Chapter 93 - Volume 10 (1/2)

Inferiority Complex

“Cough, cough, ugh.”

“Huff huff, are you okay, Kaori?”

“Y-Yeah, somehow… Everyone is…”

In front of Kaori, who was coughing from drinking a large amount of seawater, were Hajime, whose hand was coiled on her waist, and a pure-white sand beach. There was nothing else beside those around her, but she could densely see packed mangrove-like trees in the distance, and the surface of the waving sea high in the sky. The seawater was like a barrier, preventing any intruder. It was a vast space.

“Looks like we are getting separated… Well, I gave everyone a smaller version of “Treasure Box,” so they should be able to do something by themselves.”

“… Nn.”

Hajime lightly said after letting go of Kaori, and fixed his hair. However, Kaori’s mind seems to be somewhere else.

While watching Hajime stand up and began to change his clothing, Kaori recalled what happened a while ago.

Hajime’s party attempted a strategic retreat from the huge Clione.

The place they fell into was a gigantic, spherical space with tens of tunnels, where there were spouting seawater with tremendous force. Or maybe it could be said that they were flowing from there; a place with storm-like and messy current.

Swept by the swift current, Hajime’s party somehow managed to stick close together, but next the current mercilessly separated the party. Yue tried to control the current with magic, but it didn’t work well because the current was too random. Shia controlled the weight of Doryukken in cooperation with Tio; a fine play.

Hajime had actually wanted to take out the submarine and ride it, but it was impossible inside the swift current. Clenching his teeth, Hajime took out ultra-heavy, compression ore, and tried to use the weight to overcome the current just like Shia.

At that time, by luck, he saw Yue getting swept towards him, and Yue would meet up with Hajime thanks to the current. Shia and Tio had already disappeared into a tunnel somewhere, and their figures could no longer be seen inside the space.

Hajime tried to reach out to Yue so she wouldn’t get separated from him, but Kaori’s figure was being swept to the lower side had entered his view. The pained gaze of Kaori’s met Hajime’s. He previously reached out to Yue before him, but his and Kaori’s gaze had indeed met.

There were two choices.

If he catches Yue, Kaori would be swept alone into a tunnel. The same thing would happen to Yue if he was to catch Kaori. The current Hajime could only choose one of them. Within that moment, it felt like eternity. Hajime exchanged gazes with Yue, and he made a decision.

Using the weight from the ultra heavy compressed ore he took out from “Treasure Box,” Hajime rushed below, and then he caught Kaori. Kaori’s eyes were wide in surprise, but the two were immediately exposed to an even stronger swift current. Together, the two were thrown into a tunnel.

While being swept away, Hajime activated “Vajra” to protect Kaori in his arms, enduring it even when he was thrown at a rock wall. Then, he was able to see light coming from above once the current weakened and went up.

And there was the pure white sandy beach spreaded across the coastline.

“… Nee, Hajime-kun. Why… why did you save me?”

“Hah?”

Kaori questioned Hajime whose back was turned towards her. Hajime only tilted his head, thinking “what kind of question was that?”

“Why did you save me and not Yue?”

“Well, Kaori seemed to be dying and Yue can do something by herself. Yue’s eyes also told me to save Kaori.”

“… You really trust her, eh.”

“Isn’t that natural? We are partners, you know?”

“…”

The already depressed Kaori was even more depressed after hearing the answer. Suddenly, a shadow stretched over the downcast Kaori.

Puzzled, Kaori looked up and there was Hajime’s face very close to her own. His eyes and nose were right before her. A distance that would conclude in a kiss if he move even a little closer. Kaori felt as if she was sucked by Hajime’s eyes, and suddenly, her cheeks were pulled.

“Ift huwt! Waft au uing!” Kaori protested with teary eyes.

However, Hajime ignored Kaori’s protest and played with her soft cheeks without reserve for a while. After finally being released, Kaori looked up with a reproachful gaze while rubbing her red cheeks, but Hajime only snorted with “Hmph”.

“If you have time to be depressed, then it’s better to use and move. We’re inside a Great Dungeon, you know? Just until when will you stay wet like this? Or, are you trying to gain my sympathy?”

Hajime’s sharp words made Kaori’s face instantly reddened. It was of shame. She noticed what he unexpressed said, isn’t this the wrong place for that?

“Th-There’s no such a thing! I was just daydreaming. I-I will change my clothes soon. Sorry.”

