Chapter 16: When Hearing News of a God Once Again
With Ena sent off, Hikigaya Hachiman's schedule suddenly became wide open.
After all, with one less "program" in the evening and the frequency of business at the Manseiya being quite... underwhelming, it was impossible not to have extra time on his hands. And with so much time, simply checking Hikigaya Komachi's homework was definitely not enough to kill it all. Even factoring in the time spent on business training for his new lackey, Gin, there was still plenty to spare.
After all, he was training a subordinate, not teaching a disciple.
Consequently, he began to turn his attention back to the spoils of his last collaboration with the Black Prince—that divine artifact he had recovered from deep underground, which should be called the Sword of the Wind God.
Hikigaya had never forgotten that underground pyramid, even though he had eventually used it as a target to test his sword and reduced it to rubble. It certainly wasn't built by the ancient Japanese; the time left on that structure was no less than 500 years. Five hundred years ago, the Japanese were still in the Sengoku period and absolutely lacked the capability to carry out such an engineering project underground.
Thus, a rather absurd conclusion emerged—this world might truly have had an underground civilization.
Looking at the technology of the pyramid, the level of civilization wasn't low either. (The ancient civilizations of the Americas shouldn't be considered counter-examples; that was a geographical "blame-shift.")
Underground civilizations have always been a common theme in fantasy literature, a setting that theoretically began in 1692 with the Hollow Earth theory proposed by the British astronomer Edmond Halley. However, Halley wasn't playing as "high" back then as people did later; at most, he theorized that the Earth was composed of multiple concentric hollow spheres, with each layer being a world, and he believed there were passages on the surface connecting to these underground layers.
But to say Halley was the first to play with the underground setting would be to look down on the ancients. For instance, ancient Indian texts once recorded an underground corridor called "Agartha," meaning "the world beneath the earth," where legends say the secrets and endless treasures of ancient civilizations are buried. As for physical evidence, the Cueva de los Tayos (Cave of the Tayos/Gold Cave) in Ecuador is perhaps the most famous. This tunnel contains many ancient relics and ruins of civilizations, including a thirteen-step pyramid inlaid with an eye-shaped ornament, as well as carvings of dinosaurs.
Regardless, this theory added a lot of bricks and mortar to later fantasy literature.
Hikigaya used to just laugh off this theory. It wasn't that he was now certain this world definitely had an underground civilization—that was too big of a leap—but the fact that there
were pyramids underground besides rocks, minerals, water, and magma was something he had seen with his own eyes. If he had the time, he wouldn't mind visiting this world's version of the Ecuador Gold Cave in the future.
In any case, Hikigaya had his subordinates go out to collect any remaining information regarding the Sword of the Wind God and the Sword of the Thunder God. Since he found the Wind God sword in an underground pyramid, the Thunder God sword might also be something related to it.
Naturally, communication between him and the Black Prince became more frequent.
Regarding the relatively old setting of "underground civilizations," the Black Prince had clearly researched it as well, but he hadn't visited this world's Ecuador Gold Cave either. In his words, he "didn't have time."
This sentence wouldn't seem like a valid excuse for a Campione who possessed divine speed, but it was understandable given that the direct reason for the Black Prince's archaeology was to seek the mystery of the Holy Grail. If it wasn't archaeology directly related to the Grail, he really might not have the time.
In this regard, he and Hikigaya were completely different.
Alec (the Black Prince) scavenged items to research the Holy Grail because it was a family mission and one of the driving forces that led to him becoming a Campione. It was much like how Hikigaya liked reading ancient myths specifically to better understand his own Authorities, ensuring he could land a "critical hit" during the next PK (player kill/battle).
For Hikigaya, scavenging was purely for the joy of life.
So, although he had scavenged the Wind God sword, he hadn't spent much time researching it—to the point that he hadn't even mentioned the matter of having Ena switch swords yet. If it weren't for Ena bringing up her desire to go train, he almost would have forgotten about it.
After becoming a Campione, it was easy for him to take a sudden interest in something and then even easier to forget it. The only thing he hadn't forgotten was the matter he asked Lilianna to investigate. Although there wasn't a definitive answer yet, he was very patient. Because he believed that the "time cost" involved would eventually be paid for by someone else.
Hikigaya felt that his increasing lack of concern for time might be directly related to his increasingly rich results in researching time itself.
After all, he had "transmigrated" twice now.
If a person has the ability to run back to past space-time, it's impossible for their patience while waiting to be anything but excellent.
In fact, "running back" wasn't much of a problem for the current Hikigaya. Give him an antique and the corresponding geographical conditions, and he could run back. What he was
currently researching were different "running methods"—for instance, having no medium, or perhaps not wanting to run back to ancient times, but just a "play style" where he sets the time slightly earlier than the present.
From the fact that he hadn't seen another version of himself up until now, it seemed that his future self had either not succeeded or had succeeded in a place where he himself wasn't present.
That was quite a pity; he was actually looking forward to the moment when a God came looking for him in the future, only to face a whole dozen of "him."
.
.
.
This particular regret wasn't removed from Hikigaya's "regret list" until Tokyo entered July—not because he met a future or past self, but because Komachi was about to start her vacation.
At this time, Tokyo had entered the rainy season. It was either raining or so sunny it could kill you; it wasn't a good season. However, compared to the typhoon season in August, it at least sounded much better.
Personally, Hikigaya felt a sense of emotional closeness to typhoons because it was during a typhoon that he transformed from a "weakling" of this world into one of its strongest living beings.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that because summer break had started, Komachi and her friends were planning to return to Chiba—even the "paper-ball swordsman" from Kyoto was no exception.
Since Hikigaya didn't plan on going back immediately, he had to call a car for her and her friends to ensure they got home safely.
Komachi was obviously happy; it meant that for a while, no one would be "annoyingly mean" and check her homework every day.
Hikigaya, on the other hand, listed the fact that he wouldn't be able to see his sister's pained expression during homework checks as a "priority regret."
Regardless, after sending everyone away, Hinata Inn returned to its tranquility. Aside from the manager lady who was obsessed with cleaning, only Moe remained to accompany Hikigaya.
And after being slightly unaccustomed to it for about a day, Hikigaya got used to it.
Then, after a long gap of several months, he finally heard news of a God once again.
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