Arifureta After III Brutal Hero Shia Arc Fly Until The Moon-! Desuu!
.
The silence was deafening. It was like the time had stopped.
「Err……I don’t wanna do it though.」
She made doubly sure! It was important so she said it twice!
The place finally turned noisy because of Shia’s words.
Looking closer, this room had beautiful cylinder shape, the width was around the same with gymnasium in general, and inside it there were about thirty people.
Complicated geometrical pattern was carved under Shia’s feet. There were the people who were calling out to her just now surrounding the pattern, and further around them there were people wearing robe or armor surrounding them. Although, there was just one person who seemed to be out of place due to the maid uniform that she was wearing……
Anyway, their expressions were all similarly distorted with bewilderment, sorrow, and also indignation.
Among them, a young man who seemed to recover from the unrest earlier than others took a step forward.
It was the silver haired, blue eyed, intellectual looking glasses young man who was called Louis just now.
「Hero-sama. I am the chief spirit priest of Balted Kingdom’s royal court――Louis Lektor. I am the one who summoned you here.」
Louis’s robe swayed gently while he kneeled on one knee with a courteous manner. He then silently bowed his head.
「Your anger is only natural. My deepest apologies. But, I beg you, please understand that we don’t have any other way. We don’t have the slightest intention to be rude. If we have a method to contact you beforehand then we would dispatch a messenger first to ask for your consent――」
「Err, I’m not angry you know?」
「Eh?」
The intellectual looking young man slipped out a stupid voice that didn’t suit his face. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it felt like his glasses also slipped down slightly.
「Bu, but, just now, you said that you refuse to come to our aid……」
Didn’t that mean that she was feeling offended because she suddenly got summoned here without any explanation whatsoever beforehand? Louis asked that, but Shia spoke with a troubled look while tapping Vire Drucken on her shoulder.
「Well, certainly I’m thinking that this is really troublesome, but I’m not thinking that you all are rude or anything. If what you are saying about the danger to the world is real and you are grasping at straw as your last hope, that’s, it’s only natural for someone in your place to do whatever you can. ……I have memory doing the same thing myself, so it will become a boomerang if I get angry here.」
「I, I see.」
What came to mind was her figure in the past clinging on someone else with all her strength without any reservation at all. Shia’s gaze became slightly distant.
「While it was an act that I did myself, the way I clung on someone else in the past was really something. I got elbowed on the stomach, showered with electricity, got kicked, and in the end I was sent flying into a swarm of magic beast, even so I believed without a doubt that person surely would help me!」
「……In other words, you are saying that if I get elbowed, electrified, kicked, and in the end get send flying into a swarm of magic beast……is that, some type of monster? If I get send flying into a swarm of them, you will help……」
The intellectual type handsome guy Louis-san was trembling weakly while his face was turning pale. He was oozing out cold sweat like waterfall.
The expression of the golden haired high-spirited young man called Eric shuddered as though to say 「Are you……a demon」, the frivolous green haired youth Phil said 「I, is the girl from another world all like this」 with his expression twitching greatly, the black haired and taciturn young man Greg was closing his eyes while praying for Louis’s happiness in the next world.
And then, the other people were also saying 「Te, terrifying……」 while looking at Shia like they were looking at a demon. They were backing away.
「No no no! That’s not it! I’m just recounting my experience! A long time ago I too was asking for help and the other party did that to me, that’s all I’m saying!」
「That in itself, I think that person is a savage or something……doing something like that to a beautiful girl asking for help is……」
「Tha, that is, well, it’s……」
Her beloved person was called a savage but, Shia-chan, she was unable to object.
Thinking back, certainly she couldn’t help but thinking 「What a thing that was done to me at that time……」.
Shia got a faraway look once more while mumbling 「Come to think of it, even Tio-san suddenly got pile bunkered in her ass……Yue-san also got her scalp shaved……Hajime-san is merciless even toward girl isn’t he……」.
There, Eric cleared his throat and stood beside Louis.
「I am Eric Luxeed Balted. The king of Balted Kingdom. Let me ask you. What do you wish for? You who said that you understand our feeling stated that you refused to aid us, then you must mean that we need to compensate you! What do you wish from us who are facing our destruction!?」
It appeared that Eric who resembled a golden lion was a young king of a country.
From the start he seemed to be strangely tense against Shia. From that it seemed that the opinion of the summoner side wasn’t united.
Shia didn’t really understand why the king was opposing the hero summoning but……
In any case, if the summoning was still carried out despite the king’s opposition, the only possible hypothesis was that most of his subordinates were at the agreeing side.
In other words, it was a situation so pressing that they couldn’t help but doing this even despite the king’s protest.
Shia formed that conjecture while answering frankly.
「I don’t want anything.」
「Wha, what did you say?」
Eric spontaneously revealed his bewilderment.
「Ah, if I’m forced to say, I want to be returned home but……」
Shia said that as though she had just remembered it. Louis fixed the position of his glasses while speaking with a grave expression in respond.
「……My apologies. We are only able to reconstruct the summoning formula from the old literature. The return method is……」
Louis answered while getting cold sweat. But Shia only shrugged her shoulders casually. ‘It’s the golden pattern isn’t it!’ She said.
Eric questioned her once more while frowning.
「If you say that you don’t even have anything you want then, why……in the literature, it’s said that the hero will lend their strength on their own will……」
「I’ve never proclaimed myself as a hero. Besides, I don’t know what do you want me to do but, something like saving the world is a serious affair. Wouldn’t it be accompanied by great danger? Furthermore it should be at the level that is beyond all of you.」
「What? In other words, you are saying that you are scared?」
‘Getting cold feet even before hearing the full story……’, Eric questioned somewhat provocatively and also with exasperation coloring his expression, in respond Shia――
「Yes! Exactly!」
「Wha-」
She immediately answered bluntly without any hesitation.
