CHAPTER 2
I CRIED AND SCREAMED AND WILL CRY NO MORE
1
“Borrowing a girl’s lap, letting her caress my head, and falling into a peaceful sleep… By itself you’d think it was awesome, but man…”
Subaru said things like that over and over, red to the tips of his ears as he plucked a bit of hair from his head.
He thought back to the scene several hours before, when he’d spectacularly laid bare his soul.
“So I was a big crybaby in front of my sweetheart, fell asleep with tears on my face and a runny nose. Plus, I had her lap to myself for hours on end… This is like a humiliation game.”
He thought back to the sensation of Emilia’s knees, as well as the price they had paid to convey it to him.
The spectacle had left Emilia’s skirt all a mess from his runny nose. No matter what problems Subaru had been going through, this was inexcusable, even if just from a hygienic view.
Still, Emilia hadn’t rocked him awake in all that time, nor did she hold it against Subaru as he earnestly apologized for dirtying her clothes.
“That’s fine if it makes you feel a little better. Besides, you really don’t understand, Subaru.”
“Eh?”
“It’s more satisfying for the other person to hear a single thank-you than a dozen apologies. I don’t want you to apologize for something I wanted to offer you, so there.”
The way she pressed a finger to his apologizing lips and winked at him would bowl over any man. Indeed, Subaru bowled over right on the spot.
Now that Subaru knew he loved her, everything she said and did, that included, seemed covered in glitter and gloss.
Emilia headed off to change clothes in her room. Subaru kept wandering around the mansion in a dreamy state for a little while before finally regaining his senses and clutching his head at what he’d done.
“Oh man, I’ve totally done it now. Emilia’s the one I didn’t want to look weak in front of. Is there anything more embarrassing I could’ve done? I seriously can’t look her in the eye now!”
“…Is that what a person says when entering someone’s room late at night, I wonder?”
The way Subaru pressed the middle of his thigh against the stool and writhed around it put the girl in the dress—Beatrice—in a particularly bad mood, bringing a dreadful scowl over her adorable face.
After parting ways with Emilia, Subaru had it in his head that he couldn’t let anyone else see him, so his feet carried him to the archive of forbidden books, and thus beyond anyone’s reach. Though, he liked tweaking the nose of the girl in charge of it, too.
“Don’t say that, Beako. We’re friends, right?”
“What kind of relationship do you think—Wait, what did you call me just now, I wonder?”
Beatrice raised an eyebrow with a twitch of her cheek when Subaru clapped his hands.
“Beako. I think nicknames are an indispensable way to show my friendship. You’re the only one in the mansion so far who didn’t like it even a little bit, though…”
He thought back to the last loop, when the loneliness and despair had been driven home.
One could even say he was cajoling her into bringing sophistry and threats at him. It was from such humble beginnings that a firm pact had been established between them.
In the end, Subaru had unilaterally severed the deal. But Beatrice had exploited the vagueness of the details to continue to protect him.
Even if Beatrice had forgotten, Subaru would never forget how he felt back then.
“—So I don’t care what you think of me, I’m going to call you Beako. It’s the greatest sign of affection I can give you!”
“That does not please me whatsoever! What is with that overbearing goodwill?! Is it merely distasteful or completely disgusting, I wonder?!”
“Hey, what’s with that way of talking?! I’m thanking you from the bottom of my heart here. This is no time to make fun!”
“If you’re going to insist that what you said just now was not meant in jest, you and I are no longer engaged in conversation. It may look like dialogue, but it is not!”
She informed him that if conversation was supposed to be a game of catch, this was more like rugby.
He was showing considerable affection in an appropriately Subaru-like way, but that seemed to be lost on Beatrice.
“Well, I’ll set that aside, but I’ll still call you Beako.”
“Such single-minded resolve is quite unnecessary. What would happen if I simply do not respond to that name, I wonder?”
“Don’t say cold things like that, Beako.”
“…”
Subaru called out to Beatrice, but silently keeping her gaze lowered to her book, she made no reply. Apparently she meant what she had said earlier.
While Beatrice acted stubborn, Subaru grudgingly walked over and paced around the stool.
“What’s wrong, Beako? You look glum, Beako. Are you all right, Beako? If there’s something wrong, you can talk to me, Beako. Mm? What is it, Beako? We can do this, Beako. Beako, Beako!”
“I have never seen anyone as annoying as you! What is with you, I wonder?!”
Someone as thin-skinned as Beatrice was natural prey for someone born with a talent for getting on other people’s nerves like Subaru. He pumped a fist, the corners of his lips twisting as Beatrice’s shoulders shook in anger.
“Actually, I’ve got an admission to make. I’m backed into a corner and really need your help.”
—He explained to the curly-haired girl the conclusion he’d formed after pathetically bawling his eyes out.
2
While on Emilia’s lap, all the ugly feelings and tears built up inside Subaru had come pouring out. What remained were Subaru’s pure personal desires.
—He loved Emilia.
He’d thought he loved her before, but now he truly knew what falling for someone meant. It was love at first sight. Just hearing her voice made his heart skip a beat. Just talking with her was so pleasant it felt like a dream.
He couldn’t leave this girl who put herself in harm’s way for others.
That’s why I love her, he had thought, but now he sincerely understood what he’d felt. She was the first one to save Subaru when he was summoned to another world without anyone to depend on.
And, when he’d been backed into a dark alley of despair, it was she who had saved his dying heart. She’d saved both his life and his heart.
—He could no longer think of living in a world without Emilia.
He loved spending his days with Emilia at the mansion. He loved learning all sorts of things about the world. He loved Ram, who’d taken such care of him in spite of her blunt tongue. He really loved Emilia. He loved Rem, who insulted him with polite language but always showed him how to do things. He was enveloped by goodwill toward everyone living at the mansion. Subaru wanted to stay there forever.
Those overflowing feelings filled his chest to bursting.
But on the other side of that happy coin—
He loved Emilia. He despaired at lacking the power to protect her. Life at the mansion had grown stale. He didn’t know where or when he’d be found out. He feared Ram, who commanded Blades of Wind that could slice his throat. He was terrified of Rem and her skull-crushing iron ball. Roswaal’s disturbing madness could lead him to command the twins to eliminate Subaru without mercy. Every time he woke up, he checked whether he was still alive, and he could sense himself cracking under his own constant vigilance against despair.
These, too, were Subaru’s true, indelible feelings.
Emilia had saved Subaru before the friction in his mind had roasted Subaru from the inside out.
By consoling him, Emilia had pulled his heart back from the brink.
Thinking about her filled him with life and energy. Emilia was what kept his urge to flee in check.
“In other words, E M D (Emilia-tan’s Majorly Divine)!”
Beatrice responded to Subaru’s declaration by acting astounded and shooting him an annoyed grimace.
“Did you say something exceedingly stupid just now, I wonder?”
“Not at all. I’m putting my top priorities back in order.”
“Let us return to the topic at hand… You say you want my help? What do you mean, I wonder?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty serious about that, like enough to beg God for help. I can’t think of anyone else I can go to.”
In the present situation, Emilia was, of course, the member of the mansion he could place the most trust in—but she was also the most important part of Subaru’s life. In other words, the absolute last thing he wanted to do was put her in danger. To Subaru, who normally prioritized his own life, Emilia’s life weighed much heavier than his on the scale.
