Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 169 (Fin)

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 169 (Fin)

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

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“Well, this feels anticlimactic.”

I waited around for a while, making sure my camp was slowly packed up, and found my caution and concern wasted.

“A’Bel are they really not doing anything even vaguely malicious?”

“No, my dear summoner, unfortunately not.” A’Bel sighed and rested her cheek against her hand. She was all dressed up in armor from head to toe, so the cute action looked out of place. In my opinion, though, the lack of backstabbing from the Empire was more out of place. “They seem to have just given up and accepted that they lost the war.”

I looked over near Roseanne’s camp once again, straining my eyes to see any sign of the twist in the plan that I was searching for, but found nothing.

The refugee camp from the Empire had expanded over the course of the last few days. The self-proclaimed heir to the Empire had given concessions in exchange for some nearby regions to be relieved of the madness that had been inflicted on them. Roseanne held the leash on the Eldritch abomination now, since I couldn’t be bothered to handle the headache of negotiating with the Empire, and she used the Eldritch creature to her advantage. Not only was it a remote controlled bomb we could set off next to the would-be-Emperor, but it was also the key to alleviating the madness that sent the Empire into a killing frenzy.

Honestly, for a first time deployment, my WMD was paying off in ways that I didn’t expect.

Not bad for something I expected to die in a few days fighting against all of the Empire.

Anyway, as refugees were pulled from the war-torn regions along with devastated military units, and the numbers of the Empire in the region increased to twenty thousand or so. Only a quarter were military units whose equipment was in disarray and half of them were wounded, but I figured they’d be stupid enough to do something and let me get my last licks in.

Sure, the Empire was now tearing itself apart, but putting a collar on my very-successful WMD wasn’t exactly the finishing blow that I wanted to deliver. I mean, technically, all I did in this final year of conflict was repel the enemy’s all-out assault, launch a WMD, let my allies sweep in, take a castle, and then recover my weapon.

Did I kill a lot of the Empire’s finest?

Yes.

But it wasn’t putting my own throne atop the crumbled ruin of the Empire’s royal palace and looking upon their capital as it burned.

“Indeed, that would’ve been quite the sight. It would’ve only been better if you had all the Empire’s princess in rags, bound in chains, and begging to be yours, at your feet.” A’Bel sighed, even as I glared at her for using my mind like a television. Her armor disappeared and was replaced by gold shackles, a silk choker, and silk napkins that barely crested over her naughty bits. She shark while falling to her knees and clung to my leg, while her hair shifted to look like ringlets. “Don’t you recall the Empire’s princess? The one who demeaned you so much? Wouldn’t you have loved to see her despondent and in despair at your feet?”

“I barely remember anything about her, besides that hairstyle.” I grunted and rolled my eyes. A’Bel giggled and got rid of the hairstyle and retook her true shape. While kneeling, even while I was standing up, her shoulders were at my waist-height… as were her horns. Demons in this world are pretty much lewdness made manifest. That gave me a realization that made me groan. “Well… crap… I’m going home now, aren’t I?”

“Indeed, you are my dear summoner, and an eternity of pleasure and debauchery awaits you. You shall be free of all concerns, pursue solely pleasure forever, and be happy… except for one, little thing.”

I glared at the Demon knelt by my side.

She smiled at my glare.

“You’re unsatisfied, my dear summoner, because you have forsaken your oaths to protect those you love. Not just Ylstu, not just the people who you are responsible for, but those who you truly care for.” A’Bel’s words were soothing and calming. They were what I wanted to hear. All the more reason for me to glare at her and grit my teeth. Despite how she looked, A’Bel was a Demon. “But that needn’t be the case. Lash out now. Destroy everyone here. I will do as you command, my dear master, but it needs to be by your order. I can slaughter them all, but you must be the one who wields me.”

She knew what I was thinking.

What I wanted.

I’d told Roseanne what I knew needed to be said. That I was tired of fighting and that I just wanted to be left alone after the Empire fell. It was a lie.  Even after all this time, the thought of anyone having to suffer as I did, ever under better tyrants like the Kindred… made me want to scream. A part of me felt like it was admitting that the Empire truly hurt me, that I was admitting that they won by taking away my ability to compromise and that they made a wild beast of me that couldn’t be reasoned with.

