CHAPTER 5
THE RED DRAINED FROM THEIR LIPS
1
—Let us rewind the tale once more.
Having been told the true past of how the Sanctuary had come to be and the truth hidden behind that past, a group of individuals, who were now aware of everything, had fulfilled the conditions required to march onto the stage and ask a certain man his true intent.
—It was time to confront the schemes of Roswaal L. Mathers head-on.
Their spirits high, Subaru and the others charged down the path from the tomb to the settlement with hasty steps. At their destination, the mastermind who had created the entire plot awaited them.
“In terms o’ wicked deeds, I think ya ain’t half-bad yerself, General.”
“You make me sound so bad… Forget winning or losing; being cunning the way Roswaal is is definitely a bad idea. What if people started pelting me with eggs on my way home all the time?”
“Just what kind of concern is that supposed to be? Throwing eggs at a person would be quite a waste.”
Even as they spoke oddly past one another, Subaru and company reviewed their situation and what they knew. In particular, sharing information with their newest companion, Garfiel, was an urgent priority.
Since they could not leisurely take their time, the explanation was fairly rushed, inevitably making it confusing.
“Actually, Garfiel, how much have you been cooperating with Roswaal anyway?”
“Me and that bastard? …No way in hell. We’ve talked about you and Lady Emilia for maybe a hot second, max. Also, haven’t talked with ’im since the first day you ’n’ the others arrived, General.”
“That’s some pretty extreme dysfunction there… Ah, no, I get it, I get it… I just didn’t think you’d hate the guy so much, even if he is your romantic rival…”
“…Not like that’s the only reason. Me, I just don’t like the bastard.”
Averting his gaze, Garfiel murmured in a low voice. Garfiel and Roswaal had to have been acquainted for over a decade. Subaru couldn’t understand the complexities of the feelings between them from an outside glance.
But Subaru sighed hearing Garfiel’s reply, which he felt confirmed his concern. Because if Garfiel’s antagonism toward Subaru wasn’t due to any direct orders from Roswaal…
“He had the Ryuzus and Shima, then there’s Ram obviously, even Emilia would count… Geez, just how many hooks did Roswaal have in you, Garfiel?”
“His prior preparations put us at a complete disadvantage, and on top of that, he’s made meticulous preparations to strike his foes down. Wouldn’t the time to run be now?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but this party’s current policy is Safety First While We Let ’Em Have It.”
Subaru replied to Otto’s appeal with a flippant remark of his own. Seeing that Garfiel was left perplexed by their exchange, Subaru elaborated.
“In other words, the covert activities spearheaded by Roswaal, the mastermind behind the current situation, are no joke. It would’ve been simpler to take care of it if you’d simply made a deal with him to oppose liberating the Sanctuary, but…”
“No way I’d strike any deal with him! Me, I tried to tear out your throat outta my own free will, General!”
Howling as if ready to bite then and there, Garfiel gripped the crystal dangling from his own neck. This subconscious action seemed motivated by a need for physical reassurance of where exactly his will stood.
Garfiel was most likely racked with worries of his own. Just like how Ryuzu had been bewildered by Shima’s story about the Sanctuary’s true role, the revelations served as the starting point of Garfiel’s defiance.
Anguished, Garfiel was caught between Subaru and Otto as the latter glanced at the others’ faces.
“If we are to believe Garfiel’s own statement, the marquis enjoys an advantageous position because of his astoundingly good fortune.”
“That’s way scarier. If there’s one stat the three of us are short on, it’s luck.”
Subaru and Otto exchanged grim faces as the pair let out a sigh. Garfiel knit his brows, less out of surprise and more because he was feeling creeped out by their gloomy behavior.
“Hey, why are you and Bro all calm about this, General? If you two are right, the bastard’s the one completely controlling everythin’ in the Sanctuary, right?”
“So you really were keeping up. That’s right. If it’s like that, it’s seriously bad.”
By using the people who had started on his side to begin with as much as he could and manipulating those who were not with crafty rhetoric, Roswaal had inextricably tied the events surrounding the Sanctuary and the mansion together. If Subaru had to name names, it was doubtlessly Subaru as well as Emilia who topped the list of pawns Roswaal had deftly led around by the nose.
And he’d even woven into his strategy the wild card named Garfiel who’d caused Subaru to suffer time and time again—just how much planning had Roswaal put into this scheme?
—The obsessiveness and tenacity to carry such a thing out truly was in the realm of a monster—a devil.
And Subaru and company were heading to the location of that very devil. Seeing Subaru and Otto bantering a bit right before they confronted that devil, it was quite natural that Garfiel felt confused.
“In the first place, General, why’d we come all the way just to see the bastard…?”
Suspicion rested in Garfiel as he voiced an entirely natural doubt that he had. However, unfortunately for him, there was no time for a reply. After all—
“—We’ve arrived.”
Subaru’s brief phrase brought all three pairs of feet to a halt. Straight before them stood a small stonework residence—the temporary abode where Roswaal, the mastermind of the situation and the enemy they had to defeat, awaited them.
“Not that we have an appointment…”
Amid tension that could not be expunged with one flippant comment, the trio stepped inside the building. The air within the structure was dry. They could sense a person behind the door at the back of the building—that was where Roswaal was.
Standing before that door, Subaru hesitated for a single moment. And then—
“—Come in, young Subaru. After all, I only finished preparaaations just now.”
“?”
The voice reaching them through the door caused all three of them to hold their breath. Looking over and seeing the tension in Otto’s and Garfiel’s eyes, Subaru checked with them with his gaze.
“Preparations, the bastard says…”
“I wonder what preparations he might mean at a time like this? …Maybe to turn us all into bits of partly burned charcoal, perchance?”
“Relax. When you turn to ash, I’ll be cinders. I won’t let you die alone.”
“That is impressively lacking in reassurance, I’ll have you know!!”
That single word, preparations, tugged at their minds. However, their opponent was not so crude as to launch an attack without bothering with words first. Oddly trusting Roswaal on that score, Subaru put his hand upon the door.
