“......”
“What’d I tell you? I knew she’d pull something like this.”
Shea and Yue were stunned speechless. Hajime just looked annoyed. He had been hoping his guess was incorrect.
He’d already guessed that both the serious Miledi and the prankster Miledi were just two facets of the person that was Miledi Reisen. The intricacy and annoyance factor of her traps was too great to have come from someone who was just putting on a facade. Furthermore, she’d purposely chosen to leave her spirit behind to judge potential challengers. In which case, it didn’t make sense for her to set things up so that she’d just vanish once she was defeated. After all, that would mean subsequent challengers would no longer have any trials to overcome.
That was why Hajime had predicted that even if they destroyed her golem, Miledi herself wouldn’t vanish. His assumption was confirmed when the block they jumped on started guiding them on its own. Only Miledi could freely control those blocks.
In stark contrast to Shea and Yue’s glum expressions, Miledi seemed sickeningly cheerful.
“Huh? What’s this? Why’s everyone all quiet? Come on, shouldn’t you be more surprised? Or are you just so surprised you don’t know what to say? I guess my surprise was a huge hit!” The miniature Miledi Golem looked a lot more human than her giant counterpart. She had a white mask over her face and her slender body was clad in a white robe. Though it was rather off-putting that her mask was in the shape of a smiley face... Speaking in the same cutesy manner she had when they’d first met, Mini Miledi walked up to them. Yue and Shea’s bangs were covering their faces, hiding their expressions. Hajime could see where this was headed and quickly took a step back.
Yue and Shea whispered quietly.
“...Then what was that back there?”
“Hm? Back there? Oh, did you think I died? Nah, no way! I’d never leave!”
“But we saw light leaving your body.”
“Fufufu, pretty good performance, right? I’m such a good actor! I really am a genius at everything I do!” Miledi got louder and louder as she spoke. She became proportionally more annoying as well. Yue stuck her hand out while Shea pulled out Drucken.
“Uh oh, did I go too far?” Miledi muttered worriedly.
“U-Umm....” She looked apprehensively from Yue to Shea, momentarily at a loss for words, but then she seemed to resign herself to her fate as she spoke.
“Ehehe, just kidding~”
“Die.”
“I’m going to kill you!”
“W-Wait! Please wait! This body’s really weak! I really will die if you smash it! Calm down, please! I’ll apologize, I promise!”
That marked the start of a scuffle in which a great deal of the surrounding area was destroyed, but Hajime paid it all no mind and explored the room they were in instead. The floors and walls were all white, and aside from the magic circle engraved into its center, the room was empty. There was a single door set into the far wall, which Hajime assumed led to Miledi’s house.
Hajime walked over to the magic circle and started examining it. Miledi hurried over to him when she saw what he was doing. A bloodthirsty vampire and a murderous rabbit chased after her.
“Heeey, don’t touch that. Also, they’re your comrades, right!? Don’t just ignore me, do something about them!” Miledi cowered behind Hajime’s back, hoping he would provide some protection against the two demonic girls chasing her.
“Hajime, move. I have to kill her.”
“Please move, Hajime-san. We need to kill her. Soon, preferably.”
“Didn’t think I’d be hearing that from you guys. Anyway, quit playing around, we’ve got work to do.” Hajime reprimanded Yue and Shea in a tired voice. Behind him, the Mini Miledi jeered.
“Yeah that’s right, take this seriously!” But then she was cut short by Hajime’s metal arm grabbing her face. He tightened his hold on her until her smiley face mask was twisted in a grotesque expression of pain. There was an ominous creaking noise coming out of her head.
“If you don’t want to end up like your bigger self, hand over the ancient magic.”
“Heeey, you do know you sound totally like a villain— Creaak! Okay, okay, fine, I’ll give it to you! I promise, so please stop! I’m really going to break if you keep going!” Seeing Miledi finally humbled, Yue and Shea calmed down a little as well. Realizing any more fooling around might really get her destroyed, Miledi quickly started up the magic circle.
