Re - ZERO - Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 15
Re - ZERO - Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 15
Re - ZERO - Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 15
Re:ZERO Vol. 15
TAPPEI NAGATSUKI
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is
coincidental.
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E3-20210203-JV-NF-ORI
Contents
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
Afterword
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CHAPTER 1
THE FINAL DAY OF ROSWAAL MANOR
—Even now, recalling that moment, she found herself stricken with regret.
The fingers she had extended were brushed away, even as she lovingly
called out the girl’s name.
The girl’s parting words were caring. There was happiness, as well as
determination, in those tearful eyes of hers; seeing that, her voice died in her
throat.
Even now, she couldn’t remember what went through her mind back then.
Even now, she didn’t know what she should have said.
Even now, she had no answer to the question What should I have done
differently?
—That was why, even now, she was alone, cowering in the archive of
forbidden books, unable to leave.
“…Ryuzu.”
The fragment of an old memory from the far reaches of her mind made
that word spill from her lips.
She had spent those empty and stagnant months and years the same way,
averting her eyes from that painful past.
Why now, of all times, had she remembered that regret, that memory, that
girl’s name?
The most likely explanation was her premonition.
A premonition that was much like how she had been refused long ago—
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I’m getting you out of here, Beatrice—This time, my hand’s gonna lead
you right out under the big ol’ sun, and we’ll play around until that dress is
totally black from mud.
—though this time, it was her turn to brush aside the offered hand.
The battle only continued to grow fiercer. The refined solace of the mansion
was utterly shattered by the destructive powers at work.
“—Oaaaaaah!!”
In the wake of a roar, steel met steel. A dance of sparks punctuated the
ringing echo.
Moonlight beamed into Roswaal Manor, the stage where the waltz was
reaching its climax.
“—Marvelous. You are truly marvelous. Just stunning.”
One impact shattered a window. Another cracked the floor. The
aftershocks shredded a painting on the wall. The sultry voice that reached the
ears of the ferocious golden beast seemed utterly amused by the mortal
combat that was unfolding.
“I ain’t happy hearing praise from anyone but Ram!!”
Blotting out the lovely voice with an angry cry, Garfiel threw his mighty
fist, which sailed over the head of his foe and punched through the wall
behind her. The woman tried to use the opportunity to slip into his blind spot
until he came at her again with a lethal follow-up.
His arm ripped through the wall he had punched clean through, bringing a
whole chunk of it with him.
“Ah…!”
Seeing the incoming attack boasting a surface area a hundred times larger
than a fist, the woman—Elsa—let out an aroused sigh of admiration.
The next instant was so crucial to the outcome of this battle that even
blinking would have been fatal.
As Garfiel’s attack lacked any openings, much like the wall he was
wielding, instead of trying to fall back, Elsa opted to press forward. With
superhuman agility, she minimized the damage she sustained as her black
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blade flitted toward his neck.
A blow with the force of a gale sent Elsa flying back. However, she was
certain that in the exchange, her blade had reached—
“Marvelous.”
“Praase frmm you dnnt mke me hppy, dmmnit!”
Elsa murmured in wonder as she remained crouched, one hand on the
floor. It took only one look to realize that Garfiel had caught her kukri with
his fangs. He shattered the arrested blade with one bite and spat out what was
left.
—From the first exchange, he knew this woman was someone he couldn’t
afford to be careless with.
Faced with an opponent so powerful that normal methods were useless,
Garfiel glanced over his shoulder and behind him. There, standing stiffly
while observing the clash between the pair, was a woman with jade eyes—
Frederica.
“Hey, Sis. What are ya doin’, just starin’ at me like that?”
“Eh? Ah, well, I had not intended on…”
“Sorry, but it really don’t look like I’m gonna have time to show off. The
general put me in charge of keepin’ you safe, so please.”
Garfiel chomped his fangs as he called to his hesitant sister. However,
Frederica’s reactions were dull, and her legs remained motionless, though it
was no fault of hers.
The battle between Garfiel and Elsa had reached a level that left Frederica
unable to intervene. Assistance was out of the question; simply moving
required courage. That being the case—
“It’s time to show what a good little brother I am!”
“Garf?!”
Seeing Frederica hadn’t moved, Garfiel decided to act first.
When he ferociously leaped toward his foe, Elsa smiled charmingly,
already knowing what he intended to do.
“Thinking of your sister at a time like this? What a kind boy.”
As she spoke, the killer parried a bestial claw with her knife and leaped
backward, clearing a great distance. Garfiel followed after her, shifting the
battlefield to somewhere deeper in the mansion. This cleared the path to the
Sleeping Princess—Rem.
If Frederica took Rem with her and left while her brother kept the enemy
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occupied, then there was nothing to fear.
“Garf!”
As he rained a flurry of punches, a clear, unwavering voice called out to
him from behind. There was no time to look back, but his sister had only one
thing to say to her little brother, whose back had grown far wider than the one
in her memories—
“I believe in you!”
It was a reunion of mere minutes after ten years apart. But it was enough.
She trusted in her little brother’s strength, and he was determined to live
up to his older sister’s expectations—that was all they needed.
“Damn right you do!!!”
His strength surged as a fire roared to life in his belly.
Elsa twisted her body to dodge a swing of his bestial claws, but she was
too slow. Garfiel snagged her black braid and slammed her into a wall before
proceeding to race down the corridor with her.
“Ooooaaaaahhh!!!”
Roaring, Garfiel charged straight into the mansion, with Elsa still pinned
against the wall. Dust and debris flew from the wall as it broke, leaving her
unable to resist the heavy impacts. All he had to do now was snap her neck,
cave in her skull, and grind her against the wall until she was reduced to
paste. Then he’d regroup with his friends and—
“Letting your mind wander in the middle of our dance? What a naughty
boy.”
Faster than his mind could think, he miraculously flinched away out of
sheer instinct.
A moment later, what should’ve been a direct hit grazed his left ear
instead. Now off-balance, Garfiel completely lost his footing—in fact, the
floor itself was missing. He fell right through the gaping hole that Elsa’s
swing had produced.
The slicing attacks kept coming even as he entered a free fall. Garfiel
relied purely on intuition to deflect them with the shields strapped to both his
arms—defense, defense, defense. Ultimately, he couldn’t intercept every
strike. Blood flowed freely from fresh wounds that appeared all over him.
The moment he made contact with the floor below, Garfiel rolled away to
escape the zone of death. He rose from the carpet on all fours while glaring
straight ahead. A white cloud of dust parted to reveal his opponent, as though
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she stood atop a moonlit stage.
The beautiful assassin smiled, gripping her kukri with both hands. Her
upper body was smeared with blood.
“…Looks like Sis is on her way. The rest is up to the general.”
Sensing the presence still on the floor above had already set off, Garfiel
sighed in relief at the completion of his first objective. According to Subaru’s
plan, the remaining objectives were…
…Wait, what were they again?
“Awww, crap. I can’t remember… Oh well.”
No doubt there was a backup plan in case Garfiel didn’t win—a plan for
keeping everyone alive as they sought shelter in the Sanctuary. That didn’t
matter, though. It was fine even if he forgot.
As long as he won, there was no need to remember that plan. With that
final thought, he slammed both his shields together in front of him.
Garfiel steeled himself with the clamor of metal scraping against metal.
Elsa licked her lips at the sight.
“—Elsa Gramhilde, the Bowel Hunter.”
“Garfiel Tinzel, the Sanctuary’s Ultra-strong Shield.”
The assassin’s bloodred smile melted into the darkness right as she started
freely bounding in all directions, awaiting his pursuit.
Just before they collided, Garfiel crinkled his nose, bared his fangs, and
howled:
“This is one hell of a first battle, General, so ya better hold up your end!”
Just how many times had he visited this oh-so-familiar room to meet her like
this?
The first time they’d met was in the evening of the day Subaru had first
arrived at Roswaal Manor. He had no trouble breaking through the illusion
she’d cast on the hallway with ease, setting foot into this very same archive
of forbidden books.
There was little doubt that both of them had made the worst impressions
imaginable during their first encounter.
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After she robbed his still-recovering body of mana, Subaru went down
without even putting up a fight. Burning with the need for revenge, he later
went on to prod and annoy her at every opportunity, continuously interfering
with her alone time.
He spent two months at Roswaal Manor like this. During that time,
Subaru and the girl—Beatrice—argued and fought on numerous occasions,
getting along rather childishly.
When they saw each other, a commotion was bound to occur. Yet,
curiously, their likes and tastes matched in the strangest and most unexpected
of ways.
Why? Somehow, it constantly bothered Subaru that she seemed alone.
Even now, he thought of those days and the time they’d spent together as
something irreplaceable that bonded them together.
Subaru had returned to see Beatrice once more, and this time, he would
never, ever let go of her again.
“You want to take Betty away from this place…?”
Bewildered, Beatrice repeated the declaration Subaru had made upon
entering the room.
Still seated on the stool in its customary position, she hugged the black
book to her chest all the tighter.
She clutched the book of knowledge entrusted to her by her mother, its
pages of prophecy blank.
“Is that…any of your business, I wonder? No one asked you…to do such
a thing.”
“I figured you’d say that, but I don’t have time for a long debate. I’m
bringing you out of here with me one way or another.”
“What a self-serving… Would you leave this instant, I wonder? Leave
and have a good cry on that girl’s lap.”
“You trying to start a fight…?! You keep that up, and it’s gonna be
war…!!”
Subaru’s lips trembled in shame as she brought up memories of him
making a fool of himself. If anything, Emilia’s lap pillows were an enormous
blessing, but he couldn’t rely on her at the moment.
Emilia was currently giving her all in the Sanctuary. It was Subaru’s job
to do the same at the mansion.
“Anyway, there’s no time for chitchat. You know what’s going on
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outside, don’t you?”
“…I understand there are intruders in the mansion, I suppose. Still, why
should Betty get involved in this dispute? Anyone who wishes to scuffle in
the dirt should do as they please.”
“Unfortunately, the situation isn’t friendly enough to be called a scuffle. I
left the fight against Tough Enemy Number One to a promising newcomer,
but…he’s too much of a softy.”
Shaking his head at Beatrice’s words, Subaru racked his brain as he
mulled over how their allies had been deployed throughout the estate.
The greatest asset they had—Garfiel—was almost certainly already
engaging the main threat—Elsa. Both possessed superhuman strength, so
they could be considered evenly matched—or at least, Subaru hoped so. He
couldn’t be certain.
It was less that Garfiel was too soft and more that he was incredibly
kindhearted. That was the proper way to express it.
Subaru and company had strategically relied on that kindness to defeat
him during their confrontation at the Sanctuary. How his deeply emotional
personality would influence the current combat situation at the manor was
anyone’s guess.
Subaru couldn’t dismiss the possibility that Garfiel would, instead of
pitying his opponent, be so concerned for his allies that it’d end up dulling his
claws and fangs.
To get everyone in the mansion out safe and sound, Garfiel had to be in
peak fighting condition to draw off their powerful foe.
“Basically, that means I have to eliminate any obstacles that get in the
way of our Lethal Weapon so he can go all out. I’ve left Petra in Otto’s
hands, and I’m relying on Frederica to secure Rem, so…”
“That leaves just you and Betty… Is that what you are trying to say, I
wonder?”
“Yep, that’s pretty much it.”
If there was nothing holding him back, Garfiel could unleash his full
power. That was why the top priority was getting Petra and the others out of
the mansion first. He was sure Frederica would secure Rem and meet back up
with everyone else in short order.
“And the last piece of the puzzle is me getting you out of here. If you
don’t wanna run hand in hand, I’ll carry you in my arms or on my back,
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whatever you like. Just so we’re clear, I’m not budging on this.”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. Is your help even necessary, I wonder?”
When Subaru tried to take one step closer, Beatrice refused him in a low
voice.
She swiveled her head about, as if meaning to address the room instead of
Subaru.
“Betty is in control of the Great Spirit’s archive of forbidden books, a
place isolated from the fleeting outside world. No matter what menace lies
beyond those doors, does it even matter, I wonder? Your concern is
unnecessary.”
“Nah, I can’t let this slide. Your archive of forbidden books is awesome,
all right. No argument there. But it’s got a fatal flaw. More importantly, the
other side knows exactly how to beat it.”
This critique of her Passage ability, the foundation of her confidence,
made Beatrice raise her eyebrows with displeasure.
Certainly, when it came to staying hidden, the archive of forbidden books
offered countless advantages. However, Subaru had seen for himself on
previous runs that these advantages were not absolute.
“Your Passage is only effective on closed doors. If someone opens all the
doors in the mansion…”
The last one would lead straight into the archive of forbidden books
without fail. In a prior run, Elsa had used that method to trespass upon the
archive, attacking Beatrice in an attempt to take her life.
The archive wasn’t safe. He was doing his best to explain, but—
“—Why does the enemy know of this weakness, I wonder?”
Beatrice’s question made Subaru catch his breath.
“Roswaal told them…that must be how they know.”
She’d arrived at the conclusion so quickly that Subaru had no chance to
offer up any excuse.
He could only gaze in astonishment as Beatrice’s certainty deepened. The
assailants had come to the mansion on Roswaal’s instructions, and it was
necessary to defeat Beatrice’s Passage in order to achieve their goals.
Roswaal must have had a reason for why that had to come to pass. In other
words—
“Is Betty’s death recorded in Roswaal’s book of knowledge, I wonder?”
After voicing that musing, Beatrice briefly let out a breath.
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Phew. Like a spontaneous sigh of relief. The sight sent Subaru into a fit of
rage.
“You…! What was that sigh just now…? Why do you look like you’re
okay with all this?!”
“…If you have come this far, surely you understand. Roswaal is simply
upholding what is written in the book of knowledge, I suppose. If this is the
result, Betty’s fate is already sealed.”
“What the hell are you…? Roswaal’s book is his, and your book is yours,
right? Or are you telling me that book you’re hugging says at some point he’s
going to have you killed?!”
Subaru jabbed a finger toward the book of knowledge, which Beatrice
clutched as if hoping to shatter her resignation.
The truth was that he already knew Beatrice’s mystic tome was empty.
Not once in four centuries’ time had any prophecies of the future appeared
within its pages.
When Subaru shouted at her, Beatrice cast her gaze downward and slowly
opened the book in her arms. Then she turned its contents toward him,
revealing there was indeed nothing written inside.
“There isn’t anything in here, I suppose. Betty’s fate is a blank page.”
“Then that means you don’t have any reason to let Roswaal have his way!
You should decide what you wanna do for yourself the way you always
have!”
“…The way I always have?”
Beatrice’s eyes went wide, blinking as she softly repeated those words.
Her voice, sounding as if it was devoid of all emotion, left Subaru
speechless.
However, those blue eyes of hers glinted with something unmistakable—a
cavernous sorrow.
“Just what did Betty decide on for herself in all those days?”
As she murmured, Beatrice meticulously turned the pages of the tome
with her slender fingers, as if she thought those pristine pages represented the
sum total of the long years she had spent blank and empty.
“I have continued to protect this mansion, all alone, because Mother asked
me to… When did I ever make a choice of my own? Who is this Beatrice you
speak of, and what has she done for herself?”
“…Beatrice…”
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“Is Betty’s life not as barren as this book, I wonder? Is it not as empty? I
have decided nothing for myself. No accomplishments or achievements… I
have nothing at all…”
Softly, she closed the book of knowledge. Beatrice slowly stroked the
front cover of the tome that bore no title. She caressed it gently, enviously.
Then she quietly spoke again.
“Truly…it would have been better if Betty were simply a book.”
Unable to indulge in even fleeting fantasy, Beatrice confessed her sad,
painful wish.
If only she could be a doll without a heart, a storybook unshaken by the
passage of time, then she wouldn’t have to suffer.
But she couldn’t. And so she grieved.
“Sadly, Betty does have a heart. After waiting for so long that all hope
and faith faded away, certain thoughts came unbidden. Were these fears and
worries, I wonder? Many a night have I gathered my memories and clung to
them, anxious that I might one day forget my mother’s face or smile.”
Digging her nails into the book she clutched to her chest, Beatrice bit her
lip as she glared at Subaru.
“There were times when I was afraid of being alone and desperately
wanted to be with someone, anyone. But as the years went by, everyone
eventually left Betty behind. They all said something incomprehensible about
how it was for something so important… Mother left! And so did Roswaal!
Even Ryuzu!”
Beatrice shouted, on the verge of tears as her face contorted.
The names she shouted struck Subaru as he recalled everything he had
learned about Beatrice back in the Sanctuary.
In the short time the two girls spent together, she had undoubtedly formed
a bond with Ryuzu Meyer, the girl who had become a sacrifice to protect the
Sanctuary—something that scarred Beatrice’s heart to this day.
“Betty…the spirit Beatrice…has always been alone, destined to be left
behind by everyone else… But now I can rest a tiny bit easier, I suppose.”
“…Why? Why would you feel relieved that you might be killed by
someone you know?”
“The reason is obvious.”
Beatrice responded to Subaru’s strained voice with a single nod.
A fleeting smile came over her lips; it was one that showed a yearning for
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something that lay deep in the past.
“Even if it’s only within Roswaal’s book of knowledge, the fact that Betty
has been recorded… Does that mean Mother has not forgotten about her
daughter, I wonder?”
With a little smile, Beatrice spoke those words, as if they were some kind
of salvation.
The girl seemed happy, as if a death sentence written in the mystic tome
left by her mother was exactly what she hoped for. As if she could find peace
by dying at the hands of a man who belonged to the same household she had
treated like family for centuries.
After four hundred years of faithfully waiting and wishing, Beatrice was
happy to finally fulfill her mother’s wishes, even if it meant death.
It was precisely because she’d insisted on following her mother’s
instructions with blind devotion that Beatrice couldn’t do anything but accept
her fate. She believed in Echidna the Witch like a martyr ready to sacrifice
herself for the faith.
This much was plain to see in the pure liberation that suffused her smile—
“Give it a rest already.”
That unsettling, intolerable smile made the fire in Subaru’s chest burn all
the hotter.
The tragic happiness Beatrice felt after seemingly confirming her
mother’s love was a twisted thing. It was utter garbage.
As if condemning her daughter to death could ever be considered a form
of motherly love.
“…What do you…intend to do?”
Subaru was so consumed by righteous indignation that he had stepped
forward without even noticing. The disconcerting expression on his face
made Beatrice stiffen warily.
“Were you even listening, I wonder? What is it you plan to do? Does it
need to be explained that whatever you intend, Betty shall show no mercy, I
wonder? I have…already accepted my fate.”
“What a load of bullcrap. You’re just like Roswaal. You haven’t changed
a bit. Actually, you’re a lot worse. At least Roswaal knows what he’s doing.
Why do you have to make everything more complicated, damn it?”
Boundless anger began welling up within him. When he thought about it,
ever since he had become involved in the events surrounding the Sanctuary,
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Subaru had been wrestling with his wrath over and over.
He had been angry with himself during the Trials; angry at the Witches,
who toyed with him; angry at Garfiel, the stubborn kid who looked down on
him; angry at Roswaal, the man who was trying to prove the frailty of
Subaru’s beliefs by doggedly adhering to what was preordained; and angry at
Emilia, who refused to believe in not only Subaru’s love but also herself.
And now he was angry at fate itself after seeing Beatrice abandon all
hope.
“Beatrice, you’re an idiot. Dumb as rocks, that’s for sure! It hurts just
looking at you!!”
“Wha…?!”
Subaru’s sudden outburst of anger and the abrupt segue left Beatrice
speechless.
The irritation and confusion she felt prevented her from immediately
raising her voice. Subaru took advantage of that bewilderment to pile on her
even more.
“You had four hundred years to figure this out! Why is the only thing you
ever came up with so extreme…?! Why’d you think of only one plan?! There
are so many other things you could’ve done, damn it!!”
“O-of course I thought about it! Betty tried checking if there was anything
on these blank pages again and again…but nothing ever changed!”
“That’s why you’re an idiot! What about trying to heat them to see if
anything was written in invisible ink?! These days, no one falls for that trick
anymore, even when it’s a novelty New Year’s card! Consider some more
possibilities, would you?!”
The persistently blank pages of the tome had convinced Beatrice that her
fate simply led to a dead end.
But if that wasn’t necessarily true… If there was another possibility, then
—
“Like what if your mother messed up and gave you the wrong book by
mistake?!”
“Huh…?”
The latest theory Subaru proposed was so haphazard that Beatrice didn’t
even know how to respond. That surprise quickly gave way to anger as
Beatrice’s ire only grew.
“Do you intend to insult Mother, I wonder?! Mother would never make
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such a stupid mista—”
“Can you say for sure it absolutely couldn’t happen? You don’t have even
the slightest doubt? Are you so certain the only possible explanation is that
your mother deliberately handed her own daughter a book with nothing but
blank pages?”
Subaru used fallacies and questionable logic to massage and obfuscate the
truth.
It was still a mystery to him what Echidna’s true intentions had been when
she gave Beatrice the book of knowledge. He wouldn’t put it past the foul
Witch to entrust someone with it just to mess with their head.
But after hearing about the past of the Sanctuary from Ryuzu, he felt like
the Echidna in that tale was different than the twisted person he met. The
truth continued to elude him. That said, the truth wasn’t important here.
What he needed to do now was knock down the walls surrounding
Beatrice’s heart and say the magic words that would pull her toward him.
“Why…would you put it that way…?” Overwhelmed by Subaru’s force
of will, Beatrice’s voice wavered, her eyes losing focus.
She firmly believed in her mother. The mother she loved and respected
would never try to ensnare her on purpose. And yet, Beatrice stubbornly
shook her head. When she weighed blind faith against love and respect, she
chose blind faith.
It was as if she wanted to continue clinging to her mother’s words, which
she never once doubted over the course of four hundred years.
“M-Mother surely would never make such a mistake. I-is that not obvious,
I wonder? This is Mother we’re talking about! Would you doubt your own
mother’s words?!”
“Of course I would! The times I can trust her don’t come along all that
often! My mom’s the same person who heard a report about a satellite falling
into ‘the atmosphere’ and somehow thought it was ‘Aichi Prefecture.’ I
stopped believing any news that came from her mouth after that! It’d be
mega-embarrassing if I spread around something that stupid again!”
It was impossible to forget how he’d been mocked by his classmates and
neighbors for taking that story seriously and sharing it with everyone. To top
it all off, the original culprit herself forgot she had started the whole thing and
even asked him, Why on earth did you tell people that?
