CHAPTER 1
THE DEALT CARD
1
In life, you can only play the game with the cards you’ve been dealt.
This held true no matter the circumstances of a person’s birth, appearance, talent, reputation, or the skills they cultivated.
Subaru Natsuki was keenly aware that he was lacking in every single one of those categories.
Through some kind of mistake, Rem had completely accepted Subaru, but he knew all too well that the Subaru Natsuki she saw was an ideal far removed from the real thing. Compared with the man she envisioned in her mind, the cards that the real Subaru held were few in number, and poor in quality—
But he learned, now that he stood at the playing table, no one cared about his personal problems.
All anyone in his position could do was try to win with the cards he was dealt.
The rest came down to simply how well each person played, their timing, and if they used any bluffs.
“—The White Whale.”
Of all the cards in Subaru’s hand, he chose the one that resulted in the greatest effect on the others.
His declaration changed the faces of those around him in different ways.
They were currently in the reception room of the Duchess of Karsten’s villa in the royal capital’s Nobles’ District.
Not counting Subaru, five were participating in the discussion—first, Crusch Karsten, lady of the manor, accompanied by her two retainers, Ferris and Wilhelm. Also in attendance was Russel Fellow, one of a tiny handful of influential movers in the royal capital, acting as an adviser for Subaru.
And…
“…”
…the fifth was Rem, who was touching Subaru’s sleeve, providing limitless strength by inspiring the courage within him.
The conversation between those six in the capital quickly began hurtling toward an intense climax.
In short, the objective of the discussion was to form an alliance between the Emilia camp and the Crusch camp. The Crusch camp was taking a cautious wait-and-see stance toward the Emilia camp’s request of cooperation to resist the universal menace of the Witch Cult. Subaru’s invoking of the White Whale’s name was his trump card for breaking that stalemate.
Crusch’s eyes narrowed in profound interest; Ferris looked at his master with gloom-filled eyes. The deeply mercantile Russel knotted his brows, whereas Wilhelm—
“—?!”
After an instant, Subaru involuntarily held his breath when a thick, dark hostility permeated the room’s interior.
Feeling sick to his stomach, as if his intestines were about to be rearranged by the tip of a sword, Subaru lifted his face to see the source—and saw the white-maned, old man exhaling deeply and lightly shaking his head.
“…Forgive my…gross indiscretion. It would seem that I, too, still have room for improvement.”
Wilhelm closed one eye and apologized without any change in expression.
The aged swordsman pushed the malice away, leaving no traces remaining even in the farthest corners of the room, then touched the sword on his lap as if ashamed.
“I have no excuse for interrupting. Say the word and I shall remove myself.”
“No, stay. I wish to hear your opinion.”
Crusch personally stopped Wilhelm from excusing himself. “You do not mind?” he said, shifting his eyes to Subaru, who answered as well with a nod of agreement.
“Now then, the term White Whale has been thrown out rather suddenly. May I take it that the White Whale of which you speak is the Demon Beast of Mist, one of the three great demon beasts?”
“Yeah. A monster that spews out mist and swims around in the sky—that White Whale. I know when and where it’ll show up next. I want to offer that information as part of the deal for an alliance.”
Is she gonna bite? wondered Subaru, his nerves on edge as he waited for Crusch’s reaction.
The lady of the house put a hand to her chin in contemplation. Before she rendered judgment, someone cut in.
“Apologies. May I ask you some minor things?” Russel raised his hand and sought permission for questions.
“Sure thing, ask anything you like.”
“First, there is a matter I must verify… Mr. Natsuki, do you have an accurate assessment of what value to place on your knowledge of where the White Whale shall next appear?”
“…It could reduce the number of people caught up in the White Whale’s damage. Merchants and land dragon cargo runners can revise their routes, and it would improve the condition of a lot of victims, I think?”
“Yes, precisely. However, that only earns you a score of fifty.”
Russel’s assessment of Subaru’s mostly timid reply was rather harsh.
“Are you aware of just how much blood has flowed due to the Demon Beast of Mist to date?” he continued. “The unlucky caravans, which the White Whale’s mist swallowed up, vanished without a trace! The royal knights assembled to dispatch the White Whale failed, routed by the beast! Until a few decades ago, it appeared near villages and cities, swallowing them and their entire populations whole. It was not uncommon for cases where it was impossible to ascertain the truth of what had happened. The White Whale is more than a very large demon beast.”
Russel’s words, explaining the menace of the White Whale, were hot—almost excessive. Subaru, prone to hiding his negative emotions behind a facade of denial, understood the desire to have others understand such feelings.
Faced with an enemy too vast to fathom, people tried to extoll the vastness of its existence to protect their fragile spirits.
“With such a demon beast, the most crucial measure is never to encounter it. Many merchants and travelers fear nothing greater than mist covering their path. The White Whale is a symbol of calamity, and any mist itself is a veritable evil omen. If one could see ahead to know where it would appear, it would be worth an immense fortune! However…”
Having clenched his fists and spoken with such zeal to that point, Russel suddenly looked down at Subaru with cold eyes.
“Information is assigned value from its trustworthiness. Mr. Natsuki, how can you prove such a thing? Without proof, it cannot be seen as anything but fiction.”
“Most of which I wished to express would only repeat Russel Fellow’s words. I was about to ask if you could prove your claim.”
With thin smiles, Russel and Crusch both questioned the basis of Subaru’s tip.
Is the information true or false? Posed this question, Subaru felt a cold sweat against his back. But he could not reveal his anxiety. Returning a bold smile their way, he managed to keep himself from letting weak thoughts trickle out as he put his next card on the negotiating table—just like he’d elaborately simulated many times over in his preparations beforehand.
