2.1
"Borrowing a girl's lap, letting her caress my head, and falling into a peaceful
sleep… By itself you'd think it was awesome, but man…"
Subaru said things like that over and over, red to the tips of his ears as he
plucked a bit of hair from his head.
He thought back to the scene several hours before, when he'd spectacularly
laid bare his soul.
"So I was a big crybaby in front of my sweetheart, fell asleep with tears on my
face and a runny nose. Plus, I had her lap to myself for hours on end… This is
like a humiliation game."
He thought back to the sensation of Emilia's knees, as well as the price they
had paid to convey it to him.
The spectacle had left Emilia's skirt all a mess from his runny nose. No matter
what problems Subaru had been going through, this was inexcusable, even if
just from a hygienic view.
Still, Emilia hadn't rocked him awake in all that time, nor did she hold it
against Subaru as he earnestly apologized for dirtying her clothes.
"That's fine if it makes you feel a little better. Besides, you really don't
understand, Subaru."
"Eh?"
"It's more satisfying for the other person to hear a single thank-you than a
dozen apologies. I don't want you to apologize for something I wanted to offer
you, so there."
The way she pressed a finger to his apologizing lips and winked at him would
bowl over any man. Indeed, Subaru bowled over right on the spot.
Now that Subaru knew he loved her, everything she said and did, that
included, seemed covered in glitter and gloss.
Emilia headed off to change clothes in her room. Subaru kept wandering
around the mansion in a dreamy state for a little while before finally regaining
his senses and clutching his head at what he'd done.
"Oh man, I've totally done it now. Emilia's the one I didn't want to look weak
in front of. Is there anything more embarrassing I could've done? I seriously
can't look her in the eye now!"
"…Is that what a person says when entering someone's room late at night, I
wonder?"
The way Subaru pressed the middle of his thigh against the stool and writhed
around it put the girl in the dress—Beatrice—in a particularly bad mood,
bringing a dreadful scowl over her adorable face.
After parting ways with Emilia, Subaru had it in his head that he couldn't let
anyone else see him, so his feet carried him to the archive of forbidden books,
and thus beyond anyone's reach. Though, he liked tweaking the nose of the girl
in charge of it, too.
"Don't say that, Beako. We're friends, right?"
"What kind of relationship do you think—Wait, what did you call me just now,
I wonder?"
Beatrice raised an eyebrow with a twitch of her cheek when Subaru clapped
his hands.
"Beako. I think nicknames are an indispensable way to show my friendship.
You're the only one in the mansion so far who didn't like it even a little bit,
though…"
He thought back to the last loop, when the loneliness and despair had been
driven home.
One could even say he was cajoling her into bringing sophistry and threats at
him. It was from such humble beginnings that a firm pact had been established
between them.
In the end, Subaru had unilaterally severed the deal. But Beatrice had
exploited the vagueness of the details to continue to protect him.
Even if Beatrice had forgotten, Subaru would never forget how he felt back
then.
"—So I don't care what you think of me, I'm going to call you Beako. It's the
greatest sign of affection I can give you!"
"That does not please me whatsoever! What is with that overbearing
goodwill?! Is it merely distasteful or completely disgusting, I wonder?!"
"Hey, what's with that way of talking?! I'm thanking you from the bottom of
my heart here. This is no time to make fun!"
"If you're going to insist that what you said just now was not meant in jest,
you and I are no longer engaged in conversation. It may look like dialogue, but it
is not!"
She informed him that if conversation was supposed to be a game of catch,
this was more like rugby.
He was showing considerable affection in an appropriately Subaru-like way,
but that seemed to be lost on Beatrice.
"Well, I'll set that aside, but I'll still call you Beako."
"Such single-minded resolve is quite unnecessary. What would happen if I
simply do not respond to that name, I wonder?"
"Don't say cold things like that, Beako."
"…"
Subaru called out to Beatrice, but silently keeping her gaze lowered to her
book, she made no reply. Apparently she meant what she had said earlier.
While Beatrice acted stubborn, Subaru grudgingly walked over and paced
around the stool.
"What's wrong, Beako? You look glum, Beako. Are you all right, Beako? If
there's something wrong, you can talk to me, Beako. Mm? What is it, Beako?
We can do this, Beako. Beako, Beako!"
"I have never seen anyone as annoying as you! What is with you, I wonder?!"
Someone as thin-skinned as Beatrice was natural prey for someone born with
a talent for getting on other people's nerves like Subaru. He pumped a fist, the
corners of his lips twisting as Beatrice's shoulders shook in anger.
"Actually, I've got an admission to make. I'm backed into a corner and really
need your help."
—He explained to the curly-haired girl the conclusion he'd formed after
pathetically bawling his eyes out.
2.2
While on Emilia's lap, all the ugly feelings and tears built up inside Subaru had
come pouring out. What remained were Subaru's pure personal desires.
—He loved Emilia.
He'd thought he loved her before, but now he truly knew what falling for
someone meant. It was love at first sight. Just hearing her voice made his heart
skip a beat. Just talking with her was so pleasant it felt like a dream.
He couldn't leave this girl who put herself in harm's way for others.
That's why I love her, he had thought, but now he sincerely understood what
he'd felt. She was the first one to save Subaru when he was summoned to
another world without anyone to depend on.
And, when he'd been backed into a dark alley of despair, it was she who had
saved his dying heart. She'd saved both his life and his heart.
—He could no longer think of living in a world without Emilia.
He loved spending his days with Emilia at the mansion. He loved learning all
sorts of things about the world. He loved Ram, who'd taken such care of him in
spite of her blunt tongue. He really loved Emilia. He loved Rem, who insulted
him with polite language but always showed him how to do things. He was
enveloped by goodwill toward everyone living at the mansion. Subaru wanted
to stay there forever.
Those overflowing feelings filled his chest to bursting.
But on the other side of that happy coin—
He loved Emilia. He despaired at lacking the power to protect her. Life at the
mansion had grown stale. He didn't know where or when he'd be found out. He
feared Ram, who commanded Blades of Wind that could slice his throat. He was
terrified of Rem and her skull-crushing iron ball. Roswaal's disturbing madness
could lead him to command the twins to eliminate Subaru without mercy. Every
time he woke up, he checked whether he was still alive, and he could sense
himself cracking under his own constant vigilance against despair.
These, too, were Subaru's true, indelible feelings.
Emilia had saved Subaru before the friction in his mind had roasted Subaru
from the inside out.
By consoling him, Emilia had pulled his heart back from the brink.
Thinking about her filled him with life and energy. Emilia was what kept his
urge to flee in check.
"In other words, E M D (Emilia-tan's Majorly Divine)!"
Beatrice responded to Subaru's declaration by acting astounded and shooting
him an annoyed grimace.
"Did you say something exceedingly stupid just now, I wonder?"
"Not at all. I'm putting my top priorities back in order."
"Let us return to the topic at hand… You say you want my help? What do you
mean, I wonder?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty serious about that, like enough to beg God for help. I can't
think of anyone else I can go to."
In the present situation, Emilia was, of course, the member of the mansion he
could place the most trust in—but she was also the most important part of
Subaru's life. In other words, the absolute last thing he wanted to do was put
her in danger. To Subaru, who normally prioritized his own life, Emilia's life
weighed much heavier than his on the scale.
