CHAPTER 4
THE TOWER OF THE LIVING
1
—Think.
Think, think, think. You gotta think.
His mind raced as he forced himself to use the knowledge of the future that no one else could have to find the answer, convinced that was the true value of his ability.
“ ”
Hanging onto the lizard, feeling the hard, rough scales biting into his skin, Subaru Natsuki’s mind raced.
What happened to him, what was happening inside the tower, whoever was trying to kill him, whoever was trying to kill everyone else, enemies, allies…
“Subaru, look here. Isn’t it about time you calmed down?”
Subaru slowly turned around. Looking back, he saw Beatrice sitting on the edge of the bed of vines.
Emilia sat next to the little girl, holding her hand while Beatrice kicked her legs, glaring at Subaru. His face tensed ever so slightly when he felt her gaze on him.
He felt a terror being the target of a negative emotion, no matter how minor it was—
“Now, now, Beatrice. That’s not a nice way to put it. Subaru’s just out of it from suddenly waking up. You can forgive him clinging to Patlash a little bit.”
“Betty is not mad. It just doesn’t feel right. You and Betty were both worried about him, too, so why is the land dragon special?”
“Heh-heh. We were worried.”
Emilia patted Beatrice on the head as she looked at Subaru. The sweet affection in her purple eyes pierced Subaru’s heart.
But the unease burbling in his mind reminded him of something he must not forget.
Don’t get it wrong. Subaru Natsuki is who they really want.
And there was also the anxiety of knowing he couldn’t shoulder that heavy burden.
But…
“—Umm, I didn’t mean to make you worry. Really. I’m super sorry. Grabbing onto a girl while I’m still groggy isn’t really in character for me and I was just embarrassed.”
Relaxing his face, Subaru put on a smile.
“But Patlash is a girl, too?”
“Uegh?! No, I mean, Patlash is special, or more like, we have a bond that’s doesn’t really take that sort of thing into account and it’s like she’s seeded out of the first round.”
“Mrgh, Betty cannot allow that to pass without comment. Betty can’t accept that land dragon alone being treated specially. Betty demands an explanation.”
“Don’t try to put yourself into the same arena with a…um…land dragon!”
Subaru calmly watched the two of their reactions as Beatrice started looking more and more upset. They didn’t seem to react strangely to his response.
Relieved by that, Subaru looked back at the lizard whose neck he was still petting—Patlash—and nodded.
“…You really are in your own special place, Patlash.”
“ ”
Closing his eyes with that soft murmur, Subaru leaned his forehead against the black land dragon’s head.
“Hey, Subaru. Are you really okay?”
“…Ah, yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. No problem. Sorry for making you worry. I guess my exhaustion just went over the limit. Falling asleep like that happens all the time.”
“I see…but if you’re tired, you need to say so. Don’t force yourself.”
Subaru spun his arm lightheartedly, acting in good spirits.
“Rodger dodger.”
Answering her reminder with a joke, Subaru pushed his brain into high gear.
He was walking around the fourth floor of the tower with Emilia and Beatrice. They were headed toward the room that was serving as their base to gather for breakfast—just a normal morning scene.
Because this time, Subaru hadn’t told them he lost his memory.
His joy at reuniting with Patlash in the green room had lasted only a moment before he decided to devise a plan out of the cage he found himself in. Testing a route he hadn’t tried yet.
Hiding his memory loss was part of that test—observing them, playing Subaru Natsuki well enough that they didn’t notice. But also, in order to figure out what was going on in this tower and to discover the murderer’s true identity.
“This is definitely a tightrope walk, but…”
Reckless would be the kindest way to describe a plan to pass himself off as some complete stranger, but fortunately, he was pretending to be Subaru Natsuki—even in a different universe, their roots were the same.
So I should be able to pull it off. I just have to be careful about the various relationships and pretend to be myself.
“The first test is whether losing my memories is what triggered the killer to act.”
Twice before, he’d been killed getting pushed off the spiral stairs of the tower. It was a painful memory to bring up, but it was proof that there was a murderer. The problem was the motive.
