“Hm? Who’re you?”
“That’s what I want to know. I’m the only match-seller he needs.”
“Oh? So you say you’re the only match-seller worthy of him? Let me show you just how fleeting your life is. You’ll vanish faster than a match’s flame.”
Why the two of them were so hung-up on being match-sellers was something no one knew. The two of them struck grandiose poses. A giant thunder dragon appeared behind one match-seller while a demonic swordsman with a frightening mask appeared behind the other.
“Fufufufufufufu.”
“Ahahahahahaha.”
Their ominous laughter rang out through the streets. There would surely be a fierce blizzard tonight. Oh, and the white-haired boy had long since run home.
Chapter IV: The Miraculous Meeting and the Phantasmagorical Adventure
A gentle sea breeze washed across the shore as waves lapped against the beach. Amidst this picturesque, tranquil scene, a single boy heaved a frustrated sigh. That boy was of course Hajime. Four days had passed since he and his friends had conquered the Sunken Ruins of Melusine. Hajime was currently sitting cross-legged on the wooden porch of Remia’s house, seemingly deep in thought.
Judging by the ore and materials scattered around him, it looked like he was trying to create new artifacts. And indeed, he was currently trying to finish two new artifacts, an airship and a long-range laser that used focused sunlight. However, he lacked the fine-tuned mana control he needed to craft what he needed. On top of that, his current creation magic and transmutation skill weren’t sufficient for the task. His lack of ability was the source of his current frustration. Or well, it was partly the source of his frustration. The rest of it came from—
“Daddy, it’s lunchtime!”
The dagon girl who’d just jumped out of the ocean like a flying fish. Myu, the girl who’d gotten extremely attached to Hajime in the short time they’d been together. She leaped toward Hajime, still dripping seawater. If Hajime caught her, his clothes would end up soaked. So naturally, he—
“Hey, stop that! You’re getting everything all wet, Myu!”
“I’m sorry!”
Caught her anyway. And even though he was scolding her, he didn’t sound the least bit angry. Hajime had quite the soft spot for Myu.
“Where’s Yue and the others?”
“They’re already eating. They gave me a mission to come get you!”
Myu puffed her chest out proudly. Hajime, who almost perpetually had a frown on his face, smiled.
“I see. Thanks, Myu. You did great.”
In front of his adopted daughter, his dour personality vanished. Had Hajime’s classmates been able to see him now, they would have been shocked. Even though he’d given them the cold shoulder, here he was, smiling warmly. For her part, Myu was all smiles as well. She loved nothing more than being praised by her beloved daddy. Incidentally, her laugh was quite reminiscent of Remia’s, and you could clearly tell they were related. Myu would gladly have spent the next hour nuzzling with her father, but she had a mission to complete. She quickly returned to her senses and got to her feet. She then grabbed Hajime’s hand and pulled him up.
“Hurry, Daddy! Or Mommy’s food will get cold!”
“Alright, alright, I’m coming. Want me to carry you?”
“N-No, I’m on a mission!”
Myu valiantly resisted the temptation to jump into Hajime’s arms. What a strong girl! Hajime thought with a smile. But at the same time, he was still grappling with how he was going to tell Myu he’d need to leave her behind when he resumed his journey. That was the other reason for his sighs. As he let Myu pull him along, he furrowed his brows and gave the matter some more thought.
Lunch was a lively affair. Remia had made meat skewers, and Myu ended up getting her face covered in sauce as she devoured them. She sat between Hajime and Remia, and the two of them took turns wiping her mouth while reprimanding her for her lack of table manners. They looked like a perfect family. However— “Aww, I’m so jealous.”
“Mrrr. Remia’s spot was my spot when we were traveling...”
