Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 39

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 39

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Shaderic

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On one hand, everyone came back safe and uninjured.

On the other hand, an actual monster was heading Ylstu’s way.

“Describe it again, Sayuri.” On my map of Ylstu, spread across the table, I had all my forces arrayed as well as the Royal Guard Roseanne kept stationed. Compared to numbers I used to command, I had far less troops than I was used to while defending Ylstu, and also on the opposite side of the river. Thankfully, what troops I had now were far stronger, better than what I had while I was desperately trying to stave alive throwing bodies at my opponents until they died. “Don’t forget a single detail.”

The problem was that one of the most veteran warriors in Ylstu was telling me that I was about to run away, while leaving behind a covering force, so that I could escape into better-defended territory.

On the other side of the continent.

“Lord Hikigaya….”

“Sayuri, I’m not going to repeat myself.” I felt it returning. Old habits were resurfacing, since I was now facing a “familiar” foe and was once again on the backfoot. Ur was looking at me worriedly already and I had to wave away her concern and take a deep breath, before I returned to being nothing more than a man who fed armies into a meatgrinder and turned the handle. Despite my attempt to calm down, I still had to speak through grit teeth, so that there would be some emotion whatsoever in my voice. “Tell me what you saw again. Please.”

Sayuri hesitated, until Kurama spoke.

“Sayuri, your lord has asked something of you. Serve him properly.” Though Kurama’s words could be deemed innuendo, the Kitsune’s words were cold and her gaze steely. Disapproval leaked from her every pore, and the room noticeably grew warming and just a tad brighter, as my wife-to-be grew angry at her subordinate disobeying at order from me. I appreciated the support, even though I’ll have to repay her later through some way or another for it. She’ll ask for an arm and a leg, since her contributions to Ylstu are beyond what expected of her, but I’ll pay whatever price I had to for now. “Or, I will find another who will.”

There were a lot of other gazes on Sayuri due to her actions. From the shadows, the Onimusha was being glared at by the Kunoichi, and each one was obviously ready for a fight to occur. Then, of course, there were those I kept around me. Henri was practically countering Kurama’s fire with her own frosty glare, while Ashe was growling and barely stopping herself from coming alight. Ur and Kae, even though they saw the Undead Warrior as a masterful fighter, had on faces more suited for battle. Their eyes dull and evaluating her like a carcass that needed to be taken apart.

Reiser wasn’t allowed in the war room, so she couldn’t join in, but A’Bel made up for her.

My Demon was just smiling and serving tea, but the way her smile didn’t reach her eyes and bared her mouth of fangs told Sayuri everything she needed to know.

So, in the end, despite her best intentions, I forced Sayuri to speak against her will by leveraging my influence on everyone else in the room.

Unfortunately for you, proud warrior, you had to fight an absolute scumbag instead of a decent person. Fighting my own battles? Why would I do that when I can get other people to do it for me, y’know? 

“Very well, then, I should have known cowardice is unknown to you, Lord Hikigaya.” That’s completely, utterly wrong. Just look at my outfit. Don’t you know cowards dress to impress and intimidate, because they’d look pathetic otherwise? I’m a massive coward. It just so happens I can’t afford to lose Ylstu. Therefore, I can’t afford to do what I want. “I will retell my tale. Please, use it as much as possible in order to create a path which I cannot even fathom.”

Sayuri bowed her head and began to speak. When I saw that more than a few glares were still being sent her way, I gave a simple, swift slash of my hand to attract their attention and shook my head at all their gazes. I had to fix my fake glasses afterward, but my Otome Game Villain costume remained in perfect order after I did, since I once again had control of the room after my actions.

Just in time for long winded exposition.

“I believe we are fighting an insane, rampant Undead warlord who can cast terrible magics, defeat warriors in single-combat, and revive the dead to her bidding.” Sayuri pointed at the two possible passes in which the Empire could move troops through on the map. “It is on a warpath into Ylstu, scouring Empire soldiers and patrols whenever it meets one, and strengthening its numbers with familiars skilled in combat and armored in mystical armor.” With her pale, blue finger she traced the most direct path from the passes towards Ylstu. “It will avoid the roads, disregard defenses, and collide with the city no matter what is done. If we are to fight it, I suggest that we at least evacuate the citizenry.”

