Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 2 Read online

  “Oh, and you’d better tell everyone the death of your subordinates was entirely your fault. And that you were defeated at the Haulia’s hands, no less.”

  “Ugh.” There was a reason Hajime was willing to let this opponent go. Mercy didn’t factor into his decision at all. Verbergen had cut him off completely, but it was possible he’d have to return there at some point if his search for the other labyrinths ever pointed in that direction. After all, one of the Liberators had personally left an edict behind for the people of the country. He’d felt like the situation with the elders could have been handled a little more diplomatically, and had regretted being chased out just a little. So now that an unexpected windfall of good luck had dropped in his lap he intended to make the most of it. Regin seemed unsure of what to do, but Hajime didn’t have the patience for him to think it through.

  “You have five seconds. If you don’t answer by then, I’ll start killing your men one by one. Your kind values prompt decisions, right?” Hajime slowly started counting down, and Regin gave his answer in a panic.

  “F-Fine. We choose to live!”

  “I see. Then get out of my sight. And you better relay my message, you hear? If I ever come back and find out you haven’t, well...” Bloodlust so thick it was palpable pressed down onto Regin. He gulped fearfully.

  “Let’s just say Verbergen might not exist anymore.” The way Hajime phrased his threats made him look like a yakuza loan shark, or rather a terrorist. Relieved sighs could be heard behind him.

  “Aah, thank goodness we have the old Hajime back,” “Boss is back to normal,” and the like could be heard from the group of rabbitmen. Hajime pointedly ignored their remarks, however. But they still served to ruin the tense atmosphere he’d built up. Oh yeah, they need some very harsh discipline when we get back

  None of the bearmen disputed his decision to beg for their lives, and Regin dejectedly led what remained of his troop back home. The fact that so many of his soldiers were young had probably played a part in Regin’s despair. He’d never again be able to swagger around Verbergen like he owned the place. In fact, it was likely he’d be ostracized by everyone. He supposed he’d been let off lightly, though, considering he was the one who’d initiated hostilities. Within minutes, the bearmen had all been swallowed up by the fog.

  Once they were out of sight, Hajime rounded on Shea and Cam. His head was downcast, so nobody could see his expression, and there was a strange aura surrounding him. All of the rabbitmen were still getting over their shame at having nearly fallen into madness, so they walked up to him like nothing was wrong. Only Shea broke out in a cold sweat as she realized there was a dangerous aura emanating around him.

  Trembling slightly, he raised his head to look up at them. There was a content smile on his face, but it never reached his eyes. Finally, Cam and the others realized there was something wrong with Hajime too.

  “B-Boss?” Cam questioned timidly.

  “Yeah? You know, I really did feel bad about what I did to you guys. Even if it was to train you as quickly as possible in the short time we had, I should have put a stop to it after a while.”

  “N-No, Boss, it was... all because we were too immature...”

  “Now now, I’m perfectly willing to admit my own mistakes. But... But you know, even though I apologized so sincerely... the way you guys reacted was just too much. I mean, I get it. It’s partly my fault for being so mean every day... I know. I know that, but I still have to do something about all this rage building up inside me... You understand, right?”

  “N-No, sir. I can’t say I do...” Cold sweat started pouring down Cam’s back. Oh crap, he’s pissed. Cam slowly started backing up. Hajime’s attitude brought back memories of their hellish training, and more than a few of the Haulia broke down crying.

  “Now’s my chance!” Shea yelled, then tried to take advantage of Hajime’s momentary hesitation to flee. She even used the other Haulia as meat shields as she ran. However... Bang! Hajime’s bullet flew between a Haulia’s legs, ricocheted off a nearby root, and hit Shea right in the butt.

  “Hakyun!” This was just one of Hajime’s many sniping skills. By ricocheting bullets off of various surfaces, he could attack from any angle. And so, he could accurately aim for Shea’s butt no matter where she hid. It was a completely pointless gun skill that had no wasted movements to it.

  Shea hopped around in pain as she held her butt cheeks. She then tripped over a root, exposing her ass for all to see. A faint tendril of smoke rose from where the bullet had hit her. She showed no signs of getting up, and simply twitched helplessly on the ground.

  Cam and the others all watched on in horror as Shea spasmed on the ground. The man whose legs the bullet had passed between was holding his crotch protectively and sobbing uncontrollably. The shockwave that Hajime’s bullet had left behind had touched his balls slightly.

  Hajime casually holstered Donner and smiled demonically. His loud voice carried to every one of the Haulia.

  “You’re all eating one bullet before I’m through!”

  “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The Haulia all skittered away like spiders, but Hajime didn’t let even a single one of them escape unscathed. For a long time the terrified screams of bunnies echoed throughout the forest. Until only Shea remained, smoke still rising from her buttocks.

  “...So when can we go to the Grand Tree?” Yue, who’d been quiet this whole time, finally spoke up.

  A few hours later, after Hajime had thoroughly vented all of his frustration, Cam and the others led them through the fog to the Sacred Tree, Uralt.

