5
“Mr. Kiritaka and the folks from the White Dragon’s Scale stayed behind while we retreated with Hetaro and TB—that’s what happened at the company building.”
“And you joined back up with everyone else here at city hall?”
“Mm-hmm. It was rough with the floodgate opening while we were in the middle of moving everybody. If we’d been any slower to notice, we’d be up the creek by now…but we avoided the worst of it.”
Anastasia paused, having finished telling her lurid story. Subaru heaved a big sigh. They had done well to hold off Sirius’s assault on the Muse Company and then escape with such minimal losses considering how little fighting power had stayed behind after they committed almost everything to the city hall assault.
“The city’s representatives, the Council of Ten, have been destroyed. Mr. Kiritaka’s gone missing…and that same Mr. Kiritaka left this town to me to protect—and there’s no way I’m not living up to that promise.”
Anastasia shook her head at what Subaru was thinking, her clenched hands white as her nails dug into her palms, almost like she was engraving the duty with which she had been entrusted into her skin like a curse.
Subaru finally realized what the real source of the rage she was feeling was.
“Getting saved is a debt, and debts have to be settled. That’s my pride as a Kararagi merchant and my obligation if I’m gonna call myself Hoshin.”
Anastasia’s powerful, pointed determination, her firm stance, made it clear to Subaru just how fierce the struggle at the Muse Company must have been. There was no telling how bad the damage would have been was it not for Kiritaka and his party’s heroic rearguard action—and that did not even begin to describe the true impact of the events that had transpired there. If it had not been for him, not only Anastasia but also Beatrice would have been in danger. Every one of Subaru’s comrades there, everyone he knew at the Muse Company, had been saved by Kiritaka’s decision.
“Debts have to be settled, huh…? Then I don’t have much choice but to pay my dues as well.”
Subaru apologized from the bottom of his heart to the man who had gone missing for all the rude things he had thought about him before.
After everyone did every last thing in their power to hold the line, they had managed to just barely hang on to a chance to stage a comeback—but there were still many dead who could not be saved anymore, a fact that tortured Subaru’s heart. And it only made it worse, given how much he now owed the man, to think that Kiritaka was likely one of them.
“Sorry for going out of order on you. But the gist of it is: I’ve got my reasons to not back down. And I’d bet you’re in the same spot, right?”
“Yeah, you got that right. I dunno what they want with an artificial spirit, but I’ll be damned if I let them lay a finger on my Beako.”
Subaru clenched his fists, his hatred for the cultists clear to see.
“Mm, that’ll do, then.”
Anastasia looked down at the map on the table again and pointed to the control towers at the four edges of the city.
“In that case, let’s press on. The other things the cultists demanded…”
“About that, I’ve got something I should tell you.”
Of the four demands the cultists had listed in the broadcast, they had covered the artificial spirit, but there was another one that Subaru happened to know about. Naturally, since what they were asking for was—
“The book of knowledge—it no longer exists in this world anymore. Burned to ashes.”
“…Care to explain? I couldn’t figure anything out about that book, and it has been bothering me.”
If he was being honest, it was nothing more than an abominable cursed tome as far as he was concerned. It had been the impetus for Roswaal’s actions behind the scenes while they were in the Sanctuary and had driven Beatrice to four hundred years of solitude in the archive of forbidden books. It would be hard for him to view it in a positive light even if he tried his hardest.
And that was also because it was unique in what it contained.
“How do I put it…? The book of knowledge is sort of like a prototype of the Gospels that the cultists have…it’s what the Gospels were originally based on and is also a more complete version. It’s set up to predict the future the same way the Dragon Tablet works, apparently.”
“That sounds pretty hard to believe, but you said it was burned?”
“Yeah. There were two books, and they were both burned. So it shouldn’t exist anymore.”
“You keep saying ‘exist.’ Where’d you hear that?”
“…From the Witch who made them…”
Subaru’s face screwed into a scowl. Anastasia’s eyes widened at his response. She chewed over the word Witch for a moment, as if making sure she’d heard him right.
“And this isn’t your usual joking around, right? You’re serious?”
“Yeah, deadly serious. You said it before yourself, right? There were other witches besides the Witch of Jealousy. One even died in this city, and her remains are still here somewhere, right?”
“That’s a dead one, though. That’s still believable. But from what you said, it sure sounds like you actually met a witch and talked to her. And from the look on your face, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, either.”
“Yeah, I met one and talked to her, all right. And got tricked and set up by her, too. And, well, a lot happened. You get the picture.”
It would be a long story if he talked about everything that had happened in the Sanctuary and in the tomb. It was a bit rude, but there was not much Subaru could say about the Witch Echidna. Or more bluntly, he really did not want to talk about her.
For better or worse, Echidna had lodged some sharp thorns deep in Subaru’s heart that were not going to just go away.
“Anyway, the only two copies of it that existed in this world were both burned, so the cultists missed their mark there. It should be safe to just ignore that demand of theirs.”
“—But can you really trust what that witch you met said?” Anastasia fired back adroitly.
“ ”
Subaru was at a loss for a moment, his eyes snapping open in shock at how the gears in his head had just stopped turning.
“You’ve got your thoughts about her and clearly don’t trust her at all. But you still believe what she said. Sounds like she is a bit of a troublesome sort of person for you.”
“…I couldn’t agree more. You pretty much summed it all up perfectly. I have no intention of trusting her, so it’s weird that I don’t doubt that at all.”
The things Echidna had said, the understanding she had shown: They had all been a performance in order to turn Subaru into her puppet. But did that mean he should assume everything she’d said was a lie? And was that vague uncertainty just him wanting to believe there was more to her, or was he still just getting led around by the nose by that know-it-all Witch?
