CHAPTER 12: A SOUVENIR FROM THE TEA PARTY
Echidna: “That space I went through all the effort of readying's completely shattered. This sort of violence... probably Minerva. That girl's just a little bit quick to put up her dukes.” Subaru: “A little? I'd say it's immediate. She's a new experience of the violent tsundere iyashi oppai loli. Jamming in that many character traits just makes her bloated.”
Echidna's still exerting her pressure but either way her plan to calm Subaru down seems to have worked. Subaru: “Well, now I'm in a mood where I can talk face-to-face with you. Yeah, compared to the other witches you're somewhat more rational.... no, Miss Witch of Sloth seemed like someone you could have a conversation with, kinda...”
Echidna: “I don't know how this'll sound with me saying it, but Sekhmet's the oldest and most rational of the witches. When she's angry it's nothing half-baked, though.”
Subaru: “Nothing half-baked, so she's scary when she's mad?” Echidna: “Well, we'd be no match for her even if we faced her together. I don't really think we could beat her even if we got the other five witches in on it.”
Echidna sits back down in her chair as Subaru stares at her doubtfully. Looks like Sekhmet stands out as strong even among the witches. Subaru: “Actually, I've been getting the feeling you're leaving the WITCH OF ENVY out in the cold.” Echidna: “—Just one bit of advice for when you're talking with me.”
A smile rises on Echidna's face as she raises a finger, points at Subaru, and tilts her head. Echidna: “I consider the other witches my friends, and I think they deserve respect. Since my personality has so many flaws. My long relationship with them gives me somewhere to turn to, and was a saving grace for me. So I've gathered up their souls without missing a single one.”
Subaru: “...I feel like I just heard something I really can't let slide but, go on.”
Echidna: “Their destroyer was the WITCH OF ENVY. —Can you smile happily while you talk about the being that gruesomely murdered your friends?” She's still smiling, but the nature of it changes. Fear runs down Subaru's spine, and Subaru nods several times in agreement before he even realises he's doing it. Echidna nods. Echidna: “The mood's got a little bit bad. How does another cup of tea sound for a pallet cleanser?” Subaru: “...I'm not brave enough to drink another cup of 'Chidna Tea. If you're not going to put actual tea in there, my urge to eat or drink anything here is zero.”
Echidna: “Now, being invited to tea with a witch, back in my day that was something to feel jealousy about... ahh, the generations and the people do change.” Echidna refills her cup and brings it to her lips. That is to say she's drinking her own bodily fluids.
Subaru: “It's like you're a rabbit or something, where you can live forever by eating your own crap.” Echidna: “Being equated to that is kinda humiliating but... hm? Was that you indirectly saying you want to hear about the Sizeable Hare?”8
Subaru: “Sizeable Hare?” Subaru tilts his head. He's heard the term somewhere before, and trawling his memories he places it as being when he was riding Patrasche along the Refaus Highway (pre-White Whale fight, cut in the Anime). Subaru: “One of the witchbeasts on par with the White Whale... I think. The Sizeable Hare, and the
Blacksnake?” Echidna: “Daphne's unpropitious legacy. They're all unmanageable problem children. Nevermind the Blacksnake, you always hear about the White Whale and the Sizeable Hare causing trouble somewhere.” Subaru: “By the way about the White Whale, it happens that because of my efforts it was slain the other day. Because of my efforts.” Brags Subaru. For the first time, Echidna's black eyes open wide in surprise. Echidna: “Wow, really? That's amazing, that is. Looking at you, you wouldn't seem to have any skill in swordsmanship or aptitude as a sorcerer... but you must've got the people around you moving extremely well.” Subaru: “It's really disappointing that you instantly saw through it not being a solo effort! You know I just might've blasted through it all by myself?”
Echidna: “Whether the White Whale or Sizeable Hare, it's pretty hard to envision there being someone who could singlehandedly kill either. Even in my generation, the only one who could probably manage that'd be Reid.”
Subaru raises his eyebrows at the unfamiliar name. Echidna sets her finger to her lips. Echidna: “Hmm,” Echidna: “Maybe it hasn't been handed down to your era? I thought his achievements were pretty considerable. At least, I seriously doubt there's anyone not on his level who could single-handedly fell a fully-developed 12-dragon.” Alpha Leporis is a hare.
Subaru: “Nnywell, my understanding of everyday things or I guess you could say general knowledge is just slightly shockingly shallow. Or I mean, that's amazing, that guy. Incredible.”
