Arifureta Vol 8 Chapter 9 (2/2)

Because this wouldn’t end with the way it was going and he felt Yue’s discomfort, Hajime decided to answer a little and sighed with an expression as though saying it was a ha.s.sle.

“Amanogawa. I have neither care nor obligation to answer everything to you whose existence is a joke in more ways than one. But, I’ll point it out to you a little because you are being persistent about it.”

“Point it out, you say? Are you saying I am wrong? I, I only say something obvious as a person.”

Because, It’s troublesome, truly!, was what Hajime expression turned to. Kouki irritatedly objected Hajime’s words which was then ignored, and Hajime continued his words.

“You can’t fool me.”

“What’s with that…”

“You, you are not angry because I killed that woman. You are only feeling unpleasant to see a person’s death. However, you knew you are mistaken to blame me to kill the woman who murdered the Knights and tried to kill you. That’s why you’re using “killing a non-resisting person” as your main point, right? Being made to see something you didn’t want to see and for someone to easily do things you couldn’t… those are the cause of your anger. However, you tried to cover it under the name of justice. What worse is you yourself aren’t conscious of it. You never change, huh. You interpret things at your own convenience as natural as breathing.”

“Y-You are wrong! Don’t say something for your own convenience! It is the true you killed a non-resisting person!”

“I killed my enemy, what’s wrong with that?”

“Wh-!? What are you saying? It’s murder! Of course it is wrong!”

“Haa, I don’t want to discuss with you, so can we end it now? ———— I, I won’t give any mercy to my enemy. If someone opposed me, as long as I don’t have any other need for it, I will absolutely kill that person. I don’t care whether they are good or evil, resisting or not. Hatefully, I knew I’d be dead if I show even a moment of weakness. This is my sense of value cultivated inside the abyss, and I won’t force it to other. But, if someone doesn’t like it and tried to block me…”

Hajime instantly closed the distance and pressed the muzzle against Kouki’s forehead. At the same time, Hajime’s “Pressure” activated and the dense killing intent fell into the surrounding like a large, powerful waterfall. Kouki’s party held their breaths. Even Kouki, who was able to chase after s.h.i.+zuku whose movement was the fastest among his comrades, could not even perceive Hajime’s earlier movement and he trembled in fear.

“I will kill them, even if that person is a former cla.s.smate of mine.”

“Y-You…”

“Don’t misunderstand, okay? I never thought of returning to you. Also, I am not your comrade. I only came here to pay my obligation to s.h.i.+rasaki. It’s a goodbye after we get out of here. I have my own path to take.”

After saying so, he glared at Kouki who couldn’t say anything and was holding his breath. Hajime returned Donner to its holster, and with “Pressure” deactivation, the cla.s.smates exhaled greatly while looking at Hajime with complexed gazes. However, Kouki still could not accept it and tried to argue some more. But it was prevented by Yue’s harsh words while she wore a disgusted expression.

“…The one who fought was Hajime. The loser who ran away after being defeated in fear has no qualification to criticize him.”

“Wh—, you say I ran away…”

Actually it was not a coincidence Hajime’s party could pinpointed their location. The truth was, Hajime guessed the explosive torrent of magic power he felt to be coming from Kouki’s party when he was still in upper floor. Then, he used full advantage of his perception type skills to search for people presences downstairs and used trans.m.u.tation along with pile bunker to pierce through the floors.

The torrent of magic power he felt at that time was Kouki’s “Supreme Break.” Feeling the huge power, Hajime’s party understood that Kouki would be able to defeat the demon race woman in that condition. That’s why they could see through that Kouki hesitated to kill and invited their predicament after coming to their location. It was why Yue said, “he ran away after being defeated in fear.”

Kouki tried to refute Yue, but a deep voice interrupted him.

“Stop it, Kouki.”

“Meld-san!”

Meld’s consciousness had returned a while ago and he heard the conversation between Kouki and the others. Still somewhat in a daze, he stood up and shook his head to clear his mind. Next, he saw his abdomen which surely had been injured, and so he tilt his head in confusion.

Kaori explained to Meld in details about what had happened. Knowing he was miraculously helped with a valuable medicine and hearing the owner was Hajime, Meld was happy from the depth of his heart that Hajime was alive. Moreover, he thanked Hajime for saving him. He grandly prostrated for being unable to save him at that time which made Hajime felt uncomfortable to receive his apology.

Rather than not minding it, Hajime had completely forgotten when Meld said, “I will absolutely save you,” … but he read the mood when Meld was before him, apologizing while bowing deeply.

When his conversation with Hajime ended, Meld turned towards Kouki and apologized just like what he did to Hajime.

“M-Meld-san? Why, why are you apologizing?”

“Of course. I am your trainer… but, I forgot to teach you an important thing during a fight. It’s the resolution to kill a person. When the time comes, I’ve thought of making you experience killing people by setting them up as thieves while making it look like a coincidence… After all, that experience is something necessary if you partic.i.p.ate in war against the demon race… However, I’ve spent a lot of time conversing with you which made me think if it was really okay to let you experience that… Thus, I’ve hesitated. If I am thinking of my position as the commander of the Knights, I would have taught you even earlier, but… a little longer, just a little longer, until we cleared this. Things dragged on in this manner and reached this situation… I am just being half-a.s.sed. It’s my mistake as your trainer. That’s why, to make you face death… I apologize.”

