ARIFURETA: Cooking to be the Strongest?

On a usual day of the summoned Apostles' Orcus Labyrinth exploration.

The air grew heavy on Orcus Labyrinth's Floor 15.

The enemies were noticeably tougher now, but Shin, Hajime, and the Hero Party still had room to breathe.

"Eat this!!"

Kouki effortlessly mowed down ten boar-like magical beasts, his holy sword gleaming.

"Ora Ora Ora!"

Ryuutarou punched through their thick hides as if they were nothing.

"Phew, as expected, nothing beats a katana's speed and slashing power."

Shizuku, wielding her newly improved katana, sliced through the remaining foes with even greater ease than before.

"Transmute,"

Hajime skillfully created earthen walls to isolate enemies one by one, then transmuted hardened spikes to finish them off, or used his portable crossbow for precise shots.

"Heal."

"Light Protect us, Sanctuary!"

Kaori diligently healed the injured and cast a purification field, protecting them from the insidious corruption of the undead.

Munch~

Shin, on the other hand, calmly munched on ration cookies, observing the spectacle. Periodically, he'd throw daggers with deadly accuracy at enemies attempting to pounce on his friends.

"Take this, you beast!!"

"Help!!"

"I need backup here!"

The other summoned classmates were also doing their best to keep up.

Grr rarr! Kyan!

"Eh~"

Sonobe Yuka, one of Aiko-sensei's bodyguards, stood dumbfounded.

She looked in the direction where the dagger had been thrown, felling a dog-like magic beast that was about to pounce on her. Shin could be seen, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him, casually munching on cookies.

"Uhm, thank you?"

Yuka couldn't find more coherent words, but just managed to thank Shin. Shin just waved at her, his gesture meaning 'no problem.'

With Meld's and the Elite Knights' assistance, there seemed to be no immediate problem, but Shin could clearly see the situation of the other Apostles. So many close encounters with death seemed mentally draining for most of them.

"Thanks, Kaori~"

"Thanks, Shirasaki-san."

"As expected of the Saint!"

Thanks flooded Kaori, but for some reason, her smile felt different, strained even.

"What's wrong, Kaori? Are you okay?" Shizuku asked her best friend, concern etched on her face.

"N-Nothing, Shizuku-chan. I just feel tired," Kaori reassured her, though her voice lacked conviction.

"Ouch!" Hajime screamed. On his arm, there was a little scratch; it seemed he was grazed slightly by the boar magic beast.

"Told you not to go too deep," Shin said, now standing at Hajime's side. Behind him lay the bisected boar magic beast that had charged Hajime moments earlier.

"Hajime, are you okay?!" Shirasaki rushed to Hajime and immediately started healing him.

"I'm okay, Shirasaki-san," Hajime reassured her, though he winced slightly.

Shin, noticing Kaori's excessively worried reaction, decided to intervene.

"Oi, Kaori, are you really okay?" Shin asked her directly, his eyes scrutinizing her face.

"Um, I'm fine, Shin-kun,"

Kaori insisted, offering a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Shin didn't buy that. So he tossed some ration cookies at her to help calm her mind.

Though the cookies provided some clarity, Shin could still feel that Kaori remained restless, and she stayed that way for the rest of the day.

_____________

After dinner, most of the Apostles had returned to their rooms.

Shin was still outside. He preferred the quiet solitude of the castle courtyard under the vast, otherworldly sky. He still wasn't asleep, his mind wandering. It had been two months since the hero was summoned. He gazed at the large moon, so different from Earth's familiar orb.

Two months, huh, he mused.

Now, he wondered what everyone back on Earth was doing. With everything settling into a routine here—daily training, dungeon dives, weapon crafting with Hajime, even baking some extra cookies for tea parties—he questioned if returning was truly possible. He simply didn't trust this kingdom's god, Ehit, to send them back. Shin's instincts screamed that something was fundamentally off with the whole summoning ritual.

Then, out of nowhere, Shizuku came to his side. Her footsteps were light, almost imperceptible.

"What are you doing out here, Shin-kun?" she asked softly, her voice cutting through the night's quiet.

Shin, without missing a beat, responded, "Just thinking."

He paused, then added, "I kind of miss everyone in the orphanage. I'm worried they might exhaust themselves looking for me."

He imagined the worried faces of the younger children, the frantic search efforts back home.