That being the case, he couldn’t go to Puck for help, either, which left—
“Beako. She’s actually pretty sweet. And softer than she looks.”
“I don’t understand your meaning, but I do sense that you are mocking me.”
“That’s not my intent at all… Actually, the way things are in the mansion right now, you’re the only one I can rely on.”
Of course, he couldn’t come clean to Ram and Rem, let alone Roswaal.
Except for Emilia, Beatrice was truly the only person in the mansion who he could trust.
“Please. I’m begging you.”
Subaru was kneeling on the floor before Beatrice, bowing his head as he petitioned for aid.
Subaru needed a lantern to light the way so that he could bring an end to the chain of despair.
“I need your help. I want to set everything right and protect the place where I can be happy. And that’s no good if it doesn’t include everyone here.”
“—”
Subaru, touching his head to the floor, looked up at Beatrice after a long silence.
“…Beatrice?”
The conflict he saw in her eyes made his breath catch.
Beatrice knit her brows and bit her lip as she glared at Subaru. And yet, despite the ferocity of her gaze, she looked on the verge of tears.
“—”
She opened her mouth to speak, but her gaze wavered as she found herself unable to find the words.
Beatrice’s heart had been shaken. He had to make her speak to him.
“Listen to me, Beatrice. I understand why you don’t want to help me out of hand. To you, I’m a weirdo and a stranger who wandered in just the other day.”
“…If you know that much, you do not need to hear it from my lips, do you?”
“You’re the one who patched me up. Thank you. I know you don’t know this, but I have a mountain of other things I need to thank you for. And here I am asking you for help again… It’s pretty pathetic. It’s a miserable sight, really, but you’re the only one I have.”
He laid out all his cards on the table.
It was the lowest form of begging—pushy and self-centered and with no regard for Beatrice’s feelings whatsoever.
With Subaru lowering his head in nothing but earnestness, wearing sincerity on his sleeve, Beatrice made a very typical snort.
“You are a worm crawling on the ground, wailing about your own powerlessness. Do you have any pride at all, I wonder?”
“I know what’s important to me. I’ll bow my head ten times or a hundred times and pound the floor if that’s what it takes.”
He was too much of a weakling to obsess over petty pride.
Subaru kept his head down as he continued to plead for her aid.
He knew it was a cowardly way of doing things. During his five loops, he’d continued to quarrel with Beatrice during their encounters along the way.
That’s how he knew.
Beatrice acted like she was blowing him off, but—
“You may…raise your head.”
The moment the soft voice reached his ears, Subaru believed his craven request had been granted.
He was acutely aware of his own pettiness and he resented himself for his insincere behavior toward Beatrice.
But even that had been necessary to make the girl named Beatrice come to her decision.
That was how the rather simple man named Subaru Natsuki had seen it, but…
“Bea…”
“Take this, would you?”
“Bwah!”
But that miserable, heartfelt face met the merciless sole of a shoe.
Subaru was still prostrate as his head alone lifted from the floor, with his formless sound of anguish echoing around the archive.
Subaru remained in that awkward, bent-back position, making an incoherent yell as she stomped him a few more times.
“Hey…this is…!”
“You could think on it a hundred times and you would never comprehend the work I go through. No matter how many silver coins you gather, they will never equal the sacred glow of a gold coin. Do you understand, I wonder?”
“Er, if you get a few thousand silver coins they’ll equal it, I’m sure. It’s just a matter of comparable value, right? Or maybe you’re just bad at math?”
“Will you stop looking at me like a pitiable child, I wonder?! Are those the eyes of someone who was just begging me?!”
And so, Beatrice and Subaru resumed their bickering.
It was a pointless battle that had begun for no particular reason, repeated several times across different worlds. As he continued his familiar banter with Beatrice, he thought on some level that the pathetic stubbornness inside him was pretty moronic.
“All right, then, I’ll play my trump card. If you cooperate with me, I’ll give you a reward of equal value, you hear?”
“Do you think the likes of me would be lured by any reward you can muster, I wonder?”
“How about this? Because I saved Emilia at the capital, I get to borrow Puck. And Puck said if I want to swap that for something else, I only need to ask… You see what I’m getting at here?”
Beatrice’s expression changed. Subaru smiled unpleasantly as he brought all his negotiation skills to bear.
Now that it involved a reward, she agreed to reluctantly cooperate with Subaru.
Subaru thought it was pretty silly to settle things by offering up Puck on a silver platter. He knew the little magic user would go for it, but still…
3
It hadn’t exactly been a warm and fuzzy process, but Subaru had finally managed to win Beatrice’s cooperation.
He’d repent of pushing things on to a little girl because of his own powerlessness after all the problems were cleared up.
“…You want to know more about shamans?”
Subaru’s cut-and-dry statement caused Beatrice to raise her shapely eyebrows with an air of disgust.
His top priority was to deal with the menace of the shaman’s attack on the mansion without a moment to lose. A large part of why he asked Beatrice for help was so that her magic could counter the deadly curses.
Explaining as much as possible to Beatrice without getting to the heart of the matter was crucial for Subaru.
“I’ll probably pay a price if I let too many cats out of the bag, so…”
When he’d tried to confess his Return by Death to Emilia, time had suddenly stopped all around Subaru as a black cloud took the shape of a hand and inflicted immense agony upon him.
Subaru’s silent screams and the torture of having his heart crushed had robbed him of any notions of easy defiance.
As a result, Subaru was immensely wary of the black cloud, choosing his words very carefully as he continued to explain.
“I know there’s such a thing as curses, but I don’t know anything else beyond that they’re different from magician and spirit stuff. I want to know more about them.”
“It is rare for someone to ask about that. I wonder, does paying that bunch any heed get you anywhere?”
Like before, Beatrice’s distaste toward even forming the word curse on her lips was considerable. Back then, he’d avoided pushing deeper into the matter, but that would not be the case this time.
“Curses are magic spells that exist only to cause trouble for other people and come from some country up north, right?”
“Is it not sufficient to know that much, I wonder? Curses invade their targets like a disease, limiting their movements and robbing them of their pure life forces… A tradition in very poor taste.”
“Normally I’d say it depends on how you use them, but looks like you can’t use them except to hurt people, huh?”
Reason enough to call these curses.
If curses were supernatural powers that existed to bring down others, the practice in his home world of putting needles into voodoo dolls probably counted. Well, not that he actually accepted the existence of the occult in that world…
Subaru sat up more, thinking about the things Beatrice had mentioned in a grave tone of voice.
“So, let me ask this… How do you defend against a curse?”
It was pretty tough to aim a counterattack at the shaman without knowing his identity. Subaru’s one advantage was knowing in advance that an attack would take place. Consequently, figuring out a way to stop the shaman’s attack in its tracks was a wonderful idea…in theory.
“You do not.”
“—Eh?”
“No means exist to defend against a curse once it is activated. Once activated, you are finished. Isn’t that what a curse is, I wonder?”
“I-isn’t there any kind of Instant Death Resist…?!”
In a video game, you dealt with Lv. 1 Death type spells by casting Instant Death Resist in advance.