Eric and everyone else lost their words. Shia smiled wryly toward them while saying.
「Now see here, even I have important people you know?」
「Important, people?」
Correct, she had a family. An important family of important people who treasured Shia above all else.
「My life, it doesn’t belong to me alone.」
「……」
Her life that was treasured by them, there was no way that she herself could treat it so casually. An act that easily put her life at stake was like she herself was treating the family that was treasuring her irresponsibly.
「That’s why, first I have to prioritize myself above everything else. I cannot risk my life for the sake of a world and people that I don’t even really know. Of course, if there is someone asking for help and the situation isn’t that dangerous, I will lend them a helping hand but……in a situation where there isn’t even a way to return back, in another world where I don’t know what could be here, I have to protect my own life above everything else.」
For the sake of her family. For the sake of her beloved people. For the sake of the people who loved her.
That was why,
「I’m sorry. I’m going to abandon all of you to protect myself!」
No one ever heard an abandoning statement this decisively. They could only become speechless.
If it was just a mere fright or self-protection that came from calculation, a ground for negotiation would still exist no matter how difficult it was.
They had done their best to prepare the material for such negotiation beforehand.
However, for someone to be this driven for their own protection so wholeheartedly and straightforwardly……
「Fufufu……you are a kind person.」
A tiny laugh and voice resounded inside the dead silent room. It was Louis.
He stood and walked in front of Shia. Shia went 「Heh?」 and tilted her head.
「Just now, you said that you are going to abandon us but……」
Shia frowned in displeasure, wondering if this person was the occasional oblivious person who interpreted everything to fit their own convenience.
However, Louis kept gazing gently at Shia while even his comrades were looking at him strangely.
「For you who spoke that you will fully focus on your own protection, the proclamation just now is a poor move isn’t it? The best way for you would be to pretend that you are cooperating with us.」
It was Shia herself who said that she had no one and nowhere to depend on in this other world. In that case, then certainly that would be the best way for her in order to secure the basic necessities for herself.
Eric and others gasped and looked at Shia after hearing that.
「And yet, you made your declaration even while still knowing nothing of the situation. That is……your sincerity isn’t it?」
She didn’t want to trick them and imprudently give them hope.
That was why, first she conveyed her own will while knowing that it was a poor move.
While being aware of the possibility of getting thrown out into the world where she had no one to depend on.
「……That’s because a promise that is made has to be kept. My dignity, and my family’s dignity is on the line.」
Just like he who responded to Shia’s request for help at that time. Even when the elders offered a new and better offer which made Shia and Hauria clan became unnecessary, her most beloved person made his declaration without any hesitation of making a country into his enemy, just because of the reason “because that’s the promise”.
That was an important rule for the powerful, in order to not fall into heresy even if they were called a monster.
Shia averted her gaze awkwardly. Her gesture and words made Eric and others blinked with surprise. Her rabbit ears were swaying up and down *funyon funyon*. Several people blushed seeing Shia like that.
Louis’s expression became even more gentle and he turned his gaze toward Eric.
「Your majesty. In any case, let’s return to the palace. It’s the fact that we are calling hero-dono here for our own convenience. We won’t be able to talk about the matter ahead without first proving our sincerity to hero-dono.」
「Nuh…….got it.」
Eric looked reluctant, but looking at the way he was looking at Shia, it seemed that his severity toward Shia had lessened compared to before.
Certainly they were too impatient in their talk. First they should move to a place where they could calm down. Eric who was convinced like that offered his hand in order to welcome Shia to the palace――
At that time,
「For now, I’ll show you to the palace. You should put down that dangerous weapon already――」
「!? This is too sudden!」
Suddenly Shia’s rabbit ears stood straight, then right away with a terrific speed Shia rushed toward Erik who was offering his hand to her.
The sudden action of the girl from another world who was holding a gigantic war hammer was responded by the royal guard captain Greg who was showing an amazing reaction speed.
He grasped Eric’s collar and switched their position so that he was between Eric and Shia.
But, Shia didn’t pause in her charge. Her palm pressed on Greg’s chest and,
「Nuguh!?」
「Please stand back!」
With the overwhelming arm strength that was unthinkable coming from the slender girl, Eric wasn’t even allowed to brace himself and he was sent flying backward.
‘Is the hero rampaging!? Is she rampaging because she think that she is going to be dragged to the palace!?’ The knights and mages were bewildered while thinking that. It happened at that instant.
Thunderous sound.
Dazzling flash.
The ceiling was annihilated, furthermore a light pillar pierced into the room.
The spot where Shia and Eric were at just a moment ago was completely swallowed by the gigantic light pillar along with the surrounding. The impact sent the people around flying.
(Electricity! It’s an extra large lightning attack!)
Shia immediately deflected the shockwave that was assaulting her with a single wave of Vire Drucken while analyzing what happened in her mind.
It was just as she analyzed, the light pillar was emitting electrifying sparks which showed that it was a lightning strike.
Although, seeing how it was continuing to pour down without pause and the impact zone that was too accurate, it was impossible that this was a natural phenomenon.
As though to prove that, Louis who was similarly blocking the impact like Shia using some kind of method yelled with a pained voice.
「Celestial people!? So our action is noticed!」
The lightning was getting thinner. But they couldn’t sigh in relieve yet.
Because Shia’s excellent senses detected great torrent of power converging in the sky.
But, Eric yelled fearfully before she could say anything about it.
「Everyone, forms formation!! Something is coming!! Louis-, protect the hero!」