Arifureta Shokugyou Chapter 262

*KUEEEEEE*, a high pitched shriek resounded.

Right after that, a squall that struck down from the sky rolled up cloud of dust and blocked the field of vision. Small pebbles of sand attacked the eyeball which would force anyone to narrow their eyes while covering their face with their arm.

As though waiting for that opening, rain poured down by mixing in among the squall.

However, it wasn't a rain of water. It was a rain that was made from stone needles. The stone needles with total length of around 15 centimeter approached the ground looking really like a heavy rain.

――Coatrice's stone needle

It was the characteristic magic that was fired by a huge black eagle monster, Coatrice. If someone got hit even by a single needle, they would be petrified in the blink of eye. And such needle was fired in a wide area by several hundred needles simultaneously, while the target's sight was blocked by the squall and cloud of dust.

「――"Wind Wall"」

A magic trigger with the chanting abbreviated was whispered with a small voice. Wind that whirled with the caster as the center blew away the cloud of dust.

What appeared was a young man. He had silky brown hair and well-featured face. His body was lean and tight despite being slender and tall. Wearing simple protectors that only protected his body's vital spots, his hands were holding a western sword that was shining faintly in a low stance.

That young man――Amanogawa Kouki didn't even look nervous facing the squall of stone needles, he calmly lifted the holy sword above his head and began rotating the sword fast with only the motion of his wrist.

The holy sword that was starting to rotate like a pinwheel in an instant looked like a round shield in addition with the radiance it was clad with.

Right after that, stone needles showered down on the round shield of holy sword. But, it seemed the stone needles couldn't slip through that shield because of its great momentum, the stone needles were easily repelled and scattered to the surrounding, piercing the ground around.

*KUEEEEE*, a shriek that was unpleasant to the ear resounded once more. It seemed the monster lost its temper from witnessing its characteristic magic gotten scattered.

The coatrice folded its wings that produced squall physically, and then its huge body rapidly swooped down.

「tsk――"Light Explosion"!」

Light exploded. Flash gushed out from the holy sword round shield like an explosion, and the shockwave blew away the remaining stone needles.

The stone needles stabbed the surrounding like thorns. If he moved recklessly to dodge the coatrice, he might get hit with petrification from below. Kouki picked this forceful option because of that.

Using "Ground Shrinker" skill, Kouki leaped out to the air in one go.

The coatric put forward the sharp claws at its legs.

「――"Light Severance"-」

Just before both sides crossed each other, Kouki created a simple barrier in midair using light element elementary magic. Using that barrier as a foothold, he changed his trajectory midair. At the same time, he swung his holy sword in a circle arc.

Coatrice and Kouki crossed over each other midair.

The coatrice charged toward the ground without decelerating at all. Its neck plopped off and flew like a joke, and its flesh made a graphic sound with its impact from crashing on the ground.

Kouki twirled midair while rotating his body to fix his stance, and then he landed on the ground. Just in case, he confirmed that there was no stone needle on the ground, but the needles were already crumbling as though weathering from age, so there would be no problem even if he landed on a stone needle.

「……」

Kouki confirmed the crumbling of the stone needles and the death of the coatrice, and then he let out a small exhalation to unravel his tension. At the same time, he held down something that was rising up inside.

His plexion didn't change at all. The change of his physical condition didn't show up outside. Even that condition that was being typical post-battle was already something he was used to.

(Not just getting used to it, I have to overe it though……)

Kouki talked to himself inside his heart while using his spirit to push back the breakfast inside his stomach that was gradually rising up as though to say 「You calling?」. He unconsciously smiled bitterly at himself that was like that.

「What are you doing grinning like that, it's disgusting.」

「Nnguh!?」

The caustic words that stabbed at him like a throwing javelin caused the breakfast to rise up as though to say 「As I thought you are calling aren't you?」. Using spirit! He pushed it back!

The one who threw the javelin of words from the nearby rocky area was a female knight clad in Hairihi kingdom knight order's equipment. She looked good looking, and she could be seen like a noble's daughter if she shut up and wore a dress.

In fact, the girl was from the background of a noble family though……

Anyway, while Kouki was fighting the coatrice, the girl was hiding in the cover of rocky area and didn't e out at all. She didn't look like she was feeling bad at all about that, far from that, when the battle was over she came out with a violence of verbally attacking her ally while approaching near with a brisk pace.