Or not. 

That might have lacked some details, but it was actionable and let me bring to mind important questions. 

However, before questions, I needed to get to work.

“Kae, are all the Amazons in the courtyard?”

“Yes, my Chieftain!”

“Then, start preparing all who are incapable of fighting to leave. Those who want to be idiots and ride this out can go start taking stores into the Dwarve’s hold. Help guide everyone else to the border. Make sure they pack lightly.” Kae’s gaze was narrow as she did her best to keep up with my words. I wanted to tell Ur to do all these things, but I needed her listening and ready to relay information to the other Amazons later. As always, they were going to be integral to my future plans, so I couldn’t use them without thinking. “I don’t want anyone slowed down by anything besides the essentials. Food, water, and some shelter. That’s it, even for the merchants. Tell them all to keep themselves alive.”

“It will be done, my Chieftain.”

I was tempted to tell A’Bel to help her, but I was sure Ur’s second in command had more than enough experience to deal with the issue, so I moved on without telling my Demon to do anything more.

Now, the only problem was fighting what was practically a “force of nature.” If an opponent can raise the dead, didn’t care about defenses, and wouldn’t stop for anything, curtailing damage, and finding a way to withstand it is the priority. Of course, in this case “withstanding” the impending natural disaster is staying home and making sure that water doesn’t leak into the house, but instead killing the source of the problem, before it escalates into a problem that can’t be solved.

And, gathering the components to solving that problem is my one and only job now.

“How long before you think this reaches us, Sayuri?”

“Over the course of my investigation, I followed the band for many days, and found them to be very swift on horseback. Only battles slow them, and they ride towards Ylstu the moment one ends.” Sayuri leaned over the map, but instead of it being only a cleavage shot, her eyes actually traced the shortest distance from the passes to Ylstu through the legend I’d instructed be put on the corner of the map. “Five days at most. We’ll have five days to move this entire town to safety, as well as mount a proper defense.”

Judging from the look of surprise and fear on Kurama’s face, this world thought that five days was a short amount of time. It was probably the case, since it took more than a few weeks to reach the capital from Ylstu, but planning, flight, and coordinated strategies solved a lot of problems, especially if I could verify the deadline. 

“Ashe, go fetch a few Harpies, and tell Tanis to come here.” I was tempted to explain further, but Ashe didn’t need me to. Already, the Hellhound was standing and walking to the door. She only stopped and paused to look at me, as though waiting for more orders to follow, once she was about to leave completely. She gave a single nod that jostled her mane of hair and left when I told her to go on. “That’s it. Do it quickly and come back.”

“I will be of great swiftness!” 

I turned to Henri a moment later.

“Tell all the scholars to shift their research to inside the Dwarven mine and focus on working on your project with Tanis.” While multiple ballistae would be helpful in a fight like this, long-range explosive weapons would do better. Ballistae would be great against Empire formations, but against Undead? Explosives that can be fired from the opened gates of a mountain fortress as indirect fire would be far better. “Your Coven and Golems will be evacuating. In fact, send them ahead in one of the transports, and tell them to start building shelters past the mountain range.”

I expected Henri to just agree and nod, but instead she looked strangely at me.

“…By sheltering these people, you tell them that they can return. That Ylstu will not be lost in the upcoming battle.” Henri’s words had an odd tone. It was somewhere between exasperation and confusion. The Lich couldn’t believe that I wasn’t just shepherding people out of Ylstu, which is stupid. “Why—

“Because I intend to win, because I’m not planning on losing, and I don’t intend for all this to go to waste which it will be, if I don’t keep my people.” A country is its people. I’m sure some important person said that in the past. Probably some Shounen protagonist, because politicians don’t give a shit about people. In any case, Shounen Protagonist-san probably meant somewhere along the lines of the bonds and relationship of a people are what truly make a country. I mean it in a more literal way. Every single person in Ylstu is has been trained to one extent or another, thus each one is a massive, permanent loss if they leave. “Buildings, crops, and money can be replaced, but none of my people can. So, you’re going to send your Golems, and the Coven your teaching, off to the foot of the passage into Ylstu and making a place where they can all safely stay, until they can return. Do you understand?”