And then—
“Ahhh, so that’s what you meant.”
Now realizing Roswaal’s intentions, Subaru let a sigh trickle out along with his comment.
Upon hearing that sigh, his two companions belatedly peered into the room, each seeing the same thing as Subaru and reacting in turn. Garfiel clicked his tongue, and Otto’s eyes widened in surprise.
Now that Subaru thought of it, this was Otto’s first time seeing such a view.
“To think your feet would carry you to me at this very moment. Now then, what is it that briiings you here? Perhaps you have judged your prospects dire and come in search of peaceful terms?”
Speaking with a jesting tone, Roswaal gazed upon Subaru and the others standing at the room’s entrance.
—His face was daubed white, with suspicious-looking eyelines and reddened lips. It was the clown appearance that Subaru was accustomed to.
Standing up from the bed, Roswaal hid his painful, bandaged body under his eccentric outfit, the tenor of his voice and his actions lending him an aloof air. He stood there as a devil who had no need to conceal his own obsession.
The sight of him was so striking that Otto, who was seeing it for the first time, visibly shook. Glancing at that, Subaru slumped his shoulders in Roswaal’s direction.
“You were so worked up about us coming that you dressed your best to welcome us. I’m gonna blush.”
“Why, it is nothing that need conceeern you. After all, I have told you, have I not? That I would face you in a suitably prepared state once more.”
“Ah, you did, come to think of it.”
Roswaal certainly had said something to that effect as Subaru departed upon the conclusion of the conversation where he’d challenged the man to one final contest. Of course, Subaru never thought he would actually greet him with full makeup on.
“In the first place, to me, putting on makeup is nothing less than preparing for battle. When girding myself for a contest I cannot afford to lose, makeup is a means of self-motivation, you seeee.”
“I see, so it’s literally war paint to you…… Wait, for real? You’re not saying that to pull my leg?”
“Well, I shall leave to you whether to believe it or not. Preparing myself properly for battle and greeting you with this appearance…I believe this amply demonstraaates my resolve to you?”
Subaru took Roswaal’s low and deeply suggestive voice to mean that to him, it really was his equivalent of war paint.
Just like Subaru was betting everything this time around, Roswaal was pouring all his strength into this battle. It was mutual understanding that made the two of them stand before each other as true competitors on the same stage.
“Now, let us return to the first question, Subaru— Why have you come here?”
This was the first serious question Roswaal posed to Subaru upon his arrival to this room, but it was also what Garfiel had wanted to know earlier as well. Prompted for an answer, Subaru caught his breath. They had come here with one objective.
Namely—
“—I’m here to demand your surrender.”
2
—A demand for surrender meant nothing less than a formal acknowledgment of defeat.
“?”
The single phrase spoken by Subaru left the air inside the room filled with silence.
There was no surprise from Subaru or from Otto, who was there with a shared purpose. Accordingly, it was only Roswaal, whose gaze grew cold, and Garfiel, disquiet entering his own eyes, who reacted with uncertainty.
“Whaddaya mean, demand your surrender…?”
“It means what it sounds like. You wished to ask why Mr. Natsuki came to see the marquis? This is the answer.”
Garfiel made a feeble clack of his fangs as Otto replied to him with a calm voice. Following up, Subaru stared at Roswaal and picked up where Otto had left off.
“That’s how it is. I’ve taken to heart just how meticulous you are. To be honest, I’ve seriously thought I’m done for! all kinds of times. But I’m sure you of all people get it. The setup you created…is falling apart.”
“Certainly, it is. Certainly, it is juuuust as you say. The situation has most certainly changed. Those accompanying you are proof enough. With that said, what weighs upon my mind is…”
Cutting off his words, Roswaal closed one eye as his gaze shifted behind Subaru. Naturally, he would look straight at Garfiel, the embodiment of the change in the situation, with his yellow eye—yet, he did not.
“You mean me?”
Coming under Roswaal’s attention for the very first time, Otto’s face faintly stiffened. His words made Roswaal draw himself up, twisting his neck with a rare expression of simple confusion.
“I have wondered this since you first entered, but…just who are you, and from whence do you haaaail?”
“You’re really something, Otto. Looks like you weren’t included in his future-seeing book of prophecy, either.”
“I am not pleased whatsoever by that, and I cannot conceal my surprise at such utterly incomprehensible comments!”
Otto genuinely flared up at Subaru for making a comment that was totally inappropriate for the mood.
The original reason Otto had come with Subaru and Emilia was because Subaru had promised to introduce him to Roswaal. From there, he would no doubt negotiate over the value of his cargo of oil and discuss the nature of his contributions in defeating the Witch Cult. Given that starting position, it stood to reason that Otto would be angry that Roswaal didn’t even know who he was. But—
“Such an individual’s presence in this place cannot help but determine which way my contest with Subaru will sway. I see; in other words, he is ‘that.’”
“Yeah, I suppose. Otto is ‘that.’”
“—?”
Roswaal was certain of something, and Subaru nodded in affirmation.
It was only Otto, the subject at hand, who looked completely at a loss as to what topic he apparently stood at the very center of.
Otto didn’t understand. He was completely unawares. It was Otto’s very existence that was—
“—The first slip of the gears.”
Surely, Roswaal had painstakingly constructed his game board as if assembling a precise machine.
Using all the wisdom and knowledge at his disposal, the devil had plotted out the movements of every pawn placed in advance so as to invariably drive Subaru to Return by Death, no matter what course the events might take.
An unknown piece from outside had leaped onto his game board, which had been carefully arranged like a precise machine—
“The flow’s been altered, all thanks to my friend, who’s too insignificant to be recorded in your book of prophecy.”
“…Allow me to formally ask you for your name.”
Roswaal quietly asked for the name of the laborer who had created the distortion in his meticulously calculated machinations. Subaru took a step back and gave his friend a shove.
