Shirakome Arifureta Zero: Volume 3

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1804-5
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 447 Seiten

Reihe: Arifureta Zero

A few months have passed since the battle at Andika, and the Liberators have spent some much-needed time resting. But when Miledi heads to a Liberator branch office with her newest comrade, Meiru, she discovers that the hidden village in the Reisen Gorge has been destroyed! She rushes over to the scene only to meet a mysterious man wearing a scarf. He introduces himself as Vandre Schnee, another user of ancient magic, and he says he's willing to join the Liberators, but only if Miledi and the others go to the demon kingdom, Igdor. Who is this mysterious man, and can they trust him!?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shirakome, Ryo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Takayaki

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter I: The Merry Band of Liberators

Rust-red rocks spread out as far as the eye could see. They looked like miniature mountains, tapered as they were. Because of their haphazard placement, they’d transformed the area into a labyrinth of stone.

This was the northern tip of the Crimson Desert. Though it had vast deposits of stillstone, which could dampen the flow of mana, it wasn’t very populated. Stillstone itself wasn’t in high demand. Especially since there were much more accessible stillstone deposits by the Red Dragon’s Mountain. Furthermore, the land in the area was barren, with only a few tough desert weeds capable of surviving in the climate. It required crossing an entire desert to reach, adding another reason on the growing list of reasons why no one wanted to come here. But today there were three people in this secluded land that normally only hermits might want to visit.

One was a young man whose glasses were more famous than him, Oscar Orcus. Another was a beautiful, sadistic dagon woman, Meiru Melusine. Lastly—

“So, darling. Can you take care of things here?”

There was a tall, buff... man? His purple hair had been cropped into a mohawk. Furthermore, he was wearing clothes that were possibly even more revealing than Meiru’s. His pecs were as exposed as Meiru’s breasts.

“I’ve told you a dozen times, Snowbell... don’t call me darling.”

“Oh darling, you’re so shy.”

His face looked like it had come out of Fist of the North Star, and every time he exhaled he unleashed a mini-cyclone. This man, Snowbell, was not the monster of this wasteland, but rather a member of the Liberators. In fact, he was captain of the expeditionary squad, which looked for areas to build more secluded villages.

His special magic, Mirage, allowed him to create large-scale illusions up to five-hundred meters wide. Those illusions could also be imprinted on mana crystals causing them to last until the mana crystal ran dry. During that time, Snowbell could leave the area and the illusion would keep going. His power was almost as impressive as his appearance. Snowbell’s job was not only to find new hidden villages for the Liberators, but also to hide them from prying eyes.

Originally, he’d been part of a circus troupe, and used his magic to perform dazzling stage tricks. But as always, the church had found him. One word from a disgruntled bishop who didn’t like his act, and he and his troupe been branded heretics. From there, things had gotten worse and worse. By the time the Liberators had found him, most of his comrades had been killed. The current expedition squad was made up primarily from his surviving circus buddies.

Incidentally, Snowbell had originally been a much more masculine fellow. However, the Liberator who’d saved him had inspired him to go down the path of a drag princess. What exactly had happened between them, no one knew. But Snowbell had come out of the experience a changed man. And right now, he was pinning a tearful Oscar to the wall of a nearby boulder. Meiru grinned at Oscar and said, “Oh my, am I perhaps interrupting something?”

She was quite enjoying this spectacle.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you, Meiru!” Oscar shouted desperately. However, the sadistic pirate princess wouldn’t be cowed by such mundane threats.

“Fufu. In that case, I guess I should go back before you get a chance to.”

“I’m sorry, I was out of line. Please don’t leave me here alone.”

Oscar gave in instantly. His Metamorph Chains wound themselves around Meiru’s waist as if clinging to her. Meiru’s smile grew wider.

Oscar had wanted someone to accompany him because he’d been scared of being alone with Snowbell, but Meiru hadn’t been any help at all. She’d been the only one who was free, but she was also the wrong person to ask to guard his chastity.

Mentally cursing Meiru out, Oscar nevertheless knew it was better to have her around than to be alone with Snowbell. He sidled away from Snowbell, doing his best to ignore the fact that Snowbell was staring at his butt. Once he was free, he got to work. This rocky area was like a small-scale version of the Reisen Gorge, but that was no obstacle for him at his current level. He placed his hand on a nearby boulder wall and said, “Transmute.”

