"So that's the gist of it."

"I see. And you are certain of this?"

"As certain as I was with Elsa."

"Then it will more than likely happen." Astrea gave a long sigh, one of resignation. I could already tell what he was thinking, that this was a situation that will likely devolve into yet another unnecessary bout of bloodshed.

I'm inclined to agree.

The sheer amount of bullshit that this entire situation reeks of was just unnecessary.

Much like this entire place in general, I suppose.

It had been about an hour after everything we would need had been packed and shipped off to who knows where. Natsuki and Argyle had decided to stick with me for whatever reason.

Actually, I can give a pretty accurate guess - my little conversation with Felt wasn't exactly in the most hidden of places. Couple that with Argyle's secondary ears and they likely overheard me talking about Astrea and his mansion and wanted to tag along.

Well, less work for me I guess. Where I would've normally been the one to explain the situation, Natsuki had jumped in before me and had done so. Which works out for me, all things considered. While I might've missed an important detail or two due to wording, Natsuki had no such issue.

We sat inside the main room in the Astrea manor. The tea that had been served left forgotten with the situation as dire as it was.

To think, an Archbishop would brazenly walk in the middle of the capital, which housed the Sword Saint himself…

Then again, if he was really as strong as Natsuki purported him to be, then maybe he had a good reason to be that confident.

I wasn't going to take any chances.

I didn't even need to ask him when Astrea immediately nodded to me, "Felt-sama and Rom-sama will be staying at the Astrea manor, I assume, Hikigaya-san?" There was a tone of surety in his voice, like he already knew my thoughts.

I call random wacky bullshit, what that was.

"Yeah. At least until that Archbishop is dealt with." I gave a side glance towards the giant and blonde, both of them looking tense. I could say that they were already reeling to run. Not that it was an unwarranted response.

I would've preferred that they hid, if I'm honest. I would've felt more comfortable with Astrea backing us up. With an Archbishop loose though, he would need to stay in the capital and deal with them. What's more is that recruiting him to join us would likely not endear us to Karsten whatsoever.

This wasn't just about killing the White Whale, after all. It was the glory and fame that would come with it. If Astrea were to join us, all that would be attributed to him and no one else. It would make the entire excursion pointless for her camp.

"The manor will always be open to you and your friends, Hikigaya-san."

Oi, stop that. I can already feel Ebina's blood spray.

"Feh." Felt scoffed, but made no more of a fuss after I raised an eyebrow at her, "...Fine, just show me where the food's at, pretty boy, and we won't have any problems."

"And the booze." Rom raised a hand, "Don't forget the booze."

Astrea's eyes widened at the blatant disrespect, before a warm smile found its way to his face, "Right this way. I'll give you the tour while we're at it."

I couldn't help the snort that escaped.

"Huh. Looks like Reinhard's got some new friends, huh?" Argyle raised an eyebrow in what no doubt was suspicion towards me as Natsuki nodded with a grin, "Was this your plan all along, Hikiganya?"

"Don't call me that."

With nothing more to say, the three of us - mostly Natsuki and Argyle - bid goodbye. I ripped open a portal, one that took Astrea by surprise it seemed, back to my shop. With Felt and Rom safe, and my shop bereft of anything important, I quickly made my way to the doorway.

I was distinctly aware of Argyle and Natsuki's gazes as I crouched down and touched the stone floor.

With the average eye, you wouldn't be able to tell that anything was different as I stood to full height.

You'd only find out once you stepped on it that the flooring was now weak enough to break the moment you put weight on it. Then you'd likely find that you'd be falling down into a fairly sizable hole. Deep enough that you wouldn't just be able to jump out of it, even with mana powering said jumps.

Yes, I made a pitfall trap. No, I was under no delusions that it would stop the Archbishop in his tracks.

Not yet, at least.

I pulled open a small portal, barely large enough to be visible, and attached the other end to a 'relative' position near my ear. Meaning that, if I moved, the other end of the portal would move with me.

With this, I'd be able to hear if someone dropped into the hole.

It's rudimentary, and the small amount of mana I dedicated to keeping the portal open would eventually add up, but it was a good enough trap, for now.

"You, uh, done Hikigaya?"

I gave a wordless nod as I took one last glance around the - my - shop. As much as I touted the idea that I shouldn't be attached to this world, I couldn't help but feel melancholic. This place was as much my home for the time I've been here as it was my place of work.

It felt…off to leave it at the hands of an Archbishop.

I gave one last sigh. It was a needed sacrifice. I could always find somewhere else to set up shop. The important part was that I was alive.

"Let's go."

I made my way out of the building. I didn't look back. I didn't want to.

