The bloodlust emanating from the wolves was sapping away her courage. She was shivering in fear, and it looked like she could pass out at any moment. The thought of just giving up and letting the whale take care of the rest crossed her mind. In fact, she was about to do just that when she suddenly realized something.
“Are you getting smaller, Mister Whale?”
It wasn’t just her imagination. Since Myu herself was small it was still big enough to cover her completely, but the whale was definitely shrinking.
“Is it because you’re protecting me?”
The whale didn’t reply. Myu still had no idea what it actually was. But she knew it was sacrificing itself to protect her. And it had the same warmth to it that the shadow and the voice had possessed. Myu gritted her teeth again and wiped her tears away. She rallied her courage and got to her feet, cutting through her fear.
“Mister Whale! I’m okay now!”
Her voice was trembling and her face was pale. She was clearly not okay. But the determination in Myu’s eyes was unwavering.
“I’ll keep running, so run with me!”
It felt as though the whale shined brighter for a moment. As if Myu’s bravery was giving it strength. She glanced toward a nearby alleyway. She planned to run into a narrow space and hide there to buy time until Hajime came to save her. Don’t give up, no matter what. That was the most important lesson Myu had learned from Hajime and the others. But before she could start running, the wolves surrounded her from all sides. As if mocking her new resolve. Even so, Myu didn’t falter. She sucked in a huge breath and shouted, “Do your worst!”
At the very least, she wouldn’t be beaten in spirit. A second later the pack of wolves leaped toward Myu.
“Oh my. You’re quite spirited, for one so young.”
But before they could reach her, they were washed away in a torrent of water.
“H-Hweh?”
Myu blinked in surprise. She watched as the current of water snaked around the wolves like a living creature, going into their mouths to destroy their bodies from the inside, crushing them through sheer water pressure, or cutting them to pieces with precise jets. Though Myu was inside this whirling current, none of the water even touched her. It moved protectively around her like a barrier. None of the wolves could get close to her no matter how hard they tried. The giant alpha wolf tried to use its blood wind to blow the water away, but its paltry wind was swallowed up by the giant press of water.
“I-Is that one of your friends, Mister Whale?”
The shimmering whale didn’t reply. But it separated itself from Myu, as if to say everything was going to be okay, and started shrinking faster. Once it was small enough to fit in her palm, it plopped onto her head and remained there. As Myu looked up in confusion, the same woman’s voice from earlier called out to her.
“My, you have some interesting friends, young lady.”
Her voice was gentle, far gentler than one would expect from someone who was engaged in a fierce battle with monsters. Myu looked up and saw—
“Mommy?”
An older dagon woman was sitting elegantly atop an arch of water. Her gentle demeanor and faint smile reminded Myu of Remia, which was why she’d reflexively said, “Mommy.” But this woman was wearing completely different clothes from Remia.
“M-Mommy? I wasn’t expecting anyone to call me that. Ah, hang on a moment.”
The older lady drew the cutlass at her waist and sliced the wolf charging at her in half. The giant wolf charged at the same time from behind, but the lady’s cutlass shattered into pieces and she swung it like a whip at the alpha wolf, using a small water current to keep the cutlass-pieces mostly linked. Anywhere her water whip struck, the wolf’s flesh was shaved away. The shards of cutlass inside the whip were vibrating at a high frequency, making it into a kind of chainsaw. The wounded alpha wolf tried to leap back and regroup, but the lady didn’t relent.
“Mutts that can’t follow orders need to be punished. Come, grunt like a pig for me.”
The lady started scoring the wolf with a consecutive series of whip lashes. With every strike, more of its flesh was shaved off, and it started whimpering pitifully. Funnily enough, its whines did sound like the grunting of a pig. This dagon lady might have had the same gentle look to her as Remia, but she was far more sadistic than Remia ever could be.
“Sorry about the interruption. At any rate, I’m not your Mommy.”
“Ah, yes. You’re not.”