  Cam was in the lead, while the other Haulia, much wiser now thanks to their training, spread out to scout the surrounding area. The idea that carelessness led to death had been thoroughly ingrained into each of their minds, so they all took their job seriously. The lumps rising on various parts of their bodies broke the tension a bit, though...

  “Gaah, it still stings.” Shea complained bitterly as she rubbed her butt. She glared angrily at Hajime.

  “Quit looking at me like that, it’s annoying.”

  “That’s what you have to say for yourself? Unbelievable. I can’t believe you’d shoot a girl in the butt. With such a pointlessly advanced skill, too.”

  “Says the girl that was seriously contemplating whacking me on the head. And you even tried to use the guy next to you as a shield when you ran... I don’t think you have any right to talk.”

  The guy she’d hid behind nodded vigorously. He was walking a few steps back from them.

  “That’s just because of Yue-san’s training.”

  “I raised Shea well.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment.”

  Yue puffed out her chest proudly as she looked at Shea. Hajime made use of the ignore skill that he’d recently had a lot of time to hone.

  Fifteen minutes passed while Yue and Shea bantered cheerfully. The party had finally reached the Grand Tree, and Hajime was the first to speak.

  “The hell is this?” His voice was tinged with both disbelief and amazement. Yue also gazed up in confusion. The two of them had been expecting a super sized version of the trees they’d saw in Verbergen. A kind of majestic, awe-inspiring spectacle. Instead, what they got was... a very withered tree.

  Its size was still what they’d expected. Actually, it was larger than either of them had imagined. It was hard to measure its girth with just a glance, but it must have been at least 50 meters in diameter. Far bigger than any tree they’d seen thus far. And yet, despite the fact that all the trees surrounding it were lush and healthy, the Grand Tree looked as if it was already half-dead.

  “The Grand Tree has supposedly been like this since before Verbergen’s founding. Yet it’s never rotted away. It’s stayed withered like that for as long as we’ve known. Because of the way the fog acts around it, and the fact that it never dies despite being so withered, the people of this forest consider it sacred. Well, I say sacred, but it’s more just like a fancy tourist att
raction...” Seeing their confused faces, Cam offered an explanation. Hajime slowly walked up to the tree’s base. Just as Ulfric had said, there was a stone marker with a lithograph carved into it.

  “This is... just like Oscar’s...”

  “...Yeah. It’s the same.”

  Engraved into the stone was a heptagon, with a different crest at each vertex. The same one they’d seen in Oscar’s house, or in the hidden cave the magic circle had teleported them to.

  Just to make sure, Hajime pulled out Orcus’ ring. The crest matched one of the ones on the stone.

  “So this really is one of the labyrinth entrances. But... how are we supposed to get in?” Hajime rapped the trunk with his knuckles, but naturally that did nothing. Cam and the others didn’t know anything more than this either, it seemed. Nothing in the legend Ulfric had told him said anything about how to enter this labyrinth. Though it was always possible Ulfric hadn’t told Hajime everything he knew. Should I call in my favor right away?

  Suddenly, Yue called out to him.

  “Hajime... look at this.”

  “Hm? What’s up?”

  Yue was pointing to the back of the stone tablet. There were seven indents carved into the back, in the same spot the crests were on the front.

  “So then...”

  Hajime fit the ring into the hole corresponding with Orcus’ crest. A few seconds later, the stone tablet began to glow.

  The other Haulia all crowded around it as well, eager to see what was happening. After a while the glow began to fade, and floating letters appeared in the air above the stone. This is what they said:

  —Four markers of strength.

  —The power of restoration.

  —A beacon woven from bonds.

  —Only with those three ingredients in hand will the path to a new trial be opened.

  “What does that mean?” Hajime questioned.

  “Four markers of strength... probably refers to getting four crests from other labyrinths?”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. Then what about the power of restoration and a beacon woven from bonds?” Hajime tilted his head in confusion as he asked that, but surprisingly, Shea had an answer.

  “Hmmm, well a beacon woven from bonds probably refers to whether or not you can get the beastmen to guide you here, right? Most beastmen never leave the sea of trees, and getting one to guide you here like you did is something that’s never happened before.”

  “I see. Does sound like you could be right.”

  “All that’s left is the power of restoration... Does that mean me?” Yue points to herself, no doubt referring to her automatic regeneration. As an experiment, she cut her own finger and pushed it against the tree’s bark as her magic activated... but nothing happened.

  “Hmm... I guess not.”

  “Well, maybe we have to... restore the tree... and bring at least four crests from other labyrinths...? So not only do we have to clear over half of them, we need to get ancient restoration magic from one of them?”

  Such was Hajime’s conjecture. Yue nodded in agreement.

  “Haaa, damn. So we can’t start on this one just yet... What a pain in the ass. Guess we’ll just have to do the others first...”

  “Yeah...”

  Hajime was frustrated that they’d have to turn back after expending so much effort to get here. Yue didn’t look too happy either. But unless they could find some alternate entrance, there was no point in sitting there complaining about it. Hajime quickly got over his frustration and decided to change his immediate goal to clearing three other labyrinths.

  He stood up and called all the Haulia over.

