Arifureta Zero: Volume 1 Page 9

  Moorin bit her lip. Her frustration was evident.

  “But, Oscar. They were acting even stranger than normal when I went to them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean... it was almost as if they knew what was going on and didn’t want to get involved. Like this is part of something way bigger than just a few orphans going missing. It was obvious they were turning a blind eye to something.”

  Moorin was exceptionally perceptive when it came to people. Oscar was inclined to believe her assessment of the guards. There was something bigger going on here.

  He thought back to the disappearances that had been plaguing the city recently. The guard must have heard about them as well. And yet they chose not to get involved? This isn’t good... Does that mean someone with enough authority to silence the guards is involved here? Panic gripped his chest.

  This wasn’t the time to be worrying about keeping secrets. He pulled a metal sheet out of his pocket.

  It was silver, and about the size of his palm. At a glance it seemed no different from a regular Status Plate, but its function was completely different.

  “Activate protocol one. Trace targets Dylan, Ruth, Corrin, and Katy.” Oscar’s activation chant sounded extremely mechanical, completely unlike most spell chants.

  The plate began to glow with a faint light. The light coalesced into four distinct points.

  This was one of his artifacts, the Silver Slate. It was linked to the coins he’d given all the kids.

  Those coins had been crafted with ore he’d enchanted with the light magic “Tracking.” He’d then linked those beacons to his Silver Slate, so he could always know where they were.

  Tracking was good for tailing targets or keeping track of one’s allies in situations where visibility was poor. However, in both cases, it required the user to mark their targets beforehand.

  Furthermore, if the caster’s mana ran out the spell faded. In other words, the caster was forced to continually maintain their concentration to keep the spell up. Despite its convenience, the spell was difficult to use.

  Ore already enchanted with the spell didn’t exist outside of the things Oscar had created, which was why an artifact like his that allowed him to instantly pinpoint someone’s location was so impressive. Though its effects seemed plain, it was a high-class artifact and easily worth a fortune.

  “The four of them are all together... and judging from the distance and the direction they’re... in the mine shafts?”

  “Oscar?”

  Oscar turned toward Moorin. She gasped, surprised by how serious his gaze was.

  “Mom, I’ll bring Dylan and the others back. Do you remember how to activate the orphanage’s defenses?”

  “Y-Yes. I’ll be fine.”

  Oscar nodded and continued.

  “Don’t step foot out of the orphanage tonight. I don’t care who comes, don’t answer the door unless it’s someone you absolutely trust. Even if it’s soldiers who show up, chase them away with the defense system. Take care of the other kids for me, too.”

  “Okay, I will. But, Oscar... you be careful out there, you hear? I know you’d do anything to protect your family, but take care of yourself, too...”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine, Mom.” Oscar smiled reassuringly, but it had no effect on Moorin. She smiled sadly back at him. I guess I should have expected that. Moorin knew her children better than they knew themselves. She even knew Oscar had hid his abnormal talents to protect his family.

  Long ago he’d been a much more cheerful child, always smiling when the things he’d created made other people happy. But as time went on he’d gotten so accustomed to keeping that false smile plastered on his face that it had become the norm. Moorin watched as the eldest of her children dashed off into the night. He’d grown into a fine young man, but she worried he was sacrificing too much of himself for others.

  After leaving the orphanage, Oscar made a quick stop at his house. He wanted to stock up on equipment.

  Once he’d grabbed everything, he dressed himself in all black. Black pants, black shirt, black boots, black coat. And, for some reason, a black umbrella. His hair was black as well, so it really looked like every inch of him was covered in darkness.

  He blended perfectly into the night. Though with his stylish glasses and umbrella, he looked more like a gentleman out for a stroll than an assassin or a burglar.

  “They’re not moving...” Oscar kneeled down. A second later, he leaped a dozen meters into the air and landed atop the roof of a nearby building. After that superhuman jump, he ran across the rooftops with unbelievable speed.