“…”

Kaori hurriedly stood up and began to take off her clothes after taking out substitute clothes from mini-“Treasure Box” (around the size of a house’s storage) that was given to her before the party left Elisen. Hajime nonchalantly turned his back towards her. The normal Kaori would do an approach by saying, “It’s okay to watch,” though embarrassed, but the current Kaori hurriedly finished changing her clothes without saying anything.

“I-I am done… So, what should we do?”

“Let’s see… Even if we go to seabed again, we still don’t know where the others are… but there’s nothing we can do other than keep searching. Those girls would probably do so as well.”

After looking at the jungle nearby, Hajime turned around. Kaori nodded at him while smiling; a smile hiding her depressed heart. Hajime slightly narrowed his eyes at Kaori’s smile, but he didn’t say anything in the end and started to walk.

Advancing along the pure-white sandy beach, creating sounds as they walked, the two entered the jungle. The dense trees and bushes were cut by Hajime. Kaori was only following him from behind.

Then, Hajime suddenly halted and turned towards Kaori, put his hand on the back of Kaori’s head as if to embrace her.

“Fue? Ah, umm, Hajime-kun? Wh-What’s with this sudden…”

Kaori blushed, but Hajime immediately separated and she instantly paled when she saw the thing on Hajime’s hand.

It was a spider. With size almost as big as a palm, it was moving its twelve legs with violet liquid dripping from it. Some of the legs grew like a normal spider while some grew from its back; a structure expressing it was capable of moving using both sides! It looked disgusting.

“Don’t let your guard down, okay? A Great Dungeon is vastly different compared to the surface of Orcus. Don’t think of it as the same or else you’ll experience pain.”

“U-Un. Sorry. I will be careful.”

“…”

The spider Hajime caught didn’t have magic stone, a normal poisonous spider. The fact that she was almost killed by creature other than a demonic beast, and how Hajime helped her, made Kaori even more depressed.

When she was still in Kouki’s party, she was an all-rounder, however, in Hajime’s party, she isn’t at all useful. It made Kaori panic more and more inwardly.

As such, Kaori put even more attention towards the surroundings which caused the conversation between the two to lessen, and they got out of the jungle with a subtle atmosphere between them.

Ahead of them was…

“This… isn’t this the so-called ship’s graveyard?”

“Amazing… those are sailing ships, but the size…”

In the rocky area ahead of the jungle were several partly rotted sailing ships lodged. The sailing ships were around a hundred meters in length at the lowest, and in the far distant was an even bigger one with at least three hundred meters in length.

The bizarre spectacle made Hajime and Kaori unconsciously halted their advance. However, it didn’t take a long time for Hajime and Kaori to regain their senses and entered the ship’s graveyard.

They advanced by passing through the gaps between rocks, sometimes passing over them, while at other times, they walked on the ships.

“Even so… there are only battleships here.”

“Un. But only the biggest one there seems to be a passenger boat. It has luxurious decorations on it…”

The ships in this graveyard didn’t have cannons located at the starboard side like those battleship (sail-type) on earth. Even so, Hajime was able to conclude they were battleships because there were marks of fierce battle on all of the ships. From the appearance of the ships, they seemed to have received magic attacks. Some have their masts cleanly cut, burnt, carbonized decks, and petrified ropes and nets.

They didn’t have any cannon, so they used long-ranged magic to defeat the enemies which was a battle method imaginable from the marks remained.

Then, Hajime’s guess was proven to be a fact when he and Kaori were halfway through the ship’s graveyard.

— UoOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

— WAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

“-!? What the!?”

“Hajime-kun! The surroundings are—!”

When they felt they heard shout of many men all of a sudden, the surroundings scenery began to distort. Hajime and Kaori stopped walking from the surprise and they observed the surroundings to observe what was happening. The surrounding distortion became even more intense and before they were aware of it, Hajime and Kaori were already on a ship’s deck, above the vast ocean.

Following that, they looked at their surroundings, it was not the ship’s graveyard, but hundreds of sailing ships divided into two groups, confronting each other. Above the ships were people raising their weapons while shouting.

“Th-The heck is this…”

“Ha-Ha-Hajime-kun? Am I currently inside a dream? Hajime-kun, you are here, right? Right?”

Both Hajime and Kaori were taken aback, but they somehow managed to get out of their confusion, however, they weren’t able to look at their surroundings.

While they did so, a big spark rose into the sky, generating firework-like loud voices followed by the hundreds of ships moving out simultaneously. The fleet on the side of the ship Hajime and Kaori rode on also moved out after the firework rose.

