Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 10

by Ryo Shirakome

  Suzu was basically implying, “You’re a musclehead so it’s not like insults can hurt you anyway, right?” which was pretty harsh for the otherwise cheerful Suzu. It seemed she’d finally started to give up her mask.

  On the other hand, Ryutarou didn’t really mind the implied insult. Rather, he didn’t even seem to pick up on it.

  “Nah, I don’t mind talking about it. It wasn’t anything special, anyway. My fake just called me a cowardly loser and shit.”

  Suzu gave Ryutarou a blank look. Ryutarou was the kind of guy who’d charge headfirst into any challenge, no matter how dangerous. She couldn’t imagine him being scared of anything. In fact, he was a paragon of reckless courage. Of all the things for the copy to point out, cowardice seemed like the strangest choice. Seeing Suzu’s confused expression, Ryutarou smiled awkwardly.

  “I’ve just been trying to hide it by acting tough, you know. Like think about it, I’m way weaker than Kouki and Nagumo.”

  “You mean...”

  “You’ll always be a side character. The guy the true protagonists always need to come save.”

  “You’re jealous, aren’t you? You wanna be that guy who stands in the spotlight.”

  “But you know why you never try to steal it for yourself?”

  “I’ve always thought I could never beat those two. And I’ve always been scared of losing to them. I never wanted to challenge them cause I was afraid losing would prove it. Prove that I’m just a worthless sidekick. That’s the kind of shit my fake told me.”

  “You really thought that?”

  The two of them continued walking down the corridor, side by side. Suzu looked hesitantly up at Ryutarou, who smiled ruefully and nodded.

  “That annoying fake was basically me, right? Means I’d definitely been thinking that in the back of my mind.”

  At the very least, Ryutarou knew he hadn’t been able to deny those claims. He scratched his head awkwardly and continued his story.

  “You know how before we got summoned here, Kouki and I used to stick our noses into other people’s business all the time?”

  “Yep. Well, it’s more like Kouki-kun attracted everyone else’s problems. Shizushizu was always talking about how hard she had it.”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway, most of the time we’d end up saving girls from delinquents and shit. And every time we did, Kouki was the only one they’d thank.”

  “Aaaaaaah...”

  Suzu could see what Ryutarou was getting at. Kouki looked like a knight in shining armor. He stood out like a sore thumb. On top of that, he was unbelievably charismatic.

  “So yeah, even the girls I had crushes on all went for Kouki instead of me.”

  “Ooof.”

  Suzu was beginning to wonder why Ryutarou was even friends with Kouki. She sympathized with his plight. While she was still busy processing all these new revelations, Ryutarou dropped another bombshell on her.

  “Even Yue-san’s Nagumo’s woman.”

  “Yeah, she... Wait...? What...? WHAT!?”

  Suzu shrieked, her scream echoing down the corridor. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her skull. She was so surprised she came to a stop and took a few steps back. Blushing, Ryutarou looked away and zipped his mouth.

  “Hold on, are you for real? Ryutarou-kun, you like her? Seriously?”

  “Why do you look so surprised? Is it that weird that I fell for her!?”

  “N-No, not really, it’s just... you never showed it or anything, Ryutarou-kun...”

  “You really think I could try to hit on her when the two of them are flirting 24/7?”

  “Poor Ryuarou-kun...”

  “Shut up! I’m not pitiful! Besides, when did you become this mean!?”

  Suzu looked at Ryutarou as if he were an abandoned puppy and gently patted his arm. Ryutarou angrily slapped her hand away and changed the topic.

  “Anyway, my fake talked about how I was only pretending to be content with being the sidekick even though I actually wanted to be the main character.”

  “I see now. So did your copy get stronger too, Ryutarou-kun?”

  “Stronger? What do you mean?”

  “Huh? Isn’t the whole trial about whether you reject or accept your feelings? And your copy gets weaker or stronger depending on what you do?”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  Ryutarou wasn’t following at all. Suzu and Ryutarou both cocked their heads in confusion. Suzu briefly explained the rules of the trial, but Ryutarou still looked confused. It seemed his trial had gone differently than hers.