Ever since that series of events in his third year of primary school, Subaru
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had staunchly refused to blindly believe what either of his parents had to say
about anything. In fact, he’d learned to doubt his father’s words even earlier
on in life.
That was why Beatrice’s unshakable faith in her mother as an infallible
existence irked Subaru to no end.
“Even if I had twice as many fingers, I wouldn’t be able to count on my
hands how many times an argument between my dad and me ended with a
fistfight, and that’s in the span of less than twenty years. You’ve had twenty
times that. You’re telling me you never had doubts like that even once?”
“I simply do not understand… What is it you want Betty to say, I
wonder?! I cannot understand at all! Your desire, your objective… They
make no sense! None at all!”
“Fine. I’ll say it straight so that even idiots like you and your mother can
hear me loud and clear!”
As Beatrice started clutching at her head, Subaru drew near and grasped
both her hands.
From above, he brought his face close to Beatrice’s, coming so close that
he could feel the teary-eyed girl’s breaths.
“Stop letting an empty book and a verbal promise you made four centuries
ago control you. Beatrice, what you want to do is your choice.”
“ ”
“Four hundred years… Isn’t that more than enough time to justify at least
one rebellious phase?”
Because she loved her mother, Beatrice had stayed bound by loneliness
and emptiness.
Perhaps Echidna considered even her own daughter’s mental anguish to
be an exquisite delicacy. But what was left of a person’s heart when they’d
forgotten what it was like to want to cry, or even how? It made Subaru want
to hurl from the bottom of his heart.
With both her hands still in his grasp as she sat atop the stool, Beatrice
averted her face from Subaru.
Considering the height of the stool, her eyes were roughly at the same
height as Subaru’s. Beatrice cast her gaze downward, her lips trembling as
she looked at the book on her lap.
“No matter what you say…a pact is a pact. And a pact is absolute…
That’s why…”
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“Big talk from a girl looking for a loophole in that same pact, ready to go
straight to her death so long as that pact isn’t broken in the process.”
Beatrice shied away from his piercing stare until his comment made her
eyes shoot wide. It seemed he had hit the mark.
After having her inner thoughts laid out so plainly, a shudder ran through
her as she began to tear up.
That was only natural. Subaru had heard those exact laments straight from
Beatrice’s own mouth once before.
Now, across time and space, he’d make up for how helpless he felt and for
everything he had been unable to convey.
“What you’re saying is all messed up, Beatrice. Haven’t you noticed the
inconsistencies? There’s no way you haven’t. You got a good head on your
shoulders.”
“Would you…just be silent, I wonder…?”
“No, I won’t. You want to stop upholding the pact? That’d be fine by me.
You’re the one who hates keeping your promise so much that you literally
want to die. No one would blame you for wanting to break it.”
“I would blame myself! Why can you not seem to understand this?!”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand. If keeping that promise you
made means dying, you should just break the promise and live. That’s what
I’d do; is it so weird I’d make that choice?”
Beatrice, who continued obsessing over the pact, looked at Subaru like he
were some kind of monster beyond all comprehension.
Subaru found it pretty baffling to be perceived that way.
Of course he knew keeping your word was important.
He’d been scolded by Emilia more than once for breaking his promises,
and he’d learned that the hard way after enduring quite a few painful
experiences. That’s why even someone like him had taken to heart how
important it was to not go back on a promise.
Despite that, Subaru didn’t feel any reluctance whatsoever in telling
Beatrice to break hers.
He’d already explained his reasoning. It didn’t even merit a second
thought.
“H-how can you be so impudent and devious, I wonder…?”
“I know I’m the brazen sort, and I’ve reflected on how that’s gotten me
into trouble before. Still, I’ll never budge on the important stuff.”
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Subaru’s answer would not change. From the beginning, the issue at hand
was Beatrice’s heart.
She could not conceal her shock and confusion as he told her to ignore her
pact. That much was expected. In this world, pacts bore enormous weight to
the beings known as spirits.
He was in love with a spirit mage himself, so Subaru was well aware of
the gravity of the situation.
He understood completely. And even so, Subaru told Beatrice to prioritize
herself over the pact.
“I-if you were…the one I’ve been waiting for…then maybe…”
As Subaru continued to stand close by, Beatrice gazed at him, slowly
shaking her head side to side.
A single duty had remained entwined around Beatrice’s heart, chaining
her down for four hundred years even as the blank pages of her mother’s
keepsake whittled her heart away. This mission of hers was the greatest
reason she had not relinquished the pact despite all her suffering.
If she only completed this duty, Beatrice could finally be free.
Accordingly, Beatrice peered into Subaru’s black eyes, as if clinging to
them, as if giving her heart to them.
“Would you…?”
As if out of breath, she exhaled slowly, seemingly trying to forgive
herself…
“Would you…become That Person for Betty?”
This was tantamount to asking him to finally bring an end to Beatrice’s
four centuries of emptiness.
He recalled Echidna’s words. This was precisely the reply that the Witch
of Greed desired.
Given that there was no right answer as to who That Person was, would
Beatrice eventually select one of her own accord?
This was the question the Witch had entrusted to her daughter in order to
satisfy her own curiosity, forcing Beatrice into four centuries of loneliness in
the process.
The question Beatrice just uttered was the fruit of all that time, the end
result after four hundred excruciating years.
“ ”
Beatrice swallowed, awaiting his reply.
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Gazing straight back into the girl’s eyes, Subaru answered loud and clear.
“You really are an idiot. There’s no way in hell that I’d be this stupid
person or whatever you’ve been waiting for.”
Subaru slammed into the wall, swooning in agony as he crumpled from the
impact.
After he hit his side hard on a column in the hallway, he raised a
soundless cry as he writhed around on the floor.
“Gaaaghhh… I—I can’t believe it…! That idiot… We were still in the
middle of talking…!!”
Seeing the door slam shut right before his eyes, Subaru leaped toward it
and tried to open it as fast as he could, but once he did, all he found on the
other side was a simple guest room. Passage had already activated, and
Subaru had been barred from the archive of forbidden books once more.
The moment he forcefully announced his true feelings on the matter,
Subaru had been locked out.
“I had more stuff to say… Damn that short-tempered toddler…!”
He’d chosen his words poorly. His chest ached as he recalled how the last
expressions he’d seen Beatrice make were ones of sadness and anger.
He hadn’t told Beatrice everything he wanted to say to her yet. If he didn’t
find a way back into the archive of forbidden books right away—
“—Mr. Natsuki?!”
A voice held Subaru in place just as he was about to run off in search of
the archive. When he turned to check behind him, his eyes met those of
someone peeking in his direction from the next room over.
It was none other than Otto, who had accompanied Subaru to the mansion
and should have been operating independently. And just like Otto, Petra was
also sticking her head out to see what was going on. Subaru widened his eyes
in surprise as realization dawned upon him.
“Damn it, you guys… Why are you still in the mansion?! You only
needed to open the doors on the first floor, and the plan was to run as soon as
that was taken care of, right?”
“That is true, but unfortunately, a problem has arisen within the
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mansion…”
Though initially surprised by the unexpected reunion, Subaru’s face went
pale when Otto mentioned some trouble was afoot.
Securing an escape route out of the mansion and using it to elude the
enemy was the crux of their plan. Accordingly, Subaru had entrusted that
duty to Otto. If he couldn’t do it, no one could. If even Otto had deemed it
too difficult, then there was no choice but to accept it was an impossible task.
“What happened? The short version, please.”
“This is the work of the Beast Master you spoke of, I presume. The
interior of the mansion is already filled with demon beasts.”
“That must mean Meili’s here, huh…but she already should’ve been
accounted for.”
Otto’s hushed report left deep creases in Subaru’s brow.
The two assailants—Elsa the Bowel Hunter and Meili the Beast Master—
were basically sisters of slaughter.
The danger Elsa posed was painfully obvious, but Meili’s command over
demon beasts was something that could not be taken lightly if they wanted to
make it out of this encounter in one piece. So of course, he’d readied a
countermeasure—
“—But there are demon beasts the repel stones don’t work on at all!!”
Even in the darkness, he could tell Petra’s face was red as she shouted and
beat Subaru’s question to the punch. The girl was gripping a glowing blue
crystal—a phosphorescent stone for warding off demon beasts. This was
what Subaru and the others had prepared to neutralize the Beast Master.
“Wait, seriously?! I was sure that if we had these demon-beast repel
stones, they’d keep them away like during the Urugarum incident… Why
isn’t it working?!”
“I don’t know! Perhaps the ones that appeared here are exceptions, but at
any rate, assuming these demon beasts have appeared throughout the entire
manor, even reaching the marquis’s room will be…”
Extremely difficult. Otto left this part unspoken as he finished explaining
how the odds had abruptly turned against them. Then—
“—?!?”
Subaru felt an impact come from below his soles, instantly drawing his
attention. He quickly noticed there was an odd warping underneath the red
carpet covering the corridor floor. It bulged further, and then—it burst.
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The tremors and deformation of the corridor had merely been a harbinger.
The real show of destruction was occurring on the floor below, causing the
entire west wing of the mansion to collapse, taking the corridor they were in
along with it. The windows cracked, the wooden beams flew apart, and the
whole mansion seemed to groan under the strain.
As he lost his footing, Subaru found his body suddenly floating in midair.
Reflexively, he reached out and yanked a tiny body toward him. As he fell
toward the center of the hole, he tried to at least shield the small child pressed
against his chest before they hit the ground.
“—Make sure you don’t let go!!”
When that thunderous voice rang in his eardrums amid all the destruction,
Subaru did everything he could to obey. A moment later, he felt his body
being pulled by the scruff of his neck. Then he was unceremoniously tossed
to the ground, which made for an admittedly much softer landing.
He felt his cheek brushing up against grass. When Subaru looked around,
he saw he had rolled onto the green, open yard outside the mansion.
“J-just now, that was…”
“Miss Frederica!”
When Subaru shook his head and looked up, Petra leaped out of his arms.
Her gaze was focused on someone whose blond hair was beautifully flapping
in the wind; it was none other than Frederica herself.
Petra’s eyes glimmered as the older maid elegantly brushed the young
girl’s hair back and gently wiped the grime off her cheek.
“Even if this is an emergency, please forgive my impropriety. Frederica
Baumann has returned.”
“Frederica!!”
Overcome with emotion, Petra threw herself toward Frederica, who
smiled as she gently caught her adorable junior and held the girl close to her
chest. Consequently, Otto, who Frederica had been supporting on her right
side, was unceremoniously dumped onto the grass.
“Ow!! Wait a minute! I’m grateful you saved my life, but what is this
rough handling?!”
“I—I am very sorry, Master Otto. She was simply higher on my list of
priorities…”
“Women and children, the elderly, men, and then Otto, huh?”
“Have I been exiled from even the ranks of men?!”
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Setting Otto’s complaints aside, their group quickly confirmed they were
all unharmed. Thanks to Frederica, everyone present had emerged from the
manor safely. This was not limited to Subaru, Otto, and Petra, either.
“Master Subaru—I have brought her here with me, as requested.”
Still holding Petra, Frederica turned around to show Subaru what she
meant. There, firmly secured to her back with bedsheets, was a sleeping girl
—Rem. Instantly, Subaru’s breath caught in his throat.
But that initial stiffness almost immediately gave way to relief.
“You did… Thank you…for getting her out safe and sound. I mean it.”
“It was the natural thing to do. More importantly, we have a pressing
problem to deal with…”
Subaru brushed a finger against Rem’s cheek as she continued to sleep.
While he did that, he looked intently at Frederica to convey his thanks. Then
he followed her gaze to the west wing of the mansion, which was
spectacularly wrecked.
The sheer extent of the damage made it seem like a giant truck had
crashed right into the building. To be fair, that metaphor wasn’t that much of
an exaggeration. The only difference was that instead of a truck—
“—What…is that?”
Otto stood up and brushed off his knees as he posed the question. It was
something everyone present wondered, with the exception of the sleeping
Rem. If Subaru had to guess…
“It looks like a really huge hippo to me.”
The creature they were staring at was enormous. The color and texture of
its hide resembled a boulder, and the four limbs it boasted seemed as thick
and stout as millstones. It had a dreadful, vile face, red eyes that brimmed
with hostility, and a broken horn perched on the tip of its nose. Moreover,
this demon beast had a tiny figure riding on its back.
“Huh. That’s amazing. I’m kinda shocked our attack just now didn’t take
anybody out.”
Straddling the back of the enormous demon beast, the little girl waved her
legs all about as she addressed them with an amused voice. The cruel,
innocent ring to her words was familiar to Subaru—and to Petra as well.
She was clad in black clothing, while her deep-blue hair was tied up in a
braid—
“—Meili!”
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“Oh? None of you folks seems to be all that surprised. I’m just a little
disappointed.”
When Subaru shouted her name, Meili drew her lips back, unhappy that
she’d failed to surprise them with what was supposed to be her big reveal.
Unfortunately, Subaru and company had no reason to humor her.
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“You busting up the mansion like this is a way bigger deal! The hell you
think you’re doing?!”
“Well, I couldn’t find the maids who were our target. So I had Rock
Piggie pitch in. And thanks to that, I ended up finding all of you, right?”
Meili touched a finger to her cheek, showing not a single shred of guilt as
she sized up her prey. While it certainly had been the fastest way to draw
them out, they would have all been annihilated if Frederica had not been
there.
“But you really surprised me. I mean, this job should’ve been easy. Now
everything’s behind schedule.”
“That so? If you’re off schedule, you should report to your superior and
await further instructions. If you use your own on-site judgment, there’s no
telling what huge and terrible problems might happen.”
“Tee-hee-hee. Nooope. You can’t trick me.”
Despite the alien encounter and being cornered by demon beasts, Subaru
carried on an exceedingly normal-sounding exchange with Meili.
Compared with Elsa, Meili was an improvement—she didn’t take
potshots at his innards midconversation. But unsurprisingly, she was
similarly immune to his attempts at persuasion. Even as they shared what
seemed like a friendly chat, he could sense demon beasts gradually closing in
on the yard.
The group had successfully gotten out of the building, but it’d be a
mistake to call it an escape. It had not changed the fact that they were
surrounded by demon beasts—if anything, their situation seemed far more
precarious than before.
“I feel sorry for Elsa, but I’m going to take all the maids for myself. Ah,
no need to worry. I’ll be gentle to Petra. We are friends, after all.”
“Y-yay, I’m so happy—If we’re friends, that means you’ll let us go, right
—?”
“Tee-hee-hee. Of course we’re friends. That’s why we’ll get along until
the veeery end, right?”
“Uh, Subaru, sorry, but I tried my best, and it still didn’t work…”
Their ways of expressing friendship were simply too different. Petra
bravely attempted to negotiate, but that ended in failure.
Meili was still young, but she was already thoroughly versed in the ethos
of a hired killer. Her moral values had already been deeply twisted. To her,
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evil and good were indistinguishable. They would not find any common
ground.
“Master Subaru…”
“Frederica? What are…? Whoa!”
Suddenly, before Subaru could come up with an escape plan, the older
maid stood directly in front of him with Rem still on her back. Frederica did
not respond to his call and instead undid the knots, freeing Rem.
Subaru instantly moved to her to catch Rem’s sleeping body before it fell.
And then—
“—I shall provide that girl, no, that assassin with the proper hospitality.
During that time, all of you…”
“M-Miss Frederica! Y-you mustn’t!”
Petra clung to Frederica, who had boldly declared she would act as a rear
guard for the party. Subaru had simply gone silent. Frederica gently turned
her gaze toward the young maid, who refused to let go of her waist.
“Stop, Miss Frederica! This is exactly the same as before… We’ve only
just met again, and…”
“No, it’s different now… After all, last time, I was resigned to death.”
“—!”
“So much has changed. After ten years, I have reunited with Garf…with
my younger brother. And I have you, my unspeakably adorable junior. I have
never been happier. And that’s why I refuse to be defeated here.”
Frederica spoke to Petra while gently stroking her head. Seeing the will
residing in those jade eyes from up close, Petra said no more. But surely, she
understood these were not empty words to make her feel better.
The woman she looked up to refused to compromise on what she believed
in, and she was ready to see it through with force. Frederica was truly
Garfiel’s elder sister.
“Frederica! We’ll head for Roswaal’s room!”
“Please do. I shall join you once I have given this girl a proper spanking.”
Subaru called out to her after securing Rem to his back. Offering a
graceful reply in turn, Frederica readied herself for the imminent battle.
Garfiel versus Elsa; Frederica versus Meili—having the beast person
siblings handle the sisters of subterfuge was probably the best outcome they
could have hoped for. Now they just had to survive the attack.
“Otto! Take Petra!”
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“Loud and clear!”
Grasping the barked instruction, Otto set off running with Petra in tow.
With Rem on his back, Subaru raced ahead of them, guiding them to the
entrance into the mansion from the yard.
“Hey, hold on a…! Don’t decide stuff on your own like that! Petraaaaa!”
“Thbpttt!”
The sight of Subaru and company fleeing at full speed made Meili cry out
from atop the demon beast. Though teary-eyed, Petra gave an immediate
reply, sticking out her tongue tauntingly.
With that, Subaru and the others fled into the mansion. Meili moved to
pursue them, but—
“—Dear guest, from here on, I will have to insist you remain with me and
enjoy the Mathers family’s hospitality!”
“Gaaah! I’ll make you regret this! Get her, Rock Piggie!!”
“—!!!”
Looking down at Frederica, who was blocking her path, Meili puffed up
her cheeks as her temper flared. Heeding the command of its master, the
enormous, boulder-like demon beast issued a roar that echoed across the
entire grounds.
With a flutter of her skirt, Frederica’s arms creaked as they transformed.
“Now, come closer. I’ll be teaching you some harsh lessons today!
Prepare yourself.”
Splitting up from Frederica, Subaru and company made a beeline for the
mansion’s main wing, aiming for the topmost floor.
“Otto! Anything to worry about from behind?!”
“Miss Frederica is managing somehow! However, we still have no good
way to deal with demon beasts!”
As they raced down a corridor, Otto asserted the demon beasts were a
pressing issue that remained unresolved. Subaru didn’t have a new plan ready
yet. What could they use against demon beasts that were immune to repel
stones…?
“How about we use your blessing of language and your pro bargaining
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skills to negotiate with the demon beasts and convince them to let us escape?
You’d get all the glory!”
“Most demon beasts only go, Me swallow you whole. That does not
constitute a conversation…”
“This isn’t the time for joking around!! If…if we don’t do something fast,
Miss Frederica will—!”
Petra’s desperate plea made Subaru and Otto cut the banter and focus their
thoughts on coming up with a plan.
At present, their goal was to reach Roswaal’s study—and the secret
escape route leading outside, which was concealed behind a bookshelf in the
room. That would allow them to circumvent the demon beasts surrounding
the manor.
However, it was inevitable that those monsters would impede them prior
to their arrival—
“Mr. Natsuki! There’s some black-winged mice in front!”
“Whoa!”
While Subaru was deep in thought, some black shadows had flown toward
him in the moonlit corridor and were already right before his eyes.
These were demon beasts with round bodies, about the size of puppies,
that resembled flying mice with black, bat-like wings. Two of the creatures,
worthy of the name black-winged mice, aimed their sharp fangs at Subaru.
“Go away!!”
Petra raised the repel stone aloft, instantly driving off the black-winged
mice.
“You saved my bacon, Petra! …But this means the stone isn’t completely
ineffective, doesn’t it?”
“Against normal demon beasts, it works just fine! For the moment, it is
ineffective only against a single demon beast. So long as that beast is not…”
“Meaning that one is—”
Special, he was about to say, but two things happened before he could—
the sound of an impact ringing out, followed by high-pitched death cries.
From the back of the corridor, in the darkness where the moonlight did
not reach, a monstrous claw flashed, drawing out screams and fresh blood
simultaneously. The fearsome blow tore the wings off the black-winged
mice, leaving them helplessly falling and rolling onto the carpet. Pitch-black
blood coursed from their wounds as the two demon beasts convulsed. An
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enormous maw reached forward to snap up their bodies, chewing on them.
The murderous sounds of snapping bones and bloody flesh being
consumed reverberated across the corridor. Then he saw it.
The creature had the head of a lion, a torso like that of a horse, a tail
resembling a serpent, and a fearsome twisting horn protruding from its face—
a sovereign among demon beasts, with the entirety of its being embodying
the word danger.
—This was the demon beast that Subaru had once seen slay Petra. And its
name was…
“Totally forgot it, but… So we meet again, you shitty demon beast…!”
“ !!!”
As if responding to Subaru venting his rage, the black demon beast raised
a roar that seemed to shake the entire mansion. Bathed in a sense of awe like
being buffeted in blast winds, Subaru adjusted Rem upon his back and
clenched his teeth.
“Otto! Give that bastard a taste of the repel sto—”
“No! It won’t work, Subaru! That demon beast is a…”
Petra shook her head side to side, her face pale as she pleaded with
Subaru. Her words brought him to a sudden realization. He’d already guessed
what Otto was about to shout.
“A Giltirau! The repel stone will not work on it! The beast is our worst
enemy right now!”
Instantly, the demon beast—the Giltirau—lowered its body, aimed itself
toward the group…and charged.
Its claws rent the carpet. Its roar made the very foundations tremble. With
a snarling battle cry, it came barreling toward them.
—With this, three battles had erupted simultaneously. The Battle of
Roswaal Manor…had begun.
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CHAPTER 2
HAPPINESS REFLECTED UPON THE WATER’S SURFACE
“—Heeey, Lia. Don’t wobble your head like that and sit still, would you?”
Before she opened her eyes, the first thing she heard was a soft, lovely
voice.
Slowly, as if guided by the voice, her consciousness floated to the surface.
Her vision was hazy. In the span of several blinks, she realized she was
sitting in a chair and this was her own house.
It was their house, built from the hollow of a great tree in the forest. She
was sitting in her own chair in the living room.
“Goodness, how long are you going to be such a spoiled little child?
You’re really incorrigible, you know.”
From so close that she could feel her breath, she heard a voice so gentle, it
seemed to embrace her. It caused such a stirring in her chest that the girl—
Emilia—hurriedly looked over.
She immediately spotted a woman with short silver hair, a foul look in her
eyes, and who, to Emilia, was the ideal woman.
“Mom…”
“You turned so quickly, it surprised me… Did you doze off? Were you
catching a nap while leaving me to do your hair…? We truly have a lazy
Princess on our hands.”
