Crossover anime, starting with Hachiman Hikigaya replacing Subaru Natsuki!

"These die-hard loyalists never expected that they could be forgiven. They burst into tears, tears streaming down their faces, and even soiling themselves. They were so moved and ashamed that they exceeded the limits of loyalty."

"Yes! Your subordinate will spend your life atoning for your sins! Your subordinate will never disappoint the Emperor again!"

"These die-hards were released from prison, and after their release, they continued to brainwash the people around them, gradually persuading many people and strengthening their loyalty to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

"And Ayanokoji Kiyotaka certainly wouldn't let them continue to go astray... He would just pick a day or some random thing to praise these loyal followers for doing a good job, and that would be worthy of a reward."

He then initiated treatment, restoring the sight of these loyal followers.

"This approach further won over the hearts of the people and proved the omnipotence of the Earth Emperor. After that, these few loyal followers became second only to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, helping him manage his power."

"Wow—I will give everything for you to fulfill the Emperor's dream of unifying the world! Go and fulfill it!!"

464. The Dead Dumpling and Horikita Suzune (Part 1)

"While making his die-hard fans even more devoted, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was also doing other work."

"After the kingdom's army was destroyed, the city's residents were coerced, and the city lord was no exception. He was forced to take a highly poisonous pill, and he would not get the antidote unless he served Ayanokoji Kiyotaka well, which made him wish he were dead."

"Of course, the entire process of poisoning and threatening was carried out by Setsuna and his people. As the Emperor of the Earth, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka should absolutely not have done such a thing himself, because that would show that he lacked the confidence to convince the lord of the castle to work for him willingly, and it would also make him seem very lacking in courage."

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka made all the things that were not conducive to establishing personal authority clear to his reliable loyalists, so that they would act spontaneously and share the burden for him, the emperor."

"In a flash, he gave the poison to the city lord and another disobedient, arrogant nobleman named 'Kayal' who looked down on his former commoner status. Then he gave the city lord the antidote but not the nobleman."

"Then, the city lord watched as the nobleman went from cursing to wailing, then to begging for mercy, and finally let out a scream that was like hell on earth. His whole body was itchy from the inside out, so itchy that he scratched himself to death."

"After that, the city lord didn't say anything. He immediately knelt down and swore an oath to his ancestors for eighteen generations, vowing to be loyal to the Earth Emperor to the death."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka laughed heartily, indicating that he liked this kind of opportunistic person. Since flattery could make him laugh so hard, why not keep the position of castle lord?

"Then came the specific task instructions."

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had the castle lord write a letter to the royal city, the gist of which was that the general had been defeated and the entire army had been wiped out."

"That is, 'Kayal was inhuman; he completely ignored the villagers and didn't show himself until all the villagers were executed. It wasn't until our soldiers cooperated in the search that we found Kyal's whereabouts.'"

"Then came the 'General, arrogant and careless, ordered an expedition out of the city to pursue the valiant warrior Kaiar after discovering his trail, only to be ambushed by Kaiar in the jungle.'"

"In the letter, on the one hand, it implies that 'the general allowed his army to plunder my territory, and for his defeat, I can only say he deserves to die,' while on the other hand, it cautiously states that 'his plundering caused me much damage, so I embezzled the armor and weapons left behind by his army, didn't I?'"

"Finally, some nice words: 'If we discover Kyal's whereabouts again, we will report it immediately, remaining forever loyal to the Second Princess and forever loyal to His Majesty the King.'"

Before sending it out, Sword Saint Kreeher examined the letter, puzzled by some of its contents. "Why does it convey such a sense of 'the city lord is happy about the general's death'? Won't that arouse the Second Princess's suspicion, making her think the city lord might have conspired with you to murder the general?"

"It is precisely because of these hints that the second princess is even less likely to suspect anything."

"While spouting profound wisdom, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji had absolutely no interest in explaining the intricacies of the matter from scratch, nor did he intend to teach this naive and foolish child who knew nothing of human relationships."

"But if she notices the deliberate flaws I've made inside, that pleases me even more. The higher her standards, the more satisfied I am."

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka smiled, but he didn't have high expectations. As it stands, the level of the Second Princess Noron is only at the level of the Sages' Society of the Kingdom of Lugnica. She can't even compare to that useless thing called the Holy Flaccia Empire that is always being ousted.

