The orange-haired girl gazed at the back alley indifferently and muttered, "At
first, I thought the disorder of such a grimy place held promise, but now that I
am accustomed to it, it has nothing to draw my eye. It is quite useless for
assuaging my boredom."
She raised the hem of her dress and shook it, a blunt expression of her
insufferable displeasure.
"I don't think the royal capital's designer drew up these streets to be
exciting," Subaru remarked.
"The world exists for my sake, so should not everything in it serve to amuse
me? I have no idea what the man who approved such boring streets was
thinking. Royalty should have a keenly discerning eye. Lack thereof seems to
have been decidedly fatal of late."
Just hearing her statement set Subaru's heart racing. His head whipped back
and forth to see if anyone had overheard.
"Th-that's a pretty arrogant thing to say right at the king's door, you know…"
The girl snorted at Subaru's caution, or rather, cowardice.
"A dull reaction and a futile concern. It would seem that you, too, are part of
the common rabble."
"I'm well aware I'm a one-hundred-percent common, ordinary, straight-
down-the-middle guy, and I'm fine with it. I don't want to waste any more time
hanging around you, anyway. The girl who's waiting for me will hate me."
"What absurdity. It is an insult for you to think about anyone besides me
during the time we are together. I may be accompanied now, but I think
nothing at all of walking alone."
"Well, you should think about it. Being with you is miserable."
He was the chaperone for a girl who seemed to be arrogance incarnate.
Subaru's self-pity flared up again at how he'd once again thrown himself under
a bus in no time flat for the sake of someone he'd never even seen before. But
he remarked to himself, "Ah, whatever…"
They were strangers to begin with. Neither knew the other's name. Once they
reached the main street, they'd never see each other again. He wasn't
magnanimous enough to shut off his own feelings of discomfort to try to make
friends with just anyone. In Subaru's book, forcing yourself to like something
you hate was among the most distasteful things around.
That Subaru had decided this, yet had no intention of leaving the girl on her
own until they'd exited to the main street, was evidence as to what kind of
person he was.
Coincidentally, Old Man Rom was not accompanying them. He abhorred going
out onto the main street, so he led them to an adjacent alley before heading
off. Subaru somewhat regretted the loss of his company, but…
"—While I was thinking about all that, here we are."
Just ahead of a bend, he could finally see the bright, western sun over the
road. Subaru beheld the uninterrupted flow of people passing to and fro,
relieved that his suffering was finally at an end.
"Now that we're out of there, we're total strangers again. I have to look for
my cutie-pie companion, so I don't wanna get into any more trouble, like
hanging around you. I'm sure your escort has been desperate to find you, so if
you stay put I'm sure you'll meet up with him soon."
With the moment of their parting so close, Subaru vented out all the
resentment that had built up during that time. Naturally, the girl was poised to
respond, but instead, she halted and crossed her arms in silence.
"What, nothing to say? Okay, maybe I went a little too far, but I can't change
how I feel. Things haven't exactly gone smoothly, but if you try a little prudence
now and again, I'm sure…"
Subaru was simultaneously excusing his resentful words and lecturing her
when she sneered back.
"Mmm, I think I pity you just a little. Whether you are aware of it or not, you
so thoroughly play the fool. It is no virtue. It is merely a thin shell within which
you conceal your weakness. It is as repellant to the eye as your face."
"The first part sounded serious, but that last part was definitely making fun of
my looks, wasn't it?"
"If you intend to maintain the game to the very end, it is no concern of
mine…"
Whatever the girl wanted to say wasn't registering with Subaru. Consistent
with her bearing and actions, she made statements without any consideration
for the comprehension of others. No doubt he wouldn't get a straight answer
even if he pursued the matter further. With that in mind, Subaru gave up on
speaking to the girl further.
Or, perhaps telling himself the girl was incomprehensible was his way of
avoiding the truth. But he wouldn't receive any more answers here to begin
with. After all, the instant the two exited the alley, they were greeted by a voice
—Emilia's voice.
"—I've finally found you."
Unlike the back alley, the bright rays of the sun illuminated everything on the
main street. The sunshine dazzled and burned his eyes. That radiance haloed
her white robe as she looked at Subaru.
