4.1
His consciousness floated on a distant wave.
His mind, in a daze atop the shifting tide, floated back and forth between
dream and reality.
"—no other way to save him?"
"—all, I wonder? You should do as you please, then."
Far away—no, close by—at the border neither here nor there, he heard one
person conversing with another.
A clinging voice. A blunt voice. A crying voice. A voice with frozen emotion.
Voices.
Abruptly, he felt an embrace of a soft hand.
He remembered whose it was, because he had felt it several times before.
He craved that warmth. He wanted to go back. He didn't want it to be simply
a dream.
The sensation of the hand suddenly grew distant. Far, far away, unreachable
and untouchable.
"—I will…save you."
Only those words of iron determination remained.
Everything vanished. It all left, leaving him far, far behind.
And then—
4.2
How many times had he been knocked out cold, only to wake up like this?
Subaru stared at the unfamiliar ceiling as such thoughts hovered in his mind.
"Unngh, ow…"
His side spasmed the instant he sat up in bed. That really woke him up.
When he tried to touch his painful belly, he felt something very wrong with
his left arm. The ill feeling remained as he brought his arm before him, seeing
with his own eyes what a sorry state it was in.
There were white scars covering him from the tips of his fingers up to his
wrist.
It wasn't just his arm that felt off.
He yanked up his shirt and saw that he had similar scars on his right side. He
had more on both ankles, on his right upper arm and shoulder, and lastly, one
on his butt.
They all seemed to be scars left from the demon beasts' fangs.
"I was sure I was a goner…"
He'd been bitten all over when shielding Rem.
The maws of the ferocious beasts had made mincemeat out of Subaru's flesh.
He felt how low his life had dimmed in his blood and internal organs; he'd been
more than half sure that it was over.
"So I barely held on to life and got patched up after…?"
Subaru carefully looked around the area as he made sure his fingers were
moving properly.
The ceiling was unfamiliar; the bed, crude. The room was far too cramped to
be one of the rooms in Roswaal Manor. Then he noticed the girl sitting in a
wooden chair right next to the door, her head down as she slept.
"—Emilia."
She showed no sign of responding to his call.
Emilia was breathing quite deeply, matching the depth of her sleep. Her
beautiful silver hair was disheveled for once; more than that, her clothes were
still heavily caked with blood and mud.
He was wounded. He'd slept close to morning. Emilia was sleeping right
beside him. Add all that to the state of her clothing, and even someone as dim-
witted as Subaru could grasp the situation.
"I'm in her debt again, huh…?"
"I wonder about that. This time, Lia might think of it as giving you a hand
because your hard work brought results."
Subaru turned in the direction of the faint murmur. Puck crawled out of
Emilia's hair and hovered in the air beside her.
"Heya. Good morning, Subaru. Those will hold you back, huh?"
"Maybe not. Feels a little stiff where I'm scarred, but I'm not gonna complain
about having my life saved. I'm a guy, so I don't plan on whining just because
my body's scuffed up, either."
He didn't intend to turn them into marks of honor from the field of battle, but
the deep feelings inside him associated with the white scars would no doubt
never fade.
To Subaru, what had happened to the source of his scars was more
important.
"Guess it worked out like I expected, but…what actually happened after? To
be honest, I don't remember a thing after the dogs went chompy-chomp-
chomp on me."
"'Chompy-chomp-chomp' is such a cute way to put it. From what I saw when
they hauled you in, it was more like, 'Chomp-munch-crunch-rip-yank-tear'…"
"If it was like that I'd be dead already. Five or six extra arms wouldn't cover all
that."
"Mm, well, the extra damage you didn't get was why the maid with the blue
hair was in a sorry state."
Subaru's throat suddenly froze over at the casual, carefree way he put it.
Seeing Subaru react like that, Puck added another thought.
"That's because changing to her demon form makes that girl heal wounds
very rapidly. By the time she carried you back to the village, she didn't have
more than scratches left on the outside, enough that she didn't even need
recovery magic."
"Don't scare me like that, then… Anyway, Rem got back to the village, too,
huh? What happened to the last kid with me?"
"You can rest easy about that. All seven children are safe. You really made the
right call, Subaru."
Puck said out loud "clap, clap" as he brought his paws together without a
sound. Subaru imagined Puck's paws were simply too soft for audible applause,
and he twisted his lips at the sight before shaking his head, driving away such
idle thoughts.
"Puck, what about lifting the curses on the kids who got back to the village?"
"Don't worry about that, either. Magic healed them a fair bit, so Betty and I
will lift those curses in no time at all. They're as good as cured; you have my
guarantee."
Puck thumped his own chest as he gave his grandiose seal of approval. Upon
seeing that, Subaru let out a deep breath, relieved at the fact that his own
actions had not been in vain.
Subaru's hand was still on his own chest as his eyes drifted back to the
sleeping Emilia.
"And Emilia…? She pulled an all-nighter?"
"I told her to just be patient and wait, but she wouldn't listen. She even wore
down her od to heal you, so could you let her sleep?"
"Od…? What?"
Subaru shook his head when he heard the unfamiliar piece of vocabulary.
Puck toyed with a whisker.
"The magical energy that fills the air around us is called mana. Od is the
opposite, the magical energy that all living things are imbued with. The total
capacity varies greatly from person to person, and drawing on it really wears
you out, so I told Lia to avoid using it as much as possible, but…"
Puck's words and demeanor made it easy for Subaru to imagine how Emilia
had taken that.
In the first place, calling Puck out during the night was outside the terms of
their pact. If calling upon Puck and Beatrice was what it took to lift the curses,
Emilia wouldn't have hesitated even an instant.
She helped others, even if it meant getting hurt. That was why he loved her.
"This is someone's house in the village, right? Is it all right if I take a look
around?"
If he wasn't going to wake Emilia up, it was best to conclude his quiet
conversation with Puck. Subaru was in the process of sliding his legs off the bed
when Puck replied with an agreeable nod.
"Probably best to move around a little and see how well the healing took,
anyway."
Having received Puck's permission, Subaru slowly began heading out.
Along the way, before he stepped past Emilia, he lowered his head in a polite
bow. As he bowed, he looked at Emilia's sleeping face, desperately holding out
against his urge to tease her as he made his way outside.
Subaru left his room, poking his head out of the building's entryway when he
saw that the village was in an uproar. He murmured, "Ahh, well, guess that
totally figures."
The morning sun hadn't even begun to rise, yet numerous human silhouettes
stood in the plaza at the center of the village.
It was a small village. The details of even the tiniest disturbance spread like
wildfire. Women, children, and the elderly all had looks of concern as they
huddled around the stout young men arguing in the center.
They were no doubt the young men who'd pursued Subaru and Rem into the
forest. He saw that several were wearing bandages; apparently they'd had
casualties, too.
He scanned the crowd, troubled that he couldn't find the face he was looking
for.
"—So you are awake, Barusu?"
The voice came from behind. Subaru stopped and turned around. He could
guess who it was from the way she'd said his name, but still, seeing her face
filled him with relief.
A pink-haired maid—Ram—stood behind him.
Ram had the sleeves of her familiar servant outfit rolled up, and she was
holding something akin to a basket in her hands. Judging from the large number
of baked potatoes filling the basket, she was in the middle of moving them from
point A to point B.
The faint whiff of steam wafting from the potatoes sent Subaru's stomach
into a small growl of heightened expectations. He belatedly realized he was
really hungry.
"How unsightly, waking up ready to eat after worrying others with such grave
wounds. Perhaps you caught rabies from the bites?"
"That's not what these dogs are spreading. Oh, and hey, you worried about
me?"
"Just eat."
"Hfwoh!"
Subaru was teasing Ram for her rare slip of the tongue. So she stuffed a hot
potato into his mouth. His throat blocked off by the scalding potato, Subaru
turned his face up and loudly wolfed the whole thing down.
"I thought I was gonna die there! Tasted good, though!"
"Of course it was tasty. They were freshly baked…no, steamed."
"Oh man, that I'm-so-awesome face ticks me off. Still tasted good, though!"
"Yes, yes. Be quiet if you want another one."
When she handed him the potato, he accepted it, fawning over it like a child.
"Well, I should simply thank you outright concerning the incident last night.
Well done."
"Sure didn't come easily… But why are you thanking me?"
"When the people of a fiefdom suffer harm, it calls the lord into question. At
that rate, the children would have fallen to the Urugarum pack…and so, I
believe your actions to have been correct, Barusu."
"Urugarum… Huh."
So that's what the black demon beasts were called.
Urugarum. As far as Subaru knew, it was also the name of a demon beast
straight out of mythology. Somehow, the name seemed fitting to him. A single
word conveyed that your life was in peril from even a single encounter with the
creature.
Illustration 6
Subaru nodded as Ram shifted her gaze toward the forest.
"We rewove the frayed barrier last night. Judging from the lack of any issues
with it overnight, no Urugarum should be crossing the barrier from here on."
"That's only if no one here crosses past it, right? Not much point to it if a
bunch of kids crosses it to play on the other side and a 'puppy' comes back with
them?"
"That makes painful listening. I shall have a word with the villagers later."
Ram's unchanging neutral expression gave her last sentence some unpleasant
subtext.
Most likely, it was the villagers' duty to check that the barrier was up and
running and to report if it was not; their laxness in doing so had caused Roswaal
difficulty and no doubt rubbed her the wrong way.
After that, Subaru snatched a pair of steamed potatoes from Ram before they
went their separate ways. Ram was heading for the distraught villagers still
arguing among themselves. Ram was surely acting out of fondness for the
village. It was just like Ram to use steamed potatoes to display that goodwill,
too.
"Man, these potatoes are delicious, though. Going light on the salt did real
wonders."
Subaru strolled around the village, munching on his potatoes along the way.
He was checking both on the condition of his body and the well-being of the
children they'd rescued from the forest.