That being the case, he couldn't go to Puck for help, either, which left—
"Beako. She's actually pretty sweet. And softer than she looks."
"I don't understand your meaning, but I do sense that you are mocking me."
"That's not my intent at all… Actually, the way things are in the mansion right
now, you're the only one I can rely on."
Of course, he couldn't come clean to Ram and Rem, let alone Roswaal.
Except for Emilia, Beatrice was truly the only person in the mansion who he
could trust.
"Please. I'm begging you."
Subaru was kneeling on the floor before Beatrice, bowing his head as he
petitioned for aid.
Subaru needed a lantern to light the way so that he could bring an end to the
chain of despair.
"I need your help. I want to set everything right and protect the place where I
can be happy. And that's no good if it doesn't include everyone here."
"—"
Subaru, touching his head to the floor, looked up at Beatrice after a long
silence.
"…Beatrice?"
The conflict he saw in her eyes made his breath catch.
Beatrice knit her brows and bit her lip as she glared at Subaru. And yet,
despite the ferocity of her gaze, she looked on the verge of tears.
"—"
She opened her mouth to speak, but her gaze wavered as she found herself
unable to find the words.
Beatrice's heart had been shaken. He had to make her speak to him.
"Listen to me, Beatrice. I understand why you don't want to help me out of
hand. To you, I'm a weirdo and a stranger who wandered in just the other day."
"…If you know that much, you do not need to hear it from my lips, do you?"
"You're the one who patched me up. Thank you. I know you don't know this,
but I have a mountain of other things I need to thank you for. And here I am
asking you for help again… It's pretty pathetic. It's a miserable sight, really, but
you're the only one I have."
He laid out all his cards on the table.
It was the lowest form of begging—pushy and self-centered and with no
regard for Beatrice's feelings whatsoever.
With Subaru lowering his head in nothing but earnestness, wearing sincerity
on his sleeve, Beatrice made a very typical snort.
"You are a worm crawling on the ground, wailing about your own
powerlessness. Do you have any pride at all, I wonder?"
"I know what's important to me. I'll bow my head ten times or a hundred
times and pound the floor if that's what it takes."
He was too much of a weakling to obsess over petty pride.
Subaru kept his head down as he continued to plead for her aid.
He knew it was a cowardly way of doing things. During his five loops, he'd
continued to quarrel with Beatrice during their encounters along the way.
That's how he knew.
Beatrice acted like she was blowing him off, but—
"You may…raise your head."
The moment the soft voice reached his ears, Subaru believed his craven
request had been granted.
He was acutely aware of his own pettiness and he resented himself for his
insincere behavior toward Beatrice.
But even that had been necessary to make the girl named Beatrice come to
her decision.
That was how the rather simple man named Subaru Natsuki had seen it, but…
"Bea…"
"Take this, would you?"
"Bwah!"
But that miserable, heartfelt face met the merciless sole of a shoe.
Subaru was still prostrate as his head alone lifted from the floor, with his
formless sound of anguish echoing around the archive.
Subaru remained in that awkward, bent-back position, making an incoherent
yell as she stomped him a few more times.
"Hey…this is…!"
"You could think on it a hundred times and you would never comprehend the
work I go through. No matter how many silver coins you gather, they will never
equal the sacred glow of a gold coin. Do you understand, I wonder?"
"Er, if you get a few thousand silver coins they'll equal it, I'm sure. It's just a
matter of comparable value, right? Or maybe you're just bad at math?"
"Will you stop looking at me like a pitiable child, I wonder?! Are those the
eyes of someone who was just begging me?!"
And so, Beatrice and Subaru resumed their bickering.
It was a pointless battle that had begun for no particular reason, repeated
several times across different worlds. As he continued his familiar banter with
Beatrice, he thought on some level that the pathetic stubbornness inside him
was pretty moronic.
"All right, then, I'll play my trump card. If you cooperate with me, I'll give you
a reward of equal value, you hear?"
"Do you think the likes of me would be lured by any reward you can muster, I
wonder?"
"How about this? Because I saved Emilia at the capital, I get to borrow Puck.
And Puck said if I want to swap that for something else, I only need to ask… You
see what I'm getting at here?"
Beatrice's expression changed. Subaru smiled unpleasantly as he brought all
his negotiation skills to bear.
Now that it involved a reward, she agreed to reluctantly cooperate with
Subaru.
Subaru thought it was pretty silly to settle things by offering up Puck on a
silver platter. He knew the little magic user would go for it, but still…
2.3
It hadn't exactly been a warm and fuzzy process, but Subaru had finally
managed to win Beatrice's cooperation.
He'd repent of pushing things on to a little girl because of his own
powerlessness after all the problems were cleared up.
"…You want to know more about shamans?"
Subaru's cut-and-dry statement caused Beatrice to raise her shapely
eyebrows with an air of disgust.
His top priority was to deal with the menace of the shaman's attack on the
mansion without a moment to lose. A large part of why he asked Beatrice for
help was so that her magic could counter the deadly curses.
Explaining as much as possible to Beatrice without getting to the heart of the
matter was crucial for Subaru.
"I'll probably pay a price if I let too many cats out of the bag, so…"
When he'd tried to confess his Return by Death to Emilia, time had suddenly
stopped all around Subaru as a black cloud took the shape of a hand and
inflicted immense agony upon him.
Subaru's silent screams and the torture of having his heart crushed had
robbed him of any notions of easy defiance.
As a result, Subaru was immensely wary of the black cloud, choosing his
words very carefully as he continued to explain.
"I know there's such a thing as curses, but I don't know anything else beyond
that they're different from magician and spirit stuff. I want to know more about
them."
"It is rare for someone to ask about that. I wonder, does paying that bunch
any heed get you anywhere?"
Like before, Beatrice's distaste toward even forming the word curse on her
lips was considerable. Back then, he'd avoided pushing deeper into the matter,
but that would not be the case this time.
"Curses are magic spells that exist only to cause trouble for other people and
come from some country up north, right?"
"Is it not sufficient to know that much, I wonder? Curses invade their targets
like a disease, limiting their movements and robbing them of their pure life
forces… A tradition in very poor taste."
"Normally I'd say it depends on how you use them, but looks like you can't
use them except to hurt people, huh?"
Reason enough to call these curses.
If curses were supernatural powers that existed to bring down others, the
practice in his home world of putting needles into voodoo dolls probably
counted. Well, not that he actually accepted the existence of the occult in that
world…
Subaru sat up more, thinking about the things Beatrice had mentioned in a
grave tone of voice.
"So, let me ask this… How do you defend against a curse?"
It was pretty tough to aim a counterattack at the shaman without knowing his
identity. Subaru's one advantage was knowing in advance that an attack would
take place. Consequently, figuring out a way to stop the shaman's attack in its
tracks was a wonderful idea…in theory.
"You do not."
"—Eh?"
"No means exist to defend against a curse once it is activated. Once activated,
you are finished. Isn't that what a curse is, I wonder?"
"I-isn't there any kind of Instant Death Resist…?!"
In a video game, you dealt with Lv. 1 Death type spells by casting Instant
Death Resist in advance.