The force made Otto advance a step. He took a single breath, after which he bowed to Roswaal.
“My name is Otto Suwen. I am honored to have this opportunity to set eyes upon the noble marquis in person. Though I am nothing more than a humble traveling merchant, I hope to become your acquaintance.”
“I shall remember you, Otto— Next time, I absolutely will not lose sight of you.”
After Otto invoked his own name, Subaru was the only one who gleaned the true meaning from Roswaal’s reply. That was how keenly Subaru understood that the wariness Roswaal directed toward Otto was dead serious.
“Oh man, Otto. Just like you planned, you left a serious impression on Roswaal!”
“This is not exactly the way I hoped to be remembered by him!”
He’d most certainly left an impression, but it would have been better to remain little-noticed and easily forgotten.
Either way, Roswaal’s internal wariness toward Otto had risen precipitously. At the same time, it had become considerably clearer how exactly the situation had changed and why they demanded his surrender.
“Thanks to young Otto, you managed to regain your footing, making you inclined to challenge me to one final contest, I take it?”
“That’s how it is… But isn’t this a little strange? Usually, it’d be the main heroine who has a scene to get me back on my feet. Won’t it betray audience expectations if we have a male character telling me to hang in there instead?”
“Even if you look at me with such reproachful eyes, I have no idea what you want from me!”
“I’m kidding, kidding.”
As a matter of fact, if not for Otto, the entire faction would have collapsed by this point. It was emotionally impossible for him to thank Otto for that up front, but his gratitude was genuine nonetheless. That, and—
“?”
It was faint, but Subaru caught a slight whiff of uneasiness in both of Roswaal’s eyes. That was probably the unease from having an unknown element pointed out in what he’d been certain was a winning scenario.
What had driven Roswaal to this was far from Otto’s existence alone.
This time, Roswaal shifted his gaze toward Garfiel, the individual truly embodying change. Seeing that his gaze did not alter the color on Garfiel’s face, Roswaal opened his lips with a look of dejection.
“I suppose I must say you have finally been well and properly tamed, Garfiel.”
Garfiel, who was disappointing him so, was standing behind Subaru and Otto. He’d taken a position that was prepared for any unforeseen circumstances, as he could shield the two simultaneously at any moment. This was what brought a sigh tinged with reproach out of Roswaal.
“And so you, who have been so strongly set on tearing into outsiders, now find yourself gladly on young Subaru’s siiiide. I am surprised you would have a change of heart so quickly— You had protected what is precious in your heart for so very, very long, and yet, you discard even your love for your mother with such ease.”
Roswaal’s words were a blade he used in an attempt to stir up what lay at the center of Garfiel’s core. Like a surgical instrument for opening one’s chest to extract the internal organs within, his wily words were meant to expose Garfiel’s desire to all.
These were the feelings of love toward his mother and enormous regrets toward the past that he’d continued to harbor for so long—
“Stop it, Roswaal. What the hell do you understand about Garfiel’s feelings?”
“Of course I understand nothing of them, nor do I wish to. Losing a fight and the cheap words you replied to him with were all it took to sway his feelings. What can I call them, then, save shallow?”
As Roswaal piled insult upon insult, it was not Garfiel but Subaru who flew into a rage.
Subaru had slammed into Garfiel, traded punches with him, and directly heard the cry of his heart. He would never let anyone dismiss them as light or cheap.
“Hold on a sec, General.”
However, it was none other than Garfiel himself who halted the angry Subaru.
Surely, it was Garfiel who was most hurt by Roswaal’s words of scorn. Subaru tried to intercept them rather than let them wreak havoc on the boy’s heart. But.
“It’s your words that are cheap as dirt, Roswaal.”
Crossing his arms like he was bored, Garfiel clacked his fangs and spat those words at Roswaal.
His demeanor took Subaru by surprise. Noticing this reaction, Roswaal slightly raised an eyebrow.
If Garfiel had been the person he was just a short while ago, such grave insults would have triggered a fit of rage. Yet, there he was, ignoring it as if brushing a warm breeze aside.
“Me, I ain’t denyin’ I’m half-hearted about things. It’s true I teamed up with the general just a few hours ago. Guess you saw that as a real quick change of heart.”
“First a change of heart and now defiance? The feelings you dwelled upon for so long to date… The time you devoted to your wish, day after day for ten long years, is by no means a brief span. I wonder, where have those feelings vanished to?”
Shrugging at Garfiel’s reply, Roswaal narrowed his eyes, growing ever colder. His handsome, differently colored eyes looked clouded by stagnant emotions that did not suit their beauty at all.
With those emotions still hovering in his gaze, Roswaal continued his verbal attacks on Garfiel.
“Desires do not simply vanish into thin air. If you truly loved her, your feelings would surely never change. Are your ten years of work something that can be changed with such ease?”
The tone of Roswaal’s voice, seemingly full of lament, grew hotter and darker still.
“Just how much contact have you had with young Subaru over a mere few days? Have you and he amassed a bond to rival that love? Surely not. As if anything could rise as high or reach the same depth of your love—for that is how it is when you put one thing above all else.”
His voice was quiet, yet heated all the same. What had begun as censure for having a change of heart had become a plea, an earnest wish; merely listening to it struck one’s heart with sadness.
—To him, what was most precious to you was what you stripped away everything else for.
Previously, Roswaal had said as much to Subaru. And this was the nature of Roswaal’s love. To Roswaal, this was the only way to love something; he recognized no others.
“…Or perhaps, you did not love her at all, Garfiel?”
Hence, Roswaal attempted to deny Garfiel’s change, which violated his life philosophy.
He denied Garfiel, who had nurtured his love for ten years, yet determined his conclusion had been mistaken and required something new.
“Do you not love your mother, your family? Is that why you can devote your heart to something else so easily? Rather than employ the strength you honed for so long, merely having your fangs broken was sufficient to bend the feelings you kept for a decade? If that is so, then the one who made your love a brittle, fleeting forgery is none other than yourself.”