The children were still soundly asleep from fatigue and exhaustion from the
now-lifted curses, but the parents and relatives of the children thanked him,
almost to excess. Put bluntly, Subaru hadn't done it out of a desire for
gratitude, and this sparked a near-terminal case of stage fright. Unable to play
the fool to deflect his rising panic, he blushed up a storm and ran for the hills.
Having done a sweep of the village, Subaru thought he'd return to the house
and wait for Emilia to awaken—but he realized he had yet to see a certain blue-
haired girl's face.
"—"
Suddenly, the sight of the demon girl, laughing loudly while covered in blood
spatter, rose from the back of his mind.
It was a spectacularly ghastly sight. And yet, when Subaru remembered it, he
felt no fear to make his body tremble.
What was it that Subaru had felt when he saw the pure white horn grow from
her forehead? Yes, back then, what Subaru felt was—
But before a word could properly express that emotion, a young girl's voice
called out to Subaru.
"—There you are. Just in time."
A thicket swayed, and through it walked Beatrice, the hem of her showy dress
dragging along the ground in the process.
"Aren't you going to get that long dress awfully dirty, going outside with it like
this?"
"I suppose magical power might repel the sources of grime, such as mud and
sand—More importantly, I need to speak with you."
Beatrice gave Subaru's silly question a serious answer and beckoned him
over.
She wanted to go somewhere else—meaning, it wasn't something she could
discuss with him there. Though that unnerved Subaru a little, he had nothing
against Beatrice here. Subaru followed the girl, who was also his savior, then
abruptly clapped his hands together.
"Come to think of it, you're here outside the mansion because you were
lifting the curses on the kids, right? Thank you."
"…'Tis nothing. I suppose I only did it because Puckie asked me to."
Of course, the reason Puck asked her to was because Emilia asked him to. No
doubt Beatrice understood as much. Yet, knowing this, she used Puck as her
reason once again. She just wasn't a girl who admitted things straight up.
Subaru found himself growing impatient as Beatrice led him to a flower bed
right by one corner of the village. With the villagers gathered in the central
plaza to discuss the demon beast incident, he couldn't see even a single person
randomly strolling around in such a far-flung corner.
"So, what did you bring me all the way out here to tell me?"
Subaru spread both arms out as he spoke. For her part, Beatrice's reply
seemed awkward.
"I thought it had the proper atmosphere to deter you from making boorish
jokes."
Her gaze seemed to be wandering as she toyed with her skirt, like she was
hesitant to say something.
What's with her? Is it that hard to say…?
As far as Subaru was concerned, this plainly wasn't typical Beatrice behavior.
She had the air of a little girl afraid of angering her parents.
Seeing that expression, Subaru just couldn't bring himself to drag it out of her.
He crossed his arms, leaned back on the wooden fence protecting the flower
bed, and waited for her to resume.
The sight of Subaru waiting seemed to spur Beatrice into a decision. She
closed her eyes, then gently opened them, gazing straight at Subaru.
"—In less than half a day, you will die."
4.3
Subaru bit down hard on the words, ground them with his teeth, and
swallowed them. He stopped for several seconds as they passed down his
throat, into his stomach, and finally flowed through his veins to his brain.
Beatrice raised her eyebrows in surprise at Subaru's reaction, apparently far
more silent than she'd anticipated.
"I suppose you are less agitated than I expected. I thought you would be
crying like a baby by now."
Beatrice still had that look on her face when Subaru raised his right hand
before her, showing her a pair of raised fingers.
"Okay. There are two possibilities I can think of here."
Subaru bent down one of his raised fingers as Beatrice stood silently before
him.
"First, this is graveyard humor, a really awful joke. Put bluntly, this really isn't
funny, so…if you're gonna bring out a wooden sign that says FOOLED YA! and
laugh, go ahead, now's the time."
He closed one eye in an attempt to lighten the mood, but Beatrice's
expression went unchanged.
With Beatrice saying nothing before him, Subaru folded the second finger.
"If it's not a joke, there's only one possibility: The curse hasn't been lifted
yet."
Beatrice folded her arms as if to lend support to Subaru's hypothesis.
This was the result of white scars from demon beast bites covering his entire
body. They still throbbed as Subaru looked at them in a new, ominous light.
"I'll ask just to make sure. You can't lift the curse? You're not holding out on
me here?"
He didn't think Beatrice would say, No one asked me to, so I will not, but he
wanted to ask just in case some sliver of hope remained.
Naturally, Beatrice replied to his question with a shake of her head.
"If it was something I could remove, would it put you eternally in my debt, I
wonder?"
"Hey, give me a break here. I'm already up to my eyeballs in debt to you!"
He couldn't repay her for even a smidgeon of it, not last time, not the time
before that, not this time, either. Not in that world.
Subaru's reminiscing brought a suspicious look from Beatrice, but he papered
things over with a hand wave.
"Mind if I ask why you can't lift the curse?"
"…I suppose you should at least know how you shall pass on. It is a simple
tale. There are too many layers of curses, making the curses too complex to
lift."
"…Curses have layers?"
Subaru pondered, trying to come up with an image. Beatrice spread both
hands apart. Suddenly, the two hands were connected together by a red string.
"A curse is like this red string, I wonder?"
Beatrice took the string she held on each end and tied a knot with it.
"This knot is a curse rite. I suppose lifting a curse is as simple as undoing this
knot. But…"
With a deft motion of her fingers, Beatrice increased the number of strings
between her hands. The new strings were blue, yellow, green, pink, black, and
white. She entwined the new strings into knots and tied the knots into one
another.
"If it is only one curse, it can be undone. But if you mix more of them together
like this…"
Beatrice held out both hands, offering the knots to him. Subaru slid a hand
into the tangle. The string, connecting finger to finger, offered no sign of how it
might be unraveled.
"If the curse is like this, too… Aw, crap, yeah, that's a high difficulty level
there."
Even if one or two could be removed, at some point it would be impossible to
know what should be touched. Of course, given sufficient time, it was probably
possible to undo the whole thing, but…
"You said it's set for under half a day from now. What do you figure happens
then?"
"I suppose that part is rather simple. In half a day, the demon beasts' rite to
seize your mana will activate."
Beatrice raised a finger and pointed it at Subaru as she continued.
"Would the curse's purpose be to drain your mana, I wonder? Its aim is to
absorb fuel for the creature's body… In other words, you are the demon beasts'
prey."
"So they attack people when they're hungry? That's a wild animal for you—
keeps things simple. I suppose I should be grateful their bellies weren't empty
before now."
Subaru wanted to lash out and hit something, but unfortunately, his hand was
buried in the string. Beatrice watched Subaru glare at the string as he spoke
resentful words before she replied.
"Are you not afraid, I wonder?"
"Huh?"
"From your point of view, what I have said is a death sentence. Also, even
though Puckie and I have the means to save you, we cannot because there is no
time for it."
Optimistically, Subaru had twelve hours left to live. Depending on how hungry
the demon beasts were, even that time might be shortened.
Having informed Subaru of the fact that he could not be saved, Beatrice
waited for Subaru's reaction. Subaru belatedly thought that Beatrice seemed to
want something.
"What's with you—? You want me to blame you here?"
"—"
Beatrice didn't deny it. But she didn't agree, either. Since Beatrice chose
silence, Subaru couldn't know what was going on inside her, but he made a
pained smile anyway.
"Maybe your and Puck's decision feels a bit inhumane, but it's the natural,
logical choice. The risk and effort involved are too much. You two are right. I
don't think it's heartless at all."
He really believed that. It wasn't just because he was thinking long-term
about his life. Hence—
"—I wanted to ask you something else, though. Do you mind?"
"…What is it, I wonder?"
"Does Emilia know that I'm still cursed?"
That very moment, Emilia was still sleeping in that room, having healed and
nursed him to exhaustion.
If Puck and Beatrice had given up, he wondered how Emilia took it. Had Emilia
abandoned him, too? That was the one thing tugging at him.
"The mixed-blood girl does not know. I suppose Puckie is not attempting to
lift your curse to hide its existence from the girl?"
"…Ah, I see. If Puck starts working on it, Emilia will be able to tell. She'd
probably pick up on the fact that my being cursed like this means the chances of
saving me are pretty slim, too."
When Puck had realized he couldn't save Subaru, his concern had shifted to
Emilia. If he kept his silence until the curse activated, Emilia's heart would bear
only the wound of his death. For Puck, who prioritized Emilia above all else, it
was a good and wise decision. Puck was tougher than he looked; Subaru had to
accept his judgment.
"That aside…"
Subaru switched the subject as he pointed a finger at Beatrice. Beatrice raised
her eyebrows, looking at the finger pointed at her, as Subaru declared:
"You don't look malicious enough to go through all this trouble just to hand
down a death sentence to me."
"…What do you know of me, I wonder?"
"At the very least, enough that it feels like I know you four times as long as
you think I do."
Subaru saw the creases on the girl's forehead deepen further as Subaru's last
two weeks flashed before his eyes.
His relations with Ram and Rem were as good as they'd been since the first
loop. Putting aside the lap pillow, things were A-OK with Emilia. Now he knew
the identity of the shaman, the source of all his ills, and the children's lives had
been saved.
Looking back on the previous loops he'd gone through, this one was near full
marks. It would count as the best by far if only Subaru could live through it.
"You, Rem, and Emilia healed my wounds, right? That's not the way you treat
someone you figure is a goner from a curse and can't be saved."
He felt Beatrice waver. Subaru laughed at how the girl just refused to be
upfront.
"Man, you suck at lying."
"It is a fact that the odds of your being saved are incredibly low. I suppose
that is why Puckie did not want the girl to have anything to do with it?"
"So that's why you're playing the villain to soak up all my anger. That's way
too roundabout for a little girl. So would you tell me about that really-low-odds
possibility?"
He formed a circle with his index finger and thumb, showing it to Beatrice in
search of a reply.
Beatrice hesitated for a while before sighing in resignation.
"Do you remember when I explained about curses, I wonder? I said there is
no way to stop a curse once it has been activated."
Beatrice's words seemed off.
"Yeah, you did say that. That's why it had to be lifted before it activ—No,
wait. The premise is all wrong. If that's the case, then…how'd the kids get
saved?"
Subaru thought hard, unable to square that knowledge with the available
facts.
According to Beatrice, lifting a curse succeeded only against a rite that had
not yet been activated. The fact that there was no way to stop it after it had
been activated was what made it such a scary thing.
The children they'd found in the forest were debilitated. He was certain that
the demon beasts' curses had activated. So the reason the children were alive
was—
As deductions formed in his mind, a possibility emerged that struck him like
lightning.
Subaru lifted his face, turned toward Beatrice, and asked, "What happens to
the curse if the caster dies?"
"A normal curse would continue to take effect. But isn't this rite for eating, I
wonder? If the eater loses his life, the feeding would logically cease midway."
Beatrice's affirmation rang true to Subaru.
The curses on the children had progressed no further because the demon
beasts that had inflicted them had perished. Upon the caster's death, the curse
reverted to a simple rite that Beatrice could lift without difficulty.
The night before, a considerable number of demon beasts must have lost
their lives. If the individuals that had inflicted the curses on the children had
been among them, that supported his deduction.
And that certainty simultaneously gave rise to a new question.
"So that's what it is. There were so many who put curses on me, some are still
out there."
Subaru looked over his shoulder at the forest in which the demon beasts
dwelled.
His entire body had been battered by the countless fangs of the demon beasts
pursuing him. If each and every bite inflicted a curse, there was no way to know
how many Subaru carried. More than that, taking out every single monster in
less than half a day didn't seem realistic.
That's why Puck and Beatrice had dug in their heels, refusing to tell Emilia the
truth.
"Puckie was…"
"You don't need to say it. I know how Emilia is… If she knew, she'd probably
try something crazy. That makes me real happy…and also real scared."
Emilia didn't hesitate to help others, even if it hurt her. That was why Subaru
didn't consider asking Emilia for help. He didn't want to even think about it.
After all, if by some chance he did lose Emilia right before his eyes, ripping his
own body apart a hundred times over wouldn't come close to the pain he
would feel.
"The degree of difficulty's totally demonic. Not totally impossible but still
crazy. Gotta just give u—"
Are you giving up, then?
Subaru was about to complete the word when the voice emerged from the
back of his mind. It was a delicate voice, like a collection of fragments of noise
echoing in his subconscious.
He gasped, lifted his face up, and looked all around.
But there was no one there, except for Beatrice and him. Still, the voice
continued.
Is there another way to save him? it asked, searching for something to cling
to. But somehow the voice was imbued with sorrowful resolve.
"Do you have a headache, I wonder? That is to be expected."
Only that, I wonder? You should do as you please, then.
The Beatrice before his eyes spoke, her words overlapping the different ones
she had spoken elsewhere. He didn't know when or where he'd heard them.
But the conversation he'd heard somewhere jostled around in his head.
His field of vision narrowed as a ringing echoed like a warning bell. Before he
knew it, he began to fall to his knees—
—I will save him.
The voice, echoing with iron resolve, jolted his knees back up. Subaru knew
that voice. He knew whose it was and when he had heard it.
"Where…is Rem?"
Subaru hadn't seen the blue-haired girl anywhere that morning. He'd heard
she had returned to the village with him, safe and sound.
Beatrice stood silent. Subaru closed the distance and asked her.
"Beako… Beatrice. Where…is Rem?"
"If you were in her shoes, what would you do, I wonder?"
"That's not an answer!!"
Her self-important, roundabout reply made him shout, which in turn made
him bend over. His anemic body wavered; Subaru rocked as he looked back on
his own actions.
He wanted to tear someone limb from limb. And here was Beatrice, standing
there to be blasted by his emotions. He couldn't even manage annoyance with
his own wretchedness in behaving exactly as she had expected.
And then…
"I cannot disregard what I heard just now."
Quietly, the emotion in her voice suppressed, Ram walked between Subaru
and Beatrice. Looking back, he realized that the pink-haired maid had walked
over from the direction of the village square.
"Ram…"
When Subaru called out her name, Ram looked back. The sheer coldness of
her gaze made Subaru's breath catch.
He'd somehow imagined as much, but this was the Ram who had cried out in
hatred during the loop she'd lost Rem. With the person she loved most, her
little sister, in danger, would Ram come to hate everything like she had then…?
"—"
Just when he thought that, Subaru realized it.
The hands Ram held crossed in front of her were shaking a little. She was
biting her lip to preserve her neutral expression, desperately trying to keep her
emotions off her face.
"My Clairvoyance cannot locate Rem… Lady Beatrice…where is Rem?"
"All I did was present possibilities. Puckie and I do not have sufficient reason
to act. Our choices are limited, I wonder?"
"That's not it, is it…? So Rem really did go to…?"
—She went into the forest with the intention of wiping out the entire pack
that lived there…by herself.
All to save Subaru Natsuki.
"Why…? Why would Rem go that far for my sake…?!"
Rem had previously taken Subaru's life with her own hands. Even if the
relationship between them was better than before, he didn't think they had a
connection that made her think his life was worth saving at the risk of her own.
Subaru was having a hard time digesting Rem's decision, when he saw the
dramatic reaction in Ram as she stood beside him. In an instant, her expression
of grief hardened into determination; she turned toward the forest, ready to
run after her little sister without any hesitation.
"—Wait!"
Subaru instantly leaped in front of Ram, spreading his arms wide to block her
path.
His demeanor earned him a sharp glare from Ram.
"Move aside, Barusu. I have no time to spare, so I cannot be gentle with you."
"You can't just go without thinking! I've got a bunch of things I have to ask
you, and I want honest answers."
"There is no time for anything like—"
"I wanna save Rem, too. If you think of me as one of you at all, listen to me. I
want to raise the odds here, even a little."
Hearing that this was about saving Rem, Ram's hard posture wavered just a
bit. Subaru, seeing Ram's hesitation, raised a finger into the air.
"There are just two things I wanna ask. Will you be able to tell where Rem is
with your Clairvoyance?"
"…Yes, I will. Once I am past the forest barrier, she will be within range of my
Clairvoyance. With my vision set on 'Beings on the same wavelength as Ram,' if
she is in range, I will find her."
"Different fields of vision to see through, huh…? It's like checking on different
security cameras in a monitor room. Anyway, if we can use that to link up with
Rem, great."
Nodding at the first condition being cleared, Subaru raised a second finger for
question number two.
"So, second question: Ram, are you the type of maid who can fight?"
"…What do you mean by that question?"
As Ram narrowed her eyes, Subaru slumped his shoulders.
"Well, um…until we hook up with Rem, there's no telling how many demon
beasts we'll run into. If we can't protect ourselves, this plan isn't going
anywhere. Just so you know, I'm total deadweight in combat."
"W-wait a moment. Barusu, you intend to come with me…?"
How Subaru so confidently expressed his own shortcomings brought a rare
nervous look over Ram.
"I know that threw you off, but it's mandatory, right? Er, to be honest, if the
goal's just making sure Rem's safe, then you don't really need me, but…"
Ram looked even more doubtful as Subaru's line fizzled out. Seeing her
expression, he hastily waved a hand.
"I've gotta make it to the fifth day with everyone. That's what I've been
fighting for over and over. So please, let me do this."
Seeing Subaru bring both hands together in supplication, Ram's lips trembled
as if she was at a loss for what to say. But in the end, it was not words that
brought an end to that but a sigh.
"If you expect me to fight as well as Rem's horned form, you hope in vain."
"Meaning?"
"Unlike Rem, I am hornless. I can use somewhat violent wind magic, but that
is about all."
As she replied, Ram twirled a finger and made Subaru's hair sway with a gust
of wind.
If she'd used that magic to interfere with nature more violently just then, she
could have sliced off Subaru's right leg or gouged out his throat. The thought of
it sent a chill up his spine.
But he couldn't ask for anyone more reliable to have on his side of the fight.
"Beatrice! Ram and I are heading into the forest. If Emilia wakes up before
we're back, pull the wool over her eyes, okay?"
"…To bring the younger sister back is to abandon your own life. Do you
understand that, I wonder?"
Subaru wagged a finger in response to Beatrice quietly questioning his
resolve.
"That's a little off, so let me correct you. I'm not giving up as if I'm used to
dying. Life is precious, and you have only one. I know you've all worked
desperately to save mine. That's why I'm gonna fight for it, even if it looks ugly."
They'd saved a life he had once thrown away when he thought all was lost. It
was because so many people had reached out to Subaru that he could do this.
It was only thanks to them that he'd made it to extra innings.
"We'll turn this thing around. It was real awful before, but we still got things
this far. I'm doing this because I want to see myself in the sequel… I'm greedy
like that."
It was a stupid reason with no legitimate explanation.
It wasn't a direct answer to Beatrice's question at all, but Subaru puffed his
chest out to her nonetheless.
"I have no idea what you are thinking whatsoever… I suppose you should just
do what you like? I have presented choices. I suppose it is up to you to select
whichever choice you prefer."
"And that's how you sent Rem off, huh? Still…thanks, Beako."
He headed toward the forest, his thoughts turning to Rem, fighting within its
dark depths even now.
She was a high-maintenance girl who had run off without a word, assuming
how others would feel and coming to a hasty, arbitrary decision. Silly and
stubborn.
"I mean, geez, I want to help you at least as much as you want to help me
here."
He cracked his fist to harden his resolve, heading toward the demon beasts'
forest as he made his declaration—a declaration of war against the pack of
black beasts that dwelled within, and against the supernatural force that had
dragged Subaru into this destiny, just in case it was forgetting about him.
"All right, it's time for the championship bout. Mr. Fate? Game on!"
