Chapter 64: The Days Before the Return
The King of the End had exited the stage, and the most reckless God-slayer was asleep. Thinking of it this way, it seemed peace had returned to this space-time—as if!
Since the Roman legions had devolved into little more than decorative showpieces, the city of Rome, which had long represented endless wealth in the hearts of the barbarians, was now like a defenseless beauty. The barbarians were gathering their strength, preparing to take her by force; another Dark Age was about to descend.
There was one slight change here: the great Hunnic army of Pannonia had finished assembling. Had a certain reckless fellow not been asleep, Uldin would have already ordered the Huns to march toward Transalpine Gaul. This movement by the Huns would cause other Germanic tribes to take notice of this land much earlier than in the original timeline.
More sparks of war had been ignited.
But to the modern God-slayers staying in this era, none of that mattered. They were all people capable of single-handedly establishing nations and deciding the fate of a race in this age; the only question was whether they wanted to or not.
"As expected, we should leave as soon as possible."
Liliana spoke from the heart. No matter how she looked at it, she wanted to go home. Her silver ponytail had been undone, and she lay in Hikigaya's arms.
Hikigaya was no vegetarian; he simply didn't feel a spark for ancient girls. However, lately, because Uldin had nothing to do while waiting—and because Aisha had rejected his advances many times in a row—he had been relentlessly "plundering" Frankish girls right next door to Hikigaya.
It was truly a nightmare!
Consequently, under these circumstances, Liliana had been "devoured" by Hikigaya. And she had become a "Knight" in the truest sense.
They hadn't left their room for two days. Hikigaya really didn't want to step out only to run into Uldin and have the man issue him some sort of challenge—that man had truly reached a level of boredom where he'd do anything just to have something to do.
But Hikigaya couldn't return to the modern era immediately. To be precise, he had a way to go back, but he was afraid of overshooting the date or coming up short. The former mattered little, but the latter would be a massive headache. After all, he wasn't the one who had initiated this crossing.
Aisha's Corridor only opened during a full moon. The full moon of this era wouldn't occur for another half-month.
"These days are never going to end..."
Hearing the familiar sounds starting up again next door, Hikigaya sighed and pulled Liliana tighter into his embrace. The latter immediately reacted like a startled rabbit, grabbing his restless hand. Of course, it was useless; soon enough, the two were "humming" together once more.
After they were finished, Hikigaya asked: "Speaking of which, you seemed like you wanted to say something earlier but didn't?"
Perhaps influenced by Uldin, he had only just remembered this. He received no response for a long while; looking down, he was amused. It turned out Liliana was already too exhausted to speak.
Just as Hikigaya was about to crack a few witty jokes, there was a sudden knock on the door. It was an incredibly forceful knock!
'Planning a rebellion, are we?'
He pulled over the blanket that had been cast aside to avoid getting dirty and covered Liliana. Hikigaya pulled on his trousers and opened the door, fuming. If the person knocking wasn't good-looking, he'd give them a Pegasus Meteor Fist.
The door opened. Well, it was a very good-looking person.
The visitor immediately covered her eyes—though the gaps between her fingers were so wide they offered absolutely no interference to her vision. Of course, there was nothing to see anyway, aside from Hikigaya's bare torso.
"Oh my! Hachiman, you've turned into a bad boy!"
The Queen of Heart-Manipulation and the instigator of this entire time-leap criticized him loudly.
"Is there something you want?" Hikigaya asked with a sour face.
"Oh, it's like this: Salvatore has woken up."
Hikigaya's eyes lit up.
'Does that mean Uldin can finally be liberated?'
Sure enough, the door next door was kicked open with a "bang," and a pervert rushed out!
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Aisha actually intended to cover her eyes this time, but her speed couldn't keep up with the other man's footwork. She immediately let out a series of screams.
Uldin... he had actually rushed out stark naked! It was clear how excited he was.
"Hahahaha! My brother is finally awake? Hahaha!" He stood with his hands on his hips, laughing wildly.
'Put on some pants! Your 'little brother' is still crying!'
The sight was too much for the eyes. Hikigaya turned and went back into his room, closing the door. Turning around again, he saw...
'Who is this? Why is she here? What does she want!?'
Seeing Aisha standing piteously in his room, Hikigaya couldn't help but ask himself three questions. Behind Aisha was Liliana, half-asleep and wrapped in a blanket. Seemingly disturbed by the sound of the door closing, she rolled over, revealing a pair of long, sweat-beaded legs.
The atmosphere felt slightly off...
Aisha had been looking at Hikigaya, but then she seemed to realize something. She turned her head, and her face instantly turned red, like a boiled shrimp. Shouting a loud "Sorry for the intrusion!", she opened the door in a panic and ran out.
The worst part was that she didn't even close the door behind her. How rude!
Walking to the doorway, Hikigaya looked with disdain at the wobbly, duck-like, clumsy figure retreating down the hall. He closed the door again and went to coax Liliana out of bed.
By dinner time, the four God-slayers finally gathered together once more.
Though Aisha behaved poorly, doing nothing but drinking water with her head bowed low. Uldin followed Hikigaya's earlier suggestion and began discussing the union of the Hun and Frankish tribes with Doni.
It must be said that, compared to modern God-slayers, ancient ones truly viewed their tribes with more importance. Uldin defined his primary status as the leader of the Huns, rather than a God-slayer who merely ruled them.
In the modern era, Luo Hao—who was originally an ancient person—had no feeling for secular political power but viewed practitioners of the martial world as her "compatriots." She protected Chinese practitioners by establishing an organization. At first, Hikigaya believed the rumors that she was a tyrant, only to later discover she was actually just a "vocal" tyrant.
"So, brother, let us join hands and do something big!" The ancient God-slayer summarized, openly issuing a bandit-like declaration.
Opposite him, Doni looked like a polite old man, saying either "Is that so, is that so" or "Not bad, not bad." He wasn't listening seriously at all... or rather, he felt that these kinds of matters were an inherent bother. He had become the Great Chieftain of the Franks purely because those berserkers were so much to his liking. Had it been otherwise, his state wouldn't be "not listening seriously," but "not listening at all."
So, in the end, he reached a consensus with Uldin and stated that he would go persuade those Franks who, in his eyes, were "kind and simple-hearted."
Seriously, it wasn't that Hikigaya wanted to complain, but "simple-hearted" was one thing—wasn't calling them "kind" going a bit too far? This guy clearly hadn't remembered how that Goddess had been taken down by those Celts.
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