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Chapter Text

"What the ...?"

Where the hell was he?

Hikigaya Hachiman had just unwillingly stepped out of his comfortable home to get some stuff. He had taken some extra time to get a can of his beloved max coffee to the grocery bag. And now he was on a sidewalk near a fountain with just a blink of his eyes. No glowing magic circle, no sexy goddess in skimpy outfit offering him power to do something, nothing at all. The whole experience was just as unnoticeable as himself.

The road in front of him that was empty, was now bustling with what was either demi-humans or humans with scarily realistic cosplays. As scary as that was, if they weren't demi-humans but people with such realistic masks, then that was even more scary. There was no doubt about it in his mind as he realized what just happened.

"Isekai"

The wonder from Zaimokuza, Hiratsuka-sensei as well as his own eight grader syndrome was inevitable. He was in a dream like world that most likely had magic and different sentient species.

But it only lasted for a second. Then came horror of leaving the familiar and peaceful Chiba without notice for a dangerous place. He was no longer the optimistic child who wanted to live in a fantasy world of swords and magic.

He was hit with a panic-attack that made it hard to breathe. He wanted to do nothing more than just find an alleyway to fold into himself and wallow in his misery.

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He would have done just that but noticing a few looks towards himself stopped his panic. What he hated more than anything was pity, specially from strangers. He took a deep breath and focused on what he
should do.

First he made sure that his foot hadn't moved from the spot. Then he took out the max-coffee from his grocery bag and started drinking it. As much as he hated losing any of it, he deliberately dropped some of it on the ground. This was the only way he could think of to mark the spot without being noticeable. Then he moved around that spot a few times in different ways before giving up with a sigh and sitting down at the fountain a few steps away.

He was holding hope, no matter how unlikely, that he had moved through an accidental dimensional gate and hence the location of his transportation might be a way to return but it failed. Even if his theory was true, if the gates location was not fixed then it was a bust.

He stared hard at the spot with wet marks from drops of his coffee for memorizing the spot in relation to the fountain, just in case it became useful in the future. There was always a chance that the location was right but the gate appeared and disappeared with some pattern in time. He considered marking the spot with a stone by scratching on the pavement but damaging public property so publicly was not a smart thing to do.

Then he looked around for any special looking buildings as reference for the fountain itself which was unlikely to be unique in such a big city. The architecture was surprisingly modern with only a few medieval buildings, something that contrasted sharply with the weird lizard drawn carriages used for transport. He saw a big palace like castle in the distance which confirmed that it was a capital. A noble was unlikely to have such an elaborate castle. It must belong to the royalty of this country.

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Sitting down with noise of the crowd and the sound of water falling from the fountain as his background music, he thought about his objectives. His first thought was to return home no matter what or how long it took.

But was that really the case? He imagined returning ten years after his disappearance. Komachi who would have cried so much at that time initially, would have already gotten over it by then until he disrupts her life again. Same for everyone else who took his request for genuine seriously.

No, that would be unforgivable. He considered various ways to mitigate it like he might appear at the time of his disappearance or some kind of time dilation but he did not consider himself that lucky. Any of these things would mean someone is providing energy to run the world for him by ignoring the laws of physics which was ridiculously optimistic. So he looked at the sun and guessed by his internal clock that time for the planets rotation is around the same here.

"Six months."

He quietly but resolutely told himself that if he couldn't return within six months, he would give up on returning. Until then, he would do everything in his power including risking his life to return at any cost.

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Once his decision was made, he stood up and started walking around with his plastic grocery bag still in hand. Thankfully it had enough food stuff and snacks that he wouldn't be starving today at the very least.

He could hear and understand the surrounding language which was strangely Japanese which gave him further hope in his chances for returning. He saw what seemed like a public washroom on the way but
couldn't read the language. Instead of blindly entering, he waited and observed hence confirming the male and female sections before he entered and relieved himself without any problems.

So the spoken language was the same but written language was different. It raised a few interesting questions. Clearly some Japanese had come here in the past and they were important enough to define the spoken language. He heard screams derailing his thought process from his speculation.

"SHI..."

What he saw was a little boy fallen on the ground in the middle of the road and a lizard about to run him over along with its carriage. There was no hesitation as he instantly dropped his plastic bag, sprinted to the boy and dragged him out of danger.

Thankfully those lizards were fast but not as fast as modern cars so he didn't break his leg. They were still on the road but had minimal risk when an armored knight securely moved them both to complete safety. It seemed that the law enforcement reacted swiftly here at least.

"You are brave young man, very gutsy, but don't risk your life if you haven't trained for it like us."

Hachiman could not see the face because of the helmet but given the plainness of the armor, he likely was a regular knight without any special position. Despite the chastisement and low risk he felt he was in throughout, he was still grateful for some adult wage slaves actually doing their job.

"Thank you Ser. Um, could you get me my bag from the other side of the road."

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The boy thanked him instead of the knight which he tried to correct to no effect. He decided to name the boy Taishi in his mind.

Also the lizards were apparently called ground dragons. The nerve of them.

He saw an apple vendor but decided to observe for a bit instead of getting close to get a feel of the currency.

"Fresh appas."

So not everything translated completely as apple became appa, likely distorted from the source for some reason like the speaker saying apple with their mouth full. No paper currency and coins were pure metal as expected. Copper and such so it was likely standard fantasy setting of Gold and Silver.

Even if they had alloys, melding them into small and precise designs of coins was likely impossible with this technology unlike with metal. There went his plan of using Japanese yen as coin of a different country. Even if it worked, it would bring undue trouble later down the line if composition itself was detected as different.

He then walked into an alleyway and started eating a bread-roll from his plastic bag while contemplating his next action. He needed a library, a bookstore or a mage to talk to if he wanted to understand what happened to him. Unfortunately all these things would likely be monopolized by the rich in this setting like that royal palace.

When he was done eating and started walking back, his path was blocked by three delinquents.

"If you don't wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you've got."

This was a bad situation. The shorty and scrawny aside, the big guy would not be put down quickly with his strength even if he was slow and might be hiding knives. Hachiman had taken some beatings but he wasn't used to fighting. He needed a distraction. He could use the grocery bag but it contained his precious food. He decided to use Japanese coins instead as they were of no use to him anymore.

"Here, take it."

He tossed the coins into the air. Shorty was the fastest and the most greedy as he came running to collect them as they made tinkling noise upon falling. Hachiman came running and gave him a knee to the face, putting him out.

His plan to dash immediately failed though when he discovered that the big guy had retreated instead of advancing at the noise of coins. It wasn't some big brain move to block him, the guy was just a coward. Unfortunately the time spent hesitating because of that had scrawny pull out a knife.

Hachiman's instinct screamed at him to surrender but his pride wouldn't allow it. Just when he was coming up with a new plan for the knife, a tiny blond girl with even tinier clothes came running through the alleyway.

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She jumped around the two delinquents with ease using even walls as the ground.

"Huh. Oh, bad luck. Live strong."

She looked at him, ignored his plight and finally launched herself over the wall to the nearest building. Unfortunately for her, she felt a heavy weight wrapped around her waist that made her slow down. She crashed on the roof instead of landing, just barely at that.

"Ouch, it hurt, what the hell?"

She looked back to see that the boy in trouble had somehow reacted fast enough to grab a hold of her when she was moving at that speed. Once the surprise wore off, she felt angry as not only was he responsible for her scratches but it also felt weird to be held like that for the first time. She was mad enough to go for her knife, only to find it missing.

"Are you looking for this?"

He showed her the knife that he had grabbed, making her a bit scared for her life. She was fast but he could obviously react fast enough for her. Surprisingly he didn't attack her.

"Thank you, you saved me. Here you can have it back."

After saying that, he threw the knife to the next roof. She looked at him curiously then jumped to that roof. After picking her tool, she looked back once again and then jumped away letting the boy take a sigh of relief.

Hachiman felt relieved that he didn't have to fight this roof hopping loli. Keeping his eyes on her was child's play for him but he didn't think he had any chance of beating her in a fight. One mistake and he would be cut in two.

That was clearly magic, some kind of wind element thingy. Good to know that such a thing was possible. Just that there were no stairs to climb down from this roof. There were some pipes and footholds so he was confident of not dying but one slip and he would break his legs.

At this time, a beautiful doll with unnaturally silver hair gracefully landed on the roof. Despite wearing what was basically a cosplay party dress, she looked completely formal. Hachiman rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating, not because of her beauty but because she was being carried by a floating cat.

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Multiple icicles were instantly forming around her and they were very real unlike the illusion he felt around Yukino. They both looked at each other and said at the same time.

"Please return the Insignia you stole from me, it's very important."

"So cats fly in this country? Where do I get one?"

"..."

"..."

"Who are you calling a thief you ..."

"Puck is my father. You can't have him."

"..."

"..."

"Pfft hahaha, his name is Puck?"

"Hey, its a very cute name. Just like me, i'll have you know."

The cat said indignantly but there was no heat in it. At least it was in sequence as a civilized conversation should be.