“The reason I can know where the White Whale will come out beforehand…is this!”
Suddenly, he took something out of his side pocket and slapped it on the table.
Subaru displayed his evidence on the table. He felt the expressions of everyone staring at it tighten briefly, but the next moment, bewilderment came over them.
“Subaru Natsuki.”
“Yeah.”
When Crusch quietly invoked Subaru’s name, he puffed his chest out without a hint of fear. Without commenting on Subaru’s impudent demeanor, she pointed at the proof Subaru had placed at the center of the table.
“What…is this?”
It was a gleaming piece of cutting-edge future technology encased within a white, metallic body.
—She did not take her eyes off the cell phone for a single instant as she quizzically tilted her head toward Subaru.
2
Subaru’s knowledge of precisely when and where the White Whale would appear was truly the fruit of repeated coincidence and the mischief of fate.
The decisive instant came on that misty night during the third loop—when he encountered the White Whale face-to-face.
While sitting in the driver’s seat of a dragon carriage, he had retrieved the cell phone from his hand baggage and activated it to use it as a light source.
“It was then, right before that.”
The first time Subaru set eyes on the White Whale, he’d been trying to check on the dragon carriage running beside them, had vanished. His eyes struggled to pierce the darkness at the time, so he thought to use the light of his cell phone.
Even in the present, he found it hard to forget meeting the thing in the dark, eyeball to enormous eyeball.
Right after that moment, the demon beast roared. Then, its first attack blew Subaru and Rem’s dragon carriage away, turning it into wood chips. As Rem grasped him by the collar and they sailed into the air, the scene seared itself into Subaru’s eyes as everything moved in slow motion.
And with the world crawling forward one frame at a time, Subaru saw it crystal clear: his cell phone, knocked out of his hand in the initial blast, twirling through the air—and displayed on its backlit screen, 3:30 PM .
After arriving in a new world, the clock function of his cell phone had lost all meaning. But if he used it as an indicator of a determined future event, it was more accurate than anything else available there.
More importantly, the cell phone played the role of an irreplaceable device.
“It’s no fault of yours for not knowing what this is. This is one of those metia thingies, unearthed in my homeland. This is the proof for what I’m saying.”
It was the very fact that the cell phone was from an unknown land that turned it into a valuable weapon for negotiations.
“…May I touch it?”
Russel was the first to swallow his saliva and reach out toward the cell phone. Subaru gave permission with a nod. The man timidly took the cell phone in his hand, checking the feel for himself.
“Oddly, it is quite comfortable to the touch. It seems to be metal, and yet it seems warm… The surface is glossy yet also soft… This spot…opens up?”
Russel unfastened the flip-up phone and marveled at the light flowing from the screen.
Before the conversation started, Subaru had changed the display on the screen to that of a more orthodox clock. Even with skilled operation, there was little else to extract from it save for a few phone numbers.
“There is a glow, and the picture is changing… Ah, but I cannot determine the contents. Are these characters I have never seen? Or wait… Is this a picture?”
Bit by bit, the screen showed the second hand of the clock moving. But the human beings of that world used very different devices to tell time, so Russel could not understand the display. The same went for the numbers indicating the time. His best guess about the Arabic numerals was probably that they resembled a child’s scribbles.
Subaru knew how he felt. After all, he’d gone through the same thing day after day.
“They’re special characters, so I don’t think anyone here can read them.”
“However, you can use it properly… Is that it?”
“I actually can’t fully use all its functions.”
When Crusch posed the question, Subaru employed caution, carefully choosing his words.
There were a number of conditions for successfully completing these negotiations, but one reigned supreme. He could not let Crusch, who possessed absolute confidence in her keen eyes, detect any falsehood within him.
Subaru needed to do everything in his power to avoid stepping on any land mines.
“In other words, you are saying the following: This metia acts like a warning crystal that indicates the approach of the White Whale.”
“I don’t recall ever hearing about these warning crystals, but I think so.”
Judging from the name, they were probably some sort of alarm crafted from magic crystals.
“A metia that signals the approach of the White Whale, eh? What does the expert think?”
“In truth, I must admit I am at a loss. Individual metia differ greatly, and it is rare for any two to work precisely the same. The manufacturing of conversation mirrors is an exception because a method to reproduce them has been discovered, but the costs involved make mass production simply unfeasible even for those. At the very least, this is the first I have heard of this variety of metia.”
Russel avoided making any careless statements about an object he knew nothing of. For the moment, he played the role of a benevolent third party, intervening in neither Subaru’s favor nor Crusch’s.
Naturally, Russel’s eyes were exceptionally critical when it came to discerning whether siding with Subaru or Crusch would accrue him the most profit.
“Therefore, I cannot see any method of determining the veracity of the information. Which means your assertion becomes difficult to swallow at face value. Now then, what shall you do?”
“Yeah, that is a tough situation. It’d be great if I at least had a way of proving it, but…”
In response to Crusch, Subaru raised both hands, his gesture indicating that there was no hope for that.
“Hmm. Perhaps try to see if it rings at the approach of an actual demon beast? Or maybe you have another way of proving that this metia is indeed a device that reacts to demon beasts?”
“I’m gonna correct you about one thing.”
Subaru raised a finger and swayed it left and right, as if enjoying a chance to get back at Crusch.
“This metia doesn’t react to demon beasts themselves. If it did that, any demon beasts hanging around would make it ring all the damn time. It turns on for only the important ones.”
“—Surely you are not saying it reacts when a demon beast is threatening the user?”
Crusch reacted to Subaru’s assertion, adding a laugh, as if such a function was too good to be true. But there was yet another reaction that followed Crusch’s.
“—Ah.”