The three of them stepped inside it. Since Miledi herself had been the one to test them here, there was no spell that searched their memories like the one in Orcus’ home. Instead, the knowledge of how to use the ancient magic she protected was transferred directly to their brain. Hajime and Yue had gone through this once before, so they didn’t show any reaction, but Shea jumped in surprise when it happened.
In just a few seconds, all three of them had the knowledge of how to use Miledi’s ancient spell.
“This is... I knew it, a spell that lets you manipulate gravity.”
“That’s right~ My specialty was gravity magic. Make sure you use it well... Or so I’d like to say, but it looks like you and that bunny girl over there don’t have any affinity for it. Like none at all, holy cow!”
“Oh shut up. I figured that would happen anyway.” Just as Miledi had said, though Hajime and Shea now had the knowledge of how to manipulate gravity, they wouldn’t easily be able to use it. It was like how Yue didn’t have any aptitude for the creation magic Hajime used.
“Well, that bunny girl over there can at least use it well enough to make herself heavier. And you... you’ve got your creation magic, so think of something. At least Blondie over here is fit to use it. Train hard until you master it, okay?” Hajime shrugged his shoulders, Yue nodded seriously, and Shea looked stricken. She’d finally gotten her hands on god-level magic only to be told the most she’d be able to do with it was make herself heavier. The shock must have been pretty great. Obviously, she had no intention of making herself heavier, but even learning how to make herself lighter wouldn’t be of much help. Becoming lighter could mess up her body proportions just as badly. Either way, it was of no use to her... Shea sunk to the ground, clearly depressed. Hajime ignored her and continued mercilessly making more demands.
“Hey, Miledi. Hand over the proof that we conquered this dungeon. Oh, and give us all the useful artifacts you have hidden here and all the high-quality spirit stone you’ve got stored up.”
“You do realize that you sound like a mugger right now, right?” It felt to Hajime that the eyes behind the now warped smiley face mask were glaring at him angrily, but he ignored them. Mini Miledi ruffled through her pockets before pulling out a ring and throwing it to Hajime. He caught it in midair. Reisen’s crest was two ellipses connected by a single stake piercing through both of them.
She then brought out a large quantity of ore from seemingly nowhere, then rifled through it, picking out the same ore the dungeon was made from. She must have had a Treasure Trove of her own. Considering how easily she agreed, maybe she planned on giving all this to us anyway. For whatever reason, Miledi seemed convinced that Hajime would indeed end up fighting the gods, so it made sense for her to offer all this assistance.
Though, leave it to Hajime to not be satisfied with all that. He started packing the ore into his own Treasure Trove while he looked coldly at Miledi.
“That’s a Treasure Trove, isn’t it? Hand it over. You’ve got some good artifacts in there too, right?”
“N-Now look here, that’s everything I have to give you. I need the Treasure Trove and all the other artifacts I have left to repair and maintain this labyrinth.”
“Like I care. Hand it over.”
“Hey, I said no!” Miledi hurriedly stepped back, away from Hajime’s grabbing hands. Besides, these things wouldn’t be of any use to them anyway. She explained as much to Hajime, but it seemed to be of no use.
“Hmm, I see... Alright, hand it over.” At this point, he
really was acting like a villain.
“I told you already, I can’t! Now go home!” Miledi fled from Hajime’s groping clutches and jumped up onto the block that had led them here. She manipulated it so that she was floating somewhere near the ceiling.
“Don’t run. I just want everything you own as part of my reward for clearing your dungeon. I’d say that’s a fair thing to ask.”
“There’s something wrong with you if you think that counts as fair! Ugh, can’t believe I ended up saying the same line O-chan always used to give me...”
“Just so you know, it’s O-chan who taught us this is fair.”
“O-chaaaaaaan!”