"Ah, sorry sorry. Its just that Puck is not a regular name for a cat, is it?"

"Cat is just my form. I am a spirit, you knowww."

"Spirit huh. Your temperament is more like a fox than a cat though. What element?"

"Fire. She is my contractor as well as daughter."

So basically found family. He could respect that.

"So why did you think I was a thief?"

"... Two delinquents in the alleyway said that you fought back when they tried to rob you and then a little girl came running and rescued you. She stole my Insignia."

The girl finally said. So that blondie was a thief huh. He started explaining what happened in that alleyway while being unsteady on his footsteps. Being carried with the wind had really shaken him up. If that blondie had been a big buff dude saying 'I am Here', he would have likely deflated and then asked him to eat his hair.

The girl immediately used magic on him which felt like it was healing him.

"Can you tell me which direction she went to?"

"Looks like you are really sheltered. A thief would never go in a straight line to their den so this question is pointless unless you can match her speed. Do you know what she looked like?"

"It happened too fast so I couldn't really see her properly."

"In that case she could stop, walk freely in the crowd in front of you and you wouldn't know."

Note to self. She is powerful magic user with a spirit but weak to thief and assassin types. Was she just unlucky or did someone order the theft fully knowing her abilities? More and more curious.

"Can you get down on your own?"

"I am not superhuman. Can you?"

"Of course. The only reason Puck helped me is because I cannot jump as high as this. He will help you get down as a payment for giving me this advise but don't expect anything more from me. I am busy."

As far as Hachiman was concerned, he had already been repaid with healing so now she was wasting her time instead of continuing the chase. A kind but foolish girl.

"I have a better proposal for you. It seems you are inexperienced so I will guide you on this thief hunt and try to get you to the target before sunset. In return you will tell me about magic for the duration of this hunt. Deal?"

The girl looked at her spirit who nodded.

"I don't feel malice from him, is what I would like to say. I do, but it isn't directed at us."

"... Fine. Deal. But I only know basics. I am a spirit arts user, Puck knows more than me but neither of us know as much as Roswaal."

"Basics will be enough for this."

Hachiman said hiding his shock from the cat's words. I seemed he could only detect emotions but there could be those who could read minds and such. From now on he would have to be careful and avoid an outright lie as much as possible, as there had to be lie detector powers in this world.

==============================================================

They descended in the same alley, Hachiman carried by Puck while the girl just jumped using icicles as her foot holds to slow down and landed while ice skating to diffuse her momentum. The reason they returned here was to get his grocery bag. The other two delinquents were also lying on the ground.

"Did you hit them with ice? I don't see pools of blood though."

"You're mean. I used blunted ice, those sharp icicles are just for threatening others and self-defense."

She said with an adorable pout. He had to hold himself back from patting her head and instead asked.

"Can most people in this country jump from that high?"

She paused for sometime before saying.

"... No. Its because I am a half-elf."

She said that while showing her slightly pointy ears. That explains her beauty, she looked upset though. Elves must be facing discrimination.

"I see. So that is why you have the body and intelligence of a grown up human but emotions of a baby elf because of their longevity?"

"WHAT? Where did you get that from? I am not a child."

"What do you mean? I thought it was obvious! Whether its the defensive mechanism of always pulling out the icicles, or looking for excuses to do the things you want to do. Grown ups do it too but only for self-convincing when there are strong arguments to the contrary. Only when we are children do we do it without reason. You mean this not because you are a half-elf?"

"I am not ... excuses ..."

Was this really supposed to be a secret? She wasn't even on the level of Rumi, more like Kawasaki Keika. He looked at Puck who seemed to be looking guilty. Looks like he unwittingly stepped on some secret land mine. But that would mean her restricted development was a magical curse? He asked to divert her attention.

"By the way, you never told me your name, did you?"

"... Satella"

He felt that if she was going to lie, she should at least put some points into that skill. Even Puck looked at her in shock and then disappointment. Hachiman did not hate her for it though. In this world of magic, there may be curses that needed true name. Now he needed to tell her a false name without lying with a half-truth. Not to mention avoid using her fake name too to not fall into the habit.

"Then I will call you Sa-chan. People call me Hikitani."

The girls expression froze, scaring Hachiman into thinking that girl had lie detector power that was more acute than he realized and his half-truth had been caught. He was ready to apologize or die when she said.

"Its Satella, you know?"

"Wait! I knew you were lying but is it a famous name? That's fraud! Is Satella the name of queen who rules this country?"

"... More like the witch who destroyed three quarters of this world offhandedly. You really don't know anything?"

What witch? That's basically god.

"How did this quarter of the world survive then?"

"The Dragon, Sword Saint and Sage Flugel combined powers to defeat and seal her away."

Puck said while looking at him curiously. So three demigods combined forces to defeat a god and yet god isn't dead?

Wait. Isn't this the backstory of Mushoku Tensei? Three heroes combined to defeat demon god Laplace? Except it was a lie and there were seven heroes, four of whom died in the fight.

"Were there only three?"

Puck looked at him sharply at this. So he knows a lot more than he lets on.

"Forget it. Its Emilia. Just Emilia. Sorry for lying."

The girl guiltily said.

"Lets get going then."

Hachiman knew the thief girl was likely from the slums but he would take his time leading them there. It was both a thank you to the thief for saving him even if unwillingly as well as for his own benefit.

When he said before sunset, he meant he would slow them down instead of speeding the chase so that he can learn from them as much as possible. They would get there right before sunset and then he would get out of there and re-enter the city before dark. He wasn't spending the night in the slums.

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"So I have this Yin magic?"

He didn't understand why didn't they just call it light and darkness instead Yang and Yin! After an overview of basics of magic, gate and spirits, Puck had checked his.

"Yes, the most basic spell of Yin is Shamak. It takes away all senses except touch."

Emilia (name subject to change) said.

"There are prefixes like Al, Ul, El, that can amplify the effects in certain ways but you don't need to learn them. If the current you tried it, your gate would explode and you would die."

Puck cheerfully told him. Looked like he was still holding a grudge about saying too much to Emilia (name subject to change).

"So Sa-san can use ..."

"Why are you calling me that? Also why suddenly -san? My name is Emilia. Or you can call me Lia like Puck does."

"NO! I am the only one allowed to call you that."

"I am not taking a risk in case Emilia is another fake celebrity name, -san because the witch is sealed but not dead right? I want to make a good impression in case she is watching and -chan might offend her."

"I am not a liar."

Not a good one at least, He thought. Perhaps he should believe her name.

"I don't know if you are too brave or too cowardly to say that about the witch of envy. You are definitely interesting."

Puck giggled. Envy though. Was this like the seven deadly sins or full-metal alchemist world? In that case, there might be as many as seven, or even nine witches depending on the lore of the sins. He definitely needed a library.

"Where is the biggest library in this country?"

"The royal palace library is the biggest that most nobles can access."

"Isn't our library even bigger though?"

"Its not ours, it belongs to Roswaal's mansion and yet Betty doesn't even tolerate his presence too much. Entering it would be really risky for you."

A library at the risk of life twice actually. If he could get her Insignia back, he should have enough debt on her to get there. He was starting to waver if he should only lead her or help her to the end. Everything he had heard about this Roswaal made him think that he was a Gandalf or Dumbledore type character with long white beard.

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That was when they found a lost little girl crying and of course the bleeding heart half-elf got distracted. He himself was reminded of the time when his sister had run away from home and he had found her crying in the park. Then he harshly reminded himself that this wasn't his sister, neither the crying girl nor the half-elf.

Emilia tried to console the girl only for her to cry even harder. He considered showing his head-pat expert skill from the 108 filed under onii-chan folder but discarded it. When she looked at his eyes, she immediately stopped crying from fear.

"Are you lost?"

"Mhhm."

"How do you know that?"

"..."

"Were you with mommy or daddy?"

"Mommy"

"Then how do you know that you aren't in the right place, that mommy isn't the one who is lost?"

"!"

"She could be crying just like this somewhere. Do you think we can find her?"

"Mhhm. I'll find mommy."

"What about daddy?"

"Daddy has appas."

Hachiman shuddered. Was he really following some kind of plot with flags?

They took her to the vendor he had seen before only to be surprisingly successful. It wasn't like he was the only appa vendor in the city. Shopkeeper folded up his shop, thanked them by giving them the information about the blondie quickly before he and his daughter went to look for the mother. He also gave them the remaining apples to avoid carrying the weight around. The location was no surprise as he expected the slums but the knowledge of name Felt was still useful.

"See, it all worked out." 'crunch munch munch'

"Yes, and that girl is now traumatized for her mother. There had to be better ways to do this."

Emilia glared at him. He continued eating the apples.

"Maybe, but this was faster and more efficient."

'munch' Free food always tastes better.

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Slums were just like he expected though he hadn't seen them much in Japan. The sun was about to set by the time they found out about old Rom loot house and he was pondering whether to leave her or continue when Puck spoke.

