Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (WN)

Chapter 22 — Abode of Traitors

Chapter 22: Abode of Traitors

Hajime felt his whole body being wrapped by something warm and soft. It was a very nostalgic feeling. This is the feeling of a bed. A cushion was gently catching his head and back. The softness of feathers wrapped his body. His dozing consciousness was thrown into confusion.

(What is this? This is supposed to be the dungeon…Why is a bed…)

He was fumbling around as his consciousness was not fully awake yet. However, he couldn’t move his right hand. It was wrapped in a soft feeling that was different from the bed. His palm was also wedged into something warm and soft.

(What’s this?)

Hajime moves his hand while he was still blank. He felt a certain elasticity between his hands and it was squishy when he touched it. Just keen on the feel somehow and it becomes a habit to keep touching…

“…Ahn…”

(!?)

For some reason a seductive gasp could be heard. At that moment, the first visage of his consciousness came back to him.

Hajime noticed as he raised himself in panic, that he really was in a bed. The bed had a pure-white sheet and it felt luxurious and it even had a canopy. It seems the bed was on a stone pavement in a terrace atrium. A refreshing breeze blew by Hajime’s cheeks and the canopy. His perimeter was surrounded by pillars and a thin curtain. Can you imagine a bed in the center of a Parthenon shrine? The whole space was filled with a warm light that he hasn’t seen in a long time.

He was confused, just a while ago he was in a desperate struggle fighting against the Hydra in the dungeon.

(Where is this? This place…don’t tell me its the afterworld…)

In this place that felt so solemn, an ominous thought crossed his mind. Hajime thoughts were interrupted by an amorous voice next to him.

“…Hn…Hajime…Au…”

“!?”

When Hajime was confused, he turned over the sheet. While not wearing a single thread of clothing, Yue clinged onto Hajime’s right hand and slept completely naked. He finally noticed that even he was naked.

“Indeed…is this the morning chirp…that’s not right!”

The confused Hajime did a Tsukkomi on himself for his stupid thoughts. Yue started to wake up a little.

“Yue, wake up. Yue.”

“Hn~…”

When he tried to wake her up, she curled up and shook her head to fret. His right hands were between Yue’s thighs and it was approaching a dangerous place.

“Ku…Don’t tell me this is really the afterworld…is it Heaven?”

Hajime he was saying those stupid things, he tried to free his right hand, but everytime…

“…Hn…Hn…”

Yue panted seductively.

“Ku, calm down me. No matter how old she is, her appearance is still of a child. Impossible for me to get excited! I am absolutely not a lolicon!”

Hajime tried to persuade himself of this, while his expression was on the brink of looking like a pervert. He gave up trying to free his right hand, and instead tried to wake up the cause but no luck.

Gradually, he started to get irritated. Hajime could not swallow the situation and confusion, and he had a blue vein popping out on his forehead at her leisurely sleeping there.

His irritation culminated…

“That’s enough, get up! This natural erotic vampire princess!”

He invoked his “Lightning Clad”. Electric discharge started to gather in his right hand.

“!? Ababababababa”

Yue was shocked by the discharge. She released Hajime’s arm and finally opened her eyes, while she twitched a little.

“…Hajime?”

“Yeah. It’s Hajime-san. Sleepyhead, wake up…”

“Hajime!”

“!?”

She woke up and widened her eyes when she saw Hajime. The next moment, she jumped towards Hajime. In the nude. Hajime trembled.

Yue buried her face into Hajime’s scruff. and he noticed she was sniffing. He decided there was no helping it, and just stroke her head with a smile.

“My bad, seems like I worried you a lot.”

“Yeah…I was worried…”

It seems she didn’t want to stop clinging for a while. He let her do it until she was satisfied because she did take care of him. Hajime continued to stroke her head gently.

When Yue calmed down after a few minutes, Hajime asked about what happened. By the way, he made Yue cover herself with the sheet.

“So, what happened since then? Where is this?”

“…After that…”

She said that after the battle, she felt dizzy from her magic depletion and snuggle right next to the collapsed Hajime. Then the double doors in the room automatically opened. Reinforcements? Yue stayed vigilant but nothing ever came. When she started to recover bit by bit, she decided to enter the door.

The sacred water was healing Hajime little by little. Still, he was in a dangerous state with all his serious injuries. His tough body had escaped death, but she didn’t know when the sacred water would lose to the poison. Both of them would be finished if a new monster appeared. Therefore, she had to check it out.

And in the depths of the door,

“…Abode of the Traitors.”

Inside was a vast space with a good looking house in the center. Then, she confirmed it wasn’t dangerous. Yue confirmed there was a bedroom and took the unconscious Hajime to it and nursed him. Recently, the God’s Crystal extract was decreasing considerably. Hajime had kept drinking the sacred water.

The sacred water finally beat out the toxins, and it was able to display its usual restorative prowess. Yue became exhausted eventually.

“…I see, you took care of me. Thanks, Yue.”

“Hn!”

When Hajime conveyed his words of thanks, Yue’s eyes brighten up joyfully from the bottom of her heart. She was expressionless but her eyes said all.

“By the way…why am I naked?”

He was curious. The morning chirp he wanted to break from. Hajime didn’t dislike Yue…he just wanted to prepare his heart. Inwardly, he just muttered to himself.

“…You were dirty…I cleaned you…”

“…Why did you lick your lips?”

Yue had a bewitching smile, like when she sucked his blood, and licked her lips. For some reason his body shivered.

“Why was Yue sleeping next to me? Also…naked…”

“…Fufu…”

“Wait, what are you laughing at? Did you do something? Don’t lick your lips!”

While Hajime was questioning her intensely, Yue did not answered and just stared at Hajime with a voluptuous look.

Hajime questioned for a while, but she had a happy expression as she remained quiet. He decided to give up on the questioning and explore the abode. Yue handed him some high-quality clothes she found. It was men’s clothing. Most likely it was the traitor’s. Hajime confirmed his good health then dressed himself with the clothes, and prepared his equipment. There might be some traps or tricks, so he prepared himself just in case.

When his preparation was also complete, he looked back and found Yue dressed. Yue was,

…she was in a one piece cutter shirt.

“Yue…what are you aiming for?”

“?…Size doesn’t fit.”

Oh, men’s size would surely not fit Yue’s height of only 140 cm. However, her appropriate sized breasts and pure white legs were on display. Her image was so sensational, contrary to her childish appearance, because of the way Yue held herself and acted. Hajime was troubled on where to keep his eyes.

“…If its natural, then its quite frightening…”

He wasn’t sure if she was aiming for that or it just came natural. Hajime just knew she was terrifying in a variety of ways.

Leaving the bedroom, he was amazed at the sights around him.

First, sunlight had entered his eye. It wasn’t real because they were underground. There was a globe that had its cone-shaped body connected to the ceiling, and it was floating there shining. He felt slightly warm because it didn’t feel artificial like a fluorescent lights. Hajime unintentionally called it “Sun”.

“…It becomes like a moon when its night.”

“Seriously…”

Next, the pleasing sounds of water entered his ears. To the back of the room was a door that lead to a small sized stadium. In the back wall of this room was a waterfall. A large quantity of water ran down that wall from the ceiling and joined the river to flow into the back cave. The cool wind full of negative ions that blew from the waterfall provided a good feeling. When he took a closer look at the water, there were fish swimming there. Possible the fish flowed in from a terrestrial river.

Some distance from the river, there was a big field. Nothing seems to be planted there right now…it spread throughout the surrounding. It could be an animal pen. There was no sign of animals, but there was resources here to be self sufficient. Lots of varieties of plants grew around here too.

Hajime was on the opposite side of the river and field. He was encouraged to walk towards the adjacent building to the bedroom. The construction felt like processed rocked and it wasn’t for dwelling.

“…I checked around a bit, there were many rooms that didn’t open…”

“I see…Yue, don’t let your guard down.”

“Okay…”

The stone house was white and it texture was like lime; All of it felt so clean. In the entrance, there was a light sphere that was at the tip of a pedestal projecting from the ceiling. Hajime was dazzled with it because he had been in the dark for so long. There seemed to be 3 stories, and there seemed to be an atrium at the top.

First, they wanted to look at the ground floor. They discovered a fireplace, soft carpet, living area with a sofa, a kitchen, and restroom. No signs pointed to the idea that these items had been neglected for years. There was no sign of life…but it had the feeling of return home after a trip. Hajime thought it had an air that told him it hadn’t been used in a while. People did not live here, but it was still being maintained…

Hajime and Yue continued their exploration with caution. When they went into the interior they were outdoors again. There was a hole in this huge place, and a sculpture of a lion was enshrined in deep water there. Next to the sculpture was a magic formation. When he poured magic into the formation, warm water jumped out of the lion’s open mouth. The lion seemed to be able to arrange water from anywhere in the world.

“A bath. This is good. How many months has it been since I had a bath?”

He loosens his cheeks instinctively. The first time around, Hajime did not care about the dirt that was on his body. Since he was worried about itching, he gave in. Water was gathered using a huge magic formation he craved and he wiped his body with the water.

However, Hajime was Japanese. He was no exception to the addiction for a bath. After he secured the area, he couldn’t help himself from smiling.

Watching that Hajime, Yue said…

“…Enter? Together…”

“…Let me take it easy alone.”

“Mu…”

Yue kicked the warm water with her barefeet. Hajime refused because if they entered together he wouldn’t be able to relax. Her face showed how dissatisfied she was.

Both of them soon discovered a study room and workshop on the second floor. However, there seemed to be seals that prevent the opening of the doors in those rooms. With no other choice, they continued their search.

The two headed to the third floor’s back room. There was only one room on the third floor. When they opened the door into the interior, there was a 7-8 m wide exquisite and delicate magic formation engraved on the floor in the center of the room; the design was something they had never seen before. A rather splendid geometrical patterned formation and it looked like art.

However, something else was more noteworthy. On the other side of the magic formation was a figure sitting in a regal chair. The figure was a corpse. It was already been skeletonized and there was a stunning black robe embroidered with gold on its body. There was not a single stain on it and it seemed to be an object from a haunted house.

The corpse hung its head, while leaning on the chair. It had been decayed in that posture. What did this person think of in this room with only a magic formation? Why did it choose this place, instead of the bedroom or living room?

“…Suspicious…What do you want to do?”

Yue was also wondering about the corpse. This person was probably one of the traitors. No signs of suffering could be seen on the figure that rested on the chair. It seemed like the figure was waiting for someone.

“Well, if we want to reach the surface, I think this room is the key. The seals in the library and studio resisted my transmutation…so we have to investigate. Yue wait here, and if anything happens I’ll leave it to you.”

“Okay…Be careful.”

Hajime stepped forward towards the magic formation. The moment he stepped into the center of the magic formation, a snow-white light flashes suddenly and the room is dyed with the light.

Due to the intensity, Hajime closed his eye. Something invaded into his head immediately after, and he went through the time he fell into the abyss like a revolving lantern.

The light soon settled and Hajime opened his eyes; in front of his eyes…was a young man in black clothing.