Somehow, Living Life in Another World is Wrong, as I Expected Ch. 10.1

A beginning and an end. When we talk about anything, these two are constants in everything. Everything begins, and everything will eventually end. This, of course, applies to life in general. Everyone is born to a mother and father, and everyone will eventually die.

However, that is not what anyone is interested in.

When we talk about a beginning, we only see it as the intro, the opening salvo that leads to something worthwhile. You don’t open a book to the first chapter, then the last, then figure you’ve already read the entire thing.

No. Fundamentally, the beginning of a story hooks you in, the end is the eventual payoff, but the real thrill is the events in between. The journey to get to that end. When you are given a reward for doing nothing, some people, like myself, would see that as a blessing in disguise. Nobody wants to do work, yet everyone can appreciate a reward, after all.

But that wouldn’t satisfy the audience. The people watching, reading, or otherwise consuming the story.

I’ve understood that concept for a while. I’ve understood that ever since I couldn’t do much to progress my research in getting back home until Natsuki came along. Something I accepted as inevitable even before I knew who he was.

See, there is always a story. History is the greatest epic ever told, and it plays out right in front of you all the time. But, the thing with isekai stories is this: until the protagonist shows up, everything that happens in the isekai world is nothing more than a prelude. Not even the beginning, just the background setting for whenever said protagonist begins their adventure.

Events still happen, don’t get me wrong. Wars, famines, more deaths than any one person could count.

I experienced it all. Unlike the protagonist, unlike Natsuki, I was front and center entirely because I wasn’t a protagonist.

There is a saying out there, that every person is the protagonist of their own story. That’s true, I suppose.

That doesn’t mean that every story needs to be told.

Nobody wants to sit through a long running school life sitcom where the focus was nothing but the studies. People want drama, intrigue, anything that goes beyond what is considered plain and normal. And most importantly, these events must come constantly. There may be periods of rest in between, but a ‘big’ event will always follow.

That’s why I was certain that it was Natsuki that was the protagonist. Nobody, not even the other protagonist-would-be’s elicited this kind of response from the ‘world story’ as it were. Not Astrea the Sword Saint. Not Juukulius, a possible reincarnated-into-a-pretty-boy case. Not Aldebaran, who I already knew to be in the same boat as I was, albeit, with no want nor need to go home.

Not even myself, when I came to this world, made a difference.

Before, major events were few and far between, with them happening only every few months or so. Even that timeframe was generous, as the most important thing to happen last year was the death of the royal family. This year?

I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the most important event was, and it hasn’t even been three months since Natsuki arrived.

I doubt I would be able to pick from the sheer number once the year was over.

Regardless, all this made me certain that the world really did revolve around Natsuki. Events would continue to spiral into wilder and wilder scenarios, because the stakes need to be raised higher for the entertainment factor. Had this world been more of a joke, where gags and cutaways were the norm, then perhaps that would not have mattered.

It wasn’t though, and that meant a lot. For me especially.

I…am not important enough for a story. Hachiman Hikigaya is a nobody to this world, nothing more than an unlucky bastard shoved into a world that doesn’t care for him. An individual whose story didn’t deserve to be told. And yet, I am important enough to at least be a side character. A supporting character for the main ones.

Maybe, just maybe, if I follow that main character’s story, that would be enough to get me my own happy ending.

…

I eventually left the Forbidden Library when it was obvious that Romanée-Conti was not going to give me anything more to work with. That’s fine by me. I’ve had enough of a conversation with the Cultist to last me a lifetime.

Instead, I started to wander around the mansion, searching for wherever the others had gone. They weren’t in the main dining hall, and knowing Felt, the little brat would need someone watching her if we didn’t want her stealing something from the walls. Or the tables. Or really, anywhere she could fit.

Hopefully, Rom would at least keep her in check.