"Looks like my time is up, sorry Lia. I am almost out of mana."

"Its okay. I'll handle the rest."

"Wait, what do you mean time up? What use are you to disappear when you are needed the most. If you had mana shortage, you should have rested instead of playing around all day."

"Its not that. Its about the sun. Anyway, keep Lia safe. Lia, if something happened to you, I'll act according to our contract."

Well that wasn't ominous at all. Puck disintegrated while acting like a dying cat. This was looking like fate wanted him to work with Emilia by taking out powerful spirit from the equation. More importantly, his guilt for delaying her meant that he couldn't abandon her now. He was regretting delaying her this much. He would have kept a buffer of at least an hour before sunset if he knew this about Puck.

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The destination was completely dark. The foreboding atmosphere had him on edge, but he was apparently the only one. She casually strolled to open the door before he held her shoulder and dragged her back.

"What do you think you are doing? Can't you see there is something wrong with the situation?"

"I need to enter to get the Insignia back though! Should I make a fire torch?"

"Entering the house of a speedy thief in this complete darkness isn't wise. Wait, can you make a transparent ice sphere appear on the roof in the form of a hole at the exact time I open the door?"

"How will that help?"

"Moon is out tonight, look. A hole will accept that light and the transparent spherical ball will disperse it throughout the room reducing the risk by a lot."

"That would damage the roof of these poor people!"

"They stole from you! Its not a rainy season and we can fix the roof later if you still feel like it after we have dealt with them."

"Why are you risking taking the lead though? You have already repaid me by leading me here."

"The timing of magic needs to be perfect, so I open the door and you cast magic at the same time. Its just logic."

Hachiman walked to the door held out three fingers for countdown, then opened the door immediately at zero. The complete darkness was suddenly illuminated showing blood splatters, two gory dead bodies of a giant old man having glass stuck in throat with eyes popped out of the socket and little Felt cut in two pieces. Then there was a sexy woman standing in the corner holding kukri knife and a face filled with anticipation of her favorite candy.

The woman rushed him at a speed that made him almost lose her from sight but he managed to dodge outside the house. The only reason why he wasn't dead was that she had hesitated, not having expected sudden hole and light to appear from roof of all places. He would have vomited after seeing what was inside if the danger to his life had not appeared.

Emilia realized what happened and immediately started bombarding the vixen with icicles, sharp ones this time allowing him to retreat. The woman seemed to be a close combat specialist so fighting her in a closed space would have put Emilia at a huge disadvantage. Not only would she have to limit her magic power but the vixen would be able maneuver in three dimensions, even now in open space she was running off walls and stuff.

Even when the vixen's foot's sole was frozen, she just broke it off and continued nonchalantly. She was doing some crazy trash talk with Emilia but Hachiman was not paying attention to that. He signaled Emilia towards the roof and then countdown of three again, at the end of which ...

"Shamak"

He lost almost all his senses, he had never felt this helpless. He felt something, some entity in the darkness approaching him before it all passed. He almost collapsed but was heartened to see the vixen frozen in a big block of ice. His plan was simple, take away her senses while Emilia uses a big one, the spherical ball on the roof being her clue. They had won.

"Hikitani-kun"

She came running towards him as he collapsed and held him close.

"You used too much mana without control, your gate has been damaged. You need a specialized healer."

"Heh, how pathetic of me."

"Don't say that! I would not have won without ..."

And his head separated from his body an instant after he heard cracking of ice.

Chapter Text

Hachiman blinked at found himself back in the market place from the position he was observing the apple vendor. Then he rushed to the bushes and vomited all over it. It wasn't just about experiencing death, that was quick and mostly painless. Unfortunately his experience fused with the visual imagery of what he saw in the loot house but had no time to process made it way too real for him.

What had happened? He was almost completely certain that the vixen broke out of the ice and beheaded him but how did she heal from that level frost bites? No, for a combat junkie of that level to have no scars on her face meant that she had to have ridiculous regeneration abilities, like a mythical monster rather than a human. Only other explanation was that Emilia beheaded him with a sharp ice blade, as he was useless with a damaged gate. Chances of that were negligible though.

So how was he alive? There was always the possibility that he was healed and teleport to here. He could even have been resurrected as an undead, there would be some irony in Yukinoshita's zombie comments coming true. But it seemed too coincidental for the location, higher likelihood was that he was sent back in time. Just in case he focused on his gate which was in perfect condition. He even walked past the apple vendor who saw him but there was no recognition in his eyes.

So this wasn't even an isekai but a game isekai with save points and multiple lives? He could suffer death multiple times?

The thought almost sent him into a fresh wave of panic, but that quickly passed. It was the exact opposite of when he first transmigrated. At that time, his wonder had shifted to panic, but now his panic had turned into joy. He wasn't just reluctantly accepting of it, he was ABSOLUTELY ECSTATIC about it. It wasn't the thought of being able to live at any cost, he would actually prefer death. His will and attachment to life was not that great to endure this physical and mental torture. What gave him hope and joy was the thought that time was being reset.

While he had set a deadline of six months, it had put a lot of pressure on him. It may not even be enough time to figure out the world, let alone finding a way to return home. But now, if there was a treasure hunt in this city that would take 10 days to find, he could kill himself after exploring for a day repeated nine times to find it in just one day. It would be painful and traumatizing for him but nothing is without cost. The more he could reduce his time of return, the less pain Komachi and others would suffer. Even if he had actually mentally lived for years or even decades, it would be worth it.

Unfortunately he did not know the number of lives he had or whether there was a way to increase this number so he could not use this power too much. Now he wondered if this was given to him or was it his own ability. It would make sense if he was summoned because he had this hidden power but he should not assume. He needed more data about whether this ability operated on some logic or if it was for the convenience of some powerful sentient.

Another thing that bothered him was the coincidence of the whole sequence that happened in a single day. An extremely beautiful and powerful teenage girl facing discrimination with her emotional maturity far behind her what her age should be. She doesn't live in the capital, and yet on the same day she visited the city and faced a great crisis, he was summoned. He was now ninety percent certain that he was summoned for her. He still could not tell what the real objective was though?

This reminded him of the old 2D Mario vs super smash bros. It was like he was in a three dimensional world but was only allowed to move in one direction, like a game towards the destination that someone else had decided for him. The conditions of Puck's contract was likely the key. He decided that he would use this power 'return by death' to observe his and Emilia's surroundings at least once if not more times. In the case of multiple stages, he would commit one suicide as a minimum on every stage to find the best path forward and minimize his effective time into this world.

This approach was not without problems. He might have to watch others die like NPC's without interfering. This would be particularly difficult for the ones he personally knew for any length of time like Emilia or Puck. There was a possibility that he only had two lives and suicide meant real death but it was a risk he was going to have to take, whether the summoner wanted him to or not.

Of-course it was possible that even if he managed to return, he could just be summoned back. But as long as he managed to tell them what happened and that he is fine, it would be okay to disappear into this world forever. Even a single letter would do.

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Hachiman walked back to the same alley with dead end that he was previously in. As he expected, he found the three thugs looking that way from the corner of his eyes. He entered and hid around the corner for them to come, confirming the timing with both footsteps and their shadows. He attacked the scrawny the moment he appeared, knocked him down and stole his knife.

He wondered if he should steal from them using the knife as a threat, they likely didn't have any money yet to begin with. Also cowardly big guy aside, shorty looked like he was willing to fight to the death. They both pulled out knives that he hadn't accounted for.

Another thing he did not account for was that scrawny fell outside the alleyway instead of inside like he planned, attracting some attention. Most people cared little except one young man with flaming red hair.

"What's going on here?"

Hachiman looked at the guy and was immediately stuck with the feeling that this was likely the most popular guy in this world. The familiar feeling of inferiority in specs appeared in him that he suppressed.

"Just avoiding getting robbed."

The guy looked at the two sides and came to the logical conclusion. The thugs started trembling when they saw him.

"Red hair and that knight's sword with scratches made by dragon claws. Its sword saint Reinhard."

The thugs were smart enough to take their friend and run once they saw and recognized him, giving Hachiman clues that this person was a bigshot. Not to mention, the name Reinhard was the most knightly name ever like Lancelot. He quietly put the knife into his plastic bag and turned to him to see a smile on his face.

At first the boy had reminded him of a hyper-boosted Hayama with that nice guy smile. He soon realized that this guys smile was real and not the fake mask plastered on that guy. Instead of helping, what made him even more uncomfortable was the look in this person's eyes. The angst suppressed there was a million times worse than Hayama's.

It wasn't a look of "I betrayed my childhood friend, how can I redeem myself". It was a look of "I killed my childhood friend, I cannot be redeemed". The appearance of another protagonist like character meant that all his previous theories and thoughts could be wrong and Emilia may not be as important as he believed at first.

"Those clothes, are you a tourist? On behalf of the knights of this country, I Reinhard apologize for the inconvenience you suffered here."

Woah, so formal. He could almost see illusion of fan-girls screaming 'kyaa' in the background. He found it interesting though that a man of such high pedigree was not using his last name. Family issues then?