With no change in his expression, it was with words alone that Roswaal castigated Garfiel for his change of heart.
These words of blame, which seemed like they’d claw a wound into Garfiel’s heart, made Subaru regret bringing him along for a single instant— Yes. His regret lasted for only an instant.
“—Man, your words are so weak, Roswaal.”
Garfiel did not reply with emotion, though his demeanor was barbed. Somehow, there seemed to be pity in his gaze.
“Like I care if ya wanna scold me. Just don’t misunderstand me.”
“…Misunderstand?”
“For me, it ain’t like I follow the general just ’cause I lost a fight. Yeah, losing hit hard, but I ain’t soft enough to flip sides from somethin’ like that.”
Garfiel audibly tapped his forehead with a finger as he clacked his fangs. In contrast to Roswaal’s quiet, smoldering zeal, Garfiel’s tenacity was serene.
“It’s just like ya said, Roswaal. I was hung up on the past all these last ten years… I don’t exactly remember tellin’ ya all that, but at this point, I ain’t gonna act surprised about ya knowin’.”
“?”
“I slammed against that past those ten years. The general…nah, Ram, was it? Ram said this to me. Go into the tomb, face your past……and that’s why I’m standin’ here now.”
Pointing to his own feet, Garfiel expressed the reason he stood in that position.
“You confronted your past, Garfiel?”
The declaration made nervousness come over Roswaal’s two eyes once more. Just like when he’d acknowledged Otto’s existence, Garfiel’s words had disconcerted Roswaal.
He was staring straight at the fact that Garfiel had willingly challenged the tomb to face his past once more.
“Ya don’t ‘win’ against your past. That’s what I thought. That’s why I ain’t laughin’ at you for bein’ stuck, thinkin’ the same way I did back then. What’s there to laugh at?”
“?”
“I don’t have no intention of talkin’ about what I saw inside or why I’m with the general. But I’m gonna tell you one thing, a big-ass reason why I’m with him and not with you.”
As if delivering payback for earlier, this time, it was Garfiel who sent a blade of words Roswaal’s way. Then he flashed his fangs and declared his feelings to Roswaal, not as his rival in love but as an obstacle blocking his path.
“—Instead of someone tellin’ me to stay weak as hell, of course I’d much rather stick with someone tellin’ me he needs me ’cause I’m strong!”
Garfiel’s simple words were his reply to Roswaal’s appeal.
Having finished speaking, Garfiel snorted, brazenly crossing his arms.
“…Wha?”
“Nah, nothing. You’ve gotten dependable.”
When Garfiel growled in irritation, Subaru only shrugged and told him what he thought.
There certainly had been a change in Garfiel’s mental state. But this was not a change that had come easily; it was a distinct possibility he could be swayed by Roswaal’s words of reproach. Accordingly—
“Roswaal.”
Turning toward Roswaal, who’d fallen into silence, Subaru pressed the attack in earnest.
Otto was there. Garfiel was there. These two things alone had changed the situation.
“Garfiel’s seen his past. Him standing here as a result doesn’t mean his feelings for his family these ten years have weakened at all. I’m sure the strength of his feelings hasn’t changed. They didn’t change, but he did. Is that so unbelievable?”
Even if Garfiel’s stance was no longer one of obstinate, continued obsession with the Sanctuary, it definitely didn’t mean his feelings had weakened. Only Garfiel knew just how much he’d changed.
But what was weak about Garfiel as he was now? What did he need to be shaken or to grieve about?
“It’s gotta be the same for you. I told you, Roswaal. I… We don’t want to keep butting heads with you forever. If we just aim our ways of doing things in the same direction, we’ll get where we want to go together. There’s still time to pull back.”
At that moment, the game board Roswaal had carefully crafted was heavily crumbling away. With the plan shifting beyond his control, he could still stop being Garfiel, Subaru, and everyone else’s enemy. He could still—
“—Stop the assassins you sent to the mansion. Then we can hammer out everything else.”
Roswaal’s scheme had crumbled, and the problems enveloping the Sanctuary and the mansion were beginning to reach their conclusion. If Roswaal accepted Subaru’s demand for his surrender, they could bring everything to an end.
Accordingly, believing there was value in trying regardless of the danger, Subaru had come here to make his play.
It was Subaru’s silver ray of hope. And Roswaal—
“—I refuse, young Subaru.”
“?”
“I have not toiled for four hundred years only to be swayed by such a minor shift in circumstances.”
Bluntly, Roswaal shook his head side to side, rejecting Subaru’s demand.
With unmistakable anger residing in both his eyes, Roswaal declared that the war would go on.
3
The change in Roswaal’s emotions made the air in the room heavy.
Anger flared in both of Roswaal’s eyes as he thrust Subaru’s ultimatum aside. But a smile came over Roswaal’s war-paint-dabbed expression, his antagonistic emotions giving rise to a brutal aura of dread.
A vortex of vile emotions permeated the entirety of the room. At its center, Roswaal laughed scornfully at Subaru.
“A demand for surrender, is it? Yes, I seeeee. Certainly, you cannot be faulted for misunderstanding a dramatic change as predetermining victory or defeat, I suppoooose.”
“You’re saying I misunderstood something?”
“Indeed I am. Just from bringing in a piece from beyond the game-board and removing Garfiel as an obstacle, you believe yourself to be in a superior position? Yet, as before, I have the upper hand.”
Touching a hand to his breast, Roswaal repudiated Subaru’s assertion, declaring it completely off the mark.
“Everything at present is as you spoke. And so long as that remains true, my advantage does not change. You have no means to stop me. This very moment, you hear the familiar footsteps of defeat drawing near, do you not?”
“—!”
Roswaal was implicitly referring to his own scheme of dispatching assassins to the mansion. He was claiming that so long as the attack on the mansion and the existence of the assassins remained, Subaru had no chance of victory.