My target right now was Karsten specifically, Barielle can go pound sand for all I care, in order to discuss our next course of action. I can’t exactly portal us to wherever the Emilia camp was, as I had never been there, and according to Baumann, trying to get there without a guide would only get us lost in the forest. The maid also couldn’t leave due to her obligations, and was probably the last line of defense of the mansion, bar Beatrice herself. Essentially, we were stuck here until the other camp came back.

The question now was whether we should wait here or go back to the capital.

There were issues with both of them, of course. Waiting here would mean sitting relatively close to the epicenter of such a wide scale spell, which also meant being close to the person, or persons, casting it. I did not like that. That brought more anxiety than the Whale itself, since I didn’t fancy freezing to death under a mage capable of rivalling Mathers.

Or, we could go with Romanée-Conti’s crackpot theory that was beginning to look more and more possible: that the snow was caused by Emilia herself.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Hachiman, you can’t seriously be agreeing with a shitty Cultist, right?!’

Well, I might not have a choice. See, I had done a lot of research of Emilia’s identity when she first showed up with Mathers. Truth be told? Nothing really came out of it. She was a ghost that came out of nowhere. All that I knew about her at the time amounted to ‘she came from Elior Forest’ and nothing more.

A silver-haired half elf was uncommon, but not exactly rare. You just don’t see them very often because a lot of them would usually commit suicide due to the societal discrimination, or be killed in some other manner, Cult related or otherwise. For any single person to slip through the cracks was not beyond the realm of possibility, as this world wasn’t exactly the modern world with modern surveillance and birth records.

Puck, though, was another matter entirely.

There is very little you could do to hide the identity of a floating cat spirit with the abilities that he did. It only took me a couple of weeks to realize that I did not want to mess with him, and to applaud Mathers who’d likely known that the cat was the damned Beast of the End.

Anyone who let that thing into their home without so much as a blink must be confident in at least subduing it long enough for Astrea to come in and kill it. In fact, I’d already privately briefed the Sword Saint of the possibility as soon as I found out. Neither of us could guarantee that Puck wouldn’t go rogue, nor did we want to test his supposed magnanimity by asking any sort of questions to the Great Spirit.

But now that that scenario, of a rampaging Beast of the End, was now very much a possibility, my first instinct was to portal straight to Astrea and to tell him to go hog wild.

What?

Tattling like a first grader? Is that what this sounds like?

Well, I’ll take first grade tattler over mid-twenties popsicle, thank you very much.

“Hachiman?” I was distracted from my rather grim thoughts by the woman I was looking for this entire time, “Are you finished with interrogating the prisoner?”

Karsten walked towards me with a small mirror-like metia in her hand. I recognized it as a Conversing Mirror, a particularly expensive long range communication device akin to a mobile phone. It could be used to contact anyone with their own Mirror in hand, and I knew for a fact that Argyle held one other in his possession.

“I am.” I nodded, “First, tell me what’s the situation back in the capital.”

She nodded without complaint, with a particularly severe expression on her face. This was an old, unspoken system we had when discussing matters of importance. Whoever had the more important message would always go last, as we would have to dedicate more time to discussing it anyway, and as such we would often forget about the other’s message if we didn’t do so.

“The capital’s recovery is already underway, since the snow has fully receded from the area. There is some minor flooding due to some area’s waterways clogging up due to debris being brought, but otherwise, this is a minor issue.” Furrowing her eyebrows as her frown deepened, “However, Ferris and the other knights have been informed of some worrying rumors, particularly of the presence of the Great Rabbit and the Black Serpent. While nothing can be confirmed, the Sword Saint has been sent out in order to deal with them in case the rumors are not unfounded.”

“...And let me guess, the rumors come from the complete opposite direction of the Mathers estate?”

“Indeed.”

“Fuck’s sake, seriously?” I groaned in utter frustration. There goes our get out of jail free card, I guess! Anyone with half a brain would realize that the timing was way too coincidental. This was more than likely a ploy by whoever orchestrated all of this in order to drag the one person capable of solving most of our problems out of the way. Karsten’s grimace told me that she clearly thought the same.