"Not at all Reinhard-san. Knights cannot be present everywhere and protect everyone. Otherwise I would be more worried about privacy of this country than security. Its a delicate balance that is well maintained here."

"I thank you for the kind words from a philosopher such as yourself. As a knight of this nation, I shall strive to be more worthy of your praise."

"Knights here are worthy enough. Just recently an armored knight saved me and a child from traffic on the middle of the road."

"Something tells me you were not stumbling there. Did you try to save the child before the knight? That makes you even more heroic than a trained knight as well as humble too."

This guy was starting to look at him with same kind of curiosity as Hiratsuka and Hayama had before.

"So you are the sword saint from the legends who defeated the witch?"

"Of course not. No matter how strong they are, humans don't live for 400 years. Besides, I am just a simple knight unworthy of this title."

This changed things. This man was an anti-status, whether it be from family or whatever the hell this sword saint inheritance was. A rebel in the making who was still stuck in his cocoon.

"Anyway, you must have your duties so don't let me keep you. I wanted to see the slums as well but am too scared to actually go there, so I'll just sit on the edge of the city to see the slums."

"Oh, I am off duty today so let me accompany you. Its a matter of pride of my family and nation."

Well, shit.

================================================================

"Those thugs recognized you."

They were slowly walking away from the center of the city.

"My family is a line of famous sword masters. However I am unskilled and unworthy of that great name."

Translation: I am but a humble big-shot so stop digging you plebeian.

"To me, it instead seems like you don't like your family very much."

"I don't particularly hate them. Though it would be lie if I said that we are as close as a regular family would be. It just feels like the purpose and dutiful nature of the sword saint lineage has been lost and it has just become a tool for advancing our interests."

"Isn't that natural? Purpose always gets diluted over time. We wouldn't be human without greed and power always attracts more power and money."

"Surely its not inevitable? There has to be alternatives."

A man with regrets. Would he have been better suited to return by death?

"Does this status feel constraining for you? Why not just leave and become a wandering swordsman? Surely you have the camping skills to survive in the wild? You can help a lot more people then."

Hachiman decided to drag this man down into becoming a loner like himself as his bad habits resurfaced.

"I can't do that! After everything I owe her ..."

Looking at the impassioned and pained face of the red head, he realized that the source of the trauma was not friend but family.

Big oof!

He wasn't a qualified therapist for this. He needed to change the subject sharply so he channeled Tobe.

"So dude, do you have a girlfriend?"

"... What are you asking all of a sudden?"

"Ah, no, sorry! You probably don't get time to date despite your popularity. Maybe offers of arranged marriage interviews to your family?"

"... I don't want to presume anything but could it be that you came to this country looking for women?"

Reinhard was looking at him in disappointment but also a little happiness of talking regular teenager stuff with someone.

"Hey, no, its not like I'm horny on the main. I just saw a really sexy lady today in the city. She had a mole under her eye too, just my type."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, although she was saying something scary about color of intestines and whatnot, maybe something to do with food of this country?"

Reinhard's expression turned serious causing him to do an internal celebration. Nobody said he could not cheer up this guy and get information at the same time, two birds with one stone.

"Can you describe her appearance in more detail?"

"Oh, she had black hair color as well as black clothes. Now that I think about it, she had a winter type cloak with furs on the neck area in this warm climate."

"Yes, she was likely from the northern province. Stay away if you see her again. She could be the bowel hunter Elsa Granhiert, a famous assassin from the north."

"What? Why would an assassin wear something so showy and obstructive?"

"It must be enchanted for physical, heat and magical resistance and to hide weapons or it would be too uncomfortable for her to wear in this weather. I will go and report this to the royal palace."

Oh, he was also able to send the distraction away! Such a great guy, to never once ask his name. That was three birds with one stone!
================================================================

He was sitting at the edge of the city. The slum houses including the target loot-house were really small and people from slums looked like ants making him wish for binoculars.

Normally he wouldn't even be able to tell two humans (or two demihumans) apart when they were so small, but all his targets had very distinct features. Old Rom was huge, Felt was tiny, Emilia had shining silver hair and Elsa had a distinct presence of a predator that scared the slum dwellers.

The new information he obtained was that Elsa had gotten there for a while and was scoping out the area. Any plans of getting there beforehand and securing the insignia was useless then.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, Emilia had gotten to the loot-house a bit before sunset while the other two were still alive. He did not know whether to be proud of her for getting there on her own or despair at how long it took her.

He started to walk towards the destination to get more details, or he would have if not for the severe cold started radiating from the destination. A huge monstrous wolf-fox thing appeared taking up significant part of the slums. It had enough cat features to just barely identify it, so was it just all the heat in the world being sucked up by one gluttonous cat?

This was the contract between Emilia and Puck, a contract to turn the world into ice-age if she dies. He wondered if she approved of it? He could not see that kind hearted girl doing it, but he could also see her being childish enough to do so.

He quickly took out the knife from his plastic bag and pressed it to side of his neck where major artery to the brain goes through. He hesitated though. Whether it was out of curiosity or fear of death, he himself didn't know but he wasn't able to do it as smoothly as he hoped. His hand were trembling, either from cold or fear of the pain to come.

He saw Elsa having been smashed and individual pieces being frozen in that state but still had a smile on her face as he too started freezing. He could no longer move his hand and when he tried, his fingers broke off and fell with the knife. His lungs had frozen making breathing impossible. Yet he was conscious thanks to the last bit of oxygen in his brain.

The last thing he saw in a semiconscious state was Reinhard running over, confronting and annihilating Puck. It came too late for him and people of the capital though.

================================================================

And he was back to the same boring apple guy with a shiver. He wanted to direct his anger at Puck, Emilia, Elsa, Felt or anyone, but the one who angered him the most was himself for failing in his resolve. He was not able to slice his neck when it mattered the most, going through unnecessary frostbite. He summarized the last run in his mind in a rhyme.

"A bitch, an elf and all destroying cat,

yet a knight's even bigger monster than that,

its a really cringe rap that I have just done,

could I really win a rap battle with someone?"

He wondered if he was going mad as he just went through the motions to enter the alley and steal the knife like before but instead of directing it towards them, he gritted his teeth and sliced the side of his neck after his last words.

"Take this"

He remembered Elsa's last moments and was able to forcefully smile with last of his strength when he heard the screams of the trio resulting in traumatized expressions on faces of all three. This finally gave some peace to his heart, to unload his frustration on someone else as well as confirm that he had the necessary resolve.

Both he and Elsa smiled as they died. That made him wonder if they both had 'the will of D'. Probably not as Luffy would never commit seppuku.

===============================================================

He had seen the apple guy so many times by now that he considered naming him 'Steve Jobs'. After stealing the knife so many times, he had obtained a 109th skill called knife stealing skill.

He found Reinhard but did not call out to him. This guy was a final trump card, like the 'unstoppable Exodia'. The redhead would get there anyway if the battle lasted long enough.

Instead he set out to find Emilia. Once again it wasn't hard to find her given that she was running around the city like a headless chicken.

...

He led them to the slums but did not tell them about old Rom's loot-house. It was also not hard to lead them in a spiral and make them intersect with Elsa. There were only so many locations to keep an eye on the loot-house and it wasn't like she was hiding.

He didn't even have to say anything, Puck instantly sensed her malice towards Emilia and became alert. The inevitable battle started.

There were several hours to sunset so there was no way the cat would lose, even if Emilia was not helping him.

He considered helping them but gave it up out of fear of damaging his gate again. He had no desire to play hero, being heroic had always been a last resort for him.

The response of slum dwellers to this fight in broad daylight was interesting. Most people were running away but he could see some like the giant old man making his way over to them.

Elsa's cloak came off at some thanks to Emilia's spikes nailing it and she was forced further and further on the defensive. It was a completely one-sided fight where neither her, nor her blade ever came close to anyone there.

Once the fight's location shifted a little, he was able to get the cloak and checked it. There were definitely magical enchantments on it so it was an important piece of evidence. There were also 20 gold coins in a pocket, likely to make the trade for insignia.

That made him wonder why Elsa killed those two when she intended to make an honest trade? Was it really to erase evidence, or was she just that out of control bloodthirsty bitch? In the case of latter, the client was no mastermind and did not know what they were doing.

Despite constantly losing, receiving fatal wounds and confirming that she had no chance of winning, Elsa repeatedly regenerated and kept fighting with a maniacal grin on her face. Puck also did not take his demonic form which meant that he likely had restrictions like loss of control in that state.

This continued until they all saw Reinhard running over in the distance. Elsa gave them all one last glare, threw the blade towards him and then ran away.

Surprisingly Reinhard did not chase after her. He could understand Puck as protecting Emilia was the priority, but the knight's job should have been to hunt monsters like that. Just what kind of problems were going on in his brain? Was the reason her gender or the fact that she was running away?

===============================================================

Hachiman walked towards Rom as he knew Felt would also be there even if she wasn't visible thanks to her height, while Emilia was chatting with Reinhard and explaining the whole situation to him.

