2
“Hnk.”
Regulus put his hand to his mouth, unable to endure it any longer as he let out a cruel laugh. The muffled snort grew and grew into full-throated laughter.
Judging by his oversize reaction, Subaru knew instinctively that Emilia’s guess had to be correct.
“What’s so funny, you asshole?!”
“Isn’t it obvious?! Because you are now well and truly at a dead end. What else is there to do but laugh after watching you reach the end of your rope? You understand what this means, right? You should recognize this means the noose is tightening around your necks!”
“Gh…”
Subaru was at a loss when Regulus said something that actually made sense for once.
In that moment, he didn’t have the composure to reflexively argue with the Archbishop. Just like with the brides before, as long as Lion Heart had a place to run away to, he was invincible.
And this time, his heart was in the absolutely worst possible place.
“Emilia-tan, is it really…?”
“Mm-hmm. I had the spirits all check, and I can feel it, too. Something that isn’t me inside of me. It makes me sick.”
Emilia rubbed her stomach, confirming their terrible predicament.
In order to neutralize the effects of Lion Heart, they had to do something about the people who were members of his little kingdom. In other words, this time…
“But how can I?! And why Emilia’s heart…?! Was I wrong about how Little King worked? Can he just put his heart in whoever he wants?”
—No, if it was that convenient a power, it would be equivalent to not having any limit at all.
It had to be that he couldn’t shift his heart to anyone who was not a member of his kingdom. If it didn’t even have that limitation, then the entire battle would have been a waste of time from the start.
Going at it from that direction, then—that would mean he had inducted Emilia into his kingdom—
“You’re shameless.”
“The words of an unfaithful woman are nothing more than the griping of a sore loser. Ah, of course as the defeated, griping is your right. And listening to those complaints with a feeling of superiority is my right as the victor… Ha-ha, not bad. Not bad at all!”
Subaru agreed wholeheartedly with Emilia, who was glaring scornfully at Regulus as he cackled.
It was a simple story. An easy-to-understand and sleazy thought.
For all that Regulus had derided Emilia, he still considered her one of his wives, making her a citizen in his little kingdom and an escape valve for his heart, just in case something happened.
What made it even more disgusting was how he was able to do it without anything that could even remotely be interpreted as consent from Emilia.
“Even though you were so insistent about me being unfit to be your wife.”
“How tiresome. Do not think yourself worthy to lecture me, you lecherous wench. More importantly, how are you planning to take responsibility for all my wives you murdered in cold blood? They were my ideal wives. How much time do you think I spent gathering all of them? Not a single wife or lover of an appropriate age to be seen. Are you going to leave me a worthless widower? You have a responsibility to fill the gap until I find a fitting new wife!”
Emilia directed a visceral hatred at the man the likes of which she had rarely displayed, but Regulus batted her furious words away with hopelessly warped logic.
He was happy to believe any twisted line of argument that affirmed his right to take up residence in Emilia’s heart. But if that was how it worked in practice, then that meant it was possible that Lion Heart could also reside in someone besides Emilia—
“Want to test it? It’s simple enough to find out if my heart can go anywhere else, right?”
“You…”
“Just kill the girl right here and now. If you snuff out her life, you will naturally learn my limits. It’s simple and logical…other than the fact that it’s impossible for you! Ha-ha-ha! Can you do it? Of course not. Because if you did that, then you would lose that which drove you to so selfishly challenge me in the first place!”
It was bitterly frustrating, but Regulus’s boastful pronouncement was absolutely right. Subaru couldn’t willingly choose to sacrifice Emilia. He could convince himself that sacrificing all of Regulus’s wives was necessary, but he couldn’t do the same for Emilia. Even if it was selfish, that was just the truth.
Subaru Natsuki didn’t value all lives equally. There was an order of precedence, and those closest to him were more precious.
Because Subaru’s decisions were always self-centered.
“There, look at that. He can’t do it. So why don’t you try doing it yourself? It’s simple. Just do the same thing you did to my wives. Or what? You can’t do it? You can selfishly steal away other people’s lives, but your own is too precious to lay down for the cause? The hypocrisy is so ripe. It almost makes me sick.”
“—Subaru.”
“Wait! Don’t do it. You absolutely can’t.”
He immediately reacted when Emilia seemed like she steeled herself in response to Regulus’s provocation. When she said nothing but his name, her voice was filled with unshakable resolve, and that frightened him.
Of course it wasn’t just because she was rising to provocation or giving in to desperation. But Emilia had the resolve to make the ultimate sacrifice in the worst-case scenario if no other solution presented itself.