As Emilia’s eyes went wide, her mother—Fortuna—smiled with an air of
exasperation. She did not understand why she felt so deeply moved by simply
seeing the sharp eyes and soft expression of her mother.
“Mom…”
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“Mm? What’s wrong? If something happened, you can tell me anything.”
“You’re really dressed up today, huh, Mom? It’s really cute.”
“—! Is that all? And here I was getting worried only for you to tease me.”
With just a hint of a blush, Fortuna flicked Emilia’s forehead with a
finger. Putting a hand on her forehead, Emilia went “eh-heh-heh” and
grinned.
Emilia was always proud of her mother, but she thought Fortuna looked
especially beautiful that day. This was because she was actually wearing a
skirt for once instead of her usual easy-to-move-in attire. Though her clothes
had minimal adornment, the color-matched, fresh-looking outfit suited
Fortuna very well.
“Oh, look at you. Even though you have such a cute face, it’s quite a mess
today… You really do seem like you’re still half-asleep. I thought I sent you
to wash your hair at the watering hole earlier. Did you just have a drink and
come back?”
“Hmph, Mom’s making fun of me again. There isn’t even the tiniest
smidgen of carelessness in my whole body. Everyone else always says that
I’m really well-behaved, too.”
“Even though you still use such ridiculous phrases, I’m really worried
other people are filling your head with silly ideas. I’d better have a little chat
with Archi after this.”
The way she pressed her lips together seemed to indicate dissatisfaction,
but the way Fortuna pressed a palm against her forehead clashed with that
image. Her mother proceeded to move in front of the sullen Emilia and
resumed doing her hair once more.
She had long hair, silver just like Fortuna’s. Her mother braided it up with
practiced ease like she used magic.
“Okay, now it’s all nice and beautiful. Go look in the mirror.”
“Mm-hmm, thanks, Mom. The mirror…”
When Fortuna patted her on the shoulder, Emilia stood up with a big grin
to do as she was told. The little girl proceeded to turn toward the full-length
mirror—but then she stopped.
“Emilia?”
Fortuna called out to her daughter with a questioning voice. But Emilia
did not reply. For some reason, she could not approach the full-length mirror.
Even she did not know the reason why.
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Her legs were cramped. As Emilia stewed in melancholy, salvation came
to her from a different direction.
She heard the sound of someone knocking on the door to their home.
Lifting her head with a gasp, Emilia went, “A guest!” and whirled around,
her legs hastily taking her in that direction. And then—
“—Good morning to you, Lady Emilia. I am overjoyed that you came to
greet me.”
When she opened the door in a fair bit of a hurry, Emilia’s breath caught
as the tall visitor on the other side greeted her. The man, with green hair and
soft features, smiled at her.
Seeing the tranquil benevolence residing in this individual’s eyes, Emilia
could not help but break into a broad smile.
“Geuse… G-good morning to you.”
“Yes, it has been some time, Lady Emilia. I hope you will treat me kindly
today.”
“Today…?”
Hearing words of greeting from the visiting man—Geuse—made Emilia
tilt her head in confusion. That curious reaction elicited an “oh my” from
Geuse, who raised a curious eyebrow.
“Are you not aware? I had thought we had sent word beforehand…”
“Geuse, don’t take her seriously. Lia’s just being a sleepyhead this
morning.”
“Grrr, I can’t believe Mom’s still saying stuff like that…”
Fortuna’s exasperated voice made Emilia look over, but her words caught
in her throat. Fortuna was not dressed like normal, and she was holding a
basket clearly meant for going out and about. Emilia could faintly smell herb-
grilled meat sandwiched between cuts of her mother’s handmade bread. In
other words—
“—Ah! We’re going to the lake?”
“Why, this girl looks like she only just remembered even though she’s the
one who asked to go…”
“Did I really? …Maybe I did ask. If that’s true, then I just get to be twice
as happy.”
When she thought back on it, she felt like she had made a request just like
that. And having forgotten it, the instant she remembered made her feel like
she’d gotten to enjoy it two times over.
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“…Geuse, what do you think of her?”
“It is rather in character for Lady Emilia, I believe. She specializes in
doubling her happiness. Perhaps we have a thing or two to learn from her.”
“You spoiling her irresponsibly puts me in a bind, though. Goodness…it
must be Sister’s blood in her.”
Fortuna sighed as she touched a hand to her forehead. Then when she
noticed Geuse training his gaze firmly upon her, she gave him a sharp look as
if asking, What…?
“No, it would be better not to worsen your mood…”
“We’ve known each other long enough. There’s nothing you can say that
will shake me now, Geuse.”
“Then I shall speak the words. Lady Fortuna, your clothing choices this
day are dazzling. I find myself rather enchanted by the sight of you.”
When Geuse spoke his mind with a guileless look on his face, Fortuna
stiffened for a brief moment.
“—!”
Then Fortuna’s face turned red. An instant later, with a powerful punch to
his shoulder, she sent Geuse flying.
Forgotten in the commotion, the basket was in danger of falling onto the
floor, but Emilia caught it just in the nick of time.
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But the relationship between Geuse and her mother was close, if a bit
prickly, and certainly a happy one.
“Oh my, Lady Fortuna.” “And Emilia and Geuse, too.” “Good to see
parent and child getting along.”
The housewives living close by commented and called out as they
watched the trio heading down the path toward the lake. Before Fortuna
could whip out a snappy retort, Geuse said, “You are obviously very loved,”
and the happy smile on his face made Fortuna swallow her words.
“…I—I suppose,” was the only reply she could muster.
Then as Fortuna inconspicuously matched her walking pace with Emilia
and Geuse, Emilia quietly waved back to the housewives, whereupon the
wives smiled with mischievous looks on their faces.
They walked in that manner for a while until the forest abruptly fell away
and their destination, the lake, came into view.
“As usual, the air here is very refreshing. I feel like I’m in a better mood
already.”
“That is because you are always carrying such weighty burdens, Lady
Fortuna. You must stretch your wings once in a while. By all means, allow
me to aid you in doing so.”
Fortuna put her things down on the lakeshore and made a little stretch as
Geuse expressed his consideration for her. When he busily set aside a place
for them to sit and made preparations for the picnic, Fortuna narrowed her
eyes; then, as she gazed upon the scenery, she called out to Emilia.
“Today, I’m being treated not as the leader of my people but as an old
little girl. I can’t relax like this. Hey, Emilia, say something, would…?”
“ ”
“Emilia? What’s wrong?”
Fortuna extended a hand toward her beloved daughter, who was immobile
as she stared intently, pouring her gaze into the scenery at the edge of the
lake.
“You’ve been really odd this morning. If you don’t feel well, we can go
home and…”
Then, just as she offered a voice of concern…
“ ”
…Emilia’s tummy made a cute sound as it pleaded in hunger. Instantly,
the concern on Fortuna’s face crumbled. All she could do was heave a deep
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sigh.
“Mom, I’m really hungry…”
“It’s obvious even if you didn’t tell me and didn’t show me such a tragic
face. Goodness, you make people worry only for it to turn out like this. You
truly are a child who keeps other people busy.”
As the corners of her eyes fell with relief, Fortuna flicked Emilia’s
forehead, then pulled her close against her own chest. She did not crouch for
this; Emilia was simply leaning forward—they were, after all, roughly the
same height.
“The two of you always get along so well. Watching it up close is truly
enough to put a smile on my face.”
“…Want to join in, Geuse?”
“Don’t say stupid things. Geuse, go ahead and open the basket. It’s a little
early, but we shall have our meal, for our Princess demands it.”
With that declaration, Fortuna kept holding Emilia close as they walked
over to join Geuse. The basket’s contents were spread atop a flat, grassy spot.
Her mother was good at cooking over a fire, and this was her specialty.
Food grilled with herbs was one of Emilia’s favorites, as well as—
“I am always humbled that you would share this with me… The flavor is
simply irresistible.”
With a munch, munch and a happy-looking face, Geuse stuffed his cheeks
full of grilled-herb food. Fortuna’s cooking specialty was nothing short of a
feast to him, so it was guaranteed this was what they would have every time
the trio went out for a picnic.
It was undeniable. Something was…stirring in her chest.
“Geuse, if you love Mom’s cooking so much, you should just…live in the
forest with us.”
Emilia pushed that feeling back down and raised the possibility of a life
together for the intimate couple. Instantly, Fortuna’s face reddened. “E-
Emilia…!” she cried.
“D-don’t say such thoughtless things. It’s very hard for Geuse, too. He has
to thread his way through a busy schedule just to poke his head over here at
all…”
“I am greatly pleased to hear you say this, Lady Emilia. Were it only
possible. I, too, desire this from the bottom of my heart.”
The nervousness on her mother’s face was in stark contrast to Geuse’s
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calm demeanor. But the echo of Geuse’s words—were it only possible —left
Emilia dissatisfied.
“If you want to do it, then just do it, not because it’s ‘possible.’ If neither
of you has a problem with it… Besides, no one’s going to get in the way…
Or am I in the way?”
“Not at all.” “That is not so.”
She voiced the concern that her being there was the reason the amiable
pair could not be with each other. And since Fortuna and Geuse both denied
it was so, she blurted out her next words without thinking.
“You two sure get along really nicely.”
“Oh, there you go again… Geuse, say something, would you?”
“Yes, you mustn’t, Lady Emilia. Lady Fortuna is someone with a very
important duty. If one such as myself remains for too long, ill rumors shall
arise and cause her trouble.”
“Rumors of Mom and Geuse…? I feel like it’s too late to stop those…”
Geuse’s poor defense made Emilia put a finger to her lips as she replied.
Geuse looked like he had no idea to what she was referring. “I mean…,”
went Emilia as she continued. “The aunties near home said we look like a
happy family that gets along really well.”
“—! I was quite certain this was referring to Lady Emilia and Lady
Fortuna only…”
“I expect nothing less from you, Geuse… But Mom understands, right?”
“ ”
Emilia’s assertion made Fortuna avert her eyes with a red face.
Even Emilia could see right through her mother. Surely, Geuse felt the
exact same way.
“I think it’s a really good idea. I do. So both of you think about it, okay?”
“ ”
“No one in the forest, including me, thinks there’s anything weird about it.
And I absolutely won’t stand for it if anyone says anything bad!”
With some half-eaten grilled-herb food in hand, Emilia realized she’d
become rather worked up about this. Even so, she’d wanted to say it; she had
to say it. She didn’t want Fortuna and Geuse to be afraid of being happy
together—she wanted them to be happy.
Stuffing her cheeks with the remaining half of the grilled-herb food, she
chewed it down, swallowed, brushed her knees, and stood up.
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“I’ve said what I wanted to say. I leave everything else to the young
couple. Go right ahead.”
“Emilia, truly, where did you learn of such things?”
When Emilia spoke those words with her hands on her hips, Fortuna wore
her familiar exasperated look. However, that expression immediately fell
away, changing into a smile she could not hold back.
“Tee-hee, ah-ha-ha. Oh, Emilia… Truly, you are a really cute girl.”
“Ha-ha, Lady Emilia has… I see, she has grown up sound and well. Truly,
a joyful thing.”
“Well, of course she has. She’s my daughter, my pride and joy. It goes
without saying.”
“Yes, so I see.”
Watching the two laughing and looking at each other’s smiling faces filled
Emilia’s chest with a palpable sense of warmth. From the bottom of her heart,
she wanted to gaze at the scene for a long time, immersing herself in it.
—Probably because there was no greater happiness than this.
“…Emilia?”
When Fortuna suddenly called out to her, Emilia hurriedly covered her
face with her hands. She belatedly realized she’d spontaneously broken into
tears. “Aa,” came her voice as she desperately tried to hold them back.
“I might’ve gotten a speck of dust in my eye. A really big speck of dust.”
“That big? Are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine. I’m in completely tip-top shape. As much as that rock over
there.”
“That enormous boulder?! Are you truly all right?!”
“I said I’m fine!!”
Responding to the concerned pair, Emilia rubbed her eyes as she turned to
face the lake.
“I’m going to wash my eyes out a bit. After, I think I’ll go around the lake
once.”
“Make sure you don’t drop your eyeballs by mistake. They’re such a
pretty color… Pretty violet eyes, just like Brother’s.”
“Well, Mom’s eyes are just as pretty.”
Perhaps Fortuna never considered that, for Emilia’s reply took her
completely by surprise. Seeing that the unusual side of hers made Geuse
laugh, Emilia laughed as well.
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She kept laughing as she advanced toward the lake. Then she glanced
back, looking at Fortuna and Geuse.
“Get along nicely and wait, okay? And always, always reaaaaally get
along.”
“Yes, yes, you worrywart. But don’t make us wait too long. That would
put me in a serious bind.”
“No, there is no need to hurry. Take your time. We shall wait for as long
as is required, Lady Emilia.”
With the smiling pair—With her parents seeing her off, Emilia took a
deep breath.
Then, unable to hold it in any longer, she turned around, looked straight at
the two of them, and parted her lips once more.
“—I love you both.”
—From a plateau with a view of the entire lake, Emilia stood, gently caressed
by the wind.
“ ”
She was closely watching the intimate couple on the distant shore at the
other end of the lake with her violet eyes, which her mother always praised so
much.
Geuse said something without realizing the impact of his words; Fortuna
went red in the face as she refuted him. Emilia pursed her lips as she watched
the lightly amusing scenes. And then—
“Emilia, isn’t it dangerous for you to be here all by yourself?”
—hearing a familiar voice call out to her from behind, Emilia looked
back. She was standing atop a sheer cliff with the lake spread out below it.
Facing her was a handsome young man with golden hair and green eyes—
Archi Elior, one of the elves living with them in the Great Elior Forest and, to
Emilia, practically her own brother.
“Archi…”
“—Somehow, your voice and face seem different, Emilia. Did you leave
your usual head-in-the-clouds-ness off by the wayside? You’re starting to
worry me.”
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“Hmph. That’s a terrible thing to say. Stupid Archi. I don’t know you. Go
away.”
“Sorry, sorry. If you’re seriously worried about something, then I’ll
seriously hear you out, all right?”
Faced with Emilia’s sullenness, Archi flashed a pained smile as he raised
both hands in surrender and walked in her direction. Then he stood alongside
Emilia upon the cliff. “What’s wrong?” he asked, tilting his head.
“Today Lord Archbishop was supposed to come to the forest, yes?
Weren’t you with…? Ahhh, isn’t that him over there? Er, did you give them
some time alone, by any chance?”
“…Mm, that’s right. What do you think of them, Archi?”
“I think they’re a good match. Everyone in the forest thinks so, too. Lady
Fortuna is so strict with herself, even though we would prefer it if she thought
of her own happiness more…”
As he shared those thoughts, Archi reeled in shock, for he had caught
sight of Emilia’s wet eyes and the tears ready to spill out from them.
“Ah, um, Emilia, it’s not… It’s all right! Even if Lady Fortuna and Lord
Archbishop were joined together, they would never forsake you!”
“…It’s not that, stupid.”
“Not that, huh…? Ahhh, then, er, how about this? Certainly, it might be
difficult right now, and I do not know how many years must pass in the
meantime, but someday, both of them will—”
“—Time.”
As Archi hurriedly tried to comfort her, Emilia lifted her head, lips
quivering.
If they’d had time, the distance between Fortuna and Geuse would have
narrowed. To be blunt, the current speed of progress seemed no faster than a
snail’s pace, but eventually, the day would surely come when they would be
together.
When that day came, everyone in the forest would celebrate. Of course,
Emilia would celebrate most of all, and if possible, she wanted not only the
people of the forest but the people of the entire world to celebrate the couple.
That would be a world of peace, of tranquility, of freedom in all things,
where everyone could smile together—
“—But that world doesn’t exist.”
Lowering her eyes rimmed with long eyelashes, Emilia touched her hair
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ornament as she murmured—the floral hair ornament she had inherited from
her mother, of which two should not exist in that world.
Her mother, all dressed up and waiting for her on the lakeshore, wore the
very same hair ornament.
In other words, this was a place apart from the forest that had already met
its snowy end, an unknowable, idealized future—
“…Looking at this unknowable present, have you not thought, I want to
live here?”
“Archi…”
“Here, I, Lady Fortuna, Lord Archbishop, and everyone else are living
safe and sound. No tragedy will ever befall this place. It is a happy world.
Emilia, you could have a good life here, too, free of worry and hurt.”
To Emilia, who had realized this was a false world, Archi raised a gentle
plea for her not to make such a sad face. That he found nothing suspect with
his own theory was proof itself that this world was a sham.
It would have been a lie to claim his plea, Archi’s plea, didn’t sway her
heart.
“Surely, you want the two of them to be happy. Surely, you want to live
here to see it. After all, this is your ideal present…the future you yourself
desired.”
“The future that I… Yes, I think you’re right. I’m sure you are.”
She wanted Fortuna to be happy. She wanted Geuse to make her mother
happy.
If only everyone in the forest could smile together, if only she could get
along nicely with Archi, to always be in such a world of happiness.
—If only she could pretend not to know, to somehow forget her mother’s
tragic demise and Geuse’s unspeakable grief.
“Lady Fortuna has already passed away. Lord Archbishop’s well-being or
lack thereof is unknown. Everyone in the forest has been turned to statues of
ice.”
“…Yeah.”
“Our homeland has been frozen over, blocked off to all outsiders, and
now you have even parted ways with the spirit who was like family to you.”
“ ”
Emilia closed her eyes as she digested the words Archi was speaking to
her.
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It would have been easier for her if that voice reproached her.
It would have been easier if it had blamed her for her errors in judgment,
berating her for her poor thinking, to insult her for her shameful lack of
gratitude—but Archi had puffed out his chest and said he would do no such
thing.
What infused his voice was not anger. Instead—
“Even though you could be happy here… Even though you wanted this
world… You poor thing…”
—all he wanted was for Emilia to be happy, to be at peace.
It was exactly as he’d said. This was a world that existed for no reason
other than to make Emilia happy…
“…Sorry, Archi.”
“—Why do you desire a future that will hurt you so much?”
“I don’t want to be hurt. I’m searching for a future where I don’t have to
be hurt, where I don’t have to run, hide, or push things away, where I can
hold hands with others.”
“And the wounds you suffer? The pain? What you have lost will never
return. Will you search for such a thing even so?”
“ ”
Even Emilia had thought of what it would be like to have no one think of
her as detestable. Many times over, she’d wanted to cast all the pain and
suffering by the wayside.
The earnestness in Archi’s words gently and deeply touched upon scars
that covered Emilia’s weak heart.
“…I want people to think I look cool.”
“Emilia?”
Doubt crept into his voice. Archi seemed like he did not believe his own
ears.
Emilia lifted her head, staring straight at her kin, at the man who was
practically a brother to her, and spoke with the determination she felt.
“I want to be like Mom, who I look up to so much. I want to be gentle and
strong, like Geuse. I want to be like Granny Tanse and the others, who were
never mean to me even once. I want to be like Archi, who smiled to the very,
very end so that I wouldn’t get scared.”
“ ”
“I want to be like Puck, who kept protecting me so I wouldn’t be alone. I
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want to be like Ram, who wants to work harder than anyone else for the
person she holds dearest. I want to be like Otto, doing his utmost for the sake
of his friend. I want to be like Garfiel, who refuses to speak one timid word
or complaint.”
“Emilia…”
“And I want to be like Subaru, who suffers and gets all beat up, who’s
always reckless—who told me he loves me.”
Emilia was weak and pathetic and always failing, but even so, she wanted
to do everything she could for the people she wanted to be with—for the
people inside and outside the forest, for those who once walked alongside her
and for those who would stand by her from now on.
“I want those people to think I look cool. I want to reach my hand out to
the others the way so many people assured me that things would be all right.”
It was time for the girl who had always been saved by others to start
saving them.
The boy who always endured so much for Emilia’s sake had put his trust
in her, promising that everything would turn out all right in the end.
—That was why Emilia would live in the outside world.
“I’m all right. I’m not afraid of the outside world. I’m not afraid of the
future.”
“ ”
“Thank you for worrying about me. I’m…all right, Big Brother.”
Being called that made Archi open his eyes wide. Emilia smiled, seeing
his surprised face.
She’d always thought of him as a brother, but shyness and her defiant
heart had kept her from calling him that even once.
But now there was no reason to be embarrassed by those sunny feelings.
She could boldly say what she had always felt.
In Emilia’s forest homeland, she had a mother, a father, and an older
brother—she had a family.
“—You…”
Faced with Emilia’s charming smile, Archi kept trying to say something.
But the flood of complicated and mystifying emotions within him dissipated
without taking any definite shape. After all—
“Emilia, you’re so stubborn. Once you’ve decided on something, you
never listen to anyone. I wonder if you have any idea how hard that was on
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Lady Fortuna and the rest of us?”
“Wahhh… I’m really sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. I mean…”
Then Archi’s words trailed off as he smiled. His face contained not worry
but a beaming smile.
“It’s an older brother’s place to indulge his little sister’s selfish ways.”
“ ”
The way he spoke with a smile on his face made Emilia truly feel the
depth of his love. Just how many times had she been protected, and just how
much love and tranquility had she received?
“Thank you, Big Brother.”
All of Emilia’s and Archi’s feelings were encapsulated in the smiles they
exchanged.
Then she turned her back to him, standing atop the cliff once more. From
that vantage point, she could see Fortuna and Geuse in the distance, as well
as the surface of the lake immediately beneath her.
“ ”
Suddenly, the two noticed Emilia in the distance and waved to her. She
waved back.
Burning the sight of them happily together into her eyes, her mind, her
soul, and her memories, she left it all behind.
“—Thank you for showing me this world, Echidna.”
She was speaking to Archi, standing behind—No, this was not Archi. She
spoke to Echidna the Witch.
“ ”
Including Archi, who was aware of far too many details that he should’ve
never known, this entire world was an illusory space to begin with.
Remembering the Trial, Emilia understood this was not reality.
Perhaps the mother, father, older brother, and everyone else she saw here
were all nothing but fabrications.
Even if that was true, Emilia still felt gratitude in her chest.
“Maybe this is a world that could never exist, but I never thought I’d see
the day that Mom and Geuse…that Mom and Dad could be together like this,
smiling side by side. So thank you.”
It scared her to acknowledge this as an unreal, fleeting dream.
However, even if it was a world that would never come to pass, Emilia
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had gotten a chance to see the happiness that had been possible.
In this world, she had felt joy, love, and a happy sadness that sent shivers
through her whole body.
She was glad from the bottom of her heart that she got the opportunity to
bear witness to everything she had seen here.
