Crossover anime, starting with Hachiman Hikigaya replacing Subaru Natsuki!

"In other words, theoretically, this library could indeed help me regain my memories."

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379. Vincent, twenty years older

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The common people below simply found these books of the dead novel and surprising. At most, some might think that if they could find their deceased parents in them, they could flip through the book and remember them.

The Book of the Dead only records a lifetime. It doesn't mean that reading a book will transform you or allow you to inherit the swordsmanship or magic of the book's owner. So most people are just surprised.

But for those in high positions of power and with wisdom, these books of the dead represent all sorts of possibilities.

With a whoosh, Emperor Vincent of the Empire was so shocked that he stood up, his eyes filled with possessiveness as he gazed longingly at the library inside the Sage's Tower.

"No matter how many books Beatrice has in her forbidden library, it only represents the knowledge of Echidna alone, and it's obvious that Echidna didn't write down all of her knowledge."

"But this library is different. This library represents the knowledge of all the dead people in the world, from at least four hundred years ago to the present."

"Knowledge is power!"

"Perhaps I can find the unconditional longevity secret technique that has been researched but has not yet been implemented, or something that will allow me to easily gain great power with very few side effects."

"With all the knowledge and secret techniques combined, we might be able to devise a plan to weaken Reinhard to the extreme, to the point that even azure lightning could defeat him."

"Two of the legendary Three Sages, Flügel and the First Sword Saint, are also dead. They once dealt with the Witch of Envy, who had the power of death reversion. Their Book of the Dead may contain a way to counter death reversion."

"If I conquer the Sage's Tower and seize the library, I might be able to defeat Reinhard and Hachiman Hikigaya."

"If I defeat these two strongest men in the world, one a scholar and the other a warrior, I can lead the Holy Flacchia Empire to rule the whole world!"

Clenching his fists, Vincent's mutterings grew louder and louder, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

A group of ministers, their eyes gleaming with greed, were lost in their beautiful fantasies. Only the azure lightning scoffed, "Then the question arises: how are you going to conquer the Sage's Tower?"

"—Gah!"

As long as Melly is not found, the Empire will never be able to break through the Monster Desert, let alone enter the Sage's Tower.

Vincent, his face dark with anger, waved his hand and said, "Increase the bounty! Have your men bring Merry to me right now!"

Vincent was not the only one who recognized the immense value of this library; the other three countries also issued bounties for information leading to Merry's whereabouts.

Since Hachiman Hikigaya had already let Merry off the hook, Felt and Anastasia did not stop the sage from recruiting Merry; they were just making preparations in secret.

After Melly and the Bowel Hunter arrived, they secretly killed the Bowel Hunter, Elsa.

This girl, who has committed various murders repeatedly in both future canon and alternate storylines, absolutely cannot be let go. Her death penalty priority is now second only to Echidna, Pandora, and Roswaal.

There's no need to worry about Melly not cooperating after Elsa is killed. After all, there's already a precedent for this. And if she really doesn't cooperate, we can just kill them both.

""ah!""

"A gasp escaped Emilia's lips. She was thrilled and immediately tried to rush out to find the book that could solve the bishop's power of Gluttony, but was immediately doused with cold water by her knight."

"Based on last night's experiment, both Shaula and I put in quite a few books, but none of them got pulled in. Anastasia only got pulled in once."

"The time she was pulled in was because of the book she was looking at. It was about someone she knew in life, a woman Anastasia had known back in Kararaki, with whom she had had several transactions."

"Besides that, Anastasia also flipped through several books by people whose names she had heard of, but none of them drew her in."

"Therefore, it can be basically confirmed that only if the person flipping through the book knew the person who lived in that book and had interacted with them can they 'tour' that person's life."

"Upon stating this stringent condition, Hachiman Hikigaya saw Emilia's head droop, filled with disappointment. If any of you here knew someone who could break the power of Gluttony, why would you need to come to the Tower of Sages?"