And when the ships approached a certain distance, they used the momentum to ram the other ships used its bodies, while magic were also fired.

GOoOOOOOOOO!!

DOoGAaAAAN!!

DOBAaAAAA!!!

“Owh!?”

“Kyaa!”

Flame bullets fired accompanied by roaring sounds and created holes in the ships’ bodies. Huge tornadoes advanced aiming at the masts. The sea’s surface froze, stopping the ships. And bullets of gray-colored sphere instantly petrified everything.

Even the deck Hajime and Kaori were on was hit by the flame bullets and began to blaze up grandly. The ship’s crews immediately activated magic to draw up the sea water and extinguished the fire.

It was literally a battlefield where innumerable people and ships fought on. The fired magic clad in killing intent grazed their skins.

Hajime and Kaori absentmindedly watching these spectacle, and once again fire bullets fired from behind them. The bullets’ courses were aimed straight towards Hajime and Kaori.

Hajime buried his question of why did they suddenly were involved in this war in his head, and he pulled out Donner because it was OK to kill everyone because they attacked first. Thus, he intercepted the fire bullets using the railgun.

The bullet fired was accompanied by explosive sound and a flash, but unexpectedly it didn’t even hit the flame bullets much more intercepting them. The bullet flew into the sky, and it disappeared.

“What!?”

Raising surprised voice for the nth times, Hajime embraced Kaori by his side and began to evade.

“Wait, I will obstruct them! “Light Severance”!”

With Kaori’s chant, the beginner-level defense magic of light attribute appeared.

Hajime tried to evade because the unknown magic kept going even after their cores were hit, but Kaori had activated her magic and couldn’t move away from there. Reluctantly, he activated “Vajra” and waited for the flame bullets.

However, Hajime’s worry proved to be groundless because Kaori’s barrier completely blocked the flame bullets. With dubious expression, Hajime thought whether he just misfired while tilting his head, and he once again fired at the incoming flame bullets. Even this time, Hajime’s Magic Eye indeed saw the cores being hit, but the bullet just passed through the flame bullets and flew towards the day after tomorrow..

“… Is that it?”

Seeing that, Hajime was guessing why his attack wasn’t effective and decided to try another method of attacking. Kaori tried to put up another barrier to block the incoming flame bullets, but Hajime stopped her and activated “Wind Claw” in Donner. Following that, he evaded, and at the same time, he slashed the flame bullets using “Wind Claw.” This time, the flame bullets didn’t pass through and slashed in two.

“Umm, Hajime-kun?”

“It doesn’t seem to be an illusion nor was it a real thing. The physical attack didn’t effective, but attacks that contained magic power are effective. Good grief, what’s with this situation.”

Hajime spat a sigh from this troublesome situation and “Gwaa,” an agonized voice rang right from behind him. While wondering what it was, he turned around and there was a young man crouching while suppressing his abdomen, while his other hand was holding a cutlass. Looking carefully, there was a pool of blood below him and blood covered icicle rolling nearby. He must have been shot with the icicle.

“Are you okay!?,” Kaori immediately raised her voice while approaching him, and then she used her healing magic. A pure-white light released from her and wrapped the man. He should be healed in a blink of an eye because Kaori was a “Healer”… or so she thought, but the result was unexpected. The moment the young man received Kaori’s healing magic, he turned into light particles and disappeared.

“Eh? Eh? W-Why…” After a little pondering, Hajime told the confused Kaori what he thought had happened.

“Wasn’t it because the effect and attribute of the magic didn’t matter as long as it carried magic power?”

“… Then, I-I just… killed that person…”

“Kaori, this is not reality. Just think of it as “an illusion where we can move freely.” Besides, you can’t call something that disappeared by being healed a human.”

“Hajime-kun… un, you are right. I am sorry that I was confused a little there. But I am okay now.”

Though slight, Hajime said words of concern to Kaori. However, Kaori didn’t feel happy like the usual her, only drooping her shoulders apologizing. Then, she smiled to smooth things over. Seeing her reaction made Hajime inadvertently muttered the thing he had thought since earlier.

“… You keep apologizing, eh.”

“Eh? Did you say something?”

“No, nothing.” Hajime moved his gaze from Kaori.

It was not because of the subtle atmosphere drifting around Kaori, but because he felt ominous presences. When he looked around, the soldiers were shouting and attacking the nearby ships, and before they were aware of it, several men with dark gazes were looking at Hajime and Kaori.

Kaori noticed Hajime’s gaze and looked at the direction he was watching, and the men immediately came to attack Hajime and Kaori.