With the light at the end of the tunnel growing ever distant, Subaru pulled his hair, his brain on fire as it tried to come up with a new plan. He’d underestimated the situation. That reality sent Subaru’s mind into free fall.
“—However, that is limited to curses that have activated.”
“—Huh?”
The words spoken to Subaru a moment later made his eyes go wide.
Beatrice grinned with what seemed to be great delight.
She got me good, thought Subaru as the look on her face confirmed it; all he could do was open and close his mouth like a flounder in a mix of surprise and anger.
“Just as I said, there is no way to defend against a curse once it has been activated. However, an un-activated curse can be blocked. It simply requires a cleansing rite prior to activation, so anyone with the requisite skill would find removing it rather simple.”
“I’ll save getting angry for later… So, who can do that?”
“In this mansion, there’s me, and of course Puckie. Beyond that, Roswaal and…the three little girls do not have the requisite experience, so no. Oh, and of course you cannot.”
“I know that one only too well…”
He’d gone through hell because of his lack of resistance, not once but twice.
Subaru put aside his unpleasant memories as he raised a hand and asked Beatrice a question.
“So how would you know to use a rite before a curse activates?”
“Powerful curses place a commensurate burden upon the body. Perhaps magic and curses share that in common? The side effects of a curse are considerable. Could I say that they are deeply flawed, I wonder?”
“So…is there something you can do in advance to protect yourself?”
Subaru asked his question like he was hanging from a thread. In response, Beatrice closed her eyes for a while, licking her lips.
“Though it depends upon the specific details…there is an iron rule for curses.”
“An iron…rule?”
With bated breath, Subaru prodded Beatrice to continue from where she’d left off.
And so she did.
“—Physical contact with the target. An absolute prerequisite, I wonder?”
“?”
Subaru’s brain spun round and round the instant that detail entered his skull.
The caster of a curse needed to touch his target. In other words, both times Subaru had suffered from the effects of the curse, he had made physical contact with the shaman beforehand. That narrowed the possibilities to—
“If it’s no one here at the mansion, then…it’s gotta be the village…”
Subaru had walked to the village both times he’d undergone Return by Death from suffering the effects of witchcraft.
When he thought about it more, he’d gone to the village midway through the fourth day both times.
At the village, the shaman had performed the rite for the curse, and that curse activated that night at the mansion—resulting in his death. That had been the pattern.
The shaman being at the village would explain why Rem had fallen prey to the curse during the last loop. That time, Subaru had never gone to the village, so Rem became the shaman’s target instead. If Ram had gone, she would’ve been the target; if Subaru had gone there with her, no doubt he would’ve been the target again.
It connected. It connected everything.
The shaman was in Earlham Village. It was unclear whether the shaman was a resident or a visitor. If he was the latter, finding him wouldn’t be all that hard. It was a village with a small population. A stranger’s face immediately became known to all, just like Subaru’s had. If the former, it’d have been a carefully premeditated crime, but…
“That doesn’t seem likely.”
In the prior incident, someone tried to throw a monkey wrench into Emilia’s royal candidacy. But that candidacy didn’t exist before the royal family suddenly died out only half a year beforehand. Emilia’s name popping up on the candidate list probably took time, so that meant only three or four months to prepare at absolute most. A shaman would have had to infiltrate the village years beforehand to be considered a native.
“So the shaman’s an outsider. Finding him won’t be all that hard, either…”
Subaru voiced his thoughts out loud as he began to search for holes in his logic. It wasn’t a bad idea to raise a hypothesis, even if you amended it as you went along.
As far as the shaman was concerned, he hadn’t actually done anything yet. Short of his opponent being God or the Devil himself, it was impossible for his existence to be exposed as of yet.
Subaru mulled over the fact that he was still on the night of the second day. He had a long grace period before things were due to take a turn for the worse on the fourth.
In other words, it meant he could do his own preemptive strike on the shaman.
“I’ve got you by the tail now, damn it. I didn’t die twice at your hands for nothing!”
Subaru, finally able to see his situation brightening, clenched a fist as his voice quivered with joy.
While Subaru delighted in the change in circumstances, Beatrice looked quite dissatisfied at having been dropped from the conversation. Her lovely cheeks reddened to emphasize the sourness of her gaze.
“What is that attitude in front of someone you asked for aid, I wonder? If what I spoke was of service, I think you should say as much to my face.”
“Yeah, you’re right! You saved my bacon; I can see the light thanks to you! I love you, Beako!”
“Wha—?!”
Subaru leaped over to Beatrice, picking up her very light body and twirling all around with her on the spot.
Despite her elaborate dress, the girl’s body was as light as a feather. Subaru’s spinning increased in synergy with the buoyancy of his mood.
“Let g—Would you put me down, I wonder?!”
“Ha-ha-ha, I could just fly in the sky right now! Nah, how ’bout we fly together, Beako?!”
“Fly all by your lonesome—!”
“Bwah?!”
She released magical energy from right above him, slamming him hard enough to make him do a full leg split on the floor. The impact he felt on the top of his skull transferred to the rest of his body. Subaru’s internal mana was all a jumble. His eyes were spinning as he continued to rest on his butt.
For her part, Beatrice landed with an elegant flutter of the hem of her skirt, turning her head and sending a snort Subaru’s way.
“Do you see what happens when you get carried away with frivolity, I wonder?”
“That’s not the only thing I saw. They’re white!”
“—. —?! Take this, would you?!”
“Brfhh!”
Subaru took the second shot right between the eyes, sending him flying into a corner of the archive like a rag doll. He rolled head over heels before slamming into a bookshelf, bringing heavy books down upon his head.
He crawled his way out of the mountain of books, tears in his eyes from the many bumps and bruises.
“The friendship gauge goes down just a little and I get this?! If you’re not happy with something, just say it, geez!”
“Being picked up like a little child, spun around in midair, having my panties seen, you speaking superficially lovey-dovey words, all of it! Is your entire existence a nuisance, I wonder?!”
“Hey, don’t put down my existence; that’s really sad stuff! I’m trying not to be a masochist here!”
Subaru hoped to find ways to improve himself, just like he’d found a chance to improve his circumstances.
Just because I’m powerless doesn’t mean I have to be helpless, too, Subaru thought, nodding at his own internal rebuke.
“Anyway, the situation’s a lot better than it was. It’ll be hard waiting out the night, but tomorrow I’m heading to the village.”
Let’s find out who this shaman really is, he thought.
That’d probably mean going with either Ram or Rem. Considering they both had combat strength, it was a natural choice in case he ended up duking it out with the shaman then and there. If he could get rid of the vile shaman and raise his friendship gauge with both girls in the process, that’d be the grand finale bringing his first week at Roswaal Manor to a successful conclusion.
“Now that I think back on it, I sure went through a lot…”
He knew it was speaking too soon, but it was a light at the end of the tunnel even so. Surely no one could blame Subaru for feeling that way.
Shouldn’t you be thinking of something else? he wondered. Looking up meant missing that which was right at his feet, didn’t it? Subaru, a man of little nerve and much wariness, suddenly remembered…
“The scent…of the witch…”
“What do you mean, I wonder?”
“Right, the witch. Rem mentioned her. You did, too, Beako.”