"Before facing him, I was just hoping to have a worthy opponent to practice against... It's a pity, if Horikita Gakuryuen and the others had come too, and they had set aside their own agendas and joined forces with the Second Princess Noron, the two sides working together would have been quite interesting."

"However, we can't ask for too much. The current situation is already alright. At least the second princess has some ability, unlike the first princess Freya, whose mother, Horikita Suzune, is just as disappointing as her lack of scheming and strategy."

"...?"

What do you mean?

"What do you mean, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka!?"

At Advanced Nurturing High School, Horikita Suzune stared wide-eyed, her eyes bloodshot and red like Ram's, her fists clenched and teeth clenched.

She looked as if she had been struck hard on the back of the head with a club; her entire state was indescribable.

Horikita Suzune was praising Ayanokouji Kiyotaka without holding a grudge, and then Ayanokouji Kiyotaka slapped her back without mercy, viciously betraying her. What's going on here?

"Ha, ha ha ha ha!"

Seeing Horikita Suzune's bitter and resentful expression, Ryuen immediately burst into laughter.

Before Ayanokouji Kiyotaka came forward on his own, he once thought that the occasional brilliant strategies that Class D had in various exams were all thanks to Horikita Suzune, and he thought highly of this woman.

Now the truth has come out: the mastermind is Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, and Suzune Horikita was merely a pawn pushed out.

That would be one thing, but the problem is that the pieces don't even have self-awareness. Horikita Suzune used to act all cool and domineering, as if she really thought she was amazing.

Ryuen was annoyed when he recalled the days when he looked up to Horikita Suzune. Now that he had the chance to mock her and kick her while she was down, how could he, a yakuza, let it go so easily?

Katsuragi, Yanagisaka Arisu, and Ichinose Honami cast pitying glances at the Horikita siblings.

They knew perfectly well what would happen to the 'clowns' appearing in the video, because there were precedents to prove it...

Hachiman Hikigaya's statement, "I have never liked Yui Hama," caused Yui Hama to gain worldwide fame overnight.

Nowadays, when people talk about failures in love, the number one term is no longer "loser," but rather Yui Yuigahama. For example, "Wow, she failed in her confession, how pitiful, she really is Yui Yuigahama."

There was also a consensus of comfort: "Don't be sad, at least she's not as bad as Yui Yuigahama, right?"

Even though Hachiman Hikigaya stood up and told the world not to make fun of the innocent Yui Yuigahama like that, although these comments decreased slightly afterward, the number of such comments was still very large.

It is said that because of this, Hachiman Hikigaya personally went to the Yuihama family to apologize, and the government also gave Yuihama's family a lot of money.

Hachiman Hikigaya also asked Priscilla to bless Yui Yuigahama with good luck, so that she could meet her best and most worthy other half as soon as possible. These compensations were quite generous.

Ordinary people might think this is more beneficial than harmful, but for people like Longyuan, they value intangible assets like reputation and prestige more, and therefore they would never want to be the clown.

465. The Deadly Dango and Horikita Suzune (Part 2)

Hachiman Hikigaya's statement, "I have never liked Yui Hama," made Yui Hama a synonym for "loser" worldwide.

With this real-life example, many people can already imagine what kind of synonym Horikita Suzune will become after Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's video is released.

"If you don't study hard, you'll end up like Horikita Suzune."

"You only got this score on the exam? Do you want to end up like Horikita Suzune?!"

"You have absolutely no cunning or strategy. How can someone with this level of ability compete in the government? How can you become an official? Damn it, your abilities are just as disappointing as Horikita Suzune's!"

"You're hopeless. With your intelligence, you should just stick with Horikita Suzune!"

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's current skill level is already high enough to earn him worldwide acclaim, so his views are certainly worth considering.

Since he said that Horikita Suzune was so bad that she was disappointing, then that must be the general public's perception.

In other words, Horikita Suzune will likely become synonymous with "low IQ," "lack of intelligence," and "completely incompetent," which is far worse than Yui Yuigahama's situation and is considered insulting.

After all, when people talk about Yuihama, it's mostly teasing and pity, not insults. Her opponent is someone of Emilia's caliber of true love; everyone can see she's simply invincible.

Even though Horikita Suzune is actually among the top high school students in the world, and her test scores, learning ability, and initiative are all outstanding, her inferiority and incompetence are only apparent when compared to a monster like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

However, probably not many people will delve into such details. They will simply follow the crowd based on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's objective evaluation, ultimately forming a deeply ingrained stereotype.