“…You…”
Responding to Emilia’s words of thanks, Archi—No, the voice was
feminine; it was the voice of the Witch.
Emilia’s memory of being hated by her during the course of the first Trial
was still fresh. She’d half given up on hearing her voice in that world, let
alone seeing her face.
But there, the Witch appeared in that transient world at the very, very end,
and her voice trembled.
“Echidna…?”
Turning around, Emilia faced the Witch head-on. That same moment,
Emilia wished she hadn’t. When she turned around, there stood Echidna, her
expression so raw, it made Emilia regret seeing it.
—For Echidna was simply standing there, staring at Emilia with a face
ready to break into tears.
“I hate you—I just…hate you.”
“ ”
Emilia didn’t comment on the hesitation she detected in the words
Echidna wrung out.
Then, right before Emilia’s eyes, Echidna’s body became hazy. Like a
ripple moving along the water’s surface, her existence became distorted, and
the Witch’s form seemed to melt as she retreated from the world of illusion.
There was nothing left behind. With the one who had supposedly been
Archi gone, wind and time began to flow once more.
“Echidna…”
Having instilled such bitterness that she had wanted to say nothing, Emilia
clenched her own chest with her hand. From there, she put her breathing in
order; then she turned back toward the cliff one more time, peering into the
water below.
She saw her reflection on the distant surface of the clear, shallow lake.
Her heartbeats grew stronger, faster.
Simultaneously, she instinctively understood how to bring the second
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Trial to an end.
“ ”
Between this world and the one she really belonged to, what part was
different yet the same? The only answer was Emilia herself. She was the only
foreign element in either world.
The way to end the Trial was for Emilia to find herself and seek out a way
to acknowledge, accept, and understand that self.
Her memories of the past ended when her homeland froze over and she
fell into a deep slumber. Until the present day, over a century had passed—
and in all that time, Emilia had never once set eyes upon her grown-up self.
The reason was simple. She was simply…afraid. She was too afraid to
look.
When she awoke, the aging her body had undergone conflicted with the
memories she had lost. Her clumsy, unfamiliar body terrified her immature
heart, and the way the people living close to the forest treated her drove that
fear deeper still.
Her features inevitably drew comparisons to the Witch of Jealousy, and
Emilia spent that time in misfortune. This made people uneasy, so they
persecuted her, causing her to harbor even greater fear than before.
She deliberately avoided mirrors, and she’d trained herself to not even
look at the reflective surface of water.
—As part of her contract with Puck, he picked how Emilia would groom
herself each day.
Normally, he hid everything under his aloof, frivolous demeanor, but this,
too, was actually all to protect Emilia’s fragile heart from reopening old
wounds.
“Truly, just how much have people been protecting me…?”
How much had she failed to notice while she’d been sulking all on her
own?
The time she’d spent ignoring the love others gave her had finally come to
an end.
“—!”
With resolve in her heart, Emilia closed her eyes, and moments later, her
feet left the ground.
In an instant, gravity dragged her floating body downward, pulling her
into a fall upside down. The rushing wind entwined her long silver hair
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around her body. Her figure was perfectly straight as she plunged headfirst—
hurtling toward the water below.
She felt goose bumps on her skin. Sensing the surface of the water was
close by, Emilia opened her eyes.
It was just in time for her to drink in the sight of the silver-haired, violet-
eyed girl reflected by the clear lake’s surface.
It was as if she was resolved to greet the end of the world head-on. Then,
quietly, she widened her eyes further.
“—Huh.”
A disappointed voice trickled out.
Her face reflected in the water, the face of the little girl who had grown so
big, drew nearer and nearer with every passing moment.
Emilia let out a soft sigh and muttered.
“That’s too bad. I look less like Mom than I thought…”
An instant after that sulky murmur, Emilia crashed into the watery mirror.
She would never let go of the happiness she found. However, the world of
dreams from which she had to depart had finally come to an end…
—Neither the cold nor the impact of breaking the water’s surface receded
when Emilia’s mind returned to reality.
When she came to, the first thing she saw was the small, cold room in the
dimly lit tomb. Lying upon her side, Emilia blinked again and again, thinking
back to the Trial that had ended a moment before.
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Perhaps it had been an illusion. The scene was one that could have
existed, and that fact made her chest throb.
“My feelings for Mom, for Dad…for Big Brother and everyone else I hold
dear—those haven’t changed.”
If anything, her feelings for them had only deepened and grown stronger.
She kept these emotions stored away in her heart, and she would carry them
with her forevermore.
Her resolve had crystallized. Both of Echidna’s Trials had given her
something precious.
The words of thanks she offered the Witch were not false in any way.
“…With this, the second Trial is over. That’s good, right?”
As she rose to her feet, Emilia set aside her questions about Echidna’s
final actions for later.
There was a tangible sense of accomplishment, and judging from the look
of the Witch as she departed, it was no mistake to think the second Trial had
indeed ended. She had not so much overcome it as she had seen things
through to the end.
“ ”
Even with the sight of her father and mother, an illusory emotional scene
she’d supposedly put behind her, tugging at the back of her mind, Emilia
turned her back to the room, heading outside the tomb to prepare to challenge
the third Trial.
Just as it had been for the second Trial, exiting and reentering the tomb
was no doubt a condition for switching to the next Trial to come. Even were
that not the case, she had to inform Ram, who was waiting outside for her
success or failure in the Trial, and put her worries at ease.
—Save him.
That was the plea Ram had stated to Emilia, when the strong girl had
shown her what lay deep within her heart.
Emilia wanted to respond and act upon that from the bottom of her heart.
And for that sake—
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ram… Er, huh?”
Accompanied by that powerful resolve, Emilia tried to convey the results
of the latest stage of the Trials, but she ended up cocking her head instead.
Under a night sky with the silver moon high above, waiting for Emilia at
the entrance to the tomb was not a lone maid but a great throng of people.
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“Ah, she’s come out!”
Someone noticed the surprised Emilia and raised a cry. Instantly, the
crowd shifted their gazes toward her as one, and the sheer force of it made
Emilia wince. But she recognized them instantly.
There stood the people of Earlham Village who had evacuated to the
Sanctuary and taken shelter at the Cathedral.
Their return to their homes had been delayed, now hinging on the lifting
of the Sanctuary’s barrier. It was none other than Emilia who had promised
she would definitely free them.
Still unable to make good on her promise just yet, Emilia held her breath.
She fully expected them to accuse her of being all talk and no substance. And
yet—
“It’s good you are safe and sound!” “Were you hurt at all?” “Simply
going in there put our lord at death’s door!”
“ ”
The first words she heard were filled with nothing but reverence for
Emilia, which made her brain seize up. However, Emilia immediately shook
her head to clear it, and then from the stairs, she deeply bowed toward them.
For an instant, the people murmured. But they immediately fell silent as
they awaited Emilia’s words.
“…Thank you for worrying about me. I am completely fine and not hurt
whatsoever.”
“Ohhh, I’m so glad.” “Good. That’s what’s important.” “Master Subaru
got all worried for nothing, huh…?”
“It’s just…I am very sorry. I still have not completed all the required
Trials…but everyone here must have already heard from Subaru and the
others, right?”
Emilia kept harboring apologetic feelings toward the group of worried
people as she continued:
“There is no longer any reason for you to remain in the Sanctuary. I will
definitely lift the barrier, but it would be best for all of you to return to your
families…”
“ ”
As part of the negotiations, the villagers were originally supposed to
remain in the Sanctuary until its barrier was lifted. But now that Garfiel had
rescinded his previous demands, there was not a single reason for them to
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remain.
The villagers already knew that. Emilia had heard from Ram that Subaru
and company explained it to them prior to leaving for the mansion.
Therefore, there was no reason for them to await Emilia’s success or
failure in the Trials. However—
“Master Subaru? Hey, what did he tell us anyway?”
“Oh? I wonder. Lately, I have been quite forgetful. I simply can’t recall.”
“Goodness, the way you said that seemed so real that it honestly scared
me for a minute. Well, not that it isn’t true…”
Looking at one another’s faces, the villagers began exchanging
unbelievable words. It was not simply one or two people, either. Every last
person had joined in on the act, pretending like they had no idea what Emilia
was talking about.
Naturally, Emilia was agape at such transparent behavior. They were all
clearly playing dumb, acting as if this was the first they’d heard of it. As for
the reason why, Emilia just couldn’t understa—
“—And so, Lady Emilia, we will wait here as promised.”
“—!”
“We cannot return to the village until Lady Emilia has lifted the barrier.
We’re not budging from that one bit.”
The old woman with a stooped hip who served as head of Earlham Village
spoke those words with a smiling face. Emilia drew in her breath. By this
point, even someone as slow on the uptake as Emilia could understand what
their intention was.
All of them were waiting for her to fulfill her promise. No doubt they
wanted to return to their families without a moment to spare, but they were
suppressing that urge in order to honor their promise to her.
That was because Emilia had sworn to do the same for these very people.
“Besides, we are not the only ones expecting much from Lady Emilia’s
efforts.”
“Eh…?”
As Emilia, deeply moved by the unexpected turn of events, felt her chest
grow hot, the elderly woman made a mischievous smile as she nodded. When
Emilia looked over, drawn by the gesture, the people of Earlham Village
were all lined up—and behind them, with a swaying of the thickets, she saw
even more people entering the clearing.
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Somehow, the group seemed to be walking hesitantly, and at their head
stood a girl with long pink hair, a black robe draped over her, and a staff in
hand.
“Miss Ryuzu and…the people of the Sanctuary?”
“—From the looks of things, it would seem that you have returned after
completing the second Trial.”
Lining up beside the head of Earlham Village, Ryuzu sighed as if to say,
We made it in time. Everyone present gathered together into two groups,
dividing the open ground up between them.
Emilia, who had a view of the whole scene from her vantage point atop
the stairs of the tomb, was deeply moved, letting out an “ah.”
“There were this many people living in the Sanctuary?”
She’d heard there were maybe fifty Earlham Village evacuees who had
taken shelter here. The residents of the Sanctuary in the clearing numbered
just as many, about as much as a very large family, bringing the total number
of souls gathered in this place to about a hundred.
Yet, despite that, in all the time Emilia had spent here, she had practically
never come face-to-face with any Sanctuary residents beyond Ryuzu and
Garfiel, let alone spoken to any of them.
“Please know that is no fault of yours, Lady Emilia. It was the residents’
will… Really, it was my own stubbornness that prevented me from allowing
you to meet the residents.”
“Miss Ryuzu…”
“Lady Emilia, you have done well to have overcome the Trial. We are
grateful for this. And…”
Bowing her head deeply, Ryuzu had said exactly what Emilia had guessed
she would. Then Ryuzu glanced at the elderly woman standing beside her.
“…After hearing from Young Gar and the villagers here…listening to
both the residents of this place and outsiders alike, I, too, have finally been
able to rouse these old bones. I suppose you might fault me as an
opportunist.”
“…I’m not one to talk about anyone having doubts and being stuck in
place. I spent about a hundred years dozing off, after all.”
“Still, our obstinacy has lasted generation after generation across four
centuries, so I will call us even.”
Unable to bear the sight of that downcast face, Emilia offered some joking
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words, which seemed to help Ryuzu relax. She was acting like Subaru. This
was how he usually lightened the mood during weighty occasions.
“I understand what Garfiel probably spoke about…but was everyone else
able to hold discussions with the people of the Sanctuary as well?”
“Nothing quite so grand. Just living in the same place naturally leads
people to build relationships. We elderly often have spare time to exchange
words while doing the cooking and the laundry.”
“And so we elderly with too much time on our hands spoke about various
things. I have long lived in the Sanctuary…yet, I have never had a chance to
exchange words with an outsider quite like this.”
Musing out loud, Ryuzu and the Earlham Village head turned to each
other, wearing little smiles. Externally, they didn’t look even remotely the
same age, but to Emilia’s eyes, it seemed like an exchange between old
friends.
And Emilia thought this was a powerful, deep, and most precious thing.
“Lady Emilia… May we have a few words with you?”
“Y-yes.”
Then someone raised their hand and stepped forward. He was a resident
from the Sanctuary, a man with a head full of bestial hair and ever-so-
slightly-canine teeth—as someone who lived here, he was undoubtedly a
half-blood himself.
The man, whose age she would put at thirty thereabouts, bowed his head
with a rather tense expression on his face.
“To be honest, I… No, we…still haven’t decided in our hearts.”
“ ”
“We aren’t sure whether to trust you or not. We who know nothing about
the outside world can’t help but be scared of leaving the Sanctuary. That goes
for me, too. I was born and raised here.”
Just as Garfiel had asserted, this was the Sanctuary in its present state.
Many of the people dwelling here had undergone persecution for having
blood that differed from both humans and demi-humans, causing them to
seek this land as a place where they could find some peace. Others were born
here, spent their entire lives in this place, and then returned to the soil.
That was the way of life that had continued since the establishment of the
Sanctuary four centuries prior.
Lifting the barrier meant losing something that they had always taken for
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granted. How much did this mean to them? In terms of taking something for
granted, Puck had been the closest comparison Emilia had.
To Emilia, his sudden departure was the last thing she wanted. It was only
natural that the residents of the Sanctuary were just as reluctant to have such
a thing imposed on them by others.
“If Master Roswaal is looking after us even on the outside, how would
that be any different from us living here? I’d always thought maybe we don’t
need to change.”
“…Yeah.”
“However.”
Lowering her eyes, Emilia took in the man’s words. She awaited more
with a gloomy heart.
When she looked back, the man had stretched and straightened his back,
his tense cheeks hardening as he continued.
“However… All of us heard Garfiel’s—heard that little kid’s angry
voice.”
“ ”
“We know exactly how that hardworking kid feels…and it makes me feel
pathetic.”
When his face grew tearful and his gaze turned rueful and reproachful of
himself, Emilia’s chest tightened.
“He’s still a child of fourteen. How many years has he spent stuck in his
ways like that? He’s…a good kid. And you are, too, Lady Emilia.”
“I’m not. Until tonight, I was a totally good-for-nothing girl…”
It wasn’t like she’d accomplished anything. Not yet.
Though Emilia denied she had anything to be proud of, the man said,
“Even so,” shaking his head. “Master Roswaal told us it was futile, and
everyone was afraid, cowering from the Trial…but even so, here you stand.
You entered the tomb, and you came out. That’s why…”
“—Yes?”
“…whatever happens in the end, what you are trying to do is already
incredible and worthy of praise. I won’t go so far as to say every last person
here shares those feelings, and even I can’t say I’m completely on your side
just yet. But please allow us to watch over you to the end.”
Emilia was silent as she received the man’s—No, it was not the man
alone, but the gazes from all the various people behind him were trained upon
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her. Receiving these, Emilia stood straight and strong.
“—I understand. I’m certain I will see this through. When that time
comes, we can speak properly.”
“Yes, it’s a promise. Actually, for me and the rest to be shunning anyone
based on their looks and position without even talking ain’t exactly the best
—Wahyah!”
As the man deeply bowed, something sent him leaping into the air. When
Emilia looked harder, the cause was Ryuzu, who was standing beside him
and had suddenly dug her nails into his side. The man gave an objecting look
as Ryuzu laughed at the top of her lungs.
“Too long, too serious, and midway through, you switched from us to me.
Shame on you, shame.”
“…I-I’m very sorry, Elder.”
“Either way, our current point of view is as he said just now. This, too…
Mm? What is the matter?”
Ryuzu was in the midst of lightly teasing the man when the wide-eyed
Emilia tilted her head.
“Er… Miss Ryuzu, it’s a little surprising to hear someone call you Elder
like that.”
“Ahhh—”
“And I was thinking, Wow, I really haven’t seen her speaking with anyone
except Garfiel, have I…?”
Think about that, went Emilia, sticking her tongue out. Ryuzu, taken
aback, looked at the man’s face, and he, hers. From there, they let up voices
of “Kwa-ha-ha-ha!” and laughed.
The laugh was not merely between Ryuzu and the man; it spread to the
various people of the Sanctuary and even the residents of Earlham Village.
For a time, the entire clearing was filled with laughter.
“Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite right to laugh…but, mm, Miss Ryuzu,
thank you. Also, Miss Milde, it seems like you really put some work into
this.”
“—Lady Emilia, you remembered my name?”
As Emilia spoke words of thanks, the elderly woman beside Ryuzu—
Milde Earlham—made a surprised face. Seeing this, Emilia went “mm-hmm”
and puffed out her chest. “I may not look like it, but I am in the middle of
studying to become king. Remembering names is the least I can do.”
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“I do not believe a king needs to remember the name of each and every
subject, but…”
“You’ve probably been dealing with kings with poor memory. I’m very
good at learning things.”
Hearing Emilia’s reply, Milde slightly narrowed her eyes; then she offered
a deep bow.
Glancing sidelong at this, Ryuzu went, “Now then,” indicating the tomb
with her chin. “Lady Emilia, I am pleased that we could be of service to
you… Next is the final Trial, but…”
“Yes, I intend to challenge it immediately. Well, I was intending to…
Miss Ryuzu, do you know where Ram is?”
The impact of being greeted by such a large throng the instant she exited
the tomb temporarily forced it from her mind, but as far as her eyes could see,
Ram was nowhere to be found.
Emilia had wanted to inform the girl who’d motivated her to break
through the Trial that she had finally found some success, but…
“…Ram is attending to a duty she cannot afford to shirk. She left a
message, praying for your good fortune. She said, Lady Emilia must do what
only she can do, and Ram must do the same. Let us do our very best.”
Ryuzu mimicked Ram’s way of speaking, drawing a strained smile onto
Emilia’s face. It was just like her to say something like that.
Ram’s duty was no doubt connected to the feelings that she had conveyed
in her request to Emilia. And when she thought how Ram might fulfill that
duty, there was a slight throbbing in her chest.
Pushing that feeling down, Emilia chose to trust Ram, just as Ram had
chosen to trust Emilia.
“…I have to say, though, no one waited for me to come back at all. Not
Subaru, not Ram…”
“Oh-ho, I see how that would sour your mood. It is a pity those you care
deeply for are not present. If this pitiful old face is good enough for you, I’ll
wait right here until you return again.”
“Okaaay—I guess it’s time.”
Emilia had begun to pout, but after hearing Ryuzu’s response, she smiled
and then turned.
Right before her, the entrance to the tomb awaited. She entered without
any hesitation.
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“Well, I’m off.”
Various voices, from the residents of the Sanctuary and Earlham Village
alike, called out after her.
There were so many expectations pushing her forward—more than the
first time and more than the second. Carrying these alongside the powerful
resolve now residing within her, she walked toward the back of the tomb.
And then—
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CHAPTER 3
—GILTIRAU, BLACK KING OF THE FOREST, STRIKES!!
—With every clash of steel against steel, there was a string of high-pitched
sounds that seemed to be a woman’s cries.
“Gaaaaaa—!!!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Marvelous! Marvelous!
Marvelousmarvelousmarvelous!”
Flipping her body around like she was dancing, she aimed a curved blade
at his vitals with no fixed path, flashing from up, down, right, and left. It
almost seemed like some sort of extreme training, but every blow landed
without any warning, infused with enough power to instantly end his life.
The tip of the bent blade rent the air, surpassing sound as it swung with
godlike speed.
The seemingly supernatural, murderous technique was being countered by
Garfiel’s own superhuman skill.
Using the silver-colored shields attached to both arms, he chose to deflect
rather than block the incoming blade. He kept redirecting the force of the
woman’s attacks skyward, creating openings for counterattacks so he stood a
chance at reeling in victory by force.
Even that very moment, he guided a powerful blow aimed at his neck off
to the side before sending a kick straight into the woman’s torso. Had
Garfiel’s kick connected cleanly, it would have undoubtedly ruptured all her
internal organs. But—
“I’ve already seen that one.”
—the woman’s eyesight was truly frightening, surpassing all common
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sense.
Her whisper was not a joke or a taunt, either. Every technique she
witnessed in battle did not work a second time. Having already foreseen this
second straight kick, the woman avoided it with minimal movement as she
lined up her next attack: a backward slash with her blade.
That blow, apparently intended to serve as punishment for foolishly
resorting to the same technique a second time while fighting a powerful foe,
hit its mark.
“Rrrrraaa!!”
In that same instant, Garfiel’s foolish kick slammed right into the
woman’s face.
“—Ngh!”
She bit down to suppress the groan of pain that threatened to escape from
the back of her throat. Her knife had entered his right foot, carving his flesh
all the way up to his femur. If he’d been even slightly slower, she would’ve
no doubt sliced off the entire leg. But for that price, Garfiel had landed a
clean blow on the woman.
In the battle up to that point, Garfiel had grown to admire—and trust—the
skill of Elsa, his foe.
The excellence of her technique, her overwhelming combat intuition, the
physical abilities she’d honed, and the impossibly fine control over her own
body—few could claim to be as strong as this woman. He was certain that if
he showed her the same technique twice, she’d definitely see right through it.
It was this absolute trust in her ability that allowed Garfiel to land a direct hit
on her.
He was sure he’d torn the woman’s sultry face. Even if it did not end her
life, it would leave her gravely wounded and unable to continue combat. But
Garfiel did not let his guard down. After all—
“—Aaagh, that hurt, and quite a bit. Makes me appreciate being alive.”
“Damn it, this ain’t no joke. What is that body of yours made out of?”
As Garfiel sighed, Elsa let out a heated breath of excitement. She was
touching her left hand to her face as if to suppress the bleeding, and when she
slowly lowered it, anyone watching would have expected a wound
underneath terrible enough to make the faint of heart avert their eyes. But it
was not so.
When she removed her left hand, Elsa revealed her face didn’t even have
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a scratch, let alone any bleeding.
“The general called ya a woman who wouldn’t die even if one killed
her…but this is just messed up.”
“I suppose it is. Even I feel slightly apologetic about my physical nature.
It seems to be robbing everything you do of all meaning… I wonder, do you
hate women like me?”
Hearing how disconcerted Garfiel was made Elsa slightly incline her
head. The tone of the question made Garfiel abruptly furrow his brows.
It was slight, minute, but he felt some part of Elsa’s tone of voice was
filled with sadness.
“Even as I move about, my wounds heal, and I feel neither pain nor
fatigue, allowing me to continue fighting without limit. Do you feel fighting
such a woman lacks any meaning? I wonder, do you really think of me as
someone you can test the results of your training against?”
“—Hell if I care.”
