Foreword: It's me! Sorry, I was getting absolutely slaughtered by work over the past quarter. Anyways, here's the start to Volume 3!

Even in another world, work remains inescapable.

Like a certain man once said, there were things in life that one could be absolutely sure of. In his case, those things were death and taxes. In my case, it was work and reality's ability to ruin anything I had ever dreamed of experiencing.

Take for instance the isekai experience, which had to bog things down in the name of "realism" and "verisimilitude", but only succeeded in making what was no doubt a 3rd-rate light novel that only the most degenerate of otakus probably read, with nondescript worldbuilding and a generic background subplot to match.

Then, there was the beach episode, vaunted dream of young Japanese men everywhere, which was currently being ruined right now.

Typically, the things that came to one's mind when the words "beach episode" were mentioned probably involved the 3 S's: sunlight, swimsuits, and… skin. Yes, skin, definitely. You might also add in imagery of a sandy beach and sparkling waves, probably replete with an impromptu volleyball court so the animators could blow their budget showing off the characters'... "skills" and "assets".

But that was nothing more than an elaborate scam. Even if the gods had introduced the concepts of "swimsuits" when they had first descended into this world (at least, according to Hermes), that didn't change the fact that there were several problems with attempting to recreate a conventional beach episode in real life.

For one, sand was coarse and rough and irritating, and it got everywhere. I wasn't even wearing a swimsuit, but somehow grains of sand had ended up under my clothes and armor anyways. It was just plain uncomfortable.

The second problem was the fact that it was just me. There were no cute anime girls frolicking happily on the beach, which meant no swimsuits, either, not unless I wanted to be accused of being a pervert on Loki's level. Instead, it was just me and the lake that stretched off into the horizon.

The third problem was the fact that I was here, by myself, and it wasn't even to relax. A beach episode was supposed to signify a break, but here I was. My first glance of a beach in well over 5 years, and it wasn't even because I had escaped from the other absolute constant in my life.

It was actually the complete opposite.

Reaching into the pouch at my hip, I grabbed another handful of the glistening powder inside before flinging it outwards into the water. I watched as the powder settled before slowly drifting down into the water, a miniature serpent of some kind swimming through the hazy cloud before vanishing into the lake's depths.

This had already happened repeatedly several times over the past couple of minutes–small aquatic monsters coming into contact with the powder, then swimming away as if nothing had happened at all. For what it was advertised as, the so-called "monster-repelling" powder I was testing wasn't doing a great job.

Another aquatic serpent emerged, coating itself in the powder the way fried fish was coated in flour. I was getting hungry, so the visual comparison really wasn't helping. Maybe I should've brought a fishing pole, since Meren was known for its fishing industry–

A flash of movement interrupted my thoughts. As I watched, a green tendril shot up from the depths and speared through the serpent's body. Almost immediately, it went slack, and beneath the cloud of powder, the water began to seethe.

My eyes widened, and I backed away as several more green tendrils erupted from the depths, almost reaching where I was standing a mere second ago before the Viola emerged with a roar, the petals around its neck unfolding as it rose out of the water and turned in my direction.

Vines whipped outwards in my direction, and I ducked, letting them fly over my head before deflecting a stray tendril and backing up several more steps. There was a snarl as the Viola lurched towards me, pulling itself into the shallower water before another barrage of tendrils shot towards me.

I leaned to the side, letting them soar past my body before breaking into a sprint, aiming straight for the Viola's body. Even as my lower body completely entered the water, I didn't stop, and within a few seconds, I had reached the monster. It roared, jaws springing open and driving down onto me, but I kicked off of the lakebed, moving out of the way and into position for a counterattack.

My sword drove through the side of the Viola's mouth, and I wrenched my arm to the left, cutting through the underside of the Viola's jaw. There was a shriek, muffled by the water, before 2 more tendrils whipped towards my head.

In response, I ducked, completely submerging as the vines passed over my head. Bending my legs into a crouch, I pushed off, bursting through the water in a lunge as I slashed at the monster, aiming directly at the center of its mouth. My sword vibrated as the attack struck, tearing into the Viola's head, but it hadn't been enough to kill, as in the next instant, 7 tendrils shot directly at me.

A desperate swing was enough to intercept maybe 3 or 4 of the vines, but that left several more, which slammed into my breastplate and my free arm as I blocked. Bubbles erupted from my mouth on impact, pain shooting through my body as the vines landed and I was knocked backwards through the water.

Reflexes kicked in, my mouth opening to suck in a breath, but I had been dragged into enough fights underwater inside of the Dungeon to know that doing so was a terrible idea. Instead, I forced my mouth shut and kicked off of the lakebed, putting even more distance and water between us before sticking my head out of the water for a breath.

The Viola's head rose out of the water shortly after, blood dripping down from its maw. My sword had managed to tear through one side of its mouth, leaving its jaw half-hanging from its head by a few mangled strands of muscle as it "looked" at me.

There was a glimmer as the sunlight reflected off of its exposed Magic Stone, and I reached down into the holster on the left side of my body, drawing out a throwing knife.

A beat–and then the Viola lunged, vines surging forward to attack. In return, I whipped the throwing knife forward, ignoring the spike of pain that shot down my left arm as the projectile blurred through the air.

A direct hit. Instead of connecting with its attack, the Viola stopped, tendrils falling slack before its form crumbled into dust and dissolved into the water.

I let out the breath I had been holding as I reached down with my right hand, pulling out a potion and downing it. The familiar warmth spread through my body as the potion settled, and I relaxed as silence returned to the beach again.

Then the water began churning again. Only this time, rather than a single Viola, 3 of them erupted out of the water, jaws snapping in the air as they breached the surface.

I watched as the water around the plant monsters glittered merrily as they thrashed, the powder that had spilled out from the pouch at my side catching the light and refracting it as it mixed with the water. Forget repelling monsters, the thing was actually attracting more of them.

With a sigh, I readied my weapons. There wasn't much of another option. I had been assigned to this, after all. In the past, I had often espoused that "To work is to lose". Such words had never felt more accurate than at this very moment.

If working was losing, then Hikigaya Hachiman was definitely losing.

Afterword: I seem to really favor starting volumes with in media res Prologues. Gotta work on curbing that habit before it gets old.

Anyways, just a bit of a quick starter to get back into the pace of things. Trying to get back to the promised pace of biweekly releases. For Volume 3, I'm trying to focus more on raw word output and get the volume out and done with rather than obsessing over quality, which was what took so long and killed momentum in Volume 2. Hopefully quality doesn't drop too much–apologies in advance if it does.

Next chapter in 2 weeks! See you soon!