With the light at the end of the tunnel growing ever distant, Subaru pulled his
hair, his brain on fire as it tried to come up with a new plan. He'd
underestimated the situation. That reality sent Subaru's mind into free fall.
"—However, that is limited to curses that have activated."
"—Huh?"
The words spoken to Subaru a moment later made his eyes go wide.
Beatrice grinned with what seemed to be great delight.
She got me good, thought Subaru as the look on her face confirmed it; all he
could do was open and close his mouth like a flounder in a mix of surprise and
anger.
"Just as I said, there is no way to defend against a curse once it has been
activated. However, an un-activated curse can be blocked. It simply requires a
cleansing rite prior to activation, so anyone with the requisite skill would find
removing it rather simple."
"I'll save getting angry for later… So, who can do that?"
"In this mansion, there's me, and of course Puckie. Beyond that, Roswaal
and…the three little girls do not have the requisite experience, so no. Oh, and of
course you cannot."
"I know that one only too well…"
He'd gone through hell because of his lack of resistance, not once but twice.
Subaru put aside his unpleasant memories as he raised a hand and asked
Beatrice a question.
"So how would you know to use a rite before a curse activates?"
"Powerful curses place a commensurate burden upon the body. Perhaps
magic and curses share that in common? The side effects of a curse are
considerable. Could I say that they are deeply flawed, I wonder?"
"So…is there something you can do in advance to protect yourself?"
Subaru asked his question like he was hanging from a thread. In response,
Beatrice closed her eyes for a while, licking her lips.
"Though it depends upon the specific details…there is an iron rule for curses."
"An iron…rule?"
With bated breath, Subaru prodded Beatrice to continue from where she'd
left off.
And so she did.
"—Physical contact with the target. An absolute prerequisite, I wonder?"
" "
Subaru's brain spun round and round the instant that detail entered his skull.
The caster of a curse needed to touch his target. In other words, both times
Subaru had suffered from the effects of the curse, he had made physical
contact with the shaman beforehand. That narrowed the possibilities to—
"If it's no one here at the mansion, then…it's gotta be the village…"
Subaru had walked to the village both times he'd undergone Return by Death
from suffering the effects of witchcraft.
When he thought about it more, he'd gone to the village midway through the
fourth day both times.
At the village, the shaman had performed the rite for the curse, and that
curse activated that night at the mansion—resulting in his death. That had been
the pattern.
The shaman being at the village would explain why Rem had fallen prey to the
curse during the last loop. That time, Subaru had never gone to the village, so
Rem became the shaman's target instead. If Ram had gone, she would've been
the target; if Subaru had gone there with her, no doubt he would've been the
target again.
It connected. It connected everything.
The shaman was in Earlham Village. It was unclear whether the shaman was a
resident or a visitor. If he was the latter, finding him wouldn't be all that hard. It
was a village with a small population. A stranger's face immediately became
known to all, just like Subaru's had. If the former, it'd have been a carefully
premeditated crime, but…
"That doesn't seem likely."
In the prior incident, someone tried to throw a monkey wrench into Emilia's
royal candidacy. But that candidacy didn't exist before the royal family suddenly
died out only half a year beforehand. Emilia's name popping up on the
candidate list probably took time, so that meant only three or four months to
prepare at absolute most. A shaman would have had to infiltrate the village
years beforehand to be considered a native.
"So the shaman's an outsider. Finding him won't be all that hard, either…"
Subaru voiced his thoughts out loud as he began to search for holes in his
logic. It wasn't a bad idea to raise a hypothesis, even if you amended it as you
went along.
As far as the shaman was concerned, he hadn't actually done anything yet.
Short of his opponent being God or the Devil himself, it was impossible for his
existence to be exposed as of yet.
Subaru mulled over the fact that he was still on the night of the second day.
He had a long grace period before things were due to take a turn for the worse
on the fourth.
In other words, it meant he could do his own preemptive strike on the
shaman.
"I've got you by the tail now, damn it. I didn't die twice at your hands for
nothing!"
Subaru, finally able to see his situation brightening, clenched a fist as his voice
quivered with joy.
While Subaru delighted in the change in circumstances, Beatrice looked quite
dissatisfied at having been dropped from the conversation. Her lovely cheeks
reddened to emphasize the sourness of her gaze.
"What is that attitude in front of someone you asked for aid, I wonder? If
what I spoke was of service, I think you should say as much to my face."
"Yeah, you're right! You saved my bacon; I can see the light thanks to you! I
love you, Beako!"
"Wha—?!"
Subaru leaped over to Beatrice, picking up her very light body and twirling all
around with her on the spot.
Despite her elaborate dress, the girl's body was as light as a feather. Subaru's
spinning increased in synergy with the buoyancy of his mood.
"Let g—Would you put me down, I wonder?!"
"Ha-ha-ha, I could just fly in the sky right now! Nah, how 'bout we fly
together, Beako?!"
"Fly all by your lonesome—!"
"Bwah?!"
She released magical energy from right above him, slamming him hard
enough to make him do a full leg split on the floor. The impact he felt on the
top of his skull transferred to the rest of his body. Subaru's internal mana was
all a jumble. His eyes were spinning as he continued to rest on his butt.
Illustration 2
For her part, Beatrice landed with an elegant flutter of the hem of her skirt,
turning her head and sending a snort Subaru's way.
"Do you see what happens when you get carried away with frivolity, I
wonder?"
"That's not the only thing I saw. They're white!"
"—. —?! Take this, would you?!"
"Brfhh!"
Subaru took the second shot right between the eyes, sending him flying into a
corner of the archive like a rag doll. He rolled head over heels before slamming
into a bookshelf, bringing heavy books down upon his head.
He crawled his way out of the mountain of books, tears in his eyes from the
many bumps and bruises.
"The friendship gauge goes down just a little and I get this?! If you're not
happy with something, just say it, geez!"
"Being picked up like a little child, spun around in midair, having my panties
seen, you speaking superficially lovey-dovey words, all of it! Is your entire
existence a nuisance, I wonder?!"
"Hey, don't put down my existence; that's really sad stuff! I'm trying not to be
a masochist here!"
Subaru hoped to find ways to improve himself, just like he'd found a chance
to improve his circumstances.
Just because I'm powerless doesn't mean I have to be helpless, too, Subaru
thought, nodding at his own internal rebuke.
"Anyway, the situation's a lot better than it was. It'll be hard waiting out the
night, but tomorrow I'm heading to the village."
Let's find out who this shaman really is, he thought.
That'd probably mean going with either Ram or Rem. Considering they both
had combat strength, it was a natural choice in case he ended up duking it out
with the shaman then and there. If he could get rid of the vile shaman and raise
his friendship gauge with both girls in the process, that'd be the grand finale
bringing his first week at Roswaal Manor to a successful conclusion.
"Now that I think back on it, I sure went through a lot…"
He knew it was speaking too soon, but it was a light at the end of the tunnel
even so. Surely no one could blame Subaru for feeling that way.
Shouldn't you be thinking of something else? he wondered. Looking up meant
missing that which was right at his feet, didn't it? Subaru, a man of little nerve
and much wariness, suddenly remembered…
"The scent…of the witch…"
"What do you mean, I wonder?"
"Right, the witch. Rem mentioned her. You did, too, Beako."