  Ryutarou’s copy had offered him a deal. It had asked him to join hands with it to gain the power to supplant Kouki and the others as the protagonist. The power to do as he wished and take whatever he wanted through sheer force alone. He’d be able to become his ideal self.

  “So there are people who had trials like that too...”

  Rather than overcoming himself, Ryutarou’s trial had focused on how well he could resist temptations offered to him. Considering the gods were likely to employ similar means, it made sense as a trial.

  Maybe the trial thought he didn’t have enough negative emotions, so it tried to tempt him as a last resort or something...? Nah, can’t be.

  “S-So, what happened when you took the fake’s hand?”

  “Hey... Do you really think I’d accept a deal like that?”

  Suzu averted her gaze. And in response, Ryutarou sighed and said, “Even I’m not stupid enough to think taking that fake’s hand was a good idea. I just punched the shit out of it.”

  “Huh, so you didn’t succumb to temptation?”

  Suzu gave Ryutarou a look of admiration, but instead of seeming proud of himself, Ryutarou’s expression was oddly stiff. His eyes glazed over and he said, “Just think about it. If I’d actually gotten all that power and did whatever I’d wanted, what do you think would have happened?”

  “Hm? Well, you’d be able to take whatever you want by force so... Oh.”

  Suzu’s look of confusion transformed into one of sympathy. Had Ryutarou failed the trial and given in to his base desires, it was obvious what he’d try to do first. Make Yue his. But Suzu and Ryutarou both knew how that would end up. No matter how much power the labyrinth gave him, “You’d get destroyed by Nagumo-kun.”

  “Just like Hiyama.”

  Having seen how close Hajime and Yue were, Ryutarou had already made his peace with the fact that she’d never look his way. Trying to change that now was paramount to suicide. The copy may have thought it was trying to tempt Ryutarou into a life of decadence, but to him it had seemed like nothing but a road leading straight to death.

  “I ended up yelling, ‘What the fuck’s wrong with you!? Take a hard look at reality! If I do that I’m just gonna die!’ at my fake.”

  Ryutarou had then snapped and defeated his copy in the ensuing fistfight.

  After hearing out his story, Suzu said, “So you basically beat your trial by throwing a tantrum.”

  In the end, I guess that’s just how Ryutarou-kun is... Suzu’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. Ryutarou shrugged, then resumed walking down the corridor.

  “Still...” Suzu said with a grin, refusing to let the topic die. She felt happy that Ryutarou had been willing to share his deepest feelings with her. As a result, she felt no reason to be reserved around him.

  “I’m kinda surprised. I never thought you’d fallen for Yue-oneesama, Ryutarou-kun.”

  “You’re still going on about that? Besides, what’s so weird about that anyway? You’re the one who’s been calling her onee-sama ever since that day!”

  “Oh yeah, good point. I guess it’s not that weird after all.”

  Suzu clapped her hands together. The day Ryutarou was referring to was the day Hajime and Yue had saved them from the demon and her monsters in the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Yue had looked dazzlingly beautiful as she’d cut through swathes of monsters with her azure fire dragon.

  She
’d fought with such poise, despite her young appearance. On top of that, she’d shown a sliver of kindness to Suzu. It was only natural that all the students present for that battle had fallen for her. In the same way that Suzu had come to call her onee-sama, Yoshiki Saitou, Shinji Nakano, Ayako Tsuji, and Mao Yoshino had all come to respect Yue immensely. So it was hardly strange that Ryutarou felt something similar.

  “You better not tell anyone this.”

  “I won’t. You’d just get teased about it if I did. Actually, why did you even bother telling me?”

  “Well, I guess I shouldn’t have, but...”

  “Oh. You just wanted someone to hear you out... didn’t you?”

  “I always forget how sharp you are. Yeah, that’s basically it. Sorry for grumbling about all this crap to you.”

  Ryutarou smiled ruefully at Suzu, and she smiled back.

  “But still, you really shouldn’t try to fight every challenge head-on like that. Kaorin’s gonna get mad if you keep showing up all beat up.”