Staying alert in case Elsa came back as he was worried about how smoothly things were going this time, he showed them 10 gold coins while he had secretly pocketed the other 10.

"Please sell the Insignia back to us. As you can see that the owner is here and you have just seen her power."

"You think you can scare us with that?"

The blond loli asked.

"Yes, but that is not the point. I am paying you to avoid any violence or trouble. Look at those three, do you want to fight them? Because I don't."

"Felt, give it back. We don't need no trouble."

The old man spoke sense into her after seeing the silver haired half-elf, the red-haired knight and the cat. This statement sobered Felt up as well as reminded her that she was playing with things that were way out of her league.

She took out the Insignia but the jewel on it was oddly shining. Hachiman took note of it, exchanged 10 gold coins for it and waved them off.

"Now leave."

"Will they really just let us go?"

"I'll try to stop them from going to your loothouse. Emilia is nice enough to not pursue the matter but the cat is different. And the knight is kind and yet still dutiful enough to arrest you two. Go."

They left but the loli kept turning and looking back at him for some reason. Probably just to make sure that he was keeping his word.

He walked back to the three and handed over the Insignia to Emilia, the jewel lit up upon contact making his eyes narrow.

"Emilia-sama had lost the symbol of royal selection?"

Reinhard exclaimed in shock. So that was the plot? She was candidate to be the next ruler? Felt as well? Good to know.

"I didn't lose it! It was stolen from me! But please don't tell anyone."

Emilia said with a high pitch but her voice lost steam by the end.

"Don't worry, my lips are shut. I know how important this matter is."

Reinhard continued in his noble manner. Hachiman followed after

"Me too. I don't want to die after all."

"I won't do something so horrible. Actually, how did you get it back? You did not hurt the the girl, did you?"

There was a limit to how soft a person should be. Someone this naive could become the ruler of this nation? He internally offered a prayer of silence for the country's future.

"I didn't. I took the money from the cloak and traded with it. That woman left her cloak and money with us. It seemed wrong not to use that money for the purpose she intended."

No one needed to know that he pocketed half though.

Emilia giggled while lightly punching him and then asked.

"Will you come with me? I want to repay the debt for helping me, no, getting it back for me."

Reinhard too looked at him in interest at this development.

"Sure, as long as I get access to a library a few times, I'll consider it repaid. Also, knight-san should take this cloak. It should help in investigation into that woman."

"I promise to look into it."

"No, the one looking into it will be me. Hand over the evidence."

A smooth yet stern female voice interrupted them. Hachiman looked towards her only to find himself looking into amber eyes of a green haired woman with a sword. Was she a female 'Zoro'? It seemed the prolonged battle had attracted more guests than expected.

Her appearance was that of around 20 years, assuming she was human and aged similar to earth. She was wearing military uniform making her affiliation clear along with giving her a no nonsense image.

"Regardless of your strength and status, you have no official authority to process an issue as big as attempted assassination of a royal selection candidate. There are rules in place and boundaries that should not be overstepped. On my authority as Duchess of Lugnica, I, Crush Karsten shall handle this matter."

She was accompanied by an old butler who made Reinhard flinch hard. Was this the legendary 'black butler'? One look at him made it clear he was no civilian butler but a veteran of some kind. Then there was a really cutesy cat girl.

Wait!

Beautiful face and long dark hair!

No nonsense spartan attitude to life!

Accompanied by an anthropomorphic cat!

...

Did he just find Yukinoshita Yukino in another world?

Chapter Text

Sometime during the talk Puck had disappeared even before the woman had intruded which meant that sun had set. Hachiman looked at her and then at Reinhard expecting him to accept the orders of his superior. Surprisingly he didn't.

"I respect your position and integrity, Karsten-sama. However your qualification as a royal candidate creates a conflict of interest in this matter. Hence as a neutral party, the knight code prevents me from just handing it all over to you."

The woman stared into his eyes for a long time, before she retracted her hands. So she was also a candidate? Just how many of those were there? Did they grow on trees? The catgirl beside her said

"You're right nya. If the knight of knights says so, then it will be more credible to have all the candidates for this. Besides if they are targets of assassination as well then it concerns them too nya. Luckily it seems the other two candidates are here in capital as well so we can discuss things in a meeting. So could you two tell your masters nya?"

She directed her head towards two more approaching knights, one was completely in white with violet hair while the other was in a full body armor and one hand with helmet covering his face. So there were four candidates? No, five if he included the unknown one that only he knew about.

"Julius, Al, hmmm. That should be reasonable."

Reinhard also easily agreed this time after nodding towards them. That should have been the end of the matter but unfortunately the two new knights weren't so kind.

"What were you even doing in the slums? That is no place for a young Princess such as yourself to be at."

The armored knight teasingly directed the question to Emilia and yet it was with a voice full of suspicion. He was really throwing off Hachiman as there was no face to observe. Emilia looked like a child caught stealing candy, she really was bad at hiding things.

"I saw the shine of the dragon gem and also heard it. Looks like her insignia was stolen nya."

The duchess and the butler looked at the catgirl in surprise despite having come together. It seemed like sharp cat eyes and ears were at work. This was looking bad for the half-elf.

"Even though this does look bad on the candidate, the bigger issue is the thief. Where is the culprit?"

The violet haired knight asked with narrowed eyes. Regardless of whether he was trying to make things easy on Emilia out of chivalry or just a stickler for rules, this was getting bad for Felt now. It was looking more and more like someone needed to take the fall, whether it was Emilia, Felt, or someone else.

"There is no need for that! It has already ended so we can let it go."

Emilia tried to calm things down but was rejected by Karsten.

"We cannot do that. This grave event shows weakness of not only you, but the country and knight order in general, a result of our complacency and reliance on the Dragon which needs to end. Making an example of this thief with a trial and perhaps even a public execution is precisely what we need wake up the public. Perhaps we could have spared them if you had captured or killed the assassin but now we need a scapegoat."

He had realized by now that she wasn't as much like Yukino as he thought. Her idealism had already been tempered by reality, which make him idly wonder if Yukimama was like that. He knew it wasn't fair that he was associating everyone with people from previous world but it allowed him to stay sane and grounded.

Things were getting really bad though. Emilia could still say that she had only lost it instead of it getting stolen but that would show her as far more incompetent than she actually was, effectively ending her ambitions. If Felt got involved however, her life would be in danger. There was only one person who could afford to die here.

"I stole it."

Words came out of Hachiman's mouth before he could stop them. Emilia wanted to call him out and stop him from lying but she realized that she didn't even know his name. They had never done introductions. But how did he know their names then? Maybe Puck told him?.

"I saw the gemstone and thought that it would sell for a high price. Then I was targeted by the assassin and realized that I was dealing with dangerous stuff. She saved my life so I returned it to her."

The violet haired knight Julius directed an intense glare and moved towards him, probably to arrest him but was stopped by Karsten.

"Your lie is surprisingly convincing, unfortunately it doesn't work against me."

He should have figured that the one time he decided to outright lie, a living lie detector would show up.

"Now why would you risk your neck for the thief? No, prior to that, who are you?"

"I am called Hikio."

He remembered Emilia screaming Hikitani-kun in the first loop and he would be damned if he made Reinhard do the same.

"By whom?"

She smirked upon his surprised face. She wasn't as reliant on her ability as he thought.

"Did you think I would only rely on my ability? I know what half-truths are and they might have worked on me in the past. You would have to be either really lucky or a prodigal genius to fool me now. Now let me rephrase my question, who are you, where are you from and what is your allegiance?"

He had no choice but to completely stand in her opposition now.

"My name and such is irrelevant. All you need to know is that the thief's crime is not big enough for what you are planning so I cannot tell you where he is."

The gender bias he introduced should deflect them from Felt for a bit. It also wasn't technically a lie as old man Rom was involved. He valued a young life of that girl over the old giant and he was sure that the man himself would agree.

Julius did not like this one bit.

"We can catch the thief even without your cooperation. However you shall be punished for obstruction of justice and aiding the criminal."

He was ready to accept whatever punishment came but a blond blur jumped to him, grabbed him and tried to escape making him angry.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"ME? What are you doing sacrificing yourself instead of just selling me out?"

"You should be running if you heard all of that!"

"I don't like being in debt, even my virginity is not enough to repay this."

"Ugh, children should not talk like that."

"I AM 15!"

She shouted. The moment however was lost as the old butler easily stopped their momentum in air and pressed them both to the ground. Surprisingly the butler had reacted faster than any of the knights to subdue them and neither got hurt in the process. In the end they both got arrested despite Emilia and Reinhard's protest.

As Hachiman sat brooding in prison of the palace guard station, he finally had time to properly think about this whole matter. His prior assumptions were somewhat shaken so he reviewed what he knew.

- Someone had ordered Felt to steal the Insignia for royal selection, following which Elsa was supposed to retrieve it.

- The client was someone who had observed Emilia well and knew her strengths and weaknesses beforehand.