Saying so, Meld once again bowed which made the cla.s.smates try and comfort him in hurry. Apparently, Meld had been considerably worried about Kouki’s party. He was likely being pulled apart by his mission as the commander and him as a person.

Meld is a citizen of the Kingdom and a believer of Church of the Saints. Therefore, it wasn’t weird that he felt it was natural and an honor for Kouki and the others, the “G.o.d’s Apostles,” to fight the demon race. However, he doubted as he fought along with Kouki’s party which meant he was a good or maybe a gentle person, and at the level of a man of character just as Hajime said.

Hearing what was in Meld’s mind, Kouki fell silent. After knowing that he must kill people in due time, he recalled his fear when he was about to kill the demon race woman. At the same time, he received shock from Meld’s words saying they would kill people masked as thieves for the sake of training. If it’s thieves, then we have power to overwhelm them. But to purposely killed them… he thought.

On the other side, Kaori was also silent. But it was not because she heard Meld’s words. For a long time, she had been thinking about Hajime’s words.

The sense of value cultivated inside the abyss where enemy would be killed without hesitation even if it was his cla.s.smate… were impossible words coming from Hajime of the past. However, he proved he was serious with the previous killing intent. The Hajime who was gentle and acted by putting the sake of others before him had unhesitatingly turned his killing intent towards them. Kaori was perplexed and shaken by the differences between Hajime she knew and Hajime before her. Thinking of the Hajime who was worried about her from a little ago was an illusion, Kaori was uneasy.

While she was thinking, Kaori suddenly felt someone’s gaze. Before Kaori was the blond-haired, red-eyed beautiful girl. A beautiful girl that made even Kaori instinctively charmed. She was quietly observing Kaori with eyes where no feeling could be felt.

Kaori recalled the girl had been fairly intimate with Hajime which made Kaori interested and turned to look at Yue. For a while, the two watched each other.

“…Fu.”

“Kh…”

However, Yue was the first to avert her gaze while sneering.

Kaori inadvertently held her breath. It was because she noticed the meaning behind her sneer. It was, “If you are shaken by this, just forget about Hajime,” something like that.

Yue had of course guessed how Kaori feels about Hajime from her att.i.tude. Thus, hearing she believed of Hajime’s survival even though he fell into the abyss, a strong rival in love might show up, I must stand tall!, was what she thought.

However, when she saw Kaori comparing the past and current Hajime, and it resulted in her being shaken and perplexed while being taken aback by the differences. Although that reaction was as natural as possible for a person… it made Yue see her as insignificant.

You can’t even become an enemy. From now on, Hajime is only mine. Hajime’s “special” person is me! The implied declaration made Kaori’s face red; red from shame and anger. However, Kaori could not refute since she had lost sight of the human called Hajime. The first encounter between Yue and Kaori resulted in Yue as the victor.

Leering at Kouki and the others whose mood became subtle, Hajime took Yue and s.h.i.+a along, collected the pile bunker’s stake, and tried to go through the opened hole. Noticing what he was doing, Kouki and the others began to follow Hajime’s party. Endou had proposed for everyone to take advantage of Hajime’s party until they reached the surface, and Meld was being carried by Hajime after they pleaded him.

On the way to the surface, the demonic beasts that tried to obstruct them were instantly killed by Hajime which made them once again amazed by his strength. The cla.s.smates wore various expressions thinking whether he was the same person who was once called “incompetent.”

Hiyama was glaring at Hajime with paled complexion, Kondou’s gang were sending him begrudging gazes, and Nagayama’s party were looking at him admiringly as they wore complex expressions due to Hajime clearly saying he was not their comrade.

Even though Kondou’s gang had closely seen Hajime’s prowess and shrunk before it, they still thought Hajime was the same as the previous him. On the other side, Nagayama’s party knew what kind of treatment Hajime received from Hiyama and his gang and pretend to not see it, so now they felt guilty about it. They thought it could not be helped that Hajime didn’t think of them as his comrades…

Receiving various gazes from Kouki and the others behind him, Hajime just ignored them and advanced on his own road.

On the way, Suzu’s inner oldman caused commotion as she tried to talk to Yue about various things. She also barraged Hajime with questions about what happened, then she turned her aim towards s.h.i.+a’s huge b.r.e.a.s.t.s and rabbit-ears. When she realized the two just ignored her, she was then physically stopped by s.h.i.+zuku. Kondou’s gang tried to talk to Yue and s.h.i.+a fully loaded with desire, but were completely ignored, even so they kept being persistent. They tried to touch s.h.i.+a’s rabbit-ears without permission which awarded them with Hajime’s rubber bullets. They vomited after receiving yakuza kicks, and fear was driven into them when they received a slight killing intent leaking from Hajime ———— various things happened, and finally the group reached the surface.

Kaori was still looking down, worrying. s.h.i.+zuku was also worriedly watching Kaori and drew closer to her. However, a situation where an impact blew away all of Kaori’s worries had happened. It was a situation she couldn’t overlook as a woman whose heart was set on Hajime.

It happened when they arrived at the entrance of «Orcus Great Dungeon».

“Ah! Papaa~!”

“Uh! Myuu, huh.”

It was the appearance of a little girl calling Hajime papa.

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