Horikita Suzune's life is pretty much ruined.

Upon realizing this, many of the students present felt sympathy for her.

After the initial sympathy, a few people were overjoyed, thrilled, and ecstatic – these were the top geniuses from Longyuan High School.

Being mentioned and recognized by Kiyotaka Ayanokouji in the video means that they have reached a completely different position from Suzune Horikita. They are talents recognized by the whole world, and they have the potential to make a leap to the top. In the future, they will have plenty of people willing to come to them, offering them money and power.

Horikita Manabu shakily took off his glasses. For a moment, he didn't know whether to feel sorry for his sister or happy for himself.

Feeling betrayed and repaid with ingratitude, Horikita Suzune wasn't thinking that far ahead at the moment. Right now, she was just angry and, like Lum, very dissatisfied with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

...The difference in thinking between her and the far-sighted Yanasaka Arisu and others in the blink of an eye precisely proves that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's evaluation was extremely objective.

Horikita Suzune's current abilities are indeed far inferior to those of Ryuen and the others.

At the same time, in a conference room far from Advanced Nurturing High School, Hachiman Hikigaya had thought things through even more thoroughly.

He's already thinking about how to write and publish news articles to minimize the harm and impact on Horikita Suzune.

"You've done the most work on bribing the Earth Capital Group, covering all sorts of industries. Your companies should have all sorts of information about Horikita Suzune, right?"

Halfway through watching the video, Hachiman Hikigaya turned to Anastasia to discuss business. "Have someone collect and compile that information. Let me see. If she has no problems, I can start preparing to clear out the malicious comments Ayanokouji added to her."

Having already caused Yui Yuigahama's accident due to a single unintentional mistake, he didn't want a second victim like her and was willing to clean up the mess for the imposter, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

"Okay, I'll go take care of it now!"

Anastasia's straightforwardness was unexpected... Actually, she didn't want to leave her prime minister's side temporarily for official business, but unfortunately, she had no choice. She had to talk to Komachi and make sure everything was in order to avoid being resented by Crusch and Priscilla.

Finding someone to retrieve Horikita Suzune's information was just a side effect. Of course, since it was something her own prime minister had ordered her to do, she would complete it diligently, no matter how side effect it was.

"While the lord successfully deceived the royal city with a single letter, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was still operating on multiple fronts."

"He imprisoned all the nobles in the city and ordered his subordinates to learn and copy their handwriting and writing habits. After they had learned, he killed the nobles."

"When relatives or friends of these nobles in other cities send letters, have your subordinates imitate the noble's handwriting and writing habits to write a letter for them."

"This approach is certainly not sustainable, but it's easy to remain undetected for a year or two. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka only needs that year or two. He's confident that with his methods of expanding his power, he won't need to hide anything after a year."

"Why go through all this trouble? Why not just make the nobles obey? Surely they wouldn't dare disobey you in this situation?"

"Ayanokouji Kiyotaka didn't answer the naive question from Sister Keyal, because explaining it would be too time-consuming."

"Putting everything else aside, the most important point is that all the nobles in this world are the kind of people who look down on others. They only respect nobles. Even if they outwardly submit, they will never truly respect Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the emperor who rose from the commoner."

"In these people's minds, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who isn't a nobleman, is a damn lowly commoner! No matter how powerful he is, it can't change the fact that he's a lowly commoner!"

"Keeping these people who have no respect for him will only delay the progress of strongman politics. Therefore, these people must die, and the sooner the better, otherwise they will be a black sheep."

"That city lord is the same, except he's still useful now, so he'll die later."

"In the end, all the old nobles in this world who do not know how to respect him, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, will be killed, and his loyal followers will replace everything and become the new upper class."

"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! That damned bastard!!"

Terrified, nobles from all over the world were filled with fear, cursing as they headed to the royal city to seek the help of the king and his two princesses, hoping to annihilate Ayanokoji Kiyotaka the moment he entered this world.

They weren't excited before, because only the First Princess Freya was embarrassed, and only the royal family was to be overthrown, not the nobles like themselves.

However, now that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka has exposed his wolfish ambitions and wants to kill all the old nobles, how can such a thing be allowed?

With the fire reaching their own doorstep, the nobles finally took it seriously and hurried off to the capital for a meeting.

466. Methods for winning people's hearts

"Although he killed the nobles and took control of the lord, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka still concealed his own power."