The throwaway tone of Garfiel’s voice made Elsa widen her eyes in
apparent surprise. She blinked hard, which momentarily made her seem much
younger. Garfiel crinkled his nose as he spoke again.
“You’re my enemy. And me, I’m the super-strongest shield who’s been
assigned the toughest enemy. I got the general and the woman I fell for
expectin’ a lot from me. I ain’t givin’ up from a little setback like this.”
“You…”
“I’m gonna blow you away, Elsa Gramhilde. Don’t matter how many
times ya come back.”
Baring his fangs and keeping his legs wide apart, Garfiel adopted a
fighting stance as he howled.
Garfiel’s caustic words left Elsa silent for a time. She let her refined
eyelashes fall just a tiny bit as she touched a hand to her own mouth—he
heard a laughing voice.
“Huh? The hell are you laughin’ at?!”
“Tee-hee…! Ah, er, I am quite sorry. I heard some unexpected words, so I
could not help but find them amusing… Yes, you seem to be a very good
boy.”
“Don’t treat me like some little kid. Me, I’m a fine man. A grown male.”
“Oh really now? You hardly look fully developed to me, either as an adult
or a man…”
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As Elsa relaxed her cheeks, her ridicule drew a sour snort out of Garfiel.
Garfiel couldn’t read Elsa’s emotions. To be blunt, he wasn’t interested in
them. That moment, what was important to him was fulfilling his role—by
beating the opponent before his eyes to a pulp.
—In so doing, he would prove the Sanctuary’s mightiest shield could
fulfill that role even in the outside world.
“You truly are marvelous… But that makes this more the pity.”
“The hell you talkin’ about?!”
“Right now, your attention is directed toward me and nothing else. I
wonder, how are your older sister and the others faring? You’ve been
wondering the whole time, haven’t you?”
Elsa’s comment concerned Frederica as well as Subaru and Otto as they
scurried across the mansion.
She wasn’t wrong. Certainly, Garfiel was worried for his friends. He
could not deny that they’d remained in the corner of his mind throughout the
fight.
“I wonder, if the cause of your fear was cut away, would you look at me
and only me? —In any case, your friends cannot escape from this mansion.
You’ve realized this, too, haven’t you?”
“…Seems like there are demon beasts crawlin’ all over this place. The
work of your little helper, huh?”
“My little sister. So long as her perimeter is intact, there is no way to
escape. She worked hard and brought an entire horde of demon beasts. At this
point, everyone could very well have been eaten down to the last morsel.”
The entirety of Roswaal Manor was buried in disgusting scents and auras.
He’d heard beforehand of the existence of a Beast Master who controlled
demon beasts. Subaru and company must have tried using that repel crystal
for barriers as a countermeasure, but the beasts still remained in the mansion
that very moment. He knew from the faint tremors reaching his eardrums and
what he could pick up from their auras.
In other words, some kind of unforeseen problem had arisen. It no doubt
had something to do with Elsa’s little sister, the Beast Master he had yet to
personally lay eyes on. The more he thought about it, the deeper he sank into
worry.
“Really, you want to rush over to your friends this very moment, don’t
you? Not that I’ll let you…but if the nervousness is dulling your fangs, that is
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very, very disappointing.”
Garfiel, too, understood a warrior’s desire to battle an enemy at their
finest. But Elsa was different. She thought like a huntress, using every power
at her disposal to take down her prey.
Considering her way of thinking, she probably thought the current
situation put Garfiel at a disadvantage.
—But that was completely off the mark.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, lady.”
“Am I wrong?”
“You just don’t get it. Demon beasts are wanderin’ around, yeah? And
what, you think I gotta go save ’em or somethin’? Stupid crap like that ain’t
gonna stop the general.”
Garfiel, supposedly unable to fight at full strength out of worry for his
friends, seethed with an uncontainable heat that blazed within him.
He boldly stepped forward, baring his fangs as he closed the distance
between him and Elsa.
“The general and his crew are the ones who gave me a royal poundin’. No
matter how many demon beasts get in their way, they’ll just laugh and kill
’em all!!”
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entrance, they fled out the window into the yard, putting some distance
between them and their hunter.
From there, they’d returned to the mansion via a different room, but—
“Th-that demon beast… Is it biding its time and patrolling the entire
building…?”
“It may have been assigned to guard this position… When we poked our
heads out earlier, it was right here in the main wing. Combining the magic
stones I had on hand with a spell to muffle our footsteps allowed us to
somehow get away, but…”
Even when resorting to such tricks to throw the monstrous guard off their
trail, it would be difficult to avoid encountering the creature if they wanted to
secure a reliable escape route.
In addition to the abominable Giltirau, there were numerous demon beasts
milling about the mansion. These lesser creatures could be driven off with
repel stones, but if they encountered any opposition, the Giltirau would
undoubtedly notice—leaving them in a vicious cycle.
“This is what I get for operating separately from Garfiel, huh…?”
“Please do not speak such timid words. After all, this very moment,
Garfiel may well be howling in high spirits that we must be all right. We
should at least respond with expectations equal to his.”
“You’re so big on returning favors. You really aren’t cut out to be a
merchant…”
Hearing these words from Otto, who was in the best physical condition
among them, Subaru flashed a wry smile as he stood up with renewed
resolve.
Returning Rem to his back, he found her body despairingly light. Carrying
an unconscious person was a heavy burden, a fact that he’d personally
experienced in this world several times over, but in her current state, Rem
was the exception to the rule.
He couldn’t feel her warmth or weight or much of anything at all. Her
tenuous hold on existence even affected her physical body. Only the faint
sounds of her heart and her sleeping breaths told him that she truly existed in
her current state.
If she fell off his back, he probably wouldn’t even notice. Fearful of this
exact possibility, he put even more strength into supporting Rem’s body.
“Subaru…”
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Petra moved closer to him, gently tugging on his sleeve with a somber
expression.
Petra, still so very young, had resolutely raced alongside them throughout
the night of their lives without a single word of complaint despite the great
danger.
“A-are you all right?”
Her pink lips were pursed as she posed a question—not out of concern for
her own life but with words of concern for Subaru, so earnestly bearing Rem
on his back, even as his own breaths ran ragged.
Petra’s feelings were like a healing salve to Subaru. Without such
salvation, he would never have been even half as determined to go on.
Despair wouldn’t get them out of their predicament. Subaru Natsuki rose
back to his feet.
“Have you thought of something?”
Perhaps seeing something in Subaru’s expression, Otto closed one eye and
questioned him so. He didn’t even consider disguising the expectations and
trust in the tone of his voice and his gaze.
“ ”
When Subaru looked over, he noticed Petra’s eyes, peering up at him,
held the very same expectations and trust.
Feeling those gazes on him, trusting without doubt that he must have
thought of something, Subaru’s breath caught. Then he wore a pained smile.
“Hey, come on now… Just what do you two expect me to do here?”
After deeply exhaling, Subaru rocked his body, gently adjusting Rem
against his back.
Expectations—if he was to invoke that word, it was Rem who expected
more from Subaru than anyone.
That moment, he was carrying her on his shoulders. That moment, Otto
and Petra were staring at Subaru, expecting something from him.
He breathed out. Then he decided with his gut.
“We were trying to run from this mansion, but that means blowing past
that demon beast…that something-rau thing.”
“However, it is difficult to defeat the beast with what we have at our
disposal. What should we do?”
Otto posed his question. Considering the capabilities of each person, the
resources and techniques they possessed, and the mansion that served as the
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stage, how could they meet all the required conditions? Think, think, think—
“We’re short on martial and magical ability—so it’s finally time for me to
put my unparalleled modern knowledge to good use.”
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footsteps it followed gradually became less guarded, betraying no sign of
noticing the death stalking so very close.
The one making the footsteps was right around the corner. The king
swung a claw just beyond that corner, a single blow that would rend the
prey’s back apart, throwing its corpse to the ground, and expose its
humiliation in full. However—
“—?”
Right after swinging its claw, the Giltirau paused, sensing something was
off. The presence it was certain was there had vanished, and the only one
standing in the corridor was the great and dignified king.
The foolish, fragile, disgustingly weak prey had vanished, nowhere to be
found.
—A moment later, another sound of shoes reached its ears, and the
Giltirau ferociously took up its pursuit once more.
Its target was using the stairs, heading for the floor below. The sound of
fleeing, running footsteps made the Giltirau reassess its prey ever so slightly
—it had gone from intolerably weak to a fool worthy of killing.
If its quarry had merely been running wildly, the beast would have settled
for ending things with a single claw swipe, cruelly slashing the fool apart.
However, this prey had refused the king’s mercy, willingly rejecting a quick
death—and so it would die a thousand deaths instead.
The Giltirau kicked off the wall of a landing, its huge frame seemingly
dancing as it leaped down the stairs. The hulking monster gave chase,
reaching the second floor before going down one more, pursuing its prey to
the lowest floor.
In the distance, somewhere beyond the building, it heard the voice of its
master trying to call it back.
“ ”
For an instant, the Giltirau pondered that voice, but it prioritized the prey
right before its eyes. It was this very prey that had earned the master’s ire. It
would swiftly dispose of the fool and then rejoin her.
—Die, foolish prey. This is the greatest glory for those who defy the
master.
Feeling a surge of emotion, the king forgot even to suppress its own sound
as it sprinted. The thunder of its very powerful footsteps announced to its
fleeing prey: The king, death itself, has come for you.
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Go ahead. Try to run. Flee pathetically in a panic. Show me your back, so
that I may flay it open for you.
Up ahead, it heard the sound of a door closing. The Giltirau did not
hesitate to force it open by slamming its body home. This sent the door flying
with great ease, and the Giltirau was greeted by a particularly spacious room.
It was not a small, cramped room like the stupid, ignorant prey had fled
into earlier. It was a spacious room where the Giltirau could swing its claws
and leap around with its giant frame to its heart’s content.
Perhaps the prey was finally invoking the last of its spirit to challenge the
Giltirau to a duel. However, the prey was nowhere to be seen, and at the back
of the room, the monster heard the sound of yet another door closing—the
door of an entrance separate from the one it had destroyed, and connecting
the guest room to a smaller one, had shut.
In the end, that is all you have, thought the Giltirau, genuinely
disappointed. The guest room came with a large table with a white cloth over
it and, atop that, a row of lit candles. The flickering flames illuminated the
king’s red face as, with heavy steps, it headed for the little room in back.
Its vile tail, like a great serpent, sharply swung about, easily slicing the
wooden door apart. Savagely springing its forelegs up, the Giltirau drew in its
breath; it then pushed in with a roar.
“ !!!”
Devastation. If there was a word worthy to describe what occurred in this
sad tale, that was it.
Absolute devastation.
As the Giltirau swung its tail about, wildly raging with its bestial claws,
the interior room was dominated by destruction worthy of the name. The
cupboards storing foodstuffs and the cold storage were destroyed, while
smoke erupted from the sacks and boxes lining the wall. The floor, struck by
the heavy impact of paws, broke apart, and the carpet covering it was
destroyed—a moment later, the Giltirau’s vision was blanketed with white
smoke.
A vast quantity of dust sprang up, clouding the air and irritating the great
beast’s nostrils. It was enough to rob it of its eyesight and even prevent it
from breathing in enough to roar.
“You fell for it!”
Then a voice rang out, as if someone—as if the prey was shouting in
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victory.
Then it heard that voice, not from the small room but from the previous,
wide room.
“Eat the power of science, baby—Dust Explosion!”
After a brief noise, it threw something into the small room.
Something flickered red within the Giltirau’s nearly all-white field of
vision—it was one of the candles from the guest room. The candle struck the
wall, and for a moment, the reddish flame glowed brighter as it landed upon
the floor.
“H-huh…?”
But…that was all that happened.
The candle remained on the floor, showing no further sign of change. The
one who had thrown it was frozen in place and sounded like there’d been a
miscalculation.
—The Giltirau’s regal instincts screamed this was a golden opportunity.
Something had put its opponent into a disadvantageous state. Even if that
had not been the case, surely this trick would have been insufficient to put the
Giltirau in peril—Nay, it would not underestimate its foe further. It would
utilize every store of power.
It would rend its prey apart, flay its skin, and feast in victory on the flesh
and blood—
“Aghhh, that’s why we told you! We shouldn’t have tried this nonsensical
method!”
“Normally, it’s faster to do it this way!!”
The instant it leaped out of the little room, the Giltirau picked up a high-
pitched voice and an even higher-pitched voice. Clearly different from the
prey it had spotted earlier—and the instant after it had that realization, a large
quantity of something poured down from overhead.
It was a liquid. Certainly not water, and it felt slippery to the touch.
Bathed in the yellowish fluid, the king felt its fangs trembling at having its
proud black mane tarnished. However, it had the luxury to consider this for
but a single instant.
“This is the personal merchandise of Otto Suwen—oil bought with the
entirety of his life savings! —How do you like my wares?!”
As the prey shouted with joy, the king—the Giltirau—had no way to stop
what came next.
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—The candles ignited the oil that had drenched the entirety of its body,
wreathing the king with abominable flames.
“ !!!”
The Black King of the Forest had left the wilds, gaining a master, and, to
the very end, wondered about the throne it had left vacant.
Still unaware of what had defeated it, the demon beast was enveloped by
flame the same color as its burning humiliation, scorching its body black,
torching it until it had been reduced to ash.
“So you can throw the sound of just footsteps, eliminate scents… Little tricks
like that are all your magic can do?”
“…Having you belittle them weighs upon my mind, but I am impressed
you remember such a thing. That said, will these spells prove useful? At
most, they can make an opponent turn their head for but a single instant.”
“Super-useful. We can use this to lure it into the trap… After that, I’ll use
the power of science to blow it away.”
“You certainly seem extremely confident, but this so-called power of
science…”
“A dust explosion, the strongest trick in the book. Using foodstuffs makes
it really simple to boot. With a bit of flour and an open flame, it’ll work great.
From what I know, it’s guaranteed to send a single monster flying.”
“We went along with your plan because you sounded so confident, and
now look at what’s happened!”
“Oh, shaddap! Scientific progress comes with sacrifices, you know!
Damn, why’d it fail? Not enough dust, not enough flame… Or do the laws of
physics in this world just not work the same way?”
“Arghhh! Stop talking about that and keep up! Ack, it’s no good! Nooo!!”
With Subaru and Otto angrily yelling at each other, Petra scolded them
with a desperate look on her face.
The noisy trio was being illuminated by the brilliant light of red flames.
That was only natural, for at present, they were doing their best to put out the
fire in the dining hall—however, the flames seemed to be only getting
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stronger.
“You used too much oil, damn it! You sure as hell spread it around
enough. How’d you plan on putting it out?!”
“As if anyone can hunt down such a huge demon beast while holding
back! In the first place, it’d be the same result whether I used it all up or not!
You’re buying every last drop either way!”
“Both of you, this isn’t the time!! We can’t put it out! Let’s run!”
With a frustrated look on his face, Subaru hurled the tablecloth, which had
also caught on fire, into the quickly growing flames. There was no sign of the
inferno in the pantry burning itself out. It had already spread to quite a bit of
the dining hall, and black smoke began to seep out.
“We managed to defeat the demon beast, but the cost we paid is too
high…”
The source of the flames was the black and charred demon beast—the
Giltirau. Just as they’d planned, Otto’s sneaky magic had led it downstairs,
where they used a dust explosion in the pantry to bring it down—or not, since
the dust explosion had failed. Instead, Otto had secured their victory by using
his stock of oil to burn the thing to death.
The beast was a muscle-brain befitting its enormous frame, especially
considering how it never suspected a thing as it fell into the trap. But because
it flailed around wildly as it died, the flames had transferred to everything
around it, completely setting the mansion on fire.
“This isn’t a repair job anymore. It’s a tear-down-and-rebuild job…”
“Is this really the time?! Let’s run! Before we lose the stairs!”
“Quickly! Quickly!!”
Subaru found it surreal to watch the familiar sights and spaces catch on
fire as the other two grabbed him by his sleeves and dragged him off. Pulled
by the pair, Subaru readjusted Rem on his back as they ran from the burning
dining hall.
Otto and Petra used repel stones to drive away any demon beasts that
appeared along the way. There were also signs that demon beasts were
fleeing the building, instinctively fearful of black smoke and fire.
“But what if Garfiel burns to death from this?!”
“Without the Giltirau prowling around, Garfiel can escape, too! Besides,
surely he can send demon beasts packing and leap out of the building all by
himself, even without using the escape route!”
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Subaru was trembling from unwittingly wrecking the entire battlefield,
but even in that situation, Otto remained as clever as ever. Thanks to that,
they arrived at the upper floor in good order.
Fortunately, no other demon beasts immune to the effects of the repel
stone appeared. Subaru and company fled into the study, and Petra operated
the mechanism on the bookshelf on the wall—slowly, making a sound, the
bookshelf moved, and the hidden passage heading underground, linked to the
outside, revealed itself.
“We did it! Subaru! It’s the hidden passage… With this, we can get out of
here!!”
“Yeah, I suppose so… If you head down to the bottom of these stairs and
follow the passage, you can escape outside. The exit will be well outside the
perimeter. That just leaves…here, Otto, take Rem.”
“Yes, I understand. I will take very good care of her.”
Nodding to Petra, who was overjoyed they had made it, Subaru turned his
back to Otto next. Then he slowly, gently passed Rem from his back onto
Otto’s. His movements were careful, so as not to let her fall.
“Do not drop her. Do not let her get hurt. And do not touch her in strange
ways.”
“Setting your concerns aside, your possessiveness comes across as quite
bothersome!”
“H-hey, you two… Why are you…talking like that?”
With Otto now carrying Rem on his back, Subaru flippantly warned to be
careful. Hearing this exchange, Petra raised a question with a worried face.
“From the way you’re talking right now…it sounds like Subaru isn’t
coming with us…”
“—Mm, that’s just how it is. Sorry, but I can’t run with you. From this
point on, I gotta go it alone.”
“Why?!”
When Subaru confirmed her suspicions, Petra’s face paled as she clung to
him.
“Let’s run already! The mansion’s on fire, and it’ll just make more trouble
for Miss Frederica! There’s still a lot of demon beasts, and it’s not like you
can beat them if you fight them, Subaru! So let’s run!”
“Er, well, that’s all totally true, but I can’t run from this. I can’t run… Not
yet.”
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Even though he was happy seeing Petra try to stop him, Subaru gently
took her fingers off him one by one. As he did so, the sadness in her big eyes
spread even further.
In an effort to chide Petra, Otto, standing right beside her, tossed his voice
her way.
“Petra. Mr. Natsuki still has something he needs to do. Until he
accomplishes it, Mr. Natsuki will not falter. You understand this well, yes?”
“But…Subaru’s weak!! It’s dangerous! You should stay with him, Mr.
Otto!”
“The way you said that doesn’t make it sound as if you have much faith in
my strength, though!”
Otto’s voice made Petra shake her head. There were tears welling in her
eyes as she looked up at Subaru. Subaru got onto his knees so he was on her
eye level and then gently stroked her head.
“Sorry, Petra. I’m getting you, Rem, and Frederica out of this mansion
safe and sound. But it’s not just you three. There’s one more person I have to
bring out of here.”
“Y-you mean Lady Beatrice…?”
“…Even though she hates trouble and acts all lonely, she’s a total
busybody, always trying to do everything by herself, suffering ’cause of the
dumb answers she comes up with and cowering ’cause she won’t settle things
herself.”
When Subaru described the girl, the loneliness of her existence made
Petra widen her eyes.
“I mean, Beatrice is pretty much the same age you are, Petra. Your heights
might be a little different… Come to think of it, Petra, you might be a lot like
her first friend.”
“First…friend…?”
Beatrice’s first and foremost friend had been Ryuzu Meyer. There had to
have been a tangible friendship between her and Beatrice. If Beatrice carried
the scars that remained all that time, then maybe…
“After I come back with Beatrice, you’ll probably become friends with
her. I’m sure you’ll like her, Petra. She’s awesomely fun to tease.”
“M-more than Mr. Otto?”
“Yeah. Fun enough that you won’t have use for Otto anymore.”
Judging from Otto’s expression, he wanted to say something, but Subaru
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deliberately ignored him.
Then Subaru stopped stroking Petra’s head and rose to his feet.
“I’ll go look for Beatrice. I plan to try hard enough that I don’t burn to
death, but if I do, carve on my tombstone that I died because of the fire from
Otto’s oil, okay?”
“Inscribing tombstones being too much trouble, I will give you a
smacking if you do not return safe and sound. Truly, I will.”
Otto seemed to wince as he made his declaration. Then he tilted his back,
turning Rem’s sleeping face Subaru’s way. The princess, still asleep as
always, couldn’t even bear witness to Subaru’s resolve as he prepared to
depart.
That was fine. It wasn’t Rem’s place to see Subaru off. It was Subaru’s
job to go to her.
“—Subaru! Be careful, okay?!”
Petra offered up her very own repel crystal. Accepting this, Subaru set off.
He did not reply to Petra’s voice as she called out behind him. Petra didn’t
need him to do so, either.
Bit by bit, the flames were covering the mansion, and the place he had
spent many days in was quickly turning to ash.
—Would the fire reach even the archive of forbidden books?
As he looked for the door to reach her, Subaru could not help but wonder.
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CHAPTER 4
NEXT TIME, I’M SURE WE’LL HAVE TEA
Sensing that the Trial had begun, Emilia’s mind instantly awakened.
This Trial felt closest to the first one. She was aware of her own existence
and firmly conscious that she was undertaking a challenge. It wasn’t like the
second Trial, when her own existence was far more indistinct.
However, there was clearly one point that differed from before—here,
Emilia had no body.
Her five senses had vanished, and her body had been lost. What was
present was her consciousness alone—it felt like her consciousness was
floating in the sky.
Perhaps this was what it felt like to have one’s fickle soul cast into the
water by its lonesome? In spite of this mysterious circumstance, Emilia felt
no sense of danger as she strove to slowly grasp the situation.
Her nonexistent brain seemed to understand this place posed no danger
and that her mind here was able to have such realizations.
Her surroundings were dark. A space of nothing save darkness spread
forth, within which Emilia’s body did not exist.
That she did not lose herself even so was due to the multiple lights that
were floating in the darkness.
These faint lights of various colors were hovering around Emilia.
The glow they emitted resembled that of lesser spirits, but Emilia felt no
life force coming from these lights. They were inorganic; perhaps they were
closer to magical crystals that gave off light? Either way, she and the lights
were the only things in that world.