Hajime eventually managed to corner Miledi with the help of Yue and Shea, who still held a grudge toward her for all the teasing she’d done and wanted payback. She knew half of this was her own fault, but the part that really stung was that half of it was the fault of the guy who’d made the other labyrinth.
“Haaah, to think the first people to conquer my dungeon would be this crazy... Whatever, I give up. I’m sending you three out of here! You better not come back!” Just before Hajime could leap at her, a rope suddenly appeared from the ceiling, which Miledi promptly pulled.
“Huh?” Hajime looked up in confusion, but then he heard that same terrible noise he’d grown to hate.
Clunk!
“Wha—!?” She’d activated another trap.
A second later, water started rushing into the room from all four walls. Because of the angle it came out at, the room they were in was soon a raging whirlpool of water. At the same time, the magic circle in the center of the room sunk, creating a neat little hole in the floor. The whirlpool started draining into it.
“Hey! You little—” Hajime stiffened as he realized the humiliation they were about to be subjected to. A circular white room, a hole in its center, and water whirlpooling its way down said hole... Miledi had led them to a massive toilet.
“How about we let this water wash away our animosity too?” Mini Miledi’s mask winked at them.
Annoyed, Yue quickly tried to cast her usual flight spell. Mana in this room didn’t get dispersed, possibly because the magic circle was in this room, which was why Yue could easily have lifted them all up despite her depleted mana reserves.
“Up—”
“Nope~” Before she could finish, however, Miledi stuck out her hand and Hajime and the others felt an enormous weight press down on them. It felt like there was an invisible object trying to crush them. Miledi had increased the weight of the air pressing down on them.
“Bye bye~ Good luck with the other labyrinths!”
“Ugh... Damn you! We’re not shit to be flushed down! I swear I’ll come back and destroy you!”
“Urgh... I’ll never forgive you.”
“You’re dead, you hear me!? Dead! Fugwaah!”
With those parting remarks, Hajime and the others were sucked down the massive toilet bowl. Just before he vanished from sight, Hajime chucked something at Miledi in a last desperate act of revenge. Once Hajime and the others had disappeared, the water drained away as fast as it came, leaving the room looking the same as it had before.
“Haah, what a bunch. Still, to think he’d be a Synergist like O-chan... Fufu, it almost feels like fate. Keep struggling for the sake of your dream... Now then, looks like I’ll be busy fixing the golems for quite some time... Hm? What’s this?”
Miledi wiped nonexistent sweat off her artificial golem brow as she mused to herself. A second later, she noticed something strange at the corner of her sight. There was a knife stuck to the wall with a black object dangling from it. What on earth is that? As she got closer, she realized she recognized that shape.
“Huh!? Wait, isn’t this—”
The black object was one of Hajime’s hand grenades. Just before he’d disappeared down the drain, Hajime had thrown it as his last act of revenge. Since he’d used it so many times in the dungeon, Miledi recognized what it was instantly. Panicking, she quickly tried to get away. However, manipulating gravity took up large amounts of mana, and Miledi had used all of it up in that last chase, which meant she had no means of softening the explosion.
She tried to make a break for it on foot, but it was already too late. The moment Mini Miledi turned around was when the grenade went off. The entire room was enveloped in light, followed by a massive shockwave.
Miledi’s screams echoed throughout the labyrinth. Some time after, there might have been a very depressed golem going around crying as she had to spend even more time repairing her dungeon. Meanwhile, the trio that had been flushed out of the room was currently being carried down a long tunnel by a powerful current. There was no breaks for them to take a breath, so they just got swept along. It took all of their concentration just to stay conscious and avoid crashing into the walls.
They caught sight of a number of shadows passing them by as they were being swept away. Fish. The tunnel they were being funneled through must have connected to a river or lake somewhere. Unlike Hajime and the others, the fish were able to swim against the current and many of them passed the trio.
One of them even came up to Shea’s face as it swam by, keeping pace with her. She looked over at it. Their eyes met. Hers and the fish’s. Or rather, what she’d thought was a fish. Though it had the body of one, its face looked like that of an old man. It was a difficult impression to convey, but that was the best way to describe it. Shea had run into a fish with a person’s face. Its apathetic expression was oddly reminiscent of the fish in the old game Seaman.
Shea opened her eyes wide in surprise. She almost let out the breath she’d been holding in, but she managed to clamp down on her mouth in time. Still, she couldn’t take her eyes off it. The two of them stared each other down as they were swept away by the current. They might have spent all eternity gazing into each other’s eyes, but Shea was abruptly interrupted by a voice that popped up in her head.
—What the heck are you staring at?— It was even accompanied by a mental clicking of the tongue. This time Shea couldn’t contain her surprise. She opened her mouth with a garbled scream, letting out the air she’d been holding in. Wait, is this fish a monster of some kind!? One that can use the telepathy skill? But Shea’s question would remain forever unanswered as the torrent of water swept them away, while the fish continued swimming in a different direction.
All that was left behind was a white-eyed bunny girl suspended limply in the water, as their party continued to flow down the water for quite a while...
A single carriage escorted by a team of horses plodded down a beaten highway. The horses’ hoofbeats punctured the silence at regular intervals. They naturally had people riding them. Three men and one woman, all of them dressed like adventurers. The carriage was being driven by a fifteen year old girl and a... cross-dresser that resembled a monster.
“Sona-chaaan, there’s a spring coming up ahead, so let’s take a break there.”
“Alright, Crystabel-san.”
This Crystabel was the same Crystabel that had helped outfit Yue and Shea back in the town of Brooke. The girl sitting next to him was the receptionist of the Masaka Inn that they’d stayed at, Sona Masaka. Despite her strange sounding name, she was an ordinary girl with maybe just a little more curiosity in the more adult side of things than was normal for her age.
The two of them were on their way back to Brooke after an excursion to the next town over with a hired escort of guards. As his giant frame would suggest, Crystabel was insanely strong, so he often went out to collect his own supplies to craft his clothes. This trip, in fact, had one such instance. Sona had come along because one of her relatives in the next town over had gotten pretty badly hurt and her parents were too busy to go, so she’d delivered get well gifts in their place. The adventurers had been on the way back from a quest, so they decided to tag along as well.
They were around a day’s ride out from Brooke. The party decided to rest at a nearby spring for the afternoon.
“Kyaaa!”
“Sona-chan!”
Sona let out a surprised shriek and fell back. Crystabel instantly rushed over to protect her, with the other adventurers not far behind. The fountain’s spray increased in intensity, creating a column of water rising ten meters high.
This spring was a well known resting place for travelers, and never once had anyone reported something like this happening. Hence why Crystabel, Sona, and the other adventurers gazed on in shock, heedless of the spray that was soaking them. A few seconds later—
“Dowaaaaaaa!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“......”
Three people were spat out of the fountain... two of which screamed as they flew out. Crystabel and the others cried out in surprise. They flew a good ten feet through the air before crashing spectacularly to the ground on the opposite shore.
“......”
“Wh-What on earth was that...” Crystabel and the adventurers were shocked speechless, while Sona muttered what they were all thinking.
“Ack... Ugh... God, that was terrible. I’m gonna crush that little bitch into pieces, mark my words. Yue, Shea, you alright?”
“Ack, urgh... Yeah, somehow.”
Hajime spat out a string of curses while making sure Yue and Shea were fine. However, only Yue responded to him.
“Shea? Hey, Shea! Where are you?”
“Shea... where’d you go?”
There was no response. Hajime quickly jumped back into the water and started looking for her. As he’d expected, Shea was laying at the bottom of the spring. She’d lost consciousness and didn’t float because of Drucken’s weight.
Hajime pulled a really dense ore out of his Treasure Trove, making him quickly sink to the bottom. Once he’d grabbed Shea, he kicked off the ground and leaped back out.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 2 Page 28