Standing at Subaru’s side, Rem let out a tiny voice of comprehension. Then, immediately after, she lowered her face, apparently ashamed at having disturbed the negotiations.
“That reaction makes me wonder, Rem. Did that remind you of something?”
When Crusch pressed for an answer, Rem’s eyes ran over the side of Subaru’s face for only an instant. Hints of worry and gratitude filled her gaze, so Subaru smiled to give her visible reassurance.
“It’s all right. If you have something to say, go right ahead, ’kay?”
“—Yes. If you say so, Subaru.”
Rem lifted her head, turned toward Crusch, then indicated the cell phone on the table.
“I shall omit the fine details, but recently, there was an incident within the Mathers domain caused by demon beasts. When it occurred, Subaru was the one who acted the swiftest to bring the situation to an end. He had not been with us very long, so I thought it strange he grasped the circumstances before the landlord himself, Master Roswaal, but…”
“With this metia, he noticed the incident beforehand?”
“It was an open question, as it was a little too convenient for him to notice without any tangible basis.”
Meekly, Rem tilted her head very slightly, glancing Subaru’s way. She clearly harbored doubts over how Subaru had sniffed out the Urugarum incident in a very Rem-like way. The learning of the metia’s existence had just erased those doubts.
“…”
On the other hand, that reply drew Crusch’s piercing gaze right to Rem. Her eyes gave off a sharp, penetrating stare that seemed to slip inside people’s innards, as if she could see their very soul.
In terms of actual time, only a few seconds passed. And yet, Subaru felt like each took a heavy toll on his endurance when finally—
“—You have not…spoken falsely.”
Crusch displayed a certain level of trust and comprehension toward Rem’s statement.
Hearing her assessment, Subaru struggled with all his might not to show the relief he felt on his face. On the inside, he could not stop clenching his hands and pumping his fists.
In other words, it had all been a bluff.
If that fact came out, negotiations would immediately be cut off, and it would not have been odd for him to be sliced into thousands upon thousands of bits for his insolence. However, Subaru had glossed over it all by using his words to direct everyone toward a different topic.
Subaru had not spoken a single falsehood in response to Crusch’s questions. After all, the cell phone really wasn’t a device that rang in response to demon beasts in its proximity. Moreover, Subaru, someone who had barely even used his cell phone to send messages, certainly could not use its full potential.
Rem had unwittingly allowed herself to be exploited for the greatest hurdle Subaru needed, which was confirmation from a third party. Even if the contents of what she said differed from the truth, she had no intent to deceive, so it was not a lie per se.
“You’ve gotta admit, though, you said that like you can tell if a person’s lying or not.”
“At the risk of boasting, that is correct. One might call it having perceptive eyes, but in actuality, I have been graced with the blessing of wind reading.”
“…What did you say?”
The completely serious reply Subaru received was not at all what he’d expected, recalling how in the past she had chewed him up and spit out the leftovers. During the previous loop, Subaru had chalked up Crusch’s self-described “ability to discern falsehoods” to her perceptive eyes, but…
“Reading the wind allows me to judge that which cannot be seen by the eye. By nature, I am able to discern the wind that envelops the other party. Those who speak lies have a telltale wind that blows from them—there is none of this around Rem.”
“R-really, is that so? I didn’t know that. Had no idea.”
“An unsettling wind does blow from you, Subaru Natsuki. That said, standing at the negotiation table while unaware of my wind reading was simply too unfair toward you.”
Subaru’s smile twitched at how rotten Crusch’s personality was for her to reveal that ability at the height of negotiations. A blessing that provided a way to determine whether the other party’s words were true or false was practically cheating. It also explained the sharpness of the barbed words that had cut Subaru so deeply the last time around.
“Rem’s words contain no hint of deception. At the very least, this certainly proves that you possess the means to detect a demon beast menace in advance.”
But in this one instance, her confidence in that blessing was a double-edged sword.
Subaru was balancing atop a tightrope, embodying the very idea of letting his opponent get their cuts in as long as it meant he could hit back even harder.
“So can I take it that you believe in this metia now?”
“That would be speaking too soon. Even knowing there is no collusion, it does not change that I must protect all my vassals. This is a decision that might determine the outcome of the royal selection, or even the fate of the kingdom itself. I shall not proceed lightly.”
Unsurprisingly, she fended off Subaru’s attempt to quickly close the deal.
He’d achieved a bare minimum of trust that his proclaimed metia could provide information about where the White Whale could appear, but that only meant they would consider the proposal seriously rather than laugh it off.
What would build on that level of trust and bring the negotiations to a successful ending was—
“—Sooo, how about letting me in on this metia talk, too?”
The reception room was seized by surprise when a voice suddenly interrupted.
When the speaker stepped into the room, she elegantly smiled in response to their startled gazes.
“Aren’t you a funny one, Subaru, looking the most shocked when you’re the one who invited me?”
Addressing the wide-eyed Subaru, the charmingly smiling girl ran her fingers through her wavy mane.
Her light-purple hair seemed as soft as down, reaching all the way down to her hips. With such a gentle face, she could easily put others at ease. However, the girl’s eyes meticulously surveyed everything—a clear sign that she was not to be underestimated.
“—Anastasia Hoshin.”
Knowing who she was, Crusch shut one eye and addressed her by name. Anastasia responded to the greeting with an easy “thanks.”
“It’s unfair that while I was busy hurrying over after getting word, you just went and started talking without me. With such an interesting, profitable conversation going on…you’ll let me join, won’t you?”
Phrasing her request in a pleading way, Anastasia’s words and subtext contained genuine delight. After considering her presence, Subaru subconsciously glanced behind her.
“If you are wondering about Julius, you can rest easy.”