  This was another one of his artifacts, Onyx Boots. They increased his leg strength exponentially, and were enchanted with wind magic to aid in his leaps. He could also create mini-barriers beneath his soles, giving him platforms to leap off of in the air.

  Oscar dashed through Velnika’s rooftops with the speed of a gale. Before long, he’d reached the entrance to the Greenway.

  The Greenway was the backbone of Velnika’s economy, and many merchants, craftsmen, and even adventurers made their livelihood from it. Because of that, there were restrictions on who could enter, and when.

  There weren’t many people near the entrance this late at night, though.

  No one took any notice of Oscar as he passed through the entrance gates.

  He sped through the mine shafts, following the guidance of his Silver Slate. He’d been in here before, but tonight the light of the green glowstone felt eerier than usual.

  He reached the end of the first floor. His beacon was nearly overlapping with that of Dylan and the others.

  “Shit. I should have designed it to detect elevation as well.” At this distance he should have been able to see the kids, but the only thing in front of him was the tunnel wall, which of course meant that Dylan and the others were further below.

  The problem was, he didn’t know how far below. He hadn’t equipped his Silver Slate with the ability to gauge vertical distances.

  “Wait, now that I think about it...” Oscar recalled something an adventurer had once told him. Apparently a lot of templar knights had been spotted in the middle floors of the Greenway. What was colloquially referred to as the middle floors was the set of floors from the 50th to the 70th.

  Do they have something to do with the kids’ disappearance?

  “Guess I’ll head there first... There’s no time to waste, so we’ll do things the fast way. Nothing matters more than their safety. Even if someone spots me, it’s worth the risk.” Oscar concentrated.

  A second later, he was surrounded by a swirling halo of mana. It was so bright that it lit the floor up like a sun.

  Around the same time, children’s sobs echoed throughout the 65th floor.

  Inside the complex network of passages that made up the floor was a prison. The jail cells had been carved directly out of the bedrock, with iron bars to cover the front. The children crying inside one of the cells had been given only a single flimsy blanket to ward off the cold. They huddled together, hugging their knees.

  Among them, only one boy wasn’t crying. Tears welled in his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall. It was Ruth.

  As Oscar had feared, Ruth and the others had been kidnapped on their way home. They’d all been given some kind of magical inspection, and Ruth alone had been separated from the others.

  What did they do to everyone else? Why’d they take only me? What’s going to happen to me? Those worries swirled around inside Ruth’s head, paralyzing him with fear. However...

  Ruth looked at all the children crying around him. They were all around the same age as him. When he saw them, he was reminded of his own siblings from the orphanage.

  “It’s the eldest’s job to protect his younger siblings.” The words of the guy who he’d used to look up to, the guy who’d betrayed him flashed through his mind.

  “I’m nothing like that smiling idiot!” Ruth used his anger to beat back the fea
r. He made up his mind and walked up to the iron bars.

  He made sure there weren’t any guards posted outside. After he was sure only the other kids were watching him, he bent down and picked up a stone. He started scratching the ground next to the bars.

  He was drawing a simple magic circle. The guy he no longer respected had taught it to him long ago.

  “You’re just like me, Ruth.” Like Oscar, Ruth was a Synergist. Oscar’s voice echoed in Ruth’s mind once again. He’d taught Ruth the basics of transmutation long ago.

  Back then, Ruth had truly respected him. Oscar was kind, talented, and always worked hard. He could make anything he dreamed of a reality, and had even been scouted by the head of one the city’s best workshops. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Ruth had worshiped Oscar.

  He’d been prouder than anyone of him.

  His dream had always been to one day be as good as Oscar, and have his name known across the world.

  “I’m not gonna give up! I’m not a loser like you! I’m gonna be the greatest Synergist ever, just you watch! Transmute!” Blood dripping from his fingers, Ruth placed his hands on the ground and breathed life into the magic circle. Bright orange mana illuminated his corner of the cell.

