from the cathedral. Their “standby” orders had actually consisted of being confined to a church prison in the capital, which was why no one had seen them until after the invasion.

  No one knew why they hadn’t been brainwashed, or turned into Eri’s puppets.

  Aiko suspected that they’d been spared because they were also pawns Noint’s god wanted to keep alive to play around with, but there was no way to confirm her hunch anymore.

  Like most others, David and his knights were helping with the capital’s reconstruction in order to avoid thinking too hard about the future.

  The only way everyone could keep calm was to ignore their problems by throwing themselves into work. Even the kingdom’s remaining knights were currently undergoing a test to see who would serve as each squad’s captain.

  The new commander of the knights was a woman named Kuzeli Reil. She had originally been part of the Royal Guard, and Liliana’s personal bodyguard.

  Her vice-commander was a man named Neyto Komold. He’d been promoted from his old post as captain of squad three.

  The two of them had organized a test where everyone would fight against Kouki to determine who was fit to serve as the new squad captains. As the battles wound down to a close, Kouki wiped a bead of sweat off his brow.

  “Thank you for helping out, Kouki-san.” Kouki turned to see Liliana smiling at him.

  “It’s no big deal, don’t worry about it. You’ve got it way harder than I do. You’ve barely slept these past few days, Lily. It must be tough.” Kouki smiled tiredly, and Liliana let some of her own exhaustion show through.

  In truth, neither of them had gotten much sleep recently. Though the reason for their respective insomnia was completely different.

  “There’s no time for sleep. We have to toll up the casualties, contact their families, repair all the destroyed buildings and homes, track down any missing people, repair the walls and the barrier, send out messages to the rest of the kingdom, restructure the army... It’s not an easy job, but someone has to manage all of it. Complaining about it won’t make the work go away. Mother’s been helping out as well, so it’s not that bad. The people who’re really suffering are those who lost their homes and their loved ones in the fighting...”

  “But you also...”

  Liliana’s father, the king, had been killed by Eri and transformed into a zombie. But Kouki could tell bringing that up wasn’t a good idea, so he trailed off.

  Lily guessed what he was about to say and smiled sadly at him. “Really, I’m fine,” she said, before changing the topic.

  “How’s Shizuku doing?”

  “Same as before. She’s doing her best to act normal, but whenever she’s not doing anything she starts staring at the mountain.”

  Kouki looked over to Shizuku, who was currently discussing something with Kuzeli.

  The two of them were actually quite close, and appeared to be engrossed in a discussion about how to organize the new knight regiments.

  Whenever there was a lull in the conversation though, Shizuku’s gaze would automatically turn upward, toward the Divine Mountain.

  “She’s... waiting for them to come back, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah. To be honest... I don’t really trust Nagumo. I’d prefer if Shizuku didn’t talk to him again, but...”

  Surprised, Liliana turned back to Kouki.

  Kouki’s brow was furrowed and it was clear his feelings on the matter were complicated. Jealousy, suspicion, fear, pride, gratitude, hate, and impatience all warred within him, resulting in a very difficult to read expression.

  Unable to find anything to say to him, Liliana looked up toward the mountain.

  The weather was so perfect it was hard to believe the capital had been nearly devastated days before.

  It almost felt as if the clear sky was mocking them, and Liliana glared angrily at it.

  Just then, she spotted a few black dots in the sky. She squinted, trying to get a better look. Before long, it became clear that these dots were growing larger. Something was falling right toward them. Panicking, she called out to Kouki.

  “K-Kouki-san! What’s that over there!? It looks like something’s falling at us!”

  “Hm? What do you... Guys! Be careful! Something’s coming from above!”

  Kouki followed Liliana’s worried gaze, and hurriedly called out a warning as he too saw the black dots descending. It was possible this was some kind of enemy attack.

  Shizuku and the others rushed over to where Kouki was, eager to get out of the center of the courtyard. No sooner had they evacuated that the dots landed.

  There was a tremendous crash and a huge cloud of dust filled the courtyard. From within it emerged Hajime, Yue, Shea, and Tio.

  “Nagumo-kun!” Shizuku rushed over the moment she recognized them.

  As Hajime had asked, she’d waited and put her trust him. After five days, her impatience was understandable.

  But when she noticed Kaori wasn’t among the group, Shizuku’s steps ground to a halt. Her face fell, and the worry she’d shut away began nagging at her once more.

  “Yo, Yaegashi. Glad to see you’re still alive.”

  “Nagumo-kun... where’s Kaori? Why isn’t she here?”

  Shizuku couldn’t hide the anxiety in her voice. Hajime’s casual tone had reassured her somewhat, but the fact that she didn’t see Kaori anywhere still worried her. What if Hajime hadn’t been able to bring Kaori back?

  Hajime looked away awkwardly.

  “Oh, uhh, she’ll be here soon. Just, uhh... her appearance is a little different from before... It’s not my fault though. This totally wasn’t my fault, so please don’t get mad at me, okay?”

  “Huh? Wait, what do you mean by that? What’s not your fault? You’re making me really worried now, you know that? What did you do to Kaori? Depending on your answer, I may have to cut you down with the sword yo
u gave me...”

  Shizuku’s expression grew deadly, and she grabbed the hilt of the black katana at her waist.

  Hajime hurriedly tried to placate her, but before he could say anything a scream from above distracted them both.

  “Kyaaaaaaaaah! Hajime-kuuuuuuuuun! Catch meeeeee!” Shizuku looked up and saw a silver-haired girl falling toward them at high speed.

  Her outstanding kinetic vision allowed her to get a good look at the girl as she fell. She had beautiful blue eyes to match her silver hair, but her tearful expression ruined the effect of her looks. She flailed around wildly as she fell, as if flapping her arms and legs would somehow slow her descent.

  She fell straight toward Hajime, confident that he’d catch her.

  But of course, Hajime wasn’t that nice of a guy.

  A second before she crashed into him, Hajime jumped out of the way. She looked over in surprise, before slamming into the ground face-first.

  Is she dead? The students thought collectively as they stared at Hajime in terror.

  Lilliana and Aiko were terrified as well, but for a completely different reason. They’d never forget that face for as long as they lived. The blue-eyed silver-hair girl groaned in pain as the dust around her cleared.

  Liliana and Aiko hurriedly yelled out a warning.

  “Wh-What are you doing here!?”

  “Everyone, get out of here! She’s the woman who kidnapped Aiko-san and helped Eri take over the castle!” The students and knights all grabbed the hilts of their respective weapons.

  Shizuku, who had reacted faster than anyone, was already in her drawing stance. Hatred glimmered in her eyes; she wouldn’t forgive anyone who’d had even the slightest involvement in Kaori’s death. The moment this newcomer showed an opening, Shizuku would strike.

  The beautiful girl, Noint, got to her feet instantly. The fall hadn’t damaged her in the slightest.

  She shot Hajime a reproachful glare before turning to Shizuku. She spoke to her in a flustered voice, a stark contrast to the emotionless tone she’d possessed when Hajime had fought her.

  “Ah, wait, Shizuku-chan! It’s me!”