Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest: Short Stories (Premium) Read online

  “By the way, what kind of person is the Goddess’ Sword? I’ve heard that he has white hair and wears an eyepatch...”

  “Well, the only people that strong aside from the knights are Ehit’s warriors, but I heard he wasn’t one of them.”

  “Are we even sure he has white hair and wears an eyepatch?”

  It seemed it wasn’t only Aiko’s fame that had started to spread, but Hajime’s too. The Goddess’ Sword was just as well known as the Fertility Goddess herself now. Aiko’s ears perked up when she heard Hajime’s title mentioned. She looked around the street while surreptitiously listening in on their conversation. Yuka and the other students strained their ears as well. Now that the topic had been brought up, the villagers were eager to share all the rumors they’d heard about Hajime.

  “That much is certain. After all, there aren’t many white-haired guys with eyepatches running around.”

  “I heard he shot down all the flying monsters with a spear of light, and destroyed the rest with a meteor shower.”

  “He sounds amazing. But if he’s the Goddess’ Sword, how come he isn’t guarding her right now? That group of Ehit’s warriors is.”

  He certainly was amazing back there, Aiko and the students thought to themselves. Even David and the other knights begrudgingly had to admit that Hajime had fought splendidly. Though, that didn’t mean they had to like everything else he’d done.

  The villagers all puzzled over the question of why Hajime wasn’t guarding Aiko like a Goddess’ Sword should. One of them spoke up, offering a possible explanation.

  “Come to think of it, I heard something from a merchant who was staying in the same Water Sprite Inn as the Goddess. Apparently her sword had a lot of women in his party and they were trying to fight with the Goddess for his love. Maybe he felt it would be awkward if he stayed?”

  Aiko coughed in surprise, quickly averting her gaze.

  “Wait, what!? The Goddess and her sword are lovers!?” Before long, the story had grown completely out of hand. According to the villagers, Aiko and Hajime were now lovers, and he’d had to leave her side because another woman had gotten between them.

  “E-Excuse me, everyone. Please don’t spread baseless rumors! I am a teacher, and he’s my student! We have no such illicit relationship!”

  Aiko’s knights approached the villagers with a dark look in their eyes, but before they could do anything, she spoke up. Unfortunately, the desperation in her voice made it seem like she was just trying to hide the truth and what had just been a rumor became cemented as fact in the villagers’ minds.

  “Oh yeah, I didn’t want to say this because it might be rude, but I heard from a lot of people that after the fight the goddess and her sword, well, you know.”

  “Y-Yeah, I heard that too. That they shared a passionate kiss in the town square in front of everyone, I mean.

  Aiko blushed so deeply that her face looked like a giant tomato. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sounds came out. The villagers started discussing the kiss, and Aiko began to panic. She turned to look at Yuka and tried to explain herself.

  “S-S-S-S-Sonobe-san, it’s not what you think! He was just giving me CPR. There was nothing romantic about it! I swear, I’m an upright and honest teacher!”

  “H-Huh!? Why are you trying to explain it to me? B-Besides, whatever you might have done has nothing to do with me!”

  Yuka couldn’t understand why Aiko had suddenly turned to her. But even though she tried to protest, Aiko was beyond reason. Yuka couldn’t stop her from repeating, “I swear, it’s all just a misunderstanding.”

  “What’s this strange feeling welling up...?”

  “You don’t have to say it, Atsushi... I know exactly how you feel.”

  The girls near them were getting flustered over a guy who wasn’t even here. Atsushi and the other guys watched on with dead eyes, while Taeko and Nana just snickered. Even when he wasn’t present, Hajime was sure to cause a ruckus.

  Yue’s Magic Lessons

  “Hm? You want to know the trick to using magic?” Yue tilted her head in confusion. It was just past noon, and Shea had asked her what the trick was to using magic. Shea had absolutely no affinity for any of the elements. It was so bad that her affinity was around the same level as Hajime’s.