The moment the word witch formed on his lips, he remembered the various places he had encountered it. The witch was often treated as an abominable being by the residents of that world, but Subaru’s only clue as to why was the broad outline given in the children’s story “The Witch of Jealousy.” That really bothered him all of a sudden.
After all, the road traveled by Subaru Natsuki had been peppered by references to her.
Subaru lifted up his face and looked at Beatrice, who was knitting her eyebrows.
He wasn’t sure she’d even answer the question he was about to ask. It was grave enough that Ram had refused to answer it entirely, while Rem had used it as one of her justifications for attacking him.
He felt that even Emilia strongly resisted the topic.
“Beako, you know about the witch, right?”
“—”
The reply didn’t come immediately. The word thrumming in her ears made Beatrice close her eyes, sinking into silence as if making sure she’d heard correctly. Her reaction left Subaru with no option beyond trying to keep calm and waiting.
When she suddenly murmured the words, Subaru’s breath caught as his eyes went wide.
“She who drinks the world itself. Queen of the Castle of Shadows. The greatest of all disasters—the Witch of Jealousy.”
Upon seeing Subaru’s reaction, Beatrice let out a gloomy sigh.
“In this world, there is only one being indicated by the word witch. Should I add, it is even considered taboo to speak her name aloud, I wonder?”
“So everyone’s in awe and fear of her, and no one defies her?”
“Yes, precisely. Rather, why would you even ask if I know her, I wonder? In this world, aren’t the names you know best those of your parents, then other family, and finally, the name of the witch, I wonder?”
“Oh, come on…”
Subaru tried to poke fun, but he swallowed his words when Beatrice’s expression made plain that she wasn’t the slightest bit joking.
And if she was serious, that meant the witch was an unparalleled darkness in the world.
“The Witch of Jealousy, ‘Satella.’ She consumed the great sinners of yore known as the Six Witches, swallowing up half the world in the process, the vilest of all calamities.”
Beatrice’s words, spoken with emotions suppressed, brought a short, hard breath out of Subaru.
The name, one he’d heard before, bore much more gravity in the context of the rest.
“It is said that the witch desires love. It is said she does not comprehend human speech. It is said she envies everything in this world. That none have seen her face and lived. That her body is untouched by the ravages of time, unable to grow old or decay. That the Dragon, the Hero, and the Sage combined their power to seal her away, because even they could not hope to destroy her.”
Beatrice spoke point by point, not allowing Subaru to get a word in.
“It is said…”
Finally, as if reaching the end of her tale, she paused after her preamble and said,
“…she is a half-elf with silver hair.”
4
—Satella, the Witch of Jealousy.
The Six Witches had made the world scream, but this witch wiped them out in one fell swoop, ushering in a calamity that destroyed half the world.
A hero had sealed her flesh within a crystal, where she continued to sleep, even then, in some corner of the world.
That’s an absurd story, Subaru’s sensibilities as a child of modernity made him think.
Crimes so vile that people spoke of them centuries afterward were already bad enough, but the fact that the perpetrator continued to exist, sealed away somewhere out there, would be unthinkable in his world.
Subaru began to cite a rather extreme example as he sat cross-legged with his chin on a palm, watching a corner of the garden.
“Well, I can’t really go by that. Even if people don’t know the name of their own prime minister, they know the name of, say, the nation’s most popular idol group…”
It was morning as Emilia sat on the grass of the inner garden, conversing with the flickering lights surrounding her.
The scene never lost its mysterious, surreal air no matter how many times he set eyes on it. Seeing Emilia like this every day was one of the most beautiful sights that world had to offer.
Subaru was watching at a distance so as not to interfere with Emilia’s conversation. He was still wearing his servant’s outfit as he suppressed a yawn, letting out a long breath as he sank into a sea of contemplation once more.
It was now the morning of the third day, for night and sunrise had passed since his conversation with Beatrice in the archive of forbidden books.
As the night had crept toward morning, Beatrice had suddenly scowled.
“I suppose my skin shall be compromised if I do not get my beauty sleep. Staying up late like this is quite a bother.”
After being roughly evicted from the archive, Subaru managed to get in a morning bath before meeting up with Emilia in the garden. The sight of her so diligently carrying out her daily routine made him clench a fist with renewed determination.
A gray fur ball—in other words, Puck—popped his face up in front of Subaru’s eyes and called out to him.
“Well you seem to be doing better now.”
Puck continued to hover in the air as he began grooming his face with his short paws like any normal cat. He continued, “To be honest, you were not much to look at yesterday. I’m a little relieved.”
“That so? Sorry to make you worry. But my naive heart still isn’t completely over everything, so I want the feel of your fur to comfort me. Ahhh…”
“Well, if you can bluff like that I suppose you’re fine. Lia did lend you her lap and everything.”
Subaru’s fingers wrapped around the palm-size cat and, searching for something beyond even the surprising sensation of his ears, arrived at Puck’s tail. From base to tip, the feel of it was beyond even Subaru’s expectations, making his breath catch.
Subaru savored the supremely comfortable touch in his hand as his eyes met Puck’s.
“Did you see the lap pillow, too, by any chance?”
“Only because she did it for so long. It was quite difficult to stay kneeling in that position for hours, and I offered to take over several times, but… Relax, Lia saw it through to the very end.”
Puck’s metaphorical seal of approval abruptly made Subaru, still shy about the awakening of his love, red in the face.
Puck nodded at Subaru’s schoolboy reaction. And then—
“Ei!”
“Ow—! Why did you just scratch me?!”
“You had an explosion of complex feelings of affection for my daughter. Maybe I ought to explode you?”
“You ought not!! That daddy mind-set’s a complicated thing, geez!”
Puck’s “explosion” of fatherly concern threatened to put distance between Subaru and Emilia. Subaru plaintively bowed his head before Puck, somehow managing to keep the situation in check. When this process was finished and he glanced back at Emilia, he saw that she seemed to still be immersed in conversation with the spirits, never noticing the comedy routine between man and beast that had ruptured the calm of the morning.
Subaru watched the side of her face, gazing at the gentle, charming smile so beautiful that you could drown in it, when he abruptly murmured to himself.
“—A silver-haired half-elf, huh?”
It was one of the things Beatrice had said about the Witch of Jealousy.
The witch had shaken the world to its core, and even now, her name was synonymous with terror. He wondered how great a burden it must be to have similarities with such a being.
Even Subaru, who had never felt hardships like this, could imagine it was no easy road to travel. And yet, Emilia had been raised to be an honest, benevolent person… No doubt in the hope that she would live as a lovely, untainted flower.
“Either she grew up in a real friendly environment, or…”
Puck looked back and smiled, one paw on his hip, the other toying with his whiskers.
“Or maybe she was raised by a good father. Mm-hmm.”
The cat could read his emotions. He’d no doubt discerned Subaru’s thoughts to work out the context of the soliloquy from a moment before.
“Well, to a large extent she was just born that way. Not to harp on it, but that girl had a much, much harder time than you can imagine. It’s adorable how she’s like this in spite of it all, though.”
As Puck squinted, the thought of contradicting him never crossed Subaru’s mind.
The plain fact was that Subaru didn’t know anything about Emilia, while Puck had spent an enormity of time with her. Subaru’s knowledge of how hard it’d been for her barely scratched the surface.
