Arifureta Zero: Volume 1 Page 16

  Upon hearing that, Miledi congratulated him. Oscar blushed and adjusted his glasses to hide his embarrassment. Miledi saw right through him and grinned. She’d been around him enough to know his mannerisms now.

  Oscar cleared his throat loudly and changed the subject. His expression was serious.

  “You’ve helped my family so much. Thank you. I owe you a debt bigger than I can ever hope to repay. If you still want me to, I’ll join your—”

  “What’s important isn’t what I want, but what you want, O-kun.” Miledi cut him off with a smile.

  “Forget all that crap about debts. Your future is for you to decide. You have to choose what you want to do. If the path you want to walk is different from mine, then that’s fine. I won’t abandon your family just because you won’t join me. Don’t you dare think I’d ever try and blackmail you like that!”

  “Miledi...” He didn’t doubt her words. She wouldn’t abandon his family over something so petty. Of that, he was certain.

  The sun crested the horizon, and the world grew lighter. Miledi’s hair sparkled in sunrise’s first light.

  “But my wish is still the same...” Miledi whispered, and looked into Oscar’s eyes. Her sky blue eyes perfectly matched the color of her mana. And right now, the only thing reflected in them was him.

  “This will be the last time I ever ask you this.” Miledi sucked in a huge breath and held a hand out to him.

  “You’re an exceptional Synergist, Oscar Orcus. Don’t you wish to see a world where people can live freely? A world where anyone can decry any ideology, where no one set of values reigns supreme, where those who call out oppression are not punished for it? Would you like to come with me and change the world?” Oscar held his breath. Her words pierced right through him, and he could feel their weight. He thought back to the day they’d first met. She’d captivated him right from the start, that night in the orphanage’s backyard.

  Oscar already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask, but he had to bring it up anyway. Something inside him compelled him to.

  “Who... are you?”

  The sun continued its slow rise.

  Miledi could guess why Oscar had asked. She smiled, exuding a radiance brighter than the sun itself, and puffed out her chest proudly.

  “I’m Miledi Reisen the Liberator. One who fights against this world’s gods.”

  I knew it. This is what it means to be captivated by someone.

  He couldn’t make this decision halfheartedly. The world wasn’t so nice a place that resolve alone could change it.

  Fighting the gods was paramount to suicide. Even a cat didn’t have enough lives to survive that encounter. If he followed her, he’d surely see hell.

  But if it’s with her, I don’t think I’d mind fighting in hell.

  That was what he truly thought, from the bottom of his heart.

  Oscar adjusted his glasses to hide his expression. He didn’t want to let Miledi see him like this, but for a completely different reason than when he’d first refused her.

  He poured all of his feelings into his voice and gave Miledi his reply.

  “I’ll follow you for life, even if the path you walk takes us to hell and back.” He’d walk forward together with this unbelievably reckless girl.

  Miledi’s response was completely unexpected.

  “Uh, well, hell and back is kinda... creepy, you know? I know you’ve fallen head over heels for me, but I’m not really into yanderes. Sorry, O-kun!” Birds chirped nearby as the morning sun blazed down on them.

  Aside from the birds, there was silence.

  Oscar’s glasses began to glow, and his face turned beet red. He started trembling, then pulled out his umbrella.

  “Milediiiiiiiii! I’m going to kill you, you biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!”

  “Kyaaaaaa, O-kun’s snaaaaaaaaapped!”

  Miledi turned tail and ran.

  Oscar chased after her, fueled by anger and embarrassment in equal measure. Lightning, flames, and blades of wind shot out of his umbrella.

  Miledi dodged each of them, screaming all the while. There wasn’t even a hint of fear on her face, though. In fact, she was blushing slightly and smiling.

  Chapter III: The Macho Fairy of the Desert

  Light blazed down on a pair of travelers. The burning heat pricked at their skin, mirages appeared in the distance, sand got in to everything, and the air was so dry breathing hurt.

  “He’s... He’s trying to kill us, O-kun.”

