Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 2 - Chapter SS3

Secrets, Buried Pasts, and so much More

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A young girl’s crying voice rang out. Wondering what was wrong, the Liberators Marshal and Mikaela rushed over to her.

“Oh my, this is terrible!”

“H-Huh? What’s going on?”

Few things surprised Marshal, but what he saw managed to stun him. Ruth was standing in the hallway, seemingly at a loss for words, while Susha desperately tried to console her younger sister, Yunfa, who was bawling her eyes out. A short distance away, Corrin was on the ground. Upon seeing the puddle of liquid further down the hallway and the dampness around Yunfa’s legs, Marshal could more or less guess the cause of Yunfa’s distress.

Despite how precocious she was, Yunfa was still a little girl. It was hardly surprising that she’d start crying after accidentally wetting herself in public. The question was, how had something like this happened? Mikaela rushed over to comfort Yunfa, while Marshal turned to Ruth.

“Hey, Ruth, what happened here!?”

“Um, I wanted to help strengthen the village’s defenses... so I tried making some of the booby traps Oscar told me about...” Ruth took a few steps forward, angled his body, and stomped his foot on the ground as he said that. The flagstone he’d stepped on sunk a few inches, and a sawblade whizzed past his neck. A second later, countless spears shot out of the walls, floor, and ceiling. For a booby trap, this was overkill.

“Are you crazy!? I’m a former soldier and even I’m scared of traps like that!”

“But Oscar told me ‘there’s no value in a trap that doesn’t kill its victim. Make sure you layer multiple traps onto each other so that there’s no way for them to escape.’”

“Your big brother’s insane, you know that?”

For some reason, that made Ruth blush with pride.

“Haaah... Let me guess, Yunfa accidentally triggered one of your needlessly dangerous traps?”

“I’ve dulled all the weapons just in case. Also, as long as you don’t move, none of the attacks will hit you, so it’s not dangerous. But I know stuff like this is still dangerous, which is why I was working on it all on my own.”

Susha, Yunfa, and Corrin had spotted him while he was in the middle of working on his traps. He’d warned them not to come any closer, but that had only spurred Yunfa’s curiosity. Thinking Ruth was hiding something naughty, she’d ignored his warning and rushed forward. And in doing so, she’d triggered his trap and been grazed by a plethora of deadly weapons.

“You apologized, right?”

“Of course I did. Even if it’s not my fault, a guy can’t ever let a girl cry. Besides, it’s partially my fault Yunfa had to go through something so embarrassing, so I’ll keep apologizing until she forgives me.”

“I-I see... Damn, you’re even manlier than I am.”

That’s probably one of his older brother’s teachings too, huh? Marshal wondered what kind of person Oscar was while he watched Ruth dismantle his traps. Most of the village’s residents, Marshal included, hadn’t actually met him yet. Meanwhile, Mikaela managed to get Yunfa cleaned up and calmed down, so the whole group moved to the dining hall to continue their conversation.

“Ruth... If you ever tell Naiz-sama what happened here, I’ll kill you.”

“G-Gotcha. I promise not to tell.”

Blushing slightly, Yunfa glared at Ruth. She knew she was at fault for ignoring Ruth’s warning, so she’d already accepted his apology and forgiven him. But even so, she needed to make sure Naiz never found out about that incident. Besides, half the reason she’d accepted his apology was that he’d gotten down on one knee and begged her to forgive him while all the adults were watching. She’d been so embarrassed she’d said yes just to get him to stop.

Ruth’s esteemed older brother, Oscar, had taught him that when he apologized to a girl, he had to get on his knees, look her in the eyes, and apologize with all the sincerity he could muster. However, to most of the girls watching, it had looked more like Ruth was proposing than apologizing. At that moment, the older women had all realized that Ruth would be a natural ladykiller when he grew up. They quickly began thinking of ways to seal Ruth’s powers before they blossomed, while also speculating on whether or not his mentor, Oscar, was also a natural much the same.

Unfortunately, while Yunfa had forgiven Ruth, she was still embarrassed. Currently, she was hiding in Susha’s arms, her tiny body curled up into a ball. Susha patted Yunfa’s back comfortingly.

“Cheer up, Yunfa,” Mikaela said and held out one of the snacks she always kept handy. However, Yunfa just groaned and retreated further into Susha’s embrace. At a loss for what to do, Mikaela eventually decided to sell out her leader in order to improve Yunfa’s mood.

“Don’t worry, Yunfa. When Miledi first joined the Liberators, she had an embarrassing episode too!”

“Huh?”

Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“Hold on, you’re not supposed to—” Marshal stuttered, but Mikaela was a friend to children first and foremost. Her loyalty to Miledi came second.

“I’ll spare you the details for the sake of her honor, but it was one hell of an incident, let me tell you.”

“I-I see. So even Miledi-oneesan wet herself... But that doesn’t make it any less embarrassing that I did it too!”

“No see, Miledi’s secret was way more embarrassing than yours ever could be. You see, for a time there were rumors that a ghost haunted the village streets at night. People heard mysterious panting late at night, and attributed it to a ghost.”

“A-A ghost?”

Yunfa and Corrin paled. Even Susha covered her mouth in shock. 

“Seriously, stop it! If you say any more, you’ll be betraying Miledi!” Marshal shouted. But Mikaela couldn’t be stopped. She really enjoyed talking about Miledi’s youth.

“But in truth, the panting belonged to Miledi! You see, that girl would sneak out every night and do exercises that were supposed to make your boobs grow bigger! Only, she never realized people could hear her panting.”

Yunfa and Ruth burst out laughing. Susha snickered as well, while Corrin pulled a face. Kind as she was, she couldn’t help but sympathize with Miledi.

“Anyway, you know what else—”

The children avidly listened as Mikaela regaled them with tales of Miledi’s dark past. Eventually, Yunfa muttered, “If Miledi-oneesan did all that, then maybe what I did isn’t that bad after all...” 

It seemed Mikaela’s stories had done the trick, as Yunfa was feeling a lot better. Mikaela’s stories grew more and more damning, and after a while, Marshal cut her off before she spilled something that would really make Miledi cry if she knew the kids knew.

“B-By the way, do you have any stories of Oscar’s childhood mishaps?”

In a way, Marshal was just as cruel as Mikaela since he was using Oscar as a scapegoat for Miledi.

“Hm? Well, if I had to say, he got called a loser because he was hiding his powers. He’s so cool, that’s the only thing I can think of!”

“Yeah, he never did those kinds of embarrassing things.”

In Corrin’s mind, Miledi was already a failure who’d embarrassed herself far too often.

“Come on, there’s gotta be something, right?”

Ruth and Corrin exchanged glances. As they struggled to think of something, Marshal added, “Surely he’s done something embarrassing.” 

As far as Marshal was concerned, there was no such thing as a boy with an innocent childhood. Eventually, Ruth did come up with something, but it wasn’t the dark past Marshal was expecting.

“Come to think of it, there is one weird thing.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“We lived in the slums, so bad guys would always try to pick fights with us. But every time they did, he would take them to a back alley, and after a while, the bad guys would come back out and apologize and everything. He’d like, made them into good guys.”

The two adults fell silent.

“Yeah, that was really surprising. There was this one guy who called me a shitty brat, but after he had a talk with him, the guy started calling me Lady Corrin. It was actually kinda scary.”

He totally threatened them, didn’t he?

“Oh, and every time I visited his house, there would be different girls there.”

“Oh yeah! Usually, whenever he was out, there’d be girls waiting around outside his house. And whenever I mentioned he was my brother, they’d start giving me snacks and pocket money and stuff.”

“They changed every month or so, too. Whenever it looked like it was a rich girl, we’d all take turns going to his house so we could get free money.”

Ruth and Corrin grinned at each other. You do realize those rich women were trying to get with your brother, and you just sold him out, right? Marshal lamented. The group continued to pass the time by swapping stories about Oscar and Miledi.

Ten days later.

“Hm? O-kun, Nacchan, we got a letter from the Liberators back home...” Miledi said as she pointed up to the bird soaring toward them. It was Cream, carrying a letter in its beak as usual. The bird alighted near them and Miledi took the letter out of its pouch. Oscar and Naiz gathered around her and the three of them read the letter together. Normally, they loved reading letters from the kids, but this time the contents were anything but enjoyable.

“Miledi-oneesan, I heard from Mikaela-sensei that you used to do exercises to make your boobs grow. Are you still doing them? Do they work?”

“Oscar-oniisan. I heard from Ruth that you’re good at breaking people. Especially men. Is that true?”

“Miledi-san, is it true you like erotic novels? Do you have a huge collection?”

“Oscar, my teacher said the girls who used to hang out at your place were all your lovers. Is that true? Marshal said it was amazing you could make so many different women fall for you.”

It was obvious from what the kids had written that they’d spilled Miledi and Oscar’s secrets to each other. Both of them ignored Naiz, who was backing away slowly

and put the letter back into its envelope with trembling hands.

“Mikaelaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuth!”

They simultaneously shouted the names of the ones who’d betrayed them.