That the human being named Hikigaya Hachiman was gone and was replaced by a monster that lashed out when certain conditions were met.

Or, maybe, that’s always who I’ve been.

“Henri’s finest works are in range, my master. I am keyed to their signatures.”  “A’Bel tempted me without a hint of regret. Her eyes were like an endless, deep abyss without a hint of warmth. All I saw was a bottomless hunger. “They are in the distance within the ships you’ve ordered to come manned by skeleton crews. They are meant to cleanse whole cities off the map, and they can be used to destroy everything and everyone who knows of the summoning ritual. You only need say the word.”

The logic was simple. The best course of action to get what I wanted was as follows: kill Roseanne, kill the Emperor, and kill everyone else involved. I controlled the fledgling media of this world. My reputation was nigh-unassailable. The strongest army on the continent belonged to me, and I had foreign allies and connections that would happily continue to work with me, even if civil war ignited amongst the Kindred. Not only could I destroy any traces left of the summoning circle, I could also remake Kindred culture and elevate civilization more quickly by killing or subjugating all the other nobility.

I’ll be known for the rest of my life, and all of history, as a tyrant and terror. I’ll never be able to retreat and retire, building up a single city to recreate the life I wanted. Rival after rival will arise to challenge me, whether they simply wanted my position, or wanted to make me pay for my crimes. Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, will die trying to kill me or to protect me. I’ll raise their bodies up into better soldiers, then turn them upon those who rebelled against me for whatever reason that they had.

“My sisters are less than me, but they will head your call, my master.” A’Bel whispered into my ear. She had stood up and embraced me from my back. Her size and shape seemed to dominate my senses, like it was only myself and her in the world. “Hell itself will do as you command. The Undead are fine troops, but with me and my sisters, you will have fine generals and champions no matter what. The conflict you envision will not be endless. The continent will fall to you within a decade. Perhaps less… and with your might and power, no one else will assail you.”

Ten years.

Just ten years.

It seemed like a bargain of a price to pay in exchange for even just half-a-century more of life, which I could outstrip with just a bit of effort and wealth. The amount of blood that will be spilled might not even be that much, if I did what I needed to do without hesitation. If I struck hard and fast, if I didn’t hesitate with summoning more like A’Bel, then I could have everything that I wanted.

No more people stolen from their worlds to become slaves to anyone.

A semblance of the life that I once had in this world.

The people that I cared for living beside me in a place where they could never be hurt.

I just had to give a single command, do what needed to be done, and in ten years my life would be perfect.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Even if I'm hurting, even if I'm pissed, I'm not that much of an idiot.

“Henri, do it.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Even at the speed of thought, A’Bel barely had a chance to react as silver chains came forth from my shadow as Henri arose with the help of a Kunoichi. If A’Bel were completely clad in her armor, then she might’ve been able to resist. Instead, she found herself brought low, onto her knees, onto the deck of the ship. Given the Kindred’s propensity for lewdness, her bound state had her legs spread, back arched to prominently present her tits, and her hands tied behind her head.

And, before A’Bel could struggle, her power began to be sapped by the ship with glee through the chains.

Henri took my side a moment later, followed by Miriam, Ur, and everyone else.

I could feel everyone waiting for me to speak, so that they could decide what to do, and I addressed the situation directly.

“Relax everyone. A’Bel was just being a typical Demon and trying to get me to rule the world. The usual stuff. Get back to doing the work I’m paying you all for.” I shattered the tenseness in the air with practiced casualness. Ur and everyone else who knew me nodded and moved to make a show of going back to work, even though they were all truly heading to my office to have things explained further. The little show they made was for the rest of the crew. When things settled down, I took a look at A’Bel… who was pouting at her tempting words being ignored and being bound to be no more than a battery for the ship. I sighed. “Bring her up, Henri, and let’s get airborne. Start layering the bindings we talked about on her. Tell me if you need more than expected.”