He cast his favorite Synergist spell, and a large hole opened up inside the boulder. Stepping inside, he unleashed a dozen or so Metamorph Chains from his sleeves and had them attach themselves to various points inside the newly-formed cavity. Oscar then turned back and shot Snowbell a questioning glance. Snowbell nodded and started relaying orders.

“Darling, I’d like a skylight here. Considering the path of the sun in this part of the world, it’ll catch the most light. Try to make it as inconspicuous as possible. Add a staircase leading to the second story here. Ventilation shafts should go here and here, but be wary of the angle. Yes, that’s right, just like that. Put a spare bedroom here. I need a slope here as well, so we can escape through the underground waterway in times of emergency.”

Despite his outlandish appearance and demeanor, Snowbell stopped playing around when it was time to work. His expression was dead serious. That was only natural though. He was designing houses for a hidden village. In times of emergency, how well the escape routes were designed would be the deciding factor in whether a family lived or died. Every house needed to be resilient to attacks, and easy to escape from. Snowbell gave it his all because he knew lives depended on him doing a good job.

“Hey, you two. I’m getting bored, so can I go back?”

This was absolutely, one hundred percent, a vital job. Certainly not a job where it was okay for Meiru to carve graffiti into the walls using her water blades. To make matters worse, her art was so horrible it was hard to tell what she was even drawing. And on top of that, she was also using her godlike restoration magic to undo Oscar’s transmutation in places as a way of pranking him.

“Meiru-chan, people are going to be living here, so could you please not draw monsters on the walls?”

“Monsters? But this is a cat. Isn’t it cute?”

Even Snowbell shuddered at that. Oscar threw out a few more of his Metamorph Chains and restored the graffitied wall to normal in an instant.

“Meiru, I know I’m the one who asked you to come, but could you please calm down?”

“There’s nothing I hate more than being bored.”

“Okay, but even if you went back, what would you do there?”

“Hmm... It is almost noon, so I suppose I could help cook lunch.”

Oscar adjusted his glasses and asked flatly, “Meiru, let’s assume you had a cut of meat in front of you. How would you cook it?”

“Grill it.”

“Aren’t there some other things you should do with it?”

“Boil it?”

“N-No, I mean like something you should do to prepare it.”

“It will become edible if you grill it or boil it.”

At this rate, Oscar was worried she might even say it was okay to eat meat raw. It was obvious from her responses that Meiru had no cooking ability to speak of, meaning if she tried to serve her food to others, it would just end with them screaming in terror. Most likely because she’d managed to infuse her food with a demon god or something.

Naturally, anyone who ate her food would be seeing the river Styx as well. Had it not been for Meiru’s restoration magic, she would have killed most of her pirate crew a dozen times over. In Chris’ case, perhaps a hundred times over.

Incidentally, Meiru was just as bad at cleaning as she was at cooking. According to her, she kept things in places that made sense to her, but in truth, her room was a disorganized mess. Plus, every time she did laundry she ruined clothes, and when she tried to sew she turned slightly ripped clothes into ragged cultist robes. Though Meiru looked like a gentle, caring older sister, in truth she was a sadistic, deadbeat outlaw incapable of doing even the simplest of household chores. Which meant—

“Even if you go back, you won’t have anything to do.”

Meiru puffed out her cheeks and said, “Is it just me, or have you been looking down on me recently, Oscar-kun?”

Meiru didn’t like the way Oscar had been treating her.

“You’ll regret underestimating me.”

“That sounds like something a villain would say.”

Technically, she was a pirate. A pirate princess, in fact.

“Fine, if that’s how you want it... Torrential Bulwark!”

Suddenly, the house Oscar was transmuting became covered in a dome of water. Oscar and Snowbell watched the dome form, confused.

“You know, water barriers like these are soundproof,” Meiru said with a grin. Realizing what that meant, Oscar shuddered. Snowbell, on the other hand, eyed him hungrily.

“Wait, Meiru!”

“Have fun you two!”

Meiru turned on her heel and wreathed herself...