Kaori and Shea watched on with unbridled jealousy, while Tio laughed at the two of them. Yue, on the other hand, “I want a kid I want a kid I want Hajime’s baby—” was muttering to herself like a broken record. Upon hearing Yue’s ramblings, a slight smile crept up his face. Kaori gave Hajime a glare that could kill lesser beings, and a sudden shiver ran down his spine. Yue, on the other hand, grinned triumphantly. Kaori turned her murderous glare onto Yue, and the two settled into their usual fighting poses. Since arriving at Erisen, the two of them had squabbled at least five times a day. At this point, everyone was so tired of breaking them apart that this time they didn’t even try.
“Oh my, how lively... Oh yes, that reminds me. How was today’s adventure, everyone?”
But Remia was different. She had experience with child-rearing. In the face of Yue and Kaori’s simmering wrath, she just smiled gently like always and changed the topic.
“Mrrr, we didn’t find anything.”
Myu’s ears drooped, though she continued attacking her fish skewer with gusto. The past few days, she’d been leading Yue and the others on adventures near the outskirts of the city, but she’d yet to find anything interesting.
“Mmm... We couldn’t find the treasure that was supposed to be hidden here when Erisen was built.”
“Though we did discover quite a few caves.”
“Yep. The underwater ones looked really cool, too.”
“I guess this means six of the seven legends about Erisen are false.”
The so-called seven legends of Erisen were mostly just folk tales and urban myths known around the city. Aside from the city’s hidden treasure, there were also stories of a ghost that wandered the sea, a mysterious ghost ship that appeared in times of thick fog, a city hidden at the bottom of the ocean where the pirate king’s treasure lay, and a fish with a human head that was supposed to bring good fortune. But of course, they were just stories. They’d been examined by other adventurers long before Hajime’s party had arrived here, so of course they’d found nothing.
“What’s real is real!” Myu replied unhappily. Remia gave her daughter a troubled smile. Myu had been using an awful lot of strange phrases Remia didn’t understand the meaning of recently. After a few seconds, Remia turned to the man responsible for her daughter’s corruption. Hajime awkwardly averted his gaze.
“Uhh, anyway. Don’t let this get you down, Myu. There’s still one legend left to check, right?”
“Mhmm. The shimmering ocean.”
No one knew where this story came from or when it started, but this was the oldest and vaguest rumor of the western seas. According to legend, there was a shimmering ocean that would appear at random times in random places. It was large enough to span from horizon to horizon, and supposedly it was home to a creature or person or “thing” of some sort that would grant a wish to whoever found it.
“It’s such a romantic legend... If I found it, I could wish Yue would get stranded somewhere.”
“Die, Kaori...”
Yue drove her fist into Kaori’s side. Kaori yelped in pain and retaliated by poking Yue in the stomach. Yue squealed in surprise and quickly settled into her usual fighting pose. Round two was about to begin. Hajime completely ignored the catfight going on between the two of them and turned to Myu.
“I couldn’t go with you guys in the morning, but I’m free now. I’ve repaired the submarine too, so how about making our last adventure a grand one? We can search all day and spend the night in the ocean.”
“Mmm!? A sleepover adventure!? I wanna go!”
For a moment Myu looked like she was trying to hold herself back from saying something, but then she smiled and nodded vigorously. Remia patted her on the head and turned to Hajime with an expectant look.
“You wanna come too, Remia?”
“I would love to. Ufufu, it’ll be a family vacation, darling.”
That evening, dark wispy clouds covered the night sky like a long trail of cotton candy. Hajime’s submarine looked like nothing more than a small shadow from that height. Though he’d made it much bigger when he’d repaired it after the trek into the ruins. He’d also enchanted it with gravity magic to turn it into a pseudo-hovercraft when it was above the water. As a result, it wasn’t affected by the waves at all, and Hajime and the others were able to enjoy a pleasant barbeque as they coasted across the sea.
“It doesn’t look like it’ll rain, but it’s a shame we won’t be able to see the stars...” Hajime muttered as he looked up, a pair of tongs in one hand.
“Mmm... Should I blow the clouds away?”
“That sounds a bit too dangerous.”