Shizuku, for now, remained silent. She sat beside him on the stone bench, her gaze also drawn to the moon. The orphanage… Earth. Perhaps due to the immense pressure she faced as one of the Hero Party's strongest, or her stout personality, which rarely allowed her to show a "girly" side, she had never truly allowed herself to think about such things until this very moment. The sheer exhaustion from the day's dungeon dive seemed to have worn down her usual defenses.

"It's... hard, isn't it?" Shizuku finally said, her voice barely a whisper.

"To be here. To fight. To not know if we'll ever go home."

"It is," Shin agreed, his voice flat.

"And I don't think this god Ehit, or the church, is being entirely honest with us. If Kouki hadn't blabbered about fighting on the very first day, I might have already dragged all of you out to venture and find a way back ourselves."

Shizuku turned to him, her eyes widening slightly in the dim moonlight.

 "What do you mean, Shin-kun?"

"Think about it," Shin continued, his voice low and conspiratorial.

"They summoned us, but they haven't given us any real details about how we'll return. Just 'after the war.' Maybe we can return, but I won't buy it."

 He leaned forward slightly. 

"And this god, Ehit... he feels less like a benevolent deity and more like... a suspicious entity playing a game. If he is really all that powerful, why can't he just descend and end the demons once and for all?"

He recalled the odd feeling he'd gotten during the summoning, a sense of being pulled, not just merely called.

"The church's devotion is almost fanatical, even for a religion. There's a rigidness to their faith that feels unnatural."

Shizuku listened intently, her brow furrowed. "I've felt... something unsettling too," she admitted, confirming his suspicions.

"Especially around the cathedral. There's a presence... heavy, almost suffocating, sometimes."

Shin's eyes narrowed. "You felt it too? I thought I was imagining things."

He'd spent some time exploring the palace and its surroundings, always subtly probing with his senses during the first day of their summon.

There was indeed a peculiar, strong presence deep within the cathedral, often masked but occasionally flaring. He hadn't pinpointed it, but it felt... ancient and profoundly unsettling.

And then there was a certain Nun, fully covered in normal nun clothes, even concealing their faces. Since the day of summoning, he could sense that Nun was absurdly strong. More than that, the way she moved was disturbingly precise, like a puppet, with perfect posture and timed movements, unlike any ordinary human.

If he compared their current strength to that Nun, he would say they were still far from reaching that level of power.

The air grew heavy with their grim speculations. Shin, deciding to lighten the mood, broke the silence.

"So, putting aside these serious talks, what's the esteemed Class Representative Shizuku Onee-sama doing out here?" Shin teased his friend, deciding to pay back those Akiha-nee style head chops he'd received earlier.

"Who the hell is your Onee-sama, Shin?!" Shizuku pouted, her hand already moving for a familiar head chop.

"Slow!" Shin quickly dodged. He managed to escape the first incoming head chop, but Shizuku, being trained by him and possessing better stats, managed to catch him anyway, landing a clean head chop.

"Ouch!! Okay, okay! I won't call you that again, just stop those head chops!"

"Better be," Shizuku said, a slight smile gracing her lips. Shizuku, who earlier had been consumed by a gloomy and serious atmosphere, now seemed to feel refreshed.

"So, what are you really doing outside this time?" Shin asked, still holding his head from the head chop.

"Well, I'm waiting for someone. Since she'll take some time to talk to a certain someone, I decided to take a walk outside and breathe some fresh air."

"Well, it seems like it's getting late. Might as well retire for the night now," Shin said and waved at Shizuku, then he returned to his room.

As he was returning, he saw Kaori coming out from Hajime's room. Her steps were a little bit jolly, unlike her expression during the Orcus Labyrinth expedition. 

Shin, who also delved in reading some romance genre light novels, influenced by Shizuku to try it and said to read it to learn about romance and girls' feelings, speculated that Kaori and Hajime might have a thing. Not dwelling on it much and deciding just to ask Hajime in the morning, Shin retired to his sleep.

______________

On the other hand, someone was watching.

It was Hiyama.

Why him, why, why, why, why not me!

If not for that goddam Shin, Hajime should not be this strong!

And I am supposed to be at Kaori's side, not the inferior Hajime!

Such thoughts echoed in Hiyama's head as he saw Kaori come out from Hajime's room. Then suddenly, there was something that snapped inside of him.