Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

A figure lazed in the center of a pure white room.

One could tell from a glance that there was something odd about them. For one thing, they were wearing a bizarre mask with a smiley-face drawn on its cover. For another, the arms and legs poking out of their milky-white robe, while artfully crafted, were clearly made out of metal.

It was a golem that was lying there in the center of the room.

“Ugh, I finally managed to finish my repairs. Damn that little boy. How dare he leave some explosives there at the end!” The voice that spoke sounded youthful and feminine. Its owner, the golem lying in the center of the room, was Miledi Reisen. She was the creator of the Reisen Gorge, one of the Seven Great Labyrinths, and a Liberator.

She stared up at the sky and screamed.

“The next time I see him, I’ll teach that brat a lesson!” She looked like a child throwing a tantrum, thrashing about on the floor.

Her robe flapped wildly around her, and her mask’s expression morphed.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that her robe was charred at the edges and covered in soot. There was a small crack in her mask as well.

Hajime was the cause of her current distress, and the reason she was in such a sorry state. He was the first to have cleared the labyrinth she’d created. And the first thing he’d done after defeating her was to demand she give him all of her possessions.

She’d planned on giving him everything but the items she absolutely needed to maintain the labyrinth, but he’d insisted on taking even those.

He was no conqueror, just a thief. No good person would ever demand that a labyrinth master hand over all her possessions. That was the act of a common brigand.

Naturally, Miledi had refused. Half in jest, she’d tested out her toilet shortcut and flushed them out of her labyrinth. However, just before they’d been washed away, the boy had thrown some grenades her way as a final parting gift.

His grenades had blown up not just the deepest chamber in the labyrinth, but a good portion of her private resting quarters as well. In tears, Miledi had set about the task of repairing her precious labyrinth. She’d only just finished.

She cursed at Hajime for a while longer, complaining about the unfair retribution she’d received for the harmless prank she’d played on him. Objectively speaking, it was pretty hard to feel sympathetic toward someone who’d flushed people out of her home.

Once she was done, complete silence returned to the room.

Miledi was this labyrinth’s only resident. It sat deep underground, at the bottom of a gorge everyone avoided. A dark place where the light of the sun never reached.

Without Miledi’s cursing, there was no noise at all. As she was a golem, there wasn’t even the sound of her breathing or heartbeat.

After a few moments of silence, Miledi raised her hand up to the ceiling.

Had there been any light, her metallic hand would have gleamed brightly. This golem was something someone very precious to her had made. The crystallization of all their hard work. This inorganic hand of hers was very unlike the actual hand she’d had back when she was alive.

“To think... someone who could clear our trials really appeared...” She balled her outstretched hand into a fist. The reality of it was finally hitting her. Then, she glanced over at a corner.

The room she was in now was her bedroom. Meaning her personal possessions were all stored there.

There was a bookshelf in the corner she’d looked at, a number of picture frames lining the shelves. Long ago, an exceptionally skilled Synergist had invented a device that could perfectly record all the details in a scene and copy them. The pictures he’d taken with it had been his gift to Miledi, and her greatest treasure.

Miledi walked up to the pictures and examined each one in turn, starting from the end. She’d done the same thing hundreds, no, thousands of times, but a different emotion welled up within her this time around.

“How long has it been since that day... The day that we were defeated. The day we swore to carry on, to create a light of hope for those who would come after. It’s... definitely been more than a few centuries at least. A thousand years? Two thousand? Ahaha, I don’t even remember anymore...”

Most of the pictures were of a young girl. There was one of her standing in the middle of a city, another of her surrounded by nature, and yet another with her in the rugged wilderness. In all of them she was smiling, the people in the background all smiling alongside her.

The person who’d taken these photos had known how to capture her radiance better than anyone.

Miledi’s gaze stopped at one of the pictures. It was a picture of seven people standing atop a hill, the sunrise at their backs.

One of them was a blonde girl. She was pulling a bespectacled, flustered man closer to her. Next to her stood a stoic, but gentle-looking man, a seductively smiling dryad woman, a stern, balding old man, a Dagon woman who was smiling triumphantly, and lastly, a demon man who was staring at the blonde girl with a look of mild disapproval.

“Guys... it’s finally happening. Time’s moving forward again. It’s not a dream. The path we chose... it really did pave the way for those who came after us.”

Had Miledi retained her human form, she would have been crying. Her voice trembled and broke.

Her fingers lightly brushed against the image of the bespectacled boy.

“O-kun. Can you believe it? Those kids cleared your labyrinth first. It was supposed to be the hardest one, the one everyone was supposed to do last. And you know what else? Their leader is a Synergist, just like you. What an amazing coincidence.” Miledi chuckled.

“His personality’s the complete opposite of yours, though. Still, he’s amazing. Those artifacts of his are crazy. He must have made them using the techniques you left behind.” She continued talking until she ran out of words. Overcome with emotion, she brought a hand to her chest.

Finally, she turned her gaze to the final picture. This one was special. It had been created by combining Oscar’s wondrous invention with the regeneration powers another one of her comrades had held. Together, they had created a picture of the past. It depicted a smiling young woman with red hair. She was wearing a maid uniform, and standing next to her was the same blonde girl that was in the other pictures, except she looked younger. There was a look of confusion on her face.

“It all started with you. The journey I inherited from you is finally coming to a close.”

Miledi didn’t have much strength left. She probably had enough power stored for one last fight at full strength, but that was more than enough. She’d been prepared for this for millennia.

Miledi looked back up at the ceiling. She was thinking of the young boy who’d conquered her labyrinth. Finally.

Quietly, she prayed.

“May the people finally be free...” It was a lone, silent wish.