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“ ”
They continued swimming in that space, with nothing moving but the
flow of time—Nay, in that circumstance, she could not firmly grasp whether
even time was flowing or not.
The Witch who normally served as a guide had not appeared. In the
darkness, Emilia hesitated over the unchanging situation into which she had
been cast.
—The situation being what it was, her consciousness naturally ended up
drawn to the lights.
“ ”
Selecting a silver-colored one from the multitude of lights, Emilia was just
a tiny bit apprehensive when she tried to touch it. The very notion of touching
assumed you had a body in the first place. Was that even possible here?
—Rather than ponder, it was faster to try it and see.
Reaching that conclusion, Emilia immediately tried it out. Her
consciousness overlapped with the light, and this indeed was not touch. It felt
more like she was intermingling with it—
“Hate, hate, I hate you. I really hate you. Really. All of it is true. Always,
since the moment I met you…I have hated you. I cannot stand the sight of
you.”
The instant she came into contact with the light, a voice echoed directly
into her consciousness. Simultaneously, a powerful, reddish scene leaped
toward her.
She’d switched spaces, and a moment she had never witnessed played out
before her.
The sun was unnaturally large. Smoke was rising from the scorched
plains, and standing right beside an enormous, decrepit structure, bathed
directly in the scarlet sunlight, was a silver-haired girl marred with blood—
Emilia.
The grown-up version of herself she had only just seen in the second Trial
was standing there, blood-ridden.
“I’ve thought this many times, and I’ve denied it many times…but the
nightmare truly has come, so I will say it.”
A smile came over her bloodied face. It was a smile toward the person she
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hated most in that world.
“Perhaps it is true—we should never have met.”
At the corner of one of her purple eyes, a tear formed a single line as it
gently fell.
The drop coursed down her cheek, and just before it fell from her chin
onto the blood-marred ground, the world burst apart and vanished.
“—!”
Her consciousness, lacking a body, could not draw in its breath. All she
could do was endure the desperate urge to do so with all her might.
As Emilia returned to the darkness once more, she found herself in a
world with nothing but her consciousness and the lights floating around her.
What was that blood-ridden Emilia in the scene she saw beyond the light
just then?
Thus far, she had seen her own appearance only twice, but she had
definitely seen herself in that moment. The problem was that she had no
recollection of anything like that ever happening. Or perhaps that was some
kind of future that would never exist?
—No, Emilia instinctively thought.
Calming her chaotic consciousness, Emilia searched within her memories,
turning back toward the very beginning.
The Trials had always indicated at the start what the challenger was to
accomplish.
In the first, it was, First, face your past.
In the second, it was, Behold the unknowable present.
And this third time—it was, Face the calamity that shall come.
The calamity that shall come— Did that mean it was the future?
The Trials first showed a past linked to one’s greatest regret; then they
showed a present that did not and could not exist; last, the challenger was
shown a future she would inevitably have to confront head-on. These were
the entirety of the Trials the tomb had prepared for her.
Would that future, of a place enveloped with some kind of twilight, a
future where she would tearfully hate someone, actually come to pass one
day…?
“ ”
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After a time, neither accepting nor rejecting it, Emilia’s thoughts were
interrupted as she realized something.
The light Emilia had touched earlier was gone, leaving only a palpable
void. Even so, the lights numbered twenty, so there were still plenty to go.
This was the moment she suddenly grasped the meaning behind the
phenomenon.
The lights. Each and every one of the lights hovering in the darkness was
a future that awaited Emilia.
This Trial probably would not come to an end until she had witnessed
them all.
—Were the futures she would bear witness to all different from one
another? Or would they be continuations of the one she just visited?
The answer would come once she touched another light and saw its future.
When she moved to the next light over from the blank space, it became a
clear blue passage, like an azure sky—
“It’s just like you said. That kid’s our enemy, and our wounds run deep. I
can’t use healing magic, so even if we back out now, I might not be able to
save you.”
“Then…”
“But that kid’s still a kid—Isn’t this enough?”
The scene differed from the one before, with two figures standing atop
sheer cliffs with a commanding view.
One of them had his back turned toward the deep forest behind him—she
could not see his face. But she remembered his voice.
It was one of the people closest to her. Perhaps not as much as the other
person, but she definitely remembered him…
The person atop the opposite cliff was on one knee, and as he knelt in this
position, he was looking down at the other. Though she could not see his
expression, Emilia could tell both of them were making terribly melancholic
faces.
“You’re…you’re a hero. You can’t be…anything but a hero…!!”
“I…”
“Thank you…for saving me, damn it!!”
When the other figure reached out with his hand, the figure with his back
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turned lobbed words of gratitude his way.
—It was a parting of nigh-unbearable sadness. It was a moment of parting
marred by indelible despair.
“ ”
The projection had run its course. She returned to the world of darkness.
She had…pathos and melancholy both. But more than that, she held a
question toward this Trial.
She did not see herself anywhere within the world she had just visited.
Neither of the people in that place was Emilia. She could guess who they
were, but why had she witnessed a scene, a future without her?
Was she being shown a “future” that was the result of her own choices?
Then how was she supposed to face the calamity that would inevitably
come?
“ ”
Amid that silence, the blue light vanished. Just like the initial silver light,
a void had been born. Nearly twenty more lights continued to surround
Emilia.
—Awaiting within each and every one was a tragic future that was the
result of her choices.
Determined to accept them all, she stretched her consciousness toward the
next one.
In one future after another, Emilia’s choices, and the calamity they would
invariably bring about, awaited her.
“—without that, have you not even a sword to swing, you damn thief?!”
“Subaru and Emilia are both tired, right? Sorry. And yet, even I’ve
become a burden on you. I always, always wanted to say I’m sorry for never
measuring up…”
“Mm, mm… My granddaughter, my pride and joy…has grown to be…a
good child…”
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As she touched the variously colored lights, Emilia continued to see
different futures.
“Sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t kill you because I’m weak. Sorry. Even so, I’ll
keep you to myself—for all eternity. I’m sorry I’m so weak…”
“What, you feel like this is fulfilling your promise? If so…then you should
have left me to die wrapped in a mat in that cave! If… If you were going to
show me a dawn like this, it should all have ended there! Damn it! Damn it
all!”
“I absolutely will not allow you to die for some nonsensical reason like a
curse!”
There were wails. There were angry shouts. In different forms, they
indicated endings, renewals, meetings, and partings.
“Oh look, I won again.”
“To think someone I want to kill this much turned out to be such a gentle
person…what a nightmare.”
“You have bent your knees before irresistible despair, and you have lost
even your sword… Just what is it you still cling to?”
She asked herself whether the things awaiting her, the futures at which she
would arrive, were not some kind of mistake.
“Am I really that greedy? Do I really ask so much? I just don’t want to be
alone. I don’t want to become alone… Is that so hard to understand?”
“I’ll kill you, just as I promised!! Got that, Subaru Natsukiiiiii?!!”
Was there really nothing but despair in these futures? Was there anything
beyond the sadness, beyond the suffering?
“I merely realized something… The days I’ve spent until now were by no
means days I walked aloooone.”
“In the end, ’twould seem we must atone with every last drop of our
blood, does it not?”
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What had gone wrong? Did she wish for the wrong things?
She was being shown untold tragedies and calamities. Amid that deluge of
despair, which was enough to make her want to cry, she came to doubt
everything she had done. If all that awaited the end of her journey was
tragedy, that was simply—
“—I believe praying for one’s desires is arrogance. Prayer is for seeking
forgiveness.”
In the future of the final light, a girl her waking self should never have set
eyes upon spoke those words.
It was not fleeting enough to be hopeful and too bold to be despairing. Her
nonexistent pulse quickened.
After all, she’d seen nothing, nothing but sad, agonizing futures in all that
time.
She thought if a certain boy was with her, they could speak together and
laugh about the futures they hoped for.
Even if all that awaited her were worlds of tragedy, she felt in her heart
that if she could at least have that much—
—When her vision opened up, Emilia was standing right in the middle of
grass rustling in the wind.
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She had arrived immediately after the darkness, and the continually
switching worlds had stopped. At first, Emilia thought she was being shown
yet another future—but she immediately realized this was something else.
“I have actual hands and feet…and my voice is coming out. So this must
be…”
Clenching both hands into fists, Emilia confirmed she possessed physical
flesh. Then she surveyed her surroundings, realizing this grassland was
unfamiliar and the presence of a little hill right behind her. Atop the hill, a
large parasol was spread; naturally, this drew her to go closer.
Climbing up the hill, she found a white table and chairs under the parasol,
and the faint whiff of warm tea wafted in the air. Naturally, she surmised
Echidna might be here, so Emilia was on guard, but—
“No one’s here?”
There were six chairs arranged by the round table. Set atop the table were
confections and cups, equal in number to the chairs, leaving the distinct sense
that she had shown up right before some kind of tea party. Yet, it seemed as
if everything had been abandoned midway without even cleaning up, leaving
nothing of the participants but empty seats.
“ ”
When she touched a cup, which still had some tea in it, she felt a faint
trace of warmth—it felt like anyone would be shaken if they saw what Emilia
was up to.
“Echidna was having tea with someone. And then?”
She understood as much already, but for a dead person, Echidna sure had
considerable freedom of action in this place. She was amazed that beyond her
work as the administrator of the Trials, she’d go as far as to invite her guests
to tea.
Here, the dead—or their ghosts—were, to the greatest extent, free.
Deeply moved by that fact, Emilia reached a hand toward one of the
sweets without particular thought—
“—You might be trying to act like a Witch, but put so much as a finger on
those, and you’ll regret it.”
“—?!”
Shocked by the unfamiliar voice suddenly calling out to her from behind,
Emilia tried to instantly turn around—and her shock deepened further, for a
finger touch to the back of her head rendered her body completely immobile.
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“…Ah.”
It wasn’t that she was being restrained by force—she was held in place by
the sheer overwhelming pressure.
The person standing right behind Emilia was a being beyond her
comprehension. Gleaning this just from her aura and the touch of her finger,
Emilia felt her entire body rapidly go numb.
She sensed if she turned around, or at the slightest whim of the person
behind her, she would be instantly and utterly annihilated.
“Good girl. You are correct not to look back. For I…”
“Y-you are…?”
“I am, well, you know—A Witch so terrifying, she makes every hair on
your body stand on end.”
Witch—that single word entwined tightly around Emilia’s heart, making it
even harder to breathe.
Emilia, often slandered as a Witch because of her appearance, had
complex feelings where the term was concerned. However, even so, the being
she was standing in front of seemed completely beyond all her
preconceptions.
Were all the beings worthy of being called true Witches shrouded in such
immense miasma?
“…Hmph, I guess that’s that, then. It really is the boy with the foul look
in his eyes who’s the strange one.”
“Foul…look? Are you…talking about Subaru?”
“Heh…”
Letting out a snort, the Witch admired Emilia’s ability to wring out her
voice.
“The instant you hear that boy’s name, you perk up? That’s marvelous,
but you don’t really have a good grasp of the situation, do you? And…and
what do you think of that boy anyway?”
“Subaru told me he loves me… He’s a very precious boy to me, but…”
“O-oh…? Heh, hmm, so that’s it. Well, really it’s all the same to me!”
To Emilia, it was not at all clear why she would dismiss with ragged
breath the question she herself had just posed.
However, at the same time, she felt her fear toward the Witch at her back
faintly diminish.
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She did not know the reason. Perhaps she could simply tell the being was
not impervious to dialogue.
Relying upon that sense, Emilia swallowed once; then, hardening her will,
she began to speak.
“You’re a Witch, aren’t you…? Does that mean you’re one of the friends
Echidna spoke of?”
“Hmph. It’s not like that girl ever called us frie… Wait, I bet she did! And
with a smug face, too, I’m sure!”
“I don’t know about a smug look…but if you’re here, where’s Echidna?”
In the first place, Echidna had been in a foul mood every time she’d come
into contact with Emilia. Therefore, she felt when Echidna had let slip about
her “friends,” it hadn’t been with pride or with a boastful face at all.
Hearing Emilia’s reply, the Witch went, “Now hold on,” the tone of her
voice lowering just a bit. “She said she doesn’t want to meet you. It looked
like she had a pretty rough time in the Trials.”
“…It seems that way. Echidna seemed really hurt the last time I met her.”
Emilia couldn’t forget the hatred that filled Echidna’s voice and
expression at the end of the second Trial.
If that was truly the last time she would speak with Echidna, Emilia would
be left with terrible regret.
Even so, the relationship between Emilia and Echidna had been one of
accepting the results head-on without anyone else’s intervention. Even if
Emilia ended up being hated, she wanted to take responsibility for her
choices.
“It’s not that she doesn’t care. It’s that she’s accepted the results… You’re
quite admirable, you know. Even though that rascal said nothing but mean
things to you…”
“That’s because Echidna spoke with me. I find it much harder to deal with
the people who won’t talk to me. If I could, I’d love to face you and talk with
you, too, but…”
“—You absolutely cannot do that. If you do that, my fists, which have let
so many people die, will cry out.”
She spoke in a hard voice, but it was one that betrayed no hint of
fabrication. Goose bumps broke out over Emilia once more.
The Witch’s words truly did carry the weight of having let a great many
people die. That weight remained as the Witch led off by saying, “One really
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should fulfill her duty, though. Echidna tossed the duty of administrator
away, so I am taking it up in her place—What did you see in the third Trial?”
“I saw…many sad worlds. The voice said this was the calamity that would
inevitably come. Are these…? Will everything I’ve seen really happen? Are
they really the future?”
“In Echidna’s view, it is possible they might happen.”
The Witch made a heavy sigh as she replied to the question Emilia
harbored. It was close to confirmation, yet vague enough that one could not
say for sure. If they had been mere fabrications, it would have been easier on
her heart, but…
“The futures you saw could all come true one day. Or you might not see a
single one happen ever. However, they are not fabrications. That girl is very
fair about these kinds of things. Well, the fact that she showed you only
futures that’d leave a bad taste in your mouth is definitely because she has a
bone to pick with you.”
“Fair, but… Echidna is a really naughty girl, isn’t she?”
“Does naughty even cover it…?”
The Witch offered a wry comment in response to Emilia’s assessment of
Echidna but said no more of the matter.
Also, from Emilia’s perspective, the current Witch’s explanation was
good news.
“Why do you seem so relieved?”
“Eh?”
“I’m asking, how can you act relieved after what you just heard? That’s
strange, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve been shown nothing but terrible futures, yet,
in spite of that…”
“But they’re not certain, right?”
Emilia had seen nothing but tragedies. It had been an unrelenting series of
lamentations and tears of blood.
It had been enough to make her question whether she was making the
right choices.
But—
“The futures I saw were a result of choices I’ve made. But there are also
futures that won’t turn out that way. Now that I know that, I’ll be okay. I can
clench my fists and fight.”
“ ”
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“Someone really insisted that I have to do that, you see.”
They might have all been painful futures, but even then there was still
hope. That was what she had learned.
If Emilia seemed ready to falter, her memories of her parents and her
older brother would sustain her. And if she was ever inclined to give up, the
feelings scribbled on those walls would ignite a fire in her heart.
“If sad futures await, I’ll run around them. If that doesn’t work, I’ll leap
over them with all my might. If people have fallen along the way, I’ll pull
them up. If I keep doing those things, I’m sure I’ll wipe away all those tears
from before.”
“You say that so full of confidence, so recklessly… You might end up
broken in no time flat.”
“If it was just me, maybe—but I’m not alone.”
Emilia puffed her chest out in response to the Witch’s provocation.
Just as in the past and present, Emilia surely wouldn’t be alone in the
future. And she had a large group of dependable people around her.
That wasn’t to say it was good to blindly depend on them.
But if they relied on her, and she on them, they would be together always.
Even as she depended on others, Emilia would develop her own self-
reliance.
It was a choice she could never have made before, what with her lacking
confidence and fear of the future.
“…You’re strong. That part of you isn’t like your mother at all.”
“—! You know my mother?”
The unexpected connection surprised Emilia, leaving her voice slightly
hoarse. Her reaction made the Witch hesitate for a time, after which she let
out her breath.
“Yes, I know her well. But I will say nothing of her—I’ve promised not
to.”
“ ”
The depth of emotion and the echo of unhealed wounds infused into the
Witch’s voice made Emilia’s words catch in her throat.
If she was honest, she did want to know about her mother. But…
“Mm, I understand. I won’t ask anything, then.”
“…You’re fine with that?”
“I can tell it isn’t that you don’t want to tell me. It’s that you can’t.
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Besides…”
For a moment, she paused and closed her eyes and pictured her mother.
“My mother…is Fortuna. The Trials helped me remember her. That’s
plenty for me.”
In her younger days, she was proud of having had two mothers. Even in
the present, she might be able to say she had two—no, three fathers. Even so
—
“I remembered Mom, I remembered Dad, and I remembered my big
brother and everyone in the forest. That’s plenty… This was all because of
Echidna’s Trials, so…”
“I see… So even that girl’s… Even Echidna’s wicked deeds result in
something good once in a while…”
As Emilia touched a hand to her chest and reminisced about her family,
the Witch’s voice seemed to almost crack for a moment. Perhaps Emilia had
misheard, but it sounded like a sob.
“…Could it be that you’re…crying?”
“…! I’m not…crying! I don’t cry. I don’t have the right to cry…not
anymore.”
“No one needs a right to…”
Cry, Emilia was about to say as she turned, wanting to wipe away the
Witch’s tears.
She no longer felt the grand, overwhelming presence that had dominated
her first meeting with the Witch. She wanted to stand with her on equal
footing.
But when Emilia tried to turn to face her, the Witch—
“—Mnfff!”
As Emilia turned, an arm wrapped around her head, holding her face close
against something soft. She immediately realized she had been pulled into a
hug.
Her face was pinned against the Witch’s chest, completely preventing her
from moving.
“I told you…not turning was the right choice. What a badly behaved girl
you are.”
“…You hate the idea of me seeing you cry that much?”
“I don’t want you to see me at all! I can’t face anyone with… Ahhh, good
grief! If only Echidna had taken care of things properly! And Sekhmet, and
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Daphne, and Typhon, and Carmilla, too!”
The Witch’s yelling made her ears tremble. It sounded like angry
shouting, but it wasn’t. Emilia felt undiluted love for each of the unfamiliar
names spoken by her.
“Are you…done crying?”
“I’m angry; my tears dried up. But now I just feel indignant. I’m so
furious, every hair on my head is shaking.”
“That’s really scary.”
“I’m serious. We’re done here.”
Her voice was gentle. Emilia could feel no anger from it. But something
happened that proved her words were no lie.
As the Witch hugged Emilia against her chest, Emilia realized a change
had arisen in the place right behind her—where a tea party should have been
set up—as a powerful wind blew through the space.
“That is the way out of Echidna’s castle. Turn and walk forward, and you
will be able to go back.”
“ ”
“You don’t have time to hang around in a place like this, do you? You…
you still have things you need to do. Why not try taking the first step?”
She felt the Witch’s voice right above her head fade. There was warmth
within the arms hugging her and a faintly audible heartbeat coming from the
chest her head rested against—which was strange, given that the Witch was
dead.
“…Hey, are you listening to me?”
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“Eh, ah, I’m sorry. I felt oddly calm just now…”
“That part of you is so…”
“—?”
I made her angry, thought Emilia, but the Witch’s words softened. They
felt nostalgic for some reason.
Before she could press the point, the Witch declared, “Okay, time to go!”
“Wah!”
“Walk straight forward. With this, the Trials have ended… The barrier
will open.”
Something grasped Emilia’s head and turned it right around with such
swiftness and precision that she never got a look at the Witch’s face—
Instead, what she saw before her was a single door.
Standing right there atop the hill between her and the tea-party
preparations was a door all by its lonesome.
“If I…leave through there…”
The Trials would end, and the barrier would be lifted. These were the
results that Emilia had sought.
Then, whether they liked it or not, a choice would be forced upon the
residents of the Sanctuary. She did not know how many of the people
gathered in the clearing would leave in the very end. Nor did she know if
doing so would bring uncertainty to their lives or if all this was truly in their
best interests.
But just as Subaru had told Garfiel, Emilia had something to tell them,
too.
Time was ever in motion. And amid that passage of time, everyone
needed to come to terms with themselves.
And if no solution presented itself, Emilia wanted to join with them and
search for one together.
If pulling people by the hand or pushing them forward was too difficult,
she could still walk with them side by side.
—Even though she was unreliable, gutless, and had only barely begun to
demonstrate she was suited for the throne.
“It’s fine.”
“ ”
Emilia had not voiced any of the swirling emotions in her chest. Despite
that, the Witch’s affirmation carried power.
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“Mm, thank you. I think that’s how I prefer to live anyway.”
After smoothing out her silver hair, Emilia stepped forward. That she did
not turn around, never seeing the Witch’s face to the very end, was her way
of respecting the Witch’s will.
She no longer felt any of the fear that came unbidden when first
encountering the Witch. She simply puffed out her chest and walked with
pride.
Then, when she moved her hand toward the door leading outside, she said
the thought that suddenly came to mind.
“Hey, Miss Witch. If you run into Echidna, can you tell her something for
me?”
“What is it?”
“If we meet again, next time, let’s have tea together. Even if she haunts
my dreams, I’m sure I’ll welcome her—If possible, I’d like to have it with
you and the other Witches, too.”
“—!”
For a moment, Emilia’s request made the Witch hesitate. And then—
“Yes, I’ll tell her exactly that. And if she doesn’t like it, I’ll grab her by
the scruff of her neck and drag her along anyway!”
The Witch confidently spoke those words with conviction. The tone of her
voice made plain that she was being quite serious.
Emilia smiled pleasantly as she received the reply. She pushed the door
open, stepping into the unfolding darkness beyond.
She did not hesitate. Emilia understood precisely where it led.
—Having overcome her past and selected the present, this was the door
that continued into the future.
When she awoke from the Trials, it felt different than coming out of sleep.
Her body had not been sleeping; rather, her soul had been separated from
her body. With the soul split from the body, and the consciousness remaining
awake, one might say it was natural that it would feel different.
If she was sleeping normally, Emilia, never a morning person, would have
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been in peril of losing precious time. In the past, she had Puck, but she would
have to deal with such things herself thereafter.
“…Ah, oh no. It feels like I’m about to cry.”
Clenching her teeth, Emilia shook her head, as if to ward off the sense of
loss she had yet to recover from. From there, she rose to her feet, stroked the
writing on the wall with her palm—and then turned her gaze toward the back
of the stone room.