- Killing Emilia was likely not part of the plan or Elsa could have killed her with a sneak attack in the city itself and just taken the Insignia.

- Elsa's clothing was enchanted, which meant that there was likely at least one magician involved in all of this.

- The client might not have known about Felt being a royal selection candidate living in poverty and obscurity, Elsa certainly didn't. He couldn't even say if killing Felt was part of the plan or not.

- This meant that the client of this whole mess was intelligent but not smart. There was no consistency and there were moments with ridiculous amounts of stupidity. Unless they counted him in the plan but he wanted to believe that was impossible.

This did not paint a good picture, the enemy was unstable and dangerous. Either it was masterminds in plural with different levels of control, or the person had split personality, or they were receiving orders from someone above them and some of it was lost in translation, or perhaps even all of these things.

For now, he assigned chances to it being one of Emilia's allies playing games, rival royal selection candidates or the whole witch of envy business or anyone else he didn't know.

In short, he might be in a potential enemy's den. He wondered how many times he would die here.

The prison wasn't dark or damp like a typical isekai fantasy setting but surprisingly well maintained. He was also thankful for the solitary cells. To think that even his first prison experience was not as he expected.

Felt was in a nearby cell but they could not talk properly because of the guards. That did not stop her from asking why he risked himself for her.

"It wasn't about you."

He said in a subdued voice.

"I just couldn't stomach the idea of a person being sacrificed and made an example of in the foundation of this country's next governance. If it happened now, it would become a practice for the future. Besides I am used to being the guy at the bottom. I won't just give up that spot to someone else."

Then he asked her something that had been bothering him for sometime.

"Why did you try to escape with me? As far as I can tell as you should have met me only today. Surely the environment of slums does not teach you to have that much attachment to a stranger?"

She stayed quiet for a while to consider whether to answer or not before saying.

"I had a, not exactly a memory but rather, a feeling that I had seen you before. It was much stronger at that moment that I suddenly pictured jumping and you holding onto me. It was impulsive but that's just how I am. I wanted to relive that feeling, see if it was possible to jump while carrying someone as I had never done that before."

Deja Vu.

Hachiman immediately understood that while only he carried the complete memories of other loops, there may be others who carry partial memories or just feelings of what happened. It was a phenomena quite well explored in time-travel stories.

So if he observed someone in a loop and then after several loops, theoretically they should have unchanged response to the same stimulus but in reality it won't be. And it won't just be because of errors in his own actions. They will feel weak vestiges of their experiences even if they themselves don't understand what they are feeling.

If someone had been stabbed a hundred times, they might develop an irrational fear of knives that they did not have before even without the memory of it as if it became imprinted on their spinal nerves. The stronger the stimulation, the easier it is to remember and harder to forget.

Whether this phenomena of Deja Vu was decided by strength of the individual or proximity to him was something he could not confirm at this point but he would bet on the latter given that he was the reason that time was looping in the first place.

Surprisingly he was visited by three supremely attractive women at night, causing the phrase conjugal visit to enter in his mind that he hastily dismissed. One was of course Emilia, the other two were a violet haired lady named Anastasia Hoshin and a blond haired lady named Priscilla Barielle. They had both come to see the criminal who had apparently targeted a royal candidate like themselves.

Priscilla was what you would get if you added Miura and Sagami's bitchiness and multiplied it by a million. She genuinely believed that the world only existed for her sake. From his experience so far, he couldn't even deny her claims if there was some fate thing like that going on.

Having said that, Miura also had many positive qualities like being loving and motherly towards those close to her, to the point of almost being possessive. He wondered if Priscilla's relationship with the armored knight Al was really as lopsidedly abusive as it seemed or if she cared about him like Miura did for her followers.

Regardless, even if there was a good person in there, he had no intention of digging into it. He wanted to stay as far away from her as possible as she would be too much effort for a side quest. Just her presence was killing his brain-cells faster than it killed her husbands. She said that she had come to find anything interesting but both himself and Felt were boring idiots.

Anastasia was cute with a Russian dress up and had some similarities to Isshiki, in the sense that she wanted everything she laid her eyes on. She said she was a greedy merchant who had gained it all with her own efforts and now wanted to have a country under her. Even if she succeeded, he doubted her ambitions would end there.

He could tell that winning her over would be easy by just revealing some other-world inventions to her, though he doubted he could make them from ground up given how much he sucked at math and Sciences. There was one thing she told him that really caught his interest though.

It seemed that this world was surrounded by a great waterfall that no one had explored. This gave him another avenue to explore for jumping worlds aside from space based dimensional magic.

Anastasia's camp was literally a kennel for cats. Child like cat demi-humans were running around making a mess of the food they ate and teasing him for no reason. Even as a cat person, he found it distracting given how lazy and quiet his Kamakura was. It perfectly balanced out her overly serious knight who seemed to have a stick up his ass.

He was also tempted to join her if it allowed him finance and transportation to get to the waterfall. Even though her Kansai dialect did irritate his proud Japanese literary sensibilities. Why were there multiple Japanese dialects anyway? It strengthened his theory that multiple Japanese people had come to this world at different times.

What stopped him was his experience that told him that if he helped her even once, she would stick to him like glue till the end of time and constantly make him take responsibility.

Emilia's visit was the most important one though.

So far he had thought that the insignia with the dragon gem and the whole royal selection was to choose and heir to the current ruler. Maybe they could not have children? How wrong he was!

He didn't know that there was no current ruler in this palace and that the entire royal family had secretly perished just recently. There was no way this was not plotted. His priority was finding a way back, instability in this country would get in the way of that and the whole murder mystery will at most be a side-quest.

That was the reason why he hid Felt, not just save her life but to also delay the chaos. They were free to kill each other once he had achieved his objective. But if there was already an empty throne, then his decision was wrong and the chaos had already started.

"I'm sorry! Because of me you got involved in all of this."

Emilia was seriously apologetic which was good for his plans.

"Don't be. I don't blame you or even that Karsten woman given how serious this situation is and how suspicious I am."

"But why did that girl try to run with you?"

"..."

"Why did you protect her? Didn't you meet her just then for the first time?"

Emilia said with a pout. It was good that she had it in her to have at least that much suspicion.

From everything he had seen from her so far though, she would have likely done the same thing, only with much less efficiency. She put half her efforts into helping others, and the other half into hiding that kindness. He had no answer for her so decided to distract her with his own question.

"Can you guess who sent that assassin?"

"The witch's cult."

Instant answer. And with hatred that chilled him to his bones.

"The witch's cult? People actually worship her? No. Given her strength, its natural huh."

"Nothing about them is natural. They are a bunch of crazy monsters who don't just kill innocents, they enjoy it and make spectacles out of it."

This was the first time he felt such negative emotions from her. But it made the possibility much less likely. Elsa was way too proficient and low profile to be a mad cultist. It did not look like she had any intentions of hanging their corpses as spectacle. It was also concerning how Emilia didn't even consider other possibilities like rival candidates.

"We'll just deal with it as it comes then. There is something else that has been bothering me. Do you truly want to be the ruler?"

She turned pale, which was really something considering the regular complexion of her skin. Looked like he hit the nail on its head.

"Why? Why would you ask that?"

"No, its just that I do not sense any such desire from you. You seem like someone who likes peace and quiet rather than responsibilities, a bit like myself actually. I thought I was reading the situation wrong but meeting the other candidates and contrasting them has made me even more certain."

Emilia pondered for a bit before giving a guarded answer.

"This is something I need to do. I cannot tell you the reason why but becoming a ruler is important for achieving my dream. I know its selfish but its the only way."

Although she said that, she did not seem confident. It felt to him like she herself didn't know what becoming ruler had to do with her dream, a singular dream rather than dreams of riches and such. At this point, he was certain that she was being manipulated. Was it some kind of hostage situation?

"What about you though! I will clarify everything tomorrow and you will be free."

"Don't be stupid, that would be a big stumbling block to your ambition."

He scolded her before she could do something reckless.

"No. I only need one favor from you ..."

The next morning, he was presented along with Felt in front of the palace. There was a vast crowd of not only hundreds of white knights but also thousands of citizens of the capital.

Crush Karsten had really gone all out for the spectacle part. She seemed to be the main official of the trial. Even some important old men with wise looking faces and weird eyebrows were present.

While it was mostly as expected, there were still surprises. The surprise was in the form of Felix dressed in white. This meant that either knights allowed hot cat girls to join them, or Felix was male. Surprisingly it bothered him very little when he compared him to Totsuka.

"Heh, suck it fantasy world. Our trap is better than yours."

Chapter Text

If he was expecting wisdom from the people called the sage council, he was dreadfully disappointed. They were gossiping like middle aged wives, worse than the civilians of the city that were watching.

Succession ... dignity ... bla bla ...

... half-devil ... bla bla ...

They had already decided that Emilia was unworthy of the crown. He agreed but not for the reasons they said. His first impulse had been to defend her but he stopped himself. He was no hero and he definitely didn't want to be her hero. He remembered how his smart plans had worked during the student council elections or Rumi but backfired when it came to the original purpose. She needed to go through this on her own.