“It will be done as you wish, my lord.” Henri bowed and followed after me with A’Bel in tow. We made our way to the office with A’Bel trussed up like a pig. The Archdemon had already accepted the loss, so she was enjoying being a tease again. Not even a hint of anger or anguish was in her mind. If anything, she was dizzying mix between excited, aroused, and awed at her first act of defiance against me being her last. “Her power henceforth shall be limited to but a hundredth of what she has. Are you sure that you don’t want to be more thorough with her bindings? Perhaps, she should be permanently gagged?”

“I’m not making her my slave, and I’m not going to be afraid of whatever she says forever.” I grunted and entered my office. Ur was waiting beside my chair, but Ashe was just a few paces past the door. I made sure to give my Hellhound a good pat on the head. She sniffed out A’Bel’s intent to make me ‘be very not good,’ after all. “No more flying, mind-reading, or summoning weapons and armor, unless I give the okay, though. She gets those back when I allow it.”

Henri nodded and kept layering magics upon A’Bel, while I reached my desk.

Ur didn’t need to ask, I just explained myself.

“I’m not happy with how things are going, so A’Bel offered to help me kill everyone, wipe out everything I didn’t like, and set me up to conquer the whole world. I said no.” I put the papers on my desk aside for a second, before forcing myself to speak. “Her vector was my dislike for summoning and the chance of anyone becoming a slave under Kindred, despite all the limitations we plan to put.”

A’Bel would’ve probably made a coy comment at this point, but she was thoroughly sealed, and she couldn’t outpace the power drain of all the ship’s cannons, even if she filled up its magic reserves completely. She wasn’t getting out.

Anyway, everyone seemed surprised by my statement, so I continued to speak.

“So, I’m ready to hear out suggestions on how to fix that temptation vector, so that I don’t go crazy over it later and do something stupid.” A’Bel had leveraged that fact against me and almost won while I was running fresh off a victory high. There was no telling what would happen if some tragedy happened in the future and someone used it against me then. “How the hell do we handle the shortage of men, so that we can make the summoning circle worthless before the facility needed to make it possible is built?”

We had a couple of years.

Summoning on the scale of the Empire required infrastructure and economic inputs that needed national support and investment. Even summoning single people from ‘nearby’ dimensions was prohibitively expensive for one person. Punching through dimensions to abduct people and resources only became efficient with national backing and investment. That gave us a timeframe.

“How long do we have?” Ur, as pragmatic as ever, asked for the timetable first.

“Four years. Five max.”

“Emigration from other continents can alleviate the issue, but we’ll need many ships.” Henri offered a short-term solution without hesitation. “It will need a large fleet and public campaign to invite people over, but it can be done.”

“You’ll get the money. Get started on the plan when we get back.”

Kurama and Tanis would’ve been helpful to have around now, since they could crunch numbers and had good heads for long term solutions.

Reiser, though, spoke up even though she had a blindfold on to not cream herself when I glared at her.

“Perhaps, we should look into finding worlds near our own dimension that has been ruined and provide succor to their people? They will be dependent upon the Kindred, but efforts can be made to give them villages, autonomy, and secrecy like you’ve already done. Only those willing will go forth into Kindred culture.”

“Decent idea, but I’d rather the summoning circles be built in the first place.”

I wrote the idea down anyway, while ignoring Reiser turning into jelly with just me talking to her from across the room.

I couldn’t solve my problem alone, but with everyone’s help, the task didn’t seem impossible in the slightest.

It felt like just another challenge that I wanted to overcome and leverage Ylstu and my people to fix in the process.

The usual with my life case in other words.

Or, so I thought, until Ashe spoke up suddenly.

“Chieftain, this is of a new battle, but the promise made will be kept, yes? You will of be fulfilling your duty as a man?”

Ur and every Kindred in the room suddenly had very cold stares for me. Even A’Bel, who was taking having most of her powers bound, was glaring at me icily in her bindings while Henri was giving me a side-eye that could kill a normal Japanese man in an instant.

There was only one answer that didn’t involve me getting stripped this very instant and losing my virginity in my ship office.

I took it, even if it was only a temporary respite.

“Y-yeah, absolutely. I’ll take responsibility. The war’s with the Empire is over.”

But the war for Hachiman and Hachiman Jr. has just begun…

Aww, who am I kidding?

Hachiman Jr.’s going to get slaughtered.