4.4
Some fifty minutes after his declaration of war against Fate, they were in the
gloomy forest when Ram murmured offhandedly, "Well, you certainly talked a
good game."
Ram was walking beside Subaru, looking up at him as he struggled on an area
with poor footing.
"It is difficult to hide my dismay at how much deadweight you truly are."
"Do you even know what the word hide means…? If you let the other person
know what you're hiding, what's the point…?"
And so, Subaru made light of Ram's grandiose, high-handed declaration,
adding a sigh at the end.
Subaru and Ram were in the forest of the demon beasts, walking around and
searching blindly for Rem.
Consciously slipping past the barrier and walking their way deep into the
forest was Ram's idea, knowing full well the nature of the demon beasts.
Normally, they never got close to the village because the barrier hurt them,
leaving the mountains as their habitat. Naturally, Rem ought to have headed
there with the aim of wiping out the beasts.
"That said, the fact that there're just game trails makes it tough going…"
"You may not be accustomed to this, but our meager progress is
unacceptable…truly."
"Wait, don't leave me behind that quickly. I understand how you feel, but just
a little longer!"
Ram's maid outfit might have been wholly out of place for going hiking in the
mountains, but her practiced gait made her marching twice as fast as Subaru's.
To Ram, full of concern about her younger sister, matching Subaru's slow-
footed pace was a hundred cons and no pros.
At the very least, he couldn't restore his good name by moving so slowly.
"I'm walking wounded with a blood shortage, so I'm getting tired easily…
Come to think of it, I didn't have Emilia-tan telling me to come back soon,
either!"
"If you have yet to say, 'I'm back,' last night's 'come back soon' remains in
effect."
"It, ah, it works that way…?"
Subaru tilted his head at Ram's sophistry and thrust the sword in his hand into
the ground like a cane to support his shaky legs as he chased after Rem.
He had borrowed the sword he was using in place of a cane from the young
men of Earlham Village.
Subaru had a hard time forgetting the look on the face of the young man
representing the others the moment he told them he was heading into the
demon beast forest. He had been shocked, and when Subaru brushed off his
cries to stop and partially explained the circumstances, the young man lent
Subaru his sword.
The sword, supposedly the finest in the whole village, was a simple one-
handed blade. Even an amateur like Subaru could manage to swing it. He had
accepted the weapon and the villagers had seen them off.
But that wasn't the only thing they had provided him.
"Inside this pocket are…candy, a pretty stone, and… Whoa! There's a bug in
here!"
Subaru let out a cry as rummaging through the pocket led to touching
something fairly disgusting. Freed from cramped quarters, the winged insect
escaped from Subaru's hand; he watched it fly into the forest.
"Just like those little brats to slip something like that in there. I'll give them a
good sermon later."
"It is proof that they adore you… What do they see in you…?"
"The sincere eyes of children see how my manly nature sparkles before them.
Besides, you're well aware I'm not the only one they like, right?"
Subaru sought Ram's agreement, and Ram concurred.
"…I suppose you are right."
Subaru looked quite satisfied with that, nodding several times.
Ram, too, had seen the children toying with Subaru before they left the
village. Subaru connected heart-to-heart whenever he could; to Ram, that was
something she only wished she could do.
After the young men had seen them off, Subaru and Ram had been caught by
the freshly awakened children. Wanting to thank Subaru and Ram in person, the
children had stuffed one sign of their affection after another into his pocket as
soon as they noticed him. The piece of candy, the pretty stone, even the bug—
these were the children's gratitude in physical form. Subaru could not treat
them lightly…though the bug had gotten away.
Subaru repeated what the children had said with smiling faces as he wavered
under the pressure of unnecessary gratitude being pushed on to him.
"'Bring back Remrin so we can thank her, too…' Huh."
Where was Rem at that moment? How dangerous a spot was she in? Why
was she fighting at the risk of her life?
The children didn't know that. They didn't need to know.
After all—
"Don't worry, ya little brats. I'll make sure she's right there with her big sister
to lecture you about being bad kids for going into a dark forest to play without
saying a word to anyone."
He should probably join them as the stupid boy who'd made trouble for
everyone by rushing headlong into the woods and turning into a human chew
toy. Wouldn't it be fun to kneel for a lecture from the village chief all night?
Naturally, drawing up that image of the future in his mind brought a twist to
his lips.
Then, in contrast to the odd grin on Subaru's cheeks, Ram stopped walking
forward. She quietly lowered her head, speaking in a commanding tone without
looking back.
"Barusu, wait a little. I will be using Clairvoyance."
She turned toward the silent forest. Subaru felt like sound itself had vanished
as he rushed to Ram's side. He drew his sword from its scabbard as he looked
around cautiously.
He couldn't let his guard down, for Ram was defenseless while she was using
her Clairvoyance.
"—"
Ram lowered her pale face as she silently concentrated on Clairvoyance, also
known as the Sight of a Thousand Eyes. She'd explained it as a power that could
borrow the vision of other living things, and not limited to people, either. By
riding the vision of creatures with compatible wavelengths and using the vision
of yet other creatures to further expand her range, she was literally able to look
around with "a thousand eyes."
Ram had used that power to scry the forest several times since they had
entered, but she had yet to locate Rem.
Apparently the sheer abundance of life made it rather difficult.
However—
"Barusu—there are eyes watching us once again."
"They came, huh…? Should I just walk in front?"
Seeing Ram nod while keeping her eyes shut, Subaru inhaled a little and
realized his heart was pounding hard. He gently stepped forward on the grass,
leaving the defenseless Ram by herself and making his way up a moss-covered
boulder. He stood on top of the rock and took a deep breath.
He banged the iron scabbard against the hard surface of the boulder. As the
sound echoed, the forest rustled right in front of him.
"—!"
The silence was broken as the sounds of running across the ground and
unified howls thundered against Subaru's eardrums.
He instantly looked back to see a black four-legged beast above his head,
leaping out from among the trees. Its fangs were bared and aimed at Subaru's
throat, pouncing on Subaru's slow reaction to rip him to shreds.
Subaru instinctively used both hands to protect himself, but the wild beast's
speed outpaced his own. Its maw opened wide as it closed in right before his
eyes. Just before the tips of its fangs were about to easily puncture Subaru's
flesh, bringing blood and his very life gushing forth, a Blade of Wind struck it in
the flank, slicing it neatly into two, slaying it instantly. The front half kept going
and collided hard with Subaru and sent him flying.
"Whoa!"
An exasperated-sounding sigh reached Subaru's ears.
"I simply cannot understand why you lose your nerve at the sight of a single
one of them, Barusu."
Unfortunately for Subaru, he ended his flight by hitting the slope and rolling
downward. He stood up, wiped off his scraped-up butt, and glared defiantly at
Ram, who was looking down at him from the top of the hill.
"Hey, you! You can cut that a little less close, can't you?!"
Ram twisted her lips as she tossed him a nonchalant line.
"I was too concerned about killing it with the least amount of suffering to
think about your needs, Barusu."
Subaru looked at the body lying beside him. It was already a lifeless corpse.
Even though he knew it was a dangerous creature, the thought of a living being
lying dead like that tugged at his thoughts. Subaru gently brought his hands
together in a prayer.
"Your heart will not hold up if it breaks over a single creature, all the more so
because your life is forfeited if they are not annihilated, Barusu… Hunting it like
this was your idea, was it not?"
"Let me have my hypocritical sentimentality here, geez. It's important for my
own peace of mind."
It wasn't so much an issue of sentimentality as it was growing up in different
worlds.
Subaru couldn't exactly claim to be a man of deep faith, but he did revere life.
His awareness of its value had grown a little stronger over the course of Return
by Death.
"So, did you find Rem with your Clairvoyance earlier?"
"No. Unfortunately, she seems to be deeper in the forest. Like just now, it is
proving difficult to concentrate on her location with the Urugarum sporadically
targeting you, Barusu."
Ram put a hand to her cheek as she said it, looking mystified at how the
demon beasts went straight for Subaru. Subaru had a vague suspicion that he
knew the answer, but he couldn't bring himself to say it directly—he was weak.
With Subaru's lips sealed, Ram glanced back and forth between him and the
beast.
"I suppose it is because you are weak."
"And that's what you come up with?! That's rude."
"It is because you are easy prey, then."
"That's a distinction without a difference, Big Sis."
Ram shrugged; Subaru slumped his shoulders.
It was hard to tell if Ram meant those words or was just needling him.
Probably the latter.
Lone demon beasts had attacked them a few times since entering the forest.
Either way, Ram had been using magic to strike down the ones targeting
Subaru.
It was Subaru who'd established the surefire hunting method. They always
went after Subaru, even when Ram was defenseless while using Clairvoyance.
At first, Ram had had her doubts about it, but that was then.
—Subaru halfheartedly thought that now was as good a time as ever to bring
up a different subject.
"Can I ask you what hornless means?"
He'd kept wondering about the term he'd abruptly heard just prior to
entering the forest. He could guess up to a point. Ram took the word in as she
continued looking down at Subaru from above.
"It is what it sounds like, a disparaging term employed by fools to mean a
demon without a horn."
The word demon brought to mind the sight of Rem from the night before. He
would never forget the sight of her covered in blood, laughing hysterically, with
a white, faintly glowing horn on her forehead.
She looked like a demon straight out of the fairy tales.
And Ram had called herself hornless. In other words, Ram's forehead—
"I lost my one and only horn in a minor skirmish. I have had to rely on Rem for
everything ever since."
"…Probably was a bad thing to ask, huh?"
"Why?"
As Subaru scratched his face, Ram tilted her head as if she was genuinely
mystified.
"Er, well, I don't know how big a horn is to someone who's a demon, but I'm
guessing it's a pretty big deal. I thought it might've been pretty insensitive to
ask."
"Even if that is the case, there is no getting it back now. Well, you can rest
easy."
Ram spoke down at Subaru, putting him in his place before lightening her
tone very slightly.
