Arifureta Chapter 198

Arifureta Extra Compilation – From Abyssgate Lord of The World

Fuh, who am I you ask? I am――

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The London outskirts were wrapped in a thin mist. In a corner of a retro street, where it felt like some old fairy-tale or folklore might be hiding, there was a splendid residence where history could be felt from it conspicuously.

It appeared to be prudently maintained as it didn’t look worn out. The garden that was spreading out in the front, the small path made from spread out white gravel, the flower bed where seasonal flowers were blooming, and a small fountain where a beautiful goddess was sitting, all of those were first class work that gave an elegant impression. From those, it could be understood that a good amount of labor, expense, and time was spent on the appearance of the house.

And that was how it should be since the master of this residence――Jefferson Allgrey was a famous, wealthy person even in Britain. He was from a family lineage that was titled as the so-called “Real Estate King” that for generations possessed countless plots of land and buildings, buying and selling them.

Jefferson, who was the current master of this generation of the Allgrey family, also properly inherited the business talent from his ancestors. Not only did he also seem to possess political talent, but he was a capable human that raised definite results while engaging in two trades, the political world and real estate magnate, at the same time.

The residence of Jefferson was normally visited by many people. The type of people visiting varied. If there were people from the same political world visiting, then there were also people from real estate companies who visited; there were also a lot of people visiting who were his personal friends.

Anyway, it was a house where the flow of people visiting it never ceased, and that was a well-known fact for the people in the surrounding area.

Today too, a few hours had already passed since the sunset, and there was also the shrouding mist that signaled that it was a time where darkness had completely descended. The principal residence of Allgrey was illuminated with brilliant lights. Several high-class cars were parked nearby the main gate; showing how there were many guests visiting.

Although each of the visitors today was definitely well-known characters, it seemed they weren’t friends that were invited for a simple dinner. They also didn’t appear to be guests who came for work-related matters to speak about politics or business.

「Now then, chief. Don’t you think that we should get down to business soon? For you to assemble more than half of the society’s upper echelons……it must be something really considerable, isn’t it? My guess is that it must be a matter about them.」

A middle-aged man whose body was wrapped in a suit that was obviously high quality, with a splendid mustache and belly meat, addressed Jefferson as “chief”.

Even though Jefferson was called with that designation that wasn’t used that often in general, he still behaved naturally. By looking at that attitude of his, it could be understood that it was only the matter of course for him to be called like that by the people who were called to this place today.

Jefferson slowly ran his gaze over the surrounding. It seemed that he had finished his meal since there was only wine in front of him. Other than them, there were several servants of the Allgrey family and the respective bodyguards that were brought by each guest.

Tonight there were nine guests gathered. Every one of them was prominent figures that owned phenomenal results in their respective fields, but the fields they participated in were completely scattered. Seen from the side, this was a gathering that really couldn’t be seen as normal. The biggest possibility was that these people were personal friends of Jefferson. Even if there was an outsider who knew of this meeting, then surely they would only be able to think of this as a meeting of fellow friends all the same.

But, from how Jefferson was sitting at the seat of honor while the others were sitting around a long table, it seemed that there was a clear pecking order here. And that became even clearer from the atmosphere they were clad in.

「……They are the real thing.」

A short sentence. For people who didn’t know the circumstance, they would tilt their head wondering what he was speaking about. But, all the people at the dining table were instantly going astir from that sentence that was said by Jefferson with an oppressive tone.

「Is that……is that, really true?」

「Wasn’t that just a mere group kidnapping……」

「Certainly it was an inexplicable case, but……」

「A case of that degree is not that rare. Chief, do you have any basis saying that?」

While their mouths were speaking words where confusion and expectation were mixing together, their gazes were concentrating on Jefferson.