The stone room in which the Trial was conducted, one she had already
passed through several times over, had another door at the back leading
farther in. It had been firmly closed and seemed completely impassable. Yet,
now—
“…It’s open. Is this saying, Come on in?”
The Witch atop the hill had said going through the door would lift the
barrier. But though the tomb had changed, Emilia did not see any sign that
the barrier had been lifted.
Yet, at the same time, she felt something else: In a true sense, what
awaited deeper within was the key to lifting that barrier.
“I mustn’t get all worried. Anyway, I’ll go, see, and do. Okay, let’s go.”
Pushing back against the faint unease in her chest, Emilia spurred herself
on and passed through the door.
Inside was a path that was more cramped than the one that led from the
entrance to the stone room, which Emilia could pass through because of her
relatively low stature. It was not long until she arrived at a new stone room.
This was a little chamber substantially smaller than the one in which the
Trials had been conducted. The other stone room had by no means been
large, but a scant two of the large beds from Roswaal Manor would have left
no legroom whatsoever.
But such stray thoughts vanished as soon as she saw what was placed in
the center of the room.
To Emilia’s eyes, it looked like a coffin.
The coffin was transparent, probably made from magic crystals of some
sort. The purity was so high, it made her shudder from a single glance,
rivaling—or even exceeding—that of the stone Puck had used as his icon.
Within the coffin constructed from magic crystals of such abnormal
composition rested a single woman—naturally, she was not breathing. Her
pallid face bore no signs of vitality; this was an empty shell devoid of life.
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She had long, glossy hair as pure as any snow. Her skin was reminiscent
of porcelain, and her face was so lovely that just seeing it was enchanting.
Her torso and limbs were covered in a dress that seemed pitch-black, making
her a woman of black and white, the extremes of the world, with her ethereal
beauty unmarred by anything extraneous.
Without thinking, Emilia let a sigh of admiration trickle from her lips.
If she looked in a mirror, she would be greeted by one of the beauties of
the age, but Emilia had little appreciation for her own face. However, her
heart was now trembling from the immaculate beauty of the woman before
her.
It was a face she had met many times over in the Trials, that of the Witch
of Greed—
“—She looks like Echidna, but who is this?”
—Though reminiscent of the Witch, Emilia had never seen this woman
before.
“ ”
Accompanied by faint surprise, Emilia’s thoughts strayed from the coffin
as she surveyed the room’s interior. It was a cramped room. She hardly
needed to look around to tell the coffin was the only notable object within.
There was no sign of a door or a path leading deeper. This was the innermost
part of the tomb—the room in which its mistress ought to have been laid to
rest.
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90 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“And yet, this isn’t Echidna…but she does resemble her. An older sister,
maybe?”
Her memories of the Witch’s appearance were still fresh; there were many
commonalities between her and this woman. With her eyelids closed, her
face, from her eyes to the bridge of her nose down to her lips, seemed
constructed in a similar fashion. But in contrast to Echidna, who looked to be
in the latter half of her teens, this woman was old enough to be in her
midtwenties—though there seemed no doubt they were connected by blood.
“It’s really weird for an older sister to be resting here even though it’s
Echidna’s tomb, but…”
With no other conclusions coming to mind, Emilia tilted her head at the
mysteriousness of it.
Then she tilted her head further as she noticed the ritual that spread
throughout the entirety of the tomb, with this coffin as its center.
“Ah…,” she went, her voice slipping out unconsciously. Both the scale of
the ritual and the level of its complexity were impressive. Accordingly,
Emilia was certain this was the key to the barrier constructed in the
Sanctuary.
“Incredible… It’s amazing; I don’t have any idea what to do…”
Though she was a spirit mage, Emilia strove to have a decent
understanding of magic beyond her specialty. However, the complexity of the
ritual before her eyes was far beyond anything like the fundamentals that
Emilia was familiar with.
If it was stopped once, it would never activate again—of course, there was
no need to do so regardless…
“This. If I stop the flow here, that should break it…”
Touching a hand against the coffin, Emilia found the core of the precisely
crafted ritual. It matched up with where the woman sleeping in the coffin
folded her hands over her chest—that was the nucleus.
For one brief moment, she hesitated. If she broke the ritual, the barrier
would be lifted, and the tomb, bereft of its duty, would become dormant. If
that happened, she would lose her only means of going to the tea party as
well as all leads about the Witch who knew her mother—
“…That has nothing to do with any of this!”
Emilia slammed a fist against the coffin, seemingly to drive her hesitance
away.
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That instant, the core of the ritual shattered, and cracks spread across the
crystalline lid of the coffin like a spider’s web.
The shattering of the core made the flow of mana go completely out of
control, sending a torrent of dazzling light surging within the room. This light
disturbed the serene atmosphere, making Emilia’s silver hair glimmer, before
finally, it suddenly vanished.
The tomb’s functions had come to a halt—that was what Emilia read from
the shift in the air.
“This time, it’s over… Mm, it has to be.”
There was no change visible to the eye. Yet, something was unmistakably
different. Clenching her teeth, Emilia was certain that the room had become a
simple resting place for a coffin—that the tomb itself had become a mere
structure.
With this, the barrier imprisoning the residents of the Sanctuary was gone.
The choice whether to accept that result and live outside the Sanctuary was
now theirs.
Of course, with Roswaal’s support at her back, Emilia intended to respect
the decision the people made, no matter who they might be—
“Come to think of it, Roswaal mentioned a teacher… Is this person his
teacher?”
Roswaal had spoken the word when he’d directed biting sarcasm and
ferocious insults at Emilia just prior to her challenging the tomb. He’d said,
in the beginning, it was just him and his teacher. She didn’t know any details
about what it was the two of them had started.
But if he meant the Sanctuary itself, the ties between this woman and
Roswaal ran deep.
“On that note, I need to speak to everyone…to Ram and Roswaal
especially.”
The woman in the coffin was secondary. Her top priority was to tell
everyone the fact that the barrier had been lifted and to get the people
remaining in the Sanctuary out—Subaru hadn’t explained the fine details, but
he had said this was necessary.
And that probably had something to do with Roswaal’s odd behavior. She
needed to hurry.
Turning, Emilia slipped through the passage with urgent steps, heading
through the stone room on her way outside. The people of the Sanctuary and
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Earlham Village should have still been in the clearing, with Ryuzu and Milde
representing them.
Then, as Emilia raced out of the tomb—
“—Eh?”
—the skin-stabbing cold and the ferociously blowing snow covering the
Sanctuary made Emilia let out a white breath.
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CHAPTER 5
I LOVE YOU DOWN TO YOUR BLOOD AND GUTS
The scent of smoke and fire filling his nostrils stole Garfiel’s attention for
only an instant.
He had a vague awareness of scorching heat in the distance. Slowly but
surely, the burning was spreading, which meant the fire was gradually
consuming the mansion. Just who had unleashed it?
“Getting distracted again?”
Not letting a single moment of stagnancy slip by, Elsa closed in and
swung, pursuing Garfiel with her blade.
Seeking to take his life as the price of looking away was a rather greedy
thing, even more so where Garfiel, onetime apostle of the Witch of Greed,
was concerned.
But having severed all ties with the Witch of Greed, he was unmoved by
such avarice.
“As if!!”
“That’s too bad.”
Once more, Garfiel caught a slashing knife by his fangs before biting
down and shattering it.
Having lost her weapon to the power of his jaws, Elsa instantly let go of
the handle and leaped backward. Garfiel remained planted at a medium
distance as she put a fresh kukri into her hand, tilting her head.
“You pretended to be distracted. Quite an actor you are. Or perhaps that
was an invitation?”
“You don’t need to make every single thing ya say suggestive… Would
ya stop playin’ dumb already?”
“—? Hmm? About what…?”
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The smile on Elsa’s glossy lips only deepened Garfiel’s suspicions. From
her reaction, he concluded there was no connection between Elsa and the fire.
The time they’d spent together in mortal combat had established she wasn’t
one to rely on trickery or seduction.
In that case, the chance that someone on his side was responsible for the
fire—probably spawning from one of Subaru’s plans—was high.
“That’s pretty extreme…but it sure as hell is effective. Way to go,
General!”
“I am a little unsure what this is about, but don’t you put a little too much
stock in him?”
“Ha, save the sour grapes. I told ya, those demon beasts standin’ in the
way ain’t no match for the general! Piece of cake!”
If Subaru was the mastermind behind the fire, the objective was probably
to drive off the demon beasts. Whether the proposal came from Subaru or
Otto, it was exactly the kind of thing they would resort to.
Demon beasts feared fire, too. They’d probably succeeded in securing the
escape route. Which meant—
“If I smash ya flat, that’ll complete our victory!”
“You certainly talk a good game—isn’t that easier said than done,
though?”
As Garfiel psyched himself up, a bloody smile hovered in his field of
vision as Elsa’s form grew indistinct.
As she entered the realm of pure speed in a single step, Garfiel opted to
lower his stance and charge as well. With the space between them gone in a
single instant, the two collided in the middle of the corridor—
“—!!”
—or rather, just before they were to do so, one kicked off the ceiling and
the other from the floor as both respectively bounded away from that place.
The next moment, the wall facing the courtyard was destroyed by an
impact that seemed to make the entire building shudder. The impact had
struck the first-floor-turned-battlefield, but clearly the floor above was not
spared as it began to cave in.
All this was due to the enormous, boulder-like demon beast that had so
grandly crashed into the building.
Naturally, the appearance of a beast so huge that it shocked the
imagination was an unexpected development even to Garfiel. This was
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followed by something more unexpected still—a cutesy voice levying
objections from atop the mass of boulders.
“Awww, I can’t believe you’re doing this! Stand up, Rock Piggie!
Quick!!”
“Ahhh? Some runt’s ridin’ that thing?”
The rambunctious voice he heard coming from atop the beast left Garfiel
with a grimace. When he looked closer, there was a girl with blue hair in a
braid straddling the back of the mass of boulders—so this was the Beast
Master in the flesh?
And the reason this Beast Master was intruding here was—
“Garf! So this is where you were!”
“Sis?!”
With a flourish, a blond maid—Frederica—slipped through the shattered
wall and landed in the half-destroyed corridor. The reunion with Frederica,
who was supposedly fleeing, made Garfiel rush over, eyes bulging.
“What the hell are ya still doin’ here?! What happened to Ram’s sis, the
general, and the rest?!”
“I fulfilled the duty entrusted to me. You understand the reason I
remained behind, don’t you?”
Seeing Frederica close one eye as she spoke these words shut Garfiel right
up.
He could see a number of wounds Frederica had sustained. Of course he
could. In keeping the Beast Master at bay, she must have taken on countless
demon beasts in the process.
Unlike Garfiel, who’d trained and trained as he kept struggling to become
stronger, his elder sister had no doubt spent many days that had nothing to do
with fighting. Just how deeply had this battle cut into his sister’s flesh and
bones?
“…Don’t make such a pathetic face.”
Noticing Garfiel’s gloomy expression, Frederica landed an open-palm
chop right on his wide-open forehead. Though it didn’t hurt, Garfiel let out a
reflexive “ow,” glaring at his older sister.
“Garf, I understand you are being considerate, but I, too, am a servant of
the Mathers family… For better or worse, I have had the fundamentals of
self-defense drilled into me.”
“Ya say that but… Ah, then again, Ram’s damn strong. Aight, you’ve
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convinced me.”
“The fact that you chose her as the most relevant point of comparison puts
me in a slightly awkward position…”
Frederica put a hand to her forehead as she clacked her fangs, seeming a
little troubled. Perhaps it could be chalked up to them being siblings, but
Garfiel and Frederica were exactly alike in certain habits.
And apparently, Garfiel and Frederica weren’t the only ones around with
this kind of relationship.
“Meili, are you all right? I hope you’re safe, but I do wish you didn’t
interfere.”
“Sheesh, Elsa, you’re so self-centered! The main reason I have to work
this hard is because you ran off ahead! You’d better reflect on that!”
“Once we’re done here, I’ll make it up to you—now, do your job.”
Elsa’s reply made Meili pout as she obediently got to work. The moment
the young girl clapped her hands, the boulder-like creature instantly swung its
body around and then slowly turned its head toward Garfiel and Frederica.
Garfiel sensed other demon beasts drawing near from both inside and
outside the mansion. She truly was a Beast Master.
However, Elsa quizzically cocked her head to the side with a questioning
look.
“The number of demon beasts seems rather low…”
“The big maid nailed a bunch of them before we got here! Besides, the
mansion’s been set on fire. On top of that, it seems like the shadow lion
died.”
Meili, answering Elsa’s question with a sour look on her face, continued:
“It was a rare one that obeyed me despite still having its horn, but its short
temper was the flaw in that jewel. And it failed me right when I needed it
most…!”
“I have trouble understanding why you brought such a difficult demon
beast along to begin with.”
“Because no one else could keep the others in line! …Anyway, Elsa, what
about your opponent?”
Looking down at the corridor from atop the demon beast, Meili caught
sight of Garfiel. “Hmm,” she went, letting out a breath of deep interest with a
passionate smile that was extremely strange for a girl of her age on numerous
levels.
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“Elsa has her eyes on you, Mr. Scary Face. You poor, poor thing.”
“If it’s a nasty face you want, there’s no topping the general. So what, you
sisters gonna come at me together?”
Garfiel’s reply earned him a look of surprise not only on Meili’s face but
Elsa’s as well.
They weren’t shocked at being called sisters. Certainly, the two didn’t
seem connected by blood. The pair might have been similar in appearance,
but it was far more difficult to claim a family resemblance.
But they were most definitely sisters—that was what Garfiel’s intuition
told him.
“Sisters? Yes, I suppose you’re right… So now that we have sisters
gathered on one side and siblings on the other, I think it’s time we got back to
business. Don’t you?”
Standing beside the demon beast, Elsa posed the question as she pointed
the tip of her kukri toward him.
With a quick glance, Garfiel checked on Frederica’s state as she stood
beside him. Her breathing was ragged, her face was pale from blood loss, and
her visible wounds were, on average, ones that could not simply be shrugged
off.
“Garf.”
Noticing his gaze, Frederica called out to him. Garfiel could not help but
force out a smile at the emotions infused within her simple mention of his
name—Don’t be disappointed in me, Frederica’s gaze begged.
Quietly, Garfiel stepped forward—this was where everything would be
settled.
“The mansion’s on fire, we got a horde o’ demon beasts outside, and my
older sister behind me is tryin’ to put up a strong front, as battered as she is.”
“—?”
“Got a bunch of people I gotta save and some powerful enemies whose
teeth I gotta kick in. The general said he’s counting on me. And the girl I love
chewed me out real good, too.”
“What in the world is Mr. Scary Face getting at…?”
“Ain’t it obvious?!”
Strangely, Elsa and Meili both had their heads tilted at the exact same
angle. In contrast to their questioning looks, Garfiel clacked his fangs with a
radiant look on his face.
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“With a situation like this, what man in the world wouldn’t be burnin’
up?! It’s time to do this! This is basically before the Dragon, Sword Saint
Reid drew his sword and laughed!”
“That’s an idiom for someone who’s seriously messed up in the head, you
know?”
“Yeah, and? I’m about to take on the both of ya, so how’s that the wrong
thing to say?”
Garfiel bluntly acknowledged the level of his own recklessness.
Elsa blinked hard, temporarily at a loss. However, this lasted for only a
few moments.
Elsa broke into a smile as the light of madness flared in her eyes. She
licked her lips in anticipation.
“Yes. You’re absolutely right.”
Garfiel slammed his shields together as he prepared to face his eager
opponent.
“Wait a second, Elsa—have you already forgotten what we came here to
do? Mama’s gonna scold us.”
“I suppose so. You deal with the other one, then. I want to focus on this
child.”
“Boo. You always do this, asking me to do stuff at the drop of a hat. I
mean, really—”
Meili complained about how Elsa was abandoning the job, but before she
could finish her thought, Garfiel drove home why it was important to not get
distracted.
“—Oooaaah!”
Suddenly raising a battle cry, Garfiel poured his strength into the sole of
his foot. Instantly, it punched through the half-destroyed mansion and straight
into the ground, kicking up a square of soil. Thus, he launched it forward
with a tremendous kick.
“—?!”
Elsa dropped into a low stance that verged on crawling on all fours as she
evaded the hurtling missile of packed earth. But the boulder-like demon beast
behind her, unable to dodge as quickly with its enormous frame, sustained a
direct hit. The impact bowled it over, sending it spinning and crashing into
the wall.
“Ahhhhh!”
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Meili, who had been riding said demon beast, was thrown off it by the
sheer force. Elsa slid in to catch her just before she would have hit the ground
headfirst.
“G-Garf, what in the world did you do just now?”
“That’s the power of my blessing, As long as my feet are planted on the
ground, I can hit whatever I can see. I’ll say this only once: I won’t let ya
interfere with this fight. Not you, and not the little sister over there, either.”
Garfiel bared his fangs as he made his declaration. But the blessing of the
earth spirit wasn’t nearly as potent as he claimed.
Beyond heightening his healing abilities, his power was fully capable of
churning up the ground or causing it to cave in. However, the range of this
was limited to where his limbs could reach.
In other words, he was bluffing. But precisely because it was a bluff,
Garfiel smugly smiled. He had learned from Subaru and Otto these were the
times where a smile was absolutely necessary.
“—Meili. Leave the bare minimum outside to maintain the perimeter. Call
the others and rouse that demon beast over there.”
“…You’re gonna make Mama angry.”
Freed from Elsa’s arms, Meili murmured in a low voice. However, she
had already grasped that the situation didn’t leave them with many options.
Sighing, Meili blew a finger whistle.
She quietly waited as the shrill, high-pitched sound echoed throughout the
manor grounds. The demon beasts would be coming. A large force was on its
way, gathering to crush Garfiel and Frederica.
His lust for battle flared even brighter. His soul howled he could not lose
here.
“I will pluck your limbs off to lighten you and take you home with me. I
will love you longer than your cherished person.”
“Ain’t there even one option to make ya give up on the whole bowel
thing?”
Speaking in exasperation as he cracked his neck, Garfiel adopted a
forward-leaning stance as he prepared to intercept his foe.
Her upper body swaying, Elsa lowered both hands and let her kukri knives
fall to the floor. In their place, she held a pair of vile, malevolent blades—one
white, one black, both gleaming in the moonlight.
“Sis, just focus on protectin’ yourself.”
Then the corridor of the mansion exploded into a confused, chaotic battle,
a banquet of blood, flesh, and bloodlust.
“—!!”
When a green tail passed before his eyes, Garfiel opened his fangs and bit
down without a second thought.
Purple fluid sprayed, and the noxious liquid burned as it spattered across
his flesh. But he cared not. With a mighty swipe of his arm, he smashed both
of the two-headed snake’s skulls.
An instant later, malevolent death in the form of a curved blade grazed
just past the tip of his chin.
Following in the wake of that slash, a gust blew the remains of the ruined
demon beast away. After his momentary brush with death, Garfiel advanced
instead of giving ground, smacking the face of impending doom away.
Both his arms were spread out wide, catching his opponent by the torso
and flank. Her bones and viscera squelched as powerful hands twisted
wherever they found purchase.
“ ”
In his ears and before his eyes, a cacophony of bestial roars came from
every direction. Anguished cries, screams, and his own yells mixed together.
These overlapped with the sounds of metal crashing and scraping against
steel. Sound and light were so muddled that it was hard to tell what was even
happening.
But Garfiel didn’t care. The resistance he felt, his gnashing fangs, and the
bloody smile he caught glimpses of were all genuine.
The brute force of his attacks were making the killer before him spit
blood, staining her pleasant smile so much that it was more black than red.
Yet, even as she weathered those brutal attacks meant to rob her of life, the
pleasure never left the woman’s black eyes.
Garfiel instinctively felt that more than her combat ability, more than her
“—So thrilling.”
The woman, the murderess, the vampire, the Bowel Hunter was
completely and utterly crushed by the incredible mass.
Fresh blood splattered, mixing with the demon beast’s bodily fluids.
There was no sign of revival—only the aroma of death.
Garfiel let up a war cry, one that reached high into the sky, reverberating
throughout the burning and crumbling mansion.
—So ended the battle between the Bowel Hunter and the Sanctuary’s
Shield.
Despite what the dramatic display of colors may have implied, the conflict
unfolding was a highly advanced magical battle of precise technique.
With a staff swing, blades of wind were created and loosed at their target.
The invisible attack bore down on the intended victim’s legs with enough
force to slice apart steel. She had deliberately cast the spell out of sync with
her gaze and breathing, even adding in a feint attack for good measure. These
were—
“—!”
“Surely, this is not all you are caaaapable of?”
With great ease, her enemy—Roswaal—stopped the invisible attack with
a flick of his toes.
Seeing that happen and realizing the level of skill that was required to
make it possible made her throat freeze over. Dispelling magic by simply
stomping on it was a feat far easier said than done. With the tips of his toes,
Roswaal had rewritten the composition of the spell.
Through his Gate, he had altered the mana cast by another person without
interfering with their Gate directly. Performing such an act in the middle of a
battle with one’s life on the line was not the action of a sane person.
The one who had done this was Roswaal L. Mathers—famed magic user,
current lord of the House of Roswaal, and the man who still desired the title
of the greatest court magician of the age.
“Now I’ll send one right back at you.”
Speaking in a casual tone, Roswaal moved both his hands and his mouth
“—Guess we’re done buying time. Did that give your horn a breather?”
Puck’s words, spoken with a deft wink the moment before she leaped, left
Ram mentally clicking her tongue. She’d told him that she did not want him
to worry about her; the little cat proved a poor listener. What annoyed her
more than anything was the frailty of her own body that made the short rest
just now a lifesaver.
But what of it? She would never breathe a single word of complaint about
her body not being in tip-top condition.
What gave her any right to complain if she did not give it her all? If she
lost without her feelings ever reaching him, she could whine and make
excuses as much as she liked in the afterlife.
“—!! El Fulla!!”
Tightly clenching her teeth, she swallowed her frustration and readied her
staff. Timed with an explosion of the ground, she flew into the air, touching
her feet against a large tree’s trunk to invert her posture as she converted her
mana, unleashing it as blades of wind.
There was no lethal intent behind her attacks. However, even if she aimed
to kill, it would not have resulted in as much as a scratch regardless.