“Even if we can’t examine a person’s entire life in detail, we should be able to glean some information from reading books,” Ram suggested, racking his brains for his sister and brother-in-law. “If we could find the Book of the Dead by the Great Sage Frugel…”

"Unfortunately, that's not possible."

"Hachiman Hikigaya shook his head. "All the Books of the Dead here are scattered haphazardly, not organized by date, name, or historical achievement. Finding Frugel's Book of the Dead is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Kurshu, in order to become Lord Hachiman, also came up with a plan: 'How about we leave first, then send a large army back to search for us?'"

"I already spoke with Shaula about this last night," Hachiman Hikigaya said, pointing at Shaula. "She doesn't intend to cooperate."

"It's not that I'm not cooperating, Master! It's all according to the agreement!" Xia Wula jumped up, holding up four fingers with a pitiful expression.

"The four rules of the tower are: First, leaving before the trial is over is forbidden. Second, violating the trial rules is forbidden. Third, disrespecting the library is forbidden. Fourth, damaging the tower is forbidden."

"These are rules I must follow; I have no choice but to obey them. If anyone breaks the rules, I will lose control of myself and be forced to kill my master!"

"Croak! ...How could such a thing be!"

The ambitious dreamers immediately deflated.

The rules of Shawula don't matter, as long as the combined forces are enough to kill Shawula. The problem lies in the restrictions on the soul entering the book to read about a lifetime.

This directly resulted in the library becoming neither useful nor worth abandoning.

If you can't see a person's entire life, and it's just a record in a book, which is only a book thick, it can only give a very rudimentary description of what the person did. It's impossible for any knowledge to be left behind, and it's even possible that the time and place of what they did were not written down.

The blue lightning shrugged, watching with pity as his emperor went from excitement to mouth-opening in a daze, to a face full of grief and indignation, to looking as if he had aged twenty years, before shakily sitting back on the throne.

With these restrictions in place, it would be foolish for anyone to pool the nation's resources to conquer the Sage's Tower.

Vincent uttered the only swear word he's ever used since the show began.

380. The Second Trial: The Sword Saint Who Blocked Us

"No, no, no—don't look at me like that! You can't beat me, don't try to cheat, I don't want to lay a hand on Master."

Seeing Emilia and Crusch's gazes gradually sharpen, Shaula quickly waved her hand, but what she said seemed more like deliberately adding fuel to the fire.

"I'll sense it immediately if you break the rules, even if it's done secretly."

"Hachiman Hikigaya shook his head. This over 400-year-old kid really doesn't know how to talk. If it weren't for the fact that everyone present is good-tempered, they would have fought over what she said."

"The way to leave the Sage's Tower freely without fighting Shaula is to break through the trials, which is exactly what I want."

Seizing the initiative and stopping Shaula from continuing, Hachiman Hikigaya spoke up: "Perhaps the second and first floors will hold surprising rewards similar to the library, where we might even find a way to unlock the powers."

Emilia nodded firmly, and Beatrice, Crusch, Ram, Julius, and Merry all agreed. Anastasia had been the first to support the idea as early as last night.

No one asked, "What if we run out of food and ammunition and still can't pass all the trials by the time a month is up?"

"Shaura is very confident and indeed very powerful, but when it really comes down to it, she will most likely lose—Emilia, Beatrice, and Julius, the three strongest women, together against one enemy, can only defeat Reinhard and Regulus in the outside world."

"Even if Shaula really possesses power that even the three of them combined cannot defeat, given her attitude towards Hachiman Hikigaya, there is a way to make Hachiman Hikigaya tell her to commit suicide before she commits a foul."

"But that's the last resort. Hachiman Hikigaya would never do something like that unless it endangers everyone's lives, and he probably wouldn't even do it when that happens."

"...There is no staircase leading to the second floor from the third floor. The staircase is on the fourth floor, hidden in the room next to the green room. Emilia found it."

Anastasia didn't hold back her praise: "Impressive, isn't it?"