“—!”
As he did so, the mischievously grinning Anastasia seemed to read his mind.
“Currently, Julius is under house arrest by order of the captain of the royal guards. He’s currently undergoing punishment for smacking around someone else’s boy without my say-so. That knight of mine is quite a handful.”
“House arrest…”
Now that she mentioned it, Subaru recalled the night when Reinhard had told him the same thing. As a result of his private duel with Subaru, Julius was being disciplined with house arrest. Apparently, that was why he hadn’t accompanied Anastasia to the current meeting.
“I see. That’s…very…unfortunate.”
Subaru was too pathetic to keep the look of relief off his face. But even then, he was unable to summon any words he might have for the next time they met.
“You said you were invited here. By Subaru Natsuki, I take it?”
Crusch addressed Anastasia, ignoring Subaru’s wounded feelings. Anastasia sat in a chair offered to her as she stroked the fox-fur scarf hanging around her neck.
“More precisely, it was the girl with him. Normally, I’d have just sent her away…but I couldn’t wave her off after she said there was super-important stuff concerning the White Whale.”
When Anastasia finished chatting with a smile, Crusch turned to Subaru.
After bringing two royal selection candidates to the same table, Subaru gripped his fist at the drastically altered situation.
This is it. Everything starts from here.
All the necessary parties were in the same room together. Subaru could finally begin the true negotiations.
However—
“Pardon me, Mr. Natsuki, but there is one thing I would like to ask you.”
Naturally, Russel did not find the invitation of a rival merchant to the meeting very amusing.
“Go ahead, Mr. Russel.”
“Mr. Natsuki, I would like to hear your true motive for calling Lady Anastasia to this place. As she is both a candidate in the royal selection and president of the Hoshin Company, possessing great influence with the merchants in the royal capital, my position here has become highly…indistinct. Surely it could not be…”
“You’re wondering if I’m weighing other options?”
The instant Subaru responded to Russel’s doubts, the atmosphere in the reception room grew taut.
Of course, Russel felt slighted, but his grave expression spread to Crusch as well.
“In other words, you are saying this: You shall select your alliance partner based on who bids higher for the information on the White Whale, my house or Anastasia Hoshin?”
“ ? ”
“If so, that is an exceedingly imprudent choice, Subaru Natsuki.”
With Subaru silent, Crusch slammed him with the force of her will, rising to her feet and gazing down sharply at Anastasia.
Amused, Anastasia tilted her head slightly as she spoke. “Oh my, Crusch. If you look at me like that, I’m going to get excited… That’s a face that people in the lead get when they’re worried about their competition catching up soon.”
“You have questionable hobbies. Perhaps it is the correct decision for someone like you—openly motivated by personal greed—but my principles shall not be swayed.”
After fending off Anastasia’s taunt, Crusch turned back toward Subaru with a serious expression.
“It is as I said, Subaru Natsuki. If you expected a bidding war between my house and the Hoshin Company for your information, let me say that you will be disappointed. I have no intention of cooperating with your sch—”
“Wait, wait, you’re jumping to conclusions! Both of you calm down, okay?”
Subaru scrambled to stop Crusch from breaking off negotiations and wrecking all his efforts so far.
“Jumping to conclusions…? Mr. Subaru, so it was not your intent to draw two candidates to compete against each other?”
“Of course not. I’m not so overconfident to think that I can make people dance in the palm of my hands. I ain’t Buddha. Really, with what I have…”
Subaru gave a little wave before making a show of holding Rem’s hand as she stood beside him. The touch conveyed a body heat that sent courage flowing into him, calming the faint trembling of his fingers.
“All I can manage with hands my size is holding on to another person, like this.”
“Ahh, yes, yes, very touching. So where do you plan to take the conversation from here?”
“Er, I guess that was a pretty lame line…”
When he tried loosening his grip, Rem fiercely resisted letting go, so Subaru left it at that while using his free hand to slap the table before continuing.
“I’ve played the White Whale card, and I’ve invited two people who represent the merchants in the capital. That makes the situation a big deal already…but I want to propose one more thing.”
Subaru tapped his fingers on the table while sending a fierce smile Crusch’s way, blatantly hiding all the frail, weak-kneed parts of him behind a bold, confident front.
“Willing to listen?”
“I am the one who rushed to conclusions and interrupted you. I have an obligation to listen. Say what you will.”
The sense of an oppressive wind blowing from Crusch intensified. On top of that, even Anastasia showered Subaru with similar pressure. It seemed like he would buckle at any moment.
He had no doubt that if he was alone, he would’ve laughed, made light of it all, then promptly run for the hills.
“ ? ”
He felt a squeeze from the warm touch of the hand clasped around his.
She could not call his name, nor could she offer any words. All she could do was convey her feelings. That made him happy.
As long as he had that, Subaru could probably take on even the Witch.
“ ? ”
He closed his eyes, held his breath, and keenly felt thoughts and oxygen coursing through his brain.
I’m pretty sure she’ll bite.
After thinking about it over and over, incessantly recalling what happened on the first, second, and third loops, he pieced together his accumulated knowledge, then drew out what he expected to happen onto a blank, white canvas.
He wasn’t…absolutely sure. It wasn’t like anyone had told him that’s what would happen, either. But combined with the pieces found scattered throughout the ongoing negotiations, the vague image pointed to only one possibility.
It was either a convenient delusion or a miracle he had obtained after suffering death three times.
It comes down to this.
“Crusch, I think…”
“ ? ”
“…I think my information will be extremely useful for your plan to hunt down the White Whale.”
Subaru’s future information and the objective Crusch harbored—these formed the basis of his decision. Subaru would become a suitable ally for Crusch Karsten, as a comrade in arms against their mutual foe: the White Whale.