Only Yue would suggest altering the weather simply because she found it unpleasant. The others gave her nonplussed looks. Meanwhile, Hajime rejected the idea since he knew it would take up too much of Yue’s mana.
“If I’d been able to finish the airship we could have taken a trip among the clouds, too.”
“Daddy, what’s an airship?”
“It’s a ship that flies in the sky.”
“You mean it can fly just like the people in town!?”
For the record, Erisen’s townspeople did not know how to fly.
“Oh, I suppose those men did fly, in a sense. They traveled along quite a nice arc, too.”
Tio smiled as she recalled the event from a few hours ago. When the townspeople had learned Myu and Remia were going to go on a trip with Hajime, a bunch of them had started talking to the mother-daughter pair. Friends of Myu, friends of Remia, and a bunch of men jealous that Hajime was going on a date with their crush. The latter specifically had tried to stop Hajime at all costs, and naturally, they’d all been sent flying. Specifically, Hajime had rounded them all up with wires, then flung them into the ocean. The few persistent ones—such as the town mayor, a human noble appointed to rule the city by the king of Heiligh, and his administrative staff—Hajime had tied to missiles and launched into the sky.
“Remia-san and Myu-chan sure are... loved by the townspeople, huh...?” Kaori muttered softly.
“They’re all just jealous of Hajime-san. But I’m surprised there are humans who are interested in you even though you’re a beastwoman like me, Remia-san.”
“Mmm... That’s because Remia’s a devil.”
“U-Umm, Yue-san? Isn’t that a bit rude? I just happen to meet a lot of people thanks to my work...”
Surprisingly, Yue’s glare was powerful enough to silence even Remia. Incidentally, Remia’s job was to mediate between the humans sent by the kingdom and the dagon people that lived within the city. She was just one of many such mediators on the city payroll, and she was actually more of a part-time worker than anything. However, her signature smile and gentle demeanor were powerful enough to defuse any situation, no matter how tense. Before her benevolence, the prejudice and racism of humans vanished like mist, as did the resentment of the dagons they were ruling over. The residents of Erisen trusted Remia not only to handle official disputes, but also to resolve conflicts between married couples and siblings and the like.
“I remember the townspeople saying they all wished they could keep one of you in their house.”
Indeed, everyone in Erisen wanted a Remia of their own to keep their house peaceful and in order.
“P-Please don’t bring that up, Hajime-san. It’s rather embarrassing...”
Blushing, Remia brought her hands up to her cheeks.
“Daddy! Daddy! Everyone also says Mommy’s unbeatable!”
“They say that about you too, you know. I guess together you make the unbeatable mother-daughter pair.”
People didn’t call Remia unbeatable because she was a master at fighting or anything. No, they called her unbeatable because no matter how hard they tried to win her affections, she shot them all down without a second thought. As for Myu, whenever someone tried to get close to her as a way of getting close to Remia and say things like, “Hey Myu-chan, call me daddy!” she’d just reply with “No way!” and run off with a smile. As a result, everyone was jealous both that Remia called Hajime darling, and that Myu called him daddy.
“Remia-san. You’re not actually interested in Hajime-kun, are you?” Kaori asked timidly. Yue and the others suddenly turned to Remia with newfound interest. The young dagon woman glanced down at her daughter.
“Ufufu,” was the only reply she gave.
“What’s that laugh supposed to mean, huh!?”
“You’ve got guts, Remia... It’s a shame I’ll have to bury you at the bottom of the ocean.”
Remia deflected Yue and Kaori’s threats with her usual gentle smile. And so, the barbeque-cum-adventure proceeded smoothly. A few hours and several warps later, the party had passed beyond the Sunken Ruins of Melusine, which they’d been using as a landmark, and were now hundreds of kilometers west of any known landmass. It was nearing midnight, and there was nothing in sight. Though everyone kept their eyes peeled from the comfort of the submarine deck, they didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Before long, Myu’s eyes started to droop. She’d had a hearty dinner, and the gentle lapping of the waves combined with the soothing sea breeze was the perfect combo to lull someone to sleep.