"I may not have been calm about it then, but I am now. I lost my horn, but I
gained a life in its stead—I suppose that is not what Rem thinks, however."
Her voice had a painful overtone before she cut things off, a wave of her hand
indicating her intent—she was entering Clairvoyance again. By the time Subaru
climbed up the slope, Ram was already deeply enmeshed in viewing the world
through the eyes of others.
Ram's eyes were closed, her breathing ragged, and she had a considerable
cold sweat on her brow. Both of her legs trembled, looking like she'd run them
ragged over the course of the long day; more than once, she looked like she
was getting dizzy and was about to totter over. Using Clairvoyance to borrow
the vision of other beings simply put that great a strain on her body.
But no matter how painful it was, not the slightest sound of weakness passed
through Ram's lips.
When you really got down to it, Ram and Rem were twins who greatly
resembled each other. If pushing themselves hard was what it took, they'd do it
without a moment's hesitation. When you considered Emilia and Beatrice as
well, the mansion's girl squad prioritized others just a little too much.
"Man, this makes me feel even guiltier for being a weakling…"
He kicked the grass at his feet. That was a major miscalculation, for a piece of
grass leaped into his mouth and the dirt flew right into his eyes.
Spitting out the earth-tasting grass, he cursed his own extremely hesitant
nature. But he relaxed a little, thinking that even such stupidity was fitting for
him.
Even though he knew it wasn't a good thing to disturb Ram's concentration
while in Clairvoyance, he asked, "Ram. You're worried sick about Rem, right?"
Ram, her concentration focused on aligning herself with other people's vision,
belatedly replied, "Of course I am. Certainly that girl is much stronger than me,
but that is no reason not to worry."
"…Yeah."
"Even if she is better than I am at everything, I am still her older sister. That
will never change."
Until then, Subaru had seen Ram as someone who used her younger sister for
the sole sake of making things easier on herself. He'd gotten it all wrong. Calling
it a foolish misunderstanding didn't come close to cutting it.
Ram understood her own position far more keenly than Subaru ever had. She
was well aware that she couldn't live up to Rem's constant boasts.
Subaru, seeing how Ram had accepted it, could only harden his own resolve.
He scratched his head, murmuring as he stretched to loosen up.
"I really figured we'd have met up with Rem by now, but…"
Maybe Ram felt how Subaru seemed unable to calm down. At any rate, she
abandoned her fruitless Clairvoyance and brought her mind back in full. She
promptly put her sweaty hair in better order as she cast Subaru a suspicious
glance.
"Barusu, what do you plan on doing?"
"The way things are, I'm just baggage, exactly as you said. I told you before
we headed into the woods… I'm gonna make myself useful and help save Rem."
He wasn't waiting to be sure of his guess, but based on prior events, he gave
it about 70:30 odds in his favor. Of course, the remaining 30 percent weighed
heavily on his mind, but…
"I've gotta play the hot hand here. Ram, you ready to cross a somewhat
dangerous bridge?"
"I am alone with a young man in a forest full of demon beasts. As a maiden,
there is surely no greater danger."
"Oh, now you've said it, Sister."
Subaru laughed, then took a deep breath and reopened his eyes.
If Subaru's thought proved true, he could turn the situation around. Even
though he knew it was necessary, it didn't quell the fear in his heart.
He knew he was a scaredy-cat. Even so, there were some things he couldn't
run from.
If Subaru was right, this was one of them…
"Ram, actually, I—"
—He began to speak of Return by Death.
Subaru acted like he was about to break the taboo, putting into words that
which it was forbidden to convey.
Before his eyes, Ram looked like she was wondering what Subaru was saying
when her expression froze.
No—time itself had stopped.
The world lost color, sound vanished, and the very concept of time came to a
grinding halt.
It was a world where everything had stopped. Suddenly, the sole exception to
the rule appeared.
"There you are."
His murmur did not actually create a sound, but he hoped his invective still
reached that which hovered before his eyes. If even a fraction of his emotions
communicated, that would give him great satisfaction indeed.
In the frozen world, the only thing unaffected was the black cloud. The cloud
that had suddenly emerged before Subaru shifted into a silhouette of an arm to
call his bluff. It formed fingers, then a wrist; the biceps emerged to complete a
full right arm. Though the previous arm hadn't even reached an elbow, this one
materialized all the way up to the shoulder.
"—"
Subaru's breath felt like it caught inside him as the cloud, more distinct than
the first time around, slid its black fingers forward. They moved past the thin
flesh of his chest, stroked his rib cage, and went straight toward his heart.
Even though he knew it was coming, there was no way he could endure pain
so far past his limits. He had no words with which to express the mad screams
inside his head from feeling his heart directly grasped.
The long suffering, the time of unbearable anguish, continued.
His heart rhythm was thrown off. His blood flow was cranked to the limit,
making his entire body scream out. It was such torture that he felt like he was
gushing tears of blood, biting down on his teeth hard enough to break them.
For Subaru, the only thing he could sense in this world was pain. All he was
allowed to do was continue to writhe.
The agony seemed to last for eternity as his field of vision was dyed pure
white—
"—Barusu?"
When he heard his nickname, Subaru realized he had fallen onto his knees
and butt. He hastily wiped off the saliva that had spilled from the corner of his
lips and rose back up.
"Man, daydreams are bad, bad stuff."
"It is because you forced yourself back from injury too soon. If it is too hard,
you should return to the village. If you have some other way to find Rem, at
least tell me that before…"
Before completing her sentence, Ram gasped, and her expression changed as
she looked all around the area.
The only sounds were those of the quiet forest: tree branches swaying from
the wind and leaves rustling as they rubbed against one another. Ram listened
carefully as she looked back at Subaru.
"What did you do, Barusu?"
"…I rolled the dice a little, pain and all."
Despite how extreme the pain had been, not even a single trace of that
remained in his body at that moment.
Even as Subaru silently reviled the wounds carved solely into his mind, he was
grateful for the saving grace that his body still had enough endurance with
which to act.
After all—
Within the deep verdant foliage, the rustle of the wind began to lose its
tranquility. Ram frowned and looked to her right.
"The wind is astir… The scents of beasts approach, many of them."
He looked that way, too, and saw multiple red points of light approaching
from deeper in the forest. Based on the number of eyes, there were about five
demon beasts running their way.
Ram made a small click of her tongue.
"And we haven't even found Rem yet…!"
"Well, don't worry about that. She's not that far, so we'll hook up soon
enough."
"How can you be certain of such a thing?"
Subaru shrugged in the face of Ram's sharp gaze and rebuke.
"Rem's goal is to wipe out the demon beasts here in the forest, right? As long
as I'm here, they're going to keep coming to try to eat me. That'll bring Rem
running straight to me in time."
He'd been thinking of it from the beginning. And he'd also thought it strange
from the beginning. Why did the demon beasts prefer Subaru as their target for
the curse during every loop?
When Subaru repeated those four days, the demon beast always cursed
Subaru when they'd met in the village. That wasn't so much unavoidable fate as
the operation of some other compulsion.
Subaru's existence provoked a reaction from the demon beasts. Subaru had
deduced the answer as to why from the exaggerated reactions he'd received
from other sources.
"In other words—it's the stench of the witch."
Demon beasts were enemies of all mankind created by the witch. And they
seemed to be intensely sensitive to Subaru, who carried the scent of the witch.
That was no doubt why they'd gone after him and not Ram since they had
entered the forest together.
If all it took was a whiff of the witch to compel the demon beasts to appear,
he'd make full use of that. He'd lure every demon beast in the forest to put
their curses into Subaru, a grand feast that would bring Rem running in after
them.
He called it Operation: Subaru Chew Toy.
When he'd previously tried to tell Emilia about Return by Death, Beatrice had
made an offhanded comment in the aftermath that gave him the clue he
needed to draw up his plan. Apparently, the appearance of the dark cloud had
thickened the stench of the witch hovering around him.
That haze was probably related to the witch in some way. Somehow, the
scent of the witch around Subaru was related to the power behind Return by
Death—but it was not the time to think about such things.
All he had was anguish he could not speak of to anyone, ferocious pain
without anyone who could hear him complain.
In the face of fast-approaching danger, the sheer exhilaration of turning the
tables on the hand Fate had dealt him made the corners of Subaru's lips warp
into a malevolent grin.
—Yeah, I've finally shot an arrow off at Fate for putting this loop together!
Cheering inside his mind, he re-gripped his one-handed sword, positioning
himself to face the oncoming tide. And to Ram, who stood by his side, he stated
in a high-pitched voice, "So, since you're super reliable in a fight, please and
thank you for that!"
"After this, when you look back objectively at what you said, please beg me to
kill you."
A sigh trailed behind Ram's voice as she slammed a Blade of Wind into the
throng approaching from the front.
—The cast had been changed for round two in the battle against the demon
beasts.
4.5
He kicked off from the ground and leaped forward.
He trampled on the large, undulating root beneath him, slamming his feet
into it as hard as he could.
He had been truly mistaken to think that there was no sure footing when
moving through forests and mountains without any proper roads. All he had to
do was run down the natural game trails and not hesitate in his judgment as to
where his heels should touch down. Trusting the stoutness of his shoes as he
stepped forward made a huge difference in progress.
His breath was ragged. The sweat on his brow was getting into his eyes, so he
made painful blinks to give the sweat somewhere to go.
He was sprinting full force, tilting his body forward to reduce wind resistance
even the tiniest bit. But the sounds of his pursuers' footsteps did not diminish.
They rang out right beside him, as if mocking Subaru's attempt to escape. The
chances of getting away were virtually nil.
His lungs hurt, and he gasped as if desperate for oxygen. Subaru's mouth was
open in an unsightly fashion. And to top it off—
"What a horrid face… I shall tell your home village on you."
"I'll remember that later, damn it!!"
Subaru immediately regretted his unnecessary use of oxygen as he continued
to carry Ram in his arms as he ran.
