I do not own Re:Zero or Oregairu

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 too 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.