3
In the instant after Subaru spoke, the room fell into silence as each person in attendance sank into thought: Crusch, Anastasia, Ferris, Wilhelm, Russel. Each closed their eyes, as if digesting the words Subaru had just given voice to.
The moments that passed amounted to several seconds, but the incredible pressure of that quiet tied Subaru into knots.
This is it. This’ll decide everything.
Unlike the events so far, simulations in his mind wouldn’t cut it. Unable to determine the other parties’ probable reactions, he was left with no choice but to react instantly to what they did then and there.
“I shall ask you about one thing, Subaru Natsuki.”
As he’d expected, it was Crusch who broke the silence.
Crusch unfolded her arms and raised a single finger, turning it toward Subaru.
“From where did this extraordinary idea come? Why do you believe that my house has crafted such a plan? It is not a statement you can simply walk away from.”
Her uninflected voice betrayed no alarm or bewilderment, nor any emotions. Awed by her statesmanship, Subaru’s gaze wandered as he breathed in and called out a name.
“Rem.”
“Yes.”
“Give my back a good, hard smack, would you?”
“Yes.”
The moment he finished talking, Subaru thought to himself, Uh, a good, hard smack might be overdoing it , but it was too late. With an incredible jolt and a dry, explosive sound, the force shooting through his back made him wonder if his guts were about to spill from his belly.
He felt something hot press against the center of his back in the shape of a small hand. Using the pain and heat to gather his wits, Subaru bowed his head to all the confused people watching.
“Sorry you had to watch that. I was losing my mind a little there.”
“Everyone can remember one time or another when they needed to rally themselves after faltering before a great challenge. I was taught long ago to write ‘enemy’ on my palm, then to swallow the word to steel myself…”
“Lady Crusch, Lady Crusch. That’s the charm Ferri taught you a long time ago. You still remembered that?”
“What…? Was it…a lie?”
“It wasn’t based on anything concrete, but if the charm helped dispel any doubt in your heart, then it was no lie, Lady Crusch. Ferri’s really happy to have been a help to mew.”
“I see. So you were thinking of me. In that case, I forgive you.”
Seeing how easy it was to cajole Crusch made the earlier discussion about her blessing rather suspicious. Though after many years together, Ferris probably knew exactly how to exploit the loopholes in her lie-detecting ability.
“Gotta say, though, this kind of talk is in a different dimension compared with the negotiations earlier…”
“It’s not that strange. I do the same thing before I begin working on any important business deal. Jingling a sack of gold coins by my ear brings out my courage… What’s with the face?”
“I was just thinking that if we cut off the conversation here, no one would guess that you guys are competing for control of a kingdom right now.”
Subaru pretended not to notice how trivial their chat was compared with the important matters they should have been focusing on. Anastasia pouted at Subaru’s reaction, then sighed deeply before continuing.
“All right then. Now that we’ve had a nice change of pace, let’s leave it at that and let you pick up where you left off.”
“Yeah…thanks for being so considerate.”
Crusch and Ferris were simply talking as they usually did as master and servant, but Anastasia’s benevolent humoring of the off-topic conversation had bought Subaru precious time to organize his thoughts into something coherent.
“There were a bunch of things nagging me while staying at this mansion for the past several days. First is the number of people passing through. The volume of visitors and goods going in and out has been more than just a little high.”
“That’s only to be expected once news that I am a royal candidate was made public. Surely you understand this?”
“That explains the guests during the day. But what about the ones who came in the dead of night? After you’ve changed into your evening clothes, the only thing left for you is heading off to bed… Can you really claim that guests arriving at that hour are there just to talk?”
One night, during the first time around, Crusch had invited Subaru to a drink in the evening. Having changed into a nightgown before sleep, Crusch was incredibly feminine, and Subaru recalled finding it awkward not knowing where to look, along with the conversation they had, of course. But that wasn’t the only thing he remembered.
He distinctly recalled being together with Crusch, a wineglass in her hand, while noticing the presence of people coming and going in the yard below.
“Given your personality, you’d never even think of drinking alcohol if you were receiving guests. So how do you explain all the people moving around the mansion after you’d gotten tipsy? They were there for something besides seeking an audience.”
“ ? ”
This time, Crusch did not have a response for Subaru’s deductions. Having tentatively seized the right to guide the conversation, Subaru tapped the table with his hand.
“Another thing that bugged me was the market for metalwork here in the capital. According to a merchant I know, the price of various metal goods has been spiking. In other words, that means weapons and armor.”
Subaru had drawn this conclusion from disparate fragments of information he’d gleaned from his first, second, and third times around.
“So I’d bet that you’ve been gathering up a big amount of dirt-cheap combat gear. I heard that from that shop I know, and from traveling merchants coming here to visit you, Crusch.”
Maybe she’s preparing for a war , said some traveling merchant or other he’d journeyed with, laughing it off.
“It’s significant enough to affect the entire market, so it seems like you’re buying up quite a lot. If you’re going as far as to buy weapons from outside your own lands, common sense says that something’s up, right?”
“Mentioning my house in the same breath as the White Whale is far too great a leap from only that much circumstantial evidence. You’ve barely compiled enough to even speak the first letter in its name. It is a fact that my house has been acquiring weapons, but that is not proof that I plan to hunt down the White Whale. Perhaps I am amassing military power so that I may ignore the results of the royal selection altogether and seize the throne by force of arms.”
“You don’t have any reason to plan something so violent, and even I can tell you’re not that kind of person.”
Crusch, who was the living incarnation of words like sincere or noble , was one of the last people willing to violate the trust of others like that.
“Though I must say, I am somewhat surprised.”