Not in the Sanctuary, not in the mansion, would Subaru lose anyone. There would be no casualties—those were the conditions for Subaru’s straight bet with Roswaal.
“That is the challenge you yourself proposed.”
Roswaal advanced a step, unerringly striking Subaru’s inner feelings with his words.
Given the height difference between the pair, Roswaal looked down at Subaru, peering into the boy’s black eyes as he continued.
Mercilessly, cruelly, as if declaring a just and proper verdict, he continued.
“What of the conditions of your wager? You have limited your greatest weapon to become an ordinary person.”
Roswaal ploddingly continued his advance.
“As ordinary as you are, what more can you achieve? What more can you undermine?”
Roswaal continued even further, his words gradually growing more heated.
“You will do nothing. You can do nothing. After all—”
Cutting off his words, his two differently colored eyes contained identical rage within them as he continued.
“After all, you—are garbage, lower than an ordinary man!”
He raised an angry shout. Roswaal slammed simple anger against an incompatible existence.
As a man who constantly lived with the apparition of his own death—nay, a man who could calmly carry on even while standing within a swirling vortex of death—Subaru Natsuki’s decision to avoid death seemed irrational to Roswaal, which only fed his anger.
“In the end, you’ve made it this far because of that power that you’ve used as a trump card against whatever might come. In willingly tossing it aside to become ordinary, what can an untalented man like you do?! I will not suffer any who try to violate the sanctuary of feelings that have been carved out over countless days and months! No one! However many you bring with you, this cannot be changed!”
Garfiel’s obsession with the Sanctuary was the distortion of ten long years’ worth of love toward his family.
Emilia had a hundred years’ worth of sins—enough that she wanted to forget them, with feelings of guilt for having abandoned them piled on top.
And—
“A decade, a century, and then my four centuries—as if all this could be overturned by none other than an ordinary man like you!!”
“…Because feelings don’t change?”
“That’s right!”
“Because you’ve kept on believing in those feelings for a really long time?”
“Yes, indeed it is!”
When Subaru inquired, Roswaal acknowledged everything.
He was saying that feelings were something no one could overcome. He was saying that feelings were not something that could be changed or altered.
“?”
That moment, Subaru felt like he finally understood. He finally felt like he understood Roswaal’s true thoughts.
—Roswaal wanted affirmation of his own feelings.
He believed this was how feelings should be. He wanted to believe the feelings of others beyond himself would affirm his own.
That was why Roswaal wanted Garfiel to wallow in his weakness.
Garfiel had continued obsessing over his own feelings, desperately trying to protect them so that they might never change. Roswaal had wanted him to stay that way—he desperately wanted others to desire this, just as he did.
“The hell’s with you, Roswaal?”
His feelings were single-minded, aimed at the person he cherished.
Hoping that his own feelings might be affirmed, he was supportive of people who were devoted to their loved ones.
Come to think of it, that had always been so. The feelings Subaru held toward Emilia, the feelings Rem had held toward Subaru… Roswaal was always accepting of those things, wasn’t he?
That was because Roswaal had a belief. He believed in the strength of feelings, the preciousness of bonds.
More than any of them, Roswaal believed in the concept of cherishing someone else. And yet—
“Why do you have to see feelings as nothing but weakness? You understand how strong and powerful it can be for someone to treasure another person for a long time. Why do you have to focus on how it’s weak?”
“—Because that is what I believe.”
Roswaal’s voice bubbled with emotion as he replied to Subaru’s words.
The glint in both his eyes, blue and yellow alike, intensified into an incredible glower of fiery indignation.
—Before challenging him to their final wager, Roswaal had said this to Subaru.
It is impossible for me to hate you. I trust you, from the bottom of my heart.
At the moment, Roswaal’s eyes seethed with anger, glaring with a killing gaze at the man he hated most in the world.
“Just like how you believe in others’ strength, I believe in remaining weak! Because I believe people are weak, frail, puny beings able to accomplish nothing unless they cling to a single, important thing!”
“?”
“For four hundred years my feelings have been dedicated to a single woman. The time I have spent unable to touch her is far longer than the days we spent together, yet the sight of her is burned forever in me. My soul has been in ashes ever since. Ever since the day we parted, my heart has remained shattered, and I have never changed!!”
Roswaal’s voice had a dreadful force to it, enough that the cramped room itself seemed to shake.
Subaru had never seen him reveal his own emotions to this extent. He’d never even conceived of it. But that was why Subaru found the sight so very painful.
Four hundred years—if Shima’s story was to be believed, this was the span of time over which the Mathers family had administered the Sanctuary generation after generation, just as Echidna the Witch had asked.
The same way each subsequent head of the Mathers family bore the name of Roswaal, each also inherited the duty of administering the Sanctuary. Roswaal had confused the name and the duty with the meaning that rested behind them.
He’d made his family’s long-cherished desire his own, and it was for this reason that Roswaal had always lived. The genius Roswaal walked a path that any normal person would have abandoned without compunction.
Simple respect and love toward a benevolent mentor had been distorted to become a curse binding an entire family line, giving birth to a single devil.
This was the man who inherited the Mathers family’s long-cherished desire four centuries long—Roswaal L. Mathers.
“…The advantage remains on my side. Part of what is written is in error, but what of it? What I desire is results. The conditions have not shifted meaningfully, and you will never achieve your goals without changing them, powerless as you are.”
After he took some time to breathe, his voice regained its composure.
Even so, his assertion had in no way changed. He did not accept the demand for surrender, and he didn’t see the balance of power shifting in the near future. And the greatest proof of Roswaal’s claim was—
“—The contest is not over so long as the one who is the cornerstone for both of us remains.”
Roswaal implicitly indicated that the basis of his certainty in his own victory was the girl challenging the Trial that very moment.
Just like he believed in human weakness, in Garfiel’s weakness, Roswaal believed in hers.
He believed that Emilia was weak. That Emilia was fragile. That Emilia would remain a weakling lacking the strength to overcome her regrets.
“—Don’t underestimate Emilia, Roswaal.”