Echidna: “—Reid Astrea. I'm more than sure that he's been given the title of Sword Saint, but maybe that's not around anymore?”
Subaru puts the pieces together. Astrea—like Wilhelm and Reinhardt. Most likely, Reid Astrea was the line's progenitor.
Subaru: “Okay, got it. It's still around, the Sword Saint. Dunno what number it's on now, but the current Sword Saint's my buddy. He's a monster who most likely matches up to this ancestor of his you know.”
Echidna: “What a way to speak about a friend... is what I'd like to say, but knowing how Reid didn't line up with normality, I can't laugh at what you're saying. So, were we going to talk about the Sizeable Hare?”
Subaru: “Hrmm, nah. I mean, my interest in information about the Sizeable Hare and the Blacksnake is endless, but...”
He has so many questions he wants to ask, that if he gets all the answers at once he won't be able to keep up with it. So he'll sort out what he really wants to know and get details on those topics first.
Subaru: “Uhhh, kay. You're Echidna. The deceased WITCH OF GREED. Is what I'm saying here all good?”
Echidna confirms this is correct, that they're inside her dream, and she'll let him out whenever he wants so long as he tells her he wants out.
Subaru's like thanks for the consideration, and thinks about what his first question should be.
Subaru: “I'm thinking we should get this confirmed first... what the heck about you is deceased. You're here frolicking about having a wonderful day-to-day.”
Echidna: “...ah, I see. No, I didn't explain anything about this at all, did I. You hadn't touched on this topic until now, but neither had I.”
Echidna claps her hands and nods in assent. Between everything that happened since meeting Echidna, they had completely lagged on bringing up this extremely obvious question.
Subaru: “If it's that you're a ghost haunting a tomb, well I guess that's fine too. After getting meddled with this much it's impossible to say this's all my imagination or however you'd put it.”
Echidna: “'Ghost,' isn't something I can deny. That I've lost my physical body and am now a mental body is fact. Now, if you were to ask why I'm like this... right. I'd say the most accurate answer would be to act as a deterrent.”
Subaru: “Deterrent? For what pur... no, in opposition to what?”
Echidna: “Sharp.”
Echidna gives a satisfied nod and a small clap of the hands.
Echidna: “The one who bound me to the earth like this was Volcanica—the Holy Dragon Volcanica. I'm sure you've at least heard of him before?”
Subaru: “...He'd be the dragon the rulers of Lugnica have a covenant with, I think. I heard the name before in the hall for the royal selection.”
Echidna: “It's the same Volcanica. That dragon's power seals me in this tomb. The reason why Volcanica's done this, exactly as you've guessed, is as a deterrent against the WITCH OF ENVY.”
Every time Echidna says 'WITCH OF ENVY,' a sharp emotion flashes across her eyes for nothing more than an instant. She is probably really not on good terms with the Witch of Envy.
Echidna: “The Witch of Envy's sealed in the witch-sealing stone, but the seal on her isn't completely ironclad. Volcanica's lifespan isn't infinite, and it's not impossible her seal could be undone if given some chance. There's more than a few beings which exalt that thing, and you can't fully assert that a natural disaster won't damage some part of the stone. —So, Volcanica keeps me in existence.”
Subaru: “As combat power for when the Witch of Envy's unsealed... huh.”
Echidna: “Though even me being the one to remain, I don't think I can really answer to Volcanica's expectations. If he was going to keep anyone he should've kept Sekhmet. But the problem there's that Volcanica himself has some gripes with Sekhmet. Getting that beatdown seems to have made him aware he doesn't deal with her too well.”
Subaru isn't sure to what extent he should believe this story about Sekhmet apparently getting a beatdown on Volcanica of all fucking things.
Echidna: “Anyway,”
Echidna: “Myself, who is a witch, and the Holy Dragon Volcanica. Then'd be the SWORD SAINT and the... Sage. Anyway if all these parties did assemble, we might be able to oppose the WITCH OF ENVY even if she hypothetically does get revived. Would about be Volcanica's flickering hope. I'm here exposing my shameful posthumousness even right now, but that's the principle of the background behind it.”
Subaru: “So basically, it's okay to say that your being bound here as a ghost is because of the dragon?”
Echidna: “More accurately, it's that Mathers' algorithms are tied to Volcanica's will. If you've come here, then I'm sure you know of the Mathers? Or maybe that family name isn't around anymore...”
