Somehow, Living Life in Another World is Wrong, as I Expected Ch. 11.2 (Patreon)

When a person backs away, it’s usually seen as a sign of weakness. Being scared of what’s in front of you, maybe? Or perhaps even that the person knows that they’re in way over their head. Regardless, it doesn’t even matter if it was the best option they had. All that matters is that the mere act of retreat was acted on, and that’s all anyone will focus on.

History is full of situations like these, though they’re so forgettable entirely because nobody ever remembers when someone retreats. Even myself, I can’t deny that I’ve thought so. I’ve thought that, in order to move forward, someone must not retreat. I hate the me that constantly backed away from confrontation, not because I avoided trouble, but for the instinctual idea that I was weak.

Just like that one orange haired shonen protagonist was told, you’ll age when you pull back, and you’ll die if you hesitate.

Now that I’m older though, I’ve realized that I’m very much more suited to retreat than anything else. If only because the comparison was the sheer bullheadedness that was chivalry.

See, the definition of chivalry should be about being brave and whatnot. Uphold the ideals of knighthood and everything good and blah blah blah. Karsten knew I hated that part of this country (alongside many, many other things), but didn’t bother arguing with me about it. We both knew that neither of us could convince the other of changing viewpoints.

For her, chivalry was about honoring everything that the Karsten family had stood for.

For me, chivalry was dying on a hill that was about to be hit by a nuclear warhead.

The thing about chivalry in my world is that it’s usually only seen as a ‘gentlemanly’ thing to do. You know, open a door for your significant other type of shit. Harmless things that would not really be an issue for anyone. 

Here, it’s literally ‘you will die for the sake of your lord’. Frankly speaking, the idea of dying for the sake of some rich landowner is baffling. Ludicrous. Just imagine going up to someone and going, ‘Oh hey, I know you’re illiterate, poor and starving, but do you mind joining the army and becoming fodder?’, much less that someone actually accepting that deal.

And yet every knight in this godforsaken kingdom decides to follow through with that ideal, with the sole exception of that vice commander of the Royal Guard.

All of this to say, I am not knight material. I know when to pick and choose my battles, and it is precisely this survival instinct that is the reason why I am alive, and a lot of knights aren’t. So, when faced with an opponent that survived the vacuum of space, without the aid of any of my allies, and is actively trying to kill me?

Of fucking course I ran.

…

‘Run’ is a bit of a misnomer. Really, I would call it a tactical retreat. With Lugunica surviving my trump card, I didn’t have anything else I could feasibly use to kill her. Neither did Karsten, or Romanée-Cont for that matter.

That meant that anything I did try would just be wasted effort. Therefore, the most optimal solution was to find someone who could kill her. Those options were limited to possibly three individuals. The first was Astrea, who I wouldn’t be able to get to since I didn’t know where he was. The second was Mathers, who might have some magic that could isolate Lugunica, or prevent her from regenerating in the first place. Unfortunately, again, he was out of the picture at the moment.

The last was our wayward protagonist, Natsuki. He had to have known that Lugunica was coming, which stands to reason that he has something planned for her, and was likely the reason why he was looking for Beatrice in the first place.

After all, Beatrice could damn well just use Al Shamak and have this over with.

I dove to the ground as a glob of acid sprayed where my head was, transitioning into a roll as I made my way throughout the mansion. Landing in front of a broom closet, I ripped open the door, finding nothing but cleaning supplies. I swore as I continued to run.

Finding them was the main issue. They were in the Forbidden Library, and with Beatrice’s magic, the entrance could be any damn door in the mansion. But this wasn’t something I could give up on. The Archbishop of Lust was after me, and I wouldn’t put it past her to go after Felt if I portalled out of here.

The sound of skittering made me involuntarily look behind me. Holy fuck, she just transformed half her body into that of a giant spider and was now crawling on the ceiling. Swallowing my revulsion, I picked up speed as I turned the corner. I grimaced as my shoulder impacted the wall, but I shrugged it off as best as I could, launching back into a sprint.

Behind me, I heard Lugunica do the same, before loud hissing filled my ears. I stomped down on my next step, launching rock into a spear aimed behind me, hearing the stone pierce through flesh.

Another door, bedroom. No Library.

And then there was fire.

Acrid smoke bellowed out from one of the rooms, a spare dining room. Shit, I don’t know how it hadn’t spread already, but it was strong enough to deter me from going forward. With how it looked, it could be that the entire west wing of the mansion could be in flames already.

No time to think. I needed to get out before Lugunica caught up. I opened a portal in front of me as I ran. Lugunica screeched in anger. I paid her no mind as I ran right through…with the exit portal pointed where I had run previously.  As the Archbishop landed on the ground, not having noticed me yet, I took the chance to launch a particularly sharp piece of debris at her head - or heads in this case since she had grown three snake-like necks.

She whirled around as I smirked at her, and the chase was back on.