Puck was driving home that Subaru had no right to act like he knew.
Men were helpless in the hands of Fate. Subaru knew that powerlessness all too well.
“Hey, Puck, do you know about the Witch of Jealousy?”
“There is little that I do not know.”
“Okay, I wanted to ask you this… Under what circumstances would you use the Witch of Jealousy’s name as an alias? Wait, alias doesn’t sound very nice; it’s more like…borrowing the Witch of Jealousy’s name temporarily.”
The back of his mind recalled an occurrence in the midst of the loop in the royal capital on the first day of his summons.
In the very, very first loop, Emilia had called herself “Satella” to Subaru, who knew nothing at all at that point.
Subaru had vaguely guessed what she must’ve been thinking, but he wanted a second opinion on the matter. There was no one better than the person who knew Emilia best.
Not knowing Subaru’s intentions, Puck swayed his tail and inclined his head a bit.
“I think that would be a reckless thing to do. There are still many people with undiluted hate toward the witch, with fear and despair still carved into their souls. A person would have to be soft in the head to use the name of the witch as an alias around people like that.”
“I’ll take that as a ‘never.’”
“Meow meow?”
Puck made a skeptical sound as Subaru poked him with a finger. Subaru then snapped his fingers, for Puck’s support for his hypothesis made him put aside his own doubts.
In this world, using the name of the witch as an alias would obviously be insane. It was only Subaru, there by chance without the slightest clue about what passed for common sense, who would think it was normal. So why would Emilia, who certainly knew better, claim the name of the witch as her own?
“So she was trying to creep out a weirdo to keep him out of this royal selection business…”
She had tried to protect him, a boy she had met only in passing.
Emilia’s thoughts behind claiming the alias had already vanished into another dimension. Only Subaru knew she had ever done such a thing. And Subaru would never have the chance to ask her what she truly intended by it.
But he couldn’t help but imagine that that was what it meant. All he could do was believe.
Subaru, struck by the tenderness of that Emilia in another dimension, was caught off guard as the current one sat next to him with a strained smile.
“That’s quite the distant look you have. What’s wrong?”
He could no longer see the flickering lights frolicking around Emilia, so her pleasant conversation with them seemed over. Puck, having waited off to the side with Subaru until then, landed on her narrow shoulder to replace them.
“Back in my proper place. Ahh, this is where I’m most at ease. Home sweet home.”
“Oh, so now you’re Daddy back home from a trip, are you? Poor you, driving home all tired like that.”
“That’s because my eyes were wide open protecting my daughter from a wolf’s poison fangs. Those poison fangs won’t come near her, you see?”
“Hey, don’t stare at me and talk about ‘poison fangs’—twice! You’ll ruin my reputation here.”
Subaru forced a smile as Puck’s big black eyes beheld him. Playing with the little cat like this meant he was kicking down the road a bit one of his opportunities to speak with Emilia, even though she was right there.
It wasn’t that he hated talking to Emilia. He just couldn’t look her in the eye. After all, he’d bawled his eyes out on her lap and spent untold hours with her stroking his head. It’d been only a single night since then; he didn’t know how he could face her.
That he had gone to meet her even so proved only that Subaru had a severe case of Emilia poisoning.
Faced with Subaru’s extreme confusion, Emilia hesitated, too, running an unhurried finger through her long silver hair. After a brief silence, Emilia made a determined breath and smiled.
“Err, this is a little embarrassing… Are you feeling all right?”
“I was in a tight spot until I heard Emilia-tan’s voice. And, er, also, sorr—”
The apology died on his lips. Subaru swallowed back the word he was about to say and changed his approach.
“…Thank you. For everything. After all that, I think I have my head on straighter.”
“It doesn’t seem you’re completely over it, but I’m glad you think you’re getting there. Mm, if I was able to help a little, that’s just fine. If you feel whittled to the bone again, just tell me. Your sister will gently console you.”
Emilia teasingly put a hand to her chest and winked.
Surely she was acting this way to lighten Subaru’s feelings of guilt. But when he gazed upon her happy, older sister–ish look, the fact that she kind of seemed serious made him tremble a bit.
“The main thing is that you’re feeling better. You have to work hard today, you know? Are you sleepy? You slept at such odd times.”
“No need to worry. A shut-in like me holding down the fort sleeps all day and is up all night to begin with. Well, it got a bit healthier as of late.”
“Just to ask, what is a shut-in anyway?”
“He is the Guardian of the Culture, always immersed in an ocean of information about the state of the world and the global economy to better protect the home day and night… The upper ranks never set a foot outside the house and even commemorate their lovers’ birthdays through their screens.”
To be blunt, the souls of those who did that had long risen to a higher plane of existence.
The oddness of Subaru’s explanation seemed to tug at Emilia a little as she made a lovely smile. Seeing Emilia’s reaction, Subaru suddenly had a thought.
“Hey, Emilia-tan, what kind of magic do you use, anyway?”
“Err, strictly speaking, I’m not a magic user. That’s because I’m a spirit mage, including my pact with Puck here. What I use isn’t magic but spirit arts. The principles are largely the same, though…”
“So how are magic users and spirit mages different?”
Subaru turned his neck and looked at Puck sitting on Emilia’s shoulder. The little cat, realizing the conversation had shifted in his direction, stroked the fur over his belly as he explained.
“Magic users use the mana inside them when they use magic. In contrast, spirit mages use the mana in the air around them. The process is fairly different, even when the effects are the same.”
“So what kind of differences are those, sensei?”
When Subaru raised his hand and asked his question, Puck, sitting in the lecturer’s role, grinned like a cat in a good mood.
“Technically, it’s whether a gate is used or not. The size of a gate depends on the individual magic user, but that doesn’t matter much for spirit mages. That’s because you’re using external mana.”
“I see. So magic users bring in mana from around them through the gate, then send it back out the gate when they use magic, but spirit mages can cut out the middleman.” Subaru was digesting the explanation when he tilted his head halfway. “Mm? But then that makes spirit mages way too powerful. Magic users are limited to the amount of fuel they can store inside them, but spirit mages have a free pass to use as much as they want. There’s no contest.”
“You understand quickly. But it isn’t quite that convenient. In the first place, the mana in the air isn’t infinite…”
Puck’s words trailed off as he looked up at Emilia. The girl nodded as she took over.
“And the strength of the spells a spirit mage can use is dependent on the spirit you’ve formed a pact with. The predisposition needed to form pacts with spirits is rare to begin with, and powerful spirits are even rarer. It’s difficult to say which is better.”
Subaru replied, “Mm-hmm…but it must feel pretty good to get a pact with a strong spirit, right? You must really be hot stuff, Emilia-tan. Seems like Puck is hot stuff himself, though…”
“Well, I can’t really deny that I’m above average.”
“Man, you just said that with a straight face; no hesitation at all rating yourself like that?”
Subaru thought his self-consciousness outclassed most, but Puck’s bluntness was a level higher.
No doubt it was the age difference. A greenhorn had seen many fewer years than Mr. Great Spirit. Though, judging from the rather merry, blushy smile the Great Spirit was making, maybe he wasn’t as used to flattery as he pretended to be…
“Oh, by the way, what kind of spirit is Puck, anyway? He made ice come out at the loot seller’s place, but…if my memory’s right, there’s no ice affinity to begin with.”