The moment the word witch formed on his lips, he remembered the various
places he had encountered it. The witch was often treated as an abominable
being by the residents of that world, but Subaru's only clue as to why was the
broad outline given in the children's story "The Witch of Jealousy." That really
bothered him all of a sudden.
After all, the road traveled by Subaru Natsuki had been peppered by
references to her.
Subaru lifted up his face and looked at Beatrice, who was knitting her
eyebrows.
He wasn't sure she'd even answer the question he was about to ask. It was
grave enough that Ram had refused to answer it entirely, while Rem had used it
as one of her justifications for attacking him.
He felt that even Emilia strongly resisted the topic.
"Beako, you know about the witch, right?"
"—"
The reply didn't come immediately. The word thrumming in her ears made
Beatrice close her eyes, sinking into silence as if making sure she'd heard
correctly. Her reaction left Subaru with no option beyond trying to keep calm
and waiting.
When she suddenly murmured the words, Subaru's breath caught as his eyes
went wide.
"She who drinks the world itself. Queen of the Castle of Shadows. The
greatest of all disasters—the Witch of Jealousy."
Upon seeing Subaru's reaction, Beatrice let out a gloomy sigh.
"In this world, there is only one being indicated by the word witch. Should I
add, it is even considered taboo to speak her name aloud, I wonder?"
"So everyone's in awe and fear of her, and no one defies her?"
"Yes, precisely. Rather, why would you even ask if I know her, I wonder? In
this world, aren't the names you know best those of your parents, then other
family, and finally, the name of the witch, I wonder?"
"Oh, come on…"
Subaru tried to poke fun, but he swallowed his words when Beatrice's
expression made plain that she wasn't the slightest bit joking.
And if she was serious, that meant the witch was an unparalleled darkness in
the world.
"The Witch of Jealousy, 'Satella.' She consumed the great sinners of yore
known as the Six Witches, swallowing up half the world in the process, the vilest
of all calamities."
Beatrice's words, spoken with emotions suppressed, brought a short, hard
breath out of Subaru.
The name, one he'd heard before, bore much more gravity in the context of
the rest.
"It is said that the witch desires love. It is said she does not comprehend
human speech. It is said she envies everything in this world. That none have
seen her face and lived. That her body is untouched by the ravages of time,
unable to grow old or decay. That the Dragon, the Hero, and the Sage combined
their power to seal her away, because even they could not hope to destroy
her."
Beatrice spoke point by point, not allowing Subaru to get a word in.
"It is said…"
Finally, as if reaching the end of her tale, she paused after her preamble and
said,
"…she is a half-elf with silver hair."
2.4
—Satella, the Witch of Jealousy.
The Six Witches had made the world scream, but this witch wiped them out in
one fell swoop, ushering in a calamity that destroyed half the world.
A hero had sealed her flesh within a crystal, where she continued to sleep,
even then, in some corner of the world.
That's an absurd story, Subaru's sensibilities as a child of modernity made him
think.
Crimes so vile that people spoke of them centuries afterward were already
bad enough, but the fact that the perpetrator continued to exist, sealed away
somewhere out there, would be unthinkable in his world.
Subaru began to cite a rather extreme example as he sat cross-legged with his
chin on a palm, watching a corner of the garden.
"Well, I can't really go by that. Even if people don't know the name of their
own prime minister, they know the name of, say, the nation's most popular idol
group…"
It was morning as Emilia sat on the grass of the inner garden, conversing with
the flickering lights surrounding her.
The scene never lost its mysterious, surreal air no matter how many times he
set eyes on it. Seeing Emilia like this every day was one of the most beautiful
sights that world had to offer.
Subaru was watching at a distance so as not to interfere with Emilia's
conversation. He was still wearing his servant's outfit as he suppressed a yawn,
letting out a long breath as he sank into a sea of contemplation once more.
It was now the morning of the third day, for night and sunrise had passed
since his conversation with Beatrice in the archive of forbidden books.
As the night had crept toward morning, Beatrice had suddenly scowled.
"I suppose my skin shall be compromised if I do not get my beauty sleep.
Staying up late like this is quite a bother."
After being roughly evicted from the archive, Subaru managed to get in a
morning bath before meeting up with Emilia in the garden. The sight of her so
diligently carrying out her daily routine made him clench a fist with renewed
determination.
A gray fur ball—in other words, Puck—popped his face up in front of Subaru's
eyes and called out to him.
"Well you seem to be doing better now."
Puck continued to hover in the air as he began grooming his face with his
short paws like any normal cat. He continued, "To be honest, you were not
much to look at yesterday. I'm a little relieved."
"That so? Sorry to make you worry. But my naive heart still isn't completely
over everything, so I want the feel of your fur to comfort me. Ahhh…"
"Well, if you can bluff like that I suppose you're fine. Lia did lend you her lap
and everything."
Subaru's fingers wrapped around the palm-size cat and, searching for
something beyond even the surprising sensation of his ears, arrived at Puck's
tail. From base to tip, the feel of it was beyond even Subaru's expectations,
making his breath catch.
Subaru savored the supremely comfortable touch in his hand as his eyes met
Puck's.
"Did you see the lap pillow, too, by any chance?"
"Only because she did it for so long. It was quite difficult to stay kneeling in
that position for hours, and I offered to take over several times, but… Relax, Lia
saw it through to the very end."
Puck's metaphorical seal of approval abruptly made Subaru, still shy about
the awakening of his love, red in the face.
Puck nodded at Subaru's schoolboy reaction. And then—
"Ei!"
"Ow—! Why did you just scratch me?!"
"You had an explosion of complex feelings of affection for my daughter.
Maybe I ought to explode you?"
"You ought not!! That daddy mind-set's a complicated thing, geez!"
Puck's "explosion" of fatherly concern threatened to put distance between
Subaru and Emilia. Subaru plaintively bowed his head before Puck, somehow
managing to keep the situation in check. When this process was finished and he
glanced back at Emilia, he saw that she seemed to still be immersed in
conversation with the spirits, never noticing the comedy routine between man
and beast that had ruptured the calm of the morning.
Subaru watched the side of her face, gazing at the gentle, charming smile so
beautiful that you could drown in it, when he abruptly murmured to himself.
"—A silver-haired half-elf, huh?"
It was one of the things Beatrice had said about the Witch of Jealousy.
The witch had shaken the world to its core, and even now, her name was
synonymous with terror. He wondered how great a burden it must be to have
similarities with such a being.
Even Subaru, who had never felt hardships like this, could imagine it was no
easy road to travel. And yet, Emilia had been raised to be an honest, benevolent
person… No doubt in the hope that she would live as a lovely, untainted flower.
"Either she grew up in a real friendly environment, or…"
Puck looked back and smiled, one paw on his hip, the other toying with his
whiskers.
"Or maybe she was raised by a good father. Mm-hmm."
The cat could read his emotions. He'd no doubt discerned Subaru's thoughts
to work out the context of the soliloquy from a moment before.
"Well, to a large extent she was just born that way. Not to harp on it, but that
girl had a much, much harder time than you can imagine. It's adorable how
she's like this in spite of it all, though."
As Puck squinted, the thought of contradicting him never crossed Subaru's
mind.