Some may call this stupid, and yes, I agree. However, I can’t risk losing track of Lugunica when there are so many variables to take into account. Not to mention, even if I did find Beatrice, there’s a decent chance that the Spirit wouldn’t make a move just cause I said so. Leading the Archbishop right to her would more than likely force her hand to act, if nothing else.

My lungs were practically screaming in protest. My life philosophy has always revolved around energy conservation, and right now, my stamina gauge was flashing a violent, critical red. Honestly, whoever designed the layout of this mansion was a sadist. Too many hallways, not enough emergency exits.

It was bothersome. Incredibly, genuinely bothersome.    

I slid past a collapsing tapestry, a glob of acid splashing against the stone wall where my torso had been a fraction of a second prior. The pungent smell of melting rock filled the corridor. I needed to find that library, but blindly checking doors was the pinnacle of inefficiency. I needed to think like a loner. Better yet, I needed to think like a supreme hikikomori.

The Forbidden Library wouldn't be affected by the fire, not until the entire mansion was burned. Since it existed outside of the mansion itself, then theoretically, the entrance would have to be the last door standing. Except I don't know where that was, and with the fire now spreading even faster, there's no time to look for it.

Goddammit.

"Hikigaya, get down!"

I did so without hesitation, Aldebaran barreling forward with his sword. It sliced through an extended leg, one that I hadn't even heard coming. The both of us didn't bother with stopping, immediately turning around and continuing to sprint.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I grunted through the smoke that was now filling the hallways.

"Princess told me to mind my own business, so who am I to argue with her?" Aldebaran remarked with an air of exasperation, "Though, those three probably could beat Kurgan without any issues. Last I saw, he was already weaker than he was earlier."

I clicked my tongue, "Fine, then help me find Natsuki so we can-"

Fuck. I realized it as we turned the corner that we had entered the largest hallway in the mansion. A single file line that would make us easy pickings for Lugunica. To his credit, Aldebaran understood immediately as we both broke into a dead sprint, no longer concerning ourselves with conserving energy. We needed to clear this before-

Too late.

A giant appendage stretched the entire length of the hallway, catching both of us. It slammed us into the window-side wall, once, twice. I could feel several bones be dislocated, the pain coming up in vicious waves. Aldebaran roared behind his helmet, hefting his sword in a hacking motion, trying to sever the tail.

It didn't work.

With one last slam, we were torn through the wall, where the feeling of weightlessness was prevalent.

Right, we were on the third floor. This was going to hurt.

…

“Hikigaya!”

What is it with people shouting my name recently?

That singular shower thought came through as the impact-with-dirt that should have happened, didn’t. Instead, I was met with a mass of muscle as Aldebaran and I were caught unceremoniously. It hurt still, but not nearly as much as I expected.

“Boss!” Felt shoved her face near mine, eyes wide with worry, “What the hell happened?!”

“Talk later.” I coughed as my dry throat strained itself. I took notice of the welts that both the old man and the young girl had. Hell, Rom even had a black eye, which was incredibly hard to manage since he was part giant.

Before either of them questioned it, they already got their answer, due in part to the grotesque chimera that was the Archbishop bursting through the wall and making a beeline for us. Aldebaran swore, jumping off from where he was set down by Rom, narrowly avoiding a sharp piece of wood.

“Old man, up top!” Felt swiveled around 

“I got ‘em!” With a yell, Rom swatted a dive bombing mabeast, which instantly splattered into a pool of viscera. Right, that mabeast tamer was still around here. Damn, I was getting tired already if I hadn’t noticed that they were still all over the place.

“Aldebaran, you got any ideas on what to do?”

Judge me all you want, but I had some idea on what Aldebaran could do. In fact, with all my interactions with him, I had a gut feeling of just what he was. Though, that’s not why I respected him enough to defer to him when it came to something like this.

“Heh. Didn’t think you’d ask me that.” The gladiator gave a small laugh, “I’ve got a few tricks, so you might want to step back a bit.”

No, I deferred to him because he was a damn good fighter.

I looked into him when I first heard about Barielle. Not just anyone could find their way as the Sun Princess’ personal escort, especially when Aldebaran acted the way he did. No records of his existence before he appeared as a gladiator eighteen years ago, and yet he had climbed to the top spot, due in part to his shrewdness and combat prowess.

Truth be told, in a one-v-one scenario, I’d bet on Aldebaran beating anyone who wasn’t Astrea.

“You know that I can’t put this bitch down, right?”

“You don’t have to.”

“...Waiting for Subaru then?”

I nodded silently. That he had already come to that conclusion almost confirmed that we knew what was happening, what we were, and who exactly Natsuki was. Or hoped he was at least.

At this point, I just hoped that Natsuki was the real deal and not another protagonist-reject like Aldebaran and I.

…

A/N: So, it looks like with the situation revolving around, well, just about everything, the place I work at is looking to do some budget cuts. And there’s a good chance that I’m about to be let go. Truth be told, everyone kinda knew about it for a while now due to office gossip, but fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen.