Crossover anime, starting with Hachiman Hikigaya replacing Subaru Natsuki!

"Lam's analysis was reasonable and well-founded. The angry villagers were more driven by emotion, accusing her of neglecting the children. Both sides held their own opinions, and the surrounding villagers were anxious. All eyes and the heavy pressure were on Hachiman Hikigaya."

"Hachiman Hikigaya pondered for two seconds, then asked, 'Ram, Rem, and Emilia, how long would it take the three of you working together to repair the barrier?'"

"Ram's mind works quickly, and she immediately replied, 'It will be quick. The barrier will be repaired while maintaining its combat effectiveness.'"

"Alright, then please, the three of you, get to work quickly."

"Just as the parents of the missing child were about to erupt in anger, Hachiman Hikigaya had already swiftly assigned the next task ahead of them: 'Everyone, if you have firewood at home, quickly light it to make torches, and proceed into the forest as a group. Don't go too deep; just make a path first. The people from the Roswaal estate and I will follow shortly!'"

He then turned to the three and instructed them, "The barrier is crucial to the safety of this village from now on, so you must be careful!"

"This call effectively allocated resources and combat power, and also played the emotional card, making it impossible to accuse Emilia and the other two of intentionally delaying the child's rescue time."

The villagers looked at each other, sensing Hachiman Hikigaya's powerful aura and brimming confidence. Considering his status, they looked at each other again and, without much hesitation, immediately took action!

The three girls stared in disbelief at Hachiman Hikigaya, who was in a leadership position.

"To be honest, I was also stunned." Shirogane Miyuki smiled wryly, admitting his inferiority. As the student council president, he knew a bit about manipulating people's hearts, but it was precisely because he was knowledgeable that he was even more amazed by the level of expertise displayed here.

"In this grand scheme, Hikigaya-kun has already laid his hidden pieces long ago!"

-

34. Turning losses into profits

Bai Yingui glanced sideways at her brother, who seemed to have suddenly understood, and hesitated, wanting to say something but then stopped. However, after hesitating for a while, the rebellious younger sister finally felt that it was too embarrassing to ask her brother for advice, and reluctantly swallowed the question she wanted to ask.

Shirogane Miyuki, who was already quite concerned about his family, saw all of her actions clearly.

Compared to Hachiman Hikigaya and Lum, he is far from being a siscon, but as an older brother, he would never let go of such a perfect opportunity to demonstrate his intelligence and solve his sister's problems, thus strengthening their sibling bond.

"Hachiman didn't initially intend to commit all his fighting power, partly because the conclusion that 'dogs are monsters' hadn't been definitively settled, but more so because he didn't want Emilia to be in danger... It's really awkward, Hichiman-kun, who doesn't have the guts to admit his gentleness."

“After Emilia and Ram decided to participate, he could have easily persuaded them to go back, given his eloquence. But he didn’t, for three reasons: one was to avoid wasting time and missing the opportunity to save the village.”

"On the other hand... Ultimately, it's true that Hachiman harbors resentment towards Rem, but he also doesn't want a perfectly healthy person to die after setting off with him because they're not strong enough to fight the enemy. Having two more people means more security."

Heroes admire each other, and Shirogane Miyuki, who seemed to be scolding but was actually praising Hachiman Hikigaya, quickly got down to business afterward, addressing his sister Shirogane Kei's doubts:

"Hachiman Hikigaya's arrangement of things in the village is very ordinary; it can only be described as plain."

"He didn't have enough cards in his hand, and he couldn't really come up with any superhuman plans. He wasn't as intelligent as Zhuge Liang—what amazed me was that the villagers were all diligent and obedient to his arrangements!"

"Throughout his words, he was appropriating Roswaal's prestige, emphasizing to the villagers the lie that he was equated with Roswaal. For example, pay attention to his statement, 'I and the people from the Roswaal residence will arrive shortly,' which constantly reinforces this implication."

"Wait a moment!"

Shirogane raised her hand to stop his incessant chatter, much like an obsessive-compulsive patient looking at a scrambled Rubik's Cube and asking with great distress, "Didn't you say there were three reasons? What's the third one?"

"This is what I'm about to talk about."

Shirogane Miyuki pointed at the video, revealing a smile of satisfaction that resembled that of a hardcore anime fan who had followed Aohi Anime for three seasons and then saw their favorite couple confessing and kissing.

“Look closely, Hachiman is deliberately diminishing Emilia’s presence.”

"So what?" Shirogane asked, then suddenly remembered, "Right, the villagers all hate Emilia... Is he protecting Emilia?"

"Not only that, he has a grander and more profound blueprint."

Shirogane Miyuki's voice was powerful and clear, and a flame was burning in his eyes!

"Upon realizing that Emilia was going to join the operation, he immediately switched his mindset. In short, if I'm not mistaken—Hachiman Hachiman will use this crisis to pin most of the credit for resolving the incident on Emilia, thereby turning around her public image in one fell swoop!"

"Most importantly, the fact that he built up his reputation among the villagers beforehand shows that even without the sorcerer thing, Hachiman had already planned to reverse Emilia's reputation and would orchestrate a whole show himself."

Hachiman Hikigaya is a man who dotes on his wife and is easy to get along with!

Miyuki Shirogane was so passionate that he even wanted to call Kaguya Shinomiya immediately and have a sweet talk with her.

"what……"

Bai Yin Gui exclaimed in shock, and then, when he looked at the man in the video, his gaze was no longer purely one of admiration for his skill, but rather... it carried a slightly different meaning.

Who wouldn't like a man who dotes on his girlfriend like that?

Through his actions that night, Hachiman Hikigaya unknowingly won the hearts of countless young girls on Earth.

"But these two don't seem to be in love at all. I don't see it at all. Shouldn't this be loyalty, loyalty to the monarch, or repaying kindness?"

Inside the karaoke bar, the clumsy Tobu Hayabusa scratched his head, revealing his complete lack of tact.

Hayama didn't discriminate against his emotional intelligence and explained gently, "Amelia's life-saving grace was repaid to the Bowel Hunter. Loyalty... In modern thinking, where is there any loyalty to speak of?"

"So that means it's considered a relationship?"

Looking at the clueless Hobe, Hayama felt a little helpless. "Indeed, there isn't even a budding flame of love between Hachiman and Emilia yet, but the distance between them is clearly getting smaller and smaller."

"Hachiman, facing a completely unfamiliar other world, chose to reach out to the first person in that world who showed him kindness, and Emilia lived up to his expectations; her virtuous character greatly pleased Hachiman, and so now..."

"Now, Hachiman, who possesses extremely high intelligence and emotional intelligence and could have easily acquired an aircraft carrier, has quietly thrown out a rope and chosen to tie himself to Emilia, doing everything in his power to save this small boat on the verge of collapse."

"Emilia's beauty, inside and out, has been drawing Hachiman unconsciously closer to her. Similarly, Emilia, who is willing to risk the darkness and the unknown to trust Hachiman, is also unconsciously drawn to him."

"Right now, Hachiman and Emilia are caught up in the situation, and neither of them has realized this yet... But once their feelings reach a critical point, the sparks of love that erupt will be absolutely dazzling and incredibly powerful!"

The last sentence was spoken by Miura Yumiko herself. She gazed at the eloquent Hayama Hayato with a seductive look in her eyes, already imagining in her mind how her love with Hayama would develop.

Ye Shan slightly turned his head, pretending not to have noticed anything.

"The villagers, in groups, each carrying two torches, were as furious as the flames on their torches. They built a bridge between the forest and the village, and acted as pioneers without hesitation to save innocent children."

"That's why I chose to change their minds rather than take a more extreme approach," Hachiman Hikigaya muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, Ram reported the good news from afar: "The barrier repair is complete!"

"Hachiman Hikigaya paused for a moment, nodded, slowly clenched his fist, and took a fearless step."

"A group of four, firing at full power!!!"

35. The unity of hearts and minds

"Ohh ...

"That night, the villagers of the territory reached a level of extraordinary performance for the first time!"

"In the vast, tranquil, dark forest, flames soared into the sky under the dim night light, their roar shaking the universe!"

"The villagers, their adrenaline surging, spontaneously and haphazardly formed the most valiant and fearless army. Their shouts and curses that shook the entire forest were clearly a provocation to the powerful and ferocious monsters. The monsters, who had always regarded humans as food, fled in panic under this fearless and murderous aura."

"The magical beasts that were initially eyeing them are now lying scattered on the ground, their fur charred, lifeless, and their flesh emitting a delicious aroma."

"The torches illuminated their shining courage, duty propelled them forward, and the lords of the Earl of Roswaal's mansion provided them with the strongest support."

"Ahhh—"

"For some reason, the fleeing monsters suddenly became aggressive and turned back. They were just as fearless as before. In an instant, nearly ten villagers were caught off guard and fell to the ground, howling in pain, about to become victims of the wolf claws."

Suddenly, countless ice spikes rained down, accompanied by a biting, piercing wind. They pinned down the soul of the monster that was alive and kicking just a second ago, and the ice spikes pierced through the monster's skull, blowing its body away with them.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you so much, Lady Emilia!"

"The young and middle-aged people who survived the disaster swept away all the rumors and disgust from the corners of their hearts."

"Only after teetering on the brink of death can one truly appreciate the preciousness of a life-saving grace."

"Her noble and pure robes, accompanied by the cool breeze, stirred the mana in the air, and she was engrossed in killing enemies and saving lives. The filthy battlefield could not tarnish her beauty and purity."

"This is Emilia."

"What exactly was I doing before?" someone suddenly realized, and with tears in their eyes, wanted to apologize.

"Hey, do you want to die? Get serious right now!" His friend grabbed him and roared, "You have to apologize to Lady Emilia, and from now on you have to seriously follow Lord Roswaal and Lady Emilia. You want to, I want to—we all want to right now!"

He roared, drawing out all the oxygen from his lungs: "Then—let's kill these beasts first, save our own lives, so as not to betray Lady Emilia's life-saving grace!"

"Ahhhhh, yes! Yes! That's it, that's how it should be! No, that's the only way!"

In reality, everyone in Roswaal's territory was filled with excitement.

"Before, we were filled with ignorance and prejudice, and only knew how to unilaterally distance ourselves from and hate Lady Emilia. Only now do we realize what a worthy monarch we missed out on!"

"Aton for your sins! Strive for it! Repent! For the children, for Lord Hachiman Hikigaya, for Lady Emilia, for our future selves, charge!!!"

The children exchanged glances and solemnly promised, "We will never again sneak into the forest or approach animals of unknown origin!"

"Now I finally understand why the customer wouldn't let me handle it."

Ram looked thoughtfully at Emilia, who was displaying her great power.

"Just before, when the barrier was being repaired, on the way to the forest, Hachiman Hikigaya specifically consulted them about their abilities and strength."

"Knowing that Rem is used to hand-to-hand combat, I told Rem to go all out; knowing that she uses ranged attacks and is not good at stamina, I told her to conserve her stamina and just deal with low-intensity close combat."

"This isn't just to conserve my strength and keep me as a trump card, but also to prevent me from stealing Emilia's spotlight, so that the villagers can be reformed and covered by Emilia's grace... Emilia now has a reliable supporter."

"Rem also noticed this scene; she's not stupid, and she quickly understood."

"My older sister is Lord Roswaal's maid. In her eyes, there is only her younger sister and the most revered Lord Roswaal. Obeying Lady Emilia is just secondary. Rem, of course, follows her older sister's lead in everything."

"But that doesn't mean she'd be happy to see the kind-hearted Emilia like a reflection in the water, merely holding a position that could be overturned by the storm at any moment. Rem doesn't know what her sister thinks if Emilia can live a better life, but Rem herself would definitely be happy to see it."

"With Hachiman-kun offering advice, Lady Emilia should at least be getting better than before."

"Rem..."

Emilia gently bit her lip, her emotions a complex mix.

"So, Lydia, are you at peace now?" Puck smiled and comforted his good daughter. "Rem did go a bit too far, but Hachiman Hikigaya has already forgiven her."

Emilia hesitated for a long time, then shook her head slightly, without answering.

"All the children have been found! Evacuate! Evacuate!"

"The last child had already been carried on the carpenter's back. The villagers, who had been fighting with bloodlust, snapped out of their special state and, under Hachiman Hikigaya's loud instructions, began to run steadily and gradually into the village."

"The cute little dog revealed its true colors, leading a pack of beasts in a chase that tore and bit, creating immense pressure."

"This thing is nowhere near as good as the Gut Hunter!"

"Ice spike, storm, meteor hammer!"

"After storing up her strength for a long time, Ram, along with Emilia and Rem, launched an attack. The attack was swift and deadly; for her sister Rem's safety, Ram held nothing back. The three combined attacks blasted the monster's head apart in an instant!"

"Emilia and Rem were both a little tired, but remembering that Hachiman Hikigaya had specifically told them along the way to 'always pretend to be in control,' they still held their heads high and pretended to be in control, even though they didn't understand what he meant."