The plain fact was that Subaru didn't know anything about Emilia, while Puck
had spent an enormity of time with her. Subaru's knowledge of how hard it'd
been for her barely scratched the surface.
Puck was driving home that Subaru had no right to act like he knew.
Men were helpless in the hands of Fate. Subaru knew that powerlessness all
too well.
"Hey, Puck, do you know about the Witch of Jealousy?"
"There is little that I do not know."
"Okay, I wanted to ask you this… Under what circumstances would you use
the Witch of Jealousy's name as an alias? Wait, alias doesn't sound very nice;
it's more like…borrowing the Witch of Jealousy's name temporarily."
The back of his mind recalled an occurrence in the midst of the loop in the
royal capital on the first day of his summons.
In the very, very first loop, Emilia had called herself "Satella" to Subaru, who
knew nothing at all at that point.
Subaru had vaguely guessed what she must've been thinking, but he wanted a
second opinion on the matter. There was no one better than the person who
knew Emilia best.
Not knowing Subaru's intentions, Puck swayed his tail and inclined his head a
bit.
"I think that would be a reckless thing to do. There are still many people with
undiluted hate toward the witch, with fear and despair still carved into their
souls. A person would have to be soft in the head to use the name of the witch
as an alias around people like that."
"I'll take that as a 'never.'"
"Meow meow?"
Puck made a skeptical sound as Subaru poked him with a finger. Subaru then
snapped his fingers, for Puck's support for his hypothesis made him put aside
his own doubts.
In this world, using the name of the witch as an alias would obviously be
insane. It was only Subaru, there by chance without the slightest clue about
what passed for common sense, who would think it was normal. So why would
Emilia, who certainly knew better, claim the name of the witch as her own?
"So she was trying to creep out a weirdo to keep him out of this royal
selection business…"
She had tried to protect him, a boy she had met only in passing.
Emilia's thoughts behind claiming the alias had already vanished into another
dimension. Only Subaru knew she had ever done such a thing. And Subaru
would never have the chance to ask her what she truly intended by it.
But he couldn't help but imagine that that was what it meant. All he could do
was believe.
Subaru, struck by the tenderness of that Emilia in another dimension, was
caught off guard as the current one sat next to him with a strained smile.
"That's quite the distant look you have. What's wrong?"
He could no longer see the flickering lights frolicking around Emilia, so her
pleasant conversation with them seemed over. Puck, having waited off to the
side with Subaru until then, landed on her narrow shoulder to replace them.
"Back in my proper place. Ahh, this is where I'm most at ease. Home sweet
home."
"Oh, so now you're Daddy back home from a trip, are you? Poor you, driving
home all tired like that."
"That's because my eyes were wide open protecting my daughter from a
wolf's poison fangs. Those poison fangs won't come near her, you see?"
"Hey, don't stare at me and talk about 'poison fangs'—twice! You'll ruin my
reputation here."
Subaru forced a smile as Puck's big black eyes beheld him. Playing with the
little cat like this meant he was kicking down the road a bit one of his
opportunities to speak with Emilia, even though she was right there.
It wasn't that he hated talking to Emilia. He just couldn't look her in the eye.
After all, he'd bawled his eyes out on her lap and spent untold hours with her
stroking his head. It'd been only a single night since then; he didn't know how
he could face her.
That he had gone to meet her even so proved only that Subaru had a severe
case of Emilia poisoning.
Faced with Subaru's extreme confusion, Emilia hesitated, too, running an
unhurried finger through her long silver hair. After a brief silence, Emilia made a
determined breath and smiled.
"Err, this is a little embarrassing… Are you feeling all right?"
"I was in a tight spot until I heard Emilia-tan's voice. And, er, also, sorr—"
The apology died on his lips. Subaru swallowed back the word he was about
to say and changed his approach.
"…Thank you. For everything. After all that, I think I have my head on
straighter."
"It doesn't seem you're completely over it, but I'm glad you think you're
getting there. Mm, if I was able to help a little, that's just fine. If you feel
whittled to the bone again, just tell me. Your sister will gently console you."
Emilia teasingly put a hand to her chest and winked.
Surely she was acting this way to lighten Subaru's feelings of guilt. But when
he gazed upon her happy, older sister–ish look, the fact that she kind of seemed
serious made him tremble a bit.
"The main thing is that you're feeling better. You have to work hard today,
you know? Are you sleepy? You slept at such odd times."
"No need to worry. A shut-in like me holding down the fort sleeps all day and
is up all night to begin with. Well, it got a bit healthier as of late."
"Just to ask, what is a shut-in anyway?"
"He is the Guardian of the Culture, always immersed in an ocean of
information about the state of the world and the global economy to better
protect the home day and night… The upper ranks never set a foot outside the
house and even commemorate their lovers' birthdays through their screens."
To be blunt, the souls of those who did that had long risen to a higher plane
of existence.
The oddness of Subaru's explanation seemed to tug at Emilia a little as she
made a lovely smile. Seeing Emilia's reaction, Subaru suddenly had a thought.
"Hey, Emilia-tan, what kind of magic do you use, anyway?"
"Err, strictly speaking, I'm not a magic user. That's because I'm a spirit mage,
including my pact with Puck here. What I use isn't magic but spirit arts. The
principles are largely the same, though…"
"So how are magic users and spirit mages different?"
Subaru turned his neck and looked at Puck sitting on Emilia's shoulder. The
little cat, realizing the conversation had shifted in his direction, stroked the fur
over his belly as he explained.
"Magic users use the mana inside them when they use magic. In contrast,
spirit mages use the mana in the air around them. The process is fairly different,
even when the effects are the same."
"So what kind of differences are those, sensei?"
When Subaru raised his hand and asked his question, Puck, sitting in the
lecturer's role, grinned like a cat in a good mood.
"Technically, it's whether a gate is used or not. The size of a gate depends on
the individual magic user, but that doesn't matter much for spirit mages. That's
because you're using external mana."
"I see. So magic users bring in mana from around them through the gate, then
send it back out the gate when they use magic, but spirit mages can cut out the
middleman." Subaru was digesting the explanation when he tilted his head
halfway. "Mm? But then that makes spirit mages way too powerful. Magic users
are limited to the amount of fuel they can store inside them, but spirit mages
have a free pass to use as much as they want. There's no contest."
"You understand quickly. But it isn't quite that convenient. In the first place,
the mana in the air isn't infinite…"
Puck's words trailed off as he looked up at Emilia. The girl nodded as she took
over.
"And the strength of the spells a spirit mage can use is dependent on the
spirit you've formed a pact with. The predisposition needed to form pacts with
spirits is rare to begin with, and powerful spirits are even rarer. It's difficult to
say which is better."
Subaru replied, "Mm-hmm…but it must feel pretty good to get a pact with a
strong spirit, right? You must really be hot stuff, Emilia-tan. Seems like Puck is
hot stuff himself, though…"
"Well, I can't really deny that I'm above average."
"Man, you just said that with a straight face; no hesitation at all rating
yourself like that?"
Subaru thought his self-consciousness outclassed most, but Puck's bluntness
was a level higher.
No doubt it was the age difference. A greenhorn had seen many fewer years
than Mr. Great Spirit. Though, judging from the rather merry, blushy smile the
Great Spirit was making, maybe he wasn't as used to flattery as he pretended to
be…
"Oh, by the way, what kind of spirit is Puck, anyway? He made ice come out at
the loot seller's place, but…if my memory's right, there's no ice affinity to begin
with."