「There is still only circumstantial evidence. But, I have no doubt about it. ……I have confirmed that all the people who were sent to investigate returned to their daily life without getting any information. Far from investigating, they forget even the society.」

「No way……」

「However, just with that……. It’s not as though the method to induce such a situation doesn’t exist, you know?」

「Yeah, I know. Of course, I didn’t make my conclusion just with that. ……This is the situation that can be currently confirmed. I judged that it is already at the level where there would be no problem calling it as supernatural.」

Saying that, Jefferson urged a servant with his gaze to distribute a written report; the upper echelons set their eyes on it. After they did that, they went astir once more.

The contents that were written in that written report was as follows.

――The house of the target group that had been confirmed once before, for some reason, couldn’t be approached a second time. Even when they walked following a map, by the time they noticed something was amiss they were walking in a circle at a completely different place.

――The observer was observing from a distance of 800 meters, but regardless of that their gaze would meet without fail.

――The family register of the target that shouldn’t exist until a few days ago was registered before they knew it.

――That abnormality wasn’t noticed by anyone in the administration side. They didn’t even feel that anything was out of place.

――Every day, their partners were disappearing one by one.

And then,

――The people who were tasked to investigate, without exception all of them would have a blank period in their memory after a while. Even the matter that was being reported right now, whether it was really true or not……was unknown.

Surely everyone was scanning the report up to the very last sentence. Silence descended on the dining table. Everyone was fixated on the content of the report.

But, after a while……

「Fu, fuha, fuhahahahahaha-」

One person raised a laughing voice looking like he couldn’t hold it down. It was a hideously distorted laughter that was composed of joy and madness. However, such laughter, which would grant discomfort to anyone hearing it whether one wanted to or not, was gradually spreading to the other upper echelons too.

「Finally, we found the real thing! Magnificent! I wonder just what kind of supernatural ability they know!」

「At the very least, it seems they have the skill to interfere with the human brain. That’s something beyond the position of mere students.」

「It cannot stay like this. Chief! We have to immediately send an assault force and secure one or two samples!」

Excitement was ruling over the place. It was a mad excitement, just like how when someone who was lost in a desert finally found an oasis, that feeling of insane arousal before their craving could be fulfilled.

Perhaps this was only natural for them because these people had been secretly maneuvering and searching for “that” through so many years and months that they couldn’t keep count anymore.

「Calm down……well telling all of you that is impossible I guess. I understand well everyone’s feelings. Then, everyone agrees to the plan to move with the purpose of obtaining a sample? There will be many troublesome things if we kidnap all of them……」

「What, they are people who have gone through the group disappearance once you know, chief. Even if it happened a second time, surely there will be no one who thinks it strange. Not to mention, there are also those among them who didn’t return previously.」

「The ability possessed by the samples are a concerning matter but……they are just children after all. It shows how they are content with being students while possessing such power. We can do whatever we like if we involve their family in it. I will immediately begin to prepare the experiment site.」

「The returnees, they obtained supernatural abilities while they disappeared……I’m bothered with the whereabouts of those that didn’t return. Perhaps, they are still in the place that had to do with the supernatural? If we grasped that, even us……」

The upper echelons let out their opinions after Jefferson’s words. The meeting tonight was obviously filled with a passion that was never seen before.

When they finished deciding most of their plan from here on, Jefferson opened his mouth.

「Then, all of you, proceed with the matter at hand by paying meticulous attention to details for the sake of accomplishing our dearest wish. The priority target will be the girl who is called as “Yue” as she is the first on the list――」

「About that, I think it’s better if you stop with that though.」

And also the girls who aren’t Japanese that are around the returnees――Jefferson was about to say that, but his words were suddenly cut off.

For a moment Jefferson thought that it was someone among the upper echelon who cut him off, but he immediately discards that idea as impossible. The returnees from the group disappearance in the middle of the day that agitated the society――if it was asked what the aspect that was clearly different in them compared to before was, then the first thing that would attract the attention was the existence of the non-Japanese girls who suddenly appeared.

Thinking about how their family register was created before anyone noticed too, then it would be valid to think of them as “visitors from the supernatural side”. Then it was natural to prioritize securing them as samples.