  “As you saw, we’ll have to clear three other labyrinths before we get back to this one. My promise to protect you guys until you led us here has now been fulfilled. As you are now, even without Verbergen’s protection, you should have no trouble living safely in this forest. And so, this is where we part.”

  He then turned back to Shea. His gaze made it clear that if she had any parting words she wanted to say to them, now was the only time to do it. Even though they were guaranteed to return here eventually, conquering three labyrinths would take quite some time. She wouldn’t be able to see her family for quite a while. Shea nodded resolutely and walked up to Cam and the others.

  “I—”

  “Hey, Boss! There’s something I want to say!”

  “...Wait, Dad? It’s my turn to talk right now...” Cam ignored her and walked up to Hajime. He gave him a crisp salute and stood at attention.

  “Dad? Hey, Dad?” Shea kept pestering him from behind, but like the royal guardsmen of England, he ignored her completely and looked only at Hajime.

  “Yeah, what is it?” Like Cam, Hajime decided this would go faster if he just ignored Shea. Cam took a deep breath before voicing the will of his tribe.

  “Boss, please let us accompany you in your travels!”

  “Huh!? Dad, you wanna go with him too!?” Shea cried out in surprise. When they’d had this discussion ten days ago it had sounded like Shea was going to be the only one leaving, so this caught her completely off guard.

  “We are at once both Haulia, and your subordinates, Boss! Please allow us to journey with you! This is the will of the entire tribe!”

  “Wait, Dad! That’s not the problem here! And wait, if Hajime-san says yes, then what was the point of all my hard work...”

  “Honestly speaking, we’re jealous of Shea!”

  “Wow, you confessed that easily! I can’t believe it! What happened to you guys over these past ten days!?”

  Cam’s loud voice drowned out Shea’s protests. Somewhat confused, Hajime still gave an immediate reply.

  “Not happening.”

  “Why!?” Like Shea had been before, Cam was taken aback by his immediate reply. The other Haulia began pestering him too.

  “Because you’d be dead weight.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourselves now. You might have improved a little, but it’s 180 days too early for you guys to be anywhere near my level.”

  “What an oddly specific number!”

  Despite Hajime’s curt rejection, Cam refused to give up. He even went as far as to say “Even if you don’t give us permission we’ll just follow you anyway!” in response. Hajime’s spartan training had built an odd sense of camaraderie between him and the rabbitmen, so they all respected him immensely now. He was convinced they really would follow him no matter where he went, so he decided to let them join on a condition.

  “Fine, we’ll do it this way. You guys focus twice as hard on your training. If you’ve grown strong enough by the time I come here again, I might consider letting you join.”

  “...You’re not just lying to get rid of us, are you?”

  “I’m not.”

  “If you are, then we’ll go to every human town we can find and yell out your name like some kind of crazy cult, okay?”

  “Y-You guys just don’t give up, do you?”

  “We’re proud to call ourselves your men, Boss.”

  Hajime cringed a little when he saw how “manly” his so-called subordinates had become. Yue patted his arm comfortingly. He’d really overdid it this time, in more ways than one.

  This was his own fault though, so all he could do was sigh. The next time he came back here he was going to have a huge headache to deal with.

  “Waaa... no one’s paying any attention to me... even though I’m about to set off...” Shea was drawing circles in the ground as she wailed, but that didn’t get her any attention either.

  They parted ways at the edge of the forest. Once the goodbyes were finished, Hajime pulled out Steiff and soon they were racing across the plains. Their riding formation was as before, with Yue in front, Hajime in the middle, and Shea in the back. It seemed to Hajime that Shea was clinging to him even more tightly than before, but he did his best to ignore it. If he reacted to it even slightly, he was sure Yue would notice. Her bunny ears flapped in the wind,
and Shea closed her eyes happily as she enjoyed the sensation of riding freely under the open sky.

  “Hajime-san. I forgot to ask this earlier, but where exactly are we headed? The Grand Gruen Volcano?”

  “Oh? I didn’t tell you?”

  “Nope!”

  “...He told me.” Yue puffed out her chest proudly.

  “I-I’m one of you guys now, okay!? Quit keeping secrets from me! Communication is important between allies, isn’t it!?”

  “Sorry, sorry. We’re heading back to the Reisen Gorge.”

  “The Reisen Gorge?” Shea repeated, clearly not following. Aside from the Haltina Woods, the only other known labyrinths were the Grand Gruen Volcano and the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Hajime had already cleared Orcus’ labyrinth, so Shea had naturally assumed their next destination was the volcano. Sensing her confusion, Hajime elaborated on his decision.

  “There’s rumors that Reisen’s one of the Seven Great Labyrinths too. Since it runs from here all the way to the western continent where the desert is, we might as well ride through it and check on our way.”

  “S-So we’re just going to pass through it like a landmark...” Shea’s face stiffened. Not only was it considered the world’s execution grounds, it was also where she’d just recently lost a lot of her family. Even knowing their strength, she was a bit shocked that they could just treat it like a highway. Because of how tightly she was clinging to him, her reaction was conveyed perfectly to Hajime, who let out a sigh.