5
Agony racked Subaru as he regained consciousness after learning the origin of a Witch he had met once before.
“Gaahhh!”
It was like his consciousness was being audibly pulled back out of the book. Consumed by the feeling of sticky dried blood clinging to him, it was a ripping feeling that paid no heed to outer layers being peeled away in the process.
The pain wasn’t in his head or his body. It was in his soul.
His soul had been pulled into the book, and the pain came from tearing it back out.
“Subaru!”
Emilia’s voice rang out from beside him as the book slipped from his hand. It landed upside down and splayed across the ground as she steadied his shoulder.
“Y-yeah…?”
“A-are you okay? You sounded reeeally hurt just now…”
“Y-yeah, I managed not to get torn away…I think? I am here, right?”
Clenching his chest as his heart pounded furiously, Subaru took several deep breaths. His eyes were looking all around before finally stopping at Emilia.
“Ah, seeing your face is a relief. Just let me rest on your shoulder a bit more.”
“That’s fine, but what happened?”
Accepting his request, she continued to support him. Listening to that, Beatrice moved to pick up the book that had fallen to the floor.
“He had a strange look on his face when he touched this—”
“Wait, Beatrice! Don’t touch it!”
Subaru tried to stop her from picking up the book, but before he could say anything, she had already lifted it up. She had not looked inside it yet, but she furrowed her brow at Subaru’s warning as she read the title.
“—Typhon. Is that a name you know, Subaru?”
“Yeah… Don’t you…?”
Subaru stopped himself before finishing the rest of the question. But she did not answer in the affirmative or the negative. She looked at a loss, her expression clouding in confusion at what Subaru had said. Meanwhile, she opened the book and looked at the pages.
“Don’t!”
“What a rude thing to say. It is not any different from any of the other books, I suppose.”
He was afraid she would be hit by the same shock that had struck him, but she didn’t have any particular reaction to the contents of the book. It was the same as the rest to her.
“But it was not the same as any other book to you, I suppose…”
“…Yeah. But why just me?”
“Could it be like the problem before where only you could understand it? Or maybe the effect only applies to you because you solved the problem…?”
“If so, then this is just getting nastier and nastier…”
Subaru had a bad feeling as he shook his head.
—What had appeared in his mind, what he had experienced, was that woman’s memories in vivid, terrifyingly rich detail.
The smell, the taste, the feeling, and the weight of all the lives shattered.
Subaru felt like it was a miracle he had made it back after experiencing someone else’s memories so intensely. It seemed all too possible he could’ve gotten swallowed up in someone else’s life. He had felt that fear and revulsion in the experience just then.
“Subaru, who is this Typhon?”
“It’s a bit hard to explain… No, I guess maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to explain to you? If you don’t know the name, then I guess you didn’t meet her, but she was in the tomb.”
Emilia and Beatrice both froze in shock at that.
“Typhon was one of the Witches who existed in the past. The Witch of Pride. She’s a tyke, sort of like Beako, but with tanned skin. She was like the embodiment of the innocent cruelty of kids.”
Emilia and Beatrice both shook their heads, not having any idea who he was describing.
I guess that Witch’s Tea Party was a special show just for me. Even if it was all for her own purposes, she really pulled out all the stops.
“Innocent cruelty, huh…”
When he described that, he reflexively remembered the Typhon he had spent that little bit of time with. Even if it was in a weird spirit realm, it was hard to forget how she had broken his arms and legs. Even though they had immediately been healed, the shock of losing all four limbs wasn’t something that faded away.
But it felt like he had touched on a little fragment of her aberrant nature after that “reading session.” Of course, that didn’t mean he could suddenly understand her way of thinking.
“Either way, when I read the book just now, I saw this Typhon girl’s…memories? Life? Roots? Living it vicariously or something like that. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, though.”
“Vicariously experiencing people’s memories? That feels more and more like the trials in the tomb.”
“That time, it was a head-on showdown with your memories, though. I mean, it was obviously no trouble at all there.”
“R-right, no trouble.”
Conveniently ignoring the episodes of bawling and mental breakdowns after facing the challenges over and over again, Subaru and Emilia simply nodded.
“Setting aside for the moment the two of you acting tough, this is a book that allows the reader to vicariously experience others’ memories. In other words, it is a way to retrace the past. That must mean the library allows visitors to learn what they wish to know—”
Beatrice was deep in thought about what had happened to Subaru, but before she could finish, there was another shout.
“—Agh.”
The groan came from the shelf where Julius and Anastasia were investigating. Looking over, they saw Julius kneeling on the ground with a book in his hand.
Close behind him, Anastasia looked stunned as she shook his shoulder before pulling the book away.
“Julius? Julius, get a hold of yourself! Can you hear me?”
“Lady…Anastasia…”
“There we go. Take deep breaths. Are you all right?”
Looking similar to Subaru just moments earlier, Julius’s consciousness returned to reality. Anastasia had a look of relief on her face. Even exhausted, he looked like a figure from a painting.