Subaru: “No, the Mathers are still around. Roswaal L Mathers is the Lord of this region, which includes the tomb. And he's also my boss or I guess my patron or I guess a pervert or...” Echidna's eyebrows twitch and quiver as she mutters, “Roswaal?” Echidna: “Sorry but did you just say Roswaal?” Subaru: “Hm? Yeah, I did. Roswaal. What, you know him?” Echidna: “Things would certainly be strange if I did. I'm from 400 years ago. If he's someone from the same generation as me, the story ends up going just a little bit funny.” Subaru agrees with this. Echidna puts a finger to her lips. Echidna: “Ah, right,” Echidna: “Is the Roswaal you mean someone with long, dark-grey hair? His eye colour... I think it might've been yellow.” Subaru: “—Nope, they're different. The Roswaal I know has navy-blue hair orrr actually it's exactly the same colour as the jeans I'd wear. And the eye colour's wrong too. He's got two eyes different colours, one blue and one yellow.” Subaru sighs in relief at these minute differences. Subaru knows that Roswaal's managing of this land is something inherited down the Mathers family. So that means the family's also inheriting the covenant with Volcanica to seal Echidna. So considering this inherited role, Subaru: “Maybe the name 'Roswaal' is professionally inherited down the line too. You see it a lot in manga when you get girls with blatantly male names.”
Echidna: “'Roswaal' being something inherited. If so, that's kinda a nightmare.”
She nods in agreement with Subaru's speculation, and shrugs, some exhaustion peeking through. Subaru knits his brows at the uncharacteristic behaviour. Echidna: “The character I know as Roswaal had just a tiny bit of an excessively focused disposition.
He'd be well prone to offering up his everything for a given goal. So then, if he hadn't changed at all after my death...” Subaru: “Unsatisfied with using only his own life, he might offer up his whole family's time?”
Echidna: “That'd be it. Ah gracious, just thinking it makes for something horrifying.” A smile rises on Echidna's face, which looks like one of a parent watching over a child who is bad at the things they do. Or that impression is probably just Subaru being mistaken.
Subaru: “I understand why you're in this tomb, and who's putting you here. I'll grill present-version Roswaal about what's going on with this after I wake up.”
Echidna: “At your liberty. ...so, other questions?”
Subaru: “Course I have 'em. Next thing I want to ask about is the Trial. The Trial I've heard happens in this tomb. Can you tell me the content of it. Also please tell me what's on the answer sheet.”
Echidna: “Asking the examiner for the questions and the answers in the same breath, just how truly merciless, you.”
Subaru: Archaic grammar something. “There's no reason not to use the shortcuts you can. I'm the kind of person who plays games while reading walkthroughs.”
Because it's a fucking pain to have to replay an event after failing it. Echidna closes her eyes in thought, opening them after five seconds.
Echidna: “So, the Trial.”
Subaru: “Yeah, that. We're stuck with taking it. It doesn't get cleared, and it's a problem for an important girl of mine. Now she can't even leave SANCTUARY if she's homesick. The option to leave her behind and go home, of course, doesn't exist for me.”
So while Emilia physically can't exit the barrier around Sanctuary, Subaru also has no intention of leaving so long as she's stuck here. This is a wall they'll scale together. Subaru will do anything he can to achieve that.
Subaru: “Even if it means cheating!”
Echidna: “Sorry for this just when you're all fired up, but I don't know about the Trial. I haven't participated in it. So I don't know the contents.”
Subaru: “But why!”
Echidna shakes her head.
Echidna: “Do you know where we are? This's my tomb, right? That being, this place was made after I died. And then the Trial you're talking about would take place inside the tomb? So then the trial in this tomb was something made after I died. Surely there'd be no way for the deceased like me to get involved with it?”
Subaru: “With how lively you've been this whole conversation there's no way I'm just agreeing with that one!”
Echidna: “Either way, I wouldn'tve had any place in the questions. So I can't answer you on the Trial. Actually, it's so much so that I'm interested in hearing about the trial, from you. My curiosity in the content, questions, answer choices, and of course the answers to the problems is endless.”
Echidna's eyes sparkle with thirst for knowledge. Subaru sighs at her, and judges that this is about all he's going to get on the TRIAL. Which means,
Subaru: “Man, I don't really have much I want to ask you.”
Echidna: “...huh? You're kidding, right? There's no way that's possible. I mean, you know I'm the WITCH OF GREED? Every person in the world came to me desiring knowledge. And you're saying that with me right here in front of you, with full freedom to ask what you want, there's really nothing you want to ask me...”
Subaru: “I mean, you're deceased so you wouldn't know much from after you died, yeah? The stuff I want to ask's mostly in present-continuous tense, so there's no real point asking my questions to someone ignorant on the topic...”