Roswaal’s response to the mighty blow was skilled and delicate. He
rewrote the composition of the incoming magic, disassembling the wind
blades into mere mana and capturing it with his own Gate to assign it a
When the wind relented, Roswaal, whose reactions had been slow, held his
breath, gritting his teeth at the spectacle.
Countless mirrors constructed of ice were floating in the air in the forest
around him. The reflections of light and landscapes that filled Roswaal’s field
of vision weakened his situational awareness on the battlefield.
“Petty tricks—!!”
The countless mirrors were reflecting countless Rams and countless Pucks
around the forest.
Judging he could not bide his time, Roswaal instantly decided to deploy
—and Ram knew the exact moment Roswaal had looked away from her
thanks to Clairvoyance.
“—Aaaghhh.”
Concentrating on her forehead, intense pain dyed her vision pure red.
Bloody tears flowed from Ram’s bloodshot eyes as she stripped off the ice
covering her and leaped up from her hiding spot beneath Roswaal’s foot.
Impersonating an ice statue and being knocked down was all according to
plan. Flesh and bones alike groaned throughout her entire body; a number of
her tendons were torn. She ignored all this as her Oni blood seethed.
“ ”
Emilia earnestly raced down the snowy path as she headed toward the tower
of ice standing tall in the forest.
Letting out sharp white breaths, her speed was unthinkably fast given the
poor footing, but Emilia was not running on the poor footing. With each step,
her foot made contact with an icy platform; then she would use her heels to
launch herself to the next one. This way, she made considerable progress in a
short amount of time.
“I! Did it! There we go!”
Of course, the icy footholds resting on top of snow made for quite a
slippery path. But to Emilia, raised in the frozen Great Elior Forest, this was
nothing. He knew that, too.
Armed with this knowledge, the spirit had created this footing without the
slightest hesitation.
Steadily, she crept deeper into the white forest. Emilia did not think of this
as cause for concern. She would believe in what she wanted to, rely on what
she wished to. With those thoughts in her mind, she was invincible.
Subaru. Otto. Garfiel. Frederica. Ryuzu. Shima. The villagers. The people
of the Sanctuary—Ram. Puck. Herself. She believed in them.
Hence, it was not long before she arrived at a white structure deep within
Ryuzu offered an explanation that the girls’ duty was to serve as the
Sanctuary’s “eyes.”
“ ”
It certainly weighed on Emilia’s mind to know that the sisters would
silently carry out her every order. But she set that aside for the moment.
It was immediately after being separated from Ryuzu that Beatrice began
waiting for That Person.
Having lost Ryuzu Meyer, who had established the Sanctuary at the cost
of her own existence, they had endured against Hector, Devil of Melancholy.
Her wait began immediately following that.
“Beatrice. I entrust you with administering the archive containing my
knowledge. Until the appointed hour comes, I want you to protect the
archive’s store of knowledge as its guardian so that none may ransack it.”
“—Eh?”
Called to her mother’s study, Beatrice opened her eyes wide, bewildered
and shaken as she was commanded to keep watch.
She’d been certain that her mother—the Witch Echidna—would
command her to risk her life fighting to support her in a coming battle.
Beatrice could only widen her eyes at being handed a role she’d never even
conceived of.
“Fortunately, as a master of Dark magic, you wield Passage, which
connects an isolated space to familiar places… Yes, let us call this space the
archive of forbidden books. Therein, the writings that contain all the
knowledge I possess shall be collected and preserved. This is what I want you
to protect.”
“W-wait…”
“You may link the archive to Roswaal’s mansion. That child… It’s more
than likely his Gate was crushed in the previous battle and he’ll never be able
After parting ways with Echidna, Beatrice’s losses and farewells continued.
Just as Mother had told her to, Beatrice took up residence at the Roswaal
family’s home. There, she used her mastery of Dark magic to construct the
archive of forbidden books, filled it with her mother’s knowledge, and called
herself its librarian.
Both men and women said all sorts of things to Betty, guardian of the
archive of forbidden books. In the end, they all invariably asked her to open
the archive.
Many times over, their proposals, their commands, and the hands they
reached out with made her heart tremble.
Every time the door was pushed open, every time someone came in, her
expectations rose. Had That Person arrived?
But her hopes were always dashed. These visitors knew nothing of That
Person’s duty, nor did the mystic tome left to her by Mother indicate any of
them was That Person.
Therefore, Beatrice brushed aside their words, their feelings, and the
hands they extended, rejecting them all, clinging to Mother’s words alone and
continuing to gradually shut herself in a cage of loneliness.
Would the key to that cage come from inside, or would it come from
outside?
—Not even Beatrice herself knew anymore.
At first, she assumed he was just another foolish human and held no
interest in him whatsoever. He was a traveler the half-demon girl had brought
back from the royal capital, and a stupid one at that.
By some twist of fate, he ended up staying at the mansion, and on top of
that, he had an affinity for Dark magic, making him highly compatible with
Beatrice’s Passage; as a result, he forced his way into the archive of
forbidden books time and time again.
He was an odd boy.
It was plain as day to anyone with eyes that the boy was completely
smitten with the half-demon girl. It was just as obvious that this was no
scheme or dark ambition; the only motive was his shockingly simplistic love
for her and nothing more.
On a whim, she had saved the boy from a curse and offered him words of
She had been in danger of doing something she could never take back.
But before she even had a chance to try, the possibility was snatched
away.
—She felt like she had reduced herself to a frivolous and very cheap
clown.
“…Am I just…tired, I wonder?”
In the first place, she was wrong to even think of taking that boy’s hand.
He did not possess the pure heart of someone who would dirty his own
hands for the sake of someone else without a second thought.
Just like Beatrice, he possessed a weak heart. He was indecisive and
agonized over trivial things; uncertain of himself and hesitant, always ready
to pile up one excuse after another instead of facing things head-on.
That was why her death would no doubt come in a different form.
Just like the intruders who had come into the mansion, enshrouded in a
Sent flying out of the archive, Subaru wisely broke his fall the instant he
collided with the hallway wall.
“Gah… I’m in one piece!”
Having split off from Petra and Otto, he was hell-bent on trying to
persuade Beatrice for the fourth time—and thanks to being smacked so much
in a short span, he was becoming quite an expert at blunting the impact of the
invisible shock waves.
“This ain’t the time to polish up stupid techniques like that. My instincts
are telling me the fire’s getting bad.”
Wiping off his coursing sweat with a sleeve, Subaru crouched, clicking
his tongue at the poor visibility.
The fire consuming the mansion had worsened, and hovering black smoke
now reached every corner of the main wing. The floor below was already
enveloped by the tendrils of flames; if he fell through the floor, he would not
be able to avoid being charred to a crisp.
With the fire having spread to both the east and west wings, it was no
longer possible to stop it.
The silver linings were that the candidates for Passage had been
drastically reduced and that many of the demon beasts had fled due to the
inferno, leaving Subaru with no enemies barring his path as he scurried
around the mansion. That said, the more of the mansion that was lost to
flames, the higher the odds of Subaru burning to death.
It would not be long until the mansion underwent a fiery collapse. He had
to get Beatrice out of there before it came to that.
“Besides, what’s gonna happen to her archive of forbidden books if all the
doors are burned to a crisp…?”
If, by any chance, all links to the doors were cut, just where would that
archive’s door lead? Perhaps it would lead nowhere, and that girl’s world of
loneliness would continue on for eternity?
The instant he emerged from his crossing, the smoke he inhaled sent him
coughing. The hot wind felt like it was scorching his skin.
“—The entrance?! How courteous. Shit!”
Lifting up his black, grimy face, Subaru realized he was at the entrance of
the burning mansion.
Looking farther, he was certain the entirety of the building was already
engulfed by flames; the inferno touched not only the main wing, where the
fire had started, but also the east and west wings.
It was difficult to find a place inside the mansion that was still in its
original shape. Even the door of the entrance from which Subaru had just
emerged had its lower half enveloped by flames. That Passage had worked at
all was itself a miracle.
He wouldn’t be able to leap back into the archive of forbidden books from
there—No, it was questionable whether there was a single door leading to the
archive remaining in the mansion.
He wasn’t inside the burning mansion; he’d been thrown outside. Beatrice
had probably intended this to be her reply.
“Good-bye, my ass—How are you gonna act tough, then show me a face
like that at the end?!”
Brushing those rising doubts aside, Subaru kicked the burning door in all
his fury, rushing into the entryway. He was immediately greeted by a wave of
heat incomparable to anything he felt outside, and the agony of his singed
—The undead arrived underground, not by taking the spiral stairs but by
rolling down them.
Black smoke invaded its lungs. The heat singed its skin. The flames
threatened its life. The undead charged forward, heedless of all the danger.
It gripped a wicked blade in its right hand. In its left was the heart of the
demon beast it had killed. One would think no sight so ghastly could exist in
the world. Regardless, the undead felt an inexhaustible sense of duty as it
pursued its prey.
Its flesh had been destroyed to the point that it should have been
unresponsive. Its life had been whittled away beyond its ability to regenerate.
There was no longer a person’s will residing within the crawling corpse.
That it moved even so was because the undead’s reason for existence
waited ahead.
This time, the flaming Roswaal Manor truly found its end.
The sight of the archive of forbidden books, to which Subaru had been
invited, made him inadvertently draw in his breath.
Cracks ran across the floor and walls, and the tear in space through which
Subaru had been expelled remained intact. The toppled bookshelves and
scattered books remained as before, and on top of that, flames were rising
from a corner of the room.
The effects of Roswaal Manor burning down had finally begun to be felt
even in the archive.
“ ”
However, such sentiments toward the room’s interior dissipated with a
single glance turned Subaru’s way.
That moment, he concentrated on the most important thing—one little
girl.
—After all, this was probably his final chance.
“…You are an idiot.”
“That’s the first thing out of your mouth?”
“Is it not true, I wonder? Even though Betty went through all that trouble
so you might escape, you threw it away… Are there any doors left anywhere
in the mansion, I wonder? This is a dead end.”
As a matter of fact, she was right. There wasn’t a single door left in the
mansion for Passage to connect to.
The flames that had reached the archive of forbidden books were
gradually increasing in force, spreading to the Witch’s knowledge that
Beatrice had continued protecting across four centuries, turning that promise
to ash.
Her precious obligation was on fire. It was easily flammable, so it would
no doubt burn down, and soon.
“At this rate, you and I are both goners.”
“…Yes, is this the end, I wonder? Betty wishes for little now. Everything
she was to hand to That Person will soon burn away. Is everything now not
completely contrary to her promise to Mother, I wonder?”
“Oh yeah? Then hear me out to the end, okay?”
She’d failed to keep her word. Subaru had failed to persuade her. Beatrice
looked toward him with empty eyes.
“—You wanted someone to take you outside! Isn’t that why you always
sat in front of the door?!”
Otto and Petra gazed wordlessly as Roswaal Manor burned to the ground.
“ ”
The three of them—Otto, Petra, and Rem, who was being carried on
Otto’s back—had safely used the mansion’s escape route to slip past the
demon beasts’ perimeter.
A barrier had been scrupulously set up around the cabin in the mountains
behind Roswaal Manor, to which the escape route led. This made it
impossible for not only the wild demon beasts in the region to approach them
but even warded off the demon beasts participating in the attack.
And it was not only Otto and company watching the mansion as it went
up in flames.
A crowd of the Earlham Village residents who had not headed toward the
Sanctuary could be seen gathered around—evacuated to the barrier
beforehand by Subaru in a determined effort to keep them from being
embroiled in the attack on the mansion. Considering the great horde of
demon beasts, it was clear that his concern had not been excessive. It was not
only Otto who keenly felt that way but the villagers as well.
However, no one felt at liberty to raise joyous voices at having arrived
there safe and sound.
That moment, all any of them could do was gaze at the mansion with
anxious hope, waiting for some visible change and believing Subaru and the
others still struggling inside the mansion were safe.
“ ”
Otto, too, stared at the mansion, deciding to treat his burn wounds later.
Petra was right beside him, latched on to Otto’s arm with strength
unimaginable for one so young.
She was doubtlessly worried sick. Anyone could tell the young girl had a
crush on Subaru from a single glance. Considering her melancholy, one
couldn’t help but pray he was safe.
To try and put Petra at ease, he gently stroked Petra’s brown hair. When
Petra looked at him in momentary surprise, Otto smiled at her, turning his
eyes toward the mansion once more—it was then that he noticed.
11
Simultaneously, just as Otto let his shoulders fall with relief, Garfiel, half-
naked and wearing nothing but a tattered cloth around his hips, looked up at
the same light and clacked his fangs.
12
—Subaru.
—Subaru. Subaru.
13
—So began the pair’s first battle, one of the many, many times Beatrice
the spirit and her contractor, Subaru Natsuki, would fight hand in hand.
In the snow-marred Sanctuary, their fields of vision were filled by the great
horde of demon beasts that were Gluttony incarnate.
But his trust in the lovely girl at his back and the warmth he felt in his
palm were definitely the real deal.
—That was why Subaru Natsuki stood there without the slightest
hesitation or doubt.
“You sure stomped the heck out of ’em, Emilia-tan…!”
Subaru’s face was buffeted by the thunderous blizzard as he praised
Emilia’s valiant fighting.
The falling snow had instantly turned the Sanctuary into the front line of
the Great Rabbit’s attack. But on previous attempts, by the time that situation
arose, the destruction of the Sanctuary was halfway written in stone. This
time, he’d averted failure because Emilia had fought valiantly against the
demon beasts without retreating a single step.
“—You evacuating everyone to the tomb means you cleared the Trials,
right?”
Emilia was taking on the demon-beast horde while shielding Echidna’s
tomb at her back. At the tomb’s entrance, he could see people from the
Sanctuary and from Earlham Village watching the state of the battle hand in
hand. Ryuzu, who was standing at the congregation’s head, told him that this
union between the two groups was the result of something that went beyond a
simple weighing of pros and cons.
And the one who’d worked hardest to bring that situation about wasn’t
To Subaru, using magic had always been an act tantamount to whittling his
own soul away.
Just as Roswaal and Puck had guaranteed from the beginning, Subaru had
no talent for magic. In the end, he’d abused Shamak, the one spell he’d
learned, finally wrecking his own Gate, closing the path of the magician to
him forever.
Therefore, he’d never thought another opportunity to use magic would
visit him ever again, but—
“Minya! Minya! This is tough to say, damn it! Minyaaa!”
Relying on the vast surge of mana, Subaru did the seemingly impossible,
rapidly casting Great Magic again and again.
The purple arrows thus spawned opened one hole in the demon-beast
force after another, turning the ferocious Great Rabbit into purple fragments.
Glancing at these, Beatrice tugged on Subaru’s arm, and with a light step,
The upsurge in magical energy was so incredibly powerful that even Subaru
could feel it.
Emilia was standing in front of the tomb. Subaru was holding Beatrice
within his arms. Believing in Subaru’s plan, both of them were fully devoted
to controlling their respective mana to bring it to fruition.
And it fell to Subaru to buy the time they both needed until they were
prepared.
“C’mon, c’mon! I’m your opponent, same as usual! Follow meee!”
Smiling and waving, Subaru mercilessly pounded the horde with a vicious
blow.
The explosive bombardment created a wild dance of purple light, which
sent the demon beasts flying and made them wriggle as one. The horde
moved like one gigantic body and began chasing Subaru in a mad dash
around the Sanctuary.
This was the beginning of the operation. At the very least, his worry that
they might hit the tomb first was gone.
“It’s not as if you can ignore the smell of mana and my stench, either!”
It was the Great Rabbit’s nature to be attracted by mana. It was Subaru’s
nature to have demon beasts want to devour him. With Beatrice, her eyes still
closed, resting in his arms, Subaru Natsuki was a veritable, mouthwatering
feast on the hoof as far as the Great Rabbit was concerned.
He heard the clacking of fangs. Subaru heard the deadly footsteps chasing
them from behind.
“—! For one of the three great demon beasts, you’re so slow! You half-
wits, do you actually want me to make you extinct like ol’ Whaley?”
Biting fear back with his molars, Subaru hurled the unnecessary insults he
kept in the far corners of his mind. If he didn’t flap his gums to maintain his
calm, he’d never be able to conceal that he was trembling to the core.
He couldn’t look that pathetic to the girl behind him, nor to the girl in his
arms.
“Subaru—!”
The living darkness swallowed up the cage of ice and snow, compressing it
along with the Great Rabbit Horde within. Finally, they vanished without a
sound.
This, the creation of an isolated space, was the effect of Al Shamak—the
greatest of the Shamak line of spells. Enveloped by the magic, the Great
Rabbit Horde had been blasted into what was essentially another dimension.
Regeneration and propagation had lost all meaning, for both were literally
sequestered in another world.
“I know the plan was to send them into an isolated space like the archive
—The Witch sleeping in the transparent coffin was just as beautiful as the
day she’d died.
“Mother…”
In the small room in the deepest part of the tomb in which the coffin was
placed, the remains of Echidna the Witch rested in silence.
In front of those remains, Beatrice was stricken with such worry that her
feet felt like they couldn’t stay grounded. She felt neither the sense of elation
from during the battle nor the sense of loss and liberation from losing the
archive of forbidden books—she felt guilt.
The Witch had long, beautiful white hair and a comely face that spoke of
intellect and tolerance. Though the instances were rare, her memories of the
Witch regarding her with soft smiles came rushing back.
There and then, the memories of how her mother looked, which she had
been on the verge of forgetting after four centuries, were fresh once more,
digging their way into Beatrice’s chest.
“Has Betty managed to uphold her promise to Mother, I wonder? …I am
sorry.”
Stroking the edge of the cracked coffin with her finger, Beatrice began
their first meeting in four centuries with an apology.
Beatrice had lost both the intellect of the Witch and the book of
knowledge given to her upon their parting. She had deigned to come crawling
back, her promise unfulfilled.
“Betty never met That Person…and the book has been burned away. Are
the words I am sorry enough to make up for it, I wonder?”
Beatrice judged herself to be a poor daughter.
“They’re not coming out, huh? I’m sure they had a load of things to talk
about, but isn’t this excessive?”
Growing impatient due to the lack of any new developments after
returning from making his thirtieth snow-Puck in the clearing, Subaru turned
toward the tomb. It had been just short of an hour since the pair had entered,
yet they still had not emerged.
“I understand you’re worried, Subaru, but I think you’re the one being a
little excessive.”
Subaru appeared unable to calm down as Emilia stood beside him,
stroking a snow-Puck with what seemed like exasperation.
Incidentally, Ram, who’d been borrowing Emilia’s lap and making
Subaru envious for quite some time, seemed largely recovered by that point
as she gently sat upon the steps, looking like she was also waiting for the pair
“It’s just—I think we need to have a proper talk about the baby in my
belly!”
“…Excuse me?”
The instant the blow landed, his cheekbone groaned under the impact. His tall
body was easily flung into the air and slammed into the wall. It did not end
there. The momentum sent him right through the fragile wooden wall,
blowing his body into the snowy outdoors.
“ ”
At the end of his somersault, he finally came to a stop, spread-eagle on the
snowy plain, unable to move a muscle. The silence that descended made it
tempting to assume he had actually expired then and there.
Subaru’s eyes went wide as he stared at the wall that had been punched
clean through, the tall, slender man sent flying through it, and the one who
had sent him flying to begin with.
During that time, the attacker let out a satisfied breath.
“Phew… Man, I really sent the bastard flyin’, huh?”
With an audible clack of sharp, canine teeth, the blond boy Garfiel spoke
those words with a sunny, beaming face.
Watching as Ram rushed toward Roswaal, who had been the victim,
Subaru scratched his head.
“Y-yeah. Sure did.”
That was all the reply he could manage.
“Errr, so now that we’ve formally settled some outstanding business, I think
it’s time we had a mutual discussion about the things that happened this time
around and the various events going into the future.”
A great variety of food was arrayed atop the table that was being brought into
the great hall.
At this buffet-style feast, none of the participants in the ceremony paid
much attention to stuffy manners and merrily helped themselves in any which
way they pleased.
“Everyone sure is having a good time. I’ve never been so tense before in
my life, though.”
—In a dark, cold, and indistinct space, the soft patter of bare feet continued to
echo at regular intervals.
In that lightless world, that space with nothing but unfathomable darkness
spreading forth, the source of those footsteps had arrived without ever going
astray. The trip had been made with the ease of someone walking into their
own bedroom.
The sound of dripping water, the cries of insects crawling about, the
sensation of mud and gravel beneath the soles of her bare feet—she pushed
past them all.
Finally, she arrived at the deepest reaches of that darkness. She stretched
out a hand and stroked a mossy, slippery wall.
Instantly, faint lights floated up and danced around her as a lukewarm
wind blew through the wall. Her long pink hair and white cloak flapped in
that wind. The hovering pinpricks of light circled around her as she slowly
passed through the barrier.
“So the reactivation ritual has remained intact.”
The figure—no, the girl—murmured offhandedly as she slipped outside.
The next instant, a dazzling shaft of light made her close her eyes. After
walking through the darkness underground, the sunrays outside were like
daggers to her eyes. She blinked several times before she could see the world
anew.
—In the sky taller than the trees of the forest, she saw the sun had only
just begun to rise.
“…Surprisingly, I am unmoved.”
With the sunlight striking her eyes, the girl seemed disappointed as she
<END>
Hey there, it’s Tappei Nagatsuki! The notorious Mouse-Colored Cat! Sorry
for the possibly smaller font size!
As you probably know already, this has been going on since way back in
Volume 12! However, I think this volume will see the end of it. Probably?
Maybe?
Anyway, thank you very much for purchasing Volume 15. Having arrived
at the afterword, you are almost certainly already aware of this, but Volume
15 concludes Arc 4 of Re:ZERO!
The book ended up a little longer than originally planned, but as a crucial
chapter in how the main character’s party becomes a group united with a
single heart and soul, I have no complaints so long as you’ve had fun with it
up to this point.
The next volume begins the next leg of the story, plunging us directly into
Arc 5. There’ll be appearances by characters who haven’t been in the
limelight for a while, so by all means, I hope you enjoy the next arc, too!
And this time, some people might have already read this in the afterword,
but for everyone else, the third short-story compilation of Re:ZERO is going
on sale this month, too. I hope they’re a lot of fun combined, giving you a
good warmhurry (heartwarming short stories and hurried main story)
experience!
Also, I’m pretty sure that the third short-story compilation goes into
information about recent events that weren’t possible here, so for those who
think, Books are fun, afterwords included! please try that on for size as well.
Now, as you can see, I am pushing the character limit, so I shall move on
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