  In fact, the two of them had often spent evenings lamenting to each other how they wished they could use magic. However, despite these shortcomings, Shea had one thing no other beastman had .She possessed mana, and the ability to manipulate it directly. Because of that, she still held dreams of decimating hordes of enemies with magic. As nothing else had worked, Yue was her last hope. If even the strongest magician in history didn’t have a solution for her, then Shea really was doomed.

  “Yes please. Maybe if I learn your secrets, I’ll be able to use a few spells in battle even though I don’t have any affinity for magic. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.”

  “Hmm... Okay, I’ll teach you. It never hurts to have more skilled party members.”

  “Wow, really!? Thank you so much, Yue-san! I knew I could count on you!” Shea’s bunny ears flopped happily. She was over the moon already; even though there was no guarantee Yue could solve her problem, either.

  “Oh, is Yue holding a magic lesson? This sounds rather interesting. Would it be alright if I joined in, Yue?”

  “Yeah, I don’t mind. It’s kind of moving knowing a dragon wants to be taught by me.” Though Tio already had amazing affinity with most of the elements, she too was interested in Yue’s lessons. It wasn’t every day that she had the chance to learn from the greatest magician of the age, after all.

  For her part, Yue had grown up listening to stories of the wise dragonman tribes. It was a mark of pride to her that one such dragonman would be interested in learning from her.

  Hajime watched the three girls discuss the finer points of spellcasting with a forlorn look in his eyes.

  Sharp-sighted as always, Tio noticed Hajime’s gaze and tilted her head quizzically. “Master, what’s wrong? Would you like to join in as well?”

  “Nah, I’m good.” Hajime seemed unusually dispirited. Sensing an opportunity to tease him, Shea grinned and opened her mouth.

  “Fufufu. What’s wrong, Hajime-san? Could it be that you already received private lessons from Yue-san, but you still can’t use magic? Is that why you’re too scared to try again?”

  “Nah, that’s not it.”

  “Then why won’t you join us?”

  “Really, I’m good. In fact, you two should probably get out while you still have time. For your own sake, I mean.”

  Yue didn’t take kindly to that. She pouted and turned to face Hajime.

  “You’re so mean, Hajime. Are you saying I’m useless?”

  “Not exactly. It’s just, everyone’s suited to certain tasks and not suited to others...”

  “Huh, but Hajime-san, wouldn’t Yue-san be the most suited person to teach us magic?”

  “Precisely. I have lived a long time, but never have I seen anyone with as much talent as Yue. I consider myself a skilled magician, but even I would relish an opportunity to learn from her.”

  Hajime raised his hands in surrender.

  “Just remember I warned you.”

  They pondered his words for a few seconds, but the lure of being taught by Yue reeled them back in, so they put it out of their minds.

  Yue pulled out a pair of silver-rimmed spectacles—no one knew where she got them from—and began her lecture. She articulated with her hands as she explained the theory behind the original spells she’d created. About ten minutes into the lecture, Shea and Tio began to have an inkling of what Hajime had tried to warn them about.

  “So if you just go whoosh with the magic here, it’ll go all zap. Then, you just have to squeeze it like Gyuu and it’s done! Simple, right?” Yue smiled at her dumbfounded pupils. Nothing about that had been simple at all.

  “I see. Or rather, I don’t.”

  “Yeah, I have no i
dea what you just said.”

  “Huh!?” Yue’s eyes went wide with surprise. Tio and Shea timidly tried to ask for a more elaborate explanation.

  “What exactly is the zap part supposed to mean?”

  “What do you mean ‘Gyuu’?”

  “Like I said, it’s when your mana goes Gyuu. Then there’s that little fluffy feeling, and you just have to get to that floaty state where—”

  Shea couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Like I said, that doesn’t make any sense! All these weird sounds and stuff don’t actually mean anything! I’m begging you, please just use normal people words!”

  Yue tilted her head in confusion. How did that explanation not make sense? I tried to make it as simple as possible.

  Realizing this was what made sense to Yue, Tio changed track. She asked Yue if she could give a more theoretical explanation. Yue nodded, and did as she was asked.