  “Personify the sun all you want, that’s not going to make Mr. Sunny any less hot.”

  A pair of footsteps trudged through the burning sand.

  “It’s so hoooooot. Hooooooooot. I’m sweating so much I’ll dry out.”

  “At least you’re wearing my coat so it’s better for you.”

  Sand stretched out as far as the eye could see. Oscar and Miledi were walking through the Crimson Desert, located on the western part of the northern continent. It had been named such because of how striking the red sand of the desert was. The grains were all so fine that even a slight breeze would whip them through the air, turning even the sky crimson.

  Oscar was carrying Miledi on his back as he walked through the unforgiving desert heat.

  “My face is hot, my neck’s hot, my arms are hot. Everything feels hoooooot.”

  “......”

  Miledi slumped against Oscar and flailed her arms around like a spoiled child. Oscar’s jet-black coat looked like the kind of thing that would absorb heat, not reflect it. But of course, it was an artifact with metal threads woven into it. Not only did it reflect heat, but there was cooling magic incorporated into its design, so it kept its wearer at a comfortable temperature.

  Miledi had looked like she was really suffering from the heat, so Oscar had given her his coat and decided to carry her on his back.

  In other words, not only was Oscar wearing a single, sweat-drenched shirt, he was forced to lug a heavy object as well.

  “I’m thiiiiiirsty. If we keep going like this I’ll dry up.”

  “......”

  “I hate being all sweaty like this.”

  “......”

  “And the sand’s getting everywhere.”

  “......”

  “O-kun. O-kun. Hey, O-kun. Glasses-wearing O-kun. I mean, glasses—”

  “Gaaaaaah, just shut up!” Oscar finally snapped. He grabbed Miledi by the ankles and started spinning. It looked like he was swinging her around like a giant bat. The pair of them spun in circles in the middle of the desert.

  “Hyowaaaaaaaaah!” Miledi’s skirt flipped up, and her panties were clearly visible as she spun through the sand, her hands outstretched behind her.

  “Take thaaaaaaaaaaaat!” With a spirited yell, Oscar flung his partner. Miledi screamed as she flew through the air. She landed a short distance away, and kicked up a cloud of dust as she hit the sand.

  Oscar wiped the sweat off his brow and smiled.

  “Bleh... Pwah... Sand got in my mouth! Why’d you do that, O-kun!? You brute! Devil! Four-eyes!”

  “Can you stop making fun of my glasses!?” Oscar adjusted his glasses and walked over to Miledi.

  “For crying out loud, the sand and the heat are bad enough without you complaining about it every five seconds. If you’re really that hot, then why don’t you make an ice block or something with your magic?”

  “Ah...” Miledi gazed up at Oscar, her mouth a small O in surprise. After a second, she snapped back to her senses and glared at him.

  “I could say the same to you, O-kun. You can use that umbrella of yours to block the sun and make water too, can’t you?”

  “Ah...”

  The two gazed at each other underneath the blazing sun.

  A cloud of dust blew past them. They were quiet for a good ten minutes.

  Miledi summoned a giant clod of ice, floated it above them with gravity magic, and summoned a breeze to waft past them.

  At the same time, Oscar unfo
lded his umbrella and raised it above them. The cloth expanded to many times its normal size. Then, he activated the new ability he’d installed into it with Miledi’s help. With the combination of spirit stone and Miledi’s gravity magic, he was able to make the umbrella float above them. A veil of wind covered them, protecting the pair from the sand. The two were now pleasantly cool, and free of sand.

  “This is all the sun’s fault for being too hot!”

  “Seriously. It should learn some humility from the moon and quit trying to show off so damn hard!”

  “Yeah, no one cares how bright you’re shining! This is why no one likes guys like you!”

  “You’re not some street thug from Velnika, so stop acting like it, you damned sun!”

  The pair vented their frustrations at the sun. They’d underestimated the desert’s heat, which had taken a bigger toll on their mental fortitude than they’d thought. They were rather embarrassed that such simple countermeasures hadn’t come to them earlier, so they took it out on the poor sun.