…

The ground dragons weren't exactly the best when it came to comfortable rides. Actually, it was around the same as what I would've thought riding a horse would be like. Bumpy, annoying, and all around painful.

I suppose I was just used to the modern convenience of cars.

Still, we made good time as the night went on. Just to where, I wasn't completely sure. In fact, that was the only reason that I hadn't portalled us yet. Wherever we were going, I had no clue. Myself and Natsuki were more or less just following Argyle as we rode across the countryside.

It was times like this that I think I'm way over my head.

I'm not good at fighting. I can fight if I need to, if only to not die, but I hadn't made it my main priority. I would be playing support with my portals during this entire time. That wasn't exactly a bad thing, but it did put into perspective how reliant I was on others when it came down to physical confrontations.

I would freely admit that I was scared partly because of that.

Here I was, a literal fucking blacksmith, albeit one with portals, charging to fight one of the most feared monsters on this world.

It felt like a cosmic joke.

I had no business here.

Neither did Natsuki. He had even less combat experience than me, and yet, he was confident enough to go through this entire thing.

He was an idiot, is what I was getting at. And yet, it was that same idiocy that somehow got me involved, almost willingly.

It was completely risky. Completely absurd that I would position myself in this scenario, and yet, here I was. I wasn't just risking myself, either. The idea that I would get wiped from thoughts and memories was a concept I still didn't want to think about.

That it might even affect people not even in this world was another matter in of itself.

Was that risk worth it for a chance to read some more texts? To have a chance at looking at journals and books that may not even give me what I want?

Maybe.

That's all I've been pinning my hopes on. Pinning my life on. A singular hope that this would be worth it.

Maybe I'm just another isekai moron that believes too much in everything turning out well. At this point though, I think I'm owed that much, at the very least.

We approached what I saw to be Flugel's Tree. I hadn't paid much attention to it, seeing as it was constantly on the horizon. Its size made sure that it was visible from nearly the entire capital, so much so that it became another fixture that most people ignored.

Not this time though.

"That is a big ass tree." The awed expression on Natsuki's face was difficult to make out in the low light, but the tone was not.

Has he not seen this? Surely if he took the time to look he would've seen it already.

Ah. That's probably why. I assumed that he was observant. My mistake.

Our dragons were getting tired by this point, having been on the road for the better part of the hour. Still, I could make out the party that Karsten had assembled.

The soldiers that had come by my shop were few compared to the army that was awaiting. A few hundred, maybe a thousand in all. Clad in armor, sporting the swords and weapons that I had created.

Some would say that it wasn't enough of an army to begin with. Those would be the people from my world. Ancient, medieval armies were usually in the thousands at the minimum. This would be nothing more than a footnote compared to those.

Except that the quality of the soldiers here were exponentially higher than those from my world.

Each soldier here could likely fight ten, twenty, maybe even thirty soldiers on Earth, owing mostly to the ambient mana that each person here uses to augment their abilities passively. Quality over quantity was the name of the game, and that's not even including the game changers that were the Royal Knights, as well as the Sword Demon.

Even Karsten likely stood head and shoulders above the common soldier.

Putting that into account, this was quite the sizable force that she'd assembled in short notice. Or maybe not, considering the amount of weapons that Argyle had been ordering for the past few months.

I did have one complaint though.

"What the fuck are those?"

Argyle turned to me with a hum, just as we disembarked our dragons. Natuski was too busy looking around wide-eyed to pay us any attention. At the corner of my eye, I could spot a shock of white, pink and blue. I frowned. Why were the maids and Emilia here? And next to them, I could spot Karsten conversing with the elf.

Hm. An alliance maybe? Or was it Emilia's dreaded altruism not letting her leave the job of subjugating the Whale to Karsten.

Nevermind. I turned back to the object of my annoyance. Artillery pieces, if I were to guess. They resembled large satellite dishes, and would likely be firing into the Whale once the fighting began. I watched as they positioned themselves into a neat little line, pointing upwards.

You know what I didn't see? Ammo.

You know what that means? I'll spell it out.

"Karsten!" I stomped my way over to her. I could feel a vein almost burst from annoyance. The duchess turned to me, her mouth a frown over my lack of proper address, "Are you a fucking moron? No, don't tell me, you are."

"Oi, Hikigaya, watch your mouth." In an instant, a cold voice coming from Argyle cut in through the disbelief that clouded Karsten's features, "That's no way to talk to Crusch-sama."

"Peace, Felix." Karsten held out a gauntleted hand. She was wearing a set of armor that looked to be very well made. I didn't stop to appreciate the craftsmanship, I was too busy glaring daggers at her as she spoke, "Hikigaya, what are you talking about?"