About ten minutes had passed since he'd used the stench of the witch for
Operation: Subaru Chew Toy. As Subaru had planned, the demon beast pack
had gathered around them. Amid exceptionally harsh combat, the two of them
finally…had no option but to run through the forest for their lives.
"And I believed you could fight them, geez!"
"I did fight them. My endurance simply didn't hold up as well as I had hoped."
"What about being ready to cross a dangerous bridge there?!"
"It was a bridge too far. We would have fallen before crossing it."
Ram had a comeback for everything Subaru had to offer.
Her mana had been depleted from repeated combat; she wasn't even in any
state to properly move her limbs.
The demon beasts had treated Subaru's release of the witch's stench as a
written invitation, arriving one after another, their numbers soon exceeding
anything they could handle. The only word he could muster was regret.
Ram had used her wind magic to take out some seventeen fiends. Things had
gone swimmingly until that point, but Ram suddenly lost her strength and
collapsed. Subaru, scared witless right beside her, picked Ram up, carried her,
and started running for the hills—
"Nothing changes with you… Still, I appreciate your inability to prepare."
"You're cheeky for a girl being carried around! And don't talk too much! Looks
like you bit your tongue…and my strength's…not…gonna…hold…!"
Subaru could boast athletic ability that scored well above the norm, but that
was all indoor stuff. Outdoors, his stamina issues were substantial. He'd never
dreamed of running a marathon back in school.
Even with his pathetic stamina, he wrung out everything he could in that life-
and-death situation. That said, it was only a matter of time until his endurance
ran dry…
No doubt the demon beasts pursuing them were well aware that Subaru was
at the end of his strength. They'd nipped at his heels as if they truly enjoyed
preying on the weak, which further fueled his flight instincts.
"Looks like it's finally time to unleash the power hidden within m—Ow!"
Subaru let out a painful yelp as demon beast fangs sank into his right
shoulder.
One of the bastards toying with him had run ahead of them. The sharp pain
buried deep in his shoulder and thrust into his brain, making his head feel like it
was about to burst. He desperately twisted his body in an attempt to shake the
beast off him—
"—Barusu!"
"Oh cra—!"
Right after Ram spoke from within his arms, the forest suddenly opened wide,
and Subaru's feet were slicing through the air.
His feet clawed at the sky as a floating feeling assaulted him, as if every
internal organ were rising inside him. The next moment, his heels dug into the
slope; Subaru and Ram lost their balance as they slid down together.
"Bastards tricked me…!"
He should never have underestimated them as mere beasts. Even though
repeated contact with them had given Subaru an appreciation for their
intelligence, when push came to shove, he'd been unable to shake his
impression of them as just animals.
As a result, the seemingly viable path he'd followed had literally led him off a
cliff.
"Damn it all!!"
Subaru's yell made his throat tremble as they slid down at an even sharper
angle. He held Ram tighter as he thrust the drawn sword in his left hand into
the cliff.
"Owwww, ow, ow, ow!"
His left side scraped against the ground as the sword he'd thrust into the cliff
twisted, stopping them from sliding farther. When he looked, the cliff ended a
short distance below; had he been a single second slower, they would have
surely met their deaths.
"Whoaa!"
When he looked up, several demon beasts pursuing them were rolling down
beside them.
The beasts, moving with too much force to stop, yelped like domesticated
dogs as they vanished off the edge of the precipice. Their bodies mercilessly
smashed against the sharp, rocky ravine below; the sound of their bones
breaking reached even Subaru's eardrums.
"Ah, we came very close to needing condolences ourselves…"
"Arm…hurts…!"
Ram complained as Subaru's arm tightened around her.
Her body was light, but when added to Subaru's own weight, the burden on
the sword thrust into the ground, and on Subaru as he gripped it, was more
than two hundred pounds. His limit would not be long in coming.
"It will of course be dangerous if we fall down the cliff. Can you climb,
Barusu?"
"I'd love to tough it out…but the demon beasts up there are still a problem,"
he said as he put more strength into his left arm. He let the blade, thrust in at
an angle, support their weight as he tried to somehow get in a more stable
position, when…
"—Ah," both said together.
The same moment, the high-pitched sound of steel breaking rang around the
area.
The blade thrust into the cliff snapped, leaving the end of the sword stuck in
the slope.
He hastily thrust the warped blade into the ground anew, but the dull edge
didn't penetrate very deep.
He clung to the slope with all his body, resigned to however scraped up he
might become, but friction alone could not slow two people. His efforts proved
fruitless as the blade popped out. They began to fall once more.
"Aaaaa! We're done for—!!"
"—You owe me for this, Barusu!!"
Subaru fell headfirst, every hair on his body standing up as he recalled flinging
himself over a cliff. Even so, he never abandoned his duty as a man, continuing
to hold Ram in his arms to try to shield her from the fall.
Ram let him handle the physical work and twisted in his arms to aim her
hands toward the ground.
"—El Fulla!"
Mana welled up in Ram as she chanted, causing a powerful gust of wind to
erupt at their estimated landing point. As they fell straight down, Subaru's body
hit the ascending air current and rode on the pressure underneath them; he
managed to get them upright again as their fall slowed further.
We can do this, he judged while the world spun all around them. He focused
all his strength into his legs, biting down hard enough to split his teeth as he
endured the impact of landing.
"Nguuuuuuh, aaaaaa—we made it!!"
—They had endured.
He labored to leap onto his numb, incredibly unhappy legs as he looked up at
the cliff from which they had fallen. He was aghast at the height—over thirty
feet, the rough equivalent of jumping out from the fourth floor of his high
school. That, combined with the hardness of the ground, made their very
survival quite a feat.
"You totally turned into my Buddha there, Ram. If it wasn't for your wind
magic there, we'd be—"
It was when Subaru tried to express his gratitude for Ram saving his life that
he realized she wasn't moving within his arms.
Ram's head drooped as a thin line of blood trickled down from her nostril. Her
eyes were closed, her breaths shallow, and the only sounds she made were
painful moans.
"Ah, er, Ram? Uh, geez, this is bad."
He gently rocked her body and called out to her, but Ram made no reply.
From the beginning, she'd been exhausted from using Clairvoyance and
fighting the demon beasts. No doubt Ram had really overdone it with that spell,
putting her mind in a precarious state.
"Ah, crap. My timing really is shitty…"
Subaru cursed his own impulsiveness as he re-embraced Ram more carefully.
He laid her down beside him, awkwardly slid the broken blade into its sheath,
and looked up.
Even the demon beasts couldn't leap down the edge of a sheer precipice after
them. Surely they'd circle around to resume their pursuit. He'd hoped that
would give them the advantage in the meantime.
"Oh, come on, you've gotta be kidding me!"
The very moment Subaru looked above his head, a large number of rocks
flowed down the slope that they'd barely survived falling from—and riding atop
them was a pack of demon beasts, with a pup deploying its mana leading the
way.
Subaru recognized the demon beast pup: He was absolutely certain it was the
one that had first cursed him in the village, and the one that Rem had delivered
a powerful blow to when it chased the children the night before.
Seeing the way the other demon beasts followed it, as if it led that whole pack
in spite of its size, Subaru couldn't keep a dry laugh away.
"I'm starting to hate you, Lady Witch—that perfume of yours is overkill."
Duly lodging his complaint, Subaru checked on his numb legs as he prepared
to flee once more. He prayed that the demon beasts would show them
contempt and not pounce the instant they landed—
"Er, wha…?"
A moment before Subaru started running, he tilted his head, sensing that
something was off.
The demon beasts sliding down the cliff looked wrong. They began to flinch
while on the rolling rocks, and the instant they hit the ground under the cliff,
they began to scatter in all directions.
"Huh? Uh, I'm over here, guys…?"
The sight of them scattering like little spiders was a bit much for him to take
in.
The heck's going on here…? The moment after he thought it, the explosion
atop the cliff brought the answer.
"—Heh?"
When he looked up again, the change atop the cliff surprised Subaru, but he
instantly understood.
—A human silhouette now stood on the precipice far above them.
It was a girl wearing a servant's outfit, her blood-drenched ball and chain held
low as she glared down the incline with eyes that had lost all trace of sanity.
The moment his eyes met that murderous gaze, Subaru broke out in a cold
sweat as he experienced a bad feeling like no other.
In an instant, the demon leaped off the high cliff to land on the ground far
below.
Subaru's breath caught. Here he was, deep in the forest surrounded by
demon beasts, face-to-face with a demon girl, one arm around a girl he had to
protect at all costs—and he had arrived at the final stage wielding nothing but a
broken sword.
"This is just…a tiny bit unfair, don't you think?"
His plea died on the breeze blowing through the forest, unheard.
It was, as they say, a do-or-die situation—
4.6
Ram and Subaru had entered the forest of the demon beasts fully aware of
the danger, but since they had cooperated together to take down the beasts,
they had arrived deep in the forest without a scratch. The idea was to find Rem,
who would be miraculously unharmed, and lecture her for being a loose cannon
in a safe, peaceful, happy reunion. And, using Subaru's knack for drawing the
demon beasts to him, they'd use Ram's and Rem's sisterly powers to take down
the demon beasts one after another, liberating Subaru from the curse. End of
story.
"That's how I imagined it, but, yeah…"
In a pathetic voice, Subaru mused about how his smooth-sailing scenario was
now in tatters.
Subaru didn't see a single shred of friendship in Rem's eyes as she stood
before him. All he sensed was pitch-black bloodlust.
Though he couldn't be sure, she didn't look like she was in any mental
condition for them to talk things through.
The pressure rolling off her made him hesitate to even blink. He didn't know
what might happen if he took his eyes off the threat in front of him for even a
split second.
—That very thought brought a strained smile to Subaru as he realized Rem
viewed him as her enemy. What the hell am I doing all the way out here, then?
"Heya, Remrin, it's your pal Subaru! Your buddy!"