  “So, the Gyuu state is basically when you accelerate your mana from 0 to 2.25. From there, you multiply it by a further 2.25 to 2.27 depending on the element and type of spell you’re attempting to cast. However, unless you restrict it with a resistance ratio of 3.95, you won’t be able to give the spell form. Fortunately, once you’ve cast it, the degree of variability is automatically accounted for, so you don’t have to—”

  “I meant a theoretical explanation people can actually understand!” This time it was Tio’s turn to explode. Shea’s rabbit ears were pressed flat against her head, and she was staring off into the distance with dead eyes. Yue grumbled to herself, confused as to why the two of them couldn’t get it.

  “That’s why I tried to give you a simple explanation first... Why don’t you two understand?”

  “Gah!?” Shea and Tio clutched their chests and collapsed. It seemed from Yue’s tone that she thought the two of them were idiots. In truth though, Yue was thinking no such thing. She was honestly confused as to why an explanation that seemed simple to her didn’t make sense to them. It was as obvious as the fact that the sun rose in the east, and that leaves changed color in fall.

  Shea had already known she knew nothing about magic, so the hit wasn’t that bad for her, but for Tio it was devastating. She had considered herself if not a master, at least a veteran magician. However, the pride and knowledge she’d built up for centuries had been shattered by a single sentence from Yue.

  She crawled along the floor muttering, “A-Am I truly an idiot? Did I honestly believe I was a skilled magician when I don’t even understand the basics?”

  Shea tottered over to Yue and threw herself at Yue’s feet. “Please, please make it stop. You’ve already crushed Tio-san’s pride.”

  “Don’t worry, all you need is practice. Just follow the steps I said, and you’ll be able to do it, too. Come on, stand up and give it a try.”

  Shea and Tio staggered to their feet. Even if they told Yue to stop, she wouldn’t. She’d gotten into the role of a teacher and was having too much fun to quit.

  “Okay, repeat after me. Gyuu! Paruparu! Soooi!”

  “Aren’t those sounds different from last time!?”

  Yue made a kamen rider pose and tried to lead Shea and Tio through a spell. Naturally, the two of them couldn’t understand her at all. However, that wasn’t going to stop Yue.

  “Come on, go ‘Gyuu’! Come on! What’s taking you guys so long!”

  “G-Gyuu!”

  “G-Gyuu...”

  “Okay, now ‘roonroon’!”

  “R-Roonroon.”

  “Once more, with feeling! ‘Soooi’!”

  “S-Sooooooi!”

  Their voices carried a long way through the empty plains. A few passing adventurers gave the trio odd looks. Shea and Tio were in tears by now.

  “I warned you.” Back when he’d been in the abyss, Hajime had hungered for more power, which naturally meant he’d asked Yue to teach him magic. She’d taken him through the same hellish routine Shea and Tio were suffering now.

  Geniuses were considered geniuses precisely because they operated on a different level from normal people. Hajime ignored Shea and Tio’s pleas for help and lost himself in thought.

  Rabbitmen Clothing is a Dangerous Weapon

  Hajime and his party had stopped in a small town for the night. Despite the town’s relatively small size, there was a surprisingly large amount of people there. The girls all looked around happily.

  “So this is the town famous for its textiles. Everyone’s clothes look really well made.”

  “Mhmm. The weavers here are very skilled.”

  Yue’s crimson eyes darted from person to person. She was impressed by the quality of the cloth she saw. Back in the abyss she had sewed clothes for herself and Hajime. At first, it had taken a lot of effort to make even the simplest of garments, but she’d improved a lot since then. Sewing had become something of a hobby for her. Hence why she was so excited by all the rolls of colorful yarn that she saw, and the skilled weavers who knitted with them.

  Shea and Kaori were quite excited as well. Shea was a master of all household chores, so of course clothes and sewing excited her, while Kaori was a high school girl with an interest in fashion. While the others were fascinated by the town, the town was fascinated by Tio. Her exquisitely crafted dress was a traditional garment for dragonmen, but it was rare to see something like it outside her village.

  “Daddy, look at all the different clothes! I’ve never seen those kinds before!”

  “Really...? Come to think of it, what do dagons usually wear anyway?”