The alpha wolf had been reduced to a pile of meat and bones. The few remaining minions it had left were about to be next. The dagon lady brandished her whip, making it clear she didn’t intend to let even a single one escape. The whole time she was goring the wolves, she maintained that gentle smile that was so reminiscent of Remia. Honestly, it was a little scary. Myu felt bad for ever thinking this woman could have been her mother.
“Umm... thank you for saving me. Who are you? I’m Myu!”
“My, what a polite young lady you are. Saying thank you and introducing yourself is an important part of proper manners.”
The older woman grinned. At the same time, she sent torrents of water rushing out in all directions to clean up the blood, guts, and corpses sprawled around the square. Once that was done, she moved her arch into the barrier that was protecting Myu.
“It’s nice to meet you, fellow dagon girl. I am—”
The water barrier burst apart into a million tiny droplets that glittered like a kaleidoscope. The woman paused for dramatic effect, then finished with a dazzling smile, “Meiru. Captain of the Melusine pirate crew.”
This was a meeting that shouldn’t have been physically possible. But somehow, the light whale had traveled across time to unite Myu with the “other strong child of the sea,” Meiru Melusine. A wielder of ancient magic and the ruler of the western seas. In order to rescue Myu, it had guided the two dagons to each other.
Myu wanted to ask if this really was all the whale’s doing, but the whale was sitting unresponsive atop her head. It seemed exhausted. Incidentally, Myu had been constantly pestering Hajime to tell stories of his adventures, so she had heard the name Meiru before.
“Mrr? Meiru? Meiru Melusine? Mrrr?”
Myu cocked her head, trying to remember why that name sounded so familiar. Before she could finish searching her memories though, Meiru squatted down in front of her and asked, “So, Myu-chan. Where exactly is this place? The truth is, I’m a little lost.”
Meiru furrowed her eyebrows. She explained that she’d been patrolling the waters around Andika, which was a city built on boats, with some friends of hers when suddenly a thick fog had started swirling around them. After that she’d found herself here, separated from all her friends. In other words, the exact same situation Myu and the others had encountered.
Once Meiru finished her explanation, Myu looked up and said brightly, “Meiru-oneechan, I’m lost, too!”
“You don’t live here?”
“I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to live here, Meiru-oneechan.”
“I-I suppose that’s true... Hm? Come to think of it, you resemble Diene quite a bit... Oh, Diene is my little sister. Being lectured on common sense by someone who looks just like my sister hurts a little, actually.”
Meiru’s shoulders slumped and Myu thought to herself, Onee-chan’s amazing, but she’s also kind of useless.
“Umm, so why are you here then, Myu-chan?”
Meiru cleared her throat and quickly changed the topic. Just as Myu opened her mouth to answer, the sounds of fighting she heard earlier returned. They were much closer this time, and Myu could see bolts of lightning arcing into the sky a few blocks away. A second later the air around the buildings a short distance away shimmered, then they were all blasted into bits.
“Myu-chan, don’t leave my side.”
“O-Okay!”
Myu huddled in Meiru’s shadow. For some reason, she found Meiru’s presence to be extremely reassuring. Even though they’d just met, and Meir
u could use magic even though she was a dagon, and she called herself a captain of a pirate crew, Myu wasn’t scared of her at all. Her intuition told her Meiru was a good person. She felt the same way about Meiru that she did about the whale resting atop her head.
As for what Meiru was thinking of Myu, well—
Sh-She’s so cute! She’s friendly, honest, and she’s got a mascot-type thing on her head! In fact, she might even be as cute as Diene! This little girl’s an angel! Her thoughts were quite impure. But then Meiru was the same woman who’d planned to take over an entire city for her sister’s sake. It was hardly surprising that she’d be overjoyed when the dagon girl she just saved started clinging to her.
Ironically, Myu had gotten closer to knocking Meiru out with happiness than any of her enemies ever had with violence. Fortunately, it didn’t look like Meiru would need to fight right now anyway.
A few more buildings were blasted apart, and a horde of giant creature the size of horse carts flew into the square. There were fourteen of them in total, and they looked like giant frogs. Their skin was mottled black and green, and they looked absolutely disgusting. Worse, their tongues were forked, with the forked ends looking strangely like human hands, and the mottled patterns on their skin looked like screaming human faces. Just looking at them gave Myu goosebumps, that was how creepy they were. She reflexively clung to Meiru’s thigh for comfort. It was a wonder she managed to keep herself from screaming.