Echidna: “Nononono, let's calm down a sec. I'll give you that yes I'm not familiar with the world of the present day, but in exchange there really is nothing about the past I don't know. Pages of history eroded over 400 years of time not even preserved in anyone's memory. You don't think this's a chance to learn? And it's the same with the witches from before. Is there really even a record of any of them still left anywhere out in the world?”
Subaru: “But, I'm not really interested in the witches. They're all deceased and I'm mulling over lots of things already, so even if I hear about them it's not really...”
Echidna: “Eeeeuhuee...”
Subaru enters into full-throttle leisure-time mode while Echidna's face scrunches up in dissatisfaction, the couple's roles perfectly reversed. That said, as far as Subaru's concerned this is truth. If forced to answer whether he had any interest in just how far the witches' feats and misdeeds went, then no he would have no interest. Nothing would happen even if he did ask about them—with this point as the foundation of it, he just is uninterested.
Subaru: “Ah, actually now that I think of it I just remembered a question.”
Echidna: “Yupyup! Good, exactly. Yes, of course you have one. Anything you ask is absolutely fine. If it's something I can answer then won't I just go and answer it, pahaa!”
And she snaps it up. Subaru thinks that even if you call it a witch, fundamentally the root still stinks of human.
Subaru: “The residents of the SANCTUARY where this tomb is call the place a test site. The phrase 'WITCH OF GREED's test site' feels pretty significant, and then there's the barrier so halfbloods can't escape, so if you could tell me what kind of test...”
Echidna: “Can't.”
Subaru: “...s you were doing that would be...”
Subaru shuts up halfway through at how unapproachable that reply was. Echidna notices how cutting what she just said was, and her expression turns awkward.
Echidna: “Sorry for that. But there are some things I can't answer. I'm unable to answer that question. Not that I can't answer it, I don't want to answer it.” Subaru: “...It doesn't exactly give a good impression, 'test site.' But you aren't denying it.”
Echidna: “I'd like you to stop there. I wouldn't want to be scorned.” Echidna looks down, her shoulders scrunched up small. Subaru has no choice inside him but to give up, seeing something as overpowering as a witch entreating him like this. So instead what his brain comes up with is,
Subaru: “That reminds me... I've heard your name somewhere before I came here.”
Echidna remains silent. Subaru trawls his memory for where he'd heard Echidna's name before coming to Sanctuary, and finds the first time he heard it was from— Subaru: “Puck.” Loop 3 of arc 3 when Puck killed him, during Puck's conversation with Betelgeuse. Echidna raises her head at Subaru's muttering. Echidna: “Puck? You don't mean, that cat spirit?” Subaru: “—!? Yes, that one! He's a cat spirit. You know Puck?” Echidna: “That isn't even a question... he came here? Then just how much has he remembered?” Echidna's surprised, and Subaru's surprised at that reaction. She prattles on quickly but immediately shuts up. Faced with this, Subaru can't say anything, and Echidna closes her eyes in deep thought. What should he say, thinks Subaru as he looks up. Subaru: “—ddaah!?” When something hot in the pit of his stomach asserts its existence, robbing Subaru's attention. Subaru: “...eu, ah?” An incredible heat scorches through Subaru's gut. He puts his hand to his chest as he whines, his gait tottering as he stumbles. This agony is absolutely nothing ordinary. Stomach aches or whatever couldn't even hope to compare to this mysterious pain, himself drooling in the face of it. Unable to stay standing, he falls to his knees and immediately collapses onto his side.
Echidna: “Ahh, looks like it's finally taking effect.” Says Echidna as she looks down at Subaru, her eyes cold. She slowly walks over to the anguishing Subaru, bends down, gets her face in close, and brushes away his bangs as his mouth flaps open and closed.
Echidna: “When a witch invites you for tea, you mustn't simply put anything presented in your mouth. —Maybe this'll be a lesson for you?”
Subaru: “Yo, u... did, y... poison...”
Echidna: “Surely I didn't. Didn't I say? What you drank was my body fluids. A piece of a witch, a being that differs fundamentally from humans. That's what you drank in.”
Subaru now realises that he took the word 'bodily fluids' far too lightly before. And now he was writhing in agony for it. His eyes open wide, Subaru glares at Echidna. That friendly demeanour of hers from up until now is completely gone. Just, what the hell was her motive he—
Echidna: “I'd like you not to misunderstand. It isn't that I did this while holding any hostility or malice toward you. In fact, I regard your existence very favourably. That I made you drink a part of me, was also due to that.”