Once cowed into silence from sheer momentum, Subaru spoke, his heart roused by Roswaal’s argument.
He could not stay silent. Just like how Emilia had chosen to stop cowering.
“Emilia won’t do as you planned anymore. That girl will overcome everything in her way.”
“As if she could. With no one to rely upon, she shall be crushed by her regrets. Her great hope that she can change will end in sorrow, and she shall cling to you in tears… That is what suits her.”
“There ain’t a woman out there suited to a crying face. Have you seen Emilia’s face when she cries…?”
The flame had been lit. Roswaal’s statements had enveloped Subaru’s heart in crimson.
—Roswaal had made him remember how Emilia acted inside the tomb just before their argument.
He’d seen Emilia stricken by her weighty responsibilities and by grief for her lost connection with Puck. He’d seen the expression on her face when she’d glared at Subaru with tears of unendurable emotions—
“—She’s so awful at crying, I never want to see her do it again!!”
“She will be hurt. She will be ensnared. That is the destiny of a half-elf. That is the curse she bears for being born of the same bloodline as the Witch of Jealousy. It is inevitable for her to be despised as a Witch.”
“Oh, stuff it. What about that girl makes her a Witch? Where the hell is this Witch you people keep talking about?”
Once, it was Roswaal who had howled, his ferocious emotions bare. This time, it was Subaru’s turn.
Lifting his head, Subaru grabbed Roswaal’s collar. Opening his eyes wide in anger, he glared point-blank into Roswaal’s differently colored eyes, making full use of the foul look he’d inherited from his mother.
I don’t like it. Yeah, I don’t like it at all. Right now, I don’t care for a single part of this world.
“If you’re gonna call that girl a Witch—! If that’s what you all want, then you’ll make that girl into a Witch, damn it! If you keep saying of course she’s weak, of course people despise her, it’s all her fault for being born as something she can’t change, you’ll turn her into a poor little Witch yourselves!!”
In the back of his mind, he thought of the Witch’s Tea Party—to the seven Witches of the past bearing the names of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Typhon, Daphne, Minerva, Sekhmet, Carmilla, Echidna.
And before that world had broken apart, there was Satella, who’d doted on him to the very end.
As if he could forget. That face—it was the spitting image of Emilia’s.
“Has even one person told her that it’s all right?! That when you’re sad, when you’re suffering, that it’s all right to cry?! And that if you can’t wipe off the tears rolling down your cheeks, ask someone close to do it for you… That you have people who’ll do that for you. Have even one of you said that to her?!”
No one had let Emilia cry, even though she’d been piling up so much bitterness, suffering, and sorrow. That’s why when that girl cried, she was so awful at it. Restraining your sobbing voice, hiding your crying face…these were things you did to protect yourself when crying, things you learned from people making you cry over and over.
She’d spent her days in ignorance of that, which was why that girl was so bad at crying.
“If no one’s gonna do it, I will. These feelings…this curse! You don’t think there’s any room for them ever changing? We’ll beat that right out of you!”
Thrusting Roswaal away, Subaru pointed a finger toward the heavens.
Mysteriously, it was the same pose Emilia adopted that very moment, displaying it to the Witch slamming malicious words at her inside the Trial.
“—My name is Subaru Natsuki! Knight of the silver-haired half-elf Emilia!”
Once, Subaru Natsuki had spoken these words without resolve behind them, causing a great throng to laugh in mockery at his rashness.
Looking back on himself at the time, he was even more lacking then than he was now.
But there was one thing that was different from back then.
—No matter who laughed, Subaru Natsuki would never feel ashamed of his determination.
“Emilia’s coming, Roswaal. The girl you stubbornly believe to be weak is coming to cut off your last ray of hope.”
“?”
“That’s how she’ll strip you of all the weakness you’re clinging to, and when you’ve hit rock bottom and you finally let us talk to you… At long last, you’ll be willing to listen then. That’s what I believe.”
Roswaal’s obstinate heart did not crumble, even though he’d witnessed Subaru’s resolve and determination.
It had been as he’d asserted over and over to that point. Time amassed across four centuries was not something that could easily be changed with one word or one deed.
It was just like how amassed words and deeds made Garfiel’s ten years and Emilia’s hundred begin to move.
It would be through Subaru’s and the others’ actions that their words would reach Roswaal’s four hundred.
—That was what he wanted to believe.
“—You really are as I judged you to be, Subaru Natsuki.”
“What?”
With Subaru having finished, Roswaal quietly called out his name.
They exchanged glances. The vehement emotions had vanished somewhere; Roswaal’s eyes were serene as he looked at Subaru.
Then, faced with Subaru’s questioning look, Roswaal’s lips trembled.
“You and I are alike. I mean this, in terms of bending ideals for those we cherish.”
“—You believe in weakness. I believe in strength. That’s the only way I agree that we’re alike.”
Subaru and Roswaal, rejecting each other’s incompatible philosophies, put distance between them. Beyond that, it would be through actions, not words, that they would prove their claims true.
“Let’s go.”
The talk was over. Subaru called out to the pair in attendance with him and left the room. Otto followed behind him without a word, and Garfiel, last to leave, looked back at Roswaal but once.
Roswaal was left all alone. Perhaps Garfiel saw some significance in that as he murmured in a little voice like an afterthought.
“—Stupid jerk.”
4
With negotiations thus ending in failure, Subaru and the others left the building and butted heads together.
The prior exchanges had slammed their respective resolve and true feelings against one another. Roswaal’s motives were clear, and that brief span of time was so intense, he had made them accept that he’d reset the game board to an even playing field.
As a result of those exchanges, there was one thing that Subaru could say for certain.
“This is bad. I wanted to stop the attack on the mansion, but it was like he was saying, Go away—there’s no pulling back now.”
“I cannot really deny it felt like our original objective had turned to half-baked negotiations midway…”
“Hey, Bro. Don’t blame the general too much, all right? By the general’s standards, he really laid into the guy. Me, I felt good just listenin’ to it.”