With the bath serving as a lecture hall, Roswaal had explained to him that the
four orthodox magical affinities were fire, water, wind, and earth. The annoying
light and dark affinities rounded out the six.
It was not Puck, still making a blushy smile, but Emilia who replied to Subaru's
question.
"My specialty is ice, but it's actually fire mana. Fire relates mainly to
temperature, so cooling that which is hot is classified as part of fire,
apparently."
"Huh, is that so? Magical logic…? Magic…? Magic, huh?"
Upon hearing Emilia's explanation, Subaru felt a fondness for magic bubble up
within him. Having withdrawn momentarily, Puck twitched his ears as he looked
at Subaru's face once again and nodded.
"Hmm. By any chance, do you want to use magic?"
"Can I?! I mean…if I can! Super-powerful stuff, like calling down a meteor
shower and—"
"Ah, well, no. Fundamentals are important, both for magic and spirit arts.
Magic is not something you can learn in a day."
Subaru's hopes suddenly leaped up, only for Puck to smack them back down.
Subaru wilted on the spot, then Puck twirled a whisker and added, "But…if you
simply want to experience it, we can do that."
"Meaning…what?"
"Meaning, if you want to use magic, Lia and I just have to support you. We'll
use the mana inside you to use magic through you. The magic we use from the
atmosphere is different from the mana inside you, so the magic itself will come
out of your gate. How about it?"
Emilia rebuked Puck for his invitation.
"Puck, wait. Don't make it sound so causal. It might be dangerous."
However, Subaru's feelings were set in stone.
"Sorry, Emilia-tan. I'm super happy you're worried about me…but I'm gonna
do it!"
Subaru gave Emilia a congenial smile, complete with a glint of his teeth and a
thumbs-up.
Subaru's action, meant to drive away all unease and anxiety, made Emilia's
eyes go wide.
"Wh-why do you want to do it so much…?"
"That's obvious—so that I can live as the man I was born to be!"
Subaru clenched a fist as he made the manliest cry he could.
To anyone born a man, ceasing to pursue your dreams was the same as death
itself. Since arriving in another world, Subaru had never displayed as much
courage as he had then and there.
—Besides, being able to use magic gave him one more option. Perhaps it
would increase his chances of protecting Emilia and the others during the
current loop.
Faced with Subaru's strong spirit, Emilia shook her head, abandoning all
thoughts of stopping him.
"If you think it's getting dangerous, you will stop right away, understand?"
And so, with that warning, she resolved to see Subaru's battle through.
Subaru accepted Emilia's words of caution with a nice smile before turning
back to Puck with bated breath.
"So what should I do first? Draw a magic circle? If you need a sacrifice, can I
volunteer Beako?"
"I'm happy you seem to be getting along better with Betty. Yes, first, how
about I see what affinity you are, Subaru? That's the first step to knowing what
kind of magic you can use."
Subaru's expression, buoyant until that moment, instantly died when he
heard Puck's suggestion. As Puck and Emilia blinked in surprise side by side,
Subaru shook his head in robotic fashion.
"My…affinity…is probably…'fire'…?"
"Why the sudden pauses…?"
When Emilia asked, Subaru simply lowered his eyes. He didn't want to
remember any further.
But Puck leaped off Emilia's shoulder and hovered in front of Subaru's face as
he stretched his tail.
"All right, let's check. Myon myon myon myon…"
"I know the weirdo nobleman did the same thing, but isn't that, like,
overkill?!"
The tip of Puck's long tail swished across Subaru's forehead as his mouth
made the accompanying sound effects. Subaru wallowed in apprehension as he
awaited the scan's verdict.
"Wait, I should think positively about this. Thinking back on it, Roswaal's
behavior was unnatural, wasn't it? Right, he was jealous of the hidden magical
talent within me. Yeah, it was jealousy. That's why he tried to convince me to
just give up—"
"Wow, this is rare. Your affinity's pure Dark."
"Farewell, my magic-using life—!"
Subaru wailed at crossing into another dimension only to be blacklisted by
someone else.
His glittering future was now closed, with the curtain rising on Subaru's life as
nothing more than a debuffer.
"So all I need to do is practice saying, 'I've turned their defense to paper! Go,
NOW!' Ha-ha-ha…"
"Ah, you have no talent at all, either. Your gate's small; at least the number is
kind of okay…? But there's barely any opening, so not much is coming through."
"Shut up, I know that already! Incidentally, what does that talent thing mean,
by the numbers?"
"If you spent twenty years in daily training, you might become a high-end
second-rate magic user."
"So I'd devote half my life and still come up short of top tier… I think I'd better
give up now…"
Emilia finally wore an exasperated look when she heard Subaru hold back
tears as he gave up on his dream. But it couldn't be helped. Yes, effort and
trying your best were words prominently featured in Subaru's lexicon, but
whether to give up on a man's impossible dream or not was a different subject.
"I just want to try the magic demonstration. What do I have to do?"
"Since it's Dark affinity, Lia can't handle it. How about something simple, like
Shamak?"
"Ah, a magic smoke screen? I've never seen it myself," Emilia replied.
Apparently, it was something of such a trivial level that she'd never
encountered it professionally.
The two continued their magic talk while leaving Subaru aside as he sank into
deeper despair about his tiny skill tree.
"It's not fair you're in a world all by yourselves. I mean, we're talking about
my magic, right? I mean, can I actually use that Shamak thing? That's kind of
important here."
"Good point. Unknown magic is a scary thing. All right, this is Shamak."
"—Eh?"
Puck, nodding in concession that Subaru had a point, made a brief incantation
and waved a paw.
The next moment, Subaru's vision was shrouded in darkness. Instantly, the
scene before his eyes was buried in pitch-black.
Startled, he abruptly raised his voice, but the sound never reached his ears.
The profound darkness had cut off his vision from everything outside him. A
shiver went up his spine at being severed from the outside world.
"There, all done."
When Subaru heard the clap of hands, he realized that he had returned to
reality. Seeing Emilia in front of him when his sight returned put him at ease.
"That was just a moment, but he broke out in such a sweat… Subaru, are you
all right? Do you want me to hold your hand?"
"I-I'm all right. I just lost my senses for a moment… Ah, I lost my chance to
hold your hand."
While making his typically flippant comment, Subaru touched his own eyelids
to make sure nothing had changed there.
"So that's a Shamak, huh? It's simple, but it's pretty strong stuff, isn't it?"
"Not at all. Anyone but a lower-grade opponent can brush it off with skill, and
it can't be maintained for long. Although I could cast it on the likes of you so
that you'd spend your entire life in darkness…"
"That's a scary thought!! I'd go crazy if I had to live one day like that, let alone
the rest of my life!"
Subaru made a strained smile. He quietly hid his trembling fists behind him.
He didn't want to convey how the feeling of being momentarily cut off from
the world had filled his entire body with terror. The instant he thought that he
was alone in the world, with no one on his side, the sheer loneliness made
Subaru's heart quake.
I'm pathetic. He bit the thought down and smiled to conceal his inner turmoil.