“Whoa there, overheating after reading too many difficult books? I get it, but…owwwww.”
“Don’t tease people on instinct. Julius, are you really okay?”
Emilia gently but firmly pulled Subaru’s ear as he started to taunt Julius. His face was slightly pale as he shook his head at Emilia’s caring words.
“My humblest apologies for worrying you. I’m ashamed of myself for such a dramatic reaction… However, it truly was an experience that was bad for the heart.”
Julius elegantly answered Emilia while hiding his worry. However, he could not hide the cold sweat that had appeared on his brow. Anastasia gently wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.
“It’s a boy’s natural instinct to act tough, so there’s no helping it, I suppose, but there’s nothing wrong with saying you’re hurting. Forcing yourself until you can’t take it anymore just causes problems for everyone else, too.”
“Yes, Lady Anastasia. Thank you for your concern.”
“Mm-hmm, Anastasia is exactly right, Subaru.”
“I don’t know why you are reminding me, but yes, she is!”
With both camp leaders and their knights having finished that little interlude, the focus turned to the book in Anastasia’s arms. The one that Julius had looked at and probably experienced the same sort of thing as Subaru had. Looking at the spine, Subaru saw that the title was—
“—Balleroy Temeglyph. Do you know the name?”
“I’ve never heard it. Pretty sure.”
Emilia glanced at Subaru after reading it, but Subaru shook his head. And despite everything else, he had confidence in his memory. He remembered everyone he had met, from Earlham Village to the fruit merchant in the capital.
“I’ve heard the name before. If I remember correctly… Right, one of the Volakian Empire’s generals was named that, I think?”
“—More precisely, a former general.”
Julius supplemented Anastasia’s vague memory. That was enough to tell that it was someone Julius had some connection with.
“But Volakia is to the south, right? You know a general from there?”
“Former general. It is not so shocking a thing, is it? I am a member of the royal guard. The Kingdom of Lugunica and the Empire of Volakia are neighboring countries, so there were plenty of chances for me to know the name of a general in their army.”
“I see, so a one-sided acquaintance, then.”
Subaru’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded at that explanation. Glancing at Anastasia, he took the Balleroy book from her hands. And hesitating for just a moment, he opened it.
However—
“I know the guy indirectly now, too, and I tried to read it, but nothing happened.”
“…Subaru…”
“What matters between all of us right now is trust, right? If you asked whether we trusted each other, I wouldn’t have said no…or was that just me?”
“—That is an unfair thing to say.”
Julius averted his eyes as Subaru leveled a pointed look at him.
“Other than the people here, there is no one I can place my trust in. You and Lady Anastasia support me mentally in a way that even Reinhard does not.”
“…I feel a little sick hearing it put that way.”
“It did not feel pleasant rolling off my lips, either.”
Subaru rubbed his nose and Julius touched his hair while closing his eyes. He sighed, then bowed to Anastasia and Emilia.
“Allow me to offer an apology, Lady Anastasia, Lady Emilia. I allowed a trivial personal feeling to seep into my answer. It was an unforgivable, self-interested action when I should have shared the contents of the book.”
“Whether we can forgive it or not is up to me and Emilia, so what do you think?”
“Subaru and Anastasia mostly covered what I was going to mention. ‘So what?’ is all I have to say now, I think.”
Emilia and Anastasia easily accepted his apology, and Julius bowed deeply one last time. People who do something wrong and go all out in their apology react strongly when they’re forgiven. It was a feeling Subaru had experienced plenty of times, so it was something he was intimately familiar with.
But while Subaru was watching that unfold, Julius slowly started to speak. It almost seemed like peeling off a scab that had almost finished healing.
“—Balleroy Temeglyph. In the Volakian Empire, which is known for its ruthless meritocracy, there are nine generals who are considered the country’s strongest warriors, the Nine Divine Generals. And he was one of that nine.”
“Nine Divine Generals… That’s a pretty intense title. I don’t hate that naming sense, though.”
“All of them are peerless warriors. In terms of pure strength on a national level, the Volakian Empire is an equal match to the Kingdom of Lugunica, or possibly even stronger. In military terms, excepting the Covenant with the Divine Dragon and the existence of Reinhard, our kingdom would be hard-pressed in a battle against them.”
“It seems a little strange to immediately assume there’d be a fight…”
Subaru scratched his cheek while quietly filing Julius’s fighting strength estimate away in his head.
Thinking again about it, Subaru did not really know much about the situation in any country other than Lugunica—
“So if you’re talking about this Balleroy guy in the past tense, then…”
“Yes, he has passed. He was both a man possessed of rare strength, a noble warrior, and a master worthy of respect. And the one who took his life…was none other than I.”
Julius had a clouded expression as he spoke of the final moment of a foreign country’s general.
“You took the life of a general…of another country even. That’s a pretty surprising story.”
“Lady Anastasia, you… No, indeed, you would not remember now.”