With the bath serving as a lecture hall, Roswaal had explained to him that the four orthodox magical affinities were fire, water, wind, and earth. The annoying light and dark affinities rounded out the six.
It was not Puck, still making a blushy smile, but Emilia who replied to Subaru’s question.
“My specialty is ice, but it’s actually fire mana. Fire relates mainly to temperature, so cooling that which is hot is classified as part of fire, apparently.”
“Huh, is that so? Magical logic…? Magic…? Magic, huh?”
Upon hearing Emilia’s explanation, Subaru felt a fondness for magic bubble up within him. Having withdrawn momentarily, Puck twitched his ears as he looked at Subaru’s face once again and nodded.
“Hmm. By any chance, do you want to use magic?”
“Can I?! I mean…if I can! Super-powerful stuff, like calling down a meteor shower and—”
“Ah, well, no. Fundamentals are important, both for magic and spirit arts. Magic is not something you can learn in a day.”
Subaru’s hopes suddenly leaped up, only for Puck to smack them back down. Subaru wilted on the spot, then Puck twirled a whisker and added, “But…if you simply want to experience it, we can do that.”
“Meaning…what?”
“Meaning, if you want to use magic, Lia and I just have to support you. We’ll use the mana inside you to use magic through you. The magic we use from the atmosphere is different from the mana inside you, so the magic itself will come out of your gate. How about it?”
Emilia rebuked Puck for his invitation.
“Puck, wait. Don’t make it sound so causal. It might be dangerous.”
However, Subaru’s feelings were set in stone.
“Sorry, Emilia-tan. I’m super happy you’re worried about me…but I’m gonna do it!”
Subaru gave Emilia a congenial smile, complete with a glint of his teeth and a thumbs-up.
Subaru’s action, meant to drive away all unease and anxiety, made Emilia’s eyes go wide.
“Wh-why do you want to do it so much…?”
“That’s obvious—so that I can live as the man I was born to be!”
Subaru clenched a fist as he made the manliest cry he could.
To anyone born a man, ceasing to pursue your dreams was the same as death itself. Since arriving in another world, Subaru had never displayed as much courage as he had then and there.
—Besides, being able to use magic gave him one more option. Perhaps it would increase his chances of protecting Emilia and the others during the current loop.
Faced with Subaru’s strong spirit, Emilia shook her head, abandoning all thoughts of stopping him.
“If you think it’s getting dangerous, you will stop right away, understand?”
And so, with that warning, she resolved to see Subaru’s battle through.
Subaru accepted Emilia’s words of caution with a nice smile before turning back to Puck with bated breath.
“So what should I do first? Draw a magic circle? If you need a sacrifice, can I volunteer Beako?”
“I’m happy you seem to be getting along better with Betty. Yes, first, how about I see what affinity you are, Subaru? That’s the first step to knowing what kind of magic you can use.”
Subaru’s expression, buoyant until that moment, instantly died when he heard Puck’s suggestion. As Puck and Emilia blinked in surprise side by side, Subaru shook his head in robotic fashion.
“My…affinity…is probably…‘fire’…?”
“Why the sudden pauses…?”
When Emilia asked, Subaru simply lowered his eyes. He didn’t want to remember any further.
But Puck leaped off Emilia’s shoulder and hovered in front of Subaru’s face as he stretched his tail.
“All right, let’s check. Myon myon myon myon…”
“I know the weirdo nobleman did the same thing, but isn’t that, like, overkill?!”
The tip of Puck’s long tail swished across Subaru’s forehead as his mouth made the accompanying sound effects. Subaru wallowed in apprehension as he awaited the scan’s verdict.
“Wait, I should think positively about this. Thinking back on it, Roswaal’s behavior was unnatural, wasn’t it? Right, he was jealous of the hidden magical talent within me. Yeah, it was jealousy. That’s why he tried to convince me to just give up—”
“Wow, this is rare. Your affinity’s pure Dark.”
“Farewell, my magic-using life—!”
Subaru wailed at crossing into another dimension only to be blacklisted by someone else.
His glittering future was now closed, with the curtain rising on Subaru’s life as nothing more than a debuffer.
“So all I need to do is practice saying, ‘I’ve turned their defense to paper! Go, NOW!’ Ha-ha-ha…”
“Ah, you have no talent at all, either. Your gate’s small; at least the number is kind of okay…? But there’s barely any opening, so not much is coming through.”
“Shut up, I know that already! Incidentally, what does that talent thing mean, by the numbers?”
“If you spent twenty years in daily training, you might become a high-end second-rate magic user.”
“So I’d devote half my life and still come up short of top tier… I think I’d better give up now…”
Emilia finally wore an exasperated look when she heard Subaru hold back tears as he gave up on his dream. But it couldn’t be helped. Yes, effort and trying your best were words prominently featured in Subaru’s lexicon, but whether to give up on a man’s impossible dream or not was a different subject.
“I just want to try the magic demonstration. What do I have to do?”
“Since it’s Dark affinity, Lia can’t handle it. How about something simple, like Shamak?”
“Ah, a magic smoke screen? I’ve never seen it myself,” Emilia replied.
Apparently, it was something of such a trivial level that she’d never encountered it professionally.
The two continued their magic talk while leaving Subaru aside as he sank into deeper despair about his tiny skill tree.
“It’s not fair you’re in a world all by yourselves. I mean, we’re talking about my magic, right? I mean, can I actually use that Shamak thing? That’s kind of important here.”
“Good point. Unknown magic is a scary thing. All right, this is Shamak.”
“—Eh?”
Puck, nodding in concession that Subaru had a point, made a brief incantation and waved a paw.
The next moment, Subaru’s vision was shrouded in darkness. Instantly, the scene before his eyes was buried in pitch-black.
Startled, he abruptly raised his voice, but the sound never reached his ears. The profound darkness had cut off his vision from everything outside him. A shiver went up his spine at being severed from the outside world.
“There, all done.”
When Subaru heard the clap of hands, he realized that he had returned to reality. Seeing Emilia in front of him when his sight returned put him at ease.
“That was just a moment, but he broke out in such a sweat… Subaru, are you all right? Do you want me to hold your hand?”
“I-I’m all right. I just lost my senses for a moment… Ah, I lost my chance to hold your hand.”
While making his typically flippant comment, Subaru touched his own eyelids to make sure nothing had changed there.
“So that’s a Shamak, huh? It’s simple, but it’s pretty strong stuff, isn’t it?”
“Not at all. Anyone but a lower-grade opponent can brush it off with skill, and it can’t be maintained for long. Although I could cast it on the likes of you so that you’d spend your entire life in darkness…”
“That’s a scary thought!! I’d go crazy if I had to live one day like that, let alone the rest of my life!”
Subaru made a strained smile. He quietly hid his trembling fists behind him.
He didn’t want to convey how the feeling of being momentarily cut off from the world had filled his entire body with terror. The instant he thought that he was alone in the world, with no one on his side, the sheer loneliness made Subaru’s heart quake.
I’m pathetic. He bit the thought down and smiled to conceal his inner turmoil.
“Anyway, whether it’s any use or not, I can use that magic, too, right? I wanna try that right away! I want to, but, um!”