Meiru opened her mouth to say something reassuring, but before she could, a person walked out of the ruins of the destroyed buildings.
“How dare you launch your disgusting spit at the beautiful, amazing Miledi-chan’s face!? There’s so much of it, too! I’m gonna crush you!”
And crush the frogs she did. Black spheres appeared above their heads, flattening them into the ground. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty who’d appeared into the square wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. Though she’d won, there were tears in her eyes. She turned around and wailed, “O-kun! I’ve been sullied!” She leaped toward the bespectacled young man who’d suddenly climbed up the pile of rubble.
“Uwaaah! Stop Miledi, you’re gonna get me all slimy!”
The youth dodged out of the way, casing Miledi to faceplant into a wall of rubble.
“Hey, Oscar... You’re supposed to do the nice thing and hug me.”
Miledi pulled her head out of the rubble and glared at the young man— Oscar.
“Oscar, that one was definitely your bad,” said a tall, taciturn man who walked up behind Oscar.
“I knew I could count on you, Nacchan! Tell that four-eyed bastard off!”
Miledi circled around behind the tall man—Naiz—and tried to push him into Oscar. However, her hands struck only empty air as Naiz adroitly dodged out of the way.
“Oi, Naiz... Why’re you avoiding me?”
“Because you’re covered in slime.”
“Damn you booooooooooth!” Miledi screamed in rage.
Myu watched from a distance as Miledi chased after Oscar and Naiz, determined to share the pain of being slimed with them.
“Pirates are weird people,” she remarked.
“I... suppose that’s technically true... But please don’t assume those three are what all pirates are like.”
In the first place, Miledi and co. weren’t even pirates. But rather than explain that, Meiru just called forth a stream of water to wash Miledi off. It was only after her torrent swallowed Miledi whole that Oscar and the others realized Meiru was here. Glad to finally be reunited, the three of them ran toward their dagon comrade.
“Meru-nee! I’m so glad you’re sa— Now just one minuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute! We’ve been here five minutes and you’re already kidnapping little girls!?”
“Torrential Burst.”
Miledi was once again swallowed whole by a tide of water and spun around over and over. When Meiru finally spat her out, she didn’t bother drying her this time, leaving her a sopping mess on the floor.
“U-Umm... are you okay?”
Myu poked her head out from behind Meiru and gave poor Miledi a sympathetic look.
“Y-You’re so kind... What an angel!”
“You can just ignore Miledi... Anyway, I’m glad you’re alright, Meiru. Also, who’s that girl?”
“There seems to be some kind of strange creature... That is a creature, right? The thing resting on her head, I mean.”
“Her name’s Myu-chan. Apparently, she’s lost just like us. Also, she’s my little sister now.”
Miledi and Myu both shouted, “What!?” at the same time. Myu hadn’t expected Meiru to suddenly adopt her as her little sister. Myu’s eyes met Miledi’s, who was also something like a little sister to Meiru. The two of them nodded at each other in sympathy. Oscar heaved an exasperated sigh, then knelt down in front of Myu.
“It’s nice to meet you, Myu-chan. I’m Oscar Orcus. Can we ask you a few things?”
Myu hesitated before replying. Something about Oscar’s name struck a chord within her memories.
“Oscar-oniisan... Orcus? Mrr? Isn’t that...”
“And I’m Naiz.”
“Naiz...oniisan.”
The final key Myu needed to link her memories together was Miledi’s self-introduction. The leader of the Liberators jumped to her feet, lifted one leg, put her left hand on her hips, and made a peace sign with her right.
“And I’m the super pretty genius mage, Miledi Reisen!”
She finished her introduction with a wink. Suddenly, Myu’s eyes widened in recognition.
Miledi’s over-the-top actions had helped her recall all the stories about the labyrinths Hajime had told her. She pointed at Miledi and said triumphantly, “The world’s most annoying person!”