Crusch, who shouldn’t have known what Subaru was thinking, sighed in admiration. She crossed her arms, tilted her head quizzically, and looked Subaru over from head to toe before speaking again.
“I had firmly believed that you went into the capital during the day purely as a diversion…but it was most definitely my own eyes that did not see clearly.”
“Nn! Yeah, that’s right. It’s not like I spend all my time playing around.”
Crusch’s open praise struck Subaru with heavy pangs of guilt. In truth, Crusch’s initial assessment was exceedingly correct. She judged that he was gullible and spoiled. All he could do at the moment was to respond, turning a blind eye toward the truth.
“Anyway, when I first realized you were gathering weapons, I thought you were preparing for war. The real question was who you were planning to fight…but a slippery merchant let something fall from his lips.”
“A slippery…merchant.”
“Just to be sure, to avoid any misunderstandings, allow me to affirm that it was not I.”
When Crusch glanced at him, Russel directly denied the misgivings that were undoubtedly on the tip of her tongue. Apparently, Crusch sensed no hint of deception in his words, because she grudgingly showed that she believed him.
As expected, Crusch’s intuition was very sharp—but her suspicions were actually both correct and incorrect.
The merchant who’d let it slip from his lips was indeed Russel, just as Crusch had suspected. However, it was not the Russel currently standing before them but the Russel Subaru had met during a previous loop.
“Should Lady Crusch succeed in her current endeavors, we would feel nothing but delight.”
Russel had spoken those words on the way out after his negotiations with Crusch had broken down. Subaru had pondered the meaning behind those words for a long time.
If Crusch had stated she expected to succeed the royal throne, it was difficult to imagine that would cause negotiations to break down. But if Crusch’s and Russel’s mutual goals were aligned, then—
“If you go by popular rumor, a lot seem to think you’re practically running alone in the race, Crusch. But it looks like the merchants don’t seem as eager to call it as regular folks do.”
“I do not deny it. It is only sensible that the wealthy are the most reluctant. I acknowledge that the tax rate on commerce is high within my lands. Naturally, I use those funds to defend the peace and order…but I am well aware of the difficulty in conveying this benefit to other parties.”
“So unlike the people benefiting from your rule in the Karsten domain, people who aren’t swayed by fame can only judge what kind of person you are by how you appear to be, huh?”
It was entirely true that Crusch was a capable ruler who managed her territory well. But beyond those who could confirm her true skill for themselves, people had to rate Crusch based solely on secondhand bits and pieces of information.
Much like Emilia, often judged based on the mere fact that she was a half-elf, Crusch alienated those who were able to see only the negative side of her austere way of life.
“So I figured it’s like this. I don’t think you care much for people who judge based only on what’s visible on the surface, but in a royal selection, you need to persuade even those people to come down on your side. So what should a girl do to convince people like that to see you in a better light…?”
“Well hey, if people judge only from appearances…then all you need to do is slap on a fresh coat of paint, right?”
Anastasia picked up where Subaru left off, bringing his point to its logical conclusion.
“Well, that’s pretty easy to say, but it’s not so simple to actually do it. In the first place, chances are good this is all a miscalculation. After all, you’re wording things to be pretty convenient for yourself there, Subaru.”
“I…can’t argue with you there. There’s no mistaking that Crusch is gathering weapons together for some big plan to somehow court the merchants to support her. But maybe tying that together with the White Whale is just a lot of wishful thinking on my part. I could have just convinced myself it’s related to my knowledge about when and where the White Whale’s gonna show up…”
Then, Subaru trailed off with a final “But…” while staring directly at Crusch.
Crusch kept her emotions off her face, and he couldn’t get a glimpse of what lay in her mind. However, she hadn’t refuted anything he had said yet.
That made the gamble worth it.
“I’ll say it again. In return for an alliance between Emilia and Crusch, the Emilia camp offers the magic crystal mining rights in the Great Elior Forest in addition to information on the time and place the White Whale will appear—in other words, the honor of hunting down the demon beast that has threatened this world for far too long!”
“ ? ”
“If any part of what I’m saying is off the mark, then just go ahead and throw it right out. If I’m wrong, then you can go ahead and simply consider the info I have on the White Whale as a plain bargaining chip for us to haggle over.”
Perhaps the two merchants present could simply take that information alone and turn a fine profit; Crusch herself could surely use that information to improve her reputation with merchants as a whole. It had at least that much value.
“But if what you’re after is in line with what I’m hoping for, then—”
Subaru raised his right hand and offered it, inviting Crusch to take his hand—to tear down the wall between them, and to prove the future Subaru had seen was worth something.
“We should take out the White Whale—let’s go on a hunt.”
Subaru was proposing to Crusch that they hunt a creature of legend, a symbol of calamity to traveling merchants. That enormous, nightmarish Demon Beast of Mist that Subaru hated for its link to one of his abominable memories.
“Allow me to…ask you one thing.”
Crusch examined Subaru’s presented hand and raised her finger, pointing it toward him.
Subaru instinctively understood that the question Crusch would pose him was the final gate barring his path.
“You claim…to know when and where the White Whale shall appear. Is this absolutely certain?”
“—Yeah, it’s true.”
Subaru released the breath he had been holding as he gave his answer.
The final question was no accident—Subaru could not lie.
“I guarantee I know when and where the White Whale will show. You can bet your…life on it.”
In fact, it really was information he had literally paid lives for—whether his own or those of others, over and over. There was no doubt about how reliable it was, nor could Subaru show weakness now that he had come so far.
“…Though there are still some points about which I have doubts, you have done well to see through my plans.”
With a small sigh, Crusch closed her eyes as she replied, seemingly giving in.