“Were it not a place for negotiations to resolve matters peacefully, I would agree with you…!”
When Subaru tried to reflect on things blowing up, Garfiel irresponsibly cheered him on. The sight of the pair made Otto clutch his head, genuinely in a bind.
“Not that I expected that the marquis would truly surrender, but why did talks break down so badly when a quiet end would have been preferable…?!”
“Certainly, Garfiel and I did bad things there, but the responsibility’s yours, too, right?”
“My responsibility? I did nothing to warrant anything so great as…”
“Well, I mean you were there, right?”
“I’m responsible just by merely existing?!”
That was somewhat inaccurate. More precisely, Otto was responsible for triggering the situation that had led to him joining Subaru at that meeting—thereby fatally ruining Roswaal’s setup.
Though, since Otto himself had no idea that was going on in the background, telling him of his responsibility left him sure it was a scurrilous accusation.
“Anyway, this isn’t the time to trade jokes with one another. Roswaal won’t stop the attack on the mansion. That means we need to go running back there without a moment to spare. That’s what it means, but…”
Their negotiations falling through meant the various problems surrounding the mansion would continue unabated. Just as Roswaal had said, if they didn’t prevent the attack, the contest would inevitably end in Subaru’s defeat.
There was virtually no time left until Elsa and Meili, the assassins dispatched by Roswaal, would assault the mansion.
As Subaru nervously gritted his teeth, it was then that Garfiel went, “Now hold on,” and clacked his fangs. “I ain’t really had a proper explanation, but the gist is that the bastard’s got some scheme that puts the bunch at the mansion…including my older sis, in danger. That ’bout covers it?”
“—. Yeah, that’s right. He’s sent assassins to the mansion, and they’re super skilled. I don’t stand a chance against ’em. That’s why I need combat power to…”
“Short talk, then. Let’s stop shootin’ the breeze here and get to the mansion right now.”
“Hey, listen to me! Even if we go back, we don’t have the combat power! It’ll just jack up the body count!”
“Ahhh?! What are you talkin’ about, General?! You sayin’ I’m not enough…?!”
“Yes! Please halt a moment right there!”
Wedging himself into the pair’s increasingly loud exchange, Otto stopped their arguments midway. After, he went, “Now, look here?” as he stared at their faces respectively. “It’s clear the flow of the conversation has shifted, but do you understand, Garfiel?”
“Understand what?”
“Going to the aid of the mansion requires leaving the Sanctuary. Lady Emilia is in the middle of her challenge, but the tomb’s barrier remains intact, so if the barrier stops you…”
The issue is moot, implied Otto, revealing the gap in Garfiel’s line of thinking.
But when this was pointed out to Garfiel, he crinkled his nose, undaunted.
“Barrier…? Ain’t no problem. The barrier don’t affect me ’cause of my makeup, y’see.”
“—Huh?”
When Garfiel touched one of his canine teeth with his finger and tossed out a brief explanation, Subaru and Otto both voiced the same reaction. Faced with their questioning gazes and voices, Garfiel went, “I’m sayin’,” clicking his tongue. “I’m an exception—the barrier that keeps ‘mixed’ people from passing through don’t work on me. Same as my older sis, I’m a kid from a mixed-blood dad and a human mom. My blood’s too thin, so the barrier don’t work.”
—Accordingly, there was nothing stopping them from going to the mansion’s aid right that minute, even without the barrier being lifted.
With Garfiel so bluntly divulging the circumstances of his birth, Subaru was completely at a loss.
He’d most certainly heard previously that Frederica had slipped out of the Sanctuary due to the thinness of her mixed blood—in other words, because she was a quarter-blood. However.
“It’s the same for you…? B-but I heard you and Frederica have different fathers?!”
“…Well, ya know. My mother, she ain’t got any luck or any eye for pickin’ men. You figure it out.”
Garfiel looked away. From that, Subaru felt his words rang true.
In other words, Garfiel and Frederica’s mother had given birth to children from two different mixed-blood, demi-human men. As a result, both siblings could pass through the Sanctuary’s barrier unhindered…
“Ah? What gives, General?”
“Whaddaya mean, what gives? Say that earlier, damn it! If you knew that, you…youuu!!”
“Well, I didn’t know ’cause you didn’t tell me all this, so it’s your own fault, General! It’s just like how Ipshiz was ruined through too few words!!”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes! That is quite enough! Quite enough!”
Just as the pair was about to come to blows, Otto intervened once more, intercepting Subaru before his inevitable pummeling.
“You can both reflect on explaining too little hereafter. Right now, we should think of this as good fortune indeed, seeing as how the greatest obstacle before us has been removed— Mr. Natsuki, we can do this.”
“I know! If we can all cross the barrier, this boils down quickly!”
With Otto’s shout flipping a switch in his mind, Subaru made an instant decision based on this change in conditions.
If they could all cross the barrier, they could take Garfiel with them when returning to the mansion. If Garfiel was with them, it became possible to confront Elsa and Meili.
But in turn, it was necessary to employ a variety of countermeasures for the numerous problems that remained in the Sanctuary. He’d already arranged all the preparations, but—
“After that… Garfiel!”
“Aah?”
“We’ll graciously handle everything except brute force. But where brute force is concerned, even if we stand and fight, we can’t beat these people. That’s why…”
Trailing off there, Subaru stared squarely at Garfiel.
Garfiel had been dissatisfied over not being able to follow the conversation, but his expression switched in the blink of an eye.
“To be blunt, I still don’t get a lot of what’s goin’ on, but…”
Garfiel’s two jade eyes gave off a fiery glow as he smiled, baring his fangs.
“Leave all the fightin’ to me— Me, I’m the best there is.”
5
“So what do you intend to do now?”
Returning from the forest to Subaru and the others, only to find some ruckus happening in front of the Cathedral—the building where the evacuees from Earlham Village had grouped up—it was Ram who spoke first.