Her elegant brows were furrowed. Her fingertips restlessly toyed with her
sparkling hair. Her gloomy, violet eyes quivered as her lips loosened in slight
relief. It was plain as day how much she'd worried about Subaru.
Subaru both deeply regretted making her worry and was happy she had
worried. His expression brightened at their reunion, unexpected but eagerly
awaited.
"Ah, Emili—"
But as Emilia let out a soft sigh, he felt that something was wrong. He began
to call her name but stopped when he saw someone beside her—a male
someone with a burly chest.
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't go flirting with Emilia-tan when I'm not around!"
Subaru dashed forward to put himself between the man and Emilia. But his
glare at the silhouetted man froze in the face of a torrent of sharp words.
"Hey, hey, lil' missy. I think your guy here has a screw loose. Is he all right?"
The chummy voice addressing Emilia was a bit hard to make out. That was
only natural, since the speaker's head was covered in a full-face helmet.
The jet-black helm, meant to conceal his entire face, looked highly refined,
but the headpiece alone wasn't what made him stand out—though that
description is misleading. He stood out because the helmet actually was alone.
"More worried about an interloper than excited for your reunion? What a
fascinatingly complicated sense of masculinity."
"Well, you've got pretty horrible fashion sense, don't you?!"
"And you've got quite some lip toward your seniors. I'm an easy-going old
man, so I'll let it slide, but someone else might chop your head off."
Subaru gaped as the man tapped a finger against the nape of his neck in
obvious amusement. Yes, the bare nape of his neck, for while the man wore a
pitch-black helm over his head, beneath he wore only a shabby mantle and an
open linen vest-and-shorts combo that made him look like some bandit. His
"shoes" were sandals with split-toe socks. Behind his waist, he carried a
handsome sword with a fat blade resembling a Chinese crescent sword.
Everything clashed with everything else.
Subaru's tracksuit was no less out of place, but the man's attire was surely the
greater offense to common sense. Subaru tentatively asked Emilia his burning
question.
"Emilia-tan, don't tell me this guy's outfit passes for normal here in the
capital?"
"Don't worry, Subaru. I'm as shocked by what he's wearing as you are."
The man erupted into laugher and promptly divulged what he was doing with
Emilia in the first place.
"Oh yeah, she was really shocked. It was so cute. I said I was looking for
someone, and I was pretty surprised when she said she'd come along, though."
Subaru put a hand on Emilia's shoulder and stared at where the man's eyes
probably were.
"Emilia-tan's kind-heartedness is a real virtue, but you still have to pick who
you help. Why do you think a poisonous mushroom looks so bad? It's saying,
'I'm poisonous. Danger. Eat me and you'll die.' That's to stop damage before it
happens."
The man replied, "You're making it sound like I'm a dangerous guy. That's
horrible."
"Back where I come from, one look at you and they'd bring all the local school
kids together and tell them about kidnappers."
Subaru blew off the man's flippant comment and returned to Emilia.
"Anyway, Emilia-tan, like I'm always telling you—watch out for men and cars.
Men are wolves, so you can't show them that defenseless, adorable, smiling
face… Are you upset?"
"No, I'm just thinking that sounds more like something I've said to you than
something you've said to me, Subaru. No offense."
Subaru was tempted to cover his face, regretting that his slip of the tongue
had only heaped more trouble onto him. But the coming lecture was mercifully
interrupted by an outside party. The orange-haired girl stepped forward and
pompously declared, "Mmm. How perceptive of you to wait for me at my
destination. Your loyalty is admirable, Al."
Her words made the man—Al—laugh out loud.
"…To be honest, I want to say it was dumb luck I happened to be here, but
that'll just put you in a bad mood. I agree with you, Princess. Yep, it's just like
you said!" He stood beside the girl and ruffled her orange hair with the palm of
his hand. "Apparently, by sheer coincidence, the person the lady here was
looking for and the person I was looking for were together. Maybe you could
call it fate?"
"So it's like the saying, even chance meetings are the result of karma? No
thanks, I don't want any threads of fate except red ones with Emilia-tan."
There was a momentary pause before Al's reply.
"—This guy's got quite a mouth on him."
But Al's laughter and the light wave of his hand wiped Subaru's doubts away.