At first, Subaru was unable to grasp exactly what she meant. But as the words slowly permeated his mind, their meaning gradually took shape and became clearer.
“Then that means…”
“I have misgivings. I have doubts. There are many elements I cannot comprehend, which makes accepting immediately difficult. However—”
Crusch lowered the hand with which she had used to point at him and positioned it against Subaru’s. Now, Crusch’s slender, pale fingers were firmly grasping the hand he had offered earlier.
“—I shall trust in your eyes and the spirit that leads us to the current state of affairs.”
The negotiations had succeeded.
Seeing both of them shake hands, it was actually Russel’s shoulders that visibly relaxed first. With an exaggerated breath, he was beside himself as he shook his head before he started speaking.
“There were a number of rather close calls, but it seems you have come to terms. Mr. Natsuki, can I assume that the promise you made prior to this meeting is still firm?”
“Yeah. Sorry it’s not much of a deal. You were a big help, Russel. Just like I promised, I’ll give you my cell phone after we’re done hunting the White Whale.”
Subaru responded to the devious smirk that came over Russel with one of his own. Noticing the exchange, Crusch had an exasperated expression on her face as she sighed.
“So you really were working together.”
“Hey, I’m the one who invited him. I just asked him to give me a tiny helping hand.”
“Please do not think poorly of me. In point of fact, I did my utmost to avoid any unnatural interference during the negotiations. At worst, I merely looked ahead to after you established an alliance.”
Crusch shrugged her shoulders at Subaru’s and Russel’s nonchalant replies.
Subaru had gotten in contact with Russel immediately after exchanging information with Rem. Once he got a hold of Russel, whose negotiations with Crusch had similarly failed during Subaru’s third time through the loop, they agreed to help each other during the meeting. That cooperation rested on the condition that Subaru would eventually hand over his cell phone.
Properly speaking, Russel also had a false understanding of the cell phone’s capabilities, but Subaru came to peace with it by seeing it as a chance for Russel to get his hands on an electronic device made with future technology.
“Now then, it is your duty to clear up these remaining areas of doubt.”
Crusch shifted her eyes from the link between Subaru and Russel, turning them toward Anastasia. Anastasia noticed that doubting gaze and tilted her head in an open question.
“Mm? You look like there’s something you don’t understand. But about what, I wonder?”
“I understand that Subaru Natsuki and Russel Fellow have goals that align. This makes your position suspicious. What, pray tell, were you invited here for?”
“Well, guess I see your point.”
Anastasia embraced her scarf, pouting with an adorable mmm before continuing.
“There are two royal selection candidates and one of the capital’s leading merchants assembled. If you have alliance negotiations with this many heavy hitters…it’s not like nothing you say goes outside of that place, huh. But just having me here gave Natsuki’s words weight, didn’t it?”
“W-well, I did have a little bit of that in mind…”
Giving an evasive answer, Subaru hoped to muddy the waters even as he broke out into a cold sweat once she pointed out exactly what he had been thinking.
In actuality, he had another reason for calling Anastasia over, albeit closely related to the one she had just mentioned.
It was not to keep Crusch from saying anything carelessly. Subaru wanted to make sure Crusch didn’t assume that anything he said was thoughtless and unfounded. By assembling so many important figures in one place, he felt it would lend greater credence to his words.
Though given Crusch’s and Anastasia’s particularly sharp intuition, he was afraid to ask just how much it had actually worked.
“Then there was another reason as well. And that was?”
“That’s super-simple—it’s because I’m a merchant.”
Putting a hand over her lips, Anastasia smiled as she practically hopped forward. Then, she put both of her hands over Subaru’s and Crusch’s hands, still clasped together.
“I have big expectations for this hunt for the White Whale. For merchants like me, the White Whale is a matter of life-and-death, so if you’re gonna take it out, I’ll lend you two a big helping hand. Incidentally, you might want to consider the various products the Hoshin Company has on hand and ready to go?”
“Please wait. Surely the Merchant’s Guild of the royal capital has precedence in this deal. Lady Anastasia, I would kindly ask that you refrain from interfering in this matter.”
Russel rebuffed Anastasia’s blatantly mercantile probing. As sparks flew between the competing merchants, Crusch looked at Subaru, seemingly having deduced something from the mutual exchange.
“Wait. Listening to your words, it would seem that we are rather short on time.”
“Well, I never heard a thing about that, either. I just thought it felt that way from how the conversation was going. But you’re actually pretty hard-pressed, aren’t you?”
With both Crusch and Anastasia staring at him, Subaru licked his dry lips.
Now that they’d formed an alliance, there was no point hiding the information anymore.
“—Yeah, that’s right. According to the metia, the White Whale will appear about thirty hours from now. The location is…the area around the Great Flugel Tree.”
“Thirty hours…!”
“The Great Flugel Tree—”
Crusch ground her teeth at the incredibly tight schedule. Anastasia tried to wrap her head around the name of the location.
Yes, the rest was a race against time.
“Within thirty hours, we need to deploy our forces to the Liphas plains, and strike at the White Whale with a coordinated attack just as it appears. For that…”
Crusch, quickly adapting to the situation, turned her head only to see Wilhelm nodding. The aged swordsman broke his previous silence and spoke.
“With regards to the attack force’s organization, it has already been on standby in the royal capital for several days. In the first place, it had assembled in the royal capital to coincide with the timetable of the White Whale’s expected appearance. Lady Crusch, I believe you are blessed that this should coincide with the beginning of the royal selection, but…”
“That was fast! But what? Is there a pattern to when the White Whale shows up?”
