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An important discussion that would affect the fate of the city.
Most likely that was what she really thought and not an idle exaggeration.
And quickly realizing that made Subaru far more tense. It was like his disorganized resolve and determination had been given direction.
“—After I split off from Priscilla and Liliana, I headed for the Muse Company by myself. And along the way I met up with Julius, which is how I ended up back here.”
Subaru took a little breath after briefly explaining what had happened to him.
The two of them were talking in a conference room on the second floor of the building. A map of Pristella was spread out on the table in the center of the room with various characters and signs written on it. The floodgate control towers at the four edges of the city, the floodgates, and even more precise details—
“All the shelters, too? No surprise a city this big has a ton of shelters… That really minimized the damage from the flooding, but they’re causing their own problems, too.”
The chaos he had encountered at the shelter flashed through the back of his mind as he looked at the map.
Sirius’s Authority amplifying the feelings of unease and trapping the city’s residents into a negative feedback loop. That same sort of scene was surely happening all around the city. And the ones dealing with that problem in an unexpected way were—
“—Mm-hmm, mm-hmm… Yeah, thank you. That explains a lot. I wouldn’t have guessed the missing princess gallivanted off to do that, but if anything, I guess that’s very much her kind of thing.”
“Ah, yeah, I get you there. She’s reliably unpredictable.”
Anastasia’s mouth curled into a vague smile when they briefly mentioned how Priscilla’s insane drive for action was often directed in an entirely unpredictable way, but her expression tensed again just as quickly. She looked straight at Subaru.
“So about that leg of yours that got torn off and then stuck back on… Is it really okay?”
“Fortunately, there haven’t been any issues even when I’m running or jumping around. It looks terrible, but I can show you if you want.”
“Yeah, let me see it.” Anastasia immediately nodded.
Subaru was a little surprised, but he rolled up the right leg of his pants. Seeing the blackened flesh consuming his leg, Anastasia winced slightly.
“It really doesn’t hurt? It looks like it should be aching.”
“I won’t ask if you want to touch it, but yeah, it really doesn’t hurt. It feels the same when I touch it, too. But anytime I get injured here, it seems to heal faster.”
“…I assume that isn’t the greatest feeling, either. But if it doesn’t cause you any issues while running or jumping, then I guess that’s good, since we’re going to be needing you to do a lot more before this is over.”
While she still had some hang-ups, Anastasia had accepted the situation as it was and come to the same conclusion Subaru had. There was no way to get rid of the blackened flesh, but it was not affecting his ability to act. Given that, it could drop to the back of the priority queue, and they could focus on more immediately pressing problems. For example—
“—The victims of Lust’s Authority, the people working here who were turned into flies… For now, they’ve all been gathered in one place here on the third floor.”
“How did you find out about them without me or Crusch…?”
“The black dragon that was carrying the duchess. We managed to figure out how to communicate. And the people who were turned into flies were still conscious and willing to follow our directions… I can’t really say whether it was the right thing to do, though.”
Subaru did not have an answer for her doubts, either. If their brains were changed along with their appearance, then there would not be any worries about their anguish at getting transformed, but that would be the same as them losing their sense of self, which would be its own unbearable problem.
But was it even possible to say that they maintained their sense of self after being transformed into entirely different entities? That was not a question that could begin to be answered by someone who had not experienced it firsthand.
“They can’t even control their bodies freely, which has at least prevented any suicides. But I’m sure some of them still haven’t accepted what has happened to them… It was at least good that we could protect them before it came to that.”
“Suicide? That’s just…”
“Do you really think that’s something we don’t need to worry about?”
“Ugh…”
Subaru did not have an easy answer for that question, either. But it was clear that even with how far off the rails the situation had gotten, Anastasia was dealing with things in a much more coolheaded way than Subaru. And it was also clear that she was genuinely relieved at having managed to get things there without letting anyone get hurt or getting hurt themselves.
“As long as you’re still alive, there’s still hope. But if your body or spirit dies, then hope dies with it. Don’t stop, no matter how grim things seem. Just stay alive,” Anastasia murmured, more to herself than to Subaru.
And if that strained, desperate clinging was her view on life and death, then Subaru was in full agreement. Stay alive no matter what, even if it meant guzzling down mud to survive. As long as life remained, a chance to fight back would come someday.
And in order to get that chance—
“There’s a mountain of other problems to deal with. Wrath’s Authority running rampant, Lust’s victims going through hell, Gluttony wherever they are and whatever it is they want, and Greed, who doesn’t make any sense at all…”
“All we can do is take it one step at a time and crush them one by one.” Subaru clenched his fist.
Anastasia looked up at him from her seat in front of the map on the table. Subaru met her gaze before taking a deep breath.
When he stopped to think about it, it was an odd situation. He never would have imagined that, by themselves, he and Anastasia would try to figure out how to deal with the problems afflicting a city that had been plunged into chaos.