The people of Earlham Village had clustered here, busy murmuring and holding different conversations. In front of the assembled gathering of evacuees were Subaru and his companions, and if she could put what they were doing into words—
“You are preparing dragon carriages to slip away during the night? Now, at a time like this?”
“You’re making it sound bad. But you’re not wrong about the call late at night and then again first thing in the morning feeling— From here, Otto, Garfiel, and I are heading toward the mansion. Re… Frederica and company are in danger.”
Subaru replied to Ram as he hitched his beloved pitch-black dragon, Patlash, to a two-dragon carriage. The reply made Ram raise an eyebrow. “To the mansion…,” she murmured. “The result of Lady Emilia’s Trial is still pending. What will you do?”
“Emilia’ll clear it. Echidna’s not gonna get her bent out of shape. How are Ryuzu and the others?”
“Caring for Miss Shima. Ram is to remain on watch until Lady Emilia returns.”
“Got it… In that case, I’ll leave that role to you. Counting on ya.”
“Counting on me, are you, Barusu? You are such a…”
There was sharpness mixed in Ram’s voice; perhaps she thought him irresponsible. However, it was natural for her to see it that way. Abandoning them during a situation like this would make Emilia angry, let alone Ram.
Even so, he had to go. Rem, Frederica, and Petra were waiting. Besides—
“—General, sorry for the wait! I’m back!”
“I have completed preparations as well. We can leave any moment!”
In high spirits, two voices interrupted Subaru and Ram’s conversation. Then both respectively leaped onto the dragon carriage: Garfiel onto the roof and Otto onto the driver’s seat.
When performing the final checks for Otto’s plan, they’d headed to the cabin to collect something Garfiel had forgotten.
“I was the strongest before but now I’m even stronger, ha. Now I ain’t losin’ to anyone, not even you, General.”
Garfiel seemed extremely enthusiastic, his words bringing both surprise and a wry smile out of Subaru. Then Subaru looked behind him—toward Ram and the people of Earlham Village arrayed at her back. Of course, Ram still had an unconvinced face on her, but the people of Earlham Village bowed deeply in response to his gaze.
“It’s like you heard, everyone! From here, we’re heading back to the mansion a step ahead of you! Sorry for this all being out of order, but…”
“You need not be concerned, Master Subaru.”
A voice interrupted Subaru’s words; it hailed from an old woman with a stooped hip—the head of Earlham Village. She trained her hoarse voice and her eyes, which were filled with a bounty of kindness, toward Subaru.
“All of us have already heard about it from the Administrator. And have you forgotten?”
“?”
“Just who was it who took on the responsibility of liberating us, I wonder?”
The village head’s question left Subaru perplexed for a single moment, but he immediately widened his eyes.
He remembered. It already felt so long ago, for it was on the first day they had visited this place— There, at the Cathedral, Emilia had promised to liberate the other villagers from the Sanctuary.
The village head—no, not her alone but everyone from the village—believed in her.
“You worry needlessly, Master Subaru. More importantly, you have your own duty that you must fulfill, yes?”
“Don’t get cold feet in a place like this. Please go quickly.”
“Ahhh, you’d best wipe off what’s left of that nosebleed midway, though. Don’t wanna disappoint Petra.”
Following the head of the village, the other villagers offered their own voices of support one after the other. What they said varied, but all were meant to bolster Subaru and the others’ decision. That was of great help to him.
“Thanks, everyone. But don’t forget what I said. Wait until…”
“—Right up to the limit, and only until then. Why, if the barrier is lifted before that, all is well.”
“That’s why, Master Subaru, you should give up already and let us help you this time.”
Their powerful, imposing words completely stopped Subaru from saying anything.
Let us help you. The person who spoke communicated the united will of the villagers. To add anything more would be crude of him.
When presented with so much resolve, what could one say? Subaru had no way to put his feelings into words.
Accordingly, he bowed his head. Then the remaining problem was—
“Ram, there’s no time to explain every fine detail. But all of them understand their own roles. Emilia, too. So for you…”
“—Fine, then. Do as you please. Ram shall do as she pleases as well.”
Seemingly out of other words, Subaru offered a final parting remark to Ram, who snorted in return, her arms crossed. Wincing from her reply, Subaru scratched his cheek with a finger.
“Hearing you, someone who normally does as she pleases, say that is super scary for some reason…”
“Ha. Yes, do be afraid— Barusu, you’re really all right with this?”
“Yeah. I already told Emilia all the words I wanted to tell her.”
“The carvings on the wall, you mean.”
“Why do I feel like I’ll never live that down?!”
Replying to Ram’s teasing in a loud voice, Subaru then rummaged in his pocket, touching something that felt hard with the tips of his fingers. He exhaled a light breath.
“—Ram.”
Addressing her, Subaru drew it out and tossed it toward Ram. She softly caught the object.
“Don’t do anything crazy.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to, Barusu? Don’t make me laugh.”
Smiling wryly at Subaru’s words, Ram quietly put the caught object into a pocket on her maid outfit.
From this point, no more words were spoken between them. Everything that needed to be exchanged had been. All that was left was for each of them to work their hardest toward their respective best outcomes.
“—Let’s go! We gotta reach the mansion before the crack of dawn. I’m counting on ya, Patlash!”
Climbing into the dragon carriage, Subaru shouted, bringing a loud neigh from Patlash, who was hitched to the wagon. Spurred by that neigh, Otto’s beloved dragon, hitched alongside, gave off a low growl in turn.
Slowly, the two-dragon carriage began to move, and their sprint out of the Sanctuary had begun.
“Um, incidentally, I heard a term earlier that I cannot easily dismiss. Who is this Administrator of whom everyone from the village spoke…?”
“—We’re leaving!!”
Overwriting and obliterating Otto’s question, the dragon moved, deploying its wind repel blessing.
Inundated by the villagers’ cheers of support, the dragon carriage raced through the night toward the forest, the road…and the mansion.
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