CHAPTER 6
RE:ZERO -LIFE STARTS IN ANOTHER WORLD-
1
Hearing that familiar voice, he immediately forgot about the pain in his shoulder.
The fear and cowardice and negativity that filled his head and the hopeless why drowning out all thought became a tempest rocking his mind.
Why was his shoulder dislocated? Why was “Subaru Natsuki was here” written all over the walls? Why were Emilia and Ram not there? Why had Meili’s corpse disappeared from its hiding place? Why had he lost his memory? Why had he been summoned to another world? Why had he not been able to tell his parents the truth?
Why, why, why, why, why, why, why—
“What are you curlin’ up for? Don’t go quiet on me. You’re a real piece o’ work, aren’t ya?”
—Why was that man standing right there when he wasn’t supposed to be able to come down?
“Hah. What’s wrong with your face? You scared? You gonna cry? I gotta say, though, hanging out in this disgustin’ room must mean you’re one real sicko.”
With his long red hair, the patch over his left eye, his bare chest and the white sarashi around his torso, his body like forged steel, he looked down at a pathetic Subaru.
The guardian of the Pleiades Watchtower’s second floor, Electra—Reid Astrea.
“What? Your shoulder’s dislocated. I thought you looked out of shape.”
“Grgh, gaaaaah…!”
The next moment, a sudden shock scorched Subaru’s mind.
Looking down, he saw Reid had casually grabbed his dislocated shoulder and violently twisted his arm, forcibly popping it back into its socket.
There was a dull, visceral thump as the bones realigned, and then Subaru’s left arm could move again.
But the pain that had receded for a brief moment came rushing back and the renewed agony made his eyes water.
“Oy, quit the overactin’. You’re makin’ it look like I’m bullyin’ you. But the babe’s the one who did that, not me.”
“Babe…?”
“I can guess from the ice cage and your shoulder. You guys have a fallin’ out? That’s funny.”
Laughing scornfully, Reid scanned the room. From what he said, Subaru understood he was talking about Emilia. But he also recognized an abnormal perception to figure that much out from just a glance.
“H-how can you tell that…?”
“In a bleak-ass place like this, the only things a guy and girl can do are start gettin’ too close or start fightin’ too much. It ain’t hard to figure out.”
The man’s logic was a little too crude to call it a sound argument. When Subaru didn’t respond, Reid looked away and started casually warming up and stepping on the floor.
“—Well, looks like I can move a bit at least. Good enough.”
With that final comment, he slowly started walking out of the room, as if Subaru didn’t even exist anymore.
Subaru frantically chased after him.
“Wait! You…I thought you weren’t supposed to be able to leave the floor up there? How are you wandering around down here like it’s normal?!”
Subaru glared at Reid’s back, spouting the first question that came to mind. Reid just waved his hand dismissively without turning around.
“When did I ever say I couldn’t leave the second floor? …Nah, just kiddin’. You weren’t wrong assumin’ I couldn’t just go out for a stroll. It’s just that assumption broke down is all.”
“The what…broke down? Wh-why?!”
“I’m not plannin’ on teachin’ you every last thing. I can walk around. And you can wet yourself like a baby. That’s it. The end. No, actually that’s not the end.”
Stopping, Reid’s voice suddenly changed tone. A powerful gaze that could cut down someone with just a glare was brought to bear on Subaru.
“I happen to be lookin’ for something right now. Where are your friends?”
Subaru’s eyes widened at that unexpected question. Seeing that pathetic reaction,
“You…” Reid violently scratched his head. “Listenin’? I’m gonna leave this tower, but I need food and water. And booze. And girls, too, obviously. I’m lookin’ for the babe and that slutty chick in your group. I’d feel a bit guilty makin’ a pass on that babe, so the slutty one’d be best.”
“Leave…? This tower? But then, you…the examination…no, isn’t there a lot of stuff? Like the general situation right now? What are you gonna do about all that?!”
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. You can clean up your own mess. It’s got nothin’ to do with me. Ah, actually. There is one thing.”
“One thing…ghah?!”
Reid sneered and flicked Subaru’s forehead.
“Dumbass. I told you already, don’t just go assumin’ I’ll just give you every answer. What are you, some baby bird? You a small fry or a hatchling? Take care of your own business.”
“Your problem with definitions—”
“Just ’cause I conveniently happened to get out, don’t go makin’ me the cover for all your doubts and regrets and all that crap. Clean up after yourself. Don’t use me to console yourself.”
“ ”
It was something that couldn’t really be described as annoyance.
To be annoyed required feeling something, but Subaru’s existence didn’t even register in Reid’s mind. His emotions weren’t going to move because of someone he didn’t register. So there was no annoyance in his voice.
But it was still more than enough to shred Subaru’s heart—
“—Ah, there he is.”
As Subaru fell silent, Reid grinned. His straw sandals pushed against the floor, and he started walking straight down the passage without any hesitation.