Julius looked down as Anastasia reacted as if hearing it for the first time.
From his reaction, it was probably something he had shared with Anastasia before he had been erased from her memories and before Foxidna had taken over.
“Um, if the book I studied is correct, aren’t Lugunica and Volakia on reeeally bad terms, though…”
“Wouldn’t you killing a general of theirs lead to a war?”
Julius nodded, looking a little bit relieved at their honest, simple doubt.
“It was the result of a rather complicated situation. It was something that Reinhard and Ferris were involved with, too, but…put simply, the former general was plotting a coup d’état of the empire. The reason I ended up having an audience with him was because I happened to be staying in the Volakian Empire at the time it was happening.”
“Those two, too, huh? Wait, wasn’t Reinhard not allowed to be exported?”
“A special dispensation was granted. The Volakian emperor wished to meet him… And even for you, using the word export there is rather inappropriate, don’t you think?”
“I just couldn’t think of the word on the spot. What should I have used, smuggled?”
It fit in the sense of taking something out of the country that wasn’t supposed to be taken out.
Having experienced anew just how unbelievable Reinhard was in Pristella, it was not hard to imagine the nightmare any military force would have to deal with if Reinhard was in their country.
Subaru could understand why they had treaties basically banning him from getting too close to the border.
“Anyway, this former general’s name was Balleroy Temeglyph. And as a result of our duel, I survived, as you can see, but it was a hard-fought affair. Even a single misstep, and our positions would surely have been reversed… He was a person whose loss was deeply felt.”
“You are putting him on a pretty high pedestal there. This is someone who planned a coup and then failed, right?”
“I did not ask the details of the situation. However, having crossed swords with him, I am quite sure that he did not participate in a coup out of desire for personal gain or profit.”
The forcefulness of that argument was proof enough that he had become a lingering sore point for Julius.
And because he could feel that, Subaru cocked his head.
“I understand that you’ve acknowledged him. But in that case, and I don’t really know how to put this but…I can’t imagine he would be happy knowing that the person who beat him felt the way you do.”
“How do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Considering Julius’s personality, it was natural he would want to praise an opponent who was truly powerful, but if that opponent really was a warrior, then all the more so, the results of the battle decided everything.
“I’m sure he would feel better if the person who beat him was just proud of winning instead of qualifying the victory with all sorts of excuses. Though for my purposes, I can’t really ignore the fact that if you had lost back then, I wouldn’t have been turned into a punching bag in front of a big crowd when the selection started.”
“…If that had happened, Reinhard would have taken the role of pummeling you in the training yard.”
“He would have annihilated me!”
Julius finally broke into a slight smile. Satisfied with that, Subaru fell silent and shrugged as Julius picked up where he left off.
“We’ve gotten a little off track. That is the connection between Sir Balleroy and I. Apologies. As a rule, it is an event that is forbidden to be discussed publicly, but it is also a difficult memory for me.”
“That definitely isn’t the sort of thing anyone should be spreading around. Okay. I’ll keep my lips zipped.”
“Mm-hmm. I understand. I’ll also keep my lips…zipped?”
With Julius’s explanation, Subaru and Emilia both agreed to keep it secret. And with the identity of the person whose memories Julius had experienced now known…
“Betty thinks she understands now. The books here allow people who know the person to experience said person’s memories vicariously.”
“Mine was a Witch, and Julius’s was a former general? That sounds believable.”
“I think I heard a word there that needs a bit more explanation, Natsuki. Are you friends with a Witch? Considering your circle of friends, you’re totally a Witch Cultist, aren’t you?”
“I’m pretty scared myself, but my character isn’t that over-the-top. I’m more worried about my painful lack of distinguishing traits.”
Subaru shrugged in resignation. Reacting to his response, Emilia, Beatrice, and even Julius all looked like they had bitten into something sour.
“Anyway, we at least understand the general design of the books in this archive. Now that we have that figured out, can I bring up something scary?”
“I don’t really want to hear it, but what?”
“The books in this archive… They all have people’s names written on them, right?”
Anastasia pointed at the two books titled Balleroy and Typhon. Subaru looked at them, afraid to hear what was coming next as he nodded.
“Right.”
“That imperial general and Natsuki’s witchy friend’s books—”
“She isn’t my friend.”
“—his witchy friend’s book is here. That means there are books for people who have passed.”
I’m not sure whether Typhon should really be classed as deceased, but since the tomb where the tea party was held is gone now, I guess she should be completely dead.
I can’t be so sure about Echidna considering how many question marks there still are surrounding Foxidna.
Despite that one little hangnail in the back of his mind, though, Anastasia raised her hands and gestured all around the room.
“Doesn’t that probably mean there’s books for people from all around the world and from the distant past up to now? If that’s true…finding the book of whoever we’re looking for… How long is that going to take?”
Subaru looked at the endless shelves of books Anastasia was gesturing toward, and he had a thought.
I take it back. The guy who created this tower isn’t the worst.
—He’s the absolute worst.
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