Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 3 - Chapter SS2

The Wrong Way to Use Metamorphosis Magic

“Ugh...”

A cute groan could be heard from within one of the houses of the Liberators’ hidden village. The one who’d made that scream was Corrin, and the one who’d caused her to scream like that was Katy. Though Katy and Ruth had yet to recover their egos, they had healed enough that they could follow basic instructions to eat and sleep and take care of themselves. As a result, it had gotten a lot easier for Corrin to look after them. So why was it that Corrin was groaning at Katy, whose vacuous eyes were staring off into the distance? Well, because—

“Katy, you have to eat your vegetables! They’re nutritious!”

Corrin once again brought the spoonful of beans up to Katy’s mouth, but Katy slapped it away. Corrin’s cheeks puffed out indignantly as she looked at the mess Katy had made on the table.

“Bad Katy! You can’t just waste food like that!”

Her eyes still empty, Katy turned away. Even though she couldn’t talk, it was obvious she was flatly refusing to eat the beans. Bidel Beans were very nutritious, and they grew everywhere, including forests. Unfortunately, they were also bitter. Katy had hated them before being transformed into a super soldier by the church, and she hated them still. That being said, this hidden village wasn’t stocked well enough for people to be able to eat lavish dishes.

“I boiled them with sugar for you this time. So please, just try some.”

Corrin once again gently brought a spoonful of beans up to Katy’s mouth. But this time—

“Mmmph!?”

Faster than Corrin’s eyes could follow, Katy grabbed the spoon and stuffed it into Corrin’s mouth instead. Whatever warrior’s spirit had been implanted into her was still alive in there somewhere.

“Jeez! If you don’t cut that out, I’m going to get mad for real!”

Katy once again pointedly turned away. Corrin continued trying to get Katy to eat the beans, but she’d always either slap the spoon away or force the food into Corrin’s mouth instead.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

After thirty or so minutes of that, Corrin was reduced to a sobbing heap. Hearing her cries, Oscar and the others came running over.

“What’s wrong, Corrin?”

“Onii-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!”

Corrin clung to Oscar and told him what had happened with Katy.

“Come on, Katy. You know you’re not supposed to make Corrin cry.”

But even when Oscar scolded Katy, she just turned up her nose and looked away. Seeing that, Miledi, Meiru, and the others all smiled. Determined, Oscar grabbed Katy and sat her in his lap. He then scooped up a spoonful of beans. Katy struggled at first, but the moment Oscar wrapped his free arm around her, she went quiet.

“We’ll be able to get better food soon, so just bear with it for now, okay? You’re a big girl, aren’t you, Katy?”

Oscar slowly brought the spoon of beans up to her mouth.

“It won’t work, Onii-chan. Katy just won’t—”

But much to Corrin’s surprise, Katy swallowed the mouthful of beans. When she saw that, Corrin’s eyes glazed over and her expression grew stony.

“There, there. That’s a good girl. Say ‘aaah,’ Katy.”

“Mmmmmm.”

Though Katy’s eyes still showed no expression, it seemed like she was happy. Even the way her hair bounced around her head looked cheerful.

“I hate you, Katy.”

“Waaah! Hey, Corrin! Stop that! I’m trying to feed her here!”

Corrin was mad that Katy would listen to Oscar, but not to her. And so, she started beating her fists against Katy’s legs. However, Katy blocked all of Corrin’s attacks and nuzzled up against Oscar. And that, in turn, made Corrin get jealous as well as even angrier.

“Th-That’s weird. Katy didn’t use to be that clingy. Especially not with Oscar.”

“Huh? Is that true, Ruth-kun?”

Miledi cocked her head at Ruth. According to Ruth, Katy was a tsundere to the core. Normally, she never let Oscar pamper her in any way. In fact, she always tried to act more like an adult whenever he was around. Things had to get really bad for Katy to hug Oscar of her own accord.

Upon hearing that, Meiru looked thoughtfully over at Oscar and muttered to herself, “Since Katy-chan’s will is currently locked in a struggle with the will of the warrior who possessed her, it’s probably likely that her base instincts have come to the forefront, and that’s what she’s expressing.”

In other words, Meiru was implying that despite her attitude, Katy secretly wanted to be pampered by Oscar.

“I see. So that’s why she’ll eat the beans when Oscar’s feeding her. Normally, she’d start crying every time we served them for dinner. Come to think of it, Dylan never really liked them either...”

Ruth glanced over at Dylan. He was methodically eating his beans, but his face was exceedingly pale. And though he showed no emotion, he looked oddly lonely.

“D-Dylan? We haven’t forgotten about you, buddy.”

Ruth turned to Dylan with a stiff expression, but Dylan quietly turned his back to him. He then resumed eating his beans. His lonely back looked so sad that everyone couldn’t help but feel sorry for the neglected child.

“Dylan-kuuun! Cheer up! We haven’t forgotten about you, really! Look, come over here. The amazing Miledi-oneesan will feed you!”

Miledi hurriedly turned to Dylan and spread her arms open for him to jump into them. Dylan glanced at Miledi, then blushed slightly. A glimmer of hope sparked in Ruth’s eyes as he watched.

“His expression’s changing!”

Dylan slowly got to his feet and started tottering over. But he walked straight past Miledi and fell into Meiru’s ample cleavage.

“......”

“M-Miledi, umm, are you okay? You look kinda... scary.”

Ruth took a few steps backward. At the same time, Meiru said cheerfully, “Oh my, Dylan-kun. Did you want to play with me that badly!? Fufufu, well, I do like boys who are honest with themselves.”

Meiru happily embraced Dylan, and his blank expression softened somewhat. According to Meiru, he was just following his instincts, so it was perhaps expected that he would gravitate to her over Miledi. He was a growing boy, after all.

As he watched, Ruth muttered, “I never knew you were into big boobs, Dylan...”

“Why does it always have to come down to boob size, dammit!?”

Miledi collapsed on all fours in frustration. She felt utterly defeated. But a second later, she suddenly looked up, a brilliant idea coming to mind.

“I know! I can just ask Van-chan to use metamorphosis magic on me and make my boobs huge! Van-chaaaaaan! Van-chan, where are you!?”

She ran around the village, shouting, “Van-chaaaaaan I need you to make my boobs biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig!”

That day, multiple eyewitnesses reported seeing a giant ice dragon fire its breath at a young girl.