“—We haven’t spoken face-to-face like this since the night before the White Whale hunt, have we?”
“What a coincidence. I was just thinking the same thing. We were talking about facing off against a dangerous enemy that time, too, huh…? I guess this’ll be our second time as witnesses to history in the making,” Subaru replied.
“Witnessing history, huh? That’s a pretty haughty way to put it. But yeah, I suppose it’s true.”
Subaru looked dubious as Anastasia nodded to herself, mulling something over. It felt out of character for her. She was usually so direct about everything, but she seemed to be hesitating for some reason.
“Let’s not beat around the bush, Anastasia. I guess we don’t really know each other well enough to say we don’t need to hold anything back, but you went out of your way to have Julius leave us alone, so you must have something you wanted to talk about, right?”
She had instructed Julius to leave the two of them alone because she had a reason. And hearing that, Anastasia said “Yeah” with a nod and exhaled. And then she looked Subaru in the eye as she began to speak.
“Let me ask you directly, then: Beatrice is an artificial spirit, isn’t she?”
“ ”
Subaru caught his breath. Something about Anastasia’s question made it sound like she was already certain of the answer.
Beatrice was an artificial spirit who had been created by the Witch of Greed, Echidna. But there was no way anyone outside Emilia’s camp would know that. Which meant that regardless of Anastasia’s apparent confidence, Subaru could just play dumb. But—
“—Yeah, that’s right. Beatrice is an artificial spirit, and most likely the cultists had her in mind when they mentioned it in their demands.”
Subaru quietly acknowledged Anastasia’s suspicion without trying to dodge the subject.
Of the three demands added in the broadcast after the flood, the one about turning over the artificial spirit meant, in other words, giving the cultists Beatrice. Which was one of the two main reasons Subaru’s response to them was to flip them the bird and tell them to buzz off.
“Her origin is a little unique, but other than being incomparably cute, there isn’t anything particularly special about her. I can’t even guess what they might want with her.”
Not that there was no cause for concern, though. Her mother was that nasty Witch, after all. It wouldn’t be that shocking if the same Witch of Greed who had tried to make Subaru a puppet in order to indulge her curiosity had also left some kind of bomb lying dormant in Beatrice, and it was possible the cultists were after her because of something like that.
“I doubt anyone else in the city is carrying around an artificial spirit, so it’s safe to assume that they are after Beatrice… Anastasia…?”
Having said that much, Subaru cocked his head. Anastasia was listening to his answer with wide eyes and a look of shock on her face.
“Huh? Uh, yeah…” She nodded, still surprised. “You’re awfully…open about it. Even though it might put her in danger.”
“We’re trying to figure out who the enemy are after, right? They’re the only ones who would benefit if I held back now. And given the situation, I’m the one who needs everyone’s help the most, so it’s natural I lay my cards on the table first,” Subaru responded with a shrug.
“…Yeah, they really are the only ones who benefit from us holding back…”
Anastasia’s soft response had a heaviness to it, but before Subaru could probe further, Anastasia touched her scarf, which was seeming more and more like a nervous habit of hers, before shaking her head.
“I had thought it would be difficult to say in front of everyone else, but I guess I was worried over nothing.”
“Everyone in our camp knows about Beako, so it would’ve gotten out sooner or later. Besides, I have no intention of negotiating with terrorists, and I assume we’re on the same page there, right?”
“Agreed. I don’t know what a terro-whatever is, but I refuse to let the cultists get even one of their demands met. If we gave them what they wanted, there’s no mistaking they would just sink the city anyway—and I refuse to let that happen.”
Anastasia’s suddenly overwhelming resolve gave Subaru goose bumps. Feeling it that powerfully from up close finally made him realize what the source of her intense emotions was.
She was burning up from a rage that she could not fully tamp down. It had been hard to notice with her beautiful figure and gentle demeanor and the calm way she behaved, but even so, her wrath had lit a fire inside of her. And the source of that anger was surely something that had happened before she fled to city hall—
“Anastasia, what happened at the Muse Company?”
He had heard from Julius that the Muse Company had been attacked and that at the end of a deadly fight, Anastasia and the others had barely managed to escape with their lives, but at the cost of Kiritaka Muse and the White Dragon’s Scale, one of the city’s council members and his personal guards, going missing—meaning the already grave situation had only gotten worse.
And on top of that, the normally calm and collected Anastasia could not fully control her own emotions. Subaru was careful broaching the topic, aware that something particularly bad had likely happened.
“…It was after Julius and Ricardo went with y’all to take back city hall.” Anastasia did her best to contain the emotion creeping into her voice.
At the same time that they had been fighting over there, Anastasia and the Muse Company had been viciously attacked—
“—An Archbishop with bandages covering her whole body attacked us.”
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