“That’s fine. I’ll assist you. Lia, if his mana runs wild, it might blow up, so please move back. I don’t want to get your clothes dirty.”
“It’s not like that’s gonna happen, right?! That’s, like, a super-rare case that basically never happens, right?!”
Puck smiled in silence. Emilia made a slightly sad face, counseling, “Don’t be reckless, okay?” as she really did move away from him. The very outpouring of concern deepened his unease. Left in the lurch, Subaru was in an exceedingly uneasy position as events proceeded.
Puck sat down on top of Subaru’s black hair and adjusted the position of his tail.
“What a prickly and uncomfortable head to sit on.”
“Hey, it’s not like I thought someone was going to sit on it someday! No one warned me to bring a cushion, but just, uh, help yourself, okay?”
“Nah, I’ll be done and back to Lia’s lovely hair in no time. So, ready to begin?”
When prompted, Subaru hesitated for just a moment, but a smile quickly came over him as he nodded. He was on something of a knife’s edge of unease, but he just couldn’t deny his curiosity. Having received Subaru’s assent, Puck made a large nod of his own.
Then, Subaru suddenly felt his entire body get hot. He felt something besides blood running through his veins—no doubt it was the formless gush of mana stirring inside him.
He could tell that the energy inside his body was moving in accordance with Puck’s hand.
“Subaru, try to picture it in your mind. Move the mana inside your body, flowing through me, by your own will. Push a portion of it out of your body through your gate. Picture it as a black cloud.”
“Picture, picture. Trust me, daydreaming is totally my thing.”
Subtly distorting Puck’s advice, Subaru tried to picture where the energy wriggling inside his body was supposed to go.
He tried to picture the gate—the doorway at the center of his body. He pictured himself carefully opening a heavy door to make the energy inside flow out. Once outside, Subaru would generate the phenomenon by his own will—
Right around the last part, Puck murmured abruptly, “Huh, this isn’t good. All of a sudden, the gate…”
Subaru didn’t even have time to ask, The gate what…?
The next moment, Emilia cried out—
“Are you two—?!”
A few seconds later, a black cloud spewed out with explosive force, shrouding the corner of the inner garden of Roswaal Manor.
He didn’t blow up, but the result was a spectacular failure nonetheless.
5
“If I must make a conclusion, your control of your gate is too weak, so you shouldn’t push it, Subaru.”
“You see me like this and that’s the first thing you say, damn it?!”
Puck slapped his head and stuck out his tongue.
“Tee-hee-hee.”
“That’s not cute, you know!”
Subaru shouted at Puck as his whole body soaked up the sensation of the lawn. Lying atop the grass, Subaru felt his breaths were labored; his whole body felt unusually languid. He was as sluggish as if he had a high fever. His limbs seemed to lack the will to move.
He’d felt something like this before.
Back on what was, in a true sense, his first day at the mansion, he’d felt the same sluggishness after Beatrice drained his mana. That was to say, Subaru was completely out of gas at that moment.
Emilia interrupted.
“For better or worse, Subaru simply isn’t used to using his gate. That’s why it ignored the user’s will and everything inside flew right out.”
“So I didn’t close the lid right… What am I, soy sauce…?”
He managed to voice his resentment, but the depletion of his strength was nothing to laugh at. He wanted to at least manage to get up, but he couldn’t put any energy into his limbs or the rest of his body.
Subaru was still stuck lying on the ground when Emilia, kneeling beside him, met his gaze.
“You mustn’t move. You’re all out of internal mana, so behave yourself. Maybe you should take today off work, too.”
“—That’s really bad!”
Emilia was scolding him like a misbehaving child when Subaru raised his voice out of the blue. Emilia blinked in surprise off to the side as Subaru deeply rued his own carelessness.
If he really did have to give up the whole day, it meant abandoning one more day he needed to put this loop in order. That was crazy, even fatal. And now his body felt like it was rusted over.
“Ughhhh…”
“Now hold on, I told you not to push it!”
“Now’s when I have to push it. If I don’t, I’m going to really seriously regret it later…”
It was by no means unusual for him to reap what he had sowed, but the timing was simply too awful.
Emilia, seeing Subaru’s brow covered with sweat as he struggled with all his might, slumped her shoulders.
“Goodness, you really can’t be helped.”
Once more, Emilia’s lips tapered as if she was upset with him. Subaru, not grasping the meaning behind Emilia’s statement, could only lift his eyes to look at her.
“—? Emilia-tan, what’s mnnff?!”
Emilia peered down at his face from above while suddenly stuffing something into his mouth. He felt something round and soft on his tongue. Though bewildered, Emilia put a hand over his mouth and nodded to him.
“Bite down.”
“—?”
“Bite down…and swallow. Yes, there you go.”
With Emilia tolerating no dissent, Subaru located the object in his mouth and bit down on it—hard.
A bittersweet taste swirled all around his mouth. He narrowed his eyes as his taste buds sensed it was some kind of fruit. The next moment…it hit him.
“Whoaaaaaaa—?!”
Subaru, feeling like his whole body was alight, got up then and there, practically leaping to his feet.
He felt like his blood was boiling as it coursed through his entire body, scalding heat reaching all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. He exhaled hard, as if the air in his lungs was too hot to handle, and his knees were marching up and down all on their own.
It was around that point when Subaru realized he was standing on his own two feet.
There were still vestiges of sluggishness in every part of his body, but the crippling lethargy had vanished.
“Wh…? What was that…?”
“It’s called a bokko fruit. When you eat it, it gives the mana inside your body a kick so that your gate powers up again, just enough to feel a bit better.”
Apparently, the mysterious fruit was some kind of MP recovery item.
Subaru rotated his arms and, finding that nothing was wrong aside from a little fatigue, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wow, I’m relieved. I’d never forgive myself if I got another BAD END on account of that. Thanks, Emilia-tan.”
“I don’t have many of them, and it’s not good for the body, so I didn’t really want to use it… You weren’t bluffing there, were you?”
No doubt it was Subaru’s genuineness that had spurred Emilia into using such a precious item on him.
Subaru responded to Emilia’s prodding by sticking out his chest and boldly declaring, “Not one bit. I won’t let you regret this.”
Then he immediately wiped all the sweat off his brow.
“But man, I was an idiot there… When this is all over I’m going to kick myself even more than before.”
He carried the burden of having experienced numerous forms of death, something other people would only experience but once, but he wanted to avoid dying from embarrassment if he could at all help it.
In fact, he wanted his suicide by leaping off a cliff to be the last death he ever experienced.
The scars of having decided to end his own life ran deep. He didn’t want to do that again, ever.
One death was enough for anyone. He wanted death to be the natural end of his life. Of course, the best result would be some crazy event that ended with Emilia embracing him, but—
“Man, I’m such a kid I can’t even think about it, huh?”
Even though he was always so glib, he would never again casually speak the word death. Surely Subaru could only laugh at his own cowardice because he was reliving the same experiences, literally whether he wanted to or not.
Seeing the change in Subaru’s expression, Emilia had a sullen look as she asked, “Are you all right? Do you think you can go to work?”
“I’ll do work, and all the other stuff, too. Having you on my side is like riding an unsinkable battleship, so I’ll give it all I’ve got.”
