Chapter 43 - Return
Hikigaya could feel it—the Sun Goddess of Arinna hadn't lied to him. The chaotic timeflow within his body was stabilizing at a rather fast pace.
The same was happening to everyone else.
Judging by how quickly time was settling, Hikigaya estimated that they would likely board the return trip before sunset.
That Hittite goddess, instead of properly protecting the Hittite king, had run out into the desert to play mind games with him—just like how that snake goddess from Minos had bizarrely invited him to form an alliance. It was all absurd.
But time waited for no one, and Hikigaya wasn't someone to get tangled up in such matters.
As soon as Seth-beasts found and dragged back Hazazi and Tamamo-no-Mae, he immediately unleashed his ultimate move: "Smile and pat your dog heads." With a series of resounding slaps, everyone was thoroughly buffed.
Buffing the whole team before a dungeon crawl was just common sense.
The effect was outstanding. That slight awkwardness and unfamiliarity from being apart for so long was instantly smoothed over.
"Boss, what the hell are you doing?" "Ow! You bastard, that hurts!" "Hachiman, why is your fox talking?" "Pfft, don't talk to this 'sleeps-with-anyone' men, or you'll get pregnant!"
The scene descended into chaos. Hikigaya's buffing method had hit everyone's sweet spot, and each person started venting the emotions they'd bottled up all this time.
Once everyone was more or less done letting it out, Hikigaya filled them in on the situation.
"Great! Finally, we can go home," said Haruno.
"Unlike those two trash mobs, I kept my eyes on everything the whole time. So let me just say—THE FOOD HERE SUCKS!" That was Tamamo-no-Mae.
"What is this? Ancient times? Are you kidding me? We were literally in a hotel just now!" Hazazi screamed miserably, his expression one of utter despair. "Damn it! How did we get played like this? It was such a perfect opportunity!"
"…" Yukino said nothing. She stared straight at Hikigaya. And Hikigaya accurately caught and deciphered her thoughts—"So that's why you secretly licked me, huh?"
But Hikigaya thought to himself: I licked you fair and square. Where was the "secret" in it?
Still, Hazazi seemed like he was in worse shape, so Hikigaya decided to calm the idiot down first.
"Alright, alright," he said, cutting off Hazazi just before the guy started self-harming. "When we get back, I'll teach you. I already studied with the Egyptian priests for your sake too."
Then, Hikigaya reminded everyone: "I'm not sure exactly when it'll happen, but definitely before sunset. So until then, nobody wander off. At the very least, stay within sight of everyone else."
He suddenly felt like he was acting as a tour guide… Too bad there weren't any souvenir shops he could profit from.
"Hachiman." Someone tugged on his sleeve. Hikigaya already knew who it was.
"Yukino, get some rest. That… thing counts as poison to the human body." He turned back to gently advise her. His eyes were full of tender affection and encouragement, like saying "Be good, go take a bath and sleep."
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but it seemed like there was a bold "#" (crosshatch) symbol forming on Yukino's forehead…
Was it because I shouldn't have tried encouraging her? Oh right—Yukinoshita Yukino especially hates being treated like she's weak. But in this field… she's actually weak…
After that, Hikigaya and the others simply waited in the utterly wrecked Libu camp for the moment when they would return.
Under his hand, the Libu had suffered heavy damage. Who knows whether future Libyans would still call themselves that…
But if history were so easy to change, then the concept of historical "correction force" wouldn't exist.
Take Egypt and the Hittites for example: their downfall was inevitable. Even without the Battle of Kadesh, the Assyrians would soon rise and force Egypt and the Hittites to ally. Egypt under the 19th Dynasty was already a declining nation in all measurable aspects. They would rely increasingly on mercenaries and eventually be overthrown by those same mercenaries—ironically, the Libyans.
And as for the Hittites, as long as their king still died early, then strife between his brother and son was guaranteed. That would begin the internal conflict that would plague the Hittite royal family. Once famine struck the highlands, the world's earliest militarist state could start preparing for Game Over.
Even if Hikigaya interfered in the Battle of Kadesh, so what? The Hittites had a pantheon. If Hikigaya overstepped, plenty of gods would retaliate, and both the Egyptians and Hittites would just return to their old path again.
That's why Hikigaya wasn't worried about changing history. Everything that had happened was bound to happen, completely unrelated to any so-called "will of the world." History was always a matter of accumulation and eventual explosion.
When the time comes, what must die dies; what must live lives. There are no exceptions.
If a nation is truly garbage, even a hundred great leaders wouldn't save it. That's called "mud that won't stick to the wall." But the opposite is also true: no matter how miserable the circumstances, some nations can still be saved.
The Hebrews and Moses were the best example of that.
As he turned over these thoughts in his mind, Hikigaya suddenly realized that— Of all the nations he could think of, only the Chinese seemed to rival the Hebrews in this regard. In some ways, they might even be more extreme—able to stand tall even during their darkest, poorest, and most humiliating times.
And to think that such a nation had birthed a Godslayer. A Martial Hero King, no less.
Hikigaya could barely contain his intense curiosity.
He had little information, but he was 80–90% sure that this person was a total wuxia (martial arts fantasy) nerd. Making friends with her shouldn't be hard at all.
All he had to do was tell stories.
"Heavenly Dragon," "Condor Trilogy," "Smiling Proud Wanderer"… which do you want to hear first? And if he thought the power levels were too low, there were always "Storm Riders" and "Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty." Those not only had high power levels, but also gave off the vibes of NSFW doujinshi. So satisfying!
The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Hikigaya looked up at the sky, dyed red by the setting sun, and grinned. That grin gave everyone around him goosebumps.
"Hachiman, why do you look so creepy when you smile?" asked Haruno. Her expression perfectly conveyed her concern that Hikigaya had perhaps gotten bonked on the head by something earlier.
"It's nothing," Hikigaya came back to himself.
On the horizon ahead, the sun was just about to set—retrieving its light from the land.
But what Hikigaya saw wasn't limited to just that.
The sunlight, thinning as the sun descended, gave off a strange illusion—as though it were reversing, flowing backward with the sun into the horizon.
And this wasn't just an illusion.
It wasn't light that was flowing— It was their time.
In a "world" invisible to ordinary people, as the sun disappeared beyond the earth, a flash of green light shot into the sky—only to vanish a second later.
Bathed in this green light, Hikigaya and his companions were all instantly enveloped in its glow— and vanished from where they stood.