  The other kids watched in astonishment. They’d realized Ruth was trying to escape. They watched, glimmers of hope in their eyes. However...

  “No... How come?” Ruth’s magic had activated, but neither the iron bars nor the ground had changed. Ruth chanted the spell again. He kept going until he was nearly out of mana. Sweat beaded down his forehead, and his body was shivering.

  Unfortunately, reality didn’t care about how much effort you put into something.

  “Why!?” Ruth’s mana dissipated. He slumped to his knees and banged his forehead against the bars.

  Despite squeezing out enough courage to fight back, he’d been unable to do anything in the end.

  “Are we ever going home?” One of the girls whispered. The children’s despair had multiplied after they watched their last glimmer of hope get snuffed out. They’d resigned themselves to their fate.

  “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.” If it had been the old Oscar, Ruth might have even believed those words. If it had been the Oscar who hadn’t laughed insults off with that creepy smile of his, he might have believed those words. He would have continued to hope, and maybe share that hope with the other children.

  But as it was, he couldn’t. All that came to mind when he thought of Oscar was the boy who’d accepted being called a loser. And so, he didn’t say anything. Ruth himself was about to give into despair.

  Just then, though—

  “Hey. What was that?” A suspicious voice called out to him. It didn’t sound angry, but the children still shrank back in fear.

  One of the guards on patrol had noticed the light from Ruth’s transmutation and had come to investigate. The guard was actually a knight. He wore gleaming plate armor, and bore an insignia on his chest. He seemed conspicuously out of place in the Greenway.

  The children didn’t recognize the insignia, but most adults in the city would have. It was the emblem of the templar knights, the elite group of soldiers who swore loyalty to the Holy Church.

  The knight didn’t have his helmet on, but he still cut quite the imposing figure in full plate. Little wonder the children were scared of him. His intimidating presence left them all speechless, including Ruth.

  He scrambled away from the bars, tripped, and fell on his back.

  The knight’s gaze fell on Ruth, then from there to what was in front of him... The transmutation circle Ruth had drawn.

  “You brat... Were you trying to escape?”

  “Hiii...”

  A dangerous edge crept into the knight’s voice. Ruth trembled, unable to do anything but scream.

  “I guess I should have expected as much from one of the Incompatible. You don’t even realize what an honor it is to be chosen as one of Ehit’s servants... I was told to keep you lot alive, but no one said I couldn’t rough you up a bit. Bad kids need to be punished, after all.” The knight raised his hand. The magic circle engraved on his gauntlet began to glow.

  Those well-versed in magic would have recognized it as the magic circle for the Fireball spell.

  The knight looked down at Ruth’s legs, his thoughts written all over his face.

  There was nothing Ruth could do to resist. He was so terrified he couldn’t even move. And so, he squeezed his eyes shut.

  The other children, no doubt aware of what was about to happen, shrieked and backed away.

  “I’ll burn the greatness of Ehit into your flesh!”

  “I think not.” A cool voice interjected. A second later, the knight groaned in pain.

  Ruth timidly cracked open an eye. The knight was on the ground, and Oscar stood before him. For some reason, he was holding out a black umbrella.

  “Huh? Ani...ki?”

  “I haven’t heard you call me that in a long time. I’m here to take you home, Ruth.” Oscar smiled gently.

  For a moment, Ruth’s brain couldn’t grasp that the man standing before him was Oscar.

  His confusion was understandable. He was wearing strange clothes and carrying around a black umbrella. More than anything though, he didn’t seem like his usual lazy, carefree self. No, this Oscar had a sharp glint in his eyes and looked dangerous. With his graceful features and fashionable glasses, he looked more like the accomplished son of a noble than a man who’d come out of an orphanage.

  Oscar looked down at the floor in front of Ruth. When he spotted the magic circle, he stretched his hand out toward it.

  “Oh, the transmutation didn’t work...”