“Any chance you could pull some authority around to rescind that order?” I hedged, somewhat hopeful, that we wouldn’t have to deal with a possible end-of-the-world scenario without a safety net. I was disappointed when Karsten shook her head.

“Even if we have a method to chase down Reinhard, the orders were given by none other than the Council. Not even my authority can supersede theirs.”

Goddamn meddling old men with nothing to do but sit and scratch their asses! Can’t you see the bigger picture?! You have just made the entire capital, and its surrounding areas easy pickings for just about anyone! It doesn’t matter if Astrea can delete anything he comes across, when he doesn’t know if he needs to do it or not!

“Shit, I can feel my blood pressure rising from this…”

“Ferris can do a routine check up when we get back. Unfortunately, I might have to join you.” Karsten was actively rubbing the bridge of her nose as she spoke. The headache that was already building had spiked to an unimaginable migraine at this point, “For now, you still had something to say, didn’t you?”

“Right, well, sit down. You’re not going to like this.”

…

By the time I finished recounting what had happened with Romanée-Conti, it was nearing night and Karsten was as pale as I was when I first learned of Puck.

“That is-” I nodded without a hint of amusement at how she cut herself off. Honestly, quite tame for being confronted by the possibility of the Beast of the End waking up. With a shudder, Karsten visibly calmed herself down, and I was once more in front of the Duchess instead of a girl confronting existential dread.

“Right, what do we do now?” Still pale, she looked at me with sharp eyes. I didn’t miss a beat and replied.

“First, we meet up with Natsuki. I can possibly get us through whatever protections Mathers has in place in the forest, so we just need to head towards the epicenter of the snowstorm.” If I just keep portalling us forward, we shouldn’t trip any traps by just going past them entirely. Going only towards the snowstorm would also prevent any loop arounds made by distorting our sense of direction that would otherwise be absent from the regular forest scenery.

Normally, I would have suggested we bring more firepower along. However, if it really was Puck, then a smaller group would be much better.

After all, if we needed to run, I don’t have to worry about portalling too many people to safety. And if it wasn’t Puck, then I can just as easily tell Karsten to tell Argyle to gather a relief force or something then portal them over to us.

“Don’t give me that look. I don’t like it any more than you do, Karsten.” I felt my eye twitch as I saw Karsten scowl, “If it weren’t for the damned Council sending Astrea off on a wild goose chas-”

“Goose…?”

I ignored her.

Why?

Why did the Council send Astrea away that fast? If they were just rumors, they wouldn’t have done anything before confirming the validity. Especially during a time of crisis. So what prompted them to immediately ship off Astrea without so much as an investigation?

There are a few things I could think of.

One, that the Council had personally confirmed that either or both the Great Rabbit and Black Serpent were where they were rumored to be.

Or two, that someone extremely trustworthy had confirmed it on their behalf.

Nothing else other than gross incompetence would explain it if it wasn’t either of those options. And while I may rag on about the Council, Miklotov McMahon would not be so stupid.

Among all of the possible scenarios, all the possible people worthy of the Council’s trust, there was only person that I could think of that checked off all the criteria I could list down. Someone who’d been trusted this entire time, who’d have the capability, in both fiscal and otherwise, to do all of this. Most glaringly, it was someone who was connected to the main lynchpin in this world, Natsuki.

We were sitting in his damned mansion, after all.

The question was why? It would make sense if it was Mathers pulling all the strings, but a motive? A reason? I highly doubt he would do so without s-

“Peasants!” The doors to the small balcony me and Karsten were on were summarily kicked open with a shout. The both of us jumped (yes, it was the both of us, definitely not just me) and readied our weapons. To my dismay, it was no enemy, only an annoyance in the form of Barielle.

“What do you want?” I groused out, annoyed at having my thoughts broken. She ignored my annoyance and only smirked behind a fan, before turning around and raising an eyebrow. She was clearly looking at something in the hallway, which made a set of footsteps sound louder as they practically ran.

“Thanks for the help, Pris!”

Natsuki Subaru finally made his grand reappearance.

…