Shirakome Arifureta Zero: Volume 2

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1802-1
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 446 Seiten

Reihe: Arifureta Zero

Now that both Oscar and Naiz have joined the Liberators, Miledi sets her sight westward, hoping to recruit the fabled Saint of the Western Seas. The party heads to the island city of Andika, where they run into the kind-looking sadistic pirate queen, Meiru. At the same time, the Holy Church tasks their knight commander, Laus Bahn, with the extermination of the Melusine Pirate Group that Meiru leads. As various powers gather on the small island city, tensions rise. A battle greater than any before looms as three separate powers clash.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shirakome, Ryo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Takayaki

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter I: The Saint of the Western Seas

A refreshing scraping noise filled a small oasis on the western edge of the Crimson Desert. The oasis was little more than a spring, a handful of trees, and a field of grass. It could have been the courtyard of some rich person’s mansion. And sitting at the edge of the spring were Miledi, Oscar, and Naiz.

“I never imagined I would be eating frozen dessert in a desert...” Naiz said as he thrust his spoon into the mountain of shaved ice in front of him.

The three of them had stopped by the oasis to take a short break from their journey and had decided to cool off with some shaved ice. Miledi had created the ice with magic, which Oscar had then turned into shaved ice using the makeshift machine he’d transmuted on the spot.

“Mmm... Mmmmmm... Mmm!”

“What the heck are you doing?”

Oscar looked down at Miledi, who was rolling across the ground next to him.

“It huuuuuuuuurts! My head huuuuuurts!”

“You ate it all at once, didn’t you? I told you to eat slowly!”

Tears still in her eyes, Miledi looked up at Oscar and gave him an exaggerated shrug. Her expression seemed to say “You clearly don’t get the true joy of eating shaved ice.” Annoyed, Oscar raised an eyebrow.

“You just don’t get it, O-kun. The freezing sensation in your brain’s the best part! Right after you stuff your face full of fruit-juice-drenched ice, you get to feel the pain only cold food can give you. You have to be a real connoisseur to understand, O-kun.”

Miledi wagged her spoon at him, lecturing haughtily as if she were some kind of famous professor. Every time she moved her spoon, flecks of spit and melted ice splattered onto Oscar’s glasses. Water was every glasses-wearing person’s greatest enemy. In fact, Oscar found water droplets almost as annoying as Miledi herself. He wiped down his glasses and tried his best to ignore Professor Miledi’s lecture. And as he was doing so, Naiz turned to him an spoke.

“Oscar. Do you still have some of that fruit syrup left?”

“The limon-flavored one? Sorry, I just used up the last of it. Did you not like the other flavors?”

Oscar’s bowl of shaved ice glinted pale yellow in the sunlight. Limon was a citrus fruit that had a slight hint of sweetness to counterbalance the tart.

Naiz looked longingly at Oscar’s bowl of shaved ice, then shook his head.

“Oh no, all the flavors are delicious, but... they’re all quite sweet. I’d like something sour to wash them down.”

Naiz’s bowl of shaved ice was dyed a deep orange. His was mangu-flavored. Said mangu was a sickly-sweet fruit that was a staple of this desert. And from the looks of it, he’d poured too much of its syrup on his ice. Naiz had a formidable sweet tooth, but even he’d found this quantity too much to bear.

“Oh yeah, that does look too sweet. Here, you can have some of mine if you want.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ve started craving a little more sweetness myself, so let’s trade.”

“Thanks.”

Smiling, the two of them reached for each other’s shaved ice. However, as they savored the flavor of the other’s dessert, Miledi shoved her way into the conversation.

“What are you, a pair of teenage girls!?”

Oscar and Naiz turned to her with confused looks, spoons still in their mouths. They were in perfect sync.

“Seriously, are you two teenage girls or something!?” Miledi repeated herself.

Oscar and Naiz exchanged glances, still not understanding what Miledi was getting at. After a brief pause, they shrugged their shoulders and looked away, once again in perfect sync. They figured it was just Miledi being Miledi again.

Irritated at them for ignoring her, Miledi raised her voice in a huff.

“You know, I’ve been wondering this for a while! How come you two get along so well, O-kun, Nacchan!? You guys are like, in perfect sync! It’s starting to make me feel left out! No bullying, guys!” Miledi made a big X with her arms and puffed her cheeks out as she finished her speech.

In response to her fervent plea, Oscar sighed and adjusted his glasses.

“Miledi.”

“Heeere. What’s up, O-kun?” Miledi brightened up, glad he was finally paying attention to her.

“You’re kicking up dust, so can you stop thrashing around like that?”

“Sorry! But O-kun, that’s not what I wanted to hear from you!” It appeared she’d been hoping for a different conversation. Likely, she’d wanted Oscar to say something nice to her. Unfortunately, it seemed Oscar had been a bust. And so, Miledi turned to Naiz, a faint gleam of hope in her eyes.

“...Do you want to try some too?” After struggling with himself for a few seconds, Naiz finally offered Miledi a spoonful of his shaved ice.

“Don’t treat me like I’m some glutton!” Though she said that, Miledi still gratefully ate Naiz’s shaved ice.

Oscar thought to himself and offered Miledi a spoonful of his own shaved ice. Naturally, she took that as well.

“ Sheesh, you two don’t understand a woman’s heart at all. First of all, you really shouldn’t be treating me like an eyesore. Like, I’m not saying you have to be flirting with me all day, but like, you two always stay up late at night talking about whatever, or playing games O-kun comes up with. And that’s a real problem. The three of are us traveling together, you know? Shouldn’t you be inviting me to play with you guys, or to join in on your conversations?” Miledi droned on, her litany of complaints punctured by mouthfuls of her own shaved ice. She’d been quite dissatisfied with Oscar and Naiz’s treatment of her as of late. She wanted to feel like she was part of the group too. But now that she’d said the equivalent of “Please pay attention to me too!” she felt too embarrassed to meet Oscar or Naiz’s gazes.

After a few minutes of silence though, she finally worked up enough courage to glance up at the two of them.

“Knight to E-4. I launch an assault on your pirate.”

“I can read you like a book. I activate my field skill, allowing me to move my pirate one space immediately. Pirate to D-4. With this, I avoid your assault.”

“Im...possible. You’ve already mastered the field skill, even though it’s a new rule? You’re good, Naiz.”

“Heh. Praise me all you want, but I won’t hold back.”

The two of them were engrossed in one of Oscar’s board games. It was a turn-based strategy game reminiscent of chess. The biggest differences from chess were how pieces promoted, and the existence of field skills. For example, even a pawn could defeat a knight, so long as it had leveled up enough, was fighting in an advantageous field, and had support from an allied mage.

Oscar had packed a lot of realism into his game. The two of them had started playing since they’d sensed that Miledi’s tirade would go on for a while.

Miledi silently rose to her feet, her long bangs hiding her expression, which made her look like something straight out of a horror movie. She walked over to the two men and shouted.

“Dieeee! Inverse Square!” Her gravity-reversing spell washed over the two chess players.

“Whoa!?”

“Uoooh!?”

Oscar, Naiz, the board game between them, and even the grass around them rose up into the air. However, while the two people fell back down instantly, the game and its pieces flew far away.

“Wh-What was that for, Miledi!? You just sent my game flying!”

“Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup! You should just lose your glasses and wander around looking for them like a zombie! You damn four-eyes!”

“Quit insulting my glasses! And stop trying to use gravity magic on them! Where’d you learn to control it with such precision, anyway!?” Oscar hurriedly defended his glasses, preventing Miledi from sending them flying. She was really holding a grudge over being ignored.

“H-Hey... I’m sorry, Miledi. We’ll stop now, so—” Feeling a little guilty, Naiz tried to mediate, but Miledi was past the point of listening.

“Stuuupid! Dummy! Kiddy diddler! You’re just a pervert who walks around with a picture of two little girls everywhere, Nacchan!”

“Take that back! I am not into children!”

does Oscar thought to himself. In truth, Naiz didn’t really have a choice. The two girls who loved Naiz to the point of worship could somehow sense when Naiz wasn’t carrying that picture around. The first time he’d taken it off his person, the liberators’ messenger had come bearing an ominous-looking letter. Written inside was a single question, “Why did you put it in your luggage?”

Naiz had spent the entire day trembling in fear after that. And from that point on, he made sure to keep the picture in his pocket at all times. Even though it was a suggestive picture of the two of them in revealing maid outfits, he had no choice but to hold fast to it at all times.

“Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup! It’s your...