Though Wilhelm’s news was a lifesaver, what Subaru heard also surprised him. As far as he knew, the time and place of the White Whale’s appearances were completely random. Its tendency to pop up anywhere, anytime was a part of the Demon Beast of Mist’s greatest menace, but…
It was Ferris, advancing to Wilhelm’s side, who answered Subaru’s question.
“Figuring out the times and places the White Whale comes out is all Old Man Wil’s hard work, meow . He’s spent the last fourteen years living with only the thought of giving it a good pounding, meow .”
Ferris’s cat ears twitched. Then, he peered into the face of the broad-shouldered old man and spoke again.
“Thanks to Old Man Wil, I’m not worried about the morale or training of the troops, but I can’t say the same for our logistics network. I mean, if people figured there was an army under Lady Crusch’s command here in the capital, there’d be a huge fuss over it, so we’ve had to sneak stuff in bit by bit.”
When Ferris pointed that out, Wilhelm’s sharp eyes shifted Subaru’s way.
“Certainly, I cannot say that our weapons and equipment prepa rations are completely in order… Sir Subaru, did you bring Mr. Rus sel and Lady Anastasia to the same table to address this?”
“Well, sometimes these things just happen… I wanted to say that at least once in my life, okay?”
Subaru scratched his head and returned Wilhelm’s gaze with the answer he had prepared.
Russel, preeminent merchant that he was, accepted Subaru’s reply and motioned to outside the window.
“I have already sent the guild notice to be ready to move. Preparations are happening as we speak. Allow us until tomorrow afternoon, and we shall gather everything that is necessary from the merchants here in the royal capital.”
“Hey, the same goes for the Hoshin Company. Let’s give merchants not part of the guild a chance to fill the gaps. You can expect various other things from us as well.”
Anastasia followed Russel’s words up with a strikingly powerful reply. Then, as Crusch folded her arms in relief, Anastasia smiled at her.
“I came here because it’s an iron rule of commerce never to pass up a business opportunity. Selling things is nice, but, but, but, doing favors are number one! Intangible, no depreciation, no overhead—and more than anything, you can slap a price on it after the fact!”
“Hey, I’m glad she’s on our side here, but hearing that makes me think ‘Wow, this businesswoman’s a real piece of work!’ all over again.”
Anastasia was a cute girl with an adorable blush to her cheeks, but she was a miser to the core and thus, very, very scary. Subaru couldn’t even fathom the price she attached to her favors.
With Anastasia in a very good mood, Crusch glanced at her and nodded with an accepting look.
“So you prepared the path before negotiations took place. I see. So in this instance, it was I who lacked foresight and resolve. You have done well, Subaru Natsuki.”
“I just crammed super-hard before the test. Me, I’m relieved to the bottom of my heart.”
He’d schemed and prepared endlessly beforehand, but even then, successfully brokering the deal was still like tightrope walking across a knife’s edge. Even with wild cards on his side, he still had an awful lot to learn. Even so…
“Guess I managed to save face for staying behind in the capital, Rem.”
“Yes. You are incredible, Subaru, as I knew you would be.”
He lifted up their still-clasped hands as he and Rem, the unsung hero of the negotiations, shared in each other’s joy at their success.
There probably wasn’t anyone happier at the result of the negotiations than Rem.
Originally, these negotiations had been Rem’s appointed duty. He could easily imagine how being unable to divulge her task to Subaru and having to speak with Crusch day after day had whittled away at her spirit.
Subaru had continually rotted by himself while the future of the Emilia camp had been entrusted to her—she must have suffered under that burden.
He hoped that in some small way, this victory repaid the girl whose feelings had supported him for so long; if so, then for the moment, that was enough for Subaru to be happy.
“—Sir Subaru.”
As Rem and Subaru celebrated together, a voice suddenly called out to him.
When he looked over, he saw Wilhelm, standing with his back straight as he watched Subaru with a serious demeanor. When the aged swordsman’s eyes met Subaru’s, emotions flooded onto Wilhelm’s wrinkled, fearless face.
“Thank you.”
With that brief statement, he went down on one knee on the spot.
The suddenness of it jolted Subaru. However, he was not alone in his surprise. Not only Crusch and Ferris, who knew Wilhelm, but even the others like Rem and Anastasia were startled.
“I offer thanks to you as deep as that I offer my lord, Duchess Crusch Karsten. I thank you for giving this elderly man an opportunity for vengeance.”
“Uhh, that’s…?”
“As wise a man you are, Sir Subaru, you have likely already deduced this, but allow me to reintroduce myself—”
Wilhelm paid no heed to Subaru’s confusion, drawing his sword from its sheath. He lowered the blade onto the floor, then placed his hand upon it. It was the greatest possible gesture for paying the utmost respect.
Then, he spoke his name.
“Previously, I was known by Trias, my old surname. My true family name is Astrea. I took the previous Sword Saint, Theresia van Astrea, as my wife, sullying the family line of the Sword Saints—that is I, Wilhelm van Astrea.”
After a breath, Wilhelm’s eyes were filled with a glimmer of hope as he carried on.
“My warmest thanks, for granting this withered body a chance to slay the damned demon beast that robbed me of my wife.”
Wilhelm deeply bowed his head, the emotions of his powerful, heartfelt plea slamming into Subaru all at once.
Everyone listening to the exchange was waiting in anticipation of Subaru’s reply. To meet their expectations, Subaru drew a deep breath and answered.
“R-right…o-of course I knew. Naturally, that’s how I was sure Crusch would agree to wiping out the White Whale!”
“Subaru Natsuki.”
Crusch calmly interrupted Subaru’s oddly flailing reply. Her amber eyes peered into Subaru’s floundering expression when she sighed softly.
“A deceitful wind is blowing from you.”
The power of the wind reading underscored how plain Subaru’s paper-thin lie was.
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