「Nn, nnh. Err, isn't it going too far calling me disgusting?」

「A man grinning while standing in front of a corpse with its head and body separated from each other, at a scene that is drenched with blood, how could I not call him disgusting? My apologize, I cannot really follow hero-sama's sensitivity.」

「Ah, yea, sorry.」

Seeing the female knight backing away like in a rewind toward the nearby rocky area while her whole body was radiating aura 「It's creepy」, it caused Kouki to consent inside his heart 「Well certainly!」 in desperation while his mouth was apologizing.

「So, hero-sama. We more or less finished exterminating the monster in the request…….are we going back to the town? Or else, will you continue hunting like usual?」

The female knight asked while looking up to the sky. The sun hadn't even reached the zenith yet. This was a time period that was just right if they were going to go back to town to take lunch and reported to the guild about the request's pletion.

Normally anyone would do that, but from how the female knight was asking like that instead, it could be imagined that usually Kouki wouldn't return to town in this case.

「The eyewitness report about the coatrice and also the extermination request we received said that there is only one of it but……there was also other eyewitness report of other monster. The monsters of 【Duvune Precincts】 are troublesome. And this place is also nearby Raisen grand canyon, there are a lot of hiding places here. We have time, so I'm thinking of investigating further.」

「……So it's like that.」

The female knight was turning a vaguely exasperated gaze at Kouki and she let out a small sigh.

Kouki and others had went back to earth and returned to school.

But, Kouki who was tormented by his sin persuaded his family and childhood friends and he dropped out of school by his own choice. He immediately crossed over to Tortus, and like this he moved around exterminating monsters as an adventurer to atone for his sin.

At the legendary decisive battle, the monster swarm that overflowed from 【Holy Precincts】 wasn't pletely annihilated. Quite a number of them succeeded in escaping. The monsters of 【Holy Precincts】 were powerful. Every last one of them possessed the strength of the monster at the deep part of Orcus great labyrinth.

For the adventurers of this world, these monsters were severe if they weren't adventurer of "Gold" class.

It was for that reason that Kouki crossed over world without waiting to graduate from high school, and here he accepted monster extermination request especially against monsters from 【Holy Precincts】. He asked for cooperation from Liliana, he also appealed to all the branch heads of the adventurer guild, and like this time he was given the preference to receive information and request about such thing.

He was carrying on request with the highest degree of danger by his own wish. It was also wasn't rare for him to have consecutive battle every day. Indeed, there was no doubt that there would be enormous damage is these monsters were left alone, and rapid disposal of them was necessary and also something to be thankful for.

However, Liliana and some others were worried that if Kouki kept being reckless like this then it might brought fatal danger to him someday, they advised him to care for himself a bit more but……

At present, there wasn't any sign that Kouki's action pace would drop. This time too, Kouki seemed to be planning to search for monsters outside of the request and fought them just like usual.

(I wish he will also be considerate about me who is being dispatched as his watcher and also supporter……)

Altough fighting side-by-side with Kouki wasn't included in the range of the female knight's duty, just watching a battle against the monsters of 【Holy Precincts】 was nerve wracking.

At the battle against coatrice just now, it would be the end for the female knight just by getting grazed by the stone needle. Kouki and others of the another world group was in different level when it came to resistance against magic. Most likely, she would be pletely petrified in a matter of seconds if she got hit.

Before this too, she felt uneasy only hiding in the cover of a rocky area, so she was hiding herself by creating a trench with godspeed hole digging.

「Aaa, I want to meet Onee-sama……」

「Hm~m, the periodic gate opening is still quite far away I think……」

The female knight whispered to herself while following behind the walking Kouki. Kouki smiled wryly while recalling the onee-sama that this female knight greatly respected, or rather she greatly loved to the degree that might be a bit too extreme――Yaegashi Shizuku.

「I know that already. Aa, I hate my own powerlessness. I thought that trivial thing like the world can be crossed using spirit and guts if it's for onee-sama's sake, but, nugugu」

「If the world can be crossed like that, just what is the meaning of Nagumo's hardships then.」

Kouki's wry smile deepened.

This female knight. Originally she was a royal guard that was attached to Liliana, a direct subordinate of the formerly royal guard mander and the present kingdom's knight order leader, Kuzeri Rail. But, why then she was now acpanying Kouki? If such question was asked――the short answer was, she was demoted.

She was one of the stepsister group that greatly loved Shizuku, she caused troubles over and over again because of her overflowing onee-sama love, and she turned out from royal guard knight -> normal knight directly under the leader -> normal knight -> this girl is no good already.

At the legendary decisive battle, Kouki was at the enemy side. That fact was a mon knowledge also because of Kouki's own declaration.

And so, no matter even if it was for hunting the monsters of 【Holy Precincts】, naturally there was also opinions that were uneasy of leaving Kouki unregulated.