“Bwagh!?”
Being told that with such an innocent smile made the genius mage Miledi drop to her knees. Meanwhile, Oscar and the others burst out laughing. They turned away from Miledi, laughing uproariously.
Miledi glared at her comrades, but they didn’t stop. Her eyes twitching, she turned back to Myu and said, “Wh-What a strange thing to say. Have we met before, Myu-chan?”
“Nope! I’ve just heard stories about you!”
“I-I see. And who did you hear them from? I need to know who’s been telling young children lies about me.”
“Daddy!”
“Y-Your father?”
“Yep! Daddy said, ‘No one else in existence is as annoying as Miledi Reisen! If there was a contest for most annoying person in the world, she’d win it every single time!’”
“Bwahaha!”
“Hey, stop laughing O-kun, Nacchan, Meru-nee!”
“A-Also...”
“There’s more!? Does your daddy really hate me that—”
“He said, ‘I’ll never forgive that bitch for flushing us down a toilet.’”
“Not only does he hate me, but he also holds a grudge!? And what do you mean, flushing you down a toilet!?”
Suddenly, the laughter stopped. Oscar and the others gave Miledi cold stares. I can’t believe you’re the kind of person to flush little girls’ dads down the toilet, Miledi... their expressions all seemed to be saying.
“I-It’s not true! This has to be a misunderstanding! I’ve never flushed anyone down the toilet in my life! How would you even do that!?”
Who on earth is this kid’s dad!? Have we really never met before!? Miledi thought to herself. Meanwhile, Myu was happily rattling off all the stories that popped into her head. Her eyes glittered with excitement as she talked. She was actually meeting the people she’d heard about in Hajime’s tales!
“Oh, and you must be ‘Oscar the maid-lover,’ right, Onii-san?”
“Wha—?”
How do you know that!? Oscar thought, his glasses slipping off his face.
Before he could recover, Myu turned to Meiru and said, “Oh, and you must be the Meiru Melusine that Daddy said was a super sadist and really sloppy with housework! He told me never to become a dagon
like you!”
“Huh!? I think I need to have a nice, looong talk with your daddy, Myu-chan.”
Meiru’s veins bulged with barely suppressed rage. I’ll show you who’s a sadist!
“And you, Onii-san...”
“Hrm? Wh-What about me?” Naiz asked hesitantly.
He’d hidden away from the world for decades, so he was pretty sure Myu’s father couldn’t possibly know anything about him, but he was still worried.
“You must be Naiz Gruen! Daddy said you were a lot better than the other three, and that you probably had a really hard time dealing with all of them!”
“Y-You know about the Gruen name?” Naiz was shocked, but for completely different reasons than the other three. Gruen was the name of the village Naiz was born in. The village he’d destroyed with his own two hands. The only living people who should have known that name were his three comrades.
It was now that Miledi and the others were beginning to realize there was definitely something strange about Myu. At the same time, Myu was beginning to realize this situation didn’t make sense, either. The Liberators who existed only in stories shouldn’t be standing right in front of her. But here they were, in the flesh.
Are they fake? Other people pretending to be them? But they look and sound exactly like Daddy said they did... and he said no one else knows about the Liberators...
Confused, Myu took an involuntary step backward.
Miledi stepped forward, her expression serious. But before she could say anything, Myu asked, “Why are you alive?”
“Bwagh!?”
Miledi crumpled to the ground again. She thought Myu was implying something like, “Aren’t you embarrassed to still be alive after all the horrible things you’ve done?”
“I-I’m sorry for living,” Miledi muttered despondently, kneeling on all fours.
“Whoa, are all dagons super sadists or something?”
“So this pure-looking child is going to end up like Meiru...”
“What exactly is that supposed to mean, Naiz-kun? And Oscar-kun, say that again and I’ll smash your glasses.”
Watching this exchange Myu realized what she said had somehow hurt Miledi. She hurriedly tried to resolve the misunderstanding, but Oscar said, “Nah, just leave her alone. More importantly, we need to know what you know.”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest: Short Stories (Premium) Page 20