Unaware that his face had gone stiff, Subaru nonetheless managed to call out
with a cheerful voice. Perhaps he thought that calling to Rem might bring her
back to her senses, but…
Rem turned her head toward him, locking on with a look so sharp that he
could practically hear it.
"If you give me steamy looks like that, I'm gonna get singed…"
Subaru felt the entire weight of her attention on him. Perhaps he had failed.
Rem's dreadful appearance certainly warranted that thought.
The familiar servant's outfit on her was fully covered in blood spatter. A coat
of fresh blood dampened the dried blood below it in a gruesome two-tone
pattern, sporting blackish red and vivid red.
Her nails were long and sharp enough to rival those of the demon beasts—
perhaps an effect of her horned form. Under her right hand was her iron ball for
"self-defense" and a pool of blood and little bits of flesh, an exceptionally
ominous combination.
He'd somewhat expected to find Rem like this, so he was able to keep hold of
his senses, but if Subaru had met this Rem in a dark alley, it was safe to say he'd
be 100 percent certain to piss his pants.
That was how terrible Rem was in her ghoulish madness—and yet, in the
midst of it all, the white horn protruding from her forehead had maintained its
purity and beauty. To Subaru, even though the horn was the very symbol of
Rem's malevolent demon state, it was the only thing that seemed out of place
in contrast to the rest.
But the circumstances did not permit Subaru such leisurely thoughts.
When he looked, he saw scattered demon beasts waiting behind the shadows
of boulders and among the trees of the forest. No doubt the beasts were
watching their every move.
He'd be lunch the instant he showed them the slightest opening.
Rem standing before him, the demon beasts standing behind—his life was
truly dangling by a thread.
Subaru couldn't move. The demon beasts couldn't move. The entire situation
would hinge on Rem's next action.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and looked straight back at Rem once
more.
He didn't know if he could make Rem's eyes waver, but he had to give it
everything he had and leave no stone unturned.
Then—
"Sister…"
Her voice was tired and faint. However, the sound and its meaning thrummed
in Subaru's ears. Her lips quivered, and she seemed out of sorts as her eyes
fixated on the side of Ram's face.
Even amid a frenzy sufficient to make her lose her sanity, Rem still recognized
the sight of her other half, the sister she loved above all. Subaru sighed in
astonishment.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a sister complex. If that brought you
back to sanity, I'm all for—"
"—Let her go."
She interrupted his words as she flung the iron ball at him with the force of a
typhoon.
It was close to a miracle that he'd managed to bend his body to the left in
time. It was perhaps fortunate that Subaru's knees were a little wobbly, having
not yet recovered from the earlier hard landing.
The spikes of the iron ball grazed his right shoulder as it passed. The anguish
clawing out his flesh sent his brain into hysteria.
Biting down to hold back a pain-filled shout, Subaru advanced at an angle.
"That hurt, damn it!"
Subaru turned his gouged shoulder before sidestepping the chain as it lashed
downward. A moment later, the chain violently slammed into the spot where
Subaru had just been, leaving a snakelike trail on the ground.
If Subaru had been any slower in dodging, his back would have borne an
identical mark.
He shuddered, imagining his flesh rending as he looked at Rem. But Rem
looked no different from before. Her eyes were steeped in enmity without
having regained their sanity.
"Horned form isn't the problem; it's whether or not you can control it…"
That was Subaru's guess based on Rem's current demeanor.
If that was the case, the issue was how to restore her sanity. She'd been in a
frenzied state the night before, too, but her mind had been more Rem than
mad demon in the moments before he'd blacked out.
Perhaps the sight of Subaru gravely injured before her eyes would be enough
of a shock to snap her back to lucidity.
"Maybe I should try getting hit by the iron ball once? Wait, I'll be mincemeat
then…"
Repeating the conditions from the night before would surely bring Rem
around, but by then Subaru would be dog food.
"—"
Ram might have understood the situation, but the girl in his arms was a long
way from conscious; he'd been trying to shake her awake, but that was
probably going to take some time.
Time that Rem and the demon beasts surrounding him weren't likely to
permit.
Subaru licked a drop of sweat trickling down his cheek, using the moisture on
his tongue to lubricate his lips.
If no new option presented itself, he'd just have to try everything.
If charging forward was the only way, then that was that. It was the Subaru
way.
"Hey, Rem! Don't just look at your sister in my arms here, look at me! My
name is Subaru Natsuki! The absolutely useless newbie doing odd jobs! The
doe-eyed manservant at Roswaal Manor! I probably caused you and Ram a lot
of trouble, but we got along some of the time, ri—Whoa!"
He was in the middle of appealing to Ram's memories and emotions when her
short temper put an immediate stop to it.
The whirring iron ball snapped and shattered the trunk of every tree in its
path, smashing branches along the way as Subaru made a leaping forward roll
to evade. He dodged her next attacks with a pretty hop-step-jump and looked
back.
"It's rude to beat someone to death midsentence! I saw my family's faces
before my eyes there… Ah, here we are!"
As Subaru yelled, Rem leaned forward and murmured, "Give Sister back…!"
But out of the blue, Rem yanked back the iron ball she'd swung with one arm
alone, using the momentum to spin her body around on a dime when…
"—!"
…Rem's backward spinning kick connected with the torso of the demon beast
leaping at her from behind. With a roar equal to that of a bomb, the demon
beast exploded; even from some distance away, Subaru could clearly make out
its innards sailing through the air.
That's what you get for trying to profit from the misery of others.
The demon beasts had formed a second wave to attack behind the vanguard,
but the gruesome sight of that death made them stop in their tracks. But this
was folly, no different from offering up one's belly in the face of one's predator.
She unleashed a single horizontal attack that smashed together the bellies
and skulls of the next two beasts. Rem, unconcerned by the flying blood and
flesh, charged in the wake of her attack. One of the beasts drew its head back,
so she crushed one of its front paws; now that it had stopped moving, she used
her other foot to kick it in the head, snapping its neck.
Her heel continued up, then back down into the torso of the next beast. A
third pounced at Rem to avenge its comrade, but she gripped its throat below
its wide-open maw and hurled it high into the sky. The demon beast arced
through the air, curling its tail as it made a faint yelp. It flew farther and farther,
then closer and closer, until finally smashing against the hard ground with a
sound resembling that of an overripe fruit.
Slaughter followed slaughter. It was carnage for the sake of carnage, a
massacre even by massacre standards.
It was already plain that the beasts could not compare to the destructive
power of the single, mighty horned demon who had descended upon them.
Yet even so—
"Damn, numbers really are a weapon all their own."
Though the demon beasts saw their brethren cut down one after another,
they showed no sign of disengaging. They bared their fangs, brandished their
claws, and howled menacingly as they sprang at Rem.
Even as they were blown away, crushed, smashed, and dismembered, adding
to the pile of demon beast corpses, they carved shallow wounds into Rem's
body little by little. When Subaru saw that the maid outfit, drenched in blood
spatter, was reddening not just from the outside but fresh bleeding from the
inside, he realized the tide had begun to turn against them.
The battle before his eyes between horned demon and demon beast was
extremely intense; they no longer paid any heed to Subaru and Ram
whatsoever. Both sides were leaving low-threat opponents for later as they
concentrated their rampages on their mortal enemies.
If Rem had been dominating the battle, Subaru would no doubt have let her
hunt the demon beasts to extinction without it weighing on his conscience. But
her situation was gradually getting worse.
"—"
Rem's arms flung about, mowing down demon beast torsos. She gasped in
pain as claw after claw reached her own body. Blood scattered; lacerations
carved into her white skin.
Subaru couldn't just sit and watch.
There was a way. All he had to do was butt into the fight. But charging in to
join the fray directly would only get him wrapped up in the typhoon and blown
back the way he came. For him, interjecting meant drawing the horned
demon's and the demon beasts' attention to something besides one another—
it was the only way to save Rem.
He resigned himself, spread his legs, took a deep breath, and looked right at
Rem.
—I can do this. Girls have charm, boys have courage.
"Don't make that scary face, Rem. Smile. I've Returned by—"
For the second time that day, the world ground to a halt, and the black cloud
brought another banquet of screams.
Even though he'd resigned himself to the extreme pain that would arise, it
was not pain one could endure. All the more so because this time, it was not
just a right arm but a left arm that emerged with it.
Perhaps the completed right arm had developed a taste for this. Before
Subaru's unmoving, wide-open eyes, the right hand slid past his rib cage and
brushed against his internal organs as the left hand split off.
The right hand went for his heart; the other caressed Subaru's cheek like it
was fond of him.
—Terror welled within him, and the next moment, pain shot through his
every nerve.
He ceased to be himself. From the top of his head to the tips of his toes, he
had a horrible, unendurable sense that something was wrong. His brain boiled
in a tempest of negative emotions; his consciousness faded in and out.
And yet, the soft touch of the palm on his cheek bore warmth that brought
relief when he felt like his mind and body were about to melt. But Subaru knew
a feeling of beyond that, so—
"I'm…back!"
His vision was blurred. His soul had been whittled down. None of the pain and
suffering had carried over to the real world.
No time had passed. Rem and the demon beasts were in front of him, at each
other's throats just like before.
—But the instant Subaru returned to reality, a great change came over the
field of battle. Rem and the demon beasts poured all their attention onto
Subaru; it was as if some anomaly had emerged then and there that could not
be ignored.
No doubt the cause was that, just as Subaru had planned, the witch's stench
was erupting from him.
"—!"
Rem roared. The demon beasts howled in unison. Subaru, too, yelled at the
top of his lungs.
With split-second timing, he evaded the claws of the leaping demon beasts
and the iron ball slamming toward him, as if his life, his very soul, had been set
on fire.
—And so the great melee began.
4.7
As the unquestionably odd one out in a battle of horned demon, demon
beast, and ordinary boy, Subaru paid attention to every detail of the melee as
he bobbed and weaved.