That was the common understanding between Jefferson and the other upper echelons that they obtained from continuously investigating the series of turmoil of the returnees that started from the group disappearance. For that reason, it was impossible for anyone to object here. And above all, the voice of the young man that cut him off was a voice he wasn’t familiar with!

Jefferson felt something cold running through his spine while raising an angry voice that questioned the identity of the person.

「Who! Where are you!?」

「No, I’ve been right in front of you from some time ago. I was eating a normal meal here.」

A voice that contained resignation resounded. At that moment, not only Jefferson, but the upper echelons, the servants, and then the bodyguards too, they all were finally aware.

「Yo」

With a really light mood, at the chair that was positioned on the opposite side of Jefferson, with his mouth stuffed with the same cooking that Jefferson and the others were eating just now, was a young Japanese man greeting with his hand lightly raised!

「You bastard……where did you enter from? What is the guard at the entrance doing?」

The upper echelons and the servants were greatly shaken, the bodyguards were in the middle of taking out their handguns in order to recover from their disgrace while Jefferson was restraining them from firing before he opened his mouth calmly. It seemed that he was also shaken, but the speed of him rallying back his mind ought to be said just as expected from an authority of the political-real estate world that managed this meeting.

Right after he took back his calm, a dominating aura overflowed from Jefferson. That aura was something so intense that if an ordinary person felt it, then not only would they wither down without being able to say anything, they would undoubtedly trickle cold sweat while getting all flustered.

But, that young man warded off such a dominating aura like a swaying willow……or rather, in the first place the young man didn’t even pay attention to that aura, he kept eating the cooking of the Allgrey residence with gusto while talking.

「Nguh. You asked me from where, I entered normally from the door you know. Mugu mugu, I even said excuse me. ……Though I was normally ignored.」

「……That, seems to be the cooking of my residence, right?」

「It’s awfully delicious, as expected from the place of a big shot politician and the real estate king. There were leftovers in the kitchen, so I loaded it onto a plate by myself. ……I, I pretty much asked, okay? I took the silence to mean OK, but I properly asked, okay? I’m not stealing, you know?」

For some reason the young man kept reminding them with something like「It’s true, you know?」. Jefferson knitted his eyebrows at the young man. The more he looked, the more this young man looked like a normal youth. No, in a sense, he was too normal in presence and appearance that if he didn’t concentrate it felt like he would naturally forget him, perhaps he should say that this young man wasn’t normal in that sense……

「Who are you……or perhaps it’s too unsophisticated for me to ask that? That remark of yours just now in this situation. And then that ability that managed to infiltrate here without anyone able to notice. You are……a returnee, huh?」

Jefferson spoke his conjecture with conviction, but for some reason, the young man who heard his words frowned and his face looked a little sad. While Jefferson was perplexed by that inexplicable reaction, the young man asked with a voice that also sounded sad.

「’A returnee, huh?’ you ask. If you investigated about us, then shouldn’t you know about me too? I expected a reaction like『You bastard-, you are a returnee, huh!?』, but……」

「What? A report of you is not……」

Jefferson was perplexed. He had looked over all the reports of the returnees; he had driven into his head all the information of the returnees’ profiles from their family up to their relatives. If the young man before his eyes was a returnee that had been reported, then there was no way he couldn’t recall him.

But, when one of his servants excitedly showed to him the returnees written report that had been converted into digital data on a tablet……

「…………………Returnee list No. 28――Endo Kousuke? ………………ah」

「Yep, you forgot, didn’t you? Isn’t that right? That’s fine, I understand. Hehe, I’m used to it. Although my shadow is thin even in digital data, I’m not co, concerned at all, you know? I am a riajuu, you know? That’s why, I’m really, really not concerned at all, okay?」

A strange silence descended in that place. The young man――Kousuke, who seemed to have a thin shadow even when inside digital data, was making *kacha kacha* sounds with the spoon and fork. Only that sound was resounding with clarity inside that room. The word 「Delish-」that he was whispering until just now was changing into「It’s salty huh」.