"How the fuck do you think those are going to help?" I shoved my thumb towards the magical artillery. Key point being magical.

"Ah. The night banishers. They are artillery pieces, Hikigaya. Surely you know of them." There was a bit of an edge to her voice.

"Yes. And they'll be completely useless." I bluntly pointed out. I knew the design of the artillery pieces, having been a loose part of my research, if only in passing. They would spew out bolts of mana into the air, concentrated enough that they'd explode at the moment of impact. The remnants of the explosions would then light up the sky, allowing for the facsimile of sunlight over the night sky.

They would be completely useless against the Whale.

By the nature of its hairs, as told by Natsuki, it would dissipate the mana that it came into contact with, including the ones that the night banishers used. They wouldn't be able to do anything to harm the Whale itself.

And coupled with the fact that I couldn't even see a single archer, and there were at least a dozen mages that I could count, I can only conclude one thing.

We were fighting a mabeast with inherent anti-magic abilities with only magic.

"Be that as it may, we have no choice." The green-haired woman conceded with a sigh, her earlier challenging tone morphing into one of grim acceptance, "We have no other artillery that we can use, the night banishers are already the strongest ones. If we were to use even the fire cannons, it would do even less to the Whale."

Wait.

Holy fuck.

I came to the startling realization that these people didn't have any clue what I was talking about. I was complaining that we should have some actual artillery. You know, the ones with non-magic shells. The ones used by the Europeans for hundreds of years.

These people never had those.

They always had magic. They never needed gunpowder, never needed artillery the way I knew them. The reason that we were using magical artillery wasn't so much as there was a lack of traditional artillery, it's that this was the traditional artillery.

"Fuck it." I sucked in a breath as I could feel the throbbing of a headache start up once more, "I'll do it myself. Next time, be a better damn leader."

Karsten continued to frown, looking at me in confusion, "What are you even talking about, Hikigaya?" She sounded frankly insulted. Good. She should be.

"You didn't bother to ask if there was something else you could do, first off." I started to walk, ignoring the glare that Argyle sent my way, "You assumed that those things were the best of the best, even knowing that they'd be useless. You didn't bother innovating. Didn't bother to fix that uselessness in the slightest."

I set my sights on the artillery, thoughts on how the fuck I was going to salvage this already in my head, "Pray tell, what even was the plan? Have me portal you and your army up there? Hack away at its skin till it's exposed so that the artillery has a chance to do something?"

"It's the only choice we have." She admitted that with a straight face. Really? Really?

"No, it's really not." I scoffed, not bothering to hide my annoyance, "There's a lot you could have done, except you didn't bother thinking any of it through."

"And you think you can do better?"

"At this point? I know I can. At least I wouldn't be leading us into death, if we were lucky. First things first, I'm fixing those artillery pieces. After that, we're going to have a long discussion as to what exactly your fucking plan was."

I didn't have the authority that Karsten commanded. Didn't have the patience, charisma or intelligence to be a leader, really. It was a miracle that Karsten let me talk as I did to her without pushing her authority onto me and telling me to shut up.

Not that I would have.

What I did have was the drive to continue living. And if fixing whatever shit that Karsten had going was going to let me continue breathing, then I'll be damn sure to make sure that happens.

"That damn Hikigaya…" Felix ground his teeth down as I stared at the raven-haired man walking away, "Please, Crusch-sama, just give me the word and I-"

"That's enough, Felix." I quietly commanded him. Immediately, my knight quieted down, "Leave him be. We shall talk to him after he's finished whatever he needs to do."

"But Crusch-sam-"

"Felix. Drop it." I brokered no argument, and thankfully, Felix quieted down, though not without glaring back at Hikigaya's form.

Maybe I would've been more angry, had it been anyone else. To question my leadership was the same as to question my viability for the Royal Selection. A slight against my honor that I should've taken down as swiftly as I could.

In fact, I was ready to do so. Up until he answered my question.

"At this point? I know I can."

I detected no falsehoods in Hikigaya. He truly believed that I was leading us into defeat.

And that he could do better. He was sure of that.

I know I wasn't the perfect leader. I know I made mistakes, especially in my haste to fight the Whale.

But bringing Hikigaya with us was not a mistake. I can see that now. I couldn't help the smile that made its way onto my face. I can tell that he wasn't just worried about failure. He was worried because he didn't want to see us fail. To see us die, or worse.

A good man, beyond the rough exterior. A shame that he was content with being a blacksmith.

I do wonder if he would be amiable to a position as my advisor once I won the Selection. It would do me well for a man that has no qualms with speaking his mind to be on my side, to call me out when others would only acquiesce.

A thought for another time I suppose.

'Hachiman Hikigaya. How utterly fascinating.'

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.