To her credit, Henri’s response was a quick as I wanted it to be this time around.

“I understand. It will be done, my Lord.” The white-haired Lich bowed and made a swift exit. And, of course, such an exit in a magical world with a magic user wearing a cloak meant the aforementioned cloak would flourish as she turned to leave. It happened. It was neat. However, with Henri, anything vaguely interesting lead to her indulging her exhibitionism. This time it was backless panties. Dammit, woman, I swear you’re going to end up worse than just naked at this rate. “I will do as you bid without err.”

Do it with clothes on instead, you undead exhibitionist. 

Even the Kunoichi are embarrassed by you, and they’re naked most of the time.

Well, whatever. 

Back to figuring out how to fight another type of undead, thankfully one that I’ll just have to kill instead of tolerate.

“Now, for the rest of you, it’s time to prove your worth in this strategy room. Tell me what you’ll do, what you think, and what you believe should be done. Don’t worry, if it’s stupid, I’ll just call you an idiot. Nothing more and nothing less.” Ur already knew where this was going, so she had the Kunoichi fetch chairs, before crossing her arms and closing her eyes to think. A’Bel began to hum lightly while looking over the map, probably because she knew what was happening already. Everyone else looked confused, as though they didn’t know what I was talking about. “If you want to help everyone stay alive, don’t hold back, and tell me what you think you can do to make sure we all don’t die.”

As the conversations began and I started to listen, I know that I can pull a few strings, and make it so that some responsibility would fall on the people around me instead of just myself. The coward’s move here would be to have everyone take responsibility, so that if something fails, it can be pinned on a singular person and they can be cast out. However, that’s not what I did when I was commanding slaves, and it’s not what I’m going to do now.

Everything is going to be my responsibility.

Every idea I’ll get from them will only enter the final plan, if I permit it, because that’s what it means to lead people. I might not be a politician’s child like Yukinoshita… and I’ll never be as capable as her in regards to taking control of the room, managing a staff, and allocating people to the right jobs.

But I can take a fall and get up again better than anyone else in this in entire room. 

If the chips are down, if everything we do leads only to a terrible outcome, if I take all the blame everyone else can find somewhere else to go. Hikigaya Hachiman brought a calamity upon himself, fucked himself over, and his subordinates barely managed to get out with their lives, despite his attempt to get everyone killed like an absolute moron. I don’t care for those things, and if I survive, I can try again since Roseanne values what I have locked inside my head.

Everyone else can be replaced, if they get a fraction of that scrutiny, so I’ll do that much for them at least.

They’ll be the ones doing the fighting on the frontline, while I stay back and watch. The absolute least I can do, by issuing the commands and having them executed, is take responsibility for the commands no matter the outcome. 

It’s just me offering these people a measure of decency as their boss.

So, without a doubt, A’Bel’s warm, affectionate smile as she leaned against her cheek was utterly wasted.

“No matter what you believe, my dear Hachiman, you go beyond decency.” Her whispers reached only me, because the rest of the table was already deep in discussion. Everyone was doing their utmost to do as I commanded them to, because they didn’t have a choice. “And, no matter how much you lie to yourself, you know the truth.” She turned her gaze from me and upon the table surrounded by my subordinates. “This place is something more than a foundation for your vengeance… it is the beginning of your triumph not only upon the Empire, but this world entire.”

I didn’t have any words to waste on A’Bel’s little theory, so I ignored her, even as she lightly laughed and leaned against me.

Five days until I fought against something that was tearing through Empire lands with ease.

It’s really too bad it can’t be reasoned with and won’t be stopped. 

We could probably get along.