All his actions had been with his right hand the entire time—for the man didn't
have a left hand.
So the man had one arm, a pitch-black helmet, and a haphazard threadbare
outfit. Judging from his tone of voice and his appearance below the neck, he
was probably a bit more than twice Subaru's age. In spite of that, he didn't
come off much like Subaru's senior, sporting an attitude as light as his clothes.
To put it kindly, he was easy to get along with. To put it rudely, he was an
adult that needed to pull himself together.
Subaru commented, "With Puck there as your guardian, I'm wondering why
he let you go around with this guy…"
Puck replied to Subaru's question telepathically.
"Lia spotted him looking in garbage bins on the side of the street as soon as
she stepped out of the garrison. Her meddling happens at lightning speed, so I
didn't have any time to stop it."
"Oh, come on…"
Subaru's reply couldn't hide his exhaustion. True, Emilia's soft-hearted nature
was nothing new, but Al looking for his traveling companion in trash bins was
completely off the rails.
He wondered if the man had put any funny ideas in her head while they'd
been alone. Subaru gave Emilia a look of concern when he realized that…
"—?"
…without a word, Emilia had slipped behind Subaru's back as if to avoid the
eyes of other people. She pulled down her hood to hide her face again, keeping
her voice quiet as if that would erase her presence.
Subaru dubiously raised his eyebrows and looked toward the orange-haired
girl who seemed the cause of Emilia's misgivings.
"What, staring at me?" the girl said. "Drinking in the beauty you will dearly
miss once I depart? Certainly, it is cruel that my beauty is so divine, but it is
rude to stare in silence."
"Sorry, my eyes are in perfect shape… Everyone found who they were looking
for, so how about we break this up?"
Subaru gave the girl—the one Emilia seemed to be hiding from—a dismissive
reply as he directed the spotlight away from her and toward Al. He didn't know
why, but Emilia seemed averse to the attention.
So Subaru did what he felt would serve her best.
Al replied, "Well, that's all fine… The decision to shift the talk to me instead of
Princess included."
"…I sympathize with you more than a bit… No, a lot."
Al shrugged at Subaru's rather earnest words and looked down at the girl.
"An adult with a broad mind can put up with a lot without gettin' sick of it.
Even a proud cat that's never been housebroken. Maybe I've just gotten old
enough to find it adorable."
Subaru couldn't see his eyes through the helmet, but he sounded like a father
figure protecting his beloved daughter.
They get along pretty decently, huh, thought Subaru vaguely in his mind. He
added out loud, "Well, we're gonna head this way… How about you?"
The girl replied, "Then I shall go that way as well."
"…Then, we're gonna head the other way."
"Then I shall go the other way as…"
"Oh, good grief. Are you stalking me?! What, did you fall in love with me or
something?!"
"I imagine that is a joke, and a petty one at that. Lackluster men die in
lackluster ways, you know."
With great pomp and ceremony, the girl, dispassionate to the bitter end,
departed with her companion. Her hesitant steps proclaimed that even though
she wanted them to part ways, she found it unamusing to do so.
So with all the invective remaining in him, Subaru said to the departing girl,
"Hey, arrogant chick, take this."
"What an insolent tongue to direct at me. With one command, Al could take
that head off your—"
As the girl turned around with some very menacing words on her lips, her red
eyes widened. Her hands stretched and caught the pair of abbles lazily arcing
toward her.
"Take 'em. These are bonding abbles. In the end I may have won the bet, but
the winner has the right to show mercy like a noble warrior. Take care not to
wander into bad guys like that from now on, okay?"
"I will have you know I did not become involved with those men by acting like
some foolish child."
"…Incidentally, why did you get involved with them?"
"When I asked them if it was not inexcusable that they should live with such
impoverished faces and attire, they became agitated."
"You're the one in the wrong there!!"
Subaru sympathized with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest all over again and
turned his back to the girl, pulling Emilia along by her arm. The small measure of
payback gave him some satisfaction.
Emilia kept her head down as she went along with him. As they quickly
departed, they heard one final muffled shout from the street behind them,
filled with apparently genuine gratitude.
"—Lil' missy, thanks for comin' with me on my search!"