Singularity (Rimuru x Arifureta)

Chapter 7 | Dragons

Aiko Hatayama is currently sitting in the chair near the window, pondering about the recent events of the evening.

Her supposedly missing student came back alive, and it was such a relief for her. However, they don't have an ounce of the intention of returning to them. She was happy they were alive, sure, but was angry at their indifference towards them.

Hajime Nagumo was like a totally different person. His looks and personality don't resemble his past self in the slightest. She lost her student before getting the chance to know what happened to him, and it wounded her pride.

Her mind was a mess—a disorganized web of thoughts and feelings. She couldn't exactly force him to come with her. One thing was that she was fucking weak, and the second was that she at least considered the highly probable situation where Hajime walked through a thorny path these past few months.

"What could've happened to him?" Aiko mutters in a low, tiredly bitter voice, before smiling as she was at least glad he found someone he trusts. She was reminded of the ice-cold doll-like loli beauty that was Yue, and the supernatural beauty that Hajime considered his new teacher. She has conflicted feelings. Yes, he is her student. But is she his teacher?

"What're you smiling about?" Some weird guy with an eyepatch peeked out the window and asked her that.

Shocked and speechless, as well as panic and fear came to her.

She looked to the side and she recognized the figure.

"What!? Nagu—" Before she could finish, Hajime placed his metallic prosthetic arm on Aiko's mouth to shut her up.

"Don't shout. It'll be a huge pain in the ass if someone finds out I'm here." Hajime said. To that, Aiko could only nod as curiosity and hopeful thoughts crept into her conflicted mind.

Did he decide to come back to us after all!? Aiko thought.

"Before you ask, no. Nothing's changed there. If you want to ask how I got here, well, I'm a synergist so that's a piece of cake. Now, back to business— There's something I wanted to talk to you about... alone..." She got interrupted every time she tried to speak, and tears welled up from her baby face. Having her expectations shattered immediately was quite an annoyance, after all. But Hajime's serious words caused her to take on a wait-and-see approach as she decided to listen.

"I'll keep it brief. The gods of this world are nothing short of demented." (Hajime)

"What...?" (Aiko)

"Do you remember the reason we were summoned here?" Hajime asked. Aiko was so confused that she took five seconds to reply. "To save humanity from the demons..."

"That's right. So why are they at war with each other in the first place?" (Hajime)

Aiko didn't consider that.

Based on the traditional notions from Earth, demons were naturally associated with evil and malice. Most of the students also thought the demons here in Tortus were the same and used their earthly common sense in another world, and even Aiko thought so.

Although humans kill and eat a wide variety of lifeforms, the generally known demons identified as evil spirits seem to only target humans. In a sense, humans were the closest thing to the idea of demons the students perceive.

Hajime continued.

"That's because they planned it all." Contextual clues indicate 'they' as the gods themselves. But things were such a shock that Aiko couldn't keep up.

"I'm talking about the Creator God, Ehit. Ehit is using humans as pawns in a twisted game of war. Long ago, there was another group that had figured this out as well. They were called the 'Liberators' and they could use ancient magic from the age of gods. But they met their end without taking their fight to Ehit. All because of Divine Revelations from 'God'. Everyone labeled them rebels who opposed the divine... and as a result, they were taken down by the very people they meant to protect. They came to the conclusion that they wouldn't be able to defeat the gods and chose to leave behind their powers for future generations who might have a better chance. That is why the seven great labyrinths exist." Hajime finally finished.