「S, so this is the supernatural ability that you possess.」

「……I had this since birth. Even my mum, she often forgets to do things like picking me up from kindergarten……」

「……I, I see. That, you know, must be hard for you huh.」

For some reason, Kousuke received gentle words and sympathy from the man who was aiming at him and his friends. The salt content of the high-class cooking was increasing! A female servant was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. The eyes of the bodyguards who were readying their guns until just now were turning lukewarm!

While spouting a complaint「If you sympathize than give me some presence」inside his heart, Kousuke cleared his throat *cough*, he stopped eating and opened his mouth.

「So, about the reason I came here.」

「Mu, that’s right. Certainly, I’ve never thought that a returnee would directly march into here. It appears that your side has also investigated us to a certain degree. ……You, don’t tell me, you came here alone?」

「Well, yeah. Actually, I was in the middle of some personal travel though. But suddenly you guys started making a conspiracy, so I was told to go here for a bit to crush all of you.」

Kousuke was looking at his smartphone while saying「In front of Rana, I cannot refuse that guy’s request」with his shoulders dropping down. Seeing that Jefferson exchanged look with the upper echelons and the bodyguards while his expression turned ridiculously.

「Crushing us, is it? It looks like you are growing impudent after obtaining a supernatural ability, huh. It is overwhelmingly faster to shoot your four limbs with lead bullets at this range. It seems that you have the technique to interfere with your opponent’s awareness, but in this limited space, can you crush us faster than a bullet?」

*gacha* Hard ominous sounds resounded countless time. The bodyguards were focusing their gun muzzles toward Kousuke. They numbered a little less than twenty people. The place was a large dining room where sixty people could enter with room to spare, but certainly, in this limited space, it was equivalent to not having any way to escape from twenty gun muzzles.

Jefferson, who thought that this young man was showing composure because he was a child who was drunk on his own power, reversely showed a composed attitude. He crossed his arms above the table, and then while hiding his mouth behind his conjoined hands, his sharp gaze was striking toward Kousuke.

「Young man. Won’t you come to our side? According to the report, it seems that the livelihood of all of you didn’t change much before and after obtaining supernatural abilities. It’s worthy of praise that not one of you is running wild, but surely that’s only because you all don’t understand the way to use the power you obtained. Then, we will teach you what the right way to use that power is. This Jefferson Allgrey can promise you a life that is filled with riches and fame that is beyond your imagination.」

「……You really can say that with a straight face after calling humans as samples, huh. They said that the skin of a politician’s face is thick, but that’s really true. Scaryyy.」

Kousuke didn’t look like he was particularly moved by Jefferson’s persuading words, rather he showed a creeped out look. While raising one of his eyebrows over the fact that money and fame didn’t resound in Kousuke’s heart, Jefferson continued his words.

「Then what about women? You are ――」

「I have a girlfriend; I’m fine in that regard. Rather, my girlfriend is a super beauty already. She is already the best-, yep.」

Having his words cut off and hearing Kousuke suddenly speaking fondly of his girlfriend in front of him caused Jefferson’s gaze to become something severe.

「……It’s natural for you to feel almighty if you have a special power. But, what is called reality is something that is more heartless then what all of you are thinking. Perhaps if it’s just you, or possibly if it’s just all of you returnees, then you all might make it work out somehow. But, what about the people around you? Your family, your friends who are not returnees, relatives. Can you protect all of them? Our society is not just about violence, you know?」

Jefferson looked over his surroundings. Ahead of his gaze were the upper echelons of their society ――every one of them were successful people who possessed social power. And then, the gaze of Jefferson spoke more eloquently than anything.

That this wasn’t everything their society possessed.

In other words, even in the one in a million chance that all the people here died, their society itself wouldn’t be finished. There were still other people with power gathering in their society.