"Because it was built by someone with an untrustworthy personality, I would think the same way." Emilia smiled, happily accepting the praise. She was also thrilled to be able to do something that would help conquer the Sage's Tower.

"Although the stairs are wide this time, be careful not to fall—Julius, take good care of Miss Anastasia."

"This is my birthright and my honor."

"Curly used such kind words to firmly bind Anastasia to Julius's side, leaving him no reason to approach Hachiman Hikigaya. Her approach wasn't very clever, but at least it showed that she was no longer bewitched by Anastasia."

Anastasia glanced at Crusch, smiled slightly, and instead of confronting him, obediently walked into the trap.

"She had anticipated that after taking advantage of her own prime minister for one night in the library, she would end up being suspected by everyone."

"Knowing the side effects, they still did it because they didn't care."

"What she values ​​is Hachiman Hikigaya. As for Crusch and Ram, no matter how much they are rivals or how much they reject her, it doesn't matter. As long as she can win the favor of her own prime minister, that's enough."

"Rivals are inherently enemies. If we let a great opportunity slip away because we are afraid of Ram and Crusch's various traps, then we are putting the cart before the horse."

"I'm a businessman, you know. No matter how shrewd a businessman is, he'll always offend other merchant guilds when vying for trade orders. But if the order I win brings me unique benefits, I'll do it."

"And now, let us lie low, curl up, and wait for the seeds to sprout and for the next opportunity to arrive."

"The situation is excellent! Great! ...But why does the young lady still look unhappy?"

Inside the Hexin Chamber of Commerce, Mimi, bouncing around, tilted her head, climbed onto the young lady's lap, blinked her eyes, and looked on with curiosity.

Anastasia sighed, "Because I kind of hate it."

"In the official timeline, the characters are a bit too calculating. Although this is because of the existence of Emilia and Crusch, the characters in the official timeline cannot simply focus on straightforward matters like in their own timelines."

"But in comparison, I still prefer to treat the Prime Minister without any scheming."

"That kind of love is purer, more comfortable, and is what the Prime Minister prefers."

The fact that she went to such lengths to scheme and plot to win over Hachiman Hikigaya actually shows her love for her prime minister in the official timeline. Nevertheless, Anastasia just prefers her version of herself in the "what if" scenario.

Because Hachiman Hikigaya definitely prefers that one.

"Moreover, all the schemes we've devised have been shown. After Miss Crusch and the others watch them, will they copy and learn from them, or perhaps gain a better way to deal with us? This is something that's causing us a lot of distress."

After hearing this, Julius, who had just returned from the Sword Saint's mansion, scratched his head, unable to say anything.

From what he saw, it seemed that even Lord Felt had grown somewhat after seeing these futures, let alone Lord Crusch and Ram Rem.

it's fine.

"No matter how far Crusch and Emilia grow, for Anastasia's wish and for my own selfish reasons—I, Julius, will absolutely do everything in my power to bring you Hachiman-kun!"

"The staircase leading from the fourth floor to the second floor is not only wide but also very long, making it quite tiring to walk up."

"Upon entering the second level, you see the same white space as the third level, with a sword stuck in the very center."

"Julius stepped forward, grasping the hilt and taking all the risks. In that instant, a voice echoed in everyone's minds: 'Fool, who has attained the Heavenly Sword, obtain its permission.'"

"Accompanying the sound was a man with long red hair and a burly physique."

"The man had a black eye patch over his left eye, wore a red Japanese-style casual outfit, deliberately exposed his right hand and right half of his body, and had a white cloth wrapped around his waist."

"The fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword, obtain its permission," the mechanical voice repeated several times, then was suddenly interrupted, by the man himself.

"He seemed to awaken from a deep slumber, his voice free, his eyes brimming with life, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, utterly disregarding them as he spoke:"

"Good woman, good woman, good woman, filthy woman, child, child, little brother—"

381. Command and Trust