Of course then the real purpose and culprits for the trial were revealed by the coldly smirking duchess. The sage 'peanut gallery' council still did not stop gossiping.

gutter rat ... stinks ... bla bla ...

They however froze upon seeing him making him sweat.

'What happened? Don't tell me they recognized that I am not from this world? Is this my proper Isekai debut?'

One of them stood up and pointed at him with trembling hands.

"A fish-eyed demi-human! To think they actually existed."

"..."

Hachiman really felt like slapping the guy repeatedly.

"This is the first time I have seen one. But he has no other fish features so his bloodline must be very thin. He is mostly human."

"His clothes are also weird. Do they work in water?"

He should have been more angry but the fact that the green haired woman was more irritated than him was really satisfying.

"QUIET. Lets focus on the matter at hand, shall we?"

Hachiman was standing there with Felt, trying to discern everyone's objectives. How much of the hate and disgust directed towards Emilia was genuine? Genuine huh. He smiled upon remembering what he wanted even if it wasn't pretty.

From what he understood, hatred and fear were emotions that weren't maintained through centuries, they either increased or decreased. No matter what the witch did, it was only a scary story for the current generation. The fact that silver hair itself was not a taboo was proof of that. Most likely the sage council was playing it up for their own benefit.

A seemingly great idea came to his mind to accurately gauge their intentions and how far they were willing to go for it. What if he were to pretend to be Emilia's enemy and attack her to find everyone's reaction to it? Of course he would not succeed even if he wanted to and would get killed by someone, most likely Puck. That should be a great and informative sacrifice on his part.

He abandoned the idea at the next instant though. Komachi, Yukino, Yui and others would be disappointed in him. More importantly it was not full-proof as there had to be people who could cripple or capture him instead of killing him if he tried a stunt like that.

That just left the original plan.

He took out the Insignia that he had borrowed from Emilia last night and placed it on Felt's hands for everyone to see. The shock of the shining jewel was enough to shut everyone up and the stage was his.

It was easy to see from Felt's expression that she was in turmoil. He could have warned her beforehand but he considered that having authentic reaction on her cute face would have more impact on the public. He mentally apologized for using her like that. He did not dare to look at Emilia, sure that she would have a similar reaction.

"The person you have been calling a gutter-rat until now is one of the candidates to be the ruler of this country, same goes for the one you called half-devil. Insulting them is insulting the dragon and his judgement. So should I assume that the sage's council has already cut ties with the dragon?"

Timing of this was very important as playing your card second was advantageous in this matter. It had to be after all the insults had been spouted as the shock factor would give them the upper hand. If this had been revealed before, peoples emotions would have already settled down by this time giving the council more free reign.

The focus was now flipped onto the sages council. The Dragon had a huge role and its covenant was a moral support even in its absence. The council would lose support if they openly continued to insult the candidates after this.

Having said that, they weren't completely cornered. Once they got over their shock, there were many ways to counter it.

"We do not doubt the greatness or intentions of dragon-sama but what if the gem did not distinguish between good and evil, only power? What reason could there be to risk repeating the tragedy of the past by accepting a half-devil?"

"Then let me ask you, is the witch dead? If she comes back, who will stop her? The dragon and the sword saint are there but where is the sage? I have been sent to guide her so that she can be replacement for the sage in defense of this nation. A diamond to cut diamond if you will."

"What? Who are you?"

It was time to take advantage of their own baseless speculations.

"I am a part-koi-fish demi-human from the great waterfall."

Whether this would help ally him with demi-humans or would they be wary of a type they had never seen before, he didn't know. Regardless it would definitely cause some alienation from humans.

The reason why he was confident of there being no purely aquatic demi-humans was that it was physically impossible. He had seen a lot of reptilian and mammalian demi-humans and there might even be amphibian types but having gills and such would make survival on land impossible. That made him wonder if there were mermaids and sirens in this world

"Koi-fish? What is that?"

"Its a school of fish that swims against the flow and jumps up the waterfall. Legend has it that by completing their trials, they can evolve into dragons. I am apostle of the dragon."

This was a really risky maneuver for him. Crush would have likely become his enemy if she couldn't tell with her ability that he was lying. Thankfully she could and became curious about him instead. While she did not like being made to look like a fool, she could appreciate the selection process finally starting for real.

Also before anything could occur, something happened beyond even Hachiman's predictions.

"I Reinhard Van Astrea pledge myself to be the knight of the youngest royal candidate, Felt-sama."

Now with the handsome redhead on one of his knees before her, the helpless little girl had suddenly become the greatest challenger, at least when it came to the firepower alone. A simple trial had transformed into official beginning of the royal selection process that would go on for over three years.

Reinhard's action came as a shock to all including Hachiman, but on second thought he really shouldn't have. The boy had been disillusioned by his family and the noble society in general so something outside of it would be very attractive to him.

While it was beneficial to him at the moment for completely countering the council and keeping Felt safe, that may not be the case in the future. He had just given a volatile little girl who had been suppressed by society for all her life with absolute power. It might end badly. Hopefully he would have left the world by then.

The redhead came over to thank him.

"I am in your debt for finding and protecting milady until now which I want to repay."

"No need to be so formal. And don't worry about the debt. I am not someone who works for free. I will definitely make you repay it someday."

"Naturally my friend. Its a shame that you cannot join our camp. Felt-sama would have been happier."

"I have my own objective. Its not impossible that I may join you in the future."

Behind Reinhard, the little loli candidate looked like she wanted to say something, whether it was to thank him for saving her or scold him for surprising her. Regardless he preempted her.

"You came back to save me too so we are even. We will meet again."

She nodded and thankfully refrained from hugging him as neither were used to such and that was the end of the incident.

Chapter Text

With the matters at capital resolved, he and Emilia booked a ground dragon carriage to return to the Mather's estate. Well, return for her, he had never actually been there.

Nothing of importance happened before they left except for a change of gaze that he felt from the armored knight 'Al' upon seeing his plastic bag. He could not be certain because the man's face was covered. He kept it in the back of his mind that it could mean certain possibilities, though he hoped not as he had no interest in dealing with that bitch of a blonde princess that he served.

He had also promised Felt that he had no intention of joining Emilia's camp immediately and would only make a decision after visiting her later at the Astrea mansion. So she should do her best in endeavors if she wanted to pick up stragglers like him and bring them to her side. Library was his first priority as he had no intention of being a blindly led around isekai protagonist.

They were traveling along the regular road. There was apparently a shortcut that would take a lot less time but the carriage driver said it was desolate, dangerous and the path was unpaved road making it not good for carriages. Well, it wasn't like he was in a hurry.

"Are you sure about not joining any royal camp after making such a big scandal?"

Emilia asked him while eating some dry bread. Evidently she hadn't lived the life of a spoiled princess if she could eat frozen stuff like that without a grimace. Or did it have something to do with her magic?

"I am a scholar. Knowledge is my first priority, the power plays of your country come second and only as far as they effect my life."

"I have never seen someone as uninterested in everything as you. Its like you are not even a part of your own life. Like you are watching everything from above."

"Heh, I wish that was true. That would make me like a god. Or a witch, I guess. No, as a man would warlock or demon be a better term?"

"..."

She turned quiet. He took the chance to ask the carriage driver if he could learn to drive as well but was rejected and scolded in very colorful language making Emilia giggle. He had forgotten that he was not in a tutorial where NPC's would be all helpful. Red faced in ducked back inside to resume the conversation.

"The trial took too much of day time. Sun has already set, not only an ideal time for any bandits to attack but Puck won't be there to help us."

"I'll take care of anyone who attacks us, don't worry."

She said with bravado but became a bit tenser all the same. They continued like this for a while until the carriage suddenly crashed along with the ground dragon and the driver.

He too might have died if Emilia hadn't embraced him and jumped out like a superhero. He felt pain in his heart, not for the driver but the ground dragon. Why did animals have to suffer for them?

His breath stopped as he looked around to see the creepy sight of being surrounded by hooded figures. His head had blanked but Emilia's had not.

"Witch's cult ..."

She immediately fired icicles with gritted teeth. These people were fast but not nearly as much as Elsa or Felt. In just a few minutes of combat, some of them had been impaled while others ran inside the forest with Emilia chasing after them.

"That idiot, this is clearly a trap."

Hachiman facepalmed as he ran after her. They were clearly after her and likely knew about her strength. It made no sense for such weaklings to attack her without any plan. He knew he wouldn't be of great help in combat and might even hinder her from using large scale magic but just having knowledge would help him if he died.

He could not keep up with the ice-skating girl but it served well enough as a trail to her destination, a cave. He entered huffing expecting to see her stuck in some trap but relaxed as she seemed fine, at least physically. In front of her was a super ugly guy with green hair and priest robes.

Emilia seemed frozen in time, her face looking like she was seeing a nostalgic face and yet could not really remember where she knew him from. A single word slipped out of her mouth as she grabbed her head in pain.