  In response, it almost felt as if it got hotter. It was as if the sun was angry.

  They walked onward for another hour, berating the sun the whole time.

  “Hm? Miledi. Look, there’s a small oasis over there. I think it’s meant to be a rest stop on the way to the city. Should we stop for a bit?”

  “Yeah, let’s do it! I was just getting tired too.” Miledi happily bounded forward, her ponytail swishing behind her.

  “You’ve got really good eyes, you know that? I can’t even see it from here.” Oscar smiled proudly as he watched Miledi look around.

  “Did you think these glasses were just for show?”

  “I mean, they totally are, aren’t they? I know you’re the kind of guy who’d wear them to make himself look smarter. I mean, even in Velnika I could tell you were just pushing up your glasses all the time because you knew the girls thought it looked cool. You were totally going for an intelligent gentleman look, right?”

  “We really need to have a talk about how you see me.”

  Oscar glared at Miledi. Her words hurt even more since she’d said them all with a straight face.

  Oscar cleared his throat.

  “These glasses are an artifact too. I’ve enchanted them with a lot of different spells. The lenses can emit a powerful flash of light, and they make me immune to dark magic... I’ve also enchanted them with Farsight.” He did his best to explain that they weren’t just a tool for him to be popular with the ladies.

  Miledi looked up at him in shock.

  “Heh, I knew you’d be surprised. But now you know these glasses aren’t just—”

  “Your glasses sparkle!? They can shine!?”

  “Wait, that’s what you’re amazed about?”

  Miledi’s eyes were glittering with excitement. For whatever reason, the fact that his glasses could glow had really impressed her. “I wanna see it!”

  “I get the feeling you’re trying to make fun of me somehow, so no.”

  “Why not!? I wanna see Sparkly O-kun!”

  “Sparkly O-kun? Now I know you’re making fun of me.”

  Miledi continued begging him, but Oscar ignored her and kept walking.

  “Come on, O-kun. Make your glasses sparkle for me. Pleaaase O-kun!” A frigid wind blew against Oscar’s face, which made frost rim his glasses. However, Oscar didn’t reply, and the wind grew even colder in turn.

  I can’t let myself get angry. I’ll just be playing into her hands if I do. I need to stay calm and compos—

  “Remember when you went to visit Aisha-chan before you left, O-kun? She was crying and clinging on to you and told you that—” Glasses Beam!

  “Higyaaaaaah!? My eyes! My eyeeeeees!” Miledi clutched her eyes as his flash hit them at point-blank range.

  As a side note, the continuation of that sentence would have been “she’d heard from an adventurer that O-kun liked girls in aprons.”

  Oscar was only human. He drank with his acquaintances occasionally, too. Naturally, girls were one of the things they talked about while drunk. And it seemed Aisha had grilled those acquaintances of his to tell her more about Oscar. After that she’d requested one final job from Oscar and set up a surprise drinking party for him. By the end, Oscar had grown terrified of women.

  There were some things in the world better left unknown.

  “Look, Miledi. There’s even a cabin at the oasis. We might as well stop there for lunch.”

  “You know, O-kun. I still can’t see anything.” Miledi was still groaning in pain and pawing blindly at the air. She’d experienced firsthand the fearsome power of Oscar’s glasses. In all honesty, they scared her a little.

  Oscar commanded his umbrella closer and used it to cast healing magic on her. This was the eleventh of his umbrella’s abilities, Benison Aura. Healing light rained down from the umbrella’s spokes.

  “Aaah, I can see again. The world isn’t black!”

  “Haaah... Stop fooling around, Miledi. Let’s go.”

  Miledi raised her hands up to the light, as if offering a prayer to heaven. Oscar sighed and carried her in his arms.

  The oasis had a number of trees growing around it, and the shade was pleasantly cool. The cabin seemed to be in good condition as well. Someone probably comes and cleans it regularly. Clean though it was, it was still just an empty cabin. It kept the sun and sand out, but it was still hot inside.