And Subaru had nothing if not the determination to keep her from making that choice—which left them with only defeat. Without some other plan, there was no changing the fact that Regulus was in total control of the situation.
“If you two are done here, then do you mind if I finally bring these proceedings to an end? Carrying around a filthy woman like you isn’t really my thing, but I can compromise for the time being. You can fill in until I find my next wife. I will be killing him, though. After infringing on my rights this much… Ah, that’s right—that’s right. It’s funny, isn’t it?”
As Subaru gritted his teeth, Regulus’s lips curled in the utmost pleasure.
“You’re the one who made that noisy broadcast before the ceremony, right? What was it you said? That you defeated an Archbishop before? That was a good laugh. How pitiful, thinking that just because you killed that good-for-nothing meant you could somehow defeat me. He was a worthless dullard before he was an Archbishop, and he never achieved anything of note after becoming one, either.”
Regulus scoffed, making a fool of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, who was the most detestable and bitter enemy Subaru had.
There was no excusing Petelgeuse. He was the lowest of the low. Subaru couldn’t feel even the slightest bit of goodwill toward that evil spirit. He hated him to the bone and thought he was a monster who deserved to die.
But he felt a deep and visceral displeasure at hearing Regulus mock and ridicule him like that.
The world was a better place if the Archbishops didn’t get along, but seeing Regulus’s open hatred for someone in the same cult as him revealed just how horribly twisted his bloated sense of self-worth was.
To begin with, Petelgeuse was—
“—Ah.”
Subaru looked up when that loathsome man crossed his mind, when he heard that blood-drenched evil laugh echo in the back of his head. And he gulped as he clutched his own chest.
Wait, is something like that possible?
“Can I…do that…?”
The only answer he had was a firm I don’t know.
There was no evidence at all to support the theory that had just crossed Subaru’s mind. It was nothing more than an armchair hypothesis—no, it was worse than that. It was just a wild idea. A thought experiment.
But even so, the only one who could test it out was Subaru.
It was just an idea backed by a hunch with astronomically bad odds. God only knew if it would work.
But even so—
“Emilia.”
“ ”
Emilia turned toward him as she quietly channeled mana.
If Subaru had not acted just then, she would have made the choice to act first. Pushed into the same position as the other women, she would have ended herself and entrusted Subaru with defeating Regulus.
There was a fatal resolve and determination in her violet eyes as she looked at him—and behind it, overflowing hope and trust.
“Emilia?”
“Yes?”
Subaru mustered every bit of his determination to get the question past his lips.
“—Can you trust me and leave everything to me?”
“Yes.”
Her reply had been immediate. It was simple and direct. Emilia put her hand to her chest, and for the first time since leaving the chapel, there was a gentle smile on her face.
“I always believed you would be able to do something.”
Argh, how unfair.
Having that much faith placed in him by the girl he loved, there was no way he could afford to screw up now. He had no choice but to make it work, no matter how desperate and frantic he needed to become.
“ ”
He took a deep, deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
And he looked over at Regulus, who had been watching them in silence. Regulus didn’t attempt to interrupt them at all. He simply stood there, smirking with all the calm in the world.
“Nice and composed, huh?”
“And what of it?”
There was no way he could possibly lose.
Regulus had revealed all the cards in his hand and had completely cut off every path of retreat. Regulus’s Lion Heart was truly a powerful ability. Subaru had not imagined that it would be able to push victory so far out of reach even after they had discovered the secret.
Because of its absolute nature, Regulus didn’t doubt his victory in the slightest. He could enjoy the sweet nectar of victory at his leisure. That was why he seemed so composed.
Because he believed that Subaru’s vain struggle couldn’t possibly reach him.
“ ”
If Beatrice had been there, maybe she would have had a spark of inspiration. Maybe that wise girl could have found another way, a better plan, or something with greater odds of success.
He could feel the connection with his partner in his heart. She would surely chew him out long and hard once everything was settled, and he would have to scold her, too. In order to be able to look back and laugh at just how rash all the things they had done in Pristella really were.
“Subaru.”
“ ”
“Do it.”
Emilia’s final push gave him the courage he needed to take the leap.
Subaru clenched his chest tightly, focusing on the power deep in his heart so dark it didn’t feel like his own, summoning again the memories of pain and terror as he set it free.
For just that one time, he decided to revert to the old name.
Just this once, so that villain with zero sense of comradery would understand. So he would know that this power was something he had inherited from his hated enemy.
“Come forth, Unseen Hands!”
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