"... Geuse ..."

Juice? Hachiman stupidly thought that she was thirsty at a time like this.

The green haired man who seemed to about to make some grand villain speech with his twisted face also froze in time.

"... YOU, YOU DARE TO SAY THAT NAME, WITCH! DO NOT USE THAT WORD FROM YOUR DIRTY MOUTH."

Nothing visibly happened but some invisible thing struck her as she was sent flying and crashed into the opposite wall. The man looked at him and his anger suddenly disappeared replaced by a smile. He wished he could show it to his clubmates or classmates, they would never again call his own smile as creepy.

"Given how much you are sweating from running all the way till here, you don't appear to be slothful. Will you teach her that my name is Betelgeuse Romaniconti-DES. To shorten it like that is very slothful of her. Only one person is allowed to do that."

Hachiman wanted to shout at him or attack him or check to see Emilia's state but he had higher priority. This man was crazy, which made him dangerous but also opened avenues to collect information compared to sane enemies.

"Forgive me for not teaching her that. I'll do it right now. In fact I'll also tell her of the greatness of the only person allowed to shorten your name if you tell me about them."

"Ah, you truly are not slothful, to go into such detail in educating people. In fact you even have such strong scent of her love. Pride is the only vacant position, could it be you? But then where is your gospel?"

"... I had to keep it hidden in case she saw it. I was tasked to bring her over here to you."

"Such diligence, I can see why you are so loved. But don't worry, I don't want Emilia-sama's name coming out of her filthy mouth."

Hachiman looked at him gobsmacked. He could have been smarter but his mouth had a habit of running faster than his brain when confronted with too much stupidity.

"This is Emilia ..."

"LIAR, DO YOU THINK I CANNOT TELL APART WITCH'S VESSEL AND EMILIA-SAMA?"

The next thing he knew, he felt all four of his limbs getting gripped and twisted by an invisible hands. He screamed in pain like he had never felt before. Then he was dropped to the ground as he saw a huge ice block fly over his head. It didn't hit the target though and was shattered in mid-air. Emilia was up from her nap.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

"Oh, is he precious to you? Then instead of ripping apart your limbs, how about I make you fight him?"

The next thing he knew, his body was moving on its own to attack Emilia, his mouth twisted as a foreign presence invaded his mind. Not that he could do much even as a puppet with his limbs already damaged. With the last of his strength he whispered.

"Shamak"

Just like before, he felt submerged in darkness as his senses were cutoff. And yet he could somehow see the outline of invisible hands in his mind. He projected the looks and feeling of Emilia as strongly as possible, not for any reason but to sense and get away from her. The hands felt that projection in his mind and froze. Then it silently receded along with the darkness.

He looked around to see Emilia standing around not capable of attacking him while Betelgeuse seemed like he had lost his soul with tears flowing from his eyes.

"How? Why? Why? WHy? wHY? WHY? WHY?"

He looked twisted and deranged as he looked at Emilia, then shook his head as of to clear an illusion and jabbed fingers of his very visible regular hands into his eyes. Then he ran away from there, blood leaking from his sockets.

Hachiman watched him till he disappeared before blacking out from the pain of his twisted joints. His last thoughts were if this was too easy and he could call this a zero death victory stage.

What he didn't know was that Duchess Crush Karsten and her camp had gone along the shortcut path that he hadn't taken based on a sudden information. There they faced the alternate obstacle named white whale and got annihilated.

Chapter Text

Hachiman could not feel his limbs, the pain was gone but it was like they were not even connected, like some foreign entity.

"Its because they are being healed."

A very handsome man was sitting in front of him.

"Twisting damage is harder to deal with than cuts. Healing uses blood as a medium so damaged joints need to be set right first before using magic."

"Uhm, thank you ..."

'Wait! Green hair. Shit!'

"Are you the son of Betelguese!"

"... I am Betelguese."

"..."

The mood turned awkward. He had to say something to fix this.

"You've aged well."

"... Its a mental projection. Its how I view myself, how I would have been. Besides, I am a spirit, earth elemental one. My outward appearance is but a reflection of my mental state. But that's a moot point. I can communicate with you like this only because I am still possessing you."

His heart tuned cold. It looked like the torture wasn't over yet.

"So why are you not making me play twister?"

"What's twist... , no that is not important. I have regained my sanity but it may be temporary. You should find someone to purify me from you. I don't know how to end my possession anymore than how to separate myself from the witch factor. The only solutions I know are for one of us to die."

"By witch factor, do you mean those invisible hands?"

"They are called unseen hands, the sloth witch factor. It was entrusted to me to keep it safe along with the elves. However I ended up using it after being cornered, despite the fact that I had neither the knowledge, nor the compatibility to use it. This is a just punishment for my sin of betraying that trust."

"Huh, I don't know what is going on but how about you come over so that we can figure out how to keep your sanity?"

"No! I cannot be in presence of Emilia-sama. Not only am I too ashamed to face her but I can only see her as an enemy despite her being my most precious person. Blinding myself allowed me to somewhat beat the illusion but its still too dangerous for me to be anywhere near her."

"That's right! You blinded yourself didn't you! Are you going to be alright?"

"Its not a problem. I can regenerate my eyes but I won't. I can sense anything that is touching earth perfectly without eyes. It is a problem against airborne targets like the whale but my hands would have been useless against it anyway. I mean they are numerous and flexible but they are just hands in the end."

Whale? In the sky? He immediately wondered if there was some sharknedo thing going on but there were more pressing issues.

"I see. I assume you are connected to Emilia in someway? She seemed to know you but also not."

"So she doesn't. I do not know if that is good or bad. No! Its bad! Its fine for me but she has to remember her mother. But she is her mother, wait, no she is not ... Ugh. That's a witch, no, that is a different witch. No, no, no, My memories are all jumbled up, so don't trust anything I am saying."

So someone was using the common term witch to pass off their actions on others? He was reluctantly impressed. It was something he would consider doing.

"I won't. I will keep these things in mind but take them with a grain of salt. So tell me everything you know. Who did this to you, all of you?"

"I can't talk about her, there is some kind of taboo, I think. Just know that her servant, Regulus Corneas is the archbishop of greed and is much stronger than me."

"... That's scary. Its better then to be low profile for now, I guess?"

"Its pointless. The moment Emilia-sama was publicly revealed as a candidate, the wheel started turning. That is why the whale and I were mobilized, there is no going back from this. I would suggest going after archbishop of gluttony instead. If you can defeat him, you may be able to avoid dealing with whale, rabbit and snake. They are just animals driven by instinct and directed by witch factor, they are not smart enough to be inherently evil."

"If you say so."

"I will go into hiding. Hopefully I can be of use to Emilia-sama with my death. I can now relax knowing that she has someone like you by her side."

Was this the good old parental shipping cringe thing? Hachiman wanted to say that he hadn't yet decided whether to join her camp or not. He kept his mouth shut knowing that provoking someone at the edge of sanity would not be a wise course of action. Additionally when the person was suicidal.

"... About that, I have a suggestion. How about you remove the 'sama' and just call her Emilia? From what I have seen from her, she would prefer that. More so if you are someone close to her. Wouldn't it be a much greater sacrifice to overcome your madness and live so that she may get to know you again?"

Betelguese looked at him in confusion, probably wondering why say it with this timing.

This was important for Hachiman as it reminded him of how he used to put Yukinoshita on a pedestal. There were times when she deserved it and times when she didn't, but it never did her any favors.

"Remember that its easy to twist admiration and worship into admonition and hate. Love towards innocent children is much harder to twist into anything, particularly if you have no expectations of them. If you can see her as just Emilia and not whoever you are projecting onto her, then the spell placed on you might break?"

Betelguese stood with a gaping mouth, as if the secrets of the universe had been unveiled before him.

One regret he always had was staying away from her for so long before tragedy had come knocking with the name of Pandora. If Emilia had not been an adventurous child, he might have never even gotten to see her.

If they had allowed her to live as a normal child and played with her, then she may have never become interested in the seal. He could have had years with her if only he saw her for who she was rather than seeing her as his salvation.

"Thank you. I will try but it will not be easy. The shadow of those people is too great in my heart ... but perhaps it is time for me to stop living in the past and look towards the future. Well then, take care ... of Emilia ... sama."

Hachiman slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times to shake off the blurriness.

Emilia was nowhere to be seen which was expected for him given how busy she must be, but there were twin maids standing at the foot of his bed. Did this Roswaal have a twin fetish? He decided he did not want to know or his thoughts would spiral into R-rated content.

The blue-haired one was looking at him coldly with a guarded face, while the pink-haired one looked smug for some reason. Before either of them could say anything, he heard the words of an irritated child coming from his bedside.

"You are finally awake, I suppose. After wasting so much of Betty's time in healing you, I hope your next injury happens too far from here to be brought to us. Betty will go back to her peaceful secluded library, I suppose."

There was a blonde drill loli sitting by his bedside.