His conduct was exceedingly simple. He'd hold his position as the battle grew
more intense, making no effort to increase the distance, dodging only the
sparks that fell in his direction—end of story.
"—"
Once again, the demon beasts pounded by the iron ball became wall paste
before his eyes. Heedless of their comrades' deaths, three demon beasts
teamed up to attack Rem without pause, aiming to inflict greater wounds upon
her. But such crude intelligence went to waste, for her hand knocked them
away; once they were immobile, they became easy prey for the iron ball's
descent.
Subaru glanced at the spectacle as he shifted his hold on Ram, in danger of
falling out of his grasp, and jumped back. He barely evaded the fangs of one
demon beast, only to dance right into Rem's range of attack.
And when Rem realized Subaru was closing in, she instantly moved to
intercept. Subaru came to a very abrupt stop to escape the thrust of her iron
handle, then leaped back and ducked to avoid the lash of the chain that
followed, with the iron ball passing over his head to change the head of the
demon beast chasing behind him into a spectacularly blooming crimson flower.
Subaru heard the body crashing down behind him as he threw shame and
honor to the wind and crawled on the ground, cockroach-style, to escape
immediately. Rem, hot on his heels, found her path obstructed by demon
beasts. Escape successful.
Subaru held his distance as he rewarded himself with a single sigh of relief for
the quick thinking that had saved his life.
"—Hah! I'm actually doing pretty well here!"
He'd desperately bounded away to avoid being bitten, foisted the pursuing
demon beasts on the maid girl, and had crawled like a bug to escape the angry
girl's wrath. If his actions were ever recorded for posterity, he would want to
die then and there, but he focused on the fact that his conduct was intended to
keep him alive.
At that moment, things were unfolding according to Subaru's plan.
The situation could be worse—they were at least buying time and reducing
the number of demon beasts. When he glanced up, he sensed the eyes of
demon beasts all around the valley. Once they spied the battle, they joined the
fray one by one. The demon beasts were obeying their instincts in response to
Subaru's spreading the stench of the witch throughout the forest.
This could work. He saw a chance for victory. That, at least, was what Subaru
thought.
"—Uh?"
Subaru engaged in more evasive action when he suddenly felt dizzy and tilted
heavily. It wasn't that he'd been careless with his steps. He was suddenly
assailed by a feeling of lethargy as a chill ran through his entire body… He knew.
"The curse… At a time like this…?!"
Subaru looked up to try to see if the demon beast from which the curse hailed
was one of those surrounding Rem. But he had no way to tell which was the
caster. Besides, it was unlikely the demon beast had triggered the curse just to
make Subaru suffer.
It was the simple result of being faced with the menace of Rem and craving
the mana with which to fight her. And Subaru was right there with them, rite
ready for activation, his mana there for the taking. A simple reason but also a
fatal one.
The curse got the better of Subaru, making him lose his balance and crash to
the ground. If the demon beasts bit Subaru to death, it was only a matter of
time until they weighed Rem down by sheer numbers. But more than that, the
very reason Rem had entered the forest would be—
"—Aah!"
A great shout echoed loudly enough to rend the air and split the ground as
she swung down, her fist turning one demon beast into dog food.
In a single instant, with incredible, explosive force, Rem had broken through
the monster ranks to kill a demon beast far away from her. The sight shocked
Subaru and the beasts alike. When Subaru recovered, he immediately realized
it.
—He was breathing easier. The lethargy had abated. He had been freed from
the effects of the curse.
"—Rem."
"—!"
Rem returned to butchering the demon beasts surrounding her as if she
hadn't even heard Subaru call her name.
Subaru watched the blue-haired girl in the midst of combat as it keenly sunk
in that, though she wasn't lucid or in a state to recognize who Subaru was, Rem
had saved him by turning that demon beast into paste.
She hadn't mistaken the sight of her beloved older sister. Nor, apparently,
had she forgotten the reason why she'd plunged into the forest in the first
place.
If that's the case…, he thought.
Subaru scraped his mind for the thing that only he could do. He thought that
he should be faithful to his original goal, not resort to a roundabout plan like
this.
"In other words, I'll have the heartthrob maid sisters, Ram and Rem, send that
curse packing!"
If Subaru could accomplish that, he might yet be able to get out of the
situation alive.
Furthermore, to do that, he needed to bring Rem back to sanity in a real
sense. Subaru's business was not with the murderous demon but with the
superficially polite, quick-to-jump-to-conclusions girl whose running off on her
own caused everyone else so much trouble—Rem.
"—The horn."
Suddenly, Subaru heard a voice from within his arms.
Ram, still in his embrace, faintly opened her eyes, giving Subaru an unfocused
upward glance.
"You're…awake?!"
"I think my timing here is quite…excellent…"
Ram was smiling a bit. Subaru smiled back half seriously as he replied.
"Yeah, you've got awesome instincts, Big Sis. What do you mean, the horn?"
Ram pulled her chin in with a look of annoyance.
"It is that horn that has led Rem astray… A single, powerful blow will…bring
her back…"
"You're sure that'll work?"
"Fairly. Largely. I believe that it will."
"That's kind of vague, you know?! But I wanna believe you."
Subaru cut off his words and looked at Rem.
The white horn jutted out from Rem's forehead to a length of some four
inches. If Puck stood on her forehead, he and the horn would be around the
same height.
A single blow—there.
"Doesn't that seem kinda…impossible?"
"Use your intellect and courage and just do it."
"Well, I do kind of have a way to do this that involves intellect and courage,
but…"
Subaru's unexpected reply made Ram raise her eyebrows. He smiled weakly
at her, as he had difficulty putting it into words.
"It's probably gonna give you a scare."
"If it brings my little sister back to sanity, I shall not be upset."
"Really?"
"Really-really."
"You swear on Rozchi?"
"…You must really not mind dying to pick that. Yes, I swear on Master
Roswaal."
It was because Ram had said it in such a thoroughly valiant way that Subaru
respected her view so highly.
Before them, Rem slowly turned in their direction. The bulk of her attention
was trained on them, with the remainder toward the demon beasts
surrounding them to warn her if they came close.
In contrast to Rem, on guard for attacks from every direction, Subaru was
focused solely on smacking that horn.
Namely—
"Aaaaand, off you go!"
"—Ah?"
Ram had a distant look of shock on her face as Subaru lifted her up by the
hips…and chucked her forward.
No doubt that the thought he'd throw her had never entered her mind.
Ram looked aghast, but Rem was equally so. Rem, still in her horned form,
stood agape for a brief moment before reaching out as her older sister flew
through the air toward her.
The iron ball fell from Rem's grasp as she welcomed her big sister with open,
bloodstained arms. In an instant, her expression, so hard and painted over with
hostility and bloodlust, changed into something much softer.
—Subaru sprang forward to not let that instant go to waste.
The same moment he hurled Ram forward, Subaru lowered his body and
charged. Rem's gaze was aimed up, preoccupied with her big sister, while
Subaru approached from the blind spot closer to the ground.
His feet slid as his right hand drew his sword from his waist. In one motion, he
sliced through the wind as he slid the blade out of the scabbard, aiming it at the
horn on Rem's forehead—the timing was perfect. Even Rem could not respond
in time to the sudden attack. But—
"—Ah?!"
Through a combination of the blade's broken tip and Subaru's own timid,
halfhearted step at the end, the blade missed a direct blow to her horn, passing
a few millimeters short.
Subaru was appalled at having let his tiny moment of opportunity slip through
his hands.
"I chickened out! I didn't have enough courage for the last part!!"
His body swam as he got nothing but air.
Subaru's momentum carried him past her, exposing his back, and Rem raised
her left hand to stab him. The long claws on her fingertips would surely go right
through Subaru's back and stick out the other side.
He regretted dying one step away from success, and at Rem's hands at that.
The very moment he thought it—
"Whoaaaa—?!"
The ground beneath his feet exploded, with the resulting cascade of rocks
vaulting Subaru straight up.
The scattering rocks pelted his body all over. Skin breaking and bleeding,
Subaru looked down from midair to see the cause of his pain.
South of the point where the ground had exploded under Subaru, he saw the
demon beast puppy in a low crouch. The Urugarum had kept a low profile since
leading the pack down the cliff, waiting for its opportunity to take Subaru and
Rem out in a single cascade of rocks. And so, seeing Subaru create an opening,
it had spectacularly intervened with the goal of sending both him and Rem
flying.
However…
"—!!"
…its plan was foiled when Rem roared and stomped onto the ground from
which the rocks were erupting. Force canceled force, ending with only her blue
hair heavily disheveled. She'd canceled out magical force with raw violence—
smashing the spell with brute force.
The cascade of rocks ceased, and Rem's shoulders eased as she held her big
sister preciously in her arms.
Subaru, still above her, had vanished from even the furthermost reaches of
her mind.
Buffeted by the magic spell, Subaru whirled head over heels with no idea
which way was up. But his right hand kept the sword firmly in its grip even then;
fortunately, he landed not against the rock wall but merely on the hard ground.
And Rem stood right below him, her head exposed, not noticing him
whatsoever.
There would be no better chance, nor no chance after. It was now or never.
He gripped the single-handed sword's hilt with both hands and swung with all
his might.
He had arrived at this point at the end of a long string of coincidences.
Opportunism for the win. Miracles were awesome. Even if purely by whim,
sometimes God did good work—although God's work would also have helped
tremendously with the previous attempt.
And now he was right above Rem, unnoticed, her head fully exposed…
He made a strained smile. There was no time. Rem was close at hand, and so
was a slow, leisurely world with her.
He saw the horn. He swung the sword past its apex with all the energy he
could muster.
"Laugh, Rem. Today, I'm more demonic than any demon!"
The blade flashed straight down, aimed at the white horn—
The high-pitched sound of steel striking steel sharply echoed through the
demon beasts' forest.
The next moment, Subaru crash-landed, his own painful yelp merging with
the echo.