“Myu, shouldn’t you go to—”
“Don’t wanna.”
Despite her drowsiness, Myu was determined to unearth the truth behind the last legend. Unfortunately, her body was already at its limits. Hajime turned to Remia, at a loss for what to do. Remia gave Hajime a troubled smile and patted her daughter on the head.
“Myu?”
“No.”
Still, Myu refused to let herself sleep. She’d stay awake by sheer force of will if that was what it took.
“Mmm... Myu. I’m feeling sleepy too. Let’s sleep together.”
Thanks for the save, Yue! Hajime thought. Yue’s resting expression made her look drowsy, so she was a pro at acting tired. However—
“You can sleep if you’re tired! I’ll take care of the rest!” Myu replied with a smile.
“Hajime...”
“Sorry.”
It was actually kind of impressive that Myu could remember the lines Hajime had taught her even when she was too tired to stand straight. Unfortunately, Hajime couldn’t exactly praise her while Yue was glaring at him.
“Myu. I’ll stay up, so you go to bed. Don’t worry, if we find anything I promise we’ll wake you up right away.”
“That’s not good enough.”
Myu rejected Hajime’s attempt at a compromise. She was being awfully stubborn about this last legend, and Hajime couldn’t quite understand why.
“Why not?”
“Because if I sleep, morning will come.”
“......”
“Our last adventure’ll end.”
Myu sat down and hugged her knees, staring out at the moonlit ocean. She wasn’t excited about the adventure itself, she was just desperate to spend more time with everyone. When she said “our last adventure,” she didn’t mean the last legend of Erisen, she meant the last actual adventure she’d get to enjoy with Hajime and the others. Hajime wasn’t so dense that he couldn’t understand that. Besides, he’d spent the last few days agonizing over how to broach this exact topic. This whole time the party had been lounging around on the deck, Myu hadn’t left Hajime’s side. Even when he’d gone belowdecks to grab some tool or the other, she’d faithfully followed after him, like a baby chick following her mother. It was obvious what she was thinking.
“Myu...”
Hajime softly stroked Myu’s emerald-green hair. He wasn’t sure what to do, w
hether he should tell her they’d have to leave her behind now or save that discussion for later. He’d delayed his departure for quite a few days already because he was unwilling to part with Myu, but thinking back on it, he wondered if that hadn’t been making the inevitable harder on her. At the very least, he didn’t want their last memory together to be a depressing one. Hajime glanced over at Remia, and she gave him a quiet smile, as if to say she trusted whatever decision he made. Yue and the others seemed unsure of what to say too. Like Hajime, they’d spent the last few days trying to think of how to bring up the fact that they were leaving her behind.
“Myu,” Hajime said softly.
She twitched, sensing from Hajime’s tone that he was about to say something serious. She looked timidly up at him, her eyes welling up with tears. Myu was a clever girl; she knew what was coming. Hajime sat her on his lap and hugged her, then looked out at the ocean.
“It’s really pretty, isn’t it?”
“Mrr?”
“I mean the clouds and the sea. They look really pretty in the moonlight.”
“Yeah...”
The moon had reached its zenith, and its light refracted across the wispy clouds, causing them to shine with a mystical light. What few moonbeams shot through lit up the ocean, making it scintillate.
“I’ve never seen an ocean this pretty before.”
“Really?”
Myu looked up at Hajime in surprise. Since she’d been born and raised here, this was a familiar sight to Myu. But back on earth, only people who worked out on the ocean saw sights like this regularly. A regular high schooler like Hajime certainly hadn’t had many opportunities to take boats out to open sea.
“And it’s thanks to you that I can see it.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. We’re all here because you invited us on an adventure.”
“Ehehe...”
Myu blushed happily. But Hajime’s next words wiped the smile off her face.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest: Short Stories (Premium) Page 17