The same Witch who had sympathized with how painful Subaru’s Return by Death was.
“I can’t comment on your connection with that Witch, and I’m grateful to at least get a little more information. But…”
“But?”
Subaru furrowed his brow, his uncertainty about what he really thought leaving a bad taste in his mouth.
“The cultists went out of their way to demand it on the broadcast. Maybe they just didn’t know the book had been burned, but…I think we should consider other possibilities.”
Subaru looked down as Anastasia gently talked around the point.
It did not exist; that was what Subaru wanted to believe: The book of knowledge did not currently exist. If that was a lie, it would mean Echidna had lied to Subaru again. And while he could not explain why, that would make him feel disappointed for some reason.
“—Natsuki.”
But as he slipped into a sea of thoughts, Anastasia’s voice pulled him back.
“Ah, my bad. Um, so what’s left is…”
“There’s still the Witch’s bones, but we can just leave that for now. The city hasn’t been sunk, which is proof enough they don’t have the bones yet…though it doesn’t tell us anything about Mr. Kiritaka’s current status.”
“Yeah…and the last demand was…”
“—‘The silver-haired maiden’s wedding.’” Anastasia supplied the words Subaru struggled to say.
Her gaze bore only a simple question. There was no particularly deep meaning to it, just a doubt born of not being able to grasp what his aim was.
There was no one who could fail to guess who ‘the silver-haired maiden’ meant. As for why the cultists insisted on that demand—
“That bastard doesn’t have any ulterior motive or anything. He absolutely meant it exactly how it sounds. He’s serious about putting on a wedding.”
“…With everything going on here?”
“He’s an Archbishop of the Witch Cult. He’d do what he wanted in the middle of Armageddon. They all would. And what pisses me off even more is he has the strength to make it happen.”
The image of the white-haired man carrying Emilia under his arm flashed through his head. When he was taking her away, he had insisted that all that mattered was appearance. A villain with nothing less than a loathsome level of transcendent strength—the Archbishop of Greed, Regulus Corneas.
Subaru could not say exactly who was responsible for the other demands, but he could confidently say that the marriage demand was 100 percent Greed’s.
“That freaking nutjob… No, I guess that fits all of them. Beatrice, the book of knowledge that may or may not even exist anymore, the fate of this whole city, and Emilia! You think I’d let them have anything?! Over my dead body!”
It was hard to believe they could concoct a more insane setup. The only explanation he could come up with was that they were all, every last one of them, living under some different idea of rationality or common sense, some extradimensional way of thinking.
—A monster, a blasphemer, a mystery, and a villain. Throw in the not-so-dearly-departed, crazed evil spirit for good measure. They were a gathering of all the mortal realm’s sins, incarnations of the world’s dark side: the Archbishops of the Deadly Sins.
“…I was hoping for just that sort of reaction, but that was even better than I expected.”
Seeing Subaru breathing hard after getting so worked up, Anastasia relaxed her expression in a moment of approval. But there was no mistaking it for a cheerful smile. It was a manifestation of the rage that had created an unstoppable impulse in her heart.
“You looked an awful lot like Ricardo there.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Can’t go messing things up between us until after we take back the city,” Anastasia joked before her expression turned serious again. “Like we discussed, we won’t give them anything. I’ve got a duty to see through here. To Mr. Kiritaka, for sure, but also to Emilia and Crusch.”
“ ”
“Emilia and Crusch and the rest of you came to Pristella on my invitation. All of you are my guests. Letting you get hurt like this… I ain’t gonna take this humiliation lying down.”
Her pale-aquamarine eyes were filled with deep resolve, and she stared into Subaru’s eyes, asking if he was ready to fight.
“We’ll need to be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. Looks like you’ve made up your mind, too.”
“Necessary sacrifices…”
“Everyone’s shrinking back ’cause we lost, but can y’all accept where things are standing right now? I sure won’t. I’m gonna fight with everything I can lay hands on. I’ll worry about excuses for why I lost when I’m dead.”
Her usually gentle, peaceful expression was consumed by a savage drive.
“There is always another chance, as long as you’re still alive. I won’t let people throw away their lives. It’s too heartbreaking.”
The determination welling from her small, slender body was powerful enough to make Subaru forget she was not someone who spent her time out on the battlefield— No, that wasn’t quite right. They were already standing on her battlefield. And when it came to talks like these, Anastasia Hoshin was a grizzled veteran.
“It’s entirely possible Lust has the ability to change Crusch and the people she transformed back. And we still don’t know where Mr. Kiritaka is, but that’s all. And you aren’t planning on just leaving your precious princess in some stranger’s hands, either, right?”
“—Hell no! If they’re going to give us four demands, then we should hit back with a little something of our own.”
Subaru was tired of getting pummeled so one-sidedly. Fed up with just doing what he was told.
“We’ll save Emilia from that freak, kick Gluttony’s ass and get him to spit out Rem’s memories, bash Sirius for screwing with the entire city’s emotions, and make Capella beg for mercy while changing everyone back! Then we save the city, and boom, everybody lives happily ever after!”
“Yeah, that sounds good to me.”
Subaru thrust out his fist, and Anastasia gently wrapped her hand around it. It was not the reaction he’d expected, but it was at least proof they were on the same wavelength.
Anastasia still wanted to put up a fierce fight, and Subaru could stand behind that sentiment wholeheartedly. So—
“Let’s save this city, Ms. Anastasia. We’ll do it with our own hands.”
Nodding to Anastasia, Subaru looked down at the map on the table again. It marked every location in the city, but it could not show the faces of the people living there. So he closed his eyes and imagined something else instead.
He etched Emilia, Rem, and all the people he wanted to save onto the insides of his eyelids.
—In order to keep fighting to save the city and all the people who were precious to him.
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