Why did the murderer kill Subaru, and was it related to him losing his memories?
“Honestly, I can imagine killing someone because they might know something inconvenient…but it’s hard to imagine killing someone because they forgot something…”
“—Subaru, you’re furrowing your brow again.”
“Gah.”
Suddenly, he felt a finger poke him in the forehead, bringing him back to reality.
Between Emilia looking a little peeved and the feeling of her finger, Subaru caught his breath.
He’d thought it before, but her closeness with him was a little bit too much for him to take. This time, he’d even put his hands around her neck when he woke up, and yet she didn’t even comment on it.
“What did I do to get her this close to me…”
Did I turn into some massive playboy before I lost my memories? Or is she just abnormally friendly despite her scary good looks? She probably grew up in a bubble of love, so she doesn’t really have any sense of boundaries with other people.
Once he imagined she was a sheltered girl who never had to work hard to get things, he could see her ending up the way she was…or maybe it was all just a front, and she was actually hiding the darkness in her heart.
“ ”
The two of them were the only ones in the main party whose corpse he hadn’t seen last time, making them his top suspects.
Of course, the voice of the mysterious person who had beheaded him didn’t belong to Beatrice or Emilia, but that didn’t mean one or both of them weren’t working with an accomplice.
“Try to catch me next time, hero.”
There was a chance one or both of them were working with that person in order to kill everyone in the tower…
“Barusu, quit spacing out and help get some water.”
“Whoops, sorry.”
Yet again, a voice interrupted his thoughts. Hurriedly looking around, he saw Ram’s pink eyes narrowed, looking at him suspiciously.
She was making the preparations for breakfast in the room where everyone was gathered. When Subaru entered the room, she pushed a bucket into his hand and watched him.
“…I heard from Lady Emilia that you slept in the archive upstairs. Could you refrain from further acts of stupidity? It’s a burden on those around you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m thinking about what I did. Sorry for making you worry, too.”
“Me? Worry about you? Why?”
“In case anything happened to me, I guess!”
Ram just snorted and turned back to her work. Subaru’s heart ached some seeing her slender back.
“Urgh.”
The nausea that swelled in that moment was because Ram’s last moment was seared into his mind—when she’d been hit from behind by some grisly attack.
Honestly, I deserve an Oscar for managing not to show how shocked I felt seeing her alive again after that horrible death scene. And a standing ovation for playing Subaru Natsuki well enough not to make them suspicious.
However, he’d failed to notice the look on Ram’s face when she first saw Subaru because of that.
“Uwaaah! Smells good! A wonderful morning with a luxuriant meal and of course with Master, too!”
As Subaru regretted his failure with Ram, he heard the next visitor to the room come in with a loud voice.
It was the woman with long black hair tied up in the back and her voluptuous body almost entirely on display—and this time, her head was still connected to the rest of her body.
Looking cheerfully at Subaru, she rushed over like a happy puppy.
“Bonjour, Master! Sleep well last night?”
She was beaming as she hugged Subaru tightly against her chest.
“Ugh…”
“I know I did! I had a dream for the first time in a long time. You were there, and Mom, and—”
“I get it, I get it. I’ll listen to you dream more later… Did you notice anything when you saw me this morning?”
“? This morning? You’re a lady-killer like always! It’s four hundred years now I’ve been waiting for a proposition!”
“Talk about patient… If you didn’t notice anything, then it’s fine.”
Slipping free from her arms, he fled from her excessive need for skinship. She didn’t seem to mind, though, looking ecstatic at his answer.
Next was Meili who was yawning, and even later Echidna and Julius together. She hasn’t revealed her situation yet, so I have to be careful to treat her like she’s Anastasia.
But then, Subaru noticed something.
“ ”
When Julius followed Echidna in, the moment he saw Subaru, his face tensed. He looked away from Subaru and distanced himself. Seeing that extreme reaction, Subaru quietly licked his lips.
“—Shaula, I’ve got a request for you.”
He whispered to her as she looked excitedly at all the food being set out, never taking his eyes off Julius, who had behaved so unnaturally…
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login