  “My fake’s face just pissed me off so much. Just thinking about it makes me want to deck him again.”

  “You could always start punching mirrors.”

  The two continued bantering with each other for a few minutes until they finally reached a dead end. It seemed they’d found the next connecting room.

  “Oh, we’re here.”

  “I really hope it’s Kaorin or Tio-san’s room...”

  Suzu brought her hands together in prayer, then approached the wall of ice. As she neared, it melted away to reveal the room beyond. Fortunately for Suzu, her prayers were answered. However—

  “Kyaa!?”

  “Uwoooh!?”

  The first thing to greet Suzu and Ryutarou as they stepped into the room was a torrent of magic. Yelping in surprise, Ryutarou hurriedly jumped in front of Suzu and crossed his arms defensively in front of him. At the same time, Suzu erected a powerful barrier.

  After the shockwaves faded, the two of them looked up to see Tio and her copy exchanging breath attacks.

  Let us rewind the clock to a few minutes before Suzu and Ryutarou’s arrival. Tio faced off against her white-haired, white-robed copy while illusory pitch-black flames danced at the edges of her vision.

  Those flames were a manifestation of the hatred that raged within her. The seeds of that hatred had been planted 500 years ago, when the dragonmen had been eradicated from history, along with their prosperous nation.

  “Even though we cared for the weak and powerless, even though we supported them and protected them from harm...”

  The copy’s voice was a mixture of scorn and regret. It summoned up a wave of flames which threatened to swallow Tio whole.

  “True. We dragonmen offered protection to all who sought it, regardless of race, nationality, or gender.”

  Replying calmly, Tio swung her arm down. Her kimono sleeve fluttered in the breeze, and a wall of wind rose up to meet the wave of fire. The wind collided with the flames, absorbed it, and transformed the wave into a fiery tornado that Tio sent rushing back at her copy.

  “Was there anyone not saved by our grace? Was there anyone not moved by our virtuous and noble nature!? Was there anyone who did not respect us!?”

  The copy transformed into a beautiful, white-scaled dragon and charged right through the burning tornado. It headed for Tio, planning to crush her flat beneath the weight of its charge.

  “Others praised us, calling us the strongest and most noble nation in the world.”

  There was a flash of black light, and Tio transformed into her dragon form as well. She braced herself, taking the copy’s tackle head-on. She was unable to absorb the full force of the blow though and was pushed back to the wall. There was a clear difference in strength between the two of them.

  Emboldened, the copy shouted, “Our nation was meant to be a paradise! A place where the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, could live together in harmony!”

  The path to reaching that paradise hadn’t been an easy one. Upholding the lofty ideals of the dragonmen had been an unbelievably difficult ordeal.

  For centuries, other races had laughed at the dragonmen’s dreams, looking down on them as nothing more than foolish idealists. But thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of dragonmen, they finally created the ideal country they’d dreamed of. A firm, unyielding nation filled with kindness and warmth. Having realized an ideal all others thought impossible, the remaining races had bowed their heads in respect to the dragonmen.

  From then on, dragonmen were the protectors of the world, the arbiters of peace. They were the true rulers of Tortus.

  “Indeed,” Tio muttered, her voice tinged with sadness.

  Just before Tio crashed into the wall, she wreathed herself in a veil of black light. A second later there was a massive boom, and a section of the wall was pulverized. However, Tio wasn’t anywhere near the wall. In fact—

  “Limiter Removal.”

  Enhanced by evolution magic, Tio’s black breath shot toward her copy. She’d slipped directly underneath the white dragon and was firing at it from below. Just before being slammed into the wall, Tio had canceled her transformation, allowing her to fall underneath her copy. Blindsided by the counterattack, Tio’s copy nevertheless managed to spread out its wings and stop its backward momentum just before it crashed into the tree at the center of the room. It then opened its maw and fired a breath of white breath back at Tio.

  Surprisingly, its breath attack was even stronger than Tio’s who’d been using evolution magic. Scorching the air as it passed, the breath rumbled ominously as it rushed toward Tio. The breath enveloped Tio, and instantly liquified the ice floor underneath her. The breath then faded away, revealing emptiness where once Tio had stood. It was like she’d been vaporized.