「I’ll recognize your ability to gather information this far, and your guts to infiltrate into here alone. But, for you to be under the impression that the situation before your eyes is everything there is, you are still just a child. We had sought the supernatural from long ago when the society had first been laid out; it now stretches its roots everywhere in the world, we are――」

「Hydra, right?」

Jefferson, who implicitly pressed for obedience under the name of cooperation to Kousuke with a condescending attitude, was about to disclose the name of their society with plenty of emotion, but right before he could, Kousuke easily revealed that name.

Jefferson twitched in reaction and was about to open his mouth further, but ignoring him, Kousuke ate the last of his food and operated his smartphone with one hand, then he spoke out the content that was displayed there.

「Abduction, murder, robbery, human experimentation, and on top of that even inducing war, a group of supernatural fanatics that will do anything――Hydra. Certainly, it looks like you guys have a long history. The origin of the name is because no matter how many upper echelons and parts of the organization are crushed, the survivor of the organization that is hiding somewhere will restore the organization back. The organization has existed since before the colonial period. Historically the organization has been crushed several times, but before one knows it, the organization is revived. The current chief is you……」

After that, Kousuke read out loud the internal conditions of the secret society Hydra. And then the information of the upper echelon bunches which were here like their name, surface information, family, friends, work relatives, and on top of that even the name of their illegitimate child or relationship with another organization that they kept secret from even inside the organization. He didn’t stop with just that, the concealed upper echelons who weren’t here and the location of bases, and even further and further, things like the innermost thoughts of the upper echelons toward each other and so on, Kousuke disclosed everything.

It was clear that what was disclosed wasn’t nonsense because the upper echelons opened their mouths so wide it looked like their jaw might come off and their expression which turned completely pale.

Everything that they had done was impossible to be known by the information network of children or even by ordinary adults. The color of Jefferson’s face, who had that fact thrust right back at his face not just by two-fold but by ten thousand fold, clearly showed how the capacity of his trained mind had completely gone over capacity.

「When you peer into the abyss, the abyss will also peer back at you――su~ch a famous expression, if it’s you guys who love the supernatural, then surely you have heard it before. We are standing in the superior position. Just how are you guys able to blindly believe such a thing without any basis at all?」

「You, you bastard……」

「Well, you guys, you all are veteran through many adversities in the surface world huh. You guys must have never even dreamt that the children who are going through school life without a care in the world after getting their hands on magic would be able to overwhelm you even in information volume……」

「Why……just how, do you know that much……」

「That’s, if we know that there are some guys aiming for us, to say nothing of us, there is no way our demon king-sama will stay silent. Because despite that guy looking like a cruel and heartless savage bastard, he actually totally spoils the important people around him.」

「Demon king, you say?」

「Yeah. A god-slaying demon king. That guy even killed a god for the sake of a woman, and now you guys try to lay your hands on that exact woman.」

Kousuke’s gaze was continuously filling with limitless sympathy. Jefferson’s expression was grandly convulsing. There was no more dominating aura of a big-shot that could overpower an ordinary person coming from him. Because he was a veteran manager and a politician, who had piled up many experiences of going through adversity, that he was able to understand Kousuke’s experience and felt a sense of danger welling up inside him.

That was――they had touched something that should not be touched.

But, however, the people who were still relatively young among the upper echelons didn’t have enough of that intuition.

「What is, what is, what demon king-. Just, what god-slaying! Even nonsense has a limit!」

「Tha, that’s right! As expected, you are just a kid. It seems that you don’t even know how to bluff. Something like god-slaying, as expected, you have exaggerated too much.」

「Chief, no more words are necessary! Let’s make this brat pay the compensation for looking down on the society! You guys, just keep him alive! Do it!」

They started a reckless action without waiting for the order of the chief which was normally impossible. Jefferson immediately tried to raise his voice to stop them, but faster than he could, several of the black-suited bodyguards, because of the strange atmosphere and the mysterious uneasy feeling they had, as though aroused by their impulse were aiming their gun toward Kousuke’s limbs while jumping forward.

「……Haa. I had more or less tried it, even though I thought of doing this and getting spared from releasing the shackle.」

Inside the situation that was moving all at once, there was only that whisper resounding.

「Wha-. Where is-」

「Shit-, what is going on!? Where did that guy go!?」

「No way, he vanished!?」

The jumping forward black-suited bodyguards were surrounding a chair that had no one on it feeling dumbfounded. The chair should have had Kousuke sitting on it until just a moment ago. From the beginning until the end they didn’t take their gaze off him for even an instant.

He was certainly there. Right in front of their eyes. They would grip him up, pull him down from the chair, and hold him down. They reached out their hands without leaving any place to escape while even imaging how he would counterattack; they were certainly aware of him until the moment they could touch him. Yet despite so, their hands moved through empty air and “when they noticed” the target had vanished. It was as though he wasn’t there right from the start.

「-, our mind has been interfered with already!? Be careful; our awareness is being manipulated!」

Jefferson, thinking that it couldn’t be helped now that it had come to this, pushed on the emergency button at the other side of the table to summon the bodyguards standing by everywhere inside the residence while giving a warning. And then, he himself also took out a handgun from his breast pocket; at that time Kousuke’s voice resounded once more. However, it was a voice with a slightly different air than until just now.

「Interference to awareness? Fuh, what exaggeration……. My Ground Shrinker was beyond the pale of your perception ability, isn’t that’s all there is to it?」

「Wha-, impossible, standing on the ceiling!?」

Jefferson and the others who were staying on guard against the most likely possibility of Kousuke sliding under the table was thinking in the corner of their mind ‘doesn’t it feel like his tone is a little strange?’ while they looked up in surprise, and then they exposed a really stupid expression from shock.

Although, surely such reaction was something that couldn’t be helped if they saw a human standing really naturally on the ceiling as though to say ‘Gravity? What’s that?’.

Furthermore,

(Why, why, is he making a strange pose!?)

Yes, Kousuke was standing upside down on the ceiling while covering his face with one hand with his eyes glaring down at Jefferson and the others from between his finger gaps! On top of that, before they knew it his body was already in an appearance of totally black clothes, on his eyes were a pair of sunglasses that were a one-lens type, and his other hand was holding a black knife in a position that was crossed with the hand that was covering his face! Surely if the rabbit-eared assassination group of another world saw this, they would undoubtedly clap and cheer while giving high praise of「What a cool pose!!」!

「Fools who fell into the abyss of selfish desires and fanaticism. I’ll teach into your body, that in this world, there are things that you ought not to know.」

For some reason, while rotating once before displaying a chuuni pose (version 24) again, Kousuke, no, the assassin of the strongest class who was awakened in various meaning in the other world, threw a declaration of war toward the fanatic occult group. Together with that chuuni self-introduction!!

「The shadow of the demon king, the vanguard of the dark rabbit ear family――Rapid Fang Shadow Claw, Kousuke E Abyssgate. Has arrived!!」

What does rabbit ear mean…….. Abyssgate, gate to where……. Those retorts of Jefferson and the others didn’t form into loud words.

Because right after that, the peerless one even against the god’s apostles in another world, the one with the thinnest shadow in the world, the best assassin in the world, bared his fang.

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AN: Thank you very much for reading this every time.

Thank you very much too for the thoughts, opinions, and reports about misspelling and omitted words.

Everyone’s review that it is like it has been planned beforehand blew away Shirakome.

Like, Endo-kun, you are loved huuh. ……He is loved, right?

I properly got his name out this time, so please remember it properly.

He is Endo Abyssgate-kun, okay.

PS-

I placed the information about the special SS for each bookstore-sama in my activity report.

Please confirm it if you please.

The next update is planned for 6 P.M Saturday too.

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