  “Yep. That’s because of what the bars are made of. Here, let me show you.”

  Golden yellow mana swirled around Oscar. He hadn’t spoken a chant, or used a magic circle, but he still achieved what Ruth hadn’t been able to.

  “The bars are made of sealstone. They dissolve mana. Most prisons use it, but even sealstone has its limits. If you put more mana into your transmutation than the ore can handle, you’ll be able to reforge it like everything else.” Oscar easily transmuted the bars, turning them into ingots of lead.

  Then, he kneeled down and looked Ruth in the eye.

  “You did good, Ruth. It’s because you used transmutation magic that I could find you so quickly.”

  “Aniki... I...” Oscar ruffled Ruth’s hair. Ruth’s face scrunched up. His efforts hadn’t been for nothing after all.

  Oscar really had come to save them. When he’d reached the 65th floor, Oscar had found the kids’ clothes, along with their coins stored in a safe.

  They’d been stripped of all their possessions when they’d been kidnapped. This had effectively nullified Oscar’s tracking. He’d decided to search the rest of the floor before doing anything else, and had found multiple templar knights on patrol. He’d been growing more suspicious by the minute when he’d sensed someone using transmutation magic. One of the knights had noticed too, and had gone to investigate. Oscar had stealthily followed after him.

  Had it not been for Ruth, Oscar would still be searching aimlessly through this maze of a floor.

  “I don’t see Dylan and the others anywhere. Do you know where they are?” Ruth wiped away the tears that had finally fallen and shook his head.

  “No. They brought all of us to this big building in the mines. There were these guys in white, and they made us all stand on this magic circle.” There weren’t many buildings inside the Greenway. And if they were all wearing white, it’s obvious they’re part of the same organization. Something very suspicious was going on, especially considering the templar knights had gotten involved. Oscar narrowed his eyes.

  “I don’t know what they were doing, but they said I wasn’t compatible. They took Dylan and the others further inside the building, but they brought me here...”

  “I see... I get it now. Thanks, Ruth. I’m glad you’re safe. I guess I should get yo
u guys out of here first. Come on, everyone. It’s time to go home.” Oscar looked behind Ruth at the other children. They were staring at him in awe. His gentle tone helped ease their nervousness and they began shuffling out.

  “We’re going home?”

  “I can see Mommy and Daddy again?”

  The children looked hopefully up at him.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. You’ll get to go home and see your parents again. Just be quiet so the scary knights don’t find you.”

  Ruth looked over at the knight Oscar had knocked out. Though he’d gotten the knight with a surprise attack, he’d still downed him in a single blow. Templar knights were known to be strong enough to take on five regular soldiers at once. No normal craftsman should have been able to take one out so easily.

  “......” Oscar didn’t look anything like the loser Ruth was accustomed to seeing, either. He’d transmuted the bars with such ease, and there was a sharpness to him that he didn’t recognize.

  “What’s wrong, Ruth? We don’t have much time. We need to hurry.”

  “I-I know that!” Ruth snapped back, irked at being interrupted in the middle of thinking, but Oscar didn’t respond at all. Instead, he just smiled.

  That was how he always was. Whenever he was faced with something unpleasant, he just laughed it off. And yet, the smile Oscar gave Ruth this time somehow felt different.

  Questions whirled around in Ruth’s head.

  Oscar led the children through the cavern. Ruth trailed at the end of the line, carefully scrutinizing his brother’s back. He was torn between believing in Oscar again and the voice in his mind that told him he’d only be disappointed once more if he hoped.

  Oscar felt Ruth’s burning gaze, but he didn’t address it. He focused on avoiding the patrols of knights and led the children to where he’d initially come down from.

  Next to the safe that had stored their clothes and Ruth’s coin. Though safe was perhaps too grand a word for what was really just a hollow indent covered with bars. There were spare workers clothes and a few other miscellaneous tools stored inside it as well. It was obviously not meant to hold anything important.