  The copy canceled its transformation and landed softly on the floor. Then, as if nothing had happened, it resumed its speech.

  “But everything we worked for was destroyed, turned to ash by the wickedness of gods and men.”

  The copy turned to the side. As expected, Tio was standing there. She’d used the residual heat from her own breath to leave a mirage of herself behind, which was what had been hit by the copy’s attack.

  When Tio had hit the copy with her breath, it had lost sight of her for just a second. And in that second, Tio had left an illusion in her wake and moved elsewhere. Such a feat could only be called godlike. Unfortunately, that didn’t change the fact that Tio was losing in terms of raw power.

  Tio and her copy thrust their hands forward, releasing simultaneous breath attacks. Two breaths, one black, one white, collided with each other. A stunning contrast of dark and light filled the room. The two breaths were not of equal strength, however. Slowly but surely, the white breath started pushing the black one back.

  Just then, two new people entered the room. Even without looking, the copy knew they were Suzu and Ryutarou. Grinning wickedly, it decided to show these new spectators just how unsightly Tio really was. It believed that by divulging Tio’s secrets to others, it would corner her further.

  “Dragonmen aren’t really men. They’re evolved from monsters.”

  Those words had spelled the end of the golden age of dragonmen. Suzu and Ryutarou both looked up in surprise, something both Tio and the copy noticed. The copy’s grin grew wider, and it continued recounting the tragedy of Tio’s people.

  “Who knows when their vicious nature will rear its ugly head? They pretend to be protectors of the world, but behind that mask, the truth is they just want to rule over other races.”

  The copy looked derisively down at Tio. It was true that throughout all of Tortus, it was only dragonmen who could transform into beasts. Their dragon forms, so removed from a normal human’s appearance, could certainly be considered monstrous. Add to that their overwhelming strength, it was hardly surprising that other races started to believe such insidious words.

  But even so, despite the wicked rumors spread by the
gods, the dragonmen remained noble. They showed kindness to all races and continued to grow their paradise. Their centuries of altruism should have been enough to earn them the trust of their peers. And yet—

  “Their real goal is to overthrow the gods. That’s right, dragonmen are... heretics!”

  Those few words had been enough to overturn all the trust and goodwill dragonmen had built up. The common people had betrayed them so easily. It was like a nightmare. The other races’ respect had turned to fear. Their trust into doubt. Their admiration into scorn.

  And then, in the blink of an eye, Tio’s country had burned. Her fellow countrymen had been slaughtered, and her father Kharga and her mother Orna’s bodies desecrated. By the same people they’d risked their lives to protect and care for. The copy’s white breath pushed Tio’s black breath a few more inches backward. Slowly but surely, the white light of annihilation was closing in on her. The copy cackled.

  “Fufufu, I can feel it. Your anger and your hatred, your fear and your resignation. Even after all these centuries, you still cannot forget the tragedy befell you. You and your brethren were betrayed by the very people you saved. They sneered as they killed your friends and family, desecrating their corpses for sport.”

  “......”

  Tio remained silent as her copy’s words echoed through the room. Suzu and Ryutarou, on the other hand, seemed stricken by the copy’s tale. The two of them hadn’t known about Tio’s past. All they knew was that the dragonmen were supposed to be an extinct race. But they’d never realized those few paragraphs they’d read about dragonmen history in the royal library hid such tragedy.

  The two of them knew nothing about this side of Tio. And there was yet another side of Tio that not even Hajime and the others were aware of.

  “Say, it must have felt nice, right? Blasting the church to pieces? After all, they were the ones who spearheaded that betrayal, centuries ago. Was it not exhilarating to finally be able to slaughter your hated foe?”

  Tio was lucky she could use saving Hajime as an excuse to destroy the church. After all, it wouldn’t have looked very good if she’d said the reason she’d massacred all those people was for revenge. She was lucky Aiko had been there with her too. Aiko’s own struggles with what she’d done had been a good way to divert attention away from Tio.