Although Liliana declared that such thing was unneeded but……Kuzeri consulted to Kouki with an exhausted expression 「That girl, I'm thinking of firing her」, that being the case in order to give peace to the heart of the people who was yelling their anxiety, let's attach a knight as a watcher, let's make it this girl! That was how it ended up.

「I wish that you won't speak of the name of that son of a bitch.」

「You will meet another painful experience if you keep saying such thing you know?」

「You mean, like hero-sama who got Shizuku-oneesama taken from him so thoroughly?」

「Gahah!?」

Kouki pressed his hand on his chest and fell down. He got on all fours with his head hanging down. It was a terrific counter.

「Good grief, putting aside Kaori-sama, I wished that you would at least protect Shizuku-oneesama to the death. Even I will be able to snatch away onee-sama if it's only from hero-sama……」

「Uguh」

「Rather than hero-sama, you are the loser-sama. You are chicken-sama!」

「Kafuh!?」

「Hey hey, how does it feel to be treated as "little brother" by a girl the same age with you? How does it feel? Hey hey」

「Uu, uuuuu」

The female knight poked repeatedly with the sheath of her knight sword at the crouching Kouki. She was venting her anger with her all, filled with the grief and lamentation toward the present situation where she couldn't even scratch that son of a bitch demon king.

But, it was at that time that a strong presence was transmitted from the direction of 【Raisen Grand Canyon】.

「……Looks like, I have a good luck today.」

Kouki stood up so easily it was unthinkable that he was getting so grandly humiliated until just now.

And then, he immediately walked forward while urging the female knight to follow with his gaze.

The female knight followed in a hurry. Kouki suddenly turned his face toward such her.

「Aah, that's right. I had asked this several times already but……can you stop with the "hero-sama"?」

「……」

Kouki said that with a small smile casually. The female knight spontaneously turned silent, and after thinking for a while,

「Then, I'll call you chicken-sama.」

「Can't you just call me Kouki normally!?」

Kouki spontaneously tsukkomi-ed. As expected it seemed he couldn't turn a blind eye at that.

The female knight slightly backed away and made a shuddering expression while she hugged her breast.

「Asking me so we can call each other by name……please stop, I'll get pregnant.」

「You won't! What are you saying so suddenly!?」

「It's Onee-sama's warning. I received that warning when I went to report to her that I am appointed with this duty. First he would create familiarity by calling each other by name, after that he would nonchalantly increase the body touch rate, for some reason some incident would occur and he would resolve it, and in the end he would smile pleasantly with sparkling teeth. That is that guy's modus operandi you know, be careful okay, onee-sama said to me.」

「SHIZUKUUUUUU-」

The tsukkomi of Kouki's heart burst out. The roar of monsters echoed from afar as though hailing in concert with that.

「Well, it's impossible for me to be infatuated to other person that is not onee-sama. Kouki-sama, I'm really sorry but, I hope you will give this up.」

「Why is it like I was confessing and then get rejected……wait, this is bad! Isn't this an aurora dragon!?」

Kouki felt exhausted, but right after that he saw the monster that showed up and he raised his voice in panic. The monster that flew out from 【Raisen Grand Canyon】was the dragon shaped monster that fired breath of extreme light that was once called as grey dragon. The white dragon had disappeared and right now they were called as dragon of extreme light.

Their original specs were high already, but now they were the 【Holy Precincts】 version and their level had been increased. It was a formidable enemy that wasn't really a laughing matter for adventurer.

Kouki gritted his teeth at the appearance of a monster that wasn't in the report while he turned his gaze behind him in order to give instruction so the female knight would retreat.

「Quick, get awa――wait, fast!? No, that's fine though!」

At that time the female knight had just leaped into the trench that she dug before this. It was a wonderful escape.

Kouki's expression was plicated feeling somehow not satisfied, but the next moment he twitched due to the light shining above and he turned around. And then,

「Uu, UOOOOOOH」

He faced the extreme light that was released at the same time and raised a war cry in desperation.

The female knight who was only showing out her face a tiny bit from the trench to observe such Kouki was,

(……Hmm. Even though he actually didn't mind even when he was ridiculed about his relationship with Shizuku-sama, but he cannot endure getting called "hero-sama". What a difficult person.)

Kouki's act before this. Despite his big reaction, but he easily returned to reality. From that it could be understood that he had already came to a clean decision about his relationship with Shizuku. Rather, he was accepting with the relationship where the two of them were like family of older sister and younger brother and felt satisfied with it.

But, in regard of getting called "hero-sama