“…Riding a… I’m not quite sure what you mean by that, but…”
“Hey, Emilia-tan, how you put that kind of makes me excited. Can you say that again?”
“You have a lewd look in your eyes, so no.”
Their usual banter left Subaru laughing as he stretched his limbs and finally his back.
“Well, I’d better go face my seniors and turn over a new leaf!”
“I suppose so. I don’t think either has spoken one word about you since yesterday.”
“—Ah.”
Subaru stretched his back as his hips made their own dull creak.
6
“Sister, Sister. The lout known as Subaru has come.”
“Rem, Rem. The wage thief named Barusu has appeared.”
“I’m very sorry about yesterday…! Please forgive me!”
Subaru sought forgiveness, bowing his head low in an earnest apology.
He felt like he’d done nothing but bow his head for half an entire day. He’d accounted for everyone at the mansion except Roswaal—meaning the entirety of the female population.
“I’m back to a route with all the girls looking down on me again… I’ve got some deep karma here.”
“Sister, Sister. It seems Subaru is quite the pervert.”
“Rem, Rem. Subaru is a masochist who likes being degraded.”
“That’s going too far, especially for you, Big Sis!”
Shouting in response to the sisters’ sharp rebuke, Subaru used his arms as a fulcrum to go from his prostrate position into a handstand, twisting his body around and using the momentum to rise to his feet.
“Anyway, I’m sorry about being pathetic yesterday and annoying the day before… Well, a lot happened, but I’ve had a complete change in attitude, so it’s a new me going forward.”
“It was the lap pillow.”
“The lap pillow, yes.”
“Don’t tell me everyone knows?! That’s so embarrassing!”
Subaru hid his reddened face and crumbled as the twin maids met each other’s gaze.
“It is time to begin the morning chores, Sister.”
“It is time to begin our morning duties, Rem.”
“No comment?! That puts me down even more!!”
With a wave, the two left behind Subaru and his pleas, heading off to work just as they had declared. As they did so, Subaru called for them to stop.
“Time-out, time-out. There’s a favor I want to ask about work this morning.”
Subaru’s appeal made both twins stop, turn around, and tilt their heads in sync.
“A favor?”
“A hassle?”
“Weird, I haven’t heard Big Sis’s bluntness for a while and it’s getting me all fired up…”
A pained smile came over him. Unlike the little sister, the older sister’s unpleasant attitude was a lot easier to deal with, but he was glad he could talk to them like this at all.
He breathed out, trying to brush off the absurdity of it all.
“Actually, I’d like to go see the village. It’s nearby, right? Isn’t there something you need to buy there?”
Overnight, he’d formed a firm hypothesis in the archive of forbidden books, but he wanted to get to the village that day no matter what. That was what was on Subaru’s mind as Rem put a hand to her chest, sinking into thought.
“Certainly, we are running a bit low on spices, so I was thinking of heading to the village tomorrow…”
“Let’s change the schedule and do it today, then. Might as well get more before you’re running out, and you can’t just borrow some from the neighbors out here, can you?”
There were no other mansions in the first place, even if they had wanted to go see the neighbors.
Rem seemed to ponder Subaru’s suggestion a little when…
“It’s fine, isn’t it?”
“Sister?”
In contrast to the little sister’s pondering, the older sister stroked her own pink hair with a look of indifference.
“We have to buy them either way, and there are no other pressing matters. It is the perfect opportunity to employ Barusu as a mule.”
“I was in bed with a gut wound just three days ago, so take it easy, okay?!”
Subaru had hoped for some warmth from the merciless Ram, but her cover fire still made him tilt his mind’s inner head a bit.
He’d thought so, but this was vivid proof that the twin maids were not united in their opinions.
He remembered how, in the loop before last, Rem’s coming to kill him had been on Rem’s own judgment. Perhaps their thinking was even less on the same page than Subaru had assumed.
Either way…
“…If Sister…says so, then…”
After thinking it over a bit, Rem finally gave her own consent.
The majority of work at the mansion got done only because of Rem, but Subaru knew from long experience that she let Ram, the less accomplished of the two, make a lot of the decisions.
Whether mere coincidence or not, Ram’s intervention had essentially settled the matter.
Subaru pumped a fist as Rem’s face went from contemplation back to a calm, neutral look.
“However, either way, going to the village must wait until after lunch. Let us do it after Two Solartime…after we have finished all other outstanding work.”
“It will be all right. Barusu has pledged to work until his body is ground to a pulp, yes?”
“Yep. Just watch what I can do now that I’ve been reborn. I’ll work like a hot knife through you know what.”
They corrected his corrupted idiom in unison.
“Butter.”
“Right. That.”
Subaru scratched his face as it sunk in that he’d succeeded in his negotiations. Now that the promise to go shopping had been made, it was finally time to begin servant time.
He watched Rem leave in a hurry, probably sorting out in her head the order of her chores, before shifting his gaze to Ram beside him.
Naturally, Ram had been given orders to stick with Subaru for another day and oversee his education.
No doubt it was best to avoid the tension that had built up the day before—or rather, the day before last. More to the point, finding himself had been so painful that re-creating the tension was a little too much to ask.
“Getting self-conscious of my own bad points in such a short time like that… It’s a bigger shock than seeing an infant grow into a man in three days.”
As Subaru sank into reflection, Ram folded her arms and gave him a cold look.
“Before we get to the issue at hand…”
For some reason, Ram’s gaze made Subaru feel like he should straighten his back. He did so and turned toward her.
“About that magic in the garden earlier…”
“Ah, sorry for the mess. I can’t use that thing right, so I’m not touching it for a while. I hear it’d take twenty years for me to learn the fundamentals right.”
“A mess it may have been, but do not provoke Rem too much.”
“…?”
Not understanding what Ram meant, a virtual question mark came over Subaru’s face. Ram watched Subaru’s inquisitive look before making a belated hmph.
“Rem was quite disturbed by the magic that covered a corner of the garden as well as Lady Emilia. You should be dancing for me in thanks for stopping her, Barusu.”
“Ah… Ahhhh… Yeah, you’re right…”
In his shock at the failure of his magic, Subaru hadn’t noticed, but a third party was unlikely to see that situation as a mere failed spell.
He was truly grateful that Ram hadn’t jumped the gun. On the other hand, he was aghast at Rem’s willingness to make a snap judgment on the spot.
“Oh man, I was way too careless… I have to think ahead more after four Continues.”
“What are you mumbling about…? If we do not get to work soon, both breakfast and dinner shall run late.”
“Oh, I was just thinking about the shopping in the afternoon. Which one of you will be going with me?”
Under the circumstances, going with Rem would be a heavy weight on his mind. Either way, though, it made practical sense for Rem to be the one to go with him to the village. Subaru figured that he’d be going shopping with Rem, just like he had on two previous occasions. However…
“What nonsense are you speaking?”
“…Eh?”
Subaru inclined his head. For once, Ram’s neutral expression broke into a smile—an extremely cold, malicious, devilish smile.
“You shall go with both of us. You will have a lovely flower on each arm, Barusu.”
That would be nice, as long as the flowers aren’t poisonous.
Subaru, now aware that the negotiations had gone a little too well, covered his face with a palm, looked up to the heavens, and groaned.
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