  In fact, it was more comfortable under Oscar’s umbrella than in the cabin. And so, the pair decided to stay outside and sat next to the shore.

  Oscar brought his umbrella back to the ground, just in case anyone else showed up. He didn’t want people to suspect what magic they were capable of.

  “Everyone needs an O-kun in their house.” Miledi washed her face and hands in the oasis as she said that.

  “You could at least make it sound like I’m a person, not an object. Besides, I’m not here to make everyone’s life more convenient.” Oscar bent down and started washing his face as well.

  They’d gotten pretty dirty in the time they hadn’t been keeping themselves comfortable with magic. The cool water felt great on their hot, sweaty skin.

  Oscar felt refreshed, but this wasn’t enough for Miledi.

  “Ugh, it got in my hair too.” She undid her ponytail and ran her fingers through her hair. They came back gritty. Her clothes, too, were filled with sand. Her sweat caused them to stick unpleasantly to her skin.

  “We’re just going to have to deal with it until we make it to the city. We’ll get there by the end of the day, and you can just take a shower there. I wonder if I can enchant my clothes to keep sand off... Is something like that even possible? Hmm...” Oscar trailed off, and Miledi spoke up.

  “Can’t I just strip and jump in the oasis?”

  “Bwah!? Are you kidding me!? This is a public place! What if someone comes here!? Actually, forget that, I’m here! Don’t you have any shame!?” Oscar hurriedly stopped Miledi from stripping down.

  Normally this would have been the part where Miledi started teasing him for getting flustered, but she was still staring at the oasis instead, a dangerous look in her eyes.

  She was still a girl, after all. They may have been in the middle of a journey, but she still wanted to be clean.

  At this rate she’ll probably jump in fully clothed if she has to.

  “Calm down, Miledi. Think about this rationally.”

  “I need to jump in there so I can start thinking rationally again. A famous person once said something like this: Why do I leap into oases? Because they’re there.”

  “Whoever this person was, they probably only became famous because everyone thought they were a pervert. Either that, or you got the quote wrong.”

  Miledi edged closer to the water. Any more and she really would fall into the oasis.

  Oscar sighed.

  “Alright, alright. You want to wash up, right? I’ll make you a shower room in the bushes over there, so just use that.”


  “I love you, O-kun!”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Oscar held Miledi back as she tried to hug him and pulled one of his artifacts out of his pocket.

  It was his Silver Slate. Originally it had just been made to track people, but he’d added a second function to it. It could now detect the presence of mana within a certain radius.

  They were hunting for other people with ancient magic. It was likely such people would have mana reserves as large as Miledi’s and his own. Moreover, it could sense the approach of any threat, or just anyone with abnormal strength.

  As beastmen didn’t possess any mana it couldn’t sense them, but he felt it was good enough for the time being. Oscar definitely wanted to improve it before they reached Haltina, though.

  Still, it made a good alarm for Miledi.

  “No one around in a three-hundred meter radius. Perfect.” There were only two dots on the plate. Miledi and himself. They were both glowing as bright as possible.

  Oscar walked over to a surprisingly dense thicket, and transmuted. He did his best to not harm the local flora as he scrounged materials from underground to craft his makeshift shower.

  An average Synergist would have fainted in awe at Oscar’s unbelievable skills. However, he was taking no chances. This was a shower room for his beloved partner!

  “Miledi, this is just to ensure your privacy, so the walls aren’t that tough. Don’t go wild in there, okay?”

  “Wow, you actually put a shower in there!”

  Before Oscar could even tell her to get her own water, she’d scooped out a huge quantity of it with gravity magic and poured it into the tank he’d prepared. He’d left the ceiling open, so she could bring in more if she needed it.

  The shower had a faucet and everything, but before he could explain how it worked, Miledi had jumped into the shower room.

  “O-kuuun!”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank youuu~”