  Young though she may be, Myu was still a girl. She was just as interested in clothes as the others. Hajime looked up to the little girl riding on his shoulder. She tilted her head and thought for a moment.

  “Nothing, usually!”

  “You guys are nudists!?”

  Hajime noticed the cold stares from the girls and quickly cleared his throat. In truth, dagons usually wore some form of swimsuit, as they spent most of their lives in the water. When they were on land, they put on a robe or something over that, but that was about it.

  Hajime could see the other girls were about to mention that they would strip for him if that was what he wanted. He really didn’t want to have that conversation, so he turned to Myu for salvation.

  “Is there anything you want, Myu? Since we’re already here, I can buy you some new clothes if you want.”

  “I can buy anything!? Ummmm, ummm...”

  Eyes sparkling, Myu looked for something to get. Hajime really did spoil her. Yue and the others stared pointedly at him. Hajime smiled, and agreed to buy them whatever they wanted too. After a few seconds of searching, Myu found what she wanted. She stared long and hard at a certain article of clothing. Specifically, what Yue was wearing.

  “Hm? What’s wrong, Myu?”

  Myu pointed at Yue and said, “I want what Yue-oneechan is wearing! I want to wear something like that too!”

  “You want my clothes? But Myu, there’s so many other cuter outfits here.”

  Yue’s dress had frills everywhere and was plenty cute. But she’d designed it for travel and combat, so it wasn’t the most elegant piece. However, Myu had seemingly taken a liking to it.

  “But you’re the coolest, Yue-oneechan! You look really cool when you’re fighting with Daddy and using magic and stuff! Even though I’m daddy’s daughter, I’m really weak. But maybe if I wear your dress I’ll get stronger too!”

  “Myu, you’re so pure it hurts.”

  Myu’s statement had been so cute that it gave Yue a nosebleed. Yue plucked Myu off of Hajime’s shoulder and squished her soft cheeks. Myu squealed in protest but Yue ignored her.

  “M-Myu-chan, don’t you think I look cool, too? I can take out anyone with a single swing of my hammer! Enemies cower before me!”

  “Myu-chan, I’m really good at holding enemies back! Here, let me show you my Binding Blades of Light!”

  “In that case, allow me to show you the power of my breath. You’ve yet to see just how a
mazing I am, correct? My glorious breath will leave you astounded.”

  Everyone tried to impress the party’s little princess. Myu squirmed her way out of Yue’s grip and turned around.

  “You’re not... cool, Shea-oneechan. You’re, umm... wild?”

  Shea clutched her chest and fell to the ground with a moan. There was nothing more heartbreaking than being told you’re not cool by a little girl.

  “And Kaori-oneechan’s... weak...”

  Kaori clutched her chest and fell to the ground with a moan. There was nothing more heartbreaking than being told you’re a pathetic weakling by a little girl.

  “And Tio-oneechan... y-you’re okay!”

  “What on earth is that supposed to mean!?” Tio retorted and fell to the ground. There was nothing more heartbreaking than being pitied by a little girl.

  Three girls lay on the ground in the middle of the town’s main street. They looked up simultaneously when they heard footsteps approaching them. Yue was standing over them, grinning from ear to ear. Rarely did she ever show such expressiveness.

  Shea and the others slowly got to their feet, a murderous glint in their eyes. They had always known she would be the final boss.

  Thinking it was her fault that her role models were fighting, Myu hurriedly stepped between them.

  “U-Umm, you all have really cool clothes too, Shea-oneechan, Kaori-oneechan, Tio-oneechan! So umm... I know! Let’s all trade clothes! That way we’ll all be able to wear everyone’s clothes! It’ll be fun!”

  The four women looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Their petty rivalry had caused a little girl to worry about them. Hajime smiled, proud of his daughter’s attempts to mediate. Then he grinned wickedly and turned to Yue.

  “How about it, why not give Myu’s proposal a go? You can all draw lots at random and wear whoever’s outfit you pull. We’re in a town of tailors, so they’ll be able to make them in your sizes easily.”