Subaru: “Ta, lking as if, you know...”
Echidna: “If I were to explain it simply, I applied treatment so that it'll be easier for you to familiarize with the Witch Factor sleeping inside you... or abouts.”
Subaru: “Witch, Factor...?”
The blaze inside him only intensifies further as he frantically repeats the term back at Echidna.
—Witch Factor. He's heard the term several times before, now. From Betelgeuse. From Beatrice.
Echidna: “Well you killed an adherent of the WITCH OF ENVY, didn't you? When that adherent died, the Witch Factor slipped inside you. ...Though, it seems there's something else inside you as well.”
Subaru: “When it's ha, rmonized what, ha...”
Echidna: “Nowww, indeed what will happen? Honestly, even I don't know. But, this is the triggering of a bomb keyed to explode at some unknown time, so that the detonation happens before it'll cause any big causalities, a case of empathic consideration... or something of the likes. If it's all settled inside a dream, then maybe that'll give just enough leeway to stop it from detonating outside?”
Says Echidna, in a tone that suggests Subaru's suffering, which is making his vision flicker in and out to black, has absolutely nothing to do with her. But even despite his condition, Subaru slowly lifts his arm and points at Echidna.
Subaru: “Just, thought this...”
Echidna: “Mhm?”
Subaru: “The way you, talk... is exactly, like Puck. That oh so great cat spirit, can't read tone, casual, so fucking cavalier...”
Echidna blinks once in surprise. And her face immediately twists up, as if she's been caught off guard by a good joke, and she slaps her hand to her stomach as she bursts into laughter.
Echidna: “Haha! Hahaha! Ahhh, what to say, beautiful! You're amazing. I truly do think that. Mhm, mhm, aah, ahahahahaa! I see, I'm like Puck. Mmhmmhm, I sure am. Sure I am. Call it natural and it's a natural result. If it were him, I'm sure there wouldn't have been anything to be a model except Puck.”
Subaru: “What, are—”
You saying, is what Subaru was going to continue with, and couldn't. It wasn't that the pain searing his entire body stole his attention. It was that the seemingly endless pain instead lessened slightly, and he started to see the end. But, instead of conquering the pain, it's rather that,
Echidna: “Time's over for our meeting, is how it looks.”
The edges of the objects in the world in Subaru's vision steadily blur, losing focus. The blue sky, the green field and hill, the white table and chairs, all start to disappear.
Subaru: “You said, it doesn't end unless you try to...”
Echidna: “Time is still passing in the real world. It looks like we wound up with this thing you call the TRIAL starting on us. It starts on us, and all the tomb's facilities end up diverting towards that. It won't care about a single ghost anymore.”
Echidna strokes her finger across Subaru's forehead. Subaru can't resist or react.
Echidna: “Now, you're going back home from the witch's tea party. How much are you going to give me?”
Subaru “...Just saying, I am an unconditionally unconventionally penniless broke.”
Echidna: “Not money. Compensation will be... ah, right. You're forbidden to talk about this place, should be fine. It looks like you're bound by a similar contract, so surely it's not asking much?”
He doesn't even have the time to ask what that means. Her finger still on Subaru's forehead, Echidna whispers something. Heat seems to collect at her fingertip gradually, when it flashes into Subaru's entire body in an instant, and confers Subaru with a mysterious kind of understanding. That is, of the contract's content and the invasive one-sided avowals, and his binding to them.
Subaru: “Don't just, do these things...!”
Echidna: “Talking about the past, and establishing the Witch Factor. I would say this is more than just cheap as compensation. Also, this really is just something I might as well do while we're at it, a freebie.”
She smiles at an indignant Subaru, and the fingertip contacting his forehead transfers him another, new warmth. Echidna: “I'm giving you the qualifications to take the tomb's Trial.”
Subaru: “—!?” Echidna: “If you have this, you'll be able to take the Trial at night in the tomb. Whether or not you take the Trial's all up to you. You can also not take it. But, now you have the option to take the Trial instead of that important girl of yours. —If you're questioning what to do, do whatever you'd like.”
The world begins crumbling, the land underfoot gradually melting into darkness. This time the end of the world truly seriously is coming. Still laid on the ground in this ending world, Subaru stares up at Echidna. Subaru: “—Yeah, you really are a witch.”
Echidna: “—Yes, I certainly am. Right here is a damn wicked sorceress.” Subaru's consciousness falls and falls, fades and fades. Floating up, out of the dream—and from the witch's dream, he is released.
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