"Anyway, whether it's any use or not, I can use that magic, too, right? I wanna
try that right away! I want to, but, um!"
"That's fine. I'll assist you. Lia, if his mana runs wild, it might blow up, so
please move back. I don't want to get your clothes dirty."
"It's not like that's gonna happen, right?! That's, like, a super-rare case that
basically never happens, right?!"
Puck smiled in silence. Emilia made a slightly sad face, counseling, "Don't be
reckless, okay?" as she really did move away from him. The very outpouring of
concern deepened his unease. Left in the lurch, Subaru was in an exceedingly
uneasy position as events proceeded.
Puck sat down on top of Subaru's black hair and adjusted the position of his
tail.
"What a prickly and uncomfortable head to sit on."
"Hey, it's not like I thought someone was going to sit on it someday! No one
warned me to bring a cushion, but just, uh, help yourself, okay?"
"Nah, I'll be done and back to Lia's lovely hair in no time. So, ready to begin?"
When prompted, Subaru hesitated for just a moment, but a smile quickly
came over him as he nodded. He was on something of a knife's edge of unease,
but he just couldn't deny his curiosity. Having received Subaru's assent, Puck
made a large nod of his own.
Then, Subaru suddenly felt his entire body get hot. He felt something besides
blood running through his veins—no doubt it was the formless gush of mana
stirring inside him.
He could tell that the energy inside his body was moving in accordance with
Puck's hand.
"Subaru, try to picture it in your mind. Move the mana inside your body,
flowing through me, by your own will. Push a portion of it out of your body
through your gate. Picture it as a black cloud."
"Picture, picture. Trust me, daydreaming is totally my thing."
Subtly distorting Puck's advice, Subaru tried to picture where the energy
wriggling inside his body was supposed to go.
He tried to picture the gate—the doorway at the center of his body. He
pictured himself carefully opening a heavy door to make the energy inside flow
out. Once outside, Subaru would generate the phenomenon by his own will—
Right around the last part, Puck murmured abruptly, "Huh, this isn't good. All
of a sudden, the gate…"
Subaru didn't even have time to ask, The gate what…?
The next moment, Emilia cried out—
"Are you two—?!"
A few seconds later, a black cloud spewed out with explosive force, shrouding
the corner of the inner garden of Roswaal Manor.
He didn't blow up, but the result was a spectacular failure nonetheless.
2.5
"If I must make a conclusion, your control of your gate is too weak, so you
shouldn't push it, Subaru."
"You see me like this and that's the first thing you say, damn it?!"
Puck slapped his head and stuck out his tongue.
"Tee-hee-hee."
"That's not cute, you know!"
Subaru shouted at Puck as his whole body soaked up the sensation of the
lawn. Lying atop the grass, Subaru felt his breaths were labored; his whole body
felt unusually languid. He was as sluggish as if he had a high fever. His limbs
seemed to lack the will to move.
He'd felt something like this before.
Back on what was, in a true sense, his first day at the mansion, he'd felt the
same sluggishness after Beatrice drained his mana. That was to say, Subaru was
completely out of gas at that moment.
Emilia interrupted.
"For better or worse, Subaru simply isn't used to using his gate. That's why it
ignored the user's will and everything inside flew right out."
"So I didn't close the lid right… What am I, soy sauce…?"
He managed to voice his resentment, but the depletion of his strength was
nothing to laugh at. He wanted to at least manage to get up, but he couldn't put
any energy into his limbs or the rest of his body.
Subaru was still stuck lying on the ground when Emilia, kneeling beside him,
met his gaze.
"You mustn't move. You're all out of internal mana, so behave yourself.
Maybe you should take today off work, too."
"—That's really bad!"
Emilia was scolding him like a misbehaving child when Subaru raised his voice
out of the blue. Emilia blinked in surprise off to the side as Subaru deeply rued
his own carelessness.
If he really did have to give up the whole day, it meant abandoning one more
day he needed to put this loop in order. That was crazy, even fatal. And now his
body felt like it was rusted over.
"Ughhhh…"
"Now hold on, I told you not to push it!"
"Now's when I have to push it. If I don't, I'm going to really seriously regret it
later…"
It was by no means unusual for him to reap what he had sowed, but the
timing was simply too awful.
Emilia, seeing Subaru's brow covered with sweat as he struggled with all his
might, slumped her shoulders.
"Goodness, you really can't be helped."
Once more, Emilia's lips tapered as if she was upset with him. Subaru, not
grasping the meaning behind Emilia's statement, could only lift his eyes to look
at her.
"—? Emilia-tan, what's mnnff?!"
Emilia peered down at his face from above while suddenly stuffing something
into his mouth. He felt something round and soft on his tongue. Though
bewildered, Emilia put a hand over his mouth and nodded to him.
"Bite down."
"—?"
"Bite down…and swallow. Yes, there you go."
With Emilia tolerating no dissent, Subaru located the object in his mouth and
bit down on it—hard.
A bittersweet taste swirled all around his mouth. He narrowed his eyes as his
taste buds sensed it was some kind of fruit. The next moment…it hit him.
"Whoaaaaaaa—?!"
Subaru, feeling like his whole body was alight, got up then and there,
practically leaping to his feet.
He felt like his blood was boiling as it coursed through his entire body,
scalding heat reaching all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. He exhaled
hard, as if the air in his lungs was too hot to handle, and his knees were
marching up and down all on their own.
It was around that point when Subaru realized he was standing on his own
two feet.
There were still vestiges of sluggishness in every part of his body, but the
crippling lethargy had vanished.
"Wh…? What was that…?"
"It's called a bokko fruit. When you eat it, it gives the mana inside your body a
kick so that your gate powers up again, just enough to feel a bit better."
Apparently, the mysterious fruit was some kind of MP recovery item.
Subaru rotated his arms and, finding that nothing was wrong aside from a
little fatigue, breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wow, I'm relieved. I'd never forgive myself if I got another BAD END on
account of that. Thanks, Emilia-tan."
"I don't have many of them, and it's not good for the body, so I didn't really
want to use it… You weren't bluffing there, were you?"
No doubt it was Subaru's genuineness that had spurred Emilia into using such
a precious item on him.
Subaru responded to Emilia's prodding by sticking out his chest and boldly
declaring, "Not one bit. I won't let you regret this."
Then he immediately wiped all the sweat off his brow.
"But man, I was an idiot there… When this is all over I'm going to kick myself
even more than before."
He carried the burden of having experienced numerous forms of death,
something other people would only experience but once, but he wanted to
avoid dying from embarrassment if he could at all help it.
In fact, he wanted his suicide by leaping off a cliff to be the last death he ever
experienced.
The scars of having decided to end his own life ran deep. He didn't want to do
that again, ever.
One death was enough for anyone. He wanted death to be the natural end of
his life. Of course, the best result would be some crazy event that ended with
Emilia embracing him, but—
"Man, I'm such a kid I can't even think about it, huh?"
Even though he was always so glib, he would never again casually speak the
word death. Surely Subaru could only laugh at his own cowardice because he
was reliving the same experiences, literally whether he wanted to or not.
Seeing the change in Subaru's expression, Emilia had a sullen look as she
asked, "Are you all right? Do you think you can go to work?"