Seeing him move away with big steps, Subaru snapped back to reality and frantically chased after him.
His shoulder hurt, there was doubt in his mind, he was driven by a passive sense of duty rather than anything proactive, but Subaru had no choice other than to follow this man.
—Where it stopped was at the end of the passage where it was possible look out at the spiral staircase leading down.
“ ”
Desperately chasing Reid, his eyes widened when he realized it.
It was the fateful place where Subaru Natsuki had been pushed to his death twice before. Just looking down took a burst of courage for him. But Subaru forgot his fear of death when he saw the scene unfolding down below.
—The spiral staircase room was filled with monsters shrouded in flame. The place had been transformed into some kind of hell.
“…Hah?”
Writhing, crimson flames and the discordant noise of countless babies crying. It merged with his racing heartbeat, and the pandemonium that he hadn’t heard before exploded into his head.
“ !!!”
They were gruesome half-human, half-horse monsters with heads replaced by horns. They had flaming manes and wielded bone lances. And a pack of twenty or more of them were rampaging through the tower, leaping all around the fifth floor like they owned the place.
Subaru could feel the tremendous heat of the inferno even from the top of the stairs. A blast of hot air rushed past that made his eyes immediately dry out, and he recoiled with a scream.
“What is this…! What the hell is happening?!”
“Damn, those are some disgustin’ demon beasts. Do you know what those are?”
“Of course not! It’s my first time seeing a monster—a demon beast other than that giant worm thing…ah?!”
Standing next to Reid and looking down at the scene below, Subaru’s voice quivered.
The centaurs let out a shrill cry and spun their brutal flame lance as they took notice of a being approaching.
“—Ha!”
With a sharp voice, that figure attacked the swarm of demon beasts with an elegant slash.
There was a spatter of blood, arms and legs were severed, followed moments later by delayed shrieks. With that noise at his back, the single knight, his white uniform stained from the furious battle, faced off against an overwhelming number of enemies.
“I don’t see any of the others, but…it’s easier this way at least, I guess.”
“—! Oy, what are you gonna do?!”
“It’s always questions with you.”
Reid glanced disinterestedly at Subaru.
He stood on the edge of the staircase. Just a half-step further and he would end up falling—No, if anything it was the opposite.
“Try doin’ somethin’ unexpected instead of just askin’ for shit. Chattin’ with you ain’t worth my time. You ain’t even a girl who’s easy on the eyes. Why do you keep talkin’ to me?”
“ ”
“What do you wanna do? One of your friends is surrounded by those nasty demon beasts down there and you’re just standin’ here? Weaklings don’t have many options, do you? That’s why you get so good at makin’ excuses.”
Reid’s words were filled with the logic of the strong, a carnivore dominating an herbivore. It was the logic of the strong that wouldn’t work for Subaru, the impassable gulf that separated the weak and the strong.
“Hah.”
Snorting when Subaru failed to answer, Reid leaned forward.
There was no time to stop him. Reid threw himself out into the air without hesitation. Reid embarked on the same one-way trip to death that Subaru had taken.
Recreating the same speed and height that Subaru Natsuki would unavoidably have died from, Reid fell as if sucked down into the inferno below, falling and falling—
“ !!”
Hit by a sandaled stomp, a centaur’s torso crumpled. The impact broke all four of its legs and the crushed demon beast turned into a gruesome black stain on the floor.
And the attacker was lively and unhurt.
“ ”
Even the unthinking demon beasts were cowed by his presence and very obviously on their guard. When the red-haired swordsman violently entered the fray, all of the centaurs’ cries stopped at once.
Focus shifted to him. Not just the swarm of demon beasts burning everything down, but also the knight who had been so valiantly acting as their opponent: Julius Juukulius.
“…Why are you here?”
“Why, how, what—you guys really love your questions, huh? There’s more than that to life, ain’t there? Like the trick to bein’ popular with girls, or brands of good booze, or ‘how are you so strong.’”
Reid wiped away the flesh from the bottom of his sandal, and then turned his hand toward another centaur standing near him. In his hand he was holding a thin wooden stick like some sort of joke—it almost looked like a chopstick.
“The trick for being popular with women is looks. A good booze to try is a liquor called Gramhilde. And as for why I’m the strongest in the world, that’s cause I’m me.”
Saying that, Reid started lightly moving the chopstick he pulled out.
The next instant, cracks formed all over the centaur that had stopped moving, and blood erupted from it. The demon beast was slow to realize its body was being destroyed and howled at the death-bringing pain.
It sounded like a dying baby’s shriek. Just horrifically disgusting. If there was a designer who had created the demon beast, they’d earned every bit of the title tasteless.
And the man who caused it all was still grinning as he turned the chopstick toward Julius. Reid flashed a big, mocking grin as Julius’s yellow eyes widened while they locked onto the tip of the stick.
“—Now, let’s continue your examination. Try to take it from me before I get bored.”
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