"I'll do work, and all the other stuff, too. Having you on my side is like riding
an unsinkable battleship, so I'll give it all I've got."
"…Riding a… I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but…"
"Hey, Emilia-tan, how you put that kind of makes me excited. Can you say
that again?"
"You have a lewd look in your eyes, so no."
Their usual banter left Subaru laughing as he stretched his limbs and finally his
back.
"Well, I'd better go face my seniors and turn over a new leaf!"
"I suppose so. I don't think either has spoken one word about you since
yesterday."
"—Ah."
Subaru stretched his back as his hips made their own dull creak.
2.6
"Sister, Sister. The lout known as Subaru has come."
"Rem, Rem. The wage thief named Barusu has appeared."
"I'm very sorry about yesterday…! Please forgive me!"
Subaru sought forgiveness, bowing his head low in an earnest apology.
He felt like he'd done nothing but bow his head for half an entire day. He'd
accounted for everyone at the mansion except Roswaal—meaning the entirety
of the female population.
"I'm back to a route with all the girls looking down on me again… I've got
some deep karma here."
"Sister, Sister. It seems Subaru is quite the pervert."
"Rem, Rem. Subaru is a masochist who likes being degraded."
"That's going too far, especially for you, Big Sis!"
Shouting in response to the sisters' sharp rebuke, Subaru used his arms as a
fulcrum to go from his prostrate position into a handstand, twisting his body
around and using the momentum to rise to his feet.
"Anyway, I'm sorry about being pathetic yesterday and annoying the day
before… Well, a lot happened, but I've had a complete change in attitude, so it's
a new me going forward."
"It was the lap pillow."
"The lap pillow, yes."
"Don't tell me everyone knows?! That's so embarrassing!"
Subaru hid his reddened face and crumbled as the twin maids met each
other's gaze.
"It is time to begin the morning chores, Sister."
"It is time to begin our morning duties, Rem."
"No comment?! That puts me down even more!!"
With a wave, the two left behind Subaru and his pleas, heading off to work
just as they had declared. As they did so, Subaru called for them to stop.
"Time-out, time-out. There's a favor I want to ask about work this morning."
Subaru's appeal made both twins stop, turn around, and tilt their heads in
sync.
"A favor?"
"A hassle?"
"Weird, I haven't heard Big Sis's bluntness for a while and it's getting me all
fired up…"
A pained smile came over him. Unlike the little sister, the older sister's
unpleasant attitude was a lot easier to deal with, but he was glad he could talk
to them like this at all.
He breathed out, trying to brush off the absurdity of it all.
"Actually, I'd like to go see the village. It's nearby, right? Isn't there something
you need to buy there?"
Overnight, he'd formed a firm hypothesis in the archive of forbidden books,
but he wanted to get to the village that day no matter what. That was what was
on Subaru's mind as Rem put a hand to her chest, sinking into thought.
"Certainly, we are running a bit low on spices, so I was thinking of heading to
the village tomorrow…"
"Let's change the schedule and do it today, then. Might as well get more
before you're running out, and you can't just borrow some from the neighbors
out here, can you?"
There were no other mansions in the first place, even if they had wanted to
go see the neighbors.
Rem seemed to ponder Subaru's suggestion a little when…
"It's fine, isn't it?"
"Sister?"
In contrast to the little sister's pondering, the older sister stroked her own
pink hair with a look of indifference.
"We have to buy them either way, and there are no other pressing matters. It
is the perfect opportunity to employ Barusu as a mule."
"I was in bed with a gut wound just three days ago, so take it easy, okay?!"
Subaru had hoped for some warmth from the merciless Ram, but her cover
fire still made him tilt his mind's inner head a bit.
He'd thought so, but this was vivid proof that the twin maids were not united
in their opinions.
He remembered how, in the loop before last, Rem's coming to kill him had
been on Rem's own judgment. Perhaps their thinking was even less on the
same page than Subaru had assumed.
Either way…
"…If Sister…says so, then…"
After thinking it over a bit, Rem finally gave her own consent.
The majority of work at the mansion got done only because of Rem, but
Subaru knew from long experience that she let Ram, the less accomplished of
the two, make a lot of the decisions.
Whether mere coincidence or not, Ram's intervention had essentially settled
the matter.
Subaru pumped a fist as Rem's face went from contemplation back to a calm,
neutral look.
"However, either way, going to the village must wait until after lunch. Let us
do it after Two Solartime…after we have finished all other outstanding work."
"It will be all right. Barusu has pledged to work until his body is ground to a
pulp, yes?"
"Yep. Just watch what I can do now that I've been reborn. I'll work like a hot
knife through you know what."
They corrected his corrupted idiom in unison.
"Butter."
"Right. That."
Subaru scratched his face as it sunk in that he'd succeeded in his negotiations.
Now that the promise to go shopping had been made, it was finally time to
begin servant time.
He watched Rem leave in a hurry, probably sorting out in her head the order
of her chores, before shifting his gaze to Ram beside him.
Naturally, Ram had been given orders to stick with Subaru for another day
and oversee his education.
No doubt it was best to avoid the tension that had built up the day before—or
rather, the day before last. More to the point, finding himself had been so
painful that re-creating the tension was a little too much to ask.
"Getting self-conscious of my own bad points in such a short time like that…
It's a bigger shock than seeing an infant grow into a man in three days."
As Subaru sank into reflection, Ram folded her arms and gave him a cold look.
"Before we get to the issue at hand…"
For some reason, Ram's gaze made Subaru feel like he should straighten his
back. He did so and turned toward her.
"About that magic in the garden earlier…"
"Ah, sorry for the mess. I can't use that thing right, so I'm not touching it for a
while. I hear it'd take twenty years for me to learn the fundamentals right."
"A mess it may have been, but do not provoke Rem too much."
"…?"
Not understanding what Ram meant, a virtual question mark came over
Subaru's face. Ram watched Subaru's inquisitive look before making a belated
hmph.
"Rem was quite disturbed by the magic that covered a corner of the garden as
well as Lady Emilia. You should be dancing for me in thanks for stopping her,
Barusu."
"Ah… Ahhhh… Yeah, you're right…"
In his shock at the failure of his magic, Subaru hadn't noticed, but a third
party was unlikely to see that situation as a mere failed spell.
He was truly grateful that Ram hadn't jumped the gun. On the other hand, he
was aghast at Rem's willingness to make a snap judgment on the spot.
"Oh man, I was way too careless… I have to think ahead more after four
Continues."
"What are you mumbling about…? If we do not get to work soon, both
breakfast and dinner shall run late."
"Oh, I was just thinking about the shopping in the afternoon. Which one of
you will be going with me?"
Under the circumstances, going with Rem would be a heavy weight on his
mind. Either way, though, it made practical sense for Rem to be the one to go
with him to the village. Subaru figured that he'd be going shopping with Rem,
just like he had on two previous occasions. However…
"What nonsense are you speaking?"
"…Eh?"
Subaru inclined his head. For once, Ram's neutral expression broke into a
smile—an extremely cold, malicious, devilish smile.
"You shall go with both of us. You will have a lovely flower on each arm,
Barusu."
That would be nice, as long as the flowers aren't poisonous.
Subaru, now aware that the negotiations had gone a little too well, covered
his face with a palm, looked up to the heavens, and groaned.